ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

By David Clohessy

Every single day, I try my best to read – or at least skim – every single article about clergy abuse I can find. One reason is because of guys like Fr. Anthony Daly, a Jesuit.

And I try even harder to read the smaller or more obscure new sources. One reason is because of stories like the one I recently saw in the St. Louis University News. There I found a statement by Fr. Daly that’s very telling.

WHAT HE SAID

Fr. Daly confirmed that each year he takes (an abuse) exam (from his religious order).

“Every year I’ve got to do [the exam] so that if someone sues our order, the settlement will be less.”

[The University News]

WHY IT MATTERS:

Catholic officials have long claimed their abuse policies, procedures and protocols are well-intentioned. We disagree.

They claim the policies are about “helping” victims and “preventing” abuse.

We say they’re about smart public relations and legal defense.

And Fr. Daly’s comment proves our point.

LET’S GET SPECIFIC

Look at some of the parts of the “Dallas Charter” and ask yourself “Who really benefits from this?”

— They set up one person in each diocese to handle abuse reports. This makes dioceses look good. But ask yourselves: is this genuine reform, or simply savvy PR and simple efficiency? (And ask yourselves: did any mom or dad try to report the abuse of his or her child but give up because the diocese had no “point person” designated to handle abuse.)

— They’ll talk of fingerprinting/background checks of staff. But most church officials conceal clergy sex crimes so predator priests rarely have convictions on their records. And this doesn’t address the core issue: corrupt, callous bishops with limitless power.

— They set up review boards, but these panels are entirely handpicked by bishops, made up almost always of just Catholics, have no real power, can only make recommendations, and get almost all of their information from the same chancery staff who have concealed and are concealing pedophile priests. And again, these committees don’t address the core issue: corrupt, callous bishops with limitless power that is often abused.

— They talk of training kids & volunteers. But of course this doesn’t address the core issue: corrupt, callous bishops. And other groups that deal with kids did this decades ago. And actions speak louder than words, so all the workbooks and talk and training sessions have little impact when the church hierarchy remains secretive, reckless, & unresponsive.

— They talk of ‘codes of conduct’ that employees must now sign saying “I won’t abuse.” But these are, of course, utterly meaningless. (Is there a child molesting cleric anywhere who pondered molesting a kid, realized he or she had never signed a pledge to NOT molest, so opted to go ahead and molest?)

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.

KENYA
Standard Digital

By Mercy Kahenda

Police are interrogating three suspects who allegedly burnt a minor in Ponda Mali estate on the outskirts of Nakuru town, claiming they were exorcising demons from her.

The suspects were reportedly in a group of seven, all of whom are members of The Holy Spirit of Israel Church during the last Friday night incident. County Police Commander Hassan Barua said four other suspects associated with the burning of the 13-year-old girl are still at large.

Mr. Barua said police officers are following leads to arrest the suspects, who are well known to the victim.

“Officers are following some leads to arrest the suspects, who have since gone into hiding. This is a criminal incident that cannot be accepted,” he said.

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.

NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Rev. Alexander Santora/For the Jersey Journal
on January 19, 2016

Archbishop Bernard Hebda made it official: he’s staying in the Newark Archdiocese.

Ever since the coadjutor or assisting Archbishop, was given a second job last June as Temporary Administrator of the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis, rumors have swirled that he would remain there. “I will be there until a new man is installed and expect to come back,” said Hebda in a wide-ranging, one-hour interview in the archbishop’s conference room at the Newark chancery on Clifton Street. “I’ve said this from the very beginning.”

Having come to Newark in November 2013, Hebda made a very positive impression as he visited parishes, schools, deanery meetings and attended events. But much of that has been curtailed since he travels to Minnesota weekly – a five hour trek to get to and from the airport with a three hour flight.

Archbishop John Nienstedt resigned on June 15, 2013. Archbishop Carlo Vigano, the Apostolic Nuncio, called Hebda the Saturday before to alert him to the possibility and inform him that Pope Francis would appoint him administrator.

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.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Rajeev Syal
Monday 18 January 2016

A former Conservative MP who is under investigation for child murder has accused the Metropolitan police of attempting to kill off the Westminster paedophile inquiry to protect the careers of senior officers.

Harvey Proctor made the claim after the Met’s Operation Midland – which is investigating claims that establishment figures murdered and raped boys – dropped claims of child abuse against the war hero Lord Bramall.

Steve Rodhouse, deputy chief constable of the Met, who is in charge of Operation Midland, has written to Proctor’s solicitors to say that detectives are assessing new information which could be relevant to their inquiry.

The former MP for Billericay, who denies the claims against him, said Rodhouse’s latest claim was part of a plan to kill off Operation Midland by degrees.

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.

ROME
Catholic Herald (UK)

Mgr Nunzio Scarano was found not guilty of involvement in a huge tax evasion plot

A former Vatican accountant has been cleared of corruption and plotting to smuggle millions of euros into Italy via a tax evasion scheme.

Mgr Nunzio Scarano was chief accountant for Apsa, which manages the Vatican’s property portfolio, until his arrest in 2013.

At a court in Rome, Mgr Scarano was found innocent of corruption and attempted money-smuggling but was convicted of making false accusations against one of his co-defendants, and was handed a two-year suspended sentence.

Mgr Scarano had denied plotting to transport €20 million (£15.2 million) in untaxed cash on a private plane from Switzerland to Italy.

A financial broker and a former intelligence agent were also allegedly involved in the plot, prosecutors claimed, but the agent was not able to carry out the plan.

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.

ROME
International Business Times

BY VISHAKHA SONAWANE ON 01/19/16

A court in Rome acquitted a former Vatican accountant Monday of corruption charges and plotting to smuggle millions of untaxed euros into Italy from Switzerland. Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was also facing a separate trial for money laundering in the southern Italian town of Salerno, charges he denied.

Prosecutors alleged that Scarano conspired to smuggle 20 million euros (about $22 million), using a private plane, from Switzerland in a tax-evasion scheme on behalf of a rich family of ship owners from Naples, Agence France-Presse reported. The Rome court acquitted Scarano of corruption and attempted money-smuggling charges but found him guilty of making false accusations against one of his co-defendants, for which the ex-accountant was handed down a two-year suspended sentence, according to AFP. Scarano, who has been nicknamed “Mr. 500” for his reported tendency to carry 500 euro bills on his person, denied any wrongdoing.

According to prosecutors, a former intelligence agent and a financial broker were also part of Scarano’s money-smuggling plot. They added that the agent, who allegedly rented the private plane, was unable to execute the plan. During the trial, the cases involving the agent and the broker were separated from Scarano’s case, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Scarano worked for Apsa, an organization that looks after the Vatican’s real estate holdings and stock portfolios, until his arrest in 2013. After his arrest, the Vatican froze the monsignor’s assets, worth 2.2 million euros (over $2.3 million).

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.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Prestigious Hobart boys school, The Hutchins School, has admitted that “more could have been done” to respond to concerns about the sexual abuse of students.

The school has formally responded to findings of abuse at the school, which were outlined in a report by the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse.

The commission investigated reports of abuse by former headmaster David Lawrence and teacher Lyndon Hickman in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the Anglican Church’s response.

It noted that given the number of students who had complained about sexual abuse and the number of teachers implicated, the nature of the school environment “clearly placed students at risk”.

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.

AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL
The Times of Israel

For more than a year, the State Attorney’s Office has been trying without success to extradite an ultra-Orthodox woman who is wanted in Australia on 74 counts of sexual assault against Jewish girls who were her students in a Melbourne school.

The woman, Malka Leifer, allegedly assaulted the girls while she was principal of the Adass Israel School in Melbourne, Australia, until 2008.

Leifer today lives in Bnei Brak, a largely ultra-Orthodox city in central Israel where she is under house arrest. She fled Australia to Israel, allegedly with the help of school employees, on the night she got wind of the allegations against her in 2008.

The school psychologist told Leifer that she was facing arrest, and on the same day the school staff bought plane tickets for her and her family, according to evidence presented at a civil trial in Australia last year.

Most of Leifer’s alleged victims were 14-15 years old at the time of the assaults.

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.

WASHINGTON
The Daily World

A handful of former Catholic clergymen from Grays Harbor and Pacific counties have been included on a list of clergy and religious officials accused of sexually abusing a minor.

The list was compiled by the Archdiocese of Seattle and is “being published as part of the Archdiocese of Seattle’s ongoing commitment to transparency and to encourage persons sexually abused by clergy or by anyone working on behalf of the church to come forward.”

Included on the list are Richard Stohr, who was assigned at Our Lady of Good Help in Hoquiam from 1970-1973, James McSorley, assigned to St. Mary in Aberdeen in 1982 and Anthony Slane, who was assigned to Our Lady of Good Help in Hoquiam from 1982-1987.

In Pacific County, James Knelleken was at Immaculate Conception in Raymond from 1958 to 1964.

All four of the men are deceased.

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.

UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Patrick Beretta

Leaves fall early in Montana. On the first day of October, the trees, in front of St Patrick Church in Butte, seemed to welcome Bishop George Thomas with bare, ascetic arms. He was coming to our church to deliver a solemn message on the terribly dark subject of child abuse. On all of us gathered, the crisis had taken a heavy toll. None of us knew what to expect. As we waited, our souls felt as naked and cold as branches.

Just as humanity has always been on the move, from its origins the Church has also been in motion. Since the time of the apostles it became a pilgrim church on the Silk Road, Roman thoroughfares, Mediterranean sailings. But the primary journey of the Church has always been interior. Some of these pilgrimages within were transcendent, some were tragic. The recent child abuse scandal has been a pilgrimage of great shame and sorrow.

My only personal encounter with the horror of child abuse was not within the Church. Years ago, I had a restaurant employee who, one evening, did not come to work. After days of wild speculations and contradictory rumors, his daughter came to see me. Nothing in life had prepared me for the experience she recounted. Her father had been arrested because, as a child, she had been sexually abused by him. The staff and I knew them both very well and we literally felt physically sick for days afterwards. The dreadful abuse of one child had made victims of all of us.

Since the painful subject of clergy sexual child abuse came to the attention of the media, a false narrative has emerged. The scrutiny and the numerous investigations and reports have given the false impression that child abuse is essentially a catholic scourge. Whereas all surveys in the US and other countries have shown this crime to be widespread and not specific to particular religious affiliations. Indeed some evidence shows that the incidence in public institutions is higher. And, further, most abusers by far are family members and home is the most common setting

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.

UNITED STATES
Forward

No matter what happens at the Oscars, the very best film of 2015 was “Spotlight,” the improbable drama of how a team of newspaper reporters painstakingly revealed an institutional cover-up of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The film’s excellence lay not only in its superb acting and storytelling, but in the way it humanized without sensationalizing the lasting pain of child abuse.

Who can forget the scene of a tough Bostonian recounting how a priest molested him when he was a vulnerable youngster? His confusion, embarrassment and shame were laid bare on the screen before us, allowing us to viscerally understand how it can take years for a young victim to comprehend what happened and to muster the courage to challenge a figure of religious authority.

That image needs to remain in our sights, alongside the images of the young men the Forward wrote about in 2012 and 2013 who bravely stepped up to reveal the abuse they suffered at the hands of esteemed rabbis at Yeshiva University High School for Boys.

And it should remain alongside the stunning essay by Sara Kabakov published in this week’s Forward, where she for the first time detailed how she was repeatedly molested in her home by the former rabbi and spiritual guru Marc Gafni when she was only a teenager and he was a rabbinical student.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Geelong Advertiser

January 18, 2016

DANNY LANNEN
Geelong Advertiser

PARISH priest Fr Kevin Dillon wants St Mary’s Basilica’s Yarra St fence to shout on behalf of victims of institutional sexual abuse.

The acclaimed advocate joined abuse survivor Chris Pianto tying ribbons to the fence yesterday, signalling it had become part of the Loud Fence movement which originated in Ballarat and has gone global.

Fr Dillon urged people to follow the lead by tying ribbons for themselves or in support of victims they might know.

“The invitation is there,” Fr Dillon said.

“Such a simple little sign lots of people can do which over time will bring I think a sense of recognition for people.

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.

MASSACHUSETTS
Item

LYNN —Â The longtime pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish, The Rev. James Gaudreau, is not being charged after a yearlong investigation into an allegation of child sexual abuse.

“I thank God and His Blessed Mother for this day of deliverance, and I thank all those parishioners of St. Joseph’s Parish and others who stood by me and prayed for me during this long ordeal,” Gaudreau said in a statement through his attorney. “My conscience was always clear. I knew that I was innocent of any wrongdoing. I was also confident that, in time, I would be thoroughly exonerated.”

But Gaudreau remains on administrative leave pending the conclusion of an investigation by the archdiocese.

