ABUSE TRACKER

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

April 11, 2019

By Ruth Gledhill

The former Pope has blamed the 1960s as an “egregrious” decade that is at the roots of the clerical sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.

In an essay today, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI writes: “In the 1960s an egregious event occurred, on a scale unprecedented in history. It could be said that in the 20 years from 1960 to 1980, the previously normative standards regarding sexuality collapsed entirely, and a new normalcy arose that has by now been the subject of laborious attempts at disruption.”

He published the essay in the Klerusblatt, a monthly periodical for clergy in mostly Bavarian dioceses, after running it past the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Pope Francis himself, it seemed appropriate to publish this text in

Outlining the effects of the 1960s on Catholic priests and seminarians, he says he wrote the essay in an attempt to respond to the Vatican Meeting on the Protection of Minors, where in February the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences gathered at the Vatican to discuss the current crisis of the faith and of the Church.

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Competing bills broaden and complicate efforts to reform child sex crime laws in Pennsylvania

HARRISBURG (PA)
Patriot News

April 10, 2019

By Ivey DeJesus

Pennsylvania on Wednesday further advanced the debate over the reform of child sex crime laws as House lawmakers approved two key reform measures even as counterparts in the Senate introduced a third counter bill aimed at similar purposes.

The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved two companion bills that respectively call for the elimination of criminal statute of limitations involving child sex crimes; and call for a constitutional amendment that would lead to a revival of expired statute of limitations.

House Bill 962, sponsored by Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, would also remove sovereign immunity in civil claims, meaning that if an institution has known about child sex crimes, it would be held responsible.

Meanwhile, a cadre of freshmen Democratic Senators on Wednesday introduced a bill that seemed to compete with the House bills. Senate Bill 540 would lift the statute of limitations for adults who were sexually abused at any age.

Earlier in the morning, ahead of introducing the bill in his chamber, Sen. Tim Kearney, D-Chester, laid out the key points of the Senate bill at a press conference in the Capitol Rotunda attended by state officials and survivors of child sexual abuse.

The Senate bill, which is being co-sponsored by the five freshmen Democratic senators, including Kearney, follows the recommended guidelines outlined in the findings of the 2018 grand jury investigation into clergy sex abuse across the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania.

The Senate bill calls for the abolishment of criminal statute of limitations and a two-year revival window of expired statute of limitations. The proposal also calls for a six-month delay to allow for the completion of compensation funds already being processed.

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Put needs of survivors first, not strictly the law, panelists urge Church

WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

April 10, 2019

By Dennis Sadowski

Amid the legal wrangling surrounding the long-standing clergy sexual abuse crisis, Barbara Thorp, a social worker who formerly led the Archdiocese of Boston’s office that supports and cares for abuse survivors, wants Catholic leaders to know that healing among survivors is a far more important path to pursue.

Greater transparency related to church procedures and changes in canon law to focus on the needs of victims will demonstrate that the Church truly cares about survivors, Thorp said during an April 9 panel discussion on the role of civil law and the action of lawyers in hiding and uncovering the abuse crisis sponsored by Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life.

Right now, Thorp told an audience at the Georgetown University Law Center, many survivors feel abandoned by the church, especially since new revelations of the Church’s response to alleged abuse and the actions of some prelates emerged in 2018.

When the abuse crisis exploded in 2002, abuse survivors felt a sense of betrayal, Thorp said. As church actions since then in many cases have failed to fully address the needs of survivors, the survivors realize that canon law is preventing strict action to address wayward clergy, she said.

Thorp credited changes in civil law and even some actions among church leaders that have led to greater transparency and steps to support the spiritual needs of abuse survivors. But she charged that canon law “is lagging far behind in terms of seeing itself as another opportunity to bring real healing and real confidence that the Church understands the depth of the harm in the damage that was done.”

Pointing to the upcoming Holy Week in which Jesus felt betrayed and abandoned, Thorp called on church leaders from Rome to local dioceses to remember that abuse survivors carry Christ’s passion “in our midst.”

“Now, if we can have that sense of urgency, not to let this moment pass, not to let Jesus be alone in the garden, not to let him walk the path without attending to those that feel a deep sense of betrayal and abandonment,” she said.

Two attorneys on the panel reviewed the legal side of the Church’s response to the crisis.

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Buffalo Diocese names new financial officer

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

April 10, 2019

By Jay Tokasz

Bishop Richard J. Malone has appointed Charles Mendolera, a veteran employee of the Buffalo Diocese, as executive director of financial administration.

Mendolera has been serving as interim director for the past few weeks. He succeeds Steven D. Timmel, who resigned in March after 31 years with the diocese.

Mendolera will oversee a sprawling, multimillion-dollar operation that includes dozens of facilities, hundreds of diocesan employees and more than $47 million in diocesan investments. He assumes the top financial position as the diocese is offering millions of dollars in compensation to childhood victims of clergy sex abuse and bracing for the prospect of potentially expensive lawsuits stemming from the state’s recently adopted Child Victims Act, which includes a one-year window for abuse victims from decades ago to file civil legal claims.

Mendolera started with the diocese as director of accounting from 2004 to 2008. He has been controller of financial administration since 2008.

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St. Augustine’s priest denies sexual abuse allegations in letter to parishioners

ANDOVER (MA)
Eagle Tribune

April 10, 2019

By Jessica Valeriani

The Rev. Peter Gori of St. Augustine’s Church in Andover, one of two Catholic priests accused this week of sexually abusing a boy decades ago, has denied the allegations in a letter to parishioners.

Gori sexually abused the boy repeatedly in the 1990s when the alleged victim was 10 years old, according to attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has handled several sexual abuse cases involving Catholic priests.

The Rev. William Waters, who was previously assigned to the former St. Augustine’s Church in Lawrence, sexually abused the same boy from 1987 to 1990 when the alleged victim was eight to 10 years old, according to Garabedian.

Terrence Donilon, secretary for communications and public affairs at the Archdiocese of Boston, said the abuse is alleged to have happened at St. Augustine’s in Lawrence. He said Catholic church officials are investigating, and that Gori has been placed on administrative leave.

Gori’s letter to parishioners denying the allegations reads:

Dear Parishioners,

On a Monday morning it is quite normal to ask or reply to the friendly question, “How was your weekend?”

Parish priests usually respond with a chuckle or a smirk for obvious reasons. Our “weekend,” understood as personal, free time for rest and recreation, is not on Saturday-Sunday. It is scheduled during the week, as regularly as possible.

My “weekend” is supposed to be Thursday-Friday. I need to tell you about what happened to me this past Friday, April 5th. I received a phone call from our Augustinian Provincial informing me that an allegation has been made against me concerning the sexual abuse of a minor from 30 years ago.

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Lafayette diocese to name priests accused of sexual abuse Friday including 33 priests, 4 deacons

LAFAYETTE (LA)
Lafayette Daily Advertiser

April 10, 2019

By Ashley White

A list of priests accused of sexual abuse while serving in the Lafayette area will be released Friday and includes 33 priests and four deacons, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette said.

The diocese said ahead of the release of names that more than 300,000 pages of materials from the 100-year history of the Diocese of Lafayette were inspected by the diocese’s lay review board and local attorneys. The documents included 802 clerics’ files, 623 priests’ files, and 179 deacons’ files, Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel said in a letter. It took more than 700 hours of labor.

In the letter, Deshotel said his will be an “ongoing process of accountability” and will change in attitude and approach.

“In other words, the future receipt and subsequent determination of any new credible allegation against a priest or deacon, living or deceased, will result in adding his name to the disclosure list,” he wrote. “In fact, we have reasonable hope that the disclosure list will be a catalyst for continued reporting of past or future instances of abuse.”

The names on the list may come as a shock to some family and friends, he added. And the opposite may happen. Victims who reported sexual abuse by a priest or deacon may not see his name on a list because “the standard for establishing credibility may not yet have been met,” the letter said.

“I sincerely acknowledge and appreciate the courage f those who have already come forward with accusations,” Deshotel wrote. “Receiving each individual report was essential to ensuring the safety of others and to helping the Church publicly acknowledge its sins and errors.”

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Former Pope Benedict blames church’s scandals partly on the ‘60s

NEW YORK(NY)
New York Post

April 10, 2019

By Sohrab Ahmari

When Pope Benedict XVI resigned the papacy in 2013, he vowed to live the rest of his days in seclusion, to serve the Catholic Church “through a life dedicated to prayer.” But the church’s spiraling abuse crisis prompted him this week to return to the limelight.

The retired pontiff has drafted a 6,000-word document in his native German and aims to publish it in a monthly periodical for clergy in his home region of Bavaria. Benedict says the document, an English translation of which I’ve reviewed, is meant to assist the Church in seeking “a new beginning” and making her “again truly credible as a light among peoples and as a force in service against the powers of destruction.”

In the preface, he makes it clear that he is “no longer directly responsible” for the church and that he consulted Pope Francis before resolving to make the document public.

Nevertheless, Benedict’s “The Church and the Scandal of Sexual Abuse” has the unmistakable ring of a papal document. You might even call it a post-retirement encyclical.

It’s written with his signature precision and clarity of insight and offers a piercing account of the origins of the crisis and a vision of the way forward.

The church’s still-radiating crisis, Benedict suggests, was a product of the moral laxity that swept the West, and not just the church, in the 1960s. The young rebels of 1968, Benedict writes, fought for “all-out sexual freedom, one which no longer conceded any norms.”

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Senate Democrats want to give older clergy abuse victims the chance to sue — without changing the Constitution

HARRISBURG (PA)
Pennsylvania Capital-Star

April 10, 2019

By Elizabeth Hardison

From Jerry Sandusky and Bill Cosby to clergy in the Catholic church, Pennsylvania is “ground zero” in a nationwide reckoning over how to support victims of sexual abuse.

That’s according to the state’s Victim Advocate Jennifer Storm, who appeared with a cadre of Senate Democrats and sexual assault survivors Wednesday to renew calls to reform Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations for sex crimes.

A bill Senate Democrats introduced Wednesday would eliminate the criminal and civil statute of limitations for sexual assault, abuse, and misconduct, and a create a two-year window for victims to bring civil suits in cases where the statute of limitations has passed.

The bill, which backers say is informed by a proposal that died in the Senate last year, is lawmakers’ latest attempt to implement a key recommendation of a 2018 grand jury report that detailed decades of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and a subsequent cover-up in six Pennsylvania dioceses.

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Survivors network calls on bishop to update clergy sex abuse list with 5 more names

BELLEVILLE (IL)
News Democrat

April 10, 2019

By Lexi Cortes

As recently as February, accusations of sexual abuse have come to light about five priests who have ties to Southern Illinois, according to a victims group.

Members of the group, called the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and other advocates wrote those priests’ names in chalk on the sidewalk outside the Belleville Diocese at the end of March.

They want Belleville Bishop Edward K. Braxton to add those five names to the Belleville Diocese’s public list of priests, which now includes 17 men who were “removed from ministry after credibly substantiated allegations” of sexual abuse or sexual misconduct.

The group, known as S.N.A.P., said the five priests’ names should be included because they have been accused of abuse, too, and have lived or worked in the Belleville Diocese.

The names include Paul Joseph Bruening, Gavin O’Connor, Donald Dummer, Joseph P. Lessard and Ronald E. Brassard.

Braxton and Monsignor John Myler, a spokesman for the Diocese, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Bruening was named most recently on a list of priests who had been accused of sexually abusing children released two months ago in a Catholic diocese more than 500 miles from Belleville.

Bruening went on to work in the Diocese of Belleville in 1962, five years after he was accused of abusing a girl in Iowa, according to the Diocese of Sioux City, Iowa’s list, which included all of his assignments.

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Fight Over Sexual Abuse Victims’ Lawsuits Returns To Senate

HARRISBURG (PA)
Associated Press

April 10, 2019

By Marc Levy

Democratic lawmakers are attempting anew to give now-adult victims of child sexual abuse a reprieve from time limits in Pennsylvania law that prohibit them from suing perpetrators and institutions that may have covered it up.

Senate Democrats said Wednesday they’re introducing legislation that’s been propelled by child sexual abuse scandals, including in Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses. The state House was scheduled later Wednesday to vote on similar legislation.

Last October, Senate Republicans blocked a House bill that sought to provide the victims a two-year window to sue. It’s still not clear whether the legislation can pass the Senate, and it’s opposed by Catholic bishops.

A years-long fight over the two-year window, however, has held up passage of legislation to eliminate the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse crimes.

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Church Withheld Allegations from Former Parents & Minimized Severity of Child Sexual Abuse

Patheos blog

April 10, 2019

By Katie Joy

Last week authorities arrested church daycare teacher Alyson Saunders for child sexual abuse. Following her arrest Fellowship Presbyterian Church claimed through media releases they have been transparent with families of the church. However, emails, text messages, and social media communication between church officials and parents indicate the church attempted to cover-up and minimize the abuse allegations to protect the reputation of their school.

Shortly after the news broke about Alyson’s arrest, a parent of a child reached out to Without A Crystal Ball. The parent “Sarah” told me that she had dozens of emails and messages from the church that concerned her.

As we sorted through the dozens of documents, a picture of a cover-up, lack of transparency, minimizing of the abuse, and the interference of a family member of Alyson to stifle questions and silence discussion with the broader community about the crimes was revealed.

According to Sarah, the entire ordeal started on March 8, 2019. Up until this point in time, Sarah’s child had been attending Fellowship Presbyterian’s day school for several years. She loved the teachers, and Sarah believed the staff and administrators adored her daughter.

Everything changed with a single email from the school on March 8. In an abrupt message, school director Melissa Mitchell notified parents about an “all parent meeting” at 5 pm.

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Facing the crisis: What needs to be done

BOSTON (MA)
The Pilot

April 10, 2019

By Russell Shaw

When the U.S. bishops gather in plenary assembly in Baltimore two months from now, their immediate task will be putting in place a new system of episcopal accountability in dealing with sex abuse. Its elements will likely include a code of conduct for themselves, a hotline for receiving complaints, and a framework for judging bishops who commit abuse or cover it up when committed by others.

The bishops were preparing to vote on just such a system at their general meeting last November when Pope Francis told them to put off acting until after his “summit” on sex abuse in February. Now the bishops should find it relatively easy to adopt a plan for accountability at their June 11-13 gathering, and the Vatican, one assumes, should find it easy to say yes.

And then the bishops will have put the crisis in the Church arising from the abuse scandal behind them, and everything will get back to normal.

Except, of course, that it won’t. And arguably shouldn’t.

As time has passed, it has become increasingly clear that the crisis, although obviously involving the abuse scandal and the bishops’ response, is a far larger matter that raises profound issues of authority, accountability, and participatory decision-making. In Baltimore the bishops would do well to take preliminary steps toward addressing these matters by authorizing a feasibility study of a plenary council or regional synod for the United States.

Here we can learn from the Church in Australia.

Australian Catholics have suffered their own dark night lately. Morale has taken a beating from clergy sex abuse and the conviction of Cardinal George Pell on charges of abusing two boys years ago. (The Cardinal is appealing the decision.) But, nothing daunted, the Church is pressing ahead with plans for a two-session plenary council in October 2020 and May 2021. Over 20,000 suggestions have come from 75,000 Catholics in “listening and dialogue” sessions hoping for a turn-around.

The idea of doing something similar here is by no means new.

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The Case for Breaking the Seal of the Confessional

Patheos blog

April 10, 2019

By Michael F. Bird

Over at The Spectator (Oz), I have an article entitled: It’s time to end the seal of the confessional: the religious case

I argue that Catholic clergy should be required to lift the seal of the confessional and to engage in mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse:

It is after much reflection that I wish to declare my support for the mandatory reporting of child sex abuse even if it requires Catholic clergy to break the seal of the confessional.

