Clergy Child Molesters (98) — References / Chronology

• Diocese says admitted sex abuser is not receiving any monetary aid [Wiebler] -- Roman Catholic Church. Boys.

   Quad-City Times, www.qctimes.com/ internal.php?story _id=1035682&l= 1&t=Local+News&c= 2,1035682 , By Todd Ruger, Tuesday, September 21st, 2004
   DAVENPORT (IA): A priest who has admitted sexually abusing boys does not receive a paycheck or any financial assistance from the Catholic Diocese of Davenport, Bishop William Franklin said Tuesday.
   Franklin was responding to a letter from the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, which asked him to immediately stop any and all financial assistance to the Rev. William Wiebler, 72, until Wiebler is in a secure treatment center run by professionals.
   Wiebler, who left the Quad-City area in 1985, was sent by the diocese two years ago to the St. John Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer, Mo., south of St. Louis, after he admitted to the abuse.
   But he has since left that center and is living in an apartment in University City, about 750 feet from Delmar-Harvard Elementary School and about 1,500 feet from Julia Goldstein Preschool, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper reported last week. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:16 AM] (This is the first of the Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse , for Wed September 22, 2004.)

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   INCOMPLETE LINKS: Refer back to "References 61" for methods of obtaining the URLs. !!!: Former nun sentenced for molestation 35 years ago [1960s Rhoads] -- RCC. Nun molested male. Handcuffed. Apologised.
   The Virginian Pilot, http://home.hamptonroads.com/ stories/story.cfm?story= 75879&ran=55728 , By JON FRANK, September 22, 2004
   VIRGINIA BEACH (VA) -- A 65-year-old former nun who taught at a Beach Catholic school more than 30 years ago was sentenced to serve six months in jail today for molesting one of her male students.
   Eileen M. Rhoads was sentenced for two felony sexual convictions and given a 10-year suspended prison sentence in addition to the 6-month jail term. She will not have to serve any of the prison time if she remains on good behavior for 10 years upon her release from jail.
   Rhoads was handcuffed and taken into custody immediately following a tension-filled hearing in front of Circuit Judge Edward W. Hanson Jr. during which she was described by her victim and prosecutors as a sexual deviant who might molest again.
   "Judge you have before you the face of evil," testified the nun's victim, who is now a 45-year-old man. "And I ask for the most severe sentence that you could impose."
   Rhoads apologized moments before she was led away to begin serving her time behind bars. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:02 PM]
• Diocese in Phoenix calls bankruptcy unlikely option -- RCC.
   Tucson Citizen, www.tucsoncitizen.com/ index.php?page=local& story_id=092204a10 _phoenix_diocese , By JOSEPH A. REAVES, The Arizona Republic, Wednesday, September 22, 2004
   PHOENIX (AZ): All indications are the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix is in better financial shape than its sister diocese in Tucson and should be able to avoid filing bankruptcy, church and legal officials said. As with Tucson, the diocese up north faces lawsuits stemming from decades of sexual abuse by priests and an orchestrated coverup by its leaders.
   But unlike Tucson, the Phoenix diocese has been forced to pay a relatively small amount to settle lawsuits and expects insurance policies to cover the bulk of claims that are outstanding.
   "The Diocese of Phoenix has no need to consider bankruptcy," said Joseph C. Anderson, financial officer for the diocese.
The diocese based in Tucson has paid more than $16 million in settlements to 22 plaintiffs and still faces 20 sex-abuse cases.
   Phoenix church officials, on the other hand, said this year they have paid about $3 million to settle claims. And while they face about a dozen more lawsuits, much of the damages should be covered by insurance.
   Even without the threat of damages from lawsuits, the recent downturn in the economy forced the diocese in Phoenix to re-evaluate and sometimes cut back its finances. [...]
   In recent months, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Scottsdale was told to forgo building classrooms and instead construct an office building and parking garage to bring in revenue. Expansion plans were put on hold for Seton Catholic High School in Chandler.
• St. Peter's rector named bishop -- RCC. Defends against sex-abuse accusations.

   London Free Press (Canada), By PETER GEIGEN-MILLER, 2004-09-22 03:44:23
   CANADA: The rector of St. Peter's Cathedral in London is the new auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of London. Rev. Tony Daniels, 47, was named second in command in the diocese yesterday by Pope John Paul II.
   The post has been vacant for more than two years. The new bishop will follow the lead of his predecessors and be stationed in Windsor. ...
   Besides serving as rector of the cathedral, Daniels has been diocesan vicar general, chancellor and moderator of the curia. He has also played a leading role in defending the diocese in lawsuits involving sexual abuse by priests and will continue in that role, he said yesterday.
• Church invited to join in ADR process -- Anglican. Indigenous children.
   Anglican Journal, By SOLANGE DE SANTIS, October 2004 (Last updated on September 22, 2004 at 10:55.)
   CANADA: The government of Canada's alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process for former students of Indian residential schools is well underway and the Anglican Church of Canada has been asked to attend three hearings, said the church's general secretary, Archdeacon Jim Boyles.
   "We've been asked to have a church representative present at two ADRs in Saskatchewan and one in Hazelton (B.C.). They involve students who attended Anglican schools. Usually, someone from the local diocese would attend in a supportive role, to listen, to express the church's concern for the person and for the search for justice and fairness," he said in an interview. The church representative does not participate in validating claims, Mr. Boyles added.
   Archdeacon Michael Averyt, of the diocese of Saskatchewan, represented the church at one ADR in Prince Albert, Sask., and one in Saskatoon, both involving claims of abuse at the All Saints school.
• Diocese announces mediation program -- RCC.

   Albany Times Union, By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Wednesday, September 22, 2004
   ALBANY (NY) -- Retired Court of Appeals Judge Howard Levine announced today an assistance program for victims of clergy sex abuse aimed at mediating issues with the church, rather than litigating them.
   Levine worked for 10 months on the program that is funded with $5 million from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. In addition, Mary Jo White, the former federal prosecutor who recently cleared Bishop Howard Hubbard of sexual misconduct allegations, donated $225,000, carrying out her pledge to directly assist victims with a portion of her fee.
   Levine said the focus of the program is on healing and reconciliation, and cash payouts will not be the primary focus.
   The Independent Mediation Assistance Program will operate out of a storefront at 255 River St. in Troy. It will be facilitated by the New York State Dispute Resolution Association, 12 mediators and an independent investigator. Levine, who formulated the program pro bono, will now be paid in his role as system administrator.
• Two L.A. courts to hear sex charges against Napa priest [Brady, Alzugaray] -- RCC. Male.
   NapaNews.com ; By DAVID RYAN, Register Staff Writer, Wednesday, September 22, 2004
   CALIFORNIA: Accusations of sexual molestation against a Napa priest will likely be tried in two courts at two different trials in Los Angeles County, following a ruling by a Los Angeles judge Monday.
   Judge Jon Mayeda threw out a libel suit filed by Monsignor Joseph F. Alzugaray against Beverly Hills law firm Kiesel, Boucher & Larson. Alzugaray sued the firm for filing a lawsuit naming him, which was posted on the firm's Web site. Although Alzugaray was not named as a defendant in the suit, his name appeared in a description of alleged misconduct against Pasadena resident Erin Brady. In May, Mayeda ruled that a similar suit against the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests [SNAP] was also frivolous.
   Alzugaray, head of St. Apollinaris Catholic Church, claims in court papers filed in Los Angeles that Brady's memories of sexual abuse are based on erroneous and controversial repressed memory flashbacks 26 years after the alleged abuse occurred. He also claims Brady has a history of psychiatric problems and emotional instability. Alzugaray is seeking unspecified damages.
   Brady is the last defendant remaining in the libel suit case, but Anthony De Marco, one of Brady's attorneys at Kiesel, Boucher & Larson, said Brady will not file a motion to dismiss the case. Instead, Brady is seeking to answer the priest's libel complaint by calling up witnesses in deposition and at trial.
   Brady filed a civil suit against Alzugaray in December as one of 17 alleged victims of child abuse by various clerics of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The case claims Alzugaray and 26 other priests used their positions in the church hierarchy to create an environment that protected child molesters.
• Newspapers Seek Access To Abuse Records -- RCC.
   Hartford Courant, www.ctnow.com/ news/local/hc- 22164353.apds.m0464. bc-ct--scocsep22,1, 3699836.story?coll= hc-headlines-local ; Associated Press, September 22, 2004
   HARTFORD, Conn -- Several newspapers urged the state Supreme Court Wednesday to grant them access to sealed documents that detail allegations of sexual abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport.
   Attorneys for The Hartford Courant, The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Boston Globe said the public has a constitutional right under the First Amendment to see the records. Sealing orders expired when the diocese settled the lawsuits in 2001, they contend.
   "The defendants can't say this order continues in effect to adversely effect the lives of 3,400,000 people in Connecticut," said Ralph Elliot, an attorney for The Courant.
   But attorneys for the diocese and the priests said the sealing orders remain in effect and that vacating them would jeopardize efforts to protect sensitive and confidential information.
• Review board head opposes naming clergy, women religious to board -- RCC.
   Catholic News Service, Sep-22-2004
   CHICAGO (IL) (CNS) -- The interim head of the bishops' National Review Board has criticized any effort to place a priest or a woman religious on the board, which is responsible for monitoring compliance with child sex abuse prevention policies.
   A cleric or woman religious has vows of obedience that could lead to pressures by church officials on how the board monitors compliance, said Justice Anne M. Burke.
   Burke said she and other board members objected when they received a fax in mid-September from the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., with the name of a nun on the list of individuals to replace the five current board members whose terms expire before the end of the year.
   "So that's a step backward," she said.
• Diocese set to split with its parishes -- RCC.
   Arizona Daily Star, By Stephanie Innes, Sep.22.2004
   TUCSON (AZ): As part of its Chapter 11 reorganization, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson plans on making its 75 parishes independent nonprofit entities to legally separate them from the diocese.
   "As the diocese has become immersed in litigation and people have continually raised the issue of whether the parishes are separate legal entities, we thought: Why don't we separately incorporate?" said Michael McGrath, one of two attorneys who have been retained by the diocese's 75 parishes to represent their interests in bankruptcy court.
   The diocese, which includes 350,000 Catholics in nine Arizona counties, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday in the face of potentially expensive and embarrassing litigation over sexual abuse of children by clergy members.
   One of the main issues of contention in the filing, which lists the diocese as owing $20.7 million to creditors while also anticipating future claims over clergy abuse, is whether parishes are included in the diocese's overall worth.
   Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas says the parishes are not part of the diocese's overall assets and are not part of the bankrupt estate that will be reorganized through the court to pay current and future creditors.
   McGrath agrees. "I think it's fair to say that in Tucson, the parishes were never separately incorporated - as they have been in other parts of the country - because it was viewed as redundant," McGrath said. "The parishes are separate operations with their own bank accounts. Now the pastors are saying to the bishop that this should have been done."
   [COMMENT: Since when did the bishops heed the pastors in business and other matters? It's a ploy to avoid paying victims of sex and other abuse. Ask yourself why the RCC's "canon law" isn't being quoted on the subject. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Abuse commission has cost EUR17m and may last for eight more years -- RCC.

   One in Four, by Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent. - Irish Times
   IRELAND: The Child Abuse Commission, set up in 1999, has cost more than €17 million so far, and is now expected to take eight more years to complete. The total cost of the commission by the end of last month had reached €17.3 million - €8.3 million in legal fees and €9 million in administrative costs.
   Its former chairwoman, Ms Justice Laffoy, had estimated it could take up to 11 years, but after changes announced by current chairman Mr Justice Ryan, commission sources now expect it to last for eight years.
   On June 16th last Mr Justice Ryan announced it had been decided there would be no "naming and shaming" by the commission of people accused of abuse in institutions being investigated, and that it would not be necessary to hear testimony from all former residents who had applied to the committee.
   Since then, the investigation committee would appear to have secured greater co-operation. In her third interim report last January, Ms Justice Laffoy, who resigned last December, attributed the three and a half year delay in the commission's work to a lack of co-operation with its investigation committee by the State, religious congregations, and lawyers.
• Catholic Center at Tufts sold to University -- RCC.

   Tufts Daily, By Keith Barry, Daily Editorial Board, September 22, 2004
   MEDFORD (MA): The building housing the Catholic Center at Tufts, located at 58 Winthrop Street in Medford, was sold to the University over the summer for an undisclosed amount.
   The terms of the sale are not known, but in June the building was valued by the Medford Assessor's Office at $386,400. The building was sold two weeks before the start of classes, according to Catholic Chaplain Ann Penick.
   "It's still the Catholic Center at Tufts, it's just a University-owned building," University Chaplain David O'Leary said. "Before, it was the Catholic Center at Tufts in a building owned by the Archdiocese of Boston." ...
   The Archdiocese had to pay $135 million in debt, including $90 million in a settlement with 550 sexual abuse victims of the clergy. The $99 million sale of 43 acres of church land to Boston College and the reorganization and closing of parishes helped to pay that debt. Sacred Heart Church in Medford, across Winthrop Street from the Catholic Center, was closed July 25.
• Sex abuse apology [Sapsford ] -- Anglican. Male.

   The Border Mail, www.bordermail.com.au/ newsflow/pageitem? page_id=808494 , By MEGAN CONNELLAN, Wed, Sep 22, 2004
   AUSTRALIA: Victims of sexual abuse have, for the first time, received an apology from the Anglican diocese of Wangaratta.
   A motion, which also acknowledged the hurt caused by church inaction, was passed at the dioceses annual synod at Wangaratta at the weekend.
   Wangaratta Diocese registrar Dr John Pryor said a motion was put forward to issue the unconditional apology and it was approved by the synod.
   He said the apology acknowledged the pain and suffering caused to many people as a result of abuse or harassment by church workers, both clergy and laity, within the diocese.
   "There are reports of abuse in the diocese in the past but there has not been a single case relating to activity in the past six years," he said. [...]
   "There is one compensation claim against the Wangaratta diocese in process at the moment which was lodged this year.
   "I am unable to discuss the sum of money being sought but I can say that the diocese is not contesting the claim and that the diocese has been providing counselling for the individual at its own expense for 12 months."
   Dr Pryor said the individual involved was a male and the perpetrator was a former Seymour Anglican church minister, Rev Alan Sapsford, who died last year.
   He said the Rev Sapsford had been charged by police in relation to the alleged abuse but no action preceded his death.
   "The first case of sexual abuse by Rev Sapsford was reported to the diocese in 1996 and the diocese had absolutely no knowledge of it at all," he said.
• Attorney welcomes court ruling [1970s Wilson] -- RCC.

   Capital News 9, By Capital News 9 web staff, 10:53 PM, Updated: 9/21/2004
   ALBANY (NY): An Albany attorney welcomed a Massachusetts court ruling.
   Late last week, a Massachusetts judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed against accused sexual predator and former priest, Father Dozia Wilson.
   Attorney John Aretakis, who has represented several alleged victims of clergy sex abuse, called it a landmark decision and a huge blow to the diocese and Bishop Howard Hubbard.
   "Now the courts in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have said that Joe Woodward and I can reveal and expose all of Bishop Hubbard's secrets about moving around and hiding pedophile priests like Dozia Wilson and many others," he said.
   Aretakis claimed Wilson abused Woodward more than 20 years ago, and they said both Bishop Hubbard and Former Cardinal Bernard Law fought to cover it up.
• Church will pay to settle abuse claims -- 10 priests. RCC. $US3.4m but no admission. Altar boys, other youths.
   Miami Herald, BY JAY WEAVER, jweaver@herald.com , Posted on Wed, Sep. 22, 2004
   MIAMI (FL): The Archdiocese of Miami has agreed to pay a total of $3.4 million to settle almost two dozen lawsuits brought by former altar boys and other youths who accused Catholic priests of sexually abusing them decades ago, their lawyer said.
   The settlement agreements, ranging from $75,000 to $500,000, conclude all 23 negligence lawsuits brought by attorney Jeffrey Herman -- including nine finalized on Tuesday.
   He represented more than half of the people who filed clergy sex-abuse suits against the Miami archdiocese after the nation's Catholic Church scandal broke in early 2002. His cases implicated 10 South Florida priests, who were put on administrative leave or resigned.
   "The settlements are long overdue validation and vindication for the victims," Herman said in an interview, adding that the "archdiocese did the right thing."
   An archdiocese spokeswoman said the settlements were not an admission of guilt. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:18 AM]
• Q-C Diocese suspends its fund-raiser -- RCC.
Quad-City Times, www.qctimes.com/ internal.php?story_ id=1035706&t= Local+News&c= 2,1035706 , By Todd Ruger, Wednesday, September 22nd, 2004
   DAVENPORT (IA): The Catholic Diocese of Davenport has temporarily postponed its annual appeal for operating funds while lawsuits alleging decades-old instances of sexual abuse by priests are pending.
   This year's Annual Diocesan Appeal, which had been set to kick off Saturday and Sunday, will not go forward while the diocese attempts to settle the lawsuits in mediation sessions this month, diocese attorney Robert McMonagle confirmed Tuesday.
   Instead, the diocese will wait until the end of the sessions, whether they are successful or not, so it can "intelligently answer donors' questions about what the organization's going to look like and where the money is going," he said.
   "(Lawsuit settlements) may well necessitate a restructuring of programs," he added.
   The annual appeal raised $2.5 million last year and $2.4 million in 2002, according to audited financial statements printed in the Catholic Messenger, the diocesan newspaper.
• Bay State judge refuses to toss suit against former Albany Diocese priest [Wilson] -- RCC. Male.
   Troy Record, By Robert Cristo , Sep/22/2004
   ALBANY (NY): A Massachusetts judge has denied the Albany Diocese's motion to dismiss or move to New York state a clergy sexual abuse case against defrocked local priest Dozia Wilson.
   According to Suffolk County Superior Court documents made available this week by attorney for alleged victims of clergy sex abuse John Aretakis, the court will try the lawsuit accusing Bishop Howard Hubbard and former Boston Cardinal Bernard Law of harboring a predatory priest.
   As a result, Hubbard and other church leaders could be called upon to testify in the case that the Albany Diocese has already reached an estimated $500,000 settlement on with a past victim of sexual abuse.
   "When I look at this case it gets me more angry at Hubbard than Wilson, because Wilson is a sick, sick man and Hubbard knew it, and sent him off to an out-of-the-way church where he wasn't watched and was able to molest more victims," said Aretakis.
   The case was prompted by allegations against Wilson, 58, by now 37-year-old Joseph Woodward of Fort Edward, who alleges he was molested as a teenager by Wilson in New York and Massachusetts. [Emphasis added]
• Lawsuit against former priest allowed to proceed [Wilson] -- RCC. Male.
   The Journal News, September 22, 2004)
   NEW YORK: A lawsuit alleging molestation charges against a defrocked priest who worked at a residential center for troubled teens in Dobbs Ferry from 1993 to 2002 will be allowed to proceed in Massachusetts after a judge turned down a motion by church officials seeking to dismiss it.
   Dozia Wilson, a priest who was forced to resign from the clergy after multiple allegations of inappropriate behavior involving young boys, is accused in the lawsuit of molesting an upstate man who is now 37 years old.
   Wilson left his job as spiritual director at St Christopher's Inc. in Dobbs Ferry in 2002 shortly after an incident in which an 18-year-old resident of a Manhattan homeless shelter claimed Wilson had made sexual advances toward him, after which the man allegedly assaulted Wilson and stole his car.
   "This man is a persistent pedophile who somehow manages to continue finding employment around young boys despite the fact that church officials have known about his behavior for decades," said John Aretakis, a lawyer representing Joseph Woodward of Fort Ann, N.Y.
• Priest's Abuse Victims 'Only Wanted An Apology' [1950s-60s Taylor] -- RCC. 10 settled. ~ £500,000 gone. Boys.

   Scotsman, http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3531033 , By Phil Hazlewood, PA News, Wed 22 Sep 2004
   BRITAIN: Sex abuse victims of a paedophile priest today said they would never have taken expensive legal action for compensation if the Roman Catholic Church had apologised sooner.
   About 10 victims of Eric Taylor, a former priest who worked at the Father Hudson's Home in Coleshill, Warwickshire, recently settled claims for abuse they suffered there in the 1950s and 1960s.
   It is estimated that the Father Hudson's Society, the charity that now runs the home, has paid more than £500,000 in out-of-court settlements.
   The society yesterday made a public apology to Taylor's victims, despite the present trustees having no involvement in the church-run home at the time of the offences.
One of Taylor's victims, now 54 and living in Scotland, said the apology had given him "closure" and transformed his life. [...]
   Taylor, who died in prison in September 2001 aged 81, was convicted at Warwick Crown Court in 1998 of 18 sexual offences and jailed for seven years.
   The trial judge branded him a "disgrace" to the cloth after his conviction.
   In February 2001, Pope John Paul II removed Taylor from the priesthood in what was believed to be the first intervention of its type by the pontiff in the UK.
   The Father Hudson's Society did not admit liability in the legal claims but said in its apology that it was "appalled" to hear of the abuse. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:03 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wed September 22, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont98.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Thu September 23, 2004 edition follows:-
• Diocese hit with new abuse lawsuits -- RCC.

