References cont. (81) — Clergy Child Molesters

• Straight Guy with the Catholic Eye: A follow-up on St. Colman's  [2004 Hubbard] -- Roman Catholic Church. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags
   Renew America, www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/040515 m , by Matt C. Abbott, May 15, 2004
   WATERVLIET (NY): The following ... I received regarding my column on St. Colman's Home for boys and girls, located in Watervliet, New York.
   From "Jane Doe":
   "In your May 12, 2004 article, you speak of St. Colman's Home for Children housing children with mental and emotional problems. While it is certainly true that St. Colman's housed children with problems it more frequently created problems with children it housed. Children were placed there by social service agencies in the capital region.
   My sister (adopted) was sent to St. Colman's with her many siblings after having been removed from their home for malnutrition and starvation which is neither a mental nor an emotional problem, albeit it can lead to such. Any emotional problems she endures stem from the abuse that she endured there and the emotional trauma of being separated from her siblings (the practice at St. Colman's was to house the children by age, not by family, and to refuse to let children see their siblings and to punish them if they attempted to see their siblings). [More] (This is the first of the Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse , for Sat May 15, 2004. )
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FOR GOOD TEACHINGS TO BE HEEDED, A BIG CLEAN-UP IS NEEDED
Series starts: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethicscontents.htm   Visit http://www.ncrnews.org/abuse
Sources JavaScript Kit and www.aftinet.org.au/campaigns/signonconfirm.html
   INCOMPLETE LINKS: Refer back to "References 61" for methods of obtaining the URLs.
   I respectfully ask that you reconsider your wording in the article as it lends credence to the hateful statements made by Bishop Howard Hubbard when he dismissed the victims of St. Colman's claiming that they were dysfunctional children who grew up to be dysfunctional adults.
   Christianity is rooted in personal responsibility. We are all accountable for our sins and the taking of that responsibility is a mark that sets us apart from the world. Sadly, Hubbard seems disinterested [uninterested would be better - Webmaster.] in taking responsibility for the goings on at St. Colman's. His indifference would be tolerable; it is his insistence on denigrating the victims that is too heavy a load for many of them to bear." [And another e-mail was published.] [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:16 PM]
• Another Priest Resigns Over Old Abuse Allegations [McLaughlin] -- RCC.
   TheBostonChannel.com ; www.thebostonchannel.com/news/3309641/detail.html , May 15, 2004
   BOSTON (MA): Another priest in the Boston archdiocese has stepped down because of an allegation of abuse.
   The archdiocese announced Saturday that the Rev. John McLaughlin has agreed to accept a voluntary administrative leave during an investigation into an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor.
   McLaughlin is pastor of Saint Benedict Parish in Somerville.
   A statement from the archdiocese said that the allegation against McLaughlin was over an incident that occurred more than 20 years ago.
• Evangelist pastor preyed on women in his flock [CURRENT Goodman] -- Evangelist. Women. Britain flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Croydon Advertiser, "Pastor preyed on women in his flock," http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0225croydon/tm_objectid=14238499 &method=full&siteid=53340&headline=pastor-preyed-on-women-in-his-flock-name_page.html ; May 14 2004
   BRITAIN: A Croydon schoolboy who grew up to become one Britain's leading Evangelist preachers has been jailed for three-and-half-years for sexually abusing and threatening young women in his flock.
   Douglas Goodman, 47, amassed a £3m fortune from his adoring followers, but betrayed their trust by lavishing gifts and cars on the women he pursued, the Old Bailey heard.
   The pastor, who was born in St Vincent in the Caribbean, and came to the borough as a child, was accused of preying on three women at the church he ran in Kilburn, north London.
   He was convicted of two charges of indecent assault, one of attempted indecent assault and one of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
   The father-of-four was cleared of two other offences against members of the church, including the rape of a 32-year-old chorister who later admitted the affair was consensual.
   Jailing Goodman, and placing him on the sex offenders' register for life, Judge Gerald Gordon said: "You have no doubt been a charismatic pastor to whom your flock were utterly devoted and blindingly loyal."
• Franklin police say New Shiloh Baptist pastor failed to surrender [2004 Dobson] -- Baptist. Girls.
   The Tennessean, "Franklin police say Lebanon pastor failed to surrender," www.tennessean.com/local/archives/04/05/51364004.shtml?Element_ID=51364004 , By BONNIE BURCH, Saturday, 05/15/04
   FRANKLIN (TN): The senior pastor at New Shiloh Baptist Church in Lebanon is wanted by the Franklin Police Department on two counts of statutory rape after failing to surrender yesterday as promised to face the charges.
   The Rev. Nathaniel Dobson, who has been a pastor at the church for 19 years, is wanted in connection with a March 21 incident at the Best Western Motel on Murfreesboro Road in Franklin.
   Police Detective Charlie Warner said that Dobson admitted to having sexual contact with two girls, ages 14 and 15, early that morning after he picked them up in Nashville and drove them to the motel.
   "They had a need for shelter and food. He offered it to them. And then he took advantage of the situation," Warner said.
   A short time later, police picked up the teenagers and interviewed them as part of runaway proceedings. Both girls mentioned the incident with Dobson.
• Baptist pastor accused of statutory rape [2004 Dobson] -- Baptist. Girls.
   Review Appeal, http://reviewappeal.midsouthnews.com/news.ez?viewStory=21831 , By MELISSA N. WARREN, ? May 15, 2004
   FRANKLIN (TN): Franklin Police Detective Charles Warner fields questions from the media yesterday regarding a Lebanon pastor who is wanted by police on two counts of statutory rape.
   A Baptist church pastor wanted for two counts of statutory rape is considered a fugitive by the Franklin Police Department.
   "He came into contact with two girls who needed food and shelter and he took advantage of them," said FPD Detective Charles Warner. "He met them on the street in Nashville and brought them to the hotel room."
   The Rev. Nathaniel Dobson, a senior pastor at New Shiloh Baptist Church in Lebanon, had sex with two teenage girls at the Highway 96 East Best Western Motel during the early-morning hours of March 21, the detective said. The girls, identified as runaways from Nashville, are 14 and 15 years old.
   Warner said he did not know why Dobson was in Nashville, nor could he comment as to how the man met the two victims, who have no affiliation with Dobson’s church. The detective did say that both girls admitted to having consensual sex.
• Panel opposes delay of abuse audit -- RCC.
   The Press Democrat, www.pressdemocrat.com/local/news/15abuse_b1b01_b1_empempireb.html , By GUY KOVNER, May 15, 2004
   SANTA CLARA (CA): A national panel of lay Catholics charged with investigating the church's sex abuse crisis faces "significant obstacles" in pursuing its work, panel member and former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta said Friday.
   Panetta, a former Monterey congressman, said the 12-member National Review Board is concerned about the move by more than two dozen bishops to postpone a second audit of how the nation's 195 Catholic dioceses are complying with overhauls adopted two years ago to weed out molester priests.
   If the U.S. bishops decide not to proceed with an audit this year "it would be clearly seen all across the country as an additional sign of retreat," Panetta said in a keynote speech at a one-day conference at Santa Clara University.
   Bishops were not in attendance at the conference, titled "Sin Against the Innocents," which was designed to shed light on the current status of the church's sex abuse scandal.
   Panetta and others said the sex abuse crisis and the Catholic Church's effort to regain the trust of parishioners are not over and the effort to audit compliance must continue.
   "I think we are at the beginning, just the beginning," Kathleen McChesney, executive director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told about 250 conference participants.
• High-profile actions by Roman Catholic Church show range of discipline -- RCC.
   Centre Daily, www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/8675670.htm , By JOE MANDAK, Associated Press, Sat, May. 15, 2004
   PITTSBURGH (PA): Two Boston priests are defrocked for their role in a pedophilia scandal; a Pittsburgh priest is excommunicated when he leaves the church to start his own ecumenical congregation; and a panel of bishops debate denying communion to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and other politicians who don't oppose abortion.
   Such terminology sends even experts leafing through the Roman Catholic Church's canon law, and leaves many lay believers and outside observers scratching their heads.
   Among these three forms of church discipline are myriad shades of gray about what experts say church officials can and should do when highly visible members of the flock stray from church teaching.
   "There's kind of a hierarchy of things that can happen if you're doing something gravely sinful - one is denial of the sacraments and the next step would be excommunication," said Jimmy Akin, director of apologetics and evangelization for Catholic Answers, a San Diego nonprofit that explains and defends church doctrine.
   Excommunication is a declaration that someone is outside the church. It can be imposed privately and, in rare cases, after a church tribunal. But it usually happens automatically and publicly, as it did when the Rev. William Hausen broke with the church to establish his Christ Hope Ecumenical Catholic Church in a suburban Pittsburgh hotel banquet room this month.
• Diocese says guilty plea should end records case [Campobello; Rockford Diocese in contempt] -- RCC. Girls.
   Chicago Sun-Times, www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-priest15.html , BY DAN ROZEK, May 15, 2004
   ILLINOIS: An Illinois appeals court shouldn't have to decide whether Catholic Church records are confidential now that former Kane County priest Mark Campobello has been convicted of sexually abusing two teenage girls, a church lawyer said Friday.
   "I think Father Campobello's guilty plea has made it unnecessary for the court to decide the underlying issue of whether the records are privileged," said attorney Joshua Vincent, who represents the Rockford Catholic diocese.
   Whether the Illinois 2nd District Appellate Court will drop the issue of how much access prosecutors should have to church records remains an open question, attorneys and legal scholars said.
   Kane County prosecutors originally sought church personnel and transfer records on Campobello in 2003, after charging him with abuse while he worked as a priest at an Aurora Catholic school and lived at a Geneva Catholic church.
   Arguing such documents are confidential, the Rockford diocese refused to turn over the records -- even after a Kane County judge found it in contempt of court.
• Action urged against church -- Remove bishops from power, says psychologist. RCC.
   Oakland Tribune, www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1726~2150791,00.html , By Rachel Konrad, Associated Press, Saturday, May 15, 2004
   SANTA CLARA (CA): Roman Catholics should stop donating money to parishes and begin demanding elections of their bishops and even the pope, outspoken priests and psychologists urged Friday in a conference about the church's sexual abuse scandals.
   "The only solution I can see is for the faithful to remove the current church hierarchy from power," said John Gonsiorek, psychologist at the Minnesota School of Professional Psychology and editor of "The Breach of Trust," a book about sexual exploitation.
   "The faithful need to take decisive action -- otherwise, they're complicit," Gonsiorek said, pausing for rounds of applause and cheers from some of the 200 people who attended a daylong conference at Santa Clara University. "At a minimum, there needs to be direct election of bishops by the laity. ... Do not fund the church until it shapes up." [Continues with similar wording to May 14 article in The Tribune.]
• Church officials talk to parents about priest in child-porn probe [2004 Holtey] -- RCC.
   Union-Tribune, www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20040514-9999-1n14priest.html , By Sandi Dolbee, May 14, 2004
   CALIFORNIA: In what was described as a supportive, orderly meeting, concerned parents gathered at St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic Academy in Loma Portal last night to talk with school and church officials about their parish priest, who has been caught up in an Internet child pornography investigation.
   One mother afterward described the closed-door meeting as "wonderful"  and said the school was handling the situation well.
   Others echoed that sentiment - and praised the Rev. Gary Holtey, the pastor at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, who took a leave of absence May 6 after investigators seized at least one computer and files while serving a search warrant at the church.
   "He's a wonderful priest," said Diane Silva-Martinez, who has two children at the school.
   Rodrigo Valdivia, chancellor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, estimated that about 200 people attended the meeting of parents, teachers, school officials and representatives from the diocese. The meeting lasted about 1½ hours and included advice from a counselor about how to discuss the issue with their children.
   One parent said she explained it to her seventh-grade son this way: "There's a pending investigation, and that doesn't mean anything."
   Valdivia said some parents expressed concern "as to how much information we have provided, and we continued to assure them that we have provided as much information as we possibly can, that is available to us."
• Petition asks bishop to apologize [2004 McDonnell] -- RCC.
   Republican, http://masslive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1084607354203810.xml?nnae , By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Saturday, May 15, 2004
   EAST LONGMEADOW (MA): A petition asking the bishop to apologize to their pastor, the Rev. James J. Scahill, will be circulated by St. Michael's parishioners at weekend Masses at their church today and tomorrow.
   "We are outraged the bishop compared our pastor with (Richard R.) Lavigne," said John M. Bowen, a St. Michael's parishioner.
   Scahill has been critical of the current and previous bishop over matters related to clergy sex abuse. Scahill said during a dispute Tuesday that the bishop said Scahill was as destructive to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield as defrocked priest Lavigne, a convicted child molester who has been accused by about 40 people of abusing them as minors.
   Thursday the bishop, the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, apologized to alleged sex abuse victims and their families for making the comment, saying Scahill's "sniping" "has caused additional division in the church."
   The failure of McDonnell to apologize to Scahill has angered alleged clergy sexual abuse victims, their supporters and Catholics who back Scahill's work with victims and his willingness to challenge church authority.
   "We want the bishop to know that we at St. Michael's are not uneducated peasants comfortable in a feudal futile society," Bowen said.
• Dioceses differ on support -- RCC.
   Republican, http://masslive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1084607116203810.xml?nnae , By BILL ZAJAC,wzajac@repub.com , Saturday, May 15, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): If sex offender Richard R. Lavigne were a defrocked priest in the Diocese of Belleville, Ill., he would not be considered a candidate for financial help.
   The Diocese of Metuchen, N.J., the Archdiocese of Boston and some other dioceses would likely cut financial ties to him as well.
   But he might get help in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.
   In the Springfield Diocese, where Lavigne spent 25 years in ministry, it is uncertain whether he will receive the financial aid he is seeking.
   Recently installed bishop the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell is weighing whether to sever the Springfield Diocese's last tie to the Chicopee man  who has been accused by more than 40 people of sexually abusing them as minors when he was a priest.
   Past and current financial help to Lavigne has created a firestorm of criticism from alleged clergy sexual abuse victims, their families and many lay people. The issue has pitted a East Longmeadow priest, the Rev. James J. Scahill, against past and current diocesan leaders.
   McDonnell, who has stated that Lavigne has done much harm to the diocese, cited canon law as binding him to offer charity to Lavigne.
   McDonnell and his predecessor the Most Rev. Thomas L. Dupre, who resigned amid allegations of sexual abuse of minors, point to canon law 1350, which states "the ordinary (bishop) is to take care to provide for a person dismissed from the clerical state who is truly in need because of the penalty."
• McManus to help heal abused [17 accused + 8] -- RCC.
   Telegram & Gazette, http://telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040515/NEWS/405150338/1052/NEWS01 , by Bronislaus B. Kush, bkush@telegram.com
   WORCESTER (MA): Newly installed Bishop Robert J. McManus yesterday pledged to reach out to those who have been sexually abused by diocesan priests but cautioned that the process of healing is "a two-way street."
   "I can't do it myself," Bishop McManus said at a news conference held shortly after his installation as the Diocese of Worcester's fifth bishop. "I'm just one person."
   According to the office of District Attorney John J. Conte, 17 area clerics have been charged with criminal sexual abuse since 1985. Eight others were not charged but have been removed from ministry.
   The bishop promised to make himself available to victims but explained individuals cannot be healed unless they want to be.
   He said that neighbors and other acquaintances of victims can be conduits, leading victims to help that is available through the diocese and individual parishes.
   Bishop McManus said that although the sexual abuse crisis is a serious one, it's but one chapter in the long history of the church.
   He explained that the church has gone through tough times before and has managed to reform itself. Despite the scandal, he said bishops still wield moral authority, serving as shepherds of the church.
   Bishop McManus' comments at the press conference about sexual abuse at the hands of priests reinforced statements he made about the issue during his installation.
• Installation ceremony picketed by clergy sex abuse protesters [1980s Szantyr] -- RCC.
   Telegram & Gazette, http://telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040515/NEWS/405150339/1052/NEWS01 , by Bronislaus B. Kush, T&G STAFF, bkush@telegram.com , May 15 2004
   WORCESTER (MA): Alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse and their supporters yesterday picketed the installation of Bishop Robert J. McManus, calling on the new leader of the diocese's 350,000 Roman Catholics to be more forthcoming on the scandal that has rocked the local church.
   "There's a change in leadership in the diocese but the issue of sexual abuse will still be kept under cover," said Richard Chesnis of Worcester, who said his son was abused by a priest.
   The small band of protesters stood on a corner at High and Chatham streets, opposite the Cathedral of St. Paul where the installation took place.
   Police reported no arrests or trouble but Mr. Chesnis received a citation after he attempted to use a bullhorn without a city permit.
   Mr. Chesnis, minus the bullhorn, set up shop more than two hours before the ceremony started and loudly shouted his objections to the church's handling of the scandal.
   He could occasionally be heard by those who were seated at the rear of the large church.
   District Attorney John J. Conte has charged the Rev. John J. Szantyr, 72, with sexually abusing Mr. Chesnis' son.
   Rev. Szantyr was assigned to Our Lady of Czestochowa parish in Worcester when the alleged incidents happened in the 1980s. He was a member of the Marian Order of the Immaculate Conception and was assigned to the local diocese in 1980, also serving at Our Lady Immaculate parish in Athol.
   Mr. Chesnis said Rev. Szantyr has yet to be punished while his son still is forced to deal with the impact of the alleged assault.
   Mr. Chesnis wanted to use a bullhorn to make his points but was told by a police sergeant assigned to the detail at the cathedral that he could not without a permit.
   He said he went to the mayor's office where an assistant directed him to the Police Department. Once there, police refused to issue him a permit.
   Mr. Chesnis went back to the cathedral about 11:30 a.m. and was promptly given a ticket when he tried to use the bullhorn. "I don't plan on paying the fine," he said, showing a reporter the citation.
   As the afternoon wore on and as the ceremonies drew near, Mr. Chesnis was joined by other protesters. One later said she spoke with the new bishop as he left the services, promising to formally contact him on Monday.
   During the installation and at a subsequent press conference, Bishop McManus promised to reach out to sexual abuse victims.
• Greeley tells priests to focus on victims' pain -- holds clergy accountable. RCC.
   Plain Dealer, www.cleveland.com/living/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/living/1084613677244220.xml , by David Briggs, Plain Dealer Religion Reporter, Saturday, May 15, 2004
   CLEVELAND (OH): It's been an eventful half-century, and he was one of the most cantankerous figures in a period of rapid change,  but the Rev. Andrew Greeley believes he and most of his priest colleagues are happy with their collars of choice.
   On his own golden anniversary of ordination, the controversial best-selling author, sociologist and church provocateur is no less committed to the vocation he has pursued since boyhood. "I'd do it over again," Greeley said in a recent interview. "I'm happier than I thought I'd be."
   But the 76-year-old Irish priest, his harder edges untempered by time, cannot say the same thing about the health of the Catholic Church hierarchy. And he holds his colleagues accountable for what he says was their complicity in the code of silence that was part of the sin of clergy child sexual abuse.
   The priest who would be a prophet stays true to a lifelong mission in three new books released around his 50th anniversary, puncturing liberal, conservative and secular stereotypes of a Catholic Church in the United States that has remained remarkably strong despite repeated attempts to bury it.
   In Priests: A Calling in Crisis, he attempts to burst critics' bubbles that cellibacy leads to emotional disorder. He says that despite such speculation, research shows that priests are happier than many other professionals and overwhelmingly would choose their calling again.
• Priest who ran school for poor accused of sexual abuse [1982 onwards, Mitchell] -- RCC. Male.
   PULLMAN (WA): Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/173488_priest15.html , By CLAUDIA ROWE, Saturday, May 15, 2004
   A priest celebrated for his work running a school for impoverished boys in South America has been accused in a lawsuit of molesting one of his young charges and continuing the sexual abuse by taking him to a Vancouver, Wash., parish, purportedly as an adopted son.
   Papers filed yesterday in King County Superior Court allege that Father James Mitchell of Pullman sexually abused Ariel Ariza for several years beginning in 1982 when Ariza was 17. Mitchell, the recipient of numerous testimonials about his good works as director of the El Camino school in rural Colombia, took Ariza there from his mother's home and later offered to rear the boy in the United States, Ariza said in an interview.
   Only years later did Ariza learn from immigration officials that Mitchell had never actually adopted him. Two other boys were living in the priest's Vancouver home at the same time, the lawsuit says.
   "There are so many things that come to your mind when it's happening -- you don't know what is right and what is wrong," the man said. "He was like my father."
   Calls to a Pullman number listed under Mitchell's name were not returned.
   In a soft voice, Ariza described life with the priest. "We couldn't go out, couldn't have friendships. We were prohibited from doing anything that didn't have anything to do with him," Ariza said. "We were kind of intimidated and cut off from the outside world."
• Bishop Jenky rotates priests [Miller] -- RCC.
   Pantagraph, www.pantagraph.com/stories/051504/new_20040515049.shtml , by Steve Arney, sarney@pantagraph.com , May 15 2004
   PEORIA (IL): Catholic Bishop Daniel Jenky will move 40 priests, including both of those serving Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Bloomington, as part of a rotation system that isn't unusual to the diocese.
   Recent events, though, have affected the rotation. Monsignor Thomas Miller was expected to be named as Trinity's new pastor until he was placed on leave earlier this month during investigation of sexual abuse allegations, according to The Associated Press.
   Trinity's new leader hasn't yet been announced.
• Feds on the move against purveyors of child porn online
   Union-Tribune, www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20040515-9999-1n15kidporn.html , By Onell R. Soto, May 15, 2004
   CALIFORNIA: Child pornography is big business.
   Pictures, movies and audio files of children being sexually abused are zapped around the world on the same Internet software that music fans use to trade songs. They are posted on Web sites that users pay to access. They are traded via e-mail, instant messages and chat rooms.
   Billions of dollars change hands in an illicit trade that preys on innocent children from places such as Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and Main Street USA.
   As with other illegal activity, precise numbers are impossible to gauge, but some experts estimate it generates up to $2 billion a year.
   "Individuals are trolling the back alleys and dark corners of the Internet," U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said yesterday. "They are leveraging its technology and anonymity to exploit the most innocent in our society."
   Just as distributors of child pornography have moved to the Internet, so has law enforcement, Ashcroft said as he joined FBI Director Robert Mueller at a Washington, D.C., news conference to announce a crackdown on child porn in peer-to-peer networks, in which Internet users connect directly with each other's computers and trade computer files.
   "The digital environment will not offer sanctity," [? sanctuary] Mueller warned those who trade obscene pictures of children. "We will identify you. We will pursue you. We will bring you to justice."
