ABUSE TRACKER

JOHNSTOWN (PA)
WJAC

October 11, 2019

By Crispin Havener

A new civil lawsuit filed Thursday alleges fraud and conspiracy against Bishop McCort Catholic High School, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown and the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular, over allegations of sexual abuse made by a former student who attended the school from 2000 to 2002.

The plaintiff, listed in the complaint as “A.L.”, said the abuse by an unnamed “priest and athletic trainer” employed by the school in Johnstown, the diocese, and the Third Order Regular Friars, started after the student suffered an injury during a freshman day camp. The athletic trainer, according to the complaint, rubbed the plaintiff’s leg under the guise of treatment but proceeded to assault the student.

Other abuses are alleged in the complaint to have happened over the two year period, including in a bathroom at the Visitation Church near the school. The plaintiff said other students mentioned getting “rub downs” from the “John Doe” athletic trainer.

The victim, who is older than 30 and has aged out of the statute of limitations for civil suits, is filing suit claiming allegations of abuse by others were not known to him until the 2016 grand jury report into the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown came out. This summer, a state Superior Court panel reinstated Renee Rice’s lawsuit alleging the diocese and two bishops illegally tried to cover up her abuse to protect their reputations and that of the parish priest she claims abused her, which she did not know about until the report came out.

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.

WARREN (OH)
Tribune Chronicle

October 12, 2019

By Ed Runyan

Suit calls claims false and defamatory

Youngstown – Father Denis G. Bouchard, who was placed on administrative leave in November after the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown received an allegation that he engaged in inappropriate behavior with a minor, has filed a libel and slander suit against the accuser, his mother and the diocese.

The lawsuit, filed late last month in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, names the alleged victim, who lives in Chardon, his mother, who lives in Orwell, and the diocese as defendants.

It says the allegations are false and defamatory.

Monsignor John Zuraw, chancellor of the Diocese of Youngstown, when asked about the lawsuit, said, “Because there is a civil suit that is active, we cannot make any comment because of the legal ramifications.”

Retired Youngstown police Sgt. Delphine Baldwin-Casey, diocese victim assistance coordinator, said in November the purported victim was a minor at the time of the alleged incidents but is now an adult.

The Diocese said in November its Diocesan Review Board had recommended to Youngstown Bishop George V. Murry that further investigation be done to determine the credibility of the allegations against Bouchard, who was pastor of Queen of the Holy Rosary Parish on Scoville Drive in Vienna.

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

NEW YORK (NY)
Catholic New York

October 11, 2019

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Auxiliary Bishop John J. Jenik, who is 75, the age at which canon law requires bishops turn in their resignation to the pope.

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, made the announcement Oct. 10 in Washington, D.C.

In October 2018, Bishop Jenik was removed from public ministry pending a Vatican review of a decades-old accusation of sexual abuse made against him, a claim he denies.

He stepped down as pastor of Our Lady of Refuge parish in the Bronx, where he had been pastor since 1985.

He has been an auxiliary bishop since 2014.

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.

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

October 10, 2019

By Jay Tokasz

A Chicago-based insurance company has launched an opening salvo in what are expected to be bruising legal battles between the Buffalo Diocese and its insurers over payouts on clergy sex abuse claims under the Child Victims Act and the legal costs of defending the diocese against the claims.

Continental Insurance Company is arguing in court papers that insurance policies it may have issued to the diocese more than 40 years ago don’t apply to childhood sex abuse lawsuits being filed now against the diocese.

Potentially millions of dollars in legal costs and sex abuse claims are at stake in the case.

Continental urged the court to rule that the company was not obligated to pay for sex abuse claims or for the diocese’s legal costs in defending itself against the claims. The insurer also argued that it wasn’t obligated to provide funds to help offset the expenses of the diocese’s voluntary compensation program, which already paid $17.5 million to 106 abuse victims.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Spectrum News

October 8, 2019

By Mark Goshgarian

After months of parishioners voicing mistrust toward the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo over the handling of the clergy abuse crisis, Pope Francis has sent Bishop of Brooklyn Nicholas DiMarzio to Buffalo.

“It’s the pope saying, ‘I hear you.’ The alarm over Buffalo is so significant to have risen at that top most level,” said Rocco Palmo, Vatican expert.

The Diocese is the third placed under a visitation since the pontiff became leader of the Church in 2013.

“This visitation has come from the highest level of the Catholic Church. This is the equivalent in the Catholic Church of either an FBI investigation or a grand jury. It’s kind of like, in a way, being charged with a crime, and kind of hanging in that limbo,” said Palmo.

Palmo has known DiMarzio for 20 years, and says the Bishop’s fact-finding mission will be handled quickly and responsibly.

“And they’re sending in someone again with the universal reputation for being tough. Anyone who calls this guy soft has no idea who they’re dealing with,” said Palmo.

DiMarzio is expected to interview stakeholders, evaluate Bishop Richard Malone’s handling of clergy cases, review files and documents, as well as more than 200 Child Victims Act lawsuits.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Catholic News Service via National Catholic Reporter

October 7, 2019

By Junno Arocho Esteves

Vatican City – Pope Francis named Spanish Archbishop Alberto Ortega Martin as the new apostolic nuncio to Chile, the Vatican announced.

Ortega, 56, served as nuncio to Jordan and Iraq prior to his appointment to the South American country, the Vatican said Oct. 7.

Ordained to the priesthood in 1990, Ortega entered the Vatican diplomatic service in 1997, serving in posts in Nicaragua, South Africa and Lebanon. He was ordained a bishop in 2015.

His appointment comes at a time when the Catholic Church in Chile is under continuous scrutiny over its handling of cases involving the abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.

Ortega’s predecessor, Italian Archbishop Ivo Scapolo, whom Francis transferred to Portugal in late August, often was criticized by survivors for his alleged inaction and complicity in covering up cases of abuse.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Catholic Herald

October 9, 2019

By Cindy Wooden

The cardinal said accusations that he is against Pope Francis are ‘diabolical’

Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, said the people who portray him as an opponent of Pope Francis are being used by the devil to help divide the Church.

“The truth is that the Church is represented on earth by the vicar of Christ, that is by the Pope. And whoever is against the Pope is, ipso facto, outside the Church,” the cardinal said in an interview published on October 7 in Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily.

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The Corriere piece was published to coincide with the release of a new book-length interview with Cardinal Sarah, “The Day is Now Far Spent.” The English edition was released on September 22 by Ignatius Press in the United States.

*
“I would add that every Pope is right for his time,” the cardinal said. “Providence looks after us very well, you know.”

However, Cardinal Sarah’s new book is filled with warnings about how a lack of faith, trust in God and adherence to tradition is threatening the Catholic Church, particularly in Europe and the wealthy West. But he especially focuses on clerical sexual abuse and how that has meant “the mystery of betrayal oozes from the walls of the Church.”

Still, in the chapter, “The Crisis of the Church,” the book includes the cardinal saying, “I would like to remind everyone about Jesus’ words to St Peter, ‘You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church’ (Mt 16:18). We have the assurance that this saying of Jesus is realized in what we call the infallibility of the Church. The spouse of Christ, headed by the successor of Peter, can live through crises and storms.”

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Times

October 11, 2019

By Jack Power

Youth organisation has been embroiled in a a historic sex abuse scandal in recent times

A woman involved in the management of last year’s papal visit to Ireland is to become the chief executive of Scouting Ireland.

Anne Griffin is to take over as head of the youth organisation from Dr John Lawlor in January, and will be the first woman to hold the role in the organisation’s history.

Ms Griffin was the general manager of the World Meeting of Families, a major religious gathering which saw Pope Francis deliver a Mass in Dublin’s Phoenix Park in August of last year.

She was also the general manager of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress, another major international Catholic Church event, which was held in Dublin in 2012.

She was also employed as a consultant advise on the running of the 2015 and 2020 congresses.

Dr Lawlor has been chief executive of Scouting Ireland since 2012, and previously held several national volunteer roles in the youth organisation, which has more than 50,000 members.

Scouting Ireland has been at the centre of controversy over the last two years, following several governance and child protection scandals which were revealed by The Irish Times.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

October 13, 2019

By Kim Willsher

[With English-subtitled trailer.]

The director’s new film, By the Grace of God, retells the story of a paedophile priest. Ozon reveals how the victims’ stories unlocked his own painful memory

For most film directors, the nail-biting action unfolds on screen. Not, however, for François Ozon. The theatrics over his latest film played out in the French courts as he fought a last-minute attempt to stop it being released and found himself at the centre of a legal and national controversy. Today, Ozon can almost but not quite laugh about his starring role in the off-screen drama that earlier this year came perilously close to having his €5.9m (£5.2m) film By the Grace of God – the story of a real-life scandal involving a paedophile priest – canned.

“I suppose I was naive to think there wouldn’t be attempts to stop it coming out,” he says. “There was huge tension over the court case and we really didn’t know if the film could be released. The judgment was on the Tuesday; the film was due out on the Wednesday. We only knew the decision the night before.

“There were two court cases, but each time there has been legal action the judges have found in our favour. Fortunately.”

Even for Ozon, who is known for zigzagging across cinematic genres – farce, horror, comedy, psychosexual – By the Grace of God is a departure from style, a dramatised retelling of the story of the victims of Bernard Preynat, a former Catholic priest in the city of Lyon who is believed to have abused 70 children over three decades.

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DENVER (CO)
Colorado Sun

October 7, 2019

By Jennifer Brown

The announcement comes ahead of the release of an investigative report into abuses by priests going back decades

Victims of sexual abuse by Colorado priests can now apply for financial reparations from a settlement fund announced Monday, part of a healing process after years of scandal in the Catholic Church.

Those who have already come forward will receive packets with instructions on how to apply for compensation — 65 packets were going out Monday to alleged victims already known to the church. Those who have yet to come forward must register by Nov. 30 for an eligibility review, no matter how long ago the abuse occurred.

The fund, officially called the Colorado Independent Reconciliation and Reparations Program, was a joint project by the state attorney general’s office and the Catholic Church. It is independent of church control. Two nationally known victims’ fund administrators will administer the program, with oversight from a committee headed by former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown.

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.

DENVER (CO)
Colorado Sun

October 7, 2019

By Jennifer Brown

The announcement comes ahead of the release of an investigative report into abuses by priests going back decades

Victims of sexual abuse by Colorado priests can now apply for financial reparations from a settlement fund announced Monday, part of a healing process after years of scandal in the Catholic Church.

Those who have already come forward will receive packets with instructions on how to apply for compensation — 65 packets were going out Monday to alleged victims already known to the church. Those who have yet to come forward must register by Nov. 30 for an eligibility review, no matter how long ago the abuse occurred.

The fund, officially called the Colorado Independent Reconciliation and Reparations Program, was a joint project by the state attorney general’s office and the Catholic Church. It is independent of church control. Two nationally known victims’ fund administrators will administer the program, with oversight from a committee headed by former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown.

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

NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

October 9, 2019

By Luke Hansen, S.J.

Most bishops who lead dioceses in the Amazon support the ordination of married men of proven virtue, or viri probati, as a way of addressing the lack of priests in the region, said the retired Bishop Erwin Kräutler of Xingu, Brazil, speaking to journalists after a Vatican press briefing on Oct. 9. “I guess that [of] the bishops who are in the Amazon region, two-thirds are in favor of the viri probati,” he said.

At the briefing, Paolo Ruffini, the prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, said that synod members have described the uniqueness of the Amazon region, which has “dioceses as big as nations.” He added, “Viri probati does not mean changing the law of celibacy in the church” but, “depending on the discernment” that takes place in the synod, “this law, like all human laws, can have exceptions in concrete cases.”

On this point, Bishop Kräutler said there are thousands of indigenous communities in the Amazon that “do not celebrate the Eucharist except perhaps one, two or three times a year.”

“The Eucharist, for us Catholics, is the source and summit of our faith,” the bishop continued. “For the love of God, these people don’t have it!” The bishops in favor of ordaining married men, he said, “are not against celibacy. We just want these brothers and sisters of ours not to have just a celebration of the word but also the celebration of the Eucharist.”

