By August 30, 2003, Paul Bolton, the District Attorney's longtime political adviser and campaign strategist, retired. The loss of Mr. Bolton comes on the heels of the defection to the private sector of one of Mr. Conte's top legal minds, Harry Quick, who formerly was chief in the appeals division. Others in the veteran DA's inner circle also have left.
So in tracking information we can see that Monsignor Sullivan was caught
Promotions have come for those who on the surface cannot be traced to any substantial outcome of their efforts. It appears the only way to seek justice in Worcester County is going to have to happen at the election ballot box in 2006
• O'Malley to report to Vatican this week -- RCC. 82 parishes out of 357 to close.
Boston Globe, www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/08/23/omalley_to_report_to_vatican_this_week , By Ron DePasquale, Globe Correspondent, August 23, 2004
BOSTON (MA): Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley will discuss the Archdiocese of Boston's massive consolidation and its handling of the clergy abuse crisis during a 10-day "Ad Limina" stay at the Vatican, part of a formal progress report that every Roman Catholic diocese in the world makes every five years.
O'Malley, who is scheduled to depart Wednesday, will meet with Pope John Paul II, if the pontiff's health permits, O'Malley's spokesman, the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, said.
"Archbishop O'Malley wants to speak to the pope and other officials of the Holy See about the clergy abuse crisis, what we've done to address the issue, and what we hope and need to continue to do," Coyne said. "The archbishop wants to share with Rome many of the issues concerning the pastoral and ecclesiastical health of the archdiocese connected with the reconfiguration."
Of the archdiocese's 357 parishes, 82 have been slated to close.
O'Malley will also seek a clear explanation on the washing of feet, an issue that has embroiled him in controversy after he washed only the feet of men, and not women, on Holy Thursday in April. O'Malley later apologized for offending women, and said he was following Vatican guidelines. Cardinal Bernard F. Law washed women's feet, as do many priests in the archdiocese and most American clergy.
• Catholic Diocese needs $5 million for campaign -- RCC. Abuse crisis also hit finances.
Globe News, www.amarillonet.com/stories/082304/new_forcampaign.shtml , By BRANDI DEAN, brandi.dean@amarillo.com , Aug 23, 2004
AMARILLO (TX): The Catholic Diocese of Amarillo has a long and possibly difficult road ahead of it. It will take $5 million to get to the end.
In mid-September, the diocese will begin a $5 million capital campaign to clear the organization of the $2.2 million debt it has accrued during the past couple of years - in large part due to the Catholic Church's abuse scandal - and to put some money toward the future.
"We have a pretty tough case, or a challenging case, dealing with the crisis in the church," said Nancy Koons, director of the diocese's development and stewardship office. "I really hope and pray that people see this as an opportunity to continue the healing and get back to the mission of our church."
Monsignor Joseph Tash, pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church and chairman of the campaign, said the Amarillo diocese is one of the poorest dioceses in the country and like most expects a certain amount of debt. But recently circumstances have combined to inflate the amount of that debt.
"The crisis in the church caused us to go into significant debt," Koons said. "Then there were a couple of unforeseen things that caused us to go further into debt. It's like getting hit by a hurricane - then getting hit by two more."
• Church sex abuse trial set to open [1960s Ribeiro] -- RCC. Boys.
Mercury News, www.mercurynews.com/ mld/mercurynews/news/local/ 9471711.htm?ERIGHTS=-6899774 340067 591 005 mercurynews:: kashaw@peoplepc.com &KRD_RM=4nrnolomt sptrnrkkk kkkkkloo| Kathleen|Y
OAKLAND (AP) (CA) - A high-stakes battle over what the Roman Catholic Church owes victims of sexual abuse in Northern California begins this week as lawyers debate a controversial state law that calculates church liability.
Pretrial hearings in the church abuse cases resume Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland when Judge Ronald Sabraw hears the case of the Rev. Arthur Ribeiro, who is accused of molesting Catholic school boys at Queen of All Saints Church in Concord in the early 1960s. He died four years ago.
Ribeiro's case is being used as a test case for a state law adopted two years ago that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations and allowed adult victims to seek damages for sexual abuse that occurred decades ago.
• Well-water worries for St. Agnes neighbors -- RCC.
Greenwich Time, www.greenwichtime.com/ news/local/scn-gt- water4aug23,0,6386985. story?coll=green-news -local-headlines ; By Hoa Nguyen, August 23, 2004
GREENWICH (CT): It's been a couple of years since Greenwich had a drought, but based on discussions swirling around the imminent sale of land around St. Agnes Church, fears about running out of water still run deep.
"The well water is the number one priority for the people in the area," White Birch Lane resident Andy Healy said at an Aug. 9 neighborhood meeting.
Residents have been buzzing with activity for more than a month after learning that the Diocese of Bridgeport wants to sell 25 of the 32 acres by St. Agnes Church so it can pay a court settlement announced in October involving victims of sexual abuse.
The church would remain at its location but the fear is that a developer might subdivide the property to make room for up to 10 homes. Several neighbors who have either had to redrill their wells or have heard of others forced to do so worry that a new development might interfere with their private well systems.
• Stanwich School eyes church land -- RCC.
Greenwich Time, www.greenwichtime.com/ news/local/scn-gt- stanwich1aug23,0,19758. story?coll=green-news- local-headlines ; By Hoa Nguyen, August 23, 2004
GREENWICH (CT): In the swirl of discussions surrounding the planned sale of land around St. Agnes Church, the focus has been mostly on the residents who want a say in the transaction.
But equally important may also be one private school's yet-unfulfilled search for a permanent home.
After learning that the Diocese of Bridgeport wants to sell 25 of the 32 acres at 247 Stanwich Road to help pay a court settlement involving victims of sexual abuse, officials at Stanwich School, which leases space next door, began making inquiries about the property.
Neighbors who have expressed an interest in supporting the school's purchase of the property have had several meetings with school officials. But officials are cautious, having weathered two prior failed bids to find a permanent home in the region. Both ran into neighborhood opposition and eventually fizzled.
• Lawyer: Church may settle late-filed cases [2003 Maiello] -- RCC.
Newsday, www.newsday.com/ news/local/longisland/ny- lisnap0823,0,5515559. story?coll=ny-li- big-pix ; BY RITA CIOLLI, August 23, 2004
LONG ISLAND (NY): The special counsel hired by Bishop William Murphy to resolve legal claims stemming from the sexual abuse of minors by clerics reports that "good progress" has been made and disclosed for the first time that the Diocese of Rockville Centre is now considering settling through mediation cases involving dozens of victims that were filed too late under state law.
"The bishop wants as much reconciliation as possible," said Mark Tuohey, a Washington lawyer serving as Murphy's adviser. His comments last week came in response to criticism by a national victims' advocacy group that the diocese was shutting them out of the mediation process.
"Victims have some valuable input to offer and it is not being accepted by the church hierarchy," said David Cerulli, of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP].
Tuohey indicated it was unlikely outside groups would be brought into the process. "The procedures we have in place are fair, thorough and independent and those are the qualities that are important," he said.
Tuohey, who was hired by Murphy in June, said his current focus was St. Raphael parish in East Meadow, where Matthew Maiello, the former youth director, pleaded guilty in July 2003 to raping and sodomizing four teens he supervised.
However, Tuohey said the diocese also was open to mediating cases of victims who came forward after the state time limit had passed. "My hope is that we will be able to deal with this as broadly as possible to achieve reconciliation and closure. Where it will go beyond that I don't know. I am not going to close to the door to anything," he said.
• 2 priests put on leave amid sex abuse claims [Murray, Malawy] -- RCC. Boy.
Detroit Free Press, www.freep.com/news/religion/cath23e_20040823.htm , BY LAURA POTTS, August 23, 2004
DETROIT (MI): Just days after Catholic officials in Detroit said they were working to resolve cases of clergy accused of sexually abusing minors, two more priests were put on administrative leave Sunday amid allegations of abuse.
The Rev. Timothy Murray, pastor of St. Edith parish in Livonia, and the Rev. Michael Malawy, pastor of St. Joseph parish in Maybee, each are accused of sexual misconduct with an underage boy, said Ned McGrath, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit.
Neither Murray nor Malawy could be reached for comment Sunday. The allegations against the priests, who are restricted from public ministry, date to the early years of their ministry. The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office declined to investigate the claims because the statute of limitations has expired, McGrath said.
The Archdiocesan Review Board, which received the complaints in the spring, commissioned an investigation.
• Diocese names three priests barred from ministry [McGreal, Linehan, McMahon] -- RCC.
Corvallis Gazette-Times, www.gazettetimes.com/ articles/2004/08/23/news/ the_west/monwst01.txt , The Associated Press, Aug 23, 2004
SEATTLE (WA) - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese has released the names of three priests who have been permanently barred from ministry after allegations that they sexually abused children were found to be credible.
The men are James McGreal, David Linehan and Desmond McMahon, the church said in a press release posted on its web site Saturday. ... [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:42 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Mon August 23, 2004
Religions' abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont94.htm
• ["Crime of Solicitation" so private almost unknown in U.S. R.C. dioceses; later power taken to Vatican.]
[“Crime of Solicitation” so private almost unknown in U.S. R.C. dioceses; later power taken to Vatican]
WASHINGTON (DC) U.S.A. – [In the deposition transcript, nearly every line has a line number. THESE LINE NUMBERS HAVE NOT BEEN REMOVED. The colons (:) in early lines were to set off columns, but for clarity the wording has been sorted in a linear way. To see each line as set out in the deposition transcript, please view the HTML source coding.]
Page 1: CAUSE NO. 141-198356-93; In the District Court of Tarrant County, Texas, 141st Judicial District; JOHN DOE I AND JOHN DOE II, Plaintiffs, v. 4 ROMAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF FORT : FORT WORTH; BISHOP JOSEPH P. DELANEY,: 5 INDIVIDUALLY AND AS BISHOP, HIS : PREDECESSORS AND SUCCESSORS; FATHER : 6 THOMAS H. TECZAR; ROMAN CATHOLIC : BISHOP OF WORCESTER, A CORPORATION : 7 SOLE; AND BISHOP GEORGE E. RUEGER, : INDIVIDUALLY, : 8 Defendants.
Washington, D.C., Tuesday, August 24, 2004
11 Deposition of REVEREND JOHN P. BEAL III, JCD, business address Department of Canon 12 Law, Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. 20064, 202-319-5492, [...]
[To read the transcript, click: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm#crime_of_solicitation_so ]
[ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Kathy Shaw of the U.S.A. ENDS.]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tue August 24, 2004 edition follows:-
• Kenya: Four Arrested Over 'Miracle Babies' Saga [Deya] -- Deya's own religion. Children mysteriously disappeared, appeared.
AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408240892.html , Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi), August 24, 2004
KENYA: At least four people have been arrested by Kenyan police in a bid to unravel the case of more than 20 babies, claimed to have been born to two women, well past their menopause, and in a record five years in the wake of allegations of the existence of a child trafficking syndicate in the country, linked to a UK-based Kenyan preacher, Archbishop Gilbert Deya.
It all started on Friday, August 13, 2004, after a BBC documentary on Archbishop Deya of the Gilbert Deya Ministries, in which women claimed to have given birth to babies without sexual contact. The BBC Radio 4 programme called for investigations into the activities, whereby the beneficiaries of the miracles have to travel from Britain to 'deliver' their babies in Kenyan slums.
Then a Kenyan couple, Mr Michael Odera and his 56 year old wife Eddah, appeared on Kenyan television with 13 children whom they claimed she gave birth to in five years, and without any sexual contact after prayers from the self-proclaimed prophet Gilbert Deya.
As Kenyans doubted the authenticity of the claims, four couples, some with photos as proof, went to Kenya's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) claiming parentage of four of the children (now already under care of the government) saying they had mysteriously disappeared from home a few years ago.
• Pastor Failed to Register as Sex Offender [Hunter] -- Baptist.
KLAS, www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2216203&nav=168XQD5e , Aug. 24, 2004
LAS VEGAS (NV): Eyewitness News was the first to report the new twist in the case involving a local pastor fighting to preach at a local valley church. Officers arrested Pastor Gary Hunter on charges of failing to register as a sex offender shortly after an unrelated court hearing.
Hunter was evicted from the Greater Saint James Baptist Church earlier this month on allegations of theft and sexual harassment. Authorities say he failed to register as a sex offender in the State of Nevada.
• Philly priest to plead guilty to possessing child pornography [2003 Kornacki] -- RCC. "ordered it once" at seminary.
Philadelphia Inquirer, www.philly.com/ mld/philly/news/ 9483736.htm? ERIGHTS=881817657 2772892543philly:: kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM=1impqpknppo hhhhhhhhhholjmp| Kathleen|Y ; By Joseph A. Slobodzian
PHILADELPHIA (PA): A veteran Philadelphia Roman Catholic priest ensnared last year in a New York-based federal probe of child pornography will plead guilty tomorrow to a count of possession.
According to federal court documents, the Rev. Matthew J. Kornacki, 57, will admit that he ordered computer disks containing images of children involved in sexual activity and that he had 150 images of child pornography on his personal laptop computer, seized by Secret Service agents at a visit last year at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenya Mann confirmed that Kornacki will plead guilty before U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick.
"This is very unfortunate, this is a very nice man," said Francis Recchuiti, Kornacki's attorney. "He has never been involved in any of this other stuff. He wasn't trafficking. He ordered it once, destroyed it and didn't realize it was still on his computer hard drive."
• Goa Archbishop told to scan all churches [Rodrigues] -- RCC. Girl.
The Indian Express, www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=53787 , EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE, AUGUST 24 2004, Posted online at 0143 hours IST, Wednesday, August 25, 2004
PANAJI, INDIA : Even as molestation charges levelled against a priest in Ribander continue to raise a political storm here, Archbishop of Goa Rev. Filipe Neri Ferrao has been urged to order an independent inquiry into similar incidents of "sexual impropriety" reported from other churches.
Social activist Aires Rodrigues says since the Ribandar episode came to light, he has received numerous complaints from parishioners across Goa, alleging "misconduct" by priests.
The Ribander episode has also led to a clear divide. While the priest's supporters, mostly women, took out a rally in Panjim and submitted a memorandum to the CM on Sunday, villagers have called a bandh on August 30 to express their solidarity with the victim.
The victim's supporters have urged the Bishop to intiate action against priests facing similar charges. The bandh has been called to protest the failure of the Goa police to take speedy action against Ribandar parish priest, Fr. Newton Rodrigues who is charged with molesting a minor girl.
• Pastor guilty of sexual exploitation [Hollingsworth] -- Baptist. Woman.
The Hawk Eye www.thehawkeye.com/daily/stories/ln5_0824.html , By MATTHEW LeBLANC, mleblanc@thehawkeye.com , Aug 24, 2004
IOWA: A former southeast Iowa pastor who had a sexual relationship with a woman he counseled at his Danville church avoided jail time Monday when a judge gave him a suspended sentence and ordered him to pay a fine and undergo psychological counseling.
Harry F. Hollingsworth Sr., 57, Hubbard, Texas, signed a plea agreement in July in Des Moines County District Court to plead guilty to a reduced charge of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist, an aggravated misdemeanor.
He originally was charged in March with sexual abuse by a counselor or therapist, a class D felony.
District Judge Cynthia Danielson ordered Hollingsworth to pay a $500 fine, attend counseling, undergo a psychological evaluation, pay restitution to the victim, pay a civil penalty of $200 and to register with Iowa's sex offender registry.
He also was sentenced to two years in prison, which was suspended.
• Pastor Faces Child Sex Assault Charges [2000s Madrigal] -- Salvation Army. Girls.
TheDenverChannel.com ; www.thedenverchannel.com/news/3678283/detail.html , August 24, 2004
DENVER (CO) -- A 48-year-old Denver Salvation Army pastor is under arrest for allegedly molesting two young girls.
Walter Madrigal was jailed Tuesday on a $50,000 bond following his arrest at his home on charges of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust, sexual assault on a child, and sexual assault on a child -- pattern of abuse, all felonies.
Madrigal is a pastor for the Salvation Army's Red Shield Center in northeast Denver, according to Denver police. It was not known if the alleged victims belonged to the congregation at the Red Shield Center, 7NEWS reported.
His arrest caught local Salvation Army officials by surprise because they run background checks on all employees.
"We've never had any complaints, or any indication that there was anything to be concerned about," said Col. Harold Drodin, of the Salvation Army. "We are very concerned about proper conduct and the responsibility towards minors and vulnerable adults."
• Methods offered to react to abuse
Bangor Daily News, www.bangornews.com/editorialnews/article.cfm?ID=429883
PORTLAND, MAINE - In the wake of sexual abuse allegations involving churches, schools and other institutions, a team of Maine counselors offered Monday an outline of ways to respond to the problem, especially when children are involved.
The 10-member group hopes its recommendations will be adopted by churches, schools and other organizations that deal with children throughout the state.
In a 32-page document titled, "A Model for Responding to Sexual Abuse Within Institutions," the counselors recommended that victims and institutions turn to the state's 10 sexual assault centers before calling lawyers.
"An institution must choose," says the report, released during a news conference Monday at the University of Southern Maine.
"It can respond in a self-protective manner, which can deepen the pain for victims-survivors, their families, and the community and can continue to place children at risk; or, it can respond with an open, compassionate attitude that will bring healing to victims-survivors, their families, the community, and the institution.
• Two Years After Agreement, Church Audit Hasn't Begun -- RCC. Not prosecuted, yet failed to comply.
TheWMURChannel.com ; www.thewmurchannel.com/news/3676996/detail.html , POSTED: 11:57 am EDT August 24, 2004
MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE -- Nearly two years after the state and the Catholic church reached an agreement on the church sexual abuse scandal, a church audit still hasn't begun.
A superior court hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 24 in the dispute between the attorney general and the Diocese of Manchester, which disagrees with the state over the extent of the oversight as well as who should cover the cost, estimated at $200,000 for the first year alone.
The audit is required by the December 2002 agreement, in which Catholic leaders acknowledged having failed to protect children from abusive priests and agreed to reform their policies. In exchange, the state did not prosecute.
But prosecutors and church leaders have wrangled for months over the audit.
Will Delker, senior assistant attorney general, said that the church and state have had a series of productive meetings, and the possibility remains that an agreement could be reached before the court date.
• Priest's trial set to go [1990s Superiaso] -- RCC. Girl.
San Francisco Examiner, www.sfexaminer.com/article/index.cfm/i/082404n_priest/a> , By Sabrina Crawford, Tuesday, August 24, 2004
REDWOOD CITY (CA) -- After more than a year of delays, trial proceedings will begin this week for a former Daly City Catholic priest on charges that he molested a 12-year-old girl in the mid-1990s.
Following months of legal wrangling, efforts to have the charges dropped against 50-year-old Jose Superiaso on the argument that the constitutional statute of limitations had expired went by the wayside Monday.
Appearing in San Mateo Superior Court in Redwood City in a red jumpsuit, with his head bowed, the former St. Andrew Catholic Church priest listened quietly to Judge John Runde.
"Based on the chronology of reporting, the age of the complainant at the time ... the demurer [motion to dismiss] is overruled," Runde said, citing a similar case recently decided in Los Angeles.
• Appeals court cites statute of limitations expires in priest abuse suit [1960s O'Connell] -- RCC Seminary. Males.
The Kansas City Star, www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/9484088.htm , By JIM SALTER, Associated Press
ST. LOUIS (MO) - A former seminarian's sexual-abuse lawsuit against a priest who went on to become a Florida bishop was filed after the statute of limitations expired, a state appeals panel ruled Tuesday.
The lawsuit, seeking unspecified damages, was filed by a man listed only as John T. Doe, now in his early 50s and living in Massachusetts. He was a student at now-defunct St. Thomas Seminary in Hannibal in the late 1960s, when the Most Rev. Anthony O'Connell was rector there.
O'Connell left the seminary to become bishop in Knoxville, Tenn., in 1988, then became bishop of the Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla. He resigned in March 2002 after admitting to the abuse of another student at the Hannibal seminary.
A three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that the lawsuit filed in 2002 came too late, well past the five-year statute of limitations for such lawsuits.
• Diocese to inform parishes of abuse allegations -- RCC.
Press-Citizen, www.press-citizen.com/ apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20040824/NEWS01/ 40824007/1079 , August 24, 2004
DAVENPORT (IA): This announcement in from the Diocese of Davenport:
The Review Board of the Diocese of Davenport has reviewed an investigation by the Diocese's independent investigators, James Sweeney & Associates, into allegations of sexual abuse of a minor in 1998 in Johnson County, Iowa. Although the victim did not wish to pursue criminal charges, the Diocese reported the allegation to the Johnson County Attorney's office in July, 2003. The Diocese hired an independent attorney to advise the victim and counseling was offered.
After reviewing the investigation, Bishop William Franklin has decided, with the support of the Review Board, to follow Diocesan policies and inform parishes and other entities where the priest served, of the allegations. The Diocese will work with these parishes and other entities to plan together for the best way to inform the people at large of these allegations.
The Diocese will act quickly to consult with the parishes and other entities where the priest served. An announcement will be made soon so that persons who may have also been victims of this conduct may come forward for assistance and healing may be encouraged.
• Court rules it's too late to sue former Knoxville bishop [1960s O'Connell] -- RCC Seminary. Males.
WATE, www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=2215551 , August 24, 2004
ST. LOUIS (MO) (AP) -- A state appeals court in Missouri ruled Tuesday that it's too late for a former seminarian to file a sexual abuse lawsuit against a priest who went on to become a Knoxville bishop.
The lawsuit, seeking unspecified damages, was filed by a man listed only as John T. Doe, now in his early 50s and living in Massachusetts. He was a student at a seminary in Hannibal, Missouri, in the late 1960s, when the Most Rev. Anthony O'Connell was rector there.
O'Connell left the seminary in 1988 to become the founding bishop in Knoxville, where he stayed 10 years and then became bishop of the Diocese of Palm Beach, Florida. He resigned in March 2002 after admitting to the abuse of another student at the Hannibal seminary.
• Judge: Extended statute of limitations in sex cases unconstitutional
ABC 7, http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/082404_ns_sexabuse.html , August 24, 2004
CHICAGO (IL): A Cook County judge has determined that the law that extends the period of time a person can file charges for past abuse is unconstitutional. The Childhood Sexual Abuse Act was amended last summer to give victims more time to bring legal action against their abusers.
It extended the statute of limitations from two to ten years after the accuser turns eighteen. But the amendment leaves a gray area: whether the extension was intended to deal with claims already made. One judge gave her opinion
For the first time, a judge ruled on a new state law. On Tuesday Cook County Circuit Court Judge Diane Joan Larsen said an extended statute of limitations on child abuse claims does not apply because the cases were previously filed.
"The court finds no express legislative intent to have the statute applied retroactively to revive a previously barred cause of action," said Judge Larsen.
Barbara Blaine is with the Survivors Network of those abused by priests [SNAP]. The lawsuits in question were brought by two men who claim to have been abused by a religious order priest.
The lawsuits were pending when the statute of limitations became law. Blaine says the extension was designed for such a claim.
"Judge Larsen's decision is disappointing. The survivors and victims from across Illinois worked really hard to have this statute extended and we believed that the language was clear," said Barbara Blaine, Survivors Network.
• Church administrator is out [2004 St. Anne, aka Scott] -- Independent Churchman branching out with some women.
The Minot Daily News, www.minotdailynews.com/news/story/0824202004_new24news2.asp , By ANDREA JOHNSON, ajohnson@ndweb.com
POWERS LAKE, NORTH DAKOTA - The sometimes controversial former administrator of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Prairies here left Powers Lake earlier this month.
Paul Dobrowski, a member of the board of directors, said Friday the board asked Ryan St. Anne, 51, to leave the Shrine. Dobrowski said St. Anne has purchased a former medical facility in Galesburg, Ill., where he plans to establish a new independent Benedictine monastery.
The daughter of an 82-year-old long-time parishioner who left the Shrine with St. Anne said Friday she's concerned about her mother's welfare.
Bobbie Fleming, of Orangevale, Calif., said she last spoke with her mother, Roseanna Gevelinger, more than three weeks ago. Gevelinger is one of two elderly former parishioners who left with St. Anne, Dobrowski said. St. Anne, when reached by phone Friday in Galesburg, said that Gevelinger is with him in Galesburg.
He declined to put Gevelinger on the phone and referred questions to her attorney, Kathleen Key Imes of Williston. Imes said Friday that she could not comment on issues regarding her client.
St. Anne, who has also gone by the name of Ryan Patrick Scott, created some controversy during his time in North Dakota.
Bishop Paul Zipfel, of the Bismarck Catholic Diocese, issued a statement last summer stating that he does not recognize St. Anne as a priest. The Shrine of Our Lady of the Prairies is also not considered part of the diocese.
• Priest abuse support group holds golf fund-raiser
KMOV, www.kmov.com/localnews/stories/082604cccakmovsnapgolf.a7a0accc.html , 06:34 PM CDT, Monday, August 23, 2004
ST. LOUIS (MO): Members of a support group for priest abuse victims held a memorial golf tournament Monday. Members of SNAP, or the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, attended the Christopher Klump Memorial Golf Tourney at Quail Creek Country Club in South County.
Klump committed suicide last year. His parents said he'd been tormented for years after being abused by a priest.
• O'Malley off to Vatican to report on abuse -- RCC.
The Herald News, www.zwire.com/ site/news.cfm?newsid= 12762765&BRD=1710&PAG= 461&dept_id= 99697&rfi=6 , By DANIEL BALINT-KURTI, Associated Press Writer, Aug/24/2004
BOSTON (MA) (AP) -- Boston Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley will visit Rome this week to talk with the Pope and Vatican officials about clergy sex abuse and the closing of 82 of the 357 parishes in his archdiocese.
"Archbishop O'Malley wants to speak to the Pope and other officials of the Holy See about the clergy abuse issue, what we've done to address the issue and what we hope and need to continue to do," said the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, the archdiocese spokesman O'Malley, who is scheduled to leave for Rome on Wednesday, will meet with Pope John Paul II if the pontiff's health permits, Coyne said.
• Group considers orphanage abuse lawsuit [< 1970s Goodwood Orphanage] -- RCC. Brutality.
ABC, www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200408/s1184271.htm ,
AUSTRALIA: A group of former residents of the Goodwood orphanage in South Australia want compensation from the Catholic church, alleging brutal and sadistic treatment more than three decades ago.
The group has sought legal advice and may launch a class action against the church.
Maggie Bray is a member of the group and says that although she was traumatised by her time at Goodwood, she considers herself luckier than others who required psychiatric treatment later in life.
"I was there 11 years," she said. "I was a lovely little, gentle girl and I left there a destroyed lady. That took years out of my life."
• UK Police Join Probe Into 'Miracle' Babies [Deya] -- Deya Ministries. Bore 19 children in five years: claim.
AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408231116.html , by Dominic Wabala, August 23, 2004
NAIROBI, KENYA: Detectives investigating pastor Gilbert Deya's "Miracle Babies" will today take tissue samples from a Nakuru couple and a man who have laid claim two of the children.
They will submit them for DNA tests as Kenyan police sought help from their British counterparts to establish the parentage of the 19 children seized in a Nairobi estate.
They were found at the home of Mr Michael Odera and his wife Eddah, who claimed to have had them between 1999 and 2004.
But on Saturday, Lucy Mbugua and her husband laid claim to one of them, saying it was their one-year-old son who disappeared from their Njokeria home, Njoro in 2002 and Duncan Muli Munyau lost his son in Kibera in 2001.
• Southaven sub faces sex charges in Ariz. [1993 + Vahle] -- Lutheran.
The Clarion-Ledger, www.clarionledger.com/ apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20040824/NEWS01/ 408240381/1002 ; The Associated Press
SOUTHAVEN (MS) - A Southaven substitute teacher arrested in Tennessee last week for sexual misconduct with a child slipped through the cracks of the DeSoto County School District's new security program, school officials said.
Michael Vahle, 53, was arrested in Memphis on an Arizona warrant relating to 41 counts of sexual assault involving a child younger than 15 dating back to 1993, according to the Memphis Police Department.
Vahle was also a pastor with Our Savior Lutheran Church in Memphis.
Vahle had been a substitute teacher for nearly a year with the DeSoto County School District but had not taught any classes this school year. However, he did teach 50 to 60 classes last fall, school officials said.
• Priest pleads guilty to kiddie-porn charges [2000s Kornacki] -- RCC.
Philadelphia Daily News, www.philly.com/ mld/dailynews/ 9478940.htm?ERIGHTS=665488 579586 235255 5philly:: kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM= 1impqp knppoh hhhhhh hhholjmp| Kathleen|Y ; By RON GOLDWYN, goldwyr@phillynews.com
PHILADELPHIA (PA): A Catholic priest has agreed to plead guilty to federal kiddie- porn charges on the eve of his trial, the U.S. Attorney's Office said yesterday.
The Rev. Matthew J. Kornacki, 57, had pleaded not guilty after he was indicted May 27 on one count that he knowingly possessed child pornography on his laptop computer.
He was charged, authorities said, as part of a wide-ranging New York-based investigation of international kiddie porn by a U.S. Secret Service task force.
Court filings indicated Kornacki bought kiddie-porn CDs and played them on his laptop. Authorities said there was no indication he had shared the porn images with others.
• Former Daly City priest to be tried in molestation [1994-95 Superiaso] -- RCC. Girl.
Contra Costa Times, www.contracostatimes.com/ mld/cctimes/news/9480386. htm?ERIGHTS=-414021 283413 1070726 contracostatimes:: kashaw@peoplepc.com &KRD_RM=2ikojpm jjrmjniii iiiiijnlnn| Kathleen|Y ; ASSOCIATED PRESS
REDWOOD CITY (CA) - A judge ruled Monday that a former Daly City priest will stand trial for the alleged molestation of a 12-year-old girl.
Jose Superiaso, 50, has been charged with 24 counts of child molestation for acts that allegedly took place between July 1994 and November 1995. He has pleaded not guilty.
The trial was supposed to start after San Mateo County Superior Court Judge James Ellis' ruling Monday, but it is now on hold as officials search for an available court room.
Superiaso's attorney, Ray Buenaventura, tried to have the charges dismissed because the six-year statute of limitations had expired. But Ellis disagreed, saying a 1994 law gives prosecutors a year after a victim comes forward to file charges in child molestation cases.
• Catholic Priest Pleads Guilty [2000s Kornacki] -- RCC. Child porn discs.
WPVI, http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/82404-priest.html , August 24, 2004
PHILADELPHIA (PA) (AP) - A Roman Catholic priest agreed to plead guilty to child pornography charges on Monday, the day before his trial was set to begin, federal prosecutors said.
The Rev. Matthew J. Kornacki, 57, bought child porn discs and played them on his laptop computer, according to court filings.
Kornacki had pleaded innocent after he was indicted May 27. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia said then that Kornacki had been removed from active ministry in July of 2003, as soon as the archdiocese learned of the allegations.
• Priest abuse victim files suit over acupressure therapy [? 1970s-80s] -- RCC.
Portland Press Herald, http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/040824dispatchcolu.shtml , Aug 24, 2004
PORTLAND (ME) - A man who was the victim of abuse by a Catholic priest in Biddeford more than 20 years ago has renewed his claim to have the Diocese of Portland pay for his therapy.
David Gagnon, who was molested as a child, filed an action in small claims court in Portland seeking payment of $370 for acupressure therapy, which he said was prescribed by his therapist in Ottawa, Canada.
The diocese previously paid $700 for acupressure therapy he received to relieve chronic tension, a series of treatments for which Gagnon also sued for payment.
Gagnon says the nontraditional therapy has been prescribed to help him deal with the long-term effects of having been a victim of abuse. He says the diocese wants medical records before it pays the bill and he does not want to provide records to the institution which he blames for the abuse in the first place.
• Priest's molest case waits for a trial date [1994-95 Superiaso] -- RCC. Girl.
San Mateo County Times, www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~11268~2355200,00.html , By Amy Yarbrough
REDWOOD CITY (CA) -- After months of legal wrangling, a former Daly City priest will stand trial for the alleged molestation of a 12-year-old girl. The question now is: When?
San Mateo County Superior Court Judge James Ellis ruled Monday that time has not run out to prosecute Jose Superiaso, 50. His trial was scheduled to begin following Ellis' ruling, but all the courtrooms were booked and it's unclear when one will be available.
A former priest at St. Andrew's Church in Daly City, Superiaso faces 24 counts of child molestation stemming from incidents alleged to have taken place between July 1994 and November 1995. He has pleaded innocent to the charges.
