NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald
01.04.05
By CHRIS BARTON
The Takapuna Assembly of God has misled its congregation about allegations that its head pastor, Wayne Hughes, sexually abused a teenager.
A statement read out during a service on Good Friday claimed that police had looked into the sexual abuse allegation against Mr Hughes and "they found no basis to substantiate those claims whatsoever".
But the victim, who was abused about 20 years ago, has never laid a complaint with police.
Asked whether the statement he read was inaccurate, Pastor Duane Newport said: "It’s just too premature for us to make any comment. We are looking into all the issues."
After the Herald published the allegations last week, the church board and pastors agreed, based on medical and spiritual advice, that Mr Hughes should "take a timely break".
PROVIDENCE (RI)
Times Leader
MICHELLE R. SMITH
Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - A bishop from Ohio was appointed to lead the Providence Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church Thursday, as the Vatican accepted the resignation of retiring Bishop Robert Mulvee.
Bishop Thomas Tobin, who turns 57 on Friday, has led the Youngstown Diocese and its 236,000 Catholics since 1995.
"I will do my very best. I will work hard. I will give my heart and soul to this diocese," Tobin said, adding that his top priority in the next few months will be "to listen and to learn."
Mulvee introduced Tobin, a Pittsburgh native who previously served as an auxiliary bishop in the Pittsburgh Diocese, at a morning news conference at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Providence. He called him a "young bishop," and said he had worked with Tobin in the past. ...
Tobin said he would continue to address the issue of clergy sex abuse, saying that the Providence Diocese "had an outstanding track record" on the issue. It reached a $14.25 million settlement in 2002 with 37 people who had sued the diocese over clergy sexual abuse.
Tobin said last year that 19 priests in the Youngstown diocese had been accused of sexually abusing children since 1950, but none since 1991. The diocese paid about $200,000 from 1950 to 2003 for counseling for victims and their families and paid about $300,000 to settle claims, Tobin said at the time. The diocese began a policy in 1994 of not offering settlements.
Thomas A. Shipka, chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University, praised Tobin's response to the clergy abuse crisis.
"He moved, I thought, in this diocese very quickly on that sex abuse issue and set up a committee that involved non-Catholics, even non-Christians, and I think he acted responsibly," Shipka said.
BILLERICA (MA)
Lowell Sun
By JACK MINCH and MATT MURPHY, Sun Staff
BILLERICA -- After working closely with Rev. Michael Randone for nearly three years, St. Theresa's pastor said he came to know a priest sincerely committed to helping the youth of his Billerica parish.
But yesterday, Rev. Eugene Tully called his former colleague to offer some friendly words of comfort, a day after Randone was fired from his post at Central Catholic High School in Lawrence and resigned his parish in Haverhill amid allegations that he sent inappropriate online messages to students.
“I didn't want to call him to get information or details. I spoke to him briefly to tell him we were thinking of him and that to let us know if we could do anything to help,” Tully said. “I think he's upset, very saddened and hurt.”
Randone, 36, was fired Tuesday as Central Catholic's part-time chaplain because he was instant-messaging students over the Internet in violation of policy, according to the school.
He could not be reached for comment yesterday.
One message was sent to a juvenile female, according to a published report that quoted a Department of Social Services official. School officials reportedly
said the message was of a sexual nature.
MASSACHUSETTS
Valley Advocate
by Maureen Turner - March 31, 2005
The sheer number of abuse charges filed against Catholic priests in recent years has had the sad effect of making the victims seem almost like a faceless, indistinguishable mass. And the ways in which their stories are revealed -- sound-bite stories of decades-old crimes, many committed by men who are now retired, perhaps even dead -- can allow an already overwhelmed public the comfort of some psychological distance.
But there´s no comfort for the victims, the very real people who had very real atrocities committed against them by people who were long considered beyond reproach. Phil Saviano knows this all too well: four decades ago, as a young boy in the small town of East Douglas, Mass., he was sexually abused, he says, by his pastor, the Rev. David Holley. Like many victims, Saviano felt scared and ashamed, and he kept his mouth shut. The abuse ended when Holley was transferred from the parish without explanation.
Years later, as an adult, Saviano picked up the newspaper and saw that Holley had been arrested for molesting kids at another parish in New Mexico. It was one of a number of cases making news in the early Œ90s, when the first wave of the priest-abuse scandal broke. And it prompted Saviano to begin dealing with what had happened to him all those years ago -- talking to his family, his therapist, and the media. (See Telling Secrets, Dec. 19, 2002, www.valleyadvocate.com.)
Saviano filed suit against the Worcester diocese, which, after years of legal wrangling, settled his case in 1996. The next year, he founded the New England chapter of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
HUDSON (WI)
Ironwood Daily Globe
By MARGARET LEVRA
Globe Staff Writer
HUDSON, Wis. -- Authorities who are completing their investigation into the 2002 double-murder case in Hudson told the Daily Globe that substantial evidence points to the guilt of the Rev. Ryan Erickson, the Hurley priest who committed suicide four months ago.
"We do not have a confession, but we do have some statements he (Erickson) made," Trende said. "We're going in the right direction. It appears we are close to wrapping things up. If there are some things different that turn up, it may change the whole scenerio.
"We have to verify information. We can't go to court with this one."
The murder investigation by Hudson Police into the shooting deaths of Dan O'Connell, 39-year-old father of two, and his 22-year-old intern began in February 2002, after the two were found slain at a funeral home operated by O'Connell. There were few developments in the case until detectives traveled to Hurley late last year to question Erickson. ...
When investigators came to Hurley late last year, they also questioned Erickson about an allegation of a crime involving a child or children. Trende said both the murder case and the possible crime against a child or children were being handled at the same time. He would not comment on whether the cases were connected.
AUSTRALIA
The Daily Telegraph
By LUKE McILVEEN and MARK SKELSEY
April 1, 2005
A SEX company which sells pornographic films with titles such as Fresh Meat has emerged as a key financial backer of children's rights crusader Hetty Johnston.
Adultshop.com was one of three porn companies which contributed a total of $4322 to Ms Johnston's failed bid for the Senate.
The internet porn shop -- which sells DVDs with titles such as Fresh Meat, 18 and Nasty and 18 and Easy -- gave Ms Johnston more than $1500 to run for the Senate.
Ms Johnston -- who led the campaign against former governor-general Peter Hollingworth over his handling of child sex abuse by other clergy -- has gone to ground and is refusing to comment on the scandal.
She this week denied being a hypocrite for accepting money from hard-core pornographers to further her political career.
HAYWARD (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, March 31, 2005
The drug and alcohol problems and anxiety that have plagued two former altar boys are in large part the result of the brothers' being victimized as children by a sexually abusive priest, two clinical psychologists testified Wednesday in the civil case against the Oakland Diocese.
Tom Thatcher, 33, suffered from "social phobia" and a methamphetamine addiction after the Rev. Robert Ponciroli abused him in the early 1980s at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Antioch, psychologist Thomas Joiner of Tallahassee, Fla., told a Hayward jury.
Thatcher's troubles emerged when he hit puberty, becoming confused in sexual and social situations, Joiner said. Memories of the abuse were "like a time bomb in his head that really exploded in adolescence," Joiner testified.
Thatcher's brother, Bob, 34, meanwhile, developed generalized anxiety disorder, abused alcohol, had intimacy issues with his wife and was overcome with guilt that both he and his brother had fallen victim to Ponciroli, psychologist Janet Sonne told jurors.
TEXAS
TCU Magazine
By Saedra Pinkerton
Escorted by officials into the high-security prison in Huntsville, Texas, documentary filmmaker Lisa Freberg '85 was far from the career she set out to claim when she left TCU with a radio-TV-film degree.
She had created a dream résumé after graduation, making commercials for corporate giants Nike, Budweiser and McDonald's. She established herself in the Dallas market, then made the producer's quintessential leap, heading west to Los Angeles where her career flourished.
It was Freberg's sister, a California attorney, and a beleaguered young client she was helping who inspired Freberg to focus on a radically different genre. The decision would involve a heartbreaking journey into the lives of sexually exploited boys -- and into the minds of the Catholic priests who hurt them.
Freberg's sister took on her first abused client in 1997, years before the priest abuse scandal hit the national media. Since attorney-client privilege prevented her sister from discussing the case, Freberg turned to the court record to learn more.
"When I read it, I wept," she remembers. "The priest was a really sick man. And the leadership of the church didn't do anything to help him or the victim. I thought, ‘This needs to be exposed.' "
CANADA
Edmonton Sun
CP
LONDON, Ont. -- A Brazilian couple filed a lawsuit yesterday against the Roman Catholic Diocese of London, claiming sexual harassment by a priest at a London church. In their statement of claim, the couple allege the priest used his position as their spiritual leader and supporter of their immigration application first to demand sexual favours from the woman and, later, to quell the complaint.
Jose and Isabel Do Prado, in Canada on visitor's and work visas while they apply for landed immigrant status, filed the $3.1-million suit in Superior Court in London.
Named as defendants are Rev. Lucio Xavier Couto, Bishop Ronald Peter Fabbro and the diocese.
The diocese released a statement last night about the lawsuit: "The Diocese of London has received a statement of claim alleging misconduct by one of our priests. We take all such allegations very seriously. We are studying the statement of claim and we will prepare our response."
The statement of claim contains allegations not yet proven in court.
It states that Isabel Do Prado suffered "sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, sexual assault and battery" at the hands of Couto while working as a housekeeper at the rectory of Holy Cross church between September 2000 and May 2002.
SIOUX CITY (IA)
Sioux City Journal
By Nick Hytrek Journal staff writer
The number of pending clergy sexual abuse lawsuits filed against the Catholic Diocese of Sioux City is down to six after the recent settlement of several of the cases.
With 10 more settlements, 16 cases have been settled this month.
Of the recent settlements, nine alleged sexual abuse by the Rev. George McFadden. The other accused the late the Rev. Everett Apt.
All settlements included monetary payments to the alleged victims, but no total is being disclosed.
"Those victims that have completed settlement have taken the first step toward closure of the trauma inflicted upon them. Those victims who have settled have requested confidentiality in relation to the settlement details," said their attorney, Scott Rhinehart of Sioux City.
Mike and Dirk Jablonski, Kim Henshaw, Ron Verbeski, Kathleen Baker, Terri Huff, Delno J. Pinney III, Don Miller and Joseph Boyok all had alleged that McFadden had sexual contact with them while he was pastor of Sioux City's St. Francis of Assisi parish, which is now closed.
William Fisher had claimed Apt had sexually abused him while serving as pastor at Sacred Heart parish in Alvord.
SCRANTON (PA)
UofSNow.com
Written by Joshua P. Stewart
Thursday, 31 March 2005
SCRANTON - Former University of Scranton professor Fr. Albert Liberatore will face trial for three felony abuse charges May 4 in a Manhattan court.
Liberatore faces a single charge of first degree sodomy which is defined by New York as "deviate sexual intercourse with another person by forcible compulsion or who is incapable of consent by reason of being physically helpless or who is less than eleven years old or who is less than thirteen years old and the actor is eighteen years old or more," and two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree which, according to New York statute, is sexual contact by force or threat of force.
According to New York penal statutes, if convicted of any of the charges, Liberatore would have to register as a sex offender. The sodomy charge carries up to a 25 year imprisonment. The two abuse charges carry up to seven year imprisonments each.
In May 2004 Liberatore was arrested in Lackawanna County following allegations that he sexually abused a former altar boy from his parish, the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Duryea. According to documents from Luzurne County district attorney David Lupas, multiple incidents of sexual abuse occurred in Liberatore's office in St. Thomas Hall.
The allegations were the result of an investigation in Luzurne and Lackawanna Counties initiated by the Diocese of Scranton, Luzurne County district attorney records say.
SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
The Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD, Mass.— Two Roman Catholic bishops are among seven deceased priests named in a clergy sexual abuse lawsuit filed by a Texas man serving a 50-year prison sentence for murder.
Church officials said they have found nothing in their records to support the allegations, and defended the late bishops and priests.
William E. Burnett, 64, claimed in the suit, filed Tuesday in Hampden Superior Court, that he was abused in the 1950s by several priests, including former Springfield Bishop Christopher Weldon, former Worcester Bishop Timothy Harrington and former Monsignor Raymond J. Page.
Burnett, a Springfield native, who currently is serving a 50-year prison sentence for the 1990 murder of a Texas businessman, claimed in the suit that he was introduced to the other clergy by Page, who was his uncle.
His lawyer, Carmine Durso of Boston, said his client had passed two lie detector tests.
However, church officials questioned Burnett's motives and credibility.
VATICAN CITY
Boston.com
March 31, 2005
VATICAN CITY -- The pope on Thursday accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert Mulvee as leader of the Providence, R.I., Diocese, submitted for reason of age, the Vatican said.
Mulvee turned 75 on Feb. 15, the normal retirement age for bishops.
Pope John Paul II named Bishop Thomas Tobin of Youngstown, Ohio, as Mulvee's successor, the Vatican said.
Mulvee was ordained in 1977 as auxiliary bishop of Manchester, and was named the Bishop of Wilmington, Delaware in 1985. He joined the Providence Diocese in 1995 as Coadjutor Bishop, and was named bishop two years later.
He previously served at a number of parishes in New Hampshire, and received his doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.
Mulvee has said that he will remain active in the church, even after his retirement.
The Providence Diocese is the 25th largest diocese in the United States, and covers the state of Rhode Island, with 152 parishes and about 679,000 members.
It reached a $14.5 million settlement last year with 37 people who had sued the diocese over clergy sexual abuse.
BROWNSVILLE (TX)
Brownsville Herald
By LAURA B. MARTINEZ
The Brownsville Herald
March 31, 2005 — Discussions are under way for the establishment of a local chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Miguel Prats, state coordinator for the Texas chapters, said he has been in “serious discussions” with victims of abuse for setting up a Rio Grande Valley chapter.
“The chances are good that we will have a chapter, but there is a lot to starting a SNAP chapter,” Prats said in a telephone interview from Houston. “When I’m dealing with victims, I have to give them plenty of space. … We have already been through hell and back.”
SNAP is a volunteer self-help organization comprised of survivors of clergy sexual abuse and the survivors’ supporters. Its mission is to support one another by healing and by pursuing justice and institutional change by holding perpetrators responsible and the church accountable, according to its mission statement.
Prats said the discussion of a Valley Chapter began less than two weeks ago following the March 16 publication of a story of former Monsignor Ivan M. Rovira’s alleged abuse of two boys that happened 24 years ago.
CANADA
London Free Press
JOE BELANGER, Free Press Reporter 2005-03-31 03:23:34
A couple from Brazil filed a $3.1-million lawsuit yesterday against the Roman Catholic diocese of London, claiming sexual harassment by a priest at a London church. The couple alleges the priest used his position as their spiritual leader and supporter of their immigration application, first to demand sexual favours from the woman and later to quell the complaint.
Jose and Isabel Do Prado, who are in Canada on visitors' and work visas while they apply for landed immigrant status, filed the suit yesterday in Superior Court.
In an interview, Jose Do Prado said the couple filed the lawsuit because they want people to know the truth.
"We don't want people to be misled. We want justice."
Named as defendants are Rev. Lucio Xavier Couto, Bishop Ronald Peter Fabbro and the diocese.
In a statement last night, the diocese said: "The diocese of London has received a statement of claim alleging misconduct by one of our priests. We take all such allegations very seriously. We are studying the statement of claim and we will prepare our response."
The statement of claim contains allegations not yet proven in court. It states that Isabel Do Prado suffered "sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, sexual assault and battery" at the hands of Couto while working as a housekeeper at the rectory of Holy Cross Church between September 2000 and May 2002.
The suit claims that when the Do Prados confronted Couto, both were "wrongfully" fired.
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Melanie Burney
Inquirer Staff Writer
A former altar boy says he was sexually abused by three former priests in Cumberland County, but repressed the childhood memories for years.
In a civil suit filed yesterday in state Superior Court in Camden, Darren K. Leibow of Millville also alleges that top church officials, living and dead, conspired to cover up the abuse.
The lawsuit alleges the abuse occurred between 1986 and 1991 and involved priests then assigned to St. Michael's Church in Cedarville. Two have died, and the third was defrocked.
At the time, Leibow, now 28, was head altar boy at Our Lady of Lakes in Laurel Lake, a mission chapel of St. Michael's.
The priests gave Leibow gifts, such as money, baseball cards and a cross, and used threats and intimidation to keep him from disclosing the abuse, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit mirrors a 1994 case brought by 23 men and women who said priests in the Camden Diocese had sexually abused them. Although a judge dismissed the complaints because the statute of limitations had expired, the diocese in 2003 agreed to pay the plaintiffs $880,000.
SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Republican
Thursday, March 31, 2005
By BILL ZAJAC
wzajac@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - Bishops Christopher J. Weldon and Timothy J. Harrington are among seven deceased priests being accused of sexual abuse by an imprisoned Texas murderer, whose brother has raised concerns about the validity of the claims.
The suit, which was filed yesterday in Hampden Superior Court by Boston lawyer Carmen L. Durso, names the Springfield and Worcester dioceses as defendants. The seven priests served in either one diocese or the other or both after the Springfield diocese was split in two in 1950 to create the Worcester diocese.
William E. Burnett, a 64-year-old Springfield native who is serving a more than 50-year sentence in prison for the 1990 murder of a retired businessman, said in the suit that he was introduced to the priests through his uncle, Monsignor Raymond J. Page, who also is accused by Burnett of abusing him. The abuse allegedly began around 1950, when the accuser was 9 years old.
The other priests named in the suit are the Revs. Bernard L. Doheny, George A. Berthiaume, James T. Walsh and Oscar Gatineau.
Diocesan and lay individuals expressed support for the accused priests and concerns about the accusations.
"We have nothing in our records that in any way would provide support for these allegations," said the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, in a statement.
"I would hope that the names of good priests and bishops who cannot defend themselves are not being impugned for ulterior motives," McDonnell's statement read.
UNITED STATES
Fort Worth Star-Telegrm
By Rachel Zoll
The Associated Press
America's Roman Catholic bishops started an online survey of clergy sex-abuse victims Wednesday, asking how the church can better help them recover and protect young people in the future.
Advocacy groups said they were pleased that the bishops wanted to improve their outreach. But they wondered what more could be said on the topic after three years of damaging revelations about dioceses mishandling abuse cases.
"The needs and complaints of survivors have been well-expressed time and time again," said Sue Archibald, head of the victim-advocacy group The Linkup. "I don't know what really remains unknown in terms of what the problems are. Rather than continuing to gather information, I'd much rather see action."
Through the Web site, the bishops are asking victims to evaluate how diocesan officials responded to abuse claims, where church leaders failed in their reaction and how they can support victims as they heal.
"The horrific experience of being sexually abused is best understood by the survivors of this crime," said Archbishop Harry Flynn, chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram
By Darren Barbee
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
A former Nolan Catholic High School employee ac-cused of sexually abusing a teen-ager in the 1980s has voluntarily stepped down from his post at a Missouri prep school while the religious order he belongs to investigates.
The man, a brother of the Marianist religious order, had a position of authority over students while he was a Nolan employee. He is not being identified because he has not been charged with a crime.
"He is specific in his denial that there was no inappropriate conduct with any of the students at any point in his career," said Diane Guerra, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Marianist Province in St. Louis.
Guerra said that no allegations have been brought against the man in the two years he has been employed by the Missouri school. Parents of children who attend the Missouri school will be notified by letter about the allegations regarding his time at Nolan Catholic, Guerra said. The letter also asks anyone with additional information about sexual abuse to come forward.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Kathleen A. Shaw TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
kshaw@telegram.com
William E. Burnett of Texas, who court documents identify as a nephew of the late Monsignor Raymond J. Page, filed suit yesterday in Hampden Superior Court in Springfield alleging he was sexually abused during the 1950s by his uncle, as well as by Bishop Timothy J. Harrington and the Rev. Oscar Gatineau, all of whom were assigned to the Catholic Diocese of Worcester at the time, and by four clergymen assigned to the Springfield Diocese.
No public allegations of sexual misconduct have previously been made against the three. Mr. Burnett, 64, is serving a 60-year prison term in Tennessee Colony, Texas, on a murder charge.
The suit also names Bishop Christopher Weldon of Springfield and the Revs. Bernard L. Doheny, George Berthiaume and James Walsh, priests of the Springfield Diocese. All seven clergymen named in the suit are deceased.
Bishop Robert J. McManus said yesterday that the diocese learned of and investigated the allegations several years ago, finding no substance to them. “It is profoundly troubling that this suit is attempting to malign the reputations” of the three Worcester clergymen “who had dedicated themselves to serve the people of the Worcester Diocese and, now deceased, cannot defend themselves.”
Mr. Burnett is represented by Boston lawyer Carmen L. Durso, who said his client became eligible for parole in November. According to the suit, the abuse of Mr. Burnett started when he was 10 and continued until 1959. Mr. Durso said Mr. Burnett did not make the connection between the alleged sexual abuse and the harm that it caused him until 2002.
The lawsuit maintains that Mr. Burnett was sexually abused by Monsignor Page from age 10 to 16 after he told his uncle that Rev. Doheny had sexually abused him. The alleged incidents occurred at a cabin owned by Monsignor Page in Holland and at the rectory of St. Anne’s Shrine, Fiskdale, according to the suit. The alleged abuse was witnessed by Rev. Gatineau, according to the suit. Mr. Burnett claims that he was sexually abused by Rev. Gatineau from age 12 to13 in the Holland cabin and at the St. Anne rectory.
Mr. Burnett alleges he was sexually abused three times between age 11 and 15 by Bishop Harrington at the Holland cabin and at the St. Anne rectory, and that Monsignor Page witnessed the alleged incidents. Bishop Harrington became head of the Worcester Diocese in 1968.
Bishop McManus said the diocese interviewed Mr. Burnett’s family and conducted “a thorough examination of diocesan records” when the allegations first surfaced. The diocese reported the allegations to District Attorney John J. Conte’s office and notified Mr. Burnett of this, the bishop said.
The lawsuit, according to the bishop, “has left the Page family heartbroken as they bear one more injustice by this nephew of Monsignor Page, as Mr. Burnett is serving a 60-year sentence for murder in Texas. We fear that it is also an injustice to the victims who seek to have their credible stories of abuse heard in order to find healing in their lives,” Bishop McManus said.
“We stand by the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, which states explicitly, ‘When the accusation has proved to be unfounded, every step possible will be taken to restore the good name of the priest or deacon ,’ ” the bishop said.
FAIRBORN (OH)
WHIO
POSTED: 12:21 pm EST March 30, 2005
UPDATED: 2:15 pm EST March 30, 2005
FAIRBORN, Ohio -- Fairborn police arrested a Zanesville pastor Tuesday night who they said was looking for sex from a 14-year-old girl.
Police said Graham Phillips 24, from North Terrace Church in Zanesville, traveled to Fairborn, where he planned to meet the teen for sex. The teen he was chatting with online turned out to be a Fairborn detective.
Authorities said that Phillips had been chatting online with the undercover detective around St. Patrick’s Day. They said he even used the church’s computer for the online chats.
Investigators said Phillips had a hotel room key on him and said that he had reserved a room that he was going to take the 14-year-old girl to. Phillips is being held in the Fairborn Jail.
HUDSON (WI)
River Towns
By Meg Heaton
The Hudson Police Department may be nearing the end of its investigation into the murders of Dan O'Connell and James Ellison.
HPD Chief Dick Trende met with investigators Jeff Knopps and Shawn Pettee and others involved in the case earlier this week to review the information gathered over the three-year investigation.
Last year the investigation began to focus on Father Ryan Erickson's involvement in the case and in a separate investigation into his possible criminal activity involving minors. Erickson, who was an associate pastor at St. Patrick's Church at the time of the murders, committed suicide last December after being questioned about both investigations. He allegedly denied any wrongdoing to friends and in suicide notes he left behind.
Trende said significant information in both investigations has surfaced in recent weeks that has confirmed the department's interest in Erickson, and investigators have been spending time verifying it. Knopps said most of the people they have contacted have cooperated with them, and this has led to new or corroborating information.
BEAVERTON (OR)
KOIN
Tim Gordon, KOIN News 6
BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Near Beaverton during Easter mass, a 10-year-old girl says she was the victim of a sex-related crime.
Detectives are investigating the case, where a man allegedly exposed himself to the girl.
A peaceful place, celebrating one of Christianity's most important days. Now Holy Trinity Catholic Church is dealing with an un-holy event.
"Yes, we put a notice in the bulletin about it and we'll be speaking about it to people also," Father John McGrann said.
McGrann is talking about what apparently happened to a 10-year-old girl on Easter Sunday, when she went unattended to the bathroom.
The girl told the priest that during the busy mass, she was lured by a man she didn't know. He allegedly exposed himself to her, and convinced her to do the same.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Monterey Herald
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Summaries of the personnel files of about 200 priests named in civil molestation lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will become public within two weeks unless the state Supreme Court steps in.
A judge had ordered a temporary ban on making the summaries public while an attorney representing 26 of the accused priests filed a petition with the 2nd District Court of Appeals. On Tuesday, the three-member appellate panel rejected attorney Donald Steier's petition to make the ban permanent, meaning the files could become public as early as April 12 when the temporary ban expires.
Steier said Wednesday he would likely ask the California Supreme Court to review the case.
The summaries, called "proffers," were prepared by plaintiff and archdiocese attorneys as part of a court-ordered mediation process aimed at settling some 550 molestation lawsuits filed against the archdiocese. The lawsuits were filed under a 2002 state law that suspended for one year the statute of limitations for filing civil molestation claims.
"(The summaries) were prepared pursuant to mediation orders and those are clearly protected from disclosure in the absence of a waiver from all of the interested parties," Steier said.
Ray Boucher, the lead plaintiffs' attorney, was on vacation and could not be reached for comment.
NORTH CAROLINA
NBC 17
POSTED: 4:26 pm EST March 30, 2005
UPDATED: 4:38 pm EST March 30, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A judge on Wednesday refused to lower a $1 million bond on a Cary youth minister charged in a child pornography case.
Jeffrey Morgan Smith, 41, was charged Tuesday by Apex police with nine counts of second-degree exploitation of a minor and one count of third-degree exploitation of a minor.
The charges stem from photos of nude children that were e-mailed from Apex to a teenager in Rockford, Ill., police said.
"Some were individual, some were not. Some were more than one child in the photo," said Sgt. Ann Moore, of the Apex Police Department.
For the past three years, Smith has worked as youth and family pastor at Peace Presbyterian Church, in Cary, where he primarily worked with high school students.
"We don't feel like he has molested any children or that any children in the youth group at church or in this area need to be concerned," Moore said.
Police searched Smith's Apex home on March 15 and confiscated several computers. His church office wasn’t searched.
NEW YORK
Editor & Publisher
By Graham Webster
Published: March 30, 2005 6:00 PM ET
NEW YORK The San Francisco Chronicle ran an unusually long correction this week amending a two-week-old story about a preliminary ruling in two cases of alleged sexual abuse by clergymen.
The blog Regret The Error called attention to the five-paragraph correction.
"The story was essentially a story about the judge's ruling that punitive damages could be sought in the case," Steve Proctor, deputy managing editor at the Chronicle, told E&P. "Fundamentally the story itself was not wrong." But both the headline and the story's text, however, could be misleading, he said.
The correction came after a lawyer for the Catholic Church sent a letter to the Chronicle's publisher with copies of the March 11 story and the court transcript, noting inconsistencies.
WASHINGTON (DC)
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
WASHINGTON (March 30, 2005)—The U.S. Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse has launched a survey of survivors of clergy sexual abuse of minors to get input into improving the church’s response to the problem and its prevention.
The survey will be conducted by Mary A. Lentz, an Ohio-based child abuse prevention consultant. It will be available on-line March 30-May 4 on the website dedicated exclusively to this project, www.victim-outreach.com.
It will not be possible for anyone to determine the identity of respondents, who also are asked not to identify themselves, their abuser, or the abuser’s diocese or eparchy or religious community. Instructions stress that “Reports of abuse are to be made to law enforcement officials and officials of the diocese/eparchy where the abuse occurred.”
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Mabis Wood, a founding member of St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Antioch, couldn't understand why her 13-year-old son, Troy, suddenly refused to go anywhere near "Father Bob."
It was 1982. Troy had always looked up to the priest, the Rev. Robert Ponciroli, as a second father. He'd served as one of his parish altar boys and volunteered to cut the grass outside his suburban rectory.
"Troy started having all these excuses for not going over to cut the lawn, '' Mabis Wood recalled in a Hayward courtroom Tuesday. "He didn't want to be around the church and he did not want to talk about why.''
Wood and her husband questioned their son and found out why.
Troy Wood explained the reason in court himself on Tuesday. He said he had been enticed up to the priest's bed, told to take off his shirt and grabbed from behind for an extended round of "tickling."
UNITED STATES
Boston Herald
By Associated Press
Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - Updated: 11:41 AM EST
The nation's Roman Catholic bishops said Wednesday that they are asking victims of clergy sex abuse around the country to fill out a survey on how church leaders can better help them recover and protect young people from predators in the future.
Through the Web site www.victim-outreach.com, the bishops are asking victims to evaluate how diocesan officials responded to their abuse claims, what church leaders could have done better and how they can support victims heal.
``The horrific experience of being sexually abused is best understood by the survivors of this crime,'' said Archbishop Harry Flynn, chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The survey is anonymous, with researchers promising that there will be no way to identify victims who participate. Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the bishops' conference, said safeguards have been built in to weed out any fake responses.
The abuse crisis began in January 2002 with the case of one accused priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, then spread throughout the country and beyond. Since then, the bishops have adopted a toughened discipline policy dealing with guilty clergy, enacted child protection and victim outreach plans in dioceses and removed hundreds of accused priests from church work.
IRELAND
One in Four
Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent - Irish Times
Nine of Ireland's 26 Catholic dioceses have yet to indicate how much they contributed to the church's Stewardship Trust and how this money was raised.
All nine are in the Republic and include the archdioceses of Tuam and Cashel & Emly.
Trustees of the Stewardship Trust, which is responsible for paying the cost of compensation and services to victims of clerical child sex abuse, are the four Catholic archbishops in Ireland.
These include the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, and the Archbishop of Cashel & Emly, Dr Dermot Clifford.
The remaining dioceses yet to disclose are Achonry, Ardagh & Clonmacnoise, Meath, Kildare & Leighlin, Killaloe, Cashel & Emly, Ossory, and Cloyne.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
Wednesday March 30th 2005
THE central fund set up by the Catholic bishops to compensate abuse victims and pay for child protection services may be radically restructured as concerns grow in the hierarchy that it is not working as intended.
There are concerns that some dioceses are drawing on the trust to a disproportionate extent, resulting in a potentially unfair financial drain on other dioceses.
The Stewardship Trust established in 1996 received a €10m cash injection from Church & General, the Church's insurer. That money has all but run out, meaning the trust is now funded directly by the 26 dioceses, with €5m a year.
Sources in the hierarchy have told the Irish Independent of growing concerns on how the trust is run.
While the trust has to date paid €8,781,592 to dioceses to help with compensation payments, €6.22m of this, or 70pc, has gone to just two dioceses, Dublin and Ferns. Dioceses are paying into the fund according to their share of the Catholic population.
If this trend continues, it could mean that dioceses with few claims against them could end up heavily subsidising others. There is also wide variance between what different dioceses pay to victims. The average payout from the Dublin diocese is about €91,000, including costs, while the diocese of Killaloe has paid an average of €132,000 to two victims, also including costs.
NEW YORK
New York Newsday
BY HERBERT LOWE
STAFF WRITER
March 29, 2005, 7:45 PM EST
A Pentecostal minister and his wife lashed out at his accusers Tuesday after a Queens jury found him not guilty of having sex with a teenage church member after telling her God wanted him to.
Bishop William Waynes happily left State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens with his wife and supporters, while the alleged victim, her family and other former congregation members lagged behind, disappointed.
"Any pastor that would accept these people as members, beware," said Waynes, 47, pastor of New Beginnings Outreach Love Center in East Elmhurst.
His wife, Eunice Waynes, said "I really feel very bad" for the young woman, now 21, who testified that William Waynes first kissed and fondled her when she was 15 -- and then seduced her into a four-year sexual affair after telling her it would help her become a great evangelist.
"I'm sad that she is a schizophrenic and a pathological liar," said Eunice Waynes.
However, at least two jurors among the panel of 10 women and two men said they believed the woman, even if they could not vote to convict on the charges, third-degree rape and endangering the welfare of a child.
"We knew that he was wrong, but they didn't prove it," Juror No. 2, who would not give her name, said of the prosecution. "It's not that we didn't think he was guilty," said Juror No. 3, who only gave her first name, Ashley. "It's just that there was insufficient evidence."
NEW YORK
New York Post
By ALEX GINSBERG
March 30, 2005 -- A Queens minister on trial for seducing an underage parishioner into a church-office tryst five years ago strode out of court yesterday — cleared of all charges.
"I want to thank the men and women of the jury and certainly my attorney and my wife and family," said a restrained William Waynes, flanked by scores of loyal parishioners, several acting as bodyguards.
But the newly cleared holy man didn't stay on the high road for long, lashing out at his accuser and her family.
"Any pastor that would accept these people as parishioners, beware," he said.
And the pastor's wife, Eunice Waynes, took a shot at the accuser, telling reporters, "I'm sorry to have learned that she is a schizophrenic and a pathological liar."
Waynes, the 47-year-old pastor of the New Beginning Outreach Love Center on Northern Boulevard in Corona, was cleared of third-degree rape and child-endangerment charges after less than three hours of jury deliberation.
NORTH CAROLINA
WFMY
Raleigh, NC -- A youth minister is being held in jail after authorities accused him of sending pornographic pictures by e-mail to a 16-year-old in Illinois.
Jeffrey Morgan Smith of Apex is charged with nine counts of second-degree exploitation of a minor and one of third-degree exploitation. He's being held under a million dollars bail.
Apex police say arrest warrants accuse Smith of sending pornographic photos of boys to the teenager, who lives in Rockford, Illinois. Investigators don't believe he took or created the photos. Warrants also say Smith had a pornographic picture of the Illinois youth.
Smith worked as a pastor for youth and family at Peace Presbyterian Church in Cary, which church officials say is a parish of the Presbyterian Church in America.
TOLEDO (OH)
WTOL
TOLEDO -- A judge has sentenced a Roman Catholic deacon to three years and one month in prison for possession of child pornography. 46-year-old J. Michael Tynan pleaded guilty in November after US Customs agents confiscated his laptop last June and found more than 600 pornographic images.
The Reverend Michael Billian, a spokesman, says the Toledo Diocese has asked the Vatican to remove Tynan from the ministry. Until that happens, Tynan remains an ordained deacon.
In a story first broadcast last October, News 11 reported Tynan was an intern at Saint Aloysius Church in Bowling Green for about 10 months. The diocese says it has not had any complaints about Tynan at that church. "Nothing came up in any of the evaluations that there was something inappropriate," said Billian in an interview from October 2004.
The pastor of Saint Aloysius, Father Ed Schleter, didn't go on camera in October, but did say he thought Tynan was going to be a good priest, and related well with all ages. He calls the news about Tynan's charges disappointing and discouraging.
LAWRENCE (MA)
Boston Globe
By David Abel, Globe Staff | March 30, 2005
A Catholic high school in Lawrence fired its volunteer chaplain yesterday, after it was alleged the priest had sent inappropriate electronic messages to students.
The Reverend Michael C. Randone, 36, also resigned yesterday as pastor of Haverhill's Sacred Hearts Parish, where he had served since July 2003, said officials of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.
A spokesman for Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said the office is investigating the allegations against Randone.
One instant message sent under Randone's screen name included what Lawrence Central Catholic High School officials called offensive content. A family member of the recipient notified the school, triggering the investigation that resulted in Randone's firing last week.
Randone denied sending the message and told school officials someone must have used his account to send the message.
It was allegedly the third time Randone had violated the school's policy on ''appropriate boundaries" between adults and students.
He received a verbal warning in 2002 and a written warning in 2003 for what school officials described as ''off-campus contact with students, unrelated to school business."
Central Catholic's president, Brother Richard Van Houten, said yesterday that in one of the earlier incidents, Randone was seen in a restaurant with a group of young people and that in the other he was seen with a group of young people in a car. There ''was absolutely nothing criminal or sexual," Van Houten said, but ''socializing with kids off campus is something we don't permit."
LAWRENCE (MA)
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - Updated: 04:51 AM EST
A priest has resigned as pastor of a Haverhill church after he was fired from his position as a school chaplain for exchanging ``inappropriate'' electronic messages with three students, officials said.
The Rev. Michael C. Randone resigned from Sacred Heart parish after Central Catholic High School in Lawrence fired him last week, based on three violations of its policy discouraging off-campus contact with students that is unrelated to school business.
None of the three instances school officials were able to verify were sexual in nature, said Brother Richard Van Houten, the school's president, but one message, which Randone denies sending, included ``offensive content.''
MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press
BY STEVE SCOTT
Pioneer Press
Tensions flared again between a clergy sex-abuse victims group and Roman Catholic Church leaders in St. Paul over the identification of an alleged perpetrator who has been dead more than three decades.
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis earlier this month revealed that one new alleged perpetrator of child sex abuse was identified last year but said it will not identify him because he is deceased.
The Minnesota chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests on Tuesday named a priest it believes committed the abuse.
The archdiocese vigorously defended the priest identified by Minnesota SNAP as innocent and called the group's actions "grossly negligent and irresponsible.''
"This is an outrageous falsehood that defames the name and career of a faithful and beloved priest,'' Archbishop Harry Flynn said in a statement. "It is beyond comprehension that anyone would be this irresponsible and callous.''
Belinda Martinez, survivor liaison for Minnesota SNAP, said the group identified the priest based on earlier reports that the recently accused priest died in 1971. TheAbuse Tracker Catholic Directory shows five priests in the archdiocese died in 1971.
CALIFORNIA
Regret the Error
The San Francisco Chronicle has published a lengthy correction after it apparently "mischaracterized" comments by a judge in a case against the Catholic Church. "Sensationalized" may be a better description.
A March 11 story about a lawsuit filed against the Catholic Church in Oakland, alleging the diocese allowed two brothers to be molested by a priest the church knew to be a child molester, mischaracterized comments made by the judge in the case.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Harry Sheppard did not "rip" the actions of the church, as stated in the headline.
The story also mischaracterized Judge Sheppard's comments when it stated: "Calling the Catholic Church's conduct 'outrageous, oppressive and malicious,' an East Bay judge ruled Thursday that two alleged sexual abuse victims may seek punitive damages against the Diocese of Oakland." The judge's full remark was: "The conduct of the church as alleged text: and I'm not saying what's going to be proven, because I don't know what's going to be proven text: but as alleged, the conduct is outrageous, oppressive and malicious as alleged, and it was done with a conscious disregard for persons that they were entrusted to protect, being children."