Several speakers at the synod have also proposed the ordination of women to the permanent diaconate.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
news.com.au

October 13, 2019

By Gary Nunn

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/marching-to-hell-why-young-men-are-still-choosing-to-become-catholic-priests/news-story/6a3ec306353091c2994d2de09181e968

They’re in their sexual prime — but these men and others like them are flocking to a career that demands they swear off sex for life.

Why are young men still choosing to become Catholic priests? It’s a fair enough question to ask any trainee priest in the current Australian climate: who, today, is choosing to devote their entire lives to the Catholic Church?

In the context of George Pell’s imprisonment, the Catholic Church having the most cases in the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse, stories of paedophile priests moved from parish to parish and plummeting church attendance, few would dispute that the once juggernaut institution is in crisis.

The answer, then, might surprise you.

I was given rare access within the Catholic Church’s notoriously tight PR machine to three young trainee priests all based within Australia’s largest seminary: Melbourne’s Corpus Christi College — where Pell himself studied and the heartland of a network of paedophile priests who operated there in the 1970s.

I ask what motivated them to give their lives over to an institution facing such momentous challenges.

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

October 10, 2019

Buffalo, N.Y. – Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn has begun his apostolic visitation of the scandal-hit Diocese of Buffalo.

A statement released by the Diocese of Brooklyn Thursday said that DiMarzio had traveled to the diocese of Bishop Richard Malone and interviewed more than 30 people earlier this week.

“The Bishop takes his role as Visitator seriously and is determined to continue the fact-finding mission he has been directed to carry out by the Holy See,” said the Diocese of Brooklyn in the Oct. 10 statement.

“Both lay faithful and clergy, members of the Diocesan staff, and others have been invited to be a part of this process so that Bishop DiMarzio can gather information from several perspectives as part of this fact-finding mission of the Buffalo Diocese.”

DiMarzio was appointed to inspect the Buffalo diocese by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, last week. In an announcement released Oct. 3, the apostolic nunciature to the United States released a statement underscoring that the process was “non-judicial and non-administrative,” meaning that no formal charges are currently being considered against the scandal-plagued Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo.

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VANCOUVER (BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA)
Coast Reporter

October 8, 2019

By Jeremy Hainsworth

‘He shoved his ugly tongue in my mouth. I hated it. I prayed to God to stop it.’

A woman seeking help from a Kamloops Roman Catholic priest dealing with grief from her father’s death in 1976 instead found herself being groped by him in his office, BC Supreme Court heard Oct. 8.

Rosemary Anderson alleged in a Dec. 22, 2016, notice of civil claim the sexual abuse at the hands of Father Erlindo “Lindo” Molon, now 86, started when she was 26 when she sought solace after her father’s death. She names Molon and the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Kamloops, A Corporation Sole in the claim.

The court has heard Anderson went to then Bishop Adam Exner with her concerns about Molon.

Anderson had moved to the Interior city to take up a teaching job with the diocese after doing practicum work in Rock Creek and later in Greenwood.

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FERNDALE (MI)
Church Militant

October 10, 2019

By Stephen Wynne

New York – Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a New York prelate accused of sexually abusing a minor.

On Thursday, the Vatican announced that New York Auxiliary Bp. John Jenik is stepping down, nearly two years after he was first accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy.

Jenik, 75, was removed from ministry in October 2018 after a nine-month investigation by the archdiocesan lay review board.

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NORWICH (ENGLAND)
Eastern Daily Press

October 10, 2019

A vicar who was suspended after being arrested has been re-released by police as an investigation continues.

Matthew Payne was vicar of Christ Church, Lowestoft, until he stepped down on Sunday, September 29.

The vicar was arrested on Thursday, September 19 as part of a police investigation, and was released on bail until Thursday, October 10.

Mr Payne was arrested as part of an “ongoing police investigation”, officers said, and was taken to Great Yarmouth Police Investigation Centre for questioning until he was released on bail.

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TOLEDO (OH)
The Blade

Oct. 12, 2019

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo announced Saturday that allegations the Rev. Nelson Beaver sexually abused minors roughly 25 years ago were deemed valid by the Diocesan Review Board, which voted unanimously that he is “not suitable for priestly ministry.”

Bishop Daniel Thomas has accepted the review board’s recommendation and the case will be presented to the Holy See Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in Rome, for their review and final determination, according to a diocese news release.

Father Beaver was pastor of Resurrection Parish in Lexington and St. Mary of the Snows Parish in Mansfield at the time he was placed on leave last year. Church officials have said he denies any wrongdoing.

He retired earlier this year, but is still on administrative leave, meaning he, “cannot exercise public priestly ministry, administer any of the Sacraments, wear clerical attire or present himself as a priest,” according to the diocese.

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PORTLAND (OR)
Catholic Sentinel

Oct. 11, 2019

By Ed Langlois

It’s a Friday evening at Kennedy School, a pub in Northeast Portland. Revelers lift their glasses and guffaw.

But in a quiet back room, two dozen spiritually serious people have gathered quietly. They are grappling with the feeling that they have been manipulated and conned by leaders they saw as conduits to God.

The Spiritual Abuse Forum for Education, SAFE, is a Portland-area support group for those who have suffered mind control, financial swindling and overbearing manipulation by religious leaders.

In the Kennedy School crowd, mostly made up of people in their 30s and 40s, is Julie Anne Smith. A former Catholic, Smith began speaking out about what she saw as spiritual abuse at Beaverton Grace Bible Church.

In 2008, when a church employee was fired, Smith confronted the pastor because she felt the dismissal was unjust. The pastor responded by ordering Smith to recant her complaints, which did not sit well with her. Smith left the church and began posting Google reviews about what she saw as abuse, including alleged sexual assault. She called the church “creepy” and unsafe.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
FOX19 TV

Oct. 11, 2019

By Jennifer Edwards Baker

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati announced Friday it has submitted a report to the Vatican concerning the handling of allegations of abuse against one of its priests who is accused of raping an altar boy 30 years ago, an archdiocese spokeswoman said Friday.

The report related to the Rev. Geoff Drew was sent Aug. 30 and they are waiting for the Vatican’s response, said Jennifer Schack in a statement to FOX19 NOW.

“We anticipate that the Vatican may order a full investigation into the handling of this case. Archbishop Dennis Schnurr takes any accusation of sexual abuse very seriously, as well as any possible lapse in internal procedures for handling allegations.”

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati announced this to FOX19 NOW when we sought comment from them after a coalition of concerned Catholics called for Pope Francis and other Catholic leaders to conduct a complete investigation of the Archdiocese.

A small group of concerned parents from Saint Ignatius Loyola, Sacred Heart, and others, has joined with nearly 600 other concerned Catholics from over 50 parishes within the Cincinnati Archdiocese to petition them to investigate Archdiocesan commitment to the Decree of Child Protection “after the recent scandal involving Drew.”

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SIOUX CITY (IA)
Sioux City Journal

Oct. 11, 2019

By Mason Dockter

An alleged victim of sexual abuse has sued the Diocese of Sioux City, claiming he was victimized by a diocesan priest as a young child in the late 1960s.

Samuel Heinrich said in the lawsuit that The Rev. Dale Koster sexually and physically abused him, beginning in 1968 when he was about 9 or 10 years old, and continuing through at least 1970. The alleged abuse occurred at the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic school and at the parish’s rectory, according to the suit, which was filed Wednesday in Woodbury County District Court.

Koster retired in 1996 and died at the end of May at age 94, according to his obituary. He was not among the 28 priests the Sioux City Diocese identified earlier this year as being credibly accused of sexual abuse, dating to the 1940s.

Diocese spokeswoman Susan O’Brien said in an email Friday night that she could not specifically comment on Heinrich’s allegations.

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BONN (GERMANY)
Deutsche Welle

Oct. 10, 2019

A French court ruled on Monday that Francois Ozon’s film By the Grace of God, which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize on Saturday at the International Film Festival, may be released in France, according to news agency AFP.

The domestic theatrical release of Ozon’s work, which tackles France’s most important church child abuse trial to date, was threatened as the priest at the center of the case had gone to court to try to prevent it from being shown in the country.

The judge determined that film meets the requirements of the law since a text in its epilogue mentions that the priest is presumed innocent until found guilty. However, the priest’s lawyer said they would appeal the decision, even if it would not prevent the movie’s release. “It’s a question of principle,” the attorney said, adding that it would otherwise open the door to films interfering with legal action.

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CHARLOTTE (NC)
WBTV TV

Oct. 11, 2019

A Catholic society of priests and brothers headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio has released a list of 11 men it believes are credibly accused of sexual abuse. The list includes five men who formerly served in Charlotte.

Glenmary Home Missioners commissioned the forensic review that gave rise to the list in 2018. The goal of releasing the list is to promote transparency and help bring about healing for the victims, Glenmary President Father Dan Dorsey stated in a letter.

“Glenmary has become painfully aware that in the past we have failed to protect minors and vulnerable adults,” Dorsey said. “In addition, we have realized how often our response to victims has been inadequate. We deeply regret these failures. We continue to seek your forgiveness for our mistakes. We are committed to healing and justice for all those involved.

Glenmary defines a credible allegation as one in which a preponderance of the evidence suggests the allegation is true, Dorsey explains, or where there is a conviction in court or an admission of truth by the accused.

The list of 11 men includes seven priests and four brothers. It is available here.

Five of those men formerly served in Charlotte, according to the list.
Al Behm
Adelbert (Del) Holmes – Deceased
Ed Smith – Deceased
Gino Vertassich – Deceased
Tony Jablonowski

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BOSTON (MA)
The Conversation

October 10, 2019

By Mathew Schmalz

Following sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, there is a worldwide push to end the guarantee of secrecy of confession – called “the seal of the confessional.”

On Sept. 11, 2019, two Australian states, Victoria and Tasmania, passed bills requiring priests to report any child abuse revealed in the confessional.

Australia has been at the center of the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis. In December 2018, influential Australian Cardinal George Pell was convicted of sexually abusing an altar boy.

Australian bishops have, however, made it clear that the seal of confession is “sacred,” regardless of the sin confessed. With regard to Tasmania’s new law, Archbishop Julian Porteous argued that removing confession’s protection of confidentiality would stop pedophiles from coming forward. That would prevent priests from encouraging them to surrender to authorities.

In the U.S., a California bill proposing ending priestly confidentiality regarding the abuse of minors was withdrawn in July 2019 after a campaign by Catholics and other religious freedom advocates.

Catholic confession has been formally safeguarded by the U.S. Supreme Court since 1818. But therapists, doctors and a few other professionals are required to break confidentiality when there is an immediate threat of harm. Priests are not.

Why is confession so important in the Catholic Church?

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NEW YORK (NY)
Newsweek

October 11, 2019

By K. Thor Jensen

Melbourne City Council member Nic Frances Gilley has introduced a proposal to require Catholic churches to comply with the province of Victoria’s new mandatory abuse reporting laws or have signs posted outside warning parents that the houses of worship might pose a danger to children.

The Age reports that Gilley is requesting the state “write to all churches and places of worship requesting assurances that all staff and associates will abide by the law of mandatory reporting,” and if they do not provide those assurances the state should erect appropriate signage.

In September, Victoria passed the Children Legislation Amendment Act 2019, which added religious leaders to the list of individuals who are legally mandated to report child abuse to the authorities when they learn about it. That list already included police, teachers, nurses, midwives and other occupations.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

October 12, 2019

By Alan Pergament

Buffalo native David Wright’s journalistic crusade to investigate sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Church started when he was a radio reporter in Boston in the 1990s.

The issue has taken the ABC News correspondent back to his hometown to cover the scandal surrounding Bishop Richard J. Malone’s handling of the crisis in the Buffalo Diocese.

He interviewed Malone for a compelling July 26 edition of “Nightline” that included interviews with Malone, whistleblower Siobhan O’Connor and an alleged victim of sexual abuse.

Wright isn’t finished with the story. He expects to eventually do a follow-up report for “Nightline.”

