EAST CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Court TV
By Emanuella Grinberg
Court TV
EAST CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Prosecutors rested their child rape case against defrocked priest Paul Shanley by calling his accuser's Sunday School classmates, who offered the only testimony to corroborate the accuser's claims of abuse 15 years ago.
Four of his peers from catechism class at St. John's Parish in Newton, where Shanley was assigned in the 1980s, testified that the accuser was part of a "rowdy" group of boys often sent from class to visit Shanley for disciplinary action.
"The best word I can use is very chaotic, it was hard to pay attention," Kerry Lessard testified of the classroom environment.
"The three boys seemed to get in a lot of trouble," Christine Michelon said.
The three boys were all included in the indictment against Shanley in June 2002. In an effort to "streamline" the case, prosecutors dropped the other accusers from the indictment, letting stand just the charges pertaining to one accuser.
GHANA
Ghana Web
Accra, Jan. 31, GNA - A 44-year old Nigerian Pastor accused of fondling with the breast of a 12 year-old girl resulting in injury has appeared before an Accra District Magistrate's Court charged with indecent assault.
Joseph Okafor, the Pastor, pleaded not guilty and the Court admitted him to a 10 million cedis bail to reappear on February 16.
Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector Alice Yeboah told the court that Okafor was in charge of the United Faith Church at Dome, Pillar Two, in Accra while the Victim is a member of the Church.
Chief Inspector Yeboah said on November 25, 2004 the Victim's mother detected that the she was unable to sleep during the night and asked her why she could not sleep.
The victim showed her swollen left breast with a sore on it to her mother and alleged that Okafor had been fondling with her breasts anytime she attended church service.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By DENISE LAVOIE
AP Legal Affairs Writer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.— A psychologist testifying in the child rape trial of defrocked priest Paul Shanley said Monday that it's not uncommon for adults who suffer trauma as children to repress memories of the experience.
Shanley's accuser, now a 27-year-old firefighter, says he remembered in early 2002 that he'd been repeatedly raped and molested by the former priest from 1983 to 1989 at a Newton parish. Shanley's lawyer has questioned the science behind repressed memory, also known as dissociative amnesia.
The condition is "not common, but it's not at all rare," said prosecution witness Dr. James Chu, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School.
He said repressed memory is more common among people who suffered repeated trauma as children than in those who suffered a single traumatic event.
"It really is more this repeated trauma that tends to be forgotten by some mechanism," Chu said.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Union-Tribune
By Denise Lavoie
ASSOCIATED PRESS
12:55 p.m. January 31, 2005
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Prosecutors wrapped up their case against defrocked priest Paul Shanley on Monday after a psychologist testified that it is not uncommon for adults who suffer trauma as children to repress memories of the experience.
Shanley's accuser, now a 27-year-old firefighter, says he remembered in early 2002 that he had been repeatedly raped and molested by the former priest from 1983 to 1989 at a parish outside Boston. Shanley's lawyer has questioned the science behind repressed memory.
The condition is "not common, but it's not at all rare," said prosecution witness Dr. James Chu, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School.
He said repressed memory is more common among people who suffered repeated trauma as children than in those who suffered a single traumatic event.
Under cross-examination by Shanley's lawyer, Frank Mondano, Chu acknowledged that there is an intense debate within the psychiatric community about the validity of repressed memories. He also conceded that false memories can be implanted in a person's mind through repeated suggestions by someone they trust.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Turnto10.com
POSTED: 5:25 pm EST January 31, 2005
UPDATED: 6:02 pm EST January 31, 2005
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The state has rested its case in the child rape trial of defrocked priest Paul Shanley. Earlier Monday, an expert in so-called "repressed memory" took the stand.
Testifying for the prosecution, psychiatrist James Chu said it was unusual but not rare for adults who were traumatized as children to repress memories of that trauma.
Under cross-examination, however, Chu acknowledged there is intense debate in the psychiatric community about repressed memory.
After prosecutors called their final witness, Judge Stephen Neel threw out one of the three child rape charges.
FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram
By Melody McDonald
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH - An indictment has been returned against a 55-year-old former pastor alleging that he sexually abused six males over a 14-year period, many inside his Westside Victory Baptist Church.
On Friday, a Tarrant County grand jury returned seven separate indictments against the Rev. Larry Nuell Neathery, accusing him of sexual misconduct from 1990 to 2004.
Those alleged to be his victims include:
* A 13-year-old church member who says Neathery sexually assaulted him several times in late 2003 and early 2004.
* An adult who says Neathery fondled him as a youth in 1990 and, later, tried to sexually assault him as an adult in 2003.
* A juvenile who alleges that Neathery befriended him and then exposed himself in early 2002.
* Three brothers -- then ages 7, 11, and 12 -- who accuse Neathery of varying degrees of sexual misconduct.
Neathery, who resigned as pastor of the Westside Victory Baptist Church in December, remains in Tarrant County Jail awaiting trial.
ROME
Catholic World News
Rome, Jan. 31 (CWNews.com) - In a message to the Legionaries of Christ, Pope John Paul II (bio - news) has conveyed his regards to the founder of that movement, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, and to his successor.
Father Maciel stepped down last week as head of the Legionaries, declining re-election at the meeting of the group's chapter general. Father Alvaro Corcuera was selected to replace him. The Pope's message, issued January 31, acknowledged the change in leadership, but said that the Legionaries should continue on the same path. The Legionaries, the Pontiff said, should continue to provide intellectual and spiritual formation for young people, while respecting their freedom and personal responsibility.
The decision by Father Maciel to remove himself from leadership came at a sensitive time, shortly after reports that Vatican officials were re-examining sexual abuse charges against the Mexican priest. Father Maciel and the Legionaries have denied the charges, and the Legionaries said that their founder stepped down because of age. Father Maciel is now 84, and another 12-year term as head of the congregation would make him 96 years old before the next scheduled meeting of the chapter general.
NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News
By Brendan McDaid
31 January 2005
THE decision to allow a Londonderry priest to stay in office despite a sexual assault allegation has been "vindicated", the Bishop of Derry has claimed.
In a highly unusual step, Catholic Bishop, Dr Seamus Hegarty took over weekend Mass at St Patrick's Church, Dungiven - the parish where the priest involved, Fr Andy McCloskey, had served.
Defending the decision from the pulpit, Bishop Hegarty told those gathered that Fr McCloskey had ministered in Dungiven as a "broken, wounded man".
He added: "Fr McCloskey came to you within a few months of his having received treatment for his problem with alcohol.
"It is a further tribute to all of your priests, past and present, and you the people of the parish, that you have contributed so effectively to his recovery.
"The decision to reinstate Fr McCloskey in ministry in 1993 has been vindicated by the quality of his ministry since then."
ARIZONA
East Valley Tribune
By Gary Grado, Tribune
The cost of defending lawsuits against priests sent behind bars for sex offenses keeps rising for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix.
Since December 2002, when the first of eight priests was indicted after a yearlong investigation, at least 14 lawsuits have been filed against the diocese alleging sexual misconduct.
The latest involves Monsignor Dale Fushek, pastor of St. Timothy Catholic Community in Mesa. On Friday, the Rev. Karl LeClaire became the third priest to plead guilty and to be sentenced for his crimes.
Diocese officials refuse to disclose how much they are paying the private law firms defending the cases, but insist their finances are in good shape.
"The diocesan resources and insurance resources are sufficient to resolve these cases," said Mike Haran, diocesan attorney. Insurance will cover some of the cases, but not all, he added.
In September 2003, Archbishop Michael Sheehan said allegations of sexual abuse of minors by priests had cost the diocese $2.7 million in settlements, legal fees, counseling for victims and other costs.
STOCKTON (CA)
Record
By Jeffrey M. Barker
Record Staff Writer
Published Sunday, January 30, 2005
STOCKTON -- A lawsuit charging a former Stockton priest with molesting two girls while visiting their home has been scheduled for trial next month in San Joaquin County Superior Court.
The suit against the Rev. Francis Arakal and the Diocese of Stockton accuses the priest of fondling two girls in 2001. It also charges another priest and the church with reacting inappropriately when one of the girls attempted to report the molestation.
"Very rarely do these cases get to the point where trials are set," said Anthony Boskovich, a San Jose attorney representing the two girls, who are sisters, and their mother. All three live in Hughson.
Arakal is listed as a parochial vicar for St. Joseph's Church in Modesto.
Attorneys for the Stockton diocese -- Paul Balestracci and Vladimir Kozina, both of Stockton -- and for Arakal, Michael Coughlan of Stockton, each declined to comment on the case.
NORTHERN IRELAND
One in Four
Irish Independent
THE Bishop of Derry, Rev Seamus Hegarty, told parishioners in Dungiven, Co Derry, yesterday that their curate, who has been given leave of absence as the result of a sex abuse allegation, was a broken, wounded man.
Fr Andrew McCloskey (55), had admitted during masses in St Patrick's Church, Dungiven, eight days ago that he was the un-named priest reported to have paid an out-of-court settlement earlier this month to a man who claimed he had made sexual advances to him in 1992.
The €15,000 payment was made without any admission of liability. Fr McCloskey said that in 1992 he was an alcoholic. The injured party claimed that the incident occurred when he was 19 years of age after he'd gone to the priest seeking counselling.
Fr McCloskey was administrator of St Mary's Parish in the Creggan area of Derry and the incident is alleged to have taken place in the parochial house.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
The Leadership
On this page, experts on trauma and memory will offer commentary on issues that are being raised by the criminal trial of Paul Shanley --the former Boston priest who has been charged with child rape. This is not a forum where we will speculate on guilt or innocence. Those are issues for the jury to decide. Instead, we will attempt to use our expertise to respond to important issues or questions that are being raised by the case.
SWAMPSCOTT (MA)
Lynn Daily Item
By Debra Glidden
Monday, January 31, 2005
SWAMPSCOTT - Parishioners at St. John the Evangelist Church consoled one another and expressed disbelief over allegations made against their former pastor, who resigned on Friday after allegations were made he tried to solicit sex for a fee.
At the 10 a.m. Mass at St. John the Evangelist on Sunday, which was attended by more than 200 people and presided over by Monsignor Paul Garrity of St. Mary's Church, the mood among parishioners as they entered the church.
The Rev. Jerome Gillespie, 55, who was sent to St. John's in September, is scheduled to appear in Chelsea District Court on Feb. 17 to face charges of enticement of a child under age 16, solicitation of sex for a fee, and annoying and accosting a person of the opposite sex. He is alleged to have propositioned a 12-year-old girl and her mother at a Chelsea restaurant last Tuesday night.
The parishioners at the Sunday morning service said they doubt the allegation.
LOUISIANA
Times-Picayune
Monday, January 31, 2005
By Gwen Filosa
Staff writer
Confession is sacred in the Catholic Church, each spoken word sealed forever by the rules of Rome.
If a priest were to divulge what he hears in a confession -- even the admission of a murder -- it would amount to a mortal sin, church law says. Punishment in this world includes excommunication.
Louisiana law also takes the act of spiritual guidance into consideration in criminal cases, and not for Catholics only. The "clergyman's privilege" is the right to keep what is said in such religious meetings confidential.
But the law isn't going to help two young men from New Orleans accused of robbing and shooting a cabdriver in 2002, the Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled.
The minister whom two cousins trusted cannot be stopped from taking the witness stand to repeat a purported confession of the cabbie attack, the court said. The 6-1 decision saves the case from the legal dustbin at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, because the minister remains the state's central witness.
HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle
By RICHARD VARA
Houston Chronicle
Despite overcast skies and chilling winds, more than 1,200 Roman Catholic clergy and laity turned out Sunday to celebrate a ground blessing for a new $32 million cathedral for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.
The event was celebrated with choirs, a brass ensemble and a colorful procession of robed clergy, altar servers and teens carrying banners.
Work is scheduled to begin immediately on the 1,820-seat cathedral, with completion in 28 months.
"I am so grateful that so many of you are here to ask God, with me, to place his particular blessing upon this square block upon which will be built the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart," Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza said. ...
Fiorenza said Sunday that he had hoped to be dedicating the cathedral at this time but acknowledged that several events during the four-year capital campaign had intervened and forced a downsizing ofplans.
"First came Sept. 11, a terrible blow to this country and to our hearts," Fiorenza said. "Then there was the collapse of Enron and other large companies based in Houston. The economy began to go south.
"We had to face the terrible tragedy in the church of the clerical sexual abuse of minors."
AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
By Linda Morris
February 1, 2005
In a rare personal message, the Pope has appealed to Australia's Catholic lawyers to defend the rights of the unborn and aged.
Conferring his blessing on the St Thomas More Society, the Catholic lawyers' association, the Pope John Paul II urged its members to defend the "inviolable dignity and rights of every human being - from conception until natural death".
The message came as the society marked its 60th anniversary at St Mary's Cathedral with a "Red Mass" to mark the start of the legal year. The mass was celebrated in the presence of three cardinals and before some of the state's most senior judges, barristers and solicitors.
The society, named for the lawyer and politician beheaded by Henry VIII in 1535 for refusing to accept the king's claim to be supreme head of the English church, has quietly lobbied for changes to the abortion laws.
The society has also opposed euthanasia and advised on the Catholic Church's formal protocol for dealing with sexual abuse claims. Most recently, it argued for the NSW Government to give legal protection to foetuses and is now urging Federal Parliament to hold the line on banning the use of embryos in stem-cell research.
TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
NOBODY likes to have their dirty laundry aired in public, and certainly Toledo would prefer to be thrust onto the national stage for its contributions to jazz or its place in industrial history rather than for its part in the national clergy-abuse scandal. Sometimes, however, as in the case of the documentary Twist of Faith, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival recently, it is painfully necessary.
The movie, by veteran filmmaker Kirby Dick, is about the sex-abuse scandal that rocked the Toledo Catholic Diocese, seen primarily through the anguish of one man, Toledo firefighter Tony Comes, who claims he was abused as a teen by Toledo priest Dennis Gray.
Mr. Gray, who left the priesthood in 1987, was forced to step down as dean of students at Rogers High School in September, 2002, after The Blade revealed allegations of sexual misconduct while he was a priest. He denied the allegations.
Most of the cases against the diocese were settled out of court and Mr. Comes received a $55,000 settlement.
ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union
By MIKE GOODWIN, Staff writer
First published: Monday, January 31, 2005
Edward N. Leroux, one of the first priests removed from ministry by the Albany Catholic Diocese for child sexual abuse, has died. He was 75.
Leroux died at Glens Falls Hospital on Jan. 16 after a brief illness. Though he removed Leroux from active ministry, Bishop Howard Hubbard officiated at the fallen priest's funeral at St. Mary's Church in Glens Falls.
Leroux and five others priests were removed by the Albany diocese leadership in June 2002. They were the first area clergy forced out of the ministry after the U.S. Conference of Bishops adopted a strict policy weeks earlier that banned all priests with any known history of abusing minors.
John Aretakis, an attorney for at least three men who claim they were abused by Leroux in the late 1970s and early 1980s, said his clients felt cheated because they will never be able to confront their abuser. Aretakis said one of Leroux's victims was 12 at the time of the abuse and the other two were 14 when it began.
WORCESTER (MA)
Worcester Voice
A review of Worcester Superior Court case # WOCV1995-00267, which is contained in four folders and thousands of pages of legal filings, contains information so disturbing that the previously unknown facts need to be told.
A new link has been added to the Worcester Voice web site called Notre Dame Academy.
Notre Dame Academy is a college preparatory school for young women and their web site said that their education should prepare students for their role as Christian women. In 1995, the school was location of sexual abuse allegations by a 14-year-old female student who said she was sexual abused by the music teacher, Mr. Kallin Johnson.
The Worcester Voice goal is not to comment on the guilt of innocence of the accused teacher. The intent here is to expose the carefully calculated campaign by this private Roman Catholic school, which exists in the Worcester Diocese, to discredit the female student before the facts were known. To show the power of Notre Dame Academy and the Worcester Diocese, along with their unlimited dollars, to apply the staunchest defense of the accused teacher.
"Everything she's suffered as a result of his conduct, they now want to use against her," said Boston lawyer Wendy Murphy. "It's your basic "nuts and sluts' defense: She's made it up before, and she's crazy. But she has no motivation to lie. Nothing good has come from this. On the contrary, she's been shunned by the school," Ms. Murphy was quoted as saying.
The Massachusetts Department of Social Services supported the sexual abuse allegation against Mr. Johnson after a January 19, 1995 child abuse investigation. Mr. Johnson was then placed on the DSS central registry as a sex offender, according to Attorney Murphy. Mr. Johnson was never removed from his teaching position in 1995 by Notre Dame Academy and continues to teach there today.
VATICAN CITY
Zenit
VATICAN CITY, JAN. 30, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Officials of the U.S. bishops' conference and the Holy See will meet here to analyze the application of norms adopted in the wake of the clerical sex-abuse scandals.
Joaquín Navarro Valls, director of the Vatican press office, made the announcement Saturday.
"On January 31 and February 1, as expected, the Mixed Commission will meet in the Vatican to examine the application of the norms of cases of accusation of sexual abuse of minors," he said in a statement.
"The commission is made up of delegates of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and representatives of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia," he said.
NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News
A Catholic bishop has praised parishoners for the way they responded to their local priest who is at the centre of sex abuse allegations.
Dr Seamus Hegarty told parishioners at St Patrick's Church, Dungiven, on Sunday that he admired and commended their understanding and forgiveness.
Last week, Father Andy McCluskey told the congregation that he was behind a sex abuse allegation 12 years ago.
He told them he had made a mistake for which he was paying dearly.
Dr Hegarty also prayed for the man who made the allegations against Fr McCluskey.
It is understood a five figure compensation pay-out had been made without admission of liability.
ALASKA
Fairbanks News-Miner
By CHRIS TALBOTT
Staff Writer
The attorney for the Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska has requested that a Bethel Superior Court judge move the trial of a former priest accused of sexual abuse out of the southwestern Alaska town.
In his motion, Bob Groseclose asked Judge Dale Curda to consider holding the Nov. 15 trial in Anchorage or Nome, two locations he said better fit the civil suit filed by Jane Doe 1 against the Rev. James Poole.
Chief among his complaints about a trial in Bethel was the expense of flying the accused and his accuser, their lawyers and witnesses to the Kuskokwim River Delta rather than the more centrally located Anchorage. Short of the state's largest city, Groseclose also argued that Nome is a more fitting trial site since most of the abuse Jane Doe 1 accuses Poole of occurred in that Bering Sea coast town.
"What the Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska wants is to be treated like litigants are generally treated at trial," Groseclose said. "We don't want to travel to Bethel if there is no reason to."
In his response, Jane Doe attorney Ken Roosa produced a list of 50 potential witnesses who live in the Bethel district. Roosa wrote that Bethel is more appropriate because some of the charges Jane Doe made occurred in the Bethel area and the Fairbanks Diocese, one of four defendants, is based within the state's 4th Judicial District.
SWAMPSCOTT (MA)
Boston Globe
By Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff | January 30, 2005
SWAMPSCOTT -- Parishioners at St. John the Evangelist Church expressed a mixture of sadness and sympathy yesterday for their former pastor who resigned Friday after accusations that he propositioned a 12-year-old girl and her mother for sex while dining at a Chelsea restaurant.
"It's a sad day," said Flo DiPietro, a 53-year-old parishioner. "He is such a good man, he lifted this parish up."
The Rev. Jerome Gillespie, 55, who had served the Catholic parish for only seven months, is scheduled to appear in Chelsea District Court on Feb. 17 to face charges of enticement of a child under age 16, solicitation of sex for a fee, and accosting a person of the opposite sex, police said.
Chelsea police issued the summons on Friday, the same day the Archdiocese of Boston said Gillespie had resigned as pastor of the North Shore parish. Gillespie is alleged to have propositioned the girl and her mother at about 9 p.m. Tuesday while dining at Floramo's, a popular Chelsea restaurant.
At 4 p.m. Mass yesterday, Auxiliary Bishop Francis X. Irwin was in attendance in an effort to reassure parishioners.
"A terrible tragedy has hit this parish," Irwin told the silent congregation. "One so full of promise and vitality is gone from our midst. There is nothing I can say."
But Irwin offered his personal support for Gillespie, whom he said he had known for years and spoke with twice on Friday. "I did admire and do like Father Gillespie," he said. "I tried to give him encouragement."
Irwin made reference to recent pressure in Gillespie's life.
WISCONSIN
Duluth News Tribune
BY KEVIN HARTER AND ALEX FRIEDRICH
ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS
When he was assigned to a cluster of churches around Hurley, Wis., last August, everything seemed to come together for the Rev. Ryan Erickson.
Four years after fulfilling his boyhood dream of becoming a priest, the 31-year-old had his own parish.
Clad in a traditional cassock, he conducted Masses in a style comforting to his older parishioners but with an energy and flair that drew the younger crowd as well. Attendance at worship increased by 50 percent.
He seemed happy, friends said, trading practical jokes with the church staff and getting a dog -- a golden retriever mix he named Beast.
But in early November, his life started to unravel when investigators from Hudson, Wis., arrived to question him about a double homicide at the O'Connell Family Funeral Home in Hudson in 2002 -- during the time he served a church there.
He denied any involvement, but the questioning rattled him, friends said. Five weeks after investigators first met with him, he hanged himself from a fire escape outside the Hurley rectory.
All of a sudden, the public learned he was a "person of interest" in the Hudson slayings and, a few weeks later, that he also had been questioned by Hudson police about a possible crime involving one or more minors. No details were given on the case involving minors.
TUCSON (AZ)
MSNBC
By Stephanie Innes, Arizona Daily Star
Azstarnet.comTucsonAZUSA - In the four months since the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson filed for federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the case has amassed bills of nearly $800,000 for attorney and other business fees, according to recent court filings.
Bankruptcy experts say the tally of expenses in the case so far - $791,036 in what is mostly legal fees - is in keeping with that expected in a Chapter 11 case, although future expenses will depend on how long the case is in the court system.
An attorney working on the Chapter 11 case of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., estimates that case's bankruptcy expenses are significantly higher than Tucson's so far - partly because the Portland archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 protection July 7, slightly more than two months before the Tucson diocese did.
There were no estimates available last week on bankruptcy costs for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane, which filed for bankruptcy protection less than two months ago.
The Tucson diocese filed for federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization Sept. 20 in the face of 22 pending legal actions alleging sexual abuse of children by priests. The court has set a deadline of April 15 for those who believe they were sexually abused by a diocese priest to file a claim. The Chapter 11 plan could be approved this year if all the creditors can agree.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
The Daily Free Press
By Danny Lauridsen
Published: Friday, January 28, 2005
Article Tools: Page 1 of 1
An alleged sexual abuse victim took the stand twice Thursday at Middlesex Court in Cambridge to testify against Paul Shanley, a 74-year-old former Catholic priest from St. Jean's parish in Newton, who is facing three charges of raping a child and two charges of indecent assault and battery on a child.
During the second day of cross-examination, the accuser, a 27-year-old Newton firefighter, answered questions from defense attorney Frank Mondano, who said the alleged victim's memories of sexual abuse were unreliable because they had been repressed until January 2001.
Mondano focused on the accuser's history of substance abuse and gambling addiction.
The accuser admitted to using steroids for about eight years, between the ages of 16 and 24, blaming Shanley for his "poor self-image."
"People said I wasn't fat," he said, adding that because of Shanley, "I thought I was. [Taking steroids] just made me feel better about myself."
The accuser said he sometimes used multiple steroids while he was a military police officer for the Air Force in Colorado and while he played semi-professional baseball in Tallahassee, Fla. He said Shanley ruined his aspirations to play professionally.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Boston Globe
By Eileen McNamara, Globe Columnist | January 30, 2005
The Cambridge courtroom in which Paul R. Shanley is being tried for the rape and sexual abuse of a child will become a political forum as well as a judicial arena this week when testimony turns to the reliability of human memory.
The tears of the now 27-year-old accuser during his testimony last week against the defrocked Catholic priest were no more than a manipulation by an avaricious charlatan, according to the defense, which wants the jury to dismiss as junk science the notion that people can forget traumatic events. Those tears were no less than a manifestation of the pain of a little boy who was molested for years by a trusted parish priest, according to the prosecution, which wants the jury to believe that the sexual abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston triggered his long-dormant memories.
It is hard to think of a topic that incites more passion and less insight than the often-ugly public debate about the role of memory in sexual abuse cases. That science has yet to definitively explain the mysteries of how the mind stores and retrieves our memories has not made partisans more humble in their view; it has only fueled their fury to debunk the opposition. The Shanley case is unlikely to settle the matter.
Prominent on the witness list for the defense is the memory researcher whom Psychology Today magazine once dubbed "the diva of disclosure." Elizabeth Loftus is a professor of psychology and social behavior at the University of California at Irvine whose research on the malleability of memory first called into question the reliability of eyewitness accounts of crime and accident scenes. She is better known, however, as a best-selling author and a busy expert witness called by defendants in sexual abuse cases to discredit the legitimacy of claims of "repressed" or "recovered" memories.
The problem in the courtroom as well as the laboratory is how loaded those words have become politically, the scientifically neutral question they raise about the function of memory hijacked by the well meaning and the self-serving alike. The phenomenon of recalling previously unremembered incidents of abuse is itself put on trial, the defendant and accuser reduced to onlookers.
OREGON
The Oregonian
Sunday, January 30, 2005
STEVE WOODWARD
The 450 families of St. Mary, Our Lady of the Dunes Catholic Church in Florence, have no doubt that the parish belongs to them.
The congregation dates to at least 1949, when the parish priest in Reedsport made monthly trips to Florence to celebrate Mass in people's homes. Since then, the church has been housed in an American Legion hall, the upstairs of Cooper's Mercantile Store and a 20-by-50-foot donated building that had to be trucked to a previous site in 1953.
Today, parishioners have pledged $1.9 million toward a major building expansion, said Ken Janowski, fund-raising chairman.
There's just one problem: The parish might not actually exist -- at least legally. If that's the case, St. Mary's could see $1.5 million in property, cash and savings used to help settle a staggering $534 million in claims against the bankrupt Archdiocese of Portland for alleged clergy sexual abuse of at least 72 men and women.
As a result, the building expansion, which had already gone out to bid, is on indefinite, and perhaps permanent, hold.
That's why St. Mary's, 123 other parishes, 24 missions and 44 Roman Catholic schools in Western Oregon -- as well as the archdiocese itself -- are scrambling to prove that parishioners never intended for their money to be used for any purpose other than to build and operate their parishes and schools.
TEXAS
The Dallas Morning News
12:12 PM CST on Saturday, January 29, 2005
By STEVE BLOW / The Dallas Morning News
"I was lonely," he said.
Simple as that.
And even when he outlines the full dimensions of his predicament, he still keeps it pretty plain.
"I want to be a priest," he said, "and I want to be married."
Now you see the complications begin to arise.
Father John has the priest part of this down pat. He left home for the priesthood at 18 – some 47 years ago.
And as for the marriage part, well, he'll take that plunge very soon. At the age of 65, John will marry in May.
Half jokingly, I asked how many centuries of Catholic tradition he is bucking here.
"Oh, 10 or 11," he said with a wry smile.
He seems unfazed. "I'm so happy," he said. "I feel such a peace about everything."
The Roman Catholic Church, of course, is less thrilled. This month, the bishop of the Dallas Diocese officially branded him a renegade. ...
John doesn't want the marriage debate to get sidetracked into the controversy over pedophile priests. But in that regard, he simply said, "I think a married priesthood would be a healthier priesthood."
The spokesman for the local Catholic diocese said it's fine to debate the marriage issue.
"But he's not doing it in an honorable way," said Bronson Havard. "He's doing it in a defiant, I-want-my-cake-and-eat-it-too kind of way. It's not proper, and it's a sadness for the church."
UNITED STATES
The Dallas Morning News
10:07 AM CST on Saturday, January 29, 2005
By DARLA ATLAS / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
In 1997, Scott Steinke asked God to help him find answers.
Things weren't going well for the onetime soundman for ZZ Top and Alabama. After his engagement broke off, he was driving and "yelling at God to give me something here. I said, 'If you want me to be a priest, you're going to have to let me know.' "
He was passing a church with a lighted cross "and as soon as I looked up, that thing clicked on," he recalled. "I said, 'OK, that's what I needed to know.' "
Mr. Steinke is one of those profiled in the Discovery Times Channel documentary Keeping the Faith: Becoming a Priest in Today's Catholic Church. Airing Tuesday, the show follows several men who were at Cincinnati's Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West in 2002, at the height of the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal.
The documentary notes that the year after filming wrapped, the archdiocese of Cincinnati pleaded no contest to failing to report sex crimes by priests against minors.
The show examines the scandal's impact on seminarians, but also provides a broader look at their religious training – from practice baptisms using baby dolls to pretend confessions acted out by fellow students.
ARIZONA
East Valley Tribune
By Mary K. Reinhart, Tribune Columnist
The young man with the crew cut sat quietly in the front row of the Mesa courtroom.
He stared straight ahead as people stood before the judge and called him a liar and an extortionist.
He met the eyes of the Rev. Karl LeClaire as the former pastor of Mesa’s Queen of Peace Catholic Church turned and apologized to him. Then LeClaire told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens what a wreck his life has become since the young man accused him of child molestation.
"It has been a nightmare. Three years of hell," LeClaire said at his sentencing Friday. "Being robbed of my priesthood and my parish."
The young man listened as Stephens imposed the maximum sentence under LeClaire’s plea deal — three years’ probation and a year in jail — and required him to register as a sex offender. He watched as deputies handcuffed LeClaire and led him away.
He heard LeClaire’s supporters gasp and sob. A travesty of justice, they said. A brilliant career in ruins. A flock adrift without their spiritual adviser. Their beloved priest set up as a fall guy for the true sex offenders in the Roman Catholic Church.
ARIZONA
East Valley Tribune
By Lawn Griffiths and Toni Laxson
Tribune
An attorney for Monsignor Dale Fushek of Mesa’s St. Timothy Catholic Community on Friday called the latest accusations of sexual misconduct with a child "an absurd collection of stories . . . to extort money."
The complaint filed Thursday by William J. Cesolini, now 33, of Gilbert, centers on a 1985 assault allegation and also names youth minister Phil Baniewicz of Mesa, who cofounded Life Teen.
Cesolini attributed repressed memories, or dissociative amnesia, for only now stepping forward.
Michael Manning, Fushek’s attorney, called the lawsuit a "reprehensible tragedy" on Friday. It’s an "absurd coll- ection of stories made up for the purpose of trying to extort money," he said. Manning emphasized that Cesolini originally made no mention of Fushek’s presence when his 1985 memories were recalled in 2003.
"Suddenly in 2005, he recovers the memory once again and Monsignor Dale is standing by watching this occur?" Manning asked.
ARIZONA
East Valley Tribune
By Gary Grado, Tribune
A judge threw a Mesa priest into jail for a year Friday, leaving his friends and parishioners from Queen of Peace Catholic Church shaking their heads and suggesting he was the true victim.
Judge Sherry Stephens of Maricopa County Superior Court also ordered the Rev. Karl LeClaire to serve three years probation and register as a sex offender as punishment for pleading guilty to committing a sexually motivated aggravated assault against a teenage parishioner in 1996.
LeClaire admitted to giving the teenager, now a 23-year-old Navy recruit, a sensual massage. One year was the longest Stephens could sentence LeClaire under an Oct. 28 plea agreement.
"I’m disappointed," said Anthony Chacon, 24, who said he has known LeClaire and the victim for years. "There was a lot that wasn’t recognized."
Chacon said he doesn’t believe Stephens took into account LeClaire’s positive impact he had on the Queen of Peace community when he was the church’s pastor and school’s principal.
He resigned in 2001 after the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix got word of the allegations. "He’ll never get the credit he deserves," Chacon said.
MANATEE (FL)
Herald Tribune
By CORY SCHOUTEN
cory.schouten@heraldtribune.com
MANATEE COUNTY -- Assistant Principal Joseph Gilpin remained in the Manatee schools despite several accusations of inappropriate behavior with students, including one in November where he reportedly patted a boy's bottom and made indecent remarks to two others.
Gilpin denied doing anything wrong, was never charged with a crime and kept his job at Haile Middle School in East Manatee.
But on Friday, Gilpin resigned, two days after the school district learned of allegations he raped two boys in the late 1960s while studying to be a priest in the Northeast.
In his resignation, Gilpin, 60, said he was sorry for "the notoriety that this situation has brought upon you, my colleagues and the school board."
Gilpin had been suspended since Wednesday, when an advocacy group informed the district of the 1960s abuse allegations. He had worked in Manatee schools since 1971. Gilpin did not return calls seeking comment, but has denied the molestation allegations in the past.
Manatee school officials said Thursday they did not know about the allegations against Gilpin until the group told them.
PEORIA (IL)
Journal Star
Saturday, January 29, 2005
By MICHAEL MILLER
of the Journal Star
PEORIA - A lawyer for a priest suing the Catholic Diocese of Peoria for defamation suggested at a Friday hearing that the diocese is using delay tactics to deny the priest his "day in court."
The diocese denied the suggestion.
Edward Bush stepped down from public ministry in 2002 after the diocese accused him of sexual misconduct involving two minors. He later sued the diocese, Bishop Daniel Jenky and vicar general Monsignor Steven Rohlfs for defamation.
Bush's attorney Carla Labunski on Friday argued in Peoria County Circuit Court that the diocese should be sanctioned for not meeting several deadlines for providing information. Diocesan lawyer Joe Feehan said the delays were caused by postal service problems and other factors and that his firm, Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen, had not purposely held off on supplying the required documents to Bush's lawyers.
Circuit Judge Joe Vespa turned down Bush's request for sanctions, which included attorney fees of $10,402, but told Feehan he found the delays "troublesome."
TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By MARK REITER
BLADE STAFF WRITER
A Toledo priest accused in the slaying of a nun nearly 25 years ago has a new judge and a new trial date.
Newly elected Lucas County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Osowik yesterday pushed back the trial of the Rev. Gerald Robinson to Oct. 17. It was set to begin Feb. 22.
Father Robinson, 66, who did not appear with his attorneys at the hearing, is charged with aggravated murder in the 1980 stabbing and strangulation death of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in the sacristy of a chapel in the former Mercy Hospital.
Judge Patrick Foley was assigned to handle the case when the semiretired Roman Catholic priest was indicted in April. However, Judge Foley lost his seat in the November election to Gary Cook, a Lucas County prosecutor.
As Judge Foley's successor, Judge Cook normally would have inherited the case. But because he was on the prosecution team that investigated the murder, it was assigned to Judge Osowik.
The hearing was delayed about 20 minutes while the priest's attorneys, Jack Callahan, John Thebes, and Alan Konop, and assistant prosecutors J. Christopher Anderson and Dean Mandros huddled in a conference room with Judge Osowik.
BRITAIN
New Kerala
[World News]: London, Jan 29 : A Hindu priest in Britain has been convicted of raping a devotee of Tamil origin at a temple here.
Ramanathan Somanathan, 41, a priest at a temple in Thornton Heath near Croydon, south London, told his victim that she had been his wife in a previous life, and that god had reunited them.
He raped the 29-year-old Tamil woman on two separate occasions, once in 2002 and again in 2003, after which she became pregnant and had an abortion, the Croydon Crown was told.
The police praised the victim for the "tremendous courage" it took her to come forward and seek justice.
"This case has been particularly distressing for both the victim and witnesses involved. They ran the risk of being isolated by their own community," said detective Rob Buckell of the Croydon police.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
By Tim O'Neil
Of the Post-Dispatch
Friday, Jan. 28 2005
A former Protestant bishop was sentenced Friday to at least 120 days in prison
for committing sodomy with a teenage boy who belonged to his congregation in
St. Louis.
"I know the words 'I'm sorry' are inadequate," Shelby E. Shannon, 61, told a
crowded courtroom. "I will live with this for the rest of my life in shame for
what I have done."
Shannon, former bishop in three states for the Church of the Living God,
pleaded guilty Dec. 13 of two counts of sodomy. He was arrested one year
earlier after the boy, now 18, alleged that Shannon abused him beginning in
December 2002.
Shannon was pastor of two Church of the Living God CCWF congregations in the
St. Louis area and was bishop in Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin for the
Cincinnati-based denomination, which was founded by a former slave in 1889. His
churches were in Cool Valley and at 1034 South Kingshighway.
SWAMPSCOTT (MA)
Boston Globe
By Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff | January 29, 2005
SWAMPSCOTT -- The Rev. Jerome F. Gillespie resigned yesterday as pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in Swampscott after he was accused of asking a 12-year-old girl and her mother to perform a sex act at an Italian restaurant in Chelsea Tuesday night.
''Father Gillespie's resignation was accepted in the interest of all parties involved and does not represent any indication of Father Gillespie's guilt or innocence as it pertains to this allegation," the Archdiocese of Boston said in a statement late yesterday. Gillespie did not return a call placed to the parish yesterday.
The Globe reported yesterday that the Suffolk district attorney was seeking the 55-year-old priest in connection with the allegation that he propositioned a girl and her mother. The archdiocese said it learned of the matter Thursday night.
His resignation stunned parishioners at this North Shore church overlooking the sea.
''My own 13-year-old daughter just served Mass with him last Sunday," said Daniel Santanello, 46, a father of three. ''This is the last thing I would have expected to hear of him. . . . I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but this is a very serious situation."
Gillespie took over as pastor July 1, replacing the Rev. Thomas Sheehy, who retired. Gillespie was formally installed the Sunday after Thanksgiving in a Mass that drew hundreds of parishioners.
ARIZONA
The Arizona Republic
Jim Walsh
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 29, 2005 12:00 AM
Supporters of a priest gasped Friday as a Maricopa County Superior Court judge sentenced Father Karl LeClaire to a year in jail for sexually abusing a former parishioner.
Judge Sherry Stephens imposed the maximum sentence possible under LeClaire's plea agreement over the objections of supporters jamming a Mesa courtroom and pleading for leniency. LeClaire must serve the entire sentence without opportunity for early release.
Anthony Chacon, 24, said he was disappointed in the sentence, which also requires LeClaire, 48, to register as a sex offender. The former pastor of Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Mesa also got three years' probation.
"He's a great friend. There's no doubt in my mind this didn't occur," Chacon said.
But Joe Baca of Chandler, a member of SNAP, the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, said LeClaire's supporters are in denial. "In that one incident, he took that child's faith and murdered his soul," Baca said.