WEST VIRGINIA
WVNS
Story by Josh DeVine Email | Bio
It was a note featuring a cartoon character on the front and an invitation for sex inside.
Detectives say 53-year-old Robert James Duke walked into the Church of God in Liberty Addition and sat down behind a unidentified 9-year-old girl.
Duke's registry on the State Police Web site spells out his prior crimes, including 10 counts of sexual abuse and sexual assault on three boys.
The church's pastor, speaking exclusively with West Virginia Media said he knew about the man's past and that parishioners watched closely over his actions and interactions with children.
That foresight saved the innocence of the 9-year-old girl.
Harrison County Prosecutor Joe Shaffer said a man sitting next to the young girl saw what Duke had written. Shaffer said he instantly took the note from the girl before she had a chance to read it.
CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise
11:32 PM PST on Tuesday, March 29, 2005
By MARY BENDER / The Press-Enterprise
A jury on Tuesday convicted a former youth pastor and onetime volunteer Corona Centennial High School football coach of 15 felony counts involving sexual abuse of two teenage girls.
The six-man, six-woman jury found Joseph Mario Arredondo Jr., 29, guilty of having sexual intercourse with a minor, oral copulation and penetration with a foreign object. The girls, 15 and 17 years old at the time, were students at Corona High School and members of Norco-based New Beginnings Christian Church, according to Deputy District Attorney Blaine Hopp.
"He took advantage of a position of trust and a position of authority and exploited it. Both of the girls had been counseled by him," Hopp said.
The trial before Riverside Superior Court Judge Russell Schooling began March 14. The jury reached a verdict on Monday, but it was sealed until Tuesday, when all parties were available to return to court, Hopp said. Arredondo will be sentenced June 10 and faces up to 13 years in prison.
"My client is innocent. The jury made a mistake," defense attorney Alexander Petale said Tuesday evening by telephone.
EDINBURG (TX)
The Monitor
March 30,2005
Brittney Booth
The Monitor
EDINBURG — Former Trinity Worship Center minister Robert Dale Franklin will spend six months in jail and a decade on probation after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy who he had agreed to spiritually mentor.
State District Judge Mario Ramirez on Tuesday sentenced Franklin, 38, after hearing testimony from the boy’s family, Franklin’s supporters and Franklin himself.
"There is no excuse for any of your actions," the judge told Franklin who pleaded guilty last week to two felony counts of sexual assault and admitted to a drug problem.
Franklin’s guilty plea halted a jury trial and allowed him to avoid 10 other felony counts a grand jury indicted him with, including charges he gave marijuana and cocaine to the boy.
In addition to the jail time and probation, Ramirez ordered Franklin to complete 240 hours of community service and pay a $10,000 fine.
UNITED STATES
The Heartland Institute
Written By: Brian L. Carpenter
Published In: School Reform News
Publication Date: April 1, 2005
Publisher: The Heartland Institute
Like urban public schools across America, urban Catholic schools--especially in the Midwest and Northeast--are buckling under financial pressure. With expenses up and enrollments down, Catholic leaders often have no choice but to merge schools or shutter them altogether.
A report published in April 2004 by Sister Dale McDonald for theAbuse Tracker Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) indicates that during the 2003-04 school year, 123 Catholic schools nationwide were "consolidated or closed."
In February, the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago announced plans to close 23 elementary schools. Dozens more are slated to close in other cities.
But in contrast to their public school counterparts, research shows Catholic schools--even those predominantly serving poor, minority students--are often academically successful. ...
Added to these problems are shrinking charitable contributions to the church and parish closings. Catholic officials attribute these to a host of problems including financial losses from recent attention to past priest sexual abuse, economic conditions, and a shortage of priests entering the vocation. Ultimately, fewer parishes means less parish financial support for schools.
IRELAND
Waterford Today
By Deirdre Dalton
Waterford Today can reveal that the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore has to date, had no claims of child sexual abuse brought against them.
According to Fr. Liam Power, Communications Officer, Diocese of Waterford and Lismore “one claim concerning C.S.A (Child Sexual Abuse) has been brought but ultimately did not proceed.”
However it should be noted that this refers strictly to the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore and cases have been brought against other religious orders in Waterford who aren’t governed by the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore.
Stewardship Trust
Meanwhile in 2004 the Diocese contributed e166,000 to the Stewardship Trust which was set up by the Catholic Church to fund compensation claims for individuals who suffered abuse by it’s members.
According to Fr. Power, “in 2004, having consulted with the priests of the diocese and the diocesan finance committee, which comprises priest and lay people, it was decided that the payment to the Stewardship Trust would be met from diocesan assets, voluntary contributions from the clergy and and increase of 2.5% on the existing 7.5% diocesan levy on parishes. However, after further consultation, it was decided that the 2.5% levy would not be held.”
Fr Power recognises that “the sums involved are significant for a diocese of our size but I am confident that we will meet whatever commitments may arise.”
HAYWARD (CA)
Tri-Valley Herald
By Matt O'Brien, STAFF WRITER
HAYWARD — A priest testifying in the first-ever civil clergy abuse trial against the Catholic Diocese of Oakland said Tuesday the diocese knew local priests were abusing young parishioners, but declined to call the police.
Another priest said he was moved to other parishes when allegations of sexual misconduct arose.
The testimony came in the second day of a civil trial in which two former Antioch altar boys are accusing the diocese of failing to protect them from a pedophile priest, the Rev. Robert Ponciroli.
Rev. George Crespin, the diocese's former personnel director, admitted in a deposition videotape relayed to jurors that "it wasn't our practice" to contact police about sexual abuse allegations.
HAYWARD (CA)
The Argus
By Matt O'Brien, STAFF WRITER
HAYWARD — A former Fremont priest, in a videotaped deposition unveiled Tuesday during the first-ever civil clergy abuse trial against the Catholic Diocese of Oakland, said church leaders knew local priests were abusing young parishioners but declined to call the police.
Another former Fremont priest said he was moved to other parishes after he admitted molesting a boy in the mid-1970s.
That priest, the Rev. Robert Freitas — who served for more than 30 years at parishes in Fremont, Newark and other East
Bay cities — testified in the case in which two former Antioch altar boys are accusing the diocese of failing to protect them from a pedophile priest, the Rev. Robert Ponciroli.
The other priest, the Rev. George Crespin, who also has been accused of sexual abuse, admitted in a videotape played for jurors that "it wasn't our practice" to contact police about sexual abuse allegations.
Crespin was the diocese's former personnel director.
Officials of the diocese, which encompasses Alameda and Contra Costa counties, acknowledge that Ponciroli abused brothers Tom and Bob Thatcher.
HAYWARD (CA)
Contra Costa Times
By Randy Myers
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
HAYWARD - Testimony in two former altar boys' sex suit against the Catholic Diocese of Oakland sped forward Tuesday as jurors heard how church notes about priests abusing children were lost or destroyed.
A priest who admitted molesting children also took the stand.
Robert and Tom Thatcher are suing the diocese for compensatory damages for abuse they claim they suffered at the hands of defrocked priest Robert Ponciroli. The boys served as altar boys at St. Ignatius Church in Antioch from 1979 to 1981.
Robert Thatcher also is seeking punitive damages, an act that broadens the scope of the trial because it means plaintiffs attorney Rick Simons must establish that the diocese made a pattern of hiding the abuse. He began calling witnesses to help him do that Tuesday, the trial's second day of testimony.
Church leaders have conceded the diocese acted negligently in the case, but they say the behavior doesn't warrant punitive damages.
TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By MARK REITER
BLADE STAFF WRITER
A Toledo diocesan deacon who was two days away from ordination to the priesthood when authorities seized his computer last year in a child pornography investigation was sentenced yesterday to 37 months in prison.
J. Michael Tynan, 46, who was sentenced in U.S. District Court, withdrew his petition for the priesthood June 10 after U.S. Customs agents raided his home, taking a laptop computer that contained over 600 pornographic images, including those of children.
Tynan, of Lakeview, Ohio, pleaded guilty Nov. 1 to possession of child pornography.
Judge David Katz said the viewing of child pornography is the driving force behind the industry and the exploitation of unintentional victims, who are forced to participate in sex acts.
"It is much like the war on drugs: If you eliminate the user, you will eventually get at drying up the supply," he said.
Judge Katz said he will recommend Tynan be placed in Butner Federal Correctional Institute in North Carolina, where he can participate in a sex-offender program. He is not eligible for parole. Tynan also was ordered to serve five years of supervised probation after his release from prison.
LAWRENCE (MA)
Eagle-Tribune
By Shawn Boburg
Staff Writer
The Rev. Michael C. Randone has been fired as chaplain of Central Catholic High School and resigned as pastor of Haverhill's Sacred Hearts Church after it was discovered he was sending private electronic messages to several Central students.
At least one of the messages sent using Randone's on-screen name,
"padreraider," "had some sexual content and was improper and highly inappropriate," school officials said. ...
Randone was warned verbally in 2002 after he took a group of students out to dinner and in writing in 2003 after a student was seen in his car without proper authorization, school officials said. None of the violations the school was able to verify was sexual, but Central Catholic officials, sensitive to the clergy abuse scandal, said they could not guarantee that inappropriate conduct did not take place because the communication was unsupervised.
NORTH CAROLINA
Dunn Daily Record
By GREGORY PHILLIPS Of The Record Staff
Recent and ongoing cases of child abuse have highlighted a dichotomy within some local churches — how to reconcile accusations of abuse against a member while protecting the rest of the flock.
The first three months of 2005 have seen a succession of allegations of child molestation involving suspects who had access to children through churches. The question remains as to how much, if any, the pastors at the respective churches knew about what was going on and what action they should have taken.
Erwin mailman Lloyd Coats was charged with molesting more than 20 young girls, some while driving a bus for Erwin Church of God. Devan Black was charged with molesting boys while he was a commander in the Royal Rangers program at Gospel Tabernacle Church.
Another case resolved in Harnett County Superior Court last month has left the victim’s family concerned at the reluctance of the suspect’s pastor to discuss a confession the suspect made in a room full of people.
EL PASO (TX)
KFOXTV
AAbuse Tracker support group for victims of abuse by priests has opened an El Paso Chapter.
SNAP, or the Survivors Network for those Abuses by Priests, was started in El Paso by a man who claims he was abused by an El Paso priest decades ago, he tells KFOX "Its been very hard, my religion. I was religious before and its kind of really struck to the soul of my existence as far the people in charge denying responsibility."
SNAP will hold its first meeting in El Paso on April 7th at 6:30pm. For more information you can call 474-7499.
LAWRENCE (MA)
Boston Herald
By Associated Press
Tuesday, March 29, 2005 - Updated: 03:45 PM EST
LAWRENCE, Mass. - A priest was fired from his post as the volunteer chaplain at a Catholic high school and resigned from his parish after he was accused of sending inappropriate electronic messages to students.
A spokesman for Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said the office is also investigating the allegations against the Rev. Michael Randone, 36, who was pastor of Haverhill's Sacred Hearts Parish.
One instant message sent under Randone's screen name contained what Lawrence Central Catholic High school officials called ``highly inappropriate'' sexual content, The Eagle-Tribune newspaper reported. A family member of the recipient of that message notified the school, triggering the investigation that resulted in Randone's firing last week.
But Randone denied sending that message and told school officials someone must have accessed his account and sent the message using his online name, ``padreraider,'' which refers to the school's nickname, the Raiders.
LAWRENCE (MA)
News Channel 10
POSTED: 3:21 pm EST March 29, 2005
UPDATED: 3:27 pm EST March 29, 2005
LAWRENCE, Mass. -- A priest has been fired as chaplain of a Catholic high school in Lawrence after it was learned that he been instant messaging with three students.
The Boston archdiocese said the Rev. Michael Randone has also resigned as pastor of Sacred Hearts church in Haverhill.
Central Catholic High School president Richard Van Houten said Randone violated the school's policy on appropriate boundaries between adults and minors.
Van Houten said Randone had previously been warned twice about "off-campus contact" with students.
One of the messages, sent with the same screen name that Randone used in other communications, allegedly contained comments of a sexual nature. But Van Houten said the school was uanble to verify that Randone had sent that particular message.
SAN ANTONIO (TX)
WOAI
His name is Juan Pablo Delgado, and he claims to see visions of the Virgin Mary. He has several Catholic followers from San Antonio, who disobeyed an order by the Archbishop to stay away from this cult leader. Now a former follower is speaking out hoping others will listen to her warnings. Trouble Shooter Brian Collister has the follow up to his investigation.
Over the past 2 years Trevino traveled between San Antonio and Costa Rica to be near Delgado. She even stayed at the Cost Rican sanctuary where Delgado claims he sees visions of the Virgin Mary.
“I was very...touched by the apparition," recalls Trevino.
Trevino now says she feels betrayed, “For a while he had made himself king, well, now he thinks he's god.”
News 4 WOAI obtained pictures taken inside the compound showing Delgado acting and dresses like a priest. The photos show bloody wounds on his hands and feet, similar to those of the crucifixion of Jesus. His critics claim it's all an act. And Trevino, who has donated thousands of dollars of her own money to the cult leader, agrees. ...
This isn’t the first time the cult has been in the media spotlight. The doomsday cult made headlines when a former San Antonio priest, Father Alfred Prado, joined the group. Prado is accused of molesting young boys more than 30-years ago at St.Timothy’s on the Westside.
The Trouble Shooters tracked him down in Costa Rica last year to ask him about the allegations.
“What about the charges in Texas" asked Brian Collister.
“They're all false, they're nonsense," said Father Prado.
Prado, who claims he was spiritually called to Costa Rica to be Delgado’s advisor, still remains at the compound.
FAIRBANKS (AK)
News-Miner
By DENNIS GABOURY
On Wednesday night, I participated in a extraordinary event at St. Raphael Catholic Church. At the invitation of Father Pat Berquist, I recounted the difficult story of my long recovery from sexual abuse by a Catholic priest, before an audience of about 80 parishioners and priests from around Fairbanks.
My appearance was the subject of an article that appeared in the News-Miner on Thursday. And I was saddened to read that the reporter, intent on recounting every prurient detail of my life before recovery, missed my points entirely.
I did not shed the armor of discretion to titillate readers or to seek pity for victims but to open a discussion with Catholics about the path to healing and recovery, both for victims of sexual abuse and for the Catholic church.
Clergy sexual abuse leaves a unique mark on the minds of children because it brings into question all their religious training and suppositions set against a criminal act. The years of self-abuse I engaged in were a direct result of an unconscious decision I made as a 10-year old child, the only decision a devoutly Catholic 10-year-old boy raped by a priest could possibly make given my prior indoctrination that I was a sinner and that priests were good and holy men.
SCRANTON (PA)
Scranton Times Tribune
By Chris Birk STAFF WRITER 03/29/2005
Slated to begin Monday, the sexual abuse trial of the Rev. Albert M. Liberatore in Manhattan, N.Y., was instead pushed back to early May.
The Diocese of Scranton priest, charged with three felony abuse charges in New York, will now face trial May 4, said Sherry Hunter, a spokeswoman in the Manhattan district attorney's office.
The New York charges -- one count of first-degree sodomy and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse -- are the most serious Father Liberatore faces in three separate jurisdictions, all stemming from abuse allegations levied by a University of Scranton student and former altar boy at Sacred Heart of Jesus church in Duryea.
In mid-July, Luzerne County District Attorney David Lupas filed indecent assault, corruption of minors, child endangerment and furnishing liquor to a minor charges against Father Liberatore. Four months later, the alleged victim filed a wide-ranging civil suit against the priest, the diocese and others in U.S. District Court in Scranton.
The New York and Luzerne County charges were both filed July 15.
"We've been in active trial preparation for many, many months, and that will continue," Scranton attorney Larry Moran, who represents Father Liberatore, said last week, aware a continuance was coming.
HAYWARD (CA)
KESQ
HAYWARD, Calif. Testimony continues today in a civil trial involving two brothers who say they were molested by a priest while they served as altar boys more than two decades ago.
Bob and Tom Thatcher are suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, claiming they were molested by a priest at an Antioch church in 1980.
Jurors will have to decide whether to award damages to the Thatchers. The two brothers are seeking compensatory damages, and Bob Thatcher is also asking for punitive damages to prevent future sexual abuse by priests.
The Oakland diocese, which includes more than 80 parishes in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, does not deny the abuse occurred.
WORCESTER (MA)
Worcester Voice
In view of the recent attempt of Worcester Bishop Robert McManus to convince the public that the Diocese of Worcester has no responsibility associated with Father Thomas Teczar, the actual letter (s) transferring him from state to state are now posted.
These letters tell clearly that the Worcester Diocese and Attorney James Reardon were made fully aware of the implications associated with allowing Father Teczar to transfer to another state and serve as an active priest.
Mr. Reardon, the diocesan lawyer who wrote one of the letters, was associated with the Reardon and Reardon law firm. His son, Gavin Reardon, currently is the diocesan lawyer and would have been aware of the letter. This letter is labeled Hand delivered which is underlined. Obviously Bishop Timothy Harrington and the now deceased James Reardon has a conversation.
Auxiliary Bishop George Rueger, in writing to Bishop Delaney of the Diocese of Forth Worth, Texas, begins his letter with pleasantries associated with a trip to Rome for both himself and Bishop Harrington. With such casual discourse does Auxiliary Bishop Rueger send this "dangerous" priest to Texas. Auxiliary Bishop Rueger writes the Bishop (Harrington) would be anxious for us to undertake this process. No concern was shown for the innocent children, but concern to release the potential for liability of the Worcester Diocese and Bishop Harrington.
HAYWARD (CA)
Contra Costa Times
By Randy Myers
HAYWARD - After the yard work was done, one brother waited at the bottom of the rectory's stairwell while the other went upstairs for his "punishment" at the hands of a sexually abusive priest.
That is how lead plaintiff attorney Rick Simons described the start of the sexual abuse of Robert and Tom Thatcher, two brothers and former Antioch altar boys who are suing the Oakland Diocese for damages in a decades-old molestation case at St. Ignatius.
"These events cost these boys dearly," Simons said during opening statements Monday in a Hayward courtroom.
Simons told the jury of 10 women and two men that the abuse robbed the brothers of their faith, their self-respect and a place to find solace. He said the defendant "gave the priest the green light."
The brothers' civil trial is part of the more than 150 Northern California sexual abuse lawsuits confronting dioceses after a California law lifted the statute of limitations for one year on the claims.
In his opening statement, Simons painted a portrait of the Thatchers as a devout but imperfect Catholic family whose trust and faith were betrayed by inaction of church personnel who were aware of Father Robert Ponciroli's behavior.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Kathleen A. Shaw TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
kshaw@telegram.com
WORCESTER— In a letter sent to the priests of Catholic Diocese of Worcester, Bishop Robert J. McManus emphatically denies any agreement was made with the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, to allow the Rev. Thomas H. Teczar to take a position as priest in Texas.
Two men from Ranger, Texas, brought a civil suit in Fort Worth, Texas, alleging that the two dioceses conspired to move the priest from the Worcester Diocese to Fort Worth after allegations of sexual abuse arose in the local diocese.
In his letter to priests, which was sent Saturday andwas publicly posted at www.worcesterdiocese.org, Bishop McManus said both dioceses partially settled the lawsuit involving one of the alleged victims, but added that the Worcester Diocese will not pay any of the $1.4 million settlement because it had no responsibility for Rev. Teczar when he left the Worcester.
The bishop said the lawyers for the two alleged victims have maintained a “conspiracy” existed between the two dioceses. However, Bishop McManus said, such a conspiracy was impossible because the Worcester Diocese never agreed to Rev. Teczar’s ministry in Texas.
“The plaintiffs’ theory is based, among other things, on a Church-wide conspiracy among United States dioceses,” he said. “The plaintiffs’ attorney is determined to weave the facts of this particular matter into that theory whether the facts fit or not.”
Bishop McManus said that even though the Worcester Diocese revoked Rev. Teczar’s permission to function as a priest and never restored it, Bishop Joseph P. Delaney of Fort Worth authorized the priest to take an assignment in his diocese in 1988. According to Bishop McManus, former Worcester Bishop Timothy J. Harrington made it clear to Bishop Delaney that he did not give permission for Rev. Teczar to serve in Texas.
The identities of the two plaintiffs in the case have been sealed. The case of John Doe I, who was represented by Daniel J. Shea of Houston, was settled late Thursday night. Mr. Shea said he was told after the settlement was reached that indemnification existed between the two dioceses and the issue came up in the context of why Worcester was not going to pay any part of the settlement.
David A. Lewcon, of Uxbridge, an alleged victim of Rev. Teczar in the local diocese, said he found it disconcerting that the bishop “almost prides himself with the fact that nothing was paid out from Worcester. He never mentioned how much it cost the Catholic faithful paid in legal fees.” Mr. Lewcon has been active in various victim support and advocacy groups.
Tahira Khan Merritt of Dallas, lawyer for John Doe II, said that based on statements made by Bishop McManus in the Saturday letter to priests, she intends to call the bishop to Dallas to answer more questions under oath. She does not have to subpoena Bishop McManus since the diocese is a party to the suit.
The suit involving John Doe II was not settled and will go to trial in Fort Worth in July unless a settlement is reached. Ms. Khan Merritt could offer no explanation why one suit was settled and the other was not.
District Attorney Russ Thomason of Eastland County, Texas, said yesterday that Rev. Teczar still faces criminal charges of sexual abuse. That case will go to trial in Texas, but no date has been set yet, he said.
The district attorney said he is considering appointing Ms. Khan Merritt as a special prosecutor in the case because she is familiar with the situation and can assist with the prosecution. The criminal charges are in connection to alleged sexual abuse of John Doe II, who is Ms. Khan Merritt’s client. Mr. Thomason said such special appointments are regularly done in Texas.
Rev. Teczar, 64, who lives in Dudley, is currently free on $30,000 bail. He was arrested in Dudley in December 2002 on a warrant from Texas and again on a Texas governor’s warrant in March 2003. The charges are aggravated sexual assault of a child, which is a felony in Texas.
AUSTRALIA
ABC
An Adelaide woman who alleges she was raped by an Anglican priest says she is speaking out because she feels the church is not admitting what it has done wrong in the past.
The woman, who is now aged 62 and wants to be known as Jess, is suing the church, claiming she was raped by Reverend Leonard Goggs, who died in 1979.
The church has acknowledged Reverend Goggs is the father of Jess's twin boys but she says it has not provided any money to help raise the children, who are now adults.
Jess says an apology is not good enough and the church should beg for her forgiveness.
"I allowed this person to have his life, his wife, his parish and allowed him to die in office in peace," she said.
"I had to live a double life. I had to battle to keep my children. I went without lots of things."
The administrator of the church's Adelaide diocese, John Collas, says the woman was the victim of sexual abuse by a person in a position of trust.
He says the church is investigating the claim that she was raped.
AUSTRALIA
Keralanext.com
[Australasia News] A Catholic priest facing 29 child sex charges dating back to the 1970s has appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court for the start of his committal hearing.
Frank Gerard Klep, 61, has been charged by Sexual Crimes Squad detectives with 28 counts of indecent assault and one of buggery.
The offences involve eight boys and were allegedly committed at Sunbury between 1973 and 1979.
Klep, a member of the Salesian order, was a teacher at the order's Rupertswood College in Sunbury, on Melbourne's north-west fringe, during the period and eventually rose to become principal.
He left Melbourne in April 1998 to become the senior financial officer at a Salesian theological college in Samoa.
A month later, Klep was charged with five counts of indecent assault involving a 15-year-old student at the college that dated back to 1973.
HAYWARD (CA)
The Argus
By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER
HAYWARD — Jurors began hearing evidence Monday on whether the Diocese of Oakland's failure to protect two Antioch brothers from a pedophile priest was knowing disregard for their safety or ignorance and neglect.
Nobody disputes that Bob and Tom Thatcher, now in their 30s, were molested in 1980 by Robert Ponciroli, since defrocked and now living in Florida. This jury must decide whether the diocese let it happen and, if so, how much it should pay.
This is the first of dozens of lawsuits against the Diocese of Oakland, encompassing Alameda and Contra Costa counties, to come to trial; negotiations on a mass settlement continue elsewhere.
"In this case, you're going to learn about the betrayal of trust," Rick Simons, the Thatchers' attorney, told jurors as he began his opening statement.
He showed jurors color photos of Bob and Tom Thatcher as they were at the time they were molested: fresh-faced young altar boys, ages 10 and 8, respectively.
HAYWARD (CA)
CBS 5
03/28/05 9:30 PST
HAYWARD (BCN)
The attorney for two former altar boys at a Catholic church in Antioch said today that the Diocese of Oakland must be held accountable for a "betrayal of trust" that resulted in a priest molesting them.
In the first of what could be many sex abuse cases against the Diocese of Oakland, Richard Simons, representing Robert and Tom Thatcher, said in his opening statement that church officials were negligent in assigning the Rev. Robert Ponciroli to Antioch's St. Ignatius Church in 1979 even though they knew he was a child molester.
Simons said Ponciroli's sexual abuse of the Thatcher brothers in 1980, which church officials admit occurred, wasn't an isolated incident but instead was "part of a policy and practice of disregarding the safety of children" and looking the other way while "priests conducted criminal violations of children."
Robert Thatcher, who now lives in Arizona, was about 10 years old at the time and Tom Thatcher, who now lives in Florida, was about 9.
Simons asked for unspecified compensatory damages for both brothers, stating that they've suffered emotional problems such as anxiety and issues of sexual identity and confusion, ever since they were molested about 25 years ago.
Robert Thatcher is also seeking unspecified punitive damages.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writer
SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Archdiocese acknowledged in court Monday that it had failed to thoroughly investigate a sex-abuse complaint against a priest in 1977, an unusual admission that comes as it and the Oakland Diocese face trials this week brought by alleged victims.
Both cases are receiving statewide attention because they are among the first to come to trial since the Catholic Church was hit by the abuse scandal three years ago. Legal experts said the amount of the settlements probably would influence the outcomes of more than 700 cases statewide, 544 of which involve the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
The San Francisco case involves Father Joseph T. Pritchard, now deceased, who is accused of molesting at least 22 children throughout the 1970s. In a statement read by a judge Monday to prospective jurors, the archdiocese admitted that it did not investigate "thoroughly enough or do enough at that time to protect the children."
The statement also acknowledged that three fellow priests "sometimes walked into the room where sexual molestation had been taking place and should have seen enough circumstances to make them suspicious of Father Pritchard's behavior" and reported it to his superiors.
HAYWARD (CA)
Mercury News
TERENCE CHEA
Associated Press
HAYWARD, Calif. - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland practiced a policy of secrecy, negligence and disregard for children's safety that led to the sexual abuse of two altar boys more than 20 years ago, a plaintiffs' attorney argued at the start of a civil trial that could influence hundreds of similar cases throughout California.
"This was not an isolated incident," attorney Rick Simons told jurors Monday during opening statements. He said the diocese gave the Rev. Robert Ponciroli "the opportunity and green light for sexual molestation and abuse of children with actual knowledge of his history and knowing disregard of their safety."
The case, which involves two former Antioch altar boys suing the Oakland diocese, stems from one of more than 750 lawsuits that have been filed against Catholic dioceses in California since a 2002 state law temporarily lifted the statue of limitations on decades-old claims of sexual abuse by priests.
The case of brothers Bob and Tom Thatcher is the second lawsuit to go to trial, and the first that seeks punitive damages that could substantially raise the amount of money cash-strapped dioceses must pay to victims. Negotiations for settlements continue for more than 150 other sexual abuse lawsuits filed in Northern California.
NEW YORK
New York Daily News
"Then one of the 12, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests and said unto them, 'What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?' And they covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver." Matthew 26:14-15.
And so the high priests of Brooklyn and Queens waited until the Wednesday before Holy Thursday, the same day Judas struck his treacherous bargain to betray Jesus, to announce that St. Thomas Aquinas Elementary School was getting the kiss of death.
A guilt-ridden Judas hung himself.
The Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens should at least hang its head in lasting shame.
This all started on Feb. 8 when Msgr. Michael Hardiman, the vicar of education for the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens, first listed St. Thomas Aquinas, on Fourth Ave. and Eighth St. in Park Slope, as one of the 26 schools to be shuttered in June.
A changing demographic and the grotesque priest sexual-abuse scandals had helped crumble the once-rock-solid Catholic school system. It certainly didn't help that the former bishop, Thomas Daily, who came from Boston, was so busy covering his dirty tracks in the pedophile coverups up there that he let the Brooklyn and Queens parochial school system go into decline.
HAYWARD (CA)
KTVU
POSTED: 11:48 am PST March 28, 2005
UPDATED: 7:02 pm PST March 28, 2005
HAYWARD, Calif. -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland practiced a policy of secrecy, negligence and disregard for children's safety that led to the sexual abuse of two altar boys more than 20 years ago, a plaintiffs' attorney argued Monday at the start of a civil trial that could influence hundreds of similar cases throughout California.
"This was not an isolated incident," attorney Rick Simons told jurors during opening statements. He said the diocese gave the Rev. Robert Ponciroli "the opportunity and green light for sexual molestation and abuse of children with actual knowledge of his history and knowing disregard of their safety."
The case, which involves two former Antioch altar boys suing the Oakland diocese, stems from one of more than 750 lawsuits that have been filed against Catholic dioceses in California since a 2002 state law temporarily lifted the statue of limitations on decades-old claims of sexual abuse by priests.
The case of brothers Bob and Tom Thatcher is the second lawsuit to go to trial, and the first that seeks punitive damages that could substantially raise the amount of money cash-strapped dioceses must pay to victims. Negotiations for settlements continue for more than 150 other sexual abuse lawsuits filed in Northern California.
The first case to reach trial ended Thursday when a San Francisco jury awarded $437,000 to 47-year-old Dennis Kavanaugh, a former altar boy who sued the Archdiocese of San Francisco claiming he was repeatedly abused by a San Jose priest in the early 1970s.
On Friday, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton agreed to pay $3.6 million to settle claims by two victims molested by a Lodi priest who was later deported to Ireland.
AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
By Sam Lienert
29mar05
AN Adelaide woman is seeking financial compensation from the Anglican Church after bringing up twin boys fathered by a priest, who allegedly raped her.
The woman says she was raped when she was 19 by Father Leonard Russell Goggs in the vestry of Renmark Anglican church in 1962.
Adelaide diocese administrator Archdeacon John Collas said the church acknowledged the woman was a victim of sexual assault and that Father Goggs, who died in 1979, was the father of the twins.
But Archdeacon Collas said the church did not know whether she had been raped.
The woman's lawyer, Peter Humphries, said the church had provided almost no support to the woman or her children.
"Twin boys were born of this one sexual act and the church have apparently recognised the paternity of those boys almost from day one, but really not provided any assistance towards their upbringing and similarly offered not very much support to their mother," he said.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Editor & Publisher
By The Associated Press
Published: March 28, 2005 11:00 PM ET
PHILADELPHIA The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia suspended a priest this month after he allegedly told a newspaper reporter that he had fondled a teenage girl several decades ago.
Church officials said they removed Msgr. Philip J. Dowling from all public ministry on March 18, the day they were informed by The Philadelphia Inquirer that the retired pastor had confessed during an interview to having engaged in "inappropriate" touching of a girl in his parish.
"It crossed the (line)," Dowling told the newspaper. "And I'm very sorry for the inappropriate acts and touches."
The newspaper said it interviewed Dowling three times this month as part of an investigation into allegations by two women, now in their 50s.
One of the women said the abuse started when she was 8 and continued until she was 14. The other sister said Dowling began abusing her when she was 11 or 12 and continued until she was 18.
DALLAS (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By Anthony Spangler
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
DALLAS -- A suspended Grand Prairie priest was indicted last week on felony charges of possessing child pornography, court records show.
Father Matthew Bagert, 36, pastor of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church on Northeast 17th Street, was arrested for having child pornography on a church computer.
The Dallas Catholic Diocese indefinitely suspended Bagert after they informed Grand Prairie police of the images.
HAYWARD (CA)
NBC 11
HAYWARD, Calif. -- A lawyer for two former altar boys at an Antioch church said Monday that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland gave "opportunity and a green light" to a priest who molested boys.
In his opening statement in the first of what could be many priest sex-abuse cases against the Oakland diocese, attorney Richard Simons said the diocese sent the Rev. Robert Ponciroli to St. Ignatius Parish in Antioch in 1979 even though officials knew his conduct at other churches "was not unblemished."
Simons said that Ponciroli abused Bob and Tom Thatcher in 1980 and said the brothers have suffered emotional problems, such as anxiety and issues of sexual identity and confusion, ever since.
Simons also said Ponciroli's actions weren't an isolated incident within the diocese but instead were part of the diocesan policy of "disregarding the safety of children."
FLUSHING (MI)
Flint Journal
Monday, March 28, 2005
By George Jaksa
gjaksa@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6332
FLUSHING - Patrick Antos and Anthony Otero got the chance in court to face the priest they said sexually abused them as children.
Now their parents want others to have the same opportunity.
Antonio and Elva Otero of Flushing and John and Lillian Antos of Mt. Morris Township are taking a stand in favor of the state Legislature lifting Michigan's statute of limitations on sexual abuse cases - the time in which such cases can be prosecuted.
The limit on prosecuting those cases is usually 10 years. The families want more time so other abusers can be prosecuted.
"Our children, Pat Antos and Tony Otero, had the opportunity in 2003 to put the man who sexually abused them as children behind bars," said Antonio Otero.
"We ask this question: Why should other men and women who were sexually abused as children not be afforded the same opportunity to prosecute their sexual abusers?"
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS 3
Mar 28, 2005 6:04 pm US/Eastern
PHILADELPHIA (KYW) A former Philadelphia priest has been suspended after two sisters reported years of sexual abuse.
Now, as CBS 3’s Robin Rieger reports, the priest has even admitted to fondling one of them.
The Philadelphia Archdiocese confirms Monsignor Philip Dowling is being investigated for allegations of sexual abuse of minors.
The investigation comes after the Philadelphia Inquirer told Diocesan officials on March 18th that Dowling admitted to a reporter that decades ago he engaged in inappropriate touching of a girl.
However, Dowling denied abusing her sister.
The women told the newspaper the abuse went on for years and one sister says she was raped.
LONG ISLAND (NY)
National
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
On March 19, I spoke at a Voice of the Faithful conference on Long Island, N.Y. Some 500 people showed up -- mostly, I'm sure, drawn by Dominican Fr. Thomas Doyle, the prophet who anticipated the American sexual abuse crisis back in the 1980s, and by the opportunity to network with one another.
I missed Doyle's presentation, because I had to come out to Long Island by the morning train. According to a Newsday report, however, he told the group that, "The issue is basically power," urging laity to "move from infancy to adulthood" in their attitudes toward church leaders.
The nation's bishops, he reportedly said, "are still putting a Band-Aid over a cancer."
Doyle today works as an addiction counselor in Maryland.
The on-going fallout of the crisis was clear at the gathering. The corridors outside the hotel ballroom, for example, were dominated by posters containing information on 39 priests accused of abuse who had either worked for, or in, the Rockville Centre diocese, the main ecclesiastical jurisdiction on Long Island. The posters were produced by BishopAccountability.org, a reform organization that has also posted data on the group's web site.
SALEM (MA)
Salem News
The Easter Sunday just past was an especially joyous one for the Rev. Edward Keohan, who returned to the pulpit for the first time in 19 months.
The beloved former pastor of the closed St. Mary's Italian Catholic Church in Salem and Salem Hospital chaplain, had been living under a cloud since a Gloucester man said he'd been abused by Keohan in the early 1980s. Last week the Boston Archdiocese said it could find no evidence of such abuse and authorized Keohan, 73, to resume his official duties.
Remarkably, Keohan evidences no bitterness towards his accuser or the church, and says he is simply looking forward to resuming his vocation of 40 years, though he is still not sure of his next assignment.
The fact that other priests have been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of such abuse, and the church has paid out millions to settle claims of misconduct, does not lessen the extent of the injustice Keohan has suffered. Few can imagine the pain he has had to endure since learning of the accusations and suspension via a friend — who himself heard about it from the TV.
AUSTRALIA
The Courier-Mail
By Nigel Hunt
29mar05
AN Adelaide woman who gave birth to twin boys after being raped by an Anglican priest is seeking compensation from the church.
Lawyers acting for the woman, 62, have notified the church of the claim, but it has not acknowledged correspondence seeking an out-of-court settlement.
This is despite the church's hierarchy – both past and present – conceding that Father Leonard Russell Goggs, who died in 1979, was the father of the twins.
Although the church – including former Anglican Archbishop Keith Rayner – acknowledged to the woman, who wishes to be known only as Jess, that Father Goggs was the father, she has had no financial or pastoral assistance.
Duncan Basheer Hannon lawyer Susan Litchfield said yesterday she would lodge a claim against the church in the District Court after failing to secure a settlement.
HAYWARD (CA)
CBS 5
03/28/05 11:40 PST
HAYWARD (BCN)
A lawyer for two former altar boys at an Antioch church said today that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland gave "opportunity and a green light'' to a priest who molested boys.
In his opening statement in the first of what could be many priest sex-abuse cases against the Oakland diocese, attorney Richard Simons said the diocese sent the Rev. Robert Ponciroli to St. Ignatius Parish in Antioch in 1979 even though officials knew his conduct at other churches "was not unblemished.''
Simons said that Ponciroli abused Bob and Tom Thatcher in 1980 and said the brothers have suffered emotional problems, such as anxiety and issues of sexual identity and confusion, ever since.
Simons also said Ponciroli's actions weren't an isolated incident within the diocese but instead were part of the diocesan policy of "disregarding the safety of children.''
WISCONSIN
The Journal Times
By Mike Moore
Priest abuse For a change, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests took time several weeks back to honor - not bash - one of the important members of the Milwaukee Archdiocese.
SNAP asked members of my parish, St. Paul the Apostle in Racine, to honor the Rev. Paul Esser for taking a stand against the transfer of abusive priest Siegfried Widera in the 1970s. It was a welcome and necessary shift toward healing, I suggested.
My column made the rounds through the abuse victim community to Gabrielle Azzaro, who said she was abused by a religious sister.
"I certainly wish I had never been molested," she wrote back. "I absolutely wish the same for the hundreds of others to whom this happened that I know of. However, we cannot undo the past. We can do something about the future. Although we need to hope, we cannot participate in a false hope that keeps us from working for healing and prevention. We cannot let some good priests, sisters, bishops blind us to the fact that there are still so many out there who need to be stopped before they destroy any more lives."
Well said.
CENTER CITY (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Nancy Phillips
Inquirer Staff Writer
The Catholic Church has suspended a former Center City pastor and placed him under investigation after he admitted to The Inquirer that he had repeatedly fondled a teenage girl decades ago.
