ITALY
Google Video
SEX CRIMES AND THE VATICAN.
(Crimini Sessuali e Vaticano)
The Italian-language version of the BBC documentary that deals with the world-wide cover-up of child abuse by some Catholic priests was shown today in Italy. It can be seen at this link.
WASHINGTON
KXLY
COEUR D'ALENE -- The counselor arrested on three charges of sexual battery at a North Idaho private school for troubled teenage boys has admitted to authorities he had been a long-time sex addict, including the years he served as a Catholic priest.
Louis Ladenburger, 70, was arrested Wednesday on three charges of lewd conduct with a minor after a three-week investigation by the Bonner County Sheriff’s Special Victims Unit. The investigation came as a result of a teen at the Elk Mountain Academy near Clark Fork telling a school administrator of Ladenburger’s alleged conduct.
Ladenburger’s admission that he was a long-suffering sex addict raises the question of whether there are other potential victims of abuse. The Bonner County Sheriff’s Office is already working to contact former students at the Elk Mountain Academy to question them in their ongoing investigation.
AUSTRALIA
Catholic News
NSW south coast "prophet", William Kamm, known as the "Little Pebble" to his followers, has been found guilty of sex offences against a girl aged 14 and 15 at the time of the acts.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Mr Kamm, 56, was found guilty in the NSW District Court yesterday of five counts of sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 under his authority and one count of committing an act of indecency.
The girl was aged 14 and 15 at the time and was part of a religious community Mr Kamm established at Cambewarra, near Nowra.
fIRELAND
Irish Independent
By John Cooney
Thursday May 31 2007
THE Catholic Church in Ireland has appointed its first national director for child protection.
This move is part of its proactive strategy of trying to go beyond merely apologising for the scandal of clerical sex abuse.
The appointee, Ian Elliott, is currently director of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in Belfast.
He will take up his new appointment on July 1 as chief executive officer of the Church's National Board for Child Protection, chaired by Anthony Hederman, a former judge of the Supreme Court.
ITALY
Javno
Reuters
A controversial BBC TV documentary on the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests aired in Italy on Thursday as conservative politicians called for a boycott of the state broadcaster for running it.
"Sex Crimes and the Vatican" has for the past several weeks pitted right-wing politicians opposed to its airing against those who said censoring it would violate freedom of speech.
After much haggling, the head of state broadcaster RAI said it could be aired as part of a debate show called "Year Zero", but only if it were accompanied by balancing opinion from Church representatives.
GOLDEN (CO)
Denver Post
By Ann Schrader
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 05/31/2007 09:49:33 AM MDT
Golden - Former Arvada priest Timothy Evans will spend four years in prison on top of the minimum 14-year sentence handed down Wednesday in Larimer County.
He was sentenced to the additional time this morning in Jefferson County.
He is the first priest in Colorado to be convicted of sexual assault since the clergy-abuse crisis hit the U.S. Catholic Church in 2002.
Evans, 44, of Loveland, was convicted by two juries of sexually assaulting minors during counseling sessions.
GOLDEN (CO)
TheDenverChannel.com
GOLDEN, Colo. -- A former priest had more prison time tacked onto his sentence when he was sentenced again, for a second case of sexual assault, Thursday morning.
Timothy Evans, 44, was convicted of sexual assault by a person in a position of trust in both Larimer and Jefferson counties.
In Jefferson County on Thursday, Evans was sentenced to four years for sexually assaulting a 16- year-old boy who went to him for counseling in 1996.
GOLDEN (CO)
CBS 4
(AP) GOLDEN, Colo. A former parish priest could spend 18 years to life in prison after he was convicted of molesting two teenage boys, one who had gone to him for counseling, prosecutors said Thursday.
Timothy Joseph Evans, 44, was convicted of sexual assault in two Colorado parishes. The cases were handled separately and he was ordered to serve the two sentences consecutively.
On Thursday, a Jefferson County district judge sentenced him to four years in prison on one count of sexual assault on a child by someone in a position of trust.
Prosecutors said the victim was a 16-year-old whose parents had sent him to Evans for counseling in 1996 at the Spirit of Christ Parish in the Denver suburb of Arvada. He was convicted in March.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Insurance Journal
May 31, 2007
The Archdiocese of St. Louis is suing a law firm that handles clergy sex abuse cases, claiming it is improperly circulating confidential documents related to eight current or former priests.
At a news conference earlier this week, members of the Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said they were outraged by the lawsuit. SNAP members instead urged the church to embrace transparency as a necessary part of healing. The support group for abuse victims said the lawyers had done nothing wrong.
Meanwhile Tuesday, a new lawsuit was filed against a former priest in the St. Louis area, Donald "Duck'' Straub, for allegedly abusing a boy in 1977.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
City of Angels
By City of Angels Lady
I’m breathless but have to go down for one more Document Dive. At the Bottom of Page one, going down the JCCP documents in descending order, I find this plea re case BC307410 filed 5.23.07. “Motion for protective order and grant of immunity for defendant George Neville Rucker” -- 21 pages. I also have yet to report that Tony DeMarco was on his way to depose Wempe after court yesterday. Plus I found Kreutzer Cases jury instructions, evidence, and lists of witnesses. (See next post.)