“While the criminal investigation may have concluded, Gaudreau is well aware that the ecclesiastical process can now continue,” Terrence Donilon, a spokesperson for the archdiocese, said in an email Monday. “Under our policies and procedures a preliminary investigation may now continue given that it will not interfere with a civil investigation. Gaudreau remains on administrative leave and restricted from public ministry. Our thoughts and prayers remain with all persons affected by these matters.”

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SLOVENIA
STA

Ljubljana, 19 January – The Supreme Court has upheld a 2013 judgement that ordered the Catholic Church to pay damages to a victim of a paedophile priest thus setting a precedent for any further damages suits, according to the daily Delo.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By Rosemary Parker | rparker3@mlive.com
on January 19, 2016

BATTLE CREEK, MI — A pastor was sick. Another priest was available.

When Archbishop John Nienstedt celebrated three Masses at St. Philip Catholic Church this weekend, he was merely helping out his old friend Fr. John Fleckenstein, who is ill. He plans to continue to help as needed for about a six months.

In the eyes of the Diocese of Kalamazoo, it’s just a matter of old friends who made an arrangement between themselves in a way that does not violate any rule of the Diocese, a spokesperson said.

Nienstedt may have passed muster with church leaders. But many parents, community members and former victims of sexual abuse are angered by the arrival of the archbishop who is embroiled in one of the ugliest clergy sex scandals in the country, at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Nienstedt and his high-ranking clergy were accused of repeatedly ignoring warnings, for years, about sexually abusive priests, and of failing to contact law enforcement to report possible criminal acts they knew about.

“The entire nation’s Roman Catholic child sexual abuse scandal just moved to Battle Creek,” said former Catholic priest and monk Patrick Wall, now a Minnesota attorney, about the decision to allow Nienstedt to fill in as a temporary volunteer priest here.

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.

KENTUCKY
WAVE

[with video]

By Connie Leonard

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – It was a shocking confession when a Louisville priest and former St. Margaret Mary Pastor admitted to accessing child porn. Now, as Steven Pohl waits to be sentenced, some parents have signed a petition demanding photographs.

According to the parents attorney, the petition has more than 100 signatures. During the investigation of Pohl it was discovered that he took photos of some students fully clothed, in what was described as inappropriate stances or positions.

Parents involved with the petition want to make sure those photos are preserved so they can see them and depending on what they find, a civil suit could follow.

Even if there were no student victims at St. Margaret Mary as Federal investigators have said, there were some students who ended up in those clothed photos taken by Pohl. Those photos were not part of the child pornography case against the priest who has now pleaded guilty to accessing child porn on his computer. Some parents want to see them anyway. A parent driven petition obtained by WAVE 3 News asks the Archdiocese of Louisville, St. Margaret Mary, the U.S. Attorney’s office, the FBI and other agencies to provide those the images. A return letter from the school explained to parents that Federal authorities have the images.

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/MICHIGAN
City Pages

BY MIKE MULLEN
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016

t’s hard enough getting a job these days. Here’s a tip: You don’t have to include all of your work experience, especially if you’re not sure listing a previous gig will help you get the new job. Say, for example, your former employer is in bankruptcy, and you’ve been indicted as a lead figure in a conspiracy to cover up the sexual abuse of children. That might be something you would leave off your resume.

This sort of selective memory is our best guess for the surprisingly swift career comeback for Archbishop John Nienstedt. Nienstedt held that post with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for eight years. But he vacated his position in June, for some fairly obvious reasons. The church was in bankruptcy, and, by August, would be facing more than 400 claims of sexual abuse by parishioners.

Reason number two: The archdiocese had been indicted on criminal charges, which alleged that Nienstedt and other higher-ups in the church had repeatedly ignored or quieted disturbing talk about Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, now in prison for sexual abuse and child pornography.

The nature of Nienstedt’s assignment by the Kalamazoo Diocese is unclear: He’s filling in for another priest, who has come to Mayo Clinic for treatment of a serious illness; it’s also not apparent if Nienstedt is being paid or is just taking the position as a favor to the church.

His role was announced quietly in a local church bulletin, and Nienstedt has variously been described as “retired” or “emeritus,” as in this statement, given to the National Catholic Reporter:

“Archbishop Emeritus Nienstedt begins his temporary ministry at St. Philip Parish as a priest in good standing, having met the Church’s stringent standards required to attain that status.”

Said “good standing” is good enough for some of Nienstedt’s new parishioners, who told WWMT television station in Michigan that Nienstedt seemed like a decent enough guy on first impression. One guy shook hands with Nienstedt, and thought that went well. Another churchgoer says Nienstedt “denies any kind of wrongdoing and I feel he is telling the truth.”

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.

LOUISIANA
Beaumont Enterprise

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Retired Archbishop Francis B. Schulte, who led the Archdiocese of New Orleans from 1989 to 2001, has died in his native Philadelphia.

Archdiocese spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey McDonald says Schulte died on Sunday at a church-run retirement facility. He was 89.

Schulte, who was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1952, served as a bishop in Philadelphia and in West Virginia before he became the archbishop in New Orleans. McDonald said Schulte moved back to Philadelphia several years after his 2001 retirement.

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LOUISIANA
Louisiana Record

Chris Galford
Jan. 18, 2016

BATON ROUGE — One case has given rise to another, as the Rev. Jeff Bayhi filed a defamation and false light suit against Baton Rouge’s WBRZ-TV on Nov. 20, alleging the station misrepresented allegations in another case involving the Catholic priest as facts.

The case in question pertained to Rebecca Mayeux, who claims that at the age of 14 she was sexually abused by a now-deceased parishioner in Bayhi’s church, Our Lady of the Assumption in Clinton. In that case, she alleges Bayhi neglected his duty to Louisiana law by failing to report the alleged abuse. At the heart of the case is the notion that she made these initial claims in confessional. The question is whether the confidentiality of confessional overrides the obligation to report abuse.

“Should Father Bayhi violate that sacred seal in any way, his faculties as a Roman Catholic priest would be immediately and automatically suspended by the Vatican itself,” Henry Olinde Jr., Bayhi’s lawyer who is with the law firm of Olinde & Mercer in Baton Rouge, noted in the suit against WBRZ.

Previously, the Baton Rouge diocese had attempted to block Mayeux’s testimony on the grounds of that sacred seal, but State District Judge Mike Caldwell ruled that seal was Mayeux’s to break. After some back and forth up the legal chain, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the notion that priests are mandatory reporters of abuse and likewise that Mayeux had every right to waive her privilege of confession.

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.

ROME
Wall Street Journal

By LIAM MOLONEY
Jan. 18, 2016

ROME—A Rome court acquitted a former Vatican official on corruption charges tied to allegations that he had tried to smuggle millions of euros into Italy from Switzerland.

The court found Msgr. Nunzio Scarano innocent of having corrupted public officials as part of an alleged attempt to bring €20 million ($21.8 million) from Switzerland to Italy in a private plane in 2012 on behalf of friends.

Prosecutors alleged that Msgr. Scarano was working with a former member of the Italian Secret Service and a financial broker, but that the plan ultimately fell through because of bickering among the trio. He was accused of having bribed Italian police to smooth the way for transporting the cash. The two other individuals are being tried separately.

The monsignor is an accountant who had been a senior official at the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, or APSA, the Vatican office that manages the Holy See’s large real estate holdings. APSA has come under scrutiny for a lack of transparency in its financial dealings and is one of the targets of reforms to clean up the Holy See’s financial management.

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.

ROME
Boston Herald

Associated Press Monday, January 18, 2016

ROME — A court in Rome Monday acquitted an Italian monsignor, who was fired from his job as a Vatican accountant, of corruption, a defense lawyer for the priest said.

According to prosecutors, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was involved in a plot to use a private plane to try to smuggle 20 million euros (about $22 million) from Switzerland into Italy in a tax-evasion scheme. They suspected the money had been deposited in Switzerland to avoid Italian taxes.

A lawyer for Scarano, Silverio Sica, confirmed Italian news reports that the court acquitted his client of corruption but convicted him on a slander charge and gave him a suspended two-year sentence. The monsignor had denied any wrongdoing.

Prosecutors alleged that a former intelligence agent and a financial broker were part of the plot along with Scarano. The ex-agent, who allegedly had rented a plane to fly to Switzerland to get the money, never was able to carry out the mission, prosecutors contended. During the trial, the cases involving the ex-agent and the broker were separated from Scarano’s case.

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.

ROME
News 24

Rome – A former Vatican accountant known as “Mr 500” for his cash-rich lifestyle was acquitted by an Italian court on Monday of corruption and attempted money-smuggling.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was a chief accountant for APSA, the organisation that manages the Vatican’s vast real estate portfolio, before his arrest in June 2013 for allegedly plotting to smuggle millions of euros in cash into Italy.

Investigators had accused Scarano of hatching a plot to use a private plane to repatriate €20m that were untaxed from Switzerland, on behalf of a rich family of ship owners from Naples.

A court in Rome found Scarano innocent of corruption and attempted money-smuggling, but guilty of making false accusations against one of his co-defendants, slapping him with a two-year suspended sentence.

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.

ROME
Daily Mail

By Philip Pullella

ROME, Jan 18 (Reuters) – A former Vatican prelate was acquitted on Monday of conspiring to smuggle millions of euros in cash into Italy from Switzerland for rich friends.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano worked for 22 years as a senior accountant in APSA, a Vatican department that handles real estate and stock investments for the Holy See.

He was dismissed from his post after Italian magistrates charged him in June 2013 with plotting, along with an Italian secret service agent and a financial broker, to smuggle 20 million euros ($21.8 million) into Italy.

Prosecutors said a private plane had gone to Locarno in Switzerland in 2012 to pick up the cash and bring it into Italy without tax and customs controls. The plane returned without the cash because of last-minute complications at the Swiss bank where it was being held, officials said at the time.

The court in Rome found Scarano innocent of corruption and attempted money smuggling but guilty of a separate, lesser charge of making false accusations against one of the other defendants, for which he received a two-year suspended sentence. His two accused co-conspirators are being tried separately.

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PHILIPPINES
GMA News

When Pope Francis visited the Philippines last year, the most difficult questions he had to answer did not come from reporters. The questions came from a poor little girl.

“Marami na po ang mga batang pinabayaan ng kanilang mga magulang,” said Glyzelle Iris Palomar, 12. (Many children have been neglected by their parents.)

“Marami sa kanila ang naging biktima at masama ang nangyari, tulad ng droga o prostitusyon.” (Many of them have become victims, involved in bad circumstances such as drugs and prostitution.)

“Bakit po pumapayag ang Diyos na may ganitong nangyayari?” (Why does God allow these things to happen?)

She cried, and then continued: “At bakit kaunti lang ang tumutulong sa amin?” (And why are there only few who help us?)

Pope Francis repeated the girl’s question and then answered: “When the heart is unable to answer itself and cry, then we can understand.”

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UNITED STATES
USA Today

Andrea Mandell, USA TODAY January 18, 2016

LOS ANGELES — Spotlight edged forward in the Oscar race Sunday night.

The film overpowered big-budget movies such as The Revenant and Mad Max: Fury Road to win best picture at the Critics’ Choice Awards, a crucial step as the Academy Awards race tightens

Spotlight also took home the acting ensemble prize, but the investigative journalism film’s major competitors didn’t go home empty-handed. The Revenant’s Leonardo DiCaprio won best actor (he accepted via video from his media tour for the movie in Europe) and Mad Max cleaned out the action awards, winning action film, actor in an action film (Tom Hardy) and actress in an action film (Charlize Theron).

More tellingly, Mad Max director George Miller also took home the overall director prize (he wasn’t in attendance).

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MONTANA
Helena Independent Record

AL KNAUBER Independent Record

Some say preventing future sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic clergy may depend on ending the requirement for celibacy and allowing women into the priesthood.

But if that’s not likely to happen any time soon, then strict screening and psychological testing of those seeking ordination might be the best way to prevent future crimes by clergy against children.

These differing perspectives come in the wake of confirmation by the bankruptcy court of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in March that settled a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganization plan for the Diocese of Helena.

The judge approved a nearly $21 million plan to compensate the roughly 380 people who said they were sexually abused by Catholic priests and the Ursuline Sisters.

The bankruptcy court’s action comes after claims against the diocese were filed in 2011 by those who said they had been sexually abused.

The Associated Press reported in March 2015 that the majority of allegations were against Jesuit priests at the Ursuline Academy and the St. Ignatius Mission in St. Ignatius.

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MICHIGAN
WIN

BATTLE CREEK (WKZO-AM) — The retired archbishop from Minnesota who retired following a sex scandal in his diocese defended himself from the podium this weekend in Battle Creek.