Superiaso was arrested in June 2003 after his accuser, now in her 20s, came forward and helped authorities lure him to Daly City from Santa Fe, N.M., where he had been working as a priest on an Indian reservation.
In May, Superiaso's attorney, Ray Buenaventura, filed paperwork to have the charges against his client dismissed, citing a U.S. Supreme Court case banning the retroactive prosecution of certain child molestation cases.
• Church audit still disputed, two years after settlement -- RCC.
Concord Monitor, www.concordmonitor.com/ apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20040824/ REPOSITORY/ 408240336/ 1037/NEWS04 ; By ERIC MOSKOWITZ, August 24, 2004
NEW HAMPSHIRE: Nearly two years after the state's Catholic leaders avoided criminal charges of child endangerment by settling with the attorney general's office, a church audit, viewed by many as the centerpiece of the settlement, has still not begun.
A superior court hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 24 in the dispute between the attorney general and the Diocese of Manchester, which disagrees with the state over the extent of the oversight as well as who should cover the cost, estimated at $200,000 for the first year alone.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Will Delker said that the church and state have had a series of productive meetings, and the possibility remains that an agreement could be reached before the court date. "(The diocese is) interested in the outcome of this proceeding, and we hope that we'll be able to move forward in a direction that will satisfy everyone involved, and we won't need to come to formal litigation over this," Delker said.
Church officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment yesterday.
Locally, Catholics who have been staying on top of the matter expressed their frustration with the delay in the audit, which was supposed to begin with a review of any internal church documents or information pertaining to abuse in 2003.
"At this point, I really don't care who pays for it, as long as it's done," said Anne Pullen of Concord, state chairwoman for Voice of the Faithful, an organization of churchgoers that supports the victims and tries to bring change to the church from within. Pullen said she thought the delay in the audit had marred the December 2002 agreement between the church and the state, limiting the value of a settlement that was initially hailed as landmark.
[COMMENT: How on earth a justice system could fail to prosecute, and make a "deal" with a body that allowed its clergy and others to practise child sex abuse, while forbidding its clergy to behave normally by marrying, is beyond comprehension. It makes as much sense as exchanging curry recipes with cannibals. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Local churches strive to keep sanctuaries safe from sexual predators, harm -- Baptists.
Jackson Sun, http://miva.jacksonsun.com/ miva/cgi-bin/miva? NEWS/news_storyV2. mv+link=200408 246424369 ; By WENDY ISOM, wisom@jacksonsun.com , Aug 24 2004
JACKSON (TN): The Rev. Craig Christina has gotten used to the security bracelet with the wrist coil.
On Sunday mornings and evenings, the pastor is not bothered when his own church childcare staff checks his bracelet against his 2-year-old son's matching safety badge before the father and son can leave together.
This practice is repeated every time any adult comes to pick up a child who is being looked after during morning and evening services at First Baptist Church in Jackson.
The men that patrol the church's hallways on Sunday mornings have, too, become a regular fixture at the church that Christina pastors.
"After church starts," Christina said, "we lock the doors from the outside of the nursery (entrance)."
Ministries today must now be more transparent.
With alleged sexual abuse cases involving children at national and local churches being reported, the faith community has begun to pair steadfast prayer with stricter safety procedures.
• 'Vows of Silence' authors make their case against John Paul II [Maciel] -- RCC. Seminary males.
Boston Globe, www.boston.com/ ae/books/articles/ 2004/08/24/vows_of_silence_ authors_make_their_case_ against_john_paul_ii ; By Kevin Cullen, Globe Staff, August 24, 2004
In 1941, an ambitious Mexican priest named Marcial Maciel founded a traditionalist religious order called the Legion of Christ. Since then, Maciel has built the order into an international presence in the Catholic Church, boasting 2,500 seminarians and 600 priests across five continents, including 400 seminarians and 90 priests in the United States alone.
Yet there is compelling evidence, outlined in the book "Vows of Silence," that Maciel may have sexually abused many boys who entered the order as children. Several of his victims say that Maciel told them Pope Pius XII had given him a special dispensation to engage in sex to relieve chronic pain.
The authors, Jason Berry, a journalistic pioneer who exposed sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests in the 1980s, and Gerald Renner, the former religion writer for The Hartford Courant, make a strong case that Maciel was a serial predator who should have been cast aside long ago but who remained immune to credible accusations because of his clout inside the Vatican of Pope John Paul II.
Among Maciel's staunchest defenders closer to home is Mary Ann Glendon, the Harvard Law School professor whom the pope promoted in March to be the highest-ranking female adviser to the Vatican. Glendon, like other Maciel allies, describes the allegations made by nine former priests and seminarians as slander from disaffected people who left the order embittered.
Berry and Renner paint a portrait of a clueless, isolated Catholic hierarchy that is Orwellian in its absurd embrace of dubious figures like Maciel and its paranoid rejection of good priests like Tom Doyle, the Dominican canon lawyer who was ignored in 1985 when he warned the Vatican that it had to do more about abusive priests, and who was targeted for retribution when he began openly siding with victims.
The pope's blindness to the scandal stands in contrast to his noble efforts to acknowledge the corrosive effects of anti-Semitism and authoritarianism as practiced by Communists. [Emphasis added]
• Priests in abuse cases avoid defrocking -- RCC. Vatican again.
Post-Intelligencer, http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/187625_priest24.html , By CLAUDIA ROWE
SEATTLE (WA): Three priests accused of sexual abuse, among them one of the most infamous clerics in the Seattle Archdiocese, have been formally barred from ministry with an edict from Rome. But the Vatican stopped short of defrocking any of the men, leading some to wonder where the concerns of the church lie -- with victims, or with priests.
The answer, said archdiocese officials, is both.
Archbishop Alex J. Brunett is "not looking to punish the priest," said Greg Magnoni, a spokesman. "He's looking to do what's in the best interest of the victims and the public and the priest who's under his authority."
By keeping each man "within the clerical state," the archbishop can maintain control over where they live and how they comport themselves, Magnoni said. He also can ensure that they never advertise themselves as practicing prelates. Defrocking them, Magnoni said, would permanently sever that oversight.
But Scott Brady, a member of the victims advocacy group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP], found the church's logic hard to fathom.
• Groups advised on abuse claims -- RCC.
Portland Press Herald, http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/040824abuse.shtml , By JOSHUA L. WEINSTEIN, Aug 24, 2004
MAINE: A group that began as an independent effort to address sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church released a report Monday that offers a model for any institution - not just the church - on how to respond to allegations of such abuse.
The model calls for institutions to be far more open than they have been in the past, and says that victims and their families should be quickly referred to someone outside the institution for help.
"Some of the institutional responses that have been out there have been very harmful, very hurtful to the family," said Courtney Oland, one of the 10 people who made up a group called the Best Practice Team, which wrote the report and developed the model.
Oland, whose brother was sexually abused by a priest, said during a news conference about the report that her family could have used such a model when her brother disclosed his ordeal.
• Vatican paper a key to abuse suits [Teczar] -- RCC. Crimen Sollicitationis = Crime of Solicitation.
Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram.com/ apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20040824/NEWS/ 408240349/1006/ NEWSLETTERS07 , by Kathleen A. Shaw, T&G STAFF, kshaw@telegram.com , Aug 24, 2004
UNITED STATES: Is the 1962 Vatican document called Crimen Sollicitationis a blueprint for the cover-up of clergy abuse within the Catholic church, or is it merely an internal policy manual for handling certain kinds of abuses within the sacrament of confession?
Lawyers are battling this issue out in the context of several civil lawsuits filed by alleged clergy abuse victims around the country.
The issue moves to Washington, D.C., today as the Rev. John P. Beal, a canon lawyer who said he has studied the Vatican document, is scheduled to be deposed this morning in connection with a Texas civil suit involving the Rev. Thomas H. Teczar of Dudley, Mass., a priest of the Diocese of Worcester.
A move to get the document admitted in Massachusetts failed recently when a Springfield judge ruled the document was irrelevant to a civil lawsuit alleging clergy sexual abuse.
The Texas suit is one of several pending lawsuits in the United States in which lawyers for alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse are attempting to get the document authenticated and entered as evidence that would show a worldwide conspiracy by the Catholic church to cover up sexual abuse by priests.
The Fort Worth, Texas, and Worcester dioceses are arguing, however, that the document is irrelevant to these cases and does not constitute a conspiracy. Rev. Beal agrees, and in an affidavit submitted in the Texas case said the document is "no innovation."
Lawyers Tahira Khan Merrit of Dallas and Daniel J. Shea of Houston, who represent John Doe I and John Doe II in the suit, ordered the deposition to question Rev. Beal on the document because he said he has studied it and may be able to provide some salient information.
James Gavin Reardon Jr., lawyer for the Diocese of Worcester, said the diocese will not oppose the deposition, but said he was told the Texas judge put restrictions on the "range of questions" Ms. Khan Merrit and Mr. Shea will be allowed to ask Rev. Beal.
"It is our position that the document is irrelevant," Mr. Reardon said. He will not attend the deposition, but said lawyers representing the Fort Worth and Worcester dioceses will be there.
Mr. Reardon said the dioceses further believe Crimen Sollicitationis is irrelevant in this particular lawsuit because neither of the alleged victims is Catholic or has participated in any Catholic rituals or sacraments.
The men allege they were sexually abused by Rev. Teczar after the Diocese of Worcester authorized his transfer to the Fort Worth diocese in 1988. They allege that the Worcester diocese knew the priest was in trouble in the Worcester area when it allowed the transfer. He later returned to Central Massachusetts. Rev. Teczar is no longer allowed to function as a priest, but he has not been defrocked.
Ms. Khan Merrit and Mr. Shea said they believe that Crimen Sollicitationis is highly relevant because it demonstrates how men at the highest reaches of the Vatican told bishops to maintain secrecy in handling allegations of sexual abuse by clergy and authorized the transfer of priests who had been accused.
Rev. Beal said Crimen is not new, that it replaced previous instructions from the Vatican on how to handle such issues, and that these documents date back at least to Pope Benedict XIV in his 1741 constitution called Sacramentum Poenitentiae.
The first page of Crimen Sollicitationis - which is Latin for crime of solicitation - said the document was to be sent to all bishops in the world, kept secret and stored in each diocesan secret archive. Rev. Beal said although those who received copies of the document were told to keep it in the secret archive, the document was not subject to what is called the "pontifical secret." He called it an "internal manual for criminal investigations" and said secular law enforcement agencies also do not publish their internal policy manuals.
RULED IRRELEVANT
Attempts to get the document entered as evidence in Massachusetts had a setback Aug. 12, when Judge John A. Agostini of Hampden County Superior Court, Springfield, sided with the Worcester diocese and ruled that Crimen Sollicitationis was irrelevant and could not be entered as evidence in a lawsuit brought by Jane Martin of Hampden County against the Rev. Robert E. Kelley, a Worcester priest.
Texas Judge Len Wade on Thursday declined to quash the subpoena, a request made by lawyers for the dioceses, and ordered the deposition to proceed at 10 a.m. today at the Alderson Reporting Services of Washington, D.C. The subpoena was issued by the District of Columbia Superior Court at the request of the Texas court. Rev. Beal serves on the faculty of the Canon Law Department at Catholic University of America.
Rev. Beal said in his affidavit that using Crimen to claim an international conspiracy to cover up child abuse within the Catholic church is taking the document "entirely out of context."
OTHER SUITS
The Vatican document surfaced about a year ago in Worcester and has made its way into civil suits involving the Catholic Church in places around the United States, including Worcester, Springfield, Los Angeles and Louisville, Ky.
"Far from being an attempt to shield sexually abusive priests, the instruction is designed to insure that complaints of solicitation are promptly and competently investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Church's law," Rev. Beal said in his affidavit.
Rev. Beal has also weighed in publicly on other serious issues involving the Catholic church, including the question now under discussion on whether Catholic politicians who vote in favor of abortion policies should be excluded from Communion. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:08 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tue August 24, 2004
Religions' abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont94.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Wed August 25, 2004 edition follows:-
• LA judge releases transcript of hearing on priest file subpoenas -- RCC.
Contra Costa Times, www.contracostatimes.com/ mld/cctimes/news/state/ 9495727.htm?ERIGHTS= 6540015510703066445 contracostatimes:: kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM= 2ikojpmjjrmjn iiiiiiiijnlnn| Kathleen|Y ; Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (CA) - A judge released a lengthy transcript Wednesday from hearings involving a grand jury investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by priests from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
The 162-page transcript from the July 9 hearing primarily deals with whether confidential priest files subpoenaed by the district attorney are protected under the First Amendment, as archdiocese attorneys contend.
The district attorney has subpoenaed about 2,000 pages of confidential files since 2002, but 30 of those subpoenas were dismissed last month because they dealt with allegations that fell outside the statute of limitations.
Retired Judge Thomas Nuss, a special master in the case, is expected to rule soon on whether the remaining files can be released to a grand jury.
The transcript is the second to be made public by Nuss since July. The first transcript, released July 13, dealt with a June 25 that dealt primarily with the judge's dismissal of the subpoenas. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:37 PM]
• Women appeal dismissal of suit against Erie diocese [1999 Bower, 2002 Trautman, Murphy] -- RCC.
16 WNEP, www.wnep.com/Global/story.asp?S=2217770 , Associated Press, August 25, 2004
ERIE, Pa.: Three woman who claim they were defamed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie, its current bishop, and a retired bishop want the state Supreme Court to reinstate their case.
The state Superior Court last month threw out the case by former diocesan secretary Sally Beres, Ann Caro and Helen Rusnak. In throwing out the suit, the Superior Court upheld an Erie County judge's dismissal.
The women alleged that church officials began a defamation campaign against them when they complained about former priest Robert Bower.
Bower resigned in 2002 after a newspaper report that he had been arrested for possession of child pornography in 1999. Those charges were dropped, prosecutors said, because police mishandled evidence and it could not be used at trial.
The women claimed Bishiop Donald Trautman directed some priests to sermonize against them from the pulpit and characterized the women as liars in a letter he released to the public in 2002.
In September 2003, Erie County President Judge William R. Cunningham dismissed the women's suit, saying that while Trautman's letter was "unnecessarily harsh," his statements and those of retired bishop Michael Murphy didn't rise to the level of defamation.
• Miracle Babies Claims Ungodly, Says Cleric [Deya] -- Deya's own religion.
AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408250585.html , Standard Correspondents, August 25, 2004
NAIROBI, KENYA: Former Anglican Primate Manasses Kuria termed claims that there were "miracle babies" as ungodly, immoral and shameful.
That would appear to run counter to the view of the Anglican Church over the claims by pastor Gilbert Deya that he has helped barren women get children through "miracle births".
The church said miracles were a Christian phenomenon and declined to commend or condemn Deya's claim of miracle births.
Kuria said throughout his 54 years as a church minister, he had witnessed such miracles as people being healed, but none like the so-called miracle babies.
He said every birth is a miracle and procreation has to involve man and woman.
"In all these cases man's sperm has met with the woman's egg to form a human child," Kuria said.
He said there has been only one special birth, that of Jesus Christ where the Virgin Mary was visited by the Holy Spirit. Kuria asked Christians to be extremely careful lest they be carried away by such teachings.
• Ousted Vegas church pastor arrested on sex offender charge [Hunter] -- Baptist.
KESQ 3, http://ncrnews.org/ cgi-bin/mt.cgi?__mode= view&_type=entry& blog_id=4
LAS VEGAS (NV): A minister ousted from a West Las Vegas church is facing a felony charge of failing to register as a sex offender after moving to Nevada from Michigan.
Las Vegas police say 44-year-old Gary Hunter was arrested yesterday while he protested his eviction from the Greater Saint James Baptist Church.
Members of the neighborhood congregation say they're praying for their former pastor. They voted Hunter out early this month - citing allegations of sex abuse and missing money.
Hunter refused to go -- and church leaders went to court to get a judge order him to leave.
Authorities now say they've found Hunter was convicted in Detroit in 1985 of felony sex assault -- and also had misdemeanor larceny and stalking convictions.
• Pastor remanded for indecent assault [2004 Danquah] -- Girls.
GhanaWeb, www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=64779 , Aug. 25, 2004
TEMA, GHANA: The Circuit Court 'A' in Tema has remanded a 49-year-old pastor who indecently assaulted two young girls aged 16 and 18, in his house at Community Five, Tema.
Noah Darko Danquah pleaded not guilty and will re-appear on September 7, 2004.
Prosecuting, Police Inspector Sarah Aggrey Acquah told the court presided over by Mr Charles Asiedu that, on February 2, 2004, at about 2000 hours, the two victims, one of whom was pregnant, were invited by the pastor to his house for prayers.
Insp Acquah said when the two victims went to the pastor's house he requested them to bring a bucket full of water.
The prosecution stated that, the pastor then poured anointing oil into the water and asked them to strip themselves naked to enable him to bath them.
Insp Acquah said during the bathing, the pastor fondled the breasts of the victims and washed their private parts.
He said on February 27, the uncle of one of the victims reported the matter to the Tema Community Two Police.
Insp Acquah said the pastor was arrested but he jumped police enquiry bail ...
!!!: Priest admits ordering child pornography at seminary [2000s Kornacki] -- was assistant director of Roman Catholic priest formation!
Centre Daily (State College's Home Page), www.centredaily.com/ mld/centredaily/ news/politics/ 9493152.htm , Associated Press, Posted on Wed, Aug. 25, 2004
PHILADELPHIA (PA) - A Roman Catholic priest pleaded guilty Wednesday to a single charge for ordering child pornography from the Internet while working at a Philadelphia seminary.
The Rev. Matthew Kornacki, who has served in nine parishes in the city and its suburbs, faces several years in prison.
Kornacki, 57, was removed from active ministry in July 2003, when Secret Service agents interviewed him as part of a New York-based child pornography probe. Agents tracked an address on his order to the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, which is run by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Agents found 150 images of child pornography on Kornacki's personal laptop computer when they seized it, prosecutors said.
Kornacki was an assistant director for priest formation and a spiritual director at the seminary. [...]
Kornacki, who expressed remorse in court Wednesday, is living at St. John Vianney Center, a church-run treatment facility in Downingtown.
Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.philly.com [Emphasis added]
• Bishop Takes Queen: Raymond Burke is highly traditional. That's why he received the final vows of a transgendered nun. [Burke; Green, Franciscan Servants of Jesus; Svea, Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest] -- Roman Catholic. Transgender; Boys.
Riverfront Times, www.rftstl.com/issues/2004-08-25/sidebar.html , BY MALCOLM GAY, Malcolm.Gay@riverfronttimes.com , August 25, 2004
ST. LOUIS (MO): Archbishop Raymond Burke might be a favored son of the Vatican, but interviews with more than a dozen priests reveal that as father to his former flock in La Crosse, his neo-conservative eccentricities alienated a large number of the clergy and the laity alike.
"He's left a presbyterate that's demoralized and divided," says one former diocesan priest who spoke to Riverfront Times on condition he not be named in print. "For many years the priests in La Crosse were very unified. We didn't agree with one another, but anybody could sit down with anybody and carry on a civil conversation. That's history now, and I lay that at the doorstep of Ray Burke." ...
At times his theological allegiance with these orders placed Bishop Burke in some compromising positions. Most striking, perhaps, was the case of Sister Julie Green, a member of the Franciscan Servants of Jesus:
"Julie Green is living a lie!" writes Mary Therese Helmueller in an October 25, 2002, letter to Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, Papal Nuncio to the United States. "[She] is a transsexual, a biological male. He is really Joel Green, who had a sex operation to make him physically appear as a woman.... I fear that The Church in America will suffer another 'sex scandal' if Julie Green continues to be recognized as a Catholic Religious Sister, and if Bishop Raymond L. Burke receives his final vows, as a religious sister, on November 23rd, 2002."
Montalvo forwarded the letter to Burke, who on November 20, 2002, replied to Helmueller. "With regard to Sister Julie Green, F.S.J., the recognition of the association of the faithful which she and Sister Anne LeBlanc founded was granted only after consultation with the Holy See," he writes. "These are matters which are confidential and do not admit of any further comment.... I can assure you that Sister Julie Green in no way espouses a sex change operation as right or good. In fact, she holds it to be seriously disordered. Therefore, I caution you very much about the rash judgments which you made in your letter to the Apostolic Nuncio."
Adds Burke: "I express my surprise that, when you had questions about Sister Julie Green, you did not, in accord with the teaching of our Lord, address the matter to me directly."
Green and the Franciscan Servants weren't the only controversial religious order with which Burke allied himself. In the late 1990s, the bishop combined the parishes of St. Mary and St. James in Wausau, Wisconsin. The two parishes formed the Resurrection Parish at what was formerly St. James' Parish.
St. Mary's was sold. Burke then asked the conservative Latin-rite religious order, Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, to perform the Tridentine Mass at what was formerly St. Mary's. In February 2002, the order's superior, Monsignor Timothy Svea, pleaded guilty to exposing himself to and molesting teenage boys.
"What never really got any attention was that Bishop Burke brought them in," says a second priest who asked not to be named. "That's really a sore point for a lot of people in Wausau." #
• Former N.M. priest rejects California plea deal [1994-95 Superiaso] -- RCC. Girl.
New Mexican, www.santafenewmexican.com/news/3525.html , Associated Press, August 25, 2004
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - A former Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting a 12-year-old girl has rejected a plea deal.
Jose Superiaso, who was working at St. Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe, N.M., when he was arrested last year on the California charges, turned down the plea bargain Tuesday, San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. Details of the offer were not made public.
Superiaso, 50, is charged with 24 counts of child molestation for acts alleged to have occurred between July 1994 and November 1995, when he was serving at St. Andrew Church in Daly City, Calif.
• Ex-Priest Jailed for Child Porn [2000s Kornacki] -- RCC Seminary spiritual director!
WPVI, http://ncrnews.org/cgi-bin/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=entry&blog_id=4 , August 25, 2004
PHILADELPHIA (PA): A former Catholic priest is headed to prison on child pornography charges.
Reverend Matthew Kornacki today pleaded guilty to a single charge of ordering child porn on the internet. The 57-year-old priest was removed from active ministry in July of last year after the charges came to light.
Kornacki was a spiritual director at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood.
• Aretakis responds to accusations [? 2000s Urban] -- RCC.
Capital News 9, www.capitalnews9.com/content/headlines/?ArID=90813&SecID=33 , By Capital News 9 web staff, 12:07 PM, Aug/25/2004
ALBANY (NY): Attorney John Aretakis is responding to a slander complaint against him.
Reverend Carl Urban accused Aretakis of making false statements about him during a May speech.
In his speech, Aretakis said Urban was picked up by police for inappropriate sexual conduct. According to Urban there is no record of this.
In response to Urban's complaint, Aretakis is accusing him of being one of the most notoriously sexually active priests. He also accuses Bishop Howard Hubbard and the Albany Diocese of conspiracy and a pattern of criminal cover-up. #
• Immaculate Deception: Some dirty little secrets followed Archbishop Raymond Burke from Wisconsin to St. Louis [1970s Bornbach, Garthwaite, 1970s Mason] -- RCC.
Riverfront Times, www.rftstl.com/issues/2004-08-25/feature.html , BY MALCOLM GAY, Malcolm.Gay@riverfront times.com , August 25, 2004
ST. LOUIS (MO): When Pope John Paul II tapped him to be Archbishop of St. Louis last December, Raymond Burke took yet another stride along the ecumenical fast track. Ordained as a priest in Rome by Pope Paul VI in 1975, Burke had studied canon law in Italy. In 1989 he was appointed to the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the church's highest court, and six years later the pope named him bishop of La Crosse, Wisconsin. Now, at age 55, he was taking his place on the national stage.
The local press described him as the ultimate Vatican insider, a conservative who was said to follow papal decrees minutely. His hard-line stances often spilled over into the eccentric: He'd pulled his diocese out of Church World Services' annual Crop Walk because the agency advocates birth control. He'd criticized J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of children's books. He'd spearheaded a controversial $25 million shrine in La Crosse honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe. Most remarkably, he'd ordered priests in his diocese to deny Communion to Catholic politicians who supported euthanasia or abortion rights.
One controversy, however, appeared to have missed Burke entirely: the clergy sex-abuse scandal, which for two years running had rocked the moral underpinnings of the Catholic Church.
While other dioceses reeled amid thousands of allegations of abuse by priests, the Diocese of La Crosse had recently reported that from 1950 to 2002 a mere 10 out of a total of 705 clerics had been found guilty of sexual misconduct -- a rate of 1.4 percent. By contrast, the United States Council of Catholic Bishops reported a national average of roughly 4 percent during the same time period. All told, only 31 allegations of clergy sexual abuse had been substantiated in La Crosse. Only three of those cases had made headlines in Wisconsin. One involved a non-diocesan priest, Timothy Svea, who was part of a religious order (see accompanying sidebar); the other two priests are dead.
Burke, it seemed, had tended his garden nicely in La Crosse and was well poised to minister to the fallout of the scandal in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Whereas his predecessor, Justin Rigali, had drawn fire for ignoring victims of abuse, the incoming archbishop was tidily insulated from the problem. So much so, in fact, that when St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Ron Harris asked him to name the most pressing issue facing the Catholic Church here, Burke replied, "How to organize our parishes and our Catholic schools."
But some members of Raymond Burke's former flock paint a far different portrait of the erstwhile bishop of La Crosse. If cases of clergy sex abuse were few and far between, they say, it was because Burke was a master at keeping a lid on them. Several victims who claim they were abused by priests in La Crosse tell Riverfront Times they were stonewalled by Burke, who declined to report their allegations to local authorities. And while some of his fellow church officials nationwide were reaching hefty settlements with victims, Raymond Burke was unyielding in his refusal to negotiate with victims' rights groups. He declined to make public the names of priests who were known to have been abusive, and he denied requests to set up a victims' fund. Most strikingly, Riverfront Times has learned, while bishop in La Crosse Burke allowed at least three priests to remain clerics in good standing long after allegations of their sexual misconduct had been proven -- to the church, to the courts and, finally, to Burke himself.
His critics say Burke's ability to conceal the diocese's dirty laundry was abetted by Wisconsin's unique civil code, which makes it virtually impossible for someone to sue the church for the actions of an individual priest. "He stands with his fellow bishops in Wisconsin as having had the ability to just rebuke and ignore our victims," says Jeff Anderson, an attorney in St. Paul, Minnesota, who specializes in clergy abuse cases. "He has a long history of making pastoral statements that they care, that they want to heal, that they want to help. They are very long on words, but very short on actions."
"We don't exist, for him," seconds Peter Isely, a Wisconsin leader of the national Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). "Loyalty to the church is of the highest order for him, and his response to victims' claims has been lethargic and slow and reluctant and bureaucratic and impersonal."
Then again, if success is measured in money saved and avoidance of scandal, Raymond Burke possesses a sterling record. At a time when dioceses are reaching million-dollar settlements with individual victims and filing for bankruptcy, Burke reported in January 2004 that between 1950 and 2002 the Diocese of La Crosse paid out a grand total of $15,807.38 to victims seeking counseling for clergy sexual abuse.
It was in May of 1971 that B.V. first met the man she says sexually abused her. She was nine years old, and her family had traveled 45 minutes to the small town of Hewitt, Wisconsin, to attend a relative's wedding. While at the wedding, her parents befriended Father Raymond Bornbach, pastor of St. Michael's Parish. (At their request, victims in this article are not identified by name.) "After that wedding he called my mom and asked to spend some special time with my sister and I," B.V. writes in a handwritten statement delivered to diocesan officials on September 22, 2003. Her mother agreed, and soon Bornbach was traveling far outside his parish to pick up the girls and take them for drives along central Wisconsin's rural two-lane roads. B.V. alleges that during the drives Bornbach would pull over at outdoor rest stops and ask her eight-year-old sister to get out of the car. "She would sit nearby on a rock, while in the car he would have me sit next to him[;] he would rub his hands up and down my thighs," B.V. writes. "He would always kiss me on the lips and he smelled of cigar breath. He would stick his tongue in my mouth."
According to the statement, a copy of which B.V. supplied to Riverfront Times, the abuse continued for more than a year, becoming progressively more intense. Eventually, B.V. alleges, Bornbach brought her to his house, took her upstairs to his bedroom and offered her a rosary before molesting her. "[He] asked to see the scar on my left arm and side where I had been burned as a child," she writes. "He removed my dress and rub [sic] my chest and laid me on the bed, he then laid on top of me and started to hump up and down and rub his body on mine."
Bornbach didn't go any further, B.V. states. He was interrupted by his housekeeper. When the bedroom door opened, she writes, "he jumped up and told her we would be right down." Afterward, B.V. recalls in her statement, Bornbach took her to a local hardware store and bought her a bike. "[It was] my 1st ever bike," she writes. "It was purple."
The statement was penned nine months after B.V. came forward with her allegations in a January 6, 2003, letter to then-Bishop Burke. "They told Bornbach to get an attorney and not to talk to anyone," B.V. says during an interview in her central Wisconsin home. "So when I called, I asked if I was supposed to get an attorney, too. They proceeded to tell me that if I got an attorney, all communication with them would cease." It was the beginning of what became for her a painful eighteen-month saga. "I was really naive in thinking that once they received this letter they would right away do something with this guy," B.V. says today. "Bishop Burke protects his own."
Archbishop Burke declines to comment about specific instances of sexual abuse, but he defends his record and his "open door" policy for victims of clergy abuse. "I have a policy, both in La Crosse and here, to meet personally with those who are making allegations, and then to follow very carefully the protocols that have been established by church law," Burke said during a telephone interview with Riverfront Times that also was attended by archdiocesan attorney Bernie Huger and archdiocesan communications director Jim Orso. "My response was always pastoral. I wanted to meet personally with the victims, or alleged victims. I met with them as often as they wanted."
Initially B.V. wanted four things from the diocese: She wanted Bornbach stripped of his collar. She wanted his name released to the public. She wanted to meet her alleged abuser face to face and she wanted to meet with Raymond Burke. "From day one I asked to speak with the bishop. Almost every time I talked to these people I asked how come I wasn't talking to the bishop," B.V. says. "How come something wasn't being done?" Instead of meeting with B.V., the bishop appointed a liaison to meet with the alleged victim. When B.V. asked if her therapist could attend the liaison's initial fact-finding interview, Burke agreed, though it went against a policy on child sexual abuse he'd set out in 2002. He stipulated two conditions, however, in a letter dated May 6, 2003. "The interview will be confidential. Therefore, no recordings or notes may be made or taken," he writes. The second stipulation: "You agree that the interview is part of an internal Church process which may not be disclosed, compelled to be disclosed, or used as evidence in or as a basis for any non-Church action." B.V. balked. She wasn't ready to tell her story to a stranger, and she canceled the meeting. "You have to be ready," she says. "Some days you don't want to talk about it, other days you do."
But the diocese wasn't waiting around. Unbeknownst to B.V., Burke had passed the matter off to the Diocese of La Crosse Child Sexual Abuse Review Board, a six-member group of church and lay officials -- including the diocesan attorney -- whose duty it is to review allegations of clergy sexual abuse. So B.V. was surprised to receive a letter from the board on August 28, 2003, warning, "If we do not hear from you by Monday, September 15, 2003, we will assume you do not wish pursue to [sic] the matter and the case will be closed."
Webpage 2: www.rftstl.com/issues/2004-08-25/feature.html/2/index.html;
[...] At age 89, Father Raymond Bornbach now lives in a humble single-story home in Marshfield, Wisconsin. [...]
In a letter dated March 26, 2001, another alleged victim of clergy abuse contacted by Riverfront Times wrote to Burke, stating: "I know I have talked to you about Fr. Raymond Bornbach before, and I thought when you retired him it would take care of the problem of his dirty little hands and his filthy mouth.... But it has not since he still goes to the St. Joseph [sic] Hospital in Marshfield, and visits sick people," the letter reads. [...]
In that case, Jane Y. Doe v. the Diocese of La Crosse, the plaintiff alleged that when she was fourteen years old she was sexually abused by Father Thomas Garthwaite, who was then pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Marshfield. [...]
Webpage 3: www.rftstl.com/issues/2004-08-25/feature.html/3/index.html
[...] This brief rapprochement accompanies a formal claim of clergy sexual abuse against Father Thomas Garthwaite. In the document, Doe requests back payment from 1966 to 2001 in the amount of $25,000 per year. In support of her claim, she cites two notes contained in her lawsuit, which she allegedly received from Garthwaite. [...]
Over the course of the next year, the diocese reimbursed Doe roughly $10,000, from a fund for works of charity. Garthwaite, meanwhile, remained listed as a retired priest in good standing. In 2003 his name was quietly removed from the rolls of the Official Catholic Directory. Neither Burke nor the diocese would comment on his whereabouts or status.
