BURLINGTON (KY)
Kentucky.com
Associated Press
BURLINGTON, Ky. - Attorneys do not have to turn over the names of victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests in northern Kentucky until there is a full hearing on the issue, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled.
The appeals court on Friday issued an emergency stay of an order that would have forced attorneys in the class-action lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington to give prosecutors the names of their clients, as well as details of the alleged abuse.
The court set arguments in the case for Oct. 11.
Along with names, Judge John Potter ordered attorneys to give prosecutors contact information and any allegations of other abuses by the priests. Potter said the names of the victims would not be made public unless necessary.
Attorney Stan Chesley of Cincinnati, who represents the victims, and Carrie Huff, the attorney for the diocese, objected, saying the victims were promised anonymity and some information was passed along to prosecutors throughout the civil case.
MEMPHIS (TN)
Tennessean
Associated Press
MEMPHIS — The Catholic Diocese of Memphis is accused in a lawsuit filed Thursday of failing to protect a young girl who was sexually abused by a priest in the late 1990s.
The lawsuit is the second filed by a Florida law firm that says it represents several victims of abuse by priests in Memphis. The firm has said other lawsuits may be filed.
The latest suit was filed on behalf of a 21-year-old woman identified as Jane Doe No. 2. It alleges that she was abused by a Catholic priest, Edward Nguyen, in Memphis between 1997 and 1999.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
CW11
By Jeff Bernthal,
September 27, 2006
South St. Louis — The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests has for the first time taken their advocacy for abuse victims to a billboard. The billboard asks victims to contact S.N.A.P. It will stay up for three months. The cost was covered by an anonymous donor. WATCH
The billboard went up near the intersection of Watson and Chippewa in South St. Louis. That's because S.N.A.P. believes the pastor of nearby Watson Terrace Christian Church should be removed.
Reverand Carl King was not available for comment Wednesday, but S.N.A.P. doesn't feel he should be in charge of a congregation. "Reverand King has been sexually inappropriate with a mentally-challenged adult and while this woman has reached the age of maturity, she certainly doesn't function as an adult," said Barbara Dorris, with S.N.A.P.
NEBRASKA
San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, September 29, 2006
(09-29) 20:55 PDT Omaha, Neb. (AP) --
A jury on Friday threw out a lawsuit filed by a man who says he was sexually abused at Boys Town, the home for wayward youths made famous in a 1938 Spencer Tracy film.
A Douglas County jury deliberated for just over an hour after a two-week trial before ruling against 23-year-old John Sturzenegger. He claimed he was sexually abused by Glenn Moore in 1997 while a 14-year-old resident of Boys Town. He had sought up to $1 million dollars in damages.
Moore said Friday he was relieved to be vindicated.
"I'm glad it came out the way it did," Moore said. "Finally, I can tell everyone, 'That's not me. That's not my family.'"
MEXICO
International Herald Tribune
The Associated Press
Published: September 30, 2006
MEXICO CITY The Mexican Bishops' Conference on Friday criticized a Los Angeles-based lawsuit accusing Mexico's most prominent cardinal of covering up for a fugitive priest, saying it has generated an "unjust media scandal."
The conference said it supported Cardinal Norberto Rivera, the archbishop of Mexico City, who denies the charges and urged a fugitive priest wanted in the U.S. to come forward.
"In name of all the bishops of the country, we express our solidarity and fraternal support before this unjust media scandal that you have been the object of in recent days," it said in a letter to Rivera signed by Bishop Carlos Aguiar Retes, the conference's secretary-general.
A lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court alleges Rivera conspired with Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony to protect the Rev. Nicolas Aguilar, who has been formally charged in California with 19 felony counts of committing lewd acts on a child. Mahony also denies the charges.
HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle
From Staff And Wire Reports
Archbishop Daniel DiNardo of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston was named in a civil suit seeking the release of the names of about 5,000 abusive priests nationwide.
DiNardo was among four bishops of archdioceses in Texas served with the lawsuit last week.
The archdiocese could not be reached for comment late Friday.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the family of Dan O'Connell of Wisconsin, who was shot and killed in 2002 by a suspected pedophile priest, according to PR Newswire.
An intern working with O'Connell also was killed.
CONNECTICUT
The Advocate
By Stephen P. Clark
Staff Writer
Published September 30 2006
A Catholic advocacy group wants the Bridgeport Diocese to establish safeguards to avoid further financial misconduct by church leaders, steps the group hopes other dioceses in the country will adopt.
Voice of the Faithful, a lay group that emerged in 2002 amid the church sex-abuse scandals, will develop proposals over the next six months that encourage more participation from parishioners and financial accountability from church leaders.
The group will present recommendations in April at its annual conference at Fairfield University.
DELRAY BEACH (FL)
Irish Independent
THE two Irish priests accused of stealing $8.6m (€7m) in offerings and gifts from their parish in the US may have taken much more.
Florida police yesterday reacted to claims by one of the priest's lawyers that the alleged pilfering over a 42-year period had been grossly exaggerated by the authorities.
"We didn't come up with the figure of $8.6m, that was the forensic auditor in the case," Delray police spokesman Jeff Messer said yesterday.
DELRAY BEACH (FL)
Sun-Sentinel
By Mike Clary
Posted September 30 2006
Delray Beach · Two priests may be accused of misappropriating more than $8.6 million from the collection plates, but St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church is far from broke.
Thanks to "foundations set up for benefit of our school and church, we are well endowed," said the Rev. Tom Skindeleski, the current pastor. "The problem is, the money didn't go through proper channels, through the diocese."
Indeed, Skindeleski, who was named pastor at St. Vincent 11 months ago, said he is unsure just how much money the parish has or what its investments are, since boxes of church records have been seized by the police and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
PORT ST. LUCIE (FL)
TCPalm
By CHRIS YOUNG
chris.young@scripps.com
September 30, 2006
PORT ST. LUCIE — Friends and neighbors of two priests accused of stealing more than $8.6 million from their Palm Beach County parish were stunned by the charges against the pair.
A yearlong investigation into church finances resulted Thursday in charges of grand theft filed against the two priests, John A. Skehan and Frances B. Guinan. Skehan, 79, was held in the Palm Beach County jail on $400,000 bail, while Guinan, 63, still was at large Friday, reportedly on an Australian cruise.
Barbara Lynn, whose mother allegedly received money from Skehan, said she was "just shocked" when she heard about Skehan's arrest and gifts — and police allegations that her mother, M. Hilda Nataline, had been romantically involved with the retired monsignor.
Lynn, 55, denied any intimate relationship between the two, saying her mother, now a widow, had been happily married with four children.
DELRAY BEACH (FL)
Miami Herald
BY STEPHANIE SLATER
The Palm Beach Post
DELRAY BEACH - Detectives on Friday served more search warrants and uncovered more secret bank accounts as they continued to pore over the financial records of two South Florida priests alleged to have mishandled $8.6 million in church donations.
''The dollar amount is constantly changing,'' Detective Thomas Whatley said.
A 15-month investigation by Whatley and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement came to a head Wednesday night when they charged former St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church pastors John Skehan and Francis B. Guinan with grand theft over $100,000.
Skehan and Guinan are believed to have diverted millions of dollars from collection plates and other donations to the church during the past 42 years.
Guinan, ordained in 1966, served at Epiphany, St. Michael the Archangel and St. Hugh in the Miami area from 1969 to 1975, according to the Diocese of Palm Beach. He also was pastor of Christ the King in Perrine in the early 1980s.
DELRAY BEACH (FL)
Miami Herald
BY STEPHANIE SLATER
The Palm Beach Post
DELRAY BEACH - Police officials served more search warrants and uncovered more secret bank accounts Friday as they continued to pore over the financial records of two priests alleged to have mishandled $8.6 million in church donations.
''The dollar amount is constantly changing,'' Detective Thomas Whatley said.
A 15-month investigation by Whatley and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement culminated Wednesday night when they charged former St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church pastors John Skehan and Francis Guinan with grand theft over $100,000.
Skehan, a former Broward and Miami-Dade priest, and Guinan, also a former Miami-Dade priest, are believed to have diverted millions of dollars from collection plates and other donations to the church on George Bush Boulevard the past 42 years.
Detectives said the priests hid the money in numerous ''slush funds,'' and spent it on their female companions, trips to the Bahamas and Las Vegas, real estate, and personal expenses, including property taxes, credit card payments and condo association fees.
NEW JERSEY
The Warren Reporter
Friday, September 29, 2006
By WAYNE THORPE
Staff Writer
"Innocent until proven guilty" is a precept of the American judicial system. It's also a frequent response by parishioners of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Washington to the question of whether former pastor Rev. Robert Ascolese -- "Father Bob" to the faithful -- is guilty of the theft charges leveled against him last week in state Superior Court.
Ascolese was charged last week with stealing more than $600,000 from various charities and church programs over the past four years, including rigging Powerball Raffles, intended to raise money for St. Joseph's Catholic Academy. The Academy closed last year.
Ascolese is also charged with using sophisticated scams to funnel charitable donations to himself. Charged with him were William and Stella Quilban of Hampton, who are alleged to have assisted Ascolese is scamming money from the Merck Foundation.
MISSOURI
Neosho Daily News
By John Ford / Daily News Associate Editor
Published: Friday, September 29, 2006 10:52 PM CDT
A Newton County judge recused himself Thursday before the start of arraignment proceedings for George Otis Johnston.
Division III Associate Circuit Court Judge Kevin Lee Selby effectively took himself off the case, which now goes back to Fortieth Circuit Court Judge Timothy Perigo for reassignment.
According to Bill Dobbs, Newton County assistant prosecutor, the judge did not reveal a reason for the move, which came minutes before Johnston was to be arraigned on eight felony counts of statutory sodomy.
“It's difficult to say whether it will remain in the circuit or not,” Dobbs said in an interview Thursday afternoon at the Newton County courthouse. “Obviously, it can't go to [Newton County Division II Associate Circuit Court Judge Greg] Stremel because he heard the preliminary hearing. And the only other sitting judge is John LePage, who has recused himself from a comparative case.”
Dobbs said if the case goes out of the 40th Circuit Court, it will be up to Missouri's Office of the Supreme Court Administrator, OSCA, to decide which judge will hear it.
Dobbs said judges do not have to provide a reason to remove themselves from a case, under Missouri law.
Johnston is the pastor of Grandview Valley Baptist Church North, an offshoot of the Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church, which is pastored by his nephew, Raymond Lambert.
PINEVILLE (MO)
Neosho Daily News
By John Ford /Daily News Associate Editor
Published: Friday, September 29, 2006 10:52 PM CDT
PINEVILLE - A change of judge has been granted in the case of four McDonald County church leaders accused of felony child sexual abuse.
Raymond Lambert, pastor of Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church, and his wife, Patty Lambert, face felony child abuse charges stemming from incidents dating back to 1995. Meanwhile, Patty Lambert's brothers, Paul and Tom Epling, face child sexual abuse charges dating back to the late 1970s.
A request by an alleged victim in the case to disqualify McDonald County Associate Circuit Court Judge John LePage has been granted. Fortieth Circuit Court Judge Timothy Perigo has given the go-ahead to assign the case to Newton County Division II Associate Circuit Court Judge Greg Stremel. Paperwork on the assignment was expected to be completed by early this afternoon, according to a spokeswoman in Judge Perigo's office.
“All four cases have been sent ahead on the motion to disqualify,” said Dan Bagley, assistant prosecutor for McDonald County. “One of our victims had a minor concern and we went ahead with the request. We anticipated different motions and wanted to go ahead and act on the request of the victim for a motion to disqualify.”
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Yahoo!
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Leaders of a support group for clergy molestation victims are disappointed with top Mexico City Catholic officials for what they call "harsh and mean-spirited public comments" about a Mexican man who was raped by a priest and about the church's child sex abuse and cover up scandal.
Two US men who help lead SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, asking him to "rein in" his staff and reach out to molestation victims, rather than criticize them.
The letter, sent today to the Mexico City chancery office by fax and email, is signed by Eric Barragan of Ventura California and David Clohessy of St. Louis Missouri. Barragan helped start SNAP's Mexico City chapter, and Clohessy is the group's executive director.
Both men attended a news conference in Mexico City earlier this month at which Joaquin Aguilar Mendez announced his civil child molestation lawsuit against the priest who raped him, Fr. Nicholas Aguilar. Rivera and a California church official, Cardinal Roger Mahony, were named as defendants in that suit.
UNITED STATES
Winston-Salem Journal
RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
America's Catholic bishops have released their new guidelines for seminary training. Here's the question: Do these regulations represent their perception of - and solution to - the sex-abuse scandal that has engulfed the church for nearly five years?
If so, church leaders apparently believe that a lack of celibacy caused the crisis and that more of it will cure it. Indeed, they give the impression that the prime purpose of seminaries is to preserve celibacy and the chief work of the priest is to be celibate. What were they thinking?
The bishops now propose to ban any applicant who has been involved in the sexual abuse of a minor or shows evidence of sexual attraction to children. Since the first is a crime and the second is common sense, the question is, "Didn't you hierarchs know this before?"
SNOHOMISH (WA)
Herald
By Jim Haley and Kaitlin Manry
Herald Writers
SNOHOMISH - A Roman Catholic parish priest and pastor in Snohomish for two decades will be punished for allegedly abusing an altar boy in the early 1970s.
The Archdiocese of Seattle on Friday announced that the Rev. Dennis V. Champagne has been put on the status "of a priest on prayer and penance" and has been permanently restricted from public ministry.
That means Champagne will remain a priest, "but he is still serving a penalty," archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni said Friday. He will be able to administer the sacraments in a limited and private way, but only with the permission of Archbishop Alex Burnett, Magnoni said.
Champagne served as a parish priest at St. Michael Parish from 1971 to 1979 before being named pastor there. He served until 1999. He later served at St. John Bosco Parish in Pierce County and Immaculate Conception Parish, Steilacoom, until he was placed on administrative leave in June 2002.
WASHINGTON
The Seattle Times
By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter
The Vatican has permanently barred from public ministry Dennis V. Champagne, a local priest accused of child sexual abuse. The decision brings resolution to the last of 13 cases evaluated by a Seattle Archdiocese review board.
The Vatican decision, announced by the archdiocese Friday, means Champagne can no longer call himself "Father," wear priestly garb or present himself as a priest.
Champagne was placed on administrative leave in 2002 after an allegation resurfaced that he had fondled a boy in 1979.
BIRMINGHAM (AL)
Montgomery Advertiser
The Associated Press
BIRMINGHAM -- Bishop David Foley, the head of the Birmingham Catholic Diocese, has been served with and named as a defendant in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by the family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local Catholic officials last week by a county sheriff.
The lawsuit, which seeks no monetary damages, was filed in August in St. Croix County Circuit Court, Wisconsin (Court File No.06CV581). It asks a state judge to force America's 194 Catholic bishops to disclose the names of roughly 5,000 proven, admitted and credibly accused abusive priests in the US. The suit is being brought by the family of Dan O'Connell of Wisconsin, who, along with a co-worker, was shot and killed in February 2002 by a suspected pedophile priest who also owned guns and pornography.
ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Newsday
BY EDEN LAIKIN
INVESTIGATIONS TEAM
September 30, 2006
A Holbrook woman Friday filed a $6-million lawsuit against the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Bishop William Murphy, a priest and a diocesan official, charging that she was traumatized earlier this year when she met the official to discuss sexual abuse allegations against the priest and the official tried to re-enact the long-ago events she claimed took place.
Janique Polimine, 39, says in the lawsuit she was sexually abused in 1980 by the Rev. William Logan while she was a confirmation student at St. James Roman Catholic Church in Seaford. She charges that at a meeting in February, Eileen Puglisi, director of the diocese Office for the Protection of Children and Young People, made her demonstrate how she claimed she had been touched and held by Logan in empty basement stairwells when she was 13.
Polimine said in the suit that Puglisi tried to "intimidate" her by saying things like: "You probably looked forward to these secret meetings" and "You must have felt a normal type of attraction to Father Logan." The suit says Puglisi made Polimine feel "dirty and ashamed."
Diocese spokesman Sean Dolan, Puglisi, Logan and Murphy declined to comment.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Ventura County Star
By Gillian Flaccus, The Associated Press
September 30, 2006
LOS ANGELES — Dozens of people claiming they were abused by priests in the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese would divide $60 million under a settlement on the verge of completion, several attorneys said.
The settlement being drafted by attorneys for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the alleged victims would give 45 claimants a total of $60 million, said Venus Soltan, a plaintiffs' attorney. The settlement would encompass alleged victims whose claims are not covered by the church's insurance policies, she said.
If distributed equally, each alleged victim would get $1.3 million, although how the money would be divided remained unclear.
"We are in the final stages of documentation, and the settlement should be coming public within a week," said Soltan, who represents two of the people who would receive money under the agreement. "It's a very big deal because it's the first time Los Angeles has settled any of its cases."
WASHINGTON
The News Tribune
ROB TUCKER; The News Tribune
Published: September 30th, 2006 01:00 AM
Dennis Champagne, a former priest in Lakewood and Steilacoom, has been permanently banned from public ministry, the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle announced Friday.
Champagne was accused of sexually molesting a boy while serving in a Snohomish parish in 1979. The archdiocese placed him on administrative leave in June 2002, and he resigned as pastor that October. He was serving as pastor of St. John Bosco Catholic Church in Lakewood and Immaculate Conception mission in Steilacoom at the time.
Champagne, 61, has now been given the status of a priest on prayer and penance for the rest of his life.
SEATTLE (WA)
The Olympian
SEATTLE - Another priest accused of child sexual abuse has been permanently removed from public ministry by the Vatican, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle said Friday.
The decision on Dennis V. Champagne, 61, brings to nine the number of priests from the archdiocese who have been removed from ministry over sex abuse allegations, spokesman Greg Magnoni said.
Through Dec. 31, 2005, the archdiocese had paid out $26 million in related counseling fees, attorney fees and settlements, he said.
The decision was made by the Vatican, acting on the recommendation of an archdiocesan review board, the archdiocese said in a statement. No other such recommendations are pending, the statement said.
MIAMI (FL)
UPI
MIAMI, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- A former Roman Catholic priest in South Florida, defrocked for alleged sex abuse, says the diocese of Miami defamed him and he is seeking reinstatement.
The Rev. Jan Malicki, in a news conference at his lawyer's office, said he may sue two women who accused him of sexual misconduct, the Miami Herald reported. The diocese settled with the women last year.
"The archdiocese unjustly took away my good name, my life of priesthood and carried out my character assassination," Malicki said.
AUSTRALIA
ABC
A court has heard how a southern Tasmanian man told a teenage girl he had her mother's permission to teach her sexual techniques.
The 51-year-old man has pleaded guilty to maintaining a sexual relationship with the girl while he was living with her mother in the early 90s.
The man began abusing the girl in 1993 when she was 15. ...
Defence lawyer Michael Daly told the court his client had suffered significant childhood sexual abuse himself at the hands of a priest.
The man will be sentenced next week.
KANSAS CITY (KS)
PR Newswire
KANSAS CITY, Kan., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Archbishop Joseph Naumann,
the head of the Kansas City (KS) Catholic Archdiocese, and Bishop Paul
Coakley, head of the Salina Catholic Diocese, have been served with and
named as defendants in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit
brought by the family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local
Catholic officials at both dioceses last week by a county sheriff.
CROOKSTON (MN)
PR Newswire
CROOKSTON, Minn., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop Victor Balke, the
head of the Crookston Catholic Diocese, has been served with and named as a
defendant in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by the
family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local Catholic
officials last week by a county sheriff.
ROCHESTER (NY)
PR Newswire
ROCHESTER, N.Y., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop Matthew Clark, the
head of the Rochester Catholic Diocese, has been served with and named as a
defendant in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by the
family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local Catholic
officials last week by a county sheriff.
DES MOINES (IA)
PR Newswire
DES MOINES, Iowa, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop Joseph Charron, the
head of the Des Moines Catholic Diocese, has been served with and named as
a defendant in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by
the family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local Catholic
officials last week by a county sheriff.
SAGINAW (MI)
PR Newswire
SAGINAW, Mich., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop Robert Carlson, the
head of the Saginaw Catholic Diocese, has been served with and named as a
defendant in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by the
family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local Catholic
officials last week by a county sheriff.
JOLIET (IL)
PR Newswire
JOLIET, Ill., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop J. Peter Sartain, the
head of the Joliet Catholic Diocese, has been served with and named as a
defendant in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by the
family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local Catholic
officials last week by a county sheriff.
COVINGTON (KY)
PR Newswire
COVINGTON, Ky., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop Roger Foys, the head of
the Covington Catholic Diocese, has been served with and named as a
defendant in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by the
family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local Catholic
officials last week by a county sheriff.
BIRMINGHAM (AL)
PR Newswire
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop David Foley, the head
of the Birmingham Catholic Diocese, has been served with and named as a
defendant in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by the
family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local Catholic
officials last week by a county sheriff.
BURLINGTON (VT)
PR Newswire
BURLINGTON, Vt., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop Salvatore Matano, the
head of the Burlington Catholic Diocese, has been served with and named as
a defendant in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by
the family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local Catholic
officials last week by a county sheriff.
ARLINGTON (VA)
PR Newswire
ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop Paul S. Loverde, the
head of the Arlington (VA) Catholic Diocese, has been served with and named
as a defendant in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by
the family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local Catholic
officials last week by a county sheriff.
MIAMI (FL)
Reuters
By Jim Loney
MIAMI (Reuters) - Two Roman Catholic priests allegedly embezzled more than $8 million (4.3 million pounds) from their church and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on real estate, travel, rare coins and girlfriends, police in Florida said on Friday.
The retired priests were accused of skimming cash from collection plates and bequests to the St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach, Florida, over a period of years and channelling the money into secret "slush funds" they used to pay personal bills, Delray Beach police said.
Former St. Vincent pastor John Skehan, 79, was arrested on a charge of grand theft over $100,000 and was being held in the Palm Beach County jail.
A warrant was issued for the arrest of Father Francis Guinan, 63, on the same charge. He was on a cruise in Australia but had contacted the police, the Palm Beach Post reported.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Mercury News
GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - The nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese could sign a $60 million settlement with dozens of alleged victims of clergy abuse within days, several attorneys told The Associated Press.
The settlement being drafted by attorneys for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the alleged victims would give 45 claimants a total of $60 million, said Venus Soltan, a plaintiffs' attorney. The settlement would encompass alleged victims whose claims are not covered by the church's insurance policies, she said.
If distributed equally, each alleged victim would get $1.3 million, although how the money would be divided remained unclear.
"We are in the final stages of documentation and the settlement should be coming public within a week," said Soltan, who represents two of the people who would receive money under the agreement. "It's a very big deal because it's the first time Los Angeles has settled any of its cases."
WATSEKA (IL)
The Daily Journal
By Jo McCord
jmccord@daily-journal.com
815-432-3685
Testimony in the Timothy Rademacher sentencing hearing Wednesday for sexual assault against boys held the rapt attention of the crowded Watseka courtroom of Judge Gordon Lustfeldt.
The former youth pastor at the United Methodist Church at Ashkum, Rademacher, a rural Kankakee resident, made a 30-minute speech of apology that brought his former parishioners, family, friends and victims to tears.
He described how the crimes happened, saying that one of the boys stayed over night and Rademacher, now 27, went to him in bed and had sex with him. The next day the boy acted as if nothing had happened, he said.
It happened frequently over two years. Then they both made vows to stop.
SEATTLE (WA)
The Seattle Times
By Misha Berson
Seattle Times theater critic
"I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance," concluded Socrates.
One can easily agree with him while watching "Doubt," John Patrick Shanley's justly honored Pulitzer Prize play, now in its splendid regional debut at Seattle Repertory Theatre.
Riveting, unsettling and meticulously directed by Warner Shook, "Doubt" keeps one's sympathies oscillating between the moral absolutism of a stern Catholic school principal, Sister Aloysius (played with steely rectitude by Kandis Chappell) and the righteous fervor and more progressive stance of Father Flynn (mercurial Corey Brill), a priest she fears is a child molester.
The ethical ground of "Doubt" consists of shifting sand. And that is the genius of Shanley's compact yet long-reverberating script. If you get comfy in your assumptions, "Doubt" plunges you back into a gray moral zone where certainty is a mirage.
FLORIDA
Sun-Sentinel
By James D. Davis
Religion Editor
Posted September 29 2006
The attorney for a suspended Broward County priest said Thursday that a sexual misconduct lawsuit against the priest had been dropped, and that the Archdiocese of Miami would be asked to reinstate him.
The Rev. Jan Malicki, a former associate priest at St. David Catholic Church in Davie, had been accused of abusing two women in the 1990s. However, the women have abandoned their lawsuit, his attorney Ellis Rubin said.
"Father Malicki's years in purgatory have finally ended," Rubin said after a news conference in Miami. "There is no obstacle now to his being reinstated as a full priest."
However, archdiocesan spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta said the development didn't affect Malicki's status of suspension with pay. Reinstatement matters are handled "on a case-by-case basis," and no decision has been made to reactivate Malicki, she said.
ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
New Mexican
The Associated Press
September 29, 2006
ALBUQUERQUE — A former Raton priest accused of sexual misconduct with a minor has been sentenced to five years in prison and five years of supervised probation.
George Silva, 74, was sentenced Thursday morning by U.S. District Judge Judith Herrera, who ordered Silva to surrender to U.S. Marshals by Monday morning. He was being held at a halfway house.
Silva reached an agreement with prosecutors in June in which he pleaded guilty to one count of transporting a 14-yearold boy from New Mexico to France and Portugal for illicit sexual activity last year. Silva avoided a trial and a possible sentence of up to 30 years.
“We are pleased with the effort that federal law enforcement applied to this matter,” said the boy’s attorney, Jeffrey Trespel. “We think the plea bargain provided a just sentence.”
Celine Radigan, a spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, said the archdiocese cooperated with investigators in Silva’s case and has a zero-tolerance policy on issues related to sexual misconduct.
BULGARIA
Sofia News Agency
Crime: 29 September 2006, Friday.
An evangelist priest from the tragically known city of Pazardzhik has been sentenced to ten years in a high-security prison for fornication and rape of a 13-year-old girl.
The 28-year-old Krassimir Spasov served at the evangelist Bulgarian God's Church, located in the city's Roma-populated Iztok District. He had contact with lots of local kids as he was in charge of the children church choir.
Spasov raped his young victim a total of four times, threatening her with a knife every time, and telling her that he would kill her if she resisted or told anyone. The last time he violated the girl, her mother witnessed the crime. Spasov will now also have to pay BGN 12,000 to the victim's family for moral damages.
Authorities believe that the man fornicated with other local children, under the pretence that he was trying to introduce them to religion.
MIAMI (FL)
NBC 6
MIAMI -- After a judge dismissed a civil lawsuit accusing a priest of molesting two women, the priest is now asking to be allowed to return to the church.
The Rev. Jan Malicki, who has served as a Roman Catholic priest for more than 30 years, said he is ready to get back to hearing confessions and celebrating Mass. A judge dismissed on Thursday a $50 million civil lawsuit against Malicki that accused him of molesting two women.
"Father Malicki has been cleared of any criminal charges by the Broward state attorney's office," said defense attorney Ellis Rubin.
The Archdiocese of Miami said that regardless of the ruling, Malicki's classification as being on a "leave of absence" is unchanged.
MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times
By David Unze dunze@stcloudtimes.com
Published: September 25. 2006 1:00AM - Last updated: September 25. 2006 12:47PM
The sisters of a former St. John’s University student asked St. John’s Abbey today to confirm that a visiting professor sexually abused their brother in 1970.
Rita Prince and Teri Ryan were at the Abbey today to ask Abbot John Klassen to publicly acknowledge that the Rev. Paul A. GoPaul abused their brother, Patrick Ryan. They also wanted to see a letter their father had written to St. John’s in 1970 that detailed the reasons Patrick Ryan wasn’t returning to St. John’s after a little more than one year of schooling.
GoPaul drugged and raped Patrick Ryan, the sisters said. After dropping out of college, Ryan returned home to California a changed person, they said. He spent time in a mental health facility, escaped and hanged himself in a California jail in 1971.
“It did happen 35 years ago, but the pain is as if it was yesterday,” Prince said of the abuse against her brother.
Klassen is out of the country until later this week. Abbey spokesman the Rev. William Skudlarek met Prince and Ryan at the Abbey Church today and expressed sympathy for the sisters’ sorrow. The first the Abbey had heard about allegations against GoPaul was in 2002, he said.
ALASKA
Fairbanks News-Miner
By Mary Beth Smetzer
Published September 23, 2006
The names of two more Jesuits were added to a growing list of accused clergy as two more sexual abuse civil suits were filed this week in Alaska Superior Courts.
In Fairbanks, two men identified as Jimmy Doe 1 and 2, allege the Rev. Norman Donohue, a Jesuit priest, sexually abused them and other male children when he was resident pastor in Kaltag and Nulato. Donohue died in 1983 at age 75.
In Bethel Superior Court, Jenny Does 1 through 3 filed suit claiming they were sexually abused as children by Jesuit brother Ignatius J. Jakes, an Inupiat Eskimo. Jakes died in 1999 at age 75.
The latest complaints bring the number of individuals named in similar suits against the Fairbanks diocese and the Society of Jesus Alaska and Oregon Province to 14. The tally includes 12 Jesuits and two Catholic volunteers.
MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald
By O’Ryan Johnson
Friday, September 15, 2006
The former cantor of a Randolph temple who sexually abused a mentally retarded woman for nearly two years must pay $8.4 million to her family, under a judgment filed against him yesterday in Norfolk Civil Court.
“For the family it’s a vindication that they really didn’t get in the criminal proceedings,” said their attorney, Adam Satin, with Lubin & Meyer, P.C.
Robert D. Shapiro, 73, pleaded guilty to 14 counts of indecent assault and battery on a mentally retarded person in 2005, but cut a deal and managed to avoid jail time. He was sentenced to a year of house arrest and 10 years probation.
Satin said the woman Shapiro admitted to abusing was in her late 20s, but had the mental functioning of a 5- to 7-year-old child. Satin said Shapiro, due to his friendship with the family and his status in the temple, was the only person outside her family who was allowed to see her unsupervised.
MASSACHUSETTS
The Patriot Ledger
By SUE REINERT
The Patriot Ledger
A former Randolph cantor who admitted molesting a mentally retarded woman must pay $5.2 million to the victim and $750,000 to her parents.
A Norfolk Superior Court jury ruled in favor of the woman and her family yesterday after four hours of deliberation. With interest, the award will total $8.4 million, the family’s lawyer, Adam Satin, said today.
The family had sued Robert Shapiro, 73, the cantor at Temple Beth Am in Randolph for 25 years, in 2003 after his assaults came to light.
Shapiro was criminally charged with seven counts of rape in 2003. In September 2005 he pleaded guilty to 14 counts of indecent assault and battery on a mentally retarded person in a deal with Norfolk County prosecutors.
He was sentenced to one year of house arrest and 10 years probation. Shapiro is still on house arrest, Satin said.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
TWO former Irish priests have been accused in the US of stealing millions of dollars in offerings and gifts made to their parish during the past 40 years.
Police in Delray Beach, Florida alleged that they skimmed cash from the offertory and used the money for personal profit.
Former priests John Skehan, from Johnstown, Co Kilkenny and Francis Guinan, from Mounthenry, Birr, Co Offaly were both charged with grand theft over $100,000.
DELRAY BEACH (FL)
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 29, 2006
Filed at 12:11 a.m. ET
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Two Roman Catholic priests stole millions in offerings and gifts made to their parish over several years, authorities said Thursday.
Monsignor John Skehan, who was pastor at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church for four decades, was arrested Wednesday night. Prosecutors say he and the Rev. Francis Guinan stole a total of $8.6 million from the church, using the money to buy property, vacations and other assets, investigators said.
The 79-year-old Skehan was arrested at Palm Beach International Airport as he returned from Ireland and was being held on $400,000 bond on grand theft charges.
Guinan, who succeeded Skehan three years ago, has disappeared and was being sought, authorities said. He is alleged to have stolen an unspecified amount of money to take gambling trips to Las Vegas and the Bahamas.
Guinan had an ''intimate relationship'' with a former bookkeeper at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, where he previously worked, according to a police report. Denis Hamel, the chief financial officer for the Diocese of Palm Beach, told police Guinan had paid the woman's American Express bills and her child's school tuition with funds from St. Vincent's that were not recorded on the church books.
VIRGINIA
The Roanoke Times
By Tonia Moxley
Retired Blacksburg Middle School teacher Jonathan Utin, 64, was arraigned today in Ohio on eight counts of rape of a child and eight counts of sexual imposition of a child. His bond was set at $250,000 in cash. Utin remains in jail in Butler County, Ohio.
This morning, Utin entered a plea of not guilty. The two Ohio attorneys representing Utin filed a motion to suppress statements he made to Ohio police after his arrest in Blacksburg on Sept. 18, Butler County prosecutor Robin Piper said.
Ohio police say Utin confessed to molesting children over at least 30 years. Butler County Judge Matthew Crehan has scheduled a hearing on the motion to surpress for Oct. 23. No other hearings on the case have been set.
The Ohio charges all involve one victim, who allegedly was assaulted both in Ohio and in Blacksburg between 1998 and 2002.
Piper said that "several" Virginia victims had been identified by investigators, but he did not know the number. Blacksburg police are asking that anyone with information about the case come forward. Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Brad Finch said Wednesday that more charges will be filed against Utin after Blacksburg police complete their investigation.
Utin worked in Blacksburg as a middle school teacher, swim club pool manager and for a short time as a Sunday school teacher. After retiring from public schools in 2003, he worked as a substitute teacher in Montgomery County.
HAMILTON (OH)
Middletown Journal
By Lauren Pack
Staff Writer
Friday, September 29, 2006
HAMILTON — A Butler County judge set bond at $250,000 for a retired Virginia middle school teacher accused of molesting a Middletown girl and several other juveniles in his hometown.
John Utin, 64, a well-known and longtime math and science teacher in Blacksburg, Va., near Roanoke, pleaded not guilty Thursday in Butler County Common Pleas Court to eight counts of rape and eight counts of gross sexual imposition.
Utin, who did not speak, entered the courtroom wearing shackles and an orange jumpsuit with stitches on his head. Middletown police said Utin intentionally harmed himself last week in the Middletown City Jail when he jumped off his jail cell toilet onto the corner of his bed, where he struck his head. ...
He was a science and math teacher in the Montgomery County School system from 1968 to 2003, when he retired. Utin also taught Sunday school and was involved in many civic activities.
DELRAY BEACH (FL)
Palm Beach Post
By Stephanie Slater, Lona O'Connor
Thursday, September 28, 2006
DELRAY BEACH — Two former priests at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach have been accused of misappropriating $8.6 million from the church during the past 40 years.
Delray Beach police alleged that they skimmed cash from the offertory and used the money for personal profit.
Former pastors John Skehan and Francis Guinan were both charged with grand theft over $100,000.
"These guys lived the life they told everyone else not to live — and they lived it on everyone else's dime," police spokesman officer Jeff Messer said. "And one of the seven deadly sins is greed."
Skehan, 79, was arrested Wednesday night at Palm Beach International Airport on a flight from Ireland, where he reportedly owned property.
DARIEN (CT)
The Advocate
By Angela Carella
Assistant City Editor
Published September 29 2006
As they wait for the federal government to conclude its investigation of a priest suspected of stealing money from a Catholic church in Darien, some parishioners want to know more about how the Diocese of Bridgeport handled another aspect of the case.
The priest, Michael Jude Fay, seemed to flaunt his relationship with another man, Philadelphia wedding planner Cliff Fantini, but the bishop has not explained how the diocese deals with priests who violate their vows of celibacy, parishioners say.
Some have written letters to the papal nuncio, the central office of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, asking for assurance that the diocese addresses such cases, said Betty Czarnecki of New Canaan, a parishioner at St. John the Evangelist in Stamford.
"People are accustomed to sitting back and saying we're helpless, and we're not," Czarnecki said of the scandal at St. John's Church in Darien, where Fay was pastor for 15 years.
NASHVILLE (TN)
Associated Baptist Press
By Hannah Elliott
Published September 27, 2006
NASHVILLE (ABP) -- Members of the coalition that fought the Roman Catholic Church's hierarchy over sexual abuse by priests are asking the Southern Baptist Convention to prevent similar clergy abuse in the denomination's churches.
Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, delivered a letter to the SBC Executive Committee at its Nashville headquarters Sept. 26. It asks convention leaders to form an independent review board to receive and investigate charges of clergy abuse in Southern Baptist congregations.
Abuse from clergy is a "systemic" problem, the letter said, and must be addressed by the denomination's main permanent governing body, the Executive Committee. SNAP members also mailed the missive to South Carolina pastor Frank Page, who was elected to the SBC presidency in June.
The letter is the second one they have sent to Southern Baptist leaders.
"Just as [a] family member cannot properly investigate a molestation claim made against a close relative, local church leaders cannot properly investigate a report of clergy abuse made against a much-loved minister," SNAP members wrote. "The usual dynamics dictate that there cannot possibly be a proper inquiry without outside intervention."
MEMPHIS (TN)
NewsChannel 5
MEMPHIS, Tenn. The Catholic Diocese of Memphis is accused in a lawsuit filed today of covering up sexual abuse by a priest in the late 1990s.
The suit was filed on behalf of an unidentified 21-year-old woman identified at Jane Doe Number Two.
It alleges she was abused by a Catholic priest named Edward Nguyen between 1997 and 1999. The diocese said he has been relieved of duty pending an investigation by a church review board.
The suit accuses the diocese of failing to protect the woman from a known child abuser and that it took steps to conceal the abuse. The suit seeks ten (m) million in damages.
MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald
BY NICOLE WHITE
nwhite@MiamiHerald.com
A former Catholic priest accused of sexual abuse by two former parishioners at a Broward church wants the Archdiocese of Miami to reinstate him, arguing that he was never charged with a crime and that the victims dropped a lawsuit against him.
''The archdiocese unjustly took away my good name, my life of priesthood and carried out my character assassination,'' said the Rev. Jan Malicki, 57, at a news conference in the Miami office of his attorney, Ellis Rubin.
CLAIMS REJECTED
Archdiocese officials rejected Malicki's claims, saying the matter ended last year when the church reached a settlement with the two women.
One woman received more than $500,000 in one of the largest settlements paid in South Florida involving a Catholic clergy sex-abuse case. The other woman received less than $500,000 in the same suit.
SEATTLE (WA)
The Seattle Times
By Janet I. Tu and David Bowermaster
Seattle Times staff reporters
The president of Seattle University said Thursday he has no doubt that a Jesuit priest who taught at the school from about 1950 to 1976 sexually molested young boys.
But the Rev. Stephen Sundborg also said he believed that Seattle University bears no legal responsibility for the actions of Michael Toulouse, because any acts of sexual abuse he carried out occurred outside the scope of his official duties as a teacher at the school.
"This was a professor at Seattle University. We know now that this person abused minors. That's a very hurtful thing," Sundborg said. "As the president of this university, I feel an obligation to acknowledge that." Sundborg said the first he heard of such allegations was in 1993.
At the same time, he said, such allegations do not involve "sexual abuse in his functions as a teacher at Seattle University."
DELRAY BEACH (FL)
Newsday
By Jerome Burdi and Mike Clary
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 29, 2006
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Two priests have been accused of stealing more than $8.6 million in cash from the collection plates at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church to bankroll secret lives that included steady girlfriends, real estate investments in Florida and Ireland, and gambling junkets to casinos in Las Vegas and the Bahamas.
Retired Msgr. John A. Skehan, 79, was arrested on a grand theft charge Wednesday night at Palm Beach International Airport upon returning from Ireland. He was pastor at St. Vincent for more than 40 years.
"He was very remorseful," Delray Beach Det. Thomas Whatley said. Skehan was in Palm Beach County's jail Thursday in lieu of $400,000 bond.
SEATTLE (WA)
KGW
09/28/2006
Associated Press
Leaders of a Roman Catholic order of priests worried for decades that the Rev. Michael Toulouse was a pedophile, but opted to move him rather than report him to police, an attorney representing several victims said.
Citing internal documents discovered in a U.S. District Court lawsuit against the Society of Jesus in Seattle, attorney Mike Shaffer said the Jesuit priest continued to molest boys after he was transferred from Spokane to Seattle University in 1950.
Shaffer represents several of Toulouse's alleged victims, and told The Spokesman-Review in a story published Thursday that he knows of a dozen men who were sexually abused by the priest, who taught philosophy at Seattle University.
Toulouse died in 1976.
In 1968, he allegedly assaulted a 12-year-old boy, the basis of the lawsuit against the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuit order of priests.
KANKAKEE (IL)
The Daily Journal
By Jo McCord
jmccord@daily-journal.com
815-432-3685
Former youth minister Timothy Rademacher, 27, of rural Kankakee, was sentenced to 30 years in prison Wednesday for predatory sexual assault and criminal sexual assault against boys.
He pleaded guilty earlier to offenses against two boys, ages 12 and 16, whom he apparently seduced when he was youth minister at Ashkum United Methodist Church.
The sentence was handed down by Judge Gordon Lustfeldt. He said Rademacher's crime was all the worse because it happened on church property, the parsonage, and because he used his authority as a spiritual leader to take advantage of the youths and their families.
Rademacher, dressed in a rumpled suit and having used most of a box of Kleenex during his 30 minutes of tearful apologies to the judge and his victims, hung his head as the sentence was spoken.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
COLM O'Gorman, the founder of the One in Four Victims support group, is to name Pope Benedict XVI as the main churchman responsible for the Vatican's worldwide cover-up of child abusing priests over the past 20 years, writes John Cooney.
Mr O'Gorman, a Dail election candidate for the Progressive Democrats, will make his accusation on a BBC Panorama programme on Sunday.
According to the programme makers, "at the heart of this scandal sits Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.
UNITED KINGDOM
Hereford Times
THE trial of a vicar accused of downloading child pornography from the internet has been delayed.
At a pre-trial review at Worcester Crown Court on Tuesday both prosecution and defence asked for more time to prepare the case.
James Morrish, aged 41, of The Rectory, Kingstone, denies 11 charges of making indecent photographs of a child between October 18 and 24 last year. He also denies two charges of possessing 69 indecent photographs of children between December 2001 and October last year.
Married Morrish, the priest in charge of Kingstone, Thruxton and Clehonger parishes, is suspended from his clerical duties.
MONTGOMERY (AL)
al.com
9/28/2006, 6:52 a.m. CT
The Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala (AP) — A former minister is headed to federal prison to begin serving a 22-year sentence for producing child pornography.
Leura Canary, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, said 40-year-old Garrett Dykes was sentenced yesterday in Montgomery federal court. He pleaded guilty in May to one charge of filming himself fondling an eight-year-old female in January 2005.
Dykes also awaits an October 27th sentencing hearing in Elmore County after he entered a guilty plead last month to nine counts of sex abuse and four counts of production of obscene materials of people younger than 17.