   The Tribune-Democrat, www.tribune-democrat.com/ articles/2004/09/23/ news/news02.txt , By SUSAN EVANS, Posted-Wednesday, September 22, 2004
   HOLLIDAYSBURG (PA) - A four-month amnesty after the Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese agreed to pay $3.7 million to settle 13 sex abuse lawsuits apparently has broken down.
   Richard Serbin, the Altoona attorney who since 1987 has represented nearly two dozen alleged sex-abuse victims in actions against the diocese, is filing 10 new claims.
   Yesterday, he filed legal notice in Blair County Court of his intent to bring nine new sex-abuse actions against the diocese. He said he will file the 10th, which needed an additional signature, today.
   Church officials quickly fired back, issuing a written statement to news outlets criticizing Serbin for refusing to use a mediation process set up by the diocese to settle any claims made after the May 27 group settlement.
   Details of Serbin's newest legal actions were not available yesterday, because he filed only a notice of intent to bring action. The names of parishes or priests are not included. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:13 PM] [Emphasis added]
• Former NY Judge Levine to Head Project for Clergy Abuse Victims -- RCC.
   New York Lawyer, By John Caher, New York Law Journal, September 23, 2004
   ALBANY (NY) - Retired Court of Appeals Judge Howard A. Levine yesterday unveiled an unusual mediation program designed to aid victims of clergy sexual abuse.
   Judge Levine told a press conference that he is staking his own reputation on the integrity and independence of the program funded primarily by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and operated in conjunction with the New York State Dispute Resolution Association.
   The not-for-profit association administers the Unified Court System's Community Dispute Resolution Centers program.
   Judge Levine urged victims of pedophile priests, many of whom do not trust the church hierarchy, to place their confidence in him and the program he designed. Judge Levine is a widely respected judge who spent a decade on the Court of Appeals before retiring two years ago. He is also a former Schenectady County district attorney and Family Court judge. He is not a Catholic.
   "I have my own reputation of 40 or more years of public service, in which I think I have demonstrated my independence," Judge Levine said. "If that is not good enough, I don't know what we can do about it."
• Pope defrocks Davenport priest [Janssen] -- RCC.
   Des Moines Register, Associated Press, September 23, 2004
   DAVENPORT, Ia. - A former Roman Catholic priest facing several sexual abuse lawsuits has been defrocked by Pope John Paul II, the Davenport diocese announced today.
   Bishop William Franklin learned Monday that the action was taken in James Janssen's case on July 28, diocesan spokesman Dave Montgomery said.
   Franklin met with Jansen and informed him of the decision. The pope's action does not allow for appeal.
   Janssen retired in 1990 after 10 years at Sts. Philip and James parishes in Grand Mound. In 1996, Franklin barred him from any further public church activity. Janssen spent much of his nearly 40-year career at parishes in eastern Iowa.
• Once welcomed, Boston archbishop now sees goodwill evaporate with parish closings -- RCC.
   Boston Herald, Associated Press, Thursday, September 23, 2004
   BOSTON (MA) - Charged with cleaning up after the clergy sex abuse scandal, Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley took a low-key approach. He asked to be called "Archbishop Sean," shunned the trappings that go with his rank, and settled lawsuits quickly - winning over many parishioners in the process.
   A little over a year later, things have changed. Whether it's fair or not, some Boston-area Roman Catholics now are calling O'Malley "The Iceman" as he pushes ahead with plans to close almost a quarter of the parishes in the nation's fourth-largest archdiocese.
   "My parish was my safe place, which is now being stolen from me at the hands of Archbishop O'Malley. Suffice it to say, I don't like the man," said Jeannine Driscoll of St. Anselm's in Sudbury, where parishioners began a prayer vigil and sit-in earlier this month, days before the archdiocese was scheduled to close the church.
   O'Malley announced the 82 church closures in May, after months of trying to prepare parishioners for the need to downsize. The closings were necessary, he said, because of a long, steady decline in Mass attendance, a shortage of priests and deteriorating church buildings that would cost more than $100 million to repair.
• 'Good Touch, Bad Touch' Program Starts In Catholic Schools This Week -- RCC.
   WAVE 3, By Justin Wilfon, September 23rd, 2004
   LOUISVILLE -- Louisville Catholic school students are now learning about sex abuse, but those involved say it's about much more than the abuse in the Catholic church. The program is called "Good Touch, Bad Touch," and it's starting this week. WAVE 3's Justin Wilfon reports.
   Students at St. Martha's school are learning much more than just math or science. It's the first Louisville Catholic school to teach the Good Touch, Bad Touch program.
   "I think it gives them a lot of information and lets them know what good touches and bad touches are," said Sharon Dutton, St. Martha's Principal. "And I like the way they describe them in the program."
• Priest's disclosure helps -- RCC. Fr Minder speaks.
   Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Opinion," Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial Board, Friday, September 24, 2004
   BOTHELL (WA): A Bothell pastor has spoken publicly about a serious problem -- the clergy abuse of young people who later become priests themselves. His openness is an act of courage that gives the rest of the Puget Sound region a glimpse into why he's so popular with his congregation.
   The Rev. Lawrence Minder told parishioners at St. Brendan Catholic Church last month about abuse he had suffered 30 years by a priest. In doing so, as the Post-Intelligencer's Michelle Nicolosi reported yesterday, Minder became one of just a handful of priests to speak openly about their childhood experiences of abuse by older clergy.
   Sexual abuse is difficult enough to discuss in any circumstances. Within the clergy, there may be further barriers because of a reluctance to make one's own institution look bad or damage the careers of those who may have committed abuse. At least one priest spoke in yesterday's story of "a code of silence."
   But Minder's willingness to open up to his own congregation is a powerful stand for openness. The Catholic Church, and other churches, may want to do more to reach out to those who have had similar experience with offers of help and encouragement for reporting abuse. To their credit, U.S. bishops have made a start toward encouraging awareness by commissioning a recent study of clergy sexual abuse, which included a review of personnel records to see how many priests accused of abuse had themselves been abused by clergy. Only 47 instances turned up but researchers warned that number might be low.
   Like other crimes, abuse can cause lasting damage, whether in a predisposition of a few victims to commit similar acts or simply in the mental, psychological or spiritual stress all victims suffer. That's why experts worry so much, for instance, about children raised amid political violence. Although the underlying causes haven't been discussed, the Seattle Archdiocese has said Minder, who is on leave, is undergoing care for painkiller and alcohol-use issues.
   Of course, the major religions have always taught that acts of evil can do far more lasting damage than people ever envision. Public honesty about difficult problems within a church can help teach that timeless and necessary lesson to the wider community. #
• Sex Abuse Claims -- RCC. Male.
   WGME, Sinclair Broadcast Group
   MAINE: Therapy bills totaling less than $400 could wind up costing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland a lot more than money. Church officials settled a case back in 1993 with a man who says he was abused sexually by a priest. The priest was removed from service, David Gagnon agreed not to talk about the incident, and the Diocese agreed to pay for his therapy.
   Now, church officials are questioning the effectiveness of Gagnon's doctor-recommended acupuncture and have refused to pay the bills. Gagnon's decided to take the issue to court as a tort case, which could void a confidentiality agreement. It also could force the Diocese to open up all church records related to the case; and put Bishops and former Bishops on the witness stand. The trial is expected to take place at the end of this year.
• Christianity under attack: who will be the media's next target? [Crouch] -- Trinity Broadcasting Network. Male.
   WebWire, by S.M. Bertello, Sep/22/04
   LOS ANGELES (CA): The secular media has traditionally been unfriendly to Christianity and regularly conducted character genocide on people of faith; but lately its taken a dark sinister turn and declared all out war on those who try to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As shown by its recent assaults on high profile religious leaders, liberal secular media fundamentalism has become the major threat confronting the Christian witness today.
   Recently, the Los Angeles Times has unleashed a Pearl Harbor-like assault on Trinity Broadcasting Founder, Dr. Paul Crouch, despite overwhelming and irrefutable evidence to the contrary. The Times has forged ahead with the false assertion that Dr. Crouch had a homosexual liaison with a former TBN employee, a convicted child molester and drug user.
   [COMMENT: This is a spirited attack on the news media and the complainant. The reality is that the secular news media does NOT "regularly" conduct "character genocide" (misused term) against people of faith. In the Western world, the mass media until recent years has been seemingly blind to the problem of clergy child sex abuse. Instead of blaming the mass media, the writer ought to blame bad supervisors who have been teaching an unworkable man-made "forgiveness" doctrine for years. Criticising the complainant is no use, because it is thought that sex abuse sometimes predisposes people to become child molesters, drug users, alcoholics, etc. A proper investigation is required to sort out facts from propaganda. COMMENT ENDS.]
• LA times lambastes religion broadside: low brow journalism continues its assault on TBN -- Trinity Broadcasting Network.
   WebWire, by J. Grant Swank, Jr., Sep/22/04
   LOS ANGELES (CA): As LA Times reporter, William Lobdell, continues to hammer away at Trinity Broadcasting Network's founder, Dr. Paul Crouch, he exposes his own lack of ethics. Now one does not expect a secular newspaper to be Christian pure; but when covering religion in the news, it should at least attempt to be as ethical as possible.
   In other words, for readers to believe the LA Times, they should not have to filter out totally unfair broadsides. They should not have to filter out anything. It should be fact - plain and simple. But that's not what the LA Times has been doing recently regarding TBN.
   For starters, the LA Times brings into play in one article after another the unproven slam that Dr. Crouch had a homosexual liaison some years past. Not only that, the supposed relationship was with a dismissed employee who became a felon child molester. Now isn't that some kettle of fish to come upon when wanting to scoop truth in print? Yet with that for bad news beginnings, the LA Times writes it up as if Dr. Crouch had sex with some seminary student from the Bible belt.
• TBN Sets Record Straight Against LA Times -- Again! -- Trinity Broadcasting Network.
   Business Wire, Sept. 22, 2004
   LOS ANGELES (CA) -- A recent article published by the Los Angeles Times was full of inaccuracies, condescension and mischaracterizations about the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), its ministry and operations," said TBN spokesperson Colby May.
   "It also confirmed that the press at times refuses to understand, respect or appreciate religious issues, particularly Christian inspirational television. One has to wonder what it is these days regarding the elite press' integrity.
   Over the past year it has collected quite a shameful, dishonest record: B Jayson Blair, a reporter who concocted stories for The New York Times; Jack Kelly at USA Today who did the same; Dan Rather and CBS using fraudulent documents seeking to damage President Bush; and the LA Times, which lost 10,000 subscribers for its partisan attacks on Arnold Schwarzenegger. Readers deserve better," said May.
   "The publication began work on its TBN article over three years ago. Last year, in its determined attack against TBN and founder Dr. Paul Crouch, it sent an unauthorized blanket e-mail to all employees at TBN's Web address, soliciting negative anonymous responses," said May. [...]
   "TBN responded fully to all of the newspaper reporter's inquiries. Yet after all that, the paper reported what TBN has always made public, that is, the salaries of Dr. and Mrs. Paul Crouch, as well as senior management. What the paper neglected to include is that the finance/business reporter for the LA Times, E. Scott Reckard, after an exhaustive review of TBN's financial material and annual tax returns, commented that TBN ran a tight ship," stated May.
   According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, TBN's executive salary is in the mid-range of compensation among the larger nonprofit corporations in the country. TBN is among the 100 largest nonprofit organizations in America.
   TBN explained on numerous occasions to the reporter covering the story that one of its fundamental spiritual and business principles is to be debt free to the fullest extent possible. Because the nature and demands of TBN's growth create large capital and long-term contract cost demands, extensive cash reserves must be maintained. To illustrate the point, TBN explained that the FCC has mandated that every U.S. television station must construct a duplicate transmission capability on a digital channel.
   "Such construction costs as well as the development of towers and transmission facilities require millions of dollars in new capital investment for each of TBN's 22 domestic stations. Similarly, the construction and acquisition of new stations throughout the world demand large capital outlays. TBN also explained to the reporter covering the story, that it maintained 33 satellite delivery platforms worldwide. These multi-year contracts are very expensive, obligating TBN to tens of millions of dollars in payments. Proper planning for these types of costs obligates TBN to establish and maintain sufficient cash reserves. None of this balance or explanation found its way into the article. One cannot help but wonder why," said TBN legal advisor John Casoria.
   "In addition, TBN also explained to the newspaper that one of the hard-learned lessons for churches and charities nationwide following 9-11 is to create an endowment to ensure sufficient funds to cover whatever catastrophes may arise. In this context, Trinity's reserves represent less than a year's operating expenses," said Casoria.
   TBN officials also state that the newspaper also could not resist once again mentioning a previous story which reported a false allegation that the 70-year-old Dr. Crouch had a homosexual liaison a few years ago. What was omitted, of course, was that the false accusations were manufactured by a convicted child molester and drug user as part of a wrongful termination claim. The claim remains false, no matter how often the story is repeated.
   "Regarding the various real properties mentioned, all are owned by TBN, not Dr. and Mrs. Crouch, and they are used for multiple purposes, including program settings, and temporary housing for network guests, contractors and agents. In addition, such properties represent alternative investment vehicles that provide appreciably better returns then bank CDs, savings accounts, and bond funds, etc.," Casoria clarified.
   "Similarly, TBN's corporate aircraft is only utilized in the course of business. It is not unusual for Dr. Crouch, and employees traveling with him, to visit several different cities and stations over the course of a trip. The plane allows flexibility and effective time management, and avoids the impact of Dr. Crouch's status as a public person," said Casoria.
   "As to the stories told by a disgruntled former employee (who hired an agent to try to sell her story to a TV or film producer) claiming that she used TBN credit cards to buy large amounts of alcohol, stocking a liquor cabinet, they are completely untrue. Ten years ago, this individual was part of Trinity's housekeeping and maintenance staff. At that time, she went through a difficult divorce and child custody proceeding with her former husband, also an employee at TBN who remained on staff following her departure. She seemingly became enraged during that time, carrying a personal vendetta against Dr. and Mrs. Crouch and TBN ever since," explained Casoria. [...]
   Finally, the network points out that while there are many more inaccuracies and mischaracterizations in the story, the assertion that Dr. and Mrs. Crouch live separate lives is both incorrect and foolish. Such cannot be considered serious reporting or legitimate journalism. Dr. and Mrs. Crouch have been married for more than 45 years. They remain devoted to one another, their two sons and five grandchildren. Certainly the demands of managing a growing and international ministry, with its corresponding travel obligations, public figure status, and security concerns, place enormous pressures on their schedules, requiring them often to be apart (even when in the same city). Even so, they nevertheless still find time to be together. ...
• Christian broadcasting network responds to news articles -- Trinity Broadcasting Network.
   The Mercury News, Associated Press, Thu, Sep. 23, 2004
   LOS ANGELES (CA) - The world's largest Christian broadcasting network responded Wednesday to recent news articles about its operations and once again denied a claim by a former employee that he had a homosexual affair with its founder.
   The Trinity Broadcasting Network issued a press release claiming that articles published by the Los Angeles Times over the past week failed to accurately depict the Costa Mesa-based organization in a fair light.
   "The newspaper's publisher has its own agenda," said TBN spokesperson Colby May. "Its reporting has been selective and subjective."
   The Times did not immediately provide a response late Wednesday night to the network's statements.
   The strong response from the Christian TV network comes after recent stories by the Times that showed its founder, Paul Crouch and his wife, Jan Crouch, earn more than $750,000 together in salaries and have an array of luxuries at their ready, including a TBN-owned jet and 30 homes across the United States.
• Ex-Worker Accusing TBN Pastor Says He Had Sex to Keep His Job; Ford believes a 1998 confidentiality deal has been broken. TBN officials deny claims [Crouch] -- Trinity Broadcasting Network. Male.
   Los Angeles Times, By William Lobdell, September 22, 2004
   CALIFORNIA: A former Trinity Broadcasting Network employee who was paid $425,000 to keep quiet about his claims of a homosexual tryst with televangelist Paul Crouch has disclosed details of his complaint, saying that he had felt forced to engage in the alleged sexual acts to keep his job.
   Enoch Lonnie Ford, 41, said he was going public with his story because he believes TBN officials breached a confidentiality agreement that was part of a 1998 settlement that provided the payment to him. Network officials broke the agreement, he contends, by issuing a statement last week responding to a news account of the ministry's legal effort to silence him. TBN's statement described the circumstances of the settlement and highlighted Ford's criminal background.
   Crouch, 70, is president and popular on-air personality of Orange County-based TBN, the world's largest religious broadcaster.
   Ministry officials have flatly denied Ford's allegations, which are detailed in an unpublished memoir that is now sealed in court files by a judge's order.
   "I'll take a lie-detector test on national TV," Ford said in a telephone interview Monday. "Paul Crouch needs to be exposed, and the truth needs to get out."
• Pastor in Rape Trial Listens to Daughter Testify Against Him [Flanery] -- Family of Christ Church. Girls.
   KAIT, www.kait8.com/Global/story.asp?S=2336706 , Posted 6:00 pm CDT, September 22,2004
   POCAHONTAS (AR) --The second day of the Donald Flanery trial had jurors listening to Flanery's own daughter. But instead of supporting her father she testified against him. Flanery is accused of ten counts of rape on an underage teen.
   His daughter, Amanda Gray, says when she was fourteen Flanery touched, squeezed, and grabbed her private areas. Her testimony was at times just as graphic as the alleged victim's testimony a day earlier.
   Flanery maintains his innocence. His lawyer declined comment while the trial is occurring. Flanery himself was expected to testify late Wednesday and his testimony could continue into Thursday morning.
   Prosecutors admit the case hinges on the credibility of their witnesses. Saying they have no physical evidence. They feel that the case can be won through the testimonies of the alleged victim, Flanery's daughter, and other eye witness accounts.
   Flanery pastors the Family of Christ Church in Pocahontas. Several ex-members of the church testified to what they say they saw behind church doors and out in public.
• Gary pastor officially ousted [Davis] -- Baptist. Woman.
   Post-Tribune, By Anthony KaDarrell Thigpen, Post-Tribune correspondent
   GARY (IN) - The Rev. Carlton Davis is out, but the controversy continues at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.
   The president of the board of deacons at the church confirmed on Wednesday that until further notice, Davis is not the pastor of the church.
   Davis was fired by the board at a meeting on Monday that he did not attend.
   Deacon president Fred Berry said Davis is out until the board can meet, probably Saturday, and straighten things out.
   Davis was released Tuesday amid published reports of allegations he had a relationship with a 23-year-old woman in the church who is now pregnant.
• Suit filed against former Portland priest [? to 1990s Laughlin] -- RCC. Boys.
   Seattle Times, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ html/localnews/2002043036_ webportland priest22.html ; The Associated Press, Wednesday, September 22, 2004
   PORTLAND (OR) - A former Portland priest has been sued by 10 men who say he molested them when they were children.
   The men, who have already settled lawsuits with the Portland Archdiocese, filed the new lawsuit yesterday.
   One plaintiff, Jimmy Clarizio, said he wants to take Thomas Laughlin's money to prevent him from using it to lure more victims.
   "Our goal is to stop Laughlin's pedophile activities," he said.
   Clarizio said the suit might also bring forward other victims. [...]
   Laughlin, 79, was a priest in Oregon from 1948 to 1983, when he pleaded guilty to molesting two All Saints altar boys. He spent about six months in jail before moving to New Mexico.
   After a stint in a Catholic rehabilitation center, Laughlin moved to an apartment in Albuquerque. He was defrocked in the mid-1980s. Laughlin lived in Albuquerque until late last year, when he moved back to Omaha, Neb., his hometown. His phone number is not listed under his name and he could not be reached for comment.
   More than 200 people in Western Oregon have accused Roman Catholic clergy and lay officials of molesting them during the past 50 years. The Portland Archdiocese and its insurers paid more than $53 million in settlements before seeking bankruptcy protection in July.
   The lawsuit filed yesterday does not name the Portland Archdiocese.
   Michael Morey, the Lake Oswego attorney who filed the suit, said he also represents an Albuquerque man and former street kid who says Laughlin molested him for five years during the 1990s.
   Morey said Laughlin spent lavishly, taking cruises and taking his client to Europe for two months in the early 1990s. ...
• Media, Bridgeport Diocese Debate Abuse Documents -- RCC.
   Hartford Courant, By LYNNE TUOHY, September 23, 2004
   CONNECTICUT: The media's battle to gain access to reams of court documents in the Bridgeport priest sex abuse lawsuits was waged Wednesday before the state Supreme Court, where a lawyer for the diocese described the odd procedural history of the case as "unrecognizable."
   "We just have never seen this animal before," said attorney John B. Farley, who represents the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport.
   The case pits the First Amendment against sealing orders that are over a decade old and a state law that says civil court cases can only be reopened and revised within four months of final judgment in a case. The 23 lawsuits against the Bridgeport diocese were withdrawn in March 2001, after the church agreed to pay about $12 million to settle the cases.
   A year later, The New York Times filed a motion to intervene and gain access to documents in the case. That was a month after a judge in Boston unsealed thousands of pages of documents and transcripts in the priest scandals involving John J. Geoghan and others. The Times was soon joined in its efforts by The Courant, The Washington Post and the Boston Globe.
• New Book On Priestly Abuses In 17th Century A Timely Topic For Today -- RCC.
   Religion News Service, www.religionnews.com/ press02/PR092304.html , September 22, 2004
   UNITED STATES: Karen Liebreich's scholarly new book, "FALLEN ORDER, Intrigue, Heresy, and Scandal in the Rome of Galileo and Caravaggio," provides a brilliant portrait of seventeenth-century Rome and the politics, personal rivalries and Byzantine workings of the Vatican and the Catholic Church.
   Set against the backdrop of Italy in this period of plagues, political corruption, wars, discoveries by Galileo and a rich cultural life, "FALLEN ORDER" is the stunning story of how the sexual abuse of children, practiced by some of the leading priests in the Piarist Order, led to the Order's collapse.
   For hundreds of years, the Piarist Order of priests has been known for its history of important contributions to education, science and culture. Throughout Italy, Spain and central Europe, the Order's schools evolved from shelters created to educate poor children into exclusive private academies.
   Thousands of children were educated at Piarist schools, including Mozart, Goya, Schubert, Victor Hugo, Johann Mendel and a host of astronomers, kings, emperors, presidents, even a pope.
   Yet in 1646, the Piarist Order was abruptly abolished by Pope Innocent X, an unprecedented step not seen since the Knights Templar were suppressed for heresy in the fourteenth century. [For links to newsitems of April 15 2004 and May 22 2004 about this book, visit "Carnal Books, Piarist"]
   [COMMENTS: 1. The Knights Templar Order was NOT suppressed for heresy, although charges of sodomy, blasphemy and heresy were brought against it by King Phillip the Fair of France, aided by a renegade Templar. At the Council of Vienne, 1311-12, called to discuss these charges, the evidence was held to be insufficient. King Phillip IV appeared with an army before Vienne. Pope Clement V then overruled the council and commanded that the Order be suppressed, but that most of its wealth go to the Hospitallers Order. King Phillip seized most of the assets. "The Templars' innocence is now generally admitted." -- Refer Elizabeth A. Livingstone (ed), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 1977, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York. Articles: Clement V, p 113; Templars, p 502; Vienne, Council of, p 539.
   2. Piarists are covered in Livingstone's book at page 401 b, saying its teachers were recognised as a congregation in 1617, and made an order in 1621. There is no mention of the Order being suppressed, as the book in the newsitem states. COMMENT ENDS.] [Emphasis added]
• Prosecutor honored for work -- Honour for Ms Cindi Nannetti.
   AZCentral.com ; by Luci Scott, Arizona Business Gazette, Sept. 23, 2004
   ARIZONA: As chief of the sex-crimes bureau in the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, Cindi Nannetti has sent teachers to prison and worked to get pedophile priests out of the Phoenix Diocese.
   She prosecuted a man for sexually molesting his 2-day-old daughter in the hospital nursery and another man for raping a 79-year-old woman.
   She was the lead attorney in the complex 12-week trial of Dr. Brian Finkel, an abortion doctor who sexually abused his patients for more than a decade. Finkel was convicted of 22 felony counts, for which he received a minimum sentence of 34.75 years in prison, virtually a life sentence.
   A specialist with a national reputation, Nannetti has spent two decades prosecuting sex offenders, and she is routinely recruited around the country to teach others working in law enforcement, schools and health organizations.
   For her accomplishments, she received this year's Arizona Felony Prosecutor of the Year Award, sponsored by the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys' Advisory Council.
• Ex-nun sent to jail for molesting child 35 years ago [1969-70 Rhoads] -- RCC. Nun molested males.
   The Virginian-Pilot, By JON FRANK, September 23, 2004
   VIRGINIA BEACH (VA) - Eileen M. Rhoads, a 65-year-old former nun, was described in court Wednesday as a demon, a sexual deviant who preyed on elementary school children more than 30 years ago.
   "Judge, you have before you the face of evil," testified one victim, now a 45-year-old man, who was molested by Rhoads in 1969 and 1970. "And I ask for the most severe sentence that you could impose."
   Moments later, Circuit Judge Edward W. Hanson Jr. sentenced Rhoads to six months is jail for two felony sexual crimes. She pleaded no-contest to the charges in July.
   Hanson also gave Rhoads a 10-year suspended prison sentence. Rhoads will not serve any prison time if she remains on good behavior for 10 years after her release from jail.
• Clergy abuse mediation effort launched -- RCC.
   Albany Times Union, By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Thursday, September 23, 2004
   ALBANY (NY) -- In the first comprehensive response to victims of clergy sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, a retired Court of Appeals judge Wednesday unveiled a $5.2 million program that will offer counseling and other support services, including financial compensation.
   The Independent Mediation Assistance Program, designed by retired Court of Appeals Judge Howard Levine, will be aimed at working out painful issues with the church, rather than litigating them, officials said.
   Also known as IMAP, the program will be located at 255 River St. in Troy, the home of the New York State Dispute Resolution Association, which will coordinate Levine's plan.
   A toll-free number and Web site are being set up for anyone wanting to participate. Victims also will be assisted by the Dispute Resolution Association's executive director, Lisa Hicks, 12 specially trained mediators, a victim advocate and independent investigator Michael Smith, a former FBI special agent.
• 10 Oregon Men Allege Sex Abuse Against Priest In Omaha [Laughlin] -- RCC. Altar Boys and other boys.
   TheOmahaChannel.com ; September 22, 2004
   OMAHA, Neb. -- Ten men in Oregon are suing a former priest who now lives in Omaha, claiming he sexually molested them when they were children.
   Thomas Laughlin, 79, is the defendant in a civil sexual abuse lawsuit. He did not serve as a priest in Nebraska, but grew up in Omaha and attended Creighton Prep High School in 1938. Today, he lives near 132nd and Larimore streets, where people are just learning about the alleged past of their new neighbor.
   The Oregon lawsuit alleges that throughout his career as a priest, Laughlin sexually molested and abused young Catholic boys in the Portland, Ore., archdiocese including altar boys, parishioners and students.
   "We know that Thomas Laughlin sexually abused dozens, if not hundreds, of children here in Portland," said plaintiff's attorney Michael Morey.
• 'Code of silence' among priests shields abusers; Hundreds of clergy victims as children, many experts believe -- RCC. Revs. Minder, Hayes, Bambrick expose truth.
   Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://seattlepi. nwsource.com/local/ 192065_priest23.html , By MICHELLE NICOLOSI, 206-448-8217 or michellenicolosi@seattlepi.com , Thursday, September 23, 2004
   WASHINGTON: When the Rev. Lawrence Minder told his congregation last month that he had been abused by a priest 30 years ago, the Bothell priest became one of a handful of Roman Catholic priests nationwide to break an unspoken vow: Thou Shalt Not Accuse Fellow Clergy.
   Though parishioners at St. Brendan Catholic Church were startled to hear that their pastor had been abused by a fellow priest, many experts believe Minder is one of hundreds of Catholic clergy who were sexually abused by priests when they were children.
   Afraid of the personal and professional consequences of reporting their abuse, many keep their allegations to themselves -- even though the men who abused them are often still practicing priests dealing with children on a daily basis.
   "There's this code of silence -- you don't criticize another priest. You don't tarnish the image of the church," said the Rev. Gary Hayes, a priest in Kentucky who says he was abused by a priest when he was 15. [...]
   Priests who point fingers at other clergy "don't make any friends in the church, I'll tell you that much," said the Rev. John Bambrick, a New Jersey priest who said he was also abused by a priest when he was 15.
   "I know guys who came forward, and it was disastrous. Priests shun you. It gets to be very, very messy -- I think a lot of guys don't want to get caught up in that mess."
   Bambrick said he knows of about 20 priests who have been abused by priests. He and Hayes have started a support group for priests abused by priests called Jordan's Crossing.
   Seattle's most notorious priest accused of sexual abuse -- the Rev. James McGreal -- allegedly said he was abused by a priest. Snohomish psychiatric nurse Maryalyce Stamatiou said McGreal made the admission in a 1987 meeting with her about his alleged abuse of her brother. [...]
   Peter Cimbolic, a psychologist who specializes in treating priests, said he has treated 15 to 20 priests who have been abused by priests. He said most have not come forward because they don't want to cause trouble for themselves, for the church and for the priests who abused them.
   Often, they believe their abuse was unique -- and that their abuser is not victimizing others, he said. [...]
   Richard Sipe, a therapist and author who said he has reviewed more than 2,000 clergy abuse cases as a consultant, expert witness or as a therapist, agrees "this is not rare."
   Sipe said priest abuse of boys who then go on to become priests creates a cycle that is partly to blame for the high incidence of sexual abuse of children by clergy. [...]
   Many experts believe 10 to 16 percent of men were sexually abused as boys. Priests likely are abused as boys at rates similar to the general population, said the Rev. Stephen Rossetti, president of the St. Luke Institute in Maryland, a residential treatment programs for priests and other church figures.
   While some believe clergy abuse of priests is fairly common, Rossetti does not. [...]
   Minder alleged he was abused by the Rev. Richard Scully as a teen, said attorney Russell Mazzola, chairman of the Yakima Diocese's lay advisory board. Minder wrote to the diocese about the matter in 2003, and it was referred to the lay advisory board, Mazzola said.
   It is unclear when Minder originally made his allegation.
   The Amarillo Diocese in Texas hired Scully in 1989 after the Yakima Diocese sent him to a facility in Jemez Springs, N.M., that treats sexual offenders. According to The Dallas Morning News, the Yakima Diocese settled two claims filed against Scully. The Amarillo Diocese stripped Scully of his ministerial powers in the spring of 2002, after receiving some non-abuse-related complaints about him, according to Harold Waldow, a vicar in the diocese. ...
• Priest gets into argument with alleged sex abuse victim's brother -- RCC. Fr. Guichard protests.
   The Ledger, The Associated Press
   MIAMI (FL): An angry Catholic priest got into an argument with the brother of an alleged sexual abuse victim, a day after it was disclosed that lawsuits accusing the clergyman of molesting young boys were settled.
   The Rev. Alvaro Guichard showed up uninvited to a news conference Wednesday called by the lawyer for the family of Miguel Chinchilla, a former altar boy at Church of the Little Flower in Coral Gables. Guichard interrupted Ignacio Chinchilla after he said the priest "destroyed" his brother's life.
   Guichard condemned what he described as "lie after lie" by Chinchilla and his mother, Rita, as the family discussed the Archdiocese of Miami's settlements. Chinchilla then confronted Guichard.
   "It is time for you to go," Chinchilla shouted at the priest as Guichard grabbed his arm. Family attorney Jeffrey Herman pulled Chinchilla away.
• Archdiocese opts to settle abuse suits [Castellanos, Cinesi, Huck, Guichard, Garcia-Rubio] -- RCC. $US4.78m.
   Sun-Sentinel, www.sun-sentinel.com/ news/local/palmbeach/ sfl-pdpriest23sep23, 0,5779067.story?coll= sfla-news-palm ; By Noaki Schwartz and Tania Valdemoro, Miami Bureau, Posted September 23 2004
   MIAMI (FL): The Archdiocese of Miami, which since 2002 has relentlessly challenged lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by its priests, says it has settled as many as 27 of its 35 lawsuits in the past few months.
   The decision allows the priests and the alleged victims to move on with their lives, said Mary Ross Agosta, the spokeswoman for the archdiocese. Earlier this year, the Miami-Dade and Broward state attorneys' offices said they could not pursue criminal charges on most cases because the statute of limitations had expired. That cleared the way for the archdiocese to enter into mediation.
   "We had to question the wisdom of pursuing a defense of ongoing lawsuits vs. entering a reasonable settlement," Agosta said, adding that the archdiocese's insurance will cover the costs.
   On Wednesday, Jeffrey Herman, an Aventura attorney who filed and settled 23 cases against the archdiocese, said it has paid his clients a total of $3.43 million. He settled nine cases against five priests -- the Rev. Ricardo Castellanos, the Rev. Joseph Cinesi, the Rev. Joseph Huck and the Rev. Alvaro Guichard and former priest Ernesto Garcia-Rubio -- on Tuesday for $1.35 million.
• Church filing worries abuse victims -- RCC.
   The Arizona Republic, by Michael Clancy, Sept. 23, 2004
   TUCSON (AZ): In spite of the apologies, sexual-abuse victims say the Catholic Diocese of Tucson still sees them as adversaries bent on ruining the church.
   An attorney without a role in the bankruptcy proceeding said the Chapter 11 reorganization plan filed Monday in the diocese's bankruptcy case "in some respects steamrolls victims."
   After Tucson became the second diocese in the United States to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, details became clearer to attorneys and to sexual-abuse victims.
   The diocese is trying to shield itself from the effects of millions of dollars in payments it expects to make to at least 34 sexual-abuse victims. More may come forward. The diocese's reorganization plan includes a complex system to pay victims with money raised by selling property and with contributions from insurance companies and others.
• Clergy abuse victims offered new program -- RCC. $US5m. ~125 cases pending.
   Troy Record, www.troyrecord.com/ site/news.cfm?newsid= 12984945&BRD=1170&PAG= 461&dept_id= 7021&rfi=6 ; By Robert Cristo , Sep/23/2004
   ALBANY (NY) - Knowing many victims of clergy sexual abuse may distrust the church, the Albany Diocese has invested $5 million in a new Independent Mediation Assistance Program (IMAP) that will investigate allegations and assist in the healing and financial needs of victims.
   On Wednesday, former state Supreme Court Judge Howard A. Levine announced the development of IMAP, which will provide individuals who were abused as minors (under 21) an alternative route of seeking assistance that bypasses having to deal directly with the church.
   "Victims have found it difficult to work within the church because they feel a sense of intimidation and frustration going there, so I think an independent system would be more effective in satisfying and identifying the needs of victims," said Levine prior to a press conference at the Albany Library on Washington Avenue.
   According to Levine, the Albany Diocese already has between 100 and 150 sexual abuse cases pending, and once the public becomes more aware of the new program, he expects more victims to come forward.
   "We're going to run a public awareness campaign to encourage more people to come forward," said Levine, whose program literature states that individuals have just 120 days to take part in the program once it is launched.
• Reconciling sex abuse -- RCC.
   Miami Herald, Thu, Sep. 23, 2004
   OUR OPINION: CHURCH, VICTIMS, COMMUNITY MOVE TOWARD HEALING
   MIAMI (FL): The Archdiocese of Miami took a major step toward reconciliation and healing by settling 23 civil lawsuits involving accusations that priests sexually abused minors decades ago. The settlements provide a measure of closure for the victims and families involved while reassuring the larger community that the church takes seriously allegations of sex abuse. Strengthened policies to prevent such abuse also reassure that the archdiocese is committed to protecting youths and vulnerable adults.
   Many of these cases came to light in the aftermath of the Catholic Church's sexual-abuse scandal, which swept the nation in early 2002. Some of the worst cases, such as those that came to light in Boston, involved serial abuse by pedophile priests going back decades. Any sex-abuse accusation is a terrible thing for all involved, the accuser, the accused and the church. But with the settlement, all have been spared worse consequences.
   These are difficult cases. Evidence often is scarce or nonexistent after so many years. Accusers may be emotionally troubled or sometimes even mistaken. After investigating 25 sex-abuse allegations, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office found that statutes of limitation had expired in most cases. So the office brought charges against only a priest and a church volunteer.
   Settling the civil suits establishes a financial benchmark for other potential settlements in 10 additional abuse lawsuits still pending. The archdiocese admitted no wrongdoing, and accused priests have denied allegations against them. All the accused remain on administrative leave while the church follows a canonical process. During that time, they cannot work in any parish, celebrate mass or perform any other church sacrament.
   The archdiocese also has brochures that tell parents how to spot signs of sexual abuse and how to report abuse by church personnel. And it has pledged to report any such accusation to law enforcement, as it is compelled to do by law. #
• New abuse claims await Altoona-Johnstown diocese -- RCC. $US3.7m
   NEPA News, The Associated Press, September 23, 2004
   PENNSYLVANIA: An attorney said he wants to preserve his right to file 10 new sexual abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, which earlier this year agreed to pay $3.7 million to settle claims by 21 plaintiffs.
   Attorney Richard Serbin filed court documents on nine of the cases Wednesday in Blair County, and said he'll file documents on a 10th case on Thursday. The documents don't name specific priests, parishes or alleged victims, but are meant to preserve Serbin's right to file the actual lawsuits later.
   "This was to afford the diocese and I the opportunity to attempt to settle these claims," Serbin said.
   In May, the diocese agreed to settle claims by people, most represented by Serbin, who said they were sexually abused by priests and a school teacher in recent decades. Sixteen of those who settled had filed suit against the diocese and its current and former bishops, alleging they did too little to police abusive priests. Five older claims were also a part of the announced settlement. The alleged victims each received between $50,000 and $400,000.
   As part of that settlement, the diocese set up a mediation and review process to handle any abuse allegations that arose afterward.
   Bishop Joseph Adamec said in a statement that the documents Serbin filed were unnecessary because the new claims were being dealt with under the new diocesan system.
   [COMMENT: The documents are NECESSARY. Only publicity and penalties has turned the religions around from hiding abuse to busily parading their late-found virtue. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Church abuse scandal; Infuriated priest denies sex claims, blasts settlement [Guichard, Castellanos] -- RCC.
   Miami Herald, www.miami.com/ mld/miamiherald/ 9736956.htm , BY JAY WEAVER, jweaver@herald.com , Thu, Sep. 23, 2004
   MIAMI (FL): An angry Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing four youths decades ago crashed their lawyer's news conference on Wednesday -- and came this close to fisticuffs with the brother of an alleged victim.
   The Rev. Alvaro Guichard -- who showed up uninvited at the Aventura lawyer's office -- interrupted Ignacio Chinchilla after he said the priest "destroyed" his brother's life.
   Guichard, visibly shaken, condemned what he described as "lie after lie" by Chinchilla and his mother, Rita, as the family discussed the Archdiocese of Miami's latest clergy sex-abuse settlements.
   Chinchilla rose from his chair and confronted Guichard at a conference table. "It is time for you to go," Chinchilla shouted at the priest as Guichard grabbed his arm.
   Attorney Jeffrey Herman pulled Chinchilla slowly away before the confrontation could grow more physical. [...]
   Guichard's unexpected appearance came one day after Herman settled nine clergy sex-abuse lawsuits with the archdiocese -- including four involving Guichard. The 64-year-old priest is on administrative leave as pastor of St. Francis de Sales Church in Miami Beach. [...]
   The Rev. Ricardo Castellanos, 59, accused of sexually assaulting four teenage boys in separate lawsuits, also said he did not want to settle. He is on administrative leave as pastor of San Isidro Church in Pompano Beach. ...
• Priest rape trial set for November [1980-84 Gale] -- Altar boy.
   Boston Herald, By Brian Ballou, Thursday, September 23, 2004
   WALTHAM (MA): After repeated delays and a switch in judges, a date has been set for the trial of a Roman Catholic priest charged with raping a Waltham altar boy more than 10 years ago.
   Robert Gale will stand trial Nov. 29 in Cambridge Superior Court, when the jury will have to determine if the statute of limitations should be applied. In May, Judge Sandra Hamlin refused to dismiss the case based on the statute and decided the jury must consider that issue.
   Gale was indicted in 2002 by a Middlesex grand jury and charged with four counts of raping the boy from St. Jude's Parish between 1980 and 1984, when the victim was between 9 and 14 years old.
   State law dictates that the statute of limitations is frozen when the perpetrator lives out of state. Prosecutors have presented numerous documents to support their contention that Gale has lived in New Hampshire. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:13 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thu September 23, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont98.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Fri September 24, 2004 edition follows:-
• Diocese seeks venue change [1980s Wilson] -- RCC. Boys.

