ABUSE TRACKER

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER and TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune staff writers Updated: October 30, 2013

The case of a West St. Paul second-grader in the 1980s is the 18th in Minnesota since state law changed to allow more time for such suits.

A Catholic priest who served churches in St. Paul, West St. Paul and Hopkins was accused in a lawsuit Tuesday of abusing a girl in West St. Paul, bringing to 18 the number of suits filed against Minnesota Catholic clergy and leaders since May.

The lawsuit against the Rev. Robert Thurner, 87, and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis also alleges that the archbishop of St. Louis — former Twin Cities auxiliary bishop Robert Carlson — was among church officials who were informed that Thurner had sexually abused another child before he was transferred to the girl’s church in 1983.

The lawsuit comes as the archdiocese reels from recent allegations of sexual misconduct among its clergy and lack of disciplinary action in the chancery. On Wednesday, archdiocese priests will gather for an all-day meeting that is expected to include discussion of the sexual abuse issue.

According to the latest complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court, Thurner admitted to archdiocese authorities in 1982 that he bought liquor for a 16-year-old boy and sexually abused him.

Carlson and former Twin Cities Archbishop John Roach were among four top archdiocese leaders who were privy to the admission, archdiocese internal memos indicate.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOX

[lawsuit and documents]

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson has been named in a civil lawsuit filed in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn. accusing him of covering up a child sex abuse case when he was an assistant to a St. Paul archbishop in the 1980s.

The lawsuit claims Fr. Carlson was one of four top officials at the Twin Cities diocese who knew that Fr. Robert Thurner had admitted buying liquor for a 16-year old boy and then sexually abusing him.

“Instead of reporting it to law enforcement as he was required to do, he made a choice to conceal it and allow Thurner to go to other parishes,” Jeff Anderson, an attorney for the plaintiff in the case, alleges.

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By Brian Lambert

Another day, another lawsuit filed against the archdiocese. Madeleine Baran of MPR reports: “A Minnesota woman sued the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis [Tuesday] for allegedly failing to protect her from an abusive priest. The woman said she was sexually abused by the Rev. Robert Thurner at St. Joseph Catholic Church in West St. Paul when she was seven to eight years old. She is not named in the complaint, which was brought under a new state law that gives victims more time to sue. … Internal church documents released by attorneys representing the woman show top church leaders knew in 1982 that Thurner had sexually abused a minor. … The lawsuit filed today seeks damages and asks a judge to unseal a list of 33 priests accused of abuse. Lawyers for the archdiocese had provided the names in an earlier Ramsey County civil case, but a judge ordered the names be kept private.”

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CHILE
Vatican Insider

Chilean cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa – one of the members of Francis’ eight-member advisory Council – guarantees this

ALVER METALLI
BUENOS AIRES

Chilean cardinal Errázuriz is also called Francis, but in his case this is just his christening name. Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, one of the members of Pope Francis’ G8 advisory group, was in Rome at the start of October, along with the other cardinals who have been tasked with reforming the Roman Curia. With him, he carried a bunch of papers containing a summary of the observations made by the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), which he headed between 2003 and 2007. Errázuriz – who became an Emeritus on 15 December 2010 after Benedict XVI accepted his resignation as leader of the Archdiocese of Santiago because of age – spoke to the Argentinean edition of Vida Nueva magazine about the meetings in Rome.

He confirmed that the reforms the Pope has in mind will go deep and “could lead to a new Apostolic Constitution.” Errázuriz said cardinals had asked for this during the pre-Conclave meetings and Francis is acting on this collective wish.

The Chilean cardinal who belongs to the Schönstatt movement did not hide the general sense of unease towards the Roman Curia. “There is a longing for a Curia that encourages the new evangelisation and acts as a body that is there to serve the Pope and the dioceses, not as a control centre,” he said. The reform will aim to improve coordination between the Pope’s different “ministries” and to ensure more fluid communication between the Pope and the various heads.”

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MINNESOTA
KARE

[lawsuit and documents]

[press conference video]

Blake McCoy

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Another lawsuit was filed Tuesday against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis alleging a cover-up of child sex abuse in the priesthood.

“I applaud Jane Doe 23 for coming forward,” attorney Michael Finnegan said.

Jane Doe 23 had never confronted her abuse until seeing recent media reports. That’s when she decided to Google her alleged abuser. She discovered that Father Robert Thurner had abused before and the Archdiocese covered it up.

Internal documents dating back to 1982 show the archbishop at the time, John Roach, knew of the abuse against one boy at St. John the Evangelist in Hopkins. The confidential documents reveal Thurner’s admission to the archbishop saying, “He had a brief sexual relationship with a 16-year-old boy and had also purchased liquor for that boy.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KTVI

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI)– St. Louis Catholic Archbishop is being accused of helping cover up the sexual abuse of a second-grade girl and a teen boy by a priest when Robert Carlson was a church official in Minneapolis 30 years ago.

The lawsuit claims that Archbishop Carlson was one of four church officials in the twin cities who knew about the alleged abuse by the Reverend Robert Thurner and never reported it to police.
The abuse cases reportedly took place in the 1980′s.

Thurner retired from the priesthood in 1991 and still lives in the Minneapolis area.

Lawyers for the alleged victim say they will demand that Carlson answer questions in a deposition under oath in the case.

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ITALY
Gazzetta del Sud

(ANSA) – Rome, October 25 – A Rome court on Friday upheld a request by Msgr Nunzio Scarano, a disgraced Vatican prelate at the centre of a money-laundering scandal, to be released to house arrest. Scarano was arrested in June on suspicion of planning to elude customs with 20 million euros in cash for a family of boat-builders he was friends with.

He has denied charges that he conspired with a former Italian spy and a financial broker to try to secretly repatriate 20 million euros of laundered money from Switzerland to Italy. The court has rejected an appeal for house arrest for Giovanni Maria Zito, an agent in the AISI intelligence agency, and Rome broker Giovanni Carenzio, who were also arrested along with Scarano. Police said Scarano and Zito got a private jet to fly back from Switzerland to Italy 20 million euros in cash for a family who were friends with Scarano.

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CONNECTICUT
News Times

Frank Juliano and Susan Tuz
Published 5:43 pm, Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Deacon Roland Miller, of St. Francis Xavier Church in New Milford, was still processing the news Tuesday afternoon that the Most Rev. Leonard Blair, a Detroit native who has served two stints at the Vatican, was named the new Archbishop of Hartford.

“It’s an exciting time,” said Miller, 74. “Your imagination goes into high gear thinking `What is he going to ask us to do?’ He’s the new boss, anointed by Rome. He’ll have a workforce of about 600 priests and deacons and he’ll point his finger and direct each of us.”

During a press conference at the St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield, the incoming Archbishop of Hartford explained to the gathered media exactly how the selection process works.

“You are told. You are not asked if you want to do it,” Blair said. “That being said, I’m delighted to be appointed.”

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NEW JERSEY
Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen

Bishop’s letter to parishioners of St. Joseph, Hillsborough, regarding the removal of Msgr. Cole.

Click here to read October 25, 2013 letter

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

Posted by John Patten (Editor) , October 29, 2013

St. Joseph’s Church Pastor, Monsignor Raymond Cole, has been removed from ministry as charges of a late 1970s child sexual abuse case are investigated, NJ.com reported.

According to the report, churchgoers were informed of the matter during the weekend Masses, when a letter from Metuchen Bishop Paul Bootkoski was read. In the letter, Bishop Bootkoski said the matter is under investigation by the diocese, and concerns an allegation dating to the time when Monsignor Cole was an associate pastor at St. Mary Parish in South Amboy.

Bishop Bootkoski said Monsignor Cole “steadfastly denies the charges against him,” but added canon law requires the removal of a priest under when allegations have been determined to have a “semblance of truth.”

The allegations were reported to have been investigated by a retired Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office detective and a panel of lay people and priests, called the Diocesan Review Board, who interviewed Monsignor Cole and the unnamed individual making the charge.

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NEW JERSEY
My Central Jersey

Written by
Mike Deak
@MikeDeakMyCJ

MILLSTONE — Msgr. Raymond Cole has been temporarily removed as pastor of St. Joseph Parish because of an allegation that he sexually abused a minor at St. Mary Parish in South Amboy where he was associate pastor in the late 1970s.

Cole, who formerly served as executive director of the diocese’s Department of Pastoral Life, has “steadfastly” denied the charge, Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski wrote in a letter to parishioners on Friday.

The bishop added in the letter that Cole is “innocent until proven guilty” and will receive financial support from the diocese.

The Rev. Sean Broderick, pastor of Mary, Mother of God parish in Hillsborough, has been named temporary administrator of St. Joseph Parish, Erin Friedlander, the diocese’s communications officer, said.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Oct. 29

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)

“The sitting archbishop in St. Louis (Robert Carlson) took part in covering up a case of child sexual abuse in the Twin Cities when he was an assistant bishop, attorneys for an alleged abuse victim said Tuesday after filing Minnesota’s latest clergy abuse lawsuit,” according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

[Star Tribune]

Carlson was “one of at least four prelates who were privy to a 1982 admission by Fr. Robert Thurner that Thurner bought liquor for a 16-year-old boy and sexually abused him. The abuse was kept secret from parishioners at St. John the Evangelist in Hopkins, where Thurner was stationed, and from parents of children at St. Joseph’s church and school in West St. Paul, where Thurner was transferred the following year. Roach appointed him associate pastor at St. Joseph’s, with no restrictions,” the Star Tribune reports.

Carlson may be deposed in the case.

We in SNAP are sad but not surprised. In St. Louis, Carlson has been secretive and reckless in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases. It should shock no one that he was back in Minnesota too. (In the recent civil and criminal abuse cases against Fr. Joseph Jiang, for example, Carlson discloses little or nothing and refuses to do outreach to other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers, even though Carlson is accused of attempted evidence tampering.)

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

[Murphy Report – BishopAccountability.org]

A Review from a legal perspective of the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 and of the
Report into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin (the “Murphy Report”) forwarded to the Minister on 21 July 2009 and released on 26 November 2009

Fergal Sweeney
2013

Note on the genesis of this document

When the Report of the “Murphy Commission” was released on 26thNovember 2009 it received exhaustive coverage and commentary in the media.

Commendation for the work of the Commission was almost universal. However, in light of some emerging concerns, the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) in Ireland decided on a “post-match” review of Commissions of Investigation in general and the Murphy Commission in particular and requested Fergal Sweeney, an Irish barrister who has also served as a judge for many years in Hong Kong to undertake this review from a purely legal perspective.

This review is not intended to take away from the vast and valuable work accomplished by the Murphy Commission. It does not aim in any way to draw attention from the injustice and suffering of those who were abused by clerics in positions of trust, which gross injustice was aggravated by the many failures in addressing complaints brought to Church and State Authorities. It does not seek to absolve the failures of those in positions of authority in Church and State.

Rather, this review wishes to address certain areas of concern relating to statutory investigations under the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 as a matter of natural and Constitutional justice.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

I-Media news agency broke the news: in February Francis will be naming some new cardinals but before he does this he will gather all the College’s members together for a consultation

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

French news agency I-Media has revealed that new cardinals are to be created in a Consistory which is to be held next 21 and 22 February. Pope Francis is to hold a meeting with all cardinals in Rome to discuss reforms with them.

As Vatican Insider wrote in a recent article, 120 cardinals eligible to vote according to the limit set by Paul VI. In February 2014 there will be 14 vacancies waiting to be filled by new cardinal electors below the age of 80 and this figure will rise to 16 at the end of March. So this is the number of cardinal electors Francis will be able to create.

