A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.
KARNATAKA (INDIA)
Deccan Herald
September 6, 2018
By Vatsala Vedantam
The Archbishop confesses to the Cardinal: “I have broken all my vows,” to which his superior answers: “We are priests, but we were something else before we became priests, which we cannot escape. We are men, with the weaknesses and failings of men.”
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.
NEWARK (NJ)
Star-Ledger
September 7, 2018
By Patricia Teffenhart
The formation of a task force this week by the Attorney General’s Office to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy is an important step in the right direction for New Jersey.
But we cannot stop here.
As the #MeToo movement converges with continued reports of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, it’s time for us to acknowledge that some of New Jersey’s outdated laws ensure many survivors still won’t be able to pursue justice — making it impossible to hold those who have committed such heinous acts accountable.
New Jersey is an ugly outlier in the nation — since 2002, when the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” series shone a light on institutional child sexual abuse, 80 percent of states have made changes to their statutes of limitations for survivors of child sexual abuse.
The Garden State has made no changes.
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.
GUAM
KUAM News
September 7, 2018
By Krystal Paco
Will the 180-plus clergy sexual abuse lawsuits head for settlement, as planned? That and more will be discussed in a joint status conference at the District Court of Guam on Tuesday.
Back in August, one group of plaintiffs threatened to abandon settlement talks, alleging the Church was “acting in bad faith.”
The Lujan & Wolff firm, who represent majority of the plaintiffs and all the lawsuits filed in the federal court, reported that the Archdiocese of Agana would be banking on insurance coverage to front the cost of claims and that the Church was selling assets in a suspicious manner at “less than asking price.”
As we reported, the Church’s stateside legal counsel Mike Patterson assured the court it was all just a misunderstanding.
He advised that there are four properties being discussed and the reason for the transactions were “economic in nature.”
Both Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood and Superior Court Judge Michael Bordallo agreed they cannot force parties into mediation.
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
The Hayride
September 7, 2018
By Kevin Boyd
All across the country, the Catholic Church finds itself under investigation for sex abuse and its role in covering it up. After the bombshell investigation by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office, seven states have launched an investigation into the Catholic Church.
But one of the most Catholic states in the union is unlikely to join them. Even if Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry wanted to investigate the Catholic Church, he would be unable to do so. In Louisiana, he does not have the authority to launch a statewide investigation of a crime. Instead, criminal investigations are handled by the local district attorney.
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.
LAS CRUCES (NM)
The Associated Press
September 6, 2018
The New Mexico attorney general’s office wants Catholic Church officials around the state to allow it to review personnel records for any material that might be related to past or present allegations of sexual abuse.
The Diocese of Las Cruces said Wednesday it had received a letter from the office requesting the review and will cooperate.
“Having an independent authority reviewing our files can foster greater confidence in the transparency and accountability of the Diocese of Las Cruces,” Bishop Oscar Cantu said in a statement.
Letters were also sent to the Santa Fe Archdiocese and the diocese in Gallup requesting “full disclosure and transparency,” agency spokesman David Carl said.
“The Catholic Church in New Mexico needs to fully reconcile and support survivors by revealing the magnitude of sexual abuse and subsequent cover-up by Church leaders in order to restore faith and trust in the community,” Carl said.
The move to review the documents in New Mexico follows a recent grand jury report that said more than 300 Catholic priests abused at least 1,000 children over the past seven decades in six Pennsylvania dioceses. The report said senior figures in the Church hierarchy systematically covered up complaints.
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.
DUBLIN (IRELAND)
The Irish Catholic
September 6, 2018
A church in Cork was filled with applause and tears on Sunday after baby shoes were placed on the altar to commemorate the victims and survivors of clerical abuse.
Canon David Herlihy said he proposed the commemoration ceremony that took place in St Mary’s Parish Church in Youghal after members of the Standing4Women movement had tied children’s shoes to the church railings early last week in solidarity with all those who had been affected by the scandals.
“Just before Mass started I invited people to go out and to untie the shoes, anyone who wished to do so. There was great backing in the parish,” he said, adding that there was a “very big turnout of survivors”.
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.
MERRIMACK (NH)
SNAP Network
September 6, 2018
By David Clohessy
Carolyn Disco of Merrimack has passed away.
She was one of the most knowledgeable and outspoken Catholic lay people in the US regarding the Catholic abuse and cover up crisis. She started and led for years the NH chapter of Voice of the Faithful.
Carolyn was a hero to hundreds of clergy sex abuse victims. Unlike most Catholics, she neither ran from this crisis nor bought the calculated apologies and vague promises of the church hierarchy. Instead, she rallied to the side of the wounded and pushed hard to expose the truth, helping law enforcement and journalists investigate this horror.
Her compassion was boundless and her commitment to change was tireless. Many a suffering survivor turned to her for comfort and found it in this generous, kind woman. SNAP gave her our first-ever “Lay Person of the Year” award, which she earned through her dedicated support and advocacy. She will be sorely missed.
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.
SOUTH BEND (IN)
South Bend Tribune
September 7, 2018
A prosecutor in Pennsylvania is investigating an accusation of misconduct against local Bishop Kevin Rhoades in Harrisburg, where he previously served as a priest and bishop.
According to a report from PennLive.com, the Diocese of Harrisburg confirmed Thursday that an allegation of misconduct was filed against Rhoades recently and forwarded to the Dauphin County District Attorney’s office and PA ChildLine. Rhoades is now bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.
Diocesan spokesman Mike Barley told PennLive that the diocese “would stress that this is an allegation.”
“We will have no further comment until the investigation of the Office of the District Attorney is concluded,” Barley said.
A statement from the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend said, “Bishop Rhoades adamantly denies any validity to this accusation and the insinuation of inappropriate behavior. He did nothing wrong, and is confident any investigation will bear this out.”
The Tribune was not immediately able to reach the diocese late Thursday evening.
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.
HARRISBURG (PA)
Penn Live
September 6, 2018
By Ivey DeJesus
In the wake of a blistering report on clergy sex abuse, former Harrisburg Diocese bishop Kevin C. Rhoades has been accused of misconduct – possibly of a sexual nature.
The Diocese of Harrisburg on Thursday confirmed that an allegation of misconduct had recently been filed against Rhoades. Diocesan officials said they reported the allegation to PA ChildLine and the office of the Dauphin County District Attorney.
“We would stress that this is an allegation,” diocesan spokesman Mike Barley said in a statement to PennLive Thursday. “We will have no further comment until the investigation of the Office of the District Attorney is concluded.”
Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo said his office is investigating the allegation against Rhoades. Rhoades has not been charged.
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.
GERMANY
Regensburg Digital
September 2018
[Applications for recognition as a victim of sexual abuse and massive physical violence in the country Diocese of Regensburg from 2010 to August 2018]
1. Sexueller Missbrauch:
Insgesamt haben seit 2010 95 Personen 96 Anträge auf Anerkennung als Opfer sexueller Gewalt gestellt. Die meisten Anträge (24) wurden in 2011 gestellt, die wenigsten (2) im Jahr 2014.
Von diesen 96 Anträgen wurden 60 anerkannt. In 19 Fällen war das Bistum Regensburg nicht zuständig, diese Anträge wurden z.B. an Orden oder andere Bistümer weitergeleitet. 6 Anträge wurden abgelehnt, z.B., weil die Betroffene nicht minderjährig war oder der Vorfall nicht als sexueller Missbrauch eingestuft wurde (sondern z.B. als Körperverletzung), 2 Anträge wurden von den Betroffenen zurückgenommen, 9 Anträge sind derzeit noch offen.
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.
GERMANY
Regensburg Digital
September 6, 2018
By Stefan Aigner in Nachrichten, Überregional
[New figures of the diocese: The dimension of violence and abuse away from the Domspatzen]
4.3 million euros for 647 victims
Laut einer aktuellen Veröffentlichung des Bistums Regensburg haben Betroffene von Gewalt und sexuellem Missbrauch bislang rund 4,3 Millionen Euro an „Anerkennungsleistungen“ erhalten. Die nun erstmals veröffentlichten Zahlen zu Betroffenen machen auch deutlich, welche Dimension Gewalt und sexueller Missbrauch in anderen Einrichtungen des Bistums hatte: Bislang wurden fast 300 weitere Betroffene anerkannt.
Es gab keine Mitteilung an die Medien, geschweige denn eine Pressekonferenz: Kommentarlos hat das Bistum Regensburg am gestrigen Mittwoch eine knapp zweiseitige Übersicht über „Anträge auf Anerkennung als Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs und massiver körperlicher Gewalt (…) von 2010 bis August 2018“ auf seinen Internetseiten veröffentlicht. Demnach wurden – Stand 4. September – zwischen 2010 und August 2018 rund 4,3 Millionen Euro an Anerkennungsleistungen an Betroffene von körperlicher und sexueller Gewalt ausgezahlt.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Public Radio
September 7, 2018
By Caitlin Lally and Evie Hemphill
The word “outrage” doesn’t quite capture how Catholics in St. Louis have been reacting to a recent report revealing that nearly 1,000 young people were sexually abused by hundreds of priests in Pennsylvania over a 70-year period.
“I think everyone is just really grieving … there’s so much anger and some hostility even,” said Sandra Price, executive director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. “The reports that were outlined in the grand-jury report in Pennsylvania [were] grisly, detailed reports of abuse – that’s what sexual abuse is. And that the public has seen what sexual abuse really looks like, it’s traumatic – there’s just no words.”
Price, along with colleague Carol Brescia, joined St. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh for a conversation leading up to Friday’s planned Mass of Reparation. The segment also included comments from Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley and from David Clohessy, founder of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP.
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 Advance Media for NJ.com
September 6, 2018
By Kelly Heyboer and Ted Sherman
New Jersey officials Thursday announced the creation of a special task force to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy within the Catholic dioceses of New Jersey, and any efforts to cover up such abuse.
The stunning move was just the latest fallout to come in the wake of the recent disclosures by a recent Pennsylvania grand jury, which graphically detailed the horrific sex abuse by priests who preyed upon children for decades, sparking a national outcry that continues to grow.
Earlier in the day, the New York attorney general’s office issued subpoenas to every Catholic diocese in the state, as it, too, embarked on a major investigation of sex crimes committed and covered up by priests. The subpoenas seek documents relating to abuse allegations, payments to victims or findings from internal church investigations.
Here in New Jersey, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said he would appoint former acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert D. Laurino to head the newly formed task force, which will have subpoena power through a grand jury to compel testimony and demand the production of documents.
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.
METUCHEN (NJ)
CNA
September 5, 2018
By Christopher Altieri
The Diocese of Metuchen has temporarily removed a priest from parish ministry while it reexamines the handling of misconduct allegations made against him.