Elmore County prosecutors said the sex abuse plea involved three victims under the age of 12 who were molested in Dykes' home. Investigators said the abuse was videotaped.
OHIO
The Roanoke Times
By Tim Thornton and Tonia Moxley
381-1669 tonia.moxley@roanoke.com 381-1676
A grand jury in Butler County, Ohio, indicted former Montgomery County teacher Jonathan Utin on 16 felony charges Wednesday -- eight counts of rape of a child under the age of 10 and eight counts of gross sexual imposition.
Prosecutor Robin Piper issued a news release calling Utin "an extraordinary monster" and said the detective work that led to the Ohio charges also "unearthed many, many other incidences which took place in Virginia." ...
About a month ago someone complained to Christ Church interim Rector Elizabeth Morgan about an incident from 30 years ago involving Utin. Morgan declined last week to say what the incident was or to identify who reported it, but she did say it did not happen at Christ Church.
In response to the complaint, Morgan said, she asked all adults in the church who work with children to fill out a self-disclosure form listing any previous crimes or allegations, as the policies of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Virginia require. It was unclear if Utin was asked to fill out a form.
The church also began conducting background checks on its adult leaders, Morgan said. Church officials plan to review their response to the 30-year-old complaint to make sure all policies were followed, diocesan spokeswoman Christie Wills said.
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Mariana C. Sorensen
One year ago, a Philadelphia grand jury exposed sexual crimes committed by priests against children in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia - crimes that church leaders over decades covered up and enabled.
A year ago, the same grand jury also revealed gaping loopholes in Pennsylvania laws intended to protect children. The jurors found that archdiocese officials had exploited these loopholes to shield predatory priests from prosecution and themselves from liability.
To close the loopholes, the jurors recommended simple amendments to state statutes. Yet, a year later, lawmakers in Harrisburg have passed none of them.
Why are legal reforms necessary?
ANCHORAGE (AK)
Anchorage Daily News
The Associated Press
Published: September 27, 2006
Last Modified: September 27, 2006 at 09:48 AM
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The Catholic Archdiocese of Anchorage has put up residential property for sale to cover settlements in priest abuse lawsuits.
The archdiocese must pay about $760,000 to cover its share of settlements in three lawsuits, said Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz. A fourth case is pending.
"It is my hope that takes care of any of the victims who are out there, and hopefully we've helped bring some healing into their lives," Schwietz said Tuesday.
The Anchorage lawsuits recently settled include one against the Rev. Frank Murphy that involved five victims. Another accused a former Kenai priest, the late Rev. Robert Wells, of abusing a girl starting when she was 8 or 9 and continuing for eight years. In the third case, an Anchorage man accused the Rev. Robert Bester of asking him for sexual favors.
OHIO
The Roanoke Times
By Tim Thornton and Tonia Moxley
A grand jury in Butler County, Ohio, indicted retired Blacksburg Middle School teacher Jonathan Utin today on 16 charges -- eight counts of rape of a child under the age of 10 and eight counts of gross sexual imposition. The indictment charges that the crimes were committed between 1998 and 2002.
Each of the rape charges carries a potential life sentence.
Butler County Prosecutor Robin Piper said in a press release that he intends to seek a life sentence in the case.
In announcing the charges, Piper praised the detective work that led to Utin's arrest. That investigation, Piper said in the release, "unearthed many, many other incidences which took place in Virginia." ...
Utin coached gymnastics, led star-gazing trips, taught Sunday school at Christ Episcopal Church and was a manager at the Shawnee Swim Club. The warrant alleges that Utin molested the Ohio girl at the swim club and at his home.
ST. GEORGE (UT)
Deseret Morning News
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
ST. GEORGE — Captured polygamist leader Warren Jeffs made a brief appearance in 5th District Court here. During the five-minute hearing, the judge set a Nov. 21 preliminary hearing for Jeffs. The judge will also address bail at that time.
During the brief hearing, Jeffs spoke only once, when the judge asked if he would waive his right to have a preliminary hearing within 30 days. "Yes," Jeffs said softly, nodding his head.
Jeffs, 50, was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list until being arrested during a traffic stop outside Las Vegas last month.
He is charged with two counts of rape as an accomplice, a first-degree felony. Jeffs is accused of forcing a teenage girl into a polygamous marriage with an older man. When the girl objected to the union, the FLDS Church leader allegedly threatened her "salvation."
COLUMBUS (OH)
Toledo Blade
By JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU
COLUMBUS - A court magistrate has recommended that a new law addressing old cases of child sex abuse should stand, rejecting arguments that Ohio House Republicans illegally conspired behind closed doors to weaken the measure.
Christine Lippe, a Franklin County Common Pleas Court magistrate, found that a majority of House Judiciary Committee members were at a private, prearranged meeting on March 28 and that Senate Bill 17 was discussed. But she said plaintiffs failed to prove a majority of members participated in those discussions, thus violating Ohio's open meetings law.
She recommended that Judge Patrick Sheeran dismiss a lawsuit filed by three members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests seeking to overturn that vote as well as the law that resulted.
After returning to the public meeting, the committee's majority killed a one-time, one-year window sought by victim advocates for filing abuse lawsuits for which the statute of limitations had long expired.
IOWA
Bishop Accountability
[Note from BishopAccountability.org: This table was released by the Dubuque archdiocese after SNAP members handed out leaflets at two Ames IA churches where accused priest Robert Marcantonio had worked 1970-75. See Parishioners Get Leaflets on Accused Priest, by Shirley Ragsdale, Des Moines Register (9/18/06). The archdiocese had not included Marcantonio in an earlier version of the list, which was released on 2/21/06 as part of a settlement. On the settlement and abuse in the archdiocese generally, see Sins & Silence, by Mary Nevans-Pederson et al., Telegraph Herald (3/5/06). This web page was created from the Google HTML version of the archdiocese's PDF file of the 2/21/06 table, and then was updated to reflect the changes made by the archdiocese to create their 9/22/06 PDF table.]
IOWA
Bishop Accountability
This is a link to the Gould v. Soens lawsuit filed in Iowa which names Bishop Lawrence D. Soens.
MINNESOTA
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Pamela Miller
Last update: September 25, 2006 – 9:25 PM
The sisters of a California man who committed suicide in 1971 after allegedly being raped by a visiting professor at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn., delivered a letter to St. John's Abbey on Monday saying that their brother's case contradicts the institution's claim that it releases the names of all sex offenders.
Rita Prince of Pahrump, Nev., and Teri Ryan of Bremerton, Wash., who were accompanied by three Minnesota advocates for clergy sex-abuse victims, said their brother, Patrick Ryan, 19, hanged himself after dropping out of St. John's in 1970. He told his family that he had been drugged and raped by the Rev. Paul GoPaul, a Trinidad native who taught at St. John's in 1969-70 and died in 1988.
The sisters say their father wrote St. John's a letter explaining why Patrick had dropped out in 1971 and received a reply saying that GoPaul would be denied tenure.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Keith Herbert
Inquirer Staff Writer
A Republican former prosecutor, Montgomery County Court Judge Paul W. Tressler doesn't have a reputation for being soft on criminals.
But in a high-profile case that concluded last week, Tressler gave probation, not jail, to a New York City cantor who pleaded to charges of sexually abusing his nephew for years.
The judge and the District Attorney's Office say the sentence was the culmination of an earlier appellate court ruling, which gutted the prosecutor's case, and the desire of the victim to end the legal ordeal, which had dragged on for years.
"I have no doubt that I followed the law, which is the job of the judge, and not to let emotion become part of the equation," Tressler said yesterday.
Tressler sentenced Cantor Howard Nevison to 12 years of probation but spared him a prison term. Nevison was charged with abusing his nephew during a four-year period in the 1990s at the boy's Main Line home. The assaults occurred when the child was between 3 and 7 years old.
TROY (NY)
Albany Times Union
By TIM O'BRIEN, Staff writer
First published: Tuesday, September 26, 2006
TROY -- Tom Spargo may no longer be an employee of city government, but he is still in the sights of attorney John Aretakis.
Spargo, a former Supreme Court justice forced from the bench in March, was hired by the city in April to a $30,000 a year, part-time job as a deputy corporation counsel.
Aretakis responded to the news by filing a notice of claim against the city in May, threatening to sue and claiming the hiring was illegal because Spargo lived in East Berne, outside the city, and was unfit for the job. ...
When Spargo was on the bench, he issued a preliminary injunction against Aretakis and demonstrators concerned about priest abuse of children, requiring them to stay at least 300 feet from Holy Cross parish in Albany during services and on school days. In his ruling, Spargo called Aretakis' conduct "aggressive and hostile" and "unsettling to decent people."
Aretakis' client in that case, Mark Lyman, co-chairman of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, unsuccessfully tried to have Spargo removed from the case, arguing he was biased.
FRESNO (CA)
The Fresno Bee
By Doug Hoagland / The Fresno Bee
(Updated Wednesday, September 27, 2006, 4:05 AM)
A Wisconsin family is suing Fresno Catholic Bishop John Steinbock and nearly 180 other American bishops to make them disclose the names and whereabouts of sexually abusive priests.
The family of Daniel O'Connell believes that a Wisconsin priest suspected of child molestation killed O'Connell, who was checking out reports that the priest sexually abused children.
The priest, the Rev. Ryan Erickson, killed himself in 2004, two years after O'Connell was fatally shot.
SPOKANE (WA)
KGW
09/27/2006
Associated Press
A man whose son said he had been sexually abused by a Jesuit priest took a gun to confront the priest at Gonzaga University in 1950 but was stopped, and the priest was moved to Seattle, according to court filings.
The episode is described in sworn statements filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle with a lawsuit against the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus by people who claim they were abused by the once highly regarded priest, Michael Toulouse, who died in 1976, The Spokesman-Review reported Wednesday.
The Rev. John Whitney, head of the organization which overseas Jesuit priests in much of the Pacific Northwest, told the newspaper he believes molestation did occur but added that he could not find evidence to verify the account of the man with the gun or to show Gonzaga leaders knew Toulouse was a pedophile.
DAVENPORT (IA)
WOI
DAVENPORT, Iowa A court hearing for a former Roman Catholic priest arrested last week for violating his parole was delayed today.
The Reverand Richard Poster was arrested last week for allegedly having contact with children in Davenport, on an area bike path and near a school in Buffalo, Iowa, where he has been living with his parents.
Poster was sentenced to a year in federal prison on possession of child pornography charges in January 2004 and was released on parole with the requirement that he would stay away from children.
IOWA
Des Moines Register
ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 27, 2006
A court hearing for a Roman Catholic priest arrested last week for violating his parole on pornography possession charges has been delayed.
The Rev. Richard Poster, 41, was arrested last week for allegedly having contact with children at the Barnes & Noble book store in Davenport, on an area bike path and in Buffalo, Iowa, where he had been living with his parents, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Allegro.
Allegro’s office has alleged that Poster went near the Buffalo Elementary School and masturbated while watching children.
Allegro said Poster indicated at his sentencing on the child pornography charge that he never went near children.
“We now know that’s not true,” Allegro said.
ARLINGTON (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By MITCH MITCHELL
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
ARLINGTON -- A former church employee who testified against Terry Hornbuckle during his sexual assault trial filed a federal job discrimination lawsuit against Agape Christian Fellowship on Friday.
In the suit, Lisa Fuller alleges she was sexually harassed by Hornbuckle, the pastor, and wrongfully terminated.
Fuller, who was hired as an executive assistant by Hornbuckle's wife in July 2000, says in the lawsuit that she was fired because she would not lie to a Tarrant County grand jury.
Hornbuckle instructed Fuller to tell members of the grand jury that rumors of him sleeping with women other than his wife, using drugs and misappropriating funds were started by disgruntled employees, according to the lawsuit.
ARLINGTON (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
05:52 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 26, 2006
By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
A former employee of convicted rapist Terry Hornbuckle has filed a federal job discrimination lawsuit against his old church.
The lawsuit said Lisa Fuller was fired after she rejected Mr. Hornbuckle’s unwanted sexual advances and ignored his demands that she lie to a Tarrant County grand jury.
Ms. Fuller worked as the executive assistant to Mr. Hornbuckle and his wife at Agape Christian Fellowship church in Arlington.
Church board president Charles Richardson said he had not spoken to Agape attorneys yet and could not comment.
FIJI
Radio New Zealand
Posted at 2:06pm on 27 Sep 2006
A report from Fiji says two ministers of the Methodist Church, who have now been suspended, sexually abused at least nine secondary school girls.
Radio Legend reports that the divisional police commander eastern, Superintendent Emosi Baleinuku, is carrying out the investigations on Gau and Koro islands where the offences allegedly took place.
All the nine girls are aged between 14 and 16.
Mr Baleinuku is quoted as saying they have yet to interview some other girls who are also believed to have been sexually assaulted by the same two ministers.
DALLAS (TX)
WFAA
By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV
DALLAS — Just days ago, the Dallas Catholic Diocese agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a young victim of sexual abuse.
She was one of at least 13 girls molested at the Saint Pius X Parish daycare by two male employees.
While both men are behind bars, the victims and their families feel one other culprit has never been held fully accountable — the Church.
The scope of the abuse has been kept quiet for years, and some are calling it the worst case of sexual molestation ever at a Dallas Catholic Church.
From the outside, Saint Pius X Parish appeared to be the model place to entrust one's child.
An established day care in impeccable surroundings governed by the nurturing arms of the Catholic Church.
But lurking inside, there were two day careworkers with questionable credentials and disturbing behavior.
MEXICO
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
By IOAN GRILLO, Associated Press Writer
Associated Press
September 27, 2006
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Police in the Mexican state of Puebla began searching Tuesday for a Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting children in Los Angeles, officials said.
Rev. Nicolas Aguilar, charged in California with 19 felony counts of committing lewd acts on a child, was reportedly was in a small village in Puebla earlier this month.
Puebla Interior Secretary Javier Lopez said detectives and local police were working with church officials to find Aguilar.
"We have sent our agents and the local police to help us find him because we cannot just fold our arms," Lopez told reporters.
The case gained widespread attention last week when U.S. lawyers filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that Cardinal Norberto Rivera of Mexico City conspired with Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony to protect Aguilar.
Both cardinals denied the charges, and Rivera urged Aguilar to turn himself in.
ANCHORAGE (AK)
Anchorage Daily News
By LISA DEMER
Anchorage Daily News
Published: September 27, 2006
Last Modified: September 27, 2006 at 02:45 AM
The archbishop is in a rental, the West Anchorage spread that was his home up for sale. The reason? To pay for settlements in sexual abuse lawsuits.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Anchorage must pay about $760,000 to cover its share of settlements in three lawsuits recently resolved, said Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz. A fourth case is pending.
"It is my hope that takes care of any of the victims who are out there, and hopefully we've helped bring some healing into their lives," Schwietz said Tuesday.
It's not the first property the archdiocese has sold to raise money for sexual abuse settlements. A couple of years ago, it sold some commercial property to compensate the family of Service High School principal Pat Podvin in a private settlement, Schwietz said. Podvin committed suicide in 2004 after publicly disclosing he had been abused as a teenager by an Anchorage priest, the Rev. Frank Murphy.
UNITED STATES
Kansas City Star
By EUGENE CULLEN KENNEDY
Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago has been dead for almost 10 years. He is, however, far more alive than many church leaders because of his great contributions to church and society, and for his holiness as he accepted the suffering from cancer that led to his death.
He is certainly more alive than Matt Abbott and Randy Engel, two writers whose current attacks on Bernardin are as hilarious and illogical as the late comedian Lou Costello’s lines in the classic “Who’s on first” routine.
Engel claims Bernardin was a leader of a gay combine and makes accusations the way a bad imitator of Julia Child might concoct a souffle. She stirs her ingredients furiously and ends up with egg on her own face.
These two know that you cannot legally libel the dead, so they feel free to make fevered allegations that, like all overheated charges, lose their flavor and their texture as they cool down. Like Abbott with his Costello, they will end up using the last line of the baseball routine when asked what the proof is: “I don’t know.”
UNITED STATES
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
September 25, 2006
From a recent news release:
Former priest and Loyola Professor Emeritus Eugene C. Kennedy broke the silence surrounding Randy Engel's controversial book The Rite of Sodomy — Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church with a scathing commentary for Religion News Service on August 31, 2006.
Engel says that Kennedy's attack on her book, which documents 100 years of intergenerational homosexuality and pederasty in the American Catholic hierarchy, was specifically aimed at her disclosure of the late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin's role in securing a stronghold for the homosexual collective within the Catholic Church in the U.S.
Says Engel:
"In the original version of Kennedy's commentary, 'Abbott more like Costello in attacks on Bernardin,' Kennedy mistakenly gave the impression that columnist Matt C. Abbott is the author of The Rite of Sodomy. This error was later remedied in a revised commentary after RNS confirmed that Abbott's column featured a lengthy excerpt from my book. ...
"The ongoing sex abuse scandal in AmChurch, which includes the systematic cover-up by members of the hierarchy of criminal acts committed by Catholic priests and religious who prey on young boys, takes on new meaning when viewed within the context of a long-existing network of homosexual bishops and cardinals.
NEW YORK
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
September 26, 2006
The following is the text of an affidavit submitted by Father Robert Hoatson.
OXFORD (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
OXFORD -- The Rev. Joseph Coonan, 58, of 3 Hope Ave., was released on $500 cash bail yesterday in Dudley District Court and granted a continuance to Oct. 5 in connection with a domestic incident Friday night.
Rev. Coonan pleaded not guilty to charges of four counts of assault and battery on a disabled person over 60, two counts each on Mabel Coonan, his mother, and on Patricia A. Loiselle, his sister; intimidation of a witness and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (a 12-pack of Diet Coke).
GOLDEN (CO)
CBS 4
(AP) GOLDEN, Colo. A Catholic priest will be arraigned Oct. 19 on charges of sexually assaulting a teenage boy he was counseling.
A Jefferson County district judge ruled Monday that a grand jury indictment of 43-year-old Timothy Evans of Loveland showed sufficient probable cause to proceed with the case. Evans is accused of a fondling a 16-year-old between 1995 and 1997 while he was assigned to Spirit of Christ Parish in Arvada.
Evans is free on a $25,000 bond. The court issued a restraining order requiring Evans, who has been barred from performing any priestly duties, to have no contact with the alleged victim.
ST. PAUL (MN)
PR Newswire
ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop John Kinney, the head of the St. Cloud Catholic Diocese, and Bishop John Nienstedt, head of the New Ulm Catholic Diocese, have been served with and named as defendants in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by the family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local Catholic officials at both dioceses last week by county sheriffs.
SUPERIOR (WI)
PR Newswire
SUPERIOR, Wis., Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop Raphael Fliss, the head
of the Superior (WI) Catholic Diocese, has been served with and named as a
defendant in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by the
family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local Catholic
officials last week by a county sheriff.
The lawsuit, which seeks no monetary damages, was filed in August in
St. Croix County Circuit Court, Wisconsin (Court File No.06CV581). It asks
a state judge to force America's 194 Catholic bishops to disclose the names
of roughly 5,000 proven, admitted and credibly accused abusive priests in
the US. The suit is being brought by the family of Dan O'Connell of
Wisconsin, who, along with a co-worker, was shot and killed in February
2002 by a suspected pedophile priest who also owned guns and pornography.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Yahoo!
DAVENPORT, Iowa, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop William Franklin, the head of the Davenport Catholic Diocese, has been served with and named as a defendant in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by the family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local Catholic officials last week by a county sheriff.
FRESNO (CA)
Yahoo!
FRESNO, Calif., Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop John Steinbock, the head of the Fresno Catholic Diocese has been served with and named as a defendant in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by the family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local Catholic officials late last week/this week by a county sheriff.
The lawsuit, which seeks no monetary damages, was filed in August in St. Croix County Circuit Court, Wisconsin (Court File No.06CV581) It asks a state judge to force America's 194 Catholic bishops to disclose the names of roughly 5,000 proven, admitted and credibly accused abusive priests in the US. The suit is being brought by the family of Dan O'Connell of Wisconsin, who, along with a co-worker, was shot and killed in February 2002 by a suspected pedophile priest who also owned guns and pornography.
BROOKLYN (NY)
PR Newswire
BROOKLYN, N.Y., Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, the
head of the Brooklyn Catholic Diocese has been served with and named as a
defendant in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by the
family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local Catholic
officials last week by a county sheriff.
The lawsuit, which seeks no monetary damages, was filed in August in
St. Croix County Circuit Court, Wisconsin (Court File No.06CV581) It asks a
state judge to force America's 194 Catholic bishops to disclose the names
of roughly 5,000 proven, admitted and credibly accused abusive priests in
the US. The suit is being brought by the family of Dan O'Connell of
Wisconsin, who, along with a co-worker, was shot and killed in February
2002 by a suspected pedophile priest who also owned guns and pornography.
JAMAICA
The Jamaica Observer
Vaughn Davis
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
DONOVAN Jones, the 47-year-old former deacon of the Church Dayton Diamond Ridge who is alleged to have supervised the repeated sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl by four youngsters in the back of a van, was yesterday granted bail in the Home Circuit Court, after spending more than two months in police custody.
Appearing before Justice Marva McIntosh, during in-camera proceedings, Jones was granted $400,000 bail and ordered to report to the Half-Way-Tree Police Station on weekdays during the hours of 6:00 am and 6:00 pm. As a special condition of his bail, Jones was ordered by the judge to avoid all contact with the witnesses to be called in the matter as well as the young girl involved.
Jones along with the three youngsters - James Rogers,18, Shamar Morgan, 18 and a 14-year-old juvenile - who are also out on bail, are all charged with indecent assault.
JAMAICA
Jamaica Gleaner
published: Tuesday | September 26, 2006
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
Former church deacon, 46-year-old Donovan Jones, was yesterday granted bail in the sum of $400,000 with sureties, after being in custody since July 6 in connection with the sexual molestation of a 14-year-old girl.
One of the conditions of his bail is that he must report to the Half-Way Tree police station from Mondays to Fridays. He is also not to make contact with the witnesses in the case.
"My decision cannot be based on emotions but must be based on legal principles," Mrs. Justice Marva McIntosh said as she outlined her reasons for granting bail.
COLLEGEVILLE (MN)
Pioneer Press
Associated Press
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Two sisters said Monday their brother killed himself in 1971 because of the trauma of being sexually abused by a visiting professor at St. John's University.
Rita Prince and Terry Ryan delivered a letter to St. John's Abbey on Monday, saying their brother's case contradicts claims by St. John's that it has released the names of all priests and monks alleged to have committed sexual abuse there.
Prince, of Pahrump, Nev., and Ryan, of Bremerton, Wash., said their brother, Patrick Ryan, was a promising student before he was drugged and raped by a priest who taught history at St. John's in the 1969-70 and 1970-71 school years. He was 19 when he hanged himself in February 1971, they said.
They told reporters outside the abbey church that their brother was raped by the Rev. Paul GoPaul, who died in 1988. They said their father wrote St. John's a letter explaining why Patrick Ryan dropped out. They said they received a reply that GoPaul would be denied tenure. They also said their father died in 2004.
WYNNEWOOD (PA)
Catholic Online
By Susan Brinkmann
9/25/2006
Catholic News Service
WYNNEWOOD, Pa. (CNS) – As rain fell on the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, hundreds of priests from the Philadelphia Archdiocese heard three speakers tell of the evil of clergy sex abuse that they or their family members endured.
"In the past year, we all have read the stories of the victims – but it is extremely important to hear their stories firsthand, so that we may see the human face and hear the human voice, rather than simply read words on a printed page," said Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali.
The cardinal organized the Sept. 15 event at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood to acquaint priests with the human dramas behind the clergy sex abuse crisis. The three speakers included two victims and the mother of two other victims. The impact of their stories about victimization by priests serving in the archdiocese was profound and disturbing.
Grace, a mother of two victims, said that she was raised in a devout Catholic home and was taught "that clergy were men of God. But two of them were not."
KENTUCKY
The Cincinnati Post
Post staff report
A 53-year-old Pendleton County judge has been appointed to oversee the multimillion-dollar settlement of a class-action lawsuit alleging 50 years of sexual abuse in the Covington Diocese.
Circuit Judge Robert W. McGinnis steps in as the third judge on the case - the nation's first class-action involving priests' sexual misconduct. He replaces Senior Judge John Potter, who announced Sept. 13 that he had completed all the hours allowed on the case under the state's senior judge program.
That program allows Potter to collect a pension equal to his salary when he retired as a judge if he serves an average of 120 days annually for up to five years. Potter was appointed to oversee the case in December 2003, after Boone Circuit Judge Jay Bamberger retired.
Chief Justice Joseph Lambert appointed McGinnis late last week.
DUDLEY (MA)
WHDH
DUDLEY, Mass. -- A Worcester minister is arrested again.
It is the second time he's facing charges of assaulting his mother and disabled sister.
Police arrested Reverend Joseph Coonan, 58, on Sunday night.
A neighbor tipped police about the alleged attack, saying that Coonan's mother had called her in tears. Officials say alcohol was involved.
Earlier this year, Coonan was charged with similar crimes against his mother and sister, but those were dropped.
Coonan has been on administrative leave from the church since 2002 when a sexual misconduct abuse claim was raised against him.
COLLEGEVILLE (MN)
Minnesota Public Radio
Collegeville, Minn. — Rita Prince and Terry Ryan stood beneath the massive concrete bell tower at St. John's University in Collegeville, clutching a picture of their brother. In the 1960s-era photo, Patrick Ryan is dressed smartly in a black suit, his reddish-brown hair swept to the side.
Terry Ryan said her brother was a promising student. But then, she said, Patrick Ryan was sexually abused by a priest, who was also a history professor, in the 1970s.
Meeting with a St. John's official"He was a straight-A student, he was a good athlete, he had much, much promise. And I believe he was an absolute victim when he came here to this school. He had no family in the area. He probably became a victim to somebody who was looking for someone just like him," Ryan said.
Ryan alleges her brother was drugged and raped by the priest in the fall of 1970. Her brother left SJU shortly after. Rita Prince said he was never the same, and fell into deep depression.
"My brother, Patrick Ryan, never saw his 20th birthday. He was so distraught he hung himself in February of 1971," Prince said.
WINTHROP (ME)
Morning Sentinel
By BONNIE N. DAVIS
Correspondent
WINTHROP -- United Methodist churches need to be more open in discussing sexual issues and learn to recognize the signs of both parishioners and clergy crossing the thin boundary lines that may result in sexual harassment, abuse or illicit sex a noted author and therapist taught this week.
"We need for churches to be able to talk about sex - traditionally a taboo subject. This taboo perpetuates shame, sexual abuse and secrets," The Rev. Dr. Karen A. McClintock told local Methodist pastors and laity in her Healthy Boundaries, Healthy Congregations workshop.
Because of the sexual abuse exposed in the Roman Catholic Church, other denominations see the necessity of teaching warning signs and prevention. All clergy and appointed personnel in the 500 United Methodist's New England Conference churches are required to attend this workshop.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times
September 25, 2006
BY CATHLEEN FALSANI Religion Reporter
Officials of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese are beefing up security at a Mundelein Seminary house where eight priests live after being removed from ministry because of allegations of sexual misconduct.
"We're looking at tightening up our residence at the Cardinal Stritch Retreat House to include things like surveillance cameras and key cards, and we lock the doors after a certain hour," said Jimmy Lago, chancellor of the archdiocese.
Key cards, new locks
"The whole point is to figure out who's in and who's out," Lago continued. "We're going to have to build this one brick at a time."
The key cards will allow archdiocesan officials to know who's coming and who's going and when. Locks at the retreat house also have been changed so residents no longer have master keys that open all the doors, he said.
OHIO
Cincinnati Enquirer
BY SHARON COOLIDGE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
People who have never even been charged with a sex offense could end up on a public registry of sex offenders.
That new Ohio law - the only one in the nation - is being questioned by civil liberty groups and even the victim's rights group that spurred its creation.
But state legislators and county prosecutors say the registry, which is similar to a Megan's Law database of convicted sex offenders, is a way to protect the public.
The problem with the civil registry, the groups say, is that, unlike under Megan's Law, the people listed would never have been criminally charged. For the civil registry, it will be up to a judge to decide whether the crime likely occurred.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters is the first to test the law.
Earlier this month he filed a motion in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court asking that David J. Kelley, a priest who served at St. Therese the Little Flower in Mount Airy, be ordered to register with the state's Internet Civil Registry.
Kelley, who now lives in Nashville, is accused of sexually abusing a young student at the church's grade school in the early 1980s.
MEXICO
Casper Star-Tribune
By IOAN GRILLO Monday, September 25, 2006
MEXICO CITY - Cardinal Norberto Rivera on Sunday urged a Mexican priest charged with raping and molesting children to turn himself in but denied accusations that he helped protect the fugitive.
Rivera said the Rev. Nicolas Aguilar, who has been formally charged in California with 19 felony counts of committing lewd acts on a child, was damaging the church by evading arrest.
"I ask that Father Nicolas Aguilar, wherever he may be, respond to the corresponding authorities for the terrible crimes he is accused of, for the good of his conscience and to avoid further damage to the church," Rivera said in a statement after Mass in the capital's cathedral. "If anyone has been a victim of this priest, they should denounce it."
A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court alleges that Rivera conspired with Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony to protect Aguilar.
OHIO
WDBJ
The retired Blacksburg teacher facing sex charges apparently tried to kill himself Friday morning. According to Cincinnati television station WCPO, Jonathan Utin appeared in court in Middletown, Ohio with a large bandage on his head.
According to the station, police say Utin tried to commit suicide by jumping off a sink in his cell, and purposely hitting his head on a metal bed post.
VIRGINIA
The Roanoke Times
By Tonia Moxley
381-1676
The greenhouse door stood open Friday afternoon at Jonathan Utin's house just across Toms Creek Road from Gilbert Linkous Elementary School.
Over the years, children sometimes played there or learned about flowers and plants. And visitors on the town's Friendly Garden Tour sometimes milled about there, enjoying the landscape and the house with its large windows.
Late-summer flowers waved in a slight breeze that played notes on cow-themed wind chimes in Utin's award-winning garden Friday. But no one answered several knocks.
Utin was sitting in a jail cell in Ohio, watched by cameras lest he try to harm himself again. He is accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl from that state. ...
Utin taught in Blacksburg schools from 1968 until retiring in 2003. Until recently, he was a Sunday school teacher at Christ Episcopal Church in Blacksburg and had continued to teach in Montgomery County schools as a substitute.
KINGMAN (AZ)
Kingman Daily Miner
By Aibing Guo
Miner Staff Writer
KINGMAN Candi Shapley, the alleged victim and key witness in the trial against Colorado City man Randolph Barlow, wrote a letter to Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn in early August explaining her reluctance to testify at the trial.
She refused to testify at Barlow's trial on Aug. 29. She was then held in contempt of court by Conn and ordered to serve a monitored sentence in Kingman for 30 days. ...
In the letter, Shapley claimed she had a wonderful family and a happy childhood, and she felt like she was ready to face a marriage when her parents arranged a plural marriage between her and Randolph Barlow. Court files suggested she was 16 or 17 years old at the time of the marriage.
Shapley admitted that her married life was more difficult than she thought it would be, but argued, "tell me, have you never had problems in your married life? Is there anyone who has not had problems?"
Shapley later escaped from the plural marriage, moved out of the polygamous community and broke ties with the FLDS church.
MASSACHUSETTS
WPRI
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) -- A suspended priest who was arrested earlier this year after allegedly assaulting his mother and sister has been arrested again on similar charges.
Joseph Coonan is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Dudley District Court.
Charges include domestic assault and battery on a person over 65 his mother-and a disabled person-his sister. Worcester police say both women had superficial injuries.
Coonan was removed from ministry at St. John's Roman Catholic Church in 2002 after allegations that he committed sexual misconduct in the 1970s, before he became a priest.
IRELAND
The Observer
Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday September 24, 2006
The Observer
The author accused of making up her best-selling memoir of abuse in a Magdalene laundry is hoping to silence critics this week when two survivors make legal statements confirming she was in one of the church-run institutions with them.
The order of nuns that ran the notorious laundries denies O'Beirne was ever held in their care. O'Beirne's book Don't Ever Tell details a life of child rape, abuse and violence that implicates nuns in the Catholic clergy as well as her late father.
Her story has torn her family apart, with most of her siblings dismissing it as a fraud. However, one brother, Joseph, is standing by her, in defiance of five other family members.
In a brief statement to The Observer last night, O'Beirne said: 'In the last couple of days a number of Magdalene laundry survivors who were outraged at the false accusations against me were in contact. They said during this coming week they will give sworn affidavits to my legal team that they were in a Magdalene laundry with Kathy O'Beirne.'
MASSACHUSETTS
MetroWest Daily News
Sunday, September 24, 2006
WORCESTER -- A suspended priest who was arrested earlier this year after allegedly assaulting his mother and sister has been arrested again on similar charges.
The Rev. Joseph Coonan, 58, was arrested Friday and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Dudley District Court on charges including domestic assault and battery on a person over 65, his mother, and a disabled person, his sister.
He also faces a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, a 12-pack of Pepsi.
Worcester police Sgt. Anthony Saad told The Telegram & Gazette of Worcester that both women had superficial injuries.
Police were called to the residence by a neighbor, who had been contacted by Coonan's sister, Patricia Loiselle.
Coonan lives with his sister and mother, Mabel Coonan. He was removed from ministry at St. John's Roman Catholic Church in August 2002 by former Worcester Diocese Bishop Daniel Reilly after allegations that Coonan committed sexual misconduct in the 1970s, before he became a priest.
WEST HARTFORD (CT)
Hartford Courant
September 24, 2006
By REGINE LABOSSIERE, Courant Staff Writer
WEST HARTFORD -- "We're not looking to bring down the church and build a new one. We're looking to fix this one," Mary Pat Fox, national president of Voice of the Faithful, told about 80 of group's members Saturday.
Fox spoke at the lay Catholic organization's first statewide conference, which was called to discuss the issues that prompted the group's formation - the sexual abuse and financial scandals that have rocked the Roman Catholic Church.
Those controversies, Fox said, "reminded us that it is our church, it is our responsibility and we need to take that on."
Members of the organization from chapters in Rhode Island and the Bridgeport, Norwich, and the Hartford archdioceses attended the conference, which was held in the gymnasium of St. Timothy Middle School.
FAIRBANKS (AK)
Juneau Empire
The Associated Press
FAIRBANKS - Two sexual abuse civil suits involving deceased Jesuits were filed this week in Alaska Superior Courts in Fairbanks and Bethel.
In Fairbanks, the Reverend Norman Donohue, who died in 1983, is accused of sexually abusing male children when he was a pastor in Kaltag and Nulato.
In Bethel, three women filed suit saying they were sexually abused as children by Jesuit brother Ignatius Jakes, an Inupiat Eskimo. Jakes died in 1999.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-Cities Online
By Brian Krans, bkrans@qconline.com
A man who last week was awarded $1.5 million from the Diocese of Davenport in a sexual abuse case served time in federal prison in the 1980s for income tax evasion.
Although attorneys representing the diocese were able to tell the jury about other legal disputes involving D. Michl Uhde, they were barred from talking about his conviction and prison sentence.
Mr. Uhde, 56, filed the suit against the diocese alleging he'd been abused by now-deceased Monsignor Thomas Feeney in the 1960s. The diocese argued that the statute of limitations for filing the suit had passed and that Mr. Uhde should have understood his legal rights.
In support of the argument, Rand Wonio, an attorney representing the diocese, pointed out that Mr. Uhde had signed legal papers for two divorces, child custody disputes, child support and mortgages over the past three decades. He was barred, however, by the judge from citing Mr. Uhde's federal conviction.
CYPRUS
Cyprus Mail
By Elias Hazou
The run up to the election of a new Archbishop has been vindictive and, sometimes, downright nasty
AND I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
Ezekiel 25:17 ...
The mudslinging began a while back, when reports surfaced of a sex scandal within the Limassol archbishopric. It was alleged that a high-ranking archimandrite had limited homosexual relations with a youth who had been “recruited” from a local charity.
To Limassol bishop Athanasios, one of the candidates for Archbishop, this smacked of a conspiracy to tarnish his image, since he was responsible for the embattled cleric.
Vile calumny or not, it perhaps made sense that these sort of charges were lain at the doorstep of Athanasios, who has tried to build a reputation as a pious - fundamentalist some might say - priest, interested primarily in spiritualism and salvation. To the bishop’s supporters, it was a low blow.
CANADA
London Free Press
By JANE SIMS, FREE PRESS JUSTICE REPORTER
CHATHAM -- The stunned silence in the packed courtroom filled with abused women was broken by shockwaves of anger and disbelief.
Rev. Charles Sylvestre, 84, the disgraced Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty six weeks ago to 47 counts of indecent assault, listened to a judge order him to undergo a psychiatric assessment that will determine if his case will go further.
"Do you understand?" Ontario Court Justice Bruce Thomas asked.
"I do," Sylvestre said feebly.
Groans, giggles and tears echoed through the courtroom after a surprising last-minute development threatened to stop the case in its tracks.
CANADA
Canada.com
Trevor Wilhelm, CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, September 23, 2006
CHATHAM, Ont. - The sentencing hearing for a retired Catholic priest, who has confessed to sexually abusing 47 girls, came to an abrupt halt Friday because he may be mentally unfit to face criminal proceedings.
The judge hearing the case ordered a psychiatric assessment to determine if Charles Henry Sylvestre, 84, is fit to stand trial after this lawyer made the surprise revelation.
If the court-appointed psychiatrist finds Sylvestre unfit, he would likely walk free and the criminal case would grind to a halt.
Sylvestre pleaded guilty in August to charges of indecent assault for sexually abusing 47 girls in southwestern Ontario parishes from 1952-86. Court was scheduled Friday so about half of the women could give victim impact statements before a sentencing hearing next month.
CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant
September 23, 2006
By FRANCES GRANDY TAYLOR, Courant Religion Writer
For many Roman Catholic dioceses across the country, financial crisis has followed closely the sexual abuse scandal. Voice of the Faithful - a lay Catholic organization founded in the wake of the crisis - will tackle ways to bring about greater financial transparency to the church in its first statewide conference this weekend.
Jayne O'Donnell, the Hartford Archdiocese coordinator, said greater lay involvement in church governance might have led to earlier detection that something was going wrong.
"There were settlements being made and priests being transferred," she said. "Had there been more openness and more lay people involved, that would have been a red flag that something was wrong."
A "National Campaign for Accountability in the Catholic Church" has been the group's focus for this past year, O'Donnell said. Today's conference, from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. at St. Timothy's Church in West Hartford, will bring chapters from Rhode Island, Bridgeport, Norwich and the Hartford archdiocese. Mary Pat Fox, president of VOTF, will be the keynote speaker.
BOSTON (MA)
Lowell Sun
By RICK HELLER, Sun Statehouse Bureau
BOSTON -- Two days after Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey was officially nominated as the Republican candidate for governor, she took on the gubernatorial role by signing legislation that lengthened the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse.
Previously, prosecutors could bring cases of child sexual abuse for a period of 15 years after a victim turned 16. The law extended the statute of limitations to 27 years. Another provision of the new law extended the statute of limitations indefinitely if admissible forensic evidence is available or an independent witness to the crime can be located.
The law, however, is not retroactive.
"If the statute of limitations has run, there is nothing you can do. That case is gone forever. If even a day is left, it can be extended," said Joseph Ditkoff, an assistant district attorney for Suffolk County, who attended yesterday's bill signing at the Statehouse.
JAMAICA
Jamaica Gleaner
published: Saturday | September 23, 2006
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
Jones is to return to court on Monday when Mrs. Justice Marva McIntosh will decide whether she will offer him bail.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) yesterday slapped five charges of trafficking in persons on 46-year-old former church deacon Donovan Jones and the three male teenagers charged jointly with him with the sexual molestation of a 14-year-old schoolgirl.
They were taken from the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday to the Home Circuit Court where bail applications were made for them.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
By Tim Townsend
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/22/2006
A defrocked pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal Church has won an appeal of a church ruling that accused him of child sexual abuse. But it could be nearly two years before a final decision is made on whether he will be allowed to lead an AME church again.
Church investigative committees in St. Louis and Los Angeles sustained separate allegations of "child sexual abuse" against the Rev. Sylvester Laudermill Jr. in May.
Laudermill, 48, was pastor at St. Peter AME Church, at Margaretta and Shreve avenues in St. Louis from 1994 to 2004 and served with numerous clergy-activist groups, including Metropolitan Congregations United for St. Louis. In 2004, Laudermill returned to his native Los Angeles where he was pastor of Ward AME, the denomination's second largest church in Los Angeles, until he stepped down in May.
ALASKA
KTVA
Associated Press
Two lawsuits claiming child sexual abuse by Catholic officials were filed Thursday. Three women accuse Brother Ignatius J. Jakes of abusing them when they were young girls in the village of Holy Cross in the 1980s. A second suit, filed by two men, claims abuse by Father Norman E. Donohue between 1967, and 1973, in Nulato.
Both Jakes and Donohue are dead.
Each of the five claimants are seeking more than 100,000 dollars in damages from the organizations that oversaw the priests, including the Fairbanks Diocese and the Society of Jesus in Alaska and Oregon.
The plaintiffs' attorney is Ken Roosa. He and his law partners say they now represent more than 100 victims. They claim abuse by 12 church employees, and volunteers, primarily priests.
KANSAS
PR Newswire
DODGE CITY, Kan., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop Ronald Gilmore, the
head of the Dodge City (KS) Catholic Diocese has been served with and named
as a defendant in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by
the family of a murdered Wisconsin man. It was served on local Catholic
officials last week by a county sheriff.
The lawsuit, which seeks no monetary damages, was filed in August in
St. Croix County Circuit Court, Wisconsin (Court File No.06CV581). It asks
a state judge to force America's 194 Catholic bishops to disclose the names
of roughly 5,000 proven, admitted and credibly accused abusive priests in
the US. The suit is being brought by the family of Dan O'Connell of
Wisconsin, who, along with a co-worker, was shot and killed in February
2002 by a suspected pedophile priest who also owned guns and pornography.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
September 22, 2006
The following is the text of a lawsuit recently filed against Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles.
CANADA
London Free Press
Sat, September 23, 2006
By JANE SIMS, FREE PRESS JUSTICE REPORTER
CHATHAM -- Left without an abuser or a judge to hear them, Rev. Charles Sylvestre's victims turned to each other.
Yesterday, when their opportunities to give victim impact statements fizzled after the retired priest's mental fitness became an issue, they used the courtroom as a meeting place to speak out.
One by one they read their victim impact statements in a highly unusual session arranged by Crown Attorney Paul Bailey.
Instead of facing the judge's bench, the women turned to the public seats, where they were encouraged and applauded.
"I wouldn't be in this dark hole or dark place without someone's decision to abuse me," said Irene Deschenes, whose name is not protected by the court-ordered publication ban.
IOWA
Quad City Times
By The Quad City Times | Saturday, September 23, 2006
Catholic bishops across the country, including Diocese of Davenport Bishop William Franklin, have been named in a lawsuit filed in Wisconsin by the family of a man who was killed by a priest who later committed suicide.
