TUCSON (AZ)
Tucson Citizen
SHERYL KORNMAN
Tucson Citizen
Today, dozens of people were expected to ask a federal bankruptcy judge in Tucson to reconsider their rejected claims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.
More than 60 claims were turned down by a panel the judge appointed to review them as part of the process to reorganize the operation of the Diocese of Tucson under Chapter 11 bankruptcy law.
In all, 103 claims were received. The panel has set up a ranking system for paying victims.
The diocese has agreed to pay at least $15 million to victims of abuse by its clergy in its effort to move beyond the pedophilia scandal that has tainted the church here.
The diocese filed for Chapter 11 protection Sept. 20, 2004, in the face of mounting new claims of sexual abuse following a $14 million clergy sex abuse settlement reached in civil court in 2002.
As the reorganization effort under Chapter 11 got under way, federal bankruptcy Judge James Marlar named a panel of lawyers and sexual abuse victims to the "tort claims committee." It is that panel that has been reviewing the abuse claims filed by the court's April 15 deadline.
Jun 30 2005
BRITAIN
ic Coventry
By Steve Chilton
A Coventry man who was repeatedly sexually abused when he was a child by a city priest, was today awarded a record £700,000 in compensation.
The victim, known as Mr A, was abused for years by former Catholic priest Fr Christopher Clonan.
The award which was announced by a High Court judge is a UK record for a sex abuse case involving a priest. Costs will also be awarded to Mr A, sending the bill to the Catholic Church to more than £1 million.
The victim, now 34, was brought up in the Coundon area. He was abused by the priest from about the age of seven, and the assaults continued into his late teenage years.
The abuse, including rape and other serious assaults, was carried out in Coventry at Fr Clonan’s room at Christ the King Church, the priest’s nearby home, and his second home in Ireland.
BRITAIN
ic Coventry
Jun 30 2005
By Steve Chilton
The man who today was awarded record damages for being sexually abused by a Coventry priest began his campaign for justice 13 years ago - by telling his story to the Evening Telegraph.
The police had been foiled in their attempt to arrest Fr Christopher Clonan - he had fled and was never to be see again in this country - and the then 22-year-old was gripped by anger, despair and frustration.
His account of the abuse he suffered from the age of about seven through to his late teenage years was all the more chilling for its soft-spoken delivery. But when the memories became too painful, Mr A a tall, good-looking man dressed in denims, would explode in anger.
He told how the abuse started with fondling when he was just an ordinary kid with Irish parents living in the Coundon area, where Christ the King Church and social club was and still is, at the heart of the community.
He was groomed by the assistant parish priest by being given pocket money for odd jobs at the church and club.
BRITAIN
U.TV
Father Christopher Clonan's whereabouts has been the source of as much speculation in recent years and filled as much newspaper copy as the progress of the child abuse legal claims against him.
But the mystery ended in May last year when West Midlands Police confirmed that the man known to neighbours in a quiet Melbourne suburb as Christie Oliver was the fugitive priest and that he had died in 1998.
Born in Clonard, Co Meath, Christopher Oliver Clonan had been a part-time builder and property developer before entering the priesthood and being posted to Christ the King church in Coundon, Coventry, in the 1970s.
Because of his former trade, he became known as "Father Fix It" for his skills in church construction schemes.
But the priest, who was known to swear like a trooper and have a weakness for whiskey and cigars, became embroiled in an altogether different project, abusing young parishioners and altar boys.
UNITED STATES
Newsday
BY GENE SEYMOUR
STAFF WRITER
July 1, 2005
The level of intimacy achieved in "Twist of Faith" is so unsettling and deep that one wonders how it could have possibly been achieved. It is one thing to hear adult victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests speak out in uneasy voices on TV and radio. It is yet another, far more potent thing to be allowed into a victim's home, life and struggle to come to grips with what happened.
The central figure in Kirby Dick's festering sore of a documentary is Tony Comes, a firefighter living in Toledo, Ohio, with his wife and two children. Comes is the kind of man you'd like to be when you grow up: cool, honest and devoted to his family. Yet beneath his resolute exterior, Comes is tormented by what happened to him as a teenager when he was molested by a local priest who invited kids to his lakeside home for weekend parties.
Only Comes' parents and his wife knew about the incident before he decided to go public in 2002, the same year allegations of similar sexual abuse by Catholic priests surfaced nationwide. Matters became even more urgent for Comes when his abuser, who had left the priesthood but taught in a public school, moved to a house five doors away from him.
Filmmaker Dick, whose previous work includes 2002's "Derrida" and 1997's "Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist," helped his project by allowing the Comes family to videotape themselves. This may have been the only means through which Comes and his wife could articulate the complex effects of Tony's legal battles with the church, his own psychological struggle and its impact on his marriage. (Even their counseling sessions are taped.) The most poignant scenes, not surprisingly, involve his children; not just when he has to tell them what happened to their dad as a boy, but when he faces his own violently conflicted feelings toward his daughter's first Communion.
BRITAIN
U.TV
The Catholic Church could be forced to pay out millions of pounds after the High Court today awarded damages to a man who, during his childhood, was sexually abused by a priest.
The man, now 35, was abused for more than 10 years between the ages of seven and 18 by Father Christopher Clonan, his parish priest at Christ The King Church in Coventry.
The man now suffers from schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder and was awarded more than £600,000 in compensation by the High Court in Manchester today.
Lawyers for the claimant, known as `A`, said the ruling against the Archbishop of Birmingham and the Trustees of the Birmingham Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church was "a landmark decision".
It was the first case against the Catholic Church to reach a British court, with all previous complaints having been settled at an earlier stage.
With legal costs expected to spiral to more than £400,000, the total fee will be more than £1 million - thought to be the biggest award of its kind in the UK.
Today`s ruling means that Clonan, who fled to Australia where he died in 1998, has cost the Church nearly £1.5 million.
TUCSON (AZ)
KVOA
A bankruptcy judge on Thursday tossed out more than two dozen sex abuse claims seeking compensation from the Catholic Diocese of Tucson while approving 20 compromise settlements.
Only about 23 claims are now still unresolved in the bankruptcy case.
Judge James Marlar also heard testimony from three people who filed claims, two in open court, though the claimants were identified only by their claim numbers, and the third in a closed courtroom, but did not rule immediately on their validity.
One woman who filed a claim tearfully recounted how her now-dead husband allegedly had been molested during the early 1950s, when he was 12, by a priest in Miami, Ariz.
Warren Stapleton, an attorney for a court-appointed tort creditors committee, told the judge he was not discrediting the allegations but asked the judge to throw out the claim because the statute of limitations had expired by the time her husband was 23.
TANZANIA
Xinhua
DAR ES SALAAM, June 30 (Xinhuanet) -- The trial of a Roman Catholic priest charged with sexual offenses involving a 17-year-old boy has been set to start on July 21 in Dar es Salaam.
Decision on the starting date of the trial was reached after a closed-door preliminary hearing at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court in Dar es Salaam, according to local English newspaper The Guardian.
At least eight witnesses are expected to be summoned in to testify and these include the boy's parents, police officers who detained the accused priest, Sixtus Kimaro, and the boy's teachers.
BRITAIN
Sun Online
By PETE BELL
Sun Online
CATHOLIC Church leaders have been ordered to pay over £600,000 compensation to a man after a priest sexually abused him as a child.
The man, identified in court as "A", was abused over a ten year period from the age of seven by paedophile Father Christopher Clonan - his priest at Christ The King Church in Coventry.
The award was made today in Manchester after the High Court heard the man, now 35, suffers from schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder. He has lived in a mental home since 2000.
The sick priest escaped justice by fleeing Coventry in 1992. Police are now convinced he is dead.
Compensation - mostly for loss of past and future earnings - was awarded against the Archbishop of Birmingham and the trustees of the Birmingham Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church.
Archdiocese of Birmingham spokesman Peter Jennings said the church hoped the settlement would bring an end to the "distress and anguish" the victim has suffered.
BRITAIN
Scotsman
By Hugo Duncan, PA
A man who was left psychologically damaged after being systematically abused by a parish priest for ten years was awarded more than £600,000 in compensation today.
Lawyers acting for the victim of Father Christopher Clonan said they hoped the award – thought to be the biggest of its kind in the UK – would force the church to offer “realistic compensation” to other victims.
The 35-year-old man, who now suffers from schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder, was abused between the ages of seven and 18 by Clonan, his priest at Christ The King Church in Coventry.
The claimant, known as A, was awarded £635,684 by the High Court in Manchester after bringing a case against the Archbishop of Birmingham and the trustees of the Birmingham Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church.
After today’s judgment, ‘A’s legal firm, Wokingham-based Clifton Ingram, said they knew of at least eight other victims.
They claim the church failed to act against Clonan for years after the abuse allegations were first raised.
BRITAIN
Science Daily
MANCHESTER, England, June 30 (UPI) -- A British man who was sexually abused as a child by a Roman Catholic priest was awarded a record $1.1 million in damages by the High Court Thursday.
The man was abused by the Rev. Christopher Clonan from the ages of 8 to 18. Now 35, he suffers from schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder and requires constant care.
Clonan committed the abuse while working in Coventry under the Birmingham Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church. He died in Australia in 1998 while on the run from British police.
High Court Judge Christopher Clarke said the abuse had been regular -- between one and three times a week.
He awarded $1,147,282 against the Archbishop of Birmingham and the trustees of the Birmingham Archdiocese, who admitted legal liability for "failing to prevent these activities."
By DEBRA LEMOINE
dlemoine@theadvocate.com
Florida parishes bureau
AMITE -- Three children are the victims at the center of a child-sex ring operating out of a Ponchatoula church for five years, a sheriff's detective testified in court Wednesday.
What is missing from the court case as it stands are the allegations of occult activity as the motive for the sexual abuse of children and animals, he said. No physical evidence of the occult, such as pentagrams drawn on the floor and spell books were ever found, Tangipahoa Parish sheriff's Detective Mike DePhillips told the court.
"You heard today that they couldn't find any evidence of the occult, so that is a dead issue," said Assistant Public Defender Reginald McIntyre, who represents defendants Paul Fontenot and Patricia Pierson.
Prosecutor Don Wall confirmed after the hearing that the occult element won't be a part of the state's case.
Instead, the case is based mostly on statements made by the three children -- one girl and two boys -- who repeatedly were raped by, or forced to engage in various sex acts with, most of the defendants at least twice a week from 2000 to 2001 at Hosanna Church and a home of three of its members, DePhillips said. There is at least one other victim who wasn't mentioned in court.
PORTLAND (OR)
Portland Tribune
BY Todd Murphy Issue date: 06/29/05
The Tribune
The pastor of a St. Johns church ignored evidence of sexual abuse by one of the church’s employees, then fired two other church employees who had told him of the alleged abuse, according to a civil lawsuit filed last week in Multnomah Circuit Court.
The two church employees were fired and evicted from their church-owned house after they waited in vain for the pastor of the First Baptist Church of St. Johns to report the abuse to police, then filed a police report themselves, the lawsuit complaint says. The church employees’ two daughters, then ages 14 and 17, were among four girls alleged to have been sexually abused by the church employee in 2003.
The lawsuit complaint outlines what it asserts was a litany of actions that Pastor Daniel Pulliam did not do to properly report and investigate the alleged abuse — and what he did do to punish the two church employees and their daughters for bringing the charges forward. Portland police now are investigating the abuse; no charges have been filed against the church employee, who left his job and Portland after being accused of abusing the four girls.
NASHVILLE (TN)
Nashville Scene
By John Spragens
Gentlemen: It is 4:00 am and I could not sleep because I had another one of those nightmares. I thought I would take the time to share with you why."
That's how David Brown began the six-page letter he wrote to church officials in the early morning hours of June 4 of this year. He wrote it in an attempt to explain himself, to force three men from the Catholic Diocese of Middle Tennessee to understand what he had been going through, in stages, for almost a half-century now: the sleepless nights, the manic temper, the fear of intimacy, the shudder he feels when he remembers stale, smoky breath and scratchy whiskers rubbing against his face. The list goes on.
Brown didn't think he would send the letter—he never even planned to write it in the first place—but suddenly, it just made sense: dredge up the deepest, most painful memories and force himself, and others, to deal with them. Let a lawyer and two priest administrators know how it feels and smells and sounds to be 15, a lanky, trusting high school sophomore, and to lose your virginity—involuntarily—to a grown man. One you trusted. He wanted to explain what it's like to deal with the shameful stigma that, left to fester, turns into an angry, hurtful silence and haunts you for a lifetime.
The letter's three recipients, like most people, were probably never sexually assaulted by a Catholic priest. At least they're not saying so if they were. So they probably can't imagine what it would be like to go through such a terrifying experience. Who could?
But unlike most people, these men are used to dealing with this situation. They work for an organization that has employed multiple sex offenders over the past five decades. The Diocese of Middle Tennessee, like many offices of the Catholic Church nationwide, has seen its former priests investigated by law enforcement officials. It is currently fighting a lawsuit from two plaintiffs who claim they were molested by a former clergyman in Nashville who had left the priesthood.
IOWA
THonline
by MARY NEVANS-PEDERSON
IOWA CITY, Iowa - Victims of sexual abuse by Iowa Catholic priests and nuns gathered together with supporters Friday and Saturday to talk about the church's crisis and how it is being handled - or, as some said, mishandled.
The "Weekend of Hope and Understanding" in Iowa City is one of only a few such gatherings that have been held since the sex abuse crisis broke more than three years ago, according to the national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
"This is historic stuff - an independent, grass-roots coalition of lay groups addressing these issues," said David Clohessy, who said he repeatedly was abused by his local priest beginning when he was 12. The conference was sponsored by four eastern Iowa lay groups formed to deal with the sex abuse crisis by supporting victims and pushing for local church reform.
Clohessy described how he thinks the church, especially bishops who are on the front line of the crisis, should respond to ever-emerging claims of sexual abuse of children at the hands of clergy:
* Accused priests should fight fair and defend themselves, but not attack or intimidate their accusers;
* Bishops should release and permanently post the names of all credibly accused priests;
* Bishops should visit every parish in their diocese to encourage those who were abused to come forward ("lost sheep campaign");
* Lay and ordained Catholics should work to have the statute of limitations on civil lawsuits changed to allow for sexual abuse cases from long ago to be heard.
VIRGINIA
WAVY
(AP) - Two Virginia circuit court judges have ruled only individuals - not corporate entities - can be held financially liable for child sexual abuse, a blow to victims hoping to sue their abusers' employers.
The rulings concerned separate cases in Norfolk and Richmond, both listing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond as a defendant.
One involved Steve Kopalchick of Hopewell. Now 52, Kopalchick claimed two priests at St. James Catholic Church in Hopewell molested him while he served as an altar boy there in the 1960s. One of the men has since died; the other lives overseas and suffers from Alzheimer's.
Kopalchick filed a $5 million suit in Richmond Circuit Court in 2003.
The June 8 ruling concerns churches, schools and corporations.
COLUMBUS (OH)
ChannelCincinnati.com
POSTED: 12:03 pm EDT June 29, 2005
UPDATED: 12:21 pm EDT June 29, 2005
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Ohio Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether to allow lawsuits claiming the Archdiocese of Cincinnati failed to warn victims of sexual abuse by priests.
Trial courts in Cincinnati and Shelby County threw out the lawsuits, saying the victims waited too long to file them.
The law says lawsuits over sexual abuse of a minor must be filed within one year after reaching age 18.
But the victims say the time limit should not apply because they only learned in 2002 that there were other victims and the church knew about them.
COLUMBUS (OH)
Beacon Journal
CARRIE SPENCER
Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to consider whether the deadline has passed to file sexual abuse lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
Several lawsuits by people who said they were abused as children have accused the Roman Catholic archdiocese and Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of negligently hiring the priests, hiding the abuse and inflicting emotional distress.
Most were thrown out based on state laws setting deadlines for filing complaints over sexual abuse of a minor. The limit is one year after turning age 18 for reporting the abuse itself, two years for claiming someone failed to protect against the abuse and five years for alleging a pattern of corrupt activity.
But the 3rd Ohio District Court of Appeals in March ruled that a case should go forward against Thomas Hopp of Cincinnati. The Shelby County court agreed that the time limit should begin running from 2002, when Hopp was removed from the ministry and the victim learned the archdiocese knew of other victims.
The appeals court agreed the victim should get the chance to prove he had no reason to know the archdiocese and Pilarczyk were negligent in allowing the abuse to continue.
COLUMBUS (OH)
WCPO
Reported by: AP
Web produced by: Neil Relyea
Photographed by: 9News
6/29/2005 9:49:17 PM
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The Ohio Supreme Court today agreed to consider if a man waited too long to sue the Archdiocese of Cincinnati claiming it failed to stop a priest he says abused him as a boy.
The law says lawsuits over sexual abuse of a minor must be filed within one year after reaching age 18. Negligence claims must be filed within two years.
But the unnamed victim says the time limit should start counting from 2002.
That's when he learned were other victims and the church knew about them.
A Shelby County appeals court agreed.
NEW YORK
Poughkeepsie Journal
By Anthony Farmer
Poughkeepsie Journal
In 2002, during the growing sex abuse scandal in the Catholic church, state legislators pledged swift approval of a new law that would punish church officials who try to cover up such acts by fellow priests.
Three years later, a law still isn't in place and it could be well into 2006 before lawmakers get a chance to approve one.
Bills introduced by Sen. Steve Saland, R-Poughkeepsie, and Assemblyman John McEneny, D-Albany, would add members of the clergy to the list of occupations required to report suspected abuse against children. Clergy would then have to report sex abuse of children by priests and other clergy to authorities.
Each legislator's bill has been approved in their respective houses, but McEneny and Saland are at odds over differences in the two bills.
The main sticking points arise over how abuse is defined and to what extent social workers and other counselors would be required to report what they learn about teenagers' sex lives.
A leader of a group representing victims abused by priests said there's no reason the state shouldn't have the law in place. The bills vary only slightly and the differences should be able to be worked out, said Mark Lyman, co-director of the Capital Region Chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
TACOMA (WA)
The News Tribune
STEVE MAYNARD; The News Tribune
Published: June 30th, 2005 12:01 AM
The Catholic Diocese of Sacramento agreed Wednesday to pay $35 million to settle 33 claims of sexual abuse by priests, including 16 against Tacoma priest Mario Blanco.
The plaintiffs will receive an average of $1.1 million, making it one of the largest clergy sex abuse settlements by the Catholic Church, per plaintiff, in the nation.
Tony Cano and 15 others accused Blanco of molesting them more than three decades ago. Blanco denies the accusations.
For Cano, 46, and his family, the church was always a shelter. His mother was raising five children and gleaned her strength from the Catholic Church, he said.
She was thrilled when Blanco, who served mainly Spanish-speaking parishes in the Sacramento Diocese from 1969 to 1973, took an interest in her son. He taught Cano music and helped him start a band.
Although Cano, then a preteen, joked with his friends about never wanting to ride in the front seat of Blanco’s car, he couldn’t bring himself to tell his mother of the abuse. He couldn’t shatter her faith in the church, he said.
SACRAMENTO (CA)
Contra Costa Times
By Randy Myers
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
SACRAMENTO - Clergy sex abuse victims and their loved ones huddled Wednesday afternoon outside the county courthouse as lawyers announced that the Diocese of Sacramento had agreed to pay $35 million to settle 33 claims.
"It's time for the suffering to end and the healing to begin," said lawyer Jeff Anderson at the Sacramento news conference. He praised the victims for their courage in coming forward.
Settlement amounts in the Sacramento cases range from $400,000 to $4.2 million. Because some plaintiffs wish to remain anonymous, individual amounts were not disclosed. The Sacramento Diocese has no other pending abuse cases.
Earlier in the day, the Santa Rosa Diocese said it would pay $7.3 million to eight plaintiffs, bringing its total settlements to $10.6 million.
The news of the Sacramento settlement came moments before the first civil trial in that diocese was to begin.
SACRAMENTO (CA)
Mercury News
JENNIFER COLEMAN
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO - Two Northern California Catholic dioceses agreed to pay more than $42 million to settle 41 clergy sex abuse claims, resulting in the dismissal of all but one lawsuit against the two organizations.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento agreed Wednesday to pay $35 million to 33 victims just "two minutes" before a jury trial was set to begin in one of the cases, attorney Larry Drivon of Stockton said at a news conference in front of the Sacramento Superior Courthouse.
"I don't think it's a coincidence that the diocese has finally found its pastoral side the morning of the trial," Drivon said.
Also Wednesday, the Diocese of Santa Rosa announced it will pay $7.3 million to eight plaintiffs. The settlement is in addition to a $3.15 million agreement reached last month with Roberta Saum, now 44, who claimed former priest Donald Kimball sexually abused her for several years starting when she was 15.
The settlements are "an acknowledgment that what happened to us was really horrible," Saum said at the news conference.
SACRAMENTO (CA)
New York Newsday
By Eric Bailey
Times Staff Writer
June 30, 2005
SACRAMENTO — Marking another turn in the Roman Catholic Church's nationwide sexual abuse scandal, two Northern California dioceses Wednesday announced $45.6 million in legal settlements with dozens of alleged victims of molestation by priests.
The Diocese of Sacramento will pay $35 million to 33 people who said they had been sexually abused decades ago. Leaders in the Diocese of Santa Rosa agreed to legal settlements totaling $10.6 million for nine parishioners.
Church officials expressed remorse for the past wrongs of priests, and offered to meet with the victims to offer apologies as well as spiritual and emotional support.
"I ask their forgiveness for the grievous wrongs done to them and pray that this settlement today helps bring them peace and closure," said Bishop William Weigand of the Sacramento Diocese.
The settlements follow hefty cash payouts in clergy sexual abuse cases nationwide.
In January, church officials in Orange County agreed to pay $100 million to 90 victims. Earlier this month a Kentucky diocese announced that it would pay $120 million to 100 alleged victims of child molestation. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles remains in negotiations to settle 544 claims by alleged sexual abuse victims.
More than 10,000 people nationwide have accused about 4,400 Catholic priests of sexual abuse between 1950 and 2002, according to church officials. California has 1,000 molestation claims.
TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
Twist of Faith, the Academy Award-nominated documentary that focuses on a Toledo man’s allegations that he was sexually abused by a local priest, ought to be shown in churches and schools of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo, two leaders of the group, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, wrote yesterday in a letter to Bishop Leonard Blair.
The letter by Barbara Blaine, founder and president of SNAP, and Claudia Vercellotti, its Toledo chapter coordinator, asks the bishop to “take action to allow Toledo’s Catholics to view the film. Can you please make churches and schools available to show the documentary film about sex abuse of [a] boy growing up in the Toledo diocese?”
The letter followed the decision by the Maumee Indoor Theatre and the city of Maumee, which owns the building, not to offer a public screening of the documentary. Theater and city officials said it was a business decision unrelated to the film’s content.
The film, which features Toledo Firefighter Tony Comes and his lawsuit against the diocese, premiered to an invitation-only audience Monday at the Maumee theater. About 500 people attended, Ms. Vercellotti said. It was broadcast Tuesday night on HBO.
A statement from the diocese said the bishop was out of the office “and will receive the letter upon his return to the office later this week.”
BRITAIN
Telegraph
(Filed: 30/06/2005)
A man who was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest during his childhood has been awarded more than £600,000 compensation.
The man, now 35, was abused over a 10-year period between the ages of seven and 18 by Father Christopher Clonan, his priest at Christ The King Church in Coventry.
Father Clonan is believed to be dead
He now suffers from schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder.
He was today awarded £635,684 by the High Court in Manchester.
The compensation was awarded against the Archbishop of Birmingham and the trustees of the Birmingham Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church.
The claimant, known as A, was abused between 1977 and 1988 but did not realise that anything was wrong until 1992, when "his life fell apart".
MAUMEE (OH)
Toledo Blade
By RYAN E. SMITH
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Twist of Faith, the Academy Award-nominated documentary set in Toledo, will not get a regular public showing at the Maumee Indoor Theatre despite inquiries by its distributor about screening it there.
The film's director and others say the decision raises questions of censorship.
Not so, say officials at the theater and the city of Maumee, which owns the building. They said yesterday it was a financial decision and had nothing to do with the film, which is about the sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic church.
The documentary, chronicling the lawsuit of Toledo firefighter Tony Comes against the Toledo Catholic Diocese for years of alleged rape and molestation by a local priest, premiered to an invitation-only crowd at the Maumee theater on Monday. It aired on HBO last night.
About a week earlier, Great Eastern Theater Co., contract manager for the site, was approached about showing the movie for perhaps a week. It consulted with the city and ultimately agreed to pass, according to city and theater officials.
"We were extremely excited to be able to play the premiere, but a little bit leery of playing it for a whole week," said Jim Walter, president of Great Eastern. He said other movies were already booked, and showing Twist of Faith would have diminished revenue.
MAUMEE (OH)
WTOL
MAUMEE -- A Toledo firefighter who is the subject of an HBO documentary called "Twist of Faith" is outraged after the city of Maumee decided not to show the Academy Award-nominated movie any longer. The Maumee Indoor Theater has pulled the film after just one showing to a sold-out audience. Tony Comes calls that a slap in the face to him and others who have been sexually abused by priests.
Toledo firefighter Tony Comes is grateful the city-owned Maumee Indoor Theatre agreed to premiere the HBO documentary "Twist of faith." It details the sexual abuse Comes suffered as a teen at the hands of Toledo Catholic priest Fr. Dennis Gray. "[Monday] night was a watershed moment," Comes said, saying the healing and dialogue had begun.
That's why he can't believe the city of Maumee decided to not extend the film's run past one day. "The manager's words were, 'The film will not be shown in the city of Maumee, because of the content.' I'm blown away, absolutely blown away," said Comes.
AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
June 29, 2005
An alleged sexual assault victim of William "Little Pebble" Kamm had said in 1997 she could not fulfil her calling to be one of his "queens" because she didn't want to share him, the District Court has heard.
Maria Louisa Bos, 27, a member of Kamm's Order of St Charbel, based near Nowra, said the alleged victim, who had left the property but had come back, had said she "wanted to seek his forgiveness because she had done something wrong".
Ms Bos was called by Greg Stanton, defending Kamm, 53, who is being tried before Judge John Williams on four charges of aggravated indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl.
UNITED STATES
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Reviewed by Carolyn See
“Sexual molestation of children, particularly of boys by men, is a silenced plague in our culture, because men can’t be victims; they can’t admit it has happened to them and we can’t admit it has happened to our men.” This quote comes not from “The Tricky Part” but from “Never Let Me Go,” by Chuck Rosenthal, published last year. Both are marvelous, courageous and above all thoughtful memoirs by middle-age men who have chosen to share the complex tales of their abuse as children – of how it affected them as they tried to grow up, tried to be good and decent men. Both take place in a Catholic context. Both are ridden with despair and guilt and with sad, choked affection.
The cover picture of “The Tricky Part” is almost too much to bear. It shows little Marty Moran standing up in a kayak, out on a camping excursion. He holds his paddle above his head in a gesture of triumph; he’s smiling to beat the band. He’s wearing a life preserver, but his emotional life already has been destroyed; he’s on this trip with Bob, an unmarried 30-year-old pedophile who used to be a Catholic camp counselor and may once have been a seminarian. Marty’s parents have approved this outing with Bob – as they will continue to do for years – and by the time he’s 15, Marty will have learned more about coercion, sex, illicit excitement, deceit and sorrow than most people will in a lifetime. All this happens against a background of suffering plaster saints, a great-aunt who is a contemplative nun and a mother whose idea of small talk goes something like this: “I can tell you one thing. ... I’d rather find out one of my children was dead than homosexual.”
NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald
29.06.05 4.00pm
A day after former Christian Heritage party leader Graham Capill pleaded guilty to a raft of child sex charges, the new leader of the party says Capill is also guilty of the worst form of hypocrisy.
Capill, 46, yesterday pleaded guilty in Christchurch District Court to rape, unlawful sexual connection, and three counts of indecent assault against two girls under 12.
Earlier this year he pleaded guilty to indecent assault against another girl. ...
For one of the girls, being sexually abused by Capill was her earliest childhood memory.
For the other, Capill was the minister at the Christian college she attended and the groping began when she was eight, offending which eventually ended in rape.
The two girls knew each other but the alarm was not raised until on the day of the second victim's wedding.
The first girl was her bridesmaid and while getting changed out of her outfit, Capill barged into the room despite being told not to.
OREGON
Salem Statesman Journal
June 29, 2005
A St. Paul man who has worked as a pastor and a teacher was sentenced to 19 years and two months in prison Tuesday on charges that he sexually abused a daughter he adopted from Russia.
David Charles Gilmore, 40, pleaded guilty in Marion County Circuit Court in April to the seven counts of unlawful sexual penetration. The incidents involving the 9-year-old child stretched over a two-year period.
Gilmore and his wife have four biological children and three children adopted from Russia. The children range in age from 1 year to 12 or 13 years old and are living with their mother.
Before his arrest, Gilmore was a teacher at C.S. Lewis Christian School in Newberg and at St. Paul Elementary School. He also taught piano lessons.
He previously was the senior pastor at the Marcon Friends Church and an associate pastor at the Newberg Friends Church, both in the Newberg area.
TUCSON (AZ)
azcentral.com
Associated Press
Jun. 29, 2005 12:00 AM
TUCSON - A court-appointed committee has objected to dozens of sexual abuse claims filed in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson's bankruptcy case.
Out of 103 claims that have been filed, settlements have been approved for 30, and 68 will be argued during a hearing scheduled Thursday before Judge James M. Marlar. The other five are expected to be negotiated.
"We've been sitting here today talking about what to expect. It's a little uncertain. Some people who have filed very strange claims will probably show up," said C. Taylor Ashworth, a Phoenix bankruptcy attorney who represents the court-appointed tort creditors committee. advertisement
"They are not people alleging they were sexually abused as minors," Ashworth said.
"They are people that have filed claims that have nothing to do with the diocese. There will be a handful of those, and then there will be five or six that just really didn't seem to have good cases."
VIRGINIA
Washington Post
By Caryle Murphy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 29, 2005; Page B04
Two Virginia Circuit Court judges have ruled that victims of child sexual abuse cannot sue the employers of their abusers when the victims file civil lawsuits years later as adults.
The June 8 rulings came in two separate cases in Richmond and Norfolk and were victories for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond, a defendant in both lawsuits.
Practically speaking, the rulings mean that churches, schools, corporations and other institutions cannot be held financially liable for abuse by an employee when a victim seeks damages years later. The judges cited a 1994 state constitutional amendment in issuing their opinions, the plaintiffs' attorneys said.
"Unless the individual perpetrator has significant assets, [abuse victims] have no realistic expectation of being compensated," said James C. Lewis, an attorney for the plaintiff in the Norfolk case.
TUCSON (AZ)
KOLD
TUCSON, Ariz. A court-appointed committee is objecting to dozens of sexual abuse claims filed in the Catholic Diocese of Tucson's bankruptcy case.
Settlements already have been approved for 30 claims. Sixty-eight others will be argued during a bankruptcy court hearing on Thursday, with the remaining five claims expected to be negotiated.
The diocese sought Chapter Eleven reorganization protection in the face of litigation stemming from alleged sexual abuse by priests.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Columbia Daily Tribune
Published Tuesday, June 28, 2005
ST. LOUIS (AP) - A former St. Louis priest recently released from prison after sexual misconduct convictions were overturned faces a new sexual abuse lawsuit.
Tony Pettus of south St. Louis claims in the lawsuit filed yesterday that he went on a camping trip to Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park, in southeast Missouri, in 1970 or 1971 with priest James Beine and six boys from St. Andrew’s parish in St. Louis. Pettus said he awakened to find the priest touching his penis.
Attorney Ken Chackes said Pettus was about 11 at the time. The lawsuit claims he has suffered psychological damage as a result of the incident. The Archdiocese of St. Louis and Archbishop Raymond Burke also are named.
Beine, 63, was released from the Farmington Correctional Center on June 2 after serving more than two years for allegedly exposing himself to children in a boys bathroom at a St. Louis grade school where he was working as a counselor.
SIOUX CITY (IA)
Sioux City Journal
By Nick Hytrek Journal staff writer
A judge has dismissed a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Sioux City and a former priest, ruling that the statute of limitations had expired.
District Judge Duane E. Hoffmeyer ruled that Daniel Nash did not file the lawsuit against the diocese and the Rev. George McFadden within the required four years after realizing he had a case in 1996. Nash, 47, now living in Ithaca, N.Y., filed the suit in April 2004 in Woodbury County District Court
Nash, a Jefferson, Iowa, native, said he began remembering the abuse in 1996, which occurred from 1969-72 at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Jefferson when Nash was in fifth, sixth and seventh grades.
Nash had argued that since he began remembering in 1996 that he had been sexually abused, a mental condition had prevented him from exercising his legal rights to file suit and his time limit should be extended.
Hoffmeyer said Nash failed to show he suffers from a mental condition that would have prevented him from taking legal action. Prior to filing suit, Nash had contacted at least six attorneys since 1996 about his case, Hoffmeyer said, before Sioux City attorney Scott Rhinehart agreed to represent him.
Rhinehart has said he plans to appeal Hoffmeyer's ruling.
BRITAIN
Christian Today
Posted: Wednesday, June 29 , 2005, 7:41 (UK)
A report released by the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults has revealed that allegations of child abuse that have taken place in the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales have increased by 50 percent last year.
The third annual report recorded 62 allegations of abuse in 2003, but this jumped to 100 last year. The 100 incidents involved 153 victims. There were 111 cases of sexual abuse, 14 of physical abuse and 11 of child pornography.
Over half the incidents of alleged abuse took place last year involved priests, while the rest were charged against employees, volunteers and parishioners. Out of the 17 incidents that involved priests, 10 were regards to sexual abuse.
The Archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, who chairs the child protection management board, responded to the figures. Speaking to Times, he admitted that he was disappointed with the religious people who are involved in these scandals.
"As a bishop I am always upset when a priest or religious or someone who has been trusted with a role within the Church misbehaves in a particular way. What upsets me far more is the abuse of youngsters."
BRITAIN
Scotsman
By Nick Allen, PA Chief Reporter
Child abuse allegations in the Roman Catholic Church rose significantly last year in England and Wales.
There were 100 alleged incidents reported in 2004 – up from 62 in 2003. The 100 incidents involved 153 alleged victims.
Most of the allegations reported last year were historical and were said to have taken place in the 60 years before 2004.
Of those said to have taken place last year, 10 involved allegations of sexual abuse by priests.
DALLAS (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Associated Press
DALLAS - A grand jury impaneled by the Dallas County District Attorney's Office said Monday it found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in the way the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas handled reported cases of sexual abuse.
The grand jury was impaneled to help determine if Catholic Bishop Charles Grahmann and his staff had received allegations of abuse by clergy members that weren't reported to law enforcement.
The DA's office declined to discuss further details.
A telephone message left with the diocese wasn't immediately returned to The Associated Press, but Grahmann said in a story posted on the diocesan newspaper's Web site that he was pleased the investigation was over and that it confirmed the diocese's position that there was no wrongdoing.
HOLYOKE (MA)
Republican
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
By BILL ZAJAC
wzajac@repub.com
HOLYOKE - Organizers of today's open house for the recently created first-of-its-kind clergy sexual abuse Victim Resource Center hope professionals who help abuse survivors will attend the event.
"We'd love to see some attorneys, therapists some mental health agencies and even someone from AA," said Shauna L. Lozada, a case manager and center coordinator.
The center, which will be open to the public 4-6 p.m., was created with a one-year $50,000 grant from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in the wake of the diocese's $7.8 million settlement last summer with 46 alleged clergy abuse victims.
The center serves as a referral center for abuse survivors needing help with things like housing, employment, therapy, substance abuse, emergency food and financial assistance.
"Many people don't know about the center and what it does. We hope the open house informs service providers what we are all about," said Lozada, adding that the center identifies agencies that can help abuse survivors with specific needs.
IOWA
Des Moines Register
By CLARK KAUFFMAN
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
June 28, 2005
An Iowa judge has dismissed a sexual abuse lawsuit brought against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sioux City.
Daniel Nash of Ithaca, N.Y., sued the diocese in 2004 , claiming that he had been sexually abused by the Rev. George McFadden between 1969 and 1972 , when McFadden was pastor at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Jefferson.
Last week, on Nash's 47th birthday, District Judge Duane Hoffmeyer dismissed Nash's lawsuit, saying the statute of limitations had expired.
Under Iowa law, victims of childhood sexual abuse have four years from the time they first recall the abuse to file a lawsuit. The Iowa Supreme Court has said that the time period can be extended in cases where a mental disability has made it impossible for the victim to understand his or her legal rights.
By Nash's own admission, he began recalling the alleged abuse in the spring of 1996 and, over the next eight years , he contacted several attorneys in hopes of having them take his case.
Nash also reported the alleged abuse to two Des Moines Register reporters, which led to a news story in 2002 .
However, Nash didn't file his lawsuit against the diocese and McFadden until April 2004 - eight years after his first recollection of the alleged abuse. His lawyers argued that Nash's mental condition rendered him unable to pursue a case.
"The bare facts of the record before the court contradict this assertion," Hoffmeyer ruled. "Nash has admitted himself that he was aware he may have a claim against McFadden and/or the diocese and that he sought the counsel of at least half a dozen attorneys across the country."
DALLAS (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
11:52 PM CDT on Monday, June 27, 2005
By BROOKS EGERTON / The Dallas Morning News
Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill announced Monday that he will not bring charges against local Catholic leaders over their handling of sexual misconduct allegations.
A special grand jury impaneled in February "has found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing on the part of the diocese or its officials," the district attorney said in a news release.
Mr. Hill would say little about the five-month investigation, citing state laws on grand jury secrecy.
"We conducted a very thorough and intensive investigation," he said through spokeswoman Rachel Horton.
Dallas Bishop Charles Grahmann, who recently testified before the grand jury, said the announcement vindicates church leadership.
"I am pleased that the investigation has been concluded and the findings confirm our position that there has been no wrongdoing by the Diocese of Dallas or its officials in reporting cases of child abuse," he said, according to a bulletin posted Monday evening on the diocesan newspaper's Web site.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
By Robert Patrick
Of the Post-Dispatch
06/27/2005
James Beine, the former Roman Catholic priest freed from prison this month by the Missouri Supreme Court, was sued Monday by a man who said Beine abused him more than 30 years ago.
Tony Pettus' lawsuit says Beine molested Pettus in the early 1970s, when the priest took Pettus and five other boys camping at Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park.
Beine forced Pettus, who was then about 11 years old, to touch Beine's genitals, according to the suit, filed Monday morning against Beine, the St. Louis Roman Catholic Archdiocese and Archbishop Raymond Burke in St. Louis Circuit Court.
In interviews Monday and earlier this year, Pettus said he had gone on the trip with a friend who was a member of St. Andrew's parish in Lemay.
"When bedtime came, I didn't have nowhere to sleep, so I had to sleep with him" in his tent, Pettus said. He said he was prompted to come forward by news of Beine's release.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff | June 28, 2005
There's something ordinary and familiar about the sexual abuse scenario in the HBO documentary ''Twist of Faith." A Toledo priest takes boys to his lakeside cottage for weekends of spiritual guidance, plies them with booze and adult freedoms, and inflicts himself on them at night. The next day, and the next month, and the next year, the boys block out the pain and the shame; decades later, of course, the pain and the shame erupt.
It's the classic story we've been hearing in the news for years now, and, from sheer repetition, it has taken on an almost boilerplate quality. It's so commonplace, it has begun to lose its emotional resonance in the telling. That's one of the valuable gifts of ''Twist of Faith," which premieres tonight at 10. It once again personalizes the priest abuse scandal, particularizing the tragedy so vividly that you can't forget just how profoundly it lays siege on its victims' lives.
As the movie follows Tony Comes, a 30-something Toledo firefighter burning with rage about his early molestation, it doesn't let you vague out on the cruelty and long-term harm of the crime. It is too fiercely specific to shake off.
SPOKANE (WA)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SPOKANE -- More than a dozen lawyers argued yesterday over the size of the money pot that will be available to alleged victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests in the Spokane Diocese.
The lengthy hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court will produce a key decision in the case of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection because of the large number of abuse lawsuits it faces.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams said she will rule in the next four to six weeks whether some of the 82 parish churches, 16 parochial schools and other assets in the Eastern Washington diocese could be sold to settle lawsuits.
The Spokane Diocese contends that the Catholic bishop does not own the parish assets, but only holds them in trust for parishioners. Lawyers for the victims disagree.
While questioning diocese lawyer Shaun Cross, Williams said her reading of state law seems to indicate the diocese owns the parishes.
UNITED STATES
Philadelphia Inquirer
By John Grogan
Inquirer Columnist
I was having lunch recently with an area priest with whom I am friendly. When the topic of the clergy child-abuse scandal came up, the pain on his face was palpable.
The embarrassment, the anger, the shame and sense of betrayal.
It was as though, just by mentioning it, I had sucker-punched him.
This priest is a good and decent man. He's reverent, not self-righteous. He toils quietly at his vocation in the hopes of leading the Catholics he reaches toward a happier, holier life.
He is a man of fairly intimidating build, and my clear sense as we sat over brats and beer talking about abusive priests and the hierarchy that for so many decades enabled them was that he wanted to... kick somebody's butt. I mean that literally.
And it wasn't the media's backside he wanted to kick for publicizing the long-hushed scandal. Or lay Catholics for asking hard questions. Or even the comedians for their cruel jokes.
It was his fellow priests he wanted to clock for sinning so horribly, so criminally, so repugnantly. And his Church leaders who failed to take decisive action when they could have and should have.
The Catholic Church, here in Philadelphia and across the nation, failed miserably toward that end. Every institution has its misfits. There are corrupt cops and lecherous coaches and pedophile scout leaders and, yes, unethical journalists. But the measure of a great institution is not the behavior of its aberrant members but how it deals with that behavior.
SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Times
By Moira Macdonald
Seattle Times movie critic
The numbers are staggering: thousands of accusers filing claims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests, millions of dollars paid in settlements across the country, countless families devastated by the crisis within their church. But for his documentary "Twist of Faith" (airing at 10 tonight on HBO), Kirby Dick wanted to tell just one story: of a victim turned survivor.
Dick, a longtime documentary filmmaker ("Derrida," "Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist") who brought "Twist of Faith" to the Seattle International Film Festival last month, said he had been following the stories of abuse and cover-up within the church as they unfolded in recent years. "I was horrified," he said, "but also struck by the fact that it was really hard to see the story behind these horrific facts and figures."
To find the one subject on which to base his film, Dick contacted numerous chapters of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. He was put in contact with representatives in Toledo, Ohio, who led him to Tony Comes. A handsome, then-33-year-old firefighter with a wife and two young children, Comes had just made the decision to go public with his accusations against Dennis Gray, a priest and religion teacher at Comes' high school.
SCRANTON (PA)
Times Leader
By MARK GUYDISH
mguydish@leader.net
While announcing deep administrative budget cuts recently, the Diocese of Scranton noted that fewer churches are meeting goals in a key fund drive: the Diocesan Annual Appeal. Officials also insisted the financial crunch is not because of the priest scandals plaguing the church locally and nationally.
A deeper look shows that, although individual parishes have missed goals, the diocese overall still consistently meets its mark.
Money from the Appeal pays for a variety of diocesewide services, including the newspaper and television stations, schools, support for retired clergy, and social services. Diocese Spokesman Bill Genello said the goal has risen each year, from $3.5 million in 1999 to this year’s $4.4 million. As the overall goal goes up, so do the goals for each parish.
According to the June 23 issue of the diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Light – which, because of budget cuts, will be published every three weeks instead of every two – 66 percent of parishes in the 11-county diocese met their goals in 1999; 41 percent did so this year.
But that’s an incomplete picture. Genello said that although fewer parishes meet individual goals, the overall goal has been exceeded each year since 1999. This year, the diocese topped the goal by at least $23,000. Genello added, however, that this year’s Appeal actually raised about $62,000 less than last year’s.
Genello said it’s difficult for the diocese to know if the sex scandals have caused a decline in appeal donations, but added that anecdotal evidence suggests that’s not the case.
HOLLYWOOD (CA)
Canton Repository
By Shawn Hubler Los Angeles Times
HOLLYWOOD -- “Twist of Faith,” the moving Oscar-nominated documentary debuting Tuesday on HBO, opens with the words “Toledo, Ohio,” and the taped deposition of a priest.
The Middle American town, the beefy, small-mouthed cleric -- the images are haunting, and they’re meant to be, for they also haunt Anthony Comes, the firefighter, father, husband, hometown guy and working-class Roman Catholic who is at the heart of this documentary and who, as it turns out, has just learned that his brand new dream house is five doors down from the parochial high school counselor who he says molested him when he was 14.
What follows is a riveting and heartbreaking account of one man’s journey into the thick of what most Americans now know as the “pedophile priest scandal” -- media shorthand for a human trauma that has tended to be framed as particular to Catholics.
In fact, as the documentary shows to grim effect, the emotional core of what happened to so many families is far more widespread.
TOLEDO (OH)
WTOL
TOLEDO -- A Toledo firefighter is baring his soul to the world in a new film about victims of clergy sexual abuse. The Academy Award-nominated documentary, "Twist of Faith" debuted in our area Monday night at the Maumee Indoor theatre.
It opened with a montage of Toledo landscapes mixed with images of priests. It was peaceful almost serene, until you hear Tony Comes' story. In the film, the 35-year-old Comes details the sexual abuse at age 14, that occured at a lakeside cottage.
Comes and a group of other young boys were sexually abused by Toledo Catholic priest Dennis Gray in the 1980's while Gray was a counselor at Central Catholic High school. Film director Kirby Dick was drawn to Tony's story. "We came out and met with him and immediately we were struck by his charisma, his honesty, his emotional quality and we started shooting the same day we met him," said Kirby.
The film chronicles Tony's legal battle with the Toledo Catholic Diocese and the toll it took on his family, particularly his wife Wendy. "He really is a different person. It's like he's uncomfortable in his own skin," she said in the film.
SACRAMENTO (CA)
The News Tribune
JENNIFER GARZA AND STEVE MAYNARD; The Sacramento Bee The News Tribune
Published: June 28th, 2005 12:01 AM
SACRAMENTO – A Tacoma priest will be at the center of a civil trial in Sacramento Superior Court scheduled to start Thursday for child sexual abuse alleged to have happened three decades ago. If the case isn’t settled this week, it could be one of a handful of sex abuse cases against the Catholic Church to go to trial.
Francisco Chavez says he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by the Rev. Mario Blanco from about age 5 to 13. Chavez’ attorney describes the priest, now working as a schismatic in Tacoma, as a “predator.”
“It’s not true,” said Blanco, after celebrating Mass on Sunday at Our Lady Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church. “It’s a sin. I cannot do it.”
Blanco served in the Sacramento diocese from October 1969 to April 1973 and was later dismissed following allegations of misconduct. A talented musician, he was a popular priest who served at predominantly Latino parishes. The priest floated among several Spanish-speaking congregations where he started youth bands.
The trial is the first in the Sacramento Diocese since the state of California temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for filing sex-abuse claims in 2002. The diocese is dealing with 31 plaintiffs who say they were sexually abused by clergy; 16 of them are allegations against Blanco. The diocese previously settled two lawsuits involving the priest.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Kathleen A. Shaw TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
kshaw@telegram.com
WORCESTER— Patricia O’Leary Engdahl, who has directed the Office of Healing and Prevention of the Catholic Diocese of Worcester since its inception in 2002, is leaving that position to become director of the Molly Bish Center for the Protection of Children and Elderly at Anna Maria College.
Raymond L. Delisle, spokesman for the diocese, said yesterday Ms. Engdahl is leaving the job with the diocese but he had no information on who will replace her. Her appointment at Anna Maria, a Catholic college in Paxton, takes effect July 18.
Ms. Engdahl, a lawyer and former assistant district attorney in the office of John J. Conte, was hired by the diocese when the office was created in June 2002, about the time the American bishops adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
Working with Frances Nugent, a licensed social worker, the office was involved in giving assistance to victims claiming clergy sexual abuse and in administering the programs aimed at rooting out clergy, church workers and volunteers who might pose a threat to young people. Her office was involved in doing criminal records checks of everyone working or volunteering in the diocese.
“We’re delighted to have her,” said Shelley Finn, Anna Maria spokeswoman. Ms. Engdahl replaces Sarla Chand, who left to take another job.
William D. McGarry, Anna Maria president, said the center was formed more than a year ago with the help and encouragement of John and Magdalen Bish, parents of Molly A. Bish. Ms. Bish, 16, was abducted from her lifeguard job in Warren five years ago and slain. Her killer has not been found. Mr. McGarry approached the Bishes and asked them to support such a center, he said. They not only supported the effort but became active participants. “They are wonderful people,” he said.
BRITAIN
The Times
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
ALLEGATIONS of child abuse in the Roman Catholic Church increased by 50 per cent in England and Wales last year.
But of 153 reported incidents of abuse, 116 took place in the 60 years before 2004 and involved abusers who have since died.
The increase in allegations of abuse from 62 in 2003 to 100 last year was disclosed in the third annual report from the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults.
The 100 incidents involved 153 victims. There were 111 cases of sexual abuse, 14 of physical abuse and 11 of child pornography.
Of the 37 incidents of alleged abuse that actually took place last year, 17 involved priests and 10 of these concerned sexual abuse.
WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service
By Jerry Filteau
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Turning the church into a real communion means making better use of the church's consultative structures, Archbishop V. James Weisgerber of Winnipeg, Manitoba, said June 24 in an address in Washington.
Implementation of parish and diocesan councils, priests' councils and synods in the church "has been uneven and frustration is evident at every level," he said.
To make such structures work, he added, openness and commitment are needed on the part of bishops, priests and laity.
On the leadership side, he said, "communion can hit a brick wall in an authoritarian, autocratic or frightened leader. The laity can feel quite paralyzed."
On the side of the laity, "sitting on the fence, shooting from the bushes, cynical bystanding are not options for serious Christians," he said. "Fear and cynicism must give way to trust. Generous collaboration is called for from all."
Archbishop Weisgerber, a former general secretary of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and current co-chair of its Sexual Abuse Review Committee, delivered the eighth annual lecture of the Catholic Common Ground Initiative. His address, on "Building a Church of Communion," was given at The Catholic University of America.
MARYLAND
The Jeffersonian
06/27/05
By Jennifer Przydzial
A former Roman Catholic priest who was a chaplain at Calvert Hall College High School from 1982 to 1993 has been formally charged with sexually abusing a student, according to Baltimore County police.
Jerome Toohey, 59, of Lutherville, was accused in December of sexually abusing a former student from 1987 to 1989, according to charging documents.
On May 26, those accusations led to three charges being filed against Toohey - child abuse, a third-degree sex offense and perverted practice.
The first offense carries a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment and the maximum for the other two is 10 years imprisonment. The perverted practice charge could also result in a $1,000 fine, according to the documents.
Late in 2004, a former Calvert Hall student contacted the Archdiocese of Baltimore and alleged he had been abused by Toohey, according to the charging documents.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Belleville News-Democrat
JIM SALTER
Associated Press
ST. LOUIS - A former St. Louis priest recently released from prison after sexual misconduct convictions were overturned now faces another sexual abuse lawsuit.
Tony Pettus of south St. Louis claims in the lawsuit filed Monday that James Beine forced Pettus to touch his penis in 1970 or 1971 while Beine took children from St. Andrew's parish on a camping trip in southern Missouri. Pettus was not a member of the parish but was invited along by a friend.
The lawsuit did not say how old Pettus was at the time, but said he was a minor. It claims that as a result of the incident, Pettus has incurred expenses for medical and psychological treatment. The Archdiocese of St. Louis and Archbishop Raymond Burke are also named.
Beine, 63, was released from the Farmington Correctional Center June 2 after serving more than two years for allegedly exposing himself to children in a boys' bathroom at a St. Louis grade school where he was working as a counselor.
The Missouri Supreme Court ordered Beine's release in May after ruling the state's indecent exposure statute was unconstitutionally vague. On the day of his release, Beine said, "I knew that time would tell. I never committed any of these crimes."
FORT WORTH (TX)
Tyler Morning Telegraph
ASSOCIATED PRESS June 26, 2005
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - The Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese's decision to release the names of eight priests accused of sexually abusing children has raised more questions than it answered, victims and their advocates say.
The victims want the church to release details such as how many times each priest was accused and whether any of the allegations have been substantiated. But others, including priests, worry that releasing the accused men's personnel files would only cause more pain.
Diocese officials are fighting in court to keep details about the allegations secret.
In an attempt to gain access to the accused priests' files, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News have intervened in a clergy abuse lawsuit the diocese settled this year for $4.15 million.
One priest's files were made public as part of the lawsuit, but a judge ordered the files of the other seven sealed. A hearing on whether the files must be released is scheduled for Wednesday.
CANADA
Vancouver Sun
June 26, 2005
A Canada-wide warrant has been issued by Delta police for Tsawwassen youth pastor Brad Firth, who is wanted on child-pornography charges.
Firth, 38, is currently in a Mexican jail. He was arrested on allegations of sexual abuse of a 14-year-old boy at a Bible camp four years ago.
Canadian border posts have been alerted, to stop Firth from entering Canada undetected should he be released by Mexican authorities, said police.
Const. Kim Petruka, Delta police spokeswoman, said Firth has been charged with one count of possession and one count of accessing child pornography after an investigation in November.
He faces up to five years in prison on both charges.
"Two charges have been approved by Crown counsel," she said. "We seized a variety of images, including electronic images. There were numerous images."
When Delta police launched their investigation in November, they said "questionable materials" had been found in Firth's church office.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Hector Becerra, Times Staff Writer
Leaders of the Hare Krishna faith last week began carrying out the terms of a $9.5-million settlement that closes the books on a long-running child abuse scandal.
Under the plan, the International Society of Krishna Consciousness organization has filed for bankruptcy in Los Angeles while it determines how to compensate 535 former students who say they were abused in the 1970s and '80s by adults at boarding schools run by the society.
The settlement covers abuses at Krishna temples and schools across the United States and India that resulted in a 2001 class-action lawsuit.
Some Hare Krishna devotees and gurus, including at least one in Los Angeles, were subsequently convicted of child abuse, and others were barred from visiting temples, said Anuttama Dasa, spokesman for the society.
The Krishnas also closed all the boarding schools in the United States, where much of the abuse allegedly occurred. Last week, the organization began paying off attorneys, accountants and others involved in the case, a first step in eventually making payments to the alleged victims.
IOWA CITY (IA)
WOI
IOWA CITY, Iowa Victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests said the church and individuals confronted with allegations should not intimidate their accusers and should "act as Jesus would."
The remarks were included in a two-day "Weekend of Hope and Understanding" conference in Iowa City.
The conference was held Friday and Saturday.
David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, says there should be a zero tolerance policy in terms of sexual abuse of children by priests.
When accused, he says priests should defend themselves without attacking their accusers.
The goal of the conference, according to event organizers was to encourage victims of sexual abuse by priests to come forward and to get support from other Catholics and fellow survivors.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
ABC 7
LOS ANGELES (CNS) — A man who handcuffed himself to Cardinal Roger Mahony's chair during services today at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels was later arrested by police.
The man — who is an alleged victim of sexual abuse by a clergyman — was taken into custody, apparently on a misdemeanor count of disrupting a religious service, said Tod Tamberg, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
The man — whose first name is Jim — was taken into custody without incident, Tamberg said. There were no injuries.
The incident occurred as about 3,000 people attended Mass this morning at the downtown cathedral. An estimated 200 demonstrators were outside the cathedral at the time to protest what they say is Mahony's continuing cover-up of sex abuse crimes in the church.
This morning's demonstration outside the cathedral was organized by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
CANADA
Washington Post
By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, June 27, 2005; Page A09
STEPHENVILLE, Newfoundland -- In the hardscrabble fishing villages of this remote island, the Rev. Kevin Bennett was "like a god. He was more important than a cop," and more feared than parents, recalled a former altar boy, who was one of his victims. Dozens of boys kept Bennett's secret as he ordered each into his bed to fondle and rape them.
Now, 16 years after the priest was publicly accused and sent to prison, a $10.5 million settlement reached last month over the sexual abuse claims of 39 former altar boys is causing the Catholic diocese here to prepare to put its churches, parish halls and priests' homes up for sale.
Catholic villagers across this huge, poor swath of western Newfoundland are learning the long reach of these priestly abuses, some committed decades ago. They might lose the tiny parish chapels and meeting halls where relatives and neighbors have long been christened, married, celebrated and buried.
"We always thought we owned the church," said Theresa LaCosta, 78, who lives down the hill from Our Lady of Fatima Church in Piccadilly, a cluster of poor homes with rich views of the emerald hills that plunge into St. George's Bay. She said her husband, now deceased, had badly hurt his back while helping to lay the church foundation. "He had to stop fishing because of it. Now they are going to take the church away?"
MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By MARIE ROHDE
mrohde@journalsentinel.com
Posted: June 26, 2005
Father Thomas Doyle, a priest who was part of the Vatican diplomatic corps 20 years ago when he warned the Catholic hierarchy that they needed to deal promptly with what was to become the sex abuse scandal, said Sunday that the fallout from the scandal is far from over.
"The epicenter is California," Doyle said. "One diocese just paid out $36 million, and the Diocese of Orange paid out $110 million. When Los Angeles bursts, it will make Boston look like an altar boys' picnic."
Doyle, a Dominican priest born in Wisconsin who holds a canon law degree, spoke at a meeting of the local chapter of Voice of the Faithful, a national group that formed in response to the scandal. Nearly 300 attended the meeting in the basement of St. Matthias Catholic Church at 9306 W. Beloit Road.