   Albany Times Union, www.timesunion.com/ AspStories/story.asp? storyID=288523& category= ALBANY&BCCode=& newsdate= 9/24/2004 ; By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Friday, September 24, 2004
   ALBANY (NY) -- Bishop Howard Hubbard's attorneys filed court papers Wednesday asking a Massachusetts judge to rethink a decision earlier this week to allow a multimillion-dollar clergy sex-abuse lawsuit to move toward trial in Boston.
   Hubbard and former Cardinal Bernard Law are accused in the $5 million civil claim of harboring a predatory priest with a history of having sex with young boys and then placing him in a Fort Ann parish where he had access to Joseph Woodward.
   Woodward, a 37-year-old married father and salesman, claims he was sexually abused in both states in the 1980s by the former Rev. Dozia Wilson.
   He claims Wilson molested him from age 14 to 19 and says Hubbard and Law knowingly covered up for Wilson and other pedophile priests by moving them from parish to parish, and state to state. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:48 AM]
• Catholic Diocese Involved In Small Claims Lawsuit -- RCC. Boy.
   WLBZ, www.wlbz2.com/newscenter/article.asp?id=16771
   MAINE: The Catholic Diocese of Portland was in small claims court Thursday, sued by an abuse survivor seeking more therapy.
   David Gagnon, who now lives in Ottawa, says he was abused by a priest in northern Maine when he was a boy.
   In 1993, the Catholic Diocese entered a settlement agreement with Gagnon. He is now asking that the diocese pay for a special therapy for trauma victims.
   The diocese wants a third party evaluation. Gagnon says the kind of evaluation the diocese is asking for is not in the best interest of abuse survivors.
   No agreement was reached Thursday in small claims court. David Gagnon plans to take this issue to trial. #
• Norwalk man honored for supporting victims of sexual abuse -- Jim Alvord for award.
   The Advocate, By John Nickerson, September 24, 2004
   NORWALK (CT) -- A group formed to help victims of church sexual abuse will honor a city resident at its first meeting in Fairfield County tomorrow.
   The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP] will honor Jim Alvord at its mid-Atlantic Regional Conference at Norwalk Community College.
   Alvord, regional coordinator of Voice of the Faithful [VOTF] in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, will be given the Survivors Lifeline Award for his work on behalf of survivors of sexual abuse in Connecticut.
   A 40-year Norwalk resident, Alvord in April 2002 became a founding member of St. Jerome Parish Voice, which later affiliated with Voice of the Faithful. The group's goals involve supporting survivors of church sexual abuse while also lending support to priests of integrity.
• NY Judge Refuses Priest's Request to Silence Lawyer -- RCC. Plaintiff and Aretakis not gagged. Female.
   New York Lawyer, www.nylawyer.com/news/ 04/09/092404h.html , By John Caher, New York Law Journal, September 24, 2004
   NEW YORK: A Catholic priest who made "liberal and aggressive use of the press" to rebut allegations of sexual misconduct cannot now bar a plaintiff and her lawyer from doing the same, a Syracuse judge ruled yesterday.
   Supreme Court Justice Edward D. Carni refused to impose a gag order on John A. Aretakis, an Albany-area attorney who represents dozens of alleged clergy abuse victims.
   Mr. Aretakis has come under intense criticism, primarily from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, and is the target of several disciplinary complaints alleging that he unethically disseminated scandalous information on clerics.
   He has persistently accused the diocese and its officials of using the pulpit and diocesan newspaper to attack his credibility while complaining about his attacks on the church and priests.
   Justice Carni said yesterday in Jane Doe #1 v. Zeder that Reverend Thomas Keating's exploitation of the media for his own purposes severely undercuts his argument for gagging Mr. Aretakis.
• State: Priest diverted church cash [2000s Allen] -- RCC.
   TCPalm, www.tcpalm.com/ tcp/local_news/ article/0,1651, TCP_16736_ 3202676,00.html , By Melissa E. Holsman, September 23, 2004
   STUART (FL) - Before donations were tallied each week at St. Joseph Catholic Church, $500 in cash was diverted into a "gray box" controlled by the church's former pastor, a state investigation found.
   The seven-month investigation, triggered by parishioner complaints about possible misuse of church funds, found the Rev. A. Christopher Allen appeared to be "living beyond his means," according to a state attorney's report released Wednesday.
   The investigation also found evidence that Allen instructed church bookkeepers to write checks on church accounts, cash them, and give the money to him, and that thousands of dollars in cash deposits were made to Allen's personal bank accounts.
   No charges have been filed against Allen, 52, St. Joseph's pastor from 1997 until he resigned in July.
   The State Attorney's Office ended its investigation after a top official at the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach told investigators that "he did not see anything alarming" in the findings.
   The diocese's Vicar General, the Rev. Charles E. Notabartolo, also told investigators that, under church law, Allen was "responsible for all monies that come into his church and he has the authority to control it as he sees fit." [...]
   According to the state report, the investigation began in January when a St. Joseph parishioner, Dave Schoonover, went to authorities with allegations that Allen was living "well above" his means and might be "skimming" money from church collections. Schoonover could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
   According to the report, Schoonover gave investigators copies of documents he and another parishioner had taken from "garbage" at the church, 1200 E. 10th St. in Stuart, and at Allen's personal residence in Port St. Lucie.
   Those documents included a memo on handling collections, including instructions "to take cash out of the collections before tallies are made, and to put that money in a 'gray box,'" according to the report. ...
   [COMMENT: For the diocese to say that the pastor has "authority to control" the money is the same sort of thinking that the RCC has had about sex abuse and other crimes. They think up an excuse to prevent the civil law from dealing with sinning clergy. Read the next newsitem. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Priest's resignation tied to online sexual purchases [2000s Allen] -- RCC. Pornography etc.
   Palm Beach Post, www.palmbeachpost.com/ news/content/news/epaper/ 2004/09/24/m1a_ MCPRIEST_0924.html , By Pat Moore, Friday, September 24, 2004
   STUART (FL) - A Martin County priest accused of skimming cash from the weekly offerings at St. Joseph Catholic Church resigned two months ago for another reason: his online purchases of gay pornographic movies, sex toys and bondage paraphernalia.
   The Rev. Alden Christopher Allen, 52, stepped down in August after Treasure Coast prosecutors notified the Palm Beach Diocese that they felt the priest was "living beyond his means." They also discovered he was taking $500 to $750 weekly from collection plates and stashing it in a "gray box" with no accountability to parishioners.
   But diocesan officials were not as concerned with the potential theft of parish money as they were with credit card and eBay records showing Allen shopped online for pornographic DVDs, body-piercing rings, tattoo lotions, mink pillows and other items.
   "I was surprised and saddened at the same time," the Rev. Chuck Notabartolo, diocesan vicar general, said Thursday. "This was a difficulty that Father Allen has and we were dealing with that with professional people."
   Last month, after Allen resigned from the church, diocesan spokesman Jim Brosemer insisted that the investigation was strictly financial and "there are no sexual undertones to this at all."
   But after a reporter notified him Thursday of the priest's online purchases, Brosemer issued a statement acknowledging the diocese "was made aware of the purchase of certain inappropriate adult material by Father Allen" in July and it "was one of the factors in the decision to accept his resignation."
   Notabartolo said he did not reveal the sexual nature of the state's investigation when Allen resigned in July. "That was not something I think needs to be broadcast." [...]
   The state's investigation began in January after lifetime Catholic and longtime St. Joseph parishioner David Schoonover of Palm City supplied prosecutors with documents he obtained from garbage bins at the church and the pastor's home. [...]
   During the state's probe into Allen's finances, state attorney investigator Rick McIlwain subpoenaed Allen's bank, credit card and eBay records, which show monthly credit card payments averaging about $5,000 since early 2002. Allen's base salary was $26,400 that year, records show.
   McIlwain said the financial probe was complicated by the fact that Allen received cash gifts from parishioners for holidays, birthdays, weddings, baptisms and funerals, in addition to his salary and benefits, which could account for excess money passing through his bank accounts.
   In 1999, Allen paid a contractor $81,500 to build an addition on the house he shares with his mother in Port St. Lucie. Half was paid in cash and half was in the form of a loan from a parishioner, records show.
   "In my opinion, the problem with the Catholic Church is not so much the problems with all sexual allegations, but that they are a symptom of the larger problem -- that the church feels it's above the law," Schoonover said.
   "There needs to be accountability," he said. "They need to be upfront and mention to the people giving the money to the church that it may or may not get to the place it's supposed to." ...
   [COMMENT: They have felt above the law for centuries. They weren't very truthful. And, are these people going to keep with "celibacy" for another 1000 years before their successors wake up? COMMENT ENDS.]
• Church Can't Join Suit to Fight Abuse Law [1960s] -- RCC. The "First Amendment" move.
   Los Angeles Times, From a Times Staff Writer
   LOS ANGELES (CA): A federal judge rejected a plea Thursday by the Los Angeles Archdiocese to join a constitutional challenge to the state law allowing hundreds of people to sue the Roman Catholic Church for decades-old child molestation.
   Lawyers for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, have asked the judge to void the 2003 statute because they contend that it violates the church's 1st Amendment right to the free exercise of religion, due process and other constitutional rights.
   U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns ruled that the Los Angeles Archdiocese failed to show it would be directly affected by the action and, besides, it could have these same issues resolved in any of the more than 500 claims pending in state courts.
   The case involves a Davenport priest accused of molesting a boy while vacationing in San Diego in the late 1960s.
• O'Malley spokesman expected to step down -- RCC. Fr Coyne may move on.
   Boston Globe, September 24, 2004
   BOSTON (MA): The Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, the public face of the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston during much of the clergy sexual abuse scandal, is stepping down as spokesman for Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, according to several sources familiar with archdiocese communications.
   Coyne declined to comment yesterday, but several people who are familiar with his plans said he may take a sabbatical and perhaps concentrate on teaching.
   A recording on Coyne's cellphone [= mobile phone] says he is no longer taking media inquiries and refers callers to the archdiocesan communications office.
   Many priests consider the job of archdiocesan spokesman especially difficult, particularly after the abuse scandal broke, in late 2002.
   The job has not gotten easier even as the abuse story receded from the front pages and was replaced this year by reports about the fallout over O'Malley's phased closing of 82 of the archdiocese's 357 parishes.
• Catholic Church defrocks embattled priest [Janssen] -- RCC. Two suspensions in 1950s, 10 lawsuits in 2000s.
   Quad-City Times, By Todd Ruger, Friday, September 24th, 2004
   DAVENPORT (IA): Allegations of sexual misconduct with boys followed the Rev. James Janssen to numerous eastern Iowa parishes during his 56-year career with the Catholic Diocese of Davenport.
   Those same allegations - which prompted two suspensions for treatment in the 1950s and 10 sex abuse lawsuits in two states since May 2003 - now have caused the Vatican to remove Janssen from the priesthood.
   Pope John Paul II dismissed James Janssen "from the clerical state" less than two months after Bishop William Franklin requested the action, diocese officials said Thursday.
   Returning an ordained priest to the status of a layman, also known as defrocking or laicization, is the most severe penalty that can be inflicted on a priest, the diocese said. Diocese spokesman David Montgomery said church leaders believe Janssen is the first priest to be involuntarily laicized in the Davenport Diocese.
• Mahony, Counsel Lament Abuse Victims' Suffering; Some cases 'break your heart,' says the church's attorney. Legal battles over priest files remain. -- RCC.
   Los Angeles Times, By Larry B. Stammer and Jean Guccione, September 24, 2004
   LOS ANGELES (CA): Hundreds of sexual abuse claims filed against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles are not only legitimate but tragic, an attorney for Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said Thursday.
   "There are some that will just break your heart," said J. Michael Hennigan, who for two years has read and listened to the victims' stories as he prepared to defend the nation's largest Catholic archdiocese in more than 500 lawsuits that could eventually cost the church and its insurers $1 billion or more.
   "There's enough pain on peoples' faces that you can see that they are, indeed, suffering," Hennigan said.
   But he acknowledged that translating that pain into dollars is no simple matter. "The hard part is to say, 'OK, what would a Los Angeles jury do with our worst 50 cases - the ones that make your skin crawl? Is it $5 million? Is it $6 million? Is it $8 million? I don't know." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:31 AM]
• Battling back -- RCC, Pentecostal.
   Providence Journal, www.projo.com/ religion/content/ projo_20040925_ relsex25.4a02c. html , By Richard C. Dujardin, Journal Religion Writer, 01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, September 25, 2004
   PROVIDENCE (RI): Just when many churchgoers thought they had heard enough stories about childhood sexual abuse, some of the nation's Catholic dioceses and a prominent black preacher have embarked on new efforts to get their flocks to be more vigilant in helping to stamp it out.
   Consider the campaign now under way here in the Diocese of Providence, which has decided that the abuse of children is so horrific and so damaging to their spiritual well being that it has enlisted trainers to bring its "safe environment" program into all of its parishes.
   And consider the effort of Bishop T.D. Jakes, the well-known pentecostal preacher and writer from Dallas, Texas, who has initiated a drive to put a face on the problems associated with childhood sexual abuse through a feature-length film due to open Friday in more than 400 theaters.
   Though the film hasn't found a venue yet in either Rhode Island or Massachusetts, Woman, Thou Art Loosed has already gotten accolades, including a first-place win at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. Some say the film gets its success from the powerful performances of its actors, most especially Kimberly Elise, who costars with Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep in the recently-released remake of The Manchurian Candidate. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 10:58 PM]
• Bishops Plan To Name Nun to Sex Abuse Panel -- RCC.
   Washingon Post, By Alan Cooperman, Page A03, Saturday, for September 25, 2004;
   WASHINGTON (DC): U.S. Catholic bishops are planning to appoint a nun to their lay review board on sexual abuse, a step that could undermine the watchdog panel's independence, several of its members charged this week.
   The board of 12 prominent Roman Catholic lay people, appointed by the bishops two years ago, has had several public confrontations with the church hierarchy.
   Its first chairman, former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating (R), resigned in June 2003 after comparing a few bishops to "La Cosa Nostra" in their devotion to secrecy. The board also issued a stinging report in February that blamed bishops for decades of tolerating and hiding sexual abuse of minors by priests.
   "Given the experience we've had in two-plus years now, we know this is very difficult work and requires at times taking a very tough stance," said board member Jane Chiles, a former lobbyist for Catholic causes in Kentucky. "It's difficult enough for a lay person to do that. I can't imagine a nun doing it."
   A spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Monsignor Francis Maniscalco, declined to confirm or deny that the bishops intend to appoint a nun to the high-profile board. "It's a confidential process," he said.
• DA Conte has established a pattern of criminal investigation into lawyers who oppose him.
   Worcester Voice, http://worcestervoice.com/criminal_investigation_into_lawyers.htm
   WORCESTER (MA): In little over one year's time, three different lawyers' Texas Lawyer Daniel J. Shea, Gardner lawyer Gary Leblanc, and Fitchburg Attorney John Bosk find themselves subject of criminal investigation by Worcester District Attorney John Conte and his C-Pac Massachusetts State Police unit.
   Flamboyant Texas attorney Daniel J. Shea, who has had numerous public run-ins with DA Conte and the Worcester diocese, became the subject of a state police criminal investigation involving allegations that DA Conte could find no evidence to back-up.
   We know this because Atty. Shea was provided with the report numbers that he should look for in securing these documents so he would know what the DA and the Massachusetts State Police were up to.
   Atty. Shea has stated publicly that he and Joseph DiGenova, a former federal prosecutor, believe DA Conte was guilty of "prosecutorial misconduct." This was said in relation to a alleged victim of Rev. Gerard Walsh, who at the time was a chaplain for the Massachusetts State Police.
   This alleged victim had secured a signed document from the priest that indicated there had been an improper incident with this person and there was an apology. The alleged victim turned the document over to state police for investigative purposes.
   Depositions taken in a civil suit show that an unnamed high-ranking official of the Massachusetts State Police turned the document over to the Worcester diocese. The alleged victim never intended for that to happen. Mr. Shea has repeatedly said that the DA should be investigating the church and not causing problems for the victims.
   It is easy to figure why Atty. Shea would be on DA Conte's list.
• Preacher Found Guilty of Rape [Flanery] -- Family of Christ Church.
   KAIT, Posted 6:00 pm CDT, September 24, 2004
   POCAHONTAS, AR -- Donald Flanery is guilty of rape. That is what a Pocahontas jury decided on Friday. Shortly after finding Donald Flanery guilty on ten counts of rape, they recommended Flanery be sentenced to 35 years in prison.
   Flanery was charged with raping a minor. During the trial Flanery's own daughter testified against her father. Saying she was also a victim of sexual abuse. Flanery was surrounded by family for the week long trial. When the sentence was handed down several people associated with Flanery shouted out "You are going to pay for this." to the victim's family.
• Cardinal Mahony deplores abuse, defends church litigation -- RCC.
   Contra Costa Times, Associated Press
   LOS ANGELES (CA) - Cardinal Roger Mahony said the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church is not the cross he would have chosen but that he accepts that helping heal both victims and the church must now be one of his priorities.
   "I know the priests, when I talk to them sometimes, a lot of priests say I wish it would all go away.... And I said, 'That's where we're missing it. This is our ministry now. Our ministry is to heal victims and heal the church'," he told the Los Angeles Times in an interview Thursday.
   The church faces hundreds of civil lawsuits from people who claim they were molested by clergy. In many cases, lawyers for the alleged victims maintain the church hierarchy failed to shield children from known abusers, and Mahony has fought their efforts to force the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to turn over internal church documents concerning the priests.
   In his interview, he criticized a report issued last year by the independent review board appointed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which described his archdiocese's litigation tactics in the abuse cases as doing "little to enhance the reputation of the church in the United States for transparency and cooperation."
• Austrians leaving Catholic church in droves after summer of scandal [1980s Paterno] -- RCC.