The priest, Fr. Alfonso R. Condorson, was ordained in 1995 in the Archdiocese of Newark by Archbishop Theodore McCarrick. Condorson, previously known as Alfonso de Condorpusa, held parish assignments in the archdiocese before transferring to the Diocese of Metuchen in 2004. He was permanently incardinated in the Metuchen diocese in 2008. Condorson is now listed as pastor of St. Joseph Parish, Bound Brook, NJ.
The priest was born in Lima, Peru in 1967. According to a 2015 report in Metuchen’s diocesan newspaper, he “settled in Maryland” in 1967, and became a U.S. citizen around 1998.
Condorson has a long-standing relationship with Metuchen’s Bishop Emeritus Paul Bootkoski, who sold in 2015 a New Jersey property to the priest for $1. Bootkoski, who authorized settlements to alleged victims of Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, became Bishop of Metuchen in 2002. He was also chief aide to McCarrick during the latter’s tenure as Archbishop of Newark.
The diocese is now reviewing how two allegations made against the priest were handled.
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.
CHARLOTTE (NC)
WBTV
September 5, 2018
By Nick Ochsner
You’ve seen the national headlines about the Catholic Church failing to act on allegations of sexual abuse… Now we’ve uncovered documents showing Church leaders in Charlotte and Raleigh received reports of priest abuse and allowed at least two men to continue in ministry
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.
SUPERIOR (WI)
Catholic Herald
Published September 6, 2018
Written August 31, 2018
By Most Reverend James P. Powers, Bishop of Superior
Once again we are all hurt, confused and angered by the recent news of Archbishop McCarrick’s abuses, the grand jury report from Pennsylvania, and the accusations against Pope Francis. As we move forward, the way is not totally clear, but I vow with the help of God to do everything in my power to lead our diocese with transparency and integrity in all things.
First and foremost, I offer my prayers and support for justice and healing to all victims of clergy abuse. Second, I offer my apologies for Church cover-ups and lack of transparent action, which led to sexual abuse of both children and adults, including seminarians. Third, I strongly encourage any victims of Catholic Church sexual abuse to bravely come forward and report the crimes committed against them. Finally, I ask for prayers of support for the great majority of our holy priests and bishops, who will continue their good and dedicated service to all of us and our Catholic Church.
As a priest and pastor, I have fully supported the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, and believe that the Diocese of Superior has taken every step possible to prevent abuse from happening in our diocese since its adoption 16 years ago. I am not aware of any currently serving priests or parish staff in our Diocese that are known or rumored to be abusers. I firmly believe that any of our active or retired priests would come to me if they have any knowledge of abuse. We have been carefully following the safety guidelines of the charter since 2002. Independent auditors have consistently found our diocese to be in compliance with all audited articles within the charter, most recently in July of 2018.
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PAXTON (MA)
WGRZ
September 5, 2018
By Steve Brown
What Jim Graham, has believed in his heart for 25-years is confirmed. A deceased Oblate order priest who he never met is Graham’s biological father.
It was the first day of classes at Anna Maria College. It’s a small Catholic school in the hills of central Massachusetts.
It’s here Jim Graham came to learn some test results.
Two months earlier, he sat near the grave of Father Thomas Sullivan to watch the exhumation of the remains of an Oblate order priest. Graham had gotten unprecedented permission to dig up Sullivan’s body to obtain tissue samples for a DNA paternity test.
For a quarter century, Graham has spent thousands of dollars and untolled hours gathering documents which tell a convincing story, that the priest Graham never met is his biological father. But all of the evidence is admittedly circumstantial which bothered Graham.
“When I tell my story, there’s always some hesitation because we didn’t have it validated. Some people could question if he was really my father,” he explained.
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CENTENNIAL (CO)
Colorado Public Radio
September 5, 2018
By Joella Baumann
Several weeks ago, a Pennsylvania grand jury released a report detailing the exhaustive extent of child sex abuse allegations in the state’s Catholic dioceses. Some survivors of similar abuse are calling for that process to be repeated state-by-state.
That perspective is shared in two members of the Denver chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Chapter leader Jeb Barrett and member Michael Carpino talked to Colorado Matters about how their abuse impacted their lives, and what steps they want to see taken.
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LONDON (UK)
The Spectator
September 8, 2018
By Damian Thompson
Did the pontiff conceal sexual abuse carried out by the retired archbishop of Washington DC?
he Catholic Church is confronting a series of interconnected scandals so shameful that its very survival is threatened. Pope Francis himself is accused of covering up the activities of one of the nastiest sexual predators ever to wear a cardinal’s hat: his close ally Theodore McCarrick, the retired Archbishop of Washington, DC.
Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI are also implicated; they did nothing, or almost nothing, while Mc-Carrick was seducing every seminarian he could get his hands on. (‘Hide the pretty ones!’ they used to say when he visited seminaries.) Yet powerful cardinals kept quiet and are now suspected of lying their heads off after Mc–Carrick’s crimes were recently made public.
McCarrick is the world’s only ex-cardinal. He was forced to resign in July when sexual abuse allegations against him were found to be ‘creditable and substantiated’ by American church authorities. But now the Pope is also being urged to step down — by his own former apostolic nuncio to the United States. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò says he told Francis in 2013 that McCarrick had ‘corrupted generations of priests and seminarians’. The Pope ignored him and lifted sanctions that Benedict, who’d been told the same thing, had imposed.
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HOUSTON (TX)
KTRK – Houston
September 7, 2018
The church will decide whether to oust Sam Young from the church on Sunday for asking others to vote against Mormon leaders.
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CHARLOTTE (NC)
WBTV
September 6, 2018
By Nick Ochsner
Catholic leaders in North Carolina allowed priests to continue serving in active ministry, despite reports that those priests had engaged in inappropriate behavior, documents show.
For months, WBTV has been gathering internal church documents, some dating back to the 1980s, related to two priests.
Both men were ultimately removed from their positions as pastors at churches in the Charlotte Diocese following reports of abuse. But, internal church documents show, the action in both cases came decades after church leaders first received reports of abusive behavior.
The revelations come amidst new national and international scrutiny into how the Catholic Church has handled priests accused of sexually abusing young people.
The United States Council of Catholic Bishops released six statements on the topic just in August of this year, including one statement referring to the church’s handling of alleged abusers as a “moral catastrophe.”
USCCB President Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo issued a statement on August 1 that addressed, in part, the way in which church leaders should handle those who have reported abuse.
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SWITZERLAND
AFP/The Local
September 6, 2018
The Swiss Bishops’ Conference on Wednesday pledged to make it mandatory to report sexual abuse of adults in the Catholic church, even without the victim’s permission.
Reporting is already mandatory if the victim is a child.
“If an official representative of the church learns that there is a suspicion of an offence (of sexual abuse) that should be prosecuted, he will be obliged to communicate that” to authorities even if the victim is not in agreement, conference spokesperson Encarnación Berger-Lobato told the AFP news agency.
Until now such action has only been required if authorised by the victim.
The Catholic church has been rocked in recent years by a string of abuse scandals.
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ROME
The Daily Beast
September 7, 2018
By Barbie Latza Nadeau
The pontiff’s silence speaks volumes as powerful conservative Catholic clerics, some of them colluding with Steve Bannon, try to force his resignation.
Not long after Pope Francis took office in March 2013, he ran into a wall. But it wasn’t the ancient Roman brickwork built around Vatican City. It was stronger. And it came from deep within the very church he was elected to lead. Every time he tried to introduce reforms, the wall was there. His foes were so strong he recently equated reforming the Catholic Church with “cleaning the Sphinx of Egypt with a toothbrush.”
Still, Francis persevered, relying on his immediate popularity and innate charm, and soon the outside world began to look at the Catholic Church in a new, positive light under his guidance. Suddenly, it it was cool to be Catholic.
But the traditional conservatives within the church didn’t want to be cool, and while the new pope was hardly progressive by secular standards (he is still Catholic, after all), they preferred the cold church, the one that protected them from the outside world behind layers of immovable doctrine.
While Francis reached far into the margins to minister to the poor and disenfranchised, the conservatives preferred punishing the sinners and adhering to archaic rules that have little place in the modern world, even if it meant sacrificing the flock.
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HUDSON VALLEY (NY)
The Fray
September 6, 2018
By Chris McKenna
An activist crusading for passage of the stalled Child Victims Act held a rally in Goshen on Thursday with state Senate candidate Pramilla Malick and endorsed her.
Gary Greenberg, founder of Protect NY Kids and the Fighting for Children PAC, has been campaigning with Democratic Senate candidates to support legislation for victims of childhood sexual abuse that the Republican-controlled Senate has refused to take up. He held similar rallies in Cornwall and Kingston a week earlier with James Skoufis and Pat Strong, the Democrats running for the 39th and 46th Senate Districts.
The difference in the 42nd District race is that two Democrats who both support the Child Victims Act – Malick and Jen Metzger – are competing in a primary next week. Greenberg, who also appeared with Malick at a Child Victims Act rally in the Town of Wallkill in March, clarified to the Times Herald-Record that he’s supporting Malick in the Democratic primary.
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CANADA
LifeSiteNews
September 6, 2018
By Lianne Laurence
The highly influential Catholic business association Legatus has put its annual Vatican tithe “in escrow,” citing the current crisis in the Church.
A September 6 letter (full letter below) from Legatus CEO and founder Tom Monaghan states the Legatus board took the step “in light of recent revelations and questions.”
“We have also had discussions regarding our (Legatus’) annual tithe to the Holy See, specifically pertaining to how it is being used, and what financial accountability exists within the Vatican for such charitable contributions. The Board has begun a dialogue along these lines, and in the meantime has decided to place the Holy See annual tithe in escrow, pending further determination (by the Board),” Monaghan stated.
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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS News
September 2018
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LONDON (UK)
Financial Times
September 5, 2018
By Geoffrey Boisi
Sexual abuse scandal is a chance to address leadership and management failures
The Catholic Church faces a twofold crisis: sexual abuse and a breakdown of confidence in its leadership. Focusing solely on the former is folly. Both must be dealt with head on. In the US, and beyond, the Church is at a tipping point in its relationship with the laity. Many are beyond restless and impatient for tangible reforms.
The moral catastrophe of the sexual abuse scandal was reinforced when a grand jury report found that more than 1,000 children in Pennsylvania had been abused by more than 300 priests. Equally disturbing was the exposure of transgressions by the former archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick, and accusations of a cover-up. But these are only the most recent events in a deepening crisis of trust.
Both laity and clergy are questioning the integrity and competence of certain members of the Church hierarchy, whose failures in leadership and management have damaged the Catholic voice of moral authority in the public sphere and the morale of the Catholic community. More than one generation of young people have been driven from the pews. However, it is important to note that this is not a crisis of faith but a basic question of accountability and leadership. Therein lies the opportunity.