In the Roman Curia there are three prelates who are cardinals but do not have the biretta: the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the new Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Beniamino Stella and the new Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin. The leaders of a number of archdioceses (Turin and Venice in Italy) which traditionally produced a lot of cardinals have not been given the biretta. It is too early, however, to make any predictions.

In the next few months the Curia’s structures and organisation will be radically reshaped and the process of confirming and replacing members will be complete. It is not known for certain what criteria Francis will use when selecting the new cardinals.

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MINNESOTA
YouTube

Ann Farrell

Published on Oct 27, 2013
Church of the Assumption, Saint Paul,
Homily by Father Stephen O’Gara

As a choir member from the balcony, I intended to record a song, but inadvertently captured one of the most refreshingly honest and candid homilies imaginable. Especially given our recent history and climate of denial and arrogance from Catholic church leadership. I applaud Father O’Gara’s courage and his faith in the Gospels.

2:15 – Ties the gospel into our local archdiocese scandal
3:25 – Calls out Niensted, somewhat diplomatically?
4:20 – Hits the main point
4:40 – Reveals his own shame
5:45 – States hard truth other leaders won’t admit
6:25 – Bonus… after a long thunderous applause, he pauses before prayer to joke “and I could fall victim to arrogance!”

This is why I love the Assumption.
http://www.assumptionsp.org/

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MINNESOTA
The Republic

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press
October 29, 2013 – 3:08 pm EDT

MINNEAPOLIS — A woman who alleges a priest molested her in the mid-1980s when she was a young girl is suing him and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The lawsuit alleges the archdiocese was negligent when it placed the Rev. Robert Thurner at a West St. Paul church because he already had admitted to top church officials, including then-Archbishop John Roach, that he’d sexually abused a 16-year-old boy at his previous church in Hopkins.

Attorney Jeff Anderson says the woman, identified only as Doe 23, was 7 or 8 at the time. He says she came forward amid fresh public criticism of how current archdiocese leaders have handled other sexual misconduct allegations.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
Toronto Star

RCMP says investigation into abuse allegations against former Olympics CEO John Furlong not over

Former Vancouver Olympics CEO John Furlong broke silence Tuesday on accusations that he abused students at a school in B.C. four decades ago.

By: Curtis Rush News reporter, Published on Tue Oct 29 2013

Former Vancouver Olympics CEO John Furlong broke his silence Tuesday about accusations that he abused students at a school in northern British Columbia four decades ago.

Releasing a statement that said “enough is enough,” Furlong declared that he has been cleared by the RCMP and that he is stepping up legal action against his accuser while dropping civil action against the newspaper that printed the story.

However, the RCMP has confirmed to the Toronto Star that the investigative file remains open.

When the investigation was completed, the RCMP asked for an independent review by major crime investigators from another province because of the serious and sensitive nature of the allegations, RCMP spokesman Sgt. Rob Vermeulen said.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

[lawsuit and documents]

by Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio
October 29, 2013

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota woman sued the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Tuesday for allegedly failing to protect her from an abusive priest.

The woman said she was sexually abused by the Rev. Robert Thurner at St. Joseph Catholic Church in West St. Paul when she was seven to eight years old. She is not named in the complaint filed today in Ramsey County District Court.

Thurner retired in 1991 and could not be immediately reached for comment. In a 1991 deposition, Thurner said he touched the genitals of two underage teenage boys in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Today’s lawsuit, filed by St. Paul attorney Jeffrey Anderson, alleges that the archdiocese knew of Thurner’s abuse in 1982 but did not remove him from ministry.

Anderson filed lawsuits in 1991 and 1993 on behalf of two other people who accused Thurner of child sexual abuse, said Mike Finnegan, an attorney at Anderson’s law firm. Both cases resulted in settlements for undisclosed amounts of money.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

[lawsuit and documents]

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson said he will unveil another lawsuit on Tuesday, Father Robert M. Thurner and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis named the defendants.

The filing of the lawsuit is on behalf of a woman who says she was sexually abused by Thurner when she was a young girl at St. Joseph’s parish in west St. Paul. The lawsuit claims the archdiocese allowed Thurner “continued access to children even after Thurner admitted in 1982, to then-Archbishop John Roach, that he sexually abused a 16 year-old boy and purchased alcohol for the boy,” a news release said.

According to the release, a news conference in St. Paul will reveal internal documents and memos detailing meetings between top Archdiocesan officials and Thurner, who was transferred to St. Joseph’s where the alleged abuse took place.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

[the lawsuit]

[documents and photographs]

Article by: TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune Updated: October 29, 2013

The lawsuit alleges a priest abused a second-grade girl in West St. Paul after being transferred to her parish following another abuse case.

The sitting archbishop in St. Louis, Mo., took part in covering up a case of child sexual abuse in the Twin Cities when he was an assistant to then-Archbishop John Roach, attorneys for an alleged abuse victim said Tuesday after filing Minnesota’s latest clergy abuse lawsuit.

According to the complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court on behalf of “Doe 23,’’ the Rev. Robert Carlson was one of at least four prelates who were privy to a 1982 admission by the Rev. Robert Thurner that Thurner bought liquor for a 16-year-old boy and sexually abused him. The abuse was kept secret from parishioners at St. John the Evangelist in Hopkins, where Thurner was stationed, and from parents of children at St. Joseph’s church and school in West St. Paul, where Thurner was transferred the following year. Roach appointed him associate pastor at St. Joseph’s, with no restrictions.

In the 1984-85 school year, Thurner allegedly abused a girl who was 7 or 8 and in second grade, the lawsuit claims. St. Paul attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan, who are representing the victim, said she silently carried the abuse with her until recently speaking to a friend about it.

“She had never told anyone in her life,’’ Finnegan said.

She had believed that she was Thurner’s only victim until recent publicity about priest sex abuse and alleged coverups by the archdiocese prompted her to Google his name. The Internet search showed her that Anderson had sued Thurner and the archdiocese in the early 1990s on behalf of two men who said Thurner abused them when they were young teens.

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HARTFORD (CT)
CT News Junkie

by Christine Stuart | Oct 29, 2013

He joked that he didn’t campaign for the position, but Toledo Bishop Leonard P. Blair said he happened to be in Rome when he learned he was being named Archbishop of Hartford and was able to thank Pope Francis in person.

“I asked for his blessing on the church in both Hartford and Toledo,” Blair said at a press conference Tuesday.

Blair, 64, will be installed on Dec. 16 as the fifth archbishop of the Hartford Catholic Diocese. He succeeds Archbishop Henry J. Mansell, 76, who served the diocese for 10 years and is past the mandatory retirement age of 75.

In recent years, the Catholic church has been plagued with priest sex abuse scandals and the Toledo diocese was not immune. According to news reports, Catholic officials in Toledo waited six months to investigate the sexual misdeeds of a Catholic school counselor in 2010.

Blair said his predecessor already had removed a number of accused priests and “subsequently I had to remove some as well, but I think there’s been a great process of healing and I think our diocese responded appropriately.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

By EVERARD HIMMELREICH Oct. 30, 2013

THE Warrnambool grave of a disgraced paedophile priest has been vandalised in an apparent attack by one of his victims.

The words “Australia (sic) most polific (sic) paedophile” have been spray-painted in red across the site’s marble slab.

Former police detective Denis Ryan, who unsuccessfully pursued charges against Monsignor John Day, said yesterday he was not surprised at the attack.

“If they dug the bastard up and burnt him, I would not care,” Ryan said.

The words written on the grave were borrowed from the book Unholy Trinity that Ryan released earlier this year.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

[with copy of the report]

Patsy McGarry

Tue, Oct 29, 2013

The practices and procedures of the Murphy commission “fell far short” of meeting the requirements of natural and constitutional justice where Catholic clergy called before it were concerned, a review has found.

The review, commissioned by the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), says the commission “veered off the tight rails imposed by the 2004 Commissions of Investigation Act and wandered into an adversarial arena that concentrated, to an alarming degree, on ‘naming and shaming’ those clerics whom the Commission found wanting in child protection at that time,” it said.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

SARAH STACK – 29 OCTOBER 2013

THE Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said children who were abused by priests must be remembered during any criticisms of the Murphy report.

A review of the inquiry has claimed individual priests and bishops would not have been “under investigation” and named and shamed if the Murphy Commission had stayed true to its terms of reference.

The new study, commissioned by the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), also accused the inquiry’s practices and procedures of falling short of the requirements of natural and constitutional justice.

However Archbishop Martin said one should never overlook the context which gave rise to the establishment of the Murphy Report, which rocked the Catholic Church in 2009 when it revealed decades of abuse were ignored because clerics were effectively granted police immunity.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson and Associates

On October 29, 2013 a lawsuit was filed on behalf of a woman in her 30s, naming as defendants Fr. Robert Thurner and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The lawsuit claims the Archdiocese was negligent in allowing Father Thurner continued access to children.

In 1982, Thurner admitted to then-Archbishop Roach that he had sexually abused a 16 year-old boy and purchased alcohol for the boy. Despite Thurner’s admission, the Archdiocese chose to move Thurner into a new, unsuspecting parish where he subsequently abused Doe 23.

Read internal Archdiocesan documents below, including memos from Archbishop Roach and current St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson:

Summons and Complaint
Reverend Robert Michael Thurner Timeline
Memo from Archbishop Roach to Fr. Carlson and Msgr. Hayden re Fr. Thurner’s sexual relationship with a boy 11-11-1982
Letter from Fr. Thurner to Archbishop Roach re Fr. Thurner’s resignation from St. John the Evangelist
Letter from Archbishop Roach to Fr. Thurner re Fr. Thurner’s resignation from St. John the Evangelist – 11-12-1982
Memo from Fr. Korf to Archbishop Roach re Fr. Thurner’s resignation 4-13-1983
Fr. Thurner’s resignation form – St. John the Evangelist – 4-13-1983
Letter from Archbishop Roach accepting Fr. Thurner’s resignation from St. John the Evangelist 5-25-1983
Letter re Fr. Thurner being named Associate Pastor of St. Joseph’s 5-27-1983
Letter from Fr. O’Connell referring Thurner to Schoener – 5-5-1988
Memo from Fr. O’Connell re Thurner Lawsuit 6-7-1990
Thurner Answers to Interrogatories 9-24-1990
Letter from Sepler to Anderson re Joe Doe v. Archdioocese – 7-8-1991
News Release – Thurner 10-28-13
Archdiocesan Officals
Fr. Robert Thurner photo

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. .At a news conference in the Twin Cities today (Tuesday), an attorney for clergy sex abuse victims says he’ll release “internal documents” and a deposition of St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson as he files a new pedophile lawsuit.

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IRELAND
Limerick Leader

by Anne Sheridan
Published on the 29 October 2013

A FORMER rector of the Redemptorists in Limerick and a best-selling author believes his “days of being an active priest are over” – unless “the unpredictable” nature of Pope Francis turns in his favour.

Fr Tony Flannery has been barred from his ministry by the Vatican over his written views on women priests, contraception, celibacy and homosexuality.

The 66-year-old has been a Redemptorist priest for over forty years and was rector at Mount Saint Alphonsus in Limerick for six years. Speaking at the Limerick signing of his book Question of Conscience, he said his future as a ministering priest lies in the hands of the Pope.

“I have been forbidden to administer as a priest for the last 18 months, and the conditions that they have laid down for me to come back are such that I cannot accept, as I have laid out in my book. I don’t see the circumstances arising where I will ever come back into ministry again. The one proviso is that it’s a bit unpredictable what Pope Francis will do. Maybe there’s a glimmer of hope but I’d say that’s about all. The likelihood is that my days of being an active priest are over,” he said.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 10/29/2013 12:01:00 AM CDT | UPDATED: 86 MIN. AGO

A woman who alleged she was sexually abused by a former St. Paul priest filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court.

