ABUSE TRACKER

PORTLAND (ME)
Press Herald

January 8, 2019

The USA Northeast Province of Jesuits released a list of 50 priests credibly accused of sexual abuse that includes seven priests who worked at Cheverus High School in Portland.

In his statement announcing the release of the names, the Northeast Jesuit provincial, the Rev. John Cecero, S.J., tries to convince us that if he and his fellow Jesuits had known better, they’d have done better.

That is, known better about not letting a pedophile rape a kid a second, third or fourth time.

Here’s what Father Cecero wrote in part in his statement: “We did not know any best practices to handle these violations many decades ago and regrettably made mistakes along the way.”

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.

[Jesuits open abuse investigation against Renato Poblete, deceased chaplain of Hogar de Cristo]

CHILE
BioBioChile

January 17, 2019

By Alberto González and Sebastián Cáceres

La Compañía de Jesús en Chile anunció una investigación canónica previa en contra del excapellán del Hogar de Cristo, el fallecido sacerdote Renato Poblete, por una acusación de abusos sexuales, de poder y conciencia, que habrían ocurrido entre 1985 y 1993. A través de un comunicado, la organización religiosa informó que a comienzos de enero recibió una denuncia de abusos sexuales, de poder y conciencia, cometidos por el sacerdote Renato Poblete Barth, quien murió en febrero de 2010 producto de un ataque cardíaco, a los 85 años de edad.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

January 15, 2018

By Laura Crimaldi and Michael Levenson
.
The governing body for Jesuit priests in eight Northeastern states released a list Tuesday of 50 clergy who were credibly accused of sexual abuse against children dating back to 1950, including 22 who were affiliated with high schools, hospitals, churches, and colleges in Massachusetts.

The list includes 16 Jesuits who worked at Boston College High School in Dorchester, and one priest who ministered in Fall River and Gloucester, but was only stripped of his duties in the last two weeks as officials at the USA Northeast Jesuit Province prepared to publicize his name.

All but five of the Jesuits with Massachusetts ties are listed as deceased. Among the living is James Talbot, who was defrocked in 2013 and jailed last year for sexually assaulting a boy in Freeport, Maine, during the 1990s, according to The Portland Press Herald.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
Syracuse.com

January 18, 2019

By Julie McMahon

Syracuse Catholic Bishop Robert Cunningham said today he would support a proposed law in New York state giving victims of child sexual abuse more time to file lawsuits.

Cunningham publicly shared his personal views on the Child Victims Act for the first time in a letter to The Post-Standard. He is part of the New York Catholic Conference, which has historically opposed the bill. Cunningham said today it was time for the New York State Legislature to pass and strengthen the proposed law.

The law in previous years failed to pass in the Republican-controlled state Senate. With Democrats in control of both houses in New York state, the Child Victims Act is expected to pass this year. Gov. Andrew Cuomo included it in his budget proposal during his State of the State address earlier this week.

The law would expand the statute of limitation in all criminal felony sex abuse cases involving children. It would allow prosecutors to pursue charges against abusers until the victim turns 28 years old.

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.

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

January 16, 2018

By Laura Crimaldi

Scholarships were given in their names, and Catholic institutions in Massachusetts tapped them as leaders.

But after the publication this week of the names of 50 Jesuit priests who were credibly accused of molesting children since 1950, organizations statewide have stripped the men of honors bestowed upon them years earlier. Twenty-two of the Jesuits had local ties, including five who are living.

On Wednesday, Boston College High School in Dorchester said it had discontinued a scholarship named for the late Rev. Leo Pollard, a German teacher and longtime hockey coach who molested children, according to the USA Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus.

Colleen Carter, a spokeswoman for the school, said BC High suspended the scholarship on Jan. 9 when the Jesuits provided its list of accused clergy.

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GREEN BAY (WI)
Green Bay Press-Gazette

January 18, 2019

By Paul Srubas

An activist group for victims of priest abuse is claiming the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay remains in cover-up mode despite Thursday’s release of suspects’ names by the diocese.

Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is holding a press conference on the St. Francis Xavier Cathedral steps this morning. He plans to call for Bishop David Ricken to name additional abusive priests who he claims were omitted from the list Ricken released Tuesday.

He also will call for Attorney General Josh Kaul to launch a statewide investigation of clerical sexual abuse and cover-up and to investigate the destruction of personnel records ordered in the Green Bay diocese by its former Bishop David Zubik in 2007.

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.

GREEN BAY (WI)
WBAY

January 17, 2019

By Sarah Thomsen

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay says an investigation has found 47 clergy members with “substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.”

There are 98 victims.

The names of 46 of the 47 priests were released on the Diocese website. One name is being withheld by the Diocese pending further review.

“It is important to state that there are currently no known priests serving in active ministry in the Diocese of Green Bay who have had a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against them,” says Rev. John Girotti, Vicar for Canonical Services.

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GREEN BAY (WI)
Green Bay Press-Gazette

January 17, 2019

By Paul Srubas

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay on Thursday morning released 46 names of clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of minors.

At a press conference on the diocesan campus, Bishop David Ricken apologized to the 98 known victims of sexual abuse by the clergy in the diocese since 1906 and called for other victims, if any, to come forward, to help make sure no abusers remain in the clergy.

“We believe you,” Ricken said of the victims, survivors and families, whom he called “my greatest concern.”

Diocesan Chancellor Tammy Basten and the Rev. John Girotti, vicar for canonical services, also spoke about the internal investigation conducted at the diocese since September to identify the clergy members.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

January 16, 2019

By Philip Pullella

Disgraced former U.S. cardinal Theodore McCarrick is almost certain to be defrocked in the next few weeks over allegations against him, including sexual abuse of minors, two Vatican sources said.

Last July, McCarrick became the first Catholic prelate in nearly 100 years to lose the title of cardinal. The allegations against him date back to decades ago when he was still rising to the top of the U.S. Church hierarchy.

McCarrick, 88, has responded publicly to only one of the allegations, saying he has “absolutely no recollection” of an alleged case of sexual abuse of a 16-year-old boy more than 50 years ago.

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GREEN BAY (WI)
SNAP Network

January 17, 2019

For immediate release, January 17, 2019

Today the Diocese of Green Bay has released a list of clerics that have been accused of abuse.

It is always helpful for survivors when these lists are posted, especially for those who may be suffering in silence. Seeing that they are not alone helps victims heal and could also compel others who were abused – whether by the same person or in the same place – to come forward.

What is not helpful for survivors is when church officials carefully curate these lists, leaving off names of priests who are accused because they do not meet the diocese’s ever-changing and nebulous definition of “credible.”

There has been at least some curation in this case as the list released today contains only diocesan priests, eschewing the names of religious order priests that served in the Green Bay area. For example, Bishop Accountability lists the following order priests who have been accused of abuse and spent time in Green Bay but are not disclosed in today’s release: Fr. Angelo Feldkamp, Fr. Camillus Frigo, Fr. Eric Middlecamp, Fr. Rudolph Nocinski, Fr. Loren Nys, Fr. James Stein,

We call on Bishop David Ricken to expand the list to include any religious order priests who have spent time in Green Bay, even if they offended elsewhere. We also encourage Bishop Ricken to release the names of any nuns, deacons or other church staff who may have allegations against them, as we know that abusers can be anyone, not just priests.

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.

DETROIT (MI)
The Associated Press Videos

January 17, 2019

Michigan State University’s board says interim president John Engler’s resignation is effective immediately. The board acted a day after Engler announced his resignation amid fallout from the case of convicted sexual abuser Larry Nassar (Jan. 17)

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DETROIT (MI)
The Associated Press

January 17, 2019

By Corey Williams and David Eggert

Michigan State University is poised to name a new interim president Thursday after the former governor who was brought in to help it recover from the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal resigned under pressure, amid backlash over his comments about some of the ex-sports doctor’s victims.

John Engler – who had resisted calls to step down in the past – quit in an 11-page letter to Dianne Byrum, chairwoman of Michigan State’s Board of Trustees, effective Jan. 23. It makes no mention of recent criticism of his recent remarks and instead lists what he considers to be his accomplishments in nearly one year of service, saying the university is a ”dramatically better, stronger institution.”

”It has been an honor to serve my beloved university,” wrote Engler, who is in Texas attending a burial service for his late father-in-law.

With his sudden reversal, Engler joins a long list of people – including his predecessor as president – who have been fired, forced out of their jobs or charged with crimes amid fallout from the school’s handling of the once-renowned sports physician stretching back decades.

The final straw for the university’s governing board came last week when Engler told The Detroit News that Nassar’s victims had been in the ”spotlight” and are ”still enjoying that moment at times, you know, the awards and recognition.”

Nassar is now serving decades-long prison sentences for sexually assaulting patients and possessing child pornography.

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 YORK (NY)
The Associated Press

January 16, 2019

By Karen Matthews

The governing body for the Jesuit order in the northeastern United States has released a list of 50 priests under its jurisdiction who have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct with minors.

All but 15 of the Roman Catholic priests on the list released Tuesday by the USA Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus are dead, and all of the alleged abuse all took place before 1997.

Two former priests are incarcerated, one for possession of child pornography and one for abuse charges.

“At the heart of this crisis is the painful, sinful and illegal harm done to children by those whom they should have been able to trust,” the Rev. John J. Cecero, the top official for the province, said in a statement, adding, “We did not know any best practices to handle these violations many decades ago and regrettably made mistakes along the way.”

The list includes priests who served in Jesuit high schools and colleges throughout New England, New York and northern New Jersey. Of the 50, 22 have Massachusetts connections.

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.

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Magazine

January 17, 2019

By Spencer Buell

State Rep. Paul McMurtry allegedly grabbed a woman’s behind at an event.

As Beacon Hill continues to grapple with what women have described as a culture that looked the other way in the face of harassment and inappropriate behavior, a high-ranking state rep is now accused of groping a female colleague.

According to a bombshell report in the Boston Globe, a woman in state government alleges that Rep. Paul McMurtry of Dedham grabbed her behind at an orientation event. An ad hoc committee is investigating whether to pursue the allegations further, McMurtry, who served at the time of the alleged incident as head of the House Committee on Personnel and Administration and is considered part of House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s inner circle, denies the allegations, calling them “absolutely, positively, unequivocally not true” and said he would “participate in any review” of the incident.

Two lawmakers tell the Globe that the woman, who has not been identified publicly, told them McMurtry grabbed her during a cocktail reception at UMass Amherst. A third lawmaker claims she witnessed the alleged groping.

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UNITED STATES
The Wrap

January 17, 2019

By Jennifer Maas and Tony Maglio

Former CBS chief Les Moonves will be pursuing arbitration to fight CBS for the $120 million severance pay he was denied last month when he was fired by the board of directors for cause.

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday, CBS stated that Moonves has informed the company of his plan: “On January 16, 2019, Mr. Moonves notified the Company of his election to demand binding arbitration with respect to this matter. The Company does not intend to comment further on this matter during the pendency of the arbitration proceedings.”

