ITALY
Panorama

Irlanda: 30 mila casi di abusi sessuali e pedofilia denunciati a carico di 800 tra sacerdoti, religiosi e suore.
Stati Uniti: 4.392 sacerdoti denunciati per molestie su minorenni.
Brasile: 1.700 preti accusati di violenze, orge e uso di droga a danno di bambini piccoli. Italia: 17 condanne e 22 incriminazioni per abusi su minorenni a carico di sacerdoti e religiosi. E ancora Australia, Gran Bretagna, Francia, Croazia, Polonia, Austria… Si allunga la lista degli scandali.
Nei giorni scorsi, al termine di un’ispezione del Vaticano (in gergo visita apostolica), è stato rimosso l’abate della Basilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme a Roma. Ufficialmente la motivazione è “abusi liturgici”, ma si parla di rapporti omosessuali all’interno del monastero.
Un’altra ispezione è partita a carico della congregazione dei Legionari di Cristo, che contano 800 sacerdoti e 2.500 seminaristi in 30 paesi. Il fondatore padre Marcial Maciel Degollado, deceduto un anno fa, è accusato non solo di avere compiuto abusi sessuali sui seminaristi ma di avere avuto anche un’amante e una figlia.

[summary]

There are 30,000 cases of sexual abuse and pedophilia allegations in Ireland made against 800 priests, nuns and religious.

In the United states, 4,392 priests have been abuse of minors.

In Brazil, 1,700 priests are accused of violence, orgies and drug use to the detriment of young children.

In Italy, there have been 17 indictment and 22 convictions of abuse of minors made against priests and religious.

Australia Great Britian, France, Croatia, Poland and Austria are extended to the list of scandals.

In recent days, following an inspection by the Vatican (called an apostolic visit), the abbot was removed from the Basilica of Santa Croce in Jerusalem, Rome. The reason officially given was "liturgical abuses" but it speaks of homosexual relations within the monastery.

Another round of inspection is borne by the Legionaries of Christ, which has 800 priests and 2,500 seminarians in 30 countries. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the founder who died a year ago, is accused not only of having sexually abused students but it is alleged he also had a lover and a daughter.

Accusations are made of homosexuality by priests within the Vatican walls along with economic and financial embezzlement. Again there are the dropouts and suicides, including Monsignor Silvano Hunting, who for 10 years was head of the family curia in Milan. He died last March after being removed from office.

Now Benedict XVI has decided to hold a special year dedicated to the priests which will end June 19, 2010 in St. Peter's Square with a large meeting of priests from around the world. This sounds like the Pope has issued a call to arms to deal with the scandals and the dramatic decline in vocations to the priesthood, especially in Europe and North America and the numbers are only partially offset by growth in Africa and Asia.

In total, there are 408,000 priests in the world of which 272,500 are diocesan priests and 135,5000 belong to religious orders. At least 700 a year officially abandon the habit and cassock and leave ministry without even communication with the bishop.

Sociologist Luca Diotallevi said by 2023 the number of diocesan priests in Italy could be reduced from 33,000 to 24,000 while foreign priests in the county will double to be 5 to 10 percent of the total number. He said it is wrong to reduce the number of clergy to a problem of quantity. It is instead primarily a question of quality of priests; how they are selected; their motives and who accompanies them on their path.

Massimo Camisasca, founder of the Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo is even more severe in his diagnosis. Many priests do not pray more, training is fragmented and superficial and there are difficulties in being open to collaboration with the laity, he said. This has affected the lives of many priests and has stopped them from being credible witnesses. Diatollevi said many priests are perched in defense of privileges and security.

For the Pope, it is time to remember those who are heirs of the apostles. He has launched new rules with make it easier to reduce to the lay state priests who are guilty of irregular and scandalous conduct and has entrusted this to the Congregation for Clergy. To achieve his goal, the pope is surrounded by a team composed of people of faith, secretaries of the congregations for clergy and Catholic education, Mauro Piacenza and Jean-Louis Bruges, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Prefect of the Clergy, Cardinal Agostino Vallini, vicar for the Diocese of Rome.

Writer Marco Polito said none of this will address the crisis. He said there is to date no comprehensive strategy to address the problems of clergy.

Celibacy of priests, homosexuality and the priesthood, enhancement of the role of the laity and of women are key issues the church must address, Politi said. This will take courage that until now seems to be lacking.

KENTUCKY
Richmond Register

By Brian Smith and Bill Robinson
Register News Writer

A Richmond city building inspector and former youth minister has been indicted by an Anderson County grand jury on six counts of third-degree rape, five counts of third-degree sodomy, one count of first-degree sexual abuse and one count of second-degree sexual abuse.

Gordon H. Lunceford, 47, of the 1000 block of Walnut Grove Circle, is accused of molesting two victims between February and November of 1992, according to court records obtained by The Anderson News in Lawrenceburg and provided to the Register.

The victims in the indictment were both under 16 years of age, but are identified only by initials.

Enlightened Catholicism

The death of Michael Jackson and all the attendant press coverage has intrigued me because some of his story parallels the life of Fr. Maciel of the Legion of Christ. It's pretty mind blowing to see the effects charismatic pedophiles have on people around them, and how some of those people can be so completely blinded by the light of that charisma. Both Jackson and Maciel had their share of very high profile defenders and enablers who couldn't seem to see through the charisma no matter how credible, consistent, and long term the accusations of pedophilic behavior were detailed.

Another common denominator for both men was the amount of money they had access to, and the numbers of other wealthy supporters they could consistently rely on. Great wealth allows access to all kinds of strategies which support private obsessions. It buys both silence or intimidation depending on which strategy will work. Michael Jackson's use of both financial strategies is fairly common knowledge. Maciel's is not.

This is a major reason why the Vatican must insist on transparency in Legion finances. My educated guess is there is most likely substantial sums of money spent by the Legion to keep Maciel's truth from exposure. The rank and file have a right to know the truth of this because it was their efforts which fueled the wealth Maciel could draw on. It is inconceivable to me that Maciel did not employ the same kinds of strategies that Michael Jackson and his people employed. Each man had way too much to lose and neither one was capable of controlling his impulses. When one can't control the impulses one has to control the environment in which the consequences get played out. Money is very useful for that.