The woman, identified as Jane Doe 23, said the Rev. Robert M. Thurner abused her when she was a young girl at the Church of St. Joseph in West St. Paul.

That happened after Thurner admitted to archdiocese officials in 1982 that he sexually abused a 16-year-old boy and bought alcohol for him, the lawsuit alleged.

The archdiocese transferred Thurner to St. Joseph’s after the incident with the boy, according to the suit.

The woman’s attorneys, Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan, plan to release internal documents Tuesday afternoon describing meetings between top archdiocesan officials and Thurner, they said. Officials did not report the sexual abuse by Thurner to law enforcement, they alleged.

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

About eighteen months ago some priests of Dublin Archdiocese approached the ACP Leadership with the proposal that a study of Judge Yvonne Murphy’s Investigation of Clerical Child Abuse in the Archdiocese be conducted.

Retired High Court Judge from Hong Kong, Mr. Fergal Sweeney, was commissioned to do this work.

We here publish his report:
Commissions of Investigation and Procedural Fairness Report (40 pages, PDF)

In conjunction with this, Fr. Padraig McCarthy of the Archdiocese has just published a book on the same subject. This does not duplicate Fergal Sweeney’s work but includes further areas of analysis of the Murphy Report. Padraig’s book, An Unheard Story (published by Londubh) will be available in most bookshops.

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IRELAND
The Journal

ARCHBISHOP DIARMUID MARTIN has defended the right of the Association for Catholic Priests (ACP) to request a review of the Murphy Report into sexual abuse but has said that any priests who engaged with the Murphy Commission were always entitled to legal representation.

His comments come in light of a report commissioned by the ACP which concluded that the Murphy Report “went well beyond its mandate” to “name, blame and shame individuals for their role in any such failure of institutional response” to sexual abuse.

The Murphy report was first published in 2009 to examine the handling of child sexual abuse claims in the diocese of Dublin.

The 42-page review undertaken by retired High Court Judge Fergal Sweeney and titled “Commissions of Investigation and Procedural Fairness” said that the Murphy Commission exceeded its brief by:

“building up and making a “case” (called “the Commission’s Assessment”) against individual clerics who testified before the Commission, instead of being “concerned only with the institutional response to complaints, suspicions and knowledge of child sexual abuse.”

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ST. PAUL (MN)
Jeff Anderson and Associates

[Assignment Record – Rev. Robert Michael Thurner – BishopAccountability.org]

October 28, 2013

St. Paul News Conference Tuesday Father Robert M. Thurner Named
In Sexual Abuse Lawsuit

Documents confirm long-standing pattern and practice of the Archdiocese of
St. Paul and Minneapolis’ handling of sexual abuse cases

WHAT: At a news conference Tuesday in St. Paul, clergy sexual abuse attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan will:

· Announce the filing of a Ramsey County lawsuit naming as defendants Father Robert M. Thurner and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis on behalf of a woman now in her 30s, Doe 23, who was sexually abused by Fr. Thurner when she was a young girl at St. Joseph’s parish in West St. Paul. The lawsuit alleges that the Archdiocese was negligent in allowing Thurner continued access to children even after Thurner admitted in 1982, to then-Archbishop John Roach, that he sexually abused a 16 year-old boy and purchased alcohol for the boy.

· Reveal internal documents and memos detailing meetings between top Archdiocesan officials and Thurner. Instead of reporting to law enforcement, church officials chose to transfer Thurner to St. Joseph’s where he later abused Doe 23.

· Share information from prior depositions of current St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson, Father Thurner and Msgr. John Jerome Boxleitner.

WHEN: Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at 1:00 PM CDT

WHERE: Law Office of Jeff Anderson & Associates
366 Jackson Street
Suite 100
St. Paul, MN 55101

WHO: Sexual Abuse Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan will release internal documents and memos exchanged by top Archdiocesan officials pertaining to Thurner as well as discuss Doe 23’s recent lawsuit filed in Ramsey County.

Notes:
Information packets and copies of the complaint will be available at the press conference.
Fr. Thurner worked in parishes in St. Paul, Prior Lake, Hopkins, West St. Paul and Bloomington, Minnesota.

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.964.3458 Mobile/612.817.8665
Contact Mike Finnegan: Office/651.964.3458 Mobile/612.205.5531

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

by Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio
October 29, 2013

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A popular St. Paul priest on Sunday accused Archbishop John Nienstedt of arrogance and demanded an explanation for the clergy sexual abuse scandal.

“He needs to stand before us and explain himself,” the Rev. Stephen O’Gara, pastor of the Church of the Assumption, said in a Sunday homily. “Only then will we have the respect called to his office. It’s about arrogance, and we all fall victim to arrogance in some degree or in some place in our lives. But this is more. This is not some small matter. This is a big deal. It’s the first time, I must say, in 69 years that I’m embarrassed to be Catholic.”

O’Gara’s homily references the recent revelations of the handling of clergy sexual abuse allegations by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. An MPR News investigation has found Nienstedt and other church leaders failed to warn parishioners of a priest’s sexual misconduct, did not turn over possible child pornography to police for nine years and gave special payments to offending priests. Many of the revelations come from former church official Jennifer Haselberger, who resigned in April after Nienstedt and others failed to follow the church’s sexual abuse policies.

“These are difficult days,” O’Gara told parishioners. “They are hurtful and painful, and I think it’s time that we come clean.”

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ITALIA
QN

di Daniele Modica

Ferrara, 29 ottobre 2013 – Dopo il caso di Erik Zattoni cominciano ad emergere altre vittime di sacerdoti pedofili del nostro territorio. Ce lo racconta Francesco Zanardi, portavoce dell’associazione Rete Nazionale L’abuso. È stato lui che ha fatto sì che la storia di Cornacervina arrivasse ai media e sempre lui che sostiene tanti ragazzi e ragazze abusate.

Ci sono nuovi casi di persone violentate?

“Sì già qualche tempo fa una donna ferrarese di circa quarant’anni, spinta e forse incoraggiata dal caso di Erik, si è rivolta a me per denunciare la sua situazione”.
Che situazione?

“Quando era ancora minorenne anche lei è stata abusata da un prete di Ferrara”.

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CONNECTICUT
NBC Connecticut

The pope has appointed a new archbishop for the Archdiocese of Hartford.

Bishop Leonard Paul Blair succeeds Archbishop Henry J. Mansell, who has been the Archbishop of Hartford since December 2003, and passed the age of retirement, according to the archdiocese.

“I want to say how very happy and honored I am to be your new archbishop,” Blair said.

The announcement of the fifth archbishop for the diocese was made this morning, and Bishop Blair was officially introduced as the new archbishop during a news conference at the Archdiocesan Center at Saint Thomas Seminary, 467 Bloomfield Ave., Bloomfield, this morning.

Blair said he was in Rome when he received word of his appointment and was able to thank Pope Francis in person.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has named three new bishops for North America in the past two days – two for the United States and one for Canada.

On Tuesday, Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo, Ohio, was named archbishop of Hartford, Connecticut; he succeeds Archbishop Henry J. Mansell, whose resignation the Pope accepted in conformity with canon 401.

Fr. Kurt Burnette, rector of Saints Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was named the new bishop of the Ruthenian Eparchy of Passaic, one of the three eparchies of the Byzantine Catholic Church in the United States.

For the Catholic Church in Canada on Monday, the Pope named Bishop Richard Gagnon of Victoria, British Columbia, the new archbishop of Winnipeg, Manitoba; he succeeds Archbishop James Weisgerber, whose resignation the Pope also accepted in conformity with canon 401.

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HARTFORD (CT)
Patch

Ohio Bishop Leonard Paul Blair was announced as the new leader of the Archdiocese of Hartford, succeeding Archbishop Henry Mansell.

Posted by Jessie Sawyer (Editor) , October 29, 2013

By Ronald DeRosa

Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Leonard Paul Blair as the fifth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford, according to an announcement Tuesday morning.

Blair, 64, has been the bishop of the Diocese of Toledo since 2003. He was ordained a priest in 1976. He succeeds Henry J. Mansell, who has served as the archbishop of Hartford since 2003 and is past the age of retirement.

The Archdiocese of Hartfordservices 700,000 Roman Catholicsin Hartford, New Haven and Litchfield counties and operates multiple schools, hospitals, food pantries and shelters.

Archbishop-designate Blair will be installed as the Archbishop of Hartford on Monday, Dec. 16 at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Hartford.

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HARTFORD (CT)
DFW Catholic

Vatican City, Oct 29, 2013 / 06:59 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo, Ohio to lead the diocese of Hartford, Connecticut, following the retirement of the diocese’s previous archbishop.

“With joy we welcome the news that Our Holy Father Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Leonard P. Blair of the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio, to be the new Archbishop of Hartford,” outgoing Archbishop Henry J. Mansell said Oct. 29.

Bishop Blair, 64, will be replacing the 76-year-old Archbishop Mansell who has headed the Hartford diocese since 2003 until his recent application for resignation, having passed the age of retirement.

Born in Detroit in 1949, Bishop Blair was ordained to the priesthood in 1976 following the completion of his studies at the Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, as well as both the North American College and the Gregorian University in Rome.

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CONNECTICUT
News Gnomes

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Oct. 29, 2013 /NEWS.GNOM.ES/ — Statement of Supreme Knight Carl Anderson:

“As an organization headquartered in the Archdiocese of Hartford, the Knights of Columbus is pleased to welcome our new Archbishop – His Excellency Leonard Blair. Throughout his time in Michigan, at the Vatican and most recently in Ohio, our Archbishop-designate has shown himself to be a quintessential pastor and shepherd. We thank Pope Francis for this outstanding appointment and stand ready to assist our new Archbishop in whatever ways we can. As our brother Knight for more than 19 years, we hope he will find in this appointment something of a homecoming.”

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HARTFORD (CT)
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Sean Winters | Oct. 29, 2013 Distinctly Catholic

“Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you,” we read in 1 Peter 3: 15. We are called to be “a people of hope.” Some days, watching and listening to Pope Francis, being hopeful comes easy, even naturally.

Today is not one of those days. In naming Bishop Leonard Blair to become the next Archbishop of Hartford, the Holy See has sent what can only be described as a counter-sign. This was a missed opportunity to send a signal to all the bishops in the United States that the Holy Father is calling for a different style of pastoral leadership in the Church. In June, Pope Francis spoke to the nuncios from around the world assembled in Rome. He sketched the type of pastoral leadership he expected in the appointment of bishops. The Pope said he wanted pastors who would serve their people, not serve as overlords. They were, he famously said, to be men who “have the smell of the sheep.”

The good news is that Archbishop-designate Blair has the smell of the sheep. The bad news is that one suspects he thinks the sheep stink.

Archbishop-designate Blair served his tour of duty at the Vatican as a top aide to Cardinal Szoka. It is time for the nuncios of the world, and for the Congregation for Bishops especially, to ask themselves this question: What exactly about serving at a desk in the Vatican inclines one to think the person would make a good pastor? Certainly, a tour of duty creates a network of friends in high places, it generates a familiarity with the “court” atmosphere, and a suppleness at navigating the Byzantine, sometimes Kabuki-like, methods that have ruled in those frescoed halls. One would be hard pressed to make the case that it inoculates one to clericalism, which Pope Francis has pronounced a scourge on the life of the Church.