Doe requested multiple times that Bishop Burke hand over her allegations to the diocese's Child Sexual Abuse Review Board. Burke refused. [...]
In 1975 D.K. enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and took a work-study job as a janitor. At the time, Father James E. Mason was leading the campus ministry at the university. ...
At that time, D.K. says, Mason had made sexual advances. "He started really pressing the issue with me -- a lot of hugging and that sort of thing," D.K. recalls. ...
Father Mason wasn't my friend; he was grooming me for sex. He got so aggressive one time that he came in in his underwear and started wrestling with me and sticking his tongue in my mouth. ...
What D.K. did not know was that in 1981 Father James Mason had been found guilty in Wisconsin's Chippewa County Court of sexually assaulting a student who'd come to him for counseling. ...
Mason's sentence was withheld, and he was placed on eighteen months' probation.
Webpage 4: www.rftstl.com/issues/2004-08-25/feature.html/4/index.html #
[...] From 1987 through 1992, Mason is listed as "Absent on Sick Leave." From 1993 to the present, he is listed as "On Duty Outside the Diocese." [...]
According to several diocesan priests, Mason now counsels drug users in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. He is said to have undergone "voluntary laicization" earlier this year [...]
• Diocese to Continue Healing Masses for Abuse Victims -- RCC.
Catholic Herald, www.catholicherald.com/articles/04articles/mudd0826.htm , By Michael F. Flach, (From the issue of Aug/26/04)
ARLINGTON (VA): The Arlington Diocese will initiate a series of Healing Masses for Victims of Sexual Abuse this fall, beginning Sept. 9 at St. Mary of Sorrows Church in Fairfax Station. Bishop Paul S. Loverde will celebrate the Mass beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Father Donald Greenhalgh, pastor of St. Mary of Sorrows Parish, invites all other parishes in Deanery VI to participate in the liturgy. Other Masses are being planned on a monthly basis to cover the other five diocesan Deaneries.
Other Masses will be offered Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. by Father Bob Cilinski at All Saints Church in Manassas and Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m. by Bishop Loverde at St. Mary Church in Fredericksburg. A reception will follow each of the liturgies.
Patricia Mudd, Victim Assistance Coordinator for the diocese, is hopeful that these Masses will continue the healing process that started June 30 when Bishop Loverde celebrated the first Healing Mass at the Cathedral of St Thomas More in Arlington.
• Selma Woman Says Her Priest Sexually Abused Her [? 2000s O'Brien] -- RCC. 2 years, female.
WOAI, www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=EEF5E78B-6D54-474A-8F0C-BD945F8A1711 , Posted By Marisa Ayala, LAST UPDATE 4:55:08 PM, Aug/25/2004
TEXAS: A Selma woman claims her priest sexually abused her. Theresa Gomez went to her priest Father Michael O'Brien for counseling but instead he used her frail state to sexually abuse her.
Gomez says he showered her with sympathy in order to approach her in a sexual manner. The affair lasted 2 years. O'Brien wanted to keep their relationship a secret and threatened Gomez not to publicize it. He told her if it ever got out, it would be a scandal and she would be blamed because everyone always blames the woman.
Father Michael O'Brien still performs pastoral duties at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Selma. He wasn't in the office today but we did speak with him on the phone. He would only say the allegations are not true.
• Faithful must protect flocks from abuse, speakers urge [1980s Larson] -- RCC. VOTF now has 202 chapters.
Tulsa World, www.tulsaworld.com , By GINNIE GRAHAM, World Staff Writer, 581-8376, ginnie.graham@tulsaworld.com , (Final Home Edition), Page A13 of News, Aug/18/2004
TULSA (OK): The mother of a son who suffered through years of depression and then committed suicide at age 29 after having been molested as a child by a priest said Tuesday night that church members must look out for each other.
Janet Patterson was the main speaker before about 200 people at a meeting of the Voice of the Faithful's Tulsa chapter at All Souls Unitarian Church.
"I don't want to see the Catholic Church crumble in any way, shape or form," Patterson said. "I want to see it purified. I want to see it become what Christ expected."
Her son, Eric, was molested by a priest in his school in Kansas when he was 12. Eric didn't tell his family about the abuse until his second hospitalization for manic depression and suicidal tendencies when he was in his late 20s.
He began to struggle with depression in college but started medication under a psychiatrist's care and became active in the church. Eric taught children in the church, volunteered at a nursing home, went to church daily and was active in a pro-life group. But when he applied to a seminary, he was rejected.
Patterson said she found out after his death that the rejection was triggered by Eric's admission to a seminary psychologist that he had been abused by a priest.
In 1999, Eric shot himself. His suicide note was written six days before his death.
"Victims of sexual abuse take the blame, shame, guilt and abuse into themselves, when it should be placed on those who abuse," Patterson said.
After her son's death, Patterson learned that the Rev. Robert K. Larson, who she said molested Eric, had been accused of molestation in other parishes and had retired in 1988 for "stress-related problems."
"What we found is that over a 30-year period, he abused most of the time," she said. "I can forgive that former priest because I realize people are sick and need help. But it is hard for me to forgive the fact that people in important, high-ranking positions could have and should have stopped this man."
Larson is now in prison for molestation. He is expected to be released in 2006.
Patterson said sexual abuse by religious leaders occurs in every religion and that talking about the experiences is not an attack on an entire faith.
"We all have to watch out for each other to make it a safer and better world," she said.
Patterson is the spokeswoman for the Kansas chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and serves on its national board.
Former Tulsan Luke Martin recounted having been molested by a priest while attending a Catholic school here. He was so young when the abuse occurred that he had problems as he grew older.
"When you're that young, you don't understand what is happening," Martin said. "I didn't even know what sex was. I didn't have the vocabulary."
Martin said classmates have begun to talk about their own abuse by the same priest. Some are in counseling, and at least one is battling alcoholism and drug addiction.
"I want to challenge everyone to think," Martin said. "We're taught to be nice lambs and follow along. But that's how people get hurt. We need to ask tough questions and think critically -- not just church leaders, but community members, too."
Voice of the Faithful's Tulsa chapter was formed in May by people from various parishes in the Catholic Diocese of Tulsa.
It is the 202nd chapter of the international organization, which has more than 30,000 members in 50 states and is endorsed by 39 foreign countries. The group's goals are to support people who have been abused; to support priests "of integrity;" and to work to change the structure of the Catholic Church.
Bishop Edward Slattery attended Tuesday's meeting. He had issued a memo about it to diocese pastors on Aug. 12.
Slattery wrote that he was grateful for the group's initiative and looked forward to working with the organization.
• Kings Park parish to hear of priest's sex abuse [1970s Ferraro] -- RCC.
Newsday, www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-liabus253941800aug25,0,2288927.story , BY SAMUEL BRUCHEY, August 25, 2004
KINGS PARK (NY): A Catholic church in Kings Park will notify its congregation this week that a priest who served within its parish 30 years ago was convicted in May of sexually abusing a young boy in Massachusetts.
The Rev. Romano Ferraro, who is serving a life sentence for sexually abusing the boy in the 1970s, was assigned to St. Joseph Church from 1973 to 1977, the Rev. Edward Fitzpatrick of St. Joseph said yesterday.
"If anyone was victimized by this man, we'd like to reach out to them and help them and look into the healing process," Fitzpatrick said. He said he has yet to receive a complaint against Ferraro.
Ferraro was ordained by the Diocese of Brooklyn in 1960 and also served in Queens. He was barred from active ministry by the late 1980s following an unrelated abuse claim. At the time of his arrest in 2002, Ferraro was living at Parsons Manor, a home for priests in Jamaica. Diocese of Brooklyn officials could not be reached last night.
• Ex-Choirmaster Jailed. [1970s-80s Rees-Williams] -- Church of England. Males and females.
Sky News, www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-13204370,00.html , Wednesday August 25, 2004
BRITAIN: The Queen's disgraced former choirmaster has been jailed for five years and three months for a catalogue of sex attacks on children up to 30 years ago.
Jonathan Rees-Williams, 55, rose to serve the royal family as organist and master of the choristers at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle.
He was hailed by his peers as one of the finest practitioners in his field. Even one of his victims spoke of being "in awe" of him.
But his fall from grace came in 2003 when allegations of sexual abuse involving a string of children and young people earlier in his career emerged.
A police investigation uncovered a catalogue of incidents involving both male and female victims over a 14-year period from the mid-1970s.
And after five men and one woman, all now well into adult life, came forward to relive their childhood experiences before a jury at Reading Crown Court in June, he was convicted of a total of 18 separate charges of indecent assault - five of which he admitted himself.
After the end of the trial it was revealed that police had also found 127 indecent images of children on Rees-Williams's two computers. ...
• Queen's organist jailed for abuse [1970s-80s + Rees-Williams] --
BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/berkshire/3596894.stm , 12:29 GMT, Wednesday, 25 August, 2004
BRITAIN: The Queen's former choirmaster has been jailed for five years after a 14-year catalogue of child abuse.
Jonathan Rees-Williams, 55, was convicted in June at Reading Crown Court of a string of assaults, including some carried out in churches.
Jurors heard Rees-Williams, of Bristol, preyed on children from the mid-1970s.
None of the assaults took place during his time at Windsor Castle, where he quit as organist and master of the choir at St George's Chapel in 2002.
• Queen's Ex-Choirmaster Jailed for Sex Attacks [1970s-80s Rees-Williams] -- Males and females, 14 years.
The Scotsman, http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3405205 , By John Bingham, PA News, Wed Aug 25, 2004
BRITAIN: The Queen's former choirmaster was jailed for more than five years today for a string of sex attacks on children up to 30 years ago.
Jonathan Rees-Williams, 55, had been hailed by his peers as one of the finest practitioners in his field who rose through top posts in leading cathedrals to serve the Royal Family as organist and choirmaster at St George's Chapel, Windsor.
Even [sic] one of his victims spoke of being "in awe" of him.
But his reputation lay in tatters after allegations of sexual abuse earlier in his career emerged.
A police investigation uncovered a catalogue of incidents involving both male and female victims over a 14-year period.
• Queen's ex-choirmaster jailed for sex attacks
Telegraph, www.telegraph.co.uk/ news/main.jhtml? xml=/news/2004/08/25/ uchoir.xml&sSheet=/portal/ 2004/08/25/ ixportaltop.html ; Filed Aug 25, 2004
BRITAIN: The Queen's former choirmaster has been jailed for more than five years for a string of sex attacks on children up to 30 years ago.
Jonathan Rees-Williams, 55, had been hailed by his peers as one of the finest practitioners in his field who rose through top posts in leading cathedrals to serve the Royal Family as organist and choirmaster at St George's Chapel, Windsor.
However, a police investigation uncovered a catalogue of incidents involving both male and female victims over a 14-year period.
Five men and one woman, all now in adult life, described their childhood experiences to a jury at Reading Crown Court in June.
Rees-Williams was convicted of 18 separate charges of indecent assault - five of which he admitted.
• Queen's choirmaster jailed [1970s-80s Rees-Williams] -- Males and females. Church of England
This is London, www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/12782418 , 25 August 2004
BRITAIN: A former choirmaster to the Queen who carried out a string of sex attacks on children over a 14-year period has been jailed for five years.
Jonathan Rees-Williams was also convicted of possessing indecent images on computers.
Rees-Williams, 55, served the Royal Family as organist and choirmaster at St George's Chapel, Windsor. But his reputation lay in tatters after allegations of sexual abuse earlier in his career emerged.
A police investigation uncovered a catalogue of incidents involving both male and female victims over a 14-year period up to 30 years ago.
• Error in charges will reduce molester's sentence [1997 Gregory] -- Apostolic Faith Church. Females.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline.com/news/racine/aug04/253715.asp , By TOM KERTSCHER, tkertscher@journalsentinel.com , Posted Aug. 24, 2004
RACINE (WI): A prosecutor says he made an error in filing charges against a twice-convicted child molester. As a result, the former Racine County man will no longer face a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole.
Instead, Timothy Patrick Gregory will face a maximum penalty of 40 to 50 years in prison for each of three crimes and could become eligible for parole after serving one-fourth of the prison time.
A Circuit Court jury on July 1 found the 41-year-old former Racine and Sturtevant resident guilty of molesting two Racine sisters in 1997. Gregory, who is being held in the county jail, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 30. ...
The father of the girls initially agreed with the pastor of Apostolic Faith Church in Caledonia not to report the sexual assault as long as Gregory continued attending the church, where Gregory's family and the girls' family had become close friends. An anonymous caller eventually reported the assaults to the Sheriff's Department.
• Pastor gets 15 years for rape of girl (12) [2002 Ramsunder] -- Girl.
Mercury, www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=283&fArticleId=2198927 , By Monica Langanparsad, August 25, 2004
DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA: A KwaDukuza pastor convicted of rape and kidnapping was sentenced in the Durban High Court yesterday to 15 years' imprisonment.
Premnand Freddie Ramsunder, 49, was convicted in the Durban Regional Court of the rape and kidnapping of a 12-year-old school girl.
Ramsunder denied he had raped or kidnapped the girl, but admitted to indecent assault.
He told the court that on the day of the incident in May 2002, he saw the girl walking to school and he greeted her. She came over to his car, asked him for R5 and got into his car.
Ramsunder said he was aroused by the way in which the girl swung herself into the car and he then drove for about six kilometres before turning into the KwaDukuza area. [...]
Judge Shyam Gyanda said: "Rape is a serious crime ... rape of a child of 12 years old is extremely serious." Children were entitled to feel secure when walking to school, he said.
Gyanda told Ramsunder he should "thank his lucky stars" that he escaped a life sentence.
Ramsunder was sentenced to 15 years for rape and five years for kidnapping. The sentences are to run concurrently. Ramsunder is to appeal. #
• Priest expected to plead guilty [2003 Kornacki] -- Porn discs at RC seminary.
The Morning Call, www.mcall.com/ news/local/all-b3_ 2priestaug25,0,5999474. story?coll=all- newslocal-hed , By Steve Wartenberg, August 25, 2004
PENNSYLVANIA: A former Quakertown priest will plead guilty to a child pornography charge today, one day after his trial was to start in Philadelphia, according to federal prosecutors.
The Rev. Matthew J. Kornacki, 57, bought child pornography discs and played them on his laptop computer, according to court filings.
"There will be a recitation of the facts and then he is expected to plead guilty … and a sentencing date will be set," said Jack Stollsteimer, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.
Kornacki was indicted May 27 and charged with one count of possessing digital images of child pornography on his computer July 16, 2003, while he lived at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Montgomery County.
He served as assistant pastor of Quakertown's St. Isidore's Church from November 1985 to June 1992.
• Minister at Salvation Army arrested in child sex assaults [2004 Madrigal] -- Girls.
Denver Post, www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2356796,00.html , By Felisa Cardona, Wednesday, August 25, 2004
DENVER (CO): Salvation Army Capt. Walter Madrigal was described as a friendly, capable and outgoing pastor, but police suspect he molested two girls.
Madrigal, 48, worked as a minister for the Salvation Army's Red Shield Community Center in the 2900 block of High Street for the last four years.
The Salvation Army has suspended Madrigal pending the outcome of the investigation.
Police say the victims are 6 and 9 years old. They are not related to Madrigal or each other, Denver police Detective Teresa Garcia said Tuesday.
The suspected abuse occurred between March 1 and Aug. 14, police said. [...]
Madrigal lived in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., before moving to Colorado in 2000, said Salvation Army Lt. Col. Harold Brodin. [...]
• 6 join lawsuit claiming abuse by Catholic nuns [Sisters of Charity of Nazareth -- Powers, Donahue, Cronin, Pereira, Galantine; Lammers, Carney, Peak] -- RCC. Girls and boys.
Cincinnati Enquirer, www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/08/25/loc_loc2kychurch.html , The Associated Press, Wednesday, August 25, 2004
LOUISVILLE (KY) - Six plaintiffs joined a lawsuit Tuesday that accuses Roman Catholic nuns of molesting them as children and covering up the abuse.
Three of the plaintiffs - Patricia, Clifford and Elizabeth Hill - are siblings who lived at St. Thomas-St. Vincent Orphanage in Anchorage in the 1950s and 1960s, said their attorney, William McMurry.
McMurry is representing most of the 35 plaintiffs in the Jefferson County Circuit Court lawsuit against the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, an order based near Bardstown in Nelson County. The initial lawsuit was filed July 15.
Patricia and Elizabeth Hill claim the Rev. Herman J. Lammers, longtime Catholic Charities director and the orphanage's resident chaplain, molested them. Lammers, who has been accused by most of the plaintiffs, died in 1986. [...]
The women also accuse five nuns - Sister Mary Ann Powers, Sister Mary Camilla Donahue, Sister James Patrick Cronin, Sister Anthony Louise Pereira and Sister Madeline de Paul Galantine. Powers and Donahue were named by other plaintiffs. All the nuns worked at the orphanage and are now dead.
Clifford Hill says in the lawsuit that Pereira and Galantine molested him and forced him to engage in sexual acts with other boys.
The other new plaintiffs are Frank Maerz, Patricia Spalding and Delores Matthews. Spalding and Matthews accused Lammers of rape. Maerz claims that two men, identified as Mr. Carney and Mr. Peak, molested him.
• Retroactive sex abuse lawsuits barred by Cook County judge
Chicago Sun-Times www.suntimes.com/output/religion/cst-nws-cath25.html , BY CATHLEEN FALSANI, Religion Reporter, August 25, 2004
CHICAGO: A Cook County judge ruled Tuesday that a state law extending the statute of limitations for lawsuits in cases of sexual abuse of children cannot be applied retroactively to cases filed before July 24, 2003.
Cook County Judge Diane Joan Larsen said it was not the intention of Illinois lawmakers to apply the new statute of limitations retroactively. To support her decision, the judge quoted remarks by state Rep. Jim Brosnahan (D-Evergreen Park), sponsor of the bill, on the floor of the state House last year.
"What I am not trying to do with this bill is to revive any cause of action where the . . . statute of limitations has already expired," Larsen quotes Brosnahan as saying, according to a transcript of the General Assembly on May 15, 2003.
In July 2003, state legislators voted overwhelmingly to approve changes to the previous statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit in a sex abuse case from two years to 10 years after the victim's 18th birthday, or five years after the victim realizes they were harmed by an abuser.
• Six more plaintiffs allege abuse while at orphanage: 35 have now sued Sisters of Charity -- RCC.
The Courier-Journal, www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2004/08/25ky/B3-orphans0825-4439.html , By Gregory A. Hall, ghall@courier-journal.com , Wednesday, August 25, 2004
LOUISVILLE (KY): Six people filed yesterday to join a lawsuit against the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, alleging sexual abuse involving a priest, five nuns and two others over a 30-year period.
The latest filings bring to 35 the number of people who have sued the Nelson County-based order since last month. The plaintiffs accuse the nuns of covering up sexual abuse.
The six new plaintiffs, represented by attorney William McMurry, 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.
• Diocese ends priest investigation [1998] -- RCC decides accusation is credible.
Quad-City Times, www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1033777&t=Local+News&c=2,1033777 , By Todd Ruger, (563) 383-2493 or truger@qctimes.com , Wednesday, August 25th, 2004
IOWA: An internal investigation has determined that an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by a priest in Johnson County during 1998 is credible, the Catholic Diocese of Davenport announced Tuesday.
The diocese will not immediately identify the priest or his past assignments, in accordance with its policies regarding reports of sexual abuse, diocese attorney Rand Wonio said Tuesday.
Instead, an announcement will be made after the parishes and entities where the priest worked have been notified and consulted about the best way to inform the public, he said.
"We need to talk to them first," he said, referring to the places where the priest has worked.
That aspect of the policy allows persons who may have been victims of sexual misconduct in those places to know that they may come forward for assistance, he added.
• Abuse lawsuit filed too late, court decides [1960s O'Connell] -- RCC. Males. Seminary, then bishop, exposure, resignation.
Kansas City Star, www.kansascity.com/ mld/kansascity/news/ local/9485289.htm?ERIGHTS= 2436006566288490046 kansascity:: kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM= 9ppppvquvyvyx psysyqqpppppp| Kathleen|Y ; By JIM SALTER, The Associated Press, Wed, Aug. 25, 2004
ST. LOUIS (MO) - A former seminarian's sexual abuse lawsuit against a priest who later became a Florida bishop was filed after the statute of limitations expired, a state appeals panel ruled Tuesday.
The lawsuit was filed by a man listed only as John T. Doe, who is now in his early 50s and lives in Massachusetts. He was a student at the St. Thomas Seminary in Hannibal, Mo., in the late 1960s, when the Most Rev. Anthony O'Connell was rector there. The seminary has since closed.
O'Connell left the seminary to become bishop in Knoxville, Tenn., in 1988 and later became bishop of the Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla. He resigned in March 2002 after admitting abusing another student at the Hannibal seminary.
A three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that the lawsuit filed in 2002 came well past the five-year statute of limitations for such lawsuits.
• Parishes to learn about allegations [1998] -- RCC. Boy.
Press-Citizen, www.press-citizen.com/ apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20040825/ NEWS01/408250308/1079 ; By Mike McWilliams, Wednesday, August 25, 2004
IOWA: Catholic church officials decided Tuesday to inform parishes of sex allegations tied to a priest accused of sexually abusing a boy in 1998 while serving at a Johnson County church.
Rand Wonio, lawyer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport, said the diocese will meet with the three parishes where the priest served "as soon as possible" to discuss how to best inform the public. In accordance with church policy regarding sex abuse, Wonio said details, including the name of the priest, will be kept confidential until the diocese meets with the parishes and other entities where the priest worked.
Bishop William Franklin, with the support of the diocese review board, made the decision to inform the parishes Tuesday.
"So people who were victims of this priest can come forward and start the healing process," Wonio said. As for the priest's identity: "It can't (be revealed) until we've met with the parishes and places where he's served."
Wonio said the alleged victim told another priest at the Johnson County church of the abuse. That priest then told the diocese, which offered counseling for the boy and called the Johnson County Attorney's office in July 2003.
• Ex-Anglican bishop defrocked [1950s Shearman] -- Church of England hostel. Girl
The Sunday Mail, www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/ common/story_page/0,5936, 10564668% 255E421,00.html , Aug 25, 2004
BRISBANE (Qld) AUSTRALIA: A former Anglican bishop was today defrocked over his sexual relationship with a schoolgirl almost 50 years ago.
Archbishop of Brisbane, Phillip Aspinall, announced the stripping of Holy Orders from retired priest Donald Shearman, 77, in Brisbane following the recommendations of a church tribunal.
Mr Shearman was part of the child sex abuse controversy that last year forced the resignation of former governor-general Peter Hollingworth, who was once Archbishop of Brisbane.
Last month, a six-member panel headed by Queensland Supreme Court judge Debra Mullins unanimously recommended that Mr Shearman be stripped of his holy orders.
Mr Shearman, the former bishop of Rockhampton and Grafton, allegedly seduced the teenager while she was boarding at an Anglican hostel at Forbes in western NSW in the mid-1950s.
• Diocese says allegation of abuse by current priest is credible [1998] -- Roman Catholic Church (RCC).
WHO 13, www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2217195
DAVENPORT, Iowa: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport has determined that an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by a priest in Johnson County during 1998 is credible.
Rand Wonio, a diocese attorney, says the diocese will not immediately identify the priest or his past assignments. He says an announcement will be made after the parishes and entities where the priest worked have been notified and consulted about the best way to inform the public.
The diocese made the announcement after completing its internal investigation of the allegation, which was reported to church officials last year. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:56 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wed August 25, 2004
Religions' abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont94.htm
• Weygers still under investigation. -- No religion link reported.
The West Australian, Perth, W. Australia, p 14, Wednesday, August 25, 2004
PERTH, Western Australia: The career of controversial civil libertarian Peter Weygers remains in doubt, four months after he was accused of sexual harassment.
The Department of Education and Training is continuing to investigate the school psychologist, who was removed from any duties counselling children when the allegations were made at the end of April.
The inquiries coincided with comments Mr Weygers made as president of the WA Council for Civil Liberties, which supported serial rapist Gary Narkle.
Education and Training Minister Alan Carpenter said it was vital the department followed due process.
A department spokesperson said the Public Sector Management Act prevented any comments on the progress of investigations. Mr Weygers' solicitor Seng Fai Chan said he and his client were also prevented from commenting. #
[COMMENT: A previous newsitem had reported that a national leader of the Councils for Civil Liberties had disowned the WA CCL. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Panel to find way to put Narkle back behind bars. -- No religion link reported.
The West Australian, by Danielle Le Grand, p 42, Wednesday, August 25, 2004
PERTH, Western Australia: An expert panel would be set up to look at changing mental health laws in a bid to put convicted serial rapist Gary Narkle back behind bars, Attorney-General Jim McGinty said yesterday.
Mr McGinty said expert advice indicated that while it was complicated and controversial issue, changing mental health laws to deal with recidivist predatory sex offenders was the best option.
"There will be much divided mental health expert opinion on it but we will be progressing it through that avenue," Mr McGinty said.
Narkle, who sexually assaulted or raped 13 women and girls over three decades, was released from jail in April after an alleged victim was unable to face the trauma of giving evidence against him a fourth time.
After his release, Mr McGinty vowed to examine changes to laws which prevent Narkle being locked up because his mental illness cannot be treated in WA.
He said he would examine the Mental Health Act to see if there was any provision which would allow him to put Narkle in a secure mental institution.
Mr McGinty is expected to announce the formation of the expert working party, which will develop options for changing the law, as part of the Government's response to a review of the Act next week.
Meanwhile, under tough new sex offender laws being proposed by the Government, Narkle and other convicted sexual predators would be forced to register with police.
Under the plan, serious and repeat sex offenders convicted in the past eight years would have to provide police with information, including where they live and work, the make of car they drive and any travel plans. Offenders who failed to comply with registration obligations would face a jail term of up to two years.
The proposed register is part of the State Government's push to expand planned national legislation targeting paedophiles, to include all serious and repeal sex offenders. Narkle would be on the register. #
[COMMENT: Well, the problem arose after psychiatrists decided that Narkle was incurable, so they wouldn't endorse his being put into a mental ward of any sort, not even one for criminal mental cases. However, if the present State Government is like the "market forces" governments the world over, their unstated intention is to close down all mental wards, privatise the prisons, and have society living in a state of suppressed terror as all sorts of misfits wander at large. Evidence supporting this point of view is the three or four months delay before the ministry came up with another delaying tactic -- an "expert panel." Anyone with common sense realises that the "hole" in the law could have been closed with a quick amendment to the Mental Health Act, so that Narkle could be seized and locked up. Refinements to protect human rights and tidy up loose ends could have been made by the State Parliament in the next few months. COMMENT ENDS.] [Aug 25, 04]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Thu, August 26, 2004 edition follows:-
• Clerics Want Pastor to Be Charged [2004 Deya] -- Deya Ministries. Child trafficking alleged.
The East African Standard (Nairobi), http://allafrica.com/ stories/2004082 60369.html , Standard Correspondents, August 26, 2004
NAIROBI, KENYA: Religious leaders have asked the government to seek the assistance of Interpol to extradite church minister Gilbert Deya to Kenya to face charges of child trafficking.
Eldoret Catholic Diocese Bishop Cornelius Korir, the Rev Eli Rop of the Full Gospel Churches of Kenya and the Head of the Reformed Churches in the North Rift, the Rev Samson Akoru, spoke separately to the East African Standard.
"The way the children are said to have been born is in itself mysterious, meaning that something fishy took place in the process. The children are being identified as lost or stolen ones; Deya should stop associating God with these activities," Korir said.
Akoru wondered why the deliveries of the "miracle babies" were supposed to be carried out in Nairobi even when the "blessed" couples were far away in the UK.
Meanwhile, more than 30 couples have come forward to lay claim to some of the so-called miracle babies. But only four of the couples that had by yesterday turned up at the CID headquarters have been able to "identify" their babies.
And police said yesterday they would restrict visits to the babies at the Nairobi Children's Home until the DNA results are out. CID spokesman Gideon Kibunja said the babies were getting nervous because of the high number of visitors they are receiving daily.
He said they have pictures of the babies. "Let anyone who has lost a baby come out and try whether he or she can identify him or her from among the ones at the home," he said. # [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:25 PM]
• Minister charged with child sex in Arizona returned to Prescott [1989-93 Vahle] -- Lutheran
WKRN, www.wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?S=2224179
PRESCOTT, Ariz. A Memphis pastor, arrested on a child molestation warrant, is being returned to Arizona today to face charges.
The Reverend Michael Vahle (VAH'-lee) was arrested a week ago at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Memphis.
A grand jury in Prescott, Arizona, indicted Vahle on 20 counts of child molestation and 21 counts of sexual conduct with a child.
Vahle is 53 years old and also worked as a substitute teacher in northern Mississippi. Prosecutors say a child under 15 was molested between 1989 and 1993.
• Lawyer says abuse priest implicated Paterson bishop in coverup [1980s] -- RCC.
Newsday, www.newsday.com/ news/local/wire/ ny-bc-nj--priestabuse 0826aug26,0,7742653. story?coll=ny-ap- regional-wire ; By STEVE STRUNSKY, August 26, 2004
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) _ A former Roman Catholic priest accused of sex abuse implicated his former bishop in a cover-up, according to transcripts of an interview filed Thursday in a lawsuit against the Diocese of Paterson. The allegations of abuse mainly involve students at a diocesan elementary school in Mendham, St. Joseph's Catholic School, during the 1980s. The transcripts were part of a response to a motion by the diocese seeking to dismiss the suit on grounds that the statute of limitations has expired. The lawsuit was filed in January in state Superior Court in Morris County. The interview was conducted without a lawyer for the priest present, and therefore does not constitute a deposition that would be admissible in court as evidence. But, the plaintiff's lawyer Gregory Gianforcaro, said the interview can be used by Judge Deanne M. Wilson in weighing whether to dismiss the suit.
• Probation lifted to let former Henderson priest go to Missouri [Roberts] -- RCC.
The Kansas City Star, Associated Press, Thu, Aug. 26, 2004
LAS VEGAS - A former Henderson priest convicted of abusing teenage boys has been taken off probation and will be allowed to move to a treatment center in Missouri even though one of his victims lives in that state, authorities said. Clark County District Judge Donald Mosley told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he took Mark Roberts off formal probation and ordered that Roberts be housed at Recon, a treatment center for priests in Dittmer, 40 miles southwest of St. Louis. When informed of Roberts' relocation, a mother of one of his victims expressed outrage. "We are surprised, saddened, but most of all, we're disappointed in these secret actions, and we look forward to getting some answers in the near future," Debbie Tullgren said. Mosley tried to place Roberts at Recon last year, but the Missouri Probation and Parole Board denied Roberts' placement after groups protested that he would be living too close to one of his victims, who has moved to the St. Louis area. [...] The executive director of the advocacy group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said he was angry that under the new agreement, the Catholic Church, not a probation officer, will be responsible for reporting any violations to Mosley. SNAP opposed the original plan to send Roberts to Missouri. "This is the same old, same old," said David Clohessy, executive director of the Chicago-based group. "Abusive teachers don't get sent to a treatment facility run by their employer, and neither should abusive priests." Roberts, 53, was removed from his position as pastor at St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church in Henderson in February 2002 and pleaded guilty in January 2003 to lewdness and child abuse involving five teens. He was sentenced in May 2003 to three years probation. Authorities said Roberts subjected the boys to strange sexual rituals. All the victims are now between 17 and 20 years old.
• Former Douglaston Priest Accused Again Of Molestation [2004 Byrns] -- RCC.
Queens Chronicle, by Liz Rhoades, LizR@qchron.com , Managing Editor, August 26, 2004
UNITED STATES: A former Douglaston priest has been accused, once again, of molesting a child, in this case an 11-year-old Brooklyn boy two years ago. Joseph Byrns, 61, who was barred from the ministry by the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens last June because of past sexual abuse charges in Douglaston, was indicted last week in Brooklyn. According to the charges, Byrns is accused of calling the alleged victim to St. Rose of Lima Church in Brooklyn, when there was no reason to do so, and molesting him. Ironically, at the same time as the alleged abuse, Byrns was denying accusations that he sexually assaulted an altar boy and his brother 30 years ago at St. Anastasia's Catholic Church in Douglaston. At the time, he was very outspoken, calling the main accuser, "a tortured person, more to be pitied than condemned." The original charges were brought by Father Timothy Lambert and his brother, Robert. Persistence by Father Lambert eventually got action on the sexual abuse charges. The spring removal of Father Byrns was revealed at St. Anastasia's and St. Rose of Lima by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens in a letter to parishioners. The discredited priest served in the Douglaston church from 1969 to 1983. Father Lambert, 46, who works in the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey, announced the alleged abuse in 1997, but the diocese did not actively investigate the charges. Father Byrns was originally supported by the diocese, but the charges resurfaced in 2002 after reports were published that then-Bishop Thomas Daily covered up a similar case while serving in Boston. Father Lambert said that Byrns first molested him at the age of 12 while on an overnight trip to Niagara Falls. The abuse allegedly continued for three years, mostly in the rectory. ...