   This week, federal officials confirmed an international investigation targeting 130 people in the San Diego area. They and hundreds of others across the nation are suspected of buying child pornography produced in the former Soviet Union. Investigators seized computers and files from at least 30 homes and businesses in San Diego.
   Those under investigation include a Loma Portal priest, educators, medical professionals, a San Diego police officer and a Border Patrol agent in El Centro, said officials with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
• Bishop McManus installed -- 45 accused since 1950. RCC.
   Telegram & Gazette, http://telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040515/NEWS/405150390/1025 , by Kathleen A. Shaw, T&G STAFF, kshaw@telegram.com , May 15 2004
   WORCESTER (MA): Bishop Robert J. McManus was installed yesterday as fifth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester in a ceremony filled with the time-honored rituals of the Church of Rome and witnessed by hundreds of the faithful.
   Bishop McManus, auxiliary bishop of Providence, heard Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, apostolic nuncio to the United States, read the official letter from Pope John Paul II naming him bishop of Worcester.
   The 52-year-old bishop looked toward the Bishop's Chair, swallowed and then walked toward it where he was seated by Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, who is metropolitan for the New England bishops.
   While almost 1,000 people gathered inside St. Paul's Cathedral, many more watched the live broadcast on Charter Community Access Channel 3. Bishop Daniel P. Reilly welcomed the television audience.
   As the ceremony proceeded inside, some alleged victims of sexual abuse and advocates stood outside the cathedral on the sidewalks.
   After being officially installed, Bishop McManus told area Catholics what his priorities are for Worcester as he came among them as "chief shepherd."
   He called for a "new evangelization" for all baptized Catholics to reach out and bring back to church those who might have grown slack in practice of their faith.
   Bishop McManus said he is keenly aware of the hurt and alienation felt by many local Catholics as a result of the clergy abuse scandal and pledged to work for healing and reconciliation.
   "I am painfully aware that more than a few Catholics feel alienated from the church today because of a betrayal of trust by some of its clergy or religious leaders," Bishop McManus said.
   With support of clergy, religious and laity, he said he wants to "help to heal the hurt that has kept some Catholics from feeling at home in the church of their youth. This effort at healing and reconciliation must be an essential part of the new evangelization here in the Diocese of Worcester," he said.
   The bishop reminded Catholics, whether clergy, religious or laity, that from the day of Baptism until death "we Christians are called to bring the love of God to a world that longs to be touched, to be healed, to be embraced by the God who is love." It can only happen if all participate, he said.
   Eight priests were removed from ministry by Bishop Reilly in the last two years after allegations of sexual misconduct were made. The diocese still has more than a dozen civil lawsuits pending before the courts. A report compiled for the bishops National Review Board last February shows more than 45 priests were accused of misconduct since 1950. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:32 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sat May 15, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont81.htm
• Vatican covering up order founder's seminary abuse, ignored clergy sex abuse: Book's claim. -- RCC.
   The West Australian, "Book scathing of Vatican silence," Book Review by Gavin Simpson, gavin.simpson@wanews.com.au , "Belief and Beyond" column, p 14 of "Weekend Extra," Saturday, May 15, 2004.
   Vows Of Silence: The Abuse Of Power In The Papacy Of John Paul II, 2004, Jason Berry and Gerald Renner, Hodder Headline, Australia, $A 35
   PERTH:
   The nightmare of child abuse at the hands of the clergy ... the ultimate responsibility, according to American investigative journalists Jason Berry and Gerald Renner ... lies at the feet of one man: Pope John Paul II.
   Depite his inspirational commitment to universal human rights, ... for many years this charismatic Pope chose to ignore the gravest violations of the rights of children in his own Church. Nearly a decade before the scandal drew widespread coverage in America, ... bishops from North America and Australia briefed John Paul II about the crisis but he provided no plan of action. [...] Both the authors are committed Catholics [...]
   ... one of the Pope's favourites, Spaniard Marcial Maciel, found of ... the Legion of Christ ... abuse of young seminarians and has got away with it ... complaints to the Vatican ... have been ignored or covered up.  ... years of abuse at the hands of Father Maciel. Legionaries take ... a special oath never to speak ill of "Nuestro Padre" ... Maciel ...
   ... American canon lawyer, Father Tom Doyle, ... went from a career in the Vatican's diplomatic service in the United States to becoming something of an outsider as a crusader for the rights of victims of abuse.
   ... Berry and Renner say ... it is, above all, a matter of abuse of power. [...]
   Vows of Silence also faces up to one of the most difficult issues about sex abuse -- how much it is related to a "gay culture" in the priesthood. [...]
   "There is a crucial distinction between homosexual priests who embody genuine Christian witness, and the gay priest culture that arose in the 1970s, cynical about celibacy, riddled with hypocrisy and narcissistic behaviour. [...]
   In the end, the authors say, it is hard to imagine how a rejuvenated priesthood can be created without optional celibacy. (Hodder Headline, $35)
   [NOTE: Father Tom Doyle has had more trouble than becoming an "outsider," because it seems he lost his military chaplaincy post in September 2003, due to differing with his Church superior over providing daily divine service. News of this did not seem to have leaked out until around the time of the report in the National Catholic Reporter, "Chaplain's military career ends in dispute; Archbishop dismisses priest known for victim support in abuse crisis;" http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/nt042904.htm , by Arthur Jones, Apr 29 04. NOTE ENDS] [Article May 15, 04]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sun May 16, 2004 edition follows:-
• Comic film about Church abuse, bribery, obsession, leads Cannes Spain flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   The Times (Britain), "Bad boy grows up," www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7943-1107479,00.html
   SPAIN: At the end of the narrow sloping street which houses Pedro Almodóvar’s office is one of the biggest bullrings in Madrid. I want him to escort me to an early-evening fight in the hope that he might rant and rave. But Spain’s most famous film director is suffering from cluster migraines and too much media exposure. Time is something he doesn’t seem to have. His latest film, Bad Education, opened within hours of the Madrid bombings and frankly should have sunk like a stone.
   "In Spain, we’re used to living with terrorism," says Almodóvar, soberly. "But this was something else. If the objective was to create psychological fear then it succeeded brilliantly. It was a terrible moment."
   Bad Education - a comic thriller about bribery, the Catholic Church, abuse and obsession - defied the grim public mood to become an unexpected box-office sensation. The melodrama is driven by Fele Martínez, a thrusting young film-maker who falls in lust with a ruthless actor and Mexican heart-throb, Gael García Bernal. It’s Almodóvar’s first proper tilt at film noir, and it’s as fatalistic and beautiful as anything he has put on screen. It’s also the first Spanish film to open a Cannes festival.
   Despite the pink cardigan, the 53-year-old director looks alarmingly formal in his tastefully cluttered glass box. I was expecting a showman as flamboyant and camp as Boy George. Instead I meet an accountant with chubby hands and hairy knuckles. The electrified hair has faded to a statesmanlike Clinton grey. The brown eyes are thoughtful and sombre. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 01:49 PM]
• Bishop’s Apology Not Enough [2004 McDonnell] -- RCC.
   WWLP, www.wwlp.com/news2004/story.html?artID=49596
   SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts (WWLP) - Springfield Bishop Timothy McDonnell apologized on Thursday for some remarks he made comparing outspoken priest James Scahill to convicted child molester Richard Lavigne. The bishop's apology apparently wasn't enough for at least some of Father Scahill's parishioners.
   They're mounting a petition drive at masses gathered this weekend which reads "The parishioners of Saint Michael's request that Bishop McDonnell apologize to all victims of clergy abuse, and, to our pastor Father James Scahill for comparing him to a convicted felon." Scahill's East Longmeadow parish has been withholding a portion of its weekly collections for the past two years to protest diocesan support for Lavigne.
• Cardinal visits parish hurt by alleged abuse [Policetti] -- RCC.
   Chicago Sun-Times, www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-priest16.html , BY CHERYL V. JACKSON, May 16 2004
   CHICAGO (IL): The focus was on "a new beginning" Saturday as Cardinal Francis George led a mass at a Northwest Side parish that has had two years to come to grips with charges a former priest there sexually assaulted a teenage girl.
   George came to St. Tarcissus for the dedication of its new baptismal fountain and pool. But there was an underlying theme of moving forward.
   "I have kept all of you, especially the victim, in my prayers," George told the congregants. "Recognize that in sin we also find the sense of forgiveness."
   In 2002, the Archdiocese of Chicago reported the Rev. Sleeva Raju Policetti, who had been at the church six years, was accused of sexual misconduct with a parish teen. The priest fled Chicago for his native India in May 2002.
   He was arrested in India and charged in Cook County with sexual assault. His extradition status was not available Saturday.
   "It's not like people are dwelling on it," said Amy Rubic, the church's music director. "We're moving on. Churches experience bad times. My faith is stronger than one dumb priest, than one sinful priest."
• Parish priest kicked out for sex abuse allegation [1970s-80s McLaughlin] -- RCC.
   Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=28041 , By Eric Convey, Sunday, May 16, 2004
   SOMERVILLE (MA): A Somerville Catholic priest has been removed from his parish following an allegation he sexually abused a minor more than 20 years ago.
   The Rev. John E. McLaughlin, who had been pastor of St. Benedict's Church, agreed to be placed on administrative leave, the Archdiocese of Boston said in a statement released yesterday.
   The allegation "was recently reported for the first time to the Archdiocese of Boston," the statement says. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:27 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sun May 16, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont81.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Mon May 17, 2004 edition follows:-
• Diocese warned pastor about aide [2004 Yarrosh] -- RCC.
   The Morning Call, www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_1priestsexmay17,0,7650672.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed ; By Chris Parker, May 17, 2004
   SCHUYLKILL HAVEN (PA): The pastor of St. Ambrose Roman Catholic Church in Schuylkill Haven told parishioners on Sunday he had been warned by the Allentown Diocese that the Rev. Ronald J. Yarrosh, former assistant pastor, had "personality problems."
   The Rev. Michael J. Stone, pastor of St. Ambrose, told his flock he "did not have a good feeling" about Yarrosh, 56, who was arrested Wednesday after police said they found hundreds of child pornography photos, books, magazines, videotapes and DVDs in his rectory apartment. He was charged with child abuse for allegedly having the images of child pornography.
   "I just simply watched and prayed," Stone said. He said the diocese's warnings about Yarrosh were non-specific. Yarrosh was moved to St. Ambrose in June 2002.
   "I think what they were alluding to were his social skills," Stone said after the service. "A lot of it had to do with his sense of humor."
   Stone said Yarrosh has an "extremely dry wit," and sometimes his humor would be misunderstood.
   Diocese spokesman Matt Kerr said he could not address Stone's statement, but added, "The diocese is supportive of Father Stone's efforts to communicate with the members of his parish at this time."
   Yarrosh, who was released on $50,000 unsecured bail and is in a mental health program in Philadelphia, has been relieved of his clerical duties. He was assigned to St. Ambrose in June, where he served on the advisory board of the parish grade school.
• Children, mother get $750,000 after suing Church of God pastor, church [Farmer] -- Church of God.
   The State (South Carolina), "Children, mother get $750,000 after suing pastor, church," www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/8687342.htm , Associated Press, Mon, May. 17, 2004
   COLUMBIA, S.C. - Two children and their mother will get $750,000 to settle a lawsuit against a Johnsonville pastor who admitted to sexually abusing the youngsters.
   The women and children sued several defendants, including the pastor, Larry Farmer, and the local, state and national Church of God, according to a story published Monday in South Carolina Lawyer's Weekly.
   Farmer was arrested in March 2002 and seven months later pleaded guilty to committing a lewd act on a minor.
   Farmer admitted to sexually abusing the children for about three years, first at the Church of God in Johnsonville and later at a second church, the newspaper reported.
   "We absolutely do not tolerate that kind of conduct," the Rev. Jerry Chitwood told the publication. Chitwood is the administrative bishop for the Church of God in South Carolina.
   After Farmer pleaded guilty, the Church of God ordered him to never be a pastor again in their church.
   "This is a sad case," Chitwood told Lawyer's Weekly. "I'm a father and a grandfather, and I can tell you the church stands firm against this kind of behavior. When we revoke a minister's credentials for sexual conduct with a minor, they can never be restored."
• Church gave job to priest despite offences [1978-1987 Woodcock] -- RCC. Boys. New Zealand flag; Mooney's MiniFlags
   New Zealand Herald, www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3567030&thesection=news&thesubsection=general ; May 18 2004
   NEW ZEALAND: The Catholic Church was aware paedophile priest Alan Woodcock had a previous sexual assault conviction before it made him a teacher at an Upper Hutt boys school.
   When knowledge of his offending began to spread, a former chief district court judge - an old boy of the school - advised the church to keep it out of the public eye.
   Woodcock yesterday pleaded guilty to 21 charges relating to the abuse of 11 boys between 1978 and 1987 when he was teaching at St John's College, Hastings; St Patrick's College, Silverstream; Highden, a school for young priests in Palmerston North; and Futuna, a Catholic retreat in Wellington. Thirteen other charges were withdrawn.
   Woodcock was remanded in custody to appear in the Wellington District Court for sentencing on June 25.
   Woodcock was extradited from Britain five months ago, after an 18-month court battle.
   Documents reveal the church was aware before it appointed Woodcock to St Patrick's that he had previously been convicted of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old youth in Christchurch in 1979.
   Correspondence shows the church knew of the incident even before he was convicted.
   Father Noel Delaney, then head of the Society of Mary of which Woodcock was a member, wrote to the court offering church support for the priest.
• A call to Bishop McManus to start the healing. -- RCC.
   Worcester Voice, http://worcestervoice.com/Current%20news.htm , May 17, 2004
   WORCESTER (MA): The Worcester Voice, an advocacy organization to support victims of clergy sexual abuse in the Worcester Diocese, has joined with other active community members to heed Bishop Robert J. McManus’ call for all to join together to bring about healing and reconciliation.
   The Bishop acknowledged the hurt the scandal in the Catholic church has caused its faithful, whether victim or non-victim, and asked all to join him in healing the wounds.
   The bishop said during his installation ceremony at Cathedral of St. Paul in Worcester that people have been hurt by a betrayal of trust by some clergy and religious leaders.
   He also called for a "new evangelization" where laity, clergy and bishops will work to bring alienated Catholics back to the full practice of their faith.
   The Worcester Voice endorses Bishop McManus’ call and wants to become part of the "solution" and not the problem. Worcester Voice was formed about two years ago when full impact of the clergy abuse scandal started being felt in the Worcester Diocese. They have continually pressed for openness by the diocese and for disclosing the full impact of clergy sexual abuse in the diocese.
• Accuser decries bishop's 'plantation' life [O'Connell] -- RCC. Seminary males.
   Palm Beach Post, www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_048a1328078321980011.html ; By John Lantigua, Monday, May 17, 2004
   PALM BEACH (FL): The revelation that disgraced former Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell lives in seclusion at a scenic Catholic monastery in South Carolina has reopened old wounds among his victims, led some to speak out publicly for the first time and prompted bitter calls to jail the former leader of the Palm Beach Diocese.
   Four men, all of whom claim O'Connell sexually exploited them when they were minors and students at a Missouri seminary, expressed their outrage to The Palm Beach Post, condemning the leniency both church and state showed O'Connell. The men said the church is doing more to help O'Connell than to help his victims.
   Going public for the first time, Mike Wegs, 50, of Minneapolis said church lawyers questioned him so aggressively last year during a deposition session about O'Connell's sexual relationship with him and his painful family past that he attempted suicide and was hospitalized for weeks.
   "He should be in jail," Wegs said of O'Connell. "He violated the ultimate trust. He corrupted an entire institution. He corrupted the ideals and morals of young boys.
   "But nothing will happen to him. He will not go to jail. He has lost his power and access to Palm Beach society, but he won't suffer more than that. He won't be defrocked. He's just waiting out the storm, and what better place to wait it out but at a Southern plantation?"
• Psych study key in case vs. diocese [1997-2000 Ensey, Urrutigoity] -- RCC.
   Scranton Times Tribune, www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11660376&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=416046&rfi=6 , By David Singleton, 05/17/2004
   SCRANTON (PA): An attorney for a former student allegedly molested by two priests contends the Diocese of Scranton did not press for the clergymen's psychological records in a conscious decision to give them an advantage in court.
   Attorney James Bendell, who represents the former St. Gregory's Academy student identified only as John Doe, makes the argument in paperwork filed in U.S. District Court as part of continuing fight over the release of the records. At issue are diocese-requested psychological examinations of the Rev. Eric Ensey and the Rev. Carlos Urrutigoity performed in March 2002 at the Southdown Institute treatment facility in Ontario, Canada.
   A civil lawsuit filed that same month accuses the two priests, both members of the Society of St. John, of molesting the former St. Gregory's student between 1997 and 2000.
   Judge John E. Jones III ruled March 23 the former student's counsel could review certain psychological records, including the Rev. Urrutigoity's Southdown evaluation. Last month, the Rev. Urrutigoity and the Rev. Ensey asked the judge to reconsider, arguing the records are confidential and they never consented to their release to the diocese or to Bishop James C. Timlin.
• Church sex abuse victim sheds his anonymity to help others [O'Connell] -- RCC. Seminary male.
   Columbia Daily Tribune, www.showmenews.com/2004/May/20040516Feat001.asp , By TONY MESSENGER, Sunday, May 16, 2004
   MISSOURI: Terrible abuses. Torture. Corruption. Cover-up. Culture of secrecy.
   These are the words being tossed around as we discuss the horrific prison abuse scandal in Iraq.
   Mike Wegs uses the same words to describe an institution he used to love.
   His church.
   Wegs grew up in Moberly. His youth - and much of his adulthood, really - was taken away from him in Hannibal. Now he lives in Minneapolis, and he's trying to put the pieces of his life back together.
   You've read his story, perhaps, but didn't know it. Two years ago, he was known as one of the many John Does who accused disgraced Bishop Anthony O'Connell of sexual abuse while he was a seminarian at the now-closed St. Thomas Seminary. The Hannibal seminary trained generations of Roman Catholic priests in Missouri, but to Wegs and some of the other impressionable boys who were manhandled and abused by a pedophile they called "O.C.", the place might as well have been a prison in Abu Ghraib.
   Wegs' John Doe lawsuit is among 13 proceeding against O.C. in circuit court in Hannibal. Other priests from the seminary have been accused as well. Wegs doesn't expect to win. But as the church and its membership try to heal from the scandal that exploded first two years ago in Boston, spreading to St. Louis and other dioceses around the nation, Wegs is speaking out publicly to send a message that he believes is important to the healing.
   Things were as bad in the Jefferson City diocese as anywhere else in the nation, he believes, and the cover-up continues. Wegs was inspired to go public with his story after seeing the verbal abuse heaped upon fellow O.C. victim Chris Dixon, who also has ties to Mid-Missouri. Dixon, a former deacon at Sacred Heart Catholic Church here in Columbia, was the victim who caused O.C. to step down from his leadership position in the church. Wegs thinks there have been countless other priests and bishops who protected the O.C.s of the church for decades and still operate with impunity.
• Former Priest Pleads Guilty [Woodcock] -- RCC. Boys.
   NewstalkZB http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,3882-3351557,00.html , 03:43 PM, May 17 2004
   NEW ZEALAND: Students at the schools where Alan Woodcock worked knew he was having sexual relationships with their classmates.
   The 55-year-old has pleaded guilty to 21 charges of sexual assault at the Upper Hutt District Court Monday morning.
   A summary of facts has revealed that victims who told their fellow students about their abuse were ostracised.
   The summary describes how Woodcock preyed on his victims under the guise of music teacher or counselor at several schools in the lower North Island.
   The victims tell of how Woodcock told them they were homosexual or threatened to cane them if they told on him.
   Police dropped 13 of the 34 charges, including a sodomy charge, and Woodcock pleaded guilty to the remaining 21 charges of sexual assault or inducing an indecent act.
   He had lived in England since the late 1980s before a High Court ruling ordered his extradition to New Zealand for trial.
• Former Catholic priest pleads guilty to indecencies [1982-85 Woodcock] -- RCC. Boys.
   New Zealand Herald, www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3566855&thesection=news&thesubsection=general , May 17 2004
   NEW ZEALAND: A former Wellington Catholic priest, extradited from Britain after being charged with child sex offences, pleaded guilty to all 21 charges in Upper Hutt District Court this morning.
   Alan Woodcock, 56, formerly of Upper Hutt, was accused of indecently assaulting boys at Silverstream, Upper Hutt, and Palmerston North between 1982 and 1985 while working as a teacher.
   He had lived in England since the late 1980s before a High Court ruling ordered him to return for trial.
   Senior Sergeant Murray Porter, of Upper Hutt police, said Woodcock today admitted six charges of indecently assaulting a boy under 16 and three charges of an indecent act against a boy.
   He admitted five charges of indecently assaulting a male and two of committing an indecent act upon a male. Two charges related to his inducing a male to perform an indecent act upon him, which he admitted, as well as three charges of inducing a boy to perform an indecent act.
• Kevin Britt, Bishop of Grand Rapids, dies at age 59 [8 abused 35] -- RCC.
   Detroit Free Press, www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw97901_20040517.htm , May 17, 2004
   GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- The state of Michigan lost its second Catholic bishop in less than two months when the Rev. Kevin Britt of the Diocese of Grand Rapids died unexpectedly at age 59.
   Co-workers found Britt at his home Sunday morning after they became worried when he did not return several phone calls. He apparently died sometime during the weekend, said Ned McGrath, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit.
   McGrath said Britt had canceled all his appointments last week because he hadn't been feeling well.  ...
   Like other Catholic clergy, Britt apologized after a report was released detailing church-related sexual abuses of minors since 1950. The Diocese of Grand Rapids reported that eight priests had abused 35 victims.
   "On behalf of the diocese, I apologize for the crimes of sexual abuse of minors that has occurred in the past," Britt said in February.
• Hispanics suffer clergy abuse in a culture of silence -- RCC. Boy.
   The Morning Journal, www.morningjournal.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11660194&BRD=1699&PAG=461&dept_id=46371&rfi=6 ; May/17/2004
   HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Robbie Acevedo does not fear the end. For Acevedo, who is only 38, death will bring a welcome finality to a life of self-destructive behavior begun in his early teens and culminating in a broken marriage, a multitude of health problems, and ultimately, a death sentence.