The investigation into Moonves — who was ousted in September, after multiple women came forward with sexual misconduct accusations — concluded Dec. 17, with the CBS board announcing at that time the former chairman and CEO “will not receive any severance payment.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Religion News Service

January 18, 2019

By Thomas Reese

Next month’s meeting in Rome, called by Pope Francis to deal with the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, may well be a failure before it even starts.

The stakes for the meeting have been ratcheted up, at least for the American church, as the Pennsylvania grand jury report on clergy sex abuse has summoned up new scrutiny of the church’s response, from the pews and from government officials; then, in November, the Vatican squelched a vote at the U.S. bishops’ fall meeting on measures designed to hold the hierarchy accountable for not dealing with abuse.

Now, more than 100 presidents of episcopal conferences from all over the world, plus a dozen or so other participants, are headed to Rome for a four-day conference beginning Feb. 21. According to the Vatican, the meeting will focus on three main themes: responsibility, accountability and transparency.

There are five reasons this meeting will fail.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Huffington Post

January 17, 2019

By Alanna Vagianos

This article is part of “One Year Later: Larry Nassar And The Women Who Made Us Listen,” a seven-part series that commemorates the seven days women stood in a Lansing, Michigan, courtroom last year and faced their abuser, former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State trainer Larry Nassar. Read more here.

By all appearances, Sarah Klein leads a relatively ordinary life.

The 39-year-old lives outside Philadelphia with her 3-year-old daughter, Genevieve. A former attorney, she travels a lot for her work as a consultant for a firm based in Florida. She’s driven and passionate, but has a relaxed way about her that would make anyone feel at home.

What most don’t know is how Klein’s life has been shaped, especially in the past few years, by the scandal of Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University trainer now serving a life sentence for child sexual abuse. Klein is Nassar’s first known victim. She says he began sexually abusing her in 1988. She was only 8 years old.

Up until this past summer, Klein was only known in court documents as “Victim 125.” Her choice to keep her identity private through Nassar’s various trials and sentence hearings was a “deliberate decision” to maintain privacy while she sifted through and unpacked years of trauma.

Over three decades after the abuse began, Klein tells me these last few years have been a complicated mix of sadness, anger and exhaustion.

“It’s so sad to find out that somebody you loved so much was capable of harming so many people and breaking so many lives,” she said.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

January 18, 2019

It was a highly unusual event when most of the bishops in the United States gathered for a weeklong retreat earlier in January at Mundelein Seminary outside of Chicago. The event was driven by a most unusual and debilitating problem, the clergy sex abuse crisis, which has bedeviled the church in the United States for nearly 34 years.

The event itself may have been the primary goal — gathering a group of men publicly divided over a host of issues for prayer and meditation away from daily pressures. Only time will tell if there are long-term benefits.

More immediately, however, the point of the gathering as it relates to the abuse scandal remains quite puzzling, particularly in light of the 11 talks delivered by Capuchin Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, official preacher of the papal household.

He began by announcing that the charge he received from Pope Francis was that he “lead a week of spiritual exercises for the bishop conference so that the bishops, far from their daily commitments, in a climate of prayer and silence and in a personal encounter with the Lord, may receive the strength and light of the Holy Spirit to find the right solution for the problems that afflict the church of the United States today.”

In that regard, he said, “I am not going to talk about pedophilia or give advice about eventual solutions. That is not my task and I would not have the competence to do it.”

It is beyond our competence and the space here to deal authoritatively with Cantalamessa’s outpouring of erudition, a river of words that took bishops through discourses on the kerygma, Christian asceticism, prayer, spirituality, conversion, the centrality of the person of Jesus, all laced through with biblical scholarship, modern-era theologians, the work of Francis, references to pop culture, and an unremittingly bleak analysis of contemporary culture.

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ALLENTOWN (PA)
Morning Call

January 18, 2019

By Kayla Dwyer

A Catholic priest from Phillipsburg has been arrested and charged with multiple criminal counts in the sexual assault of an underage girl in the early 1990s, authorities announced.

Father Thomas P. Ganley, 63, of Saint Philip & Saint James Church in Phillipsburg, was arrested on Wednesday, Jan. 16 — the first criminal case filed by the New Jersey Clergy Abuse Task Force since its formation in September 2018.

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey announced the charges against him in a news release Thursday: one count of aggravated sexual assault in the first degree, and two counts of sexual assault in the second degree.

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TRENTON (NJ)
NBC News

January 18, 2019

By Doha Madani

New Jersey authorities announced Thursday that a priest has been charged with sexual assault based on allegations stemming from the 1990s in the first criminal case by the state’s new Clergy Abuse Task Force.

Father Thomas P. Ganley, 63, of Phillipsburg, was arrested Wednesday on allegations that he sexually abused a minor between 1990 and 1994, while he worked at Saint Cecelia Church in Woodbridge, according to a press release from the state Attorney General’s Office.

The girl was between the age of 14 and 17 when the alleged assaults occurred.

Ganley, whose current assignment is Saint Philip and Saint James Church in Phillipsburg, was charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault in the first degree, and two counts of sexual assault in the second degree.

Ganley is being held at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center and has a court appearance scheduled for Friday.

The task force that filed charges against Ganley was announced by state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal in September 2018, weeks after a bombshell Pennsylvania grand jury report concluded that about 300 priests in the state had sexually abused more than 1,000 children, stretching back 70 years.

Ganley is the first priest to be arrested under the task force’s purview.

“This case illustrates that we are prepared to move swiftly to investigate allegations, and where there are viable criminal charges, to pursue those charges,” Grewal said in a press release.

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GREEN BAY (WI)
FOX 11 News

January 18th 2019

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, will hold a news conference Friday.

The group sent a letter to state Attorney General Josh Kaul, to launch a statewide investigation of clergy sex abuse and alleged cover-up.

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay is revealing results of its third-party investigation into its files on priests and deacons. The investigation was focused on finding any incidents of sexual abuse against minors by priests or deacons.

The news conference is at 11:30 a.m. We hope to stream it on fox11online.com.

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.

SANTA ROSA (CA)
Press Democrat

January 18, 2019

North Coast Catholics waited a long time for their church to name all of the local priests who sexually abused children.

A list was finally released last weekend, and to his credit, Bishop Robert F. Vasa went a step further. His list of 39 priests and deacons with ties to the Diocese of Santa Rosa includes known abusers, others who were credibly accused and two former bishops who are still under review.

Vasa said about 100 children have been sexually abused since the diocese was founded in 1962, with the most recent incidents reported in 2006 and 2008.

This is unprecedented transparency for local church leaders.

Vasa followed up with a public apology for the “evil actions” and a promise to be vigilant.

“Even when I’m fairly certain that nothing untoward had occurred, I will report it to the police because that’s the route I need to take,” he said at a Monday news conference.

That is, of course, the legal standard in California.

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BUFFAO (NY)
Buffalo News

January 17, 2019

By Jay Tokasz

Harry King, 55, first told a Buffalo Diocese administrator in 2002 that the Rev. Donald Becker sexually abused him when King was a teenager in the late 1970s. He spoke to The Buffalo News this past spring, on the condition that his name be kept out of the story.

Now, King is telling the world, with his name attached.

King posted on Facebook this week a raw and powerful 3,800-word essay about the alleged abuse and its effect on his life. In the essay, King reveals his battles with depression and his multiple attempts to kill himself. He discusses what it was like to meet with two retired judges who are determining how much clergy sex abuse victims receive under a diocesan program to compensate victims.

In March, Becker told The News he had not molested any children, although Buffalo Diocese officials said Becker had been removed from ministry in 2003 because of abuse allegations. Days later the diocese said the allegations against Becker were credible.

Please be warned: King’s story is disturbing and includes graphic accounts of the rape of a teenager. We publish King’s story because it gives a rare look at how sexual abuse — and the church’s response — wounded one person, as a teen and for decades.

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 YORK (NY)
NBC News

January 17, 2019

By Doha Madani

New Jersey authorities announced Thursday that a priest has been charged with sexual assault based on allegations stemming from the 1990s in the first criminal case by the state’s new Clergy Abuse Task Force.

Father Thomas P. Ganley, 63, of Phillipsburg, was arrested Wednesday on allegations that he sexually abused a minor between 1990 and 1994, while he worked at Saint Cecelia Church in Woodbridge, according to a press release from the state Attorney General’s Office.

The girl was between the age of 14 and 17 when the alleged assaults occurred.

Ganley, whose current assignment is Saint Philip and Saint James Church in Phillipsburg, was charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault in the first degree, and two counts of sexual assault in the second degree.

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.

LOUISVILLE (KY)
WAVE 3 News

January 17, 2019

By Connie Leonard

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, in Louisville and across the country, called on the Louisville Archbishop Thursday to protect children and release all names of priests who are credibly accused, as he has pledged, ASAP.

“Secrecy is the same,” said St. Louis SNAP volunteer David Clohessy, “the pattern of doing nothing until forced is the same.”

From Chicago to St. Louis, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, is asking Archbishop Kurtz to add the names of priests, who they said were shuffled into Louisville after being accused–and in some cases, admitted to abuse in other cities.

Some of the priests have already passed away, but SNAP believes if the Archbishop puts the names out there, victims may come forward and parents will at least know about those still around.

“At least one of them is accused of molesting five Louisville kids, and all of them spent some time in this area,” Clohessy said.

Five priests, SNAP contends, who deserve to be outed.

“If you asked 100 Louisville Catholics about these five names, 98 or 99 of them would not know who they are,” Clohessy said.

They said the accused priests are quietly moved around from other areas.

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LOUISVILLE (KY)
WDRB TV

January 17, 2019

By Chris Sutter

Armed with signs, umbrellas and a message, a group from Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests refused to allow rain to dampen the passion behind the reason they posted up outside the headquarters for the Archdiocese of Louisville.

“We’re here today to draw attention to five credibly accused child molesting priests,” SNAP volunteer leader David Clohessy said.

Some members of the group are survivors of priest abuse in Kentucky and elsewhere.

“I was abused, and we need to get the word out,” Larry Anthonsen said.

Each name the group wrote on their signs, they said, is an abusive member of the clergy that spent time in Louisville. They want Archbishop Joseph Kurtz to put out his list of credibly accused priests.

“Every single day that he hides these names, he’s putting kids at risk,” Clohessy said.

They also want detailed information on those that are still alive, like where the priests are now, their work histories and photos. Similar lists have been shared across the country but not everywhere.

“Bishops never like to acknowledge this crisis,” Clohessy said. “They want victims and whistleblowers to stay trapped in silence and shame and self-blame.”

SNAP members said that has to change for the survivors, some of whom have overcome what they describe as one of the worst moments of their lives, to advocate for those still suffering the same pain.

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.

LOUISVILLE (KY)
WLKY TV

January 17, 2019

By Caray Grace

A group of sexual abuse survivors with the group SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) stood outside the Archdiocese of Louisville with one message, release their names.

“It should have happened a long time ago. It should happen tomorrow. There’s no reason why you can’t release a partial list today,” said David Clohessy, volunteer director of SNAP.