SWAMPSCOTT (MA)
Lynn Daily Item
By Debra Glidden
Saturday, January 29, 2005
SWAMPSCOTT -- The pastor of St. John The Evangelist Church resigned on Friday after being accused earlier in the week of asking a 12-year-old girl and her mother to perform a sex act for money.
The Rev. Jerome Gillespie, 55, who was formerly the pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Lynn, is accused of propositioning the girl and her mother Tuesday evening at Floramos Lounge, an Italian restaurant in Chelsea.
David Procopio, a spokesman for the Suffolk District Attorney's Office, said Gillespie would be summoned to Chelsea District Court to answer charges of child enticement, soliciting sex for a fee and annoying and accosting a person of the opposite sex.
The Archdiocese of Boston, in a statement released late Friday afternoon, said, "In light of the criminal investigation launched earlier this week, Father Gillespie has resigned as pastor of St. John The Evangelist Church. Fr. Gillespie offered his resignation to Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, who earlier today granted his request."
The statement continues: "Fr. Gillespie's resignation was accepted in the interest of all parties involved and does not represent any indication of Fr. Gillespie's guilt or innocence as it pertains to this allegation."
LITCHFIELD (CT)
Register Citizen
TRACY KENNEDY, Register Citizen Staff 01/29/2005
LITCHFIELD - The Rev. W. James Johnson, a Waterbury pastor who denies he sexually assaulted a 4-year-old Torrington girl, pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in Litchfield Superior Court on Friday.
Johnson, a minister for 25 years, stood before Judge Charles D. Gill on Friday to answer charges of first-degree sexual assault and allegedly having illicit sexual contact with a minor under 16 years of age in May. The case was continued until Feb. 18.
Behind him every seat of the gallery was filled with family members, friends, and members of his church, The Community Tabernacle Out-reach Center, Waterbury, which serves 275 members. Many of Johnson’s supporters who waited about four hours for the hearing to begin, held colorful posters that read "We love you pastor."
At liberty after posting a $200,000 bond, Johnson said he flatly denies the allegations. "It’s absolutely false," he said. "People definitely don’t have all of the details."
Defense attorney Leonard Crone said, "My client has consistently denied these allegations. The case has been continued three weeks and during that time we will do some discovery and investigation of our own to prepare a defense in this case."
CALIFORNIA
The Daily Journal
By LAURA CLARK/ The Daily Journal
Retired visiting Judge Robert Vonasek on Thursday sentenced Daniel Aram Garcia, 47, of Willits, to three years in state prison for child molestation.
Garcia was arrested and booked into jail Dec. 14. At his arraignment Dec. 16, the well-known and well-liked figure at the courthouse, former candidate for county clerk, and a pastor at a church in Redwood Valley pleaded guilty to one count of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child of 14 or 15 years of age. He was then released from jail on his own recognizance with orders not to try to contact his victim or be alone with anyone under the age of 18 without another adult present.
On Dec. 23, Garcia attempted to write to the girl he molested and was rearrested and taken back to jail, where he remained until Thursday's sentencing.
"I am to blame. It's not (the victim's) fault. I want her to understand it's not her fault," a tearful Garcia, in handcuffs and chains and clad in a white jail suit, told the judge.
LITCHFIELD (CT)
Republican-American
Saturday, January 29, 2005
By Brigitte Ruthman
Republican-American
LITCHFIELD -- A 4-year-old Torrington girl described to police how a Waterbury pastor sexually assaulted her while he babysat for his girlfriend, according to the warrant for his arrest.
Torrington police launched an investigation against the Rev. W. James Johnson, 48, formerly of 91 Spring Brook Road, Waterbury, after the girl's mother -- Johnson's girlfriend -- took her to the emergency room at Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington. The child complained of vaginal pain and burning with urination, according to the warrant for Johnson's arrest, which was unsealed Friday in Litchfield Superior Court. The woman alleged Johnson had sex with the girl May 14, 2004 while babysitting.
A physical examination concluded a history of sexual abuse existed, according to state police.
Johnson, 48, who is known as Willie, was arrested two weeks ago on first-degree sexual assault charges and risk of injury to a minor with sexual contact. He is affiliated with the Community Tabernacle Outreach Center, a Pentecostal church at 12 Hewlett St. in the Overlook section of Waterbury.
Johnson, dressed in a suit, pleaded innocent Friday during a brief appearance before Judge Charles Gill in Litchfield Superior Court. His attorney, Leonard Crone of Waterbury, was granted a three-week continuance to review the case. Crone declined to comment about specific allegations.
NEWARK (OH)
Advocate
By Erik Johns, ejohns@nncogannett.com
Advocate Reporter
NEWARK -- A Hebron pastor faces a second sex-abuse charge involving another girl after being re-arrested Thursday evening shortly after he posted a $250,000 bond on an earlier sexual battery charge.
Lonny J. Aleshire Jr., 503 E. Main St., Hebron, received another $250,000 bond Friday in Licking County Municipal Court from Acting Judge Larry Arnold. As of 9 p.m. Friday, he was still in the jail.
The most recent charge alleges he engaged in unlawful sexual conduct with a now 15-year-old girl over a two-year period, Assistant Licking County Prosecutor Melinda Seeds said.
Seeds added that her office is continuing to interview people and investigate the case, although she said they have not yet identified any further possible victims.
Aleshire is the associate pastor at the Licking Baptist Church, 1380 Beaver Run Road, in Hebron.
PEORIA (IL)
Pontiac Daily Leader
PEORIA -- The Catholic Diocese of Peoria remains in full compliance with the provisions of the U.S. Conference of Bishops' "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People," Bishop Daniel R. Jenky announced this week.
The United States Conference of Bishops requires dioceses nationwide to partake in audits for the charter, and the audits were conducted by The Gavin Group, an independent audit firm based in Massachusetts, Jenky said in a news release Tuesday.
The Peoria diocese, in December, participated in "an extensive examination of all procedures and policies," conducted by two retired FBI agents hired by The Gavin Group, Jenky said. Results of the audit were reported on Jan. 13 to the diocese, concluding that the diocese remains in full compliance with all aspects of the charter. The auditors' report commended the diocese for the level of detail and documentation provided to them for review, Jenky said.
"Bishop Jenky is very grateful the people in the diocese have embraced the charter," said Patricia Gibson, diocesan chancellor. Her office was responsible for compiling the bulk of information to the auditors for review. The diocese is required to mandate that all employees and volunteers who come in contact with minors participate in the safe-environment program, as well as undergo fingerprinting and child-abuse background checks by the state's Department of Children and Family Services.
ARIZONA
The Arizona Republic
Michael Clancy and Joseph A. Reaves
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 29, 2005 12:00 AM
The president and co-founder of Life Teen youth ministry was placed on administrative leave by the organization's board of directors on Friday, a day after a lawsuit alleged that he and two others engaged in sexual misconduct with a teenager in 1985.
Phil Baniewicz, who has spent most of his adult career in the ministry to Catholic youth, was "devastated" by the news, said Mary Jo West, public information officer for the Diocese of Phoenix.
Baniewicz was accused in the lawsuit of abusing William Cesolini, a minor at the time, on more than one occasion. advertisement
Others named in the suit were the Rev. Mark Lehman, who already has served a 10-year prison term for abuse; and Monsignor Dale Fushek, pastor of St. Timothy parish in Mesa, who is accused of watching as Lehman abused Cesolini.
The diocese has asked the Vatican to defrock Lehman. Fushek was suspended Dec. 29, when the lawsuit's allegations first surfaced.
Baniewicz remained clear of the allegations until Thursday.
MAINE
Portland Press Herald
By JOHN RICHARDSON, Portland Press Herald Writer
A Florida school district suspended an assistant principal this week after being told that he is accused of sexually abusing a student at a Catholic school in Biddeford more than 35 years ago.
The Manatee County School District placed Joseph Gilpin, assistant principal of Haile Middle School, on paid administrative leave Wednesday afternoon, minutes after the superintendent got a call about the allegation from the leader of a group that supports victims of abuse by the clergy.
The school district plans to investigate the report before deciding whether permanent action is warranted, said Margi Nanney, the district's spokeswoman. Gilpin could not be reached Friday.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland confirmed that a former student at the St. Mary's School came forward with the allegation in September 2003. The diocese forwarded the information to law enforcement agencies, although the statute of limitations to bring criminal charges had already expired.
After checking into the report, the diocese has offered to pay a settlement to the victim, said spokeswoman Sue Bernard.
Bernard did not disclose details of the complaint, which has not been settled. No other allegations have been made in Maine against Gilpin, she said.
Gilpin was a teacher at St. Mary's, which is now closed, from October 1967 to June 1968, Bernard said. The diocese then sponsored him to go to the Roman Catholic seminary in Ottawa. He was dismissed from the seminary after a year, she said, for reasons unrelated to any abuse allegations.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Boston Globe
By Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff | January 29, 2005
CAMBRIDGE -- A day after he pleaded with a judge not to make him return to the witness stand, the man who accuses defrocked priest Paul R. Shanley of sexually abusing him as a child came back to court yesterday to complete his testimony, submitting to the final hour of what was a grueling cross-examination.
The strongest emotions yesterday came from a different witness: the accuser's wife, who broke down while recounting her husband's behavior in February 2002, when he allegedly began remembering years of abuse by Shanley at St. Jean Parish in Newton.
Asked to recall the first night of a visit home from her husband, who was then her fiancé and was stationed by the Air Force in Colorado, the 23-year-old woman began to cry. She clutched a tissue and, in a near whisper, said, ''I'm so sorry."
Superior Court Judge Stephen E. Neel asked her to stop and sent the jury from the room, the second day in a row the judge halted proceedings so a witness could regain composure. When court resumed, she continued her testimony, still sobbing softly.
''He had soaked the sheets with sweat," she said. ''He got on the floor, curled up in a ball. He shook."
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Saturday, January 29, 2005
A day after he begged a judge not to make him return to court, the man accusing defrocked priest Paul Shanley of raping him as a child finished testifying yesterday, but defense lawyers are preparing to challenge his claim that he recovered memories of the alleged abuse nearly 20 years after he says it occurred.
Next week, the defense will call Elizabeth Loftus, a University of California at Irvine psychologist frequently paid to testify as an expert about what she has called the ``myth'' of repressed memory.
The alleged victim, a 27-year-old firefighter and former military police officer, claims Shanley repeatedly molested him between the ages of 6 and 12 while he was a Sunday school student at St. Jean's parish in Newton, but says he buried any memory of the abuse until he began having flashbacks in 2002.
The Herald is not naming the man because he is an alleged sexual assault victim.
His wife testified yesterday about his behavior after recovering memories of the alleged abuse.``He woke up. He was very agitated and restless. He had soaked the sheets with sweat,'' she said, her voice breaking as Shanley, 74, sat impassively, his hand to his chin. ``He got on the floor and curled up in a ball and shook. I tried to hold him, but he wouldn't let me.''
The testimony was some of the most dramatic to date in a case that appeared to be headed for a mistrial Thursday after the alleged victim pleaded with Middlesex Superior Court Judge Stephen Neel to spare him from a third day of questioning.
MANATEE (FL)
Bradenton Herald
MANATEE - 'notoriety,' resigns job
Haile Middle School Assistant Principal Joseph Gilpin resigned Friday, just two days after allegations resurfaced that he molested two young boys while he was a Catholic seminarian more than 30 years ago.
"After some thought and prayer, I think it best that I terminate my employment with the Manatee County school district," Gilpin wrote in his resignation letter, addressed to Manatee County School Superintendent Roger Dearing.
Dearing accepted the resignation, but indicated the district still plans to learn more about Gilpin's past.
"That closes one chapter and opens another," Dearing said. "I believe it's incumbent upon us as a school district to make sure nothing untoward has happened here in this school district.
"The main thing is to make sure current and former students were protected when under his charge."
In reviewing school district and law enforcement records in Manatee, The Herald found at least three instances where Gilpin had been accused of inappropriate contact with students during a career that spanned more than 30 years.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Kentucky.com
DENISE LAVOIE
Associated Press
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The wife of the man who has accused defrocked priest Paul Shanley of raping him as a child testified Friday that he had night sweats and curled up in the fetal position on the floor after recovering memories of the alleged abuse.
The woman took the witness stand shortly after her husband finished more than 10 hours of testimony over three days, much of it under grueling and graphic cross-examination by Shanley's attorney.
The man returned to the stand Friday morning despite begging the judge a day earlier to spare him further questioning. That had raised the possibility the case would collapse, since he is the lone accuser in the case against the 74-year-old former priest, one of the central figures in the Boston Archdiocese's clergy sex abuse scandal. Three other Shanley accusers were dropped from the case earlier by prosecutors.
Before the jury entered the courtroom, Shanley attorney Frank Mondano asked Judge Stephen Neel to declare a mistrial, contending the man's emotional outbursts during his testimony would taint jurors and prejudice them against his client. Neel rejected the request.
The accuser, now a 27-year-old firefighter, says Shanley raped and molested him at a Newton parish, beginning when he was 6. He says he didn't remember the abuse until early 2002, when he heard a friend's account of being abused as a boy by Shanley.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Lexington Herald-Leader
By Pam Belluck
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - A day after he says he recovered memories that he was abused by a priest, a 27-year-old man was talking to a lawyer about pursuing a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Church, according to testimony and documents presented yesterday in the criminal trial of the now-defrocked priest.
The testimony was brought out in the trial of Paul R. Shanley, who became a lightning rod in the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church that broke in Boston in early 2002. Shanley is accused of molesting the man when he was 6 to 12 years old by pulling him out of Christian doctrine classes at St. Jean's Parish in Newton and raping him.
Shanley's lawyer, Frank Mondano, contends that the accuser concocted his accusations to join a lawsuit with three other men against the Archdiocese of Boston. Last year, the archdiocese paid the accuser, now a suburban Boston firefighter, $500,000 to settle the case. Since then, prosecutors have dropped the other three men from the criminal case, pursuing only the 27-year-old accuser's allegations.
Yesterday, the jury heard testimony from a psychologist who examined the accuser on Feb. 12, 2002, when he was an Air Force policeman in Colorado.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Monterey Herald
LOS ANGELES (AP) - An appeals court Friday at least temporarily delayed a lower court's decision that the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles must give prosecutors its records about the counseling of priests accused of sexual abuse.
The 2nd District Court of Appeal halted the release of the records after archdiocese attorneys asked the panel to resolve two judges' opinions on the matter -- including one decision that would have required the archdiocese to give the records to Los Angeles County prosecutors on Friday. The defense motion was filed Tuesday.
In February 2003, a Ventura County Superior Court judge agreed that some documents in the personnel files of priests should remain confidential.
But Judge Thomas F. Nuss, a retired judge serving as a referee in the case, ordered the archdiocese in September 2004 to turn over certain records to prosecutors as part of a Los Angeles County grand jury investigation.
He said the church could withhold documents involving discussions between therapists and patients.
Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, said the ruling was disappointing.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
By Tim Townsend
Of the Post-Dispatch
Friday, Jan. 28 2005
Three St. Louis priests have been laicized, or defrocked, by the Vatican,
according to a statement by the archdiocese.
Archbishop Raymond Burke asked the Vatican to return Michael McGrath, Donald
Straub and Robert Yim to "the lay state," according to the statement, because
"all three had credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor against them."
David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests,
said the acknowledgement by the church would be helpful for the priests’
victims.
"I hope it provides a bit of comfort for dozens of people who those predators
have hurt," he said.
VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Two years after adopting special norms for dealing with priestly sex abusers, U.S. bishops and Vatican officials are sitting down in early February to review how the new policies have worked and to consider possible revisions.
Vatican officials described the meeting as a simple consultation. They said the talks were expected to be positive, reflecting progress made since the first major U.S.-Vatican meetings on sex abuse in 2002.
"The climate has matured. The norms have been in place for two years, and a lot of cases have been handled. On all sides, there is recognition that much has been accomplished," said one Vatican official.
The "Essential Norms" laid out a strict policy on priestly sex abuse, providing for removal from ministry or laicization of priests who have sexually abused minors. The Vatican approved the norms on an experimental basis for a two-year period beginning in March 2003; new Vatican approval, called a "recognitio," would presumably have to be given again this year, whether or not revisions are made.
Some Vatican sources said they do not expect major changes to the norms. They pointed to improved coordination on sex abuse cases over the last two years between U.S. bishops and the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was given special competence over such offenses.
ARIZONA
KPHO
(CBS 5 News) - The cofounders of a Roman Catholic church ministry in the Valley are accused of covering up a molestation.
Dale Fushek and Phil Baniewicz were creators of the Life-Teen Program. It's the largest catholic youth organization in the nation.
Now a lawsuit claims Fushek watched as a teenage parishioner was sodomized by another priest in 1985. It also claims the program at St. Timothy's church in Mesa fosters inappropriate sexual behavior.
A spokeswoman for Life Teen denies the claims.
Star Tribune
Jeff Strickler
January 30, 2005
A pedophile reentering society after 12 years in prison moves into a quiet, family-oriented neighborhood. A man sexually abused by a priest when he was a child sets out for revenge. A despondent crippled man tries to kill himself.
Events from the daily news reports? They could be, but in this case they're all plots from movies.
Filmmakers are increasingly turning to real-life situations for their stories, and, in the process, they are setting off a complex and sometimes bitter debate over the appropriateness of their movies.
On one hand, they are applauded for tackling difficult issues with real-world implications. At the same time, they open themselves to criticism that they're making money off someone else's misery.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
San Francisco Chronicle
DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press Writer
Friday, January 28, 2005
(01-28) 15:21 PST CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) --
The wife of the man who has accused defrocked priest Paul Shanley of raping him as a child testified Friday that he had night sweats and curled up in the fetal position on the floor after recovering memories of the alleged abuse.
The woman took the witness stand shortly after her husband finished more than 10 hours of testimony over three days, much of it under grueling and graphic cross-examination by Shanley's attorney.
The man returned to the stand Friday morning despite begging the judge a day earlier to spare him further questioning. That had raised the possibility the case would collapse, since he is the lone accuser in the case against the 74-year-old former priest, one of the central figures in the Boston Archdiocese's clergy sex abuse scandal. Three other Shanley accusers were dropped from the case earlier by prosecutors.
Before the jury entered the courtroom, Shanley attorney Frank Mondano asked Judge Stephen Neel to declare a mistrial, contending the man's emotional outbursts during his testimony would taint jurors and prejudice them against his client. Neel rejected the request.
ARIZONA
The Arizona Republic
Jim Walsh
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 28, 2005 05:30 PM
Supporters of a priest gasped Friday as a Maricopa County Superior Court judge sentenced Father Karl LeClaire to a year in jail for sexually abusing a former parishioner.
Judge Sherry Stephens imposed the maximum sentence possible under LeClaire's plea agreement over the objections of supporters who jammed a small Mesa courtroom and pleaded for leniency. LeClaire must serve the entire sentence without opportunity for early release.
Anthony Chacon, 24, said he was disappointed in the sentence, which also requires LeClaire, 48, to register as a sex offender. The former pastor of Queen of Peace Catholic Church also was placed on three years probation. advertisement
"He's a great friend. There's no doubt in my mind this didn't occur," Chacon said.
But Joe Baca of Chandler, a member of SNAP, the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, said LeClaire's supporters are in denial.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
The Kansas City Star
JIM SUHR
Associated Press
ST. LOUIS - Three priests accused of sexual abuse years ago have been defrocked, including one blamed in the alleged suicide of an ex-Marine he was said to have molested in youth, St. Louis' archbishop announced Friday "with deepest regrets to all who have been harmed."
Archbishop Raymond Burke said he launched the proceedings - what the Roman Catholic church calls laicization - last year against Michael McGrath, Donald "Father Duck" Straub and Robert Yim in light of "credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor against them."
Burke said he took the often-lengthy action "for the welfare of all children and for the welfare of the Church," and after careful examination of each allegation, the archdiocese said in a statement.
All three men, who each served in several St. Louis-area parishes, have been notified they have been "dismissed from the clerical state."
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
MSNBC
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:08 p.m. ET Jan. 28, 2005
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The man accusing defrocked priest Paul Shanley of sexually abusing him as a child finished his testimony Friday after the judge refused to spare him from a third day of questioning.
The man adamantly stood by his claims of abuse before stepping down from the stand after 10 hours of testimony, much of it under grueling cross-examination by Shanley’s attorney, Frank Mondano.
Late Thursday, with the jury out of the room, the man told the judge that he could not bear to continue answering Mondano’s intense and sometimes graphic questions. But the man returned Friday to resume his testimony.
His breakdown raised the specter that the case would collapse, because he is the lone remaining accuser in the case against Shanley, 74, one of the central figures in the Boston archdiocese’s clergy sex-abuse scandal. Three other accusers were dropped from the case by prosecutors.
Friday, before the jury entered the courtroom, Mondano asked Judge Stephen Neel to declare a mistrial, contending that the man’s emotional outbursts during his testimony would taint jurors and prejudice them against his client. Neel rejected the request.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Reuters
by Greg Frost
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Reuters) - A Massachusetts judge refused to declare a mistrial on Friday in the child rape trial of defrocked priest Paul Shanley, saying he would instruct jurors to disregard an accuser's emotional outburst.
After intense cross-examination on Thursday that left the accuser sobbing, Shanley's defense attorney Frank Mondano asked Superior Court Judge Stephen Neel to declare a mistrial on the grounds that the outpouring of emotion would compromise the jury's impartiality.
But Neel rejected the motion, saying such outbursts are "unavoidable" in cases like this and "rarely" the basis for declaring a mistrial.
Neel said he would instruct jurors to disregard the accuser's emotions during their deliberations.
Prosecutor Lynn Rooney said she was outraged by Mondano's request, suggesting that his tough line of questioning on Thursday contributed to the accuser's breakdown on the witness stand.
MANATEE (FL)
Herald Tribune
By CORY SCHOUTEN and TIFFANY LANKES
cory.schouten@heraldtribune.com
tiffany.lankes@heraldtribune.com
MANATEE COUNTY -- As a young man, Joseph Gilpin was torn between the priesthood and a career in teaching. He spent eight years in seminary in the North before seeking a new start in Florida.
He found it. He spent more than 30 years in the Manatee schools developing a reputation as a hard-working educator who had a good rapport with students.
But remnants of his past have returned, and now Gilpin has been suspended from his job and is facing a crisis that threatens his career and reputation.
Details of a lawsuit settled in 2004 portray Gilpin as a man who took advantage of his position as a spiritual leader. Gilpin is accused of raping and molesting a young boy in the late 1960s while Gilpin was studying to be a priest. Another man who says Gilpin molested him from 1968 to 1970 recently brought forth his allegations, and a Catholic church official in Maine says they seem credible.
IRELAND
One in Four
Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent - Irish Times
A final policy document on child protection for the Catholic Church in Ireland was agreed at a meeting in Maynooth yesterday. The Church's Working Group on Child Protection arrived at the decision in what became its final meeting.
The working group disbanded last September after a row with church representatives over whether professionals or church leaders should decide how sex-abuse complaints were handled. It is understood church representatives felt such control should rest with church leaders. It is now clear that the handling of complaints will rest with relevant child protection specialists in each area.
Ms Maureen Lynott, chairwoman of the working group, indicated then she would remain available to meet the steering group, which represented the church bodies involved, should they develop a resolution to the differences.
Yesterday, Ms Lynott said members of the group had "unanimously" endorsed the Our Children Our Church policy document on child protection, and were satisfied that it was "a significant advancement in child protection and that all outstanding issues have now been resolved".
SOUTHINGTON (CT)
Record-Journal
By Caroline D. Porter, Record-Journal Staff
SOUTHINGTON — James J. McCoy, a former youth pastor at Central Baptist Church and basketball coach at Central Christian Academy, has pleaded no contest to reduced sexual assault charges in a 2003 case.
In July 2003, McCoy, then 29, of 142 Armour Place, Murfreesboro, Tenn., turned himself in on a warrant for second-degree sexual assault, after a woman who had been on his team accused him of having had a sexual relationship with her between November 1998 and December 2000. The relationship allegedly started when the woman was 17.
Sources say he made a public confession of the improper relationship in the spring of 2001, and was asked to leave his post. The church doesn't deny that McCoy had a relationship with the victim, and says it handled the matter appropriately.
The church operates the school on its property at 1505 West St.
In late July 2003, McCoy pleaded not guilty to the charge in Bristol Superior Court.
BRISTOL (CT)
The Day
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published on 1/28/2005
Bristol (AP) — A former youth pastor and basketball coach at Central Christian Academy in Southington has pleaded no contest to charges of sexually assaulting a teenage student.
James J. McCoy, 31, could get up to two years in prison and three years of probation when he is sentenced in March in Superior Court.
McCoy was originally charged July 1, 2003, with second-degree sexual assault. But that charge was downgraded to two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault before McCoy entered his plea on Monday.
The victim, in a civil lawsuit, has accused McCoy of repeatedly sexually abusing and assaulting her over a period of six months in the late 1990s. She was 17 at the time, according to the civil suit.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Friday, January 28, 2005
After a second day of intense cross-examination, the only alleged victim to force defrocked priest Paul Shanley to face child-rape charges to date begged a judge yesterday not to compel him to continue testifying.
``Please don't make me,'' the accuser, now a 27-year-old firefighter, said to Middlesex Superior Court Judge Stephen Neel. ``I can't start over again.''
In a statement released shortly afterward, the Middlesex District Attorney's Office said the man would take the stand again today. If he does not, the defense could request a mistrial, a potential death blow to a case that began with four accusers and now hinges on one.
All four men alleged that Shanley, now 74, raped them in the 1980s, when they took Sunday school classes at St. Jean's parish in Newton. In July, charges brought by two of the men were dropped, and last week, prosecutors dropped charges involving a third, who vomited after a grueling hearing last October and never contacted them again.
Yesterday, Shanley's sole remaining accuser was at turns defiant and distraught as defense attorney Frank Mondano hammered away at his memory and motives.
SWAMPSCOTT (MA)
Boston Globe
By David Abel, Globe Staff | January 28, 2005
A 55-year-old Swampscott priest was being sought yesterday for allegedly asking a 12-year-old girl and her mother to perform a sex act, authorities said.
The Rev. Jerome Gillespie, a Roman Catholic priest assigned to St. John the Evangelist Church, is wanted on charges of child enticement, annoying and accosting a person of the opposite sex, and offering money for sex, said David Procopio, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney's office.
Gillespie, a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston since 1982, did not return messages left last night at his church's rectory. An archdiocesan spokeswoman said church officials learned about the allegations last night.
''We're aware the police in Chelsea are investigating an incident involving Father Gillespie," said Ann Carter. ''The archdiocese is in the process of obtaining additional information about the investigation, and until that takes place, we cannot comment any further."
Gillespie allegedly propositioned the girl and her mother Tuesday night at Floramos Fifth Ave. Restaurant Lounge, an Italian eatery in Chelsea, said Procopio. He would not reveal what the priest is accused of saying.
BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Connecticut Post
By DANIEL TEPFER dtepfer@ctpost.com
BRIDGEPORT — A former seminary student was convicted Thursday of molesting a 16-year-old girl.
Leonardo Montoya, 30, showed no emotion as the six-person Superior Court jury found him guilty of fourth-degree sexual assault following 90 minutes of deliberations.
Montoya, dismissed from the seminary by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport just before his arrest, faces up to a year in prison when he is sentenced March 31 by Judge Heidi Winslow.
Assistant State's Attorney Pamela Esposito said the jury arrived at the appropriate verdict.
"I admire the young woman for her bravery," Esposito said. "This is not something that she should have gone through or wanted to relive, but she did and I hope she can get on with her life."
BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Boston.com
January 28, 2005
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- A Superior Court jury has convicted a former seminary student of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl.
Leonardo Montoya, 30, was found guilty of fourth-degree sexual assault following 90 minutes of deliberations Thursday.
Montoya, dismissed from the seminary by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport just before his arrest, faces up to a year in prison when he is sentenced March 31.
Montoya, formerly assigned to St. Augustine Cathedral and churches in Trumbull and Norwalk, is accused of molesting the girl while he was visiting her Bridgeport home on Nov. 30, 2003.
The girl's family met Montoya while he was working at St. Augustine and befriended him after he helped them with arrangements for a baptism.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By DENISE LAVOIE
Associated Press Writer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.— A man accusing defrocked priest Paul Shanley of sexually abusing him as a child returned to court Friday despite pleas from him the day before that he couldn't endure another day of questioning.
On Thursday, with the jury out of the room, the man told the judge he couldn't bear continuing to testify. He'd been through two days of intense and sometimes graphic questioning by Shanley's attorney, Frank Mondano.
"I can't do this again," the accuser said in court. "I can't start over again. Every time I come back I have to start over. It's been three years."
After learning he would face a third day of questioning by Mondano, the man later asked the judge: "Can I ask a request of you? Please don't make me."
But he returned Friday to resume his testimony. Still, Mondano asked the judge to declare a mistrial, contending the man's emotional outbursts during his testimony would taint the jury and prejudice them against his client. Superior Court Stephen Neel rejected the request.
PEORIA (IL)
Journal Star
Friday, January 28, 2005
PEORIA - The Catholic Diocese of Peoria is in "full compliance" with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, according to the results of a recent audit.
That means, spokeswomen Elizabeth Smarjesse said, that the diocese is meeting the standards set by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to protect minors from sexual abuse.
As a result, the diocese won't have to undergo an outside audit in 2005, although it still must conduct a self-audit to document compliance with the charter.
Among other policies, the diocese is required to mandate all employees and volunteers who come in contact with minors take part in safe-environment training, fingerprinting and background checks. It also must provide a reporting process for misconduct and procedures on handling complaints.
BRITAIN
ic Croyden
Jan 28 2005
HER voice is quiet and gentle on the other end of the line, it sounds like she has been crying.
She begins by saying that she does not want to speak for long. But, once she starts, there is a lot to say.
Last week, this brave woman heard the news that her priest, Somanathan Ramanathan, the aya of the Hindu Temple in Thornton Heath, had been found guilty of raping her twice.
It is the result she has been praying for since she first went to the police. But, now, excluded from her community for daring to speak out, she faces rebuilding her life on her own.
She said: "I feel like I have been in prison for two years. Now I'm free, but not free to go where I belong, which is with my community. I have been totally betrayed by my own people. Now that he has been found guilty, they feel sorry for him.
"They look at me like I was a slut. But, the community make it so that we are the guilty party. We are made to feel that we should shut up about it.
ALASKA
Fairbanks News-Miner
By CHRIS TALBOTT
Staff Writer
An attorney representing the Rev. James Poole denied Thursday some of the statements attributed to his client during a hearing in Bethel Superior Court a day earlier.
While Timothy Lynch confirmed in a written statement that his client admitted French-kissing Jane Doe 1 as a child, he denied several other claims made by attorney Ken Roosa, including that the former Catholic priest molested another child and that he was expelled from Alaska for a year because of other abuse allegations.
"Attorney Roosa has made outright misstatements and has mischaracterized testimony," Lynch wrote.
Roosa told the court Wednesday during oral arguments on the defense's proposed protective order that Poole admitted to several allegations made against him. Roosa used the admissions to illustrate his point that some of the documents defense attorneys would have protected from public scrutiny don't merit protection.
Among other things, Roosa said Poole admitted to French-kissing Jane Doe 1 on hundreds of occasions, molesting a 6-year-old girl and being sent away from Alaska because of abuse allegations years before Jane Doe 1 claimed she was abused by Poole, who is now 81 and living in Spokane, Wash.
Poole attorney Madelon Blum declined to address Roosa's statements Wednesday during arguments over the gag order and was traveling afterwards. In his e-mail, Lynch objected to several statements by Roosa, including that Poole admitted that he committed every act Jane Doe 1 alleged in the March 2003 civil complaint she filed against Poole; the Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska; the Society of Jesuits, Oregon Province; and the Society of Jesuits, Alaska.
AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
Jan. 29, 2005
NSW police and the DPP are using laws repealed two decades ago to prosecute homosexuals. David Marr reports.
A two men swam at Cronulla on a hot night 23 years ago, one fondled the other in the dark. They were not youngsters. One was a skinny teacher of 29 and the other a priest in his early 40s. The teacher had an erection but dived under the water and swam away. After this brief encounter in the pool, they drove back to the presbytery together and had sex.
What they did that night in January 1982 was criminal. The law in NSW was about to change after a long and acrimonious campaign for reform, but when these men had their one-night stand in the presbytery of St Catherine Laboure Church at Gymea, each was committing an "indecent assault" that might land them in jail for five years. Consent was no defence.
The police came for Father Terry Goodall at his Penshurst parish in September 2003 and arrested him - under the old law - for having sex with the teacher all those years ago. Judge Philip Bell, of the NSW District Court, remarked that on the facts before him, "you'd never get a conviction if you ran this trial today", but under the old law Goodall had no choice but to plead guilty. Having sex with a man was enough to convict him. He was sentenced last week.
ARIZONA
East Valley Tribune
By Kristina Davis, Tribune
A Valley man who says he’s retrieved repressed memories of sexual abuse by Mesa priests and a youth minister filed a lawsuit Thursday filled with sweeping accusations against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix.
The complaint, filed by victim William J. Cesolini in Maricopa County Superior Court, named the diocese; St. Timothy Catholic Community in Mesa; Life Teen; Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, leader of the Phoenix diocese; Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien, former leader of the Phoenix diocese; two priests; and a youth leader.
The suit says Monsignor Dale Fushek, pastor of St. Timothy and arguably one of the diocese’s most popular priests, masturbated while watching another priest sexually abuse a 14-year-old Cesolini in 1985.
"He knew of the sexual abuse . . . and did nothing to stop or prevent it; nor did Fushek report the sexual abuse to authorities," the lawsuit stated.
Fushek also is accused of giving the teen alcohol.
Attorney Frank Verderame notified church officials Dec. 22 that a former parishioner claimed to have recovered repressed memories of molestation by the Rev. Mark Lehman, who served 10 years in prison for molesting students in the late 1980s at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic School in Phoenix.
GREEN BAY (WI)
News-Chronicle
By Anna Krejci
News-Chronicle
A priest accused of sexually assaulting a boy in a Green Bay Catholic school pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child in Brown County Circuit Court on Thursday.
Donald Buzanowski, accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy he was counseling at Ss. Peter and Paul School, 1420 Harvey St. in Green Bay, in 1988 appeared in court beside his lawyer Owen Monfils.
The defendant and his lawyer requested a signature bond or that the cash bond be reduced from $100,000 to $1,000. The motion was denied by Brown County Circuit Court Judge J.D. McKay. In argument for a reduced cash bond, Buzanowski's lawyer filed a motion Jan. 18.
The motion states that Buzanowski can safely be released into the community and cited a Jan. 14 letter in which a psychologist studied Buzanowski's history in treatment programs while incarcerated for possessing child pornography. Buzanowski was convicted on a federal child pornography possession charge in 2000. The psychologist concluded that Buzanowski's treatment left him at a pretreatment risk level allowable for placement in the community with formal supervision. The motion also stated if Buzanowski were released, a federal probation officer's supervision over him would resume.
CONCORD (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Katherine Seligman, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, January 28, 2005
Soon after they met as freshmen at De La Salle High School in Concord, Chris Barbour and Will Lopes became the kind of friends who expected to know each other forever.
Barbour was a driven student who dreamed of being a pilot. Lopes was the homecoming king and the starting quarterback on the football team. The two former altar boys were popular, good-looking, well-liked by teachers.
But the two shared something else -- something that would derail their friendship and their lives, and, ultimately, embarrass the Roman Catholic order whose San Francisco district runs the prestigious school and at least 15 others in the region.
In 1980, both boys went to see a counselor they called Brother Joe, a member of the Christian Brothers order who sexually abused them, according to interviews, lawsuits and government documents.
What they didn't know was that Brother Joseph Jesse Gutierrez had been transferred by the Christian Brothers to Concord from Berkeley, where he'd had relationships with students that had "sexual overtones." That much was made public last month after the Christian Brothers paid Barbour $4 million -- one of the largest payments so far in the nationwide surge of lawsuits against the Catholic Church -- to settle a lawsuit.
OHIO
WBNS
A Licking County pastor is accused of having sex with underage girls he ministered. And investigators believe with his access to teens, other victims may exist if the claims are legitimate.
Lonny Alshire, Jr., age 34, is being held in the Licking County jail with bail set at $250,000.
Sheriff investigators say Alshire, an associate pastor at Licking Baptist Church of Hebron, sexually assaulted at least two teenage girls inside the church.
"People like this always place themselves close to children,” Capt. Rod Mitchell of the Licking County Sheriff’s Department said.
For 12 years, Alshire worked closely with teens at the church. He was arrested at his Hebron home after an accuser told a school resource officer that she had engaged in sex with Alshire at the church.
Authorities say the investigation then led to a second victim.
MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star
By CHRISTINE VENDEL The Kansas City Star
Jackson County prosecutors on Thursday accused a Sunday school teacher of having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl who attended his Kansas City church class.
Darren C. Hall, 36, of Kansas City, was charged with one count of statutory rape and three counts of statutory sodomy. He was in jail Thursday in lieu of $75,000 bond.
Prosecutors allege he began a sexual relationship with the girl last February when she was 15. Hall, who is married, has known her since she was 11.
They met at Friendship Baptist Church, 3530 Chelsea Ave., where Hall taught Sunday school, court records said. He also helped schedule recreational activities for the church, according to police.
A woman who answered the church's phone Thursday said the pastor was out of the city and could not be reached. She said no one else was available to comment.
The alleged relationship came to light a few days before Christmas when someone called the Missouri Children's Division. The caller said the girl's grandmother, who is her legal guardian, knew about the relationship.
SOUTH AFRICA
Daily News
January 28, 2005
By Barbara Cole
A Shembe Church pastor who allegedly lured young boys to his flat on the pretext of watching a Mr Bean movie, then sexually abused them, is being hunted by the police.
And the horrified, "disgusted and very angry" parents of five Durban boys, aged between 9-12, said yesterday they would not rest until the man, who is in his 50s, is caught.
Now, the traumatised victims and their distraught parents are undergoing counselling at the Oasis Crisis Care Centre in the city's Albany Grove.
The alleged abuse was carried out over the past three weeks, said Oasis founder and director, Merle Martin.
Fighting back tears, one victim's mother said: "This man was well known and respected in the church. My son trusted him."