   Years of hard drinking have left him with hepatitis C and cirrhosis of the liver. Excruciating pain, in nearly every inch of his 5-foot-3-inch, 135-pound frame, is his constant companion.  ...
   His downward spiral, Acevedo said, began when he was 12, during what should have been a happy, uplifting weekend retreat for children at a Paterson, N.J., church. A deacon separated Acevedo from the other children, took him down to the basement, made him disrobe, and raped him, the Dover, N.J., resident said.
   In many ways, Acevedo experienced the range of feelings that people who were sexually abused by clergy members as children have described -- guilt, shame, trauma, and an inability to get close to others.
   But Latinos such as Acevedo also have had to cope with a complex cultural dimension to their experience as well. The son of Puerto Ricans who were devout Catholics, strict with their four children, and unquestioning of authority, Acevedo feared no one would believe his story.
   In the Latino culture, talk about sex is often discouraged. And many parents, particularly in Latin-American countries, view sexual abuse as a family secret and a source of shame.
• Priest confesses to sex abuse [1982-85 Woodcock; order knew he had been previously convicted] -- RCC. Boys.
   News 24, www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1528117,00.html , 11:03, May 17 2004
   WELLINGTON, New Zealand: A former Catholic priest, extradited from Britain to New Zealand to face charges of sexually abusing teenage boys, admitted his crimes in a court near Wellington on Monday.
   Alan Woodcock, 56, formerly of Upper Hutt, admitted to indecently assaulting boys in the lower North Island towns of Silverstream and Palmerston North between 1982 and 1985 while working as a teacher.
   Police said he had lived in England since the late 1980s before a high court ordered him to return to New Zealand for trial.
   The head of the teaching order, Father Dennis O'Hagen, said outside the court that church authorities knew Woodcock had a conviction for committing sexual indecencies with an adult male before he was placed in a teaching position.
   "It was a very bad mistake, but expert advice was that he would not be a threat to people," O'Hagen said.
• Group weighs whether priest in abuse case should continue in post [1980s McLaughlin] -- RCC. Males.
   BOSTON (MA): Boston Globe, www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/05/17/group_weighs_whether_ priest_in_abuse_case_should_continue_in_post ; By Jared Stearns, Globe Correspondent, May 17, 2004
   Officials of the Archdiocesan Union of Holy Name Societies in Boston will meet tonight to decide whether a Somerville priest who stepped down from his duties pending an investigation of a sexual abuse allegation will continue as the fraternal organization's spiritual moderator.
   The recent allegation contends that the Rev. John E. McLaughlin, pastor at St. Benedict Church, was involved in sexual misconduct with a minor nearly 20 years ago, said the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese.
   "Just recently it was brought to our attention," he said. "He took a voluntary leave of absence" on Saturday.
   McLaughlin was also named in a 2002 lawsuit that alleged he sexually abused two men on two occasions. No action was taken to remove McLaughlin from his position at that time, Coyne said, because the archdiocese handles allegations of sexual abuse of adults differently from allegations involving minors.
   Carmen L. Durso, the lawyer who represented the two men who accused McLaughlin of sexually assaulting them, said it's "nonsense" that the archdiocese did not remove McLaughlin from his position when the first allegations surfaced.
   "The business about whether they were adults is arguably relevant if you're talking about something that might be characterized as a consensual relationship between adults," he said. "This was not a consensual relationship. There was an assault by a priest. This is nonsense that they didn't take any action."
• Removed Somerville priest had previous complaints [1980s, 2001 McLaughlin] -- RCC. Males.
   BOSTON (MA): Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=28178 , By Robin Washington, Monday, May 17, 2004
   A Somerville priest removed from ministry Saturday for alleged child molestation two decades ago was allowed to serve despite two previous sexual misconduct complaints against him.
   The Rev. John E. McLaughlin, pastor of St. Benedict's parish, accepted a voluntary leave following the new charge, which an Archdiocese of Boston statement said was "reported for the first time."
   But two years ago, a Lynn man in his 40s told the Herald he was sexually assaulted by McLaughlin in June 2001. A second man leveled similar charges and both claims were part of last year's $85 million global settlement, in which neither the church nor any priest admitted responsibility.
   "They involved allegations from adults," archdiocese spokesman the Rev. Christopher Coyne said, explaining why McLaughlin had not been removed. "(The new allegation) was involving someone under the age of 18 at the time. That's the difference."
   The Lynn man, an El Salvador native, said he was kissed and groped after seeking counseling from the Spanish-speaking priest.
   "It was very hard to stop him because he was a priest, a representative of God," the man said in September 2002, describing three attempts to get the priest off him.
   The second man said McLaughlin groped him at his son's christening.
• Bishop urged to audit diocese progress in preventing abuse -- RCC.
   Mercury News, www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/8682824.htm?1c , By ROBIN EVANS, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.), Posted on Sun, May. 16, 2004
   SANTA CLARA (CA): A day before he is set to participate in a Santa Clara University conference looking at lessons learned from the sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, the leader of a national victims' group warned Thursday of backsliding by bishops.
   David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), hand-delivered a letter to the San Francisco archdiocese urging Bishop William Levada to support a second annual audit of diocese progress in identifying and removing problem priests and preventing further abuse. It was a message intended for all U.S. bishops.
   The bishops of several East Coast dioceses were able to put off to November a vote by the U.S. Conference of Bishops on whether to even conduct an audit this year.
   "The newly released letters from dozens of bishops clearly indicate the postponing or canceling of one of the most clear and simple, common-sense reforms in the clergy molestation crisis," Clohessy said.
   The delay was only recently discovered by the lay Review Board, the committee established to oversee church response and progress toward the goals set at the bishop's 2002 conference in Dallas. The board was able to get the vote on the agenda of a June retreat in Denver. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 01:44 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Mon May 17, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont81.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tue May 18, 2004 edition follows:-
• Man defends cleric uncle despite abuse settlement [2001 McLaughlin] -- RCC. Males.
   Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=28444 , By Robin Washington, Wednesday, May 19, 2004
   SOMERVILLE (MA): Lawyers for the Archdiocese of Boston were "irresponsible" in settling a sexual assault claim against a Somerville priest who was later removed after an unrelated allegation, the cleric's nephew charged.
   The Rev. John E. McLaughlin, pastor of St. Benedict's parish, was visiting a parishioner at the time a Lynn man in his 40s said the priest kissed and groped him three years ago, Andrew P. McLaughlin wrote the Herald of his uncle.
   "I know this because I was attempting to contact him at the time," he wrote. "I would without hesitation swear to all of this under penalty of perjury."
   The priest's nephew said church lawyers were irresponsible in agreeing to include the accuser in last year's $85 million global settlement, as well as another adult's claim of abuse by the priest.
   On Saturday, McLaughlin accepted a voluntary suspension in wake of claims he molested a minor two decades ago.
   Carmen Durso, the lawyer for both adult plaintiffs, said victims frequently confuse the exact time and place of abuse.
   "They were both very credible," he said. "In the other case there was another witness to the complaint." [Posted by Kathy Shawat 11:17 PM]
• Aretakis resists probe on Hubbard -- RCC.
   Troy Record, www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11670482&BRD=1170&PAG=461&dept_id=7021&rfi=6 , By Robert Cristo, 05/18/2004
   ALBANY (NY): Investigators hired by the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese to look into allegations of sexual misconduct against Bishop Howard Hubbard claim to have run into roadblocks while attempting to interview alleged clergy sex abuse clients of attorney John Aretakis.
   According to a statement released Monday by former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, in the past three months, her investigators have interviewed more than 200 people, including those who have been outspoken critics of Hubbard.
   White refuses to publicly discuss her investigation until it is completed, but adds in the statement that "we've obtained substantial and significant" information regarding the allegations against the longtime bishop.
   White claims, however, her investigators have received "no cooperation" from Aretakis or any of the nearly 80 alleged clergy sex abuse victims he has represented throughout the state.
   She further states that Aretakis was the "first person we contacted" after she was retained by the diocese for more than $700 an hour to settle the storm of controversy surrounding Hubbard once and for all.
• Settlement Reached In Catholic Sex Abuse Case [1950s-70s Hazen; 18 sought $69m] -- RCC.
   KOIN, www.koin.com/webnews/20042/20040518_churchsuit.shtml , May 18 2004
   BEND, Ore. -- A settlement has been reached with 18 plaintiffs in the Baker Diocese Catholic church sexual abuse case. The victims say the late Rev. David Hazen molested them between the late 1950s and early 1970s.
  The plaintiffs sought $69 million in the case that was to go to trial later this month. Terms of the settlement were not revealed.
   The settlement resulted from a two-day conference this month mediated by retired Clackamas County judge Sid Brockley. An attorney for the diocese says it was a good settlement, resolving all 18 claims.
   Plaintiffs' lawyer David Slader of Portland told the online Bend Bugle that they are grateful a settlement was reached. Slader says the victims of Hazen are now able to concentrate their energy on healing.
• U.S. hierarchy, review board at odds -- RCC.
   National Catholic Reporter, http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004b/052104/052104h.php , By JOE FEUERHERD, Washington, for May 21 04
   WASHINGTON (DC): The high-profile lay committee investigating the clergy sex abuse scandals was "manipulated" by the bishops, who used the 13-member National Review Board for public relations cover while withholding key information from the panel.
   That charge was made in a March 30 letter from Anne Burke, the Illinois Court of Appeal justice who serves as the board’s interim chair, to bishops’ conference President Wilton Gregory.
   Copies of correspondence obtained by NCR indicate the board’s relationship with dozens of members of the hierarchy is severely strained. While the language used by the National Review Board and the bishops falls short of the invective that led then-board chairman Frank Keating to resign in June 2003 (he compared the bishops to the mafia), it is far from collegial. Board members question the bishops’ commitment to child protection, while some bishops charge the board has strayed beyond its mandate.
   Burke’s letter paints a picture of hierarchical deception and public relations maneuvering. While the letter bears her signature, it was reviewed and approved by the review board, Burke told NCR.
   Even as National Review Board members were presenting their findings on the scope and causes of the crisis to a widely covered Feb. 27 news conference, wrote Burke, its members were unaware that the bishops were considering shelving or delaying some of the board’s key recommendations.
   Nearly a month later, as four board members formally presented the recommendations to the bishops’ administrative committee, the board had not been informed that key members of the hierarchy were seeking to defer or derail a second round of audits designed to measure diocesan compliance with child-protection policies established by the bishops at their June 2002 meeting in Dallas.
• Catholic Bishops, Lay Panel Reach Deal on Abuse Policy -- RCC.
   NPR, www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1900459 , May 18, 2004
   CHICAGO (IL): An agreement was reached Monday between Catholic bishops and a review board committee on the best way to monitor clergy sex abuse. From Chicago Public Radio, Jason DeRose reports on how the two sides say a new proposal will be presented at a future meeting.
• New bishop ordained in Ogdensburg -- RCC.
   Newsday, www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny-brf--newbishop0518may18,0,2450338.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire ; May 18, 2004
   OGDENSBURG, N.Y. -- The Most Rev. Robert Cunningham, officially made the new Bishop of Ogdensburg Tuesday, said he hopes to use his position to attract more men and women to religious careers and bring back those who have strayed from the Roman Catholic church.
   Cunningham, 60, succeeds Bishop Gerald Barbarito, who was transferred to Palm Beach last July.
   "I want to work with priests, parents and religion teachers to try to convince people that a religious life is rewarding," Cunningham said during an eight-minute acceptance speech.
   "We tend to look at those who are not going to church, and we need to reach out to them," he said. "We need to recognize that some people place themselves outside the church."
   In a reference to the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic church in the United States, Cunningham thanked those priests who remained "loyal to their ministry."
• Diocese of Baker settles abuse case [1950s-60s Hazen 18 victims; < $US 70m] -- RCC. Males.
   Bend Bulletin, www.bendbulletin.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=13488 , By Lisa Rosetta and Kelly Kearsley, May 18, 2004
   OREGON: The 18 men who sued the Diocese of Baker alleging that a priest employed by the diocese sexually abused them have settled their case, according to David Slader, the men's attorney.
   "The men are satisfied that they have adequately demonstrated that they were victims of Father Hazen and the diocese was completely and morally responsible for his abuse of them and of many other young boys," Slader said Monday.
   Negotiations between the men and the diocese, which covers Central and Eastern Oregon, lasted 29 hours over the course of two days, said Greg Lynch, the Bend attorney representing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baker.
   The case was scheduled to go to trial later this month but was settled late Friday night.
   The settlement was mediated by Sid Brockley, a retired Clackamas County judge, Lynch said. Several conference rooms at The Riverhouse were rented out for the settlement negotiations, and all 18 plaintiffs in the lawsuit, whose homes are scattered across the country, flew in for the conclusion of the case.
   "It was a difficult case for the bishop, Bishop Vasa, because these 18 men filed a lawsuit based upon abuse they say occurred in the early 1960s, and the priest who allegedly abused them is dead and the bishop who was in charge of the diocese (at that time) is dead," Lynch said. "The diocese has no record of any of these individuals being abused by Father Hazen."
   The Roman Catholic Diocese of Baker faced nearly $70 million in claims from the 18 men, who said they were sexually abused in the 1950s and 1960s in Burns and Klamath Falls by the late Rev. David Hazen.
• Hollingworth's quest for salvation -- Anglican. Australia flag; Aust. Nat. Flag Assn. 
   The Courier-Mail, Brisbane, www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,9601131%255E953,00.html , by Jamie Walker, May 19 04
   AUSTRALIA: Twelve months after he resigned as governor-general, Peter Hollingworth is working to rebuild his shattered reputation by serving porridge and toast to Melbourne's homeless. He even washes the dishes.
   And he is planning to mark the anniversary of his departure from vice-regal office next week by publicly confronting the very issue that drove him from Yarralumla - child sex abuse.
   For the past two months, he has spent two mornings a week as a volunteer at the Lazarus Centre in East Melbourne, providing breakfast to people who live rough on the streets of Melbourne's CBD. Those close to him say it was the first step in what a humbler and penitent Dr Hollingworth hopes will be his road back to public acceptance.
   The Lazarus Centre's manager, Father Michael Hopkins -- an Anglican priest whom Dr Hollingworth ordained in 1996 while archbishop of Brisbane -- said yesterday the role was a far cry from the pomp and perks that went with being governor-general.
   "He helps gets things set up before 7.30, serves the food and he's around afterwards to do the dishes and the vacuuming," Fr Hopkins said. "It's all hard yakka. Stuff a lot of people wouldn't want to do."
• Judge denies helping in paedophile cover-up [1970s Woodcock, Trapski] -- RCC. Teenage Boy.
   New Zealand Herald, www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3567268&thesection=news&thesubsection=general ; By STUART DYE AND NZPA, May 19 2004
   NEW ZEALAND: A former chief district court judge who helped the Catholic Church with media inquiries relating to paedophile priest Alan Woodcock says he did not try to cover up Woodcock's previous sexual offending.
   But police say the role played by Judge Peter Trapski, and other aspects of the case, will go under a microscope.
   Woodcock, ordained a priest in 1972, was convicted in 1979 of a sex offence against a 17-year-old male.
   Despite this, he was appointed a teacher at St Patrick's College in Upper Hutt where some of the offences took place.
   Judge Trapski, an old boy of St Patrick's, was consulted by the Catholic Church in 1994 when one of Woodcock's victims went to the media.
   A church document says Judge Trapski, who was chair of St Patrick's trust board at the time, advised the church to place "confidential material" about Woodcock into his employment file but within a separate envelope labelled "secret".
• Police probe role of church [1978-87 Woodcock, 1982 Curtain] -- RCC. Society of Mary. Boys.
   Stuff, www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2911603a11,00.html , By FRAN TYLER and NZPA, 19 May 2004
   NEW ZEALAND: Police are investigating the role other church staff may have had in allowing paedophile priest Alan Woodcock to continue to work with children.
   Woodcock, 56, pleaded guilty this week to 21 charges relating to the sexual abuse of boys while he was working at St John's College in Hastings, St Patrick's College in Silverstream, Highden novitiate - a school for trainee priests in Palmerston North - and the church's Futuna retreat in Karori, Wellington. The offending happened between 1978 and 1987.
   The officer in charge of the Woodcock case, Detective Sergeant Murray Porter, would not comment yesterday on any other investigations that might be taking place, but The Dominion Post understands that further inquiries are being made into the role of some church staff.
   Complaints from boys about Woodcock's abuse were made in August 1982 to then St Patrick's rector Father Michael Curtain.
   In a 1995 interview Father Curtain told police he called the Society of Mary's head, Provincial Father Fred Bliss, explaining the allegations and asking for Woodcock to be moved. Woodcock was allowed to stay on at the college till the end of that year under a set of rules drawn up by Father Curtain. He was then moved to Highden.
   The rules included directions that he leave the door to his bedroom open if a boy needed to see him "unless the visit is of a confessional nature or a similarly private matter", and that he not hitch-hike. Woodcock was also advised to get a passport "to cover any possible eventuality".
• Cardinal Mahony voices support for review board -- RCC.
   National Catholic Reporter, http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004b/052104/052104m.htm , By JOHN L. ALLEN JR. in Rome, for May 21 04
   ROME: Amid tensions between the lay-led body created to investigate the sexual abuse crisis and some U.S. bishops, an American cardinal has said any attempt to eliminate the National Review Board would be "short-sighted," and represents only a minority view among the bishops.
   In the same interview with NCR in Rome May 13, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles also said he would not withhold Communion from pro-choice Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. The full text of the interview can be found in the Special Documents section at NCRonline.org.
   The 68-year-old cardinal, generally seen as on the church’s moderate-to-progressive wing, said some bishops were never comfortable with the National Review Board and the Office of Child and Youth Protection.
   "In Dallas, [some bishops] voted for this reluctantly, and never did like this involvement of any review board or a national office or anything else," Mahony said. "They feel, we got a report out of them, we got John Jay, now let’s get rid of the whole thing.
   "I personally think that’s a very short-sighted approach," Mahony said. Reflecting on his experience with a lay review board in Los Angeles, he said, "The involvement of our wonderful lay leaders has been a real grace."
• The ache in the Catholic psyche -- RCC.
   National Catholic Reporter, http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004b/052104/052104b.htm , for May 21 04
   UNITED STATES: Some months ago, reader Laurence McLaughlin sent in a photo of the painting we used on this week’s cover.
   In a note to layout editor Toni-Ann Ortiz, he said he did the painting "to ease the sorrow," and he hoped we might find a use for it. The effects of the sex abuse scandal, the betrayal of the "tender ideal" that Fr. Michael Parise writes about, is difficult to illustrate (see story). McLaughlin’s word seems a perfect fit for his painting, because it does, indeed, capture the "sorrow," that kind of ache in the pit of the stomach that seems a natural companion to this awful, intractable story.
   McLaughlin was a priest from 1965 until 1989, when he retired. He was later laicized and married. He’s now 81, lives with his wife, Mary, in Long Beach, Calif., and goes to work painting in his studio nearly every day. In a phone conversation recently he told me he found the scandal stories, the numbers and all the attendant publicity difficult to take.
   His years as a priest were "happy years for the most part." If he was shocked by the dimensions of the scandal, he also, as his painting shows, has great empathy for innocent priests whose lives and ministry have been forever altered.
• Judge defends advice over paedophile priest [1979 Woodcock, 1994 Trapski] -- RCC. Boys.
   Stuff, www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2911602a11,00.html . 19 May 2004
   NEW ZEALAND: Former chief district court judge Peter Trapski yesterday defended his role with the Catholic Church in relation to its handling of publicity about paedophile priest Alan Woodcock in the 1990s.
   When one of the victims went to the media in 1994, the church turned to Judge Trapski for advice. He had helped to set up its abuse protocol and was at the time chairman of St Patrick's College in Silverstream. Woodcock had abused several boys at St Patrick's 12 years earlier.
   Judge Trapski said he had tried to encourage the church to be more open about sexual offending by its priests and brothers, instead of "sweeping things under the carpet" as parts of the church had done in the past.
   Documents show the church knew Woodcock had a conviction for sexual offending in 1979 against a 17-year-old youth, before it appointed him to St Patrick's. He had been granted name suppression.
   When media inquiries were made about Woodcock, Judge Trapski urged caution so that the suppression order would not be breached. He also suggested that "confidential material" about Woodcock be placed in his employment file in a separate envelope marked confidential. He said yesterday this advice was to ensure that all the material was together so that it could be accessed, but that "sensitive" material would not be open to just anyone.
   Judge Trapski said he was aware in 1994 of complaints made in 1982 by Silverstream boys about Woodcock's abuse but he advised the church to be careful about saying anything about them as Woodcock could not be found and "we could not put stuff into the media without his knowledge" or giving him the opportunity to defend the claims.
• Sexual abuse by priests in the spotlight in Spain [Calvo, Rial, Sánchez, Martín de la Peña] -- RCC. Boys, Girl Spain flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   National Catholic Reporter, http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004b/052104/052104p.htm , By JOHN L. ALLEN JR., for May 21 04
   MADRID, Spain:A new movie by controversial Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, plus a series of recent criminal convictions, have thrown a spotlight on sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Spain, according to a May 10 feature by the leading Spanish daily El País.
   Since the sexual abuse crisis in the United States broke in January 2002, some commentators have labeled the phenomenon an "American problem." By way of contrast, the El País report indicates that overwhelmingly Catholic Spain is struggling with strikingly similar revelations.
   The lengthy two-page story appeared in an English-language supplement culled from El País and distributed with the Spanish edition of the International Herald Tribune.
   In recent months, El País reported, a priest in the Spanish town of Jaen, Luis José Beltrán Calvo, was sentenced to eight months in prison for repeated sexual abuse of a boy that began when the boy was 11 and lasted until he was 14. In Pontevedra, another priest, Edelmiro Rial, was sentenced to 15 years on 10 counts of sexual abuse and two attempts of abuse involving six adolescents. In Barcelona, Ramón López Sánchez received 28 years for abusing three minors, and in Madrid, José Luis Martín de la Peña was sentenced to 10 years for the repeated abuse of his housekeeper’s daughter, which began when the girl was three years old.
   While El País reported that reliable estimates as to the size and scope of the problem are difficult to obtain, it cited one 10-year-old study by Félix López Sánchez, a professor of sexual psychology at the University of Salamanca. Based on a survey of 2,000 people, the majority of whom had been to colleges and homes run by religious organizations, Sánchez’s survey found that 15 percent of Spanish males reported having experienced at least one act of sexual abuse prior to age 17. Nine percent of those cases, the report concluded, involved priests.
