MISSOURI
Crime Scene KC

That's after authorities filed 11 more charges in the case on Thursday, Don Bradley reports. Today's report has more about the allegations:

The alleged abuse occurred from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, when the sisters ranged in age from 5 to mid-teens. The case broke when one went to police in August. Her siblings have since supported her version of events.

MISSOURI
The Pitch

By Justin Kendall in News
Fri., Nov. 20 2009

​Fox 4 reports that the mother of the alleged sexual abuse victims and a former Mormon bishop in Independence knew about the allegations of sexual abuse inside the Mohler family.

Ex-bishop Paul Tonga told Fox 4 that Burrel Mohler Jr.'s wife came to him several times and relayed fears that her husband was abusing their children.

Tonga, who was the leader of the church where Mohler Jr.'s worshiped, explained that he questioned Burrel Mohler Jr. and the children, but didn't learn anything.

WHITE PLAINS (NY)
The Journal News

By Rebecca Baker • rebaker@lohud.com • November 20, 2009

WHITE PLAINS — An Ecuadorean priest who had been visiting a Mamaroneck church pleaded guilty today to a charge that he groped a parishoner who sought marriage counseling from him in 2004.

The Rev. Richard Ordonez, a 38-year-old member of the Salesians order who had been living at St. Vito’s Roman Catholic Church, will serve no jail time after pleading to a reduced charge of forcible touching, a misdemeanor. He agreed to perform up to 500 hours of community service and to stay away from the victim.

He will be sentenced Jan. 12 to a conditional discharge, meaning he will not be supervised by probation. He remains free on $50,000 bail.

UNITED STATES
Voice from the Desert

Here is an email from my friend Paul Kendrick about Voice of the Faithful’s (VOTF) new dues policy and its role in VOTF’s February, 2010, election of officers.

Following Paul’s remarks, you’ll find a copy of a letter from the Chair of VOTF’s Board of Trustees about their new dues policy.

* * *
Subject: VOTF announces amendment — new rules that will humiliate its less fortunate members

TO: VOTF LEADERSHIP

On October 20, 2009, Voice of the Faithful announced that its members will have to pay $50 ($85 per couple) if they want to vote in VOTF’s national elections. These members will be called “Voting Members”. All others will be called “Members,” but they will not be able to vote.

As such, VOTF has created two different classes of members, the “haves” and the “have-nots.”

AUSTRALIA
The Herald

21 Nov, 2009
HUNTER-based Catholics are shunning Mass in droves, with irrelevance, abuse at the hands of clergy and disagreement with the Church's teachings on sex among the main reasons.

According to research carried out by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, only 10.2 per cent of Catholics in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle attend Mass.

The national average for Mass attendance across the Church's 28 Australian diocese was 13.8 per cent.

UNITED STATES
Catholic League

November 20, 2009

Catholic League president Bill Donohue addresses a serious issue involving gay activists in the District of Columbia:

A new homosexual website, ChurchOuting.org, is intent on publicly disclosing who the gay priests are in the Archdiocese of Washington. The goal of this outing is to intimidate gay priests, as well as heterosexual priests who may be “romantically involved,” into voicing objections to the Catholic Church’s opposition to gay marriage.

This initiative is the work of Phil Attey, self-described as “Liberal-Gay-Ardent Obama Supporter”; he was active in the Obama Pride Metro-DC campaign. According to one news report, “Attey is going to approach priests he thinks are gay, and warn them that they better stop lobbying against gay people, seeing how gay they are…or…else?”

IRELAND
BBC News

Dublin-based priest has denied sexually abusing three County Fermanagh girls more than 30 years ago.

Fr Eugene Lewis, 75, with an address at Cypress Grove House, Templeogue, was arraigned before Dungannon Crown Court on 11 charges involving three sisters.

The charges involve allegations of indecent assault on differing dates in the 1960s and 1970s.

WILMINGTON (DE)
WBAL

Friday, November 20, 2009
WBAL Radio and Associated Press

The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, which covers the Eastern Shore, is asking a bankruptcy judge to allow it to continue paying retiree benefits to priests who committed sexual abuse.

After filing for Chapter 11 protection last month, the diocese told the judge it would not make any payments to priests accused of sexual abuse, even if the abuse had not been substantiated, without a court order.

WILMINGTON (DE)
Reuters

Nov 20 (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, has sought bankruptcy court approval to continue providing pensions and medical coverage to certain priests accused of sexually abusing children, court papers showed.

The diocese said in a filing on Thursday that it has "an obligation under Canon Law to care for retired clergy" and sought to continue providing medical coverage to the defrocked priest Francis DeLuca.

"While several priests have been dismissed from the public ministry and have laicization proceedings pending against them, for the time being they remain clergy whom the Debtor (the diocese) supports, and must continue to support," the filing said.

WILMINGTON (DE)
The Associated Press

By RANDALL CHASE (AP)

WILMINGTON, Del. — The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington says it is obligated to keep paying retirement benefits to six priests who church officials have confirmed are pedophiles.

The diocese filed for Chapter 11 protection last month. Officials had told the judge the church would not make any payments to priests accused of sexual abuse without a court order, even if the abuse had not been substantiated.

IRELAND
RTE News

Friday, 20 November 2009 17:22
A Dublin-based Catholic priest has appeared in court in Co Tyrone to face a series of sex charges.

75-year-old Fr Eugene Lewis, with an address at Cyprus Grove House in Templeogue in Dublin, was accused of 11 charges alleging indecent assault involving three sisters.

The charges date back to the years between 1963 and 1973.

CALIFORNIA
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling

Part One: The bishop of San Diego used the words "dumping ground" in 1950 when he complained to Rome that too many problem priests were ending up in Banning, Beaumont and other towns in the developing region. By the 1960s the Franciscans had moved 26 priests from San Diego to Santa Barbara, where they then raped dozens of children. The letter to Rev. James T. Booth in Rome April 26, 1950, is Exhibit A attached to two new lawsuits filed Nov. 3, 2009, in Santa Barbara.

The Francicans continue to hide the crimes of their pedophile priests, other evidence in the Complaints shows. Now Franciscan pedophiles who were removed from the priesthood, are showing up as therapists and teachers - Working with Teenagers, Living near Children - in towns around the Northwestern United States.

There are so many new charges, so much new evidence, new stories about old pedophile priests and old stories about new ones in the pages of these two new lawsuits filed November 3 in Santa Barbara that City of Angels has to break our reporting into several different parts.

UNITED STATES
Leon J. Podles: Dialogue

Father Michael asks some good questions.

These is no psychological classification of “ephebophile.” An ephebophile is just a homosexual who likes teenage boys, just as there are many adult heterosexuals (such as Roman Polanski) who like teenage girls. The term ephebophile is a smokescreen to disguise the fact that some homosexuals have teenage victims.

I do not know whether homosexuals are more youth-oriented than heterosexuals are. There is some evidence that I cite in my book that they, but it is not overwhelming. What is firmly established is that homosexuals have far more sexual partners than heterosexuals do, and this means more victims.

Have the seminaries changed? I do not know. The bishops say they have changed, but the bishops also assured us there was no problem to begin with. I do not believe any fact that a bishop asserts until I have verified it.