“We are talking about it all the time,” Wright said by phone. “We were very close to talking to the second whistleblower (Rev. Ryszard Biernat) who came forward. We had an agreement … but unfortunately, he kind of got cold feet in terms of going to a national audience.”

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OTAGO (NEW ZEALAND)
Otago Daily Times via Radio New Zealand

October 12, 2019

By Chris Morris

The handling of historic sexual offending within the Catholic Diocese of Dunedin by then-Bishop John Kavanagh has been referred to the Vatican by New Zealand’s top Catholic.

It was confirmed yesterday Cardinal John Dew, the Archbishop of Wellington, has written to the Vatican to refer the matter to higher authorities.

The move came after Pope Francis, earlier this year, issued new procedures for the handling of sexual abuse and cover-ups, including that bishops be held accountable for past actions.

Dunedin Bishop Michael Dooley, contacted overseas, confirmed the move yesterday, but said the National Office of Professional Standards (NOPS) – part of the Catholic Church in New Zealand – was also involved.

*

Confirmation of the Vatican’s involvement came after ODT Insight, in its Marked by the Cross series, revealed significant offending by priests, religious brothers and lay teachers within the Catholic Diocese of Dunedin, much of it dating back decades.

That included the actions of a former Catholic priest, Magnus Murray, whose offending against boys in Dunedin – from the 1950s to the 1970s – was brought to Bishop Kavanagh’s attention in 1972.

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WELLINGTON (NEW ZEALAND)
Radio New Zealand

October 11, 2019

By Phil Pennington

A prolific children’s author says she is sorry for women who had sexual relations with a Catholic Bishop, but that she has seen young women flirt with priests.

“Do they think that a vow of celibacy guarantees immunity?” asked Joy Cowley, in an online post in response to the resignation of Palmerston North Bishop Charles Drennan.

He quit after admitting inappropriate sexual behaviour with a young woman.

An older woman several years ago made a confidential complaint about him.

Ms Cowley, a Catholic great-grandmother in her 80s, also writes books on spirituality.

The pope should have said “who am I to judge” (a phrase he is famous for), rather than accept Bishop Drennan’s resignation, she wrote online at CathNews New Zealand.

Her primary target was celibacy for priests.

“I am sorry that a reputable magazine connected with the church, should send emails to subscribers giving details of Bishop Charles Drennan’s resignation,” she said.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
WESA/WITF

October 11, 2019

By Brett Sholtis

A lawsuit filed against the Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, Bishop Ronald Gainer and the diocese’s former bishop, Kevin Rhoades, alleges the church turned a blind eye while a teacher drugged and raped a student.

The plaintiff and his attorney say the lawsuit points to the limits of the victims’ compensation funds that are paid for by the Catholic church and supported by some state senate Republicans.

In 1974, Patrick Duggan was a 13-year-old student at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic High School in Harrisburg.

Duggan says that’s when his history teacher invited him and other boys to his house. That teacher, Ronald Stewart, allegedly gave Duggan and other boys alcohol, marijuana and hallucinogenic drugs, the filing states.

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FAIRFIELD (OH)
Glenmary Home Missioners

October 11, 2019

By Father Dan Dorsey GHM, President, Glenmary Home Missioners

[List appended below letter.]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Glenmary has become painfully aware that in the past we have failed to protect minors and vulnerable adults. In addition, we have realized how often our response to victims has been inadequate. We deeply regret these failures. We continue to seek your forgiveness for our mistakes. We are committed to healing and justice for all those involved.

In a spirit of accountability and transparency we are publishing a list of all Glenmarians against whom there are credible allegations of abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult. It is our hope that publishing these names will be a step in the healing process for the victims.

Glenmary defines a credible allegation as a preponderance of evidence that the allegation is more likely true than not after investigation. Credibility can also be established by conviction in a court, or by the admission of the truth by the accused.

The list includes name, birth year, the year the accused joined Glenmary, current status and dioceses where each man served. The nature of Glenmary’s missionary work means most members have served in a variety of ministries across several dioceses.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
Cincinnati Enquirer

October 11, 2019

By Madeline Mitchell and Cameron Knight

A Fairfield Catholic society identified 11 of its members in a list of credibly accused sexual abusers on Friday, according to a press release from Glenmary Home Missioners.

Seven priests and four brothers from Glenmary Home Missioners, located at 4119 Glenmary Trace in Fairfield, were revealed in the list. According to the release, the list is the result of a year-long forensic review commissioned by Glenmary to promote transparency and healing for victims.

Most members have served in a variety of ministries across several dioceses due to the nature of Glenmary’s missionary work, the release states.

Glenmary Home Missioners released a letter from President Father Dan Dorsey with the list of abusers.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
WKRC

October 11, 2019

by Angela Ingram

Fairfield OH – Seven priests and four brothers associated with a Cincinnati-based organization are accused of sex abuse.

Glenmary Home Missioners released a list Friday. The report was self-initiated. The religious organization hired a retired FBI investigator to look into potential abusers and come up with this list.

The names go back as far as 1941. They are the names of four brothers and seven priests who were members of Glenmary Home Missioners.

A spokesman for the religious organization says Glenmary did its own investigation after the scandals of sex abuse involving former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked.

“This list is the result of more than a year-long forensic review that Glenmary leadership commissioned,“ John Stegeman of Glenmary said. “Glenmary determines a credible allegation as a preponderance of evidence that is more likely true than not true.“

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JOHNSTOWN (PA)
The Tribune-Democrat

October 11, 2019

By Dave Sutor

An allegation of sexual abuse – made by an anonymous male victim identified only as “A.L.” – has led to the filing of a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Bishop McCort Catholic High School and Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular.

The plaintiff, represented by Aaron Rihn, a Pittsburgh personal injury attorney, has accused the defendants of negligence, fraud, constructive fraud, conspiracy and fraudulent concealment, according to a complaint filed on Thursday in the Cambria County Court of Common Pleas.

No priest accused in the 2016 grand jury report that exposed alleged abuse and cover-up within the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese is listed as having been at Bishop McCort during the time when the alleged abused occurred from 2000 to 2002.

The alleged abuser is listed as “John Doe” in the filing, but identified as a priest, Franciscan and athletic trainer employed by the school and ostensibly by the diocese. He is deceased.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
WLWT TV

Oct 11, 2019

Eleven men – seven priest and four brothers – are accused of the sexual abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult.

Cincinnati-based Glenmary Home Missioners released a list of men accused of sexual abuse. Officials with the Catholic institution said the accusations are credible.

Eight of the 11 men involved have served in the Cincinnati area. Only two of the 11 men identified are still living.

Officials with Glenmary Home Missioners said the list is the result of a yearlong forensic review, that they themselves commissioned to promote transparency. Glenmary Home Missioners is a Roman Catholic religious institute of priests and brothers.

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SPOKANE (WA)
Gonzaga Bulletin

Oct. 11, 2019

By Anonymous sophomore male Gonzaga student

I don’t know how I feel about the time I was sexually assaulted.

There are feelings, remnants of memory and some general mental health problems.

I have thought about it daily since it happened all those years ago. It’s disjointed, unclear and foggy in my mind. One of the first unknowns that confronts me when I think about the assault is details. I might have a murky memory because of repression or the usual fading of memory, I’m not quite certain. The fact that I didn’t comprehend the assault at the time furthers the confusion.

Like so many others who have been assaulted, at the time sex wasn’t in my vocabulary, much less what abuse was. The memories became less distinct even as my ability to comprehend it sharpened.

Being honest with myself was hard. When I first accepted what happened was the first time I confided in my best friend. I couldn’t say the words, I typed it out on my phone and refused to look at them while they read it. It’s hard to think about of how I felt telling my friend then.

The feeling before revealing something so deeply personal is more physical than emotional. It feels like looking down over the edge of a cliff, gazing at the water I will jump into below. I know that when I land I’ll be alive, I’ll probably even be better off for the experience. The knowledge of what comes next doesn’t make what has to be said any better. You can’t take it

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DUNEDIN (NEW ZEALAND)
Otago Daily Times

Oct. 10, 2019

“I could drink half a bottle of vodka right now and probably still have a lucid conversation with you,” he said.

Not now, now he’s dry.

He was a functioning alcoholic back then, but still, he couldn’t remember sending the email.

“The first line, and this was five years ago, was, ‘If there’s ever a Royal Commission in New Zealand, I will come back and give evidence’.

“And as I said, I didn’t remember writing it, and I got contacted three weeks later by the Church and it was a surprise.”

He has come back and has given evidence in Christchurch recently.

It is Marc’s second attempt to get some kind of justice for how he was robbed of his childhood in Dunedin in the 1980s by four Catholic leaders who sexually violated him for years.

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

Oct. 11, 2019

The Catholic Benefits Association said last week that sexual abuse norms introduced by Pope Francis in May will likely require U.S. dioceses to amend their own internal policies regarding the definition and reporting of sexual abuse and misconduct.

In an Oct. 3 webinar, L. Martin Nussbaum, general counsel for the Catholic Benefits Association, told diocesan leaders and administrators that Vos estis lux mundi, the motu proprio on sexual abuse and misconduct issued by Pope Francis May 7, takes important steps to provide a safer environment in the Church, which require implementation by dioceses.

Vos estis, Nussbaum said, expands diocesan duties regarding vulnerable persons and abuse of authority, protects Church whistleblowers, increases the role of laity in receiving reports and in conducting investigations, improves transparency regarding discipline of bishops, heightens the ecclesial role of metropolitans, and expands offers of assistance to the families of abuse victims.

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JACKSON (MS)
Clarion Ledger

Oct. 11, 2019

By Mark Belenchia

Former Diocese attorney Frank Vollor referred to me as having a vengeance. I take issue with that assessment.

I and many other survivors of sex abuse do have grievances.

I will continue working to expose the Catholic Church’s wrongdoing. Using phrases like “we’re sorry”, “please forgive us”, “we will pray for you” — without accountability — are hollow and calculated diversions. I will not debate Vollor on different legalese, he is the attorney. I won’t cloud the issues by referring to Mississippi Code or speculate as to how and why there is no police report on file. I will not discuss the legal expungement process. All of that is nothing more than ‘gaslighting’ and I stand behind my previous statements.

Let’s discuss the facts. The Jackson diocese fitness review board now in place has deemed the allegations against Brother Paul West credible. Father James Gannon, the Franciscan prelate, has deemed them credible as well. Raphael Love, a 9-year boy, reported West to officials in 1998. At that time, West left Greenwood and had psychological testing done in St. Louis.

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Get Religion blog

Oct. 11, 2019

By Bobby Ross

Last week, I got a news alert from The Oklahoman, my local newspaper and former employer, with a headline that certainly grabbed my attention: “Damning report rips Oklahoma City Archdiocese for poor responses to credible child sexual abuse allegations against priests.”

For anybody paying attention to the latest Catholic clergy sex abuse scandals, the basic storyline probably sounds familiar.

The Oklahoma City Archdiocese is just one of many dioceses nationwide that have produced such reports.

This is the blunt summary from The Oklahoman:

For more than a half-century, Oklahoma City’s Catholic Archdiocese responded to reports of child sexual abuse by its priests with bungled internal investigations that masked the problems and often enabled the abuse to continue for years, according to a damning report released Thursday.

“The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City failed to take prompt action despite credible evidence and warning signs of sexual abuse of minors,” the McAfee & Taft law firm said in a report commissioned by the Archdiocese that was made public Thursday.

The report identified and named 11 priests in the Archdiocese who had been “credibly accused” of child sexual abuse since 1960. McAfee & Taft made it clear that its investigation is not yet complete.

“There are additional files still under investigation and as those investigations conclude, additional names of priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of minors will be released as warranted,” McAfee & Taft said.

In some respects, that sounds like the same old, same old — but then I got to a part of the story that made my jaw drop.