The hearing on immunity for Rucker is on calendar for July 10, barring unanticipated date-shuffling. Rucker pleas for immunity as a way of “Protecting him and immunizing him from criminal prosecution. . . .
“In particular Defendant moves (for) Order immunizing him from prosecution for any act of child molestation, sexual abuse of a minor, and any conspiracy to commit or conceal such acts by Defendant or any other person ...
WHITESTONE (NY)
Times Ledger
By Stephen Stirling
05/31/2007
A former Whitestone pastor has been barred from performing duties as a priest after a review found significant evidence that he sexually abused minors more than three decades ago, the Brooklyn Catholic Diocese said Tuesday.
Parishioners at St. Luke's Church in Whitestone were shocked to learn Sunday that Msgr. Nicholas Capua, who served at the church from 1983 to 2005, had been relieved of his priestly duties by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio.
In a letter to the parishioners at St. Luke's read aloud in Italian and English at their weekly mass Sunday, DiMarzio explained that Capua will no longer be able to act as a priest, celebrate mass publicly or administer the sacraments. DiMarzio said he came to his decision after the Diocesan Review Board presented him with "sufficient evidence" that Capua had abused several minors more than 30 years ago.
ALBANY (NY)
MidHudsonMostWanted
Albany – A 50-year-old Hudson, NY man has been arrested by federal authorities and charged with receiving and possessing child pornography.
Raymond Ethier was released on $25,000 bond following an initial court appearance.
Ethier is said to be a Catholic priest, at St. John Vianney in Churchtown.
The court also imposed home detention, electronic monitoring and no unsupervised contact with minors.
IRELAND
BBC News
Johnny Caldwell
BBC News website
The man who is oversee the Catholic Church's Irish child protection board says he will have no qualms about reporting any priest involved in suspected child sex abuse.
Ian Elliott, who headed the NSPCC in NI, says the "independent role" follows a career dedicated to child protection.
The 60-year-old has been "impressed by the efforts" within the church to confront the well-documented problem.
CANADA
The Chatham Daily News
By ELLWOOD SHREVE / The Daily News
Local News - Thursday, May 31, 2007 @ 09:00
Crown Attorney Paul Bailey is praising the Diocese of London for taking substantial steps towards preventing clergy from sexually abusing children.
Bailey is crediting the church for its efforts to include measures in its new sexual abuse policy which have been recommended by the From Isolation to Action (FITA) committee.
The committee includes women who were indecently assaulted by the late Father Charles Sylvestre, many of whom were from Chatham and Pain Court. Also included in the committee are Bailey and church members, including Bishop Ronald Fabbro and Vicar General Father John Sharp.
ALBANY (NY)
The Saratogian
By SHAWN CHARNIGA, For The Saratogian
05/30/2007
ALBANY - A 50-year-old Catholic priest who is a Cohoes native now living in Columbia County could be released on bond as early as today after a federal magistrate on Wednesday agreed to grant the accused bail as he awaits trial on charges he received and possessed computer images of child pornography.
According to a federal prosecutor, Raymond Ethier of Hudson took part in a conversation over the Internet with a Canadian just over a year ago, sparking an investigation that led federal Department of Homeland Security officials
to seize a computer from Ethier's home May 10 and recover images of child pornography.
Prosecutor Thomas Spina said Ethier was not arrested in the church, St. John Vianney in Claverack, or in his home, and refused to say exactly where the arrest by DHS, State Police and Hudson police took place. He said Ethier faces five to 20 years in prison if convicted, but the criminal process will be delayed by medical treatment the priest will seek in Maryland.
IRELAND
BBC News
The head of the NSPCC in Belfast is to take charge of the Catholic Church's Irish child protection board.
Ian Elliott has led a major reform programme for Northern Ireland's child protection services.
The National Board for Child Protection is to monitor the implementation of the church's child protection measures.
Last October, Pope Benedict XV told Irish bishops they must deal effectively with problems caused by priests who sexually abuse children.
IRELAND
Irish Examiner
The Catholic Church's National Board for Child Protection has appointed the director of the North's National Society for the Protection of Children as its first chief executive.
Ian Elliott has already led a major reform programme for the child protection service in the North.
The chair of the Church's Catholic Board for Child Protection, former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Hederman, says he has the energy, commitment, professional expertise and experience needed.
ALBANY (NY)
Capital News 9
Updated: 5/31/2007 7:35 AM
By: Mark Repasky
Prosecutors say Canadian officials contacted the Department of Homeland Security in May after coming across the screen name "nudistdude23." The Canadian investigation turned up online chat records in which the screen name indicated he was sexually abusing his stepchildren.
With records from Yahoo and Verizon, DHS linked that screen name to Raymond Ethier, a pastor at St. John Vianney Parish. Either was arrested and now faces two counts of receiving and possessing child pornography. He is free on bond.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany has placed Either on administrative leave.
CALIFORNIA
The Signal
By Christi Anne Corpus
Signal Staff Writer
Wednesday May 30, 2007
Paul Kreutzer, a convicted child molester and former Canyon Country resident, faces an upcoming jury trial as part of class action lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Los Angeles Unified School District regarding years of alleged sex crimes in which the 30-year teacher targeted a number of his students in both parochial and public schools.
