Clergy Child Molesters (92) -- References/Chronology

• Church investigating whether priest jeopardized the safety of a minor [2004 Coughlin, 1990-94 Skinner] - Roman Catholic Church (RCC). U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Herald Tribune, www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20040808/APN/ 408080662 , By RYAN LENZ, Associated Press Writer, August 8, 2004
   SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine -- Parishioners at two Roman Catholic churches learned Sunday their priest had been temporarily removed while the Portland diocese investigates his involvement with a former church volunteer charged with sexual assault.
   The diocese is investigating whether the Rev. Paul Coughlin put a minor at risk when he knew John Skinner of Stonington. Skinner was recently indicted for sexually assaulting a teenager from 1990 to 1994 while serving as a youth ministry volunteer at St. Mary of Lourdes in Lincoln, Maine.
   "This is an ethical issue with the church, and we want to know when did Father Coughlin know that there was a complaint against John Skinner," said Sue Bernard, diocese spokeswoman. "We're trying to find out what he knew and when he knew it."
   The diocese also is investigating whether Coughlin, who has served as pastor of Holy Cross and St. John the Evangelist in South Portland since 1996, allowed Skinner to live with him at St. John's rectory in Portland.
   Coughlin, 69, of Woburn, Mass., was ordained in 1966. His first assignment in Maine was at St. Athanasius and St. John in Rumford in 1970. He also served in parishes in Waterville, Oakland, Augusta, Bangor and Wells. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 01:14 PM] (This is the first of the Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse , for Sun August 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.
• Removal of former Yuma priest part of healing [1973-75 Trupia]
   Yuma Sun, http://yumasun.com/artman/publish/articles/story_12517.shtml , BY JAMES GILBERT, Aug 8, 2004
   YUMA (AZ): Monsignor Richard O'Keeffe said the removal of a former Yuma priest from the Tucson diocese over sexual abuse allegations may bring a sense of closure to the victims and the parish community that has been affected.
   "Healing is an ongoing process and we pray for the continued healing of those who have been harmed and for their families," said O'Keeffe, the spiritual leader of the Immaculate Conception Church for the past 23 years. "The holy father's decision is a fulfillment of the commitment that there is no room in the priesthood for those who would harm children."
   Church officials in Tucson on Thursday announced that Robert Trupia, formerly a monsignor and associate pastor at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Yuma from June 1973 until March 1976, had been stripped of his priesthood.
   Trupia, 56, who was suspended in 1992, had been named in three separate lawsuits alleging that he molested teen-age boys during the 1970s. One of the cases was settled out of court in 2002.
   David Donald Frei of Yuma filed a suit in Yuma County Superior Court in December of 1997. He alleged that Trupia molested him on several occasions while he was a student at St. Francis School from 1973 to 1974.
   In a similar suit filed in Pima County, Todd Michael Diaz alleged that Trupia molested him and held him against his will in the church rectory in the summer of 1975.
• A fair price for faith in Hubbard
   Times Union, www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=273885&category= REGIONOTHER&BCCode= &newsdate=8/8/2004 , by Fred LeBrun, Sun, August 8, 2004
   ALBANY (NY): Six weeks ago, former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White released with great hoopla the results of an extensive investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by Bishop Howard Hubbard,  leader of the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese.
   Her report is 200 pages of excruciating, often embarrassing detail. It took four months to prepare.
   Her conclusion was that there is no credible evidence the bishop was guilty of homosexual activity, or broke his vows of celibacy, or had sexual relations with anyone. The ruthlessly analytical report is all about sex, or the lack of it.
   Now comes the price of vindication. The diocese was presented with a $2.2 million bill last week by White's Manhattan law firm, Debevoise and Plimpton, for services rendered.
   There is apt to be an audible gulp over the amount by those who ultimately pay it, the faithful of the 14-county diocese.
   There's no indication the bishop won't sign off on the payment. White said her law firm will direct a substantial portion of the fee into a fund for the relief of victims sexually abused by priests, which does take a bit of the sting out.
   White said that during the course of the investigation, which took interviewers all over the country, she was moved by the suffering endured by abuse victims.
• Bountiful's 'celestial wives' and the law -- polygamous group, uneven-age parentings. Canada flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Ottawa Citizen, www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/soundoff/story.html?id=5b0195da-5a1d-48af-a042-898937ff4756 , by Daphne Bramham, The Vancouver Sun, Sunday Aug 08 2004
   CANADA: No one in Bountiful disputes the fact that most first-time mothers who walk into this polygamous community's midwifery clinic are younger than 18.
   Nobody disputes the fact that the fathers are often three or four times older than the mothers. And nobody disputes that many are the "plural wives" -- or concubines -- of men much older than them.
   After all, when it comes time to register the births, midwife Jane Blackmore says the fathers in this religious community near Creston in south-central B.C. happily sign their names on the government forms.
   They are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and they believe polygamy is the "new and everlasting covenant."
• Deadline for joining abuse suit against diocese nears [Detroit Archdiocese] -- 16 priests, dozens of complainants. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Port Huron Times Herald, www.thetimesherald.com/news/stories/20040808/localnews/ 1005279.html , By JOSEPH DEINLEIN, Aug 8, 2004
   SOUTHFIELD (MI): A Southfield lawyer said his firm is investigating dozens of reports of sexual abuse as part of a class-action lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Detroit.
   Wednesday is the deadline for people to join the suit, which seeks damages for sexual abuse the plaintiffs say was at the hands of 16 priests, at least three of whom served in the Blue Water Area.
   Lawyer Justin Ravitz of Sommers, Schwartz, Silver and Schwartz, one of three law firms that filed the suit, declined to say how many people have come forward or who they are. So it's unclear if any Blue Water Area residents have joined the suit or if any charges of abuse have been made surrounding the time the three priests served locally.
   "We have spoken to dozens of individuals who claim to be victims," Ravitz said.
   Archdiocese spokesman Ned McGrath, in a statement released shortly after the suit was filed, said the archdiocese has been commended for its cooperation with civil authorities in reporting and investigating sex-abuse allegations. He said the archdiocese provides counseling for those abused.
• Judge: Prosecution of former priest can continue [1995 Hopkins]
   Philadelphia Inquirer, www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/cities_neighborhoods/philadelphia/ 9345271.htm , ~ August 08, 2004
   PENNSYLVANIA: The prosecution of a former Roman Catholic priest charged with sexually assaulting a young Oaklyn parishioner in 1995 can continue, a state Superior Court judge in Camden County ruled Friday.
   A lawyer for James Hopkins argued that the charges, aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, should be thrown out. Attorney Robert Rosenberg said that the charges exceeded a New Jersey statute of limitations and that authorities violated Florida wiretap laws in their investigation. Judge Linda G. Baxter disagreed and scheduled the next pretrial hearing for Sept. 10.
   Hopkins, who was living in Stuart, Fla., where he relocated after being removed from the priesthood in 1995, was arrested last year. Hopkins and the Camden Diocese had previously settled a lawsuit filed by the family of his alleged victim. Amid the national priest-abuse scandal in 2002, Jonathan Norton, then 17, held a news conference to announce that he was pursuing charges against Hopkins. He said he wanted to take the action to help other victims seek help, as well.
• Croteau papers chilling, inconclusive [1972]
   The Republican, www.masslive.com/metrowest/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/109 1954763194312.xml , By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Sun, Aug 08, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): For investigators probing the 1972 death of 13-year-old altar boy Daniel Croteau, the story told by the Rev. Richard R. Lavigne just didn't add up.
   He told investigators he never gave Croteau alcohol, but then a boyhood friend of Croteau's said Lavigne gave the boys wine from the same chalice parishioners drank from at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Springfield.
   Lavigne told investigators he was never alone with Croteau. Then he admitted that a week before the boy's body was found April 15 on the banks of the Chicopee River, Croteau had spent the night with the priest at the Chicopee home of Lavigne's parents.
   The statements of several boys, now men, who say they were molested by Lavigne were included in a search warrant affidavit filed by State Trooper Thomas Daly after the case was reopened in 1991. It is among 2,035 pages of documents unsealed after a 17-month legal battle waged all the way to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court by The Republican and a Greenfield lawyer who represents clergy abuse plaintiffs.
   The papers provide an anatomy of an investigation that pointed police toward a suspect but fell short of the physical evidence needed to prosecute him. When Croteau's bludgeoned body was found less than a mile from St. Mary's rectory, where Lavigne was living at the time, the boy had more than twice the legal level of alcohol in his blood and his stomach was filled with wads of chewing gum.
• S. Portland pastor suspended from duties [Coughlin, 1990-94 Skinner]
   Portland Press Herald, http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/040808priest.shtml , By JUSTIN ELLIS, August 8, 2004
   SOUTH PORTLAND (ME): The Rev. Paul Coughlin, pastor of South Portland's two Roman Catholic parishes, has been temporarily removed from his duties while officials investigate his involvement with a former church volunteer charged with sexual assault in northern Maine.
   Coughlin, 69, has served as pastor of Holy Cross and St. John the Evangelist since 1996.
   The Diocese of Portland is investigating whether Coughlin put children at risk by allowing John Skinner Sr. to live with him at St. John's rectory. Skinner, of Stonington, recently was indicted on charges that he sexually assaulted a teenager between 1990 and 1994, when he served as a youth ministry volunteer at St. Mary of Lourdes in Lincoln.
   Diocesan officials said Coughlin's removal was a procedural step taken in most church investigations.
• Priest removed from parishes [Coughlin, 1990s Skinner]
   WMTW, http://www.wmtw.com/Global/story.asp?S=2146731&nav=7k6rPe2X , ~ August 08, 2004
   SOUTH PORTLAND (ME) (AP) -- Roman Catholic diocese officials are planning a news conference Sunday in South Portland to discuss temporarily removing a priest from two parishes while they investigate his involvement with a former church volunteer charged with sexual assault.
   The Rev. Paul Coughlin has served as pastor of Holy Cross and St. John the Evangelist Parishes since 1996.
   The Diocese of Portland is investigating whether Coughlin put a child at risk. They also are investigating whether he allowed John Skinner to live with him at St. John's rectory.
   The Stonington man recently was indicted on charges he sexually assaulted a teenager in the early 1990s, when he volunteered at St. Mary of Lourdes in Lincoln.
   Coughlin is not accused of sexual abuse during the time Skinner lived with him. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:42 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sun August 08, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont92.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Mon August 09, 2004 edition follows:-
• Former priest to face court on indecent dealing charges [1960s] Australia flag; Aust. Nat. Flag Assn. 
   Australian Broadcasting Corporation, www.abc.net.au/tropic/news/200408/s1172709.htm , Tuesday, 10 August 2004
   AUSTRALIA: A former priest from Marian, in north Queensland, is due to appear in Bundaberg Magistrates Court next month on a string of charges of indecent dealing with children.
   Police have charged the man, who now lives in Bundaberg, with eight counts of indecently dealing with a boy aged under 14 years and one count of indecently dealing with a girl aged under 12 years.
   Regional crime coordinator Detective Inspector Dale Weightman says the alleged crimes took place in Marian in the 1960s. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:12 PM]
• Ratzinger says new springtime of the Church not about numbers Argentina flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Catholic World News, www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=31380, Aug. 09 2004
   ABUJA, Argentina (CNA/CWNews.com) - Speaking with the Polish Catholic news agency KAI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said that the "new springtime" of the Church is a reality, but that it will not "necessarily" be significant in terms of numbers.
   The Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith told KAI that there are groups of the new generations in the Church today who represent "a new springtime of the Church that renews the world." The cardinal explained that "we should not think that in the near future Christianity will become a movement of the masses again, going back to a situation like Medieval times."
   "At least we cannot expect that in the current conditions," he added.
   [COMMENT: Springtime? Or self-delusion?COMMENT ENDS.]
• Hearing for Accused Priest [1978-80 Behan] U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   WPVI-TV 6, http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/08092004_church_behanhearing.html , August 9, 2004
   PHILADELPHIA (PA): A preliminary hearing is scheduled today, for the first priest indicted by a Philadelphia grand jury looking into sex abuse in the church.
   Father James Behan is a former teacher at North Catholic High School. He's accused of molesting a teenage boy between 1978 and 1980. That's when he left Philadelphia for North Carolina.
   Even though this allegedly happened over 25 years ago, Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said that the statute of limitations is still in effect, because Behan left the state in 1980. Behan's lawyers disagree.
   (Copyright 2004 by WPVI-TV 6. All rights reserved.) (Search for related stories, on http://abclocal.go.com website.)
• Judge OKs charges against priest [1978 + Behan]
   PennLive.com http://pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-18/109209056 2314390.xml&storylist=penn ; By DAVID B. CARUSO, The Associated Press, 6:13 p.m. ET, Aug/9/2004,
   PHILADELPHIA (PA) (AP) - A judge ruled Monday that a priest accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy in the 1970s can be put on trial, even though Pennsylvania normally bars prosecutors from bringing charges in sex assault cases that are more than a few years old.
   The Rev. James J. Behan, 60, is accused of having several sexual encounters with a student at Northeast Catholic High School, beginning in 1978 when the boy was 15.
   The alleged victim waited decades to tell his story to law enforcement. That type of delay would usually trigger the state's statute of limitations, but prosecutors argued at a hearing Monday that the clock stops running if a person who allegedly commits a crime leaves the state.
   Behan left Pennsylvania in 1980 to take a job at a parish in North Carolina. He now lives in Childs, Md.
   Philadelphia Judge Linda Anderson sided with prosecutors Monday and ordered Behan to stand trial on charges including rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors.
   Behan's attorney, Michael J. McGovern, said he would try again later to have the case thrown out. McGovern said the passage of time will make it difficult for Behan to receive a fair trial.
   "If someone choses to wait as long as this person has waited, then not only is there a question about the reliability of evidence, but you might have witnesses who died or disappeared," McGovern said.
• Pictures of abusive priests remain in prominent spots [1970s Kokocinski]
   Toledo City Paper, www.toledocitypaper.com/archives/080504/cityside.html , by Bill Frogameni, Aug 5, 2004
   TOLEDO (OH): Sexual abuse victims say the Toledo Catholic Diocese refuses to show real contrition for its pedophile clerics. Victims say they've asked the diocese to tell parishioners about abusive clerics and to remove public tributes to these men, but the diocese is uncooperative. In fact, large pictures of known pedophile priests still exist in diocesan churches.
   According to Claudia Vercellotti, Toledo co-leader of the Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), other such tributes to disgraced priests exist in the diocese as well, tributes SNAP has long asked the diocese to remove.
   "What message does it send to victims, victims' families and parishioners, when you walk into church and see a large picture of a known pedophile priest still hanging there?" Vercellotti said.
   Noneconomic reparations for victims came into focus recently when the diocese failed to carry out part of a legal agreement it reached with Bill Claar, a survivor of clerical sexual abuse. Claar, abused as a boy by the Rev. Bernard Kokocinski in the mid-1970s at a Fremont church, reached agreement with the diocese that provided a statement be placed in all the church bulletins of the parishes Kokocinski served. The statement admitted Kokocinski was removed from ministry amid credible allegations of "sexual misconduct" with a minor and that he would not seek reinstatement.
   The statement was to run concurrently at all of Kokocinski's ex-parishes but only ran at some. Eventually, the parishes ran the notice after Claar expressed outrage and other media outlets took notice. The diocese attributed the incident to a simple mistake, but Claar, who also received a monetary settlement, said he believes it was intentional. "It would have been easy for them to comply," said Claar from his home in Alaska. "It wasn't about money."
• Clerical abuse charges withdrawn [????] Ireland flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   One in Four, http://oneinfour.org/news/news2004/withdrawn , by Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent - Irish Times, ~ August 09, 2004
   IRELAND: The DPP has withdrawn serious sex abuse charges against a former Christian Brother after the accused man successfully challenged the allegations at a Redress Board hearing on May 15th last.
   In a similar case last year another man making similar allegations against the same former Christian Brother received compensation from the Redress Board.
   But in that instance the former Christian Brother, who denies those allegations also, was not informed the case would be heard before the board. He became aware afterwards.
   The accused man still faces about 20 other similar allegations, all of which he denies.
   "John" claims the allegations have taken nine years out of his life. From day one he has denied all allegations and cites contradictions one of which is that he has been accused of abusing a boy in 1964 at a residential institution when he (John) was not there until 1967.
• Bishop removes former Bangor priest [2004 Coughlin, 1990-94 Skinner] U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Bangor Daily News www.bangornews.com/editorialnews/article.cfm?ID=427568 , By Judy Harrison, ~ August 09, 2004
   BANGOR (ME): The priest who shepherded St. Mary's Catholic Church through the 1978 fire that destroyed its Cedar Street home has been removed from the pastorate of two South Portland parishes because of his association with a man accused of sexual abuse of a minor. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland is trying to determine whether the Rev. Paul Coughlin, 69, put children at risk through his association with John S. Skinner Sr.
   The diocese also is investigating complaints that Coughlin allowed Skinner, 62, to live with him at a South Portland rectory, the diocese announced this weekend. Only church employees are permitted to live on church property.
   Coughlin was placed on temporary administrative leave while his association with Skinner is investigated.
   Skinner, whose last known address was in Stonington, was indicted in July by the Penobscot County grand jury on six counts of gross sexual assault. He has not been arrested but is scheduled to be arraigned in Penobscot County Superior Court on Aug. 27.
   The alleged assaults occurred at Skinner's Lincoln home between 1990 and 1994, beginning when the victim was 13 and continuing until he was 17, said Michael Roberts, deputy district attorney in Penobscot County.
• Parishes react to priest probe [Coughlin, Skinner]
   Portland Press Herald, http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/040809priest.shtml , By DAVID HENCH, Aug 9, 2004
   SOUTH PORTLAND (ME): Roman Catholics responded with shock, disappointment and faith Sunday to news that the Rev. Paul Coughlin was placed on leave pending an internal investigation.
   Coughlin's suspension, announced during weekend Masses to parishioners of two South Portland Catholic churches - Holy Cross and St. John the Evangelist - involves whether he knew about sexual misconduct allegations against John Skinner Sr., who was recently indicted on charges of molesting a teenage boy. Diocesan officials learned two months ago that Coughlin had a long-term association with Skinner.
   The Diocese of Portland is investigating whether Coughlin knew of the allegations and still put a minor at risk by allowing the child to be alone with Skinner. The diocese also is investigating whether Coughlin improperly allowed Skinner to live at the rectory in South Portland for an extended period of time.
   Members of Coughlin's parishes said they hoped the inquiry would be fair, thorough and quickly concluded.
   "We all love and respect Father Paul and certainly will keep him in our prayers," said Pamela Sharpe, a parishioner at Holy Cross for 10 years. "He has a big heart and he's always been there for all of us and certainly we want to be there for him."
• Priest temporarily removed from Maine post [2004 Coughlin, 1990-94 Skinner]
   Boston Globe,, www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2004/08/09/priest_temporarily_ removed_from_maine_post , By Associated Press, August 9, 2004
   SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine -- Parishioners at two Roman Catholic churches learned yesterday that their priest had been temporarily removed while the Portland diocese investigates his involvement with a former church volunteer charged with sexual assault.
   The diocese is investigating whether the Rev. Paul Coughlin put a minor at risk when he knew John Skinner of Stonington. Skinner was recently indicted for sexually assaulting a teenager from 1990 to 1994 while serving as a youth ministry volunteer at St. Mary of Lourdes in Lincoln.
   "This is an ethical issue with the church and we want to know when did Father Coughlin know that there was a complaint against John Skinner," said Sue Bernard, diocese spokeswoman. "We're trying to find out what he knew and when he knew it."
   The diocese is also investigating whether Coughlin, who has served as pastor of Holy Cross and St. John the Evangelist in South Portland since 1996, allowed Skinner to live with him at St. John's rectory in Portland.
• Sexual danger redefined [disbarred lawyer Pentlarge, ex-priests Lavigne, Porter, 1980s Leahy]
   The Republican, www.masslive.com/hampfrank/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1092041192304150.xml , By FRED CONTRADA, fcontrada@repub.com , Monday, August 09, 2004
   NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS - He claimed to have seen the error of his ways, but despite convicted child molester Joel Pentlarge's testimony in Hampshire Superior Court last month, a jury deemed him sexually dangerous and sent him to a state prison hospital for treatment.
   A disbarred lawyer and former member of several Ware town boards, Pentlarge, 54, had already served a prison sentence for sexually abusing four boys. His trial came as the result of a petition by the Northwestern district attorney's office to have him civilly committed under a 1999 law that allows sex offenders to be held for treatment indefinitely if it is determined that they have a mental condition or personality disorder that makes them likely to reoffend.
   Paul Leahy had been out of prison for less than a year when he stabbed Alexandra Zapp to death in a rest room behind a Burger King restaurant in Bridgewater July 18, 2002. Leahy had served 13 years for a rape conviction in the 1980s, but was in jail more recently for accosting two teen-age girls for sex.
   The Plymouth County district attorney had tried to petition for Leahy to be declared sexually dangerous, but accosting did not fall under the aegis of the law, and the DA was not allowed to hark back to Leahy's rape conviction.
   Thanks largely to the Zapp case, new legislation has closed what prosecutors saw as a loophole in the 1999 law. The new legislation broadens the list of sexual offenses to include crimes such as open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior, incestuous marriage or intercourse, posing or exhibiting a child in a state of nudity, possession of child pornography and accosting or annoying persons of the opposite sex.  ...
   For example, former Roman Catholic priest Richard R. Lavigne cannot be tried as sexually dangerous even though he pleaded guilty to two counts of child molestation because he is already serving probation. In contrast, Bristol County prosecutors are awaiting a trial date for defrocked priest James Porter, who is serving prison time for molesting 28 children in the Fall River Diocese.
• Parishes may find laymen in pulpit [? 2004 Traylor]
   Courier & Press, www.courierpress.com/ecp/news/article/0,1626,ECP_734_3097578,00.html , By PHILIP ELLIOTT, 461-0783 or elliottp@courierpress.com , August 9, 2004
   EVANSVILLE (IN): Parishioners might find someone other than a Catholic priest leading services at St. Theresa and St. Joseph parishes while their priest continues counseling, Evansville Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger told them Sunday.
   "If you come and there isn't a priest here, don't be surprised," said Gettelfinger, who celebrated Mass at St. Theresa on Sunday. "Don't let this throw you off kilter."
   Instead, parishioners may find a lay person leading them in a Liturgy of the Word - a service without Eucharist.
   The Rev. William A. Traylor is on leave from his post as priest of the two Catholic parishes while he seeks outpatient counseling. Last weekend, he admitted in a letter to parishioners he visited an "inappropriate adult website" and had been caught. The letter does not mention the minor who sat on the other side of a partition while Traylor viewed the pornography, a charge civil authorities are investigating.
   The diocese's internal investigation and the state's Child Protective Services found the child was not harmed or endangered, but Vanderburgh County prosecutors and Evansville police are conducting their own investigation. Last week, prosecutors met with diocesan officials and requested the results of the diocese's probe.
   "Everything they have has been turned over to us, so we'll be looking into it," Evansville Police Department spokeswoman Sgt. Stephanie Loehrlein said. Gettelfinger said the matter is a personnel issue and he could not discuss it. He also refused to say where Traylor, 54, was living during his treatment.
• Pure escapism from a sad reality Australia flag; Aust. Nat. Flag Assn. 
   The Age, www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/08/1091903443364.html , August 8, 2004
   AUSTRALIA: The extraordinary success of The Da Vinci Code tells us much about the times, writes Jonathan Freedland.
   You will count them on the beaches. You will spot them at the airports, in their thousands. You may even succumb to them yourself.
   They are copies of The Da Vinci Code, proliferating at a rate unheard of even in the telephone-number world of mass-market publishing. The 600-page thriller is breaking records at breakneck speed. Around the world it has sold more than 10 million copies; nearly 8 million of those in hard covers, making it the best-selling hardback novel ever.
   It's even having an impact on the tourist trade. The Louvre along with London's Temple Church and the Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh are all reporting surges in visitor numbers, as Da Vinci pilgrims retrace the novel's journey.
   Why is this book such a smash? Superficially it looks no different from the rest of the fat tomes that constitute the thriller market. We have a protagonist sleuth who, author Dan Brown unabashedly tells us, looks like Harrison Ford, is wanted for murder and is on the run - accompanied by a comely female cop, the brilliant French code-breaker, Sophie Neveu. ...
   Still, I suspect the triumph of the Code tells a larger story. First, it confirms that people are prepared to believe the worst of the church - even in America, the most "churched" society in the world. That millions of Americans are ready to accept the notion of a murderous Catholic monk taking orders from a corrupt bishop should sound the alarm in Catholicism's upper reaches.
   In the US, this has been seized on as confirmation that the scandal of sexual abuse by Catholic priests has sent public esteem for the church plummeting, to the extent that Rome's servants are now acceptable as mass-market villains.
• New sex abuse lawsuit targets former St. Ann priest [1980s + Romero] U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Naples Daily News, www.naplesnews.com/npdn/news/article/0,2071,NPDN_14940_3097326,00.html , By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, aszagier@naplesnews.com , August 9, 2004
   NAPLES (FL), USA: No more unsupervised contact with children.
   That was the assurance reportedly given by leaders of the Archdiocese of Miami nearly three decades ago when the mother of an altar boy at St. Ann Catholic Church complained about a sexually abusive youth pastor.
   That priest, William Romero, would soon leave Naples, sent by church officials to a Rhode Island treatment center for pedophiles in the clergy. According to Romero, doctors there gave him a clean bill of health.
   He returned to Florida and parish assignments in Hobe Sound, on the Palm Beach-Martin county line, and Moore Haven, a farming town on the shores of Lake Okeechobee.
   He continued counseling children, and by his own admission, engaging in repeated sexual misconduct with a Port St. Lucie teenager. Romero subsequently labeled the behavior as "spontaneous moments of intimacy" intended to improve the troubled teen's mental health. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:02 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Mon August 09, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont92.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tue August 10, 2004 edition follows:-
• Priest sees sex case collapse [2000 Conroy] Ireland flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   One in Four, http://oneinfour. org/news/ news2004/ sexcase , ~ August 10, 2004
   IRELAND: The Wicklow priest charged with the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl has seen his case dramatically collapse at the Circuit Court.
   Fr. Chris Conroy (72), of 10 Rocky Road, Wicklow, was facing two counts of allegedly sexually assaulting the girl in June and July of 2000. On the first day of the trial, the court heard from the girl that the first incident occurred on the day that she went on a shopping trip with the elderly cleric before later attending a disco.
   However, the second day saw Counsel for the Defence, Mr. Richard N. Keane SC, point out that the shopping trip and the disco had occurred on two successive days, rather than the same day. He submitted that if the girl was wrong about that, 'she could be wrong about everything'. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:40 PM]
• Former Priest Accused Of Sexual Abuse [1978-81 Thiel] U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Fox 17, http://fox17.trb.com/news/080904-wxmi-priest,0,2394569.story , August 9, 2004
   GRAND RAPIDS (MI) -- A Catholic priest who taught high school students in West Michigan is at the center of a sex abuse lawsuit out of Missouri. Former priest James Thiel is being sued by a St. Louis man who says he was molested as a child back in the late 1970's.
   Thiel worked as a religion teacher at Catholic Central High School in Grand Rapids for eight years. The Grand Rapids Catholic Diocese removed him from that position in 1994, a short time after a complaint was filed against him with the St. Louis Catholic Diocese.
   While Thiel doesn't currently face any criminal charges, his accuser says his life has been forever changed. "I feel as though I have murdered someone because I feel I have done one of the worst acts, no less with a priest," the man told us.
   The victim is from St. Louis and claims he was molested from 1978-1981, when he was ten years old. He claims he was abused by his teacher, Thiel.