   CBC, www.cbc.ca/cp/ world/040924/ w092454.html , By WILLIAM J. KOLE, 08:41 PM EDT Sep 24, 2004
   VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Austrians disgusted by a summer of scandal involving child pornography at a seminary and a prominent priest accused of sexual abuse are leaving the Roman Catholic church in significant numbers, church leaders said Friday.
   Applications to withdraw from parishes in the Archdiocese of Vienna rose by 36 per cent in July and by another 40 per cent in August, it said. As of Aug. 31, 10,709 people had left the church, it said.
   Christoph Cardinal Schoenborn, Austria's top churchman, said he couldn't blame people for wanting out after the discovery in July of 40,000 lurid images - including child pornography - on computers at the seminary just west of Vienna.
   Earlier this month, a second scandal hit Austria's church when Catholic officials disclosed they were investigating allegations that one of the country's best-known priests molested teenagers in the 1980s.
   "We've had these unending icy rains the entire summer: more and more scandals, negative headlines, and from many people, cries of 'I've had enough!' " Schoenborn wrote in a commentary for this Sunday's edition of a Vienna church newspaper.
   The cardinal appealed to Austrians to remain faithful to their parishes.
   Austria's scandals have dealt a fresh blow to a church already stung by widespread allegations of priest abuse in the United States. Last year, the Archdiocese of Boston agreed to pay $85 million to settle lawsuits filed by more than 500 victims of clergy sex abuse.
   In overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Austria, people are automatically registered as church members when they are baptized as infants. To get their names off the rolls, they must formally apply to the government and pay any state church taxes they may owe.
   Before the sex scandals hit, unhappiness with the church tax - which averages about $350 a year - was a key reason why people left.
   Archdiocese spokesman Erich Leitenberger said Friday that departures were up nearly 11 per cent for the year.
   The Vatican has appointed a special investigator, Austrian Bishop Klaus Kueng, to look into the seminary pornography scandal and report back to Pope John Paul. Police are conducting a separate criminal investigation.
   Last month, Kueng shut down the seminary in St. Poelten, where trainee priests had snapped photos of seminarians fondling and kissing one another.
   Police and church officials, meanwhile, are investigating allegations that a prominent priest, Rev. August Paterno, molested at least 10 youths two decades ago. Paterno, well-known for having ghostwritten a nationally televised series on religion, has maintained his innocence. He retired last week.
   Helmut Schueller, the Vienna Archdiocese's ombudsman for victims of sexual abuse, conceded that some believers feel betrayed and that the Austrian church's credibility is at stake.
   "The faithful have the right to expect those who are in positions of authority in the church to be controlled," he told The Tablet, an independent Catholic magazine in Britain. # [Emphasis added]
• Abuse Suit Against LDS Church Appealed to State Supreme Court [1969 onwards Tilson] -- Mormons.

   KSL, http://radio.ksl.com/ index.php?sid=121 861&nid=19 , Sep 24, 2004
   SALT LAKE CITY (UT) (AP) -- A mother and son whose sexual abuse lawsuit against the Mormon church was dismissed have asked the Utah Supreme Court to hear their case.
   The mother and son, referred to as Jane and John Doe, claim George Tilson, a man who served the church as a scout leader and "high priest," abused both of them when they were children. Their 2002 lawsuit against Tilson and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claimed the church knew the man's history of abuse but failed to tell police or other officials.
   The lawsuit was dismissed, and its dismissal was upheld by the state appeals court last month.
   The lawsuit alleges Tilson abused several children in and after 1969 and that the church knew of the behavior after the first incident but still allowed him to hold positions of authority, such as "High Priest."
   That title is not within the church's clergy but generally describes someone considered by the church to be "morally worthy" and "deserving of trust," according to the lawsuit. He also served as a Boy Scout leader to church members.
• LA archdiocese won't appeal ruling rejecting bid to join lawsuit -- RCC.
   Contra Costa Times, www.contracostatimes.com/ mld/cctimes/news/ state/9753844.htm , By ANDREA ALMOND, Associated Press, Posted on Fri, Sep. 24, 2004
   LOS ANGELES (CA) - The Los Angeles Archdiocese will not appeal a ruling prohibiting it from joining a challenge to the state law that opened the door for hundreds of clergy sex-abuse lawsuits, lawyers said Friday.
   The decision by the nation's largest archdiocese came a day after a federal judge denied its request to participate in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Diego.
   That suit, filed by the diocese of Davenport, Iowa, challenges the constitutionality of a state law passed in 2002 that temporarily rolled back the statute of limitations in civil molestation cases. The law gave alleged victims until Dec. 31, 2003, to file lawsuits.
   The Davenport diocese filed its suit in reaction to a lawsuit that claims one of its priests abused a parishioner in San Diego during the 1960s.
• Vatican removes accused priest [Janssen] -- RCC. Secret for 40+ years.
   Des Moines Register, By Shirley Ragsdale, Register Religion Editor, September 24, 2004
   IOWA: Pope John Paul II has dismissed James Janssen from the priesthood, the Catholic Church's most severe punishment, after decades of allegations that Janssen molested boys in southeast Iowa.
   Janssen, whose alleged abuse was kept secret by church officials for more than 40 years, is named as a molester in nine lawsuits in Iowa and one in California, making him the most-accused priest in the Davenport Catholic Diocese's child sexual abuse scandal.
   It is believed to be the first involuntary defrocking - called laicization - of an Iowa priest. According to diocese spokesmen, a number of priests have agreed to removal from the priesthood in each of Iowa's four dioceses, but generally because of a crisis in faith and not for wrongdoing. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 01:04 PM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Fri September 24, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont98.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sat September 25, 2004 edition follows:-
• LA Cardinal to take sabbatical in Central Africa, Italy -- RCC.

   Contra Costa Times, www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/state/9760528.htm , By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press
   LOS ANGELES (CA) - Cardinal Roger Mahony said he will begin a three-week sabbatical on Oct. 6 that will take him to Italy and several Central African countries.
   In a letter that appeared in Friday's edition of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles newspaper The Tidings, Mahony said he hoped to gain a "renewed sense of commitment to Jesus Christ and to the work of evangelization" from the trip.
   Attorneys for alleged church abuse victims expressed surprise at the announcement and criticized Mahony for leaving the country as legal proceedings in clergy sex abuse cases gain momentum.
   "We're right in the middle of a process that clearly requires his attention," said Ray Boucher, lead attorney for alleged sex abuse victims in Southern California. "We don't have a problem with ministry in other countries, but there's a dire need for ministry here in Los Angeles. For him to leave without seeking leave of the court is irresponsible."
   Archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg did not return calls Saturday. Archdiocese attorneys Donald Woods Jr. and J. Michael Hennigan did not respond to calls and e-mails. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 10:27 PM]
• Ex-Pastor Convicted of Rape in Ark. After Telling Girl God Ordained Affair [Flanery] -- "The Family of Christ"
   TBO.com ; The Associated Press, Published: Sep 25, 2004
   POCAHONTAS, Ark. (AP) - A former pastor was sentenced to 35 years in prison for raping a young girl who said the man had told her that God approved of their sexual relationship.
   A jury convicted Donald Lee Flanery, 46, on Friday, and recommended the sentence that Circuit Judge Harold Irwin imposed later that day in Randolph County, in northeastern Arkansas.
   Prosecutors said Flanery, of Ravenden Springs, assaulted the Maynard girl nearly three dozen times, beginning when she was 11 and ending when she was 13.
   At the time of the incidents, Flanery was the pastor of a non-denominational church known as The Family of Christ. Documents filed in the case said the assaults occurred at the church, his residence behind the church and at a new home he was building.
   The girl told investigators that Flanery had told her that God approved of a man having more than one woman, despite her age. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 10:20 PM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sat September 25, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont98.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sun September 26, 2004 edition follows:-
• Mahony Better Watch Out for Legion of Christ -- RCC. 500 cases, and suspect Order wants to open.

   Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-berry26sep26,1,2822993.story?coll=la-news-comment , By Jason Berry
   Jason Berry has published six books. His most recent, with Gerald Renner, is "Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II."
   NEW ORLEANS (LA) - The Los Angeles archdiocese faces about 500 civil cases stemming from alleged priestly sexual abuse and a grand jury seeking voluminous personnel files on accused clerics. And it may be courting another problem. The Legion of Christ, a Catholic order of priests whose leader has been trailed by accusations of sexual abuse and whose schools have attracted controversy, is seeking to open a prep school in Ventura County.
   The Legion derides the allegations against founder Father Marcial Maciel Degollado as "disproved." But sexual-abuse accusations by nine former Legionaries have never been adjudicated by the Vatican.
   The charges against Maciel first arose in 1976, when a Mexican priest and a Spanish priest gave the late Bishop John McGann detailed accounts of alleged abuse when they were teenage seminarians in Spain and Rome, where Maciel founded schools in the 1940s and 1950s. In compliance with canon law, McGann sent a dossier of the charges to Rome. The Vatican acknowledged receiving the allegations, and did nothing. McGann continued to push the priests' cause, in 1978 and 1989, but again met with silence from the Vatican. In the 1990s, seven other former Legionaries made similar sexual-abuse charges against Maciel. The Vatican remained silent. Throughout, Maciel, now 84, has maintained his innocence.
   In 1998, the papal ambassador to Mexico encouraged the group of ex-Legionaries to take their charges to Rome. The canonical case, filed at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, accused Maciel of "absolving the sins" of his victims in confession. Under church law, profaning the confessional is a crime with no statute of limitation. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:43 AM]
• Support for those claiming abuse from priests
   WTNH, 7:00 PM, by News Channel 8's Jamie Muro, Sept. 25, 2004
   "Reawakening of priest abuse, makes me feel what's the use."
   CONNECTICUT: (WTNH) -- People in Connecticut who say they were abused by Catholic priests are speaking out. They say they are trying to get past the pain by talking about it.
   It is a poem of pain and Catherine Higgins' story of sexual abuse by priests that she says started at the age of seven.
   "I was told to wear a dress to confession, and he would put his hands under the dress and feel my body, with another hand over my mouth while he was listening to confessions," says Catherine Higgins.
   "He took my hand in his..."
   Catherine is not alone, joined by others at a "Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests" or "SNAP" conference in Norwalk.
• Nun's role on sex abuse panel is questioned
   Kansas City Star, www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/9760608.htm , The Washington Post
   WASHINGTON (DC) - U.S. Catholic bishops are planning to appoint a nun to their lay review board on sexual abuse, which could undermine the watchdog panel's independence, several members have charged.
   Although the church considers nuns to be laity, some board members said the appointment could set a precedent for naming more nuns and priests to the board.
   "It would begin to breach a wall that has served us well," said board member William Burleigh, chairman of the E.W. Scripps newspaper company.
   Several board members said the bishops' administrative committee deviated from the expected appointment process last week by choosing Sister Carol Keehan, former president of Providence Hospital in Washington, to fill one of at least four openings on the all-volunteer board.
• Group to hand out leaflets at churches
   Press-Citizen, The Associated Press
   IOWA CITY (IA): A support group for victims of abuse by Catholic priests plans to hand out leaflets today at Catholic churches in Iowa City.
   The northeast Iowa chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP] said the purpose was to let abuse victims in Iowa City know they are not alone.
   "We'd also like to encourage parishioners to reach out in a nurturing and helpful way to abuse survivors," said Steve Theisen, co-founder of the group. "Several are afraid of the response and reaction of the people they go to church with."
   The group planned to approach parishioners at St. Patrick, St. Thomas More and St. Wenceslaus churches after Mass.
• Fight against abuse by clergy far from over, survivors say
   The Advocate, By John Nickerson, September 26, 2004
   NORWALK (CT) -- A conference on sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church held at Norwalk Community College yesterday drew about 150 victims, supporters and health professionals.
   The daylong seminar hosted by SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, was the first in Connecticut. Since February, two Connecticut SNAP chapters were launched in Bridgeport and East Hartford.
   SNAP state Director Landa Mauriello-Vernon, of Hamden, told attendees that when the Bridgeport chapter got its start, it had only eight members.
   Eight months later, the chapter has 58 members. More than 90 percent of the roster consists of people who were sexually molested by clergy, Mauriello-Vernon said.
• Keep your apologies -- RCC.

   Ic Birmingham, By Tom Wells, Sunday Mercury, Sep 26 2004
   BRITAIN: Victims of the worst child sex scandal in the Midlands have blasted an apology from the home where the abuse took place.
   Last week, trustees of the Father Hudson's Society publicly said sorry after a series of lawsuits against the home in Coleshill, Warwickshire, came to an end.
   But astonishingly the society did not write to victims to tell them - leaving some to hear the news from the Sunday Mercury.
   One victim, Gerald McEvoy, said: "We have been fighting for more than a decade for this yet the home did not even have the grace to write to us.
   "It just shows the level of contempt with which victims have been treated all along."
• Diocese, N.H. go to court over abuse agreement -- RCC.

   Boston Globe, Associated Press, September 26, 2004
   MANCHESTER, N.H. -- The agreement the Catholic Diocese of Manchester has made with the state to avoid criminal prosecution stemming from sexually abusive priests could be in jeopardy if both sides can't agree on a key oversight provision.
   "It very well may be there never was an agreement at all," Judge Carol Conboy of Hillsborough County Superior Court has told state prosecutors and lawyers for the diocese.
   The agreement the attorney general reached with the bishop Dec. 10, 2002, calls for annual audits through December 2007 in exchange for not seeking indictments against the diocese. No such audits have yet been done because both sides have wrangled over the wording of one paragraph in the 10-page document.
   The section in dispute says the diocese "agrees to submit to an annual audit to be performed by the office of the attorney general" and audits may include, "without limitation," record inspection and interviews with diocesan personnel. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:58 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker Janssen www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sun September 26, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont98.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Mon September 27, 2004 edition follows:-
• Indicted bishop won't be tried, statute expired [1976, '79 Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.
   Catholic World News, Sep. 27, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts, (CWNews.com) - Prosecutors in western Massachusetts said on Monday that, despite indictments handed down by a grand jury, the retired bishop of Springfield will not be tried because the statute of limitations has expired.
   Hampden County District Attorney William Bennett said, "I intend to file a statement ... which will terminate the criminal investigation and prosecution of these matters in Massachusetts."
   A criminal indictment against Bishop Thomas Dupre on charges of assaulting, abusing, and raping two children under the age of 16 in 1976 and 1979 were handed down by the grand jury on Friday and revealed Monday morning.
   Dupre had resigned abruptly in February amid allegations he abused two young men two decades ago. At the time, health problems was given as the reason for his resignation. He has since received treatment of an unspecified nature at St. Luke's Institute in Silver Spring, Maryland, where many well-known accused clerical abusers have been treated. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:41 PM]
• Controversy continues about allegations against Rev. Jankowski [Jankowski] -- RCC. Altar boys.