Four survivors are calling for Archbishop Joseph Kurtz to release the list of priests who have been accused of sexual assault in Louisville. They want him to go a step further, by adding the names of those who didn’t always work in Louisville.

“These are five priests who mostly were ordained elsewhere, mostly worked elsewhere, mostly accused of abusing elsewhere but they all were in Louisville,” said Clohessy.

We sat down with Archbishop Kurtz in November. He told us they would release a full list of priests in December, but according to a recent leadership briefing, the expected publication date is now late January. In a statement from the Archdiocese regarding SNAP’s demands they said:

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LOUISVILLE (KY)
WHAS

January 17, 2019

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) are calling on the Archdiocese of Louisville to release a list of the names of clergy and others affiliated with the archdiocese who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

“Their world has been shattered because their spirituality and their soul has been shattered,” Jeanette Westbrook, a volunteer with SNAP, said.

“If my standing here and somebody hearing my story helps someone else come up with a memory or bring back a memory, then that makes it worthwhile for me because we can’t live with this and keep it inside of us forever,” Larry Anthonsen with SNAP said.

Anthonsen and other survivors have been traveling around the Midwest to cities like St. Louis and Evansville to call on the local archdioceses to be more transparent by releasing names.

“I was abused and we need to get the word out,” Anthonsen said. “It doesn’t matter where it happened.”

Members of SNAP held a demonstration outside the Archdiocese of Louisville’s pastoral building on Poplar Level Road Thursday morning, calling on Archbishop Joseph Kurtz and the archdiocese to follow in the steps of other archdioceses in cities like Indianapolis and Philadelphia.

“Archbishop Kurtz’s very first moral duty is to tell parents and parishioners and police, ‘Here are all the names of the dangerous men. Don’t let them babysit your kids. Don’t hire them to be substitute teachers,'” SNAP volunteer Daniel Clohessy said.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

January 16, 2019

Two days after asking for understanding for his role in covering up abuse allegations, Cardinal Donald Wuerl is finally “apologizing.”

We cannot help but feel that this apology is little more than a lame justification for his actions. To attempt to excuse himself by saying he “forgot” about the allegations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is neither believable nor a sign that Cardinal Wuerl feels real shame for his role in covering up allegations of sexual abuse. Rather, it is yet another example of a high-ranking church official minimizing his role in cover-ups and excusing his lack of action.

In his letter, the Cardinal states that it is “important for [him] to accept personal responsibility.” We agree. If Cardinal Wuerl is truly sorry, he should offer a genuine apology, one that is free of excuses and is backed up by a plan to make amends for his wrongdoing.

For example, Cardinal Wuerl should use his influence to encourage his brother bishops and cardinals to come forward and publish lists of accused priests, nuns, deacons, brothers, bishops, or any other church employees who may have hurt a child or a vulnerable adult. He should petition Pope Francis to ensure that survivor voices and experiences are front and center at next month’s papal abuse summit. He should work with other summit attendees to determine new protocols for prevention of future sex crimes and cover-ups, as well as punishments for any current or future prelate who is accused of doing so.

As administrator of the DC Archdiocese, Cardinal Wuerl should immediately turn over all documents and personnel files to the D.C. attorney general, who has opened an investigation into clergy abuse. By turning over these files and laying his history bare, the Cardinal can begin to show that his apology is sincere.

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.

BRONXVILLE (NY)
Rockland/Westchester Journal News

January 17, 2019

By Frank Esposito

A Bronxville priest returned to court on Wednesday night on allegations that he inappropriately touched a young girl.

Rev. Thomas Kreiser was serving at St. Joseph’s Parish during the time of the alleged incident.

His next court date is set for February 6, 2019.

Kreiser previously worked at St. Patrick’s Church in Yorktown and St. Gregory Barbarigo Church in Garnerville.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press

January 17, 2019

By David Crary

Women have been elected heads of national governments on six continents. They have flown into space, served in elite combat units and won every category of Nobel Prize. The global #MeToo movement, in 15 months, has toppled a multitude of powerful men linked to sexual misconduct.

Yet in most of the world’s major religions, women remain relegated to a second-tier status. Women in several faiths are still barred from ordination. Some are banned from praying alongside men and forbidden from stepping foot in some houses of worship altogether. Their attire, from headwear down to the length of their skirts in church, is often restricted.

But women around the world in recent months have been finding new ways to chip away at centuries of male-dominated traditions and barriers, with many of them emboldened by the surge of social media activism that’s spread globally in the #MeToo era.

Millions of women in India this month formed a human wall nearly 400 miles long in support of women who defied conservative Hindu leaders and entered an important temple that has long been off-limits to women and girls between the ages of 10 and 50.

In Israel, where Orthodox Judaism has long restricted women’s roles, one Jerusalem congregation has allowed women to lead Friday evening prayers. Roman Catholic bishops, under pressure from women’s-rights activists, concluded a recent Vatican meeting by declaring that women, as an urgent “duty of justice,” should have a greater role in church decision-making.

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GREEN BAY (WI)
Green Bay Press-Gazette

January 17, 2019

By Paul Srubas

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay this morning is publicly releasing the names of clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of minors.

A press conference is happening now at Bona Hall on the diocesan campus, with Bishop David Ricken, Diocesan Chancellor Tammy Basten, and Rev. John Girotti, vicar for canonical services, set to speak.

Ricken said the names would be posted on the diocese’s website at noon. The website appeared to have crashed less than a minute after noon.

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LOUISVILLE (KY)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
January 16, 2019

— Fr. Michael (a.k.a. “Miguel”) Baca
He was included in the Gallup diocese’s 12/14 list of clergy having credible allegations of sexual misconduct made against them. The diocese provided a partial list of assignments for Fr. Baca, which showed him at St Joseph the Worker in San Fidel NM in 1961. But the Official Catholic Directory lists him as assigned there as Retreat Director for the decade 1961-1970. Baca’s 18 years of missionary work took him throughout the US, and he also worked among the Otomi Indians of central Mexico. Besides Gallup, Fr. Baca worked in at least one other diocese (Peoria) and two archdioceses (Louisville and Santa Fe). He also worked at Immaculate Conception Parish in Cuba NM in 1953 and Our Lady of Fatima Parish inChinle AZ in 1978. For 12 years, Fr. Baca wrote the “Life Is for Living” column for the national magazine St Anthony Messenger. He is deceased.

http://bishop-accountability.org/priestdb/PriestDBbylastName-B.html

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2017/05_06/2017_05_10_Donald_Beacon_Former_Added.htm

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2014/11_12/2014_12_16_Gallup_Credibly_Accused.htm

— Fr. Crispin Butz
He was named among Franciscan alleged clergy perpetrators of sexual abuse in a 12/14 court documents related to Gallup NM diocese’s bankruptcy case. Early in his career, he worked in Batesville, IN and Louisville, KY, then was moved to Sacred Heart Parish in Gallup NM. He reportedly abused during 1960-63 when he was at St. Francis of Assisi parish in Gallup. Other assignments included the Basilica Cathedral of St. Francis in Santa Fe where he was rector in 1984-94. He also pastored parishes in Albuquerque, Bloomfield, Cuba and Grants NM.

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[Apostolic visitor will go to Puerto Montt due to serious allegations against clergy]

CHILE
BioBioChile

January 17, 2019

By Alberto González, Jonathan Flores and Nicole Martínez.

El papa Francisco enviará un visitador apostólico a Puerto Montt, para informar al Vaticano sobre la situación de la iglesia local, tras denuncias de abuso, tráfico y apropiación indebida. Acogiendo una solicitud del administrador apostólico Ricardo Morales, este sábado llegará hasta Puerto Montt el obispo mexicano Jorge Patrón, quien permanecerá en la capital de la región de Los Lagos hasta el 24 de enero, por instrucción del Papa.

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[Pope Francis will send an apostolic visitor to Puerto Montt]

CHILE
La Tercera

January 16, 2019

By Carlos Reyes

“El objetivo del visitador -agregan- será valorar e informar a la Santa Sede sobre el estado de la vida, el ministerio y la disciplina del clero, animará la pastoral de los presbíteros y sugerirá iniciativas para el acompañamiento de los sacerdotes”, informó la diócesis mediante un comunicado.

A través de un comunicado, el arzobispado de Puerto Montt informó que el Papa Francisco decidió enviar a la ciudad un visitador apostólico. “El Papa Francisco ha nombrado como visitador apostólico a monseñor Jorge Carlos Patrón Wong, secretario de seminarios de la Congregación para el Clero, quien propiciará un espacio de encuentro y escucha, en que puedan expresarse con libertad todos los sacerdotes, miembros representativos de la vida consagrada y del laicado de Puerto Montt”, indica el texto de la diócesis.

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[VIDEO: Rector Sánchez evaluates the measures and advances in the midst of the Catholic Church crisis]

CHILE
Emol TV

January 16, 2019

El rector de la Universidad Católica, Ignacio Sánchez, analizó los avances tras los abusos cometidos por sacerdotes. Reiteró que hay que “escuchar a las víctimas”. La entrevista completa la puedes revisar en el siguiente link.

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[The “damn puzzle” of the diocese of Arica]

CHILE
The Clinic

January 16, 2019

By Camila Magnet and Jonás Romero

Abusos a menores, relaciones amorosas entre sacerdotes, protección de obispos prófugos y hasta curas en fuga. La llegada de Julio Barahona a Arica en 1991 es sólo uno de los ejemplos de lo que sobrevivientes han descrito como una “zona de penitencia”. “Arica siempre ha sido el lugar donde algunos van a pagar sus castigos, o a esconderse”, explica el teólogo Paul Endre, quien tuvo un breve paso como seminarista en la zona. Aquí, un vistazo de la desconcertada diócesis nortina.

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WINSTON-SALEM (NC)
Baptist News Global

January 17, 2019

By Crista Brown

An exposé by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on clergy sex abuse in Independent Fundamentalist Baptist churches blared yet another wake-up call to America’s religious leaders, including those of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Baptist News Global columnist Bill Leonard rightly observed that the IFB cases “sound strikingly like predatory acts committed against children by Catholic priests.” They also sound a lot like clergy sex abuse and church cover-up cases in the SBC.

I know because between 2006 and 2012 I maintained a website on which I logged hundreds of news articles about sexual abuse in all types of Baptist churches. The articles implicated 167 pastors, deacons, denominational officials and missionaries affiliated with the SBC.

If I had plotted these cases on a map (they covered 29 states), it would have looked much like the map published by the Star-Telegram in its series on clergy sexual abuse in IFB churches.

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LOUISVILLE (KY)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

January 17, 2019

Abuse victims want Louisville accused cleric list ASAP
Archbishop should make it “thorough & detailed,” group says
Five clerics who largely abused elsewhere should be added, victims claim
SNAP: They’re almost completely ‘under the radar’ and may have hurt local kids”
Group wants victims, witnesses and witnesses to call KY state attorney general”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, a clergy sex abuse victim and advocate will
–publicly disclose for the first time that five credibly accused predator priests worked in the Louisville ar but have attracted no public attention there, and
–prod Louisville’s Catholic archbishop to add their names to his “accused” clergy list, and
–beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups in Kentucky to contact the attorney general who is conducting a statewide investigation into this crisis.