The church acted after being told by The Inquirer of allegations against Msgr. Philip J. Dowling on March 18. That day, church officials barred him from public ministry and from wearing his collar in public.
Dowling, 75, who retired in July as pastor of St. Patrick parish, told the newspaper that he had repeatedly engaged in "inappropriate" touching of the girl, but denied abusing her sister, as both women now allege. He admitted the touching was sexual. "It crossed the bound," he said, "and I'm very sorry for the inappropriate acts and touches."
The case raises questions about District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham's long-running grand jury probe of sex abuse by clergy. The two sisters gave detailed accounts to Abraham's office nearly three years ago.
But church officials say prosecutors never told them of this, even though at the time Dowling was pastor of St. Patrick, a large congregation just off Rittenhouse Square.
Nor, it seems, did the district attorney ever question Dowling.
HAYWARD (CA)
Contra Costa Times
By Randy Myers
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
HAYWARD - A jury of 10 women and two men, including five people who identify themselves as Catholic, is expected to hear opening arguments today in a civil trial over decades-old sexual abuse allegations involving the Diocese of Oakland.
Two former Antioch altar boys, brothers Robert and Tom Thatcher, are seeking compensatory damages from the church. The brothers claim they were abused by Robert Ponciroli at St. Ignatius in Antioch between 1979 and 1981. Ponciroli was later defrocked.
Robert Thatcher, who now lives in Arizona, is also seeking punitive damages.
Because the diocese has conceded it acted negligently in the case, the jury now must decide whether the church should pay both kinds of damages and how much it should pay.
Church lawyers have argued that Robert Thatcher's pursuit of punitive damages, which would likely drive up the award amount, does not meet necessary legal criteria.
The trial could tarnish the church's reputation because lead plaintiffs attorney Rick Simons is likely to focus on a 1975 memo that Bishop Floyd Begin, who is dead now, wrote to himself.
The memo indicates that the diocese knew of complaints from altar boys and parents about Ponciroli and that the altar boys had circulated a petition protesting how he treated them.
VATICAN
Washington Post
By Sidney Callahan
Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page B02
In the face of death, Pope John Paul II's iron will is giving him the strength to suffer courageously. But even this most determined of pontiffs won't be able to stave off the inevitable: the church's need to choose a successor, an event that millions of Catholics anticipate with both anxiety and hope.
There's been vigorous debate about the papacy for more than 1,000 years, and as this pontificate nears its end, there are no signs of a cease-fire. At this point, Roman Catholics can agree that the bishop of Rome should hold the office of pope and exercise churchwide leadership. But beyond this minimum, they disagree over what needs to be changed and what should stay the same.
The prospect of electing a new pope brings up crucial questions: What makes a good pontiff? What are popes for? Will the papacy even continue to be a going concern over the next millennium? ...
The priest sex abuse scandal here in the United States revealed the institutional weaknesses in the American church and the urgent need for change. Good institutions operate on the ethical principles of accountability, separation of powers, due process and public disclosure. But the current church is too centralized; bishops, appointed by the pope, must answer to Rome on all matters. This has led to weakness, timidity and too often an effort, in the sex abuse scandal, to sweep the truth under the rug. What a difference it would make if the church reinstated the ancient practice of electing bishops, allowing the priests and people of a diocese to choose their own leaders.
In the wake of the sex abuse scandal, loyal lay Catholics have offered to help the bishops improve their management practices, but the church today resists advice from the laity. The consent of the governed is an ancient Catholic precept, but one that unfortunately became obscured when monarchies ruled the world. While the church advocates that the faithful should participate equally in taking responsibility for all its actions, this teaching has never been instituted in practice. A new pope should move the church forward to complete the reforms in governance and lay participation that were envisioned in the teachings of Vatican II.
The New York Times
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: March 27, 2005
Some may mock the Vatican for waiting until everyone on earth has read "The Da Vinci Code" to denounce "The Da Vinci Code."
I am not one of them. It's Easter, and I don't want to blot my catechism.
It's a little late, now that the two-year-old thriller by Dan Brown is a publishing miracle - with 25 million copies sold in 44 languages, a cascade of other books inspired by the novel and a movie with Tom Hanks set to start filming this spring - for Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to intone on a Vatican radio broadcast: "Don't read and don't buy 'The Da Vinci Code.' "
But when you think of the history of the Catholic Church, the Vatican is acting with lightning speed. It took the church more than 350 years to reverse its condemnation of Galileo. The Vatican only began an inquisition of the 16th-century Inquisition in 1998. It wasn't until the reign of Pope John Paul II that the Vatican apologized for the crimes of the Crusaders and offered contrition for the silence of Catholics in the Holocaust. The church has still not apologized for shameful dissembling by its hierarchy on the sex abuse scandal. And America's Catholic bishops only last week announced they were finally going to get serious about opposing the death penalty.
ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer
First published: Friday, March 25, 2005
ALBANY -- A man who claims he was sexually abused as a teenager by an Albany priest both here and in Massachusetts is suing the Albany and Boston dioceses for $3 million.
Named in the lawsuit is the late Rev. Donald Starks of St. Francis de Sales Church in West Albany, Bishop Howard Hubbard, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and defendant "Doe."
Leonard Motto made his case public Thursday, during a news conference in Schenectady.
A lawsuit with similar details about alleged abuse by Starks and another priest in the same time frame was filed in October 2004 by Charlton resident Michael Mooney.
Motto, 46, said he was 14 and attending Mass every week when he first met Starks in 1974.
A member of the church's folk music group, Motto said he often saw Starks for help with school work. He said the priest would comment on his looks and say with "time and patience" he could be a very smart student. But when Motto offered a wrong answer, court papers said, Starks would tell him "that's on your charge account."
STOCKTON (CA)
Union-Tribune
UNION-TRIBUNE
March 27, 2005
STOCKTON – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton has agreed to pay $3.6 million to settle claims by two victims molested by a Lodi priest who was later deported to Ireland.
The two unidentified victims are now in their 40s. They were elementary school students ages 11 and 12 at St. Anne's Catholic Church in Lodi when they were molested by the Rev. Oliver O'Grady. O'Grady was convicted in 1993 of molesting the boys and served seven years before he was deported.
The victims' attorneys, Gregory Davenport and Jeffrey Silvia, said Friday each victim will get $1.8 million.
MODESTO (CA)
Modesto Bee
By ROGER W. HOSKINS
BEE STAFF WRITER
Last Updated: March 27, 2005, 04:12:23 AM PST
Members of St. Joseph's Catholic Church hailed a jury's verdict that cleared a priest of sexual battery.
However, the jury awarded the family $20,000 for emotional distress over the way the Rev. Francis Arakal and the Rev. Joseph Illo responded to a child's complaint about the incident.
And a spokeswoman for the girls who sued worried that the case will keep people from coming forward to confront abusers.
Shannon Munoz, a 32-year-old mother of three, was waiting for St. Joseph's Easter Vigil Saturday. She found fault with the jury's mixed reasoning.
"I don't think the family should have been awarded anything. I don't think the parish is at fault," she said.
She expressed complete confidence in both priests. "If I didn't have confidence in them, I wouldn't be here now and every Wednesday and Sunday."
CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee
By KIM CURTIS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Last Updated: March 27, 2005, 04:12:29 AM PST
SAN FRANCISCO — Roman Catholic leaders say they want to do the right thing for clergy abuse victims, but church financial statements suggest some dioceses may not be able to afford many more payments like the $437,000 awarded Thursday in the first of more than 750civil suits to go to trial in California.
Both the San Francisco and Oakland dioceses have been spending more cash than they've been collecting in recent years, which leaves them ill-prepared for a wave of potentially large judgments, according to audited financial statements for 2002 and 2003 reviewed by The Associated Press.
With about $56 million in cash and liquid assets, San Francisco could likely weather a moderate financial hit. The San Francisco diocese listed $99.7 million in total assets through June 2003, which includes such hard-to-sell assets as churches and other real estate.
The Oakland diocese is less financially secure, judging from its financial statements — it has about $39 million in easily accessible cash and assets and about $54 million in all.
Just how much each diocese can expect their insurers to pay isn't publicly known. Neither diocese would discuss its insurance coverage. But they may be particularly hard pressed if juries award punitive damages, which by law must be paid by the churches and not their insurers.
SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Boston.com
By Associated Press | March 27, 2005
SPRINGFIELD -- The bishop of the Springfield Diocese has called for a steep 18 percent budget cut to combat flat income, rising costs, and three years of deficit spending.
In a meeting last week, Bishop Timothy McDonnell told diocesan cabinet secretaries and department heads that the across-the-board cut would be instituted for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1, The Republican of Springfield reported.
Diocesan spokesman Mark Dupont said some programs could be eliminated, but he did not give specifics. He said that McDonnell hoped to minimize the effect on parishes, though Dupont added it is still too early to know precisely what the fallout will be.
Dupont said McDonnell also wants to avoid layoffs, even though personnel costs are a large portion of the overall budget. ...
The diocese has had deficits of $305,000, $1.3 million, and $664,437 in the last three fiscal years, respectively, with annual spending around $20 million. This past fiscal year, the diocese also absorbed the cost of a $7.7 million settlement with 46 victims of sexual abuse by clergy. The money was taken from diocesan savings. The diocese is hoping to recoup some of the settlement costs from its insurance carriers, but said it will be dealing from the loss of interest income for years. Roughly 30 claims of clergy abuse remain to be settled.
The diocese's income has stayed flat as the number of Catholics in the diocese has dropped 31 percent during the past 20 years, from 351,181 in 1984 to 240,730 in 2004, according to church statistics.
SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Republican
Sunday, March 27, 2005
By BILL ZAJAC
wzajac@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - In his first year as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell has been seen by many local Catholics as a healer who has restored people's confidence in the local church and possesses the skills to continue moving the diocese forward - even through financially difficult times.
Others see him as unwilling to listen to others, tied to old church ways and offering little more than a jovial demeanor when desperate measures are needed.
McDonnell, who served as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of New York before coming to Springfield, was unavailable for an interview for this story because of Holy Week commitments, according to diocesan spokesman Mark E. Dupont.
Regardless of how people measure McDonnell's first year on the job, almost everyone agrees he stepped into a difficult situation.
When he was installed as the diocese's eighth bishop on April 1 last year, both clergy and lay people were feeling hurt, confused and disillusioned in the wake of the resignation of Bishop Thomas L. Dupre in February 2004 amid allegations of sexual abuse.
Seven months later, Dupre was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of rape of minors. The charges were immediately dropped because Hampden County District Attorney William M. Bennett said he couldn't overcome the statute of limitations.
UNITED STATES
MSNBC
By Sarah Childress
NewsweekApril 4 issue - Joe Maher never knows what to expect when he picks up the phone. Sometimes there's a trembling pause before a priest, choking back tears, tells him a disturbingly familiar tale: an accusation of sexual abuse, exile from his community. Other times, there's a caller screaming obscenities, furious that Maher would even speak to these "sinners." A mild-mannered, devout Roman Catholic, Maher is the founder of Opus Bono Sacerdotii—Latin for "Work for the Good of the Priesthood"—the only lay advocacy group for priests accused of sexual misconduct. Some of the priests seeking help are likely innocent, others are not. But Maher believes in supporting them all. "Priests are out there destitute, abandoned and desperate," he says. "And they need help."
After the sexual-abuse scandal exploded in 2002, the Catholic Church adopted a zero-tolerance policy, instructing bishops to quietly suspend accused priests from their duties until the church had fully investigated. (The statute of limitations has already passed for state action in most of the cases Maher hears about.) During the investigations, accused priests are supposed to continue receiving stipends, room and board. But that isn't always the case: some bishops, anxious to assuage their congregations, have gone public with the accusations, cutting the priests' stipends and forcing them off church property. That's where Opus Bono steps in. Tucked away in a factory building on the outskirts of Detroit, Maher and a half dozen priests field calls and e-mails from the accused. Part therapist, part social worker, Maher calms down the men and determines what they need: legal advice, money to cover the rent and lawyer's fees, or just a sympathetic ear.
A 44-year-old former financial consultant, Maher didn't set out to become a champion of this cause. But in 2002, when a priest in his parish who was visiting from Africa was accused of rape, Maher felt pity for the man. He paid the priest's $5,000 bail and hired him a lawyer. When the priest was acquitted, Maher's efforts caught the attention of the media, and the calls came pouring in from other men of the cloth. So Maher quit his job advising CFOs and set up Opus Bono with donations from Catholics who shared his sympathies. Since then, Maher says he's been contacted by more than 1,000 priests. And each week four or five more find their way to him. He makes no personal judgment as to their guilt or innocence; he's knelt to receive a blessing from a priest behind bars, and he addresses even defrocked priests with a reverent "Father." Those actions have made him a lightning rod for victims' advocates. "There's almost a blind loyalty to the institutional church," says Barbara Blaine, head of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, who believes that public support for priests prevents victims from coming forward. More-militant opponents have even phoned in death threats and thrown human feces at Maher's car.
STOCKTON (CA)
Record
By Scott Smith
Record Staff Writer
Published Saturday, March 26, 2005
STOCKTON -- Two molestation victims of a Lodi priest who was jailed and later deported to Ireland have won a $3.6 million settlement from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton, attorneys for the victims said Friday.
The resolution means the diocese will pay $1.8 million to each man as compensation for abuses committed when they were boys. The settlement is the first in San Joaquin County in the three years since an Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled that victims of sexual abuse could extend the statute of limitations for one year to file claims in California.
The Rev. Oliver O'Grady of St. Anne's Catholic Church in Lodi was convicted of molesting the boys, then 11 and 12, when they were elementary school students at the church. The unidentified victims are now in their 40s, said their Stockton attorneys, Gregory Davenport and Jeffrey Silvia.
"Our clients are extremely happy," Davenport said. "They feel for the other victims who are going to have to continue on in this battle."
Attorneys for the Stockton Diocese in the case could not be reached for comment Friday.
HAYWARD (CA)
The Argus
By Michelle Meyers, STAFF WRITER
HAYWARD — Debbie Lukas' pain stems from more than the sexual abuse she and a group of Oakland families say they suffered at the hands of her childhood priest.
She's also saddened and outraged by the way the church, as she puts it, continues to shirk its responsibility to protect children by "covering-up" the alleged crimes.
Lukas' frustration spurred her to organize a rally of a couple dozen abuse survivors at lunchtime Friday in front of the Hayward Hall of Justice, where a related trial gets under way next week.
In a push for more "transparency" about clergy abuse, the activists wielded signs that read "No excuse for coverup" and "Pedophiles don't quit — Is your child next?" They targeted mothers going to and from the courthouse.
Oakland mother Lawana Stuckey, who was at the Hall of Justice on court business, said while she trusts those educating her four children in Catholic schools, she was happy to get a list of alleged abusers in the San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose dioceses.
SACRAMENTO (CA)
News 10
The discovery that two Catholic priests accused of child molestation in Sacramento are now serving in churches in Mexico has one of the victims outraged and calling for justice.
Salvador Perez is publicly coming forward for the first time. As an eight-year-old in St. Joseph's Church he was molested by Father Jose Luis Urbina, his parish priest (shown at center in the above photo from the Dallas Morning News). Urbina was convicted in Yuba County in 1989, but fled to Mexico. This month, a Dallas newspaper found him serving a parish in Novajoa, Mexico.
Perez wants more done to prevent priests involved in child molestation from fleeing prosecution. "It's infuriating to know he's still getting employment," he said. "He's still a priest."
The Sacramento Diocese said it sent letters to the bishop in Mexico about Urbina but received no response. Former Sacramento Bishop John Quinn even went to Mexico seeking Urbina, but was unable to find him.
Now there is word another priest from St. Joseph's, Father Gerardo Beltran, is also serving in Mexico after being accused of molestation. Beltran left town when an arrest warrant was issued for him on charges he allegedly molested two girls in the Sacramento parish.
NEW YORK
New Kerala
[U.S. News] NEW YORK, March 25 : A young woman has testified in New York her pastor, on trial for statutory rape, repeatedly had sex with her so she could become a great evangelist.
William Waynes, 47, is charged with third-degree rape, or statutory rape, and endangering the welfare of a child, Newsday reported Friday.If convicted, he faces four in prison.
Prosecutors say Waynes, who refers to himself as "bishop" of his storefront Pentecostal church, had consensual sexual intercourse with the victim four or five times before her 17th birthday.It is illegal for anyone older than 18 to have sex with anyone younger than 17.
"He would say that the priest should sleep with the virgin," the woman testified Thursday, "and that it's OK to do this because he loved me -- and in order for me to become an evangelist, and to become powerful ...he would have to enter inside me so that his spirit can come from him inside me so that I can become a great evangelist."
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Press-Telegram
By Kim Curtis
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — Roman Catholic leaders say they want to do the right thing for clergy abuse victims, but church financial statements suggest some dioceses may not be able to afford many more payments like the $437, 000 awarded Thursday in the first of more than 750 civil suits to go to trial in California.
Both the San Francisco and Oakland dioceses have been spending more cash than they've been collecting in recent years, which leaves them ill-prepared for a wave of potentially large judgments, according to audited financial statements for 2002 and 2003 reviewed by The Associated Press.
With about $56 million in cash and liquid assets, San Francisco could likely weather a moderate financial hit. The San Francisco diocese listed $99.7 million in total assets through June 2003, which includes such hard-to-sell assets as churches and other real estate.
The Oakland diocese is less financially secure, judging from its financial statements it has about $39 million in easily accessible cash and assets and about $54 million in all.
TUCSON (AZ)
KVOA
A major challenge to the Catholic Diocese of Tucson's finances, occurred in court Friday.
A plaintiff attorney says all 77 parishes, as well as schools should be considered part of the diocese's bankrupt estate. That could make them targets for liquidation by creditors.
The diocese has long maintained that parishes are separate legal entities, and that parish assets aren't diocese assets.
Friday, a federal judge disregarded a portion of the motion to include all parish assets with diocese assets, on a technicality. He will decide whether he'll even consider the motion on April 19th.
In the mean time, many hope that complicated issue can be put on the back burner, so that the focus is on creating a compensation plan for victims -- one that all parties agree upon.
A plan many lawyers say will include contributions from parishes anyway.
WASHINGTON
KGW
03/26/2005
Associated Press
A Roman Catholic priest who stunned his parishioners at St. Brendan Church when he told them he was sexually abused as a boy is resigning from the priesthood and may write a book about his experience.
The Rev. Lawrence Minder, 44, said he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his abuse, which he says occurred when he was in seminary as a teenager. Counselors at an Arizona treatment facility told him recently he needed to separate from the priesthood to work through the issues underlying the disorder.
"It's been an internal conflict for the last three years to, in a sense, keep putting a best face on a situation that has no best face," he said Thursday.
On one hand, he felt a responsibility as pastor to "protect the fragile faith of the people" and to lead the parish through the larger sex-abuse scandal. At the same time, he was angry at "the scope (of the scandal) and lack of responsible leadership" of the bishops over the years, he said.
IOWA
The Dispatch
By Whitney Carnahan, wcarnahan@qconline.com
A possible purchase of the Davenport Diocese's St. Vincent Center at 2706 N. Gaines St. could offer St. Ambrose University room to grow and the Catholic diocese cash to help pay judgments from sex-abuse lawsuits.
The diocese asked SAU to consider buying the 50-acre parcel for campus expansion last fall, after the diocese agreed Oct. 28 to pay $9 million to 37 individuals who accused clergy of sexual abuse.
"This is a follow-up to an earlier inquiry," said Bishop William Franklin, who also is president of the SAU board of directors. SAU is affiliated with the diocese.
The St. Vincent Center serves as headquarters for the diocese. An additional 10 acres on the site is leased to the Sisters of Humility and would not be included in the purchase.
The preliminary appraisal of the parcel performed for the diocese valued the property at $4.55 million.
TUCSON (AZ)
Tucson Citizen
SHERYL KORNMAN
Tucson Citizen
People who filed sexual abuse claims against the Tucson Catholic Diocese may see some money paid out as early as August, based on dates set in federal bankruptcy court yesterday.
The dates move the diocese's Chapter 11 case toward a late summer conclusion.
Bishop Gerald Kicanas said yesterday he does not expect many more individuals to come forward alleging they were abused by priests as the April 15 date for filing claims against the diocese nears. He spoke after yesterday's hearing.
About 40 claims by individuals alleging sexual abuse have been filed. They will be reviewed by a special master, usually an attorney, to be appointed by Bankruptcy Court Judge James M. Marlar.
Susan Boswell, lead bankruptcy attorney for the diocese, said in a court filing yesterday that parishes in the diocese will provide for "a significant and critical contribution" to the settlement plan.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Saturday, March 26, 2005
The Boston archdiocese yesterday came to a compromise with a closed Quincy parish that had planned to celebrate Easter Mass with a married Catholic priest at a Protestant church.
Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley agreed to send a diocesan priest to celebrate tomorrow's Mass at 11:30 a.m. at Squantum Elementary School for members of Star of the Sea parish.
O'Malley also agreed to allow Easter Mass at St. Albert the Great in Weymouth and St. Anselm's in Sudbury, two of the seven parishes that have maintained round-the-clock vigils months after they were scheduled to close.
In a statement yesterday, a spokeswoman said the archbishop ``recognized there was a pastoral need among these two parish communities whose members strongly desire to celebrate the Easter liturgy together.''
But although the concessions were applauded by parishioners at all three parishes, they were decried by people at some of the 78 other parishes O'Malley has decided to close because of the financial crisis brought on by the clergy sexual-abuse scandal.
BOTHELL (WA)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By JAKE ELLISON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
The Bothell priest who told his congregation that a priest molested him when he was a child, then took a leave of absence from his duties, has resigned.
The Rev. Lawrence Minder told friends and parishioners of St. Brendan Catholic Church in a letter dated March 15 that he was leaving the priesthood after four months of inpatient treatment at a trauma center in Arizona.
"I need to move on," Minder wrote in his letter. He said he had underestimated the impact of his sexual abuse and the effect of staying with an "institution which has proven to be untrustworthy."
Comparing his relationship with the church to that of a person who stays with an abusive spouse, Minder said he was sad to leave but hoped "this step will free me to live a happier and healthier life in the future."
Seattle Archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni didn't return telephone calls by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer yesterday.
This is the second time Minder has resigned from the church.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Monterey Herald
KIM CURTIS
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - Roman Catholic leaders say they want to do the right thing for clergy abuse victims, but church financial statements suggest some dioceses may not be able to afford many more payments like the $437,000 awarded Thursday in the first of more than 750 civil suits to go to trial in California.
Both the San Francisco and Oakland dioceses have been spending more cash than they've been collecting in recent years, which leaves them ill-prepared for a wave of potentially large judgments, according to audited financial statements for 2002 and 2003 reviewed by The Associated Press.
With about $56 million in cash and liquid assets, San Francisco could likely weather a moderate financial hit. The San Francisco diocese listed $99.7 million in total assets through June 2003, which includes such hard-to-sell assets as churches and other real estate.
The Oakland diocese is less financially secure, judging from its financial statements - it has about $39 million in easily accessible cash and assets and about $54 million in all.
Just how much each diocese can expect their insurers to pay isn't publicly known. Neither diocese would discuss its insurance coverage. But they may be particularly hard pressed if juries award punitive damages, which by law must be paid by the churches and not their insurers.
NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald
26.03.05
An Assemblies of God pastor facing allegations of sexual abuse has taken an extended break from his duties, citing emotional strain, and is under investigation by his church.
Allegations of sexual abuse by Pastor Wayne Hughes, the head of the Takapuna Assembly of God church, were published in the Herald on Thursday after a member of the church, who had complained to the national church hierarchy last October, spoke out.
Concerns were also raised by Nasir Ali, who was briefly married to Mr Hughes' daughter, Angela, about allegations that the pastor sexually abused a teenager.
Yesterday, the Assemblies of God General Superintendent, Ken Harrison, issued a statement denying the church tried to cover up the allegations.
He said he sought legal advice on the allegations in November 2004, and began an investigation.
STOCKTON (CA)
Lodi News-Sentinel
By Ross Farrow
News-Sentinel Staff Writer
Last updated: Thursday, Mar 24, 2005 - 11:44:21 pm PST
The Stockton Catholic Diocese has agreed to pay out a combined $3.6 million to two people who claimed that former Lodi Priest Oliver O'Grady sexually abused them when they were children, according a prepared statement released by the diocese.
Each will receive $1.8 million, the Diocese said.
Details on the two cases, however, were not available.
Seth Schwartz, a Walnut Creek attorney representing the diocese, said Thursday that a protective order prevents him from revealing information on the case as basic as when the alleged offenses took place, the victims' gender and their ages at the time they were reportedly abused.
"If their lawyers choose to give information, so be it," Schwartz said.
Attorneys Jeff Silvia and Gregory Davenport, who represent the plaintiffs, were unavailable for comment.
BRIGHTON
Allston-Brighton Tab
By Laura Crimaldi/ Boston Herald
Friday, March 25, 2005
A priest accused of abusing children in Brighton was cleared of sexual abuse charges by a Plymouth jury last week.
Former Our Lady of the Presentation priest John P. Lyons was cleared of accusations he repeatedly raped a young boy during private religious tutoring sessions at Rochester's St. Rose of Lima Church during the 1980s.
The family of the accuser cried as Lyons, 77, closed his eyes and bowed his head when the jury delivered a not-guilty verdict on one count of child rape in Brockton Superior Court.
"I can't believe you would do this to my son," the accuser's mother cried out.
The Boston Archdiocese placed Lyons, a former Our Lady of the Presentation priest, on administrative leave in May 2002. Lyons was removed from his post after two Allston-Brighton men sued Lyons, alleging he repeatedly molested them when they were OLP altar boys in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
CALIFORNIA
CBS 5
Mar 25, 2005 1:29 pm US/Pacific
(CBS 5) A man who won a lawsuit against the San Francisco Catholic Archdiocese for not stopping his abuse by a priest says he wants to help other survivors.
Dennis Kavanaugh, now 37, was 13 and an altar boy at a San Jose church when the sexual abuse by Reverend Joseph Pritchard began. Pritchard, who died of cancer in 1988, molested Kavanaugh at least 30 times.
This was the first Catholic priest sex abuse civil case in the state to go to trial since the statute of limitations for filing claims was lifted in 2002. The outcome -- and the jury verdict awarding Kavanaugh $437,000 -- could influence how other cases are handled.
"I don't think any amount of money can compensate what I lost," said Kavanaugh. "But I respect the decision of the jury and I look forward to helping the other survivors in the case."
There are more than 150 cases like Kavanaugh's in the Bay Area alone, but his is the first in California to go to trial. The San Francisco and Oakland dioceses have settled some, but this decision could push other victims to go to trial one by one.
LEXINGTON (KY)
Herald-Leader
By Valarie Honeycutt Spears
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
Just before Christmas, police arrested a 58-year-old former televangelist most recently associated with a Lexington funeral home and charged him with third-degree rape of a 15-year-old girl.
The Rev. Larry Allen Day is the former pastor of churches in Monticello and Lexington and, until his arrest, helped Lexington families with funeral pre-planning as an independent contractor associated with Milward Funeral Directors.
Vice President Rob Milward said Day kept an office at the funeral home but wasn't considered an employee and hasn't been associated with the business since his December arrest.
"Larry is a family man," said Milward. "We are dumfounded by the charges against him."
The accusations against Day are laid out in records from Fayette Circuit Court, where Day is next scheduled to appear April 1:
On Dec. 16, 2004, the mother of a 15-year-old girl went to the girl's Fayette County school to report that the girl had been repeatedly subjected to sexual contact by Day, according to a search warrant affidavit.
NEW YORK
New York Daily News
BY SCOTT SHIFREL
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A charismatic Queens preacher went on trial yesterday accused of seducing an underaged church member he allegedly sweet-talked into a bed full of stuffed animals.
"He would say that the priest should sleep with the virgin and that's okay to do this because he loved me," the alleged victim, now 21, told jurors in a hushed courtroom yesterday.
Bishop William Waynes, founder and pastor of the New Beginning Outreach Love Center, is charged with statutory rape, a crime that carries a prison term of up to four years.
Prosecutors say Waynes, 47, who holds a second job as a staffer at Fox Channel 5, began molesting the girl when she was 15 - and bedded her just after her Sweet 16 party in 2000.
"This is a case about seduction, the loss of innocence and the abuse of authority," Assistant District Attorney Frank DeGaetano said in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens.
SALEM (MA)
Salem News
By Tom Dalton
Staff writer
The phone call came Monday morning. Bishop Richard Lennon was on the other end of the line, and he was calling to say that it was over: After 26 months, the Rev. Edward Keohan had been cleared.
"I felt like the world had been lifted off my shoulders," said Keohan, 73, the former administrator of St. Mary's Italian Church in Salem. "I just felt relieved and thankful to the good Lord for helping me get through this difficult time. And thankful to the archbishop. Even though it took some time, as they say, the truth does come out."
Until Monday, Keohan had been living under the dark cloud of the priest sex abuse scandal. He had spent more than 40 years in the priesthood, had run the Salem church for 16 years and had been a chaplain at Salem Hospital, but none of that seemed to matter.
He had been accused.
In January 2003, a Gloucester man filed a civil complaint alleging that Keohan had fondled him and slept naked with him between 1981 and 1983, when the priest was stationed at a church in Chelsea. In August of that year, Keohan was put on "voluntary leave" by the Archdiocese of Boston.
Since then, the alleged victim was paid a settlement by the archdiocese, according to his lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian.
At the same time, however, a church review board investigated the allegation in what it described as a "careful review" of the case. On Tuesday, the archdiocese said that it found no evidence to support the claim and announced that Keohan would be returned to active ministry. Asked about the decision, Garabedian said his client refused to testify before the church board.
NEW YORK
New York Post
By ALEX GINSBERG
March 25, 2005 -- A Queens minister sweet-talked a 16-year-old church member into an illicit tryst by telling her his teddy-bear-filled bed was the gateway to the holy life, the woman told a jury yesterday.
"He would say that the priest should sleep with the virgin," the woman said of accused pervert William Waynes, pastor of the New Beginning Outreach Love Center in Corona.
"To become powerful and to become . . . basically what kind of evangelist he wanted me to be, he would have to enter inside me so that his spirit can come from him inside me so that I can — I can become a great evangelist."
Waynes, 47, is charged with rape for allegedly sleeping with the woman, then his assistant secretary, in March 2003 — two weeks after her sweet 16.
HAYWARD (CA)
Oakland Tribune
FROM STAFF REPORTS
HAYWARD — Opening statements are scheduled for Monday in the civil trial of two brothers suing the Diocese of Oakland over their alleged molestation by a former priest.
Jury selection was completed Tuesday, with the panel instructed to return Monday.
Richard Simons, the Thatchers' attorney, said questions remain on how much of former priest Robert Ponciroli's personnel file can be admitted and how extensive the testimony can be from other alleged victims.
HAWAII
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
By Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.com
Alexander Winchester says he still has faith in God, after a state judge dismissed his lawsuit against the Catholic Church alleging he had been molested by a parish priest at age 11.
But believing those in the pulpit purportedly preaching the word of God is another matter, Winchester said.
"It's just gonna be a new day for me, and I will try take it one day at a time," he said.
In August 2002, Winchester sued the Catholic Church and the estate of Alphonsus Boumeister, a former pastor and parish priest at St. Stephen's Catholic Church in Nuuanu. He claimed he had been fondled or sexually assaulted on at least six occasions in 1961, when he was 11 years old.
Circuit Judge Victoria Marks ruled yesterday there was no evidence to support Winchester's claims.
"This is not a situation where the plaintiffs have come forward with evidence showing this priest was shuffled from one parish to another because the church or the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts knew he was a problem," she said. "Here, we have absolutely no information anyone knew this priest had a risk for inappropriately touching children."
FORT WORTH (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By Darren Barbee
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH - A 33-year-old Texas man who said he was groped by a Nolan Catholic High School employee in the late 1980s is demanding that the man be forced out of a Roman Catholic school in Missouri where he now works.
"I was angry and shocked that this guy is still around kids," he said Thursday.
The Star-Telegram is not identifying the man because he says he was a victim of sexual abuse. The Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese has spent thousands of dollars on counseling for the man.
The former Nolan employee is a brother in the Marianist religious order and had a position of authority over children when he worked at Nolan. He will not be suspended from the Missouri school while an investigation is conducted, said Brother Stephen Glodek, head of the U.S. Marianist Province in St. Louis.
The former Nolan employee is not being identified because he has not been charged with a crime. A telephone call seeking comment from the man was returned Thursday by a spokeswoman for the Marianist order.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writer
In the first jury verdict against the Roman Catholic Church in California since the sex-abuse crisis erupted three years ago, a San Francisco jury on Thursday awarded $437,000 to a gardener who was molested by a priest in the 1970s.
The award, thousands more than what lawyers for the archdiocese had suggested — was consistent with the amounts paid to settle similar sex-abuse claims against the Orange Diocese last year, according to lawyers for plaintiffs.
The amount is expected to influence, and possibly reignite, stalled settlement talks in Los Angeles and throughout the state, giving lawyers on both sides some indication of how jurors are likely to resolve similar claims against the church.
The San Francisco case was selected by lawyers for all sides to set a low benchmark for the more than 700 claims against the Catholic Church in California.
BOTHELL (WA)
Seattle Times
By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter
The Rev. Lawrence Minder, who stunned his parishioners at Bothell's St. Brendan Church last year when he told them he was a victim of the Roman Catholic Church's sex-abuse scandal, is resigning from the priesthood.
Saying he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his abuse, Minder stated yesterday that counselors at an Arizona treatment facility told him recently he needed to separate from the priesthood to work through the issues underlying the disorder.
"It's been an internal conflict for the last three years to, in a sense, keep putting a best face on a situation that has no best face," he said.
On one hand, he felt a responsibility as pastor to "protect the fragile faith of the people" and to lead the parish through the larger sex-abuse scandal. At the same time, he was angry at "the scope (of the scandal) and lack of responsible leadership" of the bishops over the years.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Monterey County Herald
By LISA LEFF
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - The Archdiocese of San Francisco was ordered by a jury Thursday to pay $437,000 to a California man who says he was repeatedly fondled by a San Jose priest during the 1970s in a ruling that could influence hundreds of potential settlements statewide.
The San Francisco County Superior Court jury deliberated on damages for less than five hours before putting a price on Dennis Kavanaugh's emotional suffering, troubled personal life and lost wages.
The same jurors decided last Friday that the archdiocese was liable for the 37-year-old Kavanaugh's problems because church officials knew or should have known the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard was abusing young boys.
Neither Kavanaugh nor his attorney would say whether they were pleased or disappointed with the size of the award.
''A positive statement was made for the survivors, including myself,'' Kavanaugh said outside of court.
Bishop John Wester said the church had no plans to appeal the verdict and is ''committed to a just compensation to all victims of clergy sexual abuse.''
SACRAMENTO (CA)
Sacramento Bee
By Cynthia Hubert -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Friday, March 25, 2005
A Sacramento man who for years suffered abuse by a Roman Catholic priest on Thursday demanded justice and extradition of the pastor who last week was discovered still ministering in Mexico.
"I can't hide anymore," said Salvador Perez, 33, a soft-spoken state worker who spoke publicly for the first time and described the impact of the molestations on his life. In 1989, the Rev. Jose Luis Urbina was convicted of sexually molesting him.
Urbina, who admitted guilt, fled to Mexico to escape justice and for the past decade has been serving at his hometown parish in Navojoa.
Flanked at a news conference by his lawyer, Joseph George, and a female friend, Perez said Urbina began "hugging and fondling" him when he was 8 years old and an altar boy. The abuse escalated, he said, and continued for 10 years.
"We're talking about childhood through adolescence," he said. "It's difficult to describe the impact of something like that. You try to survive every day. Some days are good, some not so good."
Perez now is among 33 people who have filed lawsuits against the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento accusing clergy of sexual abuse.
UNITED STATES
Orange County Weekly
by GUSTAVO ARELLANO
It’s been almost four months since Orange County Catholic Church officials first promised to release all personnel files on employees accused of child molestation—and still nothing. Plaintiffs who settled with the diocese for a record-breaking $100 million say those documents will prove church officials knew about and protected the pedophiles in their ranks. But ever since lawyers for Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown turned over about 30 boxes of papers to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles McCoy for review on Jan. 31, no one with the Church or the courts has said when—if ever—the public will see those supposed smoking guns.
According to a confidential Jan. 3 e-mail from diocesan officials to priests, the diocese “retains the right to object” to disclosure of documents “on any available legal grounds.” And McCoy can only release what Orange diocese officials gave up. Which raises the fascinating question: Did the Orange diocese turn over all documents as required by the settlement? Or did some documents pay a visit to Mr. Shredder?
Elsewhere in the U.S., lawyers have answered the question by issuing subpoenas to church employees (see below). But not here—where there’s good reason for skepticism about the church’s record keeping: when the Boston Archdiocese sex-abuse scandal erupted in 2002, one of the accused was Father Richard Coughlin. Coughlin served in Orange County from the late 1960s until his suspension in 1993 for allegedly fondling choirboys. Orange officials insisted they never knew of Coughlin’s past and maintained their blissful ignorance until Boston officials released a Dec. 3, 1985, memo in which a Beantown priest alerted then-Orange Bishop John Steinbock about Coughlin.
Here are a few other examples of diocesan record dumping:
* On Sept. 9, 2003, Father James Scahill admitted to a judge that Bishop Thomas Dupré of the Diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts, once told a group of priests, “Fortunately for us, before his retirement, [the previous bishop] destroyed many personal and personnel records.” Scahill described Dupré as “very happy. He seemed happy, relieved” when the bishop made those remarks. Dupré later became the first sitting bishop ever indicted on molestation charges.
SAN BERNARDINO (CA)
The Press-Enterprise
11:26 PM PST on Thursday, March 24, 2005
By MICHAEL FISHER / The Press-Enterprise
A national self-help group for clergy-abuse victims Thursday urged the Diocese of San Bernardino to drop its efforts to reclaim the personnel file of a defrocked Inland priest, seized by Riverside County prosecutors shortly before the cleric was charged with molesting two boys.
In a strongly worded letter, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests also urged Bishop Gerald Barnes to contact bishops in Mexico to warn their parishes that the fugitive priest, Jesus Armando Dominguez, may be in their midst. Dominguez, 56, is believed to have fled to Mexico, authorities have said.
In January, Riverside County prosecutors and sheriff's deputies served a search warrant at the diocese's headquarters in San Bernardino and seized Dominguez's file. The file remains sealed before a Riverside County judge who will decide later this year whether prosecutors should be allowed to examine the records.
The diocese later filed court papers seeking the file's return and arguing that the search violated federal and state constitutional standards. The diocese has said it does not object to the release of some of the documents, but that other paperwork in the file related to Dominguez's removal from the priesthood or medical records should remain confidential.
