ABUSE TRACKER

ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Service

August 5, 2019

Pope Francis acknowledged the shame and frustration felt by priests who are discouraged by the actions of fellow clergy members who betrayed the trust of their flock through sexual abuse and abuse of conscience and power.

In a letter addressed to priests around the world Aug. 4, the pope said that many priests have spoken or written to him expressing “their outrage at what happened” and the doubts and fears the sexual abuse crisis has caused.

“Without denying or dismissing the harm caused by some of our brothers, it would be unfair not to express our gratitude to all those priests who faithfully and generously spend their lives in the service of others,” he said.

Commemorating the 160th anniversary of the death of St. John Mary Vianney, patron saint of parish priests, the pope praised those priests who, like their patron, carry out their mission “often without fanfare and at personal cost, amid weariness, infirmity and sorrow.”

However, he also shared his concern that many priests “feel themselves attacked and blamed for crimes they did not commit.”

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BURLINGTON (VT)
WCAX TV

August 5, 2019

Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese plans to release by the end of the month its long-awaited report on priests who have been accused of sexually abusing children.

It comes as a group in Burlington plans to protest Monday over the delay in the report’s release.

The group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests claims that Bishop Christopher Coyne pledged to post the names of the accused priests, but that he “continues to be secretive.”

Organizers say clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will gather Monday at Burlington Diocese headquarters in South Burlington around 2:15 p.m. to disclose names of eight accused Catholic clerics.

Bishop Coyne in a statement Monday said he expects the list by the end of the month.

“While it was hoped that the report of the independent file review committee would have been published earlier this year, the Diocese of Burlington has provided the committee with the time needed to ensure a thorough and accurate accounting of credibly accused priests. As a result, the independent file review committee’s work took longer than originally anticipated. The work is just about completed and the report will be published by the Diocese of Burlington before the end of August,” Coyne said.

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CONCORD (NH)
Concord Monitor

August 3, 2019

By Ray Duckler

David Ouellette was fooled once, as a 15-year-old victim growing up in Rochester.

He wasn’t fooled last Wednesday, though. He read the list, released by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester, the one documenting priests who had been accused of sexually abusing children for decades. He noticed names, parish assignments, punishments handed out.

Ouellette wanted more details, though. He says he won’t get fooled again.

“Personally,” Ouellette told me by phone, “I think of it as a smokescreen and a public-relations campaign.”

Where, for example, was the information about specific crimes committed, and how many victims stepped forward with accusations, and why were many of these suspected predators merely shifted from church to church in a cover-up that impacted the entire world? Most importantly, where are they now?

“It really doesn’t tell you anything,” Ouellette said, referring to the list.

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LITTLE ROCK (AR)
Bilgrimage blog

August 2, 2019

By William Lindsey

This is the third and final installment of an essay by Ruth Krall entitled “Historical Meandering: Ideologies of Abuse and Exclusion.” The previous two parts of this essay have appeared here and here. This essay is one in a series of essays Ruth is publishing on Bilgrimage under the series title “Recapitulation: Affinity Sexual Violence in a Religious Voice.” The first of the two links above will give you links to each previous essay. In this essay series, Ruth is focusing on the endemic nature of religious and spiritual leader sexual abuse of followers.

The current essay deals with the importance of an historical framework for understanding and dealing with this endemic sexual abuse in religious institutions. Vis-à-vis the Christian churches, Ruth proposes that “if we are to seek to understand or unearth the fundamental pilings (i.e., the deep and pervasive foundations) of this abuse scandal inside Christendom, we must first learn how to work with each other” — to understand the various faith languages of different Christian traditions and the prejudices borne within each stream of Christianity, and to talk together coherently about these faith languages and prejudices as we seek a solution to problem endemic to all of our faith traditions.

Please note that the endnotes begin with xxxvii because this essay is a continuation of an essay previously published in two installments.

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LAPLATA (ARGENTINA)
AFP

August 3, 2019

By Carlos Reyes with Magalí Cervantes

Ezequiel Villalonga spent most of his life at the Provolo Institute in Mendoza, a Catholic school for deaf children. But now the 18-year-old, who is deaf and mute, has lost all faith in the Church.

He and his classmates claim they are victims of the pedophile priests who ran the institution, part of a sweeping scandal that has shaken Argentina, Pope Francis’s home country.

“I think that everything in the Church is fake. Everything they made us read, recite, the way (they said) people should live,” he said in sign language, just before the start of the priests’ trial on Monday.

“I think they lie and that they’re demonic,” he added.

Ezequiel only learned sign language as an adult, because despite the Institute’s specialized mission, the school situated in the Andean foothills didn’t teach him how to speak.

He was only seven months old when his mother realized he was deaf. When Ezequiel was four, she sent him to the Provolo, which was founded in 1995, 621 miles (1,000 kilometers) west of Buenos Aires.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
WHIO TV 7

August 3, 2019

Two Roman Catholic priests on administrative leave, which church officials say is the “strongest action” a local bishop can take on his own against a priest, have ties to the Miami Valley.

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati, which serves southwest Ohio, including the greater Cincinnati and Dayton regions, on July 23 suspended the Rev. Geoffrey Drew, and has suspended the Rev. Clarence Heis for the second time.

Drew, who previously served at St. Rita of Cascia Parish in Dayton and St. Luke the Evangelist Church in Beavercreek, was placed on leave from his post at St. Ignatius of Loyola in Green Twp., Hamilton County. He is accused of behavior that violates the “decree on child protection,” according to a letter written by Archbishop Dennis Schnurr, our media partner WCPO-TV in Cincinnati reported.

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UNITED STATES
Patheos

August 2, 2019

By Deacon Greg Kandra

This is an important compendium that every Catholic needs to read and share.

From Psychology Today:

As we approach the year anniversary of the recent uptick in media attention due to the release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report (as well as the now-former Cardinal McCarrick abuse allegations), let’s review the top ten myths about clerical abuse in the Catholic Church.

Myth 1: Sexual abuse is more common among Catholic priests than other groups of men.

About 4 percent of Catholic clerics had credible or substantiated accusations of child sexual abuse of minors (both prepubescent children and postpubescent teens) during the last half of the 20th century (John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 2004, 2011). Research data, although from limited small scale studies, finds the prevalence of clerical abuse among non-Catholic religious communities consistent with the Catholics. If you review insurance claims against Church communities for sexual victimization perpetrated by their clerics, you’ll find that that there is no difference between Catholic and non-Catholic groups (Zech, 2011).

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ROCHESTER (MN)
Fox 47

August 2, 2019

An update on the seven lawsuits filed recently in Olmsted County related to admitted abuser Richard Hokanson:

Each of the seven victims is seeking in excess of $50,000 from the St. Pius X Catholic Church in Rochester, as well as the Gamehaven Council and The Boy Scouts of America.

Hokanson was a scout leader of a troop based at the St. Pius X Catholic Church. He was employed by each of the organizations. The plaintiffs say they were sexually abused by Hokanson between 1969 and 1981.