• Anti-Kerry Book Author Sorry for Slurs -- child abuse blamed on two religions.
   Newsday, www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ats- ap_politics13aug10,0,2800014.story , By JENNIFER C. KERR, Associated Press Writer, August 10, 2004
   WASHINGTON (DC) -- One of the authors of a new anti-John Kerry book frequently posted comments on a conservative Web site describing Muslims and Catholics as pedophiles and Pope John Paul II as senile.
   But as he prepared to launch the book, "Unfit for Command," Jerry Corsi apologized for the remarks in an interview with The Associated Press Tuesday, saying they were meant as a joke and he never intended to offend anyone.
   In chat room entry last year on freerepublic.com, Corsi writes: "Islam is a peaceful religion -- just as long as the women are beaten, the boys buggered and the infidels are killed."
   In another entry, he says: "So this is what the last days of the Catholic Church are going to look like. Buggering boys undermines the moral base and the lawyers rip the gold off the Vatican altars. We may get one more Pope, when this senile one dies, but that's probably about it."
   Corsi, who described himself as a "devout Catholic," said the comments are being taken out of context. "I considered them a joke," said Corsi, who owns a financial services company and has written extensively on the anti-war movement.
• Archdiocesan bankruptcy guided by Holy Spirit?
   Catholic World News, http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=31399 , Aug. 10, 2004
   PORTLAND (OR) (CWNews.com) - Archbishop John Vlazny testified on August 7 that he believes his decision to file a bankruptcy claim for the Portland archdiocese was guided by the Holy Spirit, according to local media reports.
   In a mandated meeting with creditors of the archdiocese, Archbishop Vlazny revealed that he made the final decision to seek bankruptcy over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. "I had a feeling the Holy Spirit was working," he said.
   In his meeting with creditors, the archbishop avoided a direct answer to questions about whether the Vatican had approved his decision before the Portland archdiocese sought bankruptcy protection on July 6. He responded to questions by saying that he had been in regular communication with Vatican officials, but added: "In the end, it becomes my decision."
   [COMMENT: Holy Spirit? Well, self-delusion helps keep him going, one presumes. Anyway, what sort of a spirit is guiding the sex-abusing clergy? COMMENT ENDS.]
• Teachers complain at head's exorcise regime Norway flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Ananova, www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1052316.html , ~ August 10, 2004
   NORWAY: Teachers at a fundamentalist Christian school in Norway are complaining that the headmaster keeps trying to exorcise them.
   The accusations were revealed in a report on the private Skjaergard's School by the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority.
   Previously, the school was criticised by the same body for listing Jesus Christ as its executive manager, reports Nettavisen.
   Three teachers, Borre Olsen, Ingunn Metveit Olsen and Kristin Ofsdahl Haga, say Pastor Glenn Rasmussen twice tried to free them from 'evil spirits' during working hours.
   Borre Olsen said: "He led me to the end of the room, and there he grabbed around my stomach and started yelling loudly.
• RCCG Disowns Pastor As Port Harcourt Firm Accuses Him of Threatening the Lives of Its Management Staff [Alatoru] Nigeria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408100441.html , by Eugene Agha, Lagos, August 10, 2004
   LAGOS, Nigeria; The Redeem Christian Church of God (RCCG), in Rivers State, has dissociated itself from the activities of one Chief Jonathan Alatoru, who claimed to be a pastor with the church. The Provincial Pastor of RCCG in the state, Pastor Belemo Obonge, told City Diary in a telephone chat that Alatoru was actually a deacon in the Church before he was expelled some time ago on grounds of immorality.
   Although Obonge was a little bit reluctant to disclose the actual cause of Alatoru's expulsion, but insisted that he was neither a pastor nor a worker with the Church. According to him, Alatoru's expulsion was unanimously adopted by the Church authorities, who could no longer stomach his atrocities.
   "What happened was that Alatoru would have been ordained a deacon of the Church had it been that he scaled through the probation period given him by the Church authorities. All these happened when the Church was making use of his property located at Plot 3, Joe Alatoru Drive, Port Harcourt," he said.
• De Pere minister may face more charges [~ 1988 Stein (Norbertine)] - RCC. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Green Bay Press-Gazette, www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/local_17259802.shtml , By Lee Reinsch, lreinsch@greenbaypressgazette.com , ~ August 10, 2004
   WISCONSIN: Already charged with multiple counts of sexual assault of a child dating back 15 years, the Rev. James Stein, 44, of De Pere, learned Monday he may face two additional counts.
   Stein, 44, a Norbertine priest, appeared Monday before Judge Sue Bischel with his lawyer, Stephen Glynn, in Brown County Branch III for what was supposed to be his final pre-trial conference. Details of the new charges weren't available but to allow time to determine their admissibility. Bischel set a status conference for Aug. 19.
  If he chooses to testify at his trial, Stein could face questions from the district attorney regarding prior convictions. Stein pleaded guilty to fourth-degree sexual assault in 1991 for touching a man in a sauna.
   The three current charges of second-degree sexual assault of a child are for alleged incidents around 1988 and involve a now-29-year-old man who says Stein groped him in a hot tub, shower and swimming area at St. Norbert Abbey. Stein worked in youth ministry at the former Green Bay Premontre at the time.
• Grand Rapids priest accused of abuse [1984-94 Thiel (Redemptorist)] - RCC.
   WOOD TV, www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2155048&nav=0RcePi5g , 4:38 p.m. August 10, 2004
   GRAND RAPIDS (MI): A former priest who taught at Catholic Central High School in Grand Rapids is accused of abusing a boy in St. Louis, Missouri before coming to West Michigan.
   Now a national group is asking the Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids to reach out to people in the area who may have been abused by James Thiel, because he taught at Catholic Central High School for eight years.
   Thiel taught religion at Catholic Central from 1984 to 1994. The Redemptorist Province of St. Louis, of which Thiel was a member, dismissed him in the mid 1990s after someone reported allegations of abuse. Another victim filed a current civil lawsuit against Thiel a couple months ago. That victim lives in St. Louis and alleges that Thiel sexually abused him while working at the boy's school in that city.
   Officials with the Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids say they removed Thiel from his position at Catholic Central High School in 1994 after hearing of the previous allegations.
   Two leaders of the group SNAP (The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests) held a press conference outside the diocese, asking church officials to use their resources to warn people about Thiel. Since Thiel lives in Grand Rapids, members of SNAP want the diocese to post information about him on the diocesan Web site, newspaper and church bulletins.
   The group says three of its members were abused by Thiel. One of them settled out of court, a second has a civil lawsuit pending, and the last did not file a lawsuit. No criminal charges have resulted in any of the cases, so Thiel would not be a registered sex offender.
• St. Bruno priest cleared of sex abuse charges
   GM Today, www.gmtoday.com/news/local_stories/2004/August_04/08102004_06.asp , By DENNIS A. SHOOK, GM Today Staff, August 10, 2004
   DOUSMAN (MI) - Every Thursday since a Dousman priest was suspended in April following sex abuse allegations, his parishioners have been holding a prayer service for him, parish pastoral associate Karen Warnes said today.
   "We now plan on having one final prayer service" at 7 p.m. Thursday to welcome the Rev. John P. Schreiter back to his parish, an emotional Warnes said this morning.
  The review board of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee ruled last week the charges against Schreiter could not be substantiated.
   Schreiter returned to St. Bruno's Catholic Church, 266 W. Ottawa, on Friday after being the first member of the clergy acquitted since a Milwaukee Archdiocese review board was established in early 2003. Without prior announcement, he officiated at four Masses over the weekend, surprising a delighted congregation.
   "(Parishoners) are so happy," Warnes said. "The people here are just rejoicing.
• Priests say dismissal lacked due process [2004 O'Brien] -- Doyle and Gomulka -- whistleblowers.
   National Catholic Reporter, http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/ archives2/2004c/081304/081304l.htm , By ARTHUR JONES, for Aug 13, 2004
   UNITED STATES: Two military chaplains who are critical of church leaders for tolerating clergy sex abuse lost their "ecclesiastical endorsement," apparently without recourse to any form of due process, and consequently lost their jobs in the military.
   The endorsements for Air Force Col. Thomas P. Doyle, a Dominican, and Navy Capt. Eugene Gomulka, a monsignor, were withdrawn during the past year by Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien of the Archdiocese for the Military Services. Endorsement by a religious institution is the method by which the Department of Defense accepts a chaplain for duty.
   Both priests said they did not receive a hearing. No avenues of due process were opened to pursue the archbishop's complaints against them, they told NCR, nor were they provided with the opportunity to explain or defend themselves.
   Both Doyle and Gomulka, outside their duties as military chaplains, have been critical of the U.S. bishops' handling of clerical sexual abuse matters.
   For nearly 20 years, Doyle has publicly defended the rights of clerical sexual abuse victims and criticized the U.S. bishops' cover-up of sexual abuse. Gomulka, in an Aug. 27, 2001, article in America magazine, "Home Alone in the Priesthood," discussed sexual abuse by military chaplains and the loneliness celibacy creates.
   O'Brien did not cite their activities around the sex abuse crisis as reason for dismissal.
• Catholic Diocese is set to resume Bishop reception
   The Union Leader, www.theunionleader.com/articles_showfast.html?article=42033 , By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI, ~ August 10 , 2004
   MANCHESTER (NH) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester will resume the Bishop's summer reception this year. The event was discontinued in 2002 during the height of the clergy sexual abuse scandal.
   The reception, now to be known as the Bishop's Summer Luncheon, is for donors contributing at least $500 to the Bishop's Charitable Assistance Fund. It will be held Sept. 9 at the bishop's mansion, now known as Trudel House.
   The fund gives grants to nonprofit organizations regardless of religious affiliation to help New Hampshire residents. Past recipients include New Horizons soup kitchen, American Red Cross and New Hampshire Easter Seals.
   "This fund is significant because it meets people's basic needs. These aren't glamorous extras," said Kathleen D. Cook, board chairman and 2004 campaign chair.
• Abuse claimants awaiting response from diocese
   The Republican, www.masslive.com/chicopeeholyoke/republican/index.ssf?/base/news- 7/109212797548770.xml , By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Tuesday, August 10, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA) - Now that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield is settling clergy sexual abuse claims with 45 claimants represented by one lawyer, a group of lawyers and their clients are lining up at the diocese's door ready to discuss their claims.
   At least five lawyers representing at least 20 clients who have made allegations of sexual abuse against priests are waiting to hear from diocesan officials regarding how their claims will be addressed by the diocese.
   This will not be the end of clergy sexual abuse claims here, according to one of the lawyers.
   "As terrible as this seems, we are seeing only the tip of the iceberg," said Carmen L. Durso, a Boston lawyer who represents 15 of the clients.
   Durso said 200 or so people have brought claims against the Archdiocese of Boston since the church settled more than 500 claims a year ago.
   Greenfield lawyer John J. Stobierski, whose 45 clients are in the process of settling claims with the diocese, recently said he has another group of clients who are considering making claims against the diocese.
• St. Agnes neighbors look for 'win-win' -- $US21 m to be found.
   Greenwich Times, www.greenwichtime.com/news/local/scn-gt-st.agnes1aug10,0,4770491. story?coll=green-news-local-headlines , By Hoa Nguyen, Staff Writer, August 10, 2004
   GREENWICH (CT): Both the Diocese of Bridgeport and neighbors of St. Agnes Church said they want to find a "win-win" solution for plans to sell 25 acres of woods that surround the church on Stanwich Road. But should negotiations fail and Catholic officials follow through on plans to sell to a developer, some neighbors said they will prepare to do battle.
   "We started out with the idea and we maintain the idea that we want to go for the win-win," said Tek Nickerson, one of the organizers of last night's Town Hall meeting among about 50 neighbors. "If we cannot find the win-win, we are certainly prepared to hire the meanest, biggest attorney and the consultant to tie them up."
   The diocese wants to sell the eastern Greenwich property for $15 million to cover part of the $21 million settlement reached with victims of sexual abuse announced last October. The rest is expected to come through insurance payments.
   The initial plans were to sell to a developer who would construct up to 10 homes at the property at 247 Stanwich Road. Residents, many of whom are worried about the impact new homes would have on their well water systems, would rather see more of the land set aside for open space.
   Before any construction could begin, the diocese and the developer must go through a public hearing process in which neighborhood opposition could influence the outcome. The diocese last week offered to delay signing any sales contract for 30 days so that neighbors could explore the possibility of purchasing the property themselves.
• Review board finds abuse allegation unsubstantiated -- Schreiter.
   Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline.com/news/wauk/aug04/249991.asp , By TOM HEINEN, theinen@journalsentinel.com , Posted: Aug. 9, 2004
   MILWAUKEE (WI): Father John P. Schreiter has returned to his Waukesha County parish after the Diocesan Review Board decided an allegation of sexual abuse against him was unsubstantiated, the first such acquittal since the board was established in early 2003.
   Schreiter, pastor of St. Bruno Church in Dousman, had been on leave since April 22 while the archdiocese investigated his case. An incident with a minor that was alleged to have happened nearly 25 years ago in Sauk County was not reported to church officials until mid-March.
   The 62-year-old priest resumed his parish ministry on Friday and presided at all four weekend Masses.
   "I was at all of the liturgies, and he got standing ovations and people were crying, they were just so excited," said Karen Warnes, pastoral associate at the parish. "The vicar (for clergy) came and read a letter from the archbishop at every Mass."
   Schreiter was not at the parish office Monday and could not be reached for comment. The parish is planning a "joyful homecoming" for him at 7 p.m. Thursday that will include a prayer service and an outdoor celebration with food, Warnes said.
• Dousman pastor returns to parish, name cleared by review board -- Schreiter, statute of limitations.
   Duluth News Tribune , Associated Press, ~ August 10, 2004
   MILWAUKEE (WI): A Dousman pastor has returned to his parish, after the Diocesan Review Board decided a sexual abuse allegation against him was unsubstantiated.
   Rev. John P. Schreiter, pastor of St. Bruno Church, had been on leave since April 22 as the Milwaukee Archdiocese investigated his case. He resumed his parish ministry Friday.
   His case was the first that got an acquittal since the review board was established in early 2003. Two other priests remain on leave pending investigation of allegations.
   In March, church officials received a report accusing Schreiter of sexual abuse almost 25 years ago in Sauk County.
   He denied the allegation, which was forwarded to the Sauk County district attorney's office. The office said in April that the case could not be considered for prosecution because the statute of limitations had expired.
• Priest faces trial in '78-80 rape case [Behan]
   Philadelphia Inquirer, www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/9359781.htm , By Jacqueline Soteropoulos, ~ August 10, 2004
   PHILADELPHIA (PA): A judge yesterday turned aside arguments that the statute of limitations had expired and ordered a priest to stand trial on charges that he raped a Philadelphia boy more than 25 years ago.
   For the first time, accuser Martin Donohoe faced the Rev. James J. Behan, 60, and testified about the abuse that Donohoe says began in 1978, when he was a 15-year-old student at North Catholic High School, where Behan taught.
   Donohoe, 41, now of Burlington County, testified that Behan showed him the Front Street home he shared with other priests, then invited the teen to sleep over.
   "When the lights were out, he rolled over and put his arms around me from behind... he started kissing me on my neck, fondling. Then he performed oral sex on me," Donohoe testified.
   Donohoe gave Behan a long glance and squared his jaw, but his voice wavered as he described additional sex acts.
• Priest faces trial in alleged sex assault Accuser is former NE Catholic High pupil [1978-80 Behan] - RCC. Boy.
   Philadelphia Daily News www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/9361021.htm? ERIGHTS=2657486447833057867philly::kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM= 1impqpknppohhhhhhhhhholjmp|Kathleen|Y ; Daily News Staff Report, ~ August 10, 2004
   PHILADELPHIA (PA): The first priest indicted by a Philadelphia grand jury investigating child sexual abuse must stand trial for allegedly raping a male Northeast Catholic High School student a quarter century ago.
   The Rev. James J. Behan, 60, yesterday lost his bid to have the charges tossed out under the statute of limitations. The alleged abuse occurred from 1978 to 1980.
   Municipal Judge Linda Anderson denied Behan's motion to dismiss the charges, which include rape, indecent assault and corrupting a minor.
   Anderson then ordered the priest, who is free on bail, to stand trial on all charges. He will be arraigned Aug. 30. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:41 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tue August 10, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont92.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Wed August 11, 2004 edition follows:-
• Nuns' Group Won't Listen to Abuse Victims at Conference - RCC. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55351-2004Aug10.html , By Caryle Murphy, Page A10, Wednesday, August 11, 2004
   SILVER SPRING (MD): A Silver Spring-based organization representing Roman Catholic nuns has declined to allow several people who say they were sexually abused as children by nuns to address a national gathering of sisters.
   The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an association of about 1,000 leaders of women's religious orders, said its annual convention Aug. 19 to 22 in Fort Worth would not be "an environment conducive for listening and dialogue."
   Instead, it offered to have four of its senior officials meet with the victims' group for "a productive discussion focused on critical issues relevant to supporting survivors and preventing further sexual abuse," according to a statement released yesterday by Sister Constance Phelps, conference president.
   "We're really disappointed," said Landa Mauriello-Vernon, 30, of Hamden, Conn., a spokeswoman for the victims' group. "They've said they don't have time for us . . . but all we've asked for is 30 minutes." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 10:30 PM]
• Committee urges charges be laid against former Labor ministers [Ensbey] - Cabinet. Illegal shredding. Australia flag; Aust. Nat. Flag Assn. 
   Australian Broadcasting Corporation, www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200408/ s1174635.htm , ~ August 11, 2004
   AUSTRALIA: A federal parliamentary committee has recommended members of Queensland's former Goss Labor cabinet be charged over the destruction of child abuse evidence.
   The committee has not named the people it thinks should be charged.
   The House of Representatives committee is headed by Liberal Bronwyn Bishop and says its hearings into the so-called Heiner Affair revealed a culture of concealment and collusion that covered up the abuse of children in detention and protected the offenders.
   The committee says documents relating to the affair and subsequent inquiry 14 years ago were illegally shredded.
   It has recommended that members of the Queensland cabinet at the time be charged under the criminal code.
   The committee has cited the case of Pastor Douglas Ensbey as a precedent for laying charges.
   Ensbey was convicted and sentenced for destroying evidence after he cut up a female parishioner's diary that detailed the sexual abuse she suffered.
• Church reveals new abuse approach -- Anglican.
   The Courier-Mail, www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,10419123%255E953,00. html , Aug 12, 2004
   AUSTRALIA: The Anglican Church in South Australia will today reveal a proposed resolution process for victims of child sexual abuse.
   The church said the model offered those who had been abused an alternative to seeking redress through the courts.
   It said full details would be announced at a public launch this morning involving the administrator of the Adelaide diocese, Archdeacon John Collas, and independent adviser Fay Marles, also chancellor of the University of Melbourne.
   The proposal follows an independent review of allegations of abuse within the church which found its priority was to protect itself at the expense of victims and was more concerned with its legal and insurance standing than the healing of those abused.
   Since then, two former ministers and a number of church workers have been arrested, the result of an investigation by a special police paedophile task force established last year.
• Local Priest Accused of Sexual Assault [1970s Mickey] U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   WREG, www.wreg.com/Global/story.asp?S=2161971 , August 11, 2004
   MEMPHIS, TN - The Catholic Church is slammed with another sexual assault lawsuit. This time the priest accused of misconduct is right here in the Mid-South.
   His name is father Richard L. Mickey. He's accused of sexually abusing twin brothers. A 20-page lawsuit spells out the disturbing details.
   As the pastor of Bishop Byrne High School students trusted Father Richard Mickey, but according to the lawsuit more than 20-years ago Father Mickey 'broke the faith' of teen-aged twin brothers who attended the Whitehaven high school.
   Richard Schulte, the defendant's attorney says, "Their relationship with the church has been one of trust and that trust has been broken." The lawsuit claims the 39-year-old defendants who now live in Montana were sexually assaulted and molested on numerous occasions by father Mickey.
   The suit also states the diocese knew about the alleged misconduct and kept father Mickey on staff anyway. Now the defendants are suing their former priest, the diocese and Bishop Byrne high school.
• Catholic Bishop's Appeal hits record high in pledges
   Albany Times Union timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=266845 &category= REGIONOTHER&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=7/16/2004 , By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Friday, July 16, 2004
   ALBANY (NY): The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany's 2004 Annual Bishop's Appeal said it hit an all-time high for pledges this year despite -- or maybe because of -- the clergy sex abuse scandal that focused for four months on the longtime spiritual leader himself.
   Figures released Thursday showed parishes in the 14-county diocese pledged $6.6 million, which is 3 percent, or $202,747 more than last year.
   The previous high of $6,591,218 was reached in 2000.
   An average gift in the 50th-anniversary fund drive was $169, also the highest on record, Bishop's Appeal Director Jack Manning said.
• 2nd man says priest abused him [1950s Blackwell]
   Palladium-Item, www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040811/NEWS01/ 408110303/1008, By Don Fasnacht, ~ August 11, 2004
   INDIANAPOLIS (IN): A second man claims Father William Blackwell sexually abused him at St. Mary Catholic parish in the 1950s.
   The man, identified as Daniel N., who was born in 1950, has filed suit in the Marion County court system.
   The suit names the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and St. Mary school and parish as defendants.
   Rev. Blackwell died in 1990.
   The complaint says Daniel N. was an altar boy when he was repeatedly sexually abused by Rev. Blackwell in the sacristy and in the rectory of St. Mary.
• Okija Shrine: Lagos Businessman Declared Wanted - Brought a Fresh Corpse [2004 Ndukwu] Nigeria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   AllAfrica.com http://allafrica.com/stories/200408110978.html , August 11, 2004, Posted to the web August 11, 2004
   LAGOS, NIGERIA: A Lagos-based businessman, Bartholomew Ndukwu, has been declared wanted by the police in Anambra State for his alleged involvement in rituals at the infamous Okija shrines in Ihiala Local Government Area of the state.
   Bartholomew, son of Ejimoo Ndukwu, one of the priests of the shrine arrested by the police during its first raid on the evil forest, was alleged to have brought a corpse to the shrine shortly before the raid.
   P.M.News gathered that children of priests working at the Okija shrine were initiated to worship the gods at the shrine and participate in all activities therein.
• Priest-abuse victims seek help from police, prosecutors [O'Connell] U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Columbia Daily Tribune, www.columbiatribune.com/2004/Aug/20040811Feat001.asp , By TONY MESSENGER, Published Wednesday, August 11, 2004
   MISSOURI: July 13 is an important day for Mike Wegs.
   It's the day his sister would have turned 50 if she hadn't died 30 years ago.
   Her funeral mass was celebrated by Father Anthony O'Connell and Father Manus Daly. The two were Catholic priests at the now-closed St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Hannibal. Wegs remembers them well, particularly O'Connell. It was O.C., as the seminarians referred to him, who Wegs says sexually abused him so many years ago.
   Wegs grew up in Moberly and graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism. In May, he came forward with his story of abuse, having previously been known only as one of the John Does who sued the Catholic Church over abuse by alleged pedophiles like O'Connell.
   His lawsuit has since gone away. On July 13 - a day he chose purposely - he signed a settlement with the Catholic Church.
   The church, of course, admits nothing. Neither does O'Connell. But the former priest and bishop agreed to pay Wegs and another victim, Mathew Cosby, $5,000 each to settle their lawsuits. The Diocese of Jefferson City is paying Wegs $20,000 and Cosby $27,000.
• Former Memphis priest denies sexual abuse accusations [1980 Mickey]
   Commercial Appeal, www.commercialappeal.com/mca/local_news/article/0,1426,MCA_ 437_3103398,00.html , By Bill Dries and James Dowd, August 11, 2004
   MEMPHIS (TN): Two brothers say a Catholic priest sexually abused them in 1980 when they were students at Bishop Byrne High School, a charge the priest firmly denied Wednesday afternoon.
   The claim made in a Circuit Court civil lawsuit is the second set of allegations made in court against Memphis priests in a week.
   Rev. Richard Mickey is accused of sexually abusing Blain and Blair Chambers during a time he was a brother working at the Whitehaven school as a counselor. Mickey was ordained a priest in 1988.
   "I deny the allegations and I trust they will be resolved by the litigation process," said Mickey, who spoke to a reporter outside St. Mary's Catholic Church in Jackson, Tennessee.
   "I have not seen a copy of the lawsuit but I have been advised by the diocesan attorneys that a lawsuit has been filed," Mickey said.
   The twin brothers, who are now 39, live in Montana.
• Group calls for Hubbard's resignation
   Capital News 9, www.capitalnews9.com/content/your_news/capital_region/default.asp?ArID=88651 , By Edward Muir, Updated 3:52 PM, Aug/11/2004
   ALBANY (NY): Mark Lyman is a 40-year-old father of four who said he was sexually abused by a priest in Troy in the 1970s. He said that the abuse stays with him all the time.
   Lyman said, "It's destroyed my life, and I really want somebody to take responsibility."
   The person he feels should take responsibility is Bishop Howard Hubbard. Lyman and other members of the Coalition of Concerned Catholics are not swayed by the $2.2 million investigation by Mary Jo White that cleared Hubbard of sexual misconduct.
   But more than that, they said Hubbard has presided over a pedophile priest scandal, even perpetuating it by moving accused priests from parish to parish. They continue their call for Hubbard's resignation.
   Philip Kiernan of the Coalition for Concerned Catholics said, "He's harmed a lot of people. He's brought the clergy and the Catholic faith locally into disrepute. He's harmed the church. He should stop harming the church and go away."
   But a diocese spokesman said Bishop Hubbard has no intention of stepping down, and that he has the overwhelming support of Catholics in the area.
• Second lawsuit accuses priest of abuse [1950s Blackwell]
   WTHR, www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=2162064 , Aug. 11, 2004
   INDIANAPOLIS (IN): A second plaintiff steps forward suing the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis claiming sexual abuse.
   The man who calls himself Daniel N. claims he was abused more than 40 years ago by the late Reverend William Blackwell at St. Marys Parish in Richmond. The accused priest died back in 1990.
   Another man filed a similar lawsuit in February alleging he too was abused by Blackwell.
• Bishop asked to investigate priests [Ford, Henchal, Melville]
   WMTW, www.wmtw.com/Global/story.asp?S=2159601&nav=7k6rPkQz , By News 8 WMTW
   PORTLAND (ME): A co-founder of the group Voice of the Faithful has asked Maine's Roman Catholic bishop to investigate two high-ranking priests.
   They are former Portland diocese co-chancellors: Monsignor Joseph Ford, who is the pastor of St. Mary's Church in Wells, and Monsignor Michael Henchal, who is pastor of St. Bartholomew's Church in Cape Elizabeth.
   Paul Kendrick is calling for them to be put on administrative leave, pending an internal investigation into what they knew and when, regarding sexual misconduct allegations against Rev. Raymond Melville.
   In his letter, Kendrick asserts that Ford and Henchal placed children at risk of being sexually abused, by their failure to remove Melville from the ministry and by not warning children and parents about Melville's history of abuse.
   Portland Catholic Diocese spokesperson Sue Bernard says, "In the past two years, Paul Kendrick has flooded the Diocese of Portland with literally hundreds of emails and letters, attacking the administration of the Catholic Church and a number of church employees. This is nothing new."
• Priest accused of rape after two decades [1976-79] South Africa flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   IOL, www.iol.co.za/in dex.php?set_ id=1&click_id= 13&art_id=vn 20040811061510 119C287744 , by Tania Broughton, 07:13AM, August 11 2004
   SOUTH AFRICA: A Durban Roman Catholic priest accused of raping a child 28 years ago has applied for a stay of prosecution, claiming his constitutional right to a fair trial will be infringed if he has to answer to the charge.