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WASHINGTON (DC)
Foreign Policy
September 5, 2018
By Andrew Brown
The ferocity of the Vatican’s civil war has less to do with theology or justice than petty office politics.
The present scandal in the Catholic Church in the United States has no obvious precedent. Demands that a sitting pope resign have been unknown since the crises of the late 14th century, when rival popes reigned in Rome and Avignon, and they would have been unthinkable in modern times until 2012, when Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world by resigning. Before then, one would have no recourse but to hope that a pope with whom one disagreed should die. In fact, one British priest who hates Pope Francis assured me last year that the group of priests who oppose him “pray for him to die every day” but that forcing him to resign was out of the bounds of possibility.
So the demand by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, formerly the Vatican’s ambassador to Washington, that Francis resign was a significant escalation of the culture wars now convulsing the U.S. church. The ostensible reason is that Viganò claims that in 2013 Francis restored to favor Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who had, in retirement, been secretly sanctioned by Benedict for his liaisons with seminarians. The problem with this accusation is that the sanctions, if they existed, were so secret that the outside world did not know of their existence and McCarrick ignored them entirely.
Viganò’s letter follows the attempt by four retired cardinals last year to convict the pope of heresy over his line on divorced and remarried people, one that Francis eloquently ignored. In terms of U.S. politics, it pits the right-wing firebrand Steve Bannon against the Democratic upstart Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It is a battle for the soul of the Catholic Church in the United States, between the conservative culture warriors in one camp and the pastoralists in the other. It has potentially global implications about the way in which the leadership of the church and the way it tackles migration, the environment, sexuality, and capitalism. The hammering of the right-wing Catholic media on this scandal is reminiscent of the way the Fox News axis worked on the Benghazi attack and its aftermath, Hillary Clinton’s emails, and Whitewater in the past. The pope himself has used the powers of his office ruthlessly (as all popes tend to do), not least in sacking Viganò.
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UNITED STATES
American Thinker
September 4, 2018
By Matt C. Abbott
In recent weeks , there’s been considerable coverage and chatter in the mainstream media, on social media, and in the Catholic blogosphere on the fallout over the Pennsylvania grand jury report, not to mention the Pope Francis versus Archbishop Viganò controversy, which has basically developed into a full-blown Catholic civil war. Sides are being taken by those who have strong feelings on the latest crisis in the Church.
For better or worse (probably more the latter), many Catholics aren’t too interested in what’s happening in the Church. We just have to let them be. Hopefully, at least some will soon wake up and see that we’re in the midst of profound spiritual warfare. On the other hand, if they’re indeed striving to live as faithful Catholics while paying little to no attention to the news, I certainly can’t be critical of them.
But back to the crisis at hand.
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BREWSTER (MA)
Cape Cod Today
September 6, 2018
Faces 16 charges, remains free on bail with restrictions…
A teacher from Stony Brook Elementary School pleaded not guilty Thursday in Barnstable Superior Court to sixteen charges, including five counts of child rape. Noah Campbell-Halley’s case was moved to Superior Court after he was indicted by a Barnstable County grand jury last month.
The accused technology teacher remains free on $10,000 bail and must wear a GPS monitor, observe a curfew and to have no contact with any child except his own. Judge Robert Rufo additionally ordered that Campbell-Halley check in monthly with the probation department at Worcester Superior Court. Campbell-Halley is currently staying in the Worcester County town of Winchendon at the home of his parents.
Campbell-Halley was charged March 22nd in alleged incidents that involved two first graders at the school.
At the time of the initial charges, Nauset School Superintendent Thomas Conrad reported that Campbell-Halley, a fifth-year teacher, had been placed on administrative leave. His current employment status at the school is unknown.
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BOSTON (MA)
The Patriot Ledger
September 6, 2018
By Neal Simpson
A Whitman man is speaking out for the first time about the years of sexual abuse he says he endured as a child at the hands of a man who is now a celebrity real estate guru and author of a Trump University book.
Finlay S. Walsh, now 43, called a press conference Thursday morning to describe how David Lindahl, the owner of a Rockland-based real estate education company, abused him for years as a child and left him with a lifetime of trauma.
Walsh’s attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, said Lindahl served only 10 months of a 10-year sentence for the abuse and just last year paid Walsh $812,000 as part of a settlement agreement.
“I don’t think anybody can heal what I’ve gone through, but I want the truth to come out,” Walsh told reporters as he stood beside Garabedian, who is best known for representing victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Lindahl’s attorney, James Budreau, declined to comment Thursday. Calls to Lindahl’s real estate education company, RE Mentor, were not returned.
Lindahl started RE Mentor, which is hosting a three-day networking event in Boston starting today, in 2002 and claims on its website to have bought and sold more than 8,200 real estate units, calling himself “North America’s Leading Authority on Entrepreneurial Success.”
In addition to NBC, CBS, Fox News and ABC, he has written three books on real estate and says that now-President Donald Trump personally asked him to co-author a book for Trump University, a now-defunct for-profit education company.
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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
LI Herald
September 6, 2018
By Ben Strack
Diocese looks forward to church’s ‘intense period of reform’
The leader of Long Island’s Catholics recently supported the need to “aggressively uproot this scourge and expression of a culture of death of clergy sexual abuse” following allegations that have reached the Vatican.
Bishop John Barres, head of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, who cited Pope Francis’s letter to Catholics with that message, also called for “decisive answers” in a statement several days after Carlo Maria Vigano, the former top Vatican diplomat in the United States, accused the pope of covering up abuse and called for his resignation.
Vigano, known to be a staunch critic of the pope, claimed in a letter released last week that Francis knew that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had sexually abused seminarians before the information became public, and that the Vatican played a part in covering it up. Vigano claimed that he had informed Francis of McCarrick’s history of abuse in 2013.
The pope accepted McCarrick’s resignation in July after the church deemed credible an accusation that he had sexually abused a minor decades ago.
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FRANCE
La Croix
September 5, 2018
By Mélinée Le Priol
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon stands accused of leaving a priest in contact with children, knowing he had a history of sexual assault
On Aug. 3, new legislation about sexual violence and harassment was introduced in France that amended the country’s penal code. It toughened penalties for not reporting such crimes.
This could have a bearing on the trial of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon on charges that he covered up for a known pedophile. The trial is due to start on Jan. 7.
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LAFAYETTE (LA)
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
September 6, 2018
By Julia O’Donoghue
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office says it doesn’t have the authority to launch a broad, multi-parish investigation into Catholic Church sex abuse allegations, though a handful of attorneys general in other states are pursuing such inquiries.
Landry’s office said Catholic clergy sex abuse allegations in Louisiana need to be initially handled by local district attorneys and law enforcement in keeping with state law. A local district attorney could choose to hand over individual alleged clergy sex abuse cases to Landry, but even that wouldn’t allow a statewide investigation into multiple allegations from different communities unless all of the relevant cases were relinquished to the attorney general.
“We don’t have authority to prosecute until a district attorney turns the authority over to us,” Ruth Wisher, spokeswoman for Landry, said Thursday (Sept. 6). “The attorney general obviously has an interest in arresting child predators.”
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UNITED STATES
In Public Safety
September 2018
By Dr. Michael Pittaro
On August 14, 2018, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro publicly addressed the comprehensive findings of a much-anticipated, two-year statewide grand jury investigation uncovering the sexual abuse of children by predatory Catholic priests.
This nearly 900-page report reveals sexual abuses involving children under the age of 18 and includes graphically detailed victims’ accounts in dioceses throughout Pennsylvania. It also reveals the systemic cover up—which spans decades—by senior church leaders in Pennsylvania all the way up to the Vatican, thus prompting a response by the Pope.
While the report found that 1,000 children were victimized by predator Catholic priests, the true figure is estimated to be much higher, well into the thousands. Despite the horrendous and pervasive nature of these crimes, very few of the perpetrators can be held criminally or civilly liable due to the statute of limitations on sex crimes.
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[Abuses in the Church: Supreme Court “frees” Precht and prosecutor interrogates Juan Barros]
CHILE
BioBioChile
September 7, 2018
By Jonathan Flores
La agenda judicial ligada a los casos de abusos al interior de la Iglesia Católica tuvo varios movimientos el jueves. En concreto, se resume en tres tiempos: Precht ganó su batalla en la Corte Suprema; el arzobispado envió un exhorto al Vaticano para conocer detalles de los abusos cometidos por Fernando Karadima; y, para cerrar el día, uno de los cercanos al expárroco de El Bosque, el obispo emérito Juan Barros, prestó declaración ante Fiscalía.
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[Deceased priest, co-founder of Holy Cross congregation in Chile, investigated for abuse]
SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol
September 7, 2018
Denuncian por abusos a fallecido sacerdote que fue fundador de la congregación Holy Cross en ChileEl religioso Joseph Doherty llegó a Chile en 1943 y desde la institución señalaron que se enviaron los antecedentes al Ministerio Público.
El fallecido sacerdote y uno de los fundadores de la Congregación de la Santa Cruz (Holy Cross), Joseph Doherty, está siendo investigado por presunto abuso sexual en contra de una menor de edad. Según la denuncia recibida, los hechos habrían ocurrido en el Hogar San José de Talagante, en 1983, cuando Doherty era director del establecimiento.
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[Chile’s Supreme Court accepts Precht’s appeal against Archbishop of Santiago]
SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol
September 6, 2018
by Tomás Molina J.
El fallo del máximo tribunal dispuso que se deje sin efecto la medida cautelar interpuesta por la aquidiócesis, la cual le impedía residir únicamente en la capital mientras dure la indagatoria canónica en su contra.
Este jueves, la Corte Suprema determinó acoger el recurso de ampara presentado por la defensa del sacerdote Cristián Precht en contra del Arzobispado de Santiago. Esto producto de las medidas cautelares que le impuso el organismo religioso al presbítero, producto de la investigación canónica que pesa en su contra tras denuncias por abusos a menores en el marco del caso Maristas.
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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times
September 6, 2018
By Sharon Otterman
Newly emboldened attorneys general across the United States have begun to take an aggressive stance toward investigating sex abuse by Catholic clergy, examining whether church officials covered up malfeasance, issuing subpoenas for documents and convening special task forces.
On Thursday alone, the New York State attorney general issued subpoenas to all eight Roman Catholic dioceses in the state as part of a sweeping civil investigation into whether institutions covered up allegations of sexual abuse of children, officials said. The attorney general in New Jersey announced a similar investigation.
The new inquiries come several weeks after an explosive Pennsylvania grand jury report detailed the abuse of more than 1,000 children by hundreds of priests over decades. With Catholics clamoring for more transparency from their church, demanding that their bishops release the names of accused priests, civil authorities are beginning to step up to force disclosure.