The defendants wrote in court documents that “there is little doubt that estimated damages could exceed $100,000 per victim.”

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TULSA (OK)
KWGS NEWS

August 2, 2019

On July 5, 2019, the Diocese of Tulsa & Eastern Oklahoma announced that Father Joe Townsend, a priest of the Diocese, had been placed on administrative leave due to a non-frivolous allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor. After several weeks, the still ongoing third-party investigation has provided the Diocese with a better understanding of the allegation lodged against Father Townsend and what needs to be done to proceed with the investigation.

“As such, in fulfillment of the Diocese’s commitment to transparency and our desire to determine the merits of the allegation, we wish to announce that the allegation of misconduct against Father Townsend stems from when he served as an Associate Pastor at St. Pius X Catholic Church from June 1988 to June 199”, the Diocese said in a news release.

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NEW YORK
WAMC

August 3, 2019

By Karen DeWitt

Beginning on August 14, New Yorkers who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse will have a one-year window of opportunity to file civil suits against their abusers, under the terms of the Child Victims Act passed by the legislature earlier this year. Thousands of cases are expected to be filed, with payouts potentially in the millions.

Gordon Smith was 14-years-old when he says he was first abused by two priests at a St. Patrick’s Catholic Church and school in Albany in the early 1960s.

He was filling in as a janitor for his father, who was sick. He says the abuse continued, on a weekly basis, for three years.

“It was about as horrific as it could get,” said Smith, in an interview with public radio and TV. “We’re talking about molestation, we’re talking about sodomization, we’re talking about oral sex.”

One of the priests that Smith is accusing, Father Donald Starks, appears on a list kept by the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese of priests with “credible” accusations against them. Starks died in 1989.

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TULSA (OK)
Tulsa World

August 2, 2019

A Tulsa Catholic diocese investigation on Friday determined that sexual misconduct allegations against a local priest date back more than two decades.

The allegations of misconduct against Father Joe Townsend, a priest of the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma, stem from his time as an associate pastor at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Tulsa from 1988 to 1991, according to a news release. Townsend was ordained in May 1988.

Townsend was placed on administrative leave in early July after the “non-frivolous allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor” was made, the news release said. Church officials said they have engaged a “third-party investigation” into the allegation.

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FAIRFAX (VA)
Courtroom News Service

August 2, 2019

By Joan Hennessy

As the Catholic Church digs itself out of a global sex abuse scandal, some priests are heading to court to contend they were wrongfully accused of misconduct and defamed when the church published their names on lists of “credibly accused” clergy members.

Seventeen years have passed since The Boston Globe documented widespread abuse by Catholic clergy. In the years that followed, victims all over the country sued the church and 19 dioceses and religious orders filed for bankruptcy protection, according to the National Catholic Reporter.

The church’s legal troubles reignited a year ago when a Pennsylvania grand jury report detailed abuse by priests in six state dioceses. The same month, a Pennsylvania bishop released a list of clergy accused of abuse. Other dioceses have done the same.

In February, when the Richmond diocese published its list of clergy members accused of sexual misconduct, Oliver Joseph Smalls, Jr.’s name was on it.

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TULSA (OK)
NewsOn6.com

August 2, 2019

The Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma said they are asking anyone with knowledge of possible sexual misconduct on the part of a Tulsa priest to come forward. Father Joe Townsend continues to be on administrative leave due to allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor.

A news release from the Diocese states that an ongoing, third-party investigation has provided them with a “better understanding” of the allegation made against Father Townsend, prompting the call for people to come forward. They can contact law enforcement or call the Pastoral Hotline at 918-307-4970.

The allegation against Father Townsend involves St. Pius X Church and School community almost 30 years ago, according to Father Richard Bradley, Pastor of St. Pius X Catholic Church.

“We understand the need to fully investigate the allegation in order to bring to light any abuse that may have occurred, and we pledge our support of the investigative process. At the same time, we affirm that there are many students from that era as well as their parents, who remember Father Joe fondly and favorably. We pray for a peaceful and speedy resolution to this matter,” he said in a news release.

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WARSAW (POLAND)
Reuters via Today Online

August 2, 2019

Poland’s Catholic Church has doubled down on the anti-gay rhetoric that has become the nationalist ruling party’s dominant theme in recent weeks, drawing a rebuke from liberal politicians who compared an archbishop’s remarks to incitement to genocide.

In a sermon given to mark the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising by Polish resistance fighters against Nazi occupation, the archbishop of Krakow, Marek Jedraszewski, described Poland as under siege from a “rainbow plague” of gay rights campaigners he compared to Poland’s former Communist rulers.

“Our land is no longer affected by the red plague, which does not mean that there is no new one that wants to control our souls, hearts and minds,” he told a mass in the medieval St. Mary’s Basilica, one of the most important churches for Poles.

“Not Marxist, Bolshevik, but born of the same spirit, neo-Marxist. Not red, but rainbow,” he was quoted as saying by private TVN24 broadcaster.

Robert Biedron, an openly gay politician from the progressive Wiosna party, denounced the sermon.

“We already had such people, politicians who used similar words and that lead to huge slaughters, genocide. This is an incitement to crime, to hatred,” he told news website wirtualnapolska.pl.
Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/world/liberals-fear-unrest-poland-catholic-church-doubles-down-anti-gay-rhetoric

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
GoLocalProv.com

August 3, 2019

By Carlene Casciano-McCann

Sex abuse victims stories need to be told, says Carlene Casciano-McCann

With the recent high-profile stories exposing sexual abuse and exploitation of children, many of us are incensed that this type of exploitation continues unabated.

We are outraged at perpetrators of sexual abuse, yet how often do we really think about the victims – the loss of innocence, trust and control over their own bodies; the burden of potential lifelong mental health issues. With the recent disclosure of credibly accused priests in the Catholic Diocese and Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest for trafficking children, we have evidence of abuses that have occurred in secrecy, with others being complicit in covering up and/or engaging in the illicit activity.

The stories sensationalize the perpetrator and do not tell the full story in order to protect the victim’s identity and privacy. Yet the crisis is revealed in the victim’s story which is what needs be told. Infants and toddlers are sexually molested – children irreparably harmed before they even have words to describe the assault. Pre-teen children and teenagers are sexually abused and the emotional trauma can make it difficult to find the words to tell others. Children carry the shame of sexual abuse despite it being the behavior of an adult perpetrator.

Sexual abuse is a difficult crime to prosecute. There is rarely physical evidence of an assault.

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NOLA.COM
New Orleans (LA)

August 3, 2019

By Ramon Antonio Vargas and Jerry DiColo

Steve Gegenheimer had struggled for decades to process what happened to him — in a rectory, in a parked car, in the woods and in hotels in Mississippi — over a two-year period in the 1970s, when he was a teenage altar boy on the West Bank.

In November, the priest he says sexually abused him decades ago was publicly named as a suspected child molester by New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond. Days later, Gegenheimer finally called a lawyer.