Archbishop Emeritus John Nienstedt told the congregation that news reports released last week were not entirely accurate, and that he would never do what he’s been accused of doing.

Reaction from the congregation has been mixed.

John [David] Clohessy, the national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said it comes down to a simple question: “Why take the risk?”

The Kalamazoo Diocese said Nienstedt hasn’t actually been convicted, and is in good standing with the church.

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/MICHIGAN
Canonical Consultation

Jennifer Haselberger

01/17/2016

The Battle Creek Enquirer is reporting that Archbishop Nienstedt spoke with parishioners of St Philip parish in Battle Creek this weekend about the concerns over his appointment.

According to the January 17, 2016, article, Nienstedt blamed the furor over his appointment on critics who dislike his stance on same-sex marriage. In addition, he said that his resignation was not the result of anything that he had done wrong. The Enquirer reports that Nienstedt stated, “I resigned as archbishop in order for the local church to have a new beginning as they come out of bankruptcy and not because of something I had done wrong.”

Unfortunately, this is probably true. Archbishop Nienstedt would be the only person who would truly know what motivated his resignation. However, the reason that it was accepted by Pope Francis could be entirely different, which again demonstrates the point of why these resignations, as opposed to punitive actions, are insufficient.

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.

UNITED STATES
Church Militant

Someone is not being truthful about the whole question of homosexuality and the Catholic clergy.

Our Vortex report last week citing statistics saying somewhere between 15 and 58 percent of priests in America are homosexual seems to have touched a nerve. Some clerics responded privately as well as publicly saying “No way.” Others responded privately as well as publicly saying “Right on.” So which is it?

Then just as things were quieting down, along comes the Pope’s right-hand man last week saying that indeed a homosexual lobby exists in the Vatican, and the Pope is trying to deal with it. Of course, that can’t come as a shock to anyone, really.

You’ll recall that just before the Synod kicked off last October, Fr. Krzysztof Olaf Charamsa, who worked inside the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, came out with his boyfriend for all the world to see. And then, of course, there was Fr. Dariusz Oko of Poland, who released a damning report also indicating the presence of a so-called lavender mafia in the Church.

He said in his report that the same problem going on in the world with regard to a militant homosexual agenda driving everything is also happening in the Church — and it needs to be exposed. Moreover, shortly before Pope Benedict resigned, there was the issuance of a 300-page dossier delivered to him personally also giving details on the apparently not-so-secret homosexual lobby inside the Vatican.

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UNITED STATES
Santa Monica EdHat

By Rosie Sullivan

Directed by Tom McCarthy
Starring Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber
4.5/5 EdHats

With Oscar nominations announced on Thursday morning, it seemed apropos to share my take on one film that is up for numerous awards (including Best Picture).

If you see one film from 2015 (besides Star Wars: A Force Awakens) it should be Spotlight. With the tagline “the true story behind the scandal that shook the world” this film delivers a riveting whistle-blower tale of The Boston Globe versus the Catholic church.

Spotlight depicts the story of how the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation, sexual abuse, and ultimate cover-up within the Boston archdioces. In 2002, after eight months of research, The Boston Globe published almost 600 articles on child sex-abuse allegations against Catholic priests and the cover ups by the church which followed. The expose shook the entire Catholic Church to its core.

In other, less-adept, hands, this tale could have fallen flat. Director Tom McCarthy (of The Visitor, Meet the Parents, and Up fame) took what could have been simply people talking in a room and turned it into a captivating lively story. Spotlight comments not only on the disappearance of hard-hitting investigative journalism but also on the rampant sexual abuse of children within the Catholic Church which was long-ignored by the church itself and by society.

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UNITED STATES
The Argus

Exclusive by Joel Adams, Reporter

THE VICTIM of a bishop jailed for sexual abuse has demanded to know whether “a deal was done” to spare the clergyman a criminal conviction.

The former Bishop of Lewes Peter Ball was jailed for nearly three years last October for the sexual abuse of 16 young men.

Graham Sawyer, who was indecently assaulted by Ball while a teenager, told The Argus: “It’s difficult to know who is telling the truth in this case.

“It’s very important for everyone else’s sake that we find out whether a deal was done.”

His remarks follow the comments of a detective who was involved in a 1992 investigation of Ball which resulted in a caution but no criminal conviction for Ball.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor

By RAY DUCKLER
Monitor staff
Saturday, January 16, 2016

The South Parish Unitarian Church, locked during a cold winter rainstorm, looked like so many other churches in so many other towns.

Its steeple and clock, standing tall at the edge of Charlestown’s main strip, rose through the mist, a sign out front attached to weathered brick reading “built in 1844.”

Recently, a man named Mark Fleming, a former Catholic priest accused of molesting three young boys in the 1980s, worked at this historic site, perhaps breaking an agreement that forbade him from having contact with children younger than 16.

A Manchester attorney, Mark Abramson, who represented the boys in a civil suit in 2002, is still outraged that Fleming never served any prison time.

“It’s a shame the public can’t have the opportunity to hear in detail from these boys what happened,” Abramson said in a phone interview. “Now of course they are grown men, but they are haunted by this and it could have destroyed their lives, and to some extent it has.”

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MICHIGAN
WWMT

[with video]

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – Parishioners at a local Catholic church are standing behind the man who is at least temporarily leading their church.

At one point that man was under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct and covering up abuse.

On Sunday, church goers had a strong message for those they say are too quick to judge, saying they should wait until they have all the facts.

The Kalamazoo diocese recently brought in Archbishop John Nienstedt, a retired Archbishop at the Archdiocese of Minneapolis, St. Paul to serve as the assistant priest at St. Philip Roman Catholic Church in Battle Creek while Father John Fleckenstein receives medical care.

“I think he’s a wonderful person,” said parishioner Charles Rose. “I had a chance to shake hands with him and talk with him and welcomed him to Battle Creek and to the church.” …

Miky Kingsley attended mass at St. Philip today and tells Newschannel 3 that she thinks the facts have been skewed.

“He said none of the allegations have been proven and none of them are true,” said Kingley. “He denies any kind of wrongdoing and I feel that he is telling the truth.”

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MICHIGAN
Battle Creek Enquirer

Jennifer Bowman, Battle Creek Enquirer January 17, 2016

The controversial retired priest who is volunteering at St. Philip Catholic Church told parishioners that news media last week reported “misleading information” about him and “those who know me well would verify that I would not act in those ways suggested.”

“Personally, I believe that some critics did not like the strong stance that I was forced to take in defense of Catholic teachings,” John Nienstedt said, “particularly the traditional definition of marriage, and I think they would like to punish me for those stands.”

His statement received an applause from some parishioners Sunday morning.

Nienstedt, former archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 2008 until last year, is temporarily helping out at St. Philip as the Rev. John Fleckenstein deals with health issues. He addressed the media coverage as he led Mass on Sunday, telling parishioners he hoped the reports would not “jeopardize” his relationship with them and that he became a priest “to help, not hurt people.”

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UNITED STATES
CosmosTheInLost

January 13, 2016 by Artur Rosman

Isn’t it a space oddity that David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, landed on the same day as the latest round of Catholic sex scandals took off?

This coincidence, seen in the right light, appears as predestined as the plots of Kundera or Kieslowski. It also reveals something about the last acceptable prejudice and how little (what remains of) Western society really cares about the victims of sex abuse.

Let’s start with the Catholics, because in the public imagination they seem to have cornered the market on sex scandals. Catholic are under pressure because their guilt seems so obvious and culpable it could be represented in an elegant mathematical formula such as this one:

perverts + celibate priests + bad bishops + dumb laity = pedophile ~ Catholic

I’ve argued elsewhere that there is a necessary visibility to Catholicism that will not allow its past sins to disintegrate into (Ziggy) stardust. It also frequently leads to hasty generalizations like the equation above. But maybe this is for the good?

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MONTANA
Herald Courier

Associated Press

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Helena Bishop George Leo Thomas says the church had a duty to step up and accept responsibility for former priests and other employees who were accused of sexually abusing children.

Thomas tells the Independent Record (http://tinyurl.com/jf6vp9c ) the church could have fought claims by people in Montana who said they were abused, but it would not be right and they might never have seen a resolution to their cases.

Last year, the church posted a list online of the names of those accused. That was one condition of settling lawsuits filed by hundreds of people who said they were abused by priests, nuns and others dating back to the 1940s.

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
CBC News

Reconciliation starts with small moments and little steps toward mutual respect, says Reconciliation Canada co-founder, Chief Robert Joseph.

Joseph is one of approximately 150,000 First Nations children who suffered years of abuse, isolation and trauma in Canada’s residential schools. He is also the hereditary chief of the Gwawaenuk First Nation.

“True reconciliation, fundamentally, is about relationships. It means that you and I can coexist in mutual respect and all of us can afford each other dignity,” he said.

“Then we work on those issues that divide us. Sometimes it’s attitudinal racism, sometimes it’s economics, sometimes it’s social.”

Joseph is receiving an award from the Wallenberg Sugihara Civil Courage Society Sunday for his work.

The award is given to an individual who has stood up against social injustice at significant personal risk.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

Stephen McNeice

A Boston Globe journalist responsible for uncovering sexual abuse in the city at the hands of the Catholic Church says they realised the scale of the issue within days of starting research.

Walter Robinson was leader of the ‘Spotlight’ team that went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

In 2002, they launched an investigation into reports that children were being abused by priests.

The team went on to unveil a cover-up involving dozens of clergy members within the Boston Roman Catholic Archdiocese.

Their work is now portrayed in the Oscar-nominated film Spotlight, which is due on Irish cinema screens on January 29th. Michael Keaton plays Robinson in the film.

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.

MONTANA
Helena Independent Record

Helena Bishop George Leo Thomas held prayer services in seven Montana communities last year in the wake of a nearly $21 million settlement to resolve claims by about 380 people who accused the Diocese of Helena of sexual abuse.

Thomas spoke at churches in Helena, Bozeman, Butte, Cut Bank, Columbia Falls, St. Ignatius and Missoula, according to a list of the outreach efforts.

The services held in these seven communities were part of numerous nonmonetary provisions in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganization plan for the diocese that was confirmed by the Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, bankruptcy court in March 2015.

Resolution of the bankruptcy and reorganization plan came after lawsuits had been filed in state court by two groups in 2011, according to The Associated Press.

Though the outreach was required, Thomas said “with or without that agreement, this would have been necessitated by pastoral care. I think that the church has the obligation for outreach and conciliation, but also to pray for those who were victimized or aggrieved. And so I would have done that with or without any agreement with the plaintiffs.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Domradio

Das Bistum Mainz hat die Darstellung zurückgewiesen, kircheninterne Verfahren gegen Missbrauchstäter zu “verschleppen”. Diesen Vorwurf hatte Johannes Heibel von der “Initiative gegen Gewalt und sexuellen Missbrauch an Kindern und Jugendlichen” im “Spiegel” erhoben.

Heibel bezog sich auf den Fall des früheren Rüsselsheimer Pfarrers Norbert E., der “zwar vom Bistum Mainz nicht mehr beschäftigt” werde, aber weiterhin Gehalt beziehe und “für Kirchengemeinden als Organist und Chorleiter, auch mit Minderjährigen”, gearbeitet habe.

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DEUTSCHLAND
netzwerkB

[Of reconciliation in St. Blasien]

ARD BRISANT 16.01.2016

„Um Versöhnung geht es jetzt liebe Zuschauer und um ein Thema was regelmäßig in der Öffentlichkeit steht – Missbrauch, Verschweigen und Vertuschung in der katholischen Kirche.

Das alles deckte Jesuitenpater Klaus Mertes vor etwa sechs Jahren am Canisuis-Kolleg in Berlin auf und auch Norbert Denef aus Sachsen hat so ein Verbrechen am eigenen Leib erfahren.

Er und Pater Mertes haben sich jetzt getroffen – sie wollen gemeinsam eine Stiftung gründen.

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MINNESOTA/MICHIGAN
Canonical Consultation

Jennifer Haselberger

01/16/2016

In response to the intense media interest in Archbishop Nienstedt’s temporary gig at St Philip Parish in Battle Creek, Michigan, the Diocese of Kalamazoo sent the following letter to parents of children attending the school where Nienstedt is currently residing

(https://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/295728468?access_key=key-dXm2TYYtIvg9SzzG2Lhe&allow_share=true&escape=false&view_mode=scroll).

If the Diocese hoped this would calm the furor or assuage concerns, it would appear it was mistaken. I found this response, published in the Battle Creek Enquirer, particularly on point.

Finally, I am intrigued by the ‘additional assurances’ received by the Diocese regarding Archbishop Nienstedt’s fitness for ministry. Of most interest in this regard would be, of course, the report or reports of Greene and Espel. However, the Archdiocese has strenuously upheld (in court and elsewhere) that any work product of that investigation is privileged communication. If those reports were shared with the Diocese of Kalamazoo, that privilege may effectively have been waived.