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TOLEDO (OH)
The Blade

Bishop Leonard Blair, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Toledo for the past 10 years, has been appointed by Pope Francis as the new archbishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Conn., it was announced today.

Bishop Blair will be officially introduced as the new archbishop during a 10 a.m. news conference at the Archdiocesan Center at Saint Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield, Conn. today. The news conference will be streamed on the archdiocesan Web site at: archdioceseofhartford.org and ortv.org.

Bishop Blair, 64, has been the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Toledo since 2003. He was ordained a priest in 1976. He succeeds Archbishop Henry J. Mansell, who has been the Archbishop of Hartford since December, 2003, and who has passed the age of retirement.

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HARTFORD (CT)
Houston Chronicle

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — An Ohio bishop will lead 700,000 Catholics as Hartford’s new archbishop, Pope Francis announced Tuesday.

Bishop Leonard Paul Blair, 64, has led the Catholic Diocese of Toledo since 2003.

He succeeds Hartford Archbishop Henry J. Mansell, who has served since 2003 and at 76 has passed the age of retirement. Mansell has said he had told Pope Benedict XVI he was willing to retire last year. Pope Francis accepted his retirement on Tuesday.

Blair, who was ordained a priest in 1976, will be installed as archbishop on Dec. 16.

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HARTFORD (CT)
WNPR

By TUCKER IVES

Pope Francis has appointed a new leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford. Bishop Leonard P. Blair will succeed current Archbishop Henry Mansell.

The announcement was made in Vatican City at noon, local time. A press conference will held in Bloomfield later this morning, and Blair will formally take over on December 16.

After the election of Pope Francis last spring, Mansell told WFSB-TV that he was ready to retire. Mansell has been Hartford’s archbishop since December 2003.

Blair will be the fifth archbishop of the Archdiocese. He’s currently the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Toledo, a position he has had since 2003. He has been an ordained priest since 1976.

During his time in Toledo, Blair was the bishop who assessed the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. The assessment was designed to determine if the LCWR, which represents about 80 percent of Catholic nuns, was acting in accordance with the church’s teachings.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[the letter]

For immediate release: Tuesday, Oct. 29 2013

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

Archbishop John Neinstedt’s new abuse “task force” is a farce. We’ve felt so from the outset. Now it’s clear.

We call on members of that panel to end their complicity in this charade and resign in protest now.

Neinstedt claims his “task force” – headed by Fr. Reginald Whitt, a priest and lawyer who was hand-picked by Neinstedt – will somehow be “independent.” A new letter, however, has already been disproven this claim.

Last week, Neinstedt publicly said:

“The Task Force will have unprecedented authority to examine any and all issues associated with clergy sexual abuse.”

And last week, Whitt privately said:

“Access to these files will be within my control and limited only to what is necessary for the task force to be able to make an informed decision.”

So Catholic officials shout “independent move” in public while maintaining control in private.

We have seen the same pattern over and over again in diocese across the country and saw the same pattern at the national church level a decade ago.

In 2002, America’s bishops claimed they adopted a “tough” abuse policy. But as the limelight faded, Vatican officials quietly gutted much of it.

Time and time again, Catholic officials say almost anything to get themselves out of a jam. Then, as public attention begins to wane, they quietly backpedal. And soon it’s “business as usual” again.

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CANADA
Global News

[with video]

By Amy Judd Global News

John Furlong says the past year of his life has been “like living in hell.”

In his first interview since the allegations, Furlong sat down with Global News anchor Chris Gailus to talk about his experience.

In an article in the Georgia Straight, the former head of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics was accused of allegedly assaulting aboriginal students in his care when he taught at a Catholic school in Burns Lake over four decades ago.

“After the games were over, I had this remarkable high and it was great fun walking around and sort of enjoying, and asking how the city was feeling,” says Furlong. “There was a smile on the face of Vancouver, and then this happened, and it was a horrible shocking thing to have happened. I was stunned, and I thought at the time it would go away quickly, because there’s no truth to this.”

He tells Global News it has been horrible for him and his family and says when people would ask him how it feels to have these allegations leveled against him, he would say “if you want to imagine yourself in this position, put yourself as far into hell as you can go, and then just keep on going. It’s an unimaginable place, because, first of all, the subject matter is vile, it’s horrible, it’s terrible, and to be in a conversation with anybody about it even now, it’s horrible. Who would want their name associated with anything like this?”

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CANADA
CNW

VANCOUVER, Oct. 29, 2013 /CNW/ – For the last year, I have remained largely silent on the horrible, heartless lies and innuendo that have been published and broadcast about me, originating in articles and court documents from the activist Laura Robinson.

Today that silence ends. Enough is enough. I have been declared innocent by the RCMP and I am dropping one legal action and will escalate another.

RCMP Investigation shows my innocence

After a thorough investigation, the RCMP have cleared me of the allegations that Ms. Robinson brought to the RCMP on behalf of Beverley Abraham in the summer of 2012. I have both written and verbal confirmation of this finding, now in the hands of senior RCMP officials.

In correspondence with my legal counsel, the RCMP’s investigating officer stated: “I can tell you the RCMP have concluded their investigation into that matter and found nothing to substantiate the complaint”. In a verbal briefing to my legal counsel last week the same RCMP officer advised that his thorough, 16-month investigation and final report confirms there is no truth to the claims she made against me.

I asked the RCMP for this investigation and I encouraged it. I then cooperated fully with the police. While this has been deeply painful and damaging in so many ways I thank the RCMP for their independence, professionalism and public service.

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CANADA
The Province

BY CHERYL CHAN, THE PROVINCE OCTOBER 28, 2013

John Furlong said he is dropping his defamation suit against the Georgia Straight newspaper but vows to “escalate” action against the freelance journalist who wrote the article containing allegations Furlong abused former students.

In an interview with Global News broadcast Monday night, Furlong said he is not interested in pursuing the lawsuit against the Straight.

“My issue is not with the media,” said the former Vancouver 2010 Olympics boss. “We tried to convince them not to do it … they printed the story. But the story was given to them by Laura Robinson. All of this was hers.”

The article, published last September, alleged Furlong physically and verbally abused eight First Nations students while he was a physical education teacher at Immaculata school in Burns Lake in the late 1960s. Furlong filed the defamation suits in November.

In July, two former students Beverly Abraham and Grace West filed separate lawsuits against Furlong alleging sexual abuse. Last month, a third lawsuit was filed by an unidentified man who claims he was sexually abused. None of these claims have been proven in court.

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OHIO/CONNECTICUT
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Oct. 29

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com )

Bishop Leonard Blair has done a poor job dealing with the church’s on-going child sex abuse and cover up crisis in Toledo. We are disappointed that, once again, Pope Francis has promoted a prelate who has failed to show real courage and compassion and refused to adequately protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded.

In 2010, Toledo Catholic officials kept quiet about and wanted six months to investigate alleged sexual misdeeds by a Catholic school counselor

Kevin Yeckley, a counselor and coach, admitted “periodically” hugging a girl, hiring her, working “alone for several consecutive Saturdays” with her and telling her “he was . . .having uncomfortable feelings for her.”

Toledo Catholic officials admit that in March 2009, a victim told a teacher about Yeckley’s alleged misdeeds but they started to investigate in October, some six or seven months later. Delays like this endanger kids and enable predators to intimidate victims, threaten whistle blowers, discredit witnesses, destroy evidence, fabricate alibis and keep hurting children.

(According to The News-Messenger newspaper, two top chancery office staffers – Frank DiLallo and Toledo diocesan human resources director Greg Reed – met with the predator months later.

Yeckley eventually resigned his position at a school in Fremont. State officials sanctioned him for “failing to maintain appropriate student-teacher boundaries.” Still, a Catholic principal (Mike Gabel) deceitfully urged a public school to hire him, putting innocent kids at risk of child sex crimes. (Gabel also just resigned. Blair refused to denounce or discipline any of the Catholic school employees who were involved.)

Blair’s irresponsible handling of this case shows Catholic officials putting their reputations and careers above the well-being of children.

[BishopAccountability.org]

[BishopAccountability.org]

Blair’s first job in Hartford should be to post the names, photos and whereabouts of every child molesting cleric on the archdiocesan website and in all parish bulletins. He should aggressively reach out to anyone who may have seen suspected or suffered crimes or cover up by the 32 publicly accused, admitted and proven Hartford area predator priests and nuns.

And he should especially beg anyone with information or suspicions about Fr. Arthur Perrault to call police. Fr. Parrault is accused of abusing at least ten boys and girls, fled the diocese in 1992 and is believed to be in hiding.

Some may be tempted to give Blair “the benefit of the doubt” in clergy sexual abuse and misconduct cases. We urge them not to. We hope Hartford citizens and Catholics will continue to act prudently and report any known or suspected clergy sex crimes and cover ups to secular officials, not church officials.

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TOLEDO (OH)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo

It was announced today by the Holy See that Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Leonard P. Blair as the Fifth Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut. Archbishop-designate Blair’s service follows that of the Most Reverend Henry Mansell, whose retirement the Holy Father accepted today.

Bishop Blair, who was appointed Bishop of Toledo on October 7, 2003 by Blessed Pope John Paul II, has served the diocese for almost 10 years. In accordance with Canon Law Archbishop-designate Blair will continue to preside over our local church on a limited basis until his installation in Hartford on December 16, 2013. Following the installation, the College of Consulters, a group of eight priests of the diocese who advise the bishop in the more important matters of the diocesan administration, will elect a priest of our diocese to serve as Diocesan Administrator until such time as the Pope appoints a new bishop for Toledo.

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HARTFORD (CT)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford

See Press Conference live TODAY at 10:00 A.M.
Abbreviated biography of Bishop Blair
Statement by Archbishop Mansell
Statement by Bishop Macaluso

For Immediate Release
Maria Zone
Director of Communications
Archdiocese of Hartford
(860) 541-6491
mzone@aohct.org

HARTFORD, Conn. – (October 29, 2013) His Holiness Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Leonard Paul Blair, STD as the fifth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford. The announcement was made today, Tuesday, October 29th at 12:00 noon, Vatican City Time (7 a.m. EDT).

Bishop Blair will be officially introduced as the new archbishop during a press conference at the Archdiocesan Center at Saint Thomas Seminary, 467 Bloomfield Ave., Bloomfield, this morning, Tuesday, October 29th, at 10 a.m. The press conference will be streamed on the archdiocesan website at: archdioceseofhartford.org and ortv.org. It will be broadcast live on WJMJ-FM Radio (88.9/Hartford, 93.1/Hamden, 107.1/New Haven).

Bishop Blair, 64, has been the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Toledo since 2003. He was ordained a priest in 1976. He succeeds Archbishop Henry J. Mansell, who has been the Archbishop of Hartford since December 2003, and who has passed the age of retirement.

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CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant

By DANIELA ALTIMARI, dnaltimari@courant.com
The Hartford Courant
9:08 a.m. EDT, October 29, 2013

HARTFORD – Pope Francis on Tuesday announced the appointment of Bishop Leonard P. Blair, the bishop of Toledo, Ohio, as Hartford’s new archbishop.

“Pope Francis appoints Bishop Leonard Blair as my successor,” Hartford’s current Archbishop, Henry J. Mansell, tweeted this morning. “He has my heartfelt congratulations, prayers and support.”

Blair, 64, will officially be installed on Dec. 16.

According to his biography on the Diocese of Toledo website, Blair was born in Detroit and was named the seventh bishop of Toledo on Oct. 7, 2003.