Veritatis/Praeco

Walter Kovacs

With all of the shock and scandal surrounding the rather recent discovery of Fr. Maciel’s duplicitous lifestyle floating around the news, it’s very easy to get yourself hooked on the individual details of his life. It’s almost like reading the end of a novel when the mysterious details of the main character’s personality are all laid out; his influences, his secrets, and in general those things which finally make sense of his actions. And though such news satisfies that part deep inside of us which longs to hear gossip and personal secrets, we would be doing the Legion, and more importantly, the Catholic Church, a disservice by dwelling on the details and not using them to support an understanding of the situation. And although our opinions as individuals don’t exactly matter in the long run, we owe it to our catholic culture to at least try to arrive at an idea of what justice would be in this particular situation. Especially in this interim period while the Vatican is still deliberating over the details of the order’s re-founding.

Rather than try to put all of the pieces together ourselves, let’s begin by looking at the course of action that the Legion is itself suggesting.
According to a Catholic news site :

“Fr. Scott Reilly, LC, Territorial Director in Atlanta, Georgia, announced to all those who work in the Territorial Direction of the Legion of Christ, that Marcial Maciel had a mistress, fathered at least one child, and lived a double life. For this reason, the Legion is renouncing him as their spiritual founder.” [1]

Father Brian Van Hove's Blog

July 4, 2009

Additional Visitors
ExLC translates additional information from Sandro Magister. In addition to Bishops Urquidi, Chaput and Versaldi, there are two more bishops assigned to visit the Legion:

– Ricardo Ezzati Andrello, Archbishop of Concepción, Chile, in charge of Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela, where the Legion has 20 houses, 122 priests and 122 religious seminarians;

– Ricardo Blázquez Pérez, Bishop of Bilbao, Spain, in charge of Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Holland, Poland, Austria and Hungary, where the Legion has 20 houses, 105 priests, and 160 religious seminarians.

PIKESVILLE (MD)
WBAL

Friday, July 03, 2009
Robert Lang

A Pikesville synagogue is "suspending" its ties with its long time rabbi who was convicted of fondling a woman he worked with at a funeral home.

The Baltimore Jewish Times reports that the board of Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah (MMAE) Hebrew Congregation has voted to sever its ties with Rabbi Jacob Max, the 85 year old who was one of the congregation's founders.

Rabbi Max is currently serving a one year suspended sentence.

The decision means the Pikesville building will no longer be named after Max, and he will no longer be listed as the rabbi emeritus of the congregation.

UNITED STATES
Independent (United Kingdom)

Saturday, 4 July 2009

By David Usborne in New York

American nuns could be said to have their habits in a twist in the face of two investigations by the Vatican into whether they have come to espouse lifestyles and views on the Church that may just be a tad too modern. Except that many don't wear habits any more. They wear regular clothes, even jeans.

Many nuns have stretched beyond the cloistered life to enter professions like teaching, the law and social work, and often eschew convents in favour of living alone. But, for the Vatican, it seems that American nuns may have strayed a bit too far from the traditional path.

There was a warning shot in March when the US Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a decree telling Catholics that they should desist from practising Reiki, an ancient Japanese healing technique increasingly favoured by nuns involving the laying-on of hands, and very far from the traditional approach that Rome seems to prefer.

UNITED STATES
Independent (United Kingdom)

Saturday, 4 July 2009

Since the church's Second Vatican Council in the 1960s and 70s, American nuns have radicalised, reaching out to the poor, the uneducated and eventually to minorities.

Wherever there was need, the sisters were there. As well as being radicalised, they became politicised too, prepared to speak out against injustice and to champion human rights. Including, ultimately, their own. So were they expecting the Inquisition? I doubt it.

And now it looks as though they are going to have to look to their backs and prepare for a more controlled future, for the Inquisition in its modern manifestation – the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – is on their case, sending in a heavy-duty, pre-Vatican II nun to sort things out. The irony is that for 40 years, the sisters enjoyed a large degree of freedom. But two things went wrong. Firstly, a decline in vocations. Nowadays you do not have to become a nun in the Catholic Church to "do good". Aid agencies and volunteer groups enable women to fulfil a sense of commitment to the church that does not bar them from marriage.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

07/05/2009

When the Rev. Robert Carlson was ordained a bishop in the Roman Catholic church in 1984, he used the moment to recommit his ministry to young people.

"I hope to grow old with you," he said to the youths at the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese. "My commitment to all of you is to keep you … with Christ."

But his spiritual pact with the young carried heavier burdens than his flock could imagine.

During the previous four years, Carlson had investigated clergy misconduct for the church. He was among the first wave of bishops to confront sexual abuse of minors by priests two decades before the scandal would gain notoriety in 2002.

One of Carlson's earliest cases focused on the Rev. Thomas Adamson, who would emerge as one of the country's most notorious pedophile priests. As instructed, Carlson reported Adamson's abuses to his supervisor, the archbishop, who chose not to suspend Adamson.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

07/05/2009

July 12, 1933 • Thomas Paul Adamson born.

May 31, 1958 • Adamson ordained.

Nov. 24, 1980 • He admits abuse of teenager to Carlson. Comes out later he has been sexually abusing children since just after his ordination.

Nov. 25, 1980 • Roach says Adamson can remain in parish.

Dec. 4, 1980 • Names of other possible Adamson victims surface.

UNITED STATES
Chicago Sun-Times

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist
Oh, dear. Now the Vatican has launched a probe of American nuns.

I'm calling it "Law and Order: The Convent."

Rome, according to the New York Times, is "quietly conducting two sweeping investigations of American nuns, a development that has startled and dismayed nuns who fear they are the targets of a doctrinal inquisition."

Just when you thought Catholic bishops couldn't find another way to infuriate the flock, darn it, they've done it again. ...

Were the recent, awful church scandals about nuns?

Don't think so.

Ironically, it was a sister who warned the Chicago Archdiocese in 2000 about the Rev. Daniel McCormack, the pedophile priest. She was ignored as McCormack continued to molest children until he was finally arrested in 2006.