• Priest pleads guilty to having child porn: Former Quakertown cleric faces prison for images on computer. [2003 Kornacki] -- RCC.
The Morning Call, By Pervaiz Shallwani, August 26, 2004
PHILADELPHIA: A Catholic priest who had served in Quakertown pleaded guilty Wednesday to having child pornography, admitting he bought a computer disc containing more than 150 images from a Web site. During a 30-minute hearing, the Rev. Matthew Kornacki repeatedly told U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick he understood the consequences of his decision. As his father and two sisters sat quietly behind him, Kornacki told Surrick he was taking responsibility for his action. "I know what I am doing," Kornacki said. "It's the only way I can begin to make things right." Kornacki, 57, who was an assistant pastor at Quakertown's St. Isidore's Church from November 1985 to June 1992, has worked in nine parishes during his 31 years serving the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He was indicted in May as part of a New York child pornography sting operation. Surrick deferred sentencing until Nov. 17 pending a presentence investigation. Kornacki faces up to 10 years in prison, a maximum $200,000 fine and three years' supervised release, but under federal sentencing guidelines he probably will get 30 to 37 months of prison time. Kornacki has no criminal record and will remain free on $20,000 bail during the investigation.
• Mother suing church after son, 11, said he was raped [1998-2000] -- Gospel Baptists.
Mansfield News Journal, Thursday, August 26, 2004
BUCYRUS -- No court date has been set in the case of a mother of an 11-year-old Galion boy who has filed a lawsuit against Gospel Baptist Church and its pastor, alleging a teenager sexually molested her son for two years. In the complaint filed in Crawford County Common Pleas court this summer, the attorney for the plaintiff, Robert Dintaman of Strongsville, wrote a 14-year-old had sexually molested and raped a child in 1999. Despite this, Gospel Baptist Church and its pastor, Monty Trammel, allowed the teenager to be in a situation where he would be unsupervised with young children, the lawsuit claims. The News Journal is not naming the victim or alleged assailant because of their ages. When the 11-year-old was 5, he allegedly was sexually molested by the teenager. The abuse allegedly occurred between 1998 through 2000. No criminal charges were filed.
• Diocese to face queries in case -- RCC.
Deseret Morning News, By Laura Hancock, Thursday, August 26, 2004
UNITED STATES: Attorneys preparing for sex-abuse trials against the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle will travel to Utah next month to question officials with the Diocese of Salt Lake City. A notice of deposition was filed Wednesday in Utah's 3rd District Court. The deposition is to take place Sept. 15 in Salt Lake City. The attorneys, from the Seattle law firm of Rogers and Fleck, PLLC, want to depose any people "responsible for maintaining the records" on Edmund Boyle, a priest who died in 1995 at age 78. Such records are "any and all documents," the notice states, including files, correspondence, newspaper articles, and anything referencing the Seattle archdiocese. Boyle served as a priest in the West. It was unknown whether he lived in Utah. A spokeswoman for the Salt Lake diocese did not return a message to the Deseret Morning News on Wednesday night. A spokesman for the Seattle archdiocese also did not return a message. [...] According to Seattle newspapers, "S.H." was 50 years old and living in Portland, Ore., when he sued the Seattle archdiocese in April 2003. Boyle allegedly molested "S.H." when he was a child in the late 1950s and 1960s. The man was a student at a boys school in Kent, Wash., 8 or 9 years old, when the alleged abuse started. The man says he was molested for about 2 1/2 years. The boy left the school, but the priest allegedly resumed molesting him in the mid-1960s at schools in California and Las Vegas, where Boyle subsequently was transferred. Three siblings — a man and two women now in their late 50s — sued the archdiocese in February, saying they were molested in their family home, on camping trips and at the rectory. Another man filed suit against the Seattle Archdiocese in May. The statute of limitations in Washington on such cases is three years to the date of when a person realizes he or she has problems that were caused by the abuse, Rogers said. "It's a discovery of when that occurred. It's not when they knew of the abuse," Rogers said. Boyle retired in 1984 and moved to Nevada. In 1987, he pleaded guilty to one count of lewdness with a child, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, after being charged in connection to exposing himself to a mentally retarded 12-year-old boy at a Nevada hospital where he served as a chaplain. In addition to the archdiocese, the personal representative of the estate of Boyle is named as a defendant — not necessarily because of any wealth he left. "I think that's a protocol," Rogers said.
• Priest pleads guilty in child-pornography case [2003 Kornacki] -- RCC.
The Inquirer, By Joseph A. Slobodzian, Posted on Thu, Aug. 26, 2004
UNITED STATES: In a move that the federal judge warned could put him in prison for three years, a veteran Philadelphia Roman Catholic priest yesterday pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography. "I absolutely know what I am doing," the Rev. Matthew J. Kornacki told U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick, adding, "It's the only way I can begin to make things right." Surrick permitted Kornacki to remain free on $20,000 unsecured bond, pending sentencing Nov. 17. Since he was confronted by agents in July 2003 at his residence at the archdiocese's St. Charles Borromeo seminary in Wynnewood, Kornacki has lived at the St. John Vianney Center in Downingtown, a church-run facility for priests undergoing psychological counseling. In addition to pleading guilty, Kornacki agreed to forfeit his seized laptop computer, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenya Mann said contained 150 illegal images of children engaged in sexual acts.
• Shawnee priest on leave after abuse is alleged [~1980s Cawley] -- RCC.
The Kansas City Star, By DAWN BORMANN, Thu, Aug. 26, 2004
UNITED STATES: A Shawnee priest has been placed on administrative leave while his religious order investigates an abuse allegation. The Rev. Thomas Cawley, who assisted at St. Joseph's Church, left the parish earlier this month, according to the Midwest Province of the Congregation of the Mission in St. Louis. Cawley belongs to the Vincentian religious order and reports to the St. Louis mission. Provincial James Swift said the alleged abuse happened 23 to 25 years ago. The complaint was lodged in early August, and Cawley was placed on leave the next day. Swift would not comment further about the allegation. The alleged victim's attorney did not return phone calls. Cawley, who is in his 70s, is living in an undisclosed location while an internal investigation is conducted. He will not be allowed to celebrate Mass during the investigation, Swift said. "He left the parish physically, and I can assure you that he is not involved in any kind of active ministry," Swift said. It is the first abuse allegation filed against Cawley, Swift said.
• Priest seeks probe of lawyer's charge
Times Union, www.timesunion.com/ AspStories/story.asp? storyID=279740&category= ALBANY&BCCode= &newsdate=8/26/2004 ; Aug 26, 2004 [Can't find the domain even - 31 Aug 04]
• Name of accused priest to be released this week [No URL on archive]
• Catholic Diocese appeal requested -- RCC.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Thursday, August 26, 2004
PITTSBURGH, Pa.: The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has appealed a ruling that said lawsuits filed by alleged sexual abuse victims could proceed to trial. Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. ruled Aug. 3 on the cases, which claim the diocese conspired to protect priests who molested children as long ago as the 1950s. In nearly identical cases, a judge in Lehigh County had also ruled that conspiracy suits regarding old cases could proceed, while a Philadelphia judge had ruled that they were barred by the long-expired statute of limitations regarding child sexual abuse. Those cases are also being appealed, so it made no sense for the Pittsburgh diocese to proceed without hearing from the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, said William Pietragallo II, an attorney for the diocese.
• Anglican Bishop defrocked over sexual abuse allegations [Shearman]
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, "AM," Reporter: Jeff Waters, 08:28:00, Thursday, 26 August , 2004
TONY EASTLEY: The Archbishop of Brisbane has formally defrocked former Bishop Donald Norman Shearman, the first time a priest in the Australian church has been deposed of holy orders.
It's alleged Mr Shearman initiated a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old schoolgirl in the mid-1950s. The victim was there last night to hear the formal defrocking orders, and afterwards spoke to reporters.
Jeff Waters was there for AM.
PHILLIP ASPINALL: The church will not sweep these things under the carpet, we will not just hope that they go away and things get better.
JEFF WATERS: Archbishop of Brisbane, Phillip Aspinall, speaking after becoming the first Australian Anglican church leader to defrock a fellow priest.
PHILLIP ASPINALL: Well, I think the most serious step the church can take in relation to an ordained person is effectively to revoke their ordination. That is the most serious step possible under the tribunal canon, and that's the step that's been taken today.
JEFF WATERS: Donald Shearman, the former Bishop of Rockhampton and of Grafton, can no longer give communion. He's now 78, retired, and said to be in failing health.
The special church tribunal which heard the case may have been chaired by a Supreme Court Judge, but it was not a court of law and could not imprison the accused. Nevertheless the victim in this case – now in her sixties and strident in her efforts to remain anonymous – seemed pleased that the Church took action.
VICTIM: I'm really very sad and very sorry that it's come to this, but I persisted for all this time because I don't want any child or vulnerable adult to have to suffer the way I have and I think it's time for the Church to learn to put victims first, and not to cover up for the perpetrators who may be their friends, and that's all I've got to say.
TONY EASTLEY: The woman who claims she was abused by former Anglican Bishop Donald Shearman speaking there with reporters, including Jeff Waters.
• Diocese settles 18 abuse suits [1970s-2001 McGrath, Ferraro, Yim, Anderson, Kuchar, Wolken] -- RCC. $US2m + $US1.6m
St Louis Post-Dispatch, By Tim Townsend, ttownsend@post-dispatch.com , Tel. 314-340-8221, Aug/26/2004
Pictures: (Clockwise from left) Reverend Bryan Kuchar, Father Alex Anderson, Rev. Robert Yim and Michael McGrath
ST. LOUIS CITY: The St. Louis Archdiocese has agreed to pay more than $2 million to settle 18 civil cases of sexual abuse, according to lawyers representing the accusers. Edward Goldenhersh, an archdiocesan lawyer, said Wednesday that using the word "settle" is "wordsmithing." "They've brought claims and I can beat them in court, and they know that," he said. Negotiations between the accusers' lawyers and the Roman Catholic archdiocese have been ongoing since January in more than 20 cases involving five priests and a nun, who is now deceased. The archdiocese did not reach agreements in at least three other cases. At least 30 more cases against the archdiocese are pending, according to Susan Carlson, one of the attorneys representing the accusers. Those cases probably will be mediated in the same way over the coming months. Attorneys would not say exactly how much each accuser received in each settlement. "The archdiocese has agreed to help people with their counseling expenses in response to their claims of sexual abuse," Goldenhersh said. The accusers otherwise would receive nothing "because of the statute of limitations defense."
The $2 million is distinct from the $1,675,000 paid by the archdiocese in June to a St. Louis family that said the Rev. Gary Wolken sexually abused their son, for which the priest was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In addition to the $2 million, the archdiocese agreed to provide "safe touch" education to all children in the archdiocese, and education on recognizing child sexual abuse to all archdiocesan employees, according to Carlson. It also agreed to post the state child abuse hot line in all workplace areas of the archdiocese, and in some cases to write a letter of apology to the accuser.
The five current or former priests involved in the settlements are Michael McGrath, Romano Ferraro, Robert Yim, Alexander R. Anderson and Bryan Kuchar. The late Sister Judith Fischer was the lone nun named. McGrath was removed from the ministry in 1997 after working as a priest in St. Louis since 1975. Seventeen people have accused McGrath of abuse. The latest three, which alleged sexual abuse in the mid-1980s, were filed in March. McGrath lives in Richmond Heights and has worked as a bus driver. Ferraro was convicted in May of raping a boy in Massachusetts in the 1970s. A man in St. Louis filed a suit in January alleging that Ferraro had abused him in the early 1980s. Ferraro was suspended from priestly duties in 1988, and is serving a life sentence in Massachusetts. Three men accused Yim of abuse while he was a priest in the archdiocese from 1974 until 1995, when he resigned from the priesthood. In 1990, then-Archbishop John L. May removed Yim from parish ministry and assigned him as a chaplain at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. He later became a minister in the United Church of Christ but was suspended from that denomination. Anderson, currently pastor of Most Sacred Heart church in Eureka, was accused of abusing a boy in the 1980s at St. Joseph Home for Boys in St. Louis, where he was chaplain at the time. Anderson filed a suit against the man in return. The settlement of the case came in February with neither the priest nor his accuser apologizing or withdrawing his accusations. The church, in what it called an act of kindness, agreed to pay Anderson's accuser $8,000 for past counseling and $14,500 for future medical costs. "In my case, the diocese paid counseling fees for someone who had alleged abuse," Anderson said on Wednesday. "There was no financial settlement other than that." Kuchar is serving three years in the St. Louis County jail for abusing a boy in 1995. Other allegations of abuse against Kuchar include incidents said to have occurred in the rectory of the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica as recently as 2001. #
• St. Louis Archdiocese settles 18 abuse cases -- RCC.
Kansas City Star, http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/9498317.htm?1c , By CHERYL WITTENAUER, Associated Press, Posted on Thu, Aug. 26, 2004
ST. LOUIS - The Archdiocese of St. Louis said Thursday it will pay $2 million to settle 18 civil claims of sexual abuse by five priests and a nun, who is now deceased, and that it plans to mediate an additional 16 cases still pending. About one-third of the $2 million will be paid by insurance, the rest from general reserves, said Bernard Huger, attorney for the archdiocese. Negotiations between archdiocesan attorneys and lawyers for the plaintiffs began in February with the help of professional mediators. The goal was to "resolve this thing expeditiously with as little controversy as possible, and without the adversity of a courtroom," Huger said.
• Most priests accused of abuse won't face church trials
Chicago Sun-Times, www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/cst-nws-abuse26.html [Fee required to view - 31 Aug 04] [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:51 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thu, August 26, 2004
Religions' abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont94.htm
• Seminarians back celibacy: Disturbed by 'negative' clergy petition, hundreds of US seminarians back Church tradition of celibacy for priests. -- RCC.
The Record, Western Australia Roman Catholic newspaper, by Jerry Filteau, CNS, pp 1 and 2, August 26, 2004
WASHINGTON (CNS): At least 556 US seminarians have signed a letter to the head of the US bishops' conference affirming their support for mandatory celibacy in the Catholic priesthood of the Latin rite. [...]
In the letter to Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the seminarians said, ... We, to whom the precious gift of divine grace to live as celibates has been given, yearn with all our hearts to offer this celibacy up to the Lord with undivided hearts, at the service of the Church." ... [Aug 26, 04]
• Donations won't be used for civil settlements. -- RCC. $US 2.03m committed.
The St Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com/ stltoday/news/stories.nsf /News/St.+Louis+City+% 2F+County/ story/886A29 69648E 8AE886 256EFD 0012EE7A? OpenDocument&Headline= 2+women+are+injured+i n+collapse+ of+porch , Aug/26/2004
ST. LOUIS: About one-third of the $2,036,800 the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis will pay to settle 18 civil cases of sexual abuse will be paid by its insurance company. The rest will come from a general archdiocesan fund "generated from investments and past sales of real estate," according to a statement issued Thursday by the archdiocese.
"No contributions to parishes, archdiocesan agencies or the Archdiocesan Development Appeal will be used to fund these settlements."
The civil cases were settled in the names of five priests and a nun.
A victims' support group said it hoped the settlements would "prompt others who are wounded to step forward, disclose their secret and start their recovery."
In a letter to Archbishop Raymond Burke, David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests wrote, "You have a duty to do everything you can to urge witnesses and victims to contact police and to warn the public about these dangerous men." [Aug 26, 04]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Fri August 27, 2004 edition follows:-
• Seminarians show support for celibacy -- RCC.
St Louis Review Online (The weekly newspaper of the Diocese of St Louis), www.stlouisreview.com/article.php?id=6871 , by Jerry Filteau, August 27, 2004
WASHINGTON (CNS) — At least 556 U.S. seminarians have signed a letter to the head of the U.S. bishops' conference affirming their support for mandatory celibacy in the Catholic priesthood of the Latin rite. Gary J. Kasel of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis and Franz S. Klein of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wis., initiated the signature project last fall. They said they did so because they were concerned about the negative impact of a petition last year by a group of Milwaukee priests urging the U.S. bishops to begin admitting married men as candidates for the diocesan priesthood in the Latin rite. In the letter to Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the seminarians said, "We are writing today to affirm our support for Holy Mother Church's teaching on the place of celibacy in the priesthood. ... We, to whom the precious gift of divine grace to live as celibates has been given, yearn with all our hearts to offer this celibacy up to the Lord with undivided hearts, at the service of his Church." Kasel and Klein were classmates completing philosophy studies last year at St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul, where they initially circulated their letter after getting it cleared with their rector, Father William J. Baer. Through fellow students at St. John Vianney who knew students in other seminaries around the country, they sent letters to those contacts asking them to circulate the letter and seek signatures in their respective seminaries. They said they only worked through such personal contacts and made no effort to canvass all U.S. seminarians. Students from 12 other seminaries responded as well. Bishop Gregory received a total of 556 signatures from the 13 institutions. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:20 PM]
• Competency hearing set for man accused of killing priest [2003 Russell, 1968-69 Pilger] -- RCC.
Lexington Herald-Leader, Associated Press, Fri, Aug. 27, 2004
LEXINGTON, Ky. - An Ohio man charged with murdering a retired Catholic priest and sex offender has had a court date set for a competency hearing. Fayette County Circuit Court Judge Rebecca Overstreet on Friday set an Oct. 11 hearing date for Jason Anthony Russell. Russell, 27, is charged with killing 78-year-old Joseph Pilger. He is also charged with burglary, theft and being a persistent felon. Police say Russell, of Ironton, Ohio, killed Pilger, whose body was found Dec. 5 at his southeast Lexington home. Russell has pleaded not guilty to those charges. Russell also has pleaded not guilty to a third-degree assault charge filed in May. Russell underwent a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation earlier this year. His lawyer, public defender Herb West, asked in June that a second evaluation be done, a request which Judge Lewis Paisley granted. Results of those evaluations are not available in court records. Pilger pleaded guilty to sexual abuse in 1995 for abusing three brothers and their cousin in 1968 and 1969, when he was their pastor in Morganfield in western Kentucky. The victims were younger than 15 and serving as altar boys at the parish. After a plea bargain, Pilger received five years probation, beginning in January 1995
• Blackwell trial delayed a fourth time: Defense attorney in priest abuse case says records still being gathered [Blackwell] -- RCC. Male.
Baltimore Sun, www.baltimoresun.com/ news/local/crime/bal- blackwell0827,1,7613842. story?coll=bal-local- headlines By Brian Witte, The Associated Press, August 27, 2004
UNITED STATES: The trial of a priest accused of sexually abusing a former parishioner will be delayed for the fourth time, attorneys said today. The trial for the Rev. Maurice Blackwell was still on the docket for Monday in Baltimore. But defense attorney Kenneth Ravenell said an agreement has been worked out to delay it. "There are still many records that we're gathering," Ravenell said. "This is an old case, so there's a lot of work to be done." Ravenell said he has subpoenaed many people and records in the case. The priest was charged with molesting Dontee Stokes, 28, beginning in 1989 and ending in 1992, when Stokes was a teenager. But Blackwell was not indicted until 2003, after Stokes confronted Blackwell outside the priest's home in May 2002 and later shot him with a .357 Magnum handgun. Blackwell has denied sexually abusing Stokes. The shooting happened when the church abuse scandal in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church was highly publicized. Blackwell, who was shot three times in the hand and hip, still uses a cane when he walks as a result of the wounds. "It's obviously a very difficult matter," Ravenell said today. "Not only is he still recovering from the bullet-wound injuries, but he's also dealing with the stress of a criminal prosecution." (Pictures of both are on the webpage)
• Man suing diocese over priest abuse identifies himself [1962-66 Summers, Roy / Rodriquez] -- RCC. Altar boy.
13 WVEC, www.wvec.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D84NQUK01.html By JUSTIN BERGMAN / Associated Press, Aug/27/2004
UNITED STATES: A man who is suing the Catholic Diocese of Richmond over sexual abuse he claims he suffered at the hands of two priests in the 1960s has publicly identified himself in court documents for the first time, the man's attorney said Friday. Steve Kopalchick, 52, of Hopewell, added his name to court documents earlier this month to convince other victims of abuse at the St. James Catholic Church in Hopewell to come forward, said his attorney, Edward Weiner. Kopalchick was previously identified in documents as John Doe. "After being in therapy for a year, he decided it was time to divulge his name," Weiner said. "We had gone through a lot of effort to protect his identity. ... But he lives in Hopewell. It's a small town. People were starting to put two and two together." Kopalchick, who could not be reached for comment Friday, alleges he was molested as an altar boy at the church from 1962 to 1966 by two priests, the Rev. Thomas M. Summers and the Rev. Andrew Roy, also known as Andres Rodriquez. Summers died in 1992 at the age of 73. Roy, now 92, retired in 1981 and is living in Spain, Weiner said. The $5 million suit was filed last August in Richmond Circuit Court. No trial date has been set.
• The Sick Lives of Problem Priests: Legal Papers Describe Santa Barbara's Long History of Pedophilic Catholic Priests [1960s-70s Kelly] -- RCC is creating a "public nuisance."
The Santa Barbara Independent, http://independent.com/news/news927.htm , by Matt Kettmann, August 26, 2004
SANTA BARBARA: Catholic priests and friars began sexually abusing Santa Barbara's children way back in the 1930s and, for the past 70 years, the Catholic Church has done little to remedy the situation that its hierarchy makers knew all too much about. Rather - explains legal papers filed this week by Santa Barbara attorneys Tim Hale and David Nye, who represent a victim of such abuse - the church has continued to use Santa Barbara as a dumping ground for their problem priests to the present day.
In fact, the attorneys argue, when assessed on a per capita basis, Santa Barbara County - at one point or another home to 31 alleged offenders and more than 60 victims - may regrettably boast "one of the highest" number of priestly pedophiles in the history of the sexual abuse scandal that since the 1990s has been rocking one of the planet's oldest, wealthiest, and most powerful institutions. In comparison to other counties, Santa Barbara has five times as many cases as Orange, four times as many as Los Angeles, and at least twice as many as Boston, which until now has been considered the center of these allegations. Many remember when Santa Barbara made national headlines in the early 1990s for the St. Anthony's Seminary sexual abuse scandal - which is disturbingly outlined in this report - but these charges, if true, could make Santa Barbara the poster child for a community done wrong by the Catholic Church.
The shocking papers - which include 48 pages of information based on two years of investigation that drip with lurid details and scandalous charges of high-level conspiracy - were filed as part of the process to get the defendant in the case publicly named. State law contends that because sexual abuse charges are so heated, the plaintiff in a civil case must show a certain amount of evidence before the defendant can be identified. In this case, there's no other possible defendant than the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which oversees the Catholic community of Santa Barbara, though the judge has not yet allowed the archdiocese to be officially named.
The attorneys are further arguing that because the Catholic Church has not informed the community when such priests are brought into the area - as evidenced in last month's discovery by the Dallas Morning News that an alleged molester from Canada named Gerald Chumik had been living at the Santa Barbara Mission for more than a year - the church is creating a "public nuisance," potentially harming individuals and the community at large.
Since the statute for criminal charges has passed, the attorneys are attacking the church as a type of corporation, where the hierarchy - regardless of whether they personally caused the problem or not - is still responsible for past wrongs of their predecessors. It's analogous to suing a company for environmental pollution created years ago if the effects still harm a community. Yet in this case, explained Hale, it's likely that when the evidence eventually comes out, the current hierarchy may be just as at fault for this pattern of conduct as the hierarchy that started it. He points to Chumik as a recent example.
The report charges that abusive priests have served at almost every Catholic institution in S.B. County. In addition, it alleges that abuse has taken place at Hendry's Beach, campgrounds near Cambria, Lake Cachuma, and Carpinteria, and also in victims' homes. Furthermore, Father James Ford of the San Roque parish is named as a defendant in a current molestation case and Father James Kearney, who was reassigned from the San Lorenzo Prayer Center in Santa Ynez just last year, was identified as a defendant in similar cases. Evidence is also presented that this is a long-standing pattern in the church, whereby those who were sexually abused enter the priesthood and then abuse more children. Such was the case with former priest Robert Van Handel, who served an eight-year sentence for molesting St. Anthony's choir boys and was released in 2002.
The current plaintiff, referred to simply as "John Roe 4," is charging that he was abused by Father Matthew Kelly of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the early 1970s during visits to the priest's Santa Ynez Valley cabin. But 10 years before then, other priests, community members, and neighbors of Kelly apparently knew of his fondness for young boys and some even told his superiors so, the filing claims. Yet nothing was done about his "strange behavior," alleges the report, which paints a picture of the Catholic Church in Santa Barbara as a known refuge for those "problem priests." Indeed, certain auxiliary bishops are even shown to be covering for the molesters and fellow priests appear to routinely downplay the significance of alleged abuses.
"There were so many opportunities for them to be honest and forthcoming, so many children could have been saved," said Hale, who explained that the mediation process in this case is coming to a close, and pretrial actions are soon to start. "The plaintiff is just one of many examples."
Calls to the archdiocese's attorneys were not returned by press deadline. #
• La Crosse priest removed in case involving a 30-year-old allegation [1971 Bornbach] -- RCC. Girl.
Duluth News Tribune, BY JULIET WILLIAMS, ASSOCIATED PRESS, Fri, Aug. 27, 2004
MILWAUKEE - The Roman Catholic Diocese of La Crosse said Thursday it has removed a priest from ministry after finding an allegation he abused a girl more than 30 years ago was credible. The Rev. Raymond Bornbach can no longer serve as a priest, confirmed the Rev. Lawrence Dunklee, director of the office for clergy in La Crosse. Bornbach, though, had already retired. In an Aug. 16 letter to his accuser, Brenda Varga, the diocese said its review panel had concluded her abuse allegations were credible. "Because these matters occurred so long ago, and because Father Bornbach has consistently denied your allegations, your complaints have been challenging and time consuming to investigate and to resolve," said the letter, signed by the Very Rev. Richard Gilles, the diocese administrator. "Nevertheless, I have concluded that your complaint has been sufficiently confirmed." Varga, now 42, said the priest abused her for about a year in 1971, taking her and her younger sister to his house and buying them gifts after meeting her at her cousin's wedding. She said although she did not belong to Bornbach's church, he got permission from her parents to see the girls.
• Ex-priest: Rodimer knew about sexual abuse: Court papers say bishop persuaded victim to keep quiet [Hanley, Rodimer] -- RCC. 24 victims. Only case where priest says bishop covered up: SNAP.
Daily Record, www.dailyrecord.com/news/articles/news5-SNAP.htm , By Eugene Mulero, Aug/27/04
MORRISTOWN -- Former priest James Hanley admitted molesting more than two dozen children and implicated then-Paterson Diocese Bishop Frank Rodimer in a cover-up of his abuses, according to court documents made public Thursday. The documents -- a deposition given by Hanley as part of a lawsuit filed in January against Rodimer, the diocese and others by two dozen victims of childhood sex abuse -- contain detailed testimony by Hanley that he molested boys over several years and that Rodimer tried to prevent a church scandal by convincing one young victim to keep quiet. "In approximately 1984, September, I received a call from the office to come down," Hanley says in the documents. "And the bishop told me that a young man had come forward to (other priests) that I had abused him while I was at St. Joseph's. And the bishop said his name was Mark Serrano. He said, 'Is this true?' and I said, 'Yes, bishop, it is.' "I never denied it outright. (I) said yes, it's so.' The bishop said, 'Well, Jim, I want you to know that you're not the [only] one.'" Members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, say they believe there is no other case against the church in the nation in which a child-molesting priest admits the scope of his crimes and a cover-up by his bishop. ...
• Sexual Abuse Case: Judge lifts formal probation: Move allows former Henderson priest to be housed in state where one of his victims lives [Roberts] -- RCC.
Las Vegas Review Journal, By GLENN PUIT, Thursday, August 26, 2004
UNITED STATES: A former Henderson priest who sexually abused boys has been taken off probation and allowed to live in Missouri even though one of his victims resides there. When informed Wednesday evening of Mark Roberts' relocation to Missouri, a mother of one of his victims expressed outrage. "We are surprised, saddened, but most of all, we're disappointed in these secret actions, and we look forward to getting some answers in the near future," Debbie Tullgren said. District Judge Donald Mosley confirmed Wednesday that he has taken Roberts off formal probation and ordered that Roberts be housed at a special treatment center for priests known as RECON in Jefferson County, Missouri. The facility is the same rehabilitation center Mosley tried to place Roberts in last year, but the plan was rejected by Missouri probation officials because one of Roberts' victims lives in the state. Since then, Mosley said officials with the Nevada Division of Parole and Probation repeatedly have tried to find a treatment facility for Roberts. However, they have not been able to locate a specialized facility in a state willing to supervise Roberts while he serves three years' probation for abusing five Southern Nevada boys. Most recently, Mosley said, the state of New Mexico rejected a request to assign its probation officers to the supervision of Roberts.
• Archdiocese to Pay $2 Million to Settle Abuse Cases [1970s-80s] -- RCC. 18 cases, 16 to go.
NewsMax Wires, Friday, Aug. 27, 2004
ST. LOUIS - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis said Thursday it will pay $2 million to settle 18 claims of sexual abuse against five priests and a nun. The archdiocese said it hopes to settle 16 more cases. About one-third of the $2 million will be paid by insurance, the rest from archdiocese reserve funds, said Bernard Huger, an attorney for the archdiocese. Under the settlement, which involved allegations of misconduct during the 1970s and '80s, the archdiocese also agreed to educate children about what is appropriate touching, tell employees how to recognize child sexual abuse, and post the state child abuse hot line number in all church workplaces. The $2 million is separate from more than $1.6 million paid by the archdiocese in June to a family who said a priest sexually abused their son. The Rev. Gary Wolken was sentenced in 2003 to 15 years in prison.
• Ex-priest: I admitted sex abuse to Paterson bishop in'84 [Hanley] -- RCC. 16 boys.
The Star Ledger, BY JEFF DIAMANT, Friday, August 27, 2004
UNITED STATES: Former priest James Hanley admitted he molested at least 16 boys at three Catholic churches in Morris County, and said he told former Paterson Bishop Frank Rodimer about 12 of them in 1984, long before his formal removal from the ministry last year. In a sworn statement taken 10 months ago for a lawsuit against the Paterson Diocese, Hanley admitted to engaging in oral sex, sexual touching, open-mouth kissing and masturbation with the boys and said he showered with them. Hanley, 66, who now lives in Paterson, said he suffered from alcoholism and manic-depression and that he molested the boys during his manic states, thinking he was helping them. "I felt I was doing a service to them," he said in the statement. "That might be hard to believe, but when you're manic, you actually feel that you're helping them. I had no idea ... that I was causing any psychological harm to them." Plaintiffs in the case against the diocese say Hanley's statement shows Rodimer acted improperly. In the statement, filed yesterday in Superior Court in Morristown, Hanley said that in September 1984 during a meeting about a single accusation of sexual abuse, he told Rodimer he had molested about a dozen boys. Rodimer, however, did not ask him for the names of the other victims, Hanley said. Hanley's admission to Rodimer was made years before most of his victims came forward.
• Archdiocese settles claims of abuse for $2 million -- RCC.
The Kansas City Star, By CHERYL WITTENAUER, The Associated Press, Fri, Aug. 27, 2004
ST. LOUIS — The Archdiocese of St. Louis said Thursday that it would pay $2 million to settle 18 civil claims of sexual abuse and planned to mediate 16 other cases. About a third of the $2 million — involving allegations against five priests and a nun, who is now deceased — will be paid by insurance, and the rest will come from general reserves, said Bernard Huger, attorney for the archdiocese. Negotiations between attorneys for the archdiocese and the plaintiffs began in February with the help of professional mediators. The goal was to "resolve this thing expeditiously with as little controversy as possible, and without the adversity of a courtroom," Huger said.
• Judge rules churches should report abuse [1960s Ribeiro] -- RCC. Housekeeper led boys into the rectory.
