Abuse Tracker

DAVENPORT (IA)
Courier

DAVENPORT, Iowa - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport is seeking to review its insurance policies dating back more than a half century.

The diocese filed a joint motion with a creditor's committee asking a bankruptcy court to approve the review of the church's insurance back to 1950.

The motion filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court said Travelers Companies Inc. was providing a defense to some of the claims before the diocese filed for bankruptcy in October. It asks the court to subpoena all Travelers' documents regarding the diocese's insurance coverage from 1950 to 2007.

UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

June 28, 2007, 3:58 pm
Posted by Grant Gallicho

A few weeks back, dotCommonweal contributor Paul Lauritzen generously offered to helm an experiment in podcasting for the site. His first effort is an interview with Fr. Donald Cozzens, author of Freeing Celibacy. The interview focuses on the sexual-abuse scandals--including due process for accused priests--and other happy subjects. You can listen to the 25-minute podcast below, or download it right here. If you want to subscribe to the podcast--and I know you do--drop the following URL into iTunes: http://commonweal.podbean.com/feed/

UNITED STATES
Orthodox Reform

The following editorial appeared in the recently released issue of The National Herald. Online subscribers can read the original article online.

Finally a decision on Katinas

After a long and disturbing refusal to do the right thing, Archbishop Demetrios finally decided, as we are reporting today, to defrock Fr. Nicholas Katinas, for allegedly sexually molesting young children over a period of decades.

Better late than never, as the proverb goes. But why the foot dragging from the Archbishop on a case that was clear cut from the beginning?

BOSTON (MA)
Orthodox Reform

The following article appeared in the recently released issue of The National Herald. Online subscribers can read the original article online.

Father Nicholas Katinas To Be Defrocked
By Theodore Kalmoukos

Decision made after recommendation of Archbishop Demetrios

BOSTON – Rev. Nicholas Katinas who has been accused of pedophilia while pastoring in Greek Orthodox parishes in Olympia Fields, Illinois and Dallas, Texas will be defrocked according to a recent decision by the First Degree Spiritual Court of the Direct Archdiocesan District of New York after the recommendation of Archbishop Demetrios. The decision was announced by Archbishop Demetrios last Tuesday in a special meeting of the Holy Eparchial Synod.

CANADA
The Observer

Editorial - Saturday, June 30, 2007 @ 16:00

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Just ask Mayor Mike Bradley. In a recent interview with CBC radio about the St. Peter's Church closure, the mayor said lawsuits launched by children who were sexually assaulted by the Catholic clergy had contributed, in part, to the demise of St. Peter's.

It's a logically-drawn conclusion and one no one can argue with, but it's one that local sexual abuse survivors took exception to.

A lawyer representing victims of the notorious Father Charles Sylvestre an area priest who stole the innocence of so many young girls has publicly chastised the mayor for his comments.

One of his victims told The Observer that the mayor made the victims feel guilty.

FLEMINGTON (NJ)
Home News Tribune

By BRANDON LAUSCH
GANNETT NEW JERSEY
FLEMINGTON — — John M. Banko, the former Milford priest convicted in 2002 of molesting an altar boy, will let a jury decide whether he is guilty of similar charges during an upcoming trial set to begin Nov. 5.

Banko, 61, was indicted last year on one count of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and one count of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

Prosecutors claim Banko sexually assaulted a child younger than 16 from Sept. 1, 1994 to May 15, 1995. The indictment came after the Diocese of Metuchen referred allegations it had received to the Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office. The diocese serves parishes in Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset and Warren counties.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Union-Tribune

By Mark Sauer and Sandi Dolbee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

June 30, 2007

Federal bankruptcy Judge Louise DeCarl Adler set an Aug. 13 deadline for a mediation settlement. Should talks fail, Adler will decide on Aug. 23 whether to set trial dates in state court for an initial batch of abuse lawsuits, Adler ruled this week.