After the first sex scandal hit in Louisiana in 1984, Doyle was one of the authors of a report that urged America's bishops to minister to abuse victims, form a national crisis intervention team and research the impact of the abuse on the victims. He labeled the report as confidential, sure that the bishops would deal with it promptly.
"It was scuttled," said Doyle, who was an aide to the pope's top diplomat in Washington, D.C., at the time. "I was never contacted by any of the bishops after that."
IOWA CITY (IA)
Sioux City Journal
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- Victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests said the church and individuals confronted with allegations should not intimidate their accusers and should "act as Jesus would."
The remarks were included in a two-day "Weekend of Hope and Understanding" conference in Iowa City.
David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said there should be a zero tolerance policy in terms of sexual abuse of children by priests.
When accused, he said priests should fight fairly.
"If you're accused, you will act as Jesus would," Clohessy said Saturday. "You will defend yourself, but you will not attack your accuser."
The goal of the conference, according to event organizers Iowa City Call to Action and Concerned Catholics of the Davenport Diocese, was to encourage victims of sexual abuse by priests to come forward and to get support from other Catholics and fellow survivors.
"It's just to listen," said John Whiston of Concerned Catholics. "You don't really understand what this means unless you hear it in person. The only way we can deal with (thoughts of fear and shame) is to tell them the truth."
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By David Pierson, Times Staff Writer
A man protesting the Los Angeles Archdiocese's handling of the clergy sexual abuse scandal was arrested Sunday after he handcuffed himself to the chair used by Cardinal Roger Mahony during 10 a.m. Mass.
The incident happened while Mahony was standing a few feet away at the altar and had just delivered a homily to 2,500 congregants about how the archdiocese is dealing with the controversy.
The protester, James C. Robertson, 58, of Mount Washington, was part of a group of about 200 victims and their supporters who had demonstrated outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels by tying crime scene tape around themselves and the church's perimeter.
The protesters — from the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP — staged the demonstration to commemorate clergy sex abuse victims who have committed suicide and to demand the archdiocese release all the names of clergy who molested children over the years. Leaders of the group said they neither authorized nor had prior knowledge of Robertson's actions.
The archdiocese has released the names of 211 of the 244 priests identified as accused abusers. Mahony has declined to name the remaining 33 priests because they have requested protection under privacy laws.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Monterey County Herald
Posted on Mon, Jun. 27, 2005
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A 58-year-old man was arrested Sunday after he handcuffed himself to Cardinal Roger Mahony's chair during a service at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to protest the church's handling of allegedly abusive priests.
Several thousand people were attending Mass about 11 a.m. when James C. Robertson walked toward the altar and handcuffed himself to the chair, police said.
Mahony, who was delivering the homily about 15 feet away, continued with the service.
After police arrived, Robertson was released from the handcuffs and arrested without incident, officer Grace Brady said.
He was arrested for misdemeanor investigation of disturbing a religious ceremony and released.
GEORGIA
Covington News
BY Brittany Edwards
For each of the 73 registered sex offenders in Newton County, there are an untold number of silent victims living in the community.
Adopt-A-Horse, an innovative organization new to Newton County, seeks to transform local victims into survivors by teaching them rewarding life skills.
“For the 30 percent who speak out against their abusers, 70 percent don’t come forward,” said Dennis Horion, founder and survivor. “We’re trying to promote a healthy lifestyle choice and give victims a voice.”
To offset the negative impacts of child molestation in Covington, the foundation allows victims the opportunity to partake in competitive sports and recreational retreats, along with support group counseling. ...
As a survivor of the Catholic Church scandal, Horion has been actively pursuing this project since August 2003. For the past 20 months, Horion has worked to organize survivors of sexual abuse.
UTAH
Toledo Blade
By CHRISTOPHER BORRELLI
BLADE STAFF WRITER
PARK CITY, Utah — “I can’t let anyone know I am going through this right now.” Filmmakers Kirby Dick and Eddie Schmidt heard that a lot. When they first came to Toledo in 2002, they had decided to make a documentary about the sexual abuse allegations in Catholic dioceses around the country — initially in Boston and eventually, Toledo.
With the backing from HBO and a heralded track record as documentarians, they first met with a number of survivors in northwest Ohio. The response was receptive, they say, but hesitant.
Then abuse victim Tony Comes came forward, and they had the sort of story (first reported in The Blade) that any decent screenwriter would consider shamelessly contrived — if it weren’t true. Comes, a Toledo firefighter, filed a lawsuit against the Toledo Catholic Diocese alleging that former priest Dennis Gray sexually abused him repeatedly in the early ’80s.
What helped prompt the suit was, incredibly, the fact that Comes and his wife Wendy had moved into a neighborhood where Gray happened to live.
TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By MIKE KELLY
BLADE STAFF WRITER
For almost 20 years, Toledo fireman Tony Comes carried around a painful secret from his past: Starting at the age of 14, he says, he had been repeatedly molested by a Catholic priest — a religion teacher at Central Catholic High School and a friend, someone he’d known and trusted.
Comes’ shame, anger, and embarrassment had been bottled up inside ever since, even as he grew into a seemingly well-adjusted, gregarious adult, got married, and had two children of his own with wife Wendy. He still had occasional nightmares about his teenage abuse, which he’d confided in his wife, but no one else.
Then, three years ago, as reports of sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Church were becoming headline news in Boston and elsewhere, Comes’ unsettling memories resurfaced and began to eat away at him anew.
But what really shattered his attempts to keep his painful past buried was his family’s move into a new neighborhood, and the horrifying discovery that the man who he says molested him — Dennis Gray, by then no longer a priest — lived just five houses away.
FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram
By Darren Barbee
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH - He woke up groggy, his two front teeth shattered, blood on his bathroom floor.
He cannot remember what pills he took trying to end his life last year. He had attempted suicide two other times as well, desperate and angry about being abused by Monsignor James Reilly when he was 11, he said.
"It was just this feeling that I was alone, that I was the only one, not being sure there were others," said the 42-year-old Arlington man, who asked not to be named.
Now he feels twice betrayed by the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese because officials waited three years to tell him that at least three other men had accused Reilly of sexual abuse.
Reilly was one of eight priests the diocese named this month as having been accused of sexually abusing children. But releasing only the names has raised more questions than it answered, victims and their advocates say. The diocese continues to withhold information such as how many times each clergyman has been accused and whether the allegations have been substantiated.
But others, including priests, are concerned that releasing the files of the accused men would only cause more pain.
One woman who says she was a victim said that she was treated honorably and that she trusts the diocese to tell the truth.
But conflicting information about the priest she accused, the Rev. Joseph Tu Ngoc Nguyen, highlights the confusion after the release of the names.
01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, June 25, 2005
BY RICHARD C. DUJARDIN
Journal Religion Writer
You might say that the Rev. Charles P. Barnes is no stranger to difficult and even messy issues.
In one early assignment, in Gloucester, Mass., in the 1970s, he arrived after the church had burned down and the congregation had become severely divided over issues related to the fire and to the rebuilding.
Years later, he became senior pastor to a large church in Melrose, Mass., in the midst of an identity crisis. Having lost much of their original congregation, members were no longer sure what kind of church they wanted to be.
But the 57-year-old preacher's son, who last month was officially installed as the new conference minister for the 34 churches making up the Rhode Island Conference of the United Church of Christ, says there are probably few tasks that are as painful as those involving helping a church torn apart by clergy misconduct. ...
Since then, however, Mr. Barnes has found through experience that clergy misconduct can take many forms.
"It could be anything from a very sad, unhappily married pastor who has an affair, to a pastor who is fiscally under stress and who has just been given some money to take back to the church," he said in his first wide-ranging interview since his being installed here in May.
He observed that he had to deal with one particularly messy situation in Kentucky-Indiana where the male spouse of the conference minister, himself an ordained minister, was accused of sexually harassing some of the women clergy and staff.
He thinks the UCC now does a good job in its handling of clergy who "mess up."
NEW BRAUNFELS (TX)
San Antonio Express-News
Web Posted: 06/25/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Roger Croteau
Express-News Staff Writer
NEW BRAUNFELS — The former senior pastor at this city's largest church tried to break up the marriage of two church members, then engaged in a sexual relationship with the woman, according to a lawsuit against the church filed Friday in San Antonio.
Pastor Mike Fehlauer resigned from the 4,000-member Tree of Life Evangelical Church in March and reportedly now lives in Colorado. Attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.
In a stunning hourlong sermon delivered in April by Ted Haggard, president of the 30 million-memberAbuse Tracker Association of Evangelicals, church members were told Fehlauer had admitted to "sexual misconduct" with a married woman and resigned at the urging of Tree of Life officials.
At the time, the woman, Angela Benson, told the Express-News the church "as a whole, handled the situation with integrity, graciousness and did a wonderful job."
But she's changed her mind, accusing the church of treating Fehlauer like he was the victim by giving him $60,000 to relocate, while offering her family nothing.
She and her husband, Steve Benson, claim the church was negligent in hiring and supervising Fehlauer, who they say had a well-known history of sexual addiction. The suit seeks unspecified compensation for medical costs,
BURLINGTON (KY)
ChallengerNKY
BURLINGTON - A judge postponed a decision whether to approve a proposed $120 million class-action settlement over sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Northern Kentucky.
A hearing scheduled for Thursday is now set for July 5. Neither the diocese nor the plaintiffs requested that Judge John W. Potter of Louisville delay the hearing.
The delay came two weeks after Potter, a retired Jefferson County circuit judge appointed 18 months ago as a special judge in the Boone County case, ordered attorneys rewrite the public notices of the settlement.
Potter took issue with the references to a $120 million settlement, saying the church did not have that amount on hand and he wanted the notices to specify that.
UNITED STATES
The Tidings
By Jerry Filteau
As they have been at every U.S. Catholic bishops' meeting since June 2002, clergy sexual abuse of minors and the protection of children from such abuse were a significant part of the June 16-18 meeting in Chicago of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Major items on this June's agenda were approval of revisions of the 2002 "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" and the related "Essential Norms" implementing the charter legislatively. The bishops adopted those documents by respective votes of 229-3 and 228-4.
As a legislative text the norms still need Vatican approval. But Vatican rejection seemed quite unlikely since the final version approved by the bishops had only four minor variations from the draft jointly developed by U.S. and Vatican officials: a correction of a typographical error, the addition of a missing canon law reference and two minor editorial changes intended to clarify the meaning of the text.
SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Republican
Sunday, June 26, 2005
By BILL ZAJAC
wzajac@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - The judge overseeing the consolidated clergy sexual abuse cases in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield has decided to preside over the diocese's legal action against its insurance carriers.
In accepting jurisdiction, Hampden Superior Court Judge John A. Agostini wrote that he will try to expedite the process.
Before Agostini accepted jurisdiction, lawyers involved in the suits expressed concern that if the declaratory judgment action against the diocese's seven insurers ends up in another judge's court, then it could slow down the process. They wanted Agostini to preside over the litigation because he is familiar with the suits.
The process will take longer because one of the insurance carriers, Home Insurance Co., is insolvent. The diocese is taking legal action against the state-run Massachusetts Insurance Insolvency Fund, which covers partial liabilities for insolvent companies.
Meanwhile, as the diocese seeks to have the court determine its insurers' monetary obligation in clergy abuse claims, Agostini has extended a stay halting further action on the suits.
There are 14 unsettled suits and 16 or so unsettled claims that were made directly to the diocese without a lawsuit filing.
UNITED STATES
The Tidings
By Jerry Filteau
When the U.S. bishops overwhelmingly approved revisions in the charter and norms to protect children and deal with clergy sex abuse June 17, they did not weaken either document, Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul-Minneapolis told reporters at the final press conference of the bishops' spring meeting in Chicago.
The archbishop, who has headed the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse for the past three years, said the bishops continue to have a "zero tolerance" policy on such abuse. He said their policy follows the principle enunciated by the late Pope John Paul II that there is no room in the priesthood for those who would abuse children.
The bishops approved revisions in their "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" by a 228-4 vote and changes in the "Essential Norms" implementing the charter legislatively, 229-3.
IOWA
Iowa City Press-Citizen
By Rob Daniel
Iowa City Press-Citizen
It was a matter of what the bishops of Catholic dioceses across the United States should do, the national director of a network of survivors of sex abuse by Catholic priests said.
If David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, were the bishop of a diocese, and the 60 or so people sitting in front of him were priests, there would be a "zero tolerance" policy in terms of sexual abuse of children by priests. He said he would go after priests who do not report abuse by other priests and he would push for priests who were accused of molesting children to fight the accusations fairly, without resorting to intimidating their accuser.
"If you're accused, you will act as Jesus would," Clohessy said Saturday. "You will defend yourself, but you will not attack your accuser."
The remarks were part of "A Weekend of Hope and Understanding," a two-day conference held Friday and Saturday in Iowa City at Faith United Church of Christ and the Iowa City Public Library. The goal of the conference, according to event organizers Iowa City Call to Action and Concerned Catholics of the Davenport Diocese, was to encourage victims of sexual abuse by priests to come forward and to get support from other Catholics and fellow survivors.
BREWER (ME)
Bangor Daily News
Saturday, June 25, 2005 - Bangor Daily News
BREWER - Religious educators are on the front lines in the Roman Catholic Church's effort to prevent sexual abuse from happening in parishes again.
About 25 parish catechetical leaders for Catholic churches in Penobscot, Somerset, Waldo and Hancock counties gathered earlier this week at St. Teresa Catholic Church to learn more about the Child Lures Prevention program, the educational tool they will use to teach children, parents and parishioners to prevent, recognize and report the sexual abuse of children.
"This program gives children a good self-image by helping them realize their own dignity and self-worth," Sister Catherine Green, a regional resource coordinator for the diocese, said Thursday, as she led the training session in Brewer.
The program was created by a Vermont man more than 20 years ago. The curriculum is designed for children in kindergarten through grade 12 to increase sexual abuse awareness and prevention. Designed to be used in public schools, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland has modified it slightly so it can be utilized in a religious setting.
AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser
26jun05
ADELAIDE'S Anglican Archbishop-elect has backed a national program to weed out any pedophile priests or lay workers when he takes up office.
He has also vowed to provide the same leadership on the issue of child sexual abuse which has seen his existing diocese Gippsland, in Victoria, become one of the most proactive in Australia.
First, however, Bishop Jeffrey Driver wants to better understand the issues affecting his flock.
"I want to loiter with intent around the diocese," he said.
"Dealing with child abuse issues has taken a fair bit of my time in Gippsland and it will be a high priority for me in Adelaide."
NASHVILLE (TN)
WVLT
NASHVILLE, Tenn. The plaintiffs suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville over alleged molestation by a former priest say the church is trying to hide many of its assets.
The suit was filed by two men who say a former Nashville priest repeatedly molested them in the early nineties when they were boys.
The diocese has contended it isn't responsible for crimes that occurred years after the priest left the church.
Motions filed by the plaintiffs this week claim that diocese lawyers have previously said individual parishes belong to the diocese but now contend the parishes are independent financial entities.
DALLAS (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
10:13 PM CDT on Friday, June 24, 2005
By ROBERT THARP / The Dallas Morning News
Attorneys for former priest John Salazar grilled a 20-year-old Amarillo man Friday over charges that he sexually assaulted him in September 2003 while he was too intoxicated to resist.
Beau Villegas spent more than two hours on the witness stand Friday, mostly under cross-examination. Attorney Leigh Demasi challenged Mr. Villegas' account of what happened inside an Irving hotel after a wedding party the two men attended.
Ms. Demasi noted that the Amarillo College student had written that he had been too inebriated to recall details of what happened in his earliest statements about the attack. But in later accounts, as well as his testimony Thursday, he described the events in great detail, she said.
Mr. Villegas said that he was embarrassed and didn't want to remember all of the details. He said he drank at least 10 beers and three mixed drinks and had vomited several times the night in question but said he had a high tolerance for alcohol.
Ms. Demasi also questioned why Mr. Villegas entered Mr. Salazar's hotel room despite his earlier testimony that he had been "appalled" that weekend with what he thought were sexual advances from Mr. Salazar.
AMITE (LA)
Denton Record-Chronicle
08:12 PM CDT on Friday, June 24, 2005
Associated Press
AMITE, La. – A minister and six of his followers, including a former sheriff's deputy, were charged Thursday with aggravated rape in a case that has included accusations that children and animals were sexually abused.
A grand jury indicted Louis Lamonica, 45, who was the pastor of Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula, on six counts of rape.
Four counts each were brought against former Tangipahoa Parish sheriff's deputy Christopher Blair Labat, 24; Allen R. Pierson, 46, who lived in an apartment on the church complex; church member Paul Fontenot; and Austin Bernard, 36, whose wife, Nicole, first exposed the allegations.
Mr. Pierson's wife, Patricia, 54, and Mr. Lamonica's wife, Robbin, were charged on two counts each.
Authorities have said witnesses described the use of robes, pentagrams on the church floor, sex with a dog and the sacrifice of cats. The alleged victims, suspected to number up to two dozen, range from infants to young teens.
FRANCE
Los Angeles Times
From Times Wire Reports
A French Catholic priest once known as a leading campaigner against child prostitution was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually abusing six Senegalese teenage boys a decade ago.
Father Francois Lefort, 59, who is also a physician, was described by the prosecution in Paris as "a saint fallen into the gutter." Lefort did humanitarian work in Senegal in the 1980s and '90s. The prosecution said he abused the teenagers at a home in Dakar, the nation's capital, and at a house in Paris where he took some of them when attending conferences.
NASHVILLE (TN)
The Tennessean
By SHEILA BURKE
Staff Writer
A Davidson County judge yesterday ordered the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville to turn over all financial records of its parishes and church-run businesses to two molestation victims who are suing the church.
But the question of which holdings jurors will be allowed to consider for punitive damages if the church loses the lawsuit will remain unanswered for now.
"I just want to say this for purposes of discovery, I don't think this judge is ready to rule right now about whether this parish property belongs to the diocese," Judge Walter Kurtz said at a hearing yesterday.
The judge noted that similar disputes over whether parishes should be considered part of the net worth of a diocese are being litigated in bankruptcy proceedings in Portland, Ore., and Tucson, Ariz.
But Kurtz wanted lawyers who are suing the church on behalf of two molestation victims to have time to analyze the data in advance of the trial.
ALABAMA
Mobile Register
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Staff Report
A judge on Friday ordered former Catholic priest Thomas Anthony Crandall held without bail while awaiting extradition to Florida.
Crandall, 50, was arrested earlier this week in Mobile after being sought by Gulf County, Fla., authorities on charges of transmitting images harmful to a minor.
The former priest previously pleaded guilty to federal drug charges in Florida in 2002 and was released from prison last October. In this recent case he allegedly e-mailed sexually explicit images to someone he believed to be 15. The "youngster" was really an undercover investigator.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
By Bill McClellan
Of the Post-Dispatch
06/26/2005
I HAD LUNCH with a Catholic priest last week and I thought to myself, "There was a day when we would have seemed a respectable pair. Now we're lucky there's not a bounty on us."
In fairness to my luncheon companion, he is untainted by the scandals that have rocked the priesthood. Sadly, I have not been so immune to the frailties of my profession. I have been sued for libel, slander and invasion of privacy. I have been accused of racism, sexism, plagiarism and treason. Still, I don't let these things spoil my appetite. We all have our critics, I like to say.
It seems that priests have pretty much weathered their storm. A few were defrocked, a few went to prison and the rest have been told to stay out of public restrooms and always keep a door open when visiting with a minor. But their rough days are over. They are already beginning to rise again in the public esteem. Perhaps they will never regain the heights of Bing Crosby and "The Bells of St. Mary's," but they are fast losing their leper status. I'm happy for them.
UNION (KY)
Cincinnati Enquirer
By Ryan Clark
Enquirer staff writer
UNION - The pastor of St. Timothy parish, who in January left for a treatment facility in Virginia but told his congregation he would return, is resigning from the parish, the interim pastor announced last weekend.
The Rev. Mark Witte, who left the church for the New Life Institute in Virginia to treat problems involving women, could not be reached for comment Friday.
"I think you've exhausted every avenue to get in touch with him," said Donna Arlinghaus, a Fort Mitchell resident and friend of Witte since his days as associate pastor at Blessed Sacrament parish.
Witte admitted to "having violated boundaries with adult women," according to a letter written by Covington Bishop Roger J. Foys after an investigation by the city's Diocese Committee for Addressing Sexual Misconduct.
AMITE (LA)
The Advocate
By STEVEN WARD
sward@theadvocate.com
Advocate staff writer
AMITE -- A Tangipahoa Parish grand jury Thursday indicted on various counts of aggravated rape seven of the nine people implicated in a devil-worshiping cult accused of sexually abusing children and animals in a Ponchatoula church.
Following the reading of the indictments, 21st Judicial District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said all the victims of the sexual abuse discussed during Friday's grand jury session were under the age of 12 but he said he has not decided if the state will seek the death penalty.
Anyone convicted of the aggravated rape of someone under the age of 12 in Louisiana can receive the death penalty as a sentence, according to state law.
NEW YORK
News 10 Now
6/24/2005 7:12 PM
By: Janelle Reichert, News 10 Now Web Staff
A trial against former Cortland priest Father Thomas Keating will go forward. This after a motion, before the Onondaga County Supreme Court, was withdrawn Friday.
Father Keating filed the motion to stop a sexual abuse lawsuit filed against him, based on a technicality.
The court ordered Father Keating to testify Friday, but he never appeared in court. His lawyers chose instead to withdrawal the motion.
The prosecutor in this case, John Aretakis, said although he's looking forward to moving forward with the Jane Doe case, Father Keating's decision not to testify is telling.
A trial against former Cortland priest Father Thomas Keating will go forward. This after a motion, before the Onondaga County Supreme Court, was withdrawn Friday.
“It seems to me that what Father Keating has done again today, is he has shied away from confrontation or adversity, by and amongst adults,” he said. “A pedophile likes children, they pick on children because they are vulnerable and week and when they separate these children from their parents or loved ones, they usually get what they want, and part of what they get is also silence."
DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
June 25, 2005
National and state advocates for survivors of clergy abuse met Friday with Bishop Joseph Charron of the Des Moines Catholic Diocese and urged him, among other things, to make public the names of all "credibly accused" priests.
David Clohessy, national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and Steve Theisen of Hudson, co-founder of North East Iowa SNAP, at an impromptu meeting presented a letter to the bishop that also asked him to:
• Post the priests' names on the diocesan Web site.
• Rethink the use of court orders to silence abuse survivors who have filed lawsuits against the diocese.
• Include abuse survivors on the abuse allegation review board.
ALABAMA
Mobile Register
Saturday, June 25, 2005
By STEVE MYERS
Staff Reporter
Documents filed in a lawsuit against a priest who once served at Maxwell Air Force Base near Montgomery provide insight into the handling of a 1994 sex abuse allegation against him, as well as a more recent one involving a boy in New York.
The documents indicate that church officials in New York knew that the Rev. Barry E. Ryan had been accused of molesting a minor while stationed at Maxwell. A monsignor recommended that Ryan undergo therapy, but didn't order him to do so after Ryan said he didn't think he was up to it.
Instead, the church granted his request for a leave of absence from the priesthood, and he moved to Florida, where he became a public high school teacher.
Ryan, 57, remained in Florida until the spring of 2003, when the Mobile Register contacted him and inquired about the sex abuse allegation from a decade ago. Shortly thereafter, the former Teacher of the Year notified his employer that he was taking a medical leave of absence and went back to New York. A church official has said that Ryan has a terminal case of cancer.
While in New York, he abused a 6-year-old boy. He later pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual conduct against a child and is supposed to start serving a sentence next month.
Ryan's name was one of several that came up in 2003 when Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr. asked the Archdiocese of Mobile for information on any priest suspected of sexual misconduct.
PORTLAND (OR)
KGW
10:32 AM PDT on Friday, June 24, 2005
Associated Press
A top Vatican official is being sought by attorneys for alleged sex abuse victims who want to know how much information the Roman Catholic Church had about priests accused of molesting children.
Portland Archbishop William Levada in 1995 reacts to being named the new Archbishop of San Francisco.
San Francisco Archbishop William Levada, the recently appointed guardian of Roman Catholic doctrine, is considered a church authority on sexual-abuse policy. He was archbishop of Portland from 1986 to 1995.
In a motion filed in federal court this week, an attorney for alleged victims asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris for permission to take a deposition from Levada.
"It's like taking the Secretary of Defense's deposition about defense," said John Manly, a California lawyer who also is seeking Levada's deposition. "He is perhaps the most important person in the world on this issue."
UNITED STATES
Filmcritic.com
A film review by Mark Athitakis
About an hour into the documentary Twist of Faith, Tony Comes tells a dirty joke about priests and little boys. It’s a crummy joke, and it’s weird to watch him tell it – after all, he says he was molested by a priest when he was a teenager, as do the two men he’s casually chatting with. But you want to laugh with them in sympathy -- the wisecracking obviously helps the men bond together and manage their grief. When the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal first came to light in 2002, stories about victims soon blurred together, making it difficult to comprehend the extent of the psychic damage. Kirby Dick’s film is a powerful corrective, then: by providing an intimate portrait of the emotional struggle of a single victim, Twist clarifies just how damaging the abuse is, and how easily it can contaminate others’ lives.
Dick has a remarkably articulate and self-aware subject in Comes. A firefighter in his early 30s living in Toledo, Ohio, with his wife and two kids, Comes speaks candidly about how the alleged molester, Dennis Gray, brought him and his classmates up to a cottage retreat, plied them with alcohol, and raped them. He recalls Gray’s offhand comments about how Comes was the sort of guy who’d screw up a wet dream. “Was this part of some conditioning process?” he wonders. “It screws with you.” He’s also keenly attuned to the sad ironies that his past has created in his adult life, like the fact that his drive to his therapist’s office requires him to pass his old church. His wife, Wendy, was forced to adjust as well; she explains how Comes’ past history has forced them to change the way they act in the bedroom, and indeed brought a level of neurosis to nearly everything they do.
KENTUCKY
WHAS 11
03:59 PM EDT on Thursday, June 23, 2005
Five months after being indicted, a former priest appeared in court for his arraignment.
Edwin Scherzer, 79, pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing four children. The alleged abuse happened in the 1950s and 60s when the children attended the old St. Edwards Church in Jeffersontown.
“I'm doing this because I am an adult now, I’m no longer a child, I don't have to live with the guilt and the shame,” says alleged victim Tom Weiter. “I did nothing wrong.”
DALLAS (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
07:04 PM CDT on Thursday, June 23, 2005
By ROBERT THARP / The Dallas Morning News
So drunk that he vomited and could not stand on his own after a wedding in Irving, a 20-year-old Amarillo man testified Thursday that he was defenseless when the Rev. John A. Salazar sexually assaulted him.
In more than three hours of testimony on the opening day of Mr. Salazar's sexual assault trial, Beau Villegas detailed how Mr. Salazar – the priest in the small West Texas town where he grew up – guided him inside his Irving hotel room after a September 2003 wedding and promised to take care of him until he sobered up.
"He told me to come into his room and he'd take care of me until I was through being sick," said Mr. Villegas, who testified he had consumed more than 10 beers and several mixed drinks that evening. "He helped me kneel while I vomited. He ran warm water and washed my face."
Mr. Salazar then removed the then-18-year-old's pants and sexually assaulted him, Mr. Villegas said.
"I was in some sort of shock, petrified, intoxicated," he said. "I didn't now how to react. ... I could not have resisted if I had tried."
Earlier during opening statements and during cross-examination, defense attorneys Leigh Demasi and James Vasilas suggested that Mr. Villegas was not as intoxicated as he claims and that he had embellished his account.
"Each time he tells it, it gets more and more spectacular, more extraordinary and it grows," Ms. Demasi said.
DALLAS (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Associated Press
DALLAS - On the opening day of a former Panhandle priest's sexual assault trial, his 20-year-old accuser testified that the cleric attacked him after offering to take care of him until he sobered up following a wedding both had attended.
"He told me to come into his room and he'd take care of me until I was through being sick," Beau Villegas testified on Thursday, adding that he had consumed more than 10 beers and several mixed drinks that evening in 2003. "He helped me kneel while I vomited. He ran warm water and washed my face."
The Rev. John A. Salazar then removed Villegas' pants and sexually assaulted the then 18-year-old, Villegas said.
"I was in some sort of shock, petrified, intoxicated," said Villegas, a former parishioner of Salazar's at Church of the Holy Spirit in Tulia who said he was so drunk following the wedding in the Dallas suburb of Irving that he couldn't stand up. "I didn't now how to react ... I could not have resisted if I had tried."
DALLAS (TX)
Houston Chronicle
Associated Press
DALLAS — On the opening day of a former Panhandle priest's sexual assault trial, his 20-year-old accuser testified that the cleric attacked him after offering to take care of him until he sobered up following a wedding both had attended.
"He told me to come into his room and he'd take care of me until I was through being sick," Beau Villegas testified on Thursday, adding that he had consumed more than 10 beers and several mixed drinks that evening in 2003. "He helped me kneel while I vomited. He ran warm water and washed my face."
The Rev. John A. Salazar then removed Villegas' pants and sexually assaulted the then 18-year-old, Villegas said.
"I was in some sort of shock, petrified, intoxicated," said Villegas, a former parishioner of Salazar's at Church of the Holy Spirit in Tulia who said he was so drunk following the wedding in the Dallas suburb of Irving that he couldn't stand up. "I didn't now how to react ... I could not have resisted if I had tried."
AUSTRIA
Scotsman
"PA"
A recent police sweep as part of a worldwide crackdown on child pornography netted 96 suspects in Austria alone, including a Roman Catholic priest who has confessed to the crime, police said today.
The operation in early June was part of an international effort to purge cities worldwide of child porn. Officers seized 2,700 CDs and DVDs, another 2,700 video cassettes and numerous computer discs and hard drives containing images of underage children in sexual situations. In total, 12,154 items were confiscated.
The raids were carried out in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden and the UK.
At the time of the operation, police said the US Department of Homeland Security and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided information and leads.
Any new revelations of priests involved in child pornography are particularly disturbing to Austria’s Roman Catholic church. It was rocked by scandal beginning in late 2003 after discoveries of sexually explicit images – some depicting children – on a computer in a seminary in Lower Austria province.
MOBILE (AL)
WFTV
POSTED: 6:58 am EDT June 24, 2005
MOBILE, Ala. -- A former Roman Catholic priest on federal probation for dealing drugs from his Florida Panhandle rectory and his Bourbon Street condominium in New Orleans has been arrested here on Internet child pornography charges, the FBI said Thursday.
Thomas Anthony Crandall, 50, was arrested at his apartment Wednesday on a state warrant from Florida's Gulf County, where he once served as a pastor, FBI spokesman Craig Dahle said.
Agents searched his apartment for materials depicting child pornography and seized an undetermined number of items.
Crandall was taken to Mobile County Jail, where he awaited extradition. He had been pastor of a Milton, Fla., parish for three years when he was arrested Jan. 12, 2002 on the drug charges. He was pulled over en route from New Orleans to Milton.
The native of Jersey City, N.J., was sentenced to four years and three months in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and Ecstacy.
AMITE (LA)
The Advocate
By DEBRA LEMOINE
dlemoine@theadvocate.com
Florida parishes bureau
AMITE -- The nine people accused of being part of a child-sex ring operating out of Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula are scheduled to go before a grand jury today in Amite.
Eight of the accused are facing prosecution on child-rape counts, including Hosanna Church pastor Louis David Lamonica, 45, of Tickfaw, his wife and a Tangipahoa Parish sheriff's deputy.
Tangipahoa Sheriff Daniel Edwards turned over case files to the 21st Judicial District Attorney's Office on Thursday detailing his office's two-month investigation into the alleged abuse, Laura Covington, sheriff's spokeswoman, said.
Edwards was out of the office for a personal commitment Thursday and was not available to comment, Covington said.
BURLINGTON (KY)
Kentucky.com
BRETT BARROUQUERE
Associated Press
BURLINGTON, Ky. - A judge postponed a decision whether to approve a proposed $120 million class-action settlement over sexual abuse by Catholic priests in northern Kentucky.
A hearing scheduled for Thursday is now set for July 5. Neither the diocese nor the plaintiffs requested that Judge John W. Potter of Louisville delay the hearing.
The delay came two weeks after Potter, a retired Jefferson County circuit judge appointed 18 months ago as a special judge in the Boone County case, ordered attorneys to rewrite the public notices of the settlement.
Potter took issue with the references to a $120 million settlement, saying the church did not have that amount on hand and he wanted the notices to specify that.
Diocese attorney Carrie Huff and plaintiff's lawyer Stan Chesley said they sent Potter a new public notice before Thursday, then got word that the hearing was postponed.
KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal
A judge has postponed a Boone Circuit Court hearing on a proposed settlement of a class-action lawsuit involving victims of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington. The hearing, originally scheduled for yesterday, has been reset for July 7.
The diocese and plaintiffs announced a $120 million settlement earlier this month. But Senior Judge John Potter, who is overseeing the case, took issue with the references to a $120 million settlement, saying the church did not have that amount on hand and he wanted the notices to specify that.
UNITED STATES
NorthJersey.com
Thursday, June 23, 2005
By TERRY MATTINGLY
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
If a Catholic child steals a candy bar, church doctrine calls this a small sin.
But if a priest embezzles a large amount of money, this act is much more serious - a sin that severely corrupts and threatens the soul.
Both of these acts involve theft, but Catholicism does not believe they have equal weight. They do not have the same "parvity of matter," noted the Rev. Donald Cozzens of John Carroll University, who once led a seminary in Ohio.
"It doesn't help to look that up in a dictionary," said Cozzens, whose recent books on the modern priesthood have generated both heat and light. "That's a theological term that describes the relative gravity of immoral thoughts, acts or behaviors. There are different levels of honesty and dishonesty. There are levels of language and cursing."
But when it comes to sex, there are no misdemeanors. Every "deliberate, willful sexual sin is, from the church's perspective, a felony - a mortal sin," he said.
This may sound trivial, but it isn't for Catholics who worry about their church in an age of turmoil, tragedy and scandal. Cozzens is convinced that this basic question about the relative nature and consequences of sins must be discussed soon, before Vatican officials begin a long-awaited "apostolic visitation" of American seminaries.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By David O'Reilly, Nancy Phillips and Jim Remsen
Inquirer Staff Writers
In one of the most sweeping moves of the clergy sex scandal, the Vatican has defrocked seven more Philadelphia priests for abusing minors, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced yesterday.
The dismissals of the Revs. James J. Brzyski, Nicholas V. Cudemo, Thomas J. Durkin, Michael W. Swierzy, Richard G. Jones, Thomas M. Kohler and Francis X. Trauger were announced in a spare notice on Page 8 of the archdiocesan newspaper, the Catholic Standard and Times.
The scope of the announcement was evident in the priests' biographies: Over the last four decades, they had served in some 35 parishes and five Catholic high schools across the Philadelphia region.
While the published notice began with the words, "in the spirit of transparency," archdiocesan officials provided no details of the abuse. The announcement did not use the word sexual in describing the accusations, saying only that the priests were defrocked for "misconduct involving minors."
The timing of the announcement also went unexplained. Church experts who have followed the scandal said that the Vatican is working its way through a backlog of decisions on as many as several hundred accused American priests, and that Pope John Paul II's death may have slowed the process.
All seven Philadelphia Archdiocese priests in yesterday's announcement had been removed from their ministerial duties here years ago. The Vatican's decision to laicize, or permanently remove them, means they are barred from ever serving as priests in any capacity and from administering sacraments.
PORTLAND (OR)
The Oregonian
Friday, June 24, 2005
STEVE WOODWARD
Clergy sexual-abuse plaintiffs in Oregon are seeking out Portland's former archbishop, William J. Levada, to testify about one of the most heated issues in many abuse claims against the Archdiocese of Portland: Who knew what, and when did they know it?
The plaintiffs, in a motion filed this week, asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris for permission to take the deposition of Levada, who last month was appointed to what the Vatican describes as the third-most powerful position in the Roman Catholic Church. For at least 20 years, Levada has been one of the church's most knowledgeable authorities on sex-abuse policies.
"It's like taking the Secretary of Defense's deposition about defense," said John Manly, a California plaintiff's lawyer who also is seeking Levada's deposition. "He is perhaps the most important person in the world on this issue."
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10
POSTED: 7:43 am EDT June 24, 2005
PHILADELPHIA -- Seven more priests removed from their duties by the Philadelphia Archdiocese in recent years for allegedly abusing minors have been defrocked by the Vatican, the archdiocese announced Thursday.
Among them, the priests had served in about 35 parishes and five Catholic high schools across the Philadelphia region over the past four decades.
The seven had been removed from their ministerial duties in the archdiocese years ago.
The Vatican's decision to laicize, or permanently remove them, is the most serious action the Roman Catholic Church can take against a priest. They are barred from ever administering sacraments or serving as priests in any capacity.
SPAIN
Houston Chronicle
Associated Press
MADRID, Spain — Pedro Almodovar has finally received an award in Spain for Bad Education.
Bad Education, which was passed over for The Sea Inside as Spain's entry for the Oscars, received a Bunel's Razor award for best Spanish movie of 2004. The film is about a man haunted by an abusive priest from his childhood.
"Bad Education was a movie I had wanted to make for a long time. For some reason I had left it year after year and now that I've done it, I feel I've lifted a weight off me," Almodovar said.
He received the award at Tuesday night's ceremony from Penelope Cruz, who appeared in his 1999 film, All About My Mother.
COVINGTON (KY)
Kentucky Post
By Kevin Eigelbach
Post staff reporter
The $40 million the Diocese of Covington will put up as its share of a $120 million settlement with victims of priestly sexual abuse is the maximum it could afford without getting into dire financial straits, its lawyer said Wednesday.
"We were willing to put up virtually everything the diocese has that's not committed to a parish," said Chicago-based attorney Carrie Huff.
Huff and Stan Chesley - who filed the lawsuit on behalf of an unknown number of victims - said they came up with that figure after meeting with accountants for the diocese and examining financial and property records.
The settlement calls for the diocese to pay up to $40 million via cash on hand, securities and the sale of some of its property, including the Marydale retreat center in Erlanger. The remainder of the money will come from insurance payments - which may eventually cover the diocese's share as well.
MASSACHUSETTS
Telegram & Gazette
By Kathleen A. Shaw TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
kshaw@telegram.com
PAXTON— A new appointee to a key panel advising the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on the clergy abuse scandal maintains that the most pressing needs confronting the church are restoring trust and devising means of better monitoring priests who have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct.
William D. McGarry, president of Anna Maria College, said in an interview that he believes the Catholic Church in America and its bishops are on the right track in dealing with the crisis but acknowledged that considerable work remains.
Mr. McGarry, one of four people recently named to the conference’sAbuse Tracker Review Board, returned this week from the panel’s first meeting in Chicago. There, he learned that the bishops will pay for a new study of the causes of the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church and that the review board will oversee the investigation.
Mr. McGarry, president of Anna Maria College since 1999, is hopeful that the board can help restore American Catholics’ confidence in their church. The church’s credibility suffered after the extent of the clergy sexual abuse scandal became evident in 2002. Even now, he said, regaining trust is “a slow process.”
The scandal remains the primary problem confronting the church in America, according to Mr. McGarry. It continues to be widely discussed among parishioners and will be “the topic of discussion for many years,” he said.
Discussion of the scandal and the surrounding issues of how it should be dealt with, including differing points of view, is healthy, he said. “These discussions would not have been held six years ago,” he pointed out.
Mr. McGarry said that effectively monitoring priests who have been accused of sexual misconduct by someone considered credible is a difficult issue, because many of them are no longer active clergymen but still operate within the larger Catholic community.
He believes church officials must report all credible allegations to civil authorities so they may monitor suspects.
In some cases, he pointed out, an accused priest has been acquitted or has never been charged with a crime. There should a process for restoring the reputations of priests in that situation, he said.
The process of handling the clergy abuse crisis is evolving, Mr. McGarry said. He believes there should be a standard process for bishops to follow when an accusation is made against a priest.
Mr. McGarry supports the bishops’ zero tolerance policy, which means a priest is removed from ministry after even one credible allegation, but said more study is necessary to determine if this is the way to handle the situation.
Anna Maria is also home to a center for child abuse prevention under auspices of the Molly Bish Foundation. Although the center at the college deals with child sexual abuse in all its forms, he believes the work of the center and his work with the review board will be compatible.
TheAbuse Tracker Review Board’s major tasks are to monitor compliance by all dioceses in the United States to the bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young people, which Mr. McGarry called a historic document. The panel also makes recommendations to the bishops on how the church can better protect young people.
As was the case with many Catholics, Mr. McGarry said he had no idea about the extent of sexual abuse by priests and was shocked to discover what had been happening. He noted that sexual abuse of young people is contrary to his Christian faith and violates teachings of his church.
The bishops have been told of more than 11,000 claims of sexual abuse by clergy since 1950. A survey by The Associated Press showed that more than $1 billion has been spent nationally to settle lawsuits involving sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.
The college president said he did not apply to serve on the review board and does not know who nominated him. He said he wanted to thank Worcester Bishop Robert J. McManus for his support.
It all began a short time ago when Mr. McGarry received a call from Washington, where the board is headquartered, asking if he would be interested in serving. He had to undergo a background check. He got a call two weeks ago saying he had been cleared to serve on the board.
Mr. McGarry was appointed to a two-year term on the board. Other new appointees are Dr. Joseph G. Rhode of Midland, Texas, president of Midland Family Physicians; Thomas A. DiStefano, former interim president of Catholic Charities, U.S.A.; and Milann H. Siegfried, a retired registered nurse and former board chairman of St. John Medical Center in Tulsa, Okla. Patricia O’Donnell Ewer of Chicago, who was appointed several months ago, is chairman of the panel.
COVINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Post
By Kevin Eigelbach
Post staff reporter
For more than two years, lawyers representing victims of sexually abusive priests and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington were adversaries.
Now, they find themselves united in their desire to get a judge's approval for a settlement of a class-action lawsuit against the diocese.
"I never thought the day would come when I would agree with Stan Chesley on anything," said Carrie Huff, attorney for the diocese.
Chesley's Cincinnati law firm sued the diocese on behalf of victims of priest sexual abuse in February 2003, litigation he later succeeded in getting certified as a class action. After months of direct negotiations, the diocese and Chesley agreed on a settlement that could pay as much as $120 million to an undetermined but comprehensive number of victims.
The parties return to Boone Circuit Court on July 5, seeking preliminary approval for the settlement from Special Judge John Potter.
IRELAND
One in Four
by James McNamara of The Sun
A priest last night told how his life was destroyed after he blew the whistle on clerical sex abuse.
Father Gerald McGinnity was sacked from his position as senior dean at St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Co. Kildare, and frozen out of the church after reporting Monsignor Michael Ledwith for assaulting students.
He finally received an apology from Primate of all Ireland Archbishop Sean Brady this week – 20 years after exposing the scandal.
Fr McGinnity said: “Because I acted honourably and in conscience to protect the young people, I lost everything.”
“I was not only deprived of my reputation and respectability, I was left to languish for 20 years in the wilderness. I was crushed.”
CONNECTICUT
WTNH
(Waterbury-AP, June 23, 2005 6:45 AM) _ An Ansonia woman has been sentenced to three years in prison for blackmailing a man accused of sexually abusing her two daughters.
The woman was sentenced yesterday in Waterbury Superior after pleading guilty to first-degree larceny for extorting $17,000 from 50-year-old Robert Nelson of Naugatuck.
Nelson is facing charges of sexually abusing the woman's two daughters, who were 14 and 16 years old at the time of Nelson's arrest.
Prosecutors say the woman was arrested in November in a sting operation set up by State Police and Nelson, during which she was asking for an additional $30,000.
Nelson, a former organist who also gave piano lessons at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Waterbury, will appear in Milford Superior Court on Monday for a pretrial hearing on sexual abuse charges.
WINCHESTER (MA)
The Winchester Star
On Monday, June 27, at 7:30 p.m., the Winchester Area Voice of the Faithful welcomes Fr. Robert Hoatson as a guest speaker to its regular weekly meetings at St. Eulalia's Church.
Admission is free, and all are welcome to attend.
Fr. Hoatson's talk is entitled, "Healing from the Highway: One Priest's Attempt to Help Survivors." Hoatson was ordained as a priest in 1997 after serving as a member of the Irish Christian Brothers. He has testified before the NY state Legislature about the horrors of clergy sexual abuse. He is co-founder (with Fr. Thomas Doyle) of the Millstone Project - a national effort addressing accountability in the Catholic Church. Fr. Hoatson is himself a survivor of sexual abuse while a member of the Irish Christian Brothers.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Belleville News-Democrat
Associated Press
ST. LOUIS - A St. Louis-area man has filed a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis, Archbishop Raymond Burke and a dead priest, claiming the church covered up sexual abuse by the priest.
The lawsuit, filed anonymously Wednesday, alleges that the Rev. Thomas Cooper sexually abused the boy while he attended St. Mary Magdalen parish in south St. Louis.
So far, 40 current or former clergy or members of religious orders in the archdiocese have been sued or otherwise identified as sexually abusing children, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said.
It is the first time that Cooper has been sued or accused of abuse, according to SNAP.
IOWA
Press-Citizen
By Kristen Schorsch
Iowa City Press-Citizen
About 75 Iowans and people from neighboring states are expected to attend a religious sexual abuse conference this weekend in Iowa City.
Hosted at Faith United Church of Christ, 1609 Deforest Ave., the two-day conference aims to open the door when it comes to talking about sexual abuse in the church.
"I think we hope that this will allow people to feel like they can speak about this," said Norman Johnson, president of Iowa City Call to Action, which is one of four groups sponsoring the event. "I think it's been a problem that people are just not comfortable telling their stories because they feel that they're going to be judged for this."
Based on Catholic Church surveys, about 12,000 people nationwide have been victims of religious sexual abuse, said David Clohessy, executive director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. However, Clohessy said he thought the number of victims was higher.
According to the Diocese of Davenport, 53 victims have made 60 allegations against 19 priests from 1950 to Feb. 25, 2004.
BURLINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Enquirer
By Jim Hannah
Enquirer staff writer
BURLINGTON - The architects of a proposed settlement in the nation's first class-action lawsuit alleging priest sexual abuse must wait a little longer to get a court's approval.
A hearing in Boone Circuit Court seeking preliminary approval has been moved to July 5. It was previously scheduled for today.
After expressing concerns about an earlier draft of the settlement, Senior Judge John Potter has asked lawyers to return with a proposal that makes it clear to victims that $80 million of the record-breaking $120 million settlement is contingent on the diocese winning a federal lawsuit against its insurance carriers.
The class-action suit, filed in 2003, accuses the diocese of a 50-year coverup of sexual abuse by priests and other employees. It is unclear how many people are part of the class action, but Potter has ordered a "census" to be conducted to determine the exact number of victims who will come forward.
Stan Chesley, the lead counsel for the plaintiffs, told The Enquirer's editorial board Wednesday that he was working to address all the judge's concerns
AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury
By REBECCA SENESCALL
June 23, 2005
A TELEVISION network has told a Sydney court it most likely shredded records of a deal it made with a girl who claimed Nowra cult leader William Kamm assaulted her.
Police had been asking the network to hand over the records for the past two years.
A Sydney District Court jury heard yesterday that a lawyer for the Seven Network was unable to find the contract the girl signed in 2002, when she was paid $2500 to give an interview for the Today Tonight program detailing her allegations of sexual interference by Kamm when she was aged 15.
The girl spoke to the television network before taking her complaints to the police.
At the start of his trial last week, Kamm pleaded not guilty to four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse with the girl in 1993, in the months after she had been selected as one of his 12 "mystical wives".
Yesterday, the police officer leading the investigation, child protection and sex crimes squad officer Detective Senior Constable Lorenda Barber, told the jury she had tried to question the television presenter who struck the interview deal with the girl, but he had decided on legal advice not to make a police statement.
SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Union-Tribune
By Jennifer Dobner
ASSOCIATED PRESS
2:34 p.m. June 22, 2005
SALT LAKE CITY – All trustees including the reclusive leader of a Mormon splinter group which still practices polygamy were permanently removed Wednesday as managers of the church's multimillion dollar trust fund.
Warren Jeffs and five other high-ranking members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints were barred by a judge from spending or selling any of the church's assets.
The assets include most of the property in the twin border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., where nearly 10,000 church members live. The trust, called the United Effort Plan, also includes businesses and most homes in the two towns.
The state of Utah, fearing Jeffs was liquidating the trust as he built a new church enclave in West Texas, got a temporary restraining order last month freezing the trust's assets. An independent auditor in Salt Lake City will remain in charge of the trust until new trustees who will appointed by the court July 21 replace him.
It's not the only legal problem for Jeffs, who hasn't been seen publicly in a year, although an attorney for some church members claimed Jeffs was seen last weekend in Canada.
Jeffs was indicted in Mohave County, Ariz., earlier this month on sex-related charges for allegedly arranging a marriage between a teenage girl and a 28-year-old man who already was married.
WINCHESTER (MA)
Stoneham Sun
By Christopher Rocchio/ Staff writer
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
At the beginning of weekly meetings for the Winchester chapter of the Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), Bob Morris asks those in attendance at St. Eulalia's Church in Winchester how many were from different parishes and communities. Several weeks ago he stopped this practice, mainly because so many people were raising their hands.
"Even though we're here at St. Eulalia's, we have always drawn people outside the parish," said Morris.
The Winchester VOTF affiliate recently celebrated its three-year anniversary. Like their weekly meetings, the event had a good turnout of people reminiscing about what the organization has meant to them. The VOTF is centered around three goals: To support survivors of clergy abuse, support priests of integrity and shape structural change in the church.
"The mission statement is to provide a prayerful voice attentive to the spirit through which the faithful can actively participate in the governance and guidance of the church," said Morris.
IRELAND
The Mayo News
Liamy MacNally on the matters of fact and the facts of the matter
liamymacnally@mayonews.ie
SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE HARDEST WORD
Saying sorry can be very difficult. It issues because a wrong was perpetrated. From a Catholic perspective, restitution is also an issue when a wrong has been done. It is called making good. An apology was issued by the Bishops last week to Rev Gerry Mc Ginnity, a former Dean of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. He is a parish priest from the Archdiocese of Armagh and the Spiritual Director of Christina Gallagher from the House of Prayer in Achill. Over twenty years ago he informed some Bishops about concerns raised by a group of seminarians over a senior staff member, Rev Míceál Ledwith, the Vice-President in Maynooth seminary. The seminarians also met various Bishops about concerns over the formation of student priests in the national seminary. Other concerns related to Rev Ledwith’s lifestyle. Rev Ledwith was appointed President subsequently while Rev Mc Ginnity was given a sabbatical and refused permission to return to Maynooth. He was then given a junior appointment back in Armagh. Fr Ledwith, or Monsignor, as he was then, left the college unexpectedly in 1994. Three years ago the Bishops confirmed that he had made confidential settlements with two former seminarians following allegations of sexual abuse (which Fr Ledwith denied.) The Bishops then employed Mr Denis McCullough, SC, to investigate newspaper complaints in 2002 of "alleged sexual harassment of seminarians at Maynooth College in the early 1980s and that those complaints did not receive a proper response." This followed press reports in 2002 that a group of seminarians had met Bishops in 1983/4 expressing concern over Fr Ledwith.
Last Thursday morning at approximately 8.30am, Fr Mc Ginnity was presented with a copy of the Mc Cullough Report. It was released to the press about a half an hour later. The seminarians in question were unaware of what was taking place. In an attached press release the Catholic Primate, Archbishop Seán Brady and the Bishop Trustees of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth apologised to Fr Mc Ginnity and the former seminarians for failing to properly investigate the complaints about Fr Ledwith. This ‘paper apology’ was not presented to the men in a verbal or written form and the former seminarians were only alerted when asked for a comment by a journalist. Basic good manners dictate that those affected would be contacted. Christian principles demand more. Neither approach has been adopted. The coldness of their so-called apology is pitiful. There has been no attempt to make personal contact with all the people involved. One wonders to which gallery they are playing.
NEWARK (NJ)
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
June 22, 2005
I received the following e-mail, dated June 22, 2005, from the Rev. Robert M. Hoatson of the Archdiocese of Newark (slightly edited):
For the past year, I have been acting as pastoral advocate for Michael Iatesta, sexual abuse victim/survivor of Rev. Gerald Ruane, a fellow priest of the Archdiocese of Newark. [See http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/050609] When I first met Michael, he was beginning to deal in a more substantive way with the horrific effects of his abuse. His recent 'public' statement about his abuse was a necessary step in his healing. While he is stronger in many ways, he continues to suffer terribly.
I was greatly disappointed to read the statement of Mr. James Goodness, communications director for the Archdiocese of Newark, who added to Mr. Iatesta's stress and trauma by apologizing for the actions of Father Ruane. He referred to Father Ruane's recent violations of his 2002 removal as 'mistakes of judgment.'
[See http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/050622]
What I want to know is: What part of 'You can never, ever present yourself as a priest anywhere, anytime' did Father Ruane not get? And, if he claims 'ignorance' about the conditions of his 'removal' in 2002, the Archdiocese of Newark needs to make his case transparently public so we, the public, can hold him to the terms of his removal.
MARYLAND
North East Booster
06/22/05
By Jennifer Przydzial
A former Roman Catholic priest who was a chaplain at Calvert Hall College High School from 1982-93 has been formally charged with sexually abusing a student, according to Baltimore County police.
Jerome Toohey, 59, of Lutherville, was accused in December of sexually abusing a former student from 1987 to 1989, according to charging documents.
On May 26, those accusations led to three charges being filed against Toohey - child abuse, a third-degree sex offense and perverted practice.
The first offense carries a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment and the maximum for the other two is 10 years imprisonment.
The perverted practice charge could also result in a $1,000 fine, according to the documents.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register
By THE REGISTER'S IOWA NEWS SERVICE
June 22, 2005
Davenport, Ia. - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport unveiled a monument that is dedicated to the dozens of men and women sexually molested by eastern Iowa priests in the past 50 years.
This week's ceremony was attended by victims of abuse, including those who were part of the 37-member group that sued the diocese for damages and agreed to a $9 million settlement in October. The Millstone Marker was created as part of the settlement agreement.
Bishop William Franklin told the about 50 people who attended the ceremony that the church is "truly sorry" for the abuse that took place. He offered a special blessing for the victims.
BEAVERTON (OR)
The Oregonian
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
The case: Keith Trevor Robinson, a 38-year-old volunteer at New Vision Fellowship Church in Beaverton, was charged with sexually abusing girls he met through the church and his wife's in-home day-care center.
Update: Robinson pleaded guilty Tuesday to all charges: three counts of first-degree sexual abuse involving three victims who were younger than 14 at the time of the crimes, which occurred from 1999 to 2004. He has been in the Washington County Jail since his Feb. 24 arrest. First-degree sexual abuse is a Measure 11 crime punishable by a mandatory minimum of six years, three months in prison, so Robinson was facing nearly 19 years for three counts. As part of the plea bargain, Robinson's sentence won't exceed 10 years.
CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise
By MICHAEL FISHER / The Press-Enterprise
Bishop Phillip F. Straling, who led Inland Catholics for 17 years as the Diocese of San Bernardino's first bishop, retired Tuesday.
Reached by phone, Straling said he intended to retire two years ago, but his plan was thwarted by several unfinished projects in the Diocese of Reno, Nev., where he has served as bishop since 1995. ...
In the 1990s, a handful of priests resigned or left their posts amid accusations of sexual misconduct, including a San Bernardino cleric who was convicted of molesting a child.
Earlier this year, Riverside County prosecutors filed 58 sexual-abuse charges against Jesús Armando Dominguez, Straling's onetime personal aide in the Inland diocese. Straling has expressed disappointment about the accusations.
Several former Inland priests stand accused in civil litigation of sexually abusing children during Straling's tenure. But the departing prelate said Tuesday that the ongoing clergy sexual-abuse crisis in the Catholic Church did not influence his decision to retire.
OREGON
The Oregonian
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
STEVE WOODWARD
Seven months after promising to release the personal files of 37 priests accused of molesting children, the Archdiocese of Portland handed over this month the contents of nearly 100 boxes of records to insurance companies that are fighting the church over paying for sex-abuse settlements.
The 10 insurers hope to use the files to show that archdiocesan officials were aware of sex-abuse allegations against their clergymen, yet routinely did nothing to stop the alleged activity. If true, the practice would invalidate the liability insurance policies. Otherwise, the insurers would be obligated to pay for settlements and legal defense costs, which could exceed $16 million.
In an e-mail made public last week, a Portland-based lawyer for the insurers, Joseph A. Field, complained to archdiocesan lawyers that they had "dumped" an estimated 200,000 pages of documents "in an unreasonable and unusable form."
Field wrote that the archdiocese instructed the company that scans the documents into electronic form to block insurers from accessing the original source files or file labels, leaving them unable to sort the files or take inventory.
"I wouldn't say we dumped them," archdiocese spokesman Bud Bunce said Tuesday. "I'd say we gave them what they wanted." Bunce said the archdiocese has since agreed to provide the source labels.
The insurance action is part of the complex bankruptcy of the Portland archdiocese, the first of three U.S. Roman Catholic dioceses ever to seek Chapter 11 reorganization. The archdiocese filed for protection from creditors in July last year.
NEW JERSEY
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
June 22, 2005
I received the following e-mail, dated June 21, 2005, from James Goodness, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Newark:
Mr. Abbott:
I am concerned that you prepared and published this recent column on Michael Iatesta and Rev. Gerald Ruane [see http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/050609] without checking with the Archdiocese to verify elements of Mr. Iatesta's statements.