WHEN
Thursday, January 17 at 11:00 a.m.

WHERE
Outside the Louisville archdiocesan headquarters (aka the chancery or “pastoral center”), 3940 Poplar Level Rd. in Louisville KY

WHO
Two abuse victims: a Missouri man who is the St. Louis volunteer leader of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (and the organization’s former long time executive director) and an Illinois man who is the group’s Chicago volunteer leader, and at least two KY area victims

WHY
1) These publicly accused priests worked in Louisville, abused mostly outside of Kentucky, but have attracted virtually no local attention. They should be put on the archdiocesan list of alleged predators that Archbishop Joseph Kurtz has pledged to release, SNAP says.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

January 17, 2019

By Claire Giangravè

As the Vatican prepares to host an international summit of bishops in February on clerical sex abuse, the Italian bishops are preparing by fine-tuning new guidelines for the protection of minors.

“It’s an initial suggestion to imagine a future course of action,” said Father Stefano Russo, Secretary General of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) during a press event Jan. 16.

“We want to promote attention toward the protection of the most vulnerable,” he added.

Russo spoke at the conclusion of the January meeting of the permanent council of CEI, Jan. 14-16, which took place under the direction of its president, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia.

During the meeting, “ample space,” an official communique reads, was dedicated to addressing and discussing guidelines for the protection of minors requested by Pope Francis.

While the guidelines won’t be made public until May, the bishops approved the creation of a national framework to advise clergy and bishops on best practices regarding sexual abuse and nominated Bishop Lorenzo Ghizzoni, president of CEI’s commission for the protection of minors, as its head.

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NEW YORK (NY)
ABC News

January 17, 2019

By Lauren Effron, Andres Paparella and Jeca Taudte

Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were among the most famous televangelists in America, living a life of luxury with multiple houses, expensive cars and more money than God, when their empire all came crashing down amid sex and financial scandals.

But in the years following the demise of their ministry, the Bakkers didn’t let a prison sentence, the loss of their massively popular multimillion-dollar TV network, the closure of their “Christian version of Disneyland” theme park, financial ruin, a divorce and being the butt of many “Saturday Night Live” jokes keep them down – or away from the spotlight.

Watch the full story on “20/20” FRIDAY, Jan. 18 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC

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NEW YORK (NY)
Irish Central

January 17, 2019

BY Michael Kelly

All eyes will be in Rome next month for an unprecedented meeting of bishops to discuss the devastating issues of clerical abuse scandals in the universal Church. While the Church in Ireland has been grappling with such revelations for some 25 years, fresh controversy in the US, Australia and Poland have focused attention on the Vatican and the need for a comprehensive response from the universal Church.

Just this week, prominent abuse campaigner Marie Collins told a meeting in Dublin that she was not optimistic.

“My fear is that what we will hear is that there has been a great deal of prayer, reflection, and ‘fruitful discussion,’” she said.

“We will be assured that things are moving forward and there will be promises for the future, but we will see little in the way of on-paper, concrete, committed action plans,” she said.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

January 16, 2019

By Steven Martinez

he 61-year-old Pewaukee priest accused of groping a teenage congregant while she was in a confessional with him has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the girl.

The Rev. Chuck Hanel entered his plea Jan. 15 during his arraignment in Waukesha County Circuit Court, court records show. He stands accused of second-degree sexual assault of a child.

A 14-year-old girl reported to police in April that Hanel touched her breast and leg in a confessional at Queen of Apostles Church in December 2017, when she was 13.

She also said in a criminal complaint that when she entered the confessional, Hanel closed the door behind her — something she said he did not do with anyone else, including her father, who entered the confessional before her.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee placed Hanel on administrative leave earlier this year after the girl’s accusation surfaced. He will remain on administrative leave until the charge is resolved.

If convicted, Hanel could face up to 40 years in prison and $100,000 in fines.

Top Headlines Around the Comm

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EVANSVILLE (IN)
WFIE TV

January 16, 2019

By Kate O’Rourke and Jill Lyman

The network “SNAP” is criticizing the Evansville Bishop because a list of priests names accused of wrongdoing has still not been released.

“We would beg you to come forward, get help, and start healing,” says victim and SNAP advocate David Clohessy.

The Diocese said in September the list would be released, but said again Wednesday the inspection of records continues. They say it will be released within the next several weeks.

“It’s a horrible trauma to endure. People recover in different ways, and the pain is never totally gone, but this we do know, you can get better. You can get better, but the first step is breaking your silence and telling somebody you know and you trust,” says Clohessy.

The list will include the names of priests with credible allegations of abuse.

SNAP is an independent, peer network of survivors of institutional sexual abuse and their supporters.

Members held signs and childhood photos outside of the Diocese headquarters Wednesday afternoon.

They say they are pushing Catholic officials to reveal the names now, and they are asking the attorney general to do an investigation.

“Disclosing the truth is the best way to safeguard the vulnerable, heal the wounded, and help the church move forward,” said SNAP members.

Evansville is one of five dioceses in Indiana. The other four have released their lists.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW TV

January 16, 2019

By Charlie Specht

The Jesuit religious order released a list Tuesday of 50 priests who it said credibly abused children — including eight men assigned to schools or churches in Buffalo.

But 7 Eyewitness News has discovered some of the abusive priests are still wearing a collar and acting as priests, raising questions about whether the Catholic Church continues to withhold information from the public.

The Rev. J. Peter Conroy worked at Canisius College until 2002, when two women — Colleen O’Hara Carney and Molly O’Hara Ewing — came forward to say Fr. Conroy inappropriately touched and groped them when they were in seventh grade in the 1970s.

“It was very inappropriate behavior for anybody,” O’Hara Carney said. “He just pulled me down on his lap and the hand drifted under the school uniform.”

The Jesuits said Conroy admitted to the abuse in 2002 and they removed him from Canisius and “impeded” him from ministry that year.

The Jesuits’ Northeast province listed no assignments for Conroy after 2002 in the documents it released Tuesday, but the church’s own records show Conroy is still very much a priest — and he’s not the only one.

Other Buffalo Jesuits who abused minors were never “defrocked” or stripped of their status as Roman Catholic priests. Instead, some were quietly sent to retreat centers and other destinations where they serve to this day — even after they have been placed on the Jesuits’ abuse list.

“Even today, they cannot tell the truth,” Patrick Wall said of religious orders like the Jesuits.

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NEW YORK (NY)
ABC News

January 16, 2019

By Meghan Keneally

A list of 50 Jesuits who were found by their organization to have been credibly accused of abusing minors was released this week, revealing that some of the alleged abusers circled through various institutions, sometimes for years, after the alleged abuse took place.

The list, released by the Northeast Province of Jesuits on Tuesday, shows that much of the abuse was reported years after it allegedly took place, meaning that officials may not have known about the wrongdoing when they transferred priests from one institution to the next.

However, nine priests the list states, continued to be transferred from schools to parishes, retreats or other works projects after reports were made about their alleged abuse.

“We did not know any best practices to handle these violations many decades ago and regrettably made mistakes along the way,” Fr. John Cecero, the head of the Northeast Province of Jesuits, said in a statement that was released along with the list.

One example is John Farrand, who was reported for allegedly abusing minors in 1961, the same year that he worked at Regis High School in New York, according to the Northeast Province of Jesuits.

The nature or exact dates of the alleged abuse was not detailed.

Regis High School confirmed yesterday that Farrand is one of four priests listed who have had credible allegations of abuse made against them pertaining to their time at the school.

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EVANSVILLE (IN)
Evansville Courier & Press

January 16, 2019

By Noah Stubbs

It’s been four months since Bishop Joseph M. Siegel announced the Catholic Diocese of Evansville will collect and release the names of priests who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors.

But that’s too long for a group protesting in front of the Diocese’s administration building Wednesday afternoon.

Four members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) pleaded in front of the building’s sign for the bishop to release the names.

The organization is a nationwide nonprofit support group for men and women who have been abused by religious and institutional authorities.

The group appealed for sexual abuse victims to come forward and get help.

“To anyone who has been affected by this: come forward, get help and start healing,” SNAP volunteer David Clohessy said. “The pain is never totally gone, but you can get better.”

The members also asked Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill to open up a statewide investigation into priests who have been accused of sexual abuse.

Moments before the news conference, a statement released from the diocese said the inspection and review of clergy records is ongoing, and the release of names will occur within the next several weeks.

“Why won’t (Bishop Siegel) release the names today?” Clohessy asked upon hearing the diocese’s statement. “He and his predecessors have had decades to do this”

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CARBONDALE (IL)
The Southern Illinoisan

January 16, 2019

By Gabriel Neely-Streit

Victims and advocates are calling on the Catholic Diocese of Belleville, which covers Southern Illinois, to provide a fuller view of the sexual offenders who have served as priests in the Southern Illinois area.

The Diocese’s list publicly names 17 priests who are “currently removed from ministry after credibly substantiated allegations of the sexual abuse of minors, or serious sexual misconduct with adults.”

But David Clohessy and Larry Antonsen, of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, believe names need to be added to that list, starting with nine clerics who worked in downstate Illinois, and have been accused of molesting children in other parts of the state or country, by other factions of the Catholic church.

“These are priests who, for the most part, were ordained somewhere else, worked a lot of their career somewhere else, molested somewhere else, but also spent time in Southern Illinois,” Clohessy said.

Six of those clergymen worked in the Belleville area: Thomas Meyer, Emil Twardochleb, Michael Charland, Orville Munie, Paul Kabat and James Vincent Fitzgerald.

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EVANSVILLE (IN)

January 16, 2019

The catholic church of Evansville says a list of accused priests is coming, but it’s not soon enough for a small group protesting Wednesday.

The group is demanding Bishop Joseph Siegel unveil names of priests facing sexual abuse allegations.

Not only does the group want names to be revealed, they also want Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill to open an investigation.

Four men representing SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, stood in front of the Evansville diocese office tonight.

Last year, the Evansville Catholic Diocese announced a project to collect the names of local priests who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse over the decades and then make it public.

SNAP says it has been long enough and is now demanding the release of that list.

“Why won’t he release the names today?” asks David Clohessy. “He and his predecessors have literally had decades to do this.”

Evansville has one priest on administrative leave. He faces allegations of sexual abuse.

The group also wants to ensure Bishop Siegel includes the work histories, photos, and current whereabouts of the accused.

As recently as last month, the diocese announced its inspection of clergy records dating back to 1944 is ongoing with the results expected to be made public in the first few months of the year.

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CARBONDALE (IL)
WPSD TV

January 16, 2019

By Logan Gay

A victims advocacy group has a list of eight Catholic priests who it says were credibly accused of sexual assault in other states, and there’s evidence that some of them may have made their way through southern Illinois.

Now, the group — Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or S.N.A.P. — is calling on the bishop of southern Illinois to put their names on the church’s accused priest list.