The pastor, who works at a block of flats on Durban's Victoria Embankment - he did not report for duty yesterday - is said to be "the last person you would expect this sort of horrendous behaviour from," said Martin, a police reservist.
"Everyone in the community knows and respects him. He's always smiling," Martin said.
It is claimed that the paedophile pastor, who is married with children of his own, preyed on boys from a nearby block of flats, inviting them over to watch a Mr Bean video.
BOSTON (MA)
Reuters
By Greg Frost
BOSTON (Reuters) - The lone accuser in the child rape trial of defrocked priest Paul Shanley has broken down in tears and had to briefly leave court after facing a withering assault of barbed questions about his background.
A day after he wept as he testified how Shanley raped and molested him decades ago, the 27-year-old firefighter admitted under intense cross-examination on Thursday that he abused steroids and alcohol, had a gambling problem, came from a broken home and is repulsed by homosexual acts.
Armed with piles of depositions and evidence culled from a civil lawsuit that netted the accuser $500,000 (265,000 pounds) in a settlement last year, defence attorney Frank Mondano picked apart the man's background -- apparently in an effort to question his motives and lessen his credibility in the eyes of the jury.
Shanley played a central role in the abuse scandal that rocked the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and enveloped other dioceses. The Vatican defrocked Shanley last year, more than two decades after his superiors learned of the priest's views on sex between men and boys.
Internal church documents released in 2002 showed that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston knew in 1979 that Shanley had attended a meeting of men involved in sexual relationships with male youngsters -- a meeting that gave rise to NAMBLA, the North American Man Boy Love Association.
ARIZONA
The Arizona Republic
Joseph A. Reaves
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 28, 2005 12:00 AM
Two co-founders of Life Teen, the nation's largest Catholic youth ministry based in the Valley, were accused Thursday in a lawsuit of covering up and helping carry out sexual attacks on a 14-year-old boy two decades ago.
The lawsuit, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, also claimed that the Life Teen program at St. Timothy's parish in Mesa had "a social culture which inappropriately focused upon sexual activity . . . and fostered an environment that led to inappropriate sexual behavior."
Named as defendants in the suit were Life Teen co-founders, Monsignor Dale J. Fushek and Phil Baniewicz, along with former priest Mark Lehman, resigned Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, the Diocese of Phoenix, St. Timothy's Parish and Life Teen Inc., the program founded at St. Timothy's parish in 1985. advertisement
Jennifer Swanson, spokeswoman for Life Teen, said the suit was being sent to the organization's outside legal counsel for review. But she denied the allegations.
"Life Teen has transformed lives of countless teenagers, families and communities," she said. "Such an impact can be proven and we will not allow a lawsuit to impede teens developing a friendship with Christ."
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Boston Globe
By Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff | January 28, 2005
CAMBRIDGE -- It was about 5 o'clock when the judge presiding over Paul R. Shanley's child rape trial turned to the accuser on the witness stand and made a request. Jurors had to leave for the day, the judge said. Could he return to court in the morning to finish his testimony?
''Please don't make me," the man replied. ''I can't do this again. I can't start again."
The dramatic exchange, which took place without the jury present, capped a withering daylong cross-examination of Shanley's accuser, marked by sarcastic exchanges, tears, and vigorous challenges of his accounts of being ruined by the abuse.
Over seven hours, defense lawyer Frank Mondano challenged the accuser's memories and his contention that being abused by Shanley, 74, led to many troubles in his life, from alcohol abuse as a teenager to failing to become a Major League baseball player. Mondano suggested that the man was seeking attention from the Shanley case and hadn't suffered as he contends he has.
The alleged victim, 27, accuses Shanley of repeatedly raping and abusing him between ages 6 and 11, when he was a Sunday school student at St. Jean Parish in Newton. He says he recovered memories of the abuse in 2001, after hearing of news reports about Boston's clergy sexual abuse scandal.
Mondano has challenged the authenticity of those memories and is trying to persuade the jury that the charges against Shanley are motivated by hope of monetary gain. The accuser was awarded a $500,000 settlement after he brought a civil suit against the Boston Archdiocese.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Whittier Daily News
By Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press
Insurance carriers sued the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles in federal court, alleging it has withheld information that could help insurers assess the validity and worth of more than 500 sexual abuse claims.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court by three members of American International Group Inc., alleges that the church and Cardinal Roger Mahony have tried to force insurers into settlement without providing insurers with key documents. Those include plaintiffs' medical and work records that could help evaluate the claims, the suit says.
"The archbishop's failure to investigate and to initiate formal discovery has resulted in the loss of critical evidence,' according to the lawsuit. "Despite the fact that memories are fading and witnesses are dying, the archbishop has consistently resisted the taking of any depositions or recorded statements in the ... proceedings or otherwise.'
Nearly 700 clergy abuse lawsuits are pending against Roman Catholic dioceses in Southern California.
The Diocese of Orange last month reached a record-setting $100 million settlement with 87 alleged victims. The settlement could not have gone forward without the participation of the diocese's insurers, which will pay about $50 million.
CINCINNATI (OH)
Beacon Journal
JOHN NOLAN
Associated Press
CINCINNATI - Activists challenging a prosecutor's agreement to end a sex abuse investigation against a Roman Catholic archdiocese have a potential ally: the new prosecutor.
It is not certain, however, whether Joseph Deters, who returned as Hamilton County prosecutor this month, would consider overturning the plea deal or could reopen the investigation.
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati pleaded no contest in 2003 to charges of failing to tell authorities about sex abuse allegations against priests, becoming just the third Roman Catholic diocese at that time to strike a deal with prosecutors in a criminal investigation.
The agreement ended a nearly two-year investigation, among the probes nationwide after molestation allegations were made against a priest in Boston in 2002.
Since last year, activists have called for an outside review of the deal, saying former county prosecutor Michael Allen ended it before determining whether church officials knew of sex abuse by clergy and allowed it to continue.
Deters said he was fulfilling a campaign promise to the activists to examine the agreement.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
The Seattle Times
By Denise Lavoie
The Associated Press
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — After a grueling second day of intense and graphic questioning by a defense lawyer, the man who has accused defrocked priest Paul Shanley of raping him as a child cried on the witness stand yesterday and begged the judge not to force him to continue testifying.
"I can't do this again," the man said, his shoulders slumped and his head down as Shanley's attorney asked graphic questions about the nature of the alleged abuse. "I can't start over again."
At one point, the accuser — who has asked not to be named publicly — loudly sobbed as he clasped his hands behind his head and pressed his forehead against the rail of the witness stand.
Frank Mondano, Shanley's attorney, has spent the past two days seeking to undermine the accuser's credibility, grilling him about his troubled childhood, his abuse of alcohol and steroids, his gambling habit — and his motivation for coming forward with what he says are repressed memories of the alleged abuse.
Mondano has said the man made up his story to cash in on the multimillion-dollar settlements paid to victims of abuse by priests in Boston's Roman Catholic Archdiocese. Indeed, the accuser last year received a $500,000 settlement from the Boston Archdiocese.
MANATEE (FL)
Bradenton Herald
MICHAEL BARBER
MANATEE - and AIMEE JUAREZ
Herald Staff Writers
An assistant principal at Haile Middle School was one of many defendants named in sexual molestation lawsuits filed against the Archdiocese of Boston that led to a multimillion-dollar settlement in 2003, court documents show.
Joseph Gilpin, who has been placed on paid administrative leave by the Manatee County School District, is also part of a separate, ongoing complaint filed with the Archdiocese of Portland in Maine.
As the allegations were revealed this week, local friends and coworkers have staunchly supported Gilpin, a distinguished employee of the Manatee County school system for more than 30 years.
Father Don Nicholson, a local Episcopal priest who has known Gilpin for seven or eight years, forcefully denounced the allegations.
"It's garbage," he said. "I'm angry, not at Joe, but that an unnamed accuser could make these accusations after all these years and get Joe's name splashed all over the newspaper. I think it's a defilement."
Gilpin, 60, has not responded to repeated attempts by The Herald to discuss the allegations or the district's decision to place him on leave.
MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star
Jackson County prosecutors today accused a Sunday school teacher of having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl from his Kansas City church class.
Darren C. Hall, 36, of Kansas City, was charged with one count of statutory rape and three counts of statutory sodomy. He was in jail today in lieu of a $75,000 bond.
Prosecutors allege he began a sexual relationship with the girl last February when she was 15. He has known the girl since she was 11 years old.
Hall was a Sunday school teacher at Friendship Baptist Church, 3530 Chelsea Avenue. He also helped schedule recreational activities for the church. A woman who answered the church's phone today said the pastor was “out of the city” and could not be reached for comment. She said there was no one else available to comment.
KANSAS CITY (MO)
TheKansasCityChannel.com
POSTED: 5:26 pm CST January 27, 2005
UPDATED: 5:57 pm CST January 27, 2005
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas City church youth counselor is accused of having a long-term sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl in the congregation.
Darren Hall, 36, is charged with statutory rape and sodomy. He was arrested Wednesday.
Investigators told KMBC that Hall first met the girl when she was 11. The girl attended a Sunday school class Hall taught at Friendship Baptist Church in Kansas City.
According to court documents, the relationship became sexual last year when the girl turned 15.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston.com
By Greg Frost | January 27, 2005
BOSTON (Reuters) - The lone accuser in the child rape trial of defrocked priest Paul Shanley pleaded with a judge to spare him more of the stinging interrogation that left him sobbing in court on Thursday.
A day after tearfully testifying how Shanley raped and molested him decades ago, the 27-year-old firefighter admitted under intense cross-examination he had abused steroids and alcohol and had a gambling problem. He also said he came from a broken home and was repulsed by homosexual acts.
Armed with piles of depositions and evidence culled from a civil lawsuit that netted the accuser $500,000 in a settlement last year, defense attorney Frank Mondano picked apart the man's background -- apparently to cast doubt on his motives and lessen his credibility in the eyes of the jury.
By the end of the day, the accuser was pleading with Judge Stephen Neel to allow him not to return for a third day of cross-examination. Mondano said if the man did not return, there might be sufficient grounds for a mistrial.
Shanley played a central role in the abuse scandal that rocked the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and enveloped other dioceses. The Vatican defrocked Shanley last year, more than two decades after his superiors learned of the priest's views on sex between men and boys.
Internal church documents released in 2002 showed the Boston Archdiocese knew in 1979 that Shanley had attended a meeting of men involved in sexual relationships with male youngsters -- a meeting that gave rise to NAMBLA, the North American Man Boy Love Association.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Guardian
Friday January 28, 2005 1:31 AM
By DENISE LAVOIE
Associated Press Writer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - After a grueling second day of intense and graphic questioning by a defense lawyer, the man who has accused defrocked priest Paul Shanley of raping him as a child broke down on the witness stand Thursday and begged the judge not to force him to continue testifying.
``I can't do this again,'' the man said, his shoulders slumped and his head down as Shanley's attorney asked graphic questions about the nature of the alleged abuse. ``I can't start over again.''
At one point during the questioning, the accuser loudly sobbed as he clasped his hands behind his head and pressed his forehead against the rail of the witness stand.
Frank Mondano, Shanley's attorney, has spent the past two days seeking to undermine the accuser's credibility, grilling him about his troubled childhood, his abuse of alcohol and steroids, his gambling habit - and his motivation for coming forward with what he says are repressed memories of the alleged abuse.
Mondano has said the man made up his story to cash in on the multimillion-dollar settlements paid to victims of abuse by priests in Boston's Roman Catholic Archdiocese.
The accuser, now a 27-year-old firefighter, says Shanley raped and molested him at a parish outside Boston beginning when he was 6. He didn't remember the abuse until early 2002, when he heard a friend's account of being abused as a boy by Shanley.
CINCINNATI (OH)
Los Angeles Times
By Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writer
CINCINNATI — For four months, attorney Matt Garretson has immersed himself in halting accounts of rape and crude seduction, frenzied groping, terror and shame. He has come to understand the pain of sexual abuse.
Now, he must put a price on it.
Garretson administers a fund set up by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati to compensate victims of clergy abuse. In the next few weeks, he will divide $3 million among the 132 men and women who have trusted him with their anguish.
The 16-year-old molested by his Catholic school principal in a gym shower — how much is he due? He quit playing ball after the assault, giving up his shot at a college scholarship. His mother urged him to Mass, but he found he could not pray. How to value his loss?
And what of the 13-year-old fondled by a priest who had taken him in for counseling? The priest called it God's will. The boy, swamped with shame, slumped into addiction, obesity and depression that lasted decades. How much for him?
OHIO
The Advocate
By ERIK JOHNS
Advocate Reporter
NEWARK -- A Hebron pastor is being held in the Licking County Jail, accused of sexually assaulting a girl who frequently attended his church.
Lonny J. Aleshire Jr., 34, associate pastor at the Licking Baptist Church, 1380 Beaver Run Road, Hebron, is charged with one count of sexual battery, a third-degree felony.
Licking County Sheriff's deputies accuse Aleshire, of 503 E. Main St., Hebron, of engaging in sexual activity with the girl at the church.
Deputies say more charges are possible involving a second girl who alleges Aleshire abused her over a two-year period.
Aleshire was arrested by sheriff's deputies Tuesday evening.
He is also an employee of the Ohio Department of Youth Services, which conducts counseling and other services for the Ohio juvenile justice system.
AUSTRALIA
ABC
A former Adelaide Anglican archbishop says it is a pity that Ian George has been forced to cancel a farewell service honouring his time as archbishop.
Dr Keith Rayner preceded Dr George as archbishop and says the furore over the planned service has been "unfortunate".
Yesterday, Dr George called off the service himself, because of protests from victims of sexual abuse within the church.
He resigned last year over the church's failure to help abuse victims.
However, Dr Rayner says the circumstances of Dr George's resignation overshadow a lifetime of work for the good of the community.
"He spearheaded the work of the Anglican communion for refugees around the world and the thought that none of that should be able to be honoured is to me a very sad thing," he said.
However, the decision has drawn no such sympathy from one of those abused as a child.
Mark King says the problem of covering up child abuse goes far deeper than Dr George's involvement.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Court TV
By Emanuella Grinberg
Court TV
EAST CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The lawyer of a defrocked priest accused of sexually assaulting a young boy put the credibility of the accuser on trial Thursday when cross-examination continued in Paul Shanley's child rape case.
Outside the jury's presence, defense attorney Frank Mondano argued Thursday morning that the defense should be able to continue using depositions from the accuser's personal injury suit against the Boston Archdiocese to impeach the credibility of his recollections.
After Judge Stephen Neel ruled in Mondano's favor, the attorney threw the accuser's own words at him in a bid to convince jurors that the now-27-year-old has a tendency "to forget, then remember, then forget again."
The alleged victim has testified that the sexual abuse he suffered at Shanley's hands has caused numerous problems in his life. When he was in high school, he said, he began using steroids "to make me feel better about myself," and began drinking "to excess."
IRELAND
One in Four
by Anne Lucey of The Irish Times
A jury yesterday cleared a Christian Brother formerly attached to St Joseph's CBS Industrial School in Tralee of eight counts of sexual complaints by a former inmate.
The jury of six women and six men unanimously returned a verdict of not guilty on the second day of the trial at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee.
The now 50-year-old man who lives in London said he would wet the bed at night rather than use the toilet when the Brother was on dormitory duty. He alleged that the indecent assaults and gross indecency had taken place in a storeroom off the kitchen on four separate occasions, although he did not have specific dates. He had been sent as a 12-year-old to St Joseph's by District Court Order, because he had 'skipped' school.
The man cannot read and suffers from depression. The Brother denied four charges of indecent assault and four charges of gross indecency on four occasions between April, 1967 and June 30th, 1970. He was transferred to the school in 1964, about three years before the boy. He did not remember the boy.
AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser
By NIGEL HUNT
28jan05
THE Anglican Church has bowed to intense criticism from sexual abuse victims and cancelled a planned service of recognition for former archbishop Ian George.
The embarrassing backdown follows a barrage of public attacks by victims and child protection advocates, which forced church officials to review the planned service.
Bishop George resigned as Anglican archbishop in June, following the release of a scathing report on the church's handling of abuse complaints and criticism of his role in one case, in which an alleged offender had fled overseas.
Abuse victims and their families were outraged the Adelaide Diocese organised the February 13 service, accusing it of insensitivity and arrogance.
After several days of discussions with church officials, Bishop George yesterday said he was "deeply concerned" that victims had been distressed by the planned service.
LOUISVILLE (KY)
Kentucky.com
Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Vatican has dismissed Thomas P. Creagh from the priesthood, making him the fourth man to leave the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville over the recent sex-abuse scandal.
The action came late last month, said Brian Reynolds, chancellor and chief administrative officer for the archdiocese.
Creagh, 63, had not worked in ministry since May 2002, when he resigned as pastor of Holy Family Church in Louisville after being accused of sexual abuse in a lawsuit against the archdiocese.
Creagh eventually was accused in five lawsuits of sexually abusing boys. All five plaintiffs were among 243 people who later took part in a $25.7 million settlement with the archdiocese. Creagh never faced criminal charges.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Herald Tribune
By DENISE LAVOIE
Associated Press Writer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The lawyer for defrocked priest Paul Shanley sought to undermine the credibility of his accuser Thursday, grilling the man under cross-examination about his troubled childhood, abuse of alcohol and steroids, and gambling.
The man testified for a second day of Shanley's rape trial, one of the few cases in which prosecutors have been able to bring charges against priests accused of molesting boys decades ago.
The man, now a 27-year-old firefighter, is the lone accuser remaining in the case. He says Shanley raped and molested him at a Newton parish over a period of six years, beginning when he was 6.
He says he didn't recover memories of the abuse until early 2002, when he heard a friend's account of being abused as a boy by Shanley, one of the central figures in the Boston Archdiocese's clergy sex abuse scandal.
But Shanley's lawyer, Frank Mondano, has implied that the man's account was tailored to conform to those of three other alleged victims who were dropped from the case by prosecutors.
BRISTOL (CT)
The Advocate
Associated Press
January 27, 2005
BRISTOL, Conn. -- A former youth pastor and basketball coach at Central Christian Academy in Southington has pleaded no contest to charges of sexually assaulting a teenage student.
James J. McCoy, 31, could get up to two years in prison and three years of probation when he is sentenced in March in Superior Court.
McCoy was originally charged July 1, 2003 with second-degree sexual assault. But that charge was downgraded to two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault before McCoy entered his plea on Monday.
The victim, in a civil lawsuit, has accused McCoy of repeatedly sexually abusing and assaulting her over a period of six months in the late 1990s. She was 17 at the time, according to the civil suit.
Leaders of the church and school have said previously that they heard reports about of the relationship in 2001, and immediately obtained McCoy's resignation after he "admitted to immoral behavior."
ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer
First published: Thursday, January 27, 2005
ALBANY -- A Boston judge has dropped the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and its bishop from a $5 million clergy sex abuse lawsuit, noting in his Dec. 29 decision the client's lawyer missed a paperwork deadline.
On Wednesday, attorney John Aretakis disputed the ruling by Suffolk Superior Court Justice Christopher J. Muse and said he is confident the claim filed by Joe Woodward of Fort Ann will stand.
He said the Massachusetts judge's action isn't valid because a case can only be dismissed on its merits, not a technicality.
Woodward, 37, says he was sexually abused as a young teenager in the early 1980s by the former Rev. Dozia Wilson. The subject of a number of other complaints both here and in Boston, Wilson was removed from ministry in 1993.
PITTSBURGH (PA)
phillyburbs.com
The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH - Two more men have sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, claiming they were plied with alcohol and sexually abused by priests decades ago, and a Schuylkill County panel of judges dismissed two abuse lawsuits against the Allentown Diocese they said were filed too late.
The two men bring to 35 the number of people who have sued the Pittsburgh diocese in the past year claiming they were molested by 18 former priests. None of the cases has gone to trial.
A 53-year-old man from McKeesport claims in his lawsuit that he was fondled by a priest at St. Mary Czestochowa Church in McKeesport, a Pittsburgh suburb, when he was 11 years old. A 45-year-old man claims he was fondled and sodomized at the St. Paul Church in Butler by a former priest when he was 15 years old.
Lawyers representing the victims contend that the diocese protected and reassigned priests that were involved in abusing children.
The diocese has said that all the allegations in the lawsuits involve priests removed from the ministry or who have died.
MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald
BY JAY WEAVER
jweaver@herald.com
A Miami-Dade County man claims a controversial Catholic priest sexually abused him more than three decades ago, when he was between the ages of 8 and 10 and enrolled in catechism classes.
Jose Lopez-Trigo, 40, alleges in a lawsuit that during the three years leading up to his first Holy Communion at St. Kieran's Church in Miami, in 1974, ``he was a repeated victim of sexual abuse in which depraved acts of pedophilia were committed by [the Rev. Ricardo] Castellanos upon him.''
The Miami-Dade state attorney's office said it received a copy of the civil complaint this week and has referred the matter to Miami police for a criminal investigation.
Since the nationwide clergy sex-abuse scandal broke in 2002, Miami-Dade prosecutors have been stymied in all but one of their numerous investigations of molestation claims in the Archdiocese of Miami because the statute of limitations had expired. But this case could gain momentum because the alleged victim was under 12 years of age, and no statute of limitations applies for certain sex-battery offenses.
Castellanos, 59, denied the latest accusations through his attorney. He has been on administrative leave as pastor of San Isidro Church in Pompano Beach.
Castellanos, accused of sexual abuse in four now-settled lawsuits with the archdiocese, has always maintained his innocence.
''We believe that the [latest] allegations are false,'' said attorney James Nosich. ``Castellanos has absolutely no recollection of this person.''
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Boston Globe
By Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff | January 27, 2005
CAMBRIDGE -- He is thickly built and tough looking, a firefighter who prefers football to baseball and described Air Force boot camp as ''awesome." But when a prosecutor's queries summoned memories from Sunday school in the early 1980s, he began to cry.
Who was it, the prosecutor asked the alleged abuse victim, that used to meet him in the boys room of St. Jean's Church in Newton? Twice the man pointed, without speaking, at the balding man at the defense table in Middlesex Superior Court. Finally, he stammered, ''Shanley."
In the second day of testimony in Paul R. Shanley's child-rape trial yesterday, the defrocked priest's 27-year-old accuser took the witness stand and gave graphic accounts of the alleged abuse in a halting voice, often covering his face with his hands.
He described what he said were clandestine meetings with the priest on scattered Sunday mornings: in the bathroom, the church rectory, the pews, and the confessional. He said Shanley touched him, watched him urinate, and occasionally performed oral sex on him to ''teach me" how to do it.
But in a combative cross-examination yesterday afternoon, Shanley's lawyer, Frank Mondano, challenged the man's credibility, pointing out lapses in his memory and discrepancies between yesterday's testimony and a deposition he gave in April 2002 in a civil suit against the Boston Archdiocese.
MANATEE (FL)
Bradenton Herald
MANATEE -
An assistant middle school principal was placed on paid administrative leave Wednesday after accusations surfaced that he sexually abused at least two minors more than 30 years ago when he was a Catholic seminarian.
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, faxed a letter to Manatee County School Superintendent Roger Dearing on Wednesday contending Joseph Gilpin, an assistant principal at Haile Middle School, molested a boy while affiliated with the Catholic church between 1965 and 1968.
Clohessy wrote that he was contacted last week by another man who said he also was sexually abused by Gilpin between 1968 and 1970.
Gilpin has previously denied the accusations, according to a Boston Globe report published Jan. 31, 2002. Gilpin, a teacher and administrator in Manatee County schools since 1971, did not respond to repeated attempts by The Herald to contact him Wednesday.
School board member Barbara Harvey was stunned by the accusations.
"I do not believe anything negative about him," Harvey said when contacted at home. "I have known him for at least 20 years and I have found him to be very competent and trustworthy. I am deeply shocked at any allegations of this nature."
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Times Argus
January 27, 2005
By Denise Lavoie Associated Press
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Paul Shanley's accuser tearfully described Wednesday how the former priest would pull him from Catholic education classes to rape and fondle him in the church pews, confessional and rectory.
The man, now 27, says Shanley repeatedly molested him in the 1980s, beginning when he was 6, at St. Jean's Parish in Newton. The case originally involved allegations by four alleged victims, but it has since been whittled down to the one man, who testified in Shanley's child rape trial in Middlesex Superior Court.
Shanley's lawyer challenged the man's account of the abuse, implying that it was tailored to conform to those of the other alleged victims, who were dropped from the case by prosecutors.
"It's fair to say that at various points in time you came to remember pretty much what they came to remember, correct?" defense attorney Frank Mondano asked the accuser.
"Yeah," the man said. "(But) they were my memories."
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Shadowed for years by allegations that he molested boys, defrocked priest Paul Shanley faced one of his accusers in criminal court for the first time yesterday in nearly four hours of testimony that left his alleged victim in tears.
``Oh my God,'' the man whispered, his head suddenly down, inhaling deeply, as Deputy First Assistant District Attorney Lynn Rooney asked him to describe what happened at St. Jean's parish in Newton between 1983 and 1989, when he was between 6 and 12.
Moments earlier, the alleged victim, now a 27-year-old firefighter, had seemed the image of boyish confidence as he described his courtship with his wife and a promising Air Force career.
That career came to an abrupt end in the spring of 2002 when he began having flashbacks, he said yesterday in Middlesex Superior Court. The flashbacks came after he learned of media reports of sexual-abuse allegations a former classmate had brought against Shanley.
The firefighter, whose name the Herald is withholding because the man is an alleged sexual-assault victim, described being pulled out of Sunday school class and into the church bathroom.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Herald Tribune
By PAM BELLUCK
New York Times
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 26 - A 27-year-old who has accused a defrocked Boston priest of molesting him 20 years ago took the witness stand on Wednesday and testified that the defendant, Paul R. Shanley, sexually abused him in the church bathroom, the pews, a confession room and the rectory.
In the bathroom, the accuser testified, Mr. Shanley "unzipped my pants," and, "if I had to go to the bathroom, he'd watch me go to bathroom."
Then, he said, Mr. Shanley would touch him, and "sometimes he would kneel down and try to teach me how to perform oral sex."
The testimony from the sometimes-teary accuser, a barrel-chested firefighter in a Boston suburb, came on the second day of the trial of Mr. Shanley, who became a lightning rod when the sexual abuse scandal erupted three years ago in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.
In cross-examination, Mr. Shanley's lawyer, Frank Mondano, tried to discredit the accuser by pointing out inconsistencies in his statements and memory and by suggesting that his history of other troubles, including problems with his parents and his behavior in high school, raised questions about his credibility.
TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
The Rev. Thomas S. Quinn, 70, former communications director of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo who became a priest nearly 20 years ago after a business career, died of a heart attack Tuesday in the rectory of Blessed Sacrament Parish, of which he was associate pastor.
He was chaplain of the Ursuline Community in Toledo and taught at St. Francis de Sales High School.
As director of communications from 1999 to 2003, Father Quinn often was the public voice and face of the diocese. Much of his last year was spent responding to inquiries about the sexual abuse scandal. Bishop James Hoffman died Feb. 8, 2003, after 22 years leading the 19-county diocese.
"As spokesman, it certainly hasn't been pleasant," he told The Blade in June, 2003.
ALASKA
Fairbanks News-Miner
By CHRIS TALBOTT
Staff Writer
The Rev. James Poole admitted to sexually abusing young girls in a deposition he gave last year, according to the lawyer for two of the three women who have made claims against the former Catholic priest and the Fairbanks Diocese.
Attorney Ken Roosa said Poole admitted to molesting Jane Doe 1, among others, and called himself "the great lover of the world" while answering questions under oath in September.
Attorneys for Poole and the Society of Jesus, Oregon Province, have requested the deposition and thousands of documents be sealed to save Poole unnecessary embarrassment and to protect the pool of potential jurors. Roosa gave a quick list of Poole's admissions Wednesday as he argued against a gag order in the courtroom of Bethel Superior Court Judge Dale Curda.
He noted defense attorneys have not told the court of Poole's admissions, which run contrary to previous filings in which the 81-year-old former priest, who now lives in Spokane, Wash., denied the allegations of Jane Doe.
"Yet no single attorney involved in this case from the defense perspective has seen fit to attach an addenda or in any way inform the court that in fact Father Poole did admit doing every single act that Jane Doe alleged in her complaint," Roosa told Curda.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Jean Guccione
Times Staff Writer
January 27, 2005
Three insurance companies have sued the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, accusing Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of refusing to share information about alleged sex abuse by priests, and precluding scrutiny of his activities as their supervisor.
The insurers have asked a judge to order Mahony to provide documents that could be used to defend the church or to relieve them of liability stemming from allegations by more than 535 people who say they were molested by priests since the 1930s.
"For whatever reasons, the archbishop's [Cardinal Mahony's] apparent goal is to obviate any meaningful disclosure of the facts and circumstances of these claims, and yet to pressure [the insurers] to contribute enormous sums of money" to settle the cases, according to the lawsuit.
The strategy "precludes any public or internal scrutiny of the archbishop's conduct, whether direct or by silent ratification," the lawsuit said.
"They have full access to the files," responded Mahony's lead lawyer, J. Michael Hennigan. "They are supposed to be on our side."
PENNSYLVANIA
FindLaw
By MARCI HAMILTON
hamilton02@aol.com
Thursday, Jan. 27, 2005
Last week, a federal district court in Erie, Pennsylvania, ruled on an unusual sexual harassment claim by a former nun against the employer of a priest.
Lynette Petruska sued Gannon University, alleging that she had been harassed by then-University President Monsignor David Rubino. But Judge Sean J. McLaughlin held that, due to the "ministerial exception," a religious institution cannot be sued under federal anti-discrimination laws.
The "ministerial exception" -- widely observed by courts in the United States - puts religious employees outside the protections of the anti-discrimination laws, on the broad ground that if the courts heard such cases, they would unduly interfere with the internal procedures of religious institutions.
The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit - which will hear Petruska's appeal - ought to reverse the trial court's decision, and allow her case to go forward. Not only is the ministerial exception itself problematic, it is especially problematic in this case.
The Ministerial Exception Wrongly Puts Courts in the Shoes of the Legislature
First, the ministerial exception is generally problematic. It is a court-created exception, but any such exception - if it comes at all -- should come through the legislature, not the courts. The ministerial exception is actually a judicially crafted accommodation for religion.
The legislature has the power to convene hearings at which it can listen to wide-ranging expert testimony, and engage in an extended study of the issue. They are institutionally crafted to be able to ask the larger questions about the public good.
JERUSALEM
Forward
January 28, 2005
By Jason Berry
Pope John Paul II has awarded control of an important Catholic cultural center in Jerusalem to a controversial, right-wing priestly order whose founder has been accused of sexual abuse.
The order, the Legionaries of Christ, received the administrative keys to the Jerusalem landmark, the Notre Dame Center, in a festive ceremony at the Vatican on November 30. The ceremony was part of a weeklong Vatican celebration marking the 60th anniversary of the entry into the priesthood of the order's Mexican-born founder, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, 84.
In an unusual twist, a church legal official disclosed less than a week later that a Vatican canon-law prosecutor was reopening the dormant investigation into abuse charges against Maciel. He had been accused in 1976 of sexually abusing seminarians in Mexico and in Spain in the 1950s and '60s.
Eight former members of the order filed formal charges against him in the Vatican in 1998, but the investigation was put on hold a year later by the Vatican's top theologian, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
Maciel and his order have denied the charges repeatedly.
The Notre Dame Center in Jerusalem, a palatial structure at the foot of Jaffa Road, facing the walls of the Old City just outside Jaffa Gate, was built by a French order a century ago as a pilgrims' hostel. Taken over by the Vatican in 1970, it now houses a conference center, a school of tourism and hotel management, the public library of the Pontifical Mission for Palestine and a 150-bed hotel. It also houses administrative offices of several institutions linked to the local Catholic church, the so-called Latin Patriarchate, which represents mainly Arabic-speaking Catholics in Israel and the territories.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
27 January 2005
Some of the criticism of the Bishop of Derry, Seamus Hegarty, for his handling of sex abuse allegations against a priest has been misplaced. The man who must shoulder most of the blame is the Pope.
The bishop was merely following orders from the Vatican.
The line of the Vatican is that the interests of the victims of clerical sex abuse are to be given low priority when compared to the interests of the Catholic Church.
The allegations which have come to light over the past fortnight, as a result of the journalistic endeavour of Donna Deeney of the Derry Journal, are grave. The gravest concern the behaviour, not of the priest but of the diocese in dealing with the priest.
This allegation is that even after the diocesan authorities had acknowledged the priest's sexual abuse of an 18-year-old, he was given a role in a support group for victims of abuse, including sexual abuse.
Dr Hegarty has been less than forthcoming in explaining the thinking behind this sequence of events.
One key to understanding the matter is found in a law promulgated by the Vatican in May, 2001, just as the depth of the Church's worldwide sex abuse crisis became evident.
The new law changed the way bishops are permitted to handle abuse allegations. Three changes are directly relevant to Derry:
All information about such cases was henceforth to come within the ambit of "pontifical secret" and to be sent to the Vatican. Previously, there had been no special secrecy provisions regarding sex abuse cases.
Bishops were no longer allowed to process sex abuse cases under the general provisions of Canon Law but had to obtain permission from the Vatican to move beyond a preliminary investigation.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
New York Newsday
By Elizabeth Mehren
Times Staff Writer
January 27, 2005
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Taking the stand against a central figure in Boston's clerical abuse scandal, a 27-year-old firefighter tearfully testified Wednesday that former priest Paul Shanley had repeatedly molested him in a church bathroom, rectory, pews and confessional.
The man — who asked not to be named publicly — said the abuse began when he was 6 years old and enrolled in religious education classes at St. Jean's Roman Catholic Church. Shanley, he testified, continued to molest him at the church in Newton, Mass., until he was about 12.
While in the bathroom, the accuser said, the priest "would kneel down and try to teach me how to perform oral sex." In the confessional, "we would just talk about all the sins a second-grader could have," the man said. And then, he testified, Shanley would digitally penetrate him.
During cross-examination, defense lawyer Frank Mondano sought to discredit memories that the accuser said he had repressed for 15 years. His account, the lawyer noted, bore striking resemblance to those offered by three other alleged Shanley victims who either withdrew from the case voluntarily or were dropped by prosecutors.
OHIO
WCPO
Reported by: AP
Web produced by: Neil Relyea
Photographed by: 9News
1/26/2005 10:39:50 PM
Religious leaders would have to report suspected child abuse under a bill that was reintroduced Wednesday.
The legislation passed the Senate last year but died in a House committee after fundamentalist religious groups argued that it established a church and state relationship.
"We had some evangelical ministers who felt they had a separation of church and state issue, and some that had told me that they preach from the pulpit that parents should reprimand and punish their children and they didn't want to come back the following week and report them for child abuse," said Sen. Robert Spada, a northern Ohio Republican who proposed the bill.
EAST MANATEE (FL)
Herald Tribune
EAST MANATEE — An assistant principal at Haile Middle School was suspended Wednesday amid allegations he sexually abused boys in the late 1960s.
Joseph A. Gilpin, 60, was placed on paid leave by Superintendent Roger Dearing after Dearing received an e-mail from an advocacy group that claims Gilpin molested at least two boys in Massachusetts and Maine from 1965-1970.
Gilpin has worked for the school district here for 30 years.
Dearing said Gilpin will be suspended while a private investigator looks into the allegations. He said he didn’t know how long that would take.
Dearing said he had no proof Gilpin abused anyone but wanted to “proceed with caution.” He said he wasn’t even sure if Gilpin is the man connected to the alleged abuse.
“When children’s safety is involved and someone alleges something that involves moral turpitude, we’re going to take the most conservative approach,” Dearing said.
Attempts to reach Gilpin by phone were unsuccessful Wednesday. At his East Manatee home, family members who answered the door conferred with Gilpin and said he did not want to comment. A metal cross on the door frame quotes Scripture: “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” ...
The group that contacted the district, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said Gilpin settled a lawsuit in 2004 filed by one of the victims.
The lawsuit claimed Gilpin abused the boy from 1965-68 when the boy was 9 to 12 years old at a Catholic camp in Massachusetts and at the boy’s home in Wareham, Mass., the group said. A SNAP spokesman said Gilpin was studying to be a priest during that time.
A court official from Suffolk County, Mass. confirmed Wednesday that a lawsuit against “Father Joseph Gilpin” was settled in February 2004. It was not immediately clear if Father Joseph Gilpin is the same Joseph Gilpin who now lives in Manatee County.
EAST CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Court TV
By Emanuella Grinberg
Court TV
EAST CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A former Air Force police officer described his memories of sexual abuse at the hands of his parish priest to a jury Wednesday in Cambridge, Mass.
The man accusing defrocked priest Paul Shanley of sexual abuse testified that the disgraced clergyman would remove him from his Sunday-school classes at St. John's Parish in Newton, Mass., for what Shanley called "special duties."
"When we were good kids, we got to do that," the 27-year-old from Newton told the court, whose audience grew significantly in anticipation of the testimony.
Shanley was indicted on several counts of child rape and indecent assault and battery in June 2002 stemming from allegations made by four accusers, who were members of the church Shanley was assigned to from 1979 to 1989.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Reuters
By Greg Frost
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Reuters) - A 27-year-old firefighter wept in court on Wednesday as he testified how defrocked priest Paul Shanley, a key figure in the U.S. Catholic Church abuse scandal, raped him and taught him to perform oral sex, starting when he was just six years old.
In dramatic testimony on the second day of the former priest's trial on charges of child rape and indecent assault and battery, the accuser sat just a few yards from Shanley and choked back tears.
The man said Shanley had taken him out of weekly religion classes at a Boston-area church and had abused him in a bathroom, in the front pews of the church and even in the confessional where Catholics normally admit their sins.
"Sometimes he would kneel down and try to teach me how to perform oral sex," said the accuser, who reckoned the abuse began in 1983 when he was six and went on until 1989.
He also recalled the painful process of recovering memories of the abuse early in 2002 as a clergy abuse scandal was rocking the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Guardian
By DENISE LAVOIE
AP Legal Affairs Writer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - A man who says he was molested as a boy by Paul Shanley, the now-defrocked priest at the center of the Boston Archdiocese sex scandal, tearfully testified Wednesday that Shanley would pull him from catechism classes and rape and fondle him in the church pews, the confessional and the rectory.