   The application by the elderly priest was made at the beginning of his three-day trial in the Durban regional court on Tuesday.
   Whatever the decision by magistrate Trevor Levitt, it is likely to be sent on appeal to a higher court, possibly even to the Constitutional Court.
   The priest is accused of raping the child - now a 36-year-old woman - on diverse occasions between 1976 and 1979.
   The charge has not been put to him but, in an affidavit before the court on Tuesday, he indicated that he would plead not guilty. He cannot be named until he has pleaded.
• 'Old law' may aid former priest [1978 Feeney] U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   The Post-Crescent, www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_17272447.shtml, By Dan Wilson, ~ August 11, 2004
   WISCONSIN: Former priest John Patrick Feeney, sentenced in April to 15 years in prison on sexual assault charges, will be eligible for parole after serving just six months of his sentence.
   Feeney was sentenced to 15 years in prison on April 30 on three counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of attempted sexual assault of a child.
   The charges stemmed from assaults of two brothers, ages 12 and 14, in May 1978 when Feeney was the parish priest at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Freedom.
   Last week, the Parole Commission of the Department of Corrections sent out copies of a notice of parole consideration to the victims, the attorneys and the judge.
   "This is based on the law that was in effect at the time of the offense," Department of Corrections spokesman Bill Clausius said Tuesday. "It is what we call 'old law'."
• Priest plans to admit guilt in sexual assault of boy [Palathingal]
   Home News Tribune, www.thnt.com/thnt/story/0,21282,1023912,00.html , By RICK MALWITZ, Aug/11/04
   WISCONSIN: The Rev. Simon Palathingal, the religious order priest who kept part of his past hidden from the Diocese of Metuchen when he was hired in December 2001, agreed last week to plead guilty to charges of sexual assault that occurred in 1990 and 1991 in Milwaukee.
   Palathingal, 62, is scheduled to appear Tuesday before Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge Karen Christenson, who is expected to announce a date for her hearing of the agreement reached by Palathingal and the district attorney.
   Palathingal was arrested June 3 in South Amboy, where he was serving at St. Mary Roman Catholic Church. He was charged with four counts of abusing Nick Janovsky, who was 9 at the time of the assaults, at a house for retired priests in Milwaukee.
   Janovsky, who has been outspoken in his criticism of the Diocese of Milwaukee for its handling of the case, approved of the plea agreement. "I have a mixed reaction," he said yesterday from his home in Florida. "I am happy (Palathingal) will be punished. Unfortunately, this man wasn't stopped years ago. Who knows how many others he abused?"
• Crowley freed after year's jail [1974-75] -- psychologist who conducted Anglican inquiry. Australia flag; Aust. Nat. Flag Assn. 
   The Mercury, Hobart (Tasmania), Australia, www.themercury.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,10397131%255E3462,00.html , By GAVIN LOWER, Law Reporter, Aug 10, 2004
   AUSTRALIA: Disgraced Tasmanian psychologist Michael Crowley has been granted parole after serving a year in jail for having a sexual relationship with a teenage girl 20 years ago.
   Crowley, 60, of Howden Rd, Howden, will walk free from jail after the Parole Board of Tasmania decided it was unlikely he would reoffend.
   "[Crowley] used his close relationship with the victim in an inappropriate manner but it is unlikely that he will ever be in such proximity and relationship with anyone else in the future that would enable him to repeat the crime," the board said.
   Crowley pleaded guilty in July last year to maintaining a sexual relationship with a person under the age of 17.
   He began a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl while he was 31 that lasted for nine months from 1974 to 1975.
   Crowley, who conducted an inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse in the Anglican Church, was jailed for 2-1/2 years with six months suspended.
• Justice center opens in polygamist town U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Fox 11, www.fox11az.com/news/state/stories/KMSB-20040810-fambp-justicecenter. 63d39d82.html , By Mike Watkiss / NewsChannel 3 reporter, 12:33 PM MST, Tuesday, August 10, 2004
   ARIZONA: In a community rocked by persistent and ongoing allegations of sexual abuse, welfare fraud and forced marriages, suddenly there is a new force in town. This week, the state of Arizona and Mojave County opened a new justice center in the border-straddling polygamist town of Colorado City.
   A justice center was established in Colorado City to assist victims of abuse. The polygamist enclave has long been isolated by geography and hostile to outsiders, but Monday a new justice center opened its doors. The building will be used by Child Protective Services, the Arizona Attorney Generals Office, the Mojave County Sheriff's Office, and the Mojave County Attorney's Office.
   Officials say they hope the new facility will serve victims who, in the past, have had nowhere to turn in Colorado City. Over the years, critics have complained bitterly that women and young girls trying to escape forced marriages and the polygamist lifestyle have had no where to go because almost all of the police officers in the community are members of the polygamist religion - the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
• Sect leader's nephew charges sexual abuse [? 1980s-90s]
   The Washington Times, http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040811-121647-6703r. htm , By Hugh Aynesworth, August 11, 2004
   ELDORADO, Texas - A nephew of the leader of a polygamist group that has relocated to this rural community filed a lawsuit last month saying he was sexually abused by his uncle more than a decade ago in Utah.
   The lawsuit is the latest problem for the 200-member Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway of the Mormon Church led by Warren Jeffs. The church also has been cited by the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality for operating an improper wastewater system that serves the 1,600-acre compound.
   Last month, church members had to ask the Eldorado City Council to allow them to temporarily tap into the city's system.
• Green Light For Church 'Sex' Trial [1980-83 Lorch]
   New York Post www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/26687.htm, August 11, 2004
   NEW YORK: A Manhattan federal judge gave the go-ahead yesterday to try the former director of Riverside Church's prestigious basketball program for the alleged sex abuse of one of his players more than 20 years ago.
   Judge Laura Taylor Swain yesterday refused to dismiss most of the charges leveled against Ernie Lorch.
   The judge did toss out charges against Riverside Church, ruling that there was not enough evidence the church authorized or covered up what happened.
   Robert Holmes has accused Lorch of sexually abusing him between 1980 and 1983. Lorch has denied there was any sexual contact.
• Ex-teacher guilty of sex crimes seeks shock probation [Kazmarek]
   The Courier-Journal, www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2004/08/11ky/B9-kaz0811-3394.html , By Jason Riley, jriley@courier-journal.com , Aug 11, 2004
   LOUISVILLE (KY): A former Catholic elementary teacher sentenced in January to 13 years in prison for sexually abusing five of his former students asked a Jefferson circuit judge yesterday to be released early.
   An attorney for Gary Kazmarek told Judge Kenneth Conliffe that the former teacher and coach at Our Mother of Sorrows School had not been charged with a crime in more than two decades; had apologized to his victims; and is a 63-year-old who recently was deemed only a moderate risk to commit a future crime.
   With that, Casey McCall asked that his client be released on shock probation.
   "My client had problems," McCall told the judge. "... But since that time, he has had nothing. We don't believe he is a threat to reoffend."
   Conliffe did not make a decision yesterday.
• 5 join abuse suit; priest, nun, coach named [1930s-60s Sisters of Charity of Nazareth]
   The Courier-Journal, www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2004/08/11ky/B9-abuse0811-4434.html , By Gregory A. Hall, ghall@courier-journal.com , Aug 11, 2004
   LOUISVILLE (KY): Five plaintiffs filed yesterday to join a lawsuit against the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, alleging abuse by a priest, a nun and a coach in the 1950s and 1960s.
   The latest filing brings the number of people who have sued the Nelson County-based order to 29 since last month.
   In yesterday's filing, the plaintiffs allege that they were abused at the St. Thomas-St.Vincent Orphanage and that the order was negligent in supervising the alleged abusers. The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth operated the orphanage for Catholic Charities, which is an agency of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville.
   Previous plaintiffs in the suit also allege abuse dating to the 1930s and at schools.
   Barbara Qualls, a spokeswoman for the order of nuns, said a response to the litigation will be filed this week.
• Alleged victim of sexual abuse finally has his say [1980s Wilson]
   Troy Record, www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12663395&BRD=1170& PAG=461&dept_id=7021&rfi=6 , By Robert Cristo , Aug/11/2004
   ALBANY (NY): Nearly 25 years after he was allegedly molested as a teenager by local defrocked priest Dozia Wilson, 38-year-old Joseph Woodward finally got the chance to tell his painful story of abuse to prosecutors and law enforcement officials in Massachusetts.
   "It was like having a 100-pound weight taken off my back to finally have officials interested in my situation and in carefully discerning the facts," said Woodward, befriended by Wilson when he was 14 in 1980 at St. Ann's Church in Fort Ann.
   The Suffolk County DA's interest in the case was prompted by a civil complaint lodged by Woodward's attorney John Aretakis against Wilson. Woodward sat with DA investigators Kelly Nunan and Emil Nunez-Rivera, as well as Sgt. John McDonough from the Suffolk County Police Department, last Friday for a 3-1/2-hour interview.
   He says there were also members of the DA's office watching from a concealed window and asking the investigators questions while they interviewed him.
• Northern Alaska diocese to abide by gag order [Poole females, Convert males] -- Jesuits. Alaska flag (USA State); Mooney's MiniFlags 
   News-Miner, www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~2327565,00.html , By MARY BETH SMETZER, ~ August 11, 2004
   ALASKA: The leader of the Catholic Diocese of Northern Alaska, Bishop Donald Kettler, said the diocese agrees with the gag order motion filed last week in Bethel Superior Court.
   The motion seeks to stop information from being released to the media in a lawsuit filed by Jane Doe alleging that the Rev. James Poole, a Jesuit priest, now retired, abused female minors while serving as director of radio station KNOM in Nome and pastor at St. Joseph's Parish.
   Kettler, who was unaware of the motion when contacted last week, said he made the decision to support the motion after talking to the diocese's attorney Bob Groseclose.
   "I've taken his recommendation because we're concerned that it (civil suit) not be tried in the press," Kettler said. "And secondly that we not taint the pool of possible jurors."
   In addition to Poole and the bishop, two other defendants are included in the gag order request, The Society of Jesus, Oregon Province, and The Society of Jesus, Alaska.
   Groseclose said the motion was prompted by the release of a deposition by the Rev. William Loyens in another lawsuit involving the diocese purporting sexual abuse of male minors by a now-deceased French Jesuit priest, Jules Convert.
• Diocese to scrutinze transferred clergy [1990s Palathingal] -- Salesian. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  India flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Star-Ledger, www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-7/10922145323047 20.xml , BY JEFF DIAMANT, Wednesday, August 11, 2004
   METUCHEN (NJ): The Roman Catholic diocese of Metuchen says it plans to subject transferred priests to one of the most vigorous background checks in the country, following a scandal involving a priest recently charged with molesting a boy 14 years ago in Wisconsin.
   The Rev. Simon Palathingal was charged June 3 with abusing a 9-year-old boy while living at a home for elderly priests in Milwaukee during the early 1990s. He had worked in the Metuchen Diocese since December 2001 but had his ministerial privileges revoked after the arrest.
   Palathingal, 62, born in India, is a member of the religious order of the Salesians of Don Bosco -- one of the largest Catholic orders in the world -- and was studying at Marquette University, a Jesuit institution in Milwaukee, at the time of the alleged incident.
   He arrived in Metuchen 2 1/2 years ago after working with the Salesians in Lake Charles, La., when a priest he knew in the diocese suggested he come help during the Christmas season. Two months later he asked to become permanent, starting a process of diocese background checks. While waiting for approval, he assisted in the day-to-day operations at St. Mary's in South Amboy and St. Bernadette in Parlin.
   Metuchen officials say that while reviewing Palathingal's application, they relied in part on a letter from the Salesians in Louisiana that said he was in good standing with the order.
• Lawsuit alleges abuse by clergy [? 1950s-60s Blackwell] U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Indinapolis Star, www.indystar.com/articles/7/169372-2667-009.html , By Rob Schneider, rob.schneider@indystar.com , August 11, 2004
   INDIANAPOLIS (IN): A lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis alleges sexual abuse of an altar boy by the same priest named in a lawsuit filed earlier this year.
   The most recent complaint was filed on behalf of a man identified only as Daniel N. He was born in 1950 and suffered the abuse more than 40 years ago while attending St. Mary's Parish in Richmond, according to the lawsuit.
   The lawsuit identifies the Rev. William Blackwell as the priest responsible for the abuse. Blackwell, who served a number of assignments within the archdiocese, died Feb. 2, 1990.
   The archdiocese could not comment on the lawsuit, as it had just been filed, said spokeswoman Susan Borcherts.
   "We want people to know we are deeply troubled when we hear of allegations of sexual abuse of children by our own clergy, church employees or our church volunteers," Borcherts said. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:48 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wed August 11, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont92.htm
• Pope's representative acknowledges letter asking Salesians to face their child abuse, admit fleeing to other countries avoiding arrest, and regarding the Church's secrecy policy. Australia flag; Aust. Nat. Flag Assn.
   Letter from Apostolic Nuncio (Pope's representative) Archbishop Francesco Canalini, PO Box 3633, Manuka (Canberra), August 11, 2004
   AUSTRALIA: Dear Mr [name], I acknowledge receipt of your letter of 5th instant. With kind regards, I remain, Sincerely yours, Archbishop Francesco Canalini, Apostolic Nuncio [Aug 11, 04]
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont92.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Thu August 12, 2004 edition follows:-
• Vatican Closes 'Porn School' [2003-04 Kuechl, Rothe] Austria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   SBS TV, http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=91604®ion=3 , 09:51:43, Aug 13, 2004.
   AUSTRIA: An Austrian seminary accused of homosexual and pornographic activities has been closed by the Vatican.
   Vatican special envoy Klaus Kueng said the 200-year-old seminary at St Poelten, near Vienna is "closed with immediate effect".
   Austrian media also reported that the envoy hinted the local bishop would be retired to allow a "fresh start".
   Mr Kueng, the bishop of Feldkirch in western Austria, was chosen in July by the Pope to lead an investigation, a day after a 27-year-old Polish student priest at St Poelten was charged with possessing some 10,000 pornographic pictures.
   The scandal erupted when Profil magazine published photos of priests and students from the religious school kissing and fondling.
   The revelations led to the resignation of the seminary director, Ulrich Kuechl, and his deputy, Wolfgang Rothe. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:07 PM]
• Austrian seminary shut down in gay sex probe [2003-04]
   The Advocate, www.advocate.com/new_news.asp?ID=13377&sd=08/13/04 , Aug 13, 2004
   AUSTRIA: A papal emissary on Thursday shut down an Austrian seminary where authorities reported finding about 40,000 photos and numerous videos, including child pornography, on computers. Other photographs of seminary students kissing and fondling each other and their older religious instructors at the seminary also were found in the diocese of St. Poelten, about 50 miles west of Vienna.
   Some of the photos were published in Austrian media and triggered a public uproar that prompted Pope John Paul II to dispatch Bishop Klaus Kueng as an "apostolic visitor" to contain the scandal. "A new beginning is necessary," Kueng told reporters in remarks broadcast on state-run ORF television. "I am closing the seminary right away." Kueng said it appeared that "active homosexual relationships took shape" at the seminary, a revelation he found "very painful," the Austria Press Agency reported.
   The Vatican inspector had promised to do whatever it took to restore credibility to Austria's scandalized church. Prosecutors investigating the child pornography aspect of the case have charged a 27-year-old former seminary student from Poland with possessing and distributing illicit material, an offense punishable by up to two years in prison. Kueng said his investigation found that church leaders "paid too little attention to selection procedures" at the seminary.
   Two of the institution's 36 students have left the seminary this summer. Those who want to remain will have to undergo a fresh screening process, Kueng said.
• Sexual abuse victims press Orange County church to halt cathedral U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   The Mercury News, www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/ california/the_valley/9385811. htm , Associated Press, ~ August 12, 2004
   SANTA ANA, Calif. - Victims of sexual abuse by priests on Thursday urged the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange to halt the development of a new cathedral and the purchase of a new home in an adjacent gated community.
   The $1.2 million home and the cathedral project are inappropriate at a time of diocese budget cuts and talks to reach a settlement with abuse victims, said members of Survivors Networks of those Abused by Priests.
   "It's very irresponsible of the bishop," said John Grimley, who has filed a lawsuit against the diocese alleging abuse by a former principal of the church's Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana. "He's spending on things like this yet he says the diocese needs money. It's just very sad."
   A small group of protesters from the group gathered at the vacant lot where the diocese hopes to build a cathedral. Protesters, who held signs with slogans such as "Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked," and "Stop the cathedral," also urged a quicker settlement to the lawsuits and the release of priest personnel files that they say will document efforts to cover up the abuse.
   Diocese spokeswoman Karen Lane said Thursday that plans to build the cathedral are on hold until after a settlement is reached despite the July 19 approval of a development agreement with the city of Santa Ana.
• Prosecutor: No evidence that porn-watching priest committed any crime [2004 Traylor]
   WKRN, www.wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?S=2167333
   EVANSVILLE, Ind. A southern Indiana prosecutor says there's no evidence a Roman Catholic priest who was caught viewing Internet porn in the same room where a child was present committed any crime.
   Prosecutor Stanley Levco says no criminal charges will be filed against 56-year-old Reverend William Traylor. Levco's office studied results of the church's internal probe and an investigation by Evansville police.
   Levco says he concluded a child who was in the same area during the time the priest was looking at the porn was separated by a partition and did not see the material.
   The pastor at two Evansville churches recently explained in a letter to parishioners that he was seeking treatment after viewing "inappropriate" Web sites.
• Priest: Jews devised pedophilia 'lies' [2004 Jankowski] Poland flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Jerusalem Post, www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Show Full&cid=1092280017655 &p=1008596975996 , ~ August 12, 2004
   POLAND: The Simon Wiesenthal Center is calling on Polish political leaders to speak out against priest Henryk Jankowski, who in Sunday mass claimed recent accusations against him are part of a Jewish conspiracy.
   Jankowski has recently been accused of pedophilia. According to reports from a Jewish activist in Krakow, he blamed the accusations on "Jews and Judeo-communists."
   "We want Polish leaders to disassociate themselves from these comments," said Efraim Zuroff, the Center's Israel Director. "And to send Jankowski packing."
   Zuroff said he doubts Polish leaders will speak out, since almost a week has elapsed since the comments were made.
   "These are things that shouldn't be ignored, even though Jankowski is not the Bishop of Poland," he said. He called the comments "pure incitement" and said Jews are in no way involved in these recent accusations.
• Correction Officers say they were made villains in prison reform report [Geoghan] U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Herald Tribune, By KAREN TESTA, Associated Press Writer, Aug 12, 2004
   BOSTON (MA): The union representing thousands of correction officers is issuing a scathing rebuttal to a governor's commission review of the state prison system, saying prison officers were vilified in order to promote an anti-labor agenda.
   The rebuttal, obtained by The Associated Press, was to be released Friday at a news conference at the former Fort Devens. It claims the 15-member Gov.'s Commission on Correction Reform, led by former Democratic Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, used sloppy research and purposely misrepresented facts in making recommendations for reform.
   The commission conducted an eight-month, top-to-bottom review of the prison system after a probe into the cellblock slaying of defrocked priest John Geoghan last August revealed signs of problems across the department.
   The commission's wide-ranging report, released June 30 at the maximum-security prison where Geoghan was killed by a former inmate, made recommendations on all aspects of corrections, including relations with labor, inmate classification and programs and the need for outside oversight.
• Porn-watching priest committed no crime [2004 Traylor]
   Indinapolis Star, www.indystar.com/articles/6/169677-8776-093.html , Associated Press, August 12, 2004
   EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Stanley Levco said today he found no evidence a Roman Catholic priest committed any crime when he viewed Internet pornography in the same room where a child was present.
   Levco said that no criminal charges will be filed against the Rev. William Traylor, 56. The prosecutor's office studied results of the church's internal probe and an investigation by Evansville police.
   Levco said he concluded that a child who was in the same area during the time the priest was using a computer to look at porn during a summer social at St. Joseph Catholic Church was separated by a partition and did not see the material.
   Traylor, the pastor of St. Joseph and St. Theresa parishes in Evansville, recently explained in a letter to parishioners that he was seeking treatment after viewing "inappropriate" Web sites.
• Detroit Archdiocese Begins Church Trials [700 removed nation-wide]
   MyrtleBeachOnline, www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/special_ packages/9385679.htm , By BREE FOWLER, Associated Press, ~ August 12, 2004
   DETROIT (MI): The Archdiocese of Detroit said Thursday it has begun church trials for three priests accused of molesting children and is about to start proceedings for a fourth, as the Roman Catholic Church works through a backlog of hundreds of abuse claims against clergy nationwide.
   The archdiocese did not release the names of the four priests or any details of the accusations. Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Walter Hurley said judges met last week to start the closed-door hearings, which will determine whether the men can remain priests.
   Since January 2002, when the clergy abuse crisis erupted in the United States, about 700 accused priests and deacons nationwide have been removed from Catholic dioceses, the U.S. bishops said last February. As mandated by the church, the cases were referred to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has been overwhelmed by the claims.
   Two American canon lawyers are being sent to Rome to help with the review, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Still, the Vatican office has begun working through the claims and has returned some to local bishops to handle.
   Hurley said Vatican officials have responded to 13 of the 23 cases it has sent to Rome so far. "It's an honest system within the church that's trying to pursue what's just and fair," Hurley said.
• Priests In Porn Scandal [2003-04] Austria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Sky News, www.sky.com/ skynews/article/ 0,,30200-1147 409,00.html , ~ August 12, 2004
   AUSTRIA: The Vatican has closed a 200-year-old training college for priests in Austria amid the outcry over a sex scandal.
   The St Poelten seminary, near Vienna, is engulfed in turmoil after pictures were published showing priests and students kissing and fondling each other.
   A student priest at the college has been charged with owning 10,000 pornographic pictures, with Austrian media claiming that police had found a total of 40,000 images.
   Some of these were reported to include scenes of sex with children and animals.
   Revelations about St Poelten have forced the resignations of its director and his deputy.
   Special Vatican envoy Klaus Kueng revealed he had he uncovered "serious errors in orientation".
• Austrian seminary rocked by porn scandal closed [2003-04]
   CBC, www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2004/08/12/austria_church_porn040812.html , Aug 8, 2004
   VIENNA, AUSTRIA - The Vatican on Thursday shut down a seminary in Austria where investigators found thousands of pictures of students and instructors kissing and fondling.
   Authorities reported finding about 40,000 photos and a large number of videos on computers at the seminary in the diocese of St. Poelten, about 80 kilometres west of Vienna. Some of the material included child pornography.
   When some of the pictures appeared in Austrian media, Pope John Paul II responded to the public uproar by sending in Bishop Klaus Kueng three weeks ago as an "apostolic visitor" to contain the scandal.
   Kueng told reporters on Thursday that he was closing the seminary immediately to make way for "a new beginning." He has said he would restore credibility to the church.
   The evidence of "active homosexual relationships" he found at the seminary was "very painful," said Kueng.
• Pope's Special Investigator Closes Austrian Seminary Embroiled in Homosexual Photo Scandal [2003-04 Kuechl, Rothe, Krenn]
   LifeSite ; www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/aug/04081205.html , August 12, 2004
   VIENNA, AUSTRIA (LifeSiteNews.com) - 50 miles west of the Austrian capital, Cardinal Klaus Kueng is wrapping up his investigation of the seminary that has been a center of heated controversy since mid-July. On July 12, the Austrian news service Profil published a series of lurid photographs and a report of homosexual activity at Sankt Poelten seminary, involving both seminarians and staff.
   The Austrian bishops conference took prompt action and ordered an internal investigation. Seminary rector Ulrich Kuechl and vice-rector Wolfgang Rothe have stepped down while continuing to insist that they are innocent of any wrongdoing, and the Austrian bishops conference has indicated that they will ask the Vatican to remove the local bishop, Kurt Krenn. Bishop Krenn has called the allegations groundless and the sex acts depicted, "harmless pranks having nothing to do with homosexuality".
   The alleged goings-on at the Poelten seminary are anything but harmless, according to Cardinal Kueng. A criminal investigation involving child pornography is underway, and the seminary's days are numbered. After a brisk investigation the cardinal stated, "I am closing the seminary right away." Cardinal Kueng, Austrian born and a member of Opus Dei, was sent to the Poelten seminary as "Apostolic Visitor", an emissary appointed by Rome to intervene in cases of "grave irregularity" when local church authorities are unable or unwilling to resolve the situation satisfactorily.
• Minister's conviction splits Veneta congregation, church leaders [Fenwick ] -- Pentecostal. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   The Register-Guard, www.registerguard.com/news/2004/08/12/a1.closedchurch.0812.html , By Jeff Wright, Aug 12, 2004
   VENETA (OR): The doors of New Hope Christian Center here remain locked, closed two weeks ago after a music minister's conviction for sexually abusing a young church member.
   Pentecostal Church of God district officials say they took the action because of financial duress brought on by an exodus of members.
   But New Hope's former senior pastor and several church members say the closure is in retaliation for their support of the teenager abused by Charles Fenwick Jr., who pleaded guilty last month to crimes committed when he served as the church's music minister and associate pastor.
   Denominational leaders are trying to sweep the scandal under the rug, said the Rev. Ron Crandall, who served as New Hope's senior pastor for nearly eight years until resigning in May because of failing health.
   "What they're doing goes against the word of God and is totally contrary to the tenets of faith," he said.
• Nine charged with child sex abuse [1953-85] Anglican, Salvation Army, Catholic; 20 complainants. Australia flag; Aust. Nat. Flag Assn. 
   The Advertiser (Adelaide), www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/ 0,5936,10427621%255E421,00.html , By Nigel Hunt, Aug 13 2004
   ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA: Police in Adelaide have vowed to continue their unprecedented rout of pedophiles after revealing another nine men have been charged with more than 40 child sex abuse offences.
   Those charged include a former Anglican Minister, a former Salvation Army Minister, a Surf Life Saving Association coach, scout leaders, a Church of England Boys Society leader and several Catholic school teachers.
   The offences allegedly committed by the nine men include rape, unlawful sexual intercourse, indecent assault, carnal knowledge and procuring an act of gross indecency.
   The charges relate to events between 1953 and 1985 and allegedly involve 20 individual victims as young as five years old. [Fuller version below]
• Parishes meet with lawyers U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Fox 11, www.fox11az.com/news/local/stories/KMSB-20040812-dsbp- parishes.6d8698e6. html ; By Stephanie Innes / Arizona Daily Star, 09:46 AM MST, Thursday, August 12, 2004
   TUCSON (AZ): In anticipation of bankruptcy proceedings that could put in question the ownership of churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson, its 75 parishes are consulting their own lawyers.
   Tucson bankruptcy attorneys Lowell Rothschild and Michael McGrath were at a private meeting Wednesday afternoon with diocesan priests, staff members and parishioners that attracted 280 people to the Northwest Side St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, 8650 N. Shannon Road.
   The attorneys are consulting with the 11 priests on the diocese's Presbyteral Council about representing parishes if Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas files for federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
   "The parishes are the big question for the court to decide. Everything hangs on that," Monsignor Robert Fuller of St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church, 3201 E. Presidio Road, said as he left the meeting.
   The media were not allowed inside the 2 1/2-hour meeting until the last 20 minutes, during a question-and-answer period.
   [COMMENT: Any similarity between parishes seeking lawyers' advice in order to hold and/or transfer property to avoid paying compensation to sex abuse victims, and the words of the man from Galilee, are purely coincidental !!! In addition, perhaps these Churchmen ought to read 1 Corinthians 6: 1-8. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Parishes consulting own lawyers in case diocese files Chapter 11
   KVOA, http://kvoa. com/Global/story. asp?S=2166419& nav=HMO5PnmQ , ~ August 12, 2004
   TUCSON (AZ): The 75 parishes in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson are consulting their own attorneys in case the diocese files for bankruptcy protection over pending clergy sexual abuse lawsuits.