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Politics in naming of new archbishop

DUNEDIN (NEW ZEALAND)
The Otago Daily Times

April 10, 2019

By Michael McGough

You don’t have to be Catholic to take an interest in the announcement last week that Pope Francis has chosen the Most Rev Wilton D. Gregory, the longtime archbishop of Atlanta, as the new head of the archdiocese of Washington, DC.

Gregory’s appointment is interesting from several vantage points: He will be the first African American archbishop of the nation’s capital and he also was a leader in the American church’s early response to sexual abuse by clergy – an issue that tripped up his immediate predecessor, Cardinal Donald Wuerl. (Wuerl was preceded as archbishop by Theodore McCarrick, the former cardinal who was defrocked this year after being found guilty by a church tribunal of sexual misconduct with children and adults.)

Gregory’s appointment is notable for another reason: He was born on December 7, 1947, meaning that he is 71. It might seem odd that the Pope would appoint a septuagenarian to this important post in the American church, especially in light of the fact that bishops must submit their resignations at age 75.

But at least one commentator thinks that the choice of an older archbishop is part of a pattern. Writing in the Catholic publication La Croix International, Robert Mickens notes that Francis has often tapped older prelates for important assignments because of their “wealth of experience” and because they “share his vision for church reform and his interpretation of the Second Vatican Council”.

It’s also true that, in the church as in politics, leaders are living longer. If Joe Biden (76) and Bernie Sanders (77) can contemplate running for president, why can’t a 71-year-old cleric assume spiritual authority in Washington?

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Former professors named in Jesuit abuse report

DETROIT (MI)
Varsity News

April 9, 2019

By Gannon Pacioni

At least six Jesuit priests who formerly worked at the university have been accused of sexual abuse.

None of them are currently affiliated with Detroit Mercy, and none of their known incidents involved university students, according to an investigation by The Varsity News.

Some of the alleged assaults occurred before the men arrived on campus; some after. All of the accused are either deceased or have been dismissed by the order.

They include a dean, professors and members of campus ministry.

The accused are James F. Gates, Phillip T. Mooney, Michael E. Dorrler, Mark A. Finan, David C. Bayne and Charles E. Sullivan.

All were identified by the Midwest Jesuit province in a December report naming 50 clergy members in abuse cases that have been closed.

Other claims remain open. The targets of those ongoing investigations were not named.

Since the early 2000s, the Catholic faith has been roiled by charges of sexual abuse of children by hundreds of priests – and of coverups of those crimes by higher-ups.

Releasing lists of the accused is one of several steps church organizations have taken recently to attempt to be more transparent about their past.

“Most of the Jesuits on our list entered religious life from the 1930s through the early 1960s,” the Rev. Brian Paulson noted in a public letter accompanying the December release. “In retrospect, our evaluation of candidates, as well as the training, formation, and supervision of Jesuits, was not adequate. We have learned from this painful history and our formation today strives to promote the healthy affective and psychological development of Jesuits.”

The University of Detroit Mercy is sponsored by two religious orders, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Sisters of Mercy.

It was created in 1990 with the consolidation of the Jesuits’ University of Detroit and the sisters’ Mercy College.

All but one of the accused worked at the University of Detroit prior to the consolidation.

Here are details about the six individuals:

James F. Gates

Gates, a Jesuit brother, was accused of abusing 15 girls and one boy while assigned to a boarding school on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington state from 1969 to 1972.

Those crimes, which resulted in a multi-million dollar settlement, followed his two years at University of Detroit, where beginning at age 26 he worked in campus ministry.

Gates also served in Montana, Missouri, Ohio and Nepal. He was at Holy Rosary-St. John’s Parish in Columbus, Ohio, from 1994 to 2002, where he faced an additional claim of abuse.

He lived at Vianney Renewal Center, a church-run supervised living center, from 2010 to 2012, when he was dismissed from the order.

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Child abuse is the serpent coiled around the roots of Christianity

NORTH CORK (IRELAND)
The Avondhue News

April 10, 2019

By Donal O’Keeffe

‘The Devil works through children abused by priests’, former President Mary McAleese was told by senior Vatican officials.

In a new RTÉ documentary, Rome v Republic, to be aired this Thursday, former President McAleese says the then Vatican secretary of state Angelo Sodano, attempted in 2003 to secure an agreement with Ireland that it would not access church documents.

“I asked him why,” says Ms McAleese, “and it was very clear it was because he wanted to protect Vatican and diocesan archives. I have to say that I immediately said the conversation had to stop.”

Ms McAleese says the encounter with Cardinal Sodano left her ‘really quite shattered, that this was the number two (in the Vatican, after Pope John Paul II) in the church I belonged to’.

“There was nothing about him that was holy. There was nothing about him that was godly. There was nothing about him that was admirable. Everything about him I found horrifying.”

Rome v Republic is presented by Michael McDowell, and it traces the history of the Catholic Church in Ireland from the 18th century to the present day. McDowell was attorney general when Michael Woods, then minister for education, agreed the 2002 indemnity deal with 18 religious congregations which had run orphanages, reformatories and industrial schools. The deal saw the congregations pay €128 million in return for a State indemnity against all future legal actions by people who had been in institutions run by the Orders.

“The simple fact of the matter is that the result was that the State effectively signed a blank cheque which cost us €1.4 billion in the end, in exchange for a promise of a contribution of €128 million from the religious orders,” McDowell says.

17 years on, the 18 religious organisations have still not fulfilled the terms of the deal, and the terms of later offers made to the State. Of the €128 million the Orders agreed to pay, €4.21 million is still outstanding. Negotiations over the handover of remaining properties continue.

In the wake of the publication of the 2009 Ryan report, the18 congregations were called in by the then government and asked to increase their contributions to redress costs, the total cost of which came to €1.5 billion. Mr Justice Ryan had recommended the congregations pay half the cost of redress, with the taxpayer footing the rest.

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Archbishop Wilton Gregory discusses moving to Washington, D.C.

ATLANTA (GA)
FOX 5 Atlanta

April 9, 2019

By Russ Spencer

The leader of Atlanta’s 1.2 million Catholics is heading to the nation’s capital. Pope Francis chose Archbishop Wilton Gregory for the high profile position at a time of crisis in the church there.

Archbishop Gregory sat down with FOX 5 Senior Anchor Russ Spencer Tuesday afternoon to discuss the challenges ahead.

The archbishop was very open about how surprised he was to get the call to Washington. The Chicago native said he fully expected to retire someday as the Archbishop of Atlanta, a place he said he’s come to consider home.

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‘Is God really only calling single, celibate men to the priesthood?’

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

April 10, 2019

By Kate Thayer

Just a year after becoming a Catholic priest, Doug Langner said the loneliness started to creep in.

“You would go through times of (thinking), wouldn’t it be nice to just share your day with someone else?” said Langner, who was ordained in 2008 after graduating from Mundelein Seminary, and started to work in a Kansas City, Mo.-area parish. Soon he was the only priest assigned to his church, living alone in the rectory, which isn’t uncommon as the Catholic Church faces a priest shortage that has forced many churches to shut down or merge.

Then, Langner met someone.

She worked at the church and was going through a divorce. The two had a connection, Langner said, though they didn’t act on it.

But it helped him address doubts that had been there all along. It made him ask himself, “Are you really going to spend the next 50 years … of your life without someone to share it with?”

It turns out, he wasn’t. Langner left the priesthood about two years after his ordination. He said the vow of celibacy and the isolation it breeds weren’t for him, but his resolve as a Catholic remains intact.

Former altar boy sexually abused by priest tells why he’s raising his kids in the Catholic Church »

“I think there is a place in the church for people who are called to celibacy. They live it out in a beautiful way,” he said. “But I also don’t think they’re the only people called. Is God really only calling single, celibate men to the priesthood?”

Young priests leaving the pastorate is another blow to the struggling Catholic Church, which faces widespread sex abuse allegations, a less devout population and a priest shortage that’s forcing church closures and consolidation.

“In the midst of this storm, (prospective priests are thinking), do I get in the boat? Do I stay in the boat? That has to be a discernment. I think that’s one of the causes,” said Bishop Ronald Hicks, vicar general at the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Due in part to the priest shortage, the archdiocese has closed schools and churches as part of an ongoing restructuring plan. Since 1975, the Chicago Archdiocese has shuttered more than 100 parishes and more than 250 schools, according to its annual report. During that time, the number of total priests shrank from 1,261 in 1975 to 746 in 2018, according to the diocese.

“Here in Chicago, what we’re looking at is, with less priests, how do we continue to make sure our people are served and our parishes are thriving?” Hicks said. In addition to relying on deacons and involved parishioners to do the work of the church, Hicks said, “we’re actively promoting priesthood.”

Part of that includes a visible presence of seminary students working in local churches, said the Rev. John Kartje, rector of Mundelein Seminary — the largest seminary in the country, located at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake. This allows parishioners to see firsthand that young men are still entering the clergy, he said.

Though nationwide seminary enrollment has sliced nearly in half since 1970, to about 3,400 students in 2017, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Kartje points out that Mundelein’s enrollment has remained steady in the past several years, hovering at around 200 students.

Once a man enters the seminary — a graduate degree program that takes between four and six years to complete — leaders at Mundelein try to address student concerns about church life, which can be isolating, Kartje said. Each student is offered professional counseling and a spiritual adviser, a priest who can offer guidance.

“The whole idea behind seminary is that it’s a discernment process. There’s no presumption on day one he’ll be ordained a priest,” he said, adding that 10 to 20 percent of students leave each year before reaching ordination. “It’s a complete altering of who you are.”

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Bishop in India Charged with Rape, SNAP Reacts

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

April 9, 2019

We are deeply grateful that Indian law enforcement are formally charging a bishop with raping a nun. It is rare that a top Catholic official faces criminal charges, so this is a significant step forward towards a safer church and society for all. We hope Bishop Franco Mullakkal faces trial soon.

We also hope that these charges provide a moment of vindication for the brave nun who reported the rape and for her brave colleagues who have rallied around her. We are also hopeful that this news will encourage others who saw, suspected or suffered his wrongdoing to come forward.

According to one news source “There were many attempts to silence witnesses in the case, and some nuns who deposed against him were threatened with expulsion. Later, the High Court had ordered protection to main witnesses. One of the witnesses in the case, Sister Lucy said she was confined to illegal custody and threatened to be locked up in a mental asylum.”

Intimidation of witnesses and secrecy are major reasons that abuse is able to thrive in the shadows. This horrific behavior serves no one but the abuser and ought to be met with reprimand and punishment, by both secular and church authorities.

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Nine months after Ted McCarrick sex-abuse crisis explodes, The New Yorker gives it some ink

Get Religion blog

April 10, 2019

By Julia Duin

It’s been more than nine months since the explosive news about former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick hit and only now has The New Yorker done a definitive piece on it all.

We at GetReligion felt that McCarrick’s fall from grace was last year’s top religion story, along with the culpability of the Catholic Church’s highest officials in knowing about the cardinal’s sexual predilections for other men. They did nothing about it until finally it was revealed that he’d gone after boys as well.

While reporters all over the country were going into overdrive all summer reporting on l’affaire McCarrick and related stories, The New Yorker team did nothing. I still have an August 1 email to one of the editors there offering my services on that subject. Usually they’re atop the newest trend in seconds, but there was this strange silence –- and no response to my email -– on this story.

As time went on, there was a mention here and there, like this short news piece about Pope Francis that mentioned McCarrick in passing. It was written by James Carroll, a prolific author and a former Catholic seminarian.

Otherwise, radio silence on this blockbuster.

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Peruvian journalist threatened with second criminal defamation charge

ROME (ITALY)
Crux

April 10, 2019

By Elise Harris

Peruvian investigative journalist Paola Ugaz, currently embattled in a criminal defamation case triggered by a complaint from an archbishop, now is being threatened with another defamation charge by representatives of two Catholic schools who say her reporting on the institutions is false.

On March 25 Ugaz published an article in Peruvian paper La Republica asserting a former head of the prestigious San Pedro Catholic boys’ school in Lima was not only guilty of physical abuse in the lay community to which he belonged, but he also failed to act when concerns about possibly inappropriate conduct at the school were raised.

Alfredo Draxl García Rossell, who formerly led San Pedro, was recently asked to step down as director of the Liceo Naval School following accusations from journalist José Enrique Escardó that Draxl had abused him physically and psychologically while both were members of the same religious community in 1987.

Both Draxl and Escardó are ex-members of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), a controversial Catholic organization that originated in Peru and whose founder, layman Luis Fernando Figari, has been accused of physical, psychological and sexual abuses and was prohibited by the Vatican in 2017 of having further contact with members of the group. Escardó left the SCV nearly 20 years ago, while Draxl left in 2018.

In her article, Ugaz noted that shortly after he left, Escardó published an article in Gente magazine saying that while he was in community, Draxl would force him to endure various abuses, one of which was to put a Swiss army knife to his neck and tell him to push against it. If he refused, he said Draxl would insist, yelling, “Push, faggot!” and then make him walk on his knees and kiss the feet of a statue of the Virgin Mary to ask for forgiveness.

When asked about the incident before a commission investigating institutional cases of abuse in Peru, Draxl said it was part of a game they played in which both men held knives and only lasted seconds. He called it a “stupid” mistake, but said he never intended to do violence.

Before leaving the Liceo Naval school, Draxl was director of San Pedro from 1997-2015. Both San Pedro and the girls school associated with it, Villa Caritas, are projects of the SCV and its women’s branch, the Marian Community of Reconciliation (MCR).

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Defrocked former North Bergen priest found fatally shot

HUDSON COUNTY (NJ)
Hudson Reporter

April 10, 2019

By Mike Montemarano

Reports of a homicide investigation surrounding Capparelli’s death broke on March 12.
Just over a month after the Roman Catholic Church in New Jersey released the names of 188 Catholic priests “credibly accused” of sexual abuse, one of those names on the list appeared again in national headlines.

According to media reports from Henderson, Nevada, 70-year-old John Capparelli, who served as a priest in Our Lady of Fatima Church in North Bergen, was found fatally shot on March 12. His death is being investigated as a homicide.

Capparelli served in several other New Jersey parishes as well during a 12-year span, which also included a stint as a hospital chaplain and Catholic prep school teacher, according to the Archdiocese.

It was widely reported that the Clark County Coroner’s office found the cause of death to be a single gunshot wound to the neck. Caparelli lived in Nevada for a few years prior to his death.

Defrocked after allegations of abuse

After first being ordained in 1980, he was removed from the ministry in New Jersey after accusations surfaced that he allegedly abused multiple teenage boys in the 1970s and ‘80s.

A flood of allegations from over 30 people claiming that Capparelli victimized them opened up, placing Capparelli at the center of multiple lawsuits. Like many other “credibly accused” priests on the archdiocese’s list, Capparelli was protected by New Jersey’s statute of limitations in every single case, and he was never convicted of a single charge.

Rich Fitter’s suit against Capparelli made dozens of headlines in 2011. Fitter alleged that Capparelli would sexually abuse teenage boys while running a wrestling club as part of an after-school program for Oratory Prep School in Summit.

Shortly after leaving the priesthood, it was widely reported that Capparelli became a public school teacher in Newark. Then, a series of Star-Ledger stories about his past as a priest were published. Those stories, which included interviews with his alleged victims, preceded action by the state to remove Capparelli’s teaching certification.

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Jury in Santa Fe to start deliberations in sex abuse case involving ex-priest

Pauline Hodgdon April 10, 2019

SANTA FE (NM)
The New Mexican

April 8, 2019

By Phaedra Haywood

Jurors are scheduled to begin deliberations Wednesday in the child sex abuse case against Arthur Perrault, a former Roman Catholic priest who was extradited from Morocco to stand trial in New Mexico.