ZIMBABWE
The Zimbabwe Tribune

ZIMBABWE – BULAWAYO – Father Alex Thomas Kaliyanil, the new Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bulawayo; who replaces Pius Ncube, one of Africa’s most respected churchmen who was dethroned in 2007 after a damaging sex scandal with a married woman, takes over the archdiocese on Sunday.

Father Alex, appointed by the Catholic Pope, Benedict the XVI, two weeks ago to lead the flock at the scandal-ridden Bulaw ayo Archdiocese, is expected to celebrate Mass on Sunday at the Cathedral in the city.

As the Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Father Alex becomes the second highest Roman Catholic official in a predominantly Catholic Zimbabwe

NORRISTOWN (PA)
The Reporter

By Carl Hessler Jr.
For The Reporter

NORRISTOWN — A New Hanover church youth group leader admitted to a judge that he had indecent contact with a teenage girl who attended the church.

David Benson Lewis, 24, of the 2900 block of Reifsnyder Road, pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court to charges of endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault and unlawful contact with a minor in connection with incidents that occurred between July and August of 2008.

The girl was 15 years old at the time of the incidents and Lewis was 23.

UNITED STATES
AlterNet

By Greta Christina, Greta Christina's Blog. Posted July 4, 2009.

The basic hierarchy and theology of the Catholic Church is a recipe for the abuse of power. It's not like I didn't know this stuff. I knew it.

But somehow, this movie made it real, and bore the full reality of it in on me, in a way that it hadn't been before.

"Deliver Us From Evil" is a documentary about the extensive child- molestation scandal in the Catholic Church. And it transforms the horror of what happened into a full-scale moral outrage. Not just the obvious outrage over child molestation and the lives it ruins.

The Daily Message Point

The Rev. Tom Doyle was on the fast track. Eleven years after ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood he was a canon or church lawyer on the staff of the Vatican embassy in Washington, D.C. His future looked exceedingly bright.

But in 1984 his career took a swerve he didn’t see coming. The idealistic Doyle was about to receive a crash course in radical evil, both individual and institutional.

UNITED STATES
The Post-Standard

by Delen Goldberg / The Post-Standard
Thursday July 02, 2009, 4:36 PM
A person applying to be a summer camp counselor in New York could have been convicted of assault in Ohio or sexual abuse in Florida, and camp officials would have no way of knowing.

A loophole in federal law prevents camps, children's groups and other non-profits that work with children from accessing federal criminal background checks on new employees and volunteers.

Groups can check the state's criminal database, but it doesn't list crimes committed out of state.

"The critical information being withheld could allow a predator to work" with children, said U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "Our local law enforcement has access to the federal files. Why can't our organizations?"

CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport announced Thursday that it has dropped its lawsuit against the Office of State Ethics, now that the office has decided not to pursue an ethics investigation of the diocese.

Church officials announced the action on their diocesan website Thursday.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal had advised against the inquiry, saying it probably would have been seen as illegally intrusive and was probably unconstitutional.

TEXAS
Austin American-Statesman

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Eileen Flynn

Christa Brown's story will likely make you mad. As a naive 16-year-old growing up in a North Texas Baptist church in the 1960s, she was pressured into having a sexual relationship with her youth minister. The married pastor told Brown it was God's will and justified his marital infidelity by citing Bible verses about concubines — then excoriated her as a satanic temptress when his wife found out.

When Brown reported the abuse to another church leader, the minister, like so many Catholic priests we've since heard about, was transferred to another congregation. No police investigation. No announcement to the congregation.

It was difficult hearing Brown's account last year when I wrote in the American-Statesman about the soft-spoken Austin lawyer and her efforts to improve Baptist churches' inadequate system of handling sexually abusive ministers. But I didn't really identify with Brown. Nothing like that had ever happened to me.

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

A new civil lawsuit accuses a Catholic priest of molesting a Greenbush girl in 2004 and says church officials "knew or should have known" about the priest's "dangerous and exploitative propensities" yet failed to "remove him from a position of trust" over kids.

A support group for clergy molestation victims is announcing the suit, which is against the Crookston diocese and accuses Fr. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul of child sexual abuse.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, say they suspect that Jeyapaul may still be in a parish. Internet research indicates that Jeyapaul is back in his native India. There is no mention of him being on suspension or being monitored, SNAP says.

NORTH CAROLINA
GetReligion

The Associated Press report is very, very, very short and raises many more questions than it answers. Here is a typical version (or click here for a longer version in the Los Angeles Times):

WASHINGTON — Authorities have arrested and charged a Duke University official who they say offered his adopted 5-year-old son for sex.

The papers also say an unnamed informant, facing charges in his own child sex case, tipped off authorities to Lombard’s activities.

Sadly, in this Culture Wars age, whenever the mainstream coverage is shallow — try to find coverage of any substance (here’s one short report) in North Carolina newspapers — a story as dark and disgusting as this one is going to leap right over the world of journalism and into advocacy media. In some cases, these op-ed style pieces have raised some valid questions. In many more cases they have added fire and heat, rather than light.

Yes, Lombard is openly gay, living with his partner and their two adopted sons. Yes, his job at Duke focuses on medical issues linked to HIV/AIDS in the rural South. Yes, the details in the affadavit in support of the arrest warrant are absolutely hellish. Yes, there are people in mainstream newsrooms who are asking questions about this case and, sooner or later, the answers to those questions may actually make it into balanced, responsible news coverage. ...

So why, pray tell, do I mention this story at GetReligion?

As it turns out, Lombard was — until just a few days ago — a veteran member of the vestry at the Episcopal Church of the Advocate in Chapel Hill, N.C., a progressive, activist congregation on gay issues that has been actively scrubbing most signs of his existence from its website. For those not familiar with Episcopal polity, the vestry is the church’s controlling board. Being on the vestry is similar to being on the parish council, in a Catholic or Orthodox context, or on the board of deacons, in a Baptist context.

CONNECTICUT
Darien Times

Written by Susan Shultz
Friday, July 03, 2009
State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has spoken out against the Office of State Ethics’ attempt to enforce state laws governing lobbyists against the Diocese of Bridgeport.