   The attorneys are consulting with the 11 priests on the diocese's Presbyteral Council about representing parishes if the diocese files for federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
   Bishop Gerald Kicanas expects to make a decision on whether to file by the middle of next month when the diocese is scheduled to go to trial in a clergy sexual abuse civil action in Yuma.
   Tucson could become the nation's second Catholic diocese to file for Chapter 11, following the lead of the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., in July.
• New Bishop Comes to Buffalo
   WIVB, www.wivb.com/Global/story.asp?S=2167605&nav=0RapPoP8 , August 12, 2004
   BUFFALO (NY): The Vatican has named a new bishop for the Diocese of Buffalo. Nashville bishop Edward Kmiec came to town to meet his new flock Thursday. News 4's Lorey Schultz reports from the Catholic Center in Buffalo.
   For the past 12 years, he served as the bishop of the Diocese of Nashville. Thursday, Bishop Edward Kmiec (pronounced kim'-mick) greeted the faithful here in the Queen City, where he was introduced as the 13th bishop of Buffalo.
   Bishop Kmiec said, "They tell me I'm approachable, and I'm flattered enough to believe it."
   Along with a great sense of humor, Kmiec also brings skills as a strong administrator who doesn't shy away from controversial issues, including the priest sex abuse scandal.
   Kmiec said, "We invite anyone who knows or suspects sexual abuse to report it to authorities or to the Church."
• Scandal-ridden seminary closed down in Austria - RCC. Austria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Catholic World News, www.cwnews.com/ news/viewstory. cfm?recnum=31454 , Aug. 12, 2004
   VIENNA, AUSTRIA (CWNews.com) - A Vatican investigator has shut down the seminary in St. Polten, Austria, which has become the focus of a scandal involving child pornography and homosexuality.
   Bishop Klaus Kung, who was appointed by Pope John Paul II to conduct an apostolic visitation of the troubled St. Polten diocese, announced on August 12 that he is using his authority to close down the seminary "right away."
   The seminary had failed in its mission to select and train young men for the Catholic priesthood, the Vatican-appointed investigator said. "A new beginning is necessary," Bishop Kung concluded.
• Jurors convict Fort Wayne pastor of sexual battery [2003 Fincher] -- Baptist. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   WANE, www.wane.com/Global/story.asp?S=2165121 , ~ August 12, 2004
   FORT WAYNE, Ind. Jurors in Fort Wayne yesterday convicted a 73-year-old Baptist minister of sexual battery.
   Faith Missionary Baptist Church pastor Reverend James Fincher was allowed to remain free on bond until his sentencing next month.
   Jurors in Allen County Superior Court deliberated about three-and-a-half hours before reaching a split verdict. They found Fincher guilty of sexual battery but acquitted him on criminal confinement charges.
   Fincher allegedly fondled a 20-year-old woman when she came to his office in early October, asking whether she could borrow 100-dollars to pay some bills. The woman said Fincher grabbed her arm and offered her hush money when she tried to leave.
• Fort Wayne Pastor Found Guilty of Sexual Assault [2003 Fincher] -- Baptist.
   WISH, www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2165207&nav=0Ra7Pn9w , ~ August 12, 2004
   FORT WAYNE (IN): A jury has found a Fort Wayne pastor guilty of sexual assault. Prosecutors say Reverend James Fincher fondled a 20-year old woman last year.
   The victim says she had gone to his office looking for financial help. Court documents say Fincher grabbed the woman, and wouldn't let her leave.
• Former Priest Paroled Early By Mistake [1970s Holley]
   TheNewMexicoChannel.com ; www.thenewmexicochannel.com/news/3646356/detail.html , POSTED: 11:25 pm MDT August 11, 2004, UPDATED: 6:41 am MDT August 12, 2004
   ALAMOGORDO, N.M. -- A former Alamogordo priest sentenced to more than 200 years in prison was paroled after serving only 11 years.
   In 1993, a judge sentenced David Holley, 77, to 275 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to abusing boys in the early 1970s at St. Jude's Mission Church in Alamogordo. This spring, Holley was granted parole.
   But the parole board said it made a clerical error, and Holley's parole will be rescinded and taken back to the board.
   Holley said in a letter that he does not want to take part in a sexual offender program.
• Victims, governor outraged by parole of former priest [1970s Holley]
   KOBTV, http://kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=storyviewer&id=12964&cat=HOME , By Todd Dukart, Last Update: 6:32:24 PM, Aug/11/2004
   NEW MEXICO: Victims of a former priest convicted of molesting eight boys are being joined by the governor in their outrage over the man's parole.
   David Holley was sent to prison for 55 to 275 years in 1993 for molesting the boys in the 1970s. But Eyewitness News 4 uncovered a parole board decision to grant the former priest parole.
   Victims say they were never notified of the hearing, but state law requires parole boards to call victims.
   Robert Curtis says the state left him out on purpose. "I think they did that because they knew the victims would be outraged that they would even be considering allowing Father Holley to get out of prison," he said.
   Governor Bill Richardson expressed outrage and called the parole a violation of public trust. "This sex offender was convicted," Richardson said in a statement, "and I, like most New Mexicans, expect him to remain behind bars."
• New call for bishop's ouster [Hubbard]
   Albany Times Union, www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=275041& category=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=&newsdate=8/12/2004 ; By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff reports, Thursday, August 12, 2004
   ALBANY (NY): Conservative Catholics again demanded Bishop Howard Hubbard's resignation Wednesday, claiming a $2.2 million investigation produced expensive propaganda for an embattled church leader accused of sexual misconduct.
   About 12 members of the Coalition of Concerned Catholics of the Capital Region continued to rip the June report from Mary Jo White, a former federal prosecutor, seven weeks after it cleared Hubbard.
   They spoke at the Century House Inn in Latham in a meeting room adorned with religious statues, banners and posters bearing biblical passages. Their renewed demand for Hubbard's resignation came about a week after the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany released the cost of White's report.
   Members said they plan to ask Hubbard's supervisors in New York City, Washington and the Vatican to demand he step down because he has so far ignored their pleas to do so.
   "We don't want to waste any more paper on him," said Phil Kiernan, coalition member. "The situation is too grave."
• Pope's emissary shuts down Austrian seminary - RCC. Austria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Irish Examiner, www.irishexaminer.com/breaking/2004/08/12/story161396.html , Aug 12, 2004
   AUSTRIA: A papal emissary shut down an Austrian seminary amid a child porn investigation, saying that past procedures for selecting students for the programme were inadequate.
   Cardinal Klaus Kueng said he regrets that the seminary had veered away from its mission of training young men to serve the Roman Catholic Church. "I am closing the seminary right away," he said.
   The Vatican inspector had promised a "brisk investigation" into the discovery of child porn at a Roman Catholic seminary and pledged to do whatever it takes to restore faith and credibility to Austria's scandalised church.
• Austrian Seminary Shut Down for Probe - RCC.
   Miami Herald, www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/9381763.htm?1c , Associated Press
   VIENNA, AUSTRIA - A papal emissary shut down an Austrian seminary amid a child pornography investigation on Thursday, saying that past procedures for selecting students for the program were inadequate.
   Bishop Klaus Kueng told reporters in remarks broadcast on state-run ORF television that his investigation showed that church leaders "paid too little attention to selection procedures." He also said he regrets that the seminary had veered away from its mission of training young men to serve the Roman Catholic Church.
   "A new beginning is necessary," he said. "I am closing the seminary right away."
   The Vatican inspector had promised a "brisk investigation" into the discovery of child pornography at the seminary and pledged to do whatever it took to restore credibility to Austria's scandalized church.
   Authorities said they found about 40,000 photos and numerous videos, including child pornography, on computers at the seminary in the diocese of St. Poelten, about 50 miles west of Vienna.
• Colorado City government center opens [Jeffs] -- teen-marriage polygamy group.
   Mohave Valley News, www.mohavedailynews.com/articles/2004/08/12/news/news4%20txt.txt , By JIM SECKLER, Aug 12, 2004
   KINGMAN (NV): A joint county and state government facility opened for business Monday in the troubled community of Colorado City.
   The county placed the 2,000-square-foot modular building on about a half acre of land owned by Mohave Community College.
   The building will house Mohave County Sheriff's Office deputies, deputy county attorneys and state officials from the Child Protective Services and the Attorney General's Office.
   Mohave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan said his deputies will start rotating in and out of the building between Beaver Dam and Colorado City.  ...
   Colorado City has been the focus of a polygamous sect called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
   Church leader Warren Jeffs has excommunicated hundreds of church members leading to their removal from the small community of about 6,000 located on the Arizona, Utah border.
• Ex-youth leader accused in sex case [1999 Jones] -- Calvary Church.
   Chicago Tribune, www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0408120359aug12,1,3573363.story? coll=chi-newslocalchicago-hed ; August 12, 2004
   NAPERVILLE (IL): A Naperville man who was a church youth leader has been accused of sexually abusing a teen from the Naperville congregation in 1999.
   A DuPage County grand jury indicted Lloyd Jones, 43, whose last known address was in the 2800 block of Gypsum Circle, on Tuesday charging him with one count of criminal sexual assault and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a 14-year-old.
   According to the indictment, Jones was a youth leader in a "position of trust, authority, or supervision" with the teen at Calvary Church. The indictment alleges Jones abused the teen between September and December 1999.
   A warrant has been issued for Jones' arrest, according to the indictment. Naperville Police are investigating.
• Second audit to review diocesan abuse policies
   Pittsburgh Catholic, www.pittsburghcatholic.org/newsarticles_more.phtml?id=1218 , by: Robert P. Lockwood, ~ August 12, 2004
   PITTSBURGH (PA): For the second time in less than a year, independent investigators will conduct an on-site audit of the Diocese of Pittsburgh for compliance with the U.S. bishops' "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People," and the "Essential Norms" that accompanied the charter.
   The charter and norms were approved at the bishops' national meeting in Dallas in June 2002 to establish national standards for child sex abuse prevention policies in each diocese.
   Last October, the diocese was specifically commended for what had been done here to comply with those policies.
   "Diocesan leadership, public outreach, administrative and personnel policies, procedures and implementation are of such high standards as to warrant commendation and reference as 'best practices'," the audit team reported.
• Church closes following scandal - Pentecostal Church of God.
   KGW, www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D84DIHOG0.html , Associated Press, Aug/12/2004
   OREGON: The New Hope Christian Center remains closed two weeks after an associate pastor pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a teenager.
   Pentecostal Church of God district officials say they took the action because of money troubles, but several church members say officials are trying to sweep the scandal under the rug.
   The Rev. Ron Crandall, a senior pastor who resigned in May, and other church members said the church was closed in retaliation for their support of the teenager, The Register-Guard in Eugene reported.
   "What they're doing goes against the word of God and is totally contrary to the tenets of faith," he said.
• State drops charges in sexual abuse case [1991-96 Olsen] -- Presbyterian. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Cecil Whig, www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12677100&BRD=1973&PAG=461&dept_id=214849&rfi=6 , By Mike Spector, mspector@cecilwhig.com Aug/12/2004
   ELKTON (MD): An assistant state's attorney dropped charges Wednesday against a Leeds man accused of molesting a girl for five years from when she was 4 years old.
   Ernest Gottfred Olsen, 64, faced several sexual abuse charges in an indictment handed up by a grand jury in January. He was scheduled to stand trial Wednesday.
   But prosecutors were unable to locate the accuser and were forced to drop all charges.
   Olsen, of the 1500 block of Blue Ball Road, was charged with molesting the girl between Jan. 30, 1991, and Jan. 29, 1996, according to the indictment. The alleged sexual abuse began when the girl was 4 and ended just before her 10th birthday. ...
   Olsen was a pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Milford, Del., according to police, but the charges weren't related to his work there. Barnes said Olsen had since resigned from the church. He declined to comment on Olsen's future plans.
• A Mass on the Common
   Boston Globe,, www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2004/08/12/a_mass_on_ the_common , August 12, 2004
   BOSTON (MA): Members of Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic lay group, were dispirited to see some parishioners rejoicing while others wept in response to the announcement in May of parish closures by the Archdiocese of Boston. To heal potential rifts and express fellowship with the soon-to-be-closed parishes, the independent group is organizing what it says will be a historic Sunday Mass on Boston Common.
   Voice of the Faithful provided an emotional sanctuary for Catholics trying to cope with the depth of the clergy sexual abuse crisis. Now the group is pressing for transparency and accountability regarding plans to close 65 parishes by year's end. Archdiocese officials have banned some Voice of the Faithful chapters from meeting on church property. But there are signs that the group and its supporters are only growing stronger.
   Sharon Harrington, a lawyer and parishioner at St. Albert the Great Church in Weymouth, says the parish council is prepared to seek a court injunction to halt the closure, possibly on grounds of unjust enrichment from the sale of parish property.
   Other members of Voice of the Faithful say that targeted parishes -- especially debt-free, vibrant ones -- are examining restrictions on deeds, landmark status, and conditions placed on charitable gifts to gain a reprieve. Concerned by secrecy surrounding clergy sexual abuse, Voice of the Faithful is also seeking information on who will determine how the proceeds from the sale of parish assets will be distributed.
• Church reveals new abuse approach -- Anglican. Australia flag; Aust. Nat. Flag Assn. 
   The Australian, www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10419123%255E1702,00.html , August 12, 2004
   AUSTRALIA: The Anglican Church in South Australia will today reveal a proposed resolution process for victims of child sexual abuse.
   The church said the model offered those who had been abused an alternative to seeking redress through the courts.
   It said full details would be announced at a public launch this morning involving the administrator of the Adelaide diocese, Archdeacon John Collas, and independent adviser Fay Marles, also chancellor of the University of Melbourne.
   The proposal follows an independent review of allegations of abuse within the church which found its priority was to protect itself at the expense of victims and was more concerned with its legal and insurance standing than the healing of those abused.
   Since then, two former ministers and a number of church workers have been arrested, the result of an investigation by a special police paedophile task force established last year.
• Teachers face child sex charges [1972-76] -- Anglican.
   Seven News (TV), http://seven.com.au/news/topstories/109729 , By Steve Larkin, Aug 12, 04
   AUSTRALIA: Former teachers, scout leaders and an Anglican minister are among eight people charged with paedophile offences in the past week by South Australian police.
   A total of 17 people have now been charged by a SA Police paedophile taskforce established to investigate child sex abuse within the Anglican Church in Adelaide and widened to include other community groups.
   The arrests of a former Anglican minister and a Church of England boys' society leader came as Adelaide's Anglican diocese outlined resolution guidelines for victims of sex abuse which the church hopes will avoid litigation.
   The 69-year-old former minister was arrested at his northern Adelaide house and charged with offences including indecent assault and carnal knowledge, allegedly committed between 1972 and 1976.
• Conservative Catholics' report criticizes White's investigation U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Troy Record, www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12675672&BRD=1170&PAG=461&dept_id=7021&rfi=6 ; By Robert Cristo, Aug/12/2004
   LATHAM (NY) - Members of the Coalition of Concerned Catholics in the Albany Diocese released a report Wednesday criticizing attorney Mary Jo White's investigation that found "no merit" in charges of sexual misconduct against Bishop Howard Hubbard.
   CCCAD members gathered at the Century House in Latham to discuss the findings of their 13-page report that called White's investigation "false," labeled the lie detector tests conducted on Hubbard and others a sham and criticized the bishop for being friendly to homosexuals.
   The ultra-conservative group has been rallying against the bishop for more than a decade on a number of other unrelated issues to clergy sex abuse cases, which include accusing Hubbard of "abuse" of liturgical issues, having a "feminist" agenda that is pro-abortion and working with groups that promote safe sex.
   The CCCAD report asserts that White's tactics were solely to "soil" the reputation of the accusers by tying the charges to "a lot of irrelevant" material.
   "We just disagree with her report ... all she did was protect the bishop and now we have to pay $2.2 million for it," said CCCAD member Joe Bonville, 76, of Latham.
   Albany Diocese spokesperson Kenneth Goldfarb said it would be up to White's office to "defend or justify" the report.
• Clergy Abuse Victim Found Dead
   TheBostonChannel.com ; www.thebostonchannel.com/news/3646570/detail.html , POSTED 7:24 am EDT, August 12, 2004
   NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- A 36-year-old man, who was in the midst of settling his clergy sexual abuse claim against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, Mass., has been found dead in his North Adams apartment.
   Authorities said an autopsy is being conducted to determine how Shawn Dobbert died.
   He was among 45 people who recently agreed to a settlement totaling more than $7 million with the diocese.
• Suit accuses pastor of sex abuse [1980 Mickey]
   Jackson Sun, http://miva.jacksonsun.com/miva/cgi-bin/miva? NEWS/news_storyV2.mv+link=200408126394526 ; Sun and wire reports, Aug 12 2004
   TENNESSEE: Two brothers are suing the pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Jackson and St. John's Catholic Church in Brownsville, saying the priest sexually abused them almost 25 years ago.
   Blain and Blair Chambers say the Rev. Richard Mickey abused them in 1980 when they were students at Bishop Byrne High School in Memphis, where he was a brother working as a counselor. Mickey, who was ordained as a priest in 1988, was a counselor to one of the teens and a religion instructor to the other, according to the lawsuit.
   The twin brothers, now 39 and living in Montana, are seeking unspecified damages from Mickey, the Catholic Diocese of Memphis and Bishop Byrne High School. Mickey disputed the brothers' claims.
• Twins' suit says priest abused them in 1980 [1970s Mickey]
   Commercial Appeal, www.commercialappeal.com/mca/local_news/article/0,1426,MCA_437_3104740,00.html , By Bill Dries and James Dowd, August 12, 2004
   MEMPHIS (TN): Twin brothers say a Catholic priest sexually abused them in 1980 when they were students at Bishop Byrne High School, an accusation firmly denied Wednesday by the priest.
   Blain L. and Blair L. Chambers, now 39 and living in Billings, Mont., claim in a civil lawsuit that repressed memories of sexual abuse surfaced for the first time when they took a fishing trip in July 2003.
   The lawsuit names Father Richard Mickey, 47, who was a brother serving as a counselor and teacher at the Whitehaven school in 1980. Mickey, ordained in 1988, is now pastor of St. Mary Church in Jackson, Tenn.
   "I deny the allegations and I trust they will be resolved by the litigation process," Mickey said Wednesday afternoon outside the church.
   Diocesan officials said in a written statement their attorneys "will demonstrate that the diocese has responded and acted appropriately to any accusation."
• Catholics try to clear backlog of priest cases -- special Church courts established. > 49 accused.
   Detroit Free Press, www.freep.com/news/religion/cath12e_20040812.htm , BY DAVID CRUMM and PATRICIA MONTEMURRI, August 12, 2004
   DETROIT (MI): Catholic leaders are launching a major effort to dig through a backlog of hundreds of cases involving priests suspended for alleged sexual abuse of minors -- even as a national support group for victims is raising fresh complaints about the way the church handles new accusations.
   This month, Catholic leaders are organizing special church courts that will start work soon in Michigan and other states to resolve older cases in which accused priests want to be reinstated. The tribunals, closed to the public, will hear from priests, accusers and witnesses. Some of the more than 40 priests removed from ministry in Michigan since 2002 will appear before a tribunal.
   But at the moment, many of these U.S. cases are sitting on hold at the Vatican, so several U.S. experts in church law are being sent overseas to sort out the backlog.
   "The effort is to search for the truth of the matter in a fair and objective way," Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Walter Hurley, the local point man in combatting abuse in the church, said Wednesday. "None of our trials are public, but the results of the trial will be made known."
   Today, Hurley and other Catholic officials have scheduled a news briefing on the massive effort to resolve these cases.
• Priests' panel to conduct trials
   Detroit Free Press, www.freep.com/news/religion/cathbr12_20040812.htm , August 12, 2004
   DETROIT (MI): In the coming months, some Catholic priests who were removed from ministry because of sexual abuse allegations will contest their removals in canonical trials.
   The trials will be conducted by a three-judge panel composed of priests who have degrees in canon - or Catholic Church - law.
   The priest judges will be from out of state, to minimize the chance that they know the accused priest.
   The accused priest will be defended by a canon lawyer. Another canon lawyer, usually a priest who is known as the promoter of justice, will act as the prosecutor who lays out the case against the accused.
   Most canon lawyers are priests, but nuns and laypeople also have earned canon law degrees and work in the field. The priests acting as judges can call for a face-to-face meeting with the accused priest, or with the alleged victim, although there will be no face-to-face confrontation between priest and accuser. Much of the process will be done through paperwork.
• 'Priest's accuser not out for revenge' South Africa flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   IOL www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15 &art_id=vn20040812052339588C981450 ; by Tania Broughton, 10:09AM, August 12 2004
   SOUTH AFRICA: A woman who says her parish priest raped her when she was a child is not seeking revenge against him or the Catholic Church, a court has heard.
   Her clinical psychologist testified in the Durban regional court on Wednesday that laying the criminal charge about 25 years later had been an "extremely difficult decision" and she battled even today with the guilt of exposing him.
   "Whether he is found guilty or not guilty is not the issue, it is about the truth and getting a legal answer so she can get on with her life," Johan Ferreira told magistrate Trevor Levitt.
   The psychologist, who has had 54 therapy sessions with the woman who is now 36 - all paid for by the Catholic Church - was testifying in an application by the elderly priest for a permanent stay of prosecution.
• Alleged sex abuse victim found dead - RCC. Shawn Dobbert dead. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   The Republican, www.masslive.com/metrowest/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1092300637283772.xml ; By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Thursday, August 12, 2004
   NORTH ADAMS (MA): A 36-year-old North Adams man, who was in the midst of settling a clergy sexual abuse claim against the Roman Catholic of Springfield, was found dead in his apartment Tuesday.
   Police are investigating the death of Shawn M. Dobbert and are awaiting autopsy results, according to North Adams Police Sgt. William H. Norcross. The autopsy was scheduled for yesterday. Dobbert's body was found by friends in his apartment, police said.
   Dobbert was among 45 people who recently agreed to an estimated $7.5 million settlement with the Springfield Diocese.
   The claimants are nearing an end to a two-week binding arbitration that will determine their individual settlements. In the process, alleged victims reveal to arbitrators all aspects of the abuse and the effects it has had upon their lives.
   "We don't know how or why Shawn died, but I do know that he was tortured by the abuse he suffered and it caused him significant difficulties throughout his life," said claimants' lawyer John J. Stobierski of Greenfield.
• Abuse Organization Worries About Former Priest [1980s Thiel]
   Fox 17, http://fox17.trb.com/news/081004-wxmi-snap,0,2058685.story , August 10, 2004
   GRAND RAPIDS (MI) -- A national organization is visiting Grand Rapids, concerned about a former local priest accused of sexual abuse.
   Father James Thiel is not facing criminal charges, but there is a civil suit claiming he sexually abused a young boy as a priest in St. Louis in the early 1980's.
   Thiel was teaching at Grand Rapids Catholic Central high school when abuse allegations first came to light in 1994.
   The Vatican stripped him of his duties as a priest. He still lives in Grand Rapids.
   Two members of 'Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests' (SNAP) says three people have come forward from St. Louis about Thiel and are concerned there might be more. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:38 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thu August 12, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont92.htm
• Abuse inquiry into ex-teacher -- at Catholic school. Australia flag; Aust. Nat. Flag Assn. 
   CathNews, Australia, www.cathnews.com/news/408/63.php , 12 Aug 2004
   ADELAIDE, S. Australia: A former teacher at Blackfriars Priory School in Adelaide is being investigated by police over the sexual abuse of up to four students.
   The Advertiser reports today that it also has been revealed two Blackfriars teachers at the time of the alleged offending - one still at the school and the other interstate - have been suspended.
   The pair agreed to voluntarily stand aside this week following an inquiry by Blackfriars and the Catholic Education Office into the employment history of the suspect teacher.
   Blackfriars has engaged prominent Adelaide QC Paul Heywood-Smith to examine the inquiry findings and recommend what action, if any, will be taken against the two.
   There is no suggestion that they are involved in any abuse. The findings of the inquiry, which uncovered the additional material involving the former teacher, also have been provided to police for examination.
   On Tuesday, Sexual Crime Investigation Branch detectives were provided with details of the alleged abuse by Blackfriars Principal Dr Paul Hine and the Director of Catholic Education Allan Dooley. Dr Hine yesterday informed the school community and sent the parents of each student a letter advising them of the developments.
   "The inquiry raised questions about the handling of child abuse complaints as well as new information in relation to alleged child abuse," Dr Hine told The Advertiser last night.
   "Blackfriars started this process not knowing what would emerge but a determination to deal with whatever came to light.
   "If, as part of this process, it becomes clear that the school has not dealt with issues in the past as appropriately as it should have we will need to acknowledge that and respond to that."
   Mr Dooley said all files associated with the former teacher - who worked in Catholic schools in SA between 1971 and 1991 - have been forwarded to police. They included allegations relating not just to Blackfriars but other diocesan schools in SA.
   SOURCE: Abuse inquiry into ex-teacher (The Advertiser 12/8/04)
   LINKS:
Adelaide school issues statement on child-sex claims (CathNews 19/3/04)
Media Statement (Blackfriors Priory School 18/3/04)
Blackfriars Priory School
Catholic Education South Australia
  HAVE YOUR SAY   Click here    [Aug 12, 04]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Fri August 13, 2004 edition follows:-
• 92 pct still turn to church for lesson on morals Austria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Wiener Zeitung, www.wienerzeitung.at/frameless/english.htm?ID=Eng&Menu=7527 , ~ August 13, 2004
   AUSTRIA: Despite the porn- and sex- scandal in the seminary in St. Pölten and the criticism concerning Bishop Kurt Krenn, 92 percent of people in Austria still think that the church is a very important institution for setting moral standards.
   Over 80 percent, however think that Krenn will have to take his leave. Most of the interviewed praised Archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schönborn's way of dealing with things. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:07 PM]
• Vatican closes sex seminary [Kuechl, Rothe]
   The Australian, www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10434229%255E2703,00.html , From AFP, for August 14, 2004
   VIENNA, AUSTRIA: The Vatican has moved to defuse its latest major sex scandal by closing an Austrian seminary accused of homosexual and pornographic activities and hinting the local bishop would be retired.
   The 200-year-old seminary at St Poelten, near Vienna, is "closed with immediate effect", special Vatican envoy Klaus Kueng announced, according to Austrian media, adding that there should be a "fresh start".
   Austrian Catholic bishops had already asked for the institution to be shut down.
   Bishop Kueng, the bishop of Feldkirch in western Austria, was appointed on July 20 by Pope John Paul II to lead an investigation, a day after a 27-year-old Polish student priest at St Poelten was charged by prosecutors with possessing 10,000 pornographic photographs.
   The scandal erupted when Profil magazine published photographs last month showing priests and students from the seminary kissing and fondling.
   The revelations led to the resignation of the seminary director, Ulrich Kuechl, and his deputy, Wolfgang Rothe.
   The same magazine later reported that police had found up to 40,000 pornographic images, including scenes of sex with children and animals, in laptops belonging to priests.
   Bishop Kueng said he uncovered "serious errors in orientation" such as seminarians seeking pornographic photographs on the internet, and "discovered to his consternation that homosexual relations had formed" at the seminary.
• Kueng may replace Krenn as St. Poelten bishop Vatican City flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Austria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Die Presse, www.diepresse.at/Artikel.aspx?channel=&ressort=ee&id=437682 , 13.Aug.2004
   VATICAN CITY / ST. POELTEN: The Vatican has increased the pace of investigations into a porn scandal at a priests training college in the Lower Austrian capital after the seminary was closed on Thursday. Insiders believe that the Pope could soon name his emissary in the scandal, Bishop Klaus Kueng as a replacement for controversial Bishop Kurt Krenn.