The jury in U.S. District Court in Santa Fe on Tuesday heard closing arguments in the case, in which Perrault is accused of raping a 10-year-old altar boy between 1991 and 1992 while working as a priest at St. Bernadette’s parish in Albuquerque.

Perrault has been accused of similar behavior by dozens of others over the years and was ordered by a federal judge in 2017 to pay $16 million in a civil case.

According to testimony during the trial, Perrault moved to Morocco in 1992, where he was located last year by FBI agents.

The FBI became involved in the case because Perrault’s alleged abuse of the boy took place at Kirtland Air Force Base and at the Santa Fe National Cemetery, both federal properties.

During closing arguments, prosecutor Sean J. Sullivan of the U.S. Attorney’s Office emphasized Perrault’s reputation as a known child molester.

Sullivan reminded jurors that Perrault admitted to the FBI agent who transported him back to the United States — and who testified during the trial — that he had sexually abused at least one other boy and had written a letter to the King of Morcco admitting to abusing teenagers in the past.

He also mentioned that seven other witnesses who testified at Perrault’s trial said they had been abused by the former priest and noted similarities between their stories and the one told by the accuser in the case.

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‘Invisible’ victims: Survivors of sexual abuse by nuns demand to be counted

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WHYY

April 10, 2019

By Laura Benshoff

When Trish Cahill was 15, a nun who taught at a nearby Catholic high school invited her to perform at a hootenanny mass.

“This was the 60s, you know, Peter Paul and Mary and all that,” said Cahill, now 67. “I didn’t really play guitar, but a nun — a nun! — asked me to come to mass and play guitar.”

Cahill, who lives in Lancaster, Pa., grew up in an Irish Catholic family in Ridgewood, New Jersey that revered clergy.

One invitation from Sister Eileen Shaw led to another. Cahill, who felt alienated from her family, came to see the nun as her mentor. The two became close.

Then, one day at the convent, Cahill says the nun slipped something in her tea.

“She took me into the bedroom and I passed out,” said Cahill. “I was not conscious. I was not able to make a decision.” She said this was the first of many sexual assaults.

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Archdiocese puts Andover priest on leave over sexual abuse allegation

Pauline Hodgdon April 10, 2019

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

April 9, 2019

By Lisa Kashinsky

An Andover priest has been placed on leave by the Archdiocese of Boston following an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor said to have taken place 28 years ago, the archdiocese said Tuesday.

The Rev. Peter Gori, a pastor at St. Augustine’s Church, was put on administrative leave after the alleged misconduct came to light, the church said. The archdiocese said it “immediately informed law enforcement” and forwarded the matter to the Augustinian Province to investigate.

“The Archdiocese of Boston is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of children and young people in our parishes and institutions,” it said in a statement.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, an advocate for victims of sexual abuse by priests, said he is representing the person who claims “he was sexually abused as a minor” by Gori “in 1990 when he was approximately 10 years old.” Garabedian said his client also alleges he was sexually abused as a minor by the Rev. William F. Waters between 1987 and 1990, when he was 8 to 10 years old. During the alleged abuse, both priests were assigned to either St. Augustine’s Church in Lawrence or Andover, Garabedian said.

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Indian Bishop Formally Charged with Rape

JALANDHAR (INDIA)
Catholic News Agency

April 11, 2019

Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, India has been charged with raping a nun nine times over a two-year period and faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, local authorities announced today.

The charge sheet against Mulakkal included statements from more than 80 witnesses including a cardinal, three bishops, 11 priests and 25 nuns, according to Indian Catholic group Save our Sisters.

Mulakkal has also been charged under laws against intimidation, illegal confinement and unnatural intercourse, the New York Times reports, and he faces at least 10 years in prison if found guilty.

In June 2018, a member of the Missionaries of Jesus religious congregation accused Mulukkal of sexually assaulting her 13 times between 2014 and 2016. In a 72-page complaint to police, filed June 29, the nun alleged that the bishop sexually abused her more than a dozen times over two years.

Police in the Indian state of Kerala had announced yesterday that they had gathered enough evidence to formally charge Mulakkal and that they would file a charging document in criminal court this week.

The bishop maintains his innocence. He was arrested Sept. 21, 2018 amid protests calling for a police investigation of the allegation. He was subsequently released on bail.

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More doubts about controversial Pell guilty verdict

NEW SOUTH WALES (AUSTRALIA)
Mercator.net

April 10, 2019

By Michael Cook

The resolution of the case of Cardinal George Pell, now in jail after his conviction for sexually abusing two 13-year-old choristers in 1996, must wait until an appeals court hands down its judgement.

But in the meantime, commentary is being published which raises further doubts about the controversial verdict.

In the latest Quadrant, its editor, historian Keith Windschuttle, describes, thanks to an alert subscriber to his magazine, an American case with intriguing parallels.

I don’t want to rehearse the details of the crimes of which Cardinal Pell is accused. They are too lurid and they are readily available elsewhere. Suffice it to say that it is alleged – and the jury obviously believed this story – that he found two choristers swigging altar wine in the sacristy of St Patrick’s Cathedral after Mass on a Sunday in December 1996. He was very angry and forced both of them to perform sex acts. Later on, he encountered one of them in a corridor in the Cathedral and abused him again. Two boys were involved, but one died of a drug overdose in 2014.

What Windschuttle stumbled upon is an article in the September 2011 issue of Rolling Stone magazine by journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely. It described a very similar incident involving a priest in Philadelphia. Fr Charles Engelhardt allegedly caught a boy named “Billy Doe” swigging altar wine in his sacristy. He encouraged him to drink more and showed him pornographic magazines. A week later he performed sex acts on him. A few months later, another priest allegedly abused him.

As Windschuttle points out, that issue of Rolling Stone was readily available in Australia in 2011. In 2013, Victorian Police commenced a trawling operation to find people who were willing to testify that they had been abused by Cardinal Pell. In 2015, the complainant came forward with his story.

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Prosecutor calls ex-priest ‘serial molester’ in closing arguments

SANTA FE (NM)
Associated Press

April 10, 2019

A federal prosecutor late Tuesday described a former priest and Air Force chaplain standing trial on sex abuse charges as a “serial molester” who during his final years in New Mexico exploited one young altar boy’s interests in the military and priesthood to spend more time with him.

Prosecutor Sean Sullivan’s harsh illustration of Arthur Perrault came as attorneys for both sides delivered closing arguments. Jurors now must decide whether Perrault abused the boy in the early 1990s at Santa Fe National Cemetery and Kirtland Air Force Base.

Perrault, who is 81, was returned by authorities to the United States from Morocco in September to face charges of aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact.

Once the pastor of St. Bernadette’s, one of New Mexico’s largest Roman Catholic parishes, Perrault is accused of vanishing from the state in 1992 just as an attorney prepared to file two lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe alleging he had sexually assaulted seven children.

“He fled to escape justice,” Sullivan said.

While Perrault had multiple victims in New Mexico, according to authorities, the federal charges against him stem only from the abuse of the one boy at the two military properties, which fall under federal jurisdiction.

Perrault has pleaded not guilty to charges, and his attorney questioned Tuesday why the former altar boy did not tell his mother when he was still a child about being abused.

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Saskatchewan priest might be extradited on decades-old sex abuse charges

REGINA (CANADA)
Regina Leader-Post

April 9, 2019

By Arthur White-Crummey

A Catholic priest who served for decades in Saskatchewan could be facing extradition on sexual abuse charges relating to his time as a Benedictine monk in Scottish boys’ schools.

The allegations against Father Robert MacKenzie span roughly 30 years — from the 1950s to the 1980s — and involve several complainants who attended two boarding schools in Scotland. That was confirmed by MacKenzie’s lawyer, who stressed that his client maintains his innocence.

“Father Robert MacKenzie categorically denies now, and he has denied under oath to the minister of justice, that he was involved in any sexual impropriety,” said lawyer Alan McIntyre.

The Archdiocese of Regina sent a letter to its pastors and parishes on Monday, advising them that Scottish authorities have charged MacKenzie, now in his mid-80s, with offences relating to sexual and physical abuse. It said the authorities obtained a surrender order last month from Canada’s minister of justice. That is an important step in clearing the way for extradition to Scotland.

But McIntyre said his client will fight extradition. He plans to ask for judicial review of the minister’s decision at the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.

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Key School to create therapy fund for survivors of sexual abuse

ANNAPOLIS (MD)
Capital Gazette

April 10, 2019

By Lauren Lumpkin

Carolyn Surrick has asked three things of Key School, her alma mater: publicly acknowledge years of sexual abuse of students by teachers, ensure the safety of current students and help survivors pay for therapy.

In January, the Annapolis private school satisfied two out of three of those requests. School leaders released a 45-page report describing decades of unchecked sexual abuse. Independent investigators retained by the school did not find evidence of current abuse at the school.

Now, the school is creating a therapy fund to provide support for alumni as they continue to heal “from the abuse inflicted by former faculty members,” officials said in a letter Monday. Backing for the fund will come from the school.

Survivors of abuse at the exclusive private school have requested this kind of support for years. The measure also comes under the guidance of RAINN, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

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‘Invisible’ victims: Survivors of abuse by nuns demand to be counted

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WHYY

April 10, 2019

By Laura Benshoff

When Trish Cahill was 15, a nun who taught at a nearby Catholic high school invited her to perform at a hootenanny mass.

“This was the 60s, you know, Peter Paul and Mary and all that,” said Cahill, now 67. “I didn’t really play guitar, but a nun — a nun! — asked me to come to mass and play guitar.”

Cahill, who lives in Lancaster, Pa., grew up in an Irish Catholic family in Ridgewood, New Jersey that revered clergy.

One invitation from Sister Eileen Shaw led to another. Cahill, who felt alienated from her family, came to see the nun as her mentor. The two became close.

Then, one day at the convent, Cahill says the nun slipped something in her tea.

“She took me into the bedroom and I passed out,” said Cahill. “I was not conscious. I was not able to make a decision.” She said this was the first of many sexual assaults.

Cahill says Shaw, who was more than 20 years older, was a part of her life for the next decade, a tumultuous time that fueled bouts of drug and alcohol addiction.

Today, she’s sober and living in a friend’s guest room in a quiet Lancaster subdivision. Nestled in the cushions of the living room couch, she went through bags of photos and slides that she’s kept, reminders of a toxic adolescence she still can’t shake.

“See how long my hair is?” Cahill said, picking up a photo. “[It’s] because she wanted me to wear my hair long. ‘Cut your hair this way, don’t hang around with this person’…She controlled my life.”

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Jesuits quietly sent abusive Alaska priests to retire with others on a Washington college campus

Clarksburg Caller

April 10, 2019

By Marisa Monroe

This article was provided to The Associated Press by the nonprofit news outlet Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.

This Oct. 22, 2018 photo shows the marker for where the remains of Rev. James Poole are interned at Mount St. Michael in , Wash. Over the course of his life, Poole was accused of sexually abusing at least 20 women. (Emily Swing/Reveal via AP)

On the surface, Father James Poole seemed like the cool priest in Nome. He founded a Catholic mission radio station that broadcast his Jesuit sermons alongside contemporary pop hits. A 1978 story in People magazine called Poole “Western Alaska’s Hippest DJ . Comin‘ at Ya with Rock’n’Roll ‘n‘ Religion.”

Behind the radio station‘s closed doors, Poole was a serial sexual predator. He abused at least 20 women and girls, according to court documents. At least one was 6 years old. One Alaska Native woman says he impregnated her when she was 16, then forced her to get an abortion and blame her father for raping her. Her father went to prison.

Like so many other Catholic priests around the country, Poole’s inappropriate conduct with young girls was well-known to his superiors. A Jesuit supervisor once warned a church official that Poole “has a fixation on sex; an obsession; some sort of mental aberration that makes him see sex everywhere.”

But the last chapter in his story reveals a new twist in the Catholic abuse scandal: Poole was sent to live out his retirement years on Gonzaga University‘s campus in , Washington.

For more than three decades, Cardinal Bea House on Gonzaga’s campus served as a retirement repository for at least 20 Jesuit priests accused of sexual misconduct that predominantly took place in small, isolated Alaska Native villages and on Indian reservations across the Northwest, an investigation by the Northwest News Network and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting has found.

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Bishops’ summit on sex abuse: An Asian perspective

PARIS (FRANCE)
LaCroix International

April 10, 2019

By Virginia Saldanha

The voices of survivors and advocates rallying against clerical sex abuse echoed around newsrooms and living rooms the world over when bishops met in Rome from Feb. 18-26, making it a hallowed ground of the wounded. The 190 bishops at the summit heard the testimonies of a few survivors, live-streamed into the hall.

The organizing committee had a face-to-face meeting with 12 survivors in Rome a day before the summit. Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster and Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich (also a member of Pope Francis’ council of cardinal advisors) accepted the invitation of the survivors’ group Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) to interact with victims and advocates from all over the world. At the group’s invitation, I joined the ECA in Rome from Feb. 17-25, representing India and Asia where the voices of abuse survivors are muzzled, muffled and sporadic. At a press briefing on the first day of the summit, not surprisingly, it was reported that the bishops of Asia and Africa stated that sex abuse was not their problem!

This came despite considerable evidence to the contrary. At the outset, the pope handed the participants a list of 21 points for consideration and implementation. The summit focused on the abuse of minors.

Vulnerable adults were implicitly included but the definition was ambiguous. In Asia, the abuse of nuns and vulnerable women, who routinely approach priests in times of trouble, is a big issue, especially for nuns in diocesan congregations.

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April 9, 2019

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Former Conroe priest sued over allegation he flashed teen during confession

HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle

April 9, 2019

By Nicole Hensley and Massarah Mikati

A former Conroe priest already charged with molesting two teens is accused in a new lawsuit of exposing himself in a church confessional booth to another teen parishioner who was trying to come out as gay.

The man, who lives in Conroe and is identified only by his initials, said he was 15 in 2000 when he entered the confessional to speak to Father Manuel La Rosa-Lopez, who peppered him with “vulgar questions” about his sexuality, according to the suit.

“Do you fantasize about men?” La Rosa-Lopez asked, according to court documents.

The priest then made lewd remarks to the teen in Spanish before he opened the partition window to show his exposed genitals, the suit says.

The teen bolted from the booth and stopped attending Mass at the church soon after, his lawyer David Matthews of Houston said this week. The incident caused him to experience anxiety, depression, alcohol dependence and shame about his sexual orientation, according to court documents.

The accuser — now an adult studying to be a mental health counselor — kept the incident secret until 2017 when he told his therapist what happened, Matthews said. The man has since spoken to the Conroe Police Department about the allegation, Matthews said.

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Pastors Who Hide Behind the Pulpit

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Is It Enough? (blog)

April 9, 2019

By Doug Lay

The pulpit, as a symbol of a theological reformation, stands as a representation of the Bible’s power and uniqueness of that reformation. The pastor, as a symbol of the church’s leadership, stands behind that pulpit to publicly proclaim the Bible’s power and uniqueness of the crucified Christ.

Yet, the pastor can hide behind that pulpit. He can hide behind the pulpit when speaking out about controversial social topics. A recent report finds that “when asked if they felt limited by their congregation to speak out about social issues, 64 percent of pastors said yes, FaithWire reports.”

One particular and relevant social issue today is the sexual exploitation of children by church leaders, the cover-up by those same churches, and then the silence of other churches concerning the cover-ups.

Remember the millstone—Jesus’ harsh and condemning picture of judgment for anyone who would exploit, abuse, or despise the least of these. The pulpit should be the pinnacle of such preaching, but it is easy for the pastor to hide behind the pulpit when preaching about sexual and physical abuse victims and how the church should address abuse.