In the three weeks since the release of the Pennsylvania report, the attorneys general of Illinois, Missouri and Nebraska have also announced that they intend to investigate sex abuse by Catholic priests in their states and have asked local dioceses for records. Most bishops have been saying they will cooperate.
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ROME
Crux
September 6, 2018
By Claire Giangravè
Pope Francis’s upcoming trip to the Baltics in late September will focus on youth and encouraging the local Church rather than relations with Russia and the sex abuse scandals that have been circling the Vatican this summer, according to a Lithuanian cleric.
“The government asked that the pope come give a word of encouragement especially for young people but also for the Church so that it might give its contribution,” said Monsignor Visvaldas Kulbokas, counselor at the Vatican embassy to Russia during a press briefing in Rome Sep. 5.
After Francis’s August trip to Ireland, marred by scandals regarding the clerical sex abuse crisis involving high ranking Church members, including the pope himself, the upcoming Sep. 22-26 papal visit to Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia is geared to be an opportunity to bring the pope’s message home to the European peripheries.
The formerly Soviet countries, now part of the European Union, struggle with political imbalance, financial issues and slowing birthrates. Lithuania, the priest said, ranks high for suicide rates, alcoholism and depression with many emigrating to find better opportunities elsewhere.
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SAINT-MARTIN-EN-VERCORS (FRANCE)
The Associated Press
September 6, 2018
When a lowly Roman Catholic father rebels against the church hierarchy, publicly castigating a prominent cardinal’s handling of child sex-abuse cases, is that an act of backstabbing against the institution he serves or a brave solo effort to help save it? That is the debate provoked by the actions of a priest in France, with his remarkable step of petitioning the cardinal to resign. Judging from the sheaf of letters and cards that Rev. Pierre Vignon is clutching in his soft, plump hands, his uprising has divided churchgoers.
To hate-mailers, the previously anonymous 64-year-old propelled into the spotlight by his online petition launched two weeks ago is an attention-grabbing egomaniac who is courting disaster by taking on the influential archbishop of the southeastern city of Lyon.
But mostly, Vignon says, those writing to him are supportive. They include people who have themselves been abused by predator priests. He plucks one such “thank you” card from the pile and reads out loud.
“Because of you I want to go back to church,” its author wrote. “When I do, I will think of the victims.”
Vignon clearly relishes being at the center of the storm, with reporters now beating a path to the Vercors plateau in southeastern France where the portly priest ministers.
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SANDUSKY (OH)
Sandusky Register
September 2, 2018
By Matt Westerhold
George Keller is a 1961 graduate of Immaculate Conception grade school.
He is a devout Catholic, has been all his life.
He’s also a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a priest, starting when he was 12 years old.
Keller wants Bishop Daniel Thomas, of the Toledo Diocese, to resign in the wake of a grand jury report released last month of an investigation in Pennsylvania that identified more than 1,000 victims of sexual abuse and more than 300 pedophile priests and bishops in the Keystone state who enabled them.
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WASHINGTON (DC)
Patheos
September 6, 2018
By Linda LaScola
Hello, Everyone – Welcome to September and the end of our rousing Vacation Bible School. We had a good time recasting and discussing some of the Bible stories we knew so well as children. Now it’s time to get serious.
While the VBS series was running, and while I was off on a cool and wonderful vacation to Nova Scotia, the Catholic Church was having another pedophilia scandal. I suppose many of you were following it, possibly as closely as I was. But it had special meaning for me.
Though I have never personally been touched by any scandals in the Catholic Church, I recently learned that three of the parishes my family belonged to while I was growing up had pedophile priests who were removed – and moved around to other parishes. You see, I was born and raised and educated in Pennsylvania – the scene of the latest scandal, made public by Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania Attorney General.
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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service
September 6, 2018
By Jack Jenkins
Last month, after Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro unveiled a bombshell 1,300-page grand jury report detailing the alleged sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children by 301 Catholic priests, many Americans called for more investigations into Church documents.
Now law enforcement officials in at least four states — New Mexico, Florida, Missouri and Illinois — appear to be launching inquiries or reviews of Catholic dioceses, often focusing on what Shapiro called secret files thought to contain decades of allegations of child sex abuse by priests.
Other investigations could follow, although identifying which states will launch them is complicated, in part due to differing legal systems that give some state attorneys general less power to investigate than in Pennsylvania. Some dioceses have already been investigated or have long-standing agreements with law enforcement.
New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas announced his office’s inquiry on Sept. 5, sending 10-page letters “in contemplation of litigation” and legal demands to dioceses asking to review any Church records related to past or present allegations of sexual abuse.
“(Balderas) has sent investigative demands to all three dioceses in New Mexico requiring full disclosure and full transparency,” David Carl, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, told Religion News Service in an email. “The Catholic Church in New Mexico needs to fully reconcile and support survivors by revealing the magnitude of sexual abuse and subsequent cover up by Church leaders in order to restore faith and trust in the community.”
One of those dioceses, the Diocese of Gallup, has already pledged to work with the attorney general.
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UNITED STATES
Yahoo Movies
September 6, 2018
By Suzy Byrne
When The Predator opens on Sept. 14, it will be a tad shorter than planned, due to the last-minute deletion of a scene featuring an actor who’s a registered sex offender.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the film’s director, Shane Black, cast his longtime friend Steve Wilder (real name: Steven Wilder Striegel), in a bit role working opposite one of its stars, Olivia Munn, in the sci-fi reboot. However, Munn — a fixture in the Me Too movement — learned in August, long after the film wrapped, that Wilder is a registered sex offender who pleaded guilty in 2010 to two felonies: risk of injury to a child and enticing a minor by computer. Wilder was 38 at the time when he engaged in an online relationship with a 14-year-old female victim, and he served six months in jail.
Munn, who came forward last year to accuse disgraced director Brett Ratner of sexual misconduct, told 20th Century Fox execs about Wilder’s history, and the studio brass decided to delete him from the movie at the last minute. She told the Times she found it “both surprising and unsettling that Shane Black, our director, did not share this information to the cast, crew, or Fox Studios prior to, during, or after production.” However she said she was “relieved” that when Fox was alerted, they “took appropriate action by deleting the scene.”
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WILLIAMSPORT (PA)
Sun-Gazette
September 1, 2018
Many of the Roman Catholic priests accused by a Pennsylvania grand jury of molesting hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children since the 1940s cannot be brought to justice. Some are dead. For most of those still alive, statutes of limitations have passed. They cannot be prosecuted.
Allegations of sexual abuse by the priests are disturbing enough. But the grand jury’s other conclusion, that some church officials covered up for the predator priests, is worse.
Surely, if the evidence is solid, some means can be found of holding those officials accountable.
Even worse than the complicity of some church officials are the grand jury’s findings that some police and prosecutors knew of sex abuse allegations — but did not investigate them, out of “deference” to the church.
Those law enforcement officers and officials should be punished, too.
No doubt the very scope of the grand jury report will cause some to doubt its accuracy. But if even a fraction is true, some means of getting justice simply must be found.
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ASHEVILLE (NY)
World Magazine
August 30, 2018
By Marvin Olasky, Sophia Lee, Emily Belz
Sexual abuse is a problem in both Roman Catholic and Protestant churches—and here are three environments in which Protestants are especially vulnerable
Warning: This special report contains disturbing information about alleged ministerial abuse.
We interrupt our regularly scheduled publication plan to bring you a special report on sexual abuse within Protestant churches.
Why now? Last month Pope Francis addressed rampant sexual abuse among Catholic clergy: “With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives.” When Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò accused Francis of personal involvement in the cover-up, Francis on Aug. 26 did not immediately deny Viganò’s charge.
That flare-up came after a Pennsylvania grand jury report showed more than 300 “predator priests” in that state had raped and molested more than 1,000 victims during a 70-year period. Given the number of destroyed documents and silent victims, the total is probably understated, and the report does not cover one-fourth of Pennsylvania dioceses, including Philadelphia’s—but what it does cover is chilling enough.
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WASHINGTON (DC)
The American Conservative
September 1, 2018
By Rod Dreher
Credit where credit is due: The New York Times called every curial cardinal accused by Vigano in his letter, asking them for comment. Here’s what happened:
Following the pope’s lead, the Vatican has gone on lockdown.
Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, whom Archbishop Viganò also accused in the letter of covering up sexual misconduct by Cardinal McCarrick, rushed a reporter off the phone on Thursday evening.
“Look, I’m not in my office. Good evening. Good evening,” he said. And he was the most talkative.
The Times reached out to every cardinal and bishop said by Archbishop Viganò to have known about the alleged sanctions on Cardinal McCarrick by Benedict. More than a dozen of them declined or did not answer requests for comment.
Remember what Francis said about the Vigano letter on the plane earlier this week, speaking to journalists?:
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JOHNSTOWN (PA)
The Tribune Democrat
September 2, 2018
By Chip Minemyer
Just imagine how it would feel …
Imagine being a freshman basketball player who goes to your school’s athletic trainer because you have a sprained ankle, only to have that man take you behind a curtain and instruct you to take off your shorts and underwear so he can check your groin “for swelling.”
Imagine learning years later that the same man was accused of inappropriate touching involving many children and teens at your school and other schools in other towns and other states.
Imagine you’re a 12-year-old child who has been taken to a pediatrician for a checkup, only to have that doctor place you on his lap and grab your crotch during the examination.
Imagine you’re an altar boy who is abused by a priest, and whose family takes the matter to the bishop, and who then learns years later that the abusive priest was sent to counseling briefly then reassigned to another parish to continue his ministry.
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RIGA (LATVIA)
AFP
September 5, 2018
A Latvian Catholic priest has been arrested on allegations he raped a mentally handicapped victim of human trafficking, police in the capital Riga said Wednesday ahead of a papal visit.
A second man was also arrested on suspicion of trafficking in the case, which has shocked the Baltic state as it prepares to receive Pope Francis from September 22.
“One of the suspects ‘delivered’ the defenceless victim for a fee, the church representative, who was the end buyer, paid the fee and then committed violent sexual crimes against the victim,” said Armands Lubarts, chief of a police task force on human trafficking and pimping.
The priest, identified as Pavels Zeila, 73, served in the Aglona?Rezekne diocese in eastern Latvia, which is to host Pope Francis during his four-day tour of the three Baltic states.
Zeila’s lawyer flatly denied the allegations and the Catholic diocese of Rezekne said Zeila must be presumed innocent.
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NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY
NBC News
September 6, 2018
By Matthew Johnson and Phil McCausland
Both offices cited a bombshell report produced by a Pennsylvania grand jury that concluded that approximately 300 Pennsylvania priests sexually abused more than 1,000 children over the past 70 years.