   Bishop Kueng is due to travel to Rome again later this month to present the results of his investigation and appears to be the most likely candidate to take charge of rebuilding trust in the community. Sources at the Vatican have confirmed that the Congregation of Bishops, under Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, is prepared to replace Krenn if necessary.
• Priest's application for stay of prosecution adjourned [1970s] South Africa flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Mercury, www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=283&fArticleId=2186221 , By Tania Broughton, August 13, 2004
   SOUTH AFRICA: The application for a stay of prosecution by an elderly Catholic priest accused of raping a child has been adjourned until November.
   The priest, who cannot be named until he has pleaded to the charge, is alleged to have raped the child on several occasions from when she was eight until she was about 11.
   The allegations date back to the 1970s and, in his application before the Durban Regional Court, the priest said he faced an unfair trial because he could not be expected to remember details of events so long ago. The state is opposing the application. So far his alleged victim, now 36, and the psychologist treating her have testified as to the reasons why it took so long for her to lay a criminal charge against him.
   The psychologist, Johannesburg-based Johan Ferreira, was being cross-examined by defence advocate Rob Mossop when he asked for the adjournment.
   Mossop said he needed time to go through Ferreira's clinical notes and he also wanted to consult another psychologist who had also treated the woman.
• Holley's parole a mistake N.M. failed to tell molested victims [Holley] U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040813/NEWS/40813003/1025 ; By Kathleen A. Shaw, kshaw@telegram.com , August 13, 2004
   WORCESTER (MA) - The Rev. David A. Holley, a priest of the Diocese of Worcester serving a maximum 275-year jail term in New Mexico for molesting boys in that state, is still in prison although the state parole board agreed to release him in May.
   Robert Martinez, executive director of the New Mexico Parole Board, said yesterday his department made a mistake when it agreed to parole Rev. Holley at a May 26 hearing without notifying his alleged victims. A new hearing is being set up and he will impanel [empanel] a new parole board to hear the case, he said.
   Tia Bland, spokeswoman for the New Mexico correction department, said Rev. Holley had not been released because they were waiting for a bed to become available in the inpatient sexual offender program.
   Gov. Bill Richardson, who said he is "outraged at this breach of the public trust," said yesterday he expects Rev. Holley to "remain behind bars." The parole board will meet within 30 days and allow victims time to be informed and prepare to testify regarding parole for Rev. Holley, a convicted sex offender, the governor said.
   Under New Mexico law, victims are notified of parole proceedings and can make statements to the parole board. Mr. Martinez said the earliest a new parole hearing can be scheduled is Sept. 12, but no date has been set.
  Mr. Martinez said the May hearing was done improperly. He called it a "misstep" by his department and he apologized for it.
   Plans were to release the 77-year-old priest with "stringent conditions" including six to 12 months of treatment at a state inpatient center for sexual offenders in northern New Mexico, he said. The state would pay the costs of treatment, he said.
   Mr. Martinez said Rev. Holley first became eligible for parole in 1999 and last was denied parole in February 2003. He pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting boys in that state and was sentenced to 55 to 275 years in prison.
   Philip A. Saviano of Jamaica Plain, former New England coordinator for Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests and the organization's current Web master, said he will seek criminal prosecution of Rev. Holley in Massachusetts if he is released.
   Mr. Saviano was paid about $12,000 by the Diocese of Worcester to settle his lawsuit against the diocese over allegations he was sexually abused by Rev. Holley when the priest was assigned to St. Denis Parish, East Douglas.
   Mr. Saviano gave a statement to state police in the early 1990s and met with an investigator in the office of District Attorney John J. Conte, he said. Mr. Saviano decided not to go forward with criminal prosecution after Rev. Holley received the lengthy jail term in New Mexico, because he believed the priest was in no position to harm more children, he said.
   Mr. Saviano and Rev. Holley exchanged correspondence after the priest was sent to prison. Mr. Saviano said he wrote to Rev. Holley with approval of his lawyer to see if he could draw him out on whether he had abused boys before he met Mr. Saviano.
   The priest appeared to be onto Mr. Saviano's ruse. "Last week, I consulted a visiting lawyer who was here for another case and he gave me a very brief message after reading your letter. He stated that I should not answer any of your questions and definitely not contact your lawyer," Rev. Holley wrote in a 1996 letter to Mr. Saviano.
   "The legal aide in the prison law library gave me the same advice. This must be disappointing to you but I must protect myself as you must surely understand," Rev. Holley answered.
   Although Rev. Holley was never defrocked as a priest of the Diocese of Worcester, he told Mr. Saviano in another 1996 letter he had "no allegiances" to the diocese or its past bishops and as of that date had not heard from then-Bishop Daniel P. Reilly. He also called The Catholic Free Press, the diocesan newspaper, a "provincial and uninspiring paper" but said he had a subscription.
   He talked about being "sadly disillusioned" with the legal system and said he "mistakenly took the poor advice from an incompetent and inexperienced public defender.
   "He strongly urged me to plead guilty to blanket charges from accusers, many whom I have never met, to avoid the publicity of a jury trial," he said. Rev. Holley added he thought his accusers "were inspired by dreams of financial gain."
   Rev. Holley told Mr. Saviano he was "appalled" by the saturation of media coverage involving the allegations against him. "I still suffer daily from the past publicity while my life is in constant danger from the mental patients who roam freely," he said of his life in prison.
• Priest told parole board release terms oppressive [Holley] -- wants to wear priestly garb.
   Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20040813/NEWS/408130422/1052/NEWS01 ; Aug 13, 2004
   NEW MEXICO: In a hand-written letter to the New Mexico Adult Parole Board, Rev. David A. Holley said May 26, the day the board voted to release him, was a "memorable day," but he complained about terms of his parole.
   He referred to the parole board members as "sincere conscientious Christians" but said the conditions they set for his release were "oppressive considering my age and present state of health."
   Rev. Holley complained about the "special conditions," which included attending a sex offenders program for six to 12 months, and said he described other conditions the board was still considering as "extremely difficult" for a man of his age.
   They included whether to require electronic monitoring, a curfew, a $100 DNA testing fee, no unsupervised contact with persons under 18 and registration as a sex offender.
   He said he is in "failing health."
   "The prohibition of wearing priestly garb in public is included but questionable," the priest said.
   Rev. Holley also said parole board members who allowed his released "reminded me, however, that the clergy sex abuse scandals are still the subject of controversy nationwide."
   Rev. Holley said he underwent professional therapy while in prison and would prefer to return to his family. "God willing, I plan to volunteer in a plant and tree nursery because of my horticultural experience."
• Ex-priest's parole rescinded: Former priest David Holley admitted to molesting eight Alamogordo boys in the 1970s.
   Alamagordo Daily News, www.alamogordonews.com/artman/publish/article_4979.shtml , The Associated Press, Aug 13, 2004
   NEW MEXICO: The executive director of the state Parole Board says his office "screwed up" by not alerting victims to a hearing for a former priest convicted of sexually molesting eight boys.
   David Holley, 77, was paroled May 26 under strict conditions, but the order was later rescinded and a new parole hearing is being scheduled, said Bob Martinez of the parole board.
   "We mistepped, and there was a very terrible clerical error made," Martinez said Thursday. "We screwed up." Tim Kline, parole board chairman, decided to rescind Holley's parole and schedule another hearing to be held Sept. 14, Martinez said.
   Holley pleaded guilty in 1993 to sexually molesting eight boys in Alamogordo in the '70s. He is currently serving a 275-year prison term in the geriatric unit of the Los Lunas prison.
   Martinez said Holley never left the minimum-security prison.
   Gov. Bill Richardson was "outraged" when he found out about Holley's initial parole and that the victims weren't notified before the May hearing, spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said.
• Head Of Parole Board Removed Over Ex-Priest Parole [Holley]
   Albuquerque Journal, www.abqjournal.com/news/state/apparole08-13-04.htm , The Associated Press, Aug 13, 2004
   SANTA FE (NM) - Gov. Bill Richardson on Friday removed Bob Martinez as director of the state Parole Board over the board's failure to notify victims when a former priest convicted of sexual molestation came up for parole.
   Martinez said Thursday his office "screwed up" by not alerting the victims of David Holley, 77, who pleaded guilty in 1993 to sexually molesting eight boys in Alamogordo in the 1970s.
   "We misstepped, and there was a very terrible clerical error made," Martinez said.
   Richardson said the board's failure to notify the victims violated the state constitution and was a serious breach of public trust.
   "As director, Bob Martinez is accountable for the actions of the board and its employees, and this kind of error will not be tolerated," he said. "The public, especially crime victims, must have complete confidence in the system."
• Parole director removed after failing to tell victims of former priest about parole hearing [Holley]
   KOB, www.kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=storyviewer&id=13012&cat=NMTOPSTORIES ,
   SANTA FE (NM) (AP) - Governor Bill Richardson removed Adult Parole Board Director Bob Martinez from the position on Friday.
   Richardson says the board's failure to notify victims that a former priest convicted of sex crimes was scheduled for a parole hearing.
   Richardson said the failure to notify victims of the May 26th release of 77-year-old David Holley was a violation of the state constitution and a breach of public trust.
   Martinez said Holley's parole order was later rescinded and a new parole hearing is being scheduled.
   Holley had served 11 years of a 55 to 270-year sentence for pleading guilty to charges of sexual assault, sodomy, and aggravated sodomy.
• Diocese appeals attempts to dismiss lawsuits [1960s Janssen, Bass, Geerts]
   WQAD, www.wqad.com/Global/story.asp?S=2170998&nav=1sW7PqIX , Aug/13/04
   DAVENPORT, IOWA (AP) -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport has appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court a judge's decision involving lawsuits over alleged decades-old sexual abuse by priests.
   Last month, Judge C.H. Pelton denied attempts by the diocese to dismiss two of 16 lawsuits filed in Scott and Clinton counties. The diocese claims the plaintiffs failed to file the lawsuits before the statute of limitations expired.
   The lawsuits allege the abuse happened more than 30 year ago and name the Reverends James Janssen, Francis Bass and Theodore Geerts.
   The diocese has asked the high court to review the statute of limitations, and it believes the same legal issues apply to the other lawsuits.
• Newspaper asks judge to unseal archbishop's deposition [1980s Kelly, Clark]
   Lexington Herald-Leader www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/9393823.htm , By BRUCE SCHREINER, Associated Press, ~ August 13, 2004
   LOUISVILLE, Ky. - In a deposition unsealed Friday, Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly said he was aware of complaints about a priest as early as 1982, but any sexual misconduct wasn't "abundantly clear" until years later.
   Kelly said his suspicions of the Rev. Daniel Clark "began to grow a little bit" in the years between his first hearing of problems with Clark and when the priest was prosecuted in 1988 for sexually abusing two boys.
   The archbishop's sworn testimony was taken last April as part of a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville.
   The suit was filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court by Kyle Burden, who accuses Clark of fondling him in 1982. Burden was 12 at the time.
   The deposition was ordered unsealed by Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wine at the request of The Courier-Journal of Louisville.
• L.A. judge reduces bail for alleged child molester Michael Wempe [1990s]
   Monterey Herald, www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/9396579.htm , Associated Press, ~ August 13, 2004
   LOS ANGELES (CA) - A judge Friday made it easier to free a retired Roman Catholic priest jailed since September on charges that he molested a boy in the 1990s.
   Michael Wempe's bail was reduced from $500,000 to $100,000.
   Outside court, defense attorney Leonard Levine said Wempe could be released next week.
   If he makes bail, Judge Samuel Mayerson ordered the 64-year-old Wempe to avoid children under 18 unless they are accompanied by an adult.
   Wempe, who had been living at a Seal Beach retirement home with his mother, will wear an electronic tracking device. He will be allowed to shop for groceries and attend medical appointments, court hearings and meetings with attorneys, the judge said.
   The retired priest also will be permitted to attend church, but as a parishioner.
• Schreiter returns to joyful St. Bruno's congregation
   GM Today, www.gmtoday.com/news/local_stories/2004/August_04/08132004_03.asp , By DENNIS A. SHOOK, August 13, 2004
   DOUSMAN (MI) - During the 15 weeks the Rev. John Schreiter was suspended from his priestly duties at St. Bruno's Catholic Church in Dousman, members of several churches of different faiths met every Thursday to pray for his return.
   During that time, they used the pastor's chalice that was given to him when he was ordained a priest in 1969 for their communion ceremony.
   On the celebration Thursday of his successful return, Schreiter thanked the groups for their prayers and compared his own life to that chalice.
   "The chalice has a very serious crack in that we keep mending," he said. "But after looking at that crack, I am reminded myself that we are all wounded in one way or the other. Christ is the one who has the power to heal us."
• Head of New Mexico parole board removed over ex-priest parole [1970s Holley]
   Denton Record-Chronicle, www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D84EJ8CO1.html , Associated Press, Aug/13/2004
   NEW MEXICO: Gov. Bill Richardson on Friday removed Bob Martinez as director of the state Parole Board over the board's failure to notify victims when a former priest convicted of sexual molestation came up for parole.
   Martinez said Thursday his office "screwed up" by not alerting the victims of David Holley, 77, who pleaded guilty in 1993 to sexually molesting eight boys in Alamogordo in the 1970s. [...]
   A message left on Martinez's voice mail at the Parole Board was not returned Friday.
• Seminary Closed Amidst Pornography Scandal Austria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Deutsche Welle, www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_1296970_1_A,00.html , ~ August 13, 2004
   AUSTRIA: A papal emissary conducting an investigation into suspected homosexuality and child pornography at an Austrian seminary has ordered its closure following revelations of sexual misconduct.
   Bishop Klaus Küng was appointed just three weeks ago by Pope John Paul II to look into allegations that future priests at the seminary in the Austrian diocese of St. Pölten were hoarding child pornography. On Thursday he called for the immediate closure of the seminary stating that his investigation had uncovered "very painful" revelations of sexual misconduct.
   "A new beginning is necessary. I am closing the seminary right away," Küng told reporters. The emissary did not go into detail about what his probe had revealed, but did say that some of the would-be priests had "obsessively" downloaded pornographic images from the Internet.
   He added that the selection criteria for young men entering the seminary had been lax, and that they would now introduce a screening process for both new and existing students in order to secure a fresh start. But not everyone will be allowed to return to the seminary. "Those who do not seem suited for priesthood, will be helped to find a new professional direction," Küng told reporters.
   He was also keen to stress that the closure was just a temporary measure, but did not offer a time-scale for the re-opening of the baroque seminary, which has been training young men for the priesthood for more than 200 years.
• The Army of God U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Orange County Weekly, www.ocweekly.com/ink/04/49/cover-arellano.php , by Gustavo Arellano, ~ August 13, 2004
   CALIFORNIA: "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." -- Mathew 5:6
   In 1996, the week before his fall final exams, University of San Diego student Ryan DiMaria called his father to tell him he was going to commit suicide.
   "I told my dad not to worry -- I would pay all my bills, deal with all the things that needed to be dealt with. And then I would kill myself in two weeks," he says.
   DiMaria, a Laguna Hills resident and Santa Margarita High School graduate, had already spent most of his college years "doing reckless things to die" -- smoking like a Victorian-era factory, going 85 mph whether up and down Interstate 5 or on the streets of South County, and drinking heavily. When DiMaria made the morning call to his father, he was already on his 10th beer, with the empties littered across his dorm room floor.
   Ryan's father begged for an explanation, but his son refused. DiMaria's roommate grabbed the phone from Ryan and told the father to drive down from Orange County immediately -- Ryan was sobbing uncontrollably. The roommate hung up and called DiMaria's brother, who lived in nearby La Jolla, and told him to rush over.
   Nearly 2,000 miles away, Patrick Wall had become the Catholic Church's fixer. The 31-year-old monk had risen quickly through the ranks of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis by doing exactly what his superiors ordered -- assuming control of parishes wracked with sex-abuse and embezzlement scandals, fixing things just enough that parishioners would continue giving alms, and then moving on to the next job.
   Because of his gentle manner, archdiocese officials wanted to make Wall their point man on all sex-abuse cases. Wall's prime directive: deny everything.
• Pastor faces police probe over 'miracle pregnancies' [Deya] -- self-named ministry. Britain flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   This is London, www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/12556701?source=Evening%20Standard By Elizabeth Hopkirk, Evening Standard, August 13, 2004
   BRITAIN: A self-styled archbishop who tells infertile women they are pregnant with "miracle babies" is at the centre of a child trafficking probe today.
   Gilbert Deya, head of Gilbert Deya Ministries, a worldwide evangelical movement with 36,000 British members, claims to exorcise demons from women unable to conceive. Pronouncing them pregnant "by Jesus", he takes them from London to slums in Nairobi, Kenya.
   Days later they return with a baby they say is a gift from God. They claim they have had all the visible signs of pregnancy.
   But pregnancy tests and ultrasound scans show no baby, and the babies' DNA does not match the supposed parents, a BBC documentary found. The BBC will pass a dossier to the Met.
   Today the Home Office said an investigation began in October after a tip-off from Haringey social services. It involves UKIS, the Met and the British High Commission in Nairobi.
• Austria sentences 'porn' priest student. -- suspended sentence. Austria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3562426.stm , ~ August 13, 2004
   AUSTRIA: A Polish student priest at the centre of a sex scandal at a Roman Catholic seminary in Austria has been convicted of possessing child pornography.
   The man, identified as Piotr Z., 27, was given a six-month suspended jail sentence for downloading hundreds of images from the internet.
   The affair has shocked Austria and embarrassed the Roman Catholic Church.
   On Thursday, the Vatican closed down the seminary in St Poelten which had "veered away from its mission".
   The authorities say images of child pornography and violent sex were found on the college's main computer as well as the student's hard drive.
• Diocese's $1.2 million purchase outrages clergy-abuse victims U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   The Orange County Register, www.ocregister.com/ocr/2004/08/13/sections/local/local/article_200872.php , By ANN PEPPER, August 13, 2004
   CALIFORNIA: The Catholic Diocese of Orange is buying a $1,214,290 custom house in a gated neighborhood in Santa Ana as a rectory for priests near the site of its planned cathedral, a spokeswoman said Thursday.
   Victims of childhood clergy abuse fighting to win millions of dollars in settlements from the diocese denounced the purchase.
   SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, has also protested Bishop Tod Brown's plan to build a cathedral.
   Joelle Casteix, SNAP spokeswoman, called the house purchase a "slap in the face" to abuse survivors.
   "The bishop stands in front of the faithful and the courts and cries poor, and then turns around and signs million-dollar checks for (a) custom home."
   The diocese purchased the five-bedroom house for the pastor and other priests who will staff the new cathedral when it is eventually built, said Karen Lane, spokeswoman for the diocese.
• Ex-priest sentenced to 10 years [2000-04 Kujawa] -- computer pornography.
   KATC, http://katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=2169669&nav=EyAzPpY6
   LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - A former Morgan City priest will go to jail for 10 years after being convicted for a second time on child pornography charges.
   Patrick R. Kujawa, 35, was sentenced Thursday after being removed from the priesthood after he was arrested in February. Investigators found hundreds of explicit images on his home computer, according to federal prosecutors.
   Kujawa was on probation after pleading guilty in 2000 to 15 counts of possessing child pornography.
   Kujawa could face up to 60 more years in jail when re-sentenced on Sept. 17 for the 2000 pornography charges.
• A match made in heaven
   Buffalo News, www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20040813/1023291.asp , By JAY TOKASZ, Aug/13/2004
   BUFFALO (NY): The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo's newest bishop didn't have far to travel before his Polish heritage was a topic of conversation with a fellow Catholic.
   On his way to St. Joseph's Cathedral on Thursday afternoon, Bishop Edward U. Kmiec, 68, was met at the sidewalk by Clarence resident Janice Kralisz Zampogna, who gave a Polish greeting and made an offer to cook up some pierogi.
   Kmiec, named Thursday as Buffalo's 13th bishop, replied in Polish and then pointed to his belly as evidence that he had indeed enjoyed a few pierogi in his time. ...
   He discussed how he handled the sexual abuse scandal in Nashville, saying he did not release the names of accused priests because "it sometimes stimulates only a prurient interest" and because he did not think releasing names was necessarily good for victims of sex abuse.
   He disagrees with a small number of bishops who have chosen to withhold the Eucharist from Catholic politicians who support abortion rights laws.
• Charges won't be filed against priest [2004 Traylor]
   Courier & Press, www.courierpress.com/ecp/news/article/0,1626,ECP_734_3107827,00.html , By PHILIP ELLIOTT, 461-0783 or elliottp@courierpress.com , August 13, 2004
   EVANSVILLE (IN): Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Stan Levco said Thursday he would not bring charges against the priest who watched pornography in the church office while a child was in the room.
   Because a 6-foot partition separated the child from the Rev. William A. Traylor and the child was unaware of Traylor's actions no laws were broken, Levco said.
   "All I do is decide if a crime's been committed or not. ... After investigating it, apparently the child was not exposed to or aware of any pornographic material on the computers," Levco said.
   Traylor, 54, has been removed from his post as pastor of St. Theresa and St. Joseph parishes while he undergoes outpatient treatment. After he completes his counseling, Traylor could return to active ministry, diocesan officials said.
   Investigators spoke with the witnesses provided in the diocese's internal investigation of the incident, which occurred during a summer social.
• Archiocese of Detroit orders church trials in sex-abuse cases -- four priests.
   Detroit Free Press, www.freep.com/news/religion/cath13e_20040813.htm , BY DAVID CRUMM, FREE PRESS RELIGION WRITER, August 13, 2004
   DETROIT (MI): Four Catholic priests are facing trial in closed-door church courts in a major new effort by the Archdiocese of Detroit to resolve 26 cases in which clergy are accused of sexually abusing minors.
   Until now, most of the accused men have been forbidden to work as priests, but they remain in a legal limbo without any immediate avenue for appeal or any final order to leave the ministry.
   "Our hope is to resolve all of this by the end of 2004," Bishop Walter Hurley, the coordinator of the archdiocesan effort, said Thursday. He released summaries of the system, the first public glimpse of the church's legal strategy.
   Over the past year, the archdiocese has asked the Vatican to make an initial ruling on the 26 cases, Hurley said. Thirteen cases were returned to Detroit for action; and the Vatican is expected to send back instructions on the other cases soon, he said.
   Among the 13 cases that were returned by the Vatican to Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida, the majority called for further action against the priests.
   The 13 responses included two men ordered to leave the priesthood entirely, four to be put on trial in the new church courts to determine their final status and six priests' cases that were handed back to Maida for a review by a team of legal advisers, most likely leading toward the priests' permanent removal from ministry.
• Ex-priest sentenced in child porn case [2004 Kujawa] -- second conviction.
   The Advertiser, www.acadiananow.com/news/html/899B7401-C30B-48FE-9B8E-516909EE8515.shtml , by Richard Burgess, rburgess@theadvertiser.com , August 13, 2004
   LAFAYETTE (LA) - A former Morgan City priest was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison on a federal child pornography charge - his second pornography conviction.
   Patrick R. Kujawa, 35, who was removed from the priesthood in connection with the first case, was arrested in February after agents found hundreds of illicit images on his home computer, according to federal prosecutors.
   The arrest came while the former Catholic priest was on probation after pleading guilty in 2000 to 15 counts of possessing child pornography. Those charges arose while he was serving as associate pastor at Holy Cross Church in Morgan City and prompted the Roman Catholic Diocese of Houma-Thibodeaux to remove Kujawa from his post.
   In the recent case, Kujawa was caught in an investigation of Internet sites that sell child pornography, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Luke Walker. He said agents obtained a search warrant for Kujawa's home after his credit card number was found in business records of one of the online pornography dealers.
   "He had reams of child pornography on his computer - young boys," Walker said.
   Kujawa was arrested while living on the grounds of a Benedictine monastery near Opelousas, where a judge had ordered him to remain while on probation for the 2000 pornography charges.
Detroit Catholic diocese to handle 26 priest sex cases
   The Detroit News, By Kim Kozlowski, Aug 13 2004
   DETROIT (MI): Unprecedented canon law procedures are unfolding in the Archdiocese of Detroit as it attempts to resolve the status of the 26 Catholic priests whose ministries have been restricted by the church's sex abuse scandal.
   The cases recently were submitted to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith with a recommendation from Cardinal Adam Maida on how to handle each one.
   On Thursday, the archdiocese announced it has heard back from the Vatican on how to proceed on 13 cases. Officials declined to name all the priests involved, except those whose names already have been made public.
• Scandal-hit seminary shut down Vatican City flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Austria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Indianapolis Star, www.indystar.com/articles/2/169905-6592-010.html , The New York Times, August 13, 2004
   ROME -- The Vatican shut down a seminary on Thursday that had been accused of housing widespread sexual misconduct, including the distribution of child pornography.
   "The seminary of St. Polten is declared closed," said Bishop Klaus Kung, who was sent to Austria by Pope John Paul II three weeks ago to investigate the facility, which is near Vienna. "A fresh start is necessary."
   Since news of the scandal broke late last year, Austrian investigators have found 40,000 pornographic photographs and many videos on computers at the seminary. Among the photographs were pornographic representations of minors, depictions of bestiality and violent sexual scenarios, prosecutors have said.
   "Unfortunately, there were serious failures, which became clear at the latest from the pornographic pictures that several seminarians downloaded from the Internet in an almost addictive way," Kung said.
Lawyer speaks of client's death [1976-86 Lavigne] -- funeral switched from RC to Episcopal. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   The Republican, By PATRICIA NORRIS, pnorris@repub.com , Friday, August 13, 2004
   GREENFIELD (MA): Alleged clergy abuse victim Shawn M. Dobbert will not be laid to rest with Catholic funeral rites today.
   His mother, despite a lifelong pledge to Catholicism, will instead say goodbye to her son during a funeral service at St. John's Episcopal church in North Adams.
   "She couldn't do it. She felt it would have been hypocritical in that it was the church where Shawn was molested and he had rejected organized religion as a result of his molestation," said John J. Stobierski, a lawyer representing Dobbert and 44 others in a $7.5 million, sex abuse settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield.
   Dobbert, 36, who was found dead in his apartment Tuesday, filed suit against the diocese in 2002, saying he was sexually abused from 1976 to 1986 by former priest Richard Lavigne. The two met while Lavigne presided over St. Francis of Assisi Catholic church in North Adams.
   Stobierski spoke on behalf of the Dobbert family in a press conference at his Greenfield office yesterday.
   Police, who are investigating the death, are awaiting the autopsy report.
   "Shawn very well could have died of natural causes," said Stobierski, adding that Dobbert had many physical illnesses, which he would not elaborate on. Stobierski also said Dobbert, who was found by friends, was not discovered in a manner that would suggest foul play.
• Austrian seminary closed amid reports of child porn, gay sex Austria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Chicago Sun-Times, www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-austria13.html , BY GEORGE JAHN, August 13, 2004
   VIENNA, Austria -- A papal emissary investigating suspected homosexuality and child pornography among student priests shut down the seminary at the center of the scandal Thursday, acknowledging his probe had bared "very painful" revelations of sexual misconduct.
   The move by Bishop Klaus Kueng came three weeks after his appointment by Pope John Paul II to look into allegations that seminarians were hoarding child pornography and had snapped photos showing them fondling each other.
   "A new beginning is necessary," Kueng told reporters, in remarks broadcast on state-run TV. "I am closing the seminary right away."
   Kueng later qualified his remarks, saying the closure would be "temporary." But he gave no indication of how long the baroque seminary in the city of St. Poelten, which had trained young men for the priesthood for more than 200 years, would remain shut. And he did not elaborate on what his investigation had revealed, beyond saying it appeared "active homosexual relationships took shape."