Over the next five months, at the archdiocese’s request, Gegenheimer wrote out a narrative explaining the abuse. He filled out the rest of a detailed questionnaire. He met with diocesan attorneys over several hours one emotionally draining day.

And after signing settlement documents that resulted in an undisclosed payment, he received a letter inviting him to speak and pray with the archbishop himself.

Gegenheimer had not taken up Aymond on his offer when he spoke about the experience this summer, but he said the invitation and payment — taken together — helped him to finally move past his abuse.

“You … carry a secret for 30, 40 years,” said Gegenheimer, who explained he later became a priest but left the clergy after entering into a relationship with a woman whom he ultimately married. “I wanted it to be over.”

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PORTLAND (OR)
OPB

August 2, 2019

By Conrad Wilson

The Archdiocese of Portland has agreed to settle eight claims of sexual abuse involving former North Bend priest Rev. Pius Brazauskas.

Together the settlements add up to nearly $4 million.

The alleged abuse stems from about 1975 to 1985 involving boys who at the time of the abuse were between 5 and 16 years old. At the time, Brazauskas was in his 70s.

Brazauskas died on March 1, 1990. He was 84 years old.

A January 2018 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon identified three victims as J.B., S.R. and S.F. They were the first sexual abuse allegations against Brazauskas.

After the lawsuit was filed, five more men came forward, said Peter Janci, attorney for the victims.

“We think there are a lot of other victims out there,” Janci said. “He was somebody who had an insatiable proclivity to abuse kids. In my career, representing hundreds of victims of child sexual abuse I don’t usually see individuals who develop that inclination in their 70s.”

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

August 3, 2019

By Claire Giangravè

An Italian priest known for involvement in his community was placed under house arrest by local authorities on Wednesday, on charges of allegedly drugging and sexually abusing adult members of his parish.

“The news of the arrest of Father Stefano Segalini and the precautionary measures applied by the judiciary pain us deeply,” said Father Luigi Chiesa, Vicar General of the Diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio in northern Italy where the events allegedly took place, in an August 1 statement.

“The pain of those who declare themselves to be victims of abuse, as well as the pain of he who finds himself accused of such a great crime, requires first of all our closeness and prayer,” Chiesa said.

Segalini led the church of San Giuseppe Operaio, the most frequented parish in the northern Italian town of Piacenza, until last May when he suddenly retired. An arrest warrant issued by a judge after preliminary investigations claims that Segalini allegedly abused adults not in the parish, but during spiritual retreats and evening activities.

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TULSA (OK)
Associated Press via KRMG Radio

August 3, 2019

[Tulsa diocese’s statement about Joe Townsend is posted on the diocesan Facebook page, linked here.]

The Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma says the alleged sexual misconduct involving a minor by a priest started shortly after he was ordained.

The diocese said in a statement Friday that “a non-frivolous allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor” against Father Joe Townsend date to his time as associate pastor at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Tulsa from June 1988 to June 1991. The statement says Townsend denies the allegation and is cooperating with an investigation.

The diocese website says Townsend was ordained May 27, 1988.

The diocese announced July 5 that Townsend had been placed on administrative leave.

The diocese last year identified two other priests who were facing credible accusations of abusing minors. Both men are no longer associated with the Tulsa diocese.

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MODESTO (CA)
Modesto Bee

August 1, 2019

By Erin Tracy

Modesto’s CrossPoint Community Church settled a lawsuit with a woman who said the church covered up the sexual abuse of her and others by pastors for years.

CrossPoint, formerly First Baptist Church, must pay Jennifer Roach $267,500 and was released of any liability or wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

“Sexual abuse is soul-crushing, and its impact is far reaching,” Roach said in an email. “Victims often end up delaying or abandoning their education, which impacts their ability to earn throughout their lifetime. Financial settlements don’t change the fact that the abuse happened, but they can restore some of what was stolen from the victim.”

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

August 2, 2019

As recently as last year a former Catholic deacon defrocked after allegations of child sexual abuse had leadership roles in a Louisiana Catholic group. Even worse, he had access to children for decades despite his history. Now, church officials must take responsibility for this troubling revelation.

This is just the latest example of how Catholic leadership continues to talk a big game publicly, but privately does not do all they can to ensure accused perpetrators are kept from the vulnerable. We call on New Orleans law enforcement officials to investigate this situation to see if any crimes were committed, and we call on local parishioners to demand answers and transparency from their church officials.

This is one reason why we in SNAP clamor for lists of accused clerics – posted permanently and prominently on diocesan websites — so it will be easier for parishioners, staff, and the public to identify perpetrators who keep gravitating towards children. Had New Orleans church officials revealed such a list years and years ago – instead of in 2018 – it is likely that George Brignac never would have had the access to children that he enjoyed for years.

Now that this information has been exposed, we believe that Archbishop Greg Aymond should investigate and then disclose publicly how this was allowed to happen, and finally take action against those who put children in harm’s way. That is the only way such incomprehensible behavior will be stopped.

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SAN BERNARDINO (CA)
San Bernardino Sun

August 1, 2019

By Joe Nelson

Less than a year after a former youth pastor at Wildomar’s Faith Baptist Church was accused of molesting three teenage girls, another former staff member has been arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a student at the church’s school nearly 30 years ago.

Laverne Paul Fox, the former principal at Faith Baptist Academy and former bus director for the church, was arrested Monday in Erie, Pennsylvania, and extradited to California, where he was held at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside on $120,000 bail.

Laverne Paul Fox, a former principal at Faith Baptist Academy in Wildomar and former bus director at the affiliated Faith Baptist Church, was arrested Monday in Erie, PA. after begin charged with three felony counts of child molestation involving a student at the school in 1990.

Fox, 60, posted bail Tuesday and is scheduled for arraignment Oct. 2 at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta, according to online booking records.

Riverside County prosecutors charged Fox on June 21 with three felony counts of child molestation involving a girl under the age of 18. The alleged sexual abuse occurred about July 1990, according to the criminal complaint.

“I feel like I’m finally getting justice 27 years late,” said Fox’s alleged victim, Kathy Durbin, on Wednesday. She said she reported the alleged abuse to church pastor Bruce Goddard in 1992, but he never reported it to police.

While the Southern California News Group does not typically disclose the names of victims of sexual abuse, Durbin has allowed her name to be published.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Agency

August 2, 2019

By Ed Condon

This story is the second part of a two-part series about how one victim of sexual abuse found healing. The first part was published Aug. 1.

When Michael* was 15 years old, he was abused by a priest at his Catholic high school. He told CNA recently about the suffering he endured, and about how, seven years after his abuse, he confided in another priest – only to have his faith in God and the Church shattered again.

For nearly three decades, Michael struggled with the pain and trauma of his abuse. He spent years, and tens of thousands of dollars, in therapy. He was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He needed help.

The therapy was a beginning. But Michael told CNA he found the most healing in the Church and faith that his abusers had driven him from. Healing did not come not easily.