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LAGOS
The Sun

BY OLAKUNLE OLAFIOYE

A LAGOS-BASED traditional priest has been arraigned in an Ikeja Magistrate Court for offences bordering on fraud and sexual crime.

The suspect, Ifatade Eleg­beleye Ademola, 42, who was dragged before the court presid­ed over by Mrs. O.A Olayinka Sunday Sun gathered, had allegedly detained and raped one of his female clients (name withheld) on March 12, 2012.

He was equally accused of casting a spell on his victim, who reportedly lost her senses, a development that paved way for Elegbeleye to manipulate his victim between March 2011 when he met the lady at Iyana Ipaja area of Lagos and April, 2013.

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NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY
New York Post

By Dean Balsamini
January 17, 2016

Kinky man of the cloth Rev. Peter Miqueli just can’t seem to quit his unholy habits.

The alleged S&M-loving, urine-swilling, collection-plate-stealing priest still has his muscle-bound “master” Keith Crist as a regular house guest at Miqueli’s Jersey Shore home, neighbors told The Post.

He also lets him tool around in a $50,000 red Lexus convertible registered to Miqueli. During a Post visit to the Brick, NJ, home last week, the flashy sports car discreetly wheeled straight into the garage via a remote-controlled door-opener.

“He’s here all the time,” said a neighbor, referring to the 41-year-old Crist. “Sometimes he takes in the groceries, the trash.

“They have no shame,” she said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Kent Online

by Tom Acres
tacres@thekmgroup.co.uk

The Church of England has refused to comment on the progress of a probe into allegations of historic child abuse at a Gravesend children’s home.

It was this time last year that an independent review into Kendall House was ordered by Bishop of Rochester James Langstaff.

Speaking at the time, the bishop said he hoped the investigation would help deal with concerns people had about the home.

He said: “It is my hope that this review will be of help in pastoral and other ways to all those who have concerns about Kendall House, and will also make clear any outstanding lessons which the Church of England and others need to learn.”

However, when contacted for an update on the review, a spokesman for the bishop said there were no further announcements or statements to be made.

Teresa Cooper, a campaigner who claims she was forcibly drugged at the home between 1981 and 1984, described the apparent lack of progress in the investigation as “disgusting”.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Klasse Gegen Klasse

[Sexual violence in the Catholic Church]

16. Jan 2016

Lilly Freytag

Es ist diesen Monat sechs Jahre her, dass in Deutschland eine öffentliche Debatte über sexuellen Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche begann. Es wurde ein bisschen diskutiert, ein paar Versprechen gemacht – und sonst ist nicht viel passiert. Reaktionär*innen versuchen heute, sexuelle Gewalt zu einem Problem „der Anderen“ zu machen. Wie sehr sie damit falsch liegen, wird sichtbar, wenn wir uns an diese Debatte erinnern.

Nach den Ereignissen in Köln wird von Reaktionär*innen und Rassist*innen viel darüber geredet, dass Migrant*innen allein für den Sexismus in Deutschland verantwortlich wären. Das ist natürlich Quatsch. Sie tun so, als ob sexuelle Gewalt in Deutschland nicht Alltag wäre – und als ob sie nicht strukturelle und organisierte Formen annehmen würde. Wie absurd das ist, wird klar, wenn sexueller Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche betrachtet wird. Denn weder CDU und CSU, noch Pegida und seine Anhänger*innen werden behaupten können, dass die katholische Kirche nichts mit den Werten ihres so heiß geliebten Abendlandes zu tun hat.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Wochenblatt

[An interview with DEan Heinrich Wachter, who recently met with Pope Benedict.]

Wir treffen Prälat und Stiftsdekan Heinrich Wachter in seinem Büro in der Viereimergasse. Er traf kürzlich Papst Benedikt. Wir sprachen mit dem Geistlichen über die Missbräuche bei den Domspatzen, die Entwicklung der Weltkirche – und Papst Franziskus.

Herr Prälat, was ist für Sie der größte Unterschied zwischen Papst Benedikt und Papst Franziskus?

Prälat Wachter: Da gibt es gewaltige Unterschiede. Man kann pauschal sagen: Franziskus macht alles anders. Das ist zwar sicher nicht seine Absicht, das muss man Franziskus nicht unterstellen, aber in vielem, wie er handelt, blamiert er seinen Vorgänger. Er stellt sich grundsätzlich anders ein zu bestimmten Verhaltensweisen wie unser Benedikt. Theologisch ist Franziskus im Vergleich zu ihm aber gar nicht auf dem Laufenden. Er redet unwahrscheinlich viel, aber er gibt kaum eine klare Stellungnahme ab. Selbst Kardinal Meisner sagte zu ihm, dass seine Aussagen immer sehr problematisch sind.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

January 16, 2016
Shannon Deery
Herald Sun

SEX assault victims are being forced to wait up to six months for counselling because of a funding crisis gripping services.

Waiting lists have blown out since the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry into child abuse started in 2012 with hundreds of people unable to tap into urgent help.

Experts say waiting lists are now at record levels, with a spike in referrals because of the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse.

Some victims have turned to staging mini protests as a cry for help, with one man recently hijacking a Catholic Church service in a desperate plea for help.

Paul Levey, who was abused by notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale, interrupted the mass last month to lobby the church to offer more funding for victim counselling.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Christian Today

Jonah Hicap 17 January 2016

A Pennsylvania appeals court has flatly rejected the appeal of a convicted pastor and basketball coach to reduce his sentence of up to 80 years in prison for sexually abusing a boy multiple times.

Jonathan Masteller, a former Lancaster County youth pastor, was convicted in November 2014 of various charges including indecent assault and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse on a 13-year-old boy and was sentenced to 25 1/5 to 80 years in prison.

The state Superior Court denied Masteller’s claim that his sentence was excessive, according to Penn Live and Raw Story. Masteller also served as basketball coach at Pequea Valley School District.

He was the victim’s basketball coach and youth pastor, according to the court decision handed down on Tuesday written by Senior Judge William Platt.

His abuse of the boy was discovered in November 2013 when a pastor at the Family Center in Gap found incriminating photos of Masteller and the boy while he was doing maintenance work on Masteller’s computer.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

BY JOSHUA TAYLOR

James Carragher has been caged for an extra nine years having already spent 21 years behind bars

A twisted paedophile who attacked youngsters while acting as the boss of a children’s home was branded “the devil himself” by one of his brave victims.

Vile James Carragher has been caged for an extra nine years for the terrifying sexual abuse of young boys.

The 75-year-old fiend has already spent the past 21 years behind bars.

Carragher’s reign of terror as head of St William’s, a school for boys with behavioural problems in east Yorkshire, lasted from 1976 to 1990.

The Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough , which ran the home, is now being sued by 249 former residents who say they were abused there by Carragher or other members of staff.

One of Carragher’s victims, who was attacked as a teenager in the 1970s, told the Liverpool Echo : “He isn’t just the most evil man from hell, he is the devil himself.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

COMMENTARY: The gift of reconciliation arising from the witness of new ministers of the Divine Mercy.

by FATHER RAYMOND J. DESOUZA 01/16/2016

It was an act of reconciliation — a most suitable way to begin the Jubilee of Mercy. That’s not how we usually describe ordinations, but in this case, it was. Permit a personal explanation.

On the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Dec. 12, 2015, the Legionaries of Christ ordained 44 men to the priesthood in Rome. I had been invited to attend, as one of the deacons to be ordained, Sameer Advani, is a graduate of Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, and had been active in our chaplaincy, Newman House, during his undergraduate years on campus (1999-2003).

I accepted the invitation to go out of pride in Sameer and in gratitude for God’s goodness to Newman House in raising up a priestly vocation from our men. Yet there was a touch of ambiguity in my feelings, related in part to my work at the Register.

While Sameer was frequenting Newman House in the early 2000s, I was in Rome as a seminarian myself and serving as the Register’s Rome correspondent. The Register was then owned by the Legionaries, and so my relationship with the order grew during those years, and it was a happy one.

But a lot happened after 2003, when Sameer entered the Legionaries and I returned home to take up my duties as Newman House chaplain. In 2006 came the Vatican’s decision to impose upon the founder, Father Marcial Maciel, the penalties reserved for elderly clerics guilty of sexual abuse: namely, confinement to a reserved life of prayer and penance, without any public ministry.

In 2009, the extent of Father Maciel’s duplicity and depravity became known.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor

By RAY DUCKLER
Monitor staff
Saturday, January 16, 2016

They could be living anywhere, unchecked, unregistered and under no suspicion.

What’s to stop a priest who’s molested children from living where he chooses, free to mingle in your neighborhood, greet your kids, earn their trust, and yours?

Sometimes, absolutely nothing.

Our statute of limitations permits this freedom, from both supervision and prison, creating an irony 13 years ago that helped expose the church sex abuse scandal, while allowing priests guilty of horrific crimes to walk free.

Lots of priests admitted, in writing during the state’s investigation, that they had sexually molested children, yet these same priests went on with their lives, blending in with society, the public unaware of the danger they posed.

Further, there is no central method of tracking the number of priests charged, investigated or prosecuted since the New Hampshire attorney general’s landmark report was released in March 2003.

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UNITED STATES
Church Militant

by Peter O’Dwyer • ChurchMilitant.com • January 17, 2016

Is the clerical code of silence still alive and well?

Oscar nominee Josh Singer, screenwriter for the critically acclaimed film “Spotlight,” speaks with Michael Voris in the latest episode of “Mic’d Up,” and says a code of silence among the clergy sustained the homosexual abuse crisis, and this code of silence exists today — this according to several experts, and even the United Nations itself.

Richard Sipe, a psychotherapist instrumental in the Boston Globe’s exposé of the scandal, claimed the code of silence is so powerful that priests will lie even on anonymous surveys.

The United Nations has recently addressed the problem of the code of silence; a scathing 2014 report authored by the Committee of the Rights of the Child revealed that the code of silence and a culture that punishes whistleblowers exists in the Church. The report referred to these problems as “systemic.” The Vatican, however, challenged the report’s findings.

The report went further, raising concerns that the climate that allowed the sexual abuse to flourish still exists, and that the Vatican as an institution is in denial over how vast the problem is.

Father Dariusz Oko, Ph.D, a Polish priest who has spent years studying the homosexual lobby in the Church, published an essay in 2012 where he described how homosexuals build and maintain a secret society in the Church:

They know well, however, that they may be exposed and embarrassed, so they shield one another by offering mutual support. They build informal relationships reminding of a clique or even mafia, aiming at holding particularly those positions which offer power and money.

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VIRGINIA
Mennonite World Review

Eastern Mennonite University vice president of enrollment Luke A. Hartman resigned Jan. 11 after a Jan. 8 arrest for solicitation of prostitution.

The misdemeanor charge was the result of an undercover operation in Harrisonburg, Va., by the Harrisonburg Police Department and Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office.

On Jan. 9, EMU announced it had suspended Hartman, effective immediately.

“We invite prayers for all those affected during this difficult time,” said President Loren Swartz­en­druber in a press release.

Hartman was vice president of enrollment since 2011, contributing to record growth and increasing diversity in the student body. He was also a professor in the teacher education program and an instructor in the master of education program for the past 12 years.

Before EMU, Hartman was assistant principal at Skyline Middle School and an educational consultant in Harrisonburg.

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WASHINGTON
Edmonds Beacon

[with full list]

The Archdiocese of Seattle has released the name of 77 Catholic clergy in Western Washington accused of sexually abusing children between 1923 and 2008.

The list includes members who served or lived in Arlington, Bothell, Edmonds, Everett, Lynnwood, Monroe, Mountlake Terrace and Snohomish.

“I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who were in positions of trust and who violated that sacred trust by abusing the vulnerable in their care,” said Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain in a news release.

“Our work in this area will not be complete until all those who have been harmed have received assistance in healing, and until the evil of child sexual abuse has been eradicated from society.”

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VIRGINIA
WHSV

[with video]

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) — Harrisonburg Police Dept. investigators told WHSV that last week’s undercover prostitution operation was part of a larger, ongoing effort. Ten people, ranging in age from 19 to 75, were charged with solicitation –one of the largest numbers in such a sting so far. Among those charged was EMU Vice President for Enrollment Luke Hartman, who has since resigned.

The Harrisonburg Police Dept. (HPD) has been investigating prostitution in the region for a while. Over the course of the last year and a half, 43 charges have been filed related to prostitution, including 26 johns and 12 prostitutes facing charges, as well as five pandering or pimping investigations.