Board rescinds parole for former priest [Holley] U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   New Mexican, Associated Press, August 13, 2004
   ALAMOGORDO, NEW MEXICO-- The executive director of the state Parole Board said his office "screwed up" by not alerting victims to a hearing for a former priest convicted of sexually molesting eight boys.
   David Holley, 77, was paroled May 26 under strict conditions, but the order was later rescinded and a new parole hearing is being scheduled, said Bob Martinez of the parole board. [...]
   Martinez said Holley never left the minimum-security prison.
Former youth leader faces charges of molesting boy [1999 Jones]
   Chicago Daily Herald, By Christy Gutowski, Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer, Posted Friday, August 13, 2004
   ILLINOIS: A Naperville man who volunteered as a church youth leader is accused of molesting a 14-year-old boy in his congregation five years ago.
   Lloyd D. Jones, 43, also is a 17-year teacher at Kennedy High School in Chicago. He is charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse and criminal sexual assault.
   The teen only recently told a family member Jones had made inappropriate sexual contact while the two were in his home in fall 1999.
   Jones met the child while volunteering as a youth leader at Calvary Church in Naperville. The boy's family contacted church officials, who promptly called police.
   A grand jury indicted Jones earlier this week on the felony charges, which carry a maximum 15-year prison sentence for the most serious offense. Jones does not have a prior criminal history.
Teacher in sex-abuse case sought [1999 Jones] -- Calvary Church.
   Chicago Tribune, August 13, 2004
   ILLINOIS: DuPage County officials were looking Thursday for a Chicago public school teacher and ex-youth leader at a Naperville church charged with molesting a 14-year-old in 1999.
   A DuPage County grand jury charged Lloyd Jones, 43, whose last known address is in the 2800 block of Gypsum Circle in Naperville, Tuesday with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and one count of aggravated criminal assault. A warrant with a $100,000 bail has been issued for his arrest.
   Laura Pollastrini, DuPage County state's attorney spokeswoman, said the incident allegedly occurred in Jones' home in 1999 and not in Calvary Church, where Jones served as a youth leader.
   "Here, this victim's parents trusted this defendant because he was their child's church leader, and that trust was allegedly violated," DuPage State's Atty. Joe Birkett said in a written statement.
   Mike Vaughn, Chicago Public Schools spokesman, confirmed that Jones worked as a teacher for Kennedy High School on Chicago's Southwest Side. Jones has been a Chicago Public Schools employee since 1992.
   Because Jones does not report to school until Sept. 1, he will be served a letter telling him he is placed on administrative duty when school resumes, Vaughn said. Jones will receive his regular salary but not have contact with children pending the outcome of the case.
   Rev. Mark Burgund, pastor of Calvary Church, said in a statement that Jones is no longer a part of the youth program.
Youth leader, teacher sought in sex abuse [1999 Jones] -- Calvary Church.
   Chicago Southtown, By Stephanie Gehring, Friday, August 13, 2004
   ILLINOIS: A church youth leader and Chicago Public Schools teacher was being sought Thursday on charges of sexual misconduct involving a 14-year-old, the DuPage County state's attorney's office said.
   Lloyd D. Jones, 43, of 2828 Gypsum Circle, Naperville, was indicted Tuesday on two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and one count of criminal sexual assault, state's attorney spokeswoman Laura Pollostrini said.
   Jones was a youth leader at Calvary Church in Naperville and knew the teen through the church. He has been removed from service as a church youth leader.
   The sexual misconduct occurred at Jones' home, the state's attorney's office said.
   No one returned a message left for the church's pastor Thursday.
• CHARGED: Former Anglican minister, ex-Salvation Army minister, surf life saving coach, scout leaders, Church of England Boys' Society leader, Catholic school teachers [1953-85] Australia flag; Aust. Nat. Flag Assn. 
   NEWS.com.au ; http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10428327%255E910,00.html , By NIGEL HUNT, August 13, 2004
   AUSTRALIA: Police have vowed to continue their unprecedented rout of pedophiles after revealing another nine men have been charged with more than 40 child sex abuse offences.
   Those charged include a former Anglican Minister, a former Salvation Army Minister, a Surf Life Saving Association coach, scout leaders, a Church of England Boys Society leader and several Catholic school teachers. The offences allegedly committed by the nine men include rape, unlawful sexual intercourse, indecent assault, carnal knowledge and procuring an act of gross indecency.
   The charges relate to events between 1953 and 1985 and allegedly involve 20 individual victims as young as five years old. The oldest alleged victim was 16 years old.
   Sexual Crime Investigation Branch Detective Superintendent Grant Stevens yesterday said Pedophile Task Force detectives were still conducting "many more" investigations.
   "There are other allegations that have not been finalised at this point," he said.
   "We are committed to pursuing all allegations we are made aware of, regardless of the length of time it would take.
Man raised by religious community alleges abuse [1980s Lause]-- Vincentian. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Kansas City Star, Associated Press, ~ August 13, 2004
   ST. LOUIS (MO): A former seminarian who moved in with a religious community at age 15 claims he was sexually abused by a priest who told him that no one else loved him.
   The man - a Washington, D.C., resident now in his 30s - anonymously filed a lawsuit Thursday in St. Louis Circuit Court against his alleged abuser, the Rev. Richard Lause, and religious officials and organizations.
   The man's lawyer, Rebecca Randles, of Kansas City, said Lause took the child under his wing, then abused him when the teen was dependent on the order for food and shelter.
   "He would have him cook for him, clean for him, perform sexual acts for him, and he would taunt him that he had no where else to go, and that no one else loved him, and at that time, unfortunately, it was true," Randles said.
   In 1985, the boy's mother brought him to a seminary in Lemont, Ill., and Vincentian priests, members of the Midwest Province of the Congregation of the Mission, agreed to raise him, Randles said. His contact ceased with his mother and stepfather, Randles said. The teenager, who wanted to become a priest, transferred to a seminary in St. Louis, where Randle said most of the abuse occurred.
   Randles said Lause began "grooming" the child beginning around age 15 with hugs, kisses and sitting the boy on his lap.
   The Midwest Province issued a statement saying the wrongful sexual conduct was brought to the religious group's attention in Dec. of 1988, when the victim was 19. The group said Lause was removed from ministry within days, received therapy through April 1989, and was approved by a therapist to return to ministry.
Priest returns to parish family -- Schreiter.
   Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, By LINDSEY UNTERBERGER, lunterberger@journalsentinel.com , Posted: Aug. 12, 2004
   DOUSMAN (WI): For many of about 350 members of St. Bruno Church attending a homecoming Thursday evening, the return of Father John P. Schreiter meant more than just the return of their pastor.
   "He's like an uncle or brother to everyone at this parish," said Travis McCullough, who will be a senior at Kettle Moraine High School. "I know I can call him at 3 a.m., and he's there to talk."
   Thursday's celebration, which included a prayer service and reception, came less than a week after the Diocesan Review Board decided an allegation of sexual abuse of an adult against Schreiter was unsubstantiated.
   Loud applause and whistles filled the air when Karen Warnes, a St. Bruno pastoral associate, announced, "He's back," with many members beaming and several becoming teary-eyed.
St. Mary's pastor put on administrative leave [1980 Mickey]
   Jackson Sun, By WENDY ISOM, wisom@jacksonsun.com , Aug 13 2004
   TENNESSEE: The pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Jackson was put on administrative leave Thursday following sexual abuse allegations that were made public Wednesday.
   Twin brothers Blain and Blair Chambers said in a lawsuit filed in Circuit Court in Memphis that the Rev. Richard Mickey abused them in 1980 when they were students at Bishop Byrne High School in Memphis. Mickey, who gave a brief statement Wednesday denying the allegations, worked at the school as a counselor to one of the teens and a religion instructor to the other, according to the lawsuit. Mickey was ordained as a priest in 1988.
   The lawsuit - filed two weeks ago and served Wednesday - alleges that the twin brothers' repressed memories of the abuse surfaced for the first time when they took a fishing trip in July 2003. The brothers, now 39, live in Montana and couldn't be reached for comment Thursday. They are seeking unspecified damages from Mickey, the Catholic Diocese of Memphis and Bishop Byrne High School.
   "We think the allegations are false," the diocese's spokesman, John Morris, said Thursday. However, "to be fair to the families and children and to Father Mickey, the bishop thought it would be best to have him placed on administrative leave while we do an internal investigation," Morris added.
Police probing death of alleged sex abuse victim
   Berkshire Eagle, By Claire M.L. Bourne, ~ August 13, 2004
   NORTH ADAMS -- City police are awaiting autopsy results as they investigate the death Tuesday of a 36-year-old city man, who was among 45 alleged sexual abuse victims to agree to a multimillion-dollar settlement with the Springfield Diocese late last month.
   Police said friends discovered the body of Shawn M. Dobbert in his Cliff Street apartment. An autopsy has been performed, but authorities said they didn't expect the full lab results back for at least two weeks.
   "We're handling it like it's natural causes," said North Adams Police Sgt. William H. Norcross.
   "I know [Dobbert] was a wonderful man that was tormented by the results of being sexually abused," said John Stobierski of Greenfield, the attorney for the group of alleged victims. "I know that he suffered from many of the afflictions of those molested by clergymen, and he had a very difficult time coping with those things."
   Stobierski said Dobbert was dealing with "significant health issues" at the time of his death but declined to elaborate. "There is every reason to believe that this may be a natural death," he said.
   He said it was important to wait for the autopsy results before "jumping to conclusions." But he added, "Thinking about taking one's life as a result of being sexually abused by a priest as a child is not unusual."
• Plan for Catholic Cathedral in Santa Ana Is Criticized
   Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com/news/local/state/la-me-cathedral13aug13,1,3805945.story?coll=la-news-state ; By William Lobdell, ~ August 13, 2004
   SANTA ANA (CA): Despite financial problems and the looming possibility of a large settlement with sexual-abuse victims, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange is moving forward with plans to build a 2,650-seat cathedral in Santa Ana, angering activists critical of the church's treatment of people allegedly molested by priests.
   About a dozen alleged victims protested Thursday near a $1.2-million home that the diocese has bought close to the cathedral site to serve as the rectory.
   The protesters, most with lawsuits pending against the church, said that buying the home in a gated section of Santa Ana's Armstrong Ranch near South Coast Plaza illustrated the misplaced priorities of the diocese.
   In recent months, church officials have cut 15% of its central office staff and reduced or eliminated several programs, the third straight year of reductions. The church also faces more than $50 million in payouts to 88 plaintiffs who said they were molested by priests.
   "These guys act like kings," said a 46-year-old alleged victim of sexual abuse who asked not to be named. He stood with others at the corner of MacArthur Boulevard and Raitt Street with picket signs and banners.
• Priest loses massage license [2004 Arko] -- 35 marijuana plants.
   Beacon Journal, www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/local/9390031.htm?ERIGHTS=- 4474439626346761965ohio::kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM= 3rrmsojkosqnksjjjjjjjjkjjp|Kathleen|Y ; By Carol Biliczky
   OHIO: A Roman Catholic priest convicted of growing marijuana in his church rectory also has lost his state license to perform massage therapy.
   The Ohio State Medical Board agreed on Wednesday to notify Richard Arko of Norton that his medical license had been suspended as a result of his felony conviction and that he had 30 days to request a hearing.
  "This is temporary until the allegations have been considered," said spokeswoman Lauren Lubow of the state medical board.
   She said the board "can do anything from reprimanding him to permanently revoking his license" at the hearing or on its own if he does not request one.
   This is another in a string of setbacks for Arko, who couldn't be reached for comment.
   He was arrested in January after Norton police searched the Prince of Peace Catholic Church rectory in Norton and seized 35 marijuana plants, which Arko said were for medicinal use.
   He was convicted in April of illegally cultivating marijuana and possession of criminal tools he used to grow the plants, receiving two years of probation.
   Since then, prosecutors and the review board for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland also have investigated allegations of sexual abuse against Arko, 40.
• Newspaper wants Kelly deposition opened [Burden]
   The Courier-Journal, www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2004/08/13ky/B1-kelly0813-4519.html , By Jason Riley, jriley@courier-journal.com , Aug 13, 2004
   LOUISVILLE (KY): The Courier-Journal has asked a Jefferson circuit judge to unseal a deposition taken from Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly in one of the few sexual abuse lawsuits remaining against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville.
   Attorney Jon Fleischaker, representing the newspaper, told Judge Thomas Wine yesterday that Kelly's sworn testimony, taken in the case of alleged victim Kyle Burden, has enormous public interest and that no one involved in the case has requested that it be sealed.
   "There's no reason to seal it," Fleischaker said after a hearing yesterday. "The public and press are allowed access to what's going on in court. There is no factual basis set forth for why it would be sealed."
   Neither Burden nor Kelly's attorneys objected to unsealing the deposition, the only testimony that Kelly has given since a wave of lawsuits against the archdiocese began in 2002.
• Lawsuits pile up against priest, church Canada flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Chronicle Herald, www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2004/08/13/fNovaScotia.html , By SHERRI BORDEN COLLEY / Court Reporter, Aug 13, 2004
   HALIFAX (NS) Canada: Though Rev. Hugh Vincent MacDonald is dead and in the grave, lawsuits alleging sexual abuse continue to mount against the Roman Catholic priest, who faced 27 criminal charges involving 15 minors.
   On Wednesday, three more lawsuits were filed against Father MacDonald's estate, the Roman Catholic bishop of Antigonish and the diocese.
• Holley's parole a mistake N.M. failed to tell molested victims [Holley] U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Telegram & Gazette www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20040813/NEWS/40813003/1025 ; by Kathleen A. Shaw, kshaw@telegram.com , Telegram & Gazette Staff, Friday, August 13, 2004
   WORCESTER (MA) - The Rev. David A. Holley, a priest of the Diocese of Worcester serving a maximum 275-year jail term in New Mexico for molesting boys in that state, is still in prison although the state parole board agreed to release him in May.
   Robert Martinez, executive director of the New Mexico Parole Board, said yesterday his department made a mistake when it agreed to parole Rev. Holley at a May 26 hearing without notifying his alleged victims. A new hearing is being set up and he will impanel a new parole board to hear the case, he said.
   Tia Bland, spokeswoman for the New Mexico correction department, said Rev. Holley had not been released because they were waiting for a bed to become available in the inpatient sexual offender program.
   Gov. Bill Richardson, who said he is "outraged at this breach of the public trust," said yesterday he expects Rev. Holley to "remain behind bars." The parole board will meet within 30 days and allow victims time to be informed and prepare to testify regarding parole for Rev. Holley, a convicted sex offender, the governor said.
   Under New Mexico law, victims are notified of parole proceedings and can make statements to the parole board. Mr. Martinez said the earliest a new parole hearing can be scheduled is Sept. 12, but no date has been set.
  Mr. Martinez said the May hearing was done improperly. He called it a "misstep" by his department and he apologized for it.
   Plans were to release the 77-year-old priest with "stringent conditions" including six to 12 months of treatment at a state inpatient center for sexual offenders in northern New Mexico, he said. The state would pay the costs of treatment, he said.
   Mr. Martinez said Rev. Holley first became eligible for parole in 1999 and last was denied parole in February 2003. He pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting boys in that state and was sentenced to 55 to 275 years in prison.
   Philip A. Saviano of Jamaica Plain, former New England coordinator for Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP] and the organization's current Web master, said he will seek criminal prosecution of Rev. Holley in Massachusetts if he is released.
• Maestri named to lead schools
   Times-Picayune, www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-4/109239122431100.xml , By Brian Thevenot and Bruce Nolan, Friday, August 13, 2004
   NEW ORLEANS: The Archdiocese of New Orleans on Thursday announced the appointment of the Rev. William Maestri, a theologian and policy specialist, as schools superintendent, with responsibility for more than 50,000 students in more than 100 Catholic schools in the metro area.
   Maestri, who is also a teacher and writer, becomes the first priest to hold the job in almost 30 years.
   In his role as the chief public spokesman for the past two years, he has become for many people the face of the archdiocese. He will retain his post of communications director. His two-year tenure in that job has come at a time of intense media scrutiny over priest sexual abuse scandals and as-yet largely unsuccessful efforts to pass legislation authorizing private school vouchers.
   Maestri replaces Rene Coman, who announced his retirement about four months ago. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:06 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Fri August 13, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont92.htm
• Nine charged with child sex abuse. [1953-85] -- Anglicans, Salvation Army, Catholics; 17 charged this year, 39 complainants. Australia flag; Aust. Nat. Flag Assn. 
   The Advertiser, Adelaide, S. Australia, http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/ 0,4057,10427621%255E26462,00.html , By Nigel Hunt, August 13, 2004
   ADELAIDE: Police in Adelaide have vowed to continue their unprecedented rout of pedophiles after revealing another nine men have been charged with more than 40 child sex abuse offences.
   Those charged include a former Anglican Minister, a former Salvation Army Minister, a Surf Life Saving Association coach, scout leaders, a Church of England Boys Society leader and several Catholic school teachers.
   The offences allegedly committed by the nine men include rape, unlawful sexual intercourse, indecent assault, carnal knowledge and procuring an act of gross indecency.
   The charges relate to events between 1953 and 1985 and allegedly involve 20 individual victims as young as five years old.
   The oldest alleged victim was 16 years old.
   Sexual Crime Investigation Branch Detective Superintendent Grant Stevens yesterday said Pedophile Task Force detectives were still conducting "many more" investigations.
   "There are other allegations that have not been finalised at this point," he said.
   "We are committed to pursuing all allegations we are made aware of, regardless of the length of time it would take.
   "We are also prepared to look further than just within SA to conduct those investigations and we will find those who have committed offences against children in their care."
   Pedophile Task Force detectives completed this week's swoop early yesterday, arresting a former Anglican Church minister, 69, at his northern suburbs home and a former Catholic school teacher, 63, at his eastern suburbs home.
   On Wednesday, detectives arrested a former Church of England Boys Society leader, 81, at his western suburbs home.
   He was granted police bail at Port Adelaide police station after being charged with eight counts of indecent assault and one count of common assault involving five victims aged between nine and 16.
   The offences were allegedly committed between 1959 and 1972.
   The other six alleged offenders have been reported and will appear in court on later dates.
   One of them now lives in Maroochydore in Queensland and another in country Victoria.
   One of the six, a former Surf Life Saving Association junior coach, 78, was previously arrested in June and charged with eight counts of rape and seven counts of indecent assault.
   This week he was reported for another three counts of indecent assault allegedly committed between 1969 and 1976 on two victims aged 11 and 13.
  Supt Stevens said several houses had been searched by taskforce detectives but he could not disclose what had been seized.
   However, detectives who arrested the former Catholic school teacher at his eastern suburbs home did seize computer hard drives and other electronic equipment which was taken to Adelaide Police Station for examination.
   This week's developments bring the total number of alleged pedophiles apprehended by the taskforce this year to 17.
   In total there have been 39 victims in the cases dealt with by the Pedophile Taskforce.
   Supt Stevens said the latest arrests and reports were a significant outcome for victims of sexual abuse who have had "the courage to come forward and tell their story".
   "It certainly provides an element of closure for victims," he said. "But we are careful not to create unrealistic expectations for victims of sexual abuse.
   "However, what the taskforce has achieved so far is encouraging and should send a message to victims and offenders that all reports are taken seriously and offenders are likely to be dealt with. The taskforce does have more work to undertake and some of this has arisen because of previous activities and the increased public awareness of what has been going on."
   Supt Stevens said he was not surprised the alleged offenders belonged to the various organisations identified.
   Pedophiles by their nature tended to gravitate to locations, groups and organisations that attracted children.
   "The nature of the organisations that tend to become the focus of the taskforce are the sort of organisations that are targeted by people who commit these types of crimes," he said.
   "It is those organisations which provide services to children that would attract the sort of person that is going to commit this type of crime.
   "It is certainly not as easy for these people to commit offences today as it was decades ago." # [Aug 13, 04]
Abuse Chronicle: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont92.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sat August 14, 2004 edition follows:-
• UK Police probe Kenyan pastor over 'miracle babies' [2004 Deya] -- television evangelical. Britain flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Kenya flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Sunday Standard, www.eastandard.net/headlines/news15080406.htm , By Gitau wa Njenga in London, Saturday Aug 14 2004
   KENYA: UK police are investigating a London-based Kenyan pastor following revelations in a BBC documentary suggesting babies are being trafficked from Kenya.
   Police sources at New Scotland Yard told the Sunday Standard in London that Metropolitan Police are investigating Archbishop Gilbert Deya, a London based Kenyan evangelical religious movement leader who claims he can create "miracle babies" for childless couples.
   The multi millionaire TV evangelist also allegedly claimed he can exorcise demons from women past menopause or who are infertile.
   The Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Church of England and Children Charities in UK have called for an investigation into the claims, saying Deya's actions are a front for baby-trafficking. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:37 PM]
• Movin' on Up: Bishop Brown to leave half-million-dollar shack for million-dollar estate -- cathedral, $1.1m houses, despite abuse liability. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Orange County Weekly, www.ocweekly.com/ink/04/49/cover-arellano2.php , by Gustavo Arellano, August 13 -19, 2004
   CALIFORNIA: Last month, the Weekly revealed that the Diocese of Orange is aggressively moving forward on plans to build a multimillion-dollar cathedral - despite facing about 100 sex-abuse lawsuits [see "Christ Our Non-Saver," July 23]. Now sources say the diocese is negotiating with Brea-based Shea Homes for a new multimillion-dollar home near the proposed cathedral site.
   The home's first occupant: Bishop Tod D. Brown.
   The residence is one of 156 homes under construction at the Armstrong Ranch, a gated community in Santa Ana's South Coast Metro, near the 90-acre property where Christ Our Savior Cathedral will stand. Brochures for Armstrong Ranch show that the humblest housing option - what Shea Homes refers to as its "Flotman Residence" - includes two stories, four bedrooms, three and a half baths, a breakfast nook, an office, a butler's pantry, and a three-car garage. Starting price: $1.1 million.
   Armstrong Ranch sales representatives aren't shy about the connection. One bragged to a Weekly researcher that the bishop is already in escrow.
• Jimmy Breslin: Man of faith or bully? -- New book on RCC.
   Taipei Times, www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2004/08/14/2003198762 , Reuters, Page 16, Saturday, Aug 14, 2004
   LOS ANGELES, USA: Some people call him a saint of American journalism -- a man who walks, talks and breaks bread with the homeless and the afflicted, a man who doesn't hesitate to take on city hall or march into a riot.
   Others call Jimmy Breslin a bully, a braggart and a misquoter, the sort of fellow who'll yell at anyone regardless of race, creed or national origin.
   A colleague once combined both ideas: Breslin, he said, talks like Archie Bunker, the loudmouth bigot of TV's All in the Family, but writes like Charles Dickens.
   Now the columnist for New York's Newsday newspaper, who has had TV series built around his life and is credited with revolutionizing journalism with his unique in-your-face writing style, says enough with all that "saint/sinner" stuff.
   In The Church that Christ Forgot, his 14th book, 75-year-old Breslin says he has finally learned that he is in the wrong business and now it is time for him to do nothing less than save the scandal-plagued Roman Catholic Church, of which he claims to be a devout and loyal member.
   So he says please now call him "Bishop Breslin," and he jokes that it is time to change jobs, to make a career move. No more books with titles like Can't Anybody Here Play This Game and The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, Breslin has a church to save.
Predator Alert: California Jailed Priest Accused of Molesting Sees Bail Lowered [Wempe]
   Team Amber Alert News, ~ August 14, 2004
   LOS ANGELES (CA): The only Roman Catholic priest still jailed for allegedly molesting children in Los Angeles County could be out next week if he posts a newly reduced bail and promises not to perform priestly functions while awaiting trial.
   Instead of a passport, lawyers for Michael Edwin Wempe offered to surrender his clerical collar Friday.
   The 64-year-old retired priest is expected to come up with the $100,000 bond within the next few days and return to the Seal Beach retirement home he shared with his ailing mother until his arrest in September.
   A judge reduced Wempe's bail from $500,000, warning that if he flees, his action would be considered "virtually an admission of guilt."
   Retired Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Samuel Mayerson also ordered Wempe to wear an electronic device to monitor his whereabouts.
Pastor nabbed in prostitution sting [2004 Melo] -- Eliot Church.
   Lowell Sun, By ROBERT MILLS, ~ August 14, 2004
   LOWELL (MA): A two-day crackdown on prostitution in the Acre netted over 20 arrests, including a 46-year-old Lowell pastor police said was busted for soliciting sex from an undercover officer posing as a prostitute.
   The two-day crackdown by the vice squad was part of a larger operation targeting such activity around Suffolk and Moody streets, according to Sgt. James Trudel. He said there have also been increased patrols in the area for several weeks.
   Police arrested at least 19 people on sex-related charges, and several others on drug and miscellaneous charges as a result of the sting, which included officers observing suspected prostitutes, and female officers posing as prostitutes.
   Officers took part in the operation from around 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Wednesday and Thursday nights.
   "We put all our officers there for two days and we appeared to be pretty successful," Trudel said. "I think we probably arrested about 25 individuals for various violations, like sex-related crimes and narcotics."
   Police records show that at least 19 people were charged with sex-related offenses. Both accused prostitutes and accused "johns" were targeted.
   Among the 19 charged with prostitution-related offenses was Glaucio Melo, 46, of 1720 Skyline Drive, unit 18.
   Trudel said Melo identified himself to officers as a pastor at the Eliot Church, 273 Summer St., when he was arrested about 9 p.m. on Thursday after soliciting what he thought was a prostitute.
   Melo approached a woman, actually a female police officer posing as a hooker, at Suffolk and Jefferson streets and offered to pay her for sex, Trudel said.
Pastors' foibles, failures make message relevant [? 2000 Byrd] - Non-denominational Church.
   The Journal Gazette, By Rick Farrant, ~ August 14, 2004
   FORT WAYNE (IN): Kelly Byrd was 17 when it was discovered that his pastor father had been having a 17-year affair with one of the parishioners in his dad's San Francisco-area church.
   The revelation ended 30 years of ministry for his father and 31 years of marriage for his parents.
   Until then, Byrd says, his father had held himself up to be infallible - and Byrd had believed it.
   "(The scandal) was completely out of the blue, and it really rocked my view of my dad, and it completely rocked my view of God and Christianity and the church," says Byrd, pastor of the non-denominational Blackhawk Ministries in Fort Wayne. "I walked away from everything I had claimed at the point - for four years."
   These days, Byrd sometimes tells this story to his own congregation - as a way of showing how a person can come back to the Lord despite an ugly setback.
   His honesty is symbolic of a larger trend: More and more, clergy are sharing their own struggles - past and present - to bring a relevancy to their messages.
Judge says abuse suits are too late
   Philadelphia Inquirer, By David O'Reilly, ~ August 14, 2004
   PHILADELPHIA (PA): A Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge yesterday dismissed the arguments of 17 adults seeking new rights to sue the Archdiocese of Philadelphia over allegations of clergy sex abuses committed decades ago.
   In an 18-page opinion, Judge Arnold New ruled that Pennsylvania's strict statute of limitations prevents the alleged victims from seeking damages.
   New rejected the argument that the archdiocese had fraudulently concealed its knowledge of predatory priests from the families of their victims, and therefore had interfered with their ability to file suit in a timely fashion.
   He also said the archdiocese's assignment of potentially abusive priests did not injure the plaintiffs in the eye of the law.
   "Although the Archdiocesan defendants' actions may have placed the priests in a position to commit the batteries, it was the actions of the priests which caused the actual injury," New wrote.
