ABUSE TRACKER

BUFFALO (NY)
WGRZ S TV

Nov. 18, 2019

Back from a trip to the Vatican for less than a day, Buffalo Bishop Richard Malone Monday released a video statement addressing the trip.

In it, the leader of WNY’s Roman Catholic diocese says the report put together on the Buffalo Diocese priest sex abuse scandal has been handed over to the Holy See. Malone would only say he would have more information on that at a later time.

By releasing a video, Bishop Malone was able to share his thoughts about his trip without taking questions from reporters.

When Bishop Malone returned to Buffalo on Sunday following his “ad limina” visit to the Vatican, protesters and the media were waiting for him at the Buffalo airport.

He never encountered those protesters or our cameras. Instead, Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) officials whisked the bishop away, unseen, through a side door upon his arrival following a weeklong visit to the Vatican.

The bishop’s return to Western New York comes days after a report said Bishop Malone was on the verge of resigning.

The Diocese of Buffalo last week denied that report.

Christopher Lamb, the Rome correspondent for The Tablet, a Catholic international weekly publication, tweeted on the morning of November 13 that he heard from sources that Bishop Malone’s resignation was in the hands of Pope Francis.

The next day Diocese spokesperson Kathy Spangler, speaking for the bishop, said the resignation tweet was “false.” At the time, Spangler added that he would talk about his trip “next week.”

Bishop Malone was in Rome for a weeklong “ad limina” visit to the Vatican, which ended on Friday with meeting among all the bishops from New York State and Pope Francis.

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

DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Times

Nov. 18, 2019

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has expressed his support for Co Cavan priest Fr Oliver O’Reilly for “offering moral leadership in a difficult time” after it emerged that Seán Quinn complained about him to the Vatican.

In a homily in September, Fr O’Reilly, who is based in Ballyconnell, condemned the attack on Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH) director Kevin Lunney.

Fr O’Reilly denounced the “barbaric and horrific” assault, as well as condemning “the paymaster or paymasters” responsible for the attack.

In a letter to the Vatican, which was first reported in the Sunday Independent, Mr Quinn again denied any affiliation to the attack.

“I and my family have also been frightened and intimidated by my being falsely accused of complicity in the attack from the altar in public, by my own local priest,” the letter said.

In a statement on Monday evening, the Taoiseach said that Fr O’Reilly’s homily “spoke from the heart and the head”, adding that he “offered leadership to a distressed community”.

“He offered moral guidance to his community, he condemned the savagery of the kidnapping and the ongoing campaign of intimidation, and called on everyone to cooperate with the authorities,” Mr Varadkar said.

“I believe that Fr O’Reilly showed considerable courage in giving this homily and I commend him for doing so.”

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KEY WEST (FL)
Crux

Nov. 17, 2019

By John L. Allen Jr.

Since last summer’s twin eruptions of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report and the scandals surrounding ex-cardinal and ex-priest Theodore McCarrick, many Catholics have found themselves wondering if anything’s truly changed in the Church vis-à-vis the clerical abuse scandals.

After decades of crisis and repeated vows of reform, they ask, is it possible the Church still doesn’t get it?

Over the last fortnight, a constellation of events spanning different continents and time zones has issued a reminder that the answer to that question is messy, complicated and classically Catholic – it’s both/and, yes and no. In other words, we’re probably living right now, as generations of Catholics before have on other fronts and in other circumstances, in both the best and the worst of times.

Those recent events which have helped tell the tale include:

A Nov. 6-8 workshop on the abuse scandals in Latin America organized by CEPROME, an interdisciplinary center for child protection in the Pontifical University of Mexico.

A Nov. 13 forum at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend featuring Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, the Vatican’s point man on the clerical abuse issue.

A Nov. 14-15 international conference on “Promoting Digital Child Dignity,” held at the Vatican under the auspices of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, as a follow-up to a 2017 summit on child protection in the digital realm held at Rome’s Jesuit-run Gregorian University.

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TORONTO (CANADA)
The Catholic Register

Nov. 16, 2019

By Bishop Thomas Dowd

The fall meeting of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops brought with it an unexpected invitation. The group SNAP (Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests) organized a viewing in Cornwall of the documentary Prey, a film that sheds light on the predatory actions of Hod Marshall, a now-deceased Basilian priest who was convicted for sexually abusing minors.

I first saw Prey at its premiere in Toronto in April. I had been invited to attend by Mike, a victim of clergy sexual abuse. He had reached out to me not long after one of our own priests in Montreal had been sentenced for the crime of abuse. Mike had gotten my name through the media coverage surrounding that judgment.

My experience of Prey involved more than watching a film. More than 200 people, including victims of clergy sexual abuse, their families and others connected with the cases, attended the viewing at the TIFF theatre.

Mike and I were joined by his wife, and over supper we shared our own stories. People came over to our table at the restaurant to say hi to Mike, people whose faces I would soon see in the documentary itself. I realized that this was more than a film: I was being given a chance to share the experience of a community of survivors.

Given its subject matter, Prey is, of course, hard to watch. More than once, something would be said that I found jarring, even disagreeable. But I could not deny the raw authenticity on the screen, including scenes expressing trauma, anger and also hope. I tried to keep my heart open to everything being revealed. It was the only way I could think of to honour the moment.

After the premiere ended there was a brief but intense Q&A. Mike introduced me to the audience and the spontaneous reactions of some was quite negative.

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ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Morning Call

Nov. 18, 2019

By Laurie Mason Schroeder

An Allentown Diocese priest faces up to two years in jail after admitting in Lehigh County Court Monday that he groped a 17-year-old Allentown Central Catholic High School student and sent her nude photos.

Rev. Kevin Lonergan, 31, of Pottsville also will be a registered sex offender under Megan’s Law for at least 15 years. He’ll be sentenced in about 90 days and remains free on $50,000 unsecured bail.

Lonergan was charged in August 2018 with indecent assault and corruption of minors, just days after a statewide grand jury report that outlined widespread clergy abuse.

Lonergan and the teen met at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Allentown. Chief Deputy District Attorney Matthew Falk said Lonergan sent the teen at least two nude photos through the Snapchat app, and grabbed her buttocks in a church hallway following a confirmation service.

Longeran pleaded guilty to indecent assault, a misdemeanor, before Judge Maria L. Dantos. The plea occurred just before a jury was to be seated for Lonergan’s trial.

Falk praised the victim, referred in court as “Jane Doe,” for speaking up about the abuse.

“I think Jane Doe is very brave for coming forward. It’s amazing that she was able to do that,” Falk said.

Lonergan did not testify and declined to comment as he left the courtroom with his attorney.