UNITED STATES
Leon J. Podles: Dialogue

Very few cases of clerical abuse of minors involved true pedophilia: the sexual abuse of pre-pubertal children. Pedophiles often claim not to be homosexuals, and they may well be correct is this claim, but pedophilia is not the main problem in clerical abuse.

Most cases involved children at or above the age of puberty, and the vast majority of the reported victims were male. Decades of studies by criminologists and psychologists have shown that boys are far less likely to report abuse than girls are, because boys fear the stigma of homosexuality and because males are supposed to suffer and not complain.

The John Jay report claims that is the abusive priests had equal access to females, they would have had equal number of male and female victims. This I doubt. I won’t go into the nature of the sexual acts that priest did with boys, but let us say that they were focused on the male genitals. Many abusers seem to have been initiated into the culture of abuse by other priests, often in the seminary.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Brendan McDaid
Friday, 20 November 2009

The priest who quit after falling in love with a nurse today spoke out for the first time to make it clear his partner is not pregnant.

Fr Sean McKenna — who resigned his Holy Orders over his relationship with separated mother-of-two Elaine Curran — broke his silence claiming the mounting speculation had caused “great distress” to them both.

The 51-year-old said the rumours that Ms Curran was pregnant or that she had lost custody of her children were “completely untrue”. And he called for his peace and privacy to be respected.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Friday, 20 November 2009

The Republic’s High Court has cleared the way for a damning report into the handling of clerical sex abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese — to be published next week — that “will shock us all”.

However, references to a second priest facing abuse charges are to be censored.

Last night victim support groups, who welcomed the ruling, were bracing themselves for an increase in calls to their services when the report is published, most likely within days of Tuesday's cabinet meeting.

BOTSWANA
The Voice

By Calistus Bosaletswe
The Eloyi church pastor who was jailed for 10 years for having unlawful sex with a 14- year-old girl was back in court again this week demanding bail pending his appeal at the High Court.

Members of the church had assembled in court before the priest arrived dragging leg-iron chains and sporting a clean-shaven head. The defence lawyer, Busang Manewe, a new lawyer representing 23-year-old Samuel Ntsebele told the court that the lawyer who represented Ntsebele lied when he told the court that there was penetration.

Manewe pointed out that Ntsebele had a good prospect of success in his appeal as he was not afforded a fair trial as encouraged by the constitution. He said it appeared that failure of justice transpired between the former attorney and accused as they disagreed on certain elements of the case. The defence further pointed out that they would give sworn evidence before the High Court.

PHILIPPINES
Indian Catholic

MANILA : An Irish missioner plans to target Internet service providers (ISPs) who fail to heed new anti-child pornography legislation, as the next step in his long fight against the exploitation of women and children.

"I am delighted it was signed so quickly," Columban missioner Father Shay Cullen told UCA News after the Philippine president signed the Anti-Child Pornography Act on Nov. 17.

Father Cullen is director of the People's Recovery Empowerment Development Assistance Foundation, based in Olongapo City. The foundation aims to protect women and children from exploitation and poverty.

CANADA
CBC News

Priests in the diocese of Antigonish had the opportunity to express their feelings about the child pornography charges against Bishop Raymond Lahey during a two-day counselling session in North Sydney, N.S.

Rev. Paul Abbass, the spokesman for the diocese, said nearly 50 priests attended the sessions to speak about their feelings with peers and discuss ways to intervene with parishioners.

"It just gives them an opportunity to be able to talk very openly and very frankly with one another about what they felt and I think that will bring a nice degree of early healing to this process for them because they want to continue to serve well," he said.

ITALY
euronews

[with video]

Police in Italy are following a crucial new lead in the hunt for Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old girl who went missing after a flute lesson in Vatican City 26 years ago.

Detectives believe they have identified the voice of a man who called the missing girl’s family six days after she vanished.

The case has given rise to many outlandish claims over the years. Theories abound as to who is responsible for her disappearance.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Dearbhail McDonald, Breda Heffernan and Tim Healy

Friday November 20 2009

THE High Court yesterday cleared the way for the publication next week of a damning report into the handling of clerical sex abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese that "will shock us all".

However, references to a second priest facing abuse charges are to be censored.

Last night victim support groups, who welcomed the ruling, were bracing themselves for an increase in calls to their services when the report is published, most likely within days of Tuesday's cabinet meeting.

CANADA
The Daily Observer

Posted By TINA PEPLINSKIE TPEPLINSKIE@THEDAILYOBSERVER.CA

A Pembroke priest facing a number of sex-related charges in relation to five alleged victims will next appear in court Dec. 8.

The date for Monsignor Robert Borne was set following a prehearing Tuesday between the Crown attorney and defence counsel.

The 61-year-old Roman Catholic priest is facing 19 charges including gross indecency, sexual exploitation, indecent assault male and breach of trust, in connection with incidents that are alleged to have occurred between 1977 and 1993.

FAIRBANKS (AK)
News-Miner

by Mary Beth Smetzer / msmetzer@newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — A settlement between the Fairbanks Catholic Diocese and a creditors committee representing nearly 300 alleged sex abuse victims might be resolved by early next week.

Robert Hannon, diocesan chancellor, said Thursday that a recently forged mediated agreement is “broad in principle” and details are being worked out by attorneys on both sides.

“I can’t give specifics, but we have come to economic terms with the committee representing claimants, and the settlement will be announced on record at a hearing scheduled at the bankruptcy court on Nov. 24,” Hannon said.

CANADA
Kelowna

WINDSOR, Ont. – A former Catholic priest charged with molesting teenage boys at the mission the Canadian founded in Haiti will remain in jail for another week while a justice of the peace decides whether to release him on bail.

John Duarte, 43, is charged with nine counts of sexual exploitation involving boys aged 12 to 17 in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and the tiny fishing village of Labadie. Hearts Together for Haiti, a charity Duarte founded, operated schools, a health clinic and a sponsorship program for impoverished families.

Canadian law allows citizens to be prosecuted in Canada for sex offences against children committed elsewhere.

MISSOURI
KOMU

COLUMBIA - The church where three Mohler men accused of sexual abuse were once lay ministers denies it ever heard reports of the alleged abuse.

Investigators have said the victims told their mother about the abuse. The mother then reported the matter to Community of Christ church leaders, investigators say. But the church denies the claim.

"We found no reports of sexual abuse of children (were) given to any Community of Christ leaders about the three lay ministers, suspended November 11," the church said in a statement. The three men are Burrell Mohler, Sr. and two sons, David and Jared Mohler.

MISSOURI
United Press International

DARLINGTON, Mo., Nov. 19 (UPI) -- New child molestation charges were filed Thursday against a Missouri grandfather and his four sons, and investigators said they seized more videotapes.

Burrell Mohler Sr., 77, of Independence; Burrell Mohler Jr., 53, of Columbia; Jared Mohler, 48, of Columbia; David Mohler, 52, of Lamoni, Iowa; and Roland Mohler, 47, of Bates City, Mo.; are all in jail in Lexington, Mo. Another member of the family, the elder Mohler's brother, is under arrest in Florida.