Kelly: Allegation did not specify sex abuse [1980s Clark]
   The Courier-Journal, By Jason Riley, jriley@courier-journal.com , Aug 14 2004
   LOUISVILLE (KY): Told in spring 1982 that the Rev. Daniel Clark needed to be moved from St. Rita Catholic Church because he was "too close to some of the boys," Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly says, it didn't occur to him that sexual abuse had been alleged.
   "I assumed that it meant an over dependence on some boys or young men emotionally," not physical involvement, Kelly said in a court deposition in April in a sexual abuse lawsuit still pending against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville.
   The 150-page deposition - the only court testimony provided by Kelly since a wave of abuse lawsuits began being filed in 2002 - was unsealed by a Jefferson Circuit Court judge yesterday. In granting a Courier-Journal request that the deposition be made public, Judge Thomas Wine noted that neither the church nor plaintiff Kyle Burden had requested the testimony be sealed.
   Burden is the only eligible plaintiff who opted out of a $25.7million settlement of the suits last year. He alleges Clark abused him in the 1980s, when he was in school at St. Rita.
Man recalled during funeral -- Dobbert.
   The Republican, By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Saturday, August 14, 2004
   NORTH ADAMS (MA): Throughout her son's funeral service yesterday, Donna Dobbert clutched to her bosom one of her son's teddy bears - a reminder how much Shawn M. Dobbert loved animals.
   "Shawn Michael was always bringing strays home. He had a big heart and loved all animals," recalled Shawn's brother Robert F. Dobbert after the funeral.
   Yesterday, as the arbitration part of a $7.5 million settlement ended for 45 alleged clergy sexual abuse claimants in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, one claimant - Shawn M. Dobbert - was laid to rest at Southview Cemetery.
   Dobbert, 36, was found dead in his apartment Tuesday. The cause of death hasn't been determined. Autopsy results are expected to be completed in several weeks at the earliest, police said yesterday.
   Sixty or so friends and family members said goodbye to Dobbert yesterday at a simple funeral service at St. John's Episcopal Church and a graveside service. No one made any public remarks about Dobbert at either service.
   "If you want to discover where God is today, look closely among the abandoned, the forsaken and the abused. That is where you will find God's healing power most active," the Rev. Edward A. King told those attending.
Governor removes director of Parole Board [1970s Holley] -- exposure led to more, and $US 50 million.
   New Mexican, Associated Press, August 14, 2004
   NEW MEXICO: Gov. Bill Richardson on Friday removed Bob Martinez as director of the state Parole Board over the board's failure to notify victims when a former priest convicted of sexual molestation came up for parole.
   "We misstepped, and there was a very terrible clerical error made," Martinez said.
   His office "screwed up," he said, by not alerting molestation victims of a parole hearing for David Holley, 77, one of the first of the pedophile priests that embroiled the Archdiocese of Santa Fe in a far-reaching sex scandal.
   That scandal brought forth dozens of sexual-abuse victims, cost the archdiocese $50 million in settlements and related costs, toppled the previous archbishop, Robert Sanchez, and set the stage for a series of similar scandals in dioceses across the country.
   Holley pleaded guilty in 1993 to sexually molesting eight boys in Alamogordo in the 1970s. He is serving a 275-year prison term in the geriatric unit of the minimum-security Los Lunas state prison.
Judge lowers jailed priest's bail amount [1990s Wempe]
   Contra Costa Times, ASSOCIATED PRESS, ~ August 14, 2004
   LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - A judge Friday made it easier to free a retired Roman Catholic priest jailed since September on charges that he molested a boy in the 1990s.
   Michael Wempe's bail was reduced from $500,000 to $100,000.
   Outside court, defense attorney Leonard Levine said Wempe could be released next week.
   If he makes bail, Judge Samuel Mayerson ordered the 64-year-old Wempe to avoid children under 18 unless they are accompanied by an adult.
• Church can withhold its files on imprisoned priest, judge says [Campobello] -- Abused girls. Diocese avoids contempt of court ruling.
   Chicago Tribune, www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/north/chi-0408140226aug14,1,3370979.story?coll=chi- newslocalnorth-hed ; By Rita Hoover, Special to the Tribune, August 14, 2004
   ILLINOIS: An Illinois Appellate Court ruling in May came too late to be enforced in a Kane County clergy sexual abuse case.
   Kane County Judge Timothy Q. Sheldon, who had found the Rockford diocese in contempt of court for withholding documents from prosecutors in the case against Mark Campobello, 39, ruled Friday that with the priest in prison, the state no longer needs the files.
   Campobello pleaded guilty May 13 to sexually abusing two teenage girls and is serving an 8-year prison term.
   The diocese had claimed that turning over internal personnel files on Campobello would infringe upon its right of religious freedom. Neither Sheldon nor the higher court agreed, but because the priest's guilty plea came before the ruling on May 21 by the 2nd Appellate Court, the case is moot, according to Sheldon.
   Van Richards, attorney for Campobello, said prosecutors were "coveting" documents in a case that already had been resolved by a guilty plea.
   "What will they do with them?" asked Richards. "Hold them in their files and read them on Friday afternoons?"
   Assistant State's Atty. Nemura Pencyla told Sheldon that "we're only asking for your rules to be followed in this case," adding that "the court system can only work by enforcement of its rules."
Judge lets diocese keep priest's records closed [Campobello] -- abused young girls.
   Chicago Daily Herald, By Tona Kunz, Posted Saturday, August 14, 2004
   ILLINOIS: A Kane County judge ruled that a high court decision demanding openness from the church came too late to shed light on a former Geneva priest's life -- for now.
   The 2nd District Appellate Court ruled in May that the Rockford Catholic Diocese must turn over to Kane County Judge Timothy Sheldon records of a priest accused of sexually abusing young girls.
   Sheldon, however, on Friday declined to peruse the records and instead upheld the diocese's objection to unsealing documents of Mark Campobello's church transfers, a referral to a mental health hospital in Minnesota and internal church investigations into allegations of abuse.
   Sheldon said the demand for records made by prosecutors preparing for trial -- a request upheld by the Illinois Appellate Court -- were no longer needed now that Campobello pleaded guilty and has passed the deadline for appealing his sentence.
   Campobello was convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse against a 14-year-old from St. Peter's School in Geneva and a 16-year-old from Aurora Central Catholic High School.
Diocese appeals decision not to dismiss priest abuse cases [Janssen, Bass, Geerts]
   Courier, By TODD DVORAK, Associated Press Writer, Aug 14, 2004
   IOWA CITY, IOWA -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport is appealing a judge's decision not to dismiss two sexual abuse lawsuits against former priests because the statute of limitations had expired.
   Attorneys for the church filed papers with the Iowa Supreme Court on Friday in cases brought by James Wells and an anonymous plaintiff, referred to in court papers as John Doe III.
   Last month, Judge C.H. Pelton rejected arguments by diocese attorneys that the lawsuits, two of 15 filed against the church alleging sexual abuse against former priests, were filed too late.
   The lawsuits name Revs. James Janssen, Francis Bass and Anthony Geerts, each of whom ministered in parishes across eastern Iowa in the last 50 years.
   Attorneys for the plaintiffs argue that the church's efforts to cover up abuse problems and the victims' mental illness and trauma prevented them from taking legal action against the church sooner. Diocese attorneys disagree and say it's an issue for the Supreme Court to decide before trials begin this fall.
   "It would be in the interests of justice for all concerned for the Supreme Court to decide these legal issues," the diocese said in a statement Friday.
Judge dismisses child sex assault lawsuits by 17 adults [1957-83]
   WNEP
   PHILADELPHIA (PA): A judge says 17 adults trying to sue the Philadelphia archdiocese for alleged sexual abuse by clergy waited too long to file suit.
   Judge Arnold New -- dismissing the suits -- rejects the argument that a cover-up by the archdiocese helped hide the abuse from the victims' families, preventing them from suing at the time.
   The alleged abuse dates from 1957 to 1983.
   Until 1984, child sexual assault victims in Pennsylvania had two years to file suit. That changed in 2002, giving victims until their 30th birthday. But the change is not retroactive.
• Figure in Holley parole fired [1960s Holley] -- did not want to participate in a sex offender program, etc.
   Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20040814/NEWS/408140334/1008/NEWS02" , by Kathleen A. Shaw, kshaw@telegram.com , ~ August 14, 2004
   WORCESTER (MA): New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson yesterday fired the executive director of the Adult Parole Board for his handling of the parole of the Rev. David A. Holley, a convicted sex offender.
   Rev. Holley, a priest of the Worcester, Mass., Catholic diocese, was serving a 55- to 275-year jail term for sexually abusing eight boys in the Alamagordo area. He pleaded guilty to the charges in 1993. He was quietly paroled on May 26 after 11 years of incarceration, without the victims being notified.
   The governor at first called the parole an "outrage" and rescinded the action. Yesterday, Mr. Richardson fired Robert Martinez, the parole board's executive director. The parole board in New Mexico serves under authority of the governor.
   Mr. Martinez, in a telephone interview Thursday, called the parole procedure a "misstep" because victims were not notified of the hearing and he apologized. He said at that time a new parole board would be called to hear Rev. Holley's request for parole.
   The governor said yesterday that the victims will be notified of a new hearing, which is set for Sept. 14.
   Rev. Holley, even after he was paroled, remained behind bars because the corrections department was waiting to get him in an in-patient sex offender program operated by the state in northern New Mexico.
   Robert Curtis, one of Rev. Holley's eight victims, said the priest had five parole hearings, but he was only notified of one held in December 2002. Now a lawyer in Albuquerque, Mr. Curtis said, he wrote a letter at the time asking that the priest not be paroled.
   He said he has no idea why the parole board failed to notify him or other victims of the hearings. He was informed of Rev. Holley's pending release from jail in an Aug. 10 letter from the parole board, but was never notified that a hearing had been scheduled.
   In the meantime, a hand-written letter from Rev. Holley to the parole board showed that the priest, although happy to have gotten the May 26 parole, was not happy with conditions set for his parole.
   The 77-year-old priest said he found a ban on him wearing clerical clothes to be "questionable." He said he did not want to participate in a sex offender program, wear an electronic monitoring device, pay $100 for DNA testing, or comply with other conditions of parole. He asked the parole board to do away with the conditions and allow him to go home to his family, where he wanted to do volunteer horticulture work.
   Mr. Richardson said in a statement yesterday, "The Adult Parole Board's failure to notify victims about this hearing was a violation of the state Constitution and a serious breach of public trust.
   "As director, Bob Martinez is accountable for the actions of the board and its employees, and this kind of error will not be tolerated. The public, especially crime victims, must have complete confidence in the system," the governor said.
   "I'm outraged the board would grant parole to this offender, given the seriousness of the crimes and length of the original sentence," the governor said.
   Sherry Stephens, the parole board's deputy director, will manage the board office while a search for a new director proceeds.
   Phil Saviano of Jamaica Plain, Mass., who is active with Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP], said yesterday he thought the governor was "the hero of the day" for taking fast action.
   The Worcester diocese settled a civil suit with Mr. Saviano in the mid-1990s after he alleged he was sexually abused by Rev. Holley at St. Denis Church in East Douglas, Mass., during the 1960s. Rev. Holley, who was ordained in Worcester in 1958, left the diocese in 1969, but was not defrocked and later served in Texas and Colorado.
• 'The Church That Forgot Christ': Bishop Breslin
   The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2004/08/15/books/review/08NEWMAN.html , By MICHAEL NEWMAN, August 15, 2004
   NEW YORK: It must be a tiring job, being Jimmy Breslin. Chasing priests accused of sexual abuse through the courts, harassing an insurance company to pay for a poor man's grave, introducing his friend Eugene Kennedy to his friend Jacqueline Onassis: it's all in a day's work. For the last few years, in the column he still writes for Newsday, that work has often consisted of exposing the "pedophiles and pimps" of the Roman Catholic Church.
   "I am trying to write and I get a phone call from a woman whose son was sexually abused and now, even with the passing years, cannot recover," Breslin writes in "The Church That Forgot Christ," his ninth book of nonfiction (he has also written six novels). "Or the mail in the office has a letter, a postcard about a rape. I am in the daily news business for so many years and I can handle all occurrences. Two mobsters shot in Brooklyn. I am out on the street. Breslin makes all editions."
   Pretty much all you need to know about this book -- and Jimmy Breslin, too, but you probably already know about him -- is in that paragraph. Its aims are modest yet honorable, and its empathy seems genuine. But in the end, the book comes back to its true subject, Jimmy Breslin.
   His solution to the crisis facing Catholics in "The Church That Forgot Christ," then, makes perfect sense. He will start his own church and install himself as bishop. His friend Danny Collins will help out. His sermons will be about the need for better posture and low-income housing, and he will lecture the pope about his misguided views on abortion and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. "While my ambition may be difficult to put into effect," he writes, "it throbs with noble energy."
• A Mass of healing on Boston Common
   Boston Globe, www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/08/14/a_mass_of_ healing_on_boston_common ; By John Hynes and Sheila Connors Grove, August 14, 2004
   BOSTON (MA): Why would lay persons want to sponsor a Mass on Boston Common -- a historic event -- in the midst of the turmoil that has characterized the Catholic Church in recent times? Is it to spotlight the pain of the parishes slated to close in the Archdiocese of Boston during the next six months? Is it to address the false hope of the assertion that the clergy sexual abuse crisis is history? Or is it in our nature as Catholics to gather together for healing and growth, to address our pain, and to celebrate the gifts we have been given?
   The truth is, we have organized a Mass at 4 p.m. tomorrow for all of those reasons. The region's Catholics recognize that we have lived through the most extraordinary 30 months in the history of the church in the United States. We have endured revelations regarding decades of clergy sexual abuse resulting in the resignation of Cardinal Law, a divisive discussion regarding the role of marriage and women within Catholicism, and finally, a painful parish closings process resulting in the loss of dozens of parishes across the region.
   However, in the face of this turbulence, we have witnessed the emergence of the laity, and a willingness by individuals to form organizations like Voice of the Faithful to take responsibility for their church.
Head of New Mexico parole board removed over ex-priest parole [1970s Holley]
   Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Associated Press, ~ August 14, 2004
   SANTA FE, N.M. - Gov. Bill Richardson on Friday removed Bob Martinez as director of the state Parole Board over the board's failure to notify victims when a former priest convicted of sexual molestation came up for parole.
   "We misstepped, and there was a very terrible clerical error made," Martinez said.
   His office "screwed up," he said, by not alerting molestation victims of a parole hearing for David Holley, 77, one of the first of the pedophile priests that embroiled the Archdiocese of Santa Fe in a far-reaching sex scandal.
   That scandal brought forth dozens of sexual abuse victims, cost the archdiocese $50 million in settlements and related costs, toppled the previous archbishop, Robert Sanchez, and set the stage for a series of similar scandals in dioceses across the country.
   Holley pleaded guilty in 1993 to sexually molesting eight boys in Alamogordo in the 1970s. He is serving a 275-year prison term in the geriatric unit of the minimum-security Los Lunas state prison.
   Richardson said the board's failure to notify the victims prior to the parole hearing violated the state constitution and was a serious breach of public trust.
Diocese appeals judge's decision
   Quad-City Times, By Todd Ruger, ~ August 14, 2004
   DAVENPORT (IA): The Catholic Diocese of Davenport has appealed a judge's decision to not throw out two lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests more than 30 years ago on the basis of a statute of limitations.
   The diocese is asking the Iowa Supreme Court to review District Judge C.H. Pelton's decision in July that a jury should decide whether the plaintiffs qualify for possible exemptions in the statute that bars old cases from being filed, diocese attorneys said Friday.
   The plaintiffs - James Wells and a man identified only as John Doe III - argued in court proceedings that a jury should determine whether fraudulent concealment by church officials or mental illness prevented the plaintiffs from filing their lawsuits in a timely manner.
   "We highly disagree that those are appropriate defenses to the statute of limitations in these cases," diocese attorney Rand Wonio said Friday.
Religious order denies sex coverup [1930s-70s Sisters of Charity of Nazareth]
   The Courier-Journal, By Peter Smith, psmith@courier-journal.com , ~ August 14, 2004
   LOUISVILLE (KY): The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth filed court papers yesterday denying the order covered up sexual abuse at orphanages and schools it operated and arguing that the legal deadline has passed to sue over alleged abuse from decades past.
   The Roman Catholic religious order added that it never "owned or controlled" the orphanage that is at the heart of the allegations and indicated it did not supervise the orphanage chaplain, who is accused of sexually abusing most of the 29 plaintiffs.
   The filing in Jefferson Circuit Court marks the first formal response by the Nelson County-based order since it was initially sued last month.
   The litigation now alleges that a priest, a dozen nuns and a male volunteer basketball coach sexually or physically abused children. The incidents allegedly occurred at Louisville-area orphanages and schools run by the order between the 1930s and 1970s.
   In its filing yesterday, the Sisters of Charity said it "is without knowledge to admit or deny" whether the sexual abuse actually occurred but issued a formal denial of the abuse.
L.A. judge reduces bail for alleged child molester Michael Wempe [1990s]
   KESQ, ~ August 14, 2004
   LOS ANGELES (CA): A Los Angeles judge has made it easier to free a retired Roman Catholic priest jailed since September on charges that he molested a boy in the 1990s.
   Michael Wempe's bail was reduced today from 500-thousand dollars to 100-thousand dollars.
   Outside court, defense attorney Leonard Levine said Wempe could be released next week.
   If he makes bail, the judge ordered the 64-year-old Wempe to avoid children under 18 unless they are accompanied by an adult.
Diocese to set up support group for sex abuse survivors -- 4% of priests abused children.
   The Wichita Eagle, BY STAN FINGER, ~ August 14, 2004
   WICHITA (KS): Unwilling to endorse an existing support group for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, the Catholic Diocese of Wichita is setting up an ecumenical group meant to help survivors of sex crimes heal.
   No timetable has been set for the group's debut, but diocesan officials are working with a national organization to establish a framework and are reaching out to other religious denominations and social service organizations to make them aware of what's coming.
   "We're taking the approach, 'Build it and they will come,' " said the Rev. Paul Coakley, vice chancellor of the diocese.
   "We know that there's a problem, we know that people have been hurt, and we want to help with the healing."
   Reliable statistics on the number of children who have been abused by clergy are elusive. Because the crimes are cloaked in shame and disbelief, victims have rarely come forward.
   But a 2002 survey of the nation's Catholic dioceses said 4 percent of priests who served between 1950 and 2002 were accused of sexually abusing children. The Wichita diocese reported that 33 people accused nine priests of sexual abuse during that same period.
Priest on leave after accusation [1980 Mickey]
   Billings Gazette, Associated Press, August 14, 2004
   JACKSON, Tenn. (AP) - Catholic church members in Jackson are defending their priest after he was named in a damaging sexual allegation.
   St. Mary's Catholic Church Rev. Richard Mickey was placed on administrative leave Thursday after a lawsuit by twin brothers Blain and Blair Chambers alleged the pastor sexually abused them almost 25 years ago when he worked in Memphis.
   The lawsuit by the brothers, who are now 39 and live in Montana, came to light Wednesday, and the alleged abuse occurred at Bishop Byrne High School in Memphis in 1980.
   Mickey, who denied the allegations Wednesday, worked as a counselor to one of the teens and a religion instructor to the other, according to the lawsuit.
   "We think the allegations are false," diocese spokesman John Morris said. "To be fair to the families and children and to Father Mickey, the bishop thought it would be best to have him placed on administrative leave while we do an internal investigation."
   St. Mary's member Patsy Turner defended Mickey. She said she was horrified when she learned the allegations.
Complaints against priest surfaced in 1982 [1982 Clark]
   Lexington Herald-Leader, By Bruce Schreiner, ASSOCIATED PRESS, ~ August 14, 2004
   LOUISVILLE (KY) - In a deposition unsealed yesterday, Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly said he was aware of complaints about a priest as early as 1982, but any sexual misconduct wasn't "abundantly clear" until years later.
   Kelly said his suspicions of the Rev. Daniel Clark "began to grow a little bit" in the years between his first hearing of problems with Clark and when the priest was prosecuted in 1988 for sexually abusing two boys.
   The archbishop's sworn testimony was taken last April as part of a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville.
   The suit was filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court by Kyle Burden, who accuses Clark of fondling him in 1982. Burden was 12 at the time.
   The deposition was ordered unsealed by Circuit Judge Thomas Wine at the request of The Courier-Journal.
   Burden's suit is one of the few such suits left against the archdiocese, which reached a $25.7 million settlement with 243 others in similar cases.
   Kelly said he had no indication when he took over as archbishop in February 1982 that the archdiocese was plagued by any sexually abusive priests.
Priest's personnel files stay put [1999-2000 Campobello] -- Abused girls.
   Rockford Register-Star, August 14, 2004
   ROCKFORD (IL): The Rockford Catholic Diocese does not have to turn over personnel records on a priest who sexually abused two girls.
   That was the ruling of Kane County Judge Timothy Sheldon Friday in a case involving Mark Campobello, a priest who most recently served St. James Parish in Belvidere.
   In May, Campobello pleaded guilty to abusing two minor girls while serving at a parish in Geneva and a Catholic high school in Aurora in 1999-2000. He is serving an eight-year sentence at Illinois River state prison in Canton and can seek parole starting in May 2008.
   Because the Campobello case appears to be resolved, Sheldon said, there is no need for Kane County prosecutors to see diocesan records on Campobello.
Protecting the flock
   Lexington Herald-Leader By Bill Broadway, THE WASHINGTON POST, ~ August 14, 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 memo to parents at Metropolitan Baptist Church in 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 03:08 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sat August 14, 2004
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• As Frankel awaits sentence, loose ends abound -- international finance. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Vatican City flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20040809/NEWS08/408090317/-1/NEWS ; By ROBIN ERB, BLADE STAFF WRITER, Aug/09/04
   TOLEDO (OH): The diamonds have been seized, the luxury cars auctioned off, and the mansion in a posh Connecticut neighborhood sold by the U.S. Marshal's service.
   Long gone are the days of dodging international authorities and the kinky sex with women responding to personal ads.
   These days - five years after he was caught by authorities in a German hotel room with a stash of diamonds, several fake passports, and a female companion - Marty Frankel spends his days in an 8-foot by 12-foot brick jail cell in Central Falls, R.I., awaiting his fate.
   Meanwhile, in a courtroom an hour's ride away, federal prosecutors have dismantled the multimillion-dollar empire he built by gutting the assets of struggling insurance companies, ultimately trying to launder the stolen funds through the Vatican - an effort that almost succeeded because of help he received from some of the Holy See's high-ranking authorities, according to a pending lawsuit.
   It was a scheme that would prompt a global manhunt and make the former Toledoan the subject of two books and countless articles.
   "He put on a ... show," said Robert Guyer, of Dundee, Mich. Mr. Guyer ran a security brokerage house that served as a front for Frankel's operations.
   These days, it's not clear whether Frankel's saga might be in its final chapters, or might unfold for years to come.
   Tom Carson, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, only will say the investigation "continues." At least one of Frankel's co-defendants - Kaethe Schuchter, a woman described as a top lieutenant - remains on the lam.
   Certainly, legal loose ends abound.
   State charges were lodged against several defendants. Civil claims have cropped up around the country; the most sensational of the civil suits is one filed in 2001 by five states against the Vatican.
   In those five states - Mississippi, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas - a guaranty fund formed by the states' insurance companies had to shell out millions of dollars to cover the more than $200 million in assets of the seven companies drained by Frankel. Now the states are looking for a way to recoup the losses.
   The states' insurance commissioners contend that the Vatican violated the federal Racketeer Influenced Corruption Act. That's because, in his quest to wash money through the Vatican, Frankel had enlisted the help of elderly Msgr. Emilio Colagiovanni, the head of the Monitor Ecclesiasticus, a 120-year-old publication that interprets church law and disburses money to charities, according to the suit.
   Frankel proposed to the monsignor and other high-ranking Vatican officials that he would set up a charitable fund and place $55 million in it. The Vatican would be able to take $5 million for the charities it saw fit. In return, several of the officials received cash or gifts from Frankel, the suit contends.
   The Vatican has denied that it accepted any of the funds, and only Colagiovanni has been convicted.
   Still, while lawyers have been exchanging motions in the suit and a trial date hasn't been set, several other chapters in the Frankel story are closing.
   Ten of Frankel's 11 codefendants are in various stages in the court system.
   Four of them are serving a combined 278 months, or more than 23 years, in federal lockup. Five are scheduled to be sentenced in the coming months.
   A tenth, Guyer, is on probation for five years.
   Meanwhile, Frankel is being held at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility, a private, male-only detention facility where he awaits sentencing Oct. 5. He pleaded guilty in 2002 of 24 counts of wire fraud, conspiracy, and securities fraud.
   Scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 17 for her part is his former fiancee and business partner, Sonia Howe, a former Woodmore High School drum majorette. Colagiovanni, key to the civil suit filed by the five states against the Holy See, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 9 on criminal fraud charges.
   Tangling the story even further was a high-profile and bitter divorce and custody battle between Howe and John Schulte, who had hired Frankel in his brokerage firm in the 1980s. It was through her then-husband that Howe met Frankel.
   These days, Mr. Shulte says the pending sentencing hearings mean he's emerging from a dark part of his life. Still, he's unforgiving.
   "I think Sonia will serve 10 years, which is the amount of time she has caused pain and evil in my life," he said. "So I guess every one gets their due."
   In all, more than $100 million still is unaccounted for, said Lee Harrell, deputy commissioner at the Mississippi insurance department.
   "A big chunk of money was just blown," he said.
   In the U.S. District Court in New Haven, something more than the dollar amount might weigh on the mind of U.S. District Judge Ellen Bree Burn's mind as she decides Frankel's fate.
   No one can remember the former Whitmer High School student holding a long-term, honest job, said Jeff Creamer, a local attorney who pursued Frankel in a case that eventually led to Frankel's being barred from trading securities in 1992.
   After that banishment, Frankel simply shifted his focus from securities to the insurance business where he set up bogus accounts, worked under aliases, and then drained millions of dollars out of seven companies to support his lavish lifestyle.
   "It's not like he's got legitimate work to go back to. He's a career criminal. If I were a judge, I wouldn't want to exact the rest of his life from him," Mr. Creamer said. "But I also wouldn't [free him] in a few years. I'd be afraid I'd see him again."
   A lavish life: In the days before Frankel began to steal other people's money, Ted Bitter used to talk to the eccentric recluse about family, politics, and "everything under the sun."
   One day, the topic was jail.
   "I remember him saying he would probably survive in prison," said Mr. Bitter, an investor more than a decade ago in one of Frankel's first ventures. "I think he thought he had the ability to adapt, that he'd be able to talk his way in and out of situations."
   Frankel eventually made off with Mr. Bitter's savings, and that drew the wrath of the SEC.
   "I would love to be a fly on that wall," Mr. Bitter said of Frankel's cell. "I wonder if he's making the mental adjustment or not."
   Indeed, life for Frankel after the century turned has been vastly different than his days in the 1990s, when his elaborate con financed his purchase of a multimillion-dollar estate in posh Greenwich, Conn.
   Greased with frontmen, shell businesses, and phantom investment reports, Frankel was snapping up struggling insurance companies. Siphoning away the assets the companies had set aside for future claims, he'd then purchase bigger companies with even bigger assets.
   It financed a lifestyle much different than Frankel, one of four children from a middle-class Toledo family, had ever known.
   He outfitted his mansions with elaborate security systems and met women through personal ads. Describing herself as a "sex slave," one woman later testified she investigated adoption options for Frankel to satisfy his alleged desire to have sex with a child.
   He bought a fleet of luxury cars and hired staff that included a private chef, personal driver, and bodyguards. When he visited Toledo, he arrived in limos and was surrounded by security.