“She cannot mandate settlement, but she can strongly urge it,” said Fred Naffziger, a business law professor at Indiana University who has studied the five bankruptcies filed by U.S. dioceses. “As an attorney, you don't disregard that, you give it a try.”

Brom's lawyers, meanwhile, are again challenging the constitutionality of a state law that lifted the statute of limitations and opened a one-year window in 2003 to file lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy dating back decades.

COSTA MESA (CA)
The Orange County Register

By KIMBERLY EDDS
The Orange County Register
COSTA MESA– The former director of St. Timothy Roman Catholic Church's youth choir was arrested by Costa Mesa detectives Thursday on suspicion of molesting one of his students more than a decade ago.

Authorities began investigating Albert Lee Schildknecht, 56, of Laguna Niguel in May after a 28-year-old woman complained to the Orange County Sheriff's Department that her former choir director forced her to have a sexual relationship with him when she was just 15.

Costa Mesa detectives took over the investigation after Sheriff's investigators said any potential abuse in their jurisdiction happened beyond the ten years prosecutors have to file charges in sexual abuse cases, a Sheriff's spokesman said.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

June 30, 2007
BY ERIC HERMAN Staff Reporter/eherman@suntimes.com
The Rev. Daniel McCormack, whose alleged abuse of boys rocked the Archdiocese of Chicago, is expected to plead guilty to five felonies Monday, sources said.

Under the terms of the deal, McCormack, 38, will plead guilty to five counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and likely receive a five-year prison term, the sources said. The plea agreement must be approved by Judge Thomas Sumner, who has indicated he will accept it, according to sources.

McCormack could have faced up to seven years in prison. With credit for good behavior, McCormack could serve as little as 2½ years.

LIBERIA
allAfrica

The Analyst (Monrovia)

29 June 2007

A Pentecostal prelate, Rev. Samuel Gooding of the Devine Love Resurrection Bible Center Church in Shoes Factory, Gardnerville has been accused of raping a 13-year-old minor, who lives with him and his wife.

The incident was discovered by the project officer of the Woman In Peace Building Network (WIPNET), Madam Bernice Freeman, while she was on a regular awareness campaign on Gender Based Violence and Sexual Abuse.

The pastor reportedly had sexual interaction with the victim more than three times, but threatened her not to tell his wife. Madam Freeman said a formal report has been filed to the Women and Child Protection Unit of the Liberia National Police, after Pastor Gooding and his wife admitted to the act.

POCATELLO (ID)
KIFI

Associated Press - June 29, 2007 4:44 PM ET

POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) - An eastern Idaho youth pastor who faced two counts of lewd conduct with a minor and one count of sexually abusing a minor has been acquitted.

A jury found Joshua J- Robinson, a pastor at Gate City Christian Church, not guilty on all counts following a 2-day trial.

The 29-year-old Robinson was arrested in February.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

Terri Saunders
Local News - Friday, June 29, 2007 @ 08:00

A list of names of area men purported to comprise a clan of pedophiles began to crumble like a falling house of cards at the Cornwall Public Inquiry Thursday.

Ron Leroux told the commission several of the names on a list of priests, police officers, lawyers and businessmen he has often claimed in the past he saw in a variety of locations in various groupings and whom he claimed to have witnessed sexually assaulting young boys don't belong there.

"That's why I'm here today - to set the record straight," said Leroux. "I'm taking the blame for some of this mess."

Outside the hearing, a lawyer for the Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese said Leroux's testimony is proof many of the pillars upon which rumours of a clan of pedophiles having operated in the city for years have no foundation.

VIRGINIA
The Virginian-Pilot

June 30, 2007

Opinion / Roger Chesley

I JUST WISH it would stop.

I'm referring to the seemingly endless revelations involving Roman Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse. Since the scandal broke nationwide in 2002, the allegations, criminal charges and court settlements continue. They're sad chapters in a long-running tragedy; many of the allegations stem from decades earlier.

The latest incident occurred Sunday in Pennsylvania, where a longtime priest, the Rev. William A. Rosensteel, 64, committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. Rosensteel's death came two days after his diocesan bishop said he'd refer allegations of sex abuse against Rosensteel, dating to the 1970s, to local police.