Mainly because I realized that the coverup alleged had occurred right under my nose — or at least my notepad — when I served as religion editor for The Oklahoman in 2002. You’ll remember that the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal blew up that year amid Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage by the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team, later featured in an Oscar-winning movie.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

Oct. 11, 2019

By Elise Harris

When a top papal advisor earlier this week suggested that Catholic prelates “exit” the clerical abuse scandal, in order to lift the “cloud” hanging over the Church, there was an understandable uproar from victims.

In effect, the resulting controversy involving Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, is a clear illustration of the pressures the abuse crisis has generated – both on victims, who want to be heard and not dismissed, as well as on Church officials, who feel the crippling effect of the crisis and want to see the Church get up off the mat.

In such a context, sensitivities are on high alert, something Turkson discovered the hard way on a recent trip to Ireland, home to one of the most damaging clerical abuse scandals anywhere in the world.

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SCRANTON (PA)
WNEP TV

Oct. 10, 2019

The Diocese of Scranton has named two more priests they say have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor.

The priests are Albert Oldfield, a diocesan priest, and James Gormley, S.J.

Fr. Oldfield served at about a dozen parishes in the diocese.

Fr. Gormley served at Scranton Prep in the 1940s and 1950s.

The release of the names is part of a pledge to be open and transparent in the way that the Diocese of Scranton handles occurrences of child sexual abuse, according to a release issued Thursday.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Patriot News

Oct. 10, 2019

By Ivey DeJesus

A newly filed lawsuit against the Diocese of Harrisburg underscores the debate over the argument that victims compensation funds barred scores of people who had been sexually abused as children by employees of Catholic dioceses.

In his lawsuit, Patrick J. Duggan of Harrisburg claims that starting when he was 13, his history teacher at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School began to ply him with alcohol and drugs to then sexually molest and rape him.

Duggan, 58, claims that teacher Ronald Stewart, who lived next to the school playground and across the church, continued to abuse him until he was 17. Stewart died in 2010.

In addition to the diocese, the lawsuit names former bishop Kevin Rhoades and current Bishop Ronald Gainer.

Duggan was barred from making a claim with the victims compensation fund that the diocese established in the wake of the 2018 grand jury report that uncovered widespread and systemic sexual abuse of minors across seven decades across the Catholic dioceses of Pennsylvania. St. Francis of Assisi is within the Diocese of Harrisburg.

The diocese’s compensation fund – like the other programs established across the state – narrowly defined eligibility in the program to victims claiming they had been sexually abused as children by priests. Victims claiming that their predators were teachers, nuns or other employees were barred from making claims.

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ALLENTOWN ( PA)
Morning Call

Oct. 10, 2019

By Paul Muschick

I hope Catholics didn’t buy the Allentown Diocese’s story this summer that it had to cut jobs so it could pay victims of priest sex abuse.

It was common knowledge that the diocese was flush with real estate — some in prime locations for development.

A Morning Call investigation published online this week revealed just how flush the diocese is. It controls more than $300 million worth of property on more than 1,200 acres in Lehigh and Northampton counties. And little of that property has been tapped to raise cash for its victims compensation fund.

That figure doesn’t include more real estate in Berks, Carbon and Schuylkill counties.

I argued in July when the diocese claimed “severe financial stress” that it could sell more of its assets instead of creating new victims, diocese employees. Twenty-three workers were let go, many through attrition and a voluntary retirement program, and pay was frozen for others.

The diocese said in a news release then that “cost reductions were necessary to enable charitable and pastoral programs to continue.”

I’ll argue that was preventable.

The release of a grand jury report in August 2018 should have expedited property sales. The report detailed sexual abuse accusations against 301 priests statewide. They had abused more than 1,000 children over several decades.

The report named 37 priests from the Allentown Diocese, and the diocese itself added another 19 names. The diocese had to know it was going to have to pay a price for its sins of the past. It could have sold real estate and stocked money away sooner. It didn’t have to wait for the grand jury to conclude its investigation, which took two years. All signs pointed to it being damning.

Morning Call investigative reporter Emily Opilo reported this week that in the past year, the diocese has sold four properties, for a total of about $1.65 million, across the five counties it covers. A fifth sale is pending. The diocese told her it intends to sell more to raise millions for the compensation fund.

I recognize it takes time to sell real estate. But other dioceses were more proactive.

The Philadelphia Archdiocese sold its 16-room, 23,350-square-foot bishop’s mansion to St. Joseph’s University for $10 million in 2012, following a grand jury investigation that prompted criminal charges against a church official and priests.

Allentown Bishop Alfred Schlert, as previous bishops did, lives in an 11-room, five-bathroom home on Chew Street in the city’s West End. The 5,000-square-foot brick Tudor Revival is assessed at $487,000, according to Lehigh County records, and valued at around $580,000.

Last spring, the diocese transferred that property for $1 to the Allentown Diocesan Priests Retirement Plan Trust. The trust leases the property back to the diocese, generating income for the plan.

That’s an example of the church taking care of its own. It should have been just as focused on taking care of others.

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VANCOUVER (CANADA)
Vancouver Sun

Oct. 10, 2019

By Keith Fraser

The Catholic diocese in Kamloops is admitting liability at the civil trial involving a priest accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a school teacher more than 40 years ago.

On Wednesday, John Hogg, a lawyer for the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Kamloops, made the admission of vicarious liability by the defendant diocese for the conduct of Rev. Erlindo Molon, the priest in question.

Hogg had been pressed for his position on the case by a lawyer for Rosemary Anderson, who said that Molon sexually assaulted her between 70 and 100 times in 1976 and 1977, while she was employed as a teacher at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help school in Kamloops.

Hogg told B.C. Supreme Court Justice David Crossin that he had made a similar admission when the Vancouver trial opened on Monday and in a letter to the plaintiff’s lawyer in August.

The scope of the liability remains at issue. Hogg is expected to challenge Anderson in cross-examination on the time frame and number of attacks that she said occurred in the priest’s rectory and Anderson’s apartment.

Molon, now 88, suffers from dementia and lives in a care home in Kingston, Ont.

He was initially named as a defendant in the case with his litigation guardian, the Ontario Public Guardian and Trustee, filing court documents denying the allegations. But neither Molon nor any lawyers acting on his behalf have shown up at the trial.

Also at issue is the involvement of Adam Exner, the bishop Anderson claims was grossly negligent in his handling of the matter.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Australian Times

Oct. 5, 2019

By Tess Lawrence

Just hours before the Amazon Synod will start, in what amounts to a Declaration of War against Pope Francis, Cardinal Müller has released two films on YouTube based on his written Manifesto of Faith.

Cardinal George Pell’s malevolent crusade against Pope Francis remains as vigorous as his disdain and notorious self-professed disinterest for victims of child sex abuse.

In shocking and curious timing on 1 August, Cardinal George Pell’s supporters published a seemingly innocuous two-page letter the convicted paedophile had apparently penned and sent whilst in prison, on their Twitter account.

That letter was deleted and now the Twitter account “Cardinal George Pell Supporters” @PellCardinal has gone to god.

But the sentence below is what grabbed the media’s attention. It was vintage, self-aggrandising Pell, invoking the name of Jesus, hauling the Messiah into Pell’s messianic and squalid orbit.

As usual with Pell, it was all about him:

‘The knowledge that my small suffering can be used for good purposes through being joined to Jesus’ suffering gives me purpose and direction.’

Just how can Cardinal George Pell’s “small suffering” be used for “good purposes” is anyone’s guess. And in what way is Pell joined to Jesus’ suffering? Jesus was neither charged nor convicted of paedophilia.

I dare not cast the first stone for obvious reasons, but surely Pell might better compare his suffering with some of the millions of victims of global clergy sex abuse, including his own victims — perhaps even pray for the soul of his victim, who died as a result of a heroin overdose.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Australian Times

Oct. 2, 2019

By Tess Lawrence

Just hours before the Amazon Synod wasndue to start, in what amounts to a Declaration of War against Pope Francis, Cardinal Müller has released two films on YouTube based on his written Manifesto of Faith.

Cardinal George Pell’s malevolent crusade against Pope Francis remains as vigorous as his disdain and notorious self-professed disinterest for victims of child sex abuse.

In shocking and curious timing on 1 August, Cardinal George Pell’s supporters published a seemingly innocuous two-page letter the convicted paedophile had apparently penned and sent whilst in prison, on their Twitter account.

That letter was deleted and now the Twitter account “Cardinal George Pell Supporters” @PellCardinal has gone to god.

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KNOXVILLE (TN)
News Sentinel

Oct. 10, 2019

By Terry Mattingly

For decades, Southern Baptist leaders rolled their eyes whenever there were headlines about clergy sexual abuse cases. That was – wink, wink – a Catholic thing linked to celibate priests.

Then there were those mainline Protestants, and even some evangelicals, who modernized their teachings on marriage and sex. No wonder they were having problems.

This was a powerful, unbiblical myth that helped Southern Baptists ignore their own predators, said Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear during a recent national conference. The event was hosted by the denomination’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and the new SBC Sexual Abuse Advisory Group.

“The danger of this myth is that it is naive: It relegates abuse to an ideological problem, when it should be most properly seen as a depravity problem. … It fails to recognize that wherever people exist in power without accountability, abuse will foster,” said Greear, pastor of the Summit Church near Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.

“What part of society has not been affected? It happens on Wall Street, in Hollywood, on Capitol Hill, in academic institutions, sports programs, Catholic and Protestant churches, liberal and conservative,” he added. “I want to say something as an evangelical to evangelicals: We evangelicals should have known this. Didn’t Jesus say there would be wolves in sheep’s clothing that would come into the flock in order not to serve the flock, but to abuse the flock?”

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BUFFALO (NY)
WIBW TV

Oct. 10, 2019

By Charlie Specht

The Diocese of Buffalo’s insurance company is arguing in court that it is not liable for sex abuse judgments because the diocese concealed the abuse for decades.

In documents recently filed in state court, Continental Insurance Company — whose predecessor insured the diocese for much of the 1970s — says that its policy only covers “accidents” which are reported in a timely manner to the insurer.

“Continental has no obligation to provide insurance coverage to the Diocese with respect to any sexual abuse claim, to the extent that the Diocese knew prior to the abuse that the relevant priest had: (i) engaged in earlier sexual abuse; (ii) posed a danger to children; or (iii) a propensity to commit sexual abuse,” the company states.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

Oct. 9, 2019

By Michael Sean Winters

The Holy See has assigned Brooklyn, New York Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio to conduct an apostolic visitation of the diocese of Buffalo, New York. The Vatican nunciature in Washington made the announcement. Bishop Richard Malone has faced allegations from whistleblowers that he covered up cases of inappropriate sexual conduct.

In announcing the visitation, the nunciature noted that it was not being conducted under the terms of Vos Estis Lux Mundi, Pope Francis’ motu proprio outlining procedures for evaluating allegations of abuse and covering up abuse made against a bishop. The apostolic visitation, being conducted on behalf of the Congregation for Bishops, has a wider mandate, and can assess issues such as the morale of the clergy and laity and the financial situation of the diocese.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pitt News

Oct. 9, 2019

By Grace McGinness

Survivors of childhood sexual abuse may soon win the right to prosecute their cases in court no matter how long ago their trauma occurred. Pennsylvania’s Senate Judiciary Committee held a forum on Oct. 2 to debate whether or not to eliminate the state’s statute of limitations — a law set that restricts how long an alleged victim has to bring a case to court — for sexual abuse civil cases.

The hearing was not intended for a final decision to be made on Bill 540, which calls for the complete removal of the state’s statute. Rather, for several hours, the committee listened to testimonies from alleged victims, their advocates and those in opposition to the bill to help inform their decision. Despite the state’s hesitancy, it’s clear that statutes of limitations are an outdated caveat to our current judiciary system that do not properly serve the people of this country. Pennsylvania needs to eliminate these statutes by passing Bill 540 and finally rectifying the harmful effects of this law.

As it stands, the statute of limitations for felony sex crimes in Pennsylvania limits people to a window of 11 to 20 years to bring their case to court. The time frame varies depending on the specific crime, but any statute of limitations for sex crimes is an unnecessary restriction of the law that strips the judiciary system of its main purpose of protecting people.