• Priest arrested on indecent assault charge [2002 Liberatore] -- RCC. Altar Boy.
   Times Leader, www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/8696791.htm , Associated Press, Tue, May. 18, 2004
   SCRANTON, Pa. - A Roman Catholic priest was charged with indecent assault and corrupting a minor after a young man told police he had been in a sexual relationship with the clergyman when he was in high school, prosecutors said Tuesday.
   The Rev. Albert M. Liberatore Jr., of Scranton, turned himself in late Monday evening, was arraigned and released on bail.
   Lackawanna District Attorney Andrew Jarbola said his office began investigating the allegations against Liberatore, 40, last week after being contacted by church officials, who had conducted an internal inquiry into the accusations with the help of a private detective.
   The alleged victim, now an adult, told police that he became involved with the priest when he was a ninth-grade altar boy at the Sacred Heart Church in Duryea.
   Investigators said that the man described meeting Liberatore regularly for dinners, sleeping twice a week in his residence at the rectory and going with him on trips with him to New York, where they had sexual contact in hotels.
   The indecent assault charge stemmed from an alleged encounter at the University of Scranton in 2002 when the man was 17. He told police that the priest, who was an instructor at the school, groped him after the two argued about whether the teen was gay.
• Jesuits settle suit over sexual abuse [1954-79 Convert] -- RCC. Jesuits. Altar Boys.
   Fairbanks News-Miner, http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~2155789,00.html , By MARY BETH SMETZER, Tuesday, May 18, 2004
   ALASKA: The Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus and the Society of Jesus Alaska have reached a settlement with six Alaska men in a sexual abuse lawsuit, according to one of the lawyers representing the men.
   The former altar boys sued the Jesuits and the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks last summer, claiming that the Rev. Jules Convert sexually molested them while he worked as a priest in the villages of St. Marys, Unalakleet, Holy Cross and Kaltag in western Alaska between 1954 and 1979.
   The plaintiffs' claims against the Jesuit order were resolved Monday in a private settlement conference, according to a press release issued by the law firms of Manly & McGuire, and Cooke Roosa & Valcarce. They said the Jesuits agreed to a large monetary settlement, including paying college tuition for some of the victims' children.
   The settlement terms also include a provision for lifetime counseling for the victims, as well as a onetime opportunity for the victims, many of whom are Alaska Natives, to obtain vocational training in the occupation of their choice.
   In the release, attorney John Manly said: "Jules Convert used his Roman collar, a symbol of faith and devotion to Jesus, as a 'free pass' to sexually violate innocent children. Nothing can take away the pain these men have suffered as a result of their abuse at the hands of their village priest. We hope that this part of the settlement will help the victims to rebuild their lives."
• Bishops ignore their burning house -- RCC.
   Dallas Morning News, www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/columnists/rdreher/stories/051804dnedidreher.9caa5.html ; By ROD DREHER, Tuesday, May 18, 2004
   DALLAS (TX): On the road this weekend, I went to Sunday Mass at a Catholic parish outside the Dallas diocese. The priest did something I've only seen happen once before in the 11 years I've been a Catholic: He spoke from the pulpit against abortion and the politicians who support it.
   This is going to shock non-Catholics, who seem to think that we faithful papists hear nothing but lectures on abortion and sexual morality from our priests. It's not true. Except for illness, I've not missed a single Sunday Mass since I entered the church in 1993. Though I've lived in major East Coast sees, as well as Dallas, I have yet to hear a sermon explaining, or even proclaiming, church teaching on any aspect of human sexuality - save for abortion, which I'd last heard preached on in, no kidding, 1995.
   After this Sunday's Mass, I thanked the priest for his words, and told him I wanted to praise him in print. He kindly asked me not to, explaining that it could only get him in trouble with his bishop. I understood. I've known good priests to be punished by their bishops for teaching the Catholic faith, but no priests punished for failing to do so.
   This is the context in which the move by some Catholic bishops to deny communion to pro-choice politicians - and now, according to the bishop of Colorado Springs, to Catholics who vote for them - should be understood.
   Look, I believe that lawmakers who vote for legalized abortion have directly participated in a form of murder, and should be denied communion, which the church teaches is literally the Body of Christ. But I also believe it's folly, and even grandstanding for a Vatican audience, for the American bishops to get on their high horse about this issue right now.
   The child sex abuse scandal and the evacuation of moral authority it caused is part of it, but there's a more fundamental problem here: For an entire generation, Catholics in this country have not been taught the basics of the faith.
• Two priests dropped from woman's abuse lawsuit [1980-81 Campbell, Cherry] -- RCC. Altar Boy.
   Centre Daily, www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/8691875.htm , Associated Press, Tue, May. 18, 2004
   GREENSBURG, Pa. - Two Benedictine priests were removed from a woman's sexual abuse lawsuit because they would not be responsible for her alleged health problems even if they had abused her son, a judge ruled.
   Westmoreland County Judge Gary Caruso last week ruled that the Revs. Andrew Campbell and Athanasius Cherry should be removed from a Port Matilda woman's lawsuit, which claims her son was plied with drugs and alcohol and abused by priests while a teenager.
   Campbell is the head of the English department at St. Vincent University, which is run by the Saint Vincent Archabbey, the oldest Benedictine monastery in the United States. Cherry is the pastor of the St. Vincent Basilica.
   In her lawsuit, filed last year, the woman claims her son told her in July 2002 that he was sexually abused by Campbell, Cherry and another priest while he was an altar boy in 1980 and 1981. She claims that learning of the abuse has caused mental anguish, humiliation, nightmares and increased risk of a heart attack, among other conditions.
   Her son filed a separate lawsuit in February.
• Catholic group, bishops agree on sex abuse audit proposal -- RCC.
   Chicago Sun-Times, www.suntimes.com/output/religion/cst-nws-cath18.html , BY CATHLEEN FALSANI, Religion Reporter, May 18, 2004
   CHICAGO (IL): A watchdog panel of prominent lay Roman Catholics and a group of U.S. bishops meeting at a Rosemont hotel reached common ground Monday about how ongoing efforts to enforce new church laws governing clergy sex abuse cases should proceed.
   Despite recent public tensions between the lay National Review Board and several influential bishops, a contingent of 14 bishops on the Ad Hoc Committee for Sexual Abuse, and 10 of the 12 review board members, said they agreed on a proposal to present to the entire U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at its meeting in Denver next month.
   At issue had been the review board's desire to continue audits of all the American dioceses to make sure new laws, which say in part that a priest with even one credible allegation of sex abuse against a minor should be removed permanently from ministry, are properly implemented.
   In letters to Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, president of the USCCB, made public earlier this month, several bishops including Cardinal Edward Egan of New York and Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, strongly opposed a second round of audits, saying the review board was overstepping its authority.
   A heated exchange of letters between the cardinals, Illinois Appellate Justice Anne Burke, who heads the National Review Board, and Gregory revealed the extent of acrimony between the lay board and some church leaders.
• Bishop Meets with Father James Scahill -- RCC.
   WWLP, www.wwlp.com/news2004/story.html?artID=50320 , 05-17-2004
   SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts (WWLP)- A private, closed-door meeting was held this afternoon between Springfield Bishop Timothy McDonnell and Father James Scahill. Last week Bishop McDonnell sparked a firestorm of controversy when he said outspoken parish priest James Scahill was doing as much damage to the Diocese as former priest and convicted child molester Richard Lavigne. The Bishop has since apologized to the victims for any pain caused by his comments. Today’s meeting between McDonnell and Scahill was scheduled before this latest turn of events. The Diocese, Bishop McDonnell, and Father Scahill all said they would not comment on today’s meeting because it is private.
• Bishop meets critical priest -- RCC.
   Republican, http://masslive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1084866722158040.xml?nnhf , By STAN FREEMAN, sfreeman@repub.com , Tuesday, May 18, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): After clashing with the Springfield diocese's bishop last week, the Rev. James J. Scahill said his meeting yesterday with the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, was "very healthy."
   The meeting had been scheduled before May 11 when Scahill said the bishop threw him off the Presbyteral Council and said he was as destructive to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield as defrocked priest Richard R. Lavigne, a convicted child molester and the subject of about 40 complaints from those who said he abused them when they were minors. Scahill had criticized the bishop for the time he was taking in considering whether the diocese should financially support Lavigne.
   While acknowledging their continuing differences, Scahill said yesterday that the meeting was "very healthy."
   "It was a very good and a very open meeting. I would say the bishop and I are not on the same page, but it looks like we may well be in the same chapter," Scahill said. He would not elaborate.
   Diocese officials did not return calls seeking a statement from the bishop about the meeting.
• Lawyer Accused of Not Cooperating [Hubbard] -- RCC.
   Fox 23, www.fox23news.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=998B57D7-CDC7-4982-A344-D52903566372
   ALBANY (NY): In a statement, Mary Jo White says attorney John Aretakis has refused to cooperate with her investigation. White was hired by the diocese to look into allegations of sexual improprieties by Hubbard, allegations the bishop denies.
   White says Aretakis and his clients, who made the allegations, have refused to meet with her or answer written questions. Aretakis says he doesn't trust Mary Jo White, and helping her could hurt his clients.
   "I find what Mary Jo White is doing is flawed....She's asking me to compromise my representation of not only 2 clients but also 5 or 6 other witnesses I represent that I'm also keeping from her," says Aretakis.
   White says she and her team have interviewed more than 200 people over the last 3 months. Still no word on when the investigation will be completed.
• Hubbard probe lacks testimony of accusers [1970s Hubbard] -- RCC. Males.
   Albany Times Union, www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=249058 &category=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=5/18/2004 ; By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Tuesday, May 18, 2004
   ALBANY (NY): A probe into alleged misconduct by Bishop Howard Hubbard has yielded "substantial and significant information" from more than 200 supporters and critics of the church leader but nothing from the lawyer who sparked the inquiry, Mary Jo White said Monday.
   The former federal prosecutor hired in February by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany to conduct the investigation said she hasn't spoken with attorney John Aretakis or his clients.
   "Mr. Aretakis was the first person we contacted after our investigation was announced," White said. "To date, and despite repeated oral and written requests, he and his clients ... have chosen not to cooperate.
   "We are issuing this statement as a public invitation," White said in a written statement Monday, noting that the probe will be completed "with or without" them. She has not set a deadline for release of her report.
   White is investigating allegations that Hubbard was sexually involved in the 1970s with Thomas Zalay, a 25-year-old Albany man who killed himself in his parents' home in 1978, and a claim by 40-year-old Anthony Bonneau of Schenectady that the bishop paid him for sex in Washington Park when he was a teenage runaway.
   The accusations surfaced at news conferences arranged by Aretakis, who has filed several lawsuits against the diocese on behalf of people who say they were abused by priests and who maintain the diocese did little when they later sought help.
• Catholic church, law enforcement hosting summit on sex abuse [O'Brien] -- RCC.
   The Arizona Republic, www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0517summit17-ON.html , by Michael Clancy, May. 17, 2004
   PHOENIX (AZ): The head of the U.S. Catholic Bishops Office of the Child and Youth Protection will be in Phoenix on Thursday for a long-awaited summit on sexual abuse.
   The summit, put on by the Diocese of Phoenix and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, will complete the final requirement of the immunity agreement between former Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien and Rick Romley, the county attorney. In that agreement, O'Brien admitted endangering children and quietly transferring priests accused of sexual misconduct.
   O'Brien resigned two weeks after signing the agreement after he was arrested and charged for leaving the scene of a fatal accident. He currently is serving his sentence of four years' probation and 1,000 hours of community service.
   Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, who replaced O'Brien as bishop, said the summit is designed for individuals who work on sexual abuse issues daily.
   "Sexual abuse has not only impacted our Catholic Church and other faith communites, it touches all part of our society: youth sports, Scouts, schools, day-care centers, homes, any place where our children and youth gather to play, learn, live and trust," Olmsted said. "We need to do all that is possible to ensure that this trust will never be broken again."
   As many as 350 may attend, organizers said, including clergy, victims, perpetrators, law enforcement officials, counselors and others. About 100 representatives of the Diocese of Phoenix will attend, said public information officer Mary Jo West.
• Sex-abuse suit filed vs. priest [1950s-60s Cannon] -- RCC. Boys.
   Philadelphia Daily News, www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/8693446.htm?ERIGHTS= 4674914628708896885philly::kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM= 1impqpknppohhhhhhhhhholjmp|Kathleen|Y ; By GLORIA CAMPISI, campisg@phillynews.com
   PENNSYLVANIA: Walter Daly put it behind him. But his alleged abuse as a child by a priest at Camp St. Monica ate at him throughout his adult life, Daly's lawyer said.
   "He dealt with it himself, or tried to," said Stewart J. Eisenberg, who has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Daly and his wife, Jean, against the Philadelphia Archdiocese, St. Monica's Church in South Philadelphia and the Rev. John Cannon, the alleged abuser.
   Eisenberg said that in the late '50s and early '60s, when the abuse is alleged to have occurred, campers at the church's Berks County summer camp called Cannon "Poison Ivy" for the way he crept through the camp at night searching for his victims.
   The Daly lawsuit seeks in excess of $500,000. It was filed Thursday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.
   Spokeswoman Cathy Rossi said the archdiocese had not reviewed the lawsuit but noted it involved "allegations that occurred decades ago.
   "The diocesan priest named in the suit, Father John Cannon, is no longer in active ministry," she said.
• Priest pleads not guilty to sex assault [2002 Gagnon] Male +.
   Milford Daily News, http://www.milforddailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=48185 , By Sara Withee, Tuesday, May 18, 2004
   UXBRIDGE (MA): Flanked by supporters holding rosary beads, a Millville priest yesterday answered an allegation he sexually assaulted a male parishioner and a new charge of assaulting a second person.
   The Rev. Jean-Paul Gagnon, on leave from St. Augustine's Parish, gripped a Bible in Uxbridge District Court yesterday as he pleaded not guilty to indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 and assault and battery.
   Worcester County District Attorney John Conte last month announced that Gagnon would be charged with sexually assaulting a male St. Augustine's parishioner in Sutton on or about Oct. 11, 2002.
   In early April, Conte told the Daily News his office had closed its investigation of Gagnon after filing the indecent assault charge.
   The straight assault and battery charge that emerged during yesterday's arraignment involved a second victim, Conte spokesman Elizabeth Stammo said in an interview. She said the victim came forward in April, but could not provide any additional details.
   The Worcester Diocese placed Gagnon on leave from St. Augustine's Parish last July after an investigation. The Rev. Maurice Gilbert was brought in December, ending months of uncertainty at the parish.
• Church will inform police of sex abuse claims after Woodcock [1978-87 Woodcock] -- RCC. Boys.
   New Zealand Herald, www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3567090&thesection=news&thesubsection=general ; 05.18.2004
   NEW ZEALAND: The Catholic Church today vowed to pass all allegations of sex abuse against children by members straight to police following the conviction of paedophile priest Alan Woodcock yesterday.
   "We learn by our mistakes and they were very grievous mistakes," the head of Woodcock's order, Father Denis O'Hagan said.
   "When allegations of abuse are made against our order if they are contemporary and they are about children we will immediately inform the police."
   The church was aware Woodcock had a previous sexual assault conviction before it made him a teacher at a Wellington boys' school.
   Woodcock yesterday pleaded guilty to 21 charges of abusing 11 boys between 1978 and 1987 when he was teaching at St John's College, Hastings; St Patrick's College Silverstream; Highden, a school for young priests in Palmerston North; and Futuna, a Catholic retreat in Wellington.
   Thirteen charges were withdrawn. He was remanded in custody to appear in Wellington District Court for sentence on June 25.
• TOP STORY: Abuse by priest a shock to college [1978-87 Woodcock] -- RCC. Boys.
   Hawke's Bay Today, www.mytown.co.nz/story/mytstorydisplay.cfm?thecity=hawkesbay&thepage=news&storyID=3567081&type=nzh ; 18.05.2004
   NEW ZEALAND: The Catholic Church and St John's College in Hastings only found out on last night's television news that one of the charges against paedophile priest Alan Woodcock related to his time in Hawke's Bay.
   Woodcock yesterday pleaded guilty to 21 charges of abusing 11 boys when he was teaching in Hastings, Upper Hutt, Palmerston North and Wellington, mostly in the mid-1980s. Thirteen charges, including one of sodomy, were withdrawn.
   He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on June 25.
   The earliest complaint dated back to 1978, when Woodcock, then a teacher at St John's, removed a 14-year-old's trousers during a trip in the hills behind Taradale.
   Principal Neal Swindells said the school had never been approached with a complaint about the priest, and he learned only last night that one of the charges related to his time in Hastings.
• Police will hear sex abuse claims first - church [1978-87 Woodcock] -- RCC. Boys and seminarians.
   Stuff, stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2911270a11,00.html , 18 May 2004
   NEW ZEALAND: The Catholic Church has vowed to pass all allegations of sex abuse against children by members straight to police following the conviction of paedophile priest Alan Woodcock yesterday.
   "We learn by our mistakes and they were very grievous mistakes," the head of Woodcock's order, Father Denis O'Hagan said.
   "When allegations of abuse are made against our order if they are contemporary and they are about children we will immediately inform the police."
   The church was aware Woodcock had a previous sexual assault conviction before it made him a teacher at a Wellington boys' school.
   Woodcock yesterday pleaded guilty to 21 charges of abusing 11 boys between 1978 and 1987 when he was teaching at St John's College, Hastings; St Patrick's College Silverstream; Highden, a school for young priests in Palmerston North; and Futuna, a Catholic retreat in Wellington. Thirteen charges were withdrawn.
• 2 priests' sex abuse case dismissed [1980-82] -- RCC. Benedictines. Boy.
   Tribune-Review, www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/pittsburgh/s_194600.html , By Matthew Junker Tuesday, May 18, 2004
   PENNSYLVANIA: Two priests of St. Vincent Archabbey who were sued last year by a Centre County woman over 23-year-old abuse allegations had the case against them thrown out.
   Mary Bonson, of Port Matilda, filed a civil suit in 2003 seeking damages in excess of $30,000 against the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese and Bishop Joseph V. Adamec, former Bishop James Hogan and the Benedictine Society of Westmoreland County for abuse allegedly suffered by her son, John Morrison, of State College, between 1980 and 1982.
   Westmoreland County Judge Gary P. Caruso ruled last week that the Rev. Athanasius Cherry, who is former pastor of St. Vincent Basilica, and the Rev. Andrew Campbell, currently on leave from his position as chairman of the communication department at the college, could not have intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon Bonson, even if all the allegations made were true.
• Abuse plaintiffs claim cover-up [? 1970s Janssen, Bass, Geerts] -- RCC. Boys.
   Quad-City Times, www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1028364&t=Local+News&c=2,1028364 , By Todd Ruger, Monday, May 17th, 2004
   DAVENPORT (IA): Two men who allege sexual misconduct by priests in lawsuits against the Catholic Diocese of Davenport have responded to diocese attempts to dismiss their cases with nearly 300 pages of legal arguments and church documents.
   The new court filings in Scott County District Court by plaintiffs John Doe III and James Wells call the church documents a "chilling story" of a diocese cover-up of sexual abuse more than 30 years ago by three diocese priests, including documents as recent as a February report from Bishop William Franklin.
   While the diocese claims the lawsuits should be dismissed because they were filed after the statute of limitations expired, the plaintiffs claim the diocese prevented the men from filing timely lawsuits by fraudulently concealing other abuse allegations against the priests - the Rev. James Janssen, the Rev. Francis Bass and the Rev. Theodore Geerts.
   The responses by the plaintiffs set the stage for an all-day court battle June 3 on whether the cases should continue in court.
• Diocese faces five more sex abuse lawsuits [1960s McFadden] -- RCC. Boys, Girl.
   Sioux City Journal, www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2004/05/18/news/local/eb1ed7b598abae3986256e980019ddab.txt ; By Nick Hytrek
   SIOUX CITY (IA): Five more individuals have alleged they were sexually abused by a Catholic priest in Sioux City.
   All five allege they were abused by the Rev. George M. McFadden in the early to mid 1960s while McFadden was pastor at St. Francis of Assisi parish, which is now closed.
   Each lawsuit alleges that McFadden "committed offensive and inappropriate sexual contact" with the individuals.
   Filing the lawsuits were David Huser, Michael Jordan, Sandy Jordan, Philip Boyok and Ellie Lane, formerly known as Eleanor Smith. At the time the alleged abuse occurred, the five ranged in age from under 10 to under 14, according to the lawsuits, which were filed Friday in Woodbury County District Court.
   McFadden and the Sioux City Diocese are accused of sexual abuse, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, negligent supervision and conspiracy. The lawsuits allege that the diocese knew McFadden had sexually abused boys and girls at other parishes but covered up his actions by transferring him to other churches in the diocese.
   The five said in the lawsuits that as a result of the alleged abuse, they now suffer from anxiety attacks, sleeping difficulty, nightmares, loss of self-esteem, loss of trust and withdrawal from others. They are seeking damages for past and future medical expenses, mental anguish, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and legal costs.
   Friday's filings bring the number of suits filed against McFadden and the Sioux City Diocese to 14. The previous lawsuits are similar to those filed last week. The first four lawsuits, which were filed in August and October, are scheduled for trial early next year in Sioux City.
• Catholic Panels Reach Abuse Policy Deal -- RCC.
   Mercury News, www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/8690870.htm?ERIGHTS=- 2893479441818196503mercurynews::kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM= 4nrnolomtsptrnrkkkkkkkkloo|Kathleen|Y ; By RICHARD N. OSTLING, Associated Press, Tue, May. 18, 2004
   CHICAGO (IL): The committee of U.S. Roman Catholic bishops that deals with sexual abuse reached an accord in Chicago Monday with a lay watchdog panel that monitors church reform policies, but details were not announced.
   Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a telephone interview that the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse and the lay National Review Board "came together on a proposal" and both sides are "very pleased with it."
   Illinois Appellate Justice Anne Burke of Chicago, interim chair of the review board, said the agreement "is in compliance with the charter" the bishops issued to deal with the abuse scandal in 2002, but she, too, said no details will be released till the full body of bishops meets in Denver next month.
   An angry dispute between the review board and certain bishops has threatened to disrupt reform policies. The review board insists that the 2002 charter requires audits of compliance in every U.S. diocese each year, but some bishops opposed audits in 2004 in order to discuss the whole procedure.
   In late March, Burke wrote Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Ill., president of the U.S. hierarchy, warning that delay would look like a rollback on reform.