Michael says he wants to see real reform in the Church, and to ensure no one suffers like he did. But, he urges caution against what he calls “predatory advocacy groups” and an “industry that trolls for victims.”

Michael spoke to CNA about his experiences with such groups.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

August 1, 2019

By Peter Smith

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has received formal notice of more than 400 people who either have filed or may file claims for financial compensation for alleged sexual abuse by its clergy.

And early returns are in for claims that have already been filed. The diocese has so far paid about $4 million in total to 26 victims, or roughly $150,000 per person, according to the fund’s administrators.

Wednesday was the deadline for people who hadn’t previously reported abuse to the diocese to register formally with the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, which the diocese launched in the wake of a 2018 grand jury report on sexual abuse by priests in the diocese over the past seven decades.

By midnight Wednesday, some 372 registrations had been filed, said Camille Biros, who is administering the fund along with Washington, D.C., attorney Kenneth Feinberg.

The 372 registrations, however, haven’t been reviewed yet for initial eligibility. They include some duplicate registrations, and they may also include allegations not covered by the compensation program, such as abuse by lay teachers or religious-order priests. The program only covers abuse by clergy (priests or deacons) who were ordained by the diocese.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
WCPO 9onyourside

August 2, 2019

By Craig Cheatham

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati has placed two priests on administrative leave, which church officials say is the “strongest action” a local bishop can take on his own against a priest.

Parents learned this week of Rev. Geoffrey Drew’s suspension from St. Ignatius School in Green Township, but the WCPO I-Team discovered the existence of a second priest that the Archdiocese had placed on administrative leave by searching the ‘Protecting Our Children’ page on the Archdiocese’s website.

The Archdiocese declined to answer WCPO’s questions about the allegations against Father Clarence Heis. The Archdiocese website only refers to a “pending investigation” of Heis. It also does not indicate when the Archdiocese placed Heis on administrative leave.

“Anytime they go to the extraordinary action of suspending or removing a priest – or anybody in their employment – it means there’s a serious concern,” said Dan Frondorf, the leader of the Cincinnati chapter of the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests, also known as SNAP.

This is the second time the Archdiocese has suspended Father Heis.

It also placed him on leave in 2006 after Heis pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct and resisting. A police officer arrested Heis in 2005 for allegedly having sex with two adult men in a public park in Fairborn, near Dayton. The Archdiocese reinstated Heis in 2009, according to The Catholic Telegraph, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Since his reinstatement, Heis has worked out of the main office of the Archdiocese, according to his LinkedIn account and issues of the Official Catholic Directory.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

August 2, 2019

By Michael J. Iafrate

Two months after the U.S. Catholic Church was hit by a major scandal surrounding a West Virginia bishop, church officials are telling us it’s time to move on. But for many of us Catholics in West Virginia, that message feels like a punch in the gut. Serious reasons remain for Catholics everywhere to pause and demand much more transparency surrounding the case of former bishop Michael Bransfield.

Those reasons have to do with who oversaw the production of the investigative report on Bransfield, what the report said about allegations of child sexual abuse, and the fact that the document has never been made public.

Bransfield retired in September just as U.S. church officials announced an investigation into alleged sexual and financial misconduct during his tenure. In June, we learned details of those allegations when The Washington Post reported on the contents of the secret church report: massive financial mismanagement and lavish spending of church money, officials’ ignoring of Bransfield’s sexual misconduct, and the fact that top leaders in the United States and Rome had received cash gifts from Bransfield, including William Lori, the archbishop who oversaw the probe.

Two weeks ago, the Vatican handed down penalties suspending Bransfield from public ministry and immediately named a new bishop, Mark Brennan. But for many Catholics in West Virginia, it’s not time to move on. There are a few reasons for that.

Church officials in West Virginia and Baltimore have mischaracterized a key part of their own report. Throughout the investigation, when Lori and diocesan officials would discuss the Bransfield allegations, they generally used the term “sexual harassment” of priests and seminarians. However, The Post’s coverage cites the report as describing something that appears to go beyond harassment. It quotes a seminarian who says Bransfield pulled the young man against him and ran his hands over the seminarian’s genitals.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal

July 30, 2019

By Katherine Gregg

A freedom-of-information coalition in Rhode Island is raising red flags over the “blanket” secrecy Attorney General Peter Neronha promised the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence in a “memorandum of understanding” aimed at gaining access to diocesan records dating back to 1950 of alleged child sex abuse by clergy.

“Troubling precedent,″ wrote Linda Lotridge Levin, the retired University of Rhode Island journalism professor who is president of Access/RI, a coalition that counts, among its board members, representatives of the Rhode Island affiliate of the ACLU, Common Cause Rhode Island, the League of Women Voters of Rhode Island and the New England First Amendment Coalition.

Levin acknowledged, in her Monday letter to Neronha, that his “goal in entering [into] this MOU, as opposed to convening a grand jury, is to allow you to be more transparent with the public about your findings by eschewing the broad secrecy requirements that would enshroud grand jury proceedings.”

Unable to convince Rhode Island lawmakers to give a grand jury here the power a Pennsylvania grand jury had when it exposed decades of clergy abuse and coverups, Neronha went this route: voluntary disclosure by the diocese.

The review, in conjunction with the Rhode Island State Police, is meant to identify any prosecutable cases and make sure that no credibly accused clergy members are in active ministry, according to an earlier statement from the attorney general’s office.

“We greatly appreciate that and applaud your goal,” Levin wrote. “At the same time, we fear language in the MOU may establish a precedent that is itself problematic.”

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Fox 43 News

August 1, 2019

By Jack Eble

One year ago Thursday, Bishop Ronald Gainer and the Diocese of Harrisburg revealed decades of sexual abuse allegations against priests, deacons and seminarians.

Bishop Gainer apologized to survivors, “the Catholic faithful,” and “the general public” for the abuse and the inaction by past Diocese leadership.

The list includes more than 70 names of clergymen, nearly 30 more than its counterpart in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report that was released roughly two weeks after the Diocese of Harrisburg released its list.

Mike Barley, a spokesperson for the Diocese of Harrisburg, said they believe their decision came at the right time after compiling all of the known names accused, trying to show transparency as the Grand Jury Report loomed.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Christian Century

August 2, 2019

By Peter W. Marty

There’s probably never been a time when emotionally insecure people could thrive in ordained ministry. But the current moment may be more challenging than ever given dwindling public esteem for the profession. Not since Gallup began charting the reputation of occupations in 1977 has respect for clergy been so low.

New polls by Gallup and by the Associated Press-NORC Center reveal that only 36 percent of Americans express high regard for the honesty and ethical standards of ministers. Although frequent churchgoers still hold clergy in high regard, only 52 percent of those who attend church on a monthly basis consider clergy to be trustworthy.

Pastors may not yet feel as irrelevant as travel agents, parking lot attendants, or necktie sales clerks, but the influence of clergy has shrunk notably in the last two decades. Only 13 percent of regular churchgoers regularly seek advice from their clergy on ethical dilemmas or big decisions. Eighty-eight percent of people who infrequently attend church “rarely” or “never” seek clergy input.