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

BURLINGTON (VT)
VTDigger

Nov. 17, 2019

By Kevin O’Connor

When Vermont’s Catholic Church recently came clean about its half-century-long history of child sex abuse claims against 10% of its clergy, many wondered how much money the state’s largest religious denomination had on hand to deal with a potential new wave of lawsuits.

The statewide Diocese of Burlington’s latest public financial statement lists $16 million in unrestricted net assets.

But that figure doesn’t include an estimated $500 million in property that church leaders stashed into trusts more than a decade ago to protect those assets from priest abuse settlements.

In the spring of 2006, then-Bishop Salvatore Matano began to see how much the scandal, first exposed by the Boston Globe, would cost the church.

The Vermont diocese had paid one accuser $20,000 to drop his court case in 2003. A year later, two more men demanded $120,000 and $150,000 respectively before they agreed to settle. In 2006, the church, facing a six-figure debt and a seemingly endless series of civil lawsuits, saw individual settlement claims rise to nearly $1 million.

That’s when Matano hatched an idea. The bishop told his attorney to place each of the diocese’s local parishes — some 130 at the time — into separate trusts whose holdings could only be tapped for “pious, charitable or educational purposes,” shielding the property from potential multimillion-dollar jury verdicts.

“In such litigious times, it would be a gross act of mismanagement if I did not do everything possible to protect our parishes and the interests of the faithful from unbridled, unjust and terribly unreasonable assault,” Matano wrote in a private letter to concerned Catholics.

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ROCHESTER (NY)
Rochester Beacon

Nov. 18, 2019

By Will Astor

A battle is shaping up between insurance companies that could be on the hook for what the Roman Catholic of Diocese of Rochester expects to be tens of millions of dollars in costs to cover a rash of newly filed sexual abuse claims

If one insurance company has its way, what the diocese knew about its priests’ behavior and when it knew it could be key to how claims are covered. The diocese and abuse survivors say paying heed to such considerations could skew the case.

Diocesan officials have previously stated hopes that liability insurance would cover all or a substantial portion of what could be a $100 million payout for a mounting pile of claims filed under New York’s recently passed Child Victims Act.

In a complaint filed Nov. 14 in the Rochester division of the Western District of New York Bankruptcy Court, the diocese targets more than a dozen insurers, alleging that the insurers breached contracts by backing away from CVA abuse claims against the Rochester Catholic diocese.

Many of the insurers it targets “have advanced similar reservations with respect to the availability of coverage,” the diocese notes in the filing. But only one—the Chicago-based Continental Insurance Co.—so far has filed a court brief publicly staking out a position. For starters, the insurer wants to argue key elements of its case in state court.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

Nov. 17, 2019

By Jesse McKinley

By now, the contours of Teresa Helm’s account have become familiar. She was 22 when she met the man that she now knows was Jeffrey Epstein.

She came to Mr. Epstein’s Upper East Side mansion for what she believed to be an interview with a wealthy client for a job as his traveling masseuse, she said. There was talk of lavish parties, exotic travel and educational opportunities.

With no one else in the room, Ms. Helm said, the man, whom she knew only as Jeffrey, asked for a foot rub. Once she began, she said, he moved his foot into her “intimate parts.” When she tried to leave, he grabbed and sexually assaulted her.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” she recalled him saying as she left.

Ms. Helm returned home to California, deeply disturbed by the experience. Embarrassed and scared, she did not call the police, and she did her best to banish the episode from her memory. It was only 17 years later, when she heard Mr. Epstein’s name while listening to a YouTube channel shortly after his arrest in July, that she began to realize who had assaulted her in 2002.

“I can’t even describe, it was beyond my heart sinking,” said Ms. Helm, now a 39-year-old mother of two living in Oakwood, Ohio. “It was something like a force. I was literally overtaken by horror.”

Ms. Helm is one of five women who sued Mr. Epstein’s estate in Federal District Court in Manhattan last week, accusing him of rape, battery and false imprisonment and seeking unspecified damages.

But the lawsuits have another purpose: to build momentum for changing the statute of limitations in New York and elsewhere for civil claims stemming from sex crimes, which are under growing scrutiny across the United States.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Daily News

Nov. 18, 2019

By Brad Hoylan, Linda B. Rosenthal and Marci A. Hamilton

For years, we’ve fought hard for the Child Victims Act (CVA), transformative legislation that is already helping survivors secure justice while increasing transparency for the public. Both are sorely needed to end the epidemic of child sexual abuse.

In the process of passing this legislation, we heard from many large, well-funded institutions that lobbied against the legislation claiming that they’d go bankrupt if the CVA were to pass. Now that the CVA is the law, one such institution — the Rochester Diocese — has filed for bankruptcy and others may well follow. (The Rockville Center Diocese is suing to have the law overturned entirely.)

In order to truly help survivors of child sexual abuse, it’s important to get the facts straight about how bankruptcy proceedings would impact their cause.

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.

DENTON (TX)
Denton Daily

Nov. 17, 2019

This article was produced in partnership with ProPublica. This is the second article in a continuing series,

The two brothers sat a few houses apart, each tending to his own anger. Justice is slow in Alaska villages, they have learned. Sometimes it never arrives.

Chuck Lockwood, 69, grew up in this village of 400 along the Norton Sound coast but left as a child for boarding school. His rage is fresh.

Two years ago this month, the body of his 19-year-old granddaughter, Chynelle “Pretty” Lockwood, was . Alaska State Troopers have refused to say how she died, citing an open investigation. It appeared she had been dumped there, said Chuck, who believes it was a homicide. “Brutally murdered. Beaten up.”

Near Chuck’s family home, his younger brother Lawrence Lockwood Jr. watches crime dramas alone in his living room. His rage is long simmering. Lawrence grew up here too, but unlike his brother he didn’t go away for school.

He was among an entire generation of children, now mostly in their 50s and 60s, who survived years of sexual abuse by Jesuit priests and Catholic church personnel shipped to the village of St. Michael. His wife was abused too.

Nine Jesuit priests, volunteers and laypersons who served in St. Michael between 1949 and 1987 were later credibly accused of sexual abuse, the Diocese of Fairbanks . The church for the abuse.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Patriot News

Nov. 18, 2019

By Kathryn Robb and Marci Hamilton

There is a dark chill in the air. And, it is not the advancing cold winds of Old Man Winter.

It is the bitter chill of injustice.

That chill is swirling in the chambers of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, as legislative leaders continue to fail victims of child sexual abuse and the future safety of the children of this Commonwealth.