His voice cracking, a hand over his face, the 27-year-old man also said Shanley would wait for him in the bathroom with the lights off. He recalled seeing Shanley silhouetted against the hallway light, his hands outstretched in a priestly pose.
``He'd unzip my pants,'' the accuser said. ``Sometimes he would kneel down and try to teach me how to perform oral sex.''
He said the abuse began at age 6 and continued until 1989, when he was 12.
Shanley's lawyer has said the man made up the story to cash in on the multimillion-dollar settlement paid to victims of the Boston sex scandal.
The testimony came on the second day of Shanley's rape trial, one of the few cases in which prosecutors have been able to bring charges against priests accused of molesting boys decades ago.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Guardian
Wednesday January 26, 2005 6:31 PM
By DENISE LAVOIE
AP Legal Affairs Writer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - A woman who taught Catholic education classes at Paul Shanley's parish testified Wednesday in the former priest's child rape trial that she couldn't remember him pulling students from her classroom.
Prosecutors have said Shanley's modus operandi was to take boys from the classes, saying he needed discipline them, then sexually abuse them in the church bathroom, the pews, the rectory and the confessional.
Prosecution witness Ann Marie Rousseau, a member of St. Jean's parish for 32 years, taught Shanley's accuser, a now 27-year-old man who says Shanley repeatedly raped him between 1983 and 1989, when he was between the ages of 6 and 12.
Asked by prosecutor Lynn Rooney whether she had to discipline the children, Rousseau said there was a lot of ``high-energy boy behavior'' in the class.
Under questioning by Shanley's lawyer, Frank Mondano, Rousseau said she would call the director of the education program, not Shanley, if she couldn't handle the discipline on her own. She said Shanley never pulled students from her class, but she also wasn't the only person who taught Shanley's accuser at St. Jean's.
VISTA (CA)
NBCSanDiego.com
POSTED: 10:48 pm PST January 25, 2005
UPDATED: 11:04 pm PST January 25, 2005
VISTA, Calif. -- A teenager cliams that her father, a former youth pastor and teacher at Tri-City Christian School, molested her when she was a little girl.
Johnnie Sherman Achord, 46, is on trial, charged with molesting his daughter in the early and mid-1990s.
Now 18, the woman said the first assault she could remember came when she was 4 or 5 years old while she was sitting on a pool table in the garage of her Oceanside house.
Achord allegedly reached inside her dress and underwear, she testified.
The woman said she didn't tell anyone about the incident because she felt embarrased, dirty and confused.
More frequent molestations happened when the family moved to Vista, she said.
SOUTH AFRICA
Cape Flats
January 26, 2005
By Mzolisi Witbooi
Members of a Cape Flats congregation were shocked by evidence in the Blue Downs Magistrates Court that their pastor had had an adulterous affair with a married woman and is considered a leader in the Americans gang.
In his testimony opposing bail yesterday, investigating officer Captain Henrich Cockrill said pastor Albern Martins, 47, who with two others faces charges of illegally possessing abalone with the street value of R7 million and stolen goods worth R75 000, had had an affair with a married woman who had now turned State witness.
There were loud gasps from people in court, which included members of Martins's congregation.
But before he could continue, Cockrill was stopped by Martins's legal team, attorney Noorudien Hassan and advocate William King, from disclosing any details of the couple's affair unless they were a relevant part of his testimony.
NORCROSS (GA)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By LATEEF MUNGIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/26/05
The 57-year-old minister of a Norcross-area church is charged with molesting his 3-year-old grandson, but the director of the congregation's preschool said Tuesday she believes he's innocent.
Nathan Clement Ridgeway, minister of Faith Life Fellowship, was arrested Friday and charged with aggravated child molestation and aggravated sexual battery, said Gwinnett police spokesman Darren Moloney.
Ridgeway is charged with molesting his grandson at the minister's Duluth home, police said. Police did not say over what period the alleged offenses occurred. The boy is in the custody of his parents.
Ridgeway was arrested in the parking lot of the nondenominational church on Spalding Drive, said Brenna Ehrhard, director of the church's preschool.
Ehrhard said the congregation of about 100 people is shocked and many are having a hard time believing the allegations.
WASHINGTON
Seattle Times
By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter
Those pushing for a law requiring clergy to report suspected child abuse and neglect to civil authorities hope the third time's the charm.
Only this time, the word "clergy" isn't even included in the bills.
Yesterday, Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle, introduced House Bill 1467, which would require any employee, contractor or volunteer of a nonprofit organization to tell civil authorities if they suspect a co-worker of abusing or neglecting a child.
Last week, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, introduced Senate Bill 5308, requiring supervisors in nonprofit and for-profit organizations to report suspected acts of abuse or neglect by subordinates who work with or have unsupervised contact with children.
The bills would apply to clergy, since houses of worship are considered nonprofits, the two legislators said.
CALIFORNIA
The Mercury News
The San Jose Diocese is not liable for any sexual misconduct by priests operating in the South Bay before the diocese was created in 1981, according to a ruling issued today by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Ronald Sabraw.
Monsignor Francis Cilia, diocese vicar general, said Bishop Patrick McGrath was pleased by the ruling but emphasized that the diocese ``stands by its commitment to support the healing process of all those whose lives have been affected by the sexual misconduct of church employees.''
Lawyers representing alleged victims said they were not surprised at the ruling.
``I don't think it makes any difference to the victims,'' said Rick Simons, who is representing several plaintiffs in the case involving the late Joseph Pritchard, who is alleged to have molested 21 boys at St. Martin of Tours in San Jose. ``Financially, it makes no difference at all.''
The judge also denied a motion for a new trial by four men allegedly molested by a priest in Santa Cruz, and set trial dates in a host of other negligence lawsuits against dioceses in Northern California, the so-called Clergy 3 coordination of some 160 lawsuits.
They include a date of June 13 in the case involving San Jose priest Leonel Noia, who pleaded no contest to molestation allegations of one of two brothers, and Oct. 3 in a case against the Oakland Diocese involving Stephen Miller Kiesle, a priest alleged to have molested children at parishes in Fremont and Pinole. He was convicted in 2004 of molesting two girls in Truckee in the '90s.
PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune-Review
By David Conti
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Two more men this week sued the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, alleging sexual abuse by priests who gave them alcohol. The men also allege a cover-up by church leaders.
The two unnamed men bring to 35 the number of people who have filed abuse cases since January 2004. The allegations involve 18 former priests in the diocese. None of the cases has made it to trial.
One man, now 45, says in the lawsuit filed Monday in Allegheny County court that he was 15 when the Rev. M. Eric Diskin began fondling and sodomizing him at St. Paul Church in Butler. Diskin, who retired in 2003 after being accused of fondling a boy, was named in two other lawsuits filed against the diocese last year.
The other plaintiff, a 53-year-old McKeesport man, says in his lawsuit that the Rev. John Lukasik fondled him at St. Mary Czestochowa Church in McKeesport when he was 11.
Neither Diskin nor Lukasik could be reached for comment.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
The Union Leader
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
Union Leader Staff
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Former classmates ordained priests the same day nearly 45 years ago faced off in a criminal courtroom yesterday, this time one as a bishop, the other as a defrocked priest on trial for child rape.
Manchester Bishop John B. McCormack, whose own handling of abusive priests while a Boston archdiocesan official has drawn strong criticism, testified as a cooperating witness for the state against ex-priest Paul R. Shanley, one of the most notorious figures in the clergy abuse scandal and one of the few to face criminal charges.
Shanley, 74, is accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a boy from 1983 to 1989 at St. Jean the Evangelist Parish in Newton.
The alleged victim, now 27, is expected to take the stand in Middlesex County Superior Court today during the second day of testimony in a case expected to largely hinge on the credibility of the alleged victim's repressed memories of the six years' of abuse he said began when he was six years old.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Boston Globe
By and Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff | January 26, 2005
He was adored by his parishioners, revered in the Boston area, a prosecutor acknowledged yesterday. But to a 6-year-old Newton Sunday school student in 1983, the Rev. Paul R. Shanley represented a dark and terrible threat: a man who would pull him from class and rape him in the rectory or bathroom or confessional, admonishing him that "if you tell, no one will believe you."
"Everybody loved him; he was the heart and soul of St. Jean's Parish," Assistant Middlesex District Attorney Lynn C. Rooney said of Shanley yesterday in the opening arguments of the defrocked priest's child rape trial. "But there was another side to Father Paul."
But Shanley's lawyer, Frank Mondano, said the stories about Shanley's abuse were "orchestrated by the personal injury lawyers in this court."
Mondano contended that Shanley's accuser made up the allegations to get in on the multimillion-dollar settlements for victims in the Boston Archdiocese's clergy sex abuse scandal.
Opening arguments in yesterday's long-anticipated trial centered on the victim's accounts of abuse, which he says stemmed from memories he had repressed until a few years ago, and the defense's challenges to his credibility. The Boston Globe does not name victims of sexual abuse without their consent. The alleged victim is expected to take the stand today.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writer
Lawyers for Cardinal Roger M. Mahony on Tuesday appealed a court order that would have forced the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to surrender to prosecutors the confidential personnel files of two former priests accused of molestation.
A Los Angeles judge had ruled against Mahony's claim that disclosure would "interfere with the communications between priests and bishops." He had ordered the internal church documents turned over to prosecutors by Friday.
In a statement, Mahony's lead lawyer, J. Michael Hennigan, said such communications are "essential if bishops are to continue to support and counsel their priests."
The earlier court ruling came more than two years after Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley sought the internal church documents as part of an ongoing county grand jury investigation into alleged molestation by priests.
By the time retired Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Thomas F. Nuss ruled against Mahony last September, the number of accused priests had dwindled to two, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling barred the prosecution of decades-old child sexual abuse cases. The appeal the church filed Tuesday involved 40 pages of documents sought by prosecutors, Hennigan said.
BOSTON (MA)
Portland Press Herald
Bill Nemitz
BOSTON - He never thought he'd actually see it happen. Michael Doherty figured the priest who once molested him would somehow avoid the indignity of the courtroom "perp walk."
But Tuesday morning, as Doherty watched from the front row of Suffolk Superior Court, the Rev. James Talbot rose from his chair at the defense table, turned around to face the court officer standing directly behind him and held out his hands.
On went the handcuffs.
Then, at long last, off went Talbot to prison for the next five to seven years.
"Wow!" Doherty said, tears welling in his eyes, as the court adjourned. "Wow! I didn't think they were going to do it like that."
But they did. The 67-year-old priest, once a revered teacher and coach at Cheverus High School in Portland, had been reduced to a common criminal for all the world to see. And as Doherty, 36, hugged his tearful sister, Courtney Oland, and her husband, Tim, he could not quite believe that his 20-year ordeal was finally over.
"I'm a little shaky," Doherty confessed, forcing a smile.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Kathleen A. Shaw Telegram & Gazette Staff
kshaw@telegram.com
WORCESTER— The Vatican announced yesterday that Pope John Paul II has accepted the retirement of Auxiliary Bishop George E. Rueger.
Bishop Rueger, who turned 75 on Sept. 3, is retiring because he reached the mandatory retirement age for bishops. He said he intends to stay in the area and will continue to assist at the chancery and participate in Confirmation ceremonies throughout the diocese.
The Vatican did not say whether a new auxiliary bishop will be appointed.
The diocese has had two auxiliary bishops: Bishop Timothy J. Harrington, who served with Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan, and Bishop Rueger, who served with three bishops.
No announcement was made by Bishop Robert J. McManus on future plans for the Office of the Moderator of the Curia, a position that the auxiliary bishop now holds. Bishop Rueger will continue to assist as needed until another administrative appointment is made by Bishop McManus. The Moderator of the Curia oversees the chancery offices.
“I am most grateful to God for the many years he permitted me to minister both as a priest and bishop,” Bishop Rueger said yesterday. He thanked Bishop McManus and Bishop Daniel P. Reilly, along with diocesan priests and religious men and women for their support and for “the wonderful laity in our diocese.” ...
In 2002, Bishop Rueger was named in a civil suit by a Shrewsbury man, Sime M. Braio, alleging sexual misconduct. The case was dismissed at Mr. Braio’s request in 2003, after no evidence surfaced indicating that Bishop Rueger had done anything improper or had been where the alleged incidents occurred.
He is named in a Texas lawsuit in which two men, named only as John Doe I and John Doe II, allege sexual abuse by the Rev. Thomas Teczar, a priest of the Worcester Diocese. The allegation is that Bishop Rueger helped get Rev. Teczar moved to the Fort Worth, Texas, diocese after Rev. Teczar was accused of sexual misconduct with minors in the Worcester area.
Correspondence shows that the late James G. Reardon, diocesan lawyer at the time, wanted Rev. Teczar moved out of the state and quickly incardinated into another diocese to remove liability for the alleged misconduct from the Worcester diocese. That suit is ongoing.
LONG ISLAND (NY)
New York Daily News
BY BRIAN HARMON
LONG ISLAND BUREAU CHIEF
Eight priests on Long Island were defrocked and nine others were suspended this year because of sexual abuse allegations, Bishop William Murphy said in a letter.
But the Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre stood by its policy of not naming the accused clergymen - a decision that angered victim survivor groups.
"Bishop Murphy must release the names of all the priests accused of sexual abuse," said Tim Echausse, 37, Long Island director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
"It's common sense. These are men who are going back into society looking for jobs," added Echausse of Mineola. "Will they be working with children? Society has a right to know who these people are."
Diocesan spokesman Sean Dolan said the discipline of the accused priests is part of the church's effort "to ensure the horrible tragedy of sexual abuse never occurs again" in the diocese.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By DENISE LAVOIE
Associated Press Writer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.— Prosecutors say news reports about the clergy sex abuse scandal plaguing the Boston Archdiocese triggered a man's memory of being molested in the 1980s by a parish priest in the 1980s.
But a lawyer for priest Paul Shanley, defrocked by the Vatican last year, questioned the timing and validity of those memories and said the defense would call expert witnesses to debunk the science behind so-called repressed memories.
The alleged victim is expected to take the stand Wednesday in the second day of Shanley's trial on child rape charges.
In opening statements Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Lynn Rooney said Shanley told the victim, then 6, "If you tell, no one will believe you," before molesting him.
"Those memories were buried deep inside" until media coverage of the scandal in Boston awakened them, Rooney said.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald
By Casey Ross
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
The accusers of a Boston College High School teacher and soccer coach convicted of sexual abuse rejected his courtroom apology yesterday and said they were relieved to see him taken away in handcuffs.
``This man caused not just me but many young men and boys a lot of heartache, self-doubt and pain,'' James Scanlan said after his former teacher, the Rev. James Talbot, was sentenced yesterday. ``Today is justice day.''
Talbot was sentenced to five years in state prison after pleading guilty in Suffolk Superior Court to sexually assaulting two boys at the Dorchester school between 1977 and 1979.
The 67-year-old priest did not face his victims when he offered a brief apology for his ``manipulative and sexually addictive behavior.''
``I thought his statement was hollow,'' said Michael Doherty, who accused Talbot of abusing him when the priest taught at Cheverus High School in Portland, Maine, in the 1980s.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Week after week, from the time he was 6 until he was 12, Paul Shanley's alleged victim sat in Sunday school, ``waiting, dreading, afraid'' of being raped by the priest in the bathroom, the rectory, even the chuch confessional, prosecutors said yesterday.
Not until Shanley left St. Jean's parish in Newton in January 1990 did the abuse end, Deputy First Assistant District Attorney Lynn Rooney told jurors. But the boy remained bound by a code of silence: ``If you tell,'' Shanley allegedly told him, ``no one will believe you.''
On the first day of testimony in the defrocked priest's child-rape trial, Kathleen Bennett, a substitute Sunday school teacher at St. Jean's in the 1980s, described the children's reaction whenever he would ``pop in.''
``Oh, my God, the kids would just freeze,'' she said.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Fresno Bee
The Associated Press
(Updated Wednesday, January 26, 2005, 3:00 AM)
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles wants a state appeals court to reverse a lower court's decision ordering it to give prosecutors some personnel records of priests accused of sexual abuse.
Attorneys for the archdiocese on Tuesday asked the California Court of Appeal to resolve two judges' differing opinions.
Judge Thomas F. Nuss, a retired judge serving as a referee in the case, ordered the archdiocese to turn over certain counseling records to prosecutors in September 2004. But in February 2003, a Ventura County Superior Court judge agreed some documents contained in priests' personnel files should remain confidential.
"It is the position of the archdiocese that the confidentiality of the documents at issue are protected under the constitutions of the United States and California and other California laws," J. Michael Hennigan, lead counsel for the archdiocese, said in a statement Tuesday.
PARK CITY (UT)
Toledo Blade
By CHRISTOPHER BORRELLI
BLADE STAFF WRITER
PARK CITY, Utah - A father sits down with his 8-year old daughter. When daddy was very young, he explains, a priest did very bad things to him - sexually abused him. The little girl doesn't say anything, and it's hard to tell whether she understands.
So he goes further, and gets more graphic. He drops bombshells.
The point is, the father says, that the man who did those things to daddy lives a few houses away and daddy just found this out, and daddy wouldn't have moved into this neighborhood if he had known the man lived here. So if you ever see this man, if you fall on your bike and even if you're bleeding all over the street, and this man wants to help, the father says, tell him to go away.
That father is Tony Comes, a Toledo firefighter who filed a lawsuit against the Toledo Catholic Diocese in 2002 alleging that former Toledo priest Dennis Gray sexually molested him when Mr. Comes was a teenager. And that scene, one of a number of harrowing moments of blunt force, plays out in Twist of Faith, the Oscar-nominated documentary about the Toledo Catholic Diocese sex-abuse scandal that debuted here at the Sundance Film Festival last weekend.
Twist of Faith is the most deeply affecting film I've seen at the festival this year. After viewing it, you are angry or mournful or both.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
A COMPREHENSIVE new child protection policy that covers even the use of computers and photos in church settings has been launched by the Presbyterian Church.
Called 'Taking Care', it is going into force nationwide and will require the vetting of everyone in the Church who works with children.
The policy is an update on child protection guidelines first introduced in 1996.
Launching the document, Lindsay Conway, Presbyterian director of social services, said: "No denomination is immune from the problem of trusted adults misusing their position. This requires a response which is both aimed at prevention and care for those who have been mistreated."
He said it would protect children from abuse, but that it would also protect leaders, teachers and helpers "in the event of false accusation".
BRITAIN
ic Croydon
Jan 25 2005
A HINDU priest has been found guilty of raping a devotee after telling her that she was his wife in a previous existence.
The jury at Croydon Crown Court last Thursday took five hours to decide that Ramanathan Somanathan, 41, the aya of the temple in Thornton Road, Thornton Heath, was guilty of forcing himself on his victim when he went to her new home to say prayers for it in July 2002.
The next year, in November 2003, he went to her house again and raped her a second time.
After the verdict Judge Simon Pratt said: "I ask for the advice of a report targeted towards looking at the future danger or possible future danger this man poses.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Court TV
By Emanuella Grinberg
Court TV
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Prosecutors in the case against defrocked priest Paul Shanley told jurors Tuesday he repeatedly molested a young parishioner in the rectory, the confessional and the pews of his church in the 1980s.
Three years after Shanley was indicted on sex-abuse charges stemming from multiple accusers, his trial opened in Middlesex County Superior Court on his 74th birthday.
Shanley faces life in prison on three counts of child rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery.
Prosecutors now are launching their case against the disgraced clergyman with only one accuser, who claims he was 6 years old when Shanley first took him out of his Sunday school class to abuse him in various locations throughout St. John the Evangelist Parish in Newton, Mass.
"He is threatened, afraid. He knows the priest will come," Deputy District Attorney Lynn Rooney said in her opening statements. "'If you tell, no one will believe you.' That is what the defendant said to the 6-year-old."
"He didn't tell for almost 20 years," Rooney said. "But now that little boy is a man."
Pacing before a picture of the smiling young boy projected onto a screen, Rooney described alleged incidents of oral and anal sex between Shanley and the boy in the parish bathrooms, in the rectory and in the confession box. ...
Defense lawyer Frank Mondano, however, claimed in his opening statement that the prospect of netting a civil settlement from the Boston Archdiocese was the force that drove the accuser's so-called "memories" to the surface.
Mondano called the claims "orchestrations of personal injury lawyers" who led Shanley's accuser and some 550 others to reap civil settlements from the Boston Archdiocese in 2002 and 2004. Shanley's accuser received $500,000.
"This case is about two things: old memories and really old memories," Mondano told jurors.
CALIFORNIA
Sonoma Index-Tribune
By Bill Lynch Index-Tribune Editor & CEO
01.25.05 - A news story published Sunday in the Contra Costa Times regarding a former Christian Brother who allegedly molested students at De La Salle High School, and for which the religious order paid a $6.2 million settlement last month, has a Sonoma Valley connection.
The Times article reported that in 1980-81 Joe Gutierrez, a former De La Salle teacher and a licensed therapist at St. Mary's College, allegedly plied at least three students with drugs and sexually abused them.
The Times reported that Gutierrez has changed his name to Jesse Gutierrez-Cervantes and lives in Sonoma. A Web search reveals that Gutierrez-Cervantes is listed as a "co-founder" of Cor Communications, "...a consulting and training company specializing in Diversity Training and Communication Skills." It claims to work with global organizations, teams and individuals, helping them to be successful by enhancing their relationship skills and strategies. The local address for the organization is given as 19197 Twin Oaks Lane. Even though the Twin Oaks address is listed on the Web site, according to the Times the address is now 127 Bear Flag Road.
News organizations in the area also received an e-mail news release Monday from Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). In that release, David Clohessy, national director of SNAP, and Danny McNevin, Bay Area SNAP director, publicly urged Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel Walsh (whose jurisdiction includes Sonoma Valley) "to put notices in church bulletins, the diocesan newspaper and on the diocesan Web site, urging victims of Gutierrez to come forward."
LAWRENCEVILLE (GA)
First Coast News
LAWRENCEVILLE, GA (AP) -- Gwinnett County police have charged a 57-year-old minister with child molestation.
Nathan Clement Ridgeway of Duluth is charged with one count of aggravated sexual battery and one count of aggravated child molestation.
The investigation involves a three-year-old family member who was at the suspect's residence.
Ridgeway is a pastor of a non-denominational church in Norcross -- Faith Life Fellowship. He also runs and works at a day care center, which operates out of that church.
UNITED STATES
National
By DENNIS CODAY
The church’s most reliable donors -- parishioners in the pews weekly -- continue to call for greater financial accountability and transparency from their parishes and dioceses, and they want more lay input into church financial matters, according to an annual survey of Catholic donor attitudes.
Yet fewer than half say they know what happens to their contributions, the report found.
Furthermore, for the third year the vast majority of survey respondents say the clergy sexual abuse scandal affects them when deciding whether and how much they should give to the church.
Sixty percent of respondents worry that the cost of clergy sexual abuse impedes the church’s ability to fulfill its mission.
“We’ve done this for three years now. We’ve seen that the call of accountability is growing among Catholic parishioners,” Francis Butler, president of the association that commissioned the study, told NCR.
AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser
By Nigel Hunt
26jan05
THE Anglican Church is under pressure to cancel a planned commemoration service to honour former archbishop Dr Ian George, following a backlash from victims of sexual abuse within the church.
Victims and their families have reacted angrily after learning the service, at St Peter's Cathedral on February 13, had been organised by the Adelaide Diocese.
They have accused the diocese of "gross insensitivity and arrogance" towards them and their healing process. In response to the outcry, the Anglican Church's acting administrator, John Collas, last night said the service was being reviewed.
Initial discussions were held last night with Dr George to discuss the future of the service and a decision was likely to be made today.
TOLEDO (OHIO)
13 ABC
The Catholic Diocese of Toledo is once again making headlines. This time in the entertainment world, but it may not be the positive buzz the church is looking for.
It's called "Twist of Faith" an Oscar-nominated film shot here in Toledo. It chronicles one man's struggle with alleged abuse in the Diocese of Toledo. It was filmed over two years in Toledo and it's now up for an Oscar. 13 action news spoke with the film's primary subject back in August.
Tony Comes (cooms) had one of 18 lawsuits against the Catholic Diocese of Toledo. When the church settled for $1,200,000 Comes got $55,000. Now his story is getting accolades from Hollywood's elite. The film is playing at Sundance this week and it's one of five nominated for an academy award in the documentary category. Comes told 13 action news he wanted his story to be told.
The diocese of Toledo responded by saying it will "ensure that these crimes of clergy and sexual abuse never occur again." But a spokesperson says the diocese cannot directly address the content of "Twist of Faith" because it has not seen the film.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Boston Herald
By Associated Press
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Opening statements were being delivered Tuesday in the child rape case against defrocked priest Paul Shanley, one of the most notorious figures in the clergy sex abuse scandal that engulfed the Boston Archdiocese.
The case that first involved allegations related to four alleged victims has since been whittled down to a single man who claims he was raped in the 1980s by Shanley when he was a priest at St. Jean's parish in Newton.
A jury of eight men and eight women will consider the case, which is expected to last about two weeks in Middlesex Superior Court.
Shanley faces three charges of raping a child and two charges of indecent assault and battery on a child. The maximum sentence would be life in prison.
Prosecutors said they planned to call New Hampshire bishop John McCormack to the stand Tuesday as one of their first witnesses. McCormack investigated allegations of sexual misconduct as a former lieutenant to Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law and was expected to testify about Shanley's employment history with the archdiocese.
BOSTON (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
The Associated Press
BOSTON— A Jesuit priest who taught and coached at Boston College High School was sentenced Tuesday for molesting two teenage boys during wrestling drills.
The Rev. James Talbot was sentenced to five to seven years, plus three years of probation, during a hearing in Suffolk Superior Court. The 67-year-old priest pleaded guilty earlier this month just before he was to go on trial.
Prosecutors say he sexually assaulted two students in the late 1970s, when he was teaching history and coaching soccer and hockey at the all-male parochial school.
Talbot is the first member of the Jesuit order prosecuted in the Boston Archdiocese since the clergy sex abuse scandal erupted here in 2002.
He pleaded guilty to one count each of rape and assault with intent to rape, and three counts of assault and battery.
Prosecutors said Talbot held what he called "aggression drills" with students. In the case of the two victims, Talbot encouraged them to take most of their clothes off, then grabbed their genitals while they were wrestling with him. Talbot also orally raped one of the boys and tried to orally rape the other, but the youth broke free and ran out of the gymnasium, prosecutors said.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
USA Today
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Former priest Paul Shanley told a 6-year-old boy, "If you tell, no one will believe you," before molesting him at a Newton parish in the early 1980s, a prosecutor said Tuesday. But the defense said his story was concocted in order to bring a lawsuit.
The boy didn't tell anyone for nearly 20 years, recovering his memories of the alleged abuse only after hearing of media reports about the sex scandal in the Boston Archdiocese, Assistant District Attorney Lynn Rooney said during opening statements in Shanley's child rape trial in Middlesex Superior Court.
"Those memories were buried deep inside," Rooney said.
Shanley's lawyer Frank Mondano said the accuser made up the allegations against Shanley to get in on the multimillion-dollar settlements for victims in the scandal.
AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
By Natasha Wallace
January 26, 2005
A Sydney Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting an adult man 22 years ago, when homosexual sex was illegal, has received an extremely rare, and short, sentence.
Terence Norman Goodall, 64, was yesterday sentenced to a "rising of the court" for fondling the genitals of a 29-year-old Catholic teacher at a Cronulla public pool after the two had shared a candlelit dinner.
Such a sentence, which places a person in custody until the judge adjourns the matter (normally immediately, as in this case), was imposed in fewer than 1 per cent of cases in the District Court, the NSW Judicial Commission said. Between July 1997 and June 2004 there were no such sentences for indecent assault.
Goodall was charged under pre-1984 legislation, which meant consent was irrelevant in the case.
AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph
By VIVA GOLDNER Court Reporter
January 26, 2005
A CATHOLIC priest who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a parishioner was yesterday sentenced to jail - for four seconds.
Father Terence Norman Goodall was convicted for twice assaulting the man, a member of his parish at Gymea in southern Sydney.
District Court judge Philip Bell sentenced Goodall "to the rising of the court" -- which amounted to the four seconds it took to complete the hearing -- despite Judge Bell agreeing the now-retired priest had abused the "trust and authority" of his position.
It came a day after a career criminal's jail sentence was reduced by two months after a judge ruled he had suffered "considerable angst" after he was shot by a police officer.
Explaining yesterday's sentencing, Judge Bell said: "To the rising of the court is technically a sentence of loss of liberty. That is, it is a term of imprisonment. As this court will immediately rise ... the period of being in custody will literally be for a few seconds only.
"Despite its status as a term of custody, [it] is generally regarded as one of the most lenient penalties available to the sentencer."
NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal
By Donna Deeney
Tuesday 25th January 2005
Sex abuse allegation at the centre of media reports about Fr. Andy McCloskey was not an isolated incident, the Journal has been told.
At the weekend masses in St Patrick's Church, Dungiven, Fr
McCloskey told the congregation that he was the priest who paid £19,000 as a settlement in a sex abuse case.
Fr .McCloskey who did not admit liability in the case said the incident occurred because he had a serious drink problem at the time.
In his statement Fr McCloskey said: "I made a mistake for which I have paid very dearly."
However, as part of our investigations into the case the Journal has been informed that Bishop Hegarty was made aware of other allegations against Fr McCloskey.
Although we contacted Bishop Hegarty and asked if there was any investigation carried out into these allegations and if so what the finding were, the Bishop declined to answer this and other questions posed, saying he would add nothing to the statement issued earlier.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
The Dallas Morning News
07:30 AM CST on Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Associated Press
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The allegations of a single accuser could determine the fate of one of the highest-profile figures to go to trial in the Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal.
Paul Shanley, 73, faces three charges of raping a child and two charges of indecent assault and battery on a child. The maximum sentence is life in prison.
Opening statements were to be delivered Tuesday in the case, which was expected to last about two weeks. A jury of eight men and eight women was selected last week.
One of the alleged victims, now 27, says Shanley raped him repeatedly at St. Jean's parish in Newton between 1983 and 1989, beginning when he was 6 years old. Prosecutors said they plan to call the man's father and wife to testify.
Shanley's lawyer, Frank Mondano, has said he will argue that the accuser made up his story after the scandal erupted several years ago. All of Shanley's alleged victims settled lawsuits with the Boston Archdiocese in April 2004. Shanley was defrocked by the Vatican last year.
AUSTRALIA
ABC
The Anglican Church in Adelaide has been criticised for planning a public farewell service for former archbishop Ian George.
An email has been sent to parishes in Adelaide notifying them of the service of recognition for Dr George at St Peter's Cathedral next month, and asking for contributions towards a gift.
A traditional farewell service for Dr George was cancelled in June after he stepped down in the wake of a damning report into the church's handling of child sex abuse claims.
Child protection advocate Professor Freda Briggs says victims have told her they are distressed by the plans.
"The general view is that it is totally insensitive and it suggests that either the church doesn't believe what was in the report or that they just do not understand the long-term damage that child sexual abuse can have on victims," she said.
NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter
By Clare Weir
Tuesday 25th January 2005
A Catholic bishop is coming under pressure to answer further questions over his handling of a sex abuse allegation concerning a priest.
The Rev Andy McCluskey, from Dungiven, Co Londonderry told parishioners at weekend Masses in St Patrick's Church that he had "made a mistake" for which he was paying dearly.
A five figure compensation pay-out was made without admission of liability to an 18-year-old man who claimed that Fr McCluskey made a sexual advance to him at a parochial house in Londonderry in 1992.
A civil action over the allegation was started two years ago and settled with no admission of liability last October.
Fr McCluskey has now gone on leave and was not at the parochial house yesterday.
HARTFORD (CT)
Hartford Courant
January 25, 2005
By GERALD RENNER, Special to The Courant
The Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the subject of a Vatican investigation into accusations of sexual abuse, has stepped down as head of the Rome-based religious order Legionaries of Christ.
Maciel declined to accept re-election as general director of the order, which he founded in Mexico in 1941. The order's U.S. headquarters is in Orange, Conn., and it has a seminary in Cheshire.
Maciel, 84, cited his age and his "desire to see the congregation flourish under a successor" at a meeting of his order in Rome last week, according to Zenit, an Internet news service operated by the Legionaries.
No mention was made of the Vatican's recent reopening of an investigation into charges that Maciel had sexually abused young boys who were in his seminaries years ago. The allegations first surfaced in a Courant report in February 1997. Nine former members of the Legion said that Maciel had abused them when they were young boys or teenagers, aged 10 to 16, in seminaries in Spain and Italy.
Maciel's decision to decline re-election had no connection to the reports that the Vatican has reopened the investigation, a spokesman for the order told The Associated Press in Rome on Monday.
ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Guardian
Tuesday January 25, 2005 1:31 PM
ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (AP) - The Roman Catholic Church has disciplined 17 priests of a New York diocese for sexual abuse allegations.
The Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island informed parishioners of the actions in a three-page letter listing the status of sex abuse cases against 23 priests.
Bishop William F. Murphy reported that eight priest were defrocked by the Vatican, nine were permanently suspended, three await canonical trials and two have been cleared. Proceedings against another have been deferred.
Several victims' rights groups criticized the bishop, saying the identities of the disciplined priests should be made public.
TOLEDO (OH)
KSL
Jan. 24, 2005
Carole Mikita Reporting
At the opening of the Sundance Film Festival Robert Redford told a Salt Lake audience that, as always, the documentaries are the strongest films. One of this year’s is a compelling story focused on faith.
The story is one man's struggle against evil within his church; 'Twist of Faith' focuses on surviving abuse. Tony Comes believed that if it was ever going to stop, change had to come from within, from the true believers, even if they had been badly abused.
Tony Comes, "Twist of Faith", Sundance Film Festival Documentary: “We’d come up here, drink, eat, shoot pool. Part where it gets weird is Sunday morning wake up and some guy’s violating you. Then a half hour later you take a shower and a half hour after that, everybody who’s up here, sometimes families included, are sitting around in the living room up there and he’s saying mass.”
Tony Comes, a 34-year-old husband, father and Toledo, Ohio firefighter is a survivor of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest. He kept it a secret for more than 20 years. Now his story is a Sundance documentary
ARIZONA
azfamily.com
10:46 PM Mountain Standard Time on Sunday, January 23, 2005
By 3TV Staff
One of the most visible Catholic parishes in the Valley was targeted Sunday night by members of a victims' organization.
Members were passing out flyers for SNAP, or Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, outside St. Timothy's Catholic Church.
The flyers encouraged victims to report any past abuse at the hands of the clergy.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Press-Enterprise
12:01 AM PST on Tuesday, January 25, 2005
By MICHAEL FISHER / The Press-Enterprise
LOS ANGELES - Attorneys suing the Inland and San Diego dioceses over alleged sexual abuse by priests expressed frustration in court Monday, telling a judge that diocesan attorneys were uncooperative and stalling efforts to resolve 140 pending lawsuits.
But attorneys for the dioceses argued that the plaintiffs' attorneys had not given them promised questionnaires filled out by all the alleged victims. The documents, they said, are needed to assess the accusations of child molestation - some of them decades old - that target some past and current clerics in Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.
"We're stuck in the mud," Raymond Boucher, the lawyer representing dozens of the accusers, told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Haley J. Fromholz in a courtroom crowded with more than 20 lawyers.
"When it comes to San Diego, we are way behind in the process," Boucher added, noting that the dioceses had not handed over proffers summarizing the personnel file of each accused priest. "It's our consensus that San Diego has been the slowest and least forthcoming."
Faced with an avalanche of 850 clergy-abuse cases two years ago, state court officials assigned the Southern California cases to Fromholz, splitting the 140 cases brought against the San Diego and San Bernardino dioceses from the more than 550 cases against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Diocese of Orange.
PARK CITY (UT)
Toledo Blade
By CHRISTOPHER BORRELLI
BLADE STAFF WRITER
PARK CITY, Utah - Tony Comes saw the poster and cringed. Behind the makeshift box office at the Prospector Square Inn, a movie poster was stapled to a bulletin board, and the picture was Mr. Comes himself, hands jammed in his pockets, staring sullenly forward.
The tagline on the poster?
"Sometimes hell is right here on earth."
Here, meaning Toledo.
The poster was for Twist of Faith, a new documentary that veteran filmmaker Kirby Dick made for HBO about Mr. Comes and his lawsuit against the Toledo Catholic Diocese.
LONG ISLAND (NY)
The New York Times
By BRUCE LAMBERT
Published: January 25, 2005
The child sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic diocese on Long Island has resulted in the defrocking of eight priests and the permanent suspension of nine, while three await canonical trials, the bishop of the diocese said. Two other priests were cleared after inquiries, and proceedings against a third have been deferred, the bishop said.
Without providing names, Bishop William F. Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre reported the status of sex abuse cases involving 23 priests in a three-page letter being distributed this week to parishioners and priests in the diocese, which covers Nassau and Suffolk Counties. No clergyman with credible charges "is working in our diocese or as far as we know, any other," he wrote. Bishop Murphy's letter was first reported on yesterday in Newsday.
Critics said the bishop should identify the suspended and the defrocked priests to protect children, just as the public is notified about sex offenders convicted in court. The critics include the Long Island chapter of Voice of the Faithful, which requested the bishop's report; the national Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests; and Parents for Megan's Law, a national group based in Suffolk.
A church spokesman, Sean Dolan, said that the names of priests convicted in criminal trials had been made public, but that identifying the suspended priests, not all of whom are necessarily guilty, could violate their privacy.
MEXICO CITY
Swissinfo
By Catherine Bremer
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The Mexican founder of an ultra-conservative Roman Catholic order has resigned after 63
years as its leader just as the Vatican is opening an investigation into allegations he sexually abused former members.
Marcial Maciel, 84, who was warmly praised by Pope John Paul II on the 60th anniversary of his ordination in
November, stepped down as leader of the Rome-based Legion of Christ last week, citing his age, according to the
group's web site on Monday.
He will be replaced by another Mexican priest, 47-year-old Alvaro Corcuera, rector of the Legion Seminary in Rome
and a consultant to the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops.
The resignation came a few weeks after Vatican prosecutor Martha Wegan said she would look into the case of a
group of former Legionaries of Christ who accused Maciel in 1997 of sexually abusing them decades ago when they
were teenagers.