The impetus for the Office of State Ethics’ actions stems from efforts by the Diocese of Bridgeport to object to Raised Bill 1098 in March.

Bill 1098, officially called An Act Modifying Corporate Laws Relating to Certain Religious Corporations, encouraged more layperson involvement.

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

Here is a list of the most recent articles (written by Broken Rites researchers) published on this website:

Pavlou A priest of the Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese, Father Paul Pavlou, 50, was convicted in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 29 June 2009 after pleading guilty to committing an indecent act with a boy under 16 and possessing child pornography (posted 1 July 2009).

Fr Hugh Murray On 25 June 2009, a Sydney court was given details of charges against a Catholic priest, Fr Hugh Edward Murray, 79, of Marsfield, Sydney. The charges concern offences allegedly committed against three boys from St Stanislaus College, Bathurst NSW (a school operated by the Vincentian Fathers), in the 1960s and 1970s (posted 26 June 2009).

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

An Australian Catholic priest who was ordained in 2004 has admitted that he committed child-sex offences in 2006 — after only two years in the ministry.

Broken Rites believes that this case undermines the Catholic Church's claim that it has taken strong action in recent years to prevent such things from happening. The case also raises questions about how the church is recruiting its priests.

Father Paul Pavlou, 50, of the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese, pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 29 June 2009 to one charge of committing an indecent act with a 14-year-old boy and another charge of possessing child pornography.

MAGNA (UT)
KSL

July 2nd, 2009 @ 10:10pm
By John Hollenhorst
MAGNA -- Accusations of sex abuse and assassination threats are swirling around a small religious group led by a man who claims to be the Holy Ghost. He calls the charges a pack of lies, but they prompted a raid by the Secret Service, the FBI, and child protection investigators.

Six weeks ago, officers surrounded and searched the Church of the Firstborn and the General Assembly of Heaven's headquarters in Magna, interrogating members for hours. According to the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, they found nothing.

If the charges are lies, they reveal a most unusual church, torn apart by bitter personal and religious feuds.

Two weeks ago, KSL News trailed the church's members as they left Utah in a convoy of vehicles. It was a long-planned move at the direction of their prophet, Terrill Dalton, who says it's been revealed he's the Holy Ghost and the father of Jesus.

NEWBURGH (NY)
Times Herald-Record

By Doyle Murphy
Times Herald-Record
Posted: July 03, 2009 - 2:00 AM
CITY OF NEWBURGH — It started, the boy told police, when the man came to him at the church and exposed himself to the boy. That was all, for the time being.

During the next three years, the boy told police, Humberto Cruz would make him perform sexual acts that progressed to intercourse and threesomes with Cruz and at least one other boy at Cruz's home. City police arrested Cruz, 38, on June 24 on charges he committed a criminal sex act, a felony. He appeared Tuesday in City Court and was released pending the findings of a grand jury.

Cruz and the boy met in 2006 at Iglesia de Dios, a Pentecostal church then located on Dubois Street. Cruz was moving up in the church, Bishop Joaquin Pena said Wednesday.

MINNESOTA
Star-Tribune

A civil suit filed Thursday accuses a Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Crookston of sexually abusing a teenage girl.

In 2004, the Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, who has since returned to his native India, allegedly molested a then-15-year-old member of Blessed Sacrament parish in Greenbush, Minn.

"He was a sexual predator," said Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul lawyer who filed the suit in Roseau County Court. "He repeatedly abused her in the confessional, in his office and in other parts of the church. When she finally said something about it, all of a sudden he disappears."

VERO BEACH (FL)
TCPalm

George Conger, Correspondent
Originally published 06:43 p.m., July 2, 2009
Updated 06:43 p.m., July 2, 2009

VERO BEACH — A prominent Vero Beach minister has been defrocked after an investigation concluded he had engaged in “conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy” for having carried on an adulterous affair for two decades.

On June 29, the congregation of Christ Church in Vero Beach was informed their former minister, the Rev. D. Lorne Coyle, had been deposed by Bishop John Guernsey and no longer had the “right to exercise the office of priest and the authority” of a minister.

On Feb 1, Coyle stunned members of the independent congregation, which meets in the former Indian River County Tax Assessor’s Office in Majestic Plaza off U.S. 1 in Vero Beach, by saying he was resigning as their senior minister and admitted to having committed adultery.

MINNESOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By: Stephen J. Lee, Grand Forks Herald

A woman sued the Catholic Diocese of Crookston on Thursday for more than $50,000, alleging that in 2004, when she was 15, her parish priest in Greenbush, Minn., the Rev. Joseph Jeyapaul, sexually abused her.

It’s an unusual case because the alleged abuse by the priest is said to have happened relatively recently and because Jeyapaul apparently fled the country in 2005.

Most cases that came to light in recent years involved abuse dating back 25 to 50 years.

Jeyapaul worked in the diocese less than a year before returning to India in September 2005, more than a year before the diocese learned of the girl’s allegations, said Monsignor David Baumgartner, vicar general of the diocese, which includes about 35,000 Catholics in northwest Minnesota. Baumgartner said the diocese saw the girl's allegations as credible.

KENTUCKY
The State Journal

A former Frankfort youth minister has been indicted on more than a dozen sex-related charges.

Gordon H. Lunceford, 47, now living in Richmond, was indicted by the Anderson County grand jury June 6 on six counts of third-degree rape, one count of first-degree sex abuse, five counts of third-degree sodomy and one count of second-degree sex abuse.

Lunceford was a former youth minister at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Frankfort, according to a church representative who declined to be identified.

KENTUCKY
Herald-Leader

Herald-Leader Staff Report

A former church youth minister has been indicted on 13 sex related charges, according to Kentucky State Police.

Gordon H. Lunceford, 47, of Richmond, was indicted June 6 by an Anderson County grand jury.

The charges include six counts of third-degree rape, one count of first-degree sexual abuse, five counts of third-degree sodomy and one count of second-degree sexual abuse.