Blair was one of three bishops charged with assessing an organization that represents the majority of U.S. nuns. In that role, Blair oversaw a report in 2012 that was critical of the nuns’ group, saying it undermined Catholic teaching on homosexuality and contraception and embraced radical feminism.

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CONNECTICUT
News-Times – Off Beat

Tuesday, October 29, 2013 by:Jim Shay

His Holiness Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Leonard Paul Blair, STD as the fifth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford. The announcement was made today, Tuesday, October 29th at 12:00 noon, Vatican City Time (7 a.m. EDT).

Bishop Blair will be officially introduced as the new archbishop during a press conference at the Archdiocesan Center at Saint Thomas Seminary, 467 Bloomfield Ave., Bloomfield, this morning, Tuesday, October 29th, at 10 a.m. The press conference will be streamed on the archdiocesan website at: archdioceseofhartford.org and ortv.org. It will be broadcast live on WJMJ-FM Radio (88.9/Hartford, 93.1/Hamden, 107.1/New Haven).

Bishop Blair, 64, has been the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Toledo since 2003. He was ordained a priest in 1976. He succeeds Archbishop Henry J. Mansell, who has been the Archbishop of Hartford since December 2003, and who has passed the age of retirement.

Archbishop-designate Blair will be installed as the Archbishop of Hartford on Monday, December 16th at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph, 140 Farmington Ave., Hartford

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 29 October 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father:

– appointed Bishop Leonard Paul Blair of Toledo in America, U.S.A., as archbishop of Hartford (area 5,926, population 1,996,000, Catholics 718,000, priests 393, permanent deacons 289, religious 818), U.S.A. Bishop Blair was born in Detroit, U.S.A. in 1949, was ordained to the priesthood in 1976, and received episcopal ordination in 1999. He succeeds Archbishop Henry Joseph Mansell, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese upon having reached the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father. …

– appointed Rev. Kurt R. Burnette as bishop of the eparchal See of Passaic of the Ruthenians (catholics 14,729, priests 80, permanent deacons 26, religious 27), U.S.A. Bishop-elect Burnette was born in Fakenham, England in 1955 and was ordained a priest in 1988. He is currently rector of the Sts. Cyril and Methodius Seminary, Pittsburgh.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

[with video]

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
In churches and living rooms across the metro, the debate is on over how the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has handled allegations of sexual abuse by clergy members — but one priest used the power of the pulpit on during Sunday’s sermon.

At Church of the Assumption, the faithful fill the pews every Sunday to hear from their parish priests — and they got an earful this past weekend as the preacher took aim at church leaders over the growing scandal.

During his 6.5-minute homily, Father Stephen O’Gara admitted he’s never gotten along with Archbishop John Nienstedt, and he didn’t pull any punches when it came to the archbishop’s response to allegations of clergy abuse and cover-ups.

“It’s not going to be through e-mails and letters in the ‘Catholic Spirit.’ He needs to stand before us and explain himself,” O’Gara insisted. “Only then will he have the respect called to his office.”

O’Gara went on to say he believes the scandal is about arrogance, and he openly confessed that he feels conflicted about the Church’s state of affairs.

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ILLINOIS/WISCONSIN
Chicago Tribune

By Alexandra Chachkevitch and Lisa Black, Chicago Tribune reporters
7:15 a.m. CDT, October 29, 2013

Even after retiring to Florida, Ervin and Margaret Franczak stayed in regular contact with their longtime priest back in Milwaukee.

Especially after Ervin died in 2001, the Rev. James Dokos looked after Margaret, visiting her on occasion and sending poinsettias at Christmas, friends said. Records show she even updated her will to leave Dokos her condo and her car — part of a charitable trust the couple established whose value topped more than $1.2 million.

Documents obtained by the Tribune show that Dokos, now pastor at Sts. Peter and Paul Greek Orthodox Church in Glenview, wrote checks totaling tens of thousands of dollars from that trust fund to himself and used the fund to pay at least $32,000 in credit card bills. As sole trustee of the fund, Dokos also gave several thousand dollars from the trust to a high-ranking official in the Greek Orthodox archdiocese in Chicago, the documents show.

Now authorities in Milwaukee are conducting an investigation into how Dokos distributed the money from the Franczaks’ fund and whether he paid himself more than the trust stipulated.

Officials at the Metropolis of Chicago, the Greek Orthodox archdiocese that oversees dozens of parishes in the Midwest, have said their “initial conclusion” was that the trust fund money was spent in accordance with Margaret Franczak’s will and wishes and with the knowledge of the parish council at Milwaukee’s Annunciation Church, which received the bulk of the money from the trust.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Seattle PI

[the letter]

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A task force charged with independently investigating clergy sex abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will have limited access to information about priests.

In a recent letter to clergy, the Rev. Reginald Whitt said he will control the panel’s access to information about clergy abuse, which will be “limited only to what is necessary” for the task force to make informed decisions.

Archbishop John Nienstadt, who appointed Whitt to create the task force, earlier characterized the panel’s work as an independent review of clergy abuse. Nienstadt told Minnesota Public Radio (http://bit.ly/HsKwyT ) the task force would have “unprecedented authority to examine any and all issues associated with clergy sexual abuse.”

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CANADA
Global News

[with videos]

By Amy Judd Global News

The RCMP has found no evidence to substantiate the sexual abuse complaint against John Furlong.

The RCMP investigator sent Furlong a letter in April saying the RCMP has concluded its investigation and as it has found nothing to support the complaint of sexual abuse by Beverly Abraham, it will not be forwarding a report to Crown Counsel.

Furlong, the former head of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, was accused in an interview in the Georgia Straight last fall of harming aboriginal students when he taught at a Catholic school in Burns Lake over four decades ago.

In July, Abraham and another woman, Grace West, launched a lawsuit against Furlong. In September a third lawsuit was filed against Furlong who has denied all claims of physical and sexual abuse.

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CANADA
1130 News

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – There are reports that one of the sexual abuse investigations involving the former head of the Olympic Games in Vancouver has been dropped.

In a statement to News1130, the RCMP will not confirm or deny the report, saying only that the “file remains open” in regards to John Furlong.

He has been accused of physical and sexual abuse when he worked as a teacher in BC’s north in the 1960s.

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CANADA
The Tyee

By BOB MACKIN
Published October 28, 2013

A strategy to rescue the bruised reputation of John Furlong, who was the CEO of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, unfolded throughout Monday.

Global TV’s regional channel promoted a one-on-one interview of Furlong by anchor Chris Gailus for 7 p.m. Monday evening as Furlong’s first such appearance since he was accused 13 months ago of abusing aboriginal children.

The interview was recorded in the Gastown office of Furlong’s public relations representative, Twenty Ten Group, and was set to air the day after the Vancouver Whitecaps’ ended their 2013 season. CTV national anchor Lisa LaFlamme also conducted an interview with Furlong, the executive chairman of the Bell-sponsored Major League Soccer club.

Almost five hours before the scheduled 30-minute program, Global reported that the RCMP cleared Furlong of allegations he abused Beverly Abraham when she was a child under his care at a Burns Lake school for aboriginal children in 1969 and 1970. Furlong had come to Canada from his native Ireland as an 18-year-old Catholic missionary and taught physical education at Immaculata Elementary School.

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CANADA
Metro

By Kate Webb
Metro

John Furlong says he’s “done” with allegations of sexual abuse raised by Beverly Abraham after the RCMP dismissed them in April — but RCMP say the investigation remains open after an independent review of their methods.

Abraham is one of three people who allege the former Olympics CEO sexually abused them more than 40 years ago. Another eight allege that he physically and verbally abused them when he was a teacher at a Burns Lake Catholic school.

None of the allegations have been proven in court and Furlong has filed several defamation suits denying all claims and seeking damages against the accusers.

“We are done with this. This is over,” Furlong told Global News on Sunday, after displaying a letter RCMP sent him in April indicating they had closed the Abraham case.

“I’m not going to put another second into this. I’m going to move on, as I’ve said, by escalating this case and exposing this and try to get on with my life.”

But senior RCMP spokesman Sgt. Rob Vermeulen said in an email on Monday that an independent review of the Mounties’ investigation by a major crime section in another province resulted in a number of investigative recommendations.

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CANADA
Vancouver 24hrs

By Michael Mui, 24 Hours Vancouver
Monday, October 28, 2013

Mounties are continuing to follow up on “investigative recommendations” in allegations against former Vancouver Olympic chief John Furlong, despite a media report Monday suggesting a sexual abuse allegation has been dismissed.

According to RCMP Sgt. Rob Vermeulen, the force earlier this year asked for an independent review from out-of-province major crime investigators after completing its own investigation.

“That review resulted in a number of investigative recommendations that we continue to follow up on,” he said by email. “Our file remains open at this time.”

On Monday, Global BC reported a sexual abuse allegation by Beverly Abraham — one of several people who have filed suit against Furlong alleging unproven accounts of abuse — has been dismissed.

In an April letter obtained by the media outlet, police said they have “concluded their investigation into (Abraham’s) matter and have found nothing to substantiate the complaint,” adding no report will be forwarded to the Crown as a result.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

SUNNY DHILLON AND TU THANH HA
VANCOUVER and TORONTO — The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Oct. 28 2013

Former Vancouver Olympics CEO John Furlong has stepped back into the spotlight after months of silence, declaring in an interview that he has been told an RCMP investigation into allegations he sexually abused a student when he was a teacher decades ago has proven his innocence.

But the RCMP says its file remains open. And while the criminal allegation to which Mr. Furlong referred was made by one person, civil lawsuits from the complainant and two other students alleging sexual abuse are ongoing.

In an interview in Toronto with The Globe and Mail on Monday, Mr. Furlong, who was the public face of the 2010 Games, said his lawyer was told last week the RCMP investigation concluded in his favour.

The initial probe, which ended in the spring, looked at allegations Mr. Furlong sexually molested Beverly Abraham when he was a physical education teacher at Immaculata Roman Catholic Elementary School in Burns Lake, B.C., four decades ago.

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CANADA
CBC News

A woman who alleges that she was sexually assaulted by former VANOC CEO John Furlong says the RCMP has informed her they have found no evidence that the assaults took place.

Beverly Abraham, 55, claimed in a civil suit filed in July that Furlong molested her approximately 12 times in 1969 and 1970 while he was a physical education teacher at Immaculata Roman Catholic Elementary School in Burns Lake, B.C.

Furlong says he never abused her or another student who has made similar accusations. He has not been convicted of any offence relating to the allegations.

Abraham says that two weeks ago, an RCMP investigator informed her that they have found no evidence of the incidents and so cannot move forward with any charges.

“It’s really, honestly, hurting me. It’s hurting my heart so bad. It’s like broken into a million pieces now, and it hurts my stomach. It’s just like someone touching me all over again,” she says.

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CANADA
The Province

BY CHERYL CHAN, THE PROVINCE OCTOBER 29, 2013

John Furlong said he is dropping his defamation suit against the Georgia Straight newspaper but vows to “escalate” action against the freelance journalist who wrote the article containing allegations Furlong abused former students.

In an interview with Global News broadcast Monday night, Furlong said he is not interested in pursuing the lawsuit against the Straight.

“My issue is not with the media,” said the former Vancouver 2010 Olympics boss. “We tried to convince them not to do it … they printed the story. But the story was given to them by Laura Robinson. All of this was hers.”

The article, published last September, alleged Furlong physically and verbally abused eight First Nations students while he was a physical education teacher at Immaculata school in Burns Lake in the late 1960s. Furlong filed the defamation suits in November.

In July, two former students, Beverly Abraham and Grace West, filed separate lawsuits against Furlong alleging sexual abuse. Last month, a third lawsuit was filed by an unidentified man who claims he was sexually abused. None of these claims has been proven in court.