   And when they did question the business transactions, state regulators - entrusted with protecting the money - were assured that the money was safely invested in a small brokerage firm, Liberty National Securities, in Dundee, Mich.
   According to investigators, Frankel and associate Howe paid the firm's president, Guyer, to forward calls to Frankel's new mansion in Greenwich.
   Still, by 1998 Colorado regulators began to get suspicious at Frankel's quest to buy an insurance company there, and he abandoned the idea, regulators now say.
   But the end for Frankel began a few months later, when a Mississippi insurance examiner asking routine questions about Frankel's purchase noticed that the insurance broker for Frankel's newest business was the tiny Dundee firm.
   Upon further questioning, "we found the company was worth a whole $58,000," recalled Jimmy Blissett, then the examiner. "This was a company who was supposedly trading billions."
   Routine questions became more probing. And the answers began raising red flags, recalled Mr. Harrell, then a special attorney general in Mississippi.
   "The more you dug," he said, "the stranger it got and the squirrellier the answers would get."
   Files and fire: An odd scene met firefighters who rushed to Frankel's Greenwich mansion May 5, 1999.
   A file cabinet burned. Frankel - who knew regulators were now on his trail - was gone.
   Within days, a frenzy of media attention descended, and the five-month hunt began - for Frankel, for answers to countless questions, and for the money.
   Finally, on Sept. 4, 1999, German police arrested him in a Hamburg hotel suite. Among his possessions: nine fake passports, 547 diamonds, and an astrology journal.
   Today, insurance regulators say they've learned a tough lesson about communication. In the five states, joint guaranty agreements set up by insurance companies had to shell out the missing millions to cover the raided assets of the seven companies.
   "They were having to pay for the competition's sins," Mr. Harrell said, noting those funds, in turn, most likely were rebuilt with increases in customers' premiums.
   Much of Frankel's success was based on the fragmentation of the insurance regulation industry from state to state and its separation from banking and securities regulators that may have thrown up red flags because of Frankel's securities ban in 1992.
   "It's kind of like the police and the fire and emergency services and the 911 system couldn't communicate with each other," said Gary Zeune, a fraud expert in Columbus who conducts fraud seminars for the government and business officials and who followed the Frankel case.
   The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has strengthened its national database, said Ann Womer Benjamin, Ohio's insurance commissioner and a member of the NAIC's Financial Regulation Standards and Accreditation Committee.
   Containing information on companies, their officers, and their investments, it allows regulators in one state to double-check any history of a company or its officials in another state. Moreover, she said, insurance examiners trade more information these days with banking and securities regulators. Frankel purchased no companies in Ohio.
   Still, there's no guarantees against another Frankel fraud, investigators told The Blade.
   "Banks have been struggling with how to stop people from robbing banks for centuries," Mr. Harrell said. "It's now getting easier to catch them, but how do you stop them on the front end?"
   "If someone's really intent on pulling one over on you," agreed Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher, "it's not that tough to do."
   Contact Robin Erb at: robinerb@theblade.com or 419-724-6133. #
* Also see: "Frankel's financial trickery linked to the Vatican," Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/20040705/NEWS08/407050353 , ASSOCIATED PRESS, Monday, July 5, 2004 [Aug 09, 04]
• Okija People Will Revolt Against Shrines if They Were Used for Ritual Murders - Okija Prime Minister Nigeria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408080033.html , by Anayo Okoli, August 8, 2004
   AWKA, NIGERIA: Anambra State Police Command may have achieved a feat by raiding the dreaded shrines in Okija in Ihiala Local Government Area where shocking revelations of stockpiles of human skulls and dead bodies at various decomposing stages were made last week..
   Okija indigenes see the raid from different perspectives. While the Police are saying that the shrines were used for Advance Fee Fraud (419) and ritual activities, Okija indigenes and some people from Ihiala Local Government disagree. According to them, police officers also patronized the shrines.
   They therefore argue that if ritual activities went on in the shrines, police must have been part and parcel of the system. They believe that the shrines in their community which they said had existed for ages do not indulge in human blood sucking activities.
   With the interest generated by the police raiding of the shrines, Sunday Vanguard sought the views of Okija people and their neighbours in the same ward and local government.
• Horror Shrines: End of the Road for God of Okija? -- 50 bodies.
   AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408080036.html , by Paul Odili, August 8, 2004
   NIGERIA: Questions are being raised on the raids on Anambra shrines, which last week yielded human skulls and corpses, by people who say the police action clearly violated tradition.
   The raid of Okija Shrines, famously known as Alusi Okija (god of Okija) near Ihiala local government area of Anambra State, by the Nigeria Police and the discovery of 50 decomposing bodies and 20 human skulls are reportedly sending shock waves across the nation, reminiscent of the Otokoto saga in Owerri in 1996.
   But by historical parallel, the police raid resembles more the destruction of the long juju of Arochukwu by colonialists in 1909, than the Otokoto saga. Police account of the raid, according to Mr Felix Ogbaudu, Anambra Police Commissioner, was based on the compliant of ritual killings lodged by one Mr Chukwumezie Igwe, a member of a religious sect known as Hari Krishna.
   Continuing on his 'shocking' discovery, Mr Ogbaudu, revealed that he and 80 members of the mobile police unit acting on the strength of the information stormed the location of the deities in Okija.
   Giving further insight into what they saw, Mr Gabriel Haruna, a Chief Superintendent of Police, told journalists of the police resolve to get to the root of the ritual killing, adding: "What we saw in the place was very shocking. It's an on-going fight against idol worship involving human beings. We want to fish out the perpetrators. It was hell going there, the moment you step into the shrine, you see human corpses left and right, but we mustered courage." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:58 AM]
• Okija: Chief Priests Invoke Spirits Against Raiders - Ngige Denies Involvement
   AllAfrica.com http://allafrica.com/stories/200408100424.html , by Felix Uka, Awka, August 10, 2004
   AWKA, NIGERIA: Chief priests of various shrines in the South-East said yesterday morning that those who raided the Ogwugwu Okija shrines should appease the deity or suffer impending doom.
   They also kicked off a seven-day fast and one-hour a day incantation to protest the defilement of the Ogwugwu enclaves in Ihiala council area of Anambra State.
   Also, the state government has denied claims that Gov. Chris Ngige was behind the raid on the shrines to cover up an alleged past involvement there, saying it was false.
   The government instead said it is awaiting a police report at the end of its investigation.
   Spokesman of the Anambra State chapter of the League of Chief Priests in the South-East, Chief Onuchukwu James Clark, told newsmen in Awka, that shrines are no hide-outs for evildoers, but places of worship of traditional religion, saying the present controversy over the Okija shrines was unnecessary.
• Church members sue over pastor [2003 Wade] -- African Methodist Church; $300,000 unaccounted for. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Chicago Tribune, www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/north/chi-0408100180aug10,1,356314.story?coll=chi-newslocalnorth-hed ; By Lisa Black, August 10, 2004
   EVANSTON (IL): Six members of an Evanston church have filed a civil lawsuit complaining that their pastor failed to properly account for nearly $300,000 allegedly spent on items ranging from evangelism seminars and lawyers' fees to donkey rental on Palm Sunday.
   The members are demanding that Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1109 Emerson St., produce records itemizing how Rev. James Wade spent a $294,000 check that he deposited into a bank account around March 2003, according to the lawsuit.
   The church has been embroiled in the controversy over the pastor's handling of finances in recent months. A few longtime members said they left the church because they disagreed with the pastor's autocratic administrative style.
   "There are a number of open issues that need to be resolved," said Horace Graves, 63, who along with his wife and four other members filed the lawsuit.
   "Unfortunately, there is a faction within the church," said Graves, who attended Sunday's service. "There are divided feelings."
• Okija Horror Shrines: 10 Registers of Victims Found Nigeria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408090898.html , August 9, 2004
   Ndidi Okafor, Felix Uka, and Nkiru, Okeke Abuja, Awka, and Enugu
   NIGERIA: Police in Anambra State said they have so far recovered 10 registers from the Okija shrines and may soon publish the names and addresses of victims contained in the documents.
   Also, faced with a court threat by lawyer to the custodians of the Ogwugwu Isuala and Akpu shrines over alleged destruction of the worship places raided last week, the state's police spokesman, Mr. Kolapo Shofoluwe yesterday denied that the shrines were destroyed by the police.
   He said the police did no such thing, but merely stormed the sites to collect exhibits for possible prosecution of suspects arrested on the spot.
   But, secretary-general of apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze, Col. Joe Achuzia (rtd) suggested that the corpses retrieved from the shrines be subjected to autopsy to determine the cause of death.
   However, Bishop Ben Oruma of the Abuja Breakthrough Chapel yesterday stated that several pastors go to shrines to get powers for miracles.
• Lawrence woman stabbed to death; husband being questioned [2004 Shackleford] -- Baptist. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Times Daily, www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040811/BREAKING/40811002 ,    HILLSBORO (AL): A domestic dispute ended with the death of a 73-year-old woman Wednesday morning, authorities said.
   Millie Shackleford, the mother of 14 children, was stabbed to death inside her home in the David Temple community just outside of Hillsboro in Lawrence County.
   Her husband, 74-year-old W.T. Shackleford, a former Baptist pastor, was being questioned by Lawrence County sheriff's investigators late Wednesday morning.
   Sheriff's officials say he will likely be charged in connection with the stabbing death of his wife. They did not immediately reveal the motive in the incident, and no charges had been filed as of 11:30 a.m.
• Priest Under Evaluation After Standoff [2004 McGrath]
   WIVB, www.wivb.com/Global/story.asp?S=2161975&nav=0RapPlYD , August 11, 2004
   BUFFALO (NY): A retired Catholic priest is under evaluation at the Erie County Medical Center, after a four and a half hour standoff with Buffalo police. It happened Wednesday on St. Lawrence Avenue. News 4's Mylous Hairston reports.
   The Buffalo Police Department's hostage negotiating team spent nearly four hours trying to persuade Father James McGrath to put down his weapon and surrender.
   David Sugg, commander of the hostage negotiating team, said, "He didn't want to see the police. He didn't want to talk to police on the phone."
   Authorities were taking no chances with the SWAT team ready to move in following a call that the retired priest was armed.
• Police Delay Raid On New Shrines [2004] Nigeria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408110863.html , August 10, 2004, Posted to the web August 11, 2004
   LAGOS, NIGERIA: The Anambra State Police Command has put a halt to its raid on occultic shrines in the state pending the outcome of investigations into the activities of suspects arrested at the Okija shrine in Ihiala Local Government Area.
   The state Police Command Public Relations Officer, Mr. Kunle Sofoluwe, said the command decided to delay further raids on the shrines in order to interrogate families of some of the corpses and names found in the registers at the Okija shrine.
   He disclosed that the police was still trying to determine whether the corpses of those found at the shrine were killed by the ritualists or taken to the shrine by their families.
• Okija: IG Gets Presidential Order, Ohanaeze Disowns Shrine
   AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408110089.html , by Kingsley Omonobi, August 11, 2004
   ABUJA, NIGERIA: Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, received a presidential directive yesterday to personally take charge of the on-going investigation into the Okija Shrines, where the police last week recovered 20 human skulls and a fresh corpse. The IG is also to ensure that the brains behind the rituals, whatever their status, are brought to book.
   The pan-Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze, in its first reaction to the Okija incident disowned a statement credited to its Secretary-General, Chief Joe Achuzia, to the effect that the police raid on the shrines was uncalled for, and that shrines are part of Igbo tradition. The Ohanaeze described the Okija discovery as a major tragedy, and alien to Ndigbo. Meanwhile, the man who assisted the police in unraveling the Okija shrines has cried out over alleged threats to his life.
   Already, a detachment of about 70 heavily armed policemen from Mopol 44, Abuja, led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police, has left the Federal Capital for Awka and Okija to secure the 35 suspects already arrested, arrest more if need be and take along very important evidence to Force Headquarters, Abuja.
   Police sources told Vanguard that the president was personally interested in the matter, following the horrifying revelations, the interest it has generated worldwide and the need to use the Okija incident to send a once and for all signal to ritualists in the country that the time has come for an end to their blood sucking escapades.
   Two trucks, one Mercedez Benz 911 and one Tata truck, were seen loaded with mobile policemen singing war songs while a pick-up van carrying officers and another 504 salon escort car were seen heading to the Anambra State capital, Awka at about 6p.m. yesterday.
• Retired northwest Alabama minister held in wife's stabbing death [2004 Shackelford] U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Ledger-Enquirer, www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/local/9384942.htm , Associated Press
   HILLSBORO, Ala. - Ready to take her father to town, authorities say, Virginia Shackelford walked up to his rural home to find the retired minister sitting on the porch, cutting himself with a knife.
   "I just killed your mother," the elderly man told her, according to police.
   The slaying of Mollie Lee Shackelford, 72, left neighbors baffled and relatives distraught in this Lawrence County community, where she and husband W.T. Shackelford were known as salt-of-the-Earth people - the kind who were always ready to help out friends.
   The 73-year-old Shackelford was being held without bond Thursday on charges of murdering his wife of at least 50 years. He was treated at a hospital for superficial knife wounds and taken to jail.
   Sheriff Bryan Hill said the man told authorities the couple had a murder-suicide pact.
• Lawrence minister charged in stabbing death of wife [2004 Shackelford]
   The Decatur Daily, www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/040812/slaying.shtml , By Clyde L. Stancil, cstancil@decaturdaily.com , 340-2443
   HILLSBORO (AL) - James Lee McDaniel said it had to be a case of Satan taking advantage of a man he listened to most Sunday mornings for most of the past 20 years.
   Why else would his former pastor, the Rev. William Thomas "W.T." Shackelford, a man who served as pastor of North Courtland Primitive Baptist Church for two decades, stab to death the mother of his 14 children?
   His wife, Mollie Lee Shackelford, 72, of 1118 Lawrence County 425, Hillsboro, was pronounced dead Wednesday morning. Their home is in the Davis Temple community, north of Alabama 20.
   Authorities found her on the bed and believe that she was stabbed to death, but are awaiting a preliminary autopsy report to determine the exact cause. They initially received a 9:28 a.m. call about a shooting, but did not find a gun. Lawrence County Chief Deputy Wayne Huguley said investigators found a bloody knife inside a drawer in the house and another knife in Shackelford's sock.
• We Have More Corpses, Skulls - Okija Priest Tells Police Nigeria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408120691.html , by Uba Aham, August 12, 2004
   AWKA, NIGERIA: One of the 32 arrested priests of Okija shrine in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State has revealed that more human corpses and skulls are in nine other shrines located in different villages in the state.
   The priest reportedly told the police during interrogation that more corpses and skulls would be found in shrines located in Umuhi, Ajano, Umugun, Idingwo and other villages in the area if the police decide to raid the shrines.
   The Okija priest, according to a competent PMNews source, confessed to the police that bringing corpses of victims to the shrines was a common practice among adherents of the shrines.
   Meanwhile, the police are said to be wary of raiding more shrines in the area to recover more corpses for fear of diseases breaking out and the fact that there appears to be nowhere to keep the corpses.
   The 50 skulls and corpses recovered from the shrines last weekend during a 10-hour police raid of the evil forest were said to be lying at an undisclosed hospital in the state, as nobody had come forward to identify and claim them.
• Okija: My Life Is in Danger - Police Informant
   This Day, www.thisdayonline.com/news/20040812news03.html , By Tokunbo Adedoja in Lagos, Ahamefula Ogbu in Abuja and Charles Onyekamou in Awka, August 12, 2004
   NIGERIA: Chukwumezie Obed Igwe, who gave the information that led to the police raid of Okija shrine, where scores of corpses and human skulls were found has raised alarm over alleged threats to his life.
   In a four-paragraph letter addressed to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, Igwe also attached photocopies of handwritten letters of threats allegedly sent to him.
   In a swift reaction the police promised to give Igwe the required protection the moment it receives his petition.
   Also, the House of Representatives member representing Ihiala Constituency comprising Okija town, Chuma Nzeribe, has asked the police to interrogate Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State if they hope to get to the root of the killings in the Ogwugwu shrine in Okija.
   Nzeribe's call came as Anambra State Police Com-mand yesterday acknowledged the arrival of a contingent of about 100 police detectives detailed by Balogun to help in the investigation of the discovery of corpses and skulls found in Okija shrine.
• Personal View :- Okija shrine saga and civilisation
   Vanguard, www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/columns/c213082004.html , By Mobolaji Sanusi - Mobolajisanz@yahoo.com , Friday, August 13, 2004
   NIGERIA: The revelation that human skulls and corpses are common features in a forest housing dreaded shrines in Okija, Ihiala Local Government of Anambra State is shocking.
   Immediately after the news broke out, I met two of my colleagues, who are from the Igbo ethnic nationality. Both of them saw nothing wrong in the skulls and fresh human bodies found in the Okija shrine by the police. They argued that those human corpses and skulls were those of dishonest and treacherous people.
   To them, those individuals became victims of the shrine after having sworn oaths before the shrine and later reneged or breached such oaths. Those bodies, according to them, were voluntarily handed over to the shrine by the families of such victims.
   They concluded their defence of Ohanaeze's endorsement of the activities in the shrines by asking: "Do such shrines not exist in other parts of the country? Why the focus on Anambra State? One went further: "Are the authorities just aware of the existence of the shrines?"
   For me, I know that both colleagues are professed Christians. Why they support such barbaric acts in the name of tradition was what confounded me in spite of their Christian belief?
   Reflecting on my office encounter at home, I realised that people can be very passionate when it comes to issues that touch on their traditional belief. In Africa, tradition is highly regarded and no indigene of a place wants his tradition desecrated. This is notwithstanding the level of exposure, experience and education of the person involved. In my part of the country, no such shrine like Okija exists to the best of my knowledge.
Yoruba tradition
   As a Muslim, even if it exists, I am not interested because my religion abhors such. However, the question to ask is whether I would support its desecration if it exists? My answer is in the affirmative.
   My position is borne out of my unconditional regard for human dignity. The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees this right. In section 34, it provides that "every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of his person." This right does not end at death. Human beings are not expected to deny such a right to even a dead person. Any attempt under whatever guise to do such is nothing but an attempt that dehumanises the whole essence of living. Throwing dead bodies enmasse in open graves does violence to the dignity of the human person. This is why the issue of civilisation comes in.
   If those skulls and dead bodies found in the shrines at Anambra State were those of the people who have betrayed the gods and their fellow human beings, then the gods should come to the rescue of the macro society in Nigeria. There are a lot of leadership betrayals in the country such that the gods of the shrines should intercede. Perhaps, the bodies and skulls of those found at the shrines are those of the down trodden. There are no evidence that those who either loot our public treasuries or misdirect our country ever get sanctioned by the gods. Herein lies the hypocrisy in the much touted gods. Rather than sanction those who misuse power, the gods protect them against the wrath of commoners. Where lies the justice in the deeds of the gods of the shrines?
Civilisation marches on
   The world is advancing every day: This means that there must be advancement in the way and manner of the practice of traditional religions. Any human being, living or dead, must be treated with dignity.
   For this I agree with Anne Morrow Lindbergh to wit; "The intellectual is constantly betrayed by his vanity. Godlike he blindly assumes that he can express everything in words; whereas, the things one loves; lives, and dies for are not, in the last analysis completely expressible in words." My aim is far from this.
   In any religion that we practise, there is the need for justice, fairness and respect for human sanctity to be upper- most in our dealings. This is the only way to make our society grow to our desired height. Else, we'll be giving credence to the words of Jonathan Swift when he writes that "we have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another." Dehumanisation of dead bodies under whatever guise is not the way to love one another.
   It will be good if we can be more human to ourselves whatever religion we practise. God, the ultimate judge, will give judgement on the day of reckoning. For this, I subscribe to Dalai Lama's preachings that: "This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples: no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy of kindness." How many worshippers of the gods of the shrines subscribe to this belief of Dalai Lama. None I presume from what Okija shrine has exposed so far. #
• Second Guilty Plea In Corruption Probe [? 2003-04 McCracken, Kemp] -- Church of God in Christ, bank loan fraud. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   CBS 3, http://kyw.com/Local%20News/local_story_226152925.html , 3:25 pm US/Eastern, Aug 13, 2004
   PHILADELPHIA (PA) (AP): The handyman at a Reading church pleaded guilty Friday to charges that he helped the pastor and an influential parishioner, Philadelphia's former city treasurer, get a fraudulent bank loan.
   Jose Mendoza, 44, signed a document falsely representing that he was the general manager of a company performing construction work at the church, the St. James Chapel, Church of God in Christ.
   Investigators claim the company existed only on paper, and tens of thousands of dollars loaned for a church renovation project wound up in the pockets of its pastor, the Rev. Francis D. McCracken, and Philadelphia Treasurer Corey Kemp.
  The FBI investigated the loan as part of a sweeping probe of alleged public corruption in Philadelphia city government.
Okija: Power Beyond Their Brief [2004] Nigeria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   AllAfrica.com ; by Eziuche Ubani, August 13, 2004
   LAGOS, NIGERIA: In the complex and deadly political theatre that Anambra State has become, every event affords the gladiators an opportunity to square off. Thus, it is not surprising that the Governor Chris Ngige and Chief Chris Uba forces are locked in a slanging match over the Okijagate. From all indications, the Ogwugwu shrines and their power are likely to come to grief and so, it is expected that its patrons are distancing themselves from it.
   Indeed, the Ngige corner claims now that it was their invocation of Holy Ghost fire against the shrines that brought them to this pass. They say that was necessary because the shrine is the foundation of Uba's power. It must be in response to that claim that Hon. Chuma Nzeribe, the one who was alleged to have administered that famous gubernatorial slap on the graying beards of His Excellency in the toilet, told the media that Ngige is a member of the Okija cult.
   That, and the other distractions have come to obscure the real issues in the matter. Some commentators waving fans of hypocrisy, create the impression that the existence of native shrines and oracles is something new. It is not. Anybody who claims that, is merely pretending. In the jungles of the Niger-Delta, the South-West and elsewhere, there are equivalents of the Ogwugwu shrines. What may differ is their methodologies. In Rivers State, there is the famous Ojukwu Diobu. In Imo State, there is the famed oracle at Chokoneze in Aboh Mbaise local council. There are several in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States.
Nigeria shrine yields more bodies [2004] -- 83 now.
   BBC News
   NIGERIA: Nigerian police say they have found a further 33 bodies in addition to the 50 already uncovered in fetish shrines in south-eastern Anambra state.
   A traditional cult reputed to carry out ritual killings is thought to have carried out the murders.
   Some of the corpses had hands, genitals or heads missing.
   Police have displayed skulls - and five men of the 30 or so people arrested in connection with the murders - to correspondents in the capital, Abuja.
'Parallel court'
   "Police are concerned about how the headless bodies found their way into the shrines," said deputy police chief Sunday Ehindero.
   However, a spokesman for those arrested denied any involvement in the killings.
   "Since I have been there, for two years, I have not seen anybody killed by these people. Rather, the shrines kill," said Collin Obi.
Nigerian Police Say 33 More Bodies Found [2004]
   Newsday By GILBERT DA COSTA, Associated Press Writer, August 13, 2004,
   ABUJA, Nigeria -- Investigators have found 33 more bodies in woodlands near where a secretive cult is believed to have carried out ritual killings, police said Friday in raising the death toll in the case to 83.
   In last week's initial raids on homes and two forests in southeastern Anambra state, police found 50 bodies -- some without heads -- and about 20 skulls. The bodies, several of which were mummified, had been left unburied in caskets lying in what have been dubbed the two "evil forests."
   Police paraded five bedraggled men before journalists Friday in Abuja, the national capital, and lined up 20 skulls that officials said were found hidden in domestic shrines linked to the Alusi Okija cult.
   Sunday Ehindero, the deputy inspector general of police, said the men were among 31 priests arrested in connection with the killings.
   "The police are concerned with how these bodies found their way into the shrines. We want to find out who severed the heads from the bodies of those we found," Ehindero said.
• Globe-trotting cleric sought for money [2003] South Africa flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Vaal Weekly, www.news24.com/Regional_Papers/Components/Category_Article_Text_Template/0,2430,372_ 1572571~E,00.html
   SOUTH AFRICA: An angry young man from Sebokeng's Zone 3 demands that the famous pastor of a Sebokeng church repay the R5 000 he allegedly took from him and his group of dancers.
   This was at the Classic Youth Club under the auspices of organising an international tour of the Americas for them.
   The fuming Monabudi Motse told Vaal Weekly this week that he had been taken for a ride by the pastor who allegedly lured him into handing him the R5 000 to organise visas for the ten-member group to perform at the annual African/American day in the United States last year in February.
Anambra to acquire Okija shrines Nigeria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Vanguard, By Anayo Okoli, Kingsley Omonobi & Enyim Enyim, Friday, August 13, 2004
   AWKA, NIGERIA -THE Anambra State is to acquire the vast expanse of land that currently accommodates the Okija shrines for public use. Already, the special police squad dispatched by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, to handle the investigation of the activities of ritualists at the shrines returned to Abuja yesterday with 31 suspects including one chief priest and four elderly men whose ages range between 60 and 75 years.
   The Anambra State Government in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, Mr. Fred Chukwuelobe, said: "The attention of the Government of Anambra State has been drawn to various newspaper reports and insinuations regarding the recent police raids and destruction of the various shrines at Okija and the subsequent arrest of the chief priest and other priests of the infamous shrines. The government wishes to say that following the interim report on the matter by the state Commissioner of Police and other security agencies, it fully supports the raids and the destruction of the shrines and regards them as welcome developments.
   "The government of Anambra State sees the development as a good riddance to bad rubbish and at the appropriate time government will come out with a proposal for the acquisition of the said large expanse of forest land which the shrines had occupied for various government projects."
Arrest warrant issued for Catholic priest in church embezzlement [2000s Werra] -- $US 240,000 suspected. U.S.A. flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Detroit Free Press, August 14, 2004
   PAW PAW, Mich. (AP) -- An arrest warrant has been issued for a Roman Catholic priest who authorities suspect may have embezzled more than $240,000 from churches he served in Mattawan and Marcellus.
   The Rev. Bogdon Werra faces a charge of embezzlement over $20,000, Van Buren County Prosecutor Juris Kaps told the Kalamazoo Gazette for a Saturday story. If convicted, Werra could face up to 10 years in prison.
   It was not known when Werra would be arraigned in Van Buren County District Court, but Kaps said authorities were working with Werra's attorney to have the 49-year-old priest turn himself in soon.
   A message seeking comment was left Saturday with Anthony Toweson, who was identified as Werra's attorney.
   In a statement, the Diocese of Kalamazoo said its preliminary investigation "found evidence of financial irregularities in excess of $240,000" at St. John Bosco Parish in Mattawan and St. Margaret Mary Mission in Marcellus.
Priest accused of taking $240,000 [? 2000s Werra]
   Kalamazoo Gazette, By Rex Hall Jr., rhall@kalamazoogazette.com , 388-7784 , Saturday, August 14, 2004
   MICHIGAN: An arrest warrant was issued Friday for a Catholic priest who may have embezzled more than $240,000 from churches he served in Mattawan and Marcellus.
   The Rev. Bogdon Werra faces a charge of embezzlement over $20,000, Van Buren County Prosecutor Juris Kaps said. Werra could face a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted.
   It was not known Friday when Werra would be arraigned in Van Buren County District Court, but Kaps said authorities were working with Werra's attorney to have the 49-year-old priest turn himself in some time next week. In a statement released Friday, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo said its preliminary investigation "found evidence of financial irregularities in excess of $240,000" at St. John Bosco Parish in Mattawan and St. Margaret Mary Mission in Marcellus.
   Kaps declined to discuss any specifics of the case, pending the possibility of a criminal trial.
The END of Newsitems Received Covering Other Than Child And/Or Sexual Abuse

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