Clergy Child Molesters (88) — References/Chronology

• Church denied request for summary judgment in sex abuse case [1974-84 Kircher] - Roman Catholic Church. Boys.

   The Clarion-Ledger, www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040708/NEWS01/40708011/1002 , The Associated Press, July 8, 2004
   MISSISSIPPI: A Hinds County judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Jackson in a lawsuit filed by two men who alleged they were sexually abused by Father James Kircher.
   Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter said in Wednesday's order that the victims, identified only as John Does 6 and 7, want accountability for all church officials "responsible for the incalculable emotional and psychological damage ... they will continue to suffer for the remainder of their lives."
   The suit brought against the Diocese not only targets Kircher for allegedly molesting young boys, but the church hierarchy who "were involved in a cover up of massive proportions," the order said.
   The case stems from a lawsuit filed by four plaintiffs in 2002 who claimed they were sexually abused at St. Mary Catholic Church in Shelby and at St. Therese Catholic Church in Jackson between 1974 and 1984. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:25 PM] (This is the first of the Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse , for Thu July 08, 2004.)

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INTENTION: A challenge to RELIGIONS to PROTECT CHILDREN
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. • Christ: The Source of True Healing - RCC.
   Catholic Herald, www.catholic herald.com/ loverde/2004 homilies/ homily0708. htm , By Bishop Paul S. Loverde, Special to the Herald, (From the issue of July/8/04)
   ARLINGTON (VA): The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde at the Mass for the Healing of Victims of Sexual Abuse at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington on June 30.
   Words are never enough, but sometimes, words are all we have, or, at least sometimes, we must begin with words.
   The first words I wish to speak tonight are to victims and their families. "I am sorry" - profoundly sorry - for the terrible pain you have experienced because of sexual abuse. It is a pain which lingers in the lives of those who have been abused. I am sorry - deeply sorry - that you endured such abuse because someone you trusted implicitly betrayed you - whether that was a priest or a deacon or someone else representing the Church or it was another trusted person. I try to imagine how devastating such an experience must be, but I realize that I can never fully imagine what you have experienced.
   "Yes, I am sorry and I apologize with all my heart for the pain and hurt inflicted upon you as a result of this abuse. Victims in a particular way continue to suffer, but so do the family members and friends, and also so many members of the Church. We are all connected, one to the other, so we all struggle with a whole range of conflicting emotions, including hurt, anger, rage and even the desire for revenge.
   "The second words I speak are also to victims and their families. In the name of any one who has abused you, especially if they are representatives of the Church - a priest or deacon or religious sister or brother or volunteer, "I ask you to forgive us." Forgive us for not acting more responsibly in the face of such abuse. Forgive us for not seeing more deeply and fully the horrendous evil such abuse is and does. Forgive us even as we seek to do all that we can now and in the future to wipe out such terrible sexual abuse of children and young people. Let me assure you, that along with my staff, especially our victim assistance coordinator and the members of our review and advisory boards, I am personally committed to continuing our efforts to implement the Charter we bishops enacted in June 2002.
• Ex-abuse counselor faces sex charges [1970s Benham]
   Pekin Daily Times, www.pekintimes.com/articles/2004/07/08/news/news1.txt , By Sharon Woods Harris, July 8, 2004
   PEKIN (IL): A former Catholic priest who is being extradited to Maryland to face sex offense charges dating back to the 1970s was once a sex abuse counselor for Tazwood Mental Health Center when it was under the direction of Pekin Hospital.
   Tazwood Director Mike Polson said Wednesday that Francis A. Benham did work for Tazwood during the time it was known as Tazwood Behavioral Health Systems and was under the direction of Pekin Behavioral Health Systems, which was affliated with Pekin Hospital. Polson did not know what years Benham worked at Tazwood. He said all of Benham's records would be with Pekin Hospital. He said he could not comment further on advice of Tazwood's attorney.
   Pekin Hospital Director of Marketing Melodie Mendenhall said Benham was employed by Tazwood Mental Health Center when the hospital took Tazwood under its wing. She could not confirm what year that was, but Tazwood went back on its own in 2001. She said they do not have the employment records for Benham because they were returned to Tazwood when its affiliation with the hospital ended.
   "We do screenings of new employees, but he was already an employee of Tazwood when Progressive Health Systems took Tazwood over," said Mendenhall.
   Tazewell County Adult Probation Officer David Mills confirmed Wednesday that Probation Department workers remember that Francis Alfred Benham was once a sex abuse counselor at Tazwood. Benham counseled sex abusers directed to the Tazwood by the probation office. Mills did not know what years Benham worked there.
• Cathedral Mass Is First Step toward Healing
   Catholic Herald, www.catholicherald.com/articles/04articles/healing0708.htm , By Angela Pometto, (From the issue of July/8/04)
   ARLINGTON (VA): Dressed in purple vestments, a sign of penance and grief, 14 diocesan priests, two deacons and Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde came to offer apologies, ask for forgiveness and pray for healing. Gathering on the last day of June, the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the 50-70 participants were reminded of Christ's love and mercy in a Mass that initiated the diocesan-wide healing process. The readings and prayers were specially selected from a Mass for forgiveness.
   "The Church is the body of Christ. When one suffers, all suffer," read the cantor before the opening song. Those first words set the tone for the Mass.
   In the reading, St. Paul's words take on a strong poignancy with the current issue. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. … God … has entrusted the message of reconciliation to us. … Now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor 5:17-19, 6:2). The Gospel told the familiar tale of a father's forgiveness - the prodigal son.
• N.S. diocese faces lawsuits by men who say priest sexually assaulted them [1950s-60s MacDonald] - RCC.

   Cnews, http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2004/07/08/532428-cp.html , July 8, 2004
   HALIFAX (CP), Canada: Three men who say they were sexually assaulted by a Roman Catholic priest when they were children are suing the Nova Scotia diocese that once supervised him.
   The plaintiffs filed separate statements of claim stating the Bishop of Antigonish and the diocese failed to protect them from sexual abuse by Rev. Hugh Vincent MacDonald, who died on June 27.
   Prior to his death, the priest was charged with 27 offences involving 18 children between the ages of eight to 15.
   The allegations involved a host of inappropriate sexual contact including touching and fondling in churches in Cape Breton and Antigonish, N.S., in the 1950s and 1960s.
   The claims filed Wednesday are claiming general and punitive damages from the diocese. No specific amount of money is being sought.
• Serious scrutiny likely to follow RC diocese declaring insolvency, and Church-State issues - RCC. Boys.
   The Christian Science Monitor, "What happens when a church goes bankrupt?" www.csmonitor.com/2004/0709/p02s01-usju.html , By Brad Knickerbocker, July 9, 2004
   ASHLAND, ORE. - When the Roman Catholic archdiocese in Portland, Ore., declared bankruptcy this week, it began a new phase in the church's effort to put the sexual abuse scandal behind it. Other dioceses - finding themselves with not enough financial assets to settle the legal claims of the victims - may well follow suit.
   But beyond the millions of dollars and hundreds of claims involved, this latest chapter in a story of sexual abuse and coverup could also open the church to greater scrutiny of its finances, facilities, and programs around the country, experts say. More significantly, it could eventually involve federal courts in the weighing of important church-state issues, as well as the authority of centuries-old canon law.
   "No bishop has wanted to declare bankruptcy," says the Rev. Thomas Reese, editor of America magazine, a Catholic weekly published in New York. "But sooner or later, with jury awards mounting up, we would get a situation where the judgment was bigger than the assets of the diocese."
   In fact, that's already happened in Dallas, where a jury awarded $120 million to victims of an abusive priest. In that case, the plaintiffs (former altar boys) reportedly settled for about $30 million rather than force the church into what probably would have been a lengthy bankruptcy.
• Attorney: Covington diocese looking at bankruptcy
   WKRN, www.wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?S=2015728 , ~ July 8, 2004
   COVINGTON (KY) AP -- An attorney for the Diocese of Covington says bankruptcy is an option to keep the church financially solvent in the wake of the priest sex-abuse scandal.
   Attorney Carrie Huff of Chicago says such a move might be inevitable. The Covington Diocese is facing the nation's first class-action lawsuit over claims of sexual abuse.
   Huff says the suit could cost the diocese tens of millions of dollars and while bankruptcy is not an attractive alternative, at some point reality kicks in.
   It is a consideration that comes on the heels of the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, filing for bankruptcy on Tuesday because of the steep costs from clergy sex abuse lawsuits. The Portland Archdiocese has paid 53 (m) million dollars to settle 133 claims from people who were abused by priests. Another 60 claims are pending.
• Coroner has viewed nun's exhumed body [1980 Robinson] - RCC.
   Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2004407080440 , ~ July 8, 2004
   TOLEDO (OH): The body of a Sisters of Mercy nun who was slain 24 years ago in the sacristy of a chapel in the former Mercy Hospital was exhumed more than a month ago and viewed by a Lucas County deputy coroner.
   Sister Margaret Ann Pahl's family consented that police and prosecutors could exhume her body from the St. Bernardine cemetery in Fremont where the local nuns of her order are buried, Toledo police Sgt. Steve Forrester said yesterday.
   He said her body was exhumed for less than a week and viewed by Dr. Diane Barnett, a deputy coroner who is a member of the Lucas County Cold Case Task Force.
   He said a current forensic pathologist with the coroner's office had not viewed the body, which was examined after the murder by a forensic pathologist who now is deceased.
   The Rev. Gerald Robinson, one of two Roman Catholic priests who said Sister Margaret Ann's funeral Mass, was indicted in May for the April 5, 1980, aggravated murder of the 71-year-old nun. He was arrested in April after police reopened the case. Sister Margaret Ann had been strangled and stabbed repeatedly.
• Suit: Priest abused girl at school [1999-2000 Campobello] - RCC. Girl.
   The Beacon News www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/top/a08priest.htm , By Mike Cetera, ~ July 8, 2004
   ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP, Illinois - Mark Campobello guided a teenager through her conversion to Catholicism, tutored her in Latin and then turned to sexual abuse of the Aurora Central Catholic High School student, a new complaint alleges.
   The woman, a second victim of the former Aurora priest, is expected to file a lawsuit today against the cleric, alleging he molested her numerous times at the school, in his car and on the grounds of Mooseheart.
   The complaint, to be filed today in Kane County Circuit Court, mirrors a lawsuit filed last month on behalf of a 19-year-old Geneva girl against Campobello, the Diocese of Rockford and Bishop Thomas Doran. It was the Geneva girl's claims of abuse that led to criminal charges against the 39-year-old Campobello.
   Campobello is serving an eight-year prison sentence at the Illinois River Correctional Center in Canton after pleading guilty in May to two aggravated sexual abuse charges. He acknowledged abusing both the Geneva girl and the Aurora Central student.
   The new complaint alleges Campobello abused the 15-year-old student beginning in April 1999 and ending the following year. The victim was a transfer student who enrolled in a Latin class taught by Campobello, who also served as Aurora Central's spiritual director and assistant principal.
• Punishing priests could take years [~ 12 accused]
   Des Moines Register, www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20040708/LIFE05/407080356/1039/LIFE ; By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE, REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR, July 8, 2004
   DES MOINES (IA): Most of the Iowa priests who are to be defrocked for child molestation probably will not see the punishment completed in their lifetimes.
   About a dozen Iowa priests, most in their 70s and 80s, are among the hundreds that U.S. Catholic bishops are recommending for removal from the clergy. Because of that flood of recommendations, the Vatican is telling dioceses that it could be years before it rules on the cases.
   The Des Moines diocese mailed its request to defrock three priests in February. On June 10, the Vatican notified diocese officials that the requests were assigned a number. That letter also contained an apology, stating that the backlog of cases generated by the U.S. Catholic child sexual abuse scandal means it may be some time before anything more is done on the cases.
   Advocates for victims said the delay is yet another obstacle to their desire for swift and serious punishments for abusers.
• Abuse scandal not over yet [1980s, 50 victims, $US 160m] - RCC.
   The Albany Herald, http://albanyherald.net/editorials.html , ~ July 8, 2004
   OREGON: Imagine the hushed comments behind closed doors 20, 30 and 40 years ago. "Everything will be just fine if we deal with it quietly and transfer him to another position. We can't afford to let this become public."
   Across the nation, we now know, Catholic dioceses were dealing with complaints of sexual abuse in this manner. They kept it hidden and quiet. Consideration of the accusers was suppressed beneath the overriding concern for the alleged abuser.
   Now, more than one diocese is saying bankruptcy is a possibility. This week, the Portland Archdiocese in Oregon announced that the potential cost of claims in lawsuits filed by accusers is beyond the church's ability to pay, even with insurance.
   The Portland archdiocese is dealing with a civil lawsuit stemming from accusations of more than 50 boys who say they were molested in the 1980s by a priest, who died two years ago. They seek a total of more than $160 million.
• Bankruptcy an option for dioceses in Alaska - RCC.
   Anchorage Daily News, www.adn.com/alaska/story/5276121p-5212821c.html , By MATT VOLZ, The Associated Press, Published July 8, 2004
   ALASKA: Alaska's Catholic leaders say that the cost of sex abuse lawsuits has not reached the point of bankrupting any of the three dioceses in the state but that bankruptcy is a legal option they'd consider if they had to.
   "At this point our cases are pretty limited. If we had a case that came that was a large claim, we would probably have to (file for bankruptcy)," said Sister Charlotte Davenport, chief of staff for the Archdiocese of Anchorage. "We have few, if any, resources. We would have to seriously consider that."
   The archdiocese in Portland, Ore., filed for bankruptcy Tuesday, citing the costs of clergy sex abuse lawsuits.
   The Portland archdiocese is the first diocese in the nation to file for bankruptcy, although the Boston archdiocese has threatened to do so and the Tucson, Ariz., diocese is considering the move.
   Chapter 11 bankruptcy frees an organization from creditors' lawsuits while it reorganizes. But filing for bankruptcy could open church records to the public.
• The Rev. Joseph Romansky dead, was priest accused of child abuse [Romansky] - RCC.
   Plain Dealer, www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1089279215280830.xml , Michael Sangiacomo, Thursday, July 08, 2004
   CLEVELAND (OH): The Rev. Joseph Romansky, 52, the Cleveland priest accused of abusing dozens of boys in Cleveland over 20 years, died Saturday night.
   A spokesman for the Cleveland Catholic diocese confirmed his death, but declined to comment on any details, including how he died. "The family has requested privacy," said Robert Tayek. "We have to honor that. The funeral and burial are already over. He was buried Tuesday."
   Romansky had been on administrative leave since April 2002 and was living in an apartment near his last assignment, chaplain at St. Augustine Manor, a nursing home on Detroit Road.
   Romansky was among 15 Cleveland diocese priests suspended in 2002 pending lawsuits and investigations into child-molestation charges.
• Religious aspects complicate bankruptcy
   The Oregonian, www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/1089287832145400.xml , By ASHBEL S. GREEN, Thursday, July 08, 2004
   PORTLAND (OR): In filing for bankruptcy, the Archdiocese of Portland is gambling that U.S. courts will be loath to interfere with the intimate workings of church operations.
   Judges hearing bankruptcy cases routinely take intrusive steps to protect creditors. Sometimes, they appoint trustees to take over management of failed companies. They can block all transfers of money out of a bankrupt entity.
   But the archdiocese is no ordinary company, and experts say Archbishop John G. Vlazny has reason to hope that secular judges hearing the first-ever bankruptcy of a Roman Catholic diocese will be reluctant to impose such sanctions.
   "Courts do not like to get in the middle of these cases," said David Arthur Skeel, a professor of corporate law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
   The case is certain to blaze legal pathways. Judges hearing the case will have to weigh church canon law and the First Amendment protection of free exercise of religion against bankruptcy statutes, which were written to protect creditors.
• Archdiocese bankruptcy could have domino effect
   Statesman Journal, http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=83165 , By ELLYN FERGUSON, July 8, 2004
   WASHINGTON (DC): The Portland Archdiocese is the first, and probably not the last, U.S. Roman Catholic diocese to seek bankruptcy protection from multimillion-dollar judgments in clergy sexual-abuse cases.
   "I'm surprised it didn't happen earlier," said Father Thomas Reese, editor-in-chief of America, the weekly Catholic magazine published by the Jesuit Society. "Given the judgments, someone had to run out of money. I don't think this is the last diocese."
   The Tucson Diocese in Arizona has set a mid-September deadline for deciding whether to file for bankruptcy, and the Boston Archdiocese sold the former archbishop's residence and surrounding land to raise $90 million to help pay a settlement with sexual-abuse victims.
   The Boston Archdiocese is closing schools and parish churches to cut costs because donations and attendance at Mass dropped after revelations of sexual abuse by priests. The Boston Archdiocese's Web site states that the properties will be sold and the proceeds will be shared with remaining parishes and used to support health and pension funds for church employees.
   Tucson Bishop Gerald Kicanas has publicly considered Chapter 11 bankruptcy as one way to deal with possible judgments in the cases of more than 20 alleged victims. Lawyers representing people with possible claims have asked the courts to stop the diocese from selling any property before Kicanas decides whether to file for bankruptcy.
   In a July 6 memo to his diocese, Kicanas summarized separate meetings he had last week with priests and lay leaders in which reorganization under Chapter 11 was discussed. Kicanas wrote that they were "clear that if Chapter 11 were the best and only option for the diocese to provide an orderly way to respond to all victims, it would be the best path."
   Kicanas was on vacation Wednesday and could not be reached for comment. However, the Tucson Diocese released a statement in which he called the Portland action a surprise, although not unexpected.
• US campaigner calls church to account

   The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), http://ncrnews.org/cgi-bin/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=entry&blog_id=4 , By Barney Zwartz, Religion Editor, July 9, 2004
   AUSTRALIA: A leading American anti-abuse campaigner has called on Australia's Catholic bishops to release figures on clergy sex abuse and payouts.
   Dr Jim Post, founder of Voice of the Faithful, told the OnlineCatholics website that the church in Australia should follow Boston and publish its financial records.
   He suggested that the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference should issue a public report detailing the number of sexual abuse survivors, the number of priests involved and the money spent on legal fees and compensation.
   Voice of the Faithful is a lay organisation founded in Boston in 2002 by 28 parishioners appalled at the way bishops concealed abuse. It now has more than 30,000 members in more than 20 countries.
• Announcement of bankruptcy angers plaintiffs
   Statesman Journal, http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=83179 , By ALAN GUSTAFSON, July 8, 2004
   PORTLAND (OR): David Schmidt says he was 7 when a priest raped him in a church basement in the small Marion County town of Mount Angel.
   Schmidt, now 60 and a credit-union executive in Coulee Dam, Wash., said Wednesday that the violent assault remained buried in his mind until therapy pried out the long-repressed memories in 1999.
   "I had some horrible things happen to me," he said. "I don't think most people understand how horrible some of the things are that have happened to kids in the past, and what the pain is about and why we're making such a big deal out of it."
Today, Schmidt is among about 60 plaintiffs with pending sexual-abuse lawsuits against the embattled Portland Archdiocese.
   The fate of those suits, in which plaintiffs seek hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, was plunged into a legal and financial quagmire Tuesday when the archdiocese became the nation's first to file for bankruptcy.
• Readers' opinions on church bankruptcy run gamut
   Statesman Journal, http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=83164 , By DEBBIE TOWNSEND, July 8, 2004
   OREGON: Should the Archdiocese of Portland sell enough of its assets to pay for the priest-abuse lawsuits and judgments?
   Local opinions vary. Of the more than 30 people who responded to a StatesmanJournal.com poll asking that question, more than half said yes.
   "Yes, I feel the Archdiocese should sell off its assets to pay the victims of sexual abuse," wrote Sharon Zupo, 58, of Salem. "Only a few priests caused this abuse, but the church covered up the abuse and even encouraged it by allowing these predators to move to another unsuspecting community where their backgrounds were unknown."
   Some compared the Archdiocese to a business.
   "This is no different from any other business bankruptcy," wrote Charles Elliott, 54, of Salem. "Churches make money, have assets and are run like a business but are tax-exempt. Sell off assets and pay up or be forced out of business like any other poorly run business."
   And some were angry.
   "They've stolen far more from the victims than they'll ever be able to repay anyway," wrote Lindy Schweiger, 22, of Salem. "They should be left destitute and shamed."
   Some people questioned the abuse victims' motives.
• Second abuse lawsuit expected today against ex-priest [1999-2000 Campobello]
   Chicago Daily Herald, www.dailyherald.com/kane/main_story.asp?intID=3817648 , By Garrett Ordower, Posted Thursday, July 08, 2004
   ROCKFORD (IL): As a child of divorce estranged from her father, the 15-year-old Aurora Central Catholic High School student thought religion could help her through a difficult time.
   Her teacher, Mark Campobello, happily obliged, instructing her conversion to Catholicism. But his guidance in religious matters soon turned into a yearlong sexual relationship, a civil lawsuit expected to be filed today in Kane County alleges.
   The second civil lawsuit against Mark Campobello, the Rockford Diocese and its head, Bishop Thomas Doran, will seek damages in excess of $50,000 from each. Joliet attorney Keith Aeschliman represents both victims.
   Campobello pleaded guilty in May to abusing the two girls in 1999 and 2000 while he was a vice principal at Aurora Central and resident priest at St. Peter Catholic Church in Geneva. He has begun serving an eight-year prison sentence.
   The Rockford Diocese and Doran should have protected the girls from abuse, but did not, Aeschliman contends.
• Oregon Archdiocese Files for Bankruptcy
   Lancaster Online, www.lancasteronline.com/pages/news/ap/4/archdiocese_bankruptcy?sessionID= 1d535afd996ff64906269d8b3a1d09d4 Published: 4:03 AM EST, Jul 08, 2004
   PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Several Roman Catholic dioceses being sued for clergy sexual abuse could find themselves following the lead of the Portland Archdiocese, filing for bankruptcy to fight the lawsuits.
   Bishop Gerald Kicanas of the Diocese of Tucson, Ariz., said it may be the "best way to respond to all victims."
   Kicanas has met with lawyers for much of the past month to consider filing for bankruptcy, said Fred Allison, spokesman for the Arizona diocese.
   Archbishop John Vlazny of the Archdiocese of Portland announced the bankruptcy filing Tuesday, a move that, "while not unexpected, came as a surprise," Kicanas said. Portland was the first archdiocese in the nation to seek Chapter 11 protection.
   The bishop did not say whether Tucson will follow Portland, but said "we continue to explore the best option for our diocese."
   Other dioceses have already settled the lawsuits against them and say they have moved on, with or without the threat of bankruptcy.
• Teacher fired for keeping quiet about abuse by priest [Ward, Campobello, principal, pastor, bishop]
   Chicago Daily Herald, www.dailyherald.com/news_story.asp?intid=38176291 By Garrett Ordower, Posted Thursday, July 08, 2004
   ROCKFORD (IL): The Rockford Diocese fired a veteran teacher Wednesday for not reporting allegations of sexual abuse against Mark Campobello -- two weeks after a published report in which she described her struggle to come to terms with not going to authorities.
   "I have always been an advocate for the kids," said the teacher, Alison Ward. "I made one grievous error."
   Though many said they understood the diocese's decision, they also questioned whether Ward was being treated unfairly and whether consequences from the handling of the allegations would move further up the ladder.
   "It seems somewhat scapegoating to remove the teacher and not the principal, and not the pastor, and not the bishop himself," said Barbara Blaine, president of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP].
   Ward of St. Charles agreed to an interview for a June 23 Daily Herald story on the condition that she remain anonymous because she feared retribution from the diocese and others for talking publicly about the abuse of a 14-year-old student at St. Peter Catholic Church in Geneva. She had taught at the school for 24 years and had recently signed a contract to return next year as a fifth- to eighth-grade math teacher.
• Church faithful distressed by Portland bankruptcy case
   Chicago Tribune, www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0407080302jul08,1,7491757.story?coll=chi- newsnationworld-hed ; By Tomas Alex Tizon, Tribune Newspapers, Los Angeles Times, July 8, 2004
   PORTLAND, Ore. -- A day after the Archdiocese of Portland filed for bankruptcy, it was the talk of the Roman Catholic community here Wednesday--with many churchgoers expressing sadness and others vowing to continue in their faith.
   Some condemned the archdiocese for "sidestepping" its responsibility in compensating victims of clerical sexual abuse. Others weren't sure how the filing would affect the day-to-day operations of the 356,000-member archdiocese.
   "Most of us are still trying to figure out what it means," said Greg Markey, manager of a lay-owned Catholic radio station in Portland, KBVM. "How will this affect the parishes? And how will it affect the people in the positions of power? I don't think anybody really knows how it will play out."
   Markey said most of the talk he's heard in the community seemed to be sympathetic--if reluctantly so--toward the archdiocese's decision.
   "If they don't have the money, what are they supposed to do?" he said.
   Theresa Willett, who has been a parishioner at All Saints in northeast Portland since 1978, said the decision "seems practical, rational and even compassionate" because it takes into account the needs of the entire church, and not just victims of priest abuse.
• Vatican Says It Could Be 'Years' Before Priests Defrocked
   TheIowaChannel.com ; www.theiowachannel.com/family/3505775/detail.html , UPDATED 6:07 am CDT. July 8, 2004
   DES MOINES, Iowa -- Because of a flood of requests, the Vatican is telling Iowa dioceses that it could be years before it rules on requests to defrock Roman Catholic priests for child molestation.
   Steve Boeckman, a spokesman for the Des Moines diocese, said the process to remove men from the priesthood is a complex one.
   The Des Moines diocese mailed its request to defrock three priests in February. On June 10, the Vatican notified diocese officials that the requests were assigned a number.
   They said the backlog of cases generated by the U.S. Catholic child sexual abuse scandal means it may be some time before anything more is done on the cases.
• Church must seek justice
   The Oregonian, www.oregonlive.com/editorials/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1089287878145400.xml ; Thursday, July 08, 2004
   PORTLAND (OR): Many Oregonians were shocked to learn this week that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland is filing for bankruptcy. Around the country, a number of dioceses have made rumblings about doing this, but only Portland has moved beyond threats.
   On the surface, this hardheaded business move may look calculated to evade the day of reckoning still owed to many Oregonians who were sexually abused by priests. The filing put a stop, for instance, to a trial scheduled to begin this week. It's important to note, however, that the bankruptcy filing does not scotch this trial forever. The filing only postpones it.
   Although such a filing is certainly unprecedented, and no one knows how it will play out, there's reason to be optimistic. The bankruptcy will pry open church financial records that victims themselves have been so eager to obtain that some considered ways to trigger an involuntary bankruptcy, before giving up on the idea.
   The bankruptcy may also resolve a dispute that likely couldn't have been resolved any other way: To what extent can the archdiocese sell off property to meet its financial obligations to victims? Under canon law, the archdiocese holds property in trust for its 120-plus parishes. When parishes are combined and properties are sold off, as happened several years ago in North Portland, the archdiocese says that all profits flow to the new parish.
• Our opinion: Bankruptcy may be best for diocese
   Tucson Citizen, www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=opinion&story_id=070804b4_editorials , July 8, 2004
   TUCSON: Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas soon will decide whether to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the Diocese of Tucson, to ensure that all victims of sexual abuse by priests get a fair settlement.
   While some victims' attorneys say the diocese is jettisoning assets to protect its finances, we believe Kicanas is taking the right path.
   We tend to believe Kicanas, period. Never in memory has Tucson had a bishop so eager to engage the public, parishioners and the press in no-holds-barred talks about the church's challenges and plans.
   In a recent meeting with the Tucson Citizen Editorial Board, Kicanas outlined his concerns for priests' abuse victims.
   The "mission diocese," dependent on Catholic groups' contributions, incurred a $33 million debt in 1987 as it was establishing its own television station. Recovery required selling the station and diocese cemeteries in Tucson, laying off 14 employees and trimming the remaining staff's pay by 10 percent.
• Salesian priest quits Samoa [Murphy]