   The agreement came from the first joint meeting between the lay review board and the bishops' committee, which is led by Archbishop Harry Flynn of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minn. Flynn's committee will present the joint proposal to the June bishops' meeting.
• Six settle in priest sex abuse lawsuit [1954-79 Convert] -- RCC. Jesuit. Males.
   Anchorage Daily News, www.adn.com/alaska/story/5084873p-5012548c.html , The Associated Press, May 18, 2004
   ALASKA: Six men have settled part of a Catholic Church abuse lawsuit that accused a now dead priest of molesting them when they were altar boys in several Western Alaska villages as long ago as 1954.
   The six men, who have not been identified, sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Northern Alaska in Fairbanks and the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus last June in Bethel Superior Court.
   The lawsuit accused the diocese and the Society of Jesus of allowing the Rev. Jules Convert to molest the children while he was working in the villages of St. Marys, Unalakleet, Holy Cross and Kaltag from 1954 to 1979.
   Convert died in France in 1995 at age 85.
   "I feel like that for these men, the acknowledgment by the Society of Jesus and particularly Father John Whitney (the Oregon provincial) that they were molested, that they are not making this up, that they were harmed ... has been incredibly healing and beneficial for them," said Kenneth Roosa, one of the lawyers representing the men.
   The dollar amount of the settlement between the six men and the Society of Jesus was not disclosed.
   But lawyers for the men said the Jesuits agreed to a monetary settlement, including paying college tuition for some of the victims' children. In addition, the settlement provides for lifetime counseling and a one-time opportunity for the victims, many of whom are Alaska Natives, to obtain vocational training in the occupation of their choice.
• Bishops, board reach accord on diocese reviews -- RCC.
   Chicago Tribune, www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0405180278may18,1,2113212.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed ; By Geneive Abdo, Tribune religion reporter, May 18, 2004
   CHICAGO (IL): A committee of Catholic bishops and a lay National Review Board agreed Monday on a proposal to audit U.S. dioceses to help keep children from being sexually abused by priests.
   The accord, agreed to during a meeting in Chicago, appeared to end months of acrimony between the bishops and the 12-member review board, appointed two years ago to clean up sex abuse by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops still must approve the proposal in its June meeting near Denver.
   Illinois Appellate Judge Anne Burke, the head of the review board who had accused the bishops of blocking the audits to save the church further embarrassment from the scandal, said the dispute has been resolved. She said she was confident the bishops will agree to the proposal at their June meeting--time enough for the audits to be conducted this year.
• Former Millville pastor is arraigned [2002 Gagnon] -- RCC. Male.
   Telegram & Gazette, http://telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040518/NEWS/405180351/1007/NEWS05 , by Kathleen A. Shaw, kshaw@telegram.com , May 18 2004
   UXBRIDGE (MA): The Rev. Jean-Paul Gagnon, former pastor of St. Augustine parish in Millville, was arraigned yesterday in District Court on one charge of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14.
   Rev. Gagnon pleaded not guilty and Judge Austin T. Philbin continued his case until June 30, releasing him on personal recognizance.
   According to District Attorney John J. Conte, the alleged incident occurred Oct. 11, 2002, in Sutton. The victim, who is an adult, has not been named, but the district attorney said he was active in St. Augustine parish. The incident on which the charge is based occurred while Rev. Gagnon was assigned to that parish.
   The allegation was investigated by state police attached to Mr. Conte's office and they brought the charge.
   Rev. Gagnon has been placed on administrative leave by the Diocese of Worcester and cannot serve as a priest.
   A number of people from the parish, some praying with rosary beads, packed the courtroom for the arraignment. Some said they were there to support the priest while others were there as interested observers from the parish.
• New support groups for abused Catholics -- RCC.
   Des Moines Register, www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040517/LIFE05/405170324/1039/LIFE ; By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE, REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR, 05/17/2004
   IOWA: Catholics who were abused by clergy are starting local chapters of a national advocacy group in the Dubuque and Sioux City dioceses.
   Iowa members of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests are handing out leaflets, holding rallies and forming support groups.
   Catholics' reaction has been mixed.
   North East Iowa SNAP members waiting outside St. Patrick Catholic Church in Cedar Falls were recognized and invited in by the Rev. James Secora. The Rev. Mark Reasoner, pastor at Visitation Catholic Church at Stacyville, instructed his flock to show the SNAP members respect and concern.
   Some parishioners offered hugs and words of support, while others shouldered their way past while refusing to make eye contact, organizers said.
   "Some people bless our efforts," said Heather Smith, a co-founder of the northeast Iowa group. "Some said they were sorry this happened to us. I met another survivor as a result of the leafleting, which was gratifying."
• Local Principal To Testify In Priest Abuse Case -- RCC.
   TheJacksonChannel.com ; www.thejacksonchannel.com/news/3314504/detail.html May 17, 2004
   JACKSON, Miss. -- The principal of a local Catholic high school will testify in a case involving the diocese of Jackson and several plaintiffs who say they were molested by priests.
   On Friday, church officials asked for an emergency hearing in order to block a subpoena which called for Principal Bill Heller to testify. Heller is the principal at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Madison.
   Plaintiffs claim Heller may have known about child molestation charges against a former teacher he hired in 2001.
   That teacher, the Rev. Jim Stein, is facing three counts of child molestation in Wisconsin.
   The group Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, is working on the case.
   We don't know what happened here, but we would like to know how he came into this diocese, what occurred during his tenure here and how he left," said SNAP spokesman Johnny Rainer.
   "The diocese of Jackson is still putting up every single road block they possibly can to keep us from knowing the truth," said Dorothy Morrison, the mother of three of the plantiffs. "We have a right to know the truth. What are they afraid of?" [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:02 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tue May 18, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont81.htm
• Vatican sinful, but so are other faiths.
   The West Australian, letter to editor from John Massam, Greenwood (Perth), sent May 18 2004
   PERTH: Sent to The Editor, "The West Australian"
   Thank you, Gavin Simpson, for your review of the book Vows of Silence; The abuse of power in the papacy of John Paul II by Jason Berry and Gerald Renner ("Belief & Beyond" 15/5)
   The saddest part of the book to me was telling of the Vatican honours for and the cover-up of Marcial Maciel, who allegedly abused seminarians of the Legion of Christ.
   Recently another book has revealed that a leader who covered up sex abuse centuries ago was also allowed to continue by the Church. He was Father Joseph Calasanz, the 17th-century Spanish priest who founded the Piarist Order, according to researcher Karen Liebreich, in her book Fallen Order, 2004 [1]
   But don't let readers imagine it is only children who are victims, or that priests, brothers, and nuns of Rome are the only offenders.
   In Britain an Evangelical Church minister has been jailed for 3 1/2 years for sexually assaulting teenage women from 1997 to 2002, a newspaper reported on May 8.
   In the United States thousands of victims of the Jehovah's Witnesses [2] are about to sue them, and the Lutherans [3] there have been ordered to pay tens of millions of dollars.
   The Anglican Church in Australia and its sister Church in Canada have faced court cases.
   In Ireland the Sisters of Mercy on May 5 apologised for decades of physical and other abuse of children in their institutions.
   In the past two years revelations from Malta, Austria, Spain, Poland, New Zealand, Africa, Canada, and the United States have pulverised the hearts of the faithful, even of religions like Judaism and Islam.
   I write these facts in case the apologists try to heap abuse on Gavin Simpson and other mass media. [sic]
   The apologists ought to read the sad stories of abuse in the daily Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker on the Internet, and ponder over the cover-up, the legal tricks, and the ongoing payments to sex-abuse criminals. The money for all this comes out of the pockets/purses of religious people.
   [REFERENCES (added for Web):
[1] "Saint who covered up for child abusers," The Guardian, Britain, Apr 15, 04, http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1192267,00.html
[2] "Jehovah's Witnesses Hold Sex Abuse Caucus", (6000 complaints) Kansas City Star, Associated Press, ~ Mar 29, 04; and "Jehovah's Witnesses join the U.S. religions facing key molestation cases", www.projo.com/ap/ne/1080857602.htm , The Providence Journal, April 1 2004
[3] "Lutheran synod loses abuse case," [$36m, and $32m] www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/042304dntexlutheran.14e3cac07.html ; Denton Record-Chronicle, Texas, April 22, 2004. END.] [Letter sent May 18, 04]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Wed May 19, 2004 edition follows:-
• False testimony, ruined lives -- RCC Priest cleared, too. France flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   News 24, www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1529347,00.html , 19/May/2004
   SAINT-OMER, France - False testimony, ruined lives: the trial of 17 people charged with gang raping children in northern France has erupted, with two defendants admitting they lied and exonerating 13 of the accused.
   Myriam Delay, the woman at the centre of what was thought to be a massive child prostitution ring based at her home in Outreau outside the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, cracked late on Tuesday, recanting her version of events.
   "I'm sick, I'm a liar, I lied about everything! Why? Because I went along with the children," she told the court in Saint-Omer, provoking sobs from the shell-shocked defendants' bench.
   "Roselyne, you didn't do anything!" she said to the neighborhood baker, subsequently addressing several of the accused by name to clear them of all wrongdoing.
   Delay, her husband Thierry and 15 others went on trial two weeks ago for the gang rape over a five-year period of 18 children - aged three to 12 at the time - in a case that shocked the nation.
   Some of the defendants, aged 24 to 67, were also charged with committing torture and barbaric acts during the alleged sex sessions that took place in the Delay apartment in a rundown housing block in Outreau.
   One of the accused committed suicide in prison before the case came to trial.
   Delay and her husband have admitted to raping their own four children, but claimed their children and other area youths had been passed around for sex among other members of the community, including a bailiff and a priest. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:21 PM]
• France child sex case in disarray
   BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3729049.stm
   FRANCE: The trial of 13 people in northern France on charges of child rape has been thrown into disarray after two of the defendants admitted they lied.
   Seventeen people, including the local priest, are on trial accused of raping 18 children over a five-year period.
   One couple has admitted raping their own children - another couple has also confessed to abusing the same children.
   But now the two women have told the court they lied when they implicated the other 13 people.
   The children - aged three to 12 at the time of the alleged abuse - had given supporting evidence, naming other individuals allegedly involved, but much of it was found to be inconsistent.
• Priest Faces Sex Charge [2002 Liberatore] -- RCC. Male.
   WNEP, www.wnep.com/Global/story.asp?S=1876352&nav=5ka4NDIa , By Megan Dardanell, Tuesday, May 18, 2004
   PENNSYLVANIA: Another Catholic priest in our area is facing charges. Investigators said Tuesday the victim is a 17 year old who claims he was sexually molested at a local university. The suspect is a well-known priest who has served in Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties and taught at the University of Scranton. Now Father Al Liberatore is accused of indecent assault and corruption of a teenage boy.
   The Diocese of Scranton has removed Father Liberatore from ministry, including his position at the University of Scranton. A spokes person for the diocese said he won't be able to serve in a Catholic church at least until the case is resolved. Meanwhile, authorities said the priest will likely face more charges.
   Court papers said it happened on the University of Scranton campus at Saint Thomas Hall two years ago wen the young man was 17. Students are shocked. Joe Hartmann said he's disappointed. "(It's) something you try not to think about, but when it's thrown in your face, there's really not much (you) can do but deal with it. (You) hope for the best and hope it's a misunderstanding," said senior Hartman.
• Effort to extend statute of limitations for child abuse lawsuits fails in Tallahassee -- > 10,000 claims against 4,392 RC priests.
   Naples Daily News, www.naplesnews.com/npdn/news/article/0,2071,NPDN_14940_2889709,00.html , By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, aszagier@naplesnews.com , May 16, 2004
   FLORIDA: For the second consecutive year, state lawmakers have rejected a proposal to allow more victims of childhood sex abuse to sue their abusers.
   The proposed law sought to extend by eight years the age limit for abuse victims to file civil lawsuits. Under current law, victims must lodge legal complaints by age 25 or within four years after discovering a psychological injury or other illness caused by the abuse, whichever is later.
   The bill won approval in the state Senate's Criminal Justice Committee on a 7-1 vote but died without even a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Jeff Kottkamp, R-Cape Coral. The Legislature adjourned April 30.
   The bill's House sponsor, Rep. Anne Gannon, D-Delray Beach, blamed its failure on lobbying by the Florida Catholic Conference, which represents the state's seven Roman Catholic dioceses.
   "These are the people who are supposed to be protecting our children," she said, a reference to widely publicized reform efforts following a rash of child abuse accusations against priests nationwide over the past two years.
   A report released earlier this year by the U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops found more than 10,000 abuse claims against 4,392 Catholic priests from 1950 to 2002. Those claims peaked in the 1970s and '80s, the report found.
• The cover-up continues -- RCC.
   National Catholic Reporter, http://natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives2/2004b/052104/052104y.htm , for May 21 2004
   UNITED STATES: Two years ago, at their meeting in Dallas, the U.S. bishops pledged a new era of accountability and openness. As part of that process, they empanelled a group of prominent lay people -- leaders in their respective fields of business, government, academia, law and the nonprofit sector -- and charged them with the task of investigating the causes of the clergy sex abuse crisis and reporting on their findings.
   Further, the National Review Board was asked to oversee the work of the newly created Office of Child and Youth Protection, the mission of which was to see that the church’s nearly 200 U.S. dioceses implemented the child-protection programs promised by the bishops’ conference.
   The board’s work has been exemplary. They hired a top-notch professional to administer the Office of Child and Youth Protection, oversaw audits that demonstrated that nearly every U.S. diocese had begun the process of complying with the child-protection policies enacted by the national bishops’ conference, and produced two reports that have furthered our understanding of the clergy sex abuse crisis.
   Amazingly for a church so divided, the board’s work has been praised by Catholic liberals, moderates and conservatives.
   Now, as NCR’s reporting demonstrates (see related story), the entire effort is endangered. A good number of bishops want to declare victory and move on. We shouldn’t be surprised.
• Parishioners, clergy mourn priest -- RCC. Boys.
   The Press-Enterprise, www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_covas19.ed56.html , By MICHAEL FISHER, Wednesday, May 19, 2004
   SAN BERNARDINO (CA): Hymns of hope and reverence echoed through Our Lady of Rosary Cathedral on Tuesday as hundreds of mourners bid farewell to the Rev. Peter Covas, who died last week after 44 years of ministering to Inland Catholics.
   Beloved and praised by tearful parishioners, the 73-year-old priest, remembered for his gentle nature, struggled in his waning years with chronic health problems and accusations that had he sexually abused two boys in the 1970s.
   The allegations had led Bishop Gerald Barnes to remove Covas from St. Peter and St. Paul Catholic Church in Rancho Cucamonga in April 2002. A yearlong criminal investigation ended when prosecutors announced in April 2003 that they would not file charges against the cleric.
   Covas, who spent much of the past five months in hospitals, was reinstated by Barnes as a retired priest in good standing in mid-April. Covas died May 9 at an Upland hospital where he had been for five days.
• Founder of Community Church faces trial for sex with a minor [1999-2002 Ellison] -- "Community Church". Girl.
   Virginian-Pilot, Henrico County pastor faces trial for sex with a minor , http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=70527&ran=138775 , Associated Press, © May 19, 2004
   RICHMOND (VA): A Henrico County minister has been charged with sexually molesting a teenage girl who was formerly in his custody.
   The Rev. Joseph F. Ellison, 42, was indicted by a Henrico County Circuit Court grand jury Monday on one count of aggravated sexual battery and four counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor.
   Ellison, founder of Essex Village Community Church in Henrico County, was arrested in December after Henrico police investigated a child-abuse complaint referred to authorities by the Henrico Department of Social Services.
   Ellison initially was charged in December with five counts, but those charges were dismissed when prosecutors decided to seek a direct indictment rather than proceed with a preliminary hearing.
   Authorities say the abuse took place over a four-year period starting in 1999. Ellison has since relinquished custody of the girl.
• Former teacher says LI priest abused her [1965 Sheehan] -- RCC. Woman.
   Newsday, www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liabus193808931may19,0,3582720.story?coll=ny-liminute-headlines ; BY RITA CIOLLI, May 19, 2004
   LONG ISLAND (NY): A former Catholic school teacher alleged yesterday at a news conference that she was raped by a Long Island priest in 1965 after accepting a ride home from a party. The priest, who has been suspended from ministry because of her complaint, said they had sex, but it was consensual.
   Anne Tucker, 66, said the Rev. Augustine Sheehan was driving her home after a party for Irish immigrants in Stony Brook. The priest pulled over, then sexually attacked her, she said. Tucker said she was too ashamed to tell anyone, but after having physical pain for about two weeks, her school principal offered to drive her to Huntington Hospital, where she received treatment. Tucker said that when she recently sought her medical records, she learned a "D&C" that would have prevented a pregnancy was performed.
   Sheehan labeled the former nun's charge as "extortion" yesterday in a telephone interview and said nothing happened on that ride. About a month later, he said, the two had sex on a beach. He said they may have had sex another night after a "wild party," but he didn't remember.
   Tucker said she came forward after the abuse scandal made headlines, thinking people would now believe her. After Tucker's allegation was made to the Diocese of Rockville Centre in the spring of 2002, Sheehan was placed on administrative leave. In a written statement yesterday, the diocese said it placed her case before a review board of lay people which "recommended to Bishop [William] Murphy that Fr. Sheehan should remain on administrative leave." A spokeswoman declined to answer more questions.
• Priest sentenced to eight years for sex abuse convictions [1970s Hargadon] -- RCC. Boys.
   Lexington Herald-Leader, www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/8704143.htm , Associated Press, Wed, May. 19, 2004
   LEITCHFIELD, Ky. - A Roman Catholic priest will serve eight years in prison after being convicted on charges that he sexually molested two boys 30 years ago.
   The Rev. James Hargadon, of Louisville, was formally sentenced Tuesday. He was found guilty by a Grayson Circuit Court jury last month.
   Hargadon showed no emotion when the sentence was announced.
   Neither of his victims attended the sentencing. In a telephone interview with the Courier-Journal of Louisville, victim John Kaelin said he didn't think eight years was enough, "but it's better than nothing."
   Hargadon, 76, was convicted on two counts of indecent or immoral practices with another.
   The victims, Lawrence Thompson, 44, of Louisville and Kaelin, 43, of Waxahachie, Texas, testified during the trial that Hargadon befriended them while they were students at St. Polycarp School in Pleasure Ridge Park, where Hargadon was pastor.
• Senate eyes hundreds of amendments during budget debate [Geoghan] -- RCC. Boy.
   Providence Journal, www.projo.com/ap/ne/1085000859.htm , By STEVE LeBLANC, Associated Press Writer, 05.19.2004
   BOSTON (MA) (AP) - Senate lawmakers launched their budget debate Wednesday, swiftly approving a measure to create a new independent inspector general's office within the State Police to oversee the Department of Correction.
   The proposal, sponsored by Sen. Jarrett Barrios, D-Cambridge, is a response to the jailhouse killing of defrocked priest John J. Geoghan, a key figure in the clergy sexual abuse crisis. He was serving a nine- to 10-year sentence for molesting a 10-year-old boy.
   An investigation into the murder faulted the Department of Correction for systemic problems and abuses and found problems in the inmate disciplinary process, training and supervision of staff, and internal investigations.
   The new inspector general's office would conduct independent investigations into allegations of abuse by Department of Correction employees.
   The office would also conduct independent audits and reviews of disciplinary procedures used by the department. It would protect whistleblowers within the department by investigating claims of retaliation against those individuals.
• Convicted pedophile priest marries in prison [Porter] -- RCC.
   In-Forum, www.in-forum.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D82LNR3G0 , The Associated Press, Wednesday, May 19, 2004
   BRIDGEWATER, Mass.: Former priest James Porter, a convicted pedophile who once lived in Minnesota and is now awaiting trial on the state's bid to keep him locked up indefinitely as a sexually dangerous person, got married in prison this week.
   Porter married Anne Milner, a former nun he met more than 40 years ago while he was a young seminarian. The two met again three years ago after Milner wrote him a letter in prison.
   Porter, 69, was convicted in 1993 of sexually abusing 28 children. Although he completed his prison sentence in January, Porter has remained in custody while state prosecutors seek to have him committed.
   Last month, following a two-week hearing, a judge in Taunton Superior Court ruled that there is enough evidence to hold a trial on the state's request.
   Milner attended every day of Porter's hearing, sporting a sapphire and diamond engagement ring.
   Porter and Milner were married Monday in a civil ceremony before a justice of the peace at the Massachusetts Treatment Center for sex offenders in Bridgewater, where he is being held. [Emphasis added.]
• Abuse drama benefit to aid survivors -- RCC.
   Boston Herald, http://theedge.bostonherald.com/artsNews/view.bg?articleid=28410 , By Herald Staff, Wednesday, May 19, 2004
   ARLINGTON (MA): The Bailiwick Repertory Theater of Chicago announced yesterday it will raise money to aid sexual-abuse survivors and their families when it brings its production of "Sin: A Cardinal Deposed" to Arlington's Regent Theatre next month.
   Michael Murphy's acclaimed docudrama, based on Bernard Cardinal Law's testimony in the clergy sex-abuse case, runs at the Regent June 9-27. At a benefit performance June 14, the company hopes to raise more than $10,000 for three survivor-aid groups, including the Boston-based Survivors First . Murphy will attend a pre-show reception and post-show discussion.
   Company manager Mark Steel said Bailiwick is bringing the play to Boston because of the overwhelming response "Sin" has gotten from abuse survivors: "We came to know that we had a far greater responsibility than just making compelling and informative theater. We had an obligation to give voice to their pain."
• Trial date set for pastor [Hollingsworth] -- Woman.
   The Hawk Eye, www.thehawkeye.com/daily/stories/ln5_0518.html , By DOROTHY de SOUZA GUEDES, dotdsg@thehawkeye.com , May 18 2004
   IOWA: A trial date has been set in the sexual abuse case against a former Danville pastor accused of having a sexual relationship with a woman he counseled for emotional and marital problems.
   Harry Frederick Hollingsworth Sr., 57, filed a written arraignment and plea of not guilty Monday to the charge of Class D felony sexual abuse by a counselor or therapist.
   Hollingsworth currently gives his address as a parsonage in Hubbard, Texas, where he was working as a pastor. Since the charge was filed, however, he has been dismissed by church leaders and evicted from the parsonage. He did not appear in Des Moines County to enter his plea.
   Hollings-worth also did not waive his right to a speedy trial and by law is entitled to a trial within 90 days of the filing of trial information, which was May 4. He also is seeking a jury trial.