Two men from S.N.A.P. are trying to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded. They’re asking the public to come forward with any information about the priests written on a board you can see in the photos within this story.

“These priests, for the most part, were ordained somewhere else. They worked a lot of their career somewhere else, but also spent time in southern Illinois. So, we are afraid one or more of these priests could still be living in the area or returning to the area to visit,” said S.N.A.P. volunteer David Clohessy.

The issue is personal for both of them, because they were both sexually abused by someone within the Catholic Church.

“My life just really went downhill after this happened. Everything about my life changed, everything,” said S.N.A.P. volunteer Larry Antonsen.

There’s another name they’re telling us that isn’t on the list: Father Larry Lorenzoni. There is not much information available about Lorenzoni’s days in southern Illinois ,except that he may have been employed by Southern Illinois University. He’s included in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ list of priests accused of sexual misconduct.

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INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

January 16, 2019

SNAP discloses an Indy priest facing three pending lawsuits for child sexual abuse

Yet he was left off recent archdiocesan “credibly accused” list, group points out

Archbishop should add the clergyman to his list, as well as expand it

“Victims, witnesses & whistle blowers should call attorney general,” SNAP says

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, a clergy sex abuse victim and advocate will publicly disclose for the first time that two credibly accused predator priests (including one who faces three pending abuse lawsuits) have been left off the archdiocese’s ‘accused’ list.

They will also
–prod Indianapolis’ Catholic archbishop to explain this omission, add the priests, and other alleged predators, to his “accused” clergy list, and

–beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups in Indiana to contact the attorney general who they say should be conducting an investigation into this crisis.

WHEN
Thursday, January 17 at 2:45 p.m.

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Indianapolis archdiocese headquarters (“chancery”), 1400 N. Meridian Street, (corner of W 14th Street) in Indianapolis,IN

WHO
At least two abuse victims: a Missouri man who is the St. Louis volunteer leader of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (and the organization’s former long time executive director) and an Illinois man who is the group’s Chicago volunteer leader, along with possibly 1-3 Indianapolis SNAP members

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CAPE GIRARDEAU (MO)
Southeast Missourian

January 17, 2019

By Mark Bliss

Two members of a priest-abuse survivors group called Wednesday for the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese to place an additional seven priests on its list of those credibly accused of molesting children.

The plea came from Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) members David Clohessy of St. Louis and Larry Antonsen of Chicago as they stood outside St. Mary Cathedral in Cape Girardeau, holding signs listing the names of the seven priests.

“These are all priests who were ordained elsewhere, worked mostly elsewhere, but spent some time in southern Missouri,” Clohessy said. “They have been publicly named as accused child molesters, either through criminal action or lawsuits or by church officials themselves who have deemed them credibly accused.”

The seven identified include priests John Edward Ruhl, John “Jack” Farris, Thomas Gregory Meyer, James Vincent Fitzgerald, Michael Charland, John O’Flaherty and Monsignor Thomas J. O’Brien.

Only two of the seven — Ruhl and Charland — are still living, Clohessy said.

Two of the seven priests — Ruhl and Farris — served the Catholic Church in Cape Girardeau and Perryville, Missouri.

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NEW JERSEY
North Jersey Record

January 15, 2019

By Deena Yellin

Ten Jesuit priests who worked in New Jersey institutions were among a list published by the Roman Catholic religious order Tuesday of members who were credibly accused of sexually abusing children.

The USA Northeast Province Jesuits, which encompasses New England, New York and northern New Jersey, unveiled the roster of 50 priests accused of abusing minors between 1950 and 1996.

Nine of the Jesuits who served in New Jersey worked at St. Peter’s Prep High School, St. Peter’s University or St. Peter’s Parish, all in Jersey City.

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ROME (ITALY)
Associated Press

January 16, 2019

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis is insisting that bishops attending his high-stakes sex abuse prevention summit will learn the laws to use against predators, how to care for victims and will make sure that no cleric abuse cases are covered up again.

The Vatican on Wednesday provided details about the Feb. 21-24 meeting, saying its main aim is to guarantee that bishops around the world “clearly understand what they need to do to prevent and combat the worldwide problem of the sexual abuse of minors.”

Francis will attend the full summit, which includes plenary meetings, working groups, witness testimony, a penitential service and a final Mass on Feb. 24.

The pope appointed the Rev. Federico Lombardi to moderate the plenary meetings. The Italian Jesuit was Vatican spokesman during the last big explosion of sex cases in 2010 and recently penned a lengthy article in a Jesuit magazine about the Catholic Church’s response to the scandal to date.

Francis announced in September that he was inviting presidents of bishops’ conferences around the world to attend the summit amid a crisis in his papacy over his own botched handling of sex abuse cases and a new explosion of the scandal in the U.S., Chile and beyond.

Francis has a blemished record on handling sex abuse cases.

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HYDERABAD (INDIA)
Deccan Chronicle

Jan 16, 2019

Four of the five nuns who led an agitation against rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal in Kerala have been directed to leave their convent in Kottayam district in compliance with a transfer order issued last year, sources said here on Wednesday.

Their congregation –Missionaries of Jesus under Jalandhar diocese of the Roman Catholic Church – has directed the nuns to join the convents they were assigned previously as per the transfer orders issued between March and May in 2018.

However, the nuns, who have been staying with their colleague, allegedly subjected to rape and unnatural sex by Mulakkal, stated they would not leave the convent in Kuravialangad.

The protest led by the nuns and Catholic reformist forums in Kochi, in September had led to a public outrage and demands for action against the bishop.

Bishop Mulakkal, a senior member of the Roman Catholic clergy in India, was arrested in September last following allegations by the nun that he repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted her in the convent at Kuravialangad between 2014 and 2016, a charge denied by him.

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OREGON
Spiritual Sounding Board

January 16, 2019

This is the fifth blog post referring to an article by Jonathan Hollingsworth, What Not to Say to Someone Who’s Been Hurt by the Church. The article resonated with a lot of people, so I thought it might be a good idea to discuss these unhelpful statements one by one here, and give people the opportunity to share their experiences.

I am working through all six of Hollingsworth’s statements/questions of what not to say to someone who has been hurt by spiritual abuse. The posts are as follows:

Spiritual Abuse: No Church is Perfect
Spiritual Abuse: When People Ask You, “Are You Working Toward Reconciliation?
Spiritual Abuse: It’s Not Gossip to Talk about Abuse.
Spiritual Abuse: What Are Nonbelievers Going to Think?
Here is the fifth question on what not to say to someone harmed by spiritual abuse, followed by Jonathan Hollingsworth explaining why it is not helpful:

“Stop Being So Bitter.”

People who have been hurt by a church have a right to be angry. Not only is anger an appropriate response to injustice, it’s a healthy response if it’s channeled the right ways.

So why do Christians have such a hard time letting each other express negative emotions? Why do we always have to fish for some deeper spiritual problem like a root of bitterness or unforgiveness?

The other day I heard someone put it this way: “Religion will molest you, then accuse you of being bitter about it.” Do you see the double standard? When victims react to being hurt by someone in a church, we treat them as though there’s something’s wrong with them. This is why abusers are so often exonerated. It’s easier to justify letting the abuser off the hook if both parties are “in the wrong.” Source

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DALLAS (TX)
Dallas Morning News

January 15, 2019

By David Tarrant

Dallas police have issued an arrest warrant for an Oak Cliff priest previously accused of molesting three teenagers after a new accuser reached out to investigators.

Edmundo Paredes, the former longtime pastor at St. Cecilia Catholic Church, had been accused of sexually assaulting three teenage boys more than a decade ago and stealing from his parish. The Dallas Catholic Diocese, amid a worldwide sex-abuse crisis within the Catholic Church, made the allegations public in August.

Those victims didn’t want to pursue criminal charges against the priest, said Dallas police spokeswoman Tamika Dameron, in an emailed statement. But, she said, the announcement prompted another victim to come forward.

The new alleged victim contacted the department’s Child Exploitation Unit, which initiated a criminal investigation. That investigation then led to the arrest warrant for Paredes issued for the offense of sexual assault of a child, police said.

Paredes, 70, could not be reached for comment. He is believed to have fled the Dallas area last year, and his whereabouts are unknown. Dallas Catholic Diocese officials have said they thought he may have returned to his native Philippines.

Dallas County Sheriff’s spokesman Raul Reyna said police obtained the warrant last week.

Police have a detective — David Clark of the child exploitation unit — assigned to investigate sex-abuse allegations with minors within the Catholic diocese.

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NOIDA (INDIA)
Express News

January 16, 2019

The Catholic Church in Kerala Wednesday transferred four nuns from its Missionaries of Jesus convent in Kuravilangad who had participated in protests against rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal of the Jalandhar diocese. Sr Alphy Pallasseril, Sr Anupama Kelamangalathuveliyil, Sr Josephine Villoonnickal and Sr Ancitta Urumbil, who held an indefinite strike near the Kerala High Court premises in Kochi last year demanding the arrest of the rape-accused bishop, have been given transfer orders back to the convents they were previously assigned by the Church.

The development comes a few days after the church had sent a warning to Sister Lucy Kalapura, who was at the forefront of protests against Mulakkal, for “attending channel discussions”, writing articles in “non-Christian newspapers” and “making false accusations” against the Catholic leadership.

Sr Anupama has been given marching orders to go back to Punjab, Sr Ancitta to Kannur, Kerala, Sr Alphy to Bihar and Sr Josephine to Jharkhand. Since June last year, these four nuns and a fifth one have been staying at the Kuravilangad convent as an act of solidarity with the victim, who also resides here.

Mulakkal was accused of raping a nun belonging to the order of Missionaries of Jesus several times between 2014 and 2016, and spent three weeks in the sub-jail at Pala before he got bail.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press

January 16, 2019

By Karen Matthews

The governing body for the Jesuit order in the northeastern United States has released a list of 50 priests under its jurisdiction who have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct with minors.

All but 15 of the Roman Catholic priests on the list released Tuesday by the USA Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus are dead, and all of the alleged abuse all took place before 1997.

Two former priests are incarcerated, one for possession of child pornography and one for abuse charges.

“At the heart of this crisis is the painful, sinful and illegal harm done to children by those whom they should have been able to trust,” the Rev. John J. Cecero, the top official for the province, said in a statement, adding, “We did not know any best practices to handle these violations many decades ago and regrettably made mistakes along the way.”

The list includes priests who served in Jesuit high schools and colleges throughout New England, New York and northern New Jersey. Of the 50, 22 have Massachusetts connections.

Among them is James Talbot, 81, a former priest who is serving a three-year sentence in Maine for sexually abusing a 9-year-old boy at a church in the 1990s. His accuser said in court in September, “To this day, I remember the steps leading inside the church as if they were guiding me to hell.”

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ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Agency

January 16, 2019

By Hannah Brockhaus

Just over a month ahead of the much-anticipated February meeting on sex abuse, the Vatican said the summit’s goal is for bishops to leave the meeting knowing clearly what it is they need to do to stop the abuse of minors.