   The Age, www.theage. com.au/articles/ 2004/07/08/ 1089000291 906.html , By Martin Daly, July 9, 2004
   AUSTRALIA: The head of the Salesian Catholic order of priests and brothers in Samoa, Father John M. Murphy, is reported to have left the country ahead of an investigation into whether he should be deported for supporting a visa application for a fellow Melbourne-based Salesian priest with child abuse convictions.
   The departure of Father Murphy from the Order's Moamoa Theological College in the capital, Apia, has been reported by The Observer newspaper, according to Poloma Komiti, from the Samoan Prime Minister's office.
   Salesians in Samoa have told The Age for several days they do not know where Father Murphy is, while the order's Melbourne headquarters says it does not know if he is in Australia. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:22 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thu July 08, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont88.htm
• Portland Catholic diocese seeks sex abuse sanctuary in bankruptcy. [62 claims pending; 100 claims settled; 3 other US dioceses going insolvent; millions wasted on sex abuse]
   The West Australian, Perth, W. Australia, "Church seeks sex abuse sanctuary in bankruptcy," Agence France-Presse, p 27, Thursday, July 8, 2004
   LOS ANGELES (California): A Catholic diocese in the United States asked a bankruptcy court for protection as two big cases for damages for sex abuse by priests were about to begin in another court.
   In one case, plaintiffs sought more than $US130 million ($A182.6 million) and in the other $US25 million.
   The diocese of Portland, in the State of Oregon, would seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Archbishop John Vlazny said on Tuesday.
   "This is not an effort to avoid responsibility," he said. "It is the only way I can assure that other claimants can be offered fair compensation. We have made every effort to settle these claims fairly but the demand of each of these plaintiffs remains in the millions. I am committed to just compensation.
   "These demands go beyond compensation. With 60 other claims pending, I cannot in justice and prudence pay the demands of these two plaintiffs."
   The diocese had settled more than 100 claims in four years, paying $US21 million from its funds in the past year.
   "We have worked diligently to settle claims of clergy misconduct," he said. "Major insurers have abandoned us and are not paying what they should on the claims. At this point, circumstances beyond my control have created great financial risk. Seeking the protection of bankruptcy is a just and prudent course of action."
   Church operations would continue. The 60 or so pending cases will go under the control of a bankruptcy court. Under Chapter 11 protection, insolvent organisations can continue daily operations while working out a plan to repay their debts. Major financial decisions have to be approved by the court.
   The Church lost the seven sex abuse lawsuits that went to trial in the US since 1986 and juries' awards ranged from $US1.1million to $US120 million.
   Archbishop Vlazny said he did not know if Portland was starting a trend. "We do not know whether other dioceses are considering bankruptcy," he said.
   The 195 US dioceses are reeling under the impact of the exposure of widespread sex abuse against children.
   Church officials in Boston, Massachusetts, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, are considering bankruptcy. Officials in Tucson, Arizona, will decide in September. #
   [COMMENTS: 1. The archbishop is reported as saying he does not know if other RC dioceses are considering bankruptcy. Surely someone on his staff could use the Internet to find out that at least three other dioceses are on the public record as seeking such protection! The much-vaunted "unity" of the RCC is apparently just "huff and puff," if the bishops don't even tell each other what they are doing.
   2. Trying to have sexless staff seems to be as useless as telling the tide not to come in! Perhaps the bishops ought to read the condemnation of corrupting young people in the bible, Matthew 18:6, 7; Mark 9:42; and Luke 17:2. See the prohibition of boy sex in the Didache 2.2. Read the near-command for every man and woman to be married in 1 Corinthians 7:2, 5, 9, and ask if the "Christians" who want same-sex "marriage" disobey these counsels much more violently than those who take vows not to marry, and then deprive a priest of his livelihood if he falls in love and wants to marry, yet if he corrupts youth or women without marriage he is transferred to other places, instead of being removed from ministry. Ask what was the situation in the 2nd century that led somebody to forge the Timothy and Titus epistles, which ordered that Church leaders be married -- 1 Timothy 3:2-7, Titus 1: 5 - 9 -- and what danger was seen by the leaders who put them into the official list of scriptures? Study support for marriage in Matthew 19:4-6; Ephesians 5:25, 28, 33; Hebrews 13:4; and Colossians 3:19. Follow the call for the highest standards of sexual morality in Matthew 5:27-28. Ponder over the practice of repeat "Confessions" in the light of Hebrews 6:4-6; 1 John 5:16, 18; Matt 12:32; and Luke 9:62. Realise that John 8:7 "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her" is in a forged section of that gospel, so is not a licence to offend. Then read the clergy's marital rights affirmed at the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325 and at the Council of Trullo in 692. Ask yourself if Jesus came back to earth and contradicted himself! COMMENTS END.] [Jul 8, 04]
• Beach flasher was senior welfare bureaucrat. -- No religion link reported [2004 Wolterman]
   The West Australian, By Leith Paganoni, p 34, Thursday, July 8, 2004
   PERTH (W. Australia): A former State Government employee responsible for family and children's services in the Pilbara lost his job yesterday when he was convicted of two indecent acts.
   Richardus Raymondus Wolterman, 48, was found guilty of exposing himself to the same woman on the Dampier beach on two separate occasions earlier this year.
   He was fined $800 fine in Karratha Magistrate's Court.
   Wolterman, the former manager of Department of Community Services in Karratha, Roebourne and Onslow, told the court he would lose his job and have to leave the North-West town.
   The victim said she was so distressed she would also have to leave Karratha instead of renewing her contract with a major resource company. [Jul 8, 04]
• Church volunteer faces sex charges [1990s Skinner]
   Press Herald Online, MaineToday.com ; http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/040708indict.shtml , From staff and news services, Thursday, July 8, 2004
   BANGOR, MAINE - A former volunteer supervisor for a youth group at a Roman Catholic church in Lincoln has been accused of sexually assaulting a boy during the early 1990s. John S. Skinner Sr., 62, now of Stonington, was indicted by the Penobscot County grand jury Tuesday on six counts of gross sexual assault. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court on July 30.
   The case involved one alleged victim who was assaulted in Skinner's home between 1990 and 1994, beginning when the boy was 13, Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts said.
   It is unclear if Skinner, who has no criminal record, will face similar charges in Cumberland County, Roberts said.
   "My office is only dealing with one victim," Roberts said. "I understand there are more victims, but some go back beyond the limit of the statute. . . . Skinner's (alleged) offenses go back into the 1970s."
   Under Maine law, a person can be charged with gross sexual assault for incidents that occurred after 1985, the prosecutor said. (By courtesy of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker (found late) of Aug 7, 2004;) [Newsitem Jul 8, 04]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Fri July 09, 2004 edition follows:-
• Churches Move to Protect The Youths in Their Care -- Baptist
   Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40005-2004Jul9.html , By Bill Broadway, Page B07, Saturday, July 10, 2004
   WASHINGTON (DC): Everybody is in favor of protecting youths from sexual predators, including religious organizations that in recent years have intensified requirements for criminal background checks for clergy, youth leaders and summer camp counselors.
   But many people are unaware that the same rules increasingly are being applied to parents and other volunteers who work with children and teenagers in churches, synagogues and mosques. That includes volunteers in church-run schools and chaperones for skiing or camping trips and other extended outings.
   "All paid and non-paid staff and volunteers that work with children at Metropolitan are required to complete the Children Abuse Prevention and Intervention training and to have a criminal background check," said a May 19 memo to parents at Metropolitan Baptist Church in Northwest Washington who had volunteered to accompany the youth choir to Walt Disney World but had not completed the training and clearance process.
   "Given the time constraints, we are not requiring you to complete the training but we are requiring . . . a criminal background check," wrote the Rev. Sherrill McMillan, minister of counseling and family services. "This is not a credit check." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 11:54 PM]
• Minister pleads innocent in satanic sex scam [Romero] -- "Apostolic" Church
   North County Times, www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/07/10/backpage/7_9_0421_24_17.txt , By: North County Times wire services, July 10, 2004
   SAN DIEGO (CA): A pastor who allegedly used the fear of the devil to induce several undocumented women to have sex with him at the homes of congregation members pleaded innocent today to criminal charges.
   Carlos Romero, 59, faces up to five years and eight months in state prison if convicted of two counts of inducing sex by fear and one count of making a criminal threat against three alleged victims, said Deputy District Attorney Patrick Espinoza.
   The prosecutor alleged that Romero induced the women to consent to sex, telling them that if they didn't, the devil would do something to them.
   "He admitted to police that he knew what he was doing was wrong," Espinoza said outside court.
   The defendant allegedly threatened one woman with injury if she told anyone about the sexual encounters, the prosecutor said.
   According to La Mesa police, Romero is a minister to about a dozen people and holds nondenominational services in the homes of his Apostolic Church members.
• List of 43 abusive priests released -- but religious orders' names withheld
   Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jul04/242612.asp , By TOM HEINEN, theinen@journalsentinel.com , Last Updated: July 9, 2004
   MILWAUKEE (WI): After nearly two years of deliberation and consultation, Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan released on Friday the names of 43 current or former diocesan priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of minors.
   In doing so, he joined the ranks of Roman Catholic bishops in other cities - including Baltimore; Los Angeles; Madison; Toledo, Ohio; and Tucson, Ariz. - who have taken similar actions.
   About a dozen of the names had not been previously reported.
   Dolan's decision is a significant step toward restoring trust and encouraging other victims to come forward, said Anne Burke, interim chairwoman of the bishops' National Review Board on sexual abuse. However, victims groups pointed out that the various religious orders whose priests serve in the archdiocese have not taken the same step and called on Dolan to do more.
   Burke said that because Dolan is in a leadership position as chairman of the bishops' Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry, his voice may carry beyond Milwaukee.
• Church to vet all childcare workers

   Irish Independent, www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1212978&issue_id=11121 ,
   IRELAND: All Catholic Church personnel wishing to work with children will first have to go through a very strict selection process under radical draft new child protection guidelines seen by the Irish Independent.
   The rules will apply to full-time, part-time and voluntary workers, both clerical and lay. No child or young person will be permitted to work or remain on Church property unless there are two or more adults present.
   The guidelines also recommend that those working with children should first be vetted by the gardai. At present only health board employees are vetted due to a lack of resources.
   Even individuals renting Church halls to hold activities that are non-Church related will have to abide by the guidelines, which will also cover organisations such as the Society of St Vincent de Paul where they are using parish buildings.
• Church staffer charged with criminal sexual abuse [2002 Parham]
   Rockford Register Star, www.rrstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040709/NEWS0107/40709003 , July 9, 2004
   ROCKFORD (IL): Emos Parham, a 51-year-old Rockford man who has been involved with St. Paul Church of God and Christ for about 30 years, was charged Friday with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
   Parham is being held on a $1million bond. The charges stem from incidents that allegedly happened about two years ago.
   On Thursday, a juvenile boy told the Winnebago County Sheriff's Department he had been sexually abused in Parham's Heidi Drive home in the summer of 2002.
   Sheriff's department deputies investigated and believe two other boys may have been abused as well.
• All the Pope's Men
   The Dallas Morning News, www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/arts/stories/071004dnrelbooks.c48f. html ; By John L. Allen Jr.
   (Doubleday, 380 pages, $24.95)
   DALLAS (TX): Mr. Allen, the National Catholic Reporter's Vatican correspondent, is terrific at reciting church history and parroting the views of the Catholic hierarchy but weak at critical analysis. In this book, much like his column "The Word From Rome," Mr. Allen panders to priests, bishops and cardinals - and promotes himself as seemingly the only Western journalist capable of understanding them. ...
   There are chapters on Vatican psychology, sociology and theology, and some of it of consequence. Mr. Allen is best when storytelling, such as unraveling the legend of Pope Joan, whom he believes never existed. But his explanations of more weighty matters, such as the American sexual abuse crisis, echo the posturing adopted by the hierarchy and the Catholic press.
• Church Employee Allegedly Abused Juvenile Male [2002 Parham]
   WTVO, www.wtvo.com/Global/story.asp?S=2020088&nav=0RePOdcA
   ROCKFORD (IL): A 51-year-old employee at a Rockford church is in custody following allegations that he sexually abused a juvenile male.
   Emos D. Parham, the administrative assistant and children's mentor at the St. Paul Church of God and Christ at 1001 Wigton Avenue, is the subject of investigation by the Winenbago County Sherriff's Department.
   The abuse allegedly occurred at Parham's home at 5861 Heidi Dr. during the summer of 2002.
• As some U.S. dioceses face financial crisis, Vatican has own problems
   Catholic News Service, www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0403779.htm , By John Thavis
   VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., filed for bankruptcy in early July, some people wondered why the Vatican didn't bail it out.
   The head of a sex abuse victims group in Portland said the Vatican needs to "sell a few paintings if they think they can't afford to pay for this." The archdiocese had been hit hard by sex abuse settlements totaling more than $50 million.
   But the Vatican is highly unlikely to start selling its paintings or statues in order to rescue a diocese from financial ruin. The Vatican does not see its role as that of overseeing diocesan budgets or financial crises.
   And besides, the Vatican doesn't think it's rich.
• Church paid victim $80,000 in secret deal [Klep, Murphy]
   The Age (Melbourne, Australia), www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/09/1089000351616.html?oneclick=true , By Martin Daly, Peter Gregory, July 10, 2004
   AUSTRALIA: The Salesian Order of Catholic priests and brothers made what is believed to be its biggest compensation payment in a secret deal to settle a civil claim by a Melbourne man against convicted pedophile Father Frank Klep.
   The $80,000 settlement was signed by the then provincial of the order in Australia and the Pacific, Father John Murphy, in 1998 - the same year the Salesians sent Klep to Samoa.
   The money was paid, without an admission of liability and to avoid litigation, to the same alleged victim involved in the criminal case for sex abuse against Klep now before the Melbourne Magistrates Court.
   The Age has previously reported that the Salesians have paid money to other alleged victims, on similar terms.
• Archbishop Dolan's letter on offending priests
   Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline.com/news/state/jul04/242459.asp
   MILWAUKEE (WI): Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan sent this e-mail to archdiocesan, parish and school leaders throughout the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The letter also is posted on the Archdiocese Web site.
   July 9, 2004
   Dear Friends united in love and service of Jesus and His Church,
   During the past two years, you have heard and read much about the clergy sexual abuse crisis facing our Church. Since my arrival, I have tried to be open and honest with the faithful of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and with you, my key collaborators in southeastern Wisconsin. (and so on)
• Priest takes leave amid abuse allegation [Sicoli]
   Lancaster Online, www.lancasteronline.com/pages/news/ap/4/pa_church_abuse?sessionID= 71e735ff40299e904577961df71b7023 ; Published: 6:08 PM EST, Jul 09, 2004
   PHILADELPHA (PA) (AP) - A Roman Catholic priest has taken a leave of absence from his South Philadelphia church while officials investigate sexual abuse allegations against him, the archdiocese said Friday.
   The Rev. David C. Sicoli, pastor of the Holy Spirit Parish, began his leave on July 1, several weeks after the Archdiocese of Philadelphia received "several" allegations of abuse, a church official said.
   "Father Sicoli has denied these allegations. Nonetheless, the archdiocese has reported these allegations to the public authorities and is in the process of investigating them," archdiocese spokeswoman Catherine L. Rossi said in a written statement.
   No one answered the phone at the Holy Spirit church on Friday. The archdiocese said he had moved out of the church's rectory but did not disclose where he is living now.
• Archdiocese says abuse victims missed their chance to sue [1950s +]
   The Herald-Mail, www.herald-mail.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=83161&format=html , by The Associated Press
   PHILADELPHIA (PA) (AP) - An attorney for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia told a judge Thursday that people who were abused by Roman Catholic clergy decades ago missed their chance to sue the church, even if their allegations of rape and molestation are true.
   Citing the state's strict statute of limitations, the archdiocese asked Judge Arnold New to dismiss almost two dozen lawsuits filed by people who say they were molested by priests or a nun as long ago as the 1950s.
   Archdiocese attorney C. Clark Hodgson Jr. called abuse of children at the hands of priests "tragic," but said faded memories and the deaths of witnesses, including 10 of the accused priests, would make it impossible for the church to defend itself now.
   He also chided the alleged victims for not hiring attorneys sooner, saying they could have preserved their right to sue if they had made any attempt to investigate the church at the time the abuse happened.
• Ex-Bucks priest accused of abuse [1980s Sicoli]
   Phillyburbs.com ; www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/111-07092004-328938.html , By HARRY YANOSHAK, Bucks County Courier Times, July 9, 2004
   PENNSYLVANIA: A Catholic priest who spent part of his career in Lower Bucks has taken a leave of absence while the Archdiocese of Philadelphia investigates sexual abuse allegations against him, a church official said Thursday.
   The official, who asked not to be identified, said the allegations were leveled against the Rev. David C. Sicoli, pastor of Holy Spirit Church in South Philadelphia. The official said the archdiocese would notify parishioners this weekend about the circumstances surrounding the pastor's absence.
   In the 1980s, Sicoli spent time as an assistant pastor at Immaculate Conception BVM Church on Emilie Road in Bristol Township, a former church employee said.
   Jay Abramowitch, a lawyer from Berks County who's suing the Philadelphia Archdiocese on behalf of several alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests, confirmed that he has spoken to three individuals from Bucks County who claim they were abused by Sicoli. One of the individuals has told the Courier Times that the abuse occurred while Sicoli was assigned to Immaculate Conception BVM.
• Hide the B*ggering Priests! - RCC.
   Orange County Weekly, www.ocweekly. com/ink/04/44/ news-arellano.php , by Gustavo Arellano, Vol. 9 No. 44, July 9 - 15, 2004
   CALIFORNIA: For the next year, the Dallas Morning News will publish a monumental series exposing how Catholic churches across the globe transferred child-molesting priests to poorer, more isolated dioceses. We're talking American Samoa, Coachella, Tijuana, Tustin . . . Tustin?! "King" Ramos

Blame the inclusion of those last three locations on the Diocese of Orange. Not to be outdone by other notorious priest-shuffling dioceses in such places as Los Angeles and Boston, our local see has shipped off its share of pederast priests during its 28-year history to impoverished parishes on Indian reservations, in Tijuana slums and within the 909 area code.
In addition, other Catholic churches from across the country also used Orange County as a dumping ground for their kiddie-fiddling clergy, sometimes with the full knowledge of Orange diocesan officials. Here are 10 of those fathers, all identified by the Diocese of Orange as having sexually abused children during their stint in the county.
WE DUMPED:

Sofrorio Aranda. Aranda's last OC assignment was at La Habra's Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1979. Diocese records then list him as . . . well, they don't list him for the next two years until he reappears in 1981 at the Diocese of San Bernardino, which covers San Bernardino and Riverside counties. For the next eight years, Aranda bounced around from obscure desert city (Trona!) to obscure desert city (Mecca!) before finally ending up at the Soboba Indian Reservation in San Jacinto in 1991.

Franklin J. Buckman. Accused of molesting three children while at St. Polycarp in Stanton and other parishes in Los Angeles and Orange counties from 1962 to 1984, Buckman went "on assignment" in 1985 to the Diocese of Baker, a rural area encompassing the Klamath Indian Reservation in southern Oregon. Buckman stayed "on assignment" there for the next 17 years until his removal from the ministry in 2002.

Santino Casimano. Casimano stayed only four years in the Diocese of Orange-his last gig was at St. Anthony Claret in Anaheim in 1979-before enlisting in the Armed Forces as a Navy chaplain. For the next 21 years, he traveled from port to port, servicing sailors until retiring in 2000. Casimano resigned as principal at a Connecticut Catholic high school earlier this year after two county men filed a lawsuit against Casimano alleging abuse while he served in Orange County.

Robert Foley. According to a 2002 Morning News report, in 1985, Michael Driscoll-then chancellor for the Orange diocese, now Bishop of the Diocese of Boise-wrote a letter to a priest in Liverpool, England, begging him to take the Reverend Robert Foley. Foley had just admitted to molesting an eight-year-old boy during a camping trip organized by St. Justin Martyr in Anaheim. The boy’s mother, Driscoll wrote, "has threatened to go to the police," and Foley "is in jeopardy of arrest and possible imprisonment if he remains here." Foley left the U.S. for England; he never faced prosecution for the molestation. Driscoll later apologized for his actions-after the Morning News report.

John Kenney. Kenney started his career in 1975 at St. Cecilia in Tustin, moved to St. Norbert in Orange two years later, then was transferred to the Diocese of Baker, where he died in a car accident on July 24, 1977. The Orange diocese lists him as a child molester; lawsuits filed in Bend, Oregon, allege the same.

Eleuterio "Big Al"Ramos. King of the county pedophiles, Ramos admitted to molesting at least 25 boys during a decade-long stint in the county. Like Buckman, Ramos also went "on assignment" for the Orange diocese-in his case, in Tijuana, Mexico, where he remained until Orange diocesan officials finally defrocked him in 1991.
WE GOT DUMPED WITH:

Richard T. Coughlin. In 1988, the Boston Archdiocese let Orange diocesan officials know that they had received a child-abuse complaint against Richard T. Coughlin, then the head of the All-American Boys Choir in Costa Mesa. Our Catholic hierarchy did nothing about the notice until five years later, when they suspended Coughlin on suspicion of systematically fondling boys for nearly 30 years.

Jerome Henson. Sacramento-area police officers caught Henson in flagrante delicto with a 13-year-old in a graveyard on a summer night in 1981. This boneyard tryst did not stop former Orange Bishop Norman McFarland-then the bishop of Reno-from receiving Henson just five days after the incident, nor did it dissuade McFarland from shipping Henson down to Orange County in 1984, where McFarland would join him two years later.

Henry Perez. Perez left the Orange diocese in 1991 after the Diocese of Phoenix let Orange officials know Perez molested children there during the early 1980s.