Scandals that have rocked the church for decades no doubt contribute significantly to the drop in confidence in clergy. Clergy sexual abuse problems persist, especially in traditions with male-dominated leadership that resist structural change. Conservative evangelicals have unapologetically shaped faith claims around party politics, attracting many critics in the process. Unscrupulous greed on the part of prosperity gospel preachers has further harmed the reputation of faith communities.

Nobody wants to be irrelevant. Yet how much can pastors really do to reverse the increasing lack of interest in organized religion and religious practice that shapes attitudes toward clergy? Their position can seem like that of a piano salesman trying to convince people to revive the household sing-alongs that animated family life several generations ago. It’s an uphill slog.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

Augusts 2, 2019

By Rachel L. Swarns

Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, one of the oldest Roman Catholic girls’ schools in the nation, has long celebrated the vision and generosity of its founders: a determined band of Catholic nuns who championed free education for the poor in the early 1800s.

The sisters, who established an elite academy in Washington, D.C., also ran “a Saturday school, free to any young girl who wished to learn — including slaves, at a time when public schools were almost nonexistent and teaching slaves to read was illegal,” according to an official history posted for several years on the school’s website.

But when a newly hired school archivist and historian started digging in the convent’s records a few years ago, she found no evidence that the nuns had taught enslaved children to read or write. Instead, she found records that documented a darker side of the order’s history.

The Georgetown Visitation sisters owned at least 107 enslaved men, women and children, the records show. And they sold dozens of those people to pay debts and to help finance the expansion of their school and the construction of a new chapel.

“Nothing else to do than to dispose of the family of Negroes,’’ Mother Agnes Brent, the convent’s superior, wrote in 1821 as she approved the sale of a couple and their two young children. The enslaved woman was just days away from giving birth to her third child.

Nuns disposing of black families? I have been poring over 19th-century church records for several years now and such casual cruelty from leaders of the faith still takes my breath away. I am a black journalist and a black Catholic. Yet I grew up knowing nothing about the nuns who bought and sold human beings.

For generations, enslaved people have been largely left out of the origin story traditionally told about the Catholic Church. My reporting on Georgetown University, which profited from the sale of more than 200 slaves, has helped to draw attention in recent years to universities and their ties to slavery. But slavery also helped to fuel the growth of many contemporary institutions, including some churches and religious organizations.

Historians say that nearly all of the orders of Catholic sisters established by the late 1820s owned slaves.

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LAKE CHARLES (LA)
KPLC TV

August 1, 2019

By Theresa Schmidt

Three months ago, the Diocese of Lake Charles released a list of credibly accused clergy which included the names of eleven priests, eight of whom are dead.

But some complain the list is far from transparent and have asked the Louisiana attorney general to investigate.

In 2016, ex-priest Mark Broussard was convicted of sexual offenses against children and is serving two life sentences plus fifty years. When the Diocese released its list of credibly accused priests, it said allegations regarding Broussard were received by the Diocese in 1994 and 2009. Yet some say the diocese knew sooner.

Richard Windmann, himself a victim, is the Louisiana leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, also called SNAP.

They advocate for full disclosure statewide.

“These priests, that have been entrusted with the church, they don’t own the church. The administrators, the governance of the church, it’s the people in the pews that are the church. And when they leave there’s not going to be a church. And it won’t be because of the actions of victims and survivors. It will be because of the actions of priests and archbishops and bishops who cover it up,” said Windmann.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Associated Press

August 2, 2019

By Jim Mustian and Kevin McGill

A former Roman Catholic deacon barred from the ministry in New Orleans because of sexual abuse allegations maintained access to schoolchildren and held leadership roles as recently as last year in the Knights of Columbus, despite promising three decades ago to avoid young boys “for the good of the Church,” according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

George Brignac, 84, was defrocked as a deacon in 1988 after a 7-year-old boy accused him of fondling him at a Christmas party. That allegation came on top of previous claims that he had abused other boys, including one that led to his acquittal in 1978 on three counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile. The Archdiocese of New Orleans settled several lawsuits against Brignac, including one for more than $500,000.

Still, he remained involved in the church as a lay minister who read the gospel during Mass until last year, when news reports about his past prompted officials to remove him.

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ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Service

August 2, 2019

While deceased Jesuit Father Renato Poblete Barth was known publicly as a champion of the poor in Chile, an internal investigation funded by the Jesuits revealed that the famed clergyman abused more than a dozen women over a span of nearly 50 years.

The results of the six-month independent investigation, which were announced July 30 by Jesuit Father Cristian del Campo, provincial superior of Chile, concluded that “the abuses of power, of conscience, sexual and other crimes committed by Renato Poblete Barth were sustained by a sort of double life, protected by his public image of a good person.”

“The abuse, transversely, was carried out from a position of power that gave him that image, his enormous network of contacts, and the economic power that he had by autonomously handling important sums of money during many years,” the report said.

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INVERELL (AUSTRALIA)
Inverell Times

August 1, 2019

By Andrew Thomson
.
The Catholic church has demanded a clergy sex abuse victim, who was raped as a nine-year-old in a confessional box, provide a copy of the church’s own rules in Latin.

A south-west victim of notorious pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale is pursuing civil damages through the Victorian Supreme Court from Bishop of Ballarat Paul Bird, on behalf of the diocese.

In May, Supreme Court Justice Michael McDonald asked the church’s legal team for an explanation in relation to the church denying knowledge of Ridsdale’s pedophile activities with a view to determining if costs should be awarded to the victim.

That led to the church sacking its legal team and calling in the lawyers who acted for now jailed Arch Bishop George Pell.

The victim’s lawyers have been asking the church hand over archive documents.

Under 1917 Canon Law which applied at the time of the offending, the church was required to keep an archive of all important documents, including sex assault allegations against clergy members, and a record of who had seen the documents and what documents had been destroyed.

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LANCSASTER (ENGLAND)
Lancaster Live

August 1, 2019

By Paul Britton and Dominic Moffitt

Two men who were sexually abused by a priest in Lancashire have received praise from The NSPCC.

The charity called their actions ‘brave’ after the two men, who were sexually abused as teenagers by a paedophile priest, gave evidence that led to his conviction – and an 18-year prison sentence.

One stood up in court twice to detail his suffering at the hands of Catholic priest Michael Higginbottom in separate trials.

The charity said their ‘courageous actions’ in reporting the abuse and recalling their experiences to a jury showed ‘the passage of time is no protection for abusers’.

Higginbottom, 76, was found guilty of five counts of serious sexual assault and seven counts of indecent assault following a re-trial.

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BRISBANE (AUSTRALIA)
The Catholic Leader

August 2, 2019

By Mark Bowling

CELIBACY for priests, the role of women, and the inclusion of divorced and remarried Catholics were among “strongly discussed” topics contained in the Plenary Council 2020’s latest report.