Many Pennsylvanians, and indeed, many Americans, were appalled when Attorney General Josh Shapiro released the chilling Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report in August 2018, detailing the abuse by 301 priests accused of sexually assaulting over 1000 young children.

However, what may be lost in the minds of many citizens and in the headlines of faded newspapers, is that another report was released in 2005. In September 2005, the Philadelphia Grand Jury released a 400-page report on child sexual abuse in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, the report revealed shocking facts about the horrific grooming and sexual abuse committed on hundreds of children by dozens of priests.

Many of these dangerous predators were carelessly shuffled from parish to parish, and community to community, with no warning to trusting parents and the public at large. That report was released almost 15 years ago, all the while the legislature took no action. How many children were sexually assaulted by unidentified predators during that period?

We’ll never know exactly, but the social science data indicates that everyday approximately 160 children fall victim to sexual assault. Given the science, the number of children harmed during this 15-year period of legislative inaction is undoubtedly high.

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.

ROME (ITALY)
National Catholic Register

Nov. 18, 2019

By Edward Pentin

What does the decision of Australia’s High Court this week on the appeal of Cardinal George Pell mean for the cardinal, and what is likely to happen next?

On Tuesday, two High Court judges, Michelle Gordon and James Edelman, referred the cardinal’s application for special leave to appeal to a full bench of the High Court’s justices after Cardinal Pell’s lawyers argued a lower appellate court had made mistakes.

At that hearing, expected in March or April next year, up to seven justices will listen to arguments presented by all parties on whether the cardinal should or should not be granted leave and the substantive appeal.

The cardinal, who has always vigorously protested his innocence, was convicted Dec. 11, 2018, on five charges that he sexually abused two choir boys as archbishop of Melbourne after Sunday Mass in the city’s St. Patrick’s cathedral in 1996 and 1997.

Sentenced to six years in prison, the 78-year-old former prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy must serve at least three years and eight months before being eligible to apply for parole. The cardinal appealed against the verdict earlier this year, but in August the Court of Appeal in Victoria upheld his conviction.

The High Court is his final chance to be freed from prison and clear his name.

He is therefore “clearly pleased” with the High Court referral, sources close to him told the Register Nov. 14. He will not be seeking bail but rather “concentrating on the High Court appearance” and although in solitary confinement, unable to celebrate Mass and without natural light, they say he is in good spirits and allowed to tend the prison garden each day — a request he made to give his days purpose. “The cardinal is well,” a friend of his told the Register Nov. 13. “He is writing — a lot, and still receiving a lot of mail.”

“This week’s surprise court decision marks a turning point in Cardinal Pell’s prospects for release, but he is not out of the woods yet,” cautioned John McCaulay, a former altar server at Melbourne’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where the offenses are alleged to have happened, and who attended Cardinal Pell’s mistrial, retrial and appeal.

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TORONTO (CANADA)
CBC News

Nov. 17, 2019

By Laura Clementson and Gillian Findlay ·

The Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver was aware of 36 cases of abuse by clergy under its jurisdiction, including 26 involving children, results of an internal review of cases of clergy sexual abuse obtained by CBC’s The Fifth Estate show.

The review, commissioned in 2018 by Archbishop Michael Miller, examined church files dating back to the 1950s. No Catholic entity in this country has ever made this kind of information public before.

The Vancouver review also found three of their priests had fathered children.

I think that the church has an ethical and moral responsibility to reveal those names.
– Leona Huggins, clergy sexual abuse survivor
The information was uncovered in a Fifth Estate investigation into how the Catholic Church has dealt with abuse allegations over the years.

Vancouver’s archbishop has not released the results of the case review committee’s work, but in February he promised transparency. In a letter posted to the archdiocese website, Miller committed “to correcting any systemic flaws that contributed to abuse or cover-up.”

The Fifth Estate investigation also reveals details about how the archdiocese handled allegations of abuse.

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

OTTAWA (CANADA)
Canadian Catholic News

Nov. 18, 2019

By Michael Swan

When Archbishop Anthony Mancini of Halifax-Yarmouth visits his old friend Sister Nuala Kenny, he likes to find a chair and get comfortable.

“I will be sitting in a chair and she will be walking and talking. Nuala is a lecturer. She’s a person who speaks to an audience of one or an audience of 500, it doesn’t matter,” said Mancini.

“She brings insights to the conversation. … She doesn’t have a lot of time for chit-chatting. You know, she never talks about the weather. I don’t think she even notices it.”

Mancini and Kenny worked together for years hashing out revised guidelines for Canada’s bishops on handling sexual abuse by priests. In fact they worked on Protecting Minors from Sexual Abuse: A Call to the Catholic Faithful in Canada for Healing, Reconciliation, and Transformation for far longer than Kenny would have liked.

“She said, ‘What the hell? Why is it taking so long?’ ” he recalled.

The committee’s work was done in the spring of 2017 and the document was in bishops’ hands in time for their fall plenary meetings. But the new Canadian guidelines didn’t resemble abuse policies in the United States or anywhere else in the world — which made some bishops nervous. They decided not to vote on them. By 2018, after the Pennsylvania grand jury report and Pope Francis’ Aug. 20 Letter to the People of God, Canada’s bishops had to act.

Kenny knows not all bishops want to hear what she has to say on sexual abuse. Not because they don’t care and not because they think she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. It’s because they’ve faced calls for radical, root-and-branch solutions from all quarters for 30 years. Root and branch is hard to do.

“They’re tired. We’re all tired,” Kenny told a small, largely academic audience that turned up for the Toronto launch of her new book on the abuse crisis, Still Unhealed: Treating the Pathology in the Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis.

For 30 years — longer than anyone else — Kenny has been in the business of figuring out how and why a Church that claims to be founded on the radical compassion of Jesus could tolerate and even foster abuse.

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PARKERSBURG (WV)
News and Sentinel

Nov. 17, 2019

Unfortunately, our new Bishop, Mark Brennan doesn’t get it. He was sent to our state after the betrayal of the Diocese by former Bishop Michael Bransfield. Bransfield took $21 million from the Diocese and Wheeling Hospital to spend on an extravagant lifestyle and gifts for high ranking priests and clerics. In addition, he was credibly accused of sexually harassing seminarians; reports to the Diocese of Philadelphia that he had sexually molested a minor were never investigated. To his credit, Bishop Brennan says that “people want this issue to be resolved.” However, he is insulting and dangerous when he states “people want the scandal to kind of go away.” That is the fantasy language of children. Make the boogeyman go away. Boeing had a scandal when the 737 Max’s crashed. We don’t want “the scandal to kind of go away;” we don’t want planes to crash. Boeing had to dig for the truth, be open about all their failures, and compensate their victims.