Siegfried Widera. Despite a warning from the Milwaukee Archdiocese that Widera once underwent a "moral problem having to do with a boy" (the "moral problem" was a child-molestation conviction), Orange officials nevertheless welcomed Widera to county parishes in 1976. Once here, Widera went on to sexually assault at least four other boys before officials exiled him to New Mexico in 1985.
• U.S. Tops List of Donors to Vatican
   Beliefnet, www.beliefnet.com/story/149/story_14908_1.html , The Associated Press, July 8, 2004
   VATICAN CITY: (AP) The United States remained the main source of donations to the Vatican despite the financial woes of the U.S. Church because of settlements in the sex abuse scandal, Vatican officials said Thursday.
   The Vatican's annual financial report for 2003 showed a deficit for a third consecutive year but an increase in donations for papal charities and humanitarian relief operations. "There was no reduction in offerings," said Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani, the Vatican's economic chief. "The United States is still in first place."
   Sebastiani was referring to offerings from individuals as well as financial assistance from dioceses, a key source of revenue for the Vatican.
• Lawyer to serve 15 days for theft
   Lexington Herald-Leader, www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/legislature/9113389.htm , By Peter Mathews, CENTRAL KENTUCKY BUREAU
   WINCHESTER (KY): Lexington lawyer Robert Treadway will serve 15 days in jail for stealing nearly $70,000 from a former client and friend, Ale-8-One President Frank A. Rogers and his company.
   At his sentencing yesterday, Treadway and his attorney, Jimmy Dale Williams, asked for probation, blaming his problems on anti-depressants he was taking.
   But they also said Treadway's unsuccessful scheme grew out of the work for which he became noted: representing victims of sexual abuse.
   Williams told Circuit Judge Julia Hylton Adams that Treadway identified closely with his clients, who sued the Catholic Diocese of Lexington and Lexington's city government.
• 2nd sex-abuse victim sues Rockford diocese [1999-2000 Campobello]
   Chicago Tribune, www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/nearwest/chi-0407090142jul09,1,5702779.story? coll=chi-newslocalnearwest-hed ; By Angela Rozas, Published July 9, 2004
   ROCKFORD (IL): A second lawsuit has been filed against a Rockford diocese priest, his bishop and the diocese, this time by a woman who was abused while a student at an Aurora Catholic high school in 1999.
   Mark Campobello, 39, Bishop Thomas Doran, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockford were sued last month by a woman who was abused by the priest in 1999 when she was a 14-year-old student at St. Peter Catholic School in Geneva. Campobello, who served as a priest at the school, is serving 8 years in prison for aggravated criminal sexual abuse of the woman.
   He also pleaded guilty to abusing a 15-year-old girl at Aurora Central High School. The woman, who is now 21, filed a lawsuit Thursday in Kane County Circuit Court.
   In 1999, the girl was a sophomore at the high school, where Campobello served as assistant principal and spiritual director.
   Campobello befriended the girl, who looked to him as a "surrogate" for her estranged father, whom she had not had contact with for several years, the lawsuit states. He encouraged her to meet with him one-on-one to discuss her spiritual growth, and then later engaged in sexual encounters with her at the high school, in his vehicle and at other locations through March 2000, according to the suit.
• Seattle, Spokane dioceses hope insurance covers abuse settlement costs
   KGW, www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D83MVSJ80.html , Associated Press, July/09/2004
   WASHINGTON State: Roman Catholic church officials in Seattle and Spokane say they hope insurance coverage will enable them to continue settling claims with victims of clergy sex abuse and avoid any bankruptcy filing.
   That should work as long as insurance payouts remain fair and reasonable, church officials said this week.
   "We've been very fortunate," said Pat Sursely of the Archdiocese of Seattle. "We have had a good management, good insurance coverage and a good working relationship with each of our insurance carriers."
   The Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., on Tuesday became the first in the nation to file for bankruptcy protection because of the steep costs of sex abuse litigation.
• Monsignor in Rare Attack on Egan Over Suspension [Kavanagh]
   The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2004/07/09/nyregion/09church.html?ex=1089950400&en=3afc920ef6891b83 &ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE ; By DANIEL J. WAKIN, Published: July 9, 2004
   NEW YORK: With his sexual abuse case languishing in Rome and his old pastorship now filled, a once-prominent monsignor in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York has begun a harsh attack on his archbishop, Cardinal Edward M. Egan.
   The cleric, Msgr. Charles M. Kavanagh, who is the leading New York priest caught up in the church's sex abuse scandal, said the cardinal threatened to use further damaging information to keep him from fighting his suspension. He said archdiocesan officials did not tell him of additional complaints before adding them to his file recently. The cardinal, the monsignor added, also refuses to permit his longtime canon lawyer to stay on the case.
   Such broadsides by a priest against his bishop are highly unusual, but they give an idea of how bitter the dispute between Cardinal Egan and Monsignor Kavanagh, the archdiocese's onetime chief fund-raiser, has become.
   "I'm defenseless," Monsignor Kavanagh said in an interview Wednesday. "I don't have any forum. It becomes a scandalous attempt to make me look bad," he said of the additional charges. He said the archdiocese had turned over no formal evidence, had not formally told him the charges against him, and had refused to show him what it had sent to the Vatican for a final judgment on his case.
• Accused priest had prior offense [1961 Wilt]
   Post-Gazette, www.post-gazette.com/pg/04191/343880.stm , By Ann Rodgers, Friday, July 09, 2004
   PITTSBURGH (PA): The Rev. George Wilt, a retired Catholic priest accused of fondling a 13-year-old girl in 1961, had his ministry restricted in 2003 for reasons that the diocese says had nothing to do with child sexual abuse.
   Diocesan officials would not give the reason. Their statement came as they engaged in a war of news releases with attorneys suing the diocese for an alleged conspiracy to protect priests who sexually abused minors.
   Wilt, now 72, retired in May 2003 after 35 years at St. Bernard Church in Mt. Lebanon. He is accused of fondling the girl in the St. Bernard rectory seven years before he was assigned there.
   On Tuesday, Wilt's attorney said that the diocesan lay review board had "fully exonerated" Wilt because there was no evidence that he had counseled anyone at St. Bernard in 1961.
• Diocese calls suits 'extortion'
   Tribune-Review, http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/newssummary/s_202612.html , By Michael Hasch, Friday, July 9, 2004
   PITTSBURGH (PA): Two lawyers filing lawsuits on behalf of individuals claiming to have been sexually abused by priests are making "extortion-like demands for money," the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh charged Thursday.
   Attorneys Richard Serbin and Alan Perer also appear to be making "attempts to unduly influence a potential jury pool" and seem interested in trying "their case in the media" instead of the courts, according to a prepared release from the diocese.
• N.S. diocese sued for abuse [MacDonald 21 suing] - RCC.

   Winnipeg Sun, www.canoe.ca/ NewsStand/ WinnipegSun/ News/2004/07/09 /532750.html , July 9, 2004
   HALIFAX, Canada: -- Three men who say they were sexually assaulted by a Roman Catholic priest when they were children are suing the Nova Scotia diocese that once supervised him.
   The plaintiffs filed separate statements of claim stating the Bishop of Antigonish and the diocese failed to protect them from sexual abuse by Rev. Hugh Vincent MacDonald, who died on June 27.
   Prior to his death, the priest was charged with 27 offences involving 18 children between the ages of eight to 15.
• Portland Diocese's bankruptcy stuns bishop in Tucson
   Tucson Citizen, www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0709diocese09.html , by Sheryl Kornman, Jul. 9, 2004
   TUCSON (AZ): The Tuesday bankruptcy filing by the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., was a "surprise" to Bishop Gerald Kicanas, the leader of the Tucson Diocese.
   Kicanas said earlier this month he will decide by Sept. 15 whether to file bankruptcy for the Tucson Diocese, which faces unresolved claims of sexual abuse by its priests and other church personnel.
   A Chapter 11 action in U.S. Bankruptcy Court would lay out all the assets of the diocese, determine its debts, make decisions on how much and who should be paid and in what order. Kicanas has said "it is the best way to respond to all victims."
   Fred Allison, the Tucson Diocese communications director, issued this statement by Kicanas in response to the Portland bankruptcy:
   "The news of the decision by the Archdiocese of Portland to file for Chapter 11 reorganization and protection, while not unexpected, came as a surprise.
• Priest Accused of Pedophilia Released [1973 Klep] -- deported from Samoa

   The Mercury News, www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/9112153.htm?1c , Associated Press, ~ July 9, 2004
   MELBOURNE, Australia - A Roman Catholic priest who was kicked out of Samoa last month for failing to disclose a 1994 child sexual assault conviction was released from custody here Friday ahead of a trial on similar charges.
   Frank Klep, 61, faces five counts of indecent assault against a 15-year-old boy from 1973, when he taught at the Salesian of Don Bosco's Rupertswood College in the southeast Australian town of Sunbury.
   He faces 10 years in prison if convicted. He has yet to enter a plea.
   Prosecutors filed the charges in May 1998, a month after Klep moved to Alafua, Samoa, to become senior financial officer with Moamoa Theological College.
   He was ordered deported from the South Pacific nation following the appearance of an article about the Salesians religious order by a Texas newspaper.
• L.A. Archdiocese Seeks to Intervene in Dispute
   Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me- sbriefs9.3jul09,1,3794246.story?coll=la-headlines-california ; From Times Wire Reports
   LOS ANGELES (CA): The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has asked a federal judge in San Diego for permission to intervene in a dispute about a state law that opened the doors to hundreds of decades-old sexual abuse cases.
   Lawyers for the archdiocese argue that they have a special interest because the suits "threaten to ruin the archdiocese economically and to impose unprecedented and punitive stigmatization upon the church."
• Ex-priest, diocese face new lawsuit [1999-2000 Campobello]
   Rockford Register Star, www.rrstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20040709/NEWS0101/407090322/1004/NEWS
   ROCKFORD (IL): The Rockford Catholic Diocese is facing another lawsuit over sexual abuse by Mark Campobello, a priest who admitted previous abuse and is serving an eight-year prison sentence.
   The suit, filed Thursday in Kane County, is from a 21-year-old woman who says Campobello assaulted her over the period of a year from April 1999 to March 2000.
   At the time, she was a student at Aurora Catholic High, where Campobello was assistant principal and spiritual director.
   The lawsuit claims the victim met Campobello in September 1998, when she enrolled at Aurora Catholic and was one of five students in the priest's Latin class. Her parents had divorced in 1990, and she had not seen her father since 1993.
   According to the suit, Campobello encouraged her to share her anxieties and hopes with him, and she came to look upon him as a surrogate for her father. The priest taught her Catholic doctrine and urged her to join the church, which she did when she was baptized as a 16-year-old in April 1999.
• Mannix torn between justice, church's rights
   Statesman Journal, http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=83237 , By PETER WONG, July 9, 2004
   SALEM (OR): Kevin Mannix of Salem is a Catholic and a member of St. Joseph Church.
   Mannix also is a lawyer who has long supported victims of crime. As a legislator more than a decade ago, Mannix sponsored legislation enabling adults to sue people who abused them as children.
   But Mannix said Thursday that he never imagined that myriad sex-abuse lawsuits would prompt the Portland Archdiocese to become the nation's first archdiocese to file for bankruptcy. The 20 largest unsettled lawsuits seek more than $340 million in compensation.
   The church filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court just before the start of a civil trial in Portland in which two plaintiffs sought compensation totaling more than $160 million.
   Mannix said that state law, the way it has been interpreted by the Oregon Supreme Court, the church and other religious and charitable groups, is wide open to a never-ending stream of lawsuits.
   "I am an advocate for victims," Mannix said. "But I never advocated the destruction of charitable organizations. That is what is happening now."
• Priest-abuse lawyers spar over legal doctrine
   Philadelphia Inquirer, www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/9112998.htm?1c , By David O'Reilly
   PHILADELPHIA (PA): Sex-abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia entered a pivotal stage yesterday as lawyers for the church and alleged victims sparred in court over the merits of a key legal argument called "fraudulent concealment."
   Lawyers for plaintiffs urged Common Pleas Court Judge Arnold New to allow the argument even though it has been little used in abuse cases.
   But the archdiocese's lawyer urged New to throw out 17 suits filed recently against the archdiocese, saying that the fraudulent-concealment tactic had no merit and that the statute of limitations had expired in all the cases.
   "The archdiocese finds these events [of abuse] tragic, but we feel the statute is appropriate," said lawyer C. Clark Hodgson Sr.
   Pennsylvania's statute of limitations has long frustrated those who allege sexual abuse of children because, until 1984, it required filing charges or a civil suit within two years of an assault. Even judges sympathetic to the emotional suffering of victims have felt obliged to dismiss late claims.
• Ex-bishop invokes 5th Amendment [Dupre]
   Republican, www.masslive.com/springfield/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1089359357280590.xml , By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com, Friday, July 09, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): Ever since he was confronted with allegations that he sexually abused two boys decades ago, former Roman Catholic bishop Thomas L. Dupre has remained silent.
   In his recent response to a civil suit, Dupre's stance didn't change. He pleaded the Fifth Amendment, his constitutional right not to incriminate himself.
   But Dupre's lawyer, as well as a local law professor, warn against concluding that invoking the Fifth Amendment is an admission of guilt.
   "A Supreme Court case clearly states that a person's right to remain silent is as important to and meant equally for the innocent," said Dupre's lawyer Michael O. Jennings of Springfield.
   Dupre invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to all claims of sexual abuse and circumstances surrounding the abuse as stated in the suit.
   The men whose names appear on the suit, but who have requested their names not be used by the media, allege Dupre abused them as minors when he was serving as a parish priest.
• Diocese may file for bankruptcy
   The Courier-Journal, www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2004/07/09ky/B3-diocese07090-2997.html , Associated Press
   COVINGTON, Ky. - Bankruptcy could be an option to keep the Diocese of Covington financially solvent as it faces a class-action lawsuit over claims of clergy sexual abuse, one of its attorneys said.
   Attorney Carrie Huff of Chicago said Wednesday that such a move might be inevitable. The suit could cost the diocese tens of millions of dollars, Huff said, and while bankruptcy is not an attractive alternative, at some point reality kicks in.
   It is a consideration that comes on the heels of the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., filing for bankruptcy on Tuesday because of the steep costs from clergy sex-abuse lawsuits. The Portland Archdiocese has paid $53 million to settle 133 claims from people who were abused by priests. Another 60 claims are pending.
   The Archdiocese of Louisville, which settled 243 sex abuse claims for about $26 million last year, "never seriously considered it," spokeswoman Cecelia Price has said.
• Priests want due process [1980s Kavanagh]
   The Journal News, www.nyjournalnews.com/newsroom/070904/a0109kavanagh.html , By GARY STERN, (Original publication: July 9, 2004)
   NEW YORK: The fall of Monsignor Charles Kavanagh at the height of the Catholic Church's sex-abuse crisis of 2002 was a stunner to New Yorkers who had attended church galas or given hefty sums of cash to Catholic causes.
   Kavanagh had helped raise millions for the Archdiocese of New York as its vicar of development and was a trusted friend to New York's Catholic upper-crust. So when he was removed from ministry in May 2002, after being accused by a former seminarian of having an improper, sexually charged relationship two decades before, it was widely assumed that Kavanagh would be given every chance to defend himself.
   More than two years later, priests and others are wondering if the man who took care of hundreds of VIPs at Cardinal John O'Connor's funeral in 2000 has gotten a fair hearing from his church. A growing chorus is pointing to Kavanagh's case as an example of a lack of due process that has been afforded accused priests since the scandal unfolded.
   "Everywhere you go, people say 'What's the situation with Charlie,' " said the Rev. Edward Byrne, pastor of St. Ann's Church in Ossining, who helped organize a letter to Cardinal Edward Egan, signed by 75 priests, that protested the treatment of accused priests. "It's very puzzling that a man with such a wonderful ministry, who is so beloved, can be hung out to dry for so long. There's no due process, no information for Charlie or anyone else."
• Priest's penalty light, some say [Hawkins, Clay]
   Fort Worth Star-Telegram, www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/9115196.htm?1c , By Darren Barbee
   ARLINGTON (TX): An Arlington priest was reprimanded by the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese for allowing a friend and fellow clergyman once accused of sexual misconduct to lead worship at his church.
   But a national victims' group says Fort Worth Bishop Joseph Delaney should take more substantial action against the Rev. Allan Hawkins of St. Mary the Virgin Catholic Church in Arlington.
   For more than a year, Hawkins allowed a Pennsylvania priest to lead Mass and perform other duties at his church. Hawkins failed to inform the diocese or the bishop of the priest's presence, in violation of diocese policy.
   Hawkins said the priest, the Rev. Christopher Clay, maintains his innocence and has not been charged with a crime.
• Woman's lawsuit alleges sex abuse by now-imprisoned priest [Campobello]
   Chicago Sun-Times, www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-priest09.html , BY MIKE CETERA, July 9, 2004
   ILLINOIS: Mark Campobello guided the teenager through her conversion to Roman Catholicism, tutored her in Latin and then turned to sexually abusing the Aurora Central Catholic High School student, a new complaint alleges.
   In a lawsuit filed Thursday, the woman says the priest molested her many times at the school, in his car and on the grounds of Mooseheart, a residential child-care facility in Kane County.
   The complaint, filed in Kane County Circuit Court, mirrors a lawsuit filed last month by a 19-year-old Geneva woman against Campobello, the Diocese of Rockford and Bishop Thomas Doran. It was the Geneva woman's claims of abuse that led to criminal charges against the 39-year-old Campobello.
   Campobello is serving an eight-year prison sentence at the Illinois River Correctional Center in Canton after pleading guilty in May to two counts of aggravated sexual abuse. He acknowledged abusing both the Geneva woman and the Aurora Central student. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:11 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Fri July 09, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont88.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sat July 10, 2004 edition follows:-
• Once an Exporter of Priests, Ireland Now Has Too Few -- only 8 to be ordained in 2004.

   The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/international/europe/11irel.html?ex=1090123200 &en=f78df6e90656bc43&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE ; By LIZETTE ALVAREZ, For July 11, 2004
   LIMERICK, Ireland - For centuries, Ireland mass-produced Roman Catholic priests, ordaining and exporting them at so steady a clip that the Mass in America seemed forever cast in a thick Irish brogue.
   Now, with that religious heyday long gone, Ireland finds itself facing a serious shortage of priests. The problem is expected to grow significantly worse in the next decade as more older priests retire, abandon the priesthood or die, and too few men prepare to replace them.
   Only 8 Roman Catholic clerical students are expected to be ordained in 2004 in all of Ireland, compared with 193 ordinations in 1990. The Diocese of Dublin, the largest in the country, has planned no ordinations for next year, and the Diocese of Limerick, a hardscrabble city on the banks of the Shannon River, is expected to ordain one man soon, and then wait years for its next priest. ...
   The reasons for the scarcity are varied, but not unfamiliar. Like other Catholic countries in Europe, Ireland has shed much of its religious devotion for more secular pastimes. Its newfound wealth as a European Union country has only accelerated this exodus from the pews. What is more, Ireland's Roman Catholic Church establishment - not to mention its older parishioners - was badly shaken by the abuse scandals involving Irish priests and nuns.
   Changing sexual mores also have had a profound effect. Today, even churchgoing Irish mothers, who once proudly steered their sons into the priesthood, are reluctant to encourage their sons to take that path.
   "There tends to be an assumption on the part of people that priests are lonely, and that it is impossible to live happily if you are not engaged in a sexual relationship," said Father Kevin Doran, Ireland's national coordinator for vocations. "It's part of the way the culture has developed. We have become a highly sexualized culture." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:17 PM]
• The abuse curse in the clergy - RCC.