According to a statement by papal spokesperson Alessandro Gisotti Jan. 16, the February meeting “has a concrete purpose: the goal is that all of the bishops clearly understand what they need to do to prevent and combat the worldwide problem of the sexual abuse of minors.”

“It is fundamental for the Holy Father,” Gisotti said, that the bishops of the February gathering, when they have returned home, “understand the laws to be applied and that they take the necessary steps to prevent abuse, to care for the victims, and to make sure that no case is covered up or buried.”

It was also stated that Pope Francis wants the summit of bishops to be “an assembly of Pastors, not an academic conference,” and that he knows “a global problem can only be resolved with a global response.”

It will be a meeting “characterized by prayer and discernment, a catechetical and working gathering,” the statement read.

It concluded by drawing attention to the high expectations surrounding the summit, recalling that the Church is “not at the beginning of the fight against abuse,” but that the meeting is just one step along a “painful journey” the Church has “decisively undertaken” for the last 15 years.

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MIDDLETOWN (NY)
Times Herald-Record

January 15, 2019

By Chris McKenna

Gov. Andrew Cuomo invoked Pope Francis in his budget speech on Tuesday as he proclaimed his support for a bill to help victims of child sexual abuse that New York’s Catholic Church has opposed and that is headed for approval after a dozen years in limbo.

Cuomo, identifying himself as a Catholic and former altar boy, said he valued his relationship to the church and found “painful” his political differences with its leaders. But he then read aloud a quote condemning child sexual abuse that turned out to have come from the pope, and said, “I say we stand with Pope Francis and we pass the Child Victims Act.”

Cuomo included a bill version in his budget that would extend New York’s statutes of limitations for future criminal or civil cases against abusers. It also opens a one-year window in which all past victims can sue their abusers and culpable institutions, a provision that the Catholic Church and other institutions have opposed and that led Senate Republicans to block the bill for years.

Democrats ousted Republicans from power in the Senate in November’s elections, clearing the way for passage of the legislation this year.

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[Vatican opens exceptional investigation into abuse by Marists in Chile]

ROME (ITALY)
El País

January 16, 2019

La Santa Sede abre una investigación excepcional a la congregación en Chile por graves acusaciones que podría conducir a una intervención general

El Vaticano se ha hartado de los escándalos que sacuden a la Congregación de los Hermanos Maristas en todo el mundo y ha abierto un proceso de investigación excepcional en su rama chilena, donde la la gravedad de los escándalos está fuera de duda y se han acreditado decenas de casos. La Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe no tiene competencias normalmente para investigar cuando los implicados son sacerdotes (los maristas son religiosos), pero la profundidad y verosimilitud de los hechos propició que el Papa francisco firmase un decreto recientmente para que así fuera.

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[There are still six Spanish priests accused in the Marist Case: this is the story of the victims]

CHILE
BioBioChile

January 15, 2019

By Ariela Muñoz

De los imputados que maneja la Fiscalía por los casos de abusos y violación pederasta dentro de la iglesia, hay siete españoles de la Congregación de los Hermanos Maristas en Chile, cuyas víctimas relataron la cruda versión de los hechos. Pope Francis ordered the opening of a criminal case before the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for not having imposed any sanction in the first stage of the investigation, says El País.

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[Pope supported the leadership of Chile’s Church: abuse victims accused bishops of “arrogance”]

CHILE
BioBioChile

January 15, 2019

By Alberto González, Nicole Martínez and Patricia Mayorga

El Comité Permanente de la Conferencia Episcopal chilena se reunió este lunes con el papa Francisco en el Vaticano, cita en la que el Pontífice respaldó a los obispos que están en ejercicio. Víctimas de abusos en la iglesia acusaron arrogancia de los jerarcas de la Iglesia por defender la caducidad de sus renuncia

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[Julio Barahona: The abuser that the Jesuits did not report on time]

CHILE
The Clinic

January 15, 2019

By Jonás Romero and Camila Magnet

Este 5 de enero, el educador Julio Barahona fue detenido por posesión de pornografía infantil en Rancagua, la cual obtenía de adolescentes de un colegio en el que trabajó por casi 10 años. Pero no era la primera vez que lo hacía: su macabro registro comenzó en 1987, cuando alumnos del San Ignacio El Bosque sufrieron abusos por parte de Barahona. En 1989, el entonces aspirante a cura llegó a otro colegio fundado por jesuitas en Arica, donde abusó de al menos otros cuatro niños. Dos años más tarde, la Iglesia lo expulsó por “perversiones graves” y le perdió la pista, permitiéndole estar en contacto con niños hasta hoy. La pregunta que ronda a los investigadores, partiendo por el fiscal Emiliano Arias, es: ¿Qué habría pasado si lo hubiesen denunciado a tiempo?

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[Pope spends three hours meeting with Chilean bishops in Rome]

CHILE
Publimetro

January 14, 2019

By Consuelo Rehbein

Según señalan desde la Conferencia Episcopal de Chile, el diálogo giró en torno a la situación que vive la Iglesia Católica en Chile y las perspectivas a futuro.

Este lunes se desarrolló la reunión entre el Papa Francisco, y los máximos representantes de la Iglesia católica de Chile. En la reunión participaron los obispos Santiago Silva, presidente de la CECh; René Rebolledo, vicepresidente; Fernando Ramos, secretario general; cardenal Ricardo Ezzati y Juan Ignacio González.

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[Pope asks Chilean bishops: “How is Goic doing?”]

CHILE
La Tercera

January 15, 2019

By María José Navarrete

La consulta del líder de la Iglesia Católica aludía al obispo emérito de Rancagua, Alejandro Goic, cuya renuncia aceptó el 28 de junio pasado, en medio de denuncias por conductas impropias y abusos sexuales que habrían cometido sacerdotes de su diócesis.

“¿Cómo anda Goic?”. Eso fue lo primero que le preguntó el Papa Francisco a Fernando Ramos, administrador apostólico de Rancagua y secretario general de la Conferencia Episcopal (Cech), cuando ambos se saludaron al inicio de la audiencia del comité permanente de la Cech realizada el lunes en Roma. “Bien, pero con sus cosas”, fue lo que le respondió el prelado.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

January 16 2019

By Michelle Boorstein

D.C.’s embattled Catholic leader, Donald Wuerl, under fire in recent days for untruthful statements regarding what he knew about the alleged sexual misconduct of his predecessor, Theodore McCarrick, apologized late Tuesday, saying he forgot he knew about the allegations and that it was “never the intention to provide false information.”

Wuerl apologized to former priest Robert Ciolek in the evening and then sent a letter to the priests of the archdiocese, where Wuerl is the acting administrator. Pope Francis received Wuerl’s retirement as archbishop earlier than expected last fall as the cardinal was being pummeled by criticism over his handling of abuse cases when he was the Pittsburgh bishop, and also by suspicions that he was not being fully honest about what he knew of the McCarrick scandal.

In the letter, Wuerl said he forgot he was told in 2004 about Ciolek’s complaint against McCarrick. He said he had reported the issue to the Vatican. The ex-priest, in testimony then to the Pittsburgh Diocese’s Review Board, said McCarrick pressured seminarians to sleep in double beds with him, requested and gave the subordinate unwanted back-rubs and caused Ciolek trauma because he knew that Ciolek had been abused by clergy as a teen.

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BOSTON (MA)
The Conversation

January 16, 2019

By Joan M. Cook and Jennifer J. Freyd

Pope Francis has criticized U.S. Catholic bishops for how they handled the pervasive sexual abuse of children by predatory priests. He even called for a new management method and mindset in dealing with this crisis. Most recently, the pope summoned presidents of every bishops’ conference from around the world to come to the Vatican on Feb. 21 through 24 for a meeting on how to respond to the pervasive scandals.

As trauma psychologists who have collectively spent nearly 60 years investigating and treating the devastating effects of violation and assault, we have concrete suggestions based on clinical experience and research for such change.

People have been talking for years about the need for the Catholic Church to treat survivors of clerical sexual abuse with respect and dignity, to remove perpetrating priests, and to have real accountability for bishops who facilitated and enabled the abuse. But, when the key Catholic bishops gather for their February meeting, they need to address the dark cloud that overhangs the Synod – something called institutional betrayal.

Wrongdoings perpetrated by an institution upon which individuals are dependent can be as devastating as familial abuse. Up until now, the Catholic Church’s failure to prevent sexual assault or respond supportively to survivors has been a tremendous violation of trust and confidence, and produced fountains of reverberating harm.

Because institutional betrayal is so serious and its effects so deep, something called institutional courage will be needed to put into place tangible turnarounds for meaningful correction and future prevention.

Trauma on a different level

Girls line up for to receive communion from a Catholic priest. wideonet/Shutterstock.com
Research on betrayal trauma can help to illustrate the damage the Church has done. Betrayal trauma, or trauma perpetrated by trusted people, such as familial rape, childhood abuse perpetrated by a caregiver and domestic violence, are especially toxic. The brain appears to remember and process betrayal trauma differently than other traumas. Likely the impact on the heart and soul is different as well. When a victim is dependent upon a perpetrator for survival and sustenance, the foundation of their very existence is at stake. Everything they believe about themselves, other people and the world can be unreliable, distorted and harmful, like a carnival fun-house mirror. Except there is no walking away, no easy escape and no validation that the images are warped.

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LAFAYETTE (LA)
Lafayette Daily Advertiser

January 15, 2019

By Claire Taylor

The number of priests accused of sexually abusing children may be much higher than the 15 previously acknowledged by the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette.

As early as 2014, former Diocese of Lafayette Bishop Michael Jarrell acknowledged at least 15 priests had been accused of sexual abuse.

Some were deceased, one was no longer a priest and none were still serving in ministry, Jarrell said.

Neither Jarrell nor his successor, Bishop Douglas Deshotel, would release the list of names, despite repeated requests from The Daily Advertiser and other

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JERSEY CITY (NJ)
The Jersey Journal

January 16, 2019

By Patrick Villanova

Ten priests who spent part of their careers in New Jersey are on a new list of 50 Jesuits who have been “credibly” accused of child sexual abuse.

The USA Northeast Province Jesuits, an organization representing the Roman Catholic order of priests in north Jersey and several other states, released its list yesterday. The order is the last of the regional Jesuit organizations to publicly name all priests credibly accused of abuse.

Nine of the 10 Jesuits on the list with New Jersey ties served at either St. Peter’s Prep, Saint Peter’s University or in St. Peter’s Parish in Jersey City — one of the centers of Jesuit life and training in New Jersey. Most were at St. Peter’s briefly early in their careers.

“Many Jesuits on this list have not been found guilty of a crime or liable for any civil claim,” the organization said in a statement accompanying the list. “Many accusations were made decades after the abuse allegedly took place, and often after the accused Jesuit had died.

Jesuits with allegations currently under investigation are not included on this list.”

Seven of the priests who appear on the list spent time at Prep, Jesuit high school in Downtown Jersey City.