Brennan should do no less. Investigate thoroughly. Everything. What happened? How did the leadership fail to pick up Bransfield’s sexual harassment of young men or his financial dealings? Prosecute criminal acts. Implement professional procedures. Complete the investigation into reports he molested a minor. Publicize the whole report by Bishop Lori before the media does. Open the books to everyone. Name those credibly accused of abusing others.

Follow the money. Bishop Lori got a $10,000 gift from Bransfield, and Lori withheld that information from the Pope. Lori should not have been asked to investigate a man who gave him a $10,000 gift, not if trust is at risk. Establish safe processes for people to report abuses. Hold whistleblowers in high esteem. Urge people to question you and your policies and procedures til there is no doubt left that you are doing everything possible. Sexual abuse by clerics should automatically be reported to law enforcement and not handled by the diocese alone. Respectfully ask what the victims want for restoration/compensation. Ask experts for help in keeping the church safe from pedophiles. The Catholic leadership must hold itself accountable because it is accountable to the people it serves. To restore trust, you must restore a process which ensures the next plane will not crash, the next child will not be abused. Jesus never said sin would “kinda go away.” Brennan underestimates our love for our children, the church, and the truth.

Wendy Tuck, Parkersburg

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Justia blog

Nov. 18, 2019

By Marci Hamilton

This is a historic year for child sex abuse victims. Millions have been empowered by statute of limitations, or SOL, reform in the United States.

Never before have we seen this many states step up. In recent years about a dozen states would consider such legal change and less than a handful would pass something. Those numbers are dramatically higher in 2019. Forty states and the District of Columbia introduced SOL legislation and over half, 23 states, and D.C. have passed progressive reforms for the victims. In 2019, 18 states have extended or eliminated the criminal SOL; 14 states have extended or eliminated the civil SOL; and 9 states have revived civil SOLs. Click here for even more details of this historic year.

What is SOL reform? It hands victims power and society the truth. It puts perpetrators in jail. It forces the ones who endangered children to release their confidential files to the public. It warns institutions that they must change or suffer consequences. There is no good reason not to pass SOL reform.

The #MeToo movement invited every victim to come forward. The SOL Reform movement says to every victim—it’s not fair of us to ask you to tell your story and then ignore how our laws kept you silent. You deserve more than a microphone—you have a right to power against those who hurt you. This is a revolution that is reorganizing dangerous power structures.

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.

CINCINNATI (OH)
WCPO TV

Nov. 18, 2019

By Craig Cheatham, Paula Christian and Dan Monk

He was a young science teacher at the all-boys Purcell High School in 1978, when he said a sobbing student came to him and another teacher with a shocking story.

“Brother Frank Russell raped me,” the student said.

“At first it was disbelief,” the teacher said. “But then I thought ‘Oh my God, here it is again.’”

That teacher spoke for the first time to WCPO, requesting anonymity because of his own sexual abuse by a priest as a child. When he encountered abuse again, this time as a teacher, he said he reported it to the school right away. The Marianist Province denied seeing a report back then.

“He was in charge of detention at the high school … and we learned from this student that Brother Russell would take students, those who had misbehaved, to a local motel and have sex with them,” he said.

The teacher said Russell, who was a brother in the Marianist Catholic order and an assistant principal, never returned to Purcell, and the principal told him Russell went to Boston.

In its three-month I-Team investigation WCPO discovered the Catholic Church often moved priests and brothers to new parishes and schools after they are accused of abuse or inappropriate behavior, without sharing that information with the public.

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ALTOONA (PA)
Altoona Mirror

Nov. 18, 2019

By Mary Haley

Two state House representatives, one from Hollidaysburg, the other from across the state, are hopeful that sexual abuse reform legislation they’ve proposed will pass today in the state Senate and eventually become law.

But the measures have plenty of critics, chief among them the Roman Catholic church, which claims it is the prime target of the legislation.

Church representatives have said that they have acknowledged the past sins of clergy sexual abuse, and they’re atoning for those with compensation funds and counseling for victims.

They’ve said they’ve also instituted reforms to avoid future problems.

State Reps. Jim Gregory, a Republican representing Blair County, and Rep. Mark Rozzi, a Democrat representing Berks County, put forth the pair of bills earlier this year.

Their bills, to be voted upon today in the Senate, would eliminate the statute of limitations on sexual abuse criminal charges and provide a two-year window on outdated civil lawsuits against alleged sexual abuse offenders.

Both bills raise the age of victims who can file claims from 30 to 55. Rozzi’s piece refers to eliminating the criminal statute of limitations on sex abuse crimes.

Gregory’s part calls for the two-year window that requires amending the state constitution, which means it must pass two consecutive legislative sessions.

It then must receive a favorable vote in a state referendum before it becomes law. The process would take about two years.

The bills are connected, which means both must pass or neither will become law.

Catholic church representatives have said the fallout from the legislation proposed will be the same in Pennsylvania as what has occurred in other states that have passed similar measures, particularly from the two-year window provision.

In most states that have passed such windows, Catholic dioceses have declared bankruptcies. Nationwide, 20 Roman Catholic dioceses have declared bankruptcy as of September 2019, according to media reports.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WGRZ TV

Nov. 18, 2019

When Bishop Richard Malone returned to Buffalo on Sunday evening after his visit to the Vatican, protesters and the media were waiting for him at the Buffalo airport.

He never encountered those protesters or our cameras. Instead, Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) officials whisked the bishop away, unseen, through a side door upon his arrival following a weeklong visit to the Vatican.

The NFTA provided a statement Sunday night:

As a matter of security and safety to our traveling public, measures were taken that are routine and common for high profile travelers. When there is the potential for a security issue at the airport, it is in the best interest of the public to do everything possible to avoid risk and or threats, Especially during the busy travels times.

The bishop’s return to Western New York comes days after a report said Bishop Malone was on the verge of resigning.

The Diocese of Buffalo last week denied that report.

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CONCONNNATI (OH)
WCPO TV

Nov. 18, 2019

By Craig Cheatham, Paula Christian and Dan Monk

Christy Miller doesn’t want the Catholic Church’s money. She just wants the church to pay.

“It was never about the money for me. It was about justice,” she said. “If it hits their pocketbook, they’re more apt to change. That’s why the money plays a role.”

Miller sued the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 2003, alleging her high school religion teacher, the Rev. Thomas Brunner, sexually abused her for two years in the mid 1980s.

Brunner resigned in 2003 prior to the Vatican removing him from the priesthood for abusing teenage girls.