   Stuff, www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2968492a1861,00.html , for 11 July 2004
   NEW ZEALAND: Sexual abuse by Catholic priests seems to be the new white collar crime and, as Sarah Stuart reports, genuine clergy are having to pay for the sins of a few.
   His office was the red-brick building next to the school gates, his white-haired, black-clad figure a familiar sight as the bell rang.
   Through the roar of lunchtime screams, Father Pat's laugh sang out like the icecream-van song in summer, drawing kids from every direction, registered before it was heard. Running from the playground benches we'd dive for his hand, or, those that knew him best, for the deep pockets in his regulation black trousers.
   There lay our earthly reward - a handful of paper-wrapped sweets for those game enough to grab.
   In 1979, Father Pat's pockets were nothing more than a schoolyard game, an innocent distraction from a well-loved cleric. Twenty-five years later they're enough to make a young Catholic priest gasp in horror.
• Priest put on leave after sex allegations [1971-81 Hebert]
   The Boston Globe, www.boston.com/ news/local/conn ecticut/articles/ 2004/07/10/priest_ put_on_leave_after_ sex_allegations ; July 10, 2004
   NORWICH, Conn. -- The Norwich Diocese has suspended a Pomfret priest following allegations that he sexually abused a boy in the 1970s.
   Father Paul L. Hebert, pastor of Most Holy Trinity Parish, has been placed on a leave of absence while the matter is investigated, the diocese said.
   Jacqueline Keller, a spokeswoman for the diocese, said Friday that in addition to its own investigation, the diocese has referred the matter to the state Department of Children and Families and the state's attorney's office.
   The allegations date back to when Hebert was a priest at St. Michael's Church in Stonington, from 1971 to 1981, according to The Day of New London.
Bishop Michael R. Cote made the announcement in a June 28 letter to parishioners, which was read at masses last weekend.
   "My heart and prayer go out to the man who has made the allegation for the suffering he has experienced over a long period of time," Cote wrote. "I pray he will find healing and reconciliation as we seek to discover the truth."
Hebert, 72, has denied the allegations, the church said. There was no answer Saturday at a number listed for him in Pomfret.
• San Francisco Archbishop Questioned Over Role in Portland Molest Cases [$US 53m wasted so far]
   CBS5, http://cbs5.com/news/local/2004/07/10/San_Francisco_Archbishop_Questioned_Over_Role_in_Portland_Molest_ Cases.html ; July 10, 2004
   SAN FRANCISCO (CA) (KCBS): The San Francisco Catholic Archbishop has been named in connection with a sex abuse scandal that led to the surprising bankruptcy of Portland's Archdiocese this week.
   The Portland Archdiocese has settled more than 130 claims of priest sex abuse at a cost of $53 million.
   As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle in Saturday's edition, William Levada served as Portland's Archbishop between 1986 and 1995.
   Lawyers for a group of molestation victims say Levada allowed one of the accused priests back into the ministry after a period of "rehabilitation."
• Sex abuse not cited in first State inquiry
   One in Four organisation, http://oneinfour.org/news/news2004/notcited , by Jim Morahan - Irish Examiner
   IRELAND: No reference was made to sexual abuse in the State's first official document referring to non-accidental injury of children, the Inquiry into Child Abuse heard yesterday
   Issued by the Department of Health in March 1977, the four-page memo contained a checklist to identify physical abuse cases and what steps should be taken. The previous April an Irish expert committee had reported to the department on non-accidental injury in the wake of British girl Maria Colwell's killing by her stepfather. The experts estimated that there were between 300 and 400 Irish cases of non-accidental injury of children each year, based on the figures in other countries.
   Yesterday, principal in the department's childcare legislation unit Mary McLoughlin, gave evidence to the inquiry. The unit is responsible for dealing with adult victims of past abuse in residential institutions.
   Until the 1980s, she said the majority of the social work on the ground was provided by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) and before that the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), which went back to the end of the 19th century. Ms McLoughlin agreed that the question of child sexual abuse emerged with the development of rape crisis centres in the early 1980s.
   In parallel with this development came the knowledge that these centres were dealing with a growing number of people who had been abused as children. Official guidelines on non-accidental injury to children, issued in 1983, made the first reference to the existence of sexual abuse.
• Minister's lawyer says drugs, not exorcism, killed boy [Hemphill]
   Court TV, http://courttv.com/trials/exorcist/070604_ctv.html , By Lisa Sweetingham, July 6, 2004
   MILWAUKEE (WI): An 8-year-old autistic boy who was accidentally suffocated to death by a minister during an exorcism last summer appeared visibly sedated by prescription drugs before the ritual even began, a defense attorney for the minister told jurors Tuesday.
   Although the minister, Ray Hemphill, admitted to leaning on the boy for almost two hours while attempting to cast out demons, his defense attorney told jurors that medication Terrance Cottrell was taking, not Hemphill's "good works," actually killed the boy. Autopsy reports determined that Terrance Cottrell died of asphyxiation from intense pressure on his chest.
   Hemphill, 47, who prayed over Terrance's chest as parishioners held the boy down, stands trial this week on one charge of felony physical child abuse, defined as the reckless causation of great bodily harm. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
   Terrance had been diagnosed with autism at the age of 2 and had been taking the drug ziprasidone, also known by the brand name Geodon, at the time of his death.
• Details of boy's death changed, witness says [2003 Hemphill] -- Faith Temple Church
   Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jul04/241862.asp , By DERRICK NUNNALLY, dnunnally@journalsentinel.com ; Posted July 6, 2004
   MILWAUKEE (WI): A minister on trial in the death of an autistic 8-year-old boy during a long, physical "prayer service" last summer told a firefighter responding to a 911 call that the boy collapsed while playing with other boys, the firefighter testified Tuesday.
   But Milwaukee firefighter James Kopp said he saw no other boys in the storefront Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith, where he had arrived the evening of Aug. 22, 2003, to treat Terrance Cottrell Jr.
   Kopp's testimony surprised the lawyer representing Ray Hemphill, whose trial for felony child abuse began Tuesday. Defense attorney Thomas Harris had contended in his opening statement that Hemphill had taken every proper step after Terrance quietly stopped breathing sometime during the prayers.
   Harris later asked Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jean DiMotto to keep prosecutors from reminding the jury that his client had apparently lied to the first official on the scene. Harris said he had never seen a fax prosecutors said they had sent to his office detailing the firefighter's testimony.
• Prosecution rests in minister's abuse trial [2003 Hemphill] -- Faith Temple Church
   Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jul04/242043.asp , By DERRICK NUNNALLY, dnunnally@journalsentinel.com , Posted July 7, 2004
   MILWAUKEE (WI): The last two hours of an autistic 8-year-old boy's life were revisited in such excruciating detail in court Wednesday that his father, Terrance Cottrell Sr., began to cry in his seat in the gallery.
   It was the second day in the trial of minister Ray A. Hemphill for felony child abuse in the two-hour, physical "prayer service" at his Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith on Aug. 22 that left 8-year-old Terrance Jr. dead from what the county medical examiner said was suffocation. The prosecution rested its case late Wednesday, relying largely on police accounts of what Hemphill and church members said went on that night.
   The father began weeping openly as Milwaukee police Detective Djordje Rankovic relayed what Pat Cooper, Terrance Jr.'s mother, told him about the church service, which came at the end of a three-week series of rituals intended to invoke holy help with the boy's autism. There was reportedly singing, praying and a laying on of hands while the preacher pleaded into the struggling boy's ear for the demons to leave.
   "Terrance would be forced to the floor and pinned down with Minister Ray Hemphill holding his head down, with his knee pinned across Terrance's chest to keep him from moving," said Rankovic, reading from a page of notes from his Aug. 25 interview with Cooper.
• Doctors says drug most likely did not cause overdose [2003 Hemphill] -- self-described minister
   Duluth News Tribune, www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/9106575.htm , Associated Press
   MILWAUKEE (WI): The Milwaukee County medical examiner and a toxicologist both say they believe the amount of drugs in the system of an autistic boy who died during a prayer service most likely had not caused an overdose.
   Medical Examiner Jeffrey Jentzen and toxicologist Richard Tovar expressed that view during testimony Wednesday in the felony child abuse trial of self-described minister Ray. A. Hemphill.
   Authorities have contended that Terrance Cottrell Jr. died Aug. 22 when Hemphill pinned the boy while trying to release "demons" at the storefront Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith.
   Defense attorney Thomas Harris repeatedly sought to have the doctors summoned by Assistant District Attorney Mark S. Williams admit that there was a possibility the boy had overdosed on drugs rather than suffocated in the preacher's restraint.
• Exorcist's brother says God claimed autistic boy's life, not defendant [2003 Hemphill] -- Faith Temple Church
   Court TV, http://courttv.com/trials/exorcist/070804_ctv.html , By Lisa Sweetingham, July 8, 2004
   MILWAUKEE (WI): The brother of a minister on trial for suffocating an autistic child during an exorcism told jurors Thursday that it was God who "took" the child, not the defendant's intense ritual.
   "I'm the pastor and God has ordained my brother to be an evangelist, he has the gift to cast out devils," David Hemphill testified.
   Ray Hemphill, 47, who prayed and sang over 8-year-old Terrance Cottrell's chest as parishioners held him down on Aug. 22, 2003, stands trial for felony physical child abuse. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
   On Thursday, the defense called David Hemphill, known as Bishop Hemphill to his flock. He is the pastor of the independent Faith Temple of the Apostolic Faith Church, which he founded in 1977. He also ordained his brother into the church.
• Religion debatable, but the law is clear [Hemphill] -- self-ordained leaders
   Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline.com/news/ozwash/jul04/242570.asp , by Mike Nichols, Posted: July 9, 2004
   MILWAUKEE (WI): For a while there, after the jury in the "Minister" Ray Hemphill trial had been holed up for about the fourth hour Friday, I was convinced common sense was going to be cast out like some imaginary demon.
   Convinced by more than a ticking clock.
   Hemphill, according to the criminal complaint, was ordained a minister in the Faith Temple Church of Apostolic Faith by his brother David. And even David didn't have any formal religious training, his wife was quoted as saying at one point.
   Ray Hemphill himself was, in real life, a janitor with the Milwaukee Public Schools - albeit one who seemed to have a strong, and odd, set of beliefs.
   Hoping to hear him explain those beliefs, and how they could be twisted into child abuse, I stopped by the courthouse earlier this week.
• Church minister could face five years in jail after autistic boy died in 'exorcism' [2003 Hemphill] -- Faith Temple Church
   AWARES, www.awares.org/pkgs/news/news.asp?showItemID=457&board=&bbcode=&profileCode=§ion
   MILWAUKEE (WI) USA: A minister was found guilty on July 9 of abusing an eight-year-old autistic boy who died in what prosecutors called an exorcism at a storefront church.
   Prosecutors said that Ray Hemphill had lain on the boy's chest for at least an hour while trying to release "demons" from him. Hemphill's attorney said his client was only trying to help Terrance Cottrell, and that the boy had died after an overdose of medication.
   Jurors found Hemphill, 46, guilty of a felony charge of physical abuse of a child recklessly causing great bodily harm. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Sentencing was set for August 17.
   The boy died in August 2003 at Hemphill's Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith. The medical examiner ruled that he had suffocated. The authorities said Hemphill had pinned the youngster during what prosecutors called an exorcism, but his attorney said was a prayer service.
• Minister guilty in boy's death [Hemphill] -- self-described minister
   Chicago Tribune, www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/north/chi-0407100174jul10,1,4616170.story?coll=chi- newslocalnorth-hed ; Associated Press, Published July 10, 2004
   MILWAUKEE (WI): A self-described minister was found guilty Friday of abusing an 8-year-old autistic boy who died last year in what prosecutors called an exorcism in a storefront church.
   Prosecutors said Ray Hemphill lay on Terrance Cottrell Jr.'s chest for at least an hour while trying to release "demons" from him before the boy died.
   Hemphill's attorney said that his client was only trying to help the boy, and that Terrance died after an overdose of medication.
• Janitor guilty in 'exorcism' death [2003 Hemphill] -- makeshift exorcism of 8-y-o
   News Corporation, www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10096089^1702,00.html , From correspondents in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 10, 2004
   MILWAUKEE (WI) USA: An American school janitor who moonlighted as an evangelical pastor was convicted of child abuse today in the death of an autistic boy during a "makeshift exorcism" ceremony.
   Ray Hemphill faces up to five years in jail on the charge and another five on supervised release.
   He was arrested in August last year following the death of eight-year-old Terrance Cottrell during a prayer service at a storefront church in Milwaukee in the US Midwestern state of Wisconsin.
   The youngster's death came at the end of a bruising two hour prayer service during which Hemphill laid on top of the boy as he sought to expel the youngster's "demons," witnesses told police.
• Two priests, deacon added to list of clergy accused of sexual abuse [Warren, Jablonowski, DeChant]
   KVOA, http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=2022330
   TUCSON (AZ) (AP): In Tucson, two priests and a deacon have been added by the Roman Catholic Diocese to a public list of clergy accused of sexually abusing minors.
   The addition of the Reverend Thomas Warren, the Reverend Anthony Jablonowski and Deacon Ron DeChant brings the list to a total of 28 priests, two deacons and one nun.
   The diocese created the list in 2002 after reaching a multimillion-dollar settlement with ten men.
   The men said they were abused by four members of the local clergy during the 1960s, '70s and '80s.
• Portland archbishop faces fresh challenges with bankruptcy filing [1950s-80s 50 boys]
   KGW, www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_071004 _news_portland_archbishop_.2e4fa3323.html ; By SARAH LINN, Associated Press Writer, 09:35 AM PDT on Saturday, July 10, 2004
   PORTLAND (OR): When Archbishop John Vlazny moved here from Minnesota in 1997, he thought he was coming to a diocese where he wouldn't have to deal with allegations of sexual abuse by priests.
   Two years later, allegations surfaced that a Portland priest had molested more than 50 boys starting in the 1950s and through the 1980s.
   The charges - and the lawsuits - began to pile up.
   With more than $53 million paid in court settlements and roughly 60 lawsuits still pending, Vlazny decided this past week that the archdiocese had to file for bankruptcy - becoming the first in the nation to do so.
• Developments in clergy abuse crisis
   Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp? category=1110&slug=Church%20Abuse%20Glance ; By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
   UNITED STATES: More than two years after it began, the clerical sexual abuse crisis continues to have a strong impact on the Roman Catholic Church in America. Among the key recent developments:

The Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., last Tuesday became the first to declare bankruptcy as it faced multimillion-dollar clergy sex abuse claims. The Diocese of Tucson, Ariz., is considering a similar move.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has joined a constitutional challenge to a California law that has enabled hundreds of alleged abuse victims to sue. The law temporarily eliminated the state statute of limitations in civil cases. About 400 claims are pending against the archdiocese.

A grand jury that has been investigating sex abuse claims in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for more than a year has heard testimony from several top archdiocesan officials, including the former archbishop, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.
• Many dioceses ponder bankruptcies in priest sex abuse lawsuits
   USA Today, www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-07-08-church-bankrupt_x.htm , July 8, 2004
   PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Several Roman Catholic dioceses being sued for clergy sexual abuse could find themselves following the lead of the Portland Archdiocese, filing for bankruptcy to fight the lawsuits. Bishop Gerald Kicanas of the Diocese of Tucson said it may be the "best way to respond to all victims."
   Kicanas has met with lawyers for much of the past month to consider filing for bankruptcy, said Fred Allison, spokesman for the Arizona diocese.
   Archbishop John Vlazny of the Archdiocese of Portland announced the bankruptcy filing Tuesday, a move that, "while not unexpected, came as a surprise," Kicanas said. Portland was the first archdiocese in the nation to seek Chapter 11 protection.
   The bishop did not say whether Tucson will follow Portland, but said "we continue to explore the best option for our diocese."
   Other dioceses have already settled the lawsuits against them and say they have moved on, with or without the threat of bankruptcy.
• Ex-Hafey principal to face sex charge in court [1997 Smith]
   Times Leader, www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/news/local/9121748.htm , By DAVID WEISS, dweiss@leader.net
   HAZLE TWP. PENNSYLVANIA: The former Bishop Hafey principal and athletic director will face a sexual assault charge in Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas.
   Richard Gregory Smith, 37, waived his right to a preliminary hearing Friday on a single count of statutory sexual assault before District Justice Thomas Sharkey.
   Additional charges of aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault and corruption of minors were withdrawn.
   Police said Smith had sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old sophomore girl in his principal's office, home and vehicle in 1997.
   A Diocese of Scranton official had said officials learned about the alleged assault during a sexual abuse education and prevention program in May.
• Pastor Put On Leave In Norwich [Hebert]
   The Day, www.theday.com/eng/web/news/re.aspx?re=5E614597-B791-47CC-8340-4B1BEAF911F9 , By KENTON ROBINSON, Day Staff Columnist, Enterprise Reporter/Columnist, Published on July/10/2004
   NORWICH (CT): Father Paul L. Hebert, pastor of Most Holy Trinity Parish in Pomfret, has been placed on a leave of absence in the wake of allegations that he sexually abused a boy at St. Michael's Church in Pawcatuck in the 1970s.
   Hebert has denied the allegations. He could not be reached for comment Friday.
   Jacqueline Keller, spokeswoman for the Diocese of Norwich, said Friday that the diocese is investigating the allegations and that the matter has been referred to the state Department of Children and Families and the state's attorney's office.
   In the meantime, the bishop has assigned Father John J. O'Neill, the pastor of St. James Church in Danielson, to be the temporary administrator for the parish, Keller said.
   Confidentiality requirements prevent the diocese from revealing the name of Hebert's accuser.
• Priest pleads guilty to obscene image charge [2002 LeFebvre]
   Des Moines Register, www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20040710/NEWS01/407100331/1001/NEWS , By RACHAEL SERAVALLI, July 10, 2004
   SIOUX CITY (IA): A Sioux City priest accused of disseminating obscene images in a public Emmetsburg health club in 2002 has pleaded guilty to the charge and been placed on probation, according to police.
   The Emmetsburg Police Department reported that the Rev. Bruce LeFebvre, 56, left the images in the men's locker room of the Smith Wellness Center where minors could see them.
   LeFebvre is the second priest to be acknowledged by name by the Sioux City Catholic Diocese as having sexual misconduct allegations against him. "As soon as the diocese was informed by the Palo Alto authorities that there was a problem with (LeFebvre), we immediately pulled him from his assignment and sent him for treatment without hesitation," Sioux City Diocese spokesman Jim Wharton said.
   Wharton said LeFebvre spent several months in a treatment facility for sexual offenders outside the state after police began their investigation in 2002.
• Religion & Ethics briefs: Too soon for bankruptcy talk, local diocese says
   Sacramento Bee, www.sacbee.com/content/lifestyle/story/9933708p-10855633c.html , By Jennifer Garza, Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, July 10, 2004
   SACRAMENTO (CA): Last week, the Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., became the first diocese in the country to declare bankruptcy in the wake of a wave of court judgments stemming from sexual abuse related lawuits. Others - such as the Diocese of Tucson and the Diocese of Covington in Ohio - are reportedly considering bankruptcy.
   The Catholic Diocese of Sacramento is not considering this option. "Not at this point," said Lynette Magnino, spokeswoman for the diocese. "It is too soon to know the financial implications because we're still in the litigation process."
   The diocese is dealing with 37 plaintiffs who claim to have been sexually abused by clergy. Those lawsuits are in various stages of the legal process, according to James Sweeney, counsel for the diocese.
• Local pastor answers questions
   Statesman Journal, http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=83324 , By TARA MCLAIN, July 10, 2004
   OREGON: The Rev. George Wolf is comfortable with tough questions about faith, fidelity and even personal finance.
   Bankruptcy, however, was a field he found himself ill prepared for this week.
   Wolf, the pastor of Queen of Peace Catholic Church in South Salem, plans to answer his parishioner's questions Sunday - to the extent that he can.
   His leader, the Archbishop John Vlazny, filed for bankruptcy protection this week. The archdiocese of Portland in Oregon does not have enough money to handle an influx of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests, Vlazny said.
   The announcement set lawyers, bankers and other creditors wondering about the many churches, chapels and cemeteries listed in the archdiocese's name throughout western Oregon.
   Many Catholics have wondered the same - including some in Wolf's congregation. He doubts that Sunday Mass will turn into a question-and-answer session, but he's open to meeting with church members, if needed.
• Diocesan officials may not have to testify in case of an accused priest [2002 Liberatore]
   Scranton Times Tribune, http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12288463&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=416046 &rfi=6 ; BY MICHAEL McNARNEY, July/10/2004
   SCRANTON (PA): Lawyers for a priest accused of sexual abuse of a minor have worked out a deal with the Diocese of Scranton to keep Bishop Joseph F. Martino and other key diocesan officials from having to testify at the preliminary hearing, according to a transcript of a recent hearing.
   The same transcript reveals prosecutors in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties and the accused priest's attorney are trying to work out a "global resolution" to the case.
   The Rev. Albert M. Liberatore Jr., 40, was charged May 17 with indecent assault and corrupting a minor after a young man accused the Rev. Liberatore of sexual assault in his faculty office at the University of Scranton in 2002.
   The alleged victim, 19, was 17 at the time.
   The Rev. Liberatore's preliminary hearing has been postponed indefinitely by Judge Robert Mazzoni while the lawyers negotiate. It had been scheduled for June 30.
• Archdiocese should appoint investigative panel
   Statesman Journal, news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=83292 , July 10, 2004
   OREGON: This week's bankruptcy filing shows that the church is in dire straits from abuse scandal
   The Roman Catholic Church in contemporary America is becoming known for its sex abuse scandals as much as for its many good works. That is terribly unfortunate for the church, for the thousands of dedicated staff and volunteers, and for the millions of Americans who benefit from the church's caring service to them.
   The church is in crisis, but it is a crisis that the church brought upon itself. For generations, the hierarchy was too protective of itself, or too disbelieving of the victims, to forthrightly address the abuse taking place before its eyes.
   Because of the ensuing lawsuits, the church now finds itself in such straits that the Archdiocese of Portland filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week. Although Archbishop John V. Vlazny has been a leader in expressing remorse for the crimes and compassion for the victims, he felt compelled to take the unprecedented legal step.
   The Portland archdiocese apparently is second only to Boston in the amount of money it has paid to victims sexually abused by priests - more than $53 million to settle more than 130 abuse claims. Many involve one priest, who died in 2002.
   Portland's bankruptcy filing raises two overriding questions: "What will happen to the church? And the victims?"
• Diocese disputes paper's report
   Cincinnati Enquirer, www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/07/10/loc_loc2kydio.html , By Jim Hannah, July 10 2004
   COVINGTON (KY): The Covington Diocese has no plans to file for bankruptcy, according to one of its attorneys.
   Diocese attorney Carrie Huff issued the statement in response to news accounts to the contrary.
   "The Diocese has no plans to file for bankruptcy at this time, nor did I or the Diocese ever indicate otherwise," she said.
   She said the Kentucky Post inaccurately reported Thursday that the diocese is considering follow the lead of the Archdiocese of Portland and file for bankruptcy as it pays out millions of dollars to alleged priest sex-abuse victims.
   "We are surprised and disappointed that general comments I intended as background observations in response to a reporter's inquiry about the ... Portland bankruptcy were taken out of context and catapulted by the Post into headline status," Huff said.
• Levada's Oregon history surfaces [Grammond] -- sanctuary, then the bankruptcy delaying action
   San Francisco Chronicle, www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/07/10/BAG9F7JBS61.DTL , by Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer, Saturday, July 10, 2004
   SAN FRANCISCO (CA): Two lawyers representing Oregon molestation victims have raised questions about the role San Francisco Archbishop William Levada played in a priestly sex abuse scandal that led to this week's unprecedented bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Portland.
   Levada, who served as the archbishop of Portland from 1986 to 1995, oversaw church disciplinary proceedings against two Oregon priests accused of child molestation, including one who was put back in regular parish ministry in 1994, following a brief period of "rehabilitation," the attorneys say.
   On Tuesday, the Portland Archdiocese -- which has spent more than $53 million to settle more than 130 claims of priest abuse -- became the first Catholic diocese in the nation to file for bankruptcy.
   That bankruptcy filing also suspended a potentially embarrassing and costly trial against the archdiocese and the late Rev. Maurice Grammond, who has been accused of molesting dozens of boys in the Portland area. It had been scheduled to begin Tuesday.
   Jeffrey Anderson, one of the lawyers suing the Portland archdiocese, said Levada "is one of a long line of bishops that has given sanctuary to Grammond -- a known predator."
   "Levada inherited a secret and kept it the nine years he was there," Anderson said in an interview. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:31 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sat July 10, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont88.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sun July 11, 2004 edition follows:-
• Christian Brothers tend a wider flock; The Catholic order has been told to leave its schools for ministry work in Asia.
   Sydney Morning Herald, www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/11/1089484241328.html?oneclick=true , by Chris McGillion, July 11, 2004
   AUSTRALIA: An important chapter in the story of the Australian Catholic Church closed last week - and a significant footnote to the country's social history was written - when the Christian Brothers were instructed to quit their role in education and head off to the missionary fields of Asia instead.
   In a letter to the West Australian province, the Christian Brothers' worldwide head, Brother Philip Pinto, observed that the "need that saw us setting up our schools in many of our current ministry sites is now being adequately met by others, in many instances by the state itself". ...
   Over the years the brothers helped propel legions of working-class Catholics into the middle class and the professions, offered a model of masculinity that was neither beer-swilling nor self-consumed and played an important role in assimilating migrants at a time when assimilation was socially crucial if politically incorrect.
   The brothers had a simple - James Joyce once suggested "uncouth" - approach: their teaching was ham-fisted, their theology uncomplicated. The strap, rather than the cross, came to symbolise the brothers for many who came into contact with them.
   As some brothers would eventually admit (and, to their credit, rectify in new and largely unsung ministries to troubled youth) their congregational culture had departed from their founder's ideal which was to treat children with dignity and respect. It could also be argued that this departure produced a generalised background of abusive behaviour that spawned the specific cases of horrific abuse that came to light in the 1990s. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:56 PM]
• Bristol Twp. church addresses abuse allegations
   Bucks County Courier Times, www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/111-07112004-329435.html , By MATT COUGHLIN, July 11, 2004
   PENNSYLVANIA: A banner hanging outside Immaculate Conception BVM church proclaimed "A prayful past, a faithful future." And the church's pastor followed the message at Mass this weekend when he talked about recent allegations of sexual abuse against a priest who used to serve in the parish.
   "I ask you to join me in offering our prayers this week for all victims of abuse as well as all of those justly or unjustly accused of abuse," the Rev. Joseph L. Logrip said at the end of Saturday evening's service at the Bristol Township church.
   And to help the faithful in the future, he told his parishioners that counselors from Catholic Social Services are available in the parish school over the weekend for anyone who wants to discuss their concerns about the allegations against the Rev. David C. Sicoli.
   Sicoli, a former assistant pastor at Immaculate Conception and now pastor at Holy Spirit parish in South Philadelphia, has taken a voluntary leave of absence following the allegations, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia confirmed Friday.
• Lawsuits allege Vatican concealed sexual abuse
   Lexington Herald-Leader www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/world/9128512.htm , By Rachel Zoll, ASSOCIATED PRESS, Sun, Jul. 11, 2004
   UNITED STATES: Leading advocates for victims of clergy sex abuse are directing their criticism beyond U.S. Roman Catholic bishops to the highest levels of the church. They're now accusing Vatican leaders of hiding the scope of the molestation problem worldwide -- and demanding reform.
   Another sex abuse lawsuit was filed last month naming the Vatican as a defendant -- this time in Kentucky. Separately, Minneapolis attorney Jeff Anderson, who specializes in clergy abuse lawsuits, has filed two others that target officials in Rome.
   Many church experts say complaints of a Rome cover-up are baseless, meant only to gain advantage in the hundreds of still-pending abuse cases against U.S. dioceses. Millions of dollars in potential settlements are at stake.
   But advocates say the revelations that many American bishops sheltered offenders in their own dioceses are just one small part of what they call long-term, systemic wrongdoing.
   "The Vatican has been vitally involved," said Richard Sipe, a psychologist and former monk who researches sexuality in the priesthood and advises people suing dioceses. "The Vatican is in the know and has documented its knowledge throughout the centuries."
• Sioux City priest on probation for displaying obscene pictures [LeFebvre] -- a repeat suspect
   Sioux City Journal, www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2004/07/11/news/regional/a166cc529e28148686256ece0011dd4a.txt , The Associated Press
   IOWA: A Roman Catholic priest has pleaded guilty to disseminating obscene pictures in a public health club in Emmetsburg and has been placed on probation.
   The Rev. Bruce LeFebvre left images in the men's locker room of the Smith Wellness Center where minors could see them, Emmetsburg police said.
   LeFebvre, 56, is one of two Sioux City Diocese priests facing charges of sexual misconduct, diocese officials said.
   The diocese removed LeFebvre from his duties and sent him to treatment for sexual offenders when church authorities were informed of the investigation by Palo Alto County officials, said diocese spokesman Jim Wharton.
   LeFebvre had undergone previous treatment for sexual offenders outside of Iowa, Wharton said.
   LeFebvre was given a one-year prison sentence which was suspended and he must serve a year probation, court documents said.
   He will be listed on the state's Registry of Sex Offenders for 10 years and is prohibited from using the Internet, operating computers or having any contact with children.
• Priests, deacon added to clergy abuse list [Warren, Jablonowski, DeChant]
   The Arizona Republic www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0711churchabuse11.html , Associated Press, Jul. 11, 2004
   TUCSON (AZ): Two priests and a deacon have been added by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson to a public list of clergy accused of sexually abusing minors against them.
   The addition of the Rev. Thomas Warren, the Rev. Anthony Jablonowski and Deacon Ron DeChant brings the list to a total of 28 priests, two deacons and one nun.
   The diocese created the list in 2002 after reaching a multimillion-dollar settlement with 10 men who said they were abused by four members of the local clergy during the 1960s, '70s and '80s.
   The diocese's Sexual Misconduct Review Board, also created after the 2002 settlement, recommended that the diocese inform parishioners where Warren, Jablonowski and DeChant served.
   Warren, who died in 2001, was a priest for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He was identified this year by the archdiocese as having had allegations of sexual misconduct with minors made against him.
• 7 young men look to 'our day in court'
   Arizona Daily Star www.dailystar.com/dailystar/dailystar/29603.php , [1988 Guillen] By Stephanie Innes, July.11.2004
   YUMA (AZ): The photos show young brothers, beaming with pride in their Sunday best as they celebrate a relative's first holy communion. In other pictures, the little boys wear altar robes and serious faces as they process through their church during Mass.
   But the photos, most of them from the 1990s, tell only a fraction of what the brothers - now young men - describe as an excruciating period of their lives.
   There's been no compensation for seven young men - including the Rodriguez brothers from the photos - who say the Rev. Juan Guillen, a former associate pastor at Immaculate Conception Church here, repeatedly seduced and raped them. Guillen, who ministered primarily to Spanish-speaking parishioners, is in state prison serving a 10-year sentence for sexual misconduct with minors.
   Between them, the seven young men - three sets of brothers who are all children of Mexican farmworkers - have filed four civil actions against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson, the first of which is scheduled to go to trial in September. But the diocese is considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and for the Yuma families who say they were victimized by Guillen that could mean a delay in cases that have left them feeling ashamed and stigmatized in a community of devout Catholics.
   "These Yuma cases are extremely strong and solid. It's undisputed they were molested and they are acts of molestation of the worst nature," said Jerrold F. Shelley, a Yuma attorney who is representing the young men as a co-counsel with Tucson lawyers Lynne M. Cadigan and Kim E. Williamson. "The church was a mainstay in their lives, their families were extremely devout and now these kids have lost their spirituality, their childhood and their community."
• Bankruptcy won't touch most assets, diocese says
   Arizona Daily Star www.dailystar.com/dailystar/dailystar/29618.php , By Stephanie Innes, July.11.2004
   TUCSON (AZ): The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson owns $46.1 million worth of property in nine Arizona counties - the bulk of that wealth coming from parishes, which the diocese predicts will not be affected by a possible bankruptcy.
   Diocese officials defer to Roman Catholic Church canon law when they maintain that the diocese's 75 parishes are not diocese property, even though that's how they are listed on public tax rolls. The diocese also maintains its fund-raising foundation, which has nearly $7 million in net assets, isn't part of the diocese's overall worth, and notes that some diocese assets are gifts with restricted uses.
   The diocese's financial report shows a long-term debt of $4.7 million and a deficit of $7 million - a "negative net worth" as its budget director has said.
   As the diocese contemplates declaring bankruptcy while facing 16 pending lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of minors by priests, the Arizona Daily Star tabulated diocesan real-estate holdings by obtaining property records from all of the nine Arizona counties where it ministers. The Star included parishes in its count of overall diocese holdings because the diocese is listed as the owner of its parishes in public records. Star research shows that while the diocese administration may be asset-poor, its parishes are not in the same dire straits.
• Ex-bishop's fate remains uncertain [Dupre]
   Republican, www.masslive.com/hampfrank/republican/index.ssf?/base/news- 1/1089531986166801.xml By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Sunday, July 11, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): Not a lot has changed for the Most Rev. Thomas L. Dupre in the five months since he resigned as bishop of the Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese amid allegations of sexual abuse and a subsequent grand jury inquiry.
   Legal charges against him remain uncertain. A civil lawsuit is still pending. A church investigation may be continuing.
   Also, it appears Dupre remains at St. Luke Institute, the Silver Springs, Md., facility that treats priests with a variety of disorders, including those who have sexually abused children.
   Changes appear certain in the weeks or months ahead.
   Hampden County District Attorney William M. Bennett said the grand jury will complete its work on the case by the end of the summer.
   However, he said little else about the case in an interview Friday.
   "The matter has been before the grand jury and a number of witnesses have testified. Documents have been subpoenaed and are under review," he said.
• Ordeal isn't new for archbishop [$US 53m wasted, 60 more cases]
   Statesman Journal, http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=83353 , By SARAH LINN, The Associated Press, July 11, 2004
   PORTLAND (OR): When Archbishop John Vlazny moved to Oregon from Minnesota in 1997, he thought he was coming to a diocese where he wouldn't have to deal with allegations of sexual abuse by priests.
   "Actually, I thought the problem had been dealt with here," Vlazny said Friday. "There was none of this concern, no cases coming forward."
   Two years later, allegations surfaced that a Portland priest had molested more than 50 boys beginning in the 1950s and through the 1980s.
   The charges - and the lawsuits - began to pile up.
   With more than $53 million paid in court settlements and about 60 lawsuits still pending, Vlazny decided last week that the archdiocese had to file for bankruptcy - becoming the first in the nation to do so.
   Vlazny, 67, said the move was "the only way that we could be fair to all victims, somehow handle this financial situation and keep the church on course."
   Born in Chicago in 1937, Vlazny spent most of his priesthood in the Midwest. He was rector of Loyola University's Niles College and later served as auxiliary bishop for the Chicago diocese.
• Portland, Boston: A tale of two endings [$US 95m wasted]
   Statesman Journal, http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=83355 , By PETER WONG, July 11, 2004
   OREGON: The Catholic Church faced many claims by victims alleging years of sexual abuse by priests.
   The number of claims mounted through the years, and so did their price tag - into the tens of millions of dollars.
   Officials considered bankruptcy protection. But for Boston and Portland, this tale of two archdioceses has different endings.
   The Portland Archdiocese, one of the nation's smallest with 356,000 Catholics, filed for bankruptcy protection last week after facing claims amounting to at least $340 million.
   "This action offers the best possibility for the archdiocese," the Rev. John Vlazny, Portland's archbishop, wrote in a pastoral letter.
   The story isn't over for the Boston Archdiocese, which, with its 2.1 million Catholics, ranks behind only New York, Chicago, Detroit and Los Angeles in population. But an end to its costly claims might be in sight.
   After more than 18 months in the glare of national publicity, beginning in early 2002, the Boston Archdiocese agreed last year to an $85 million settlement with about 550 victims.
   That agreement was in addition to an earlier $10 million settlement with 86 people who said they had been abused by John Geoghan, a former priest who was killed in prison last year while serving a sentence of up to 10 years.
• Oregon diocese challenges bishop
   Duluth News Tribune, BY SARAH LINN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
   PORTLAND, Ore. - When Archbishop John Vlazny moved to Porland, Ore., from Minnesota in 1997, he thought he was coming to a diocese where he wouldn't have to deal with allegations of sexual abuse by priests.
   "Actually, I thought the problem had been dealt with here," Vlazny said. "There was none of this concern, no cases coming forward."
   Two years later, allegations surfaced that a Portland priest had molested more than 50 boys starting in the 1950s and through the 1980s.
   The charges -- and the lawsuits -- began to pile up.
   With more than $53 million paid in court settlements and about 60 lawsuits still pending, Vlazny decided this past week that the archdiocese had to file for bankruptcy -- becoming the first in the nation to do so.
   Vlazny, 67, said the move was "the only way that we could be fair to all victims, somehow handle this financial situation, and keep the church on course." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:41 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sun July 11, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont88.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Mon July 12, 2004 edition follows:-
• Austrian church rocked by gay seminary scandal

