http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTracker/ A Blog by Kathy Shaw en Copyright 2009 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:22:53 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 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. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025728 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025728 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:22:53 -0500 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. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025727 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025727 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:53:45 -0500 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. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025726 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025726 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:45:17 -0500 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.” http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025725 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025725 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:37:36 -0500 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. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025724 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025724 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:56:08 -0500 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?” http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025723 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025723 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:43:05 -0500 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. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025722 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025722 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:41:02 -0500 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. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025721 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025721 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:38:32 -0500 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. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025720 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025720 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:35:19 -0500 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. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025719 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025719 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:33:11 -0500 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. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025718 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025718 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:24:35 -0500 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. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025717 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025717 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:21:26 -0500 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. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025716 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025716 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:49:46 -0500 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. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025715 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025715 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:46:40 -0500 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. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025714 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2009/11/#025714 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:22:00 -0500