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CANADA
Vancouver Sun

BY MATTHEW ROBINSON AND BEV WAKE, VANCOUVER SUN, THE CANADIAN PRESS OCTOBER 29, 2013

John Furlong went on a media offensive Monday to proclaim his innocence as a police investigation into claims of abuse against his former students continues.

In television interviews, the organizer of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics shared a letter he said RCMP sent him in the spring stating they were unable to substantiate one of the complainants’ claims of sexual abuse. But RCMP Sgt. Rob Vermeulen would not confirm police were finished with that claim – levelled by Beverly Abraham – and said the overall investigation remains open.

“Due to the serious and sensitive nature of the allegations, earlier this year we asked for an independent review of our complete investigation by major crime investigators from another province,” said Sgt. Vermeulen in an email. “That review resulted in a number of investigative recommendations that we continue to follow up on.”

The allegations against Furlong surfaced following an article, published last fall in the Georgia Straight, suggesting he physically and verbally abused First Nations students at Burns Lake while teaching at a Catholic school there in the late 1960s.

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CANADA
Macleans

by Ken MacQueen on Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Former Vancouver Olympic chief John Furlong took to the airwaves Monday night to defend his name after months of letting his lawyers deal with allegations of physical and sexual abuse filed by three former students while he was a volunteer missionary teacher at Catholic schools in Burns Lake and Prince George, B.C. in 1969 and 1970.

He told Global BC television anchor Chris Gailus he’s been living in “hell” since the first allegations surfaced some 13 months ago in an article in Vancouver’s Georgia Straight newspaper. “I was stunned and at the time I thought it’ll go away quickly because there’s no truth to this. So I just thought naively that it will just end. It’ll take a few weeks. Instead of ending, it got worse. It became quite horrible.”

In excerpts from the Global interview Furlong said the story “pulverized us. It pulverized me and my family very, very deeply.” He denied claims he physically abused students while he was a gym teacher. Any punishment he meted out used “phys-ed traditional means, like running laps or stuff like that.” Corporal punishment was not allowed and he didn’t use it, he said. “I’ve never had a strap in my hand in my life.”

This July, two former female students at Immaculata Elementary School in Burns Lake filed civil suits in B.C. Supreme Court against Furlong and the Roman Catholic diocese in both Vancouver and Prince George, accusing him of physical and sexual abuse, and the church of failing to protect its students. These have also been denied by Furlong.

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CANADA
CTV

[with video]

CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Monday, October 28, 2013

John Furlong, the man who organized the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, says he is trying to reclaim his life by using the courts to fight back against allegations of sexual abuse brought against him last year.

In an interview with CTV’s Chief Anchor and Senior Editor Lisa LaFlamme, Furlong says he’s been “living in absolute hell” for the past 17 months after a weekly Vancouver newspaper published allegations claiming he physically and verbally abused First Nations students while working as an 18-year-old volunteer teacher in northern B.C. more than four decades ago.

In a report published last September, the Georgia Straight said eight former students signed affidavits about their experiences at Immaculata Elementary in Burns Lake, B.C., in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. They alleged a young Furlong would hit and kick them, as well as make racist comments, while serving as a physical education teacher.

Over the summer, two women — Beverly Abraham and Grace West — filed separate civil lawsuits accusing Furlong of sexual abuse. A third student filed a third lawsuit last month, alleging he, too, was abused.

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CANADA
GlobalPost

The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER – The man who organized the Vancouver Olympics says he’s been cleared by police of sexual-abuse allegations brought by a former student, though the RCMP says the file remains open.

The allegations against John Furlong surfaced following a newspaper article published last fall, suggesting he physically and verbally abused First Nations students at Burns Lake, B.C., while teaching at a Catholic school there in the late 1960s.

This past July, Beverly Abraham and Grace West filed separate lawsuits against Furlong alleging sexual abuse, and a third lawsuit was filed last month by a man who said he, too, was sexually abused.

Furlong said in an interview with Global News that police gave him a letter in April saying they found nothing to substantiate allegations by one of the complainants, identified as Abraham in a letter to Furlong that was posted online. According to the letter, the police would not be sending a report to Crown counsel.

“We are done with this,” said Furlong. “I’m not going to put another second into this. I’m going to move on, as I’ve said by escalating this case and exposing this and try to get on with my life.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Tue, Oct 29, 2013

The Department of Justice has sharply criticised a submission by the Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) advocacy group to the McAleese committee on the extent of abuses in the Magdalene laundries.
The group had claimed that the McAleese report, published last February, minimised the physical and psychological abuse suffered by women in the laundries, as reported in its submission.

The McAleese report was also criticised by Felice de Gaer, rapporteur to the UN Committee Against Torture (Uncat), who wrote to the Government on May 22nd last on the issue.

She said Uncat had received information that the State was presented with extensive survivor testimony by the group “and was aware of the existence of possible criminal wrongdoings, including physical and psychological abuse”.

In its response to Ms de Gaer, the Department of Justice has acknowledged that JFM “did present a great volume of material purporting to point to the existence of possible criminal wrongdoings, including systematic physical and psychological abuse”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Standard Ethics independent rating agency has announced it has elevated the Standard Ethics Rating (SER) attributed to Vatican City State from “EE-” to “EE.”

The Standard Ethics Rating is a benchmarking tool on sustainability, social responsibility, governance and environment.

The sustainability ratings issued by Standard Ethics are the result of statistical and scientific work carried out to take a snapshot of the economic world in relation to ethical principles promoted by large international organisations.

In a note, Standard Ethics reported that since it was given a “positive outlook” last July, Vatican City State has successfully met international requests to provide greater financial and accounts transparency of its financial institutions.

The note clarifies that significant steps were taken against money laundering, illicit financial transactions and financing of terrorism, in great part due to the Vatican’s gradual adherence to criteria laid out by the Financial Action Task Force (Groupe d’action financière FATF-GAFI) and adoption of recommendations from the Moneyval Division of the Council of Europe.

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AUSTRALIA
The Smith Lecture 2013

Patrick Parkinson AM, Professor of Law, University of Sydney

Introduction

Some people may be puzzled, even angered, that the title to this lecture ends in a question-mark. Surely, we already know that the story of child sexual abuse in churches is a story of shocking moral failure. Story after story has appeared in the media in Australia in recent years of terrible sexual exploitation of children – and if that were not bad enough, the cover-up of those crimes by superiors in the Church who, for whatever reason, chose not to involve the police or to act protectively towards children. These are not just Australian stories. In the Catholic Church at least, these patterns have been replicated in many countries across the western world, and it is perhaps just a matter of time before stories emerge from other countries which reveal the same patterns.

In the court of public opinion, then, the judgment has already been delivered. It is only the consequences of that judgment which are still being worked out.

In this lecture, I will not for one moment deny that there have been serious moral failures, and it is likely that these are to be found in all churches over the years. I have played a small part in exposing some of those failures, in challenging wrongdoing, and seeking to promote higher standards of child protection in church communities. 1 I offer no defence for the failure of the churches, except to say that if the churches are particularly in the firing line now – and they are – it should be noted that it was so often the churches that were involved in caring for those that no-one else cared for. It was the churches that ran orphanages and children’s homes, that established boarding schools at a low cost to give educational opportunities to children from the country. It is churches which have been at the forefront of community life from one end of Australia to another, providing Sunday Schools, youth clubs and holiday camps. The moral failures of the churches ought to be assessed against the background of that enormous contribution to the care of children over the last century and more.

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HAWAII
The Garden Island

HILO, Hawaii (AP) — A May 27 trial date has been set for a convicted Big Island murderer charged with sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl six years ago.

The 2009 conviction of 56-year-old Peter Kalani Bailey in the assault case was overturned. Supreme Court justices in March 2012 said a mistrial should have been declared because a juror had revealed Bailey’s murder conviction.

The Hawaii Tribune-Herald (http://bit.ly/1aBaSd6) reports Bailey was convicted in 1979 of murder, kidnapping and robbery in the shooting death of a 17-year-old Oahu girl. He was paroled in 2002.

On July 22, 2007, he was working as choir director at Hamakua Coast Assembly of God Church and charged with four counts of attempted sexual assault of the girl at the church. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

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MINNESOTA
WCCO

[the letter]

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — WCCO-TV has obtained an internal Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis letter saying a high-ranking church leader will personally control what files a task force on clergy sex abuse will have access to.

The letter, from the Reverend Reginald Whitt to all priests in the diocese, says that he will decide which files the task force can look into. Earlier this month, the task force was formed to look into claims of clergy sex abuse and an alleged cover-up by the archdiocese.

However, Whitt’s letter to priests raises questions about whether or not the task force has the ability to operate independently of the archdiocese.

In the Oct. 21 letter, Whitt — a law professor at St. Thomas and the newly-named vicar for ministerial standards – wrote that the task force will be reviewing clergy files as part of the archdiocese’s investigation into clergy sexual misconduct.

“Access to these files,” Whitt wrote, “will be within my control and limited only to what is necessary for the task force to be able to make an informed decision.”

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NEW YORK
Saratogian

By Ian Benjamin, ibenjamin@troyrecord.com, @ibenja2 on Twitter
POSTED: 10/28/13

ALBANY >> “I’ve come a long way for a boy from the ’Burgh,” said Bishop Howard Hubbard, his voice reverberating within the vaulted arches of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany.

For those who know him, that was not a pretentious statement, but rather one reflecting his amazement at being the spiritual leader for nearly 400,000 Catholics for more than three decades.

When Howard James Hubbard, then a 38-year-old priest from the Lansingburgh section of Troy, was ordained Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany on March 27, 1977, he was the youngest bishop in the nation. He was dubbed the “boy bishop.”

The sobriquet has long since faded, and having served as bishop for more than 36 years, Hubbard is now the longest tenured bishop in the country. When the bishop celebrates his 75th birthday on Oct. 31, his career will begin to conclude.

By Papal law, that is the date by which Hubbard must submit his letter of resignation through official channels to the Vatican. It is only once Pope Francis names a successor, however, that he will actually step into retirement. …

As the bishop has weathered the closure of parishes, he also led the diocese when cases of sexual abuse at the hands of priests have come to light. After the prosecution of five priests in the archdiocese of Boston received national attention in 2002, victims of pedophile priests began to come forward across the nation, creating a crisis for the church in America, and years of trouble for Hubbard. A number of victims have since come forward in the Albany Diocese. In 2004, two men brought allegations of sexual misconduct against Hubbard, but after an exhaustive $2 million investigation led by former prosecutor Mary Jo White, those accusations were found to be baseless.

While most of the cases of sexual abuse in the church occurred roughly between 1965 and 1985, the vast majority of the reports on those cases only began gaining national attention following the Boston scandal. The same year the scandal erupted, the church instituted a number of safeguards to prevent the sexual abuse of minors by priests. Those seeking to enter the priesthood are now required to undergo extensive background checks and a long interview process that can last up to a year.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

[the letter]

Article by: TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune Updated: October 29, 2013

A task force appointed to conduct an independent examination of clergy sex abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will have to go through a top archdiocese official for access to internal files, according to a letter distributed to priests last week.

The Rev. Reginald Whitt, who was assigned this month to appoint the panel and receive its reports, told priests and deacons in a letter dated Oct. 21 that the task force may review specific files to determine whether the policies of the archdiocese concerning clergy sexual misconduct were properly followed. But, he wrote, “Access to these files will be within my control, and limited only to what is necessary for the task force.”