Had you done so, you would have learned that:
No criminal charges have been filed because Mr. Iatesta never brought the allegations to the Church or the authorities when it was possible to do so. However, it is interesting that over the past 20+ years, Mr. Iatesta spoke about the abuse with many people who all told him to come forward to us and the police. He chose not to, however. Had he contacted the Church earlier, we surely would have taken action immediately, as evidenced by the fact that Fr. Ruane has not been in ministry since Mr. Iatesta came to us in 2002.
We did act appropriately and fully at the time we became aware of the allegations, and we have apologized to Mr. Iatesta for the additional pain that Fr. Ruane has caused him by his recent mistakes of judgment.
AUSTRALIA
The Sunday Mail
16jun05
CONFUSED and frightened, a 15-year-old girl petitioned the Virgin Mary for help in dealing with her "mystical marriage" to a man since charged with sexually assaulting her, a Sydney court has been told.
William Kamm, 55, is facing trial in the New South Wales District Court on four counts of aggravated indecent assault, and one of aggravated sexual intercourse.
The then teenager accuses Kamm, also known as Little Pebble, of assaulting her on a number of occasions in 1993 near Nowra on the NSW south coast.
The complainant today told the court how she wrote to Mary through a diary held by Kamm, and he would write down answers the Mother of God allegedly told him.
"I am so mixed up, confused and frightened," she wrote to Mary.
AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
By Leonie Lamont, Geesche Jacobsen and AAP
June 16, 2005 - 2:55PM
Religious leader William Kamm thought it was by the "grace of God" that he could love more than one woman at once, yet allegedly warned a teenager destined to be one of his "queens" not to let his jealous wife know of the arrangement.
"You will need a snorkel to catch your breath," he wrote to the 15-year-old in one of nearly 20 love letters sent during mid-1993.
Kamm, 55, also known as The Little Pebble, lead a religious community on the south coast near Nowra. He is standing trial in the District Court on charges of aggravated indecent assault and aggravated sexual intercourse against the teenager.
Confused and frightened, the girl petitioned the Virgin Mary for help in dealing with her "mystical marriage" to Kamm, the court heard today.
AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
By Geesche Jacobsen
June 17, 2005
A woman who says she was sexually assaulted by the leader of a religious community when she was 15 has been asked if she went public with her complaints aware she "could make some money out of it".
She was also asked whether she delayed reporting the incidents, which she says began in 1993, to police until after her family had resolved a claim for compensation from William Kamm. Mr Kamm is facing four charges of aggravated indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse in the District Court.
The woman, who cannot be named, said she had received $2500 from Channel Seven's Today Tonight program for an interview about the allegations.
AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au
By David King
June 16, 2005
A 15-YEAR-OLD schoolgirl was to bear 17 children to a self-styled religious leader who told his followers he would be the final pope before the end of the world.
The woman, now in her 20s, told the New South Wales District Court yesterday that William Kamm, 55, had molested her in 1993 soon after he had chosen her to be one of his "spiritual brides".
Mr Kamm, 55, known to his followers as Little Pebble, is charged with four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one count of sexual intercourse in circumstances of aggravation.
In the early 1990s, the girl and her family joined Mr Kamm's religious group, the Order of St Charbel, and went to live at his compound in Cambewarra, near Nowra on the NSW south coast.
AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
By Leonie Lamont
June 15, 2005
He said he was the New Abraham, in direct communication with the Virgin Mary. His mission was to bring a new race onto the Earth, the children conceived through his "mystical marriages" with 84 designated princesses and queens.
Yesterday his lawyer told the jury in the trial of the religious leader William Kamm that they might be "troubled, offended, compromised and utterly bemused", and they might think the "mishmash of theology and spiritual mayhem" at Kamm's religious community was "utterly insane". But it was not his religious beliefs that were on trial, Kamm's lawyer, Greg Stanton, said.
District Court Judge John Williams also told the jury "criminal courts aren't courts of morals" and they must take a "cold and clinical look at the evidence" to determine whether Kamm, 55, who also goes by the name The Little Pebble, was guilty.
He faces four charges of aggravated indecent assault and another of aggravated sexual intercourse against one of those "queens", a 15-year-old girl.
JAPAN
The Yomiuri Shimbun
A former head pastor indicted for allegedly sexually abusing young female congregants delayed entering a plea at the first hearing of his trial at the Kyoto District Court on Tuesday.
Tamotsu Kin, 61, said he was currently unable to testify. The second hearing is scheduled for Aug. 23.
PHILLIPINES
The Manila Times
By Manny B. Marinay
MY sinister gay friend J.L. was raised Catholic but left the Church after former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—the new Pope Benedict XV—issued a letter to the bishops on the “pastoral care of homosexual persons.” Benedict described gays as “intrinsically disordered” and homosexuality as a “tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil.”
I think most of us who are gay and Catholic will never forget when Ratzinger’s letter came out. It was so disconcerting in its breadth and depth of condemnation.
For the gay community, Ratzinger or Benedict is the most outspoken, vicious and venomous opponent of equal rights for homosexuals in the Catholic Church’s hierarchy. ...
The slew of sex-abuse scandals that rocked the Catholic Church did not surprise many freethinking homosexuals given the church’s intensely male-dominated hierarchy and extreme antiwoman, antisex orientation. The Catholic Church has a history of cover-up, lies, and hypocrisy on the subject, resembling that of any mega-corporation anxious to avoid prosecution, safeguard its considerable assets and calm its stockholders.
The Church’s implacable secrecy has imperiled children and youth by entrusting them to priests with long histories of sexual abuses, moving these sexual predators from parish to parish rather than letting accusations come to light. Denial has also caused those who suffered abuse to endure lifelong pain and confusion—a double victimization. And the church’s attempt to blame homosexuals for this sordid situation constitutes a blatant, self-serving lie.
Countless studies demonstrate that nearly all pedophiles, defined as people who desire sex with pre-adolescent children, are hetero-sexuals. Both the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Psychiatric Association attest that less than 1 percent of homosexuals are pedophiles. Simply stated, homosexual men desire sex with men; pedophiles desire sex with children without restriction to gender.
RENO (NV)
Las Vegas Sun
By SANDRA CHEREB
ASSOCIATED PRESS
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Bishop Phillip Straling, who steered northern Nevada's Catholic community through a decade of growth and national abuse scandals that rocked the church, announced his retirement Tuesday, saying he no longer has the stamina to lead the Reno Diocese. ...
Since 1995, the Reno Diocese has grown by roughly 30,000 Catholics, to an estimated 105,000, according to church records. He also navigated the diocese's course during the height of priest abuse scandals that so far has cost the Catholic Church in the United State more than $1 billion.
"There's been some hurts and some failures," Straling said of the sex abuse scandals.
MICHIGAN
WOOD
By Joe LaFurgey
(Detroit, June 21, 2005, 7:20 p.m.) The Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids has a new bishop . Pope Benedict XVI named Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Walter A. Hurley to succeed the late Bishop Kevin Britt, who died in May 2004.
Bishop Hurley spent the last 40 years as a priest in Detroit. Those that know him best describe him as personable, as well as a visionary. ...
In 1998, Cardinal Adam Maida put Bishop Hurley in charge of sexual abuse investigations within the Archdiocese of Detroit.
Some victims of that abuse say the diocese and Bishop Hurley haven't done enough to address their concerns. Ned Noon, a metro Detroit resident and a member of SNAP, the survivors network of those abused by priests, told 24 Hour News 8, "We were stonewalled all the way through and did not see any good intentions on the part of the diocese."
But Father Miller defends the diocese's actions under Bishop Hurley. "We have to protect the rights of everybody, and that includes the one that's accused."
AUSTRALIA
ABC
A woman who says a NSW south coast religious figure sexually assaulted her 12 years ago, has denied publicising the allegations for financial gain.
The man, William Kamm, also known as Little Pebble, is standing trial in the District Court.
The 27-year-old woman says in 1993 she was sexually and indecently assaulted by Kamm at his religious community near Nowra on the south coast.
The then 15-year-old and her family were part of the community, and she told the court in Sydney that the assaults occurred after she was chosen to be one of Kamm's 12 "queens".
FALL RIVER (MA)
The Standard-Times
Following is the statement issued by the SouthCoast Voice of the Faithful group:
A committee of Catholic lay men and women in the Diocese of Fall River representing local affiliates of the national organization known as Voice of the Faithful has been meeting with Bishop George W. Coleman's representatives periodically since February 2004.
These meetings derived from a May 2003 directive when then bishop elect, George W. Coleman, asked all pastors to refrain from allowing members of a Catholic lay organization called Voice of the Faithful from using parish facilities for their meetings. Shortly after the installation of Bishop Coleman, VOTF requested to meet with him to seek the removal of his ban on VOTF's use of parish facilities to conduct its meetings and activities.
In February 2004, Bishop Coleman agreed to meet with representatives of VOTF and up to the present time VOTF had felt that the meetings were useful to both parties.
Currently, however, VOTF has been unsuccessful in contacting the Bishop's staff to arrange another meeting and is consequently left with the impression that Bishop Coleman has terminated the meetings without notification to VOTF and with several issues still unresolved. Several efforts to communicate with the chancery office, including telephone calls and a registered letter for the purpose of scheduling our next meeting have been unsuccessful.
Local affiliates of VOTF have been conducting their meetings in rented spaces including rented halls of other faith communities.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-Cities Online
By Dawn Neuses, dneuses@qconline.com
A visual sign of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport's commitment to victims of clergy sexual abuse is in place today after a Millstone Marker was dedicated Monday.
About 50 diocese supporters, as well as sexual-abuse victims, attended the ceremony at the Diocesan Pastoral Center. Not everyone was happy with the event; one victim even likened it to a publicity stunt.
The heavy, circular stone marker was created by the Diocese of Davenport as part of the non-monetary settlement agreement between the diocese and a group of abuse victims. According to the diocese, the marker is a reminder of its commitment to protect God's children, and symbolizes the diocese's respect for the victims who were abused, and its commitment to their healing.
The Most Rev. William Franklin, Bishop of Davenport, was the celebrant of the service. During his homily, he said it is sad that young people have been wounded by those who have a vocation to instruct and to help.
UNITED STATES
Orlando Sentinel
By A. E. P. Wall | Special to the Sentinel
Posted June 21, 2005
Nobody was surprised when the nation's Catholic bishops voted last week to renew policies that permanently yank from ministry any priest they believe guilty of sexual abuse. There was little resistance, but Bishop Edward Hughes of Metuchen, N.J., was quoted by Margaret Ramirez, religion reporter for the Chicago Tribune:
"I am concerned about what effect this new reaffirmation will have on our priests. Not just those who have offended, but all priests. Many are anxious and uncertain and still believing an accusation is tantamount to being judged guilty."
The bishops rejected notions of due process and forgiveness. They continued, however, to recite the words of the Lord's Prayer, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive."
On the same day that the bishops were meeting in Chicago, a father was released from the nearby Will County jail. Kevin Fox, 28, had been held seven months, accused of sexually assaulting and murdering his 3-year-old daughter. He had renounced a false confession, but was kept in jail until DNA evidence proved that someone else had committed the crime.
The Fox family has filed a lawsuit claiming that Kevin Fox's civil rights were violated and that he was coerced by police to make a false confession.
WEST UNION (IA)
Sioux City Journal
WEST UNION, Iowa (AP) -- A third lawsuit has been filed against a former priest accused of sexually abusing children in the 1950s.
The lawsuit was filed in Fayette County by a man who claims the Rev. William Goltz sexually abused in 1954 when the man, known in court records as John Doe IV, was 12 years old.
Goltz was assigned to Sacred Heart Parish in Oelwein as the time, court records show.
It alleges that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dubuque, named as a defendant in the lawsuit, knew or should have known about Goltz's propensity to abuse young men.
It's the third such lawsuit filed against Goltz in Fayette County this year.
The previous lawsuits allege that then-Archbishop Leo Binz conducted a canonical trial and found Goltz guilty of similar incidents and removed him from his priestly duties.
After a leave of about 12 years, Goltz was reassigned to parishes in eastern Iowa over 18 years, records show.
CHICAGO (IL)
Catholic News Service
By Jerry Filteau
Catholic News Service
CHICAGO (CNS) -- As they have been at every U.S. Catholic bishops' meeting since June 2002, clergy sexual abuse of minors and the protection of children from such abuse were a significant part of the June 16-18 meeting in Chicago of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Major items on this June's agenda were approval of revisions of the 2002 "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" and the related "Essential Norms" implementing the charter legislatively.
The bishops adopted those documents by respective votes of 229-3 and 228-4.
As a legislative text the norms still need Vatican approval. But Vatican rejection seemed quite unlikely since the final version approved by the bishops had only four minor variations from the draft jointly developed by U.S. and Vatican officials: a correction of a typographical error, the addition of a missing canon law reference and two minor editorial changes intended to clarify the meaning of the text.
OELWEIN (IA)
Courier
By PAT KINNEY, Assistant City Editor
OELWEIN --- A third sexual abuse civil suit has been filed against a former Oelwein priest over alleged incidents in the mid-1950s.
The suit filed Tuesday in Fayette County District Court by a client identified as John Doe IV alleges the Rev. William Goltz sexually abused him in 1954 when the plaintiff was 12 years old and Goltz was assigned to Sacred Heart Parish in Oelwein.
The suit alleges Goltz drove the plaintiff to a location along the Wapsipinicon River near Independence and abused him while allowing him to help drive the vehicle.
Goltz and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque are named as co-defendants in the action. The suit alleges the archdiocese either "knew, or should have known, of Goltz' propensity to and intention to sexually abuse young men." The suit seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages. It is the third such suit filed in Fayette County against Goltz this year.
Previous suits allege then-Dubuque Archbishop Leo Binz conducted a formal church or canonical trial at that time, found Goltz guilty of similar incidents and removed him from responsibilities but did not report the incidents to civil authorities.
IRELAND
Irish Examiner
20/06/05
By Caroline O’Doherty
VICTIMS of clerical child sex abuse here have been urged to name the Pope as a responsible party in any legal proceedings they take against the Catholic Church.
The call comes from an Irish-American lawyer who is endeavouring to create a legal precedent by compelling Pope Benedict XVI to give evidence in a lawsuit he is taking on behalf of three young men who claim abuse by a former seminary student.
Daniel Shea will hear later this week whether there has been a decision by the US State Department on a request by Pope Benedict to be granted diplomatic immunity in the case.
Mr Shea is basing his action against Pope Benedict on an interpretation of a recently uncovered letter the Pontiff wrote to the world’s bishops in 2001 setting out how they should deal with a variety of clerical misdemeanours.
He also says the letter lays down a statute of limitations which prevents priests referring such complaints to the civil authorities for ten years after the alleged victim reaches the age of 18. By that stage, the statute of limitations that applies in civil law in most US states would have expired and a plaintiff would be legally prohibited from taking a case.
HOUSTON (TX)
Irish Examiner
A former seminarian is seeking to bring Pope Benedict XVI before a Texas court to explain what he believes was an attempt to protect priests from the law, writes Caroline O’Doherty.
THE US has produced some intriguing courtroom spectacles, as those recovering from addiction to the Michael Jackson trial will testify.
But not even the bizarre goings-on at the playground ranch of an eccentric pop recluse measure up against the legal battle envisaged by Texas-based lawyer Daniel Shea.
Mr Shea wants a district court judge in the Houston Division of the United States Court for the Southern District of Texas to call up the Vatican and tell them she’s putting the Pope on the stand.
Understandably, the Pope is resisting the move but, if Pope Benedict XVI succeeds in claiming diplomatic immunity, Mr Shea will go after the person who grants immunity. It would give him pleasure to see George W Bush take the Bible in his right hand.
AUSTRALIA
ABC
A senior South Australia clergyman who blew the whistle on the Anglican church's handling of sexual abuse claims has resigned from his church role.
The Reverend Don Owers will leave his job at the end of the month, citing a tiring workload and continuing frustration at the way the church treats abuse victims.
In 2002, Reverend Owers started publicly criticising the way former Adelaide Archbishop Ian George and Brisbane's Archbishop Phillip Aspinall handled sexual abuse allegations.
Since then he has been an advocate for abuse victims and has continued as rector of St George's Church in suburban Adelaide.
But he will walk away from that job at the end of the month, saying he is "tired out" and cannot give sufficient energy to both pursuits.
LOUISVILLE (KY)
The Indiana Gazette
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AP) - The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has formally adopted constitutional changes aimed at preventing and punishing sexual abuse by clergy.
The ratification of 11 constitutional changes by presbyteries, or regional governing bodies, of the Louisville-based denomination comes three years after a report on the sexual abuse of children of missionaries at boarding schools in the Congo, the church announced this past week.
The new regulations, which will become part of the church's Book of Order on July 3, impose stricter requirements for reporting abuse to civil authorities and give accusers more say in the disciplinary process.
"It's a beginning, and I hope that the passage brings the subject before the (individual) churches so they will all write policies and procedures, so they'll know what to do" in cases of abuse, said Pat Hendrix, the sexual-misconduct ombudsman for the denomination's Worldwide Ministries Division.
In 2002, the 2.4-million-member Protestant denomination documented cases of abuse of the children of missionaries to the Congo extending from the 1940s into the 1970s. Most of the abuse was blamed on an American missionary, William Pruitt, who died in 1999 and was also accused of abusing children in the United States.
IOWA
Press-Citizen
By Kristen Schorsch
Iowa City Press-Citizen
A Tipton priest will take the reins of a new support group for victims of religious sexual abuse.
Called Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, the group, targeting people in southeast Iowa, will first meet Friday during a sexual abuse conference in Iowa City.
The Rev. David Hitch, of St. Mary's Church in Tipton, said his goals for the group were to facilitate and encourage victims and their families to talk about their abuse. They also will discuss how to hold the church accountable for priest abuse.
"People started hearing that I was a compassionate person who was being an advocate for those who had been abused by priests," said Hitch, 64. "There is a need to have a support group in this area."
His brother, Michael, 51, was abused by their priest during grade school and high school and told Hitch about two years ago of the abuse.
UNITED STATES
The Manila Times
By Eric F. Mallonga
AMERICA’S Roman Catholic bishops have been rightly taking radical measures to protect American children from predator clergy. The bishops recently voted to bar abusive priests from Church work, to defrock them and prohibit them from further delivering homilies of morality to the laity. Some cardinals have expressed deep misgivings on the disciplinary plans that the US Conference on Catholic Bishops overwhelmingly agreed upon. They claim that the plan violates Catholic teaching on redemption: “That any sinner can be healed” and that all cases are equally treated no matter the severity. Chicago’s Francis Cardinal George correctly countered that penalties are necessarily “draconian” so as to restore trust in Church leadership: “Our real convictions come from the failure of oversight of priests by bishops in the past, and the concern of parents and the protection of their children.”
Certainly, when the Catholic Church takes on extraordinary responsibilities of setting spiritual and moral standards for observance by the laity, then extraordinary obligations and extraordinary standards must be established for clerics, who enforce those standards. It is indeed absurd that Catholic clerics condemn immoral and unchristian acts and practices, intimidating the laity with fire and brimstone homilies. Yet when they are criticized and condemned for their own immoral and unchristian acts, the clerics automatically demand Christian forgiveness even as there is a denial of the commission of their sinful predations on minors. None of the abusive clerics confess to sinful acts even as they abuse power in condemning lay Catholics who have condemned clerical misbehavior. There is an abuse of power and authority as Catholic clerics hold moral ascendancy over their followers when they embark on a condemnation of their critics without remorseful admission of their sinful behavior, in addition to the sexual abuse committed upon vulnerable children. Catholic priests are fast to condemn other people for their alleged immoral and sinful conduct yet do not wish to be held accountable on those same standards.
Portsmouth Herald
By Elizabeth Kenny
ekenny@seacoastonline.com
Eleven-year-old Rachel Dellea climbs the branches of a tree in her family’s Florida yard, and listens to a conversation between her father and their family priest below.
The priest, over a few drinks, tells her father how pretty she is: blue-eyed, red hair. Rachel remembers her father, who had been abusing her since she was age 3, responding with further "sexually explicit things."
The priest rises, walks to his car and removes a six pack of beer, before telling Rachel’s father, "The nuns could use some help in the convent."
From that day forward, for the next five years, the "family priest" would stop by the house each week with a bottle of whiskey or a six pack of beer and Rachel’s father would send her with him to "work" at the church.
IOWA
Quad-City Times
By Todd Ruger
Three men who met with the Catholic Diocese of Davenport on behalf of victims of sexual abuse by its priests called the response from church leaders "a slap in the face."
The men said they presented to the diocese — at the first of several regular meetings required as part of a $9 million settlement with 37 claimants — a list of things that they and other victims would like to see the diocese do to promote healing and prevent future abuse.
"When I went into this meeting, I was very optimistic," said Mike Hitch of Oklahoma, whose lawsuit against the diocese was part of the settlement, as was the case with the other victim representatives at the meeting. "The letter we got back is: ‘That's not going to happen.' "
The diocese said in a written statement that it "seriously considered the conversation with the victims," but "the new demands by the victims go far beyond any of the terms in the contract (settlement)."
A copy of the response from the diocese provided to the Quad-City Times details reasons why it nixed other suggestions. For example, it will not actively seek out and contact possible victims because health-care professionals have advised the diocese it runs the risk of revictimizing them.
COVINGTON (KY)
The Sunday Challenger
By Amanda Van Benschoten
The Sunday Challenger
avanbenschoten@challengernky.com
COVINGTON - Financial woes have prompted the Diocese of Covington to move its headquarters from the Catholic Center in unincorporated Boone County to new offices in Covington. The move will take place in August, just a month after the diocese plans to lay off 15 of its 65 employees.
In a press release, Bishop Roger Foys said the diocese could no longer afford the maintenance cost of the 50-acre Catholic Center on Donaldson Road near Erlanger. He hopes the move to Covington will save the diocese $300,000 annually.
The diocese has spent more than $4 million since 2003 to settle claims of sexual abuse by its priests. It is now negotiating a settlement for a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of alleged victims of sexual abuse. The $120 million lawsuit, if approved, could cost the diocese $40 million out-of-pocket. Insurers are expected to pay the remainder, although the settlement has yet to be approved. It will go before a visiting Boone County judge for the second time on June 23.
The new diocesan headquarters will be located on the third floor of St. Elizabeth Medical Center North. The 17 diocesan offices will be moved in phases during a six-week period beginning in mid-August.
IRELAND
The Post
19 June 2005 By Kieron Wood
The disgraced former head of the national seminary at Maynooth, Monsignor Micheál Ledwith, has told students that “there is really no such thing as good or bad" and “there is no God waiting to punish you".
Last Thursday, the Catholic Bishops, who are the trustees of the college, finally published the long-awaited McCullough report into the handling of allegations that Ledwith sexually harassed seminarians.
Senior counsel Denis McCullough was asked three years ago to investigate media reports that the complaints were ignored. He was not asked to report on the truth of the allegations.
His final report was delivered to the bishops in March this year and made public last week, following repeated queries by The Sunday Business Post.
McCullough said that the former senior dean of the college, Fr Gerald McGinnity, had expressed concern to a number of bishops about Ledwith's “apparent propensities'‘, both sexual and theological.
CHICAGO (IL)
United Press International
By Frances Burns
Jun. 18, 2005 at 9:44PM
Roman Catholic bishops meeting in Chicago have voted to spend up to $5 million for a study of the causes of child sexual abuse.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also reaffirmed the zero-tolerance policy that requires the immediate removal of priests from public ministry when credible claims of molestation are made. If molestation claims are confirmed by church investigators, removal is permanent and the offender can be stripped of ordination.
The bishops extended child-protection policies for five years, the Los Angeles Times reported.
WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By TOM HEINEN
theinen@journalsentinel.com
Posted: June 18, 2005
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is poised to issue an opinion that could keep the door shut on civil suits against churches for old cases of sexual abuse of minors by clergy or could open a broader entryway for victims to sue not only churches but other institutions for abuse committed decades ago by volunteers, coaches and teachers.
Millions of dollars are at stake. So are arguments about denial of justice for victims and the fairness of trying to defend against old allegations.
In the Archdiocese of Milwaukee alone - the largest of the state's five Catholic dioceses - victims' advocates say they know of at least 80 victims who have not entered into settlements with the church.
How many might be willing and able to file suits would depend on the wording of the court's opinion and details of their individual experiences.
Juries nationwide in such cases have awarded anywhere from $25,000 to $2 million in damages, say attorneys representing the plaintiff.
A Supreme Court ruling is likely by June 30 or early in July before the summer recess. At issue are decisions reached a decade ago by the court that greatly restricted victims' ability to sue churches.
ROME
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Sunday, June 19, 2005
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
ROME -- Twenty years as a canon and civil lawyer for Catholic institutions did not prepare Nicholas Cafardi for what he encountered as a member and chairman of theAbuse Tracker Review Board charged with overseeing the U.S. bishops' response to accusations of sexual abuse by priests.
"It's been a dark night of the soul," said Cafardi, 56, dean emeritus of the Duquesne University School of Law. He has just completed a three-year term on the board, including a final stint as chairman. Now he is on an academic sabbatical in Rome, where he will do a doctoral thesis on the early but ineffective attempts by U.S. bishops to respond to accusations of child sexual abuse.
He believes the bishops have now taken steps that will all but eliminate molestation, and that any church workers who molest a minor will be removed and reported. The Catholic Church, he believes, has set an example that other helping professions should follow.
On Friday, U.S. bishops, meeting in Chicago, voted to extend that policy, which permanently bars abusive priests from church work, for another five years. The Vatican is expected to approve the extension.
Cafardi says that in his work on the review board, he encountered depths of perversion and pain that were incomprehensible to him. He found pockets of resistance to his work. Even a close friend in the priesthood accused his board of treating priests as the enemy.
CHICAGO (IL)
The Christian Post
Sunday, Jun. 19, 2005 Posted: 12:22:29AM EST
U.S. Catholic Bishops overwhelmingly voted to extend rules that will bar sexually abusive priests from public church ministry work.
The 229-3 vote by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Thursday meant that the rules adopted in 2002 at the height of the clergy sex abuse scandals will continue.
Chicago Cardinal Francis George, who reviewed the policy with the Vatican said that the policy was necessary to restore trust in the church leadership.
"Our real convictions come from the failure of oversight of priests by bishops in the past, and the concern of parents and the protection of children," he said, according to the Associated Press.
In the years since the abuses cases became widespread knowledge around the nation, the U.S. Roman Catholic Church has been besieged by financial and moral attacks by many of its members, in addition to outside criticism. They claimed that the church had been moving abusive priests to parishes where they were not known, and where they could repeat the same offenses.
Along with the policy extension, the bishops also voted 228-4 to commission a study that would analyze the roots and context of the abuses.
"We have been through an extraordinarily difficult time in the history of our church," said Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles.
CANADA
London Free Press
KELLY PEDRO, Free Press Crime Reporter 2005-06-19 02:56:35
The head of the London District Catholic school board questions whether a priest facing child sex-offence charges should be living next to a London school until trial.
Joe Rapai said he spoke with the diocese of London and the Norfolk County Crown attorney Friday to ask whether it was possible to move Rev. Konstanty Przybylski to a parish that's not next to an elementary school.
"My question was, 'Could it be any other site?' " Rapai, the board's education director, said yesterday.
"I thought it was important to raise the question of whether there was any chance (he could be moved). There are some parishes that are not immediately adjacent to a school."
Przybylski, 55, was charged Wednesday with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual exploitation, sexual interference and sexual touching.
Two young men say they were sexually assaulted at St. Cecilia's Church in Port Dover, where Przybylski was a priest between 1995 and 2000, Norfolk OPP have said.
IOWA
Des Moines Register
Another lawsuit has been filed against the Archdiocese of Dubuque, bringing to 15 the number of cases pending in federal and state courts in Iowa alleging sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests.
In a lawsuit filed this week in Fayette County, John Doe IV alleges he was sexually abused by the Rev. William A. Goltz at Sacred Heart parish in Oelwein beginning in 1954. Goltz has been named in two other lawsuits alleging sexual abuse while he was a priest at the parish.
Officials from the Dubuque Archdiocese did not return calls asking for comment.
The lawsuits against the archdiocese have named six priests.
CALIFORNIA
Mercury News
By Jessie Seyfer
Mercury News
A child is sexually molested at the age of 7. She keeps it a secret until her mid-20s, then finally reports it to police. But by that time, the 10-year statute of limitations has already run out, and it's a lot less likely that her molester will end up behind bars.
This scenario frequently plays out in California and deprives victims of justice, says state Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-San Jose. That's why she and the state attorney general's office have drafted a bill that would allow prosecutors to file child sex crime charges up until the victim's 30th birthday. The law would affect only those crimes that occur after Jan. 1, 2006.
``I personally don't think there ought to be any'' statute of limitation for sex crimes, Alquist said. ``This is a good first step.''
Proponents, like Santa Clara County prosecutor Jay Boyarsky, say the bill would bring the law into line with studies, which find that people often can't come to terms with child sexual traumas -- let alone report them to police -- until well past their teens.
MINNESOTA
St. Paul Pioneer Press
BY KAY HARVEY
Pioneer Press
Hope comes in many forms.
Belinda Martinez has crafted it in the shape of origami cranes — a thousand of them.
That number is symbolic of 1,092 victims who for the first time last year alleged sexual abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic priests or deacons.
As she folded the paper cranes one by one, "it was astounding to me the number who've been hurt," says Martinez, co-founder and survivor liaison for the Minnesota chapter of Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
The newest tally of victims, recorded in a 2004 report of alleged clergy sex crimes by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, comes on the heels of 10,667 allegations of abuse by priests reported from 1950 to 2002.
The paper cranes, strung together in groups of 100 and tied in a circle, have been sent off in recent days to a meeting of the bishops' conference in Chicago, the Vatican in Rome, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and a children's peace memorial in Hiroshima, Japan. The Sadako Memorial was built on a myth that Japanese gods will grant a wish to those who fashion a thousand origami cranes.
LINCOLN (NE)
Lincoln Journal Star
By BOB REEVES / Lincoln Journal Star
In his hot-off-the-press book, "The Rise of Benedict XVI," Vatican journalist John L. Allen Jr.examines the new pope's personality, career and values and gives an inside look at the conclave based on interviews with eight cardinals.
What comes across is a picture of the new pontiff as a much more complex, caring and less rigid church leader than his previous media image reflected.
For 24 years, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger came to be seen as "a doctrinal czar," Allen said in a telephone interview. "Other aspects of what Joseph Ratzinger is about didn't crack the media filter." ...
In the wake of the sexual abuse crisis in the American church, the new pope is likely to support a tightening of discipline and admission policies of seminaries in an effort to assure that priests will serve "in the person of Christ."
Pope Benedict XVI will "expect people who are on the church payroll to toe the line" on church doctrine, but "that's not all he's about," Allen said. "He's not taking on the papacy to crack heads. Rather, he wants to remind people of the very concept of objective truth. Certain truths do not change, and we abandon that at our peril."
MIAMI (FL)
NBC 6
POSTED: 12:25 am EDT June 18, 2005
MIAMI -- A 62-year-old pastor has been charged with allegedly sexually abusing two members of his congregation.
Luis Serrano is charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation and five counts of sexual battery on a minor under the age of 11. He has been denied bond.
The alleged victims, who police described as being 8- and 9-year-old sisters, said their pastor, Serrano, had been sexually abusing them since the summer of 2004.
"We were interviewing two kids because of signs of abuse that were noticed by their parents," said one Miami police detective. "And during the course of that interview, they gave us the name of who was involved in this -- it was the church pastor."
"It started with simple fondling -- touching them with his hands across their private parts and so forth," the detective said. "It actually escalated to full sexual battery. In fact, these kids were actually raped."
Serrano was accused of a similar offense in 2003, but those charges were later dropped. Police said Serrano's son is in jail facing similar charges.
CHINO (CA)
Daily Bulletin
By Mason Stockstill, Staff Writer
CHINO - A third youth leader at a Chino church has been accused of child sexual abuse, according to new court documents.
Several additional plaintiffs have joined the lawsuit against Inland Community Church, which was initially filed in February when a family alleged two daughters were abused by youth counselors at the church.
The amended complaint, filed last week in San Bernardino Superior Court, now names Sunday school teacher Kelly Cisneros as a defendant alongside the church pastor and two other former counselors.
The five plaintiffs accuse Cisneros, Joel Kessler and Bill Wayne Lowder of abusing them when they were children. Four of the plaintiffs are now adults.
"This isn't something that occurred one time," said attorney Stephen Moran, who is representing the plaintiffs. "This is a pattern of conduct that went on for an extensive period of time."
JAMAICA
Jamaica Gleaner
Andrea Downer and Trudy Simpson, Gleaner Writers
THE POLICE yesterday charged a pastor in connection with reports of alleged sexual abuse of children in state care. He is booked to appear in court in Portland next week.
Assistant Commissioner of Police at the Criminal Investigations Bureau (CIB), George Williams, said yesterday that the pastor, whose name has been withheld, was arrested in Buff Bay, Portland, on Thursday.
He is the second person charged in connection with the alleged cases of sexual abuse of children in some of the island's children's homes and places of safety.
Four persons in total are expected to be charged based on the ruling of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
KENTUCKY
Cincinnati Post
By Bob Driehaus
Post staff reporter
The leader of a national support group for victims of clergy sexual abuse praised Covington Bishop Roger Foys in a letter for his handling of the diocese's crisis, including the pending settlement of a class-action lawsuit against the diocese.
Sue Archibald, director of The Linkup, based in the Louisville suburb of Pewee Valley, confirmed Friday that her group expressed appreciation for the way Foys went about the difficult job of trying to make amends for 50 years of sexual abuse at the hands of priests and other employees of the diocese.
"I wanted to really acknowledge the fact that he went the extra mile for the survivors in that settlement," she said.
"One of the things that impressed me the most with Bishop Foys' approach was his willingness to meet with the survivors while the legal process was going on. I know that lawyers generally advise clergy not to communicate with victims during the process, but he believed it was the right thing to do and he did it. And some of the survivors mentioned that it meant a lot to them."
She declined to share a copy of the letter because she considered it a private communication.
The Linkup was established in 1991, several years before the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal erupted nationally, with a mission to expose the abuse and offer healing for victims.
CHICAGO (IL)
Catholic News Service
By Jerry Filteau
Catholic News Service
CHICAGO (CNS) -- When the U.S. bishops overwhelmingly approved revisions in the charter and norms to protect children and deal with clergy sex abuse June 17, they did not weaken either document, Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul-Minneapolis told reporters at the final press conference of the meeting.
The archbishop, who has headed the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse for the past three years, said the bishops continue to have a "zero tolerance" policy on such abuse, following the principle enunciated by the late Pope John Paul II that there is no room in the priesthood for those who would abuse children.
The bishops approved revisions in their "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" by a 228-4 vote and changes in the "Essential Norms" implementing the charter legislatively, 229-3.
The charter and norms were among the major issues facing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at their June 16-18 meeting in Chicago. The documents were originally adopted in 2002 with a projected two-year life span before review. That life span was extended when the bishops were not able to make the revisions at their November 2004 meeting.
CHICAGO (IL)
Washington Post
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 18, 2005; Page A03
CHICAGO, June 17 -- U.S. Roman Catholic bishops today affirmed their policy of zero tolerance for sex offenders, voting by a substantial majority to extend the one-strike approach for five years despite complaints from some priests and bishops that the policy is too inflexible.
The measure bans sex offenders from public church work for life, a step first taken by Catholic authorities in 2002 after hundreds of priests stood accused of sexual misdeeds. Most victims were children.
Minneapolis and St. Paul Archbishop Harry J. Flynn, who guided the policy through the American church hierarchy, told reporters after the vote that the efforts should produce a measure of healing. He added: "The light is at the end of the tunnel, but with sin and brokenness, there is never an end."
Flynn rejected complaints from victims organizations that the policy was "fainthearted." He also took issue with criticism from church insiders that the punishment of some priests for offenses that occurred just once and long ago was unfair.
GREENSBURG (PA)
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
By Craig Smith
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, June 18, 2005
A lawyer will attempt to unseal records of two sexual abuse cases from 1983 in a new lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg.
Altoona attorney Richard M. Serbin said he will try to open pretrial pleadings and discovery that were sealed by a Westmoreland County judge more than two decades ago. The pleadings could support a lawsuit he filed Thursday on behalf of a former altar boy at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Greensburg.
"At some point, we will attempt to unseal that discovery," Serbin said. "For unexplainable reasons, those records were just sealed."
Serbin filed a 13-count lawsuit on behalf of Brian G. Guarino, 41, of Laurel, Md., who claims he was sexually abused by the Rev. Roger J. Trott when Guarino was 10 years old. Guarino served as an altar boy at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral from 1973 to 1976.
The diocese and retired Bishop Anthony G. Bosco were named as defendants.
HOLLIDAYSBURG (PA)
Altoona Mirror
By Phil Ray
HOLLIDAYSBURG - A Blair County judge ruled Friday that the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese's former insurance company should not have to pay the expenses of the sexual abuse case involving former Priest Francis Luddy.
The decision by Judge Hiram A. Carpenter likely ends a long dispute between the diocese and its insurance companies over expenses in the child sexual abuse case brought by Michael Hutchison, formerly of Altoona.
In 1994, a jury awarded Hutchison, who now lives in Akron, Ohio, more than $1 million for offenses that occurred in 1983 and 1984. Carpenter said the insurance company that provided coverage to the diocese for those years is responsible for the bills.
IOWA
Quad-City Times
By Todd Ruger
A man identified in court records only as "John Doe III" told a Scott County District judge Friday that he was sexually abused 30 to 40 times in the 1960s by a priest with the Catholic Diocese of Davenport.
The accused priest, the Rev. Theodore Geerts, died last year, but a default judgment had been entered against him in 2003 after he did not respond when the lawsuit was served on him in California, District Judge C.H. Pelton said at the hearing.
Friday's hearing established $1.9 million in damages that Doe III can collect from the estate of Geerts — if there is one — for past and future medical expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering caused by the abuse, plaintiff attorney Craig Levien of Davenport said.
"We're going to use this as a basis to explore whatever assets Geerts had in California or elsewhere," Levien added.
The judgment followed about 45 minutes of testimony from Doe III, who also was referred to as "Chuck" at the hearing. He described sexual abuse by Geerts during weekend group sex sessions that included three priests and up to five boys.
DAVENPORT (IA)
KWQC
DAVENPORT, Iowa A man claiming he was the vicim of group sex parties held by Roman Catholic priests in the 1960s has won a court judgement of nearly two (M) million dollars against the estate of one of the priests.
The man identified in court records as John Doe Three told a Scott County judge Friday that he was sexually abused 30 to 40 times by the Reverand Theodore Geerts, a priest in the Davenport Diocese.
Geerts died last year in California.
District Judge C-H Pelton says a default judgment had been entered against Geerts in 2003 after he did not respond to the man's lawsuit.
The man's attorney says yesterday's hearing was to established damages for past and future medical expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering caused by the abuse.
The man says the abuse started with former priest James Janssen when he was 12 years old in Fort Madison and continued until his family moved to Davenport when he was 15.
ARIZONA
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
June 17, 2005
The following is a significant portion of a court document filed June 17, 2005 by attorney Ivan Safyan Abrams: ...
The objecting tort claimants find themselves in an odd position. On one hand, they were led to believe that their membership in the grandiosely titled Official Committee of Tort Litigants would gain for them the stature they have lacked for years, sometimes for decades. At last, they thought, someone would believe their history of abuse and would advocate for them. Instead, they find themselves victimized again, this time not at the hand of perverted and unholy clergy, but by similarly misguided lawyers and worse, their fellow victims. In the challenges to the victims' claims, we see a distressing echo of the days of the Holocaust, when cynical Nazis used Jewish capos to escort their fellow Jews to the gas chambers, accompanied by symphonic music played by captive Jewish musicians.
CHICAGO (IL)
Los Angeles Times
By Larry B. Stammer, Times Staff Writer
CHICAGO — With little debate, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops Friday extended by five years safeguards to protect children and youth from sexual predators within the church.
The decision by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, meeting here for their spring session, reaffirmed the U.S. church's "zero tolerance" policy hammered out at the height of the sexual abuse scandal in 2002.
Under the rules, a credible accusation of sexual abuse against any priest or deacon requires his removal from public ministry. In cases where the church confirms an allegation, the removal becomes permanent and the accused can be stripped of ordinations.
Churches also must inform civil authorities of such accusations.
In a secret written ballot, the bishops voted 228-4 to renew and revise the landmark Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, and 229-3 for rules, known as norms, to carry it out. The conference also committed to spending an initial $1 million to finance a $3-million to $5-million study on the causes and contexts of child sexual abuse, which the bishops hoped would also help society in general.
Church leaders said their action showed that progress had been made against sex abuse. "The light is at the end of the tunnel, although with sin and brokenness there is never an end," Minneapolis and St. Paul Archbishop Harry J. Flynn, chairman of the bishops' Committee on Child Sexual Abuse, told reporters after the vote.
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, commended the bishops' actions of the last two years that have resulted in the removal of 700 to 900 priests credibly accused of child abuse. But he attributed the progress largely to victims' willingness to speak out, not to church vigilance.
CHICAGO (IL)
L.A. Daily News
By Monica Davey, The New York Times
CHICAGO -- The nation's Roman Catholic bishops voted overwhelmingly on Friday to continue barring abusive priests from public ministry, part of a set of policies written three years ago as the church was engulfed in its abuse scandal.
Agreeing to extend for five years what has become known as a "zero tolerance" rule, the bishops also voted to spend up to $1 million to help pay for a study to look at why and how the sexual abuse of children occurred. The study is widely expected to cost far more, perhaps $5 million, but church officials said they intended to seek outside money from foundations and other sources.
In 2002, the bishops adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and the Essential Norms under extremely tense circumstances and after months of accusations against priests for abuse and against clergy leaders that they were aware of the abuse but did little about it.
At a meeting here on Friday, the debate was swifter, and the written ballot votes lopsided, 229-3 in support of the norms and 228-4 in favor of the charter.
CHICAGO (IL)
Northwest Indiana News
BY DANIEL WOIKE
dwoike@nwitimes.com
This story ran on nwitimes.com on Saturday, June 18, 2005 2:03 AM CDT
CHICAGO | Catholic bishops usually are the ones strengthening faith and absolving sins, but the roles have been reversed after the sexual abuse scandals.
The church has been put in the position of asking parishioners for their forgiveness and for faith in the U.S. Catholic church, something that was priority as the nation's bishops met for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago.
"At this time in the history of our church, we need to give absolute assurance to our people that we are doing everything possible to prevent abuse of children ever taking place," Gary Diocese Bishop Dale Melczek said.
The bishops passed minor amendments to The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and the Essential Norms -- the conference's responses to the scandal, passed in 2002. By an overwhelming vote, the bishops extended the charter for five years.
CHICAGO (IL)
Boston Globe
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | June 18, 2005
CHICAGO -- Three years after the sexual abuse crisis erupted in Boston, the Catholic bishops of the United States voted overwhelmingly yesterday to retain their ''zero tolerance" policy of dismissing from the ministry all abusive priests.
The bishops, promising to maintain their efforts to protect children in the face of an enormous scandal over their past failure to oust abusers, also agreed to set aside $1 million to partially finance a broad study of the causes of abuse within the nation's largest religious denomination.
In an interview, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley of Boston pointed out that the bishops supported the revised abuse policies by overwhelming margins: The closest vote was 223 to 4.
''I was very pleased with the vote," he said. ''I think that it indicates that there's still a strong resolution to move forward and there's no backpedaling."
Referring to the bishops' response to the crisis over the past three years, he added, ''I'm not saying we did everything perfectly, but at least there was a very decisive response and one that was an attempt to face the issues, to try and quantify it, and now to try and contextualize it and to see if we can identify causes to be able to make sure that this sad history won't repeat itself."
CHICAGO (IL)
Herald-Tribune
By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer
CHICAGO -- America's Roman Catholic bishops have voted overwhelmingly to continue permanently barring abusive priests from church work, despite deep misgivings about the policy written at the height of the clergy sex abuse scandal.
Friday's vote by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops means the American church will stick with the main points of the discipline plan it adopted in 2002 for the next five years. The Vatican is expected to approve the extension.
Some prelates believe the plan violates Catholic teaching on redemption - that any sinner can be healed - and treats every case equally no matter the severity.
Chicago Cardinal Francis George, a leader in reviewing the plan with Vatican officials, went as far as calling the ban "draconian." But he said the penalty was necessary to restore trust in church leadership.
CHICAGO (IL)
Newsday
BY CAROL EISENBERG
STAFF WRITER. This story was supplemented with wire service reports.
June 18, 2005
The nation's Roman Catholic bishops voted overwhelmingly Friday for a five-year extension of their landmark policy barring any priest from ministry who has ever molested a child.
Despite widespread concerns that a zero-tolerance philosophy was too punitive and flew in the face of Catholic teachings about forgiveness, many bishops said they had no choice but to recommit to it in order to regain the trust of the faithful.
"Our real convictions come from the failure of oversight of priests by bishops in the past," said Chicago Cardinal Francis George, who oversaw the review of the 2002 policy in tandem with Vatican officials.
Besides mandating the removal of any priest found by the church to have abused a child, the policy requires bishops to report allegations of sex abuse to civil authorities and to run diocesanwide programs to promote awareness of child sexual abuse.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times
June 18, 2005
BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN Staff Reporter
Catholic priests guilty of sexual misconduct will continue to be barred from church duties under a revised disciplinary plan approved overwhelmingly Friday by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The bishops also pledged $1 million for an independent study on the sex scandal and established a standing committee for the Protection of Children and Young People during a three-day meeting at the Fairmont Chicago Hotel.
'We must always be vigilant'
The approval of the modified 2002 charter is testament to the bishops' eagerness to keep the church safe and to initiate the healing process, said Archbishop Harry Flynn, of the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese, who is chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse.
"The light is at the end of the tunnel, although with sin and brokenness, there's never an end. We must always be vigilant and alert," Flynn said.
The five-year extension of the charter was approved 228-4, and an accompanying text called "the norms" passed 229-3, but discussion before the vote indicated many bishops fear that the zero-tolerance policy is too harsh.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Margaret Ramirez
Tribune religion reporter
Published June 18, 2005
With little protest or debate, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops voted overwhelmingly Friday to renew policies that ban sexually abusive priests from ministry and aim to protect children from abuse.
The historic church rules were drafted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops after the abuse scandal erupted in 2002 and were approved by the Vatican late that year for a two-year trial period. The policies approved at the bishops' spring meeting in Chicago will be in effect for five years.
Bishops made some changes to the documents but retained the church's "zero-tolerance" rule, stating that when even a single act of abuse is established, the offender will be permanently removed from ministry.
"We go back to the words of our Holy Father. There is no place in the priesthood for anyone who has offended a child. That has held," said Archbishop Harry Flynn of St. Paul-Minneapolis, chairman of the bishops' Sexual Abuse Committee.
"The light is at the end of the tunnel," he said. "Although with sin and brokenness, there is never an end. We must always be vigilant."
CHICAGO (IL)
San Francisco Chronicle
Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Chicago -- The nation's Roman Catholic bishops adopted new guidelines Friday for selecting and training priests but skirted a controversy over whether self- described gay men -- even if celibate -- should be admitted to seminaries.
Sexual orientation among seminarians came up at the bishops' three-day meeting when the prelates debated the draft of a "Program for Priestly Formation."
Bishop John Nienstedt of New Ulm, Minn., chairman of the bishops Committee on Priestly Formation, said questions about homosexual orientation and priesthood candidates would be addressed in a long-awaited Vatican document due to be issued soon.
The question of whether there should be different standards for homosexuals and heterosexuals emerged three years ago when Bishop Wilton Gregory, the former president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, cited the "struggle to make sure that the Catholic priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men."
CHICAGO (IL)
Toledo Blade
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
CHICAGO — U.S. Catholic bishops yesterday overwhelmingly approved a revised charter for dealing with clerical sexual abuse, asserting that the changes are based on the knowledge and experience gained over the last three years and that their “zero-tolerance” policy for abusers will continue.
Meeting here for their annual spring conference, the bishops said the revisions are relatively minor and part of a mandated review of the guidelines established in Dallas in 2002.
Members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also voted to contribute up to $1 million from a reserve fund toward the estimated $2.5 million cost of a study that will explore the “causes and context” of the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the church since 2002.
“We need to understand what has happened to make sure we do whatever we can so that it doesn’t happen again,” Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson said.
Although the revised Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People ultimately was approved by a landslide vote of 228-4, there was some pointed dissent before the ballot.
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago described some of the policies as “rather draconian,” and Bishop Emeritus Edward Hughes of Metuchen, N.J., claimed that the charter has fostered a “lack of trust” between bishops and their priests.
Zero-tolerance essentially means “an accusation is tantamount to being judged guilty,” Bishop Hughes said, and claimed that church policies will fail if good priests are afraid to cooperate or collaborate with their bishops.
CHICAGO (IL)
Guardian
By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer
CHICAGO (AP) - U.S. Roman Catholic bishops voted by ballot Friday on whether to extend their policy of permanently barring sex offenders from church work. The tally wasn't immediately known, though the discipline plan was widely expected to win approval.
A bishops' committee has recommended revisions that would leave the policy - first adopted in June 2002 - largely intact for five more years.
The panel acknowledged that ``many, perhaps a majority,'' of bishops hope to someday ease the ban, which they believe violates Catholic teaching on redemption and treats every case equally no matter the severity of the offense.
However, the committee said church leaders agreed that now was not the time.
CHICAGO (IL)
San Francisco Chronicle
Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer
Friday, June 17, 2005
Chicago -- Archbishop William Levada walked into the summer meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Thursday in a strange state of ecclesiastical limbo.
He is a man with three titles -- the Archbishop Emeritus of San Francisco, the Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Levada, tapped in May by Pope Benedict XVI to take that third job, one of the most powerful posts at the Vatican, is trying to keep a low profile in any debates on the floor of the bishops' three-day meeting.
"It seems inappropriate for me in my new role to enter into work from my old role,'' said Levada, speaking a small group of reporters at the end of Thursday's business.
One of Levada's new responsibilities as chief doctrinal watchdog of the 1. 1-billion-member church is overseeing church trials in Rome for accused pedophile priests. On Thursday, the U.S. bishops were presented with a revision of policies on how individual bishops should work with the Vatican when disciplining clerics accused of child molestation.
Levada, who assumed the Vatican post as soon as he was appointed May 13, plans to resign as administrator of San Francisco's archdiocese Aug. 17. He declined to comment on a petition by a Catholic lay group, the Voice of the Faithful, that the Vatican move forward with a sexual abuse trial of the Rev. Maciel Degollado, the leader of the conservative Legionnaires of Christ, a Catholic religious order.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Review
by Joseph Kenny, Review Staff Writer
Any time a priest is a defendant in a criminal case involving sexual abuse of a minor, he won’t be wearing clerical garb.
The Archdiocese of St. Louis issued a reminder on the topic recently. It pointed out that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection last year issued a report asking bishops to be sure that no priest be permitted to wear clerical garb when appearing as a defendant in a criminal case involving sexual abuse of a minor.
CHICAGO (IL)
Kansas City Star
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — America's Roman Catholic bishops will keep their pledge to protect children from sexually abusive priests as they revise their discipline plan for offenders, a prelate said Thursday.
Bishops overseeing a review of the 3-year-old policy have recommended that dioceses continue permanently barring guilty clergy from all church work. Some Catholic leaders have been concerned that the punishment is too severe.
“No one wants to permit children to be abused in the church,” said Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who led a team of U.S. bishops who worked with Vatican officials on the revisions. “It's a source of great shame for all of us, a source of scandal for the faithful and for the world.”
The bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse spent months soliciting comment on the policy.
UNITED STATES
Telegram & Gazette
By Kathleen A. Shaw TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
kshaw@telegram.com
While American Catholic bishops met yesterday in Chicago to discuss whether to make changes in national sexual abuse policies adopted in 2002, another organization — BishopAccountability.org — worked quietly at its Waltham headquarters expanding its national database of priests accused of sexual misconduct.
The church scandal, which erupted in in Boston in 2002 and spread throughout the United States, resulted in many newspaper stories and civil suits, which in turn resulted in thousands of public documents regarding priests who abused minors over the years.
BishopAccountability.org is compiling those records and wants to add the assignment records of all the accused priests. Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the organization, said it would be a major task. She said being able to look at a priest’s assignments would show the various linkages and circles that abusive priests worked in.
BishopAccountability.org began in 2003 and it Web site — www.bishop-accountability.org — has become a “go to” site for documents related to the scandal or for background on an accused priest, Ms. Barrett Doyle said.
The nonprofit research group said yesterday it has posted a database of 2,173 priests accused publicly of sexually abusing minors. The database, which includes priests accused in the Worcester diocese, is believed to be the largest list of its kind.
The organization hopes to compile more records relating to allegations of sexual abuse in the Worcester diocese, Ms. Barrett Doyle said. She called it an “interesting diocese.”
Ms. Barrett Doyle said a priest’s name does not go into the database unless the accusation is documented by a public source. If the priest is later cleared, that information is added to the database but the priest’s name is not removed.
The organization keeps a secret list of priests accused of misconduct based on names provided by alleged victims and other sources, Ms. Barrett Doyle said. The name remains out of the public domain unless a public record surfaces, at which point it goes to the public database, she said.
In reports to theAbuse Tracker Review Board, which was set up by the bishops to monitor compliance with its Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, bishops said they have complaints against 4,760 priests since 1950. The Worcester diocese said 45 credible accusations were made against priests in this diocese. However, not all the names were made public.
“By keeping names secret, bishops continue to protect abusers. They also prevent countless numbers of still-hidden victims from making the life-changing discovery that their perpetrators were accused by someone else. And they withhold information that the public needs to keep children safe,” Ms. Barrett Doyle said.
Terence McKiernan, the organization’s founder and president, said he believes bishops are trying to prevent further exposure of their own complicity.
IRELAND
One in Four
by Martin Wall of The Irish Times
Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse: A senior member of the Christian Brothers has accepted that boys were abused at St Joseph's Industrial School at Letterfrack, Co Galway, but has completely rejected claims that there had been suspicious or mysterious deaths in the institution.
Brother David Gibson, provincial leader, St Mary's Province of the Christian Brothers, said abuse had been carried out on an individual and isolated basis by a small number of members of the congregation and lay persons.
However, he said this abuse had not been systematic and when it had become known, action had been taken immediately - although this was generally dealt with internally within the congregation and the civil authorities were not informed.
Giving evidence before the investigation committee of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, Brother Gibson said that 60 years ago, sexual abuse had been seen more as a moral failure than as a crime.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
Religious and Social
Affairs Correspondent
THE Catholic bishops have been accused in a new report of not taking seriously allegations of sexual harassment by the former head of Maynooth College, Mgr Micheal Ledwith, that were brought to their attention in the 1980s.
The finding is contained in the report of Senior Counsel Denis McCullough, which was commissioned by the bishops. The hierarchy has agreed to introduce new procedures to make sure such allegations are taken seriously in future.
Mr McCullough's investigation, which began three years ago, after the allegations against Mgr Ledwith first came to light, found that no allegations were conveyed directly to the bishops.
However, it says that "concerns of apparent propensities rather than accusations of actual crime or specific offences" had been communicated to a number of bishops by the then Senior Dean of Maynooth College, Fr Gerard McGinnity.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
CLAIMS of a series of mystery deaths at the Letterfrack Industrial School in Galway which were covered up have been rubbished by a senior member of the Christian Brothers.
There was "no shred of truth" in suggestions that boys were secretly buried in the grounds of the school, said Brother David Gibson, the provincial leader of the St Mary's Province of the Christian Brothers.
At a hearing of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) yesterday it emerged that a letter written by a brother from the school questioned "experiments" on pupils by a doctor.
Br Gibson said he did not know what a letter written by Br DB O'Shea to a supervisor in August 1960 regarding a local doctor meant.
"I can not afford to take any risk where the health of boys is concerned. I fear at times Dr [. . .] is too anxious to experiment on the pupils of this school," it read.
IRELAND
One in Four
by Michael Brennan of The Irish Examiner
THE sexual abuse of children at an industrial school in Galway was viewed by the Christian Brothers as a moral failure rather than a crime, an inquiry heard last night.
Two brothers have been found guilty of sexual abuse at St Joseph’s school in Letterfrack and four more as well as a lay person were disciplined by the Christian Brothers for similar offences in the 1930s, ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s.
At the Child Abuse Commission, provincial leader Brother David Gibson said the congregation had not reported the abuse to the gardaí because of their beliefs at the time. “In the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s, when incidents of child abuse came to the attention of brothers, this was seen as a moral failure on the part of the brothers.
“Strange as it may seem, it wasn’t seen as a crime,” he said.
He said a brother who had not been professed (spent nine years in the congregation) would have been dismissed for the abuse and a brother who was professed would have been given a canonical warning and transferred from the “scene of the crime” in the belief that he would not be likely to re-offend.
CHICAGO (IL)
Tri-City Herald
By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer
CHICAGO (AP) - The archbishop poised to take over the highest Vatican post ever held by an American defended Thursday the traditional secrecy surrounding church business in Rome.
Archbishop William Levada, the recently appointed guardian of Roman Catholic doctrine, said any expectations he would bring American-style transparency to his new post were misguided. He said revealing details of pending investigations could hurt the reputation of those under scrutiny.
"The work is served by having it done in a confidential manner," Levada said in an interview while attending a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "Until it's ready to be given to the public, it's not public."
Pope Benedict XVI appointed Levada last month to lead the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, filling the job the pontiff held for nearly 24 years.