Investigators say Jared Mohler's daughters told their mother years ago they were being molested, the Kansas City Star reported. Instead of going to police, she allegedly told her church about the allegations.

MISSOURI
The Examiner

By Jeff Martin - jeff.martin@examiner.net
The Examiner
Posted Nov 19, 2009

Lafayette County, MO — .Lafayette County prosecutors filed 18 new charges in the growing Mohler case Thursday afternoon, raising the total to 49 against a family accused of carrying out sexual assaults spanning almost two decades.

According to probable cause statements, another witness told police Wednesday of incidents that began when she was 5 years old and continued until she was 12. Acts that she was forced to perform include mock weddings, bestiality, and sex with the men.

The new charges were filed against three of the family members allegedly involved.

MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

By DONALD BRADLEY
The Kansas City Star

Prosecutors filed 11 new charges in the Mohler case this afternoon, raising the total to 42 against men accused of carrying out years of sexual assaults against young children in the extended family.

Also, acting on allegations that some of the assaults were used for pornography, investigators have recovered 65 video tapes from an uncle’s home in Columbia, Mo. Earlier, investigators found incest pornography, video tapes and recording equipment at the Independence home of the victims’ grandfather.

Lafayette County Prosecutor Kellie Ritchie said she did not know what was on the tapes.

MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

By DONALD BRADLEY
The Kansas City Star

For the young sisters in the Mohler family, summers were the worst because that’s when they had to go to their grandfather’s farm.

That’s what the sisters, now grown women, have told authorities who on Thursday filed 11 more charges in a child sex abuse case that has shocked the country.

In court documents to support the latest charges, the sisters told of bestiality, mock weddings, sex in a church and being made to have sexual contact with each other while their father, grandfather and uncles watched and laughed.

MISSOURI
CNN

By Emanuella Grinberg, CNN
November 20, 2009

(CNN) -- Graphic details of bestiality, child rape and sodomy emerged in court documents filed Thursday in the case of a Missouri family accused of horrific crimes against their relatives.

One of the alleged victims was about 7 years old when she and her sisters attempted to run away in 1988, after enduring years of sexual abuse at the hands of her male relatives, a complaint filed in Lafayette County Circuit Court states.

Before she left, she wrote down the alleged sex acts, put them in a jar and buried it, the complaint says.

MISSOURI
Fox 4

[with video]

INDEPENDENCE, MO - Among the many startling revelations released on Thursday about the Mohler child sex case was that the wife of one of the accused men told their church about the alleged sexual abuse while it was happening, but that the church leader never reported the allegations to police.

FOX 4's Dave Dunn asked the former Mormon bishop about what he was told by the wife of Burrell Mohler, Jr., and is Working for You with the report.

MINNESOTA
You Tube

[Part 2]

[Part 3]

[Part 4]

Part 1
Tim Caroline, a public school superintendent, held a press conference Nov. 16, 2009 to discuss his filing of a civil lawsuit against the Christian Brothers of the Midwest Province. The event was held in the law offices of Jeff Anderson & Associates, St. Paul.

FARGO (ND)
WDAY

By: WDAY Staff Reports, WDAY

(WDAY TV) - Another victim comes forward saying he was sexually abused by a former Shanley high school teacher. This is now the 8th case against Raimond Rose in North Dakota and Minnesota.

The victim will remain anonymous, but the complaint says he was 16 or 17 years old when Raimond Rose molested him while he was sleeping during a football trip in Jamestown.

FARGO (ND)
Inforum

By: Forum staff reports, INFORUM

A second North Dakota lawsuit was filed Thursday in Cass County District Court accusing a former Fargo Shanley High School teacher of sexual abuse.

The lawsuit filed by an anonymous victim, identified in the court record as John Doe 135, alleges that in about 1976, on a trip to a high school football game in Jamestown, N.D., the victim was sexually assaulted by Brother Raimond Rose while he was sleeping in a hotel.

The victim said the abuse came when he was either 16 or 17 years old, when Rose taught at Shanley.

CANADA
Windsor Star

WINDSOR, Ont. -- A former local Catholic priest charged with molesting teenage boys at the mission he founded in Haiti will remain in jail for another week while a justice of the peace decides whether to release him on bail.

John Duarte, 43, is charged with nine counts of sexual exploitation involving boys aged 12 to 17 in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and the tiny fishing village of Labadie. Hearts Together for Haiti, a charity Duarte founded, operated schools, a health clinic and a sponsorship program for impoverished families. Canadian law allows citizens to be prosecuted in Canada for sex offences against children committed elsewhere.

Duarte was arrested Oct. 20 in the Dominican Republic where he had been living. Canadian authorities picked him up there Oct. 26. He has been held at Windsor jail throughout his bail hearing, which was held Nov. 13 and adjourned to Thursday.

AUSTRALIA
Care Leavers Australia Network

The University of Melbourne strongly supports the Prime Minister’s apology to the "Forgotten Australians", and associated government measures to redress wrongs suffered by many people who were in institutional care early in their lives.

This recognition of injustice is long overdue.

It is also appropriate the University - a community that aspires to serve the public good in every field of knowledge including medical research - takes this occasion to express its deep regret for the part played by researchers linked to its community in vaccination research trials conducted after World War II using children in orphanages as ‘subjects.’

AUSTRALIA
The Melbourne Newsroom

17 Nov 2009 The University of Melbourne's Vice-Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis has written to all staff and students, supporting the Prime Minister's apology to the "Forgotten Australians".

"The University of Melbourne strongly supports the Prime Minister’s apology to the "Forgotten Australians", and associated government measures to redress wrongs suffered by many people who were in institutional care early in their lives.

This recognition of injustice is long overdue.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

THE HIGH Court has cleared the way for publication of most of the report on the the handling by Catholic Church and State authorities of child sex abuse allegations against clerics in the Dublin archdiocese.

Mr Justice Paul Gilligan yesterday said publication could go ahead, except for reference in two chapters to specific persons, and all references to the same persons in the rest of the report.

Their identification might prejudice criminal proceedings, he said.

WILMINGTON (DE)
CBS 3

RANDALL CHASE, Associated Press Writer
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) ― An Episcopal priest who was relieved of his duties because of alleged misconduct with a female parishioner has been offered a state government job.

The Rev. Robert Broesler, pastor of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Wilmington, is scheduled to start working Monday for the Department of Health and Social Services.

FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post

By Lona O'connor Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

DELRAY BEACH — During the three years from his arrest to his conviction for stealing from his parish, there was a complete lockdown on personal information about the Rev. John Skehan.

Now that he has been moved from the rectory of St. Vincent Ferrer parish in Delray Beach to the lockup at the Martin Correctional Institution in Indiantown, friend and foe alike can find out what Skehan, 82, is thinking, reading, praying about and eating, thanks to a Web site set up by his supporters.

The Web site is written by his friend Michelle Donahue, a former head of the St. Vincent parent organization, who visits him almost every weekend, bearing good tidings from the blog and from friends in Delray Beach.

IRELAND
Kilkenny Advertiser

By Kate O’neill

Father Martin Ryan of Muckalee is launching his book this Sunday which is entitled From Muckalee to Mindanao and back, a Missionary Journey.