LONG ISLAND (NY)
Newsday
BY RITA CIOLLI
STAFF WRITER
January 25, 2005
The Moraitis family was angry nine years ago when they complained to church officials that the Rev. Brian Brinker acted inappropriately toward their 14-year-old son during a trip to California. Now their feelings have turned to outrage after they learned Monday that the Vatican has cleared the priest's return to ministry.
"It's just another thing that they do, every time they say they are going to do something good and make some reforms, nothing happens," said Matthew Moraitis, who is now 22, adding that it took several years for him to put the incident behind him. He wants assurances that Brinker, who was his confirmation sponsor and a longtime family friend, will not work with children again.
Moraitis and his parents expressed their anger after reading a news report that Bishop William Murphy is sending a letter to local Catholics updating the status of Long Island's clerical abuse cases, including Brinker's. Murphy, whose letter will be published Wednesday, writes that all 14 cases sent to the Vatican have been reviewed, resulting in eight priests being defrocked, three ordered to face church trials and two being cleared because charges against them were "unsubstantiated." No action was taken in the other case because of the priest's illness.
Diocese sources have confirmed that Brinker is one of two priests whose alleged misconduct was found to be unsubstantiated. Diocese officials would not say whether he will be returned to active ministry.
Brinker, 47, who has never spoken publicly about Moraitis' claims, was unavailable for comment Monday.
VATICAN CITY
Hartford Courant
7:17 PM EST,January 24, 2005
Associated Press
VATICAN CITY -- The Legionaries of Christ, who have their U.S. headquarters in Connecticut, have elected a successor to the Mexican priest who has headed the religious order since its founding 64 years ago.
The decision of 84-year-old Father Marcial Maciel Degollado to decline re-election had no connection to recent reports that the Vatican has reopened an investigation into allegations that the Mexican sexually abused seminarians, a spokesman for the order said Monday.
Maciel and the order have vigorously denied the allegations, accusing the nine men of a conspiracy to defame him.
Maciel cited his age and his wish to be present during a transition under the new general director, fellow Mexican the Rev. Alvaro Corcuera Martinez del Rio, 47, the spokesman said.
"He had been planning this for at least three years," said the spokesman, the Rev. Tom Williams.
But David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said he believed Maciel's departure was related to the reopening of the investigation.
"It's a sign that when victims persist, sometimes they can achieve some measure of justice," Clohessy said. "I hope it will produce some comfort to the people he molested. I hope it won't short circuit the investigation."
HUDSON (WI)
Shawano Leader
By Robert Imrie, Associated Press
HUDSON -- Not far from the office where Dan O'Connell was murdered nearly three years ago, a plaque rests on a table, urging people to remember his life with joy and dedicating an outdoor peace garden in his name to the "glory of God."
"May the wind be always at your back," says the plaque, beside a large picture of the smiling, mustached 39-year-old father of two in the O'Connell Family Funeral Home's lobby.
"... And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand."
Police are now investigating whether a man of God, a Roman Catholic priest, may have fatally shot the funeral home director and one of his interns, 22-year-old James Ellison.
Soon after police questioned the Rev. Ryan Erickson last month, the 31-year-old killed himself at his church. ...
Police questioned Erickson about the murders after a separate investigation was launched last fall into an allegation the priest was involved in a possible crime involving a child or children, Hudson Police Chief Richard Trende said.
He has refused to provide many details about the investigation, including what led detectives to question the priest about the murders, and a judge has sealed court documents in the case.
Trende will say the motive for the killings was "personal. It wasn't random."
ST. PAUL (OR)
KOIN
ST. PAUL, Ore. -- A pastor is charged with sexually abusing his 9-year-old adopted daughter.
David Gilmore of St. Paul turned himself in Monday. He is held in the Marion County Jail on five counts of sex abuse.
The 40-year-old has four biological children and three adopted children from Russia.
ARIZONA
East Valley Tribune
By Gary Grado, Tribune
Mesa priest convicted of giving a teenager sexually motivated massages will ride a wave of support into court Friday for his sentencing.
Thirty-six Queen of Peace parishioners, former colleagues and lifelong friends wrote Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens, urging she go easy on the Rev. Karl LeClaire, 48.
LeClaire, former pastor of Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Mesa, pleaded guilty Oct. 28 to sexually motivated aggravated assault and agreed to a sentence of three years’ probation.
Stephens can also throw him in the county jail for up to a year.
Many of LeClaire’s supporters said in letters that he was wrongfully accused, one going so far as to say L eClaire’s accuser was the son the priest would never have.
BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Connecticut Post
By DANIEL TEPFER dtepfer@ctpost.com
BRIDGEPORT
Testimony is scheduled to begin this morning in the Superior Court trial of a former seminary student in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport arrested for allegedly molesting a 16-year-old city girl.
Leonardo Montoya, 30, now living in Monroe, will be tried before a six-person jury on a charge of fourth-degree sexual assault.
The trial, presided over by Judge Heidi Winslow, is expected to last about two weeks.
Assistant State's Attorney Pamela Esposito, who is prosecuting the case, declined comment. Montoya is represented by Leonard Crone Jr.
Montoya, formerly assigned to St. Augustine's Cathedral here as well as churches in Trumbull and Norwalk, is accused of molesting the girl, whose family he met through the church, while visiting their Bridgeport home on Nov. 30, 2003.
BOSTON (MA)
Star-Telegram
Associated Press
BOSTON - The winter storm that pounded the Northeast prompted Gov. Mitt Romney to keep some nonessential state workers home Monday, including employees at the courthouse where a high-profile clergy sex abuse cases was to begin.
Romney's announcement meant that opening statements in the trial of defrocked priest Paul Shanley, one of the highest-profile figures to go to trial in the Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal, would not begin in Middlesex Superior Court until Tuesday. A jury was seated last week.
Shanley, 73, is accused of child rape and indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. Allegations against him were among the hundreds of clergy sex abuse lawsuits settled by the Archdiocese of Boston.
OREGON
Statesman Journal
January 24, 2005
Sex abuse is an ugly thing to think about, let alone to talk about with your children. But as a parent, you must.
You cannot rely on the authorities to find molesters before molesters find your child. The system works far too slowly and imperfectly. That certainly was the case with Salem-Keizer middle-school band teacher Joe Billera, who recently pleaded guilty to abusing four former students.
Abusers typically harm many children before they get caught. These men -- they're nearly always men -- are not the strangers we warn our children against; strangers rarely get near enough to hurt our children. That's what makes the job as parent so difficult.
Instead, the abuser generally is someone the child knows well -- a relative or member of the household, or a coach, a church worker, a teacher, a family friend.
Not only does your child trust this person; you do. The abuser has invested months or years into grooming you both. You can't comprehend that this wonderful person could betray your trust and your child's trust so completely.
WORCESTER (MA)
Worcester Voice
In a seven-section outline dealing with some 56 news articles, scanning a thirty-year time span. The complete public accounting of the attempt of two clergy sexual abuse victims Mr. Gary M. Melanson and Mr. Dana Vyska, to ascertain justice in Worcester can be told in the Rev. Joseph Fredette case.
The road to justice for the victims of Rev. Joseph Fredette was initiated by a phone call into the Worcester Telegram and Gazette in 1992.
Telegram and Gazette received word of the outstanding warrant against Rev. Fredette and Kathy Shaw and George Griffin actively pursued the story based on the stories that began appearing in the newspaper August 1, 1992, the first story ran on FREDETTE IN RURAL RETREAT \ PRIEST SAID TO BE IN NEW BRUNSWICK. the story read He has been considered a fugitive from justice since he left Worcester in 1974 and headed first to the Pope John XXIII Retreat in Cassadaga, N.Y., then to the Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart outside Sherbrooke, Quebec..
Constable Jean Gosselin of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Moncton, New Brunswick, whose jurisdiction covers Jailletville, said his office would investigate. According to these articles, Ms Shaw went to Canada to investigate and to locate Rev. Fredette. Immediately the Canada authorities visited Rev. Fredette to check the circumstances of why he was there. Rev. Fredette had been living in the same location without fear of pursuit for some twenty years.
BATON ROUGE (LA)
KLFY
BATON ROUGE, La. A Roman Catholic school in Baton Rouge will change its name by June because of sexual allegations leveled at its namesake.
Bishop Sullivan High School was named for Joseph Sullivan, who was bishop in Baton Rouge from 19-74 until his death in 19-82. He was accused last spring of sexual abuse in 1975 involving a 17-year-old boy. The diocese settled a lawsuit in November that had been filed by the victim, now in his 40s.
The school board has been asked to come up with five alternative names for the school by February 1st. Some early suggestions include Father Francis Xavier Seelos, St. Katherine Drexel, St. Michael and St. Stephen, diocese spokesman Robert Furlow said.
LONG ISLAND (NY)
Newsday
BY RITA CIOLLI
STAFF WRITER
January 24, 2005
The Vatican has defrocked eight Long Island priests accused of sexually abusing minors, ordered three priests to face church trials and cleared two others, Bishop William Murphy discloses in a report on the abuse crisis to be published later this week.
Three years after the scandal broke in Boston and reverberated in dioceses across the nation, Catholics here will be given a tally on the status of clerics who have been accused.
In a three-page letter, Murphy said 23 priests had credible abuse allegations made against them. The accusations against nine of the priests were disposed of by the Diocese of Rockville Centre, while the cases against 14 others were sent to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for review.
"Of those 14, two were found to have the allegations sufficiently unsubstantiated so that I am able to return them to ministry. For three of the priests, the Diocese has been instructed to have a canonical process or trial," Murphy writes. Murphy also disclosed in his update that the Vatican dismissed eight of the clerics from the priesthood.
On Friday, diocese officials declined to name any of the priests referred to in the letter. However, the diocese has previously identified Michael Hands and Andrew Millar, two priests whose arrests and convictions in New York State courts were well publicized. They both agreed to be laicized, which means they have been formally removed from the priesthood.
TENNESSEE
FindLaw
By ANTHONY J. SEBOK
anthony.sebok@brooklaw.edu
Monday, Jan. 24, 2005
Last week, the Supreme Court of Tennessee reinstated a clergy child sex abuse lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim that the Diocese should be held liable for injuries caused by a former priest, even though who was not in the employ of the church when he molested two young boys.
The suit - entitled John Doe 1 ex. rel., Jane Doe 1, et. al. v. Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville, et al. - will now go forward in state trial court unless, of course, a settlement is reached.
Given the facts of the case, it is easy to see what the court wanted to give the plaintiffs a chance to go before a jury. The Tennessee Supreme Court's decision might have been motivated by sympathy, but along the way it made a mess of the tort law.
NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News
A Catholic bishop has been asked to explain his decision to keep a priest in his parish after a sex abuse allegation.
Father Edward Kilpatrick, a parish priest in Lifford, was forced to leave in 1995 following allegations of abuse.
His name was cleared two years later and he returned to work.
Father Kilpatrick has asked why Dungiven priest Father Andy McCluskey who has admitted he was behind a sex abuse allegation was kept in post.
Father McCluskey told parishioners at weekend Masses in St Patrick's Church that he had made a mistake for which he was paying dearly.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
By Brian Hutton
24 January 2005
The Bishop of Derry, Seamus Hegarty, today defended his decision to allow a priest at the centre of sexual assault allegations to continue in the ministry.
Father Andy McCloskey has taken leave of absence after a public confession at the weekend to his Dungiven parishioners that he made a five-figure settlement to a man who accused him of a sexual advance.
The out-of-court settlement to an 18-year-old man who in 1992 was attending a parochial house for counselling for sex abuse, was made last October, without any admission of liability.
"Since becoming aware of the complaint against the priest, the diocese has had ongoing concern for the person who made the complaint," Bishop Hegarty said.
The bishop revealed that Fr McCloskey had attended residential care in 1992, for his alcohol addiction "and the problems this brought".
BOSTON (MA)
The Christian Science Monitor
By Sara B. Miller | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
BOSTON – Opening statements in the trial of Paul Shanley are set to begin Monday - advancing an epic in which a popular long-haired priest of the 1960s has become one of the biggest pariahs in today's clergy sexual-abuse scandal.
Defrocked by the Vatican last year, Mr. Shanley is one of few clergy accused of molestation to actually face prosecution. He is charged with child rape and indecent assault and battery while a priest at a nearby Newton parish in the 1980s. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
Yet despite his notoriety among victims' advocates - child-abuse accusations date back to at least 1967 - a conviction is far from certain. Though four men originally accused him of molestation, prosecutors dropped two of them from the case in July, and a third was dropped last week after failing to appear for scheduled meetings. Now, the trial is based on the allegations of a lone accuser.
That could weaken the case against Shanley, say experts. It also underscores the challenges and complexities surrounding the prosecution of child abuse, especially when trials take place decades after the alleged crimes. At worst, say some, the way this case has played out - especially if Shanley is acquitted - could deter future victims from stepping forward.
MASSACHUSETTS
San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, January 23, 2005
(01-23) 14:51 PST BOSTON (AP) --
Gov. Mitt Romney told non-essential state workers in nine eastern Massachusetts counties to stay home on Monday, including employees at the Cambridge courthouse where a high-profile clergy sex abuse cases was set to begin.
Romney's announcement meant that the trial of defrocked priest Paul Shanley, one of the highest-profile figures to go to trial in the Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal, would not begin in Middlesex Superior Court as scheduled. The jury was selected last week, and opening statements in the trial of the former priest were set to begin at 9 a.m. on Monday.
Shanley, 73, is accused of child rape and indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. Allegations against him were among the hundreds of clergy sex abuse lawsuits settled by the Archdiocese of Boston.
Judge Stephen Neel instructed jurors to be prepared to start the trial at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, said Paul Melaragni, spokesman for Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley.
ROME
Zenit
ROME, JAN. 23, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Legionaries of Christ elected a new general director, after their founder, Father Marcial Maciel, declined re-election, citing his age and his desire to see the congregation flourish under a successor.
The congregation, in a press statement issued today, explained that its general chapter "first re-elected Father Maciel by absolute majority vote," and added that "Father Maciel, 84, who has headed the Legionaries since their founding in 1941, declined" the re-election.
"The chapter fathers expressed their filial gratitude to Father Maciel for his leadership during these past decades and pledged their heartfelt loyalty to the mission he continues to fulfill as founder," the statement added.
On assuming leadership of the congregation, the new general director, Father Álvaro Corcuera, said: "I wish to express my desire to remain faithful to the charism of the congregation and to the person of the founder, and to continue his work at the service of the Church."
Mexican-born Father Corcuera, 47, has been rector of the Legionaries' Center for Higher Studies in Rome since 1987.
He has worked closely with Father Maciel on projects related to the governing of the congregation. He is also a consultor to the Vatican Congregation for Bishops.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Ireland Online
23/01/2005 - 14:59:44
A priest at the centre of sex abuse allegations in the North today apologised to his parishioners.
Father Andrew McCloskey, curate at St Patrick’s Church in Dungiven, told worshippers at Mass that he made a mistake for which he had paid dearly.
It had been revealed that last October he paid a five-figure out-of-court settlement to a man who made a complaint against him.
The alleged incident happened at a parochial house in the Derry Diocese in 1992.
CALIFORNIA
Contra Costa Times
By Jessica Guynn and John Simerman
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Bill Lopes was Mr. Popular, the homecoming queen's escort and a football star in the days before De La Salle High School became synonymous with gridiron glory. Chris Barbour loved the outdoors and country music.
The inseparable friends played spirited war games, firing air rifles filled with rock salt that left their skin red and welted. They pumped iron in Lopes' garage, barking like drill sergeants until they collapsed from the strain.
They engraved their nicknames, "Bandit One" and "Bandit Two" -- from the Burt Reynolds flick "Smokey and the Bandit" -- on their class rings.
And they stayed up late, sharing the deep secrets no one else could know. Barbour confided in Lopes that he was molested at age 11 on a Boy Scout trip, that he silently anguished over his own sexuality and God.
His soul-searching would plunge the two of them into a dark passage in the history of De La Salle and the Christian Brothers order that oversees the Concord school and other high schools and colleges around the world.
Two decades later, the Roman Catholic order is faced with costly payouts. The two friends, now 41, still struggle with the lasting scars from what Lopes calls a "toxic shame."
ALASKA
Anchorage Daily News
By NICOLE TSONG
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: January 23, 2005)
When the woman known as Jane Doe 1 entered the room for the deposition of the Rev. James Poole, the Jesuit priest she has accused of molesting her as a child in Nome, she hadn't seen him in more than a decade.
He looked smaller than she remembered. He spoke almost like a little kid about their interaction. But his scent, the intimate smell of someone that rekindles memories, hadn't changed.
"It was the same smell," she recalled in a recent interview, before taking a break to compose herself.
Jane Doe sued Poole, the Diocese of Fairbanks, the Society of Jesus, Oregon Province and Alaska Jesuits in March last year, accusing the priest who founded Catholic radio station KNOM of molesting her as a child. Two other women subsequently filed similar molestation claims against the priest, who is 81 and lives in a Jesuit home in Spokane, Wash.
Poole has called some of the allegations against him "highly inflammatory and highly exaggerated" and has denied others.
Jane Doe, 37 and originally from the Bethel area, has accused Poole of molesting her more than 100 times, starting in 1978 in Nome during summer visits when she was 10 and lasting until she was 16. The abuse included kissing, heavy petting and having her lie on top of him, the suit says. She said he had her sit on his lap and they kissed for hours.
Jane Doe, who has remained anonymous since she filed the lawsuit, said she didn't intend to sue the church when she first reported Poole to church officials.
She initially approached the church after she heard about another lawsuit filed by men claiming sexual abuse by the Rev. Jules Convert. Still a practicing Catholic, she wanted to see how the church would respond. After she had trouble contacting Fairbanks' then-chancellor, the Rev. Richard Case, over the phone and grew increasingly anxious and emotional, she wrote Fairbanks Bishop Donald Kettler a letter dated Sept. 20 outlining her complaints.
An interview in person with the bishop in September didn't help, she said. She said he continually referred to the legal issues involved, when she wanted him to be compassionate, listen to her and tell her it was OK to feel the way she did.
Kettler said recently that he went into that interview without much information about Jane Doe or Poole.
NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News
A priest has admitted that he is the clergyman behind a sex abuse case in Dungiven in which a five figure compensation payout was made.
Father Andy McCluskey, a curate at St Patrick's Church, Dungiven, told parishioners he had made a mistake for which he was now paying dearly.
The man who was paid the compensation claimed Fr McCluskey made a sexual advance to him in 1992.
Fr McCluskey said he has asked Bishop Seamus Hegarty for a leave of absence.
The allegations relate to an incident at a parochial house, involving an 18-year-old man.
ALASKA
Anchorage Daily News
By NICOLE TSONG
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: January 23, 2005)
Attorney Ken Roosa thought his first case in 2002 involving four men who say a Catholic priest sexually abused them in the village of St. Marys would be solved in mediation with the Diocese of Fairbanks and the Jesuits.
The men who came forward and said they were molested as children by the Rev. Jules Convert appeared to be the only ones, Roosa said recently. But mediation failed. Roosa, a bearded ex-prosecutor who spent years working with sexual abuse victims, and the four men, identified in the lawsuit as John Does 1-4, sued in June 2003.
Not long after, a man who had followed the national coverage of priest sex abuse called Roosa from Texas and said he too had been abused by Convert as a child in rural Alaska. In November, he got a call from another man with similar accusations against Convert.
Eventually, the lawsuit included 18 plaintiffs who say Convert invited them, as boys between 6 and 16 years of age, to spend the night with him, sometimes asking them to sleep in their underwear or even naked. They say they would awake in the middle of the night and find the priest fondling them, according to the civil complaint filed in Bethel Superior Court.
As publicity about the first case spread, the issue gained momentum and the number of lawsuits has swollen to four, with dozens of victims from rural Alaska saying they were abused by priests in Bush Alaska for decades. Nearly all the victims are represented by Roosa, who has become the nexus for Catholic priest sex abuse cases in Alaska, gaining expertise in the intricacies of Catholic canonical law, personnel structure and record-keeping.
AUSTRIA
Times Dispatch
The Associated Press Jan 23, 2005
VIENNA, Austria -- Austrians are leaving the Roman Catholic Church in record numbers, according to statistics released last week.
Church officials attributed the 44,852 dropouts during 2004 to a scandal involving the discovery of child and other pornography on computers at a seminary in the diocese of St. Poelten, the Austria Press Agency reported.
The number is expected to rise further, because the St. Poelten Diocese has yet to report its 2004 statistics. The seminary where the pornography was found was shut down in August and a new bishop was installed in November.
NASHVILLE (TN)
Commercial Appeal
By Bill Dries
Contact
January 23, 2005
A Tennessee Supreme Court ruling last week has eliminated one of several defenses the Catholic Diocese of Memphis might use in two child sexual abuse lawsuits filed against two priests and the church last summer.
But attorneys for the alleged abuse victims say the civil lawsuits still will be a hard fight.
The high court's ruling on Tuesday in an abuse lawsuit involving former Nashville priest Edward McKeown and the Diocese of Nashville focused on claims of "emotional distress."
McKeown already has been convicted on a criminal charge of sexually abusing one of the two boys who later filed the civil suit against McKeown and the church.
Nashville church officials argued they weren't liable on the distress charge because they didn't know the alleged victims and because the abuse didn't take place in the presence of church officials.
In a unanimous ruling setting a new legal standard, the Supreme Court rejected that defense and ordered the case back on the court calendar after it had been dismissed by two lower courts.
BATON ROUGE (LA)
Times-Picayune
Sunday, January 23, 2005
By John-John Williams IV
River Parishes bureau
This should have been a time of celebration for Bishop Sullivan High School in Baton Rouge. But in addition to marking 20 years of educating children, the school community finds itself mulling choices for a new name.
The school's namesake, former Bishop Joseph Sullivan, was accused last spring of sexual abuse in 1975 involving a 17-year-old boy. The Archdiocese of Baton Rouge has settled a lawsuit filed by the victim, now in his 40s.
Perhaps the most public outcome of the case will be a new name for the high school Sullivan helped open in 1984.
The school board has been asked to come up with five alternative names by the end of this month. Archdiocese officials said a name will be chosen by the end of February and announced in June. The new name will take effect with the 2005-06 school year.
Robert Furlow, director of communications for the Baton Rouge Diocese, said reactions to the news of the name change have been mixed.
ARIZONA
The Arizona Republic
Joseph A. Reaves and Michael Clancy
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 23, 2005 12:00 AM
For all practical purposes, they are superstars of the Phoenix Catholic Church.
They have been for decades.
Recently, though, within months of one another, Monsignor Dale J. Fushek and the Rev. John Cunningham were banned from public ministry. advertisement
Their setbacks, for unrelated and still-unproven reasons, have stunned a church reeling from two years of scandal.
They have created an unwanted crisis for their bishop, divided the faithful and raised troubling questions about possible political intrigue, personality cults and the almighty power of the dollar.
"Difficulties like these are always sad and painful," Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted said in an e-mail response to a question from The Arizona Republic about the suspensions of Fushek and Cunningham.
"Each of these cases has its own unique set of circumstances; thus it is not helpful to compare them."
Comparing the allegations against the two priests is, indeed, impossible.
Cunningham was removed from public ministry April 29 for violating the church's sacramental guidelines for celebrating Mass. Then, on Jan. 4, he was removed as pastor of St. Mary Magdalene Parish in Gilbert amid allegations of financial irregularities.
Fushek was placed on administrative leave Dec. 29 after the diocese received a complaint that he was in a room two decades ago while a seminarian sodomized a teenage parishioner.
But if the allegations are vastly different, they appear to have some intriguing connections that hint at long-simmering rivalries between the two men and their relatives.
MANCHESTER (NH)
Boston.com
By Associated Press | January 23, 2005
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- New Hampshire's Roman Catholic bishop is preparing to testify against Paul R. Shanley, the defrocked priest who is charged with raping children in Massachusetts.
Bishop John McCormack will testify against Shanley in a trial that begins tomorrow in Cambridge. The accuser, now 27, said Shanley had raped him at a parish in Newton from 1983 to 1989.
Shanley became one of the most notorious figures in the clergy sex abuse scandal after documents released three years ago showed church officials knew about abuse complaints against him as early as 1967.
When Shanley left the Newton parish in 1990, McCormack took his case. At the time, McCormack was an official of the Archdiocese of Boston, and investigated allegations of sexual misconduct. McCormack has maintained he did not know of any allegations of sexual misconduct with a child against Shanley until 1993.
"The bishop had no knowledge whatsoever of any allegations of a child being harmed until long after Paul Shanley had left St. Jean's parish in the early 1990s," said a Boston lawyer, Eileen Quill.
IRELAND
Sunday Times
Enda Leahy
THE first case of alleged sexual abuse of a child in a sanctified church building will go to trial in the central criminal court in Dublin later this year.
A Donegal man, who was employed as a cleaner by the Catholic church, faces 13 counts of sexual assault and rape. He is expected to plead not guilty to the charges.
Colm O’Gorman, the founder and head of One in Four, the Irish charity for victims of sexual abuse, said: “I’ve never heard of any cases of this happening within the physical structure of a church. No one in our organisation has heard of such a case in fact. Though of course that’s not to say that this is the first time it has happened.”
O’Gorman said a high proportion of child abuse took place in the diocese of Raphoe, which covers most of Co Donegal. Last year it emerged that Dr Philip Boyce, the Bishop of Raphoe, left three priests in their posts even though they were under investigation by the gardai for child abuse. Church policy at the time should have resulted in the removal of the suspects until the investigations were completed.
YAKIMA (WA)
Herald-Republic
By JANE GARGAS
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney Ron Zirkle has decided against filing criminal charges against a Yakima Catholic priest who was being investigated in connection with possessing child pornography.
The case "did not meet federal or state statutes for children in sexually explicit conduct," Zirkle said in a Friday telephone interview.
The priest, who has not been publicly identified, is currently not working in the Catholic Diocese of Yakima and is said to be on sabbatical, according to several sources who declined to be identified.
Zirkle said the investigation dates to fall 2003, when Russell Mazzola, chairman of the Diocesan Lay Advisory Board, reported an incident of suspected possession of pornography to the Yakima police.
In the past, Zirkle has mentioned that photographs of nude boys were found on a computer to which the priest had access.
COVINGTON (KY)
Kentucky.com
Associated Press
COVINGTON, Ky. - The lead attorney in a multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit against the Diocese of Covington said after a private meeting with the diocese that an upcoming trial could be delayed by ongoing negotiations.
Stan Chesley, the lead attorney for plaintiffs suing over the diocese's alleged cover-up of sexual abuse, said he was pleased with the progress after the two-hour meeting.
"There are many, many things that need to be done, and we are cautiously optimistic," Chesley said.
Chesley would not offer details about the Wednesday talks with Special Judge John Potter. A court hearing scheduled for the same day was postponed until March. Lawyers for the diocese had no comment.
A trial is scheduled for April 11, but Chesley said it could be delayed because of negotiations.
MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By TOM HEINEN
theinen@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Jan. 21, 2005
Tempering boundless enthusiasm with future uncertainties, Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan this week described a spiritually vibrant and fiscally solvent archdiocese that also could face "very considerable" financial costs from 11 pending sexual-abuse lawsuits in California.
Dolan's "state of the archdiocese" talk to about 150 Catholic business and education leaders in The Wisconsin Club portrayed the church in southeastern Wisconsin as strong, growing, and hopeful. There still is a long way to go in restoring trust broken by the clergy sexual abuse crisis, but the archdiocese got high marks from outside auditors late last year for its programs to prevent future abuse and to help victims heal, he added.
He cited continuing financial challenges, including the pending lawsuits, but he also noted that the annual Catholic Stewardship Appeal had exceeded its goal for the third consecutive year. As of Monday, the nearly concluded 2004 campaign had raised about $7,578,800 from 56,183 donors, nearly $278,800 more than the goal, archdiocesan spokesman Jerry Topczewski said afterward.
Dolan's initial presentation did not use the "B" word - bankruptcy - a topic that has gained nationwide attention since Catholic dioceses in Portland, Ore., Tucson, Ariz., and Spokane, Wash., filed for bankruptcy in the face of millions of dollars in damage claims by victims of sexual abuse by priests.
MANCHESTER (NH)
The Union Leader
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
Union Leader Staff
MANCHESTER — Bishop John B. McCormack will testify against defrocked priest Paul R. Shanley as a cooperating witness for the prosecution in Shanley’s child rape case, the bishop’s attorney said yesterday.
“Bishop McCormack is providing testimony for the commonwealth. They have reached out and asked for his assistance in this matter and he has agreed to do so. He is appearing without a subpoena,” said Boston attorney Eileen M. Quill.
Shanley, 73, is accused of child rape and indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 in Massachusetts.
Twelve jurors and four alternates impaneled this week will hear opening arguments Monday in Middlesex County Superior Court in Cambridge, Mass.
The alleged victim, now 27, said Shanley raped him repeatedly at St. Jean the Evangelist Parish in Newton, Mass., between 1983 and 1989. Charges related to three other alleged victims have been dropped by prosecutors.
FAIRBANKS (AK)
News-Miner
By MARY BETH SMETZER
Staff Writer
For the second year in a row, the Fairbanks Catholic Diocese is in compliance with the mandatory U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
The audit report, issued earlier this month, is the result of an October visit by two auditors from the Gavin Group, an independent Boston firm of auditors experienced in law enforcement and investigations.
However, since the auditors' visit, the Resource Center for Parents and Children, which was named as victim assistance coordinator for the diocese, withdrew from the role after reviewing a diocesan Child Sexual Abuse Reporting packet.
In a letter dated Jan. 7, RCPC Executive Director Coleen Turner wrote, "Upon review of the packet, we are unable to fulfill the role of information gatherer as indicated by the forms in the packet. This procedure goes against the confidentiality practices we have with our clients."
Bishop Donald Kettler acknowledged the recent change.
MANCHESTER (NH)
The Union Leader
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
Union Leader Staff
MANCHESTER — The Diocese of Manchester and the state yesterday pressed to have the long-stalled audit called for in their 2002 agreement begin, but still argued yesterday in court over how it should be done.
The Roman Catholic diocese said the agreement calls for an audit that would verify it has complied with its child protection policies, training programs for staff and volunteers and child abuse reporting requirements.
The state maintained it cannot know if the diocese has complied with the agreement until a full and fair audit is done that measures the effectiveness of church policies and procedures.
“Effectiveness means, are the policies working?” Associate Attorney General Ann F. Larney said.
Diocesan attorney David A. Vicinanzo said the audit will show the diocese is in complete compliance with the agreement it struck with the state to avoid criminal prosecution.
“The church is an extremely safe place for children. There is no place that’s safer than the Catholic church,” he said after the hearing.
AUSTRIA
The Tablet
A record number of Catholics left the Austrian Church after the sex scandal at the St Pölten seminary last July.
Fifty thousand Catholics officially left the Church in 2004. The nationwide average of 40 per cent was even higher than in 1995 when the former Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, was accused of sexually abusing a minor. In 2004 the St Pölten diocese had 45 per cent more Catholics leaving than in the previous year, after a scandal at the seminary involving the downloading of child pornography and claims of homosexual activity. Bishop Klaus Küng subsequently replaced Kurt Krenn as Bishop of St Pölten.
Commenting on the main evening news on 17 January, the dean of the Catholic Theological Faculty of Vienna University, Professor Paul Zulehner, said the exodus was still primarily due to the controversial episcopal appointments that the Vatican had made in the Austrian Church after the late Cardinal Hans König's retirement in 1985. The fact that Rome delayed in responding to the St Pölten crisis had made things even worse, said Professor Zulehner. Since the "Groer Affair" of the mid-1990s, "the immune system of Austrian Catholics has grown steadily weaker so they can no longer cope with further bouts of scandals", he said.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
By Brian Hutton
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
21 January 2005
A Catholic priest accused of sexual assault is to be allowed to continue his parish duties by the Bishop of Derry Most Rev Dr Seamus Hegarty, it was revealed today.
The priest at the centre of the claims last month handed over a cheque for a five-figure sum to the alleged victim following an out of court settlement.
The incident is alleged to have taken place at a parochial house, in October of 1992, where a young man was attending counselling for sexual abuse for nine months.
The man, who was 18-years-old at the time, claimed he was subjected to a sexual advance by a priest.
He confided in another priest who brought the matter to the attention of other members of the clergy, including Bishop Francis Lagan, who later met with the young man, it is claimed.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal
By Donna Deeney
Friday 21st January 2005
Bishop of Derry Most Rev Dr Seamus Hegarty yesterday defended a decision to allow a priest in the Diocese to continue working with youth groups in spite of an out of court cash settlement involving allegations of sexual abuse.
Dr Hegarty was responding to a Derry Journal investigation into a number of allegations made against a priest in the Diocese and concerns regarding that priest's current position.
We have decided not to name the priest concerned, but we can report that last month he agreed a substantial five-figure financial settlement with a man who had made certain allegations against him after an incident at a parochial house in 1992.
The man was just 18 at the time.
In his statement to the Journal, Dr Hegarty said: "I am aware of the matter referred to involving an adult who was over eighteen at the time.
"The issue concerned two adults who were fully represented. It was settled without court proceedings between the priest and the adult through their legal representatives."
SOUTH BEND (IN)
South Bend Tribune
By SARA TOTH
Tribune Staff Writer
SOUTH BEND -- Illinois Appellate Justice Anne Burke, former head of the board that investigated child abuse by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church, said lay people will transform the church as it recovers from the scandal.
"The church needs to be reborn and it needs the heroic service of the laity to do it," she said Thursday at the University of Notre Dame.
"No more passive Catholics. And this is my mantra now."
About 40 people attended Burke's speech, sponsored by Call to Action Michiana, a Catholic reform-minded organization.
Burke served on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops-sponsoredAbuse Tracker Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People from June 2002, until fall 2004.
CINCINNATI (OH)
Cincinnati Post
By Kimball Perry
Post staff writer
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati responded to criticism Thursday of "fraudulent concealment" of documents to hide priest sex abuse, saying the documents aren't new and nothing was covered up.
That didn't stop Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters from promising Thursday to look into the possibility of re-opening the criminal investigation into the archdiocese, or victims from calling for the resignation of the organization's spokesman and attorney.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg, we believe," Christy Miller, a victim of priest abuse, said Thursday.
She spoke outside Saint Peter in Chains Cathedral downtown and was joined by other members of the support group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
The criticism comes days after court documents revealed that Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk assigned the Rev. David Kelly to a Vandalia, Ohio, parish after Pilarczyk learned Kelly had been accused of fondling at least two male students at Elder High School, where Kelly was principal.
CINCINNATI (OH)
The Enquirer
By Dan Horn
Enquirer staff writer
Victims' advocates asked Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk to resign Thursday, claiming he knew in the 1980s that priests were abusing children but failed to stop them.
Members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests based their allegations on church records released this week as part of a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
The records include letters to and from the archbishop regarding the behavior of a former Cincinnati priest who has been accused of abusing boys.
In one letter from 1986, a former priest personnel official discusses an allegation about the priest that arose during a marriage counseling session. During the session, a young man revealed that a friend had confided that the priest molested him.
IRELAND
One in Four
Irish Times
A 62-year-old former teacher appeared in court yesterday charged with 104 counts of indecent assault at a school in south Dublin more than 30 years ago. A judge ordered that nothing should be published which would identify the accused or the injured parties.
The former cleric is charged with committing the offences against boys over a two-year period in the early 1970s. Dublin District Court heard he was arrested yesterday morning at Sundrive Road Garda station, Crumlin, Dublin. After he was charged, he replied "not guilty".
Det Garda Eamonn Maloney had no objection to independent bail, subject to certain conditions, including that he surrender his passport and sign on at his local Garda station.
His solicitor asked the court to set a sum for bail which "is attainable". The charges were of "considerable antiquity" and his client had made himself available at all times to gardaí during the investigation into the matter, which had gone on over a number of years.
CLEVELAND (OH)
Plain Dealer
Friday, January 21, 2005
David Briggs
Plain Dealer Religion Reporter
When Northeast Ohioans were hungry, the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland served them 3.5 million meals. When they were without homes, the diocese gave them 70,000 nights of shelter. And when people were sick, Catholic Charities provided services ranging from treating 4,350 people for chemical dependency to allowing 850 children with disabilities to attend day camp.
Thursday, Bishop Anthony Pilla described a church that is on a solid financial footing, serving hundreds of thousands of people in need, in the first of what the diocese says will be annual reports. The special report was mailed out to more than 280,000 households in the eight-county diocese.
For the diocese, still recovering from a clergy sexual abuse scandal, the report is a chance to inform the community about the positive things it is doing and is also part of a three-year effort to become more transparent and accountable in its reporting practices.
Other dioceses are facing bankruptcy, but Cleveland has adequate reserves to cover costs associated with the scandal, church officials said.
NORTHERN IRELAND
The Scotsman
By Gary Kelly, PA
An MP called on a bishop today to explain why he allowed a priest who paid out compensation to an alleged sex abuse victim to continue working in his parish.
It emerged today that the priest, who has not been identified, paid a five-figure sum out of court to settle allegations of sexual abuse against him.
The alleged incident involving an 18-year-old man is said to have happened at a parochial house in the Londonderry area in 1992.
The alleged victim claimed that the priest made sexual advances towards him after he visited the parochial house for counselling on sex abuse.
A civil action was begun by the man two years ago and was settled out of court last October with no admission of liability by the priest.
In a statement, the Bishop of Derry Dr Seamus Hegarty, confirmed he was aware of the allegations made against the priest and had allowed him to continue to work in the Derry diocese.
FORT PIERCE (FL)
Palm Beach Post
By Sofia Santana
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 21, 2005
FORT PIERCE — A church youth counselor was arrested Wednesday on charges he had sex with two teen girls he supervised, according to the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office.
Christopher T. Padgett, 19, was arrested on two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation after a 14-year-old girl told her mother that she and another girl who are part of the youth group at Glad Tidings Pentecostal Church had sex with Padgett in his car, according to a sheriff's office report released Thursday.
The two girls involved and the mother who filed the report were not identified in the reports.
The girl told her mother the incident happened after she and her friend, who is 15, asked Padgett for a ride to a friend's house on Dec. 19, an investigator said.
"While they were en route, the subject of sexual activity had been brought up in conversation," Detective Mark Colangelo wrote in Padgett's arrest affidavit. "The three of them ultimately found a secluded location in St. Lucie County and both females had sexual intercourse with Padgett."