Monterey Herald, Fri, Aug. 27, 2004
OAKLAND (AP) - A judge has decided church workers had an obligation to report any unlawful sexual conduct with children, according to his tentative ruling in a decades-old priest abuse case. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Ronald Sabraw ruled Wednesday in the case of the late Rev. Arthur Ribeiro, who's accused of molesting Catholic school boys in Concord in the 1960s. Sabraw said he would issue a final ruling by Sept. 3 in a test case that will signal the fate of scores of child-abuse lawsuits against Catholic Churches from Santa Rosa to Monterey. The judge is coordinating legal action in the "Clergy III" cases, more than 150 Northern California lawsuits made possible by a state law that temporarily suspended the statute of limitations during the year 2003 for adults seeking damages for old child abuse claims. Clergy I and Clergy II represent hundreds of similar claims in Los Angeles and San Diego. In the Ribeiro case, attorneys haggled over whether witnesses' accounts of schoolboys being led into the Concord rectory by a housekeeper and taken into the priest's bedroom meant the church was "on notice" of unlawful sexual conduct. In his tentative ruling, the judge agreed and likened "the situation to an employee at the concession stand at a theater who may have no responsibility to check fire extinguishers and exit signs but who is expected to yell 'Fire!' in the event of a fire," Sabraw said. # [Emphasis added]
• Retired priest's abuses revealed [1971 Bornbach; Ball] -- RCC. Girl.
Marshfield News Herald, www.wisinfo.com/newsherald/mnhlocal/282901546107752.shtml , By Elizabeth Putnam, Fri, Aug 27, 2004
UNITED STATES: An elderly priest is expected to be barred from performing any priestly duties after the Diocese of La Crosse confirmed a report that he had sexually abused a girl more than 30 years ago. The priest, the Rev. Raymond H. Bornbach, is now retired and living in Marshfield. Bornbach, 89, who occasionally ministers to patients at Saint Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield, declined to comment Thursday. In an Aug. 16 letter the diocesan administrator, the Rev. Richard Gilles, told Brenda Varga, now 42 and living in Plover, that her complaint against Bornbach "has been sufficiently confirmed." Varga had accused Bornbach of molesting her repeatedly in 1971. Attorney J. David Rice, who represents Bornbach, said Bornbach had received the same letter from Gilles and that the priest had always denied Varga's claims of abuse. "The situation is devastating to him. He is not in the best of health, with heart problems," Rice said. The La Crosse Diocese's sexual abuse policy calls for abusive priests to be removed permanently from the ministry and prohibited from celebrating Mass in public, wearing clerical garb or presenting themselves in public as priests. The Rev. Larry Dunklee, director of the diocesan office of clergy, said that although privacy concerns precluded him from discussing the case, the diocese would follow its own policy and the policies of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Gilles did not return repeated phone calls from the Daily Herald. Sharon Kostroski, vice president of quality and safety at Saint Joseph's Hospital, said the hospital had not received any reports about Bornbach from the diocese. She did not have a record of Bornbach's visits and said, "We'd expect him to abide by what the diocese decides." Varga first approached the diocese in a January 2003 letter to then-Bishop Raymond Burke, who has since become archbishop of St. Louis. After more than a year of communication with the diocese, a meeting with Burke and a rehashing of her story for the lay advisory board that reviews sexual abuse allegations for the diocese, Varga said this week that she was satisfied with the outcome. Under the diocesan rules, Varga also may be eligible for financial compensation. Varga said, however, that she had not been told whether she would be reimbursed for the cost of therapy related to the abuse.
Victim's story
Varga was 9 years old in 1971 and living in the Stevens Point area when her parents befriended Bornbach after he presided at a family wedding at St. Michael's Church in Hewitt. The priest eventually asked to spend time with Varga and her sister, who is a year younger. Bornbach would take the girls for drives during which they would stop at waysides. Once, Varga recalled, they stopped at Rib Mountain State Park. During their stops, Bornbach would tell Varga's sister to wait outside the car and then kiss Varga on the mouth and rub her legs and thighs. "I remember he smoked cigars," she said this week. The abuse continued for about a year. Varga did not recall this week how many drives she and her sister took with the priest. [...]
Another case
Varga's case is the second confirmed case of child sexual abuse in the La Crosse Diocese that has been reported by the media. The first case that became public knowledge involved Bruce E. Ball, a Colby priest who was convicted on child molestation charges in 1992 and served five years in prison. Two victims received payments totaling $66,125 from the diocese's insurance company. Ball died in February 2003 at age 55. Ball was not the only abusive priest in the diocese, however. In January, the diocese reported that 58 accusations of child molestation against 28 priests had been received from 1950 to 2002. Thirty-one claims, involving 10 priests, had been confirmed. ... [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:07 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Fri August 27, 2004
Religions' abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont94.htm
• Adelaide Archdiocese sets up Child Protection Council. RCC.
CathNews, http://www.cathnews.com/news/408/152.php , 27 Aug 2004
ADELAIDE, S. Australia: In an Australian first, [?] the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide has established a child protection council to oversee the safety of children.
The Advertiser reports today that the Council will develop policy initiatives and oversee all areas of child protection within the Archdiocese.
The Council will be chaired by leading child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr Prue McEvoy. Its aim is to prevent child abuse and ensure the church responds properly to concerns and any allegations.
Explaining details of the council yesterday, Archbishop Philip Wilson said it was a direct response to child abuse issues that had arisen in many institutions in recent years.
"The Catholic Church, both globally and here in Adelaide, has had to face some very difficult and distressing truths about the way it has failed to protect children in our care in the past," Archbishop Wilson said.
"While our early priorities have been in seeking to deal with the suffering of the victims, my aim has always been to get to the point where we are not just dealing with abuses after they happen, but establish a culture to ensure they don't happen again. Our number one aim is to establish awareness, policies and principles to ensure that children in our care are being protected throughout the archdiocese, including schools, parishes and church agencies."
While he welcomed moves that will see all teachers working in government, independent and Catholic schools subjected to police checks, Archbishop Wilson called on the State Government to check all people who work with children, including volunteers.
SOURCE: Church sets up child protection council (The Advertiser 27/8/04)
LINKS:
Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide
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[COMMENT: That God's leaders have to set up a group to protect God's children from God's representatives must make Heaven rock with mirth! The good side is that some truth is being told in this newsitem. COMMENT ENDS.] [Aug 27, 04]
• Attorney claims accused priest implicated retired New Jersey Bishop Rodimer in cover-up. [1980s -- Hanley, Rodimer] -- RCC.
The Morning Call (USA), http://www.mcall.com/ news/local/all-b9_3nj priestaug27,0,850970.story? coll=all-newslocal-hed ; By Steve Strunsky, August 27, 2004
Lawyer says ex-priest accused of sex abuse implicated retired bishop in cover-up. Interview in plaintiff's response to Paterson Diocese's motion.
NEWARK: A former Roman Catholic priest accused of sex abuse implicated his former bishop in a cover-up, according to transcripts of an interview filed Thursday in a lawsuit against the Diocese of Paterson.
The allegations of abuse mainly involve students at a diocesan elementary school -- St. Joseph's School in Mendham -- during the 1980s.
The transcripts were part of a response to a motion by the diocese seeking to dismiss the suit on grounds that the statute of limitations has expired.
The lawsuit was filed in January in state Superior Court in Morris County.
The interview was conducted without a lawyer for the priest present and therefore does not constitute a deposition that would be admissible in court as evidence.
But the plaintiff's lawyer, Gregory Gianforcaro, said the interview can be used by Judge Deanne M. Wilson in weighing whether to dismiss the suit.
In the interview, conducted last fall by Gianforcaro in former priest James T. Hanley's Paterson apartment, the lawyer asks Hanley when retired Bishop Frank Rodimer, the principal defendant in the suit, became aware of the abuse allegations and how he responded to them.
Rodimer, who retired in July, is not accused of abuse himself, but rather of failing to supervise his abusive priests and of disregarding victims' complaints.
"In approximately 1984, September, I received a call from the office to come down," Hanley says in the transcript. "And the bishop told me that a young man had come forward to Father
The bishop said, 'Well, Jim, I want you to know that you're not the only one."'
Later in the interview, Hanley says of Rodimer, "I think he felt in control of the situation as long as Mark didn't tell his parents."
Marianna Thompson, a diocesan spokeswoman, declined to comment on Hanley's statements.
Thompson said the diocese has until Sept. 27 to respond to the plaintiff's filing, after which the judge will review the submissions and schedule arguments on the motion.
She said Rodimer was not available for comment. A call to his lawyer, Stephen S. Weinstein, was referred to the diocese.
Hanley has an unpublished telephone number.
Apart from the Hanley interview, Gianforcaro contends the statute of limitations has not lapsed, because it only applies after victims become conscious that abuse had occurred. Victims of abuse typically suppress those memories, he said.
Mark Serrano, who two years ago broke a confidentiality agreement that was part of his own 1987 sex abuse suit against the diocese, said Hanley's recollection of Rodimer's inaction was consistent with his own.
"He told me he had met with Father Hanley, Father Hanley had admitted the abuse, and it was his job to forgive Father Hanley and give Father Hanley another chance," Serrano said of Rodimer.
"This is the first time that we have seen a priest-perpetrator acknowledge the scope of his crimes and reveal the story of a cover-up from his bishop," Serrano said.
Gianforcaro said Hanley was not named as a defendant in the suit because of his cooperation. Prosecutors have said the statute of limitations on criminal charges against Hanley has lapsed. # [Emphasis added]
(By courtesy of Catholic World News, http://www.cwnews.com/ , Aug 27, 04) [Aug 27, 04]
• Ex-priest: I admitted sex abuse to Paterson bishop in' 84. [1980s Hanley] -- RCC. Boys; 25 accusers.
Newark Star-Ledger, www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-17/1093587066148840.xml , by Jeff Diamant, religion reporter, jdiamant@starledger.com or (973) 392-1547, Friday, August 27, 2004
UNITED STATES: Former priest James Hanley admitted he molested at least 16 boys at three Catholic churches in Morris County, and said he told former Paterson Bishop Frank Rodimer about 12 of them in 1984, long before his formal removal from the ministry last year.
In a sworn statement taken 10 months ago for a lawsuit against the Paterson Diocese, Hanley admitted to engaging in oral sex, sexual touching, open-mouth kissing and masturbation with the boys and said he showered with them.
Hanley, 66, who now lives in Paterson, said he suffered from alcoholism and manic-depression and that he molested the boys during his manic states, thinking he was helping them.
"I felt I was doing a service to them," he said in the statement. "That might be hard to believe, but when you're manic, you actually feel that you're helping them. I had no idea ... that I was causing any psychological harm to them."
Plaintiffs in the case against the diocese say Hanley's statement shows Rodimer acted improperly.
In the statement, filed yesterday in Superior Court in Morristown, Hanley said that in September 1984 during a meeting about a single accusation of sexual abuse, he told Rodimer he had molested about a dozen boys. Rodimer, however, did not ask him for the names of the other victims, Hanley said.
Hanley's admission to Rodimer was made years before most of his victims came forward.
The statement was taken as part of a lawsuit in which 25 people -- 20 of whom accused the former priest -- sued the diocese and Rodimer in January, charging that church negligence and inaction allowed Hanley to abuse them at the Church of St. Joseph in Mendham and Our Lady of Good Counsel in Pompton Plains.
The abuse case is the largest one to surface in New Jersey since the national clergy sex abuse scandal broke in 2002.
A spokeswoman for the Paterson Diocese would not comment on Hanley's statement, saying she had not yet seen it. She referred questions about Rodimer to a Morristown attorney, Steve Weinstein, whose office did not issue a comment. Rodimer served as Paterson bishop from 1978 until he retired in June. He was replaced by Bishop Arthur Serratelli.
In the statement, Hanley said he learned of the accusations against him at the 1984 meeting when Rodimer told him two other priests said they heard Hanley had abused a boy at St. Joseph.
"He says, 'Is it true?' And I say, 'Yes, bishop, it is,'" Hanley said in the statement. "I never denied it. ... The bishop said, 'Well, Jim, I want you to know that you're not the only one (priest in the diocese to abuse boys)."
Hanley said Rodimer did not get him counseling until a year later, and then only after having falsely told the parents of one victim from St. Joseph, Mark Serrano, that Hanley was in counseling.
Hanley said Rodimer did not remove him from the ministry until Serrano's parents complained in early 1986 -- more than a year after his admission to the bishop.
Rodimer has said he underestimated the seriousness of the allegations until it was too late to prosecute. No criminal charges were filed against Hanley because the statute of limitations had expired.
Hanley served in five North Jersey churches from 1962, the year he was ordained, until 1986. Parishioners from all but one of those churches have come forward to say he abused them.
He has been cooperating with the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said Greg Gianforcaro, the plaintiff's attorney, because "he feels this is the least he could do for these young men given the abuse he's put them through."
The diocese wants the suit dismissed, arguing the statute of limitations has expired. The statute generally bars abuse victims from filing civil cases once they turn 20.
But Gianforcaro said the case should go forward because of provisions in state law that let victims file lawsuits if it took them until later in life to mentally connect the abuse to damages they suffered, or if they repressed memory of the abuse. Those involved in the suit against the diocese fall under those provisions, he said.
Gianforcaro said he filed Hanley's statement in Superior Court so Judge Deanne M. Wilson would understand the depth of the abuse and "why victims don't come out earlier. ... If the abuser thought he was helping these young boys, and he's the adult abuser, how can you expect a child to understand and appreciate that he's being abused?"
Serrano said yesterday that Hanley's version of events was consistent with his own recollection of the abuse he suffered.
"The whole milieu of abuse was through this context of sex ed, that Hanley was instructing me because these were things I needed to know," said Serrano, a national board member of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, an advocacy group for victims.
Raymond Skettini, 47, of Highland Lakes section of Vernon Township, who was abused by Hanley 34 years ago at Our Lady of Good Counsel, said Hanley's admission "was probably the only silver lining in an otherwise very dark cloud. At least this is one individual who admitted what he did." [Aug 27, 04]
• Various newsitems on clergy sex abuse and its aftermath. -- RCC.
Catholic World News, "Abuse cover-up alleged in New Jersey diocese (4 scandal articles)," www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=31760 , August 27, 2004
UNITED STATES: Aug. 27 -
• Fissures in a Grand Church [Alesandro] -- RCC.
The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/nyregion/29church.html , By PATRICK HEALY, August 29, 2004
OYSTER BAY, LONG ISLAND, N.Y. - St. Dominic's Roman Catholic Church sits like a crown on a steep hill overlooking this old Gold Coast hamlet. Perched at the highest point in town, its chapel is a century-old edifice of granite and stained glass where billionaire moguls and Wall Street financiers worship alongside hairdressers and immigrant cooks.
But right now, many members of the 3,000-family congregation say St. Dominic's is a church divided. Different factions attend different Masses. Old friendships are strained. When the service pauses for parishioners to embrace one another as a sign of peace, some avoid shaking certain hands, said Rich Cieciuch, a longtime parishioner and cantor at the 9 a.m. Sunday Mass.
The question that has split the church, already scarred and scandalized by allegations of abuse against five parish priests, is whether or not the pastor, Msgr. John A. Alesandro, who has been at St. Dominic's for two years, should continue to serve.
There is broad agreement that on one side are more than 300 parishioners who are critical of Monsignor Alesandro, 63, especially of his past tenure as a member of a three-person team that reviewed and dealt with allegations of sexual abuse by priests within the Diocese of Rockville Centre, which oversees Long Island's Roman Catholic churches.
In interviews, more than a dozen of the monsignor's critics said the team had not dealt forcefully enough with abusive priests during the time the monsignor served on it, during much of the 1980's, and had not been supportive enough of those who complained of abuse. They want him to leave the parish. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:43 PM]
• Diocese identifies priest accused of abuse [1998 Deyo] -- RCC.
WHO, http://www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2231297
DAVENPORT, Iowa: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport is naming a priest who they think committed sexual abuse against a minor in Johnson County in 1998.
Diocese officials say the priest is Father Paul Deyo. His name is being announced this weekend at parishes where he served.
Deyo most recently worked at Bishop Heelan High School in Sioux City from 2000 to 2003. Before that he served at parishes in Iowa City, Davenport and Clinton, and also worked at Catholic high schools in Iowa City and Davenport.
Diocese officials say he has been restricted from active duty since the allegation was made last year. Authorities in Johnson County say they are still looking at the case for possible charges.
• Former youth worker sentenced for sex abuse [? 1980s-2000 Skinner] -- RCC. Boys.
Bangor Daily News, www.bangornews.com/editorialnews/article.cfm?ID=431245
BANGOR (ME) - A man who worked for 25 years with Catholic youth groups in Penobscot and Hancock counties was sentenced Friday in Penobscot County Superior Court to 18 years in prison, with all but five years suspended, for sexually abusing two boys he met through church.
John S. Skinner Sr., 62, of Bar Harbor pleaded guilty Friday to one count of gross sexual assault and one count of gross sexual misconduct.
Both victims participated in youth programs at St. Mary of Lourdes Catholic Church in Lincoln, where Skinner volunteered as an adult supervisor from the late 1980s to 2000.
Skinner also was sentenced to six years of probation with many conditions, including registering as a violent sex offender.
He was indicted in July by the Penobscot County grand jury on six counts of gross sexual assault involving one victim, but five of the counts were dropped because the statute of limitations had expired, according to prosecutors.
• Son offers advice to victims of his father's sexual abuse [? 1980s-2003 Skinner] -- RCC. 4 Boys.
Bangor Daily News, www.bangornews.com/editorialnews/article.cfm?ID=431246
BANGOR (ME) - John S. Skinner Jr. of Ellsworth was not in Penobscot County Superior Court on Friday when the man for whom he is named was sentenced for sexually abusing children he met through church youth groups.
The 38-year-old father of three daughters understands the pain his father's victims have experienced. Skinner Jr. has been there. He was his father's first victim.
"Concerning the other three victims, I have a certain amount of guilt over not speaking up as a kid, even though I know it was not my fault," he said in an interview earlier this month. "I still feel a certain amount of, 'if I'd said something this might not have happened [to others].' I've been told that [the incident with] the last victim was a year ago."
John S. Skinner Sr., 62, of Bar Harbor was not charged in that incident. He pleaded guilty Friday to one charge of gross sexual assault and one charge of gross sexual conduct involving two different victims. ...
When the family moved to Ellsworth in 1978, Skinner Sr. helped organize a youth group at St. Joseph Catholic Church.
He interacted with many more teenagers than those at the Ellsworth church, according to his son. At that time, the deanery - a geographic grouping of parishes that often held joint events - stretched from Mount Desert Island to Greenville and from Winterport to Lincoln.
• Reverend sentenced to 22 1/2 to 45 years in prison [1999 McBurrows] -- "Third Christian Church."
Times Herald, www.timesherald.com/ site/news.cfm?newsid= 12799664&BRD=1672 &PAG=461&dept_id= 33380&rfi=6 ; By: MARGARET GIBBONS, mgibbons@timesherald.com , 610-272-2500, ext. 216, Aug/28/2004
UNITED STATES: Courthouse - A former Upper Dublin minister, convicted of killing a 4-year-old boy by beating him so severely his brain turned to "jelly," will grow old in a state prison. Montgomery County Judge William R. Furber Friday sentenced the 53-year-old Rev. Javan M. McBurrows to 22 1/2 to 45 years in prison for the 1999 murder of toddler Michael Davis and for physically abusing his own children, his wife and two of Davis' siblings who also were living with the McBurrows family. While McBurrows acted like the "shepherd of a flock" in public, he was "the devil's minister in private," the judge said. "It had to be a living nightmare for these children to endure this sadistic behavior," said Furber, citing testimony that McBurrows beat the children with cord, leather belts, PVC piping, a two-by-four board and, in the case of Davis' death, a metal-edged carpenter's level at a home McBurrows turned into a "house of terror". McBurrows, who had a Sunday morning radio ministry on WHAT-AM, was the former pastor of the Third Christian Church in Philadelphia. The boy's mother, Erika Daye, and his grandmother were members of the congregation. [...] "I maintain my innocence and will continue to pray that the fullness of justice comes forth," said McBurrows, who displayed no remorse nor offered any apology. [...] McBurrows beat the young boy to death on Jan. 9, 1999, when the boy did not close his eyes after walking into a bathroom where one of McBurrows' biological daughters was undressed for a bath, according to trial testimony. McBurrows slapped and struck the boy's head and body six to 10 times with a metal-encased carpenter's level to which the children in the house referred to as a "law and order," according to testimony.
• Pastor sentenced in beating death of boy, 4
Philadelphia Daily News, www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/9520637.htm , Associated Press, Sat, Aug. 28, 2004
UNITED STATES: A Montgomery County minister was sentenced yesterday to 22 ½ to 45 years in prison for the 1999 murder of a 4-year-old boy, who prosecutors said had been beaten to death with a carpenter's level. County Court Judge William Furber called the Rev. Javan McBurrows "diabolical and truly wicked" in sentencing him to 20 to 40 years yesterday for the third-degree murder conviction in the Jan. 9, 1999, death of Michael Davis at McBurrows' home in Glenside. The judge also sentenced McBurrows to 30 to 60 months, to be served after the longer term, on a conviction of endangering the welfare of other children in the home, including the boy's two sisters and five of the defendant's own children. Prosecutors said McBurrows routinely beat the children. Authorities said the boy, who had been left in the McBurrows' care by a destitute parishioner, had been beaten with a metal-edged level, which investigators said McBurrows had swung like a baseball bat. "I believe you are cruel and cunning," Furber said. "I believe, with the facade portrayed by a man of the cloth, you are extremely dangerous."
• Church child care threatened: Center closes over calls, anti-religious leaflets -- Assembly of God
The Journal Gazette, www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/9522939.htm , By Krista J. Stockman, Sat, Aug. 28, 2004
FORT WAYNE, USA: Threatening phone calls and anti-religious leaflets forced a Fort Wayne child-care center to close Friday. Cornerstone Daycare Learning Center, part of Assembly of God Church at 3301 E. Coliseum Blvd., closed shortly after 6 a.m. Friday before most of the 230 children had arrived. Senior Associate Pastor Don Williams said when child-care workers arrived before 6 a.m., they found hundreds of small pieces of paper containing anti-religious messages scattered across the parking lot. "There was one that mentioned, 'There is no God,' " he said. "Another speaks to, 'Priests are known to have been molesting kids for years. If you don't know what molesting is, ask your mom.' " As children began arriving at 6 a.m., the center received a series of threatening phone calls that caused concern for the safety of the children. Williams did not detail the nature of the threat. "It was just of a nature that the local law enforcement told us to take the steps that we did," he said. The child-care center has been in operation for 19 years and serves children from toddlers through sixth grade. Williams said this is the first time anything like this has happened and it disturbed the staff members. [...] This week, the Fort Wayne Plan Commission approved Assembly of God's plan to build a shopping center on its property at Hobson Road and Coliseum Boulevard. The 24,000-square-foot shopping center will not include tenants that sell alcoholic beverages, tobacco, pornography or lottery tickets. Rhoades said he does not know of any connection between the two events. ...
• 2nd Catholic audit begins on compliance with reforms -- RCC.
The Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040828/NEWS08/408280316/-1/NEWS [Can't display - 01 Sep 04]
• Judge rules priest to stand trial on charges of molesting girl [1994-95 Superiaso] -- RCC. Girl.
The Argus, www.theargusonline.com/Stories/0,1413,83~1971~2365256,00.html , By Amy Yarbrough, Saturday, August 28, 2004
REDWOOD CITY -- After months of legal wrangling, a former Daly City priest will stand trial for the alleged molestation of a 12-year-old girl. The question now is: When? San Mateo County Superior Court Judge James Ellis ruled earlier this week that time has not run out to prosecute Jose Superiaso, 50. His trial was scheduled to begin following Ellis' ruling, but all the courtrooms were booked and it's unclear when one will be available. A former priest at St. Andrew's Church in Daly City, Superiaso faces 24 counts of child molestation stemming from incidents alleged to have taken place between July 1994 and November 1995. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Superiaso was arrested in June 2003, after his accuser, now in her 20s, came forward and helped authorities lure him to Daly City from Santa Fe, N. Mex., where he had been working as a priest on an Indian reservation. In May, Superiaso's attorney Ray Buenaventura filed paperwork to have the charges against his client dismissed, citing a U.S. Supreme Court case banning the retroactive prosecution of certain child molestation cases. But Ellis relied instead on an earlier 1994 law, which gives prosecutors a year after a victim comes forward, to file charges in child molestation cases in which the six-year statute of limitations has lapsed.
• Sex case against priest will proceed: Allegations fall under Vatican's jurisdiction [1979 Miller] -- RCC.
The Journal Star, http://www.pjstar.com/news/topnews/b40e4lkp040.html By MICHAEL MILLER, mailto:mmiller@pjstar.com , August 28, 2004
PEORIA - The sexual misconduct case against a Peoria priest will go to the Vatican within the month, a church official said Friday. "It's being referred to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," said Patricia Gibson, chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria. "They have claimed jurisdiction over all these cases involving removal of a priest or a request for removal of a priest." Monsignor Thomas Miller was accused last spring of an incident of sexual misconduct occurring 25 years ago while he was serving at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Bloomington. At least one additional allegation has been brought forward against Miller, according to diocesan officials, though they haven't given specifics. The diocesan sexual misconduct review board determined in April the initial allegation against Miller "seemed credible." Miller was then asked by Bishop Daniel Jenky to step down from public ministry "until this matter can be fully investigated."
• Affidavit:Boy abused by minister: Second sodomy charge filed against pastor [1992 Peckham] -- Jubilee Christian Fellowship; Methodist. Disappeared in June.
The Joplin Globe, www.joplinglobe.com/story.php?story_id=128061&c=87 By Jeff Lehr, Aug/28/04
UNITED STATES: The Jasper County prosecutor filed a second sodomy charge Friday against Donald Peckham, this time alleging the 71-year-old Sarcoxie minister had deviant sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old boy about 12 years ago. A probable-cause affidavit filed to support the charge states that Peckham had oral sex with the boy, who would be 24 today, in a rabbit shed behind Peckham's former home at 1107 Joplin St. in Sarcoxie. The affidavit states that the alleged victim said Peckham performed a sex act on the boy. The affidavit further states that the alleged victim cannot now remember what time of year it was but is certain that it took place when he was 13. Peckham remained in custody Friday at the Jasper County Jail in lieu of $15,000 bond. The pastor of Jubilee Christian Fellowship Church in Sarcoxie has been in jail since being charged in July with second-degree sodomy. The initial charge was based on a complaint involving alleged sexual abuse of a 14-year-old boy eight years ago in Sarcoxie. That complaint also alleged that he performed an oral sex act on the victim. The charge filed Friday is first-degree sodomy. The difference in degrees of charges is related to the ages of the two alleged victims. Missouri law defines statutory sodomy in the second degree as deviant sexual intercourse with someone less than 17 years of age, and statutory sodomy in the first degree as deviant sexual intercourse with someone less than 14 years old. Before the first charge was filed in July, Peckham had been the subject of a high-profile missing-persons case. The married minister with three adult daughters disappeared on June 21 while purportedly on his way to visit an ailing member of his congregation at a hospital in Joplin. His car was found abandoned behind the Book Barn at 32nd and Main streets in Joplin and, for several days, his family and members of his congregation feared that he'd met with some sort of foul play or sudden illness. A multi-agency task force was set up to investigate what happened to him. Those investigators found him July 7 in San Antonio, Texas, 17 days after he'd disappeared, and he returned to Missouri with them. A little more than a week later, the first of the child-sexual abuse charges was filed against him. Investigators with the Sheriff's Department and Joplin and Carthage police have yet to say how Peckham got to Texas, what he was doing there or how they located him. They also have not explained how the missing-persons case suddenly and unexpectedly flipped over into a child sexual-abuse investigation. Publicity about Peckham's disappearance, detectives' discovery of him in Texas and the first charge filed against him knocked loose information about buried allegations against him in Kansas, where he'd served as pastor at several Methodist churches prior to moving to Sarcoxie about 30 years ago. The Kansas allegations, though, involve possible incidents in the too-distant past to be prosecuted under that state's statute of limitations. The Jasper County prosecutor's office acknowledged in July that the investigation had revealed the possibility of additional victims here in Missouri. But Friday's charge involves just a second victim of record to date. Dean Dankelson, Jasper County prosecutor, could not be reached for comment on the latest charge against Peckham, and no one returned calls to the Jasper County Sheriff's Department seeking more information on the case. The victim named in the complaint sheet filed Friday could not be reached for comment. #
• After a year on job, bishop confronts controversial issues -- RCC.
Sun-Sentinel, www.sun-sentinel.com/ news/local/palmbeach/ sfl-pbarbarito28aug28,0, 7741636.story?coll= sfla-news-palm ; By Mike Clary, Posted August 28 2004
PALM BEACH: Installed a year ago today as bishop of a Palm Beach Diocese still reeling from a sex abuse scandal, Gerald Barbarito said his chief mission was to bring a sense of stability to the area's 250,000 Roman Catholics. Many parishioners say the lanky, bookish prelate has succeeded. "He needed to calm the troops down, which he's done," said former state Senate President Phil Lewis of Riviera Beach, a longtime member of the church's lay finance committee. "He's warm, personable and out among the people." But just as the uproar over allegations of sex abuse by clergy in Palm Beach and other U.S. dioceses has begun to recede, the Catholic Church finds itself embroiled in election-year controversies involving hot-button topics such as abortion and same-sex marriage. And Barbarito has stepped into the fray.
• Adieu to Assumption -- RCC.
The Call (Woonsocket), www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12800888&BRD=1712&PAG=461&dept_id=24361&rfi=6 , By JOSEPH B. NADEAU, Aug/28/2004
BELLINGHAM -- Eugene Trottier of 20 Orchard St. has spent all his 75 years as a member of Assumption Church at 40 Moody St. But when the parish holds Assumption's final Mass at 9 a.m. Sunday, Trottier won't be attending. Trottier and his family are still hurting from the Archdiocese of Boston's decision to close Assumption and instead will be attending their new parish in another diocese. "This parish was closed, I feel, the day they first announced it," Trottier said Friday. Trottier and his wife, Mae, attended a couple more Masses in their old church after the June announcement, but now attend the Diocese of Worcester's St. Theresa parish in Blackstone. The move will keep Trottier from joining St. Blaise Parish at 1158 South Main St., the church selected by the archdiocese as Assumption's new home. "I've found a new parish and I'm perfectly happy with it," he said. Trottier says he's not the only one to make that decision, and many other Assumption families will not be making the move to central Bellingham. His daughter, Cynthia Maxfield -- one of seven children the Trottiers sent to Assumption's former parish school -- and her husband, Ralph, and their two children are also now members of St. Theresa parish as a result of Assumption's closing. The Maxfields look out at Assumption from their front porch at 51 Moody St., but they don't plan to attend the last Mass on Sunday. "I want nothing to do with this church any more," Ralph Maxfield said. "We are very unhappy with the way this Archbishop (Sean P. O'Malley) does things." The move to St. Blaise has included a stripping of many beloved features of Assumption, he said. The church's statues, a gazebo and even its old steeple bell are now at St. Blaise. That's in spite of the many donations Assumption parishioners made to their church over the years, he noted. "A lot of us gave to the church, and they sent it all to St. Blaise," he said. Maxfield said he is upset about that enough to think about putting a sign on his front yard Sunday expressing his anger. "All they want is the money. They don't think of the people. They don't think of us," he said. ...
• Motions argued in abuse lawsuits [Janssen] -- RCC.
Quad City Times, www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1033970&t=Local+News&c=2,1033970 , By Todd Ruger, (563) 383-2493, truger@qctimes.com , Friday, August 27th, 2004
UNITED STATES: The Catholic Diocese of Davenport and plaintiffs alleging decades-old sexual abuse by priests continued to spar Friday about evidence and whether certain lawsuits should be dismissed. During a Scott County District Court hearing, Judge C.H. Pelton heard arguments on motions for dismissal, on the basis of the statute of limitations, two of 13 lawsuits the diocese faces in Scott and Clinton counties. Both sides also argued over plaintiffs submitting to mental examinations and whether the diocese should turn over to the plaintiffs copies of requests sent by the diocese to the Vatican to defrock five priests. Pelton will issue written rulings on the motions that were argued Friday, as well as similar motions argued at a July 30 hearing. [...] Wonio also argued against turning over copies of the requests sent to the Vatican to defrock five priests, including Janssen, saying they are protected by the First Amendment. He said Levien already has the proof of sexual abuse in diocese documents previously given to the plaintiffs and that the the diocese would be foolish to go to trial and argue that abuse by Janssen did not occur. "No one can throw him in jail," Wonio said of Janssen, "although that might be a good place for him." #
• Another dead priest and a continuing "saga" [Scot / Anne / Stocks / Scott / Ryan] -- Solo clergyman.