After over 50 years in the Philippines as a missionary priest, Fr Ryan has modern and unconventional views about the priesthood in today’s society. ...

Speaking with The Kilkenny Advertiser this week, it is obvious that Fr Martin is very modern in his views on the priesthood. He commended Father Sean McKenna, who this week announced that he was to leave the priesthood to get married.

“Sean was a very popular priest in Derry. More and more priests are leaving the priesthood because they want to marry, I think it’s close to 130,000. The remaining priests now have a huge work load. I have written a letter to the Pope where I ask that a third general council, Vatican 3, be called so we can address this issue. I believe that there should be optional celibacy for priests.”

MICHIGAN
Chicago Tribune

LUDINGTON, Mich. - A Catholic priest who served churches in western Michigan has been sentenced to six months in jail for sexual misconduct.

The Rev. Johnson Jeyabel Pappusamy (pap-uh-SAH-me), former pastor of St. Mary Catholic Church in Custer and St. Jerome Catholic Church in Scottville, pleaded guilty Oct. 21 to fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.

IRELAND
RTE News

Thursday, 19 November 2009
The High Court has cleared the way for the publication of the report of the Commission of Investigation into sexual abuse allegations in the Dublin Archdiocese but references which identify another person must be removed.

Last month, Mr Justice Paul Gilligan ruled that the report could be published but that a specified chapter might prejudice court proceedings.

He directed that chapter 19 and all references to the person who is the subject of that chapter could not be published until directed by the court.

Washington City Paper

Posted by Amanda Hess on Nov. 19, 2009, at 9:49 am

A new Web site hopes to use the oldest trick in the book to combat the Catholic Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage: A good, old-fashioned forced outing!

At ChurchOuting.org, you’re invited to scroll through a list of every Achbishop, Bishop, and Reverend in the Archdiocese of Washington, zero in on one you know is gay, and then submit your “detailed account of how you know the priest in question is being hypocritical through his silence.” (Alternately, get at them via Twitter or Facebook).

ChurchOuting.Org is the brainchild of self-described “netroots organizing pioneer” Phil Attey. To Attey, publicly detailing your homosexual tryst with a priest is practically a charitable contribution: “Thank you for helping to liberate a closeted gay or romantically involved heterosexual priest from the oppressive anti-marriage equality agenda,” the Web site reads. Wait a minute: Since when was a homosexual witchhunt meant to free people from their political agendas?

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Breaking News

November 19, 2009
Attorneys for a former priest convicted of sexually abusing five boys at his West Side parish are expected to file a motion today fighting efforts by the state to label him a sexually violent person.

In September, when Daniel McCormack was paroled after serving more than two years of a five-year prison term for sexually abusing five boys in the rectory of St. Agatha Roman Catholic Church, the state's attorney and attorney general filed a joint petition to have McCormack confined to a state treatment facility under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act.

Illinois law allows prosecutors to seek continued incarceration if a psychological exam leads them to believe another sex crime is likely if the inmate goes free. In September, a forensic psychiatrist diagnosed McCormack with pedophilia and recommended civil commitment.

IRELAND
The Press Association

Survivors of clerical abuse have demanded a damning report on child sex abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese be published within the next week.

A High Court judge gave the go-ahead for its release, but ruled any reference to a priest who is facing criminal charges be removed amid fears it may prejudice a case.

The Village Voice

By Michael Musto

​And there's a lot of them to out, honey!

Yes, churchouting.org sets out to expose the hypocrisy of Archdiocese of Washington priests who go along with the church's routine emotional assault on gays while living lives of quiet desperation that involve them having gay sex themselves. (Or even straight sex--the site wants to find ANY priest who's always on his knees for ANYTHING other than praying.)

And they say their mission is not to drag these guys out of the closet per se, but to get them to work with the site in battling the church's hierarchical antigay stance and to fight for gay marriage equality.

IRELAND
Ireland Online

The High Court has further restricted publication of the Commission's report into sexual abuse by priests in the Dublin Archdiocese.

Mr Justice Paul Gilligan has ordered the removal of 41 references to a priest and his brother in the report because it could jeopardise criminal proceedings.

The report was commissioned to look at the Catholic hierarchy's handling of abuse allegations in the Dublin archdiocese between 1975 and 2004.

SOUTH BEND (IN)
South Bend Tribune

By JEFF PARROTT
Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND — A judge today postponed an extradition hearing for an Irish priest charged with sexually abusing a minor, giving his attorney more time to research Irish law.

The Irish government wants to extradite the Rev. Francis Markey, 81, of South Bend, on charges that he twice raped a boy in 1968 in his native Ireland.

A fact-finding hearing on the extradition request had been set for 10 a.m. today, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Neuchterlein ordered the hearing continued until Dec. 10, on a motion from Markey's attorney, Robert Truitt.

NEW YORK
The JC

By Ellen Tumposky, November 19, 2009

A report that a Brooklyn man who committed suicide two days after his wedding was a victim of sex abuse has riled the Orthodox community.

Mordechai (Motty) Borger, 24, jumped from the seventh-floor terrace of his hotel on November 5. His bride, Mali Gutman, whom he married on Nov 3 after they met through a matchmaker, was asleep in the room.

A spokeswoman for the NYC medical examiner’s office said the death has been ruled a suicide.

OREGON
The Garden of Roses: Stories of Abuse and Healing

Sharon Burke wears her grey blond hair short….. glasses, loose fitting, comfortable dresses … and gets around her house with a cane or on the arm of her supportive husband, Brad. Multiple Sclerosis short-circuited her career as a teacher twenty years ago. The disease makes life difficult enough that leaving home is a struggle. Sharon faithfully attends Mass at Madeleine Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon, that is she attends every Sunday she is well enough to do so.

After retiring from teaching, Sharon never gave up trying to create new meaning in her life. She mastered needlework skills and makes layettes for premature babies and Rosaries and undergarments for homeless and at risk women. She feels that helping others is an important part of her own healing process.

And Sharon has much to give even if her health limits what she can do.

Through The Rosary of Compassion retreat Sharon is able to give one of the few ways she can. The retreat will be held at Ascension Catholic Church at 7507 SE Yamhill Street in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday, December 5, 2009, from 12:30 to 4 PM. The purpose of the retreat is to pray for the people of the Church and the community wounded by all forms of abuse --physical, emotional, domestic, sexual and clergy abuse -- through meditating on the Mysteries of the Rosary. Sharon wrote the meditations for the retreat along with another Catholic parishioner, Ann Czuba, who will co-lead the retreat with Elizabeth Goeke, a clergy abuse survivor.

NEW CAANAN (CT)
Darien Times

Written by Susan Shultz
Thursday, 19 November 2009

A New Canaan man has threatened to file both civil and criminal lawsuits against Darien over the police department’s response to his attempt to announce news at the end of a Mass at his parish, St. Thomas More Roman Catholic Church.

Last month, the parishioner, Michael Nowacki, attempted to take to the church lectern to tell Mass attendees about a priest who has presided over Mass and other events at St. Thomas More. The priest, the Rev. Paul Carrier, has also solicited funds from parishioners for a now-suspended Haitian charity tied to a criminal investigation. Nowacki refused to stop addressing the parishioners until police were called.