   District Judge R. David Fahey scheduled a jury trial for Aug. 3 and a final pretrial conference for July 19.
• Danson Joins Showtime's Our Fathers; Telepic examines the sexual abuse scandal that erupted inside the U.S.'s Roman Catholic Church. -- RCC.
   FilmStew.com (Daily entertainment news); www.filmstew.com/Content/DailyNews/Details.asp?ContentID=8728&Pg=1 , By Lisa Johnson, Wednesday, May 19, 2004
   LOS ANGELES (CA): The family of Showtime's Our Fathers is expanding, with Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor Ted Danson joining the cast of the film version of David France's bestseller about the Roman Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal.
   Danson will play Mitchell Garabedian, the bold and compassionate Boston lawyer who takes on the local Archdiocese as the attorney for some of the first victims of molestation to have the courage to speak out.
   Danson joins Brian Dennehy, who will play no-nonsense, straight-talking, Father Domenic "Spags" Spagnolia who finds himself on the defensive when he tries to work from within the Church, and Tony and Emmy-winning stage and screen actor Christopher Plummer - who will portray Boston's controversial Cardinal Bernard Law in the film. Production is slated to begin June 21 in Toronto and Boston.
• Urrutigoity wears vestments in photo selling holy book on internet [Plus Ensey] -- RCC.
   Times Leader, www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/8698809.htm , By MARK GUYDISH, markg@leader.net , Wed, May. 19, 2004
   SCRANTON (PA): Despite orders from the Diocese of Scranton banning him from publicly wearing priestly garb, an area priest accused of sexual misconduct with young boys is pictured in full vestments in a new children's prayer book. The Rev. Carlos Urrutigoity appears on page seven in "A Child's Missal," a book developed and posted on the Internet by a company called Patmos Inc., which has ties to a priestly society founded by Urrutigoity.
   Urrutigoity and the Rev. Eric Ensey are fighting a lawsuit accusing them of molesting a young man while he was a junior at St. Gregory's Academy in Elmhurst, where the two priests were initially assigned as they established the Society of St. John, now located in Shohola, Pike County.
   Allegations of sexual misconduct by the two surfaced in 2001. In January 2002, then-Bishop James Timlin relieved both men of priestly duties and ordered them not to appear in public in priest clothing.
   Yet in the new book, Urrutigoity is pictured wearing the vestments of a priest in front of an altar. The book isn't finished, but the first eight pages are available on the Patmos Web site.
   Diocese spokeswoman Maria Orzel said she knew nothing of the new book, but said Urrutigoity violated the ban if he posed for the picture after January 2002.
   Orzel noted that the picture could have been taken before the ban, and said she did not know if publication of an older picture would violate that ban.
• Accused priest taught in Miss. [1988 Stein] -- RCC.
   Clarion-Ledger, www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040519/NEWS01/405190366/1002 , By Jimmie E. Gates, jgates@clarionledger.com , May 19, 2004
   MISSISSIPPI: A Catholic priest taught classes at St. Joseph High School in Madison in 2001-2002 while facing allegations of sexual abuse in Wisconsin, according to documents filed in a Hinds County lawsuit.
   Details of pending charges against the Rev. Jim Stein were given during the Tuesday deposition of St. Joseph High School Principal Bill Heller, where the school official discussed Stein's employment and subsequent departure in April 2002.
   Stein isn't accused of abusing any Mississippi children. His transfer to St. Joseph while facing sexual misconduct allegations in another state shows a continued pattern of transferring instead of removing such priests, say plaintiffs in a $36 million lawsuit filed against the Catholic Diocese of Jackson.
   The church says in a statement that when the Catholic Diocese learned of the allegations against Stein in April 2002, he was fired and sent back to Wisconsin. The alleged assault involved a minor and occurred in Wisconsin in 1988.
   Stein is facing three charges of sexual assault in Wisconsin. He is scheduled for trial Aug. 31, according to the Green Bay Press Gazette. He was also convicted in 1991 of a misdemeanor sexual offense involving a male, according to the newspaper.
• DA says the diocese handled it right [2002 Liberatore] -- RCC.
   Scranton Times Tribune, www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11714791&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=416046&rfi=6 , By Chris Birk, 05/19/2004
   SCRANTON (PA): The Diocese of Scranton began investigating second-hand accusations of sexual misconduct by the Rev. Albert M. Liberatore four months before local authorities were alerted, officials said on Tuesday.
   Lackawanna County District Attorney Andy Jarbola said the delay was justified -- it wasn't until earlier this month that the alleged victim, now 19, came forward with a written statement.
   "Initially, they still took the steps necessary to get to the bottom of it," Mr. Jarbola said of the diocese. "They turned it over to us in a timely fashion, which led to the arrest (Monday) night."
   The authorities would have been notified at the outset if the claims had come directly from the alleged victim, diocese spokeswoman Maria Orzel said.
   "This case was much more complicated," she said. "Verifiable information was collected and was immediately presented to local law enforcement authorities."
   The Rev. Liberatore, 40, was arraigned on misdemeanor charges of indecent assault and corrupting a minor. The diocesan priest and University of Scranton religion professor has denied charges he abused a 17-year-old boy from May to June 2002.
• Judge Refuses To Toss Child Rape Charge [1980-84 Gale] -- RCC.
   TheBostonChannel.com ; www.thebostonchannel.com/news/3321582/detail.html , May 19, 2004
   BOSTON (MA): A Middlesex Superior Court judge refused to throw out a child rape charge against a former Roman Catholic priest, saying a jury should decide whether or not he was indicted after the statute of limitations for his alleged crime had expired.
   The Rev. Robert V. Gale was indicted in August on charges that he repeatedly raped an altar boy at St. Jude's parish in Waltham, Mass., between 1980 and 1984. The boy, who was between 10 and 14 years old at the time of the alleged crimes, was molested by Gale about twice a month, prosecutors have said.
   Gale said the charges should be thrown out of court because they were filed after the 15-year statute of limitations for rape had expired.
   But prosecutors said that Gale had moved to New Hampshire in the interim, and by moving out of state he had temporarily stopped the clock ticking on the statute of limitations.
   Gale countered that he was just visiting his sister in New Hampshire, and was actually living in Boston.
• Murder probe pressed against ex-priest [Lavigne] -- RCC.
   Boston Globe, www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/05/19/prosecutors_press_murder_probe_against_former_priest ; By Kevin Cullen, May 19, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): In what prosecutors say is proof that they are still building a murder case against a defrocked priest, State Police searched the former priest's home twice last month looking for evidence in the 1972 slaying of a Springfield altar boy, court records show.
   Television and newspaper accounts last month noted that police on April 8 searched the Chicopee home of Richard R. Lavigne, a convicted child molester and recently defrocked priest, and removed computer equipment, but it was unclear at the time why the searches had occurred. An affidavit filed last week by the State Police detective leading the investigation into the killing of 13-year-old Daniel Croteau was the first confirmation that police searched Lavigne's home twice within two days, and that both searches were part of the murder probe.
   Whether there is still an active investigation of Lavigne for Croteau's slaying is at the heart of a legal tug of war pitting people who say Lavigne abused them and want the homicide files made public, and those who want the records to remain sealed -- Lavigne's lawyer and Hampden District Attorney William M. Bennett. The Supreme Judicial Court is weighing the matter, in which The Republican newspaper of Springfield is also a party, pressing for the records' release.
   In a May 12 affidavit filed with the SJC, Detective Lieutenant Peter J. Higgins, commander of the State Police unit assigned to Bennett's office, wrote that police first searched Lavigne's home April 6, looking for "specific evidence believed to be related to the murder of Daniel Croteau."
   Higgins wrote that "as a result of evidence acquired" in the first search, police returned to Superior Court Judge Constance M. Sweeney, who approved a second search warrant, during which police seized the computer equipment. Sweeney impounded the application for the search warrants, the affidavits listing the reasons police say they needed them, and the document listing what police seized.
• Scandal on Showtime
   Boston Globe, www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/140/living/Scandal_on_Showtime+.shtml
   BOSTON (MA): Big-name actors are being cast for the first made-for-TV movie about the sexual-abuse scandal in the US Roman Catholic Church.
   Ted Danson will play lawyer Mitchell Garabedian in "Our Fathers," Showtime's adaptation of David France's book "Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal," according to The Hollywood Reporter.
   Garabedian is the Boston lawyer who took on the local archdiocese as the attorney for some of the first victims of molestation to speak out. Danson joins Christopher Plummer, who will play Cardinal Bernard Law, and Brian Dennehy, who will play the Rev. Domenic "Spags" Spagnolia.
   "Who could ask for more in a movie than a triumvirate of the most acclaimed and revered actors of stage, screen, and television brought together to bring life to these characters of extraordinary depth and resonance?" Showtime Networks entertainment president Robert Greenblatt told The Hollywood Reporter.
   "Our Fathers" will be directed by Dan Curtis ("War and Remembrance," "Dark Shadows") from a script by Thomas Michael Donnelly ("Quicksilver," "A Soldier's Sweetheart"). Production is slated to begin on June 21, with shooting in Toronto and Boston.
• Bishops to allow auditing on abuse -- RCC.
   Boston Globe, www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/140/nation/Bishops_to_allow_auditing_on_abuse+.shtml , By Kevin Eckstrom, Religion News Service, 5/19/2004
   CHICAGO (IL): Under public pressure from a lay advisory board, Catholic bishops have agreed not to delay plans for a second round of audits that will gauge the church's compliance with sexual abuse policy changes.
   At a meeting in Chicago on Monday, the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse agreed to propose additional audits to be completed before year's end when the bishops gather at a private retreat next month in Denver.
   Illinois Appellate Justice Anne Burke, chairwoman of the appointed National Review Board, said her panel was given assurances that the approval for the audits will not be delayed until November, as some conservative bishops had wanted.
   "They believe it will go forward," Burke said in an interview, "but you can never say anything for sure."
   For now, Burke has only assurances from the sexual abuse committee. When the bishops meet next month, they could decide to reject both proposals and put off any decisions until their regular business meeting in November.
   "What their proposals ultimately will be, I don't know, but this was the concept we agreed to," she said.
   Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the exact proposal will not be disclosed until the bishops' retreat, but said both sides are "very happy" with what will be presented.
   Burke said the package will also include a proposal to launch a multiyear, "comprehensive study of the causes and contexts" of the abuse crisis, which was part of the policy changes agreed to by the bishops in 2002. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:58 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wed May 19, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont81.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Thu May 20, 2004 edition follows:-
• Kerry hit by new threat in abortion row with bishops -- RCC.
   Independent, http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=523320 , By Rupert Cornwell in Washington, for May 21 2004
   WASHINGTON (DC): John Kerry's support of abortion rights has dragged the Democratic candidate into an increasingly politicised feud within the Roman Catholic church, with some senior church figures demanding that priests deny communion to him and all other pro-abortion Catholics.
   Yesterday, 48 Democratic members of Congress who are Catholics wrote to the Archbishop of Washington DC, complaining that the threats by bishops to withhold communion were counterproductive, and dragging the church into a political quagmire.
   The debate threatens to re-open tensions that appeared to have been laid to rest when John F Kennedy won the 1960 election to become the first Catholic president in US history. But that victory was secured only after Mr Kennedy publicly declared his allegiance lay to the US and its constitution, not to a foreign-based church. ...
   There is a wider risk too, that the dispute will further sully the reputation of a church tarnished by the scandal over sexual abuse by Catholic priests. "This will alienate a great many Catholics," Leslie Tentler, a professor at Catholic University said. "It plays into the oldest stereotype, which is that Catholics can't think for themselves." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:07 PM]
• Two lawsuits accuse priest of abuse [Straub] -- RCC.
   Kansas City Star, www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/8715440.htm?1c , By JIM SALTER, Associated Press
   ST. LOUIS (MO): Lawsuits filed Thursday accuse a St. Louis-area priest of sexually abusing two boys, one in the 1970s, the other in the 1980s. Meanwhile, the leader of an organization that aids victims of abuse by priests believes there were other victims.
   Both lawsuits allege abuse by the Rev. Donald Straub - known as "Father Duck."
   David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP], said at least six other people have said they also were abused by Straub, 55, who now lives with relatives in St. Louis County.
   Straub's current occupation is unknown.
   "Our concern is that tonight he may be baby-sitting his next-door neighbor's kids," Clohessy said. "A change of occupation does not cure a child molester."
   In addition to Straub, both lawsuits name the Archdiocese of St. Louis and Archbishop Raymond Burke. Straub did not return a phone call seeking an interview. A spokesman for the archdiocese declined comment.
• Straight Guy With The Catholic Eye -- RCC.
   CruxNews, www.cruxnews.com/abbott/abbott-21may04.html , by Matt C. Abbott, for May 21 2004
   WATERVLIET (NY): Mea Culpa -- In a previous column regarding the allegations of abuse and even murder at St. Colman’s Home for boys and girls in Watervliet, New York, I stated that St. Colman’s "housed children who suffered from mental and emotional problems."
   That statement turned out to be inaccurate. I received e-mails from former St. Colman’s orphans who asserted otherwise. One gentleman told me, "St. Colman’s was a dumping place for kids who were not wanted. This did not make us in any way retarded. We just were not wanted, and that is why the nuns could do anything they wanted. Who were we going to tell? We had no one…."
   I’m sorry. And I pray that justice will be served.
• So, let's not be shocked, okay? CIA paid to experiment on "orphans". RCC. Canada flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   CANADA: CruxNews, www.cruxnews.com/ftm/ftm-21may04.html , May 21 2004
   At about the same time as Cockburn was writing this piece, The Wanderer was exploring the same issue, involving Dr. Cameron, for his role in the CIA-funded sex abuse experiments on thousands of Catholic "orphans", in an effort to determine the relationship between sex-abuse, torture and mind-control.
   More than 5,000 poor children, known as the "Duplessis orphans," were turned over to Catholic orphanages by their parents, who were promised they would receive a "good education."
   But the children were turned over to psychiatrists and, according to Christine Hahn in "How Psychiatry Used Quebec's Orphans as Guinea Pigs," were "falsely declared mentally ill or severely retarded and warehoused...in psychiatric hospitals.....
   Some of the Orphans interned at St. Jean-de-Dieu Hospital remember being treated by Ewen Cameron, the psychiatrist who conducted appalling and inhuman experiments on human subjects at Allan Memorial Institute of McGill University as part of the notorious 'mind-control' programs of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency from the late 1940s through the early- to mid-1960s....
   "Michel Lebel, a former Montreal police officer who specialized in investigating cases against children, said the crimes against the Orphans went far beyond drugging and physical abuse. Lebel has discovered unexplained deaths of hundreds of Orphans and many examples of bogus paperwork in their cases.
   "When children died, he explained, as yet unidentified persons within the psychiatric system simply came up with phony new identities, fabricating records to replace those deceased so funding could continue. 'Some of these kids died and were reborn 10 times,' said Lebel, now a freelance journalist.
   "Compounding such deception in cases of those who died, he said, is the longtime maltreatment of survivors. According to Lebel, 'This was an organized crime against humanity.'"
• Anglican Church 'has been shamed' -- Anglicans.
   The Advertiser, "Church 'has been shamed'," www.theadvertiser.news.com. au/common/story_ page/0,5936,9616931% 255E2682,00.html , By NIGEL HUNT, May 21 04
   AUSTRALIA: ALLEGATIONS of sexual abuse and pedophile networks operating in the Anglican Church have "shamed the church", says Archbishop Ian George.
   In his strongest statements yet on the sexual abuse scandal that enveloped the church a year ago, Archbishop George says he "continues to be appalled by the tragic behaviour inflicted upon some young people by adults whom they had come to respect as church leaders".
   "This abuse by a few people could never be regarded as acceptable Christian behaviour and has shamed the church in the eyes of those young people, their families and the wider community," he states in his report to the Synod of the Diocese of Adelaide, which will be delivered tomorrow.
   In the report, obtained by The Advertiser, Archbishop George details measures aimed at screening those working in the church, reconciliation for victims of abuse and the financial effect the allegations have had on the diocese.
   Archbishop George says he was heartened at the speed with which Police Commissioner Mal Hyde moved to set up the Pedophile Task Force "following suggestions last year that there may have been a national pedophile network operating through CEBS (Church of England Boys Society)".
   "I understand that the task force no longer believes that there was any national network," he states
• Tucson bishop heading to Rome to meet pope -- diocese facing 18 cases. RCC. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Vatican City flag; Mooney's MiniFlags
   AZCentral.com ; www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0520ChurchAbuse20-ON.html , Associated Press, May. 20, 2004
   TUCSON (AZ): The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson's ongoing woes with sexual-abuse lawsuits will be among the subjects Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas is expected to address when he heads to the Vatican next week.
   The trip is part of a centuries-old tradition called an "ad limina" that a bishop of a diocese is required to make every five years to Rome.
   Kicanas is expected to have a 15-minute visit with Pope John Paul II and the bishop anticipates the sexual-abuse crisis in the American Catholic Church will come up during the meeting.
   "I'm sure he's aware of it, but I will share that it's challenging and that we are trying very hard to heal the past and restore trust," Kicanas said of the crisis of clergy abusing boys that affected dioceses across the country, including the Tucson diocese. "Especially as we look to the future, to see this situation never repeats itself."
   The diocese is facing 18 pending civil actions that allege sexual abuse by clergy.
• Lawyer: More deaf students claim abuse
   The Enterprise, http://enterprise.southofboston.com/articles/2004/05/20/news/news/news03.txt By Maureen Call, May 20 2004
   RANDOLPH (MA): Since charges of physical and sexual abuse by nuns at the now-closed Boston School for the Deaf in Randolph were filed last week, the attorney handling the cases said he has received numerous calls from other deaf students claiming they were also abused.
   "Many more people are coming forward," said Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who filed suit for nine plaintiffs in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston last week. "I've gotten calls from all over the country."
   Garabedian, who represents 31 deaf people who claim they were abused from 1944 to 1977 at the school, plans to file more suits in the near future. He also expects to take on more cases from the new calls he has received.
   Garabedian would not say how many more people have come forward with claims and would not disclose the nature of the new claims until he finishes investigating claims.
   "Many of the new cases also involve sexual and/or physical abuse," he said. "It's a very sad situation."
   Last week, Garabedian filed suit on behalf of six men and three women who say they were abused while students at the school. The former students claim the abuse ranged from physical punishment to rape.
   According to court documents, some had their heads jammed in toilets while others were locked in dark closets for long periods of time.
• A call to serve -- RCC.
   Dodge City Daily Globe, www.dodgeglobe.com/stories/052004/loc_0520040024.shtml , By Rebecca Aistrup Gerber, May 20 04
   DODGE CITY (KS): Deacon Wesley Schawe stands in front of the crucifix at Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadaloupe. Schawe will be ordained as a priest at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the church.
   When Wesley Schawe graduated from Dodge City High School in 1995 he had no idea eight years later he would become a priest in the Dodge City Diocese.
   But on Saturday, Deacon Schawe and Deacon Trong Binh Tran will be ordained as priests at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadaloupe, Dodge City.
   After graduating from DCHS Schawe attended Kansas State University where he graduated in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and communication.
   But he always felt there was something more he should be doing. In fact he began to realize this while doing an internship the summer between his junior and senior year, in Kansas City. ...
   In recent years the Catholic church has been put in the national spot light from abortions, to sexual abuse among priests. But Schawe said that has not deterred him from becoming a priest.
   "The whole image of the church has been transformed since I have been in the seminary," Schawe said. "I have had reporters ask me if this deterred me from becoming a priest, but to me it is all more reason to become a priest.
   The thing that will come out of this is every single person is important. This crisis as bad as it is may be, may lead to parishes being more faithful to the church, which is something the church needs -- to be faithful and show good things in the church."
• Milner, Porter exchange wedding vows -- child molester enters matrimony. RCC.
   Herald News, www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11757008&BRD=1710&PAG=461&dept_id=99784&rfi=6 , By GREGG M. MILIOTE, 05/20/2004
   BRIDGEWATER (MA): On the day when thousands of same-sex couples were celebrating their right to marry legally in the Bay State, another intriguing marriage was getting under way at the Massachusetts Treatment Center.
   Convicted child molester and former Diocese of Fall River priest James Porter tied the knot with his longtime friend and fiancé Anne Milner. The couple was married by a justice of the peace Monday afternoon.
   "I’m 900 miles above cloud nine right now," said the new Mrs. Porter. "I’m just ecstatic."
   Anne Porter said the couple chose the date months ago, not realizing the historic significance of the date in Massachusetts.
   She said James Porter was dressed to the nines in black pants and a white collared shirt, while she strolled down the makeshift aisle in a blue dress.
• Perv Porter is wedded to ex-nun -- RCC.
   Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=28632 , By Robin Washington, Thursday, May 20, 2004
   BRIDGEWATER (MA): They married on Monday after two years of waiting and an attraction they traced back nearly a half-century, when marriage between them would have been impossible.
   But not due to gender; rather, because she was a nun then and he a priest - one whose name would become synonymous with the church sex abuse scandal.
   Yesterday, his bride said she was proud to take that name. "I left here as Anne Milner and I came back Mrs. James Porter," said the new wife of the convicted pedophile ex-priest, who has completed his sentence but remains held pending a trial to determine his dangerousness.
   The significance of their wedding date at the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater was not lost on her.
   "It was a landmark date (but) that date was chosen by us way before (same-sex marriages were legalized)," she said, adding she has loved Porter since meeting him 46 years ago.
• Convicted Pedophile Marries [Porter] -- RCC.
   WWLP, www.wwlp.com/news2004/story.html?artID=51348
   BRIDGEWATER, Massachusetts (WWLP) - Former Baystate priest and convicted pedophile James Porter has married a former nun. Porter first met Anne Milner more than 40 years ago while he was a young seminarian. The 2 met again 3 years ago after Milner wrote him a letter in prison. The 2 were married by a justice of the peace on Monday at the Massachusetts treatment center for sexual offenders in Bridgewater. Porter is being held there while he awaits a trial on the state’s bid to keep him locked up indefinitely as a sexually dangerous person.
• A telling book about clergy sex abuse [Porter, Holley] -- RCC.
   National Catholic Reporter, http://natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives2/2004b/052104/052104ssa.php , Reviewed by KATHY SHAW, May 21 2004
   UNITED STATES: Just when you thought everything had been written about the current sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church, along comes Newsweek writer David France to share even more details.