   Polonia Today
   GDANSK and WARSAW, Poland (PMN) -- Polish newspapers reported that a psychologist who examined Slawek R., who was allegedly sexually abused at age 13 by Rev. Henryk Jankowski, stated that police should question him again, because there are many unclear statements by the boy. Slawek R. stated during questioning by police investigators that the prelate indeed kissed him on the lips many times, but did not touch his private parts.
   He also stated that altar boys who were chosen by Jankowski were receiving large sums of money from him and were allowed to buy drugs and watch pornographic movies at Jankowski's residence. The boy also stated that he let Jankowski kiss him because Jankowski was constantly giving him money.
   Father Henryk Jankowski, Pastor of St. Brygida Church in Gdansk, Poland has been known as the "Solidarity Priest" for his strong support of the Polish trade union. He is also reportedly a close friend and confessor to Lech Walesa. Jankowski called the boy's statements "filthy lies."
   On August 16, 2004, during Sunday Mass, Rev. Jankowski, who also has been accused of anti-Semitism, said that Judeo-Communists want to destroy him, but he won't let them.
   The Mass was attended by a group of veterans and three deputies of the Polish Parliament [Sejm], members of the strongly nationalist party of Roman Giertych.
   One of veterans took to the pulpit and said that they "successfully stopped the Jews and blocked the Assembly Hall in Polish Parliament" and they will succeed in silencing the Polish media.
• District Attorney Refuses to Prosecute Bishop for Child Rape [1970s Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.

   Washington Post, By Adam Gorlick, The Associated Press, Monday, September 27, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- A district attorney said Monday that he would not prosecute Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Dupre on child rape charges because the statute of limitations has expired in the case.
   In an indictment unsealed Monday, Dupre was charged with molesting two boys in the 1970s, becoming the first Roman Catholic prelate to face criminal charges in the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the American church.
   But Hampden District Attorney William Bennett told reporters later in the day that he would not prosecute the case because of the statute of limitations, which was six years at the time of the alleged crimes.
   Dupre, 70, cited health reasons when he resigned in February after nine years as head of the Springfield Diocese. But his departure came one day after The Republican newspaper of Springfield confronted him with allegations he abused two boys while he was a parish priest.
• US bishop indicted on abuse charges [Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.
   Ireland Online, 16:56:53, Sep/27/2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): A bishop was today indicted on child rape charges, becoming the first Roman Catholic prelate indicted in the sex abuse scandal within the American church.
   Bishop Thomas Dupre, the former head of the Springfield Diocese in Massachusetts, is accused of abusing two boys in the 1970s, the county prosecutor said.
   Dupre, aged 70, resigned in February after nine years as head of the diocese. He quit a day after a newspaper in Springfield confronted him with allegations he abused two boys while he was a parish priest. Dupre cited health reasons for his departure. He retains the title of bishop.
• Bishop Indicted on Child Rape Charges [1970s Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.
   Newsday, By ADAM GORLICK, Associated Press Writer, September 27, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Bishop Thomas Dupre, the former head of the Springfield Diocese, was indicted Monday on child rape charges, accused of molesting two boys in the 1970s, the county prosecutor said. He becomes the first Roman Catholic prelate indicted in the sex abuse scandal within the American church.
   Dupre, 70, resigned Feb. 11 after nine years as head of the diocese, one day after The Republican newspaper of Springfield confronted him with allegations he abused two boys while he was a parish priest. Dupre cited health reasons for his departure. He retains the title of bishop.
   The indictment was announced by Hampden County District Attorney William Bennett.
   Dupre's lawyer, Michael Jennings, did not immediately return a call for comment. Mark Dupont, a spokesman for the Diocese of Springfield, said Dupre's successor, Bishop Timothy McDonnell, would have no immediate comment.
• Former head of Massachusetts diocese indicted on child rape charges [1970s Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.
   WANE www.wane.com/Global/story.asp?S=2353506
   SPRINGFIELD, Mass. A former Roman Catholic bishop has been indicted on child rape charges in Massachusetts.
   Prosecutors are accusing Thomas Dupre (doo-PRAY') of molesting two boys in the 1970s while he was a parish priest.
   Dupre becomes the first Roman Catholic prelate indicted in the church-wide sex abuse scandal in the U-S.
   Earlier this year, Dupre stepped down as head of the Springfield Diocese, citing health reasons. His retirement came one day after a newspaper confronted him with allegations of abuse.
• A Look at Allegations Against Bishops [Dupre, Weakland, Williams, O'Connell, McCarthy] -- RCC. Boys, woman.
   Newsday, The Associated Press, September 27, 2004
   UNITED STATES: Retired Springfield Bishop Thomas Dupre is the first bishop criminally charged in the sex abuse crisis that erupted in America's Roman Catholic Church in early 2002.
   There have been at least a dozen grand jury investigations into how bishops responded to abuse claims against the priests they supervised. Four other bishops also have resigned after being accused of sexual misconduct, though none faced criminal charges. They are:
   * Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland, who asked the Vatican to speed up his retirement after it was learned that the archdiocese paid a $450,000 settlement to a man who said Weakland sexually assaulted him.
   * Bishop J. Kendrick Williams of Lexington, Ky., who resigned after he was accused of abusing two minors decades ago -- allegations he denied.
   * Bishop Anthony O'Connell of Palm Beach, Fla., who quit after admitting he repeatedly abused an underage student at a Missouri seminary he led.
   * Auxiliary Bishop James McCarthy of New York, who stepped down after admitting to affairs with adult women.
• Bishop Dupre indicted on sexual abuse charges [1970s Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.
   Republican, By MARLA A. GOLDBERG, mgoldberg@repub.com , Monday, September 27, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA) - The former bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield was indicted Friday on child rape charges. He is the first U.S. Roman Catholic bishop to be charged with sexual abuse.
   The grand jury charged former Springfield Bishop Thomas L. Dupre with two counts of child rape.
   Dupre resigned as bishop of the Springfield Diocese in February amid allegations that he abused two minors more than 20 years ago.
   The grand jury indictments handed down charge Dupre with child rape "at divers times commencing in or about 1976, in or about Chicopee and West Springfield." They also charge Dupre with offenses in or about 1979 in West Springfield. Both of the indictments are for rape of a child under 16 years of age.
• 'Fallen Order' Tells of the Rise and Fall of a Brotherhood -- RCC.

NPR, Weekend Edition, Sunday, September 26, 2004
VATICAN CITY: NPR's Liane Hansen talks with historian Karen Liebreich about her new book Fallen Order. Lieberich's unprecedented access to the Vatican's Secret Archives brings to life a sexual abuse scandal that surrounded the Catholic Church's Patron Saint of Education over 400 years ago.
• Church Abuse Survivor Network Visits Iowa City [1998 Deyo] -- RCC. Boy.

   KCRG-TV9, By KCRG-TV9 News Reporter Keisha Brown, 3:02:23 AM, Monday, September 27, 2004
   IOWA CITY (IA): A member of the group called "SNAP", a survivor network of those abused by priests, was in Iowa City Sunday.
   Steve Theisen and his family handed out leaflets at three churches to attempt to reach out to silent victims of abuse. Theisen says the information on the leaflets will help his group reach out to other survivors of religious sexual abuse. "To let them know they're not alone out there. They don't need to suffer in silence anymore. They don't need to suffer alone."
   Theisen visited St Patrick and St Wenceslaus churches. The churches were chosen because Iowa City priest Paul Deyo served at the two parishes. Deyo is under investigation for allegedly abusing a boy in 1998.
   Thiesen also visited St. Thomas More church. "We choose St. Thomas More because a survivor has contacted us and said he was abused at this church."
• Archdiocese hired lawyer to reach out to accusers in sex scandal -- RCC. Lawyer dampens. ~$US50,000 each gag money.
   Seattle Post-Intelligencer, By CLAUDIA ROWE
   SEATTLE (WA): While a tidal wave of sexual-abuse lawsuits and legal threats cripples Roman Catholic dioceses across the country, Seattle appears to exist in a rare state of grace.
   Multimillion-dollar settlements with victims of priest abuse have forced bishops to sell church property, dip into emergency accounts or declare outright bankruptcy. But Seattle has escaped such dire scenarios, paying most claimants about $50,000 each -- a fraction of the average of $400,000 per agreement in Portland, where the church filed for Chapter 11 in July.
   The Seattle Archdiocese, which was first in the nation to hire someone specifically charged with reaching out to victims, trumpets its proactive, mediation-based approach as the key to keeping costs down. But many of those who report their painful, humiliating stories to Jessie Dye have no idea that the church's pastoral outreach coordinator is also a lawyer.
   A dozen victims contacted by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said their settlement negotiations had left them feeling revictimized decades after the original abuse. The church had used mercenary bargaining tactics, they said, coercing them to accept lowball settlements or sign gag orders trading free therapy for their silence. None had known that Dye was a lawyer until after the fact, and many said she actively discouraged them from hiring their own counsel.
• Victims of clergy abuse hold conference
   Newsday, September 27, 2004
   NORWALK, Conn. -- The first statewide conference of survivors of clergy sexual abused in Connecticut has been told that the work of holding members of the clergy accountable continues.
   The daylong seminar was hosted Saturday by SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Since February, two Connecticut SNAP chapters were formed in Bridgeport and East Hartford.
   "The refusal of adult victim survivors to not back down and knuckle under and pay, pray and obey, has been one of the key features in bringing about accountability and healing for tens of thousands," the Rev. Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer and SNAP's keynote speaker said.
   SNAP state Director Landa Mauriello-Vernon of Hamden told the 150 attendees that when the chapter got its start, it had only eight members. Eight months later, the chapter has 58 members. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:51 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Mon September 27, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont98.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tue September 28, 2004 edition follows:-
• Dupre's indictment can't be used to bolster civil suit [1970s Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.

   Capital News 9, www.capitalnews9. com/content/ headlines/ ?ArID=96705& SecID=33 , By Capital News 9 web staff,
   5:04 PM, Sep/28/2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): A grand jury indictment of Springfield's former bishop can't be used as ammunition in a civil lawsuit filed against the former head of the diocese.
   An indictment unsealed this week charges Bishop Thomas Dupre with two counts of child rape dating back to the 1970s.
   But just a few hours later, Hampden District Attorney William Bennett said he couldn't prosecute because the statute of limitations has run out.
   A lawyer for the two men who said they were raped by Dupre said the findings of the grand jury investigation can't be used to bolster their lawsuit. That's because the indictment didn't result in a guilty plea or conviction. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:23 PM]
• Bishop Casey not to attend papal celebration in Galway [Casey] -- RCC. Conceived a child with a lady.

   Irish Times, www.ireland.com/ newspaper/front/ 2004/0929/ 3641797047HM 1CASEY.html , by Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent, for Sep 29, 2004
   IRELAND: The former bishop of Galway, Dr Eamonn Casey, has said he will not be attending a Mass in Galway next Sunday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Pope's visit.
   The Catholic Press Office said last night that the Bishop of Galway, Dr James McLoughlin, had contacted Bishop Casey about the celebrations.
   Bishop Casey (78) has lived abroad since he resigned from the Galway diocese in 1992 after it emerged he had fathered a child with Ms Annie Murphy.
   According to the statement from the press office last night: "Bishop Casey said that he knows that he is always welcome in Galway but that unfortunately he has prearranged commitments for this Sunday October 3rd, 2004. Bishop Casey said that he will be with us in his prayers on Sunday."
   [COMMENT: What a pity that the Roman Catholic Church leaders had not given up the non-Jesus celibacy policy years ago, and allowed Dr Casey and Annie Murphy to marry and give the child what the RCC and many other groups say is a normal home, not to mention giving each other the joy of each other's love, and a comfortable status in the community. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Plans halted for parish expansion -- RCC.

   Mail Tribune, By JONEL ALECCIA, Sep 28, 2004
   CENTRAL POINT, OREGON: - Overcrowded pews at Shepherd of the Valley Catholic Church give a whole new meaning to the concept of communion, but parishioners won’t see relief anytime soon.
   Plans for a $3 million capital campaign that would double the size of the tiny church have been placed on hold while the Archdiocese of Portland grapples with bankruptcy proceedings.
   "For the last four years, we’ve been meeting with architects," said the Rev. Jim Clifford, the parish priest. "We were just about to get to a final stage."
   In July, however, just after the Portland Archdiocese became the first in the nation to file for bankruptcy protection from pending sex abuse claims, Clifford received a letter.
   It asked all parishes under the archdiocese to halt plans for expansion. Clifford’s church, of course, complied.
• Mass. bishop avoids sex charges but faces other legal troubles [Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.

   Court TV, Sep 28, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - Former Springfield Bishop Thomas Dupre won't have to answer to charges in Massachusetts that he molested two boys in the 1970s, but the legal problems for the one-time Roman Catholic leader - the first bishop to face criminal charges in the sex abuse scandal - haven't disappeared.
   Hampden County District Attorney William Bennett said Monday that though the statute of limitations has expired, he will hand over everything that a grand jury probe has turned up on Dupre to federal authorities, as well as officials in Canada, New Hampshire and New York, where some of the alleged abuse took place.
   Bennett said those jurisdictions may not be hamstrung by the same statute of limitation issues in Massachusetts. "They could then make their judgment as to what, if anything, they deem appropriate," he said.
   Dupre also faces a lawsuit filed by the same accusers who say they were raped by the cleric while he was their parish priest. That lawsuit, filed in March, recounts several instances of alleged abuse that the men say left them emotionally and physically damaged. [Emphasis added]
• Court again says priest can be charged in 1970s case [1970s Graham] -- RCC. Boy.

   Post-Dispatch, By Jim Suhr, Associated Press, Sep/28/2004
   ST. LOUIS (MO) (AP) -- A Missouri appeals court Tuesday affirmed its stance that no time limit applies to prosecuting someone for sodomy, upholding its ruling in the case of a Roman Catholic priest accused of child sex abuse during the 1970s.
   Given the latest 3-0 ruling by the Missouri Court of Appeals, the Rev. Thomas Graham's attorney plans to ask the Missouri Supreme Court to take up what he called a potential watershed case "of profound significance."
   "My understanding is that there are several prosecuting jurisdictions throughout Missouri who've been sitting on their cases (involving suspected clergy abuse), awaiting a ruling on this," Art Margulis said.
   An assistant St. Louis city prosecutor who heads the office's child sex abuse unit refused to speculate on whether the ruling, if upheld, would spur more prosecutions involving sexual abuse by clergy.
• Survivors Group Requests Allen's Deal With The Archdiocese Be Investigated -- RCC.
   WCPO, Reported by A.P./ 9News, Web produced by Neil Relyea, Photographed by 9News, 6:04:45 PM, Sep/28/04
   CINCINNATI (OH): On Tuesday members of a survivors support group requested a court investigation of a prosecutor's agreement last year that ended a criminal probe of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
   Members of the group have asked Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Crush to appoint a special prosecutor to re-examine the plea agreement.
   The deal last November allowed the Archdiocese of Cincinnati to plead to misdemeanor offenses and establish a $3 million compensation fund for sex-abuse victims.
   The support group for people who were sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests is questioning whether Hamilton County Prosecutor Michael Allen had a conflict of interest when he reached the agreement with the archdiocese.
• Unseal the records in priest scandal -- RCC.
   Connecticut Post, Tuesday, September 28, 2004
   CONNECTICUT: The state Supreme Court can create a significant victory for the First Amendment rights of citizens by unsealing thousands of documents in the priest abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport.
   The court heard arguments last week from attorneys for a group of newspapers seeking access to the documents and diocesan lawyers who seek to keep the records sealed.
   Twenty-three sexual abuse lawsuits against the diocese and six of its priests were withdrawn in 2001, after the diocese agreed to pay $12 million in settlements.
   However, a full explanation of how the abuses occurred or were handled by diocesan bishops has never been forthcoming.
   For example, New York Cardinal Edward Egan, who handled cases when he was bishop of Bridgeport, has come under harsh criticism for failing to notify authorities of the abuse allegations and moving accused priests to other parishes despite the charges.
   By keeping the records sealed, the church continues to cast doubt and shame on itself.
• Kelly, diocese remain at odds. Lawsuit attempts to recoup almost $1 million in misused parish funds [Kelly] -- RCC. $1m. Witness in murder trial.
   Cape Cod Times, By AMANDA LEHMERT, Sep 28, 2004
   BARNSTABLE (MA) - Although a former Falmouth priest completed his testimony in a murder trial yesterday, his legal troubles are far from over.
   The Rev. Bernard Kelly faces a civil lawsuit from the Fall River Diocese that alleges he misused up to $800,000 from his Woods Hole parish and had another $175,000 worth of unexplained expenses from Our Lady of Lourdes in Wellfleet.
   The state of Kelly's civil lawsuit and the pending criminal investigation did not come up in his testimony yesterday in the case of Paul Nolin Jr., a friend and employee of the priest and alleged murderer of Jonathan Wessner, 20.
   Spokesman John Kearns said the diocese is not waiting for criminal charges to be filed against Kelly, but "forging ahead" with its civil complaint against the priest.
• Catholic Church supports immunity act [1970s] -- RCC enters American Boychoir School dispute.
   The Times, By KAREN AYRES, Tuesday, September 28, 2004
   NEW JERSEY: New Jersey's Catholic bishops want their say in a sexual abuse case filed by a former student against the American Boychoir School that is set to be heard by the state Supreme Court.
   The New Jersey Catholic Conference has filed legal papers with the court in support of the Charitable Immunity Act that currently protects certain institutions from such cases.
   Though the case over alleged abuse at the elite Princeton Township music school doesn't involve the Catholic Church, the ruling could have far-reaching implications for abuse cases against the church and other groups statewide.
   John Hardwicke, who is suing the school over claims he was abused some 30 years ago as a student, said the conference filed the brief to protect people who abused children.
   "The most important thing is that I have nothing but a great deal of respect for the Catholic Church," Hardwicke said. "But I can't imagine they have any interest in this case (except) to protect people who molested children."
   William Bolan, the conference's director, said he and his lawyer have no comment on the amicus curiae - or friend of the court - brief filed last month.
• Nolin's reaction detailed [Nolin] -- RCC priest had sex with male.
   Cape Cod Times, By KAREN JEFFREY, September 28, 2004
   BARNSTABLE (MA) - Paul Nolin let out an anguished "Oh God" after a friend told him Jonathan Wessner's body had been found last year.
   But rather than ask how Wessner died or where his body was discovered, Nolin had one question for the friend who broke the news - "when?"
   When was Wessner's body discovered?
   Nolin, 40, has pleaded innocent to the kidnapping and murder of Wessner, a 20-year-old Falmouth man last seen with Nolin on the morning of Sept. 20, 2003.
   Wessner's body was found two weeks later partially buried along the shore on a private Woods Hole estate where Nolin once worked.
   Yesterday jurors in Barnstable Superior Court heard a tape recording of an eight-minute telephone call between Nolin and his friend Judith Rudd. On the tape Rudd can be heard trying to calm Nolin as he repeatedly cries out for his attorneys.
   Jurors also heard testimony from the Rev. Bernard Kelly, a Roman Catholic priest and former pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Woods Hole.
   Kelly's testimony placed Nolin in Woods Hole on the day Wessner disappeared. His testimony also bolstered that of another witness, Shawn Shirmer, a former friend of Nolin's who described himself as a cocaine addict.
   Shirmer testified Friday that he gave Nolin a ride from Brockton - where Wessner's car was later discovered abandoned - back to Woods Hole where Nolin's truck was parked.
   Yesterday Schirmer testified that he had sometimes done odd jobs for the priest, and that the two had been sexual partners.
• Witness 'not ashamed' he had sex with accused killer, priest [Nolin] -- RCC priest was lover of male.
   Boston Herald, By Jessica Heslam, Tuesday, September 28, 2004
   CAPE COD (MA): A Rockland drug addict and key witness at a Cape Cod murder trial said he had sex with accused killer Paul Nolin Jr. and his priest pal, the man testified yesterday.
   "I'm not ashamed," Shawn Schirmer, 29, later cried out after admitting he had sex with Nolin and the disgraced Rev. Bernard Kelly, who also took the stand. Schirmer said he never took "a dime" from Kelly for the sex but said the priest gave him cash for yard work.
   Nolin is accused of the Sept. 20, 2003, killing of 20-year-old aspiring golf pro Jonathan Wessner. Prosecutors say Nolin beat and stabbed Wessner to death in a Woods Hole boathouse after hosting an all-night bash at his Falmouth home.
   Yesterday's testimony shed more light on the relationship between Nolin, Kelly and the Rev. Donald Turlick, who counseled Nolin and had a hand in his release from the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater. Nolin got out in 2000 after serving 18 years for raping a 10-year-old boy.
   Kelly, a former priest at St. Joseph's Church in Woods Hole, said Turlick, whom he went to school with in Baltimore, introduced him to Nolin four years ago. Investigators have said Kelly and Nolin were lovers.
• Diocese offers to settle sex abuse suits [Campobello] -- RCC. Girl.
   Chicago Daily Herald, By Tona Kunz, Posted Tuesday, September 28, 2004
   ILLINOIS: Convicted pedophile Mark Campobello has failed to contest two victims' civil suits against him and the Rockford Diocese the former Geneva priest served in has offered to settle the cases.
   By not answering court summons, a Kane County judge Monday ruled Campobello, 39, in essence forfeited one of the lawsuits against him.
   The suit alleges he had sexual contact with a then 15-year-old girl enrolled at Aurora Central Catholic High School. He taught Latin there and was the spiritual leader.
   The suit contends that from April 1999 to March 2000 he abused her at Mooseheart, in his car, at the school and in the Crystal Lake rectory of St. Thomas the Apostle parish.
   Campobello has 30 days to contest the ruling and hire a lawyer or the ruling will be finalized.
• Diocesan secrecy: Church remains cloistered in darkness -- RCC.
   The Union Leader, www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=44655 , Editorials - September 28, 2004
   NEW HAMPSHIRE: It increasingly looks like the Diocese of Manchester is either trying to squirm out of the settlement it agreed to almost two years ago, or the agreement is invalid. Either way, former Attorney General Philip McLaughlin spoke too soon when he said in December of 2002 that the settlement "closes the door on an era of secrecy" in the church.
   In dispute is the scope of state audits that were part of the 2002 settlement agreement, in which church personnel avoided criminal prosecution in exchange for meeting certain requirements set forth by the state.
   The state wants extensive audits, including interviews with low-level church personnel about church sexual abuse policy. This seems perfectly reasonable if the state is to ascertain how well the diocese has implemented its agreed-to policies.
   The diocese has attempted to thwart these comprehensive audits by, among other tactics, charging that they violate the First Amendment. Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Carol A. Conboy rejected that argument last Friday and chided the diocese for "launching off into Constitution land."
   Conboy said that if she finds that the sides had differing understandings of the audit provision, then the settlement would be invalid. That would give the state the option of pursuing a new settlement agreement or beginning criminal prosecutions of diocesan personnel. If the settlement is invalidated and the diocese refuses to reveal its inner workings to the state’s satisfaction, proceeding with criminal prosecutions may be the best option. #
• Judge looks at audit dispute between AG's office, diocese -- RCC.
   The Union Leader, By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI, September 28, 2004
   NEW HAMPSHIRE: From the state’s perspective, the landmark agreement it reached with Roman Catholic church leaders under threat of criminal prosecution in 2002 is crystal clear.
   "We believe the language is very clear. The state may look at any documentation, their policies and procedures without limitation and we can interview diocesan personnel without limitation," Associate Attorney General Ann F. Larney said yesterday.
   "That means we can interview 100 of them or 1,000 of them," Larney added.
   The diocese yesterday said they have no problem with investigators talking to whomever and as many people as they want. Their objection is whether questions are intended to measure compliance with the agreement, or the effectiveness of their child protection policies and procedures. "We agreed to have compliance measured, not effectiveness," said the Rev. Edward J. Arsenault, diocesan chancellor. "Compliance and effectiveness are different terms. Can they go together? Sure. But we agreed to have to the state measure compliance," he added. Last Friday, the dispute went before a judge, who now questions whether there ever was an agreement at all. ...
   [COMMENT: "Compliance," not "effectiveness." Reminds me of the strict no-naughtiness rules that the RCC clergy tells the laypeople to obey, but forgiving each other as they happily break them! COMMENT ENDS.]
• Time Expires in Bishop's Sex Abuse Case [1976, '79 Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.
   Los Angeles Times, By Elizabeth Mehren, Times Staff Writer
   BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - The former leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, Mass., was indicted Monday on charges of raping two boys during the 1970s, becoming the highest-ranking official of the U.S. church to be indicted since the sexual abuse scandal unfolded in Boston nearly three years ago.
   But hours after the indictment was unsealed, Hampden County Dist. Atty. William M. Bennett said that he would not prosecute Bishop Thomas L. Dupre because the six-year statute of limitations had expired. Bennett said Monday that he found "no evidence" to support an exception.
   Dupre, 70, resigned in February after nine years as head of the Diocese of Springfield- citing ill health - but has retained the title of bishop. He stepped down one day after the Republican newspaper of Springfield printed allegations that he had molested the boys while serving as a parish priest.
   Dupre's attorney, Michael O. Jennings, on Monday invoked the statute of limitations when he filed motions to dismiss the charges. "The alleged offenses occurred almost 30 years ago, and these allegations were not made until eight or nine months ago," Jennings said.
   He would not disclose his client's whereabouts.
• Grand jury indicts Dupre [1976, '79 Dupre] -- RCC. Destruction of evidence alleged. Boys.
   Republican, By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Tuesday, September 28, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA) - Former Bishop Thomas L. Dupre has become the highest Catholic prelate in the nation to be indicted on child sexual assault charges, but will escape a state criminal trial because the alleged crimes are too old.
   Within hours after the grand jury indictments were entered into court records yesterday, Hampden County District Attorney William M. Bennett announced he could not pursue two counts of child rape against Dupre because they fell outside the statute of limitations. The crimes allegedly occurred beginning in 1976 in Chicopee and West Springfield.
   The grand jury did not indict Dupre on other charges, including obstruction of justice and conspiracy counts, that might have fallen within the statute. Investigators were trying to determine whether Dupre might have destroyed at least one e-mail detailing the allegations and two letters from the mother of one of the alleged victims within the past year.
   Bennett said he is preparing to share information with the U.S. attorney's office and law enforcement officials in New York, New Hampshire and Canada, where Dupre is accused of taking one or both of the boys more than two decades ago.
   Several hours after the indictments were entered into the Hampden Superior Court docket yesterday, Dupre's lawyer, Michael O. Jennings of Springfield, filed motions to dismiss the indictments, stating that the statute of limitations prohibits prosecution of Dupre. Jennings also filed a not guilty plea on behalf of his client. [Emphasis added]
• Former bishop is indicted for 1970s abuse [1976, '79 Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.
   Chicago Tribune, By Carol Eisenberg, Tribune Newspapers: Newsday; Published September 28, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): A grand jury indictment unsealed Monday charged retired Massachusetts Bishop Thomas Dupre, 70, with two counts of child rape based on the testimony of two men, who had said they had been molested as altar boys. The charges made Dupre the first Roman Catholic bishop to be indicted in the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the American church.
   Hampden County District Atty. William Bennett said he would not prosecute the bishop because the statute of limitation had long since expired.
   Dupre abruptly resigned Feb. 11, a day after reporters from a Springfield, Mass., newspaper confronted him with allegations that he had abused two boys when they were between the ages of 12 and 17 while he was a parish priest in the 1970s. The men, whose names have not been made public, also filed a civil lawsuit against the longtime bishop and the Springfield diocese.
   To date, four other bishops in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church have resigned as a result of sexual misconduct, and at least a dozen grand jury investigations have probed bishops who knowingly moved child molesters to new parishes. But no bishop has been criminally prosecuted for either committing sexual abuse or conspiring to cover it up, in part because of statutes of limitation.
• Former Springfield bishop avoids prosecution on sex charges [1976, '79 Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.
   Portsmouth Herald, By Adam Gorlick, Associated Press Writer, Sep 28, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Former Springfield Bishop Thomas L. Dupre won't have to answer to charges that he raped two boys in Massachusetts, but his legal problems didn't disappear when the district attorney said he won't prosecute him.
   Hampden County District Attorney William M. Bennett said Monday he can't pursue the case against the 70-year-old bishop because the statute of limitations has run out in Massachusetts.
   But Bennett said he will hand over everything that a six-month grand jury investigation turned up to federal authorities, as well as officials in Canada, New Hampshire and New York, where some of the alleged abuse took place during the 1970s.
   The probe led the grand jury to indict Dupre with two counts of child rape, making him the first Roman Catholic bishop to face sex abuse charges in the United States. The indictments, which were handed up Friday and unsealed Monday, say Dupre started raping one of the boys in 1976; he allegedly started abusing the other boy in 1979.
   "I felt I took it as far as I could, Bennett said. "We've done everything we could do." [Emphasis added]
• History of Former Bishop Thomas L. Dupre
   Republican, Tuesday, September 28, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): Nov. 10, 1933 Thomas L. Dupre born in Holyoke
   1951-52 Attended College de Montreal
   1952-53 Attended Assumption College in Worcester
   1953-55 Studied philosophy at Seminary of Philosophy
   1955-59 Studied theology at the Grand Seminary in Montreal
• Church told Casey 'deserves' invite to papal visit mass [Casey] -- RCC. Woman.