Franklin was served with the lawsuit this week, according to a release from the diocese. The suit does not seek monetary damages; instead, it demands the bishops turn over the names and locations of all Catholic clergy in the United States accused of sexual misconduct.
In its release, the Diocese of Davenport said it has “turned over all information about reports of child abuse by living priests to the Scott County Attorney.” In addition, the release states that information about credible allegations of child sexual abuse by priests have been given to victims’ attorneys.
OXFORD (MA)
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
By John Dignam TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
jdignam@telegram.com
OXFORD— The Rev. Joseph Coonan, against whom domestic assault and battery charges were recently dropped, was arrested last night on similar charges involving the same alleged victims — his mother and sister.
Rev. Coonan, 58, held last night at the police station on $740 bail, was scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Dudley District Court.
He will be charged with two counts of domestic assault and battery on a person over 65 (his mother), intimidation of a witness, two counts of domestic assault and battery on a disabled person (his sister), and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (a 12-pack of Pepsi). ...
The Diocese of Worcester placed Rev. Coonan on administrative leave in 2002 after allegations of sexual misconduct from the 1970s became public. At that time, he was pastor of St. John’s Church in Worcester. The allegations were about activities before Rev. Coonan entered the priesthood. A diocesan spokesman said earlier this month that Rev. Coonan remained on administrative leave.
CALIFORNIA
Napa Valley Register
By DAVID RYAN
Register Staff Writer
Saturday, September 23, 2006 12:03 AM PDT
An organization supporting victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy is suing a Napa priest, accusing him of using the court system to intimidate it.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court last week accusing Monsignor Joseph Alzugaray, the pastor of Napa’s St. Apollinaris Catholic Church, of malicious prosecution when Alzugaray’s lawyers filed a defamation suit against them in 2004.
That suit stemmed from SNAP’s publicity of a 2003 lawsuit filed against the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles by Erin Brady, a Southern California woman who charged that recovered memories of her childhood revealed Alzugaray had molested her during the 1960s.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
AN order of nuns embroiled in a dispute over a bestselling biography detailing harrowing abuse in a Magdalen laundry is on a legal collision course with its author.
The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, one of four Irish religious orders who ran the now closed homes, has asked a Dublin legal firm to investigate - with a view to launching civil proceedings - claims by Kathy O'Beirne that she was abused while in the care of its nuns.
Ms O'Beirne's book, 'Kathy's Story: A Childhood Hell in The Magdalene Laundries', has become a surprise non-fiction best-seller in Ireland and Britain, selling over 350,000 copies.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
A FOUR-year garda inquiry into allegations that the Catholic Church covered up child sex abuse in Ireland's largest diocese has failed to produce sufficient evidence to lay charges against any senior church figures.
A combination of obduracy, the death of priests suspected of abuse, a lower than expected tally of victims willing to file complaints and limited access to diocesan files has resulted in the inquiry "running into the sand", according to victims of abuse.
Victims who brokered an historic apology from Cardinal Desmond Connell,the retired archbishop of Ireland's largest diocese, are angry that after a four-year investigation only a handful of prosecutions have been secured in the courts.
Victims of paedophile priests had hoped that a dedicated core ofAbuse Tracker Bureau of Criminal Investigation detectives would confirm widespread allegations that the Church concealed the activities of abusive priests in Dublin. But the Irish Independent has learned that no charges are pending against senior diocesan officials.
MEXICO
Catholic Online
9/21/2006
Catholic News Service
MEXICO CITY (CNS) – A Mexican man is suing the cardinals of Mexico City and Los Angeles, claiming the cardinals covered up crimes of a priest accused of sexually abusing boys on both sides of the border.
In a civil suit filed in California, the man accused Cardinals Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles and Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City of negligence, claiming they aided the flight of Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera and that they were partially responsible for sexual battery due to their negligence.
Spokesmen for both cardinals denied the charges.
In a Los Angeles court Sept. 19, Joaquin Aguilar Mendez of Mexico City filed the suit against the cardinals and the Diocese of Tehuacan, Mexico, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Aguilar alleged the cardinals transferred a Mexican priest to the United States in 1987 despite knowing that he had a record of molesting minors in Mexico. Cardinal Rivera headed the Diocese of Tehuacan at the time.
NEW YORK
News Times
A fired high school administrator and defrocked Episcopal priest, captured in April after being on the run for months in places as distant as Malaysia, pleaded guilty Wednesday to molesting one of his teenage students.
Bruce Jacques, a 57-year-old former priest at St. John's Episcopal Church in New Milford, pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal sex act in the third degree, admitting he performed oral sex on a 16-year-old boy, first inside his Manhattan school and two hours later in Central Park.
MASSACHUSETTS
Daily News Tribune
By Michelle Laczkoski/ Daily News Correspondent
Friday, September 22, 2006
Peter and Annette Presti got the justice they were seeking yesterday, as Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey signed a bill extending the statute of limitations for prosecuting sex crimes and placing tougher penalties on convicted sex offenders.
Two years after their daughter and granddaughter were allegedly murdered in their Woburn home by a neighbor who the state considered a dangerous sexual criminal, the Prestis' efforts to safeguard the public from sexual predators paid off.
"We did it," Presti said, hugging another supporter after Healey signed the bill.
"It means a lot to have it passed; hopefully this will prevent another horrendous tragedy from happening again," Annette Presti said.
Under the new law, the statute of limitations for prosecuting sex crimes will now be 27 years instead of the former limit of six or 15 years, depending on the crime. The law also places stiffer penalties on sex offenders who fail to register in their towns and adds several new categories of offenders to the list of those required to wear Global Positioning System transmitters that allow police to monitor their movements.
MASSACHUSETTS
Malden Observer
By Rep. Christopher G. Fallon/ Sitting In
Friday, September 22, 2006
The commonwealth, in what only can be categorized as a historic occasion, enacted a bill that extends the statute of limitations (the time allowed) on bringing sexual abuse charges against sexual predators that target children. Additionally, this bill regulates the registration, classification and monitoring of convicted sex offenders in Massachusetts.
To ensure all victims of childhood sexual abuse can pursue justice, this legislation increases the amount of time district attorneys have to prosecute such heinous crimes from 15 years to 27 years after the victim first reports the abuse, or 27 years after the victim turns 16.
In further efforts to protect Massachusetts residents, the bill mandates that within five days of receiving a sentence, the agency that has custody over the sex offender must transmit to the sex offender registry board the sex offender's registration data, which includes identifying factors, anticipated future residence, offense history, the official version of any sex offenses and the projected maximum release date and the earliest possible release date for the sex offender.
ELDORADO (TX)
Deseret Morning News
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
Police and prosecutors traveled to the Fundamentalist LDS Church's enclave in Eldorado, Texas, to talk with local law enforcement about the capture of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs and the future of his followers.
JD DoyleConstruction work surrounds the Fundamentalist LDS Church's temple on the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, Texas. FBI agents and an assistant U.S. attorney from Arizona met earlier this week with Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran about the FLDS Church and what may happen now that Jeffs has been captured.
"They were just keeping open lines of communication with the sheriff and others in the community there," said Special Agent Deborah McCarley from the FBI's office in Phoenix.
BOSTON (MA)
The Republican
Friday, September 22, 2006
By DAN RING
dring@repub.com
BOSTON - Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey yesterday signed into law a bill that extends the statute of limitations for sex crimes against children and imposes new restrictions on convicted sex offenders.
Advocates sought the law in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. They said the new law was needed to allow charges to be brought in crimes that occurred years ago.
Magdalen M. Bish of Warren and Healey embraced after the lieutenant governor signed the bill at a Statehouse press conference with legislators. Bish advocated for approval of the bill.
BLACKSBURG (VA)
WDBJ
Blacksburg Police have started their own investigation into a retired middle school teacher. Sixty-five-year-old Jonathan Utin was arrested this week on a felony charge that he inappropriately touched a 12-year-old girl in Middletown Ohio.
Utin was a widely-known and liked math and science teacher at Blacksburg Middle School for more than 30 years. He also managed the Shawnee Swim Club in Blacksburg for 28 years and volunteered as a Sunday school teacher at Christ Episcopal Church.
BLACKSBURG (VA)
The Roanoke Times
By Tonia Moxley and Shawna Morrison
The Roanoke Times
BLACKSBURG -- A retired Blacksburg teacher charged with molesting a child confessed to inappropriate relationships with other children over a 30-year period, Ohio police said Thursday.
Detective Fred Shuemake of the Middletown (Ohio) Police Department said Jonathan Utin, 64, molested a girl in Blacksburg and Middletown and that she was not his only victim.
Utin, who was a beloved teacher at Blacksburg Middle School and was involved in numerous community and church activities, is to be arraigned today in Middletown.
VIRGINIA
WSLS
Rosa Duarte / WSLS NewsChannel 10
Sep 21, 2006
Local reaction from people who knew retired school teacher Jonathan Utin.
Turns out the class room wasn't the only place he taught, the also volunteered as a Sunday school teacher at Christ Episcopal Church in Blacksburg.
Scott Russell, an associate rector and campus minister says "Yesterday we were advised that a member of this church has been arrested on charges sexual misconduct, we are shocked and saddened by the allegations. Our top concern is for the safety of and well fare for the young people of Christ Church and of this community. Although he was a Sunday school teacher at our church, we are unaware of any allegations of inappropriate behavior."
Members of his church aren't the only ones who are reacting, the Montgomery County school board is too.
UNITED KINGDOM
ABC
By Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop. Posted: Friday, September 22 2006
Britain's number-one best-seller on the non-fiction shelves, a searing indictment of the Church's role in child abuse, is facing allegations from the writer's family that it's completely made up.
Don't Ever Tell was said to be a real-life account of personal victory over a childhood scarred by drug and sexual abuse.
The brothers and sisters of author Kathy O'Beirne have thrown doubt on the account of her childhood in Ireland, saying her "perception of reality has always been flawed".
SIOUX CITY (IA)
Sioux City Journal
A former Sioux City resident has filed the 30th sexual abuse lawsuit against the Diocese of Sioux City.
Edward Nichols, who now lives in California, had previously been a party to a suit filed in June along with Patrick Nichols. But a judge's ruling in August ordered the two men to file separately.
Edward Nichols filed his suit Tuesday in Woodbury County District Court. He said in the suit that he was sexually abused by former priest George McFadden in the 1960s while McFadden was an assistant pastor or pastor at Immaculate Conception Church and the now-closed St. Francis of Assisi parish, both in Sioux City. Nichols was under age 14 at the time.
DAVENPORT (IA)
WHBF
DAVENPORT - A Davenport priest who served time for downloading child pornography on a church-owned laptop computer is in more legal trouble.
Police arrested Reverend Richard Poster saying he violated his parole by having contact with children. Poster pleaded guilty to the child porn charges in 2003 and served a year in prison. When he was released, he was hired by the Davenport Diocese and worked as a janitor until May 2005.
Federal prosecutors say Poster made contact with children at a Davenport bookstore, on a bike path and in Buffalo, Iowa where he lived with his parents.
MEXICO
The Press-Enterprise
By ISTRA PACHECO
The Associated Press
MEXICO CITY
Roman Catholic Church officials asked for an investigation Thursday of two U.S. lawyers and an activist they claim are trying to extort money from the Mexican church with a lawsuit alleging Cardinal Norberto Rivera protected a pedophile priest.
Church lawyer Bernardo Fernandez de Castillo accused the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests of seeking to bleed the church, "but neither the cardinal nor the archdiocese will be blackmailed," he told a news conference. "We consider this to be extortion."
U.S. lawyers, backed by SNAP, filed a lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of Mexican Joaquin Aguilar Mendez, 25, in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The suit alleges Rivera and Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony conspired to protect Catholic priest Nicolas Aguilar, who has been charged in California with 19 felony counts of committing lewd acts on a child.
MEXICO
IPS
MEXICO CITY, Sep 21 (IPS) - Joaquín Aguilar has been seeking justice since 1994, when he says he was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest in Mexico who is accused of molesting some 60 other boys as well.
But today, Aguilar is the target of a counterattack from the Church, and his lawyers are facing threats of being sued for slander.
"The only thing I am after is justice, and I will not rest until I obtain it; I am no longer afraid of the Church's response," the Mexican activist told IPS.
On Tuesday, Aguilar filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles, California accusing Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera and Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony of conspiring to protect Catholic priest Nicolás Aguilar (no relation).
The Catholic Church in Mexico was indignant over the lawsuit, flatly denied the allegations, and responded by attacking the accuser and his lawyers, who belong to the Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
LARCHMONT (NY)
Larchmont Gazette
(September 19, 2006) Priests alleged or found to have sexually abused a minor will not be housed at Larchmont’s Trinity House as part of the New York Archdiocese Shepherd’s Program or any similar program, according to Joseph Zwilling, spokesperson for the Archdiocese. In the wake of recent media coverage about the Shepherd’s Program and resulting community concern, the one priest temporarily housed at Trinity House is no longer there and is instead being housed at a medical facility under close supervision. (See: Two Accused Priests Enter Trinity House Retreat.) The only other priest in the program scheduled for Trinity House has chosen its other option, leaving the priesthood.
KENTUCKY
Lexington Herald-Leader
By Frank E. Lockwood
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
A Fayette Circuit Court judge yesterday declined to throw out a sex abuse lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Covington, saying a jury should decide the case.
Judge Mary Noble set a trial date of June 4 for the civil suit.
Samuel Greywolf alleges that he was sexually abused by Father John B. Modica in the rectory of a Lexington church in the fall of 1974.
At the time, Modica was assistant pastor at Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary parish in Lexington, which was part of the Covington diocese at the time.
The priest, questioned by Greywolf's attorney, took the fifth amendment, declining to confirm or deny the allegations.
FORT COLLINS (CO)
Denver Post
Fort Collins - Other alleged molestation victims of a former Fort Collins Catholic priest, Timothy Evans, will be allowed to testify if he stands trial for sexual assault in Larimer County, a district judge ruled Thursday.
Evans is charged with two counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, one count of sexual assault on a child/pattern of abuse and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in Larimer County, officials said. The Larimer County charges stem from activities believed to have occurred while he was at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish from 1998 to 2002.
Evans has been indicted on similar charges in Jefferson County.
ST. PAUL (MN)
Pioneer Press
BY TAD VEZNER
Pioneer Press
During a Mexico City news conference accusing Mexico's most prominent cardinal of protecting an alleged pedophilic priest, St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson was signaled aside by authorities.
The ensuing conversation concerned him enough that he accepted a police escort to the airport.
After the conference Wednesday, men identifying themselves as immigration officials approached Anderson and two others with him — David Clohessy, national director of Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, and colleague Michael Finnegan.
After reviewing their papers and asking questions for an hour, "They surrounded us, and said, 'You need to come with us.' I said, 'Wait a minute, I want to see identification,' " Anderson said when reached at his Minneapolis home Thursday night.
The man flashed his I.D. too fast for Anderson to read it and would not show it again, Anderson said. The men grabbed him by the arm and tried to get him into a black van with darkened windows, he claimed.
UNITED KINGDOM
ABC
The World Today - Friday, 22 September , 2006 12:46:00
Reporter: Rafael Epstein
ELEANOR HALL: It's Britain's number one best selling book on the non-fiction shelves. It is a searing indictment of the Church's role in child abuse and was said to be a real life account of personal victory over a childhood scarred by drugs and sexual abuse. But the author's family say it's all made up.
The brothers and sisters of Kathy O'Beirne have thrown doubt on the account of her childhood in Ireland called Don't Ever Tell. But so far Kathy O'Beirne's publisher is standing by the book.
As Europe Correspondent Rafael Epstein reports.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Kathy O'Beirne's supposed true account of her childhood, is published in Britain as Don't Ever Tell. And with Ireland still coming to terms with the abuse some suffered while in the care of the Catholic Church, her book seemed to echo the experiences of so many.
In the book she says she was beaten by her father, sexually abused by two boys from the age of five, and at the age of 10 repeatedly raped by a priest and whipped by nuns. She claims she was later forced to take drugs in a mental institution.
But her family, and the institutions that she was supposedly in as a child, say her book is simply not true.
CANADA
CD98.9
More victims of a former Port Dover priest convicted of sexual abuse will get a chance to have their say in court in Chatham today. The sentencing hearing for 84-year-old Charles Sylvestre continues from last month.
Sylvestre has pleaded guilty to 47 counts of sex abuse. Ron Pickersgill, of the London diocese, says Bishop Ronald Fabbro has begun the process to get Sylvestre defrocked as victims are demanding.
MEXICO
WCCO
(AP) Mexico City, Mexico Roman Catholic Church officials asked for an investigation Thursday of two Minnesota lawyers and an activist they claim are trying to extort money from the Mexican church with a lawsuit alleging Cardinal Norberto Rivera protected a pedophile priest.
Church lawyer Bernardo Fernandez de Castillo accused the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests of seeking to bleed the church, "but neither the cardinal nor the archdiocese will be blackmailed," he told a news conference. "We consider this to be extortion."
U.S. lawyers, backed by the Chicago-based SNAP, filed a lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of Mexican Joaquin Aguilar Mendez, 25, in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The lawsuit alleges Rivera and Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony conspired to protect Catholic priest Nicolas Aguilar, who has been charged in California with 19 felony counts of committing lewd acts on a child.
MEXICO
Vivir Latino
The Latin Americanist reported yesterday on a bombshell story: Mexico's Archbishop, Norberto Rivera, is being sued for allegedly covering up for a priest who was molesting a former altar boy, along with L.A.'s Cardinal Mahoney. The Catholic News Service tells us more about this scandal:
A Mexican man is suing the cardinals of Mexico City and Los Angeles, claiming the cardinals covered up crimes of a priest accused of sexually abusing boys on both sides of the border.
In a civil suit filed in California, the man accused Cardinals Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles and Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City of negligence, claiming they aided the flight of Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera and that they were partially responsible for sexual battery due to their negligence.
Spokesmen for both cardinals denied the charges.
MEXICO
Zenit
MEXICO CITY, SEPT. 21, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The Church in Mexico reacted swiftly in the face of allegations, made by a lawsuit in the United States, that sexual abuse by clergy was concealed.
In a communiqué signed by Bishop Carlos Aguiar Retes, secretary-general of the Mexican episcopal conference, the prelates express their "distress and solidarity" with victims of all kinds of sexual abuse, and condemn "the pederastic actions of any human being, whether priest, religious or lay."
"The crime of pederasty must always be denounced and condemned, never concealed, so that we reiterate our willingness to collaborate with the authorities in charge of obtaining and imparting justice," stresses the communiqué published Wednesday.
In regard to accusations made in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles, the Mexican bishops were confident that "the authorities will keep to the rigorous search for the truth, in respect of the principle of presumed innocence."
The Tidings
Bill May was a typical Catholic student in the 1950s, growing up in an Irish American family in a Philadelphia suburb where all the neighborhood kids went to the local Catholic elementary school. The nuns were highly disciplined, students memorized their catechism lessons thoroughly, and meeting the pastor felt like a holy experience.
At the Catholic boys high school, Bill played soccer and was thrilled to attend an institution where the boys competed for city championships in football, basketball, baseball, swimming and bowling - and won. "It was heady times," remembers Bill. Sports and academics, he believed, would be a good combination to land him and his brother in college.
In his sophomore year, he met a young woman from the Catholic girls high school and the two started going steady. They chatted by the trains each morning before heading off for their respective schools. One morning near the beginning of their junior year, Claire didn't show. Bill was stunned to find out that a clot in her brain had burst, leaving her in a coma. He spent a week at the hospital with Claire and her family, and then another week preparing for the funeral and serving as a pallbearer.
Bill was heartbroken and griefstricken. But nothing could have prepared the vulnerable 15-year-old for the harshness and the perversity that awaited him when he returned to school following his two-week absence.
He was summoned to meet with the school disciplinarian, a priest, who told him his absence had been "unacceptable." Bill would have to sit for an hour in detention each afternoon with his textbooks on his lap, arms dangling by his side, staring silently at the wall. The priest said he would also give Bill remedial lessons in English to make up for missed classes.
In the disciplinarian's private office, the "tutoring" quickly turned into sexual fondling and abuse.
IOWA
KWWL
DAVENPORT, Iowa A Davenport-area priest convicted of having child pornography on a church-owned laptop computer faces more legal trouble.
The Reverend Richard Poster has been arrested for violating his parole by having contact with children.
Poster pleaded guilty in 2003 and served one year in federal prison. He was hired by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport to work as a janitor after he was released. The diocese asked Poster to leave in 2005, but declined to say why he was asked to leave.
MEXICO
Pioneer Press
ISTRA PACHECO
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY - Roman Catholic Church officials said Thursday they will ask federal authorities to investigate two U.S. lawyers and an activist who entered the country on tourist visas, then gave a news conference in which they accused Cardinal Norberto Rivera of protecting an alleged pedophile priest.
Several U.S. lawyers and members of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests held the conference Tuesday to reveal details of a civil lawsuit filed by Joaquin Aguilar Mendez, 25, in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday. The suit alleges Rivera and Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony conspired to protect Catholic priest Nicolas Aguilar, who has been charged in California with 19 felony counts of committing lewd acts on a child.
Joaquin Aguilar, a Mexican, told reporters he has feared for his life and that of his family since he first went public with his claims late last year.
Shortly after the news conference, immigration officials detained and questioned for an hour two of Aguilar Mendez's U.S. lawyers - Jeff Anderson of St. Paul, Minn., and Michael Finnegan - as well as Survivors Network national director David Clohessy.
"It felt somewhat like harassment, but if that's the case nothing will stop us," Clohessy said. "Our efforts are to protect kids."
Mexico's immigration office said in a statement that authorities were seeking to verify the visas of the three men after receiving a call questioning their status. It said there were concerns about whether they were authorized to give a news conference after entering the country on tourist visas.
ST. PAUL (MN)
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Pamela Miller, Star Tribune
Last update: September 21, 2006 – 12:00 PM
St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson was back in Minnesota today after being rescued by Mexico City police from a group of men who scuffled with him and colleagues at a news conference announcing a sex-abuse lawsuit against a priest.
The identity of the men, who said they were immigration authorities and were later detained, remains under investigation, said Anderson, who was confronted along with colleague Michael Finnegan, victims' advocate David Clohessy and alleged abuse victim Joaquin Aguilar Mendez.
Anderson was in Mexico to talk about a lawsuit he filed Tuesday in Los Angeles alleging that Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera and Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony conspired to protect the Rev. Nicolas Aguilar, whom they accuse of raping Mendez, now 25, in 1994.
"Mexico's problem with clergy sex abuse is fivefold what it is in the United States," Anderson said.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times
By Barb Ickes | Thursday, September 21, 2006
Mark Powell doesn’t want money. All he ever wanted was “to be whole again.”
The 46-year-old Chicago native works as a hospital chaplain in the Indianapolis area. Although he once was a seminary student at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, he left the Catholic Church several years ago and now is a Protestant minister.
But he has something more to do in Davenport.
When Powell was a 17-year-old student at St. Ambrose, he said, he was sexually abused by Father Bill Wiebler, a priest at the time at Our Lady of Lourdes in Bettendorf. Wiebler has since been defrocked by the church after numerous allegations of sex abuse.
Powell said he went to Bishop Gerald O’Keefe, head of the Davenport Diocese at the time, to report the abuse.
“I was told to keep things quiet,” he said. “I’m aware personally of O’Keefe’s involvement in keeping such things quiet.”
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times
By Dustin Lemmon | Thursday, September 21, 2006
A former Davenport-area priest who spent time in prison for possessing child pornography on a church-owned laptop has been arrested, accused of violating his parole by having contact with minors.
The Rev. Richard Poster, 41, was sentenced to a year in federal prison on a charge of possessing child pornography in January 2004.
After he was released, he was employed by the Diocese of Davenport for janitorial work but was asked to leave in October 2005.
Poster made a brief first appearance in court Wednesday in which Judge Thomas J. Shields ordered him detained until a hearing next Tuesday in which his supervised release could be revoked. An arrest warrant was filed for Poster on Tuesday.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times
By Quad-City Times | Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Judgment came slowly but surely to the Davenport Diocese. A Scott County jury on Monday awarded $1.5 million to a victim of repeated sexual abuse by a priest four decades ago.
Davenport Diocese Deacon David Montgomery said the verdict may portend bankruptcy for the diocese. “The decision of the jury will impact every member of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Davenport.”
Deacon Montgomery understated both the impact and the cause. The judgment against our community’s Catholic diocese will affect every Quad-Citian, Catholic or not. But the jury can’t be blamed for this staggering impact. Those deceased and retired priests who perpetrated these unreported crimes can’t be solely blamed. The jury held the diocese responsible for systematically ignoring abuse allegations, protecting the perpetrator and enabling him to find new victims.
Had the diocese responded differently three decades ago — or even five years ago — this lawsuit might not ever have been filed.
HUDSON (WI)
Green Bay Press-Gazette
PR Newswire
HUDSON — Bishop David Zubik, the head of the Green Bay Catholic Diocese, has been named as a defendant in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by the family of a murdered Wisconsin man.
It was served on local Catholic officials last week by a county sheriff.
The lawsuit, which seeks no monetary damages, was filed in August in St. Croix County Circuit Court. It asks a state judge to force America's 194 Catholic bishops to disclose the names of roughly 5,000 proven, admitted and credibly accused abusive priests in the United States.
The suit is being brought by the family of Dan O'Connell, who, along with a co-worker, was shot and killed in February 2002 by a suspected pedophile priest who also owned guns and pornography.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
CNN
LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- Lionsgate will release its upcoming documentary about child molestation scandals in the Catholic Church without a rating after the trailer garnered a restrictive tag from the Motion Picture Assn. of America.
"Deliver Us From Evil" focuses on a northern California priest, Father Oliver O'Grady, who admits on camera to being an active pedophile who was harbored by the church for more than 30 years. Lionsgate will release it on October 13.
However the independent studio's marketing plan received a setback when the MPAA gave the film's trailer a redband rating -- a label that effectively excludes the trailer from playing in many commercial theaters.
In a letter sent to Lionsgate, the organization said "the content is adult in nature, with overt comments about child molestation throughout." The MPAA declined to elaborate on the specifics of the decision.
IOWA
Quad-Cities Online
By Brian Krans, bkrans@qconline.com
An inactive Roman Catholic priest and convicted sex offender described by prosecutors as a "a danger to children" was in federal court Wednesday for allegedly violating his parole on a 2004 child pornography conviction.
The Rev. Richard J. Poster Jr., 41, was arrested Tuesday on a warrant seeking revocation of his supervised release. Authorities allege he has had contact with children and has watched children for sexual purposes, violating the terms of his parole.
In 2002, Rev. Poster -- who is in the process of being defrocked -- was working as the director of liturgy and publisher of the newspaper for the Diocese of Davenport. He had been a priest for 10 years. In December that year, diocesan officials discovered child pornography on a church computer and turned it over to authorities, according to court records.
He was sentenced in 2004 to one year and a day in prison after pleading guilty to receiving pictures of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to court records. He served eight months before beginning three years of supervised release.
MEXICO
news.com.au
From correspondents in Mexico City
September 21, 2006 08:33am
WEAK law enforcement and compliant Church authorities make Mexico a haven for US pedophile priests fleeing justice, a victims' group said today.
The Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, which helped bring a lawsuit this week against two of North America's top cardinals, said it knows of 46 mostly US priests hiding out south of the border.
"Mexico has really become a secure place because here judicial authorities don't track them down and nothing happens," said group spokesman Eric Barragan.
The US Catholic Church has been tarnished by a pedophile priest scandal that erupted in Boston in 2002 and spread to almost every diocese in the nation.
WALES
icWales
Sep 21 2006
Sam Burson, Western Mail
A CONGREGATION has been left stunned after its vicar resigned over a second affair.
The first the Rev Adrian Davies' parishioners knew of his disappearance was when he failed to turn up for a service earlier this month at St Matthew's Church in Borth, near Aberystwyth.
Instead, the Bishop of St Davids, Carl Cooper, presided at a service on September 3 for the whole parish of Borth and Eglwysfach with Llangynfelin, where he announced the vicar's resignation and explained the reason for it.
He told the congregation Mr Davies had "separated from his wife and has formed an inappropriate relationship with another woman".
CANADA
National Post
WINDSOR, Ont. - Bishop Ronald Fabbro of the London diocese has officially told the Vatican he will begin the difficult process of defrocking retired priest Charles Sylvestre, who has admitted sexually abusing 47 girls. One of Sylvestre's victims said yesterday that Bishop Fabbro's actions are an encouraging sign of support after decades of skepticism among church officials and even victims' families that the abuse occurred. "It's a huge relief," said Mary Beth Studnicka, 41, who became Sylvestre's victim in 1975 at the age of 10. "Any gesture of support from the diocese is important. With him having made that one of his tasks in Rome, we're on the right track." Bishop Fabbro, seen below with one of the victims, promised in August he would ask the Vatican to laicize, or defrock, Sylvestre, 83, who has confessed to sexually abusing girls over four decades. He is to be sentenced Oct. 6.
VAN WERT (OH)
The Times Bulletin
VAN WERT - Former local youth pastor Aaron D. Rediger, 28, was back in court Wednesday morning for the extension of his arraignment hearing.
He first appeared in Van Wert County Court of Common Pleas on Sept. 12, charged with three counts of sexual battery.
Rediger entered a plea of not guilty to the charges against him, which stem from allegations of a sexual relationship between Rediger and a 17-year-old female from the youth group at Liberty Baptist Church. The church immediately dismissed Rediger and recalled his ordination and ministerial license.
Representing Rediger in court was an attorney from the office of Bill Kluge in Lima. The arraignment had been continued for more than a week while Rediger hired a lawyer.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Main Line Times
By MARGARET GIBBONS 09/21/2006
COURTHOUSE - A renowned New York City cantor, who once sang for the pope, Tuesday received a probationary sentence for sexually assaulting his young Lower Merion nephew in the mid-1990s.
But as an unusual condition of his probation, 65-year-old Howard Nevison first had to tour the Montgomery County prison in Lower Providence Tuesday afternoon before returning home.
"If you ever come back on a violation, that is exactly where you are going to go," said Montgomery County Judge Paul W. Tressler.
IOWA
KTIV
It sounds like a civil suit will likely stand against a former bishop of the Sioux City Catholic Diocese accused of sexually-abusing a former student.
Michael Gould says Bishop Lawrence Soens molested him while he attended Iowa City Regina high school.
His civil suit against the school, the Davenport Diocese, and the retired bishop is set to go to trial October 23rd.
However, school officials say Gould waited too long to report the allegations and file the suit.
CANADA
The London Free Press
Thu, September 21, 2006
By JANE SIMS, FREE PRESS JUSTICE REPORTER
Three Roman Catholic priests representing the London diocese will be in a Chatham courtroom tomorrow to hear first-hand the heart-breaking stories of women sexually abused by a fellow priest.
The priests will hear the 26 victim-impact statements on the second day of the indecent assault trial of Rev. Charles Sylvestre of Belle River.
The retired 84-year-old priest is at the centre of the largest sexual abuse case faced by the diocese and one of the largest non-residential school cases known on the continent.
Sylvestre pleaded guilty to 47 counts of indecent assault in August.
OREGON
The Oregonian
Thursday, September 21, 2006
ASHBEL S. GREEN
Without explanation, a federal judge postponed a Wednesday hearing on a hotly disputed issue in the Portland Archdiocese bankruptcy -- who owns parish property.
It's the second major postponement in the bankruptcy since mediation talks started last week. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman delayed until December a highly anticipated trial involving allegations of priest sexual abuse.
Because of a gag order, none of the attorneys or parties involved in the bankruptcy can discuss whether the postponements indicate that mediation is making progress.
COLORADO
Rocky Mountain News
By Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News
September 21, 2006
The family of a Wisconsin man murdered after he planned to confront a Roman Catholic priest about child molestation has sued 177 of the nation's Catholic bishops to force public disclosure of accused priests.
The first bishop in Colorado to be served with the summons is Bishop Michael Sheridan of the Colorado Springs Diocese.
The suit asks that church officials be ordered to disclose the names and locations of all priests who had ever been accused of molesting children.
Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul, Minn., attorney who has pursued numerous court cases against church officials and priests accused of sexual abuse of children, said other bishops, including Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver and Bishop Arthur Tafoya of Pueblo, would also be served.
IOWA
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
September 21, 2006
Iowa's four Roman Catholic bishops are named in a long-shot Wisconsin lawsuit that seeks to compel every U.S. bishop to release the names and locations of all abusive priests - a list estimated to be in excess of 5,000 names, according to a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' study.
The unprecedented lawsuit was filed by the family of Dan O'Connell of Hudson, Wis., who along with a co-worker was slain in February 2002. After a two-year investigation, Wisconsin authorities concluded that the Rev. Ryan Erickson, pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Hudson, shot O'Connell after a heated argument.
O'Connell apparently had learned that Erickson was an abuser. The police investigation also found that Erickson had an alcohol problem, collected pornography, abused animals and collected guns. Days after police questioned Erickson about the slayings, the priest committed suicide.
"We're not against the church," said Tom O'Connell of Cross Plains, Wis., Dan O'Connell's brother. "We are strong Catholics. My kids still go to Catholic school. But we're trying to protect children and build back the respect the good priests lost" — a reference to the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the church.
MEXICO
Charlotte Observer
LISA J. ADAMS
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY - Immigration authorities on Wednesday briefly detained representatives of a man who says he was sexually abused by a Mexican Roman Catholic priest. The three men were detained shortly after they alleged that the fugitive cleric was still celebrating Mass in Mexico.
The alleged victim, 25-year-old Joaquin Aguilar Mendez, also told a news conference he has feared for his life and that of his family since he first went public with his claims late last year.
Aguilar Mendez, along with several U.S. lawyers and members of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, called the news conference to reveal details of a civil lawsuit he filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, alleging that Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera and Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony conspired to protect Catholic Priest Nicolas Aguilar.
Shortly after the news conference, immigration officials detained and questioned for an hour two of Aguilar Mendez's U.S. lawyers - Jeff Anderson and Michael Finnegan - as well as Survivors Network national director David Clohessy, the group said.
MIAMI (FL)
Local 10
MIAMI -- A Roman Catholic priest suspended by the Archdiocese of Miami for sexual abuse allegations is suing one of his accusers.
Alvaro Guichard names "John Doe 17" in the lawsuit. Guichard also is suing the mother and brother of another accuser for defamation and conspiracy.
The lawsuits stems from comments made during a 2004 news conference announcing settlements involving the archdiocese and several sex abuse lawsuits.
In separate lawsuits filed this week in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, Guichard claims the mother and brother of Miguel Cinchilla defamed him by saying he and another priest sexually abused Cinchilla, who died of AIDS in 1993.
TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
Mike Drabik, a longtime member of St. Hedwig Catholic Church on Lagrange Street, could not believe his eyes when he picked up the church bulletin Sunday.
Listed between announcements for a polka night and a prayer service was an item from “Friends/Supporters of Fr. Robinson” announcing a chicken-dinner fund-raiser for Gerald Robinson, the Toledo priest convicted in May in the ritual murder of a nun 26 years ago.
“I was very, very offended by seeing that in the bulletin,” Mr. Drabik, 50, said last night.
On Monday, he fired off an e-mail to Bishop Leonard Blair saying the bulletin item was “inappropriate” and “appears to give a semblance of sanctioning to and a proclamation of this priest’s innocence.”
MEXICO
The New York Times
By REUTERS
Published: September 20, 2006
Filed at 5:52 p.m. ET
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Weak law enforcement and compliant Church authorities make Mexico a haven for U.S. pedophile priests fleeing justice, a victims' group said on Wednesday.
The Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, which helped bring a lawsuit this week against two of North America's top cardinals, said it knows of 46 mostly U.S. priests hiding out south of the border.
``Mexico has really become a secure place because here judicial authorities don't track them down and nothing happens,'' said group spokesman Eric Barragan.
The U.S. Catholic Church has been tarnished by a pedophile priest scandal that erupted in Boston in 2002 and spread to almost every diocese in the nation.
DAVENPORT (IA)
WQAD
By Courtney Brennan
Davenport, Iowa - Just two days after losing a 1.5 million dollar lawsuit ... the Davenport Diocese is in court again. It faces more allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of its priests. This time, Michael Gould, is accusing Bishop Soens of sexually abusing him while he was the principal at Regina High School.
Today, the school's lawyer argued that Regina should be dropped from the suit because Soens answered to and was supervised by the diocese while he was Regina's principal.
Gould accuses Fr. Soens, who is now a retired bishop of the Sioux City Diocese, of sexually abusing him from 1959 to 1967. Gould says Soens molested, pinched and inappropriately touched him in the principal's office during school hours.
Gould's lawyer says 18 men and one woman will testify at trial that they saw and or heard about Soens behavior. Gould and other students say that school staff members saw some of the alleged abuse. Gould's lawyer also says that a priest called Soens' alleged abuse of students - "the big secret in Iowa City."
ARLINGTON (TX)
Dallas Observer
By Stephanie Morris
Article Published Sep 21, 2006
Sam Gipson is a preacher's kid. He grew up in church; he knows right from wrong. His wife, Pam, is a sweet woman--soft-spoken, genteel.
Their spacious home with its perfectly manicured yard is the largest on their street in the Denton County suburb of Corinth. They're an upper-middle-class family--friendly, hardworking, devoted to the church. But they are no longer members of Agape Christian Fellowship. They knew it was time to go well before any accusations against Bishop Terry Hornbuckle became public.
Sam was invited to visit Agape by one of his co-workers. Initially, the Gipsons were thrilled. Business was handled in an orderly way at Agape; the ministry's operations were carried out with excellence, and the church had a well-developed outreach ministry. Hornbuckle had the ability to break down the Word in a way that was meaningful and relevant to their lives. In February 2001, they became members.
They quickly noticed that Terry Hornbuckle was a man who wanted to be somebody. "He always talked about who he hung out with," Sam says. "He would say, 'I'm friends with Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin and T.D. Jakes.'"
ARLINGTON (TX)
Dallas Observer
By Stephanie Morris
Article Published Sep 21, 2006
Agape Christian Fellowship's worship leader shouted into the microphone as he played the keyboards: "Somebody needs to turn cartwheels for Jesus--act crazy stupid for the Lord!"
Nearly all of the roughly 400 people present when Andrea Grimes and I visited Agape in November 2005 were engaged in what, from the outside, might have looked like an extremely high-energy worship service.
This was actually my second Sunday visit to Agape. My first was in June 2005, right after Bishop Terry Hornbuckle had been released from jail--the first in a series of arrests and releases over the months to follow. That day, he had a message for his congregation: Our "anointing" comes when we're under the greatest attack. This anointing precedes promotion in our lives. It even produces greater sex.
Anointing? Promotion? Hot sex?
I was confused.
DALLAS (TX)
Dallas Observer
Andrea Grimes
It was here--on Mayfield Road in Arlington--that two of Terry Hornbuckle's victims came to worship God and give their all to "Bishop."On judgment day, the bishop's women have all come together in one exquisitely cold place: the 372nd District Court in Fort Worth, where a jury has just agreed on a sentence for the Reverend Terry Hornbuckle.
The 44-year-old pastor has been convicted of drugging and raping three women, two of them former members of his Arlington megachurch. And while a hyperactive air conditioner generates a frigid breeze in the courtroom, a capacity crowd awaits the jury's decision.
The bishop's women are arrayed in various places in state District Judge Scott Wisch's courtroom. There is the wife, Renee Hornbuckle, cocoa-skinned and immaculately finished in a brown pantsuit, who stares an empty stare at her husband, a man known to many of his congregants simply as Bishop.
The bishop wears a tailored suit with a thigh-length jacket, the sort he'd choose for any occasion in the spotlight. For 20 years, he sat beside his wife on a church stage, enthroned like a king with his queen. She was the delicate ornament on display, he was the dark-skinned, street-talking black preacher of humble southern Dallas origins whose charisma landed him in a world of money, minor celebrity and access to the occasional Dallas Cowboy.
OREGON
The Oregonian
Without explanation, a federal judge postponed a hearing scheduled for today on a hotly disputed issue in the Portland Archdiocese bankruptcy -- who owns parish property.
It's the second major postponement in the bankruptcy since mediation talks started last week. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman delayed until December a highly anticipated trial involving allegations of priest sexual abuse.
Because of a gag order, none of the attorneys or parties involved in the bankruptcy can discuss whether the postponements indicate that mediation is making progress.
The two mediators -- U.S. District Judge Michael R. Hogan and Lane County Circuit Judge Lyle Velure -- are known for getting the toughest cases to settle.
Portland became the first Catholic diocese in the country to seek bankruptcy protection from priest abuse litigation in 2004.
CANADA
London Free Press
By JANE SIMS, LONDON FREE PRESS JUSTICE REPORTER
Three Roman Catholic priests representing the London diocese will be in a Chatham courtroom Friday to hear first-hand the heart-breaking stories of women sexually abused by one of their own.
They will hear the 26 victim-impact statements in the Charles Sylvestre indecent-assault case, the largest sexual abuse case faced by the diocese and one of the largest non-residential school cases known on the continent.
Sylvestre, 84, a retired Roman Catholic priest, of Belle River, pleaded guilty to 47 counts of indecent assault in August.
The victims were between the ages of nine and 14 at the time of the assaults that date as far back as 1953 and extend to 1986.
All of them attended Sylvestre’s parishes in Windsor, Sarnia, London, Chatham and Pain Court.
MEXICO
SignOnSanDiego
By Lisa J. Adams
ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:12 p.m. September 20, 2006
MEXICO CITY – Immigration authorities on Wednesday briefly detained two U.S. lawyers and an activist who represent a 25-year-old Mexican man in a lawsuit alleging that Roman Catholic church leaders in Los Angeles and Mexico protected a priest who raped him.
The lawyers representing Joaquin Aguilar Mendez had just finished telling a news conference the accused priest, the Rev. Nicolas Aguilar, had been located in the central Mexican state of Puebla and celebrated a Mass there last Sunday.
It was not clear if church authorities knew of his actions.
Aguilar Mendez also told reporters he has feared for his life and that of his family since he first went public with his claims late last year.
Eric Barragan, spokesman for the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, told The Associated Press that authorities questioned lawyers Jeff Anderson and Michael Finnegan, as well as the network's national director, David Clohessy.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By John Shiffman
Inquirer Staff Writer
A federal judge heard arguments yesterday on whether victims of pedophile priests can sue the Catholic Church under federal racketeering and civil-rights laws.
U.S. District Judge Legrome D. Davis did not rule on efforts by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to dismiss the case. His written decision is expected within a few months.
During the arguments, a church lawyer called the abuses "tragic" and said they had prompted "forgiveness and prayer."
But church lawyer C. Clark Hodgson Jr. also said the allegations, "no matter how worthy they may seem to be," came "from a different era, many years ago."
Thus, as a matter of law, they are too old and the case must be dismissed, Hodgson said. He also argued that racketeering lawsuits can be brought only when someone has suffered a business or property loss, not a personal injury.