The former director of the Project Pierre Toussaint, Douglas Perlitz, is currently facing charges of child abuse.

MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

By DONALD BRADLEY
The Kansas City Star

The patriarch at the center of the Mohler child sex case has lived in his basement ever since his wife found his trove of incest pornography, new documents say.

When investigators showed up recently with a search warrant, she gave them a key to a locked file cabinet. That’s where they found magazines with names such as Family Taboo and Best of Family Secrets.

Also taken in the search of Burrell Mohler Sr.’s house in Independence were sex toys, video recording equipment and homemade VHS tapes.

MISSOURI
CBS News

LEXINGTON, Mo. (CBS/AP) Three alleged victims of what police call a horrible series of familial Missouri sex crimes, say one of the attackers forced them to help stab a man to death and bury him, according to court documents.

A search warrant, filed Nov. 9, but released to The Associated Press on Tuesday, stated three of the alleged child victims observed "several murders" and were forced to help kill and bury a man in April 1988.

The warrant said one of the accused, Burrell E. Mohler Jr., and the children followed a large man from a shopping center in Independence, Mo., 20 minutes outside of Kansas City, to his home. They parked outside, and then the children lured the man over to their car by telling him that their father was having a heart attack. When the man leaned over to help, Mohler Jr. allegedly "wrapped his arms around the victim's neck" and subdued him, the warrant said.

STATEN ISLAND (NY)
New York Post

By ALEX GINSBERG

A Staten Island priest who admitted swiping $84,000 from his church to fund plastic surgeries and Botox treatments was sentenced yesterday to five years' probation -- and the threat of jail if he doesn't pay it back

William Blasingame, 66, a former pastor at St. Paul's Memorial Episcopal Church, said nothing before Judge Alan Meyer handed down the negotiated sentence for second-degree grand larceny

His lawyer, James Hasson, said Blasingame never meant to steal the church's money, but irresponsibly mixed his own funds with those of the church in a church account -- then spent it

HONG KING
Monsters and Critics

Hong Kong - A Hong Kong student nicknamed the Chinese Warren Buffet has been accused of blackmailing a Catholic priest with intimate images, a court report said Thursday.

Economics student Cheung Ka-wo, 27, appeared in court facing charges of attempting to extort 6.3 million Hong Kong dollars (813,000 US dollars) from the priest by threatening to reveal intimate photographs showing their past relationship.

Cheung, 27, was nicknamed after the successful American investor Buffet by the local press after he made more than 1 million Hong Kong dollars (129,000 US dollars) in two days of derivatives trading.

HONG KONG
Indian Catholic

HONG KONG : A 27-year-old man has appeared in court charged with attempting to blackmail a priest by threatening to release a video that suggests the pair had an intimate relationship.

The video allegedly shows the man, Cheung Ka-wo, and the priest naked, according to media reports.

Cheung, a doctoral student, was accused of conspiring with Li Dora Kay, a laywoman, to extort HK$6.3 million (US$826,000) from the priest and a layperson that the priest had sought help from. The identity of the priest and the layperson were not revealed.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Press Association

A wealthy rabbi financed a drug dealing business and offered cocaine to girls in exchange for sex, a court has been told.

Rabbi Baruch Chalomish, 54, of Salford, rented an apartment where he could "relax and have a party", Manchester Crown Court heard.

The rabbi, of Upper Park Road, Salford, admits two counts of possession of cocaine but denies intent to supply.

GEORGIA
Stop Baptist Predators

The Georgia Baptist Convention has disfellowshipped the First Baptist Church of Decatur, Georgia.

Why?

Because the church has a woman serving as pastor. Her name is Julie Pennington-Russell. (That's her in the photo.)

Apparently the Southern Baptist principle of local church autonomy just goes out the window when a church indulges the “sin” of having a woman in the pulpit.

It’s only for “lesser sins” . . . like indulging clergy child molesters and cover-uppers . . . that local church autonomy really matters. Then it’s all up to the local church and whatever they do or don’t do is just fine.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Thursday, 19 November 2009
The former husband of the Derry woman who has taken up with a local priest has refused to comment on his ex’s new relationship.

Liam Curran has remained in Derry while the whereabouts of his former partner Elaine Curran and Fr Sean McKenna last night remained a mystery.

Fr McKenna and his lover have gone to ground since he declared to a stunned Mass congregation in Derry on Saturday night that he was hanging up his robes after finding love.

WASHINGTON
The Spokesman Review

Kevin Graman The Spokesman-Review

Morning Star Boys’ Ranch has moved the bulk of its assets, including securities and real estate worth millions of dollars, to a nonprofit foundation in advance of the first trial over sexual abuse lawsuits against it.

In 2007, the ranch transferred more than $12 million in securities and other assets to the Morning Star Boys’ Ranch Foundation, an organization that supports youth sports and other charities, according to federal tax documents.

On April 2, the ranch deeded to the foundation 25 parcels of Spokane County real estate with a total assessed value of nearly $3.5 million. The signature appearing on those deed transfers as both grantor and grantee was that of Joe Pickert, a foundation board member who at the time was executive director of both the foundation and the ranch.

UNITED STATES
Opposing Views

By Dignity USA

During their annual meeting this week in Baltimore, the US Catholic Bishops reviewed a preliminary version of a study they commissioned on the reasons for clergy sexual abuse. The study by John Jay College of Criminal Justice researchers found that being gay had no correlation to the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the U.S. Catholic Church for decades.

“This report confirms many other studies that demonstrate that sexual orientation has nothing to do with the pattern of child abuse by Catholic priests,” said Marianne Duddy-Burke, Executive Director of DignityUSA. “We hope that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church will finally accept this finding, since it has been borne out through their own study.

"We urge the bishops to provide support and compensation to the victims/survivors of sexual abuse by clergy, identify perpetrators, press charges, and permanently remove them from contact with children. It is vital that the hierarchy atone for their own role in multiplying the abuse by moving known abusers from place to place.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Public Radio

[with audio]

An advocacy group for victims abused by priests is criticizing a recent study.

The study that's underway is trying to determine why there was more priest sexual abuse in the 60s and 70s, and why it fell after 1985. It's being done for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Barbara Blaine thinks the study is "illogical." She heads the Chicago-based SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

CANADA
Now Toronto

Giller pick
By Susan G. Cole
Reporters on The Bishop’s Man’s Giller triumph have described the book as straightforward storytelling, but that’s not quite right. The story goes back and forth in time to track a man’s growing disillusionment with his role as priest, shedding a powerful light on what goes on behind the scenes in the culture of the Catholic clergy.

Father Duncan is the bishop’s fixer, the guy called on to root out corrupt priests. For years he’s made sure sexual abusers get moved around with no public scandal or personal accountability. When he’s sent to his hometown in Nova Scotia to deal with a growing crisis there, it looks like his personal doubts – he has his own secrets – might threaten his professional duties.