“In none of the cases did the alleged or verified abuse take place at St. Peter’s Prep. In every case it took place after the individual priest had left St. Peter’s,” said Jim Horan, a spokesman for St. Peter’s Prep.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
National Catholic Reporter

January 16, 2019

by Elisabeth Auvillain

One of France’s most prominent bishops, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, is likely to be acquitted of charges of not denouncing a priest who sexually abused children between 1971 and 1991.

At the end of his four-day trial, Jan. 7-10, in Lyon, public prosecutor Charlotte Trabaut announced she would not ask for his conviction. Even though the president of the tribunal is not bound by the prosecutor’s stand, it seems likely that the cardinal will be acquitted.

French judicial authorities opened a case against Barbarin in 2016, in the name of the French state. The court closed it, invoking statute of limitation.

Then the group named La Parole Libérée (“the word made free”), brought the charges in a private prosecution, in their own name, as parties civiles — private victims — after discovering, in 2015, that Fr. Bernard Preynat was still working with young boys. They thought this personal action could convince a court of the prejudice they suffered, knowing most facts fell under the statute of limitation.

Stern and slightly stooped, Barbarin, 68, said he was not guilty of anything: “I never tried to hide and certainly not cover anything.” He then kept quiet, letting his lawyers speak for him during the whole procedure and explain he only made mistakes in managing the case and would act differently today.

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GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY (DC)
The Hoya

January 16, 2019

by Elianna Schiffrik

On Jan. 19, Georgetown will host the 20th Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life. Student awareness of the event remains surprisingly low despite its self-proclaimed status as the “largest collegiate pro-life conference in the nation,” the controversial speakers it invites and the alarmingly consistent presence of high-profile Georgetown administrators at the conference. As this year’s conference approached, I mentioned it to many peers, but it seems very few students know it exists.

Given the administrators in attendance — Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson, Dean of Students Jeanne Lorde and Assistant Vice President Erika Cohen are all regular attendees — clearly the conference has institutional support. However, as a community of students, it shouldn’t have ours. Hoyas need to know that it exists and fight its shameful, consistent and unchallenged presence on our campus.

Occurring annually on the heels of the March for Life, the world’s largest pro-life rally, the conference attracts speakers and attendees largely from high school and collegiate groups attending the march. So like it or not, this conference matters — hundreds of people who attend each year leave with a distorted impression of Georgetown students, our community, and our values.

The namesake of the conference, Cardinal John O’Connor (GRD ’70), is a stain on Georgetown’s legacy and a disgrace to our community’s values. A notorious homophobe, O’Connor actively worked against the LGBTQ+ community through his efforts to overturn New York’s ordinance against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, block AIDS education programs and prevent the distribution of condoms as the AIDS epidemic decimated the gay community.

O’Connor also had heavily misogynistic inclinations, claiming abortion is immoral in the case of rape or incest because rape is a “legally lesser evil” than abortion. Moreover, he brushed aside the deaths of thousands of women forced to resort to unsafe abortion prior to legalization with the comment that “the mothers involved could have chosen not to abort.”

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PORTLAND (ME)
Press Herald

January 15, 2019

By Eric Russell and Megan Gray

Included in Tuesday’s release by the USA Northeast Province of Jesuits of credibly accused priests are eight with ties to Maine. Information in this list was drawn from publicly available records, news reports and information provided by the Jesuits:

WILLIAM B. CAHILL

Cahill was a priest and teacher at Cheverus High School from 1950-1960. He also served as the school’s athletic director for part of that time.

Before his time in Maine, he worked at schools in Massachusetts and Connecticut. After he left Cheverus, Cahill had 10 additional placements, including at Boston College High School, and later as chaplain for Boston City Hospital.

Documents released in 2005 by the Maine Attorney General’s Office revealed that Cahill was accused of abusing at least three Cheverus students between 1950 and 1960.

It’s not known when those allegations were first made. He was never charged and died in 1986.

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NEW ULM (MN)
Mankato Free Press

January 15, 2019

By Kristine Goodrich

Two retired priests in the Diocese of New Ulm have been cleared of decades-old sexual abuse claims and returned to limited ministry.

The Brown County Attorney’s Office also had decided not to pursue criminal charges against a third accused priest who has since died.

A St. Paul law firm that represents alleged victims of clergy sex abuse announced in early 2016 it was filing lawsuits against the Diocese of New Ulm and three retired priests.

The announcement from Jeff Anderson and Associates accused Revs. Bernard Steiner, Richard Gross and Edward Ardolf of sexually assaulting juveniles. The abuse allegedly occurred when Steiner was a priest at Church of St. Paul in Comfrey from about 1971-72, when Gross was at the Church of St. Mary in New Ulm from about 1965-66 and when Ardolf was at the Church of St. Raphael in Springfield from 1978-80.

The priests were already retired from active ministry. The diocese revoked their remaining privileges in response to the allegations.

Gross, who now lives south of St. Cloud, contacted The Free Press after recently receiving a letter from the diocese informing him his expulsion was over.

A diocese spokeswoman confirmed that an independent diocesan review board recommended Gross be returned to limited ministry after it reviewed a single civil allegation.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

January 15, 2019

On Sunday, January 13, 2018, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia released a statement regarding the removal of three priests, Fr Raymond W. Smart, Msgr. Joseph Logrip, and Fr. John F. Meyers.

However, clear and concise information is not being relayed to the faith community concerning these “loose ends,” according to SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

In its statement, the Archdiocese said that Fr. Smart “has not served in any parish or school since 1995 due to poor health. He has been retired and living in a private residence since 2002.”

However, volunteer Philadelphia SNAP leader Michael McDonnell, along with Catholics 4 Change (C4C) co-founder, Kathy O’Neill Kane, have identified this as a very misleading statement. Thorough research shows that Fr. Smart was, in fact, not always living in a private residence, but resided in a parish setting for many years following 2002, and as recently as 2015. In addition, several parishioners from neighboring parishes informed Mike and C4C that Fr. Smart often assisted at masses for Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Limerick, Pa. and St. Eleanors, Collegeville, Pa.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

January 15, 2019

By Mike Goggin

Recent days have seen calls for greater accountability from top-ranked U.S. Catholic clerics. First, a former priest revealed that D.C. Cardinal Donald Wuerl has been untruthful about what he knew of sexual misconduct allegations against his predecessor as archbishop, Theodore McCarrick. Then on Monday, there were new calls for McCarrick himself to publicly repent for alleged abuse of youths and adults.

These past few days have prompted a basic question: Why can’t these clerics just say they’re sorry?

It’s a particular conundrum for those of us who are Catholic. The sacrament of reconciliation provides us with the opportunity to confess our sins to a priest, apologize for them, make amends and resolve to do better. When many of us prepared to practice the sacrament for the first time as children just reaching the age of reason, we were taught that lying was a sin. As we moved into adolescence, we learned that any sexual activity outside of marriage was likewise a sin. So why are our confessors finding it so hard to apologize for these very same basic sins?

Having worked for the Roman Catholic Church for the past 25 years, I think it may have something to do with the dramatic change in the status of religious leaders in my lifetime.

Growing up in the Boston of the 1970s and early 1980s, where neighborhoods were still divided along the parish boundary lines despite a growing presence of non-Catholic immigrants from around the world, great respect and even reverence were directed toward the parish priest and his assistant clergymen. These men could do no wrong. They were arbiters of grace, and their Sunday evening visits for family dinners demanded the use of the best china. The church itself taught that the members of the clergy are in their very being different because of their ordination (in the church we use the term “ontological”). While they look like any layperson, there is a fundamental difference in their being. The church still teaches this today.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Sun

January 15, 2019

Archbishop William Lori encouraged the more than 500,000 Catholics in the Archdiocese of Baltimore on Tuesday to report wrongdoing by clergy at all levels as part of an effort to regain public trust as church leaders worldwide confront a sexual abuse crisis.

Lori outlined the expansion of a reporting system to cover himself and his three auxiliary bishops, as well as a code of conduct the bishops will sign, as steps he is taking to address any abuse up to the highest levels.

Reports of abuse — sexual, financial or otherwise — can be filed anonymously online and are collected by a private contractor, which shares them with a board that does not contain any archdiocesean officials.

In addition, Lori said the archdiocese plans to incorporate more lay people in church affairs and update its child protection policies.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

January 15, 2019

By Rick Rojas

The schools are among the most recognizable Catholic institutions in New York, with reputations extending far beyond the church’s followers and the city’s borders: Xavier, Regis, Brooklyn Prep, Fordham Prep. They educated many in the city’s Catholic elite, producing politicians, authors, academics and at least one Supreme Court justice. They regularly appear on lists of New York’s best Catholic schools.

But on Tuesday, the schools’ names popped up again and again on a different kind of list: One naming Jesuit priests who were identified by the Society of Jesus as having a history of sexual abuse found to be “more likely true than not after investigation.”

In some cases, the priests passed through the schools in careers that spanned as many as 30 years.

The lists of accused priests were published by the Jesuit order one after the other in recent weeks, creating rosters of several hundred names. The Society of Jesus, as the Jesuit order is known, is an influential force in the global church; it has more than 16,000 members, including Pope Francis.

The latest list names priests who served in the order’s province covering the Northeastern United States, most of whom served in Jesuit schools.

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.

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

January 15, 2019

By Peter Borre

The Northeast Province of the Jesuit order — the pope’s own special ops forces — has released the names of 50 priests “credibly accused” of sexual misconduct with minors.

This follows the lead of the order’s West Province, which released the names of more than 120 priests and brothers in the order last December.

But why now, 17 years almost to the day of the Boston scandal, and what does it mean for the church?

In soccer, an “own-goal” occurs when a member of the team puts the ball in his own net.

Pope Francis — himself a Jesuit — managed an own-goal last November by blocking U.S. bishops from devising their own solution to the spiraling abuse problem, and instead ordered the heads of the more than 100 national Catholic bishops conferences to Rome for a Come-to-Jesus meeting next month.

This has had the possibly unintended consequence of globalizing the clergy sex abuse scandal. It’s created a rush of ranking prelates to the media confessional box — with nearly 50 American dioceses and religious orders publishing their own lists since the Pennsylvania attorney general’s report of last August.

The often secretive Jesuits are now in the position of having to play catch-up … and avoid embarrassing one of their own.

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EVANSVILLE (IN)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Evansville bishop pledged to post accused priests’ names

SNAP: “But it’s been 3+ months of reckless delay & secrecy”

Support group also prods attorney general to do investigation

And they beg other victims, witnesses and whistle blowers to speak up

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, a clergy sex abuse victim and advocate will
–push the top local Catholic official to honor his pledge and reveal accused priests’ name now,
–beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups in Indiana to contact law enforcement or groups like his, and
–urge the Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill to join his colleagues in 16 states and launch an investigation into all five of the state’s dioceses

WHEN
Wednesday, January 16 at 2:45 p.m.

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside Evansville Diocese headquarters (“chancery”) 4200 N. Kentucky Avenue (corner of Hesmer) in Evansville (812 424 5536)

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.