How do pastors hide behind the pulpit?

First, the pastor sets the focus of the preaching, choosing not only what to preach, but also what not to preach. Topics involving sexual abuse of minors, marital physical abuse, infidelity, rape, and church cover-ups can simply be ignored. The pastor controls the narrative.

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“I am not alone”: House member’s wife seeks more time for sexual abuse victims to sue offenders

AUSTIN (TX)
Texas Tribune

April 8, 2019

By Cassandra Pollock

As Becky Leach took her seat Monday afternoon, preparing to testify for the first time before a committee at the Texas Capitol, her husband watched as he sat behind his name plate with the word “Chair” engraved underneath.

“I am a victim — and I am not alone,” Becky Leach announced to the room as she began her remarks. “From 12 to 18, I was repeatedly and systematically molested. And I refused to acknowledge it.”

Becky Leach, wife to state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, spoke in support of a bill that would double the amount of time people have to pursue a lawsuit against someone who sexually abused them as a child. The measure, authored by state Rep. Craig Goldman, R-Fort Worth, would lengthen the statute of limitations from 15 to 30 years for a person seeking a civil suit over certain types of sexual abuse.

As she delivered her testimony before the House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee on Monday, Becky Leach said she didn’t acknowledge her own abuse until the age of 35 — almost 17 years after it allegedly occurred — and explained that Goldman’s bill would help give victims more time that is often needed to come forward.

“It’s not a denial. It’s a refusal to admit that this person who you most likely loved … is actually doing this thing to harm you,” Becky Leach said as her husband, a state lawmaker who first entered office in 2013, looked on with tears in his eyes. “I truly believe that it’s my great responsibility to be a voice on behalf of those who don’t know they’ve yet been silenced.”

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Pa. lawmakers to child-sex-abuse survivors: Take a number, have a seat

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

April 8, 2019

By John Baer

The Pennsylvania legislature, once again, is poised to turn its back on who knows how many survivors of child sex abuse.

Promises of action? Pledges to victims? Repeated assurances that those who were violated (and long-voiceless) might find some measure of justice?

You tell me.

The state is among the nation’s worst in terms of legal recourse for victims. Ironic, given state findings of abuse that last year lit up the issue.

Our legislature, of course, swung into action, embraced survivors and proceeded to pose and preach. Then failed to do anything.

Now, the issue is back with new legislation expected to be taken up this week. But it’s really only for future victims. For past victims? The waiting room.

It’s a two-bill package with bipartisan sponsorship from Reps. Mark Rozzi (D., Berks) and Jim Gregory (R., Blair).

One bill eliminates the criminal statute of limitations for abuse, which, if enacted, catches us up to 40 other states. Hey, better late than never.

It also gives future victims the option up to age 55 to sue their abusers. Current law allows such lawsuits up to age 30.

But gone is the will to open a “window” of time during which past victims – for whom statutes expired – can sue.

Instead, while other states move in that direction (New York now has a window; New Jersey just passed one that Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to sign), we’re keeping that window shut.

Oh, the second bill addresses a window. But it calls for amending the state constitution to allow it, a clear and drastic shift in approach that can’t sit well with survivors.

A constitutional amendment needs to pass two successive legislative sessions before going to voters as a statewide ballot question, a long, often dead-end process.

At a minimum, we’re talking three years. And the legislature can get tricky with constitutional amendments, passing them in one session, forgetting them in the next.

So, the best we’re offering past victims is take a number, have a seat. We’ll be with you in a few years.

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Pedophile principal’s tally of victims now 32

NEW SOUTH WALES (AUSTRALIA)
The Australian

April 10, 2019

By Tessa Akerman

Former Catholic priest and school principal Frank Klep has emerged as one of Australia’s most prolific pedophiles, with a staggering 32 victims.

County Court judge Gabriele Cannon yesterday said his assault against a four-year-old boy was offending in the “most repulsive way” as she lengthened Klep’s current jail term by two years.

Klep had pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault of a male and one count of indecent assault. Judge Cannon said while Klep last offended in 1984, his offending over 11 years was “prolific”. She said some of his victims were abused in the Salesian College, Rupertswood, infirmary and one was abused while he was homesick at a school camp: “He was especially vulnerable, which you knew.

“They were young and living away from home. Further in the case of some complainants, they were ill when you offended against them.”

Judge Cannon said Klep exploited his power over the boys in order to offend. “You used your position of authority to lord it over the complainants, apparently safe in the knowledge that they were unlikely to tell anyone or if they did they would not be believed,” she said.

“You were a prominent member of your institution that was supposed to be about love, compassion and kindness, especially when it came to children and the vulnerable, but under its cover you perpetrated evil.”

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Fate of two child sex crime bills tied to each other

HARRISBURG (PA)
Patriot News

April 9, 2019

By Ivey DeJesus

The future of the reform of child sex crime laws in Pennsylvania hinges on two companion bills now intricately tied to each other under an amendment approved by the House on Tuesday.

The state House of Representatives cleared the way for the two pieces of legislation to go for a full chamber vote, but linked the future of the bill seeking to eliminate criminal statutes for child sex crimes to the bill that would revive expired statutes of limitations.

By a unanimous vote of 197-0, the House approved an amendment changing the effective date of House bills 962 (which would prospectively eliminate the criminal statute of limitations) to passage in the Senate of its companion piece. That bill – House Bill 963 – calls for a constitutional amendment that would establish a two-year “window” during which adult victims timed-out of the legal system could file lawsuits against predators.

The bills now advance to a full vote in the House, which can happen as early as Wednesday.

“House Bill 962 only passes when the House and Senate pass 963,” said Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, sponsor of the former bill. The other bill is sponsored by Rep. Jim Gregory, R-Blair.

The House Judiciary Committee on Monday advanced to the full chamber two measures that would broadly reform the statute of limitations, eliminating criminal statutes and potentially reviving expired legal recourses.

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Lori: Church has many reasons to get right response to child sex abuse

WASHINGTON —(DC)
Catholic News Service

April 9, 2019

By Christopher Gunty

A week into National Child Abuse Protection Month, Baltimore Archbishop William Lori visited the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops chapel April 8 to celebrate midday Mass for conference employees and reflect on the church’s work to develop policies and procedures to prevent child abuse by those within the church.

He recognized that those who work at U.S. bishops’ conference headquarters have a keen desire “to do everything possible to address on an ongoing basis the sexual abuse crisis that has roiled the Catholic Church for such a very long time.”

The “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” and the related “Essential Norms” implementing the charter legislatively passed by the U.S. bishops in 2002 were “a major step forward,” the archbishop said. “Nevertheless, all of us admit that much more still needs to be done, especially in the areas of episcopal transparency and accountability.”

“There are many motivations for wanting to get this right,” he said at the Mass.

First of those are the desire to see that all children and young people are safe.

Second, he said that as a bishop, he naturally wants to see confidence in the church restored in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and globally.

The church was hit by revelations last summer that included allegations against Theodore McCarrick, a former cardinal and retired archbishop of Washington, and the release of a report from the Pennsylvania attorney general detailing hundreds of allegations of abuse over a 70-year period beginning in 1947.

Such revelations call into question the church’s essential mission of evangelization, the archbishop said.

“More than anything else, however, our hearts should be broken, humbled, contrite, by the horrific experiences of those who have been sexually abused by clergy or by other representatives of the church,” Lori said. “Even if such abuse was committed many years ago, the wounds inflicted upon innocent children and young people are often lifelong wounds. Far too many do not find justice and healing; far too few have their peace.”

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Andover pastor placed on leave over sex abuse allegation

ANDOVER (MA)
WCVB TV

April 9, 2019

An Andover priest is on administrative leave after being accused of sexual abuse of a minor, the Archdiocese of Boston announced Tuesday.

Rev. Peter Gori was accused of sexually abusing a minor 28 years ago, the archdiocese said.

Gori’s accuser is represented by Boston-based attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented numerous other victims of clergy abuse. Garabedian said his client was approximately 10 years old at the time of the abuse.

Additionally, Garabedian’s client also accused Fr. William F. Waters, O.S.A., of inflicting abuse between 1987 and 1990.

“By coming forward my client is trying to heal, empower other victims and make the world a safer place for children,” Garabedian said.

Gori is the pastor of St. Augustine’s Parish in Andover and previously a canon lawyer in the Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Boston. He is a member of the Augustinian Order of St. Thomas of Villanova. The Archdiocese said that order will be responsible for investigating the allegations.

“The Archdiocese of Boston is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of children and young people in our parishes and institutions,” the archdiocese wrote in a statement. “Through its Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach, the Archdiocese continues to make counseling and other services available to survivors, their families and parishes impacted by clergy sexual abuse and by allegations of abuse by members of the clergy.”

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Nuns sexually abusing minors could become next Catholic Church scandal, experts say

WASHINGTON (DC)
Fox News

April 9, 2019

By Hollie McKay

It wasn’t until Rev. Cait Finnegan gave birth to a baby girl more than three decades ago that the full trauma of all she had withstood was fully unleashed.

“It was my protective instinct, I just didn’t want my daughter to be alone. I stayed with her from the day she was born,” Finnegan, 67, a Catholic school student in 1960s New York and once an aspiring nun, told Fox News. “Because I had been abused in many places to many degrees. This was every day in school, weekends, she would come to my home.”

Starting at just 15, Finnegan alleged that she was repeatedly raped by a Catholic nun and for years, after finally escaping, lived a life on the edge of falling apart. She said she spent much of her life trapped in a state of rage, depression, and agoraphobia, unable to leave the house or be away from her daughter, now 36.

They lived in poverty as Finnegan said she was only able to take on odd jobs at night, as her marriage strained under the emotional weight.

“When my daughter was 12, we thought it would be good to register her at a Catholic School,” Finnegan recalled. “But then the nun opened the door, I had a flashback, I grabbed her and ran.”

Finnegan said her abuser died more than four years ago. But the deep, dark memories she has carried since adolescence remain.

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Oakland Diocese releases information on sexual abuse, but victim advocates are skeptical

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Chronicle (blog)

April 9, 2019

Fifteen years ago, Dan McNevin and two other men sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, alleging that a priest at a church in Niles had abused them as children. At first, McNevin felt validated. It seemed like he might finally get justice and hold the diocese accountable. As he told the press at the time, going public and confronting what had happened seemed like the only way to move forward. Then the backlash followed.

“I was ridiculed. I was attacked. People wrote letters to editors where they talked about how lovely this priest was and how impossible it was that he had done what I claimed. One letter accused me of just wanting money,” he recalls. Then another victim came forward in his support, making McNevin’s story harder to dismiss.

Today—many years and many clergy abuse scandals later—McNevin feels that some things have changed. “By now, the public no longer reflexively takes the side of the church or of the priests,” McNevin said. Personally, he feels very different, too. “I’m in a very good place now compared to where I used to be. I think it’s a journey, it’s a process and I’m at a point where I feel relieved,” he said. McNevin is now an advocate for abuse victims and an Oakland area leader for the Survivor’s Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP). Helping others get to a point where they feel better is one reason why he went into this line of work.

But he still feels that some things haven’t changed, and that church leaders have not done enough to address the past wrongdoings of abusive clergy members. In February, the Oakland Diocese published a list of 45 religious leaders, including McNevin’s abuser, who have had “credible accusations” of sexual abuse of minors. The list includes the names of 20 diocesan priests, 22 religious order priests, deacons and brothers, and three priests from other dioceses who have worked in the Diocese of Oakland—which covers Alameda and Contra Costa Counties—and have had accusations of sexual abuse of minors that the church deemed credible.

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Peruvian journalist accused by archbishop of defamation found guilty

ROME (ITALY)
Crux

April 9, 2019

By Elise Harris

On Monday night Peruvian journalist Pedro Salinas, who had been accused by an archbishop with the crime of aggravated defamation related to an ongoing abuse scandal, was found guilty and slapped with a hefty fee and one-year suspended prison sentence.

Judge Judith Cueva Calle of the First Unipersonal Criminal Court in Piura, Peru, ruled April 8 that Salinas was guilty of aggravated defamation of Archbishop Jose Antonio Eguren Anselmi, who runs the Piura archdiocese, and ordered him to pay roughly $24,000 in addition to his suspended jail sentence.

Carlos Rivera Paz, Salinas’ lawyer, said they’re planning to appeal the decision during an April 22 hearing when the full sentence is read.

“We are going to reject the arguments, and we hope that the appeals court has a little more sense and makes a better evaluation of the evidence,” he said.

Salinas and fellow journalist Paola Ugaz, also being sued by Eguren Anselmi, co-authored the 2015 bombshell book Half Monks, Half Soldiers, detailing years of sexual, psychological and physical abuse inside the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), a controversial Catholic organization that originated in Peru and whose founder, layman Luis Fernando Figari, has been accused of physical, psychological and sexual abuses and was prohibited by the Vatican in 2017 of having further contact with members of the group.

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First Lay Advisory Board meeting opens new dialogue for archdiocese

ST. PAUL (MN)

The Catholic Spirit

April 9, 2019

By Matthew Davis

Mary Brady hopes a new Lay Advisory Board to assist Archbishop Bernard Hebda will usher in a new era of listening in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

“I was really active in several archdiocesan commissions when I was in my 20s. They’re no longer around,” said Brady, 71, citing as one example a former urban Catholic coalition that promoted inner city parishes. “I’m hoping that it’s a sign … that the diocese is being more open to a variety of input from people around the entire diocese,” said Brady.

Representing Deanery 14, Brady, a member of St. Frances Cabrini in Minneapolis, is one of 19 members of the newly formed board, which met for the first time with the archbishop April 3 at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center in St. Paul.

Ranging in age from their 20s to 70s, some retired but others working for parishes or in professions such as business management, project management and insurance, board members were asked by the archbishop to offer advice, to listen and to be a conduit for information with people throughout the archdiocese about opportunities and challenges in the local Church.

Announced as an initiative in November, the board consists of representative members of parish pastoral councils across the archdiocese. Each was chosen by their peers to represent one of 15 deaneries, or geographic regions of the archdiocese. Some traveled as far as 40 miles to get to the Catholic Center.

Among other roles, the board will be key to finding ways to promote healing from the clergy sexual abuse scandal, Archbishop Hebda said.

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Paedophile priest Frank Klep jailed for another two years

VICTORIA (AUSTRALIA)
Herald Sun

April 8, 2019

By Shannon Deery

Frank Klep today had two years added to his current jail term after admitting some of his most shocking crimes, including the heinous abuse of a four-year-old boy.

In total the disgraced former priest has now been convicted of the vile sexual abuse of 33 children.

INSIDE THE HOLY HOUSE OF HORRORS

ARRESTS MADE AFTER REBELS BIKIE RAIDS

MOKBEL ‘CARTEL’ MEMBER DENIED FREEDOM

The 75-year-old predator priest abused most of them at notorious Salesian College, Rupertswood, in Sunbury, including while he was the school’s principal.

Former students have dubbed the school a “house of horrors” because a sickening club of Salesian paedophiles roamed its grand halls and manned its dormitories.

Klep’s known offending spanned more than a decade between 1973 and 1984.

In that time he was principal at Rupertswood and earlier at Salesian College in Brooklyn Park, Adelaide.

Frank Klep today had two years added to his current jail term after admitting some of his most shocking crimes, including the heinous abuse of a four-year-old boy.

He was first convicted of child sexual offences in 1994, but nothing was done to stop his continued involvement with schoolchildren.

In 2005 he was handed a partially suspended sentence for the abuse of 11 victims, but it was later increased on appeal.