The final report of the council’s Listening and Dialogue phase captures the voice of more than 222,000 Australians and provides insights into 17,457 individual and group submissions.

Plenary council president Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe said the 314-page document was the result of the listening process that had produced “an extraordinary treasure of ideas and proposals which represents the heartfelt response of many people”.

“The great challenge ahead of us now is to ‘catch’ the voice of the Holy Spirit within the passionate, hopeful but sometimes contradictory voices of God’s people.”

Among the wide-ranging list of submissions were those calling for ways to improve the sacraments to increase Church attendance and “allow the fullness of a Catholic life to flourish”, and addressing the clerical child sex abuse scandal.

The structure of Church life “drew a great deal of attention” around leadership and governance, the need for greater listening between leadership and the laity, and the need to “modernise Church teachings to bring them in line with Australian society in t

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PORTSMOUTH (ENGLAND)
Portsmouth News

August 2, 2019

A PRIEST has been struck off for life for having a sexual relationship with a married parishioner who turned to him for help.

Former Emsworth-with-Warblington parish rector Simon Sayers admitted ‘betraying his calling’ in a letter to a private tribunal that eventually found him guilty of inappropriate conduct this week.

It comes after he was previously banned from his ministry for five years in 2016 over two sexual incidents with a 16-year-old school girl.

The tribunal, which Mr Sayers did not attend, was told he began a sexual relationship with the parishwoman when she approached him for pastoral support.

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DENVER (CO)
National Catholic Register

August 1, 2019

By Msgr. Andrew Baker and Fr. Carter Griffin

Many Catholics, understandably, have grown skeptical of seminary formation. After all, it is priests and bishops who have caused the scandal of clergy sexual abuse, and every one of them is a product of seminaries.

Sometimes it is presumed that little has changed in seminaries since the time, decades ago, when the vast majority of those abusive priests were formed. Professor Janet Smith recently published a commentary that rightly asks whether seminary reforms are authentic and lasting or simply “window dressing.”

As the rectors of two seminaries forming men for the priesthood today, we would like to offer our own perspective in order to throw some light on the present situation — because, in fact, a great deal has changed.

Admittedly, the complexities of any topic as sprawling as the formation of Catholic priests cannot be covered in a short essay like this. Our remarks apply mainly to diocesan seminaries in the United States and the North American College in Rome, for example, since we are most familiar with those. Even among those seminaries, reforms have not been uniform; some changes have probably been merely superficial, as Janet Smith surmises. Furthermore, even the most wholesome seminary environment does not guarantee that graduates will remain faithful, any more than a good family guarantees that every child will turn out well. We are therefore painting with a broad brush.

Nevertheless, despite these caveats, we emphatically believe that any impartial observer with all the facts would come to the same conclusion: Seminary admissions are far more stringent, and formation far more rigorous, than they were when the great majority of clerical sexual abusers were ordained. We believe this to be a source of hope and encouragement for us all.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
KDKA TV

July 25, 2019

By Andy Sheehan

The church scandal has left Bishop David Zubik with two monumental tasks.

He must compensate the victims of alleged clergy sexual abuse while keeping the diocese out of bankruptcy.

To do that, he’s looking to a defunct orphanage in the South Hills, and its endowment of close to $9 million to help fund his victim’s compensation fund.

“We’re working through the proper channels to make sure that we have access to those funds, and we can use them for the IRCP fund,” the bishop said.

But Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro — whose report detailed the abuse of minors at the hands of diocesan priests — is telling the diocese not so fast.

In papers filed in Allegheny County Orphan’s Court — his office said orphanage founder, James L. Toner, “would never have intended his charitable gift to be used for this purpose.”

When Toner died in 1899, he left the diocese $140,000 to build and operate the Toner Institute, which became a home and school for orphans and troubled boys from 1921-77. The Toner Institute is gone, but the Toner Trust has now grown to between $8 and $9 million.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
KDKA TV

August 1, 2019

By Andy Sheehan

More people than anticipated have registered to file sexual abuse claims with the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

On the floor around attorney Alan Perer’s desk are the files of clients that allege abuse from the Diocese of Pittsburgh Catholic priests.

He said many have come out of the shadows to talk about what happened to them as children.

“I think the scope is far greater than what the grand jury said,” Perer said. “I have people calling me every day saying I never told anyone about this my whole life.”

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Cleveland Scene

August 1, 2019

By Sam Allard

For a man who purports to be so boldly committed to truth, American missionary and Christian pastor Tom Randall has been at the center of – in fact, may be the chief architect of – a long and wicked deception.

Randall is a gregarious man with an earnest, unsophisticated preaching style. He stands 6’5″ and ambles about with the busted-knee hitch of a former serious athlete. He has never fully conquered his Rs, but the speech impediment has endeared him to friends, colleagues, golfers on the PGA Senior Tour, where he served for several years as chaplain, and megachurch congregations nationwide. To these audiences and others he has told versions of the same story about himself: He grew up as a thief on the inner-city streets of Detroit and was shepherded to Christ by a college basketball coach.

These days, the 65-year-old Randall lives in Stow, Ohio, with his wife Karen and preaches from time to time at the nondenominational Hudson megachurch Christ Community Chapel, where he has been on the payroll since 2014, shortly after he returned to the states from a brief and highly sensationalized stint in a Manila detention center.

The Philippines. That’s where Randall lived as a missionary for years, purportedly playing professional basketball and spreading the word of God “through sports, recreation [and] competition.”

In January 2014, Randall was back in the Philippines on a semi-regular mission trip when he was arrested during an early morning raid of Sankey Samaritan Orphanage, the children’s home he founded in 1998. Randall, the facility’s Filipino manager Toto Luchavez and Toto’s son Jake were handcuffed and taken into custody.

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PORTLAND (OR)
The Oregonian

August 1, 2019

By Maxine Bernstein

The Archdiocese of Portland will pay nearly $4 million to settle claims by eight men who say they were sexually abused when they were boys in the 1970s and 1980s by a priest on the Oregon coast.

The Rev. Pius Brazauskas, who died in 1990, abused three of the men when they were between ages 5 and 12, according to a lawsuit they filed in January 2018. Brazauskas French kissed them, groped their genitals and pressed himself against them, they said.

The suit marked the first time anyone publicly named Brazauskas as an alleged child abuser, said their lawyer Peter B. Janci of Portland. After the suit was filed, five other men came forward to allege similar abuse.

Brazauskas was assigned to Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in North Bend at the time.

The initial plaintiffs in the case, identified only by initials as J.B., S.R. and S.F., will receive $675,000 each under the settlement. They are now in their 40s.

Of the five others, S.S. will receive $675,000, J.N. $475,000; B.S., $440,000, A.S. $125,000 and D.G. $100,000, according to court documents.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Episcopal News Service

August, 1, 2019

By Egan Millard

A woman is suing the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, saying one of its priests sexually assaulted her and others in New York in the 1970s, and the diocese knowingly allowed him to serve as a priest there anyway. However, two other dioceses that have licensed the priest in question say their background checks never turned up any allegations of sexual misconduct.