NEW YORK
New York Newsday
BY HERBERT LOWE
STAFF WRITER
March 24, 2005, 8:04 PM EST
A young woman testified in Queens Thursday that she and her former minister had a sexual relationship for nearly four years after he initially said that's what God wanted.
"He would say that the priest should sleep with the virgin," the woman said about Bishop William Waynes, "and that it's OK to do this because he loved me -- and in order for me to become an evangelist, and to become powerful ... he would have to enter inside me so that his spirit can come from him inside me so that I can become a great evangelist."
The woman, now 21 and a local college student, was the first witness against Waynes, who is on trial in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens.
Waynes, 47, is pastor of a storefront Pentecostal church, New Beginning Outreach Love Center, in East Elmhurst. He is charged with third-degree rape, or statutory rape, and endangering the welfare of a child.
If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison.
Waynes' attorney, Ronna Gordon-Galchus, did not offer an opening statement but said afterward "the charges are a complete fabrication."
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Luis Obispo Tribune
LISA LEFF
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - The Archdiocese of San Francisco was ordered by a jury Thursday to pay $437,000 to a California man who says he was repeatedly fondled by a San Jose priest during the 1970s in a ruling that could influence hundreds of potential settlements statewide.
The San Francisco County Superior Court jury deliberated on damages for less than five hours before putting a price on Dennis Kavanaugh's emotional suffering, troubled personal life and lost wages.
The same jurors decided last Friday that the archdiocese was liable for the 37-year-old Kavanaugh's problems because church officials knew or should have known the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard was abusing young boys.
Neither Kavanaugh nor his attorney would say whether they were pleased or disappointed with the size of the award.
"A positive statement was made for the survivors, including myself," Kavanaugh said outside of court. "I look forward to being helpful any way I can to the other survivors who are still to come."
Bishop John Wester said the church had no plans to appeal the verdict and is "committed to a just compensation to all victims of clergy sexual abuse."
CALIFORNIA
ABC 7
Mar. 23 (ABC7) — Father Steve Whelan is accused of repeatedly sexually abusing an East Bay boy more than 30 years ago. The lawsuit against him is one of almost 200 now underway against the catholic church in Northern California. I-Team reporter Dan Noyes spoke with the priest and his accuser today. He reports from Saints Peter and Paul Church in San Francisco, where Father Whelan now works.
The accuser, his family and about a dozen activists protested at Saints Peter and Paul today. They say they are concerned that children could be in danger at this church and school. This is the latest in a long series of reports the I-Team has done on the sexual abuse crisis in the catholic church.
Joe Piscitelli tells us he was 14 years old when the abuse first started at the hands of Father Steve Whelan at Richmond's Salesian High School.
Joe Piscitelli, accuser: "He abused me at the Boys Club, on the stairway, in his office upstairs, and he stalked me."
Piscitelli says the priest sexually assaulted him many times over the course of two-and-half years and that he told his family and a therapist provided by the church.
The priest was never disciplined. Father Whelan tells us Piscitelli is lying.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Youngsters sexually abused by priests can "sometimes slide right over it with no perceived effects,'' a psychologist hired by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco testified Wednesday.
Jonathan French, a San Francisco psychologist and sex abuse expert, told a Superior Court jury that he found molestation victim Dennis Kavanaugh had suffered no significant psychological problems after being molested as a teenager in the early 1970s by a San Jose priest.
"He seems like an upbeat, decent guy,'' French testified. "He's a survivor. He managed to get married, raise kids. I don't see much evidence that this (molestation) significantly interfered with his daily life. He had friends. He did stuff.''
French said some kinds of molestation are worse than others and that the kind that Kavanaugh suffered was relatively mild, as it was not accompanied by physical violence or threats.
"Some people roll with it; others are severely damaged,'' French said.
IRELAND
One in Four
By Harry McGee - Irish Examiner
THE Government will today publish legislation designed to prevent protracted hearings in the Commission Inquiring into Child Abuse.
Education Minister Mary Hanafin yesterday announced the bill which she intends to have enacted before the summer.
The bill will remove the obligation on the commission’s Investigation Committee to hold a full hearing into each and every allegation of abuse referred to it. Instead, the 1,300 complainants will have the opportunity to be interviewed by the committee.
PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror
By Phil Ray
The Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese and the attorney for an alleged priest abuse victim predicted victory as they prepared to return to Superior Court to argue for a third time about the amount of money the former Altoona resident should receive.
The diocese says it shouldn't have to pay Michael Hutchison, now of Akron, Ohio, the $1 million in punitive damages the jury awarded him almost 11 years ago.
Hutchison's Altoona attorney, Richard M. Serbin, said there is evidence to warrant the punitive damages.
IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
by Eamonn McCann
24 March 2005
It's out of charity that the Roman Catholic Church pays compensation to victims of abuse. That's the implication of the fact that the Stewardship Trust has been granted charitable status in the south.
The trust is the body set up in 1996 to fund compensation claims arising from abuse cases.
Most Catholics only became aware of the trust last month when Bishop Seamus Hegarty confirmed to the BBC's Spotlight programme that the Derry diocese's contribution was being raised through a levy imposed on all parishes.
The levy was abandoned after parishioners reacted angrily to exposure of the plan. The scheme, which it had been planned to implement in all 26 Irish dioceses, is now in disarray, as the bishops cast around for another way to find an estimated 25m euros to meet liabilities over the next five years.
The fund's charitable status will mean that contributions the bishops may solicit from wealthy individuals will be tax free. They are likely also be exempted from capital acquisitions and gift tax .
Pat Rabbitte raised the commonsense point when he asked the Republic's Finance Minister, Brian Cowan, whether "making contributions towards the payments of awards of damages and the costs associated with such awards could ever be regarded as charitable?"
OHIO
Toledo Blade
THE bill may be unconstitutional but the cause is certainly righteous.
That's a realistic way to look at legislation passed by the Ohio Senate to give victims of childhood sexual abuse an extended opportunity to confront their abusers in court, even if the molestation occurred as far back as 1970.
While the measure would apply to all victims of childhood sexual abuse, it is aimed squarely at giving redress in civil lawsuits to those who were abused by clergy, chiefly from the Roman Catholic Church.
In Columbus to observe passage of the bill was Tony Comes, the Toledo firefighter whose bravely told story of abuse by a local priest in the 1980s was chronicled in a documentary movie nominated for an Academy Award this year.
While Mr. Comes' lawsuit against the Toledo Catholic Diocese has been settled, he believes the legislation is an overdue recognition that no one, including priests, is above the law.
BROCKTON (MA)
TheBostonChannel.com
POSTED: 7:31 am EST March 24, 2005
BROCKTON, Mass. -- A 76-year-old priest was acquitted Wednesday of allegations he repatedly raped a young parishioner in the late 1980s in a church office.
The Rev. John P. Lyons closed his eyes and bowed his head as the verdict was read in Brockton Superior Court, where jurors began deliberating Tuesday after one day of testimony. He could have faced up to life in prison.
About two dozen parishioners from his church, St. Rose of Lima Church in Rochester, Mass., cheered the verdict while the accuser's family wailed, The Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Mass., reported.
The accuser's mother cried out, "I can't believe you would do this to my son." She and other relatives were ordered out of the courtroom.
"I'm delighted," Lyons said after the verdict, declining to comment further.
The accuser, a former parishioner at St. Rose of Lima, testified that Lyons molested him from 1987 until 1989. Now 26, he was 8 years to 10 years old when the alleged abuse occurred.
The accuser testified that the abuse started slowly and escalated to sex acts as he met with Lyons in a church office for private religious classes on Saturdays.
ALASKA
Fairbanks News-Miner
By MARY BETH SMETZER
Staff Writer
Standing in the sanctuary of St. Raphael Catholic Church just below a large sculpted crucifix, Dennis Gaboury paused before launching into his personal tale of clerical sexual abuse and his long, painful path to healing.
He first thanked the church's pastor, the Rev. Pat Berquist and Bishop Donald Kettler for allowing him to speak without censorship.
"I don't know if this has ever happened where an actual victim comes to a church in front of a cross and talks to parishioners," said Gaboury who has spoken publicly many times before, including national television programs such as CNN and "Oprah."
Gaboury, 53, grew up in Massachusetts during the 1950s and '60s, in "a very Catholic home," where priests and nuns were considered more holy than human. He detailed the culture of secrecy at the time when no one spoke of sex abuse.
In 1961, he was 10 years old and an altar boy, when he was raped by his parish priest, James Porter.
STOCKTON (CA)
Modesto Bee
By SUSAN HERENDEEN
BEE STAFF WRITER
Last Updated: March 24, 2005, 04:35:29 AM PST
STOCKTON — An Oakdale man testified Wednesday that a woman who is suing two St. Joseph's Catholic Church priests and the Stockton Diocese once complained to him that she was not able to seduce the Rev. Joseph Illo during a trip to Rome.
Edward Tobias, testifying during a civil lawsuit trial in San Joaquin County Superior Court, said the woman seemed to be obsessed with the priest from the Modesto parish and often followed him around the parish.
He said he remembers her complaint vividly.
"She said, 'I did everything I could, but the man is not capable of having sex,'" said Tobias, a St. Joseph's parishioner.
The lawsuit brought by the woman claims that Illo responded improperly in September 2002 when her middle daughter reported concerns about the Rev. Francis Arakal, an associate pastor at St. Joseph's.
The mother claims that Arakal twice touched the breast of her eldest daughter in July 2002 while he was pinning the girl to the ground during a tickle fight at the family's home. She also claims that Arakal asked her youngest daughter to reach into his pants pocket to pull out a priest's collar.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Kathleen A. Shaw TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
kshaw@telegram.com
Lawyers representing the two Texas men who allege they were sexually abused by the Rev. Thomas H. Teczar said yesterday that Dallas lawyer Sylvia Demarest has joined the legal team.
Ms. Demarest was involved in the litigation in the 1990s against the Dallas Diocese and the Rev. Rudolph E. Kos, who allegedly sexually abused 11 boys in Dallas from 1981 to 1989. The victims received a multimillion dollar settlement.
Tahira Khan Merritt, also a lawyer involved in the suit against Rev. Kos, and Daniel J. Shea of Houston, who filed the lawsuit against Rev. Thomas H. Teczar on behalf of the two unnamed plaintiffs, said that Ms. Demarest has offered to assist with the civil suit. Judge Len Wade of the Tarrant County District Court in Fort Worth, Texas, ruled on Tuesday that the suit could go forward, denying motions from the dioceses of Worcester and Fort Worth to dismiss the suit.
A mediation session is scheduled for 9 this morning with a court-appointed mediator in Los Colinas, Texas. Unless settlement is reached, the suit is scheduled to go to trial in July.
Ms. Demarest recently transferred 100 boxes of material on 2,600 priests who allegedly were involved in sexual misconduct to the BishopAccountibility.org group, which is based in the Boston area. The records, which BishopAccountability said represent about $1 million worth of research and are based on public sources, will be available online. BishopAccountability has compiled a database of all priests who have had allegations of abuse made against them.
The two Texas men allege in their suit that Rev. Teczar sexually abused them in Ranger, Texas, where he was stationed by the Fort Worth Diocese after he left the Worcester Diocese.
Bishop Timothy J. Harrington of Worcester barred him from acting as a priest in the mid-1980s but Bishop Joseph P. Delaney of Fort Worth accepted him into the diocese there.
Named in the suit are Rev. Teczar, who is acting as his own lawyer, the Worcester and Fort Worth dioceses, Bishop Delaney and retired Auxiliary Bishop George E. Rueger of Worcester. Rev. Teczar, who lives in Dudley, is still a priest of the Worcester Diocese and receives monetary support from the diocese, according to a deposition given by former Worcester Bishop Daniel P. Reilly.
CALIFORNIA
LA Weekly
by STEVEN MIKULAN
For a moment I thought I had wandered into the wrong theater last week. I’d come to the Pasadena Playhouse to see Doubt, John Patrick Shanley’s play about a priest accused of child molesting, but what I was watching resembled one of those classy horror movies the British used to make, the kind where agnostic bureaucrats argue with men of faith about sinister mysteries. (“And I put it to you, vicar, the children aren’t human.”) Everything from set designer Gary L. Wissman’s withered rectory garden to Jeremy Pivnick’s moody lighting and Steven Cahill’s whispery sound effects brings the viewer to the edge of dread. And on the other side of that edge stands Linda Hunt as the mirthless principal of a Bronx parochial school.
“Boys are made of tar, tar paper and dirt,” Sister Aloysius informs a newcomer to the school — a line that, coming from Hunt’s sepulchral mouth, sounds less like a feminist critique than a practical recipe for voodoo-doll making. The diminutive sister’s grim, Hibernian Catholicism unmistakably marks her as a card-carrying exorcist rather than another caricature from the large sorority of comically deranged stage nuns.
The time is 1964 — the liberal Pope John and the Catholic President John Kennedy are dead, and the roller coaster of American history is about to rocket up to (or plunge into) “the Sixties” proper. That dawning era of experiment and change is personified by the studly yet sensitive figure of Father Flynn (Jonathan Cake), St. Nicholas’ eloquent, charismatic pastor.
ROCHESTER (MA)
Standard-Times
By NANCY COOK, Standard-Times staff writer
ROCHESTER -- A former Rochester priest, placed on administrative leave three years ago after being accused of sexual abuse, was acquitted yesterday of raping a young parishioner in the 1980s.
A jury in Brockton Superior Court found 77-year-old John P. Lyons innocent after one day of testimony and another day of deliberation.
About 30 parishioners from the Rev. Lyons' former parish, St. Rose of Lima Church, attended the trial. They cheered and clapped so heartily after the verdict that the judge asked them to quiet down, parishioner MaryAnn Cutler said.
Meanwhile, the accuser and his mother broke down crying. "I was pretty devastated," the mother said.
As soon as the trial concluded, news spread through Rochester, from Bev Loves Books to the hair salon to the pizza parlor, with mixed reaction on all sides.
For the band of St. Rose of Lima parishioners who trekked to Brockton and still remain in close contact with the Rev. Lyons, the verdict gave them a huge sense of relief. "This was long overdue ... Rev. Lyons has been through so much," Ms. Cutler said.
PLYMOUTH (MA)
Boston Herald
By Laura Crimaldi
Thursday, March 24, 2005 - Updated: 03:37 AM EST
A Plymouth jury yesterday cleared a 77-year-old parish priest of allegations he repeatedly raped a young boy during private religious tutoring sessions at the church office during the 1980s.
The family of the accuser wailed as the Rev. John P. Lyons closed his eyes and bowed his head when the jury delivered a not-guilty verdict on one count of child rape in Brockton Superior Court.
``I can't believe you would do this to my son,'' the accuser's mother cried out.
Lyons was put on leave from St. Rose of Lima Church in Rochester in July 2002 when allegations of sexual misconduct first surfaced, said the Rev. James Lanergan, the current church administrator.
Lyons declined comment when reached at his Plymouth home.
INDIANA
Times-Picayune
3/23/2005, 6:12 p.m. CT
By KEN KUSMER
The Associated Press
(AP) — The United Methodist Church will try a pastor on sexual harassment and immorality charges in May in the denomination's first church trial in memory in Indiana.
Indiana's largest Protestant church on March 2 suspended the Rev. Larry Martin for 90 days with pay after other steps failed to resolve the accusations. Indiana Area Bishop Michael J. Coyner announced the May 19-21 dates for the trial on Wednesday.
The church did not reveal details of the charges against Martin, but they will come out during the trial, said church spokesman Dan Gangler.
"This is a serious charge," Gangler said.
United Methodism's statutes define sexual harassment as "a continuum of behaviors that intimidate, demean, humiliate or coerce."
The trial will be held at Trinity United Methodist Church in New Albany, just across the Ohio River from Louisville, Ky., with retired Bishop Joe E. Pennel Jr. of Franklin, Tenn., as judge.
It was not clear Wednesday when the United Methodist Church last held a church trial in Indiana. The Rev. Riley B. Case of Kokomo, a former district superintendent for the church in northern Indiana, said he has preached since the 1950s and cannot recall a church trial in Indiana during that period.
WISCONSIN
In-Forum
HUDSON, Wis.
Three years after two funeral home workers were fatally shot and three months after a priest was questioned in the slayings, investigators have received some "very beneficial" information in the case, the police chief said Wednesday.
But Police Chief Richard Trende would not reveal what detectives learned, other than to say they have not found the gun used to shoot funeral home director Dan O'Connell and his 22-year-old old intern, James Ellison.
"We have made some definite progress in this. We are nearing some conclusion, we hope. I am not going to comment further," Trende said. "A lot of information is being wrapped up. There are a few interviews yet to be done."
Trende said he hopes that within two weeks, police can present their investigation to the city attorney and the St. Croix County district attorney to determine what happens next.
"There has been some recent information that has come forward that's been very beneficial," he said.
O'Connell, 39, and Ellison were fatally shot in the office of the O'Connell Family Funeral Home in western Wisconsin in February 2002. Police have made no arrests.
The investigation took a bizarre twist after the Rev. Ryan Erickson, an associate pastor of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Hudson at the time of the murders, was questioned late last year.
Erickson, 31, was found hanged Dec. 19 from a fire escape at St. Mary's Church in Hurley in far northern Wisconsin. Police said he had denied any involvement in the murders.
Trende said Erickson was questioned 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.
NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald
24.03.05
by Chris Barton
The Assemblies of God church hierarchy is under fire for covering up allegations of sexual abuse involving one of its senior pastors.
The allegations relate to Pastor Wayne Hughes, head of the Takapuna church.
A longtime member of the Takapuna Assembly of God told the Herald he brought information about the abuse to the attention of church general superintendent Ken Harrison in October. Nothing was done.
"I've fulfilled my obligation to God by not sweeping it under the carpet. God doesn't want this stuff going on in His church. He wants it exposed. I'm sure He's not pleased with those who found out about it and didn't do anything about it," said the church member.
Asked about a cover-up, Mr Harrison said: "No comment."
COVINGTON (KY)
Kentucky Post
By Paul A. Long
Post staff reporter
The judge overseeing the class-action lawsuit alleging the Diocese of Covington covered up a half-century of priestly sexual abuse has ordered both sides back to the bargaining table.
Special Judge John Potter on Tuesday told the diocese to bring representatives of both its insurance carriers to the next settlement negotiations. Both sides should have a "representative authorized to settle," he said.
Potter's comments at the end of a 90-minute hearing were the first indication that all may not be well with negotiations. The suit is being mediated by Kenneth Feinberg, the special master for the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund.
Indeed, Potter noted, Feinberg hasn't been to any settlement conferences since the beginning of the year.
BROCKTON (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
The Associated Press
BROCKTON, Mass.— A 76-year-old priest was acquitted Wednesday of allegations he repatedly raped a young parishioner in the late 1980s in a church office.
The Rev. John P. Lyons closed his eyes and bowed his head as the verdict was read in Brockton Superior Court, where jurors began deliberating Tuesday after one day of testimony.
About two dozen parishioners from his church, St. Rose of Lima Church in Rochester, cheered the verdict while the accuser's family wailed, The Patriot Ledger of Quincy reported.
The accuser's mother cried out, "I can't believe you would do this to my son." She and other relatives were ordered out of the courtroom.
"I'm delighted," Lyons said after the verdict, declining to comment further.
The accuser, a former parishioner at St. Rose of Lima, testified that Lyons molested him from 1987 until 1989. Now 26, he was 8 years to 10 years old when the alleged abuse occurred.
IRELAND
RTE News
23 March 2005 17:32
New legislation has been published to streamline the operation of the Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse.
The commission, formerly chaired by Ms Justice Laffoy, and now chaired by Mr Justice Seán Ryan, is investigating allegations of abuse in residential institutions.
The Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, said the amendments proposed in the bill would allow the commission to carry out its inquiry within a more reasonable timeframe and cost than earlier envisaged.
CONWAY (NH)
Boston.com
March 23, 2005
CONWAY, N.H. -- The former pastor of a Maine church has been charged with failing to report suspicions that a former Conway police sergeant molested a teenage girl.
Donald Maranville, 50, former pastor of Fryeburg First Assembly of God Church, was charged under a state law that says anyone with reason to suspect a child has been abused or neglected must report it.
Failing to report suspected abuse is a misdemeanor. The list of people required to report includes doctors, psychologists, teachers, school counselors, day care workers, priests, ministers and rabbis.
When contacted this week, Maranville declined to comment.
He is charged with one count of "having reason to suspect a child had been abused and knowingly failing to report said abuse" between October 1998 and February 2004. He faces up to 12 months in prison and fines of up to $2,000 if convicted. He has been released on $500 personal recognizance bail until his trial, which is set for late fall.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
The former wife of sexual abuse victim Dennis Kavanaugh told a San Francisco jury Tuesday that her husband was "very guarded and inaccessible'' and had never been able to tell her during their 23-year marriage that he had been betrayed as a teenager by his priest.
"He always maintained a protective barrier within himself,'' Jean Kavanaugh said. "The closeness you expect to have with your partner ... I could only go so far.''
Jean Kavanaugh, nervously chewing gum, told the jury that her ex-husband was a good father and family provider who had rejected his Roman Catholic upbringing and would not allow their two children to attend church or Sunday school.
"He told me he did not believe in God,'' she said.
Last week, the Superior Court jury found that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco knew or should have known that the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard molested Kavanaugh at St. Martin of Tours Church in San Jose in the early 1970s. This week, jurors must decide how much money to award him.
JERUSALEM
Ynetnews.com
By Tal Rosner
JERUSALEM - The Jerusalem District Court sentenced a 37-year-old Talmud (Oral Law) teacher of mentally challenged students to a 12 year prison term Wednesday for acts of sodomy and sexual misconduct involving teens and children.
The teacher, who is currently divorced without children, mainly molested family members, including his nephew, who was 10-years-old at the time.
Investigators found dozens of naked photos of children on his personal computer.
The teacher, who grew up in New York, arrived in Israel to study in a Yeshiva; he later returned to the U.S. to complete his degree in Computer Science, but came back to Israel to teach children with learning disabilities and serve as a boarding school counselor.
The teacher told welfare services that a summer camp instructor had sexually assaulted him when he was 11 years-old.
IRELAND
One in Four
Opinion - Irish Times
This is no time to spin the truth, writes Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent.
It would be imagined that one of the last areas of human endeavour where you would find "spin", and management of news with a seeming intention to distract from the facts, would be in Church affairs. But this is not so.
Last week's statement from the Irish Episcopal Conference on its Stewardship Trust was issued to this office at 9.28pm on Wednesday night, the eve of St Patrick's Day. Wednesday was the last day of the bishops' three-day spring meeting.
The trust was set up in 1996 to compensate and help victims of incidents of clerical child sex abuse which had occurred up to then. Last Wednesday's statement was the first by the bishops to give details of how the trust's money was spent.
IRELAND
One in Four
Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent - Irish Times
Ireland's Catholic bishops have estimated that it may cost as much as €50 million to cover the cost of compensation and help for victims of clerical child sex abuse in parishes over the next decade.
In an article published in the diocesan newspaper the Kilmore Herald on March 17th, the Bishop of Kilmore, Dr Leo O'Reilly, said this estimate was presented at a meeting of the Irish Episcopal Conference in May 2004, where proposals were invited as to how the money might be raised.
He said the annual Kilmore contribution to the Stewardship Trust, which was set up by the bishops in 1996 to cover compensation and allied costs for clerical child sex abuse in all 26 dioceses in Ireland prior to 1996, would be around €66,000. He proposed this be raised through rental income on diocesan property, contributions from himself and the priests, and income from investments.
In a statement yesterday, the Bishop of Kerry, Dr Bill Murphy, said his diocese had contributed €158,128 to the trust in 2004. This was not paid from collections taken up in parishes each weekend, or from the annual diocesan administration levy.
HAYWARD (CA)
The Argus
FROM STAFF REPORTS
HAYWARD — Opening statements are scheduled for Monday in the civil trial of two brothers suing the Diocese of Oakland over their alleged molestation by a former priest.
Jury selection was completed Tuesday morning, with the panel instructed to return Monday. Between now and then, attorneys for Robert and Tom Thatcher and for the diocese will be back before Alameda County Superior Court Judge Harry Sheppard to discuss guidelines for evidence to be introduced at trial.
Richard Simons, the Thatchers' attorney, said questions remain regarding how much of former priest Robert Ponciroli's personnel file can be admitted and how extensive the testimony can be from other alleged victims.
The Thatcher brothers claim they were molested more than 20 years ago by Ponciroli, then the pastor at Antioch's St. Ignatius Church. Ponciroli since has been defrocked, but the lawsuit blames the Oakland Diocese — which encompasses Alameda and Contra Costa counties — for failing to protect the brothers from him.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By David Abel, Globe Staff | March 23, 2005
Cleared of accusations he molested a teenage boy in the early 1980s, the former administrator of Our Lady of Lourdes in Revere has been returned to active ministry, officials at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston announced yesterday.
The Rev. Edward Keohan, 72, could not be reached yesterday, but his attorney said the priest plans to celebrate by attending a public Mass at a parish this week in Reading. He has not been assigned a parish.
A Boston lawyer representing the accuser said his client received a six-figure settlement from the archdiocese in the case. He said he thought the review board's process was unfair.
''If nothing happened, then why did the church pay my client a substantial amount of money in settlement of his claim?" asked Mitchell Garabedian.
Ann Carter, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, declined to confirm there was a settlement and said the church thoroughly reviewed the accuser's allegations before clearing Keohan, who was ordained in 1959 and for more than a decade served as administrator at the now-closed St. Mary's Church in Salem.
Neither Carter nor Philip D. Moran, a Salem lawyer who represented Keohan, knew whether Keohan would continue to serve as a priest or what he plans to do.
SPRINGFIELD (IL)
SJ-R.com
By SARAH ANTONACCI
STAFF WRITER
Springfield police reports present two contradictory theories about what led to the severe beating of a Catholic priest in Douglas Park in December.
Police say the two teenagers accused of the crime have given them one story. However, investigative reports obtained by The State Journal-Register indicate a roommate who saw the youths immediately after the beating told police a different version.
Authorities have said the boys told them they were cutting through the park when they stopped to have a cigarette and were approached by the Rev. Eugene Costa. But, according to the thick stack of police reports, the friend said the two accused teens might have gone to the park intending to beat or rob homosexuals.
Douglas Park has a longstanding reputation as a meeting place for gay men.
Jamie E. Gibson, 17, of the 1100 block of South Spring Street and Ryan Boyle, 15, are charged with aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony punishable by up to two to five years in prison. Both were on probation at the time, and Boyle has been charged as an adult in the case.
Gibson told police during a Jan. 3 interview what "hypothetically" happened, the reports say.
"Jamie stated 'hypothetically,' 'Let's say me and Ryan were cutting through the park and stopped near the park bench to smoke a cigarette and rest for a second,'" according to one report. Gibson and Boyle "were smoking and talking when a older white male walked up to them and started talking to the pair."
The older man later was identified as Costa.
"The older male then offered the boys $50 ... for (sex acts)," says the report written by police detective Paul Carpenter. "Jamie stated he was not like that and the male rubbed up against him and touched his leg."
COVINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Post
By Paul A. Long
Post staff reporter
The judge overseeing a class-action lawsuit alleging the Diocese of Covington covered up a half-century of sexual abuse by priests has ordered both sides back to the bargaining table.
Special Judge John Potter on Tuesday told the diocese to bring representatives of both its insurance carriers to the next settlement negotiations.
Both sides should have a "representative authorized to settle," he said.
Potter's comments at the end of a 90-minute hearing were the first indication that all may not be well with negotiations.
The suit is being mediated by Kenneth Feinberg, the special master for the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund.
BOSTON (MA)
TheBostonChannel.com
POSTED: 7:35 am EST March 23, 2005
UPDATED: 7:45 am EST March 23, 2005
BOSTON -- A Revere, Mass., priest cleared of accusations he molested a teenage boy in the early 1980s was returned to active ministry after a church review board examined the case of the Rev. Edward Keohan, officials at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston said.
"After careful review of the information available regarding the complaint, the (archdiocese) review board determined that the allegation was unsubstantiated," the archdiocese said in a statement Tuesday.
Philip D. Moran, a Salem, Mass., lawyer who represented Keohan, said the 72-year-old priest passed a lie detector test, and that members of the accuser's family ultimately disputed the story that the man, who now is 37, had been molested.
Neither Ann Carter, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, nor Moran knew whether the former administrator of Our Lady of Lourdes in Revere would continue to serve as a priest.
"Father Keohan and I are delighted," Moran said of the church's decision. "He has devoted 45 years of his life to God as a priest, and we feel he was wrongly accused. There was no basis for the accusation."
However Mitchell Garabedian, the Boston lawyer who represented the accuser, said his client received a six-figure settlement from the archdiocese in the case.
MANCHESTER (NH)
The Union Leader
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
Union Leader Staff
MANCHESTER — Ending a hard-fought dispute between the state and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester, a judge yesterday ruled state oversight of the effectiveness of the church's child protection policies is permissible under the agreement both sides reached in 2002.
Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Carol A. Conboy also ordered the state and diocese to split the estimated $425,000 to $445,000 cost of the audits intended to determine the diocese's compliance with the agreement.
The agreement called for annual audits through 2007. To date, none have been done.
"The court's order is a victory for the children of New Hampshire," Attorney General Kelly A. Ayotte said last night.
"This order will ensure that the state can conduct a thorough and independent review of the diocese's policies. The state can now evaluate whether the diocese has programs in place that effectively protect children," she added.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Nashua Telegraph
By ALBERT McKEON, Telegraph Staff
mckeona@telegraph-nh.com
Published: Wednesday, Mar. 23, 2005
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester must have its sexual abuse policies audited according to the standards of state prosecutors, a judge has ruled.
Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Carol Ann Conboy’s ruling, handed down Tuesday, most likely breaks a stalemate that prevented church and state from fully enacting an agreement the diocese signed in 2002 to avoid criminal indictments on child endangerment.
Both sides had differing interpretations of the scope of the auditing, and placed their two-year impasse in the hands of the court.
The diocese argued in court that it agreed only to a compliance review, an audit that sees if the church enacted policies to keep children safe from abuse and whether it trains its personnel. But the state attorney general’s office contended that it must gauge the effectiveness of the policies - essentially a performance audit - otherwise prosecutors could not determine if children are protected in the church.
MANCHESTER (NH)
Concord Monitor
By DANIEL BARRICK
Monitor staff
March 23. 2005 8:00AM
A judge has dismissed a claim by the Catholic Diocese of Manchester that a complete, in-depth audit of its sexual abuse protection polices violated its First Amendment rights.
Judge Carol Ann Conboy of Hillsborough County Superior Court ruled yesterday that the attorney general's office was not overextending its authority by demanding that its audit include a check of how well the church's child protection policies are working. Such a "performance audit,"Conboy concluded, falls within the outlines of an agreement reached between the church and state more than two years ago.
"In short, the court does not conclude that the proposed audit threatens the church's First Amendment rights, due process rights, or any other federal or state constitutional rights," Conboy wrote in a 14-page ruling.
The ruling also ordered that the $445,000 cost of the audit be split equally between the diocese and the state.
DALLAS (TX)
The University News
By Heather O'Connell/Contributing Writer
Published: Wednesday, March 23, 2005
The Dallas County District Attorney (DA) opened a criminal investigation last month to examine how the Catholic diocese in Dallas handles allegations of clergy sexual misconduct.
The DA, Bill Hill, intends to ascertain whether Bishop Charles Grahmann "has received any allegations of abuse by members of the clergy that have not subsequently been reported to law enforcement," Rachel Horton, a spokeswoman for Hill, said.
After examining clergy personnel records "for any indication of violations of state laws relating to minors" three years ago, Grahmann claimed all violators had been removed from ministry and all allegations of abuse had been reported to the state as required by law.
Two recent events, however, have provoked the DA's office to verify Grahmann's claim.
First, Father William Richard, a priest in Rockwall who retired last month because of a dispute concerning the parish music minister, had several claims of sexual misconduct filed against him. Several students from Catholic high schools in Dallas and Plano where Richard worked alleged incidents of sexual abuse by Richard occurring in 1993.
BROWNSVILLE (TX)
The Brownsville Herald
BY EMMA PEREZ-TREVIÑO
The Brownsville Herald
March 23, 2005 — More than 40 years since the disappearance and death of McAllen’s Irene Garza, a former monk is confessing to knowledge that could help solve the case.
Dale Tachney met John B. Feit in Missouri in 1963. It was another life for both men — Tachney a former Trappist monk once known as Fr. Emmanuel was charged with counseling Feit, a troubled Catholic priest sent to a Missouri monastery after spending time in the Rio Grande Valley.
Three years before, police questioned Feit about Garza’s murder. According to police documents, Feit was the last person to see the elementary school teacher alive after hearing her confession at McAllen’s Sacred Heart Church the day before Easter.
He was not charged with her murder and to date, nearing the 45th anniversary of her death, police have yet to name another suspect.
“If you are asking me if I am the man that killed Irene Garza, I am not that man. I did not kill her,” Feit, now 72, told The Brownsville Herald in 2002, during the course of several interviews for a three-year newspaper investigation into her death.
But Tachney says Feit told him a different story in 1963.
Now 75, Tachney left the monastery in July 1967. ...
Tachney said that he counseled Feit on the “urge” to molest women kneeling in prayer. He sent Feit on unsupervised visits to churches in Chicago and Missouri, telling him to kneel behind women praying in churches to see if he felt the “urge.”
Feit returned from the trips, telling Tachney that he felt no urges and was not questioned further.
“It was our position that he could now leave the monastery and that it would be safe,” Tachney said.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | March 23, 2005
Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, in his annual speech to the clergy of the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, said yesterday that being a priest ''is a great challenge" but that ''never has the world needed you more than now."
Speaking to scores of priests who participated in the annual Chrism Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston's South End, O'Malley made no direct reference to the events that have recently challenged archdiocesan priests, such as the sexual abuse scandal and the closing of dozens of parishes.
Instead, he talked about the religious dimension of difficulty, saying that ''in a priest's life, suffering can be a grace." It was an allusion to his oft-repeated position that the pain caused to the church by the abuse crisis is part of a Christ-like journey.
Without commenting on how the biblical anecdote applies to today's situation, he pointed out that ''Jesus did not seem to pick the best and the brightest" as his disciples. Priests, he said, are to be ''vessels of clay, bearing treasures for God's people."
''Jesus, . . . in forming his spiritual army, did not assemble a well-groomed, highly disciplined, state-of-the-art army of Dale Carnegie communicators in polyester suits and well-moussed pompadours, but rather he went down to the wharves and called a ragtag dirty dozen to be the pillars on which he would build his church, a clear indication that the enterprise was to be more than met the eye," he said.
GRANBY (MA)
Republican
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
By SANDRA E. CONSTANTINE
sconstantine@repub.com
GRANBY - While sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests has drawn much negative attention to the church, a Granby man who serves on the diocesan committee that investigates complaints says the problem extends far beyond Catholicism.
"It's a cultural and societal-wide problem," said Robin M. Powell, 52, of South Street. Only 4 percent of his faith's priests are sexual abusers, he said.
The Catholic Church's heavily publicized problems are just "the tip of the iceberg," according to Powell.
"We have an oversexualized society. We are bombarded with sexual imagery," he said. From cradle to grave, Americans are now subject to commercials for products such as Viagra, Powell said.
He believes the problem has roots in the loosening of attitudes that has occurred since the 1960s. "That's not always good. It's not always healthy sexuality," Powell said during a recent interview at his home.
However, Powell, who joined the Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese's review board last summer, said it is humbling to hear testimony from victims.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Wednesday, March 23, 2005 - Updated: 04:44 AM EST
A Revere priest accused of sexually abusing a child will be returned to active ministry, the Boston archdiocese announced yesterday.
The Rev. Edward Keohan of Our Lady of Lourdes parish was placed on administrative leave in 2003 after the archdiocese received a single complaint of sexual abuse.
``After careful review of the information available regarding the complaint, the Review Board determined that the allegation was unsubstantiated,'' the archdiocese said in a statement yesterday.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Kathleen A. Shaw TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
kshaw@telegram.com
A Texas judge yesterday denied a request from the Catholic Dioceses of Worcester and Fort Worth, Texas, to dismiss a lawsuit brought by two men who allege they were sexually abused by the Rev. Thomas H. Teczar when they were teenagers.
Judge Len Wade also denied the dioceses’ request to exclude two forensic psychologists who will testify on behalf of John Doe I and John Doe II, the names assigned to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The psychologists, John Daigneault of Braintree, and Rycke Marshall of Dallas, will be allowed to testify.
The judge issued a short ruling yesterday in Tarrant County District Court in Fort Worth.
Tahira Khan Merritt, lawyer for John Doe II, said yesterday that a mediation session is scheduled for 9 a.m. tomorrow with a court-appointed mediator at Los Colinas, which is near Irving, Texas. Worcester Bishop Robert J. McManus and retired Auxiliary Bishop George E. Rueger will participate in the meeting via telephone. James Gavin Reardon Jr., lawyer for the Worcester Diocese, said he will be at the mediation session.
Unless a settlement is reached, the case is scheduled for a jury trial in Texas July 25, Ms. Khan Merritt said. Ms. Khan Merritt is the lead lawyer in the case. John Doe I is represented by Daniel J. Shea of Houston, who also will be at the mediation session.
Ms. Khan Merritt said she was pleased with the judge’s decision “because it will give a Fort Worth jury an opportunity to hear what these men have to say.” In her response to the motion from the two dioceses to dismiss the lawsuit, she maintained that Rev. Teczar had an “egregious pattern of sexual abuse” and that there was an “equally disturbing pattern of denial and cover-up by the Worcester and Fort Worth” dioceses.
Ms. Khan Merritt said she telephoned families of several alleged victims of Rev. Teczar in the Worcester area about the judge’s ruling.
Mr. Shea said he is encouraged that the lawsuit will go forward “without any other delays.” He said he believed Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley of the Boston Archdiocese acted correctly when he stopped using services of the lawyers who had been representing the archdiocese and insurance companies, hired his own lawyer and settled the cases in Boston.
“It’s what should be happened here,” he Mr. Shea said. Mr. Reardon said yesterday that the judge’s ruling did not specify his reasoning, but he noted that Texas law historically has “not been kind” to repressed memory cases. John Doe II allegedly repressed or suppressed memory of sexual abuse and began remembering later.
Rev. Teczar said in a recent interview that he never met John Doe II and knew John Doe I only from a gas station in Ranger, Texas, which was near a parish in which he served as priest. He has denied that he abused either of the men. Both Mr. Daigneault and Ms. Marshall have experience with repressed and suppressed memory clients, Ms. Khan Merritt said.
According to Ms. Khan Merritt’s court filing, John Doe II began remembering in 2002 during a time when David A. Lewcon, now of Uxbridge, contacted him and his mother to say that Rev. Teczar had sexually abused him and other minors while he was a priest in Texas.