But that didn’t matter to the Ohio Supreme Court, which dismissed Miller’s case because she didn’t file before she turned 20, as required by state law on civil statute of limitations at the time.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
WCPO TV

Nov 18, 2019

By Craig Cheatham, Paula Christian and Dan Monk

Overview: What did WCPO I-Team find in investigation into sexual abuse in Catholic Church?

Part 1: Could priests with credible accusations of sexual abuse be walking among us – without our knowledge? Part 2: Does Catholic Church move priests with credible accuse claims to keep them hidden? Part 3: Abuse survivors say statute of limitations keeps priests and the church from taking responsibility Part 4: These priests, credibly accused of child sexual abuse, still live quietly in the Tri-State

The Diocese of Covington suspended the Rev. Jack Goeke from ministry in 1994 after two women accused him of sexually abusing them while they were as young as 11.

More than two decades later, local Catholic Church and community leaders participated in a celebration to honor Goeke.

A Facebook photo from June 2018 shows a smiling Goeke at a groundbreaking ceremony for a legacy house honoring his quarter-century of work at Housing Opportunities for Northern Kentucky, a nonprofit that renovates and builds homes for low-income families.

At the event, Goeke posed for photos with the Rev. Joseph Gallenstein, who is on the organization’s board of directors and emceed a dinner honoring Goeke.

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TORONTO (ONTARIO, CANADA)
LifeSite News

November 11, 2019

After hearings of the government-founded Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) conducted last week in London, two lawyers have written a public statement asking Cardinal Vincent Nichols – the archbishop of Westminster and successor to the controversial Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor (d. 2017) – to step down.

The two lawyers, Richard Scorer of Slater and Gordon, and David Enright of Howe and Co, have been representing almost 50 victims and survivors at the IICSA hearings concerning clerical sex abuse in the Catholic Church of England and Wales.

Cardinal Nichols had been questioned during several sessions of the IICSA last week. Evidence suggested that he had been negligent with regard to abuse victims, even going so far as to delay starting proper church investigations or to meet with victims.

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PARRAMATTA (NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA)
Diocese of Parramatta

November 18, 2019

Address of His Excellency Archbishop Christophe Pierre at the USCCB General Assembly, Baltimore, Maryland, November 11, 2019

My Dear Brothers in Christ,

Once more, I am happy to be with you here in Baltimore, and I greet you in the name of Pope Francis, even as you prepare to greet him in person on your Ad Limina visits. I am grateful to His Eminence Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, President of the USCCB, and to Msgr. Bransfield and the staff of the USCCB for the invitation to speak to you. I assure you of the Holy Father’s closeness, prayers, and gratitude for your ministry as you engage in the New Evangelisation.

It is unfortunate that I could not be with you personally last June, but the Holy Father called all the nuncios to Rome and gave us a “Decalogue” of qualities of a nuncio, which forced each of us to examine ourselves, posing difficult questions about our mission and ministries. In late July, I went to Atlanta to address the African Conference of Clergy and Religious in the United States. I thought I would follow Pope Francis’s example and pose questions to these missionary priests and religious working in the United States. Just last month, I went to Orange, California for a gathering of Vietnamese Priests, and I did the same thing. I proposed to them some topics for reflection, and this prompted a lively discussion; the themes were challenging and intended to reawaken a sense of mission. As the ad Limina visits begin, it is also useful to reflect on our sense of mission.

Your Quinquennial Reports provide a clear picture of how the Church in the United States is carrying out its mission. You have many challenges, some of which we have spoken about over our years together: demographic changes; growing numbers of religiously unaffiliated people; the need to engage young people and to build a culture of vocations; welcoming and integration of migrants, especially Hispanics; continuing the fight against all forms of racism; and, defending and accompanying the human family. These are but a few of the challenges.

Although there are challenges, there are also many dedicated Catholics who daily live their faith. The Church in the United States has been strong not only in its defence of human life and religious liberty but also in its defence of the rights of migrants and families. The generosity and willingness of Catholics to sacrifice is witnessed in the charitable works during times of national disasters or through Catholic Relief Services, in addressing global issues of poverty, hunger, healthcare, water and sanitation. The 2015 World Meeting of Families, the Convocation of Catholic Leaders, and the Fifth National Encuentro were all signs of hope for the Church in this country, even as many of us worry about the lasting impact of the sexual abuse crisis. I want to offer you words of encouragement. Christ is with us. He accompanies us, and He is alive – in us and in the People of God.

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Catholic News Agency

November 15, 2019

The Diocese of Rockville Centre filed a suit challenging New York’s Child Victims Act on Tuesday, claiming it is barred by the due process clause in the state constitution.

The act opened a one-year window for adults in the state who were sexually abused as children to file lawsuits against their abusers. It also adjusted the statute of limitations for both pursuing criminal charges and civil suits against sexual abusers or institutions where the abuse took place.

The diocese’s motion, filed Nov. 12 in the New York Supreme Court in Nassau County, says that “the Due Process Clause allows the legislature to revive formerly time-barred claims only where they could not have been raised earlier,” which it adds “is not so here.”

“The formerly time-barred claims revived by the legislature pursuant to the Child Victims Act all could have been brought within the then-applicable three- or five-year period, after plaintiffs attained the age of majority,” according to the diocese.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

November 15, 2019

By Christopher White

South Bend IN – One of Pope Francis’s closest allies in fighting clergy sex abuse praised the American church for going “a step further” than the Vatican’s new global guidelines for bishop accountability by requiring a third-party reporting system, which is set to take effect next year.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, who serves as the adjunct secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), said the U.S. Church had been “prophetic” in its response to the clergy abuse scandals nearly two decades ago in requiring all deacons, priests, and anyone who works with minors to undergo background checks and requiring independent diocesan audits.

He also said, however, that the decision to exclude bishops from the same oversight in the Dallas Charter in 2002 was a “lacuna.”

At the same time, in remarks at the University of Notre Dame on Wednesday, Scicluna warned that Americans must be prepared for further revelations similar to those in the 2018 Pennsylvania Grand Jury report, which chronicled decades of past abuse of minors at the hands of clergy, particularly as numerous states are undergoing their own similar investigations.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

November 15, 2019

By Ann Carey

South Bend IN – U.S. Catholics “have to be prepared for another wave of traumatic narrative” regarding the clergy sex abuse crisis, Archbishop Charles Scicluna said Nov. 13 at the University of Notre Dame.

Scicluna of Malta is adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Vatican’s chief investigator on clergy sexual abuse. He spoke at the University of Notre Dame as part of the school’s 2019-2020 forum titled “‘Rebuild My Church’: Crisis and Response.”