TOLEDO (OH)
The Beacon Journal
Associated Press
TOLEDO, Ohio - An announcement in a church bulletin about a chicken-dinner fundraiser for a priest convicted of killing a nun has struck a nerve, prompting a protest from a parishioner.
The announcement by friends and supporters of the Rev. Gerald Robinson was in St. Hedwig Catholic Church's bulletin on Sunday, listed between notices about a prayer service and a polka night.
"I was very, very offended by seeing that in the bulletin," Mike Drabik, 50, a longtime church member told The Blade for a story in Wednesday's paper.
Robinson was found guilty on May 11 of choking and stabbing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl while she was preparing a hospital chapel for Easter weekend services at Mercy Hospital on April 5, 1980. He was sentenced to a mandatory term of 15 years to life in prison.
OREGON
The Oregonian
A federal judge has postponed the first Catholic priest sex-abuse trial in Oregon.
The trial, which concerns sex-abuse allegations against the late Rev. Maurice Grammond, is now scheduled to begin Dec. 11.
The suit, which seeks $135 million, had been scheduled for Oct. 10 in U.S. District Court in Portland.
IOWA
Des Moines Register
ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 20, 2006
Dubuque Archbishop Jerome Hanus has been named as a defendant in an unprecedented child sex abuse lawsuit brought by the family of a murdered Wisconsin man.
Hanus was among scores of Catholic bishops nationwide who were served with notice of the lawsuit last week.
The lawsuit, which seeks no monetary damages, was filed in August in St. Croix County Circuit Court, Wisconsin. It asks a state judge to force America’s 194 Catholic bishops to disclose the names of roughly 5,000 proven, admitted and credibly accused abusive priests in the United States.
The suit is being brought by the family of Dan O’Connell of Wisconsin, who, along with a co-worker, was shot and killed in February 2002 by a suspected pedophile priest who also owned guns and pornography.
NORRISTOWN (PA)
6 ABC
NORRISTOWN, Pa. - September 19, 2006 - Cantor Howard Nevison was sentenced to probation on Tuesday after earlier pleading guilty to child abuse charges.
Two sharply different views of Nevison emerged at the hearing. To his 16-year-old nephew , Nevison is " a pathetic old man who hurt me long ago...I think what he did was disgusting."
In June, Nevison pleaded guilty to sexually abusing the then 3-year-old boy at the boy's home in Lower Merion in the 1990's.
Nevison's was a well respected staffer at one of Manhattans best know synagogues. Congregants traveled to Norristown to repeatedly praise the cantor as gentle and kind at Tuesday's hearing.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
The former cantor of a New York City synagogue was placed on probation in connection with sexual assaults on a young boy during the 1990s in Lower Merion Township.
Yesterday, however, Montgomery County Judge Paul W. Tressler ordered Howard Nevison to visit a New York prison to get a clear understanding of what awaits him should he violate his 12-year probation.
Nevison, 65, the popular cantor at the 10,000-member Temple Emanu-El on Manhattan's Upper East Side, was ordered to have no contact with children under 12.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Keith Herbert
Inquirer Staff Writer
New York City cantor Howard Nevison avoided a prison sentence yesterday for sexually assaulting his young nephew during the 1990s in Lower Merion.
Montgomery County Court Judge Paul W. Tressler made certain, however, that Nevison realize how fortunate he was to avoid jail. To drive home his point, Tressler ordered Nevison to visit a New York prison yesterday so that he understands what lies ahead should he violate probation.
Nevison, the popular cantor at the 10,000-member Temple Emanu-El on Manhattan's Upper East Side, will be on probation for the next 12 years.
Tressler also ordered that Nevison have no contact with children under 12. Probation was a standard sentence under the state's sentencing guidelines for a person without a prior criminal offense, Tressler said.
NORRISTOWN (PA)
Centre Daily
Associated Press
NORRISTOWN, Pa. - The former cantor of a prominent New York City synagogue was placed on probation in connection with alleged sexual assaults on a young boy during the 1990s in Lower Merion Township.
Montgomery County Court Judge Paul W. Tressler, however, on Tuesday ordered Howard Nevison to visit a New York prison to get a clear understanding of what awaits him should he violate his 12-year probation.
Nevison, 65, the popular cantor at the 10,000-member Temple Emanu-El on Manhattan's Upper East Side, was ordered to have no contact with children under 12.
Tressler said probation was a standard sentence for a person without a prior criminal offense. He said Nevison had been "a perfect citizen" before the criminal case and posed little threat to the community.
NORRISTOWN (PA)
Newsday
September 19, 2006, 9:40 PM EDT
NORRISTOWN, Pa. -- The former cantor of a New York City synagogue was placed on probation in connection with sexual assaults on a young boy during the 1990s in Lower Merion Township.
Montgomery County Court Judge Paul W. Tressler, however, on Tuesday ordered Howard Nevison to visit a New York prison to get a clear understanding of what awaits him should he violate his 12-year probation.
Nevison, 65, the popular cantor at the 10,000-member Temple Emanu-El on Manhattan's Upper East Side, was ordered to have no contact with children under 12.
The judge said probation was a standard sentence for a person without a prior criminal offense. He said Nevison had been "a perfect citizen" before the criminal case and posed little threat to the community.
MASSACHUSETTS
Weymouth News
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
The Massachusetts Legislature gave final approval to a bill that virtually eliminates the statute of limitations for bringing child sex abuse charges against sexual predators. In addition to addressing the laws that prevent prosecutions in decades-old abuse cases, the legislation strengthens several measures that regulate the registration, classification and monitoring of convicted sex offenders in the Commonwealth.
State Representatives James M. Murphy and Ronald Mariano made the announcement Monday.
All steps must be taken to protect children and ensure that sexual predators are brought to justice in Massachusetts," Murphy said.
Murphy, who served as criminal prosecutor with the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office prior to being elected state representative, emphasized the importance of this bill. "This bill nearly doubles the time victims have to report instances of abuse and gives law enforcement officials the tools they need to put these perpetrators behind bars where they belong."
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
By MICHAEL HINKELMAN
hinkelm@phillynews.com 215-854-2656
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia was back in federal court yesterday, arguing that a federal judge should toss out a class-action lawsuit filed against it and Cardinals Justin Rigali, Anthony Bevilacqua and the estate of the late Cardinal John Krol.
U.S. District Judge Legrome D. Davis did not issue a ruling yesterday and did not indicate when he might.
A dozen people sued the archdiocese and its top leaders in June alleging they violated federal racketeering (RICO) and conspiracy laws by allegedly covering up the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy.
A central argument yesterday was whether or not the plaintiffs have made a valid claim under the civil RICO statute.
UTAH
Deseret Morning News
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
"Sacred" papers the FBI seized when it arrested polygamist leader Warren Jeffs could be a "motherlode" of information about the secretive labyrinth of business interests involving the Fundamentalist LDS Church, its leaders and the $110 million United Effort Plan Trust.
The man appointed by the courts to oversee the UEP Trust wants to see just what the FBI seized when agents arrested Jeffs during a traffic stop outside Las Vegas last month.
"An unnamed source told us that the information contained at the arrest with Warren Jeffs is the 'motherlode,"' court-appointed special fiduciary Bruce Wisan told the Deseret Morning News on Tuesday.
Wisan's lawyers filed a series of motions late Monday in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court and in federal court in Las Vegas, asking for court orders to see the papers and laptop computers.
IRELAND
The Times
By David Sharrock, Ireland Correspondent
THE family of an author who wrote a bestseller about being tortured and raped by Irish priests said that she had been living with them during the years of her alleged ordeal.
Kathy O’Beirne’s book Don’t Ever Tell is a harrowing tale of savage treatment at the hands of her father, followed by rape by priests, resulting in pregnancy, and whippings by nuns. It has sold 350,000 copies in Britain and Ireland since it was published last year.
However, at a press conference in Dublin yesterday, seven of her brothers and sisters said that she had been the victim of publishers who had rushed to print her story without checking it.
“As it would have been perfectly clear to anyone who met our sister, there were glaring flaws in her allegations. Mainstream [the publishers] did not carry out the necessary rigorous checks. If they had, this book would never have been published,” they said.
Mary O’Beirne, 40, added: “The anger and frustration we feel at seeing our father branded worldwide as a horrific abuser is indescribable. The allegations are untrue against my father. He did think an awful lot of Kathleen.
IRELAND
Scotsman
TIM CORNWELL
ARTS CORRESPONDENT
THE family of an Irish woman who wrote a best-seller claiming she was the victim of repeated physical and sexual abuse in a Catholic institution yesterday accused her of making the story up.
Kathy O'Beirne's book, published in Ireland as Kathy's Story and in the UK as Don't Ever Tell, was largely fabricated by a "deeply troubled" woman, they claimed.
The book was published by Edinburgh's Mainstream Publishing, which defended its contents yesterday. Five years ago another book published by the company, Jihad!, which was the purported story of an SAS officer serving in Afghanistan, saw its author exposed as a fraud.
In her book, O'Beirne, now 49, claimed she was tortured and raped in a Magdalene laundry where she worked for 14 years, giving birth to a child. The institutions were set up to rehabilitate "fallen women".
IRELAND
Ireland Online
19/09/2006 - 12:21:53
The family of Dublin-born author Kathy O'Beirne is due to hold a press conference today to dispute claims made in her best-selling autobiography Kathy's Story.
The book claims to be a true-life story detailing more than a decade of horrific sexual and physical abuse in six different Irish institutions run by religious orders.
IRELAND
The Washington Times
Sep. 19, 2006 at 10:29PM
The family of an Irish woman who wrote a best-selling memoir detailing years of abuse at the hands of her father and the Catholic church says she made it up.
Seven of Kathy O'Beirne's siblings held a news conference in Dublin on Tuesday to denounce her book, published in Ireland as "Kathy's Story" and in Britain as "Don't Ever Tell," The Scotsman reported. In the book, O'Beirne says that her father abused her from the time she was 7 and that she bore a child after being raped in the Magdalene Laundries, institutions run by an order of nuns for "fallen women."
"The anger and frustration we feel at seeing our father branded worldwide as a horrific abuser is indescribable," said Mary O'Beirne, a younger sister. "The allegations are untrue. We can't go on living like this, we can't eat, we can't sleep."
IRELAND
The West Australian
20th September 2006, 17:30 WST
An author whose memoirs recount a harrowing childhood of torture and rape while working in a Catholic religious order is at the centre of a row over the accuracy of her claims.
Kathy O’Beirne’s account of her early life, published as Don’t Ever Tell in Britain and Kathy’s Story in Ireland and Australia, has sold 350,000 copies.
In the book, she alleges she was beaten and abused by her late father.
The book claims that O’Beirne endured 14 years of forced labour in the Magdalen laundries, a Catholic institution which was originally set up to rehabilitate fallen women.
WETUMPKA (AL)
Montgomery Advertiser
By Marty Roney
Montgomery Advertiser
WETUMPKA -- The former minister of a Wetumpka church has pleaded guilty to charges of sexually abusing children.
Garrett Dykes, 40, entered a guilty plea Tuesday in Elmore County Circuit Court to four counts of production of obscene matter of people younger than 17 and nine counts of sexual abuse of three victims younger than 12, courthouse records state.
Dykes videotaped the abuse, according to court records.
He faces 10 years to life in prison on each pornography charge and one to 10 years on each sexual abuse charge, said District Attorney Randall Houston. Dykes will be sentenced Oct. 27, Houston said.
Dykes was removed as minister of Calvary Baptist Church after his arrest in November 2004.
WETUMPKA (AL)
WSFA
For many people in Wetumpka, he was the voice of morality and goodness. Then investigators ripped away a cover hiding a much darker side.
Former Baptist minister Garrett Dykes is headed to prison tonight. He pleaded guilty to a long list of sex related charges Tuesday morning.
It wasn't so long ago Dykes had his name on a building, but more importantly, he had the trust of 400 people he led.
"We're hurting here. Yes, we're shocked, but we're hurting," church administrator John Pritchett said in January 2005.
CULPEPER (VA)
Richmond Times-Dispatch
CULPEPER -- Charles Shifflett, pastor of First Baptist Church of Culpeper, pleaded not guilty this week to seven felony charges of physical and sexual abuse against children. He requested a trial by jury.
The charges stem from incidents involving five alleged victims that occurred up to 20 years ago at Calvary Baptist Church, where Shifflett had been pastor, and its adjoining K-12 private school.
Shifflett's lawyer, Samuel Higginbotham II, of Orange told Judge John Cullen in court Monday that he and Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Smith are discussing whether to combine or separate the charges. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 25.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
CBS 2
(CBS) LOS ANGELES A Mexican man sued Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony and a cardinal in Mexico Tuesday, saying they should be held responsible for him being sexually molested by a priest who worked on both sides of the border.
Joaquin Aguilar Mendez filed his lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging negligence, sexual battery and conspiracy. He maintains a Los Angeles bishop allowed The Rev. Nicolas Aguilar -- no relation to the defendant -- to go to Mexico to avoid molestation charges in Los Angeles.
Once in Mexico, Aguilar sexually abused Mendez, who was an altar boy at the time, the lawsuit stated. During an October 1994 incident when Mendez was 13, Aguilar raped him in the priest's room after the boy had gotten up during Mass to use the restroom in the rectory, the lawsuit stated.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
ABC News
Sep 19, 2006 — LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The cardinals of two of the most important Roman Catholic dioceses in North America were accused in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday of allowing a priest wanted for multiple sex abuse to flee California for Mexico.
Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City were named in a civil lawsuit claiming obstruction of justice, negligence and conspiracy to facilitate the flight of the priest and sexual battery.
Mexico City is the world's largest Catholic diocese and Los Angeles is the largest archdiocese in the United States.
Lawyers for the plaintiff said the lawsuit was unprecedented among the hundreds of sexual abuse charges brought since 2002 in the United States against Catholic priests and bishops accused of covering up their activities.
DAVENPORT (IA)
WQAD
By Courtney Brennan
Davenport, Iowa - The Davenport Catholic Diocese could be looking at bankruptcy after it lost a sexual abuse lawsuit yesterday in Scott County court. The diocese was ordered to pay Michl Udhe 1.5 million dollars after the jury ruled in his favor. The Davenport Diocese released a statement today that said it doesn't have an insurance policy to cover the settlement.
Now, Davenport parishioners are worried their church will fold because of the lawsuit. Bankruptcy attorney Barry Barash says the diocese will probably file for chapter 11 bankruptcy...that would give the diocese time to reorganize, figure out what assets can be sold and how to make enough money to pay Udhe.
DAVENPORT (IA)
WHO
DAVENPORT, Iowa The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport is considering its next move in a sexual abuse lawsuit.
On Monday, a Scott County jury awarded one and a-half (m) million dollars to a Davenport man who claimed he was abused by a priest more than 40 years ago. He sued the diocese and Monsignor Thomas Feeney, who died in 1981.
The jury found the diocese negligent.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Monster and Critics
LOS ANGELES - The cardinals of two of the most important Roman Catholic dioceses in North America were accused in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday of allowing a priest wanted for multiple sex abuse to flee California for Mexico.
Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City were named in a civil lawsuit claiming obstruction of justice, negligence and conspiracy to facilitate the flight of the priest and sexual battery.
Mexico City is the world's largest Catholic diocese and Los Angeles is the largest archdiocese in the United States.
Lawyers for the plaintiff said the lawsuit was unprecedented among the hundreds of sexual abuse charges brought since 2002 in the United States against Catholic priests and bishops accused of covering up their activities.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Press-Enterprise
By LINDA DEUTSCH
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES
A 25-year-old Mexican man who says he was raped by a priest filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Roman Catholic church officials in Los Angeles and Mexico, claiming they conspired to hide evidence to protect the priest.
According to the lawsuit, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney and Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera placed the priest, Nicolas Aguilar, in positions where he molested as many as 60 boys in the two countries.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Joaquin Aguilar Mendez in Los Angeles Superior Court. Representatives of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests appeared with the accuser at a news conference but did not file the action.
The group said it would hold a news conference in Mexico City on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the Mexican archdiocese called the allegations "fantasy" that "seems more fitting for a fiction novel."
MEXICO
Houston Chronicle
By MARION LLOYD
Houston Chronicle Foreign Service
MEXICO CITY - A Chicago-based victims' rights group Tuesday accused Mexico's most prominent Roman Catholic official of protecting a convicted child molester.
In a civil lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, charged that Cardinal Norberto Rivera covered up a long history of abuse by priest Nicolas Aguilar.
Rivera, who presides over the 2,000-priest archdiocese in Mexico City and had been considered a possible successor to Pope John Paul II, denies the accusations.
"The cardinal has always denied that there was complicity or a conspiracy," said his spokesman, Hugo Valdemar.
SPOKANE (WA)
The Spokesman-Review
Shawn Vestal
Staff writer
September 20, 2006
A Jesuit professor at Gonzaga University accused of making sexual advances and assaulting a seminarian in a civil lawsuit that was settled by the university has returned as a professor at the school.
The return of political science professor Michael Treleaven came during the same recent period when the university announced that its former president, John Leary, had abused young boys. It has caused some to question whether GU is taking aggressive action against current misconduct, even as it acknowledges crimes from the past.
"I think it's just part of the pattern of lies and deceit from the Catholic Church about the activities of its priests," said Michael Willing, the former seminarian who sued the school. "I think it's deplorable."
John Whitney, the provincial superior of the Oregon Society of Jesus, said in an interview with The Spokesman-Review on Sept. 8 that the allegations involving Treleaven were not as serious as Leary's abuse of young boys.
BATON ROUGE (LA)
The Advocate
By ADRIAN ANGELETTE
Advocate staff writer
Published: Sep 20, 2006
A lawsuit filed by the Diocese of Baton Rouge sheds light on one of the cases it settled with a former altar boy who claims he was molested by a former priest.
The diocese says in a lawsuit filed Monday against its ex-insurance carrier, Lloyd’s of London, that former altar boy Patrick Myers received $72,000 to settle his case with the diocese. The diocese wants reimbursement from the insurance carrier.
According to the lawsuit, Lloyd’s of London was the diocese’s insurance carrier from 1980 through 1982. The policy was for liability claims arising out of negligence.
The diocese maintains that Lloyd’s of London participated in the negotiations that resulted in the settlement and approved the settlement terms, the lawsuit says.
“The Diocese of Baton Rouge, in accordance with its contract with Lloyd’s of London, paid $72,000 to Patrick Myers,” the suit says.
The diocese also is seeking to recover $1,406.35 in attorney fees in the case.
IOWA
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
September 20, 2006
A day after a Scott County District Court jury awarded a Davenport man $1.5 million in damages, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport was considering what to do next.
"I really have nothing to report about whether there will be an appeal," said Rand Wonio of Davenport, the lawyer for the diocese.
In a unanimous verdict Monday, jurors found the diocese negligent and awarded $1,536,800 to D. Michl Uhde, who alleged he was sexually abused by the late Monsignor Thomas Feeney, who later became vicar general of the Davenport Diocese, the second-ranking official in the diocese.
The abuse began in 1957, when Uhde was 7 and was an altar boy at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport. The sexual abuse continued for six years, Uhde claimed.
MEXICO
San Francisco Chronicle
By JULIE WATSON, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
(09-19) 13:38 PDT MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) --
A group of sexual abuse survivors filed a lawsuit Tuesday against a Mexican cardinal, claiming he hid evidence to protect a priest accused of molesting boys.
A lawyer for the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Cardinal Norberto Rivera, who was considered a candidate to replace Pope John Paul II when he died last year.
The network announced in Mexico City that it had filed the lawsuit, saying it would give details in a news conference Wednesday. Rivera's office promised a statement with its reaction.
The survivors' group alleges Rivera, now Mexico's top-ranking cardinal, helped cover up abuse by the Rev. Nicolas Aguilar involving 50 boys when Aguilar served as a parish priest in central Puebla state in 1987. Rivera was bishop of Tehuacan in Puebla state at the time.
By KATHY MATHESON, Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, September 18, 2006
(09-18) 19:24 PDT PHILADELPHIA (AP) --
Thirteen people who claim they were sexually abused by priests should not be allowed to sue the Archdiocese of Philadelphia under federal anti-racketeering laws, church lawyers said Monday.
Archdiocese attorney C. Clark Hodgson Jr. asked a federal court to dismiss the lawsuit, which argues that the archdiocese violated federal conspiracy and anti-racketeering laws by attempting to cover up the abuse.
The statutes are most commonly used to prosecute organized crime, and lawyers in other states have been unsuccessful in using the laws in alleged priest abuse cases.
Hodgson argued the laws do not cover personal injury.
But the victims' attorney, Stewart Eisenberg, contended the right to sue for personal injury is a property right that was violated by the archdiocese's efforts to cover up priest abuse until it was too late to file such claims.
NEW YORK
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott Matt C. Abbott
September 19, 2006
Barbara Samide was the principal at a Catholic school in Queens, N.Y.
In a lawsuit filed in 2002 against the Brooklyn diocese — which is presently in the deposition stage — Samide alleges that Father John Thompson sexually harassed, threatened and assaulted her on various occasions.
She reported the priest's behavior to diocesan officials, who, she alleges, left her flapping in the wind. After filing the lawsuit, Samide was terminated from her position at the school.
Click here to see the complaint in its entirety (PDF). (Note: contains graphic language.)
CULPEPER (VA)
The Free Lance-Star
Date published: 9/19/2006
By DONNIE JOHNSTON
The Culpeper minister charged with cruelty to children and taking indecent liberties with a minor pleaded not guilty on all counts yesterday.
Charles V. Shifflett, 55, also demanded a jury trial during his appearance before Circuit Judge John Cullen.
Orange attorney Sammy Higginbotham, who, along with Charles Bowman, is representing Shifflett, also informed Cullen that his client is waiving his right to a speedy trial.
Cullen attempted to set two different trial dates in January but was unable to because Higginbotham explained that he and Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Smith have not yet agreed on how the eight counts will be tried.
UNITED STATES
Mennonite Central Committee
Marla Pierson Lester
September 18, 2006
MCC U.S. is working with congregations to help pastors and church leaders gain tools to understand and respond to situations of sexual abuse or violation that impact the congregation.
Churches' response to sexual abuse or misconduct has often been to maintain silence and that, MCC U.S. staff and church leaders say, is not helpful either to those who commit sexual abuses nor to those who have been sexually abused.
Raising awareness about the issue of sexual abuse can bring accountability for those who have committed or are tempted to commit abuses.
And openness can aid those who are being abused or who have been abused in the past. "I think it's extremely enabling for survivors' healing, to have people in their church and their community name it as sin and acknowledge the pain that it brings," said Jane Peifer, pastor of Blossom Hill Mennonite Church in Lancaster.
CALIFORNIA
CBS 2
(CBS) SAN FERNANDO A Sunland pastor, 46, accused of molesting two girls who attended his church was charged Monday with 11 felony counts.
Joseph Gary Torres, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Reformada, appeared briefly Monday in San Fernando Superior Court, but his arraignment was postponed to Oct. 5.
Torres, who was arrested last Thursday at his parents' home in El Monte, was ordered to remain jailed on $2 million bail.
He faces one count each of continuous sexual abuse, sexual penetration by a foreign object, sodomy of a person under 18 and sodomy by the use of force; three counts of committing a lewd act upon a child; and four counts of oral copulation of a person under 18.
PINEVILLE (MO)
Neosho Daily News
By John Ford / Daily News Associate Editor
Published: Monday, September 18, 2006 5:26 PM CDT
PINEVILLE - A full order of protection was granted to one of George Otis Johnston's accusers this morning in McDonald County Circuit Court.
McDonald County Associate Circuit Court Judge John LePage granted the request made by a 17-year-old woman that Johnston not have any contact with her. LePage also stipulated that Johnston not have any contact with minors under the terms of his bond.
Johnston - whom the girl said she referred to as “Grandpa” - faces one charge of child molestation in McDonald County, and 17 charges of statutory sodomy in Newton County. He is to appear for a preliminary hearing on eight of the Newton County charges, and an arraignment on the other seven, at 1:15 p.m. this afternoon in Judge Greg Stremel's Newton County Division II courtroom.
CULPEPER (VA)
Star-Exponent
Liz Mitchell
Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
The case of Charles Shifflett, pastor of First Baptist Church of Culpeper, might not be tried until next year.
In Culpeper Circuit Court Monday, Shifflett, 54, pleaded not guilty to seven felony charges of physical and sexual abuse against children and requested a trial by jury.
The alleged charges involve five victims for incidents that occurred up to 20 years ago at Calvary Baptist Church - where Shifflett was the former pastor - and its adjoining K-12 private school.
CALIFORNIA
The Mercury News
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - A pastor was charged Monday with multiple counts of sexually abusing two girls who attended his church in the San Fernando Valley, prosecutors said.
Joseph Gary Torres, 46, was ordered held on $2 million bail during an initial court appearance Monday, the district attorney's office said in a statement. He was arrested Thursday.
He allegedly met the girls at his Sunland church, Iglesia Bautista Reformada, which is Spanish for Reformed Baptist Church.
A call to the church seeking comment late Monday was not immediately returned.
SAN FERNANDO (CA)
North County Times
By: North County Times wire services -
SAN FERNANDO - A 46-year-old Sunland pastor accused of molesting two girls who attended his church was charged today with 11 felony counts.
Joseph Gary Torres, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Reformada, appeared briefly today in San Fernando Superior Court, but his arraignment was postponed to Oct. 5.
Torres, who was arrested Thursday at his parents' home in El Monte, was ordered to remain jailed on $2 million bail.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Globe Gazette
DAVENPORT (AP) — A Scott County jury on Monday sided with a man who claimed that Diocese of Davenport officials did nothing to address the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a priest more than 40 years ago.
The jury, after deliberating for six hours, awarded the man about $1.5 million in damages for future medical expenses, lost wages, lost function of the mind, and pain and suffering.
The man's attorney, Craig Levien, initially requested $2.3 million in the lawsuit against the Davenport diocese, claiming church officials did nothing about sexual abuse allegations against Monsignor Thomas Feeney and other priests. The man claimed he was abused by Feeney from 1957 to 1963 while he served as an altar boy.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Delco Times
09/19/2006
On Friday, Cardinal Justin Rigali, archbishop of the Diocese of Philadelphia, called some 300 priests and a handful of lay people to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary to hear, firsthand, graphic accounts of molestation and rape at the hands of the Catholic clergy.
Dubbed "Witness to Sorrow," the session was billed as an opportunity for priests to listen to sexual-abuse victims and confront the horror that has festered in the church for years.
"It is extremely important for us to hear their stories firsthand so that we may see the human face and hear the human voice," Rigali said.
On Monday, the cardinal sent his lawyers to federal court in Philadelphia, where they asked a judge to dismiss a class-action lawsuit filed by 14 people who claimed they were abused by priests as children.
CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times
By Jessica Garrison, Times Staff Writer
September 19, 2006
A support group that aids victims of clergy sexual abuse has sued a monsignor and his lawyer, claiming the two tried to use the courts to improperly silence the support group's attempts to expose priests who are molesters.
The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, filed a lawsuit Friday accusing Msgr. Joseph F. Alzugaray and lawyer Neil Papiano of malicious prosecution.
The suit stems from a libel and defamation lawsuit that Papiano filed on Alzugaray's behalf in 2004 against SNAP. In it, the priest claimed that the group libeled him when it issued news releases and distributed leaflets accusing him of having been a sexually abusive priest. Alzugaray has denied being a molester.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John N. Mayeda dismissed much of that suit in 2004. The priest filed an amended complaint the next year.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times
DAVENPORT, Iowa - A Scott County jury on Monday sided with a man who claimed that Diocese of Davenport officials did nothing to address the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a priest more than 40 years ago. The jury, after deliberating for six hours, awarded the man about $1.5 million in damages for future medical expenses, lost wages, lost function of the mind, and pain and suffering.
The man's attorney, Craig Levien, initially requested $2.3 million in the lawsuit against the Davenport diocese, claiming church officials did nothing about sexual abuse allegations against Monsignor Thomas Feeney and other priests. The man claimed he was abused by Feeney from 1957 to 1963 while he served as an altar boy.
Levien later asked that Scott County jurors grant $744,000 for pain and suffering.
In May, the diocese acknowledged that Feeney sexually molested children and encouraged victims to come forward. He has been named in at least six abuse cases.
YAKIMA (WA)
Yakima Herald-Republic
A sexual abuse lawsuit filed against a now-dead Jesuit priest from Yakima has been dismissed for lack of activity.
The plaintiff, a 66-year-old Seattle man known only as J.S.S., alleged he was molested at the age of 13 or 14 by the Rev. David G. King, who was then assigned to St. Joseph's Catholic Church and taught at now-
defunct Marquette High School.
The lawsuit was filed in November 2004, more than two years after King's death in Spokane at the age of 84. It named the priest's estate and the Catholic diocese in Yakima as co-defendants.
Since it was filed, the plaintiff's original set of lawyers quit the case, as did a second set of lawyers.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
September 19, 2006
A Scott County jury on Monday awarded $1.5 million to a Davenport man who alleged he was sexually abused nearly 50 years ago by a high-ranking priest in the Davenport Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church.
D. Michl Uhde, 56, said he hopes the verdict serves as inspiration for other victims to come forward and get the help they need.
"I wish it hadn't come to this," Uhde said.
"They came after him (Uhde) real hard during the trial," said Patrick Noaker, one of his attorneys. "With this verdict, the jury said there had been enough finger-pointing, that it was time for problem solving."
The lawsuit was the first the diocese has taken to trial since the sex-abuse scandal broke open in the Catholic Church several years ago.
OHIO
The Cincinnati Post
Officials in Hamilton County, taking advantage of a new state law, are trying to have a former Catholic priest formally labeled a sex offender - even though he was never convicted of such a crime.
Both the law and Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters' decision to be the first to try it out strike us as overzealous. Even assuming the best of intentions - and who can argue against trying to protect society against sexual predators - this seems to be taking the law to unwise and unnecessary extremes.
Deters on Friday filed a civil action against David J. Kelley, who among other things was once a priest at Little Flower Catholic Church in Mount Airy. Authorities said Kelley has been investigated for sexually abusing a student at the grade school there in the early 1980s but was not prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired. Deters' civil suit asks the court to decide whether Kelley would have been liable for assault and battery based on the available evidence. A finding he would have been liable (theoretical liability, really) would then pave the way for a declaratory judgment requiring Kelley to register with the Ohio Attorney General's civil registry as a sex offender. He would also be required to file his address with the Hamilton County sheriff's office and prohibited from living within 1,000 feet of a school. Failure to comply would be a fifth-degree felony.
WINDSOR (CA)
CBS 5
09/19/06 5:30 PDT
WINDSOR (BCN)
Donald Kimball, the defrocked Roman Catholic priest found dead Friday in a Windsor residence whose 2002 conviction for committing lewd acts against a girl under the age of 14 was overturned, likely died of a heart attack, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department reported Monday.
Kimball's body was found at 6:09 a.m. after Windsor police were asked to make a welfare check. Sgt. Tim Duke said on Friday that there was no evidence of criminal activity, and an autopsy conducted Monday by the coroner's office showed his preliminary cause of death was from a heart attack. He was 62.
Kimball ultimately escaped serving a seven-year prison term for committing two lewd acts with a girl in the St. John's rectory in Healdsburg in 1981, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional the California law that was used to convict him and other sex offenders of decades-old offenses.
MISSOURI
Neosho Daily News
By John Ford / Daily News Associate Editor
Published: Monday, September 18, 2006 3:54 PM CDT
A Newton County pastor facing 17 charges of child sexual abuse was bound over to circuit court on eight of those charges today (Monday).
Meanwhile, a preliminary hearing on the most recent nine charges against the pastor was also set today.
George Otis Johnston, pastor of the Grandview Valley Baptist Church North in rural Granby, was arraigned on eight counts of statutory sodomy. He is slated to appear in Newton County Division III Associate Circuit Court at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 28 for the proceeding. Judge Kevin Lee Selby will preside.
A preliminary hearing was scheduled for another nine felony child sexual abuse counts. That hearing is set for 1:15 p.m. Oct. 16.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-Cities Online
By Brian Krans, bkrans@qconline.com
A former Davenport altar boy was awarded $1.5 million by a Scott County District Court Jury as compensation for alleged sexual abuse by a priest in the 1960s.
D. Michl Uhde, 56, alleged now-deceased Monsignor Thomas Feeney abused him for six years, starting when he was seven years old.
Attorneys for the Diocese of Davenport contended in a trial in which testimoney concluded las week that the statute of limitations to file the lawsuit expired 37 years ago and no damages should be awarded. The plaintiffs contend Mr. Uhde wasn't mentally fit to file the suit until recently.
During his closing arguments Friday afternoon, Craig Levien, Mr. Uhde's attorney, showed a blown-up photo of Mr. Uhde at 7 years old, when the abuse allegedly began. He contends the abuse lasted for six years.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
September 18, 2006
A Scott County jury today held the Davenport Diocese negligent in a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse suffered by a Davenport man at the hands of a high diocesan official and awarded D. Michl Uhde $1.5 in damages.
Following the verdict, Uhde said he hoped his experience would serve as inspiration for other victims to come forward and get the help they need.
“I wish it hadn’t come to this,” Uhde said.
“Mike Uhde showed incredible courage to come forward and participate in this trial,” said Patrick Noaker, one of Uhde’s attorneys. “They came after him real hard during the trial. With this verdict, the jury said that there had been enough finger pointing, that it was time to problem solving.”
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
PhillyBurbs
By KATHY MATHESON
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA - Plaintiffs who allege that they were sexually abused by priests should not be allowed to sue the archdiocese under federal anti-racketeering laws because the statutes do not cover personal injury, church lawyers argued Monday.
C. Clark Hodgson Jr., attorney for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit brought against the church in June by 13 people who say they were abused by priests.
The lawsuit argues that the archdiocese violated federal conspiracy and anti-racketeering laws by attempting to cover up the abuse. The statutes are most commonly used to prosecute organized crime, and lawyers in other states have been unsuccessful in using the laws in alleged priest abuse cases.
DAVENPORT (IA)
WQAD
By Courtney Brennan
Davenport, Iowa - After six hours of deliberation, a Scott County jury awarded Mikael Uhde 1.5 million dollars in his lawsuit against the Davenport Diocese. Mikael Uhde filed the lawsuit against the diocese and the late Monsignor Thomas Feeney who, he says, sexually abused him for six years, starting at the age of 7. Testimony last week showed that some of the abuse had been documented by the church, but no action was taken. Today, jurors said that the diocese was negligent in its supervision of Feeney and that Uhde did file his lawsuit in a timely manner.
HURRICANE (UT)
The Spectrum
BY PATRICE ST. GERMAIN
patrices@thespectrum.com
HURRICANE - About three years ago, not long after he was elected into office, Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith started looking into abuses in Colorado City.
Since then, there have been successes and failures in prosecuting crimes out of Colorado City, Ariz., namely underage marriages and sexual practices with girls under the age of 18 - but not polygamy.
"No one can prosecute polygamy because it is not a felony or a misdemeanor. It is something that is prohibited by Arizona's Constitution, but it is not a crime, so prosecutors do not have any jurisdiction and cannot do anything about the issue of polygamy," Smith said. "That would have to be a legislative change."
The situation in Utah is different.
NEW YORK
Catholic Online
9/18/2006
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) – The U.S. Catholic Church's response to its child sexual abuse problem has raised the bar on sex abuse prevention for all U.S. organizations that serve children, said Monica Applewhite, an expert in abuse prevention strategies.
Writing in the Sept. 25 issue of America, a national Catholic magazine published by Jesuits, Applewhite said that when the U.S. bishops issued their "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" in June 2002 "the 'industry standards' for child protection changed."
"Formerly unwritten rules, like not allowing a sexual offender to work with children and defining specific boundaries for ministry relationships, were now clearly articulated -- not just for the Catholic Church, but for everyone," she wrote.
"Numerous churches, schools, camps and other child-serving organizations have implemented sexual abuse prevention programs since 2002, both in response to the publicity of the Catholic sexual abuse cases and in response to the solutions that were defined as a result," she said.
CULPEPER (VA)
Star-Exponent
Liz Mitchell
Staff Writer
Monday, September 18, 2006
Charles Shifflett, pastor of First Baptist Church of Culpeper, is scheduled to appear in Circuit Court today to state whether he is innocent or guilty of the seven felonies he’s facing.
Shifflett, 54, was scheduled for arraignment two weeks ago but his case was continued to allow his lawyer, Samuel Higginbotham II, of Orange, to obtain a “bill of particulars” from the commonwealth, which would outline facts of each charge against his client.
Shifflett faces seven charges of physical and sexual abuse against children for incidents that occurred at his former church, Cavalry Baptist, up to 20 years ago.
SUNLAND (CA)
NBC 4
SUNLAND, Calif. -- A 46-year-old Sunland pastor and his son, who is a juvenile, were arrested last week on suspicion of sexually abusing the three daughters of a member of the congregation, police said.
Joseph Gary Torres, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Reformada, was arrested Thursday at his parents' El Monte residence, said Officer Mike Lopez of the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations Division.
The father of the three girls brought the alleged molestations to the attention of authorities.
Torres was held on $5.4 million bail, Lopez said.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, September 18, 2006
(09-18) 01:17 PDT Los Angeles (AP) --
A pastor and his teenage son were arrested for investigation of sexually abusing three daughters of a member of the congregation, authorities said.
Josephy Gary Torres, 46, of Los Angeles, was arrested Thursday in El Monte, said police Officer Mike Lopez. Torres' son, whose name wasn't released because he is a juvenile, was detained Friday and later released into his mother's custody, Lopez said.
Torres is the pastor of Iglesia Bautista Reformada in Sunland, north of downtown Los Angeles. Police said the father of the three girls recently told authorities about the alleged molestations.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS 3
(CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA The Philadelphia Archdiocese is headed to federal court to ask a judge to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed by victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests.
Many victims believed the church was moving forward after last year’s grand jury report that concluded the Archdiocese covered up sexual abuse.
Several days earlier, hundreds of priests from the Archdiocese gathered to hear several victims of sexual abuse tell their stories at the St. Charles Seminary in Wynnewood.
John Salveson, who claims to be a victim of priest abuse, was stunned by the latest move by the Archdiocese.
NEW YORK
Daily Freeman
By Ariel Zangla, Freeman staff 09/18/2006
The Independent Mediation Assistance Program, which was established to assist the victims of sexual abuse by priests, is preparing to end its operations by late November.
The Independent Mediation Assistance Program was started in December 2004 and has provided assistance to 31 individuals who, as minors, were sexually abused by clergy of the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese, according to a joint press release from the diocese and mediation program. The program, designed and administered by retired Court of Appeals Judge Howard Levine, was initially intended to operate for one year, but was extended several times, the release said. The release said the Independent Mediation Assistance Program, or IMAP, is preparing to conclude its work because inquiries by potential participants have dropped to nearly zero in recent months.
Levine said last week that he was hopeful IMAP can finish its outstanding cases by the proposed end date of Nov. 27. He said if there are still cases that need to be addressed or if other potential victims have come forward before that time, IMAP will continue to serve them. The deadline for new applications is Oct. 25.
"I'm hopeful that with a new deadline for making claims that more people come forward now that they see the opportunity won't be there forever," Levine said. He said IMAP will do its best to process those claims through to their conclusions.
IOWA
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
September 18, 2006
Advocates for clergy sex abuse victims demonstrated outside two Ames Catholic churches Sunday, passing out leaflets notifying of an alleged abuser whose name had not yet been disclosed.
Information handed to Catholics leaving Mass at St. Cecilia's Catholic Church and St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church identified the Rev. Robert Marcantonio, who served in Iowa between 1971 and 1975.
A diocesan priest from the Providence, R.I., Diocese, Marcantonio enrolled in Iowa State University and earned master's and doctoral degrees there.
According to press reports and church records, it is believed that Marcantonio abused at least two dozen boys before coming to Iowa.
Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests were asked to leave church property at St. Cecilia's Catholic Church by a man who identified himself as a church official, according to Steve Theisen of Hudson, Iowa chapter director.
PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
In a recent article, The Morning Call raised a question about the level of Diocesan monitoring of priests who have been the subject of abuse complaints. If there is a question, here is the response:
In May 2005, the Diocese of Allentown became one of the first dioceses in the country to establish a residential facility for priests removed from active ministry because of abuse complaints. Three priests are now living in that facility in Orwigsburg. Each priest has a safety plan designed especially for him by St. John Vianney Center of Downingtown, Chester County, a treatment center specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of clergy. Each plan includes provisions for monitoring and restrictions on activities. Other dioceses around the country, some from as far away as the Midwest, are using the Diocese of Allentown's plan as a model.
The restricted access residential arrangements and the monitoring plan for each resident represents an elevated level of commitment to the community that the diocese believes is uncommon. It is well documented that the overwhelming majority of people who are the subject of abuse complaints are not priests. To the best of our knowledge, there is not a similar program of restricted residential arrangements or monitoring for people who have been the subject of similar allegations and are not priests.
Those priests who have been credibly accused and do not live at the Orwigsburg facility have no public ministry. Information on these men has been shared with the local district attorneys. An employee of the diocese follows up with these men regularly.
IOWA
Radio Iowa
by Stella Shaffer
A jury in Scott County today (Monday) is considering the case of a Quad Cities man who charges he was molested by a former priest in Catholic Diocese of Davenport. Attorney Rand Wonio has been representing the diocese in the trial, and says while there have been several previous lawsuits, the church hasn't had a jury trial on any of them.
Wonio says, "We've settled a number of these claims involving different priests, but this case is the first one to go to trial." The plaintiff still lives in Davenport, and has charged that back in the late1950s and early 1960s he was abused by Father Thomas Feeney, who was pastor of a church in Davenport then. Wonio says Father Feeney died in 1981 and the suit wasn't filed until 37 years after the statute of limitations would have expired on many kinds of criminal charge.
FLORIDA
Centre Daily
By Amy Sherman
asherman@MiamiHerald.com
A retired priest charged with sexual abuse can travel out of state for his mother's burial.
Also in that case, Broward Circuit Judge Susan Lebow denied a motion by prosecutor Dennis Siegel to restrict private investigative activities being done on behalf of Neil Doherty. Lebow said she had no jurisdiction.
Doherty's attorney, David Bogenschutz, asked to see the victim's counseling records. Siegel will review the records to determine if there is any information that would significantly benefit Doherty. Lebow may ultimately rule on what parts of the counseling records Doherty's attorney can view.
Doherty, a former priest at St. Vincent Catholic Church in Margate, has been charged with sexually abusing a boy -- starting when the boy was 10 in the 1990s.
UNITED STATES
Bishop Accountability
By Marci A. Hamilton
America Magazine
Vol. 195 No. 8
September 25, 2006
[Note from BishopAccountability.org: See also The Case for Abolishing Child Abuse Statutes of Limitations, and for Victims' Forgoing Settlement in Favor of a Jury Trial, by Marci Hamilton, FindLaw (7/17/03). See also other articles and documents in our Noteworthy series.]