KENTUCKY
WTVQ

Written by lauren snowden
Thursday, 02 July 2009 16:14
A former youth minister has been indicted in 13 sex related charges. 47-year old Gordon Lunceford of Richmond was arrested after a six month investigation into a sexual abuse complaint.

Lunceford was a former youth minister at churches in Anderson, Franklin and Madison counties. He is charged with six counts of 3rd degree rape, sex abuse, five counts of sodomy, and sexual abuse.

KENTUCKY
WKYT

[with video]

A grand jury indicted 47-year old Gordon Lunceford on 13 sex related charges, including six counts of 3rd degree rape, one county of first degree sexual abuse, five counts of third degree sodomy and one county of second degree sexual abuse.

Kentucky State Police began investigating Lunceford last year after two victims came forward to say they were victimized in the early 1990s. Lunceford was a youth minister at a church in Anderson County at the time.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

An apostolic visitation of the Legionaries of Christ will begin August 15, with five bishops conducting inquiries in different geographical areas, Vatican officials have quietly confirmed. Informed sources at the Vatican have verified the accuracy of a reporter by Sandro Magister of L'Espresso, who said that the five bishops charged with the investigation received their detailed assignments at a June 27 meeting with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State, and other ranking officials of the Roman Curia. After investigating the affairs of the Legionaries the five prelates will report back to the Holy See.

NORTH CAROLINA
Houston Voice

One of my favorite things that Dan Savage writes is his "Every Child Deserves a Mother and a Father" column, which debunks any fundie's argument that a same-sex couple is an unfit parenting match for a child by providing examples of opposite-sex parents who abuse their children in the manner that fundies think all same-sex couples do.

The point is, there are some horrible people in this world who will do effed up things to their children, regardless of the sexual orientation of the parent.

This week in North Carolina, it was revealed that a gay parent of an adopted child allegedly advertised sex with his kid on the Internet. Luckily, the guy on the other end was a detective, and Frank Lombard has been arrested by the FBI. Lombard's partner is not being charged in this case.

ORANGE COUNTY (CA)
Orange County Weekly

[with copy of the flyer]

By Gustavo Arellano in Ex Cathedra

John Urell, pastor to the powerful (see: Supervisor Bill Campbell, blog king Matt "Jubal" Cunningham), pedo-priest protector supreme, was the victim of a brilliant prank this past Sunday at St. Timothy in Laguna Niguel. Someone created the flyer above, which details at length Urell's role in the Diocese of Orange's sex-abuse scandal, and inserted it into nearly all the church bulletins after morning Mass. Even better, the same prankster slipped the flyer under the windshield of every car in St. Timothy's parking lot and in the surrounding neighborhood. No word yet on who did it or why, but one witness told the Weekly that the flyer got the job done. "People picked up the flyers," said the longtime parishioner, who requested anonymity, "and didn't throw them away." Tee-hee!

WISCONSIN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[letter from Metropolitan Joseph]

An Eastern Orthodox priest has been defrocked because of credible allegations that he molested a teenaged girl in the 1990s in Wisconsin.

In March, Metropolitan Joseph Bosakov of the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the USA, Canada and Australia ousted Archimandrite Simeon Gitlis from the priesthood. Gitlis was also removed as abbot of a monastery in Boscobel, Wisconsin (between Dubuque, Iowa and La Crosse, Wisconsin). A woman who had lived at the monastery in the late 1990s, when she was in her late teens and early twenties, had made a written complaint to the bishop alleging that Gitlis had sexually molested her.

"We're grateful that this dangerous man has been ousted from the priesthood, but fear he may still be at this facility so children and young adults may still be vulnerable," said Melanie Jula Sakoda of Moraga, California. She's the co-founder of SNAP Orthodox and of a website called Pokrov.org, dedicated to helping those who've been victimized by Eastern Orthodox clergy.

AUSTRALIA
ABC Hobart

A victims group is blaming the Catholic Church for the death of a man who helped expose a sexually abusive Tasmanian priest.

Derrum Kearns died in Adelaide last week.

He was abused as a teenager by Monsignor Philip Green.

He later became addicted to opiates and suffered post traumatic stress.

A spokesman for Beyond Abuse Steve Fisher says there was little support for Mr Kearns after a protracted and damaging battle with the church.

IRELAND
The Corkman

By TRISH O'DEA

Thursday July 02 2009

A YOUNG documentary maker from Millstreet, whose ' The Forgotten Maggies' is set to stir up a storm of controversy at the Galway Film Festival next Wednesday, admits that in the process of making the film "I felt ashamed to be Irish".

The ' Forgotten Maggies' picks up the stories of four women who were inmates of Cork's notorious Magdalene Laundries after they left the workplaces they were forced into because they became pregnant when they were unmarried.

In some cases the harrowing effects of what happened to these women reverberate down through the generations. Along with the 30,000 women who lived and worked in the laundries until the last was closed in 1996, the children of these women, this documentary shows, are often deeply damaged by this legacy.

DURHAM (NC)
The News & Observer

BY STANLEY B. CHAMBERS JR. - STAFF WRITER

DURHAM -- A federal affidavit submitted by a Washington, D.C., detective tells a chilling story of the abuse of a 5-year-old adopted boy.

The child's father, Frank McCorkle Lombard, 42, of Indigo Creek Trail in Durham, is charged with sex offense with a child, and is accused of persuading someone to cross state lines for illegal sexual activity. Lombard, a Duke University administrator, was released from the Durham County jail into U.S. marshals' custody Tuesday and is expected to face a federal judge in Washington within the next week. If convicted, he could face as long as 20 years in prison.

An unidentified individual facing unrelated child porn charges told federal investigators in mid-June that someone on an Internet chat program with the username "cooper2" or "cooperse" was sexually molesting a child. The person with the two usernames was later identified as Lombard, the affidavit said. As recently as last year, the individual said he saw Lombard perform sex acts on the child through a webcam. ...

Church is cooperating

Lombard was part of a group that advised on legal and financial matters at The Episcopal Church of the Advocate in Carrboro. He is listed as inactive on the church's Web site. Church leaders referred interview requests to a statement from the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, which said that church leaders were cooperating with investigators.