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Chargesheet filed against rape-accused Franco Mullakal

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (INDIA)
Hindustan Times

April 9, 2019

When the police failed to arrest him, five other nuns staged a sit-in protest in Kochi. Later a special investigation team was set up and it arrested the influential bishop in September after several rounds of questioning.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing rape charges against former bishop of Jalandhar Franco Mullakkal on Tuesday filed a charge-sheet in the case, almost a year after he was accused of sexually assaulting the nun.

This is the first time in the country where a former bishop is facing the trial based on a complaint filed by a nun. “After months of struggle we are happy the case is coming to a logical conclusion. We have won the case almost half. This is the happiest moment for us. God is with us, truth will prevail finally,” said Sister Anupama, one of the nuns who sat on dharna in Kochi demanding action against Mullakkal.

In last June, a 43-year-old nun, also a mother superior, had complained to the Kerala police that Mullakkal had raped her 13 times between 2014 and 2016. Initially there were many attempts to hush up the complaint against the powerful priest.

When police failed to arrest him, five nuns had staged a sit-in protest in Kochi. Later an SIT was floated and it arrested Mullakkal in September last year after several rounds of questioning. He was later removed from the post. After spending three weeks in judicial custody he was granted bail.

There were many attempts to silence witnesses in the case, and some nuns who deposed against him were threatened with expulsion. Later, the High Court had ordered protection to main witnesses. One of the witnesses in the case, Sister Lucy said she was confined to illegal custody and threatened to be locked up in a mental asylum.

The charge-sheet was submitted after the agitating nuns threatened to hit the street again. They met the Kottayam police superintendent a number of times and wrote to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to expedite the case.

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Indian bishop charged with raping nun

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (INDIA)
Agence France Presse

April 9, 2019

Police on Tuesday charged an Indian bishop with repeatedly raping a nun at a convent in Kerala state in a case that puts a new spotlight on sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church.

Franco Mulakkal was charged with raping the nun several times between 2014 and 2016, police deputy superintendent of Vaikom district, K. Subash, told AFP.

The bishop faces other charges including unlawful detention, unnatural sex and abuse of authority. Facing a maximum punishment of life imprisonment, Mulakkal has denied the allegations.
Vatican suspends Indian bishop accused of raping nun

Local media said the report backing the charges ran into more than 100 pages and contained testimonies from priests, bishops and nuns.

The victim filed a formal complaint in June last year, but police only started formal questioning in September after fury over the case mounted.

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Megachurches, Megapastors, and Megalomaniacs

Pathos blog

April 9, 2019

By Libby Anne

I grew up in a megachurch. There were so many members the church had to form “small groups” to foster a sense of community; around 2000, the church built a new sanctuary, large enough to accommodate thousands of people. There were Easter pageants with live donkeys and real doves; the children’s ministry was huge and glitzy.

The church’s founding pastor was modest and unassuming. He didn’t bask in attention, or seek it. His clothing was conservative, as was his home. I may not be evangelical—or religious—today, but I still have a lot of respect for the man who pastored my childhood church. He was the real deal. I didn’t realize at the time how odd this was.

I bring all this up for a reason. See, I recently discovered the Instagram “preacherssneakers.” I was hooked. And horrified. And somehow, underneath it all, completely unsurprised. The account features pictures of preachers—typical megachurch pastors—wearing designer clothing, alongside screenshots showing these items’ prices.

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French Church on defensive as films fuel sexual abuse fury

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

April 9, 2019

By Tom Heneghan

French Church leaders are on the defensive after two films about clerical sexual abuse and a book about homosexuals at the Vatican dramatised to Catholics the extent of the challenge to the institution’s authority.

Criticism and frustration are mounting among the faithful after Pope Francis rejected the resignation of Lyon Cardinal Philippe Barbarin following his suspended sentence from a civil court for covering up an abuse scandal that has rocked his archdiocese.

A film about the Lyon scandal, an Arte television broadcast about nuns abused by priests, and the book “In the Closet of the Vatican” by a French journalist have added to what the outgoing head of the bishops’ conference called the “profound distress” felt by clergy and laity alike. The documentary “Abused Sisters: The Other Scandal of the Church”, was shown by the Franco-German public TV channel ARTE on 5 March.

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Gregory vows to serve the truth

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

By Michael Sean Winters

“I believe that the only way I can serve the local archdiocese is by telling you the truth,” Archbishop Wilton Gregory told his new flock at a press conference last weekend where he was introduced as the next Archbishop of Washington, DC.

He said this was “a moment fraught with challenges,” mindful that his immediate predecessor Cardinal Donald Wuerl resigned amidst controversy over his handling of clergy sex abuse allegations in the 1990s and the previous archbishop was the former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, now removed from the clerical state.

Speaking of the unique challenges of leading a church in the nation’s capital, but in which some neighbourhoods remain mired in poverty, Gregory said, “The Archdiocese of Washington is home to the poor and the powerful, neither of which realises they are both.”

The next day, Gregory toured various ministries of the archdiocese, starting at Catholic Charities downtown where he toured the chapel and visited with volunteers who serve the poor. The archbishop then went to a Catholic elementary school where a second grader asked what his favourite movie is. “I love the ‘Wizard of Oz,’” Gregory replied. Almost half the 228 students at the school benefit from a voucher programme that provides tuition assistance to poor families to attend Catholic and other private schools.

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Punishment for pedophile priests

NEWTON (NJ)
New Jersey Herald

April 9, 2019

The Roman Catholic Church has been a tremendous force for good in the past and present. The good they have done outweighs the bad. They have a problem with pedophile priests because they are following Church tradition rather than the Bible. They believe “once a priest, always a priest.”

The qualifications for church leaders are listed in I Timothy 3:1–13 and Titus 1:5–9.

Guilty pedophile priests should be defrocked and excommunicated. They should be arrested, given a fair trial, and then executed by the government.

Life imprisonment would be acceptable, but any lesser punishment would be showing compassion to the criminal instead of the victim.

What if a guilty pedophile priest repents? He should still be defrocked, but not excommunicated. Repentance will not affect his government trial. He must still pay for his crimes against children.

Dave Salmon, Sparta

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Catholic universities not doing enough to address sex abuse crisis

PARIS (FRANCE)
LaCroix International

April 9, 2019

By Massimo Faggioli

The separation between Church management (the hierarchy) and its research and development department (theologians) is one of the most serious problems facing the Catholic Church. Thomas Reese, the former editor-in-chief (1998-2005) of the Jesuit magazine America, identified this problem back in 1996 in his book, Inside the Vatican. And although the book was published two pontificates ago, Reese’s premise remains true.

In fact, the situation is even worse now than it was nearly 25 years ago.One of the effects of the latest phase of the Catholic abuse crisis, which started in 2018, is that it has offered us some historical perspective on the Church’s management-research dichotomy. The sexual abuse crisis has been long in the making.

It became public in the mid-1980s and its turning point was 2001-2002 in the United States. This opened the eyes of many to what had happened in that North American country and what was bound to happen in other countries as well.

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A Church That Kills

GERMANY
Feinschwarz

April 8, 2019

By Daniel Bogner

The revelations of abuse never cease. These are not only isolated incidents, but a whole system of failure, including organized trafficking in women, right in the heart of the institution. Whether it be the “Child Protection Summit” held in Rome, the “Synodal Process” in Germany, or a convicted French cardinal who may not resign – the Church leadership continues to run on sight. “However, our analysis needs to be more decisive,” says Daniel Bogner.

Just how dark is the place to where abuse has led the Church? Revelations, confessions and reports about the unspeakable are never-ending. Even now, bishops speak of “systematic abuse condition”. A recent ARTE documentary report (Nuns Abused by God) shows how fluid the transition is from the clergyman’s spiritual leadership to sexual abuse.

Patterns of Evil
There are evident patterns of evil in the Church and by virtue of the Church. Take for example the Philippe family’s brothers, Marie-Dominique Philippe and Thomas Philippe from northern France; both from classically good Catholic origin. However, what yesterday was considered to be a model Christian family (seven of twelve children chose religious professions), is revealed today as a system of religious over-identification. Both brothers have made careers in the Church. They both joined the Dominicans; one became a theology professor in Fribourg, Switzerland, as well as the Spiritus rector to the Community of Saint John, founded by some of his students in the late 1970s. The other brother was a spiritual guide to the international Arche Community, founded by Jean Vanier, where disabled and non-disabled people live together.

Later, both have been accused of abuse. When one of the abused women suffered a breakdown following abuse from Marie-Dominique, she was then led by him to the his brother Thomas, who put her through similar turmoil. These are events that leave one speechless, precisely because this is not something that happened out on the fringes of the Church, but instead in the midst of a European Catholicism believed to be in step with the times and with a highly developed spiritual and social consciousness.

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Church names 12 Nevada priests ‘credibly accused’ of sexual abuse

LAS VEGAS (NV)
Review-Journal

April 8, 2019

By Rachel Crosby

Twelve Nevada priests have been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse, and eight of them at one point served in the Las Vegas Valley, according to the Catholic Diocese of Reno.

The Reno diocese published the list Friday as a “measure of transparency and accountability,” the Rev. Randolph Calvo, the bishop of Reno, said in an open letter to parishioners.

Eleven of the 12 named Nevada priests are now dead. But the list was one of many that dioceses around the country have recently released in the wake of national reports on the sexual abuse of minors in the church.

The Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas is working on its own list of priests who have been accused of sexual abuse, according to a statement provided to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. A review committee hopes to finalize it for publication by the end of the week.

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Ending abuse means changing hearts, not just decrees, Chile leader says

ROME(ITALY)
Crux

April 9, 2019

By Inés San Martín

Acting as the interim replacement for a cardinal subpoenaed by civil prosecutors for alleged sex abuse cover-ups, and facing questions about his own record in responding to abuse charges, the new man in Santiago, Chile, says he’s got only one “pastoral proposal,” and it’s expressed in his motto as a bishop: “To serve and to love.”

“What worries us is not the money [that the archdiocese will have to pay to survivors of clerical abuse], but how can we help those victims heal, and above all, we want to guarantee that they, and everyone else, helps us build a different future where these things don’t happen again,” said Bishop Celestino Aos, named March 23 as the apostolic administrator of Santiago following the resignation of Cardinal Riccardo Ezzati.

“How could we let these things happen… things I didn’t even dream could happen, and that do,” Aos told reporters. “What can we do to guarantee that they don’t happen again?”

Aos’s nomination amounts to the latest twist in a long-running attempted cleanup of Church leadership in Chile, which Francis set in motion in May, when he summoned all the bishops to Rome.

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April 8, 2019

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Requests denied for mistrial of priest accused of sexual abuse

ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
KRQE TV

April 9, 2019

Closing arguments are scheduled Tuesday for an Albuquerque priest facing federal sex abuse charges.

Arthur Perrault is accused of assaulting an 11-year-old boy at Kirtland Air Force Base and Santa Fe National Cemetery in the early 1990s.

According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, Perrault’s attorney asked for a mistrial Monday but U.S. District Judge Martha Vásquez denied it.

The 80-year-old has pleaded not guilty.

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St. Bonaventure University cancels conference on Catholic Church sex abuse crisis

OLEAN (NY)
Olean Times Herald

April 8, 2019

By Tom Dinki

A St. Bonaventure University conference on the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis has been canceled amid concerns the event would not feature abuse victims.

The Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure decided to cancel the academic conference set for Friday and Saturday after being challenged by local victims who felt it was wrong to hold such an event if victims were not permitted to speak, the university announced Monday.

Specifically, the university said in a press release, an abuse survivor and advocate for victims claimed that a conference on abuse without victims speaking would essentially be a waste of time.

“I listened to the victim. I heard his deep concerns and decided to follow his advice that the conference we had designed was not helpful here in this diocese at this time,” said Father David Couturier, executive director of the Franciscan Institute, in a statement released by the university. “So, I decided to cancel the event.”

Couturier added he wanted to rearrange the schedule and find new speakers to fit the “new direction being advocated,” but with less than a week before the conference, “it just wasn’t possible.”

A call to Couturier’s office was not immediately returned Monday.

The conference, titled “Franciscan Reform and the Abuse Crises in the Catholic Church,” was intended for Franciscan scholars to discuss the tradition of reform and renewal in the long history of Franciscanism, according to the university.

Publicly announced March 26, the two-day conference was to feature a keynote address from a Catholic Church historian and talks by a lawyer, a nun and the chair of the university’s Theological and Franciscan Studies Department.

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State House moving bills to help clerical abuse victims

HARRISBURG (PA)
Daily Item

April 8, 2019

By John Finnerty

The state House is moving two bills that would help victims of clerical abuse — one changing the statute of limitations moving forward and another calling for a Constitutional amendment to allow for civil lawsuits in cases that have passed the existing statute of limitations.

Both measures were approved by the House judiciary committee Monday afternoon.

House Bill 962 would change the statute of limitations moving forward by eliminating the criminal statute of limitations for serious sex crimes against children and giving victims until the age of 55 to sue. The current criminal statute of limitations for child sex crimes is when the victim turns 50 and the civil statute of limitations expires when the victim turns 30.

The bill was authored by state Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks County, who’s been the leading legislative champion for enacting reforms to held adult victims of childhood sex abuse.

Rozzi said he decided to author separate legislation to help future victims so that new victims are provided a path to justice as the state debates how to help past victims.

In addition to Rozzi’s legislation, the judiciary committee also approved HB 963, authored by state Rep. Jim Gregory, R-Blair County, that would ask voters whether there should be a Constitutional amendment to create a two-year window for victims to sue the Catholic Church or other organizations that covered up for child predators.

Legislative leaders in the state House have dubbed the two-bill package “The Pennsylvania Hidden Predator Act.” With Monday’s committee vote, the measures are on schedule for final passage in the state House as soon as Wednesday. Both would go to the Senate for consideration.

The Senate, in February 2017, unanimously passed legislation similar to the measure now proposed by Rozzi. That legislation was later amended to included retroactive provisions and didn’t become law when the House and Senate couldn’t agree on the final form of the bill.

But it’s unclear whether the Rozzi legislation or Gregory’s constitutional will gain traction in the Senate, Rozzi said.

“This is the first step in the process,” he said.

And as a resolution for a possible Constitutional amendment, even if Gregory’s bill passes both chambers this year, it must be approved in a second legislative session before it goes before voters in a statewide referendum.

The issue of changing the law to help victims has become a lightning rod topic at the Capitol in the wake of revelations in a statewide grand jury report released last August that 300 priests had abused 1,000 victims over decades. The state House in September voted 171-23 to pass legislation that would have allowed victims of old child sex crimes to file lawsuits, but the measure died in the Senate.

Senate Republican leaders and church officials have questioned whether the state Constitution would allow the change. Most advocates for changing the law agree that it would be illegal to change the criminal statute of limitations retroactively, but say that changing the civil law to allow for lawsuits should be OK.

Rozzi said that after the Supreme Court ruled in December that 11 names of priests redacted when the grand jury report was released to the public, it left him more uncertain of how the state’s top court would rule if asked to decide the Constitutionality of a civil window.

“I think we’re better off in the hands of the voters of Pennsylvania than in the hands of the Supreme Court,” he adding that if the court were to decide that the civil window was unconstitutional, it would be “devastating” to victims.

The only lawmaker to oppose the measures in the judiciary committee was state Rep. Paul Schemel, R-Franklin County.

He said that the move to change the statute of limitations seems to echo the kinds of “overreach” from the 1980s and 1990s that the state is now trying to correct through criminal justice reforms.

He added that even though the grand jury had called for a two-year window, it didn’t ask for the civil statute of limitations to be changed to 55 for new victims.

Rozzi said the changes are necessary because of how long it takes victims to come forward. The average age at which a victim of childhood sex abuse will come forward is 52, Rozzi said.