Veteran CBC journalist Linden MacIntyre expertly conveys the sickening logic of abusers and the Church’s determination to do nothing about the growing influence of that thinking. And although the narrative takes a dip while Duncan checks into rehab, MacIntyre grabs it right back and maintains a breathtaking tension through to the end.

BALTIMORE
The Georgia Bulletin

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- An ongoing study of the causes and contexts of sexual abuse by priests delves into a broad assortment of factors, including societal trends, treatment approaches over the decades and the character of seminaries in different generations. An interim report on the "Causes and Context Study" presented to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 17 during their fall general assembly outlines a complex, multidimensional project. The full study, commissioned by the USCCB in 2002 in response to the sexual abuse crisis, is expected to be completed by late 2010.

INDEPENDENCE (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By DONALD BRADLEY
The Kansas City Star

A search of the Independence home of the man at the center of Mohler child sex case turned up incest pornography, recording equipment and old tapes with hand-written titles.

Magazines with titles of “Family Taboo,” “Best of Family Secrets” and “Best of Family Touch” were found in a locked file cabinet in the home in the 1300 block of South Dodgion during a Nov. 11 search.

Burrell Mohler Sr., 77, is in jail in Lexington, Mo., after his arrest last week on allegations of a family child sex case that included rape, sodomy and bestiality. His four sons were also charged for a torrent of alleged sexual assaults in which the family victims were allegedly as young as 5 years old.

INDIA
The Star

Compiled by ZANI SALLEH, BEH YUEN HUI and A. RAMAN

A 36-YEAR-OLD temple priest has sex with a few women in the temple premise in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu. To make things worse, he had also recorded his activities on his mobile phone, Makkal Osai reported.

The priest, identified as Deva­nathan, surrendered to a magistrate after being on the run for two months.

The daily said that the father of two had applied for bail but it was rejected by the Madras High Court.

BALTIMORE (MD)
Beliefnet

BALTIMORE (RNS) Gay Catholics and victims of clergy sexual abuse are hailing preliminary results of a study commissioned by U.S. Catholic bishops that says gay priests are no more likely than straight clergy to sexually abuse minors.

Still, some bishops gathered here for the final day of their semi-annual meeting said it is premature to say whether the church leaders who had asserted such a link were wrong.

Researchers from New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice on Tuesday (Nov. 17) presented initial findings from their multi-year study of the clergy sexual abuse scandal, which has resulted in some 14,000 claims of abuse and cost the U.S. Catholic Church about $2.6 billion in settlements since 1950.

HONG KONG
The Standard

Patsy Moy

Thursday, November 19, 2009

The Catholic Church is facing a new sex scandal after a Chinese University PhD student appeared in court yesterday accused of blackmailing a priest.

Economics student Cheung Ka-wo, 27, is accused of attempting to extort HK$6.3 million from a Catholic priest identified as "X" by threatening to reveal "intimate images" from their past association.

Cheung is also charged with conspiracy to blackmail a Catholic churchgoer identified as "Y."

ARKANSAS
The Associated Press

By JON GAMBRELL (AP)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Arkansas Court of Appeals has ruled that state child welfare officials properly seized children from the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries after a police raid.

The appeals court issued three opinions Wednesday dealing with the children taken by welfare officials after a September 2008 raid at Alamo's compound.

UNITED STATES
United Press International

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers said initial results of their study on clergy sex abuse shows a decline in such cases in the United States after 1985.

John Jay College of Criminal Justice researchers said in an interim report while sexual abuse cases involving clergy and minors increased during the late 1960s and 1970s, a steep decline began after 1985, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a release Tuesday.

The bishops group commissioned the $1.8 million study and partially funded the research along with other organizations such as the National Institute of Justice.

NEW YORK
Inrondequoit Post

By Linda Quinlan, staff writer
Irondequoit Post

Irondequoit, N.Y. — .Sexual abuse allegations against a former priest at Irondequoit’s St. Salome’s and St. Cecilia’s parish have been determined credible by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester.

According to Messenger Post newspartner News 10NBC, an allegation concerning sexual abuse of a minor dating back to the mid-1970s against the Rev. Conrad Sundholm has been and is being investigated.

Sundholm, 80, who is retired, now lives in Florida. He was pastor at St. Salome’s on Culver Road — in the Sea Breeze area of Irondequoit — when the abuse allegedly occurred. He may not perform public ministry.

UNITED STATES
Cliffview Pilot

Monday, 16 November 2009 20:13 Vicki Polin

SPECIAL REPORT: As a licensed mental health professional who has been advocating for survivors of sexual violence for the last 25 years, I have watched many victims struggling with what they need to do to heal. It can take years just to tell another person you've been victimized, let alone notifying the police. It happened to me. I am still in a state of shock, but for the first time I am speaking out publicly about the fact that I was assaulted this past July.

Because my case is currently in litigation, I am not at liberty to go into some of the details of the assault. The reason I am speaking out now is because I feel it is important to share the fact that it took me 33 days to make a police report.

The offender was a relative of a dear and trusted friend, a relative of someone whom I looked up to and respected and someone who has been like a father to me. I don’t know what I was thinking, yet I didn’t do what I would have expected of me... I was confused by my own hesitation to make an immediate call to the police. Instead I found myself taking care of the offender's family instead of taking care of my own personal needs.

UNITED STATES
Examiner

November 16, 4:57 PM

Jerry DeMarco

In a shocking, heartfelt declaration, Vicki Polin, who has worked in the field of sexual trauma and is the founder and director of the Awareness Center, established to help assault victims, tells her story publicly for the first time of being assaulted herself this past summer.

"As a licensed mental health professional who has been advocating for survivors of sexual violence for the last 25 years, I have watched many victims struggling with what they need to do to heal. It can take years just to tell another person you've been victimized, let alone notifying the police.

"It happened to me," Polin says, in a special report published today on CLIFFVIEWPILOT.COM.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

Manya Brachear

Lest there be confusion about where the Roman Catholic church stands on marriage, reproductive technology and treating chronically ill and dying patients, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released guidelines for their flock about all three issues this week. In doing so, they seemed to be following the guidance given by their president, Cardinal Francis George earlier this week.

In his opening address to American bishops meeting this week in Baltimore, George urged his brother bishops not to let the sexual abuse crisis and other past mistakes detract from their moral responsibility and ministry.

But some are urging George to turn his attention back to the sexual abuse crisis and the related drama unfolding at home.

UNITED STATES
Voice from the Desert

Statement by Barbara Dorris, SNAP outreach director, 314 503 0003

Now that the obvious has been re-affirmed (that pedophile priests molest girls and boys), let’s hope researchers start to focus on the real question: why do thousands of current and former church employees stay silent about clergy sex crimes and cover ups? That’s what really needs to be addressed.

We have serious doubts about the John Jay project but this conclusion - that the sexual orientation of child molesting clerics isn’t significant - doesn’t surprise us. Roughly half of our 9,000 members are women who were molested as girls by priests, brothers, nuns, bishops and seminarians. We’ve long seen that courts and media tend to minimize the harm done to females who are assaulted by clergy.