From every tragedy there is something to be learned. The Catholic Church’s struggle with sexual abuse of children by members of its clergy is no different. But the lesson is one for the entire country, not just the church. Although there were inklings of the church’s clerical abuse problem before 2002, when The Boston Globe began publishing its Pulitzer Prize-winning reports, it was only then that the general public became aware of the scope of the problem.
Two forces worked together to increase the problem: (1) the church shuttled abusing priests among parishes and dioceses with no notice to families and the laity; and (2) the victims of abuse were incapable of coming forward until they had reached a psychologically safe place, often well into adulthood.
WILMINGTON (NC)
Star News
A former Wilmington youth pastor was arrested and charged Friday in connection with a rape reported more than a year ago.
About 2 p.m., Kevin Laymon, 26, turned himself in to the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office, Detective Sgt. S.B. Johnson said.
He has been charged with four felonies including statutory rape, statutory sex offense and two counts of indecent liberties with a minor. The Star-News does not identify victims of alleged sexual offenses.
He was released from the New Hanover County jail Friday afternoon after posting a $75,000 bond and will make his first court appearance Monday in the New Hanover County Courthouse, Johnson said.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
Dianne Williamson
T & G Staff
It took Ann McCarron of Worcester almost two decades to realize the sexual abuse she suffered as a child had consequences, for herself and potentially for her assailant.
Only when she grew up and grew older, only after years of destructive behavior and painful therapy, did Ann understand the wide-ranging emotional and legal ramifications of her repeated abuse by the family’s trusted family physician. The molestation began when she was 7 years old; by the time she was 25 and strong enough to seek justice, it was too late.
“I went to the lawyers and was basically told that my case was too old,” said Ann, now 43.
She wasn’t alone. In 2004, a Hampden County prosecutor indicted Bishop Thomas L. Dupre for the child rape of two boys, making him the first Roman Catholic bishop to be charged with the crime. Within hours, though, the indictment was withdrawn, after the bishop’s lawyers filed papers noting the statute of limitations had run out.
These days, as victim advocates manage to focus our attention on the evils of child molestation, some of the vigilante-type fervor aimed at sex offenders has become disquieting and often over the top. Civil libertarians, especially, have worried that our zeal to protect children sometimes threatens to erode the rights of alleged perpetrators.
But there should be no such worry with the bill now sitting on the desk of Gov. Mitt Romney.
Sent to the governor last Thursday, the measure recognizes it sometimes takes years for a victim to come to terms with the fact he or she was abused, to summon the courage to speak out and to recognize the perpetrator can be prosecuted. Under the bill, the state statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases would be extended to 27 years after the victim first reports the episode, or 27 years after the victim turns 16. And prosecutors could bring charges in cases that occurred longer ago if there is independent evidence which corroborates the victim’s allegations.
LARCHMONT (NY)
The Journal News
By GARY STERN
gstern@lohud.com
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: September 16, 2006)
The Archdiocese of New York will not send priests accused of sexual abuse to a retreat house in Larchmont after neighbors expressed concern about even the temporary presence of such priests in their community.
Late last month, the archdiocese said it was creating a new supervision program to keep tabs on a small number of accused priests who were not defrocked by the Vatican. Seven men were given the choice of leaving the priesthood or entering the supervision program.
Trinity Retreat in Larchmont was to be used to temporarily house priests under supervision until permanent housing could be found for them.
Five of the seven men chose to leave the priesthood. Of the two others, one was sent to Larchmont and the other was scheduled to join him.
Over the past few weeks, though, members of the Pryer Manor Association in Larchmont, other Larchmont residents and Mamaroneck Supervisor Valerie O'Keeffe all expressed reservations to the archdiocese about the priests who are part of what is called the "Shepherd's Program."
LONG ISLAND (NY)
WCBS
(CBS/AP) Long Island A Roman Catholic priest on Long Island has been reinstated by church officials after they concluded that sexual misconduct allegations lodged against him were unsubstantiated.
The Diocese of Rockville Center announced on its newspaper Web site that a review board had cleared the Rev. William Logan, 65, to go back to work.
"At this point there is no reason not to return him to the ministry. He is not a danger to anyone," said Sean Dolan, a spokesman for the diocese.
It was unclear when Logan would return to his pastoral duties. His most recent assignment had been as pastor of the St. Ignatius the Martyr Church, in Long Beach.
"Right now he is recuperating from the strain of this ordeal," Dolan told Newsday.
CHICAGO (IL)
Northest Herald
Tom Paciorek still enjoys returning to Chicago, where he played for the White Sox in the 1980s and was a broadcaster for them in the late '80s and '90s – when he often was paired with Ken "Hawk" Harrelson. Paciorek, who grew up in a Polish neighborhood near Detroit, loved to exploit his own heritage with jokes, often at his own expense. Paciorek – "Wimpy" to some, named as such by minor-league manager Tommy Lasorda for the Popeye cartoon character who loved hamburgers – for decades kept hidden a dark secret of childhood sexual abuse he said was suffered at the hands of a trusted Catholic priest. ...
11. Why did it go bad between you and Hawk?
I can't really say the specifics, but at the end of my 12th year I was given a list of things to work on if I wanted to come back for the 13th year. I read that as an invitation to leave. I always operate on a team concept. Tommy Lasorda taught us that it was about the team. I felt like the team was going awry a little bit and something had to give. The door was left wide open. I'm a bit stubborn, too. "Why didn't you call me in [earlier] if I didn't know what the [heck] I was doing? Why'd you wait 12 years?" But there's no ill feelings.
12. Why not?
Because I was able to resolve some issues. That was a time I was trying to resolve being abused by a Catholic priest when I was young, and I don't know if that would have had the same impact had I stayed in Chicago. I was able to get away from the daily baseball life and be in therapy regularly. I needed that. I had been working for 32 years straight.
CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
September 17, 2006
Donald Wren Kimball, a former Catholic priest who once was a charismatic nationally renowned youth minister but was later accused of sexually abusing children in Northern California, has died. He was 62.
Kimball's body was found Friday in a friend's home in Windsor, Calif., about 55 miles north of San Francisco, Sonoma County Sheriff's Sgt. Tim Duke said. Police found no evidence indicating criminal activity, he said, but an autopsy was planned.
Kimball, a Santa Rosa native who was ordained in 1969, rose to national prominence in his early 30s with an award-winning radio show aimed at young people. The unconventional program blended top-40 pop music with Bible teachings.
He was accused of using his charm and popularity to coerce teenage girls to have sex with him. In 1990, after Kimball acknowledged having sexual contact with six young girls, church officials forced him to give up his youth ministry and suspended him from performing priestly duties.
Abuse allegations against Kimball first became public in 1997. Criminal charges were filed in 2000 — the same year Pope John Paul II formally removed him from the priesthood.
SPOKANE (WA)
The Spokesman-Review
September 17, 2006
The reaction to the news that the Rev. John Leary was a molester who had to leave town or be arrested can be summed up with the collision of two idioms: "Let sleeping dogs lie" and "The truth shall set you free."
The first wonders what is to be gained by reporting the heinous acts of 40 to 50 years ago. The second answers that query, but it glosses over the interim pain. Gloria Steinem understood this when she said, "The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off." Anger was unleashed on Sept. 8, when the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus announced that the former president of Gonzaga University was involved in the sexual abuse of boys. The Jesuits knew it. The university knew it. The Spokane Police Department knew it.
Some are angry with the co-conspirators. This is healthy, because it is rooted in the belief that the truth is meaningful. Some are angry with the decision to reveal the truth, because they say it is unproductive. In this version of reality, the perpetrators are the victims. The memories of them – and the memories of life in 1960s Spokane – are besmirched.
MANCHESTER (NH)
Union Leader
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
Union Leader Staff
Friday, Sep. 15, 2006
Manchester – A Roman Catholic priest who ministers to African refugees and immigrants in New Hampshire is accused of sexually and physically assaulting a 27-year-old city woman and holding her against her will over the last 11 months.
The Rev. John O. Lawani, 40, turned himself in to Manchester police late yesterday afternoon after an investigation that began several days ago.
Lawani, who is a priest with the Diocese of Ilorin, Nigeria, has been serving in the Manchester diocese since mid-October when Bishop John B. McCormack assigned him chaplain to the African Apostolate, which is based at St. Joseph Cathedral.
He is charged with two counts of sexual assault, five counts of simple assault and two counts of false imprisonment.
Lawani, who lives in St. Joseph Cathedral Rectory at 145 Lowell St., is being held on $50,000 bail pending arraignment on the misdemeanor charges in Manchester District Court today.
MANCHESTER (NH)
WHDH
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- A priest from Nigeria who was serving in Manchester was charged Thursday with sexually assaulting a woman and holding her against her will, police said.
The Rev. John Lawani, 40, was charged with two counts of sexual assault, five counts of simple assault and two counts of false imprisonment. He was being held on $50,000 bail and was to be arraigned Friday.
The woman, 27, came to police recently "and reported to us that a number of these assaults had taken place since October of 2005," Sgt. Lloyd Doughty said.
In a statement, the Diocese of Manchester said that Lawani is a priest of the Diocese of Ilorin, Nigeria, who was serving as the chaplain of the African Apostolate for the Diocese of Manchester since October.
MANCHESTER (NH)
CBS 4
(CBS4) MANCHESTER, N.H. A priest serving in the Manchester, N.H. diocese is accused of sexually and physically assaulting a 27-year-old woman and holding her against her will over the past 11 months.
40-year-old Rev. John Lawani turned himself in to Manchester Police on Thursday. The woman went to police and claimed the alleged incidents have been taking place since October.
Lawani is charged with two counts of sexual assault, five counts of simple assault and two counts of false imprisonment. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday morning in Manchester District Court.
PENNSYLVANIA
Standard-Speaker
Friday, 15 September 2006
A McAdoo monsignor on inactive status with the Diocese of Allentown was arrested last month after asking a 26-year-old man for sex in western Pennsylvania where he has worked as a psychologist. Monsignor Stephen Forish was acquitted of similar charges eight years ago in Northampton County and McAdoo police watched him in the early 1990s but never charged him after receiving complaints from parents, The Morning Call of Allentown reported Thursday.
MANCHESTER (NH)
Union Leader
By PAT GROSSMITH
Union Leader Staff
Manchester – Sexual assault charges against a Roman Catholic priest are preposterous and false, his attorney and a friend said yesterday after his arraignment.
The Rev. John Lawani, 40, of 145 Lowell St. entered innocent pleas in Manchester District Court to nine misdemeanor charges alleging he physically and sexually assaulted a woman.
Lawani said nothing during the nine-minute hearing.
He is accused of improper bodily contact ; repeatedly kissing the woman on the cheek and neck; and grabbing her with his arms and also by the wrist, preventing her from leaving his office at St. George Church, 516 Pine St. The offenses allegedly occurred between Oct. 29 and Sept. 6.
IOWA
Des Moines Register
September 16, 2006
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
A Scott County jury will begin deliberations Monday in a civil case involving a former altar boy who says he was sexually abused by a Davenport priest.
D. Michl Uhde of Davenport is seeking $2.3 million from the Catholic Diocese of Davenport. He alleges he was sexually abused by Monsignor Thomas Feeney in the 1950s and '60s. Feeney died in 1981.
This is the first such lawsuit for the diocese, which in the past has chosen to settle similar claims, including a $9 million payment to 37 claimants in October 2004.
Uhde's attorneys said Friday that the evidence was overwhelming that Feeney abused Uhde and that the diocese failed to properly supervise the priest.
RENO (NV)
The Spokesman-Review
John Stucke
Staff writer
September 15, 2006
RENO – Mediation to settle the Spokane Catholic Diocese bankruptcy was cut short this week without explanation.
Teams of leaders and lawyers from the diocese, the Association of Parishes, and those representing victims of priest sex abuse negotiated into the evening on Thursday. Then they canceled Friday’s planned mediation session.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Gregg Zive, the judge overseeing the sensitive talks from his chambers in Reno, Nev., said during an interview Friday morning that the case is complex and difficult to resolve.
However, “I believe all counsel and their parties are working hard and negotiating in good faith,” he said. He declined to say if another mediation session would be scheduled.
UNITED KINGDOM
Sunderland Today
QUESTIONS were today asked as to why a devout Christian with a history of child sex attacks was allowed to live in a house owned by the church.
Daniel Devlin has been staying at accommodation owned by Diocese of Durham despite admitting 13 charges of making indecent photographs of children.
Today, after outrage over the decision, the Echo has been told that Devlin, 53, has been moved from the church-owned house.
A spokesman for the Bishop of Durham said: "Arrangements have now been made for him to move elsewhere.
"The Bishop was aware of the pastoral circumstances of someone who needed accommodation, particularly in the short-term.
"That situation has now changed and we understand Mr Devlin's solicitor has now arranged for alternative accommodation."
FIJI
Radio New Zealand
Posted at 6:35am on 16 Sep 2006
Fiji's justice ministry has warned executives of the country's Methodist Church not to suppress evidence of criminal activities within the church.
Radio Legend says the warning was issued after statements by the general secretary of the church, the Rev Ame Tugaue, that they will not report allegations of sexual abuse of female students by two church ministers because the matter could be dealt with internally.
LOGAN (OH)
NBC4i
LOGAN, Ohio -- Accused of decades of abuse against area children, a former church leader and assistant baseball coach is behind bars. Now police said they think other victims are still out there.
Several months ago, Corrina Culbertson began suspecting her three sons were being molested by Chester Miller, a friend of her ex-husband, NBC 4's Erin Tate reported.
Miller was indicted last week in Hocking County on 20 counts of rape and gross sexual imposition involving five victims.
"He told them it was their secret, just between them," Culbertson said.
OHIO
Cincinnati Enquirer
BY SHARON COOLIDGE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said the state's statute of limitations on sex offenses may have prevented his office from charging a Catholic priest with sexual molestation, but he will fight to put that man on a statewide sexual offender registry.
His office Friday filed a civil motion in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court asking that David J. Kelley, who served at St. Therese the Little Flower in Mount Airy, be ordered to register with the state's Internet Civil Registry.
It's the first time a prosecutor in the state has sought to put somebody who hasn't been convicted of a crime on a sex offender registry.
Deters is using a new law that allows prosecutors to file a civil action requiring the abuser to register with the Ohio Attorney General's Office. The law says the action must be based on child sexual abuse.
ROCKVILLE (MD)
News-Post
By Sonia Boin
News-Post Staff
ROCKVILLE -- A former priest who served at Catholic churches in Damascus and Olney more than 25 years ago has been charged a second time with sexual offense and abuse of teenage boys.
The papers were served at the jail in Boyds, where William McSherry Stock, 63, has been held without bail since May on charges he abused a boy while serving at St. Peter's Catholic Church on Sandy Spring Road in Olney.
Mr. Stock now has an additional $100,000 in bail, since a second victim, a 41-year-old Laytonsville man, reported the priest touched him inappropriately when the victim was 14.
This victim told police the priest fondled him during confession and later when Mr. Stock took him and some other altar boys to the movies.
WINDSOR (CA)
CBS 5
09/15/06 1:50 PDT
WINDSOR (BCN)
Donald Kimball, the defrocked Roman Catholic priest whose 2002 conviction for committing lewd acts against a girl under the age of 14 was overturned, was found dead this morning in a Windsor residence, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department reported.
Kimball's body was found at 6:09 a.m. after Windsor police were asked to make a welfare check. Sgt. Tim Duke said there was no evidence of criminal activity. Kimball was 62.
Kimball ultimately escaped serving the seven-year prison term for committing two lewd acts with a girl in the St. John's rectory in Healdsburg in 1981, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional the California law that was used to convict him and other sex offenders of decades-old offenses.
LONG ISLAND (NY)
Newsday
BY BILL BLEYER
Newsday Staff Writer
September 16, 2006
The Diocese of Rockville Centre has reinstated the Rev. William Logan, who was suspended in March following accusations of sexual abuse decades ago, saying a review board could not substantiate the allegations.
The diocese action was disclosed Thursday in a letter received by one of the accusers and in an item on the Web site of the diocese newspaper.
" ... Father William Logan will soon be returned to active ministry," the Web item said. "The Diocesan Review Board recommended to Bishop [William] Murphy that Father Logan be returned to full pastoral ministry. The review board noted that the complaints could not be substantiated and in compliance with diocesan policies, Father Logan could be returned to ministry. Father Logan had most recently served as pastor of St. Ignatius the Martyr Church, Long Beach."
Diocesan spokesman Sean Dolan added that Logan, 65, "will be given a new assignment in the near future. Right now he is recuperating from the strain of this ordeal. At this point there is no reason not to return him to the ministry. He is not a danger to anyone."
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-Cities Online
By Brian Krans, staff writer
A former Davenport altar boy suing the Davenport diocese suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder because he didn't become a priest -- not from sexual abuse by clergy in the 1960s, a psychiatrist testified today.
Michael Taylor, the Des Moines psychiatrist, said D. Michl Uhde, 56, was getting better from PTSD and depression after medication.
He said it was caused by 'the fact that he didn't become a priest and all of the activity that happened at the seminary regarding that,' Mr. Taylor testified in Scott County District Court.
At the St. Ambrose seminary, Mr. Uhde testified earlier this week, Bishop Lawrence Soens had inappropriate sexual contact with Mr. Uhde before he was kicked out for allegedly coming forward with the abuse.
WYNNEWOOD (PA)
NBC 10
WYNNEWOOD, Pa. -- A couple of clergy sex abuse victims looked directly into the eyes of priests Friday and told them to listen to their stories -- what other priests did to them.
"He would take me for rides in his car, often taking me to some secluded woods where he would rape me," said one woman from the podium.
Priests gathered for two hours at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood to hear from two adults -- one man, one woman -- who as children were abused by priests. They also heard from a parent of two other victims.
Cardinal Justin Rigali called Friday's meeting -- on the "Feast of Our Mother of Sorrows" -- so priests could hear from victims directly. The event was organized by a victim's advocate the Archdiocese of Philadelphia hired this year.
A Philadelphia grand jury probe last year identified 63 archdiocesan priests as abusers since the 1950s. Seventeen have been defrocked and others have been relieved of pastoral duties.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Reuters
By Jon Hurdle
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy told their stories to priests on Friday, describing how years of exploitation led to anger, self-loathing and long-term emotional damage.
In testimony before clergy summoned by Cardinal Justin Rigali of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, two adult victims told how they were abused as children.
Another witness, the mother of two boys who was abused, said their abusers were not "men of God," but people who stripped her sons of their childhood, their adolescence, their manhood and their self-esteem.
The session, broadcast live on the Internet, follows a 500-page report by Philadelphia prosecutors in August 2005 detailing decades of assaults on children by more than 50 Catholic priests. It accused the church of an "immoral" cover-up.
Cardinal Rigali told Friday's hearing that learning about the abuse through the media was no substitute for hearing the victims' accounts of it firsthand. "It's extremely important for us to hear the stories rather than simply reading words on the printed page," he said.
WYNNEWOOD (PA)
PhillyBurbs
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
The Associated Press
WYNNEWOOD, Pa. - Victims of priest sexual abuse came forward Friday with sometimes graphic accounts of molestation and rape, addressing hundreds of Roman Catholic priests in what some view as a small but hopeful step by the archdiocese to face its past.
Victoria Windsor Cubberly spoke of repeated abuse by more than one priest, and the suicidal thoughts and nightmares she suffers as a result. A woman named Grace talked about the abuse of her two sons - now adults - and the lingering trauma it inflicted on their entire family.
"How did I not know? How did I not see it?" said Grace, who did not give her last name and was not fully identified by the archdiocese. "I will carry these questions until I die."
Cardinal Justin Rigali, who convened the unusual forum at St. Charles Borromeo seminary in Wynnewood, said that while many priests have read newspaper accounts about victims of abuse, they need to listen to the stories as well.
PROCTOR (MN)
Pioneer Press
Associated Press
PROCTOR, Minn. - A man from Superior, Wis., who accused a priest of sexually abusing him forty years ago has received a $250,000 settlement in his lawsuit against the Diocese of Duluth and St. Rose Catholic Church in Proctor.
The 53-year-old plaintiff said the Rev. John Nicholson molested him at the Proctor church beginning in 1965 when he was a 12-year-old altar boy.
The plaintiff, a retired railroad worker, alleged that the sexual abuse caused him to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder and permanent psychological damage.
St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, who is well-known for handling cases involving sexual abuse by clergy, represented the plaintiff, who declined an interview request Thursday.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
SignOnSanDiego
By Kim Curtis
ASSOCIATED PRESS
6:17 p.m. September 15, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO – A former priest, who was once a charismatic, nationally renowned youth minister but was later accused of sexually abusing children, has died, authorities said Friday.
The body of Donald Wren Kimball, 62, was found in his friend's home in Windsor, about 54 miles north of San Francisco, Sheriff's Sgt. Tim Duke said. Police found no evidence indicating criminal activity, he said.
Kimball, who was ordained in 1969, rose to national prominence in his early 30s with an award-winning radio show aimed at young people.
He was accused of using his charm and popularity to coerce teenage girls to have sex with him. In 1990, after Kimball acknowledged having sexual contact with six young girls, church officials forced him to give up his youth ministry and suspended him from performing priestly duties.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Deseret Morning News
A group of Catholic priests listens to victims of sexual abuse by priests on Friday at a meeting in Wynnewood, Pa. Hundreds of priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese were summoned by the cardinal Friday to hear from the two adults, who as children were molested by priests. The meeting was called as part of an effort by the church to teach members of the clergy about victims' struggles to rebuild their lives.
OHIO
The Kentucky Post
By Tom O'Neill
Post staff reporter
The Hamilton County prosecutor's office on Friday filed for a declaratory judgment that would require a former Catholic priest - who was never charged with sexual abuse - to nonetheless register as a sex offender.
A new Ohio law permits that in cases in which an allegation is reported after the statute of limitations expires.
Authorities say David J. Kelley, a one-time priest at Little Flower Catholic Church in the Cincinnati suburb of Mount Airy, sexually abused a male student at the grade school there in the early 1980s. Criminal charges were not filed against him because of the statute of limitations.
A new Ohio law allowing for such declaratory judgments went into effect Aug. 3, and the prosecutor's office said it is believed to be the first time the law has been invoked.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By David O'Reilly and Kera Ritter
Inquirer Staff Writers
Choking back tears - and provoking tears among some of the hundreds of priests in the audience - local victims of clergy sexual abuse yesterday recounted the rapes and seductions that made havoc of their lives, and called on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to do more for victims.
"I hope... you will take a glimpse at the torture and pain some of your brothers have inflicted on these innocent children," the mother of two abused sons told a gathering of about 500 priests, bishops and seminarians at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood.
"The fallout is indescribable," said the woman, who gave her name only as Grace. Her sons, now adults, became suicidal and alcoholic, and were deeply compromised as husbands and fathers, she said. One son is in prison.
The second speaker, Victoria Cubberley, 56, told in gruesome detail how, when she was a teenager, three archdiocesan priests exploited the chaos brought about by her abusive parents by forcing her to have sex after she sought their help.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
By DAVID GAMBACORTA
gambacd@phillynews.com 215-854-5994
GRACE STOOD behind a wooden podium, clutching several pages of notes as hundreds of pairs of eyes watched her intently. A small golden crucifix hung on a thin necklace, protruding every few minutes from behind her purple jacket.
Her gaze never lifted from those stark white pages as she emotionally recounted a sickening tale of manipulation and abuse.
She recalled meeting her husband decades ago, and a charming, generous priest who soon became a close family friend.
The priest was a constant presence in their lives as Grace and her husband raised their daughter and three sons. He even said Mass in their home on Sundays.
"Little did I know we were being groomed for his future," she said. When each of her sons turned 10, Grace said, the trusted priest began sexually abusing them. The vile acts continued on a weekly basis for years.
DAVENPORT (IA)
WQAD
By Jason Fechner
DAVENPORT, Iowa -- Attorneys made their final arguments Friday in a sexual abuse case filed against the Diocese of Davenport in July, 2005.
Michl Uhde filed the suit, alleging Monsignor Thomas Feeney sexually abused him for six years, beginning when he was only seven-years-old.
"This week was a very painful experience for Mike Uhde," said attorney Patrick Noaker, "but also it was a fulfilling experience for Mike Uhde because he got to tell his story."
According to Uhde, Feeney started abusing him when he was an altar boy at Sacred Heart Church in Davenport. The abuse lasted until he was 13. That's when he told his mother about it, but when she told members of the Diocese, they did nothing, according to Uhde's attorneys.
LONG ISLAND (NY)
Newsday
BY BILL BLEYER
Newsday Staff Writer
September 15, 2006, 9:06 PM EDT
The Diocese of Rockville Centre has reinstated the Rev. William Logan, who was suspended in March following accusations of sexual abuse decades ago, saying a review board could not substantiate the allegations.
The diocese action was disclosed Thursday in a letter received by one of the accusers and in an item on the Web site of the diocese newspaper.
" ... Father William Logan will soon be returned to active ministry," the Web item said. "The Diocesan Review Board recommended to Bishop Murphy that Father Logan be returned to full pastoral ministry. The review board noted that the complaints could not be substantiated and in compliance with diocesan policies, Father Logan could be returned to ministry. Father Logan had most recently served as pastor of St. Ignatius the Martyr Church, Long Beach."
Diocesan spokesman Sean Dolan added that Logan, 65, "will be given a new assignment in the near future. Right now he is recuperating from the strain of this ordeal. At this point there is no reason not to return him to the ministry. He is not a danger to anyone."
MOBILE (AL)
Fox 10
By Bob Grip
MOBILE - A teacher at a Mobile Catholic school has been put on administrative leave, following allegations of inappropriate touching of a student.
The superintendent of the Archdiocesan school system, Gwen Byrd, confirmed to me that the teacher at Most Pure Heart of Mary Catholic school was put on administrative leave Thursday, following the allegation. She told me the school system, following its guidelines, immediately notified the Department of Human Resources. Mobile Police are conducting their own investigation.
CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle
Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, September 15, 2006
(09-15) 13:17 PDT WINDSOR -- A 62-year-old former priest convicted of molestation and assaulting a Chronicle photographer was found dead early today, according to Sonoma County authorities.
After receiving a call for a welfare check, police found Donald Wren Kimball dead in his Windsor home. There was no evidence of criminal activity, according to Sonoma County Sheriff's Sgt. Tim Duke. An autopsy is scheduled to determine the cause of death.
The Roman Catholic priest was defrocked after he was convicted in 2002 of two counts of lewd conduct for fondling a 13-year-old girl at St. John's Church in Healdsburg. His conviction was later overturned when the Supreme Court struck down a law extending the statute of limitations on sex crimes involving children.
SPOKANE (WA)
KGW
09/15/2006
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS / Associated Press
Advocates for people abused by Catholic priests are demanding that the Northwest leader of the Jesuits take a lie detector test regarding his knowledge of past abuse by the former president of Gonzaga University.
Victims' groups doubt that abuse by the late Rev. John Leary that was revealed last week was only recently discovered in Jesuit files.
"How can the Jesuits settle cases involving Leary but claim they have never read his file? It defies common sense," said Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
But the Rev. John D. Whitney of Portland, Ore., leader of the Oregon Province of Jesuits, declined the demand.
"I have neither need not desire to take a polygraph examination to prove myself truthful," Whitney wrote in a letter to SNAP he released to The Associated Press.
MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
Pamela Miller, Star Tribune
Patrick Marker was fed up.
Marker, 41, of Mount Vernon, Wash., had spent three years that he described as "intensely frustrating" on a board monitoring sex-abuse cases involving monks at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minn. Last month, he quit the board, which was created in 2002 as part of a settlement of several abuse cases. He blamed "inexcusable" delays in publicizing abusers' names.
For Marker, the case of the Rev. Michael Bik, who was accused nine years ago but whose name wasn't released until this summer, was "the last straw."
The Bik case dramatically underscores disagreements between the Catholic hierarchy and activists about how and when the names of alleged abusers should be publicized, a process activists see as crucial to locating victims and alerting potential ones. In addition to Marker's protest, the case inspired SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests) to pass out leaflets at Twin Cities churches the past three Sundays.
Bik, 57, is one of three St. John's clerics whose names were released in July because of what Abbot John Klassen deemed credible allegations. Bik, who is both a monk and priest, lives at the Benedictine abbey under travel and social restrictions, abbey officials say, as does the second named priest, the Rev. Bruce Wollmering. The third, the Rev. Robert Blumeyer, died in 1983.
CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle
By KIM CURTIS, Associated Press Writer
Friday, September 15, 2006
(09-15) 14:53 PDT San Francisco (AP) --
A former Sonoma County priest who was once a charismatic, nationally renowned youth minister but was later put on trial for sexually abusing children has died, authorities said Friday.
The body of Donald Wren Kimball, 62, was found around 6 a.m. in the Windsor home of a friend, Sheriff's Sgt. Tim Duke said. Police found "no evidence to indicate criminal activity," he said.
A jury acquitted Kimball of raping a 14-year-old girl in 1977. The woman testified during his 2002 trial that Kimball raped her behind the altar of a Santa Rosa church and later paid for her abortion.
The same jury convicted Kimball of molesting a 13-year-old girl in 1981 in his room at a Healdsburg rectory. That conviction was overturned the following year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a California law extending the statute of limitations for sex crimes involving children.
JACKSONVILLE (FL)
First Coast News
By Angela Williams
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Former Trinity Baptist Pastor Bob Gray appeared in court Friday for a pre-trial hearing.
Gray is accused of molesting several young girls and a boy during his time as pastor about thirty years ago.
Gray's presence in court stirred a mixture of emotions.
UNITED STATES
The Tidings
Since 2003, more than 400 cases of sexual abuse of minors by clergy members in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles have been reported.
Any number of cases, of course, is too many. But the fact is that the overwhelming number of these alleged incidents --- more than 90 percent --- took place in the decades before 1980. By contrast, fewer than 150 cases of such abuse were reported over a seven-decade period from 1931 to 2001 --- the period when most of the cases first reported in 2003 actually took place.
In the very extensive Report to the People of God (2004), the Archdiocese detailed the information it had regarding incidents and reports of sexual abuse by clergy. Because the California Legislature repealed the statute of limitations for the duration of 2003 for suits dealing with sexual abuse of minors, the Church was deluged by a flood of cases, some dating back more than 70 years. The Report noted that although the first allegation of abuse dated to 1931, the first actual reports of abuse did not come until 1967.
FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram
By MELODY McDONALD
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
FORT WORTH — Terry Hornbuckle, the pastor who founded a multimillion-dollar megachurch in Arlington and then fell from grace when he was convicted last month of raping three women, says he is too poor to hire an attorney to handle his appeal.
In a court document, which he filed himself, Hornbuckle asked the judge to appoint him an appellate lawyer because of his “indigent status.”
By law, before the court can appoint an attorney for Hornbuckle, he will have to prove that he cannot afford one.
An appeal requires a specialized attorney who often charges more than a trial attorney.
Officials said a hearing could be scheduled on the matter.
MARYLAND
WUSA
Created:9/14/2006 6:47:17 PM
Last Updated:9/15/2006 12:10:28 AM
A former Roman Catholic priest from Montgomery County has been arrested for the second time this year on charges of past sexual abuse.
The most charges against 63-year-old William McSherry Stock stem from a report by a man who told police that Stock abused him 28 years ago, when the man was 14. Stock was also arrested in May by Montgomery County Police and charged with custodial abuse for allegedly abusing another boy 26 years ago.
Police says the 41-year-old man came forward in June to say Stock had abused him during confession, at a movie, and at Saint Peter's Catholic Church in Olney when the man was 14.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Delco Times
Patti Mengers, Of the Times Staff
09/15/2006
After having allegedly been abused as an adolescent by a priest for more than seven years, John Salveson can’t imagine facing a room full of Roman collars and recounting his abuse. But today at 4 p.m., a man and woman who suffered clerical sexual abuse as children will tell their stories to hundreds of priests serving in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
The priests will be assembled at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood at the invitation of the Archbishop of Philadelphia, Cardinal Justin Rigali.
The approximately one-hour meeting, which will include testimony from a parent of abuse victims, will be followed by a procession to the seminary’s St. Martin’s chapel for evening prayer.
"I can’t imagine anything scarier," said Salveson. "If you were sexually abused by a priest, can you imagine going into a seminary to talk with 200 priests then going to a religious ceremony? That has the potential to be pretty traumatic."
MEMPHIS (TN)
Commercial Appeal
By James Dowd
September 15, 2006
The Catholic Diocese of Memphis faces new lawsuits charging sexual abuse by priests, and additional suits are likely to follow, an attorney said Thursday.
In separate suits filed in Circuit Court Thursday morning, plaintiffs listed simply as Jane Doe and John Doe alleged multiple counts of sexual abuse by two local priests dating back to the mid-1980s.
Miami lawyer Jeffrey Herman, whose firm represents both plaintiffs, promised this is only the first "wave of suits" from other abuse victims.
"We've heard from dozens of victims, and those suits will be brought forward soon," Herman said. "We call on the bishop and the diocese to be transparent in telling what they knew and when they knew it."
Jane Doe, 23, now a California resident, claims she was molested by Father Joseph Nguyen from 1994-1999. Nguyen served at several local parishes, including Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Germantown, St. Ann in Bartlett and St. Paul the Apostle in Memphis.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Morning Call
September 15, 2006
The Catholic Church has struggled in recent years with the question of what to do with pedophile priests. The long-whispered rumors burst into full-fledged scandal a few years ago, with hundreds of priests accused. Some were arrested and convicted. Many more, beyond the statute of limitations for prosecution or too old or infirm to be kicked out, have been kept in an unholy limbo. They're on the payroll but can't act as priests. They have to let church officials know where they're living. That's hardly dealing with the issue.
Recently, the New York Archdiocese, which includes much of this region, has joined a few others in putting pressure on some of its accused abusers. The Shepherd Program is aimed at priests referred by lay advisory boards or the old and infirm convicted in canonical trials. It forces them to choose between a life of indefinite therapy and tightly supervised living, and leaving the church. As an effort to protect society and balance the ledger, it's better than limbo. But five of the first seven given the option turned in their collars, meaning they are free to do what they do, but they're out of the church's hair.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Sioux City Journal
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) -- The Davenport diocese denied allegations Wednesday that it knew its priests were sexually abusing children but did nothing to prevent further abuse.
Monsignor Michael Morrissey told jurors the diocese had no knowledge of allegations against the late Thomas Feeney, who allegedly abused a Davenport man for six years in the 1950s and 1960s, until another person came forward last year.
The Davenport man is suing the diocese for $2.3 million in damages. The trial started Monday in Scott County District Court and will resume Thursday with more testimony.
Jurors heard two brief testimonials from men who claim they were also abused by Feeney -- one in the early 1960s and the other in the late 1940s. The later victim said he suffered abuse similar to what the Davenport man endured, including bird-watching trips to Credit Island that ended with him being fondled and slapped on the stomach.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
THE PHILADELPHIA Archdiocese's dark history of cover-ups and clergy sexual abuse - fully illuminated last year in a scathing grand jury report - doesn't earn it much sympathy.
The unconscionable acts left hundreds of children emotionally scarred. Hundreds of thousands of Catholics felt angry, betrayed and bewildered.
The grand jury report portrayed the archdiocese as a protector of perverts, preferring to move accused priests around than remove them from the priesthood.
It's easy, then, to cast a cynical eye on today's meeting between two victims of child sex abuse, a victim's parent, and priests assembled at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood.
But this is a face-to-face exchange that could have a positive and emotional impact, much like what happens at mediation sessions where crime victims confront their perpetrators.
PHOENIX (AZ)
Arizona Daily Star
The Associated Press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.15.2006
PHOENIX — Jury selection in the trial of a former priest facing sex abuse charges will begin Sept. 25 after he failed to reach a plea deal with prosecutors.
Joseph Briceno appeared before Judge Warren Granville of Maricopa County Superior Court on Wednesday.
Briceno was one of seven priests indicted in Maricopa County in 2003 on sex-abuse charges. He was captured in Mexico in December and has been jailed since.
He faces one count of sexual abuse, six counts of sexual conduct with a minor and one count of attempted sexual conduct with a minor.
MARYLAND
Washington Post
By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 15, 2006; Page B10
A former Catholic priest who is awaiting trial in a sex abuse case was charged again this week after another man came forward and said he had been molested as a teenager, Montgomery County police said.
William McSherry Stock, 63, of Rockville was charged Wednesday with child abuse and several counts of sex offense, police said. The new case involves a 41-year-old Laytonsville man, who alleges that he was fondled in the late 1970s, when he was about 14.
The man told police that Stock, then a priest at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Olney, touched him inappropriately during confession and two weeks later when the priest took him and other boys to a movie. Stock also fondled him in the church cloakroom after the movie, the man told investigators.
After the teenager resisted Stock in the cloakroom, the priest stopped touching him and "told him that this would be their little secret," Detective Louvenna Pallas wrote in a charging document.
WISCONSIN
Duluth News Tribune
BY MARK STODGHILL
NEWS TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
A Superior man who claimed he was sexually abused by a priest four decades ago has settled his lawsuit against the Diocese of Duluth and St. Rose Catholic Church in Proctor for $250,000.
The 53-year-old plaintiff said he was molested by the Rev. John Nicholson at the Proctor church starting in 1965 when he was a 12-year-old altar boy.
The plaintiff, a retired railroad worker, claimed that the alleged sexual abuse by Nicholson led him to develop various coping mechanisms and symptoms of psychological distress. He now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and has sustained permanent psychological damage as a result of the alleged sexual abuse.
The plaintiff was represented by St. Paul lawyer Jeff Anderson, one of the most prominent lawyers in the country in handling sexual abuse cases by clergy.
Anderson said his client declined an interview request Thursday.
IOWA
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
September 15, 2006
During a second day of testimony, attorneys for the Diocese of Davenport tried to chip away at the claim of an alleged victim of child sexual abuse that he was too mentally ill over past 40 years to enforce his legal rights.
Defense attorney Rand Wonio recalled D. Michl Uhde of Davenport to testify for a second time about damage done by alleged sexual abuse by Monsignor Thomas Feeney. Uhde, of Davenport, is suing the diocese for $2.3 million. Feeney, who served as vicar general for the diocese, died in 1981.
"Among a number of legal documents we brought to Mr. Uhde's attention were an August 2002 bankruptcy, dissolution of marriages and real estate transactions," Wonio said. If Uhde was able to negotiate these complicated legal documents, Wonio maintains the alleged abuse victim could have made his abuse claim in a more timely manner.
The trial, which began Monday in Scott County, is the first for the diocese. Although more than 50 men have alleged they were sexually abused by diocesan priests, the diocese has always in the past negotiated out-of-court settlements of the claims. In October 2004, the diocese paid $9 million to 37 claimants.
TENNESSEE
Jackson Sun
By PETE WICKHAM
pwickham@jacksonsun.com
Daniel T. DuPree, a former priest and pastor at churches in Memphis, Jackson, Lexington and Parsons, is named in one of two multimillion-dollar abuse and negligence lawsuits filed Thursday against the Catholic Diocese of Memphis.
The suits, filed in Shelby County Circuit Court, seek damages in excess of $10 million for each of two unnamed clients. In separate cases against DuPree and the Rev. Joseph Nguyen, the plaintiffs charge they were sexually abused while living in the Memphis area.
In the suit against DuPree, who served at St. Mary's Church in Jackson, St. Andrew Church in Lexington and St. Regina Church in Parsons from 1987 to 1991, the priest is accused of sexual abuse of an unnamed male resident of Bartlett. The Bartlett resident, now 37, was a freshman in high school when he met DuPree.
The suit says incidents of sexual abuse began in 1985, while DuPree and the alleged victim were visiting with DuPree's family in Texas, and continued for several years after that.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KYW
(AP) PHILADELPHIA A year after a grand jury excoriated the Philadelphia Archdiocese for its handling of priests accused of abusing children, Cardinal Justin Rigali has called hundreds of priests to a meeting Friday to hear from three of the church’s victims.
But critics, including the largest victims’ advocacy group, call the response tepid compared to the legal reforms they want the church to endorse.
The priests will meet at the archdiocesan seminary in Wynnewood, where they will be addressed by a man and woman abused by priests as children, as well as a woman whose two sons were molested.
A three-year probe by a Philadelphia grand jury identified 63 archdiocesan priests as abusers since the 1950s and accused church officials of a cover-up. Twenty abusive priests have been defrocked and others have been relieved of pastoral duties.
PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
By Matt Assad and Daniel Patrick Sheehan Of The Morning Call
Monsignor Stephen Forish's arrest after an allegation he solicited sex from a man on the street raises new questions about how vigorously the Allentown Catholic Diocese keeps track of priests who have been the subject of abuse complaints, critics say.
The diocese said it had not kept tabs on the 61-year-old priest since he voluntarily withdrew from active ministry and took a job as a psychologist in western Pennsylvania, despite 1996 charges of seeking sex from a Bethlehem man and public complaints about his behavior with children in his hometown of McAdoo, Schuylkill County.
Matt Kerr, diocese spokesman, said the diocese did not keep track of Forish because he was acquitted of the 1996 charges and there were no other complaints against him in his diocese file.
MEMPHIS (TN)
Commercial Appeal
By By James Dowd
September 14, 2006
Two lawsuits alleging multiple counts of sexual abuse by priests in the '80s and '90s were filed today against the Catholic Diocese of Memphis in Circuit Court.
Plaintiff John Doe, 37, now living in Bartlett, claims he was sexually molested as a teen by Father Daniel DuPree. The alleged abuse began in 1985, when DuPree was a priest at Church of the Resurrection in Memphis, and continued for several years.
After several assignments including Resurrection, St. Mary in Jackson (Tenn.) and St. Andrew the Apostle in Lexington, DuPree left the diocese and is now believed to be living in Texas.
Jane Doe, 23, now a California resident, claims she was molested by Father Joseph Nguyen from 1994-1999.
KENTUCKY
The Cincinnati Post
By Paul A. Long
Post staff reporter
The judge who helped guide the multi-million dollar settlement of a class-action lawsuit alleging 50 years of sexual abuse in the Covington Diocese announced he is leaving the case with some loose ends.
"It's been my hope that before my days run out, I'll have this case on an even keel," Senior Judge John Potter said from the bench after overseeing his last hearing Wednesday. "But that didn't happen. It's a little unsettled."
Potter is part of the senior judge program in Kentucky, which requires him to serve an average of 120 days a year for up to five years so that he can collect a pension equal to 100 percent of his salary in his last year as full-time judge.
In a surprising statement after a contentious hearing, Potter said he will complete his service in four days, and has asked William Wehr, the former Campbell Circuit judge who is administrator of the senior judges program, to name a replacement in time for a Sept. 29 hearing.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
September 14, 2006
Attorneys for the Diocese of Davenport today tried to chip away at the
claims of an alleged victim of child sexual abuse that he was too mentally ill over past 40 years to enforce his legal rights.
Defense attorney Rand Wonio recalled D. Michl Uhde of Davenport to testify for a second time about damage done by alleged sexual abuse by Monsignor Thomas Feeney. Uhde, of Davenport, is suing the diocese for $2.3 million. The trial started Monday in Scott County. Feeney died in 1981.