   His new book, Our Fathers, reveals among other things that the money used in the 1990s to settle the many lawsuits brought against the small and poor Fall River, Mass., diocese due to sexual abuse allegations made against former priest James Porter came not from the diocese or insurance companies but from an unknown outside source who wished to save the Catholic church from further exposure.
   Eric MacLeish, the Boston lawyer who represented Porter’s alleged victims, said that a telephone call at 3 a.m. woke him out of a sound sleep. He asked the "heavily accented" caller why he was picking such a time. "It is daylight already here," was the answer.
   The caller asked if $2 million would settle the lawsuits. MacLeish responded that he would mention the offer to his clients. A few days went by and a similar call came, but this time the offer was five times the first one. "He wished to see an end to the pillorying of the church," France writes. He questions whether the donor was from the Vatican or the Knights of Malta, a Catholic organization, but MacLeish admitted he had no idea where the money came from except that it was not from the Fall River diocese.
   Another story is about Phil Saviano of Jamaica Plain, Mass., who fought the Worcester, Mass., diocese for several years to get a settlement related to sexual abuse by Fr. David Holley. Holley served as a priest of the Worcester diocese in the 1960s before leaving for New Mexico, Minnesota and Texas, where he found bishops to take him in. (He is now serving a 275-year prison sentence in New Mexico after being convicted of molesting boys there.)
• Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese eliminates 23 administrative jobs -- RCC.
   Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/8712671.htm , Associated Press
   MILWAUKEE (WI): Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan has eliminated 23 jobs in his central administration offices for the fiscal year beginning July 1 as he faces an expected $1 million deficit.
   Dolan revealed the deficit in his weekly e-mail to archdiocesan, parish and school leaders, and cited the rocky economy, a decline in investment income and rising health care costs as some of the reasons for it.
   "But, I also owe you candor," the Roman Catholic archbishop said. "The major reason for our shortfall has been the anticipated costs associated with the clergy sexual abuse crisis."
   The archbishop said costs included the VIRTUS Program to prevent sexual abuse, which has been used to train 13,000 people; mediation for and outreach to people who were sexually abused by priests as minors; hiring attorneys defend lawsuits; providing therapy, counseling and support services for victims; and complying with church requirements that offending priests removed from active ministry be provided with at least minimal support.
   Among those whose jobs are being cut are the archdiocesan directors of information services, social concerns, Department for Parishes and Office for Women.
• Investigator in Hubbard case seeks access to attorney's clients, files -- RCC.
   Troy Record, www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11757531&BRD=1170&PAG=461&dept_id=7021&rfi=6 , 05/20/2004
   ALBANY (NY): Mary Jo White, the attorney hired to investigate charges of sexual misconduct against Bishop Howard Hubbard, said she will agree to just about any condition in order to interview the two men who accused Hubbard of engaging in homosexual activity some 30 years ago.
   White, in a letter to attorney John Aretakis, said she wants to interview his clients Andrew Zalay and Anthony Bonneau Tuesday and is, reluctantly, willing to do it in public.
   Zalay claimed a sexual relationship with Hubbard drove his brother Thomas, who had a history of mental illness, to suicide in 1978. Bonneau said he encountered Hubbard while working as a male prostitute in Albany's Washington Park in the 1970s.
   Aretakis Wednesday fell short of saying he would make his clients available, but said he would sit down with White, in public, and then "see how it goes."
• Hubbard investigation leader seeks compromise -- RCC.
   Albany Times Union, www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=249775 &category=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=5/20/2004 ; By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Thursday, May 20, 2004
   ALBANY (NY): Mary Jo White made her Feb. 16 contract with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany public Wednesday in a compromise meant to persuade John Aretakis and his clients to cooperate in the probe of Bishop Howard Hubbard's alleged sexual misconduct.
   The former federal prosecutor distributed the four-page "commitment" letter with the diocesan Sexual Misconduct Review Board to the media after Aretakis said earlier this week that he wouldn't meet with her until he had it.
   But White stopped short of Aretakis' other stipulation, saying she couldn't interview Andrew Zalay and Anthony Bonneau publicly about their claims the church leader had homosexual sex "given the sensitive and personal nature of the allegations being investigated, as well as the likelihood that people not present will be discussed."
   White was hired by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany's review panel to investigate allegations that Hubbard was sexually active in the 1970s.
   Zalay, of California, is the brother of Thomas Zalay, a 25-year-old Albany man who died after setting himself ablaze in 1978 after an alleged relationship with Hubbard.
   The 40-year-old Bonneau of Schenectady claims the bishop paid him for sex in Washington Park when he was a teenage runaway.
• Summit to look at sex abuse -- RCC.
   The Arizona Republic, www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0520summit20.html , by Michael Clancy, May. 20, 2004
   PHOENIX (AZ): The head of the U.S. Catholic Bishops Office of the Child and Youth Protection will be in Phoenix today for a long-awaited summit on sexual abuse.
   The summit, put on by the Diocese of Phoenix and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, will complete the final requirement of the immunity agreement between Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien and Rick Romley, the county attorney. In that agreement, O'Brien admitted endangering children and quietly transferring priests accused of sexual misconduct.
   O'Brien resigned two weeks after signing the agreement after he was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident. He is serving his sentence of four years' probation and 1,000 hours of community service.
   Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, who replaced O'Brien as bishop, said the summit is designed for individuals who work on sexual-abuse issues daily. [Emphasis added.]
• Dolan cuts 23 archdiocesan jobs to stem $1 million budget deficit -- RCC.
   Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline.com/lifestyle/religion/may04/230682.asp , By TOM HEINEN, theinen@journalsentinel.com , May 19, 2004
   MILWAUKEE (WI): Facing a $1 million deficit in the current budget, Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan has eliminated 23 jobs in his central administration offices for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
   The cuts are being made as part of a yearlong planning effort to refine the Roman Catholic archdiocese's mission and reorganize its offices, but Dolan indicated this week that economic pressures and the sexual abuse crisis were driving the cuts. [Continues with wording similar to a previous report.]
• New allegation surfaces against ex-St. Anthony school janitor [2000 Muñoz] -- RCC.
   Valley Morning Star, www.valleystar.com/localnews_more.php?id=53313_0_19_0_M , By SERGIO CHAPA , sergioc@valleystar.com , 956-430-6280
   HARLINGEN (TX): A new complaint was filed Monday against a former St. Anthony Catholic School janitor who was arrested last month on charges of indecency with a child.
   The new allegations were made by the mother of three former St. Anthony school students who said that Manuel Ortiz Muñoz, 56, exposed himself to two of her sons on several occasions four years ago, according to the police report.
   Indecency with a child by exposure is a third-degree felony with a 10-year statute of limitations.
   Muñoz was fired from the school in April after four boys told school officials that he had touched them.
   The Rev. Tom Pincelli, pastor of St. Anthony’s Church, said Wednesday he was not aware of any allegations against Muñoz until the April charges.
   The woman who has filed this new complaint said she reported the behavior to school officials in 2000 when her sons told her about incidents in the boys restroom at the school.
   Due to a policy of not naming minors who are victims of sexual abuse, the woman’s name is being withheld as disclosing could identify her children.
• James V. Franco: It's all a lot of senseless game playing [1970s Hubbard] -- RCC.
   Troy Record, www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1170&dept_id=7018&newsid=11757564&PAG=461&rfi=9
   ALBANY (NY): It seems there is a bit of a chess game going on between Mary Jo White and John Aretakis, and it is Aretakis' move.
   Aretakis' two clients, who accused Bishop Howard Hubbard of homosexual activity some 30 years ago, have so far refused to cooperate with White's investigation of those allegations.
   Earlier this week, White told the world they are not cooperating, and publicly invited them to talk.
   Aretakis fired back, saying that since White is paid by the diocese, she is working for Hubbard rather than working autonomously to find the truth.
   This is a valid argument, except the former U.S. attorney has a stellar reputation. Aretakis also made a legal argument regarding attorney-client privilege, but given his track record in court, my money is on White's interpretation.
   Furthermore, Aretakis told the press that before his clients agree to be interviewed, he wanted to see the letter of engagement between White and the diocese, which White made available Wednesday. It contained nothing remotely explosive.
• Why the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Was Right to Reject A First Amendment Defense To a Subpoena in a Clergy Abuse Case [Jesuit Order; Talbot] -- RCC.
   FindLaw, http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20040520.html , By MARCI HAMILTON, hamilton02@aol.com , Thursday, May. 20, 2004
   MASSACHUSETTS: On May 13, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) issued an important ruling in a clergy abuse case. It held that the First Amendment did not permit the Society of Jesus of New England ("the Society") to quash -- that is, resist the enforcement of -- a subpoena duces tecum. (A subpoena "duces tecum" directs the witness to appear and to bring documents along.)
   Surprisingly, the Court split 4-3. The majority read the law correctly. In contrast, the dissents were perversely intent on protecting the Society for a kind of "religious liberty" neither the federal nor state constitution ever contemplated.
   The framing generation believed in the liberty of conscience, and the right to worship -- they sought, that is, to protect known religious worship practices from an overbearing government. But there is precious little evidence they believed in protecting religious conduct of any kind. And they certainly did not intend to protect clergy members in criminal activity. Yet criminal activity is exactly what is alleged in cases like the one the SJC heard.
   The Facts Of, and Issues In, the Case
   The facts of this case are typical of those of the thousands of clergy abuse cases working their way through the courts. Recently, James F. Talbot, who taught at Boston College High School, was indicted for alleged sexual assaults of two former students, occurring in the 1970s. The case was slightly different in that the clergy member was not being indicted for childhood sexual abuse--because the two youths were no longer children under the law--but rather for sexual assault.
   The Commonwealth issued a subpoena to the Society for all records related to Talbot. As is also typical in these cases, the religious order responded by providing a few documents and then a "privilege log." In the log, it listed relevant documents -- by date and sender and/or recipient - that it was withholding. And for each, it either claimed a defense under the First Amendment, or asserted a privilege -- for example, the priest-penitent privilege.
• Priest hit with sex charges [2002 Liberatore] -- RCC.
   Times Leader, www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/8698473.htm , By TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER, tmorgan@leader.net
   SCRANTON (PA): An investigation conducted by a private investigator for the Diocese of Scranton has led to sexual assault charges against a priest who formerly served at Sacred Heart Church in Duryea.
   The Rev. Albert M. Liberatore Jr., 40, was charged Monday with indecent assault and corruption of a minor after an altar boy alleged he was molested about two years ago inside an office at the University of Scranton, where Liberatore taught.
   The victim, then 17, told police Liberatore buried his face in his lap and rubbed up against his genital area in an attempt to arouse him, according to an arrest affidavit.
   At a press conference Tuesday, Lackawanna County District Attorney Andrew Jarbola said he expects additional charges will be filed against Liberatore by Luzerne County prosecutors in connection with assaults on the youth that occurred at Sacred Heart Church, and by New York City police for assaults that occurred when Liberatore took the youth to Greenwich Village.
   At this point Jarbola said police have no evidence there are other victims, but asked anyone with any information on this or potentially other cases to contact police.
• Lawsuit cites hiring of priest accused of sex charges at Jackson Catholic school [$US 36m writ] -- RCC.
   Sun Herald, www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/politics/8706911.htm , Associated Press
   JACKSON, Miss. - The transfer of a priest to a Jackson school while he was facing allegations of sexual abuse in Wisconsin shows a continued pattern of transferring instead of removing such priests, plaintiffs say in a $36 million lawsuit filed against the Catholic Diocese of Jackson.
   Documents filed with the lawsuit in Hinds County, show the Rev. Jim Stein taught classes at St. Joseph High School in Madison in 2001-2002. He left the school in April 2002.
   Stein isn't accused of abusing any Mississippi children.
   The Catholic Diocese said in a statement that when it learned of the allegations against Stein in April 2002, he was fired and sent back to Wisconsin. The alleged assault involved a minor and occurred in Wisconsin in 1988.
   Stein is facing three charges of sexual assault in Wisconsin. He is scheduled for trial Aug. 31.
   Nationally, the Catholic Church is engulfed in controversy over allegations it transferred priests accused of sexual abuse to other parishes instead of removing them.
   In February, Mississippi's two dioceses reported that over the past 50 years, 14 Mississippi priests have had credible accusations of sexual abuse made against them. None of the priests is currently in active ministry, according to the dioceses of Jackson and Biloxi.
   The dioceses prepared the information for a survey commissioned by the national church from the John Jay College of Justice. It was for a nationwide accounting of abuse claims and costs to the country's 195 dioceses.
• Police appear before grand jury to discuss Garza murder [1960] -- RCC.
   The Herald, www.brownsvilleherald.com/ts_more.php?id=59360_0_10_0_M , By SARAH OVASKA, The Monitor, May 20, 2004
   EDINBURG (TX): Two police officers spoke to grand jurors Wednesday about the 1960 murder of Irene Garza.
   No one has been charged in the case.
   Sgt. Rudy Jaramillo, a Texas Ranger who is a member of a special cold cases squad based in San Antonio, spent several hours Wednesday in the grand jury room. Frank Treviño, an investigator with the McAllen Police Department, joined Jaramillo.
   Jaramillo had dedicated more than a year working with the McAllen Police Department on the Garza case, according to a prior interview with The Monitor.
   Several boxes marked "Irene Garza" were brought into the grand jury room Wednesday. ...
   Garza was 25 when she died. The second-grade teacher was killed from a blow to the head and was found floating in a McAllen canal April 21, 1960. She had gone missing several days earlier, having failed to return home from making confession at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in downtown McAllen.
   Her car was found parked near the church.
   A young priest, John B. Feit, was questioned extensively after Garza’s body was found, but was never charged in her death. He failed two polygraph exams at that time. No longer a priest and now living in Phoenix, Feit repeatedly has denied any involvement in Garza’s death.
   Last September, McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez announced that his department had finished a yearlong investigation in the 1960 murder and now had new evidence as well as an unnamed suspect. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 02:45 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thu May 20, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont81.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Fri May 21, 2004 edition follows:-
• Far Westside teacher accused of molesting 8-year-old [2000s Manuel] -- Private Christian school.
   Indianapolis Star, www.indystar.com/articles/9/148408-5169-092.html , By Tom Spalding, tom.spalding@indystar.com , May 21, 2004
   INDIANA: A Far Westside private-school teacher is accused of molesting an 8-year-old student, authorities said today.
   James K. Manuel, 56, of Sheridan, Ind., was booked into the Arrestee Processing Center by Marion County Sheriff's Department detectives on preliminary charges of child molesting and criminal deviate conduct, both felonies.
   Authorities said the incident involving Manuel surfaced Thursday, and he was fired from his job Thursday night. Manuel taught second-grade students at Chapel Hill Christian School, 1005 N. Girls School Road.
   Chapel Hill is a private Christian school with about 160 students enrolled from preschool through sixth grade.
   "It was a hideous thing that transpired, and we reacted to it quickly, as soon as we heard about it," said Dr. Jerry Hillenburg, the pastor of the school. "We can't even allow the hint of such things to take place."
   The eight-year-old victim, a girl, told investigators that Manuel had touched her under her clothing and on her chest, and touched her in his groin area, according to the arrest paperwork. The date of the offense was unknown. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:34 PM]
• Anglican sex-abuse guidelines attacked by Church's own reformer -- Anglican.
   The Courier-Mail, Brisbane, "Church sex-abuse guidelines attacked," www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,9626630%255E953,00.html , by Jamie Walker, May 22, 04
   AUSTRALIA: The woman who co-wrote the report that forced Peter Hollingworth to quit as governor-general has denounced new Anglican Church guidelines for dealing with sex abuse complaints.
   Professor Freda Briggs said the protocols she had reviewed - including a draft of those now applying in the Brisbane diocese - could discourage abuse victims from complaining or seeking help.
   "The protocols I have seen would deter people from reporting . . . because of their complexity and lack of emphasis on child abuse," Professor Briggs told The Courier-Mail.
   "They . . . seem more concerned with their own (church) organisations, and who should do what in terms of investigating rather than making it easier for people to come forward with complaints."
   Professor Briggs's concerns were echoed yesterday by the head of Monash University's National Research Centre for Prevention of Child Abuse, associate professor Chris Goddard, who said the protocols entrenched the trend of "minimising" child abuse as a crime.
   They spoke out as Dr Hollingworth prepared to mark the anniversary of his resignation as governor-general with a speech in Melbourne on Monday on child sex abuse. He will be launching the memoir of abuse survivor Barbara Biggs.
• Anglican sex abuse report to be made public [> 140 complaints] -- Anglicans.
   ABC, www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1113695.htm
   AUSTRALIA: Adelaide's Anglican Archbishop expects to receive the final report next week of an independent probe into the way the Diocese handled widespread sexual abuse complaints.
   Early last year, the Anglican Church defended itself over its handling of allegations of sexual abuse against children by church officials dating back to the 1970s.
   A police taskforce set up after the scandal broke has looked into more than 140 allegations of paedophilia involving the church.
   An independent inquiry board was set up to examine the church's management of the complaints.
   It has involved retired Supreme Court judge Trevor Olsen and Donna Chung, a social policy and social work lecturer from the University of South Australia.
• Make sex report public: Anglican Church [58 "of interest"; 143 victims] -- Anglicans.
   The Advertiser, Adelaide, "Make sex report public: Church," www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,9630511%255E1702,00.html , By Steve Larkin, May 22, 04
   AUSTRALIA: An independent report into the Anglican Church's handling of child sex abuse allegations in South Australia will be received by the church next week.
   A retired Supreme Court judge and a senior social lecturer have examined the church's handling of up to 200 alleged cases of sex abuse and claims there was an paedophile network operating within the church.
  A South Australian Police taskforce formed to investigate the allegations has already found 143 victims of child sexual abuse.
   From the 143 victims, police had identified 58 "persons of interest", taskforce commander Detective Chief Inspector Grant Stevens recently said.
   There were also at least seven allegations of child sex abuse involving former members of the state's scout organisation.
   The claims were initially detailed by two Adelaide clergymen who said they had information about alleged child sex abuse involving a number of parishes over the past four decades.
• Life term in Billerica abuse [11 years Ferraro] -- RCC.
   Lowell Sun, www.lowellsun.com/Stories/0,1413,105~4746~2163236,00.html , By LISA REDMOND
   CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts: Saying suspended priest Romano Ferraro inflicted "unspeakable pain" on a former Billerica boy during the 11 years he sexually abused him, Middlesex Superior Court Judge Raymond Brassard yesterday sentenced him to life in prison.
   Ferraro, 70, of New York, an admitted "predator pedophile" who molested possibly dozens of boys during his 30 years as a priest, showed no emotion as he was issued the maximum sentence allowed a term his lawyer likened to "a death sentence" given his age.
   But in his impact statement, the victim, now 37, said the abuse has "consumed my life." The victim, who lives in New Hampshire with his wife and two children, declined comment after the hearing.
   In her statement, his mother noted her son's 10 years in California when he became homeless. Then his dangerous interest in extreme sports, which led to many broken bones and potentially life-threatening stunts.
   "It was as if his life had no value," she told the judge.
   It wasn't until he got married several years ago that he decided to confront those painful memories and went to the police. The statute of limitations, which precludes bringing charges six or more years after the crime is committed, didn't apply because Ferraro lived outside of Massachusetts for years.
• Attorney for priest accused of sexual abuse asking for gag order [1970s-80s Keating] -- RCC.
   WSTM, www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=1884133&nav=2aKDNIId , Edited by Dave Pieklik, 4:51 p.m., 5/20/04
   NEW YORK: A Catholic priest accused of sex abuse wants a gag order in his case.
   Father Thomas Keating is accused of abusing a young girl in the 70's and 80's. Three other sisters say he used to kiss and fondle them. Keating has stepped down at his position at Most Holy Rosary Church in Maine, New York, although he maintains his innocence.
   An attorney for Father Keating was in state supreme court Thursday requesting the gag order. The judge adjourned the matter to give attorneys more time to file papers.
   The attorney for the woman, listed as Jane Doe, does not want a gag order.
   "I think the diocese doesn't want this type of publicity. There are dozens and dozens of pedophiles roaming the streets of the Syracuse diocese and they are still in active ministry," said attorney John Aretakis.
• Sex abuser's sisters bring him home to face justice [Woodcock] -- RCC.
   New Zealand Herald, www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3567930&thesection=news&thesubsection=general ; By EUGENE BINGHAM, 22.05.2004
   NEW ZEALAND: In the middle of a summer's night in Greece, the law caught up with Alan Woodcock.
   For years, the former Catholic priest had avoided facing justice for the sexual abuse of a string of boys. Now there was no escaping.
   His sisters, members of the Sisters of St Joseph of Nazareth religious order, had helped police to track him down to Greece, where he was taking some time out.
   Using a phone number given to him by one sister, Detective Sergeant Murray Porter rang the one-time Marist priest turned music therapist and counsellor turned unemployed shoe salesman.
   Mr Porter told him New Zealand police were going to extradite him to face charges for sex crimes against 11 boys between 1978 and 1987.
   He had two choices - go back to Britain to await extradition, or stay where he was and risk time in a Greek jail while police dealt with authorities in Athens.
• Men sue former St. Louis priest [1970s, 1980s Straub] -- RCC.
   Columbia Daily Tribune, www.columbiatribune.com/2004/May/20040521News011.asp , Published Friday, May 21, 2004
   ST. LOUIS (AP) (MO) - Lawsuits filed yesterday accuse a St. Louis-area priest of sexually abusing two boys, one in the 1970s, the other in the 1980s. Meanwhile, the leader of an organization that aids victims of abuse by priests believes there were other victims.
   Both lawsuits allege abuse by the Rev. Donald Straub - known as "Father Duck." David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP], said at least six other people have said they also were abused by Straub, 55, who now lives in St. Louis County.
   "Our concern is that tonight he may be baby-sitting his next-door neighbor’s kids," Clohessy said. "A change of occupation does not cure a child molester."
   Besides Straub, both lawsuits name the Archdiocese of St. Louis and Archbishop Raymond Burke. Straub did not return a phone call seeking an interview.
   The archdiocese said yesterday that Straub was removed from ministry in St. Louis in 1987. The archdiocese apologized to anyone who was harmed by Straub and urged victims to contact its offices or the city attorney for help.
• Public Fund Raising Begins For National Retreat Center Serving Clergy Sexual Abuse Victims -- RCC.
   WAVE 3, www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=1887130&nav=0RZFNKSv, 6 p.m., May 21st, 2004
   LOUISVILLE (KY): After months of privately lining up support from Roman Catholic bishops, the founders of a national retreat center serving clergy sexual abuse victims are launching public fund-raising efforts.