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Man sues N.O. archdiocese over 1969 Jesuit High sexual assault allegations

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WWL TV

April 8, 2019

A 64-year-old man in the state of Washington has filed suit against the New Orleans Archdiocese over previously undisclosed claims of sexual assault by a priest at Jesuit High School when he was a teenager.

The lawsuit comes four months after the release of a list of six clergy members tied to the school with credible claims of sexual abuse against them.

The plaintiff, who, as a victim of sexual assault, was not identified in court documents, alleged Friday in a court filing that he was sexually abused as a student in 1969 by Fr. Edward DeRussy, an English and Latin teacher at the school from 1969-1978.

DeRussy was named in December as one of the six priests with ties to the school who had been credibly accused of sexual assault. The six were among 19 priests tied to New Orleans with credible accusations against them.

The court documents allege that DeRussy put his hand down the plaintiff’s pants and touched his genitals multiple times during extracurricular Latin lessons.

The plaintiff reported that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression following the events.

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Remembering Gary Hayes, a Catholic priest who held his church to account on abuse

WASHINGTON (DC)
Religion News Service

April 8, 2019

By David Clohessy

When I told my wife that the Rev. Gary Hayes had passed away, she quickly walked across the room, hugged me and quietly said, “I remembered him holding our babies. So much love.”

Gary, the first Catholic priest to speak openly about the sexual abuse he had suffered as a young person, passed away last week at age 66 from cancer. He will be remembered as a dogged advocate for other survivors, but those who knew him will have memories of a man who, though wounded, was more giving than most people who had been through less.

In 1993, with the help of attorney Steve Rubino, Gary filed the first-ever lawsuit charging Catholic officials with racketeering. The Rev. Joseph McGarvey and the Rev. William O’Connell repeatedly molested Gary and two other boys, “conspiring to create a sex ring of children that could be sexually abused by the two priests and other priests,” often taking the kids across state lines “for the express purpose of having forcible sexual contact” with them, the suit said.

Though we were basically neophytes at talking to the media, Gary and I organized news conferences in Camden, N.J., where he had grown up, and in Philadelphia to address the case. Facing dozens and dozens of reporters, Gary stood between his mother and me and softly uttered a line that still brings goosebumps to my skin today.

“I am here seeking justice in the courts because I could find no justice in my church,” he said.

From that day forward, Gary was a dedicated survivor-activist. With every new mean-spirited comment or move Gary endured, I remember being shocked and thinking, “If they treat one of their own so viciously, imagine how they’ll treat a survivor who is not ordained.” Long after he had settled his case, he continued to be shunned by other clergy, but he persevered with grace and determination.

At the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting in Texas in 2002, Gary was a much-sought-after interviewee. He was blunt and biting, with no airs, affectations or posturing — just straightforward and prophetic insights that made all of the victims who attended proud to know him.

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Public responds to Fargo priest going on administrative leave

FARGO (ND)
Valley News Live

April 7, 2019

By Cali Hubbard

A statement released today by the Diocese revealed that a priest in Fargo was put on administrative leave due to an ongoing investigation with a minor.

“Anything can happen anywhere”, said Fargo resident Melissa Bachmeier. “I mean everyone just kind of has to watch themselves and their kids and just know that anything can happen at any moment in time.”

Melissa Bachmeier is from Fargo and she grew up going to church.

“It’s fun to get involved with other members of the church, to know that you feel like you belong with a group,” said Bachmeier.

And like Bachmeier, Carl Selvig can relate to her. He says the church has always been a part of him.

“Loving him and loving each other and I think it’s important for us all to learn how to love our neighbor,” said Selvig.

Many carried out their weekly tradition of going to church on Sunday.

It wasn’t that way for a few North Dakota churches including Sts. Anne and Joachim Catholic Church in Fargo, where a priest was put on administrative leave last Thursday.

Father Wenceslaus Katanga was removed from his priestly duties due to an interaction he had with a minor at the Catholic church in Fargo.

The priest had a big impact on the community as he was also a part of other churches in North Dakota.

Some members from these churches say Father Katanga isn’t like this.

One Wishek woman who did not want to her name to be mentioned said, “he’s a very sweet kind man. You could be having the worst day and he would go out of his way to ask how you were doing. He even helped a few in our community come out of a dark place. I’ve known him for at least 12 years.

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Indian bishop accused of rape could face charges this week

DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

April 8, 2019

The bishop accused of serially raping a nun could face criminal charges this week, as Indian police say they will ask a court to charge him with rape, evidence tampering, and menacing his accuser.

In June 2018, a member of the Missionaries of Jesus religious congregation accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandharr of sexually assaulting her 13 times between 2014 and 2016. In a 72-page complaint to police, filed June 29, the nun alleged that the bishop sexually abused her more than a dozen times over two years.

The bishop maintains his innocence. He was arrested Sept. 21, 2018 amid protests calling for a police investigation of the allegation. He was subsequently released on bail.

Police in the Indian state of Kerala now say they have enough evidence to formally charge Mulakkal, and that they will file a charging document in criminal court this week, the Wall Street Journal reported April 8.

A judge will determine whether the bishop will face formal criminal charges.

“After our extensive investigation we have come to a conclusion that what the nun alleged seems to be truthful,” police inspector general Vijay Sakhare told the Wall Street Journal.

“We have strong evidence to get the bishop prosecuted.”

Mulakkal, 55, was temporarily removed from the administration of his diocese shortly before he was arrested. The bishop claims that the nun accused him of rape as retaliation, because he had ordered an investigation into a claim that she was having an affair with a relative.

On Oct. 22, 2018, Fr. Kuriakose Kattuthara, a key police witness in the case, was found dead in his room. The priest’s family alleged foul play.

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Ex-Lourdes priest admits to receiving child porn, sentencing date set

GREAT FALLS (MT)
Great Falls Tribune

April 8, 2019

By Traci Rosenbaum

A former Our Lady of Lourdes priest changed his plea to guilty Monday morning on one count of receipt of child pornography.

Lothar Konrad Krauth, 81, voluntarily changed his plea to guilty without a plea agreement in place.

Krauth was first accused in November 2018 after Homeland Security Investigations Great Falls received a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children CyberTip identifying a Great Falls IP address as uploading an image of a nude prepubescent male child.

United States District Judge Brian Morris questioned Krauth at Monday’s hearing to establish that Krauth understood the rights he was giving up by changing his plea and verifying that Krauth’s decision was not a result of coercion, drugs or alcohol.

“I’m here to change my plea from not guilty to guilty,” Krauth told the judge.

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How are grassroots Catholics responding to the sex abuse crisis?

NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

April 8, 2019

By Sean Reynolds and Dobie Moser

These are among the words we are hearing over and over as we facilitate “four courageous conversations” with parishioners, priests, diocesan leaders and parish staff on their reactions to the recent revelations in the Catholic clergy sex abuse crisis.

When the Pennsylvania grand-jury report was published, we knew we had to fashion a way for Catholics to speak their truth aloud and to one another, in the context of reflection, community and prayer. Further, we knew we needed to find a way for these voices to reach the ears of church leaders. We developed these “courageous conversations” to provide safe forums where Catholics could come together to speak freely about the Catholic clergy sex abuse crisis and to have their thoughts recorded and available for church leaders. Reflection, listening and conversation about the crisis aim to turn experience into insight, and insight into discerned, compassionate action.

In the 90-to-120 minute conversations framework we use in our work at Mustard Seed Consultants, participants first express their feelings about the crisis; then their thoughts on its roots and causes; then what they wish to see church leaders do about it; and finally, their conclusions based on what they heard in the conversations. Notes from these conversations are recorded anonymously to guarantee candor and relieve any fear of reprisal when they are shared with church leadership.

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Priest Admits Sexually Abusing Girl, First Conviction For NJ Clergy Abuse Task Force

HACKENSACK (NJ)
Daily Voice

April 8 , 2019

By Jerry DeMarco

A massive investigation by New Jersey authorities into the sexual abuse of young boys by Roman Catholic priests has produced its first conviction — by a priest who admitted abusing a young girl.

Fr. Thomas P. Ganley, 63, of Phillipsburg admitted abusing the girl from 1990 through 1994, — from when she was 14 until she was 17 — while he was a priest at St. Cecelia Church in the Iselin section of Woodbridge.

The charges were the first brought by the New Jersey Clergy Abuse Task Force, which state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal created last September to investigate allegations of clergy abuse.

Ganley, in turn, pleaded guilty in exchange for a sentence of four years in state prison.

He will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be prohibited from having any contact with the victim, as well as from having unsupervised contact with children under the age of 18, grewal said.

Ganley was assigned to Saint Philip & Saint James Church in Phillipsburg when he was arrested in January — just two days after the victim called the Clergy Abuse Task Force Hotline to report him, the attorney general said.

Sentencing was scheduled for July 2.

Ganley was investigated and prosecuted by members of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office assigned to the New Jersey Clergy Abuse Task Force: Assistant Prosecutor Allysa Gambarella, Detective Paul Kelley, and Detective Julissa Alvarado, Grewal said.

The attorney general formed the task force in response to the publication of a report by a grand jury in Pennsylvania outlining allegations of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests against more than 1,000 victims uncovered in a multi-year investigation there.

Task force members investigate allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy within the Catholic dioceses of New Jersey, as well as any attempted coverups.

Detectives and prosecutors from all 21 New Jersey county prosecutors’ offices and the state Division of Criminal Justice participate – using documents and subpoenas to compel testimony before grand juries, among other measures.

“Our message today is that we will move swiftly and decisively to secure justice for survivors,” Grewal said.

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St. Joseph’s Training School abuse: Why papal apology matters to survivor, 60 years later

OTTAWA (CANADA)
Ottawa Citizen

April 7, 2019

By Bruce Deachman

The dimly lit conference room looked like so many others — a long table with nameplates and microphones, surrounded by drab olive drapes and beige carpet.

On this particular Thursday, however, two things stood out: a painting of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus on the wall behind the head table, and the speaker whose back they appeared to be looking at: Pope Francis.

Wearing his white cassock, the Pope faced the tiered rows of cardinals, archbishops, bishops and other clergy in their respective plumage, and in under two minutes read his opening address, delivering his words in a dry monotone and barely lifting his eyes to look at his audience.

The occasion was the Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church, a four-day summit held at the Vatican in February for Roman Catholic officials to address the issue of the abuse of minors by church clergy.

“In the face of the scourge of sexual abuse by churchmen to the detriment of minors,” the Pope said, “I have decided to meet you, patriarchs, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, religious superiors and leaders, so that together we might listen to the Holy Spirit and, with docility, with its guidance, hear the cry of the little ones who plead for justice.”

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Can We Ever Fairly Compensate Victims of the Catholic Church Sex Abuse Scandal?

Patheos blog

April 8, 2019

By Hemant Mehta

In an article appearing in the latest issue of the New Yorker, Paul Elie takes a look at how victims of the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal are obtaining justice. Is it enough that a priest is sent to prison? How much money is fair compensation? What happens if the abuse occurred so long ago that the statute of limitations has long passed?

He specifically looks at the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP), independent of the Church, that has been tasked to dole out money to victims on behalf of various dioceses. Victims accept any money with the understanding that they will not be able to sue the Church in the future, even if the laws change (and, say, the statute of limitations is repealed).

Before going into the specifics, though, Elie talks about just how serious this scandal has become for Catholics.

Like many Catholics, I wonder whether this story will ever be over and whether things will ever be set right. Often called a crisis, the problem is more enduring and more comprehensive than that. Social scientists report that the gravest period of priestly sexual abuse was the sixties and seventies, and the problem has been in public view for the past three and a half decades. For most American Catholics, then, the fact of sexual abuse by priests and its coverup by bishops has long been an everyday reality. Priestly sexual abuse has directly harmed thousands of Catholics, spoiling their sense of sexuality, of intimacy, of trust, of faith. Indirectly, the pattern of abuse and coverup has made Catholics leery of priests and disdainful of the idea that the bishops are our “shepherds.” It has muddled questions about Church doctrine concerning sexual orientation, the nature of the priesthood, and the role of women; it has hastened the decline of Catholic schooling and the shuttering of churches…

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The victims of clergy sexual abuse have had enough

PARIS (FRANCE)
LaCroix International

April 8, 2019

The appalling current situation has driven us to speak out.

How can we keep quiet when the papal nuncio of France is the subject of three complaints of sexual assault and yet he calmly continues living his life at the nunciature? How can we keep quiet when nuns are abused or raped by priests, including within the Vatican itself, with the passive complicity of some of their superiors?

How can we keep quiet when an old priest explains on television that it is children who “spontaneously… seek affection” and says, “You have all seen a how a child comes and kisses you on the mouth…” ?

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Allison Mack of Smallville Pleads Guilty in Nxivm Sex Trafficking Case

BROOKLYN (NY)
People

April 8, 2019

By KC Baker

Prosecutors have accused Mack of recruiting sex slaves for Keith Raniere, co-founder of Nxivm

Smallville actress Allison Mack has pleaded guilty to charges related to her involvement with a controversial self-help group described as having a secret society of “masters” and sexually subservient “slaves” within it, PEOPLE confirms. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York tells PEOPLE that Mack was scheduled to appear in court at 11:30 a.m. to plead guilty. The spokesman says she is pleading guilty to racketeering conspiracy and racketeering.

Prosecutors have accused her of recruiting sex slaves for Keith Raniere, who co-founded the controversial self-help group Nxivm and its subgroup, DOS, described as an all-female secret society in which women allegedly were forced to be sexually subservient to Raniere.

On Monday, Mack, 36, appeared in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, where jury selection in her trial was set to begin.

Best known for her years-long role as a young Superman’s friend, Chloe Sullivan, on The WB’s Smallville, Mack was charged last spring with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy.

One of the group’s most prominent members, Mack faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

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Allison Mack pleads guilty in Nxivm sex cult case: ‘I was wrong’

NEW YORK (NY)
Yahoo

April 8, 2019

By Taryn Ryder

Allison Mack, the Smallville star who has made headlines for her role in an alleged sex cult, has now pleaded guilty ahead of trial. Mack previously pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy.

It appears Mack worked out a deal with prosecutors, weeks after the judge denied her attorney’s request to delay the trial so they could have more time to negotiate a plea deal. Exact details are unknown at this time; however, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York confirmed to Yahoo Entertainment that Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and racketeering.

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PRESIDENT OF FRANCISCAN UNIVERSITY OF STEUBENVILLE RESIGNS

STEUBENVILLE (OH)
ChurchMilitant

April 8, 2019

By Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D.

Fr. Sean Sheridan steps down after months of public controversy

The embattled president of Franciscan University of Steubenville is resigning.

In an email to students sent Monday morning, Fr. Sean Sheridan announced that the university has accepted his resignation, which he submitted “[n]ot too long ago.”

“As you can imagine, this was a difficult letter for me to write and deliver to you as I have great affection for the entire Franciscan Family,” Sheridan wrote.

Sheridan came under fire after Church Militant reported the university’s initial support for Dr. Stephen Lewis, who assigned a blasphemous and pornographic book in a graduate course during spring 2018.

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Diocese responds to suit, ‘steadfastly’ affirms child protection policy

WHEELING (WV)
Catholic News Service

April 8, 2019

By Colleen Rowan

The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston is addressing a lawsuit filed by the state “with utmost seriousness,” while “steadfastly affirming” the diocese’s rigorous child protection standards, said the diocese’s apostolic administrator, Baltimore Archbishop William Lori.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey announced March 19 a civil suit against the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and Bishop Michael Bransfield, the diocese’s former bishop.

He alleges the defendants violated the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act by failing “to disclose to consumers of its educational and recreational services that it employed priests and laity who have sexually abused children.”