CAPE GIRARDEAU (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Victims blast southern MO bishop

Seven accused clerics missing from its list, group says

SNAP begs those who “saw, suspected or suffered abuse” to speak up

It specifically urges victims, witnesses & whistleblowers to call MO AG

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, a clergy sex abuse victim and advocate will prod southern Missouri Catholic officials to

–add seven more names to their official list of “credibly accused” priests and

–blast them for their secrecy about abuse and cover ups.

They’ll also urge those who “saw suspected or suffered” abuse to “call police and get help.”

WHEN
Wednesday, January 16 at 10 a.m.

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Annunciation, 615 William Street in Cape Girardeau

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.

CARBONDALE (IL)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

January 16, 2019

Abuse victims blast southern IL bishop

He should add 9 clerics to his “accused” list, group says

One worked in Carbondale & the Vatican press office in 1990s

SNAP: “Victims, witnesses & witnesses should call attorney general”

Among them, an accused CA priest who also worked in Carbondale

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, a clergy sex abuse victim and advocate will

–publicly disclose for the first time that an accused California priest also worked in Carbondale,

–prod southern Illinois’ Catholic bishop to add more names to his “credibly accused” clergy list, and

–beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups in Illinois to contact the attorney general who is conducting a statewide investigation into this crisis.

WHEN

Wednesday, January 16 at 11:45 a.m.

WHERE

On the sidewalk outside St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, 303 S. Poplar (corner of W. Walnut St.) in Carbondale

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.

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
USA TODAY

January 14, 2019

A San Francisco Bay-area Roman Catholic diocese has released a list of 39 priests and deacons who church leaders say have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. Bishop Robert Vasa of the Santa Rosa Diocese commented on the list Monday. (Jan. 14)

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.

DALLAS (TX)
Yahoo Sports

January 15, 2019

By Liz Roscher

John Wetteland, former MLB pitcher and member of the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame, was arrested Monday on a charge of child sex abuse.

The Dallas Morning News reported that the 52-year-old Wetteland, who currently resides in Trophy Club, Texas, has been accused of continuously sexually abusing a child under the age of 14.

Wetteland pitched in the majors from 1989 to 2000, moving from starter to closer in 1990 and finding success with the Montreal Expos, New York Yankees and Texas Rangers. He was named the World Series MVP in 1996 with the Yankees, but the team allowed him to become a free agent weeks later due to the emergence of Marino Rivera. He signed with the Rangers and spent four seasons in Arlington, retiring at 33 after becoming the team’s all-time saves leader with 150 — a record he still holds.

He moved to coaching after that, and was hired as pitching coach by the Washington Nationals in 2006. But Wetteland was fired after six months due to persistent practical jokes and failing to listen to manager Frank Robinson, who asked him to stop multiple times. He was the pitching coach for the Seattle Mariners in 2009 and 2010, but that stint wasn’t without incident. In November 2009, Wetteland was hospitalized after police were called to his home to respond to a possible suicide threat. The incident was blamed on elevated blood pressure and heart rate issues in a statement released by Wetteland and the Mariners.

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ALBANY (NY)
Times Union

January 14, 2019

By Brendan J. Lyons

Advocates seeking passage of the Child Victims Act are calling on state legislators and the governor to swiftly pass the legislation, which for years was blocked by Senate Republicans who lost control of the chamber in November’s elections.

With Democrats now in control of both legislative houses, supporters of the CVA held an emotionally charged press conference on Monday at the Capitol, recounting harrowing stories of the abuse they suffered as children and urging lawmakers not to let the issue get caught up in the budget process.

“Here we are in a new Senate, in a new day, where we are speaking loudly and clearly,” said Sen. James Skoufis, a freshman Democrat who won the seat formerly held by Republican Bill Larkin. “I’m committed with my colleagues here in making this a top priority — not in March when we’re negotiating a budget, but now.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently indicated he would again include the Child Victims Act in his executive budget this year. But with Senate Democrats supportive of the measure, the advocates said there is no reason to wait. A spokesman for Cuomo on Monday agreed with that position, saying the governor would include it in the budget as a backstop but is ready to sign the bill if it passes the Legislature.

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

AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

January 14, 2019

By Joanna Menagh

A retired Catholic priest has avoided being sent to jail for sexually abusing a teenage girl more than 50 years ago when he was in charge of a WA home for Aboriginal children taken from their families.

Allan John Mithen, 80, pleaded guilty to two charges of indecently assaulting the girl when she 15 and 16 in 1965 at the Wandering mission, about 120 kilometres south of Perth.

She had been removed from her family when she was four years old and taken to the mission, where the District Court was told she was sexually, physically, emotionally and psychologically abused.

Mithen’s crimes happened just after he was appointed as the superintendent of the home when he was aged about 26.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

January 14, 2019

By Nicole Winfield

A delegation of Chilean bishops met Monday with Pope Francis a year after he threw his papacy into turmoil by defending a Chilean bishop accused of covering for a notorious sexual predator.

The five-member permanent committee of the Chilean bishops’ conference requested Monday’s meeting to brief Francis on its efforts to address the clergy sex abuse crisis in the South American country and chart a future course.

“It’s a long process,” the secretary-general of the bishops’ conference, Bishop Fernando Ramos, told reporters after the meeting, which included lunch and lasted for nearly three hours. “All institutions in Chile have lost a lot of credibility, the church included, not just for cultural reasons but because of our own sins and crimes that were committed inside the church.”

The pope’s January 2018 trip to Chile fueled a crisis of confidence in the Chilean Church and the Vatican hierarchy, given the mounting claims of sex abuse and cover-up that were dismissed for years.

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.

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
KGO – San Francisco

January 13, 2019

PRIEST SEX ABUSE: The Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa released the names of 39 members of the clergy who church leaders say sexually abused children – or faced credible accusations of abuse.

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 ZEALAND
Otago Daily Times

January 11, 2019

By Chris Morris

A former Dunedin priest convicted of abusing four boys – and alleged to have targeted many more – finally faces the possibility of being defrocked by the Vatican.
The defrocking – or laicisation – of Fr Magnus Murray has been referred to the Vatican, where it is being considered under the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, ODT Insight understands.

The process is believed to have started late last year, and it is understood any outcome is likely to be weeks or months away.

The matter is understood to have been referred to the Vatican by Hamilton Bishop Steve Lowe, as Fr Murray – now aged in his early 90s – remained part of the Hamilton diocese despite now living in Auckland.

Bishop Lowe would not comment when contacted this week, saying he was prevented from doing so by the church’s “judicial process”.

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LYON (FRANCE)
La Croix International

January 9, 2019

By Béatrice Bouniol and Céline Hoyeau

‘Conspiracy of silence’ over a French priest’s sexual abuse even extends to the courtroom
A trial of silences. By day two, this seems to be the best description of the proceedings that have brought Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and his entourage against nine victims of Father Bernard Preynat’s sexual abuse.

Silence is at the heart of the accusations brought by the civil parties against Diocese of Lyon officials. The victims had been locked in silence for decades, incapable even as adults to testify to the abuse they suffered as children.

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IRONDALE (AL)
National Catholic Register

January 15, 2019

By Joan Desmond

Last week, U.S. Catholics learned that Cardinal Wuerl knew that his disgraced predecessor, Theodore McCarrick, had faced allegations of sexual misconduct with seminarians back in 2004.

And when Cardinal Wuerl was accused of lying about his knowledge of McCarrick’s misbehavior, his spokesman argued last week that his public comments had been misunderstood: He had only denied prior knowledge of the allegations against McCarrick that involved minors.

Really?

Here’s what Cardinal Wuerl told the National Catholic Reporter back in Aug. 6, in an “exclusive” interview:

Although Wuerl said he had not personally been aware of rumors about McCarrick’s alleged abuse of young men during the former cardinal’s time as a priest and bishop, he acknowledged that others have now brought forward earlier existence of such rumors.

‘If there were [rumors], and if people heard them, there needs to be some mechanism by which there can be at least an evaluation and review of them,’ said Wuerl, speaking in a phone conversation.

So let’s state the obvious: Based on the evidence at hand, Cardinal Wuerl knew about McCarrick’s sexual misconduct with adults at least 14 years ago, and lied about it.

That said, Wuerl’s refusal to acknowledge the truth is even more puzzling, given his past effort to flag McCarrick’s misbehavior. Back in 2004, when Wuerl served as Bishop of Pittsburgh, he informed the papal nuncio about a claim against McCarrick filed by a former New Jersey seminarian.

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
La Croix International with Catholic News Service

January 10, 2019

The Catholic personal prelature Opus Dei has paid US$977,000 to settle a sexual misconduct claim against one of its priests in Washington, D.C.

Father C. John McCloskey was accused of groping a woman several times while she was undergoing pastoral counseling because of a troubled marriage and serious depression.

The incidents were said to have taken place in meetings between Father McCloskey and the unnamed woman at the Catholic Information Center in Washington.

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.

PENNSYLVANIA
NBC News

January 11, 2019

By Corky Siemaszko

A Pennsylvania priest who sexually abused two boys over many years — and made them give confession to him after he molested them — is heading to prison.

The Rev. David Poulson, 65, was sentenced to at least two years and six months and up to 14 years as a group of survivors of sex abuse by other priests.

“I am sorry for the actions I committed,” Poulson told the court in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Erie News Now reported. “They were both criminal and sins. I am ashamed for what I did.”

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said the victims were 8 and 15 years old when Poulson molested them. “It was a powerful moment to see justice brought down on that predator priest,” he said after the sentencing at the courthouse in Brookville.

“Poulson assaulted one of his victims more than 20 times in church rectories. He made that victim go to confession and confess the abuse – to Poulson. He used the tools of the priesthood to further his abuse,” the attorney general said.

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

ST. LOUIS (MI)
Apple itunes

Released January 15, 2019

By Hank Thompson

To begin the new year, SNAP (Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests) founder David Clohessy joins host Hank Thompson for a very special and intense episode of Tangazo. Clohessy breaks down the purpose and benefits of his organization, while extending a helping hand to those in need and encouraging them to join. He also gives us a bit of his personal experience, background, how he overcame his personal obstacles and advice to those who are victims of abuse.

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.

LYON (FRANCE)
La Croix International

January 10, 2019

By Béatrice Bouniol and Céline Hoyeau

Lawyer tells a Lyon court that the cardinal knew of Bernard Preynat’s attacks on children in 2010, not 2014

Lawyers tried to convince a Lyon court on Jan. 9 that Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and his associates failed to inform the law about the sexual abuse of more than 70 children by priest Bernard Preynat from 1970 to 1980.

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.

BOSTON (MA)
The Boston Globe

January 14, 2019

This criticism is nothing new

Garry Wills’s analysis of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is unrevealing (“Celibacy isn’t the problem; the priesthood is,” Opinion, Jan. 4).

Rather than offer an original insight, Wills recycles a historically Protestant, rejectionist view of Catholic ecclesiology, leavened with a bit of modernist skepticism. The assertion that chronic sexual abuse is intrinsic to the priesthood and Catholic religious life is at least two centuries old. We have heard it all before.

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.