The New York attorney general issued subpoenas against the state’s Roman Catholic dioceses as New Jersey announced on Thursday a new task force to investigate sexual abuse of minors by the clergy.
The New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood subpoenaed the eight state dioceses as part of an ongoing civil investigation into how the church reviewed allegations of sexual abuse, a source familiar with the investigation said Thursday.
The New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, meanwhile, established a task force to probe cases of sex abuse and any attempts by the church to cover them up.
Both offices cited a bombshell report produced by a Pennsylvania grand jury that concluded that approximately 300 priests in the state had sexually abused more than 1,000 children stretching back 70 years. The report, which was shared with the public only weeks ago, also found that church leadership in the state worked to cover up the horrific abuse.
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LAFAYETTE (LA)
KATC
August 28, 2018
By Lanie Lee Cook
State Police found “credible” evidence that a now-retired south Louisiana priest raped two altar boys in the 1960s and 1970s, but the way laws were written at the time of the alleged crimes prevents any prosecution from moving forward.
Police investigated the allegations against Gerardus “Gerard” Clement Smit after Roy Touchet, who served as Smit’s altar boy during his time at St. Anne Church in Youngsville, filed a complaint in 2015. During that investigation, police found a second victim of Smit’s and corroborated both of their allegations through Diocesan records that spanned two states.
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LEXINGTON (KY)
Lexington Herald Leader
August 30, 2018
By Paul Prather
In mid-August, a grand jury in Pennsylvania released the latest revelation of the worst scandal to mar any Christian denomination in our collective memories.
That scandal, of course, is the ongoing, seemingly never-ending story of the sexual abuse of children within the Roman Catholic Church and the systematic cover-ups of that abuse by bishops and other church leaders.
The grand jury detailed abuses by more than 300 predator priests in Pennsylvania over a period of 70 years. Its report, which covered six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses, found 1,000 victims, but said there were thousands more the grand jury failed to identify.
Although the Pennsylvania report is the most extensive yet by a governmental agency in the United States, the crimes it exposed shouldn’t surprise anyone.
For three decades, countless cases of sex abuse by Catholic clergy and other forms of child abuse by church workers have been exposed across the country and around the world, including locales as far flung as Germany, Ireland, Chile, Australia, the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Brazil.
The church’s die-hard defenders argue the Catholic Church is getting a bum rap, that child abuse happens everywhere — in Protestant churches, in public schools, in secular universities such as Penn State, in youth sports, in families.
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SAN JOSE (CA)
KGO
September 5, 2018
By Amanda del Castillo
On Wednesday, Presentation High School’s president and former principal, Mary Miller, submitted her resignation to the school’s board of directors.
Miller came under criticism in October 2017, after a letter from a former student was published to the Washington Post, accusing Miller of mishandling allegations of sexual abuse.
Since then, dozens of former Presentation students have come forward to report they were abused too.
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CHICAGO(IL)
The Daily Herald
September 4, 2018
By Doug T. Graham
The Rev. Diego Berrio was removed as pastor of Mision San Juan Diego in Arlington Heights Tuesday by the Archdiocese of Chicago in the wake of his arrest Monday in Miami Beach, Florida, on allegations he was caught in a car engaging in sexual behavior with another priest.
Berrio, 39, was charged with lewd and lascivious behavior after a bystander spotted him and another man in a black Volkswagen rental about 3:20 p.m. Monday, according to a police report.
Cardinal Blaise J. Cupich said in a statement Tuesday that the archdiocese will await the results of the police investigation before taking further action.
“It is our responsibility to ensure those who serve our people are fit for ministry,” Cupich said. “We take this matter very seriously and will appoint an administrator for the parish as soon as possible.”
According to police, two Miami Beach officers approached the car and saw Berrio in the passenger’s seat engaging in a sex act with the Rev. Edwin Giraldo Cortes, 30, an extern priest from Soacha, Colombia. The car was parked on a street next to a large public park and beach, police said.
The police report states that the men didn’t notice the officers until one of them tapped on the driver’s side window.
Cupich said in a separate statement Tuesday that Cortes was granted faculties at St. Aloysius in Chicago throughout August on the recommendation of the diocese in Soacha, Colombia. Cortes listed Mision San Juan Diego as his address, according to the Miami Beach police report.
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ST. PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis
August 31, 2018
Tom Halden, Director of Communications
From Auxiliary Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens
Right now, the Catholic Church desperately needs an independent structure, led by experienced lay personnel, to investigate and review allegations made against bishops, archbishops and cardinals – and not just priests, as is the case in many dioceses throughout the United States. As a practical matter, bishop-led investigations have mixed credibility in the public domain: some inevitably believe the accused bishop is being treated unfairly; others believe he is receiving preferential treatment. A fair resolution becomes unachievable. The accuser deserves better. We all deserve better.
I am acutely aware of this, because I was personally involved, along with Bishop Lee Piché, in guiding the investigation of Archbishop John Nienstedt in 2014. In retrospect, it was doomed to fail. We did not have enough objectivity or experience with such investigations. Nor did we have authority to act. Throughout our efforts, we did not know where we could turn for assistance, because there was no meaningful structure to address allegations against bishops.
In the case of Archbishop Nienstedt, in early 2014, Archbishop Nienstedt asked his subordinates to conduct a review of allegations against him. When affidavits containing serious allegations of misconduct by Archbishop Nienstedt with adults were brought forward, Bishop Piché and I tried our best to bring them to the attention of people who might have authority to act and guide the investigation. This included the then nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. When Bishop Piché and I believed that we were being told by the nuncio to close the investigation, we strenuously objected. When the nuncio clarified that we should focus the investigation and complete it, we did so. Although there were internal disagreements about how to complete it, Bishop Piché thought it best to hire a second firm to complete the review, because Archbishop Nienstedt contended the first firm had been unfair to him. Father Daniel Griffith strongly disagreed with that decision. During this long period, on more than one occasion, I counseled Archbishop Nienstedt to resign for the good of the Archdiocese.
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HARRISBURG (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
September 5, 2018
By Angela Couloumbis and Liz Navratil
A lawyer for a group of unnamed clergy members alleges in a new court filing that the state Attorney General’s Office leaked grand jury material and engaged in a relentless media campaign that irrevocably deprived them of their due-process rights.
In a 95-page brief filed with the state Supreme Court this week, attorney Justin Danilewitz alleged that the leaks “publicly revealed the identities of two” clergy members whose information is shielded from the redacted version of a state grand jury report on clergy abuse in six of the state’s eight Roman Catholic dioceses.
Citing secrecy concerns, Mr. Danilewitz did not describe the alleged leaks or to whom they were made, but wrote that he could provide the Supreme Court with additional material under seal. He did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The Attorney General’s Office said it had been diligent in keeping grand jury information private.
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WACO (TX)
Deadspin
August 27, 2018
By Patrick Redford
According to a report from PR Week, Baylor officials placed a mole within several support groups for sexual assault survivors as a way to control their messaging and keep the university from looking bad.
Baylor currently faces a Title IX lawsuit from 10 anonymous former students for their alleged serial mishandling of sexual assault cases over the past decade, and Baylor football players have been accused of committing 52 rapes over four years. Per PR Week, the school attempted to curtail the voices of sexual assault survivors by embedding an insider (identified as Matt Burchett, director of student activities at Baylor) into survivor groups and getting them to soften their stances.
Burchett reportedly used his role as the school’s chief event planner and student life liaison to gain the trust of the groups. He would pretend to help them organize activities, all while siphoning information back to Baylor officials and to Ketchum, a PR firm retained by the school in the wake of reporting on its handling of sexual assaults.
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OMAHA (NE)
KETV
September 5, 2018
Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson is requesting 40 years of records from the Omaha Archdiocese.
The archdiocese wants the attorney general’s office to further define the scope of his request.
“We welcome accountability in our community,” said Archbishop George J. Lucas. “The truth is good for everyone. I see this as a real moment of grace.”
Lucas received Attorney General Doug Peterson’s request in the mail on Tuesday. Peterson is asking for records that go back to Jan. 1, 1978.
The archdiocese has had published policies for the handling of reports of sexual abuse since 2003.
The archdiocese says it annually passes an audit by an independent auditing firm retained by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for compliance with the Charter of the Protection of Young People.
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NEW YORK (NY)
Get Religion
September 5, 2018
By Bobby Ross Jr.
Here at GetReligion, Terry Mattingly and Julia Duin have done a fantastic job analyzing national and international media coverage of the recent barrage of Catholic clergy sex abuse news.
I’m referring to the headlines that have followed the Pennsylvania grand jury report and the allegations by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.
Here in the Southwest, I’ve noticed, too, that the world events have helped bring attention to previously unknown cases on the local level, specifically in Oklahoma City and Dallas.
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UNITED STATES
Law and Disorder
September 3, 2018
“How does the Catholic Church evaluate cases of pedophilia committed by priests?” This is the first question posed in the pamphlet titled “Pedophilia and the Priesthood,” written by Monsignor Raffaello Martinelli. The answer reads in part: These crimes of pedophilia have been labeled as “a crime against the most weak,” “a horrendous sin in the eyes of God,” a crime “that damages the Church’s credibility.”
The most severe condemnation, a source of clear and unequivocal blame, is found in the words of Jesus when, identifying himself with the little ones, affirms in the synoptic Gospels: And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea (Matthew 18:5-6, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:1-2).
In August 2018 it came to light that for over 70 years, Roman Catholic Bishops and other Church officials in Pennsylvania covered up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests. They dissuaded victims from reporting the abuse and they convinced police not to investigate it. This is all according to a grand jury report issued last month.
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ST. LOUIS (MO)
The Daily Beast
September 5, 2018
By Pilar Melendez
After announcing an investigation into sex abuse within the Catholic Church last month, Josh Hawley seems to be letting down the people who matter most: the survivors.
For Chris Wimmer, the locker rooms at Chaminade College Preparatory School in St Louis were “hell” from ages 11 to 18.
Once active in sports, Wimmer says, he witnessed fondling, touching, and groping hundreds of times in the showers and locker rooms allegedly at the hands of the athletic clergy director at the time.
Wimmer claims he was abused “countless times” by two clergy members at the Catholic high school from 1970 to 1977. He believes the clergy members would just use him “to masturbate” by wrapping their body around his teenage body.
“I remember one time the priest pretended he was giving me physical care and got me naked and into a whirlpool,” Wimmer told The Daily Beast in an interview. “After he had been very thorough of rubbing me, he went around the corner to finish himself.”
The 59-year-old is just one of the hundreds to recently come forward about their harrowing experiencing in Missouri, their outspokenness prompting the state attorney general’s office to take action.
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CANADA
The Globe and Mail
September 2, 2018
By Michael W. Higgins
Michael W. Higgins is a distinguished professor of Catholic thought at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn.