Trials for the lawsuit, which marks the first civil sex abuse suit filed against the Archdiocese, will begin next month, with Kreutzer's trial initiating a series of similar trials against clergy members and teachers that allegedly abused their parishioners or students.
Kreutzer's trial is scheduled to take place on June 11 in a Los Angeles courtroom, according to Los Angeles Superior Court officials.
ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union
By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer
First published: Thursday, May 31, 2007
ALBANY -- A 50-year-old Roman Catholic priest from Columbia County has been charged with using a popular file-sharing program to download child pornography, authorities said.
The investigation into the Rev. Raymond Ethier, who had been serving as pastor of St. John Vianney in Philmont, began after Canadian authorities tipped off the federal Department of Homeland Security, authorities said.
Ethier was ordered released from Albany County jail on $50,000 bond Wednesday afternoon after answering to charges in federal court that could send him to prison for 5 to 20 years.
OROVILLE (CA)
Mercury-Register
By TERRY VAU DELL - Staff Writer
Article Launched: 05/31/2007 12:03:12 AM PDT
OROVILLE -- A ruling Wednesday dismissing sexual abuse charges against a former Chico youth minister will allow a long-delayed "healing and reconciliation process" to resume, according to his lawyer.
The same judge had previously ruled the bulk of the charges against Richard James Manley, 42, were barred by the three-year statute of limitations.
Prosecutors attempted to re-file three of the criminal counts against the former church official under a slightly different Penal Code section, which would have allowed up to 10 years to prosecute those alleged offenses.
IRELAND
Gorey Echo
By Deborah Coleman
A HARD-hitting documentary for which Colm O’Gorman reported for BBC’s Panorama series has been causing a stir in Italy as it has become the most watched film in the country after it was broadcast on the internet.
It was reported that a price had been agreed between an Italian TV channel and the BBC for the purchase of the programme which accused the Pope of covering up sex crimes committed by Catholic priests.
Until now the documentary had almost gone unnoticed until a subtitled version came to light on a website and was subsequently downloaded onto the Italian version of Google Video.
SAN DIEGO (CA)
North County Times
By: North County Times -
SAN DIEGO -- A lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal bankruptcy court to determine whether the Catholic diocese in San Diego or individual parishes are the owners of certain property in a dispute in the church's bankruptcy case.
A committee of creditors who have a claim to money from the diocese, including victims of alleged childhood sexual abuse at the hands of priests, are asking for court orders declaring that the parishes are not separate from the diocese and that the diocese is the owner of the property at issue.
At a May 10 hearing, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Louise DeCarl Adler instructed attorneys for the creditors committee to file the lawsuit so she can decide what assets belong to the diocese and what belongs to the parishes. The lawsuit involves four specific parishes, including St. Margaret's in Oceanside and St. Mark's in San Marcos.
CANADA
The Observer
ELLWOOD SHREVE / Osprey News Network; The Chatham Daily News
Local News - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 @ 16:00
The Diocese of London is investing in a program to help male sexual abuse survivors who have been victimized by a representative of the Catholic church.
The Hope and Healing Associates has received $30,000 from the diocese for the Silence to Hope and Healing project to establish counselling groups in Chatham, London and Windsor.
The funding "gives us a pretty good start," said Tom Wilken of Erieau, program co-ordinator.
He said he knows there are a lot of male sexual abuse survivors in general, but getting them to talk about it is not easy.
FORT COLLINS (CO)
Rocky Mountain News
By Lisa Ryckman, Rocky Mountain News
May 31, 2007
On one side of the packed courtroom sat the fervent supporters of former parish priest Timothy Joseph Evans. On the other side, his devastated sexual assault victims and their families.
They all shared one thing, Evans said.
"In each and every face, pain is the common denominator," the priest told Larimer District Court Judge Jolene Blair, who sentenced him Wednesday to 14 years to life for sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and a pattern of abuse.
COSTA MESA (CA)
Daily Pilot
By Kelly Strodl
Costa Mesa police are investigating a woman's allegations that when she was a teenager she was sexually abused by the choir director at St. Timothy's Parish in Laguna Niguel.
The woman, who is now 28, alleges that the abuse started nearly 13 years ago when she was singing for the church's youth choir, her attorney John Manly said.
She alleges that Albert L. Schildknecht, 56, of Laguna Niguel sexually assaulted her beginning when the woman was 15, Manly said. She first reported the abuse allegations to the Orange County Sheriff's Department, but now the investigation has widened, and Costa Mesa police have taken an interest.
UNITED KINGDOM
ic Seftonandwestlancs
May 31 2007
by Sarah Chapman, Bootle Times
A CATHOLIC priest is facing jail after he was convicted of enabling a predatory paedophile to groom and sexually abuse a Liverpool schoolgirl.
Father Jeremiah McGrath, 63, bankrolled convicted sex offender William Adams during a period of three months in which he repeatedly raped a 12-year-old girl, Liverpool Crown Court was told.
The wealthy Irish priest had known 40-year-old Adams for years and had a homosexual affair with him, despite having taken a vow of celibacy.