   The New Zealand Herald, www.nzherald.co. nz/storydisplay. cfm?storyID=3577984& thesection=news& thesubsection= world , July 13, 2004
   VIENNA, Austria: Austria's Roman Catholic Church announced on Monday it would launch an internal probe into charges of homosexuality between priests and seminarians at a seminary outside Vienna.
   A church panel in the Sankt Poelten diocese west of the capital agreed on the inquiry after the news magazine Profil published photographs showing leading clerics of the local seminary fondling and kissing student priests.
   Profil said investigators had also found at least 40,000 mostly pornographic photographs at the seminary.
   The director of the seminary and his assistant have both quit as details of the scandal emerged in recent days.
   "The panel has decided to investigate this issue thoroughly, discuss and assess the results of this inquiry and draw the necessary conclusions from the result," a Church statement said. Kurt Krenn, Sankt Poelten's controversial bishop, told Austria's ORF television he had seen a compromising photograph of the seminary director fondling another man over his clothes but said the scene had nothing to do with homosexuality. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:49 PM]
• Gay seminary scandal rocks Austria
   Sydney Morning Herald July 13, 2004 - 7:04AM
   AUSTRIA: Austria's Roman Catholic Church is launching an investigation into charges of homosexuality between priests and seminarians at a seminary outside Vienna.
   A church panel in the Sankt Poelten diocese west of the capital agreed on the inquiry after the news magazine Profil published photographs showing leading clerics of the local seminary fondling and kissing student priests.
   Profil said investigators had also found at least 40,000 mostly pornographic photographs at the seminary.
   The director of the seminary and his assistant have both quit as details of the scandal emerged in recent days.
   "The panel has decided to investigate this issue thoroughly, discuss and assess the results of this inquiry and draw the necessary conclusions from the result," a Church statement said.
   Kurt Krenn, Sankt Poelten's controversial bishop, told Austria's ORF television he had seen a compromising photograph of the seminary director fondling another man over his clothes but said the scene had nothing to do with homosexuality.
• Porn discovered at Austrian seminary [2003 Kuechl, Rothe, Krenn]
   MSNBC, The Associated Press, Updated 6:24 p.m. ET July 12, 2004
   VIENNA, Austria: - A vast cache of child pornography and photos of young priests having sex has been discovered at a Roman Catholic seminary, officials said Monday, leading politicians and church leaders to demand a criminal probe and the resignation of the bishop in charge.
   Bishop Kurt Krenn, who oversees the diocese, refused to step down, however, dismissing the images as a "childish prank."
   Leaders of the Catholic diocese of St. Poelten where the seminary is located, about 50 miles west of Vienna, spent much of the day in an emergency meeting.
   The seminary's director, the Rev. Ulrich Kuechl, resigned along with his deputy, Wolfgang Rothe, the diocese said after the meeting. It did not elaborate.
   As many as 40,000 photos and an undisclosed number of films, including child pornography, were found a year ago on computers at the seminary, the respected news magazine Profil reported.
• Petition requests federal query of Catholic Church
   Portsmouth Herald, By Karen Dandurant, kdandurant@seacoastonline.com , July 12, 2004
   WESTBROOK, Maine - An ex-nun from Westbrook is calling on the federal government to conduct an investigation of the Catholic Church.
   The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act was created to deal with organized crime. The former Roman Catholic nun, Pauline Salvucci, said the Catholic Church is no different than the Mafia. She said church leaders are powerful and use everything they have to keep from taking responsibility for the sexual abuses committed against children and adults.
   Salvucci's online petition ( http://petitiononline.com/qd3dvoo/petition.html ) charges the Catholic Church with "outrageous sex crimes" involving tens of thousands of adults and children. She said the church systematically worked to cover up the abuses and continues to thwart the rights of sexual abuse survivors seeking compensation and justice.
   Because the reports of abuse are so wide-spread, Salvucci, who is not an abuse survivor, said local authorities are not equipped to deal with the magnitude of the problem.
• Porn Scandal At Austrian Seminary
   Story Hunters www.storyhunters. com/godandcon/ archives/ 001125.html
   AUSTRIA: Call me sexist, but I just don't think testosterone-soaked men can be all that holy and celibate. Telling a guy to be celibate is like telling a shark to become a vegetarian- it just ain't gonna happen. Case in point: the latest Catholic Church scandal.
   It started in Austria, with a computer overloaded with sex photos. Now it's ended up with 40,000 pictures and pornographic films at an Austrian seminary- photos and film taken of the seminary students and teachers engaging in some activities that even I would blush to confess.
   The German magazine Profil broke the story in its early-release Monday edition. Ulrich Kuechl, the seminary chief, had already resigned earlier in the month when the first breath of rancid scandal drifted over the horizon.
   Sex games, trainee priests downloading child porn from Poland, drunken orgies, Nazi slogans shouted- and a bunch of it caught on tape, in photos, or on the overloaded computer that started the affair last year. Sounds like a real party was goin' down among men who wear the collar.
• Porn scandal rocks church [2003 Kuechl, Rothe]
   News 24, 20:58 - (SA), 11/July/2004
   VIENNA, Austria: A huge pornography scandal hit the Catholic church in Austria at the weekend after the discovery of 40 000 photos and a number of films at a priests' seminary at St Poelten west of Vienna.
   The revelations came in the Monday edition of the magazine Profil, published in advance on Sunday. The seminary chief, Ulrich Kuechl, was already forced to resign earlier this month with first reports of the scandal, allegedly including child pornography.
   Profil said Kuechl's deputy Wolfgang Rothe also submitted his resignation. Rothe is secretary and legal advisor to Bishop of St Poelten Diocese Kurt Krenn.
   The report said that some of the seminary leaders had joined in "sex games" and allowed themselves to be photographed.
   Profil quoted allegations of drunken orgies in the seminar building where "Nazi slogans were also heard". Trainee priests had downloaded child pornography pictures.
• Vatican consulted in bankruptcy decision, archdiocese says
   Statesman Journal, The Associated Press, July 12, 2004
   PORTLAND (OR): Portland Archbishop John G. Vlazny discussed the possibility of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with the Vatican before taking action, said a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Portland.
   But a news magazine reports this week that the Vatican believed Vlazny was bluffing, and others say the filing went against the Vatican's official position.
   Vlazny filed on behalf of the archdiocese last week. It postponed two sex abuse trials scheduled to begin last week.
   If Vlazny and the Vatican did discuss the legal action, the filing would seem to indicate that the Vatican won't stop other U.S. dioceses from going to court in an attempt to shield church assets. Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., has said his diocese is considering bankruptcy, according to the Arizona Star newspaper.
   Vlazny did not return phone calls Sunday night, but Bud Bunce, spokesman for the archdiocese, said the archbishop and the Vatican discussed the Chapter 11 topic before and after the filing.
• Scandal hits Catholic church in Austria
   WRIC www.wric.com/ Global/story. asp?S=2026268
   VIENNA, Austria AP: Roman Catholic leaders in Austria have called an emergency meeting -- after the discovery of photos and videos allegedly depicting young priests having sex at a seminary.
   A news magazine (Profil) reports some 40-thousand photos and an undisclosed number of films, including child pornography, were downloaded on computers at the seminary.
   The magazine published several images purportedly showing young priests and their instructors kissing and fondling each other, and engaging in orgies and sex games.
   It says church officials first discovered the material a year ago on a computer at the seminary.
   State television reports officials from the local diocese about 50 miles west of Vienna are meeting privately on the scandal. The seminary's director and his deputy have reportedly resigned.
• Vlazny asked Rome about filing
   The Oregonian. By NANCY HAUGHT, Monday, July 12, 2004
   PORTLAND (OR): Portland's archbishop spoke to the Vatican about the possibility of filing for bankruptcy protection as early as January, a priest told his congregation at a Mass this weekend.
   When asked about the remarks, Archbishop John G. Vlazny confirmed Sunday that he has "had conversations with the Vatican," declining to be specific.
   "They are ongoing and privileged," Vlazny said through Bud Bunce, spokesman for the archdiocese.
   It was the first time the archbishop has acknowledged discussions with Rome, although it was not known how much involvement Pope John Paul II may have had.
   Vlazny filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on behalf of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland last week. The filing, the first by a Catholic diocese in more than 50 years, postponed two sex abuse trials scheduled to begin last week.
   Vlazny's decision signals other U.S. dioceses facing huge liabilities from priest-abuse lawsuits that the Vatican won't necessarily stop them from going to court in an attempt to shield church assets. To date, the Portland archdiocese and its insurers have spent more than $53 million to settle more than 130 claims of priest abuse. Lawsuits by 60 more plaintiffs remain unsettled.
• Priests 'in orgy' at seminary. [2003 Kuechl, Rothe, Krenn]
   Irish News Online www.irishnews. com/access/ breakingnews/ story.asp?j= 145995936&p= y45996868&n= 145996961&x=
   AUSTRIA: Roman Catholic leaders in Austria called an emergency meeting today after officials discovered a vast cache of photos and videos allegedly depicting young priests having sex at a seminary.
   About 40,000 photographs and an undisclosed number of films, including child pornography, were downloaded on computers at the seminary in St Poelten, about 50 miles west of Vienna, the respected news magazine Profil reported.
   Officials with the local diocese declined to comment but were meeting privately on the scandal, Austrian state television reported.
   It said the seminary's director, the Rev Ulrich Kuechl, and his deputy, Wolfgang Rothe, had resigned.
   The Austrian Bishops Conference issued a statement today pledging a full and swift investigation.
   "Anything that has to do with homosexuality or pornography has no place at a seminary for priests," it said.
   Church officials discovered the material on a computer at the seminary, Profil said. It published several images purportedly showing young priests and their instructors kissing and fondling each other and engaging in orgies and sex games.
   The child porn came mostly from web sites based in Poland, the magazine said.
   Bishop Kurt Krenn, a conservative churchman who oversees the St Poelten Diocese, told Austrian television he had seen photos of seminary leaders in sexual situations with students. Krenn, however, dismissed the photos as "silly pranks" that "had nothing to do with homosexuality".
• Catholic parishes confirm bankruptcy appears likely
   Tucson Citizen By SHERYL KORNMAN, July 12, 2004
   TUCSON (AZ): Thousands of parishioners in the Catholic Diocese of Tucson got the official word for the first time from their priests at Mass yesterday and Saturday that bankruptcy appears likely for the diocese.
   Chapter 11 protection is being considered by the diocese, which faces an unknown amount of present and future damage claims alleging sexual abuse by its priests and other employees, according to Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas.
   This weekend marks the first time parishioners were told of the possibility of bankruptcy in church by their pastors.
   Monsignor Thomas P. Cahalane of Our Mother of Sorrows, 1800 S. Kolb Road, told about 200 parishioners at 12:15 p.m. Mass yesterday that he will meet soon with the parish finance committee and others regarding the bankruptcy issue.
   He told parishioners he will also meet with them about the "impending possible bankruptcy" at a parish meeting in two weeks "to share questions and concerns." He thanked parishioners for their "faith and love for your parish."
   In writing about the "bankruptcy option" in his letter to parishioners in the weekly parish bulletin, he urged them to continue giving to the Annual Catholic Appeal.
• Austria probes priest sex claims
   BBC News, http://news. bbc.co.uk/2/ hi/europe/ 3887033.stm , July 12 2004
   AUSTRIA: An investigation is under way in Austria after media reports of sexual misconduct at a Roman Catholic seminary at St Poelten, west of Vienna.
   According to the reports, priests were photographed fondling and kissing trainee priests and pornographic images were found on the seminary computers.
   The school director and his deputy have resigned.
   The Austrian Bishops' Conference has promised a full and swift internal investigation.
   "Anything that has to do with the practice of homosexuality or pornography has no place at a seminary for priests," it said.
   Austrian news magazine Profil published the pictures of the alleged abuse at St Poelten, about 80km (50 miles) west of the capital, Vienna.
• Church unit combating child abuse

   ic Kent, http://ickent.icnetwork.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=14418972&method=full&siteid=53340 &headline=church-unit-combating-child-abuse-name_page.html ; Jul 12 2004
   BRITAIN: The unit set up to combat paedophile activity among priests in the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales received 62 new allegations of abuse against children last year.
   The 62 complaints - the vast majority of them about alleged sexual abuse - were referred to the police after they were made about priests, members of religious orders, employees and volunteers.
   The complaints, about allegations of current and past abuse, were reported to the 22 Roman Catholic dioceses in England and Wales and 138 of the 184 Catholic religious orders during 2003.
   In addition there were 51 reports of "inappropriate behaviour" towards children which were dealt with internally by the Catholic Church after initial consultation with police and social services.
!!!: Fugitive friar finds refuge from Canadian legal authorities in California [Chumik] -- Can't ask 'anybody to do anything they don't want to do'.

   Canadaeast.com , http://canadaeast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040711/CPA/22766019 , July 11 2004
   DALLAS (TX) (AP) - A Franciscan friar who is an accused child molester is being housed by the Catholic order in California, even though officials know he is a fugitive from Canadian justice.
   Gerald Chumik is one of about 200 Catholic priests, brothers and other religious workers who have escaped sexual abuse accusations by moving abroad, according to an investigation by the Dallas Morning News. About 30 face current charges or investigations, and many remain free with their superiors' blessings.
   Church and state officials are aware that Chumik is living in a religious complex overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara, Calif.. But no one seems willing to order him to go back to Canada and face justice, the newspaper reported in Monday's edition.
   "We can't ask anybody to do anything they don't want to do," Rev. Mel Jurisich, head of the Franciscan order's Western U.S. region, is quoted by the newspaper as saying. "The only way we could force his hand is to dismiss him."
• Newsletter to chronicle archdiocese bankruptcy
   Statesman Journal, By ALAN GUSTAFSON, July 12, 2004
OREGON: Peter Chapman profits by covering the financial woes of the likes of Enron, United Airlines and Bethlehem Steel.
   As a bankruptcy-newsletter publisher, he tracks thousands of corporations embroiled in billion-dollar Chapter 11 cases. Now, like any good businessman, Chapman is diversifying.
   From his Pennsylvania office, he has launched a newsletter to chronicle the Oregon bankruptcy proceedings of the Portland Archdiocese.
   Catholic Bankruptcy News is a $45-per-issue publication distributed by e-mail that will cover every substantial development emerging from the case, Chapman said.
   He plans to expand the publication if other Catholic dioceses across the country follow the lead of the Portland Archdiocese; several reportedly are weighing that option.
   "We certainly see the handwriting on the wall," he said. "There are other dioceses that may go down the same road, and we're going to compact them all into one newsletter."
   The Portland Archdiocese, serving 124 parishes and 356,000 Catholics in Western Oregon, is the first of the country's 195 dioceses to file for bankruptcy because of claims in sexual-abuse lawsuits.
   The archdiocese and its insurers have paid $53 million to settle 130 claims by people who say that priests abused them. About 60 more claims, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, are pending.
• Fugitive friar finds refuge in U.S. [Chumik, Jurisich, Mahony] -- 14 yrs away, but superiors won't dismiss him; Cardinal is 'understanding'
   The Dallas Morning News, By BROOKS EGERTON and REESE DUNKLIN, Sunday, July 11, 2004
   UNITED STATES: Franciscan friar Gerald Chumik is an admitted child molester. He has been a fugitive from his native Canada for 14 years.
   Church and state alike know where he is: living in a picturesque religious complex overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara, Calif.
   But nobody, it seems, has been willing to order him to go home and face justice.
   "We can't ask anybody to do anything they don't want to do," explained the Rev. Mel Jurisich, head of the Franciscan order's Western U.S. region. "The only way we could force his hand is to dismiss him."
   And the Franciscans - the world's second-largest Catholic order - don't want to do that. They have a familial obligation to Brother Chumik, they say, and can protect the public from him.
   Accused friar Gerald Chumik of Canada worked as a jail chaplain in California for many years. Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony could order Brother Chumik to leave his archdiocese, church law experts say. The Franciscans say the cardinal hasn't objected to their arrangement concerning Brother Chumik because they have assured him over the years that the friar is closely monitored.
   Cardinal Mahony "is understanding about this," said the Rev. Tom West, who is Father Jurisich's top aide at the Franciscans' regional headquarters in Oakland. "He said, 'Just keep me informed, please,' and that's what we do."
• Tucson diocese looks to exclude property from a bankruptcy filing
   Corvallis Gazette-Times, The Associated Press, July 12, 2004
   TUCSON, Ariz. - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson predicts the bulk of an estimated $46.1 million worth of property in nine Arizona counties won't be affected by a possible bankruptcy, diocese officials said.
   Using property records, the Arizona Daily Star estimated the diocese owns 335 parcels of predominantly tax-exempt property with a total value of $46.1 million.
   But the diocese's financial report shows a long-term debt of $4.7 million and a deficit of $7 million.
   Despite being listed on public tax rolls, the diocese's 75 parishes are not considered diocese property under Roman Catholic Church canon law, church officials said.
   The diocese also maintains its fund-raising foundation, which has nearly $7 million in net assets, isn't part of the diocese's overall worth and notes that some diocese assets are gifts with restricted uses.
   The Tucson diocese faces 16 pending lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of minors by priests and church officials are considering filing for bankruptcy.
   Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas has said that a decision on whether the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson will file for bankruptcy protection will likely be made before a scheduled Sept. 15 sexual abuse trial.
• Civil Hospital report mum on sodomy -- Temple sodomy, accused may have altered results