2) Statement by Barbara Blaine, SNAP founder and president, 312 399 4747

The gender orientation of predator priests is irrelevant. What matters, though, is the church’s deeply-rooted culture of sexual secrecy that stems from most priests’ forbidden sexual activity.

When all sex by priests is wrong - dating, masturbation, porn, everything - then most priests will have sexual secrets. And they will be very reluctant to ‘rat out’ their brother priests who are known or suspected pedophiles.

3) Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director 414 429 7259

Since 2004, since John Jay College began tabulating numbers for the American bishops on priests that have committed sex crimes against children, nearly 1,000 newly identified priests have been reported to dioceses around the country as child molesters, averaging nearly 200 year. In fact, last year a record number of priests were reported to have molested children, a staggering 311 newly identified priest offenders. The grand total of priests who have assaulted children in the United States over the past several decades is now nearing a staggering total of 6,000.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

By Staff reporter
A well known County Fermanagh priest says the issue of compulsory celibacy for Catholic priests needs to be examined.

Father Brian D’Arcy made his comments following the shock resignation of Derry priest Father Sean McKenna who announced to his congregation on Saturday night that he had fallen in love with a woman.

“The mandatory or compulsory celibacy, I think, is not only a contradiction in terms but has outlived its use by about 1,000 years and it should be changed,” said Father D’Arcy.

IRELAND
Fermanagh Herald

A CATHOLIC priest, who served in the diocese of Clogher, has been accused of raping a child on Lough Derg. Fr Francis Markey, who appeared in court in the United States this week, is facing extradition from the US to answer a number of rape charges, one relating to an alleged incident at the place of pilgrimage on the Donegal/Femanagh border.

Markey (81) is accused of raping a 15-year-old boy on two separate occasions in 1968, according to the complaint filed in a US District Court in Indiana.

The Republic's government has requested that he be sent back to his home country for trial.

CHICAGO (IL)
WGN

[with video]

Parishioners at Saint Mark's Catholic Church on the west side rallied in support of a former pastor, who's accused of sexually abusing two boys about 25-years ago when they were in junior high school.

The Reverend Edward Maloney was removed from ministry after Cardinal Francis George and an archdiocesan review board determined there was credible evidence supporting the allegations.

Mirian Dabila, a supporter of Maloney who turned out for the rally, said he married many of the parishioners at Saint Mark's, taught religion to many of them, and said the allegations cannot be true.

UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Post

BY ROBERT MULHERN

SURVIVORS groups in Britain finally have a voice.

That’s the conclusion that has been drawn by those in Britain who travelled to Ireland to meet with Minister for Children Barry Andrews.

The group, including Sally Mulready and Phyllis Morgan from the Women’s Survivor Network, Francis Murphy from Survivors South East and Councillor Mary Murphy from Manchester, met with Andrews and representatives of Batt O’Keefe in Dublin to discuss the recommendations of the Ryan Report.

Speaking about the meeting, Mulready said: “It was an absolute eye-opener for them to hear from us — it was a powerful message. We’ve finally had the voice of survivors in Britain heard, and our experiences as immigrant survivors and our hopes and aspirations were listened to. Now we have to make sure promises are followed through.”

NEW ZEALAND
Manawatu Standard

By JESSICA SUTTON - Manawatu Standard

Lice, scabies, starving and a mother in prison.

England was no paradise for British child immigrant Veronica "Roni" Fitzmaurice, a Palmerston North community identity and local body politician.

Her life began when she arrived in New Zealand as an 18-year-old, and she does not need an apology from the New Zealand Government.

This week, post-World War II British child immigrants received an apology from Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for their mistreatment, which included physical, sexual and mental abuse at state institutions, church facilities and in family homes.

MISSOURI
KSHB

[with video]

[search warrant documents]

LAFAYETTE COUNTY, Mo. – Court documents reviewed by NBC Action News Tuesday unveil details about accusations against a 77-year-old man and his four sons, who are all charged in a child sex crimes case in Lafayette County.

A search warrant filed for the search of the property once owned by the Mohler family says investigators were combing the farm, just south of Bates City, for evidence that could help them in the investigation into the alleged sex crimes, but also evidence connected to an alleged homicide and a body buried on the property.

Detectives say they found an unidentified bone, eyeglasses, broken glass jars, half a credit card and the sole of a shoe or a boot.

MISSOURI
CNN

[with video]

(CNN) -- Three alleged victims of years-ago child sex abuse within a Missouri family told authorities they were forced by one of the accused to kill a man after he was kidnapped, according to new court documents filed in the case.

In addition, another alleged victim told police that she was held captive in the basement of a home and abused by five of the suspects, and that the suspects buried her baby in the basement after she became pregnant the first of two times, the documents say.

Six family members are in custody on various charges related to the abuse allegations. The alleged victims -- all now adults -- came to police with stories of sexual performances, mock weddings, rape with various objects and a forced abortion during their childhoods, according to court documents obtained by CNN affiliate KSHB in Kansas City. CNN does not identify alleged sexual assault victims.

AUSTRALIA
The Irish Times

ANALYSIS: Many of the children abused in Australia, prompting this week's apology by the prime minister there, came originally from Ireland, writes MARY RAFTERY

THERE IS always one story that haunts you, so graphic and disturbing it is almost too terrible to contemplate.

In over a decade of researching the experiences of people all over the world whose childhoods were destroyed by state-sponsored abuse, one of the worst I came across was that of a small, blue-eyed boy at Tardun, an orphanage in western Australia. He was one of the tens of thousands apologised to on Monday by Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, as that country at last faces up to the savage abuses suffered by so many taken as children into state-funded care.

BATES CITY (MO)
The New York Times

By SUSAN SAULNY
Published: November 17, 2009
BATES CITY, Mo. — On a dead-end dirt road, through frosted crops and bales of hay in this sleepy town about a half-hour east of Kansas City, state investigators spent much of last week excavating the yard around a farmhouse, looking for decades-old evidence of sex crimes against children.

Their search was prompted, law enforcement officials say, by a 26-year-old woman who went to the police in nearby Independence, Mo., in August and accused her grandfather, father and three uncles of sexually abusing her and her siblings as children, beginning in the winter of 1988 and continuing for seven years.

According to criminal complaints and other court papers, the woman said she had recovered suppressed memories of mock weddings, sexual acts involving children, rape and a sex act involving an animal that took place in and around the secluded old Bates City farmhouse, a wooded 55-acre property formerly owned by her grandfather, Burrell E. Mohler Sr.

BALTIMORE (MD)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Wednesday, November 18, 2009
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
BALTIMORE -- Researchers at New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice, reporting initial findings in their look into causes of the Catholic church's 2002 sexual-abuse scandal, yesterday said they can't attribute it to gay priests or seminaries for teenagers.

"We do not have data to support ... those assertions," said Karen Terry, lead researcher for the $1.8 million study commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is meeting this week in Baltimore.

Dr. Terry presented her interim report on the same day that the bishops conference also adopted a pastoral letter on marriage and a statement on reproductive technologies and approved the final part of a new translation of the Mass.

AUSTRALIA
ninemsn

By ninemsn staff

Two men will stand trial in NSW after allegedly posing as spiritual leaders and sexually assaulting a young woman during "prayer sessions".