Levada, most recently the archbishop of San Francisco, is a longtime friend of Benedict's, yet the American prelate said he never thought the pope would choose him. He described his appointment as "stunning" and "breathtaking" and "wonderful" news for the American church after three years of the clergy sex abuse crisis.
In his new position, Levada will review abuse allegations against priests worldwide and either take action against the accused clergy or refer the case back to local bishops. He plans to begin work in Rome in August.
He said he was not offering his opinion in talks at this week's bishops' meeting, where church leaders are considering proposed revisions to their discipline policy for abusive priests. A vote on any changes is expected Friday.
Levada said weighing in on the issue would be "inappropriate" considering his new role. All revisions must receive Vatican approval.
BOSTON (MA)
New Oxford Review
By Theresa Marie Moreau
Ed. Note: Theresa Marie Moreau flew from her home in Los Angeles to Cambridge, Mass., to cover the criminal trial of Paul Shanley. This article contains graphic descriptions of sexual depravity and will probably cause you to lose your appetite. You are hereby forewarned: If you don’t like to read such accounts, DO NOT READ THIS ARTICLE. We are printing it because priestly pederasty — which certain people, especially bishops, like to gloss over — must be known for the horror it is.
“If you tell, no one will believe you,” Fr. Paul Shanley whispers the warning as he kneels before his six-year-old parishioner. The boy stands still. He dares not move, as his pants are unzipped and pulled down around his ankles by the consecrated hands of the 52-year-old beloved priest. The reverend Father caresses, rubs, then grasps, in his not-so-holy fist, the boy’s body.
“This is how it’s supposed to be done,” Shanley says, then wraps his lips around the boy’s penis. A faucet drips as the sick sweetness of urinal deodorant fills the air in the bathroom hidden in the basement of St. Jean L’Evangeliste Church in Newton, Massachusetts. Shanley switches off the bathroom’s overhead bulb.
SHOHOLA (PA)
The River Reporter
By TOM KANE
SHOHOLA, PA — The Vatican has ruled in support of the Bishop of Scranton’s condemnation of the Society of St. John, located in Shohola.
The Vatican’s Congregation of the Clergy ruled on May 3, 2005 that the society be subject to the decree of suppression issued by Most Rev. Joseph F. Marino, Bishop of Scranton, according to an account in The Scranton Times on June 9. Last fall, the bishop cited a lingering sexual abuse lawsuit and mounting financial problems among his reasons for cutting off the embattled society.
The Vatican congregation stated that the society “has repeatedly refused to fully cooperate with the bishop in the execution of his responsibilities regarding the oversight of the financial situation of the society.”
Rev. Daniel Fullerton, the chancellor general of the society, and other members of the society did not return phone calls.
Subsequent to the Vatican ruling, the Diocese of Scranton had issued a new set of directives to the society that prevents priests of the society from celebrating Holy Communion at their private residence and society members from participating in fundraising activities. It also orders that the society’s website, www.ssjohn.org, must carry a prominent notice that the society is no longer a recognized ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church.
SCRANTON (PA)
Catholic News Service
SCRANTON, Pa. (CNS) -- The Vatican Congregation for Clergy has confirmed Scranton Bishop Joseph F. Martino's decision to suppress the Society of St. John, a small organization of traditionally minded priests that has been troubled by financial difficulties and allegations that two of its members had sexually molested a minor. The Catholic Light, Scranton diocesan newspaper, reported June 9 that a Vatican decree dated May 3 rejected the society's appeal against the bishop's decision to suppress it. "The bishop has directed that the members of the suppressed society may not celebrate the Eucharist at a private residence where they are now located, may not engage in any fund-raising activities and must carry a prominent notice on the Web site www.ssjohn.org that the Society of St. John is no longer a recognized ecclesial entity of the Roman Catholic Church," the newspaper said. As of June 15, the Web site still described the society as "working under the leadership of the pope and bishops of the church," with no reference to its suppression.
RIDGEFIELD (CT)
The News-Times
By Susan Tuz
THE NEWS-TIMES
RIDGEFIELD — Rumors spreading among parishioners of St. Mary's Catholic Church that Fr. Robert Morrissey has been exonerated of sexual abuse charges are not true.
The rumors prompted the church's pastor, Msgr. Laurence Bronkiewicz, and Joseph MacAleer, spokesman for the Bridgeport Catholic Diocese, to issue statements that allegations against the former St. Mary's priest remain under investigation.
"It is untrue that Fr. Morrissey was exonerated of charges," MacAleer said Thursday. "We support the statement Msgr. Bronkiewicz made in the church bulletin."
Morrissey stepped down from his post as pastor at St. Mary's in December 2002 after a man sent a letter to the Diocese of Bridgeport claiming Morrissey and two other priests sexually abused him from 1979 to 1983, when he was between 15 and 19 years old.
The three priests resigned from their positions while the matter was reviewed.
MANCHESTER (NH)
The Union Leader
By GARRY RAYNO
Union Leader Staff
After paying millions of dollars to settle more than 200 cases of alleged child sexual abuse by clergy, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester's fiscal health is improving.
The diocese's second annual Stewardship and Financial Report was recently published on its Web site along with an independent auditor's report by the Manchester certified public accounting firm of Howe, Riley & Howe.
The first report was done in part to indicate no parish or school money was used to pay the sexual abuse settlements and to explain how the diocese used the money people donated.
According to the report, both parish revenue and donations have increased for the 2004 fiscal year over the 2003 figures, although more restrictions on how the money could be used were placed on the donations and bequests.
IOWA
The Quad-City Times
By Todd Ruger
Three men who met with the Catholic Diocese of Davenport on behalf of victims of sexual abuse by its priests called the response from church leaders "a slap in the face."
The men said they presented to the diocese — at the first of several regular meetings required as part of a $9 million settlement with 37 claimants — a list of things that they and other victims would like to see the diocese do to promote healing and prevent future abuse.
"When I went into this meeting, I was very optimistic," said Mike Hitch of Oklahoma, whose lawsuit against the diocese was part of the settlement, as was the case with the other victim representatives at the meeting. "The letter we got back is: ‘That's not going to happen.' "
The diocese said in a written statement that it "seriously considered the conversation with the victims," but "the new demands by the victims go far beyond any of the terms in the contract (settlement)."
A copy of the response from the diocese provided to the Quad-City Times details reasons why it nixed other suggestions. For example, it will not actively seek out and contact possible victims because health-care professionals have advised the diocese it runs the risk of revictimizing them.
But Hitch — along with Greg Schildgen of Texas and Terry Webb of New York — said the main message they received in the written response after the meeting was: "We're welcome to come talk to them ... but nothing will come of it."
SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Republican
Friday, June 17, 2005
By BILL ZAJAC
wzajac@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - The 30 or so alleged clergy abuse victims who have outstanding claims with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield may have to wait as long as two years before settling their claims.
At an informal court hearing yesterday to determine the status of unresolved civil suits against the diocese, Hampden Superior Judge John A. Agostini issued a stay on continuing litigation on the suits while the diocese pursues legal action to determine the obligation of insurance carriers in settling claims.
"Its not going to be a few weeks or a few months, it may take a long time," said Agostini, who previously stated it could be a year or two to settle the insurance issues.
Paul M. Herrick of Springfield, Vt., who has one of the outstanding suits against the diocese, said he is discouraged, but not surprised.
"People don't understand that the diocese has given us promises and they have broken them all. None of their deadlines have been met," said Herrick.
Herrick first told the diocese that he was abused as a minor almost three years ago. He later filed suit under John Doe, a pseudonym.
FORT WORTH (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
10:22 PM CDT on Thursday, June 16, 2005
By BROOKS EGERTON / The Dallas Morning News
A prominent religious order's spokeswoman said Thursday that she was puzzled and disappointed by the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese's recent decision to identify a priest accused of child molestation.
The Dominican order investigated the claims against its member, Father Joseph Tu, and found him not guilty, the spokeswoman said.
"It's unfortunate that he's now being put in the spotlight," said Regina Wedig, an attorney who represents the Dominicans' regional office in New Orleans. "He doesn't belong in it."
A lawyer who has seen Fort Worth diocesan records about Father Tu questioned Ms. Wedig's account. But Tahira Khan Merritt said she could not elaborate because a Tarrant County judge sealed the records and barred her from disclosing details.
The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram say there was no legal basis for the sealing and have asked Judge Len Wade to undo it.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
By Robert Patrick
The lawyer for a Catholic priest charged with sodomizing a teenage boy in the late 1970s argued to a St. Louis judge Thursday that the case should be dismissed under the logic of a Missouri Supreme Court decision involving a former priest.
Rev. Thomas Graham's legal situation is like that of James Beine, a former priest who won release from prison in a high court decision in April, according to a dismissal motion a judge will decide later.
In the Beine case, a court majority held that the wording of the statute under which he was convicted - essentially indecent exposure - was unconstitutional because it was broad enough to cover even innocent conduct in a public restroom.
Christian Goeke, the lawyer for Graham, argued that similarly, the old sodomy law under which his client was charged is unconstitutional because it is broad enough to cover even sex acts between consenting adults.
The fight over nuances of the law is one reason the Graham prosecution is widely seen as a test case of whether Missouri prosecutors can pursue decades-old sex crimes, including those that came to light after the clergy sex abuse scandal.
SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
The Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD, Mass.— About 30 clergy sex abuse victims with claims pending against the Diocese of Springfield may have to wait up to two years before settling, a judge says.
At a court hearing on Thursday to determine the status of unresolved civil suits against the diocese, Hampden Superior Judge John A. Agostini issued a stay on continuing litigation on the suits while the diocese pursues legal action to determine the obligation of insurance carriers in paying for settlements.
"It's not going to be a few weeks or a few months, it may take a long time," said Agostini, who previously stated it could be a year or two to settle the insurance issues.
One alleged victim with a pending suit against the Roman Catholic diocese, Paul M. Herrick of Springfield, Vt., said he is disappointed but plans to stick it out.
"People don't understand that the diocese has given us promises and they have broken them all. None of their deadlines have been met," Herrick told The Republican of Springfield.
CANADA
London Free Press
KELLY PEDRO AND MEGAN O'TOOLE, Free Press Reporters 2005-06-17 02:13:27
A Roman Catholic priest living in London has been charged with sex-related offences involving two boys.
Rev. Konstanty (Konnie) Przybylski, 55, was charged Wednesday with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual exploitation, sexual interference and sexual touching.
Two young men told police they were sexually assaulted at St. Cecilia's Church in Port Dover where Przybylski was a priest between 1995 and 2000, Norfolk OPP said yesterday.
They were between 12 and 18 years old at the time.
Rev. Pio Beorchia of St. Cecilia's said Przybylski was stationed at the church from 1993 to 2000, after which he was reassigned and moved to London.
Beorchia said parishioners at St. Cecilia's will go through a painful time as Przybylski's case plays out.
"It's very distressing and I think it's brought a real darkness to our parish family here," Beorchia said yesterday. "We can only place our faith and our hope in Christ, ultimately."
CHICAGO (IL)
Los Angeles Times
By Larry B. Stammer, Times Staff Writer
CHICAGO — The nation's Roman Catholic bishops were expected today to reauthorize a 3-year-old "zero tolerance" policy to prevent the sexual abuse of minors and to weed offending clergy out of public ministry.
But protesters outside the Fairmont Hotel, where the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is holding its annual spring meeting, charged that proposed changes in the policy would weaken the church's commitment to safeguard children and youth from sexual predators.
The draft also came under attack Thursday from Illinois Appellate Justice Anne M. Burke, former chairwoman of theAbuse Tracker Review Board, a lay panel that was created by bishops in 2002 to oversee how well they carried out their promises and has criticized some of their actions. Burke, in an interview, said the board's independence would be "undercut or at least watered down" by some of the changes, such as the possibility that it could one day include clergy.
But bishops staunchly denied the charges Thursday and said they were as committed as ever to safeguard children and youth from sexual predators within the church. They are expected to extend the policy for another five years.
A key figure in the ongoing sexual abuse issue will be Archbishop Emeritus William J. Levada of San Francisco, prefect of the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — a position Pope Benedict XVI held before being elected pontiff. The congregation has jurisdiction over such cases.
CHICAGO (IL)
Baltimore Sun
By Janice D'Arcy
Sun Staff
Originally published June 17, 2005
CHICAGO - A board set up by U.S. Catholic bishops to examine the church's sexual abuse crisis recommended a sweeping study yesterday to provide a better understanding of why priests abused minors.
Dr. Paul McHugh, a professor and former director of the Johns Hopkins psychiatry department, told the gathering of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops during a closed-door session that the research would take about three years and would include extensive interviews with victims and perpetrators.
"Some bishops will say, 'Why bring this all out and get people angry again?' They wonder if we're making things better by always bringing this up," McHugh said in an interview before the session. "What I'll say to them is that it must be done. In order to go forward, we have to learn from the past."
The agenda for the three-day meeting here was dominated by the abuse scandal.
MARYLAND
Baltimore Sun
By Anica Butler
Sun Staff
Originally published June 17, 2005
A former Roman Catholic priest who was accused in January of sexually abusing a former Calvert Hall College student has been charged in Baltimore County, according to charging documents.
Jerome F. Toohey Jr. is accused of abusing the student between 1987 and 1989 when Toohey was a chaplain at the boys high school in Towson. He was charged May 26 with child abuse, third-degree sex offense and perverted practice, and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing next month, according to charging documents.
It is the second time Toohey has faced allegations of sexual abuse. In 1993, the priest was accused of abusing a former student at John Carroll School in Bel Air.
A lawsuit brought by that former student against Toohey was dismissed because state law requires that civil suits be filed within three years of an alleged incident.
In the new allegation, the former student told police that he first met Toohey at his mother's 25th high school reunion, and that his mother asked Toohey to help him gain admission to Calvert Hall, which he did, according to the charging documents.
UNITED STATES
Newsday
BY CAROL EISENBERG
STAFF WRITER, This story was supplemented with wire service reports.
June 17, 2005
U.S. Roman Catholic bishops are expected to vote today to preserve the core tenet of their so-called one strike and you're out policy to protect children from sexually abusive priests, even as they fine-tune provisions to give themselves greater discretion.
"No one wants to permit children to be abused in the church," said Chicago Cardinal Francis George, who led a team of U.S. bishops who worked with Vatican officials on the revisions. "It's a source of great shame for all of us, a source of scandal for the faithful and for the world."
While the revised policy would bar guilty priests from ministry, victim and lay advocates say other proposed changes let the bishops off the hook in terms of accountability.
"I find some of these changes troubling," said Illinois Appellate Judge Anne Burke, who headed the national lay panel that monitored bishops' compliance until her term expired in November.
Burke referred to new language describing the national panel originally set up to monitor bishops' compliance as "consultative," rather than "independent," requiring appointees to be vetted by local bishops and allowing clerics and nuns to serve in place of lay Catholics, according to documents.
"Absolutely, this is an attempt to rein in the review board and trying to diminish their ability to proceed independently," Burke said. "They're obviously responding to their dislike for the way the former board conducted itself."
NEW YORK
New York Newsday
BY RITA CIOLLI
STAFF WRITER
June 17, 2005
In a surprising ruling that breathes new life into the expired cases of clerical sex abuse victims in New York, the state's highest court yesterday agreed to decide whether the claims of sexual abuse victims from Brooklyn and Queens can go foward.
"This is an important and positive event for all those victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests," said Michael Dowd, a Manhattan attorney who represents the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit, known as Boyle v. Smith, involves 43 men and women alleging abuse by 12 priests in the Diocese of Brooklyn, which includes Queens. It had been dismissed first by a trial court and again in February by the appellate division. The lower courts had refused to accept Dowd's argument that the state time limit for filing such claims should be disregarded because church officials allegedly "conspired to deceive and cover up" the behavior of predatory priests.
The Court of Appeals will hear the case this fall. It had earlier rejected two similar claims involving upstate dioceses.
Jonathan Uejio, who represents the Diocese of Brooklyn, said he was surprised by the ruling. "Obviously the diocese would like to see this put to rest," he said. Uejio noted that the decision only involves whether the victims can have their day in court and not on the issue of whether any abuse had occurred.
Separate multi-plaintiff lawsuits against the Diocese of Rockville Centre and the Archdiocese of New York have been on hold until the Court of Appeals decides the Brooklyn case.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times
June 17, 2005
BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN Staff Reporter
The country's Roman Catholic bishops are expected today to approve a revised version of a three-year-old policy that removes sexually abusive clergy from ministry.
Modified from its original form mostly for purposes of clarification and grammar, the updated charter renews the vow to protect children as well as the zero-tolerance policy against bishops, priests or deacons guilty of abuse.
"All the elements that were there before are still there," Cardinal Francis George said Thursday at the opening of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting at the Fairmont Chicago Hotel.
During a preliminary presentation, George said the church has kept the charter's promises, albeit "somewhat unevenly."
"It's a source of great shame for all of us," George said, referring to child abuse by priests.
CHICAGO (IL)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By Kevin Eckstrom
Religion News Service
CHICAGO - When the nation's Catholic bishops adopted new policies to clamp down on clergy sexual abuse in 2002, they appointed a review board of prominent lay Catholics to help monitor the bishops' progress.
But three years later, as the bishops meet here this week to renew those same policies, some are concerned that the bishops are tightening the screws on theAbuse Tracker Review Board and trying to limit its independent voice.
Church leaders say the revised job description for the review board is simply formalizing long-standing policy.
Critics say that the bishops still have not regained the trust of their flocks and warn that they should not try to muzzle the voice of lay Catholics who need a measure of independence in order to be taken seriously.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Margaret Ramirez, Tribune religion reporter. Tribune news services contributed to this report
Published June 17, 2005
As the nation's Roman Catholic bishops gathered in Chicago Thursday for a meeting to review their sexual abuse policy, Cardinal Francis George said homosexual men should not be admitted into seminaries.
George, who is archbishop of Chicago and vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in light of the sexual abuse crisis, bishops are paying closer attention to the sexual backgrounds of men interested in entering the priesthood. Part of the commitment is that a man is celibate when he enters seminary.
"Also, anyone who has been part of a gay subculture or who has lived promiscuously as a heterosexual would not be admitted ... no matter how many years in his background that might have occurred," George said.
The role, if any, of sexuality in the sexual abuse scandal is being debated. Critics have charged there is no evidence that gays are more likely to engage in abuse than heterosexuals. Others have said placing attention on homosexuality is a way of deflecting attention from bishops who allowed the scandal to unfold.
CHICAGO (IL)
Toledo Blade
CHICAGO - Catholic bishops reviewing their guidelines on clerical sexual abuse said yesterday that they will keep their "zero-tolerance" policy for ousting alleged perpetrators and will consider only minor revisions to policies implemented three years ago.
Speaking to 262 members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting here through tomorrow, Archbishop Harry Flynn of St. Paul and Minneapolis said the proposed changes are based on three years of experience working with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
That landmark document, adopted in Dallas after the national church scandal erupted in Boston in January, 2002, calls for the removal from the ministry of any cleric facing even a single credible allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.
The charter initially was to be reviewed in 2004, but the review was delayed one year.
The revisions being considered are "intended to strengthen our original commitment, and the charter itself, in light of our experience, by clarifying how it can more effectively achieve its goals," Archbishop Flynn said.
Among the 28 proposed changes to the 12-page charter, for example, are including deacons along with priests and bishops in defining clerical sexual abuse, and changing the status of the ad hoc committee on sexual abuse to a permanent standing committee of the bishops' conference.
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said the bishops had discussed the possibility of returning some clerical sexual abusers, depending on the circumstances, to supervised church work that does not involve parish work or exposure to children.
CHICAGO (IL)
Contra Costa Times
RACHEL ZOLL
Associated Press
CHICAGO - U.S. Roman Catholic bishops are expected to extend their policy of permanently barring sex offenders from church work, but victims' groups say prelates cannot be trusted to enforce their own plan.
The advocates, protesting outside a bishops' meeting Thursday, said some guilty priests remain in ministry.
"We take little comfort in the fact that `zero-tolerance' remains the official policy when some bishops still ignore that pledge," said Barbara Blaine, founder of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "This never was a tough, binding national policy."
Church leaders adopted the discipline plan in an unprecedented June 2002 assembly, with the mandate that it be reviewed. A bishops' panel says it has recommended revisions that leave the policy largely intact. A vote is set for Friday, and if approved by American bishops, the policy would stay in place for five more years.
BOSTON (MA)
TheBostonChannel.com
POSTED: 6:54 am EDT June 17, 2005
UPDATED: 7:30 am EDT June 17, 2005
BOSTON -- The state prisons department has made significant progress on reform since former priest John Geoghan was killed while behind bars, but still needs to make key changes in how it assigns inmates to prison units, according to a report obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
The 40-page report from the Department of Correction Advisory Council is the first update delivered to the administration since the Governor's Commission on Corrections Reform began a top-to-bottom review of the prison system and recommended 18 areas for improvement after Geoghan, a convicted pedophile, was slain in his high-security prison cell by a fellow inmate almost two years ago.
The system of assigning inmates to low-, medium- or high-security prisons, which resulted in the frail and elderly Geoghan's transfer to the maximum security unit where he was killed, was one of 18 areas that the governor's commission had singled out for reform.
The advisory council praised Commissioner Kathleen M. Dennehy and said other reforms that have been accomplished, such as changing the department's internal investigations process and improving oversight of accidents in the prison, have been "impressive."
BRANSON (MO)
KYTV
BRANSON, Mo. –- A former church employee’s lawsuit has divided a congregation and brought protests from a woman named in the lawsuit as a priest's "girlfriend." Glenna McKitterick of Branson filed the lawsuit in federal court in Springfield last week.
McKitterick says Monsignor Philip Bucher, the priest at Our Lady of the Lake Roman Catholic Church for whom she worked, sexually harassed her. She says Bucher fired her for complaining about it.
A lot of people are caught in the middle here. They include members of the parish and a woman named in the suit as Bucher's girlfriend.
“She was extremely dedicated," said Catherine Gamez, a friend of McKitterick.
“I've got a lot of respect for him," said Diane Diebold, who has known Bucher for more than a decade. "He's been a great priest for us."
Both women are members of Our Lady of the Lake in Branson.
"I think he's done a great job,” said Diebold. “He's helped build a new church. I think that's what he was sent here to do, to help with that, and he's accomplished that."
CANADA
Canada NewsWire
SIMCOE, ON, June 16 /CNW/ - Members of the Norfolk County Detachment
Crime Unit of the Ontario Provincial Police have arrested and charged a
55-year-old Roman Catholic priest with sexual offences involving young males.
The charges are the result of an investigation into complaints that two
young males had been sexually assaulted at a Port Dover parish between 1995
and 2000. The males were between the ages of 12 and 18 at the time.
Charged with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual
exploitation, one count of sexual interference and one count of sexual
touching is Konstanty (Konnie) Przybylski, 55, of Cathcart Street, London,
Ontario. The accused was a priest at St. Cecilia's Church in Port Dover,
Ontario at the time of the offences.
TOWSON (MD)
TheWBALChannel.com
POSTED: 8:20 am EDT June 16, 2005
UPDATED: 6:11 pm EDT June 16, 2005
TOWSON, Md. -- WBAL-TV 11 News has learned a former priest of a Baltimore County school faces three felony child sex charges.
WBAL-TV 11 News reporter Lowell Melser reported the charges center on allegations from a former student that he was sexually abused as a student at Calvert Hall College High School.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore said in January that a former student accused former priest Jerome Toohey of sexually abusing him in the late 1980s. WBAL-TV 11 News has withheld the name of the accuser because he was a minor at the time of the accusations.
In 1993, the Archdiocese said it stripped Toohey of his priestly duties after a former high school boy claimed abuse. Melser reported that nearly 12 years later, Toohey faces similar accusations from a different former Calvert Hall student who claimed abuse from January 1987 to December 1989.
VIRGINIA
The Connection
Springfield
By Glenn McCarty
June 16, 2005
Fairfax County Police arrested an associate pastor at St. Mark's Lutheran Church on Monday, June 13, and charged him with one count of forcible sodomy.
Police allege that 58-year old Rafael Arteaga had inappropriate contact with a 4-year-old girl on Wednesday, June 8, in an incident that took place at a playground near the church, located at 5800 Backlick Road, across the street from Lynbrook Elementary School. Police arrested Arteaga at his home, on Craig Street in Springfield, and he is currently being held without bond.
"We are deeply saddened to hear of the arrest of Pastor Arteaga and of the incident of which he is accused. Sexual molestation of children is a crime and we have no tolerance for sexual abuse or misconduct of any kind," said St. Mark's senior pastor Michael Taylor in a statement released on Tuesday, June 14.
CHICAGO (IL)
NPR
Day to Day, June 16, 2005 · The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops begins Thursday in Chicago. Among the key items on the agenda are whether to eliminate a requirement that the Vatican be automatically informed of sex abuse complaints -- and church leaders may once again impose an internal statute of limitations on American abuse cases. Jason DeRose reports.
CHICAGO (IL)
WPRI
CHICAGO Chicago Cardinal Francis George says the U-S Conference of Catholic Bishops will keep its pledge to protect children, even if it changes the way it handles abuse cases.
George and other bishops reviewing the three-year-old policy have recommended that dioceses continue permanently barring guilty clergy from all church work.
The clergy sex abuse crisis erupted in the Boston Archdiocese and spread across the nation.
But at their national meeting in Chicago, U-S bishops could vote to rein in theAbuse Tracker Review Board, a lay watchdog panel they formed, emphasizing that it remains under the bishops' authority.
CHICAGO (IL)
Sauk Valley Newspapers
CHICAGO (AP) — At the peak of the clergy sex abuse crisis, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops adopted a policy of permanently barring offenders from church work, prompting concern among some church leaders that the punishment violated a belief in redemption.
But the bishops are expected to preserve that rule — the core of their abuse-prevention plan — at a meeting today. A committee of bishops overseeing a review of the plan has spent months soliciting comment from church leaders.
"Overall there was definite expression that the 'one-strike' policy needs to be retained for now," the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse wrote in its recommendations, which the bishops are set to take up today.
Still, the committee concluded that "many, perhaps a majority" of bishops hoped they could eventually allow men who are truly rehabilitated back into ministry.
"However, most also see the rationale for continuing it," the panel wrote.
The bishops adopted the discipline plan, called the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, in June 2002, with the mandate it be revisited after two years. The policy remained in effect though the review concluded later than planned.
CHICAGO (IL)
Tallahassee Democrat
RACHEL ZOLL
Associated Press
CHICAGO - America's Roman Catholic bishops will keep their pledge to protect children from sexually abusive priests as they revise their discipline plan for offenders, a key prelate said at a national church meeting Thursday.
Bishops overseeing a review of the three-year-old policy have recommended that dioceses continue permanently barring guilty clergy from all church work. Some Catholic leaders have been concerned that the punishment is too severe.
"No one wants to permit children to be abused in the church," said Chicago Cardinal Francis George, who lead a team of U.S. bishops who worked with Vatican officials on the revisions. "It's a source of great shame for all of us, a source of scandal for the faithful and for the world."
The bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse spent months soliciting comment on the policy.
"Overall there was definite expression that the `one-strike' policy needs to be retained for now," the committee wrote in recommendations presented Thursday.
Still, the panel noted that "many, perhaps a majority," of prelates hoped that they could eventually allow men who are truly rehabilitated back into ministry - an idea victims vehemently oppose.
JOLIET (IL)
The Herald News
By Ted Slowik
STAFF WRITER
JOLIET — Bobby Drish grew up in a devout Roman Catholic household, where his parents often entertained priests and addressed them on a first-name basis.
So Bobby's parents never questioned why their son spent so much time with the Rev. Michael Gibbney, a priest at their Bolingbrook parish when Bobby was between the ages of 11 and 13. In 2002, when he finally told them that the priest had sexually abused him, Bobby's parents disowned him. Two days later, he suffered a heart attack at age 35.
Now 38, Drish is using the Internet and other media to reveal the most detailed public account to date alleging how a Joliet Diocese priest manipulated a young boy into a sexual relationship. He says he's now able for the first time to candidly discuss his experiences publicly.
"What people fail to understand is that (years after the) sexual trauma on an 11-year-old and the power, booze and pills, we tend to suddenly remember things we blocked out. Why? Because I am finally the age of my perpetrator," Drish said from his home in Austin, Texas.
On the eve of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' meeting in Chicago this weekend, Drish's story takes on added significance. The bishops are expected to make subtle changes to their policies regarding abusive priests, and critics say the bishops are watering down the safeguards.
UNITED STATES
New Oxford Review
By Michael W. Ryan
In recent years and especially during the past few years, much has been said and written about the highly immoral and destructive activities of an alarming number of Catholic priests who used their positions of respect and authority to lure young children and adolescents into perverted sexual liaisons. In spite of all that has been said and written, however, the question of how those clergymen financed their often lavish lifestyles has never been addressed. This article dares to address that question and, insofar as it relates to the American Catholic Church, reveals a surprisingly clear and shocking connection between the hierarchy’s laissez-faire attitude toward revenue protection and the ability of predator-priests to fund their deviant activities.
In August 2002, Robert Burkholder, a retired 83-year-old Catholic priest from the Archdiocese of Detroit, was charged with sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy in 1986 while the pair vacationed in Hawaii. According to prosecutors, the trip was an eighth-grade graduation present to the boy. Wayne County, Michigan, Prosecutor Michael Duggan described Burkholder as being “one of the worst pedophiles we have ever had in this state.”
On November 1, 2002, Burkholder, who by then had admitted molesting at least a dozen boys going as far back as the 1940s, pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years probation. One might well ask: How can a modestly salaried priest afford a trip for two to Hawaii? From an inheritance? Perhaps. I don’t know, and I’m not accusing Burkholder of embezzlement.
But cases like this do raise questions.
Shortly before he died in September 1998, Walter Benz, 72, confessed to stealing an average of $50,000 per year over a 26-year period. Benz admitted the money was used to fund expensive items such as cars, guns, antiques, a Florida condo, and gambling trips to Atlantic City in the company of his secretary, with whom he had lived for a number of years. As newsworthy as that item was, who would expect it to occupy the local media for weeks and, quite literally, scandalize thousands of Pittsburgh-area Catholics? But Benz wasn’t your average Joe Thief. He was better known as the Rev. Walter J. Benz, Pastor of St. Mary Assumption parish in Hampton, Penn., and previously, Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament parish in Harrison.
LOUISVILLE (KY)
Lexington Herald-Leader
By Brett Barrouquere
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOUISVILLE - Decades after being sexually abused by a priest in Central Kentucky, Kay Montgomery is still coping with the memories and emotional trauma.
"I don't think a victim ever forgets what a perpetrator does to them, robs them of their innocence," said Montgomery, a Lexington resident who heads the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
So, even with the death this week of former Catholic priest Earl Bierman and the pending settlement of a class-action lawsuit against the Diocese of Covington, Montgomery and others say victims still might be looking for closure.
Bierman, 73, was serving a 20-year sentence at the Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange when he died Monday. He pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting six boys in the 1960s and 1970s and was suspended from the priesthood. He was awaiting a July 7 medical parole hearing when he died.
The criminal case and a civil suit against Bierman and the diocese were the earliest signs of what would develop into a large-scale sex abuse scandal against the Covington Diocese.
PORTLAND (OR)
The Oregonian
Thursday, June 16, 2005
ANNE SAKER
When the woman returned to court Wednesday, her lawyer gave her news: The church had at last offered a settlement, rather than allow a Multnomah County jury consider her claim that her North Portland pastor raped her as a teenager, and he went unpunished.
The woman said she asked her lawyer, Randall J. Wolfe, for advice. The Church of God in Christ Inc. offered a fraction of the millions she had asked of the jury, he told her. But any verdict in her favor would be tied up in years of appeals.
"It was not an easy decision," said the woman, 32. "But I was told that if I won, the church would fight this. That helped me say, I'm tired. I want to go home."
So an hour later, she sat at a table in courtroom 716 as the lawyers polished a one-page agreement that sealed the dollar amount she would receive. Then they turned the paper around on the table and pushed it to her.
She read every word. Then she signed it.
The stroke of the pen completed a six-day trial that revealed not only one woman's torment over sexual abuse but also the Church of God in Christ's inability to discipline errant clergy.
FORT WORTH (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By Darren Barbee
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
A priest accused of sexually abusing two girls in the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese was cleared after a church investigation found no wrongdoing and the family recanted, according to a recent letter written by Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese.
In 1993, the Rev. Joseph Tu Ngoc Nguyen was accused of sexual misconduct in Fort Worth in 1980.
Tu, who now works in Houston, was one of eight priests identified last week by the Fort Worth Diocese as having been accused of sexual misconduct with a minor. Tu is the only one still in active ministry.
He told the Star-Telegram last week that the accusations against him were resolved but did not elaborate. Tu could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
CHICAGO (IL)
Reuters
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A group representing victims of the sexual abuse scandal in the U.S. Catholic church said on Wednesday that church leaders should set up a reward fund to flush out priests who have so far escaped detection.
A "blind loyalty to the church" has kept many victims and others with knowledge of abuse from coming forward, said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
A reward fund, even starting with something as modest as $5,000, would "encourage whistle blowers," she told reporters at a sidewalk news conference outside a Chicago hotel where the U.S. Catholic bishops were gathering for three days of meetings.
There was no immediate response from the bishops, who at their sessions will re-examine the policies they set up three years ago in response to the scandal that has cost the church heavily in both money to settle suits and in its public image.
A prime component of those policies, one providing that priests who are found to have committed even a single act of sexual abuse should be removed from the priesthood, is likely to be retained.
CHICAGO (IL)
NBC 5
POSTED: 7:26 pm CDT June 15, 2005
UPDATED: 6:10 am CDT June 16, 2005
CHICAGO -- Protesters greeted the Catholic bishops who arrived in Chicago for the spring meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Wednesday afternoon.
NBC5's Mary Ann Ahern reported from Holy Name Cathedral, where the bishops arrived to celebrate Mass and members of and members of the Coalition of Concerned Catholics and Survivors Network Of Those Abused By Priests gathered to voice their concern that bishops may try to water down that tough priest sex abuse policy.
Ahern said the bishops arrived in Chicago three years after first putting in place a strict policy for priests charged with sexual misconduct.
"They touted zero tolerance. They touted openness and transparency," said Barbara Blaine, with SNAP.
"What we've seen since then is a continual backstepping from that position," she added.
The Catholic church has spent $1 billion on priest sex abuse since 1950, Ahern said, with most of the money going to settlements and legal fees.
Survivors worry that many of the some 200 American bishops would like to give offending priests a chance to rehabilitate.
"Is it one time? Is it two times? How do we know it's one time? Maybe we should let them back into our profession. This is absolutely unacceptable," said Peter Isley, with SNAP.
CHICAGO (IL)
Scripps Howard News Service
By PHILLIP ELLIOT
Scripps Howard News Service
June 15, 2005
- When they meet Thursday in Chicago, U.S. Catholic bishops will consider revisions in the their sexual abuse policies that some say weaken enforcement.
While the proposed revisions to the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People do keep the "one strike" policy, they add that priests should be presumed innocent.
Some victims' advocates say the proposed changes give the bishops excessive latitude about reporting abuses to civil authorities.
Among the other proposed changes to the document:
-The role for theAbuse Tracker Review Board, the independent lay body, commissioned to oversee the child protection policy, would be reduced.
- Bishops will be allowed to self-audit compliance with those policies, unlike the current external auditors visiting each diocese.
- Abuse will be redefined and framed through the Sixth Commandment, which prohibits any sexual activity outside marriage.
NEW YORK
Long Island Press
Lauren Wolfe 06/16/2005 12:01 am
Albany has taken on a frenzied look in these last weeks of the legislative session. Debate is nonstop as lawmakers scramble to push through hundreds of bills. Among the pieces of legislation waiting in the New York State Senate is one that addresses a concern that arose out of the Catholic Church's priest abuse scandal, one that is strangely controversial.
The bill would add clergy to the list of people in 31 professions now mandated to report suspected child abuse. The list currently includes physicians, psychologists and even Christian Scientists and podiatrists. Adding clergy might seem like a no-brainer, but the legislation would not only add them to the group of mandated reporters, but also reclassify what kind of abuse such people would be legally required to report. That part is giving pause to some advocates who work with minors.
Sponsored by Sen. Stephen M. Saland (R-Poughkeepsie), the bill would necessitate that clergy report on all potentially sexual relationships between minors and those of age (allegations learned through confession would be excluded). Currently, the counseling adult can make a judgment about whether a relationship is abusive. Also, the proposal requires reporting of abuse or neglect by adults who are not parents or legal guardians. Current law only requires reporting of suspected child abuse or neglect when it involves a parent or legal guardian of the child.
CHICAGO (IL)
Star-Ledger
Thursday, June 16, 2005
BY JEFF DIAMANT
Star-Ledger Staff
CHICAGO -- Three years after their historic meeting in Dallas, the nation's Catholic bishops will gather here today, poised to renew a rule that permanently bars from the ministry priests accused of sexual misconduct.
The "zero-tolerance" policy is a central part of the so-called "Dallas Charter" the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted in 2002 when revelations of sexual abuse by priests were rocking the Catholic church.
The sex scandal, the worst crisis in the history of the American church, spawned international dismay not only over the abusive priests, but over bishops who protected them by quietly shuffling them among parishes and not forwarding details of allegations to law enforcement.
In the last three years, bishops have conducted studies showing that, from 1950 to 2002, 4percent of priests had been credibly accused of sex abuse. Dioceses in the United States have paid out more than $1billion in legal settlements, counseling and attorneys' fees related to the abuse.
The Dallas Charter called for bishops to reconsider its provisions in two years. When the bishops met in November, they decided to delay action until the meeting this week.
CHICAGO (IL)
Courier & Press
By PHILIP ELLIOTT Courier & Press staff writer 461-0783 or elliottp@courierpress.com (C) 2005, Evansville Courier & Press
June 16, 2005
When they meet today in Chicago, the U.S. Catholic bishops will consider revisions in their sexual abuse policies that some say weaken enforcement.
While the proposed revisions to the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People do keep the "one strike" policy, they add that priests should be presumed innocent.
Some victims' advocates say the proposed changes give the bishops excessive latitude about reporting abuses to civil authorities.
NASHVILLE (TN)
Tennessean
By SHEILA BURKE
Staff Writer
Lawyers representing two molestation victims in a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville are accusing church officials of hiding millions of dollars' worth of assets that they believe should be considered at an upcoming trial.
But church officials said yesterday they have done nothing wrong and have complied with a judge's order to provide an accurate accounting of how much the diocese is worth.
The dispute revolves around one central question: What constitutes property owned by the diocese?
Lawyers suing the church maintain that individual parishes, such as Nashville's Christ the King and St. Henry's churches, take their direction from the bishop who heads the diocese. The lawyers believe the parishes are the property of the diocese, but officials with the Catholic Diocese of Nashville say each parish is a separate financial entity.
UNITED STATES
FindLaw
By MARCI HAMILTON
hamilton02@aol.com
----
Thursday, Jun. 16, 2005
Evidence at Michael Jackson's trial strongly indicated that he is a child molester. There was testimony that he plied children with liquor, showed them pornography, and invited them into his bed - all behaviors typical of a molester.
Yet, the jury did not convict Jackson - apparently largely because they believed the victim's mother was a gold-digger. The problem, however, is that there is every possibility that she was a gold-digger and the boy was abused.
If this boy was indeed a childhood sexual abuse victim, he is just one more example of how the system works against these victims. And while nothing can be done now about the Jackson verdict, much can still be done about child abuse in general.
Revelations of clergy abuse taught us that the law has been inadequate to redress the sexual abuse of children. But that left a question: What would be an effective legal approach?
My view is that both the states and the federal government ought to act to address this heinous crime - in ways I will detail in this column.
UNITED STATES
Baltimore Sun
By Janice D'Arcy
Sun Staff
Originally published June 16, 2005
With financial settlements in the church's sexual abuse scandal costing more than $1 billion, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops are expected this week to retain their zero tolerance policy - permanently dismissing priests from the ministry for any act of abuse against children.
But as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' semiannual meeting begins today in Chicago, the bishops will consider revising other policies enacted after the scandal erupted in Boston in 2002.
Among the changes to be discussed will be scaling back independent reviews of dioceses, which ensured the policies were carried out and decided whether to fund a multimillion-dollar study of the underlying causes of the abuse.
"The revisions make it clearer and, wherever possible, stronger," said Bishop W. Francis Malooly, the Baltimore Archdiocese auxiliary bishop who helped draft the revisions.
BOISE (ID)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOISE, Idaho -- Roman Catholic Bishop Michael Driscoll of Idaho says he waited nine months before informing members of a Boise parish that their deacon was under investigation for viewing child pornography because the diocese was worried about being sued over such allegations.
But that's not the case anymore, he said in his first interview since it was disclosed last month that Driscoll withheld information that St. Mary's Deacon Rapelyea Howell was the subject of an FBI investigation and continued to let Howell participate in services.
"I would just say the heck with worries about civil liabilities, let's go do it and do the right thing," Driscoll told The Idaho Statesman newspaper Tuesday. "If I make it public and it turns out to be false, I will make that very, very public so I can restore that person's name."
The 65-year-old leader of Idaho's 144,000 Catholics has been criticized by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. The group alleges he is continuing a pattern of secrecy and protection of abusive church workers that began when he was an official with the Diocese of Orange, Calif., three decades ago.
SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Republican
Thursday, June 16, 2005
By BILL ZAJAC
wzajac@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - Hoping it will lead to settlements of outstanding clergy sexual abuse claims, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield filed legal action this week against its insurance carriers.
The diocese filed a declaratory judgment action against seven insurance carriers in Hampden Superior Court Tuesday, two days before diocesan and claimants' lawyers meet today in court to provide a status report on unresolved clergy abuse suits.
Although the diocese settled claims with 46 claimants last year, another 30 claims were left unresolved.
The diocese is "asking that the court determine the obligations of our insurance carriers to reimburse the diocese for past settlements of sexual abuse claims and determine responsibility for payment of future claims," according to a press release from the diocese. "The Diocese and the insurance companies have had multiple discussions to try to resolve these matters without the necessity of involving the courts."
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times
June 16, 2005
BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN Staff Reporter
The nation's Roman Catholic bishops' plan to keep a "zero-tolerance" policy against sexually abusive priests is a step in the right direction, but the church must persevere in rooting out the problem and carrying out its promise to protect children and young adults, Catholic experts and victims say.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will make "no major changes" when they review the charter they adopted three years ago at the opening of their spring meeting today at the Fairmont Chicago Hotel, spokesman Bill Ryan said.
Critics and supporters support the bishops' stance as long as they lend an ear to the hundreds of victims who were shut out for years.
UNITED STATES
The Dispatch
By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer
At the peak of the clergy sex abuse crisis, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops adopted a policy of permanently barring offenders from church work, prompting concern among some church leaders that the punishment violated a belief in redemption.
But the bishops are expected to preserve that rule - the core of their abuse-prevention plan - at a meeting Thursday. A committee of bishops overseeing a review of the plan has spent months soliciting comment from church leaders.
"Overall there was definite expression that the `one-strike' policy needs to be retained for now," the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse wrote in its recommendations, which the bishops are set to take up Thursday.
Still, the committee concluded that "many, perhaps a majority" of bishops hoped they could eventually allow men who are truly rehabilitated back into ministry.
"However, most also see the rationale for continuing it," the panel wrote.
TUCSON (AZ)
Fox 11
By Deanna Morgan, Fox 11 News
When Lynne Cadigan first took on sexual abuse claims against the Diocese of Tucson seven years ago, she says it was a struggle, but now a lot has changed.
"We couldn't possibly even speak to each other," says Cadigan. "I considered them to be criminals." "I considered it to be a conspiracy, and a cover up."
"Legally in this situation we managed to reach a compromise which was a win win for the victims and that's very unusual in the law."
Today a federal court judge approved 30 settlement claims against the Diocese of Tucson for sexual abuse. Cadigan is the lawyer for 28 of the claimants expected to receive settlement money. She says the court's approval means there's now light at the end of the tunnel.
UNITED STATES
Christian Science Monitor
By Jane Lampman
Next step in clergy sex abuse crisis
Three years after agreeing on a charter to protect children from sexual abuse by priests, US Catholic bishops are ready to finalize that policy and make permanent their ad hoc committee on the troubling issue.
At the spring meeting of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which begins Thursday in Chicago, they will also consider financing for an independent study of the causes of the clergy abuse crisis.
Their actions come as the cost of settlements, counseling, and legal fees passes the $1 billion mark, as tallied by the Associated Press. Three dioceses have declared bankruptcy, and hundreds of cases remain to be dealt with.
Some technical revisions will be made to the charter and the legal norms that implement it. But the zero-tolerance policy - which removes a priest from the ministry for a single offense - is expected to be retained.
Many Catholics called for the study on the causes of the crisis, but the estimated cost of up to $4 million is greater than the conference can fund, says Msgr. Francis Maniscalco, communications director. So bishops will vote on spending $1 million, and also seek outside funding.
HUDSON (WI)
Grand Forks Herald
Associated Press
HUDSON, Wis. - The investigation into the killing of two funeral home workers more than three years ago awaits a sophisticated examination and analysis of a dead priest's computer seized months ago, including the recovery of e-mails that were deleted, the police chief said Wednesday.
"At this point in time, that seems to be the last piece that we need," Chief Richard Trende said.
The computer was seized in December at a rectory in Hurley when the Rev. Ryan Erickson was questioned in the Feb. 5, 2002, killings of funeral home director Dan O'Connell, 39, and his 22-year-old old intern, James Ellison. Erickson was an associate pastor at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Hudson when the funeral workers were killed.
Just days after being questioned, Erickson, 31, was found hanged Dec. 19 from a fire escape at St. Mary's Church in Hurley. Police said he had denied any involvement in the murders.
Trende said Erickson was questioned after a separate investigation was launched last fall into an allegation the priest was involved in a possible crime involving a child or children before he was assigned to the church in Hurley.
Trende has refused to provide many details, including what led detectives to question the priest about the murders, and a judge has sealed court documents in the case, including requests for search warrants.
KENTUCKY
Kentucky Post
By Kevin Eigelbach
Post staff reporter
When the parties negotiating a record $120 million settlement of priest sexual abuse claims against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington hit a snag, they turned to one of the faithful.
Bill Burleigh, the chairman of the board of the E.W. Scripps Co., which owns The Post, kept the negotiations going, say those who were involved.
"We are all extremely grateful to him," said Chicago attorney Carrie Huff, who helped represent the diocese.
Cincinnati attorney Stan Chesley filed a class-action lawsuit in Boone Circuit Court in February 2003, alleging that the diocese had covered up 50 years of sexual abuse.
FORT MADISON (IA)
Fort Madison Daily Democrat
Chris Faulkner/Staff Writer
In one sense, it's not a topic that many people would discuss while sitting around the dinner table or while sitting on the bleachers next to fellow fans at the local high school sporting event.
But total silence over the issue of sexual abuse by priests is not the right approach either, according to the Rev. David Hitch, a Fort Madison native who is parish priest at St. Mary's in Tipton.
Hitch has been working with Concerned Catholics of Davenport the past few years, and he said he wants more people to be aware of what had been going on in the past and what's being done -- or not done, as the case may be -- in the present.
The group will be putting on a seminar -- A Weekend of Hope and Understanding -- at Faith United Church of Christ, 1609 Deforest Avenue in Iowa City.
The seminar will start at 6:30 p.m. Friday with a half-hour registration period, and end at 5 p.m. Saturday, June 25. The cost of the seminar is $25. A group dinner will be held afterward from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. for an additional $15.
TUCSON (AZ)
Tucson Citizen
SHERYL KORNMAN
Tucson Citizen
Thirty people seeking compensation from the Diocese of Tucson for sexual abuse by its clergy will receive nearly $10 million if creditors in the diocese bankruptcy case approve later this month.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Marlar approved 28 settlement agreements yesterday that are subject to creditor approval.
Most of the people in the settlements approved yesterday are represented by attorneys Lynne Cadigan and Kim Williamson, who reached an estimated $14 million settlement for 10 victims in 2002.
Four claimants in the settlements accepted by the judge yesterday are three Yuma brothers and their mother, who is awaiting a liver transplant.
The Rev. Juan Guillen, the priest named by the boys as their abuser, is serving a 10-year prison sentence after accepting a plea deal in the criminal case against him.
ARIZONA
Yuma Sun
Jun 15, 2005
TUCSON — A judge on Tuesday approved settlement claims that will pay out a minimum of $600,000 to each of three Yuma brothers who said they were victims of clergy sex abuse.
In all, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Marlar approved 30 settlement claims for sex abuse victims and their relatives, paving the way for approval of a reorganization plan in the Catholic Diocese of Tucson’s bankruptcy case.
The claims stem from lawsuits that drove the diocese to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization protection.
Among the cases was one involving the three Yuma brothers who say they were victimized as minors. A former Arizona Supreme Court chief justice described that case as ‘‘a barnburner.’’
The brothers, two of whom are still teenagers, say they were repeatedly sexually abused, as recently as 2002, by the Rev. Juan Guillen. Guillen, formerly of Immaculate Conception Church, is serving a 10-year sentence after pleading guilty to attempted child molestation.
BOISE (ID)
The Idaho Statesman
Bill Roberts
The Idaho Statesman
Next time, Idaho Catholic Bishop Michael Driscoll says, he'll be more decisive.
He learned the lesson after not moving quickly to remove a Boise parish deacon who had viewed child pornography.
"If I were to find out today that somebody was doing that, then I would immediately put that person on administrative leave," Driscoll said.
Driscoll, leader of Idaho's 140,000 Catholics, talked publicly for the first time Tuesday since news emerged last month about the deacon case and his role in protecting abusive priests in southern California 25 years ago.
CHICAGO (IL)
Washington Times
By Julia Duin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
June 15, 2005
U.S. Catholic bishops will sidestep the issue of whether homosexual men should become priests at their semiannual meeting, which begins tomorrow, despite the Vatican's concern about the role of homosexuals in the church's massive sex-abuse scandal.
In the latest edition of an 84-page document on priestly training, only one sentence deals with homosexuality.
"With regard to the admission of candidates with same-sex experiences and/or inclinations, the guidelines provided by the Holy See must be followed," says the document "Program of Priestly Formation."
The program is expected to be approved by the bishops in their Chicago meetings, scheduled to end Saturday. It then would be forwarded to Rome for final approval.
SPRINGFIELD (VA)
NBC 4
POSTED: 6:34 am EDT June 15, 2005
UPDATED: 8:37 am EDT June 15, 2005
SPRINGFIELD, Va. -- Fairfax County police say 58-year-old Rafael Arteaga has been accused of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl seeking a drink of water.
And police said the alleged assault took place at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Springfield, Va., last Wednesday, where he works.
Investigators said a 23-year-old mother was playing on the playground near the church with her 4-year-old daughter.
"Her little girl was playing at the playground and asked for a glass of water and the associate pastor offered to bring her inside and get the water for her," said police spokeswoman Mary Mulrenan. "So during the time she was without supervision, that’s when he did what he did to her."
Mulrenan said the associate pastor had inappropriate contact with the 4-year-old girl and he has being charged with one count of forcible sodomy.
UNITED STATES
eMediaWire
(PRWEB) June 14, 2005 -- "An Inch From Murder" was written 20 years ago and is now being brought to print for the very first time and deals with the author's life as a male victim of sexual child abuse. Drawing from the memory of past molestations from the age of four until sixteen, a trauma unfolded in adulthood profiling Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The uncanning of the abuse by seven men (including Boston Catholic Priests, a policeman, close relatives and friends) resulted in the attempted murder of the author's latest assailant; the ensuing incarceration and the attempt now to bring the issues of male victimization into focus.
Author Cornelius Ahern has come out from the main stratum of society to become a sexual child abuse statistic, and a criminal statistic as well. Now, his desired hope is that he can prevent a victim of sexual child abuse (SCA) from developing into a criminal statistic, and more importantly, work towards preventing the SCA statistic in the first place.
Studies indicate that 10-16% of all men experienced some form of sexual child abuse yet this subject has only been treated recently in scholarly journals. No other account approaches the topic in the first person as explicitly and with such graphic detail as dealt with here.
TUCSON (AZ)
KVOA
Peter Busch Reports
A plan for the Catholic Diocese of Tucson to settle 30 sex abuse claims for just under 10 million dollars was approved Tuesday by a federal bankruptcy judge.
That's almost half the money the diocese has left for sexual abuse pay-outs.
These 30 claims were made before the diocese filed for bankruptcy last September, and this resolution was believed to be essential before the diocese could have their reorganization plan approved.
It was the cross Troy Gray says he had to bear for twenty years.
"I didn't want to file a claim, but it seems like it's the only way to get people to listen to victim if you're a survivor of any type of abuse," Gray said over the phone Tuesday from his home in Colorado.
Gray says he was abused by a diocesan priest when he was a teenager.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Margaret Ramirez, Tribune religion reporter. Tribune staff reporter Manya A. Brachear contributed to this report
Published June 15, 2005
At a meeting in Chicago this week, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops are expected to retain the church's zero-tolerance policy requiring that all priests who have committed even one act of sexual abuse be removed permanently from ministry.
Yet only three years after the church's abuse scandal erupted, some leaders are discussing whether the policy should eventually be modified--especially in cases of limited offenses committed years ago followed by an unblemished record.
Such talk, however preliminary, worries victims' advocates who say easing the policy would restore power to the hands of their abusers. Several Catholic lay groups plan to protest at the meeting, demanding that bishops who knowingly protected abusers be disciplined.
In an interview last week, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, voiced his support for zero tolerance and said bishops will recommend keeping the policy.
"We've all had the experience, of several years, of working with this. The norms have served us well. And I think most bishops understand that," George said. "If the sexual abuse is very clear, this makes somebody, from my perspective, unsuitable for ministry and so that remains the case."
UNITED STATES
Cincinnati Enquirer
Editorials
Michael Jackson's child molestation trial had the air of a carnival about it, and his acquittal Monday the mood of a fan club meeting.
But while a man found not guilty has a right to celebrate his exoneration, let us never confuse the gravity of the issue at hand with the lighthearted mood surrounding this verdict. ...
Monday, while cheering fans chased after Jackson's caravan, some local residents surely noted in a far different way the death of Earl Bierman, a former priest in Northern Kentucky convicted of molesting six adolescent boys and named in dozens more abuse reports.
The selfish arrogance of Bierman's crimes and his unrepentant attitude toward his victims remind us why sexual abuse makes such supremely poor fodder for "humor," and why children's accusations must never be easily dismissed.
Recently the Diocese of Covington proposed a $120 million settlement to acknowledge and address victims' suffering at the hands of abusive priests. The dollar amount sent shock waves, - would it bankrupt the diocese? Who will end up paying for it? - but those questions are better asked of the moral, not financial, effect of abuse.
From that angle, the answers are easy: A climate in which sexual abuse can occur will bankrupt any organization. And clearly, we all end up paying for it.
DALLAS (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
From Staff Reports
Dallas Morning News projects reporter Reese Dunklin was named the 2004 winner of the Livingston Award for national reporting.
Mr. Dunklin, a Morning News reporter since 1999, was honored Tuesday for his work on "Runaway Priests: Hiding in Plain Sight," a series about priests who leave allegations and charges of sexual abuse for new parishes in other countries.
"This series posed significant reporting challenges, but Reese did a superb job and brought our readers some of the most significant and original reporting done on this subject," said Morning News Vice President/Managing Editor George Rodrigue. "We are delighted that he is being recognized with a Livingston Award."
HOLLIDAYSBURG (PA)
Centre Daily
Associated Press
HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. - Bishop Emeritus James J. Hogan of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown died Monday.
Hogan was 93 and died at Garvey Manor Nursing Home in Hollidaysburg, the diocese said.
"As we recall his memory, we remember the 21 plus years that he guided this diocese. They were times of transition and challenge. He met them with faith, gentleness, humility and hope," Bishop Joseph V. Adamec said in a statement.
Hogan and the diocese were found liable by a Blair County jury in 1994 for the actions of a priest accused of molesting a child. The jury found the diocese and Hogan had known the priest "had a propensity for pedophiliac behavior" and were negligent in retaining him as a priest and supervising his activities.
The jury found that Francis Luddy molested Michael Hutchison Jr. in 1983 and 1984. Luddy was Hutchison's godfather and parish priest. At trial, Luddy denied molesting Hutchison, but admitted molesting other boys. He has since been defrocked.
TUCSON (AZ)
San Luis Obispo Tribune
ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
Associated Press
TUCSON, Ariz. - A bankruptcy judge approved 30 clergy sex abuse settlement claims Tuesday against the Diocese of Tucson. Nearly $9.8 million would be paid in an initial distribution.
The 30 cases involving 25 sex abuse victims and five parents drove the diocese to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last September shortly after the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., became the first in the nation to do so.
Among the cases were three involving three sets of Yuma brothers victimized as minors, which former Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Zlaket had called "barnburner" cases because of their potential for multimillion-dollar verdicts.
Creditors must approve the plan; U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Marlar, who approved the settlement, would then have to confirm it, possibly next month.
TANZANIA
IPPMedia
2005-06-15 08:09:56
By Guardian Correspondent
Preliminary charges against Catholic clergyman Sixtus Kimaro, who is charged with a number of sexual offences involving a 17-year-old boy, will be read out to him on June 29.
The Kisutu Resident Magistrate?s Court set the date yesterday during a session held behind closed doors in accordance with the Sexual Offences Special Provision Act of 1998.
The preliminary charges will be read out to Kimaro, 38, before Senior Resident Magistrate Pellagia Khaday.
The Guardian reliably learnt yesterday that the prosecution told the court that investigations into the case had been completed and asked that a date be set on which preliminary charges would be read out to the accused.