JASPER (AL)
Montgomery Advertiser
By Marty Roney
Montgomery Advertiser
JASPER -- Friends and associates of a Wetumpka minister facing charges of sexually abusing two young girls say they saw nothing in his behavior when he was ministering in Walker County that gave them cause for concern.
Garret Albert Dykes, 38, 909 Oak Crest Court, is the former pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Wetumpka. He was charged Jan. 10 with three counts of sexual abuse involving two girls younger than 10.
Before coming to Wetumpka, Dykes was minister at Pisgah Baptist Church in Sipsey, a small community in rural Walker County, about 15 miles northwest of Jasper.
"After the story broke in the papers, we received plenty of media calls, but nothing from the community," said Danny Patton, assistant chief of the Jasper Police Department. "We never had any contact with him while he was here. No one has contacted us about any of his activities while he was here. No one has come forward as a victim or potential victim."
HUDSON (WI)
Pioneer Press
BY ALEX FRIEDRICH
Pioneer Press
It seemed an odd last will for a Roman Catholic priest to write. In hindsight, it was a sign of bad things to come.
The document sat on the desk of the Rev. Ryan Erickson on Dec. 16 when Hudson, Wis., police led a search of his office at St. Mary's Church in Hurley, Wis. They had recently questioned the 31-year-old priest in a Hudson homicide investigation and a possible crime involving one or more minors.
The priest had been acting antsy, say those who knew him. And to some, the letter's use of the past tense seemed almost like the wording used in a suicide note:
" 'I tried to make a difference,' " Hurley Police Chief Daniel Erspamer remembered reading.
Erspamer and Deacon Russ Lundgren said they told Erickson of their concern. But the priest explained away those words. To ease the chief's mind, Erickson — an avid hunter — allowed police to hand over his collection of pistols and rifles to the deacon. And he assured both men he had no intention of killing himself.
"I'll see you at midnight Mass on Christmas Eve," he told Erspamer, who sings in the church choir.
Three days later, Erickson hanged himself with a rope from an outside fire escape next to the rectory.
SPOKANE (WA)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SPOKANE -- Lawyers for people who contend they were sexually abused by Catholic priests are asking a federal bankruptcy judge to replace several members of a key panel with more victims, rather than people they view as church sympathizers.
The lawyers for 62 alleged victims said the so-called "claimants' committee" has too many Catholic Church "loyalists" who are unlikely to push the Catholic Diocese of Spokane to fairly compensate victims.
"The people on the committee are unrepresentative of the creditors at large," said Duane Rasmussen of Liberty Lake, an attorney for about a third of the victims.
The motion was filed this week with U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams. No hearing date has been set.
The Spokane Diocese said yesterday that committee appointments were made by the Office of the U.S. Trustee of the bankruptcy court, which also appointed the committees in the recent bankruptcy filings of the Tucson Diocese and the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore.
COLUMBIA (SC)
The State
Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. - The state Court of Appeals has overturned the conviction of an ex-deacon accused of molesting a girl at church.
John Hubner, 56, was sentenced to 36 years in prison more than two years ago after a jury found him guilty of fondling a 12-year-old girl in 1996 and 1997.
But a three-judge panel on the appeals court ruled the trial judge made a mistake by allowing testimony from a woman who said Hubner sexually abused her in Maine more than a decade before.
The state attorney general's office has asked the state Court of Appeals to reconsider the decision, and may appeal to the South Carolina Supreme Court, spokesman Mark Plowden said.
Hubner will remain in prison during the appeal and if the ruling is upheld, will remain behind bars until his next trial.
The fat lady hasn't sung yet," said Carol A. McCurry, Hubner's attorney. "But we sure like the first verse." ...
The Columbia girl's family sued Hubner along with First Baptist Church and its pastor, the Rev. Wendell Estep. Hubner was a deacon at the church and police said some of the abuse took place there.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
The Union Leader
By RICK WEBB
Guest Commentary
ACCORDING TO the regulations and customs of the Roman Catholic Church, only the Pope can designate or remove the title of Roman Catholic bishop. Since the Pope has designated John McCormack as bishop of the Diocese of Manchester, in the eyes of the Vatican and those who swear strict allegiance and absolute obedience to the Vatican, it is clear that John McCormack was and still is bishop and leader of New Hampshire Catholics.
What is less clear is how many outside the Vatican still consider John McCormack as a leader of New Hampshire Catholics. In recent decades, the title of Roman Catholic bishop has been recognized as a symbol of respect and moral leadership by both Catholics and non-Catholics in the Granite State. Citizens of New Hampshire looked to the bishops of Manchester to provide moral direction and unite the community in acts of charity and good will.
How many now look to John McCormack for moral leadership? In the last three years, hundreds have arisen in the streets, media and other public forums to demand that McCormack be held accountable for his role in hiding and protecting pedophile priests over a two- decade long period. Only a handful have publicly stood to support him, few if any in recent times as McCormack’s role in the clergy abuse horror has become clearer and clearer. With more than 300,000 Catholics in the state, are there not at least 10 who still consider McCormack to be an able moral leader? From public statements, it does not appear so.
SPOKANE (WA)
KXLY
Sixty-two people claiming they are victims of sexual abuse by priests are asking the bankruptcy court to make changes to the committee helping decide the fate of the Spokane Diocese.
The alleged victims' attorneys say the creditors committee has too many members who are loyal to the church and could protect the Diocese from having to settle with victims. The motion asks the court to replace three so-called church loyalists and possibly add more people to the five-person committee.
Church attorneys have repeatedly told News4 they believe the composition of the committee is fair, because many possible abuse victims are not seeking money. They affirmed that position Thursday, saying they already had given a list of 130 claims to the court.
OHIO
Ohio News Network
Mason attorney Konrad Kircher filed letters this week which he says prove the Cincinnati Archdiocese and the Archbishop -- fraudulently concealed allegations of sexual abuse by priests.
Kircher's complaint had been dismissed because it was filed too late. However, the attorney says the appeals court never saw these newly filed letters which claim a conspiracy by the Archdiocese.
Meanwhile, the "survivors network of those abused by Priests," (SNAP) held a sidewalk news conference this afternoon outside St. Peter In Chains Cathedral.
NEW YORK
News 10 Now
1/20/2005 10:42 PM
By: Al Nall, News 10 Now Web Staff
In his three years leading the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York, Bishop Gladstone "Skip" Adams has never had to deal with a sexual abuse case. He isn't sure he has one to deal with now, but he did receive a letter from a third party, accusing a priest of sexual abuse some 30 years ago. The letter named the priest, not the victim.
"At this time the allegations are unsubstantiated. We've had no victim come forward and say to me or to our response team that something has occurred. So right now it is still in the area of unknown, which is part of the difficulty of being able to respond," said Bishop Adams.
If a victim doesn't come forward, the church won't disclose the priest's name or pursue a criminal investigation. The Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests, or S.N.A.P., says the church is wrong for not revealing the accused priest's name. They say doing so would help more victims come forward and remove suspicion from other clergy members.
Allegations of sexual abuse by a priest 30 years ago are now causing a stir in the Episcopal Church of Central New York. But as News 10 Now's Al Nall reports, the church has yet to find a victim.
"They're all suspect then at that point because it's no different than me coming to you and saying I know someone in your family who abuses children but I'm not telling you who it is. It's the same kind of thing there. I mean who in your family are you going to trust now," said Charles Baldwin, of S.N.A.P.
BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Sun
By Janice D'Arcy
Sun Staff
Originally published January 21, 2005
A Roman Catholic priest who a decade ago publicly denied an allegation of sexual abuse has been accused of another series of incidents, according to the Archdiocese Of Baltimore.
This time, a former Calvert Hall College high school student said the priest, Jerome F. Toohey Jr., abused him over the course of several years.
Toohey, known as Father Jeff, has not been practicing as a priest since 1993, when he was first accused of abusing a young man. Toohey, 58, did not respond to a message left at his home yesterday. His lawyer, Andrew Graham, said he had no comment.
The new allegation claims that Toohey used his role as a pastoral counselor to abuse the student repeatedly from the late 1980s to the early 1990s in the priest's private residence. At the time, Toohey was chaplain at Calvert Hall, a boys school in Towson.
NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News
A priest in the Londonderry area has paid out a five figure sum to settle claims of sexual abuse out of court.
The allegations relate to an incident at a parochial house in 1992, involving an 18-year-old man.
A civil action over an alleged sexual advance by the priest was started two years ago and settled with no admission of liability last October.
It has emerged that the priest is to "continue in parish ministry and in wider diocesan activities".
Legal advisors
In a statement published in the Derry Journal, the Bishop of Derry, Dr Seamus Hegarty, confirmed that he was aware of the allegations against the priest.
He said the issue concerned two adults who were fully represented.
BELLFLOWER (CA)
Press-Telegram
By Karen Robes
Staff writer
BELLFLOWER — Supporters of sexual abuse victims staged a protest Thursday at St. John Bosco High School.
About 10 members of SNAP, or Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, stood on the sidewalk in front of the campus at 13640 Bellflower Blvd. at 12:30 p.m. and handed out leaflets to students leaving school the day was shortened for exams and waiting parents.
The group also delivered a letter to Bosco Principal Patrick Lee naming clergy formerly affiliated with the high school who are accused in a sexual abuse lawsuit.
"Our worry is that school officials may not have been informed of who these priests are," said Mary Grant, a Long Beach resident and southwest regional director of SNAP. "We're worried of child molesters who might be working there now."
Grant said she was not aware of any sexual offenders still working at Bosco.
MANCHESTER (NH)
Boston.com
By J.M. Hirsch, Associated Press Writer | January 20, 2005
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- A lawyer for the state's Roman Catholic diocese told a judge Thursday it was ready to submit to an audit of its child protection policies, but prosecutors said the evaluation the church envisions is meaningless.
The Diocese of Manchester and the attorney general's office have been at odds for nearly two years over the scope and cost of an audit of church policies intended to protect children from sexual abuse.
Annual audits for five years are required by a 2002 agreement between the church and state that ended a criminal investigation of whether diocesan officials knew members of the clergy were abusing children but failed to protect them.
The agreement landed in court when the diocese and state couldn't agree on the terms of the audit. The church says it agreed only to a check of whether it has policies and whether it trains people in them. The state says that unless it verifies the effectiveness of those policies, the audit is useless.
"The state leaps to the conclusion that because we all agree these are good goals, the state is empowered to do whatever it pleases with the audit," church lawyer David Vicinanzo said Thursday during a Hillsborough County Superior Court hearing.
ORANGE (CA)
Herald Tribune
The Associated Press
ORANGE, Calif. -- With a multimillion-dollar clergy abuse settlement behind it, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange is launching an expansion that includes the establishment of two new parishes, the relocation of a third and the construction of a new cathedral, officials said Thursday.
The announcement comes six weeks after the diocese agreed to a $100 million settlement with 90 alleged victims of clergy abuse. The diocese will pay about half that amount, with insurers covering the rest.
The diocese had put on hold plans for the new parishes and the cathedral for several years while it tried to resolve the lawsuits against it, officials said.
CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly
by Gustavo Arellano
The image made the front page of newspapers across the country and led off multiple newscasts: a tearful Joelle Casteix accepting the humbled apology of Bishop Tod D. Brown moments after he announced the settlement of 90 sex-abuse cases against his Diocese of Orange for $100 million, the largest settlement amount in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. The image was supposed to signify a new era for the Orange Diocese—an era of reform, transparency; an era where, as Brown put it, the harassment of molestation victims "will never happen again."
The image was a fraud.
Just four days later, Brown’s spokesman, Father Joseph Fenton, ruined whatever goodwill the bishop established with sex-abuse victims.
Among those named in the $100 million settlement was Thomas Hodgman, a former Mater Dei High School choir teacher who was alleged to have repeatedly raped Casteix while she was a student at the Santa Ana parochial school in the late 1980s. The Toledo Blade discovered Hodgman working as a choir director at Adrian College, a small liberal arts institution in southeast Michigan, and asked him about the Orange diocese decision. Hodgman dismissed Casteix’s story as "bogus;" school officials admitted they knew about their employee’s molesting past but supported him.
Blade reporter Robin Erb then contacted the Orange Diocese for comment. Fenton, loathed by Orange County Catholics for his abrasive bluster, seemingly sided with Hodgman. "Under no circumstances does the settlement imply any guilt on anyone’s part," Fenton told the Blade.
BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Sun
By Janice D’Arcy
Sun Staff
Originally published January 20, 2005, 9:01 PM EST
A Roman Catholic priest who a decade ago publicly denied an allegation of sexual abuse has been accused of another series of incidents, according to the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
This time, a former Calvert Hall College high school student said the priest, Jerome F. Toohey Jr., abused him over the course of several years.
Toohey, known as Father Jeff, has not been practicing as a priest since 1993, when he was first accused of abusing a young man. Toohey, 58, did not respond to a message left at his home Thursday. His lawyer, Andrew Graham, said he had no comment.
The new allegation claims that Toohey used his role as a pastoral counselor to abuse the student repeatedly from the late 1980s to the early 1990s in the priest's private residence. At the time, Toohey was chaplain at Calvert Hall, a boys school in Towson.
BRITAIN
Sydney Morning Herald
January 21, 2005 - 8:34AM
The man who disrupted the men's marathon at the Athens Olympics last year was defrocked as a Roman Catholic priest in England.
"I now cannot preach. I cannot give out communion. I am little more than a pagan," said Neil Horan, who tackled Brazilian runner Vanderlei de Lima late in the event.
De Lima, who was leading the race when Horan jumped out of the crowd, quickly resumed running, but finished third.
Horan also disrupted the British Grand Prix Formula One race in 2003 by wandering on the track and doing what he called a peace dance.
In October, Horan was acquitted on a charge of indecency with a seven-year-old girl in 1991.
CINCINNATI (OH)
WCPO
Reported and Web Produced by: I-Team
Updated: 01/20/05 17:37:41
9News Anchor, on set: Abuse victims are calling on the Archbishop to resign, and the new Hamilton County Prosecutor to reopen the case on priest abuse.
They're reacting to new documents filed in court, documents I-Team reporter Laure Quinlivan first told you about last night. She's here with the fallout today.
I-Team Reporter Laure Quinlivan on set: Regarding Father David Kelley, the Archbishop says he had no substantiated abuse allegation against Kelley until 1994. But these documents show the Archbishop knew of Kelley's alleged abuse back in 1983, more than a decade earlier. The archbishop kept that secret, possibly putting more children in harm's way.
I-Team ((( "BONG" ))) and animation
Dan Frondorf, SNAP, Priest Victim: "These are smoking gun documents, the evidence is here that the archbishop was not truthful."
I-Team Reporter Laure Quinlivan, over video:
Dan Frondorf and other victims of priests say these documents prove Archbishop Pilarczyk knew Father David Kelley was abusing children as far back as 1983, but simply moved Kelley from parish to parish where he abused again.
PENNSYLVANIA
Sunday News
By Cris Foehlinger
Sunday News
Published: Jan 14, 2005 12:03 PM EST
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Patricia Cahill walked into a large meeting room in Philadelphia and listened as several people told her story to the crowd.
The pain became too great and she bolted, running smack into members of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. The team helped Cahill regroup and build the confidence to stay and hear what she needed to hear.
Pat Serrano, mother of Mark Serrano, an abuse victim who is a national spokesman for the Chicago, Ill.- based SNAP, met Cahill and Donna Wilcox, a supportive friend, at the front door. She wanted them to meet Bob Hoatson.
When Cahill learned he was a priest, she declined. "My sponsor (Wilcox) told him not to get involved with me unless he meant to help me,'' Cahill recalled. "She said, "She's been through it 100 times with clergy.' '' Hoatson has been with her since that day.
Cahill is seeking help to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder and drug and alcohol addiction that she says stem from a long-term sexually abusive relationship with Sister Eileen Shaw of the Sisters of Charity of Convent Station, N.J.
Cahill received therapy and a cash settlement in 1994. She also signed a gag order.
Last year, she again asked the Catholic order for help and was turned down. "They told me they would pray for me,'' she said.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
KATC
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts A jury has been seated for the trial of Paul Shanley, the defrocked Catholic priest accused of molesting an altar boy in Massachusetts.
Eight men and eight women were chosen. They will be separated later into 12 jurors and four alternates.
Shanley, who's 73, was once known as a long-haired priest who reached out to troubled youth.
The former altar boy, who's now 27, says Shanley raped him repeatedly, beginning in 1983, when he was six.
Shanley's lawyer says the accuser made up the story to win a lawsuit.
ALABAMA
WTVY
A Wiregrass federal employee and preacher are charged with a disturbing crime. A Florala postal worker is accused of sexually abusing of an elderly woman on his mail route.
Eighty-seven-year-old Bobby Tyson learned that her longtime postman was arrested for the sexual abuse of a friend.
Authorities say Jerry Hutcheson knocked on the victim's door to deliver a package, he then reportedly walked inside to her bedroom where he assaulted the 85-year-old woman.
Mrs. Tyson said he had made improper contact with her as well.
In the late 1990's, Hutcheson was the pastor of the Westside Baptist Church in the nearby town of Lockhart. Congregation members say the charges can't be true.
The 51-year-old suspect reportedly lives near Baker, Florida. He is now reportedly a pastor of a church in Northern Okaloosa County.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
The Kansas City Star
Associated Press
ST. LOUIS - The St. Louis Archdiocese is pushing to send the Rev. William Wiebler back to Iowa to face new allegations of sexual abuse.
Wiebler lives near two schools in the St. Louis suburb University City. Twelve new victims in Iowa have come forward alleging they were abused by Wiebler. The Vatican has ordered trial under church law to determine whether he should be punished.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Thursday that St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke has been trying to have Wiebler sent back to Davenport, Iowa. Spokesman Jamie Allman said those efforts will increase.
"Short of calling in the Swiss Guard, the archbishop over several months, has done everything in his power to get this guy out of town and back to his home diocese," Allman said. Church, or canon, law says that Burke has no authority over Wiebler, and that only Bishop William E. Franklin of Davenport, Iowa, can take action against him.
"With 12 new allegations, the burner will be turned up," Allman told the newspaper.
IOWA
Press-Citizen
By From staff and wire reports
A former bishop of the Sioux City Roman Catholic diocese, who served as principal at Regina High School for nine years, was accused of child sex abuse during his tenure in Iowa City.
A report issued this week by Davenport Bishop William Franklin states there were three allegations against retired Sioux City Bishop Lawrence Soens and the diocese settled one of those allegations for $20,000 in October.
The accusations stem from alleged acts in the early- to mid-1960s, according to the report. Davenport diocese spokesman Deacon David Montgomery said Soens served as Regina High School's principal from 1958 to 1967. Montgomery said he did not know whether the abuse allegations involve Regina.
"I don't have that information," Montgomery said. "The victim wanted to remain anonymous; I know that. That's probably why I don't know."
It is the latest in allegations against priests formerly assigned to Iowa City, though only the second accusation apparently linked to a priest's local service. The Johnson County Attorney's Office continues to investigate sexual abuse allegations against the Rev. Paul Deyo, who taught at Regina in the 1990s.
CANADA
CTV.ca
CTV.ca News Staff
Prince Edward Island boasts some of the most beautiful scenery in the country and it's home to one of Canada's most famous literary characters – Anne of Green Gables. She's on the cover of government tourist brochures and each year thousands visit the farmhouse that inspired the story of the orphan who never existed.
But P.E.I. has some real orphan stories that lack the fairytale ending. Ones that the provincial government would prefer not to talk about and unlike Anne of Green Gables, they're about real people. Their memories of the Mount Herbert orphanage are harsh and painful and although they have worked hard to put it behind them, some things cannot be forgotten or forgiven.
"Nobody could care whether you lived or died. There were no hugs and kisses. There was no affection," said Rihan MacDonald, a former resident at the orphanage.
"The strap would come down a number of times on a child and you could hear the screaming in the background. And then you were always terrified that you were going to be the next person that would get it," remembers Garry Genge who also lived there as a child.
The Mount Herbert Orphanage, run by Protestant Churches, was home to hundreds of children from the early 1900s to 1975. The orphanage was financed by donations from the public. ...
McPherson claims the only attention he ever received from adults at the orphanage was the kind no child should ever have.
"I'm not clear as far as how all the first sexual abuse started, but I know I was four or five years old. I'm talking about sexual abuse with a man and the first time he raped me," McPherson recalls the incident with difficulty. His assailant, McPherson says, was the janitor.
"It just makes you feel like nothing. You're just not a human being any more. The next day I was in bed and I was bleeding really bad and the matron comes around and says 'what happened to you'? I know I can't tell her what happened. And so then she gets angry and beats me because I've got blood in the bed. I bled for three days, and I got beat because I couldn't get out of bed."
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Herald Tribune
The Associated Press
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A jury of eight men and eight women will hear the child rape case against former Catholic priest Paul Shanley, one of the most notorious figures in the clergy sex abuse scandal.
Jury selection was completed Thursday afternoon and the 12 regular jurors and four alternates will hear opening statements from the lawyers on Monday in Middlesex Superior Court.
Shanley, 73, is accused of child rape and indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. The alleged victim, now 27, says Shanley raped him repeatedly at St. Jean's parish in Newton between 1983 and 1989, beginning when he was 6 years old.
Shanley, once a long-haired priest in blue jeans who reached out to Boston's troubled youth, was defrocked by the Vatican last year.
His lawyer, Frank Mondano, has said he will argue that the accuser made up his story to win a monetary award in a civil lawsuit.
BALTIMORE (MD)
WJZ
Jan 20, 2005 1:45 pm US/Eastern
Baltimore, MD. (AP) The Archdiocese of Baltimore says another sexual abuse allegation has surfaced against a priest already
removed from the ministry for a previous allegation of sexual misconduct.
The Archdiocese says the latest allegation involves a high school student who claims to have been abused in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Jerome Toohey. The case has been reported to the Baltimore County State's Attorney's office.
According to the Archdiocese, the abuse allegedly occurred at Toohey's home.
IOWA
The Hawk Eye
By KILEY MILLER
kmiller@thehawkeye.com
A retired Catholic bishop accused of child sexual abuse served as a priest in Burlington, but none of the alleged assaults occurred during his time here.
The Diocese of Davenport on Tuesday acknowledged paying $20,000 to settle a claim that former Sioux City Bishop Lawrence Soens abused a child in the early to mid–1960s while serving as a priest in the diocese.
Soens served at St. Paul's Catholic Church in Burlington from 1950 to 1952, his first assignment after ordination. He was made the bishop of Sioux City in 1983 and held the post until retiring in 1998.
He is the first bishop in Iowa publicly accused in the abuse scandal that has attacked the foundation of the Catholic Church nationwide.
The claims against Soens surfaced in a report by Davenport Bishop William Franklin updating the diocese on the status of sexual abuse allegations dating back to the 1950s.
CINCINNATI (OH)
ChannelCincinnati.com
POSTED: 8:29 am EST January 20, 2005
UPDATED: 8:56 am EST January 20, 2005
CINCINNATI -- New accusations of a coverup by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati include Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk himself.
Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, say Pilarczyk and his staff knew about allegations against Father David Kelley eight years before they've admitted, but did nothing about it.
Sex abuse allegations against Kelley surfaced more than two years ago, News 5's Susanne Horgan reported.
He's being sued by 40 alleged victims who say they were abused as kids, as early as the 1970s.
Church officials have said they first got reports of Kelley's suspected abuse in 1994.
NEW BEDFORD (MA)
Providence Journal
01:00 AM EST on Thursday, January 20, 2005
By ROB MARGETTA
Journal Staff Writer
NEW BEDFORD -- The charges against the Rev. Stephen Fernandes, a priest who was accused of possessing and disseminating child pornography last year, have been expanded to include one count of exhibiting or posing at least one child engaged in a sexual act.
The new count against Fernandes, a felony with a 10-year sentence, was made public at his indictment in New Bedford Superior Court Tuesday. Fernandes pleaded innocent to it, as well as the other charges against him.
The Bristol County District Attorney's Office has said that the police are trying to find the child or children connected to the new charge against Fernandes.
Assistant District Attorney Gerald FitzGerald said he couldn't provide any details behind the charge, but said the act in question "was essentially accomplished with the aid of the Internet."
FitzGerald's office began investigating Fernandes in October, after , a Fall River computer servicing technician discovered pornography on the priest's laptop.
Fernandes told employees of DEG Associates on Oct. 26 that his laptop was running slowly, and may have had a virus. When DEG technicians started servicing the computer, they discovered child pornography.
SPRINGFIELD (IL)
SJ-R.com
By LISA KERNEK
STAFF WRITER
Monsignor Eugene Costa has left Illinois for a center that specializes in rehabilitating priests, nuns and members of religious orders.
Costa, 54, was found badly beaten in Douglas Park the night of Dec. 21. He has since resigned as pastor of parishes in Sherman and Athens and as chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of Springfield.
Costa left Springfield over the weekend, said Kathie Sass, a spokeswoman for the diocese. She declined to give the location of the center except to say it is out of state.
"He continues to improve," Sass said of Costa. "He is in for a long recovery." ...
Last week, the diocese put out a written statement saying that Costa's resignation would allow him to deal with "previous instances of inappropriate and risky behavior that have come to light during this difficult period."
COVINGTON (KY)
The Cincinnati Post
By Paul A. Long
Post staff reporter
Attorneys for the Diocese of Covington and for those suing it in a multimillion-dollar, class-action lawsuit met behind closed doors with the judge for nearly two hours Wednesday before calling off a planned pre-trial hearing.
Stan Chesley, the lead attorney for those suing over the diocese's alleged cover-up of sexual abuse by its priests and other workers, pronounced himself pleased with the progress.
"There are many, many things that need to be done, and we are cautiously optimistic," Chesley told a group of more than two dozen victims and their families who were in Boone Circuit Court for the expected hearing. "There are ongoing discussions that are very important to us all."
Chesley would not detail the talks with Special Judge John Potter, and lawyers for the diocese had no comment.
While Chesley said the trial in the case is still scheduled for April 11, he said it could be delayed because of the on-going negotiations.
AUSTRALIA
The Daily Telegraph
By VIVA GOLDNER
January 21, 2005
DETECTIVES investigating a sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church raided the offices of the Archbishop of Sydney.
Letters between Archbishop George Pell and a young man abused by a priest 20 years ago were seized.
The police raid came to light yesterday as the priest, Terence Norman Goodall, admitted sex crimes.
The victim, speaking exclusively to The Daily Telegraph, last night said: "What this priest did was destroy my trust in faith, my trust in religion, and my once deep commitment to God."
He is planning civil action.
Goodall twice assaulted the "extremely devout" 29-year-old in January, 1982 – once at a Cronulla swimming pool and again at a presbytery.
The victim reported the abuse to senior church officials the next day, in January, 1982, but nothing was done.
WISCONSIN
Star Tribune
Randy Furst, Star Tribune
January 19, 2005
A priest who committed suicide last month after Hudson, Wis. police questioned him concerning the murder of two workers at a Hudson funeral home, was also being investigated about possible criminal activity involving minors, the Hudson police chief said Tuesday.
Chief Richard Trende said that on the advice of prosecutors, he could not detail the nature of the investigation of Rev. Ryan Erickson.
Trende also revealed new details of the murder investigation, spelling out why Erickson, 31, was being questioned in the shooting deaths of Dan O'Connell and James Ellison, who were gunned down at the O'Connell Family Funeral Home in February 2002.
Trende said that Erickson knew details of the of the crime scene that were not available to the public and that Erickson could not remember where he was during the time that the murders occurred. Trende said Erickson could provide no alibi.
AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au
January 21, 2005
DETECTIVES investigating a sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church raided the offices of the Archbishop of Sydney.
Letters between Archbishop George Pell and a young man abused by a priest 20 years ago were seized.
The police raid came to light yesterday as the priest, Terence Norman Goodall, admitted sex crimes.
The victim, speaking exclusively to The Daily Telegraph, last night said: "What this priest did was destroy my trust in faith, my trust in religion, and my once deep commitment to God."
WORCESTER (MA)
Worcester Voice
The Worcester voice has been supplied old newspaper article's that were thought too have been unattainable.
A painful and unthinkable pattern now vividly presents itself, the Worcester Diocese Catholic Church by known published documentation have since 1993, been actively practicing deception and cover-up of clergy sexual abuse committed by diocesan priest. Theses actions, chronicled by these articles are consistent for the past 12 years. See Published cases, Removed clergy, Rev Robert E. Kelly links for articles. Due to the amount of material, more will be added in time.
In 1993 clergy prosecution first began with Rev Robert E. Kelley, then soon another and another. The February 8, 1993 Boston Globe headline read, ACCUSATIONS ROIL WORCESTER DIOCESE SEX ALLEGATIONS AGAINST SEVEN PRIESTS ARE RAISING QUESTIONS OF TRUST. If you read the headline only, it appears to be one of recent times. Just December 30, 2004, only three short weeks ago the Worcester telegram headlines read Sexual abuse lawsuits filed Six diocesan priests named.
In 1993 those who faced allegations were, Msgr. Leo Battista of Leominster, Rev. David A. Holley of New Mexico, Rev. Joseph Fredette of Worcester ( who later won an appeal), Rev. Ronald D. Provost of Barre, Rev. Justin Steponaitis of Athol, Rev. Victor Frobas, visiting from Northborough and Rev. Robert E. Kelley of Gardner.
IRELAND
One in Four
Marese McDonagh - Irish Times
A former Marist brother was yesterday found guilty of 180 counts of indecent assaults against six young boys at a Sligo national school in the 1960s and 1970s. He will be sentenced next March.
A jury of eight women and four men unanimously convicted Christopher Cosgrove (61), Ballyhaunis Road, Claremorris, Co Mayo, after considering their verdict for two hours and 45 minutes. Judge Anthony Kennedy adjourned sentencing until the next sitting of Sligo Circuit Court and he remanded the accused on bail.
Commenting that Cosgrove was undoubtedly facing a custodial sentence, the judge ordered that he sign on at Claremorris Garda Station twice a week until sentence is imposed.
During the five-day trial it emerged that two other teachers at St John'sAbuse Tracker School, Temple Street, Sligo, had recently pleaded guilty to sexually abusing pupils there.
Cosgrove, who spent 20 years as a Marist brother from 1962 to 1982, denied the charges.
TEXOMA (TX)
KTEN
The Texoma man arrested back in October for child molestation finally had the chance to go before a judge this morning...but instead the former pastor waived that right.
KTEN’s Chelsea Hover has the details.
According to the Carter County District Attorney's office a preliminary hearing is meant to determine if there's enough evidence to find someone guilty. Apparently in this case, there was.
The accused pastor, Christopher Ragle of Healdton, Oklahoma, waived his right to a preliminary hearing today. He was arrested back in late October of 2004 for sketching and taking pictures of a four-year-old girl. She was a member of his congregation.
Thirty-four year old Ragle is charged with lewd acts with a child. The Carter County Sheriff's Department seized two computers used by Ragle. When the F.B.I. got involved, they used those for analysis.
“That was essentially the issue today,” said Assistant D.A., Craig Ladd, “whether or not there is probable cause to believe he’s guilty. He waived that right.”
WISCONSIN
Star Tribune
Randy Furst, Star Tribune
January 20, 2005
Three days before the Rev. Ryan Erickson killed himself, police in Hurley, Wis., were worried that the priest was suicidal and gave a church deacon Erickson's guns, the deacon said in an interview on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Hudson Police Chief Richard Trende said that Erickson, who was being questioned in a 2002 double murder at a Hudson funeral home, also was "being investigated for potential criminal allegations involving minors."
Trende said further that Erickson, 31, knew details about the crime scene that had not been made public, drove a car similar to the one seen at the funeral home that day and appeared to be the same stature as a man who got into the car. The police chief said that the man who got into the car was wearing a T-shirt and that Erickson was known to wear a T-shirt under his cleric's garb.
Erickson was a priest at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Hudson from 2000 to 2003, and had been transferred to a church in Ladysmith, Wis., and then to St. Mary of the Seven Dolors Church in Hurley in 2004.
AUSTRALIA
ABC
A Catholic priest will be sentenced next week after admitting to indecently assaulting a parishioner more than 20 years ago.
Father Terrance Norman Goodall pleaded guilty to assaulting the 29-year-old man at a house and in a swimming pool in 1982.
The Sydney District Court was told today that the Catholic church was informed about the assault at the time but it was not acted upon until police were informed two years ago.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Boston Herald
By Associated Press
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Nine jurors have been chosen for the child rape trial of defrocked priest Paul Shanley.
Twelve regular jurors and four alternatives will hear the case against Shanley, one of the most notorious figures in the clergy sex abuse scandal. Testimony in the trial is scheduled to begin Monday in Middlesex Superior Court.
Shanley, 73, is accused of child rape and indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.
The alleged victim, now 27, says Shanley raped him repeatedly at St. Jean's parish in Newton between 1983 and 1989, beginning when he was six years old.
Shanley, once a long-haired priest in blue jeans who reached out to Boston's troubled youth, was defrocked by the Vatican last year after being charged with sexually abusing four boys at St. Jean's between 1979 and 1989. Charges related to three of the alleged victims have been dropped by prosecutors.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
By Tim Townsend
Of the Post-Dispatch
Wednesday, Jan. 19 2005
Twelve new victims have alleged abuse by an admitted pedophile priest who lives near two schools in University City.
A spokesman for St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke says the archdiocese has been working hard for months to have the Rev. William Wiebler sent back to Davenport, Iowa, and that now those efforts will increase.
The Post-Dispatch reported in September that Wiebler had left a treatment
center in Jefferson County and was living in an apartment 750 feet from an
elementary school and about 1,500 feet from a preschool. At the time, both the
Diocese of Davenport and the Archdiocese of St. Louis said they couldn't do
anything about where Wiebler was living.
"Short of calling in the Swiss Guard, the archbishop over several months, has
done everything in his power to get this guy out of town and back to his home
diocese," said Jamie Allman. Church, or canon, law says that Burke has no
authority over Wiebler, and that only Bishop William E. Franklin of Davenport
can take action against him. "With 12 new allegations, the burner will be
turned up," Allman said.
DAYTON (OH)
Middletown Journal
DAYTON — The Rev. David Kelley was assigned to a Vandalia parish in 1984 after the Cincinnati archdiocese learned of allegations that he had fondled at least two male students of Cincinnati’s Elder High School during parties in Kelley’s private room at a rectory, according to papers filed in court Tuesday.
Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk told a rehabilitation center for sexually abusive priests of Kelley’s history after the archdiocese sent him there for treatment in late 1986, the court papers show.
“Fearing the real possibility of widespread scandal and possible further harm to students, as well as the reputation of the school, (Kelley) was told that he would have to leave the faculty and the parish,” Pilarczyk wrote to the Servants of the Paraclete center in Jemez Springs, N.M. “He was then assigned to St. Christopher parish, near Dayton, Ohio, as associate pastor.”
Konrad Kircher, a Mason attorney representing dozens of purported victims of child sexual abuse by priests, said Pilarczyk’s letter and other correspondence he filed in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court show the Cincinnati Archdiocese used “fraudulent concealment” to cover up for abusive priests. Kircher argues that the cover-up means the statute of limitations shouldn’t be up on decades-old abuse allegations.
DAYTON (OH)
Middletown Journal
DAYTON — The leader of a two-year-old Catholic lay group formed here in response to the sexual abuse crisis in the church criticized the letters of apology sent out last week by the Rev. Thomas Kuhn.
Kuhn, convicted of 11 misdemeanors including 10 charges relating to either furnished or allowing possession of alcohol to minors and one count of public indecency, was instructed in July to write the letters as one of many conditions of his probation.
Judge Mary Katherine Huffman said at the time that she opted for probation rather than an 18-month jail sentence because Kuhn would be on probation and under its control for five years.
In December, Huffman modified her order to require the letters be completed by the end of January.
Kuhn, 63, sent the letters to five individuals who were teens at the time of the offenses and to three churches where he had worked.
On Thursday, Kuhn denied he violated the terms of probation when he visited a Catholic high school in Cincinnati in September. The visit came the day after a 17-year-old student was shot dead across the street from the school. He had been required not to offer his services to any organization that involved people under 21. He faces a hearing on Feb. 10.
IOWA
Sioux City Journal
By Nick Hytrek Journal staff writer
Retired Bishop Lawrence Soens has denied allegations of sexual abuse that stem from alleged incidents some 40 years ago.
Soens, who retired as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sioux City's leader in 1998, issued a three-sentence release through his attorney, Tim Bottaro, saying he has cooperated with investigations in the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, where the alleged abuses occurred.
Because of the ongoing Catholic Church investigation, Soens will not make further comments, Bottaro said.
The allegations surfaced Tuesday in a Davenport diocese report on sexual abuse accusations made against priests in that diocese. In the seven-page report, one paragraph refers to one allegation made against Soens prior to February and two allegations since then. All incidents allegedly occurred in the 1960s while Soens, an Iowa City native, served as a priest in the Davenport diocese.
None of the alleged victims has taken legal action against Soens, said Deacon David Montgomery, spokesman for the Davenport diocese. According to the report, the diocese in October settled one of the claims against Soens for $20,000.
AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
20jan05
A CATHOLIC priest who indecently assaulted a male parishioner had abused his position of trust and authority, a Sydney court heard today.
Terence Norman Goodall, 64, now retired, pleaded guilty in the Downing Centre District Court to one count of indecent assault.
Although his victim reported the matter to police only in 2003, Goodall was charged under laws that existed when the crime took place in 1982.
Until it was amended in 1984, the legislation made any sexual activity between two males illegal, regardless of consent.
The court heard that in 1982 Goodall invited his victim, then a 29-year-old religion teacher, to attend mass at St Catherine Laboure Church at Gymea where he was the visiting parish priest.
After mass they went swimming at a Cronulla pool, where Goodall fondled the younger man.
Later, at the presbytery, Goodall indecently assaulted the victim as he was changing out of his swimmers.
CINCINNATI (OH)
WCPO
Reported/Produced by: Laure Quinlivan
Photographed by: Phil Drechsler
Web produced by: Neil Relyea
1/19/2005 8:38:25 PM
9News Anchor, on set
Catholic Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk has denied any knowledge of sexual abuse by priests on his watch, but I-Team reporter Laure Quinlivan has court documents "just filed" that appear to indicate that's not true.
She's here with the details.