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JAMESTOWN (PA)
Oct. 10, 2019

By John Whittaker

A Jamestown man is alleging he was sexually abused by a priest at Ss. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church in Jamestown.

According to documents filed Monday in state Supreme Court in Erie County, the Jamestown man is alleging that Father John Lewandowski sexually abused the boy during his time as a priest at Ss. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church.

The allegations are one of four contained in the lawsuit.

Lewandowski had previously been identified by the Diocese of Buffalo as a priest who had been accused of child sexual abuse. He died in 1982, according to Jeff Anderson and Associates.

The Jamestown man, represented by James R. Marsh of White Plains, states in the lawsuit that he was abused by Lewandowski when the man was 13 and 14 years of age when the youth and his parents were parishioners of Ss. Peter and Paul. The lawsuit alleges Lewandowski gained the youth’s trust before sexually molesting the youth several times, including incidents that allegedly took place in the church’s basement.

Marsh alleges in the lawsuit that diocese officials knew or should have known Lewandowski was a known child sex abuser and that diocese and church officials concealed the abuse.

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NEWYORK (NY)
Associated Press

Oct. 10, 2019

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a New York City bishop after he was accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy in the 1980s.

Auxiliary Bishop John Jenik is the latest head to roll in the ongoing abuse scandal. The Vatican announced his resignation had been accepted Thursday.

For decades the Vatican turned a blind eye to bishops and cardinals who abused minors and adults or covered up the crimes.

Jenik had denied the allegation when it was first brought to the New York City archdiocese last year. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, however, said the archdiocese’s lay review board had found the allegation to be “credible and substantiated.”

It was Dolan’s archdiocese that received complaints against ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, cases that launched the new reckoning in the U.S. hierarchy.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Catholic New York

Oct. 10, 2019

Four priests of the archdiocese—three pastors and the director of Priest Personnel—have each been placed on administrative leave following an allegation of abuse with minors dating back several decades.

The three pastors, Msgr. Edward Barry of Holy Rosary parish in Hawthorne, Father William Luciano of Blessed Sacrament parish in New Rochelle and Msgr. James White of St. Vito-Most Holy Trinity parish in Mamaroneck, have had their ministries temporarily restricted. The fourth priest is Msgr. Edward Weber, director of the Priest Personnel Office in the archdiocese, whose ministry has also been temporarily restricted.

Letters were sent from Cardinal Dolan to parishioners of the three parishes Oct. 3. “As is our practice, we reported this to the District Attorney’s Office. The Archdiocese will now follow its policy and protocols, which include having outside independent investigators look into and assess the allegation, before presenting it to our independent Lay Review Board. At the conclusion of their deliberations, the board will determine whether the allegation has been substantiated, which will determine whether (the priest) is suitable to return to ministry.”

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Patriot News

Oct. 10, 2019

By John Baer

Recent news related to the Catholic Church child sex abuse scandal underscores an unending saga and a common irony: a high-purposed institution placing self-interest above the interests of those it exists to serve.

Sorta like our legislature, where self-protection is the prime directive.

Lately, that directive’s playing out in response to the child sex scandal, which continues to stun, and remains, legislatively, a mess.

For example.

A nine-month Associated Press probe found hundreds of Catholic clerics countrywide, credibly accused child abusers, never prosecuted or monitored, who ended up teaching kids, fostering kids and living next to day care centers, some committing sexual assault.

AP’s first example is former Pennsylvania priest Roger Sinclair, booted from the Greensburg Diocese in 2002 for alleged abuse of a teen boy, arrested in Oregon in 2017 for repeatedly abusing a developmentally disabled young man.

This is what happens when institutions choose coverup over responsibility.

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WESTWOOD (NJ)
National Catholic Reporter

Oct. 10, 2019

By Sarah Salvadore

During Mass at St. Andrew Church here, the traffic slows down. A few parishioners can be found standing on the sidewalk with signs in hand while drivers catch a glimpse.

A year after NCR reported on the divisions within St. Andrew over abuse allegations against its pastor, the church is without a full-time priest. Dismayed that the Newark Archdiocese has not sent them a new pastor, some parishioners have taken to protest.

Demonstrators are circulating a petition among churchgoers, urging the archdiocese to send them a pastor. Many parishioners say they are against the picketing, stating it brings negative attention to the church.” “But I’ll sign the petition because we need a pastor. What’s taking Newark so long?” asked one parishioner.

The cloud over St. Andrew emerged in January 2018, when Fr. James Weiner was named pastor. Just 48 hours later, some parishioners learned that he had been accused in a clerical abuse case.

The allegations date back to 1988. Fr. Desmond Rossi, a priest of the Diocese of Albany, New York, accused Weiner and another priest, now deceased, of sexual assault at St. Benedict Parish in Newark. Rossi, a seminarian at the time, said two transitional deacons assaulted him in the rectory after a night of drinking. While one of them threw him on the bed and began kissing him, the other tried to force oral sex on him. Rossi identified Weiner as one of the attackers. An archdiocesan review board found the charges credible but unproven, and Weiner was allowed to continue as a priest.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WHYY Radio

October 10, 2019

By Laura Benshoff

Last year’s grand jury report detailing sexual assault allegations against 301 Catholic priests in Pennsylvania raised the question: how would the church respond?

In the months that followed, seven of the eight dioceses in Pennsylvania launched compensation funds, following the model set by dioceses in New York.

These programs, which started winding down at the end of September, offer a lump sum to victims in return for signing away the right to sue the church over their allegations.

Some victims have used the program to put their fight with the church behind them. Others scoffed at the price tag put on their trauma. This is the story of two men who came to different conclusions.

‘What if it didn’t happen this way? Where would I be?’
Growing up in Philadelphia, John Quinn bounced between his family’s home and a half dozen Catholic orphanages around the region.

“I ended up in St. John’s, St. Joe’s, St. Mary’s, St. Francis’, St. Michael’s and a foster home,” said the 67-year-old, rattling off his stops.

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MUMBAI (INDIA)
Crux

Oct. 10, 2019

By Nirmala Carvalho

Bangladesh’s bishops’ conference has decided to have each diocese appoint a designated priest to handle sex abuse accusations, and not establish a central office at the bishops’ conference for child protection.

Bangladesh has two archdioceses and six dioceses for the country’s fewer than 400,000 Catholics, approximately 0.5 percent of the predominantly Muslim population. Most of the Catholics come from the country’s most marginalized communities, and the Church is relatively poor.

“At our CBCB [Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh] meeting, it was unanimously agreed, that since there has not been a single reported case of abuse of a minor by a clergyman, it was decided that to start an office was not a requirement,” Cardinal Patrick D’Rozario, Archbishop of Dhaka, told Crux.

“However, in every diocese, the bishop will appoint a designated priest who will immediately investigate any reported instance of abuse of minor by a clergy, when and if it arises,” the cardinal said.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Daily Mail

Oct. 9, 2019

By Kylie Stevens

A former Catholic priest tried to import vile child pornography into the country, a court has heard.

Peter Andrew Hansen, 61, pleaded guilty to 23 child exploitation charges when he faced Central Local Court, in Sydney, on Wednesday.

Hansen, a Labor party branch president, from Cabramatta, has been behind bars since last October when he returned home from a four month teaching stint in Vietnam.

Hansen was initially charged with three offences after he was arrested at Sydney International Airport when Australian Border Force officers found child pornography on an external hard drive in his luggage.

He was later charged with an extra 22 charges, two of which have since been withdrawn.

On Wednesday, the court heard disturbing details of the child pornography material Australian Border Force officers found in Hansen’s luggage, including seven videos of boys engaged in sexual acts.

According to the police fact sheet, the videos showed boys who were ‘instructed to remove their clothing and perform sexual acts on themselves and other children’.

The fact sheet also stated a title page at the start of the video listed the names and ages of the minors aged 12-15.

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

Oct. 9, 2019

A Cincinnati judge has denied a request from priest accused of abuse to reduce his bail. We are grateful for this move as it will ensure that the survivors of this priest will have their day in court.

Fr. Geoff Drew is being held on a $5 million bail on nine charges related to allegations that he raped a young altar boy in the late 1980s. In denying his request for a lower bail, Judge Leslie Ghiz said that she considered Fr. Drew a flight risk and that she was “more concerned about him fleeing, than anything else.”

We believe Judge Ghiz made the right call. We have seen many cases of accused clergy fleeing from justice, with the most recent example coming earlier this year in California. There, Fr. Alexander Castillo was facing charges of sexual abuse and was able to flee from justice after police began an investigation. We are glad that the same will not be happening with Fr. Drew.

As this case moves closer to trial, we hope that victims, witnesses, and whistleblowers will feel encouraged to come forward, make a report, and start healing. And we hope that church officials in Cincinnati will pull out the stops as they reach out to other victims of Fr. Drew and encourage them to report to local law enforcement.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune Review

Oct. 9, 2019

By Deb Erdley

A woman is suing the Catholic Diocese of Greensburg, claiming she was repeatedly raped by a priest in her Seward parish in 1972 after the priest was transferred there because of earlier abuse allegations.

The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, said she suffered horrific sexual abuse by the late Rev. George Pierce between 1973 or 1974, when she was about 11 years old, until 1978.

The lawsuit is the most recent allegation to surface against the late clergyman, who was singled out in the August 2018 grand jury report detailing abuse allegations against 301 Pennsylvania priests charged with abusing more than 1,000 children over several decades.

Doe’s attorney, Altoona lawyer Richard Serbin of Janet, Janet & Suggs, said Doe, who is now in her 50s, initially applied to the Greensburg diocese’s compensation fund. She opted to pursue a lawsuit instead after she was offered $88,100 and informed that was the maximum the church would be offering anyone.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

Oct. 9, 2019

By Mike McAndrew

For nearly 30 consecutive years, Most Precious Blood Parish in Angola had priests accused of molesting boys assigned to work at the church and its elementary school.

But lawsuits filed Tuesday allege a former female teacher, Dianna Vacco, sexually abused two girls who were in her Most Precious Blood School class decades ago.

An Angola woman’s lawsuit accuses Vacco of having sexual contact with her on at least 50 occasions when she was 10 to 13 years old, from about 1976 to 1980.

An Ellicottville woman’s lawsuit accuses Vacco of having sexual contact with her on at least 200 occasions when she was 11 to 15 years old, from 1980 to 1985.

The cases allege Vacco had sex with the girls in New York State and Florida, spending time with them at Vacco’s home, Vacco’s parents’ home, in her car, and at Vacco’s home in Florida.

The lawsuits name as defendants Dianna Vacco, the Buffalo Diocese, Most Precious Blood Parish and Most Precious Blood School.

Vacco, who is also known as Dianna Mroz, did not respond to a message from The Buffalo News seeking her comment. Vacco resides in Florida and has a Florida teaching certificate valid through 2022, according to the state’s Department of Education website. Vacco has also been associated with several Florida businesses that promote professional and youth dancing.

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who is representing the women suing Vacco, declined to comment on the cases.

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MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
Reuters

Oct. 8, 2019

Prosecutors have urged Australia’s High Court to refuse to hear a final appeal by former Vatican treasurer George Pell against his convictions for sexually abusing two 13-year-old boys in the late 1990s.

In opposing arguments put by Pell’s lawyers to Australia’s highest court, prosecutors said there was no error in the approach taken by the Victorian state Court of Appeal.

The state appellate court upheld Pell’s convictions, in a 2-1 ruling in August, on five charges of abusing the two boys at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne when he was archbishop there.

“The appeal raises no question of law of public importance,” the prosecutors said in a filing to the High Court on Tuesday. The facts of the case were “carefully and thoroughly explored by the majority of the Court of Appeal”, they said.

Pell’s lawyers have seven days to respond, after which a panel of High Court judges will decide whether to hear the appeal, a High Court spokesman said. That decision can be made just on the submitted applications or following a hearing.

The earliest the case could be heard would be in 2020, should the court decide to take on the appeal.

Pell is the highest-ranking Catholic worldwide to be convicted of child sex offences. He was jailed in March for six years and will be eligible for parole in October 2022, when he will be 81.