Let me be clear: Of course these and similar allegations should be investigated, especially by law enforcement authorities. Church leaders aren't equipped - nor do they have the credibility because of past cover-ups - to probe such accusations. If charges and convictions are warranted, I have no pity for the priests.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling
Friday Roundup: If anyone thinks I’m not being fair and only portraying Church Attorneys doing stupid things, I want to make it clear. I’m reporting on what they are doing. If there were any legitimate logical legal arguments in any of their documents, I’d report it. Although this afternoon the ArcScanWeb was down once again so I wasn't able to look at anything. Once again as everyone else in Room 106 merrily viewed their screens, mine were all blank white or "access denied."

The blank white screens are the creepy ones. First time one of those came up was May 31st when I was trying to find a copy of Mahony’s subpoena or something briefed about it. I clicked a promising document, Java opened and -- a blank white screen. I felt a chill like Mahony's ethereal footprint. The entire month of June I'd say 80 percent of the times I went to the JCCP Documents it was Access Denied, and I’ve been document diving since January. Everything was seamless until ArcScanWeb, a private contractor hired to maintain the Clergy Cases documents did an upgrade May 31st, a week after Mahony’s subpoena.

Plus lately even when Church Attorneys do file documents, even the title does not show up in the public access database. In every hearing last week, the "papers filed by defendant" that created the hearing just were not in the database at all. The Calendar says Hearing based on papers filed by Defendant June 6 and when you go to look from June 4 to 9 there’s nothing there at all filed by defendant for that case.

So proud is the LA Archdiocese of the work of its 15 or so legal firms.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
San Diego Magazine

By Ron Donoho

The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego stared into the face of big payouts——for the sins of pedophile priests it long harbored——and declared bankruptcy. The diocese has clearly erred in reporting its finances. But how does it fairly compensate victims and not break the bank at local parishes?

IT'S AN UNUSUALLY gloomy April afternoon. A stiff breeze shoots rain pellets into your cold face. You step into the vast jury-pool room at the Federal Court Building on Front Street, after passing through the metal detector and handing over a tape recorder and camera-equipped cell phone. No recording devices are permitted inside. But there is plenty to see and hear, and there are heart-wrenching stories to consider.

An ungodly battle is buffeting through this bankruptcy court. The debtor is the San Diego Roman Catholic Diocese. Back on February 27—the day before the first of a slew of pedophile-priest cases was going to state court—the diocese filed for Chapter 11. That halted the trials. Now alleged victims—grown men and women who say their youthful innocence was tainted or stolen—are here by the dozens. In this 341 hearing, often referred to as a “first meeting of the creditors,” the people who say priests fondled, abused and raped them are not technically “victims.” They are “creditors.”

After a lengthy hail of legal questions and answers from diocese officials, here comes a creditor to sit at the U-shaped table at the front of the jury-pool room. Dianna Williams trembles as she slips on reading glasses. Directly across the table is Bishop Robert Brom. His hair is white, and he wears a clerical collar and black robe. A foot-tall cross hangs on a chain around his neck. He sits flanked by lawyers and a small coterie of church officials. In church hierarchy, Bishop Brom reports only to the Vatican. He is the highest-ranking Roman Catholic in San Diego. He is also the sole proprietor of the corporation that is the local diocese.

UNITED STATES
Stop Baptist Predators

“DENIAL is a defense mechanism in which a person is faced with a fact that is too painful to accept and rejects it instead….The subject may deny the reality of the unpleasant fact altogether, admit the fact but deny its seriousness (minimization), or admit both the fact and seriousness but deny responsibility.”

Mr. X, a long-time attorney for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, recently posted some online comments that, I believe, illustrate denial on the subject of clergy sex abuse. (His comments were originally posted on the Spiritual Samurai blog, and I reposted them here.)

Why should anyone care what Mr. X says? Because Mr. X has been advising the BGCT about clergy sex abuse for over a decade. He’s one of their main go-to-guys.