One could be forgiven for thinking that the Roman Catholic Church, Peter’s barque, is not only in rough seas, but taking on water, with the imminent possibility of capsizing.
After all, the turmoil generated by the release of the grand jury report in Pennsylvania, the aftershocks of the Chile abuse cover-up, the scandal of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s immoral and allegedly illegal behaviour, and the festering pain and resentment in Catholic Ireland, were more than enough for the Roman pontiff to handle in a summer of unprecedented heat. And then a retired prelate with a grudge popped up.
Carlo Maria Vigano is no ordinary disgruntled Vatican careerist. He has credentials: administrative, diplomatic, consigliere to the major players in Vatican governance. But by releasing his Testimony, better yet screed or jeremiad, while the Pope, his ultimate superior, was abroad doing what a pope should be doing, he has shifted media attention away from Francis’s priorities and placed it directly on Francis himself.
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BUFFALO (NY)
WHEC
September 6, 2018
The New York State Attorney General’s Office has launched a civil investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by clergy in the Catholic Church.
Attorney General Barbara Underwood has subpoenaed all eight Roman Catholic dioceses in the state as part of the probe. A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation but not authorized to speak publicly told The Associated Press the subpoenas went out Thursday.
The subpoenas seek documents relating to abuse allegations, payments to victims or findings from internal church investigations.
The attorney general’s Charities Bureau is conducting an investigation into “how the Catholic diocese and other church entities, reviewed and potentially covered up allegations of sexual abuse.”
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CARLISLE (PA)
The Sentinel
September 4, 2018
By Mary Sanchez
The excruciating pain of Michael Foreman has never been widely shared, certainly not with his name attached.
Now in his mid-50s, the Kansas City area man — listed as John Doe in previous court filings — began pursuing a legal claim about five years ago that he is a victim of a deceased pedophile priest who had been assigned to a number of Kansas parishes. A professional evaluation concurred, finding him “traumatically affected in his life due to the victimization inflicted by a trusted leader in his community.”
That’s putting it lightly. He’s a self-described hermit, a man who can spend four to five hours each day rocking back and forth in a self-soothing ritual.
Foreman claims he was abused at age 11 in 1972, when his devoutly Catholic mother sent her boisterous son to the parish priest for one-on-one counseling.
The priest allegedly engaged in strange therapies, having the young boy beat him with a pillow as the priest was on the floor in a fetal position. Foreman says the priest tried to kiss him, “slobbering” all over him.
Other details from other sessions, Foreman says, are blocked from his memory.
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AUSTRALIA
La Croix International
September 3, 2018
Call comes following Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
A conference of Christian churches in Melbourne has called on Australia’s churches to embrace thorough reform of their structures, governance and culture in the wake of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The three-day ecumenical Health and Integrity in Church and Ministry conference from Aug. 27-29 on the task of rebuilding and renewal for the churches after the Royal Commission was hosted by the University of Divinity and sponsored by three leading Catholic religious institutes and Yarra Theological Union.
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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS
September 4, 2018
By Charlie De Mar
Two priests tied to an Arlington Heights seminary were arrested in Miami Beach on Monday after allegedly engaging in a sex act inside a parked vehicle.
The priests, Diego L. Berrio, 39; and Edwin M. Cortez, 30, both reside at San Juan Diego Mission on the 2300 block of North Wilke Road. The Archdiocese of Chicago on Tuesday said it had cut ties with both men.
According to arrest reports from the Miami Beach Police Department, someone called police after seeing two men engaged in oral sex inside of a black Volkswagen parked on the 1300 block of Ocean Drive at 3:20 p.m. on Labor Day.
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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW
September 6, 2018
The New York Attorney General’s office has launched a civil investigation into how the six dioceses and one archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the state handled, and potentially covered up, allegations of sexual abuse involving minors.
The A.G.’s office has subpoenaed all dioceses as part of the probe, according to a law enforcement source cited by the Associated Press.
The move comes two weeks after a 7 Eyewitness News I-Team investigation – citing internal documents from the Diocese of Buffalo – showed Bishop Richard Malone returned a longtime priest to ministry and kept another in his parish despite allegations of misconduct involving minors and young men.
State prosecutors are also looking to work with district attorneys statewide “to investigate and, if warranted, prosecute any individuals who have committed criminal offenses that fall within the applicable statues of limitations.”
In addition, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood has introduced a clergy abuse hotline and complaint form. Victims of clergy sex abuse can call 1-800-771-7755 or file a complaint online at ag.ny.gov/ClergyAbuse.
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TWIN CITIES (MN)
The Catholic Spirit
September 1, 2018
By Maria Wiering
Controversy illustrates need for independent review board for allegations against bishops
Bishop Andrew Cozzens said that the Catholic Church “desperately needs an independent structure, led by experienced lay personnel, to investigate and review allegations made against bishops, archbishops and cardinals” in an Aug. 31 statement.
“I am acutely aware of this, because I was personally involved, along with Bishop Lee Piché, in guiding the investigation of Archbishop John Nienstedt in 2014,” he said. “In retrospect, it was doomed to fail.”
In January 2014, Archbishop Nienstedt, then the leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, charged his subordinates with investigating allegations of sexual misconduct that had been made against him. The investigation — and especially, how it ended — has received renewed international interest after retired U.S. nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò denied Aug. 26 that he had instructed Bishop Piché and Bishop Cozzens to end it.
Speaking of the investigation’s weakness from its start, Bishop Cozzens, the auxiliary bishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis said, “We did not have enough objectivity or experience with such investigations. Nor did we have authority to act. Throughout our efforts, we did not know where we could turn for assistance, because there was no meaningful structure to address allegations against bishops.”
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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times
September 4, 2018
ByMichael Sneed
A lay board appointed 15 years ago by the U.S. Conference of Bishops to investigate the priest sex abuse scandal is seeking to be reappointed and given the power to probe high-ranking members of the Catholic Church in the United States, according to a bombshell letter obtained by Sneed.
The nine-member panel — which included Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke; President Barack Obama’s former CIA chief and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta; powerful Washington, D.C., attorney Robert Bennett; and New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Petra Jimenez Maes — worked together last week by phone to hammer out its request, a copy of which is included below.
Burke, on behalf of the group, sent the letter to U.S. Conference of Bishops president Cardinal Daniel DiNardo on Friday.
The letter cites recent claims by a retired top Vatican official that Pope Francis himself knew about sexual misconduct allegations against the former archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, but that Francis restored him to public ministry anyway. McCarrick resigned in July after an abuse allegation lodged against him was deemed “credible.”
“We were never given the power to investigate the bishops,” Burke told Sneed. “We need to know why Washington, D.C., Archbishop McCarrick and others rose in their ecclesiastical careers when troubling facts regarding sexual abuse were known by the hierarchy which promoted them.”
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KENYA
La Croix International
September 3, 2018
Mothers who had relations with clerics urged to send children for tests but agency says results will be confidential
Kenyan priests may have to undergo paternity tests, the latest scandal to shake the Catholic Church in the wake of a series of child abuse cases and alleged cover-ups to hit various countries including Chile and the United States.
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VATICAN CITY
La Croix
September 3, 2018
By Isabelle de Gaulmyn
A Church that suffers is also a Church that continues to live, says La Croix religion editor Isabelle de Gaulmyn reflecting on the crisis in the Church
In a radio interview on Aug. 29 I attempted once again to explain the crisis engulfing the Church as best I could.
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VATICAN CITY
La Croix
September 3, 2018
Pope Francis has called on Catholics to look to the true meaning of religion and be vigilant against the pollution of hypocrisy, vanity and greed.
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BOSTON (MA)
The Conversation
September 5, 2018
By Andrew Dodd
If you’ve seen the movie Spotlight, about the Boston Globe investigative reporters who uncovered the staggering extent of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in the US, you’re already familiar with the work of Walter V. Robinson. He’s the one played by Michael Keaton in the film.
In today’s episode of Media Files – a podcast about the media and how it works – Robinson shares some insights into where the Spotlight investigation began: from scratch.
“I mean, we made our living doing mostly stories about government corruption and malfeasance and we didn’t have a single file anywhere in all of our file cabinets that had the word ‘priest’ or ‘church’,” he says in today’s episode of Media Files.
“I said, look, let’s do this: let’s assemble a list of everybody we can think of who’s ever had anything to do with this sexual abuse of children in Massachusetts and let’s call them all and see what we can find out.”
The initial trickle of leads would soon turn into a flood.
“We had 300 victims just in Boston alone who contacted us in the first two or three weeks after we published,” he said, adding that, for many, “we were the first people they had ever told and they all thought that they were the only ones that this had ever happened to.”
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MALTA
manueldelia.com
September 2, 2018
Illum’s front page on Felix Cini, the convicted child abuse priest permitted to say Mass in Bormla “on special occasions” made me angry. Reading the actual report inside the newspaper gives an altogether different impression. The newspaper challenges Felix Cini and his contortionate attempts at self-justification convince no one, least of all the author of the report.
But if Felix Cini could have designed that front page this morning, he could not have done better.
The quotes on that front page are his line of defence. He argues all the child abuse he was convicted to a prison sentence of two and half years for amounted to was ‘tapping on children’s shoulders’.
No one is convicted of child abuse for tapping on children’s shoulders. Nor are priests who tap on children’s shoulders sent by the Church to a monastery where you’re ‘cured of sexual perversions’. Because, yes, apparently they exist.
The title that really irked me most was the one where illum describes its own failures to get victims of Felix Cini to speak to it as “omerta’ assoluta”.
I can only hope this is a misunderstanding of what the term omerta’ means. The 17 people, who were 10 to 14 years old at the time, testified to prosecutors of the abuse they suffered. That is the absolute and complete opposite of omerta’. Omerta’ is the silence of witnesses who collaborate in crime by not revealing it. These witnesses testified to it.
They were never under any obligation to do so because apart from being witnesses they were also victims. But they did.
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MALTA
Malta Today
September 2, 2018
By David Hudson
Felix Cini, who pled guilty to criminal charges in Italy on child abuse, had been refused Maltese incardination
A priest who pled guilty to Italian criminal charges of the abuse of 17 children in an Italian diocese, has denied having committed anything wrong.
Felix Cini, who lives in Bormla after having returned from Italy in 2014, is still being granted special dispensation by the Maltese archdiocese to say mass on “special occasions”, despite criticism that the priest should not be allowed to carry out any form of ministry.
In 2004 Cini was found guilty for the “excessive attention” he paid to 17 boys and girls from the parish of Grossetto, but in comments to newspaper Illum, denied having done anything wrong.
“I only patted their shoulders… I used to help the altar boys get dressed. Giving attention is not abuse,” Cini said.
The children were between 10 and 14 years of age when they testified against the priest.