Two of the three judges at the Victorian appeal court ruled that “it was open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Cardinal Pell was guilty of the offences charged”.

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GASTON COUNTY (NC)
Legal Herald

Oct. 9, 2019

At least 4 people have accused a music and youth pastor at North Belmont Church of God of sexual abuse.

North Belmont Church of God music and youth pastor Nicholas Martin was arrested on Saturday, October 5 for allegedly sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl. Since that initial arrest, another three accusers have come forward with similar allegations of sexual abuse.

Martin has been charged with several sex crime charges, including four counts of indecent liberties with a child, four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and one count of felonious indecent exposure to a minor.

Since his arrest, three other people have contacted the police and the district attorney’s office to report that Martin had also abused them.

Martin lived next to the North Belmont Church of God. In the first case, he is accused of giving the 14-year-old girl alcohol before abusing her multiple times. According to the authorities, the girl was abused several times between October 2018 and September 2019.

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WARSAW (POLAND)
Agence France-Presse

Oct. 9, 2019

Pedophile acts by a Catholic priest in the 1980s were like “torture”, a Polish court has said, as it lifted the statute of limitation and ordered compensation to the victim – an unprecedented decision in Poland.

The appeals court in the northern city of Gdansk ordered the accused priest, his former parish and diocese to pay 400,000 zlotys (92,500 euros) to Marek Mielewczyk, 50, the victim of sexual abuse from 1982-87.

“Sexually abusing minors unaware of the criminal nature of the acts perpetrated on them is to treat others in a humiliating and inhumane manner, which is the same as torture,” judge Dorota Gierczak said, according to the PAP news agency on Tuesday, October 8.

The judge said the statute of limitation did not apply because it involved “acts incompatible with the rules of society”.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

Oct. 9, 2019

By Tom Heneghan

‘Successive bishops knew that Bernard Preynat was a criminal pedophile and they chose to keep him in contact with children.’

Victims of sexual abuse by a Lyon priest have urged the Vatican to recognise the responsibility of his archdiocese in the affair, which could open the door to compensation payments by the Church.

About 15 of them sent their demand to the Vatican after the admitted abuser, Bernard Preynat, was removed from the clerical state in July. The archdiocesan court said at the time that he could now concentrate on considering the financial demands of his victims.

More than 20 of his alleged victims have filed for damages of over 10,000 euros each.

But Preynat is insolvent and the archdiocese had no answer to questions about how the victims could otherwise be compensated.

The victims argued in their messages to the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s top court, that the archdiocese was responsible for keeping him in ministry until 2015 and thus enabling his abuse.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Oct. 9, 2019

By Peter Feuerherd

Her friends recall Marion Knott McIntyre as the type of woman who was quick to pick up the tab after Sunday post-Mass breakfast, and would spontaneously offer gifts, sometimes monetary, to people she felt had need. She rarely took no for an answer.

That legacy – Knott McIntryre died a childless widow in December 2017 at 86 years old – has long been in dispute. Was she simply naturally generous? Or was her generosity exploited?

Fr. Christopher Senk, pastor of St. Isabel Church here, was charged by his bishop with improperly influencing McIntyre, a St. Isabel’s parishioner, who gave him $25,000-30,000 in gifts over a six-year period, as well as naming the priest in her estate, to the objection of some members of her Maryland-based family.

“Please understand it is my obligation to exercise careful vigilance,” Bishop Frank Dewane of the Diocese of Venice, which includes St. Isabel’s, wrote to the parish after Senk was expelled from his rectory in October 2016. Senk, pastor at St. Isabel’s since 2003, was placed on administrative leave at that time.

The case has played out in an atmosphere both of distrust of the church hierarchy and, conversely, the response of bishops sensitive about criticism of failure to act against ethical lapses by clergy in the past.

A vocal group of parishioners who support Senk have long disputed Dewane’s vigilance. They say Dewane is guilty of railroading a popular pastor, known for opening his rectory on holidays to parishioners bereft of family, with the pastor cooking the meals.

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JACKSON (MS)
Clarion Ledger

Oct. 9, 2019

A civil lawsuit has been filed against the Biloxi diocese, a Mississippi church and the estate of the Rev. John Scanlon.

Scanlon’s name was not on lists of credibly accused priests with Mississippi ties.

Lawyer argues that statue of limitation has not run out, since man only remembering now.
When he was 12, Robert McGowen went to catechism class. His mother was Southern Baptist, but his father was Catholic, so he attended classes at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Hattiesburg.

It was the mid-1980s and his priest was the Rev. John Scanlon.

Some days, McGowen’s dad would be late picking him up from class. When that happened, McGowen said, Scanlon would take him into the rectory. For 35 years, McGowen said he repressed the memories of what happened to him.

Now he can’t forget.

His attorney, John Hawkins, believes McGowen’s repressed memories of sexual abuse have delayed the statute of limitations. Under that unique approach, a civil suit was filed last month against Scanlon’s estate, Church of Sacred Heart and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Biloxi, which the church falls under.

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

Oct. 8, 2019

A new sexual abuse and cover up case has been filed against a Mississippi diocese. We hope that this brave survivor’s decision to come forward will encourage others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes in the Diocese of Biloxi to make a report of their own.

According to the filing, Robert McGowen was abused in the rectory of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Hattiesburg, MS by Fr. John Scanlon from 1984-1985. Mr. McGowen alleges that Fr. Scanlon verbally, sexually, and emotionally abused him when he was 12 to 13 years old and argues that “the Diocese of Biloxi wholly failed to conduct an adequate investigation” into Fr. Scanlon. Had they done so, he argues, Fr. Scanlon never would have been in a position of authority over children.

Fr. Scanlon is now deceased and Mr. McGowen now lives in Arkansas.

As part of his lawsuit, Mr. McGowen is demanding that the Diocese of Biloxi release a list of accused clergy, lay employees, and volunteers “accused of abuse or infliction of emotional distress on minors.”

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CINCINNATI (OH)
Cincinnati Enquirer

Oct. 9, 2019

By Kevin Grasha

A Hamilton County judge on Wednesday said bond for a priest accused of raping an altar boy 30 years ago will stay at $5 million.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Leslie Ghiz said her primary concern is that the Rev. Geoff Drew is a flight risk.

“Your client is charged with anally and orally raping a…child,” Ghiz told Drew’s attorney, Brandon Moermond. She added: “I’m more concerned about him fleeing, than anything else.”

Drew was not in the courtroom for the hearing. He is being held at the Hamilton County jail.

In August, Moermond filed a motion to modify Drew’s bond. Among his arguments was that Drew is a priest, has no criminal history, and has “extensive family in the area, including his ailing mother, his siblings and close family friends.”

Moermond also said Drew’s case has been handled differently than others because of media coverage. In his motion, Moermond said Ghiz had set Drew’s $5 million bond at a hearing “in front of no less than six television reporters and cameras.”

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit News

Oct. 8, 2019

By Mark Hicks

A Michigan priest pleaded guilty Tuesday to aggravated assault in a case part of the Attorney General Office’s investigation of clergy sexual abuse, state officials announced.

The Rev. Patrick Casey, who was among several priests charged in May in connection with the probe, is the first convicted, Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement on Tuesday.

He had been accused of engaging in sexual acts during confession with a 24-year-old man who came to him for counseling in 2013.

When the man reported the incident to the Archdiocese of Detroit in 2015, Casey admitted the acts occurred and the archdiocese removed Casey from ministry, according to the attorney general’s complaint.

Casey, who was most recently assigned to St. Theodore of Canterbury in Westland, had been barred from representing himself as a priest or conducting any sort of church ministry, according to the archdiocese. His case was listed as under canonical review in Rome.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
WIFT TV

Oct. 9, 2019

By Kathleen Davis

The firm overseeing the Diocese of Pittsburgh’s fund for victims of clergy sexual abuse says it’s received 367 claims. The deadline to apply was September 30.

Camille Biros is with the D.C.-based Law Offices of Kenneth R. Feinberg. She says the next step is to verify the claims made by the applicants, using corroborating evidence.

“Things like medical notes from therapy sessions,” Biros said. “It could be correspondence or communications with law enforcement, or the Diocese, or relatives.”

Biros said the team has gone through about 50 of the claims so far, and most were verified.

“We don have a large number of claims that were received at or near the deadline,” Biros said. “So we’re months away from finishing our work for the Diocese.”

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STATEN ISLAND (NY)
Staten Island Advance

Oct. 9, 2019

By Maura Grunlund

A former principal and prominent monsignor on Staten Island is accused of sexually abusing a student decades ago at St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School in Huguenot.

The allegations against Monsignor Thomas Gaffney, who died in 2004, are detailed in a recent lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of New York and the high school, which is located at 5150 Hylan Blvd. in Huguenot.

The priest is one of three monsignors accused of sexual misconduct who held prominent positions decades ago both at Sea and in the Island Roman Catholic church.

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Get Religion blog

Oct. 9, 2019

By Julia Duin

Back in the days when I was digging around after rumors about former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s rumored sexual predations, I’d run into priests and laity who told me about all of the dark secrets that they knew. But they didn’t want to go public because, for the priests, it was a career-ender to spill the church’s dirty secrets.

Most, like Robert Hoatson, a New Jersey priest, were simply pushed out. Only now is he being vindicated.

But some even told me they were afraid of being killed. One former employee for the Archdiocese of Washington said that if she told me everything she knew, she’d end up at the bottom of the Potomac attached to some concrete blocks.

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OKLAHOMA CITY (OK)
The Oklahoman

Oct. 9, 2019

Like their peers in so many parts of the country, Roman Catholics in Oklahoma are experiencing the heartbreak and anger that come with learning of priests who abused children and the Church’s mishandled of abuse allegations.

The Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma released a list last week of 11 priests and other individuals who had been credibly accused of sex abuse against a minor since the diocese’s inception in 1973. One day later, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City said an investigation dating to 1960 revealed 11 current or former priests were credibly accused of sexually abusing minors.

In both dioceses, the reports were issued by outside, and highly regarded, law firms — GableGotwals in Tulsa, and McAfee & Taft in Oklahoma City. The firms had free rein to investigate every file — a commendable and wise move. Any hint of interference or control by the diocese and archdiocese would have clouded the findings.

Those findings are distressing. For example, McAfee & Taft cited a now-deceased priest who was accused of child sexual abuse in 1989. Damning videotapes were recovered from the priest’s home, but the law firm found no evidence the priest was reported to law enforcement or the Department of Human Services, and eventually he was assigned to two parishes in other states.

The report also found that the archdiocese in 2002 paid the legal fees for a priest to file a defamation lawsuit against a man who had accused him of sexual abuse — even though the priest had admitted his actions to former Archbishop Eusebius Beltran and former Vicar General Edward Weisenburger.

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SAMBURU (KENYA)
Associated Press

Oct. 9, 2019

When Sabina Losirkale went into labor, her sister Scolastica recalls, priests and religious sisters filled the delivery ward waiting to see the color of the baby’s skin — and if their worst fears had come to pass.

Scolastica and dozens of villagers peered in from behind the clinic fence, as well.

A nun screamed. The boy was white — “a mzungu child,” Scolastica said, using Kiswahili slang.

“How will we cover up this shame?” the sisters fretted, she recalled.

The shame that brought this baby into the world: An Italian missionary priest, her family alleges, impregnated this Kenyan girl when she was just 16. But the nuns need not have worried about the scandal spreading.

The priest — who to this day denies paternity — was transferred, and a Kenyan man was found for Sabina to marry. He would be listed as the father on the boy’s birth certificate.

The church’s efforts to conceal what is alleged to have happened here would stretch over three decades — a testament to the extraordinary ways in which church officials have dealt with accusations that priests in the developing world have had sex with girls and young women. Here, the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis is just beginning to force a reckoning.

The boy who was born to Sabina Losirkale on that day in 1989 has been an outcast of sorts for all of his life. Tall and light-skinned, with wavy hair, Gerald Erebon, now 30, looks nothing like the dark-skinned Kenyan man who he was told was his father, or like his black mother and siblings.