So imagine this….if these are the sorts of things he writes publicly, what does he say when he talks about clergy abuse behind closed doors?

Consider just one example: Mr. X pointed out that Christa Brown sued “the church and an individual within the church whose only involvement was to receive limited information from Ms. Brown about the minister’s conduct.”

Did you get that? “Limited information.”

Here’s what that so-called “limited information” actually was. In court-filed documents, the church expressly stated that its “music minister” had “knowledge about Gilmore’s sexual contact with Brown as a minor” (¶ 16) and that a “church leader” was able “to substantiate that sexual contact with Brown as a minor occurred.” The music minister also swore that Gilmore himself had told him “that some other member of the congregation may have seen him in a compromising position with Christa Brown.”

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Webster-Kirwood Times

by Don Corrigan
Columnist

June 29, 2007
Despite a court settlement this week in a civil lawsuit involving sex abuse allegations against the Rev. Robert Osborne, the former head of Vianney High School, acrimony over the court case continues.

The Marianists Roman Catholic order settled the suit involving an 18-year-old boy, who accused Osborne, 74, of molesting him two years ago when he was a student there. Osborne left the school after the allegations of abuse became public.

"This is not an admission of guilt on the part of Father Osborne," said Diane Guerra, a spokesperson for the Marianist Province of the United States, regarding the settlement. "Criminal charges were dropped.

NEW YORK
The Village Voice

by Wayne Barrett
June 26th, 2007 5:24 PM

When Pope Benedict XVI attacked Catholic politicians in Mexico who supported abortion rights last month, Rudy Giuliani was asked for his opinion. The presidential candidate replied in the language of the church: "Issues like that are for me and my confessor. I'm a Catholic, and that's the way I resolve those issues, personally and privately."

Giuliani has invoked his Catholic heritage on Larry King; he's been described by The Washington Post as a "devout Catholic"; he's appeared on Fox News with the label "Catholic" floating on-screen; and he's handled a CNN debate question about a bishop who denounced him with a declaration unfamiliar to those who covered him as mayor. "I respect the opinion of Catholic and religious leaders of all kinds," he said. "Religion is very important to me. It's a very important part of my life." ...

Alan Placa is not just a major figure in Giuliani's marital life: He baptized both of Giuliani's children, and though already stripped of his priestly powers, he was given special dispensation from his bishop in Long Island to preside at Helen Giuliani's September 2002 funeral. A month earlier—despite still-pending allegations that he'd groped four minors in Long Island's Diocese of Rockville Center—he was hired as a three-day-a-week consultant at Giuliani Partners, where he remains today. Michael Hess, the managing partner of Giuliani's firm and the city's former top lawyer, represents Placa in the ongoing cases. When first reached by a reporter at Giuliani Partners, Placa claimed that he was only visiting—a falsehood quickly reversed by a firm spokeswoman.

Giuliani's friends cite the awkward hiring as an example of his loyalty, though he has long been known to jettison people close to him. His best-selling memoir, Leadership, included his dog Goalie in the acknowledgement list of the major people in his life, but not the mother of his two children. He forced out Police Commissioner Bill Bratton for appearing on the cover of Time, and also his dear friend and schools chancellor, Rudy Crew, because Crew tried to hold him to his word to never fund a voucher program. And he trashed them on their way out the door, smearing Crew the day he eulogized his ex-wife. On the other hand, in Giuliani's categorical mind, Placa is forever a good guy, no matter the facts.

Indeed, even if one assumes that America won't be offended by the contradiction between Giuliani's marital choices and his professed Catholicism, that will almost certainly change as the country learns more about his best friend, business associate, and lifelong link to the church. New York papers have reported some devastating details, drawn largely from a Suffolk County grand jury report issued in 2003. One of his accusers, Richard Tollner, a mortgage broker who claims he was repeatedly groped by Placa while in high school, says the priest stopped only after Placa approached him at his father's funeral and Tollner threatened him. Tollner and two others testified against Placa before the grand jury, though the statute of limitations had run out on their decades-old allegations, making prosecution impossible. Placa was described in the report as "cautious but relentless in pursuing his victims," groping the boys under cover of a newspaper, book, or poster. One victim testified that he was fondled behind a banner made for a march protesting the Roe v. Wade decision.