Laure Quinlivan, I-Team reporter, on set
The most important document regarding the question of whether the Archbishop knew of sexual abuse, is this one -- written by the Archbishop himself. It shows he knew Father David Kelley may have sexually abused children. But instead of reporting him to police, he moved him around.
The letter contradicts the Archbishop's statements after the November 2003 plea deal.
He plead on behalf of others who failed to report sex abuse, crimes that occurred before he took over in 1982. The Archbishop denied anything was covered up on his watch.
CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise
By MICHAEL FISHER / The Press-Enterprise
An advocacy group is urging Bishop Gerald Barnes to make personal announcements at three Riverside churches reaching out to anyone might have been a molestation victim of a former Inland priest accused of sexual misconduct in the Midwest.
Two Illinois men have accused the Rev. Theodore Feely, now deceased, of abusing them at a Rockford, Ill., church in the 1970s, according to the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a national self-help group for victims of clergy abuse.
The accusations led the group to send a letter to Barnes on Tuesday, asking the Roman Catholic bishop to visit the Riverside churches where Feely worked during parts of the 1960s, '70s and '80s to ask anyone who had been a victim of or a witness to sexual misconduct by the priest to come forward. The group also asked Barnes to post notices about Feely on the San Bernardino Diocese's Web site and in church bulletins and diocesan newspapers.
"Bishop Barnes now has a moral obligation to reach out to others who may have been hurt by Feely," Mary Grant, the group's southwest regional director, said in a written statement.
Diocesan leaders are reviewing the letter, the Rev. Howard Lincoln, spokesman for the San Bernardino Diocese, said Wednesday.
SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF
A second man will lodge sexual-abuse charges against the Rev. James Mitchell, a priest who worked for the Seattle Archdiocese during the 1980s and is the target of a lawsuit contending that he positioned himself as an adoptive father in order to bring a Colombian boy to the United States and abuse him.
The second suit, to be filed today in King County Superior Court, lays out a similar scenario. In it, a 37-year-old man now living in Sherwood, Ore., says that he met Mitchell in 1982, when the priest was working in Colombia on a humanitarian mission for the church. There, the suit says, Mitchell began sexually abusing the then-14-year-old boy, and claimed to adopt him as a son before bringing the child to the United States.
By 1985, the two were living at St. John's Parish in Vancouver, where the molestation continued until the summer of 1986, according to the complaint, filed by lawyer Mary Fleck.
Mitchell, a California native who worked, in effect, as a freelancer for the Seattle Archdiocese, devoted much of his ministry in Colombia to running a school for poor children. He was recalled from the Vancouver parish in 1986, after another priest at St. John's reported evidence of alcohol abuse. By 1987, he had been removed from the Seattle Archdiocese.
SYRACUSE (NY)
The Post-Standard
Thursday, January 20, 2005
By Renee K. Gadoua
Staff writer
The local Episcopal bishop Wednesday confirmed the diocese is investigating a report of alleged sexual abuse by a priest 30 years ago.
Bishop Gladstone "Skip" Adams would not identify the accused priest, except to say the priest is retired. He would not identify the gender of the priest or the victim.
The diocese also is investigating an unrelated allegation of financial mismanagement at a parish, Adams said. He would not name the parish or name the individuals involved.
He said no criminal charges have been filed in either case.
Adams met privately Wednesday afternoon with clergy of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York to discuss the cases.
BRITAIN
The Comet
EDITORIAL - editorial@thecomet.net
A WRIT has been issued against the organisation behind a former boys' home in Shefford by a former resident.
The man alleges that he was subjected to sexual, physical and emotional abuse while a pupil at the St Francis Boys' Home in the 1950s and 60s.
This is the latest in a number of allegations of abuse to hit the boys' home, which closed in the 1970s.
The writ has been filed in Manchester County Court by solicitors representing a 56-year-old man who now lives overseas.
He was a pupil of the home between 1956 and 1963 and is claiming up to £50,000 for "assault and for personal injuries and loss and damage, which said injuries loss and damage were occasioned by reason of the negligence and/or breach of statutory duty of the defendants".
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Phoenix
BY DAVID S. BERNSTEIN
IT HAS BEEN more than three years since the clergy-sexual-abuse scandal erupted in the Catholic Church, yet there are troubling signs that the powerful men of the Boston archdiocese still think the laity was outraged only by the acts of abuse. They can’t seem to get it into their heads that parishioners also were appalled by the secrecy, the obfuscation, the flat obstinacy with which diocesan leaders guarded the internal workings of the Church — and, not incidentally, what they do with the money collected each week at Sunday services.
That’s money the parishes and the archdiocese desperately need, since contributions have declined as costs have risen in the wake of the abuse blow-up. It’s also money that parishioners here and nationally are still reluctant to hand over. And now the Church is finding that its financial murkiness is beginning to trouble the flock just as much as have the sexual shenanigans of its priests.
In fact, when asked to name the greatest influence on their financial support of the Church in the past year, almost as many regular-Mass-attending Catholics now cite financial-accountability concerns as cite the sexual-abuse scandal. That’s according to a national survey released last week by Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities (FADICA), a consortium representing $200 million worth of Catholic philanthropy. FADICA also found, amazingly, that more Catholics now approve of their bishops’ handling of the abuse crisis (41 percent, up from 35 percent two years ago) than approve those same bishops’ handling of Church-finance accountability (38 percent, down from 46 percent). Large majorities in the survey want the Church to be more open and accountable with its finances.
"I think the clergy-abuse scandal opened people’s eyes to how little they know about church operations," says Charles Zech, of the Center for the Study of Church Management, at Villanova University. "That’s going to linger on long after the scandal subsides."
IRELAND
One in Four
Joe Humphreys - Irish Times
Representatives of former residents of religious and State-run institutions have given a mixed reaction to a decision by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse to relax its rules on the interviewing of witnesses.
In a statement yesterday the commission said all 1,300 people who had applied to have their cases heard before its investigative committee would be invited for interview. However, only a selection of these cases would go forward to full hearings.
Mr Colm O'Gorman, founder of the victims' representative group, One in Four, said it was a "positive and welcome" development.
While victims were not getting what was initially promised to them, "it is significant that everyone will be heard in some context by the investigative committee," he said.
IRELAND
One in Four
David Quinn - Religious and Social Affairs Correspondent - Irish Independent
THE Child Abuse Commission will, after all, listen to testimony from each of the 1,300 individuals who have opted to participate in the work of the commission's Investigation Committee.
The commission announced yesterday that all 1,300 will be interviewed by its legal team, which will decide which cases should be referred to the committee for full hearing.
This is a significant change of position by the commission under its chairman, Justice Sean Ryan. When Judge Ryan took over the commission from Justice Mary Laffoy, it decided to cut back heavily on the number of individuals - all former residents of industrial schools and orphanages - who could give evidence to the committee so it could complete its work in a reasonable timeframe.
OHIO
The Catholic Telegraph
DAYTON DEANERY — A probation revocation hearing for Thomas Kuhn, an archdiocesan priest on administrative leave, is scheduled for Feb. 10 at 2:30 p.m. in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Mary Katherine Huffman. The hearing date was set Jan. 13, following Kuhn’s appearance in court to face charges that he violated conditions of his parole.
"This is another sad day for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati," said Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk. "I want there to be no doubt that I find Thomas Kuhn’s actions that led to this day deeply disturbing. I fully expected him to meet all of the restrictions and requirements imposed upon him by the court, and I told him so. That he apparently has not done so is shocking and inexplicable."
Kuhn was sentenced in July 2004 to five years of supervised probation, 500 hours of community service and was ordered to pay the maximum fines of more than $10,000 on 11 misdemeanor charges of public indecency and providing alcohol to minors, after pleading "no contest" to the counts.
The former pastor was not to work for any organization that involves people younger than 21 years of age, attend Alcoholic Anonymous meetings daily and was prohibited from entering any establishment where alcohol is served.
AUGUSTA (MA)
WMTW
POSTED: 11:24 am EST January 19, 2005
UPDATED: 11:31 am EST January 19, 2005
AUGUSTA, Maine -- Maine's Roman Catholic bishop is pledging support for tougher laws against child sexual abuse.
Bishop Richard Malone told Gov. Baldacci and legislators Tuesday that such laws would help the church repair damage caused by abusive priests.
He cited no specific legislation but noted that several bills being drafted would strengthen efforts of the state and the church to protect children.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Boston.com
By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press, 1/19/2005 11:16
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) Potential jurors were questioned about their views on the Catholic Church and whether they had been victims of sexual abuse as the child rape trial began for defrocked priest Paul Shanley.
Seven jurors were seated by late Wednesday morning, among them a man who is Catholic and does landscaping at his church. Others were sent home because they'd seen pretrial media coverage and didn't think they could be objective.
Twelve jurors and four alternates will hear the case against Shanley, one of the most notorious figures in the clergy sex abuse scandal. He is accused of child rape and indecent assault and battery of a child and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The criminal case against Shanley now hinges on the allegations of a single alleged victim after prosecutors formally dropped another accuser on Tuesday. Opening statements in the trial are scheduled for Monday.
BOSTON (MA)
Politcal Gateway
BOSTON, Massachusetts, Jan 18 (AFP) - A defrocked priest at the center of the sex abuse scandal that rocked the US Roman Catholic Church in recent years, went on trial Tuesday charged with child rape and indecent assault and battery.
A "street priest" who ministered to disadvantaged youths in the 1960s and 70s, Paul Shanley has been accused in civil lawsuits of molesting dozens of children, although his indictment on criminal charges in mid-2002 focused on just four victims.
Shanley, 73, is one of the few priests brought to criminal trial over the abuse scandal that centered on the Boston Archdiocese and first came to light about three years ago.
Because he left Massachusetts for California in 1990, Shanley effectively stopped the clock on the 15-year statute of limitations that allowed other accused members of the clergy to escape criminal prosecution.
"This is a really important case," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivor's Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
"For many people, Boston remains the epicenter of this crisis," Clohessy said. "And its just so hard for many survivors to accept that this arbitrary, archaic technicality means that, even in very well documented cases of abuse and cover up, no justice is done."
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Prosecutors yesterday dropped charges involving a third alleged victim in the case against defrocked priest Paul Shanley, leaving only one accuser as jury selection began in the trial of one of the clergy sex-abuse scandal's most notorious figures.
The third alleged victim, a 35-year-old man who has battled drug addiction and homelessness, vomited after an October hearing and never contacted prosecutors again, they said. Last July, they dropped charges involving two other men who were allegedly raped in the 1980s, when all four attended St. Jean's parish in Newton.
Yesterday, four jurors - three men and one woman - were selected to hear charges brought by the fourth man, a 27-year-old former military police officer who says he was repeatedly raped in the church rectory, confessional and restroom between the ages of 6 and 11, when he took religion class at St. Jean's.
AUSTRALIA
ABC
A 76-year-old former Assemblies of God pastor has gone on trial in the District Court in Adelaide, accused of having sex with a young boy in the early 1980s.
Henry William Smith of Salisbury North is charged with one count of indecent assault and one count of unlawful sexual intercourse.
At the start of his trial today, the jury heard that Smith had sexually abused the boy over a four-year period.
Smith met the boy when his family took him to church in the Riverland. They later moved to Adelaide.
NEW BEDFORD (MA)
The Herald News
Gregg M. Miliote, Herald News Staff Reporter 01/19/2005
NEW BEDFORD --The city pastor already charged with possessing and disseminating child pornography is now also being accused of exhibiting or posing at least one child engaged in a sexual act.
Although a spokesman from the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office refused to comment on the new allegations against Father Stephen A. Fernandes, the veteran Roman Catholic priest has been indicted by a Bristol County grand jury on a new charge of exhibiting or posing a child engaged in a sexual act.
"The case file has been impounded," said District Attorney spokesman Joseph DeMedeiros. "Unfortunately, I can’t comment on this at all."
The new indictment, handed down late last week, was announced in Superior Court during Fernandes’ arraignment Tuesday morning.
The pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Parish had already been charged with possession of child pornography and disseminating child pornography after he was indicted by a separate grand jury late last year.
WISCONSIN
Pioneer Press
BY KEVIN HARTER
Pioneer Press
A priest who committed suicide after being questioned about the double slayings at a Hudson, Wis., funeral home, was also being investigated in a possible crime involving a minor, Hudson police said Tuesday.
It was the first time that Hudson Police Chief Richard Trende had publicly linked the Rev. Ryan Erickson to another case. Trende also said the priest piqued investigators' interest in the funeral home slayings because he knew details of the crime scene that had not been made public.
But despite the disclosures, Trende refused to divulge too much about either investigation.
Trende would not say if the newly disclosed investigation involved more than one child, what the nature of the allegations were or whether they relate to the February 2002 slayings of Dan O'Connell and James Ellison. O'Connell, 39, operated the family-owned O'Connell Family Funeral Home where Ellison, 22, was an intern from the University of Minnesota.
NEW BEDFORD (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
The Associated Press
NEW BEDFORD, Mass.— A Fall River priest accused of storing thousands of pornographic images of children on his computer now faces the additional charge of exhibiting or posing a child in a sexual act.
The new charge against the Rev. Stephen Fernandes, pastor at Our Lady of Fatima Parish, was handed up by a grand jury last week and announced at his arraignment Tuesday in New Bedford Superior Court.
A spokesman for the Bristol district attorney's office declined to comment, saying the case file had been impounded.
Fernandes pleaded innocent to all the charges. He was released on $5,000 cash bail.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
AUSTRIA
Die Presse
(Die Presse - Printed Edition) 18.01.2005
Vienna – Around 50,000 people opted to leave the Austrian Catholic Church last year after the church was rocked by the St. Poelten scandal, according to statistics released on Monday. In some dioceses the number of people leaving the church increased by 40 per cent on 2003 figures and figures from the Vienna diocese indicate that people started leaving the church en masse after the gay sex and child porn scandals at a priest seminary became public in July. Speaking in an interview with “die Presse,” Theologian Michael Zulehner said that the proportion of registered Catholics could drop as low as 60 or even 50 per cent in the Alpine republic.
AUGUSTA (ME)
Foster's Daily Democrat
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine’s Roman Catholic bishop has pledged his support for tougher laws against child sexual abuse, saying they would help the church repair damage caused by abusive priests.
"There are several (bills) that would strengthen the efforts of the state and the church to protect children," Bishop Richard Malone said Tuesday in his first policy speech to Gov. John Baldacci and legislators.
Malone cited no specific legislation, but said he is reviewing a list of bills that lawmakers have proposed but are still being drafted.
AUGUSTA (ME)
Portland Press Herald
By MARK PETERS, Portland Press Herald Writer
AUGUSTA — Bishop Richard Malone, the leader of Maine's 234,000 Roman Catholics, told lawmakers Tuesday that he would support legislation that toughens laws against child sexual abuse, and promised to deal swiftly with priests and others who offend. Malone, in his first policy speech to Gov. John Baldacci and legislators, did not discuss the church's stance on a gay-rights bill that the governor is expected to propose later this year.
But he did say he would work against same-sex marriage, push for improved health care for the poor and try to add a moral dimension to State House debates. ...
Malone gave first priority Tuesday to the sex-abuse scandal that has rocked the church for the past two years. He said tougher new laws would be part of the process the diocese is going through to repair damage caused by abusive priests.
Malone cited no specific legislation, but said he is reviewing a list of proposed bills that are still being drafted and are not ready for debate.
"There are several (bills) that would strengthen the efforts of the state and the church to protect children," Malone said.
The Maine chapter of the Catholic reform group Voice of the Faithful supported Malone's commitment to look at new legislation, but called for him to do more within the church to protect children.
Michael Sweatt, a spokesman for the group, called on the bishop to release the names of former and retired priests suspected of abuse so Mainers know where they live now. Other dioceses have done that, he said.
AUGUSTA (ME)
Bangor Daily News
AUGUSTA - The spiritual leader of Maine's 230,000 Catholics urged lawmakers Tuesday to support options for the poor, the vulnerable and the underserved as they struggle to divide up limited resources during the legislative session.
Bishop Richard Malone, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, hosted the church's 12th legislative luncheon at St. Paul's Center, located a block from the State House.
Installed 10 months ago as bishop, Malone met formally with legislators for the first time.
"The church, like you," he said, "cares for the common good of humanity. This is why the church becomes involved in debates and takes positions regarding public policy." ...
In his brief remarks, the bishop also acknowledged the impact the recent clergy sexual abuse scandal has had on the Church and its public image.
"The Church's credibility as a moral teacher has been diminished by the recent sexual abuse scandal from which we are, thank God, slowly emerging," he said Tuesday. "It was a horrific thing, and I am solidly committed to reach out to victims, to protect children through our church and by supporting legislation, to have every possible precaution in place to prevent such abuse in the future. ... Our credibility has been marred, but it does not mean that our moral doctrine has been compromised."
DAVENPORT (IA)
WQAD
DAVENPORT – The Diocese of Davenport says it has received decisions from the Vatican on whether to defrock three priests accused of sexually abusing children and another convicted of child pornography.
A review board recommended defrocking James Janssen, Francis Bass, William Wiebler, Frank Martinez, and Richard Poster. Last September, Pope John Paul II granted the request to defrock Janssen.
The diocese announced Tuesday the Vatican’s decision on the remaining four priests.
The Vatican recommended that Francis Bass “lead a life of prayer and penance,” offering mass once a week “in reparation for the crimes he has committed.” Bishop William Franklin, Bishop of the Davenport Diocese, says the recommendation was based on Bass’s retired status and “advancing age.” Franklin says Bass is subject to an additional precept where he must inform the Diocese of any change of address, submit reports of his activities, meet regularly with diocesan officials, seek approval for any vacations or time spent away from his residence, and submit to random visits with church officials. He is also prohibited from wearing a Roman collar or presenting himself publicly as a priest.
IOWA
WQAD
DES MOINES, Iowa the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport says the Vatican has ordered trials under church law to determine whether two eastern Iowa priests accused of sexually abusing minors should be punished.
Bishop William Franklin also says the diocese has agreed to immediately forward all future allegations of sexual abuse against priests to local prosecutors for investigation.
The disclosures came as Franklin updated the diocese on the status of sexual abuse allegations dating back to the 1950s as required under a 9 (m) million dollar settlement reached in November with 37 abuse victims.
In all, Franklin says the diocese had received 108 allegations of abuse from 96 people regarding 25 clergy members. He says the vast majority of the abuse involved three former priests _ James Janssen, Francis Bass and William Wiebler _ in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
NASHVILLE (TN)
Nashville City Paper
By Judith R. Tackett, jtackett@nashvillecitypaper.com
January 19, 2005
In a precedent-setting decision, the Tennessee Supreme Court has cleared the way for a $68 million child sexual abuse lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville to move forward.
The unanimous decision of the Supreme Court justices sets a new legal standard for reckless infliction of emotional distress.
"We hold that reckless infliction of emotional distress need not be based upon conduct that was directed at a specific person or that occurred in the presence of the plaintiff," Chief Justice Frank F. Drowota, III, wrote in the opinion filed Tuesday.
The decision follows an October hearing of consolidated lawsuits against the Catholic Diocese by two boys who were sexually abused by a former priest and reverses Court of Appeals and trial court decisions.
The two boys, now in their early 20s, claim the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville was to be held responsible for the abuse they suffered because they allege failure on the part of church officials to properly report former priest Edward McKeown's conduct to authorities after they discovered the priest's sexual abuse.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By DENISE LAVOIE
Associated Press Writer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.— Potential jurors were questioned about their views on the Catholic Church and whether they had been victims of sexual abuse as the child rape trial began for defrocked priest Paul Shanley.
Four jurors were seated Tuesday, among them a man who is Catholic and does landscaping at his church. Others were sent home because they'd seen pretrial media coverage and didn't think they could be objective. Jury selection was to continue Wednesday, with opening statements tentatively scheduled for Monday.
Twelve jurors and four alternates will hear the case against Shanley, one of the most notorious figures in the clergy sex abuse scandal. He is accused of child rape and indecent assault and battery of a child and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The criminal case against Shanley now hinges on the allegations of a single alleged victim after prosecutors formally dropped another accuser on Tuesday.
Prosecutors already had dropped two other accusers from the case. They removed the third because they have been unable to find him since a hearing in October when he had difficulty remaining composed to testify.
OHIO
Dayton Daily News
By Tom Beyerlein
Dayton Daily News
The Rev. David Kelley was assigned to a Vandalia parish in 1984 after the Cincinnati archdiocese learned of allegations that he had fondled at least two male students of Cincinnati's Elder High School during parties in Kelley's private room at a rectory, according to papers filed in court Tuesday.
Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk told a rehabilitation center for sexually abusive priests of Kelley's history after the archdiocese sent him there for treatment in late 1986, the court papers show.
"Fearing the real possibility of widespread scandal and possible further harm to students, as well as the reputation of the school, (Kelley) was told that he would have to leave the faculty and the parish," Pilarczyk wrote to the Servants of the Paraclete center in Jemez Springs, N.M. "He was then assigned to St. Christopher parish, near Dayton, Ohio, as associate pastor."
Konrad Kircher, a Mason attorney representing dozens of purported victims of child sexual abuse by priests, said Pilarczyk's letter and other correspondence he filed in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court show the Cincinnati Archdiocese used "fraudulent concealment" to cover up for abusive priests. Kircher argues that the cover-up means the statute of limitations shouldn't be up on decades-old abuse allegations.
Archdiocese spokesman Dan Andriacco called Kircher's argument "the same kind of boilerplate rhetoric that he's been using for over a year in his so-far unsuccessful lawsuits. This is a new filing, but this is not a new argument — at all."
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times
By Todd Ruger
A new report issued Tuesday by the Catholic Diocese of Davenport states that 96 people have made 108 allegations that 25 members of the clergy sexually abused them as children.
The latest figures reflect 48 new allegations of decades-old abuse by 41 people since February, when the diocese first reported on all accusations since 1950 in its internal review of personnel files while facing mounting pressure from sexual abuse lawsuits.
The seven-page summary of investigations, settlements and updates on requests to defrock priests is the first such information released by the diocese since it paid $9 million to settle 37 civil claims in October.
Tuesday’s report by Bishop William Franklin identified only one priest not previously named by the diocese or in lawsuits. The diocese paid $20,000 in October to settle an allegation against the Rev. Lawrence Soens, the retired bishop of the Diocese of Sioux City.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times
By Todd Ruger
The Catholic Diocese of Davenport was found to be in full compliance with nationwide sex abuse policies according to an audit conducted last month, Bishop William Franklin said Tuesday.
The auditors, two former FBI agents, reviewed materials and interviewed diocese employees to determine whether it has complied with policies adopted by American bishops in June 2002 as a means of preventing sexual abuse by priests in the wake of a national scandal, he said.
A report by the auditors states that the diocese complied with policies aimed at effectively responding to allegations of abuse of minors as well as policies designed to protect children in the future, he said.
In a report issued last year, of 190 dioceses around the country, Davenport was the only one not to be audited because of ongoing litigation, even though other dioceses across the nation also faced lawsuits. That audit was terminated because the diocese would not allow auditors to interview employees without church attorneys present.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times
By Todd Ruger
The Vatican did not immediately remove four clergy from the priesthood for allegations of decades-old sexual abuse of children, the Catholic Diocese of Davenport reported Tuesday.
The diocese sent requests to the Vatican in June to defrock the Rev. Francis Bass, the Rev. William Wiebler, the Rev. Frank Martinez and the Rev. Richard Poster after issuing a report detailing sex abuse allegations against them, Bishop William Franklin said.
A request to defrock a fifth priest, James Janssen of Davenport, was sent at the same time, but the pope removed him from the priesthood July 28.
The diocese said the vast majority of 108 allegations of sexual abuse by priests are against Janssen, Bass and Wiebler, while Martinez appeared to initiate sexual activity with a minor who fled and sought help and Poster was convicted of possessing child pornography on a church computer.
The diocese reported that for Bass, the Vatican decided that “in light of the fact that Bass is retired and advanced in age,” Franklin should oblige him to “lead a life of prayer and penance, and to privately offer Holy Mass once a week for the remainder of his days in reparation for the crimes he has committed.”
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Boston Globe
By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff | January 19, 2005
CAMBRIDGE -- Jury selection began yesterday in the child rape trial of former Catholic priest Paul R. Shanley as prospective jurors were questioned about the clergy abuse scandal and their exposure to pretrial publicity.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, formally dropped a third accuser from the case yesterday, leaving just one of the original four alleged victims to testify against the defrocked priest. Shanley, 73, is one of the few priests in the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to face criminal charges.
One prospective juror, a man who appeared to be in his early 50s, said he experienced the same feelings others felt reading the barrage of news stories about the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by priests.
"It's what we've all experienced over the last three years," he told Superior Court Judge Stephen Neel. "I have this slant now where I just look at the archdiocese and I shake my head."
Despite that statement -- and the fact that his brother-in-law was a juror in the trial of defrocked priest John Geoghan -- Neel ruled that the man could be impartial. The man was excluded from the jury, however, by Shanley's defense lawyer, Frank Mondano.
STAMFORD (CT)
New York Post
January 19, 2005 -- Edward Cardinal Egan will not have to testify in the trial of a sexual-abuse lawsuit against his former Connecticut diocese.
The case, involving a former altar boy and a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, has been settled, the plaintiff's attorneys said yesterday.
The plaintiff, known in court documents as John Doe, said he was molested at age 14 by the Rev. John Castaldo in the early 1990s, when Castaldo was a priest at St. Teresa Church in Trumbull and Egan was the Bridgeport bishop.
The plaintiff's real name and the terms of the settlement were not released at his request, said his attorneys, Ernest Teitell and Paul Slager.
Egan had received a subpoena that required him to provide sworn videotaped testimony about his knowledge of the case, and was to have testified next week.
"We hope that this settlement will allow our client to find some closure," said Teitell.
Joseph McAleer, spokesman for the diocese, declined to comment.
NASHVILLE (TN)
Tennesean
By SHEILA BURKE
Staff Writer
Two young men who say they were molested as children by former priest Edward McKeown can proceed with their $68 million lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Nashville, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
The unanimous decision from the state's highest court not only clears the way for the two men to proceed with their lawsuit, which had been dismissed earlier, but also sets a new legal standard in certain claims of emotional distress.
The decision was a victory for the men, who have been seeking their day in court for five years now, one of their attorneys said.
''They feel partially vindicated,'' said attorney John Day. ''They know they've been wronged, and it is nice to see that a court has recognized that they have a right to a trial.''
Officials with the Diocese of Nashville said in a statement that they disagreed with the court's finding.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald
By Tom Mashberg
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
The Archdiocese of Boston spent four hours Monday listening to a former Newton altar boy describe how he was maligned in the media 2 1/2 years ago after alleging sexual misconduct by a powerful judicial official of the church.
The complainant, Paul G. Edwards, formerly of Winchendon, was flown to Boston by the archdiocese's Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach and met with director Barbara Thorpe and the Rev. John B. Connolly, a special church delegate for sexual-abuse matters.
``I think it's fascinating they flew Paul here and met with him for four hours,'' said Lori Lambert of the Coalition of Catholics and Survivors, a group that has long championed Edwards' cause. ``We hope they are taking this seriously.''
Central to Edwards' case are assertions his alleged abuser, Monsignor Michael Smith Foster, used his power as archdiocesan judicial vicar to launch a public relations campaign in 2002 aimed at depicting Edwards as a lifelong liar.
Many claims that Edwards was a liar fell apart upon close scrutiny by reporters from the Herald.
The main conduit for the PR campaign, Edwards' supporters say, was The Boston Globe, which is accused of publishing a dozen articles based on information provided to it by Foster's supporters.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
January 19, 2005
Catholic Church officials disclosed Tuesday that a retired bishop was accused of child sexual abuse in the 1960s, when he was a priest, and that the Davenport diocese paid $20,000 to settle with one of the accusers.
It is the first time in Iowa that a bishop has been publicly accused of abuse in connection with the scandal that has exposed decades of abuse of minors by clergy.
Retired Sioux City Bishop Lawrence Soens was accused of child sexual abuse when he was a priest in the Davenport diocese in the 1960s, according to a report issued Tuesday by Davenport Bishop William Franklin.
Soens was the Sioux City diocese's fifth bishop, from 1983 to 1998. Tuesday's report, which summarized the Davenport diocese's investigation of sexual abuse in the past year, says there were three allegations against Soens. The diocese settled one of those allegations for $20,000 in October.
Timothy Bottaro, Soens' attorney, said that Soens has denied the allegations, but that since the matter is now before church authorities, he can make no comment.
Sioux City Diocese spokesman Jim Wharton defended Soens and said news of the allegations "shocks and saddens all of us."
DAVENPORT (IA)
KWQC
DAVENPORT, Iowa Church officials say a former bishop of the Sioux City Roman Catholic diocese was accused of child sex abuse when he was a priest in the Davenport diocese, and the Davenport diocese reached a settlement with one of the accusers.
A report issued yesterday (Tuesday) by Davenport Bishop William Franklin said that there were three allegations against retired Sioux City Bishop Lawrence Soens and the diocese settled one of those allegations for 20-thousand dollars in October.
Soens was the Sioux City diocese's fifth bishop, serving from 1983 to 1998.
Sioux City diocese spokesman Jim Wharton defended Soens and said news of the allegations "shocks and saddens all of us."
STAMFORD (CT)
The Day
By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN
Published on 1/19/2005
Stamford — A former altar boy who claimed he was molested by a priest reached a financial settlement of his lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, his attorneys and church officials said Tuesday.
The plaintiff, known in court documents as John Doe, said he was molested at age 14 by the Rev. John Castaldo in the early 1990s when Castaldo was a priest at St. Teresa Church in Trumbull. His name and the terms of the settlement were not released at his request, said his attorneys, Ernest Teitell and Paul Slager.
The settlement means New York Cardinal Edward Egan will not have to testify next week, the attorneys said. Egan, who was the Bridgeport bishop when the alleged assaults occurred, had received a subpoena that required him to provide sworn videotaped testimony about his knowledge of the case.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
The Day
Published on 1/19/2005
The trial of Paul R. Shanley that began in Boston this week is only superficially an examination of rape charges against the defrocked priest at the epicenter of the Church's priest sex scandal. But the occasion carries a far heavier burden than the trial of one man in one city.
Despite the huge, $85 million settlement the Boston Archdiocese made to settle hundreds of clergy sex abuse cases, despite the fact that Cardinal Bernard Law is no longer head of Boston's Catholics, no member of the clergy has gone to prison as the result of this widespread scandal. The victims' pain is real and hasn't gone away. Even if a jury finds Mr. Shanley guilty, it wouldn't be surprising if the feeling in the end, on the part of victims and those outraged at the church, is one of profound emptiness.
Two years ago the court released thousands of documents to the public documenting the Church's actions on these and other cases. To sort through these memos, letters, notes and reports, many on official stationery, is downright hair-raising. Over and over, officials' concern is not for the victims, or the understandable objections of the laity over hurtful and even dangerous acts, but for public relations and reputations, at all costs.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Chicago Tribune
By Elizabeth Mehren
Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
Published January 19, 2005
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Jury selection began Tuesday in the criminal trial of defrocked Roman Catholic priest Paul Shanley, one of the most notorious figures in the Boston clerical sexual abuse scandal.
Shanley, 73, is charged with child rape, as well as indecent assault and assault and battery. The alleged crimes took place in the 1980s in nearby Newton, where Shanley was a popular parish priest.
The time frame of the alleged incidents is critical.
Scores of priests in the Boston archdiocese have been accused of molesting children over at least four decades, and many of those charges were validated in church documents. The once-confidential records showed that church officials knew about abuse complaints and moved priests from parish to parish rather than reassign them to jobs where they would not have to work with children.
Most of the priests managed to avoid criminal trials because the alleged crimes occurred so long ago that the statute of limitations had run out.
ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer
First published: Wednesday, January 19, 2005
ALBANY -- A distraught clergy sex abuse victim has threatened to kill Bishop Howard Hubbard if his alleged abuser is cleared of sexual misconduct allegations, according to attorney John Aretakis.
Without naming the victim or the priest, Aretakis sent a Jan. 15 letter to Hubbard's lawyer, Michael Costello, apprising him of the threat.
Aretakis, who represents a number of clergy sex abuse victims, said he does not think the threat is credible, but said he still felt a warning to Hubbard was warranted.
"I feel a moral obligation to pass this information on," Aretakis said in the letter. "Please (tell) Bishop Hubbard that he should take efforts at insuring his own safety."
Aretakis said he received word of the threat from the victim last Friday and sent the warning the next day to Costello. In the letter, he said he was moved to alert the longtime church leader, even though he feels he has "acted undignified, uncharitable and completely contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ."
NASHVILLE (TN)
Lexington Herald-Leader
By Matt Gouras
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NASHVILLE - Tennessee's Supreme Court has allowed a $68 million child sexual abuse lawsuit against the Roman Catholic diocese of Nash-ville to move ahead in a unanimous ruling issued yesterday that sets a new standard for reckless infliction of emotional distress cases.
John Day, lead attorney in the civil case, says the decision holds people accountable for irresponsible behavior, in this case concealing a known pedophile.
The Nashville diocese, in a statement, said it was disappointed.
"We were certainly looking forward to a final resolution of this case," said spokesman Rick Musacchio. "As we have done from the outset, we maintain that our responses to the facts of this case were proper and appropriate, and will allow the legal process to go forward."
In Kentucky, the Louisville Diocese in 2003 reached a $25.7 million settlement with 247 plaintiffs who said they were victims of sex abuse. Last week a Lexington woman, Kay Montgomery, settled one of the last remaining lawsuits against the Covington Diocese over sex abuse by priests.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Contra Costa Times
DENISE LAVOIE
Associated Press
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The criminal case against a defrocked Roman Catholic priest at the center of the Boston Archdiocese sex scandal now hinges on the allegations of a single accuser.
Prosecutors formally dropped a third accuser on Tuesday, leaving just one from the original four alleged victims of Paul Shanley. The move to drop the accuser from the case was widely expected.
That leaves Shanley, 73, facing three charges of raping a child and two charges of indecent assault and battery on a child. The maximum sentence would be life in prison.
About 80 prospective jurors were questioned Tuesday for the trial that is expected to last about two weeks. Four jurors - three men and one woman - were seated before proceedings ended for the day.
Jury selection was set to resume Wednesday.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
WPRI
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Four jurors have been seated so far to hear the child rape case against Paul Shanley, a key figure in Boston's clergy sex abuse crisis. A man and a woman were the first chosen from a pool of about 80 people in Middlesex Superior Court. Two other men were chosen earlier this afternoon.
Judge Stephen Neel is asking potential jurors if they have been sexually abused; their views on homosexuality; and their feelings about the Catholic Church and the Boston Archdiocese in particular. Among the jurors selected was a man who is Catholic and does landscaping at his church.
HUDSON (WI)
Duluth News Tribune
ROBERT IMRIE
Associated Press
HUDSON, Wis. - A Catholic priest who killed himself after police questioned him about an unsolved double murder was under investigation for a possible crime involving a child or children, the police chief said Tuesday.
Hudson Police Chief Richard Trende told The Associated Press detectives interviewed the Rev. Ryan Erickson last fall after receiving an allegation involving the priest and a minor or minors.
He would not specify what type of possible crime was under investigation or how the allegation surfaced.
Erickson, 31, was found hanged Dec. 19 outside his rectory at St. Mary's Church in Hurley in far northern Wisconsin.
Just days earlier, Erickson was interviewed by Hudson detectives about the shooting deaths of Dan O'Connell, 39, and James Ellison, 22, at the O'Connell Family Funeral Home in February 2002.
TENNESSEE
Nashville Business Journal
In a unanimous decision, the Tennessee Supreme Court has cleared the way for a $68 million sexual child abuse lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville to go forward.
The ruling sets a new legal standard for finding reckless infliction of emotional distress. The court's decision holds that reckless infliction of emotional distress doesn't have to be based on conduct that was directed at a specific person, or that took place in the presence of the plaintiff.
The decision, which reverses appellate court and trial court decisions, involves consolidated lawsuits against the diocese by two boys who were sexually abused by a former priest with a long history of child molestation. The mother of one of the boys also is a plaintiff.
The lower courts had held that a defendant's "reckless or intentional" conduct must be directed at a particular plaintiff, or the plaintiff must have a close relationship with the person at whom the conduct was directed.
SPARTA (NJ)
New Jersey Herald
Posted Tuesday, January 18, 2005 by Webmaster
By JOHN T. SANDERS
Herald Staff Writer
The alleged events happened nearly 40 years ago, hundreds of miles away, but a recently settled lawsuit has placed a spotlight on one local man’s past.
In a landmark case settled Jan. 5, Lexington, Ky., resident Kay Montgomery and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington, Ky., agreed to end a civil lawsuit accusing a Sparta resident of sexual abuse.
Montgomery, who will be paid an undisclosed amount of money, accused Edward J. Fritsch of molesting her on numerous occasions when she was 13.
Fritsch, now president of the Sparta Historical Society, was a Roman Catholic priest. Montgomery was a high school freshman at two different Catholic schools.
Montgomery, now a 52-year-old homemaker, refused to settle her claims unless documents about the church’s decisions to transfer Fritsch from job to job were released. In previous cases throughout the country, such church documents have been kept classified.
“As far as we know it’s the largest amount of money paid to any sexual abuse victim by the Diocese of Covington,” Kentucky lawyer Al Grasch, Montgomery’s attorney, said in a telephone interview Monday.
Still, Grasch and Montgomery said the case was not about the dollars.
STAMFORD (CT)
NBC 30
POSTED: 1:18 pm EST January 18, 2005
UPDATED: 1:31 pm EST January 18, 2005
STAMFORD, Conn. -- A former altar boy who claimed he was molested by a priest reached a financial settlement of his civil lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, his attorneys said Tuesday.
The plaintiff, known in court documents as John Doe, said he was molested at age 14 by the Rev. John Castaldo in the early 1990s when Castaldo was a priest at St. Teresa Church in Trumbull.
His name and the terms of the settlement were not released at his request, said his attorneys, Ernest Teitell and Paul Slager.
The settlement means New York Cardinal Edward Egan will not have to testify next week, the attorneys said.
Egan, who was the Bridgeport bishop when the alleged assaults occurred, had received a subpoena which required him to provide sworn videotaped testimony about his knowledge of the case.