Rev. Teczar’s authorization to function as a priest was removed in 1986 by Bishop Timothy J. Harrington and again removed in 1990, Mr. Reardon said. “He had no permission to function as a priest anywhere,” Mr. Reardon said.
Rev. Teczar was a priest incardinated into the Worcester Diocese, which means he was under care and supervision of the Worcester bishop, and the priest’s “treatment history” was provided to the Fort Worth Diocese before he went to Texas, Mr. Reardon said. “He did not have the permission of the Diocese of Worcester to be practicing as a priest,” he said.
In the case, the Fort Worth Diocese is represented by lawyer James G. Bennett of Fort Worth, and the Worcester Diocese and Auxiliary Bishop Rueger are represented by lawyer Mark D. Hatten, also of Fort Worth.
The civil lawsuit names the Worcester and Fort Worth dioceses, Bishop Joseph P. Delaney of Fort Worth, Bishop Rueger and Rev. Teczar.
The dioceses attempted to have the suit dismissed because of the statute of limitations. Ms. Khan Merritt maintained that the dioceses acted in tandem to remove Rev. Teczar from Worcester after allegations of sexual misconduct arose in Massachusetts and move him to Texas.
ARKANSAS
The Times Record
By Aaron Sadler
times record • asadler@swtimes.com
The statute of limitations has expired on a former Subiaco Academy student’s lawsuit against the school, and his sexual abuse complaint should be dismissed, the school claims.
In a federal court filing last week, an attorney for the Logan County parochial school asked for dismissal of the suit filed by Joffre J. Miller of Texas.
Miller was a student at Subiaco Academy in the late 1970s. He alleges in his complaint that the Rev. Nicholas Fuhrmann sexually molested him from 1976-79 while Fuhrmann was his teacher and boxing coach.
The suit against the school and Fuhrmann was filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Smith.
The school claims the statute of limitations for Miller’s allegations would have expired in 1983. The school cites a state law giving someone up to three years after their 18th birthday to seek legal relief for events that occurred while they were minors.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Stacy Finz, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
After years of sexual abuse at the hands of his priest, Dennis Kavanaugh spiraled from being his parents' golden child -- a top athlete, a promising intellectual and a devout Catholic -- to a convicted felon who had lost his belief in God, according to testimony Monday.
Now, he wants the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco to pay.
Last week, a jury found that the church knew or should have known that the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard was molesting boys in Kavanaugh's San Jose parish, St. Martin of Tours, in the early 1970s, and had done nothing to stop it.
This week, that same jury began the damages phase of the case, hearing testimony about Kavanaugh's problems with intimacy and a divorce three years ago that was so bitter that he stole a loaded gun, held it on his wife and threatened to kill her. He was later convicted and served a year in prison. Since that time he went from a $90,000-a- year Silicon Valley semiconductor salesman to a $16-an-hour gardener.
IRELAND
One in Four
Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent - Irish Times
Ireland's 4.088 million Catholics are set to pay €26.5 million over five years as a result of clerical child sex abuse in the island's 26 dioceses.
The figure amounts to €6.25 for every Catholic man, woman and child on the island and is extrapolated from financial details released by eight of the dioceses to date.
It follows a decision in 2003 by the Catholic bishops to levy every diocese, according to its Catholic population, an amount payable to their central fund for dealing with all matters arising from such abuse.
AUSTRALIA
ABC
The Anglican church in Adelaide in South Australia has vowed to undertake a culture change following the release of a new report into abuse and violence in the church.
The church commissioned academic Dr Zoe Morrison to research the attitude of its clergy and church workers to the abuse of children and the sexual abuse of adults.
Dr Morrison's report found a culture of hostility towards women was deeply ingrained and ranged from bullying to sexual abuse.
Adelaide Archdeacon Peter Stuart says the church is taking the report's findings seriously and is committed to changing its culture.
"In part what we need to do is to talk to others about what they think the culture of the church should be, so that we can get it right," he said.
SAN DIEGO (CA)
Union-Tribune
By Alex Roth
and Jeff McDonald
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
March 22, 2005
The head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego apologized yesterday to the family of gay nightclub owner John McCusker, less than a week after denying McCusker a Catholic funeral because of his "business activities," according to a statement released by McCusker's family.
In a stunning twist to a controversy that has created an uproar in San Diego's gay and Catholic communities, Bishop Robert Brom also promised to preside at a Mass in memory of McCusker at he Immaculata Catholic Church at the University of San Diego, according to the statement.
McCusker, 31, died March 13 while vacationing in Mammoth.
In the statement released by McCusker's family, Brom said, "I deeply regret that denying a Catholic funeral for John McCusker at the Immaculata has resulted in his unjust condemnation, and I apologize to the family for the anguish this has caused them. To help rectify this situation, insofar as it can be, I will preside at a Mass for the family, in memory of John, at the Immaculata. In consideration for the family, I will not be available for any further public statements on this matter." ...
The controversy over McCusker's funeral became a popular topic on the Internet and came at an awkward time for the Catholic church, which has been dealing for several years with fallout from disclosures of widespread sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the United States.
Those who showed up last night to support McCusker's family said the bishop probably didn't expect the backlash that his actions received.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writer
SAN FRANCISCO — A closely watched case that could set a benchmark for hundreds of sexual abuse claims against Roman Catholic dioceses in California moved to a crucial phase Monday as a former altar boy told jurors how he was repeatedly abused by a Roman Catholic priest over three years.
Dennis Kavanaugh, 47, testified he lost his faith in the years after he was molested in San Jose.
His mother told jurors that during his sophomore year in high school, her son lost interest in school and athletics and stopped going to Mass, telling her "there is no God."
The Archdiocese of San Francisco has conceded that Kavanaugh, a former altar boy, was molested during the 1970s by the late Father Joseph T. Pritchard and that the church must pay. What is at stake in the trial, and in a similar proceeding in Hayward, across San Francisco Bay, is how much the bill will be.
WEST WARWICK (RI)
Pawtucket Times
Justin Sayles 03/22/2005
WEST WARWICK -- A former West Warwick priest who pleaded guilty to charges that he raped a teen-age boy in the 1970s has been removed from his religious order at his own request.
James D. Campbell, 59, was sentenced to serve 90 days in prison in January on charges of rape, assault and battery, furnishing alcohol to a minor and committing an unnatural and lascivious act after he admitted in Worcester Superior Court that he raped two male teen-agers.
Campbell, who served as assistant pastor at St. Joseph Church in West Warwick from 1975 to 1978, committed the acts in Uxbridge, Mass. Both victims’ families attended the parish at the time of the incident.
Rev. Raymond Diesbourg -- a member of the governing council of Campbell’s former religious order, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Aurora, Ill. -- said Monday that Roman Catholic Church officials in Rome granted the former priest his request for "laicization," or removal from the priesthood, last month.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Monterey Herald
By TERENCE CHEA
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - A 47-year-old California man who sued the Archdiocese of San Francisco for sexual abuse more than 30 years ago testified Monday that he felt "guilty, ashamed and disappointed in myself" after being molested numerous times by a San Jose priest he once admired.
As the second phase of the landmark civil trial got underway, Dennis Kavanaugh said that the Rev. Joseph Pritchard fondled him between 20 and 30 times in the early 1970s at several locations, including a golf course, the priest's rectory bedroom and a car. He also testified that he felt intense guilt for not revealing the abuse until 2002, which may have allowed Pritchard to abuse other children, including Kavanaugh's younger brother.
"I felt guilty about the fact that if I had said something, maybe a lot of people would have been spared what he did to them," Kavanaugh said in San Francisco County Superior Court. "I felt guilty. I felt ashamed. I felt afraid."
Kavanaugh is one of 22 former grade-school students who said they were repeatedly molested by Pritchard, who died in 1988 before the allegations against him surfaced. A jury hearing Kavanaugh's lawsuit against the archdiocese decided Friday that church officials knew or should have known Pritchard was abusing young boys while he was a pastor at St. Martin of Tours in San Jose.
Kavanaugh's civil lawsuit was the first of more than 750 against Roman Catholic dioceses in California to go to trial since the state temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for filing sex-abuse claims in 2002. The new law gave victims, whose allegations had previously been considered too old, one year to file molestation claims.
TUCSON (AZ)
KVOA
A federal bankruptcy judge has approved a plan by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson to sell some 85 properties to settle claims filed by people who say they were sexually abused by priests.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James M. Marlar gave diocesan officials the go-ahead during a hearing Monday after none of the creditors objected to the marketing plan and sale, which is expected to take place in about eight weeks.
The diocese is considering selling the land in a live public auction. The land is expected to raise at least $3.2 million to go into a fund for plaintiffs with valid claims of clergy sexual abuse.
The diocese's Chapter 11 reorganization plan calls for the creation of a fund to "equitably" pay all plaintiffs with valid claims of abuse.
PENNSYLVANIA
The Daily Times
By PATTI MENGERS, pmengers@delcotimes.com 03/21/2005
John Salveson says he is through trying to reason with church officials in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia about how they handle victims of clerical sexual abuse.
"The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has neither the courage nor the integrity to do the right thing by people they victimize. Instead, they hide behind the statute of limitations," he said last Tuesday.
The 49-year-old Radnor resident, who was allegedly abused by a priest as a teenager in Long Island, N.Y., has been regional director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, also known as SNAP, since 2002.
His ire was ignited March 14 after a three-judge Superior Court panel upheld an August ruling by Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Arnold L. New dismissing 16 sexual abuse lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia based on the statute of limitations.
"Our No.1-priority in Philadelphia for SNAP is to get those laws changed," said Salveson.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Kathleen A. Shaw TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
kshaw@telegram.com
WORCESTER— James D. Campbell, 59, a former Catholic priest who was sentenced to 90 days in the Worcester County House of Correction, asked the Vatican to release him from priesthood and his request was granted about a month ago.
Mr. Campbell pleaded guilty Dec. 22 to sexually abusing two teenagers during the 1970s in Uxbridge. Judge Peter Agnes in Worcester Superior Court sentenced Mr. Campbell to 90 days in jail and 10 years on probation. Capt. Thomas Chappel of the House of Correction said Mr. Campbell was released Friday.
Mr. Campbell was assistant pastor at St. Joseph Church in West Warren, R.I., from 1975 to 1978, when the abuse occurred. The teenagers, who were members of the parish, were brought over the state line into Uxbridge, where the abuse occurred.
The Rev. Raymond Diesbourg, spokesman for the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Aurora, Ill., said yesterday that Mr. Campbell was not defrocked, which means forced removal from priesthood, but sought laicization on his own. Laicization is a term the church uses in reference to men who leave the priesthood and return to the lay state, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. Mr. Campbell was a member of the Sacred Heart order. Permission to leave the priesthood came from Rome about a month ago, he said.
Mr. Campbell was living with the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Pennsylvania at the time he was indicted in 2003 by a Worcester County grand jury in connection with the abuse.
CARY (NC)
Eyewitness News 11
By Shae Crisson
(03/21/05 -- APEX) — A Cary youth minister is suspended with pay while police investigate him for possible involvement with child pornography.
Apex police began investigating Jeff Smith last week. He has served as a youth minister at Peace Presbyterian Church in Cary for the past three years, the church's pastor said.
Officers began their investigation after receiving a phone call from police in Rockford, Illinois.
"They had a juvenile in their state that had received e-mail and attached to the e-mail was child pornography," said Apex Police Sgt. Ann Moore. Search warrants say the child pornography came from an e-mail account in Jeff Smith's name.
Police took a digital video camcorder, camera, several CD's, a laptop and a desktop computer from Smith's home in Apex, where he lives with his wife and four children.
"If we feel there's a danger to the children in the home, we can contact social services," Moore said. "At this time, we do not feel like there's any reason to be concerned of any children in the home or any children that they may have contact with."
Smith has not been charged.
ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
Albuquerque Journal
The Associated Press
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe is investigating a sexual abuse allegation against an Albuquerque priest, and has placed him on paid leave.
The Rev. Ronald Bruckner, pastor of Our Lady of the Annunciation in Albuquerque, will remain on leave "until the situation is resolved'' and will not exercise any public ministry in the meantime, the archdiocese said in a news release.
The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, asked the archdiocese earlier this month to suspend the priest pending an investigation.
"This decision definitely makes kids safer but is long, long overdue,'' SNAP's national director, David Clohessy of St. Louis, said in a telephone call Monday.
The archdiocese, which covers the central part of the state, said Monday it was following its policy on sexual abuse in placing Bruckner on leave.
ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
KRQE
Source: Jason Gil Bear - KRQE News 13
ALBUQUERQUE -- An Albuquerque priest is under investigation for sexual abuse but parishioners say the allegations aren’t true.
The accuser claims he went to Father Ronald Bruckner for help as a boy in Los Alamos and that's where the abuse started.
The accuser is the seventh person to come forward alleging abuse by the priest. He recently came forward with the allegations.
Bruckner is now a priest at Our Lady of Annunciation in Albuquerque.
Many of his parishioners are standing behind Bruckner and believe an investigation into the abuse will be proven false.
“I'm outraged about these allegations,” says Jeff Romero, a parishioner. “I don't believe it,” he adds.
ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
TheNewMexicoChannel.com
UPDATED: 12:03 pm MST March 21, 2005
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The Archdiocese of Santa Fe has placed an Albuquerque priest on paid leave while it investigates an allegation of sexual abuse against him.
The archdiocese said the Rev. Ronald Bruckner would remain on leave until the situation is resolved.
The archdiocese said Bruckner would not exercise any public ministry while on leave.
Bruckner is pastor of Our Lady of the Annunciation Roman Catholic Church in Albuquerque.
The archdiocese said it is following its policy on sexual abuse.
NEW YORK
Village Voice
by Charlotte Stoudt
March 21st, 2005 2:15 PM
Can anyone rescue America from the never ending campaign for our souls? With the Supreme Court debating the public display of the Ten Commandments and Hillary's efforts to avoid being cast as pro-abortion in '08, the rhetoric of religious belief seems set to polarize voters far into the future. Given the righteous posturing by secular and sacred interests alike, is there anywhere to turn for a perspective that doesn't throw the holy baby out with the extremist bathwater?
Try the theater listings.
Provocative arguments about the role of faith in our private and public lives are dominating our typically secular stages right now, courtesy of playwrights and performers from Catholic backgrounds. Doubt, John Patrick Shanley's period parable about a nun struggling to take action against a priest she believes is a sexual predator, has recently transferred to Broadway after its much lauded run at Manhattan Theatre Club. Downtown, the Public Theater has offered two episodes of Divine Law & Order this season: the LAByrinth's production of Stephen Adly Guirgis's The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and the recent staging of Jean-Claude Carrière's The Controversy of Valladolid. While Guirgis imagines Christ's traitorous disciple on trial in a purgatorial courtroom, Carrière dramatizes an actual deliberation held in Spain in 1550, in which factions of the Church debate whether the indigenous peoples of the New World are human beings. And underground at the new Dodger Stages, the musical Altar Boyz, a sly satire on boybands, believes in getting right with God by busting a few good moves in tight corduroys.
CALIFORNIA
Dateline Alabama
By TERENCE CHEA
Associated Press Writer
March 21, 2005
A 47-year-old California man who sued the Archdiocese of San Francisco for sexual abuse more than 30 years ago testified Monday that he felt "guilty, ashamed and disappointed in myself" after being molested numerous times by a San Jose priest he once admired.
As the second phase of the landmark civil trial got underway, Dennis Kavanaugh said that the Rev. Joseph Pritchard fondled him between 20 and 30 times in the early 1970s at several locations, including a golf course, the priest's rectory bedroom and a car. He also testified that he felt intense guilt for not revealing the abuse until 2002, which may have allowed Pritchard to abuse other children, including Kavanaugh's younger brother.
AUSTRALIA
The Australian
Richard Yallop
March 22, 2005
SEXUAL and emotional violence towards women by priests and church workers has been ignored by a "feudal" male hierarchy in Adelaide's Anglican diocese.
Melbourne academic Zoe Morrison based her findings on a survey of 57 of Adelaide's 106 Anglican priests and in-depth interviews with 12 of the group.
She said the survey revealed an entrenched culture of hostility towards women and a reluctance by church authorities to investigate complaints of abuse.
Dr Morrison's report, to be released today to Adelaide's clergy, indicates a spectrum of verbal and physical assault towards women, ranging from isolated allegations of rape to bullying and harassment. It also alleges assaults by male clergy on female clergy.
Dr Morrison, a 27-year-old Rhodes scholar and specialist in the exercise of power in relationships, said that while child sexual abuse was now well recognised, abuse of female adults was not recognised, and in many instances church leaders had suppressed knowledge of it.
ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
KOBTV
Last Update: 03/21/2005 9:21:00 AM
By: Reed Upton
An Albuquerque priest who has served in the community for 40 years has been removed from active ministry following allegations of sexual abuse.
Father Ronald Bruckner’s removal from his duties at Our Lady of Annunciation parish follows a news conference held by a victims' group specifically to press for Bruckner’s removal.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, called for Bruckner’s suspension two weeks ago after an allegation that Bruckner was involved in a case of sexual abuse in the 1970s while serving as a priest in Los Alamos.
MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Tim Townsend
Of the Post-Dispatch
Saturday, Mar. 12 2005
When priests are ordained in the Roman Catholic church, it is understood that
they will be priests for the rest of their lives. Only the Vatican can laicize
a priest ordained in the church. Bishops can't take away an ordained man's
priesthood, but they can take away his ability to minister in the church.
St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke says eight or nine men who have been removed
from ministry after accusations that they abused minors live at Regina Cleri.
The official retirement home for priests is on the archdiocese's Shrewsbury
campus, in a neighborhood with children and day care centers. Burke says the
priests who have been removed from ministry are strictly monitored by a nun who
runs the facility.
St. Louis archdiocese officials say the priests in question fall into a
different category than those housed at Vianney and RECON, local facilities
that permanently house pedophile priests from around the country. They say the
eight or nine men at Regina Cleri abused children long ago, and the abuse may
have happened only once. Burke considers them low-risk to offend again, but
because of the charter adopted by U.S. bishops in Dallas in 2002, any priest
found to have a credible allegation of sexual abuse of minors in his past is
removed from ministry.
"While all these things are deplorable," said Monsignor Vernon E. Gardin, the
archdiocese's vicar general, "there is a degree of severity - whether it's a
one-time minor occurrence to something else. . . . You can't impose a stricter
law, because they have rights as citizens."
TUCSON (AZ)
Arizona Daily Star
By Stephanie Innes
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
A formal challenge to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson's finances - specifically the omission of parishes as diocesan assets - is expected to be filed this week in federal bankruptcy court.
Ivan S. Abrams, a Tucson attorney representing one of the 34 plaintiffs with a pending lawsuit against the local diocese, says that the diocese's 75 parishes as well as its schools should be considered part of the bankrupt estate.
If the parishes are considered part of the diocese, they could be targets for liquidation by creditors, including plaintiffs with valid claims that they were sexually abused by clergy members. If they're not part of the diocese's bankrupt estate, then the parish properties - except those individually named in legal actions - would have assured protection from creditors.
Abrams said Sunday that he plans to file a formal challenge to the parish question this week. Federal Judge James M. Marlar will have the final say.
The local diocese filed for federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on Sept. 20 in the face of 22 lawsuits from 34 plaintiffs alleging sexual abuse of children by priests. The move came after the diocese reached a $14 million settlement in 2002 with 10 men who said they were sexually abused by four members of the local clergy during the 1960s, '70s and '80s. The diocese has not disclosed how much of that was paid through insurance.
When he filed for bankruptcy protection, Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas said it was the best way for the cash-strapped diocese to equitably handle current and possibly future lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy. But the diocese, which listed $16.6 million in assets and $20.7 million in debts when it sought bankruptcy protection, did not include its 75 parishes in its statement of assets and liabilities, even though the diocese holds the title to those properties.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
NEW resources to compensate victims of clerical sex abuse need to be found, the Irish Bishops' Conference heard yesterday, because the bulk of a trust fund to meet such claims has already been spent.
Over the past nine years, 143 claims against 36 priests for child sex abuse have cost the Irish Catholic Church €8.78m.
This has been paid out of their Stewardship Trust which is now undergoing a review.
Most of these cases occurred prior to 1996 and the bishops heard that they are not covered by any existing insurance policy.
Since 1996, survivors of abuse have received €6.24m from the trust, while the legal costs have added an additional €2.53m to the bill.
The Stewardship Trust was funded by the traditional Catholic diocesan insurer in Ireland, Church and General, with payments of €4.3m in 1996 and a maximum agreement to pay up to €6.3m in 1999.
IRELAND
Irish Examiner
By Jim Morahan
SUNDAY Mass collections may be used to help meet clerical abuse costs which are expected to reach €25 million over the next five years.
Abuse claims cost nearly €5m in the last two years, the Catholic Church revealed this week.
During the period the country's 26 dioceses contributed €6.3m to the central fund.
Irish bishops have announced a review of the central fund, declaring its coffers were "almost depleted".
New resources "need to be provided", said the bishops. The fund, named the Stewardship Trust, was set up in 1996 with the four archbishops as trustees.
RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal
01:00 AM EST on Monday, March 21, 2005
BY ZACHARY R. MIDER
Journal Staff Writer
A Roman Catholic priest who admitted raping a boy while serving at St. Joseph Church in West Warwick three decades ago has been defrocked.
James D. Campbell, 59, who was an assistant pastor of the parish from 1975 to 1978, entered a guilty plea last Dec. 22 and is serving a three-month sentence in the Worcester County, Mass. House of Corrections.
Church officials in Rome removed Campbell from the priesthood "about a month ago," said the Rev. Raymond Diesbourg, a member of the governing council of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, a religious order whose provincial offices are in Aurora, Ill. Campbell was a member of that order.
Campbell was indicted by a Worcester County grand jury in September 2003, accused of molesting the 16-year-old St. Joseph's parishioner in the summer of 1975.
Campbell was accused of taking the boy to a restaurant in Uxbridge, Mass. and plying him with alcohol before molesting him, according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
ROCHESTER (NY)
Democrat & Chronicle
Gary Craig
Staff writer
(March 20, 2005) — The photos found on Henry James Ludington’s computer at his workplace — a Wayne County BOCES school building — were disturbing and graphic.
They showed children, some apparently as young as 6, being used as sexual playthings by adult men.
The videos were equally lurid, including a minutelong clip depicting a boy and girl, both around 10 years old, engaging in a sexual act.
Yet when Ludington appeared in court for sentencing this month, his family, friends and fellow church-goers packed the courtroom in a show of support. In letters to U.S. District Judge Charles Siragusa, they spoke of Ludington’s sterling character, trying to assure the judge that Ludington was not a man who would abuse a child.
In a statement, Ludington, a former regional math coordinator at the Wayne-Finger Lakes Board of Cooperative Educational Services, who was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison, acknowledged his taste for child pornography, but stressed that he would never hurt a kid.
Would he?
That’s the question that for now is unanswered — but it’s also a question confronting therapists, authorities and even parents who want to know how to protect their children. Earlier this month a local priest, the Rev. Michael Volino, was accused of possessing child pornography. His lawyer, echoing the claims of Ludington, says Volino has never abused a child, nor would he ever do so.
But retired FBI crime profiler Gregg McCrary is skeptical of such claims: “A lot of times they may be truthful when they say they’ve looked at it, they like the pictures, they find it erotic and they wouldn’t act on it.
“But these guys lie.”
NorthJersey.com
Sunday, March 20, 2005
By BILL WILLIAMS
THE HARTFORD COURANT
THE PONTIFF IN WINTER: Triumph and Conflict in the Reign of John Paul II, by John Cornwell; Doubleday, 336 pages, $24.95.
As one of the longest-serving and most active popes in history, John Paul II has left an indelible mark on the Roman Catholic Church. But how will history judge his pontificate?
It is a question that pervades John Cornwell's account of John Paul's remarkable life.
As a Polish cardinal, he was an unlikely choice in 1978, when the College of Cardinals elected him to, in Cornwell's words, "the strangest, most impossible and isolating job on earth." John Paul II became the first non-Italian pope since 1522 and, at age 54, the youngest since 1846. ...
John Paul's major legacy, Cornwell believes, will be his centralization of authority in the Vatican and his enfeeblement of local dioceses - an important reason why bishops did so little to rein in the priest sexual abuse scandal. Bishops thought they lacked the authority to act decisively.
PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
By Dimitri Vassilaros
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, March 21, 2005
The Roman Catholic Church legally can demand the dismissal of lawsuits not filed within two years.
But can it morally?
A three-judge panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court cited the statute of limitations when it dismissed 18 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by the clergy, filed against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
If the decision is not overturned, it also effectively prevents plaintiffs in 35 cases against the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh -- and those suing other dioceses in the state -- from having their day in court.
"If that is the standard for others, why would that not be the standard for the church?" asked the Rev. Ron Lengwin, spokesman for the Pittsburgh diocese. "We hope it would not be a double standard."
BRITAIN
BBC News
A woman from Sussex has spoken for the first time about the abuse she claims she suffered during her time at a Bexhill orphanage in the 1950s.
Judith Kelly said she and the other children were poorly fed and routinely beaten by nuns at the Nazareth convent.
On one occasion Mrs Kelly claimed she was blamed for the death of two young girls who accidentally drowned in the sea off the rocks at Gwynne Gap.
Mrs Kelly said writing her recently published memoirs had "eased her pain".
Marjorie Mitchell who was also at the convent with Mrs Kelly in 1953 told BBC South East today about the incident.
She said that when the two young girls died, the other orphans on the beach tried to rescue them using a human chain.
But while they desperately tried to help save them she said "the nuns just sat and prayed".
LONG ISLAND (NY)
Newsday
BY RITA CIOLLI
STAFF WRITER
March 20, 2005
The election of the next pope is more likely to be driven by personality and friendship than ideology, a leading Vatican expert told Long Island's Voice of the Faithful members at their second annual convention in Melville yesterday.
"The cardinals are more likely to vote for someone on the basis of personal connections, relationships and friendships," said John. L Allen Jr., the Vatican correspondent for theAbuse Tracker and Vatican analyst for CNN and National Public Radio.
Predicting who will be the successor to the ailing Pope John Paul II is hazardous business, Allen told an audience of about 500 at the Huntington Hilton. However, he said the word in Rome is there are three candidates to watch: Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice, Cardinal Claudio Hummes of Sao Paolo, Brazil, and Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Although the Vatican's inner workings are complicated and only 6 percent of the world's Catholics live in the United States, Rev. Thomas Doyle, a Dominican priest who was the convention's keynote speaker, told Voice of the Faithful members they must work to change the "medieval and monarchial" governance of the church.
Doyle said the sex abuse crisis spotlighted a church structure incapable of meeting the challenge of internal corruption. "The clergy sexual abuse phenomenon is about much more than dysfunctional clerics and their cover-up by dishonest monarchs," he said.
Doyle first warned church leaders of the scope of the abuse scandal two decades ago, when he was a canon lawyer for the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C. Since then, his criticism of the church's hierarchy has made him a target of bishops seeking to silence him and a hero to victims and groups like Voice of the Faithful, which sprung up three years ago in Boston in response to the scandal. The group seeks accountability from church leaders and supports "priests of integrity" and abuse victims.
GREECE
The Observer
Helena Smith in Athens
Sunday March 20, 2005
The Observer
Archbishop Christodoulos, head of the Greek Orthodox Church, is facing trying times. Last week, Greece's newly inaugurated President, Karolos Papoulias, spurned tradition by refusing to kiss him.
Days earlier, his closest confidant, Theoklitos, the Bishop of Thessaliotis, resigned amid accusations of homosexuality and drug dealing. And yesterday, after weeks of calls for his own withdrawal, the whiff of scandal came closer still - ensnaring his mentor, Metropolitan Bishop Kallinikos, with yet more claims of sexual impropriety. Growing numbers of the faithful have begun to wonder whether their fiery leader will survive 'Holygate'.
'There is no doubt that this crisis has blackened the face of the church,' said the conservative daily Kathimerini. 'Those who thought that the corruption scandals and shady intrigue bedevilling it were just a passing phase have been forced to reconsider.'
The revelations are mind-boggling. Almost daily, men once revered as paragons of virtue have been exposed as lascivious money-grabbers. Recorded conversations of eminent clerics engaging in 'love talk' have been broadcast on television, secret bank accounts revealed, and malfeasance unearthed, with priests emerging as central players in activities as disparate as trial-fixing, antiquities smuggling and election rigging. Highlighting a raft of lurid sexual claims, one newspaper splashed what was purported to be a 91-year-old priest in bed with a woman across its front page.
NEW YORK
Star-Ledger
Sunday, March 20, 2005
BY STUART MILLER
Star-Ledger Staff
NEW YORK -- Brían F. O'Byrne welcomes a visitor to his dressing room at the Walter Kerr Theater with an apology. The cast of the off-Broadway hit "Doubt" has just moved into the show's new Broadway theater, and its lead actor hasn't had the chance to make it feel like home.
Among O'Byrne's scant personal touches already present are a New York Mets pocket calendar, a baseball that chants "Let's Go Mets" when it's bounced, and his Mets calendar with its daily trivia question. A photo shoot and rehearsal await, but now it's quiz time: In 2000, he asks, where did the Mets tie their 1964 team record with 23 hits in a nine-inning game?
The answer is Colorado, but the scene begs another question: How did someone from the tiny Irish town of Mullagh; someone who grew up a Gaelic football fan; someone so Irish his first name is pronounced "BREE-un"; someone who earned two Tony nominations for Irish imports and a Tony Award for an English play, become obsessed with the Mets?
After disdaining baseball for his first decade here, O'Byrne, 37, went to Shea Stadium. Soon he began listening on the radio. Then he realized he was in love.
"I bring my radio to the game and sit with my buddies, it's totally dweeb city," he says proudly, adding that his Mets flag will soon adorn his dressing room.
Perhaps it's not so shocking that he'd discover his inner American.
O'Byrne plays his first American character -- Father Flynn, with his heavy Bronx accent -- in John Patrick Shanley's drama about a liberal priest who may or may not have molested a boy and a conservative nun (Cherry Jones), who may or may not cross the line in dogged pursuit of him. The actor has loved New York since he spent a summer as a teenager doing construction in Brooklyn, soaking up sunshine, spending every cent he earned, and reveling in bars that stay open until 4 a.m. He has lived here since 1990, when an uncle got him a green card so he could pursue his career as an actor.
BRITAIN
Times & Star
Published on 20/03/2005
A FORMER Workington priest has appeared in court charged with 15 counts of indecent assaults and five of gross indecency at a private school 32 years ago.
Father Gregory Peter Carroll, 65, taught at Ampleforth College between 1973 and 1983.
He was linked to the fee-paying school until 1987, when he moved to Workington’s Our Lady and St Michael’s Church, where he spent about 14 years as a priest.
The alleged assaults date back to his time at the college, and the alleged victims were all under 14 at the time.
The charges were brought after a 12-month police probe into Ampleforth Abbey, which is attached to an independent school run by Benedictine monks.
BRITAIN
Sunday Business Post
Rock Me Gently: A True Story of a Convent Childhood, By Judith Kelly, Bloomsbury, €15.80.
I read Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra many years ago and vividly recall having to stop halfway through, as the story became too harrowing. I never did finish the book. Rock Me Gently by Judith Kelly awakens those same feelings. The complete helplessness you feel as stories of childhood abuse unfold before your eyes is overwhelming.
Kelly's skill in telling her story is that she never resorts to self-pity. Rather, she tells her story in such a detached manner that it is evident the abuse she suffered went so deep as to numb her to its effects.
Kelly's father died when she was young, and she and her mother moved in with her grandparents. However, her mother's romance with another man caused endless rows with her grandparents, and eventually led to them moving out.
Her mother had difficulty finding somewhere to live that also accepted children. She was eventually forced to leave eight-year-old Kelly with the nuns in Nazareth House, a Catholic orphanage in “middle England'‘. Her mother left, promising that “it's not forever, Judith; it's just until I can find somewhere for us to live'‘.
It was four years before she came to take her away for good, too long a time to save her daughter from the life-altering abuse she suffered.
UNITED STATES
Mercury News
By Thomas G. Plante
In recent weeks, the clergy sexual-abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church again has made national headlines. This time it focused on the newly released second annual report by U.S. bishops stating that 1,092 new accusations of sexual abuse by priests have surfaced during the past year, with 22 new accusations made by children during 2004.
The report further stated that the church has now spent more than $800 million on lawsuits and settlements, with costs of about $140 million in 2004 alone.
Going bankrupt
Just a few weeks earlier, the Diocese of Orange County settled a lawsuit for $100 million, and recent news has reported that the dioceses of Tucson, Spokane, Wash., and Portland, Ore., have all filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, with more to come. Perhaps the next big news story will involve the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, with a lawsuit including more than 500 victims. Based on the recent settlements figures, one wonders whether the Los Angeles lawsuit settlement might exceed a half-billion dollars.
BRITAIN
Guardian
Simon Hoggart
Saturday March 12, 2005
The Guardian
· I was looking through the Bookseller list of bestselling books the other day, and grim reading it makes. Take the hardbacks: at number 1, The Little Prisoner, by Jane Elliott, described as the story of a girl abused from the age of four by her stepfather. At 3, A Brother's Journey by Richard B. Pelzer. Dave's younger brother tells of his side of the story of childhood abuse. At 4 is Rock Me Gently by Judith Kelly, the memoir of a miserable upbringing in a Catholic orphanage.
Perhaps the paperbacks will be a little more cheery - after all, they're what people take on holidays. They don't want more unhappiness, surely? Apparently they do. At 2, One Child by Torey Hayden. Educational psychologist helps an abused child back to life. At 3, Sickened, by Julie Gregory. Account of being raised by a mother with Munchausen's syndrome by proxy. At 5, Just A Boy, by Richard McCann. Son of the Yorkshire Ripper's first victim recounts his traumatic childhood. Next, two by the doyen of abusive childhoods, Dave Pelzer. At 6, The Privilege of Youth ("traumatic life story reaches teenage years and bullying at high school") and at 7, Pelzer's My Story - three volumes of tormented youth in one edition. And coming in at 8, To Die For by Carol Lee - autobiography telling of a young woman's battle with anorexia.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
MAEVE SHEEHAN
THE Catholic hierarchy has discussed asking wealthy benefactors and priests of independent means to foot the estimated €25m compensation bill for victims of child abuse.
In the most serious financial crisis to beset the Catholic church in Ireland, bishops disclosed last week that they are running out of money to meet the spiralling costs of indemnifying the victims of clerical sex abuse.
A tax-free fund set up in 1996, the Stewardship Trust, is almost depleted and bishops are reviewing other ways of raising money to meet their liabilities.
More than €8m has been paid to abuse victims since it was set up, with €5m paid in the past two years. The country's 26 dioceses have contributed €6.3m to the central fund.
Hierarchy sources said this weekend that bishops are considering turning to wealthy benefactors to provide tax-free donations. Individual priests and bishops will also be asked to contribute. Many already have. Bequests left to the church for bishops to spend at their discretion are also likely to be pooled for the fund.
CINCINNATI (OH)
Beacon Journal
JOHN NOLAN
Associated Press
CINCINNATI - Now that the Cincinnati Archdiocese has concluded compensating victims of priest sex abuse, parishioners say they see evidence that the archdiocese is taking molestation complaints more seriously and that abuse will no longer go unreported.
Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk suspended three priests last week from active ministry after the compensation panel concluded there was a basis to give money to three victims who said the clergy members abused them as children.
Catholic bookstore owner Suzanne Schneller said she saw the suspensions as evidence Pilarczyk is taking the problem seriously. The archbishop suspended the priests pending Vatican review of whether they should be allowed again to present themselves as clergy.
The $3 million compensation fund was part of the 19-county archdiocese's 2003 plea agreement to end a prosecutor's investigation of whether clergy abuse of children wasn't reported to authorities. The archdiocese pleaded no contest to failing to report crimes and was fined $10,000.
Increased scrutiny of priests makes abuse less likely to go undetected as it did for years, several parishioners said.
"I would find it really difficult to imagine a current situation not being reported," said Schneller, 55.
WASHINGTON
KGW
03/19/2005
Associated Press
Two lawsuits have been filed against a Northwest seminary, alleging that officials there were told by a former priest that he had molested boys at its now-defunct St. Thomas Seminary in Kenmore.
Attorneys representing 30 alleged victims of the former priest, Patrick G. O'Donnell, last week sued the Sulpician Seminary of the Northwest, which operated St. Thomas, and the Associated Sulpicians of the United States, based in Baltimore.
The complaints say O'Donnell told seminary officials he had molested boys there between 1968 and 1971.
A call to the Associated Sulpicians was not immediately returned Saturday.
The seminary sent O'Donnell to sexual deviancy counseling, but did not prevent his becoming a priest. O'Donnell led a parish in Spokane and worked as a Boy Scout chaplain, a youth director for the diocese and director of a diocesan youth basketball league, said Seattle attorney Michael Pfau, who filed the lawsuits.
The Sulpicians wrote glowing recommendations for O'Donnell's ordination, Pfau said, telling the Spokane bishop that he was "good priestly material."
MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Tim Townsend
Of the Post-Dispatch
03/19/2005
The Rev. James McGreal of Seattle has admitted to sexually abusing hundreds of children between the 1960s and 1980s. The Seattle archdiocese has so far agreed to pay almost $10 million to 26 of those victims, but because of Washington's statute of limitations, McGreal has never been convicted of a crime.
Because McGreal can't be sent to jail and has never been laicized (or defrocked) he is the responsibility of Seattle's archbishops.
For the last 20 years McGreal, now 81, has been living at the Vianney Renewal Center, near Dittmer in Jefferson County. Vianney and a nearby facility called RECON are the only two places in the country where bishops can permanently send dangerous pedophile priests.
"For those who need to be in a completely supervised environment there are two centers, which as providence would have it, are both in this archdiocese in the United States," said St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke in a recent interview.
Three years after the Roman Catholic clergy sexual abuse crisis broke in Boston, U.S. bishops are struggling to figure out what to do with priests who have been removed from ministry for sexual abuse of minors.
"This is a significant issue," said Sheila Kelly, deputy executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops's Office of Child and Youth Protection. "The basic concern is - are these people living and working in circumstances where they cannot continue to abuse children?"
TROY (NY)
Troy Record
By: Robert Cristo, The Record 03/18/2005
TROY - Attorney John Aretakis was not only denied a request that Rensselaer County Surrogate Court Judge Christian Hummel recuse himself from a case, but the judge turned around and slapped Aretakis with a $7,500 fine.
Aretakis is representing Troy resident Christopher Allen in a re-trial. Allen, 20, was found guilty of rape and other charges in 2002 and sentenced to spend the next 30 years behind bars.