   Irish Independent, by Brian McDonald and David Quinn, Tue, Sep 28 04
   IRELAND: A campaign is under way to invite former Bishop of Galway Eamonn Casey to a 25th anniversary mass to commemorate the papal visit.
   Bishop Casey was the principal architect of the youth mass which attracted a crowd of 250,000 to Ballybrit racecourse in September 1979.
   It was one of the highlights of the papal visit to Ireland and is readily recalled for the memorable words spoken by Pope John Paul in his address on the occasion: "Young people of Ireland, I love you." ...
   Bishop Casey disappeared from Ireland in 1992 after it emerged that he had fathered a child with an American woman, Annie Murphy.
   His son, Peter, wanted his father to acknowledge him and Bishop Casey fled Ireland as the story was about to break in the media.
   He lived for several years in Ecuador and has been based in England in recent years, performing parish duties.
   He is currently living in the village of Staplefield, near Brighton.
   Bishop Casey has not been back to Galway for any public event since he left, although he has been back in Ireland for a small number of private events, but there has been a growing belief in the West that the time is now right for him to return to Galway.
   Dr Casey gained unwanted publicity last April when he was banned for 12 months after being convicted of drink-driving. He had previously been convicted of a similar charge in London in the mid-1980s and subsequently apologised for his actions. #
• Insurance companies want delay on church abuse trial [Luddy] -- RCC. Diocese suing insurance companies. $US2.7m gone so far. Boy.

   Centre Daily, www.centredaily.com/ mld/centredaily/ news/politics/ 9776837.htm , Associated Press
   HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. - Insurance companies being sued by the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese are seeking a delay in the trial until the state Supreme Court rules whether the diocese must pay $1 million in punitive damages for not properly dealing with a priest accused of abusing a child.
   The diocese has already paid $1.4 million in compensatory damages and interest, and $1.3 million in legal fees, in a suit filed by an Ohio man in 1986 alleging that he was abused as a child by the Rev. Francis Luddy, who has since been defrocked.
   The state Supreme Court has yet to rule on the case's remaining issue, whether a jury has the power to impose punitive damages against an employer - in this case, the diocese - for the unlawful actions of one of its employees.
   The diocese, since 1992, has sued 13 insurance companies over expenses for abuses that occurred in the mid-1970s and early 1980s. Blair County Judge Hiram Carpenter has set a March trial date for that dispute.
• Catholics called to action [Law, Maciel] -- RCC. Victims asked to lobby the Vatican.
   Telegram & Gazette, by Kathleen A. Shaw, kshaw@telegram.com , T&G STAFF
   WORCESTER (MA) - Jason Berry, the free-lance writer who called public attention to the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church before many people were aware of it, said Catholics need to move the discussion into the Vatican.
   Mr. Berry, who with Gerald Renner wrote "Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II," said in a recent interview that "one of the greatest failings of this pope is that he did not act on the sexual abuse issue."
   Mr. Berry, who lives in New Orleans, and Mr. Renner, a retired religion writer for the Hartford Courant, will be among speakers at the New England Voice of the Faithful conference to be held Nov. 13 at the Worcester Centrum Centre. Both are Catholics.
   "The Vatican believes that the abuse scandal in the United States resulted because a pagan media and a legal system out of control came together to attack the Roman Catholic Church," Mr. Berry said. "What happened is that a monarchal [monarchical] institution collided with a constitutional legal system and a free press.
   "They view Cardinal Law as a victim," he said.
   Mr. Berry said Catholics need to pay attention to the important job they gave the cardinal when he was appointed head priest at a major Roman Catholic church.
   Mr. Berry noted that most of the coverage of the abuse scandal in the United States has come from the smaller newspapers, with the large papers stepping in for major news developments.
   He added that the information has gotten out to Catholics, many of whom understand the enormity of the scandal far better than the pope and those in the Vatican. Mr. Berry first wrote about the burgeoning scandal in the early 1990s when he published "Lead Us Not Into Temptation." Mr. Berry said that as he has gotten deeper into investigating the scandal, he found it is worse and runs deeper than he first thought.
   In his latest book with Mr. Renner, they discuss what they call the Vatican's poor handling of the scandal through two stories. One part is about the Rev. Thomas Doyle, a Dominican priest who worked at one time at the Vatican embassy in Washington, D.C. Rev. Doyle, who will also be speaking at the convention, began speaking out against abuse of children by some clergy and later lost his job.
   The other section of the book deals with the Legion of Christ, a religious order that has received the backing of Pope John Paul II although its founder, Marcial Maciel, has been accused of sexually abusing boys for decades. The Legion has denounced the allegations as false.
   In talks with Vatican insiders, Mr. Berry said indications are the Vatican is not really interested in doing much about the scandal. "There is no sense of collective responsibility in Rome," he said.
   Mr. Berry said part of the problem is because of a vacuum created by the current pope's illness.
   Lay movements within the Catholic church such as Voice of the Faithful [VOTF], which was founded in the Boston area as the latest wave of the scandal rose in 2002, and Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) can do much to bring about the reforms needed in the church to make sure children are not put at risk again, he said.
   His suggestion is that Catholics, victims of clergy abuse and others interested in the issue begin bombarding the Vatican with documents and their thoughts and opinions on what the Vatican needs to be doing. Victims should start sending dossiers with photographs of themselves to Rome, he said. Catholics should get to know people in the Vatican congregations and make specific requests of them. "They need to start building bridges to the Vatican," he said.
   Mr. Berry said that while three-quarters of American Catholics "ignore Rome" the other 25 percent of Catholics who have particular points of view have perfected this bombardment technique and have been heard in Rome. "The Vatican is not hearing from mainstream Catholics," he said. [Emphasis added]
   [COMMENT: The current pope's illness has nothing to do with it. Even a sick man ought to know that Cardinal Law, having brought disgrace and huge expense to the RCC, ought not to have been honoured by the pope appointing him to be the head of St Mary Major Basilica in Rome. Another point: Reading Crime of Solicitation, Crimen Sollicitationis, 1962, signed by "good Pope John 23rd", it seems that the soliciting for sex corruption and abuse has been going on, and that the RCC has been hiding it and covering it up, for a long long time. The current practice of transferring sex-abusing priests to mission countries is particularly reprehensible, and will set back evangelisation for centuries. The current Austrian priest-training scandal, with priests corrupting young seminarians, is similar to what was reported in the United States a few decades ago, but the papal visitation turned into a whitewash. The bad seminaries kept turning out homosexual and child-abusing priests into the communities. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Bishop Dupré will not be prosecuted on child rape charges [1976-80 Dupré] -- RCC. Boys.
   Iobserve ; By Father Bill Pomerleau, Observer staff, Sep 27, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA) - In what he acknowledged was "a very unusual situation," Hampden County District Attorney William Bennett indicted former Springfield Bishop Thomas L. Dupré on two charges of child rape Sept. 27, then quickly decided not to prosecute the bishop.
   For a little more than two days, Bishop Dupré was the first U.S. bishop to face criminal charges for personally committing sexual abuse of a minor.
   Indictments which were handed up by a Hampden County grand jury on Friday, Sept. 24 and unsealed the following Monday morning, charged the bishop with the "statutory rape of two boys at divers times commencing in or about 1976 and 1979 and prior to their sixteenth birthdays, that is, in 1979 or 1980."
   Citing health reasons, Bishop Dupré retired as head of the diocese on Feb. 11. Within hours of the announcement that Pope John Paul II had accepted the bishop’s resignation, The Republican newspaper reported that he had been accused of sexual misconduct by two men.
   Within hours of the grand jury’s unsealing of its indictment, Bishop Dupré’s attorney, Michael Jennings, entered a plea of not guilty with the court. Jennings, who had known about the substance of the indictment for some time before it was made public, then immediately asserted the statute of limitations defense. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:24 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tue September 28, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont98.htm
• Austrian Catholics in exodus over priest sex scandals. -- RCC. Males.

   CathNews from Church Resources, Australia, http://www.cathnews.com/news/409/157.php , Sep 28, 2004
   AUSTRIA: Austrian Catholics are leaving the Church in significant numbers following two high-profile sex scandals involving child pornography and allegations of the molestation of young boys.
   More than 10,000 people have left the Vienna archdiocese in the last few months, with thousands more leaving parishes across the country.
   Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna (pictured) said he could not blame people for leaving after a summer of scandal including the discovery of up to 40,000 images, including child pornography, on computers at a seminary in the diocese of St Pölten.
   This month, a second scandal hit the Austrian Church when officials disclosed they were investigating one of the country's best-known priests after several people alleged he had sexually molested them when they were youths in the 1980s.
   "We've had these unending icy rains the entire summer: more and more scandals, negative headlines, and from many people, cries of 'We've had enough!'," Cardinal Schönborn wrote in a commentary for this Sunday's edition of a Vienna church newspaper.
   The cardinal appealed to Austrians to remain faithful to their local parishes, saying he hoped the Church would forge a new beginning after putting the affairs behind it.
   SOURCE
Austrian Catholics stage exodus over priest sex scandals (The Scotsman 25/9/04)
   LINKS
Austrians Leaving Catholic Church (Associated Press/heraldsun.com 24/9/04)
Hapsburg beatification rouses disputes (Catholic World News 24/9/04)
Pressure mounts for Austrian bishop to step down (CathNews 21/9/04)
When a pope is not a pontiff (National Catholic Reporter 26/7/04)
Austrian bishop silenced during apostolic visitation (CathNews 26/7/04)
Austrian Seminary shut over porn scandal (CathNews 13/8/04)
Papal emissary closes seminary (The Advertiser/AP 13/8/04)
Pope's emissary shuts down Austrian seminary (Irish Times 12/8/04)
Child porn found in Austrian seminary, shut down (Associated Press/USA Today 12/8/04)
Papal Emissary Closes Austrian Seminary (Associated Press/herald-sun.com 12/8/04)
Scandal-ridden seminary closed down in Austria (Catholic World News 12/8/04)
Seminary shut after porn scandal (CNN 12/8/04)
When a pope is not a pontiff (National Catholic Reporter 26/7/04)
Austrian bishop silenced during apostolic visitation (CathNews 26/7/04)
John L. Allen: Conversation with Sant'Egidio founder Andrea Riccardi; Vatican gets serious on Africa; Catholic-Jewish dialogue; Vatican investigates Austrian seminary sex scandal; More reflections from Peru (National Catholic Reporter 23/7/04)
The ultimate betrayal (The Tablet 24/7/04)
Speedy response to Austrian sex scandal reflects seriousness (CathNews 22/7/04)
Pope names bishop to look into scandal at Austrian seminary (CathNews 21/7/04)
Other Pontifical Acts (Vatican Information Service 20/7/04)
Vatican sends investigator to Austrian diocese (Catholic World News 20/7/04)
Pope Names Investigator for Austrian Sex Scandal (Reuters 20/7/04)
Vatican Enters Austria Seminary Dispute (The Guardian/Associated Press 20/7/04)
Austrian chancellor incensed by priest sex scandal (Reuters 17/7/04)
Austrian bishops await Vatican move on scandal (Catholic World News 16/7/04)
St. Pölten and Gomorrah? (Weinerzeitung.at 20/7/04)
Vatican investigates Austrian child porn scandal (Associated Press/MSNBC 20/7/04)
Austria probes seminary sex claims (CathNews 13/7/04)
Priests 'In Orgy' at Seminary (The Scotsman 12/7/04)
HAVE YOUR SAY   Click here [Sep 28, 2004]
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont98.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Wed September 29, 2004 edition follows:-
• Australian priests question celibacy rule -- RCC. 71%.

   Catholic World News, www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=32443 , Sep. 29, 2004
   SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: (CWNews.com) - A large majority of Catholic priests in Australia question the value of mandatory clerical celibacy, according to a report released by Online Catholics.
   The Online Catholics report cites the results of a survey commissioned by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, but not yet made public. The report says that 55 percent of the Australian priests surveyed called for optional rather than mandatory celibacy, and 16 percent claimed that celibacy was a negative factor in any case. Thus 71 percent expressed a negative view of the current Church discipline.
   Online Catholic said that the results of the survey had been presented to the Australian bishops' conference earlier this month. No public statement from the bishops has been forthcoming. # [Go to the website to see the kind of comments that paid-up subscribers are posting.] [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:40 PM]
• Archbishop fears more abuse scandals -- RCC.

   One in Four, by Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent - Irish Times
   IRELAND: The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has said that "the full dimensions of the clerical abuse scandals, sadly, may yet still have to appear".
   Addressing the a.g.m. [annual general meeting] of the National Priests' Conference of Ireland at the Dromantine centre near Newry, Co Down, last night he said: "We have to honestly and completely face what has happened."
   He continued: "There is no use covering over historical cases, no matter how painful that may be for us. In the meantime, we have to ensure that the best possible child protection services are in place. Good child-protection measures are also priest-protection measures."
   He said: "Any discussion today within the church about dealing with child abuse and child protection has to recognise the sincere anxiety among many that the church is still involved in a power game, that it might still be concerned primarily about the corporate interest of the church, of a diocese or of a religious congregation. ["Co" means County in the above context.]
• Bill for victims’ claims could cost State €828m -- RCC mainly.
   One in Four, By John Breslin - Irish Examiner
   IRELAND: The final bill to settle claims taken by child victims of institutional abuse could rise to a staggering €828 million, the Comptroller and Auditor General warned yesterday.
   An estimate based on a survey of solicitors representing former residents of industrial schools and orphanages reveals that fewer than half of all victims’ claims have been lodged with a redress board.
   The survey was carried out by a C&AG team and suggests the total bill, including legal costs, could be €200m more than the Residential Institutions Redress Board estimated last month.
   The board, in 18 months to June this year has received 3,763 valid applications and made 1,277 offers. The total amount offered was €98.8m, an average of €77,000 plus €16,000 in legal costs. Just six cases were ruled invalid.Total awards and medical and legal expenses paid to the end of June amounted to €86.95m, with the congregations paying €31m and the State €56m.
• Drop sex abuse statute of limitations, advocates say [1970s Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.

   Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram.com/ apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/ 20040929/APN/ 409290818 , The Associated Press, Sep 29, 2004
   BOSTON (MA) - Advocates and victims of sexual abuse gathered at the Statehouse Wednesday, two days after a Catholic bishop escaped prosecution for child rape charges, to call for the elimination of the statute of limitations for sex crimes involving children.
   A grand jury charged Bishop Thomas L. Dupre on Monday with raping two boys in the 1970s. But Hampden District Attorney William Bennett said he can't prosecute the former head of the Springfield Diocese because the statute of limitations in place at the time was six years.
   "District attorneys all across the state need to have every tool at their disposal to be able to aggressively address this issue," said Jetta Bernier, executive director of Massachusetts Citizens for Children. [MCC]
   At news conference, Bernier and other advocates, dubbing themselves the "Enough Abuse Legislative Task Force," called on the Legislature to remove the time limits. She pledged a "major movement" statewide to rally support around such legislation.
   The grand jury indictment unsealed Monday made Dupre the first Roman Catholic prelate to face criminal charges in the sex abuse scandal still plaguing the U.S. church.
• Abuse victims question deal made by Allen -- RCC. Sexual harassment alleged.
   Cincinnati Post, www.cincypost.com/ 2004/09/29/allen 092904.html , By Kevin Eigelbach, Sep-29-2004
   CINCINNATI (OH): Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen's sexual indiscretions have provided a new reason for sexual-abuse survivors to question a plea bargain he made with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
   On Tuesday, the local chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP] asked Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Crush to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the deal.
   "It doesn't necessarily smell right," chapter leader Christy Miller said of the plea bargain.
   Last November, on behalf of the archdiocese, Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk pleaded no contest to five misdemeanor counts of not reporting sex abuse. As part of the deal, the archdiocese paid a $10,000 fine and set up a $3 million victims compensation fund.
   The deal ended a contentious investigation by the prosecutor into possible criminal acts.
   Victims of priest sexual abuse complained then that Allen's office didn't consult them before agreeing to the plea, a complaint that SNAP reiterated on Tuesday in its letter to Crush.
   SNAP also repeated a previous complaint about Allen negotiating the plea deal with a representative of his former law firm, Dinsmore and Shohl.
   Allen has since hired the firm to defend him in a sexual harassment suit filed against him by a former assistant prosecutor, Rebecca Collins. Allen acknowledged in August that he had an extramarital affair with Collins, but said that it was consensual.
   In its letter to Crush, SNAP questioned Allen's "objectivity and commitment to the public interest because of his own alleged misconduct and his obvious need to keep it secret."
   The group also questioned Allen's objectivity because of his "devout Catholic faith" and devotion to his alma mater, Elder High School, where several perpetrators of sexual abuse had once worked.
   "It is inevitable that victims wonder about what influence these factors may have had on Allen or his staff," SNAP wrote.
   Jon Esther, public information officer for Allen's office, said he couldn't comment at length on the letter because he hadn't seen it.
   "It sounds like they're throwing a lot against the wall," he said. The plea bargain didn't have any connection with current events, he said.
   Earlier this month, SNAP asked Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro to appoint a special prosecutor, but Petro said he had no jurisdiction, and referred SNAP to Crush, Miller said.
   Crush doesn't have to appoint a prosecutor, and doesn't even have to reply to the letter, Miller said, but she hopes he will.
   SNAP doesn't have any inside information of wrongdoing, Miller said, but questions what happened based on public information.
   "Our worst fear is that, with little or no victims' input, Allen cut a deal with his spiritual leader, Pilarczyk, and his former boss or co-workers at Dinsmore and Shohl," the letter stated. #
• Eight claiming abuse file lawsuits against Pittsburgh diocese -- RCC.
   Centre Daily, Associated Press
   PITTSBURGH (PA) - Eight people who claim they were sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests sued the Pittsburgh diocese on Wednesday.
   The people, who ranged in age from 8 to 15 when the alleged abuse began, filed civil suits in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court against the diocese, Bishop Donald Wuerl and Philadelphia's former archbishop, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.
   The alleged abusers are not named in the suits because the statute of limitations to file such claims against them have expired.
   Lawyers representing the victims said the diocese protected and reassigned priests that were involved in abusing children.
   Alan Perer, an attorney representing the alleged victims, said the new cases brings the number of lawsuits against the diocese regarding priest abuse to 33. All those suits were still pending as of Wednesday, he said.
   In a statement released by the diocese, church officials said all of the allegations in the lawsuits against the diocese involve priests removed from the ministry or who have died.
• Blandon woman sues Central Catholic; claims priest abuse [1990s Gaffney] -- RCC. Girl.
   Reading Eagle, By Don Spatz
   PENNSYLVANIA: A former Central Catholic High School student sued the school, the Diocese of Allentown and its current and former bishops Tuesday, claiming they allowed a priest at the school to sexually abuse her in the early 1990s.
   Diana L. Vojtasek, 30, of Blandon is not suing the priest identified as the Rev. James F. Gaffney, who lives near Birdsboro because the two-year statute of limitations has passed, said her attorney, Jay N. Abramowitch.
   But Abramowitch, who has filed nearly 40 similar cases against the church, said the law allows victims to sue school and diocesan officials within two years of discovering that they knowingly allowed the abuse to go on.
   He said Vojtasek made that discovery this year.
   The suit, filed in Berks County Court, seeks more than $700,000 from the school, the diocese, Bishop Edward P. Cullen and retired Bishop Thomas J. Welsh.
• L.A. priest arrested for alleged child molestation [Lopez] -- RCC.