The archbishop’s remarks were made in a conversational format, in which he first answered questions from moderator John Allen, longtime Vatican reporter and editor of Crux, an online Catholic news outlet. He then fielded questions from the mostly student audience.

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TORONTO (ONTARIO, CANADA)
Catholic Register

November 16, 2019

By Bishop Thomas Dowd

The fall meeting of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops brought with it an unexpected invitation. The group SNAP (Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests) organized a viewing in Cornwall of the documentary Prey, a film that sheds light on the predatory actions of Hod Marshall, a now-deceased Basilian priest who was convicted for sexually abusing minors.

I first saw Prey at its premiere in Toronto in April. I had been invited to attend by Mike, a victim of clergy sexual abuse. He had reached out to me not long after one of our own priests in Montreal had been sentenced for the crime of abuse. Mike had gotten my name through the media coverage surrounding that judgment.

My experience of Prey involved more than watching a film. More than 200 people, including victims of clergy sexual abuse, their families and others connected with the cases, attended the viewing at the TIFF theatre.

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ALTOONA (PA)
Altoona Mirror

November 17, 2019

By Mary Haley

State Reps. Jim Gregory and Mark Rozzi say they share a bond no one would envy, but it’s a connection that’s brought them together for a fight that, if successful, they think could help others with similar histories.

Both have said they were abused as children, in separate incidents, and they hope that this week the state Senate will vote on a pair of bills they’ve proposed dealing with sexual abuse. The bills would change the state’s constitution and alter major civil and criminal abuse laws.

The proposed legislation passed the state House with overwhelming support and is currently in the state Senate Judiciary Committee, which held a hearing on the two bills in early October.

Rozzi’s bill would eliminate the statute of limitations for most sexual abuse crimes. Gregory’s bill would amend the state constitution and allow a two-year window for otherwise outdated civil lawsuits against alleged sexual offenders.

There is a “connector” bill that states the two bills must pass or neither will go forward.

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SUNBURY (PA)
The Daily Item

November 16, 2019

By John Finnerty

Harrisburg PA – Adult survivors of child sex abuse will be watching the Senate when the General Assembly returns to the Capitol on Monday, to see if there is going to be a breakthrough on the stalemate over whether to allow survivors to sue organizations that covered up for child predators even if the statute of limitations is expired.

Senate President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, said earlier this month said that the Senate plans to move legislation, including a proposal calling for a Constitutional amendment to allow a two-year window for lawsuits “this fall”. The Senate has no days scheduled in November after this week.

Meanwhile, in a statement released Friday, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, the lobbying arm for the Catholic bishops in the state, signaled that it won’t oppose a proposed Constitutional amendment to allow lawsuits.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

November 17, 2019

By John L. Allen Jr.

Key West FL – Since last summer’s twin eruptions of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report and the scandals surrounding ex-cardinal and ex-priest Theodore McCarrick, many Catholics have found themselves wondering if anything’s truly changed in the Church vis-à-vis the clerical abuse scandals.

After decades of crisis and repeated vows of reform, they ask, is it possible the Church still doesn’t get it?

Over the last fortnight, a constellation of events spanning different continents and time zones has issued a reminder that the answer to that question is messy, complicated and classically Catholic – it’s both/and, yes and no. In other words, we’re probably living right now, as generations of Catholics before have on other fronts and in other circumstances, in both the best and the worst of times.

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ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
Albuquerque Journal

November 17, 2019

By Colleen Heild

Allegations of clergy sexual molestation of children struck at the heart of a Downtown Albuquerque church Friday with the filing of two lawsuits claiming abuse by three Jesuit priests who once ministered there – one as recently as 2011.

In one of the two cases, the alleged victim, now 25 years old, contends he was sexually abused eight years ago at Immaculate Conception Church in Albuquerque. His lawyer says he is one of the youngest survivors to come forward in recent years.

In the other lawsuit, a woman contends she was molested by two Jesuit priests from Immaculate Conception Church, beginning in 1968, when she attended first grade at a nearby school. Sometimes both priests abused her at the same time, and often she was forced to drink large amounts of alcohol beforehand, her lawsuit alleges.

The defendants, including Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province, denied the allegations through a spokeswoman, Toni Balzano, who said their investigations did not support the claims.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
WCPO

November 17, 2019

By Craig Cheatham, Paula Christian, Dan Monk

When a Hamilton County grand jury indicted the Rev. Geoff Drew on nine charges of rape in August, it was the first time in nearly a decade that a Tri-State priest had been charged with the sexual abuse of a child.

Survivors say Drew’s arrest brought back memories of their own abuse from decades ago and a renewed distrust of Catholic Church leaders who had promised change and transparency.

Questions re-emerged about how church leaders handle these accusations — almost exactly 16 years after a judge convicted the Archdiocese of Cincinnati of failing to report sexually abusive priests for the first time anywhere in the nation.

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DULUTH (MN)
Duluth News Tribune from Forum News Service

By April Baumgarten

November 17, 2019

Fertile MN – Like any other Sunday, the Rev. Joseph Richards led Mass on Nov. 10 at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Fertile, a northwest Minnesota town in Polk County with almost 850 residents.

But this was the first Sunday Richards would address the congregation since it was revealed he was sexually abused as a child by his great-uncle. It was also disclosed that he sought help after having sexual fantasies about children and that he admitted to inappropriately touching a 5-year-old when he was 14.

“Those who know me and know my story are dumbfounded as to how this can be happening, as I was a minor . . . who was being sexually abused myself at the time,” Richards wrote in an email interview.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Sharon Herald

Nov. 16, 2019

By John Finnerty

Adult survivors of child sex abuse will be watching the state Senate Monday to see if there is going to be a breakthrough on the stalemate over whether to allow survivors to sue organizations that covered up for child predators even if the statute of limitations is expired.

Senate President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, said earlier this month said that the Senate plans to move legislation, including a proposal calling for an amendment to the state Constitution that would allow a two-year window for lawsuits. The Senate has no days scheduled in November after this week.

Meanwhile, in a statement released Friday, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, the lobbying arm for the Catholic bishops in the state, signaled that it won’t oppose a proposed amendment to allow lawsuits.

“The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference is neutral on the issue of a constitutional amendment,” said Eric Failing, executive director of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference. “To help survivors immediately, Pennsylvania dioceses have created compensation programs administered by credible and independent third parties. To date, they have paid millions to survivors across the commonwealth and other cases are still pending. We have much to atone for, and it’s our hope these settlements help survivors now — rather than have to wait several years.”