PAXTON (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
Anna Maria College President William D. McGarry has been named to theAbuse Tracker Review Board, a group that monitors diocesan efforts to protect minors from sexual abuse by church personnel, according to the Catholic News Service.
Mr. McGarry and three others were named to three-year terms on the panel by Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Mr. McGarry became president of Anna Maria in 1999 and pushed for the recently established center for the prevention of child sexual abuse and abduction and elderly abuse.
TUCSON (AZ)
The Arizona Republic
Arthur H. Rotstein
Associated Press
Jun. 15, 2005 12:00 AM
TUCSON - A judge approved a settlement Tuesday for 25 victims of clergy sex abuse and five parents, paving the way for approval of a reorganization plan in the Catholic Diocese of Tucson's bankruptcy case.
Nearly $9.8 million would be paid in the initial distribution from the diocese if creditors approve the plan and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Marlar confirms it, possibly next month.
Marlar on Tuesday approved an agreement to settle tort claims stemming from lawsuits alleging sex abuse by priests that had been in process before the diocese's bankruptcy filing last September. advertisement
The cases drove the diocese to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization protection shortly after the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., became the first in the nation to do so.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
Lawyers selected 12 jurors yesterday to weigh the case of a choir director charged with raping two girls he met while teaching at West Oak Lane Charter School.
Otis Joseph, 28, of the 7300 block of Walnut Lane in West Oak Lane, is accused of repeatedly raping one student starting in 1999, when she was 10 or 11, until she revealed the abuse in March 2004. He also is charged with raping a 14-year-old girl in February 2004.
Opening arguments are expected to begin today before Common Pleas Court Judge Shelley Robins New, after the lawyers pick two alternate jurors.
SPRINGFIELD (VA)
Washington Post
By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 15, 2005; Page B05
An associate pastor at a Springfield church has been charged with molesting a 4-year-old girl, Fairfax County police said yesterday.
Rafael Arteaga, 58, was arrested Monday night at his home, a small brick bungalow across the street from the rear parking lot of St. Mark's Lutheran Church, at 5800 Backlick Rd. He is being held without bond on a forcible sodomy charge, police spokeswoman Mary Mulrenan said.
The attack took place inside the church about 5 p.m. June 9, police said. Shortly before, Arteaga was chatting with the girl's 23-year-old mother at the church playground, and the girl asked for water, police said. Arteaga then offered to take her inside the church for a drink, police said.
Mulrenan said she did not know how long Arteaga and the girl were inside the church alone, but she said the "mother did think it was too long and began to walk toward the church" just as the pastor and the girl came out.
The next day, the girl told her mother the pastor had touched her inappropriately, Mulrenan said. The mother and daughter were not church members, she said.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
By SIMONE WEICHSELBAUM
simone@phillynews.com
It was natural for the famed Bright Hope Baptist Church to want to hire popular gospel muscian Otis Joseph to work with its acclaimed choirs.
But there was a reason why Joseph, who wrote and produced a gospel CD and who developed the music program at West Oak Lane Charter School, was in need of a job.
He had been fired as young adult choir director in late 2001 or early 2002 from Canaan Baptist Church at Pulaski Avenue near Winona Street in Germantown.
"A young woman in the congregation" was pregnant with his child, said Rev. Gus Roman of Caanan Baptist who hired Joseph in the late 1990s.
When Roman heard that Joseph was being considered for a job at Bright Hope, 11th Street and C.B. Moore Avenue, Roman spoke to the church's longtime pastor, former Congressman the Rev. William Gray III.
"I talked with Pastor Gray," said Roman regarding Joseph's escapades with the 20-something woman.
PHOENIX (AZ)
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 15, 2005 12:00 AM
Jean Sokol was appointed in May as the Phoenix Diocese's new youth protection advocate. Sokol is a licensed clinical social worker and a licensed independent substance abuse counselor. She has been on the diocese's Sexual Misconduct Committee since 1997, working on the community response team, which reaches out to communities where priests have been accused of sexual misconduct. She is married and has lived in Mesa for 23 years.
1. What was the process of your appointment to this position? Several members of the Sexual Misconduct Committee asked me to apply for the position and therefore I submitted my application, interviewed with a team of diocesan employees and was offered the position. advertisement
2. What attracts you to this job?
My professional vision is simple: "Assisting/advocating for children and their families to have a better life." I am a clinical social worker that is highly trained in my field, which includes mental health business operations, crisis intervention, psychotherapy, advocacy, as well as working side by side with institutions that can assist me in meeting my vision.
NEW YORK
Detroit Free Press
NEW YORK (AP) -- Reporters for The Associated Press, The Dallas Morning News and the Discovery Times Channel were among winners of the 2004 Livingston Awards, which honor young journalists for outstanding reporting.
The program is directed by Professor Charles Eisendrath at the University of Michigan. ...
Reese Dunklin, 31, of The Dallas Morning News, won the national reporting award for "Runaway Priests: Hiding in Plain Sight," a series detailing how some priests flee sexual abuse allegations and charges for positions in new parishes in other countries.
TUCSON (AZ)
Tucson Citizen
SHERYL KORNMAN
Tucson Citizen
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Marlar yesterday approved a minimum $10 million settlement for 30 individuals seeking compensation from the Diocese of Tucson for sexual abuse by its clergy.
Marlar overruled the sole objection to the settlement filed by a confidential claimant, saying it had no merit.
The 28 settlement agreements for the 30 individuals must still be approved by creditors in the case. They will vote later this summer on an entire package of settlement agreements.
However, votes are weighted, based on the amount of the proposed compensation in each case.
The judge's acceptance of the 28 claims appears to indicate the diocese's current revised settlement proposal will be approved this summer and that payments could begin in August.
MAINE
WLBZ
The diocese will start the program "Child Lures Prevention" in the fall. It's designed to show parents and children how to protect minors from sexual abuse.
The program is part of the "Protecting God's Children" program. That program was designed after the church's sex abuse scandal.
Members of parishes around the state are now viewing a video that will be used as part of the program. They will then take what they've learned back to their parishes and teach others how to stay safe. The lessons will also be part of the curicculum at Maine's Catholic churches.
TUCSON (AZ)
Fox 11
By Stephanie Innes / Arizona Daily Star
Settlements for 30 people who filed claims of sexual abuse against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson were approved by federal bankruptcy Judge James M. Marlar on Tuesday morning.
The settlements represent nearly $10 million in initial disbursements, which will be paid if the diocese's Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan is approved. Creditors must cast votes on whether to approve the plan by July 1. Confirmation hearings are set for July 11-15.
Twenty-nine of the 30 people who settled Tuesday are represented by Tucson attorneys Lynne M. Cadigan and Kim E. Williamson, who in 2002 reached a $14 million settlement with the diocese on behalf of 10 men who said they were sexually molested by four members of the local clergy during the 1960s, '70s and '80s.
"Our goal is to get our clients money as quickly as possible," Williamson said. "But you cannot put a value on the damage they suffered."
PORTLAND (OR)
KOIN
PORTLAND -- Closing arguments are expected later this week in the $10 million sex abuse lawsuit centering on a north Portland pastor.
The Rev. Roy Tate (pictured) is accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old member of his congregation, beginning in 1989.
In Multnomah County court Monday, Tate admitted to a sexual relationship with the plaintiff but said he didn't know her age. He said she was a senior in high school.
The woman is suing theAbuse Tracker Church of God in Christ, claiming that the church knew about the abuse and did nothing to stop it. Tate is not named in the lawsuit.
"Just like a boss who abuses his secretary, it is the company that bears responsibility," Randall Wolfe, the plaintiff's attorney, explained.
KENTUCKY
Kentucky Post
By Paul A. Long
Post staff reporter
Earl Bierman, the Roman Catholic priest whose admitted sexual assaults on children helped spiral the Covington Diocese into a painful, 15-year-long examination of its history of sexual abuse and misconduct, died Monday.
Bierman, 73, died at the nursing-care facility at the Kentucky State Reformatory. An Oldham County coroner pronounced him dead at 1:40 p.m., said Corrections Department spokeswoman Lisa Lamb.
Although no cause of death was given, Bierman was known to have been diagnosed with cancer.
Lamb did not know where Bierman's body was taken.
He had been serving a 20-year sentence, imposed in 1993, for sexually abusing boys in Mason, Kenton, and Campbell counties from the early 1960s through 1976. The Corrections Department recently asked the state Parole Board to consider giving him an early medical release because of his declining health.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Don Lattin, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Settlement talks and trial preparations continue this week in the aftermath of last week's $21.2 million settlement of 15 child sex-abuse claims against the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Approximately 100 civil lawsuits are still pending against Catholic dioceses and religious orders across Northern California, winnowed down from 180 lawsuits originally filed in 2003 against Catholic bishops and religious orders across Northern California.
Rick Simons, the coordinating counsel for the abuse claims filed against Northern California's dioceses, said seven separate sets of settlement talks continued between attorneys for the church and its insurance companies and lawyers for plaintiffs who say they were sexually abused as minors by Catholic priests. The largest talks concern a possible "global" settlement of suits brought by 55 plaintiffs against the Diocese of Oakland.
The lawsuits stemmed from a state law passed in 2002 that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on damages claims against organizations that gave known molesters access to additional victims.
COVINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Post
By Paul A. Long
Post staff reporter
Bishop Roger Foys plans to make a video to address the recent decision by the Diocese of Covington to settle a class-action lawsuit over priestly sexual abuse for $120 million, his spokesman said.
The content will be similar to that in a letter Foys sent out this past week to Catholics across the diocese in which he explained his reasons for agreeing to the record-shattering settlement.
"Neither you nor I were the cause of this problem, but we are now responsible, a responsibility we must not ignore," Foys wrote.
"We cannot pretend these abominable deeds did not happen; we must not minimize them. Those harmed by these shameful, despicable deeds now need the institutional church and, more importantly, the pastoral church to provide as much comfort and peace as possible. Our hearts must remain open, like Christ's."
BAKERSFIELD (CA)
Modesto Bee
By ADAM ASHTON
MERCED SUN-STAR
Last Updated: June 14, 2005, 06:13:52 AM PDT
A Merced priest who was ousted from his parish 11 months ago stepped away from a new post at a Bakersfield church because he fears he would disrupt that community, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno said.
The Rev. Jean-Michael Lastiri, dogged by allegations of financial and sexual impropriety, reportedly told Fresno Bishop John T. Steinbock he did not want the new assignment at Bakersfield's St. Philip the Apostle Church.
"Because of the ferment and division his appointment is causing in the area, Father Lastiri himself has asked me not to be sent to St. Philip's. He does not want to be the cause of division and condemnation in the parish," Steinbock wrote in a letter to Bakersfield parishioners.
Steinbock unseated Lastiri from his parish last July when the priest admitted he had indulged in sexual fantasies over the Internet.
A group of parishioners initiated his removal by disclosing a series of computer messages they found showing Lastiri allegedly seeking adult male sexual partners on vacations and trips on church business.
MEMPHIS (TN)
Catholic News Agency
Memphis, Tenn., Jun. 13, 2005 (CNA) - The newest priest for the Diocese of Memphis studied at the seminary as the sex abuse scandals in the Church in the United States erupted.
But Fr. Richard “Joey” Kaump told the Jackson Sun that during that challenging time he never wavered from his calling to the priesthood.
The 35-year-old member of the Knights of Columbus was ordained Saturday and will serve in his first assignment as associate pastor at St. Louis Church in Memphis.
Prior to entering the seminary, Fr. Kaump repaired air conditioners and volunteered as a youth minister, founding QUEST, a retreat program for teens. He said he believes it takes integrity, prayer, compassion, commitment, honesty and love to be a good priest.
UNITED STATES
NorthJersey.com
Monday, June 13, 2005
By ALFRED P. DOBLIN
When the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meet this week in Chicago for their annual spring meeting, don't expect a media circus. Unlike the bishops' 2002 meeting in Dallas when a burgeoning sex abuse scandal was spreading over every diocese in the nation, new reports of old abuse have waned. But the quiet comes after a damaging storm. The Associated Press released a review estimating more than $1 billion has been spent by dioceses over the past 50 years to settle sex-abuse cases.
It is a staggering sum of money. The Diocese of Covington, Ky., announced it was creating a compensation fund of up to $120 million. The Diocese of Orange, Calif., paid $100 million. And the Archdiocese of Boston - ground zero for the scandal - settled with 552 victims for $85 million.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has yet to settle with alleged abuse victims. It is the largest archdiocese in the nation, and the figure could be jaw-dropping. The Paterson Diocese settled for $5 million with 26 alleged victims in February. All told, the diocese has spent an estimated $7.5 million to settle cases of alleged sexual abuse.
Several dioceses have declared bankruptcy. The former archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, was compelled to resign. He landed on his feet quickly and now holds a cushy assignment in Rome. Law even presided over one of the official Masses of mourning for Pope John Paul II.
IOWA CITY (IA)
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
June 14, 2005
A conference in Iowa City this month will focus on healing from the Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal.
"A Weekend of Hope and Understanding: Responding to the Sexual Abuse Crisis in the Catholic Church" will be held on June 24 and 25.
"We hope the weekend will reach those suffering in silence and that it will encourage parishioners to reach out to the wounded in their midst," said Steve Theisen, co-founder of the Northeast Iowa chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
The event is a result of meetings held by the Concerned Catholics of Davenport Diocese, a lay group that asked abuse survivors what could be done to promote healing for victims and their parishes. The group published "Toward Hope and Understanding: Stories of Clergy Sexual Abuses Survivors," a free booklet distributed in parishes.
"We also formed a panel to speak to parishes," said Dorothy Whiston, Concerned Catholics spokeswoman.
KENTUCKY
Cincinnati Enquirer
By Cindy Schroeder
Enquirer staff writer
Earl Bierman, the central figure in one of the region's most notorious priest sex abuse cases, died Monday.
Bierman died of cancer at 1:40 p.m. in the prison hospital at the Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange, prison spokesman Gary Prestijiacomo said. Bierman, who had malignant melanoma, had been in declining health for several months.
In just 24 days, the 73-year-old former priest had hoped to learn whether the Kentucky Parole Board would grant him a final act of mercy: his freedom.
Because Bierman had less than a year to live, officials at the state Department of Corrections had asked the parole board to consider whether the former priest should be released early from his 20-year sentence. His hearing was set for July 7.
"Part of me feels sorry for the guy," said one of Bierman's victims, who declined to be identified to avoid embarrassing his family. "Why would somebody do this to people? There must have been something that happened in his life because the guy wasn't normal."
IRELAND
One in Four
RTE’s award-winning Prime Time Special Cardinal Secrets detailed the sexual abuse of eight children by priests in the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin and laid bare the Diocese's mishandling of allegations of abuse.
The response to Cardinal Secrets was much public and media outrage and the Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell TD promised a full statutory inquiry into how allegations of child sexual abuse by priests had been handled by church and other authorities.
Along with Colm O'Gorman, Director of One In Four, I met the Minister at that time and he was very keen to set up a new form of public inquiry that would be available to investigate urgent matters of public concern as and when they arose.
The Minister made it clear that this new mechanism of inquiry would be more suitable than a tribunal of inquiry.
IRELAND
One in Four
The Investigation Committee of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse currently proposes to hold a public hearing in relation to St. Joseph's Industrial School, Letterfrack, Galway, on Thursday 16th June, 2005. However, this date/time is subject to last minute change - Notification will be posted if any such change occurs.
The hearing will commence at 10.30 am in the Alexander Hotel, DUblin 2.
Br. David Gibson, Provincial Leader of the Christian Brothers Congregation (St. Mary's Province), who are management respondents in relation to St. Joseph's Industrial School, Letterfrack, will give general background information in relation to the school.
Transcripts from the public hearing will be posted to the Commission's website as soon as available.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
Monday June 13th 2005
THE Catholic hierarchy begins a crunch three-day meeting in Maynooth today, at which they will discuss the crisis surrounding Cura, the status of the fund established to compensate abuse victims, and proposals to update and expand the Church's child protection service.
The possibility of a visit to Ireland by Pope Benedict is also likely to be on the agenda.
However, Cura - the hierarchy's pregnancy counselling agency - will top the agenda, with the Vatican certain to be watching developments closely.
The crisis began when it emerged last month that Cura's national executive, headed by Bishop of Killala Dr John Fleming, approved a controversial abortion information policy.
The policy means that if a woman wants an abortion, Cura will hand her the contact details of organisations that in turn will give her the phone number of abortion clinics in Britain.
Critics, including some of Cura's own volunteers, have objected to the policy on the grounds that it effectively facilitates abortion and goes against Church teaching.
Another sensitive item on the agenda is the Stewardship Trust.
It was established in 1996 to pay for the Church's child protection service, but mainly to compensate victims of clerical sexual abuse.
SAN ANGELO (TX)
Jackson Hole Star-Tribune
By The Associated Press Monday, June 13, 2005
SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) -- A West Texas sheriff says he doesn't intend to raid the Eldorado compound of a polygamist sect to arrest the group's leader, who has been indicted on sex-crime charges in Arizona.
Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran said Sunday he will arrest Warren Jeffs on an Arizona warrant if he's pulled over for a traffic violation.
On Friday, an Arizona grand jury indicted Jeffs, 49, on charges of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. If convicted, he would face a prison sentence ranging from four months to two years.
The reclusive church leader is accused of arranging the marriage of a 16-year-old girl to a 28-year-old married man, said Mohave County Attorney Matthew Smith. He is not accused of having sex with the girl, Smith said.
"We're not going to take any drastic measures," said Doran, adding that he's not even certain Jeffs is on the sect's property. "We have a lot of out-of-state warrants issued. We're not going to treat this one any different."
Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has not been seen in public for months, and officials aren't sure where he lives.
AMITE (LA)
The Advocate
By The Associated Press
AMITE -- Authorities lodged additional charges Monday against one of nine people accused of engaging in cult-like activities involving the abuse of children and animals at the Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula.
Austin Aaron Bernard III was booked with two counts of aggravated rape, one count of sexual battery and one count of incest. The charges were lodged after FBI agents and Ponchatoula police investigated evidence that was seized at the church, the Tangipahoa Parish sheriff's office said.
Bernard, 36, of Hammond, was arrested on May 19 on one count of aggravated rape of a juvenile under the age of 13 -- a charge that carries a potential death penalty. He remained jailed without bond.
KENTUCKY
Cincinnati Post
By Paul A. Long
Post staff reporter
Shepherdsville attorney Bill Wilson recalls sitting in the courtroom in rural Bullitt County one recent afternoon, barely paying attention through the long docket, as Judge John Potter listened patiently to the drawn-out arguments of two lawyers in a divorce case.
Suddenly, Potter looked up and fixed the pair with a steely gaze. In his cultured southern voice, he asked, "What's really going on here?"
It was typical Potter, said Wilson, best known to Northern Kentuckians as one of the men who defended admitted murderer Adele Craven.
"You can't bamboozle him," he said. "You do so at your own peril."
Potter's challenging nature was on full display Thursday in Boone Circuit Court, when he unexpectedly put the brakes on the Diocese of Covington's record-setting $120 million settlement with victims of priestly sexual abuse. It wasn't that Potter found anything suspicious or dubious about the settlement. He just thought it was incomplete, and questioned the characterization of its being worth $120 million.
The insurance companies aren't yet on board, he said. Only the $40 million the diocese has pledged is available now.
"I do take issue with the description given the settlement," he said, the pitch of his voice keening from thin to gravely.
"There is no $120 million settlement to receive preliminary approval. There is, at most, a $40 million fund."
UNITED STATES
Journal Gazette
By Gary Fields
Wall Street Journal
The green light on the fingerprint scanner glows, indicating it’s time to place Kelli Mattingly’s right hand on the glass. The procedure is repeated with her left hand. In less than a minute, her prints are ready to be sent to the FBI for a criminal background check.
Mattingly is a would-be volunteer for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, which anticipates no problems in taking her on. Rather, the archdiocese, based in Hyattsville, Md., is one of many private employers trying to comply with a patchwork of new state and federal laws requiring background exams with fingerprint checks.
Once a rarity for job applicants, fingerprints are now required in myriad locales for those seeking positions in a host of fields.
CHICAGO (IL)
PRNewswire
CHICAGO, June 13 /PRNewswire/ -- As the Catholic Bishops of the United
States gather in Chicago for their Spring Meeting, they will meet opposition
to their pious homophobia. The Catholic Hierarchy in recent years has stepped
up their attacks on the GLBT Community. The Rainbow Sash Movement stands
shoulder to shoulder with our sisters and brothers in the Gay Liberation
Network as we condemn this rampant homophobia. ...
The Catholic hierarchy should look in the mirror, they offended God as
greatly as any priest by seeking first to ignore the clergy sexual abuse
problem, then to shuffle pedophiles around, finally to buy the silence of
their victims with payouts contingent on not discussing their cases. This is
unworthy of the soldiers of Christ, who Himself expelled money-lenders from
His place of worship. The Bishops only bring more shame to the church with
their campaign of hate against the GLBT community. Compassion curdles into
self-righteous zealotry. The Bishops are in no place to judge others; they
lack any credible moral authority to do so. We continue to call for dialogue.
TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
For the last 20 years, Dennis O'Loughlin has been waging war to regain his soul.
Until now, he's been fighting his battle privately. But today, Mr. O'Loughlin is dropping his cloak of anonymity and appearing before an estimated 14 million Oprah Winfrey viewers in a program titled "Molested by a Priest."
Also appearing on Oprah is Tony Comes, the Toledo firefighter and clerical sexual abuse victim featured in the documentary Twist of Faith.
Mr. O'Loughlin, a 34-year-old Toledo salesman, filed a lawsuit against the Toledo Catholic Diocese in 2002 under the name of John Doe, claiming that he was raped and molested repeatedly between the ages of 13 and 15 by former Toledo diocesan priest Dennis Gray - the same cleric who allegedly molested Mr. Comes when he was a boy.
In an interview with The Blade yesterday, with his parents and his wife by his side, Mr. O'Loughlin said he's been tormented and embarrassed by the abuse.
COVINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Post
By Kevin Eigelbach
Post staff reporter
When Roger Foys became the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington in 2002, he had little experience with lawsuits involving priests who molested children.
In fact, he told reporters then that the Diocese of Steubenville, Ohio, where he was serving as vicar general, or second-in-command, had not faced any.
Foys soon had a big one to face, however, when Cincinnati lawyer Stan Chesley filed a class-action suit against the Diocese of Covington, a suit Foys agreed to settle early this month.
Foys had his baptism under fire in the nation's first class-action suit on behalf of victims of priest sexual abuse, and agreed to the nation's largest settlement, potentially $120 million.
Through his spokesman, Tim Fitzgerald, Foys declined an interview about the negotiating process.
Foys told the diocesan newspaper, The Messenger, he was glad for a settlement that helped victims but kept the parishes and administrative functions of the diocese intact.
ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union
By CAROL DeMARE, Staff writer
First published: Monday, June 13, 2005
ALBANY -- Victims of clergy sexual abuse protested Sunday for the second week outside Holy Cross Church, demanding the removal of the Rev. Daniel J. Maher from active ministry.
Maher, pastor of the parish on Western Avenue, was accused last month by a former altar boy of molesting him 32 years ago.
Protesters representing Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, SNAP, are claiming that children attending Holy Cross School are at risk.
SNAP said in a statement it would continue walking outside the church "until the bishop and diocesan leaders put the safety of the Holy Cross children first."
A diocesan spokesman said the diocese is waiting for cooperation from Thomas G. Clements III, now 44, of Colonie, who claimed he was sexually assaulted twice by Maher in 1973, when he was 12, at a camp on Saratoga Lake. Clements made the allegations at a May 18 news conference.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
Openness, transparency and accountability - otherwise known as OTA - was one of the great political catch cries of the 1990s.
The theory went that if political decisions were hidden from public view, the more likely it was that those decisions would be bad, against the public interest, or even corrupt.
Conversely, the more these decisions were taken in full view of the public, the more likely it was that they would serve the public interest. As a general rule, this theory is completely sound, and the experience of other organisations, not least An Garda Siochana - witness the McBrearty case - proves it.
But so does the recent experience of Catholic Church - in spectacular fashion.
All organisations have a strong, almost irresistible tendency to be self-protective.
They are protective, first and foremost, towards their own members. In the case of the Gardai, that means members of the force. In the case of politics, that means members of the political parties, and in the case of the Church, that means, primarily, priests and religious although it should also mean the laity.
In each case, the self-protective instinct of an organisation leads to a situation where the needs of the members can easily be put ahead of the needs of the public. Again, the McBrearty case showed this, and so did the clerical sex abuse scandals.
LONG ISLAND (NY)
Newsday
BY RITA CIOLLI
STAFF WRITER
June 12, 2005
Bishop William Murphy has terminated the services of George Rice, who has served as diocesan attorney for 35 years and has intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the local Catholic Church, and replaced him with a high-powered national law firm.
As of September, the firm of Nixon Peabody, which has a local office of 42 attorneys in Garden City, will represent the Diocese of Rockville Centre, the largest nongovernmental employer and property holder on Long Island.
"I think we are an excellent fit," said David DeCerbo, who opened the local office in 1989 and will be the firm's liaison.
Sean Dolan, a spokesman for Murphy, said the change was made because of the complex and varied legal needs of the diocese, which has more than 200 separate corporations including its 134 parishes, schools and hospitals. ...
Rice is listed on the diocese's new incident-report sheet as one of three entities -- along with the local police precinct and delegate for the bishop -- who must be notified when a complaint involving a minor is filed against a diocesan employee. Dolan said Rice will continue in that role during the transition and that his firm may continue to work on projects.
Nixon Peabody represents the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and three upstate dioceses, he said. Dolan said it was unclear whether anyone again would have the title of diocesan attorney.
WISCONSIN
WAOW
BISHOP JERMOME LISTECKI OF THE DIOCESE OF LACROSSE WILL BE IN CHICAGO THIS WEEK FOR THE MEETING OF THE NATION'S ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS.
THEY'LL DISCUSS THE NEXT STEPS IN THE CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE CRISIS.
THE BISHOPS' MAIN TASK WILL BE TO REVISE THE CHARTER FOR THE "PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE" WHICH WAS ADOPTED IN 2002.
IT OUTLINES POLICIES THAT BISHOPS MUST FOLLOW IN RESPONDING TO, AND PREVENTING ABUSE.
BAKERSFIELD (CA)
The Bakersfield Californian
By AMY HILVERS, Californian staff writer
e-mail: ahilvers@bakersfield.com
Posted: Sunday June 12th, 2005, 9:25 PM
Last Updated: Sunday June 12th, 2005, 11:49 PM
A priest with a troubled past, who was to join a Bakersfield church, has asked not to be sent here after all.
Monsignor Ronald Swett told the St. Philip the Apostle Church parish Sunday that the Rev. Jean-Michael Lastiri would not be coming because he didn't want "to be the cause of division and condemnation in the parish."
Lastiri left St. Patrick's Parish in Merced last year amid allegations of having sexual conversations on the Internet and misusing church money, the Merced Sun-Star reported in May. Lastiri was to join the Bakersfield church this week.
Swett read a letter from Bishop John Steinbock of the Diocese of Fresno, to the parish. Both Steinbock and Swett said the media had sensationalized and misrepresented the situation.
"Because of the ferment and division his appointment is causing in the area, Fr. Lastiri himself has asked me not to be sent to St. Philip's. He does not want to be the cause of division and condemnation in the parish," Steinbock's letter said.
"Unfortunately, a good deal of gossip and misinformation have distorted public perception and seeks to frame Fr. Lastiri's appointment within the context of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. This is simply not the case."
NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Times-Picayune
Monday, June 13, 2005
By Bruce Nolan
Staff writer
The pretrial battle in a former New Orleans priest's defamation suit against Archbishop Alfred Hughes so far is less about five accusations of child molestation against the priest than whether Hughes sought out and publicized the claims purely to burnish his own reputation as an aggressive watchdog.
What Hughes knew, when he knew it, and whether he actively sought out old molestation claims against Bernard Schmaltz were the topics of a four-hour April 11 deposition of Hughes by Schmaltz's attorney, Buddy Lemann.
"Did you, Archbishop, direct either Sister Carmelita (Centanni, the archdiocese's victim-assistance coordinator) or some other delegate of yours to do -- to tar -- in effect, tar and feather Bernie Schmaltz, to go and beat the bushes and find alleged victims of Bernie Schmaltz?" Lemann asked in one exchange.
"That's like asking, 'Have you stopped beating your wife,' " Hughes answered.
CHICAGO (IL)
ABC 7
June 12, 2005 — A support group for victim's molested by priests held a vigil outside a meeting of U.S. Bishops here in Chicago.
Members of snap, or survivors network of those abused by priests.. Carried childhood photos of abuse victims.
The group held their rally outside the Fairmont Hotel were 300 bishops are meeting to discuss their plan for protecting children in the church.
The protesters honored the memory of priest abuse victims who committed suicide.
Several parents who lost their children to suicide spoke at today's gathering.
IRELAND
One in Four
Opinion by Mary Rafferty - Irish Times
All the promises following the nursing homes scandal sound eerily similar to those given over 2½ years ago in response to another scandal exposed by RTÉ's Prime Time.
The Garda will investigate, there will be a general inquiry and legislation is promised - exactly the blueprint for action guaranteed to allay public concern over the abuse of children by priests in the Dublin archdiocese, and the associated cover-up, as revealed by the Cardinal Secrets programme in 2002.
And here we are, years later, and nothing has materialised. The Garda has undoubtedly done its best, but we know nothing of its conclusions. The Commission of Inquiry, promised so frequently, has never happened.
Meanwhile, those whose lives were so profoundly affected by the crimes committed against them as children are increasingly concerned that the promises have been forgotten, and that the issue is again being consigned to the dark corners of Ireland's past.
ARIZONA
KSL
Nishi Gupta reporting
Terry Goddard, Attorney General of Arizona: “This is the first time in my knowledge that we've had a witness willing to step forward and say this is what happened to me, I was sexually abused."
Charges have been filed in Arizona against a polygamist leader, and Utah officials seem ready to help.
A sixteen-year-old girl told Arizona authorities she was raped by a 28 year- old-man a person she was forced to marry in her polygamous group.
The marriage was arranged by Warren Jeffs, the leader of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
State authorities have been keeping an eye on Warren Jeffs and the FLDS church for some time now. So when this girl came forward, Jeffs was charged with conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor.
When Rowenna Erickson heard the news, she was thrilled. It was something she'd been waiting to see for 13 years.
Rowenna Erickson,Tapestry Against Polygamy: "Polygamy is one hundred percent sexual abuse. Not only are our children molested or raped, daily, but it's sexual abuse to a wife to have her husband having sex with all of these women. And of course they use religion as a guise to justify why they're doing it."
PHOENIX (AZ)
Canton Repository
By JACQUES BILLEAUD Associated Press Writer
PHOENIX (AP) — The leader of a polygamous sect has been charged with sex crimes for allegedly arranging a marriage between a teenage girl and a 28-year-old man who was already married, prosecutors said.
Warren Jeffs, president of the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was charged with counts that include conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor, prosecutors said Friday. If convicted, he could face up to two years in jail.
Jeffs, 49, didn’t have sex with the 16-year-old girl but arranged her marriage to the man, said Matthew Smith, the attorney for Mohave County, Ariz.
Authorities do not know where Jeffs is and were hoping the release of his name would help result in his arrest. Jeffs has not been seen publicly in more than a year and is thought by some to be in Texas on a new church ranch.
“He’s going to be held accountable for the charges. That’s the bottom line,” Utah Attorney General Shurtleff said. “This sends a message that Warren Jeffs is not above the law.”
SCOTLAND
Sunday Mail
By Marion Scott
SHATTERED survivors of care home abuse are to be thrown a £2million lifeline by the Scottish Executive.
Ministers are set to announce that the cash will bolster the work of support groups helping traumatised victims of institutional abuse.
Health Minister Andy Kerr is expected to unveil the funding next week, along with the appointment of an 'abuse tsar' to oversee the support given to survivors.
The plans will be revealed almost a year after the Executive denied a public inquiry to children who had been abused at care homes.
Kerr declined to discuss his proposed support plan in detail yesterday but confirmed: 'There will be an announcement in the near future.
'I want to see better support and services for survivors of sexual abuse.
'Last week, I met with members of the Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse Cross Party Group to talk about how we could improve the support we provide.
'We discussed a number of plans and I am keen to move forward on this issue.'
The move comes after decades of abuse was exposed at number of care homes, including the shameful regime in place at Scotland's De La Salle schools.
The Sunday Mail campaigned for De La Salle victims, including Charlie Watts, 55.
Born to a poor circus family, he was four when his dad ran off and he was placed in the care of the Catholic Church. He was then sent to St Joseph's, Tranent, East Lothian, where he was repeatedly abused by staff.
DES MOINES (IA)
KWQC
DES MOINES, Iowa Victim advocates say they are offended by policy changes made by the Dubuque Catholic Archdiocese.
The changes make it optional to report allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy to authorities outside the church.
The archdiocese review board says the changes were needed because some victims would not come forward if they knew the case would be reported to civil authorities.
Diocese spokeswoman Joyce Connors says victims fearing their case would be made public were hesitant to report the abuse.
She says the changes were made out of respect to those who only wanted church officials to hear their complaints.
MAINE
Portland Press Herald
EDITOR'S NOTE: Jeannine Guttman
When a newspaper takes an issue to court, when it fights to get information it believes to be public record and in the public interest, what journalistic values must be weighed if the newspaper prevails?
In other words, if the information is released, if the newspaper wins the legal debate, how do editors then decide what to publish? What principles must be considered? What standards must be met?
Those were questions we faced when we decided in July 2002 to pursue a legal claim against the state of Maine and the Attorney General's Office. We spent nearly three years in court, fighting to win access to the names of deceased priests who had been accused of sexual misconduct. It was a costly strategy, in terms of time and money, but one that we thought was worth the expense.
How did we end up in this protracted court battle?
In spring 2002, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland gave to state officials the names of priests accused of sexual misconduct. This was done so law enforcement officials could determine whether there was any criminal conduct that could be adjudicated.
CHARLOTTE (NC)
Charlotte Observer
From David Hains, director of communication, Diocese of Charlotte:
It was very dismaying to see the Catholic priesthood used as fodder in a humor column in the The Observer as it was in Doug Robarchek's column June 8. Suggesting that Michael Jackson should claim to be a Catholic priest as a defense in his child molestation case is an affront on many levels. It shows an appalling lack of sensitivity on the part of editors who approved the column.
The column insulted the 134 diocesan and religious order priests who meet the spiritual needs of nearly 300,000 Catholics in 92 churches and missions in the Diocese of Charlotte. These men and the overwhelming majority of all priests faithfully serve God and their parishes in ministry. Priests accept a call from the Lord to ministry and dedicate themselves to a life of hard work. Disparaging the priesthood because of the actions of a few is hurtful and unnecessary.
Making a joke about Catholic priests and child molestation also trivializes the diligent efforts of the Catholic Church over the last three years to root out, apologize and atone for the sinful crime of sex abuse. The Diocese of Charlotte adopted "The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" in 2002. Two independent audits of the diocese have shown us to be in full compliance with the provisions of the charter and have even commended the diocese for its training program. More than 9,800 Catholics have attended training sessions designed to help them understand this crime and thereby protect children from sex abuse by any adult.
The Diocese of Charlotte has had very few cases of sexual misconduct by clergy. All of these incidents were dutifully reported in the secular media and the diocesan newspaper, The Catholic News & Herald. Details are available on the diocese website, www.CharlotteDiocese.org.
SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Republican
Sunday, June 12, 2005
By BILL ZAJAC
wzajac@repub.com
When James E. Thibault tried to kill himself three years ago, he left a note that shocked his brother.
Thibault, then 53, revealed to his brother for the first time he was sexually abused as a child.
Thibault's brother, Kickapoo Thunder of Chicopee, won't reveal the perpetrator's name, but said it was a man in training for the priesthood who was later accused by others once he served as a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield.
Thibault's obituary, prepared by his family, said: "Jim was a victim of sexual assault as a child by people claiming to be Christians. Like so many of our families who have been affected so tragically, Jim could no longer live with this burden and tragically ended his life."
"It explained a lot about the trouble and pain my brother experienced in his life," Thunder said.
CINCINNATI (OH)
New Oxford Review
By Michael S. Rose
Cincinnati’s west-side is considered one of the most staunchly Catholic, family-oriented, and prolife neighborhoods of any urban area in the country — such as it is. Ironically, the slowly unfolding drama of priestly sex abuse scandals has tested the mettle of the faithful here like in few other places. Just a few years ago, Elder High School, arguably the primary icon of cultural Catholicism in this part of the city, was identified as a bastion of macho conservatism. For example, the all-boys Catholic high school, named after Cincinnati’s 19th-century Archbishop William Henry Elder, consistently fields one of the most formidable football teams in Ohio, having recently won back-to-back state championships, and has produced professional athletes such as the New England Patriot’s Dan Stricker. The parishes that feed into the school are home to blue-collar families who still consider the Church an integral part of their existence.
Since 2002, however, Elder’s reputation has been tarnished by the revelation that five priests who formerly taught at the Cincinnati high school, including two former principals, have been suspended for substantiated allegations of sex abuse. One of them has since gone to jail, and a sixth abuser has since left the priesthood. Allegations from angry west-side Catholics charging that Elder High School was a “dumping ground” for abusive priests were met with a forceful rebuttal from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Dan Andriacco, spokesman for the Archdiocese, is himself an Elder alumnus. He suggested that the reason so many priests from his alma mater have turned out to be homosexual abusers stems from the fact that so many diocesan priests, at one time or another, have served at the school, a point that singularly failed to reassure the faithful.
Of course, by now, tales of the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests, and of bishops who look the other way, are commonplace. But in the majority of instances the scandal has been ill-defined as one of pedophilia, the sexual abuse of pre-pubescent boys and girls. It is no coincidence that the U.S. bishops and their consultants, many of whom are well-known advocates of advancing a homosexualist agenda in the Church, have made a concerted effort to package the sex abuse crisis as a “pedophile scandal” rather than what it truly is: a product of predatory homosexuality.
New Oxford Review
By Michael S. Rose
Vows of Silence. By Jason Berry and Gerald Renner. Free Press. 356 pages.. $26..
Vows of Silence should be one of the most important books in better than a decade for conservative Catholics in the U.S. and beyond. Alas, it will not be. Jason Berry and Gerald Renner, conscientious and seasoned journalists, undermine their own effort with their openly stated liberal Catholic agenda. Moreover, the subtitle of the book, "The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II" gives a pretty good indication of the authors’ bias. But John Paul is given scant attention. This is not even a book about the papacy or Vatican politics. The book is about Fr. Thomas Doyle, who for two decades has heroically stood up for the victims of priestly sex abuse, and about Fr. Marcial Maciel, who has been accused numerous times of sex abuse, and about his Legion of Christ and its lay affiliate Regnum Christi. The connection of John Paul to the Legion is just this: The Pope has put his weight behind the Legion in the past, which the Legion is quick to point out, repeatedly.
The Legion and its supporters have exploited the authors’ bias in order to dismiss their thorough research. The people who ought to read Vows of Silence, mainly conservative Catholics who would likely be attracted to the manifest signs of Legion orthodoxy, are given a good reason not to take Berry and Renner’s research seriously. Nonetheless, despite their liberal proclivities, the facts they assemble are very much worth examining.
When some of the book’s material regarding sexual abuse allegations against Fr. Maciel were first published in the Hartford Courant, neoconservative, high-tax-bracket Catholics were quick to defend Maciel. With little or no first-hand knowledge of the situations being written about, prominent Catholics such as Fr. Richard John Neuhaus of First Things, William Donohue of The Catholic League, Harvard professor Mary Ann Glendon, and Deal Hudson of Crisis magazine all denounced the Courant’s series. Yet none of these defenders met with Maciel’s accusers. The Legion and the neocons, both reputed to be interested in money and power, are allies. It’s “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” But these neocons may come to regret their hasty judgments.
Vows of Silence deals with well-substantiated sexual abuse allegations from nine former Legionaries against Fr. Maciel, including — significantly — men who were high-ranking members of the order before bailing out. Over the past five or so years, the Legion has been denying the allegations, categorizing them as a conspiracy, and publicly assassinating the character of these men without substantial proof — every one a well-respected professional, none of whom is seeking financial compensation.
ARIZONA
Jerusalem Post
By SAM SER
Rabbi David E. Lipman has disappeared without a trace from his home and Reform synagogue in Prescott, Arizona, missing since May 20 after two teenage girls from his congregation accused him of fondling them.
Prescott police have no leads on the whereabouts of Lipman, who is reported to be proficient in several languages and who spent time in Israel during his studies at Hebrew Union College. Neither he nor his plum-colored 1999 Saturn station wagon has turned up, police said.
"We have contacted immigration, we have contacted this border patrol, we have contacted the FBI," public information officer Lt. Pete Hodap told The Jerusalem Post. "We have not located him, and we have no idea at this point where he is. We worry that he may be where you are," Hodap said, referring to Israel. "And [suicide] is always a possibility..."
It was Lipman's wife who reported him missing nearly three weeks ago. Days earlier he had been approached at Temple B'rith Shalom by police investigating a complaint from Child Protection Services regarding the older of the two girls.
"The abuse started with back massages, then Lipman would move his hands to her buttocks, breasts and (private parts)," according to a Prescott Police Department report. "She recalls the touching being under her clothes rather than over her clothes."
CHICAGO (IL)
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Kevin Eckstrom
Religion News Service
The nation's Roman Catholic bishops are expected to renew 3-year-old sexual-abuse rules when they meet next week in Chicago, with no major changes planned to the zero-tolerance policy against abusive priests.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is likely to keep mostly intact the policies that were adopted in 2002 after a nationwide abuse scandal erupted in the Archdiocese of Boston.
The policies, known collectively as the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, as well as the "essential norms" that codified them within church law, expired earlier this year and a temporary extension was granted.
Under the rules, any cleric found guilty of "a single act of sexual abuse of a minor . . . will be permanently removed from ministry." Predatory priests also could be defrocked by the Vatican, and they are prohibited from acting or serving as a clergyman.
Two church-sponsored reports found that at least 11,750 victims have lodged credible allegations against 5,148 clerics since 1950, including more than 600 new allegations made last year alone. That encompasses roughly 4 percent of all Catholic clergy in the past half-century.
CHICAGO (IL)
WQAD
CHICAGO Nearly 300 people are expected to attend the national conference of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests in Chicago this weekend.
The group -- called 'Snap' -- is meeting just days before the U-S Conference of Catholic Bishops gathers in Chicago to address the church's policy on sexual abuse.
The bishops' three-day meeting is set to begin Thursday.
Snap founder Barbara Blaine says the victims' group first met ten years ago at a hotel in Markham south of Chicago.
ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
Albuquerque Tribune
By Joline Gutierrez Krueger
Tribune Reporter
June 11, 2005
It's a board so secretive that few know what they do, what they've done or who they are.
Still, officials with the Archdiocese of Santa Fe say the work of the Permanent Review Board is crucial to safeguarding the church and parishioners from sex-offending priests.
"It is a professional group," said Celine Radigan, archdiocese spokeswoman. "They do study the allegations and take what they do very seriously."
But those outside the review board system must take that on faith, because no annual reports are generated and no comments on its decisions are provided.
Even the names of the members are cloistered.
"Board members have expressed that anonymity is more conducive to their fulfilling their duties and obligations as consultors and advisers to the archbishop," said Sister Nancy Kazik.
WISCONSIN
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
June 11, 2005
Months have gone by since the Rev. Ryan Erickson hanged himself at his parish in Hurley, Wis. in December 2004. Erickson reportedly committed suicide after being questioned in the unsolved February 2002 shooting deaths of Dan O'Connell and James Ellison at the O'Connell Family Funeral Home in Hudson, Wis.
Erickson had denied any involvement in the murders, but recent news reports have indicated he also was under investigation for the alleged abuse of a minor.
Here's where the confusion begins.
According to a June 7, 2005 story in the Ironwood Daily Globe (http://www.ironwooddailyglobe.com/0607huds.htm), Erickson is the "prime person of interest." The story also reports that Hudson Police Chief Richard Trende "said Erickson admitted to [the] allegations involving a minor...."
But did he?
ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
Albuquerque Tribune
By Joline Gutierrez Krueger
Tribune Reporter
June 11, 2005
Our Lady of Annunciation Church was to welcome a new pastor Saturday, but it likely won't put to rest the scandal that still smolders with the removal of its last one.
The Rev. Bennett Voorhies, a former chancellor of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, will be installed as pastor this evening during a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Michael Sheehan.
The Roman Catholic church and school at 2621 Vermont St. N.E. has been without a leader since late March when Sheehan placed its longtime pastor on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct that occurred 30 years ago.
The Tribune is not naming the priest, because he has not been charged with a crime.
The priest, who turns 72 Sunday, is accused of making a male teen rape victim disrobe in front of a mirror to re-enact the rape and then engaged the teen in sexual contact.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Portsmouth Herald
Every good Catholic learns that to earn forgiveness you must confess your sins, do penance and amend your life. Nowhere in catechism do Catholics learn to evade responsibility for their actions, deny their role in grave wrongdoing and cling to a shameful status quo as if nothing’s amiss.
John McCormack, now in his seventh year as bishop of New Hampshire, has refused repeated calls to resign in the wake of the clergy sexual-abuse scandal that has caused unending pain to generations of victims. It’s been enough to drive countless people away from the church.
Yet there’s a ray of light that pierces through the darkness brought on by McCormack and his disgraced ex-boss, former Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston. Nearly half of the 112 seniors at Trinity High School, a private Catholic school in Manchester, signed a petition last week calling upon McCormack not to deliver the baccalaureate Mass.
In typical devil-may-care style, McCormack refused to honor their wishes. Instead, he preached that they should "set aside distractions" and forgive, forgive, forgive.
COVINGTON (KY)
Kentucky Post
By Mark Hansel
Post staff reporter
Special Judge John Potter told attorneys Friday in a class action lawsuit over abuse of children by priests of the Diocese of Covington that he wants a census to determine the number and severity of the plaintiffs' claims.
The diocese announced a week ago that it had agreed to pay up to $120 million to settle the suit. On Thursday, however, Potter refused to approve the deal, saying only $40 million of the money was secured. The diocese is suing its insurance companies to secure the other $80 million.
The census will require each alleged victim to submit a form with detailed information of the abuse claim, including the school or church involved, the time period and the name of the offender.
In his ruling Thursday, Potter pointed to several factors that combine to make the lawsuit unique from other class action cases. Among them: the significant differences in the members' claims and the fact that the existence and nature of some claims can be known only if members come forward voluntarily.
IOWA
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
June 11, 2005
Some victims' advocates are criticizing changes in the Dubuque Catholic Archdiocese's sexual misconduct policy that makes optional the reporting of allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy to civil authorities.
The archdiocese review board announced Friday that it was "adjusting" its policy for the protection of minors because it was preventing some victims from getting help.
Joyce Connors, director of the diocesan office of child protection, said in a written statement that when victims called to report abuse, some hung up when she or other victim assistance coordinators said the case would be reported to civil authorities.
"This was putting a roadblock in front of victims," Connors said. "This requirement was becoming counterproductive because victims were not getting the help they needed. By requiring that their case be made public seemed to some to be the church victimizing them all over again."
Under the new policy, no report will be made to civil authorities if an adult reports he or she was sexually abused as a minor by church personnel, if the statute of limitations has expired and the individual signs a request that the case not be reported. This does not preclude a diocesan investigation.
"Why am I not surprised?" said David Clohessy, national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "Calling police about suspected crime is what every citizen is taught to do since grade school. It is disturbing to see church officials backpedal on this basic public safety step."
Steve Theisen of Hudson, co-founder of North East Iowa SNAP, said he is "appalled" by the policy change, which he believes reflects the Dubuque review board's exclusive membership.
WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service
By Jerry Filteau
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has named a new chairwoman and four new members of theAbuse Tracker Review Board that monitors diocesan efforts to protect minors from sexual abuse by church personnel.
He named Patricia O'Donnell Ewers, a Chicago-based educational consultant and a board member since last October, as chairwoman until her board term ends in October 2007.
Appointed to three-year terms on the board were:
-- Dr. Joseph G. Rhode, president of Midland (Texas) Family Physicians.
-- William D. McGarry, president of Anna Maria College in Paxton, Mass.
-- Thomas A. DeStefano, former interim president of Catholic Charities USA and former executive director of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y.
-- Milann H. Siegfried, a philanthropist and former chairwoman of the board of St. John Medical Center in Tulsa, Okla. She is the wife of outgoing review board member Ray H. Siegfried II, board chairman of the NORDAM Group, a Tulsa-based international aviation and manufacturing company.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Margaret Ramirez
Tribune religion reporter
Published June 11, 2005
It was 10 years ago, inside a Holiday Inn in Markham, when a small group of Catholics who had been sexually abused by priests gathered for the first time.
Barbara Blaine recalls that the group shared painful stories of the past and talked about how their lives could move forward.
"We only knew a couple of survivors back then, and we really weren't sure what we wanted to do," Blaine said.
This weekend, nearly 300 victims are expected to attend a national conference of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which has grown to include more than 5,000 people nationwide and emerged as one of the most powerful voices for victims who were abused by clergy as children.
As the Catholic Church's sexual abuse crisis has deepened, Blaine said the gathering organized by the Chicago-based group has become important for those seeking support.
"It's empowering, healing and consoling for us. We share a sense of inspiration that victims can make a difference in protecting children," Blaine said. "At this point, we see this as a new civil rights campaign. We want to prevent sexual abuse of children by any adult, priests, teachers or anyone."
PONCHATOULA (LA)
News 24
11/06/2005 10:28 - (SA)
Ponchatoula - A southern Louisiana town was stunned by a case none could have imagined: Nine people, including a pastor, his wife and a sheriff's deputy were accused of engaging in cult-like sexual activities with children and animals inside the hall of worship.
Eight now face child rape charges that could bring the death penalty.
Authorities said witnesses have described the use of robes, pentagrams on the church floor, sex with a dog and the sacrifice of cats. The alleged victims, suspected to number up to two dozen, include children ranging from infants to young teens - some of them the offspring of those accused.
"I've been a prosecutor in some rape cases and child molestation cases, but I've never had a group accused of doing anything like this," said Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards, a former state prosecutor.
Investigators believe the abuse began in 1999 and continued until the church closed in 2003. But it was not until a woman called from Ohio in April, saying she had fled to protect her child, that police claim they had even an inkling of what was happening.
CALIFORNIA
KansasCity.com
BY BRANDON BAILEY
Knight Ridder Newspapers
SAN JOSE, Calif. - (KRT) - In its largest settlement with clergy abuse victims to date, the Archdiocese of San Francisco will pay more than $21 million to 15 people who were sexually molested by Bay Area priests - including two popular San Jose pastors and an expert on church law who once advised American bishops on how to handle claims of sexual abuse.
The latest settlement, in the same range as previous awards, could become the standard for resolving more than 100 other claims against Roman Catholic dioceses in the Bay Area.
More than two-thirds of the settlement will come from insurance policies, and the archdiocese said none of the money will come from parish or school funds. Though the settlement works out to an average of $1.4 million for each individual, attorneys said the specific amounts varied for each person and would not be disclosed.
All sides had praise for Friday's agreement - which several plaintiffs described as a great relief.
"I always wanted an apology. I gave up on that, but this is an acknowledgment," said Vivian Tipton, 42, who tried for years to convince San Jose church officials that she had been repeatedly molested in the 1970s by the Rev. Arthur Harrison at his cabin in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He was pastor at St. Francis Cabrini parish in San Jose when he met Tipton's mother, but was not her parish priest.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
By SIMONE WEICHSELBAUM
simone@phillynews.com
Five young girls and a woman have accused a choir leader at Bright Hope Baptist Church, who also taught music in his Germantown home, of sexual abuse, with some allegations dating back to 1998, police said yesterday.
An anonymous tipster called a Daily News reporter yesterday saying the choir leader of the famed North Philadelphia church had been suspected child molester since last year and very few congregates knew about it.
Otis Joseph, 28, a music teacher who lives in a graystone home on Germantown Avenue near Johnson Street, was arrested on March 29, Capt. John Darby, of the police department's Special Victims Unit said yesterday.
Darby said the arrest came after investigators spent months "interviewing many other complainants" and were able to piece together six separate sexual abuse cases.
The female victims range from 7 to 23 years old. The 23-year-old recently told cops that Joseph assaulted her when she was 15.
VIRGINIA BEACH (VA)
The Virginian-Pilot
By JON FRANK, The Virginian-Pilot
© June 11, 2005
A judge has excused two key defendants in a civil lawsuit filed by a Virginia Beach man who was sexually molested by a Catholic nun 35 years ago, when he was in the fifth grade.
Norfolk Circuit Judge Joseph A. Leafe ruled Wednesday that the Catholic Diocese of Richmond and the convent of Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, cannot be sued by the man, according to Virginia law.
Both were named as defendants in a $5.35 million lawsuit filed last year in Norfolk Circuit Court.
Also named as a defendant was Eileen M. Rhoads, the former nun, who is now in her 60s.
After Leafe’s decision, Rhoads remains the sole defendant in the law suit, said James C. Lewis, the attorney who filed it.
“Although we are very disappointed, we certainly understand and respect Judge Leafe’s rationale in arriving at his decision,” he said.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | June 11, 2005
Catholics trying to prevent Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley from claiming the assets of closing parishes believe they have found an unwitting ally in an unexpectedly high place: the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, who is arguing in a bankruptcy court filing that he does not control the assets of parishes in his diocese.
A lawyer who is a parishioner at a closed Brookline church, Infant Jesus-St. Lawrence, has cited a deposition from Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., in asking the Vatican to bar O'Malley from seizing the parish's assets, which include an architecturally distinctive building on 2 acres along Route 9 and a $4 million bank account. Now advocates for three other closed parishes, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in Scituate, St. Anselm in Sudbury, and St. James the Great in Wellesley, are making similar arguments to the Vatican.
The parishes are attempting to call attention to what they believe is a contradiction between the position put forward by three Western state bishops and O'Malley. The Western bishops have argued in bankruptcy filings that they do not control parish assets; O'Malley has asserted the right to claim the property of closing parishes.
''It seems to me that there's an enormous conflict in these two positions, and you can come up with an explanation, but not one that passes a straight-face test," said David A. Skeel, a professor of corporate law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School who studies bankruptcy law and has been following the church cases closing. ''It seems offensive to the idea that somebody owns property, and when you own it, you face the upsides and the downsides of that property."
SCRANTON (PA)
Scranton Times
BY CHRIS BIRK / STAFF WRITER 06/11/2005
Citing increased health care costs and diminished revenue streams, the Diocese of Scranton plans to slice about $800,000 from its 2005-06 budget through job cuts and a relocation of in-house funds.
The diocesan administrative budget has sustained a deficit each of the past three years, according to a news release issued Friday afternoon. The price of health care and underperforming stocks are driving the budget reduction, according to chancellor James B. Earley, but individual parishes in the 11-county diocese also play a role.
The planned $15.2 million budget will dip to about $14.4 million, about a 5.3 percent decrease.
"Contrary to the public belief that the church is rich and has an abundant amount of money, our sources of financial support are limited," Mr. Earley said in the release.
Seventy churches reached their goal last year for the Diocesan Annual Appeal; in 1999, 144 parishes, or 66 percent, hit their mark. The annual fundraiser supports a host of diocesan ministries and programs. ...
The Diocese of Scranton has spent $836,652 since 1950 in costs related to claims of clerical sexual abuse. The latest came last month, when the diocese agreed to pay $200,000 to settle a federal civil lawsuit filed by a former St. Gregory's Academy student.
KENTUCKY
Herald-Leader
By Frank E. Lockwood
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
The Kentucky Supreme Court this week declined to reopen a former Cathedral of Christ the King altar boy's sexual abuse lawsuit against the Catholic dioceses of Lexington and Covington.
The high court's order comes less than a week after the Lexington diocese announced that it had permanently suspended the alleged abuser, Rev. William J. Fedders, in accordance with the church's sex-abuse policies.
The diocese won't say what Fedders did to merit the lifetime ban from public ministry or how many people have accused him of sexual abuse. In past court appearances, the diocese had insisted that allegations against Fedders were "not substantiated."
Spokesmen for the Lexington and Covington dioceses yesterday declined to comment on the supreme court's decision.
Fedders also declined to discuss the allegations. "I've been told that I cannot talk with you. Thank you for calling," he said.
FLORIDA
Naples Daily News
By TERRY MATTINGLY, Scripps Howard News Service
June 11, 2005
If a Catholic child steals a candy bar, church doctrine calls this a small sin.
But if a priest embezzles a large amount of money, this act is much more serious — a sin that severely corrupts and threatens the soul.
Both of these acts involve theft, but Catholicism does not believe they have equal weight. They do not have the same "parvity of matter," noted the Rev. Donald Cozzens of John Carroll University, who once led a seminary in Ohio.
"It doesn't help to look that up in a dictionary," said Cozzens, whose recent books on the modern priesthood have generated both heat and light. "That's a theological term that describes the relative gravity of immoral thoughts, acts or behaviors. There are different levels of honesty and dishonesty. There are levels of language and cursing."
But when it comes to sex, there are no misdemeanors. Every "deliberate, willful sexual sin is, from the church's perspective, a felony — a mortal sin," he said.
This may sound trivial, but it isn't for Catholics who worry about their church in an age of turmoil, tragedy and scandal. Cozzens is convinced that this basic question about the relative nature and consequences of sins must be discussed soon, before Vatican officials begin a long-awaited "apostolic visitation" of American seminaries.