"Among a number of legal documents we brought to Mr. Uhde's attention were an August 2002 bankruptcy, dissolution of marriages and real estate transactions," Wonio said. If Uhde was able to negotiate these complicated legal documents, Wonio maintains the alleged abuse victim could have made his abuse claim in a more timely manner.
SPOKANE (WA)
KNDO/KNDU
SPOKANE, Wash. Lawyers representing the Catholic Diocese of Spokane and victims of clergy sexual abuse are meeting today in Reno, Nevada in a final attempt to settle bankruptcy claims.
Little has come out of the two previous rounds of mediation because U-S Bankruptcy Court Judge Gregg Zive in Reno has asked all parties not to publicly talk about it.
U-S Bankruptcy Court Judge Patricia Williams of Spokane is overseeing the case and plans to hold final hearings and sign off on a plan of reorganization early next year.
That plan would outline the diocese's strategy for emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection and how it would pay sex abuse victims.
Bishop William Skylstad has said the diocese can raise between 30 (m) million dollars and 35 (m) million dollars from insurance settlements and sales of diocese property.
MARYLAND
Gazette
Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006
by Liza Gutierrez
Staff Writer
A former priest at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Olney was arrested Wednesday on charges of sexually abusing a boy 28 years ago.
William McSherry Stock, 63, of the 13800 block of Parkland Drive in Aspen Hill, also had been arrested in May on charges of custodial child abuse that stemmed from an alleged incident in 1980. Stock served as associate pastor at St. Peter’s from 1974 to 1983.
The investigation that led to this week’s arrest began in June after police reported the first incident.
Officers know that this type of sexual abuse is usually not a one-time, one-person occurrence, Montgomery County Police spokeswoman Lucille Baur said. Police made the original arrest public so that other alleged victims knew an investigation was being conducted, she said.
TENNESSEE
Jackson Sun
By PETE WICKHAM
pwickham@jacksonsun.com
Daniel T. DuPree, a former priest and pastor at churches in Memphis, Jackson, Lexington and Parsons, is named in one of two multimillion-dollar abuse and negligence lawsuits filed Thursday against the Catholic Diocese of Memphis.
The suits, filed in Shelby County Circuit Court, seek damages in excess of $10 million for each of two unnamed clients who were living in the Memphis area when they were allegedly abused by DuPree and the Rev. Joseph Nguyen in separate cases.
In one suit, DuPree, who served at St. Mary's Church in Jackson, St. Andrew Church in Lexington and St. Regina Church in Parsons from 1987 to 1991, is accused of sexual abuse of an unnamed male, now 37, whom DuPree met while the alleged victim was a freshman in high school living in Bartlett. The suit says incidents of sexual abuse began in 1985, while DuPree and the alleged victim were visiting with DuPree's family in Texas, and continued for several years after that.
The suit was filed by a local attorney in conjunction with a Miami-based law firm, Herman & Mermelstein, which has been involved with abuse suits in other areas.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register
ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 13, 2006
Davenport, Ia. — The Catholic Diocese of Davenport diocese denied allegations Wednesday that it knew its priests were sexually abusing children but did nothing to prevent further abuse.
Monsignor Michael Morrissey told jurors the diocese had no knowledge of allegations against the late Thomas Feeney, who allegedly abused a Davenport man for six years in the 1950s and 1960s, until another person came forward last year.
The Davenport man is suing the diocese for $2.3 million in damages. The trial started Monday in Scott County District Court and will resume today with more testimony.
This is the first time that the Davenport diocese has gone to trial on any of the more than 50 lawsuits filed against it by men alleging that when they were children, they were sexually abused by priests.
PENNSYLVANIA
The Express-Times
Thursday, September 14, 206
FROM STAFF REPORTS
State police in western Pennsylvania said they have no plans to file additional charges against a Lehigh Valley priest for allegedly asking four people for sexual favors.
Monsignor Stephen T. Forish, 61, is charged with harassment and disorderly conduct after the Aug. 6 incidents in Greensburg, Pa. Police said that because Forish did not offer money, he will not be charged with promoting prostitution or other sex-related crimes.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
WHATEVER this gesture is supposed to deliver, it's way too little, way too late.
I'm talking about the news that Cardinal Justin Rigali has invited the priests and auxiliary bishops of the Philadelphia Archdiocese to join him tomorrow in hearing survivors of clergy sex abuse tell their stories.
The news release announcing "Witness to the Sorrow," which the event is dubbed, states that "one of the most significant things [Rigali] has learned in the past year is the importance of listening to victims who are able to convey the hurt, pain and suffering which is still part of daily life for many of them."
The event, to be held at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, will be live-streamed on the archdiocese Web site, so all can hear two victims, and the parent of a third, share their tales of horror.
Truly, I hope this brings some peace to victims betrayed by men they'd trusted.
But, please: What will the priests and bishops learn that they don't already know?
Haven't they already flinched their way through the D.A.'s devastating grand jury report, released a year ago, chronicling decades of abuse in the archdiocese?
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Evening Bulletin
By: MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press
09/14/2006
Philadelphia - Cardinal Justin Rigali is calling together hundreds of priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese tomorrow to hear from two people who were sexually abused by Roman Catholic clerics.
The priests will meet at the archdiocesan seminary in Wynnewood, where they will be addressed by a man and a woman who were abused by priests as children, as well as a parent of two other victims.
A three-year probe by a Philadelphia grand jury identified 63 archdiocesan priests as abusers since the 1950s and accused church officials of a cover-up. Seventeen of the offenders have been defrocked and others have been relieved of pastoral duties.
Priests need to hear not only about the abuse, but also about the victims' struggles to rebuild their lives and hold onto their faith, said Mary Achilles, a victims' advocate retained by the church this year.
ALEXANDRIA (VA)
Washington Jewish Week
by Eric Fingerhut
Staff Writer
A local rabbi's reaction to a hidden camera sting of online sexual predators was a key factor in the guilty verdict handed down last week.
Alexandria U.S. District Court Judge James Cacheris found David Kaye guilty of "coercion and enticement" and travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual contact with a minor.
Sentencing will take place Dec. 1. The Rockville rabbi, who has been in jail since his indictment in May, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum of 60 years.
In his opinion, Cacheris wrote that Kaye's defense was not credible, citing as evidence his "demeanor, body language and facial reaction ... of complete and utter shock" when confronted by Dateline NBC correspondent Chris Hansen, as well as his statements to Hansen, "I know I'm in trouble," and, in response to the question of "what are you doing here," "not something good."
NEVADA
Deseret Morning News
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
Polygamous groups are upset over a Nevada senator's call for a Justice Department probe into their lives and activities.
"It is disconcerting to have a senator take a real strong position on that," said one Utah polygamist, who asked the Deseret Morning News not to use his name. He said all of his wives are consenting adults. "It appears to be a reaction to (Warren) Jeffs and the FLDS culture."
In a letter sent Tuesday to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Senate Minority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., reacted to the capture of Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs and suggested creating a federal task force to look into polygamous communities in Western states.
"For too long, this outrageous activity has been masked in the guise of religious freedom. But child abuse and human servitude have nothing to do with religious freedom and must not be tolerated," Reid wrote. "Individuals who force minors into adult relationships and marriage must be brought to justice."
FARGO (ND)
St. Paul Pioneer Press
BY SHANNON PRATHER
Pioneer Press
FARGO, N.D. — Sylvia D'Angelo described watching helplessly as a church worker molested her 4-year-old brother, Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., at a Catholic camp for migrant children in the 1950s.
In a separate instance, a migrant worker sexually abused Rodriguez at the house they were staying in near Crookston, Minn., she said. D'Angelo was only 6 at the time, but being the oldest of five children born into a struggling migrant family, she felt responsible.
D'Angelo, often in tears, testified Wednesday at Rodriguez's death penalty trial in an effort to save his life. Federal prosecutors are seeking death by lethal injection for Rodriguez, who kidnapped and killed Dru Sjodin in 2003.
Rodriguez's defense team has asked jurors to spare his life. They argue poverty, racism, sexual abuse and possible brain damage from farm chemicals sent his life spiraling out of control.
PINEVILLE (MO)
Neosho Daily News
By John Ford / Daily News Associate Editor
Published: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 4:04 PM CDT
PINEVILLE - In what has been deemed a “rare” occurrence, a court order has been granted for full discovery in the case against four McDonald County church pastors accused of felony child sexual abuse.
In late August, McDonald County Associate Circuit Court Judge John LePage ordered that full discovery be granted to defense attorney Bob Evenson, who is representing Raymond Lambert and four other leaders of the Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church.
The move is rare, said McDonald County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Geeding, in that the request was made before the defendants' appearance for a preliminary hearing.
“I've never received an order from a judge for full discovery prior to a preliminary hearing,” said Geeding. “We have an open file policy anyway.”
DAVENPORT (IA)
WHBF
DAVENPORT - The prosecution continued to call witnesses Wednesday in the sexual abuse case against the Davenport Diocese. Michael Uhde is suing the Diocese, saying he was molested by a pastor there almost 50 years ago.
This is the first time a jury has heard testimony in a sex abuse suit against the Diocese. Past cases have been settled out of court. But on Tuesday, jurors heard 56-year-old Michael Uhde's claims that the late Monsenieur Thomas Feeny sexually assaulted him for six or seven years, starting when he was seven years old.
Feeny died in 1981.
The $2.3 million suit claims the Diocese covered up the abuse. Father David Hitch is a friend of Uhde.
MILWAUKEE (WI)
WKOW
Wed 09/13/2006 -
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee will pay 16 million dollars in a settlement involving 10 victims of sexual abuse who live in California. Now, a local family is speaking out about that settlement as they crusade for more transparency in the church.
The O’Connell’s began their crusade after a Catholic priest murdered Tom O’Connell’s brother five years ago. He says the settlement focuses a glaring spotlight on gaps in Wisconsin law...gaps which swallow up too many Wisconsin victims.
"As far as clergy molestation in Wisconsin goes, we are the worst state in the country. We are actually a haven," he says.
O'Connell says in some cases the state’s statute of limitations laws, or time limit, run out in just two years. He's campaigning to change that. Three weeks ago the O'Connell family filed a lawsuit against the US Catholic Conference of Bishops. They are not looking for money with the suit, but rather a higher level of accountability from clergy when it comes to child molesting priests.
JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Matt Franck
POST-DISPATCH JEFFERSON CITY BUREAU
09/14/2006
JEFFERSON CITY
Former St. Louis priest Thomas Graham was sentenced last year to two decades in prison for sexual abuse that occurred more than 25 years earlier.
On Wednesday, Graham's lawyers asked the Missouri Supreme Court to toss out that sentence, saying Graham was unjustly convicted under a 1969 law that has since been rendered at least partially unconstitutional.
Now, the high court must determine not only the fate of Graham, but also potentially the legal prospects of other cases in which allegations of sexual abuse surfaced years after the alleged crime.Advertisement
Robert Haar, an attorney for Graham, told the court that Graham's conviction is at odds with more than 100 years of legal precedent. For decades, he said, the statute of limitations has set time limits for bringing forth criminal charges.
NEW YORK
The New York Times
By MICHAEL LUO
Published: September 14, 2006
For years, the letter sat in an attaché case in the study of the family’s home. For the parents who received the letter and had once trusted their teenage son with the priest who wrote it, it was too important to throw away, but too upsetting to reread.
Only when Daniel Donohue, the teenage son who grew up to be a conflicted adult, decided several years ago to come forward to accuse the Roman Catholic priest, Msgr. Charles M. Kavanagh, of touching him in a sexual manner on at least two occasions, did his parents dig the letter out again. By then, it was yellowed and creased but contained what they thought was proof that the priest had acted inappropriately with Daniel.
“It lay in there for years and years and years,” Jack Donohue, Daniel’s father, said yesterday.
Earlier this week, Daniel Donohue, now 42, married with four children and living in Portland, Ore., flew to New York City and turned the letter, which was addressed to his parents, over to officials at the Archdiocese of New York. The officials had been asking him for the letter, Mr. Donohue said, in preparation for a church trial that is expected later this year in which Monsignor Kavanagh, now 69, who had risen to become the archdiocese’s chief fund-raiser before he was suspended in 2002, faces the possibility of being removed from the priesthood.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
By CHRISTINE OLLEY
olleyc@phillynews.com 215-854-5184
The prospect of victims of abuse by Catholic priests sitting down and talking with other priests about their experiences might seem a bit unsettling to some.
But that's what's going to happen tomorrow on the Main Line - at the instigation of Cardinal Justin Rigali, archbishop of Philadelphia. The event is called "Witness to the Sorrow."
Rigali and a number of auxiliary bishops will meet with two victims of abuse and the parent of abuse victims starting at 4 p.m. in the auditorium of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood.
After a scheduled two-hour meeting, the group will adjourn to St. Martin's Chapel on the seminary grounds for an evening Mass.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By David O'Reilly
Inquirer Staff Writer
Cardinal Justin Rigali has launched an advertising outreach campaign for victims of clergy sexual abuse while summoning his priests to hear directly from two sex-abuse victims.
The two actions, coming a year after a scathing grand jury report on clergy sex abuse in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, represent the most public and personal acknowledgment by the archdiocese's leadership that it needed to do more to "understand and appreciate" the experience of victims.
Such steps are "pretty unusual" for a Catholic prelate, according to David Clohessy, a national advocate for sex-abuse victims.
San Diego CityBeat
by TONY PHILLIPS
Why must the talking heads on my television keep referring to Warren Jeffs as a polygamist? Warren Jeffs is an accused child-sex offender. Child-sex offenses matter. Polygamy does not. I don’t care about polygamy, I don’t care about polygamists and I don’t care about sensationalist “news” broadcasts about polygamy and polygamists. But since so many of us apparently do care about those things, I hope no one minds if I get pedantic.
The term “polygamy” comes from the Greek roots polu, meaning many, and gámos meaning marriage. Anthropologists distinguish between two types of polygamy with the terms “polygyny” (having more than one female mate) and “polyandry” (more than one male). I suppose “polyoviny” would be the correct term for being wedded to more than one sheep. ...
Anyway, all the hoopla about polygamy surrounding the Warren Jeffs case misses the mark. What matters is not that Warren Jeffs leads a polygamous lifestyle. What matters is that he might be a criminal. The charges confronting Jeffs brought by Brock Belnap, county attorney for Washington County, Utah, and his counterpart Matthew Smith of Mohave County, Ariz., have nothing to do with whether or not Jeffs lived domestically with multiple sexual partners. Jeffs faces felony sex charges for allegedly coercing a young girl into “marrying” an older man. Taking part in the sexual exploitation of minors is against the law. Having multiple life partners is not. And just as certainly as the former should be against the law, the latter most certainly should not be.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
KWMU
Tom Weber, KWMU
ST. LOUIS, MO (2006-09-13) The Missouri Supreme Court will hear a case Wednesday that could have big implications on other sexual abuse cases.
Last year, the Rev. Thomas Graham was sentenced to 20 years for sexually abusing a boy during the 1970s at the Old Cathedral downtown. He's still free while the case is appealed.
His lawyers will argue that the statute of limitations had run out, and so Graham can't be convicted.
But prosecutors in this case used a different law, from 1969, that has no statute of limitations. That old law criminalizes "abominable and detestable crimes against nature."
Graham's lawyers further argue that's unconstitutionally vague.
LOUISVILLE (KY)
Kentucky.com
BRETT BARROUQUERE
Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The first monetary awards were made this week to victims of sexual abuse in the class-action settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington.
The amounts awarded from the $85 million settlement weren't revealed due to privacy concerns, attorney Stan Chesley of Cincinnati said Wednesday.
The settlement calls for victims to receive from $5,000 to $1 million based on the severity and duration of the abuse they suffered. Some money has also been set aside to pay for counseling for abuse victims.
Chesley said the initial payments will be reduced by 50 percent to ensure that the $85 million settlement covers the more than 350 victims in the case.
CALIFORNIA
The Press Democrat
By MARTIN ESPINOZA
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
The Sonoma County district attorney has yet to decide if criminal charges will be filed against Santa Rosa Diocese Bishop Daniel Walsh.
Walsh is suspected of failing to immediately report suspected child sex abuse by a Sonoma priest.
State law requires clergymen, among others, to immediately report any suspicions of child sex abuse and to follow up by fax or e-mail within 36 hours. A violation is a misdemeanor and has a potential penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
The decision to pursue criminal charges rests with District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua.
Sonoma County sheriff's investigators sent a report of their investigation to the District Attorney's Office three weeks ago saying that "the evidence indicates that this case is worthy of district attorney review," according to Sheriff's Lt. Dave Edmonds.
PHOENIX (AZ)
KVOA
PHOENIX Jury selection in the trial of former priest Joseph Briceno will start on the 25th of this month.
Briceno was one of seven priests indicted in Maricopa County in 2003 on sex abuse charges. He was captured in Mexico in December and has been jailed since.
Briceno faces one count of sexual abuse, six counts of sexual conduct with a minor and one count of attempted sexual conduct with a minor.
His attorney and the state had tried to reach a plea agreement, but were unable to do so.
PHOENIX (AZ)
KVOA
PHOENIX Jury selection in the trial of former priest Joseph Briceno will start on the 25th of this month.
Briceno was one of seven priests indicted in Maricopa County in 2003 on sex abuse charges. He was captured in Mexico in December and has been jailed since.
Briceno faces one count of sexual abuse, six counts of sexual conduct with a minor and one count of attempted sexual conduct with a minor.
His attorney and the state had tried to reach a plea agreement, but were unable to do so.
CHARLESTON (SC)
The Post and Courier
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
BY GLENN SMITH
Nearly 50 years have passed since the priest walked into her Charleston hospital room, but the woman said she still has nightmares of his hands touching her, his lips kissing her face.
For so long, she wanted to confront the Rev. Raymond DuMouchel in a courtroom and tell a jury what had happened that day in 1957. But that hope died Sunday along with the man who had haunted her dreams all these years.
"I cannot believe he is dead," said the woman, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity. "But I am thrilled that he has gone to meet his maker. ... I cannot have any sympathy for him whatsoever."
The 81-year-old retired Catholic priest, who long denied he sexually assaulted the woman and two others half a century ago, had a long list of ailments, including dementia, which prevented prosecutors from bringing him to trial.
Prosecutors dismissed the criminal charges against him in November after doctors determined he would be unable to participate in his own defense, Assistant Solicitor Debbie Herring-Lash said. He also had heart disease, liver and gall bladder problems, diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure and difficulty walking, authorities said.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KYW
(AP) PHILADELPHIA Cardinal Justin Rigali will call together hundreds of Roman Catholic priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese on Friday to hear from victims of priest-abuse.
In an unusual meeting, the priests will gather at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood to hear from two adults; one man, one woman, who as children were abused by priests. They will also hear from a parent of two other victims.
A Philadelphia grand jury probe last year identified 63 archdiocesan priests as abusers since the 1950s. Seventeen have been defrocked and others have been relieved of pastoral duties.
The grand jury concluded that archdiocesan leaders covered up the abuse, but prosecutors concluded they could not file criminal charges because of Pennsylvania's statute of limitations.
PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
By Bob Stiles
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
A Roman Catholic priest who was acquitted of committing sexual misconduct in eastern Pennsylvania in the 1990s is accused of making inappropriate sexual comments in Westmoreland County.
Stephen Thomas Forish, 61, of McAdoo, Schuylkill County, a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Allentown and a psychologist who practiced in Armstrong County, faces a preliminary hearing in November on harassment and disorderly conduct charges before District Judge James Albert in Greensburg.
State police at Greensburg allege that shortly after 1 a.m. Aug. 8, Forish made sexual comments to people near East Pittsburgh Street in Greensburg.
"(Forish) used obscene language and asked the victim for sexual favors," said the affidavit of probable cause, written by Cpl. Gregory Sullenberger. "(Forish) engaged in a course of conduct that involved the same type of activity with three other subjects shortly before and after the encounter with the victim."
PENNSYLVANIA
The Express-Times
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
By MEGHAN SMITH
The Express-Times
A 61-year-old Allentown Diocese priest acquitted of soliciting sex from a Bethlehem man in 1998 was arrested last week in western Pennsylvania on allegations he asked four people on a public street for sexual favors.
Monsignor Stephen T. Forish, who at one time was the diocese's pro-life coordinator, admitted Thursday to making inappropriate sexual comments to the victims Aug. 6, state police at Greensburg said.
In court records, state police said Forish approached the unidentified individuals about 1:10 a.m. near East Pittsburgh Street and North Westmoreland Avenue in Greensburg. A separate police report indicates one of the individuals was a male.
He used obscene language when attempting to solicit sex acts from the victims, according to police. Officers located Florish driving away from the area less than 20 minutes after the incidents were reported and stopped him, police said.
He was charged with harassment and disorderly conduct and released. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Nov. 2.
DAVENPORT (IA)
WHO
DAVENPORT, Iowa Testimony is under way in Davenport in a lawsuit filed by a man who claims he was sexually abused by a priest more than 40 years ago.
The lawsuit names the Davenport Diocese and Monsignor Thomas Feeney. Feeney died in 1981.
The jury, which was seated yesterday, heard from the man who claims he was abused for six years. He says the diocese knew about it and failed to intervened.
MANASSAS (VA)
Lifesite
MANASSAS, VA, September 12, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Recent sex-related scandals at Catholic colleges and universities—including revelations that a former Gonzaga University president sexually abused teenage boys and women’s lacrosse players at two Catholic institutions hired male strippers as part of their freshman initiation rituals—should come as no surprise to observers of Catholic higher education in recent decades.
“Catholic college educators once took seriously their responsibility to help young adults learn to be responsible, caring, moral people both in and out of the classroom—first by modeling appropriate behavior themselves,” said Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society (CNS), a national organization to renew and strengthen Catholic identity in Catholic higher education. “But today on too many Catholic campuses, students have little guidance rooted in Catholic moral teaching. Instead of ‘in loco parentis,’ the new theme is ‘livin’ la vida loca.’”
On Friday, Oregon’s Province of the Society of Jesus disclosed previously hidden claims of sex abuse—including two court settlements in the past year—by former Gonzaga University president Rev. John Leary, S.J., who died in 1993. Leary allegedly abused as many as 12 teenage boys, and he remained president of the Catholic university in Spokane, Washington, from 1961 to 1969 despite allegations that first surfaced in 1966. After Spokane police reportedly pressured Leary to leave town, he resigned his post citing health reasons, then was reassigned to a Jesuit high school in Boston and other posts in Massachusetts, Utah, Nevada and California.
EDWARDSVILLE (IL)
Madison County Record
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
By Ann Knef
A student at Metro-East Lutheran High School alleges a teacher had improper sexual conduct with her, according to a lawsuit filed Sept. 11 in Madison County Circuit Court.
Plaintiff Jane Doe claims Michael R. Vonderohe of Dallas City, Ill. assaulted her between October and November 2003 at the Edwardsville high school through conduct that allegedly included physical touching, exploitation, intimidation and harassment.
The conduct was "so extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency," the complaint states.
Represented by D. Jeffrey Ezra of Ezra & Associates in Collinsville, Doe is suing The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and Southern Illinois District, the high school and Vonderohe for negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault and battery.
EDWARDSVILLE (IL)
Belleville News-Democrat
BY BRIAN BRUEGGEMANN
News-Democrat
A student who alleged she was sexually abused in 2003 by a teacher at Metro-East Lutheran High School in Edwardsville filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the former teacher and the school.
The defendant, 28-year-old Michael Vonderohe, was fired from the school after his arrest in 2003 on a criminal charge of sexually abusing the plaintiff while she was a student there. He could not be reached for comment, and a school official said the school had not yet seen the lawsuit.
Vonderohe pleaded guilty in 2004 to aggravated criminal sexual abuse. As part of a plea bargain, he was placed on probation for three years and ordered to give up his teaching certificate. He is required to register as a sexual predator for the rest of his life.
The lawsuit accuses Vonderohe of exploiting a position of trust that he held with the plaintiff, who is now 18. Vonderohe was a popular art teacher at the school.
MISSOURI
Neosho Daily News
By John Ford / Daily News Associate Editor
Published: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 4:51 PM CDT
More details on nine additional child sexual abuse charges against a Southwest Missouri pastor have come to light.
George Otis Johnston, 63, the pastor of Grandview Valley Baptist Church in rural Granby, now faces a total of 17 sexual abuse charges, including 14 unclassified felony counts of statutory sodomy with someone under the age of 12, and three Class C counts of second degree statutory sodomy.
An arrest warrant has been issued for the new counts, but Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland said his office had not received the warrant as of mid-morning today, although he expected to receive it within the next few hours.
“Who knows where he's at,” the sheriff said. “I imagine what will happen is it will be the same as last time: His attorney will bring him in.”
DALLAS (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
05:35 AM CDT on Wednesday, September 13, 2006
By BROOKS EGERTON / The Dallas Morning News
The Catholic Diocese of Dallas has agreed to pay $2.9 million to another girl who was sexually abused by a parish child-care worker in the 1990s, lawyers in the case said Tuesday.
It's the largest lawsuit settlement to date for victims of Julio A. Marcos, who worked at St. Pius X in Far East Dallas and is serving a life prison term for sex crimes. Payments to nine girls total about $11 million.
ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer
First published: Wednesday, September 13, 2006
ALBANY -- A landmark $5 million mediation initiative launched in 2004 to help victims of clergy sex abuse is now coming to a close, according to its administrator and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.
On Tuesday, retired Court of Appeals Judge Howard Levine and Bishop Howard Hubbard said those who were minors when they were abused by diocesan priests have until Oct. 25 to request aid from the Independent Mediation Assistance Program.
The project, designed and overseen by Levine and intended to last one year, was extended until it had provided $1,890,045 in financial assistance, counseling and other services to 31 people.
Lately, calls have dropped down to nothing, they said.
FAIRBANKS (AK)
Anchorage Daily News
The Associated Press
Published: September 12, 2006
Last Modified: September 12, 2006 at 12:30 PM
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) - A sixth woman has filed a lawsuit alleging she was sexually abused by a Jesuit priest who served in rural Alaska during a four-decade career.
The lawsuit, filed Sept. 1 in Barrow, alleges the abuse began when the woman was 6 years old and continued for eight years.
The plaintiff is identified as Jane Doe 5. She is the latest of six women to allege abuse by the Rev. James Poole, the founder of Catholic radio station KNOM in Nome. Jane Doe 1, who later identified herself as Elsie Boudreau, and another woman, Patricia Hess, have reached monetary settlements with the Jesuits and the Fairbanks diocese.
The lawsuit filed by Jane Doe 5 alleges the abuse began in 1965 in Barrow when Doe was a first-grader and Poole was her catechism teacher. At the time, Poole was pastor at St. Patrick Catholic Church, as well as a family friend.
AUSTRALIA
ABC
The head of the Catholic Church's national committee for child protection says sacked Hunter Valley priest Father Guy Hartcher had no authorisation to be part of a planned mass in the region next month.
The Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Michael Malone, has now intervened to stop the service going ahead.
It was being organised by the parish council at Gresford after Father Hartcher was stood down in June because of a complaint about his suitability for working with children.
The state ombudsman's office says it is satisfied with the Church's handling of its investigation into past claims of sexual abuse, its findings and the actions taken.
AUSTRALIA
The Standard
ANDREW THOMSON
September 13, 2006
HELEN Watson claimed her son, Peter, was a hidden victim of former Penshurst Catholic priest Paul Ryan.
This year she received a letter of apology from Bishop Peter Connors of the Ballarat diocese.
Peter Watson committed suicide in 1999.
Ms Watson said she believed her son was one of many unknown victims of sexual abuse by the clergy.
She said she was inspired by one of Ryan's victims, Deon Cameron, who told his story to The Standard last week.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-Cities Online
By Brian Krans, bkrans@qconline.com
As a child D. Michl Uhde was very involved in Sacred Heart Church in Davenport, even aspiring to become a priest.
In second grade, he was chosen to become an altar boy by now-deceased Msgr. Thomas Feeney.
"I couldn't have been prouder to be the youngest altar boy ever in the Cathedral," he testified Tuesday in Scott County District Court. "The Cathedral is special in the Diocese. It's the Bishop's church."
But Mr. Uhde, 56, said his honor would soon lead to the horror of sexual abuse by Msgr. Feeney -- abuse that continued for six years.
CHARLESTON (SC)
Augusta Chronicle
CHARLESTON - A retired Roman Catholic priest who had faced sexual abuse charges has died at 81.
The Rev. Raymond DuMouchel, who died Sunday, denied the sexual assaults from a half-century ago.
He had several ailments, including dementia, which prevented prosecutors from bringing him to trial.
Criminal charges were dropped last year after doctors determined he would be unable to participate in his own defense, assistant prosecutor Debbie Herring-Lash said.
The Rev. DuMouchel was originally charged in November 2002. He was accused of fondling a 12-year-old girl in 1955 at the Cathedral Grammar School.
Another woman accused him of fondling her at the former St. Francis Xavier Hospital in downtown Charleston when she was 17 or 18, police said.
In 2003, a third woman accused the Rev. DuMouchel of fondling her after she gave birth at the hospital in 1957 when she was 16, police said.
SPRINGFIELD (MO)
San Francisco Chronicle
By MARCUS KABEL, Associated Press Writer
Monday, September 11, 2006
(09-11) 15:10 PDT Springfield, Mo. (AP) --
New charges were filed against a pastor on Monday amid the expansion of an investigation into allegations that leaders of two reclusive church communes sexually abused girls.
George Otis Johnston, 63, was charged with nine counts of felony statutory sodomy on suspicion of molesting a girl from 1997 to 2004, starting when she was less than 12 years old.
Johnston's lawyer, who previously has declined to talk to reporters, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Monday. Johnston has pleaded not guilty to nine other charges of molesting a girl from his church from the time she was 8 years old until she was 16.
An arrest warrant was issued for the new counts, and bond was set at $100,000.
ST. GEORGE (UT)
Daily Herald
JENNIFER DOBNER - The Associated Press
ST. GEORGE, Utah - The legal team hired to defend polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs against allegations he arranged a "spiritual marriage" that led to the rape of an underage girl are considered bright and creative, according to prosecutors and defense attorneys who've worked with the pair.
Salt Lake City attorneys Walter F. Bugden Jr. and Tara L. Isaacson were hired by Jeffs sometime over the weekend and filed a notice Monday with the 5th District Court here.
"They're smart, they're a sharp legal team," Salt Lake City defense attorney Greg Skordas said.
Jeffs, 50, is facing two felony counts of rape as an accomplice, accused of arranging a spiritual marriage between an underage girl and an older man. Each count carries a penalty of five years to life in prison.
Court documents filed by Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap do not identify the girl or her husband, but indicate she fought the marriage despite being directed by Jeffs to give herself "mind, body and soul, to your husband like you're supposed to."
CHARLESTON (SC)
WIS
(Charleston-AP) September 12, 2006 - A retired Roman Catholic priest who had faced sexual abuse charges for allegedly fondling young women in Charleston has died at age 81. The Reverend Raymond DuMouchel died Sunday.
DuMouchel denied the sexual assaults from 50 years ago. He was not tried because of medical problems, including dementia.
Prosecutors dropped the criminal charges last year after doctors determined that he would be unable to participate in his own defense.
DuMouchel was originally charged in 2002.
NEW YORK
The New York Times
Published: September 12, 2006
No one knows the varieties of limbo being wandered these days by the hundreds of rogue priests the Catholic Church had to drop from service once its pedophilia scandal fully surfaced. Some became convicted criminals when prosecutors forced an end to diocesan cover-ups. Others who were accused, either too old to be defrocked or safely beyond statutes of limitations, are still financially supported by the church while denied priestly labor. The laity may well wonder what has become of these men.
The New York Archdiocese has begun forcing a choice upon some of its fallen priests: agree to tight, indefinite therapy and housing containment or quit the priesthood and the diocesan payroll. Cardinal Edward Egan was wise to try this exercise in protection and repair — particularly since he was accused by the church’s laity panel of earlier mismanagement of the pedophilia scourge. It’s not encouraging that five of the first seven facing the choice quit the priesthood. But we hope the archdiocese does not see its responsibility ending there.
JAMAICA
Jamaica Gleaner
Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter
WITH RESIDENT Magistrate Martin Gayle last Friday ordering the prosecution to contact the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to have Donovan Jones and his co-accused face trial quickly, the former deacon of the Church Dayton Diamond Ridge is on his way to the Circuit Court.
Jones, 46, is facing multiple sexual molestation charges, including carnal abuse arising from the case involving a 14-year-old schoolgirl.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and his attorney Paul Beswick has been unable to convince the four judges he has been before to offer bail.
Today, the former deacon, and co-accused James Rodgers, 18, will face the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court and it is likely that it will be their last visit in that jurisdiction.
UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Brooke Adams
and Stephen Hunt
The Salt Lake Tribune
Polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs has turned to experienced Salt Lake City attorneys Walter Bugden and Tara Isaacson to defend him against two rape-related charges.
Appearing Monday before 5th District Judge James Shumate via a video link from jail, Jeffs answered affirmatively when Shumate asked if he had hired the attorneys.
A preliminary hearing previously scheduled for Sept. 19 was postponed during the brief appearance. Jeffs and his attorneys will return to court Sept. 27, when a new preliminary hearing date will likely be set. Bail may or may not be discussed.
With his trademark bow tie and deliberately mismatched socks, Bugden appears a bit eccentric at first impression.
ST. GEORGE (UT)
The Spectrum
By PATRICE ST. GERMAIN
patrices@thespectrum.com
ST. GEORGE - A brief status conference was held Monday morning in 5th District Court for Warren Steed Jeffs, 50, with Jeffs again appearing via closed-circuit television.
The jailed leader of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, charged with allegedly arranging a marriage between an underage girl and older man, will be defended in Utah by Salt Lake City attorneys Tara L. Isaacson and Walter F. Bugden Jr.
Now that Jeffs has legal counsel, Judge James L. Shumate set another status conference set for Sept. 27.
Shumate said he spoke with Jeffs' attorneys 15 minutes before Monday's hearing.
The attorneys, with the Salt Lake City law firm of Bugden & Isaacson, were not in court on Monday. However, the two met with Jeffs and Las Vegas attorney Richard A. Wright Friday afternoon.
VERMONT
Rutland Herald
September 12, 2006
By KEVIN O'CONNOR Herald Staff
A Northeast Kingdom priest pleaded innocent Monday to allegations he fondled a naked 18-year-old man after taking him to Canada and buying him beer.
The Rev. Stephen J. Nichols, 46, appeared in Franklin District Court in St. Albans to answer to a felony charge of lewd and lascivious conduct brought against him by the state Attorney General's Office.
Nichols and his lawyer, Mark Kaplan of Burlington, declined to talk to reporters. But in court papers, the priest told friends that his accuser — a St. Johnsbury man identified only by his initials — "was the sexual aggressor and afterwards asked for money to keep quiet."
According to an affidavit written by state investigator Thomas E. Howell, Nichols first met the teenager when the boy was 16 and seeking to convert to Catholicism.
The youth, who was 7 when his father died, was said to have visited Nichols first at St. Elizabeth Church in Lyndonville and then at the parish pastor's home in Richford, a Franklin County town on the Canadian border.
ST. ALBANS (VT)
Sun Journal
Tuesday, September 12,2006
ST. ALBANS, Vt. (AP) - A Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting a teenager told police the alleged victim was the aggressor in the incident, and that he later tried to extort money from the priest, according to an affidavit made public Monday.
The Rev. Stephen Nichols of St. Elizabeth's Church in Lyndonville pleaded not guilty to one count of lewd and lascivious conduct during his arraignment in Vermont District Court.
The charge stems from an April 2005 incident in Richford that occurred about two years after the two met at a St. Johnsbury diner, where the alleged victim worked.
During that period, the 18-year-old victim - identified in court papers as "CRF" - visited a house in Richford that Nichols co-owned with another priest six or seven times, and hosted Nichols at his own home two or three times, according to the affidavit by Thomas E. Howell, an investigator for the state Attorney General's Office.
ST. ALBANS (VT)
Burlington Free Press
Published: Tuesday, September 12, 2006
By Sam Hemingway
Free Press Staff Writer
ST. ALBANS -- The Rev. Stephen Nichols, 46, of Lyndonville, pleaded not guilty Monday to a felony charge of fondling an 18-year-old man in Richford last year after buying him beer at a restaurant and pool hall in Canada.
Nichols was released on his own recognizance after being charged in Vermont District Court with one count of lewd and lascivious conduct. According to a police affidavit, he has contended the alleged victim was the sexual aggressor in the incident.
Nichols, who is on leave from his priestly duties pending the outcome of the criminal case, declined comment as he left the court house accompanied by his attorney, Mark Kaplan of Burlington.
The brief proceeding was attended by Bishop Salvatore Matano, several priests and an employee of the statewide Catholic Diocese. Matano said last week the diocese is not providing legal help to Nichols.
MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times
By Frank Lee fclee@stcloudtimes.com
Published: September 10. 2006 1:00AM
SHOREVIEW — A national support group for people molested by clergy plans to pass out leaflets in protest today outside a Shoreview church where a Collegeville monk worked for two years.
The Rev. Michael Bik worked at the Catholic Community of St. Odilia where the protest will take place.
Bik was accused of misconduct with two teen-age boys in the 1970s, before he joined St. John's Abbey in Collegeville and before his ordination.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests contends the church has been too slow to notify potential victims of clergy sex abuse and "has put countless number of youths and vulnerable adults in danger."
According to the pension records of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Bik also taught at the Church of St. Stephen in Anoka, said Pat Marker, who recently resigned from an external review board that was formed in response to a clergy sexual abuse scandal.
"It doesn't surprise me that they recently 'found' new records," Marker said.
He also took issue with the archdiocese's claim it did not have records of the 1997 accusation against Bik, who remained a teacher at St. John's Preparatory School for five more years.
ST. GEORGE (UT)
San Francisco Chronicle
By JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press Writer
Monday, September 11, 2006
(09-11) 08:37 PDT ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) --
A preliminary hearing for polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was postponed Monday at the request of one of his newly hired lawyers.
Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is charged with two felony counts of rape as an accomplice, accused of arranging a "spiritual marriage" between an underage girl and an older man.
Court documents filed by Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap do not identify the girl or the husband, but indicated that she fought the marriage despite being directed by Jeffs to give herself "mind, body and soul, to your husband like you're supposed to."
VERMONT
Burlington Free Press
By Sam Hemingway
Free Press Staff Writer
A Catholic priest is scheduled to be arraigned on a felony lewd and lascivious conduct charge Monday in Vermont District Court in St. Albans, the Vermont Attorney General's Office announced Friday.
Rev. Stephen Nichols, who has been a priest for 20 years, allegedly engaged in a single incident of sexual misconduct with an 18-year-old man before August 2005, Bishop Salvatore Matano said at a hastily arranged news conference Friday afternoon at the headquarters of the statewide Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington.
"There have been no other complaints against him," Matano said. He declined to discuss the details of the allegation against Nichols.
Matano said Nichols, who was parish priest at St. Elizabeth Church in Lyndonville and Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in Danville at the time the allegation surfaced, has been on leave from his priestly duties since April.
ST. ALBANS (VT)
Burlington Free Press
Published: Monday, September 11, 2006
ST. ALBANS — Rev. Stephen Nichols pleaded not guilty to one charge of lewd and lascivious conduct in Vermont District Court in St. Albans this afternoon.
According to the police affidavit, Nichols attempted to fondle an 18-year-old man in April 2005. The incident allegedly took place at Nichols’ home in Richford.
The victim, who was identified only by his initials in the affidavit, said he was considering converting to Catholicism and was befriended by Nichols. Later, the victim and Nichols took two trips to Canada together, and after the second visit, Nichols tried to fondle the victim several times, but was rebuffed.
Nichols, who was accompanied by his lawyer, Mark Kaplan, declined to comment to reporters.
BAHAMAS
Nassau Guardian
By Barrington Brennen
What happens to a church when its members' hopes and dreams have been shattered by the inappropriate behaviour of its spiritual leader? What happens to a church when the pastor has caused shame and embarrassment because of rumours of sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement, or has been caught "with his pants down?"
Here is the thunderbolt question: What happens to a spiritual leader's spouse when that spouse finds out through rumours or actual evidence, that her/his partner has been sexually involved with someone else or has stolen money from the church?
These are painful questions. Even while writing them, it has caused considerable emotional uneasiness; but I have to ask them because I am aware that too many people are being wounded by the ones for whom they have the greatest trust and respect -their pastors. During the past ten years, I have had to deal with numerous cases of sexual and financial infidelity of spiritual leaders and even CEOs. It is painful, it is real.
They are not rumours: One story that really saddened me, was what a young woman told me ten years ago. Her ex-boyfriend asked her to be his third wife. He was a pastor of an outstanding church, already married with children, and believed that nothing was wrong with having more than one wife at a time. Of course, he was planning to keep it a secret from his other wives and church members. Every week he preached with sincerity from the pulpit, impressing Biblical truths on the hearts of his congregants, while his own life was being dictated to by Biblical misinterpretations. What a mess! This young lady was emotionally distraught for months.
AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
Geoff Wilkinson
September 09, 2006 12:00am
A DISGRACED parish priest jailed yesterday for sexually assaulting altar boys in western Victoria had previously abused boys in the United States.
The Ballarat diocese paid compensation to at least two US victims after the Catholic Church in that country held Australian church authorities responsible for his behaviour.
Paul David Ryan, 59, was sent to the US for counselling and treatment because of concerns over his behaviour with other students while still in training for the priesthood at Corpus Christi seminary.
He returned to Victoria after being exposed as a pedophile in the US and, despite those offences, was appointed parish priest at Penshurst in 1989.
Ryan pleaded guilty in Warrnambool Magistrates' Court yesterday to five counts of indecently assaulting two teenage boys at Penshurst in 1989-90.
AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
Geoff Wilkinson
September 11, 2006 12:00am
HELEN Watson vividly remembers the day that marked the beginning of her son Peter's tragic end.
Peter Watson was a student at Marian College, Ararat.
Next door in the presbytery lived pedophile priest Father Paul David Ryan.
Ms Watson yesterday recalled the day 25 years ago when Ryan drove Peter home to their farm after the boy, then 15 or 16, had spent the night in town at the presbytery. Her son reeked of alcohol.
"Later that day I looked out the window and my son was up the paddock throwing trees I would have thought no person could physically lift.
"He was throwing huge logs and building a big bonfire. When I got there he was an absolute mess. He was crying and screaming and told me to go away and wouldn't tell me what was wrong.
"Peter was never the same after that."
VERMONT
WCAX
St. Albans, Vermont - September 11, 2006
A Northeast Kingdom priest will be arraigned Monday, for allegedly victimizing an 18-year-old man.
Father Stephen Nichols is charged with lewd and lascivious conduct. Bishop Salvatore Matano said Father Nichols engaged in some sort of sexual behavior with the 18-year-old in Franklin County.
NEW YORK
New York Daily News
BY SCOTT SHIFREL
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A Hindu priest sexually assaulted two underage sisters - conning one of them into having sex with him during a bogus cleansing ritual that involved spreading oil over her naked body, prosecutors said yesterday.