The Catholic Conference has been one of the staunchest opponents of efforts to allow victims to sue and Shaun Dougherty, a Johnstown resident, who has been one of the most outspoken survivors lobbying at the Capitol, said he’s not convinced by the group’s statement on Friday.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press

Nov 15, 2019

By Karen Matthews

Catholic officials on Long Island have filed a legal challenge arguing that the Child Victims Act that loosened statutes of limitations on molestation cases violates the New York state constitution.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville said in a court filing Tuesday that a provision of the law enacted this year violates the due process clause of the state constitution.

“A basic tenet of every legal system, including New York’s, is that statutes of limitations protect a fundamental right of repose that benefits both potential defendants and society at large by ensuring that individual rights are protected and the courts can function properly,” the motion filed in Nassau County state Supreme Court says.

Jennifer Freeman, an attorney who represents plaintiffs who say they were sexually abused as children, says the diocese is “moving to shield predators” and “hide the heinous crimes that occurred under their watch.”

“With this motion, the Diocese of Rockville and officials within the Catholic Church are demonstrating their cowardice, hypocrisy, and refusal to do what is right,” Freeman said.

The Child Victim Act, passed earlier this year, extended the state’s statute of limitations for onetime victims of child sexual abuse to file criminal charges or civil lawsuits. The law also created the one-year litigation window, which lawmakers said was needed because before the change this year New York had one of the nation’s tightest statutes of limitations. More than 400 cases were filed on the first day of the litigation window in August against defendants including religious institutions, public and private schools and the Boy Scouts of America.

Freeman said the Rockville Centre diocese’s motion is apparently the first to directly challenge the constitutionality of the law.

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MINOT (ND)
Minot Daily News

Nov. 16, 2019

A variety of potentially divisive issues, ranging from immigration to gun control, were being discussed by U.S. Roman Catholic bishops during a national meeting in Baltimore this week. Dealing with the elephant in the room ought to be at the top of their agenda.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, who is archbishop of the Galveston-Houston diocese, is ending a three-year term as head of the national Conference of Catholic Bishops. Much of his time in the post has been dominated by controversy over the church’s handling of predator priests — and those with even higher positions in the church.

DiNardo has been involved personally in the scandal. He has been accused, like many others in the church, of not acting decisively enough after receiving reports of abuse. At one point, according to The Associated Press, investigators in Texas raided DiNardo’s chancery in search of documents involving one priest accused of molesting a child.

During a speech to the church officials gathered in Baltimore, DiNardo said meetings with abuse survivors “forever changed” his life. “When too many within the church sought to keep them in the darkness, they refused to be relegated to the shadows,” he said.

During the past few years, there has been much talk of reform from within the church. It was being discussed again this week in Baltimore.

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Times

Nov. 15, 2019

Three more former altar boys have claimed they were sexually abused by two priests in the Vatican, as the child abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic church zeroed in for a second time on its headquarters.

The allegations of abuse in the Vatican’s youth seminary, to be set out in an Italian TV show on Sunday, date back to the 1980s and 1990s when the boys were aged between 10 and 14.

The accusations come two months after the Vatican said it would seek to indict Fr Gabriele Martinelli (28) for allegedly abusing several altar boys in 2012 when he trained at the St Pius X youth seminary. That move was prompted by the Italian show Le Iene’s first investigation into the school in 2017.

The Vatican said in September that an indictment was also being sought against a former rector at the youth seminary, Fr Enrico Radice, who was accused of aiding and abetting the alleged crimes.

The Catholic church has faced thousands of child sexual abuse allegations from around the world but Le Iene’s investigation in 2017 was the first time claims of paedophilia within the Vatican’s walls were exposed.

“We decided to keep digging as we had the feeling that the previous cases were not isolated,” said Gaetano Pecoraro, one of the two authors of the investigation. “There were more victims and more priests involved in sexual abuse within the Vatican.”

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FRESNO (CA)
Fresno Bee

Nov. 15, 2019

By Yesenia Amaro

The Merced County District Attorney’s Office on late Friday announced it won’t file criminal charges against a Diocese of Fresno priest accused of sexual misconduct because the statute of limitations has run out.

In a news release, the office said the Merced Police Department conducted an investigation into allegations of inappropriate touching by Monsignor Craig Harrison. The police department opened the investigation into Harrison after an unidentified person came forward with accusations in April, following allegations by a different alleged victim in Firebaugh.

Harrison was placed on administrative leave in late April after the allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced.

The Merced County District Attorney’s Office worked with the police department, according to the release. Last month, both agencies determined “that all available evidence and leads had been identified and exhausted.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Wisconsin Watch

Nov. 15, 2019

By Erica Jones

When she was 7, Patty Gallagher was chosen to bring the priest who served her parish and school in Monona, Wisconsin, his daily milk.

The Rev. Lawrence Trainor was practically a member of the family. He came over for dinner and visited the family cottage. Gallagher’s father and Trainor played cards and drank together. Trainor, a priest at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, ingratiated himself with her parents. And then, Gallagher said, he “raped me in every way possible.”

“I had to make my first confession with this man and say the words, ‘Bless me, Father, for I have sinned,’ to the man who raped me in the most horrific ways,” said Gallagher, of Milwaukee, whose last name is now Gallagher Marchant. “There are no words to describe that.”

Gallagher Marchant, a psychotherapist, said she repressed these traumatic memories for decades. She was aware that she had been hurt, but she could not remember by whom.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Wisconsin Watch

Nov. 15, 2019

By Dee J. Hall

The story of clergy sex abuse might seem like an old one. But in 2019, the decades-old scandal was back in the headlines.

That is because this year, Catholic dioceses and religious orders in Wisconsin began releasing names of credibly accused clergy — in some cases for the first time. Wisconsin Watch wanted to examine the Catholic Church’s efforts to alert parishioners and the public about child sexual abuse within the institution — and the efforts to prevent it.

We also sought to illuminate the legacy of trauma left behind. We reported on recommendations to better root out the abuse, and ways the church can mitigate the damage it has caused.

The reports we released were a group effort.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

November 14, 2019

By Philip Pullella

Pope Francis said on Thursday that technology company executives and investors must be held accountable if they put profit before the protection of children, including from easy access to pornography on the web.

Francis spoke at the start of a Vatican conference on “Promoting Digital Child Dignity” that brought companies like Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google, Microsoft Corp and Facebook together with child protection groups and law enforcement and judicial officials.

“Companies that provide (internet) services have long considered themselves mere suppliers of technological platforms, neither legally nor morally responsible for the way they are used,” Francis said.