Cozzens is known for asking questions that fray nerves on the left and the right. In the past five years, he has described what he calls a thriving "gay subculture" in some seminaries. He noted that most cases of clergy sex abuse have involved "ephebophilia" with under-aged boys, not "pedophilia" with prepubescent children. He has detailed the impact of plunging Catholic birth rates — below two children per family — on parental attitudes about their children taking holy vows.
Now he is convinced that teachings about the "parvity of matter" are making it harder to tell the healthy seminarians from the dangerous ones. It is almost impossible to have candid conversations about sexuality, he said.
PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
By Craig Smith
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, June 11, 2005
The Rev. Michael Matusak had a sinking feeling that he was being transferred when he was summoned to a May 13 meeting with Greensburg Bishop Lawrence E. Brandt.
It's the time of year when new assignments are handed out, and the dozen or so priests gathered outside the bishop's office could only mean one thing -- they would all soon be moving to different parishes.
But he was wrong. "This Friday the 13th turned out to be a good day," he said.
The 55-year-old Matusak, who has been a priest for 30 years, will be continuing in the parish ministry that he dearly loves. He is pastor of St. Pius X and administrator of Visitation Parish.
And his parishioners will soon be calling him monsignor.
In all, 13 priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg will be elevated to the title of monsignor, while Monsignor William G. Charnoki, pastor of St. Bernard in Indiana, will be named Protonotary Apostolic Supernumerary, the highest rank of monsignor. ...
As part of the clergy sexual abuse scandal that surfaced three years ago, five priests in the Greensburg diocese were barred from practicing public ministry for life because of allegations against them.
Statnick served as the bishop's delegate for matters of sexual misconduct and was the liaison with the diocesan review board and civil authorities, if they became involved. The five-member review board advised Bishop Anthony G. Bosco on matters of sexual misconduct. Bosco retired in 2004.
"In light of the crisis of 2002 and all that meant for us, I think one of the positive outcomes of these honors is that it reaffirms that there are some dedicated, hard-working priests out there," he said.
MANCHESTER (NH)
The Union Leader
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
Union Leader Staff
MANCHESTER — John A. Moody was 15 when he says a Manchester priest molested him, but kept silent for 20 years because he never thought anyone would believe him over an esteemed cleric and community leader.
Long-awaited vindication came yesterday when Moody learned Pope John Paul II defrocked the Roman Catholic priest, Ronald E. Corriveau, 60, on March 21.
“This is just completely huge that it was (the Pope). It was the Vatican. It’s the Catholic world . . . and this guy who is the head of it and they deemed it enough to defrock this guy,” said Moody, now 38.
Moody, a tractor-trailer driver who lives in greater Manchester, said he got goosebumps when his lawyer called him on the road yesterday to tell him about the Vatican’s decision.
BRANSON (MO)
News-Leader
By Linda Leicht
News-Leader staff
A former employee of Our Lady of the Lake church has filed suit against the local Catholic diocese claiming she was sexually harassed by a priest and was then fired because of her complaints.
Glenna McKitterick's suit, filed June 2 in U.S. District Court, outlines a series of allegations against Monsignor Philip Bucher regarding "unwelcome sexual advances and sexual harassment." They include:
• Questions about her sex life and preferences
• Recounting details of his personal sex life and preferences
• Business dinners that were conducted like personal dates
• Comments about Bucher's preferences regarding McKitterick's makeup
• Personal hugs
• Telephone calls to her home
• Romantic and sexually suggestive remarks and advances.
She was terminated on Jan. 16, 2004, nearly six months short of the end of a two-year employment contract as a "pastoral associate" at the Branson church. She also claims to have complained both verbally and in writing to Bucher and the church, including a letter to Bucher dated Jan. 12, 2004.
BELLINGHAM (MA)
MetroWest Daily News
By Sara Withee / Daily News Staff
Saturday, June 11, 2005
BELLINGHAM -- Weeks after the Rev. Paul Desilets pleaded guilty to sexual abuse charges, the Archdiocese of Boston has announced another former Assumption Parish priest is realizing consequences for his alleged wrongdoing.
The Rev. Richard Matte, who served at the now-closed Our Lady of Assumption Parish in South Bellingham, is among six priests who have "left the clerical state" accused of sexually abusing minors, the archdiocese announced Wednesday.
The priests were removed from active duty during the 2002 clergy sex abuse scandal, along with dozens of others. The archdiocese is not saying whether they chose to leave or the Vatican defrocked them.
This week's announcement means they cannot act as priests except to offer absolution to the dying and will not receive any financial support from the archdiocese.
SIOUX CITY (IA)
Sioux City Journal
By Nick Hytrek, Journal staff writer
The Catholic Diocese of Sioux City has reached its 21st settlement in a series of sexual abuse lawsuits filed against it and a former priest.
Mary Ankenbrand's case was dismissed from Woodbury County District Court Thursday. Her attorney, Scott Rhinehart of Sioux City, said he could not disclose the settlement amount.
Jim Wharton, diocese director of communications, confirmed the settlement but did not comment on it.
Ankenbrand filed suit in April 2004, accusing the Rev. George McFadden of engaging in sex acts with her in the 1960's while he was the pastor of Sioux City's St. Francis of Assisi Church, which is now closed. Ankenbrand was under age 10 at the time.
The settlement is the 17th this year. In previous settlements, Rhinehart said his clients wanted to keep the settlement amounts confidential. The diocese has not released the individual amounts.
In a Diocese Review Board report released in February, the diocese said it settled 11 sexual abuse claims in 2004 for $805,000, with 60 percent of those costs being paid the by the diocese's insurance carrier. McFadden paid 5 percent of the remaining costs and the diocese used unrestricted endowment funds and estate gifts to pay the other 35 percent. Some of the claims were not lawsuits.
WASHINGTON
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By VANESSA HO AND CLAUDIA ROWE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS
In 2003, Jeff Alfieri, a burly 43-year-old business agent for Teamsters Local 117, drove to the parking lot of Holy Family Parish in Kirkland and shot himself in the head. It was months after he told his parents and the archdiocese that the Rev. Gerald Moffat had repeatedly molested him in the early '70s.
Yesterday, lawyers for Alfieri's estate and parents said the Archdiocese of Seattle had settled the case for $600,000. But the dollar figure did little to ease their grief -- or even offer resolution.
"Getting the money, I can't tell you what an empty feeling that is," said Sue Alfieri, Jeff's mother. "To equate the life of someone with money, it's just horrible."
Both she and her husband, Ralph, said the ordeal had only convinced them to keep working to ensure that the church is held accountable into the future.
"The question is really, what's happening now?" said Ralph Alfieri. "Does a settlement end the problem with the church? That just answers the economic part of the claim, but we still don't know what's really happening. It's like the lights are off in the stadium, but the game is still going on and we can't see it."
MIDLAND (TX)
Midland Reporter Telegram
06/11/2005
By Stewart Doreen
Managing Editor
Bishop Michael Pfeifer of the Catholic Diocese of San Angelo announced Friday that Midland's Dr. Joseph Rhode has been appointed to the Catholic Bishops'Abuse Tracker Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People.
The appointment -- made this past week by Bishop William Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops -- is for a period of three years and is subject to the norms for the Charter for the Protection for Children and Young People.
Rhode, according to Pfeifer, is the first person from any diocese in Texas to be named to the board, which Pfeifer said has been important in assisting the Catholic bishops in dealing with the crisis of sexual abuse of minors within the church.
"I am very appreciative and humbled by the vote of confidence shown to me by this appointment," Rhode said. "We would love to see the problem (of sexual abuse) go away. Like any other crime you do best you can to prevent it and act upon it when it occurs."
FORT WORTH (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By Darren Barbee
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH - The Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese on Friday named the eight priests who have been accused of sexual misconduct with minors since the diocese was founded in 1969.
Four of the names had already been made public through lawsuits, diocese statements and other means. The other four, not previously identified, are the Rev. James Reilly, the Rev. James Hanlon, the Rev. John Howlett and the Rev. Joseph Tu Ngoc Nguyen, according to a statement by the diocese.
Tu, a Dominican religious order priest, is the only one of the eight accused clerics still in active ministry. Reached by phone Friday in the Galveston-Houston Diocese, where he works, Tu said the matter is resolved and declined to comment further.
Hanlon died in 1990, and Reilly died in 1999. Howlett, a Pallottine religious order priest, was removed from active ministry several years ago.
Last year, Fort Worth Bishop Joseph Delaney released the number of accused priests as part of a national study by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. But he refused to identify them all. In recent months, the diocese had also fought to keep the priests' names and files sealed.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Wyatt Buchanan, Elizabeth Fernandez, Chronicle Staff Writers
Saturday, June 11, 2005
The Archdiocese of San Francisco agreed Friday to pay $21.2 million to people who were molested by five clergymen, including one priest who helped draft the so-called "zero tolerance" policy toward sexual abuse by clerics.
The settlement is the largest in Northern California and the second- largest in the state. The archdiocese will pay $6.6 million, and the remainder will come from insurance companies, a spokesman for the archdiocese said.
The 15 people receiving the settlement -- 11 men and four women -- were the victims of sexual abuse from priests throughout the 1970s and include three who won a jury award from a San Francisco jury in April.
Archbishop William Levada said he hopes the settlement will lead to the resolution of the remaining 45 cases pending against the San Francisco archdiocese.
"It is our hope that the settlement of these cases will facilitate the process of healing for these victims and also set the stage for a global settlement of the remaining cases," Levada said in a prepared statement. He also expressed his "sincere apology for the pain (the victims) have endured."
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
The Desert Sun
The Associated Press
June 11, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO - The Archdiocese of San Francisco agreed Friday to settle 15 pending lawsuits for $21.2 million involving allegations of sexual abuse by priests under its jurisdiction, according to a statement from the church.
Under the settlement, which was brokered by a retired judge who has been mediating 60 separate cases against the San Francisco archdiocese, the archdiocese will pay out $6.6 million, and the rest of the money will come from its insurers. Several of those original 60 cases have already gone to trial.
The 15 cases represent about one-quarter of the remaining priest abuse lawsuits naming the San Francisco archdiocese as a primary defendant - and 10 of them involve allegations against one former San Jose priest, the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard.
"During the course of the recent trials and settlement discussions, we have heard the victims' anger and grief over the impact that the abuse has had on their lives and the lives of their families and friends," said San Francisco Archbishop William Levada. "It is our hope that the settlement of these cases will facilitate the process of healing for these victims and also set the stage for a global settlement of the remaining cases."
DOVER (NH)
Foster's Daily Democrat
By TARA LYNCH
Democrat Staff Writer
DOVER — Ever since he was a child, Catholic priest Paul L. Gregoire has called St. Charles Borromeo home.
It was within the walls of St. Charles that he was inspired to devote his life to the church, where he said his first Mass as an ordained priest and where he faced false accusations of sexual abuse that almost cost him his career.
The false accusation that Gregoire inappropriately touched a girl while serving at the Society of St. Sulpice in Seattle in the 1970s came to a head at the beginning of the advent season in 2002. According to the accuser, Gregoire had inappropriately touched her during a hug at a party. The Vatican ultimately determined that the accusations were not credible, but not before Gregoire was suspended and removed from his priestly duties for nine months. Amid the media frenzy, Gregoire spent his time in the relative solitude of his Manchester apartment, praying, writing letters to church officials and making appeals to Rome for his reinstatement.
"That was a very difficult period for me, but it didn't hurt my faith at all," said Gregoire. "This is an imperfect world — society is imperfect, the church is imperfect. I just used my faith and the certainty of my innocence to get my through."
SCRANTON (PA)
Times Leader
Times Leader staff
How much has the Diocese of Scranton spent as a result of accusations of sexual misconduct by priests? As a private entity, the diocese has no legal obligation to release figures, so it’s hard to say. But the minimum hovers around $700,000 since the early 1970s.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Times Leader in May 2002, then-Bishop James Timlin said the diocese had spent about $500,000 for victims of priest misconduct in three decades.
That doesn’t include $200,000 the diocese agreed to pay as part of a larger settlement of a civil lawsuit accusing two priests of misconduct with a minor in the late 1990s. The alleged misconduct began at St. Gregory’s Academy in Elmhurst.
The victim, identified only as John Doe in court papers, had sued Timlin, the diocese, the Society of St. John, the academy, and the group that runs the academy and the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. Combined, the parties agreed to pay $454,550 to settle the 3-year-old case.
MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press
Modeling her efforts after a Japanese myth granting wishes to anyone who folds 1,000 origami paper cranes, sexual-abuse survivor Belinda Martinez of Maplewood "released" hundreds of golden cranes this week to coincide with separate national meetings of Catholic bishops and abuse victims.
Martinez, co-founder of the Minnesota chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, mailed cranes to Pope Benedict XVI in memory of abuse victims who committed suicide; to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops symbolizing "predators protected by the church''; and to St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop Harry Flynn symbolizing new victims who came forward in 2004.
"The cranes are strung in groups of 100 and tied in a circle,'' Martinez said.
She also sent 1,000 cranes to the mayor of Hiroshima, Japan, in memory of children killed by atomic bombs in 1945.
A national conference of SNAP begins today in Chicago. The U.S. Catholic bishops will meet in Chicago beginning Thursday.
NEW ZEALAND
Stuff
11 June 2005
By MIKE HOULAHAN
When former Christian Heritage Party leader Graham Capill was decrying moral standards in society, he was also sexually abusing young girls, fresh charges against him allege.
Yesterday at a brief appearance in the Christchurch District Court he faced new sex charges alleging repeated offending against two girls younger than 12 between 1990 and 1999. The new charges accuse the former police prosecutor of rape, unlawful sexual connection, attempted rape and indecent assault.
In April, Capill pleaded guilty to fondling a girl's genitals while she was in bed in 2002. The sentencing has been postponed until June 28.
Flanked by two burly policemen, Capill appeared in a courtroom yesterday packed with onlookers and media. The heavy protection was to prevent a repeat of an incident at a previous court appearance when he was punched in the jaw outside the court by a former boxer who is now serving a jail term for the assault.
At the time covered by the new charges, Capill was a pastor at the Reform Church in Dunedin and a political leader under the Christian Heritage Party banner.
UNITED STATES
The Tidings
By Rev. Richard P. McBrien
In the aftermath of the worst crisis to hit the Roman Catholic Church since the Reformation, one might have hoped that priests would enjoy something of a respite from all the horrible publicity and the acute demoralization that it produced. But not so.
The latest negative development --- radical reductions in pension benefits for diocesan priests --- has occurred in the very same place where the sexual-abuse scandal first broke in all of its shocking intensity back in January, 2002. Just like the sexual-abuse crisis, however, this latest problem will not ultimately be confined to Boston. It is sure to manifest itself in other dioceses and in other countries.
This newest crisis concerns priestly security in old age. A few decades ago, diocesan priests did not retire. Pastors remained in office until death. Some lived into their 90s. In larger archdioceses, like Boston, the senior curate (ordained as many as 25 or even 30 years) was, in effect, the pastor. He made all the assignments for the other curates (in some parishes there were as many as four or five) and almost all of the important decisions.
AUSTRALIA
The Mercury
By NICK CLARK
11jun05
FORMER Anglican Bishop of Tasmania Phillip Newell was told of the pedophile activities of disgraced priest Louis Victor Daniels as early as 1987 - before Daniels committed a number of his crimes.
The Anglican Church has revealed that despite receiving complaints, Bishop Newell sent Daniels to Burnie as rector in 1988 and then appointed him Archdeacon of Burnie in 1989.
Present Anglican Bishop of Tasmania John Harrower confirmed his predecessor's actions in a written reply to questions from The Mercury. Bishop Newell declined to comment.
Daniels, 57, was sentenced in the Supreme Court last month to seven-and-half-years jail, after pleading guilty to sexual abuse of 10 boys over two decades.
He committed the crimes between 1974 and 1993.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
A woman sued the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis and Archbishop Raymond Burke on Thursday, alleging that she was abused more than 40 years ago in her parish in St. Paul.
The suit by the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, says that a Roman Catholic priest with the last name Kohnen sexually abused her between 1960 and 1968.
Lawyer Susan Carlson, who is representing the woman, said the priest's full name was Henry J. Kohnen. Kohnen was ordained in 1935 and died in 1983 at the age of 73. He last served as pastor of Assumption Catholic Church in Mattese.
The suit says the church knew that Kohnen was a pedophile, but allowed him to take children on trips and ignored parents' complaints of improprieties. The suit also says the church failed to report the abuse.
A church spokesman could not be reached late Thursday. Church officials typically do not comment on pending litigation.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Nashua Telegraph
Published: Friday, Jun. 10, 2005
Bishop John McCormack has a lot of chutzpah advising Trinity High School graduates during their baccalaureate Mass to be loving and forgiving.
If he really wanted to take responsibility for his actions in shuffling pedo-phile priests around while stationed in Boston, McCormack would have long ago tendered his resignation as head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester.
Instead, he turns away complaints about his past involvement in the church’s sexual abuse scandal and carries on business as usual. Being a bishop seems to mean more to McCormack than to renounce his leadership position in recognition of his past wrongdoings.
A group of seniors at Trinity High had petitioned against having McCormack preside at the Manchester school’s baccalaureate Mass because of his role in the church abuse scandal.
About half of the graduating class of 112 seniors signed the petition, and the issue was hashed out at a student meeting with McCormack last week.
Some students attending the meeting praised him for addressing their issues while others said he evaded their questions.
AUSTRALIA
Examiner
By PHILIPPA DUNCAN , Saturday, 11 June 2005
The Anglican Church transferred and then promoted an Anglican priest even after three teenage boys had told it that the man sexually abused them in 1987.
The Rev. Chris Jones yesterday confirmed the chain of events surrounding convicted paedophile Louis Victor Daniels but stressed that they could not occur in today's church.
He said the boys had gone to a bishop to complain of the abuse that had occurred at Deloraine, where Daniels was parish priest. The bishop had believed the boys but had not told the police, Mr Jones said.
Daniels, 57, is serving 71/2 years in Risdon Prison after pleading guilty this year to 13 charges relating to the sexual abuse of 10 boys he met through his role as deacon and priest in the church.
He abused boys as young as 11 between 1974 and 1993 in locations around Tasmania.
One of his victims has since killed himself.
Survivors Investigating Child Sex Abuse spokesman Steve Fisher is calling for an independent inquiry into the conduct of the church hierarchy in the 1980s and 1990s, who, he says, knew paedophiles were operating within the church.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
Friday June 10th 2005
A HUGE €250m has been offered or awarded by the compensation board to victims of residential abuse, with thousands more claims waiting to be processed, latest figures reveal.
At the start of June, 3,204 awards had been offered or awarded by the Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB) to claimants.
The figure is up just under 1,000 since December. The number of applications has increased from 5,071 to 6,300 in the same six-month period, a rate of roughly 50 per week. The closing date for award applications by the board is December 15 next. If they continue at this rate, by the end of the year the total number will be near 7,500.
The board's latest report shows the average award to claimants is €78,000, which is an almost identical to that of last December.
The RIRB's refusal rate is almost zero. Of 3,277 applications processed so far, just two were refused under the board's remit. A further 71 were refused on the grounds they were not covered by the Residential Institutions Redress Act.
GREEN BAY (WI)
Press-Gazette
By Andy Nelesen
anelesen@greenbaypressgazette.com
The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay announced Thursday that accused child molester Donald Buzanowski has been defrocked as a Catholic priest.
Buzanowski, 62, faces two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child under age 13 and remains in the Brown County Jail awaiting trial.
The former priest is accused of fondling a 10-year-old boy in 1988 while serving as a counselor at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic School in Green Bay.
If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison.
In an e-mail sent to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, Diocese spokeswoman Renee Bauer said Buzanowski’s dismissal from the priesthood was officially granted in March by Pope John Paul II and was received by the diocese in mid-May.
GREEN BAY (WI)
Post-Crescent
GREEN BAY — The Vatican defrocked a Roman Catholic priest who spent 21 months in federal prison for possessing child pornography and now is accused of molesting a 10-year-old boy.
Green Bay Bishop David A. Zubik said Donald Buzanowski was defrocked by Pope John Paul II in March, and the diocese received word of the decision in mid-May.
Zubik told Buzanowski of the decision this week before announcing it, the Green Bay Diocese said.
INDIANA
The Journal Gazette
By Rebecca S. Green
The Journal Gazette
Since a report was released in 2003 detailing how much credible sex abuse allegations have cost the area’s Roman Catholic diocese, there has been little change.
Bishop John M. D’Arcy, head of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend said that the numbers released in December 2003, as part of a series of nationwide studies commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, are still good.
According to the 2003 report, there have been 33 credible allegations of sexual abuse against 16 priests since 1950.
Those allegations have cost the diocese and its insurers more than $1.3 million.
“That is still the number, except for some ongoing counseling of victims,” D’Arcy said.
HOLBROOK (MA)
Holbrook Sun
Friday, June 10, 2005
A Roman Catholic priest who served at St. Joseph's Church from 1981 to 1990 and had been accused of sexually abusing a child has been cleared to return to the ministry.
This happened after a church review panel found that the allegation against the Rev. Robert Fichtner was unsubstantiated, the Archdiocese of Boston announced this week.
The Rev. Fichtner was placed on administrative leave in 2003 after the archdiocese received a complaint claiming that he sexually abused a child at St. Joseph's Church more than 20 years earlier.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the archdiocese said that the review board could not verify the allegation after "careful review of the information available" and lifted all of the restrictions on the Rev. Fichtner's exercise of public ministry.
MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
From the Journal Sentinel
Posted: June 9, 2005
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Michael Guolee may have felt that state law gave him no choice, but his ruling in two fraud lawsuits involving the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese serves the interests of pedophile priests and not the victims of clergy sexual abuse. That's not how the justice system should work, and it's why the state Legislature needs to approve a legal window that would give victims a chance to find some justice in such cases.
Guolee threw out the cases because, he said, the statute of limitations had run out on alleged assaults by Father Siegfried
Widera, who was accused of molesting children here in the 1970s. But in the 1970s, some church officials worked very hard to make sure abuse cases didn't come to light. Priests were quietly transferred, and victims and families were pressured by church officials to remain silent about the abuse. Widera, for example, was moved to California and was accused of abuse there. He killed himself in 2003.
BOSTON (MA)
Lynn Daily Item
By Jill Casey / The Daily Item
Friday, June 10, 2005
BOSTON - A Lynn native, accused of sexually abusing a child in the 1970s, was among a group of six clergymen from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston who were defrocked by the Vatican, the archdiocese said Thursday.
The announcement comes more than 10 years after allegations surfaced that the Rev. John Connell molested a 12-year-old boy while spending a week with him in Sarasota, Fla., hotel during the mid-1970s.
Connell was the chaplain at St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers from 1984 to 1994, but was removed from the position after he was accused of sexual misconduct.
Connell may no longer act as a priest, except to offer absolution to the dying. He is no longer part of the archdiocese and is cut off from any financial support from the archdiocese, the archdiocese said in a statement.
BOSTON (MA)
Milford Daily News
Friday, June 10, 2005
BOSTON -- The Vatican has defrocked six priests from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston who were accused of sexually abusing children, the archdiocese announced yesterday.
The defrocked men are John Connell, Denis Conte, Peter Frost, John Hanlon, Richard Matte and Paul David White.
The men may no longer act as priests, except to offer absolution to the dying. They are no longer part of the archdiocese, and are cut off from any financial support from the archdiocese, the archdiocese said in a statement.
Connell was accused in a civil lawsuit of molesting a 12-year-old boy while spending a week with him in Sarasota, Fla., hotel during the mid-1970s. In 1994, the archdiocese removed him as chaplain at St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers after he was accused of sexual misconduct.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Michael Paulson and Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | June 10, 2005
The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston announced yesterday that six priests accused of sexually abusing minors are ''no longer in the clerical state," indicating that they were either defrocked by the Vatican or had voluntarily left the priesthood.
The archdiocese refused yesterday to say how many priests are still on leave facing unresolved accusations, how many have been removed from the priesthood, and how many have been restored to their jobs after investigations failed to substantiate the allegations.
But a spokesman said that Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, who has expressed frustration that the Vatican has moved too slowly to resolve abuse accusations against priests, was pleased to see the backlog being reduced.
Under church law, all credible accusations of abuse must be referred to the Vatican, which can then decide how to resolve the case or can allow dioceces to do so.
MANCHESTER (NH)
The Union Leader
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
Union Leader Staff
MANCHESTER — Ronald E. Corriveau, accused of molesting a teenage boy in Manchester in 1982 and possessing Internet pornography three years ago, is the first Roman Catholic diocesan priest in New Hampshire to be defrocked since the clergy sexual abuse scandal became public in early 2002, the diocese announced yesterday.
The late Pope John Paul II made the decision to laicize Corriveau, 60, on March 21, less than two weeks before the Pontiff's death.
"By virtue of this decree, Ronald Corriveau is no longer bound to the obligations of the sacred priesthood, has no faculties to act as a priest and has been returned to the lay state," the diocese said in a two-sentence statement released late yesterday afternoon.
Corriveau was pastor of an Epping parish when the diocese learned of the abuse allegation against him on March 11, 2002. He has been on administrative leave since and now lives in Nashua.
Corriveau is one of 27 living priests credibly accused of sexually abusing minors whose cases were sent to the Vatican for possible punitive action since November 2002, church officials have said.
CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly
by GUSTAVO ARELLANO
About the only positive observation obtained from Breaking the Silence, the recent documentary produced by the Diocese of Orange ostensibly to warn kiddies about its priestly sex-abuse problem, is that our Catholic hierarchy doesn’t blame the scandal on fags. Or Jews. Or Freemasons. Or Mormons. And definitely not itself. Although the DVD’s liner notes state Breaking the Silence “has a single goal: to get teenagers to begin talking about sexual abuse,” it becomes clear even 30 seconds into the film that any discussions will—nay, must—talk about the Orange diocese’s still-fresh molestation scars in only the most abstruse of terms and wholeheartedly ignore the role church leaders played in condoning child rapes in Orange County parishes over the past three decades. And that’s just how Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown likes it. The cover-up continues.
Brown commissioned Breaking the Silence last year as part of his Covenant With the Faithful, the seven theses he infamously nailed to the doors of Holy Family Cathedral in Orange as penance for the crimes of his fellow priests. In particular, the documentary, according to an afterword, fulfills Thesis 2 of the covenant, which promised to implement “our own diocesan policies for the prevention of the abuse of children and young people.”
But nowhere in that Covenant With the Faithful was there promise of an unlimited budget, and as a result, Breaking the Silence screens like a 1950s education short on menstruation. Non-professional actors make up the cast, and it’s a hoot to see these people strain to deliver their tightly scripted lines in a supposedly spontaneous environment. The production values are barely better—stationary shots, computer graphics from the era of Pong, a terrible tabla soundtrack. The most cardinal sin, however, is the use of a really bad boom mike by executive producer (and Orange diocese spokesman) Joseph Fenton—voices sound distant or pass the red zone toward distortion too often.
AUSTRALIA
ABC
Friday, 10 June 2005. 08:00 (AEST)Friday, 10 June 2005. 08:00 (ACST)Friday, 10 June 2005. 09:00 (AEDT)Friday, 10 June 2005. 06:00 (AWST)
The Anglican Church in Tasmania has admitted it was aware of allegations that a senior priest had abused a teenage boy, but did not pass the information on to police.
Reverend Chris Jones says the boy told a senior church figure of the alleged abuse by Louis Victor Daniels in 1987.
Daniels, who was recently convicted of molesting 10 youths, was promoted to arch deacon of Burnie two years later.
Reverend Jones says Daniels was disciplined by the church.
"The church was made aware of a complaint about sexual abuse by Daniels," he said.
HUDSON (WI)
River Towns
By Jon Echternacht
The bishop of the Diocese of Superior has banned an elderly Hudson priest, the Rev. James S. Dabruzzi, from celebrating mass publicly for alleged inappropriate behavior involving women parishioners.
St. Croix County District Attorney Eric Johnson, however, said he will not file criminal charges against Dabruzzi.
When contacted Monday, Dabruzzi said he is not guilty of any wrongdoing, saying the newspaper did not know all the facts. He reiterated that no charges have been filed, calling the incident an internal church affair.
"I am not guilty," Dabruzzi said.
The Most Rev. Raphael M. Fliss, sent a letter to Dabruzzi, 77, of St. Patrick's Catholic Church on April 28.
"Although no criminal charges have been filed against you, your behavior was most inappropriate and scandalous," the bishop wrote. "Eleven women have complained that you have sexually abused them. Consequently, I am suspending you from all public ministry."
UNITED STATES
Washington Post
By RACHEL ZOLL
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 9, 2005; 5:27 PM
-- The cost to the U.S. Roman Catholic Church of sexual predators in the priesthood has climbed past $1 billion, according to tallies by American bishops and an Associated Press review of known settlements.
And the figure is guaranteed to rise, probably by tens of millions of dollars, because hundreds more claims are pending.
Dioceses around the country have spent at least $1.06 billion on settlements with victims, verdicts, legal fees, counseling and other expenses since 1950, the AP found. A $120 million compensation fund announced last week by the Diocese of Covington, Ky., pushed the figure past the billion-dollar mark.
A large share of the costs _ at least $378 million _ have been incurred in just the past three years, when the crisis erupted in the Boston Archdiocese and spread nationwide.
The Rev. Thomas Doyle, who left a promising career with the church to help represent victims, had warned the bishops in 1985 that abuse costs could eventually exceed $1 billion.
"Nobody believed us," said Doyle, a canon lawyer. "I remember one archbishop telling me, `My feeling about this, Tom, is no one's ever going to sue the Catholic Church."
NEW JERSEY
ArriveNet
COLONIA, N.J., June 9, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Unscrupulous evangelists and predatory priests have shamed Protestant and Catholic leadership and promoted mistrust among their faithful. Restoring Honor to an Honorable Vocation (now available through AuthorHouse) by Dieuner Joseph critically addresses the churches' guilt while encouraging members of the religious community to maintain strong spirituality.
"This is a book about promoting and safeguarding the integrity of the many faithful and committed priests and pastors whose prophetic voices are drowned out by the boisterous and vulgar pandemonium of the priestly charlatans and the Ecclesial imposters that have hijacked many of our churches," Joseph writes.
Restoring Honor to an Honorable Vocation offers readers an honest look at the problem of sexual abuse by priests and pastors and challenges Catholic and Protestant churches to be more proactive in dealing with the issue. From a pastor's point-of-view, Joseph maintains that congregational trust and support must be regained. Religious leaders who display "holier-than-thou" attitudes while shuffling the guilty in and out of parishes to conceal embarrassing truths must hold pedophile priests accountable. As well, he calls to task those Protestant pastors who have used their vocation as a ticket to fame and fortune.
UNITED STATES
San Luis Obispo Tribune
Associated Press
Sexual abuse by U.S. Roman Catholic priests has cost the church more than $1 billion. Some of the largest known payouts to victims in the past three years:
Jan. 29, 2002 - Diocese of Tucson, Ariz., pays an estimated $15 million to settle 11 lawsuits. Declares bankruptcy two years later in the face of more claims.
Sept. 9, 2002 - Diocese of Providence, R.I., pays $13.5 million to settle 36 claims.
Sept. 19, 2002 - Boston Archdiocese settles with 86 victims of former priest John Geoghan for $10 million.
May 22, 2003 - Diocese of Manchester, N.H., settles with 61 people for $6.5 million.
BOSTON (MA)
TheBostonChannel.com
POSTED: 4:24 pm EDT June 9, 2005
UPDATED: 4:47 pm EDT June 9, 2005
BOSTON -- The Vatican has defrocked six priests from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston who were accused of sexually abusing children, the archdiocese announced Thursday.
The defrocked men are John Connell, Denis Conte, Peter Frost, John Hanlon, Richard Matte and Paul David White.
The men may no longer act as priests, except to offer absolution to the dying. They are no longer part of the archdiocese, and are cut off from any financial support from the archdiocese, the archdiocese said in a statement.
Connell was accused in a civil lawsuit of molesting a 12-year-old boy while spending a week with him in Sarasota, Fla., hotel during the mid-1970s. In 1994, the archdiocese removed him as chaplain at St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers after he was accused of sexual misconduct.
The archdiocese removed Conte from ministry in 1994 after a lawyer representing a 26-year-old man alleged Conte had sexually abused him between 1979 and 1982, when the man was 11 or 12.
SCRANTON (PA)
Scranton Times
BY CHRIS BIRK STAFF WRITER 06/09/2005
The Vatican has ratified the Diocese of Scranton's decision to sever all ties with the Society of St. John, declaring the group's appeal "has no basis in law or in fact."
The ruling solidifies the initial suppression decree issued in November by the Most Rev. Joseph F. Martino, diocesan bishop. The bishop last fall cited a lingering sexual abuse lawsuit and mounting financial problems among his reasons for cutting off the embattled society.
Weeks later, afforded an avenue of recourse under Catholic canon law, the society appealed the decision to Rome.
The Vatican issued its own decree on May 3.
In it, the Congregation for the Clergy states the Society of St. John "has been plagued with numerous difficulties, particularly in the areas of economic and pastoral activities" and "has repeatedly refused to fully cooperate with the (bishop) in the execution of his responsibilities regarding the oversight of the financial situation of the society," according to a story in today's "The Catholic Light" newspaper.
SOUTH BEND (IN)
South Bend Tribune
By SARA TOTH
Tribune Staff Writer
SOUTH BEND -- Bishop John M. D'Arcy is preparing to attend a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting next week in Chicago, where the American bishops are scheduled to vote on a new program of priestly formation and to renew the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the document written in response to the clergy sexual abuse scandal.
The issue of homosexual-oriented men in the priesthood and how that may relate to the abuse also may emerge at the meeting being held Wednesday through June 18, according to D'Arcy, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.
The two documents up for review are "critically" connected, D'Arcy said.
"A massive failure of vocational discernment," D'Arcy said, contributed significantly to the abuse that by 2002 many Catholics had begun referring to as "the crisis in the Church."
COVINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Post
By Paul A. Long
Post staff reporter
The blueprint that will be used to distribute up to $120 million to victims of molestation by priests in the Diocese of Covington has been used before to settle similar claims, say attorneys involved.
It's an outline that helps classify victims according to the gravity of the abuse suffered, and it recognizes that some acts are far more serious than others.
And while it does not tie specific dollar figures to specific injuries or events, it does provide a similar range of payments to similar ranges of abuse.
"As the severity of the abuse increases, the amount of recovery increases," according to documents filed in connection with the settlement.
The documents chart the details of the settlement, announced Friday, of a lawsuit alleging a 50-year cover-up by diocesan officials of priestly sexual abuse.
The agreement calls for a $120 million settlement fund, the largest yet from any diocese in America since the Roman Catholic Church's sexual-abuse crisis erupted some 15 years ago.
GOFFSTOWN (NH)
The Union Leader
By CAROL ROBIDOUX
Union Leader Staff
GOFFSTOWN — Bishop John McCormack stressed love, forgiveness and unity to Trinity High School's graduates during last night's baccalaureate service, held in Abbey Church at St. Anselm College.
"Let us ask God to be merciful, to pardon our sins and pardon one another's sins," McCormack said as he opened with prayer.
More than 250 family and friends of Trinity graduates attended the 7 p.m. service, which began just as rain started pouring down on the Goffstown campus.
Only a few members of the senior class were missing in protest of McCormack serving as celebrant of the service, senior Katherine Gaudet said.
"I'm glad most everyone decided to come," she said. "It was a beautiful service."
Last Friday, a group of students who had circulated a petition against McCormack met with him on school grounds in Manchester to air their feelings and question him about his role in the church's priest abuse scandals.
MANCHESTER (NH)
Foster's Daily Democrat
By J.M. HIRSCH
Associated Press Writer
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Bishop John McCormack urged Trinity High School seniors to focus on forgiveness while celebrating their baccalaureate Mass on Wednesday, just days after many objected to his presence because of his role in the church sex abuse scandal.
During the Mass, the Roman Catholic bishop asked class members to remember who they were as Christians, to forgive one another and "set aside distractions," his only reference to the discord during the 1-hour ceremony.
Last week, nearly half the school's 112 seniors, some of whom said they had lost faith in McCormack as their spiritual leader, had signed petitions asking the bishop not to celebrate the Mass.
A diocesan spokesman had said it was part of the bishop's ministry to lead the ceremony for the private Catholic school and he would do so.
School officials would not comment on the petitions Wednesday, but said they believed nearly all the seniors attended the Mass at Abbey Church at Saint Anselm College. Some students had said they would boycott the event if McCormack was there.
CANTON (OH)
Beacon Journal
By Mary Kay Quinn
Beacon Journal staff writer
CANTON - A Stark County board is seeking assurances that a large mental health agency will tackle issues surrounding allegations about a counselor.
The Stark County Community Mental Health Board on Tuesday voted to award as much as $1 million to five agencies that could assist non-Medicaid clients now served by Nova Behavioral Health Inc. ...
The county board has said Nova violated its contract by mishandling complaints about a counselor, Dennis J. Bliss.
Nova fired Bliss on June 2, nearly two months after the county board released an investigation of him. The April 7 report said five female clients had several complaints about Bliss, including ``unwanted physical contact with sexual overtones.''
In a follow-up report, the county said that by failing to scrutinize Bliss closely, Nova didn't protect patients.
Nova's board president, Christopher Goff, presented recommendations Tuesday that he said were suggested by staff members and adopted by the board. They include retraining staff immediately, hiring managers and dividing responsibilities so that future complaints will be handled correctly.
County board members criticized the presentation and demanded a cover letter and a written plan showing how changes would be done.
The county board was expecting a plan to address seven findings outlined in a May 19 investigation, said A. Leslie Abel, executive director of the county board.
He said the board wants to be assured problems will be corrected and that the agency's culture has changed so that clients' rights are respected.
Goff said the Nova board will negotiate a new contract this week. The new fiscal year begins next month.
The county board's investigation of Bliss noted that when he was a Roman Catholic priest in Youngstown, he faced a variety of legal troubles from 1988 to 2001. Nova hired him as a part-time outpatient therapist in April 2000. He was working full time when he was suspended in March, the county report said.
Separately, one present and three former Nova employees filed a lawsuit, claiming Nova retaliated against them after they reported their concerns about Bliss.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
HOW did a defrocked priest end up in my kitchen?
That's what has me preoccupied this week. My puzzlement arises out of the extensive coverage of the latest local twist in the sex scandal that continues to plague the Philadelphia archdiocese.
A week ago, the Catholic Standard and Times reported that two priests were defrocked and a third (already retired) was barred from the ministry for more of what has become the same-old same-old with some men in black.
But what was a Page 10 story for the Catholic weekly was a front-page story in the Inquirer. It reported that the Rev. Martin J. Satchell, now 39, was ordained in May 1993. He then served as assistant pastor at St. Raymond of Penafort in Germantown until September 1993, when he was dismissed because of a "credible allegation of misconduct involving a minor."
That was the underlying charge, which led to his recent defrocking - at his request.
His photo accompanied the Inky story, and when I saw it, I paused because something about him was familiar. After a moment of thought, I couldn't place him, and turned the page.
A day or so later came the next revelation: Four years after he was canned by the archdiocese for being "accused of abusing a teenage boy," he began to teach middle school at the prestigious Haverford School for boys on the Main Line, where he stayed for three years.
COVINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Enquirer
By William Croyle
Enquirer staff writer
COVINGTON - A plaintiff in a $100 million priest sex abuse settlement in Orange County, Calif., wants the judge in the Covington Diocese case to order church documents released as part of the proposed $120 million local settlement.
Joelle Casteix, 34, of Newport Beach, Calif., and other sex abuse victims sent a letter Monday to Judge John Potter. Potter is presiding over Covington's priest sex abuse case and is scheduled to rule on the settlement today.
Casteix said she and other victims refused to accept their settlement unless the release of confidential personnel files was included. That settlement was reached in December. Documents were released a few weeks ago.
"I wanted them exposed," Casteix said.
"Everything is in those documents. It shows what they knew, when they knew it and how they put kids at risk for 40 years," she said.
Casteix was molested by her choir teacher, a layman, at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., in the late 1980s.
KENTUCKY
The News-Enterprise
By ERICA WALSH
An Elizabethtown couple is suing a Glendale church after their daughter was sexually abused by the church's youth minister.
A civil suit was filed May 25 in Hardin Circuit Court against Sand Springs Church of God, its pastor, Charles Duke, and Duke's son, Nicky.
The suit claims that Glendale resident Nicky Duke, 40, molested the couple's then 14-year-old daughter in early 2003. Nicky Duke was Sand Springs Church of God's youth leader at the time.
The suit claims the daughter "has and will endure great pain and suffering, both physical and mental." The News-Enterprise does not identify victims of sexual abuse who are minors.
The couple also believes that Charles Duke was negligent in hiring Nicky Duke "with full knowledge of previous criminal activity" and continuing to keep him as an employee after the abuse claims came to light.
CANADA
CBC News
Last updated Jun 9 2005 07:17 AM EDT
CBC News
CORNWALL, ONT. – The inquiry into allegations of a sex-abuse ring that operated in Cornwall suffered a potential setback Wednesday with the revelation that the judge is a distant relative of two alleged victims.
George and Ron Glaude came forward at a news conference Wednesday claiming they too were abused by members of an alleged ring of high-ranking officials, professionals and clergy that sexually abused boys in the Cornwall area for decades.
The Cornwall brothers are planning to file lawsuits against their alleged abusers within 10 days.
The Glaude brothers share a great-grandfather with Justice Normand Glaude, whom Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant appointed in April to head up the long-awaited examination of how the justice system and other public institutions responded to the abuse allegations.
A provincial police investigation called Project Truth resulted in 114 charges against 15 men, including doctors, lawyers and Catholic priests, but only one person was ever convicted.
SAN DIEGO (CA)
NBCSanDiego.com
POSTED: 6:00 pm PDT June 8, 2005
UPDATED: 9:00 pm PDT June 8, 2005
SAN DIEGO -- A full-page advertisement ran in The San Diego Union Tribune Wednesday urging the San Diego diocese to come clean about past allegations of sexual abuse.
The letter was signed by victims of alleged sexual abuse in the church. It asked that the diocese release all documents relating to abuse by clergy over the last 60 years. It also asked the diocese to stop legal maneuvering on cases that have already been filed.
"The public's safety is what's on the table," said Jaime Romo, of the Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests. "The bishops have said they would be transparent, and they have not been."
Three years ago, the statute of limitations on filing a sex abuse case against the church was lifted, clearing the way for some 140 cases to be filed in the San Diego's diocese alone, NBC 7/39 reported. Last month, the diocese went to court to challenge that law, claiming it is unconstitutional and unfairly singles out the church.
Wednesday, the catholic diocese released a statement saying the diocese wants to reach fair financial settlements with victims of clergy sexual abuse.
VIRGINIA
Richmond Times-Dispatch
BY ALAN COOPER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jun 9, 2005
An amendment to the Virginia Constitution that extended the time for filing a sexual-abuse lawsuit applies only to individual abusers and not to their employers, a Richmond Circuit Court judge ruled yesterday.
The ruling by Judge Walter W. Stout III will apparently result in the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Stephen Kopalchick, a 52-year-old Chester man who alleged that two priests abused him 40 years ago.
Two years ago, Kopalchick sued the Catholic Diocese of Richmond in addition to one of the priests, Andrew Roy, who has Alzheimer's disease and moved to Spain after retiring in 1981, and the estate of the other priest, Thomas M. Summers, who died in 1992 at age 73.
Edward L. Weiner, Kopalchick's attorney, had alleged that the diocese was liable because its officials were aware that the priests were pedophiles and moved them to different positions and locations when questions were raised about them.
Weiner said he expects to appeal Stout's ruling to the Virginia Supreme Court.
Under normal circumstances, the statute of limitations for such suits is two years, but an amendment to the constitution in 1994 and related legislation said the time does not begin to run until a victim of sexual abuse becomes aware that his or her injuries were caused by the abuse.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Sioux City Journal
By Todd Ruger Quad City Times
A Florida man filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday against the Catholic Diocese of Davenport, claiming it knew a priest sexually abused him and other underage boys decades before becoming the bishop of the Diocese of Sioux City.
Michael Gould claims in the lawsuit the Rev. Lawrence D. Soens abused him beginning in 1963 when he was a student and Soens was the principal and priest at Iowa City Regina High School.
Gould also claims the diocese and the high school, also named as a defendant, failed to take actions against Soens after learning of repeated sexual contacts with numerous minor-aged boys.
The lawsuit is the first filed against the Davenport diocese since it agreed to pay $9 million in October to settle 37 claims of sexual abuse of minors by diocesan priests, including 14 lawsuits.
Gould's lawsuit is the first against Soens, who is the highest-ranking church official to be accused of sexual abuse in a lawsuit in Iowa, the plaintiff's attorney, Craig Levien of Davenport, said Wednesday.
Bishop William Franklin said the diocese received three allegations of abuse by Soens in the 1960s, and it paid $20,000 in October to settle a similar allegation against Soens.
MIAMI (FL)
Tallahassee Democrat
By Adrian Sainz
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIAMI - Retired Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy, who hosted a summit meeting of Pope John Paul II and President Reagan, beefed up charities to deal with waves of immigrants and was accused of covering up clergy abuse, has died. He was 87.
McCarthy, who led the archdiocese for 17 years, died in his sleep Tuesday night, the Archdiocese of Miami said.
Fellow priests remembered McCarthy as a caring visionary who combined a gentle manner with a desire to help people from all social groups in multicultural Miami.
"He had a tremendous sensitivity for animating and empowering the laity," the Rev. David Russell, 68, a retired priest who served under McCarthy, said Wednesday. "His manner was gentle, his vision grand and his energy untiring."
IOWA
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
June 9, 2005
The retired bishop of the Sioux City Catholic Diocese has been sued by a Florida man who alleges he was sexually abused as a student at Regina High School in Iowa City.
This is the first time such a high-ranking member of the Iowa Roman Catholic hierarchy has been publicly accused of abuse in connection with the nationwide scandal that has exposed decades of abuse of minors by clergy.
Michael Gould filed a lawsuit in Scott County District Court naming former Sioux City Bishop Lawrence Soens, the Davenport Diocese and the high school. Gould alleges that the abuse began in 1963, when Soens was principal at the high school. Gould alleges that Soens engaged in "repeated harmful, illegal, immoral and sadistic sexual contacts with numerous minor-aged boys."
Timothy S. Bottaro of Sioux City, Soens' attorney, said Soens denied the allegations.
The lawsuit was the first time the Davenport Diocese heard of Gould's claim, according to Rand Wonio, the diocese's attorney. In a written statement, diocese officials expressed disappointment that Gould had not sought mediation.
The Sioux City Diocese has said Soens, 78, "is completely retired and not involved (in church work) in any capacity."
UNITED STATES
USA Today
By Marci A. Hamilton
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, meets this weekend in Chicago. The legal failures that contributed to the secrecy and extent of abuse by clergy are on the agenda. The greatest void has been Congress' failure to take any action.
Childhood sexual abuse by clergy is one of the most insidious forms of child abuse, perpetrated by the people whom children are taught to trust most. The result is physical, emotional and spiritual devastation.
Yet Congress has registered no reaction since 2002 when it was revealed that the Archdiocese of Boston was shuttling pedophile priests between parishes, archdioceses, cities and states. The last thing any lawmaker wants to do in this era is to cast any aspersions on religion, let alone one with as many voters as are in the Roman Catholic Church.
In Congress' defense, there was a time when such abuses by clergy looked like a local issue. For example, when Father Gilbert Gauthe was convicted in 1985 for molesting 11 boys in Louisiana, no one thought to look beyond the city's borders. And when The Boston Globe exposed the Boston Archdiocese as a haven for dangerous child predators in priest clothing, including the notorious Paul Shanley and John Geoghan, the story was covered nationally, but the initial thinking among Catholics and others was that Boston was alone.
IOWA CITY (IA)
Des Moines Register
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 8, 2005
Iowa City, Ia. — A former principal of Regina High School who later went on to become bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sioux City was accused of abusing a former student in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The lawsuit names retired Bishop Lawrence Soens and the Diocese of Davenport, which last fall paid $9 million to settle 37 lawsuits that accused several eastern Iowa priests of sexual abuse at various times and parishes in the last 50 years.
Soens, who was not named in any of the lawsuits covered by the settlement, is accused of molesting a student more than 40 years ago while serving as principal and priest at Regina, in Iowa City.
The victim, who was younger than 18 at the time, claims the abuse began in 1963, with the improper behavior sometimes taking place in the principal’s office and others when Soens arranged to meet with the student under the pretext of investigating incidents of student misconduct.
‘‘Bishop Soens identified the (victim) as a young male child, sought and gained the trust and confidence of plaintiff as a spiritual guide, pastor, educator and priest,’’ the lawsuit states. ‘‘Soens, while using his position of authority, trust, reverence and control ... engaged in repeated harmful and illegal sexual contact with plaintiff.’’
The lawsuit, filed in Scott County District Court, also blames the Diocese and church officials for failing to investigate sex abuse claims and engaging in a pattern of covering up the illicit behavior of its priests.
KENTUCKY
Kentucky.com
DYLAN T. LOVAN
Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington and alleged victims of abuse negotiated more than a year to reach a blockbuster $120 million settlement, but whether that figure holds up depends on yet another legal battle.
The diocese is now suing three insurers that have been asked to kick in $80 million of the settlement fund, which if approved by a judge, would be the nation's largest.
The church's insurers aren't likely to hand over millions without a fight, according to one attorney who won a multimillion-dollar award from another Kentucky diocese.
"The $80 million is certainly not a certainty," said Bill McMurry, attorney for abuse victims who won a $25.7 million settlement with the Archdiocese of Louisville two years ago. "Given my experience and knowledge of these cases around the country, I would be surprised if all the insurance companies involved just throw $80 million into this fund."
SCRANTON (PA)
Philly.com
Associated Press
SCRANTON, Pa. - A suspended Roman Catholic clergyman has pleaded guilty to a felony count of attempted sexual abuse in New York, admitting to groping a former altar boy in a Greenwich Village hotel room during an overnight trip, the Manhattan district attorney's office said.
The Rev. Albert M. Liberatore Jr., of Scranton, had already pleaded guilty in Luzerne County to sexually assaulting the same teenage boy over a three-year period.
Liberatore, 41, was charged last year after the victim, now 20, told police that he became involved with the priest when he was an eighth-grade altar boy at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Duryea.
Investigators said the man described meeting Liberatore regularly for dinners, sleeping twice a week in his residence at the rectory and going with him on trips to New York, where he said Liberatore took him to gay bars and they had sexual contact at hotels.
Under a plea agreement with New York prosecutors executed May 26, Liberatore will get 10 years probation, be forbidden from school grounds and other places frequented by minors, and have to register as a sex offender. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 10.
CANADA
Macleans
CORNWALL, Ont. (CP) - The public inquiry into allegations of systemic sexual abuse that have long plagued this eastern Ontario city suffered another setback when lawyers for the alleged victims revealed two of their clients are relatives of the judge leading the probe.
Ron and Charles Glaude came forward Wednesday with allegations of sexual abuse. They said Justice Normand Glaude is their great-uncle.
The revelation is yet another disappointment for the residents of Cornwall who are fighting for an impartial review of the allegations, said lawyer Paul Ledroit.
"They, the people here, wanted the inquiry. They've lost faith in every institution that existed here. Are they now going to have faith in the inquiry?" he said.
Glaude was appointed in April to look into the handling of sex-abuse allegations involving Catholic priests, lawyers and doctors spanning more than 50 years.
NEW JERSEY
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
June 8, 2005
The following is the story of Michael Iatesta, a survivor of clergy abuse. It is a slightly edited version of a statement he gave at an April 17 press conference.
"Gerald Ruane, a recently retired priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, parish priest, college professor, campus minister, chaplain, director of the Sacred Heart Institute of Healing, and a national charismatic healer is also a child sex offender.
"I was one of his victims.
"I was raised in Bloomfield, New Jersey, and received all of my education from Catholic institutions. I graduated from Sacred Heart Grammar School in Bloomfield, Immaculate Conception High School in Montclair, and received my Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Seton Hall University in South Orange. I now reside in Westfield, New Jersey.
"I'm a human rights activist, and for the last decade have worked to fight the spread of HIV — AIDS around the world. Most recently, I have worked for the Centers for Disease Control's Global AIDS Program. I am here to tell you my story and to inform you that I will be filing a civil law suit against the Archdiocese of Newark, Father Ruane and the Archbishop for years of emotional and psychological exploitation. I am fortunate to have attorney John Aretakis to represent me.
"In 1973, when I was eleven, my father was dying of cancer. Hoping for a cure, I was introduced to Father Ruane at a charismatic healing mass by my cousin who worked for him at Caldwell College between 1973 and 1977. Unfortunately, my father succumbed to his illness and died in 1974. During the next year, I remained a vulnerable, depressed young boy
PORTLAND (OR)
The Oregonian
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
ANNE SAKER
A young woman who accused the Rev. Roy Tate of raping her in 1989 when she was 16 has opened her $10-million civil lawsuit against the national denomination for Tate's North Portland church, saying he inflicted a lifetime of pain on her.
But a lawyer for the Church of God in Christ Inc. of Memphis, Tenn., argued that the church is not responsible for Tate's actions and cannot control him. As proof, the lawyer said Tate still preaches at Christ Memorial Church, on North Killingsworth Street, even though the denomination suspended him in 2003 for misconduct.
The first evidence was presented Tuesday to a Multnomah County Circuit Court jury in a trial that is expected to go into next week. The Church of God in Christ Inc. is the second-largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States with an estimated 4 million members, according to its Web site.
MANCHESTER (NH)
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Wednesday, June 8, 2005 - Updated: 09:35 AM EST
A group of seniors at a New Hampshire Catholic high school, upset with Bishop John McCormack's role in the clergy sexual abuse scandal, may boycott a Mass he is celebrating today.
``I wish he would bow out because I think it's unfortunate it's become a political event and there are some kids who are just going to skip it,'' said 18-year-old Kevin Scura, Trinity High School's senior class valedictorian and student body president.
Scura did not see the petition asking McCormack not to celebrate the school's baccalaureate Mass at 7 p.m. at Abbey Church in Goffstown.
But 50 of Trinity's 112 seniors signed it, leading to a tense meeting at the school Friday between McCormack and about three dozen students who questioned him about his former role as a top official in the Archdiocese of Boston.
``We were left without any answers. He avoided questions and he was rude at times,'' senior Katie Bartlett told the New Hampshire Union Leader. ``We would ask him questions and he'd yell, `Prove it. Show me the evidence.' ''
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Wednesday, June 8, 2005 - Updated: 02:48 AM EST
A group of local Catholics plans to ask the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops how the Archdiocese of Boston can close more than a quarter of its parishes by claiming it owns the properties while the conference's own president is trying to fend off lawsuits by clergy-abuse victims by claiming church assets belong to parishioners.
``To us, this is just a glaring inconsistency,'' said Peter Borre of the Council of Parishes. ``We're going to . . . demand that this issue be resolved.''
The Bishops' Conference is scheduled to meet next week in Chicago. The council wants it to clarify how church law defines ownership of parish assets.
Last May, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley announced plans to close more than 80 of the archdiocese's 357 parishes. Parishioners at a half-dozen churches continue to hold sit-ins to try to keep them open, with some arguing church assets belong to parishioners.
COVINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Post
By Kevin Eigelbach
Post staff reporter
The three principal negotiators of the Catholic Diocese of Covington's proposed $120 million sexual abuse settlement wrote Tuesday that the judge should approve it because it's fair, protects victim's privacy, and avoids a protracted legal battle.
In affidavits filed in Boone Circuit Court on Tuesday, Covington Bishop Roger Foys and attorneys for the diocese and victims say their negotiations were intense but amicable.
"Shortly before I became bishop of this diocese in July 2002, I made a commitment to treat victims of sexual abuse with compassion and respect and to address their needs to the extent possible," Foys wrote.
"I believe that the settlement we have reached is fair and reasonable to the victims and to the diocese," he wrote to Special Judge John Potter.
SCOTLAND
Scotsman
MIKE MACEACHERAN
A PRIEST who caused controversy when he wrote of the sex abuse he suffered while growing up in a seminary has gone missing during a "soul-searching" trip to Ireland.
Friends say that Father Steve Gilhooley, 42, has become disillusioned with the Catholic Church and has quit.
In his last public statement before disappearing, Gilhooley launched a bitter attack on the appointment as Pope of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - who he accused of trying to silence him.
And he revealed he would not be returning to the priesthood.
Last year the leader of the Scottish Catholic Church, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who had been a close friend and confidant of Gilhooley, gave him permission to take a year's sabbatical from his Our Lady's parish in Currie near Edinburgh.
Worried friends say Gilhooley has not been in touch since he wrote an article in the Irish Times newspaper attacking the election of Pope Benedict XVI and indicating he was quitting the church.
MERCED (CA)
Modesto Bee
By ADAM ASHTON
MERCED SUN-STAR
Last Updated: May 25, 2005, 07:15:55 AM PDT
MERCED — The ousted Rev. Jean-Michael Lastiri misspent about $60,000 over his last 20 months as leader of St. Patrick's Catholic Church, according to a special audit.
In a letter distributed to parishioners last Sunday, Bishop John T. Steinbock of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno, said the parish was reimbursed, but he did not say whether Lastiri returned the money.
Lastiri could not be reached for comment. His cell phone indicated that he was out of the area and not returning calls.
A group of six parishioners appointed by Monsignor Patrick McCormick met weekly for the past five months to analyze Lastiri's spending. McCormick assembled the panel after a longtime St. Patrick's finance committee member said he saw evidence of inappropriate transactions in church records.
The committee discovered:
Personal travel expenses amounting to $19,881.