Ramlal Ramadhar, 59, was charged with statutory rape for the attacks, which allegedly occurred in 2002 and 2003 but came to light after one of the girls, now 19, confided to a college counselor.
"Under the guise of being their religious leader," Ramadhar allegedly took "advantage of the youngsters and their trust in him by robbing them of their innocence," Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. "Fortunately, one of the sisters found the courage to come forward."
Ramadhar, whom authorities say was a police officer in his native Trinidad, allegedly promised to help the then 16-year-old get rid of "evil spirits."
SPOKANE (WA)
Inside Higher Ed
Jesuit leaders on Friday announced that their predecessors and the then-leaders of Gonzaga University concocted a false story to explain the sudden departure of Rev. John Leary from the Gonzaga presidency in 1969. They said at the time that Father Leary had “health problems.” The truth was that he had been given 24 hours by the Spokane police to either leave town or face arrest on charges that he was abusing boys and young men while he was serving as the university’s president.
Statements released by the university and the Jesuits alternated between apologizing for the misconduct by Father Leary, which appears to have taken place over a period of years during his presidency, and noting that abuse allegations were not handled the same way at that time as they are now. Father Leary died in 1993 at the age of 75.
Rev. John D. Whitney, superior of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus (which includes Washington State), said that officials only recently became aware of the cover-up, while searching for documents needed for lawsuits the order is facing related to abuse allegations. He said that the documents indicated that “an artificial scenario” was created to explain Father Leary’s departure.
CANADA
Law Times
Monday, 11 September 2006
For the London, Ont., firm of Ledroit Beckett, the extraordinary case of retired Roman Catholic priest Charles Sylvestre, who pleaded guilty in early August to 47 charges of indecent assault against the same number of young female victims over three decades beginning in the 1950s, is another in a major portfolio of significant sex abuse cases the firm has taken on.
Rob Talach says sexual abuse claims make up almost his entire practice these days.The 11-member litigation practice has carved out a role in representing victims of institutional sexual abuse, including a panoply of cases in southern Ontario — including victims of clergy in the Diocese of London, where Sylvestre was employed — and elsewhere in Ontario.
The firm has four practitioners devoted to cases of sexual abuse. One of them is seconded full-time, along with two lawyers part-time, to the Cornwall Public Inquiry under Commissioner G. Normand Glaude investigating widespread allegations of abuse including by clergy in Cornwall, Ont. The inquiry resumed sitting last week.
Sexual abuse claims are "90 per cent of my practice," says the firm's Rob Talach. Ledroit Beckett is representing at least a dozen of Sylvestre's alleged victims. He was parish priest in various communities in and around Sarnia, Chatham, and Windsor.
AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
September 11, 2006 - 7:34PM
Taxpayers have spent more than $300,000 on an office and travel for former Governor-General Peter Hollingworth since the beginning of last year, figures show.
Dr Hollingworth was the Queen's representative in Australia for just under two years.
He resigned in May 2003 after an Anglican Church report found that while archbishop of Brisbane he had mishandled an allegation of sexual abuse against a priest.
As a former Governor-General, he is entitled to a taxpayer-funded office and travel.
FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram
BOB RAY SANDERS
In My Opinion
While having lunch with an out-of-town friend at an Arlington restaurant last week, I was interrupted four times by people who just had to tell me what they thought about one of my recent columns.
Immediately, I knew which piece they were talking about.
I was not at all bothered by the intrusions, which I've come to expect, particularly after I've written controversial columns on sometimes not-so-popular topics. Besides, I found their comments refreshing and reassuring.
Not a day has gone by since that Aug. 25 commentary on preacher misconduct that I have not been stopped on the street, buttonedholed in a store, telephoned or otherwise contacted by people who needed to tell me what they thought of the column and/or what they were doing in their own churches regarding the matter of bad pastors.
The column was published on Friday the week that the Rev. Terry Hornbuckle, former pastor of Agape Christian Fellowship in Arlington, was sentenced to prison after being convicted of three counts of sexual assault.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Monterey County Herald
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A former Los Angeles priest accused of sexually abusing four people as children is asking an appeals court to block the release of his church personnel records.
Lynn Caffoe, who was suspended from the priesthood 15 years ago after being accused of molestation, claims disclosure of the confidential files would violate his rights.
Attorney Katherine K. Freberg, who represents the four alleged victims, predicted the files would show ''the church's continuing cover-up and protection of these priests.''
''Father Caffoe and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles will do anything possible to keep these documents from seeing the light of day,'' Freberg said.
Caffoe's civil trial is scheduled to begin in November.
SPOKANE (WA)
Spokesman-Review
September 8, 2006
GONZAGA UNIVERSITY RESPONDS TO OREGON PROVINCE STATEMENT REGARDING JOHN LEARY, S.J.
(SPOKANE, Wash.) — The Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus (1) today announced deeply distressing news about reported incidents approximately 40 years ago involving John P. Leary, S.J., who served Gonzaga University from 1961-69 as president.
Province officials, after researching historical information for submission to the court, informed Gonzaga administrators and publicly announced that in 1966 Leary was accused of sexual abuse. According to Provincial V. Rev. John D. Whitney, S.J., Leary adamantly denied the allegations and was allowed to remain in office. “While today a more thorough investigation would immediately have begun, in 1966, such an approach was not undertaken,” said Whitney.
In 1969, new allegations were brought to the Jesuits concerning Leary, and he was removed from office. He was sent to New York, then to Massachusetts under the pretense of “health problems.” For the next 30 years Leary served in positions throughout the Western United States until his death in 1993 at age 75.
Father Whitney apologized for his predecessors’ creation of an “artificial scenario” regarding Leary’s departure from Gonzaga. He said, “Though in more recent years, we had received allegations of such abuse and had settled with some survivors, these newly reviewed documents clarify the course of events, and the uncharacteristic behavior of the Province in dealing with this matter. While today, stronger safeguards and clearer policies are in place, the Jesuits wish to publicly acknowledge the failures of our history and apologize to those who have suffered, in the hope that it might bring some healing and reconciliation.”
BOSTON (MA)
WLNE
September 8,2006
BOSTON (AP) - A compromise bill approved today in the House would extend the statute of limitations for certain sex offenses against children from 15 to 27 years.
It could be extended even longer if there's evidence to support the claim.
The Senate could take up the bill on Monday.
Both chambers approved earlier versions of the bill but failed to reach final agreement before the end of the formal session in July.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Michael Paulson
and Suzanne Smalley
GLOBE STAFF
The state House of Representatives today passed legislation prompted by the clergy sexual abuse scandal that would remove some restrictions on prosecuting abuse cases and would toughen restrictions on some convicted sex offenders.
The measure, headed to the Senate as early as Monday, goes partway toward addressing concerns raised by victim advocates, who have repeatedly objected to laws in many states, including Massachusetts, that preclude lawsuits and prosecutions stemming from abuse incidents that took place decades ago.
House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi said the measure virtually eliminates the statute of limitations for the prosecution of child sexual abuse in Massachusetts.
The measure would change the state’s statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases, making it possible for prosecutors to bring charges 27 years after the victim first reports the episode, or 27 years after the victim turns 16. And prosecutors could bring charges in cases that occurred longer ago if there is independent evidence that corroborates the victim’s allegations. (The 27 year period was chosen as a compromise, but also is supposed to allow enough time for victims to reach adulthood and recognize that abuse is a prosecutable crime.)
JAMAICA
Jamaica Gleaner
Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter
Donovan Jones, who has already spent 67 days behind bars, will have to wait until next Tuesday before getting another shot at bail.
Jones, the former deacon of Dayton Diamond Ridge Church at the centre of the sexual molestation case involving a 14-year-old Corporate Area schoolgirl, was yesterday denied bail by Resident Magistrate Martin Gayle when he appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's court.
Co-accused James Rodgers, 18, had his bail extended by the Resident Magistrate. He too will reappear in court on Tuesday.
LAS VEGAS (NV)
Deseret Morning News
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
Papers seized inside the SUV in which polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was riding when captured in Nevada should be returned to the Fundamentalist LDS Church leader because they are protected by his right to freedom of religion, his attorney says.
The papers, deemed to be "sacred," also constitute privileged communication between the "spiritual leader" and his followers, attorney Richard Wright said in court papers obtained by the Deseret Morning News.
"These records include confidential religious writings and teachings of the FLDS, as well as privileged communications with FLDS members," Wright wrote in an emergency motion filed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. He says the papers, computers and recording devices found in the vehicle Jeffs was stopped in are protected by the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.
COVINGTON (KY)
The Kentucky Post
Post staff report
Attorneys who represent victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington have appealed a judge's order to release personal information about the victims.
In a petition filed Friday with the Kentucky Court of Appeals, the attorneys say that Special Judge John Potter's order has already harmed their clients.
After hearing of the order, one 60-year-old, a victim of abuse more than 40 years ago, became so emotionally upset that he cried daily, the attorneys said in the filing.
He had two heart attacks and had to have emergency surgery performed. His doctor told him stress caused the attacks.
NEW YORK
Staten Island Advance
9/8/2006, 4:47 p.m. ET
By TOM HAYS
The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — A Hindu priest tricked a teenage parishioner into having sex with him by convincing her it was part of a religious cleansing ritual, prosecutors said Friday.
Ramadhar Ramlal, 59, of Queens, was arraigned Thursday on rape, sexual abuse and other charges alleging he also fondled the girl's younger sister. Bail was set at $50,000.
Ramlal, described by authorities as a former police officer from Trinidad who became an ordained Hindu priest, "took advantage of the youngsters and their trust in him by robbing them of their innocence," Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement.
ST. ALBANS (VT)
WCAX
St. ALBANS, Vt. -- A Roman Catholic priest who presides over a Lyndonville church is accused of sexually molesting a teenager.
Stephen Nichols of the Saint Elizabeth's Church will be charged with lewd and lascivious conduct Monday in Vermont District Court in Saint Albans, the Vermont Attorney General's office said Friday.
The attorney general's office has been investigating the matter for several months after the Roman Catholic Diocese received a complaint in August 2005 and did its own investigation.
Nichols had been given a leave of absence from the Lyndonville Church and Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in Danville and from other duties.
NEW YORK
Times Ledger
By:Craig Giammona
09/08/2006
A Hindu priest from a temple in Jamaica was charged Thursday with sexually abusing two sisters, one of whom he allegedly tricked into participating in sexual acts under the guise of a religious cleansing ceremony, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Friday.
Ramadhar Ramlal, 59, of 173rd Street in Jamaica was arrested Sept. 6 and charged with sexually abusing a 16-year-old member of his temple three times in late 2002 and early 2003. In addition, Brown said Ramlal touched the breasts of the girl's sister, then 13, in the spring of 2003.
Ramlal, a priest at USA Pandits Parishad Temple on 88th Avenue in Jamaica, had his bail set at $50,000 and is due back in court on Sept. 25. If convicted, Ramlal, a former police officer in Trinidad, faces up to four years in jail, Brown said.
NEW YORK
1010 WINS
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A Hindu priest tricked a teenage parishioner into having sex with him by convincing her it was part of a religious cleansing ritual, prosecutors said Friday.
Ramadhar Ramlal, 59, of Queens, was arraigned Thursday on rape, sexual abuse and other charges alleging he also fondled the girl's younger sister. Bail was set at $50,000.
Ramlal, described by authorities as a former police officer from Trinidad who became an ordained Hindu priest, ``took advantage of the youngsters and their trust in him by robbing them of their innocence,'' Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement.
After recently confiding in a college counselor she had been raped three years ago, the older sister ``found the courage to come forward and report the incident to police,'' Brown said.
Calls to Ramlal's attorney and to his office at USA Pandits Parishad in the Jamaica section of Queens were not immediately returned.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By John Spano, Times Staff Writer
September 9, 2006
A Los Angeles priest has asked an appeals court to block the release of his church personnel file to four people who have accused him of molesting them as children.
Lynn Caffoe, who was suspended from the priesthood after sexual abuse claims in 1991, says disclosure of the confidential files to plaintiffs suing him over the alleged abuse would violate his rights.
Donald H. Steier, who represents Caffoe and many other priests, said Friday, "It's an important case. Let's do it right."
Katherine K. Freberg, who represents the four, said the church continues to attempt to evade responsibility for its sexual abuse crisis.
"Father Caffoe and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles will do anything possible to keep these documents from seeing the light of day," Freberg said. She said the file would show "the church's continuing coverup and protection of these priests."
SPOKANE (WA)
The Seattle Times
By Janet I. Tu and David Bowermaster
Seattle Times staff reporters
For 40 years, the Jesuit leadership in the Northwest buried allegations that John Leary, former president of Gonzaga University, sexually abused boys and young men in the 1960s.
On Friday, church officials announced that the abuse occurred during Leary's tenure at the university. It is the latest disclosure of a number of sexual-abuse allegations against Jesuits that have emerged in recent years.
Leary was president from 1961 to 1969, and it's not clear how many victims there may be, according to the Very Rev. John Whitney, provincial superior of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus.
Allegations against Leary, who died in 1993, were first brought to the province in 1966, but nevertheless church officials reassigned him to other positions throughout the Western United States, the statement said.
SPOKANE (WA)
The Oregonian
Saturday, September 09, 2006
KIMBERLY A.C. WILSON
John Leary, Gonzaga University's president throughout the 1960s, sexually abused teenage boys there, the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus said Friday.
The Jesuit priest's actions in Spokane -- which current Jesuit officials acknowledged in two recent settlements with victims -- were hidden at the time, and Leary was reassigned to posts in Massachusetts, Utah, Nevada and California.
He died in 1993.
SPOKANE (WA)
Spokesman-Review
John Stucke and Benjamin Shors
Staff writers
September 9, 2006
In 1969, amid fresh allegations that the president of Gonzaga University had sexually abused young boys, the university, the Spokane Police Department and Jesuit hierarchy orchestrated a stunning cover-up that preserved the reputation of the institution and a man revered as a leader in Spokane.
Spokane police ordered the Rev. John P. Leary to leave town within 24 hours or face arrest in April 1969. It was an offer that Leary's superiors at the time accepted.
"I can only surmise that fear of scandal and of harm to Gonzaga University gripped those Jesuits, and led them to accept the offer of civil authorities," the Rev. John D. Whitney, the Jesuits' current provincial superior based in Portland revealed Friday. "Fear, however, is not an adequate excuse and is not consistent with our faith and calling."
DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register
SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
September 8, 2006
Leaders of a national support group for victims of clergy sex abuse said today they doubt Davenport Bishop William Franklin’s contention that victims’ monetary demands will force the diocese to sell its chancery office and bishop’s residence.
Two of several new lawsuits against the diocese are to be tried in the coming weeks. The lawsuits were filed after October 2004, when the diocese agreed to a $9 million settlement with 37 claimants.
A lawsuit scheduled for a Sept. 11 trial names former Davenport vicar general Monsignor Thomas Feeney, who died in 1981. The second is one of several against retired Sioux City Bishop Lawrence Soens, who was a priest in the Davenport diocese early in his career. That trial is scheduled for Oct. 23.
David Clohessy, national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and Steve Theisen, Iowa SNAP director, characterized a Sept. 4 letter from Franklin to parishioners as “damage control.”
CLEVELAND (OH)
Cleveland Scene
By BILL FROGAMENI
Article Published Sep 6, 2006
When Joseph Smith left Cleveland, only to resurface in Columbus, the move had the suspicious air of so many similar reassignments within the Catholic Church. For decades, it has covered up widespread pedophilia among its priests, preferring to transfer them to distant outposts whenever things got too hot.
"No way would this amount of money have been transferred without [Pilla's] say-so."When Joseph Smith left Cleveland, only to resurface in Columbus, the move had the suspicious air of so many similar reassignments within the Catholic Church. For decades, it has covered up widespread pedophilia among its priests, preferring to transfer them to distant outposts whenever things got too hot.
But this wasn't about molestation. Smith was the chief financial officer of the Cleveland Diocese, the man charged with overseeing the tithing of some 800,000 parishioners. And when he left his post in 2004, it appeared that he hadn't been the best of custodians. Among other things, he was accused of steering $17.5 million in diocese business to Anton Zgoznik, a former diocese employee who, for roughly two years, worked under Smith in the finance office as an assistant treasurer.
SPOKANE (WA)
Newsday
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
Associated Press Writer
September 8, 2006, 12:40 PM EDT
SPOKANE, Wash. -- Former Gonzaga University President John Leary was involved in the sexual abuse of boys and young men in the 1960s, but the priest's actions were covered up by Jesuit officials, the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus said Friday.
Leary, who died in 1993, led the Jesuit-run university in Spokane from 1961 to 1969. No details about the abuse or number of victims were immediately released.
"While today, stronger safeguards and clearer policies are in place, the Jesuits wish to publicly acknowledge the failures of our history and apologize to those who have suffered," the Rev. John D. Whitney of Portland, Ore., leader of the Oregon Province, said in a news release Friday. He called the cover up "uncharacteristic."
Whitney said the Jesuits discovered notes regarding Leary's actions while preparing court documents in other cases in recent weeks.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOX
Fred Bodimer Reporting
The Saint Louis Archdiocese is quick to respond to the call from SNAP to reconsider its decision to post a half million dollar bond for Father Thomas Graham.
NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger
Friday, September 08, 2006
BY NYIER ABDOU
Star-Ledger Staff
A former Milford priest convicted of molesting an 11-year-old altar boy has been indicted on charges of sexually assaulting another church victim while serving as a priest in Hunterdon County more than 10 years ago.
The Rev. John M. Banko, 60, of Hamilton, was indicted Wednesday on a first-degree charge of aggra vated sexual assault and second- degree endangering the welfare of a child, police said. Banko is serving a 15-year sentence at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel.
A statement issued by the Diocese of Metuchen said the allega tions against Banko were first reported to the Diocese and referred to the Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office.
Police say Banko, known to his parishioners as "Father Jack," as saulted the victim, who was under the age of 16 at the time, on several occasions while Banko was pastor at the victim's church. The abuse happened on or around Sept. 1, 1994 and May 15, 1995.
MINNESOTA
St. Paul Pioneer Press
After a new search of its files, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has found records indicating that a man did come forward eight years ago alleging he was abused as a teenager in the 1970s by the Rev. Michael Bik, before the priest was ordained.
The archdiocese had said last week it hadn't heard of Bik until an announcement in July by St. John's Abbey saying Bik had been accused in 1997 of molesting two teenage boys two decades earlier. Bik is a monk of the abbey in Collegeville, Minn.
Archdiocese spokesman Dennis McGrath said a further search of records indicated that an alleged victim of Bik, requesting anonymity, met with Archbishop Harry Flynn in 1998. Flynn subsequently relayed the information to the abbey, McGrath said.
ALEXANDRIA (VA)
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
A U.S. rabbi caught in a television sting focused on Internet predators was convicted.
A judge on Wednesday found David Kaye guilty of traveling for sex with what he thought was a 13-year-old boy he met on the Internet.
The “boy” actually was a man working for a group that exposes Internet predators, and the meeting was filmed and aired on “Dateline NBC.”
WISCONSIN
Catholic Online
By Brian T. Olszewski
9/7/2006
Catholic Herald (www.chnonline.org)
ST. FRANCIS, Wis. (Catholic Herald) - In early July, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan prepared Catholics in southeastern Wisconsin for the worst financial fate that could befall the Archdiocese of Milwaukee – bankruptcy.
That was the result he and his advisors anticipated if the first of 10 cases of sexual abuse of minors by two former priests of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Franklyn Becker and Siegfried Widera, went to trial in California Nov. 6.
His concerns were put to rest around 1 a.m., Tuesday, Aug. 29, when, according to Archbishop Dolan, Judge Charles W. McCoy brought the plaintiffs’ attorneys, him and other people representing the archdiocese into a Los Angeles County courtroom and said, “What we have been discussing is acceptable.”
Those words culminated mediation that had begun at 9 a.m. Aug. 28. In addition to the archdiocese and the plaintiffs' attorneys, representatives from 14 insurance companies were also involved in the mediation process that had been ordered by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Haley J. Fromholz. The judge, who will preside at the trial that will adjudicate more than 500 clergy sexual abuse cases, had appointed McCoy, a supervising judge in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, to handle the mediation.
NASHVILLE (TN)
Tennessean
By SHEILA BURKE
Staff Writer
A 29-year-old Nashville man who says a priest abused him when he was a boy sued the Diocese of Nashville on Thursday, and his lawyer promised a wave of lawsuits against the church here.
The man, identified only as John Doe in court filings, is seeking more than $10 million.
Church officials declined to comment on the lawsuit or on the church's handling of the former priest it names, a convicted child rapist who also was
the subject of another lawsuit against the church.
The plaintiff said Edward McKeown abused him from age 11 to 16. He accuses the church of a cover-up that let McKeown, a man known to the bishop as a serial pedophile, prey upon him.
IOWA
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
September 8, 2006
Lawrence Soens, the retired bishop of the Sioux City Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, was a sexual sadist who preyed on scores of boys when he was principal of Regina Catholic High School in Iowa City, allege court papers filed this week in a lawsuit against Soens, the high school and the Davenport Diocese.
The inch-thick filing details plaintiff Michael Gould's reasons why a judge should not dismiss the case against the school. Regina officials have said the school should be dropped from the lawsuit because there was no evidence anyone at the school knew of or should have known of Soens' alleged behavior between 1959 and 1967, the years he was principal.
Former students who are suing Soens, the school and the Davenport Diocese allege that the abusive actions were so well known among students that they often recited a crude ditty about the dangers of being called into the principal's office. The doggerel referred to the apparent pleasure that they contend Soens' took in "purpling" students - cornering them in the hallways or office, grabbing their nipples and twisting so hard as to leave a bruise.
CALIFORNIA
Napa Valley Register
By DAVID RYAN, Register Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 5, 2006 1:11 AM PDT
After more than two years of legal wrangling, claims in Napa County Superior Court that the Jehovah's Witnesses church failed to stop incidents of child sex abuse here are inching toward trial.
According to an Aug. 14 court order signed by Napa County Superior Court Judge Raymond Guadagni, lawyers shepherding several cases against the church, involving plaintiffs from multiple counties, are finally on the cusp of setting a 2007 trial date. Previous court hearings had been marked by disagreement over legal procedures and decisions by several out-of-county plaintiffs to drop their lawsuits against the church.
NEW JERSEY
The Express Times
Friday, September 08, 206
From staff reports
A Catholic priest serving time for sexually assaulting an altar boy could be defrocked if found guilty of another round of allegations.
The Rev. John Banko was indicted Wednesday on charges he sexually assaulted a child younger than 13. Banko has been prohibited from ministering since 2000 but remains a priest of the Metuchen Diocese.
"If he's convicted of this as well, the diocese may seek the final step," said Monsignor William Benwell, vicar general of the diocese.
Banko is accused of sexually assaulting the child between Sept. 1, 1994, and May 15, 1995, when Banko served as pastor of St. Edward the Confessor Roman Catholic Church in Milford. He faces first degree sexual assault and second degree endangering the welfare of a child.
NASHVILLE (TN)
International Herald Tribune
The Associated Press
Published: September 7, 2006
NASHVILLE, Tennessee A new $10 million (€7.85 million) sex abuse lawsuit was filed Thursday against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville, claiming it failed to reveal allegations that a former priest currently serving a sentence for rape and molestation had abused other minors.
The plaintiff in the lawsuit, who is identified only as 29-year-old "John Doe", alleges former Nashville priest Ed McKeown began sexually abusing him at age 11 in 1988, a year before McKeown was forced out of the priesthood.
"At the time that John was abused by Father McKeown, John and/or his family were unaware that the diocese had previously received other allegations that Father McKeown sexually abused minors," according to the lawsuit.
Diocese spokesman Rick Musacchio said early Thursday that the diocese had not yet been served with the lawsuit. "It would be inappropriate to comment at this time," he said.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Sioux City Journal
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport, once content to settle priest abuse cases out of court, for the first time may let a jury decide if the diocese should be punished for failing to punish an accused priest.
Since 2004, the diocese has reached settlements estimated at about $10 million with dozens of abuse victims. But with more cases set for trial later this year, church officials say they face the possibility of financial ruin by consenting to more high-dollar settlements.
Next week, the diocese is expected to begin defending its actions in the trial of Monsignor Thomas J. Feeney, who died in 1982, advanced to the rank of vicar general in 1968 and has been named in six abuse cases.
In October, the first of several trials is scheduled to begin involving former priest and retired Sioux City Bishop Lawrence Soens.
SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Sheena McFarland
The Salt Lake Tribune
Robert Brooks says he suffered sexual abuse at the hands of his Catholic priest for nearly two years.
Although the abuse occurred in Los Angeles in the early 1960s when Brooks was 10, the Salt Lake City resident says he was never the same.
"It was soul murder," said Brooks, who stopped practicing Catholicism. "The only way to to survive it is to remain psychologically intact, and few do."
In order to help prevent future abuse, Brooks, along with David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, on Thursday presented a letter to the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City asking that it publish the names of any priests who have sexually abused children.
MILWAUKEE (WI)
TheMilwaukeeChannel.com
MILWAUKEE -- A local advocate group for the survivors of sexual abuse from clergy members is questioning a $10,000 payment to a former clergyman accused of sexually abusing young boys.
The Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) released a videotaped deposition Thursday as part of an $18 million settlement last week between nine abuse victims and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
The videotape includes a confession by former clergyman Franklyn Becker. Becker said he was transferred from parish to parish in the 1970s and '80s, despite allegations of sexual encounters with teenage boys. He said he was even posted at parishes with others who shared his desires.
"I was stationed with a classmate of mine who also had a predilection for teenage boys," Becker said on the tape, which was recorded last month.
TRUMBULL (CT)
The Connecticut Post
GENEVIEVE REILLY greilly@ctpost.com
TRUMBULL — A former West Haven rabbi now working as a counselor for the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services has been arrested on a child pornography charge.
Edward Schlaeger, 51, of Hawthorne Avenue, Shelton, was arrested on a warrant Saturday and charged with one count of third-degree possession of child pornography.
He was released after posting a court-set bond of $10,000 and is scheduled to appear Sept. 7 in Bridgeport Superior Court.
TRUMBULL (CT)
NBC 30
TRUMBULL, Conn. -- A state caseworker and former rabbi has been arrested on charges of possessing child pornography.
Edward Schlaeger, 51, currently lives in Shelton. But police say his estranged wife found the material at the house they used to share in Trumbull.
According to the arrest warrant, police seized boxes of pornography and two discs containing images of what they believe are underage women.
BRIDGEPORT (CT)
The Connecticut Post
MICHAEL P. MAYKO mmayko@ctpost.com
BRIDGEPORT — A former West Haven rabbi and state social worker charged with having child pornography had his arraignment postponed until later this month so he can hire a lawyer.
Superior Court Judge Earl Richards granted Edward Schlaeger's request to delay his expected not-guilty plea during an appearance Thursday.
Schlaeger, 51, of Hawthorne Avenue in Shelton, is the former rabbi of Congregation Sinai in West Haven. He recently worked as a counselor for the Southwest Connecticut Mental Health System in Bridgeport, a division of the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.
Wayne Dailey, a department spokesman, said Schlaeger has been on paid administrative leave since his arrest Aug. 24.
NASHVILLE (TN)
WSMV
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A local priest, who is already serving time for child abuse, is back in the news now that the Nashville Diocese is facing a $10 million lawsuit from an alleged victim.
A Florida law firm announced the suit Thursday, which claims the Diocese knew Father Ed McKeown was a pedophile when they moved him to St. Ignatius church in 1988. The suit said this action knowingly put the parish's children at risk.
The victim involved in this particular case claims McKeown abused him for years.
MISSOURI
KMOX
Convicted priest Fr. Bryan Kuchar has officially registered as a sex offender in the state of Missouri. KMOX Religion Editor Fred Bodimer tells us where he's living.
SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Deseret Morning News
By Lynn Arave
Deseret Morning News
A national organization of sexual abuse victims has urged the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City to launch a more vigorous effort to help find and support those "still suffering in shame and secrecy" from abusive priests.
SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, made their first-ever official visit to Utah this week.
David Clohessy, SNAP's national director from St. Louis, said his group was in town partially because the Religion Newswriters Association is holding its annual conference in Salt Lake City this weekend. The other reason is because the Catholic leadership is in transition here.
"Victims often come forward when they are invited to," Clohessy said in a press conference Thursday afternoon outside Salt Lake City's Catholic offices. Clohessy is also the brother of an abusive priest.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOX
Berta Collins Reporting
Members of local Catholic parishes are being asked to reconsider putting offerings into the basket on Sunday.
FLEMINGTON (NJ)
The Express-Times
Thursday, September 07, 2006
By ANDREA EILENBERGER
The Express-Times
FLEMINGTON | A Catholic priest already serving time for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old altar boy is now facing another round of sexual assault charges.
A Hunterdon County grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday against the Rev. John Banko, accusing him of sexually assaulting a second child.
The latest allegation occurred between Sept. 1, 1994, and May 15, 1995, when Banko was serving as pastor of St. Edward the Confessor Roman Catholic Church in Milford.
DARIEN (CT)
The Darien Times
Sep 7, 2006
By Susan Shultz
The Rev. Michael Madden, who recently left St. John Parish and the priesthood, told The Darien Times on Wednesday that it would be “news” if the diocese were to be honest about the last few months’ events.
“After seeing firsthand the chancery actions over these last several months, it would be news to me if they decided to tell the truth,” Father Madden said.
He called The Darien Times in response to this week’s op-ed by Nancy Matthews, chancellor of the Diocese of Bridgeport, who said that last week’s Darien Times editorial (”Thankful for Mike”) was “very wide of the mark.”
The op-ed was posted at darientimes.com on Tuesday evening and appears on page 5A of today’s issue.
DARIEN (CT)
The Darien Times
By Susan Shultz
The Rev. Michael Jude Fay, former pastor of St. John Parish, has broken his silence.
Father Fay has not commented publicly or disclosed his whereabouts since he resigned as pastor in May.
In a Wednesday phone interview, the former pastor told The Darien Times that despite the advice of his lawyers, he wanted to publicly comment in anticipation of The Darien Times story about the Rev. Michael Madden’s decision to leave St. John Parish and the priesthood.
“There was never any homosexual activity or salacious parties in the rectory — the slander of that kind has been very hurtful, and I don’t know why he (Father Madden) would say that,” he said.
MINNESOTA
The Record
By Matt Smith
mssmith@csbsju.edu
Pat Marker kept it all inside for nearly 10 years.
He moved to St. John’s Prep School before his junior year of high school. Marker, now 41-years-old, says what Fr. Dunstan Moorse did to him in his late teens changed the course of his life forever.
Until late this August, Marker was a member of the St. John’s Abbey external review board, a group of nine professionals who assess alleged monk offenders and provide help to victims. Marker was selected because he’s a survivor of sexual abuse.
But in August, he resigned from his position following new allegations of sexual misconduct from three monks of the St. John’s monastic community.
ALEXANDRIA (VA)
Washington Post
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 7, 2006; Page B02
A Maryland rabbi caught in a television sting operation was convicted yesterday of traveling to Herndon for what he thought would be sex with a 13-year-old boy he met over the Internet.
In a written opinion issued yesterday, a federal judge in Alexandria found David A. Kaye, 56, guilty after a bench trial last month in which prosecutors presented evidence of sexually graphic chats between him and the boy. In reality, the boy was a 26-year-old man working for Perverted Justice, a group that tries to expose adults who use the Internet for sexual activity with children.
Perverted Justice was working with the NBC newsmagazine "Dateline," which paid the watchdog group to create a pedophile sting that ran as a series of television reports called "To Catch a Predator." Men lured to the house they set up in Herndon last year also included a schoolteacher from Prince George's County and a physician from the Eastern Shore.
ALEXANDRIA (VA)
TheWBALChannel.com
ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A Maryland rabbi caught in a nationally televised Internet sex sting has been convicted of traveling to Virginia for sex with what he believed to be a 13-year-old boy.
A federal judge found David Kaye, 56, of Rockville, guilty of coercing and enticing a minor and of traveling across state lines for illegal sexual contact.
During a bench trial last month, prosecutors presented sexually graphic chats between Kaye and adults from an Internet watchdog group called Perverted Justice who were pretending to be minors
The group was working with the NBC newsmagazine "Dateline." Kaye was one of several men who showed up at a Herndon home and were confronted on camera by correspondent Chris Hansen.
UNITED STATES
FindLaw
By MARCI HAMILTON
hamilton02@aol.com
Thursday, Sep. 07, 2006
The last true frontier in civil rights in the United States is that of children's rights. It is our country's ugly secret that massive numbers of children are abused (a shocking one out of four, if a recent New York City study is to be believed). Yet the law has been excruciatingly slow both in stopping ongoing abuse, and in deterring abuse before it happens.
Fortunately, two arrests last week indicate that the tide is turning in favor of child abuse victims. First, Warren Jeffs -- the prophet of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ (FLDS) who was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List, was captured and arrested. Jeffs was then indicted on two felony counts of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual assault with a minor.
Second, the monks at the Christ of the Hills Monastery outside Blanco, TX, were arrested, based on allegations of pedophilia, and the monastery was closed.
There was a time when abuse, especially by religious figures, was a see-no-evil phenomenon. Law enforcement would rather have eaten lightbulbs than pursued a religious figure for child abuse.
BLANCO (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
By DAVID McLEMORE / The Dallas Morning News
BLANCO, Texas – Christ of the Hills Monastery is empty now. The hum of insects and an insistent wind are the only sound.
The black-robed monks with their long beards and heavy Byzantine crosses vanished almost overnight, leaving unwashed dishes on the table and their sandals lined up neatly inside the onion-domed chapel. Gone too are the busloads of tourists and spiritual seekers who trekked to this isolated hilltop for a glimpse of the "miraculous" weeping icon of the Virgin Mary.
"It's just really sad what's happened here," said Tom Flower, a longtime friend of the monks who volunteered to watch the place. "It's really shook me up."
It shook up a lot of people in Blanco County on July 26 when local and state law officers swooped in by car and helicopter to raid the 25-year-old monastery, taking computers, photos and boxes of monastery records.
Authorities arrested founder Samuel A. Greene, also known as Father Benedict, and three other self-styled Russian Orthodox monks on charges they conspired to have sex with young boys at the monastery from 1993 to 1999. A fifth former monk charged in the indictment is in state prison on a child-sex conviction.
NEWPORT NEWS (VA)
Daily Press
BY BEVERLY N. WILLIAMS
247-4755
September 7, 2006
NEWPORT NEWS -- A local minister accused of failing to tell police about three girls being sexually abused was in Newport News juvenile court Wednesday to face charges of obstructing justice.
Instead of a trial, though, the case was postponed to Dec. 20 to give the Rev. Floyd Blackwell time to attend a course on what to do when people make allegations of sexual abuse to clergy members. Blackwell, pastor of Miracle Baptist Temple Church in Newport News, asked to attend the training along with other area pastors, said Stephanie Pass, a special prosecutor from Chesapeake.
The training would be similar to the kind that teachers receive each year at their schools, Pass said, but such programs also are offered at places besides schools. Which one might be able to accommodate Blackwell before December has yet to be determined, she said.
DAVENPORT (IA)
WQAD
(DAVENPORT)- The Davenport Diocese wants a jury to decide any sexual abuse lawsuits it receives. The diocese says instead of settling cases out of court it will defend itself. The Diocese has shelled out more than 10 million in settelments since 2004. The church says it faces financial ruin if it continues to settle cases out of court.
On Monday, a jury will hear the case of Michael Uhde of Davenport. He is suing the Davenport Diocese and Former priest Thomas Feeney. Uhde says the abuse happened in the late 50's when he served as an alter boy at Sacred Heart in Davenport. Jury selection starts at 9 a.m. in the Scott County courthouse.
NEW JERSEY
The Times
Thursday, September 07, 2006
FLEMINGTON -- A defrocked Roman Catholic priest from Hamil ton who in 2003 was sentenced to a lengthy prison term after he was convicted of sexually molesting an altar boy has been indicted on new charges alleging he molested another child more than a decade ago, the Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office announced yesterday.
John M. Banko, 60, is charged in the two-count indictment with ag gravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, the prosecutor's office said.
Authorities allege that Banko, while pastor of a church in the Diocese of Metuchen, sexually as saulted a parishioner under the age of 16 on various dates between September 1994 and May 1995.
The charges were filed by the Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Unit, which launched an investigation after receiving information provided by the Diocese of Metuchen.
If convicted on both counts of the indictment, Banko could face an additional 30 years in prison and fines up to $350,000, authorities said.
MILFORD (NJ)
Courier News
By BRANDON LAUSCH
Staff Writer
A former Milford priest convicted of sexually assaulting a child is facing a new set of charges for similar offenses, Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office officials said Wednesday.
The Rev. John M. Banko, who is serving 15 years at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel, has been indicted on one count of first- degree aggravated sexual assault and one count of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
The indictment comes after the Diocese of Metuchen provided authorities with information that was not immediately specified by the prosecutor's office. The indictment, however, claims Banko sexually assaulted a child younger than 16 between Sept. 1, 1994, and May 15, 1995, while Banko was serving as pastor at a church not named by the prosecutor's office.
If convicted of the new charges, Banko faces up to 30 years in prison and fines of $350,000.
MISSOURI
San Francisco Chronicle
By MARCUS KABEL, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
(09-06) 06:38 PDT Washburn, Mo. (AP) --
Turning their backs on the isolated religious commune in the rugged Ozarks where many had grown up, a group of members fled with only the clothes on their back, trudging several miles down a gravel road to the nearest phone to call friends or family for help.
A woman in the group soon told a sheriff's deputy horrific stories of how the compound's leaders had molested girls as part of religious ceremonies during which they were told their bodies were being prepared for "service to God."
That was the beginning of a child sex scandal that has ensnared five leaders from two affiliated churches and cast a spotlight on a remote corner of the Ozarks that has long been home to spiritual communes, sheltered by deep oak woods, steep hills and a culture in which people keep to themselves.
"It's a shock, a sickening kind of shock. It's not the kind of thing you want to wake up in the morning and hear about," said Linda Hopping, who lives a few miles from one of the backwoods churches but said she had never heard of it before now.
ARLINGTON (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
ARLINGTON - The church founded by convicted rapist Terry Hornbuckle has fired him, and the board of directors said he would not be allowed to return.
The board of Agape Christian Fellowship in Arlington made its decision Saturday, ending Mr. Hornbuckle’s unpaid suspension. Charles Richardson, chairman of the church board of directors, said that Agape bylaws added since Mr. Hornbuckle’s arrest prevent any convicted sex offenders from working at the church.
“They were old and outdated,” Mr. Richardson said about previous bylaws that didn’t address Mr. Hornbuckle’s legal troubles.
ARLINGTON (TX)
Newchannel 5
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
ARLINGTON (AP) - The board of an Arlington church has fired the church's founder and pastor in the wake of his sexual assault convictions and prison sentence.
A statement issued Tuesday by the Agape Christian Fellowship says the church board has fired the Reverend Terry Hornbuckle.
The statement says his wife, Renee Hornbuckle of Colleyville, will take over as senior pastor for at least four months. The board says a group of pastors and bishops from around the country will evaluate her based on "her readiness and capacity to serve as senior pastor on an indefinite basis."
DAVENPORT (IA)
KTIV
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport is changing legal strategies in lawsuits claiming sexual abuse by priests. The diocese plans to defend itself before a jury against allegation of allowing sexual abuse to go unreported and unpunished.
Since 2004, the diocese has settled cases totaling about ten-million dollars. Church officials say they face financial ruin if they settle pending cases involving two former priests -- Thomas Feeney and Lawrence Soens.
Craig Levien is the attorney for several people suing the church. He says the diocese is going to court because its insurance options have run out and it is trying to shield assets.
FLORIDA
Centre Daily
By AMY SHERMAN
asherman@MiamiHerald.com
A request from a retired priest who has been charged with sexual abuse to move from Lantana to Lake Worth was delayed at a hearing this morning.
Also today, a motion by the Rev. Neil Doherty's attorney to remove the electronic monitor on his ankle was deleted from the docket.
Broward Circuit Judge Susan Lebow did not set a new date to hear arguments on either issue this morning. The next hearing in the case is Oct. 20.
CANADA
The Chronicle Herald
A former Cape Breton priest convicted of sex offences will stand trial next year on a new charge.
Trial dates were set Tuesday in Supreme Court for 70-year-old Claude Richard, now of Halifax, who is charged with sexual assault involving a Glace Bay boy in 1987.
Mr. Richard’s trial is scheduled for June 11 to 15.
HURRICANE (UT)
SignonSanDiego.com
By Jennifer Dobner
ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:40 p.m. September 5, 2006
HURRICANE, Utah – Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was moved to southern Utah from a Las Vegas jail on Tuesday to face felony sex charges involving the arranged marriage of an underage girl and an older man.
Jeffs arrived by Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter at the Purgatory Correctional Facility here just after 12:30 p.m. MDT, said Lt. Rob Tersigni of the Washington County sheriff's office.
An initial court appearance was expected Wednesday before 5th District Judge James L. Shumate in nearby St. George. The court typically conducts initial appearances via video cameras set up in the jail. A public defender could be appointed for Jeffs then if he has no attorney.
Jeffs, 50, is head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamist sect of 10,000 that for a century has made its home in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz.
SEATTLE (WA)
The Seattle Times
By Anne Kim
Seattle Times Eastside bureau
Two men previously charged with child rape and child molestation at a Sammamish "religious home" face new charges in connection with a second boy who has come forward saying that he, too, was sexually abused.
Justin Kirkland and Michael Muratore, both 21, were each charged with three counts of second-degree child molestation Thursday. They are accused of molesting a boy between 2001 and 2003 who was about 11 at the time the alleged abuse started.
All were members of the Trident Latin Rites Church, which has been described as a breakaway sect of the Roman Catholic Church.
The King County charging papers accuse Kirkland and Muratore of molesting the boy at a seminary in Sammamish where the three lived.
SALISBURY (MD)
The Christian Post
By The Associated Press
Tue, Sep. 05 2006 06:19 AM ET
SALISBURY, Md. (AP) - Four past members of New Life Apostolic Church are suing the church's bishop, Richard Lawson, alleging he made sexual advances after telling them he needed a new companion because his wife was dying.
Two of the plaintiffs are 18 years old and succumbed to the advances, attorney Dale Adkins said. The other two women said they refused his alleged sexual advances. The women are each seeking $1 million in damages.
"He told her that his conduct was in accordance with God's will because spiritually they were already one and he wanted to connect with her physically until they could be married in a man's eyes," the lawsuit states.
"That is a bunch of junk," the 57-year-old bishop told The (Baltimore) Sun. He said the church members were asked to leave because they were making comments that were not conducive to a spiritual atmosphere. He said those comments including accusations against his son and against the church.
FLORIDA
Miami Herald
By AMY SHERMAN
asherman@MiamiHerald.com
Broward Circuit judge Susan Lebow could decide this morning whether to allow a retired priest accused of sexual abuse to remove the ankle bracelet used to monitor his whereabouts.