Investigators wouldn’t speak specifically about last week’s operation, but they said the individuals were not enticed. “The investigation is set up so that people have to make a conscious effort to reach out to our undercover –versus us out soliciting them for these acts,” said Lt. Christopher Rush, who works with the Special Operations Unit for HPD.

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WASHINGTON
Christian Science Monitor

By Lucy Schouten, Staff
JANUARY 16, 2016

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle published the names of 77 clergyman and others in church leadership who sexually abused children over the last century.

Such lists have been published in other dioceses, but usually under legal or social duress. The Seattle archdiocese took this step of its own accord “in the interest of further transparency and accountability,” according to a fact sheet.

The Seattle archdiocese “was ahead of the curve in recognizing the abuse problem, but behind where it should have been,” wrote Joel Connelly for the Seattle PI.

Recommended: How much do you know about the Catholic Church? Take our quiz!
The area representative for Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said releasing the names was a good step, although she was suspicious of the timing because no outside pressure had prompted it.

“Any time a predator’s name is publicized, kids are safer,” Mary Dispenza, Northwest director for SNAP, told the Seattle Times. “So that’s a positive. However, this is very late in coming.”

Mike McKay, a former US attorney in Washington, told the Seattle Times he had recommended releasing these names in 2004, but Archbishop J. Peter Sartain began working on it when he was appointed in 2010, archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni told the Seattle Times. Finding a process that the Archdiocesan Review Board would approve took from early 2011 to 2013.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016

Statement by Karen Polesir of Ambler, SNAP Philly director (267-992-9463, karenpolesir@yahoo.com)

Philly Catholic officials have just lost their bid to keep secret facts about a clergy sex abuse and cover up case. Shame on them for trying to hide the truth and violate, again, their often-repeated but often-broken pledges to be “open” about pedophile priests.

[The Legal Intelligencer]

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Mark I. Bernstein has denied Archbishop Charles Chaput’s motion for confidentiality in a case called McIlmail v. Archdiocese of Philadelphia. We are grateful for Bernstein’s wise ruling and the McIlmail family’s courage. And we’re dismayed, though not surprised, by Chaput’s continuing hypocrisy. In public, he professes “transparency.” In court, however, he pushes “secrecy.”

“According to court documents, Sean McIlmail was allegedly sexually assaulted by Fr. Robert Brennan while he was a priest at the Resurrection of Our Lord in Northeast Philadelphia. . .between 1998 and 2001 when McIlmail was between the ages of 12 and 14,” according to the Legal Intelligencer.

We hope every single person who saw, suspected or suffered crimes by Brennan or cover ups by Chaput will find the strength to call police, expose wrongdoers and protect kids.

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MICHIGAN
Roman Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo via Battle Creek Enquirer

January 15, 2016

Dear St. Joseph School Parents,

In the event that you didn’t receive this information earlier, and In light of recent concerns expressed regarding Archbishop John C. Nienstedt’s temporary stay in the Diocese, we wish to share with you the following information:

* Archbishop Emeritus Nienstedt is a retired priest temporarily visiting the Diocese who voluntarily offered his assistance to Fr. John Fleckenstein, who is addressing serious health concerns. He has not been appointed, assigned or “hired” by the Diocese.

* As arranged by himself and Fr. John, he has simply agreed to celebrate Mass at St. Philip Parish and assist in hospital ministry as needed. The Archbishop will not be scheduled for any interaction or involvement with our schools.

* Bishop Bradley gave approval to this arrangement, following the standard procedures for any visiting priest who wishes to exercise priestly ministry within the Diocese in order to make sure that he was a priest in good standing.

* We take very seriously our commitment that safe environments are maintained for our precious children and for all people. It is because of this that Bishop Bradley sought additional assurances regarding Archbishop Nienstedt, in addition to making sure he meets the stringent requirements it takes to be a “priest in good standing.”

We remain confident that the environment at St. Joseph Elementary and Middle School is safe. Please find for your information and background Fr. John Fleckenstein’s letter published in the St. Philip Parish bulletin along with the Diocesan statement on this matter. We regret that this important information was not more widely distributed, as was originally intended. Together let us pray that reason and charity prevail.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Msgr. Michael Osborn
Vicar General

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MICHIGAN
Battle Creek Enquirer

SAMANTHA PEARL, GUEST COMMENTARY January 16, 2016

Editor’s note: Samantha Pearl, a Battle Creek resident, parishioner at St. Philip Roman Catholic Church with children attending Battle Creek Area Catholic Schools, wrote this in reponse to a letter from Monsignor Michael Osborn, vicar general at the Diocese of Kalamazoo. It is posted here with her permission.

—

With all due respect, this letter is an outrageous response to an already inflammatory situation.

Let us look at the information available to us: the Kalamazoo Gazette article, the Battle Creek Enquirer article, the investigative article published by the Minnesota Public Radio. This man has been accused of improprieties by almost a dozen seminarians and two fellow priests.

He has been accused of protecting and relocating Curtis Wehmeyer, the priest who confessed and was convicted of raping two young boys. He has been accused of failing to report sex crimes, giving extra payments to priests who admitted abusing children, keeping some abusers in the ministry, and choosing not to warn the public or the parishioners most directly affected.

Investigators have provided sworn statements that he withheld information and impeded the investigation into the Diocesan handling of sex abuse cases in his Diocese. His Diocese settled three cases with victims of child sex abuse at the hands of priests under his watch. His Diocese is the first in the United States to be indicted for its role in covering up sex abuse scandals.

Two auxiliary Bishops in his own Diocese traveled to Washington to bring the situation to the attention of the Pope’s ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, and to ask for an intervention.

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VATICAN CITY
Church Militant

By Bradley Eli, M.Div., MA.Th. • ChurchMilitant.com • January 15, 2016

VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) – A Vatican official called the “Vatileaks II” financial scandal “misleading,” defending Vatican spending and rebuking those who leaked financial records to the press.

Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the Substitute for General Affairs — essentially the No. 2 official in the Vatican Secretariat of State — referred to the impression given by the leaked documents as “absolute falsehood.”

Becciu’s comments to Italian news magazine Panorama were released Wednesday, denying the depiction that the Vatican was a “den of thieves.”e

As reported by ChurchMilitant.com, the leaked financial records resulted in two books being written purporting to reveal financial waste and mismanagement of funds by the Roman Curia.

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WASHINGTON
ABC 13

AP

SEATTLE, WA — The Archdiocese of Seattle has published a list of 77 child-sex abusers who served or lived in Western Washington over the past several decades.

Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain apologized for the actions by the nearly all-male list of priests, brothers and deacons, and at least one sister, who abused minors. He said in a letter released Friday that he is disclosing the names “in the interest of further transparency and accountability” and to continue to encourage victims of sexual abuse by clergy to come forward.

“Our work in this area will not be complete until all those who have been harmed have received assistance in healing, and until the evil of child sexual abuse has been eradicated from society,” Sartain said. …

Seattle attorney Michael T. Pfau and his law partner, Jason P. Amala, have settled more than 150 claims against the Seattle Archdiocese and others that operated its schools and parishes in and around Seattle. Many of the claims involved people on the list.

Pfau said the list will help abuse survivors address their abuse.

“Many of our clients believe they were the only one, or they think they will not be believed if they come forward,” he said in a news release. “This list will help people realize they are not alone, which is often the first step toward healing and closure.”

Pfau also called on the Archdiocese, for “true transparency,” to release the files and secret archives kept on the people named, saying other Archdioceses have done so.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

[Abuse victims can wait as long as 10 years for the church to act on their complaints.]

Eine Initiative gegen sexuellen Missbrauch wirft der katholischen Kirche vor, kircheninterne Ermittlungsverfahren zu verschleppen. Zudem fehle es an Transparenz, sagt der Vereinsvorsitzende dem SPIEGEL.

Missbrauchsopfer warten teils seit mehr als zehn Jahren auf das Ergebnis innerkirchlicher Ermittlungen gegen ihre Peiniger.

“Nicht nur die Dauer der Verfahren muss scharf kritisiert werden, sondern auch die fehlende Transparenz”, sagt Johannes Heibel von der “Initiative gegen Gewalt und sexuellen Missbrauch an Kindern und Jugendlichen” über die Praxis der katholischen Kirche. “Selbst Opfern und Anwälten wird der Einblick verwehrt.” (Diese Meldung stammt aus dem SPIEGEL. Den neuen SPIEGEL finden Sie hier.)

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DEUTSCHLAND
General-Anzeiger

Von Ebba Hagenberg-Miliu

BAD GODESBERG. Die Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsfälle am jesuitischen Aloisiuskolleg (Ako) und dem ihm vormals angeschlossenen Ako-pro-Seminar ist gestern mit einer öffentlichen Erklärung der Kollegsgemeinschaft einen Schritt vorangekommen.

Und das genau eine Woche vor der Uraufführung des Thomas Melle-Stücks “Bilder von uns” am Bonner Theater, das die realen Ako-Fälle zum Ausgangspunkt wählen wird.

“Dieses Papier ist aus dem Dialog mit der Betroffenengruppe Eckiger Tisch heraus von uns so formuliert worden und nun von großer Bedeutung genau für diesen Dialog”, sagt Rektor Pater Johannes Siebner dem GA. Auch der Eckige Tisch Bonn lobt das Papier. Das Ako habe im gemeinsamen Ringen mit den Betroffenen um die Inhalte erkannt, dass nicht wie bislang Katholische Kirche, Orden oder Kolleg den Betroffenen Aufklärung “von oben” vorsetzen sollten, sondern dass erst im Dialog Aufarbeitung gelinge, kommentiert Gruppensprecher Heiko Schnitzler. “Wir wünschen uns, dass diese Inhalte nun keine Lippenbekenntnisse für katholische Internate in schwierigen Zeiten bleiben.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

[The church remains silent on the subject of ill-treatment and abuse at the Regensburg cathedral choir. Cardinal Marx has said nothing and Bishop Ackermann only refers to current prevention work.]

Beim Thema Misshandlung und Missbrauch bei den Regensburger Domspatzen herrscht in der katholischen Kirchenleitung Schweigen. Kardinal Marx sagt gar nichts, der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Kirche, Bischof Ackermann, verweist auf die laufende Präventionsarbeit.

Auf Anfrage des Bayerischen Rundfunks, wie es denn sein könne, dass ein vom Bistum Regensburg beauftragter externer Gutachter in wenigen Monaten dreimal so viele Opfer ermittelt hat, wie das Bistum selbst in fünf Jahren, will sich weder der Vorsitzende der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, Reinhard Kardinal Marx, noch der Missbrauchsbeauftragte, der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann äußern.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger

Mit dem Wunsch einer „außergerichtlichen Lösung“ durch den Vatikan haftet dem Erzbistum Köln nichts Verschwiemeltes an. Die Kirche steht hier auf der Seite der Opfer. Ein Kommentar Von Joachim Frank

Die Domglocken wurden nicht geläutet. Doch die Erleichterung im Erzbistum Köln muss groß sein, dass – und wie – der „Fall Jansen“ um sexuelle Übergriffigkeit des früheren Erftstädter Pfarrers nun beendet worden ist. Der „außergerichtlichen Lösung“ durch den Vatikan haftet nichts Verschwiemeltes an. Ein Geistlicher, der sein Amt nur noch unter strengen Auflagen öffentlich ausüben darf, ist nach priesterlichem Selbstverständnis hart gestraft.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Intelligencer

Max Mitchell, The Legal Intelligencer
January 19, 2016

A Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas judge has denied the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s attempts to impose a confidentiality order on an ongoing civil suit involving alleged sex abuse.

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Mark I. Bernstein denied the church’s motion for confidentiality and phased discovery last week, holding instead that the parties can only redact Social Security numbers, dollar amounts of any financial information, and the names of alleged victims of child sexual abuse. The order was made in the case McIlmail v. Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

“We are pleased that the court has rejected the argument, and now we would hope that the archdiocese, instead of throwing up further roadblocks, will now provide discovery, which is needed,” said Thomas R. Kline of Kline & Specter, who represents the plaintiff in the case. “It is disappointing to the McIlmail family that the archdiocese would not follow the lead of Pope Francis when he said that ‘the crimes and sins of the sex abuse of minors may no longer be kept secret.'”

Conrad O’Brien attorney Nicholas M. Centrella, who represents the archdiocese, did not return a call for comment last week.

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UNITED STATES
Baptist News

By Bob Allen

A disgraced evangelical family expert accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing or harassing 10 women was an early proponent of ideas now part and parcel of the Baptist Faith and Message.

A second amended complaint filed Jan. 6 in DuPage County, Ill., charged Bill Gothard and his ministry, Institute in Basic Life Principles, of sexual abuse, harassment and cover-up, with one woman claiming she was raped by Gothard and one of the ministry’s “biblical counselors.”