"The church is providing pastoral care and spiritual guidance for all parishioners who have been affected by this painful situation," Bishop Michael B. Curry said on the diocese's Web site.

UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: July 1, 2009
The Vatican is quietly conducting two sweeping investigations of American nuns, a development that has startled and dismayed nuns who fear they are the targets of a doctrinal inquisition.

Nuns were the often-unsung workers who helped build the Roman Catholic Church in this country, planting schools and hospitals and keeping parishes humming. But for the last three decades, their numbers have been declining — to 60,000 today from 180,000 in 1965.

While some nuns say they are grateful that the Vatican is finally paying attention to their dwindling communities, many fear that the real motivation is to reel in American nuns who have reinterpreted their calling for the modern world.

IRELAND
The Corkman

By MARIA HERLIHY MHERLIHY@CORKMAN.IE

Thursday July 02 2009

ON Monday night as John Bowman presented his last Questions & Answers programme it was a trip down memory lane but, like all such trips, not all memories are indeed pleasant.

When the Ryan Report was discussed over four weeks ago on the programme the panel went back and forth discussing its content. It was only when 75-year-old Michael O'Brien, a survivor of sexual and physical abuse, spoke with tears in his eyes and his voice raising like a barometer at the frustration and disbelief at how he was treated that silence fell like a dark cloud not only on the panel and the audience but the entire country.

He was eight years old when he was marched into St Joseph's School, Ferryhouse, Clonmel. On his second night he was raped. He was beaten and he was flogged during his time there; in effect, his childhood robbed from him. He recalled that when he went to the LaFoy commission there were seven barristers questioning him, and who told him he was telling lies. "I told them that I got raped of a Saturday, got a merciful beating after it ... and he came along the following morning and put Holy Communion in my mouth."

PARAGUAY
Angus Reid Global Monitor

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The revelation that Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo fathered a child while he was still serving as a Roman Catholic Priest has clearly had a negative effect on his public image, according to a poll by First Análisis y Estudios published in ABC Color. 54.4 per cent of respondents have a positive opinion of the president, down 38.6 points since last July.

In April 2008, Paraguayans voted in presidential and legislative elections. Lugo, a former Catholic bishop representing the left-leaning Patriotic Alliance for Change (APC), won the ballot with 42.3 per cent of the vote. Presidential candidates in Paraguay are not compelled to garner more than 50 per cent of the vote in order to win the election.

Lugo’s victory ended six decades of one-party rule in Paraguay. The National Republican Association - Red Party (ANR) had been in power since 1947, even during the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner. Lugo—who is known in Paraguay as "the Bishop of the Poor"—took office in August 2008.

PARAGUAY
Catholic News Service

By Catholic News Service

ASUNCION, Paraguay (CNS) -- Responding to comments by Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, the archbishop of Asuncion said the Catholic Church has no reason to reconsider the church discipline of celibacy for Latin-rite priests.

Archbishop Eustaquio Cuquejo Verga told the Paraguayan newspaper La Nacion, "Celibacy is celibacy" and that, as a former bishop, Lugo "is aware of the rules of the Catholic Church."

In an interview published June 11 in Chile's El Mercurio newspaper, Lugo said the church should rethink its stance on celibacy. The president's administration was rocked in April by revelations that he had fathered a child after he had resigned as bishop, but before being laicized by the Vatican, while he was running for the presidency.

URUGUAY
Momento 24

Pope Benedict XVI dismissed the bishop of Minas (Uruguay), Francisco Domingo Barbosa Da Silveira, who denounced an extortion that left uncovered he was having homosexual relations, informed today the Vatican.

In a brief bulletin the press office of the Vatican informed that the pontiff has received the resignation in accordance to the paragraph 401.2 of the Code of Canon law, the fundamental law that applies to the catholic Church.

This regulation says: “The diocesan bishop is asked earnestly to present the resignation to his office if for illness or another serious cause there was remaining diminished his aptitude to redeem it”.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Catholic News Service
Wednesday, 01 July 2009
Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of a Uruguayan bishop who said he had sex with two men.

The July 1 Vatican announcement said the resignation of Bishop Francisco Barbosa da Silveira, 65, of Minas, Uruguay, was accepted under Canon 401.2 of the Code of Canon Law, which states that "a diocesan bishop who has become less able to fulfill his office because of ill health or some other grave cause is earnestly requested to present his resignation from office."

In a letter read at Masses in the diocese June 27 and 28, the bishop asked forgiveness of Catholics after revealing that two men with whom he had sex were blackmailing him.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

Vatican City, Jul 1, 2009 / 02:29 pm (CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Bishop Francisco Domingo Barbosa Da Silveira of Minas in Uruguay, in accord with canon 401, paragraph 2, after large numbers of the diocesan clergy accused their bishop of sexual misconduct.

Canon 401, paragraph 2 states : “A diocesan Bishop who, because of illness or some other grave reason, has become unsuited for the fulfillment of his office, is earnestly requested to offer his resignation from office.” The grave reason in this case would be the accusations made against the bishop of homosexual conduct.

The Case

The accusations against Bishop Barbosa were made known last Friday after a court investigation the prelate requested as a victim of extortion. "Two adults with criminal backgrounds were charged with the crime” and allegedly were involved in homosexual liaisons with the bishop. Judge Daniel Erserguer found them guilty and sentenced them to prison.

CONNECTICUT
Catholic News Agency

Bridgeport, Conn., Jun 28, 2009 / 03:17 pm (CNA).- The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut has protested a state investigation into whether the Diocese of Bridgeport should be categorized as a lobby group for fighting a bill that would have forcibly reorganized the Catholic Church. The group argues the investigation jeopardizes the core First Amendment rights of both the Church and all state residents.

"The free exchange of ideas, which is a hallmark of our society, suffers when the state places hurdles in front of the free speech of any group," said Andrew Schneider, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut (ACLU-CT).

A press release from the ACLU-CT said that a “burdensome” state lobbying law requires that any rally sponsors who advocate for or against legislation be required to register as lobbyists when their costs exceed $2,000.

CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By JOSH KOVNER
The Hartford Courant

July 1, 2009

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has advised ethics officials to drop an investigation of whether a protest rally and other actions by the Diocese of Bridgeport constitutes lobbying, saying that the lobbying law is too broad and could violate freedom of religion in this instance.

Blumenthal said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon that it's possible the church's activities fall under the lobby registration law — the diocese, for example, might have spent over the threshold of $2,000 booking buses to take parishioners to a rally at the Capitol in March to protest a bill that would have dramatically changed the way internal church affairs are governed. The bill was withdrawn. He also noted that in the past, church officials have registered as lobbyists in other circumstances.

"The point is not whether the law applies," said Blumenthal, whose office was asked to defend the Office of State Ethics against a federal lawsuit by the diocese that seeks to block the investigation. "It's whether the enforcement and investigative activities would be stopped by the court, rightly, because they violated church-state separation and First Amendment rights."

CONNECTICUT
Christian News Wire

MEDIA ADVISORY, July 1 /Standard Newswire/ -- In March, Rep. Michael Lawlor and Sen. Andrew McDonald introduced legislation in Connecticut to take over the governing structure of the Catholic Church. The bill was withdrawn quickly in response to outrage expressed by Catholics, who rallied at the state Capitol. In retaliation, some state officials sought to penalize the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, led by Bishop William E. Lori. Moreover, the Office of State Ethics accused the diocese of breaking the state’s lobbying laws. Bishop Lori then filed suit seeking an injunction to stop the punitive measures from being implemented. Now Richard Blumenthal, state Attorney General, has asked ethics officials to end the investigation.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented on this latest development:

First tyrannical legislators sought to take control of the Church, and then their lackeys tried to muzzle the free speech of Catholics with bogus ethics inquiries. These attacks show that what is at stake is the protection of the very liberties at the heart of the First Amendment. The naked use of power to intimidate the Catholic Church into silence should be a wake-up call to Catholics everywhere. Indeed, non-Catholics should condemn such bullying tactics as well.

CONNECTICUT
Connecticut Post

By Ken Dixon
Staff writer

HARTFORD - The Office of State Ethics on Wednesday abruptly dropped its inquiry into the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport's possible violation of lobbyist-registration laws.

In reaction, a co-chairwoman of an ethics-minded committee in the General Assembly, said that lawmakers next year will have to draw a distinction between lobbying that requires registration, with a small fee, and first-amendment rights to assemble and voice grievances.

The action came at the end of a 90-minute, closed-door conference call among seven of the nine-member Citizen's Ethics Advisory Board, when Ethics Enforcement Officer Thomas K. Jones told the panel that he was abandoning the investigation.

CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By JOSH KOVNER
The Hartford Courant

5:52 PM EDT, July 1, 2009

HARTFORD - The state ethics agency this afternoon dropped its investigation of whether a protest rally by the Diocese of Bridgeport amounted to unregistered lobbying, a day after Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the inquiry could chill freedom of speech and religion.

A simple statement by the ethics enforcement officer after a closed-door meeting of the ethics board ended a probe that had triggered a firestorm of negative reaction from the diocese, Catholic groups, the American Civil Liberties Union and others, who felt the agency was illegally applying the lobby-registration law to the detriment of anyone who wanted to protest in public.

"The most appropriate action is to withdraw the request for information from the diocese ... and drop the evaluation," Thomas K. Jones, the ethics officer, said at the end of a meeting called by the Citizen Ethics Advisory Board to discuss a federal lawsuit the diocese filed in May to try to stop the investigation.

BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Jewish Times

Alan H. Feiler
Managing Editor

By a majority, the board of directors at Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah (MMAE) Hebrew Congregation voted last Sunday, June 28, to discontinue, at least in the interim, the synagogue’s longtime relationship with its rabbi emeritus, Rabbi Jacob Aaron Max.

On Apr. 13, Rabbi Max, 85, was convicted in Baltimore County District Court of sexual offense in the fourth degree and second-degree assault for the molestation of a former Sol Levinson & Bros. funeral home employee last December. A month later, the rabbi decided not to appeal Judge Nancy Purpura’s conviction of one year’s sentence of suspended incarceration and unsupervised probation.

Rabbi Max served as spiritual leader of MMAE, formerly known as Liberty Jewish Center, from the early 1950s until his retirement seven years ago. A Ner Israel Rabbinical College graduate, Rabbi Max resigned in May from the Baltimore Board of Rabbis a day before that organization was slated to discuss and vote on his expulsion from the group because of his conviction.

BOSCOBEL (WI)
Telegraph Herald

[letter from Metropolitan Joseph]

Michael Schmidt TH staff writer

BOSCOBEL, Wis. — An Eastern Orthodox priest has been defrocked after allegations of sexual misconduct against a resident of a Boscobel monastery.

The Rev. Simeon Gitlis was removed as Abbod of St. Isaac of Syria Skete and returned to the status of simple monk on March 28, the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the USA, Canada and Australia confirmed Wednesday.

Gitlis is accused of sexual molesting a female resident of St. Isaac of Syria Skete, according to a press release from The Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests.

PARAGUAY
Catholic Culture

Archbishop Eustaquio Pastor Cuquejo Verga of Asunción, Paraguay’s leading prelate, has defended the discipline of clerical celibacy after Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez, the former Catholic bishop who is now the nation’s president, criticized it. “There are moments in life when emotions and love know no age or situation,” said the ex-bishop president. “There are people who make one's heart beat faster.”

CONNECTICUT
Catholic Culture

July 01, 2009
The attorney general of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, has instructed a state ethics panel to drop an investigation of the Bridgeport Catholic diocese. The state ethics office had ordered the diocese to register as a lobby, pointing to a rally organized by the diocese to oppose legislation that would have forced a dramatic change in the economic and juridical structure of Church institutions. Blumenthal said the investigation should not be pursued because there was "no denying the profound and serious constitutional concerns in enforcing the lobbyist registration laws against the Church under these circumstances."