The Rev. Neil Doherty has also requested permission to move from Lantana to Lake Worth.
DES MOINES (IA)
Sioux City Journal
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Three more lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by a priest have been filed against the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Sioux City and a former priest accused of molesting more than two dozen children since the 1950s.
The lawsuits, filed in Woodbury County, name the diocese and the Rev. George McFadden. He worked in numerous parishes from the 1950s until his retirement in the 1990s.
McFadden, who is now in his 80s, lives in Fort Wayne, Ind.
In two of the latest lawsuits, two men accused McFadden of sexual abusing them while he was at St. Francis church in Jefferson from 1969 to 1972. The third man accuses McFadden of abusing him from 1971 to 1972.
The lawsuits also accuse the diocese of a cover-up. Diocese spokesman Jim Wharton declined to comment.
ARLINGTON (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By MARK AGEE
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
Agape Christian Fellowship's board has fired the church's founder and pastor, Terry Hornbuckle, because of his sexual assault convictions, according to a statement released Tuesday.
His wife, Renee Hornbuckle of Colleyville, will take over as senior pastor for at least four months.
A group of pastors and bishops from around the country will evaluate her based on "her readiness and capacity to serve as senior pastor on an indefinite basis," the statement read. Renee Hornbuckle had been assistant pastor at the southeast Arlington church.
LOVELAND (CO)
Denver Post
By Kirk Mitchell
Denver Post Staff Writer
The Loveland neighborhood of a Catholic priest charged with molesting two youths was blanketed with fliers Monday by a group of people who said they had been victims of sexual assaults.
"I don't want to see any other children raped," said Jeb Barrett, a leader of the Denver branch of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
Barrett said he left the fliers because he was raped decades ago when a priest in Missoula, Mont., plied him with alcohol.
Barrett and other SNAP members had to knock on the doors of the Rev. Timothy Evans' neighbors, he said, because the Catholic Church doesn't warn people when a priest abuses children.
CYPRUS
Cyprus Mail
SUPPORTERS of Limassol bishop Athanassios were yesterday livid at allegations the venerated cleric tried to quash a sex scandal.
Nicos Polycarpou, 20, alleges that he and Archimandrite Isaac Macheriotis, maintained relations of a homosexual nature. The affair is said to have begun three years ago, when Polycarpou was 17 and therefore still underage.
The youth has filed a lawsuit, filed in a Limassol court, demanding compensation of up to £250,000 for alleged sexual exploitation of a minor.
It was daily Politis that broke the story in July, when it published photos of the archimandrite ostensibly showing him engaging in untowardly acts with the youngster. The paper insisted the material was authentic, although subsequent digital analysis by British experts – commissioned by the Limassol bishopric – deemed the photos were doctored.
BLANCO (TX)
Los Angeles Times
By Lianne Hart, Times Staff Writer
September 5, 2006
BLANCO, Texas — Pilgrims by the thousands have navigated the winding roads to Christ of the Hills Monastery for more than 20 years to witness a miracle, a painting of the Virgin Mary said to weep rose-scented tears.
Now five of the order's monks are under indictment, charged with sexually assaulting boys; the tearful icon has apparently been exposed as a fake; and lawyers for the state have moved to take possession of the 105-acre compound, calling it "contraband" used during the commission of felonies.
"That wasn't a church," Blanco County Sheriff William Elsbury said recently. "It was a pedophile factory."
In the farming community of Blanco, about five miles northeast of the monastery, residents had always had their doubts about the monks. "Maybe it was because you didn't have proof, just a feeling that something was wrong," resident Amy Elrod said. "They were out of town just enough to where it wasn't right in front of you."
SIOUX FALLS (SD)
Yankton Press & Dakotan
By: CARSON WALKER
Associated Press Writer
SIOUX FALLS -- A South Dakota man is suing the Mormon church, alleging one of its missionaries sexually abused him in the 1960s.
Joseph Ferris filed the complaint in U.S. District Court in South Dakota against the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, both of Utah.
Ferris, 51, is an American Indian who lived with his family in Sioux Falls from 1966 to 1968, when he was 10 to 12 years old, according to the lawsuit.
They were members of the Mormon church when in 1967, Elder Richard Joseph White and another missionary started picking up Ferris and his brothers to take them to activities.
SAN DIEGO (CA)
1010 News
SAN DIEGO -- Bishop Brom, protect the innocent.
Civil lawsuits against the Diocese of San Diego are winding their way through the courts. As in most cases of alleged sexual abuse, the victim's names are not publicly disclosed.
But now, attorneys for Bishop Robert Brom and the local diocese want those names revealed in public court documents. They say it's in "the interest of fairness" to make their identities known to everyone.
Fairness? 10News says call it what it is -- intimidation. Subjecting these plaintiffs to the glare of public exposure simply doesn't benefit the legal process.
DALLAS (TX)
WFAA
By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV
Did Catholic officials in Dallas ignore evidence of massive sexual abuse at one local parish in the late 1990s? Those allegations are at the center of a civil trial set to begin in Dallas on Tuesday.
The year was 1997.
The Dallas Catholic Diocese was under fire and on trial for letting Rev. Rudy Kos sexually molest at least eleven boys at area parishes.
The case drew national attention and resulted in the largest clergy abuse verdict in history—nearly $120 million.
Diocese officials pledged to make changes; the young victims demanded it.
LOVELAND (CO)
Rocky Mountain News
By Deborah Frazier, Rocky Mountain News
September 5, 2006
LOVELAND - The suicide attempts and decades of drug abuse that followed Robert Brancato's childhood sexual abuse by a priest brought him to the Rev. Tim Evans' neighborhood Monday.
Evans, a Catholic priest, was indicted last week in Jefferson County for allegedly sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy in his Spirit of Christ Church in Arvada in 1996. He is free on $25,000 bond.
Evans was moved from Arvada in 1998 to a large parish in Fort Collins, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, and has been charged there with two sexual assaults.
He is free on $75,000 bond in that case.
"I saw him mowing his lawn this morning," said Brancato, who went door to door in Evans' neighborhood warning residents about the priest.
IOWA
Des Moines Register
BY LEE ROOD AND SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER STAFF WRITERS
September 5, 2006
A former Iowa priest who has been accused in more cases of sexual abuse than any other Iowa priest is being sued by three more accusers.
The three people, who are not named in separate lawsuits filed in Woodbury County, sued the Sioux City Diocese and the Rev. George McFadden, who worked in numerous parishes in the Sioux City area from the 1950s until his retirement in the 1990s. They all make similar allegations against McFadden, who is now more than 80 years old and living in Fort Wayne, Ind. They also accuse the diocese of a cover-up in the aftermath of that abuse.
The diocese declined to comment on the lawsuits.
"Consistent with our policy, we do not comment on matters that are in active litigation," said Jim Wharton, communications director for the Sioux City Diocese.
MINNESOTA
KSTP
Their message is simple, stop the abuse.
Sunday a Twin Cities group reached out to those who they say were victimized in a Twin Cities church.
Allegations of abuse at St. Michael's Church in Anoka have been around for nine years, but a group of advocates say the church has not addressed them. Sunday they took it upon themselves to spread the word.
"We're trying to help some people who may have been hurt here growing up."
IRELAND
RTE News
04 September 2006 16:44
A former priest in the Diocese of Ferns has been sent forward for trial on 35 charges of indecent assault against two young boys.
A book of evidence was served on James Doyle, who was curate in Clonard Parish in Wexford town, from 1979 to 1990.
The offences are alleged to have occurred between 1981 and 1986.
IRELAND
Evening Echo
04/09/2006 - 3:20:18 PM
A former priest in the Diocese of Ferns today made his first appearance in court to face 35 counts of indecent assault.
James Doyle, who was curate at Clonard Church in Wexford from 1979 to 1990, is alleged to have indecently assaulted two young boys in the town between 1981 and 1986.
The accused, who left the priesthood in 2004, appeared before Wexford District Court where the case was sent forward for trial.
Garda John Sheehy said he arrested Mr Doyle at 2.15pm on August 14 and took him to Wexford Garda Station where he was charged under section 62 of the 1861 Offences against the Person Act.
He told the Judge Donnacha O’Buachalla Mr Doyle replied no comment to each charge.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Bella English, Globe Columnist | September 3, 2006
For nearly half a century, the Rev. Bernard McLaughlin has been a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston. Airport passengers knew him as the rapid-tongued priest at Our Lady of the Airways at Logan Airport. Hispanic, Italian, and Asian immigrants knew him from Holy Redeemer in East Boston. The homeless and hungry knew him from Crossroads Shelter, which he founded. Politicians knew him from the state Ethics Commission, for which he was vice chairman. Radio listeners knew him from the talk show he hosted with a rabbi and a black minister. Suburbanites knew him from St. Gerard Majella parish in Canton, where he has presided the past 11 years. State senators have come to know him as their chaplain on Beacon Hill.
He is 72 now, and though that may be considered not old for a priest, Father Mac is retiring in September, following a stroke he suffered over the summer. He moves a little more slowly, but his mind is sharp, his opinions and sense of humor even sharper. Of his older brother, he says: ``He's an attorney in Washington, God help him. He'll never get into heaven." ...
The most trying time of Father Mac's priesthood was, of course, the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the archdiocese in 2002. McLaughlin, long an outspoken supporter of a strong laity, welcomed the fledgling lay group, The Voice of the Faithful, which the archdiocese called divisive and banned from many of its buildings. ``It's the people's church, what the hell," noted Father Mac, who never missed a meeting.
He also called for the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, the man he had such high hopes for, the man he greeted at Logan Airport in 1984 while the Harvard Band played in the background. At a time when many priests were still afraid to speak out, he criticized the cardinal's sprawling ``palazzo" in Brighton and suggested that Law move into the Paulist Center and be ``closer to the people." He disliked what he called the sycophants that Law surrounded himself with and the arrogance of the hierarchy. ``That's not the way of Jesus," he said.
FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram
By MARK AGEE
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
Terry Hornbuckle was sentenced to 15 years. His wife, Renee, told the Agape congregation to keep its focus on God, not the scandal.
More photosLast Sunday, Pastor Renee Hornbuckle urged Agape Christian Fellowship's congregation to keep its focus on God, not the scandal that had swirled for more than a year.
"God is not man," she preached. "He won't let you down."
With founder and Rev. Terry Hornbuckle sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting three women, church leaders say Agape will move forward and rebuild. That may prove difficult, experts on church scandals and growth warn.
The criminal proceedings have ended, but the church still faces civil lawsuits filed on behalf of some of Hornbuckle's victims. The church claimed 2,500 members when the saga began. Membership dropped to as low as 300 before rebounding a bit to about 600, said Charles Richardson, chairman of the church board.
"It's kind of hard to say what we'll need to do to rebuild," Richardson said. "We've never been in this situation before."
AUSTRALIA
The Australian
BY Nigel Hunt
September 03, 2006
POLICE investigating the activities of a group of men who allegedly abused street kids have received several calls concerning a man who said he worked with "books" who is connected with the inquiry.
Pedophile taskforce detectives appealed for public help in the case last Sunday, asking anyone who may have information about the mystery man to come forward. ...
A former church deacon, 82, is facing multiple counts of indecently assaulting a former street kid while a prominent Adelaide legal identity, 57, is facing nine sex charges involving street kids.
GROVE (OK)
Neosho Daily News
By John Ford / Daily News Associate Editor
Published: Sunday, September 3, 2006 12:35 AM CDT
GROVE, Okla. - Four church leaders facing felony child sexual abuse charges spanning three decades were asked to leave the Grove, Okla., campground Friday where they had been staying for much of the week.
Ron Riley, manager and owner of Bear's Den Resort, a private, members-only campground located near Sailboat Bridge in Grove, asked Raymond Lambert and four others in his party to leave late Friday afternoon.
The request came after members of the media alerted him to charges against Lambert and three other leaders of the Grace Independent Baptist Church, located in Washburn. Riley found a clause in the membership agreement which stated he could temporarily suspend the membership of anyone who is convicted or accused of a felony crime.
“They are good members in good standing,” he said. “But we do have a responsibility to our others as well. We want to ensure the safety of our members, particularly of our members' children. So this is a good compromise.”
IRELAND
The Sunday Times
John Burns
IT was set up by the church to help victims of abuse in industrial schools improve their education. But three years later it has emerged that less than one in three beneficiaries of a €12.7m trust fund has ever set foot in an industrial school or orphanage.
Furthermore, a large proportion of the proceeds of the compensation fund appears to have been spent on Irish dancing and salsa classes, driving lessons and swimming instruction.
A spokesman for the Education Finance Board (EFB), which is responsible for handing out the cash, says only 27.9% of those who have got grants are former residents of industrial schools. “The remainder are mostly children of residents, and some spouses,” he said. “The grants have been for a range of courses, from basic literacy to masters degrees.”
Almost 1,500 people from Ireland and around the world have received payments totalling €3.2m, an average of €2,100 each. There is still €10.5m left in the fund, which is being looked after by theAbuse Tracker Treasury Management Agency.
NEWARK (NJ)
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
September 2, 2006
The following essay was written by Father Robert Hoatson.
At the July 21-23 SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests) Conference at a Jersey City, NJ hotel, Richard Sipe, former Benedictine monk, therapist, and expert on celibacy, in a talk entitled "The Power of Powerlessness," challenged attendees to consider two principal questions: "Why did you trust the priest who abused you?", and "Why did your parents allow you to be with the priest who abused you?" The answers to these two questions form the foundation of the explanation for the Catholic Church's sexual abuse crisis and its ongoing denial and cover-up.
On December 13, 2005, I filed a five million dollar lawsuit against a number of Catholic Church entities and individuals for the sexual abuse I endured from the time I was eighteen years of age, and for the retaliation and harassment I received from all church quarters, especially its leadership, for publicly revealing my abuse and attempting to assist in the clean-up of my church's dirty secret.
Two weeks after I filed my lawsuit, invitations (which I had already accepted) to speak at two Voice of the Faithful (a Catholic reform organization) meetings in the New York metropolitan area were withdrawn. The reason: In my lawsuit, I had accused one bishop, one archbishop, and one cardinal of having violated their vows/promises of celibacy by engaging in sexual abuse or consensual sex. Voice of the Faithful believed it was abhorrent for a priest to accuse bishops of sexual misconduct, so two of its affiliate chapters uninvited me. One later reversed its decision after being bombarded with protests.
ROME
Boston Magazine
By Francis X. Rocca
Every Sunday morning at 10, an usher stands outside the sacristy of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome and tugs on a rope to ring a bell. At this signal, the organist and choir take up the morning’s hymn, an original work composed by the basilica’s choirmaster. On this cue, the congregation rises to its feet. A procession of nearly 30 men, including acolytes, priests, and two bishops, heads up the nave, trailing incense in its wake. At the end of the line is the basilica’s archpriest, wearing his miter and carrying his gold and silver shepherd’s crook. After making his way past an audience of a thousand worshipers and camera-wielding tourists, Bernard Francis Cardinal Law takes his place behind the altar.
Nearly four years removed from the clergy sex-abuse crisis that finally forced him to resign as archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Law remains a highly respected member of the Catholic Church’s hierarchy in Rome. As archpriest of St. Mary Major, he runs one of the Eternal City’s four patriarchal basilicas, a post that offers him a worthy setting in which to express his well-known flair for liturgical ceremony. The church, which features a special altar reserved for the use of the pope, predates the fall of the Roman empire and contains 15 centuries’ worth of priceless art. Surely the man who raised a $1.5 million private donation to refurbish Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross appreciates the privilege of offering Mass surrounded by fifth-century mosaics and an ornate ceiling that is said to have been gilded with the first haul of ore Columbus brought back from the New World.
CHICAGO (IL)
The Wanderer
By Thomas F. Roeser
CHICAGO-As we discussed her service as interim head of theAbuse Tracker Review Board-the group set up by the Catholic bishops through a public relations agency to smooth over pedophilia-Anne Burke told me she believes the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops should be disbanded. “All it is,” she said, “is a trade association. And not a very good one at that.”
That conforms exactly to what Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska said much earlier. To both of them, the existence of the marble mausoleum headquarters in Washington, D. C., the ornate assembly room, decked out like the UN Security Council with individual microphones, gives an air of egregious pretense and politicization not to mention a huge expense paid out from well-meaning Church donors. The USCCB with its bureaucrats entices bishops to pass the buck on tough issues to a faceless association in Washington. Actually, the Conference was built as a personal vehicle for then Bishop Joseph Bernardin to build a following and win recognition from Rome.
That Bishop Bruskewitz, the best known and most courageous authenticist prelate in the United States and Burke, a gutsy critic of the bishops’ establishment which has excluded Bruskewitz, didn’t communicate during her tenure strikes some as a shame. Both are natural rebels; both have naturally blunt but honest styles. They don’t agree on everything but could have worked together on some important matters. Knowing both, this Wanderer reporter thinks such an alliance could have been fascinating and performed great things for the Church.
They seem to agree on a number of things. First, on their view that robust discipline and courageous handling of erring clerics by bishops rather than by namby-pamby methods of transferring them to other assignments, postponed solution of the problems and actually worsened them. Bruskewitz has been eloquent on that issue, that the failings had been caused by “the bishops’ own (how shall we say it) sloth, folly, negligence or whatever it might be. I think it’s unquestionable that history and God Himself will judge very adversely the carelessness or recklessness or whatever it was that caused this situation to develop.” Burke expressed the same sentiments in pungent fashion with me.
MISSOURI
Neosho Daily News
Published: Friday, September 1, 2006 10:00 PM CDT
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Four McDonald County church leaders facing child sexual abuse charges spanning four decades were asked to leave an Oklahoma campground Friday.
Daily News reporters John Ford and Todd G. Higdon were at the scene Friday when Raymond Lambert, his wife, Patty, and her brothers, Paul and Tom Epling, were asked to leave a campground on Grand Lake where they had been staying for most of the week.
UNITED STATES
Kansas City Star
By DANIEL BURKE
Religion News Service
U.S. Roman Catholic bishops have issued revised guidelines for teaching and accepting candidates for the priesthood, placing additional emphasis on celibacy and formally adopting the Vatican’s ban on “those who practice homosexuality” or support “gay culture.”
The Program of Priestly Formation, which has governed U.S. seminaries since 1971, was last updated in 1992. The new version reflects the church’s response to the clergy sexual abuse scandal by calling for greater scrutiny of men who want to be priests.
The new rules tighten admission policies and explicitly ban any applicant who has been involved in the sexual abuse of a minor or shows evidence of a sexual attraction to children.
According to the new guidelines, “thresholds pertaining to sexuality serve as the foundation for living a lifelong commitment to healthy, chaste celibacy. As we have recently seen so dramatically in the church, when such foundations are lacking in priests, the consequent suffering and scandals are devastating.”
SONOMA (CA)
Napa Valley Register
By DAVID RYAN, Register Staff Writer
Saturday, September 2, 2006 1:12 AM PDT
A fugitive Sonoma priest who told church officials that he had sexual contact with young boys in Sonoma, Napa and Mexico worked at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Napa during the 1990s, according to top church officials.
The Sonoma County Sheriff's Department is investigating whether Rev. Francisco Xavier Ochoa broke the law while he was in Napa, but so far the investigation has been fruitless.
"Our understanding is that prior to coming to Sonoma in 2000 or 2001, he was in Napa," Sonoma County Sheriff's officer Sgt. Dennis O'Leary said. "We are trying to find out what happened over there. We haven't found any documentation at this time. There isn't a police report we can locate and there doesn't seem to be anything in his personnel file."
PINEVILLE (MO)
Neosho Daily News
By John Ford / Daily News Associate Editor
Published: Friday, September 1, 2006 5:25 PM CDT
PINEVILLE - George Otis Johnston turned himself in to McDonald County authorities late Thursday afternoon and immediately posted a $50,000 bond.
Johnston, 63, the pastor of Grandview Valley Baptist Church North in Granby, faces one Class A felony count of first degree child molestation in a ritual or ceremony in McDonald County.
Johnston also faces eight felony counts of statutory sodomy in Newton County, including seven unclassified first degree charges and a Class C second degree count.
The pastor turned himself in to deputies at the McDonald County Sheriff's Department at about 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon, according to Mike LeSueur, a child abuse investigator with the department.
MILWAUKEE (WI)
Los Angeles Times
By John Spano, Times Staff Writer
12:34 PM PDT, September 1, 2006
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Milwaukee has agreed to pay eight victims of the late Father Siegfried Widera $13.3 million, ending the litigation against the serial child molester who jumped to his death from the balcony of a hotel in Mexico rather than face criminal charges in the United States.
Added to the settlement from a church in California two years ago, the victims will receive a total of $28 million, or a record $3.6 million per plaintiff.
Widera was convicted of child molestation in Milwaukee in 1976, then sent to Orange County three years later. But the Milwaukee archdiocese failed to disclose the conviction in a letter to Orange County church officials, saying Widera posed "no great risk."
The settlement, along with Milwaukee's decision to release many documents in the cases, was hailed by lawyers for the victims.
MILWAUKEE (WI)
Orange County Register
By EMILY FREDRIX
The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE – The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has agreed to pay more than $16 million to settle sexual-abuse claims involving 10 victims in California and a priest the archdiocese had transferred there, church officials said Friday.
Half the settlement will come from insurance, the archdiocese said. The deal was reached after two days of court-ordered mediation.
"Our hope, always, is to continue our progress in reaching resolution with anyone who was a victim of clergy sexual abuse," Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan said in a statement. "We believe this agreement brings closure to all cases in California and, hopefully, provides healing for victims/survivors."
The Milwaukee Archdiocese had transferred Siegfried Widera to California in 1981, knowing the priest had a his-tory of abuse.
MILWAUKEE (WI)
Chicago Tribune
Items compiled from Tribune news services
Published September 2, 2006
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN -- The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee has agreed to pay more than $16 million to settle sexual abuse claims involving 10 victims in California and two priests, one transferred there by the archdiocese, church officials said Friday.
Half the settlement will come from insurance, the archdiocese said. The deal was reached after two days of court-ordered mediation.
"We believe this agreement brings closure to all cases in California and, hopefully, provides healing for victims survivors," Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan said.
MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Tom Heinen
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has reached settlements that could total $16 million or more with eight victims of clergy sexual abuse whose lawsuits were heading for trial in California, according to an attorney representing one of the victims.
Jeff Anderson, a Minnesota attorney who is known nationally for his handling of sexual abuse lawsuits, said early this morning that his client received a $2 million settlement. Based on his conversations with other attorneys, he said he thought that seven other victims probably received settlements ranging from $2 million to $3 million.
The settlements were approved by a judge in California on Wednesday, he said.
As part of the agreement, the settlements were to be announced today, he added.
Asked whether the archdiocese had reached settlements in the California cases, archdiocesan spokesman Jerry Topczewski early this morning said, "I can tell you this: the Archdiocese of Milwaukee remains committed to seeking resolutions with any victim survivor of sexual abuse of a minor by a diocesan priest."
MILWAUKEE (WI)
Houston Chronicle
The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE — The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has agreed to pay more than $16 million to settle sexual abuse claims involving 10 victims in California and a priest the archdiocese had transferred there, church officials said Friday.
Half the settlement will come from insurance, the archdiocese said. The deal was reached after two days of court-ordered mediation.
"Our hope, always, is to continue our progress in reaching resolution with anyone who was a victim of clergy sexual abuse," Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan said in a statement. "We believe this agreement brings closure to all cases in California and, hopefully, provides healing for victims/survivors."
The Milwaukee Archdiocese had transferred Siegfried Widera to California in 1981, knowing the priest had a history of abuse.
New Oxford Review
By Dale Vree
Dale Vree is Editor of New Oxford Review.
Fr. Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, is probably the most prominent priest to be disciplined by the Catholic Church for homosexual predation, that is, pederasty. Former Legionary Juan Vaca sent the first petition to the Holy See in 1976. He identified himself and 20 others as victims of Maciel's homosexual activity. It took 30 years for the case to be resolved. The case was reopened in 2004 by Cardinal Ratzinger of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). Ratzinger sent Msgr. Charles Scicluna to investigate the matter. According to John L. Allen Jr., the ace Vatican correspondent, Msgr. Scicluna gave the number of accusers as "more than 20, but less than 100" (NCRonline.org, May 18, 2006).
The official communiqué for the CDF on May 19, 2006, said in part: "Beginning in 1998, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith received accusations, already partly made public, against Fr. Marcial Maciel...for crimes that fall under the exclusive competence of the congregation.... After having attentively studied the results of the investigation, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith...decided -- bearing in mind Fr. Maciel's advanced age and his delicate health -- to forgo a canonical hearing and to invite the father to a reserved life of penitence and prayer, relinquishing any form of public ministry. The Holy Father approved these decisions."
The Legionaries and Regnum Christi (the Legion's lay affiliate) followed with an official statement on May 19, which said in part: "Facing the accusations made against him [Maciel], he declared his innocence and, following the example of Jesus Christ, decided not to defend himself in any way."
GEORGIA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By GAYLE WHITE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/01/06
A judge ruled Thursday that Bishop Earl Paulk must face questioning in the sexual misconduct lawsuit filed against him by two former parishioners and staff members of his South DeKalb church.
DeKalb Superior Court Judge Mark Anthony Scott told lawyers for Paulk, "This needs to happen. It needs to happen sooner rather than later."
Paulk did not attend the hearing.
Mona and Bobby Brewer, former leaders of Paulk's Chapel Hill Harvester Church, filed suit a year ago accusing Paulk of coercing Mona Brewer into an affair that lasted 14 years.
A lawyer for Paulk acknowledged that Paulk had a brief sexual relationship with Mona Brewer, but said she was the initiator.
ANOKA (MN)
Pioneer Press
BY STEVE SCOTT
Pioneer Press
Members of a church sex-abuse survivors group will distribute pamphlets at St. Stephen Catholic Church in Anoka on Sunday morning informing parishioners that a former teacher of the parish school was recently identified as an accused abuser.
St. John's Abbey in Collegeville in early August publicly identified three accused priests, including the Rev. Michael Bik, who was accused in 1997 of abusing two teenage boys in the 1970s, before his ordination.
Officials of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said Thursday their employee pension records indicate Bik would have taught at St. Stephen sometime between 1971 and 1992. They said, however, that they had no record of receiving the 1997 allegations against Bik and had not been aware of him until the recent statement by the abbey, where Bik lives.
The pamphlet, to be distributed by members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, says Archbishop Harry Flynn "kept silent" about the allegations against Bik.
ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union
By CAROL DeMARE, Staff writer
First published: Friday, September 1, 2006
ALBANY -- Every Roman Catholic diocese decides how it will handle priests found to have sexually abused children, Albany diocesan spokesman Ken Goldfarb said Thursday.
Since the abuse scandal broke four years ago, the Albany Diocese has removed from ministry about 20 priests, meaning they can no longer function as priests, Goldfarb said.
Once removed, a priest "may not dress or represent himself as a priest nor can he be alone with children," he said.
Each priest is assigned a case worker as a contact person and resource, and must inform the diocese where he is living through his contact person and when he travels outside his residence area, even if it's outside the diocese, Goldfarb said.
NEW YORK
The Journal News
By THE JOURNAL NEWS
STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
A small number of New York priests suspected of sexually abusing minors has been given the option of entering a lifelong supervision program or leaving the priesthood, according to the New York Archdiocese.
Since June, seven priests have been presented with the choice, and five of the men have chosen to leave the priesthood, said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for Cardinal Edward Egan. All seven previously had their cases heard by the Vatican, which kicked them back to Egan for resolution.
The two priests who chose not to leave the priesthood are expected to spend their lives in closely supervised housing, where they will undergo therapy and maintain a daily log of their movements. These men will not be permitted to say Mass in public, dress as priests, be alone with children or "inappropriately use computers," according to a letter sent to the priests by Egan.
The two men will live temporarily at Trinity Retreat House in Larchmont before being moved to permanent housing. Trinity Retreat is run by the archdiocese and has long offered spiritual retreats for active priests and special programs for priests battling alcoholism and other personal problems.
FLORIDA
Bradenton Herald
By NIKKI WALLER
nwaller@MiamiHerald.com
A Margate priest charged with sexually abusing a young boy is scheduled to appear in Broward Circuit Court this morning so a judge can check the progress of trial preparations and set a new court date.
The Rev. Neil Doherty, the former priest at St. Vincent Catholic Church in Margate, has been charged with sexually abusing the boy -- starting when he was 10 years old -- and continuing for several years, beginning in the 1990s. If convicted, he could face life in prison. Doherty's attorney, David Bogenschutz, has denied the allegations.
Several other alleged victims have filed civil suits against the Archdiocese of Miami, which oversees the church, contending that Doherty abused them.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
THE return of the native is complete at last. In a sense, of course, the native in question, Bishop Eamonn Casey, returned finally to his home soil in February. But he came back under a shadow. It had to lift before he could genuinely and finally say to himself, "I'm home".
The shadow was not the one caused by the Annie Murphy scandal. That had already lifted, more or less, albeit after a period of 14 years in exile. People can do less time than that for murder.
No, this shadow was potentially much more damaging, one that would have finished him once and for all. It concerned allegations of abuse made against him by a middle-aged woman that date back 30 years.
PINEVILLE (MO)
Neosho Daily News
By John Ford / Daily News Associate Editor
Published: Thursday, August 31, 2006 5:05 PM CDT
PINEVILLE - Four church leaders accused of child sexual abuse charges with incidents going back more than 30 years have apparently left their McDonald County compound.
Mike LeSueur, a deputy and child abuse investigator with the McDonald County Sheriff's Department, said he and two other deputies, David Roark and Mike Miller, served a search warrant at Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church Wednesday night, accompanied by three juvenile officers: Cathy Gorham, Pat Stuart and Tal Clubbs.
Inside the compound, they found eight children: Two infants ages one month and one year; a 13-year-old; a 14-year-old; and two 16-year-olds.
FORT WORTH (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
As the prison door slams shut on Terry Lee Hornbuckle, powerhouse-preacher-turned-serial-rapist, an absurd schoolyard jingle keeps ringing in my head.
It's that timeworn counter-taunt meant to convince hecklers and bullies that you're impervious to their insults:
I'm rubber, and you're glue! It bounces off me and sticks to you!
Which is pretty much what happened during the courtroom showdown between the powerful, famous, rich minister and his comparatively obscure accusers.
It was an ugly trial, but there's a grim justice in the fact that every vile epithet the defense team used to discredit the victims boomeranged back onto their client.
DARIEN (CT)
The Advocate
By Angela Carella
Assistant City Editor
Published September 1 2006
The Catholic priest who blew the whistle on his boss, a former pastor accused of stealing more than $1 million from St. John's church in Darien, said "something died" in him the day the bishop had him apologize for hiring a private investigator to review the parish books.
The Rev. Michael Madden, who resigned from the parish Tuesday and left the priesthood, told the Darien Times he does not believe he betrayed the Bridgeport Diocese by asking the private eye to investigate the Rev. Michael Jude Fay, who was pastor of St. John's for 15 years.
"My conscience has always been clear as far as my actions go, because I know that I have tried to do right by the people the bishop entrusted to my care, and as the evidence clearly shows, nobody else was looking out for them or Fay wouldn't have been able to have carried on for all these years," Madden, 45, told the weekly newspaper in an interview published yesterday.
Bishop William Lori has said Madden and the former church bookkeeper, Bethany D'Erario, should not have taken the matter outside the diocese. Lori's office sent out a statement in May with an apology from Madden, with Madden's signature at the bottom.
NEW YORK
Island Packet
The Associated Press
Published Thursday, August 31, 2006
NEW YORK (AP) - Priests suspected of sexually abusing children but protected from expulsion by Catholic law are being offered a choice in the New York Archdiocese: Enter a lifelong supervision program or leave the church.
Since June, five of the seven priests in that situation have chosen to leave the priesthood, said archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling.
The other two are expected to spend their lives in closely supervised housing, where they will undergo therapy and maintain a daily log of their movements. They will not be permitted to celebrate Mass in public, dress as priests, be alone with children or "inappropriately use computers," according to a letter sent to the priests by Cardinal Edward Egan.
Previously, suspected abusers had been barred from functioning as priests but were required only to notify the archdiocese of where they were living, Zwilling said.
LAS VEGAS (NV)
The Post Chronicle
By Mitch Marconi
Aug 31, 2006
Polygamist leader Warren Steed Jeffs has reportedly agreed to waive extradition on sexual abuse charges, a prosecutor said on Thursday, according to reports.
Jeffs, a bespeckled balding man in the FBI Top 10 Most Wanted list, was arrested earlier in the week without incident in a routine traffic stop outside of Las Vegas, according to wire reports.
The car in which Jeffs, 50, was discovered was stopped by state trooper because he suspected Jeffs was inside. There were reportedly 2 other people in the vehicle, a rather gaudy red Escalade. They have reportedly been identified as one of his wives, Naomi Jeffs, and one of his brothers, says a FOX news report.
LARCHMONT (NY)
Larchmont Gazette
by Judy Silberstein
(August 31, 2006) New York Archdiocese priests credibly accused of sexually abusing children, but not legally convicted, are being offered the option of life-long close supervision that begins with a stay at Larchmont’s Trinity House Retreat. According to Joseph Zwilling, spokesperson for the archdiocese, since a new program’s inception in June, seven priests received options. Five resigned from the priesthood; one arrived at Trinity House a few days ago, and another is on his way.
Attention was drawn to the program this week after some media outlets received copies of a June letter to the priests from Cardinal Edward M. Egan and began publishing reports. (See: The New York Times: A Choice for New York Priests in Abuse Cases.) The Larchmont Gazette began receiving inquiries and comments early Thursday morning, though most local officials and neighbors of the Trinity House declined to comment. (See Appalled at Alleged Sex Abusers Being Sent to Trinity Retreat.)
The program calls for either leaving the priesthood or leading a “life of prayer and penance because of inappropriate behavior in the past,” said Mr. Zwilling, when contacted for explanation. Participants are generally of “advanced age or infirmity” and their cases have been reported to the local district attorneys where the abuse allegedly occurred and reviewed by the archdiocese and by Rome. While residing at Trinity House, the two priests will be under “close supervision” as they undergo psychological evaluation at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Harrison that will determine their next placement and further treatment, said Mr. Zwilling.
LAS VEGAS (NV)
Review-Journal
By FRANCIS McCABE and BRIAN HAYNES
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Warren Jeffs' followers believed he would guide them to heaven.
But the self-proclaimed prophet and suspected rape accomplice is heading to purgatory -- the Washington County, Utah, jail.
Dressed in navy blue prison fatigues, his thin limbs shackled, the 50-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints appeared stunned as he stood Thursday before a throng of media and Las Vegas Justice of the Peace James Bixler.
Mumbling quietly, the 6-foot-3-inch Jeffs agreed to "go ahead and be extradited" to Utah, where he faces two counts of rape as an accomplice for marrying a girl younger than 18 to an older man and insisting she procreate against her will.
The charges carry sentences of five years to life.
Utah authorities have 30 days to make the transfer, but Bixler told Jeffs: "I don't think it is going to take that long."
Jeffs was arrested Monday night on Interstate 15 near Apex after a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper pulled over the red Cadillac Escalade he was traveling in for not having a visible license plate.
MISSOURI
The Joplin Globe
Allegations in the sexual-abuse cases of two pastors of affiliated churches in Newton and McDonald counties are discomforting and raise comparisons to revelations in recent years involving pedophile priests. In both instances, the public has been confronted with crimes purportedly committed against innocent children by individuals in positions of spiritual and moral leadership.
Our sense of outrage is heightened not only by the youth of the alleged victims, but by the suspicion that a sacred trust may have been violated.
The allegations of abuse are serious and carry serious consequences if those charged are found guilty. Yet, any early, emotion-driven rush to judgment would ignore a cornerstone of our criminal justice system: Innocence must be presumed until guilt is proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Such verdicts will be handed down on the basis of evidence and testimony in a court of law by a judge or jury.
The public has every right to be outraged and dismayed at the eight felony counts of sexual abuse alleged in the Newton County case and the multiple charges brought against the pastor, his wife and two deacons in McDonald County. We might wonder, too, if other charges might be forthcoming as the investigations into the churches — Grandview Valley Baptist Church North in rural Granby and Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church near Powell — continue.
MISSOURI
News-Leader
Marcus Kabel
The Associated Press
Four southwest Missouri church leaders charged with ritual sexual abuse of children in a reclusive live-in community have left their compound and gone out of state, authorities said Thursday.
The departure does not violate the conditions of their bonds, set at between $30,000 and $50,000 each, as long as they appear for a preliminary hearing Oct. 2, McDonald County prosecutor Steve Geeding said.
The disappearance was discovered late Wednesday when sheriff's deputies armed with a search warrant went to the rural McDonald County compound to remove any children. Authorities in neighboring Newton County last week removed 14 children from an affiliated church after its pastor also was charged with child abuse.
Deputies accompanied by juvenile authorities Wednesday found eight children, whose ages ranged from 1 month to 16 years, among about 25 people still at the compound, which had up to 100 residents as recently as a few months ago, Deputy Mike LeSueur said.
SALISBURY (MD)
The Daily Times
By Ben Penserga
Staff Writer
SALISBURY -- Four former congregation members filed a civil lawsuit against the bishop of New Life Apostolic Church on Thursday, accusing him of using his position to help start sexual relationships.
The plaintiffs are seeking a total of $1 million in damage against Bishop Richard C. Lawson, 57, for allegedly making separate advances toward the four women -- whose ages range from 18 to 26 -- in a two-year period starting in 2004.
Reached at his home Thursday evening, Lawson declined to comment until he could talk to his attorney.
Thursday's lawsuit comes less than a month after Lawson's son and current pastor of the church, 30-year-old Joshua Lawson, was acquitted on criminal charges alleging he had an inappropriate relationship with a then 16-year-old female member of the Salisbury church.
Soon after Joshua Lawson's charges came to light in February, the Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office said someone tried to set the church on fire.
The Tidings
By Francis X. Maier
Part three of three; thirty-sixth in a series.
Whatever the merit of these claims of clergy sexual abuse against a minor, the plaintiff's attorneys' goal is always the same: to overturn existing statutes of limitations for private (but not public) institutions. Once these safeguards go, the "legalized looting" --- to quote one angry Catholic parent --- can begin.
How can a church community defend itself when an alleged perpetrating priest is dead, and so is every other witness except the accuser? But this has happened again and again.
More than 1,000 new plaintiffs came forward in California during a 2003 suspension of the statute of limitations. So far, California Catholic dioceses and religious orders have paid out roughly $250 million to plaintiffs, and the bleeding continues.
The attack on statutes of limitations by plaintiffs' attorneys has now touched 14 or more states. It's a classic display of entrepreneurial skill --- the fruit of years of carefully cultivating victims' anger, media gloating, the hostility of some lawmakers toward the Church, confusion and guilt by Church leaders, and resentment among the faithful.
The effect on American Catholic life is catastrophic. There's no "Catholic Superfund" to pay for these massive, retroactive sex-abuse settlements, no secret pile of ecclesial wealth; and insurance, even in the best circumstances, covers only a modest portion of the total damages. In some dioceses, insurance companies are suing the Church to avoid payment.
SANTA ROSA (CA)
Catholic Online
8/31/2006
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
SANTA ROSA, Calif. (Catholic Online) – Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel Walsh faces possible prosecution for not making a timely report of evidence of sexual abuse, in what could be the first time a U.S. Catholic official has faced criminal charges for failing to properly report abuse and the first time a bishop has been charged in the U.S. sexual-abuse scandal.
The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office has recommended criminal charges be filed against the bishop over a report concerning 68-year-old Father Francisco Xavier Ochoa, a Sonoma priest who has since fled the country.
"Based upon our investigation, the evidence indicates that this case is worthy of district attorney review," Lt. Dave Edmonds said in a written statement released Aug. 25, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Sonoma County district attorney's office must decide whether it will seek to prosecute the case.
In an August statement, entitled “A Candid Message from Bishop Walsh,” posted on the Diocese of Santa Rosa Web site, the bishop acknowledged “my lack of speed in reporting the reprehensive behavior of the Rev. Ochoa,” which, he said, was not intended to allow Father Ochoa time to escape.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSDK
By Jeff Small
(KSDK) - One day after Bryan Kuchar was released from jail, his victim is talking for the first time.
Sean Lindenbusch calls Kuchar a mentor who turned into a sexual predator. Lindenbusch says Kuchar nearly destroyed his life.
Normally NewsChannel 5 does not reveal the identities of crime victims. In this case, Lindenbusch wants everyone to see the face of a victim, and hear what it means to live a life, trying to overcome hurtful memories and experiences of abuse.
To the public, Sean Lindenbusch had a horrifying story of molestation, yet no name or face until now.
"I think the message I am trying to convey is that I will put my face out there and stand up and be counted and say this happened to me and it is okay and I am okay," says Lindenbusch.
TENNESSEE
The Jackson Sun
David P. Gushee
The sudden resignation of Father Richard Mickey of St. Mary's Catholic Church has kicked up fresh discussion locally of the sexual abuse charges still pending against him. While Father Mickey has left our community, the issues his situation has raised remain with us.
Thinking rightly about this issue is deeply challenging. It requires people to hold in tension important facts and moral principles. It also requires the capacity to reason rather than to be carried away by emotions. It tests our capacity for fairness and justice.
Here are some key facts worth noting. Tragically, sexual abuse of children and young people in Christian settings does sometimes happen. Such sexual abuse is an egregious misuse of power. Sexual abuse of children is devastating to those who are its victims and to the moral witness of the church. Preventing and punishing the sexual abuse of children and youth are critically mportant moral and legal priorities.
But here are some other important facts: Ministers, teachers, and all who are in the helping professions are vulnerable to false sexual abuse charges because of their close working relationships with people, especially troubled people, and especially troubled children and youth. Civil lawsuits are a way to make a great deal of money if you win. The current climate of mistrust of ministers, especially Catholic priests, makes it difficult to be treated as innocent until proven guilty, at least in the court of public opinion. Completely unfounded accusations of sexual misconduct can destroy a minister's or teacher's career.
TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By MARK REITER
BLADE STAFF WRITER
It was an unusual ending for an unusual court action involving a former priest who the Toledo Catholic Diocese dismissed over allegations of sexual abuse and is now banned from a West Toledo church.
When ex-priest Chet Warren’s appearance at a civil proceeding in Toledo Municipal Court concluded Monday, Judge Robert Christiansen allowed him to leave the courthouse via a nonpublic elevator so he could avoid reporters and cameras.
Mr. Warren is a defendant in a civil complaint filed by the Toledo Diocese to keep the ex-priest from entering Blessed Sacrament Church in West Toledo.
The use of the elevator, which is normally reserved for judges and court personnel, allowed Mr. Warren and his attorney, Martin Mohler, to escape the waiting media by leaving through an underground parking garage below the courthouse that is not open to the public.
The Rev. Michael Billian, Episcopal vicar of the diocese, and attorneys for the Toledo Diocese, who filed the complaint last December against the former priest, left the building by using the same elevator.