“According to my birth certificate, it is like I am living a wrong life, a lie,” he said. “I just want to have my identity, my history.”

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JOHNSTOWN (PA)
Tribune Democrat

Oct. 9, 2019

By Dave Sutor

Shaun Dougherty first learned about the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests when he watched the 2015 movie “Spotlight” that told the story of work being done by journalists, SNAP and attorney Mitchell Garabedian to expose clergy sexual abuse in the Boston area.

Around the same time, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General released a grand jury report that detailed decades of sexual abuse and coverup within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown in which Dougherty’s own alleged victimization was mentioned.

Dougherty, a Westmont resident, soon started attending SNAP support meetings and advocating for victims.

Those two paths recently converged with Dougherty being named to SNAP’s Board of Directors.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
Boston Globe

October 8, 2019
By Neil Swidey

In Fall River, a group of parishioners won the chance to run their crumbling church. If their experiment works here, it might just work anywhere.

I WAS SURE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH had lost the ability to wound me — or even to make me care.

Like so many others brought up in the church, I had drifted away in the face of its leaders’ princely arrogance, never mind outright criminality. There are only so many times you can hear about yet another bishop covering up for yet another predator in a collar, who had shredded the life of yet another vulnerable child. Or see a pastor call the cops to clear a church of its most loyal parishioners, as one did in Natick in 2004, leading to arrests on Christmas morning.

Many people made the difficult decision to stick with the Roman Catholic Church after the revelations in 2002 about widespread clergy sex abuse in the Boston Archdiocese, only to feel a new wave of violation a few years later. They were forced to watch their local church get shuttered as part of a diocesan real estate sell-off meant to confront dwindling attendance and mounting legal bills. Church closings tend to be the ultimate local issue, though. If yours is on the chopping block, you care passionately. Otherwise, it can seem like somebody else’s problem.

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LONG ISLAND (NY)
The New York Times

October 8, 2019

By Roni Caryn Rabin

State officials stripped Stuart Copperman of his medical license almost 20 years ago. Armed with a new law, his former patients hope to file civil lawsuits.

Stuart Copperman was, to all appearances, an old-fashioned pediatrician. For 35 years, he ran a bustling practice in Merrick, Long Island, where he was revered by parents as an authority on everything from colic to chickenpox. Well-dressed, affable and tan year-round, he was always available in an emergency, and even made house calls.

When he told mothers that their daughters were old enough to see him alone — without a parent in the room, so the girls could speak freely — they accepted it as sound medical practice. Girls who told their mothers that the pediatrician had rubbed their genitals or inserted his fingers into their vaginas were often met with disbelief.

“He was such a charming, affectionate, involved man — we all thought he was a god,” said Dina Ribaudo, 43, who lives in Arizona. “You just couldn’t imagine this bright, shining light ever hurting anyone.” Mr. Copperman started molesting her when she was 8, she said.

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RALEIGH (NC)
North State Journal

Oct. 9, 2019

By David Larson

After a series of high-profile sex abuse revelations in 2018 and 2019, church leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention met in Dallas, Texas, last week to confront the issue. The event, billed as the “Caring Well Conference,” took place over the Oct. 4-6 weekend and was organized by the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the public policy arm of the SBC.

Despite already approving legislation on abuse during their 2019 annual convention, the amendments cannot go into effect until they are affirmed again at 2020’s convention in Orlando, Florida. Rather than wait another year, SBC leaders decided to hold this conference in Dallas to begin the process of addressing abuse in the church.

J.D. Greear, the pastor of Summit Church in Durham and current SBC president, rose to his role in 2018 as the scandal was beginning to gain headlines. It has defined his time in leadership as he’s looked for ways to keep the country’s second-largest denomination together.

The major initiative that Greear and the SBC presented at the weekend conference is called the “Caring Well Challenge,” which the SBC hopes will give member churches some tools as they wait to vote on more concrete measures in 2020. The SBC also created a website and a video of Greear describing the program.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

Oct. 7, 2019

By Jorge I. Dominguez-Lopez

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the United States, said that Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio was selected to lead an apostolic visitation to the troubled Diocese of Buffalo because of the “trust” the Vatican has in him.

“The Holy Father said, ‘We need to do a total investigation to go to the roots of the problem,’ and Bishop DiMarzio, because of who he is, was given this task […] Certainly, it is a sign of trust toward Bishop DiMarzio,” Archbishop Pierre said.

The Diocese of Buffalo has been under a cloud because of cases of sexual abuse and cover-up. On Oct. 3, Archbishop Pierre announced that Pope Francis had decided Bishop DiMarzio will make an apostolic visitation to the diocese to conduct a fact-finding mission.

On Oct. 6, Archbishop Pierre celebrated the French-language Mass as St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church, Carroll Gardens, where he spoke to The Tablet.

Archbishop Pierre explained that Bishop DiMarzio’s mission was to listen to the people in the Diocese of Buffalo, collect the facts and send the results of his investigation to the Vatican.

“It is not a judgment, it is an investigation,” Archbishop Pierre said. “It is a service that the Holy Father has asked [Bishop DiMarzio] to do, to examine what is really going on.”

Asked about the Pan-Amazonian Synod that was starting at the Vatican that day, Archbishop Pierre explained that ecology has been an important topic for Pope Francis from the beginning of his papacy. He said that the pope made clear in his encyclical, “Laudato si” that caring for our “common house” is an important issue for the church.

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

Oct. 8, 2019

As they have for decades, Belleville Catholic officials are trying to exploit a technicality to evade responsibility for the alleged crimes of a credibly accused child molesting priest. Shame on them. https://www.bnd.com/news/local/community/belleville/article233303452.html

Just once, we’d love to see a Catholic official say “Instead of fighting this abuse victim with legal loopholes, we’re choosing to fight on the merits.” But in 30 years, we’ve never seem that happen.

Nearly every time abuse and cover up reports surface, bishops work long and hard to convince us that they’ve changed. Yet in this most crucial way, none of them have: they continue to hide behind and exploit every technicality their shrewd lawyers can find to make sure their wrongdoing stays concealed and won’t be exposed in court.

We hope Bishop Edward Braxton’s latest legal maneuver fails. We hope this brave victim gets his day in court. And we hope others who saw, suspected or suffered crimes or misdeeds by Msgr. Joseph Schwagel will come forward and get help.

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ALBANY (NY)
Times Union

Oct. 8, 2019

By Cayla Harris

A third lawsuit accusing retired Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of sexual abuse was filed Thursday in state Supreme Court in Albany.

The latest complaint accuses the former longtime leader of the Albany Diocese and another priest of abusing a teenage boy at a Troy church between 1976 and 1978 but does not provide details of the alleged sexual abuse.

The second priest is identified in the court filing as Joseph Mato, though the Times Union could not determine if a priest by that name served at St. Michael’s in the late 1970s. Mary DeTurris Poust, a spokeswoman for the Albany Diocese, said she could not confirm that the diocese employed a man by that name, though a priest with a similar name did work at St. Michael’s during that period. That priest died in 2016.

“Because of his childhood abuse, plaintiff … is unable to fully describe all of the details of that abuse and the extent of the harm that he suffered as a result,” the lawsuit states. It adds that Hubbard and the other priest allegedly used their roles to “entice” and “take control of” the plaintiff and sexually assault him.

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WESTFIELD (NJ)
Patch

Oct. 8, 2019

By Russ Crespolini

He says he survived repeated sexual abuse, stalking and harassment by a Boy Scout leader who went on to become a Catholic priest.

What made it worse was that the accused was also a family friend.

But for so long, Westfield’s Michael Mautone kept his story anonymous.

Not anymore.

Mautone is now sharing his story of survival and recovery in the hopes that it will encourage others to face the truth as he did.

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

Oct. 8, 2019

A Michigan priest who was charged with sexual abuse has pled to a lesser charge. For the safety of the vulnerable, we hope the cleric is put behind bars for as long as possible.

Fr. Patrick Casey was accused of sexually coercing and abusing a man who came to him for counseling. This kind of abuse of power can be very damaging and we are hopeful that the victim in this case is getting the help he needs.

We are very grateful to the brave victim in this case and to the law enforcement professionals who pursued it. We hope that others who were abused in Michigan, whether by Fr. Casey or others, will come forward, make a report to police, and start healing.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Premier

Oct 8, 2019

A new film about Popes Benedict and Francis originally contained much more material about the sex abuse scandal but was cut down for fear of it over-powering the film, its director Fernando Meirelles has said.

The Brazilian filmmaker, who is responsible for films such as City Of God and The Constant Gardener, said an earlier cut of The Two Popes originally contained more scenes about the topic.

Arriving at the movie’s premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, he told the PA news agency: “Of course we tackle these issues, because we couldn’t make a film on the church without tackling it, but we had more scenes on child abuse that we cut from the film because we had too much.

“That is what we felt when we first cut the film, if we talked too much about it, it becomes the film, because it’s such a topic.

“And that was not the film, this film was really about tolerance, tradition and a spiritual issue, a political issue, and we don’t want it to all become about sexual abuse.

“So we tackle it but we don’t go thick because it would steal the whole film, it would be a film about it.”

Meirelles added he had little interest in the Catholic Church before he made the film, which stars Sir Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, saying: “I knew nothing about what was happening and I had no interest at all about the relationship but I like Pope Francis very much, that is what dragged me to the story.

“For the film I think the relationship between both of them is the most interesting part of the film because they don’t agree on anything, they really think in opposite ways but they have to find a common ground.

“So the story is about two persons who really don’t like each other and having to deal with each other, which is something that is happening in the world.

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

Oct. 8, 2019

In a win for transparency and the public good, an appeal that sought to give more leeway to church officials in how they handle allegations of abuse will not be heard by the Supreme Court. We are grateful for this decision and hope that it will lead to safer, more informed communities.

By choosing to reject the argument put forth by Jehovah’s Witnesses church officials that internal documents related to allegations of abuse are covered by clergy-penitent privilege, the Supreme Court has put common sense ahead of the institutional privilege often enjoyed by churches. It is clear to most folks that memos circulated among staff are not the same as a confession between a parishioner and pastor, and we are glad that this argument was rejected by the Court.

When church officials can quietly dismiss one of their own who has been accused of abuse, all this does is put other children at danger. A recent AP investigation has shown exactly how this situation has played out over the years when they revealed that 1,700 priests accused of abuse are living without oversight, and many of them have gone on to become school counselors, youth workers, or foster parents. If the argument put forth by the Jehovah’s Witnesses had been accepted, we can only imagine how many more pastors, rabbis, elders, and other religious leaders would be able to abuse children, have their crimes covered up internally, and then be quietly sent off to different communities where they could abuse again.

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DETROIT (MI)
WXYZ TV

Oct. 8, 2019

Patrick Casey, a former priest who was charged with sex abuse, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in court on Tuesday. This came after a jury was deadlocked during deliberations, which began Monday afternoon.

Casey, 55, was charged with one felony count of criminal sexual conduct. He is accused of performing sexual acts on a man he was counseling. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.

His attorney argued that he should be acquitted of the crime, saying the sexual acts were consensual, but a judge denied the request.

Casey is expected to be sentenced next month.

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ROCHLAND COUNTY (NY)
Rockland/Westchester Journal News

Oct. 8, 2019

By Matt Spillane

Two more pastors of Catholic churches in Westchester County have been placed on leave amid decades-old accusations of child abuse.

Monsignor Edward Barry of Holy Rosary in Hawthorne and Rev. William Luciano of Blessed Sacrament in New Rochelle have been temporarily restricted from ministry, Cardinal Timothy Dolan wrote in letters to parishioners of those two congregations on Oct. 3.

Barry and Luciano have each been accused of inappropriate conduct with a child decades ago, Dolan said. Luciano’s allegation stems from the 1980s, Dolan said. No other details were available on the nature of the accusations.

Dolan added that both priests are presumed innocent while the Archdiocese of New York investigates.

Rev. Sebastian Pandarathikudiyll will serve as temporary administrator of Holy Rosary, while Bishop Gerald Walsh will temporarily oversee Blessed Sacrament.