The Rev. Paul Kowalewski, 71, is retired but had been serving as an occasional supply priest at the Church of St. Paul in the Desert in Palm Springs, California, and his ministry has been suspended, the Rt. Rev. Susan Brown Snook, bishop of San Diego, told Episcopal News Service. Though the church is in the Diocese of San Diego, he is canonically resident in the Diocese of Los Angeles, and served as the rector of a large Los Angeles parish from 2005 to 2013.

Patricia Harner, the plaintiff, says Kowalewski sexually assaulted her in 1971, when she was a 19-year-old parishioner at St. Amelia Catholic Church in Tonawanda, New York, and he was a seminarian preparing to be ordained in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo.

In response to questions from ENS, the Diocese of Central New York – the first Episcopal diocese in which Kowalewski served as a priest – said there is no record that indicates the diocese knew of any sexual abuse allegations against him when he was received or during his tenure there. The diocese conducted a background check on Kowalewski in 1990, which turned up no indication of sexual misconduct, according to their records.

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NEW YORK (NY)
NBC 4 News

August 1, 2019

Though the Archdiocese of New York released its own list of 120 priests and deacons that it said had been credibly accused of sexual abuse or the possession of pornography, or whose behavior had led to compensation claims being paid in April, the victims’ rights attorney said it compiled a more extensive, yet “incomplete” list of the accused witht he help of individuals across the country.

Survivors and victims’ advocates joined the firm Jeff Anderson & Associates in releasing the report on sexual abuse in the Archdiocese and calling Archbishop Timothy Dolan and religious orders to fully disclose the accused who have worked in the Archdiocese.

“It’s time to release more information about the real peril that does exist and has existed in the Archdiocese of New York and the failure of this cardinal and his predecessors to reveal the full truth,” lawyer Jeff Anderson said.

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AUGUSTA (BA)
Augusta Chronicle

August 1, 2019

By Jozsef Papp

No probable cause for criminal charges was found against a priest accused of exchanging explicit pictures with a juvenile in Aiken.

According to the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office, an investigation was started Tuesday after receiving information from the Aiken Department of Public Safety about a possible pornography case involving Father Raymond Flores, 33, of Saint Mary’s Help of Christians Church.

Investigators discovered Flores was having an online conversation with a juvenile on Grindr, an online adult dating application, during which they exchanged photos of their genitalia. An investigation revealed the juvenile indicated on Grindr he was 18 years old.

Flores, the juvenile and his family and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston fully cooperated in the investigation. According to the sheriff’s office, the investigation revealed there was no evidence that would have risen beyond the initial complaint and established probable cause for criminal charges.

The findings were presented to the 2nd Circuit Solicitor’s Office and the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office. The juvenile’s family told investigators they did not want to pursue any further investigation.

Flores was placed on administrative leave without the ability to perform priestly duties for behavior inappropriate of a priest, according to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston.

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MANILA (PHILIPPINES)
ABS-CBN News

August 1, 2019

By Maria Tan

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle is asking Catholics to pray for bishops and priests who are “persecuted and falsely accused,” according to an official of the Archdiocese of Manila on Thursday.

“Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle, is asking all of us, priests, religious men and women, and lay faithful in the Archdiocese of Manila, to offer our Masses and prayer for all our bishops and priests, especially those who suffer because of persecutions and false accusations,” Fr. Reginald Malicdem, Manila Archdiocese chancellor, said in a statement.

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

August 1, 2019

The Diocese of Manchester, NH has released a list of priests accused of sexual abuse. Now that church officials have taken this first step, we call on them to update the list to include critical information that has been left off, and to explain these omissions.

Releasing a list of names is important to acknowledging the depth and breadth of clergy abuse in New Hampshire. Unfortunately, as we have come to expect, the list of names and details released today is incomplete and inadequate.

For example, church officials in Manchester have omitted the names of priests that spent time in the Diocese of Manchester but were accused of abuse and listed elsewhere. To us, this omission makes no sense because clergy that abused children will likely have victims everywhere they worked.

Similarly, key details related to the allegations were left off the list. Church officials can and should include information related to when the allegations were first received, what steps the diocese took in response to those allegations and —critically — when those actions were taken and by whom. These facts are necessary to understanding not only the scope of abuse, but also the scope of any cover-up that may have occurred within the diocese.

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

August 1, 2019

A survivor has stepped forward in Mississippi to report the abuse she suffered at the hands of a Mississippi priest. We would like to thank this courageous survivor for coming forward and reporting these crimes committed against her.

We would also like to encourage other survivors to come forward and report crimes committed against themselves. Report to the police first, regardless of how long ago these crimes were committed. The Church should be the last institution notified about such crimes.

The ‘credible’ list of names released by church officials in March was years overdue.

Furthermore, delaying the addition of Balser’s name to this list because of some arbitrary internal Church procedure is a travesty. This delay harms the survivor as well as many others. Stating that there was no intercourse only serves the Church in its effort to minimize this crime. Crimes of this nature are damaging to children no matter what took place. Shame on Bishop Kopacz, his fitness board, the church lawyers and any other Church official who participated in downplaying this crime.

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SEATTLE (WA)
The Seattle Times

July 31, 2019

By Katherine Khashimova Long

When Traci Moran, an observant Jewish woman living at Joint Base Lewis-McChord with her enlisted husband, came to Army Chaplain Capt. Michael Harari in August 2018, she was looking for spiritual guidance, she said.

A Tacoma rabbi, Zalman Heber, had been sending her sexually explicit text and voice messages for almost a month despite Moran asking more than once that he stop, the messages showed.

Harari was her husband’s unit chaplain — meaning he was responsible for the spiritual well-being of the unit’s families — and the only rabbi on base. And he and Heber were part of the same Hasidic organization, Chabad, that runs synagogues and cultural centers around the world.

All of that meant, Moran said, that Harari was “in an incredibly unique position to take my report and tailor counseling to my specific religious views.”

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UNITED STATES
Yahoo Sports

August 1, 2019

By Liz Roscher

Figure skater Ashley Wagner wrote a powerful first-person essay that appeared on USA Today on Thursday, bravely recounting her sexual assault. In the essay, she says that the man who assaulted her was now-deceased figure skater John Coughlin.

Wagner says that the assault happened in June of 2008, when she had just turned 17. She went to her first party while she was at a figure skating camp in Colorado Springs, a house party thrown by several local athletes. She and her friends were offered beds in the house when they couldn’t find rides back to their hotel at the end of the night, and Wagner said that she felt “safe” because she was with her friends.

In the middle of the night, Wagner wrote that she woke up when Coughlin, who was 22 at the time, came into the room and got into bed with her. She said that he started kissing her neck and touching her, and pretending to be asleep didn’t make him stop.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

August 1, 2019

Today in Manhattan, survivors, advocates and the law firm of Jeff Anderson & Associates will:

Release The Anderson Report on Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese of New York containing the identities, histories, photographs and information on 310 clerics accused of child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of New York;

Demand full disclosure by the Archdiocese of New York, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, and the religious orders, of the identities, histories, and current whereabouts of all clergy accused of child sexual abuse who worked in the Archdiocese;

Discuss a new law, the New York Child Victims Act, which opens a one-year “window” in mid-August for survivors of child sexual abuse to take legal action against the perpetrator and the institution that may have protected the perpetrator, regardless of when the abuse occurred.