   Express India, July 10, 2004
   AHMEDABAD, India: A week after a 12-year-old boy was allegedly sodomised by three priests of Kalupur Swaminarayan Temple, police are yet to take any action. After giving a go-by to the usual procedure of summoning forensic experts for examination of the room where the incident is alleged to have occurred and recovering the clothes of the accused for forensic examination, Kalupur police were waiting for the medical report before arresting the accused priests.
   Now, with the Civil Hospital furnishing a medical report which says little about the sexual assault on the boy, police say the medical report could have been 'managed' by the accused. They are now waiting for the report of the Directorate of Forensic Science (DFS), which is conducting chemical examination of the boy's anal swab and clothes.
   DCP (Zone III) A K Pandya said, "It is possible that the medical report was manipulated or managed in a manner favourable to them by the accused. Dr Waghela (Chief Medical Officer) had on Monday told us that it was a prima facie case of sexual abuse. Now his report says that no external or internal injuries were found on the victim.
   The report does not state anything clearly about the sexual assault." Investigating officer of the case, Police Inspector J V Desai, confirmed that the CMO had on Monday told him that it was a prima facie case of sexual abuse. "But how could I have arrested such religious leaders on the basis of only a verbal report. We are now waiting for the forensic report to take action against the accused."
• Pastor On Leave Amid Allegations Of Abuse [Sicoli]
   KYW, 10:57 pm US/Eastern, Jul 11, 2004
   PHILADELPHIA (PA) (KYW): The Pastor of a South Philadelphia parish is on leave amid allegations of sexual abuse.
   CBS 3's Dick Standish reports that Father David Sicoli was not present during Sunday's mass at the Holy Spirit Church on Hartranft Street in South Philadelphia. The Father has taken a temporary leave of absence following the allegations.
   According to Standish, Father Sicoli is accused of abuse decades ago when he served in Bristol Township. The Pastor denies the allegations.
   Parishioners arriving for mass said they can't believe it. "This priest is a wonderful man. He tried to do wonders for this church," said parishioner Jane DiSanto.
• Abuse complainant's lawyer blasts church leaders over Romero defense -- and he's getting Church pension
   Naples Daily News By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, aszagier@naplesnews.com , July 12, 2004
   FLORIDA: William Romero has admitted to sexual contact with a troubled teen. Facing multiple allegations of sex abuse, he resigned the priesthood under pressure from Catholic Church officials.
   Despite that track record, Romero, 67, continues to receive a pension from the Diocese of Venice. And the Miami archdiocese - where Romero worked before joining parishes in Naples and several other South Florida communities - is paying for his legal defense in at least one of two pending lawsuits by purported abuse victims.
   For Miami attorney Ron Weil, who represents a former altar boy suing Romero, the church's stance is a far cry from the earnest reforms American bishops vowed to enact two years ago amid a nationwide torrent of sex abuse complaints against Catholic priests.
   "This isn't cleaning house," Weil said. "This is circling the wagons."
   The issue of the ex-priest's legal defense emerged in a May deposition of Romero, who spent one year as a catechism teacher and youth director at the St. Ann Catholic School in Old Naples before leaving under a cloud of suspicion.
   A former St. Ann student wound up suing Romero last year, alleging that as a 12-year-old he was fondled by the priest while in the shower at the church rectory. That case was settled out of court earlier this year for $135,000. Archdiocese leaders initiated the settlement.
• Bankrupt by abuse
   Baltimore Sun, July 12, 2004
   PORTLAND (OR): If the sexual abuse allegations raised by former altar boy James Devereaux are true, the Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., will have to account for its negligence in allowing a now dead pedophile priest to molest children time and again. The diocese's unprecedented decision last week to file for bankruptcy halted Mr. Devereaux's civil trial on his claims as it was set to start.
   Mr. Devereaux may eventually get his day in court, but now a federal bankruptcy judge will determine how far the Portland Archdiocese must go to settle its debts, including sexual abuse claims. Sell church properties? Liquidate investments? Close social programs? Lay off diocesan workers?
   All are potentially devastating to the financial health of the Catholic Church in America.
   Since the clergy abuse scandal broke open in Boston two years ago, the focus has shifted from individual priest as abuser to church leader as enabler. Portland Archbishop John G. Vlazny says the diocese's insurers -- which have helped pay $53 million to abuse victims so far -- are now refusing to settle claims in which church leaders knew of the abuse. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:38 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Mon July 12, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont88.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tue July 13, 2004 edition follows:-
• Sex scandal rocks Austrian Catholics [Krenn]

   Telegraph (Britain), www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml? xml=/news/2004/07/14/wcath14.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/07/14/ixworld.html , July 14, 2004
   AUSTRIA: The Roman Catholic Church in Austria has been thrown into crisis by a bishop's refusal to resign over the publication of compromising pictures of trainee priests and the head and deputy head of a seminary under the bishop's control.
   The Vatican has been urged to intervene to save the Church's reputation by forcing out Bishop Kurt Krenn of St Polten.
   It is also alleged that up to 40,000 pornographic images, some showing children, have been found on computers confiscated by police from the St Polten seminary.
   The Austrian press has also reported claims that drunken parties involving raucous behaviour and Hitler salutes have been held there.
   The bishop has dismissed the images, which appeared in the weekly news magazine Profil, as boyish pranks at a Christmas party. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:15 PM]
• Outrage over seminary porn [2003 Kuechl, Rothe, Krenn]
   The Australian From AP, July 14, 2004
   VIENNA, Austria: Scandalised Austrians called for a criminal investigation and a bishop's head yesterday after officials found a huge cache of child pornography and photographs of young priests having sex with instructors at a Catholic seminary.
   Leaders of the Catholic diocese of St Poelten, about 80km west of Vienna, spent much of the day in an emergency meeting. Politicians and church leaders called for the removal of Kurt Krenn, 68, who oversees the diocese.
   St Poelten seminary director Ulrich Kuechl and his deputy, Wolfgang Rothe, resigned immediately. But Bishop Krenn, a conservative churchman, angered many in overwhelmingly Catholic Austria by dismissing the images found at the seminary as a "childish prank" and refusing to resign.
   Up to 40,000 photos and an undisclosed number of films, including child pornography, were found a year ago on computers at the seminary, Austrian news magazine Profil reported.
   The magazine published several images purportedly showing young priests and their instructors kissing and fondling each other and said others showed them engaging in orgies and sex games.
• Second round of suits allege abuse at Indian boarding schools in S.D.
   The Daily Republic By CHET BROKAW, Associated Press Writer
   PIERRE, South Dakota - Former students who allege they were abused at Indian boarding schools in South Dakota are suing the Roman Catholic Church and the religious organizations that ran the schools.
   The lawsuits, which seek damages for students allegedly hurt at St. Paul's School in Marty and St. Francis Mission School on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation, will be filed in state circuit courts Tuesday in Sioux Falls and Rapid City, said Gary Frischer, a legal consultant in the cases.
   Many of the same former students are plaintiffs in a similar lawsuit filed last year against the federal government. That lawsuit contends that the federal government failed in its duty under treaties to protect the Indian students who were sent to boarding schools across the nation.
   The lawsuits to be filed Tuesday seek damages from the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls and the Catholic Diocese of Rapid City in addition to organizations that provided priests and nuns to work in the schools, which were transferred to tribal control about three decades ago.
   The lawsuits allege that the religious organizations were negligent in hiring, retaining and supervising staff at the schools. They also argue the organizations failed to protect students from abuse or investigate misconduct at the schools.
• Abused wives feel abandoned by church -- Mennonite and Amish
   Lancaster Online, By Linda Espenshade and Larry Alexander, Intelligencer Journal, Published: 10:02 AM EST, Jul 13, 2004
   LANCASTER COUNTY, Pennsylvania: Craving safety they can't find at home with their husbands, some abused Mennonite and Amish women turn to their churches and its leaders for help, only to feel victimized again.
   Their plea for help comes after months or years of intense belittling, rages and terrorizing incidents, even though they have done everything they can to make their marriages better.
   Esther waited seven years to talk to her ministers, long after her husband had struck her during their honeymoon, cracked her rib and bruised her arm numerous times. Sometimes she sat on the couch, paralyzed with fear as she waited for her husband to come through the door, not knowing if he would hug her or hit her.
   "He (her minister) had me believing it was all my fault - if I worked harder or managed better. What they do is gradually wear you down more and more until you have no self-confidence left," Esther said.
   It's extremely demoralizing, Esther and other women in similar straits said, to listen to church leaders tell them to be better wives.
   Mary Boll, for several years a member of a support group for abused Mennonite women, said she has heard many variations on the same theme from women who had gone to their ministers for help.
   "Maybe you need to pray more or maybe you need to try to be more submissive or what did you do to provoke him?" she said. "Well, couldn't you try to be a little more agreeable, which reinforces what the husband says, which is, 'You have to submit to me."
   Several women said church leaders instructed them to give their husbands more sex so they would stop being abusive. One woman was advised to initiate sex whenever her husband flew into a rage. Another was told, after she had separated from her abusive husband, that she should just buy a new nightie.
• Group Calls for Nuns to Address Sex Abuse
   Washington Post, By Stephen Manning, Associated Press, Tuesday, July 13, 2004; 6:00 PM
   SILVER SPRING, Md. -- Religious orders of nuns need to do more to root out sexual abuse by their members, help victims and set up safeguards to prevent future sexual misconduct, according to an advocacy group for victims of clergy abuse.
   Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, delivered a letter Tuesday to a national nun organization calling for more attention on abuse by women in the Roman Catholic Church. Most of the recent abuse scandals have focused on male clergy members.
   Outside the headquarters of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, also known as LCWR, several people said they were abused by nuns who taught at Catholic schools. They want the organization to let victims speak at its August conference in Fort Worth, Texas.
   "We would like them to hear our stories from our mouths," said Landa Mauriello-Vernon, head of the Connecticut branch of SNAP who said she was abused by a nun at school when she was 17.
   SNAP national director David Clohessy said the group did not have accurate figures on the number of people who may have been abused by nuns, but he estimated it was in the "hundreds." He asked for anyone who may have been victimized to contact SNAP.
• Abuse Lawsuit involving indigenous boarders [1930s-1975]
   Keloland.com
   KELOLAND (SD): A lawsuit filed against the Catholic church in South Dakota alleges clergy abused hundreds of students at Native American boarding schools. The students say they were beaten, even tortured by priests and nuns who ran the schools.
   KELOLAND's first reported on this lawsuit a year ago, when it was filed against the federal government. She now has details on the new legal action against the church. The allegations of abuse span decades, from the 1930s until about 1975.
   The lawsuit filed today involves the St. Paul school on the Yankton Sioux Reservation and the St. Francis School on the Rosebud Reservation. The former students say they want the church held accountable for years of atrocities.
   Beginning at a young age, sometimes just five years old, native American former students say they suffered physical, mental, sexual and psychological abuse inside boarding schools on South Dakota reservations run by Catholic clergy.
   Class action litigation consultant Gary Frischer says, "The Vatican I believe believed this was a way to make everybody Catholic, everyone became part of them."
• Nicaragua says it's hunting priest fleeing child sex charges [Vasquez]