In a 57-page decision, Hummel refused Aretakis' request and blasted the attorney for having "reckless" and "intentional disregard" for the truth in alleging that the judge had a personal vendetta against him from past court cases.
"The court finds that Mr. Aretakis' motion in this matter is frivolous as being without merit in law, undertaken primarily to delay or prolong the resolution of litigation and to harass and maliciously injure another and that it asserts material factual statements that are false," wrote Hummel in the decision.
The past cases Aretakis has handled which he believes are grounds for Hummel to recuse himself from the rape trial involve a series of alleged clergy sex abuse cases he brought against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany beginning two years ago.
In those cases, Aretakis alleged the court had removed a document from the court files and was guilty of criminal tampering with evidence. He also accused the court of engaging in mail fraud by allegedly misdirecting or retarding the passage of mail that was meant for him.
ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer
First published: Saturday, March 19, 2005
ALBANY -- The leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and Albany County's new district attorney met behind closed doors for the first time this week to discuss, among other issues, clergy sex abuse.
The hourlong meeting Thursday between Bishop Howard Hubbard and District Attorney David Soares came just weeks after Soares said the possibility of convening a grand jury to explore how the diocese handled sex abuse allegations wasn't out of the question.
On Friday, Soares described the discussion as an "informational meeting," adding there was neither discussion of any potential grand jury action, "nor of anything this office is doing or going to do."
"He was very forthcoming with what the church is doing to address these issues they're facing," Soares said. "It was a good meeting."
PAWCATUCK (RI)
The Westerly Sun
By Tom Kasprzak - The Sun Staff
PAWCATUCK - When parishioners of Sacred Heart Church in Norwich learned that their leader, Father Thomas McConaghy, was being accused of molesting a boy in the 1970s while serving at a military academy in Long Island, they were shocked.
For some former parishioners at St. Michael in Pawcatuck, the accusations have brought back painful memories of the past.
McConaghy, referred to by parishioners at St. Michael as "Father Tom," was pastor of the church from 1990 to 1998. During that time, a man named Michael Zaharie, a Pawcatuck resident, was volunteering his time at the school, taking students on trips and allegedly molesting them in private.
Kathy Shortridge, of Pawcatuck, who said her son was molested by Zaharie from the age of 7 to 15, says she believes Father Tom knew what was going on the entire time. Zaharie was ultimately convicted on two counts of second-degree sexual assault and two counts of first-degree assault. He served time in prison before his 2004 release.
Shortridge recalls how school and church officials appeared to address the alleged incidents.
"They had meetings about my son, without me being able to go," Shortridge says today.
IRELAND
One in Four
by Patsy McGarry and Liam Reid of The Irish Times
Irish bishops have launched a review of a central clerical abuse compensation fund that is almost depleted following a steep rise in the cost of claims that have reached €5 million in the last two years alone.
Following a three-day meeting in Maynooth, the bishops released national figures on abuse payments for the first time.
The figures show that since 1996 the Stewardship Trust has contributed to compensation settlements for 143 people in relation to abuse by 36 priests, amounting to €8.77 million. That figure includes €2.53 million in legal costs.
These figures relate only to diocesan priests and do not include religious orders.
CALIFORNIA
Appeal-Democrat
Appeal-Democrat and wire service reports
Yuba County District Attorney Pat McGrath said he will seek the extradition of a priest convicted of sexually molesting a minor in 1989, now that the Rev. Jose Luis Urbina has been discovered serving as a priest in Mexico.
Urbina fled the country after his 1989 conviction in a Yuba County court and later served for about a decade at his hometown parish in Navojoa, Mexico, the Dallas Morning News reported in its ongoing series on accused Roman Catholic priests who are now working in other countries.
"We will start exploring extradition for Mr. Urbina immediately," McGrath said.
Urbina, now 51, left Yuba County before then-Municipal Judge James F. Dawson could sentence him. He had been released on $2,500 bail.
Urbina served in the Yuba-Sutter area from about 1979 until 1984, living in the rectory at St. Isidore Catholic Church in Yuba City and working at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Marysville.
In 2003, a then-33-year-old Yuba City man sued Urbina and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, alleging that Urbina molested him from 1980 to 1986, when he turned 17. The suit is pending in Sacramento County Superior Court.
NEW YORK
Troy Record
By: Robert Cristo, The Record 03/19/2005
An appellate court ruling quashed two priests' attempts at silencing attorney John Aretakis, who represents numerous victims of alleged clergy sex abuse.
After months of debate, the five-member Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court gave Aretakis the right to publicly disclose contents of complaints of unethical behavior made against him.
"They agreed that I can report a grievance made against me to the media without permission from the court," said Aretakis. "Now that this monkey is finally off my back, I'm free to get back to doing my work."
The unanimous judgment went in Aretakis' favor, despite Committee on Professional Standards charges that Aretakis was violating provisions of the Judiciary Law for making public the complaints of Schenectady priest Carl Urban and Albany Diocesan Chancellor and spokesman Kenneth Doyle.
The three-page document, signed by Clerk of the Court Michael Novack, permitted Aretakis to "disclose" the contents of the "complaints" made against him and dismissed the charged made against him.
Aretakis also considered the decision a victory for lawyers across the state who wish to disclose complaints made against attorneys.
ROCHESTER (NY)
WSTM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. The Catholic bishop of Rochester says he and the diocese "erred very badly" in the case of a priest accused of having child pornography.
Bishop Matthew Clark apologized to the community and Saint John the Evangelist Church in suburban Greece.
Father Michael Volino of that parish was assigned to pastoral work after a church-run psychiatric center recommended that he be restricted from ministry involving children. Volino was charged last week with receiving and possessing child pornography after the images were found on his computer. There were no allegations that he abused any children.
Volino has been confined to a monastery in Elmira pending a federal trial.
GREEN BAY (WI)
Press-Gazette
By Andy Nelesen
anelesen@greenbaypressgazette.com
An April 20 jury trial for a priest accused of sexual assault was scuttled Friday when his lawyer asked for more time to prepare his case.
Donald Buzanowski, 62, faces two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child for allegedly fondling a 10-year-old boy in 1988 while serving as a counselor at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic School in Green Bay.
The alleged victim made allegations in 1990, but the case was not prosecuted because of a lack of evidence. Another man came forward last year with allegations from about the same time period and prosecutors were able to develop other information, prompting the charges to be filed in October 2004.
Buzanowski has pleaded not guilty to both counts.
Buzanowski’s lawyer, Owen Monfils, dropped a request for a speedy trial and asked for more time to review evidence and prepare for trial. Brown County Circuit Court Judge J.D. McKay rescheduled the jury trial for July 26.
ROCHESTER (NY)
Democrat & Chronicle
Gary Craig
Staf writer
(March 19, 2005) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester suffered lapses in its oversight of priests when it allowed the Rev. Michael Volino to work in the school at St. John the Evangelist Church in Greece, despite concerns about Volino's contact with children, Bishop Matthew Clark said Friday.
The bishop, who granted a series of media interviews throughout the day, said the diocese wants to find out where the lapses occurred, and how to ensure they don't happen again.
"We have to figure out how that happened and why," Clark said.
The diocese has come under criticism since Volino's arrest earlier this month on federal charges of receiving and possessing child pornography.
Clark stressed there have been no allegations that Volino abused anyone. The diocese did not ask the priest to go to a Maryland psychiatric center out of fear that he could be a predator, Clark said.
OAKLAND (CA)
Contra Costa Times
By Ivan Delventhal
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
OAKLAND - The attorney for two brothers whose clergy abuse lawsuit against the Diocese of Oakland will open soon said he was not surprised by a jury's decision to find the Archdiocese of San Francisco liable in a similar case.
A San Francisco jury, by a 10-2 vote, found Friday that the archdiocese knew or should have known that the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard was sexually abusing boys in the 1970s. The damages phase of the lawsuit filed by plaintiff Dennis Kavanaugh is to begin Monday.
Hayward attorney Rick Simons, who is representing plaintiffs Robert and Tom Thatcher in their lawsuit against the Diocese of Oakland, said the jury's decision in the Kavanaugh case was a clear rejection of the "We didn't know about this" defense.
The verdict also showed how persuasive victim testimony can be, Simons said.
"What most of the lawyers who are representing the Oakland Diocese don't seem to recognize is that these (victims) are very truthful, they are very believable and there's nobody making this stuff up," he said.
In the Thatcher case, the brothers allege they were molested by former priest Robert Ponciroli at St. Ignatius Church in Antioch in the early 1980s.
CALIFORNIA
Contra Costa Times
By Robin Evans
KNIGHT RIDDER
In a decision that could affect dozens of similar cases, the first jury to reach a verdict in California's nearly 850 clergy molestation lawsuits found Friday that there were enough signs of suspicious behavior by a San Jose pastor that church officials should have reported, investigated and stopped it.
The civil lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court was brought by 47-year-old Palo Alto resident Dennis Kavanaugh, who said he was abused as a boy by St. Martin of Tours Church pastor Joseph Pritchard from 1971 to 1973.
The jury reconvenes Monday to determine damages, a process Judge John Munter estimated would take a week. Other Pritchard cases are scheduled to follow.
But the verdict is likely to put pressure on the church to settle the other cases, said attorney Robert Tobin, who has three clients whose cases are next in line for trial.
The announcement of the verdict was met with elation by alleged victims of other priests who had sat through the four-day trial.
ARLINGTON (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
08:50 PM CST on Friday, March 18, 2005
By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
ARLINGTON – A prominent pastor indicted on charges of sexually assaulting three women said Friday that he was innocent and asked the public to pray for his family – and those of his accusers.
Speaking publicly for the first time since his arrest and indictment last week, and flanked by more than a dozen church members, including his wife, Renee, Mr. Hornbuckle said he's looking forward to proving his case to doubters.
"Our day in court will come," he said. "I have confidence in our legal system, and I have confidence in my legal counsel. My innocence will be proven."
By Anthony Spangler
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
ARLINGTON - Standing hand in hand with his wife and surrounded by supporters, Bishop Terry L. Hornbuckle on Friday denied criminal and civil allegations that he sexually assaulted three former parishioners.
Hornbuckle, 43, of Grapevine, faces four charges of sexual assault and one charge of possession of a controlled substance. Authorities said they found a small amount of methamphetamine in Hornbuckle's Cadillac Escalade when he was arrested March 11 near his Arlington church, Agape Christian Fellowship.
In two of the cases, he is accused of using date-rape drugs to overcome his victims, according to court documents.
"I'm here today to tell you that I am unequivocally and emphatically innocent of all these charges," Hornbuckle said during the news conference in a meeting room at the Arlington Wyndham hotel.
TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
In the midst of the U.S. Catholic Church's clerical sexual abuse crisis, the most severe crisis in its history, more than 600 people have made commitments to convert to Catholicism and join parishes in the Toledo diocese next Saturday.
"I think it just goes to show us how the Holy Spirit works. The Holy Spirit is going to work well beyond our own human crisis," said the Rev. Charles Singler, rector of Rosary Cathedral and director of worship for the diocese. "The call to holiness transcends all the crisis and trauma in the church."
Father Singler, who assists parishes conduct classes for the Rite of Catholic Initiation for Adults (RCIA), said those who decide to convert are required to attend classes and Mass for six months to a year, depending on the local parish's policies. "During this period of enlightenment, they are intensely preparing for their initiation," Father Singler said.
The initiation of 618 converts is scheduled to take place at Rosary Cathedral on Holy Saturday's Easter Vigil.Abuse Trackerly, more than 150,000 people are converting that day, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Keralanext
[US News] SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco's Roman Catholic Archdiocese was aware of the sexual abuse of a teen-age boy by one of its priests in the 1970s, a jury decided on Friday in a verdict with implications for hundreds of similar lawsuits in California.
"This verdict resolved the issue of whether the Archdiocese of San Francisco knew or should have known," said Larry Drivon, the lawyer for 47-year-old Dennis Kavanaugh, who sued the Archdiocese alleging one of its priests molested him repeatedly when he was a teen-ager.
San Francisco Archbishop William Levada said church officials were never aware of any abuse.
"I find it very troubling that while the Archdiocese certainly did not know of the molestation, a very subjective judgment can be made under the law, using today's sensibilities regarding what the Archdiocese 'should' have known more than 30 years ago," Levada said in a statement.
GREEN BAY (WI)
Post-Crescent
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers
GREEN BAY — An April 20 trial for a priest accused of sexual assault was scuttled Friday when his lawyer asked for more time to prepare his case.
Donald Buzanowski, 62, faces two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child for allegedly fondling a 10-year-old boy in 1988 while serving as a counselor at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic School in Green Bay.
The alleged victim made allegations in 1990, but the case was not prosecuted because of a lack of evidence. Another man came forward last year with allegations from about the same time period and prosecutors were able to develop other information, prompting the charges to be filed in October 2004.
Buzanowski has pleaded not guilty to both counts.
Buzanowski’s lawyer, Owen Monfils, dropped a request for a speedy trial and asked for more time to review evidence and prepare for trial. Brown County Circuit Court Judge J.D. McKay rescheduled the jury trial for July 26.
SAN BERNARDINO (CA)
The Press-Enterprise
01:37 AM PST on Saturday, March 19, 2005
By MICHAEL FISHER / The Press-Enterprise
A former Inland priest accused of fondling a San Bernardino girl during the 1980s is at the center of a new lawsuit alleging that he raped a girl in Iowa decades earlier.
The lawsuit filed last week in Iowa accuses the Rev. John Schmitz, now deceased, of sexual assault.
That litigation comes more than a year after a California woman sued the Diocese of San Bernardino, claiming the priest had fondled her during confession at Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral in San Bernardino in 1985.
The woman was about 12 years old when the alleged incident occurred.
The lawsuits have also raised questions about how Schmitz ended up working in the Inland diocese for almost two years after he had been rejected by the Archdiocese of Dubuque in Iowa.
Schmitz, who died in 1991, had been sent to a treatment center in 1982 after the Dubuque Archdiocese received complaints from parishioners about his financial management and his relationship with an adult woman, according to the archdiocese.
ROCHESTER (NY)
Democrat & Chronicle
Gary Craig
Staff writer
(March 19, 2005) — On Friday, Bishop Matthew Clark answered questions for the first time since the arrest earlier this month of the Rev. Michael Volino on federal charges of receipt and possession of child pornography. In 2002, the diocese sent Volino to St. Luke's Institute, a church-run psychiatric facility in Silver Spring, Md. Counselors there cautioned that Volino should not be left alone with children or work in school settings. The diocese has been accused of ignoring some of those recommendations while Volino, now 41, continued to work as a priest in Monroe County, most recently with the St. John the Evangelist Church in Greece. Below is a transcript — edited for length and clarity — of an interview Friday of Bishop Clark by reporter Gary Craig.
Question: Going back to 2002 ... can you say what prompted the decision for the St. Luke's assessment of Father Volino?
Clark: In general, there were concerns in the community by people who care very much for Father Volino about maturity and development ... in a young adult male of his age. There was thought that if we could invite him to an evaluation of those elements in his life that it might afford an opportunity for growth and better self-understanding. It's probably a good place to make the point, in the context of your question, that there was not then, nor has there been since then, any kind of allegation against him of sexual misconduct or the abuse of children.
When you talk about some concerns within the community that led to sending Volino to St. Luke's, are you talking about a couple of people raising issues? More than a couple?
Clark: It wasn't a great groundswell. And, to be honest with you, I don't remember exactly and precisely who they were. (They were) friends and colleagues of Father Michael and those who cared about him."
BELLEVUE (WA)
King County Journal
2005-03-19
by Noel S. Brady
Journal Reporter
BELLEVUE - New evidence in the case of a former Catholic priest and Bellevue child and family psychologist accused of molesting dozens of boys has triggered two new civil lawsuits against the Kenmore seminary where the man trained to be a priest.
Attorneys representing 30 alleged victims of Patrick G. O'Donnell filed two civil lawsuits this week against the Sulpician Seminary of the Northwest, which ran the now-defunct St. Thomas Seminary in Kenmore, and the Associated Sulpicians of the United States. The attorneys claim O'Donnell told seminary officials he had molested boys there between 1968 and 1971.
While the seminary sent O'Donnell to sexual deviancy counseling, they did not prevent him from becoming a priest and going on to lead a parish in Spokane and work as a Boy Scout chaplain, a youth director for the diocese and director of a diocesan youth basketball league, said Seattle attorney Michael Pfau, who filed the lawsuits.
In fact, the Sulpicians wrote glowing recommendations for O'Donnell's ordination, Pfau said. They told the Catholic Bishop of Spokane that O'Donnell was ``good priestly material,'' knowing he was a sexual predator of boys.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Stacy Finz, Don Lattin, Chronicle Staff Writers
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Jurors at a key sexual abuse trial found Friday that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco knew or should have known that a San Jose priest was molesting boys in his parish in the early 1970s.
The jury's 10-2 decision puts new pressure on the church to reach what could be a costly collective settlement with dozens of other abuse claimants in Northern California. Unlike a criminal trial where a unanimous verdict is required, a civil lawsuit can be decided on a 9-3 jury vote.
Dennis Kavanaugh, 47, said he was molested by the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard as many as 30 times from 1971 to 1973 while he attended St. Martin of Tours Church in San Jose, which at the time was overseen by the San Francisco Archdiocese. He said the archdiocese could have put a stop to the abuse, but didn't.
The six-woman, six-man jury began deliberating before noon on Thursday after hearing more than two days of emotional testimony. The verdict came before 10 a.m. Friday.
As the verdict was read by the court clerk, people in the gallery clapped and sobbed. One woman screamed in apparent relief.
The spontaneous celebration prompted San Francisco Superior Court Judge John Munter to shout for order.
FORT SMITH (AR)
TheHometownChannel.com
POSTED: 9:02 pm CST March 18, 2005
UPDATED: 9:09 pm CST March 18, 2005
FORT SMITH, Ark. -- Lawyers for Subiaco Academy are arguing that a man who says he was abused by a priest who taught at the Catholic school can't file suit because the statute of limitations is up.
The Catholic school filed a response in federal court to a suit filed earlier this month by the accuser. The accuser's suit claimed he was abused from 1976 to 1979. The priest and school are named as defendants.
The priest no longer teaches at the northern Arkansas school, but still lives and works there.
ROCHESTER (NY)
WHEC
For the first time since the arrest of a local priest accused of downloading child porn on his church computer, Bishop Matthew Clark is talking publicly. The Bishop sat down with NEWS 10NBC Friday and answered tough questions concerning the case of Father Michael Volino who is charged with receiving and possessing child pornography.
NEWS 10NBC learned that a mental evaluation recommended that Volino not be allowed around children but he was teaching at a catholic school at least once a week. “It shouldn't have happened. He should not have been in that school. The fact is that he was and we're trying to determine precisely why that was,” said Clark.
Three years ago a report by the saint Luke’s institute in Maryland told the diocese that Father Volino should not have contact with children.
But Vather Volino did, teaching at Saint John the Evangelist School in Greece. And before that as a Boy Scout volunteer through Saint Lawrence Church in Greece.
Bishop Clark says he did not have the right system and protocol in place to follow the saint Luke’s recommendation. “I do believe that those who I asked to implement this 05 may have offered some interpretation to the material they received in such fashion that to be teaching in a school with supervision was okay.”
ARLINGTON (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Star-Telegram
ARLINGTON - Bishop Terry L. Hornbuckle denied criminal and civil allegations that he sexually assaulted three female parishioners, during a press conference in a ballroom at the Arlington Wyndham hotel Friday morning.
Hornbuckle, 43, of Grapevine, was indicted last week on four charges of sexual assault. Former members of Agape Christian Fellowship allege that he assaulted them in a vehicle or an apartment. In two of the cases, he is accused of using date-rape drugs to overcome his victims. The women have also filed personal injury lawsuits against Hornbuckle.
Authorities also have charged him with possession of a controlled substance after saying they found methamphetamines in his vehicle during his arrest.
Hornbuckle has been place on an indefinite leave of absence by the church's board.
"I am unequivocally and emphatically innocent of these charges," Hornbuckle said.
Hornbuckle said anyone who knows the kind of Christian he is knows he is innocent. He said he was confident he would be cleared in court.
His wife, Renee Hornbuckle, said she believes her husband is innocent and that the accusations are tearing away at her family's spiritual and personal lives.
ARLINGTON (TX)
NBC5i
POSTED: 12:16 pm CST March 18, 2005
UPDATED: 1:13 pm CST March 18, 2005
ARLINGTON, Texas -- Bishop Terry Hornbuckle spoke publicly Friday morning in response to allegations that he sexually assaulted three women who attended his church, Agape Christian Fellowship.
"First of all let me say this: I am here today to share with you that I am unequivocally and emphatically innocent of all of these charges," said Hornbuckle.
Hornbuckle was indicted earlier this week on charges of sexual assault. He has been accused of drugging two of the three women before sexually assaulting them.
"If anyone know me as a person and the things I stand for as a man, as a father, as a husband and as a Christian ... that these are charges that are frivolous and those are accusations that I once again, categorically deny," said Hornbuckle.
Police also said they found between 1 and 4 grams of methamphetamines in his car at the time of his arrest.
"I say this to you, and to my church family and to my family that I know that our day in court will come ... I have confidence in our legal system and I have confidence in my legal council that my innocence will be proven," said Hornbuckle.
ARLINGTON (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Star-Telegram
Bishop Terry L. Hornbuckle, of Agape Christian Fellowship church in Arlington, held a press conference 10 a.m. Friday at the Arlington Wyndham. The following is a transcript of what was said.
Stephen Schechter, of 5W public relations in New York:
"My name is Stephen Schechter and I am with 5W PR and I am here to help facilitate this press conference. Bishop Hornbuckle is going to make a brief statement followed by Pastor Hornbuckle, Renee, is going to make a statement as well and then Michael P. Heiskell will be making a statement and answering questions. Ladies and gentlemen, Bishop Terry Hornbuckle."
Terry L. Hornbuckle, bishop of Agape church:
"First of all, let me say good morning. And we welcome all the press here today and thank you for your kindness and thank you for abiding by some of the things that was asked of you.
First of all let me say this, I'm here today to tell you that I am unequivocally and emphatically innocent of all these charges.
JACKSONVILLE (FL)
News4Jax.com
POSTED: 3:23 pm EST March 18, 2005
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A former pastor Friday pleaded no contest to having sex with a teenage girl and was sentenced to six months in jail, three years of probation and must register as a sex offender.
Alexie Kelly was pastor of the Little Rock Baptist Church on Dec. 31, 2003, when he was charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a 13-year-old girl.
At the hearing, Kelly's attorney read a letter from the victim asking that he not do any jail time, but the victim's mother said her daughter will never get back what he took from her.
The mother said Kelly needs to find a way to redeem himself in the eyes of his church.
ARLINGTON (TX)
KHOU
02:57 PM CST on Friday, March 18, 2005
By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
ARLINGTON - A prominent pastor indicted on charges of sexually assaulting three women said Friday that he was innocent and asked the public to pray for his accusers and for his own family.
“If anyone knows me as a person and the things I stand for as a man, as a father, as a husband and as a Christian, they know these charges are frivolous,” said Terry Hornbuckle, bishop of Agape Christian Fellowship Church in Arlington.
Surrounded by more than a dozen church members, including his wife, Mr. Hornbuckle said he’s looking forward to proving his case in court. His attorney, Michael Heiskell, would not let Mr. Hornbuckle answer questions from the media gathered for the press conference at the Wyndham Arlington Hotel.
Mr. Heiskell also criticized the Tarrant County district attorney’s office for its vigorous pursuit of what he described as a thin case. He said that the $405,000 bail amount and additional restrictions, such as requiring him to wear an ankle monitor, was unusually harsh.
In addition to the sexual assault cases, Mr. Hornbuckle was also charged with possession of between 1 and 4 grams of methamphetamine that police said they found in his car when the pastor was arrested.
ROCHESTER (NY)
Democrat & Chronicle
Gary Craig
Staff writer
(March 18, 2005) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester suffered lapses in its oversight of priests when it allowed the Rev. Michael Volino to work in the school at St. John the Evangelist Church in Greece, despite concerns about Volino's contact with children, Bishop Matthew Clark said today.
The bishop, who conducted a series of media interviews throughout the day, said the diocese is studying how the oversight slipped and is crafting ways to ensure it does not happen again.
"We have to figure out how that happened and why," Clark said. "That's part of our challenge ... in the days ahead. If that was a breakdown, and it seems pretty clear it was, it was a breakdown not in good intention or not in the common sense of the people involved in it.
"... I think thus far this remains murkier than I'd like because we don't have that kind of clarity on hand by which to help us understand more fully what happened," Clark said.
The diocese has come under criticism since Volino's arrest earlier this month on charges of receiving and possessing child pornography. In 2002, the diocese asked Volino, now 41, to undergo a weeklong evaluation at a Maryland-based psychiatric center for priests because of questions about behavioral issues and maturity.
ROCHESTER (NY)
Democrat & Chronicle
Gary Craig
Staff writer
(March 18, 2005) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester suffered lapses in its oversight of priests when it allowed the Rev. Michael Volino to work in the school at St. John the Evangelist Church in Greece, despite concerns about Volino's contact with children, Bishop Matthew Clark said today.
The bishop, who conducted a series of media interviews throughout the day, said the diocese is studying how the oversight slipped and is crafting ways to ensure it does not happen again.
"We have to figure out how that happened and why," Clark said. "That's part of our challenge ... in the days ahead. If that was a breakdown, and it seems pretty clear it was, it was a breakdown not in good intention or not in the common sense of the people involved in it.
"... I think thus far this remains murkier than I'd like because we don't have that kind of clarity on hand by which to help us understand more fully what happened," Clark said.
The diocese has come under criticism since Volino's arrest earlier this month on charges of receiving and possessing child pornography. In 2002, the diocese asked Volino, now 41, to undergo a weeklong evaluation at a Maryland-based psychiatric center for priests because of questions about behavioral issues and maturity.
SAN FRANCISCO
Mercury News
KIM CURTIS
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - The Archdiocese of San Francisco knew or should have known that one of its priests was molesting boys during the 1970s, a jury decided Friday in a landmark case. The jury will now decide how much to award the victim.
By a 10-2 vote, the jury decided in favor of 47-year-old Dennis Kavanaugh, who had sued the archdiocese, alleging that the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard had molested him during the early 1970s.
Kavanaugh's was the first of more than 750 lawsuits against Roman Catholic dioceses in California to go to trial since California temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for filing sex-abuse claims in 2002.
The verdict and any subsequent award for damages could have broader implications for other lawsuits by increasing the pressure on the church to settle.
Testimony in the damages portion of the trial is scheduled to begin Monday.
"This victory is based and rests on the efforts, the courage, the guts and determination of so many incredibly brave survivors that came forward over the years," said Kavanaugh's attorney, Larry Drivon. "This is a vindication of their bravery."
MYSTIC (IA)
Daily Iowegian
March 18, 2005
A former Mystic resident who settled a law suit against the Catholic Diocese of Davenport said despite what the court papers filed by his attorneys said, he was never a member of the Catholic Church.
Richard Clark of Winterset had filed 10 counts against the Diocese of Davenport in regard to incidents he charged occurred between 1957 and 1959 in the former Mystic church. The church was dissolved in 1999. He accused the late Father Louis Telegdy of sexual abuse.
Clark said the accusations occurred while he was in the Boy Scouts. He said he wanted to set the record straight so friends still in the area did not think he was fabricating the charges.
SAN DIEGO (CA)
Out in America
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO (AP) - San Diego's Roman Catholic bishop has denied funeral rites to a man who owned a bar and a dance club popular with gays, citing a clash with the church's moral teachings.
John McCusker, who was gay, died Sunday of congestive heart failure at a ski resort, his family said.
Arrangements had been made to hold funeral services at the Immaculata Catholic Church on the University of San Diego campus, McCusker's alma mater that is affiliated with the church.
But San Diego Bishop Robert Brom decided none of the 98 Catholic churches in San Diego or Imperial counties could provide funeral rites for McCusker, who was 31.
"The facts regarding the business activities of John McCusker were not known by church officials when arrangements were requested for his funeral," the diocese said Thursday in a statement. "However, when these facts became known, the bishop concluded that to avoid public scandal Mr. McCusker cannot be granted a funeral in a Catholic church or chapel in the Diocese of San Diego."...
Other dioceses have sometimes denied funeral Masses for mobsters, including John Gotti. In other cases across the country, some priests accused of sexual abuse have been granted Catholic funeral services, including John Geoghan, the Boston Archdiocese former priest whose sex-abuse case helped spark a nationwide church scandal.
ROCHESTER (NY)
WROC
3/18/2005 6:00 PM
Bishop Matthew Clark spoke out for the first time Friday about allegations against a local priest. Father Michael Volino, of St. John the Evangelist Church in Greece, is charged with possessing child pornography.
The Bishop says he's speaking out to reassure the community that the diocese takes very seriously it's responsibility to protect children. But, he also acknowledges there's been a serious collapse in communication.
"I need to acknowledge that we've had a breakdown in our procedures," Bishop Clark said Friday.
His response comes amid new information which surfaced during Volino's court appearance this week. A report was sited which suggested the priest was not supposed to be working with children. That came from the Saint Luke Institute, a facility for troubled priests in Maryland. Volino spent several weeks there at the Bishop's request for counseling on "maturity issues," not sexual concerns, according to Clark.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Stacy Finz and Don Lattin, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, March 18, 2005
A jury concluded today that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco knew or should have known that a priest at one of its churches was molesting boys in his parish in the early 1970s.
The decision and a jury verdict on damages, which the panel will consider next week, could influence what Catholic dioceses will have to pay to settle 150 top 200 clergy sex-abuse coverup cases that plaintiffs have filed across Northern California.
The plaintiff in the case decided today, 47-year-old Dennis Kavanaugh of Palo Alto, was the first person to take one of these lawsuits to trial against the Catholic Church in California since a 2002 state law temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on damage claims against organizations that gave known pedophiles access to more victims.
Kavanaugh said in his suit that the San Francisco Archdiocese had been in a position to know that the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard, his former priest at St. Martin of Tours Church in San Jose, was a serial molester but that church officials had done nothing about it. Kavanaugh says Pritchard molested him as many as 30 times from 1971 to 1973.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
CBS 5
03/18/05 11:20 PST
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)
A San Francisco Superior Court jury found today that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco is liable for a priest's molestation of a boy in a San Jose parish more than 30 years ago.
The civil jury concluded by a 10-2 vote that the archdiocese should have known by the end of 1973 that the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard had engaged in illegal sexual conduct.
The jury will reconvene Monday morning in the court of Judge John Munter to determine the amount of financial compensation to be awarded to the plaintiff, Dennis Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh, 47, of San Jose, alleged that Pritchard molested him between 20 and 30 times in the St. Martin of Tours Parish in San Jose between 1971 and 1973. The parish was part of the San Francisco archdiocese at the time.
Kavanaugh's lawsuit is the first of about 160 pending lawsuits filed against Northern California dioceses to go to trial. The suits have a total of 200 plaintiffs who allege Roman Catholic priests molested them in the past.
NEWARK (NJ)
Worrall Community Newspapers
By: A. E. Gualtieri, Staff Writer 03/17/2005
The Episcopal Diocese of Newark is the defendant of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed on March 2 by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of two female employees.
Michele Wilson, of Roselle, an administrative assistant for the diocese, filed a complaint of sexual harassment with the EEOC after the diocese did not address the harassment, the complaint filed in U.S. District Court alleges.
The suit alleges violations of title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the EEOC announced.
According to the suit, a diocesan priest, the Rev. Dana Rose, a vicar of Trinity Church in Irvington, regularly made offensive sexual comments to Wilson and another co-worker, Maxine Gooden of Teaneck, during his visits to diocesan offices in Newark.
The complaint alleges that Rose stated he was going to visit Wilson's home and attempted to contact her at home.
The suit also alleges that Rose made inappropriate and offensive statements to the two women such as, "You didn't say that last night when I was at your house making your scream."
ROCHESTER (NY)
Democrat & Chronicle
(March 18, 2005) — Come back to DemocratandChronicle.com at 5 p.m. for coverage of an interview today with Bishop Matthew Clark, in which he addressed the response of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester to the recent arrest of the Rev. Michael Volino on child pornography charges.
The diocese has come under criticisim for possibly ignoring a 2002 evaluation of Volino in which counselors warned that he should be kept away from children.
A complete report on the interview will appear in Saturday's print and online editions.
CALIFORNIA
Dateline Alabama
The Associated Press
March 18, 2005
Yuba County authorities will seek the extradition of a priest convicted of sexually molesting a minor in 1989, now that the Rev. Jose Luis Urbina has been discovered serving as a priest in Mexico.
Urbina fled the country after his conviction and has served at his hometown parish in Navojoa, Mexico, for about a decade, the Dallas Morning News reported in its ongoing series on accused priests who are now working in other countries.
The newspaper also reported that another former Sacramento diocesan priest under investigation for child molestation is working in a remote region in southern Mexico. The Rev. Garardo Beltran disappeared in 1991 after Sacramento police began investigating allegations that he molested two young girls.
While in the Sacramento diocese, Urbina was accused of sexually molesting a boy over the course of several years, in one instance pointing a gun at his victim before molesting him. Urbina admitted guilt but left the country before sentencing.
TEXAS
KGBT
Reported by Romeo Cantu
A handful of protestors showed up Thursday at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan Del Valle Shrine the shrine, saying their angry that the Brownsville Diocese continues to withhold vital information when it comes to sexual abuse cases within the church.
The four protestors were members of the Call To Action group.
They said that they were there as a sign of protest for the way the Diocese and Bishop Raymundo Pena handle sexual abuse cases involving its priests.
"Our goal is to once again request from our Bishop to come forward and make public the names of those priests that have had allegations of abuse against them," said David Saavedra, co-chairman of the Call To Action chapter in McAllen.
GREECE
The Globe and Mail
By DOUG SAUNDERS
Friday, March 18, 2005 Page A12
ATHENS -- In the shadow of the Acropolis, Greeks are witnessing a scandal-plagued showdown -- involving allegations of drug-dealing bishops, bribe-taking judges and a mysterious fugitive -- that could permanently sever the ancient bonds of church and state.
A series of stunning revelations has uncovered what seems to be a powerful criminal element within the leadership of the Greek Orthodox church. Run by bishops accused of serious crimes, the ring is reported to exert control over Greek politicians and judges, and to have used the church's almost unlimited powers to build a mafia-like hierarchy of wealth and corruption.
This week, the scandal threatened to reach the very top of this secretive church. Archbishop Christodoulos, the 66-year-old leader of the church, has been accused of working with a convicted drug smuggler named Apostolos Vavilis, who is wanted by Interpol and believed to be hiding in Italy. The archbishop said this week that the relationship is innocent, but police want to question Mr. Vavilis about his role in the church, where he allegedly acted as an envoy at the highest levels.
The church, which for decades has seemed immune to criticism, has begun to be shaken. During the ceremonial inauguration of a new Greek president on Saturday, half a dozen members of parliament stormed out of the legislature, and dozens more refused to stand, when the archbishop entered the chamber in his ceremonial headdress and carrying his sceptre.
GREECE
Houston Voice
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s embattled Orthodox Church leader led nationwide prayers last week for an end to sex-and-corruption scandals facing his bishops — but just 250 worshippers turned up to attend his service at Athens Cathedral. Archbishop Christodoulos had called on churchgoers and clergymen to pray to “cure the disease” of scandals that have shaken the foundation of Greece’s official church. A clergyman was expelled for allegedly engaging in sexual activities with other men, and another priest suspended following pedophilia allegations. Nightlong vigils were planned across Greece, but it was not immediately clear how many people attended church services elsewhere in the country or whether plans for a second prayer vigil would be kept.
SCRANTON (PA)
Scranton Times
Chris Birk 03/18/2005
A Diocese of Scranton priest was charged Thursday with downloading and viewing images of child pornography while staying at St. Ann's Church rectory in Tobyhanna.
The Rev. Virgil Bradley Tetherow, also known as Father Gabriel, 1219 Jackson St., Scranton, was arraigned Thursday morning before Magisterial District Judge Clancy Dennis on 10 counts each of sexual abuse of children and criminal use of a communication facility, both third-degree felonies.
The arrest came exactly two months after Pocono Mountain Regional Police began investigating child porn allegations surrounding the Tobyhanna church rectory. A man brought in to clean up the hard drives of the rectory computers discovered images of young men engaged in sexual acts on a computer used by the church secretary, the parish priest, the Rev. Michael Kloton, told detectives.
Father Kloton agreed to a voluntary search, and detectives removed the computer a day later.
Police initially discovered more than 10 images of children between the ages of 10 to 14 engaged in sexual acts or simulated sex acts on the secretary's computer. Days later, on Jan. 20, the parish priest turned over another computer suspected of containing illegal images, this one kept in the room used by Father Tetherow.
BRITAIN
News & Star
Published on 18/03/2005
A FORMER Workington priest has appeared in court charged with 15 indecent assaults and five counts of gross indecency at a private school.
Father Gregory Peter Carroll, 65, spent 14 years at Workington’s Our Lady and St Michael’s Church from 1987. The charges relate to his previous job at Ampleforth College, where he worked between 1973 and 1983. The alleged victims were under 14 at the time.
The charges were brought after a 12-month police probe into Ampleforth Abbey, which is attached to an independent school run by Benedictine monks. Fr Carroll appeared at Scarborough Magistrates’ Court on Monday. He did not enter a plea and was released on bail. He was well-known in Workington who started the town’s credit union and was a chaplain to the old infirmary on Honister Drive.
He was also instrumental in setting up a home for released prisoners in the town.
HARRISBURG (PA)
Public Opinion
Staff report
HARRISBURG — During the week of Nov. 8 to 12, the Diocese of Harrisburg underwent the second audit of its compliance with the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" since its adoption by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002.
The Diocese of Harrisburg has again been found in full compliance to the bishops' charter.
During the year between the two audits, approximately 9,000 people have had their criminal background checks reviewed by the diocese. Approximately as many people have viewed the "Youth Protection Program Educational Video," developed through the Youth Protection Council of the Diocese of Harrisburg, which is part of the diocese's "safe environment" educational program.
Last September the Diocese of Harrisburg released its safe environment training program mandated by the U.S. bishops and geared toward students in grades 1 through 8. A total of 13,456 students are served by Catholic schools and 20,150 by parish religious education programs.
Since the 2003 audit, the diocese has received five new allegations of sexual abuse of minors by priests. Three of the allegations were concerning priests who are deceased.
AUSTRALIA
The Sunday Mail
18mar05
A FORMER Scout master and a former Catholic school teacher have been charged with pedophile offences by South Australian Police.
The charges are the latest by a SA pedophile task force, which has now charged more more than 25 people, including church officials and a Salvation Army minister.
The latest charges were laid against a former Catholic schoolteacher in Canberra today, the officer in charge of the task force, Detective Superintendent Grant Stevens, said.