NORTH CAROLINA
Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina

The Rt. Rev. Michael B. Curry has released a statement regarding the arrest and ongoing investigation of Frank Lombard, the Duke University researcher facing federal charges involving his adopted 5-year old son. In his statement released on June 29, 2009, the bishop said:

"Frank Lombard is a parishioner of a congregation in the diocese of North Carolina. It is the bishop’s policy that in matters such as these, clergy will cooperate fully with law enforcement and allow the judicial process to run its course. In keeping with this same policy, clergy will not comment on investigations which are still in progress. The bishops and clergy of this diocese are committed to making certain that all of our churches remain safe places where all may worship and serve God. The Church is providing pastoral care and spiritual guidance for all parishioners who have been affected by this painful situation.”

TENNESSEE
Tennessean

A Knox County youth pastor is charged with two counts of rape of a child and sexual exploitation of a minor.

Officers with the Knox County Sheriff's Office arrested 45-year-old Randall Thomas Hollifield at his Powell home Tuesday night, after conducting a search warrant at the house. ...

A press release from the Sheriff's office says Hollifield is the youth pastor at New Beverly Baptist Church, and works for Match Maker Inc.

UNITED STATES
EDGE Boston

by Kilian Melloy
EDGE Staff Reporter
Monday Jun 29, 2009

Pundits on the right lost no time in seizing on the shocking case of a gay adoptive father who allegedly offered his five-year-old son as a sex object online.

Pointing to the case, which culminated in a June 26 arrest, a June 29 Christian News Wire article titled "Lombard Demonstrates Why Gays Should Not Be Able to Adopt" reported the broad outlines of the case, in which Duke University Center for Health Policy Associate Director Frank Lombard allegedly offered an undercover officer the sexual services of his young adopted son.

The article also used the case to decry, in equally broad terms, adoption by same-sex couples, taking the occasion to promote a purported study reportedly done by discredited researcher Paul Cameron.

NORTH CAROLINA
Town Hall

Mike Adams

About two months ago, I heard from an old friend with whom I had lost touch. Most of what he had to say revolved around his relationship with a man with whom he is now living. It’s the man he started dating after he left the man he left his wife for. It’s all so confusing it has me ending my sentences with prepositions. And prepositions are a horrible thing to end sentences with.

After listening to an update on his love life, I asked my old friend whether he was going to church. He said he wasn’t going anymore. He had left his previous church because they refused to allow gay deacons. He said he and his boyfriend needed a church that is more tolerant. I’m going to recommend that he give The Episcopal Church of the Advocate in Carrboro, North Carolina a try.

Until a couple of days ago, the Advocate website (www.ouradvocate.org) had a list of the members of its vestry, which included Frank Lombard. But after Lombard was arrested for allegedly trying to peddle his five year old adopted son on the internet – for virtually unlimited sexual abuse by a stranger – the Advocate updated its site. The church that says “We affirm, and welcome to our community and worship life, people of every kind of household and every stage of life and faith and doubt” is apparently excluding Frank Lombard.

DURHAM (NC)
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Duke University official is accused of offering his 5-year-old adopted son for sex on the Internet, according to the FBI and court documents in the case.

Frank M. Lombard, 42, was arrested last week at his home in Durham, North Carolina. During an Internet chat, Lombard allegedly offered the child to the person he was chatting with, who was a task force officer from Washington's Metropolitan Police, the FBI said in a statement.

The chat was initiated after a confidential source facing child pornography charges told authorities they had witnessed a man, allegedly Lombard, performing sex acts on a child over the Internet.

During the chat, according to the complaint filed against Lombard, he told the officer that he had performed multiple sex acts on the boy and that the officer could do the same if he came to Durham.

DURHAM (NC)
Duke Chronicle

By: Julius Jones

A University employee was charged by the FBI with child sex abuse June 24 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Frank Lombard, 42, associate director for the Health Inequalities Program at the Center for Heath Policy, is charged with enticing an undercover police officer over the Internet to take part in interstate travel in order to engage in an illegal sex act with a minor during a sting conducted by the FBI and Metropolitan Police Department for the District of Columbia's Child Exploitation Task Force, according to a news release from the FBI. According to The (Raleigh) News & Observer, Lombard waived an extradition hearing June 26 and was held without bond in the Durham County Jail until his extradition to Washington, D.C. this week. ...

The informant told investigators that a customer of ICUii-an online program that offers "adult, discreet videochat," according to the company's Web site-with the user name "cooper2" or "cooperse" had performed acts of child molestation and broadcast it over the Web site. A subpoena sent to ICUii June 15 confirmed that the "cooper2" user name identified by the informant belonged to Frank Lombard, according to the affidavit.

UNITED STATES
Virtue Online

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
7/1/2009

Frank Lombard, associate director of the Center for Health Policy, was arrested Wednesday in Raleigh, the FBI said.

An unidentified informant, who already faces child porn charges in a different child sex case, pointed investigators to Lombard, according to court documents. The informant told investigators he met Lombard on the Internet four years ago. The informant described in graphic detail how he allegedly observed Lombard molesting an African-American child on four occasions over an Internet video chat service called ICUii.

...During the chats, according to the affidavit, "FL" [Frank Lombard's screen name] told undercover investigators that he had himself molested his child, whom he adopted as an infant, and that he had allowed others to molest his child. "FL" stated that "the abuse of the child was easier when the child was too young to talk or know what was happening, but that he had drugged the child with Benadryl during molestation." ...

VOL phoned The Episcopal Church of The Advocate, a pro-gay "welcoming" parish located in Carrboro, North Carolina, where Lombard is a deacon and sought comment from the rector, Lisa G. Fischbeck, a deputy to General Convention. She did not respond.

The diocese did (finally) release a statement with Bishop Michael B. Curry responding to the arrest of the Duke researcher, "Frank Lombard is a parishioner of a congregation in the diocese of North Carolina. It is the bishop's policy that in matters such as these, clergy will cooperate fully with law enforcement and allow the judicial process to run its course. In keeping with this same policy, clergy will not comment on investigations which are still in progress. The bishops and clergy of this diocese are committed to making certain that all of our churches remain safe places where all may worship and serve God. The Church is providing pastoral care and spiritual guidance for all parishioners who have been affected by this painful situation."