He also wrote that he recognized that many priests and deacons “may be anxious about your right to privacy and a good reputation.” He assured them that the archdiocese will proceed according to the principles of due process and uniform application of canon policy.

Whitt’s letter seemed to mark a sharp contrast to a statement issued on Oct. 6, when the task force was announced and the archdiocese said, “The task force will have full authority and all the resources needed to complete its work.” That statement also said the task force would operate “independently” of Whitt and Archbishop John Nienstedt, who appointed Whitt.

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

[the letter]

By Brian Lambert

Uh, “controlling access” would seem to be pretty close to the nut of the problem … Tom Scheck and Madeleine Baran of MPR report: “A task force created to address the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will only have access to information provided by a church official. The task force will not investigate allegations against specific priests, and priest files will not be made public, according to an Oct. 21 letter to clergy by the Rev. Reginald Whitt. Whitt, chosen by Archbishop John Nienstedt to create the task force, will control the panel’s access to information about clergy abuse. ‘Access to these files will be within my control, and limited only to what is necessary for the Task Force to be able to make an informed decision with respect to their policy review,’ he wrote.” Is the ecclesiastical definition of “clueless” the same as in the lay world?

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 10/28/2013

The archdiocese official in charge of handling clergy sexual misconduct issues has invited priests to a Wednesday briefing on how the matter is being handled.

Rev. Reginald Whitt also told fellow clerics in an Oct. 21 letter that he wanted to offer clarification about his role as the new Episcopal vicar for ministerial standards and that of the new lay task force whose members he chose.

Because “serious allegations” have surfaced over the last several weeks concerning certain priests and the handling of their cases, Whitt wrote, clergy would have an opportunity to be briefed and ask questions at Wednesday’s “clergy study day.”

Laurie Wohlers, an administrative assistant at the archdiocese, said in an Oct. 22 email to priests that Archbishop John Nienstedt would speak about the “current crisis” at the session. Later that day, she said, auxiliary Bishop Lee Piche would address the meeting.

Whitt said he would not attend. He teaches at St. Thomas that day, an archdiocese spokesman said.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on October 28, 2013 at 6:54 PM

The pastor of a Roman Catholic church in Hillsborough has been removed from ministry over allegations that he sexually abused a child in the late 1970s.

The Rev. Msgr. Raymond L. Cole, 70, who leads St. Joseph Parish in the Somerset County community, was an associate pastor at St. Mary Parish in South Amboy when the alleged abuse occurred, according to a letter read aloud during weekend Masses at St. Joseph.

Metuchen Bishop Paul Bootkoski wrote in the letter that Cole “steadfastly denies the charges against him.” At the same time, the bishop wrote, canon law requires the removal of a priest when an allegation of sexual abuse “has been deemed to have a semblance of truth.”

Bootkoski said he was alerted to the allegation by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, which did not pursue criminal charges because the statute of limitations had long since passed.

A retired investigator from the prosecutor’s office looked into the claim on behalf of the diocese. The Diocesan Review Board, a panel of lay people and clergy members who examine sex abuse allegations — also investigated the matter, interviewing Cole and the alleged victim, Bootkoski said.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

by Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio,
Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio
October 28, 2013

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A task force created to address the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will only have access to information provided by a church official.

The task force will not investigate allegations against specific priests, and priest files will not be made public, according to an Oct. 21 letter to clergy by the Rev. Reginald Whitt.

Whitt, chosen by Archbishop John Nienstedt to create the task force, will control the panel’s access to information about clergy abuse. “Access to these files will be within my control, and limited only to what is necessary for the Task Force to be able to make an informed decision with respect to their policy review,” he wrote.

Whitt’s letter appears to contradict Nienstedt’s characterization of the task force as independent. It also raises the question of how the task force will be able to make fully informed decisions without access to all information.

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CANADA
Global News

[with video]

News Hour anchor Chris Gailus sits down exclusively tonight with John Furlong, the former head of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and the man at the centre of allegations of physical and sexual abuse.

Three former students of a Catholic school in Northern B.C. have filed civil claims alleging abuse at the hands of Furlong over four decades ago.

For the first time tonight, Furlong speaks with News Hour anchor Chris Gailus, and tells his side of the story.

The full, 27-minute interview will air at 7 p.m. on BC1. It will also be live streamed on our website globalnews.ca/bc.

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ARKANSAS
UALR Public Radio

By MICHAEL HIBBLEN

Former Mount St. Mary Academy teacher and volleyball coach Kelly O’Rourke, who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a student, was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison for repeatedly contacting the victim.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports Judge Barry Sims said he was coming down hard on the teacher for willfully disregarding the court’s no-contact order after pleading guilty in the case.

Last month O’Rourke pleaded guilty to violating the terms of her original sentence and read a statement in court apologizing for her actions.

O’Rourke is alleged to have called the student more than 50 times while serving a four month sentence.

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ARKANSAS
Daily Journal

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: October 28, 2013

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas — An ex-teacher teacher at an all-girls school has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after contacting a girl she was convicted of sexually assaulting in 2010 and 2011.

Kelly O’Rourke was fired from Mount St. Mary Academy last year. Judge Barry Sims sentenced O’Rourke to a 15-year prison term but suspended all but 120 days and told the ex-teacher to stay away from the victim. Sims said Monday that O’Rourke instead contacted the girl more than 50 times.

Sims said O’Rourke willfully disregarded the court’s order and that he had to come down “pretty hard” on the ex-teacher. O’Rourke apologized.

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ARKANSAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday October 28, 2013

Statement by Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director, 314-862-7688 SNAPdorris@gmail.com

We are grateful that this dangerous predator was given a long sentence. Children are safe when predators are behind bars.

This woman chose to use her position of trust and respect as a teacher to harm a child entrusted to her care. This behavior cannot be tolerated. We applaud the judge for sending a strong statement to anyone who has the privilege of working with children; if you exploit your position for criminal behavior you will be held accountable.

Kelly O’Rourke was serving time when she broke the terms of her sentencing. Her blatant disregard for the judicial system makes us even more concerned that she cannot be trusted.

We beg anyone who has been harmed by her to come forward and begin healing. We encourage anyone with knowledge of these crimes to work with law enforcement so that she will continue to have no access to children.

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UNITED STATES
Associated Baptist Press

If churches are to “act justly” in dealing with clergy sex abuse allegations, outsiders are essential.

By Christa Brown

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary president Paige Patterson preaches that churches should resolve their conflicts internally and should not take them to “the world of unbelief.”

This means, he explains, that when a person has been “offended … misused and abused” within the church, he should take his complaint to church elders and the congregation, and should not go to the courts or talk to the press. In the final prayer of his sermon, Patterson included even “the government” among those to whom church members should not take their troubles.

This insular sort of anti-outsider stance is dreadfully dangerous. Yet, for decades, it has been a common Baptist teaching, and tragically, it is now being inculcated into still another generation of Baptist pastors.

Outsiders are essential to any organizational system of accountability. They bring objectivity and detachment, and these ingredients are critical for the effectiveness and credibility of an accountability system. Without outsiders, you get cover-ups and cronyism.

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MINNESOTA
The Journal

October 27, 2013

It has been painful the past few weeks to watch the situation with the Archdiocese St. Paul and Minneapolis develop. Whether or not you are Catholic, the issue of child sex abuse, especially by clergy of any denomination, is a serious one. The fact that it continues to affect the Catholic Church can be frustrating.

The crux of the crisis with the archdiocese goes beyond the fact of the abuse that happened, but how the archdiocese has reportedly reacted in the past to allegations and reports of clerical sex abuse. Have archdiocesan officials reacted in a manner that would protect children and church members, or in a manner that would protect the church’s reputation?

It is a truth that has been apparent in the U.S. since the Watergate scandal that it’s not the crime, but the coverup that causes the most problems. When an organization – political, religious, whatever – finds itself dealing with the wrongdoing of a member or faction, the best course of action (and the hardest, it seems) is to come clean, denounce the wrongdoing, excise it from the organization and reaffirm that the organization is on the proper path. It is all too tempting to cover up, to hush up, to deny and to circle the wagons.

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GERMANY
The Independent (UK)

TONY PATERSON Author Biography SUNDAY 27 OCTOBER 2013

Germany’s recently suspended “Bishop of Bling” faces the prospect of seeing his lavish multimillion euro residence turned into a refugee centre or a soup kitchen for the homeless, Catholic church officials in his home diocese announced today.

Bishop Franz Peter Tebartz-van Elst was formally suspended last week amid accusations that he had spent over €31m (£26.5m) on renovating his official residence in Limburg. The charges, which earned the 53-year-old bishop his nickname, provoked outrage among German Catholics.

Yesterday, church officials in Limburg said they were taking their own steps to admonish him.

“The residence is like an inherited sin which the bishop has left in his wake,” said a spokesman for the Caritas organisation for the homeless. “People who seek sanctuary with us could be given food in the residence,” he added.

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CANADA
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 28 October 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father:

– appointed Bishop Richard Joseph Gagnon as archbishop of Winnipeg (area 116,405, population 723,000, Catholics 169,000, priests 82, permanent deacons 19, religious 135), Canada. Archbishop Gagnon, previously bishop of Victoria, was born in Lethbridge, Canada in 1948, was ordained to the priesthood in 1983, and received episcopal ordination in 2004. He succeeds Archbishop James Weisgerber, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese, upon having reached the age limit, was accepted by the Holy Father.

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UNITED STATES
skipshea

Skip Shea

There are certain times in an artists life that are used as milestones. I’m about to achieve one. My horror short, “Ave Maria“, will screen at the Interiora Horror Film Festival in Rome, Italy.

“Ave Maria” has already had is share of success and good fortune with film festivals having already screened at the Leamington Underground Cinema Film Festival in the UK, the Pawtucket film Festival in Rhode Island, the Horrible Imaginings Film Festival in San Diego, CA and Rock and Shock in Worcester, MA – which was also a milestone.

It is also still scheduled to screen at Germany After Dark Film Festival in Gronau, Germany and Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival in Buffalo, NY. All accomplishments I’m very proud of. But Rome…

It’s no secret but I’m often told I need to remind people that I am a survivor of clergy sexual abuse by a ring of Catholic priests in the Diocese of Worcester, MA. Survivor, victim etc. All words I can’t stand. But such was may path. And it has shaped the statements I make as an artist.

On November 2nd I’ll make a statement in Rome. It seems that, at least here in America all of these crimes are forgotten. People think it is over and done with. So much so that the likes of Cardinal Dolan of NY get to yuk it up with Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report or get a special seat at the dinner table with men who would be presidents, or at least wanted to be.

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VATICAN CITY
Blue and Green Tomorrow

Monday, October 28th, 2013 By Ilaria Bertini

Vatican City has been upgraded to a rating of EE for ethics from its previous EE minus, following the country’s moves to fight money laundering and make its financial operations more transparent.

The upgrade comes courtesy of Standard Ethics, an EU agency that rates countries within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on sustainability, responsible conduct and governance.

The countries that score the highest mark – EEE – are Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The UK is rated EEE minus, along with other EU countries such as Germany, Austria and Spain.
Vatican City used to be ranked EE minus, alongside Brazil, Mexico and Romania, but recent measures to tackle corruption and illicit funding have allowed the country to move towards a more positive EE rating.

According to Standards Ethics, the upgrading has been achieved thanks to relevant steps taken to fight terrorism funding, money laundering and illegal financial operations. In addition, one of the latest Vatican laws issued in October pushed for more transparent and controlled financial moves.