FORT COLLINS (CO)
CBS 4
Mike Hooker
Reporting
(CBS4/AP) FORT COLLINS, Colo. A defrocked Roman Catholic priest was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years to life in prison on charges that he sexually abused a teen boy.
Jurors convicted Timothy Joseph Evans, 44, in March of two counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and one count of sexual assault on a child with a pattern of abuse.
Evans was accused of inappropriately touching a 17-year-old parishioner on two occasions on church property while serving as priest at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Fort Collins. Evans was a priest there from 1998 to 2002.
FORT COLLINS (CO)
The Coloradoan
BY SARA REED
SaraReed@coloradoan.com
Timothy Evans sullied the names of dedicated clergy and fed the distrust of organized religion, a judge said Wednesday as she ordered Evans to serve at least 14 years in prison for molesting a 17-year-old boy while he was the priest at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Fort Collins a decade ago.
"His decision and actions have caused great pain and trauma," District Court Judge Jolene Blair said in a packed courtroom at the Larimer County Justice Center, 201 LaPorte Ave. "Mr.
In March, a jury convicted Evans of fondling Nick Gerber on two separate occasions between Sept. 1, 1998, and May 18, 1999.
UNITED STATES
EURWeb
By Mona Austin / mona@lachurchscene.com
(May 30, 2007)
No one expects to visit a doctor and be issued a prescription that would intentionally worsen their condition. Many entrust their very lives to medical practitioners. Likewise, no one would expect to have their trust violated by a pastor.
Yet cleric abuse quietly happens more often than one would think. Director Lance Watson boldly exposes the abuse of power from church leaders in a controversial documentary entitled, "All in the Name of God."
With topics ranging from sexual improprieties, permissible divorce, stringent rules and regulations, shotgun weddings, intentional public humiliation -- all within the religious community, the piece is wrought with controversy. All accounts in the documentary according to the release are true.
FORT COLLINS (CO)
The Denver Post
By Monte Whaley Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 05/30/2007 11:40:21 PM MDT
Fort Collins - A former Fort Collins priest not only permanently scarred the 17-year-old boy he sexually abused, but also the city and the church where he worked, a district judge said Wednesday.
The decisions made by 44-year-old Timothy Joseph Evans "caused great pain and trauma," said Judge Jolene Blair before she sentenced Evans to at least 14 years in prison, and possibly life.
"You also caused great angst to the Catholic community in Fort Collins and to the community as a whole," Blair said. "You further fed the mistrust of the secular community toward organized religion."
UNITED STATES
FindLaw
By MARCI HAMILTON
Thursday, May. 31, 2007
Last week, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the death penalty as applied to a child abuser. Louisiana has led the way in passing laws to execute pedophiles. However, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Georgia, and Montana also have passed such laws, with Texas soon to follow when Gov. Rick Perry signs such legislation.
A major impetus for the death penalty in child sex cases is the heinous crime by a previously-convicted sex offender against Florida nine-year old Jessica Lunsford, who suffered horrific abuse, including burial alive in a shallow grave, where she eventually suffocated.
If there is a way to measure the temperature of public opinion against child abuse, this is it, and it bodes well for children, even if it is not the most effective way of protecting children.
NEW YORK
Fox 23
Last Update: May 30, 2007 10:47 PM
Posted By: Jeff Saperstone
A Columbia County priest is charged with having child pornography. Father Raymond Ethier is out on bond with home detention and is not allowed to preach.
Disgraced clergyman, 50 year old Father Raymond Ethier was lead out of federal court in Albany in handcuffs Wednesday evening. The priest of 22 years was arrested and charged with downloading and possessing explicit sexual images and videos depicting children. Authorities say the arrest came after they seized a computer. Court documents also allege he was having inappropriate conversations online using the name "nudistdude23" where he told someone from Canada he was sexually abusing children. Ethier claims the conversations were just fantasy.
Philmont resident Richard Minkler said, “A surprise yeah, a shock no, I'm not shocked by it no, you don't know who's doing it these days.”
UNITED STATES
The Jewish Week
Debra Nussbaum Cohen
Alan Horowitz, a convicted pedophile, Orthodox rabbi and child psychologist, violated parole last year and left the country to live, according to a letter he sent to the New York State sex offender registry, in Israel. But last week he was arrested in southern India.
Rabbi Horowitz was convicted twice on charges of sexually abusing boys, first in 1983 and again in 1991, when he served 13 years in New York State prison for victimizing boys who were then 8, 10, 12 and 14 years old.
Rabbi Horowitz is presently being held in India as U.S. officials work with authorities there to extradite him here, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Gary Mattison, a lead investigator on the case.
ROME
Voice from the Desert
On Friday morning, June 22, in the Sala delle Colonne of the historical Palazzo Marini, a building situated in the premises of the Italian Parliament in Rome, there will be a special screening of Italian-American filmmaker Joe Cultrera’s documentary Hand of God.
This screening – the first European one of this award winning film – is being presented by the Italian Parliamentary group la Rosa nel Pugno in cooperation with Anticlericale.net, an association affiliated with the Italian Radical Party and the Transnational Radical Party. The presenters will welcome a large group of invited guests, in addition to all members of the Italian Parliament, and the Italian and foreign press. Also in attendance at the screening will be both the director Joe Cultrera and his brother Paul – the subject of the film. Other activities are being planned around the screening.