   The Desert Sun, www.thedesertsun. com/news/stories2004/ state/20040928 231909.shtml , The Associated Press, September 29th, 2004
   LOS ANGELES (CA) -- A 40-year-old Catholic priest was arrested Tuesday for investigation of child molestation, officials said.
   The Rev. Fernando Lopez was arrested by detectives from the police department’s Sexually Exploited Child Unit at his home without incident, police said.
   He was arrested for allegedly molesting multiple victims while he was a priest at St. Thomas the Apostle parish in the Koreatown area.
   Lopez was booked for investigation of committing a lewd or lascivious act with a child and is being held on $300,000 bail.
   Lopez, a Colombia citizen, came to the United States in 2001 from Rome and was a member of a diocese in Italy, said Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
   Before Lopez was allowed to function as a priest in Los Angeles, he and his bishop provided a statement saying that Lopez had "no impediments to full ministry, and that includes working with children," Tamberg said. [Emphasis added]
• Iowa priest accused of abuse dies at treatment center [1970s Wilwerding] -- RCC.

   WQAD, POSTED 8:09 am, Sep/29/2004
   DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- A retired Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing children more than 20 years ago in Iowa has died.
   The Des Moines diocese says 74-year-old Albert Wilwerding died Sunday in Dittmer, Missouri, where he had been living in the Servants of the Paraclete treatment center.
   Last year, the diocese recommended that Wilwerding be defrocked after a review committee found the abuse allegations to be credible.
   Bishop Joseph Charron forwarded the recommendation to the Vatican, but had not received a decision before Wilwerding died. [Emphasis added]
• Judge sets hearing on diocese request for deadline on abuse claims -- RCC.
   Tucson Citizen, By SHERYL KORNMAN, Sep 29, 2004
   TUCSON (AZ): A federal bankruptcy judge yesterday rejected the Catholic Diocese of Tucson's request to immediately set a 90-day time limit for sexual-abuse claimants to come forward.
   Judge James M. Marlar set a hearing on the issue for Oct. 25 so the proper 14-day notice can be given.
   The burden of a growing number of sex-abuse cases filed in civil courts led the diocese to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sept. 20. The aim was to limit the number of such cases that can be filed.
   Marlar told lawyers for the diocese and the existing claimants more than once to work together to "expeditiously" resolve the various disputes in the case outside the courtroom.
   He also told them to use "alternate dispute resolution" and to avoid "long, drawn out, costly and emotional trials."
   A claimant has the right to ask for a jury trial in a bankruptcy matter.
• Confronting abusive priests -- RCC.
   USA Today, www.usatoday.com/ news/opinion/ 2004-09-28- abusive-priests_ x.htm , Sep 28, 2004
   UNITED STATES: The national spotlight has dimmed, but the Roman Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal has not gone away. On Monday, authorities in Springfield, Mass., unsealed an indictment charging a retired Catholic bishop with raping two boys in the 1970s.
   This latest disclosure in the nearly three-year-old scandal reignited pain for victims, frustration for reformers and anguish for church leaders trying to put the scandal behind them.
   Yet to regain public trust, the church still must confront old allegations of pedophile priests and implement new reforms to prevent abuses in the future. That effort is being hampered by a steady drip of damaging revelations. Often, what looks like a step forward turns into a step backward.
   Take the Massachusetts indictment. It charged Thomas Dupre, former head of the Springfield diocese, with child rape. The diocese had been plagued by abuse accusations against others for years. Yet Dupre resigned only last February - the same day a newspaper reported the allegations against him. That undercuts earlier church pledges to deal aggressively with abuse.
   The same schizophrenic movement is evident in many of the church's reforms, adopted in 2002. Some examples:
   * The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops named an oversight panel of 12 prominent lay leaders in 2002. The group, brutally honest in reports on the scandal, has had several confrontations with church leaders over their resistance to fully disclosing reported abuses. Creating the independent group has helped the church regain credibility among parishioners. Yet now the bishops plan to appoint a nun to the panel, undermining its valuable role as an outside watchdog.
   * Under a national reform plan, many dioceses have appointed their own lay boards to review charges against priests and ensure offenses don't recur. But in dioceses from Orange County, Calif., to Long Island, N.Y., several lay members have resigned in protest, some accusing church officials of trying to silence them for siding with victims.
   Since 2002, a number of bishops have acted diligently to heal wounds by publicizing the names of abusive priests, offering generous settlements and reaching out to victims.
   That -- plus time -- offers a promising route to reclaim trust. A scandal 30 years in the making won't be wiped away in months. #
• Editorial 9/29: Dark cloud stalls over the diocese [1999, 2000, Duran] RCC. Dominican. Boys. [Mickey] RCC. Boys.

   Commercial Appeal, www.commercialappeal. com/mca/todays_editorial/ article/0,1426,MCA_ 537_3215464,00.html , Editorial, September 29, 2004
   MEMPHIS (TN): It seemed too good to be true, and as it turned out it was. Memphis appeared to have largely escaped the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Roman Catholic church and so many communities in the United States for more than a decade.
   The Memphis diocese has spent about $10,000 for counseling and therapeutic services for victims, but until July, no related lawsuits had been filed here.
   Now the local diocese is being forced to answer the same questions that have been asked in so many other cities in a sad refrain: How much did local church officials know about sexual abuse among their clergy and what did they do about it?
   Questions about misconduct by the clergy and coverups are nothing new for Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Boston, even Bemidji, Minn., and Pueblo, Colo.
   The church has paid out millions in court settlements, legal expenses and medical treatment. Insurance policies have been canceled. Priests have opted out of confession and youth activities to protect themselves. Debates have raged over such issues as the celibate lifestyle and recovered memories.
   The nation's Roman Catholic bishops have created a nationwide policy for investigating and preventing the sexual abuse of minors by priests. Pope John Paul II apologized to victims in 2001.
   Documents released in 2002 stemming from 84 civil lawsuits against Boston priest John Geoghan - constantly on the move from one parish to another for 30 years - suggested that his archdiocese may have been, as the New York Times reported, "more preoccupied with avoiding a scandal involving a pedophile priest than making sure he had no further contact with children."
   It is against that backdrop that officials of the Catholic Diocese of Memphis have had to respond to accusations that the storm has not bypassed Memphis after all.
   Diocese attorneys have acknowledged in connection with a lawsuit that former Dominican friar Juan Carlos Duran exposed himself to a teenage boy here four years ago.
   Duran, now believed to be residing in Bolivia, was assigned to Memphis at the time.
   The admission comes in documents filed in Shelby County Circuit Court as part of a civil lawsuit claiming an unnamed teenager was sexually abused by Duran.
   Duran also is charged in St. Louis with sodomizing a boy there sometime between 1999 and 2002.
   The lawsuit also alleges church officials helped Duran leave the Memphis area to avoid scandal and liability. Church officials deny the accusation and insist that Duran was in St. Louis prior to his assignment to Memphis, rather than after, as it had been alleged.
   According to a report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper, Duran also is the target of a federal investigation for another allegation of child sexual abuse.
   According to church officials, Duran was sent to Maryland for "psychological counseling" after he admitted exposing himself to the boy in Memphis. Beyond that, nothing has been publicly revealed about his activity or movements.
   The local diocese also is operating under a cloud created by another lawsuit filed by twin brothers Blain and Blair Chambers who say they were abused in 1980 by another Memphis priest, Rev. Richard Mickey, when they were students at Bishop Byrne High School and he was a teacher and counselor.
   The brothers say that repressed memories of sexual abuse surfaced for the first time when they took a fishing trip in July 2003. Mickey denied the allegations and diocesan officials have assured parishioners and the public that "the diocese has responded and acted appropriately to any accusation."
   That is the central question to any litigation in which the diocese is named. The extent to which the public accepts its answer depends on how forthcoming officials are in revealing how they have dealt with abusive members of the clergy, how well they have followed up on their treatment and what the diocese has done to help victims cope with any ensuing trauma.
   The less information people have, the more they will assume, and given the track record of diocese officials in Chicago, Boston and elsewhere, assumptions can be harsh indeed. # [Emphasis added]
• The Dupre indictment [Dupre, Lavigne] -- RCC.
   Berkshire Eagle, www.berkshireeagle. com/Stories/0,1413, 101~6267~2433 439,00.html , Wednesday, September 29, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): The indictment of former Bishop Thomas L. Dupre, for nine years the head of the Catholic Diocese of Springfield, on charges of sexual assault is of great importance even if the statute of limitations will enable him to escape prosecution. The indictment provides some sense of justice fulfilled to his victims and in the broader sense re-emphasizes how much work the Catholic Church has ahead of it if it is to regain the trust of its flock.
   The clergy abuse scandal that first erupted in Boston horrified parishioners not just because so many priests were found to have abused young people but because their crimes were hidden for years by church officials whose duty was to the families, not to disturbed priests. The diocese is now being sued into bankruptcy, and blameless parishioners face closure of their churches as officials seek to cut costs. The problem does not at this point appear to be as extensive in the Springfield diocese, but nowhere has it reached so high, as the Reverend Dupre is the highest Catholic prelate in the nation to be indicted for child rape.
   Warren E. Mason, a St. Michael's of Longmeadow parishioner and advocate for abuse victims, described the diocese as a "rats' nest of abusers" to The Republican of Springfield. As bishop, the Reverend Dupre showed little interest in pursuing allegations of abuse, including the many that trailed the Reverend Richard R. Lavigne, who became the first priest in the Springfield diocese to be involuntarily defrocked in January of this year. Bishop Dupre, who would resign a month later when allegations of his sexual abuse first emerged, was not in attendance for this major announcement as he was participating in an anti-abortion rally in Washington, D.C., which raises a related issue.
   The Catholic Church is active politically, which is its right. Bishop Dupre was one of many high-ranking Catholic officials who argued against instituting gay marriage in the state, even though the state Supreme Judicial Court ruling did not mean the Catholic Church or any other church would have to perform gay marriages. Church officials have also lectured Catholic politicians about their stands on abortion and other issues of interest to the church.
   The Catholic Church, however, has no credibility on these matters, and no standing to lecture on them, as long as it fails to seriously address its problem of sexually abusive priests and the officials who protect them by shuffling them from parish to parish. The Vatican should take more interest in this problem and concern itself less with American election issues. And the Catholic Church in Massachusetts should stay out of politics altogether until it cleans up its own house to the satisfaction of the parishioners it has failed so completely. #
• Area Catholics saddened by Dupre indictment [1970s Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.
   Berkshire Eagle, www.berkshireeagle.com/Stories/0,1413,101~7516~2433440,00.html , By Derek Gentile, Wednesday, September 29, 2004
   MASSACHUSETTS: Frustration, disappointment and resignation were the presiding emotions among area Catholics yesterday in the wake of the news that former Springfield Bishop Thomas Dupre had been indicted by a Springfield grand jury for sexually assaulting two boys in the 1970s.
   Hampden County District Attorney William Bennett announced late Monday that he would not prosecute the case because the statute of limitations had run out.
   "My heart aches for everyone involved," said the Rev. Michael Shershanovich, pastor of St. Joseph's Church. "I hurt for the bishop, I hurt for my church. It is appalling that this has happened."
   Dupre, said Shershanovich, was "well-received" in Berkshire County by his fellow priests when he visited, although he said he was unaware if the bishop had close friends in the area. [...]
   "I think most of the survivor community was bitterly disappointed by the final outcome of [Monday's] announcements," said Peter Pollard of Hatfield, the Western Massachusetts coordinator of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
   "The way the news came out was disappointing to us. There was a glimmer of hope early in the day that a priest would be held accountable, but then to find out that it would not be pursued was in some ways more disappointing than if we had known earlier."
   Pollard added that the statute of limitations "is a barrier that has left hundreds of priests walking the streets, able to apply for jobs as coaches, counselors and teachers without their employers being able to check their background accurately. And, since the Catholic Church has opted not to name many of these men, we don't even know who they are." ...
• Court rejects time limit on sodomy cases [1970s Graham] -- RCC.
   The Kansas City Star, By JIM SUHR, The Associated Press, Posted on Wed, Sep. 29, 2004
   ST. LOUIS (MO) - In a case that could have implications in Kansas City, a Missouri appeals court Tuesday affirmed its stance that no time limit applies to prosecuting someone for sodomy.
   The court upheld its ruling in the case of a Roman Catholic priest accused of child sex abuse in the 1970s.
   Given the latest 3-0 ruling by the Missouri Court of Appeals, the Rev. Thomas Graham's attorney plans to ask the Missouri Supreme Court to take up the case, which he said potentially was "of profound significance."
   "My understanding is that there are several prosecuting jurisdictions throughout Missouri who've been … awaiting a ruling on this," Art Margulis said.
An assistant St. Louis city prosecutor refused to speculate on whether the ruling, if upheld, would lead to more prosecutions.
• Diocese accused again in sex suit [1990-91 Gaffney] -- RCC. Transferred. 11th. Girl.
   The Morning Call, By Kathleen Parrish, September 29, 2004
   ALLENTOWN (PA): Another lawsuit has been filed against the Allentown Catholic Diocese, this one by a Berks County woman who claims she was sexually abused by a priest while attending Reading Central Catholic High School.
   In papers filed Tuesday in Berks County Court, Diana L. Vojtasek, 30, of Blandon alleges the Rev. James Gaffney repeatedly molested her in his car and office at Reading Central Catholic, where he was vice principal and disciplinarian.
   The abuse began in 1990 and continued for two years, she says in the suit.
   Gaffney is the 11th diocesan priest accused of abuse in 13 lawsuits filed in Lehigh, Berks and Schuylkill counties since January. Gaffney is not in active ministry, according to the diocese, and remains on leave.
   Previously, he was a pastor at Shenandoah Annunciation Blessed Virgin Mary Church from 1995 to 1999 and St. Patrick Church in Pottsville from 1999 to 2002. He was transferred to St. Jane Frances de Chantal Church, then in Wilson.
   According to Vojtasek, his transfer was soon after Reading Central Catholic officials learned about her allegation.
   Although Gaffney is accused in the suit, he is not named as a defendant because the two-year statute of limitations involving claims of sexual abuse has expired.
• New bishop probe possible [1970s Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.
   Republican, www.masslive.com/ hampfrank/republican/ index.ssf?/base/news- 2/109644394 7222290.xml ; By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com ; Wednesday, September 29, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA) - The two alleged sexual abuse victims of former Bishop Thomas L. Dupre are ready to cooperate with U.S., New Hampshire, New York and Canadian law enforcement officials if any decide to pursue their cases, according to the lawyer for the two men.
   Meanwhile, the status of the Vatican's investigation into allegations that Dupre abused the men beginning in the 1970s when they were minors remains unclear, while Dupre's whereabouts remain unknown to the public.
   Robert Sherman of Boston law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, which represents the two men, said his clients have grown in their resolve to have Dupre face criminal prosecution since the abuse was first made public seven months ago.
   "I don't have a sense of the timing or interest in prosecuting their cases in other states, but they are ready to cooperate," Sherman said yesterday.
   A day after Hampden County District Attorney William M. Bennett announced he could not prosecute two counts of rape against Dupre because the crimes fell outside the statute of limitations, his office yesterday began preparing information from a six-month grand jury investigation to share with other law enforcement officials.
• Law opens civil redress for sex abuse
   The Press-Enterprise, By MICHAEL FISHER, Wednesday, September 29, 2004
   CALIFORNIA: A new state law temporarily will allow adult victims of decades-old sexual abuse to sue even if criminal charges against the suspected perpetrator were dismissed or their convictions overturned due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year.
   Authorities say the measure approved last month by the Legislature and signed Friday by Gov. Schwarzenegger could revive an unknown number of lawsuits. Those cases had unraveled in June 2003 after the court struck down a state law that had allowed prosecutors to file criminal molestation charges after the six-year statute of limitations had expired.
   Beginning Jan. 1, adult victims of child molestation from decades ago will have one year to file a lawsuit against suspected molesters if a criminal case against that person was dismissed or overturned by that Supreme Court decision, said Alexandra Montgomery, consultant to the bill's author, Sen. Joseph Dunn, D-Garden Grove.
   Some victims had not sued before the statute of limitations allowing a lawsuit had expired in their cases, some of which date to 1960s or further. But state law permits a victim to sue the abuser up to one year after the offender is convicted of criminal charges, officials said.
!!!: Offender priest got outsource Masses [Holley] -- RCC. Mass money to psycho-sexual priest! Boys.
   Telegram & Gazette, by Kathleen A. Shaw, kshaw@telegram.com , TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF, Sep 29, 2004
   WORCESTER (MA) - Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan outsourced to the Rev. David A. Holley Masses that Catholics of the Worcester Diocese sought for special intentions while the priest was undergoing treatment in New Mexico for a psycho-sexual disorder.
   Rev. Holley is serving a long prison term in New Mexico for sexually abusing and raping eight boys there.
   The information about the Masses was in an affidavit that Rev. Holley, a priest of the Worcester Diocese, signed under oath in 1993 as part of a civil lawsuit brought in New Mexico by his victims in that state.
   The eight men alleged they were sexually abused by Rev. Holley in the Alamagordo area after he was sent to a now-defunct treatment center operated by the Servants of the Paraclete, a male religious order.
   "People in the Worcester Diocese would send in donations - usually $3 to $5 - for Masses to be said for a loved one," Rev. Holley said in the affidavit. "However, Worcester is a small diocese, and the priests there could not accommodate all the Mass intentions.
   "Therefore, Bishop Flanagan sent the donations and prayer requests to me in New Mexico with instructions that I, as a priest of the Worcester Diocese, pray for the Worcester parishioners by saying Masses for them in New Mexico to fulfill their spiritual intentions," he said.
   Rev. Holley said that while in New Mexico he regularly said these Masses "pursuant to Bishop Flanagan's instructions" in the Paraclete chapel in Albuquerque. Bishop Flanagan, who died in 1998, also sent Rev. Holley the Mass stipends - the offerings Catholics make for a Mass - and the Mass intentions.
   Raymond L. Delisle, spokesman for the diocese, said he could not speak for what may have happened back then, but that he does not believe the diocese is currently outsourcing Masses. The intent is for Mass intentions by parishioners to stay within their parish community, he said.
   More legal documents from the 1993 proceedings have surfaced recently because of Rev. Holley's attempt to get a parole from the prison at Los Lunas, N.M. He was granted parole in May and was awaiting assignment to an inpatient sex offender program in that state. However, after victims discovered they were not notified of the hearing, a new hearing was scheduled for Sept. 14 and Rev. Holley was denied parole.
   In his bid for freedom from his 55- to 275-year prison term, he wrote a letter to the parole board after the May hearing saying that he did not believe he should have to comply with any conditions they set for his release, such as attending the sex offender program or wearing an electronic monitoring device.
   Rev. Holley, who left the diocese in 1969 after allegations surfaced that he had abused boys in this area, was sent to the Paraclete center in New Mexico.
   The priest said he did not want to go to New Mexico and wanted to stay in the east, but went in "obedience" to the bishop.
   Rev. Holley said Bishop Flanagan ordered him out of Massachusetts, sent him to New Mexico in 1971 and sent him money for the plane fare.
   "It was clear to me that Bishop Flanagan was fearful that if I stayed in Massachusetts I would repeat the acts for which I had been in treatment, and that would, in turn, cause further scandal in the Diocese," he said.
   The Servants operated a retreat for troubled priests in Jimez Springs, N.M., but he never went there, he said. He was sent instead to what he described as a house on Pajarito Road in Albuquerque, N.M.
   "I was never taken to the Jimez Springs facility. I was never given a psychiatric or psychological evaluation, or a spiritual evaluation. No history of my problem was taken.
   "I participated in no therapy or treatment programs offered by Paraclete. I never met with a Paraclete psychiatrist or psychologist. I was simply told by the Superior at the Pajarito Road facility to see Dr. Donald Cummings at Lovelace once a week," he said.
   His treatment bills were paid by the diocese and he was financially supported during this time by the Worcester Diocese, he said.
   "Almost immediately after I arrived at Paraclete, I was given parish assignments for weekend work in the South Valley of Albuquerque," he said. [Emphasis added]
• Porter receiving care at Shattuck [1960s Porter] -- RCC.
   Boston Globe, September 29, 2004
   JAMAICA PLAIN (MA): James R. Porter, the former Catholic priest and convicted pedophile, is being treated for an undisclosed illness in the corrections unit of the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain, correction officials said.
   Porter was brought to the hospital for treatment at least four days ago from the Massachusetts Treatment Center for sexual predators in Bridgewater, a correction department official said.
   Porter was incarcerated at Bridgewater pending a civil trial on whether his convictions for molesting dozens of children in the 1960s while a priest assigned to the Fall River diocese should keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.
   Shattuck Hospital would not disclose Porter's condition when reached by phone last night.
• Time is up for statute [1976, '79 Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.
   Boston Globe, By Eileen McNamara, Globe Columnist, September 29, 2004
   MASSACHUSETTS: It is past time to eliminate the statute of limitations on sexual assault.
   Could there be a more Pyrrhic victory than the indictment this week of Bishop Thomas L. Dupre, former head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, in the rape of two children?
   No sooner had a grand jury indicted the first bishop in the United States to face criminal charges of child sexual abuse than the district attorney declared the crimes too old to prosecute. It was neither a welcome nor an arbitrary decision on the part of Hampden District Attorney William M. Bennett. The law tied his hands.
   The outcome in the Dupre case was no surprise to the frustrated victims or to their exasperated advocates. It mirrors scores of cases across the country in which the survivors of clergy sexual abuse have been denied access to the criminal justice system because time was on the side of their abusers.
   "Lawmakers should realize that the statute of limitations has become a refuge for dangerous men," David Clohessy, national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said of the Dupre decision. "It's a legal loophole leading to horrific but avoidable pain for many innocent children."
• A lesson on abuse [1976, '79 Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.
   Albany Times Union, Wednesday, September 29, 2004
   ALBANY (NY): The news from Massachusetts, where a grand jury found enough evidence to indict a retired Roman Catholic bishop on charges of raping two boys but a district attorney can't prosecute him because the statute of limitations has expired, is more than another sordid chapter in an unresolved national scandal. There's a lesson in the case of Bishop Thomas Dupre for New Yorkers to absorb.
   The injury and pain that sexual abuse brings, so often unending, is cruelly compounded by laws that restrict prosecution this way. It typically takes victims years to come forward, as was the case in the Springfield diocese of Massachusetts. The normal statute of limitations, just six years in Massachusetts, is inappropriate in every way.
   How different would a similar case be resolved in New York, though? State Sen. Thomas Duane, D-Manhattan, recognized this very problem more than a year ago. But the legislation he sponsored to lengthen the statute of limitations in sexual-abuse cases has gone nowhere.
   The indictment that District Attorney William Bennett obtained represents more than incomplete justice, however. Only a few years ago, it would have been unthinkable that a bishop would be forced to retire and then be formally charged with sexual abuse. No longer can such crimes, and allegations of such crimes, be covered up. The public, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, won't stand for it. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:12 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wed September 29, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont98.htm
• US bishop ducks sex charges. [1970s Dupre] -- RCC. Boys.