Purchases of personal goods and services totaling $10,766.
Unauthorized personal loans totaling $10,200.
A $3,000 down payment for a car.
Other expenses of $16,311.
Steinbock removed Lastiri from St. Patrick's last July amid allegations that the priest had posted messages to an Internet dating service for gay men, and arranged for rendezvous in cities that he visited — sometimes on church busines
BAKERSFIELD (CA)
The Bakersfield Californian
Posted: Monday June 6th, 2005, 11:15 PM
Last Updated: Monday June 6th, 2005, 11:22 PM
A priest scheduled to begin his tenure at a large Catholic Church in Bakersfield this month left his last appointment amid allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior and misuse of church money.
The Rev. Jean-Michael Lastiri will be joining St. Philip the Apostle Church on June 15, Monsignor Ronald Swett confirmed Monday.
Lastiri left St. Patrick's Parish in Merced in July 2004 after parishioners accused him of participating in sexual conversations on Internet chat sites and seeking gay lovers on the Web, the Merced Sun-Star reported in May.
Lastiri, who served at St. Patrick's for about 11 years, also is suspected of using parish money for personal expenses, the Sun-Star reported. Lastiri is currently under bishop's review for his spending.
Lastiri could not be reached for comment.
AUSTRALIA
ninemsn
19:05 AEST Wed Jun 8 2005
AAP
The Seventh-day Adventist Church apologised and offered to discuss compensation with any alleged victims of a church leader charged over a string of child sexual assaults in northern NSW.
The 57-year-old Banora Point man was a youth leader with the Seventh-day Adventist Church at Tweed Heads, Kingscliff and Tumbulgum between 1970 and 2005.
He is charged with seven counts of aggravated indecent assault, five of aggravated sexual assault and one of committing an aggravated act of indecency in northern NSW dating back to 1972, police said.
The man has been remanded into custody and is due to appear in Lismore Local Court on July 5.
COVINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Enquirer
By Cindy Schroeder
Enquirer staff writer
The record-setting $120 million settlement that the Covington Diocese has tentatively agreed to pay victims of priest sex abuse "is fair and reasonable to the victims and to the diocese," Bishop Roger Foys says.
Foys' assessment of the proposed settlement of the nation's only class-action suit against a Roman Catholic diocese was contained in court papers filed Fridayin Boone Circuit Court.
"Shortly after I became bishop of this diocese in July 2002, I made a commitment to treat victims of sexual abuse with compassion and respect and to address their needs to the (fullest) extent possible," Foys wrote in his affidavit. "I believe that the settlement we have reached is fair and reasonable to the victims and to the diocese. The claims administration process that we have agreed to will also assure that victims' privacy will be protected and that they will not have to endure a (protracted) legal process before their claims are resolved."
Foys asked the court to grant preliminary approval of the settlement and allow victims to be told of resources available to help them.
Last week, Foys said that he had met with more than 70 sex-abuse victims, and he prayed that the settlement would "bring some measure of peace and healing to victims and their loved ones." That prompted Sue Archibald, director of the Linkup, a Louisville-based support group for victims of clergy abuse, to praise Foys for taking that extra step. She said bishops across the country should take note of Foys' "commitment to compassion."
MANCHESTER (NH)
Concord Monitor
The Associated Press
June 08. 2005 8:00AM
MANCHESTER - Many graduating seniors at Trinity High School have asked Catholic Bishop John McCormack not to celebrate today's baccalaureate Mass.
Students say 50 of the 112 seniors have signed a petition saying they'd rather McCormack not say the mass. At a meeting last week, many seniors questioned McCormack about his role in clergy child abuse.
McCormack has been accused of going easy on priests in the Boston area who were accused of child sexual abuse. He was a top official in the Boston Archdiocese under Cardinal Bernard Law, who was forced to resign because of the priest sex-abuse scandal.
The Diocese says McCormack plans to celebrate the Mass.
COVINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Post
By Kevin Eigelbach
Post staff reporter
The three principal negotiators of the Catholic Diocese of Covington's proposed $120 million sexual abuse settlement wrote Tuesday that the judge should approve it because it's fair, protects victim's privacy and avoids a protracted legal battle.
In affidavits filed in Boone Circuit Court on Tuesday, Covington Bishop Roger Foys and attorneys for the diocese and victims say their negotiations were intense but amicable.
"Shortly before I became bishop of this diocese in July 2002, I made a commitment to treat victims of sexual abuse with compassion and respect and to address their needs to the extent possible," Foys wrote.
"I believe that the settlement we have reached is fair and reasonable to the victims and to the diocese," he wrote to Special Judge John Potter.
The proposed settlement, announced Friday, pays $5,000 to $450,000 each, depending on the severity of abuse, to an unspecified number of victims of sexual abuse done by diocese employees.
The class of plaintiffs includes anyone abused by a priest or other church employee over the past half century.
COVINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Post
By Paul A. Long
Post staff reporter
A national organization of victims sexually abused by priests is criticizing the $120 million agreement reached with the Diocese of Covington to settle a class-action lawsuit because it does not release any church records.
Officials of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests - SNAP - have sent a letter to Special Judge John Potter, asking him to force the diocese to disclose the names of all priests who have abused children or teenagers.
The letter said the issue is a matter of public safety - through the release of such records in other dioceses, former abusive priests have been found in jobs that put them in contact with young children.
"In the interest of public safety, we hope that you will do all you can to make sure that church officials are not enabled to hide these horrific crimes again, re-victimize those already hurt, and keep kids at risk of abuse," said the letter, signed by two members of the organization's West Coast region.
It's the first major criticism of the settlement, announced Friday, of a suit alleging a 50-year cover-up by diocesan officials of priestly sexual abuse. The agreement calls for a $120 million settlement fund, the largest yet from any diocese in America since the Roman Catholic Church's sexual-abuse crisis erupted some 15 years ago.
IRELAND
One in Four
By Harry McGee, Political Editor - Irish Examiner
The State has paid in excess of €320 million in recent years for tribunals, commissions and inquiries, new figures have revealed.
Well over half the amount has been paid in legal fees, with over €120m to tribunal and commission lawyers and over €45m to lawyers appearing for third parties. The figures buttress last week’s prediction by the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee Michael Noonan that the ultimate cost of tribunals will be in excess of €1bn.
Mr Noonan said it was unacceptable that tribunals were allowed operate on the basis of an “open chequebook” with no real analysis of their costs.
Now, a series of parliamentary questions submitted by Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness to all Government departments shows that, cumulatively, over €300m has been paid out.
BAKERSFIELD (CA)
KGET
Posted 06/07/05
BAKERSFIELD - Allegations of misconduct surround a priest set to begin service at St. Philip the Apostle Church in Bakersfield in June has startled its parishioners.
Reverend Jean-Michael Lastiri is scheduled to begin serving at St. Philip the Apostle Church soon.
He served as pastor at St. Patrick’s Parish in Merced.
He left the church in 2004 after parishioners accused him of engaging in inappropriate sexual behavior on the internet.
Fr. Lastiri is also suspected of using church money for personal use.
The Merced Sun-Starr reported last July that parishioners accused Fr. Lastiri of participating in sexual conversations on the internet and seeking gay lovers.
SOUTH AFRICA
SABC
June 08, 2005, 05:15
A 52-year-old priest is to appear in the Nigel Magistrates Court today for allegedly raping a 43-year-old woman on Gauteng's East Rand.
It is believed that the woman went to the priest's house in Duduza township to visit his wife when he allegedly forced her into a room and raped her. The priest's wife was not home at the time.
BOYDTON (VA)
Richmond Times-Dispatch
BY JAMIE C. RUFF
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jun 8, 2005
BOYDTON -- An Anglican priest was sentenced yesterday to serve four years in prison for aggravated sexual battery and taking indecent liberties with a child.
The Rev. Scott Jacquelin, the priest at Saint Luke's Anglican Church in Goochland County, pleaded guilty to the charges in Mecklenburg County Circuit Court several months ago.
The assaults against the boy, now 13, occurred between 1999 and 2001, according to court records.
Mecklenburg Circuit Judge Les Osborn ordered that Jacquelin, after his release, will be on indefinite supervised probation, must receive outpatient sexual-offender treatment and must stay away from the boy. Jacquelin was immediately taken into custody.
Jacquelin, 41, was sentenced to 20 years on the aggravated sexual-battery conviction with all but four years suspended and 10 additional years for taking indecent liberties, with all of that time suspended.
Court records indicate that the incidents were not related to Jacquelin's church activities.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston.com
June 8, 2005
A Roman Catholic priest who had been accused of sexually abusing a child has been approved to return to the ministry after a church review panel found that the allegation was unsubstantiated, the Boston Archdiocese said. The Rev. Robert Fichtner was placed on administrative leave in 2003, after the archdiocese received a complaint that he had sexually abused a child at St. Joseph Church in Holbrook more than 20 years earlier.
JAMAICA
The Jamaica Observer
Observer Reporter
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
FOUR persons are to be charged with sexual abuse in Jamaican children's homes and places of safety, but Kent Pantry, the director of public prosecutions, has declined to give names or discuss the specifics of the charges until the police have made the arrests.
"A ruling was made, but I can't give too much details before the police have carried out their part," Pantry told the Observer.
The Eastern Kingston police apparently received Pantry's broad instructions last week when they received the prosecutor's case files after a more than year-long investigation, but yesterday they were still reviewing the documents. ...
Osbourne, now the general manager of TVJ, had complained about how a child who she attempted to adopt from a home run by the United Church of Jamaica and Grand Cayman had displayed heightened sexual curiosity and aggressiveness and had indicated sexual contact with adults.
MANCHESTER (NH)
Boston Globe
By Rebecca Mahoney, Globe Correspondent | June 8, 2005
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Maggie Barrett no longer goes to church. Katie Bartlett wonders what the leaders of the Catholic Church aren't telling her. And Michele Como is searching for a religious leader she can admire.
Their crisis of faith, these Trinity High School seniors say, stems from the Catholic church's handling of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. Specifically, from the role they believe New Hampshire Bishop John McCormack played.
''I feel like he lies about everything," said Barrett, 19, who was among 35 students who grilled McCormack at a meeting Friday. ''I feel like I can't look up to him as a leader."
Barrett isn't alone in her sentiments. Nearly half of her fellow graduating seniors at Trinity High School are protesting McCormack's intent to preside over their baccalaureate Mass tonight.
About 50 of the school's 112 seniors have signed a petition asking McCormack not to preside, Barrett said. Several others, including Bartlett, say they're considering not attending tonight's ceremony if McCormack is present.
MIAMI (FL)
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
June 7, 2005
More disturbing news from Miami.
Florida attorney Sharon Bourassa had a conversation with noted Dallas attorney Sylvia Demarest, who informed Bourassa that Miami archbishop John Favalora "is very good friends" with defrocked priest and convicted pedophile Robert Melancon, currently serving a long prison term.
Demarest told Bourassa that "some unknown person" came up with one million in T-bills to make bond for Melancon in 1998. While Melancon was out on bond, he reportedly stayed at the Favalora family home.
"Favalora admits to visiting his friend [Melancon] and says he will always visit him," Bourassa asserts.
In addition, says Bourassa, Demarest believes Favalora is "one big item" — bigger than people realize.
BURLINGTON (KY)
Kentucky.com
Associated Press
BURLINGTON, Ky. - Attorneys for a group of alleged sexual abuse victims who reached a $120 million settlement with the Diocese of Covington are asking a judge to let them join the church's suit against three insurance companies.
The diocese filed suit against the American Insurance Company, the Catholic Relief Insurance Company of America and Catholic Mutual in May.
The diocese's settlement with alleged victims of priest abuse depends on $80 million of the sum to be paid by insurance. The rest would come from a combination of diocese real estate and investments. The abuse suit filed by 100 alleged victims gained class-action status in 2003.
TILTON (NH)
Laconia Citizen
TILTON, N.H. (AP) - Members of Trinity Episcopal Church continue to get bad news.
First, they learned a church member was charged with molesting children and stealing money from a church food bank, then the pastor resigned, and now comes word that a former treasurer is charged with stealing more than $100,000 in church money.
Christine Hersom, 40, of Sanbornton was the church treasurer from 1995 to 2001. It's a volunteer position, but police say that during that time, Hersom paid herself $13,500 and paid for personal expenses with church money.
Police say the charges against Hersom are not related to the resignation of the Rev. Janet Lombardo. She resigned in April, about a month after church member Scott Nash was arrested on the child molestation charges.
TILTON (NH)
Concord Monitor
From staff and wire reports
June 07. 2005 8:00AM
TILTON - A letter to congregation members sheds more light on the reasons that the pastor of the Trinity Episcopal Church resigned.
The Rev. Janet Lombardo resigned in April from her position at the church because of her problems addressing issues involving authority, collaboration, commitment, dissemination of information and judgment, Paul Leary, the church's senior warden, wrote in a letter to parishioners dated May 19.
The resignation came two months after Scott Nash, a youth pastor and church volunteer, was charged with molesting two 4-year-old girls and stealing money from the church-run food bank. At the time he was being allowed to work with children and control the food bank's finances, he was already a felon, having been convicted of stealing nearly $29,000 from Littleton Hospital in the 1980s.
Lombardo did not resign because of the Nash situation, but "the handling of Nash's role is reflected in those five (concerns),"the Rev. Tim Rich, the diocese's Canon to the Ordinary, said yesterday. "The Nash situation was a working example of the themes she wrestled with."
TILTON (NH)
Concord Monitor
By MELANIE ASMAR
Monitor staff
June 07. 2005 8:00AM
TILTON - A Sanbornton woman has been charged with stealing more than $100,000 from the Trinity Episcopal Church on Main Street while she was treasurer there several years ago. She allegedly used the money to pay her bills.
Christine Hersom, 40, of 754 Sanborn Road, was charged with theft by unauthorized taking, a felony, for writing checks from the church's bank account. Hersom was treasurer at the church, a volunteer position, from 1995 to 2001, according to her attorney, John Boyle of Plymouth. During that time, the police allege that Hersom paid herself more than $13,500 in salary, in addition to other offenses. ...
In February, a former Trinity Episcopal Church volunteer and youth minister was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting two 4-year-old girls and stealing nearly $4,000 from the church-run food pantry. Scott Nash, 45, of Northfield, is being held at the Merrimack County Jail on $1 million bail.
AMITE (LA)
Slidell Sentry-News
AMITE, La. (AP) -- Jailed former Tangipahoa Parish deputy Chris Labat has been booked on 24 additional counts related to the child and animal sex abuse scandal at the Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula, a sheriff's spokeswoman said Monday.
The new counts pertain to pornography involving juveniles and were levied Friday night after agents with the FBI and Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's department searched computers seized at Labat's residence, spokeswoman Laura Covington said.
Labat, 24, of Hammond, was arrested May 17 on one count of aggravated rape. On June 2, he was charged with two additional counts of aggravated rape, one of failure to report child abuse and one of malfeasance in office.
Labat was transferred May 18 to the Livingston Parish jail, where he was being held without bond.
Labat is one of nine people arrested in the case, which includes allegations of child sex abuse during "cult-like" rituals at the church where Louis Lamonica, who is one of the suspects, was pastor.
HUDSON (WI)
Ironwood Daily Globe
Published Tuesday, June 7, 2005 1:04:44 PM Central Time
By MARGARET LEVRA
Globe Staff Writer
HUDSON, Wis. -- The investigation into the February 2002 murders of a Hudson funeral home director and his intern could be coming to an end soon, but authorities might not have enough evidence to positively conclude who shot the men.
There's plenty of circumstantial evidence that links the late Rev. Ryan Erickson to the shooting deaths of Dan O'Connell, 39, and his 22-year-old intern, James Ellison from Barron, according to Hudson Police Chief Richard Trende. But he added there was no concrete evidence at this time.
Investigators presented their findings to the St. Croix County District Attorney in late April and are awaiting additional computer information, Trende said.
During a mid-December search of the St. Mary's Church rectory in Hurley, computers and other personal property of Erickson were seized. Three days after the search, on Dec. 19, Erickson hanged himself outside the hallway between the rectory and the church. ...
He said Erickson admitted to allegations involving a minor, but denied any involvement in the murders.
IRELAND
Derry Journal
Tuesday 7th June 2005
A Co. Donegal priest convicted of an indecency offence in a Derry shopping centre, has been receiving counselling since the incident, it has emerged.
Fr. Patrick McGarvey, a curate in Stranorlar, was convicted at Derry Magistrate's Court on Thursday on a charge of observing for the purposes of sexual gratification, a person carrying out a private act in a public place.
It related to an incident in the gent's toilets in the Foyleside Shopping Centre on August 4, 2004.
Fr. McGarvey, a native of Creeslough whose address was given as Main Street, Stranorlar, pleaded guilty to the offence. The Resident Magistrate imposed a two year conditional discharge.
SOUTH AFRICA
News 24
07/06/2005 14:51 - (SA)
Johannesburg - A 52-year-old priest has been arrested for allegedly raping a 43-year-old woman at his home in Duduza, East Rand police said on Tuesday.
Police spokesperson Captain Thobile Xakeka said the man was arrested on Monday after the woman reported the alleged rape to police.
It is believed the woman went to the priest's house to visit his wife when he allegedly forced her into a room and raped her, said Xakeka.
The priest's wife was not at home at the time.
MASSAPEQUA (NY)
South Bay News
The Voice of the Faithful meeting of St. William the Abbot, Maria Regina and St. Barnabas will hold a joint meeting on Monday, June 13th at 7:30 pm. The meeting will be held at Marjorie Post Park Community Center, Unqua and Merrick Roads in Massapequa.
The topic will be "Have The Tables Turned" with former Catholic priest Juan Vaca as speaker.
BAKERSFIELD (CA)
Monterey Herald
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) - A priest who left his northern Central Valley parish amid allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior will soon begin working at a Bakersfield church.
The Rev. Jean-Michael Lastiri left St. Patrick's Parish in Merced in July 2004 after parishioners claimed he visited gay Web sites on the Internet seeking potential lovers, the Merced Sun-Star reported last year.
Bishop John Steinbock of the Diocese of Fresno issued a statement then, calling Lastiri's actions compulsive and addictive. He sent Lastiri to an institute for spiritual counseling.
"Lastiri apologizes for any pain he has caused the community and wishes to seek the appropriate help to overcome his compulsive behavior so that he may return, with God's grace, to full ministry as a good and faithful priest," Steinbock wrote.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston.com
June 7, 2005
BOSTON --A Roman Catholic priest who had been accused of sexually abusing a child was cleared to return to the ministry after a church review panel found the allegation was unsubstantiated, the Boston Archdiocese said.
The Rev. Robert Fichtner was placed on administrative leave in 2003, after the archdiocese received a complaint claiming he sexually abused a child at St. Joseph Church in Holbrook more than 20 years earlier.
In a statement released Tuesday, the archdiocese said the review board could not verify the allegation after "careful review of the information available," and lifted all restrictions on Fichtner's exercise of public ministry.
MERCED (CA)
Merced Sun-Star
By Adam Ashton
AASHTON@MERCEDSUN-STAR.COM
Last Updated: June 7, 2005, 04:15:25 AM PDT
The Merced priest who lost his parish nearly a year ago because of accusations that he sought sex over the Internet has a new assignment as an associate pastor within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno.
The Rev. Jean-Michael Lastiri, former administrator of Merced's St. Patrick's Parish, is expected to return on June 15 to St. Philip the Apostle Church in Bakersfield, said diocese spokesman Jesse Avila. Lastiri served as an associate pastor at St. Philip from 1987 to 1989.
Avila said Lastiri prepared himself for the assignment by seeking counseling at a Maryland center for troubled priests, where he had been directed by diocese leader Bishop John T. Steinbock last July after a group of parishioners uncovered Internet messages allegedly written by Lastiri seeking male sex partners.
Two weeks ago, St. Patrick's disclosed an internal audit showing that Lastiri had misspent $60,000 during his last two years at the parish's helm.
Avila said Lastiri will not have any administrative responsibilities in Bakersfield. Rather, he will take confessions, perform Mass and visit hospitals and jails.
The Kansas City Star
Sat, Jun. 04, 2005
Sixteen Jackson County lawsuits alleging past child molestation by Catholic priests have been put on hold until the Missouri Supreme Court answers a key question.
At issue is when the five-year statute of limitations begins to run on child-molestation cases. The appeals court in Kansas City has ruled that it begins at age 21, but the appeals court in St. Louis said it begins when a person remembers repressed memories.
The St. Louis ruling, which was issued this week, criticized rulings by the Kansas City-based court. The St. Louis appeals court asked the state Supreme Court to resolve the matter.
AMITE (LA)
The Advocate
By DEBRA LEMOINE
dlemoine@theadvocate.com
Florida parishes bureau
AMITE -- An attorney for one of the alleged members of a Ponchatoula child sex ring said Wednesday that the information released about his client has been sensationalized and won't hold up in court.
Michael Thiel, an Amite attorney, is representing Louis David Lamonica, who was arrested three weeks ago on aggravated rape in Livingston Parish. Authorities said they believe Lamonica was the pastor of Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula where members allegedly had sex with children and animals as part of occult-like rituals from 1999 to 2003.
Thiel said he has not seen written or recorded statements of his client implicating himself, which the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office used to arrest him May 16.
"Generally, I believe there's been a rush to judge based on conjecture, rumors and leaks to the media," Thiel said.
Once evidence is presented in a courtroom, Thiel said, he believes most of the rumors will prove false.
PONCHATOULA (LA)
Telegraph
By Tom Leonard in Ponchatoula
(Filed: 03/06/2005)
In the cypress flats of Tangipahoa, a fervently religious area in the swamps north of New Orleans, local people still remember proudly how the Rev Louis Lamonica vowed to "take Tangipahoa parish for Jesus".
Thirty years later, the charismatic preacher's son and successor has certainly taken the parish by storm - but not exactly for Jesus.
In a case that has horrified Americans way beyond the Bible Belt, Louis Lamonica Jnr and eight members the Hosanna Church are accused of being members of a Satanic paedophile ring who ritually raped up to 25 children, as well as performing animal sacrifices.
Police say some of those charged - who include Lamonica's wife and a deputy sheriff - have already admitted devil worship inside the now defunct church on the outskirts of Ponchatoula, the parish's main town.
The discovery of badly rubbed-out pentagrams on the floor and eight boxes of hooded black costumes - allegedly used both in the abuse and in "morality tales" performed to prepare the young victims - bear out some of the claims.
PORTLAND (OR)
The Oregonian
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
STEVE WOODWARD
For the first time in the 11-month-old bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Portland, one of the 124 parishes in Western Oregon has gotten the go-ahead to withdraw all of the disputed cash it has on deposit with the archdiocese.
St. Mary, Our Lady of the Dunes Church in Florence had about $775,000 in building-fund money on deposit when the bankruptcy froze the archdiocese's assets except day-to-day expenses.
The ruling by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris enables the coastal church to begin building a new sanctuary. The Rev. Donald K. Gutmann, pastor of St. Mary's since 1996, testified in Monday's hearing that typical Sunday attendance at this time of year is 450 to 475 people in a sanctuary built to seat 200. Worshippers sit in extra pews placed along walls, in an adjacent classroom and even in the kitchen.
COVINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Post
Post staff report
The 11-page agreement signed by attorneys for the Diocese of Covington and plaintiffs claiming they were molested by diocesan priests outlines who should be paid, how much each person will be paid and who will decide the payments.
Those who allege sexual abuse will be put in four categories, with each category depending on the extent of the abuse. For instance, fondling a child who is clothed is category 2, while fondling a child under his or her clothes is put in the more serious category 3.
The range is from $5,000 for the least serious category 1 abuses to $450,000 for the most serious category 4 abuses - rape or sodomy.
Each category will have a range of awards. For instance, category 2 awards are worth between $15,000 and $150,000.
MANCHESTER (NH)
Foster's Daily Democrat
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — The priest sexual abuse scandal continues to cause problems for Roman Catholic Bishop John McCormack.
Nearly half the 112 seniors at Trinity High School signed petitions asking McCormack not to celebrate the school's baccalaureate Mass on Wednesday, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported Tuesday. A McCormack spokesman says the bishop will celebrate the Mass anyway.
"He doesn't go to baccalaureate Masses because he is picked," the Rev. Edward Arsenault said. "He goes because it's his ministry."
McCormack is a former top official of the Boston Archdiocese, where he was accused of going easy on priests accused of child sexual abuse. From 1992 to 1994, he investigated sexual misconduct allegations for Cardinal Bernard Law, who was forced to resign because of the scandal.
Some of McCormack's critics continue to call for him to resign.
COVINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Post
By Paul A. Long
Post staff reporter
The Diocese of Covington could wind up paying little or nothing into a $120 million fund to settle a lawsuit with victims of priestly sexual abuse if it can come up with enough insurance to pay off claims, according to documents filed Monday in Boone Circuit Court.
But at least two of the diocese's three insurance companies are balking at paying, according to court documents.
The documents, along with a lawsuit the diocese is pursuing against its insurance carriers, shed new light onto a record-setting agreement announced Friday. That pact, which settles a class-action lawsuit charging that church officials deliberately covered up the abuse for decades, calls for a $120 million settlement fund.
It's the largest settlement fund yet from any diocese in America since the Roman Catholic Church's sexual-abuse crisis erupted some 15 years ago. It was signed by Stan Chesley, who represented those who sued the diocese, and Carrie Huff, the diocese's attorney.
AUSTRALIA
Zenit
The Removal and Transfer of a Parish Priest
By Auxiliary Bishop Julian Porteous
Sydney
Theological and pastoral considerations
At first glance, the theme of the removal and transfer of a parish priest does not seem to pertain to the service of the parish priest. How can removing him from his pastoral office serve him?
However, the relevant canons (1740-1752) must be understood and applied against the wider theological and pastoral reality of the proper relationship between the diocesan bishop and the parish priest. I will now develop some important aspects of this relationship, drawing on the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the 2003 postsynodal apostolic exhortation of John Paul II, "Pastores Gregis."
Following the teaching of Vatican II, a diocese is rightly described in terms of relationships. The relationships that concern us here are those between the diocesan bishop, parish priests and the people entrusted to their pastoral care.
A diocese is "a community of the faithful entrusted to the pastoral care of the diocesan bishop, with the help of priests" ("Christus Dominus," 11; see also "Pastores Gregis," 47, and Canon 369). The relationship between the diocesan bishop and his priests is at the service of the faithful. Bishops and priests together share in the pastoral care of the Christ's faithful and must collaborate for the good of souls.
NEW YORK
WNEP
A priest from Scranton pleaded guilty to sex crimes against a former altar boy in New York.
Father Albert Libertore admitted in New York court to a sexual relationship that happened when the two stayed at a hotel in the New York City several years ago.
Last month Libertore pleaded guilty to sexually abusing the teen several times over three years in Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties.
The two met when Libertore was a priest at Sacred Heart Church in Duryea. The incidents continued when Libertore taught at the University of Scranton and the victim was a student there. The victim is now 20.
SPRINGFIELD (MO)
KYTV
By: Laurie Patton, KY3 News
SPRINGFIELD -- A woman from Branson says a Roman Catholic priest sexually harassed her when she worked for his church. Glenna McKitterick says she was fired for complaining about it.
Last week in federal court in Springfield, McKitterick sued Our Lady of the Lake Church, Monsignor Philip Bucher, the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese and Bishop John Leibrecht. McKitterick says, during the two years she worked for Our Lady of the Lake Church in Branson, Bucher harassed her and created a hostile work environment.
The lawsuit says Bucher made unwelcome sexual advances, "hugged" McKitterick in an inappropriate way and repeatedly made sexually suggestive remarks and advances to McKitterick, including "regular telephone calls by Bucher" to McKitterick at her home in the evening about "personal matters." The suit also says Bucher questioned McKitterick about her sex life and talked to her about a sexual relationship between Bucher and a woman that McKitterick said was his "girlfriend." McKitterick says Bucher invited her to business dinners "which he began conducting like personal 'dates.'"
McKitterick says "the Church and Liebrecht had been warned about Bucher's propensities and the Church and Liebrecht knew or should have known that Bucher was likely to sexually harass" McKitterick.
In the lawsuit, McKitterick says the church's attorney called her and told her she was terminated shortly after she "complained verbally and in writing to Bucher and the Church" about the harassment. McKitterick says she was fired despite numerous occasions when church leaders praised her for her work.
AUSTRALIA
Catholic News
Auxiliary bishop and Rector of Good Shepherd Seminary, Bishop Julian Porteous, has delivered an address on the removal and transfer of parish priests, as part of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy series of further education for priests via the Internet.
The videoconference, which took place on 27 May, was published in the most recent issue of the Zenit electronic news service.
The removal of priests has occurred most frequently in recent years in the context of allegations of clergy sex abuse.
The title of the series is Canon Law at the Service of Priests, and Bishop Porteous presented the delicate issue of using canon law to remove a parish priest as an act of service towards the priest.
BURLINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Enquirer
By Jim Hannah
Enquirer staff writer
BURLINGTON - A national advertising blitz will ask anyone who was abused by a Covington Diocese priest or employee to step forward so he can share in the record-setting $120 million proposed settlement.
Details of the proposal, announced Friday, were filed in Boone Circuit Court on Monday afternoon as lawyers seek approval to settle the only class-action suit against a Roman Catholic diocese since the church's sex scandal erupted in Boston.
Judge John Potter, a special judge from Louisville who has been overseeing the case, is expected to make his first public comments about the proposal during a hearing Thursday. He must then set a period of time for public comment, followed by an additional hearing before putting the final stamp on the agreement.
Announcements in such papers as USA Today will give details: Those who previously notified the court that they did not want to be part of the class-action will not be included. While the suit originally said only people abused since 1956 were eligible, the settlement will allow any minor prior to that date to submit a claim.
The number of sex-abuse victims in the once-vast Covington Diocese is unclear. The diocese reported in February 2004 it was aware of 205 allegations. It has paid $10.5 million, with about 62 percent coming from insurance, to settle with 56 people who declined to be a part of the class action since August 2003.
Crosswalk
Rebekah Montgomery
Contributing Writer
In the church nursery, the three-year-old's words came without preamble. "She lifted her shirt and asked me to touch her."
Such a statement would have been appalling anywhere, but it was especially shocking since the child was referring to a trusted 15-year-old girl whose family was deeply involved in children's ministry. This just couldn't be! Something would have to be done, but what? *
From Michael Jackson to Mary Kay Letourneau, from parents to priests, national news is saturated with nauseating stories of child sexual exploitation at the hands of individuals in positions of trust. If the Church won't be a safe harbor, is there any refuge for childhood innocence and purity? And if the Church doesn't forcefully address the issue, who will?
Gary Webb, Children's Ministry Director for Northwoods Community Church, Peoria, Illinois, says parents have a lot reasons for apprehension today. Security and personnel screening, once regarded as an annoyance both to parents and church workers, are considered deciding factors when choosing a church since 9-11.
MILWAUKEE (WI)
Duluth News Tribune
Associated Press
MILWAUKEE - A judge dismissed two fraud lawsuits Monday filed against the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee by people who say a priest abused them during the 1970s.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Michael D. Guolee ruled the statute of limitations had run out in the case. The three accusers say they were abused between 1973 and 1976 by the Rev. Siegfried Widera, who was accused of abuse in California.
Their attorney argued the clock on the limitations began running when news reports surfaced in 2003 about Widera's conviction 30 years earlier of sexual perversion with a teenager in Wisconsin.
Attorney Jeff Anderson said he plans to appeal the decision.
The accusers say the abuse occurred after Widera was convicted and after the archdiocese transferred him to a Delavan parish from Port Washington without warning the public, according to one of the lawsuits.
MANCHESTER (NH)
The Union Leader
By RILEY YATES
Union Leader Staff
MANCHESTER — Nearly half of Trinity High School's graduating class signed a petition asking that Catholic Bishop John McCormack not celebrate tomorrow's baccalaureate Mass, a student who was part of the effort said.
The petition led to a meeting Friday at the school between McCormack and about 35 students, said Trinity's principal and senior Katie Bartlett. Students questioned the bishop about his role in the church's priest abuse scandals.
"I wouldn't describe it as tense," said Principal Denis Mailloux, who counted as many supporters of McCormack as detractors. "I would describe it as passionate."
Last night, the Rev. Edward Arsenault, a spokesman for the Manchester Diocese McCormack heads, said the bishop plans to celebrate the Mass. It will be held at 7 p.m. at Abbey Church at St. Anselm College in Goffstown.
"He doesn't go to baccalaureate Masses because he is picked," Arsenault said. "He goes because it's his ministry."
WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By DERRICK NUNNALLY
dnunnally@journalsentinel.com
Posted: June 6, 2005
In a decision one critic derided as making Wisconsin an "underground railroad" for abusive priests, a judge on Monday threw out two fraud lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee over alleged 1970s molestations by Father Siegfried Widera, a priest later accused of abuse in California and who killed himself in 2003.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Michael D. Guolee ruled that the statute of limitations had run out on the claimed assaults, said to have happened between 1973 and 1976. The attorney for the three plaintiffs contended the clock began running only when news reports on Widera's suicide discussed the priest's 1973 felony conviction.
"The plaintiffs had a duty to act on their claims when they were discovered," Guolee said, "and they were discovered no later than the last act (of sexual abuse)."
Shortly afterward, Peter Isely, Midwest director for the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, said Wisconsin was "alone in the nation" in restricting such claims and said the state needs a law allowing a one- or two-year window for victims of past clergy sex abuse to sue without being subject to statutes of limitations.
"Effectively, Wisconsin law is the underground railroad for pedophile clergy and those who cover up for them," Isely said.
MASSACHUSETTS
A Matter of Truth
The Norwood Bulletin
May 26, 2005
Congressman Stephen Lynch of the Massachusetts 9th Congressional District met with two Norwood residents and others concerned with the sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults in religious institutions.
The meeting, coordinated by Norwood residents John Harris and Robert Costello of AMatterOfTruth.org, also included Anne Barrett-Doyle of BishopAccountability.org, Rick and Inez Fearon of Upper Room Ministry and Robert Fowkes.
Lynch listened to the information and personal accounts of sexual abuse in various religions, grand jury and attorneys-general reports into sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, insight into the abuse situation in the Jehovah's Witness organization, petitions to the Federal government, and media reports on sexual abuse and its aftermath around the country.
IOWA
Quad-City Times
Todd Ruger
A former priest asked a district court judge Monday to overrule a jury's $1.89 million judgment against him in a civil lawsuit alleging the priest sexually abused his underage nephew when he was in the Catholic Diocese of Davenport.
The attorney for James Janssen, 83, cited numerous reasons why he thought the jury's judgment and trial in May were unfair at a hearing in Scott County.
"There's really no rational basis for some of the awards," attorney Edward Wehr said to District Judge C.H. Pelton, who presided over the trial. "The establishment of punitive damages was without a foundation."
The unanimous verdict in the civil trial came after about four hours of deliberations, with jurors concluding that James Wells, 56, of Bettendorf, should collect damages from his uncle for nine years of sexual abuse that ended in 1962 despite filing his lawsuit more than 40 years later.
CHICAGO (IL)
Sacramento Bee
The Associated Press
Last Updated 12:48 pm PDT Monday, June 6, 2005
CHICAGO (AP) - One priest resigned and another was temporarily removed from his post as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago investigates allegations that they engaged in sexual misconduct or inappropriate behavior with minors in the past.
Rev. Walter Turlo, 60, resigned as pastor of St. Fabian Church in suburban Bridgeview after the archdiocese began investigating allegations that he engaged in inappropriate behavior with a minor about 30 years ago, archdiocese spokesman Jim Dwyer said Sunday.
The alleged abuse occurred while Turlo was working at St. William Church in Chicago, Dwyer said.
Rev. Bill O'Brien, 57, was accused of sexual misconduct with a minor 25 years ago at St. Cajetan Church in Chicago. He was removed as pastor of Queen of Angels Church, Dwyer said.
The allegations were announced to parishioners in letters read at weekend masses.
CHICAGO (IL)
ABC 7
June 6, 2005 — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has temporarily removed two priests from their churches following allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior.
Archdiocese spokesman Jim Dwyer says Reverend Walter Turlo resigned as priest of Saint Fabian Church in Bridgeview after the archdiocese began investigating allegations that he engaged in inappropriate behavior about 30 years ago. Turlo was the pastor at Saint William Church on the city's northwest side at the time.
Dwyer also says Reverend Bill O'Brien was removed as the pastor of Queen of Angels Church on Chicago's North Side. His removal comes amid an archdiocese investigation of alleged sexual misconduct 25 years ago when he was a priest at a church on the city's southwest side.
IOWA CITY (IA)
Des Moines Register
An Iowa City group has produced a booklet of stories of alleged sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Diocese of Davenport.
Leaders of Concerned Catholics of the Davenport Diocese said that "Toward Hope and Understanding - Stories of Survivors of Clergy Sexual Abuse in the Davenport Diocese" details the diocese's response to men who said they were abused as children.
"We love the church . . . but both the structures that fostered and covered this up need to be changed," said Dorothy Whiston, the booklet's editor. "It's often not until a survivor sees the name in print that they realize they weren't the only one and it wasn't their fault."
Bishop William Franklin said, "I hope that their work . . . can help victims in their process of healing."
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Joel Bewley
Inquirer Staff Writer
On the first Sunday since learning one of their former priests had been accused of molesting a teenage boy more than a decade ago, parishioners at St. Raymond of Penafort in Germantown were urged to report any other cases that might have occurred.
"Anyone who has ever been sexually abused by a priest, or has even heard rumors, please, do something about it today," the Rev. John F. O'Brien, St. Raymond's pastor, told congregants during Mass yesterday. "Does everybody understand? Is that clear to everybody?"
The former priest, Martin J. Satchell, 39, was at the church for four months in 1993. He was removed from active ministry following a credible accusation of sexual abuse, Archdiocese of Philadelphia officials said last week when they announced he had been defrocked.
"This has been very sad and very painful for us," O'Brien said between Masses. "We pray there were no more victims."
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Associated Press | June 6, 2005
The Archdiocese of Boston has cleared a return to active ministry for a priest accused of sexually abusing a child, after a church review panel was unable to substantiate the allegations, an archdiocese spokesman said yesterday.
A review board appointed by the archdiocese was ''unable to substantiate this claim after a careful review of the information available," said archdiocese spokesman Terry Donilon.
Sherry is allowed to return immediately to his old job as pastor at the Church of the Nativity in Merrimac, Donilon added. He is expected to celebrate Mass next Sunday.
NEW YORK
Boston Globe
By Ed Siegel, Globe Staff | June 6, 2005
There was never any doubt about ''Doubt," John Patrick Shanley's provocative drama about certainty vs. uncertainty, winning the Tony Award last night as best play along with three other awards. Cherry Jones as the redoubtable nun who accuses a priest of sexual abuse without any evidence, was awarded best actress along with featured actress Adriane Lenox and director Doug Hughes.
In fact, there wasn't much doubt about anything last night as the four nominated musicals split the awards, as predicted, with ''Monty Python's Spamalot" named the best musical and ''The Light in the Piazza" taking the most statues, six.
Bill Irwin, though, pulled the one upset of the night, as best actor in a play for his revelatory performance as George in ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," which began life in Boston. He won over the favored Brian F. O'Byrne in ''Doubt." Irwin's was a brilliantly ironic makeover of a role that had seemed to belong to Richard Burton.
CHICAGO (IL)
Daily Southtown
Monday, June 6, 2005
By William Lee and Courney Greve
Staff writers
Two Catholic priests with ties to the Southland have been removed from service in the wake of allegations of sexual abuse of minors, officials said.
The Rev. Walter Turlo has resigned as pastor of St. Fabian in Bridgeview, where he has led a congregation of 4,000 families for nine years, according to the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Turlo is accused of "highly inappropriate behavior" with a minor while he was associate pastor at St. William on the Northwest Side in the 1970s, officials said.
The Rev. Bill O'Brien has also been discharged due to an allegation that he engaged in "sexual misconduct with a minor" about 25 years ago when he was associate pastor at St. Cajetan in Chicago's Morgan Park community, officials said.
PORTLAND (ME)
Foster's Daily Democrat
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — After the parents of a 6-year-old Lewiston girl complained in 1958 that their daughter had been sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest, they felt assured that he would be kept away from other children.
The Rev. Lawrence Sabatino was quickly transferred to a parish in Portland, but he continued to have access to young girls.
Sabatino died in 1990 at age 65. Since that time, 13 other women have come forward, either personally or through family members, to report that Sabatino abused them after his transfer to St. Peter's Church. Most say they were between 7 and 13 at the time.
The case, detailed in the Maine Sunday Telegram, is the only one involving a Maine priest accused of continuing to abuse children after being reported to the Diocese of Portland.
Many of the allegations came from women who were invited by Sabatino to participate in Sodality, an after-school children's club at St. Peter's. He got the girls to play games like hide-and-seek, they said, and would pick one girl to hide with and then abuse her.
TEXAS
The Paris News
The Associated Press
Published June 5, 2005
FORT WORTH, Texas — Shortly after investigators linked him to two men suspected of sexually abusing of boys at least a half dozen boys, the Rev. Thomas Teczar left his parish in Ranger.
The reasons behind Teczar's departure from St. Rita's Catholic Church remained sealed for more than a decade, stashed away in a secret diocese archive known as the Confidential files. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram examined the files this spring after they were opened during a lawsuit.
The documents detail how Teczar _ a Catholic priest who admitted being sexually attracted to boys _ was sent to minister in four rural parishes without supervision. They also raise questions about the decisions by Fort Worth Bishop Joseph P. Delaney, Teczar's superior.
In a recent interview, Delaney said he knew nothing about sexual abuse allegations against Teczar before or during the priest's time in the Fort Worth Diocese. However, his notes in the Confidential Files show he was aware of suspicions and the risk of hiring Teczar.
IOWA
The Hawk Eye
A support group called SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) has been formed in eastern Iowa for victims of religious sexual abuse.
The Rev. David Hitch of Tipton will lead the chapter. Hitch's brother was sexually abused by James M. Janssen, a former priest in the Davenport Diocese who served in Lee County during the 1960s and '70s.
Last month, a Scott County jury awarded $1.9 million to a man who said Janssen sexually abused him for nine years, beginning when he was 5 years old. At the trial, Janssen, now defrocked, admitted the abuse only to recant the next day.
"I've talked to so many survivors of religious sexual abuse and I've talked to their families. Their pain is enormous," Hitch said. "There is a need in the Diocese of Davenport for survivors of sexual abuse by priests and (the) religious to have a place to gather and support one another. SNAP is a very effective format for this to happen."
COVINGTON (KY)
Pioneer Press
BRETT BARROUQUERE
Associated Press
COVINGTON, Ky. - A proposed multimillion-dollar priest sexual abuse settlement would impose staggering costs on the Catholic diocese here - but many parishioners at Sunday Mass said they understood the need to compensate victims of decades of abuse.
To Char Allen, attending Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of The Assumption, the settlement means the victims get the help they need and the issue is no longer hanging over the diocese. The victims deserve to be compensated by the diocese because the priests involved used the diocese to cover their activities, he said.
"I can't imagine going through that, being a victim of your own faith," Allen said.
The Diocese of Covington announced Friday it was pledging $120 million, the nation's largest such settlement, to end a two-year-old class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of more than 100 alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests. The settlement still needs approval by a judge.
The lawsuit accuses the diocese, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, of a 50-year cover-up of sexual abuse by priests and others.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston.com
June 5, 2005
A priest accused of sexually abusing a child has been cleared to return to active ministry now that a church review panel has failed to substantiate the allegations, a spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese said Sunday.
But a review board appointed by the archdiocese was "unable to substantiate this claim after a careful review of the information available," said archdiocese spokesman Terry Donilon.
Sherry is allowed to immediately return to his old job as pastor at the Church of the Nativity in Merrimac, Donilon added. He's expected to celebrate Mass next Sunday.
Father William Kremmell, who took over for Sherry at the Merrimac church two years ago, announced Sherry's reinstatement during celebrations of Mass this weekend, according to Donilon.
TIPTON (IA)
WQAD
TIPTON, IA. -- Saint Mary's Church in Tipton is quiet after morning mass, but Father David Hitch says he won't be quiet anymore. "All of us in the Church need to keep searching, how could this be? How this could happen in our church, that we were so trusting, so innocent of our priests."
In the 1960's, while Father Hitch was in seminary, his younger brother Michael, says he was being sexually abused by Priest James Janssen. "(Michael) thought all priests were trained in seminary how to do this, touching of genitals and the like."
Father Hitch says shame and embarrassment keep his brother from coming forward, until just three years ago. Father Hitch says a culture of silence in the Church kept the issue in the dark, eventhough the higher levels of the diocese knew what was happening.
Now a new book, Toward Understanding and Healing, is helping victims deal with the issue of abuse by accused priests like Janssen.
FORT WORTH (TX)
KVUE
06:29 PM CDT on Sunday, June 5, 2005
Associated Press
FORT WORTH — Secret archives from the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese give insight into how a priest who admitted his attraction for boys was sent to work at rural parishes.
The documents also raise questions about the decisions made by Fort Worth Bishop Joseph P. Delaney.
In interviews, Delaney said he knew nothing about sexual abuse allegations against the Reverend Thomas Teczar before or during the priest's time in the area.
Yet notes from 1988 show that Delaney know about Teczar's attraction to teenage boys even before hiring him.
The bishop's notes from 1993 read "DA and sheriff threatening prosecution ... accusing Tom of pedophilia???"
Still, Delaney says he didn't know Eastland County investigators were seeking information about Teczar.
MIAMI (FL)
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
June 5, 2005
File this one under the category of "interesting."
Florida attorney Sharon Bourassa reports that Miami archbishop John Favalora owns 35,000 shares of stock (worth $10,500) in the XStream Beverage Network, Inc., whose Yohimbe Energy Drink is marketed as an aphrodisiac:
All natural & invigorating, the legendary African herb yohimbe has long been anecdotally acclaimed for its sensually stimulating effect. YOHIMBE ENERGY DRINK™ is formulated with an exhilarating blend of yohimbe bark extract, vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, B12 & taurine — giving you an 'energy lift' to increase strength, stamina & confidence. (http://www.xbev.com/brands.htm)
In a statement to her supporters, Bourassa, who is suing the Archdiocese of Miami (see http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/050521), rhetorically asks: "Is this the direction we are going in as a Church? Is this the way you want your hard earned money used by our trusted Church leaders?"
BOSTON (MA)
TheBostonChannel.com
POSTED: 3:48 pm EDT June 5, 2005
UPDATED: 3:58 pm EDT June 5, 2005
BOSTON -- A priest accused of sexual abuse will return to active ministry at a Merrimac parish after the Boston Archdiocese found that the allegation could not be substantiated.
The Rev. Edward Sherry was put on administrative leave in 2003 after a lawsuit was filed accusing him of sexually abusing a child three decades earlier.
Archdiocese spokesman Terry Donilon said a review board could not verify the allegations following a "careful review of the information available."
The archdiocese's board recently recommended that Sherry be allowed to return to his old job as pastor at the Church of the Nativity in Merrimac.
TEXAS
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By Darren Barbee
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Part 2
Delaney's decision
"In view of the past, I understand the current risks involved and hereby pledge my financial assets towards any settlement the diocese may have to make on my behalf."
-- June 1988 letter from Teczar, asking Delaney for permission to work in the Fort Worth diocese.
Should he take the priest?
Delaney needed clergy in the summer of 1988. But, in an unusual step, the Diocese of Worcester required him to take full legal responsibility for Teczar -- in writing -- three years before he was officially a part of the Fort Worth Diocese.
Delaney was concerned that Teczar had been suspended and that other bishops had rejected him, he later said in a deposition.
Most of the information Delaney said he received was related to the Maciorowski matter: reports from the House of Affirmation, interviews with Teczar's therapist, a letter from the Worcester Diocese and conversations with Teczar himself.
TEXAS
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By Darren Barbee
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Part 1
"T admits to being attracted to adolescents in every way, including sexually."
-- Bishop Joseph Delaney's notes, June 12-13, 1988, shortly before he hired the Rev. Thomas Teczar
"His time in therapy was very intense and painful but very successful. He no longer has the need to seek out adolescents for companions. ... Because of all the other good qualities for ministry in T's life, S feels he will be a very successful priest."
-- Delaney's notes from a June 14, 1988, conversation with Gilbert Skidmore, Teczar's therapist
"I am willing to give Father Teczar an opportunity to get back into active ministry, fully aware of the possible risks that may be involved. ... Please pray with me that my decision will be of benefit to all concerned and for the good of souls."
-- Delaney in a July 13, 1988, letter to Bishop Timothy Harrington in Worcester, Mass.
"I laid down a request that he not have any social relationships with anyone under 25 in future."
DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
June 5, 2005
A former Des Moines diocese priest, citing the priest abuse scandal and the conservative direction of the Roman Catholic Church, has left the church and become a pastor in one of about 100 splinter Catholic organizations in the United States.
The Rev. Ray McHenry, who served as a parish priest in West Des Moines, Carter Lake and Council Bluffs, has renounced the Roman Catholic Church and joined a small group of disenchanted Catholics who seek more inclusive beliefs and are part of a growing independent Catholic church movement.
McHenry, 52, of Bellevue, Neb., is now a priest in theAbuse Tracker Catholic Church of America, a denomination that has no pope, ordains women, marries couples regardless of gender and makes celibacy optional.
TheAbuse Tracker Catholic Church of America began as a Catholic religious community in 1944 and became a church in 1998. It has fewer than a dozen parishes in eight states and no count of members. It is among more than 100 "expressions of Catholicism" in the United States, some more conservative than the Roman Catholic Church, some more liberal, McHenry said.
The independent Catholic movement in the United States is not particularly new, and there is little evidence that it is suddenly booming.
"This has been going on since the 1960s," said Stuart O'Brien, service director for CORPUS, an organization promoting an expanded and renewed priesthood. "It's hard to tell how much it is growing."
MAINE
Portland Press Herald
By JOHN RICHARDSON, Portland Press Herald Writer
In 1960, Ann Siteman was a 13-year-old growing up on Portland's Munjoy Hill and part of a family with a strong Catholic faith.
She and a friend heard the weekly religious education classes at St. Peter's Catholic Church were more interesting than the ones in the neighboring parish, and they decided to go there. The Rev. Lawrence Sabatino was a teacher and a kids' favorite, she said.
"Everybody liked him," Siteman recalled. "I really liked him, so we would go see him after class."
She remembers two times when Sabatino touched her, describing it only as inappropriate. "He touched both of us. After one of these times, she said, 'He shouldn't be doing that,' and we never went back there."
Siteman thought that was the end of it, and the two girls never talked about it. But the incidents remained buried in her mind, and they clearly affected her, Siteman said. She grew angry and broke away from the church in college.
"I think it really shattered something in me," she said. "I was a pretty devout Catholic."
MAINE
Portland Press Herald
By JOHN RICHARDSON, Portland Press Herald Writer
When Patricia Butkowski was a first-grader at St. Patrick's School in Lewiston, the Rev. Lawrence Sabatino was a friendly 34-year-old priest with dark, curly hair and dark eyes.
The only thing Butkowski remembers about his appearance, however, is the large nose that used to appear in her nightmares and make her scream.
Gregory Harkins, Trish's brother, remembers more of what happened than she does. He was two years older, and he witnessed one of the incidents.
Harkins was playing with a couple of fellow altar boys after school when Sabatino came up, handed out chocolates and other candies, and asked Harkins to go get his sister so they could go for a ride. Harkins remembers feeling special.
"I thought it was just because he liked me and I was going to be chief altar boy or something," he said.
TEXAS
Fort Worth Star Telegram
BLIND FAITH?
By Darren Barbee
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Part 3
More allegations
"I feel bitter that you should have taken him in and put him out here where there was nobody to watch over him."
-- A Feb. 15, 1994, letter to Delaney from a Strawn man, now deceased, concerning Teczar being moved to Ranger.
The mechanic was in his mid-30s, unmarried, and had a bachelor's degree in history, according to notes Delaney took when he met with him in 1994.
In the 1990s, the man lived in Strawn, one of the parishes served by Teczar. In February 1994, he wrote to Delaney saying he was angry at the bishop because he allowed Teczar to lead the church unsupervised.
Teczar "tried to kiss me twice, suggested 'we get closer.' He even asked me to spend the night with him. When I tried to explain to him that I am a conservative Catholic, he sidestepped the issue by saying that God does not care who we get naked with as long as we love them."
Teczar also took the man's confession, then used his words as leverage when trying to solicit sex from him in 1990, according to Delaney's notes.
TIPTON (IA)
Radio Iowa
by O. Kay Henderson
A Catholic priest from Tipton is starting a support group for people who've been abused by priests. Father David Hitch says a former priest in the Davenport area abused someone in his family years ago. "My brother was abused by James Janssen and so I was very much involved after I found out and I only found out a couple of years ago when he was ready to start talking to me about it," Father Hitch says. "And so I've stood by him and walked with him through his whole journey." A Scott County jury recently found James Janssen guilty of abusing his own nephew. Hitch is one of few priests or nuns who have joined a group called SNAP -- the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "These are hurting people. They're been hurt by us, by church," Hitch says.
COLUMBIA (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Tim Townsend
Of the Post-Dispatch
COLUMBIA, Mo. - On Friday morning nearly 2000 delegates of the United Methodist church's Missouri conference gathered in a cramped hall at the Holiday Inn here to begin their annual meeting. Just like at a political convention, balloons rose toward the ceiling and banners proclaimed which division of the conference each group of delegates was from - Ozark North, Heartland South, Gateway Central, Mid State.
Most years, the usual business of the church - ordaining new pastors, passing budgets, launching new service programs - is done at the annual conference. This year was different in one respect. This year, delegates would learn how its leaders proposed to save the church from sudden financial ruin.
The conference's new bishop, Robert Schnase, began the meeting with a sermon and talked to the delegates, made up of equal parts clergy and laity, about what to expect from the weekend. "Some topics will be enjoyable," he said. "Others will be painfully difficult and make us feel anxious about our uncertain future."
In early May, a jury in a Springfield, Mo., civil court told the United Methodist Church in Missouri to pay Teresa Norris $6 million for failing to protect her from a violent man who also was her pastor.
JAPAN
The Yomiuri Shimbun
KYOTO--The Kyoto prefectural police will send the head minister of the Central Church of Holy God to prosecutors on suspicion that he engaged in 10 cases of sexual abuse against young female congregants, police said.
Tamotsu Kin, 61, had already been sent to prosecutors for alleged sexual abuse relating to 11 cases involving four girls.
One of the latest cases includes the rape of former members of his congregation.
KENTUCKY
Los Angeles Times
By P.J. Huffstutter, Times Staff Writer
COVINGTON, Ky. — Florence Valton arrives on the steps of the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption most Saturday afternoons, drawn to the towering stained-glass windows by friends and faith.
But this weekend, the retiree said she came for hope and answers.
On Friday, the Diocese of Covington announced it had agreed to pay as much as $120 million to alleged victims of child molestation in cases stretching over five decades. The settlement, if approved this week by the Boone County Circuit Court, would be the largest sum the Roman Catholic Church has paid in its sexual abuse crisis.
"People are talking about wanting to start the healing process," said Valton, 62, who lives outside Covington. "I'm glad there is a conclusion to this, but it makes me ill to think this had been happening all those years."
Friday's announcement came after a class-action suit was filed against the diocese in February 2003 on behalf of more than 100 plaintiffs.
Two years ago, the diocese estimated that there had been more than 150 credible allegations of sexual abuse involving 30 priests since 1950.
Nationally, the crisis doesn't appear to be waning. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops found that 1,083 people reported in 2004 that they had been abused at some point. More than 300 of the reports identified new alleged abusers.
KENTUCKY
Cincinnati Enquirer
By Shannon Russell and Karen Gutiérrez
Enquirer staff writers
TAYLOR MILL - A day after the Covington Diocese announced it would pay $120 million to settle the nation's first class-action lawsuit for priest sexual abuse, Catholics had mixed feelings about the settlement.
"I think something should have been done years ago, and this was a good start," Alexandria resident Jane DeMoss said Saturday at St. Anthony's parish festival.
An undetermined number of victims are expected to receive $5,000 to $450,000 each, depending on the nature and severity of the abuse. A Kentucky judge must approve the settlement.
Some Catholics say they empathize with the victims and are glad Bishop Roger Foys took the time to meet with more than 70 of them.
At the same time, they express regret that the large size of the settlement could affect so many priests and parishioners who had nothing to do with the scandal.
KENTUCKY
Cincinnati Enquirer
Editorials
Victims of priest sexual abuse in the once-vast Diocese of Covington should soon be able to get compensation, some closure, perhaps even healing. The Diocese on Friday announced it reached a tentative settlement of its class-action lawsuit.
For any victims in the last 50 years who have yet to receive church compensation, the diocese agreed to create a $120 million fund, with compensation in four categories ranging from $5,000 to $450,000 per person, depending on the severity of the abuse. A special judge in Boone Circuit Court still must approve the settlement. It should also bring some closure for the diocese, although it means financial sacrifice for years to come.
The huge settlement should not compromise the diocese's essential spiritual mission, and should help steel the church's resolve against future abuse or official mishandling.
Covington's class-action suit is the nation's first such certified case. It was filed in Boone County in February 2003 for an unspecified number of victims. Bishop Roger Foys deserves special credit for pursuing settlements and meeting with victims ever since he was installed as the new Covington bishop in July 2002. Attorney Stan Chesley, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, praised Foys in their joint statement, saying this "remarkable settlement ... would not have occurred but for the good faith and honest efforts of Bishop Foys and his representatives."