WHEN: Today – Thursday, August 1, 2019 – at 11:00 AM ET

WHERE: Courtyard Marriot – Manhattan/Central Park
Belvedere Room
1717 Broadway, New York, NY 10019

Notes: The press conference will be live-streamed via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/andersonadvocates and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AndersonAdvocates/.

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Office: (646)759-2551; Cell: (646)499-3364
Mike Reck: Office: (646)759-2551; Cell: (646)493-8058
Trusha Goffe: (646)759-2551; Cell: (646)693-6862

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SCRANTON (PA)
Citizens Voice

August 1, 2019

By David Singleton

One phase of the Diocese of Scranton’s program to compensate victims of clergy child sexual abuse is over. Now it’s on to the next.

The window for victims who had not previously reported the abuse to the diocese to register for the Independent Survivors Compensation Program closed midnight Wednesday.

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BAKERSFIELD (CA)
The Californian

Aug. 1, 2019

By John Cox

An investigation report released this week by the Bakersfield Police Department paints two seemingly irreconcilable pictures of the Rev. Craig Harrison: a hands-off father figure who preached tough love while rewarding good behavior, or a sexual predator who groomed his victims using guilt and gifts.

In the end, there was no need to decide which view was more accurate because a detective assigned to the case concluded he could not find corroborating evidence the popular priest had touched anyone inappropriately.

Adding to the ambiguity, the recently closed investigation of the priest’s actions in Bakersfield ended with a finding that certain “inappropriate acts” Harrison was accused of were actually legal. Plus, a determination was made that some acts Harrison was alleged to have committed occurred too long ago to be prosecuted.

The report’s conclusions appear to fall short of the full vindication Harrison and his supporters have claimed as they await the results of investigations police in Firebaugh and Merced are conducting into similar accusations allegedly stemming from his time as a clergyman in those cities.

Harrison and his attorneys maintain he has never acted inappropriately and that the accusations against him originate with a group of people set on destroying his reputation and collecting payments from the Catholic Church.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Reuters

August 1, 2019

By Shannon Stapleton

Thousands of child sexual abuse lawsuits are expected to flow into New York State courts in the coming weeks exposing decades-old misconduct at schools, hospitals, churches and youth clubs, according to lawyers for victims.

On Aug. 14, the Child Victims Act takes effect, giving people one year to sue over allegations of sexual abuse, regardless of when they said it occurred.

Under the law signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo in February, New York has gone from one of the toughest states to bring a case because of its strict statute of limitations to one of the easiest, potentially unleashing decades of unresolved claims.

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BALLARAT (AUSTRALIA)
The Courier

August 1, 2019

By Andrew Thomson

The Catholic Church continues to challenge a clergy sex abuse victim of notorious priest Gerald Ridsdale.

After last month arguing to delay the civil compensation trial by at least 120 days, it has now demanded the victim, who was raped as a nine-year-old in a confessional box, provide a copy of the church’s own rules in Latin.

The victim’s lawyers have been asking the church to hand over archive documents.

Under 1917 Canon Law which applied at the time of the offending, the church was required to keep an archive of all important documents, including sex assault allegations against clergy members and a record of who had seen the documents and what documents had been destroyed.

It’s not known what is included in the archive file of Ridsdale, arguably Australia’s most notorious paedophile priest with past convictions for assaults on more than 50 children.

“For the church to ask me to provide a copy of their 1917 Canon Law was bad enough, but we offered to give it to them even though you can buy it on the internet,” he said.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Catholic Herald

August 1, 2019

By Ruairidh MacLennan

Bishop John Keenan has led the Diocese of Paisley since 2014. Prior to this he served as Catholic chaplain to the University of Glasgow for 14 years, and as vocations director for the Archdiocese of Glasgow. He has emerged as a strong proponent of the New Evangelisation, and of a renewal of faith in Britain. I spoke to him in St Mirin’s Cathedral, Paisley.

Bishop Keenan, what are the main challenges facing the faith across Britain today? Could you offer a diagnosis?

Bishop John Keenan Britain is one of the most secularised countries in the Western world. It has bought into the idea that it became a modern state by winning out against religion and the Church. People see their dignity as being that which enables them to determine their own identity and morals, particularly in the realm of sexuality. This has become such a widely held view that anyone who holds an opinion to the contrary – namely, that there is an objective truth about ourselves and our lives given to us by God – is considered to be an enemy of the modern state. The Catholic Church is now the one institution in Britain which still believes that there is a God who gives us our human nature and identity, and who has made known to our reason what sort of lives we should be living in order to truly be free and fulfilled.

I am reminded of the comments which the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, made in 2018 in which he suggested that certain rights – mandated by the state – “trumped” other rights.

JK It is a new manifestation of what Orwell said: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” This is where we are now. All rights are “equal”, be they religious rights or LGBT rights … but some are more equal. Orwell used that as a parody of communism, and eventually he identified this as the fatal flaw which would bring about its downfall. It was predicated on a contradiction, as is postmodern society. He said that of the Eastern Bloc, but it now equally applies to the politics of the West. You cannot have equality for all and say that some are more equal. Ultimately it ceases to be about truth, but about power. It is built on sand, not nature, or reason. It is built on the will to power.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Catholic Herald

August 1, 2019

By Jordan Bloom

Trust is easily broken and repaired only with difficulty in a place like West Virginia, whose south-west corner is most closely associated with the notoriously grudge-prone Hatfield clan. (The Hatfield–McCoy feud, a bloody land dispute between two rural families, raged from 1863 to 1891.) The incoming Bishop Mark Brennan (pictured) of West Virginia – or of the diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, which is coterminous with the state – will have his work cut out repairing the damage done by his predecessor.

Bishop Michael Bransfield, it is alleged, used his position as shepherd of one of the most economically distressed parts of the country to live not like a successor to the Apostles but as an orange liqueur-swilling sybarite – doling out patronage money to his episcopal allies when he wasn’t making sexual advances towards seminarians. Bransfield, who protests his innocence, was once head of the board of trustees of the Papal Foundation, Theodore McCarrick’s slush fund.

One detail that has emerged during the scandal is the diocese’s possession of land in Texas from a bequest decades ago, which has become a significant source of revenue from oil leases. The $15 million figure cited as its annual revenue could do a lot of good in a place like West Virginia.

The revelations of Bransfield’s extraordinary spending habit – $4.6 million to renovate his house, more than $2 million on travel – are all the more incredible for having happened in a place where a dollar goes much further than in New York or Washington.

Bransfield was reportedly fond of pointing at diocesan property and saying, “I own this.” Well, not any more.

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