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WISONSIN
Kenosha News

By J.J. Steinhoff

Special to the Kenosha News

In the last few years I’ve noticed that many of the Catholic churches in Kenosha have reduced their Mass schedules. Even with these reductions, many parishes appear to be only half full during their weekly services and those in attendance seem to be more old than young. As a lifelong Catholic, I often wonder why so many people have left the church and what we can do to get them back. In my view, the first steps are to restore the image of the Catholic priest and to also make the public aware that the church has cleaned up its act.

To be clear, I was as disgusted as anyone when the sexual abuse scandals rocked the church back in 2002. The cover-up and subsequent payoffs by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee made it even worse. When the Kenosha News ran their front page story in July on the 10 local abusive priests, I studied documents on each one for hours. Some of the priests were alcoholics with emotional problems and some never should have been ordained to begin with. One in particular was nothing more than a monster who used his position of power to terrorize others. There is nothing that can be done to remove the pain of each victim, their families and all of those who were involved in this scandal. However, it’s time to move on and look at some current facts about today’s Catholic Church, and specifically its priests.

Almost all accusations against Catholic priests date from many decades ago, and nearly half of all abuse accusations concern priests who are already long dead. The 10 priests who were featured in the Kenosha News over the summer fit this profile. None of them had performed Mass in this area for many years, yet judging by their pictures on the front page, it appeared as if they were current and active priests. Nationally, in today’s Catholic Church, accusations against current clergy are very rare and averaged only eight per year between 2005-2012. With an overall Catholic population of 77 million people, this is a very low number.

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MINNESOTA
SDPB

[with audio]

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now comes the kind of story George Polk would have pursued, sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. And indeed, several Boston newspapers won a Polk Award for their reporting on the subject back in 2003.

Recently, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis was rocked by revelations of abuse. A former official says church leaders covered up numerous cases of sexual misconduct by priests and even made special payments to known pedophiles, this in archdiocese that claimed to be a national leader in dealing with the issue.

In this encore broadcast, Madeleine Baran of Minnesota Public Radio brings us the story last week.

MADELEINE BARAN, BYLINE: To understand what’s happening now, it helps to go back to 2002, when the U.S. Catholic Church faced a crisis brought on by its failure to remove abusive priests from ministry. Archbishop Harry Flynn of St. Paul and Minneapolis emerged as a national leader on the issue, urging bishops at a now-historic conference in Dallas to root out what he called a cancer in the church.

ARCHBISHOP HARRY FLYNN ST. PAUL-MINNEAPOLIS ARCHDIOCESE: This is a defining moment for us this morning as bishops.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

In my previous posting, I referred to a report Fr. Thomas Reese has published at National Catholic Reporter regarding Bishop Charles Scicluna’s recent address to the Canon Law Society of America. Scicluna was previously the Promoter of Justice for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican. In that capacity, he was, as Reese notes, roughly the equivalent of the Vatican’s “chief prosecutor” for cases of clerical abuse in the Catholic church.

As I read what Scicluna has to say about how canon law addresses abuse cases, I’m struck by the following:

1. The emphasis of Scicluna’s reading of canon law (and this reflects the emphasis of canon law itself) is far and away skewed in the direction of protecting the rights and serving the needs of clerics–while the rights and needs of lay Catholics, and notably of lay Catholics abused by clerics, are only distantly addressed by canon law.

2. Scicluna notes that canon law envisages three ends in any process considering the guilt of a cleric: these are “reparation of scandal, restitution of justice and the conversion of the accused.” Only the second of these ends can in any way be said to address the needs of those abused by priests, and it does so only in a glancing way.

3. What’s very clear in Scicluna’s presentation is that canon law itself sees the primary problems in an abuse case as tamping down all reports that can lead to scandal and as “converting” the priest himself. Canon law has almost no room at all for considering the needs of lay Catholics who have been sexually abused by a priest, or for addressing the hurts and mending the injuries done to those who have been abused.

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WISCONSIN
Fox 6

October 27, 2013, by Derica Williams

WAUWATOSA (WITI) — The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office is investigating whether a former priest stole money from Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Wauwatosa.

Members of the congregation gathered on Sunday, October 27th to learn more about the alleged activity of their former priest, Father James Dokos. Church attorney Emmanuel Mamalakis presented members with the findings and sequence of events that led them to the District Attorney’s Office.

“We were doing some work on accounting. We were cleaning up papers and as we were going through, we noticed some issues,” explained Mamalakis.

The issue was first discovered in February when Father Dokos received a reimbursement check for his health insurance premium. It was later discovered that he was allegedly tapping into church funds.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

The number of rape cases the police are referring to prosecutors has tumbled to its lowest level in five years prompting fears that adult victims in Jimmy Savile-like historic abuse cases are not being taken seriously as under-pressure officers ”cut corners”.

Police forces in the last financial year sent 5,404 rape cases to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for it to decide whether to charge alleged offenders – over 2,700 less than in 2010-11, CPS figures released by Solicitor General Oliver Heald showed.

The drop-off came despite a steady increase in the number of rapes reported to the police in England and Wales between 2008 and 2013, prompting shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry to voice concerns that officers under pressure following budget cuts may be ”cutting corners”.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Governor Jerry Brown denies justice for those sexually abused as children

Mark Crawford

Last week Catholic officials were jubilant when Governor Jerry Brown chose to kill bill SB 131, which would have temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for some child victims of sexual abuse. The governor made several excuses as to why he struck down the bill. He referenced the Romans who first used the “statute of limitations” centuries ago. Curious choice, but had Governor Brown, the former Jesuit seminarian done his homework sufficiently he would have learned that the application of the statute of limitations, at that time, applied to debts, or money owed, not crimes. In fact, the Romans were more than harsh with those who violated the law for far lesser crimes. I have never heard of Pontius Pilot discussing the statute of limitations before ordering a crucifixion, have you?

Have church leaders and Governor Brown forgotten about a man called Jesus Christ? Only in the last 100 years have lawyers began to apply SOL to other “infractions” of the law. Church officials and the governor’s main argument is an example of hypocrisy at its finest. Both claimed the bill was “unfair” as it only applied to victims of private institutions, not public. Was it was unfair to exclude some of the victims? Perhaps, but their solution to this disparity was to deny everyone the opportunity for justice by vetoing bill SB 131. Why not pass this bill, as it afforded justice to some victims and THEN introduce a bill that would include public institutions as well? Neither Church officials nor the Governor has spoken of any such intention.

We have repeatedly heard church officials claim “evidence is lost, witnesses die and memories fade” as a reason to oppose reforming statute of limitation laws throughout our country. We now know in many cases the opposite is often true. There is in fact much evidence. Should we simply forget about the cases that have concrete record of criminal behavior or wrong-doing? Of course not. Then why should they be time-barred as well? I don’t hear the Catholic conference, our bishops or the governor speaking about that injustice.

We know there have been instances in which priests admitted to molesting children, plenty of examples in which the priest wrote or texted his victim discussing his sexual acts and we know there have been cases where church officials held documents detailing claims of previous victims. We saw several clear examples in the recently released files of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, where Cardinals and bishops worked to conceal these crimes from law enforcement and the faithful. How could Governor Brown not see the appalling injustice of protecting powerful institutions, which sought to violate civil law over the need to protect children from known predators? The acts of exposing past crimes and allowing victims civil rights protect children. They are also a deterrent to institutions that put self-preservation before child protection.

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UNITED STATES
Vatican Insider

A “Religious News Service” study warns that the number of baptisms and church weddings has dropped. “People want God but they’re not happy with churches”

MARCO TOSATTI
ROME

Religious News Service, an independent interfaith news service raised the alarm bell. The country which has “In God we trust” stamped on its currency seems in fact to be trusting in God less and less every year since the motto first appeared on coins in 1864 and later became the national motto in 1956.

The study carried out by the Religious New Service, shows that one in five Americans today say they have no religious identity. Religious practice has taken a dive among people of any denomination who call themselves Christian, starting with children’s baptism. In 1970 there were 426,000 marriages in U.S. Catholic churches — a full 20% of all U.S. marriages that year. By contrast, in 2011, there were 164,000 such weddings — only 8% of all marriages. But in both years, Catholics were 23% of the national population. Baptisms have followed the same trend. Back in 1970 there were approximately 1 million baptisms registered but by 2011 this had dropped to exactly 793,103.

“There is a de-emphasis on practicing faith. People want God but they’re not happy with churches,” the Rev. Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee said. According to Page, sacraments such as baptism have fallen victim to an “anti-denominational, anti-institutional, even anti-church era.” Like the Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) which rightly considers baptism a key part of the Christian faith, recorded 314,959 baptisms in 2012, a low which has not been seen since 1948. This is odd when one considers that the number of faithful joining the SBC has risen from 6 million back then to nearly 16 million now.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN OCTOBER 28, 2013

MORE than half of Catholics who attend mass believe the response of their church’s leadership to cases of child sex abuse by clergy has been inadequate and shows a complete failure of responsibility.

New research from a survey of about 2800 churchgoers in more than 200 parishes across the nation also shows that almost half say that the scandal has damaged their confidence in church authorities.

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MINNESOTA
Faribault County Register

October 27, 2013
by Brock Buesing – Register Staff Writer (bbuesing@faribaultcountyregister.com) , Faribault County Register

A former Blue Earth priest facing criminal sexual conduct charges caught a break in Faribault County District Court last week.

Judge Douglas Richards ruled in favor of a motion that favored Father Leo Charles Koppala in a motion hearing on Friday, Oct. 18.

Koppala, 47, was serving as a priest for Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Blue Earth and has been charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct from an alleged event on June 7.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

Some victims of Jimmy Savile have suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of revealing their experiences during the inquiries into the former DJ’s abuse at NHS hospitals.

They developed PTSD or had an ongoing PTSD made worse by the stress of having to go back to the hospitals where they were abused to tell their horrific stories.

Under the terms of the three separate inquiries, victims had to give evidence at either Broadmoor, Stoke Mandeville or Leeds General Infirmary.

They have revealed the experience of having to relive their ordeals at the place the abuse happened caused intense stress.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Ruben Rosario
POSTED: 10/26/2013

“Hide the truth and you hide Christ” — A popular Greek saying.

It was 2002. A publicly embarrassing clergy child sex-abuse scandal was unfolding in a large city on the East Coast. Take a wild guess which one.

It wasn’t long before Jonathan Bernstein’s phone rang. Bernstein is a successful Los Angeles County-based crisis-management expert. The folks at the other end of the conference call included the archbishop, his spokesperson and a church lawyer.

They expressed interest in hiring his firm but first wanted his general advice on how best to snuff out the inferno of bad publicity.

Bernstein obliged.

“I told them that they needed to do three basic things — total candor, total transparency and total humility,” Bernstein told me last week. “They said, ‘Thank you very much,’ hung up, and I never heard from them again.”

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: BAIRD HELGESON , Star Tribune Updated: October 26, 2013

Revered for work with poor, the Rev. Kevin McDonough is accused of protecting abusers.

The Rev. Kevin McDonough charmed legislators as chaplain of the Minnesota Senate. He leveraged his community connections to revive a struggling St. Paul parish and school. On his way to the highest levels of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, he gained national stature in helping root out priest sexual misconduct.

Now the charismatic parish priest finds himself at the center of growing controversy and outrage over how the Twin Cities archdiocese handles cases of clergy sex abuse. Newly revealed documents paint a picture of someone protecting accused priests while methodically working behind the scenes to limit damage to the church.

McDonough had a key role in at least three cases of alleged priest sexual misconduct that, combined, have resulted in a lawsuit against the archdiocese, a priest in jail, the resignation of a top archdiocesan official and calls for the resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt.

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