   The Farm, which began operating in Crestwood outside Louisville in April, has received donations from 20 religious orders and 30 bishops so far, said Susan Archibald, head of The Linkup, the advocacy group that runs the center.
   That includes key church officials, such as Archbishop Harry Flynn of St. Paul and Minneapolis, head of the national bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse, and the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, an umbrella organization for religious orders in the United States. Four bishops didn't send church funds but wrote personal checks instead, Archibald said.
   Although Archibald didn't want to disclose the amounts of individual contributions, she said funds from all sources total about $100,000. She thinks a $1 million annual budget for The Farm, which provides a sanctuary and recovery programs for victims, would be ideal.
   "We're used to operating on a shoestring," Archibald said. "But the more we have, the more we can do."
• Sins of the fathers -- RCC.
   The Guardian, Britain http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0,6121,1221970,00.html ,
   Saturday May 22, 2004
   Fallen Order: A History, by Karen Liebreich, 384pp, Atlantic, £16.99
   BRITAIN: Pope John Paul II has kept noticeably quiet on the subject of Catholic priests who sexually abuse children. But in 2002, after high-profile cases in Europe and the United States, he was moved to acknowledge the problem - briefly.
   Paragraph 38 of his annual Holy Thursday letter alluded to priests who succumb to "the most grievous forms of the mysterium iniquitatis [mystery of evil] at work in the world". Such behaviour puts other priests in a bad light, said the Pope, without mentioning what it does to the victims.
   Fallen Order focuses on sexual abuse within a religious order in 17th-century Italy, and the attempts to cover it up. The book invites us to draw comparisons across the centuries, and it is infuriating to see how little the rhetoric of the Catholic Church has changed in these matters. Its aim can still seem to be to make abuse less terrible by couching it in euphemisms, especially Latin ones, then attributing it to outside forces, rather than to the criminal behaviour of a responsible adult.
   The Piarists began as a religious order dedicated to teaching poor children. A Spaniard, Jose Calasanz, founded the first Pious school in 1597, in Rome, at a time when free education barely existed. The order exists to this day, although now its schools are more exclusive. Past pupils include Mozart, Goya, Haydn, Victor Hugo - and Egon Ronay.
• The bishops are backsliding -- RCC.
   The Star-Ledger, www.nj.com/opinion/ledger/perspective/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1085121406144680.xml , BY EILEEN P. FLYNN, Friday, May 21, 2004
   UNITED STATES: Those of us who watched the clergy sex abuse scandal play out in the Catholic Church did so with mixed feelings. We empathized with the victim-survivors and their loved ones, feeling distressed about their ordeals. How could they have suffered so much in silence for so long? How could we support them as they bravely revealed what they had endured and demanded that justice be done? Would their nightmares ever end?
   We felt angry towards bishops who reassigned abuser priests, wanting these members of the hierarchy to admit the extent of their wrongdoing and suffer appropriate penalties. There was some solace when Cardinal Bernard Law resigned in 2002 because of his complicity in the scandal, but there remains astonishment that so many other cardinals and bishops who are guilty of egregious negligence continue to sit on their cathedral thrones.
   We called for accountability and transparency in church administration and stubbornly resolved that we would settle for nothing less. The bishops' appointment of a National Review Board in June 2002 seemed to be the first significant step in insuring credible governance of the Catholic Church. This Board became the voice of Catholic lay people and it endeavored to collaborate with the bishops in restoring the credibility of the church.
   The board established the Office of Youth and Child Protection to oversee compliance with policies and procedures designed to make sure that children would be safe in church-sponsored settings. One of the major responsibilities of this office was to carry out annual audits of all dioceses in the United States and report on whether or not they were meeting agreed upon standards.
   Another task of the board was to carry out a study of the causes and context for abuse of minors by clergy and issue a report disclosing its findings. The board also authorized a research study to gather data about the extent of the problem: over 50 years, how many reports were on file of priests who abused children, how many children reported abuse, and how much money was spent?
   On Jan. 6, 2004, Kathleen McChesney, director of the Office of Youth and Child Protection, issued a report about compliance with strategies designed to make the church a safe environment for youngsters. For the most part, the almost 200 dioceses in the United States were cooperating to implement safeguards. It appeared that the church had turned a corner and Catholics breathed a sigh of relief. [Visit the original website to read about the backsliding.]
• Bill to allow civil lawsuits against charitable groups passed by Senate
   NJ.com ; www.nj.com/newsflash/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-8/108508679539000.xml , The Associated Press, 4:52 p.m. ET, 5/20/2004,
   TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - The state Senate approved legislation Thursday that would allow sexual abuse victims to file lawsuits against churches and other charitable organizations.
   The measure would throw out the state's charitable immunity statute, which bans such attempts to seek damages. New Jersey is one of nine states that still has a charitable immunity law on the books.
   If the bill does become law, those who were victims of sexual abuse prior to the date it becomes effective would also be able to file lawsuits years later under a retroactive clause.
   The legislation has been introduced in the Assembly where it is now before a committee. A spokeswoman for Gov. James E. McGreevey said the administration was reviewing the legislation.
   "It's a momentous day for survivors of sexual abuse in New Jersey," said the Rev. John Bambrick, state legislative director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "It will bring justice to childhood survivors."
• Trouble in the Church [Morrissey, Janssen] -- RCC.
   Eyewitness News 4, www.whbf.com/Global/story.asp?S=1884703&nav=0zGoNIk0
   DAVENPORT (IA): A victims' rights group says father Michael Morressey turned a blind eye to fellow priest and alleged sex abuser Father James Janssen.
   Today "The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests," or SNAP, is asking the Davenport dioceses to suspend and punish Father Morrissey.
   Morrissey was the Davenport Diocesan Vicar General Monsignor for more than 20 years. And according to SNAP, during that time, Father Morrissey received complaints about father James Janssen, yet kept no records of meetings with concerned mothers.
   Now SNAP wants Father Morrissey to step down.
   The diocese has not made any comments and has directed all questions to their lawyers.
• $50 million sought in Spokane sex-abuse crisis -- RCC.
   Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/174370_churchabuse21.html , By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
   SPOKANE (WA): The financial scope of the child sex-abuse crisis in the Catholic Diocese of Spokane became apparent this week when a group of victims filed court documents seeking more than $50 million in damages.
   The 26 plaintiffs represented by attorney Tim Kosnoff constitute only about half the people who have filed lawsuits against the diocese, alleging decades of abuse of children by priests.
   "The diocese is facing very, very large liabilities," Kosnoff said. "That's what happens when you have so many victims."
   The documents are called statements of damages and are required for such lawsuits, he said.
   Mike Geraghty, attorney for the diocese, said the damages sought are extremely high.
   He noted the Boston archdiocese recently settled with some 500 victims for about $85 million.
• Priest abuse could sink diocese [$US 50m sought] -- RCC.
   The News Tribune, www.tribnet.com/news/local/story/5095907p-5023114c.html . By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS; The Associated Press
   SPOKANE (WA): The financial scope of the child sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Diocese of Spokane became apparent this week when a group of plaintiffs filed court documents seeking more than $50 million in damages.
   The 26 plaintiffs represented by attorney Tim Kosnoff comprise only about half the people who have filed lawsuits against the diocese, alleging decades of abuse of children by priests.
   "The diocese is facing very, very large liabilities," Kosnoff said. "That's what happens when you have so many victims."
   The documents are called statements of damages and are required for such lawsuits, he said.
   Mike Geraghty, attorney for the diocese, said the damages sought are extremely high. He noted the Boston archdiocese recently settled with some 500 victims for about $85 million.
   "It would put the diocese out of business if judgments were rendered against the diocese," Geraghty said of the claims.
• Priest gets life term for rape of boy [Ferraro.] -- RCC. Boy.
   Boston Globe, www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/142/metro/Priest_gets_life_term_for_rape_of_boy+.shtml , By David Abel, Globe Staff, 5/21/2004
   BILLERICA (MA): Romano Ferraro, 70, who was never assigned to a Massachusetts parish, was convicted on May 7 on one count of rape of a child and three counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.
   Ferraro, who also was sentenced to 25 years of probation in the event he makes parole, was sentenced to MCI-Cedar Junction, a maximum-security facility.
   The priest molested the victim at a Billerica home when the boy was between 4 and 13 years old, prosecutors said. It's not clear how the two knew each other. Ferraro, ordained in 1960, spent most of his career in New York.
   The victim was unavailable last night for comment, prosecutors said, and Joseph S. Oteri, Ferraro's attorney, did not return calls.
   In a Globe interview in 2002, Oteri said this of Ferraro: "He is a terribly conflicted man" who has "serious problems."
   The complaints from the victim, now believed to be in his 30s, reached prosecutors in the fall of 2001, before the Archdiocese of Boston released details about abuse by other Massachusetts priests. A Middlesex grand jury indicted Ferraro in 2002, and police arrested him in Queens.
   In January, a St. Louis man sued Ferraro and the Archdiocese of St. Louis, claiming Ferraro raped him in the 1980s. Ferraro lived in St. Louis in the early 1980s.
• Review board must take on cardinals -- RCC.
   Chicago Sun-Times, www.suntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel21.html , BY ANDREW GREELEY, May 21, 2004
   CHICAGO (IL): Occasionally, just occasionally, I agree with the suspicion of American Catholic bishops that they don't get fair media coverage. Thus His Lordship of Colorado Springs announces that those who vote for a candidate who supports abortion may not receive the sacraments, and it's big news. But when two cardinals and an archbishop (Mahoney, McCarrick, Pilarczyk) say or imply that they do not believe the eucharist should be used in political campaigns, the media hardly notice.
   I don't know whom the Catholics in Colorado Springs are supposed to vote for. The Republican platform in the last presidential election also supported abortion in some circumstances. However, it would be interesting to know how many votes will be affected by the bishop's "excommunication." Catholics in the United States have a long history of rejecting clerical intervention in politics.
   Nonetheless, the fringe of the hierarchy has been misbehaving. The bishop of Camden informs the governor of New Jersey that, should he show up at the bishop's installation, the bishop will deny him the eucharist. Only problem is that there had been no indication the governor would show up. The bishop of Brooklyn tells state legislators that same-sex marriage would be like marrying an animal pet. The archbishop of the military sacks without due process the Rev. Tom Doyle, who was one of the first to warn of the pedophile problem. The archbishop of Boston engages in a Holy Thursday diatribe about baby boomers, instead of offering to wash their feet.
   Where did these guys come from? Never in my wildest moments could I come up with these high jinks for one of my stories. They're not typical, I hasten to add, but they're out there just the same, making the church look terrible.
   More seriously, the stylus curiae -- which means the style of the curia but also in a classic pun means the dagger of the curia -- tried to do in the National Review Board, which is supposed to verify the hierarchy's compliance with the protocols for the protection of children. Cardinals Egan and Rigali -- who spent most of their priestly lives in the curia -- stuck the dagger into the board by preventing its second-year review of compliance.
   The review wasn't exactly canceled; it was "delayed" long enough so it wouldn't be done -- a characteristic curial trick. Moreover, the death blow was delivered before the board even knew it was under attack. It was a slick job, not untypical of the curia. The two cardinals proved themselves successful conspirators, apparently unconcerned that their plot would re-create all the doubts about how serious the hierarchy is about protecting children.
• Catholic group committed to change -- RCC.
   Palm Beach Post, www.palmbeachpost.com/accent/content/auto/epaper/editions/friday/accent_04caef358159e081008b.html ; By Steve Gushee, Columnist, Friday, May 21, 2004
   FLORIDA: Christianity insists that God can bring forth from the worst evil the greatest good. That conviction is rooted in the new life of grace that emerged from the malevolence of Jesus' crucifixion.
   Something akin to that may be happening in the Roman Catholic Church, including the church in Palm Beach County.
   God seems to be raising up a new thing called The Voice of the Faithful from the dregs of the ghastly sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the church.
   The organization began more than two years ago near Boston. It now claims more than 25,000 members in 40 states and 21 countries.
   A fledgling but committed chapter began in the Diocese of Palm Beach about a year ago. The 35 to 40 members are hard at work encouraging lay people, embracing victims of sexual abuse and supporting priests, according to Peter Amann, a parishioner at St. Patrick Church in Palm Beach Gardens who acts as their president. They welcome new members to their banner: Keep the faith and change the church.
• Romley confident church will deal with sex abuse -- RCC.
   East Valley Tribune, www.aztrib.com/index.php?sty=21934 , By Lawn Griffiths
   PHOENIX (AZ): Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley said Thursday he is confident the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix has largely completed the needed steps to protect children from sexual misconduct by priests and church workers.
   "We have turned a corner, and I am confident that this will no longer occur within the Catholic Church," Romley said as he opened a daylong Summit on Sexual Abuse in Phoenix. The event was held to educate diocesan staff, public and private employers to identify and deal with sexual misconduct against children.
   In 2002, as misconduct scandals grew in the diocese and across the nation, Romley’s office launched a major investigation into three decades of diocesan and parish records and police reports. Nineteen priests employed since 1952 in the diocese were accused of abusing children, while incidents involving dozens of other employees also surfaced.
   Romley, who had often publicly criticized former Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien for failing to fully cooperate in the investigation, lauded Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, who succeeded O’Brien in December.
   "I am very pleased with what has happened the last year," Romley said. "I see a major change in the church. I do believe Bishop Olmsted is sincere and really wanting to make changes." Romley and Olmsted said Thursday’s summit at a north Phoenix conference center was historic in that it was jointly sponsored by the diocese and the county attorney’s office. The training forum had been mandated as part of an agreement O’Brien and Romley announced in June for prevention of pedophilia.
• Suits allege abuse by St. Louis priest [1970s Straub] -- RCC.
   Post-Dispatch, www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/St.+Louis+City+%2F+County/689A3F8BDA6B2AA786256E9B00156021?OpenDocument&Headline=Suits+allege+abuse+by+St.+Louis+priest ; By Peter Shinkle, 05/20/2004
   ST. LOUIS (MO): Two men filed lawsuits anonymously Thursday claiming that a St. Louis priest, Donald J. Straub, molested them during the 1970s and 1980s.
   The Archdiocese of St. Louis responded with a statement apologizing for Straub's conduct and acknowledging that he had returned to the ministry after undergoing treatment for sexual abuse only to be accused again.
   "The reassignment of Straub after therapy would not occur today," it said. "Unfortunately, in the past, there was a different understanding in society and among professionals of the danger that a person will again abuse, even after treatment."
   The archdiocese is a defendant in the suits in St. Louis Circuit Court, seeking compensation for emotional distress and other damages. The claims are the latest in a series of such suits here.
   One alleged victim, a police officer now in his early 40s, claims Straub abused him more than a dozen times in the mid-1970s at the rectory of St. George's Catholic Church in Affton and at a lake house in St. Clair.
   Straub provided the boy with alcohol at the lake house, said the plaintiff's attorney, Rebecca Randles. She said she was urging prosecutors to file charges.
• Diocese labeled one of worst for abuse coverup [Janssen] -- RCC.
   Quad-City Times, www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1028524&t=Local+News&c=2,1028524 , By Todd Ruger
   DAVENPORT (IA): A national organization for victims of priest sexual abuse cited documents filed last week in ranking the Catholic Diocese of Davenport among the worst in the nation for documented cover-up of sex abuse by priests.
   "It’s not that often we find this level of concealment," said Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
   In a press conference outside the diocesan headquarters Thursday afternoon, Blaine held up placards showing diocese documents filed as part of civil lawsuits against the diocese.
   "They actually engaged in a scheme to keep it silent," Blaine said while pointing to a 1958 document signed by then-Bishop Ralph Hayes and a 1988 letter from the Rev. Michael Morrissey to James Wells, who reported abuse by the Rev. James Janssen to the church.
   The documents come from the court files of two men who allege sexual misconduct by priests in lawsuits against the diocese. The men responded to diocesan attempts to dismiss their cases with nearly 300 pages of legal arguments and church documents.
   Blaine said the 1988 letter from Morrissey to Wells shows a lack of pastoral care or interest in wanting to pursue an investigation into Wells’ allegations of sexual abuse by Janssen.
• Priest gets life for molesting boy [Ferraro, boy 4 to 13] -- RCC.
   Newsday, www.nynewsday.com/news/local/queens/nyc-priest0521,0,6221442.story?coll=nyc-manheadlines-queens ; BY STEPHANIE SAUL, May 21, 2004
   MASSACHUSETTS: A Roman Catholic priest who once served in Queens and Brooklyn began serving a life prison term Thursday for raping and sexually abusing a boy more than two decades ago.
   The Rev. Romano Ferraro, 70, was sentenced Thursday following his conviction May 7 for assaulting the son of a family friend from Brooklyn. During his trial, Ferraro admitted he was a "pedophile predator" who had abused children in three states, but he denied he molested his friend's son.
   The jury believed the testimony of the boy, now 37 and a New Hampshire resident, who said Ferraro repeatedly victimized him during Christmas visits to his family's Massachusetts home. At the time, he was from 4 to 13 years old.
   The Diocese of Brooklyn ordained Ferraro in 1960 and barred him from active ministry by the late 1980s following a similar abuse claim. At the time of his arrest in 2002, he was living at Parsons Manor, a home for priests in Jamaica. Ferraro is a defendant in three civil suits alleging sexual abuse in both Brooklyn and Missouri.
   Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) Thursday applauded the life sentence by Associate Justice Raymond J. Brassard of Middlesex Superior Court.
• Cardinal's story lacks substance [Cunningham] -- RCC.
   Pasadena Star-News, www.pasadenastarnews.com/Stories/0,1413,206~11851~2161453,00.html
   LOS ANGELES (CA): While we must commend the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for making public the reasons a popular priest was abruptly yanked from the pulpit at St. Louise de Marillac Catholic Church in Covina, we agree with parishioners. It seems more smoke screen than substance.
   Recall that the Rev. Chris Cunningham, now serving as an associate pastor in Ventura, spoke out against Cardinal Roger Mahony's handling of the sexual abuse scandal that continues to rock the U.S. Roman Catholic Church and the Los Angeles archdiocese in particular. Some 244 priests and others within church positions have been accused, as outlined by an overdue report by Mahony delivered in February.
   Well, no one said the Catholic Church was a democracy, but recall that in the matter of Cunningham, we warned that the church and this archdiocese needed to be heedful of its credibility.
   We warned rumor would rule the situation at the Covina church that saw some 8,000 letters protesting Cunningham's removal delivered to the cardinal.
   Mahony finally addressed angry church members this week by letter, saying Cunningham was removed in March because he was "emotionally unstable," among a litany of reasons.
• Secrecy shrouds priest's church trial here -- 12 removed; "pontifical secret". RCC.
   Chicago Sun-Times, www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-cath21.html , BY CATHLEEN FALSANI, Religion Reporter, May 21, 2004
   CHICAGO (IL): The first of what could be as many as 12 secret church trials of Roman Catholic priests from the Chicago archdiocese accused of sexual misconduct with minors is under way.
   Sometime after the first of the year, a special tribunal of three canon law judges began its formal inquiry into the alleged sex abuse offenses by a priest whose name cannot be released because of the "pontifical secret," a kind of ecclesiastical gag order from the Vatican that forbids anyone involved in the trial to publicly disclose its details, said the Rev. Daniel Smilanic, adjutant vicar for the Chicago archdiocese and a canon law expert familiar with the trial that is under way.
   The pontifical secret is meant to protect the rights and privacy of the accused and the accuser, as well as the canon lawyers involved in the trial who may or may not be priests, Smilanic said.
   Twelve priests have been removed from ministry by the Chicago archdiocese since June 2002, when new church law mandated that all priests with even a single credible allegation of abuse against a child be removed from ministry. Each of those men could face a church trial to determine whether their removal from ministry will be permanent and even if they will be thrown out of the priesthood altogether.
   Archdiocesan officials said they could not specify how many Chicago priests are awaiting trials.
• Guys in many guises  -- RCC. Spain flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   The Telegraph, Britain, www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2004/05/21/bfbad21.xml , May 21 2004
   Bad Education, 15 cert,105 min
   SPAIN: You could never accuse Pedro Almodóvar of sidestepping controversy in his films. His last, Talk to Her, sympathetically depicted a male nurse who impregnates a comatose patient; his latest, Bad Education, explores the fallout from sexual abuse at a Catholic school in 1960s Spain.
   Multi-layered: Bad Education
   Its subversive handling of this fiercely contentious topic at times calls to mind a classic headline from the American satirical newspaper, The Onion: "Pope forgives molested children".
   Almodóvar is a remarkably unjudgmental director, which ought to make his films more incendiary than they actually turn out. What softens them is partly that his themes - paedophilia here, though it's by no means the film's only one - are so rarely politicised. They're always told from a personal perspective, inviting sympathy and understanding for the particular individuals involved rather than using them to represent the overall issue.
   Bursting with the director's usual rampant style, Bad Education is in any case far too playful and multi-layered to indulge in anything as crude as polemic. The arresting opening credits warn us of this instantly.
• Group labels Davenport diocese one of worst for abuse cover-up -- RCC.
   Courier, www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2004/05/21/news/breaking_news/51b5bd753c18606a86256e9b003addb4.txt , May 21 2004
   DAVENPORT (IA): An organization for victims of priest sexual abuse called the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport among the worst in the nation for documented cover-up of sex abuse by priests, citing documents filed last week.
   "It's not that often we find this level of concealment," said Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP].
   Blaine held up placards showing diocese documents filed as part of civil lawsuits against the diocese at a news conference outside the diocesan headquarters Thursday. [And continues as a previous newsitem.]
• County attorney satisfied with diocese's progress -- RCC.
   The Arizona Republic, www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0521summit21.html , by Michael Clancy, May. 21, 2004
   PHOENIX (AZ): The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix is close to meeting the terms of an agreement with the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and soon will be free of direct government oversight, County Attorney Rick Romley said Thursday.
   "We have turned a corner," Romley told more than 350 people at a summit meeting on the sexual abuse of children. "I am growing confident that this will not happen again in the Catholic church."
   Nearly a year ago, Romley wrapped up a grand jury investigation of the diocese by announcing that he and former Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien had signed an agreement protecting the bishop from prosecution. In the agreement, O'Brien acknowledged endangering children and committed the diocese to several actions to address issues in how the diocese handled abuse cases. The summit was one of those steps.
   Cindy Nannetti, an assistant county attorney, said the diocese must continue its training programs, especially among teachers, to fulfill its final obligation. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:48 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Fri May 21, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont81.htm
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