Hand of God portrays the vicissitudes of Joe Cultrera’s Italian-Catholic family in Salem, MA. Cultrera decided to make the film after he learned his older brother Paul had been abused by a Catholic priest when he was 14 years old, and after the church his parents helped finance and build (Saint Mary’s Italian) was being forced to close by the Archdiocese of Boston. The closing of this church was due in part to offset financial losses the diocese had incurred in the settling of hordes of clergy abuse cases. The film looks at the issue of Catholic clergy abuse through a highly personal, impressionistic and non-dramatic lens.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register
SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
May 30, 2007
A federal bankruptcy judge on Wednesday approved the sale of three properties by the Diocese of Davenport to pay its major creditors — individuals with claims of child sexual abuse by priests.
The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Oct. 10, 2006, because it said settlement demands by victims of abuse exceeded the diocese’s ability to pay current and future claims.
Southern District Bankruptcy Judge Lee M. Jackwig approved the sale of:
• A farm at 3718 Telegraph Road., Davenport, to Charles Van Fossen of Davenport for $310,000.
• A residence at 803 E. 39th St., Davenport, to Mr. and Mrs. James Ridge of Long Grove for $70,125.
CANADA
AHN
May 30, 2007 6:28 p.m. EST
Valerie Chang - AHN News Writer
London, Canada (AHN) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of London, Ontario has provided funding for a project that provides counseling to males who were sexually abused by members of the clergy.
The Diocese gave $30,000 to Hope and Healing Associates, a Chatham, Ontario group headed by Tom Wilken, for the Silence to Hope and Healing Project. Mr. Wilken characterized the funding as "groundbreaking," because he said that "[i]t is very rare that male victims get any type of funding for services."
Most of the money will be used to provide free group counseling services to male victims of clergy sexual abuse in London, Chatham, and Windsor, Ontario. The counseling will last anywhere from 10 to 16 weeks.
SAN JOSE (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Marisa Lagos
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Police are trying to locate a boy who may have been molested in 1991 by a Sunday school teacher arrested in December on suspicion of sexually molesting a 15-year-old neighbor.
Valentino Angel Sedillo, 39, was arrested Christmas Eve. An investigation revealed "that Sedillo's home was the center of activity for a group of neighborhood teens, and where Sedillo reportedly gave the teens alcohol," police said.
Sedillo, who taught Sunday school at Foxworthy Baptist Church in San Jose until May 2006, was found to have concealed video surveillance and recording equipment at his home, police said.
SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Weekly
By John Metcalfe
Shortly after Robert Rinde was born in 1969, his father, Robert Larry Leroy Pitsor Sr., decided that the infant would grow up as a Mormon. It struck him as a fashionable religion to be part of.
"It was part of the Western machismo," says Anne Rinde, the mother. "He had it in his mind that all Western men were Mormons and he was going to be one, too. It's cowboy crap." It hardly mattered that Larry—the name Pitsor went by—initially wasn't a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "He told me he was," adds Anne, now 63 years old. "It turned out he wasn't, but he became one later. Larry was not the most honest of human beings."
Nevertheless, young Robert thrived as a Mormon. Growing up in Seattle's Magnolia neighborhood as part of the local church's First Ward, Robert spent many happy days as a boy engaged in church-related games and activities. On weekends, he helped can foodstuffs in the warehouse of the church's Relief Society, and joined a Mormon-sponsored Boy Scout troop. "He was just Mr. Sunshine," says Anne. "He was the kid everybody wanted. He was willing to do anything for anybody."
LOS ANGELES (CA)
City of Angels
By City of Angels Lady
The motion to compel Roger Mahony to respond to Interrogatories 1 through 8 “accidentally” fell off calendar this morning, but the Cardinal’s written responses may now be a moot point. Plaintiff Witness Number 17 in the June 11 Jury trial re Paul Kreutzer, Catholic school math teacher/predator, is Cardinal Roger Mahony.
So Roger Mahony may testify on the witness stand in front of a jury in the Kreutzer Cases, trial date June 11th. Katherine Freberg was gracious as she explained the way Mahony’s interrogatories hearing slipped off calendar today as “one of those things that happen.” She’s only been after Mahony’s answers to these eight questions since last August with endless delays, continuances, and non-response answers.
Freberg explained: She’d filed five motions in one day, four of them to continue hearings re Hagenbach cases and one re this Caffoe case and Interrogatories 1 through 8.
Someone somewhere in the Court system made an error and the Mahony hearing got moved off calendar. But sitting outside for a smoke later in the park between the statues of Christopher Columbus and George Washington it hit me.
ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union
By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST
Last updated: 2:42 p.m., Wednesday, May 30, 2007
ALBANY - A Columbia County priest was granted $50,000 bond this afternoon after an initial appearance in federal court to face charges of receiving and possessing child pornography.
Raymond Ethier, 50, was arrested after computers seized from his home were found to contain pornographic images and videos depicting children, according to a felony complaint filed against him.