Arthur Psichogios, 39, and Tony Golossian, 62, lured the victim to motels on the promise they could cure her family's black magic curse, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The two men committed more than 100 sex offences against the woman, who was just 23 years old when the alleged assaults began in 2001, as well as a second woman, police say.

CALIFORNIA
WSBT

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. (AP) — Two days before shipping off to war, Marine Pfc. Jesse Sheets sat inside a trailer in the Mojave Desert, his gaze fixed on a computer that flashed a rhythmic pulse of contrasting images.

A doctor tracked his stress levels and counted the number of times he blinked. Electrode wires dangled from his left eye and right pinky finger.

Sheets is part of a military experiment to try to predict who's most at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder. Understanding underlying triggers might help reduce the burden of those who return psychologically wounded — if they can get early help. ...

Studies on veterans and civilians point to some clues. Childhood abuse, history of mental illness and severity of trauma seem to raise a person's risk. Having a social net and a coping strategy appear to offer some protection.

PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal

By Tracy Breton
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE –– The Judicial Nominating Commission on Tuesday night chose two Superior Court judges and three lawyers to recommend to Governor Carcieri for consideration to be an associate justice on the Rhode Island Supreme Court, a seat that became open when Paul A. Suttell became chief justice in July.

After two rounds of voting, Commission Chairman Herbert J. Brennan announced that the names of five of the six candidates interviewed would be sent to the governor: Superior Court Judges Judith Colenback Savage and Gilbert V. Indeglia and lawyers John A. “Terry” MacFadyen III, Samuel D. Zurier and Sandra A. Lanni. Family Court Judge Laureen D’Ambra did not make the cut. ...

The only negative comment came from a survivor of clergy sexual abuse, Mary Ryan, who said that while she commended D’Ambra for the service she’s performed for the state, she questioned her ties to the Catholic Church in Rhode Island. D’Ambra has served on the Diocesan Finance Council since 2006 and, for the past seven years, on the Diocese of Providence Bishop’s Review Board for Child Protection, according to her resumé. “My concern for her is that I think she’d have difficulty separating herself from her religious views,” Ryan said.

WISCONSIN
Kenosha News

BY DENEEN SMITH
dsmith@kenoshanews.com
and THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Local Catholics are hopeful the new archbishop of the Milwaukee diocese will be a good match for the region.

The Vatican named Bishop Jerome Listecki, a retired military man who has been outspoken in promoting Catholic issues in political arenas, as the new archbishop Saturday. ...

The archdiocese launched a $105 million fundraising campaign several years ago and expects to hit its target in the spring. But it also faces 14 lawsuits related to clergy sexual-abuse allegations, which could force it into bankruptcy.

Through June 30, the archdiocese said it paid out $28 million to settle charges related to clergy sexual abuse.

NEW YORK
The Democrat and Chronicle

Local News – November 18, 2009
Allegations of sexual abuse of a minor by a priest who has served in several Rochester-area churches in the past five decades have been deemed credible, according to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester.

“An allegation concerning sexual abuse of a minor dating back to the mid-1970s against the Rev. Conrad Sundholm, a retired priest now living in Florida, has been determined to be credible,” Diocese spokesman Doug Mandelaro said in a printed statement.

Sundholm was pastor at St. Salome’s Church in Irondequoit when the abuse allegedly occurred. He served there from 1974 to 1982.

BALTIMORE (MD)
Politics Daily

BALTIMORE -- For much of the past decade it has been an article of faith for many, bolstered by the testimony of thousands of victims, that the Catholic priesthood is a haven for child molesters and that the Catholic bishops have been particularly guilty of covering up for those abusers.

But preliminary results from a sweeping study of sexual abuse in the priesthood show that the Catholic Church has been much like the rest of society in terms of the incidence of abuse and the response by its institutional leaders.

The data, which was presented to the U.S. hierarchy on the second day of their annual meeting here, also appears to contradict the widely held view that homosexuals in the priesthood were largely responsible for the abuse.

AUSTRALIA
Bay Post

BY COURTNEY TRENWITH
18 Nov, 2009
A retired Batemans Bay Catholic priest has pleaded guilty to repeatedly sexually assaulting an altar boy 40 years ago.

Kelvin Gerald Sharkey, 80, now of Fairy Meadow, was too frail to enter the dock or stand on Monday when Wollongong District Court Judge Paul Conlon asked how he pleaded to two counts of indecently assaulting a male and one of buggery.

Sharkey threatened the victim, telling him he would go to hell if he told his parents about the assaults.

“... it’s okay, this is what we do,” he told the boy.

NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

A PETITION calling for justice for former residents of institutions run by Catholic religious congregations in Northern Ireland is to be presented to the De La Salle Brothers in Dublin today.

It will be received by Brother Pius McCarthy at the congregation's provincialate this morning.

A former resident of one of the institutions, Margaret McGuckin, told The Irish Times yesterday that the petition consisted of approximately 6,000 names collected on the Lower Falls Road in Belfast.

BALTIMORE (MD)
Zenit

BALTIMORE, Maryland, NOV. 17, 2009 (Zenit.org).- In response to a report on child abuse cases by clergy, Bishop Blase Cupich of Rapid City, South Dakota, notes that no other organization is doing as much as the Church to keep children safe.

The prelate, the chairman of the U.S. bishops' conference Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People, affirmed this today in Baltimore, where the conference is holding its fall general assembly.

Today's session included an interim report by researchers from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice on a Causes and Context Study regarding sexual abuse of minors by clergy.

BALTIMORE (MD)
USA Today

By Daniel Burke, Religion News Service
BALTIMORE — Responding to scientific advances and widespread "confusion" among their flocks, U.S. Catholic bishops today issued detailed guidelines on marriage, reproductive technologies and health care for severely brain-damaged patients.

The bishops gathered here for their semi-annual meeting also heard a preliminary report on the "causes and contexts" of the clergy sexual abuse scandal that resulted in some 14,000 abuse claims and cost the church $2.6 billion since 1950.

Researchers from New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice told the nearly 300 members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that homosexual orientation should not be linked to the sexual abuse, even as some church leaders have sought to make a link between gay priests and sexual abuse.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Central

By DONAL THORNTON, IrishCentral.Com Staff Writer

A popular Irish Catholic priest has quit the priesthood to spend his life with a woman.

Fr. Sean McKenna, 51, received a standing ovation from his local parishioners in Ballymagroarty in Derry when he made the announcement.

The congregation wept and cheered when McKenna said he was leaving the priesthood, having embarked on a "loving, beautiful and life-giving relationship."

BALTIMORE (MD)
The Associated Press

By RACHEL ZOLL (AP)

BALTIMORE — A preliminary report commissioned by the nation's Roman Catholic bishops to investigate the clergy sex abuse scandal has found no evidence that gay priests are more likely than heterosexual clergy to molest children, the lead authors of the study said Tuesday.

The full report by researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice won't be completed until the end of next year. But the authors said their evidence to date found no data indicating that homosexuality was a predictor of abuse.

"What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse," said Margaret Smith of John Jay College, in a speech to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and the increased likelihood of subsequent abuse from the data that we have right now."