Today largely forgotten except for a recent brief mention that reality TV star Josh Duggar got counseling from a facility owned and operated by the Institute in Basic Life Principles after he sexually abused five minor girls as a teenager, Gothard once packed out 10,000-seat venues for his Basic Youth Conflicts Seminar, a conservative Christian counter to the hippie movement. It was characterized by a red notebook containing teachings that disciples were instructed not to share with anyone who had not attended a seminar.

One of his cornerstone beliefs, that God appoints husbands in an “umbrella of authority” over their wives, who are mandated by God to obey their husbands completely, is similar to later teachings in documents like the Danvers Statement, a collection of core values of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and a 1998 amendment to the Baptist Faith and Message, the official SBC confession of faith, stating: “A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.”

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OREGON
The Register-Guard

By Jack Moran
The Register-Guard
JAN. 16, 2016

A Eugene couple who recently divorced after the husband was arrested on charges that he sexually abused his adopted daughter are being sued by the alleged ­victim, who is seeking to void a key piece of the divorce agreement as part of her $9 million complaint.

Raeonna Grace Jackson, 22, filed her lawsuit Thursday in Lane County Circuit Court. It accuses her father, longtime Eugene insurance agent and church pastor Richard Hayes Jackson, of sexual abuse and abuse of a vulnerable person, and her mother, Evelyn Suzanne Jackson, of abuse of a vulnerable person and negligence.

It also accuses both parents of fraudulent conveyance in connection with a part of the couple’s divorce agreement that transferred Rick Jackson’s interest in six real estate properties valued at a total of about $1.5 ­million to his now ex-wife.

Raeonna Jackson alleges the transfer made her father insolvent and was done to “hinder, delay or defraud her.”

The Register-Guard had not previously identified Raeonna Jackson by name as the alleged victim in her father’s criminal case. However, she lists her name in the lawsuit and indicated in a statement issued Friday by her ­attorney that she does not need her identity to be kept secret.

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NEW JERSEY
New York Daily News

BY LAURIE HANNA NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Saturday, January 16, 2016

An assistant pastor at a New Jersey church has been accused of sexually assaulting two minors in the early 1980s.

The Rev. Michael Walters, parochial vicar at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in South Orange, has now been removed from ministry while the allegations are investigated.

Walters is accused of molesting a 12-year-old boy at St. Cassian Church in Montclair in 1982 and a 13-year-old girl in 1982 and 1983.

The accused priest vehemently denies the allegations, said Archdiocese of Newark spokesman Jim Goodness.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

A MONUMENT to a disgraced bishop has regained pride of place in Chichester Cathedral after a notice about his involvement in a sexual abuse case was removed this week.

Meanwhile an Eastbourne school named after the churchman has notified parents that it will rebrand, and sever any association with George Bell, who served as Bishop of Chichester from 1929 until just before his death in 1958.

The Bishop Bell Church of England School in Eastbourne joins a growing list of Sussex institutions which have moved towards breaking ties with the twentieth century prelate.

They include a lodging house, a Chichester school and a university institute.

The bishop’s formerly unimpeachable reputation as a man of peace and patron of the arts was shattered last October when the Church disclosed it had apologised and paid a settlement in a child abuse case concerning Bell.

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WASHINGTON
The Columbian

By Patty Hastings, Columbian Social Services, Demographics, Faith
Published: January 15, 2016

The Archdiocese of Seattle released a list of Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children who served or lived in Western Washington, including 11 priests who had been assigned to Clark County parishes at one point.

The Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain apologized for the actions of those who abused children. The list’s publication was intended to “further transparency and accountability, and to continue to encourage victims of sexual abuse by clergy to come forward.”

The list consists of 77 clergy and religious brothers and sisters who served or lived in Western Washington between 1923 and 2008.

“Our work in this area will not be complete until all those who have been harmed have received assistance in healing, and until the evil of child sexual abuse has been eradicated from society,” Sartain said.

The Seattle Archdiocese reviewed cases where sexual abuse was “admitted, established or determined to be credible.” Most of the cases with local ties were documented by media in Western Washington.

• Michael C. OBrien was accused in 2008 of sexually abusing a minor while serving at Our Lady of Lourdes in Vancouver between 1965 and 1970, according to The Seattle Times. In 2004, he was placed on administrative leave while an archdiocesan board reviewed a 1993 allegation accusing the priest of abusing a teenage boy during a canoe trip. The alleged abuse occurred during his 20-year tenure at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Brush Prairie, where he served from 1979 to 1999. OBrien has been laicized from the church, meaning he’s lost his clergy status. Laicized priests can’t wear clerical dress, perform ceremonies or administer the sacraments.

• James Gandrau was barred from ministry in 2005 following allegations of child sexual abuse, according to The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In 1991, he was assigned to St. Joseph Catholic Church in Vancouver. He died in 2012.

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WASHINGTON
The Chronicle

By The Chronicle

The Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle published a list this week of 77 priests who lived or served in Western Washington confirmed to have sexually abused children.

The move is part of an ongoing effort to be transparent, according to the archdiocese.

Two of the priests mentioned served in Lewis County. Former priest Leo Racine served at St. Joseph Church in Chehalis from 1984 to 1985 and has since been laicized, according to the archdiocese. Laicized means having been removed from the status of being a member of the clergy.

James Toner served through St. Joseph in Pe Ell from 1926 to 1938 and is deceased, according to the archdiocese.

“I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who were in positions of trust and who violated that sacred trust by abusing the vulnerable in their care,” wrote Archbishop J. Peter Sartain in a letter dated Jan. 15. “Our work in this area will not be complete until all those who have been harmed have received assistance in healing and until the evil of child sexual abuse has been eradicated from society.”

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WASHINGTON
Sky Valley Chronicle

[letter of apology from the archbishop]

[list of the accused]

(SEATTLE, WA.) — There it is in plain but rather stunning language nonetheless on the home page of the Seattle Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church: “Archdiocese disclose names of child sex abusers.”

A pubic statement that just 10 years ago would not have seemed possible from a church seemingly under siege all over the country and in foreign lands over the issue of sex abuse by Catholic priests against male and female children, teens and women.

For years, according to numerous court documents filed in a landmark Boston case that has since been made into a movie, the church seemed to do its best to keep such things hidden from public view, to keep them under wraps.

Cases of alleged abuse were routinely settled out of court for money and a promise from the plaintiff not to say anything. The priests involved or suspected to have engaged in sexual abuse were shuttled from parish to parish with no warning to members of the next parish what kind of person was coming in to their lives and communities.

But that was then. Before the Boston case blew wide open and shocked an entire nation. That was before a new Pope took the helm of the church and is committed to rooting out abusers and being above board in attempting to deal with cases of suspected sex abuse by priests.

A statement posted on the Seattle Archdiocese website reads:

“Anyone who has knowledge of sexual abuse or misconduct by a member of the clergy, an employee or volunteer of the Archdiocese of Seattle is urged to call the archdiocesan hotline at 1-800-446-7762. The Archdiocese of Seattle has a longstanding commitment to transparency, accountability and assistance to persons sexually abused by clergy or by anyone working on behalf of the Church.”

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WASHINGTON
Bellingham Herald

BY CALEB HUTTON
chutton@bhamherald.com

The Archdiocese of Seattle released the names of 77 sex abusers who served as priests and religious leaders of the Catholic Church in Western Washington over the past century.

The church disclosed the names as part of the Archdiocese’s “longstanding efforts at transparency, accountability and urging victims to come forward,” according to a media release Friday, Jan. 15.

All of the listed priests and religious brothers and sisters have been linked to credible reports of child sex abuse between 1923 and 2008, according to the church. Five of the priests have ties to Whatcom County:

▪ Michael Cody, now deceased, worked at Sacred Heart Church in La Conner from 1970 to 1972, St. Charles Catholic Church in Burlington from 1972 to 1975, and the Church of the Assumption in Bellingham from 1972 to 1975. His sexual abuse of a Sedro-Woolley teenager was the subject of a lawsuit filed in Whatcom County Superior Court that was settled for $1.2 million in May 2015. Former Seattle Archbishop Thomas Connelly had been advised in 1962 that Father Cody was a diagnosed pedophile and had molested at least eight girls, according to internal records uncovered by the plaintiff’s attorneys. After a brief hiatus, Cody returned to work in leadership roles within the church. He abused the Sedro-Woolley girl in the late ’60s and early ’70s.

▪ Jerome Dooley, now deceased, was assigned to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Sedro-Woolley from 1970 to 1976 and Sacred Heart Church in Bellingham from 1976 to 1981.

▪ Dermot Foyle, whose status is listed as unknown, worked at the Church of the Assumption in Bellingham from 1952 to 1953.

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WASHINGTON
Central Kitsap Reporter

by ROBERT SMITH, Port Orchard Independent Editor

A list of 77 priests, brothers, deacons and sisters accused of sexually assaulting children since the early part of the last century was released today by the Archdiocese of Seattle.

The list includes clergy who served at churches and parishes in some Kitsap Peninsula and San Juan Island areas.

One of the priests accused was James Pommier, who had been assigned to the periodic ministry for the Olympic Peninsula area and served from 1979-1985 with St. Gabriel in Port Orchard.

Pommier, who is deceased, was affiliated with the Diocese of Bismarck.

According to the news release distributed by the archdiocese, the list was published as part of its “ongoing commitment to transparency and to encourage persons sexually abused by clergy or by anyone working on behalf of the church to come forward.”

Those named in the list have either served or resided in the Archdiocese of Seattle. While locations of known assignments or residences were included, the archdiocese said it does not mean to infer that allegations of abuse exist at each place.

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WASHINGTON
Nisqually Valley News

Associated Press

A former priest who has taught at Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment in Yelm was included in a list of 77 alleged child-sex abusers published by the Archdiocese of Seattle on Friday.

Miceal Ledwith, also known as Michael Ledwith, was named in the list.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Jan. 15, 2016

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

Again, Newark Catholic officials, including Archbishop John Myers, are knowingly putting kids in harm’s way by keeping credible accusations of child sex crimes from parishioners and the public.

[NJ.com]

In October, Fr. Michael “Mitch” Walters “left ministry” because of child sex abuse allegations. But violating common sense, common decency and the US Catholic bishops’ abuse policy, Myers kept silent about this. Shame on him, on his PR man Jim Goodness, and on every single Newark Catholic official unless they publicly denounce this irresponsible, hurtful and selfish silence by Myers.

In the three months since Fr. Walters’ removal, we can’t help but wonder how many victims he may have intimidated, how much evidence he may have destroyed, how many witnesses he may have threatened, how many whistleblowers he may have discredited, how many alibis he may have fabricated and how many other kids he may have abused.

Thanks to Archbishop Myers, Fr. Walters has had ample opportunity to do all this, especially since Myers hasn’t insisted that Fr. Walters go to a remote, secure, independent treatment center far away from New Jersey families whose trust he has won over decades of contact.

We hope every single person who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups in New Jersey to summon the strength to speak up. It’s crucial that police and prosecutors be told, no matter how small, old or seemingly insignificant the information or suspicions might be.

Myers and his staff – including Goodness – continue to endanger kids. So all the rest of us must double down on our efforts to protect them, even if it may mean jeopardizing church careers.

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WASHINGTON
Kent Reporter

by STEVE HUNTER, Kent Reporter Courts, Government Reporter

One priest and 12 other religious brothers or sisters who taught at the former Briscoe Memorial School in Kent between 1939 and 1969 are part of a published list of 77 child sex abusers released on Friday by The Archdiocese of Seattle.

“I am publishing a list of clergy and religious brothers and sisters for whom allegations of sexual abuse of a minor have been admitted, established, or determined to be credible,” said Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain in a letter posted on The Archdiocese of Seattle website. “These are individuals known to have served or resided in the Archdiocese. This action is being taken in the interest of further transparency and accountability, and to continue to encourage victims of sexual abuse by clergy to come forward.”

Independent consultants helped compile the list of 77 abusers who served or lived between 1923 and 2008 in Western Washington.

Since the late 1980s, the archdiocese has paid out approximately $74 million in settlements for 392 claims of sexual abuse of minors. These payments have come from insurance carriers, the archdiocese’s self-insurance plan, and the sale of archdiocesan held property.

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WASHINGTON
The Stranger

by Sydney Brownstone • Jan 15, 2016

The Archdiocese of Seattle has released a list of 77 religious officials accused of sexually assaulting children in Western Washington.

From Jennifer Sullivan at the Seattle Times:

Archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni said the list has been in the works for the past two years.

“In early 2014 we brought in a private consultant, a former FBI agent who does this kind of work, she came in with an associate and was given full access to our files. It took about 1,000 staff hours to put it together,” Magnoni said.
The archdiocese is now—finally—taking tips from anyone who has information about sexual abuse in the clergy. The tip line is 1-800-446-7762.