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ROME (ITALY)
La Croix
September 3, 2018
By Nicolas Senèze
Viganò’s accusations Viganò had been instructed by the Congregation for Bishops to apply sanctions against Cardinal McCarrick but appears to have been rather neglectful in doing so
The former papal nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, last month accused Pope Francis of covering up for American Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who has been accused of sexual abuse, sparking a media war between the pope’s supporters and adversaries.
“Benedict XVI imposed sanctions on Cardinal McCarrick that are similar to those now imposed by Pope Francis,” Archbishop Viganò wrote in his explosive 11-page testimony last month.
It appears highly probable that Benedict XVI did indeed sanction Cardinal McCarrick for having had homosexual relations with several young adults (seminarians over whom he exercised authority as a bishop).
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PROVIDENCE (RI)
GoLocalProv
August 21, 2018
One of Bishop Thomas Tobin’s prized mementos is a photo of Tobin meeting Pope John Paul II. Tobin’s audience was a result of Tobin being named the Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh.
The meeting was facilitated by then-Pittsburgh Bishop Donald Wuerl — now Cardinal Wuerl of Washington, D.C., who is at the center of the storm of the 1,000 sexual abuse cases in Pennsylvania.
Wuerl was Tobin’s mentor. Today, many are calling for his removal as Cardinal.
The photo is available for purchase on the Diocese of Providence’s website and is available as a mouse pad or playing cards.
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PHILADELPHIA( PA)
The Inquirer
September 4, 2018
By Timothy R. Rice
One of my roles as a federal judge is to help people resolve disputes that have spawned expensive and emotionally charged litigation. A lot has been written about the self-imposed destruction of the Catholic Church, where I worship, but one thing is certain: The church desperately needs help from the laity.
Catholic bishops need a reality check.
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CORNWALL-ON-HUDSON (NY)
News 12 Hudson Valley
August 30, 2018
Local lawmakers from both sides of the aisle rallied in Cornwall-on-Hudson Thursday to urge the state Senate to pass the Child Victims Act.
Both Democrats and Republicans came together to call on the state Senate to pass the act they say is critical to bringing justice to sexual abuse survivors.
Assemblyman James Skoufis (D) joined Orange County Legislator Mike Anagnostakis (R) and children protection advocates to demand that the state Senate pass this act. If signed into law, they say it would allow prosecutors to bring up criminal cases against predators up to a victim’s 23rd birthday and civil cases up until a victim’s 50th birthday.
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DALLAS (TX)
The Christian Mail
September 4, 2018
Father Edmundo Paredes disappeared from Dallas six months ago.
The Roman Catholic priest stands accused of financial theft and sexual abuse. Earlier this summer, his diocese reached a financial settlement with three males who accused him of molesting them when they were teenagers.
Paredes was suspended in June 2017. Earlier this year, church officials lost touch with him. They sent certified letters to him and went to his house but could not find him.
One church member said of the now-missing priest, “Let’s say he avoids man’s law. He can’t avoid God’s.”
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ANDOVER (MA)
Your Dracut Today
September 3, 2018
By Theresa Gilman
(Editor’s Note: the following information was provided by Barbara L’Italien for Congress.)
Key Planks:
Holding Powerful Leaders like President Trump, Justice Thomas Accountable
Cracking Down on Retaliation Against Victims
A National Reckoning With Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church
Clearing the Rape Kit Backlog
State senator and congressional candidate Barbara L’Italien (D-Andover), an outspoken supporter for survivors of sexual assault, has become the first candidate in the Third Congressional District race to outline a broad-based, detailed plan of action to hold more perpetrators of sexual misconduct culpable. L’Italien is committing to pursue a combination of systemic policy change and direct action to address past crimes.
Among the key planks of her platform is ending the culture of impunity at the highest levels of government. Senator L’Italien will request and advocate for a congressional hearing into the allegations of sexual misconduct against President Trump, giving the women he targeted the opportunity to share their stories under oath. She will also file an impeachment resolution against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for committing perjury in the face of Anita Hill’s accusations of sexual harassment, and work to build support for it among her colleagues.
“There is an elephant in the room for Congress in the #MeToo era. Our leaders have to start talking about it. Two of the most powerful men in the country have been credibly accused of sexual crimes and gotten away with it. If we’re serious about changing things, that can’t stand unchallenged,” L’Italien said. “Laws cracking down on sexual assault have to be signed by a president who multiple women say assaulted them. Regulations to stop sexual harassment can be struck down by a Supreme Court justice who lied under oath to counter allegations of sexual harassment. Why would victims think a government like that is looking out for them?”
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BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News
September 6, 2018
By Jay Tokasz
New York State Attorney General Barbara Underwood has launched a statewide investigation into the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy, with a particular focus on the Buffalo Diocese, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
The Attorney General’s Office earlier today sent out subpoenas seeking information from the six dioceses and one archdiocese across the state. The office also set up a clergy abuse hotline and online complaint form for anyone to provide information confidentially, according to the source.
The office’s Charities Bureau, which oversees non-profit organizations, is conducting the civil investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of minors in Catholic dioceses. At the same time, the office’s Criminal Division continues to try and work with local district attorneys on investigating and potentially prosecuting anyone within the dioceses on criminal charges related to sex abuse or cover-up of abuse.
Unlike Pennsylvania, the AG’s Office in New York doesn’t have the power to convene grand juries without an executive order from the governor’s office. Underwood said last month she would partner with district attorneys, who do have the power to convene grand juries, on a criminal investigation into dioceses.
The New York investigation followed the release last month of a bombshell Pennsylvania grand jury report that said 300 priests molested more 1,000 children in six of the state’s eight dioceses and archdioceses. The new investigation also comes on the heels of more than six months of media reports about Buffalo Diocese sexual abuse allegations, unraveling a cover-up of alleged clergy sex abuse dating back decades.
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UNITED STATES
CNN
August 24, 2018
By Eliott C. McLaughlin
Doctors, coaches, clergy. Society knows these as noble professions, filled with good people. Doctors heal. Coaches encourage athletic excellence. Priests usher people closer to God.
Then there are Dr. Larry Nassar, Coach Jerry Sandusky and Father John Geoghan.
Society knows them as monsters.
Abuse in one of these vocations came to the fore of public consciousness just last week, when a grand jury detailed decades of allegations of child sex abuse by Catholic priests in Pennsylvania.
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SAGINAW TWP (MI)
MLive
September 5, 2018
By Cole Waterman
Though a Saginaw Catholic Diocesan priest pleaded no contest on Tuesday, Sept. 4, to seven criminal charges in the sexual assault of three young men, police and prosecutors say their work is far from over.
The Rev. Robert J. “Father Bob” DeLand Jr., 71, on Tuesday, Sept. 4, appeared in Saginaw County Circuit Court and pleaded no contest to two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving injury; attempted second-degree criminal sexual conduct; assault with intent to commit second-degree criminal sexual conduct; gross indecency between males; selling alcohol to a minor and distributing an imitation controlled substance.
“I want to make it real clear,” said Saginaw County Assistant Prosecutor Mark Gaertner at a press conference held Wednesday morning. “The pleas yesterday did not stop the investigation. This is still continuing. This is not over.”
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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal
September 4, 2018
Homosexuality is not the cause of the sex abuse scandal wracking the Catholic Church.
There is no causal relationship between a person’s sexual preference and his propensity to commit crimes against children. If there were, how does the Catholic Church explain the untold number of rapes and sexual assaults committed by its priests against girls?
Sexual assault is an exercise of power and domination, not sexual preference.
For the Catholic Church to claim that the global practice of sexual abuse of children by priests is because of homosexual predation is an outrageously transparent attempt to shift the focus away from the cover-up of these heinous crimes by church hierarchy toward the demonization of homosexuals.
Ed Benson
Pawtucket
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NEW JERSEY
North Jersey Record
September 1, 2018
North Jersey Editorial Board
Sen. Joseph Vitale, long a champion on issues related to the health and general welfare of all New Jerseyans, has now stepped head-on into the gathering storm that is a widening sex abuse scandal within the Catholic Church. His call to action is heartening to hear, and was no doubt influenced, in part, by recent grand jury findings in Pennsylvania that showed Church leaders in that state covered up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over a period of 70 years. The report also identified more than 1,000 victims.
More than 300 priests over 70 years, more than 1,000 victims. The sheer breadth of it helped bring Vitale to the conclusion that, if it happened in Pennsylvania, it could have happened in New Jersey. Vitale indicated he was also influenced by reports circulating about Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, whom the Vatican removed from ministry earlier this year after allegations the cardinal sexually abused minors and adult seminarians over the course of decades. McCarrick formerly served as archbishop of Newark and bishop of Metuchen.
Last Thursday, Vitale called on Attorney General Gurbir Grewal to impanel a grand jury to see whether “generations of hidden sexual abuse” also occurred in New Jersey, noting that several priests accused in the Pennsylvania report spent time in New Jersey. The attorney general’s office has said was still reviewing results of the Pennsylvania case to determine any possible action.
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CHILE
Reuters
September 1, 2018
The number of cases of abuse in Chile’s Roman Catholic Church under investigation by prosecutors has more than tripled to 119 in the past month, the national prosecuting authority said Friday.
Among the 167 people under investigation are seven bishops and 96 priests, accused of unspecified abuses of 178 alleged victims, including 79 minors, the authority said.
A report from the authority sent to journalists on Friday did not specify the type of abuse but clergy have been accused by prosecutors of sexually abusing members of their congregations or covering-up abuse.
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CANADA
CTV News
August 31, 2018
Campers have for years parked their RVs at the Turtle Crossing campground along the Assiniboine River in Manitoba, without knowing that it’s situated on the site of unmarked graves of more than 50 Indigenous children who died at the Brandon Residential School.
But Anne Lindsay, a researcher and former archivist with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba, has spent nearly 10 years looking for and trying to identify the bodies. So far, she has identified children ranging in age from 7 to 16, dating back to the early 1900s.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that more than 3,200 children in total died at residential schools, where more than 150,000 Indigenous children were sent from 1883 to 1998 as part of a program of forced assimilation.
According to the Commission’s report, child abuse was “institutionalized” at residential schools and the entire system represented an attempt at “cultural genocide.”
Among its 94 calls to action was one to determine how — and how many — children died at residential schools and to determine where they are buried.
But some say that, so far, all they’ve seen is apathy.
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DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register
August 31, 2018
By Shelby Fleig
Des Moines Bishop Richard Pates has set aside four “special days” to honor the victims of sex abuse by clergy in the Catholic Church.
In response to a letter by Pope Francis condemning the abuse detailed in a recent Pennsylvania grand jury report, Pates invited all local parishes to pray and fast each Friday in September. The call is meant to “encourage penitence for the sin of sexual abuse that has affected our Church, as well as the cover-up of this sin by Church leadership,” said Pates in a letter.