MAINE
Portland Press Herald
By JOHN RICHARDSON, Portland Press Herald Writer
Maureen Bickford was part of the Sodality at St. Peter's Catholic Church, an after-school program for kids held in the parish hall.
And, she says, she became one of the girls the Rev. Lawrence Sabatino chose to play hide-and-seek with him or go with him on outings to the woods or the beach.
Sabatino sexually abused her repeatedly when she was between the ages of 8 and 11, Bickford said. About 20 years later, as she was walking home from work in the same Munjoy Hill neighborhood, images of those incidents flooded her mind and stopped her in her tracks.
"I just started bawling. I was miserable," she recalled.
Bickford, now 52, would later remember more details, such as how dark it was behind the heavy velvet curtains on the wooden stage in the parish hall.
"We used to do this hide-and-seek game," she said. "That's the first place he ever touched me - behind the curtain."
He would put his hands on her, and inside her, and would grind himself against her, she said. "He would press against you so you could not get away," she said.
MAINE
Portland Press Herald
By JOHN RICHARDSON, Portland Press Herald Writer
Patricia Butkowski has only a few clear memories about being abused by the Rev. Lawrence Sabatino.
In one memory, she crouches on the floor of the priest's car, crying as he pulls up to her family's house in Lewiston. She is 6 years old.
In another, she is 9 and asks her mother why her name is on a bottle of pills. The medicine is for her nightmares and helps her sleep, her mother replies.
Butkowski's mother later filled in some of the gaps about that day in 1958 when Trish came home crying: The family's doctor said Trish was bruised and swollen and had been sexually molested.
Her parents went to police and then to the Roman Catholic bishop in Portland. They felt assured that Sabatino would be kept away from other children.
He wasn't. Instead, the young priest was transferred to a parish in Portland, where he had plenty of access to young girls.
MAINE
Portland Press Herald
By JOHN RICHARDSON, Portland Press Herald Writer
Records released by the Maine Attorney General's Office provide some insight into the oversight of the Rev. Lawrence Sabatino, but also leave some questions unanswered.
The first known report of sexual abuse by Lawrence Sabatino was made to the Portland Diocese in September 1958. The parents of a 6-year-old girl reported that Sabatino had brought her home crying, that she said "that bone" hurt her belly, and that a doctor found vaginal bruising and evidence of abuse.
They first reported the abuse to a police officer in Lewiston, according to the family, but were told they would have to talk to Bishop Daniel Feeney instead. That would not happen today, said Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin.
"Society's whole approach to these types of crimes was totally different 50 years ago, and then you add to it the church's and the priests' standing in the community, and it complicates it even more," she said.
NEW YORK
NorthJersey.com
Sunday, June 5, 2005
By ROBERT FELDBERG
The fascinating cat-and-mouse game between a nun and priest, the triumphant return home of a Hollywood favorite and the comic caperings of a bunch of dazed knights were among the highlights of Broadway's 2004-05 season.
They are efforts likely to be rewarded tonight when the Tony Awards for Broadway's best are handed out at Radio City Music Hall (CBS, 8 to 11 p.m.).
But those shows are only part of the mosaic of a very entertaining season that had lots of peaks, as well as its share of valleys.
The good shows were notable for their distinctiveness and the theatrical savvy with which they were presented.
John Patrick Shanley's play "Doubt" was the drama event not only of this year but of recent seasons. A play centering on the troubled atmosphere at a Bronx Catholic school, where a nun suspects a popular priest of sexual abuse, it clicked on every level.
CALIFORNIA
Monterey County Herald
By DAVID L. BECK
San Jose Mercury News
Two former Monterey Bay Academy teachers The Seventh-day Adventist Church has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle lawsuits brought by five men who say they were molested by teachers at the church's Monterey Bay Academy near Watsonville during the 1980s.
The church has also agreed to alter school policies to become more responsive to reports of sexual abuse.
"I refused to discuss money with them," said victim Michael Weston, "until they could prove to me that radical changes in policy have been made, and that they would provide free counseling to victims of sexual abuse in their churches and schools."
Victor Elliott, the church's Maryland attorney, confirms that has happened.
"What you had here," said Elliott, "was something that went back 20 years. The circumstances of screening of teachers and supervision are not up to current-day standards."
CALIFORNIA
Lodi News-Sentinel
By Kim Curtis
Associated Press Writer
Last updated: Saturday, Jun 04, 2005 - 06:26:54 am PDT
Oliver O'Grady is both a victim and a victimizer. As a boy in Ireland, he was molested by an older brother and later, by two priests.
Later, as a man of the cloth himself, he molested up to 25 children and had relations with two mothers of his victims.
O'Grady, who served as a parish priest in Lodi during the 1970s, is a profoundly troubled man who struggled with his torment, sought help, but was allowed to continue serving as a priest well after confessing his sins.
The defrocked Irish priest's abusive childhood, his ill-formed ideas about sexuality, his horrifying methods of grooming children and his quiet demands for help that his diocese largely ignored all come out in a 400-page deposition O'Grady gave to lawyers for one of his many victims.
IOWA
Des Moines Register
Two federal lawsuits filed Thursday that allege sexual abuse by clergy bring to 14 the number filed against the Dubuque Archdiocese. Both priests named in the lawsuits have been sued previously.
Katherine Buck, a resident of Minnesota, alleges that the Rev. Patrick W. McElliott sexually abused her when she was an eighth-grader at St. John's School in Waterloo in the early 1960s. It's the fourth lawsuit against McElliott, who died in 1987.
Steven Lown of Illinois alleges that the Rev. William T. Schwartz repeatedly abused him sexually in 1978 when the priest was spiritual director at Waterloo Columbus High School.
Lawsuits against the archdiocese have named six priests: McElliott, Schwartz, William A. Goltz, Albert Carman, William Roach and John Schmitz.
Monsignor James Barta, vicar general of the archdiocese, said Friday that he could not comment because he had not yet seen the lawsuits.
COVINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Enquirer
By Cindy Schroeder
Enquirer staff writer
Sex abuse allegations involving priests from the Covington Diocese have surfaced several times in the past decade.
In one of the more notorious cases, Earl Bierman, a former priest and teacher at Covington Latin School in the 1960s and 70s, was removed from the priesthood and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In 1993, Bierman pleaded guilty to 25 molestation charges involving six boys in Campbell, Kenton and Mason counties. Church records later released for a civil trial revealed at least 73 reports of abuse from teenaged victims.
"There were six who actually pressed charges, but there were many more victims," former Kentucky State Police Detective Bob Scott told The Enquirer in 2002. Scott handled the investigation of Bierman. "They didn't want to pursue it legally, but they were troubled many years later by what happened to them."
This week, Bierman was again in the news with the announcement that he has cancer. The Kentucky Department of Corrections has recommended the former priest be granted an early medical parole because he has less than a year to live. The parole board will decide whether to grant the defrocked priest a final act of mercy on July 7.
KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal
By Gregory A. Hall
ghall@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
The nation's first class-action lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests will be settled for $120 million, the Diocese of Covington and an attorney for the alleged victims announced yesterday.
The proposed settlement, still to be approved by a Boone Circuit Court judge, calls for the diocese to pay $40 million from its assets and $80 million from insurance policies. If insurers balk, the diocese has agreed to sue them for the money.
Diocesan spokesman Tim Fitzgerald said he didn't know what would happen if any lawsuits against insurers were unsuccessful.
If the diocese pays the full $120 million, the settlement would be the largest for a Catholic diocese in the United States since the sex-abuse scandal unfolded about three years ago.
The settlement would be more than four times as large as the $25.7 million settlement reached in 2003 between the Archdiocese of Louisville and 243 plaintiffs.
KENTUCKY
Cincinnati Post
1992 - Jerome "Jerry" Junker accuses Father Earl Bierman of sexually abusing him in the 1970s, setting off the sex-abuse scandal that rocked the Diocese of Covington. Several others come forward, and Bierman is eventually sentenced to 20 years in prison.
May 2002 - Roger Foys is named the Bishop of Covington. In his first interview with The Post, he calls sexual abuse by priests a crime and a sin, saying: "It needs to be dealt with. It needs to be stopped."
February 2003 - A lawsuit is filed in Boone Circuit Court alleging a 50-year coverup of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Covington. It later is certified as a class-action lawsuit.
COVINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Post
The Diocese of Covington learned its penance Friday for 50 years of sin.
The Catholic church agreed to set aside $120 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed in Boone County alleging hundreds of children and teen-agers were sexually abused by priests, and that church officials covered up the abuse.
It's a shocking number, and the largest to date in the scandal affecting dioceses nationwide.
There are many ways to interpret the settlement: The church got what it deserved, some say. Others say the involvement of class-action specialist Stan Chesley simply jacked up the price, making this case more about greed than healing.
But no matter what your opinion or stake in the settlement, Friday's announcement has staggering implications.
KENTUCKY
Cincinnati Post
By Courtney Kinney
Post staff reporter
Money can help the victims of sexual abuse, but it can't always heal wounds.
That's the opinion of someone who should know.
Kay Montgomery, abused as a teen-ager in the 1960s by a priest from Blessed Sacrament Church in Fort Mitchell, won a settlement from the Diocese in Covington in January. Her pain hasn't gone away.
"It won't change their life in any dramatic way," Montgomery, now a Lexington homemaker, said Friday of the Diocese of Covington's $120 million settlement agreement in a class action lawsuit by abuse victims.
Her earlier settlement, the terms of which were not disclosed, was believed to be the largest settlement up to that time. What happened, she said, still happened. All the money does is allow victims to get help, Montgomery said.
"For a few days, it might make them feel like it's a relief, it's over," Montgomery said. "But they're not going to wake up tomorrow and feel like, 'Oh, things are so different and I can go on and this never happened.' It's not going to change anything. They're still going to have to deal with the memories, the trauma, the flashbacks."
MILWAUKEE (WI)
Qaud-Cities Online
By Stephen Elliott, selliott@qconline.com
MILWAUKEE -- For ex-Cambridge resident Dan Koenigs, a 10-year prison sentence for a former Roman Catholic priest meant another chapter closed in his life.
Francis Engels, 69, of Kewanee, was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison on two counts of second-degree sexual assault. Mr. Engels was sentenced to two consecutive five-year terms, according to Jane Carrol, Milwaukee assistant district attorney.
Ms. Carrol said the two counts described sexual assaults against Mr. Koenigs that took place in the summers of 1982 and 1983.
Now a substance-abuse counselor in Piatt County, Ill., Mr. Koenigs, 37, said three priests, including Mr. Engels, molested him many times between 1980 and 1985.
Joe Klest of Schaumburg, Mr. Koenigs' attorney in a civil suit settled earlier this year with the Peoria Diocese, said some of the abuse took place in Kentucky and Wisconsin. Mr. Koenigs was able to identify the Milwaukee motel where the abuse happened, the lawyer said.
KENTUCKY
Boston Globe
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | June 4, 2005
Pushing the cumulative cost of clergy sex abuse to the Catholic Church near $1 billion, the Diocese of Covington, Ky., announced yesterday that it has agreed to set aside a record $120 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by men and women who say as minors they were sexually abused by priests.
''After personally meeting with more than 70 victims, I am painfully aware that no amount of money can compensate for the harm these victims suffered as innocent children," Bishop Roger J. Foys said in a statement. ''Nevertheless, I pray that this settlement will bring some measure of peace and healing to victims and their loved ones."
The Kentucky settlement, which requires court approval, appears to be larger, not only in absolute terms, but also in the maximum payment to individual victims. In Boston, most plaintiffs got no more than $300,000; in Covington, the cap for all but the most egregious cases will be $450,000.
The larger settlement appears to reflect in part the availability of more insurance money. Foys said Covington expects $80 million in insurance coverage; in Boston, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley had to sue insurance companies, and even then only obtained $28.5 million toward the archdiocese's settlement. But it also seems clear that the size of the settlements has been increasing over time, and the cumulative toll on the church nationally is now near $1 billion.
COVINGTON (KY)
Los Angeles Times
By P.J. Huffstutter and Larry B. Stammer, Times Staff Writers
COVINGTON, Ky. — Marking the largest settlement yet in the Roman Catholic Church's sexual abuse crisis, the Covington Diocese said Friday that it had agreed to pay as much as $120 million to alleged victims of child molestation.
The amount, which must be approved by the Boone County Circuit Court, would eclipse a $100-million settlement reached by the Orange County Diocese last year involving 90 victims, and an $85-million settlement reached two years ago with 552 victims by the Boston Archdiocese, where the scandal erupted in 2002.
The announcement came after more than a year of negotiations after the filing of a class-action suit against the Covington Diocese in February 2003 on behalf of more than 100 alleged victims. The suit said the diocese had covered up the abuse over a 50-year period.
"After personally meeting with more than 70 victims, I am painfully aware that no amount of money can compensate for the harm these victims suffered as innocent children," the Most Rev. Roger Foys said in a statement Friday. Foys, who became bishop of the diocese in July 2002, apologized to those who reported abuse and "were not treated with respect and courtesy when they came forth."
Under terms of the settlement, victims would be placed into one of four categories, depending upon the severity of their abuse. Payouts would range from $5,000 to $450,000 per victim, minus lawyer fees.
MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By DERRICK NUNNALLY
dnunnally@journalsentinel.com
Posted: June 3, 2005
A Catholic priest from Illinois who brought an altar boy to Milwaukee for sexual encounters at least twice in the 1980s was sentenced Friday to 10 years in a Wisconsin prison.
Francis Engels, 69, was arrested in December and in April entered Alford pleas to two counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child. In an Alford plea, a defendant concedes he would likely be convicted by a jury based on evidence against him but does not admit wrongdoing. Because he was convicted under an old law, Engels will eligible for parole in 2 1/2 years and will likely be released from prison after less than 7 years.
Daniel Koenigs, now 36, choked back tears as he told Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Hansher how Francis Engels had maneuvered him into sexual situations with Engels and other priests and how it drove Koenigs to attempt suicide several times.
"I remember his exact words: 'If you tell anybody, they're not going to believe you,' " Koenigs said, "and I remembered that for a long time."
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
06/03/2005
ST. LOUIS
A Roman Catholic priest who admitted to the Post-Dispatch in 2002 that he molested at least 12 boys became the target Friday of the first known lawsuit against him for alleged sexual abuse.
The Rev. Joseph Lessard was sued in St. Louis Circuit Court by an alleged victim identified only as "John Doe." The suit also claims the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis was aware of Lessard's abuse of children but left him in positions of authority over them.
The plaintiff claims that Lessard molested him while he was a boy from 1985 through 1992, when Lessard was serving at Holy Innocents Church in south St. Louis.
KENTUCKY
Cincinnati Post
By Courtney Kinney
Post staff reporter
The Diocese of Covington's Catholic Center and Marydale Retreat Center in Boone County is on prime property that could fetch millions, local developers and Realtors say.
The site, covering roughly 300 acres on Donaldson Road at the Boone-Kenton county line, is in a rapidly growing area with attractive amenities.
"It does have good interstate access, it has good infrastructure around it, it's fairly centrally located in Northern Kentucky, it's close to the airport. All those things are big pluses," said Tom Banta, an executive vice president at Covington-based developer Corporex Cos.
The diocese agreed to put the property into escrow as part of a settlement agreement announced Friday in a class action lawsuit filed by victims of sexual abuse by priests. Two other parcels owned by the diocese - one in Union and another in Crittenden - will also be put into escrow.
The real estate and other investments put into escrow must account for $40 million of the $120 million settlement agreement. The other $80 million will be paid through insurance policies held by the diocese.
The Marydale property is currently valued at $13 million to $14 million, though it would likely sell for much more, said Boone County Property Valuation Administrator Ron Burch.
KENTUCKY
Cincinnati Post
The $120 million settlement announced Friday in the class-action lawsuit against the Diocese of Covington is the largest yet in the nationwide scandal involving priests who molested children.
About $80 million will come from insurance, the rest from investments and sales of real estate. No amount of money can make things right, but this is an incredible figure, especially compared to other settlements in places like Boston and Louisville.
Already the church has laid off employees and announced plans to sell the Catholic Center in Erlanger and move offices into vacant space in Covington.
Bierman begs
In a related story, the man whose trial and conviction came to epitomize the whole sexual abuse crisis involving priests in the Covington diocese apparently is dying of cancer and wants out of prison early. Suspended priest Earl Bierman pleaded guilty in 1993 to 28 sexual abuse charges involving six boys in the 1960s and '70s and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. His remains the only priest abuse case to have gone to trial.
Bierman, 73, has shown no remorse and little recognition of the suffering he caused. It's incredible that he wants mercy now. He will meet with the Kentucky Parole Board July 7.
WATERLOO (IA)
Sioux City Journal
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) -- Two more lawsuits have been filed against the Archdiocese of Dubuque alleging sexual abuse by former priests in the 1960s and '70s.
One lawsuit names the Rev. Patrick McElliott, who served as pastor of St. John's Catholic Church in Waterloo from 1954 to 1963. It is the fourth lawsuit filed this year naming McElliott, who died in 1987.
A second lawsuit names the Rev. William T. Schwartz, who was stripped of priestly duties in the 1980s by former Archbishop Daniel Kucera and now lives in Arizona. It is the fourth such lawsuit filed within the past year naming Schwartz, who served as spiritual director at Columbus High School from 1975 to 1979 and as associate pastor at St. John's in the early 1960s.
The lawsuits, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids, seek unspecified damages. Both lawsuits allege that the archdiocese "either knew or should have known" of each priest's alleged conduct "and purposefully or intentionally failed to take action."
Schwartz, contacted at home Thursday evening, referred all questions to his attorney, Robert Day, of Dubuque, who did not immediately return a telephone message left Friday.
In the past two years, the Dubuque Archdiocese has received more than 30 reports of abuse dating as far back as 1950.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times
Todd Ruger
An Iowa City-based group calling itself the Concerned Catholics of the Davenport Diocese is distributing a booklet compiling stories of men alleging sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Diocese of Davenport.
The group took the booklets, which detail the response of the diocese by men who reported abuse by priests as children, to parishes across the diocese, the group said.
The booklets contain a writing by a West Branch, Iowa, man who alleges that he was abused by the Rev. Lawrence Soens, the retired bishop of the Diocese of Sioux City who church officials reported maintains his innocence.
It also contains a writing by a Tipton, Iowa, man who says he was abused in 1949 by now-deceased priest who has not been previously named by the diocese as having an allegation of sexual abuse against him.
"We love the church and for the health of the church, but both the structures that fostered and covered this up need to be changed," booklet editor Dorothy Whiston of Iowa City said, adding that the diocese will not release the names of deceased priests who have credible claims of sexual abuse against them.
COVINGTON (KY)
Bradenton Herald
BRUCE SCHREINER
Associated Press
COVINGTON, Ky. - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington agreed Friday to set up a $120 million fund to compensate victims of child-molesting priests and other employees. It would be the nation's biggest settlement in the scandal that has staggered the church.
The settlement, which is subject to approval by a Kentucky judge, would bring to a close a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of more than 100 alleged victims. It accuses the diocese of a 50-year cover-up of sexual abuse by priests and others.
"After personally meeting with more than 70 victims, I am painfully aware that no amount of money can compensate for the harm these victims suffered as innocent children," Covington Bishop Roger Foys said in a statement. "Nevertheless, I pray that this settlement will bring some measure of peace and healing to victims and their loved ones."
Victims will be grouped into four categories based on the severity of abuse, and compensation will range from $5,000 to $450,000 per person, before attorney fees are deducted.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Craig R. McCoy and Nancy Phillips
Inquirer Staff Writers
A Philadelphia priest removed from ministry in 1993 after he was accused of abusing a teenage boy went on to teach middle school at the prestigious Haverford School - which never knew of the earlier complaint against him.
The priest, Martin J. Satchell, 39, was recently defrocked, the church disclosed Thursday. Until the defrocking, he had been removed from active ministry, but was still officially a priest.
Four years after the Philadelphia Archdiocese dismissed him, Satchell was hired to teach history to boys at the Haverford School. He worked there from 1997 until 2000, school officials said yesterday.
They said that no complaints of misconduct surfaced against him during his years there and that he left voluntarily.
MILWAUKEE (WI)
Peoria Journal Star
Saturday, June 4, 2005
MILWAUKEE - A former Catholic priest from Kewanee was sentenced to 10 years in a Wisconsin state prison Friday after earlier pleading guilty to sexually abusing a teenage altar boy during trips to Milwaukee in the early 1980s.
Francis Engels, 69, pleaded guilty in April in Milwaukee County Circuit Court to two counts of second-degree sexual assault. Engels, who in 1993 was removed from his ministry within the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, faced a maximum of 10 years in prison on each count. He was sentenced to two consecutive five-year terms.
Engels admitted assaulting the boy, who is now 37, but said he doesn't recall the incidents alleged to have happened in 1982 and 1983. The hearing, which lasted about 1 1/2 hours included statements from the defense and prosecution, as well as a statement from the victim.
Engels served as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Annawan before stepping down in 1993 amid allegations of sexual molestation from several former parishioners. He also had responsibility for St. Mary's Mission in Hooppole.
KENTUCKY
Indianapolis Star
By Bruce Schreiner
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The relatively small Roman Catholic diocese of Covington, Ky., said Friday that it has agreed to create a record-setting $120 million fund to settle a class-action lawsuit over sexual abuse by priests.
The potential payout by the northern Kentucky diocese, which has about 90,000 parishioners, is 40 percent larger than the $85 million settlement negotiated in 2003 by the Boston Archdiocese, which has 2.1 million Catholics.
"This is a very important and in many ways unprecedented result in an extremely difficult matter," Stanley Chesley, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
Lawyers and victims' advocates said there's a fundamental difference between the Covington settlement and other large settlements across the country. The fund created by the Kentucky diocese is the maximum amount it will have to pay. Depending on how many victims come forward, it may spend less than the full $120 million. Any unused money will revert to the diocese.
Under the terms of the settlement, which still must be approved by a court, claimants will be divided into four categories based on the nature and severity of the abuse they suffered. Compensation will range from $5,000 to $450,000, minus court-ordered attorneys' fees
IRELAND
Galway Advertiser
BY MARY O'CONNOR
An award winning actor, writer and artist who was subjected to abuse as a child in Letterfrack Industrial School returns there on Friday to present a play drawn from his traumatic experience.
Gerard Mannix Flynn, who was born in Dublin, will present James X & Safe House / Safe Place in the former industrial school in Connemara. Some 400 guests, including city and county councillors and religious representatives, are invited.
The 48-year-old, whose work has dealt with issues such as institutional abuse, imprisonment and injustice, says the presentation aims to make a positive contribution to the greater processs of reconciliation which he hopes will take place one day.
“As a society, we have been overwhelmed by the enormity and scale of the systemic abuse of children in residential institutions run by the Catholic congregations of religious orders and by the lack of an adequate response from those responsible.
IOWA
WQAD
WATERLOO, Iowa The Archdiocese of Dubuque faces two more lawsuits allegedly sexual abuse by former priests in the 1960s and '70s.
Both lawsuits were filed yesterday in U-S District Court in Cedar Rapids.
One names the Reverend Patrick McElliott, who served as pastor of St. John's Catholic Church in Waterloo from 1954 to 1963. He died in 1987.
The second lawsuit is against the Reverend William Schwartz, who was stripped of priestly duties in the 1980s and now lives in Arizona. Schwartz served as spiritual director at Columbus High School from 1975 to 1979 and as associate pastor at St. John's in the early '60s.
Schwartz referred all questions to his attorney, Robert Day of Dubuque, who did not immediately return a telephone call.
KENTUCKY
Cincinnati Enquirer
By Jim Hannah
Enquirer staff writer
BURLINGTON – The Covington Diocese announced this afternoon it will pay $120 million to settle the nation’s first class-action lawsuit involving priest sexual abuse.
A settlement fund will be made up of $40 million from investments and real estate. The remaining $80 million will be paid by insurance companies.
No parish property, parish funds or Diocesan Parish Annual Appeal money will be used for the settlement, said diocesan spokesman Tim Fitzgerald.
The diocese has, over the past two years, been settling sexual abuse claims. In addition to today’s settlement, the diocese has paid about $10.5 million to settle 56 sexual-abuse claims in the past 18 months.
The diocese’s share of those earlier settlements was $4 million, while insurance companies picked up the difference.
COVINGTON (KY)
WKYT
COVINGTON, Ky. -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington will set up a fund of $120 million to pay victims of clergy abuse and settle a class-action lawsuit, the diocese and plaintiff's attorneys announced Friday in a joint statement.
The statement said the settlement is subject to court approval.
The suit alleges a 50-year cover-up of sexual abuse by diocese priests and other workers and was granted class-action status in 2003. It had been scheduled for trial this spring but repeatedly postponed while a mediator conducted settlement talks.
"After personally meeting with more than seventy victims, I am painfully aware that no amount of money can compensate for the harm these victims suffered as innocent children," Covington Bishop Roger Foys said in the statement. "Nevertheless, I pray that this settlement will bring some measure of peace and healing to victims and their loved ones."
COVINGTON (KY)
WCPO
Reported by: 9News
Web produced by: Mark Sickmiller
Photographed by: 9News
Last updated: 6/3/2005 1:24:47 PM
A class action suit filed by victims of sex abuse involving priests and employees of the Covington Diocese has been settled.
The victims have been grouped into four categories, based upon the degree of abuse.
Victims will be able to get from $5,000 to $450,000.
The total settlement fund will be $120 million.
ALASKA
Anchorage Daily News
By LISA DEMER
Anchorage Daily News
Published: May 31st, 2005
Last Modified: May 31st, 2005 at 02:27 AM
Almost a month after a sensational, hidden-camera television report showing an Anchorage priest seeking sex, the bizarre case of the Rev. Robert Bester remains unresolved. An investigation by the Anchorage Archdiocese is on hold, and a lawsuit is pending. But Bester's parish is moving on -- even if some churchgoers have been left wondering about the oddly behaving priest who served them for less than a year.
The abrupt departure of Bester, a retired Catholic priest from northern Minnesota, stems from an accusation by an unemployed Anchorage man that Bester wanted sex and offered him money and a construction job. The man, Fred May, secretly recorded two of the conversations with the help of a local television station.
The grainy, black-and-white video showing the priest talking dirty aired on KTVA Channel 11 in early May during the key ratings period.
May, who said he was scared by Bester's claim to also be "Dracula," agreed recently to be interviewed about his encounters with the priest.
On the tapes, Bester sounded relaxed, even happy, in his office at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Turnagain as he talked about his health, religion and, in graphic terms, his desire for sex. He said he combats angels. He told the man not to tell others about his desires. He also spoke of his own great authority and dropped names of prominent Alaskans he claimed to be close to.
KENTUCKY
Cincinnati Enquirer
By Cindy Schroeder
Enquirer staff writer
The central figure in one of the region's major priest sex-abuse cases is dying of cancer.
Earl Bierman, the 73-year-old former Northern Kentucky priest convicted of repeatedly molesting six adolescent boys in the 1960s and 70s, has less than a year to live, said James O'Keefe, executive director of the Kentucky Parole Board.
Because of that, officials at the state Department of Corrections have asked the board to consider whether Bierman should be released early from his 20-year prison sentence. With time off for good behavior and other credits, Bierman's sentence is to end next March.
"The parole board received a request from the Department of Corrections to consider an early medical parole because (Bierman's) doctor has indicated that he has less than a year to live,'' O'Keefe said. "It's cancer, essentially.''
AUSTRALIA
ABC
Friday, 3 June 2005. 20:30 (AEST)Friday, 3 June 2005. 20:30 (ACST)Friday, 3 June 2005. 21:30 (AEDT)Friday, 3 June 2005. 18:30 (AWST)
Fresh allegations have been raised about a paedophile ring operating within the Anglican church in Australia in the 1980s.
Former Anglican archdeacon Louis Victor Daniels was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail last month for molesting 10 youths aged between 11 and 19.
One of his victims, Tasmanian Brett Andrew Skipper, killed himself last year just months before Daniels was arrested.
Brett Skipper's mother, Zena, says her son was sent from Hobart to Adelaide, where he was abused by then-Anglican youth worker Bob Brandenburg.
"He did on two occasions," she told the ABC TV's program.Stateline
"This again was bribery - with promises to go to the grand prix and literally do what they wanted."
CANADA
The Globe and Mail
'This is a moment for the ages," Grand Chief Phil Fontaine, leader of the Assembly of First Nations, said the other day after Paul Martin's Liberal government announced a deal worth perhaps $6-billion to compensate former students of residential schools.
Funny, there have been a lot of those moments lately. Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams had one (worth $2-billion) after talks with the Prime Minister. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty had his own moment for the ages ($5.7-billion). Have-not provinces had their moment ($30-billion-plus) and all provinces had theirs ($41-billion) after health talks concluded last September. Truly, these are historic times.
The church-run residential schools were a shameful chapter in this country's history. Between the mid-1800s and 1970, up to one-third of native children were placed in the schools. It has long been clear they were vulnerable to horrifying abuse. More than just abuse; reports from the early part of the last century found that children were dying in large numbers.
BRIGHTON (MA)
Boston Herald
By Kimberly Atkins
Friday, June 3, 2005 - Updated: 04:40 AM EST
The controversy surrounding the closure of a Brighton Catholic school heated up this week when members of a community group fighting the move learned the building could be used for clergy sexual-abuse investigations.
``It was already outrageous, but now it's profoundly outrageous,'' said Kevin M. Carragee, chairman of the Presentation School Foundation, a group fighting to buy the closing school to turn into a community center.
The archdiocese, which wants to convert the school into offices for its Metropolitan Tribunal, rejected their offer to pay full-market value of more than $2 million for the property. The school is slated to close this month.
Carragee said he had been told the tribunal was for annulments, and only recently discovered its role in investigating claims of abuse while reading the church's guide on dealing with such allegations.
AMITE (LA)
The Advocate
By DEBRA LEMOINE
dlemoine@theadvocate.com
AMITE -- State judges signed new arrest warrants Thursday for seven of the nine alleged members of the Ponchatoula child-sex ring, adding a total of 19 felony counts to the list of crimes for which they face prosecution.
Three weeks ago, deputies began arresting people in connection with an alleged cult operating out of the Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula. Investigators accused members of raping children as part of occult rituals.
The new warrants increase the number of crimes the defendants are accused of committing and also add counts by the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office for Hosanna pastor Louis David Lamonica and his wife, Robbin, said Tangipahoa Parish sheriff's spokeswoman Laura Covington.
Until Thursday's action by Tangipahoa Parish authorities, the estranged couple, both 45, had been arrested and held in Livingston Parish in connection with crimes allegedly committed only in Livingston Parish.
NEW YORK
USA Today
By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — At least one Tony voter didn't cast his ballot for John Patrick Shanley's play Doubt, and that's the playwright himself.
"Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman is really good," Shanley says, referring to the London import considered Doubt's stiffest competition. He and McDonagh have become friends, Shanley adds. Since the former isn't a voter — most authors voting are members of the leadership of the Dramatists Guild — "I said, 'I'll vote for you,' " Shanley says. "Then he asked, 'What about the actors (in Pillowman)?' I told him he only got one."
Shanley can afford to be generous. Doubt already has nabbed the Pulitzer Prize and numerous other honors, capping what has been a banner season for the 54-year-old Bronx native. Last fall saw three productions of his work off-Broadway, including Sailor's Song and the revival Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. Doubt, enhanced by powerhouse performances by Cherry Jones and Brian F. O'Byrne, transferred to Broadway in March.
O'Byrne, cast as a priest suspected of child molestation by Jones' Catholic school principal, describes working with Shanley as "watching someone at the top of his game, totally in sync with himself."
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
By Robert Patrick
Of the Post-Dispatch
06/02/2005
James Beine, the former Roman Catholic priest and elementary school counselor whose sexual misconduct convictions were overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court, was released from prison Thursday.
After trading a prison jumpsuit for a business suit, Beine made a brief statement citing his faith in God, his family and friends. "I knew that time would tell," he said. "I never committed any of these crimes."
Steve Welby, one of Beine's lawyers, said that after 3 1/2 years behind bars, Beine "was a very happy man."
Missouri Department of Corrections officers dropped off Beine at Welby's office in downtown St. Louis at 2:30 p.m. Advertisement
Larry Fleming, another of Beine's lawyers, said a news conference is planned for next week "so that (Beine) can tell his side of the story." Fleming then drove Beine away. Neither Beine nor his lawyers would say where he plans to live. His home was in Highland when he was arrested in 2002.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Nancy Phillips
Inquirer Staff Writer
In the latest fallout from the long-running clergy sex scandal, the Catholic Church has taken the rare step of defrocking two priests who once served the Philadelphia Archdiocese and permanently barring a retired Center City pastor from ministry.
The retired pastor, Msgr. Philip J. Dowling, had been suspended in March after admitting to The Inquirer that he had "crossed the bound" by repeatedly fondling a teenage girl decades ago.
One of the defrocked priests, the Rev. Edward M. DePaoli, 60, had been convicted of child-pornography charges in 1986 but had been allowed to remain in limited ministry until 2002. The other, the Rev. Martin J. Satchell, was quietly dismissed from ministry in 1993 but did not surface in public accounts of the scandal until yesterday.
Even as they announced the actions yesterday, church officials declined to say what Satchell, 39, had done to warrant defrocking - except that he had been the subject of "a credible accusation of misconduct involving a minor."
The news was announced yesterday on Page 10 of the Catholic Standard and Times, the archdiocese's weekly newspaper. None of the three priests could be reached for comment yesterday.
LEXINGTON (KY)
Herald-Leader
By Frank E. Lockwood
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
A priest accused of abusing a Cathedral of Christ the King altar boy in the 1980s has been permanently stripped of his duties, but the Lexington diocese has not abandoned legal efforts to prevent the priest's alleged victim from receiving any financial compensation.
The diocese, which had insisted for the past six months that no decision had been made in the case of the Rev. William J. Fedders, revealed the discipline in a press release yesterday after a Herald-Leader reporter told them he was doing a story on the Fedders case.
Fedders has been removed "from all active public ministry, including the public celebration of the Mass and the Sacraments, and prohibited from publicly presenting himself as a Catholic priest and wearing clerical garb," the statement said. Fedders, 66, is living "a life of prayer and penance" and will continue to receive financial help from the diocese.
The suspension was handed down before the end of September, though the diocese did not give a specific date yesterday. Parishioners were never informed of Bishop Ronald Gainer's decision and a diocesan spokesman had denied, in November and in May interviews with Herald-Leader reporters, that any decision had been reached regarding Fedders' status.
IOWA
Des Moines Register
A support group for victims of religious sexual abuse has been formed in southeast Iowa.
A chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) will be led by the Rev. David Hitch of Tipton. Hitch's brother was among the men who reported they were sexually abused by James M. Janssen, a former Davenport Diocese priest.
"I've talked to so many survivors of religious sexual abuse, and I've talked to their families," Hitch said. "Their pain is enormous."
There are only a couple of other instances where SNAP leaders have been priests, according to David Clohessy, national director of the group.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register
The Davenport Catholic Diocese has postponed the dedication of a memorial to victims of clergy sexual abuse to 5 p.m. June 20 to allow more victims to attend.
The dedication for the Millstone Marker originally was scheduled for June 1.
The memorial will be installed at the Diocesan Pastoral Center, 2706 North Gaines St. in Davenport. The blessing and dedication of the marker will begin at 5 p.m. on the east side of the building, regardless of the weather conditions.
Bishop William Franklin of the Davenport Diocese will preside over the dedication. For information, call Deacon David Montgomery: (563) 324-5842.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Times Leader
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA - The Catholic Church defrocked a priest convicted of child-pornography charges and one accused of misconduct involving a minor, and barred a retired pastor who acknowledged fondling a teenage girl from the ministry, a newspaper reported.
One defrocked priest, the Rev. Edward M. DePaoli, 60, had been convicted of child-pornography charges in 1986 but allowed to remain in limited ministry until 2002, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday.
The other, the Rev. Martin J. Satchell, 39, accused of misconduct with a minor, had been dismissed from the ministry in 1993.
Msgr. Philip J. Dowling, 75, who led St. Patrick Church near Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square until his retirement last year, had been suspended in March, reported the Inquirer, which said none of the three priests could be reached for comment Thursday.
Dowling had been suspended after acknowledging he had fondled a teenager. Questioned by a reporter about allegations of sexual abuse by two sisters, he had told the Inquirer, "It crossed the bound, and I'm very sorry for the inappropriate acts and touches."
AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au
By Mariza Fiamengo
June 03, 2005
From: AAP
BOYS indecently assaulted by a Marist brother at a Victorian Catholic college had lived in fear of physical and psychological violence, a court heard today.
Brother Gerard McNamara today pleaded guilty to the indecent assault of seven students at St Paul's Catholic College in Traralgon more than 30 years ago.
McNamara, 67, from Mt Macedon, was deputy principal, principal and sportsmaster at the college in the early 1970s, when the offences took place.
A pre-sentence hearing in the Victorian County Court heard the assaults, which were not reported until 2003, took place mostly in a sports equipment shed where McNamara massaged the students after they suffered sport injuries.
The victims were aged 11 to 14.
In victim impact statements read to the court, the former students said McNamara had ruled the college with an iron fist.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
BY ROBERT PATRICK
Of the Post-Dispatch
06/02/2005
James Beine, the former Roman Catholic priest and elementary-school counselor who had his sexual misconduct convictions overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court, was released from prison Thursday.
Steve Welby, one of Beine’s lawyers, said that after more than 3 years behind bars, Beine “was a very happy man.”
Beine, wearing an orange short-sleeve jumpsuit, was dropped off at Welby’s downtown St. Louis office at 2:30 p.m.
TUCSON (AZ)
Tucson Citizen
SHERYL KORNMAN
Tucson Citizen
Thirty sexual abuse claimants in the Diocese of Tucson bankruptcy case have reached proposed settlements from $100,000 to $600,000, according to court documents.
All 30 are represented by one Tucson law firm.
But one attorney has raised concerns about how the confidential process for vetting claims of abuse by priests is being handled.
Cave Creek attorney G. David DeLozier said his client's "proof of claim" was rejected because the documents he provided were discounted.
He said the panel appointed by a federal judge to review the claims of abuse did not read the papers he filed to support the claim, including a psychologist's report.
Bankruptcy Court Judge James Marlar, rejected the argument, saying it had no place in yesterday's hearing on the diocese's revised proposed settlement.
BERKELEY (CA)
Oakland Tribune
THE faith of many Catholics, especially those in Berkeley, has been strengthened by the decision of the Diocese Review Board to dismiss all charges of sexual abuse against the Rev. George Crespin, pastor of St. Joseph the Worker Church on Addison Street.
Since February, when the popular priest was abruptly removed from celebrating Mass and forced into retirement, it seemed the presumption of innocence did not apply to him or any of the many Roman Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse of minors.
Crespin immediately denied the charges: "The accusations are not true." Nonetheless, he was removed and disappeared from the church premises. I learned later he had gone to the Southwest, where he has friends and relatives.
But his friends in Berkeley and Oakland stood by him.
KENTUCKY
Cincinnati Post
By Paul A. Long
Post staff reporter
Earl Bierman is dying.
The suspended Catholic priest, who in Northern Kentucky became the epitome of the sex-abuse crisis in the church, has been diagnosed with cancer and given less than a year to live, said Parole Board executive director James O'Keefe.
Because of that, officials at the Department of Corrections are asking the state Parole Board to take another look at whether Bierman should be released a year early from his 20-year prison sentence.
"The board is hearing this at the request of the Department of Corrections," O'Keefe said. "It will consider a medical termination of his sentence."
MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald
BY ALEXANDRA ALTER
aalter@herald.com
A Catholic priest accused of sexual misconduct with a minor in the 1970s began work this week as a chaplain at the Miami Veteran Affairs Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The Rev. Brian Bjorklund, a Roman Catholic priest since 1966, was removed from ministry by the Archdiocese of Detroit in 2003. The church placed Bjorklund on administrative leave as it investigated an allegation that he committed sexual misconduct with a minor during his early years in the clergy. Bjorklund was working as a Navy chaplain in California at the time of his suspension.
In February 2004, the Vatican restored Bjorklund to the priesthood, stating that the alleged victim was not considered to be a minor under church law in the 1970s.
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said his group will contact the VA hospital and Miami Archbishop John Favalora to seek Bjorklund's removal from ministry.
''We're very troubled,'' he said. ``It's shocking to have an accused molester who has been rejected by his home diocese wind up with the VA in Miami.''
ROCHESTER (NY)
Catholic Courier
By Rob Cullivan/Catholic Courier
ROCHESTER -- Father Michael J. Volino pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court May 25 to one felony count of possession of computer child pornography.
The priest admitted that he possessed child pornography on his computer in October 2004. According to an FBI affidavit, an employee of the Diocese of Rochester had discovered the pornography while servicing Father Volino's computer in January, and the diocese alerted authorities.
After Father Volino entered his plea, U.S. Judge David G. Larimer ordered him to remain under house arrest in the Rochester area pending his sentencing, slated for Sept. 8.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, the priest could receive 46 to 57 months in prison and be fined between $10,000 and $100,000, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Resnick. However, Father Volino's lawyer, John Parrinello, noted that the federal sentencing guidelines are not mandatory, and that the priest could receive less jail time or even a sentence of probation.
Following the court proceeding, Parrinello noted that the priest had expressed regret for his actions.
MINNESOTA
Contra Costa Times
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ROCHESTER, Minn. - A Danville woman who claims she was sexually abused by a nun has sued a Sisters of St. Francis order, alleging the order was negligent and failed to investigate or address the allegations.
Christine Bertrand filed her lawsuit Tuesday in Olmsted County District Court. It seeks more than $50,000 in damages.
"The whole topic of nun abuse is just starting to come forward," Bertrand said.
Leaders at the Sisters of St. Francis said there is no evidence of wrongdoing and they will defend against all claims.
MISSOURI
KSDK
created: 6/1/2005 9:16:40 PM
updated: 6/2/2005 7:33:55 AM
(KSDK) -- James Beine, a former priest, whose conviction for sexual molestation of two young boys was overturned, is waiting to be freed from a Missouri prison.
In April, the Missouri Supreme Court said Beine was wrongly convicted on a too broad law, and ordered his release.
Now, the prison system is waiting for the paperwork that is Beine's ticket to freedom. The paperwork has been cut and mailed from Jefferson City, the offices of the Missouri Supreme Court.
So far, the order hasn't arrived in St. Louis, so Beine sits.
ANCHORAGE (AK)
KTUU
by Jeffrey Hope - Wednesday, June 1, 2005
Anchorage, Alaska - The Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks says it is investigating a new allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by one of its priests. The diocese says Father Richard McCaffrey is on administrative leave tonight.
McCaffrey is a pastor at the Immaculate Conception Church in downtown Fairbanks. Bishop Donald Kettler will not say who is conducting the investigation or if police are involved. However, he issued a statement in a press release this afternoon.
“I will work tirelessly to bring healing to those involved in this difficult situation. I ask for your prayers and the continued support for our diocese and the Immaculate Conception Parish during this difficult time,” Kettler said.
PONCHATOULA (LA)
The Advocate
By STEVEN WARD
sward@theadvocate.com
Advocate staff writer
PONCHATOULA -- Former Hosanna Church pastor Glynn Fendlason believes in his heart that Louis David Lamonica walked into the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office and told detectives that he had sex with children and animals because a lost soul was searching for redemption.
"I absolutely believe it was God who brought him there. It was partly his repentance," Fendlason said Wednesday morning.
Fendlason, a 59-year-old manager of a Ponchatoula finance company, was the pastor at First Assembly of God -- now known as Hosanna Church following a 2002 name change -- from 1982 until 1989. Fendlason took over the job after church founder Louis Lamonica died of stomach cancer at age 49.
Louis Lamonica's son, Louis David Lamonica, became pastor of the church on U.S. 51 in 1993 -- a few years after Fendlason left.
Louis David Lamonica was pastor of the church for a decade -- from 1993 until the church shut down in 2003.
TUCSON (AZ)
Fox 11
06:16 PM MST on Wednesday, June 1, 2005
By Stephanie Innes / Arizona Daily Star
A federal bankruptcy judge on Wednesday overruled all objections to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson's amended disclosure statement, marking a major step toward confirming the diocese's Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan.
Judge James M. Marlar's rulings indicate he will approve the diocese's disclosure statement, which accompanies the bankruptcy plan. The diocese filed for bankruptcy reorganization protection Sept. 20, becoming the second diocese in the nation to seek federal protection in the face of continued litigation over claims of sexual abuse by clergy.
Hearings to confirm the reorganization plan are scheduled for July 11-15. The Bankruptcy Court has logged 103 claims against the diocese, but they must be approved by the court as valid before claimants are eligible to receive any settlement money.
A committee of five people appointed to represent tort claimants — all who say they have been in some way affected by the church's sexual abuse crisis — filed a motion Friday disputing 74 of the claims.
The next hearing in the case is set for 9 a.m. on Tuesday, June 14 when proposed settlements with about 30 claimants could be approved.
FAIRBANKS (AK)
News-Miner
By MARY BETH SMETZER
Staff Writer
The Fairbanks Catholic Diocese has placed the pastor of Immaculate Conception Church on administrative leave in response to an allegation that he sexually abused a minor about 25 years ago.
The Rev. Richard L. McCaffrey has been suspended from his pastoral duties while an inquiry is conducted, according to the diocese. The diocese made the announcement in a Tuesday news release that was distributed to several Alaska media outlets. It included the unusual action of publicly naming the priest.
McCaffrey said a diocesan official informed him of the allegation Saturday morning, but gave him no details.
"I'm shocked and saddened," he said. "All I can say is that I hope that this can be swiftly resolved and that my name be cleared.
"I don't know if we are talking about something that happened two months ago or 20 or 30 years ago," he said. "I don't know what I am accused of, frankly. The only thing I have is a clear conscience."
IOWA
Quad-City Times
By Barb Ickes : Viewpoint
It was a bizarre moment among twisted moments. In a Scott County courtroom about a month ago, a judge warned a defrocked priest that “perjury can sometimes be a crime.”
For starters, there’s something wrong with a sentence that contains the words “defrocked priest, judge and perjury.”
But there was a whole lot that felt wrong about the sex-abuse case against James Janssen. Though the 83-year-old former Catholic priest from Davenport was found liable for the sexual abuse of his nephew during a civil trial, he never was found guilty of anything criminal.
Big difference.
It appears now that Janssen will again escape prosecution in what some people assumed was an open-and-shut case against him.
MIAMI (FL)
Detroit Free Press
June 2, 2005, 7:32 AM
MIAMI (AP) -- A U.S. Navy chaplain who was suspended by Detroit Catholic leaders on accusations of child sexual abuse but later won reinstatement to the active priesthood through an appeal to the Vatican has begun work at a Florida hospital.
The Rev. Brian Bjorklund began work Tuesday at the Miami Veteran Affairs Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Susan Ward said.
Bjorklund was suspended by the Archdiocese of Detroit in 2003 over abuse that allegedly took place in the mid-1970s. Bjorklund was working as a Navy chaplain in California at the time of his suspension.
In February 2004, the Vatican overruled the zero-tolerance policy adopted by U.S. bishops and reinstated Bjorklund to the ministry. It said the accusation against him -- having sex with a 16-year-old boy in the 1970s -- did not violate church law at the time.
FAIRBANKS (AK)
Anchorage Daily News
By RACHEL D'ORO
The Associated Press
Published: June 2nd, 2005
Last Modified: June 2nd, 2005 at 03:47 AM
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks is investigating new allegations of sexual abuse against a priest.
Richard L. McCaffrey, pastor at the Immaculate Conception Church, was placed on administrative leave while the church investigates, Bishop Donald Kettler said in a teleconference Wednesday.
Kettler declined to discuss details of the case, focusing his comments on a written statement released earlier.
"While the investigation is pending we cannot say anything," he said.
Parishioners will be notified, he said, but didn't know exactly when.
"The Diocese of Fairbanks is committed to providing a safe environment for children and youth," Kettler read from the prepared text. "This commitment is a sacred relationship that exists between the Catholic Church and all people. I will work tirelessly to bring healing to those involved in this difficult situation. I ask for your prayers and continued support for our diocese and the Immaculate Conception parish during this difficult time."
NEW ORLEANS (LA)
TheNewOrleansChannel.com
POSTED: 1:43 pm CDT June 1, 2005
UPDATED: 2:05 pm CDT June 1, 2005
NEW ORLEANS -- Lawyers for the pastor in the church sex abuse case in Ponchatoula say they have some questions about his alleged May 16 confession to authorities in Livingston Parish.
Louis Lamonica, the former pastor of Hosanna Church, allegedly confessed to investigators that in 1999, he started within the church a Satanic cult that engaged in the ritual sexual abuse of children and animals. Police documents show that Lamonica implicated six other adults and named approximately 15 victims ranging in age from infancy to 17 years old. The documents say the cult disbanded about two years ago.
But Lamonica's lawyers said there may be problems with the way the alleged confession was taken. They would not give specific details.
They also confirmed that Lamonica was attacked by other inmates shortly after he was booked into the Tangipahoa Parish Jail.
Two other suspects in the case, Nicole Bernard and another woman whom police declined to name, were also apparently threatened, and Bernard was attacked Friday night, investigators said.
IRELAND
RTE News
01 June 2005 17:25
A former Marist brother has been jailed for three years for sexually abusing two former pupils at St John'sAbuse Tracker School in Co Sligo during the 1970s.
Known as Brother Agnellis, Peter White of Celbridge Abbey in Co Kildare pleaded guilty to eight sample charges of abusing the two boys who were aged between nine and 11 at the time.
At Sligo Circuit Court, Judge Miriam Reynolds said the torture perpetrated by White was unfathomable.
She said the boys were subjected to serial abuse by White who would follow them out to the school toilets and abuse them.
BOISE (ID)
Idaho Statesman
Bill Roberts
Idaho Catholic Bishop Michael Driscoll hasn't done enough to ensure that children and families are protected from sexual misconduct in the state's Catholic churches, a support group for victims said Tuesday.
SNAP, the Support Network for those Abused by Priests, hand-delivered a letter to Driscoll's office Tuesday.
"Time and again, bishop, first in California, later in Idaho, you have opted for secrecy over openness and for protecting accused offenders over vulnerable families," said the letter from David Clohessy of St, Louis, SNAP national director.
Driscoll has apologized for permitting abusive priests to remain in the clergy, while he was a diocesan official in California in the 1970s and '80s. He also apologized for not telling parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Boise sooner about a deacon who was accused and later convicted of viewing child pornography.
ROCHESTER (MN)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Associated Press
05/31/2005
ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) -- A California woman who claims she was sexually abused by a nun in Chicago filed a lawsuit Tuesday against a Sisters of St. Francis order, alleging it was negligent and failed to investigate the accusations.
Christine Bertrand, who lives in the San Francisco area, is seeking more than $50,000 in damages.
Leaders at the Sisters of St. Francis said there is no evidence of wrongdoing and they will defend the allegations.
Bertrand claims when she was a student at St. Juliana's School in Chicago, she was sexually abused by Sister Benen Kent, a music teacher. Bertrand alleges the incidents occurred between 1962 and 1967.
MINNESOTA
St. Paul Pioneer Press
BY DAVID HAWLEY
Pioneer Press
A lawsuit has been filed against the Franciscan Sisters of Rochester, Minn., alleging that the order concealed instances of child sexual abuse by one of its nuns.
St. Paul attorney Jeffrey R. Anderson, who has represented numerous victims of alleged abuse by Catholic clergy, filed the civil action last week in Olmstead County on behalf of a California woman, Christine Bertrand.
On Tuesday, Bertrand, 50, and her younger sister, Karen Britten, 48, of Chicago, appeared at news conferences in Rochester and St. Paul. They claim they were sexually abused more than 40 years ago when they were children attending a parochial school in Chicago and taking private piano lessons from Franciscan Sister Benen Kent.
A third woman at the news conference, who declined to be identified, also claimed she was abused by Kent. All said the incidents occurred between 1962 and 1965 while they were students at Chicago's St. Juliana's Parish School and, in one instance, at a Minnesota retreat.
TANZANIA
IPPMedia
2005-06-01 09:31:46
By Lydia Shekighenda
A Catholic priest, Sixtus Kimaro, who is accused of sodomising a 17-year-old-boy, was yesterday granted bail by the Kisutu Resident Magistrate?s Court.
Principal Resident Magistrate Pellagia Khaday said the accused had the right to be granted a bail.
She said that the prosecution had failed to provide satisfactory argument in its opposition to the accused\'s bail application. She said the security reasons advanced by the prosecution were frivolous.
The magistrate said the prosecution had contradicted itself in opposition to bail.
'The prosecution told the court that the investigation was complete, while the affidavit to stop his bail showed that the investigation is incomplete,' she said.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Manya A. Brachear
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 1, 2005
Women who say Roman Catholic sisters molested them as children asked Cardinal Francis George Tuesday to address their plight, saying the attention paid to abusive priests has overshadowed problems involving nuns.
The request stems from a lawsuit filed Tuesday against a religious order, alleging that one of its sisters repeatedly molested the plaintiff, Christine Bertrand, between 1962 and 1967 when she was a student at St. Juliana School in Chicago.
The nun named in the suit, Sister Benen Kent of the Third Order of St. Francis of the Congregation of Our Lady of Lourdes, taught music at the school. The abuse allegedly continued after Kent was transferred to the order's headquarters in Rochester, Minn., where Bertrand's family would occasionally visit her.
Bertrand, 50, of Danville, Calif., said she did not speak up at the time and repressed the memories until 2002, when she and two other accusers, including her sister, approached the religious order. She said they declined an offer of $10,000 each to stay silent.
BAKERSFIELD (CA)
KGET
Posted 05/31/05
BAKERSFIELD - A self-proclaimed pastor who was twice acquitted of child molestation charges has been arrested again in a new case alleging sexual abuse.
Leonard Simental, 43, is back in the downtown jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.
He has been charged with five new felonies.
He was charged in November with molesting a girl who went to the east Bakersfield church where he claimed to be a pastor.
Last month, a jury ruled he was not guilty of that felony, but jurors couldn’t decide whether Simental was guilty of a misdemeanor.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register
The Davenport Catholic Diocese has named Alicia Owens as the independent victim assistance coordinator to offer help and healing to victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Owens is a graduate of Marycrest College and has 24 years of counseling and resource coordination experience.
She will assist victims and their families in making a formal abuse complaint with the diocese and arrange a meeting with Bishop William Franklin or his representative to obtain support to fit the victim's needs.
To report child sexual abuse, contact the Iowa Department of Human Services child abuse hot line at (800) 326-2178. To report abuse involving clergy or church personnel in the Davenport Diocese, contact Owens at (563) 349-5002 or vacdav@attglobal.net.
BOISE (ID)
KBCI
By Associated Press
Boise -
A support group for survivors of sexual abuse by church officials is criticizing Idaho's Roman Catholic bishop, Michael Driscoll.
David Clohessy is director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. He says Driscoll is continuing a pattern of secrecy and protection of abusers in Idaho. His group gave a letter to the bishop's office asking him to be more aggressive in seeking out potential abuse victims and to immediately contact police when he hears abuse allegations.
Driscoll apologized earlier this month for his actions while working in the Diocese of Orange, California, where he allowed priests to remain in the ministry after they had victimized children.
MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Peter Shinkle
Of the Post-Dispatch
05/31/2005
James Beine, a former priest who beat raps for child pornography and sexual misconduct with a child, appeared one step closer to freedom Tuesday as the Missouri Supreme Court rejected prosecutors' bids to keep him behind bars.
The Supreme Court on April 26 overturned Beine's conviction on charges that he exposed his genitals to boys in the bathroom of a St. Louis public school. The court threw out the conviction and Beine's 12-year sentence after finding the evidence supporting the conviction was insufficient and the law under which he was convicted was unconstitutionally broad.
Prosecutors had requested a rehearing, but the court said Tuesday it had overruled that request. The court provided no reasons for its decision.
The court also ordered that Beine, 63, be turned over to a jail in St. Louis so the St. Louis Circuit Court could handle the next step in the case, standard procedure for releasing inmates whose convictions are overturned.
PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal
BY RICHARD C. DUJARDIN
Journal Religion Writer
PROVIDENCE -- In a joyous and majestic ceremony, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin assumed his seat yesterday as the new spiritual leader for Catholics in Rhode Island, telling his new flock "if our faith is strong, then hope must prevail."
The 57-year-old Tobin, who had been the bishop of Youngstown, Ohio, for nine years and an auxiliary in Pittsburgh before that, received word in March that Pope John Paul II had selected him as the eighth bishop of Providence and successor to the retiring Bishop Robert E. Mulvee. ...
Prior to their arrival into the cathedral, the priests and bishops had to walk past a group of about 12 protesters, most from the Boston area, who assembled in Cathedral Square to remind the church's leaders that as far as they were concerned they had not yet completely addressed the clergy sexual-abuse crisis.
Bishop Tobin referred only obliquely to the scandal in his homily, telling the audience that "if we focus on the failures of members of the church and the problems we face -- failures and problems that are real nonetheless -- it's easy to become tired and discouraged."
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Ventura County Star
By staff and wire reports
June 1, 2005
LOS ANGELES -- A retired Roman Catholic priest will stand trial next week for allegedly molesting a boy in the 1990s.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin June 9 in the case against Michael Wempe, who faces three counts of committing a lewd act on a child and one count of oral copulation of a person under 16.
The current case stems from charges filed in September, months after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling voided 42 other sexual abuse allegations against Wempe. The alleged victim, now in his mid-20s, is the brother of two previous alleged victims.
Wempe, who is free on bond, was first charged with molesting five boys across Southern California between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s. The charges were thrown out when the nation's high court struck down a California law that erased the statute of limitations on sexual abuse cases from 1988 and earlier.