Renew America, www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/040827 , by Matt C. Abbott, August 27, 2004
UNITED STATES: In a previous column, I told the bizarre tale of one Father Ryan St. Anne Scott. Also known as Father Ryan St. Anne O.S.B. Also known as Randall Dean Stocks. Also known as Ryan Patrick Scott. Also known as Tom Ryan. You get the picture. St. Anne Scott had been in Powers Lake, North Dakota until a couple of weeks ago. According to an August 24 story in The Minot Daily News (by reporter Andrea Johnson): "The sometimes controversial former administrator of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Prairies here left Powers Lake earlier this month. "Paul Dobrowski, a member of the board of directors, said Friday the board asked Ryan St. Anne, 51, to leave the Shrine. Dobrowski said St. Anne has purchased a former medical facility in Galesburg, Ill., where he plans to establish a new independent Benedictine monastery. "The daughter of an 82-year-old long-time parishioner who left the Shrine with St. Anne said Friday she's concerned about her mother's welfare. "Bobbie Fleming, of Orangevale, Calif., said she last spoke with her mother, Roseanna Gevelinger, more than three weeks ago. Gevelinger is one of two elderly former parishioners who left with St. Anne, Dobrowski said. St. Anne, when reached by phone Friday in Galesburg, said that Gevelinger is with him in Galesburg. He declined to put Gevelinger on the phone and referred questions to her attorney, Kathleen Key Imes of Williston. Imes said Friday that she could not comment on issues regarding her client. ...
• Victim settles with church: Bob Burleigh was sexually abused as a child by a priest he met at a church camp. [1969-74 Glendinning] -- RCC Seminary teacher abused boys. $500,000 CAN
The London Free Press (Canada), www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2004/08/28/605610.html , By PETER GEIGEN-MILLER, :pgeigenmiller@lfpress.com , Aug 28, 2004
For years, Bob Burleigh kept the secret of being sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest locked away inside him. But after 30 years of silence, Burleigh went public in a big way yesterday, announcing he had received an out-of-court settlement of almost $500,000 from the Roman Catholic Diocese of London for sexual abuse inflicted in the early 1970s by a priest. Burleigh was a victim of Rev. Barry Glendinning, a St. Peter's Seminary teacher who pleaded guilty in 1974 to abusing six children. The priest, now retired and living in Toronto, was placed on probation for three years and ousted from his seminary teaching job. [...] Also participating in yesterday's news briefing were Robert Talach, a lawyer with Ledroit Beckett, the London law firm that negotiated the out-of-court settlement, and John Swales, another of Glendinning's abuse victim. Swales and members of his family received a judgment of more than $2.7 million in a 2003 civil suit against the diocese and Glendinning. Burleigh was a witness at the civil trial, but his name was not published under terms of a court order. Even so, the court appearance and media reports of the Swales case convinced him it was time to speak up, he said. "I decided it had to come out. I couldn't keep locking it up." [...] The priest introduced Burleigh to sexual acts between 1969 and 1974 that included masturbation, group sex with other children, nude body painting, skinny-dipping and massage. ...
• Billings twins sue former teacher over abuse [1979-82 Mickey] -- RCC.
Billings Gazette, www.billingsgazette.com/ index.php?id=1&display= rednews/2004/08/28/ build/local/30- twins-sue.inc ; By JOHN FITZGERALD, August 28, 2004
UNITED STATES: Two Billings men have sued a priest in Tennessee for alleged sexual abuse, which they say came to light after repressed memories of the abuse surfaced about a year ago. Blain and Blair Chambers, 39-year-old twins, have filed suit against the Rev. Richard Mickey and the Catholic Diocese of Memphis. The suit says the priest sexually abused them from 1979 to 1982 while they attended Bishop Byrne High School in Memphis and he was a teacher at the school. Mickey was not a member of the clergy at the time of the alleged abuse. He was ordained in 1988, said the Rev. John Geaney, a spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Memphis. The suit, filed in a Tennessee district court, asks for compensatory damages for distress and injury, loss of earnings, medical and incidental expenses, attorneys' fees and punitive damages. The twins have hired attorneys Richard W. Schulte, of Dayton, Ohio, and B.J. Wade, of Memphis, to represent them. [...] The suit claims the twins were abused on numerous occasions beginning at the age of 14 or 15. The abuse included oral and anal sex, the suit states. [...] The twins have been in several relationships since living in Billings. Complaints of partner and family member abuse have been filed involving the twins and their partners. Domestic abuse charges are pending against Blair Chambers, and Blain Chambers is the subject of a protective order issued on behalf of his partner. The women who were involved with them say they doubt their story. Jamie Schoonover, the mother of Blair Chambers' child, said she was on the fishing trip and saw no sign that the men have recalled a repressed memory. She said that just before the twins announced the abuse, they had been doing Internet research on repressed memories and sex abuse scandals involving priests. Her charges are echoed by Blain Chamber's partner, who asked not to be identified. The Chambers brothers say Schoonover was not on the fishing trip and that their research on repressed memories and priest abuse was conducted after the memories surfaced. When the brothers filed their suit on Aug. 11, Mickey was pastor of St. Mary's Church in Jackson, Miss. He is now on administrative leave, diocese spokesman Geaney said. ...
• Aretakis: Cop's story proves diocese coverup [1980s Urban, Hubbard] -- RCC. Police chief told him wrong to tell bishop.
The Troy Record, www.troyrecord.com/ site/news.cfm?newsid= 12801009&BRD=1170&PAG= 461&dept_id= 7021&rfi=6 ; By: Robert Cristo, Aug/28/2004
UNITED STATES: A retired police officer came forward Friday with allegations that Schenectady priest Carl Urban attempted to solicit sex from him back in the late 1980s after reading recent reports of the pastor accusing attorney John Aretakis of slandering his name. Retired Schenectady Det. Lincoln Grimm shared the details of how he allegedly crossed paths with Urban nearly 16 years ago as he walked down Broadway around midnight after completing a shift at work. Urban has led the Church of St. Adalbert on Lansing Street for many years. According to taped and live telephone calls through Aretakis, Grimm accused Urban of propositioning him for sex in an area of the city known to have male prostitutes circulating at night. However, there was never any mention of a money transaction; just an offer to go back to Grimm's place for what he assumed was sex. "He propositioned me on my way home. ... He wanted sexual activity with me," said Grimm, on tape, and made a similar statement over the phone Friday morning. "Then I identified myself as a police officer." "I didn't arrest him, and I wanted to keep it quiet. ... I told him to contact me and he told me (the next day) his lawyer said he didn't do anything wrong," added the Albany resident. Grimm went on to say Urban was allegedly on a police list of people known to pick up male prostitutes around City Hall in Schenectady during the '80s. "We kept an intelligence file of people who hung out there and father was on the list," said Grimm, who retired in 2001 and was an investigator in the juvenile unit. Grimm also said he contacted Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard to discuss the matter, but Hubbard told him someone else from the diocese would call him back to discuss it. Shortly after that, Grimm claims then Schenectady Police Chief Richard Nelson called him into his office and told him it was not appropriate protocol for him to call the bishop. "I called Hubbard, kept it discreet ... I was chastised by Chief Nelson for calling him," said Grimm, who added that Urban's father was a Schenectady police officer. "I said I was unaware of the protocol." ...
• Murder suspect evaluated [2003 Russell, 1968-69 Pilger] -- RCC.
The Enquirer, www.enquirer.com/ editions/2004/08/28/ loc_loc1priest.html , The Associated Press, Saturday, August 28, 2004
LEXINGTON - An Ohio man charged with murdering a retired Catholic priest and sex offender has had a court date set for a competency hearing. Fayette County Circuit Judge Rebecca Overstreet Friday set an Oct. 11 hearing date for Jason Anthony Russell. Russell, 27, is charged with killing 78-year-old Joseph Pilger. He is also charged with burglary, theft and being a persistent felon. Police say Russell, of Ironton, killed Pilger, whose body was found Dec. 5 at his Lexington home. Russell has pleaded not guilty to those charges. Russell also has pleaded not guilty to a third-degree assault charge filed in May. Russell underwent a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation earlier this year. His lawyer asked in June that a second evaluation be done, a request Judge Lewis Paisley granted. Results of those evaluations are not available in court records. Pilger pleaded guilty to sexual abuse in 1995 for abusing three brothers and their cousin in 1968 and 1969, when he was their pastor in Morganfield in western Kentucky. The victims were younger than 15 and serving as altar boys at the parish. After a plea bargain, Pilger received five years probation, beginning in January 1995. #
• Reaction mixed to abusive priests [? 1960s Bornbach] -- RCC. Girl.
Marshfield News-Herald, www.wisinfo.com/newsherald/mnhlocal/283378589410279.shtml , By Matt Conn, 384-3131 or 800-967-2087, ext. 328, matt.conn@ cwnews.ne , tSat, Aug 28, 2004
MARSHFIELD, USA: After the Roman Catholic Diocese of La Crosse confirmed that a retired Marshfield priest had molested a 9-year-old girl more than 30 years ago, local residents on Friday mulled the church's role in responding to future allegations.
The diocesan administrator, Rev. Richard Gilles, concluded in an Aug. 16 letter that 41-year-old Brenda Varga's 2003 complaint against Rev. Raymond Bornbach of Marshfield "has been sufficiently confirmed." Bornbach, 89, is expected to be barred from priestly duties, as per diocesan policy. The Catholic Church should approach such cases with more vigilance, said Steve Putnam of Hewitt, who said he has personal experience with a victim of child abuse. Priests must follow the law just like any other citizen, he said. "Don't protect them. Don't shift them from parish to parish or district to district, no," said Putnam, 46, a practicing Catholic. "They should face the punishment that's coming." But the church has better monitored and punished abusive priests and has exposed these isolated cases, said Jess Smith of Marshfield. Bornbach's Marshfield connection shouldn't cause concern, she said.
"I feel like they're doing enough," said Smith, 27, who was raised Catholic. "The fact that they're coming out with it is enough. They could just hide it forever if they wanted." The state's statute of limitations for civil child sexual assault cases requires alleged victims to file actions before age 35. "To me, the Catholic doctrine does not state that priests should be able to go out and molest young kids, then years later say, 'Gosh, golly, it's too late now,'" Putnam said. "It makes me question what type of doctrine the Catholic Church does have." Varga, who now lives in Plover, first approached the diocese in a January 2003 letter, and has said she is satisfied with the outcome. Initially the church didn't appear to pursue such cases to a proper degree, but they seem to be more aggressive in their approach now, a response that should continue, said Bob Dux of Marshfield, a non-denominational Christian.
"This is probably more widespread than a person realizes," said Dux, 59. Because the assault occurred decades ago and Bornbach had denied Varga's allegations, the investigation was "challenging and time consuming to investigate and to resolve," Gilles wrote.
"As far as I'm concerned, it's a touchy subject, as far as them examining everything before bringing it out," Smith said. The extensive period between such incidents and their reports could either signal a stonewalling diocese or someone out for financial gain through a frivolous lawsuit, a difficulty in each case, said Sandy Craft of Marshfield, a practicing Lutheran. The nature of priesthood should definitely be questioned, she said. "I think priests ought to get married," she said. "Then, there wouldn't be such a problem." But priest abuse cases are crimes against children, commited by sick individuals that should be properly punished, Putnam said. [Emphasis added] [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:26 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sat August 28, 2004
Religions' abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont94.htm
• Church used its news media to 'expose' Chilean establishment without forensic proof, now it has boomeranged. -- RCC.
The Tablet (British RC paper), "Priest at centre of scandals rocking Chilean establishment," www.thetablet.co.uk/cgi-bin/citw.cgi/past-00194#AMERICAS , "Americas" section, by Colin Harding, August 28, 2004
CHILE: A Catholic priest faces being sued for libel, and possibly prosecuted for perjury, for his involvement in allegations that a high-profile politician sexually abused young people. At least some of the allegations have turned out to be groundless.
Fr José Luis Artiagoitía, popularly known as "Jolo", was caught up in the most lurid scandal to hit Chile's conservative establishment for many years when he spoke out in support of the testimony of a young woman, Gemita Bueno, 20. Last October she claimed to have suffered prolonged abuse at the hands of Senator Jovino Novoa, leader of the arch-conservative Independent Democratic Union (UDI), at a house in Santiago in 1998. The house was rented by Claudio Spiniak, a self-made businessman and central figure in a sordid tale of child prostitution, pornography and drug-taking allegedly involving prominent public figures.
The stream of media revelations about paedophile rings and gay saunas has caused widespread unease in a deeply conservative country. Chile has enjoyed political stability and spectacular economic growth in the decade since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship. Now the ramifications of the Spiniak case have provoked a bitter split between two pillars of Chilean society: the Catholic Church and its traditional allies on the political right.
Fr Jolo encouraged Gemita Bueno to bring charges against Senator Novoa. After an endless succession of contradictions and retractions, Bueno eventually admitted to the examining magistrate appointed to investigate the case that her accusations against Novoa were all lies. Fr Jolo was a hypocrite, she said, who had induced her to bear false witness against the senator; he had even provided her with confidential information about him to substantiate her story. Fr Jolo insisted that he had merely taken up the cause of a distressed and disturbed young woman who turned to him for help and support. Gemita Bueno was finally arrested on 14 August, amid press speculation that she was a compulsive liar and fantasist who had fallen under the spell of the charismatic priest, and only told the truth once she was removed from his influence. One of her stories was that Fr Jolo had a daughter, and was planning to marry the mother of the child - which the priest hotly denied.
Fr Jolo became directly involved in the case when he gave two press interviews, in February and April this year, in which he alleged that senators were in the habit of attending parties at which drugs were consumed and young children picked up from the streets were sexually abused. He said that he first became aware of what was going on when, in October 2003, a boy came to the children's refuge he ran in Santiago, the Our Lady of Guadalupe Foundation (where Gemita Bueno, a single mother, had been living since January 2000), and told him that he had been at parties where leading politicians took cocaine.
Gemita Bueno's admission that her evidence had been lies left Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz, Archbishop of Santiago, in a difficult situation. Fr Jolo claimed that he had regular meetings with the Cardinal to keep him informed of the ins and outs of the case. Cardinal Errázuriz's reluctance to disown the priest's allegations, despite many misgivings, was regarded by Senator Novoa and his party as a betrayal. The church hierarchy ignored his protestations of innocence for many months, and publicised Gemita Bueno's allegations against him through the Church's television station, Channel 13.
The Cardinal has been trying to smooth over the dispute, making a placatory visit to Novoa on 17 August, and relations between Church and party seem to be back on an even keel. But the wounds are unlikely to heal completely as long as Novoa remains determined to pursue Fr Jolo through the courts. The Church's only explanation for taking so long to withdraw support for the priest is that the Spiniak case was too complex to make snap judgements.
The case has not just damaged relations between the Church and the UDI, but also caused tensions between the party and Chile's other big right-wing organisation, National Renovation (RN). Last October, an RN deputy, Pía Guzmán, took up Gemita Bueno's accusations, and declared, without producing any evidence, that other right-wing politicians, including two UDI senators, were involved in the Spiniak case. Guzmán later retracted the charges. But any loss of trust between the UDI and RN could have profound political implications: the right-wing opposition's only chance of making electoral gains against the centre-left coalition that has ruled Chile since 1990 is to remain united.
The Spiniak case is not over yet, and may spring more surprises. The Church, aware of the damage already done, has appointed a PR firm to advise on improving its image. [Emphasis added]
[COMMENT: "The spirit ... will guide you into all the truth." (John's Gospel 16:13) Hm! COMMENT ENDS.] [Aug 28, 04]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sun August 29, 2004 edition follows:-
• Donations won't be used for civil settlements -- RCC. $US2,036,800 going.
Post-Dispatch, www.stltoday.com/ stltoday/news/stories. nsf/News/St.+Louis+City+/ +County/story/ 79EEC25698A3EFD F86256EFD0010932B? OpenDocument&Headline= POCAHONTAS,+Ill. &highlight=2%2Cdavid%2 Cclohessy ; Aug/27/2004
ST. LOUIS (MO): About one-third of the $2,036,800 the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis will pay to settle 18 civil cases of sexual abuse will be paid by its insurance company. The rest will come from a general archdiocesan fund "generated from investments and past sales of real estate," according to a statement issued Thursday by the archdiocese. "No contributions to parishes, archdiocesan agencies or the Archdiocesan Development Appeal will be used to fund these settlements."
The civil cases were settled in the names of five priests and a nun.
A victims' support group said it hoped the settlements would "prompt others who are wounded to step forward, disclose their secret and start their recovery." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:23 PM]
• Church Could Pay $1.5 Bln to Settle Abuse Claims -- RCC.
Reuters, www.reuters.com/ newsArticle.jhtml? type=domesticNews& storyID=6096920
LOS ANGELES (CA) (Reuters) - People who say they were sexually abused by priests could receive more than $1.5 billion in damages from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles -- more than any other U.S. diocese has paid to date, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday.
The settlement figure is based on a request by the lead attorney for hundreds of plaintiffs who live within the most populous U.S. archdiocese that Church officials set aside $3.1 million for each claimant in Los Angeles and the adjacent Diocese of Orange County just south of Los Angeles, the paper reported.
The church in Los Angeles faces about 500 child molestation claims, more than any other diocese in the country. The Orange County diocese faces 60 similar claims.
Raymond Boucher, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told the Times the amount was in line with what a judge proposed during a secret, two-day hearing earlier this year. In court papers, Boucher said the church had $10 billion in liability coverage.
At least 20 insurance companies are involved in litigation on behalf of the church. Most of the suits have been consolidated into a single case in Southern California, which includes alleged incidents dating back to the 1950s.
• Deposition Excerpts [Ensey, Urrutigoity] -- RCC.
Scranton Times Tribune www.scrantontimes.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12804304&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415898&rfi=8
PENNSYLVANIA: Much of former Bishop James C. Timlin's deposition in the clergy abuse lawsuit against the Society of St. John is public record, disclosed in documents filed in U.S. District Court.
The former bishop was deposed Oct. 20, by attorney James Bendell, who represents the former student who claims he was molested by the Rev. Eric Ensey and the Rev. Carlos Urrutigoity.
Through Diocese of Scranton spokeswoman Maria Orzel, Bishop Timlin declined an interview with The Sunday Times to discuss his deposition.
Below are excerpts:
***
The bishop is asked how intensely the diocese scrutinized the priests, former members of the Society of St. Pius X, before accepting them into the diocese.
Bishop Timlin: There's a need to scrutinize them; there are varying degrees of that, of course. I didn't think it was necessary to go and unearth everything in their past because I figured that had been done in spades.
Mr. Bendell: By the Society of St. Pius X.
Bishop Timlin: Exactly.
• Society of Silence -- Latin worship.
Scranton Times Tribune, www.scrantontimes.com/ site/news.cfm?newsid= 12804301&BRD=2 185&PAG=461&dept_id= 415898&rfi=8 ; BY DAVID SINGLETON, The Sunday Times, Aug/29/2004
SHOHOLA TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA -- Wisps of morning fog drift among the surrounding trees as worshippers quietly arrive at the Society of St. John's tiny chapel for regular weekday Mass.
A former horse barn set among the pines, oaks and maples of rural Shohola, the simple chapel seats about 40 people. Only five turn out for the 6:45 a.m. Mass, celebrated by the Rev. Basel Sarweh and three other young men from the Society of St. John. The service is quiet and reverent. Voices barely rise above a whisper.
Unlike the liturgies in most Catholic churches, this one's in Latin, a tradition most American Catholics have not observed since 1967 when, as a result of Vatican II, their parish priests were required to say Mass in English.
The distinction means much to the society, a breakaway group of priests who came here with plans to establish an idyllic, traditional Catholic community with its own college -- the College of St. Justin Martyr.
Now the society finds itself at the center of a scandal that reaches far beyond its small group of priests and their 1,025-acre compound outside Milford.
The group has been named in a federal lawsuit that has shattered its plans and slowly drawn the Diocese of Scranton and its former bishop into the national scandal over sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.
• Full statement from Diocese of Davenport [Deyo] -- RCC.
Press-Citizen,
IOWA: The full statement from the Diocese of Davenport on Rev. Paul Deyo:
To: Media
From: Deacon David Montgomery, Diocese of Davenport
RE: Announcement from the Diocese of Davenport
The following statement is being made in parishes this weekend: Out of concern for victims of abuse, Bishop Franklin has asked me to make the following announcement in accordance with the policy of the Diocese of Davenport, which is based on the United States Bishops' Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
Fr. Paul Deyo is the subject of an investigation of alleged sexual misconduct of a minor. Fr. Deyo has been out of active ministry during this investigation and continues to be out of ministry, caring for his father in Keokuk. A report on the ongoing investigation was given to the Review Board and Bishop Franklin this week.
As part of Diocesan policy, I remind you that anyone who has been the victim of sexual abuse can report this to the Victim Assistance Coordinator, Tom Crowley. I have cards available for you with contact information at the doors of the church.
• Clergy abuse victims group to organize in Rockland [1966] -- RCC.
The Journal News, By SUZAN CLARKE, August 29, 2004
ROCKLAND (NY): A Piermont man is starting a Rockland chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP], the oldest and largest advocacy organization for victims of clergy abuse.
Michael Cullen, 49, became involved with SNAP last year after agonizing over abuse, to which he said he was subjected for three years beginning when he was 11.
The experience affected the rest of his life, he said. When a childhood friend - who Cullen said he believed had also been abused by the same Catholic priest - committed suicide in 1992, Cullen sought therapy to help him work through the damage.
"I had completely understood why he committed suicide and I knew why and I understood, and that was like my red flag," he said.
His attendance at SNAP support meetings helped tremendously, Cullen said, adding that he wanted to help others share their emotional burdens.
Cullen said the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York had helped him receive therapy, and he said he was able to discuss his experiences with Cardinal Edward Egan, archbishop of New York, during a meeting Aug. 12 at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers.
• Deyo identified as priest accused of sexual abuse [1998] -- RCC.
Des Moines Register By REGISTER NEWS SERVICES, August 29, 2004
IOWA: The Rev. Paul Deyo is the priest accused of molesting a boy in Iowa City in 1998, the Diocese of Davenport announced Saturday.
Deyo, who was previously not identified, was ordained in August 1976. He has served in three schools - Assumption High School in Davenport, Regina High School in Iowa City and Bishop Heelan High School in Sioux City.
He has also worked in several parishes, including St. Mary's Catholic Church in Clinton and Davenport, St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Iowa City, St. Peter Parish and St. Mary's Church in Oxford, and St. Wenceslaus Church in Iowa City.
The diocese ordered an investigation of Deyo for sexual misconduct of a minor after the alleged abuse was reported in July 2003. Since then, Deyo has been out of active ministry.
Prosecutors initially said the alleged victim didn't want to press charges, so there was no need to investigate. But Johnson County Attorney J. Patrick White said he is now gathering information to decide whether to file a charge.
• 3 new priests from Nigeria reflect U.S. Catholic trend
Fox 11, www.fox11az.com/ news/local/stories/ 082804cckkFOX11 azromancatholic. c05c6461.html ; By Stephanie Innes / ARIZONA DAILY STAR, Aug 28, 2004
TUCSON (AZ): All the new priests joining the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson this year are from Nigeria, reflecting nationwide growth in the number of foreign-born Catholic clerics serving in U.S. dioceses.
Foreign-born priests are filling vacancies in the American Catholic Church, where the priesthood is declining in numbers as older priests retire and fewer young men seek vocations.
And while the trend at one time, particularly in the 1950s and '60s, was for the United States to send Catholic missionaries to Africa, there is now a reversal. Africa is sending missionaries to the United States who have high hopes of evangelizing Americans. ...
Diocese spokesman Fred Allison said the trio has been briefed about the sexual abuse crisis that has affected the American Catholic Church nationally and locally. He said they received education about abuse prevention in seminary training in Nigeria.
• Diocese releases name of priest in abuse case [1998 Deyo] -- RCC.
Quad-City Times www.qctimes.com/ internal.php?story_id= 1034061&t=Local+ News&c=2,1034061 , By Thomas Geyer
IOWA: A Catholic priest who served at parishes in Davenport and Clinton, Iowa, as well as Assumption High School in Davenport was identified Saturday as the subject of an ongoing investigation into a case of sexual misconduct involving a minor.
The Rev. Paul Deyo, who served in the Quad-City region during the 1970s, '80s and early '90s, was identified in a news release issued Saturday afternoon by the Diocese of Davenport.
An announcement was made throughout the diocese to parishioners who attended Mass on Saturday. The same announcement will be made at Mass today.
The Rev. William Franklin, the bishop of the Davenport Diocese, ordered that Deyo's name be released. Officials with the diocese said Tuesday that the allegation against Deyo, who has been a priest for 28 years since being ordained in August 1976, had been determined to be credible. The alleged incident occurred during 1998 in Johnson County, Iowa. Deyo served at Regina High School in Iowa City from 1991 to 2000 while working at several parishes in that area.
• Priest Abuse Payout May Be Costly -- RCC. $US3.1m each, > 560 claimants.
Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com/ news/local/state/ la-me-priests29aug29, 1,5447793.story?coll= la-news-state , By Jean Guccione, Aug 29, 2004
CALIFORNIA: Damages claimed by hundreds of people who say they were sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests could exceed $1.5 billion in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, far more than any other diocese has paid to date, according to newly released documents.
That total is based on a request - by the lead lawyer for plaintiffs - that insurers put aside at least $3.1 million per individual claimant to resolve child molestation cases involving the dioceses of Los Angeles and Orange. There are more than 500 child molestation claims naming Los Angeles-area priests and 60 more alleging abuse by priests from the Diocese of Orange.
Attorney Raymond P. Boucher says the amount is justified based on jury verdicts and settlements of other clergy sexual abuse lawsuits around the nation. He says it is also consistent with a Los Angeles judge's secret valuation of the local claims after a closed, two-day evidentiary hearing earlier this year.
Since then, Boucher has asked two companies who insured the Diocese of Orange - which is part of the Los Angeles clergy-abuse litigation - to review their financial reserves to make sure the funds are sufficient to cover pending sex-abuse claims against the church. Damages, if proven, could be paid both by insurers for the church and from other church assets.
The dimensions of those key questions - if claimants win, how much they can collect and from whom - were revealed last week in letters to the insurers. Most of the proceedings in the consolidated cases, designed to settle once and for all the potential liability for the two dioceses, are held in secret. At least 20 insurance companies are involved, covering church liability since 1950, according to court records.
• Accused Catholic priest taught at Regina [Deyo]
Press-Citizen, By Gigi Wood, Aug 29, 2004
IOWA CITY (IA): A priest who taught at Regina High School four years ago and served at area parishes is under investigation by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport for allegedly committing sex abuse in 1998 against a minor in Johnson County.
No criminal charges have been filed against the Rev. Paul Deyo, who lived in Iowa City from 1991 to 2000. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport released his name Saturday in a press release by Deacon David Montgomery, a spokesman for the diocese.
Diocese officials did not return a phone message Saturday night for comment.
The statute of limitations has not yet expired on the alleged incident, and Johnson County Attorney J. Patrick White said last week that his office was continuing an informal information-gathering process regarding the alleged incident. White could not be reached Saturday night by telephone for additional comment.
• Celebration of faith: Rally gives face to abuse -- RCC. Female.
The Amarillo Globe-News, www.amarillonet.com/ stories/082904/ new_faceabuse.shtml , By BRANDI DEAN, brandi.dean@amarillo.com , Aug 29, 2004
AMARILLO (TX): Evelyn King stood outside holding a poster proclaiming "I survived the experience of sexual abuse and I can survive the telling of it," as hundreds of members of Catholic churches walked by on their way to "A Celebration of Faith" Saturday.
"Most Catholics don't think they know a victim of abuse," King said. "So I'm here to give a name and a face to the victims."
King was 9 years old when she says a priest in Groom sexually abused her. It took her 30 years to tell anyone about it, but now she's encouraging other victims to do the same - which is why she and about 15 other members of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, handed out fliers to the Catholics attending the diocese-wide Mass Saturday.
"I'm grateful for the things the church has done, in terms of paying for my therapy and stuff," she said. "But this is not going to heal until it becomes open. This is part of the repair."
• Ex-church volunteer sentenced for sexual abuse [1989 Skinner] -- RCC. Boy.
Portland Press Herald, Associated Press, Aug 29, 2004
BANGOR (ME) - A man who worked for 25 years with Catholic youth groups in Penobscot and Hancock counties was sentenced to 18 years in prison with all but five years suspended for sexually abusing two boys he met through church.
John S. Skinner Sr., 62, of Bar Harbor pleaded guilty Friday to one count of gross sexual assault and one count of gross sexual misconduct. Both victims participated in youth programs at St. Mary of Lourdes Catholic Church in Lincoln, where Skinner volunteered as an adult supervisor from the late 1980s to 2000.
Skinner, who was indicted in July by the Penobscot County grand jury on six counts of gross sexual assault involving one victim, also was sentenced to six years of probation and will be required to register as a violent sex offender.
In 1989, Skinner took the boy to a Red Sox game in Boston. On the return trip, the two stayed in a Portland hotel where Skinner got the boy drunk and then molested him, said Alice Clifford, Penobscot County assistant district attorney.
Although Skinner technically could not be prosecuted for the incident because it exceeded the statute of limitations, he wanted to plead guilty to it, said Stephen Smith, a Bangor attorney representing Skinner in the case.
"He is a dangerous person and a predator who groomed his innocent and vulnerable victims," said Superior Court Justice Andrew Mead. "This was a profound breach of trust." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:33 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sun August 29, 2004
Religions' abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont94.htm
• $1.5 Billion ($1.3m per victim) asked for abuse. -- RCC.
Reuters, "Calif. Church May Pay $1.5 Billion to Settle Claims," www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=3DCPBBDC2IRFCCRBAELCFFA?type=topNews&storyID=6097341 , By Sarah Tippit, 06:27 PM ET, Sun Aug 29, 2004
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - People who say they were sexually abused by priests could receive more than $1.5 billion in damages from The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles -- more than any other U.S. diocese has paid, an attorney for more than 100 alleged victims said on Sunday.
The settlement figure is based on a request by the lead attorney for hundreds of plaintiffs who live within the most populous U.S. archdiocese that Church officials set aside $3.1 million for each claimant in Los Angeles and the adjacent Diocese of Orange County just south of Los Angeles, attorney Kathy Freberg told Reuters.
The church in Los Angeles faces about 493 child molestation claims, Freberg said. The Orange County diocese faces 63 similar claims. The combined number of claims in both dioceses is greater than in any other diocese, she said.
Raymond Boucher, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, told the Los Angeles Times in a report published on Sunday that the requested amount was in line with what a judge proposed during a secret, two-day hearing earlier this year. In court papers, Boucher said the church had $10 billion in liability coverage.
At least 20 insurance companies are involved in litigation on behalf of the church. Most of the suits have been consolidated into a single case in Southern California, which includes alleged incidents dating back to the 1950s. [...]
Freberg said that the settlement in Boston was lower than the amount requested in California because Massachusetts law puts a cap on claims on charitable organizations.
"Boston was different," Freberg said. "Victims were concerned about getting their cases dismissed based on (expired) statutes of limitations so they thought it would be better to take this lesser dollar amount than risk getting nothing. We don't have those concerns or restrictive laws in California."
"Jury verdicts historically say that these dollar amounts that are being discussed (in Los Angeles) are right on point," she said. ... [Aug 29, 04]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Mon August 30, 2004 edition follows:-
• Priest Pleads to Assault of Child [1988 Stein] -- RCC. Norbertine. Boy.
WBAY, www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=2236872&nav=51s7QOOC
DE PERE (WI): A Norbertine priest accused of sexual assault involving a child averted a trial slated to start Tuesday by entering a "no contest" plea Monday.
Late Monday afternoon, Father James Stein pleaded no contest to one of three counts of second-degree sexual assault, a felony. The other two counts were dismissed in the plea bargain.
According to police, Stein fondled a 14-year-old boy at the St. Norbert Abbey in De Pere between August and September of 1988.
All along, Stein's lawyer maintained his client's innocence. The defense also tried to have the case dismissed, arguing the statute of limitations had expired, which technically it did, but a judge ruled the statute was frozen for the period of time Stein lived outside of Wisconsin.
It was a very quick proceeding, one which both sides worked out in letters back and forth late last week. The court did not hear from the victim, but several family members who were preparing for the trial were there. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:42 PM]
• Panel expects as many as 80 compensation claims for clergy sex abuse [1950s-70s] -- RCC.
Kentucky.com ; www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/state/9537647.htm , By JOHN NOLAN, Associated Press
CINCINNATI (OH) - Lawyers administering a $3 million fund created to compensate people who say they were sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests are expecting up to 80 claims to be submitted by the filing deadline Wednesday.