The 76-year-old former teacher at Adelaide's Blackfriars College was charged with 18 counts of indecent assault and 18 counts of gross indecency.
The offences were allegedly committed in Adelaide between 1955 and 1959 on seven boys aged 10-12 at the time.
BEAVERTON (OR)
OregonLive.com
Friday, March 18, 2005
The case: Keith Trevor Robinson, a 37-year-old youth volunteer at the New Vision Fellowship Church in Beaverton, is in the Washington County Jail on charges of sexually abusing girls he met through the church or his wife's in-home day-care center.
Update: Robinson was arraigned this week on a third count of first-degree sexual abuse involving a third victim under the age of 14. While the two earlier charges involved incidents that allegedly happened in 1999 and in 2000 or 2001, the newest charge involves abuse that allegedly happened last year.
What's next: Robinson's bail, previously $1 million, is now $1.25 million. Defense attorney James Glover said he would schedule a release hearing to ask that bail be lowered.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Friday, March 18, 2005 - Updated: 08:03 AM EST
Boston Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley yesterday marked St. Patrick's Day by offering a prayer for peace in Ireland.
At a special Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End, O'Malley blessed shamrocks for hundreds of worshippers and addressed Irish Consul-General Isolde Moylan.
``We feel very close to your country . . . and we feel very deeply what happens there,'' O'Malley said. ``We pray that Ireland will achieve not just peace . . . but solidarity.''
The Mass included Gospel readings in both English and Gaelic, and a homily by the Rev. Paul B. O'Brien, who compared St. Patrick's transformation from a life of sin and enslavement to the archdiocese's own metamorphosis through a season of scandal.
``I can't pretend to explain the last five years . . . (but) I believe Jesus Christ loved the Archdiocese of Boston as much as he has loved any people at any time anywhere,'' said O'Brien, pastor of St. Patrick's parish in Lawrence.
``I believe (Jesus) knew and accepted the sexual abuse of children as our sin. I believe he knew and accepted our mismanagement . . . I believe he wanted us to experience the fullness of reconciliation.''
SAN FRNCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Don Lattin, Stacy Finz, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, March 18, 2005
It didn't take long for the officers of the court to see how hard it is to find a jury that can dispassionately pass judgment on Catholic bishops accused of covering up the crimes of pedophile priests.
No one had even mentioned the name of Bishop Emeritus John Cummins, the retired leader of the Diocese of Oakland, when the second potential juror questioned at the Hayward Hall of Justice offered her opinion:
"John Cummins pushed it under the rug,'' said the woman, a Catholic who has worked for the church. "It should have been dealt with a long time ago.''
This week, lawyers on both sides of the bay argued the first two cases to face juries from hundreds of lawsuits filed against the church under a 2002 state law.
CANADA
Chicago Tribune
Tribune news services
Published March 18, 2005
CORNER BROOK, Newfoundland -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of St. George is seeking bankruptcy protection against more than $40 million in sexual-abuse claims.
St. George's is the first Catholic diocese in Canada to make such a move, according to Catholic News Service. Three U.S. Catholic Dioceses--Portland, Ore., Tucson, Ariz., and Spokane, Wash.--have filed for bankruptcy in the face of millions of dollars in lawsuits.
St. George's Bishop Douglas Crosby said last week that more than $40 million in abuse claims have been filed against his diocese linked to the case of Kevin Bennett, a former priest who was convicted of sexually abusing several young men over two decades and served four years in prison.
A year ago, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that the diocese was liable for the claims by people who said Bennett had molested them. So far, 36 people have filed abuse claims.
"No amount of money can compensate for the abhorrent taking of innocence," Crosby said in a statement announcing the bankruptcy filing. "We are determined to treat the victims fairly with the greatest possible value of our assets.
SACRAMENTO (CA)
Sacramento Bee
By Jennifer Garza -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Friday, March 18, 2005
Two former Sacramento diocesan priests who fled the country after charges of sexual abuse are serving as priests in Mexico, news that has outraged victims and local diocesan officials.
The Roman Catholic priests are the Rev. José Luis Urbina, who was convicted of sexually molesting a minor in 1989, and the Rev. Gerardo Beltrán, who disappeared in 1991 after Sacramento police began investigating allegations that he molested two young girls.
Urbina has been serving at his hometown parish in Navojoa, Mexico, for about a decade. While in the Sacramento diocese, Urbina was accused of sexually molesting a boy over the course of several years, in one instance pointing a gun at his victim before molesting him. Urbina admitted guilt but left the country before sentencing.
Beltrán serves in a remote region of southern Mexico.
The Dallas Morning News reported the priests' whereabouts as part of the newspaper's ongoing series on accused priests who are now working in other countries.
Urbina and Beltrán have been wanted by local authorities for more than a decade.
CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly
by GUSTAVO ARELLANO
Document #6 in our Orange diocese document derby doesn't reveal any new accusations of priestly boy-buggering. Instead, it's a e-mail written by diocesan vicar general Michael Heher the day that lawyers for both sides announced the $100 million settlement, along with the diocese's own history on how the deal was done. Some notes on the e-mail:
*Heher, knowing of dissension within Orange diocesan employees, sends the history of the settlement by separate e-mail and warned priests, "This is for your information, not for publication (emphasis in the original).
*Heher concludes his memo by telling priests that if they speak with reporters, "Recall that you are acting as the Bishop’s agent. Criticisms and complaints are best made directly to the Bishop, not through the media." To date, not a single Orange County priest has commented on the sex-abuse scandal.
THE E- MAIL
From: Father Michael Heher < frmheher@rcbo.org >
Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 17:52:46 -0800
To: < undisclosed-recipients:; >
Subject: Settlement Agreement Signed
The detailed settlement agreement has been signed by all parties and the "gag order" has been lifted. The Diocese resolved 90 civil cases for alleged acts of the sexual abuse of minors. Here is a quick outline of the specifics:
§ The cost will be $100 million; 50% of this money will be paid by our various liability insurers.
DALLAS (TX)
CBS 11
Mar 17, 2005 8:37 pm US/Central
A North Texas pastor charged with a sex crime is out of jail tonight.
56 year old Larry Crocker of Lakeview Christian Church in Northeast Dallas is charged with two counts of indecency with a child.
Garland police say the juvenile says he was too embarrassed to report the molestation the first time.
NORWICH (CT)
New York Newsday
March 17, 2005, 11:33 PM EST
NORWICH, Conn. -- A former Norwich pastor has avoided prison time after pleading no contest to coercion charges related to the alleged sexual assaults of two girls.
Isaac Goodwater, 48, was released on two years of conditional discharge after a sentencing hearing Thursday in New London Superior Court. If he violates the terms of the discharge, he could be sent to prison.
Goodwater was arrested in 2003 while he was pastor at the Emmanuel Church of God in Christ. He was initially charged with first-degree and fourth-degree sexual assault and two counts of risk of injury to a minor.
The charges were reduced to two counts of coercion as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.
He was accused in 2003 of assaulting a girl he had met at the church in his car. Norwich police arrested him again later the same year when allegations surfaced that he had fondled a 13-year-old parishioner in a church office three years earlier.
Goodwater declined comment at court Thursday morning. It is not clear whether he still works at the church.
PENNSYLVANIA
Star-Ledger
Friday, March 18, 2005
BY JEFF DIAMANT
Star-Ledger Staff
A Pennsylvania priest who lived at a Catholic church in West Orange in December and January was charged yesterday with possession of child pornography in Monroe County, Pa.
The Rev. Virgil Bradley Tetherow, 40, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton, Pa., allegedly downloaded images of child pornography onto a computer used by a secretary at the St. Ann's Catholic Church rectory in Tobyhanna, Pa., while visiting there in January, authorities said.
Tetherow, who lived at St. Ann's for most of 2004, admitted to the allegation, according to detective Kenneth Lanning of the Pocono Mountain Regional Police in an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case.
Tetherow began living and working at St. Anthony of Padua Church in West Orange in December. He is a longtime friend of the new priest, the Rev. John Perricone.
Newark Archdiocese spokesman James Goodness said Tetherow requested permission from the archdiocese in December to perform sacraments at the church, as priests based outside a diocese are required to do if they want to work within another diocese's boundaries.
WASHINGTON (DC)
National
By Joe Feuerherd
It was hardly a gathering of the American Catholic left. No, the March 14 press conference at which the newly formedAbuse Tracker Leadership Roundtable on Church Management was launched reeked "Establishment" -- with a capital E.
Publicity for theAbuse Tracker Press Club kick-off was handled by Porter Novelli, the multi-national image maker. A luncheon spread greeted the press -- the p.r. types know that reporters on empty stomachs can get feisty. On the dais: two bishops, an archdiocesan personnel director, three businessmen, a representative of Catholic philanthropic foundations and a former college president.
Not a bomb-thrower among the group.
Kicking off the event was Geoffrey T. Boisi, member of the Papal Foundation, product of Chaminade (Long Island's straight-laced all-boys Marianist-run high school), Boston College and the Wharton School of Business. Formerly a partner at Goldman, Sachs & Co., Boisi now is vice chair of JPMorgan Chase.
Among his varied interests and pursuits, the soft-spoken Boisi is a Republican Party fundraising machine. Public records ( www.opensecrets.org) indicate that the Locust Valley, N.Y., resident and his wife contributed well over $100,000 in the last election cycle to Republican causes: $50,000 to the RepublicanAbuse Tracker Committee, $5,000 to John Thune (R-SD), the conservative Christian who defeated Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, and $2,000 each to incumbent Republican senators Kit Bond (MO), Jim Bunning (KY), Lisa Murkowski (AL) and Arlen Specter (PA). The Boisi's provided $6,000 to George W. Bush's campaign, $10,000 to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's "Volunteer Political Action Committee," and additional thousands to nine state Republican parties.
ADRIAN (MI)
Daily Telegram
By Dennis Pelham -- Daily Telegram Staff Writer
ADRIAN -- A youth pastor at the Adrian Church of God was convicted Wednesday in Lenawee County Circuit Court in one of three cases of alleged sexual abuse of teenage girls.
A week before he was to go to trial, Phillip Troy Elliott, 30, entered a no-contest plea to one count of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. He was found guilty by Judge Timothy P. Pickard after reading an Adrian police report in which a 14-year-old girl claimed Elliott had sex with her four or five times from February through April last year.
Two other teenage girls younger than 16 reported Elliott improperly touched them after driving them to his or a relative's home instead of church-related activities.
Defense attorney Stanley Sala of Adrian asked Wednesday for the no-contest plea that allowed Elliott to avoid any admissions that could be used against him in potential civil lawsuits.
ADRIAN (MI)
WOOD
ADRIAN, Mich. A youth pastor has pleaded no-contest to a charge of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a 14-year-old member of his church.
Phillip Troy Elliott entered the plea yesterday, a week before he was to go to trial in Lenawee County.
Elliott remains free on bond pending sentencing April-21st. A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing purposes.
PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Catholic
by: Robert P. Lockwood
A three-judge panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court dismissed a series of civil lawsuits filed against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for clergy sexual abuse that took place decades ago.
The state appeals court unanimously affirmed a ruling by Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Arnold New that the civil lawsuits involving allegations of abuse, some from as far back as nearly 50 years, did not meet the standards of Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations.
The Superior Court ruled that “we decline to create a judicially crafted exception to the statute solely with regard to the Catholic Church.”
The 18 dismissed civil lawsuits, all involving allegations of sexual abuse, are virtually identical in their argument to those that have been filed by the same attorney in dioceses throughout Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh. The decision, if upheld by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, effectively nullifies the civil lawsuits against the Diocese of Pittsburgh as well.
SCRANTON (PA)
The Morning Call
An unemployed Scranton man was arrested Thursday on charges he downloaded child pornography onto a computer while staying at St. Ann's Catholic Church Rectory, police said.
Virgil Bradley Tetherow, 40, admitted he downloaded the pictures while he was staying at the rectory during January 2004 and January 2005, Pocono Mountain Regional Police said.
Police said the investigation began Jan. 17 when they were informed images of young men engaged in sexual acts were found on a computer at the rectory.
Tetherow was charged with sexual abuse of children and criminal use of a communication facility.
MENDHAM (NJ)
Observer-Tribune
MARIA VOGEL-SHORT 03/16/2005
MENDHAM - The local chapter of Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), a national organization formed to protect people from sexual abuse by priests, will find no welcome at St. Joseph Church.
The new pastor at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church has notified the group that it can’t meet at the church. The group had planned to meet on April 11.
The Voice of the Faithful was formed in Boston two years ago in the wake of the scandal involving sexual abuse by priests The group has called for changes in the Catholic church, including more openness in helping those who have been abused by priests.
Theresa Padovano, a member of the leadership team of the Voice of the Faithful Northern New Jersey, said the new St. Joseph pastor, Rev. Joseph Anginoli, cancelled the April 11 meeting without explanation.
Padovano said the group has been shunned before. The Newark archdiocese, she said, had not allowed the group to have personal speakers or meetings inside churches in the archdiocese, she said.
The former pastor at St. Joseph’s Church, the Rev. Phillip Briganti, had allowed the group to meet at the church. Briganti resigned last month after police investigated an extortion attempt against him over a picture sent over the Internet. His replacement, Anginoli, did not return telephone calls for comment.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, March 17, 2005
A third-grader sitting on a priest's lap in his private living quarters is not necessarily a cause for concern, two sex-abuse experts testified Wednesday in San Francisco.
It all depends on what else was going on at the time, according to testimony from retired investigators from the sex crimes units of the FBI and the San Francisco Police Department.
Their opinions came on the final day of testimony in a groundbreaking lawsuit filed against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco by Dennis Kavanaugh, 47, who says he was repeatedly molested in the 1970s by a priest in a San Jose church.
The lap-sitting issue has come into play in part because of the testimony Tuesday of two other men who say they were also molested in separate incidents by the priest, the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard, at St. Martin of Tours Church.
They both testified that they had been sitting on Pritchard's lap as he molested them when another priest walked in on them in Pritchard's private quarters. Kavanaugh's attorneys have tried to show that as a result, the San Francisco Archdiocese, which oversaw the church, knew or should have known that Pritchard was a molester, did nothing about it and thus should be liable for damages.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
NBC 11
POSTED: 1:14 pm PST March 17, 2005
UPDATED: 1:28 pm PST March 17, 2005
A San Francisco Superior Court jury is expected to begin deliberating Thursday afternoon in a civil lawsuit in which a San Jose man claims a Roman Catholic priest molested him 30 years ago.
Dennis Kavanaugh, 47, claims the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard molested him a number of times in a San Jose parish between 1971 and 1973.
The defendant in the case is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, which at the time supervised the parish.
The archdiocese has conceded that the molestation took place, but contends church officials were not responsible because they did not know about it.
Archdiocese attorney James Goodman told the jury during closing arguments, "This is a very unfortunate case about a man who, as he was entering his teenage years, was unfortunately the victim of unlawful sexual conduct by a Roman Catholic priest."
CINCINNATI (OH)
Cincinnati Enquirer
By Peter Bronson
Enquirer staff writer
If gossip is sinful, Cincinnati Catholics may set a record for Hail Marys this month. Rumors about Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk are being passed around like a collection plate.
One said a group at the recent Catholic men's conference would demand Pilarczyk's resignation. It didn't happen.
Then a rumor said Pilarczyk had already resigned but the pope was too ill to find a replacement or doesn't want Pilarczyk to quit.
"I have absolutely no reason to believe that is true,'' said Cincinnati Archdiocese spokesman Dan Andriacco. "He has never said anything to me that would give a particle of truth to that."
Critics of Pilarczyk point out that other bishops have resigned without warning after top-secret negotiations with the Vatican.
Maybe. But it's probably just wishful thinking. Demands for Pilarczyk's removal are rising. Collections were down 14 percent last year. If the church were a parliament, Pilarczyk might get a vote of no confidence.
"There are two, ever-broadening camps," said Suzanne Schneller. She owns a Catholic bookstore, Innervisions, on Beechmont Avenue, where she hears so much talk, "sometimes I feel like an elevator operator."
Pilarczyk has been accused in news reports and court cases of lying about his knowledge of priests who molested children. As the scandal eats at the church from within, Pilarczyk is blamed.
BROWNSVILLE (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Associated Press
BROWNSVILLE, Texas - The Vatican is reviewing the case of a former priest in the Brownsville diocese to determine if he should be defrocked, a spokesman for the diocese said Wednesday.
Monsignor Ivan Rovira took a post at a Catholic university in Mexico after Brownsville Bishop Raymundo Pena removed him from the ministry under the one-strike-and-you're out rule, which permanently bars priests confirmed to have sexually abused a minor.
"We did discover evidence that these allegations were substantiated," the Rev. Heberto M. Diaz Jr. said Wednesday at a news conference. "So then he was removed from ministry immediately."
He said Rovira's case was sent to the Vatican for consideration of whether he should be defrocked. Rovira could also petition the Vatican to become a layperson, The Brownsville Herald reported in its Thursday editions.
The Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday that Rovira was among priests celebrating Mass last month as the new bishop was installed in Matamoros, Mexico.
"He was vested as priest, celebrating Mass and that is where the problem was," Diaz said Wednesday in Brownsville. "The Diocese of Brownsville is profoundly sorry for the pain it has caused them (Rovira's accusers) and their families."
BELLINGHAM (MA)
Milford Daily News
By Sara Withee / Daily News Staff
Thursday, March 17, 2005
BELLINGHAM -- The Rev. Paul Desilets has given official notice he will continue fighting extradition on sex abuse charges, Worcester District Attorney John Conte's office said yesterday.
Many expected the move by the 81-year-old priest, who has been appealing his return for three years.
"It doesn't surprise me in the least," Bellingham Detective Sgt. Richard Perry said yesterday.
In a March 6 story, Desilets' attorney, Guylaine Lavigne of Montreal, told the Daily News her client planned to keep appealing to the Supreme Court of Canada, the nation's highest court. But Conte's office said she had until last Friday to file.
Conte's office began the extradition process to return Desilets in fall 2002, several months after a Worcester County grand jury indicted the priest on 32 criminal charges for allegedly abusing 18 altar boys at the former Assumption Parish.
CALIFORNIA
Mercury News
By Robin Evans
Mercury News
A retired public school principal who once was chairman of the parish council at St. Martin of Tours in San Jose testified Wednesday in a trial about abusive priests that his wife was ``cautious'' with their children around their new pastor after another guest at a dinner party commented he was ``queer or played with little boys.''
But Santa Clara resident Ronald Modeste said he didn't believe the allegations against the Rev. Joseph Pritchard, a fellow coach he had known previously through a Catholic athletics league. And, in testimony in San Francisco Superior Court in one of the first jury trials in some 160 sex-abuse cases against Roman Catholic dioceses in Northern California, he said he never reported them to anyone.
``I was reasonably upset about him saying something like that because I knew'' Pritchard, he said.
Modeste was one of two witnesses for the San Francisco Archdiocese who said they never saw anything sexually suspicious in Pritchard's behavior, as church lawyers tried to counter claims the archdiocese should have been aware of molestation by the parish pastor and done something to prevent it.
The dinner party took place in the summer of 1971, Modeste said, shortly after Pritchard had joined the church. It was in the fall of that year that the now-deceased priest began molesting a 13-year-old parish school student, according to testimony Tuesday by the boy, now a 47-year-old Palo Alto resident, Dennis Kavanaugh.
WESLACO (TX)
KGBT
Reported by Romeo Cantu
A Weslaco family told Action 4 News Wednesday night that they were very upset after learning their former priest was still leading worship services after being banned from doing so due to accusations that he sexually assaulted several children.
"I felt very angry," said Josie Rocha, the mother of two sons who have accused their former priest of sexual assault. "I know how much this meant and the pain it had caused my children -- my sons."
Rocha, her husband, Joe, and their youngest son, Jaime, said that they were upset after seeing their former priest on television celebrating a mass.
"We were flipping channel and we noticed there was a procession going on. And all of a sudden my husband pointed him out to me and said, 'There he goes,'" Josie Rocha said. "I couldn't believe it seeing him dressed as a priest walking among the other priests.
The Rocha's former priest is Monsignor Ivan Rovira, who two weeks ago was discovered celebrating the mass of a new bishop in Matamoros.
OHIO
Cincinnati Enquirer
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS - A proposal to toss out the deadline for suing over past child sexual abuse has been tried in only a few states, and the constitutionality of such a move is up in the air.
The Senate unanimously approved a bill Wednesday that would allow victims of childhood sexual abuse to sue over alleged abuse that happened decades ago.
The bill would extend the deadline for filing abuse claims from one year after the person who files the lawsuit turns 18 years old to 20 years after the person turns 18.
In addition, the legislation adds clergy to the list of professionals required to report suspected abuse.
Courts in California are considering constitutional challenges to that state's 2002 law.
In Illinois, a judge said that state's child abuse law couldn't be used to revive old cases.
PENNSYLVANIA
Centre Daily Times
The Associated Press
By David B. Caruso
PHILADELPHIA -- Lawyers for Roman Catholic dioceses across the state said they intend to ask judges to dismiss dozens of lawsuits filed by people who say they were sexually abused by priests many years ago.
The move follows a ruling by a panel of Superior Court judges on Monday that Pennsylvania's two-year statute of limitations on personal injury lawsuits generally prohibits people allegedly molested by clergy decades ago from suing now, so many years later.
The ruling applied only to claims filed by 18 plaintiffs against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, but lawyers for the church said they thought it set out a standard that will apply to most of the suits pending against church officials throughout the state.
"We think that the Superior Court got it right," said William Pietragallo II, a lawyer for the diocese of Pittsburgh, which faces more than 30 suits. "The statute of limitations is one of the fundamental tenets of Anglo-American jurisprudence, and the court has recognized that."
GREENWICH (CT)
Greenwich Time
By Hoa Nguyen
Staff Writer
March 17, 2005
The idea that surfaced earlier this month was such a good one that the attorney for the Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocesan Corp. wasted no time in presenting it at Tuesday's Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.
Instead of grappling with land-use issues that have plagued the diocese's plans to subdivide 32 acres it owns at 247 Stanwich Road, Tom Heagney, the diocese's Greenwich lawyer, said leave those issues for later.
"That we do not torture ourselves over whether this is an appropriate open space configuration," he said of the idea. "It gets beyond that."
All but one zoning commission member approved of the suggestion and gave the diocese's plans preliminary approval at the Town Hall meeting.
With the approval, the diocese can now seek final permission to split the land into two parcels, one to house St. Agnes Church and a second 25 acres that will be sold to Stanwich School or a developer of residential homes.
The proceeds of the sale would help the diocese finance settlement payments announced in 2003 to victims of sexual abuse by priests.
BOSTON (MA)
The Heights
By Heights Editorial Board
The Issue: Group seeks changes to Church governance
What we think: The timing is right
In this time of pain, struggle, and change in the Catholic Church, it is only appropriate for its congregants to come forth and discuss the need for the inclusion of lay people in the governance of the church.
Geoffrey T. Boisi, former chairman of the University's Board of Trustees, announced plans this week for the creation of a nonprofit organization that seeks to transform the nation's largest religion. There couldn't be a better time than now. The church has been plagued by a horrific sexual abuse scandal, low Mass attendance, a dip in financial support, and an inability to ordain a larger number of priests.
The group - theAbuse Tracker Leadership Roundtable on Church Management (NLRCM) - would include people from all over the country, and would work toward administrative changes that would enable parishioners to have more of a say in the way their individual church and diocese operates.
As Boisi told The Heights, if we want the Catholic faith to prosper and reflect the will of its followers, "we must act with conviction, passion, and courage, but most of all we must act now."
COLUMBUS (OH)
Dayton Daily News
By Laura A. Bischoff
Dayton Daily News
COLUMBUS | Child-abuse victims who were molested as long as 35 years ago would have a chance to bring civil lawsuits against their attackers under a bill passed 31-0 by the Ohio Senate on Wednesday.
The bill also would extend the criminal statute of limitations from six years to 20 years — the same as rape — for sex crimes such as gross sexual imposition and voyeurism.
And it would require clerics and church leaders to report suspected or known child abuse or neglect involving other clergy to the proper authorities.
If the bill becomes law, child molesters could be brought to light, parents would be put on notice about dangerous people and victims could get their day in court, said state Sen. Bob Spada, R-North Royalton, who sponsored the legislation.
The bill is a response to the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal, he said.
"Children really have been let down by the systems that were supposed to protect them," he said.
The bill extends the statute of limitations to file civil claims of abuse. Now, victims have one year from their 18th birthday to file civil claims. The bill would extend that to 20 years. This part of the bill is not retroactive, and would apply only to abuse that happens after the bill becomes law.
SUPERIOR (WI)
Duluth News Tribune
Associated Press
SUPERIOR, Wis. - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Superior says Bishop Raphael Fliss never helped cover up a priest's history of sexual abuse while serving as an administrator with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee three decades ago, as a recently filed lawsuit suggests.
The diocese issued a news release responding to the accusations in a lawsuit filed March 3 in Milwaukee County Circuit Court by two clergy abuse victims.
The lawsuit accused the Milwaukee Archdiocese of fraud and said Fliss helped with the coverup regarding the late Rev. Siegfried Widera. The male victims said that as minors they were abused dozens of times by the priest from 1973-76.
The abuse occurred after Widera had been convicted of sexual perversion with a teenager in 1973 and after the archdiocese transferred him to the St. Andrew's parish in Delavan from Port Washington without warning the public, the suit said.
BROWNSVILLE (TX)
Brownsville Herald
By LAURA B. MARTINEZ
The Brownsville Herald
March 17, 2005 — Evidence of sexual misconduct committed by a former Rio Grande Valley priest was the grounds for his dismissal from the Brownsville diocese but did not prevent him from celebrating Mass in Matamoros just last month.
The Monsignor Ivan M. Rovira was discharged from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brownsville in 2002 by Bishop Raymundo J. Peña, after officials determined that the monsignor had been involved in sexual misconduct.
“We did discover evidence that these allegations were substantiated,” the Rev. Heberto M. Diaz Jr. said Wednesday at a news conference organized by the diocese. “So then he was removed from ministry immediately.”
Rovira’s dismissal means he can no longer celebrate or conduct a Catholic Mass in any country.
On Feb 23, he was present among hundreds of other priests from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brownsville and the Diocese of Matamoros to celebrate Faustino Armendariz Jimenez’s installation as bishop of Matamoros.
RAPID CITY (SD)
Rapid City Journal
By Vicky Wicks, Journal Staff Writer
RAPID CITY — A jury found Isaac Swan not guilty late Wednesday on five counts of sexually assaulting a Rapid City girl.
Swan, the 31-year-old former church camp director, took the stand in his own defense earlier that day in 7th Circuit Court and said the allegations made against him were not true.
After verdict, both Swan and the prosecutor declined to comment. Swan still faces similar charges on 20 counts in Lawrence County.
Defense attorney Matt Stephens called his client and other witnesses to portray Swan as a loving father figure, a church leader and a truthful person.
BOSTON (MA)
Metro Pulse
• The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, in a cost-cutting move in the wake of its priest-sexual-abuse settlement, announced in 2004 that it would close several churches and schools, including Our Lady of the Presentation in the struggling neighborhood of Oak Square. Rather than sell the school to an eager community group at market price, the archdiocese is converting it into offices for processing marriage annulments. (Americans are granted 70 percent of all Catholic annulments, and the total has increased 90-fold since the 1960s.)
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Natasha Lee, Times Staff Writer
A Roman Catholic priest, formerly serving at a Koreatown church, was found guilty Wednesday of molesting three teenagers he met through parish functions between 2001 and 2004.
Father Fernando Lopez, 41, who was an associate pastor at St. Thomas the Apostle parish, was convicted of charges involving three males, ages 14, 16, and 19 at the time the incidents occurred, said prosecutor Darci Johnson of the Los Angeles County district attorney's Sex Crimes Division.
The incidents occurred mostly in church facilities and in cars.
Lopez was convicted of four counts of felony lewd acts with a child, one felony count of sexual battery by restraint, two misdemeanor counts of child molestation and one misdemeanor count of sexual battery.
Lopez, who is scheduled for sentencing on April 22, could face more than eight years combined in state prison and county jail, Johnson said.
ANNAPOLIS (MD)
Baltimore Sun
Originally published March 17, 2005
The Baltimore man who shot the now-defrocked priest who molested him as a child urged lawmakers yesterday to extend the statute of limitations for civil actions arising from sexual offenses against minors to 28 years, from seven years.
Because the law requires victims of childhood molestation to file claims within seven years after they turn 18, many victims are unable to receive relief for their suffering, 29-year-old Dontee Stokes told the House Judiciary Committee.
"Justice is something that we are seeking from you," Stokes testified in support of legislation proposed by Baltimore Democrat Curtis S. Anderson.
Anderson's legislation also would create a one-year open filing period, so all victims, regardless of age, can sue. His bill was one of several measures to aid victims of sexual crimes that the judiciary committee reviewed yesterday.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Daily Journal
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — A Roman Catholic priest on temporary assignment from Rome was convicted Wednesday of molesting three boys from a Los Angeles parish during a three-year period that began shortly after his transfer in 2001.
A jury deliberated for one day before convicting Fernando Lopez, 41, of four felony counts of a lewd act with a child, one felony count of sexual battery by restraint, two misdemeanor counts of child molestation and one misdemeanor count of sexual battery.
Lopez, a Colombian citizen, was arrested in September 2004 after a 17-year-old boy from St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Koreatown told his older brother, who volunteered at the parish, that Lopez had molested him at a Japanese restaurant and in the church basement.
Two other alleged victims came forward later: a 23-year-old man who said he was abused in 2001 and a 16-year-old boy who said Lopez began molesting him when he was 13.
ANNAPOLIS (MD)
TheWBALChannel.com
POSTED: 5:31 am EST March 17, 2005
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Dontee Stokes, the Baltimore man who shot a former priest after accusing him of sexual abuse, testified Wednesday in favor of legislation that would give victims more time to file civil lawsuits against their alleged abusers.
The bill extends the statute of limitations for victims who were abused before they turned 12. Such victims would be allowed to file suit until they turn 46. Current law allows suits only before those victims turn 25.
The bill, from Delegate Curt Anderson, D-Baltimore, also would open a one-time, one-year window for victims of child sexual abuse to file lawsuits stemming from long-ago episodes. The window would open Oct. 1, the date the bill would become law.
California and Illinois created such one-year windows, and Ohio is considering similar legislation.
"It could help many other pursue some sort of civil remedy. The (current) time limits, I feel, are unfair," Stokes said before he testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Monterey County Herald
By KIM CURTIS
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - Two experts on child sexual abuse testified Wednesday in a civil church-abuse case that the sight of young boys sitting on a priest's lap would not necessarily have raised suspicions during the 1970s.
A lawyer for the San Francisco Archdiocese presented four witnesses, including a retired FBI investigator and a retired San Francisco police officer, to describe for jurors an era that one expert called "innocent," long before the abusive behavior of priests became a national scandal.
Their testimony was intended to bolster claims by the archdiocese that it could not have suspected that one of its priests was a child molester. It is being sued by a man, now 47, who claims abuse dating back to the early 1970s.
Former FBI agent Gregg McCrary said that in the 1950s and 1960s, families were primarily concerned about "stranger danger," from shadowy figures lurking near playgrounds. In the 1970s and 1980s, he said, there was a growing awareness of family members who abuse children.
COLUMBUS (OH)
Toledo Blade
By JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU
COLUMBUS - Tears stained the face of Toledo firefighter Tony Comes as the Ohio Senate yesterday unanimously approved a bill that would briefly open the courthouse doors to alleged victims of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy as long ago as 1970.
It was an emotional vote, but the courts may ultimately decide whether it was a constitutional vote. The bill faces a tougher time in the House.
The Senate voted to lengthen the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits involving child sexual abuse to 20 years. The clock would not start ticking until the victim reaches the age of 18, meaning litigation could remain a possibility until the age of 38.
The bill also opens a rare one-year "look back" window for prior child victims who claim they were victimized years ago but were locked out of the courthouse because they were not ready to face the issue by the time the current statute of limitations expired two years after they reached adulthood.
While the bill applies to all childhood sex abuse victims, the senators acknowledged they were largely talking about the Catholic church. Allegations of abuse by priests and subsequent cover-ups by the church have led to a flurry of lawsuits, out-of-court settlements, and public apologies from the pulpit.
SACRAMENTO (CA)
Sacramento Bee
By Jennifer Garza
Published 2:15 am PST Thursday, March 17, 2005
SACRAMENTO - Mediation temporarily ended Wednesday between the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento and attorneys for the 33 people who say they were sexually abused by clergy.
The settlement talks will resume May 4.
Both sides say a recess is typical at this stage of the mediation process so attorneys can evaluate proposals.
"Both sides need to talk to clients and come back prepared to talk some more," says Kevin Eckery, spokesperson for the diocese.
Joseph George, who is representing the plaintiffs in the settlement talks, agreed. "It's a complicated process that takes time."
Mediation in other dioceses has lasted for months. Some of the Sacramento cases may be settled while others head to a June 27 court date.
Most of the claims of clergy sexual abuse involve incidents that allegedly occurred decades ago. Sixteen of these cases are allegations against Mario Blanco, a priest who served at several Spanish-speaking parishes in the diocese in the early 1970s.
DALLAS (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
10:01 PM CST on Wednesday, March 16, 2005
What a difference a river makes. On the north side of the Rio Grande, Catholic bishops like Brownsville's Raymundo Peña are pledged to remove credibly accused sex abusers from active ministry under the terms of the 2002 Dallas charter. That's why Monsignor Ivan Rovira lost his job running Brownsville's seminary that year after admitting to abusing Ruben Rocha, who says the priest raped him when Mr. Rocha was a teen.
Turns out that Monsignor Rovira ambled down the road, crossed the border to Matamoros and landed a job teaching at a Catholic university. He has been celebrating public Masses – and did so once in the presence of Bishop Peña. The Brownsville bishop maintains that he told his Matamoros counterpart "everything" about Monsignor Rovira. The Matamoros bishop denies it. One of them is lying.
Meanwhile, who's looking after the safety of Matamoros' children? Does Bishop Peña's moral responsibility to them stop at the river? The indifference is galling and calls to mind Kathleen McChesney's words as she left her post recently as head of the U.S. bishops' child protection office: "The crisis of sexual abuse of minors within the Catholic Church is not over."
If some Catholic bishops still don't get it, at least prosecutors like District Attorney Bill Hill do. His probe into the Dallas diocese's handling of sex abuse allegations is heating up.
One of Bishop Charles Grahmann's allies, cathedral rector the Rev. Ramon Alvarez, testified on Tuesday before a grand jury, reportedly over the child pornography arrest of his friend, the Rev. Matthew Bagert, who is also a staunch supporter of the bishop. Bishop Grahmann and former Dallas coadjutor Bishop Joseph Galante clashed over Bishop Grahmann's refusal to suspend Father Alvarez after the rector admitted to inappropriate contact with a man.
IRELAND
RTE News
15 March 2005 21:01
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse has heard that the Sisters of Mercy do not accept some of the more serious allegations of mistreatment and abuse made by former residents of St Vincent's Industrial School at Goldenbridge in Dublin.
Provincial leader of the order, Sr Helena O'Donoghue, told the commission that the industrial school system had failed children and was harsh and inadequate.
However, she said it could not accept some of the more serious allegations of extreme physical punishment, starvation or mistreatment.
She said the order was deeply concerned that such allegations had been accepted by public opinion.
OHIO
The Advocate
By KENT MALLETT
Advocate Reporter
NEWARK -- Clergy would be required to report suspected sexual abuse according to a bill pending in the Ohio Senate.
The Senate Criminal Justice Committee was expected to vote today on the bill, which allows victims of child sexual abuse that happened as long ago as 1970 to sue alleged perpetrators under Ohio law. To become law, the bill must also pass the full Senate, which could consider it today.
The bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Robert Spada, would require clergy and other church leaders to report abuse they suspect is being committed by other clergy or church leaders.
Rev. Joseph Leonard, president of the Licking County Ministerial Association and pastor of First Baptist Church of Newark, said the requirement could create some problems for clergy.
"It does begin to address issues of confidentiality within the clergy, which is a concern of mine," Leonard said. "They need to have a sense of confidentiality, but that doesn't mean you keep everything secret."
NEBRASKA
Seward County Independent
A congregational vote at St. John Lutheran Church in Seward March 6 resulted in one member being excommunicated.
Approximately 230 people voted on a motion to excommunicate Arlen Meyer, a former teacher at St. John Lutheran School who has been accused of sexual misconduct with students.
The congregation voted on a second motion that would have identified those who may have failed to act on knowledge of Meyer's alleged activities, and that motion did not pass.
Ray Huebschman, congregational chairman, would not comment to the Independent but described the vote as "a powerful moment" in a story published by the Lincoln Journal Star March 8.
PENNSYLVANIA
NEPA News
By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press Writer, The Associated Press
March 16, 2005
Lawyers for Roman Catholic dioceses across the state said they intend to ask judges to dismiss dozens of lawsuits filed by people who allege that they were sexually abused by priests many years ago.
The move follows a ruling by a panel of Superior Court judges on Monday that Pennsylvania's two-year statute of limitations on personal injury lawsuits generally prohibits people allegedly molested by clergy decades ago from suing now, so many years later.
The ruling applied only to claims filed by 18 plaintiffs against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, but lawyers for the church said they believed it set out a standard that will apply to most of the suits currently pending against church officials throughout the state.
"We think that the Superior Court got it right," said William Pietragallo II, a lawyer for the diocese of Pittsburgh, which faces more than 30 suits. "The statute of limitations is one of the fundamental tenets of Anglo-American jurisprudence, and the court has recognized that."
The Pittsburgh diocese filed a motion Tuesday asking an Allegheny Court judge to reconsider an earlier ruling that had allowed several sexual abuse lawsuits to go forward. That decision was based on reasoning that the Superior Court now appears to have rejected, Pietragallo said Wednesday.
CALIFORNIA
The Tidings
By Paula Doyle
Breaking through the pervasive silence about the existence of gay priests in the church will lead to a healthier community of faith, said a panel of Catholic leaders at the recent 2005 Religious Education Congress.
Speaking at a workshop on "Homosexuality, Celibacy and the Priesthood: Opening Up the Conversation," Dr. Tom Beaudoin, an assistant professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University, told a packed workshop audience that he believes almost everyone who has raised objections against gay priests has "very likely" learned something about God's love from a priest who has a homosexual orientation.
"For generations, gay men have served in the Catholic priesthood," said Beaudoin. "They have lived and are living holy lives, human lives, celibate lives; it's time to try to open up the conversation about that." Denying that the panelists were pushing any political agenda, Beaudoin said the workshop presented a "spiritual task" for participants to try to "be present to what is and receive it prayerfully."