Dolan’s letters to Holy Rosary and Blessed Sacrament parishioners were sent a day after he sent a similar letter to parishioners of St. Vito-Most Holy Trinity Church in Mamaroneck.

Monsignor James White, the pastor of St. Vito-Most Holy Trinity, was placed on administrative leave after someone accused him of abuse dating back to the 1980s, when he was the dean of discipline at Cardinal Hayes High School, an all-boys school in the Bronx.

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TUCSON (AZ)
NBC News 4

October 7, 2019

A Christian nonprofit has stated that two managers knew for years that an employee had confessed to a history of sexual offenses against minors but still allowed him to serve their organization as a missionary to Haiti.

Jeriah Mast, 38, from Millersburg, Ohio was indicted in a Holmes County court on July 3 with seven felony charges of gross sexual imposition and seven misdemeanor charges of sexual imposition.

Those crimes, which according to court documents allegedly involved children under the ages of 16 and some under 13, took place in Ohio between 1998 and 2008, Holmes County Prosecutor Sean Warner said. Mast pleaded not guilty to all charges, his lawyer John Johnson Jr. told NBC News.

Mast also faces allegations of sexually abusing minors during his time serving Christian Aid Ministries in Haiti, according to the Berlin, Ohio-based nonprofit.

“It is already well known that our former employee, Jeriah Mast, has confessed to molesting boys while working for our organization in Haiti,” Christian Aid Ministries’ board of directors wrote in an open letter on June 17.

Christian Aid Ministries said in the same letter that two managers at the organization had known about Mast’s behavior since 2013, when he had admitted to Christian Aid Ministries staff to “sexual activity” with boys under the age of 18 “that had taken place several years prior in Haiti,” Robert Flores, an attorney representing Christian Aid Ministries, told NBC News.

The managers did not return repeated calls and messages seeking comment.

By 2013, Mast had already been working for the organization in Haiti for six years. He had several roles there, including post-hurricane aid, distributing medicine to clinics and a school aid program.

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Patheos blog

Oct. 8, 2019

By Hemant Mehta

Yesterday, the Supreme Court announced that it would not take up a wild case concerning the organization that oversees the Jehovah’s Witnesses. We can breathe a huge sigh of relief that the case won’t be overturned. (In that link, it’s case 19-40 on page 42.)

The case, which involved child molestation and religious secrecy, centered around an incident that took place on July 15, 2006.

J.W., a nine-year-old girl with Jehovah’s Witness parents, was invited to her first slumber party at the home of Gilbert Simental. He had a daughter her age, so that wasn’t too weird. Two other girls (sisters) were also at the party. These families all knew and trusted Simental because, while he was no longer a local Witness leader, he had spent more than a decade as an elder in the faith. He was a religious leader who stepped down, he said, to spend more time with his son. They believed him. They all respected him. It’s why they allowed their girls into his home.

During that party, everyone got into a pool in the backyard… including Simental. And he proceeded to molest J.W. and the sisters. He did it again later that night. The sisters eventually told their parents, who reported Simental to local Witness elders (which is what they’re taught to do in these situations).

Simental confessed to some of the allegations, and the elders basically gave him a faith-based slap on the wrist: a reprimand that had no meaning outside church circles.

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

Oct. 8, 2019

In a newly published investigation, a priest who was in the St. Louis archdiocese admitted on video molesting several young boys and a developmentally disabled young man.

For a year, from June 1983 to June of 1984, Fr. Roger A. Sinclair was on sick leave from the Greensburg PA diocese and was sent by for therapy at the now-closed House of Affirmation in Webster Groves Missouri, according to the Associated Press and a report by a grand jury report issued by the Pennsylvania attorney general.

In a letter dated May 23, 1984 to then-St. Louis Archbishop John May, then-Greensburg Bishop William Connare said Fr. Sinclair had been in Webster Groves “for emotional problems” and that the priest would leave the program soon. Connare assured May that Sinclair had his permission to work in such a setting if it were agreeable to May.

Later, Fr. Sinclair worked as an Air Force chaplain and in Kansas at the Topeka State Hospital where he “managed to gain access to a locked unit deceitfully” and tried to check out teenage boys from the hospital to go see a movie at least twice. However, the hospital refused to allow Fr. Sinclair to escort the minors out of the building. He was subsequently dismissed from the hospital.

Fr. Sinclair is now behind bars in Oregon.

This news reinforces what we in SNAP have long charged: that St. Louis Catholic officials have – and continue to – put kids in harm’s way by knowingly, secretively and deceitfully importing proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics from across the US.

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HARTFORD (CT)
WVIT TV

Oct. 7, 2019

By Mike Massaro

The Diocese of Bridgeport recently settled a clergy sexual abuse claim against the late Monsignor William Genuario, in the amount of $725,000. Monday the survivor of that abuse, maintaining anonymity, spoke out for the first time.

“I was in such bad shape I was on the verge of death. I was about to die,” said the survivor, referencing the years of emotional torment he’s suffered through.

As an 11 year old in 1988, the man, now 42, says he was sexually abused multiple times by Genuario, at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Greenwich.

“From 1978 to 1987 he was vicar general and he’s a child molester and that should be added to his resume,” said the survivor’s attorney, Mitchell Garabedian.

In the years since his molestations, the survivor says his life has been “infested with horror.”

“I have been under a total, I guess you can say, a demonic kind of life that I’ve lived after the abuse took place,” he said.

A report released last week by the Bridgeport Diocese revealed 281 victims of sexual abuse by clergy over the past 65 years within the that diocese.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Australian Times

Oct. 8, 2019

By Tess Lawrence

Just hours before the Amazon Synod was due to start, in what amounts to a Declaration of War against Pope Francis, Cardinal Müller has released two films on YouTube based on his written Manifesto of Faith.

Cardinal George Pell’s malevolent crusade against Pope Francis remains as vigorous as his disdain and notorious self-professed disinterest for victims of child sex abuse.

In shocking and curious timing on 1 August, Cardinal George Pell’s supporters published a seemingly innocuous two-page letter the convicted paedophile had apparently penned and sent whilst in prison, on their Twitter account.

That letter was deleted and now the Twitter account “Cardinal George Pell Supporters” @PellCardinal has gone to god.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WBFO Radio

Oct. 8, 2019

By Mike Desmond

The University at Buffalo Law School on Monday hosted a look at the Child Victims Act, the new state law that has reopened New York’s history of sexual abuse for a one-year window. The law allows victims to go to court against abusers, even if the abuse occurred decades ago.

For months, the CVA has been an issue in the state’s legal system. Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed, mostly against the Catholic Church around the state, although more are now being filed against public schools.

A bankruptcy, for example, of a Catholic diocese, might mean there will be no chance for a victim to testify or internal church records on priests to become public. State Assemblymember Monica Wallace said she has legislation to make sure it never happens again.

“I have a piece of legislation that’s called the CARE Act, Child Abuse Reporting Expansion Act, which is intended to make clergy from all denominations mandatory reporters, because we need to recognize that they weren’t mandatory reporters is part of the reason that this abuse was allowed to proliferate for so many years,” Wallace said. “So what we want to do is make sure that we look prospectively and make sure that nothing like this happens again.”

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

Oct. 8, 2019

By Sarah Mac Donald

The Church needs to “find a way of exiting” the negativity of the abuse scandals “otherwise it will suffocate us”, according to a senior cleric who is based in Rome.

The Prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, Cardinal Peter Turkson, also criticised Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin for apologising “too much”.

In his keynote address to the Autumn conference of the Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland (AMRI) at the Emmaus Centre in Dublin, Cardinal Turkson recognised the abuse crisis as one of four “signs of the times”.

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ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Morning Call

Oct. 8 2019

By Emily Opilo

Five months ago, the Allentown Diocese opened a window for people who were abused by priests to apply for a payout from the church.

To the hundred or so people who already had reported abuse, the diocese sent information about applying for compensation. To those who had kept silent, they extended an invitation. On Sept. 30, the window closed, capping the amount of money the diocese will be offering victims.

Diocesan officials see the fund as a step toward righting some of the wrongs documented by an explosive grand jury report in 2018, which named dozens of Allentown Diocese priests among the 301 accused of abusing about a thousand children across Pennsylvania.

The payouts will also cause “severe financial stress,” the diocese cautioned in December, four months before it opened the fund to claims. It said then that it would tap available cash, borrow money and sell assets “to the extent possible” to cover the fund, noting no money would be taken from parishes.

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NEW YORK (NY)
News 12

Oct. 8, 2019

Parishioners at the Holy Rosary Church in Hawthorne have received a letter from Cardinal Timothy Dolan telling them about allegations against their pastor, Monsignor Edward Barry.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Fox 43 TV

Oct. 7, 2019

By Rachel Yonkunas

Survivors of clergy sexual abuse are up against big money in politics as they push for criminal and justice reform. A recent report showed the Catholic Church spent $10.6 million lobbying in northeast states since 2011. FOX43 Reveals how much money the Church paid out to lobby lawmakers in Pennsylvania, fighting bills that would have helped child sexual abuse survivors like the Fortney sisters.

The five Fortney sisters have gone public with their story of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a trusted priest after they were silenced for nearly three decades.

“We were made to believe it was just us,” said Lara Fortney-McKeever.

In August 2018, a blockbuster grand jury report changed the trajectory of their story. The Fortney sisters learned there were hundreds of other children sexually abused by Catholic priests. The sisters’ traumatic stories of abuse were also detailed in that report.

“To know how many people are living the torture that you’ve lived, it’s shocking,” Theresa Fortney-Miller said through tears. “But it kind of makes you feel like you’re not alone too.”

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VICTORIA (AUSTRALIA)
Associated Press

Oct. 7, 2019

By Marnie Bangers

A former priest who has been convicted of drugging and raping a 12-year-old boy has admitted assaulting another child.

Michael Aulsebrook, 63, pleaded guilty at the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday to indecently assaulting a boy aged 11 or 12 at a summer holiday camp he was managing when he was a Catholic brother in the mid-1980s.

The victim told police in 2016 about the assault, in which Aulsebrook touched his genitals and digitally penetrated him.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Salon

Oct. 7, 2019

By Mary Elizabeth Williams

You know that moment in a once hugely popular, now hobbling along in its ninth season TV show when you watch a Nielsen grab in real time? Maybe it’s an abrupt time jump. Maybe it’s a surprise pregnancy. Maybe it’s the addition of a troubled yet cute boy that the family has to take in, for some reason. For the Roman Catholic Church, I think it’s this new “let’s bring in some husbands” development.

The biggest Christian religion in the world is facing a serious ratings slump. Thanks to increasing acceptance of secularism, and a seemingly bottomless array of sex abuse scandals and stonewalling about meaningful reform, the numbers of self-identified Catholics have been falling off sharply in almost all parts of the world. According to the Pew Research Center, 13% of all U.S. adults identify as former Catholics. And even among those who currently claim the affiliation, the percentage of Catholics who are members of a church has likewise fallen off in the last two decades. In once sturdy Catholic footholds, the drop-off is even more dramatic — in 1970, 92% of Latin America was Catholic. It’s predicted that in the next decade, Catholics will be the minority there.

Fewer Catholics, as well as continuing bad optics for the profession itself, have also led to a shortage of priests everywhere but on prestige TV shows. Back in March, the Vatican announced that the numbers of priests and candidates for the priesthood worldwide had dipped for the first time in a decade. Maybe it needs some fresh cast members!

On Sunday, Pope Francis formally opened up a three-week summit of his bishops that will focus on “faith, sustainability and development” in the Amazon region. It will feature open debate about one of the church’s longest held traditions, potentially paving the way for some married men to be eligible for ordination. In this remote area of the world, priests are already scarce and their numbers are only dwindling. Religion News reported back in August that Catholics in the region typically only attend mass once a year — a crisis for an institution that prizes the sacrament of communion as “the fount and apex of the whole Christian life.” One workaround the Vatican is considering is allowing a few married guys to wear the collar.

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