   The West Australian, Newsday, p 28, Wednesday, September 29, 2004
   BOSTON: A grand jury charged retired Massachusetts bishop Thomas Dupre, 70, with two counts of child rape based on the testimony of two men who had said they had been sexually abused as boys.
   He was the first Catholic bishop to be indicted in the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the United State Church.
   But only hours later, Hampden County District-Attorney William Bennett said he could not prosecute the bishop because the statute of limitations had long since expired.
   Bishop Dupre resigned abruptly on February 11, a day after reporters confronted him with allegations that he had abused two boys when they were between the ages of 12 and 17 while he was a parish priest in the 1970s. The men, whose names have not been made public, also filed a civil lawsuit against the long-time bishop and the Springfield diocese.
   Four other bishops in the US Catholic Church have resigned as a result of sexual misconduct. There have been at least a dozen grand jury investigations into bishops who knowingly moved child abusers to new parishes. But no bishop has been prosecuted for sexual abuse or conspiring to cover it up, in part because of statutes of limitations.
   The decision not to prosecute Bishop Dupre drew an angry response from victims' advocates, many of whom said that statues of limitations effectively protects child abusers.
   "To me it's a travesty after a grand jury brought back indictments," Catholic activist Warren Mason said.
   David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP], said the statute of limitations had become a refuge for dangerous men.
   "It's a legal loophole leading to horrific but avoidable pain for many innocent children," he said. "If we value our children, we must extend or eliminate this legal technicality."
   But others acknowledged the difficulties in proving two-decades old allegations. "There are reasons we develop statues of limitation," said David O'Brien, the Loyola professor of Catholic Affairs at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. "This happened a long time ago."
   Mr Bennett had held out the prospect of waiving the statute of limitations earlier this year if he found evidence of a cover-up that would have prevented witnesses from coming forward. But he said this week that the grand jury had found no such evident.
   Bishop Dupre's lawyer, Michael Jennings, said that he had filed two pleas of not guilty, as well as two motions to dismiss the case based on the statute of limitations.
   After his resignation for unspecified health problems, Bishop Dupre was admitted to the St Luke Institute in Silver Spring, Maryland, which specialises in treating Catholic clergy for mental disorders, including paedophilia.
   The victims' lawyer, Roderick MacLeish Jr, did not return calls. [Emphasis added]
   [COMMENT: "Unspecified health problems" my eye! He'd been exposed! Paedophilia a mental disorder? I thought it was a criminal and moral disorder. COMMENT ENDS.] [Sep 29, 04]
• Sex beast faces long jail term. [1991, 2000s Gorham] -- No religion link reported. Boys.

   The West Australian, by David Darragh, p 42, Wednesday, September 29, 2004,
   PERTH, Western Australia: A vicious repeat sex offender faces a possible indefinite jail term after he admitted a sex attack on a 12-year-old boy after luring the child to his Willagee home.
   Stewart Sinclair Gorham, 34, pleaded guilty in the District Court to seven counts of aggravated sexual penetration, three counts of indecent dealing, two counts of making threats to kill and one count each of assault with intent to commit an offence and deprivation of liberty.
   Gorham lured the child to his home and threatened to hill him if he did not perform sexual acts.
   State prosecutor Tiffany McArthur said the prosecution would seek to have Gorham jailed indefinitely.
   Judge Jane Crisford ordered psychiatric and pre-sentence reports and remanded Gorham in custody to be sentenced on December 14.
   Gorham has a long history of sexual and violent offences in WA and Victoria. He previously served a jail term for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old boy after bashing him unconscious in 1991.
   He lured the teenager out of a Jesus People hostel in the city on the pretext he was going to be taught how to survive a night on the streets. After they drank wine together in a Park in Wellington Street [Perth city], Gorham bashed him unconscious and sexually assaulted him.
   Gorham was released from jail just two months before the Willagee [Perth suburb] attack. After Gorham's arrest in February, Willagee residents were outraged when they leant that he had been staying at a United Church halfway house in the suburb. [Sep 29, 04]
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont98.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Thu September 30, 2004 edition follows:-
• Austrian bishop resigns; preempts Vatican announcement [Krenn] -- RCC. Seminary homosexuality, computer pornography.

   Catholic World News, www.cwnews.com/ news/viewstory. cfm?recnum=32475 , Sep. 30, 2004
   VATICAN, (CWNews.com) - A scandal-plagued Austrian bishop announced his resignation in an interview with a local newspaper on Thursday, and according to sources, violated a gag order imposed by the Vatican by making the announcement too soon.
   Bishop Kurt Krenn of St. Polten, [Poelten or Pöaut;lten is correct] Austria, told the newspaper Der Standard that he was resigning immediately as bishop of the diocese. The scandal erupted last month when local police arrested a Polish seminarian at the St. Polten seminary on charges of storing and disseminating child pornography on a computer at the school. Other photos found in the course of the investigation showing seminarians and priests kissing and groping were later obtained by a magazine and published.
   When Bishop Krenn dismissed the depicted activities as "boyish pranks" outrage erupted in Austria and Rome finally appointed an outside bishop as an independent investigator. That bishop ordered the seminary shut down pending the results of his investigation. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:25 PM]
• Austria bishop quits in sex row [Krenn] -- RCC.

   BBC News (Britain), http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3702490.stm
   AUSTRIA: A Roman Catholic bishop at the centre of a porn scandal involving clerics and student priests at an Austrian seminary is stepping down.
   Bishop Kurt Krenn, 68, was in overall charge of the seminary where investigators found thousands of lewd images, including child pornography.
   "Yes, I'm resigning immediately as bishop of St Poelten," he said in an interview with Der Standard newspaper.
   The affair has shocked Austria and embarrassed the Roman Catholic Church.
• Porn scandal rocks Austria's Catholics [Krenn] -- RCC.
   Ireland Online, 12:22:35, Sep/30/2004
   AUSTRIA: A Catholic bishop blamed for a seminary porn scandal that has rocked Austria’s church has resigned, Austrian media reported.
   Bishop Kurt Krenn, who had overall responsibility for the seminary where authorities found up to 40,000 lurid images on computers - including child pornography - sent a letter to Pope John Paul II saying he was stepping down, Austrian state radio said.
   The respected newspaper Der Standard quoted Krenn in today’s edition as saying: "Yes, I am resigning immediately as bishop of St. Poelten", the diocese 50 miles west of Vienna where the seminary is located.
   Neither Krenn nor diocesan officials were immediately available for comment. Austrian radio cited unidentified church leaders as saying a search already was under way for a successor to Krenn.
• Austrians Relieved Bishop Resigned [Krenn] -- RCC.
   Miami Herald, By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press
   VIENNA, Austria - An influential Roman Catholic lay organization expressed relief Thursday at the resignation of a bishop who oversaw a seminary where authorities found child pornography, calling it an "important first step" in rebuilding trust in Austria's scandalized church.
   We Are the Church, which claims to have 500,000 members and has condemned priest pedophilia and other scandals that have rocked the country's religious establishment over the past decade, had pressed for Bishop Kurt Krenn to step down or be fired.
   In an interview for Thursday's edition of the newspaper Der Standard, Krenn announced he was resigning with immediate effect as bishop of St. Poelten, the diocese 50 miles west of Vienna where the seminary is located.
   "Yes, I have stepped down, and as of now I am the former bishop of St. Poelten," Krenn told the newspaper.
   We Are the Church said it was "relieved" at the decision and called it "an important and inevitable first step for renewal in the diocese."
• Children rescued from porn network -- Pastor among accused.

   The Courier-Mail (Brisbane), www.news.com.au /common/story_page /0,4057,10933648% 255E952,00.html , by Tanya Moore and Paula Doneman for October 1, 2004
   BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA: Seven children have been rescued from ongoing sexual abuse in southeast Queensland and almost 200 people across the country have been arrested following an unprecedented national crackdown on Internet child pornography.
   Authorities yesterday revealed disturbing results from a massive police operation and said that hundreds more people were expected to face charges in coming days - with the eventual arrest total expected to surpass 400. [...]
   Tip-offs from US law enforcement agencies that Australians were downloading images from a Russian child Internet porn site launched the national three-month operation.
   Users of the sites would gain access through credit card payments. [...]
   Elsewhere across the nation, the arrests included a church pastor, an assistant to an MP, government officials and a Sydney doctor alleged to have used his surgery as a photographic studio for child porn. [...]
   Taskforce Argos also charged men with six counts of rape, 127 counts of indecent treatment of children and 17 counts of weapon related offences. One man, from the Logan City area, has been charged with repeated sexual attacks on six children in the greater Brisbane metropolitan area.
   Insp Huxley said the children were aged from five to 13. The youngest was four when first allegedly assaulted.
   The alleged attacker, 56, is now in custody and will appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on October 19.
   Another man was charged with raping a child, who was also from the Brisbane area.
   Insp Huxley said while he didn't want to "over-dramatise" the situation, the seven children had "been rescued from further abuse".
   He said while detectives had tried to single out some common factors for those involved in the offences only one surprising thing connected them.
   "You're talking about mostly married men with children," he said. "They are the predominant offenders.
   "They're not people with criminal records, they are in the community – you wouldn't know who they are."
(Picture-- ARREST ... a suspected paedophile, his face obscured by a jacket, is arrested by NSW police as he arrives at Sydney airport after a flight from Launceston.) [Emphasis added]
( See also The Courier-Mail, www.thecouriermail. news.com.au/ common/ story_page/0,5936, 10934241% 255E953,00.html )
• NY Lawyer Fights Disciplinary Probe -- Aretakis under attack.

   New York Lawyer, By John Caher, New York Law Journal, September 30, 2004
   ALBANY (NY) - An ethics complaint against attorney John A. Aretakis is raising questions about a disciplinary body's ability to litigate what amounts to a slander allegation, and the right of an attorney to publicly disseminate a misconduct complaint.
   Mr. Aretakis, a Manhattan and Albany area plaintiff's attorney specializing in clergy abuse cases, this week challenged the Third Department's Committee on Professional Standards.
   He contends the disciplinary agency has neither the jurisdiction nor the capacity to determine the validity of what at its core is a defamation action. And he also claims, contrary to the committee's position, that he has a right to make such a complaint public.
   The dispute stems from comments made by Mr. Aretakis at a May meeting of the Coalition of Concerned Catholics of the Albany Diocese, a conservative group that has been critical of the diocesan leadership.
• Porter on the mend after leg surgery [Porter] -- RCC.
   Taunton Gazette, By GREGG M. MILIOTE, Journal Register News Service, Sep/30/2004
   MASSACHUSETTS: Convicted child molester and former Diocese of Fall River priest James Porter is recovering from an undisclosed operation on his leg, several sources confirmed yesterday.
   Porter, who has been remanded to the Bridgewater State Hospital, was apparently transferred to the Lemuel Shattuck prison hospital in Jamaica Plain for the surgery.
   A spokesman for the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office said yesterday that his office has "received no official notification of Porter’s illness," but was able to confirm that he had been transferred from the mental facility in Bridgewater to the state prison hospital in Boston.
   But Porter’s wife, Anne Porter, told The Herald News of Fall River yesterday her husband has been going back and forth to the prison hospital for the past five months.
   "He’s doing very well now and is recovering nicely," she said. "I’ve been with him throughout this whole ordeal."
• Another View: Diocese of Manchester is protecting our children
   The Union Leader, By DIANE MURPHY QUINLAN, September 30, 2004
   NEW HAMPSHIRE: As a mother and faithful lay Catholic, I am troubled by the insinuation by The Union Leader that the church in New Hampshire has backed away from its commitments. I am proud of the work that has been done, and of the countless other laity who have assisted Bishop John McCormack, other diocesan officials, and me in doing the right thing.
   When he came to New Hampshire in 1998, Bishop McCormack made the safety of children in the church a pastoral priority. Since then and especially since 2002, the Diocese of Manchester has made promises to survivors of child sexual abuse, to the Catholic faithful, and to the people of New Hampshire to take steps to ensure a safe environment in the church for all people, especially children. Like me, hundreds of people including parents, survivors of child sexual abuse, mental health experts, priests and child protection experts - Catholics and non-Catholics - have worked diligently to ensure that the promises made by the diocese have been fulfilled. ...
• Child rape case renews appeal [Dupre] -- RCC.
   Boston Globe, By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff | September 30, 2004
   BOSTON (MA): A coalition of sexual abuse survivors and advocates for children renewed a call yesterday for state lawmakers to repeal the statue of limitations on child sexual abuse after a district attorney's decision to drop child rape charges against Bishop Thomas L. Dupre, retired leader of the Roman Diocese of Springfield.
   A Hampden County grand jury indicted Dupre on two counts of child rape Monday, but just a few hours later District Attorney William M. Bennett announced that he was dismissing the charges because they fell outside the six-year statute of limitations in force at the time of the alleged abuse. Dupre, who was accused of raping two boys on multiple occasions during the 1970s, is the first US bishop to face criminal charges, however briefly, of child sexual abuse.
   "The events of the last few days have fueled our resolve," said Jetta Bernier, executive director of Massachusetts Citizens for Children. "DA Bennett wanted to pursue this prosecution, but he was prevented from doing so."
   Last year, at the height of the clergy sexual abuse scandal, the same group of advocates sought to have the Legislature abolish the statute of limitations in cases of child rape and serious abuse, which is currently 15 years.
   Carmen Durso, a Boston lawyer who has represented dozens of clergy sexual abuse victims, called the current statue of limitations inadequate and said that a survey he conducted of 30 of his clients found that they had waited an average of 32 years before coming forward to report their abuse.
• Priest's lawyers: Dismiss lawsuit [1970s Leonard] -- RCC. Boy in pre-seminary.
   Times-Dispatch, BY ALBERTA LINDSEY, Sep 30, 2004
   VIRGINIA: Lawyers will be in Virginia Beach Circuit Court tomorrow arguing about the future of a lawsuit against a Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a minor about 30 years ago.
   Lawyers for the priest, the Rev. John E. Leonard, and the Catholic Diocese of Richmond have asked the court to dismiss the suit because the statute of limitations has expired.
   Last October, William Bruce Jeter filed a $5.35 million lawsuit against Leonard. The suit alleged that Jeter was sexually abused and assaulted in the mid-1970s by the priest while Jeter was a student at St. John Vianney Seminary, a diocesan high school in Goochland County for boys planning to enter the priesthood. Leonard was on the school's faculty. The school closed in 1978.
   Leaders of a national support group for victims of clergy molestation have called on the bishop of the Richmond diocese to withdraw the motion before tomorrow's 9:30 a.m. court hearing.
• 8 file abuse suit against diocese -- [1978 Karabin, etc.] Altar boys, female.
   Tribune-Review, By David Conti, Thursday, September 30, 2004
   PITTSBURGH (PA): Seven former altar boys and one woman on Wednesday filed the latest lawsuits against the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, alleging sexual abuse by priests and a cover-up by the diocese.
   Twenty-five other people have filed similar lawsuits against the diocese this year. The latest accusers include a Duquesne man who said in papers filed yesterday that he told Bishop Donald Wuerl in 1992 that the Rev. Joseph Karabin had molested him in 1978, a charge the diocese denied.
   "There is something wrong with a system that would allow priests to prey on victims like this," said Alan H. Perer, one of the attorneys representing the 33 men and women to sue the diocese this year.
   Diocese spokesman the Rev. Ronald P. Lengwin quickly dismissed the validity of yesterday's lawsuits, saying in a written statement that the complaints are "nothing more than another step in a publicity campaign by these attorneys to gain notoriety for litigation regarding a conspiracy that never existed." [Emphasis added]
• Priest Is Offered Plea Deal To Settle Sex-Assault Case [Kramek] -- RCC.

   Hartford Courant, www.ctnow.com/ news/local/hc- nebkramek0930. artsep30,1,208295. story?coll= hc-headlines-local ; By JOANN KLIMKIEWICZ, September 30, 2004
   NEW BRITAIN (CT) -- A visiting priest from Poland charged with molesting a teenage girl who sought his counseling after an alleged rape was offered a plea agreement Wednesday.
   Details of the offer made in Superior Court for the Rev. Roman Kramek, 42, were not disclosed. Kramek's attorney, William Dow, would not discuss the offer, which would close the case before trial. Nor would New Britain State's Attorney Scott J. Murphy.
   Six of Kramek's supporters were in court. Judge Susan B. Handy explained to Kramek that the state had offered him a plea agreement, but did not disclose its details in court.
   Kramek will be back in court on Nov. 3 to accept or reject the offer. Rejection means the case goes to trial.
   "And trust me sir, it does not get better," Handy said.
• Ex-priest admits abusing more than a dozen boys [1960s-70s O'Donnell, Beaver] -- RCC. Boys.
   Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://seattlepi. nwsource.com/local/193127_ priest30.html , THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Thursday, September 30, 2004
   SPOKANE (WA) -- A former Roman Catholic priest and key figure in the Spokane sexual abuse scandal has acknowledged in depositions he molested more than a dozen boys and was himself molested by another priest.
   In depositions conducted in Seattle in July and August, Patrick O'Donnell conceded he molested boys during Boy Scout outings as well as in church rectories and other places in Spokane, northern Idaho and Seattle.
   The depositions were obtained by The Spokesman-Review, which published a story in its editions yesterday.
   The depositions apparently were taken by lawyers to buttress their argument that Catholic bishops were aware of O'Donnell's activities but took no steps to protect children.
   O'Donnell, who now lives in the Seattle area, is a defendant in four civil lawsuits by about 25 plaintiffs who allege he sexually abused them as minors.
   O'Donnell was ordained in the Spokane Diocese in 1971, but left the priesthood in 1985 and later became a psychologist in Bellevue.
   In his July 7 deposition, O'Donnell said he was fondled as a seminarian by the Rev. Reinard Beaver, another Spokane Diocese priest who was removed from ministry in 1988 for abusing minors.
   Beaver, 75, now lives in Steilacoom outside Tacoma and is the defendant in two abuse suits filed in Spokane County. Beaver declined to comment on O'Donnell's allegation yesterday, except to say he didn't meet O'Donnell until he was an adult. [...]
   In his sworn depositions, O'Donnell said he molested three minors while he was a seminarian in the late 1960s. He said he talked with his spiritual advisers about one of the cases in 1968 and went to therapy for many years. #
• New sex abuse lawsuits filed in Pittsburgh -- RCC.
   Philadelphia Daily News, Daily News Wire Services
   PITTSBURGH (PA) - Eight people who say they were sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests sued the Pittsburgh diocese yesterday.
   The people, who ranged in age from 8 to 15 when the alleged abuse began, filed civil suits in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court against the diocese, Bishop Donald Wuerl and Philadelphia's former archbishop, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua. Bevilacqua headed Pittsburgh's diocese before taking over Philadelphia's.
   The alleged abusers are not named in the suits because the statute of limitations to file such claims against them has expired.
   Lawyers representing the victims said the diocese protected and reassigned priests who were involved in abusing children.
   Alan Perer, an attorney representing the alleged victims, said the new cases bring the number of lawsuits against the diocese regarding priest abuse to 33.
• Priest who served in Valley sued over alleged sex abuse [1990-91 Gaffney ] -- RCC.
   The Express-Times, By PRECIOUS PETTY, Thursday, September 30, 2004
   PENNSYLVANIA: A clergyman who once served at an Easton-area church has been accused of sexual abuse in a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Allentown Diocese.
   In the Berks County lawsuit, Diana L. Vojtasek of Blandon, Pa., alleges the Rev. James Gaffney molested her while she was a student at Reading Central Catholic High School, where he served as vice principal and disciplinarian.
   Vojtasek, now 30, claims the abuse began in 1990 when she was 16 and continued for two years.
   Gaffney was transferred to St. Jane Frances de Chantal, then in Wilson Borough, soon after diocese officials learned of the alleged abuse, according to the lawsuit. He continued to initiate sexual contact between himself and Vojtasek while there until he was reassigned again in 1995, the suit says.
   After leaving St. Jane Frances de Chantal, which has since moved to Palmer Township, Gaffney served as the assistant pastor at two Schuylkill County churches, diocese spokesman Matt Kerr said. He is currently on leave and has not been in active ministry since 2002, Kerr said.
• Church 'must talk to experts' over sex abuse allegations

   Irish Independent www.unison.ie/ irish_independent/ stories.php3?ca= 9&si=1259041 &issue_id=11477
   IRELAND: The Catholic Church must consult professional experts as a matter of policy when making decisions about how to respond to clerical sex abuse allegations, the National Conference of Priests of Ireland has insisted.
   The stance by the NCPI puts them at odds with the hierarchy, the Conference of Religious of Ireland and the Irish Missionary Union, all of whom are resisting a recommendation from their own working group on new child-protection procedures that they must refer child abuse allegations to teams of professionals.
   Fr John Littleton, president of the NCPI, said it would be "a great sin" if a way out of the impasse was not found.
   He told the Irish Independent: "Priests in Ireland want proper child-protection procedures introduced once and for all. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:26 AM]
   [COMMENT: Who could be an "expert" about what the Churches call sin, except those Church leaders who have been filled with the Holy Spirit? So, shouldn't Church leaders be looking in the mirror and asking when they or their organisation ceased being Spirit-filled? The RCC in the USA consulted supposed "experts," some of whom were not straight down the line on doctrine. They told the bishops they could cure priest deviates. The early Christians didn't have experts, but they did have a policy of expulsion and avoidance. COMMENT ENDS.]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thu September 30, 2004
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