He said talking in a "more adult way" about the blessings and challenges of gay priests similar to the way blessings and challenges of straight priests are discussed will allow Catholics to become "more human" and "more holy with each other…so that at long last our church in this regard can finally begin to deal with reality."
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times
By Todd Ruger
A defrocked priest from the Catholic Diocese of Davenport is refusing to disclose his current address as part of a lawsuit accusing him of sexually abusing boys decades ago.
At the same time, attorneys for the men accusing him of the abuse are refusing to tell James Janssen their share of a $9 million settlement with the diocese announced more than four months ago.
Arguments on those legal wranglings Wednesday before Iowa District Court Judge C.H. Pelton restarted court action since the October settlement in sexual abuse lawsuits filed against Janssen and other former diocesan priests.
The plaintiffs dismissed the diocese from the lawsuits in January as part of the settlement made with 36 men and one woman but are continuing legal action against the individual priests.
The priests — Janssen, who was removed from the priesthood by the pope, the Rev. Francis Bass, the Rev. William Wiebler, the late Rev. Theodore Geerts and Vicar General Monsignor Drake Shafer — have denied the accusations in court records.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Dateline Alabama
The Associated Press
March 16, 2005
A Roman Catholic priest on temporary assignment from Rome was convicted Wednesday of molesting three boys from a Los Angeles parish during a three-year period that began shortly after his transfer in 2001.
A jury deliberated for one day before convicting Fernando Lopez, 41, of four felony counts of a lewd act with a child, one felony count of sexual battery by restraint, two misdemeanor counts of child molestation and one misdemeanor count of sexual battery.
Lopez, a Colombian citizen, was arrested in September 2004 after a 17-year-old boy from St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Koreatown told his older brother, who volunteered at the parish, that Lopez had molested him at a Japanese restaurant and in the church basement.
Two other alleged victims came forward later: a 23-year-old man who said he was abused in 2001 and a 16-year-old boy who said Lopez began molesting him when he was 13.
CINCINNATI (OH)
The Catholic Telegraph
By Tricia Hempel
ARCHDIOCESE -Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk placed three priests on administrative leave March 9 as a result of findings by the fund tribunal administering the $3 million Archdiocese Claim Resolution Compensation Fund.
The independent panel - made up of Cincinnati attorney Robert Stachler, Judge Thomas Nurre and retired judge and Xavier University professor Ann Marie Tracey - concluded that accusations that Stanley Doerger, Michael Paraniuk and David Vincent had sexually abused minors were plausible enough to warrant compensation to complainants.
According to a press release issued by the archdiocese March 8, "the archbishop's action is not to be taken as a presumption of guilt."
"The purpose of the fund tribunal is to compensate and reconcile with victims of sexual abuse, not to establish guilt or innocence of the accused. However, the findings by a panel of three such highly respected legal professionals gives the accusations the 'semblance of truth,' which is the point at which a priest is to be removed from ministry under U.S. church law, pending further investigation," the statement said.
BALTIMORE (MD)
WJZ
Mar 16, 2005 5:00 pm US/Eastern
(AP) Dontee Stokes, the Baltimore man who shot a former priest after accusing him of sexual abuse, testified Wednesday in favor of legislation that would give victims more time to file civil lawsuits against their alleged abusers.
The bill extends the statute of limitations for victims who were abused before they turned 12. Such victims would be allowed to file suit until they turn 46. Current law allows suits only before those victims turn 25.
The bill, from Delegate Curt Anderson, D-Baltimore, also would open a one-time, one-year window for victims of child sexual abuse to file lawsuits stemming from long-ago episodes. The window would open Oct. 1, the date the bill would become law.
California and Illinois created such one-year windows, and Ohio is considering similar legislation.
"It could help many other pursue some sort of civil remedy. The (current) time limits, I feel, are unfair," Stokes said before he testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee.
PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
By Dan Sheehan
and Kathleen Parrish Of The Morning Call
Lawyers for alleged clergy abuse victims in the Catholic Diocese of Allentown and elsewhere have vowed to pursue lawsuits despite a Pennsylvania Superior Court ruling that says the statute of limitations trumps victims' rights to sue church leadership.
Observers say plaintiffs might not be able to overcome the Monday ruling that rejected a novel legal strategy to overcome the statute. The ruling sets a legal precedent and might lead to the dismissal of suits in Lehigh County and elsewhere in Pennsylvania.
Eighteen plaintiffs from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia essentially had argued that the clock on the statute of limitations should be reset to 2002, when the Catholic Church acknowledged child abuse by some members of the clergy and the hierarchy's failure to prevent it.
Until that acknowledgment, victims of the long-ago abuse had no way of knowing how complicit church leaders had been, the lawyers argued. So, despite the statute of limitations, they should be able to pursue suits against the leaders today.
In the archdiocese case, the abuses allegedly occurred from the late 1950s to the '80s. The victims filed their suits in the first half of 2004.
NASHVILLE (TN)
The Tennessean
By SHEILA BURKE
Staff Writer
Two men who say they were molested by a former priest were dealt a setback yesterday in their $68 million lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Nashville when a judge ruled they were not entitled to information about pedophile priests other than their abuser.
The plaintiffs, who are known in court papers only as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2, were hoping to show a pattern of abuse by priests and recklessness on the part of church officials. A lawyer for the church called the request a ''witch hunt.''
But Davidson County Circuit Judge Walter Kurtz ruled that the plaintiffs would be limited to information maintained by the diocese about former Nashville priest Edward McKeown, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence for abusing one of the victims.
The decision was protested sharply by one of the plaintiff's attorneys, who complained that the ruling greatly restricted the victims' case.
''The problem is how they handled other pedophiles is probative of their recklessness,'' lawyer John Day told the judge.
McKeown, a longtime priest in Nashville, was forced to leave the priesthood in 1989, after he admitted molesting several boys.
ARLINGTON (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By Mark Agee
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
ARLINGTON - Agape Christian Fellowship's board of directors placed Bishop Terry Hornbuckle on indefinite administrative leave Tuesday night and named his wife interim senior pastor.
Hornbuckle, 43, was arrested Friday and charged with sexually assaulting three former parishioners. Investigators also charged him with possession of a controlled substance after saying they found methamphetamines in his vehicle during the arrest.
Hornbuckle was released from Tarrant County Jail on Monday on $405,000 bail and is being monitored electronically by authorities.
Handing the bishop's duties over to Renee Hornbuckle will allow Terry Hornbuckle more time to focus on personal and legal matters, according to a brief church statement released Tuesday through a public relations firm.
An attorney representing the three accusers in a civil trial said that two other women have come forward saying that Hornbuckle assaulted them.
HOLLIDAYSBURG (PA)
Altoona Mirror
By Phil Ray
HOLLIDAYSBURG - The Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese plans to seek dismissal of 14 priest sex abuse cases filed in the past year after the state Superior Court this week upheld a two-year statute of limitations in similar lawsuits.
Altoona Attorney Richard Serbin may have been stunned by the decision, but he said Tuesday that he is far from giving up his fight. Serbin estimates that he has filed more than 100 lawsuits in Pennsylvania.
Serbin has been involved with priest sex abuse cases for almost two decades. Last year, he settled a series of cases in Blair County for more than $3 million. He also won a $1.5 million verdict in 1994 against the diocese.
BELLINGHAM (MA)
Woonsocket Call
Call Staff 03/16/2005
BELLINGHAM -- The Rev. Paul M. Desilets, 81, has taken another step to fight extradition from Canada, according to Worcester County District Attorney John Conte.
Desilets faces a Worcester County grand jury indictment alleging he sexually assaulted altar boys at Assumption Parish during his tenure there between 1974 and 1984.
The retired priest had until the end of last week to decide if he would seek Canadian Supreme Court review of a lower Court of Appeals ruling upholding his extradition.
Conte was still awaiting official word about Desilets’ further appeal and issued no additional information on the matter Tuesday.
The May 2002 indictment against Desilets charged him with 16 counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, 10 counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or older, and six counts of assault and battery. These are all alleged to have occurred during his service as a parish priest at Assumption, according to Conte’s office.
IOWA
Globe Gazette
By LARRY KRAMER, Byron, Minn.
I am a victim of sexual abuse by a priest.
Since hearing that Robert Riess, my abuser, was murdered in Mexico in February, I realized the Catholic Church isn't doing all it can do to stop the abuse.
So knowing I can no longer sit by and let our children continue to be hurt, I sat down and developed a new approach to force the church to change.
My theory is based off running a business. In any business, the only time they make major changes in the way they do business is when they are spending more than they are taking in. This is when they stop and take a careful look at why they are not profitable.
So the same would apply to the Catholic Church. If it is spending more money on sexual abuse cases than the church supporters are bringing in, it will force the hierarchy to take a close look into the "why."
My basic new approach is this: Church members need to withhold money from the church until the hierarchy takes a close look at "why."
EDINBURG (TX)
The Monitor
March 16,2005
Brittney Booth
The Monitor
EDINBURG — Former Trinity Worship Center music minister Robert Dale Franklin pleaded guilty Tuesday to two felony counts that he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old church member.
Franklin, 38, entered his guilty plea before noon, halting the jury selection and trial set to begin in Judge Mario Ramirez’s 332nd state District Court.
By pleading guilty to the two second-degree felonies, Franklin avoided 10 additional felony charges that a grand jury indicted him of last year that included delivery of a controlled substance to a minor, indecency with a child and of delivery of marijuana to a minor.
Each count carries a maximum of 20 years in jail. Prosecutors filed a motion last week requesting that if the jury found Franklin guilty, he would serve the sentences back to back, instead of at the same time.
GREECE
Kathimerini
Greek authorities are hot on the trail of a fugitive drug dealer at the heart of the corruption scandal bedeviling the Church of Greece, judiciary sources indicated yesterday.
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the matter was discussed yesterday during a meeting between Supreme Court prosecutor Dimitris Linos and the chief Athens Court of First Instance prosecutor, Dimitris Papangelopoulos.
After seeking Apostolos Vavilis — who, despite his drug convictions, was sent as an envoy by Archbishop Christodoulos to oversee the election of a new patriarch of Jerusalem in 2001, and is believed to have maintained close relations with Greek and foreign intelligence services — in Greece without success, officials now believe the fugitive is in a nearby European country, possibly Italy.
Sources close to the investigation believe Vavilis may turn himself in the next few days — although similar speculation last month proved to be little more than wishful thinking.
Vavilis’s shady dealings with the Church emerged in the course of a spate of allegations of corruption, including involvement in trial fixing, and homosexuality among prominent clerics.
UNITED STATES
USA Today
Secrecy can kill, as Americans found out during the summer of 2000.
For weeks, the news media were filled with stories of disastrous car wrecks and deaths in the 1990s that were linked to some Firestone tires. The company recalled 6.5 million tires — too late for the more than 200 people killed and the hundreds injured.
They may have died needlessly. Information about possible safety defects had been locked in lawyers' files for years. Scores of victims had sued Bridgestone/Firestone, and the tiremaker had settled — but the terms were secret. Documents were suppressed at the company's insistence, and lawyers couldn't discuss them. ...
Among the dangers hidden:
•Abusive priests Catholic priests who sexually abused children were concealed for decades with the help of courts. The Catholic Church settled victims' lawsuits secretly and insisted on orders to seal documents. Today, some courts are still protecting church secrets. In 2003, a Connecticut appeals court ruled that the court files in 23 sexual-abuse lawsuits filed against the Diocese of Bridgeport should remain under wraps.
The Dallas Morning News
10:31 PM CST on Tuesday, March 15, 2005
By BRENDAN M. CASE, BROOKS EGERTON and REESE DUNKLIN / The Dallas Morning News
U.S. Catholic leaders say they've been doing everything possible to protect children since adopting a "one-strike-and-you're-out-of-ministry" abuse policy in 2002. Yet some are helping their fallen priests start over abroad. And some aren't asking the Vatican to defrock these men – the only thing that would prevent foreign bishops from employing them.
The U.S. church's sex-abuse reforms prevented the Rev. Manuel Fernández from keeping his high-profile job at the cathedral in Trenton, N.J., and running the diocese's ethnic ministries program. But they didn't stop him from relocating to his native Spain and leading a parish.
He remains a member of the Trenton Diocese. Officials there won't discuss his continued ministry or whether they told the Spanish church about allegations he had inappropriately touched a teenage girl decades ago. Those complaints had led to his 2002 removal.
PHILIPPINES
The Dallas Morning News
10:31 PM CST on Tuesday, March 15, 2005
By BROOKS EGERTON / The Dallas Morning News
CEBU, Philippines – Here in the cradle of Asia's lone Catholic stronghold, the Rev. Cristobal Garcia is one of the most prominent faces of the church.
It's a far cry from his despair of 20 years ago, when the Dominican religious order expelled him after a nun told police that an altar boy had been found in his bed in a Los Angeles rectory. The priest fled to his hometown Cebu Archdiocese – which, despite a warning from the Dominicans, put him to work anyway, with children, and persuaded the Vatican to honor him with the title "monsignor."
Respected leader
Cebu Cardinal Ricardo Vidal also has allowed Monsignor Garcia to form a monastic religious society, whose young male recruits call him their "supreme motivator." The Society of the Angel of Peace is based in a village outside Cebu, where the priest also oversees a chapel, a children's Sunday school program and a squad of altar boys.
"I don't think they [Filipino Catholic leaders] have the same standards or concerns we do," said lawyer Lynne Goodwin, who defended the Dominicans in a 1988 lawsuit filed by one of Monsignor Garcia's former altar boys. "I don't think there's any consequence for bad action."
Cardinal Vidal is not available for interviews, aides said. He has not responded to written questions.
PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
By Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
The Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese will ask an Allegheny County judge to dismiss 35 lawsuits alleging abuse by its priests, citing a state appeals court ruling that plaintiffs in other suits waited too long to file their complaints.
A three-judge panel of the state Superior Court ruled Monday that alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia waited too long to file their lawsuits. The archdiocese was protected by Pennsylvania's statute of limitations, which typically requires lawsuits be filed within two years, the decision states.
The Superior Court's ruling confirms "that the church is entitled to the same justice and the same rule of law as any other entity in Pennsylvania," the Pittsburgh Diocese said in a statement.
The dioceses in Greensburg and Altoona-Johnstown also will seek to have suits against them dismissed, officials there said.
PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
By Craig Smith
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
An attorney representing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg in a clergy sexual abuse case said he'll ask a judge to dismiss the lawsuit in light of a Pennsylvania Superior Court decision.
Attorney Eric Anderson, representing the diocese, said he'll file a motion to dismiss the case, which was brought against the diocese by Terrance J. Zawacki, based on the ruling by three Superior Court judges.
"It's a sweeping decision that will have significant impact," he said.
Zawacki, 53, alleges that he was abused about 43 years ago by a priest who died in 1991. The case is pending before Westmoreland County Judge Daniel Ackerman.
The appeals court judges, in tossing out 18 cases against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on Tuesday, said that under Pennsylvania law, claims for intentional conduct, negligence and conduct based in fraud are subject to a two-year statute of limitations.
That ruling, attorneys said, becomes the law of the land, pending an appeal.
PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
On the heels of an appellate court ruling that the statute of limitations bars lawsuits from those molested long ago by Catholic priests in Philadelphia, the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh is asking Allegheny County Common Pleas Court to dismiss identical cases here.
The lawsuits are not against the priests, some of whom are long dead. Instead they are against the diocese, claiming that bishops conspired to cover up abuse and that the victims only recently learned of the conspiracy.
A three-judge panel of the state Superior Court said Monday that even if officials of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia were guilty of "inexcusable conduct," the statute of limitations protected them from lawsuits filed long afterward.
One of the Philadelphia cases dated back to 1957, and the most recent case of alleged abuse to 1983. In Pittsburgh, accusations against 18 priests involve abuse allegations stretching from the 1950s through 1994.
BELLEVILLE (IL)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Robert Goodrich
Of the Post-Dispatch
03/15/2005
Bishop Edward K. Braxton slipped into Belleville Tuesday to meet with Catholics from the 28 Southern Illinois counties he will serve, but said he doesn't expect to be formally installed until early June.
Braxton, 60, has been bishop of the Lake Charles Diocese in Louisiana for the past four years. He will replace the Most Rev. Wilton D. Gregory, installed two months ago as archbishop of Atlanta.
At a news conference Tuesday at the chancery office in Belleville, Braxton said he was surprised at his selection but eager to return to Illinois and the St. Louis area. ...
He was asked about sexual abuse by priests. Braxton said none was alleged during his episcopate in Lake Charles but that he had set up procedures to handle accusations should they arise - before a procedure was addressed at a bishops' meeting in Dallas in 2002.
Braxton said he would happily meet with victims. "Bishop Gregory certainly responded to those allegations," Braxton said. "We must be vigilant and aggressive."
Depending on the circumstances, he said, he might meet with people from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
SAN BERNARDINO (CA)
The Press-Enterprise
10:52 PM PST on Tuesday, March 15, 2005
By MICHAEL FISHER / The Press-Enterprise
A national self-help group for victims of clergy sexual abuse is demanding Bishop Gerald R. Barnes reprimand and publicly condemn an Inland priest for filing a slander lawsuit against a man who claims the cleric molested him two decades ago.
In a letter faxed Tuesday to the Diocese of San Bernardino, Jaime Romo and Mary Grant of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, described the slander lawsuit filed last month by the Rev. Michael Bucaro as "vicious and un-Christian legal hardball tactics."
"This litigation, we believe, is intimidating and vengeful," the letter states. "It also directly contradicts what you and so many church leaders have repeatedly stressed: that you want victims to come forward and disclose their abuse. These hostile acts will scare victims into continued shame, self-blame and silence."
Bucaro's attorney, Lori Hershorin, argued that the clergyman has the right to defend himself against the damaging accusations, which he vehemently denies.
"SNAP has been misguided and misinformed about Father Bucaro," Hershorin said. "Father Bucaro's reputation has been tarnished by these false allegations, and he wants to clear his name. How else can he do that unless he fights back?"
GARY (IN)
Indianapolis Star
March 16, 2005
Gary -- Florida authorities have decided not to seek criminal charges against a Roman Catholic priest from the Diocese of Gary who was accused of molesting a Florida teenager more than a decade ago.
Orlando Police Detective Jonathan O'Hern said Monday the allegations against the Rev. Richard Emerson were investigated thoroughly but that the elapsed time, combined with the state and federal laws involved, blocked the filing of charges.
Emerson's attorney has denied the allegations against the priest. In December, Gary Bishop Dale Melczek suspended Emerson, 52, from his position at Notre Dame Church near Michigan City.
In January, the accuser filed a lawsuit against the dioceses of Gary and Orlando, claiming Emerson repeatedly molested him from the time he was 11 in 1986 until he was nearly 18.
SAN BERNARDINO (CA)
San Bernardino County Sun|
By Brad A. Greenberg, Staff Writer
A national support group for people abused by priests criticized Bishop Gerald R. Barnes on Tuesday for his handling of sexual-abuse claims against priests in the Diocese of San Bernardino.
The Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests asked Barnes to punish The Rev. Michael Bucaro, who in January filed a slander suit against a 25-year-old man who claims Bucaro molested him as a boy.
"We urge you to publicly denounce Bucaro's vicious and un-Christian legal hard ball tactics and discipline him,' the group, commonly known as SNAP, wrote in a letter signed by its San Diego and western regional directors.
"We also implore you to go to every parish where he was assigned and apologize for the harmful impact of your inaction and silence confronting Bucaro's inexcusable behavior.'
The diocese's response was brief.
"Our only comment regarding SNAP correspondence is that our diocese remains absolutely committed to doing everything we can to provide a safe environment for all parishioners, most especially children, and to promote healing for victims of sexual abuse and their families,' said spokesman The Rev. Howard Lincoln. "In the end, it is our hope that justice and fairness will prevail.'
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Daily News
By KITTY CAPARELLA
caparek@phillynews.com
Will the victims of sexual abuse by priests ever find justice in the criminal or civil courts?
That's a question some people were asking after a three-judge state appellate panel on Monday turned down 18 sexual abuse victims seeking to sue the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in civil court for harboring Catholic priests and one nun who allegedly abused them as children.
While the panel's decision was not unexpected, it was still a blow to victims.
"Absolutely devastating," reacted John Salveson, head of the local Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests.
"The message is 'You can rape kids and protect your rapist and as long as you slip past the statute of limitations, everything is cool,' " he added.
"The number one priority has to be changing the statute of limitations" in Pennsylvania, said Salveson, a Bryn Mawr businessman who says he was molested as a boy by a priest.
CALIFORNIA
Mercury News
By Robin Evans
Mercury News
In the first day of testimony in a trial alleging church negligence regarding sexual abuse by a San Jose pastor in the 1970s, attorneys for a former Catholic school student who says he was molested tried to show that church officials may have or should have known beforehand the priest was acting inappropriately with the boys in his parish.
At least two priests witnessed boys sitting on the Rev. Joseph Pritchard's lap in his private rooms at St. Martin of Tours, and one of the alleged victims said a priest who walked in while he was being molested may have seen evidence of it, according to plaintiffs' attorney Larry Drivon.
Lawyers for the church conceded abuse probably took place but said neither the priests, other adults in the parish nor the San Francisco archbishop, who oversaw the San Jose region at the time, had any idea Pritchard was doing anything wrong. They also promised testimony from law enforcement about what child abuse experts at the time would have thought about a child sitting on a priest's lap.
``What we know now is that, unfortunately, Pritchard took advantage of his position as pastor -- shamefully, illegally, wrongly in every way,'' said archdiocese attorney Jim Goodman. ``The parish was completely aware that kids were coming and going from his room.
MEXICO
The Dallas Morning News
10:35 PM CST on Tuesday, March 15, 2005
By BROOKS EGERTON and BRENDAN M. CASE / The Dallas Morning News
MATAMOROS, Mexico – When Monsignor Ivan Rovira was accused of rape in 2002, he didn't have to go far to dodge U.S. Catholic bishops' sex-abuse reforms.
Monsignor Rovira also continued to lead worship services regularly, despite Brownsville officials' assurances that he had been barred from public ministry. Last month, with Brownsville Bishop Raymundo Peña watching, he was among many priests celebrating Mass as Matamoros' new bishop was installed.
"I guess the Catholic Church is not universal," said Josie Rocha, two of whose sons have accused Monsignor Rovira. "We have a different set of rules just by jumping a river."
U.S. bishops say that since adopting a one-strike-and-you're-out-of-ministry rule in 2002, they have been doing everything possible to protect children and to promote victims' healing.
The policy permanently bars from ministry all priests confirmed to have ever sexually abused a minor. But it does not apply abroad, where many bishops consider the rule too harsh, and it does not apply to nonministerial jobs.
Only the Vatican can prevent foreign bishops from employing abusers – by removing them from the priesthood. U.S. church officials, however, don't always petition to have them expelled. And the Vatican can refuse a petition for various reasons, including the age of the case or a lack of cooperation by the abuser.
DALLAS (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
08:42 PM CST on Tuesday, March 15, 2005
By BROOKS EGERTON / The Dallas Morning News
Two prominent representatives of the Dallas Catholic Diocese appeared under subpoena before a grand jury Tuesday, one of the diocese's lawyers said.
But courthouse sources and others said more may be at stake. They suggested that the secret proceeding, which lasted more than three hours, was part of the district attorney's broader criminal investigation of how area Catholic officials handle sexual misconduct allegations.
One of the subpoena targets – the Rev. Ramon Alvarez, the Dallas cathedral's head pastor – has no apparent connection to the Grand Prairie church where the Rev. Matthew Bagert was arrested.
Father Alvarez is, however, a longtime close associate of Father Bagert's, who is free on bail and suspended from duty. Police said the two were out of town together for about two days immediately before the arrest. ...
One new tool prosecutors are using is a Web site – www .victimpower.org – that allows people to report tips anonymously to authorities around the country. The program, unlike anonymous phone calls, provides for continuing communication that can be necessary to verify information.
Members of a Catholic family in Massachusetts started the site, saying that they wanted to do something to combat abuse in their church. Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill has embraced the idea, VictimPower legal adviser Stephen Galebach said.
ARLINGTON (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
03:11 PM CST on Monday, March 14, 2005
By ERIC AASEN / The Dallas Morning News
ARLINGTON – Members of Agape Christian Fellowship should remain strong and united during "an hour of distress" as their pastor faces sexual assault charges, a church leader said Sunday.
Agape officials planned to meet Sunday and today to discuss the accusations, Bishop Harold Ray told hundreds of churchgoers at a Sunday morning service.
"We've got some critical days ahead," said Bishop Ray, who traveled from Florida for the service. He encouraged churchgoers not to be "occupied with rumor and innuendo."
ARLINGTON (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
09:04 PM CST on Monday, March 14, 2005
By DEBRA DENNIS, KATHRYN YEGGE and JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
An Arlington pastor charged with sexually assaulting three women posted bail Monday but must wear an ankle monitor and abide by other conditions to stay out of jail.
The release of Terry L. Hornbuckle, 43, of Grapevine from the Tarrant County Jail was delayed because of a drug charge added to the case against him. When he was arrested last week, police said they found between 1 and 4 grams of methamphetamine in his car. That third-degree felony charge added $5,000 to Mr. Hornbuckle's bail of $400,000.
Mr. Hornbuckle was arrested and indicted Friday on charges that he sexually assaulted three young female members of Agape Christian Fellowship Church between July 2003 and October 2004.
As a condition of his release, state District Judge James Wilson ordered Mr. Hornbuckle on Monday to report to a Tarrant County probation officer. He is prohibited from contacting the three women, using alcohol or drugs and possessing a firearm.
CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
A Brea youth pastor pleaded not guilty Monday to sending child pornography to an undercover FBI agent.
Jeff DeVore, 53, of Fullerton has been suspended from his post as an ordained volunteer assistant minister at the United Church of Christ. He has been charged with distributing pornography, allegedly to an agent involved in a sting operation that targeted men suspected of seeking to travel to Mexico for sex with boys.
NEW YORK
WHEC
NEWS 10NBC has learned new information about a local priest who admits to downloading child pornography on his church computer. Father Michael Volino is currently under house arrest. He's accused of receiving and possessing child porn from May of 2004 until his computer was seized in January. On Tuesday NEWS 10NBC learned that Volino spent time with a local Boy Scout troop and that he got a warning from the local diocese.
There are no allegations that Father Volino ever sexually assaulted a child and the leader of the local boy scout council tells NEWS 10NBC that while Father Volino did have close contact with a Boy Scout Troop, there have been no complaints that he did anything wrong. “We try to be very proactive in making sure youngsters are safe,” said Larry Pritchard, Monroe County Boy Scout Troops Executive Scout.
Pritchard was told about Father Volino's connection to the Boy Scouts the day Volino was arrested. “We did some homework and he's never been a registered leader with us, but apparently he was involved with a Scout Troop as a participant for some time.”
IRELAND
RTE News
15 March 2005 21:01
The Bishop of Cork and Ross has said that over the past five years the diocese has contributed around €500,000 to a trust which pays compensation to victims of clerical sex abuse.
Dr John Buckley was addressing priests of the diocese at meetings in Cork.
The bishops' conference, which is holding its spring meeting in Maynooth this week, is discussing the Bishops' Stewardship Trust.
This is a fund to which all dioceses have to contribute for compensation for victims of sexual abuse by diocesan priests, and for the funding of the bishops' child protection services.
WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service
By Jerry Filteau
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A group of U.S. Catholic bishops and lay church and business leaders March 14 announced formation of aAbuse Tracker Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.
Its goal is to help Catholic dioceses and parishes improve administrative practices and financial and human resource management as the church confronts clergy shortages and the challenges of training effective lay leadership.
At a press conference in Washington the group also issued an 80-page "Report of the Church in America," reporting the proceedings and recommendations of last July's national leadership round table at Wharton, the prestigious business school of the University of Pennsylvania.
That session was a two-day meeting of lay and church leaders from diverse perspectives who came together in Philadelphia to analyze how church leadership can respond more effectively to leadership problems that surfaced in the clergy sexual abuse crises and, more broadly, to the rapidly changing realities in American Catholicism.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
National
By JASON BERRY
Los Angeles
Since June 2002, when the scandal-plagued Catholic bishops met in Dallas to adopt a youth protection charter, Cardinal Roger Mahony has cast himself as a reformer, an image that is jarring to many people immersed in the legal saga here in which the archdiocese has waged a fierce battle to keep sensitive documents secret.
“If priests are indicted and some end up in prison or whatever, that’s going to be very sad for them, for the church,” Mahony told the Los Angeles Times in the weeks following that 2002 meeting. “But if that is required to move beyond, that’s what we’re going to have to go through.”
Two and a half years later, amid the slow grind of court proceedings, Mahony spoke of his own “terrible journey” in a Feb. 12 telephone interview with NCR. “It’s easy to look back through lenses of today to 15, 20, 30 years ago. You just wish you had known then what I know now” about the way sexual offenders behave.
“I’ve met a very large number of victims,” he continued. “I’ve also looked at the taped interviews [of victims] the plaintiff attorneys here have developed. Dozens of interviews on DVD. I’ve listened to those, every single one of them. They just cause you to cry. You simply are in disbelief at what has happened to the lives of these people. It has been a very humbling experience. Spiritually, I was absolutely at the bottom, which means total vulnerability to God’s grace. And I began to realize that this is the ministry Jesus Christ is asking of me and others at this time, to repair the damage, to make sure it won’t happen again.”
GARY (IN)
Sun-Sentinel
The Associated Press
Posted March 15 2005, 5:37 PM EST
GARY, Ind. -- Florida authorities have decided not to seek criminal charges against a Roman Catholic priest from the Diocese of Gary accused of molesting a Florida teenager more than a decade ago.
Orlando police Detective Jonathan O'Hern said Monday the allegations against the Rev. Richard Emerson were investigated thoroughly, but that a combination of the time that has passed and the state and federal laws involved blocked the filing of charges.
Emerson's attorney has denied the allegations. The allegations caused Bishop Dale Melczek in December to suspend Emerson, 52, from his position at Notre Dame Church near Michigan City.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Reuters
By Ed Kaufman
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Written by Bronx-born John Patrick Shanley, "Doubt" (a West Coast premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse) is compelling, absorbing and as current as yesterday's headlines as it attempts to deal with the nature of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.
The story takes place at St. Nicholas Church School in the Bronx, 1964. Credit Gary L. Wissmann for the two rotating sets: the office of the principal and a garden courtyard in the parish. Alex Jaeger's costumes are fitting while Claudia Weill's direction is expert and savvy.
As first we see Father Flynn, the engaging, warm-hearted and idealistic young priest (a commanding performance by Jonathan Cake), at the pulpit preaching about doubt as a necessity if we (or the Church) is to grow. Doubt isn't weakness; doubt brings about change which, Flynn argues, is vital and beneficial.
When the scene changes, we are in the office of Sister Aloysius (the wonderful Linda Hunt), the elderly, cryptic, suspicious, calculating and tough-as-nails principal of St. Nicholas. She runs the school with a firm hand and is suspicious of Flynn's notion about "going out in the community and making believe that you are just one of the other folks."
COLUMBUS (OH)
Beacon Journal
ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Victims of child sexual abuse that happened as long ago as 1970 could sue the alleged perpetrators under a bill the Senate was expected to approve Wednesday.
The lawsuits could come even though the deadlines under law for reporting such abuse passed years or decades ago, according to the new version of the bill to be voted on Wednesday by the GOP-controlled Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
A vote by the full Senate was expected to follow later in the day.
Victims would have one year to file such a claim after the law takes effect or two years if the victim currently has a case in court.
The bill would also dramatically extend the deadline for filing abuse claims in the future.
Under current law, victims have one year after turning 18 to file claims against an alleged abuser and two years to file a claim against an institution that may have contributed to the abuse, such as a church or school.
CALIFORNIA
Union-Tribune
By Kim Curtis
ASSOCIATED PRESS
4:44 p.m. March 15, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO – At least two priests at a San Jose parish saw young boys visiting the room of another priest now accused of molestation, and one caught the priest with boys sitting on his lap, a lawyer told jurors Tuesday at the start of a civil sexual abuse trial.
Attorney Larry Drivon, who represents victim Dennis Kavanaugh, 47, said the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard was seen numerous times with young boys in his room during the early 1970s. But those activities were never reported, he said during the first day of testimony in Kavanaugh's lawsuit against the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Jurors saw parts of a videotaped deposition by the Rev. William Leininger, a now-retired priest who lived at St. Martin of Tours when the abuse occurred. Leininger acknowledged he saw "lots of boys" go into Pritchard's room but thought they were watching television or playing games.
"It was unusual activity, but we didn't think anything of it," Leininger said on the tape. "That's just the way things were."
Kavanaugh's is the first of more than 750 civil lawsuits against California dioceses to go to trial since the state temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for filing sex-abuse claims in 2002.
BRITAIN
BBC News
A 34-year-old man became mentally ill after a catalogue of "horrendous" abuse at the hands of his parish priest in Coventry, the High Court has been told.
The man, known as "A", is suing the Archbishop of Birmingham in his role as head of the Church in the area.
A's barrister said Father Christopher Clonan sexually abused his client for 10 years when the priest worked at Christ the King Church in Coundon.
Fr Clonan died in Australia in 1998 while on the run from British police.
Robert Seabrook QC said A was molested by Fr Clonan between 1978 and 1988, after the priest had ingratiated himself with his client's devout Roman Catholic family.
BRITAIN
Scotsman
By Jan Colley, PA
A man whose psychiatric illness was caused by prolonged and horrific sexual abuse by his trusted parish priest launched a High Court damages action today.
The 34-year-old, one of seven children from a devout and successful Catholic family, suffers from both schizophrenia and post traumatic stress disorder and is unable to work.
Only identified as A for legal reasons, he is one of a number of individuals who allegedly suffered at the hands of Father Christopher Clonan, who served at Christ the King Roman Catholic Church in Coundon, Coventry for 20 years.
He left his post of assistant parish priest in July 1992 and fled to Australia, where he died of natural causes in 1998.
In January last year, former altar boy Simon Grey received a £330,000 out-of-court settlement from the Archdiocese of Birmingham over similar claims.
Today, Robert Seabrook QC, who also represented Mr Grey, told Mr Justice Christopher Clarke in London that A sought compensation for the “most horrific sexual abuse” over a 10-year period between the ages of eight and 18.
TAMPA (FL)
Tampa Tribune
By THOMAS W. KRAUSE tkrause@tampatrib.com
Published: Mar 15, 2005
TAMPA - Mary Help of Christians School is facing its fourth lawsuit filed since 2002 alleging young male students were molested by clergy members who taught there.
A Miami man filed the most recent suit Friday, alleging sexual misconduct by former principal Father Kevin O'Brien.
Richard Peterson Jr., who attended the school from 1976 until 1979, says the abuse took place in the principal's office during the last two years he attended classes at the Catholic school on Chelsea Street.
O'Brien, Peterson says, told him the molestation was a form of punishment for misbehaving in school. The priest said he had permission from the boy's parents and from the Catholic church to administer discipline however he pleased, according to the suit.
School officials referred comment to the Salesians of Don Bosco, the New York- based Catholic order that runs the school.
Father Jim Heuser, Salesian provincial for the eastern United States, said he could not comment directly on the lawsuit, but said the order has made apologies to youths who were victimized while under Salesian care.
BRITAIN
ic Coventry
Mar 15 2005
A Coventry man who as a child was groomed and sexually abused by a priest is today launching a record claim for damages against the Catholic Church.
The victim, now aged 34, is suing for at least £1million in damages and costs for the years of abuse he suffered at the hands of Fr Christopher Clonan.
GREECE
Kathimerini
As former president Costis Stephanopoulos enjoyed his first day out of office with a 16-kilometer bike ride at his holiday home on Sunday, his successor, Karolos Papoulias, held his first meetings in the Presidential Palace in Athens.
Papoulias, 76, who was sworn in on Saturday as Greece’s sixth president since the fall of the military junta in 1974, met with close associates at his new office ahead of his first official duties, which are set to begin toward the end of this week. Meanwhile, Stephanopoulos, 79, retired to his holiday home in Rio, near his native Patras. ...
Political controversy threatened to overshadow the swearing-in ceremony as MPs from the Synaspismos Left Coalition staged a walkout in protest over the fact that Papoulias was taking his oath before Archbishop Christodoulos, the head of the Church of Greece — as is traditional. Theodoros Koliopanos, a PASOK deputy, refused to attend the ceremony in protest at the Church’s role. The remaining Socialist MPs demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the recent Church scandals by refusing to stand when the archbishop entered the debating chamber with members of the Holy Synod.
NATICK (MA)
MetroWest Daily News
By Mary Kate Dubuss / Daily News Staff
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
NATICK -- Natick Parish Voice knows it is going to take a lot to make meaningful changes in the Catholic Church, and, its members say, hope is just as important as more practical methods.
Even last night, when the group was confronted with frank talk about the Boston Archdiocese's impenetrable hierarchy, its members said they have not given up the idea that the ordinary Catholic can become a bigger part of the religion's leadership.
During the panel discussion commemorating Natick Parish Voice's third anniversary, about 60 Catholics from local parishes met at Morse Institute Library to keep their reform-oriented goals in mind.
Natick Parish Voice wants the Catholic clergy to be accountable and able to communicate with the laity, but the priests on hand at the forum said such a reality is a long way off.
"I don't think the Bishop (Sean O'Malley) plans to make any changes," said the Rev. Walter Cuenin. "With reconfiguartion, (the archdiocese had) no willingness to look at different models. It says to me, we're not planning changes."
Cuenin, the pastor of Our Lady Help of Christians in Newton, relayed news from the frontlines. Saying the priesthood has been "demoralized," he offered a dose of reality.
"The priesthood is pretty broken. ... It takes two to tango, but you can't get contact" with the archdiocese, he said.
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer
By David O'Reilly
Inquirer Staff Writer
The Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled yesterday that 18 adults had waited too long to sue the Archdiocese of Philadelphia over alleged sexual abuse by priests, spurning rulings in some counties that had kept the door open to such suits.
The three-judge panel ruled unanimously that even though the alleged abuse was "inexcusable," Pennsylvania's time limit on filing suits trumped any argument that the church had unlawfully interfered with the victims' timely reporting of their abuse.
The ruling appears to scuttle virtually all the abuse suits on file against the archdiocese. If upheld, it also could protect other dioceses in Pennsylvania from embarrassing disclosures of misconduct and financially crushing judgments or settlements.
C. Clark Hodgson Jr., who represented the archdiocese in arguments before the court last month, said he believed the ruling effectively blocked such suits against dioceses across the state.
DUBUQUE (IA)
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
March 15, 2005
Victims advocates on Monday increased pressure on Dubuque's Catholic archbishop to disclose the names of priests accused of abuse in the wake of another new priest-abuse lawsuit.
On Friday, a Dubuque woman identified as Jane Doe sued the archdiocese alleging she was