A three-member tribunal plans to decide by the end of the year which claims will be paid, said Robert Stachler, a lawyer who is chairman of the tribunal.
Stachler said he expected that many of those who submit claims were waiting as long as they could to see first whether lawsuits they filed against priests or the Archdiocese of Cincinnati would progress in the courts. They have to drop their lawsuits before applying for compensation.
Some of the lawsuits were dismissed because the alleged abuse happened too long ago for the courts to have jurisdiction. Those rulings are on appeal. Some victims have said they were abused as far back as the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
• Catholic Church under fire over sex education row -- RCC.
The Scotsman, http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=493&id=1018762004 , By HAMISH MACDONELL, SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR
Key points
Key quote "[New sex education proposals are]state-sponsored sexual abuse of minors" - Cardinal Keith O'Brien
Story in full
SCOTLAND: Several Labour MSPs and trade unionists hit out at the tactics of the Catholic Church, claiming it was disingenuous for the church to attack the Scottish Executive's plans for sex education before they had even been published.
The issue erupted over the weekend when Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leading Roman Catholic in Scotland, called the Executive's plans for a new sexual health strategy "state-sponsored sexual abuse of minors". [Emphasis added]
• Springfield Diocese agrees to pay for outside counselor for abuse victims: For Marty Bono, the money isn't enough. -- RCC. $US7m payout.
Boston Globe, By Adam Gorlick, Associated Press Writer, August 30, 2004
SPRINGFIELD, Mass.: While lawyers for 46 clergy sex abuse victims and the Springfield Diocese hashed out details of a $7 million settlement reached last month, Bono, who says he was molested by his childhood priest and expects his settlement check this week, was writing a proposal of his own.
He wanted the diocese to pay for an independent advocate -- someone not affiliated with the Catholic church -- who would help victims get whatever counseling they needed. On Monday, church officials announced they'd go along with his plan.
"It's on the church's dime, but we're not going to them for any of the help," Bono, who lives in Chicopee, said. "Other than paying for this, they have nothing to do with it."
The diocese put out a request Monday to local private, nonprofit social service agencies to apply for a $50,000 grant that will pay for a "victim resource coordinator," to be selected by a committee that includes Bono and the church's victim advocate. The coordinator will help sex abuse victims contact professionals who could counsel them on matters of mental health, substance abuse, family issues and financial needs.
• Polygamists file conspiracy lawsuit [Jeffs, Barlow] -- Polygamy group.
BYU NewsNet
SALT LAKE CITY (UT) - Six former members of a breakaway polygamous sect banished or excommunicated from the church filed a conspiracy lawsuit Friday against the church's prophet and one of his assistants, claiming a pattern of unlawful activity and conspiracy to get rid of surplus boys and men.
The plaintiffs, all so-called "lost boys" and former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, based in Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz., included in the court complaint portions of federal racketeering statutes sometimes used in organized crime prosecutions.
The plaintiffs are Richard Jessop Ream, Thomas Samuel Steed, Don Ronald Fischer, Dean Joseph Barlow and Richard Gilbert, all of Salt Lake City, and Walter Scott Fischer of Macon, Ga.
They claim that FLDS church president and prophet Warren Jeffs and Sam Barlow, a former Colorado City police chief and close associate of Jeffs, have engaged in assault, terroristic threats, unlawful dealing of property, theft by extortion, child kidnaping, official misconduct and theft of services.
Jeffs, 48, who assumed leadership after the 2002 death of his father, Rulon Jeffs, reportedly has banished hundreds of men and boys from the twin border cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, whose estimated 9,000 to 10,000 residents make it the largest polygamous group in the West.
• Explicit, Graphic- Catholic?
Story Hunters, www.storyhunters.com/godandcon/archives/001283.html
SCOTLAND: Cardinal Keith O'Brien is righteously pissed. He thinks the Scottish government is getting ready to abuse children- by giving them basic sex ed.
Cardinal O'Brien revealed this weekend he was planning a high-profile campaign against the forthcoming national sexual health strategy. He aimed particular criticism at proposals to give sex education to nursery children and provide the morning-after pill to teenagers without parental consent.
The First Minister issued an immediate rebuttal, saying the Executive had no plans to hand out the morning-after pill to pupils, nor to give sex education lessons to very young children. (The Scotsman)
While Scottish officials seem stunned by O'Brien's hollering (they keep repeating that there is no plan of the kind O'Brien charges them with) O'Brien just keeps on going. He's "in discussion with other religious groups to present a united front" about the issue.
It seems odd that a cardinal from a church struggling under the weight of priest-pedophilia cases would get in such a snit about sex ed. O'Brien seems like a hysterical right-wing nut, insisting that those in the "sexual health business" are pushing a "sinister" agenda and trying to sneak explicit material into nursery and primary schools against the wishes of teachers.
Then again, O'Brien might be figuring that if he makes some noise, the public will look away from the spectacle of sex-abuse cases in the Church. (And when exactly did the Catholics become expert in matters of sex? I thought they concentrated their efforts on repression.)
• Start of Blackwell trial set for Dec. 13 [1989-92] -- RCC.
Baltimore Sun, www.baltimoresun.com/ news/local/crime/bal- priest0830,1,6378920. story?coll=bal- local-headlines , The Associated Press, August 30, 2004
BALTIMORE (MD): A judge today set a new trial date for a priest accused of abusing a former parishioner who shot him years after the alleged abuse.
It was the fourth time the Rev. Maurice Blackwell's trial was postponed.
Baltimore Circuit Judge John Glynn scheduled the start of the trial for Dec. 13.
Blackwell was charged with four counts of child sexual abuse of Dontee Stokes beginning in 1989 and ending in 1992.
Defense attorney Kenneth Ravenell said the age of the case has made it difficult to gather all the information he needs to defend the cleric.
• Parishes react to inquiry [1998 Deyo] -- RCC.
Press-Citizen, www.press-citizen.com/ apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20040830/NEWS01/ 408300327/1079 , By Gigi Wood, Aug 30, 2004
IOWA CITY (IA): Church leaders during Mass on Sunday announced that a priest who served in Iowa City and taught at Regina High School four years ago is under investigation by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport for sex abuse.
No criminal charges have been filed against the Rev. Paul Deyo, who lived in Iowa City from 1991 to 2000. The diocese released his name Saturday in a press release by Deacon David Montgomery, a spokesman for the diocese.
Deyo is accused of committing sex abuse in 1998 against a minor in Johnson County.
Deyo served at St. Patrick's from 1991 to 1992, St. Peter in Cosgrove and St. Mary in Oxford from 1996 to 1997, and at St. Wenceslaus from 1998 to 2000. He taught at Regina High School from 1991 to 2000.
Priests made the announcement about Deyo during the weekend and prayed for everyone involved.
"This comes to all of us as a real shock," the Rev. Michael Phillips said during one of his Sunday services. "I know many of us are hurt, disillusioned, mystified and feel betrayed."
• Worcester DA John Conte Zero (0), Worcester clergy two (2). [1978 or '79, '88 Blizard; Laperle] -- RCC.
Worcester Voice, http://worcestervoice.com/da_0.htm
WORCESTER (MA): A former priest in the Diocese of Worcester the Rev. David L. Blizard, 57 was found innocent of charges of assault and battery of a person over 14 on August 17, 2004 in Brockton Superior Court.
Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte initially investigated but turned the case over to the Plymouth County district attorney because the offense allegedly happened July 25, 1988, in Wareham.
This is the second recent criminal court case that was initiated by an investigation from Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte office, which has resulted in the exoneration at trial. Brother Louis Laperle, was found innocent in Fitchburg district court in March.
In a lawsuit, Robert A. Malo of Worcester alleged that he was sexually abused by Rev. Blizard in 1978 or 1979 as part of a "child sex ring" that operated from the former House of Affirmation in Whitinsville.
Other men have come forward to publicly state they were subject to sexual misconduct by this priest when he was in the Worcester diocese. Were was John Conte and his staff? [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:50 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Mon August 30, 2004
Religions' abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont94.htm
• Forgotten Australians: A report on Australians who experienced institutional or out-of-home care as children. -- Churches, Welfare Agencies, State Governments.
Parliament of Australia, Senate Community Affairs References Committee, www.aph.gov. au/Senate/ committee/clac_ ctte/inst_ care/report/ , 30 August 2004
CANBERRA:
• Apologise to children abused in care: report. -- Churches, governments, among the culprits.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200408/s1188071.htm , Last Update: 1:49pm (AEST), Monday, August 30, 2004
CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA: A Senate report on children placed in institutional care has called for the Federal Government to apologise to those who were harmed by their experience.
The report has also recommended a fund be set up, with contributions from the states and the churches, so children who suffered abuse can claim compensation outside the court system.
Committee chair, Labor's Jan McLucas, says the report calls for an independent review body to investigate complaints.
She has told the Senate that in the meantime groups involved in providing institutional care should be more transparent.
"We have called on the churches and other care providing organisations to open their books and to allow care leavers all the information which has been collected about them," she said.
"We have said if this does not occur then the only course of action is for the Federal Government to implement a royal commission." [Aug 30, 04]
• Magistrate to appeal sex conviction. [1983 Frederick] -- No religion link reported. Girl.
The Age (Melbourne), www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/30/1093717914488.html?oneclick=true , AAP, 4:53PM, August 30, 2004
ADELAIDE, South Australia: An Adelaide magistrate who had sex with an underaged girl will appeal his convictions.
Michael Frederick is yet to be sentenced but faces up to 15 years imprisonment after a jury earlier this month found him guilty of one count of unlawful sexual intercourse and one count of indecent assault.
Frederick, who resigned immediately after the verdicts were handed down, was acquitted of a further three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse.
The jury found Frederick, 57, had sex once with a girl in 1983, in his home or suburban Adelaide office where he worked as a lawyer.
The girl was aged 15 or 16 years old at the time.
The jury also found Frederick indecently assaulted the girl by kissing her on the lips during an earlier incident that initiated their relationship.
Frederick has continually denied that sex took place and was today successful in applying for leave to appeal against the convictions.
Among the reasons put forward for the appeal was that the jury verdicts were unreasonable and inconsistent.
Frederick's lawyer Lindy Powell argued the unlawful sexual intercourse conviction was reached despite disagreement between prosecution witnesses about where the act took place.
The trial heard the victim believed the act occurred in Frederick's office but the girl's mother said she caught the pair at Frederick's home.
The appeal was not expected to be heard for some months.
Earlier today, Frederick appeared in the South Australian District Court, where Judge Michael David indicated he would hand down a sentence for the convictions.
But Ms Powell successfully argued against presenting sentencing submissions until the leave to appeal application was heard.
Judge David adjourned sentencing submissions until next Tuesday.
Outside court today, Ms Powell said she would seek a further adjournment of sentencing submissions until the appeal was heard.
Frederick has remained on continuing bail since he was charged last year.
Following Frederick's convictions, prosecutor Adam Kimber said he would seek a term of imprisonment.
Frederick made headlines last year and was forced to apologise for telling an alleged prostitute she would die in the gutter.
"You're a druggie and you'll die in the gutter," he told the 21-year-old woman who was being sentenced for a breach of bail.
"I don't believe in that social worker crap.
"You can choose to be who you are. You can go to work." # [Aug 30, 04]
• Celibacy helping to lead future fathers into sin. -- RCC.
Letter to The Record, sent August 30, 2004
PERTH, W. Australia: After more than 18 months of adverse publicity about our clergy scandalising children, evidently your editor has not twigged that a closer reading of the Church's original documents show that we Romanists have some wrong ideas about sex and humanity.
It was no surprise that "Seminarians back celibacy" (Record, 26/8). That's what they've been taught. But that it became a front-page lead was a surprise to me.
You see, right from the first book of our foundation documents we are told "It is not good for man to be alone."[1] Humanity was told to "increase and multiply, and fill the earth."[2]
The gospels give us an outline of good family life, including "suffer the little children to come unto Me."[3]
An epistle tell us that to avoid fornication every man ought to have his own wife, and every woman her own husband. [4] It is no use reading the pro-celibacy sentence before those verses, and closing our eyes to their final ruling.
Paul in one epistle claims he had a right to take about with him "a sister, a wife," like the apostles. [5]
Late-written epistles to Timothy and Titus say that the each chosen leader ought to be the husband of one wife, with an orderly family and lifestyle, and well thought of in the community. [6]
The power to "bind and loose" [7] has not been used to prevent married men from becoming clergymen in the other Mother Church (i.e., the Orthodox ones linked to Constantinople), nor in the other Christian bodies.
Celibacy has led to such bizarre statements as an Australian priest describing child abuse as "an occupational hazard" of the priesthood (Herald Sun, Melbourne, "Catholic priest blames celibacy for assault," www.heraldsun.news.com.au /common/story_page/ 0,5478,8105583% 255E662,00.html , Dec 9, 2003). The offending priest himself had told the police that celibacy was to blame.
In Holland the lawyers for one diocese is demanding that an insurance company pay, because clergy sex abuse was an "industrial accident." (Expatica, www.expatica.com/ source/site_ article.asp?subchannel_ id=19&story_id=10899 , August 20, 2004)
Celibacy is not a divine law, but nothing seems closer to Catholics' hearts than this man-made snare. It is one of the reasons that fallen clergy lead children, mainly boys, into sin. When will we give it up, and give our clergy the God-given pattern of normal family life?
____________________
1. Genesis 2:18
2. Gen 1:28
3. Matthew 19:14, Mark 10:14, Luke 18:16
4. 1 Corinthians 7:2
5. 1 Cor. 9:5
6. 1 Timothy 3:2 (and see 3:12), Titus 1:6
7. Matt. 16:19 (to Peter), 18:18 (to the disciples in general) [Aug 30, 04]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tue August 31, 2004 edition follows:-
• OLOP hosts conference -- RCC.
Daily Globe, www.ironwooddailyglobe.com/0831isex.htm , Tuesday, August 31, 2004
IRONWOOD (MI) -- A free awareness session for the prevention of child sexual abuse will be held Wednesday from 6 to 9 p.m. at Our Lady of Peace Parish Hall, Ironwood.
The program is sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of Marquette.
Anyone who plans to work or volunteer with children or youth in Catholic schools or parishes this year and has not yet taken the training must take it this fall. It is open to others in the local community as well.
To register, log on to virtusonline.org, click on the yellow Registration link on the left-hand side of the page, enter the password Trust, select Diocese of Marquette and follow the instructions for registering for a Protecting God's Children awareness session. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:08 PM]
• Allen's choice of lawyers raises some questions -- RCC. Same firm for Church and prosecutor.
The Cincinnati Post, http://www.cincypost.com/2004/08/31/arch083104.html , By Kimball Perry, Aug-31-2004
CINCINNATI (OH): Embroiled in a controversial sex scandal involving officials, the accused hired the Cincinnati law firm of Dinsmore and Shohl to provide a legal defense.
That scenario applies to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, convicted last year of not reporting priest sex abuse against minors.
But it also applies to Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen who now has hired the same firm, his former employer, to defend him in a sexual harassment suit filed by a subordinate.
The situation is drawing concern from victims of priest sex abuse and their attorneys, wondering if Allen and his connection -- past and present -- to Dinsmore and Shohl should result in the case against the archdiocese being re-examined.
"There is no legal conflict of interest, but the fact that he started at Dinsmore and Shohl, that he negotiated with Dinsmore and Shohl in the archdiocese case, and then he runs to Dinsmore and Shohl when he gets into trouble raises some questions," said Mason attorney Konrad Kir-cher, who has nearly 100 clients who have alleged sexual abuse by priests. [...]
"Funny how Mike Allen finds himself in the same position," Miller said Monday. "Funny how he is an Elder grad and all of this involves Elder. I really question (Allen's) motives now in light of what has happened."
What has happened is Allen's public admission last week of his adultery, a years-long extramarital affair with assistant prosecutor Rebecca Collins. A day after Allen's admission, Collins filed a federal sexual harassment suit against Allen.
To defend himself against Collins' allegations, Allen hired attorney Michael Hawkins of Dinsmore and Shohl.
Before becoming prosecutor, Allen worked as an attorney at Dinsmore and Shohl. Allen's connections to the firm on so many levels has raised questions now, Kircher said.
• Abuse victims challenge congressional candidate Flynn -- RCC.
Mercury News, www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/9546007.htm , By XIAO ZHANG, Associated Press, Tue, Aug. 31, 2004
MILWAUKEE (WI) - A group of victims of sexual abuse by priests is asking congressional candidate Matt Flynn to apologize for his past role as a lawyer representing the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee in some abuse cases.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP] also wants Flynn to lay out a plan to protect children. Peter Isely, a founding member of SNAP and the group's Midwest regional director, said Tuesday that Flynn needs to answer questions about his work for the archdiocese and the concerns abuse victims have over it.
Flynn is one of three Democratic candidates vying to replace Rep. Jerry Kleczka, who is retiring, in the Milwaukee-based 4th Congressional District.
At a news conference Tuesday, Isely pointed to a map of the district with pins showing where priests with substantiated allegations of sex abuse of minors worked.
"We feel that Attorney Flynn has to answer for each of those pins," he said.
Isely accused Flynn of being involved in the firing of three Catholic school teachers and of going after victims for court costs after cases were dropped.
Flynn's campaign spokesman, Paul Vornholt, denied the allegations. [...]
ON THE NET: Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests: http://www.snapnetwork.org ; Matt Flynn campaign: http://www.mattflynnforcongress.org
• Four more plaintiffs join suit against Sisters of Charity -- of Nazareth. RCC. [1950s-60s]
WKRN, http://www.wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?S=2242260
LOUISVILLE, Ky. _ A lawsuit alleging sexual abuse at a now-closed orphanage grew today with the addition of four plaintiffs claiming they were molested by a Roman Catholic priest or a nun.
The alleged abuse occurred in the 1950s and 1960s at Saint Thomas-Saint Vincent Orphanage in Anchorage, a suburb of Louisville. The lawsuit was filed in Jefferson Circuit Court.
The defendant is the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, an order based near Bardstown in Nelson County. The initial suit was filed in July, but other plaintiffs have since been added.
• Former priest enters plea in molestation case [1984 Lovell] -- RCC.
AZcentral.com ; by Beth DeFalco, Associated Press, 03:40 PM, Aug. 31, 2004
ARIZONA: Former Roman Catholic priest Lawrence Joseph Lovell pleaded no contest on Tuesday to one count of child molestation and one count of attempted sexual conduct with a minor.
Lovell, who is already serving a prison term in another case, faces slightly more than five years to 14 years in prison for this case when sentenced Nov. 18 in Phoenix, said Deputy County Attorney Rachel Mitchell.
The 56-year-old had been charged with eight counts of child molestation and one count of sexual conduct with a minor. The remaining seven counts are to be dismissed at sentencing, Mitchell said.
The charges against Lovell stem from allegations dating back to 1984. They involve a boy who was 8 or 9 years old at the time and attended St. Anthony in Phoenix.
• Horan to face Indecency charges
One in Four, http://oneinfour.org/news/news2004/horan
BRITAIN: Neil Horan is facing child sex abuse charges in London next month. He is due to appear at Woolwich Crown Court charged with two counts of indecency with a child under 16. Horan is currently on bail on those charges as he awaits trial on September 21 for the alleged offences.
Meanwhile, calls for Horan's Irish passport to be revoked are likely to prove fruitless. The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed yesterday that it does not have the power to revoke passports. A spokesperson said that the option of suspending or revoking someone's passport was a matter for the courts.
• Child abuse in State home 'as bad as Church-run centres'
One in Four, http://oneinfour.org/news/news2004/statehomes
IRELAND: Writing in the current edition of the Jesuit magazine 'Studies', Anthony Keating, a research fellow, details the appalling conditions found at Marlboro House, Dublin, as well as instances of terrible physical abuse and at least two examples of sexual abuse.
Mr Keating argues that the case of Marlboro House shows that the State, as well as the Church, operated a "culture of defensiveness and secrecy" that "laid the foundations for sexual abuse to thrive in some of these institutions".
In 1971, Marlboro House was in such poor condition that its 30 inmates, mostly boys on remand, rioted in protest. The following year it closed.
The institution was run directly by the Department of Education but was registered by the Minister for Justice as a place of detention.
• Former clergyman sentenced to 5 years in underage sex case [1998-2000 Fenwick] -- Girl.
KATU, www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=70601
EUGENE, Ore. - An associate pastor who had sex with a 14-year-old girl was sentenced to five years in prison.
Charles Fenwick Jr., 36, pleaded guilty to third-degree rape and sodomy for crimes that began in 1998 and lasted until 2000.
Fenwick told a Lane County courtroom on Monday that he "messed up big time," but is "not a crazy sex fiend chasing little kids."
Fenwick denied the allegations when first confronted, but investigators found his DNA in a sperm stain on the girl's dress.
The girl disclosed the crimes a year ago at a church camp in Douglas County.
• Sex-abuse lawsuit filed against Catholic priest [1985 de Otero] -- RCC. Altar Boy.
Honolulu Advertiser, http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Aug/31/ln/ln14a.html , Advertiser Staff, Aug 31, 2004
HAWAI'I: A man who says he was sexually abused in 1985 filed a Circuit Court lawsuit yesterday against the Roman Catholic Church in Hawai'i and a priest.
The lawsuit by the unnamed man says the Rev. Roberto de Otero molested him when he attended St. John the Baptist Church in Kalihi and was an altar boy.
It says the plaintiff never connected his psychological problems with the abuse until March .
The suit asks for an amount of money to be determined at trial.
Another lawsuit, alleging that de Otero sexually molested Darick Agasiva and Fa'amoana Purcell in the late- to mid-1980s was settled earlier this year. The terms were not disclosed.
• Man confronts alleged abuse after 50 years [1950s Leehan] -- RCC.
The Argus, By Melissa Evans
CALIFORNIA: Russ Marley says he was betrayed by both of his fathers.
The late Rev. Cornelius Patrick Leehan, the central authority in his cultural and religious life, sodomized him at age 5 in the vestibule of St. Alphonsus Liguori Parish in San Leandro, Marley says. Seven years later, the priest returned to the parish after being transferred and fondled Marley again.
When Marley mustered the courage to tell his biological father, a founding member of the parish who often golfed and drank with the priest, "he said to tell no one."
" 'Never speak about a priest that way,' " Marley recalls his father saying.
He obeyed. For five decades.
Marley left the Bay Area -- more like ran -- in his 20s. His two older sisters did not understand why their brother had so many problems: He dropped out of high school and rarely contacted them; he has been married four times and has had difficulty holding a job.
• Priest tells parishioners he was sexually abused, plans to resign -- RCC.
Forth Worth Star-Telegram, www.dfw.com/ mld/startelegram/ news/state/ 9543730.htm , Associated Press
BOTHELL, Wash. - It was anything but a standard homily - a Roman Catholic priest said he was sexually abused by a priest when he was a boy and will resign rather than undergo a church-ordered psychological assessment.
Parishioners at St. Brendan Catholic Church in this suburb northeast of Seattle were stunned by what they heard from the Rev. Lawrence Minder at three Masses on Saturday and Sunday.
"There was an audible gasp at the Sunday Mass, there was spontaneous crying at the Saturday Mass," said Richard Foudray, 60. "People were devastated."
"My heart just broke when he said he had been raped," said Kathleen Foudray, 58. "When he told us he was resigning his position, I felt like I had a death in the family."
• Students: Deyo was respected teacher [1998] -- RCC.
Press-Citizen, www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040831/NEWS01/408310305/1079 , By Gigi Wood, Aug 31, 2004
IOWA: Some students who attended Regina High School while the Rev. Paul Deyo taught there said Monday they are shocked to hear allegations of sex abuse against him.
Deyo, who has been restricted from active duty since the allegation surfaced last year, taught at the Catholic high school from 1991 to 2000. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport released his name Saturday. He is accused of sexually abusing a minor in Johnson County in 1998. No criminal charges have been filed against him.
"As a former student of Father Paul Deyo, I am shocked and upset with the allegations pending against him," said Katy Gordon Brown, a 1997 alumna of Regina who now lives in St. Paul, Minn.
In an e-mail to the Press-Citizen, Brown also described Deyo as honest and passionate.
"Father Paul Deyo is one of the most outstanding human beings I had ever met," she said. "I knew him well when he taught me and siblings at Regina High School in Iowa City. He spent many hours outside of school with myself and fellow students, pondering Catholicism and life."
"I speak of him often, probably because I recite things he taught me on a daily basis."
• Plea deal convicts priest of abuse [1988 Stein] -- RCC. Norbertine.
Green Bay Press-Gazette www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/local_17593477.shtml , By Andy Nelesen, anelesen@greenbaypressgazette.com
WISCONSIN: A Norbertine priest was convicted Monday of molesting a teenage boy after agreeing to a plea bargain in exchange for prosecutors dismissing two of three pending felony charges.
James Stein, 44, who lives at the St. Norbert Abbey in De Pere, pleaded no contest to second-degree sexual assault of a child stemming from a 1988 incident in the abbey's pool and hot tub area. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dismissed two other identical charges, but both will be considered by Brown County Circuit Court Judge Sue Bischel at sentencing Dec. 13.
According to the criminal complaint, Stein took a then-14-year-old boy, whom he befriended at Green Bay Premontre High School friary, to the St. Norbert Abbey to swim. While in the pool area, Stein fondled the boy while in the hot tub and again in the shower.
The victim, now 30, came forward in March 2002 and the criminal complaint was filed in September 2003. The case was delayed, in part, because Stein was living and working outside Wisconsin for much of the time since the attack.
• Bishop will concelebrate victims' Mass [Lavigne] -- RCC. Bp. McDonnell and Fr. Scahill
Republican, www.masslive.com/ chicopeeholyoke/republican/ index.ssf?/base/news- 5/1093938883180900.xml , By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Tuesday, August 31, 2004
SPRINGFIELD (MA) - A maverick parish priest and the bishop of the Springfield diocese who have been embroiled in several public verbal battles will celebrate a Mass together Sept. 12 for victims of clergy sexual abuse.
The Rev. James J. Scahill, pastor of St. Michael's Parish in East Longmeadow, and the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, will concelebrate the 10 a.m. service at St. Michael's.
The diocese also announced yesterday it is funding a $50,000 grant to hire a victim resource coordinator who will help clergy sexual abuse victims access health and social services.
Scahill and McDonnell have come to verbal blows several times since McDonnell was installed as bishop April 1.
Most of the fights have centered around the handling of convicted child molester and defrocked priest Richard R. Lavigne, whom Scahill wanted severed from financial support from the diocese. Scahill had withheld a percentage of the parish's weekly collection to protest the support of Lavigne. The diocese eventually ended Lavigne's support.
• Priest abuse cases examine hierarchy [1970s Noia] -- RCC.
Mercury News, www.mercurynews.com/ mld/mercurynews/ news/9542587.htm , By Robin Evans
CALIFORNIA: Some time before the Rev. Leonel Noia was accused of molesting two brothers on a camping trip in 1976, the San Francisco archbishop had been alerted that Noia had engaged in inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature in a San Jose rectory, according to new information gleaned in a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic dioceses of San Francisco and San Jose.
The Aug. 20 deposition of the Rev. William Flanagan, pastor of St. Patrick's parish when the newly ordained Noia served there in the early '70s, contains the first indication that church hierarchy had been warned about the priest in advance of the boys' accusations.
What church officials knew and when are key questions as people alleging sexual abuse by priests seek damages in more than 160 lawsuits against Roman Catholic dioceses in Northern California for failing to take preventive action. The cases are undergoing pretrial hearings in Alameda County Superior Court.
The negligence suits are among 900 filed in California last year under a temporary lifting of the statute of limitations for civil cases involving abuse that occurred years ago.
The Noia case is one of 13 lawsuits alleging abuse by five Santa Clara County priests. Noia also worked for a time at St. Joseph parish in Mountain View.
• Rabbinic council probes sexual harassment claims [Tendler] -- Judaist.
Ha'aretz, www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/471400.html , By Rukhl Schaechter
UNITED STATES: The main union of Modern Orthodox rabbis is investigating allegations of sexual harassment against the scion of a prominent rabbinic family, the Forward has learned.
The main union of Modern Orthodox rabbis is investigating allegations of sexual harassment against the scion of a prominent rabbinic family, the Forward has learned.
Officials at the Rabbinic Council of America, an organization representing more than 1,000 Orthodox clergymen, confirmed that the organization is examining sexual harassment allegations against Rabbi Mordecai Tendler.
He is a son of Yeshiva University professor Rabbi Moshe Tendler, a leading Orthodox arbiter of bioethical issues, and a grandson of the late Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, the Orthodox world's most respected religious arbiter for much of the 20th century.
A spokesman for the younger Tendler vehemently denied the allegations. "Rabbi Tendler denies all of the allegations that are being made in their entirety," the spokesman wrote in a statement sent to the Forward. "No misconduct was committed by him." [...]
A source who has spoken to several of the alleged victims told the Forward the women were afraid to come forth. In addition, several alleged victims have refused to air their claims publicly, for fear of committing sacrilege by shaming a prominent rabbi.
Tendler is the founder and religious leader of Kehillat New Hempstead, a Modern Orthodox congregation near Monsey. During his tenure there, he has earned praise from Orthodox feminist leaders for his open-minded approach to women's issues. He composed a popular prayer on behalf of agunot that is recited around the world. ...
• Uganda, Kenya Police Probe Child Trafficking
AllAfrica.com ; by Izama Angelo & Frank Nyakairu, August 29, 2004, Posted to the web August 30, 2004
KAMPALA, Africa: Police in Uganda and Kenya are probing alleged child trafficking in the region. The bursting of a racket in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, last week has fueled the action. Police rescued several children who were due to be smuggled to Europe when they raided the home of a missionary.
The children, all aged below 10, were found at the home of Pastor Gilbert Deya, east of Nairobi.
Police are now investigating the Pastor, who claims the children are "miracle babies" born through the power of prayer. He claims they were begot after he cast demons from women who could not hitherto conceive naturally or were in menopause.
• Former Pastor Sentenced [Fenwick] -- New Hope Christian Center. Girl.
KVAL, http://www2.kval.com/ x30530.xml?ParentPage ID=x2649&ContentID= x46771&Layout=kval. xsl&AdGroupID=x30530
EUGENE, OREGON - A former Veneta youth pastor will spend the next five years in prison. Charles Fenwick was taken into custody after the sentencing hearing today. He pleaded guilty last month to raping a 14-year old girl in his congregation.
"And for right now we're just happy with the sentence and our family's going to come back and evaluate how we feel about things and then we're going to move forward. The only way to go is forward and that's what we will do," said Gary Simpson a relative of the victim.
The judge sentenced Fenwick to the most time he could receive under Oregon law, saying the abuse happened when Fenwick was in a position of authority at the New Hope Christian Center.
• No contest plea by priest in sex case [1988-89 Stein] -- RCC. Norbertine. Boy.
Duluth News Tribune, www.duluthsuperior.com/ mld/duluthsuperior/ news/politics/ 9540470.htm , Associated Press
GREEN BAY, Wisconsin - A Norbertine priest facing trial on charges of sexually assaulting a child pleaded no contest to one of three counts against him as part of a plea deal.
In the agreement late Monday afternoon, the Rev. James Stein pleaded no contest to one count of second-degree sexual assault and had the other two counts dismissed. Stein, 44, had been scheduled to go on trial Tuesday.
He was accused of fondling a 14-year-old Premontre High School student who worked in a living area attached to the priests' quarters at the school in 1988. The boy, now 29, alleges Stein groped him while they swam and used the hot tub at the St. Norbert Abbey in De Pere.
A judge last week refused to bar testimony about Stein's conviction for fourth-degree sexual assault in 1991 and an uncharged allegation of fondling a teen at the St. Norbert Abbey in 1989.
• Priest abuse victims have questions for candidate Flynn -- RCC.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline.com/news/metro/aug04/255199.asp , By LARRY SANDLER, lsandler@journalsentinel.com , Posted: Aug. 31, 2004
MILWAUKEE (WI): Sexual abuse victims plan to turn up the heat on Milwaukee congressional candidate Matt Flynn for defending the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese when priests have been accused of sexually abusing children.
A group of abuse victims, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, will hold a news conference today to raise questions about Flynn's actions as an attorney and to demand he meet with them - a meeting they say he's been ducking.
Flynn's camp says he's not refusing to meet and would advocate tougher laws on child sexual abuse if he is elected.