Pointing to its “rigorous Safe Environment Program, the foundation of which is a zero-tolerance policy for any cleric, employee or volunteer credibly accused of abuse,” the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in a statement reacting to the suit said it “strongly and unconditionally rejects” Morrissey’s assertion that it is not wholly committed to the protection of children.

On March 29, Lori addressed the issue in a letter to the priests, religious and laity of the statewide diocese.

“We are addressing this lawsuit appropriately and with the utmost seriousness while steadfastly affirming our ongoing commitment to the rigorous policies and practices in place to ensure the absolute protection of those young people entrusted to our care,” the archbishop said.

The faithful also received a letter from the diocese March 22 stating that the diocese’s Safe Environment Program employs mandatory screening, background checks and training for all employees and volunteers who work with children.

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‘St. Peter is where we can encounter Christ’

GENEVA (IL)
Kane County Chronicle

April 8, 2019

Fifteen years ago, Rev. Mark Campobello pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual abuse of two girls, age 14 and 15, at St. Peter Catholic Church in Geneva and at Aurora Central Catholic High School.

The revelations caused an uproar.

Last month, 395 Catholic members of clergy, publicly accused of childhood sexual abuse, were named in a report that highlights their Illinois service histories, allegations of abuse, history of their subsequent transfers and disciplinary by both church and authorities.

The list included 13 priests who served in Kane County, including Campobello.

In the meantime, St. Peter has worked to rebuilt trust among its parishioners.

Rev. Jonathan Bakkelund, who is now the pastor of St. Peter, said when he arrived in 2016, people spoke to him about the pain of the Campobello era.

“Folks wanted to … share with me the hurt that the parish had gone through – and the healing,” Bakkelund said. “There had been several years of prayers and moving forward and staying together. It did cause some folks to leave.”

The list included 13 priests who served in Kane County, including Campobello. In the meantime, St. Peter has worked to rebuilt trust among its parishioners.

Rev. Jonathan Bakkelund, who is now the pastor of St. Peter, said when he arrived in 2016, people spoke to him about the pain of the Campobello era.

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Brazil begins pilot advisory project for the protection of minors

NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

April 8, 2019

By Filipe Domingues

Brazil bishops are officially assuming a “zero tolerance” stance on sexual abuse. The church here has instituted an abuse policy that has been finalized and approved by the Vatican, and Brazil is one of three nations hosting a new pilot project for the protection of minors. Brazil’s project includes the creation of local survivor advisory panels, as recommended by the Vatican commission working on guidelines for the prevention of child sexual abuse. The goal is to assist bishops and develop church policy and best practices from the perspective of victims.

Currently the only Brazilian member of the Pontifical Commission for Protection of Minors, Nelson Giovanelli Rosendo dos Santos is coordinating the project with leaders of Brazil’s national bishops’ conference. He is a consecrated layperson and one of the founders of an internationally known not-for-profit organization working on the rehabilitation of drug addicts, Fazenda da Esperança (“The Farm of Hope”). Pope Benedict XVI visited one of the organization’s 140 farms in 2007.

Speaking from his home in Guaratinguetá, in the state of São Paulo, Mr. dos Santos told America that at least half of the chemically dependent people who arrive at the program’s farms suffer from traumas related to sexual abuse, either during childhood or in adult situations of vulnerability.

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Pope is close to wounded survivors, faithful in Chile, bishop says

ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Service

April 8, 2019

By Junno Arocho Esteves

Pope Francis is aware of the suffering that abuse survivors and all Catholics in Chile have endured following the revelations of abuse and cover-up and is doing everything possible to accompany them, said the new apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Santiago.

Bishop Celestino Aos Braco of Copiapo, Chile, told journalists at the Vatican April 8 that the pope conveyed a message to the faithful in the country.

“Tell them that I am close to the Chilean people,” Bishop Aos quoted the pope as saying. The pope wants people to know that “he is working hard to give the faithful of Chile the best governance, the best possible pastoral assistance. He realizes that he is the shepherd of all the shepherds in the world and he wants the church in Chile to know that they are not only living through a difficult time, a very painful time, but also a time of action.”

Pope Francis, who chose Bishop Aos in March to lead the archdiocese temporarily after accepting the resignation of Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, met with the bishop April 5 “for more than an hour.”

During the private meeting, the Spain-born bishop told journalists, he discussed the situation in the archdiocese, including the fallout of the abuse crisis.

Although there are several auxiliary bishops in Santiago, Bishop Aos said he asked the pope to name new auxiliary bishops who can help him with the governance of the archdiocese.

“The (auxiliary bishops) who are there are involved in other committees and tasks,” he explained. “That is why I find myself not only new there, but alone as well.”

Bishop Aos also met April 8 with Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston who, like Bishop Aos, is a member of the Capuchins.

As a fellow bishop who was brought in to lead a archdiocese dealing with the scandal of clergy sex abuse, Bishop Aos said he valued the U.S. cardinal’s advice and experience.

Cardinal O’Malley “told me the things he did in Boston” and the solutions they implemented, the bishop said.

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Cops and Clergy

Vanishing Predators blog

April 8, 2019

Police officers and priests have a great deal in common.

Each, for example, has chosen to work in a career field imbued with enormous power and authority, with the understanding that these tools be used responsibly and always for the accomplishment of good. Practitioners in both lines of work are, generally, treated with a modicum of respect and, whether “on duty” or “off duty,” are expected to behave in a manner above reproach. And as we have witnessed far too frequently, malfeasance in either of these two professional arenas can cause incalculable harm in the community.

As a forty year member of the law enforcement profession (now retired) and a life-long Catholic, these two entities have often provided great joy and satisfaction over the course of my seventy plus years while, at other times, leaving me outraged and filled with despair. Both institutions are, of course, composed of human beings, and despite what individuals swear, affirm, vow or promise, we know they sometimes fall short.

It is at this juncture that the two professions diverge.

In cases where police officers break the law or misbehave, law enforcement leaders act swiftly and with purpose. They understand, after all, that they are guardians of a public trust, and that in order to be effective a police agency must have the confidence and cooperation of the community. A bad cop found to have violated law or policy will be terminated; he could face criminal charges; the circumstances of the event leading to his dismissal will be public; and he will never be able to work as a police officer again.

When a priest is accused of sexual abuse, though, church leaders run for cover. Yes, a fallen clergyman could be removed from his position and, depending on the recency of his offense, be criminally charged. Absent external pressure, though, the circumstances will likely remain secret and at the end of the day … unbelievably … he remains a priest. According to Canon Law, the sacrament of Holy Orders cannot be revoked and in some emergency circumstances, a laicized priest can even be called upon to perform certain priestly duties.

With specific regard to Catholic Church hierarchy, though, their response to the devastating scandal that has harmed so many innocents can only be described as shameful. In one especially egregious case in the New York Archdiocese, a diocesan priest whose despicable behavior was well known (including a secret settlement with a victim) was simply moved from parish to parish. In one case, his assignment lasted only two weeks; parishioners there, having learned of the damage he had caused, threatened to withhold donations if he was not removed.

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Church Abuse Scandal Continues Unabated

NORTH ANDOVER (MA)
Valley Patriot

April 7, 2019

By Joe D’Amore

“We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low” Desmond Tutu.

God’s mercy is uniform, constant and unwaveringly applied to all who seek it. Justice, however, is a flawed mimicry of it because it is a human invention and therefore subject to discretion.
The fabric of the catholic church is torn and there’s no repair in progress. Once again after a cacophony of recent news of abuse by high ranking clergy, at the conclusion of a summit of bishops in Rome to address the issue, the Pope disappoints.

In a faux response the church announced through the Associated Press that it would issue a “ new law” creating a child protection policy that covers the internal bureaucracy at Vatican City. Perhaps, the Pope and the hierarchy missed the proverbial memo. Criminal sexual abuse of children has become institutionalized throughout the world for decades by the church as well as its coverup.

There is neither nothing new about this condition, nor are the crimes localized within the walls of Vatican City. Certainly, the application of the law directed at “ bureaucracy” provides a “ line-in-the-sand” whereby high-ranking officials are now finally at risk of being held materially accountable . Certainly, this is a novel approach.

But criminal conviction remains still the exclusive purview of civil authorities. The church’s internal authority is devoid of a genuine will to initiate comprehensive justice in its most basic forms:

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State diocese names 47th priest accused of sex abuse

GREEN BAY (WI)
Associated Press

April 7, 2019

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay has named another priest who it says sexually abused a minor, bringing the total to 47 priests with confirmed allegations against them.

The diocese in January disclosed 46 priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor over the past 112 years in its 157 parishes. Only 15 of the priests are still alive.

The Green Bay Press Gazette reported that the priest the diocese named on Thursday died in 2000. The diocese substantiated that he abused a minor in 1964.

Diocese leaders say they’re committed to being more transparent about addressing abuse. The diocese also has set up programs to assist victims of priest abuse.

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Franciscan University president resigns

STEUBENVILLE (OH)
CNA

April 8, 2019

By Ed Condon

Fr. Sean Sheridan, TOR, has resigned as president of Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. Fr. Sheridan informed the university’s trustees of his decision during a regular meeting of the board on Friday.

The unexpected decision comes almost exactly six years since his appointment to the role in April 2013. Although he informed the university board of trustees of his decision on April 5, he has agreed to remain in the post until a successor is found.

Fr. Sheridan said in a statement that he had made the decision “after a great deal of prayer.”

“Any university president would readily admit that all the days are long; many are great days, and some are difficult. Being a Franciscan Friar has taught me to recognize that all those long days—the great days, and even the difficult days—are blessed days and all the more so when I am among my Franciscan Family.”

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Victims ‘out’ five more accused Spgfld priests

SPRINGFIELD (IL)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

They are not on diocese’s alleged offenders’ list

Group blasts central IL Catholic officials on abuse

But in a twist, SNAP backs Paprocki’s plan for accused bishops

“But the real answer,” group insists, “is prosecution & legal reform”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will disclose that five more publicly accused priests were left off the Springfield diocese’s ‘accused’ list. Each spent time in central Illinois but has attracted little or no media or public attention before in the state.

In an unusual move, the group will also announce that it backs a proposal by Springfield’s bishop to set up a new national church panel that would investigate abuse allegations made against bishops. It contradicts a plan being pushed by Illinois’ top Catholic official, Cardinal Blasé Cupich ofChicago.

And the victims will call on local Catholic officials to
–post names of ALL accused priests on their diocesan website,
–include details like their work histories, whereabouts and photos, and
–join with victims in pushing for real legislative reform, like repealing Illinois’ “archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations” so survivors can do what bishops will not do: expose child molesters in court.

WHEN
Sunday, April 7 at 2:00 p.m.

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 524 E. Lawrence in Springfield IL

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Holy Cross leaders, Catholic community members consider effectiveness of lay review boards in combating sexual assault

SOUTH BEND (IN)
The Observer

April 8, 2019

By Claire Rafford

In January of 2002, when the Boston Globe Spotlight team released an article exposing the sexual abuse crisis in Boston parishes, the Catholic Church entered a state of deadlock. In response to the mass allegations, Church leaders met in Dallas that June and created the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. The charter established several stipulations, including a key way for lay communities to check their clergies’ power: the creation of review boards.

“Article II of the charter asked that every dioceses and group form a review board, and that the majority of its members are to be laypersons not in the employment of the diocese or the religious order,” Fr. Peter Jarret, assistant provincial and vicar of the Congregation of Holy Cross, said. “So pretty much every entity — all the dioceses, religious communities which are broken up into provinces — formed review boards.”

The lay review board lives on in the Congregation of Holy Cross to this day. Its current purpose is to review allegations of sexual assault made against Holy Cross priests and brothers.

The board is mainly made up of lay people who have some expertise in law or psychology, Jarret said. The board includes a psychologist, two attorneys, one former prosecutor, an education [worker] and a mother and Holy Cross parishioner, among others.

“It’s a consultative body to the bishop — or in our case, to the provincial of the United States Province of Priests and Brothers of Holy Cross,” Jarret said. “If one of our members were to receive an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor about one of our members, we would of course inform the authorities right away and remove that person from ministry. But we would use the board to help us investigate, or they would be kind of our sounding board in terms of how to proceed.”

The board members are appointed, not elected, and serve for a six-year term. Jarret said the Holy Cross provincial, or head of the order, is also elected for a six-year term, and another three-year term if he is re-elected, so leadership often tries to coincide board member terms with the term of the provincial.

Jarret said the congregation has very specific procedures to follow when a person comes forward with an accusation against a Holy Cross clergy member.

“We would respond immediately and remove the person from active ministry,” he said. “And then if the person is currently a minor, or it happened when the person was a minor, we would notify the police, the authorities and then work with them to do an investigation. We would usually meet with the person making the allegation and listen to their story, and all that would get written up, and if there’s other people that were involved in terms of someone who witnessed it or had knowledge of it … we write all that up and we would call the review board together and we would present all that to them and they would help us think through it.”

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Defrocked priest claims his problem isn’t bunga-bunga but Rosmini

ROME (ITALY)
Crux

April 8, 2019

By John L. Allen Jr.

Pope Francis has defrocked an Italian priest accused of sexual liaisons with young but over-age girls reminiscent of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s infamous “bunga-bunga” parties, though the priest insists he’s innocent and claims he’s being targeted for his theological views inspired by the 19th century philosopher and spiritual writer Antonio Rosmini.

The Diocese of Modena in northern Italy, just north of Bologna, issued a statement Friday indicating that ex-Father Fernando Bellelli, 42, had been informed of the decision that day. His dismissal from the clerical state was decided, the statement said, by the pope following an investigation by the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy, and “cannot be appealed and does not allow for any form of recourse.”

The statement did not provide any details of the charges against Bellelli, other than indicating “it does not include criminal charges, either canonical or civil, regarding minor persons, but fundamental aspects of the priestly life.”

“A Church penalty is always imposed in view of a greater good, both for the affected party and for the entire Christian community,” the diocese said. “Fernando Bellelli is not excommunicated; he remains in communion with the Church as a baptized brother in Christ.”

Bellelli had been the pastor in Portile, a small town of roughly 2,000 people about 40 minutes from Bologna.

According to local media reports, sometime before 2015 a group of local parents and parishioners had reported Bellelli to the police, accusing him of inappropriate relationships with young girls who were, nevertheless, adults, including what they described as “psychological submission.”

A police investigation, according to those reports, was closed without any charges being filed.

Nevertheless, in 2014 Bellelli was forced to resign as the pastor when banners began appearing around his church saying, “This is the parish of bunga-bunga and of love.”

In Italian context, the term bunga-bunga evokes memories of a scandal that exploded around Berlusconi in 2010, when a 17-year-old Moroccan belly dancer and alleged prostitute named Karima El Mahroug – known among her Italian friends as Ruby Rubacouri, or “Ruby the Heartstealer” – claimed she had been paid $10,000 by Berlusconi, a real estate and media tycoon in addition to his political career, to give private parties at his villas.

Among other things, El Mahroug claimed that she and other young girls would perform traditional African dances in the nude known as bunga-bunga with Berlusconi, who was 74 at the time.

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Victims of child sexual abuse lose again

WASHINGTON (DC)
The Washington Post

April 8, 2019

In state after state, the Catholic Church has fought a rearguard action to shield itself from lawsuits by adults abused as children at the hands of priests who were protected from repercussions by the church hierarchy over the course of decades. That effort has been more successful in some states than others.

In Maryland, it has worked splendidly, thanks to lawmakers so inattentive that they failed to notice a provision in their own legislation proffered by slick lobbyists working for the Church.

A Bill enacted two years ago allowed adults who were childhood victims of sexual abuse to file lawsuits seeking restitution, and a measure of justice, until the age of 38; previously, the cut-off was age 25. That seemed like progress, although it applied prospectively, meaning only for people victimised after the law took effect on October 1, 2017.