Here’s the list:

ARCHDIOCESE OF SEATTLE PRIESTS
Barry Ashwell
Edmund Boyle*
Edward Boyle*
Dennis Champagne
Michael Cody*
Paul Conn
John Cornelius
Jerome Dooley*
James Gandrau*
Michael Hays
David Jaeger*
Dennis Kemp
James Knelleken*
David Linehan
Lawrence Low*
Theodore Marmo
John Marsh*
James McGreal*
Desmond McMahon
Gerald Moffat
Dennis Muehe*
Michael C. O’Brien
William O’Brien*
Thomas Pitsch*
William Quick*
Harold Quigg*
Leo Racine
Richard Stohr*
James Toner*
Stephen Trippy*

DEACONS
Dennis Albrechtson
Gregory Hewitt

PRIESTS FROM OTHER DIOCESES
Reinart Beaver
Mario Blanco*
Gary Boulden
Dale Calhoun
Dermot Foyle
Phan Huu Hau
Jayawardene Pantaleone
Michael Ledwith
James Mitchell
Manuel C. Ocana
Patrick O’Donnell
James Pommier*
Richard Scully
George Silva

RELIGIOUS PRIESTS
Engelbert Axer*
John Coughlin*
Leonard Feeney*
David Fleckenstein
John Forrester*
Bernard Harris*
David Johnson
Louis Ladenberger
Timothy Lamm
John McManus*
James McSorley*
Gerald Morin*
James Poole
Robert Renggli
Anthony Slane*
Michael Toulouse*

RELIGIOUS BROTHERS AND SISTERS
Robert Brouilette
Albert Casale
Edward Courtney
Patrick Croke*
Dolores Crosby*
Frank Delamere
William Donahue*
Patrick Duffy*
George Dwyer
Gerard Al Kealy*
John Lackie*
Vincent O’Sullivan*
C.P. Ryan*
D.P. Ryan*
James Warren*

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WASHINGTON
HeraldNet

By Kari Bray
Herald Writer
Published: Friday, January 15, 2016

List of sex-abusers

EVERETT — A list of Catholic clergy accused of sexually abusing children and teens includes 16 that served in Snohomish County.

The Archdiocese of Seattle released the list Friday afternoon. It includes priests who have died, been defrocked or who are living a life of “permanent prayer and penance” after they either admitted to sexually abusing children or the church found that allegations against them were credible. Permanent prayer and penance means the priests are not allowed to do public ministry anymore.

Church leaders hope sharing the list will make other victims consider reporting abuse, said Greg Magnoni, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Seattle.

“This action is being taken in the interest of further transparency and accountability, and to continue to encourage victims of sexual abuse by clergy to come forward,” Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain wrote.

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WASHINGTON
Seattle PI

By Joel Connelly on January 15, 2016

The Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle, on its website, has published the names of 77 clergy for whom allegations of sexual abuse of a minor have been “admitted, established or determined to be credible,” in the words of Archbishop J. Peter Sartain.

The list covers conduct from the late 1930s to the 21st century, involving priests who have served the length and breadth of the Western Washington diocese, from Assumption parish in Bellingham to St. Joseph Church in Vancouver to Our Lady of Good Help in Hoquiam. One priest served in nine different parishes. Forty-one of the priests, brothers, and religious order members listed are deceased.

The list includes such former diocesan luminaries as now-deceased Rev. James Gandrau, a longtime editor of the Catholic Northwest Progress and pastor at St. Monica’s Church on Mercer Island. The Rev. David Jaeger, who once headed the diocesan AIDS ministry, was buried at a 2014 mass with 20 celebrants at St. Joseph parish on Capitol Hill. The Rev. John Cornelius, a former Seattle police chaplain popular in the African-American community, has been defrocked.

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WASHINGTON
Seattle Times

By Jennifer Sullivan
Seattle Times staff reporter

The Archdiocese of Seattle on Friday published a list of clergy and others accused of sexually assaulting children while serving or living in Western Washington.

The 77 individuals whose names have been published to the archdiocese website “have allegations that are either admitted, established or determined to be credible,” the archdiocese wrote in a news release.

Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain apologized for abuse in a news release.

“I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who were in positions of trust and who violated that sacred trust by abusing the vulnerable in their care,” Archbishop Sartain said.

Included in the list of names are clergy and religious officials who served or lived in Western Washington between 1923 and 2008. Among those listed are 30 archdiocese and 16 religious priests, 14 religious brothers, one religious sister, two deacons and 14 priests from other dioceses, the archdiocese wrote in a news release.

Archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni said the list has been in the works for the past two years.

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MISSOURI
KMBZ

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Former Kansas City bishop Robert Finn is now working with nuns in Nebraksa.

Finn was named chaplain at the School Sisters of Christ the King in Lincoln Dec. 5.

Under pressure from the Vatican, Finn late last year resigned as bishop of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Roman Catholic Diocese. The diocese waited six months before notifying police about Father Shawn Ratigan.

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NEBRASKA
New York Post

Associated Press

LINCOLN, Neb. — A Roman Catholic bishop who was convicted in Missouri of not reporting suspected child abuse has become chaplain at a convent in Nebraska.

Bishop Emeritus Robert Finn is spiritual adviser to the nuns at the School Sisters of Christ the King convent in Lincoln.

Finn was found guilty in 2012 of one misdemeanor count of failure to report suspected abuse and was given two years’ probation, making him the highest-ranking church official in the US to be convicted of taking no action over abuse allegations.

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BOSTON (MA)
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Cardinal Law giving a gift of a very thick book of the Catholic Catechism to Liev Schreiber is the funniest scene in the movie Spotlight. Cardinal Law covered-up 70 pedophile priests as mentioned in Spotlight. Bill Cosby had a comedy sitcom TV series for decades. However, 40 women today allege that Bill Cosby assaulted them but none has been proven in court and many have expired statute of limitation. In the wake of the allegations, numerous organizations have severed ties with the comedian, and previously awarded honors and titles have been revoked. Reruns of The Cosby Show and other shows featuring Cosby have also been pulled from syndication by many organizations. Twenty-three colleges and universities have rescinded his honorary degrees. Now Bill Cosby is counter-suing some of his alleged victims for defamation. Bill Cosby is wealthy but not as wealthy as the Vatican Billions that easily paid $4 billion to victims across the USA and also paid $100 million to the hundreds of victims of the 70 pedophile priests – whom Cardinal Bernard Law aided and abetted and protected for 18 years mentioned in the 6 Oscar nominations movie Spotlight.

Spotlight’s portrayal of Cardinal Bernard Law is the funniest and mildest ‘drama’ depiction of a criminal ever made by Hollywood movie. Murder crimes, rape crimes, Mafia crimes are all seriously portrayed by Hollywood with many precision actions and meticulous scenery and reproduction of actual background. But Spotlight cunningly depicted Cardinal Bernard Law without any serious scene or real drama actions of how pedophile priests committed their crimes and how he covered-up them up. Spotlight revealed Cardinal Law in an all plain (no drama) talking strategy, a ‘he says – she says’ spoken by the reporters and by the lawyer, portrayed by bald head Stanley Tucci wearing a big curly wig (like a clown, really). Spotlight was like a talk-show by victims and by the Spotlight journalists team – and it could have easily and should have used flashback actual scenes to depict victims’ stories — instead of mere talk. (Talk is cheap).

Cardinal Law is an indubitable basic criminal (who admitted) that he aided and abetted 70 pedophile priests with potentially 14,000 victims (one of them admitted to having more than 200 victims) in Boston alone. Cardinal Bernard Law paid $100 million to his victims. But nowhere in Spotlight is there one negative depiction of Cardinal Law, the poster boy of all Catholic bishops and cardinals especially in the USA who covered-up more than 6,500 pedophile priests according to Vatican statistics. And his cronies of similar criminal bishops paid almost $4 billion dollars in compensation to thousands of victims in USA.

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UNITED STATES
New York Review of Books

Garry Wills

Investigative reporting got a boost in 1976, after the movie All the President’s Men showed what a small team (two men) could do if an editor and owner like Ben Bradlee and Kay Graham at The Washington Post let them keep digging for a long time. Another such coup was brought off by The Boston Globe in 2002, when its own investigative team of four people, called “Spotlight,” broke the story of Cardinal Law’s protection of priests who sexually preyed on children. In this case, Spotlight, which normally chose its own subjects, had not followed up on leads fed to the paper. It took an outsider, Martin Baron (played by Liev Schreiber), who had become editor of the paper in 2001, to jog the team into action. Baron was sent by the Globe’s new owner, The New York Times, to trim costs, yet he spent heavily on the priestly abuses scandal. An instinctive deference to the Church had inhibited the press in this Roman Catholic city from recognizing a scandal in its own backyard. Baron was not subject to that thrall. He was initially thought of as outside the Boston culture—an unmarried man, a Jew, not interested in the sacred Boston Red Sox.

In Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight—which has received six Oscar nominations, including for Best Film and Best Director—The Boston Globe story has been given a movie treatment like that of The Washington Post story. Both films retain some of the clichés of such tales—the resistance of society to what the enterprising reporters are trying to do, the difficulty of prying evidence from fearful witnesses, the final victory of the good guys over powerful resistance. But there are many differences. Woodward and Bernstein were outside the normal political reporting of Washington. The “Spotlight Four,” though not churchgoers, were all Catholic-raised or influenced. The crimes being investigated were more personal and religious, combining sexual and theological inhibitions.

As the team begins, lethargically, to go into the one case that had been superficially handled in the Globe, the serial abuses and regular moves of Father John J. Geoghan, they saw that other priests had been treated the same way—four, they turned up; then eleven. In diocesan records they began tracing the patterns of such frequent shiftings-about for priests. They were stunned as they found that large numbers of priests fit the pattern. They called on Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine monk and psychotherapist who has studied priestly sexual activity for decades. (He is a respected scholar whom I have consulted for my writing and speaking on priests.) He tells the Spotlight team over the phone (his voice supplied by the actor Richard Jenkins) that he had found a high quotient of predatory priests in America, almost uniformly protected by bishops, and by that quotient the number of offending priests in Cardinal Law’s domain would be ninety—which was eerily close to the number they had turned up in diocesan records—seventy-six.

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WASHINGTON
MyNorthwest

BY RICHARD D. OXLEY, MyNorthwest.com Writer | January 15, 2016

The Archdiocese of Seattle has released the names of dozens of its clergy members accused of sexual abuse.

Not only has it offered an exhaustive list of clergy members, it has offered an apology in a letter to “all who have been impacted by the sinful actions of sexual abuse of minors by clergy or religious brothers or sister.”

“I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who were in positions of trust and who violated that sacred trust by abusing the vulnerable in their care,” said. Rev. J. Peter Sartain, Archbishop of Seattle. “Our work in this area will not be complete until all those who have been harmed have received assistance in healing, and until the evil of child sexual abuse has been eradicated from society.”

The list contains priests, deacons and others who allegations of sexual abuse of a minor have been admitted, established or determined to be credible.

The list was released in an effort to establish “transparency and encourage persons of sexually abused clergy or by anyone working on behalf of the church to come forward,” according to a statement from the church.

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WASHINGTON
HeraldNet

Associated Press
Published: Friday, January 15, 2016

List of sex-abusers

SEATTLE — The Archdiocese of Seattle has published a list of 77 child-sex abusers who served or lived in Western Washington over the past several decades.

Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain on Friday apologized for the actions by Catholic clergy and religious brothers and sisters who abused minors. He said in a letter that he is disclosing the names “in the interest of further transparency and accountability” and to continue to encourage victims of sexual abuse by clergy to come forward.

The list includes cases where allegations of child sex abuse have been admitted, established or determined to be credible. The list, which includes past Snohomish County clergy, took nearly two years to develop with the help of independent consultants and a review board of professionals who advise the archbishop on child sex abuse.

The 77 named in the list lived or served in Western Washington between 1923 and 2008.

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WASHINGTON
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle

1. Why are you publishing this list?

This disclosure is being made in the interest of further transparency and accountability, and to continue to encourage victim survivors of sexual abuse by those working on behalf of the Church to come forward.

2. Who made the decision to publish the list?

The decision was made by Archbishop Sartain after consultation with and recommendation by the Archdiocesan Review Board.

3. How was the list developed?

To identify those archdiocesan clergy and religious men and women who served or were known to have resided in the Archdiocese of Seattle for whom allegations of sexual abuse of minors were admitted, established or determined to be credible, the archdiocese hired Dr. Kathleen McChesney and her firm, Kinsale Management Consulting, to conduct an independent review of Archdiocesan files. The names of those identified in this review were then provided to the Archdiocesan Review Board (member information may be found at the following link: www.seattlearchdiocese.org/SEP/About.aspx ) and to Archbishop Sartain who approved the publication of the names set forth in this disclosure.