   Newsday, July 13, 2004, 5:18 PM EDT
   MANAGUA, Nicaragua: -- A Costa Rican priest fleeing sexual molestation charges apparently has entered Nicaragua and is being sought here, the National Police said Tuesday.
   Police spokeswoman Miriam Torres said that the Rev. Enrique Vasquez was being sought on an Interpol warrant on behalf of Costa Rican officials. Vasquez fled Costa Rica after a criminal complaint was filed by the mother of a boy he allegedly molested. He later worked in Connecticut, New York state and South Carolina, as well as in Honduras and Mexico.
   Nidia Barbosa, deputy director of immigration, said Vasquez "apparently is in the country, but we are trying to determine where." She said he entered the country on July 1 from Honduras.
   She said he also had visited briefly from June 21 to 22, also entering from and leaving to Honduras.
   On Monday, the children's rights organization Casa Alianza said that another Costa Rican youth had come forward with allegations against the priest.
• Archdiocese enters uncharted waters in church bankruptcy filing
   Catholic News Service, By Jerry Filteau
   PORTLAND (OR) CNS: When the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., filed for Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy protection July 6, it began a journey into largely uncharted waters.
   Among the most difficult issues to be faced will be First Amendment concerns as a secular bankruptcy court scrutinizes church finances and oversees reorganization of the archdiocese, holding veto power over major archdiocesan decisions.
   As the first bankruptcy filing in history by a U.S. Catholic diocese, the process ahead could set a number of precedents. Observers will be watching closely to see what impact decisions of the bankruptcy judge may have on lowering or strengthening traditional walls of church-state separation.
   Some such decisions might be seen as uniquely applicable to a bankruptcy proceeding and therefore not affecting constitutional questions of church and state in any other context.
• Church woes predate hiring of alleged rapist [1994 McMahon] -- Latin Mass group
   Transcript, By David L. Harris / Staff Writer, Thursday, July 8, 2004
   WEST ROXBURY (MA): A clearer picture emerged this week of the small St. Roger and St. Mary Chapel in West Roxbury as a church torn in half, even before it hired the Rev. Denis McMahon, who reportedly raped a parishioner while working in Michigan in 1994.
   McMahon, who began working at St. Roger in 2002 stepped down in March. Two board members say he was fired, while St. Roger's current priest says McMahon resigned.
   The financially-strapped church, at 95 Rockland St. is part of the traditionalist Society of the Latin Mass. The head of the search committee told the Transcript last week that he did not perform a thorough background check on McMahon. Had he done so, it would have revealed that McMahon was convicted of killing of a 6-year-old girl in a car accident and admitted to having sexual encounters with a 21-year-old parishioner.
   "Imagine trusting McMahon with your church," said J. Joseph Lydon, a lawyer representing the church's current five member board of directors and a former board member himself. "It's like trusting kitty litter. I had nothing to do with him really. I heard rumors many, many years ago."
   Lydon sat on the board when McMahon was hired and then, he says, fired. He said Arthur Nauss, another person on the five-member lay board, had been solely responsible for McMahon's hiring. Nauss told the Transcript last week that he had consulted with priests nationwide and had no knowledge of McMahon's troubled background.
• Police charge priest [2004 Perrins]
   Times Leader, By JON FOX, jfox@leader.net
   HAZLETON (PA): Criminal charges were filed against a Roman Catholic priest Monday, more than a month after police say he offered a 22-year-old man $50 in exchange for oral sex.
   Investigators say that on June 2, the Rev. Samuel Perrins, a priest at Most Precious Blood Church in Hazleton, approached a 22-year-old man riding a motor scooter down Mine Street around 9 p.m.
   The alleged victim told police that Perrins, who appeared to be waiting to cross Vine Street, began walking alongside his scooter and talking to him, police said. Perrins then offered $50 if he agreed to engage in a mutual sex act, the man told police.
   After refusing the offer, the man told police Perrins asked about manual stimulation. Once again, the man declined and rode to a nearby restaurant to telephone authorities.
   He described the man who propositioned him as in his 50s, wearing glasses, jeans, a beige jacket, a baseball cap and carrying an umbrella, police said.
   After contacting police, the man saw Perrins walking down Broad Street where he followed him until Perrins sat down on a bench, police said. The victim contacted police again to direct them to the location.
• Investigation clears bishop of sex abuse charges [1970s Hubbard]
   National Catholic Reporter By ED GRIFFIN-NOLAN
   ALBANY (NY): An investigation into allegations of homosexual conduct and sexual abuse by Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard has found no evidence to support charges of homosexual activity and sexual abuse three decades ago.
   The investigation, conducted by a team led by former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, included a polygraph test, which the bishop passed, and more than 300 interviews over the course of four months.
   The polygraph test indicated that Hubbard was being truthful when he insisted that he had honored his vow of celibacy and had never had sex "of any kind" with another person.
   The extraordinary report was delivered June 24 to the Sexual Misconduct Review Board of the diocese, which hired White in February after Andrew Zalay of California claimed that his brother, Thomas, had had an ongoing sexual relationship with the bishop. Thomas Zalay died in 1968 in a house fire, which fire officials believe he intentionally set. Hubbard denied the affair, saying he had no memory of ever meeting Zalay.
   Zalay's accusations were followed two days later by charges from Anthony Bonneau, a 40-year-old former prostitute from Schenectady, that Hubbard had paid him for sex in an Albany park when Bonneau was a teen. Investigators found no credible evidence to support Bonneau's claim, and suggested that an unnamed gay priest who was known to refer to himself as "the bishop" might have been Bonneau's actual client.
   A third accusation, that Hubbard was part of a clique of gay priests in Albany and had sexual relationships with four other priests, was also shot down. All four priests and the bishop were given lie detector tests by the former chief polygraph expert at the FBI and their denials were deemed truthful.
   As charges multiplied, the investigation morphed and led to the bizarre scene of two bishops, Hubbard and Matthew Clark of Rochester, each being hooked up to polygraph machines and being asked, among other things, if they had ever had sex with each other.
• Sex scandal in Austrian seminary
   The Age (Melbourne, Australia), By Ian Traynor, July 14, 2004
   VIENNA, Austria: The Austrian Catholic Church has been plunged into its second big sex scandal in a decade when a seminary run by arch-conservatives was alleged to be the site of orgies among young priests and their teachers.
   The church announced yesterday that it would investigate charges of homosexuality between priests and seminarians at a seminary outside Vienna.
   A church panel in the Sankt Poelten diocese west of the capital agreed to the inquiry after the news magazine Profil published photographs showing leading clerics of the local seminary fondling and kissing student priests.
   Profil said investigators had also found at least 40,000 mostly pornographic photographs at the seminary.
   The director of the seminary and his assistant have both quit as details of the scandal emerged in recent days. The seminary in St Poelten, west of Vienna, comes under the authority of the conservative Bishop Kurt Krenn.
• Sex and Porn Scandal Hits Austrian Catholic Seminary [Küchl, Rothe]
   Deutsche Welle radio (Germany), http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_1266171,00.html , Jul.13.2004
   AUSTRIA: Two leading officials at a Catholic seminary in Austria have been identified in an investigation into alleged sexual abuse of student priests and the possession of pornographic and pedophile material.
   The worldwide scandal involving allegations of sexual abuse aimed at practicing priests within the Catholic Church has surfaced in Austria after pictures of senior church officials caressing and kissing student priests at a seminary were published in an Austrian magazine.
   The weekly Profil magazine reported that, along with the pictures printed in the issue, thousands more photographs showing acts of pedophilia and bestiality had been discovered on computers, as well as numerous pornographic films in an investigation into the Sankt Pölten seminary, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Vienna.
   It was also reported that the investigation was instigated after priests decided to put an end to years of silence about the activities that went on at the seminary. Ulrich Küchl, the seminary director, has already resigned and his deputy, Wolfgang Rothe, was quoted by the magazine as saying he would also resign, without admitting any guilt. Profil said both Küchl and Rothe had homosexual relations with students, using pedophile photos for stimulation.
• Did the Portland Catholic Archdiocese Declare Bankruptcy To Avoid or Delay Clergy Abuse Suits?
   FindLaw, By MARCI HAMILTON, hamilton02@aol.com , Tuesday, Jul. 13, 2004
   PORTLAND (OR): The Portland, Oregon Archdiocese of the Catholic Church has now filed for federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganization. Meanwhile, the Tucson Archdiocese has announced it is considering the same option.
   No one can know for certain what the Archdiocese's motivations are. But it is clear that a large part of the impetus probably derives from the many clergy abuse lawsuits that have been filed.
   Indeed, in Portland, Archbishop John Vlazny explained the filing on the ground that "[t]he pot of gold is pretty much empty now." In choosing the metaphor, he may well have been implying that the victims were gold diggers who had plundered the Church's finances.
   The Boston Archdiocese, facing hundreds of clergy abuse lawsuits, also considered bankruptcy. But Boston eventually chose to sell off assets over bankruptcy.
   As Archdioceses consider - and in some cases, avail themselves of -- the bankruptcy option, courts will be confronted with an important question: Are they filing in good faith? Or are they trying to use federal bankruptcy law in an attempt to avoid further liability deriving from their having permitted pedophile priests continuing access to children? Or are they attempting to insert endless delay for the victims?
   If the answer is avoidance or delay, this strategy isn't just wrong. It's also illegal.
• Sex-abuse Brother is local man [1936, 1970s Redmond]
   One in Four
   As reported by The Enniscorthy Echo
   IRELAND: An elderly Brother of Charity convicted at Cork Circuit Criminal court last week of sexually abusing young boys in his care over a 40-year-period, is a native of Co. Wexford, it has been revealed. The first recorded case of abuse involving James Redmond was at a home in England in 1936.
   At last Friday's hearing, 89-year-old Redmond - also known as Brother Eunan - pleaded guilty to seventeen sample counts of abusing two boys at an institution run for boys with learning difficulties at the Lota home in Cork more than twenty-five years earlier. Evidence was given that it was not until 1984 that the accused, of St. Vincent's Park in Belmont, Waterford, was removed from all contact with boys.
   One of his victims at Lota was John Barrett, an inmate at the residential home between 1959 - 1968 and now Chairman for the Leinster region of Enniscorthy-based organisation Right of Place/Second Chance. Mr. Barrett, one of the witnesses at Friday's hearing, revealed that James Redmond was a member of a small family from the Ferns area, a fact that the former Brother of Charity had given, under oath, at a hearing of the Lefoy Commission investigations two years ago.
• Priests in 'hurt' parish reach out to sex abuse victims [Walsh, Cleary]
   One in Four
   IRELAND: Parishes in the Ballyfermot/Cherry Orchard areas of Dublin have taken the innovative step of distributing leaflets to 7,000 households, detailing the organisations to contact in the event of being a victim of sexual abuse. The Ballyfermot area is where one of the most notorious cleric sex abusers, Fr Tony Walsh, was based. He is estimated to have abused dozens of children.
   Ballyfermot is also where the high-profile cleric, Fr Michael Cleary, was based. After his death, a scandal erupted when it was revealed he had an affair with a woman named Phyllis Hamilton.
   The leaflet acknowledges the "trauma inflicted on some parishioners by priests who abused young people, while serving in Ballyfermot. As a result, people's lives have been damaged and the trust and confidence parishioners had in the Church undermined. Priests and Church workers serving in these communities have been dismayed."
   The leaflet then tells people how to contact the Dublin Diocesan Child Protection Service. It also invites those who have been victims of sex abuse to contact non-Church organisations such as the South Western Area Health Board, An Garda Siochana, the National Counselling Service, the ISPCC and the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre.
• Austrian Seminary Sex Scandal Grows [Kuechl, Rothe, Krenn]
   Zaman Daily Newspaper, July 13, 2004
   AUSTRIA: After a large stash of child pornography was discovered at St. Polten Roman Catholic Seminary in Austria, pictures depicting homosexual acts between students and teachers at the seminary also surfaced.
   Profil magazine published the photos yesterday, prompting the resignation of seminary director Ulrich Kuechl and his associate Wolfgang Rothe.
   Bishop Kurt Krenn told Austria TV (ORF) on Monday that the photos were real. "I have seen the photos before. During the Christmas celebrations, teachers and students expressed themselves in a bit more relaxed way. It is not such an important issue to dwell on. These are childish pranks," claimed Krenn.
   Krenn added they would investigate the case and expel students and teachers from the school if it was discovered that they engaged in real homosexual relationships.
• Investigation launched after Catholic gay priest claims
   Gay.com by Ben Townley, Gay.com UK, Tuesday 13 July, 2004
   AUSTRIA: An investigation has been launched at an Austrian Catholic seminary, after a magazine reportedly published pictures of priests kissing and fondling each other.
   The seminary, which lies outside of Vienna, has been rocked by the pictures, which accompanied an article in the Profil magazine claiming that older clerics and younger priests fondled each other, and had nearly 50,000 pornographic images, including illegal images, in the building.
   Now the Roman Catholic Church has launched an investigation into the seminary, with two workers - the director and his assistant - already resigning.
   It comes after the Church has repeatedly launched campaigns against lesbian and gay rights, most recently targeting the move towards same-sex marriage or civil unions across North America and Europe.
   Just last summer, the Church's leader Pope John Paul II hit out at gay relationships and called for Catholic politicians to repeal existing laws and fight any forthcoming proposals that could give equality to such relationships.
• Lay Catholics say 'no', bishops say 'yes' [2003 McGrath]
   Cruxnews, July 9, 2004
   WINONA, Minn. -- Bishop Bernard Harrington has been receiving a lot of mail recently. Much of it complaints.
   Parishioners at St. Joseph Church in Owatonna, Minnesota are up in arms about the controversial appointment of Fr. Edward F. McGrath as their new parish administrator. The 49-year-old priest was was arrested in May last year at St. Paul's Crosby Farm Park.
   According to reports in the Winona Daily News, McGrath was charged with fifth degree criminal sexual assault, which involves non-consensual sexual contact. In short, he groped the genitals of an undercover police officer during a park-wide sting operation.
   (McGrath was later acquitted of the crime on a technicality, despite the fact that he not only admitted to the offense but also admitted to a longtime habit of frequenting public parks for sexual purposes.)
   After the arrest, McGrath was immediately placed on leave of absence, and Bishop Harrington assured the public that "Father McGrath has been an excellent and much loved priest, serving the people of [the Winona] diocese well in both administrative and pastoral capacities."
• Va. priest defrocked 20 years after charges levied [1984 Krafcik]
   Daily Press, By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer, July 12, 2004
   McLEAN, Va. -- The Vatican has defrocked a 76-year-old priest who was charged with child abuse 20 years ago and afterward served for nearly a dozen years at a Fairfax parish, the Arlington Diocese announced Monday.
   Andrew Krafcik, who was charged with child abuse in Henrico County near Richmond in 1984, was "dismissed from the clerical state" Saturday, according to Arlington Bishop Paul Loverde.
   The Vatican's decision means that Krafcik, who retired in 1996, can no longer serve in any ministry, celebrate Mass, administer the sacraments, wear clerical garb or present himself as a priest.
   According to the Arlington Diocese, Krafcik was ordained in 1959 by the Richmond Diocese. He sought transfer to the Arlington Diocese in 1984. Later that year, he was charged with child abuse in Henrico County and sentenced by the court to counseling instead of jail time.
   Krafcik, in a brief telephone interview with the Associated Press, said he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge, but he never believed he did anything wrong. He declined to discuss the specifics of the case.
   "My lawyer said I made a mistake talking to the detectives. I thought I had nothing to hide," Krafcik said from his home, an Arlington retirement center. "I didn't think I did anything wrong. ... I still feel that way," after seven years of counseling.
• Archdiocese of Portland's bankruptcy filing turns eyes to Vatican
   Seattle Times By Janet I. Tu
   PORTLAND (OR): When the Archdiocese of Portland filed for bankruptcy a week ago today, many were stunned - then perplexed. How could the Vatican allow such a move?
   And with its vast holdings of priceless art and property, why couldn't the Vatican simply bail out the archdiocese?
   The answers are rooted in history and based largely on practicality: While the Vatican seeks strict control over theology, liturgy and key personnel issues in its 3,000-plus dioceses worldwide, it has largely stayed out of their financial workings.
   That's not to say Portland's Archbishop John Vlazny didn't consult with the Vatican before taking so drastic a measure last Tuesday, when he announced the archdiocese was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Vlazny did talk with Vatican officials, his spokesman said.
• Awaiting justice and an outcome [Kavanagh]
   The Journal News, July 13, 2004
   NEW YORK: It is difficult to believe that it has been more than two years since the nation's Roman Catholic bishops presented their "zero tolerance" protocol for dealing with accusations of sexual abuse by minors against priests: One strike, and you're out.
   It is equally difficult to believe that it has been more than two years since Monsignor Charles Kavanagh, a major fund-raiser for the Archdiocese of New York, was removed from the ministry after being accused of having an improper, six-year relationship with a former seminarian that allegedly started more than 25 years ago.
   What is not difficult to believe is that the "limbo" that thousands of priests and others, including this Editorial Board on several occasions, had warned about has materialized.
   Priests like Kavanagh are stuck in an unacceptable church holding pattern. Their ministerial status is up in the air, clouding their clerical and personal reputations and futures. They have not been charged by law enforcement. Yet their removal from ministries and lengthy internal investigations leave the impression with their congregations, and the public, of guilt by absence.
   Kavanagh, the highest-ranking New York priest caught up in the church scandal that exploded in 2002, has proclaimed his innocence. Last week, he launched an unusually vocal attack. Kavanagh complained that the archdiocese has added new, unrelated complaints without properly notifying him, and said Cardinal Edward Egan refuses to allow his longtime canon lawyer to stay on his case.
• Was Rose's Saint really a scheming sinner? [2003 Woolsey ~$US 500,000]
   New York Daily News By KATHLEEN LUCADAMO and BILL HUTCHINSON,
   NEW YORK: A respected Manhattan priest swindled a devout elderly parishioner out of nearly $500,000 - and used some of the money to buy himself a Jersey Shore condo, a bombshell lawsuit filed yesterday charges.
   Msgr. John Woolsey, 66, pastor of St. John the Martyr Church on the upper East Side, abused his influence as spiritual adviser to the late Rose Cale to satisfy some unholy greed, the lawsuit claims.
   "As a Catholic, I am outraged by the conduct at issue in this case," Janet Naegele, executor of Cale's estate, told the Daily News yesterday. "Priests and pastors, who are revered by their parishioners, should not accept large personal gifts from them."
   Cale died in January 2003 at 88. But before she passed away, her friend Naegele, a Manhattan accountant, uncovered evidence that the priest was trying to swipe the elderly woman's entire $1.3 million fortune, the suit contends.
• Not So Fast, Father [2003 Woolsey ~$US 500,000]
   Story Hunters
   NEW YORK: The Catholic Church has taken a lot of lumps recently, including in this column. But today's topic isn't about another allegation of sexual abuse by priests and/or a cover-up by fellow priests or their buddies.
   No, today's bad guy in a collar allegedly returned to an old-fashioned felony: stealing.
   As the "New York Daily News" splashes unapologetically on its front page, a priest named John Woolsey is named in a lawsuit accusing him of swindling a devout old lady, now dead, out of $500,000. Reports say he needed the money to help a passionate cause, the "John Woolsey needs a condo on the Jersey shore" cause. I'm sure most priests are not tutored on that one at the seminary, at least not ones in Vienna.
• Ex-Tucson priest charged with sex abuse in Wyoming [Jablonowski]
   Tucson Citizen, By SHERYL KORNMAN, July 13, 2004
   TUCSON (AZ): A priest in a Wyoming jail on charges of sexual misconduct with a minor has been added to the roster of clergy who once served the Tucson Catholic Diocese and have credible accusations of sexual misconduct lodged against them, said Fred Allison, the diocese communications director.
   Allison said yesterday the decision to list the priest; a second priest, now dead; and a deacon, who is also dead, to the diocese list of clergy accused of credible allegations of sexual misconduct involving minors was made by the diocese's Sexual Conduct Review Board.
   The board reviews all allegations of sexual misconduct by clergy assigned to the Tucson diocese.
   Information was provided in part by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
   In February, the diocese identified 26 priests who had served in southern Arizona about whom credible allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor had been made. The time studied spanned 54 years. The priests are dead, suspended or retired and banned from ministering as priests, the diocese said.
   The names of the additional three men are listed in a letter written by Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas that was posted on the diocese Web site on June 24, www.diocesetucson.org .
   Allison said the priest in Wyoming, the Rev. Anthony Jablonowski, had no allegations of misconduct made against him involving the time he served in the Tucson diocese. He is now a priest in the Diocese of Steubenville, Ohio.
   Kicanas said Jablonowski was identified by the Diocese of Cheyenne this year as having been accused of sexual misconduct with minors.
• Crisis talks held over alleged sex scandal at Catholic seminary
   The Herald (Britain), By WILLIAM KOLE, July 13 2004
   VIENNA, Austria: ROMAN Catholic leaders called an emergency meeting yesterday after officials discovered a cache of photos and videos allegedly depicting young priests having sex at a seminary.
   About 40,000 photos and an undisclosed number of films, including child pornography, were downloaded on computers at the seminary in St Poelten, about 50 miles west of Vienna, the news magazine Profil reported.
   Hannes Jarolim, spokesman for the opposition Socialist Party, called on the Interior Ministry to launch a criminal investigation.
• European press review
   BBC News, http://news. bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ europe/3888707.stm
   AUSTRIA: Austria's Die Presse focuses on the crisis in the country's Catholic Church, following allegations of sexual misconduct at a seminary west of the capital, Vienna.
   Blame for the scandal at the St Poelten seminary rests not with an individual, the paper argues, but with a system which failed to learn from previous experience.
   "Problems which are not solved will always return. And usually they return a whole lot bigger than when they were last allowed to disappear from view."
   It warns that unless the Church acts quickly over the allegations it will be "threatened with an existential crisis".
• Austrian bishop derides orgy claims -- 'just boys' pranks' [Krenn]
   Mail and Guardian , www.mg.co.za/ Content/l3.asp? ao=118597
   AUSTRIA: The powerful Austrian Catholic Church was plunged into its second big sex scandal in a decade on Monday when a seminary run by arch-conservatives was alleged to be the site of orgies among young priests and their teachers.
   The seminary in St Pölten, west of Vienna, comes under the authority of the conservative Bishop Kurt Krenn.
   The Vienna news magazine Profil has published pictures of priests and students engaged in sexual acts, prompting an uproar, emergency meetings of the church leadership and calls for Bishop Krenn's resignation.
   The pictures were said to be part of a cache of about 40 000 photos and child pornography videos found by church officials on computers at the seminary a year ago.
   While the Austrian Bishops' Conference issued a statement declaring that "homosexuality and pornography" could have no place at the seminary, Krenn refused to resign and appeared to compound the crisis by saying: "This has got nothing to do with homosexuality. It's just boys' pranks."
• Diocese rocked by scandal [2003 Kuechl, Rothe, Krenn]
   Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Associated Press, Jul 13, 2004
   VIENNA, Austria: - A vast cache of child pornography and photos of young priests having sex has been discovered at a Roman Catholic seminary, officials said yesterday.
   Politicians and church leaders demanded a criminal probe and the resignation of Bishop Kurt Krenn, who oversees the diocese. But Krenn, 68, refused to step down, dismissing the images as a "childish prank."
   Leaders of the Catholic diocese of St. Poelten where the seminary is located, about 50 miles west of Vienna, spent much of the day in an emergency meeting.
   The seminary's director, the Rev. Ulrich Kuechl, resigned along with his deputy, Wolfgang Rothe, the diocese said after the meeting. It did not elaborate.
• Gay seminary scandal rocks Austria [Krenn]
   7 News (Australia)
   AUSTRIA: Austria's Roman Catholic Church is launching an investigation into charges of homosexuality between priests and seminarians at a seminary outside Vienna.
   A church panel in the Sankt Poelten diocese west of the capital agreed on the inquiry after the news magazine Profil published photographs showing leading clerics of the local seminary fondling and kissing student priests.
   Profil said investigators had also found at least 40,000 mostly pornographic photographs at the seminary.
   The director of the seminary and his assistant have both quit as details of the scandal emerged in recent days.
   "The panel has decided to investigate this issue thoroughly, discuss and assess the results of this inquiry and draw the necessary conclusions from the result," a Church statement said.
   Kurt Krenn, Sankt Poelten's controversial bishop, told Austria's ORF television he had seen a compromising photograph of the seminary director fondling another man over his clothes but said the scene had nothing to do with homosexuality.
• Catholic Church receives 62 claims of child abuse -- more than one a week
   Telegraph, By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent, 13/July/2004
   BRITAIN: The Roman Catholic Church admitted yesterday that 62 allegations of child abuse were made against its clergy and workers last year.
   The disclosure came from the unit set up to combat paedophile activity among Catholic priests in England and Wales after a series of scandals shook the Church.
   The 62 complaints - mostly concerning alleged sexual abuse - were referred to the police after they were made about priests, members of religious orders, employees and volunteers.
   In addition, 51 reports of "inappropriate behaviour" towards children were dealt with internally by the Church after consultation with police and social services.
   Seven clergy were convicted for offences relating to abuse from cases referred in previous years, the unit disclosed in its annual report.
• RC Church reveals 'abuse' figures -- one a week, but none prosecuted
   BBC News
   BRITAIN: An average of one priest every week was accused last year of sexual abuse against a child, the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has said.
   Out of 52 priests accused of sexual abuse, none has been prosecuted, one has been dismissed and one resigned.
   The Catholic Office for the Protection of Children (COPCA) report said 5,000 criminal record checks were made.
   It said the Church had begun its journey to make itself as safe as possible for children.
• Arlington Priest's Status Removed tho' it took 20 yrs [Krafcik]
   Washington Post, By Caryle Murphy, Page B01, Tuesday, July 13, 2004;
   ARLINGTON (VA): A retired Roman Catholic priest convicted of child sexual abuse in 1984 has been stripped of his clerical status by the Vatican at the request of Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde, the diocese announced yesterday.
   The Rev. Andrew W. Krafcik, 77, who served "in limited ministry" from 1985 until his 1996 retirement, was informed Saturday "that he has been dismissed from the clerical state by a decision of the Holy Father," the diocese said.
   The action is one of the most extreme punishments the Vatican can impose on its clerics. It means that Krafcik cannot celebrate Mass even privately, administer the sacraments, wear clerical garb or present himself as a priest.
   Krafcik, who lives in Arlington, said in a telephone interview that he felt "terrible" about the action, which he considers unfair. "I was against it," he said. "I didn't want to get dismissed from the priesthood."
   In the 50 years prior to 2002, 277 priests were laicized -- removed from their clerical status -- because of child sexual abuse, according to a definitive study of the problem conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the U.S. Catholic bishops.
• Outrage over Child Porn Find at Catholic Seminary [2003 Kuechl, Rothe, Krenn]
   The Scotsman, "PA"
   AUSTRIA: Austrians are demanding a criminal investigation and the resignation of a bishop after officials found a huge cache of child pornography and photos of young priests having sex at a Roman Catholic seminary.
   Leaders of the Catholic diocese of St Poelten, about 50 miles west of Vienna, where the seminary is located, spent much of yesterday in an emergency meeting.
   Politicians and church leaders called for the removal of Bishop Kurt Krenn, who oversees the diocese. Krenn, a conservative churchman, angered many in overwhelmingly Catholic Austria by dismissing the images as a "childish prank" and refusing to resign.
   The seminary's director, the Rev Ulrich Kuechl, resigned along with his deputy, Wolfgang Rothe, the diocese said after the meeting.
   Up to 40,000 photos and an undisclosed number of films, including child pornography, were found a year ago on computers at the seminary, the respected news magazine Profil reported.
• Abuse claims hit Catholic church -- 62 new claims
   The Guardian by Stephen Bates, religious affairs correspondent, Tuesday July 13, 2004
   BRITAIN: The Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales admitted yesterday that there have been 62 new complaints of sexual and other abuse against its priests and church workers in the last year.
   The figure was disclosed as the church issued the second annual report of its child protection office, set up following a succession of abuse scandals.
   An independent committee under Lord Nolan to review church procedures recommended that every parish and diocese should have officers specifically appointed to safeguard child protection and the church claimed yesterday that all 22 dioceses in England and Wales and 75% of religious organisations now have such officials in place. Almost all parishes - 2,554 out of 2,663 - also have child protection coordinators.
• Porn scandal shakes seminary [2003 Kuechl, Rothe, Krenn]
   Irish Independent
   AUSTRIA: The Vatican became embroiled in a new paedophile scandal yesterday as investigators struggled to unravel a pornography network in an Austrian seminary.
   Bishop Kurt Krenn, a 68-year-old conservative theologian favoured by the Vatican, is fighting for his post after police found 11,000 pictures of sexual acts, some of them apparently with children, on the hard disk of the seminary's computer. A search of the rooms of seminarians turned up films showing what the prosecutor described as "unnatural acts."
   According to Profil magazine, one picture shows the head of the seminary, Father Ulrich Kuchl, fondling a student and his deputy, Father Wolfgang Rothe, kissing another.
   Other reports emerging from the seminary in the diocese of St Polten include an account of a drunken orgy. Father Kuchl said that the compromising pictures had been placed on the seminary hard disk by a hacker from outside.
   Bishop Krenn is responsible for the selection of seminary staff and is particularly involved in the seminary of St Polten, which is his home province. Father Rothe was for a while his secretary and adviser. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 01:13 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tue July 13, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont88.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Wed July 14, 2004 edition follows:-
• Sex allegations rock St. Poelten church [2003 Kuechl, Rothe, Krenn, Dinhobl]
   Die Presse, Redaktion (Die Presse - Printed Edition) 19:42 13.July.2004
   ST POELTEN, Austria: St. Poelten's Bishop Kurt Krenn has come under increasing pressure to step down after two church men, seminary chief Ulrich Kuechl and his deputy Wolfgang Rothe, resigned in the aftermath of an affair surrounding homosexual activities at the diocese.
   A consortium of church leaders met with Krenn on Monday to discuss the further course of action after photos of homosexual acts and child pornography were uncovered at the priest's seminary in St. Poelten.
   The consortium promised a full investigation into the allegations but Krenn's spokesman Michael Dinhobl told "Die Presse": "Some things look like wrong-doing on a photo, but aren't really."
   He said the issue was to determine what really happened. The bishop ruled out resigning once again on Monday and dismissed the photos showing Kuechl and Rothe in sexual poses with seminarians as "boy's pranks." The Vatican was unavailable for comment on Monday.
• Vatican concerned over St. Poelten sex scandal
   Die Presse
   ST. POELTEN, Austria: Erich Leitenberger, spokesman for Vienna Archbishop Christoph Schoenborn, has said that the Vatican is taking allegations of paedophile and homosexual sex acts at a Catholic seminary in Lower Austria very seriously. He said it was the nuncio, a special envoy to the Vatican's duty to report back to Rome and added, "Out nuncio is a very thorough and sober observer.
   It is fair to assume that the Vatican is dealing very closely with the affair." St. Poelten Bishop Kurt Krenn is directly responsible for occurrences in his district but he has indicated that he will not step down over the affair. Leitenberger said,
   "Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Krenn is going to resign." He said he expects that the Vatican has been in contact with Krenn over possible consequences. No dismissal procedures exist within the church and a bishop can only be removed by the Pope, or by resigning from his position.
• Moreno's Admission [$US 14m wasted]
   Tucson Weekly, By GUSTAVO ARELLANO
   TUCSON (AZ): He's one of the most notorious pedophilic-priest shufflers in American Catholic history: Manuel D. Moreno, former bishop of the Diocese of Tucson.
   Moreno resigned last year after serving Southern Arizona for 21 years, a period during which Moreno settled 11 lawsuits alleging child molestation by Tucsonan priests for $14 million.
   During his tenure, Moreno also offered refuge to seminary classmates accused of sexual misconduct, like Patrick Ziemann (former bishop of Santa Rosa, Calif., who resigned in 1999 after accusations arose that he kept a priest as his personal sex toy) and Robert Trupia (nicknamed "Chicken Hawk" by his fellow priests).
   At the time of Moreno's resignation, 17 more sex-abuse lawsuits awaited Tucson-area parishioners, inching the current Tucson Catholic hierarchy toward the once-unimaginable brink of bankruptcy.
   Moreno is in failing health, preparing to meet his maker. Perhaps that explains why Moreno is now openly admitting his complicity in the Tucson sex-abuse scandal.
   In an extraordinary June 2 deposition taken by Costa Mesa, Calif.-based attorney John Manly, who's currently representing alleged sex-abuse victims in Tucson, Moreno acknowledged rumors that have been whispered about by sex-abuse victims for years but had been studiously ignored by Tucson-area Catholics.
   In the course of the two-hour deposition, held in Pima County Superior Court, Moreno acknowledged, among other things, that he'd allowed priests he knew were child molesters to take kids on trips to Disneyland, where priests would then molest them.
• Austrian Seminary Investigated by Episcopate
   Zenit, JULY 14, 2004
   VIENNA, Austria: The Austrian bishops' conference announced the start of an investigation into allegations involving superiors and students of the Sankt Polten Seminary.
   The episcopate has established a commission to make the internal investigation, the Austrian Catholic agency Kathpress reported Tuesday.
   The media have published reports that the attorney general's office found thousands of pornographic photographs in connection with the seminary.
   Bishop Egon Kapellari of Graz, vice president of episcopal conference, told public radio station ORF said that order must be restored in the seminary according to Church rules.
• Salesian principal faces abuse claim [Aulsebrook]
   The Age (Melbourne), By Martin Daly, July 15, 2004
   AUSTRALIA: A Salesian priest and educator has stood down as principal of a major school after a report against him was lodged with the Catholic Church's body that investigates abuse claims.
   Father Michael Aulsebrook has left his position at the Salesian's St Mark's College in Port Pirie, South Australia, where he has been principal since September, 1995.
   The move was sparked by a so far unspecified incident allegedly involving Father Aulsebrook that was reported to the Catholic Church's Committee for Professional Standards, which runs the church's Towards Healing process for abuse victims.
   The allegation was made on July 1 and was reported by Towards Healing to Salesian Provincial, Father Ian Murdoch, at the Salesian headquarters in Melbourne that day. No report had been lodged by the complainant, but Father Aulsebrook agreed with Father Murdoch that he should stand down.
• Diocese denies conspiracy
   The Sun, BY MICHELLE KANN, Jul 14, 2004
   TUCSON (AZ): A month after first mentioning the possibility of bankruptcy, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson is still considering it as a way to secure its assets and equalize financial compensation for the victims before a civil trial in Yuma County starts in September.
   But attorneys for the plaintiffs call the diocese's reported consideration of Chapter 11 a threat that will prolong the suffering for minors who were repeatedly sexually abused by Yuma priests.
   According to Lynne Cadigan, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, it is a ploy by the diocese to taint the jury pool and persuade potential jurors that the church is poor and can't afford to compensate victims.
   "It's shocking how they treat the victims as predators because all they (the diocese) care about is their money," she said. "Other churches care for their victims. In the Catholic Church, they put the priests first. It's all the priests before the victims."
   Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas said this is not true.
• Survivors of clergy abuse form support group in city
   Gazette, by Brooke W. Stanley, July 14, 2004
   MARYLAND: The mission of a new support group in Gaithersburg for survivors of clergy abuse is a simple one -- validation.
   Pain not validated is aggravated, explained Rockville resident Elizabeth Eisenhaur, who co-chairs the group.
   Called A Support Group for Survivors of Clergy Abuse, the group began in May and meets monthly at the Gaithersburg Library. The group also caters to family members and friends who have been affected by the sexual abuse of loved ones.
   The group is co-sponsored by the Montgomery County chapter of Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), a Newton, Mass.-based organization of concerned Catholics dedicated to supporting survivors of abuse, supporting priests of integrity and shaping structural change within the Catholic Church.
   It is also co-sponsored by the Washington regional chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a national, confidential self-help group.
• Area priest accused [1994-95 Superiaso]
   San Francisco Examiner, By Sabrina Crawford, Wednesday, July 14, 2004
   DALY CITY, California -- Nearly a decade after alleged abuse occurred at the hand of a local Catholic priest, a 21-year-old Daly City woman has come forward to press charges. Now, it remains up to the court to determine whether -- on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that checked California's prosecution of past child sexual abuse -- the crime can still be prosecuted.
   Fifty-year-old Jose Superiaso, a former priest at St. Andrew Catholic Church in Daly City, has been charged with the alleged sexual molestation of a 12-year-old girl from July 1994 to November 1995. Superaiso, who pleaded not guilty to 24 counts of committing a "lewd or lascivious act" with a minor under age 14, is seeking a dismissal of charges based on the court ruling. His next court date is scheduled for Aug. 5.
   The alleged victim, a girl who immigrated to the United States from the Philippines at age 10 and whose identity has been concealed by the courts for her protection, told police she met Superiaso, a Catholic priest ordained in the Philippines, while he was at St. Andrew.
• Stokes due in court tomorrow on gun charges [Blackwell]
   Baltimore Sun, The Associated Press, July 14, 2004
   BALTIMORE (MD): Dontee D. Stokes is expected to plead guilty to three handgun violation charges tomorrow in return for a sentence of time served, his attorney said today.
   "Hopefully, we'll be able to close out that whole chapter and he can put this all behind him," attorney Warren Brown said.
   Stokes is the city barber acquitted of shooting a priest he said had molested him.
   A Baltimore Circuit Court jury acquitted Stokes in 2002 of attempted murder and other charges in the shooting of the Rev. Maurice J. Blackwell.
   After admitting that he shot Blackwell, Stokes was convicted of carrying a handgun, discharging a handgun within city limits, and transporting a handgun in a vehicle. The Maryland Court of Appeals overturned the conviction in February.
• Diocese faces new lawsuit [Hubbard, Curran]
   Capital News 9, By Jessica Schneider, Updated: 4:50 PM, 7/14/2004
   ALBANY (NY): Attorney John Aretakis filed a new lawsuit that names the Albany Catholic Diocese as a defendant.
   The suit is being filed in Boston, and it accuses Bishop Howard Hubbard of covering up sexual abuse within the diocese. Sixty-two-year-old David Leonard of Herkimer County said he was forced into a homosexual relationship when he was 50 years old by Schenectady priest Anthony Curran. Leonard said the abuse never came out during Mary Jo White's independent investigation, even though he was willing to talk about it.
   Leonard said, "I had nothing to hide, and I felt this was a public issue now. I wanted other people to hear the truth and not to be filtered through Mary Jo White and Bishop Howard Hubbard."
• Victims' groups: Bishop must do more to address priest abuse [Krafcik]
   Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg.com (Fredericksburg, Virginia), http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/apmethods/apstory?urlfeed=D83QOTU00.xml , By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer
   ARLINGTON, Va. Just days after a northern Virginia priest was defrocked for a 1984 case of child sexual abuse, victim advocacy groups are pushing Arlington Bishop Paul Loverde to identify all diocesan priests who have engaged in abuse.
   The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), joined by members of the Catholic lay group Voice of the Faithful, said Wednesday at a press conference outside the Arlington Diocese headquarters that Loverde has not done enough to reach out to abuse victims and has allowed the church's investigations of pastoral abuse to proceed in secrecy.
   On Monday, the diocese announced that the Vatican had defrocked Andrew Krafcik, 76, of Arlington, for a 1984 sex abuse conviction near Richmond. Krafcik served in limited ministry at a Fairfax parish for nearly 12 years after he was convicted.
   The diocese has said no other victims have come forward with allegations of abuse by Krafcik. But Mark Serrano of Leesburg, a SNAP board member who was a victim of pastoral sexual abuse, said it's foolish to assume there was only one victim without conducting an active investigation to seek others who may be reluctant to come forward.
• Rights group doubts suspect in Nicaragua is fugitive priest [Vasquez]