“There is a need to ensure that investors and managers remain accountable, so that the good of minors and society is not sacrificed to profit.”

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BUFFALO (NY)
WIVB

November 13, 2019

By Marlee Tuskes

The Buffalo Diocese has denied a report coming out of Rome that Bishop Richard Malone’s resignation is “imminent.”

A correspondent for The Tablet – a Catholic news organization – tweeted the news Wednesday morning.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Wisconsin Watch

Nov. 15, 2019

By Erica Jones

In the living room of his Marshall, Wisconsin, home, 62-year-old Ted Lausche has a clock that reads aloud Bible verses every hour.

For Lausche, these readings trigger memories of the years of physical and sexual abuse he endured at a Catholic orphanage in Louisiana. But he chooses not to shut them off because the readings also remind him of his late partner, a spiritual woman who loved him despite his personal demons.

In the decades since he escaped from the orphanage at age 13, Lausche has suffered from alcohol abuse, drug addiction, mental health problems, three failed marriages and homelessness. Now, he said he is choosing to “take the best and leave the rest,” looking for positivity in an often tough life.

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TOLEDO (OH)
The Blade

Nov. 15, 2019

By Allison Dunn

Despite years of sexual abuse at the hands of her church pastors, Taniece Temple never lost her faith in God.

Her trust in God helped her through some of her darkest days, when she was passed around solely for her body between Toledo pastors Anthony Haynes, Kenneth Butler, and Cordell Jenkins. Faith kept Ms. Temple on the right path and now leads her to help others through their struggles.

“I still called on God’s name even when I was in church and they would be up there preaching and they were sexually abusing me. I would pray to God in those moments,” Ms. Temple said. “… we all have free will and that is one of the things society needs to capitalize on — a person who chooses to hurt you, to set your house on fire, to kill somebody, to molest you, to do anything that is ungodly — that is on them because He gave them the choice to do right or wrong, and they chose wrong.”

While The Blade does not normally identify victims of sexual assault, Ms. Temple agreed to identify herself and publicly share her story in the wake of the criminal case against the pastors concluding.

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MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
Star Tribune

Nov. 15, 2019

By Erin Adler

Allegations that a Burnsville pastor had inappropriate sexual relationships with two 18-year-old women 17 years ago in Indiana have shaken the congregation at his south metro megachurch, resulting in a leave of absence for him and his removal from consideration for hire by a church in Tennessee.

“We understand the nature of these claims and we take them very seriously,” Berean Baptist Church elders said in a statement released on Twitter and given Sunday at the church. Berean Baptist has been noted in recent years as among the nation’s fastest-growing Protestant congregations. A neutral party has been enlisted to investigate, the statement said.

The Rev. Wes Feltner, now 41, is being accused of simultaneously dating the congregants in 2002 when he was a youth pastor in southern Indiana. The accusations have been deemed credible by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky, where Feltner taught and has been suspended, and came to light after he applied for a position this fall at a church in Clarksville, Tenn.

In an e-mail to the Star Tribune, Feltner said he had permission from their parents to date both women but that he deeply regretted the hurt he caused. He said that he’s offered to speak to the women multiple times, including with a mediator, which he said was how the Bible says such accusations should be addressed.

He said that he and his family are facing “a withering barrage of online attacks,” some of them threatening.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Spectrum News

Nov. 14, 2019

By Fadia Patterson

After suffering in silence for decades, survivors of clergy sexual abuse are now speaking out and have formed a peer support group to help others do the same.

While doing so, the Buffalo Survivors Group hopes to educate the public about the signs of abuse.

The group met for the first time Thursday at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in East Amherst, at a time when many are watching to see whether Bishop Richard Malone is going to resign.

For many in that room, the abuse they endured may have happened years ago, but the wounds are still fresh.

“We’re all in a club that I don’t think we signed up for,” said Angelo Ervolina, one of five founders and an abuse survivor.

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Patheos blog

Nov. 15, 2019

By Barry Duke

Last month Pope Francis put Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, head of the Brooklyn Diocese, in charge of investigating a sex-abuse scandal in the Buffalo Diocese.

This happened after Bishop Joseph Malone had come under fire for allegedly bungling that investigation.

Now its reported that DiMarzio is himself an abuser and that his alleged victim – Mark Matzek, 56 – had repeatedly been molested when he served as an altar boy at St Nicholas Church and a student at St Nicholas School in Jersey City between approximately 1974 and 1975

Matzek’s lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, told the New York Post that, at the time, Matzek was between 11 and 12 years old and DiMarzio was a parish priest in New Jersey in his 30s.

A second priest, the late Rev Albert Mark, also allegedly participated in the abuse, Matzek said. He and his lawyer are preparing a lawsuit against the church over the alleged abuse.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KMBC 9 TV

Nov. 14, 2019

By Emily Holwick

A priest who served in Kansas City, Kansas and Overland Park is being retried on charges of sexual misconduct with a child, stemming from incidents that prosecutors say happened in 2015. Fr. Scott Kallal faces two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. KMBC 9 spoke with the attorney representing one of his accusers, who says the process is grueling for her client.

Attorney Rebecca Randles has represented hundreds of alleged clergy abuse victims in her career, including one who testified against Fr. Kallal at his first trial in September. Randles says the mistrial was a shock. “Our client was devastated, she was absolutely devastated,” she said, “and I think the other witnesses were as well.”

Fr. Kallal had ties to St. Patrick’s Church in Kansas City, Kansas, but was most recently Associate Pastor at Holy Spirit Church in Overland Park.

Randles says the best-case scenario would be a plea deal. “Sometimes with a plea agreement, you can also include into it the terms of the probation, that could include not being with children, to a longer probation,” she said.

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ARLINGTON (VA)
USA Today

Nov. 15, 2019

By Nicole Carroll

I’m USA TODAY editor-in-chief Nicole Carroll and this is the Backstory, insights into our biggest stories of the week. If you’d like to get the Backstory in your inbox every Friday, subscribe here.

Reporter Lindsay Schnell and her editor, Cristina Silva, heard a disturbing story. A man told a state lawmaker that a Catholic school teacher had abused him 30 years earlier – and the teacher was still in the classroom.

How was that possible?

The answer is found in our investigation into former priests, Catholic brothers and Catholic school officials credibly accused of sexual abuse,but never brought to trial in part because so many state statute of limitation laws make it nearly impossible for victims to pursue criminal charges decades after alleged abuse.

The majority of U.S. Catholic dioceses have released names of credibly accused priests – many of whom were defrocked, or laicized, meaning they no longer work with the church. But neither the government nor the church keeps track of (or are required to keep track of) the credibly accused.

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