However, the Bill’s own sponsors apparently failed to realise that, at the very end of the four-page Bill, legalistic language would bar any further extensions — including one that may open a brief time window in the future allowing victims of any age to sue their abusers or those who protected their abusers.

Now legislators in Annapolis are shocked to see that the Church’s lobbyists were so effective in doing what lobbyists do: limiting risk and advancing their clients’ interests.

“I was working with [the Church and its representatives] in good faith,” the Bill’s sponsor, delegate C.T. Wilson, told The Washington Post. “They were behind the scenes, crafting language that protects them for ever.”

Wilson, who was abused as a child by an adoptive father, sounds aggrieved. But how could he have failed to check the meaning of the “statute of repose” — an ironclad bar to future changes — added to legislation offered in his own name?

In fairness, it is possible that even without the Church’s fancy legal footwork, Maryland courts would disallow any such “look-back” windows that would enable victims to file suits for abuse they suffered many years or decades earlier.

Courts in quite a few states prohibit retroactive changes to statutes of limitations.

And although about a dozen states have enacted such measures, usually in response to the continuing scandal involving the Church, in several cases they have done so with asterisks — for example, by allowing lawsuits targeting abusers themselves, but not organisations such as the Catholic Church or the Boy Scouts of America, which has had its own similar problems, that supervised or even shielded abusers.

The Attorney-General’s office in Maryland has said the 2017 law, in addition to the state’s own constitution, probably means lawmakers are barred from enacting any “look-back” window for abuse victims.

Undeterred, the House of Delegates in Annapolis passed just such a Bill last month; the state Senate killed it.

All criminal law applies only going forward, as a matter of constitutional fairness and logic.

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Victims blast Joliet bishop on abuse

JOLIET (IL)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Two more accused clerics missing from his list, group says

They’re also not in recent “Anderson Report” on abuse in Illinois

SNAP urges the inclusion of those who prey on ‘vulnerable adults’

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

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, two clergy sex abuse victims will disclose the names of and information about two publicly accused Joliet area predator priests who allegedly assaulted others but are not on
–the official Joliet diocese list of ‘’credibly accused’ clerics, nor in
–the recently-issued “Anderson Report” on clergy abuse in Illinois.

They will also prod northern Illinois Catholic officials to
–add these two and other names to their list of “credibly accused” priests,
–expand their lists to include clerics who hurt ‘vulnerable adults,’ 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
Monday, April 8 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Joliet Catholic diocese HQ/chancery office, 16555 Weber Rd, (corner of Division St.) in Crest Hill, IL

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Where is Father McGrath?

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

April 8, 2019

By Anna Kim, Elyssa Cherney and Alicia Fabbre

In the 15 months since the Rev. Richard McGrath abruptly retired from Providence Catholic High School amid a probe into “potentially inappropriate material” on his phone, the priest was the subject of two criminal investigations, accused in a lawsuit by a former student of sexual abuse and deemed AWOL from his religious order.

Authorities have now closed both investigations without filing any criminal charges against McGrath, who led the New Lenox school for three decades until a student reported that she saw what she thought was an image of a naked boy on the priest’s phone.

Yet McGrath is still considered “illegitimately absent” from his order, its leaders said, and his current whereabouts are unclear.

New Lenox police said they ended the cellphone investigation after McGrath “steadfastly refused” to turn over the device. In the other criminal probe, involving the sexual abuse claims by a former student, Will County prosecutors said there was “insufficient evidence to bring charges.” But a civil case stemming from the same claim is still pending.

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Catholic Leaders in Japan to Conduct Survey on Sexual Abuse

TOKYO (JAPAN)
The New York Times

April 8, 2019

By Makiko Inoue and Mike Ives

Catholic bishops in Japan plan to conduct a nationwide survey on sexual abuse of children by members of the clergy, church officials said Monday.

Archbishop Mitsuaki Takami of Nagasaki, the leader of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan, shared the plan on Sunday during a gathering in Tokyo where a man spoke of being abused as a young boy at the hands of a German priest.

“Japan’s Catholic Church is small, and we are not sure what we can do” about child sexual abuse, Archbishop Takami said by telephone on Monday. “But we think we have to pay attention to this issue.”

According to The Mainichi Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, bishops from around the country agreed last week to carry out the survey in all 16 dioceses. The survey method has not yet been decided.

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What Do the Church’s Victims Deserve?

NEW YORK (NY)
The New Yorker

April 8, 2019

By Paul Elie

Some time before Brooklyn was incorporated into New York City, in 1898, it was dubbed the City of Churches. Houses of worship remain thick on the ground in the borough. In the part of Brooklyn where I live, churches outnumber grocery stores, pet shops, and nail salons together. There’s the Institutional Church of God in Christ (red brick, stained glass) and the Revelation Church of God in Christ (a converted movie theatre); the French-Speaking Baptist Church, founded by Haitian immigrants; the Zion Shiloh Baptist Church, whose members come from all over the metropolitan area, parking their cars in a long row; and the Ileri Oluwa Parish, where congregants of Nigerian descent worship shoeless and in long white robes. And there are the Catholic places. Queen of All Saints Church and Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School face each other across Lafayette Avenue. Up the hill is the walled-in motherhouse of the Sisters of Mercy; down the hill is the old church of St. Boniface, now the home of a community called the Brooklyn Oratory, where I go to Mass on Sundays.

A few blocks away is St. Lucy–St. Patrick Church, on Willoughby Avenue. Over six years, beginning in 2003, Angelo Serrano, a religious educator at the church, sexually abused four boys. He raped or molested them in the church’s offices and at his apartment, in a brick schoolhouse converted to low-cost housing by Catholic Charities. Eventually, one of the boys told his mother, who told the police. In 2011, Serrano was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. The victims then sued the Diocese of Brooklyn; in a settlement reached last September, they were awarded $27.5 million.

My wife and I have been raising three sons in this part of Brooklyn, and the morning that the news about the settlement broke I cycled up Willoughby Avenue toward the church. St. Lucy–St. Patrick’s is one of the oldest Catholic churches in the borough, dating from 1843, and it has a haunted, left-behind aspect. On the edge of a row of restored brownstones, it is notably unkempt: pink paint is peeling from the doors, and the iron fence along the sidewalk is broken in places.

When I arrived, a correspondent from “Noticias Univision 41,” a Spanish-language news program, was standing nearby. A white car rolled up, the flag of Puerto Rico dangling from the rearview mirror, and a large middle-aged man stepped out, wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. “If I had my way,” the man hollered, “he would get raped every night at that prison where he is, for what he done.”

I cycled on, unsure how to respond. The situation was straight out of a college course on justice. A legal settlement had expressed an idea of justice as financial restitution; my neighbor had expressed an idea of justice as physical retribution. Neither felt like a way forward.

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McHenry County church, diocesan officials weigh in on Catholic Church clergy abuse

CRYSTAL LAKE (IL)
Northwest Herald

April 5, 2019

By Katie Smith

Local, diocesan officials weigh in on Catholic Church clergy abuse

Parishioners at St. Mary Catholic Church in McHenry are looking forward to celebrating the church’s 125th anniversary later this year.

Hanging over their festivities, however, is a reminder that their church, and several others in McHenry County, once housed leaders who faced accusations of abuse.

In the wake of a sweeping report that revealed the names of 395 Catholic church members accused of child sexual abuse, some Catholic leaders and residents in McHenry County are wrestling with the importance of airing out the Catholic Church’s past and moving beyond decades-old allegations. Included in the report where clergy members who worked at St. Mary Catholic Church in McHenry, St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Woodstock, St. Thomas the Apostle in Crystal Lake, St. John the Baptist in Johnsburg and Marion Central Catholic High School in Woodstock. The majority of accusations occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. In two of the six cases tied to McHenry County, allegations did not surface until years after the accused clergy members died.

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Aly Raisman’s New Aerie Collection Will Benefit the Fight Against Child Sexual Abuse

UNITED STATES
Elle

April 4, 2019

By Nerisha Penrose

On January 19, 2018, Aly Raisman’s life changed forever. She came face to face with disgraced former gymnastics doctor, Larry Nassar, to testify as one of the many women who endured sexual abuse from Nassar for years. Raisman has since become an #AerieReal Role Model, using her platform to continue the fight against child sexual abuse.

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Man who told Catholic Church he was sexually abused says he was brushed aside

NEW JERSEY
North Jersey Record

April 4, 2019

By Deena Yellin

When Johnrocco Sibilia finally broke a 29-year silence about the priest who he said sexually abused him when he was a teenager, he said he hoped to ease his pain and extinguish the demons that tortured him for years.

Instead, he said he was thrown into a labyrinth of frustration that left him wondering if opening up about his past was a mistake.

At first, he said he was hopeful, moved by Cardinal Joseph Tobin’s impassioned speeches apologizing for the sins of the church, and urging victims to step forward.

But when he approached the Archdiocese of Newark, he said, each person to whom he revealed his terrible secret sent him to someone else or brushed him aside.

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April 7, 2019

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Accused priest cleared of sex abuse, returns to Northwest Side parish

CHICAGO (IL)
Sun-Times

A[ril 7, 2019

By Mitch Dudek

A Catholic priest who was investigated for sexual misconduct against a minor but ultimately cleared of wrongdoing returned to ministry this weekend at his Northwest Side parish after a full-throated endorsement from Cardinal Blase Cupich.

“The important thing is that they know it was a false accusation, that nothing inappropriate occurred,” Pastor Gary Graf said Sunday before visiting the three churches that make up his North Side San Jose Luis Sanchez del Rio Parish.

The parish consists of St. Philomena and Maternity BVM in the Hermosa neighborhood and St. Francis Assisi in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.

In a letter to parishioners that was also posted on the Chicago Archdiocese website, Cupich said while church policy calls for allegations to be shared with police, it also calls for church officials to restore a priest’s name when allegations are determined to be unfounded.

“This, too, is a matter of justice. Therefore, both out of regard for Father Graf and all our priests, I am resolved to see that Father Graf’s good name is restored,” Cupich said in the letter.

Graf said he was eager to return to the job after being sidelined for nearly eight months.

“I’m thrilled that we’re at this moment in the history of the church — I think other good priests are also — and it means there are going to be some false accusations. It’s going to happen. But when a priest is found not responsible of any wrongdoing he’ll be returned back to ministry like I am today and those who are not, they need to be removed from ministry and they need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” he said.

“It took much more time than I ever imagined, but it’s important that these investigations happen,” Graf said.

Graf was removed in August from the ministry — just weeks after taking over the parish — while authorities investigated an allegation that a 17-year-old boy received a phone call from a church secretary stating that Graf found him attractive. The boy told investigators Graf had previously touched his shoulders and back.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services found the allegations “unfounded,” Associated Press reported.

An Archdiocese investigation found “there was insufficient reason to suspect that Father Graf had committed sexual abuse of a minor.”

And in January Graf was found not guilty by a Cook County judge in a criminal bench trial stemming from the allegations.

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Five more Catholic priests with ties to Springfield diocese accused by SNAP

SPRINGFIELD (IL)
Journal Register

April 7, 2019

By Steven Spearie

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) disclosed the names of five more publicly accused abusive priests who spent time in the Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese but are not on the official diocesan ‘accused’ list Sunday.

Members of SNAP protested outside of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception urging Bishop Thomas Paprocki to add the names.

Rev. Noel Shaughnessy, Rev. Thomas Gardner and Rev. Thomas McShane all ministered in the diocese, which covers 28 counties in central Illinois.

Another priest, Rev. Scott Kallal, is a Jerseyville native and a member of the Rome-based Apostles of the Interior Life order.

Kallal didn’t officially serve in the Springfield diocese. Kallal was sent to go to trial this month on two felony counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, but it has been delayed.

Rev. Francis Benham, who served in the Columbus, Ohio diocese, lived in Lincoln, which is in the Peoria diocese.

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A Secret Database of Child Abuse

NEW YORK (NY)
The Atlantic

March 25, 2019

By Douglas Quenqua

In March 1997, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the nonprofit organization that oversees the Jehovah’s Witnesses, sent a letter to each of its 10,883 U.S. congregations, and to many more congregations worldwide. The organization was concerned about the legal risk posed by possible child molesters within its ranks. The letter laid out instructions on how to deal with a known predator: Write a detailed report answering 12 questions—Was this a onetime occurrence, or did the accused have a history of child molestation? How is the accused viewed within the community? Does anyone else know about the abuse?—and mail it to Watchtower’s headquarters in a special blue envelope. Keep a copy of the report in your congregation’s confidential file, the instructions continued, and do not share it with anyone.

Thus did the Jehovah’s Witnesses build what might be the world’s largest database of undocumented child molesters: at least two decades’ worth of names and addresses—likely numbering in the tens of thousands—and detailed acts of alleged abuse, most of which have never been shared with law enforcement, all scanned and searchable in a Microsoft SharePoint file. In recent decades, much of the world’s attention to allegations of abuse has focused on the Catholic Church and other religious groups. Less notice has been paid to the abuse among the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a Christian sect with more than 8.5 million members. Yet all this time, Watchtower has refused to comply with multiple court orders to release the information contained in its database and has paid millions of dollars over the years to keep it secret, even from the survivors whose stories are contained within.

That effort has been remarkably successful—until recently.

A white Priority Mail box filled with manila envelopes sits on the floor of Mark O’Donnell’s wood-paneled home office, on the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland. Mark, 51, is the owner of an exercise-equipment repair business and a longtime Jehovah’s Witness who quietly left the religion in late 2013. Soon after, he became known to ex–Jehovah’s Witnesses as John Redwood, an activist and a blogger who reports on the various controversies, including cases of child abuse, surrounding Watchtower. (Recently, he has begun using his own name.)

When I first met Mark, in May of last year, he appeared at the front door of his modest home in the same outfit he nearly always wears: khaki cargo shorts, a short-sleeved shirt, white sneakers, and sweat socks pulled up over his calves. He invited me into his densely furnished office, where a fan barely dispelled the wafting smell of cat food. He pulled an envelope from the Priority Mail box and passed me its contents, a mixture of typed and handwritten letters discussing various sins allegedly committed by members of a Jehovah’s Witness congregation in Massachusetts. All the letters in the box had been stolen by an anonymous source inside the religion and shared with Mark. The sins described in the letters ranged from the mundane—smoking pot, marital infidelity, drunkenness—to the horrifying. Slowly, over the past couple of years, Mark has been leaking the most damning contents of the box, much of which is still secret.

Mark’s eyebrows are permanently arched, and when he makes an important point, he peers out above his rimless glasses, eyes widened, which lends him a conspiratorial air.

“Start with these,” he said.

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Historical child sex abuse: ’If my mum knew what happened to me, she wouldn’t believe Pell’

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
News.com.AU

April 7, 2019

The sentencing of Cardinal George Pell garnered mixed reactions last month, as the convicted child sex offender was handed a six-year prison sentence for his horrific child sex crimes.

Some celebrated. Others were outraged.

But for one man, who wishes to remain anonymous, the case hit much too close to home.

In a news.com.au exclusive, he shares his harrowing story.

***
It’s been a tough few months for those of us sexually abused as kids.

The final dark moments of George Pell’s life as a free man were unmissable; plastered across newspapers, computer screens and TVs.

Watching Pell’s sentencing was quite something.

The way he abused those boys was similar to my own experiences. It was molestation betrothed with power.

Paedophilia is a funny word because in the minds of the public it can be both a verb and a noun. An act as well as the name of a desire. I believe Pell’s lust — like my own abuser’s — was for power, not little boys.

In short, Pell is a paedophile in that he sexually abused children, but I doubt he is a paedophile in the sense of maintaining sexual desire for children.

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.

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Locals welcome new Washington archbishop as much-needed ‘new face’