"We hope that this settlement will allow our client to find some closure," said Teitell. "While no amount of money can make him whole for what happened, the financial settlement here is substantial and demonstrates that the diocese is accepting responsibility. Our client hopes that the information gathered by the many depositions taken in this case will put the diocese on notice so that corrective measures can be taken to prevent this from happening again."
Joseph McAleer, spokesman for the Bridgeport diocese, declined to comment. The diocese earlier had reached multimillion dollar settlements of other abuse cases.
WALHALLA (SC)
The State
Associated Press
WALHALLA, S.C. - A traveling evangelist was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty Monday to charges of committing lewd acts on children.
James Wesley McCoy, 32, will have to serve at least 18 years of the sentence, the Anderson Independent-Mail reported.
McCoy was charged with four counts of committing a lewd act on a child and five charges of criminal sexual conduct with a minor in Aiken, Laurens, Pickens and Oconee counties. He has been held in the Oconee County Detention Center since his arrest May 12.
"I have wept bitter tears for 10 months, tears of true grief and sorrow and I humbly ask for your forgiveness. Please forgive and don't live in a prison of hatred. It will be worse for you than for me," said McCoy, whose wife and parents were in the courtroom.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Boston Herald
By Associated Press
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Prosecutors formally dropped an accuser from the criminal case against defrocked priest Paul Shanley, leaving just one alleged victim to testify in the trial that began Tuesday for one of the most notorious figures in the clergy sex abuse scandal.
Prosecutors already had dropped two other alleged victims from the case, and dropped the third because they've been unable to find him since a hearing in October when he had difficulty remaining composed to testify.
The witness' removal from the case leaves Shanley facing three charges of raping a child and two charges of indecent assault and battery on a child.
About 80 prospective jurors were being questioned Tuesday in Middlesex Superior Court for the child rape trial that is expected to last about two weeks.
TUCSON (AZ)
Tucson Citizen
SHERYL KORNMAN
Tucson Citizen
The Catholic Diocese of Tucson appears to have stepped up efforts to make sure suspected child sex abuse is reported to authorities following the arrest in December of a priest on suspicion of failing to report an incident of alleged abuse.
Diocese spokesman Fred Allison said the timing of Bishop Gerald Kicanas' Jan. 10 review with the diocese's clergy leaders of the church's guidelines for reporting sexual misconduct by clergy is not related to the arrests in December of a Tucson priest and a church volunteer for failing to report an alleged incident of child sex abuse.
Authorities dropped the charges, and the priest was reassigned to San Luis, near Yuma, Allison said.
At the Pastoral Council meeting Kicanas covered the diocese's compliance plans, its zero-tolerance policy and the matter of the priests against whom there are credible allegations of sex abuse. The Pastoral Council is made up of clergy and lay people.
What he said was not made public.
TOWANDA (PA)
Daily and Sunday Review
BY JAMES LOEWENSTEIN 01/18/2005
TOWANDA - The 44-year-old pastor of the Church on the Hill in Ulster Township, who is accused of kissing and fondling a young teen-age parishioner, has pleaded not guilty to all charges lodged against him.
The pastor, Wesley Allen Nichols, entered the plea at his arraignment Monday in the Bradford County Court of Common Pleas.
Nichols has been charged with three counts of corruption of minors, which is a first-degree misdemeanor, and three counts of indecent assault, which is a second-degree misdemeanor. Nichols entered a plea of "not guilty" to each and every charge lodged against him, said Francis Rineer, Bradford County assistant district attorney. Nichols, whose address is Milan RR1, is accused of kissing and fondling a female parishioner, beginning almost three years ago.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
TheBostonChannel.com
POSTED: 6:11 am EST January 18, 2005
UPDATED: 8:21 am EST January 18, 2005
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Decades after he allegedly molested young boys at a church in Newton, Mass., defrocked priest Paul Shanley is going to trial. Jury selection begins Tuesday.
NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that Shanley, 73, is free on bail and it is not known whether he will be present for jury selection.
Shanley was arrested three years ago in San Diego and charged with several counts of rape of a child and assault and battery for alleged crimes that occurred while he was at St. Jean's Parish in Newton. The case began with four accusers but is going to trial with only one. The plaintiff's name is not being revealed. The most vocal accuser, Gregory Ford, [pictured right] was dropped because prosecutors feared his medical history could hurt the case against Shanley. His father, Rodney Ford, said he hopes the former Catholic priest is convicted and goes to jail.
All four boys told similar stories of being taken out of religious education classes by Shanley and raped in the confessional, restroom and church rectory. Prosecutors dropped three of the accusers before the trial.
Shanley allegedly abused more than 12 young boys during his career as a Roman Catholic priest in the Boston archdiocese, but the statute of limitations made it impossible to prosecute most of the cases because they took place so long ago. Because Shanley moved out of state, however, the clock stopped on some of the cases, allowing prosecutors to charge him with sexual abuse that took place between 1979 and 1989.
BRITAIN
BBC News
A Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to 19 child pornography charges has been given a rehabilitation order.
Alexander Bede Walsh, 51, who served in Oxfordshire, was spotted on a train by a fellow passenger looking at indecent images on his laptop in March 2003.
Walsh, of Cheadle, Staffordshire, later resigned from his post at St John the Evangelist Church in Banbury.
He received a two-year community rehabilitation order at Oxford Crown Court on Monday.
BOSTON (MA)
Washington Post
By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 18, 2005; Page A02
BOSTON -- In the hierarchy of those considered arch-villains of this city's clergy sexual abuse scandal, victims' advocates say Paul R. Shanley, whose trial begins Tuesday, ranks near the top alongside fellow defrocked priest John J. Geoghan, who was killed in prison in 2003.
A charismatic street preacher who received acclaim for his ministry to gay teenagers and disadvantaged youths in the 1970s, Shanley has been accused in civil lawsuits of molesting dozens of children -- many of whom have received financial settlements from Boston's Catholic archdiocese in recent years -- and of publicly advocating sex between men and boys.
Shanley, who faces criminal charges of child rape and indecent assault and battery, is one of the few priests to be indicted from the abuse crisis that was exposed three years ago. Criminal statutes of limitations have prevented the prosecution of all but a few priests in Boston, because many of the abuse allegations concern events that took place decades ago.
A few of Shanley's accusers were able to overcome such restrictions because of a technicality: The priest left Massachusetts for California more than a decade ago, a move that by law stops the countdown for the statute to expire.
CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times
By Larry B. Stammer, Times Staff Writer
Almost 20 years after a fringe religious group renounced practices that included child sexual abuse and incest, a murder-suicide carried out in two states has brought the group's sordid past back to the fore.
Last week, Richard P. Rodriguez, 29, the disaffected son of Karen Zerby, current leader of the communal Christian ministry known as the Family, allegedly killed longtime group member Angela M. Smith, 51, in his Tucson, Ariz., apartment. Then, after driving to Blythe, he apparently took his own life.
In a videotape recorded a day before the deaths, Rodriguez described his desire to exact revenge for an isolated childhood in which he was routinely sexually abused.
Sitting at the kitchen table in his Tucson apartment and speaking directly to the camera, Rodriguez, who had been groomed since birth as the church's heir apparent, said he had been contemplating suicide ever since being forced as a young adolescent to participate in "teen training." In a posting on the Internet in 2002, he described how the training required him to have sex with different girls in the cult each day.
OHIO
Dayton Daily News
By Ellen Belcher
Dayton Daily News
I know the Rev. Thomas Kuhn only from afar, as in from the balcony of Incarnation Church where I attend services. He was a priest at Incarnation from 1989 to 2001, when he left for St. Henry Church.
Kuhn's homilies were memorable partly because of the authority with which he spoke. When he issued edicts against, say, coming early and saving seats on Christmas Eve, everyone laughed, but people knew that he wasn't kidding.
He also once told a story about how he had unintentionally cut off someone on an exit ramp and was rewarded with a nasty hand gesture from the offended driver. He said he was pretty certain the driver attended Incarnation because, as he whizzed by, he crouched down after realizing whom he had just gestured at.
Let that be a lesson to the guilty party, Kuhn admonished kiddingly, as people looked left and right in the pews to see if anyone was blushing.
Maybe you had to be there to appreciate the presence Kuhn could command, but that's one of the things people say about him: That he was good at getting his way and communicating that what he said was gospel.
It's this sense that he's not to be questioned that makes him behave as if he's still calling the shots even though he's been convicted of public indecency, six counts of furnishing alcohol to minors and four counts of allowing minors to possess or consume alcohol in his home.
ATLANTA (GA)
Boston Globe
January 17, 2005
ATLANTA -- Roman Catholic Bishop Wilton D. Gregory faced a daunting challenge at the height of the clergy sex abuse crisis, guiding the faithful through what many believed was the worst tragedy ever to befall the church in America.
Gregory served as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops during the scandal, and led the bishops through a policy on how to respond to allegations that includes barring offenders from church work and a national lay watchdog panel to help enforce the plan.
On Monday, the 57-year-old Chicago native was expected to be installed as Atlanta's sixth archbishop. Gregory, who was appointed by Pope John Paul II last month, succeeds Archbishop John F. Donoghue, who is retiring.
As the nation honors the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., analysts say that appointing a black bishop to a city like Atlanta will help draw attention to Catholic diversity.
Gregory was the first black president of the bishops conference when he was elected in November 2001 and served three years. At the time, his election was seen by black Catholics as long-awaited recognition of their presence in the church.
The clergy sex abuse scandal quickly eclipsed his historic elevation. Gregory, however, said he was grateful for the chance to serve at such a critical moment.
BRITAIN
Scotsman
By Simon Evans, PA
A Roman Catholic priest who was spotted by a train passenger looking at child porn on his laptop computer was spared a jail sentence today.
Alexander Bede Walsh, 51, former priest at St John The Evangelist church, Banbury, in Oxfordshire, was spotted by a passenger on a train looking at a “depraved” fantasy story, Oxford Crown Court heard.
He later admitted 18 counts of making indecent pictures and one of possessing them. All the offences related to a two to three week period in March last year.
Imposing a two-year community rehabilitation order, Judge Julian Hall credited Walsh as an “intelligent” and “thoughtful” man, adding: “Your offending lies right at the bottom end of the scale.
“It is the more shocking because of your position, but that is not a reason for a more severe punishment.”
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff | January 17, 2005
On a mild day in April 2002, a 24-year-old former altar boy walked past a pair of old-fashioned iron sconces and into Newton police headquarters, where he sat with a detective and told his story: that a Catholic priest, Paul R. Shanley, had forced sex on him repeatedly during the mid-1980s.
A horde of television crews and newspaper photographers recorded the accuser's trip into the police station, making it clear from the start that the prosecution of Shanley would be different than the typical sexual assault case. It was an early signal that the case would be a challenging one for authorities.
Though most alleged victims of sexual assault come forward quietly, the accuser and three other former altar boys from St. Jean the Evangelist Parish who made allegations against Shanley that spring were already very much in the public eye. For months, they had been at the center of a huge civil lawsuit a powerhouse Boston law firm brought against the Boston Archdiocese seeking compensation on behalf of hundreds of alleged sexual abuse victims.
That sequence -- the civil case first, and the criminal case afterward -- was unusual. And, according to legal specialists, it has been damaging to the prosecution.
The vast majority of alleged victims in sexual assault cases wait until after the criminal case is resolved before seeking damages in a civil lawsuit. Legal observers said the reverse order in the Shanley cases -- the accusers settled their civil cases last year -- has severely undermined the prosecution against Shanley, who is scheduled to go to trial tomorrow in Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge.
PHILIPPINES
Sun Star
A MEMBER of the local clergy here finally came out in the open last week to deny the rape charges leveled against him by a 29-year-old woman.
Fr. James Lloren said he had a 'consensual sex' with his accuser, a certain Jane (true name withheld).
A local tabloid earlier reported that a local priest here has impregnated a certain Neneng.
It was not clear if the same Lloren was the same priest named in the news item.
On Friday, however, Fr. Lloren spoke before a local radio station to deny that a rape incident occurred between him and Jane.
The woman claimed he was sweet-talked by the priest into accompanying the later into a motel where the alleged rape took place.
The woman further said she was threatened and overpowered by the priest who allegedly succeeded in sexually molesting her.
The priest however said he would no longer issue any further statement and that he would answer the charges leveled against him in court.
SOUTH AFRICA
Pretoria News
January 17, 2005
By Ndivhuwo Khangale
It was meant to be a deep secret that no one would know - even if it meant Musandiwa Sigidi dying in pain. This is what the parents of nine-year-old Musandiwa, of Lwamondo near Thohoyandou in Limpopo, discovered before she died, apparently after being repeatedly raped by a 79-year-old man.
Musandiwa's parents, Johannes and Grace Sigidi, said it took more than a year for her to tell them that she had been repeatedly raped by the man, a local clergyman who was close to her family.
Her parents said she told them that the priest - who cannot be named until he pleads to the charges against him - had told her not to tell anyone.
Musandiwa was ill for a long time and died in Tshilidzini Hospital on January 8, just days after disclosing the sexual abuse to her parents.
It started early in 2003, when she complained of pains, Grace Sigidi said. But, she said, when they took her to the clinic, nurses did not give her a thorough examination.
WATERLOO (IA)
The Globe Gazette
By PAT KINNEY, For The Globe Gazette
WATERLOO — A former North Iowa priest is the defendant in a sexual abuse lawsuit in which the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque recently paid a $100,000 out-of-court settlement.
The suit was filed by a Cedar Rapids man who said he was sexually abused in 1983 by the Rev. William Schwartz.
The suit was filed in Linn County District Court in June 2004 by Daniel J. Ortmann of Cedar Rapids against Schwartz and the archdiocese.
According to the suit, Schwartz was serving in Rockwell and was a visiting pastor at St. Jude's Catholic Church and elementary school in Cedar Rapids when the alleged offense took place.
SARASOTA (FL)
local6.com
POSTED: 3:12 am EST January 14, 2005
SARASOTA, Fla. -- The principal of a small Christian school was convicted of sexually molesting a female student.
The Rev. Jerry Lee Pitts, 38, was found guilty Thursday of lewd and lascivious battery and molestation. He faces up to 15 years in prison when sentenced later.
Pitts, of North Port, sat stunned as the clerk read the verdict.
Pitts started a sexual relationship with a former Living Water Academy student who was 15 at the time. The girl is now 17.
The victim testified that she started attending the school in March 2002. Shortly afterward, Pitts sexually assaulted her in his wife's office, in a trailer parked on school grounds and in the computer lab.
Defense attorneys argued that a lack of evidence and conflicting statements made by the victim and witnesses should lead to acquittal.
GREENSBORO (NC)
WRAL
POSTED: 7:54 am EST January 14, 2005
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The chief financial officer and two other former employees of a defunct low-cost-housing provider have settled lawsuits accusing Project Homestead's founder of pressuring them to have sex.
The three men agreed to share $20,000 to be paid by Nationwide and Allstate insurance companies, which represent the bankrupt Project Homestead.
Randolph Mitchell, Robert Donnell Jr. and Mischell Sinclair filed separate lawsuits against the Rev. Michael King and Project Homestead in 2003.
None could be reached for comment Thursday.
Their lawyer, Randolph James of Winston-Salem, said they agreed to settle when it became obvious it would be unlikely there would be much money in Project Homestead's bankrupt estate to pay the men even if they won their lawsuits. ...
Donnell alleged in his lawsuit that King fired him because he refused to participate in sex acts with other men at the Garden of Prayer Baptist Church, which King founded in 1979.
Sinclair, Project Homestead's former family services coordinator, said in his lawsuit he submitted to King's request to have sex with him and a group of other men in King's church, which King called his ``fellowship.''
FLORIDA
The Ledger
The Associated Press
PORT EVERGLADES, Fla.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has started screening those celebrating Mass on cruise ships, a plan geared toward preventing former, rental and even fraudulent priests from ministering to Catholic passengers.
More than 650 priests have been approved to work on cruise lines, where some priests suspended in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse scandal have recently sought employment - and some Catholics have complained to the bishops that priests on their ships were incompetent.
Celebrity and Holland America lines are working with priests approved by the Apostleship of the Sea, while other cruise lines are still striking private deals with priests, use talent agencies or hire clergy through Rent-APriest, a group that provides former, now-married priests who are no longer authorized to conduct Mass.
Eventually, the bishops hope that all cruise lines will adopt a more thorough screening process for clergy.
"It wasn't being regulated by the bishops' conference and they weren't doing background checks on these guys," said the Rev. Sinclair Oubre, president of the AOS-USA, a chaplains' organization affiliated with the Apostleship of the Sea. "Since we started this, some of the cruise lines have become more alert."
Priests who apply for the program must have their bishops' approval and are subject to yearly review, said Doreen Badeaux, secretary general of the Apostleship. All dioceses conduct their own background checks on priests, Badeaux said.
PENNSYLVANIA
Sunday News
By Cris Foehlinger
Sunday News
Published: Jan 14, 2005 12:13 PM EST
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Patricia Cahill is overcoming a life of abuse and secrecy at the hands of the Catholic church.
Her childhood was destroyed by the sexual abuse of a priest and later when she was a teenager by the very nun in whom she confided the abuse.
Through alcohol, drugs and a position of authority, Sister Eileen Shaw determined, in large part, the woman Cahill is today. One with no sexuality and no understanding of normalcy, yet one with a strong drive to right the wrongs of a church that molded her into a quagmire of guilt.
Although the nun's ministry has since been restricted, Cahill, now 52 and living in Lancaster, is angry at the church for stealing her childhood, her family and her dreams.
She has found support through the nationwide Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. And, in turn, she is trying to focus on the future. Later this week she will launch a support group in Lebanon to help local survivors. (See related story.)
CONCORD (NH)
Telegram & Gazette
By J.M. HIRSCH
Associated Press Writer
CONCORD, N.H.— Discord over evaluating the child protection policies of the state's Roman Catholic diocese has grown so acrimonious the agreement calling for the evaluation could be voided.
That has both sides eager to persuade a judge the deal can be saved.
If they fail, the state could find itself litigating an onerous case with little guarantee of success, while the diocese could earn the distinction of being the first in the nation to face criminal charges stemming from the child sex abuse scandal.
Annual audits for five years are required by a 2002 agreement between the church and state that ended a criminal investigation of whether diocesan officials knew members of the clergy were abusing children but failed to protect them.
At issue now is the scope of the audit and who will pay for it. The church wants the state to cover the bill and the evaluation to be limited mostly to paperwork. The state says the church should pay and wants a wide-ranging evaluation.
The dispute began just months after the church and state reached the then unprecedented deal in which prosecutors agreed not to seek criminal indictments against the church.
In exchange, the diocese agreed to enact strict new child protection policies, admit its actions had harmed children, open itself to audits and admit it probably would have been convicted had the case gone to trial.
The agreement did not specify who would pay for the audits, however, and the parties have wildly different takes on what sort of audit would satisfy the terms of the agreement.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By DENISE LAVOIE
AP Legal Affairs Writer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.— He's 73 now, and unrecognizable as the hip "street priest" known more than 30 years ago for wearing long hair and blue jeans, and reaching out to Boston's troubled youth.
Paul Shanley is a senior citizen now, frail-looking with thinning white hair and deep lines in his face. His has become perhaps the most recognizable face of the clergy sexual abuse crisis that has shaken the Roman Catholic Church for the past three years.
This week, Shanley goes on trial on child rape charges in one of a handful of criminal cases in which prosecutors have been able to bring against priests accused of sexually abusing children decades ago.
Most of the priests accused in civil lawsuits have avoided criminal prosecution because the alleged crimes were committed so long ago that charges were barred by the statute of limitations. But because Shanley moved out of Massachusetts, the clock stopped, allowing prosecutors to arrest Shanley in May 2002 for sexual abuse that allegedly took place between 1979 and 1989.
Shanley became one of the most notorious figures in the clergy sex scandal after internal church documents were released showing church officials knew about abuse complaints against him as early as 1967 and knew that he advocated sex between men and boys, yet they continued to transfer him from parish to parish.
Prosecutors started out with four alleged victims in the criminal case. All four men said they were sexually abused by Shanley at St. Jean's parish in Newton when they were children. They told similar stories of being taken out of religious education classes and raped by Shanley, in the church rectory, confessional and restroom.
PORTLAND (OR)
The Oregonian
Sunday, January 16, 2005
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris has appointed five mediators who will try to settle more than 60 clergy sex-abuse claims seeking more than $534 million in damages from the Archdiocese of Portland.
Mediation will begin on Aug. 8, after attorneys for the sex-abuse plaintiffs study personnel records and other documents related to the 37 priests who have been accused of sexual misconduct with minors.
In July last year, the archdiocese, which represents 390,000 Roman Catholics in Western Oregon, became the first U.S. archdiocese to file for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in the wake of the national sex-abuse scandal. The bankruptcy halted about 60 cases, which involve 72 individuals.
The mediators are:
Paul Finn, who helped mediate an $85 million settlement with more than 500 sex-abuse plaintiffs in 2003 in the Archdiocese of Boston.
Sid Brockley, a retired Clackamas County circuit judge who last year mediated a $69 million case involving 18 plaintiffs against the Bend-based Diocese of Baker.
Alan Bonebrake, a retired Washington County circuit judge who assisted in prior mediations in the Archdiocese of Portland.
Sid Lezak, a former U.S. attorney who also helped in prior mediations in the Portland archdiocese.
Edward Leavy, a senior U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judge.
DAYTON (OH)
Dayton Daily News
By Rob Modic
Dayton Daily News
DAYTON | The Rev. Thomas Kuhn, convicted of public indecency, has sent letters of apology to four men and a woman as well as three Catholic churches, attempting to meet a requirement of his probation for that and 10 other misdemeanors.
She will decide if he violated terms of his probation when he went to a Cincinnati high school shortly after one of its students was slain across the street.
He had been barred from offering his services to any institution that served minors.
BELLEVILLE (IL)
News-Democrat
BY JENNIFER A. BOWEN
jbowen@bnd.com
Bishop Wilton Gregory's tenure as head of the Belleville Catholic Diocese and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was one of compassion, strong convictions and a sense of pastoral care, those who watched him and worked with him say.
When he arrived in Belleville, the diocese was in turmoil over clergy sexual abuse scandals. The scandals on the local level prepared him to address the same scandal nationally as president of the bishops conference.
"Ten years ago he was the perfect person to go in to Belleville and resolve some of the sex abuse issues," said Robert Gilligan, director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois in Chicago. "He is, and was, passionate about those issues and he approached them with strong convictions."
His handling of the Belleville crisis prepared him to face the same issue nationally, and with conviction.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Sioux City Journal
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) -- Three men who settled lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests in the Davenport Catholic Diocese have decided to drop their cases against the individual priests.
The three men want to try to move on with their lives instead of pursuing the lawsuits, filed against former priest James Janssen and retired Rev. Francis Bass, said Davenport attorney Craig Levien.
The men did not think that the mental distress to them in continuing the litigation process would be worth the benefit of proceeding to a trial, he said. All three men are from Fort Madison but identified only as John Doe, John Doe III, and John Doe IV.
The dismissals came among court filings that dismissed the diocese -- but not the priests -- from lawsuits as part of a $9 million settlement reached with 37 people who claimed sexual abuse by priests.
Civil lawsuits continue against Janssen, Bass, the Rev. William Wiebler and Monsignor Drake Shafer, the vicar general of the diocese. Trials on those accusations have been postponed, pending a ruling by District Judge C.H. Pelton on how they should proceed through the Iowa court system.
Janssen and the priests have denied the allegations.
KANSAS CITY (KS)
The Kansas City Star
By JOE ROBERTSON The Kansas City Star
A Catholic bishop doesn't choose his assignments. And that, says the new leader of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, is the beauty of the work.
If, as in Joseph F. Naumann's case, a man who'd lived his whole life in St. Louis should find himself transplanted in his mid-50s to the land of Jayhawks, you don't ask why.
You thrill to the idea, Naumann said, “that God's plans are always better than ours.”
On Saturday, Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation of Archbishop James P. Keleher, 73, who has led the archdiocese since 1993. Naumann, 55, takes over immediately, as was planned a year ago when he was appointed the co-adjutor bishop of the archdiocese. ...
Keleher's efforts included strengthening the archdiocese's recruitment of new leadership. The number of students in seminary for the archdiocese rose from three when he started in 1993, to 25 today, Naumann said.
Keleher oversaw the creation of the program, To Protect God's Children. The program aims to educate families and staff and guard children against sexual assault in the wake of abuse scandals.
MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald
BY ALEXANDRA ALTER
aalter@herald.com
Sitting in the plush lobby of the MS Volendam, the Rev. Frank Wagner looked at ease after 20 days in the Eastern Caribbean. Between reading, praying and lounging on the sun deck, Wagner did the Lord's work: conducting 24 Masses, absolving six passengers of sin and anointing one sick traveler.
Wagner is one of 650 Catholic priests newly approved by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to serve on cruise lines. The program, launched a year ago to give the church more oversight in choosing priests who conduct services on cruises, allows Wagner and others to sail for free in exchange for pastoral work.
''It's just very relaxing,'' said Wagner, a retired Catholic priest from Ontario, during a recent stop in Port Everglades. ``I couldn't afford it otherwise.''
Church officials say the program should correct a lax system of selecting onboard Catholic priests -- a problem made more pressing in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse scandal, when some suspended priests sought cruise ship work. And it may mollify Catholic passengers who have complained to the bishops that priests on their ships were fraudulent or incompetent.
WATERLOO (IA)
WCF Courier
By PAT KINNEY, Assistant City Editor
WATERLOO --- The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque has paid a $100,000 out-of-court settlement in a lawsuit filed by a Cedar Rapids man who said he was sexually abused in 1983 by a diocesan priest who was spiritual director at Columbus High School in Waterloo in the late 1970s and served at other local parishes for more than two decades.
The suit was filed in Linn County District Court in June 2004 by Daniel J. Ortmann of Cedar Rapids against the Rev. William Schwartz and the archdiocese.
The archdiocese, named as a co-defendant with Schwartz, was dismissed from the suit in October, following the settlement. No trial date has been set on the allegations against Schwartz, but a scheduling conference is pending.
Schwartz's attorney, Robert Day of Dubuque, said his client would respond to the allegations in an answer to the suit filed in court. No answer has yet been filed.
WISCONSIN
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
January 16, 2005
It's been almost seven years since Father Alfred Kunz, a priest of the Diocese of Madison, Wis., was found dead — his throat cut — at his parish in Dane, Wis. The murder remains unsolved, but what I find curious is the fact that there have been conflicting reports about whether or not investigators have "zeroed in" on a suspect.
According to a Jan. 11, 2005 story in the Wisconsin State Journal (http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=wsj:2005:01:11:399939:FRONT):
"...Four of the 15 county murders in the last two years are unsolved. Before that, the last murder in Dane County without an arrest or suspect is the killing of the Rev. Alfred Kunz of Dane in 1998.... Establishing relationships between the killer and Kunz, a Catholic priest, may be one reason investigators haven't identified a suspect in that case.
"'There are a number of issues there that we are dealing with in that case,' Hamblin said. 'It has certainly made the case more difficult because the nature of Father Kunz and his occupation required him to maintain the confidentiality of some of his contacts. He didn't have a secretary or other family members who could shed light on his day-to-day contacts.'" ...
Investigators discovered Kunz had "intimate relationships" with women, and that might have been a motive for someone to kill him. There was a report in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel saying Kunz had been associated with certain people at the Catholic Church-condemned "shrine" in Necedah, Wis. And then there's Kunz's association with one Ryan P. Scott, also known as Father Ryan St. Anne, OSB, who currently resides in Galesburg, Ill.
SPRINGFIELD (MA)
iobserve
By Father Bill Pomerleau
Observer staff
SPRINGFIELD – As a legal deadline for effectively filing lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct by priests approached this week, a Boston attorney filed lawsuits alleging that three priests, a woman religious and a Boy Scout leader had abused five men decades ago.
A Greenfield attorney also filed six lawsuits alleging that five diocesan priests had abused minors.
Meanwhile, the Diocese of Springfield announced the removal from ministry of a priest named in one of the lawsuits.
Father Michael Devlin, 62, has been placed under the constraints of the Dallas Norms, the diocese announced Dec. 29, alluding to the requirement in U.S. church law that any priest credibly judged to have abused a minor cannot function as a priest.
In October the diocesan review board began its investigation of an allegation that Father Devlin, until then chaplain at Holyoke’s Providence Place, had abused a minor while he was a parochial vicar at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in West Springfield.
National
By TOM ROBERTS
On the letters pages this week you will find one by Fr. Owen Kearns of the Legionaries of Christ. He is editor in chief and publisher of the Legion-ownedAbuse Tracker Catholic Register. The letter is an edited version of the original, which accuses NCR of a slur against the Legion and of spinning the story about Legion founder Fr. Marciel Maciel Degollado, who has been accused of sexually abusing seminarians in the past (see below).
Kearns’ letter also said NCR used a “journalistic resource,” with the implication that we are simply interested in keeping the story alive with no regard for the facts.
It is not the first time Fr. Kearns has reacted to a story about either the Legion’s activities or its founder. Whether Kearns’ responses have been solicited in the preparation of an article or delivered to us in reaction to one about Maciel, the content has been consistent: Fr. Maciel is demonstrably innocent and all one need do is consult the Legion’s Web site for the necessary information.
One might come away with the impression that NCR and the Legion are engaged in meaningless rounds of gainsaying.
Perhaps an explanation from our perspective is in order. Why do we do what we do? Why all the stories on the Legion?
MISSOURI
Times Newspapers
by Don Corrigan
A Catholic nun, who taught at Cor Jesu Academy in Affton, and a priest, who was pastor at Our Lady of Providence parish in Crestwood, are embroiled in separate controversies involving sexual abuse allegations.
Sister Linda Cusano, who taught at Cor Jesu from 1988 to 1990, is accused of several incidents of sexual misconduct in a lawsuit filed in November. Landa Mauriello-Vernon, once a student of Cusano's at a parochial school in Connecticut, accuses the nun of repeated acts of abuse from 1991-1992.
David Clohessy, national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said the St. Louis Catholic Archdiocese should now be making an effort to encourage local residents to step forward if they have knowledge of misconduct by Cusano while she served in this area.
"We hope anyone else who witnessed, suspected or experienced abuse by Cusano finds the courage to come forward," said Clohessy. "We especially hope that Cor Jesu officials publicly reach out to former students who might have been victimized by Cusano."
Clohessy said SNAP is also urging anyone who may have experienced improper encounters with Fr. Robert F. Johnston to break their silence about any such incidents. According to Clohessy, Johnston admitted in December 2002 that he had abused a boy and then resigned as pastor of Our Lady of Providence parish in Crestwood.
WATERBURY (CT)
Republican-American
Saturday, January 15, 2005
By Robyn Adams
Republican-American
WATERBURY -- The Rev. W. James Johnson said Friday he is confident justice will prevail and he will be vindicated of charges he sexually assaulted a 5-year-old girl in Torrington.
Johnson, 48, was arrested Wednesday night by Torrington police and charged with one count of first-degree sexual assault and one count of risk of injury to a minor with sexual contact. The alleged incident occurred May 14, police said.
He was held in police lockup overnight on $200,000 bond and arraigned Thursday morning at Bantam Superior Court. He made bond late Thursday.
The case was transferred to Litchfield Superior Court. He is due back in court April 28.
Johnson, a minister for 20 years, was back at his church, Community Tabernacle Outreach Center, 12 Hewlett St., Friday morning. Sitting in his church office with deacon Deja Dennis and Vernon Austin, a deacon in training, at his side, Johnson said he wanted to comment on the accusations but with limitations on the advice of legal counsel.
RAPID CITY (SD)
Rapid City Journal
By Vicky Wicks, Journal Staff Writer
RAPID CITY - Glenn Ford pleaded guilty to a third-degree rape charge in 7th Circuit Court on Friday, but because the judge allowed him to do so ahead of schedule, the victim and her mother were not able to hear Ford admit to the crime.
Ford, 39, charged for having sex with a 13-year-old girl while he was youth pastor at Victory Chapel on La Crosse Street, was scheduled to enter a plea at 10:45 a.m. Friday in front of 7th Circuit Judge Merton Tice Jr.
According to Pennington County deputy state's attorney Toni Williams, who was in the courtroom representing the state on other cases, Tice said he had other matters to attend to and would take Ford's plea ahead of schedule.
Lara Roetzel, chief deputy state's attorney, is the prosecutor on the case and had Ford's file with her. She arrived at the courtroom on time, but by then, the plea had been taken.
Roetzel then went into the empty courtroom to meet with the victim, the victim's mother and a few supporters.
At 11 a.m., other attorneys arrived for hearings in front of Tice.
Williams said Tice had not asked her for the victim's opinion of the plea agreement.
APPLETON (WI)
Post-Crescent
By Dan Wilson
Post-Crescent staff writer
APPLETON — Outagamie County Circuit Judge Dennis Luebke Friday rejected arguments from convicted sex offender John Patrick Feeney that the statute of limitations should have applied to his case.
Luebke heard post-conviction motions in the case of the 78-year-old former pastor at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Freedom, who is serving a 15-year sentence on three counts of attempted sexual assault of a child and one count of sexual assault of a child.
Luebke denied motions from Gerald Boyle, Feeney’s attorney, claiming the statute of limitations should have applied to the 24-year-old case and that the judge’s sentence was unduly harsh.
The denial sets the stage for an appeal, which Boyle said he would file within 60 days.
Boyle argued the six-year statute of limitation should have applied to the case that arose out of incidents in 1978 when Feeney was at St. Nicholas.
ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer
First published: Saturday, January 15, 2005
ALBANY -- The former music director of a Rensselaer County church is seeking $2 million in damages from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, claiming the pastor sexually abused her in December 2003.
Mary Ann Turner Snow, 50, and her husband, John Snow, of New Scotland, went public with claims against the Rev. Jerome Gingras Friday during a news conference arranged by their attorney, John Aretakis.
The mother of seven children said she felt spiritually and morally responsible to detail the priest's behavior in the sacristy of the Church of St. Mary at Clinton Heights on Dec. 21, 2003, "no matter how humiliating it is for me to come forward."
Snow said Gingras called her and her husband, a former cantor, into the back room an hour after other congregants had left the 1,100-family church.
"During our conversation, Father told me to turn around," she said. "I didn't know what to expect. I thought there might have been a Christmas bonus taped to the wall."
"But instead, he said, 'I had a dream that we were having this conversation. And, in the dream, this is what happened,' " Snow said.
OAKLAND (CA)
Oakland Tribune
By Glenn Chapman, STAFF WRITER
OAKLAND — Rival attorneys in the Clergy III Catholic priest sex abuse cases are to begin intense private mediation next week in a final push to settle matters before public trials begin in March.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Ronald Sabraw told a courtroom packed with civil attorneys Friday that retired Contra Costa County Judge Coleman Fannin of dispute resolution firm JAMS will oversee the last-ditch mediation effort. Five attorneys from each side are to meet with Fannin at the JAMS office in San Francisco on Tuesday to begin what is viewed as a "last and best" effort to resolve cases before the first two trials in the coordinated litigation begin March 7.
One of those trials is to be held in Alameda County Superior Court.
About 200 plaintiffs are involved in the approximately 160 priest sex abuse suits being coordinated by Sabraw. Defendants in the cases range from priests to top Catholic church officials accused of covering up abuses and protecting wrongdoers.
Sabraw's decision regarding mediation came during a morning-long hearing in which he revealed a series of tentative rulings in favor of the church.
CROWN POINT (IN)
Chicago Sun-Times
January 15, 2005
BY JOHN GRANT EMEIGH
Criminal charges won't be pursued against a former Crown Point pastor, despite the Catholic priest's admission to church officials that he engaged in sexual activity with a Gary preteen sometime in the 1960s.
Lake County, Ind., Prosecutor Bernard A. Carter said that the accuser hasn't cooperated with investigators since the allegation came to light in 2003.
Monsignor Don Grass, who served as pastor at St. Mary Parish in Crown Point since 1983, was removed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gary in December 2003 after admitting the accusation against him was true, diocese officials said. The alleged molestation occurred while Grass was assigned to the Cathedral of Holy Angels in Gary.
Carter said the diocese contacted him about the accusation in late 2003 and that the Gary Police Department investigated it.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Nashua Telegraph
Published: Saturday, Jan. 15, 2005
If they had to do it all over again, there’s no doubt that lawyers in the New Hampshire attorney general’s office would have been more precise in their wording of an agreement with the Diocese of Manchester. The agreement reached in December of 2002 protected leaders of the diocese from prosecution for child endangerment in connection with child sex abuse cases.
Prosecutors said they had plenty of evidence and were confident of a conviction, but agreed not to proceed as long as the diocese introduced practices to protect children and allowed the state to audit those practices annually.
The state and diocese are now at odds over what exactly an audit entails.
The state wants a professional research firm to survey 2,000 parishioners and church personnel to determine if the practices are working.
The diocese says that goes too far, and wants the audit limited to a paper review of policies, supplemented by an interview with the diocesan official who handles sexual misconduct.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times
By Todd Ruger
Three of 14 men who settled lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests in the Davenport Catholic Diocese decades ago have decided to drop their cases against the individual priests.
The three men want to try to move on with their lives instead of pursuing the lawsuits, filed against former priest James Janssen and retired Rev. Francis Bass, said Craig Levien, the Quad-City attorney for the three men.
“They did not think that the mental distress to them in continuing to go through the litigation process would be worth the benefit to proceed with a trial against an individual priest,” Levien said.
The dismissals came among filings made Wednesday that dismissed the diocese — but not the priests — from lawsuits as part of a $9 million settlement reached with 37 people who claimed sexual abuse by priests.
APPLETON (WI)
Pioneer Press
Associated Press
APPLETON, Wis. — A judge refused to set aside some felony convictions Friday that landed a 77-year-old Roman Catholic priest in prison for 15 years.
A jury convicted John Patrick Feeney in February of three counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of attempted sexual assault of a child for incidents that involved two brothers, ages 12 and 14, in 1978.
Feeney, who was parish priest at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Freedom at the time, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
During a 30-minute hearing Friday, Outagamie County Circuit Judge Dennis Luebke rejected arguments from Feeney's attorney that the six-year statute of limitations to be charged had expired. The priest's attorney said although Feeney left Wisconsin in 1983, he was still employed by the Green Bay Diocese and technically remained a Wisconsin resident.
KENTUCKY
Cincinnati Enquirer
The Associated Press
LEXINGTON - The Roman