   KGBT 4 (Rio Grande Valley), www.team4news.com/Global/story.asp?S=2039831
   MANAGUA, Nicaragua:-AP -- Officials with a children's rights group today said they doubt a man held in Nicaragua is a Costa Rican priest fleeing from sexual abuse charges.
   Police yesterday reported detaining a man suspected of being the Reverend Enrique Vasquez, who has worked in Central America and the U-S.
   Officials were working to confirm his identity.
   But the Nicaragua coordinator for the children's rights group Casa Alianza, Evelyn Palma, said that man's fingerprints did not match those of Vasquez and the man has denied being the priest.
• Vatican urged to oust bishop responsible for seminary where porn was found
   WHO TV 13 (Des Moines)
   VIENNA, Austria: AP -- An Austrian church official has urged the Vatican to oust the bishop in charge of a seminary where candidates for the priesthood are accused of hoarding child pornography and photos of themselves fondling each other.
   Police have examined hard drives on computers seized at the seminary as part of a child pornography investigation. Officials said the discs contain some 40-thousand photographs and numerous videos, including child pornography and photos of young seminarians kissing and fondling each other and their older instructors and engaging in sex games.
• Salesian principal faces abuse claim [Aulsebrook, Rapson, Klep]
   Catholic News , http://www.cathnews.com/news/407/82.php , July 15, 2004
   AUSTRALIA: A Salesian priest and educator has stood down as principal of a major school after a report against him was lodged with the Church's Committee for Professional Standards, which runs the church's Towards Healing process for abuse victims.
   The Age reports that Fr Michael Aulsebrook has left his position at the Salesians' St Mark's College in Port Pirie, South Australia, where he has been principal since September, 1995.
   The move was sparked by a so far unspecified incident allegedly involving Fr Aulsebrook that was reported to the Catholic Church's Committee for Professional Standards, which runs the church's Towards Healing process for abuse victims.
   The allegation was made on 1 July and was reported by Towards Healing to Salesian Provincial, Fr Ian Murdoch, at the Salesian headquarters in Melbourne that day. No report had been lodged by the complainant, but Fr Aulsebrook agreed with Fr Murdoch that he should stand down. [...]
   Fr Aulsebrook, in his mid-40s, worked as a priest and teacher at the Salesian's Rupertswood College, Sunbury, outside Melbourne, where allegations of sexual abuse by former students have led to criminal charges against a number of priests, including Frank Klep, who has been charged in relation to further abuse allegations at Rupertswood.
   Fr Aulsebrook was boarding master in the early 1990s at Rupertswood. For a time, he took care of boarders in years 7, 8 and 9 and year 10 agricultural students. He became vice-principal at Rupertswood, according to sources, after Salesian priest David Rapson was sentenced in November 1992 to two years' jail for assaulting a 15-year-old student at the college.
   The Salesians face criticism for allegedly protecting abuser priests and moving them around to evade law enforcement and victims. The Australian Province is under fire for sending Fr Klep to Samoa in 1998.
   SOURCE
Salesian principal faces abuse claim (The Age 15/7/04)
   LINKS
Allegation causes principal to stand aside (ABC North & West SA 14/7/04)
Church reveals abuse figures (ITV 13/7/04)
Abuse claims hit Catholic church (The Guardian/Associated Press 13/7/04)
Austria probes priest sex claims (BBC 12/7/04)
Priests 'In Orgy' at Seminary (The Scotsman 12/7/04)
Child protection office launches annual report (Independent Catholic News 12/7/04)
Salesian priest leaves Samoa (CathNews 9/7/04)
Salesian Works in Samoa: Moamoa Theological College
Convicted priest continues direct contact with children (Samoa News/Tala Nei News)
Shelter for the shamed? (The Australian 6/7/04)
Abuser 'not moved to avoid police' (CathNews 1/7/04)
Priest warned students of perils ahead (The Age 1/7/04)
Probe into sex abuse of wards (Daily Telegraph 1/7/04)
Bishop 'Frustrated' by Vatican's Pace (The Guardian/Associated Press 30/6/04)
Samoa considers deporting priests (The Age 30/6/04)
Salesians 'knew of Klep allegations' (CathNews 29/6/04)
Salesian arrested at Melbourne Airport (CathNews 28/6/04)
Counting the cost of a priest's bad faith (The Age 26/6/04)
Father Klep refused bail (ABC Radio PM 25/6/04)
Father Klep back in Australia (ABC Radio The World Today 25/6/04)
Priest charged with sex offences (AAP/The Age 25/6/04)
Paedophile priest refused bail (Herald-Sun 25/6/04)
Paedophile priest arrested in Melbourne (ABC Lateline 25/6/04)
Catholic Priest Arrested in Australia (The Guardian/Associated Press 25/6/04)
Accused child sex priest in jail (The Australian 26/6/04)
Customs lets wanted priest pass (The Age 25/6/04)
Catholic Priest Arrested in Australia (Associated Press/Bucks County Courier-Times)
Fr Klep being deported from Samoa (CathNews 25/6/04)
Sex priest to return to Melbourne (The Age 25/6/04)
Priest given 48 hours to flee (The Australian 25/6/04)
Church accused of hiding pedophile priest (Sydney Morning Herald 25/6/04)
The Salesian Congregation rejects the accusations in "The Dallas Morning News": we condemn every kind of child abuse (ANS Salesian News Agency 21/6/04)
Samoa's pedophile anger (The Australian 23/6/04)
Church compounds the sins of the fathers (The Age 23/6/04)
Pedophile priest stays out of reach (The Age 22/6/04)
Australian Salesians
• Porn Case Could Torpedo Austrian Bishop [Krenn]
   Yahoo! News By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer, 2:30 PM ET, Wed Jul 14, 2004
   VIENNA, Austria: - An official with the Archdiocese of Vienna urged the Vatican (news - web sites) on Wednesday to oust a Roman Catholic bishop in charge of a seminary where candidates for the priesthood hoarded child pornography and photos of themselves kissing and fondling each other.
   The cleric, Bishop Kurt Krenn, dismissed the photos as part of a "schoolboy prank" and accused critics of exaggerating the case - the worst church scandal in Austria since allegations of pedophilia brought down a cardinal nearly a decade ago.
   Police examined hard drives on computers seized at the seminary in St. Poelten, 50 miles west of Vienna, as part of a child pornography investigation.
   Officials said the discs contained some 40,000 photographs and numerous videos, including child pornography and photos of young seminarians kissing and fondling each other and their older instructors and engaging in sex games.
   As some of the photos began appearing in Austrian newsmagazines - depicting students in sexual situations while clad in black shirts and priestly collars - calls mounted for Krenn to resign.
• Group calls for nuns to address sex abuse
   The Boston Globe, By Stephen Manning, Associated Press Writer, July 14, 2004
   SILVER SPRING, Md. -- Religious orders of nuns need to do more to root out sexual abuse by their members, help victims and set up safeguards to prevent future sexual misconduct, according to an advocacy group for victims of clergy abuse.
   Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, delivered a letter Tuesday to a national nun organization calling for more attention on abuse by women in the Roman Catholic Church. Most of the recent abuse scandals have focused on male clergy members.
   Outside the headquarters of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, also known as LCWR, several people said they were abused by nuns who taught at Catholic schools. They want the organization to let victims speak at its August conference in Fort Worth, Texas.
   "We would like them to hear our stories from our mouths," said Landa Mauriello-Vernon, head of the Connecticut branch of SNAP who said she was abused by a nun at school when she was 17.
   SNAP national director David Clohessy said the group did not have accurate figures on the number of people who may have been abused by nuns, but he estimated it was in the "hundreds." He asked for anyone who may have been victimized to contact SNAP.
• Survivor does his 'Part' to heal [1972-74 Kosanke]
   Rocky Mountain News By Lisa Bornstein, July 14, 2004
   COLORADO: People don't walk out of The Tricky Part humming show tunes. They stay in the theater, pummeling actor/writer Martin Moran with their own stories.
   When the Denver native begins performing his one-man, autobiographical play Thursday at Acoma Center, Curious Theatre Company will be ready. The theater brought Moran home for the first theatrical run of The Tricky Part since the Off Broadway Obie winner closed. And as with so many Curious shows, outreach and education will go hand in hand with theater.
   Every show, except opening and closing nights, will be followed by a talkback between Moran and the audience. At every show, counselors will be available to speak with overwhelmed audience members. It makes sense for a show that stirs emotions, as Moran recounts his own childhood seduction by an older man.
   He was a 12-year-old student at Christ the King in Denver when, in 1972, Moran became friends with adult camp counselor Robert Kosanke. Moran's parents trusted Kosanke, and on an outing outside of camp, Kosanke began a sexual relationship with Moran that lasted three years.
   Moran went on to a successful, stable adult life as a gay man and working Broadway actor. At 44, he took a break from interpreting the stories of others and began to tell his own, in a show that discusses his Catholic upbringing, his molestation and the difficulty in separating his young homosexuality from Kosanke's actions.
• Sex Scandal Stuns Austria's Catholics
   Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-scandal14jul14,1,5309903.story? coll=la-news-a_section By Sonya Yee, July 14, 2004
   VIENNA, Austria - Austria's Roman Catholic Church is scrambling to contain a widening sex scandal after it emerged that police had found what one magazine described as tens of thousands of pornographic photographs at a local seminary.
   The photos, discovered on seminary computers, allegedly depict child pornography and seminary priests engaged in sexual acts with students.
   Local media have published photos showing the seminary director and his deputy kissing and fondling seminarians. Both men have since resigned.
   The church has announced an internal investigation into alleged sexual misconduct at the seminary, which is in the diocese of St. Poelten, west of Vienna.
   Outrage over the affair continued to build in this largely Roman Catholic country as Bishop Kurt Krenn, chief of the St. Poelten diocese, dismissed the published photos of seminarians and instructors kissing and caressing as "boys' foolishness."
   Krenn addressed the issue again briefly Tuesday night during an appearance on a religious television program devoted to a discussion of chastity. Limiting his remarks to the kissing shown in the published photos, he said it involved innocent signs of affection at a Christmas party and "had nothing to do with homosexuality." [...]
   The scandal is the worst the Austrian church has faced since the mid-1990s, when Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, then the head of the church, was accused of having molested young boys decades earlier. He stepped down in 1998 after an internal investigation and died last year. ...
• Church payout to victim [1983-94] -- huge investigation including Peru witness

   Kilkenny People, www.kilkennypeople.ie/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Newspaper/Article&pid= 1008171408374&cid=1089359244933
   IRELAND: The Catholic Diocese of Ossory, as part of a a settlement in the High Court yesterday (Tuesday), is to pay substantial damages to a handicapped man who was abused by a paedophile priest from Kilkenny.
   The sexual assaults on the individual, who has the mental capacity of a 12-year-old, occurred over a 12-year period in various parts of Co Kilkenny.
   It sparked the largest individual sex abuse investigation in the history of the State with over 700 people being interviewed, including a young man from Peru brought over to Ireland by the disgraced cleric.
   As a result, the priest was jailed for seven years in 1995 after he pleaded guilty to a number of specimen charges at Kilkenny Circuit Criminal Court.
   In an affidavit read out in the High Court yesterday (Tuesday) two rural parishes, one in the south of the county, the other in the north, were revealed as the locations where the abuse took place.
   Among the defendants named in the civil action taken on behalf of the man by Michael Lanigan and Company, Solicitors, Kilkenny are the priest and his employer, the Bishop of Ossory, Dr Laurence Forristal.
   The plaintiff’s legal team, in the course of their preparation for the action, uncovered an article in the Kilkenny People from August 1991.
   In the piece, which included a photograph of the rogue priest receiving a presentation from the local gardai, the abused young man was described as a "house boy" of the priest. [...]
   It is understood that a number of other victims of the cleric are suing the Diocese of Ossory for damages as a result of the abuse they suffered at the hands of the man.
   The abuse at the hands of the parish priest went on from 1983 to 1994.
   The Kilkenny People has learned that another young man, who was abused by the priest while on a work experience course run by the cleric as part of a "rehabilitation programme" was subsequently tested for AIDS and HIV. #
• Methodists stunned by sexual-abuse suit [Boayue]
   Detroit Free Press, BY DAVID CRUMM, FREE PRESS RELIGION WRITER, July 14, 2004
   DETROIT (MI): An accusation of sexual abuse against a prominent United Methodist pastor from Detroit threatened to dim his moment in the national limelight this week as he and other United Methodist leaders gather in Iowa to elect new bishops for the Midwest.
   Widely regarded as a potential candidate for the episcopacy himself, the Rev. Charles Boayue instead was the subject of a protest Tuesday night outside his Detroit church. His accuser, a former United Methodist deacon from the Flint area, and 10 of her supporters, demonstrated.
   Surrounded by a shoulder-to-shoulder wall of men and women who stood blocking her face from public view, former Deacon Joy Singer read a brief statement saying that abuse by clergy must be publicly opposed. "I am coming forth because I do not want anyone else to get hurt," she said.
   The group held picket signs, including one that proclaimed: "No justice; no healing." They sang "We Shall Overcome" and "Amazing Grace" before heading home.
   If the accusations by Singer prove to be true, under United Methodist Church rules, this not only would derail Boayue's chances for higher office but could end his career in the ministry entirely.
• Victim's group wants friar accused of abuse expelled [Chumik]
   Contra Costa Times By Andrea Almond
   LOS ANGELES (CA) - Church abuse survivors called on Cardinal Roger Mahony on Tuesday to remove an elderly friar from the Santa Barbara Mission who is accused of molesting a teen in Canada.
   Holding signs reading, "Listen to The Victims" and "Protect The Children," members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP] demanded that Franciscan friar Gerald Chumik, 69, be sent back to his native Canada to face charges of enticing a teenage boy to perform oral sex.
   The group alleged that the Chumik case is an example of a larger church policy of secrecy and foot-dragging in response to allegations of clergy abuse.
   Mahony -- who heads the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese -- also has been criticized by the district attorney's office for fighting the release of thousands of pages of personnel documents, which prosecutors have sought in connection with the sexual abuse allegations.
   "Cardinal Mahony needs to be helping law enforcement prosecute these men, not aiding and abetting them," said SNAP's southwest regional director Mary Grant, at a conference outside Our Lady of Angels Cathedral. [Emphasis added]
• Bishop in seminary porn scandal urged to resign [Krenn]
   Houston Chronicle Associated Press
   VIENNA, Austria: -- Pressure mounted today for the resignation of an embattled Roman Catholic bishop over the discovery at a seminary of a huge cache of child pornography and photos of candidates for the priesthood engaging in gay sex.
   Only if Bishop Kurt Krenn steps down "will an extensive investigation be possible" into the discovery of up to 40,000 photos and many videos, said Helmut Schueller, the Archdiocese of Vienna's ombudsman for victims of sexual abuse.
   Schueller called on the Vatican to force out Krenn, 68, who oversees the diocese in St. Poelten, 50 miles west of Vienna where the seminary is located.
   Krenn has been widely criticized for dismissing photos of seminarians kissing and fondling each other as a "schoolboy prank." Officials say other photos show the students allegedly engaging in sex games with older religious instructors.
   In a late-night interview Tuesday on Austrian state television, the bishop said he accepts overall responsibility for what happened at the seminary but insisted the furor was overblown.
• Arrested man may be fugitive priest [Vásquez]
   The Dallas Morning News, By BRENDAN M. CASE and BROOKS EGERTON, Tuesday, July 13, 2004
   NICARAGUA: Nicaraguan police said Tuesday night that they had arrested a man matching the description of fugitive priest Enrique Vásquez, an admitted child molester who has ties to a prominent papal candidate in Honduras.
   Nicaraguan national police spokeswoman Miriam Torres said the man was captured near the Honduran border, The Associated Press reported. Police said they were waiting for Father Vásquez's fingerprints to be sent from his native Costa Rica to determine whether they match the suspect's.
   The arrest came as the international police agency Interpol accused Catholic leaders in Central America of hindering their search for Father Váásquez, who fled a criminal investigation in Costa Rica in 1998 and has worked in ministry abroad for most of the time since.
   Prosecutors in Costa Rica, meanwhile, are investigating whether the priest's bishop there, Angel San Casimiro, has broken the law by aiding Father Vásquez.
• List of accused area priests sought [Pecore]
   Milwaukee Journal Sentinel By TOM HEINEN, theinen@journalsentinel.com , Posted July 14, 2004
   MILWAUKEE (WI): A local support group for victims of sexual abuse has called for the public to help it compile a list of religious-order priests in the Milwaukee area who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing a child.
   That action was the latest volley in what the group promised would be an escalating campaign to get Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan to pressure religious orders to release the names of their accused priests.
   The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP] tried to dramatize the need for more information Monday by doing door-to-door leafleting and holding a news conference outside an east side day care center in a neighborhood where a religious-order priest who was convicted twice of sexually abusing boys has been living since his parole in February 2002. He is under electronic monitoring.
   News that Father Dennis A. Pecore is living in the area came as a shock to Thelma Wade, assistant to the pastor of the apostolic church that runs Heavenly Care East Side Day Care, 1640 N. Franklin Place, and various youth programs in an adjacent building.
   "This is the first I've heard about it," Wade said. "I think it's terrible that he's in the neighborhood. I know the parents will be concerned."
• Nicaragua seeking priest who fled child sex charges [Vasquez]

   Fort Worth Star-Telegram Associated Press
   MANAGUA, Nicaragua: - Nicaraguan authorities said Tuesday night they had arrested a man matching the description of a Costa Rican priest fleeing sexual molestation charges, but said the man's identity had not been confirmed.
   Authorities have been searching for the Rev. Enrique Vasquez on an Interpol warrant on behalf of Costa Rican officials. National Police said Vasquez apparently had entered Nicaragua.
   National Police spokeswoman Miriam Torres said the man matching Vasquez's description was captured in the northern province of Matagalpa, which is near the border with Honduras. Police are waiting for Vasquez' fingerprints to be sent from Costa Rica to determine whether they match the suspect's.
   Vasquez fled Costa Rica after a criminal complaint was filed by the mother of a boy he allegedly molested. He later worked in Connecticut, New York state and South Carolina, as well as in Honduras and Mexico.
• Judge Rejects Subpoena of Priests' Files -- 500 cases affected
   Los Angeles Times By Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writer
   LOS ANGELES (CA): A judge has quashed 30 grand jury subpoenas seeking confidential personnel files of Roman Catholic priests suspected of child molestation.
   The decision narrows the criminal investigation into clergy misconduct in Los Angeles County. That investigation already had been significantly narrowed last summer, when the U.S. Supreme Court halted the prosecution of older sex crime cases. The high court ruled that California had violated the U.S. Constitution when it passed a law to revive prosecutions in long-ago cases.
   In the new ruling, retired Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Thomas F. Nuss said the Los Angeles County Grand Jury could not seek church records of priests whose cases were now too old to be prosecuted.
   That ruling is not expected to affect more than 500 civil cases in which people who say they were victimized by pedophile priests have sued the Los Angeles Archdiocese for allegedly failing to protect minors.
• Advocacy group says dozens allege sex abuse by nuns
   Baltimore Sun By Frank Langfitt, July 14, 2004
   SILVER SPRING (MD): Spotlighting the role of female clergy in sexual abuse for the first time, a victims advocacy group said yesterday that it had identified about 100 people in the United States who said they had been assaulted by Catholic nuns, sisters and other female religious workers.
   At a news conference, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called for other victims to come forward so they could share their stories and receive help. The group also asked the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a national female clerical organization based here, to allow victims to speak at their annual meeting next month in Fort Worth, Texas.
   'Hear our stories'
   "We would like them to hear our stories from our mouths," said Landa Murriello-Vernon, 30, a SNAP official, who said a nun sexually assaulted her during her senior year at an all-girls Catholic high school in suburban Connecticut. "I know that with our help, they can do a better job than the bishops."
• Church abuse transcripts released
   Ventura County Star AP, July 14, 2004
   LOS ANGELES (CA) (AP) -- A judge released the first transcript Tuesday from hearings involving a grand jury investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by priests from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
   The 53-page transcript from the June 25 hearing primarily deals with the judge's dismissal of 30 grand jury subpoenas by the district attorney and provides a glimpse into proceedings that have been secret.
   The transcript is the first in a series to be released by Judge Thomas Nuss, who is also expected to rule soon on whether the personnel records of priests can be released to the grand jury as part of the investigation into alleged sexual abuse in the nation's largest archdiocese.
• Former priest charged with 17 sex offences [1970-94 Daniels] -- Anglican

   ABC, www.abc.net.au/tasmania/news/200407/s1154091.htm , Wednesday, 14 July 2004
   AUSTRALIA : A 57-year-old former Anglican priest has been taken into the custody of Tasmanian police, charged with 17 sex offences against boys.
   Louis Victor Daniels will be extradited from the ACT after a brief appearance in a Canberra court.
   Mr Daniels sat solemnly in court as Hobart Detective-Constable Nicholas Smith listed the charges against the former priest.
   He faces 11 counts of indecent assault, four of attempted indecent assault and two counts of sexual intercourse with a person under 17 years of age.
   The court heard the allegations relate to five boys aged between 11 and 17 who were all linked to the Anglican church in Tasmania. The abuse is alleged to have occurred between 1970 and 1994.
   Mr Daniels is recorded as living in the Canberra suburb of Charnwood, however the nature of his arrest was not detailed in court. He is due to fly to Hobart tomorrow for a court appearance on Friday morning. #
• Suspended or not? Accused ex-local priest's status unclear [Clay]
   Times Leader By MARK GUYDISH, markg@leader.net
   SCRANTON (PA): A former area priest accused of sexual abuse was banned from active ministry, then given the OK to resume that work ... except he wasn't. Confused? So is the priest's lawyer.
   Attorney Greg Magarity says his client, the Rev. Christopher Clay, deserves answers. In 2002, Clay was accused of sexual misconduct and relieved of his duties. But he later received approval to resume active ministry from then-Bishop James Timlin.
   Yet according to Diocese of Scranton spokeswoman Maria Orzel, Bishop Joseph Martino, who replaced Timlin last year, still bans Clay from active ministry. On Tuesday, Orzel said the ban is intact because a diocesan investigation is "ongoing."
   That left Magarity baffled. "You can't have something under investigation for two years. What kind of due process is that?"
   The confusion emerged when the Dallas Morning News reported that Clay was working as a priest on weekends at an Arlington Church. The Rev. Alan Hawkins, the pastor at that church, had called Timlin to check on Clay's background before letting him serve.
• Furor Grows Over Austria Church Porn Case [Krenn]
   Tallahassee Democrat By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press
   VIENNA, Austria: - Pressure mounted Wednesday for the resignation of an embattled Roman Catholic bishop over the discovery at a seminary of a huge cache of child pornography and photos of candidates for the priesthood engaging in gay sex.
   Only if Bishop Kurt Krenn steps down "will an extensive investigation be possible" into the discovery of up to 40,000 photos and many videos, said Helmut Schueller, the Archdiocese of Vienna's ombudsman for victims of sexual abuse.
   Schueller called on the Vatican to force out Krenn, 68, who oversees the diocese in St. Poelten, 50 miles west of Vienna where the seminary is located.
   Krenn has been widely criticized for dismissing photos of seminarians kissing and fondling each other as a "schoolboy prank." Officials say other photos show the students allegedly engaging in sex games with older religious instructors.
   In a late-night interview Tuesday on Austrian state television, the bishop said he accepts overall responsibility for what happened at the seminary but insisted the furor was overblown.
   "Although these things naturally fall into my competence, I had nothing to do with them," he said, calling the affair "an exaggeration."
• 11 years after accusations, priest faces sex-abuse charges [Pecore, Palathingal - Salesian]
   Home News Tribune Published July/01/04
   MILWAUKEE (WI): In 1993, the Milwaukee district attorney figured Nick Janovsky had suffered enough. Janovsky, then 12, had accused his uncle, the Rev. Dennis Pecore, of sexually abusing him. The Roman Catholic priest was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
   Janovsky, who now lives in Florida, recalled how the case caused bitterness in his family. "Everybody looked up to my uncle. He was ordained at a young age, and he could do no wrong."
   There was more. Janovsky and his parents told police that another priest, Simon Palathingal -- with whom Pecore lived and who came with Pecore to the Janovskys for Thanksgiving dinner -- had abused him, too. Now Janovsky is getting delayed justice.
   Simon Palathingal was arrested June 4 in South Amboy, where he was serving at St. Mary Roman Catholic Church, and was applying to be a diocesan priest with the Diocese of Metuchen.
   Palathingal, a religious order priest with the Selesians of Don Bosco, was charged with four counts of sexual abuse; bail is set at $1.25 million. On July 6, Wisconsin authorities will seek his extradition from New Jersey.
   Palathingal could have been tried in 1993, and thus spared the church the current embarrassment. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:47 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wed July 14, 2004
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