In the Sept. 14 Democratic primary for the 4th Congressional District, Flynn faces state Sens. Gwen Moore and Tim Carpenter. The winner will face the Republican nominee - either Corey Hoze, a former state and federal official, or attorney Gerald H. Boyle - plus independents Tim Johnson and Robert Raymond and Constitution Party candidate Colin Hudson in the Nov. 2 general election.
Peter Isely, SNAP's regional leader, says Flynn was more aggressive than other lawyers in seeking attorney fees from victims and in arguing the Catholic Church should be immune from prosecution. Isely says SNAP wants to talk to Flynn about his actions but that he hasn't agreed to meet.
• Diocese Puts a Lawyer in Charge of Its Hot Line -- RCC.
The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2004/08/31/nyregion/31church.html , By Daniel J. Wakin, August 31, 2004
BROOKLYN (NY): The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn has set up a hot line for people to report sexual abuse by a priest.
But in a decision that has provoked anger among some advocates for victims, it has appointed a lawyer to take the calls.
The advocates say that the arrangement is a recipe for further suffering. A lawyer, they say, has little of the professional compassion needed by abuse victims, could very well act more in the interest of the diocese and makes a mockery of the promise by the nation's bishops to put pastoral care above legal strategy in dealing with people who say priests sexually molested them. "For many victims, hot lines seem like one more effort by the church leaders to try to keep all of this in house," said David Clohessy, the national director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
"People who are frightened and wounded need to talk with sensitive, trained, helping professionals, not with a lawyer who's trained in how to be adversarial," he said. "At a bare minimum, it's like hiring a plumber to do heart surgery."
• Bothell priest an abuse victim, he says -- RCC. Fr Minder was victim, will resign.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/188639_priest31.html , By MICHELLE NICOLOSI
BOTHELL (WA): The parishioners at St. Brendan Catholic Church in Bothell got a shock this weekend: Instead of delivering a typical sermon, the Rev. Lawrence Minder told parishioners at three Masses Saturday and Sunday that he was sexually abused about 30 years ago by a priest.
He told the churchgoers that despite the fact that he reported the abuse, the alleged abuser wasn't removed from duty.
Minder, 43, also said he had been asked to undergo a psychological assessment that would be disclosed to the Archdiocese of Seattle and that he will refuse to do so and plans to resign, witnesses said.
"This came as a bombshell. We're all devastated," said parishioner Richard Foudray, 60. "There was an audible gasp at the Sunday Mass there was spontaneous crying at the Saturday Mass. People were devastated."
• Tossing of abuse cases appealed -- RCC. Males.
Philadelphia Daily News, www.philly.com/ mld/dailynews/news/ local/9541492.htm , By RON GOLDWYN, goldwyr@phillynews.com
PHILADELPHIA (PA): A Philadelphia judge's ruling to toss out 16 lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for sexual abuse by priests has been appealed.
The suits, on behalf of male juveniles who said they were molested decades ago, were appealed to the Pennsylvania Superior Court yesterday, according to lawyer Jay Abramowitch, a lead attorney in the cases.
Common Pleas Judge Arnold New, in an Aug. 13 opinion, ruled the statute of limitations negated the lawsuits, which alleged clergy abuse between 1957 and 1983.
Abramowitch said 65 similar suits in three other counties - where courts came to opposite conclusions from New - could ultimately be consolidated with Philadelphia cases by the appeals court.
• Church Hot-Line Furor -- RCC.
New York Post, www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/29618.htm , By HEIDI SINGER, August 30, 2004
BROOKLYN (NY) -- Parishioners calling a new Brooklyn Diocese hotline to report pervert priests will now talk to a lawyer instead of a well-regarded therapist who once took such calls.
Abuse victims are accusing the diocese of intimidation with false promises of help.
"We think it's just abominable," fumed David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP]. "Victims are hurting, frightened people who need sensitive skilled mental-health professionals to help them - not a lawyer to intimidate them."
The hot line was established Aug. 6 by the diocese's new bishop, Nicholas DiMarzio, who set up a similar attorney-run victims' line that sparked controversy in Camden, N.J., two years ago.
In the New Jersey case, callers were routed to a law office, angering survivors who called the process intimidating, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
DiMarzio - who was transferred to Brooklyn last year - and other officials touted the new hot line as a way to ease victims' anxiety, since the lawyer, John Kuremelis, is not a diocese staff member. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 02:42 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tue August 31, 2004
Religions' abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont94.htm
or click Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse for current on-line
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Cincinnati Enquirer, www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/08/22/loc_loc1good.html , By Sheila McLaughlin, Aug 22, 2004 MONTGOMERY (OH) With a $271,000 settlement reached with former pastor Tom Axe and a prosecutor's investigation still pending, leaders at Good Shepherd Catholic Church are working to restore trust. But those who fill the pews, and others who have left the archdiocese's largest church over the money scandal, doubt they will ever feel the same. "Some people are just very understanding and have been very kind and forgiving. Some people right now are in a state still of anger both at the previous pastor and at the archdiocese for letting things like this happen," said the Rev. Father Robert Schmitz, who took over leadership of the parish after Axe retired in the midst of a church audit last October. "It's a huge range that we have, and what I kind of expected." Days after announcing that the Archdiocese of Cincinnati had reached a settlement with Axe, who conceded he had misused church money, parish leaders fielded questions Tuesday from about 300 church members in a town hall-style meeting with Axe's lawyer, parish staff, as well as an attorney and finance officials for the archdiocese. • Churches vary in money oversight [Werra] -- RCC. Money. Kalamazoo Gazette, www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1093170087177630.xml , by C. Meehan, cmeehan@kalamazoogazette.com , 388-8412, Sunday, August 22, 2004 MARCELLUS (MI): Pat Kindt wondered why her parish priest seemed so unwilling to provide the congregation with a rundown of church finances. As a member of the parish council at St. Margaret Mary Church in Marcellus, Kindt was among those who had wanted their pastor, the Rev. Bogdan Werra, to give an accounting of collections. "We could never get financial reports from him," said Kindt, a member of the church for about 30 years. After being charged this month with embezzling more than $240,000 from St. Margaret Mary and St. John Bosco Church in Mattawan, the priest was arraigned on Thursday before Van Buren County District Judge Robert Hentchel. "We're hurting," Kindt said. "This has shaken our confidence in someone we put a lot of trust in." National Catholic officials say Werra's case reflects the broader issue of how funds are monitored and handled by parish priests across the country. • Priest steps down pending investigation [McCallum] -- RCC. Computers and account records seized.
BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/3587956.stm , 17:05 GMT 18:05 UK , Sunday, 22 August, 2004 NORTHERN IRELAND: A County Down priest has stepped down from all ministry until the outcome of a police investigation is known, the Catholic Church has said. Police have visited the home of Father John McCallum, the parish priest of Kilcoo, and removed computers and financial records for examination. However, the church has stressed that no allegations whatsoever - about financial impropriety or any other issue - have been made against Father McCallum. Parishioners in his parish, which is in the Diocese of Down and Connor, were informed of the development by Bishop Donal McKeown during Mass on Saturday. • Pastor convicted of burning church [1998 Rayborn] -- and mail fraud. Baptist.
Tennessean, www.tennessean.com/local/archives/04/08/56261970.shtml?Element_ID=56261970 , Associated Press MEMPHIS (TN) - A local pastor has been convicted of arson and mail fraud after being tried twice for setting his church ablaze in 1998 for insurance money. The Rev. Gerald Rayborn, pastor of New Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church, was convicted Friday after a two-week trial. He burned the church he began in 1981 to collect $792,000 in insurance money, according to a three-count federal indictment. Rayborn, 58, will be sentenced Nov. 19. Rayborn, who still serves as the church's pastor, could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for arson, the most serious charge. • Witnesses called for pastor's trial [2003 Lucas] -- Baptist. Assaulted, bit police -- charge. Herald-Coaster, www.herald-coaster.com/articles/2004/08/23/news/news02.txt , By STEPHEN PALKOT, Monday, August 23, 2004 RICHMOND (TX): Outspoken community activist and preacher the Rev. Curtis Lucas, pastor of the Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church in Richmond, will be facing trial this week for the alleged offense of felony assault on a public servant. Lucas could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for the third-degree felony offense. Lucas will be representing himself in the trial, to take place in the 240th District Court of Judge Thomas Culver III. Lucas has called to trial as many as 14 witnesses, including Fort Bend County District Attorney John Healey and Richmond Police Chief Bill Whitworth. Lucas said he did not wish to elaborate on what his defense will be, but said the witnesses are all "part of my case." According to the Richmond Police Department, the alleged incident occurred at approximately 10:53 p.m. on Sept. 17, 2003 in the 300 block of North Tenth Street. The police department alleges Lucas bit the hand of officer David Evans after Evans conducted a traffic stop. Lucas, said the Richmond Police Department, refused to sign a ticket for not producing proof of insurance, and the exchange between the officer and Lucas heated up. Evans, who suffered scrapes to his knees, some bruises and a bite on his fingers, spent the evening in Polly Ryon Memorial Hospital. • Controversial official gets job with diocese -- RCC. Finance. Cincinnati Enquirer, www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/08/23/loc_loc1ohdio.html , The Associated Press, Monday, August 23, 2004 COLUMBUS (OH) - A man who resigned as chief financial officer for the Cleveland Catholic Diocese amid financial controversy has been hired to supervise the finances of the Columbus Catholic Diocese. Joseph H. Smith, 47, of Avon Lake, near Cleveland, will become the diocese's finance director in October, said diocesan spokeswoman Robin Miller. Smith resigned from the Cleveland diocese in February after he was accused of accepting about $750,000 from an accounting firm he hired to work for the diocese. Smith has not been charged. Cleveland diocesan spokesman Robert Tayek said the Columbus diocese has been told that a federal investigation of Smith is continuing. Special Agent Robert Hawk of the Cleveland FBI office would not comment on whether there is a probe of Smith. • Former pastor accused of hiding church's financial records [2000s Reed] -- Baptist. Money. WQAD, www.wqad.com/Global/story.asp?S=2211279&nav=1sW7QB5U , By Karetha Dodd, POSTED: 9:37 PM Aug/23/04, UPDATED: 9:37 AM Aug/24/04 DAVENPORT (IA) - Members of Progressive Baptist Church's Board of Trustees say the congregation's former pastor Rev. Jimmy Reed may have stolen money from the weekly offerings. Tonight, his wife Gail speaks out in her husband's defense. "My husband came here because he came to do work for the Lord. And he's dealing with some high-class, high-tech unsaved demons," complains Gail Reed, Rev. Reed's wife. For the last three years, Rev. Reed has served as pastor of Progressive Baptist Church on 12th Street in Davenport. But a recent lawsuit brings into question whether or not every parishioner donation has made it to the bank. In documents filed earlier this month at the Scott County Courthouse, the church's Board of Trustees accuse Rev. Reed and members of his staff of "failing to deposit church collections in a timely manner" and of hiding business and financial records from members of the Board. Gail calls the allegations malicious. • Bail set at $1m for gospel musician Charamba -- $40m fraud alleged. Gospel singer-pastor. 
NewZimbabwe.com www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/charamba2.11509.html , By Staff Reporter, Last updated 19:26:10, Aug/23/2004 ZIMBABWE: Gospel singer and pastor Charles Charamba has been charged with $40 million fraud after spending the weekend in police holding cells. Charamba was brought to the Harare magistrates' courts under heavy police guard on Monday where charges were read out to him before bail was set at $1 million. He will next appear in court on September 6. Charamba was seized from his Borrowdale home on Friday. Prosecutors say he connived with a bank manager at Agribank's Mvurwi branch to steal $40 million, $9 million of which has been recovered from his bank account. Also charged was former Agribank manager Sebastian Mupa, 31, who is alleged to have assisted Charamba in defrauding the bank. • Forensic Experts Arrive Okija - Patrons Are 419, Says Ojukwu -- Indigenous religion. Evil grove has bodies, skulls.
AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408231445.html , August 23, 2004 NIGERIA: Forensic experts have arrived at the evil grove of Okija, Anambra State, in an attempt to identity corpses and skulls found in the Ogwugwu shrines located inside the forest. Police headquarters spokesman, Chris Olakpe, confirmed the arrival of the experts, saying their main duty was to unravel the cause of death and period of death of victims found in the shrines. P.M.News gathered that the experts would determine whether the victims were poisoned or died of natural causes. The police spokesman also disclosed that some policemen had been stationed at the Okija shrine to prevent some run-away priests of the shrine from tampering with the corpses and skulls. • Priest wants case dropped: Ex-Waltham pastor seeks dismissal of theft allegations [? 2000s Byrne] -- RCC. Money.
MetroWest Daily News, www.metrowestdailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=76300 , By Jennifer Roy / CNC Staff Writer, Tuesday, August 24, 2004 CAMBRIDGE (MA) -- The former Waltham pastor accused of bilking $135,000 from a Trapelo Road church over six years is expected back in court Thursday. A ruling on a motion to dismiss the case against the Rev. Joseph Byrne is possible, Middlesex District Attorney spokeswoman Melissa Sherman said. Byrne, the former pastor of Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted, is accused of stealing from the church to buy cars, dinners and to pay for his East Falmouth home. Defense attorney Henry Katz has claimed Byrne, 60, now a pastor at St. Patrick's in Plymouth, is the victim of bad bookkeeping and poor money management. Thursday's request for a dismissal will be Katz' sixth since Byrne pleaded not guilty to seven counts of grand larceny over $250. He was indicted by a grand jury in January 2003. • Reverend on trial for allegedly biting officer during traffic stop [2003 Lucas] ABC 13 Eyewitness News, http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/082404_local_copbite.html , By Kevin Quinn, Aug/24/04 RICHMOND, TX: An unusual trial is underway in Fort Bend County. A man is on trial for biting a Richmond police officer. That man is a church pastor, who's defending himself in court. It's not every day you have a physical fight between a preacher and a police officer - let alone one caught on police videotape. That tape was played in court Tuesday, and it's considered by most to be the crux of this case. It was supposed to be a routine traffic stop. The arresting officer could be heard yelling on the tape, "Put your hands behind your back! Put your hands behind your back!" It was 10:30 at night last September in the parking lot of a Richmond church. The pastor of that church, Reverend Curtis Lucas, was pulled over, police say, because he didn't have a license plate on the front of his car. • December date set for pastor's trial [Grote] -- Baptist. Left infant in car. Richmond Times-Dispatch www.timesdispatch.com/ servlet/Satellite? pagename=RTD%2FMG Article% 2FRTD_BasicArticle&c= MGArticle&cid= 1031777514814&path= !news&s=1045855934842 ; Aug 25, 2004 VIRGINIA: A Dec. 1 trial date was set yesterday for Douglas William Grote, the associate pastor who was charged with involuntary manslaughter after his 3-year-old daughter was left alone for nearly eight hours inside a family vehicle. Hanover County authorities allege that Grote mistakenly left his daughter, Kristen, in the Dodge Durango after he arrived at the parking lot of Cool Spring Baptist Church on Atlee Road at 8:45 a.m. on Aug. 3. Grote, 32, is the church's recreation minister. He found the girl's body at about 4:30 p.m. The state medical examiner's office ruled that Kristen died because her body overheated. • Practice of Trokosi Still Hurting Girls -- [2000s] Indigenous religion.
GhanaWeb, www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/ artikel.php?ID= 64760 , GNA, Wednesday, 25 August 2004 GHANA: Abla Dosu (real name withheld) sits shyly in her chair, looks down at her lap to hide her tears, and says she is afraid. Her fear comes because, in barely three weeks, a fetish priest will determine whether 18-year-old Abla must be sent to a shrine to atone for a crime committed by her grandfather 46 years ago. If Abla is sent to the shrine she will become a "Trokosi," or a "wife of the gods." Trokosi is a religious and cultural practice found predominately in the Volta Region of Ghana. While specifics of the practice vary, Trokosi generally means that a virgin girl is sent to serve at a shrine where she is symbolically given to a deity to atone for the sins or criminal acts of a relative. While the Constitution of 1992 and the Criminal Code both declare all forms of servitude illegal, today Trokosi continues, despite the laws, in pockets throughout the country. Although views on the issue are polarized - some see the girls as slaves and others see them as students being trained as role models - the practice still means girls are sent to shrines against their will, where they are often deprived of the most basic human rights, like their rights to go to school and to not be held in servitude. Once a girl becomes a wife of the gods, she must live and work in the shrine where, in some cases, she is used as the sexual partner of the priest. The girl remains in the shrine for a period ranging from a few years to life. At some shrines, even if the girl dies another girl from the family must replace her. Over the years, pressure from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), independent human rights groups and the government has seen about 3,500 girls released from the shrines. Abla, unfortunately, is not one of these girls, and in one month she may be sent to a shrine. She has just completed Junior Secondary School, and is looking forward to furthering her education. She and her father are aware, however, that this dream may not come to pass if she has to be sent to the shrine. [The newsitem continues; The practice is supported by Osofo Tordzagbo, Secretary General at Afrikania Mission; also published is the case of Mercy Senahe, who had four children to the shrine priests before being rescued, and taught a trade, her children now going to school.] • Charge in $60,000 theft from diocese [? 2000s] -- RCC.
Newsday, www.newsday.com/ news/local/longisland/ ny-listol2608,0, 4659009.story?coll= ny-liminute-headlines ; BY DENISE M. BONILLA, August 26, 2004 MINEOLA: A Mineola man who ran a firm helping the Diocese of Rockville Centre distribute money to employees for medical expenses stole $60,000 from the church, Nassau police said. The man also faces charges of pocketing money from his company's pension fund and keeping government withholdings from employee paychecks, the Nassau district attorney's office said. William Lambiase, 72, is charged with second-degree grand larceny for taking the money out of an escrow account his Garden City company, Hagedorn Actuarial Services Inc., helped set up for the diocese, said Sgt. Lucy Guido of the Nassau Crimes Against Property Squad. He also set up another escrow account that the diocese was not aware of and moved money in and out of that account, Guido said. The money was discovered missing during an audit by the diocese, and is believed to have been taken sometime between January and April. The money has not been recovered, Guido said. Lambiase was arraigned Wednesday in First District Court in Hempstead before Judge Margaret Riley and is being held in lieu of $25,000 cash or bond bail. • Minister sentenced for biting policeman [? 2004 Lucas] -- Baptist. KGBT4, Team 4 News, RICHMOND, Texas: A Houston-area minister has been sentenced to two years in prison for biting a police officer during a traffic stop. The Reverend Curtis Lucas -- who opted to defend himself at trial -- made a prison sentence certain by not applying for probation before trial. The pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Richmond also offered -NO- evidence that he was eligible for probation. State District Judge Thomas Culver yesterday reminded the 52-year-old minister that he had admonished him about the risks of self-representation. The judge says he'll consider whether Lucas is eligible for another form of probation after he serves some prison time. The Houston Chronicle reports Lucas argued he acted in self-defense. But the Fort Bend County jury found him guilty of third-degree assault after a little more than an hour. He could have received a ten-year prison term. • Priest Turns Himself In [Werra] -- RCC. Finances. Courier Leader www.zwire.com/ site/news.cfm?newsid= 12808473&BRD=2188& PAG=461 &dept_id=414962&rfi=6 PAW PAW (MI) - A preliminary exam for a Catholic priest accused of embezzling more than $240,000 from a Mattawan and Marcellus parish, will be held Sept. 21 before Van Buren County District Judge Robert Hentchel. The Rev. Bogdan Werra, who served at St. John Bosco Parish in Mattawan and St. Margaret Mary Mission in Marcellus, pleaded not guilty to the embezzlement charge. Werra resigned from the positions last month. • Why Gilbert Deya's Curses Are Cries in the Wilderness [2000s] -- Deya Ministries.
The East African Standard (Nairobi), http://allafrica.com/stories/200408270377.html , OPINION, August 27, 2004 NAIROBI: There was an interesting letter from Archbishop Gilbert Deya in yesterday's East African Standard. The bishop at the centre of child trafficking allegations "cursed" the President of this nation, the Attorney-General and the people of Kenya for what he would like the world to believe is his persecution as a man of God. It read like a passage from the book of Prophet Isaiah, except that it was much more insulting and tactless. Why should anyone bother about curses? What is the morality of curses? They are basically an antiquated method of ventilation in which an aggrieved party purports to invite damnation on the aggressor. The prophets of old resorted to this method quite frequently. But they made it clear that they were speaking on the authority of the Almighty and they were doing the Almighty's battle. But whose battle is Deya doing? The Almighty's or his own? Here is a man who comes up with an outrageous claim about miracle babies. The claim is questioned and variously dismissed. Some allegations of wrong doing on his part are levelled and the police, the lawful arm of enforcement in this country, get on the case. For this, Deya believes he is being persecuted. Who by? Even so-called men of God are subject to the laws of the lands in which they operate. When doubts have been raised about their operations, they should not co-opt God into their personal battles and use his name to brand others Satanic or to bring upon illegitimate collective curses on a people whose only mission in this matter is to seek the truth. ... • Kenya: 'Miracle' Babies Claim a Sham, DNA Tests Now Show [2004 Deya] -- Deya Ministries Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi), http://allafrica.com/stories/200408270868.html , Cisa/East African Standard, August 27, 2004 NAIROBI, KENYA DNA tests have cracked the mystery of the so-called 'miracle babies': They are not related at all to the 56-year-old who claimed to have given birth to them at four-month intervals. It is now suspected that there is a child trafficking network involving several countries. A top government official on Thursday, August 26, 2004, revealed to the East African Standard that the 12 'miracle babies' had no genetic link with Mrs Eddah Odera. At the same time, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) issued a public appeal to help identify the true parents of the 21 children -13 taken from the Oderas and nine picked up from the Nairobi home of London-based Kenyan evangelist Archbishop Gilbert Deya, who claims to create 'miracle babies' for childless couples. "We are looking good. There is no such thing as a miracle and I don't think you believe in it. The DNA tests have shown no link between the children and the suspects we are holding," said the official. The official added that it was suspected that an international child trafficking syndicate exists in Kenya and this is what the police were working to crack. ... • Pastor is sentenced in beating case [1999 McBurrows] -- "Third Christian Church"
Philadelphia Inquirer, www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/9520634.htm By Keith Herbert, keithherbert@phillynews.com , Posted on Sat, Aug. 28, 2004 UNITED STATES: Calling the former pastor "diabolical and truly wicked," a Montgomery County Court judge sentenced the Rev. Javan McBurrows yesterday to a total of 221/2 to 45 years in prison for beating a 4-year-old boy to death. Judge William Furber gave McBurrows 20 to 40 years on a third-degree murder conviction for killing 50-pound Michael Davis on Jan. 9, 1999, at McBurrows' Glenside home. McBurrows beat the boy with a metal-edged carpenter's level, swung like a baseball bat, authorities said. "I believe you are cruel and cunning," said Furber, who presided over McBurrows' nonjury trial in the spring. "I believe, with the facade portrayed by a man of the cloth, you are extremely dangerous." Furber also gave McBurrows a 2 1/2- to five-year sentence to run consecutively with the murder sentence. The additional time was for charges of endangering the welfare of the other children in the home, including Michael's two sisters and five of McBurrows' own children. McBurrows was found guilty of routinely beating the children. McBurrows' attorney, Garrett Page, argued for a sentence of less than 10 years, saying that his client was good with children and had opened a Christian school at his church. • Defrocked priest says he's sorry and walks free [2004 Horan] -- RCC. 
Belfast Telegraph, www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=556850 , By Cliona Foley, August 31, 2004 GREECE: The defrocked priest who attacked the Olympic marathon leader during the race walked free from a Greek court yesterday. Neil Horan (57), who caused chaos by running on to the track during last year's British Grand Prix, was given a one-year suspended sentence. During the Athens court hearing, he apologised for pushing the then leader, Brazilian Vanderlei de Lima, into the crowd and said he hoped to be forgiven on Judgment Day. The three-member court found Horan guilty of violating Greek laws by disrupting a sports event outside a stadium. De Lima, who recovered from the attack to claim the bronze medal, said he harboured no resentment toward the man. • The passion of the priest [Somerville] -- Associate of Mel Gibson cut off for disobeying bishop. Recites Latin masses for traditional Christians.
The Toronto Star, www.thestar.com/ NASApp/cs/ContentServer? pagename=thestar/Layout/ Article_Type1 &c=Article&cid= 1093645213908&call_pageid= 968332188492&col= 968793972154 ; By SHEILA M. DABU, SPECIAL TO THE STAR, Aug. 28, 2004 TORONTO, CANADA: A Toronto-area priest who was spiritual adviser to Mel Gibson during filming of the controversial movie The Passion Of The Christ has been suspended by Aloysius Cardinal Ambrozic for saying Latin masses for a traditional Catholic splinter group. Rev. Stephen Somerville, of Queensville, north of Toronto, said daily mass in Latin, with Gibson acting as his altar server, when the movie was filmed in Italy last year. Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in the film, also attended the 7:30 a.m. services most days before filming. Somerville has been a priest in the Toronto archdiocese for 48 years. He has appealed the suspension to Rome. The Passion Of The Christ, which comes out on DVD on Tuesday, has made Jesus more popular than Spider-Man and put Gibson, its producer, on top of Forbes' list of the 100 most powerful Hollywood celebrities. It is easily the most successful religious movie ever made. Since its release on Ash Wednesday last February, the movie has grossed more than $600 million (U.S.) worldwide. In North America, its box-office gross is behind only Shrek 2 this year and is ahead of Spider-Man 2. Somerville, who defends the film against critics, and who strongly denies that Gibson or the movie are anti-Semitic, was suspended by Ambrozic for celebrating mass in Toronto for the Society of St. Pius X, a group that Ambrozic and the Vatican's ecclesiastical commission consider "not in full communion with Rome." "(Y)our ongoing association with and celebration of the Tridentine Mass for members of the Society of St. Pius X give external recognition to their illegitimate claims and their lack of submission to our Holy Father Pope John Paul II, to bishops appointed by him, and to the teachings of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. Your actions are also a potential source of scandal to clergy and laity of the Archdiocese of Toronto," Ambrozic said in a letter to Somerville. The Society of St. Pius X is one of several traditionalist Catholic groups that refuse to accept changes brought in by the Second Vatican Council, such as saying mass in the vernacular instead of Latin and having the priest face the congregation instead of turning his back to them. Mel Gibson is a traditional Catholic, but not a member of the Society of St. Pius X faction. Somerville became his chaplain and spiritual director after they met through Gibson's father. Suzanne Scorsone, a spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, said yesterday that Ambrozic didn't have a choice in the matter. "Essentially it's a situation where (Somerville) has chosen to take a position not in keeping with the faith body he has agreed to be a priest for. Since he's taken a different position he can no longer speak for us," she said. "He was given the opportunity, even after the suspension letter, to reply and say that he would agree with what the Church teaches. "He declined to do that. The time period elapsed and so the suspension is now official," she said. "This is an issue on which the Holy See already has a very clear position." A retired Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Toronto, Somerville said he respects Pope John Paul II for his "heroism and his office" as head of the Catholic Church. But, like other traditionalist Catholics, he has reservations about post-Vatican II doctrine. Since 2001, he has been celebrating the pre-Vatican II Tridentine Latin liturgy, which has its roots in the 16th-century Council of Trent, using the 1962 guide to the mass. Masses are held in chapels and private homes, mostly in Toronto and Michigan, Montana, Indiana, Philadelphia, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C. Being suspended by the Toronto archdiocese means Somerville is still a Catholic and can practise his religion, but is not officially authorized to say mass anywhere in the world. "I regret that it's come to an open conflict between me and my archbishop," he said in response to the suspension. But, he believes, the suspension "is unlawful and without foundation." He said the St. Pius X society is not "schismatic," as alleged by Ambrozic, and is not "out of communion with Rome." And under canon law, he said, "no one is to be penalized who disobeys a command out of necessity, even if he is mistaken about the necessity, even if it's only a perceived necessity." Since The Passion Of The Christ opened in February, Somerville has been giving talks to traditionalist Catholic schools about the film and the traditionalist liturgy. The emphasis of the movie, like the emphasis of the traditionalist Catholic mass, Somerville said, is the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. The Passion of Christ on screen ("passion" translated in Latin means "suffering") is mirroring the Passion of Christ that takes place during a Catholic mass. ... • 'Splinter' church still active -- Separated from RCC.
Tribune-Review, www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/tribnorth/s_245831.html , By Ashley Gerwig, Monday, August 30, 2004 PENNSYLVANIA: Two crucifixes adorn the walls of the sparsely decorated room in the basement of the Sewickley Country Inn's building three where the Rev. William Hausen now delivers weekly sermons. Two framed letters from the Diocese of Pittsburgh are also proudly displayed. One admonishes the priest for suggesting, among other things, that the Catholic Church should be run like a democracy. The other notifies him that he has incurred "automatic excommunication" by starting a splinter church. "It's really meaningless," he says of the excommunication notice. "I appreciate the past, but it was time for me to move on." • Priest who loved to bet apologizes for theft [2000s Bunse] -- RCC. Gambling $US 226,000. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, www.stltoday.com/ stltoday/news/stories. nsf/News/Metro+East/ 9DCBEB20794F41C88 6256F00001FD971? OpenDocument&Headline= Priest+who+loved+to+bet+ apologizes+for+theft ; By Norm Parish, Aug/29/2004 MISSOURI: A Catholic priest who said he had a love of casinos is apologizing for taking $226,000 from an Edwardsville church to support his gambling habit. The Rev. Gerald Bunse, 52, was reassigned a few weeks ago to a new parish, Our Savior Church in Jacksonville, Ill., as a priest in residence after receiving treatment for gambling. Bunse would not say where he received treatment. Bunse said he resigned in January as pastor from St. Mary Catholic Church in Edwardsville after realizing he needed counseling. He said he now attends weekly gambling anonymous meetings. "I wish I could undo what I have done," said Bunse in a telephone interview. "It is impossible to undo what I have done. . . I simply ask (St. Mary's parishioners) for forgiveness. I want to assure them of my sorrow and regret that the whole thing ever happened." Bunse, a priest for 21 years, said he gambled at least once a week at casinos in St. Charles. Bunse would not say how long he had his addiction. Nor would he say what games of chance he played. Bunse, along with the Springfield diocese, also refused to state how he removed the money from the church. • Man Who Grabbed Runner Won't Be Jailed [2004 Horan] -- former RCC priest.
The Tribune, www.sanluisobispo.com/ mld/sanluisobispo/ sports/9535510.htm , Associated Press ATHENS, Greece - A defrocked Irish priest with a history of disrupting sports events was given a one-year suspended sentence and fined $3,600 Monday for grabbing a runner who was leading the Olympic marathon with three miles to go. Cornelius Horan was convicted by a misdemeanor court of violating Greece's laws on extracurricular sports for knocking Vanderlei de Lima into the crowd on Sunday. De Lima continued running, but he soon lost his lead and finished third. Horan, 57, was wearing a green beret, red kilt and knee-high green socks when he pushed de Lima. Horan, who apologized to the court, was told he would have to serve the sentence if he violated any other laws in Greece in the next three years. He was expected to return home to London. • Ousted priest still has support -- RCC. Fr. Cunningham. Pasadena Star-News, www.pasadenastarnews.com/Stories/0,1413,206~22097~2367935,00.html , By Marianne Love COVINA (CA) -- The Vatican has ruled a popular priest at St. Louise de Marillac Catholic Church will not return as pastor. The Congregation for the Clergy in Rome upheld Cardinal Roger Mahony's decision to remove the Rev. Chris Cunningham from the 5,000-family church and reassign him as associate pastor at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Ventura, where 3,000 families attend. In a letter to church members in May, Mahony said Cunningham, 42, was emotionally unstable, harsh in exercising authority and interfered with an internal church investigation. Mahony alleged Cunningham withheld information about two parish accounts and convinced others to keep silent. He also accused Cunningham of secretly recording a meeting. Archdiocese officials did not return phone calls seeking comment. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:16 AM] |
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* Americas = Church used its news media to 'expose' Chilean establishment without forensic proof, now it has boomeranged; The Tablet, Britain, "Priest at centre of scandals rocking Chilean establishment," www.thetablet.co.uk/cgi-bin/citw.cgi/past-00194#AMERICAS , by Colin Harding, 28 August 2004. CHILE: A Catholic priest faces being sued for libel, and possibly prosecuted for perjury, for his involvement in allegations that a high-profile politician sexually abused young people. At least some of the allegations have turned out to be groundless.
* Weygers = Weygers still under investigation. The West Australian, Perth, W. Australia, p 14, Wednesday, August 25, 2004. PERTH, Western Australia: The career of controversial civil libertarian Peter Weygers remains in doubt, four months after he was accused of sexual harassment. The Department of Education and Training is continuing to investigate the school psychologist, who was removed from any duties counselling children when the allegations were made at the end of April.
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