“We showed no care for the little ones,” wrote Pope Francis nearly a week after the grand jury report was made public. “We abandoned them.”
The Bishop invited all 80 parishes and 17 schools in the Diocese of Des Moines to participate. Pates will lead prayer services on Sept. 7 and and Sept. 14 at St. Ambrose Cathedral.
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ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Morning Call
August 31, 2018
By Tim Darragh
The grand jury investigating child sex abuse in six Catholic dioceses around Pennsylvania concluded that abuse survivors who had long been prevented from seeking damages should be offered a legal window of opportunity to file suit.
None of Pennsylvania’s dioceses is supporting that recommendation, saying a retroactive statute of limitations is unconstitutional. Instead, the dioceses are looking at creating a compensation fund for survivors. And one, the Erie Diocese, has set in motion steps to create the fund.
Advocates for survivors, however, say a compensation fund is insufficient. They gained an ally Friday in Gov. Tom Wolf, who urged the Legislature to pass a bill adopting the grand jury’s four recommendations, including giving survivors two years to file lawsuits.
Erie Bishop Lawrence Persico this week ordered the diocese’s lawyers to work with state legislators in developing a fund, following a call to action Wednesday by Republican state Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati.
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TUAM (IRELAND)
Tuam Home Survivors Network
August 27, 2018
The publication today of a letter, by Katherine Zappone, which she handed to the Pope is nothing more than a publicity stunt.
She writes in the preamble to that letter: I am the Minister responsible for the Tuam Mother and Baby Home. This is of course an absurd statement. Ms Zappone is merely the Minister to which the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes is to report. In a different country, such a Commission would be reporting to a Justice Minister. What Minister Zappone has been responsible for more than two years, is a dishonest exercise in respect of the Tuam pit, which has prolonged the agony of survivors and those whose relatives may be buried there, by standing in the way of an exhumation.
In the course of her letter to the Pope, she attempts to maintain the myth that she with her Cabinet colleagues can decide the future of the mass grave at Tuam. To be clear once more, the only office-holder with jurisdiction over the mass grave at Tuam is the local Coroner. Where a Coroner fails to convene an Inquest, the Attorney General has under s24 of the Coroners Act 1961, the power indeed obligation, to appoint another Coroner to do so. Neither the previous Attorney General Maire Whelan nor the current incumbent Seamus Woulfe, have fulfilled their obligations to do so. Minister Zappone has sat in Cabinet with both and cannot be unaware of the position.
Yet in the warmest and driest summer for forty years in which an exhumation of the Tuam children could have been speedily accomplished, she has clung to a position which is both vile and dishonest.
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UNITED STATES
Patheos
August 25, 2018
By Mark Shea
So the other day I posted this on the Book of Face:
“I didn’t come to the church for the bishops, so I won’t leave because of them. Much of this is very understandable lashing out in rage, but there are a lot of people who really have lost faith because of it. I wish I knew what to say to them. My faith was never in men, so men can disgust me and let me down, but they can’t take away what wasn’t theirs to give.” – Tom McDonald, echoing my exact thoughts
That explains my own interior. I wish I knew how to help those whose hearts have been wrecked by this. All I can say is “I love you and hope you find peace. Please don’t take my own continuing faith as some kind of rebuke to your pain or struggles.” I think the day is done for any defenses of the faith that begin with superior rebukes to the unbeliever. God knoweth we Catholics have done all in our power to drive away even the staunchest believer.
My friend, Sam Rocha, not in response to this but not long after it, remarked (in response to other, similar sentiments about “being Catholic for Jesus and not for men”:
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IRELAND
Occupy the Vatican
August 25, 2018
By Hemley Gonzalez
Former president Mary McAleese says she refused to discuss an attempt by the Vatican in 2003 to secure an agreement with Ireland that it would not access church documents.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Ms McAleese has revealed what she described as “one of the most devastating moments in my presidency”.
It occurred during a State visit to Italy when she had a private meeting with then Vatican secretary of state Angelo Sodano.
“He indicated that he would like, and the Vatican would like, an agreement with Ireland, a concordat with Ireland. I asked him why and it was very clear it was because he wanted to protect Vatican and diocesan archives. I have to say that I immediately said the conversation had to stop,” Ms McAleese said.
“I told him I thought it extraordinarily inappropriate and very, very dangerous to the church, if it was pursued,” she said. “I asked Msgr Joe Murphy of Cloyne [then secretary to Cardinal Sodano] who was in the room that day along with my husband and Dermot McCarthy, then secretary to the government, and I said: ‘Look, I have heard nothing about this subject’.”
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HARRISBURG (PA)
Fortune
August 14, 2018
By Glenn Fleishman
Among the horrific revelations of a 1,356-page Pennsylvania grand jury report that found more than 1,000 identifiable child victims were abused by over 300 Catholic priests, one stands out starkly: Priests allegedly used church property to produce child pornography.
With one priest, George Zirwas, the grand jury says his diocese knew of complaints starting in 1987 that he purportedly sexually abused children. Zirwas was shuffled among positions until he was placed on “personal leave” in 1995, which lasted until he was murdered in Havana, Cuba, in May 2001. The report claims Zirwas and three other priests created child pornography in parishes and rectories using whips, violence, and sadism while raping their victims.
The three other priests were later charged in 1988 with the sexual assault of two altar boys. One pleaded guilty and the other was found guilty and both sentenced to years in prison; the third evaded charges due to a statute of limitation expiration.
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WASHINGTON (DC)
NPR Morning Edition
September 6, 2018
By Sarah Schneider
During the first Mass of the school year, two students at St. Bernard Elementary School in suburban Pittsburgh stand in front of the congregation and lead their classmates in prayer.
They pray for the leaders of the world, for the sick and suffering, and for the victims of abuse in the Catholic Church.
For some kids … parents don’t want them to be aware of this [abuse], and that’s the parents’ right.
It is the only time clergy abuse is mentioned during the service. It might be the only time it’s mentioned in the school. Principal Anthony Merante says he wants to leave that conversation up to parents.
“For some kids — and this is what I’m concerned about — parents don’t want them to be aware of this and that’s the parents’ right. So you’re going to bring something up and stir something up that isn’t there,” he says.
After the St. Bernard Mass, about a half-dozen parents decline to speak on the record because, they say, they either haven’t talked to their kids about the clergy abuse or they don’t know what to say. Some say they were unsure whether their young children even recognized they had prayed for victims of abuse.
The Pittsburgh Diocese oversees 64 elementary and high schools in six Western Pennsylvania counties. The grand jury report named 17 schools in the diocese where abuse took place. That number could be higher, though. In a handful of cases, the report noted that abuse happened in a school but didn’t specify which one. Sometimes children were molested and raped in their school. Other times students were groomed for abuse during the school day.
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DALLAS (TX)
Dallas Morning News
August 30, 2018
“Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”
Louis D. Brandeis wrote his often-quoted line about the power and necessity of transparency in 1913, three years before becoming a U.S. Supreme Court justice. A fearless proponent of social justice, he was writing about corruption and the concentration of power in the investment banking world at the time.
But he might just as well have been writing about the crisis the Catholic Church is in after a Pennsylvania grand jury released a 900-page report identifying 301 “predator priests” who sexually abused more than 1,000 children since the 1940s.
As we noted in our editorial Sunday, the grand jury said the tactics used by Catholic deacons, priests and bishops to cover up seven decades of abuse amounted to “a playbook for concealing the truth.” In a letter to all Catholics, Pope Francis called the clerical abuse in Pennsylvania “crimes” and “atrocities.”
Since that editorial published, there have been explosive new allegations from within the church accusing Francis of turning a blind eye to reports of decades of sexual abuse of minors and adult seminarians by Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C. McCarrick resigned last month after the church deemed the allegations “credible and substantiated.”
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ALLENTOWN (PA)
Morning Call
September 5, 2018
[See the petitioners’ filing.]
Lawyers representing more than a dozen clergy members whose names were redacted in the Pennsylvania grand jury report released earlier this month, asked the state Supreme Court Wednesday to adopt the redacted interim version, partly because of statements Attorney General Josh Shapiro made to the media “berating petitioners for seeking to protect their constitutional right to reputation.”
If not for the court’s decision to allow for the temporary redaction of names, the lawyers said, “the constitutional consequences for petitioners would have been calamitous.”
The grand jury report was released Aug. 14 after a two-year investigation into the sexual abuse of children by 301 accused priests in six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses, including Allentown. After sealing the report for weeks as it considered arguments to redact names, the court agreed to temporarily conceal the names of priests who filed objections. A Sept. 26 hearing is scheduled for arguments to determine whether those redactions should be lifted.
Scathing Pennsylvania grand jury report accuses hundreds of priests of sexually abusing more than 1,000 children
In Wednesday’s filing, lawyers argued that no “meaningful due process is possible” for their clients, given that the priests had no opportunity to present evidence to the grand jury, that many of the allegations are old and involve witnesses who now are dead and that the purpose of the report was punitive, namely to “shame” those named.
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[Ezzati continues with his strategy of repentance and points out that the Catholic Church “has contributed to the tension of the country”]
CHILE
El Mostrador
August 30, 2018
“Vivimos crispación y la Iglesia, nosotros, hemos contribuido con nuestros problemas y delitos”, dijo el cuestionado cardenal durante la Jornada de Planificación de la Iglesia Católica capitalina, en un mensaje a semanas del Te Deum que este año no liderará dado el complicado escenario judicial que enfrenta.
Siguiendo con su estrategia del arrepentimiento, el arzobispo de Santiago, cardenal Ricardo Ezzati, intentó hacer un nuevo mea culpa respecto a los casos de abusos sexuales y de poder que han protagonizado miembros del clero.
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[The investigations for abuse and cover-up that link the Catholic Church with Chile’s Armed Forces]
CHILE
El Mostrador
August 28, 2018
By Alejandra Carmona López
Chillán se ha convertido en una de las diócesis con las historias más oscuras. No solo porque en 2009 un sacerdote fue apuñalado 16 veces sin que nadie encontrara al culpable, sino también porque es la primera zona donde un obispo es investigado por abusos sexuales. Además, un capellán del Ejército es indagado y su nombre se suma a tres obispos castrenses cuyas pistas son seguidas por eventual encubrimiento.
Ese 9 de agosto, cuando un grupo del OS-9 de Carabineros allanó el Obispado Castrense en Providencia, Mauricio Pulgar no tuvo dudas. Toda la ruta de encubrimiento que había denunciado desde el año 2012 –cuando presentó una querella por abusos sexuales contra el presbítero Humberto Henríquez, mientras estaba en el Seminario Mayor San Rafael– le hizo sentido otra vez.
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