Federal authorities allege that Ethier admitted having sexually explicit conversations on the Internet and that he "engaged in sexually explicit conversations with other individuals on the Internet and that these conversations sometimes involved children. However, he indicated these conversations were merely fantasy in nature and that he has never abused a minor."
CANADA
Ottawa Sun
By CP
CORNWALL — A witness at an inquiry here read aloud a letter Tuesday in which he believes Rev. Charles MacDonald expressed regret for having sexually assaulted him.
The letter, which is dated Dec. 30, 1997, is handwritten and signed, “Sincerely, Charles F.” It has not been determined MacDonald was the author of the letter.
The man, who cannot be identified under a publication ban, told the inquiry Monday he was sexually assaulted by the priest while the pair were visiting a cottage in Eganville. The man would have been 18 years old at the time of the alleged assault.
SCRANTON (PA)
Catholic World News
Scranton, May. 30, 2007 (CWNews.com) - The Scranton, Pennyslvania diocese has decided against proceeding with the priestly ordination of a deacon who formerly headed the suppressed Society of St. John.
Deacon Joseph Levine was the superior general of the Society of St. John before the order was suppressed by Scanton's Bishop Joseph Martino in 2004. Although not personally accused of immoral conduct, Levine was charged with covering up evidence of sexual abuse by his predecessors in the group's leadership.
FORT COLLINS (CO)
Rocky Mountain News
By Lisa Ryckman, Rocky Mountain News
May 30, 2007
Timothy Evans, a priest convicted in two counties of sexually abusing boys he was supposed to be counseling, will serve at least 14 years in a state prison, a Larimer County judge ruled today.
The court handed down what’s called an "indeterminate" sentence, setting a minimum of 14 years while leaving the maximum, which could be as much as life, to the discretion of the parole board. The board would base its determination, in part, on the inmate’s behavior and rehabilitation efforts while behind bars.
The courtroom this morning was packed with supporters of Evans as well as families and friends of his victims.
FORT COLLINS (CO)
The Coloradoan
By Coloradoan staff
Timothy Evans, a former priest at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Fort Collins who was convicted of sexual assaulting a teenage boy 10 years ago, will serve at least 14 years in prison.
Evans was sentenced in Larimer County District Court this morning.
FORT COLLINS (CO)
9News
written by: Sara Gandy, Web Producer created: 5/30/2007 10:49:23 AM
Last updated: 5/30/2007 11:04:07 AM
FORT COLLINS - A 44-year-old former priest was sentenced Wednesday after being found guilty of sex assault on a child.
Tim Evans was found guilty in March on two counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust and one count of showing a pattern of abuse. On Wednesday he was sentenced to 14 years to life in prison.
Evans was accused of sexually molesting a 17-year-old boy twice in 1999 when he was a priest at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Roman Catholic Church in Fort Collins.
FORT COLLINS (CO)
TheDenverChannel.com
FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- A Catholic priest accused of molesting a young parishioner in Fort Collins was sentenced to 14 years to life Wednesday in Larimer County.
Timothy Joseph Evans, 44, was found guilty earlier on two counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust and engaging in a pattern of abuse.
The ruling means he will serve an indeterminate sentence of at least 14 years and could be kept in prison for life, at the discretion of the state parole board.
DAVENPORT (IA)
KGAN
May 30, 2007 10:11 EDT
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) -- Attorneys for people who claim they were sexually abused by priests are objecting to plans by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport to sell three properties.
The diocese, which filed for bankruptcy last fall, is asking a judge to approve the sales to settle the claims so it can get out of bankruptcy.
But a creditors committee made up of abuse victims is raising objections. They say the diocese isn't telling all about the fair market value of the property. They say that makes it hard to analyze offers.
TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By DAVID CLOHESSY
IT WOULD be easy to dismiss the controversy over a Toledo street honoring a dead Catholic priest.
Easy, but wrong.
This issue is no tempest in a teapot. Who a community chooses to honor matters. It especially matters when the honor is public and permanent, like the street named for Msgr. Jerome Schmit.
Let's start with a quick review of the facts. Back in 1980, police were investigating the brutal murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. The prime suspect was a Catholic priest, the Rev. Gerald Robinson. Police officers were questioning him at the station. No one disputes any of this.
Fast forward 26 years. At Robinson's May, 2006 criminal trial, two retired Toledo police officers, with no apparent agenda, came out of retirement and offered clear and unchallenged testimony, under oath, about Robinson's interrogation. Both said that Msgr. Schmit suddenly showed up at the station, interrupted the session by walking in with a lawyer, and quickly walked out with Robinson. The prime suspect was never questioned again and the crime went unsolved for almost three decades. Ultimately, Robinson was convicted of killing the nun.
NORTHERN IRELAND
The Fermanagh Herald
'People just feel very hurt and let down'
The community of Roslea have been left reeling following the conviction of their parish priest, Fr Jeremiah McGrath of facilitating a sexual offence on a 12 year-old-girl.
The Sinn Fein Councillor for the area, Brian McCaffrey articulated the feelings of the community, saying: "There is an overwhelming feeling of hurt, betrayal, and of shock.