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WASHINGTON
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle

January 15, 2016

To the clergy, religious, and laity of the Archdiocese of Seattle, and to all who have been impacted by the sinful actions of sexual abuse of minors by clergy or religious brothers or sisters:

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who were in positions of trust and who violated that sacred trust by abusing the vulnerable in their care. Our work in this area will not be complete until all those who have been harmed have received assistance in healing, and until the evil of child sexual abuse has been eradicated from society.

When I became Archbishop of Seattle in December, 2010, one of my first priorities was to
familiarize myself with the issue of sexual abuse of minors perpetrated by clergy in the Archdiocese, and to learn what the historic response of the Archdiocese had been. I was pleased to learn that the Archdiocese of Seattle was one of the first in the country to publicly acknowledge the devastating impact of this abuse, and to discover that the Archdiocese had undertaken significant efforts in training, prevention, and response to victim survivors since the mid 1980’s.

It has been my firm commitment to build on the good efforts of the past and continue to improve upon them. To that end, and after consultation with the members of the Archdiocesan Review Board, I am publishing a list of clergy and religious brothers and sisters for whom allegations of sexual abuse of a minor have been admitted, established, or determined to be credible. These are individuals known to have served or resided in the Archdiocese. This action is being taken in the interest of further transparency and accountability, and to continue to encourage victims of sexual abuse by clergy to come forward.

Our vigilance, training and prevention efforts are ongoing and continually seeking improvement. We have responded to hundreds of survivors of abuse who have come forward, and I thank them for their courage. I personally encourage any survivors who have not previously come forward to do so by contacting our Pastoral Outreach Coordinator who may be reached at
800-446-7762.

I will continue to pray for all survivors of sexual abuse, and deeply regret that vulnerable individuals in the Church’s care have been harmed.

I will continue to pray for all survivors of sexual abuse, and deeply regret that vulnerable
individuals in the Church’s care have been harmed.

Sincerely in Christ,
Most Rev. J. Peter Sartain
Archbishop of Seattle

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WASHINGTON
KIRO

SEATTLE — The names of child sex abusers among Seattle clergy and religious service members was released Friday by the Archdiocese of Seattle.

All named individuals have served or resided in western Washington – and have allegations that were either admitted, established or determined credible, according to the archdiocese.
Those on the list served between 1923 and 2008.

>> Find, read the entire list of named child sex abusers.

Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain apologized on behalf of those who abused minors.

“I will continue to pray for all survivors of sexual abuse, and deeply regret that vulnerable individuals in the Church’s care have been harmed,” wrote Sartain in an attached letter.

>> Read the letter from Archbishop of Seattle, J. Peter Sartain.

Sartain, who became Archbishop of Seattle in Dec. of 2010, said it was a priority to familiarize himself with the issue of sexual abuse of minors and to learn of the area’s historic responses.

According to Sartain’s letter, the Archdiocese of Seattle was one of the first in the country to publicly acknowledge the devastating impact of this type of abuse and undertake significant preventative measures.

The named members on the list have served or resided in the Archdiocese of Seattle.

Among those listed are 30 archdiocesan and 16 religious priests, 14 religious brothers, one religious sister, two deacons and 14 priests from other dioceses.

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WASHINGTON
KUOW

By GIL AEGERTER

The Archdiocese of Seattle on Friday named 77 Catholic clergy or religious order members accused of sexual abusing minors.

Those on the list served or lived in Western Washington between 1923 and 2008, the archdiocese said in a statement.

(Click here to see the list.)

The statement said those on the list “have allegations that are either admitted, established or determined to be credible.”

At least 40 of them were listed as deceased, although 14 were listed with unknown status. Most of the rest were “laicized,” according to the archdiocese list.

“I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who were in positions of trust and who violated that sacred trust by abusing the vulnerable,” Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain wrote in a letter.

He said the list was part of the archdiocese’s effort at accountability, and he thanked victims for coming forward. The archdiocese statement said anyone who knew of abuse or misconduct by clergy or employees should call 1-800-446-7762.

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WASHINGTON
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle

[with complete list of accused priests, including status and assignments]

This list is being published as part of the Archdiocese of Seattle’s ongoing commitment to transparency and to encourage persons sexually abused by clergy or by anyone working on behalf of the Church to come forward.

The individuals named in this list have either served or resided in the Archdiocese of Seattle, as noted. Locations of known assignments or residences are listed, however this does not mean that there are allegations of abuse at each place.

Despite our best efforts to assure that this information is accurate and complete, we know that this list may include errors or be incomplete. It was compiled through a process involving an independent outside consultant and the members of the Archdiocesan Review Board. It will be updated as new information is received or identified.

Anyone sexually abused by clergy or by anyone working on behalf of the Church is encouraged to contact the Pastoral Outreach Coordinator at 800-446-7762.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Bill Tammeus | Religion News Service January 15

A few months before Robert W. Finn became bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, I interviewed him for The Kansas City Star about the challenges he might face when he replaced the much-loved Bishop Raymond Boland.

Of course, neither Finn nor I had any way of knowing that a decade-plus later he would resign in disgrace, having been convicted of the misdemeanor crime of failing to notify law enforcement authorities about a suspected child-abusing priest in the diocese — a priest who now spends his time in prison.

I looked back on that 2004 interview recently and was shocked by the difference between Finn’s words and his later actions (or, more to the point, inactions) especially in light of the recent movie “Spotlight,” which was nominated for six Academy Awards Thursday (Jan. 14) including best picture and best original screenplay.

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MINNESOTA/MICHIGAN
Battle Creek Enquirer

DAVID CLOHESSY, GUEST COMMENTARY January 15, 2016

He is accused of making “unwanted sexual advances” toward seminarians, retaliating against one who rebuffed him, interfering with a church sexual misconduct investigation and concealing the crimes of predator priests.

But he’s good enough for western Michigan Catholics, at least in the view of Kalamazoo’s Catholic bishop.

He’s Archbishop John Nienstedt, a Michigan native who is one of only three U.S. prelates to resign from his post because of the church’s abuse and cover-up crisis.

The archdiocese he headed for seven years, St. Paul-Minneapolis, is the first in the nation to be charged with failure to protect children.

Exactly why did Nienstedt step down? Because he won’t talk, nor will his church colleagues in the United States or in Rome, no one really knows.

Was it because his archdiocese faces pending criminal charges for shielding the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, who is behind bars now for raping boys?

Or was it because some 10 sworn statements accuse Nienstedt of “sexual impropriety” in his last three assignments,” according to Commonweal, a respected Catholic news source. Most of the accusers are former Michigan seminarians, though there are also allegations of sexual advances toward at least two priests.

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NEW YORK
The Daily Beast

KATE BRIQUELET

Tiffanie Irwin is accused in new court documents of sparking the savage beating that left one teen dead and his brother injured inside a New York church described as a ‘cult.’

The pastor of a reclusive upstate New York church incited her flock to brutally beat two teenage brothers—one to death—by claiming they practiced witchcraft, new court filings allege.

Tiffanie Irwin told members of the Word of Life Christian Church that Lucas and Christopher Leonard used voodoo dolls, sexually fantasized about her, and plotted to kill their own parents, according to documents first published by the Utica Observer-Dispatch.

Those accusations turned deadly the night of Oct. 11, 2015, when members of the Chadwicks church savagely pummeled Lucas Leonard, 19, and Christopher Leonard, 17—kicking, punching, and whipping them with extension cords over a stretch of 14 hours, after they refused to repent for their “sins,” authorities say.

Lucas Leonard died of his injuries Oct. 12 after relatives rushed him to a hospital. An autopsy revealed he suffered multiple contusions to the torso and extremities. His brother survived and is now under the care of the state.

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NEBRASKA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Jan. 15, 2016

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP outreach director (314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

Nebraska Catholic officials are deceiving their flock about Bishop Robert Finn, the only prelate in the US to be criminally convicted for refusing to report child sex crimes to police. (Finn now works in Nebraska.)

[Lincoln Journal Star]

It’s dreadfully disingenuous to claim, as Bishop James Conley and one of his spokesmen JD Flynn are doing, that “Finn’s offense was an administrative mistake.” It was not. It was a crime. There was a trial. Finn was found guilty. He was penalized.

It’s also disingenuous to claim, as Conley and Flynn are doing, that (Finn) failed to notify police immediately of (a now-convicted priest’s) behavior.” Finn never notified the police. (Months later, one of Finn’s underlings called the police.)

And, in fact, Finn kept information and suspicions about these heinous crimes from police for months.

Finn, in fact, did not “fail.” Time and time again, Finn made deliberate, self-serving decisions to protect himself, his reputation and his priest, instead of protecting his flock.

Failure suggests a good faith effort that went awry. Had Finn tried to call the police but misdialed, that would have been a failure. Had he mailed evidence to police but forgot to put a stamp on the envelope, that would have been a failure.

But Finn did not “fail” to call the police. He knowingly refused to do so, for months, and during those months, more child sex crimes were committed, more kids were hurt, more families were deceived and devastated.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion

Boz Tchividjian | Jan 15, 2016

Happy New Year to all!

At the beginning of each new year, I like to take time to think about what we can be doing to bring about more justice to those who have suffered from the ravages of sexual abuse. However, thinking alone is not enough. If our our thoughts don’t move us to action, we really haven’t helped and justice remains elusive for so many. Attorney and victim advocate, Neil Jaffee, is someone who has spent his life moving thoughts into actions. Actions that have made a real difference in the life of so many abuse survivors. In this fantastic guest post, Neil describes and advocates for a a set of specialized practices that will revolutionize our approach to the handling of child sexual abuse cases in the criminal justice system. As a former child sexual abuse prosecutor, I can tell you that these proposed practices have a real possibility of delivering genuine justice and real hope to those who deserve it most. My prayer is this post will challenge each of us to help Neil in move these thoughts into action across the country. – Boz
_____________________________________________________________________________

Cases involving adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse are unique at their core because they involve survivors who were victimized as children but enter the legal system as adults. This fundamental aspect of adult survivor cases drives the need for specialized protocols and policies to address the particular dynamics of these cases.

The legal system must apply a specialized, trauma-informed approach to the investigation, prosecution, and disposition of adult survivor cases.

1. Trauma-informed systemic practices are essential

Childhood sexual abuse is recognized as a form of complex psychological trauma in that it typically involves repetitive, ongoing abuse, a fundamental betrayal of trust in a primary relationship, perpetrated by someone known by or related to the victim. The timing of the abuse events during a critical period of development during childhood has adverse long-term psychological and behavioral effects on the victims. Due to developmental impairments in cognitive functioning and language production related to the occurrence of the abuse events during childhood, some adult survivors may not be able initially to remember clearly and recount to investigators the details of the abuse events and recovered memories are often fragmented, incomplete, and nonspecific. The legal process itself can be re-traumatizing for survivors. Accordingly, the development of a trauma-informed approach is essential to support survivors in filing their legal claims, preparing them for the challenges posed by the justice system, and presenting their cases effectively in court.

* Specialized Practice: Forensic interviewers of adult survivors need to be trained in the neurobiology of traumatic memory. First responders and all subsequent interviewers of adult survivors should understand that suffering sexual abuse at an early developmental stage affects a survivor’s memory and ability to translate childhood memories into adult language that is coherent, complete, and chronological. Prosecutors should develop the skills to place recovered abuse memories in their proper context so as to explain delays, omissions, and/or inconsistencies in a survivor’s statements. Experts are often necessary to educate jurors (and judges) as to the correlation between childhood sexual abuse and traumatic amnesia. There must be a victim-centered approach at all stages that proceeds from the presumption that the survivor is credible unless the evidence proves otherwise.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Herald (UK)

by Carol Glatz
posted Friday, 15 Jan 2016

The Vatican is ‘not a den of thieves’, says Archbishop Angelo Becciu

The Vatican is not “a den of thieves”, and such insinuations are an injustice to employees who are proud to serve the Pope and the Church, Archbishop Angelo Becciu, a top official in the Vatican Secretariat of State, has said.

Necessary economic and administrative reforms and countermeasures have been taken to address any problems, he told the Italian weekly Panorama in an interview published in the issue dated January 20.

“I must reiterate firmly that we are not a bunch of corrupt and incompetent people,” he said in a lengthy interview conducted at the Vatican.

“The Vatican is not a den of thieves. To represent it as such constitutes an absolute falsehood. I find it extremely unjust that our employees, proudly carrying out a service for the pope and the church, have gotten to the point, for some time now, of being ashamed to tell people they work here,” he told the weekly.

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