"Fr McGrath came to Roslea in 1990, and since then he has been accepted into the community here. He was on the Board of Governors of two locals schools, he was in a position of responsibility and, apart from anything else, he had a duty of care and should have known better.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
City of Angels
By City of Angels Lady
For comparison sake, since we spent the day critiquing a Defendant’s motion, now let’s look at the May 18 Plaintiffs' reply brief re privacy objections concerning Franciscan Friars. Document diving I found this pearl, filed by Timothy Hale of Nye, Peabody & Stirling in Santa Barbara.
Saying the Franciscans have “crossed the line of reasonableness in advocating for the privacy rights of pedophile priests,” Hale quotes Church Attorneys for the Franciscans arguing in court:
THE COURT: So pedophilia is protected by the right of privacy?
CHURCH ATTORNEY HELDT: Yes, Sexual behavior --
THE COURT: Of any kind?
DOVER (DE)
The News Journal
By BETH MILLER, The News Journal
Posted Tuesday, May 29, 2007 at 6:40 pm
DOVER – After a five-hour hearing today that included the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington warning of possible ministry cutbacks and an industry representative warning of the potential for higher cost or non-existent insurance coverage, the House Judiciary Committee voted 5-0 to release a bill that would eliminate the civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases. It is expected to reach the House floor when legislators return from their budget-writing break next month.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Manya A. Brachear
Tribune religion reporter
Published May 29, 2007, 6:06 PM CDT
Kathy Laarveld thought that by working at her son Keith's Catholic elementary school she could shield him from danger and guarantee him a happy childhood.
But in 2003 her adult son shared horrifying news: At his 8th birthday party and celebration of his First Communion, Rev. Vincent McCaffrey had molested him inside the Laarvelds' home. The abuse, he said, continued for four years behind closed doors just steps away from his mother's desk at St. Joseph the Worker School in Wheeling.
"I would rather have died than let this happen to my son," Kathy Laarveld said through tears at a news conference Tuesday. "I was there. It was done in my home. It was done in my place of work. Now I know a true predator knows how to play the game."
UNITED STATES
The New York Sun
By CHRISTIAN LORENTZEN
May 30, 2007
Jerry Bauer
Andrew O'Hagan, author of "Be Near Me. O'Hagan is mostly concerned with human frailty, a problem at once moral, aesthetic, and metaphysical, writes Christian Lorentzen.
The crux of Andrew O'Hagan's third novel, "Be Near Me" (Harcourt, 305 pages, $24), is a night of wandering and carousing that ends with a kiss and a reproof. The episode would be negligible in most lives, but the parties concerned happen to be a 15-year-old boy and a 56-year-old Catholic priest. They are discovered just after dawn, drunk, high, and holding hands on the rectory couch, by the housekeeper. The incident creeps to the attention of the authorities, leading to the pastor's arrest and electrifying political and class resentments in the county of Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland. Headlines in the local tabloids name Father David Anderton "The Face of Evil," and an angry mob sets fire to the rectory, yelling, "Come out, ya child molestin' bastard."
ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Tim Townsend
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
05/30/2007
A former priest with the Archdiocese of St. Louis was sued Tuesday by a man accusing him of sexual abuse at St. George Parish in Affton 30 years ago.
At a news conference Tuesday, attorney Ken Chackes, said his client — referred to in the case only as John Doe BA — was 13 in 1977 when the abuse is alleged to have taken place.
The suit, filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court, says that Donald Straub "worked with, mentored and counseled" the teenager at Resurrection Parish in St. Louis, but that the abuse occurred at St. George.
DAYTON (OH)
Dayton Daily News
By Tom Beyerlein
Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Tuesday named U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael R. Merz of Dayton as chairman of the National Review Board, a lay organization formed by the bishops five years ago to help cope with the priest child sexual abuse scandal. Merz's two-year term as chairman starts Friday. He has been a member of the board since 2004.
The board's priorities, Merz said, are to oversee completion of a major study on the "causes and context" of the scandal and to evaluate the effectiveness of safety training for children and annual audits to check whether the nation's dioceses are implementing child-protection policies.
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York and Fordham University were commissioned by the bishops in 2005 to examine why so many priests abused boys, especially in the 1970s, and why the number of reported incidents has declined.
CHICAGO (IL)
Daily Herald
By Rob Olmstead
rolmstead@dailyherald.com
Posted Wednesday, May 30, 2007
A leading attorney of legal action against the Archdiocese of Chicago announced Tuesday the settlement of about a dozen suits involving victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests.
Jeff Anderson announced the church has paid $6.65 million to settle 14 cases against 12 priests. Among those priests involved in the settlements included some from the Northwest suburbs, most notably Vincent McCaffrey, now serving time in a federal penitentiary for possession of child pornography.
One of McCaffrey’s victims alone received more than $1 million, Anderson’s office said.
SCRANTON (PA)
The Times-Tribune
BY DAVID SINGLETON
STAFF WRITER
05/30/2007
A deacon formerly associated with the controversial Society of St. John will not be a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Paterson, N.J.
Deacon Joseph Levine is still a deacon in the diocese, but will not be ordained to the priesthood, Marianna Thompson, the diocesan communications director, said Tuesday.
The diocese announced late last week that Deacon Levine would not be ordained Saturday in Paterson as previously scheduled, but released no other details. Four other men were ordained.
Ms. Thompson confirmed Deacon Levine’s ordination is off permanently, a result of the “discernment” process during which the deacon and church officials examined his call to the priesthood.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times
May 30, 2007
BY SUSAN HOGAN/ALBACH Religion Reporter/shogan@suntimes.com
As the Archdiocese of Chicago opens its wallet to pay millions of dollars more in sexual abuse claims, a priest's rape victim lamented, "Nothing has changed."
Keith Laarveld, 33, of Hoffman Estates, urged officials to solve the problem of predatory priests. He said he fights off suicidal thoughts nearly every day as a result of being raped by a priest.
He's one of 14 people involved in a $6.65 million settlement announced Tuesday naming a dozen archdiocesan priests. The first incident of abuse happened in 1962, and the latest in 1990. It's part of an overall $51.8 million in abuse settlements involving 214 claims.
LAKE FOREST (IL)
News Sun
May 30, 2007
By JUDY MASTERSON Jmasterson@scn1.com
Attorneys representing 14 people allegedly abused by Chicago-area Catholic priests said Tuesday they've reached $6.65 million in settlements with the Archdiocese of Chicago.
One of the 10 priests named in the sexual abuse lawsuit against the Archdiocese served as associate pastor of St. Mary Church in Lake Forest.
Brian Wolff accused Rev. Robert Mayer of forcing him and other altar boys at St. Mary's to "engage in deviant sexual behavior -- everything from oral sex to anal sex, according to the suit, filed by four men in Cook County nearly a year ago.
UNITED KINGDOM
The Fermanagh Herald
Jeremiah McGrath, the former parish priest of Roslea had a 'face like thunder' as he sat in the dock in Liverpool Crown Court and heard a jury convict him of one count of facilitating a child sex offence.
A judge told 63-year-old McGrath that a custodial sentence is inevitable.
The jury at Liverpool Crown Court, who found him guilty by a majority of ten to two, cleared him of another similar offence of arranging or facilitating William Adams to commit a child sex offence.
PHOENIX (AZ)
CNN
By Gary Tuchman
CNN
PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- It's fair to say John Feit was surprised to see us.
We met the 74-year-old retired priest in a grocery store parking lot in Phoenix. We had some questions, and he isn't the kind of person to grant interviews, at least not on the topic we wanted to talk about: Murder.
Specifically, we were interested in asking him about the slaying of Irene Garza, a crime that a Texas police department is convinced Feit committed. But Feit has not been charged, and he may never be.
In that Phoenix parking lot, I asked Feit if he murdered Garza.
"Interesting question," Feit replied. "Answer is no." ...
While waiting for resolution in the Garza case, Feit was sent to a monastery in Missouri where he got to know a monk named Dale Tachney. After 40 years of silence on the Garza case, Tachney, no longer a monk, made a startling statement in 2002.
"I was part of the cover-up for all these years," Tachney said.
CHICAGO (IL)
Earthtimes
CHICAGO, May 29 /PRNewswire/ --
WHAT At a news conference, a Minnesota attorney will announce -- the resolution of 14 civil child molestation lawsuits against 12 current and former Chicago area Catholic priests for $6.65 million dollars, and -- a new pro bono effort he's launching to help warn the public about predatory Chicago priests by helping victims find and sue their perpetrators as individuals WHEN Tuesday, May 29, 11:30 a.m. WHERE
Allerton Crowne Plaza Hotel, 701 N. Michigan Ave. (4th Floor, Olmsted Room) in Chicago
WHO
Two clergy molestation victims who have not spoken publicly before and are involved in these settlements, along with their attorneys.
CANADA
Standard Freeholder
By Terri Saunders
Local News - Tuesday, May 29, 2007 Updated @ 10:54:49 AM
Cornwall
A witness at the Cornwall Public Inquiry Tuesday morning read aloud a letter in which he believes Rev. Charles MacDonald expressed regret for having sexually assaulted him.
The letter, dated Dec. 30, 1997, is handwritten and signed, "Sincerely, Charles F."
It's not been determined MacDonald is the author of the letter.
The man, who cannot be identified under a publication ban, told the inquiry Monday he was sexually assaulted by the priest while the pair was visiting a cottage in Eganville, a small community northwest of Ottawa.
ROME
Catholic World News
Rome, May. 29, 2007 (CNA/CWNews.com) - The former top canon-law official for the Vatican has answered the charges made in a controversial BBC documentary, denying that the Vatican has sought to cover up evidence of sexual abuse by priests.
In an interview with the Italian socialist newspaper Repubblica, the president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, Cardinal Julian Herranz, said it was false that the Holy See hides or protects priests guilty of abuse or sexual misconduct, and that instead abusive priests receive "very serious punishments" of an ecclesial nature that pose no detriment to civil proceedings.
The interview focused on the BBC documentary "Sexual Crimes and the Vatican," which was supposedly based on a 1962 memo from the office that is now the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The document reaffirmed the inviolability of the seal of confession, but the BBC film said that it was intended to "protect and hide" abusive priests.