But the grand jury found Placa's decade of systemic cover-up far more disturbing than his alleged abuse. Often the first person contacted by a victim because of his role as the bishop's top attorney and head of a three-member "intervention team," Placa wrote a memo to other diocesan officials asking them not to identify him as an attorney. "Priests who were civil attorneys," the report found, clearly referring to Placa, "portrayed themselves as interested in the concerns of victims and pretended to be acting for their benefit while they only acted to protect the diocese. These officials boldly bragged about their success." Victims were "ignored, belittled, and re-victimized," with Placa and his colleagues procrastinating "for the purpose of making sure that the civil and criminal statutes of limitation were no longer applicable."

UNITED STATES
Dispatches from the Culture Wars

Oh boy, the Catholic League is on the warpath again. Their target this time: Robin Williams, who apparently told jokes about Catholic priests and pedophilia on the Tonight Show recently.

Kiera McCaffrey, director of communications with the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, says Williams would never bring up the fact that most priests involved in sex scandals were homosexuals.

"You don't hear anything about that," she states. "You don't hear comments about homosexuals from these comedians [because homosexuals are] pretty much a protected class ...." And that, she says, poses a problem. "They say, 'it's off-limits to mock gays, [but] it's perfectly okay to go after priests.' Now, what about gay priests? That's a tricky situation. You know the answer -- let's just label them all pedophiles."

Wow, where do you even begin? First of all, pedophilia is not typically associated with either homosexuality or heterosexuality; most pedophiles will happily go back and forth from boys to girls as long as they are pre-pubescent. That is the nature of pedophilia, a unique form of sexual dysfunction that is independent of sexual orientation.

CANADA
The Observer

By JACK POIRIER / The Observer
Local News - Friday, June 29, 2007 @ 16:00

Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley is under fire from the sexual assault victims of disgraced Catholic priest Charles Sylvestre.

In an interview this week with CBC radio, Bradley said in addition to declining numbers, a shortage of priests and building costs, that civil litigation against the church was a factor in the closing of three dozen churches within the London diocese, including St. Peter's in Sarnia.

In response, a local victim said Bradley's comments inadvertently placed blame for the closing of churches on sexual abuse victims who have sought compensation for the injustices they suffered.

"I find it offensive," said Sarnia's Dianne Gauthier, one of 47 women sexually abused as a child by Sylvestre.

SYRACUSE (NY)
The Post-Standard

Friday, June 29, 2007By Jim O'Hara Staff writer
A retired Catholic priest who moved to Syracuse after being dismissed from public ministry in Delaware admitted Thursday in Syracuse City Court he sexually molested a teenage boy here over a four-year period.

He will receive no jail time.

Francis G. DeLuca, 77, pleaded guilty before Judge Kate Rosenthal to one count of second-degree sexual abuse and two counts each of third-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

Rosenthal promised DeLuca a sentence of probation and set sentencing for Aug. 27.

RUSSELL COUNTY (AL)
WTVM

Atlanta Bishop Christopher Bennett who recently served as a local church employee faces second degree sodomy charges. Sheriff's deputies brought Bennett back to the Russell County jail late Thursday evening.

Bennett is featured on several websites detailing his ministry. He was an employee at Higher Power Outreach in Phenix City at the time the alleged incident happened in 2004. An allegation that has many of them in shock. "Initially when I heard this I was outraged because we hired him and trusted him as a man of God," said Pastor Johnnie Robinson.

DELAWARE
WMDT

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) -

A retired Delaware priest pleaded guilty in a New York court yesterday to sexually abusing a Syracuse teen over several years.

Reverend Francis DeLuca pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual abuse and two counts each of third-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

DeLuca was a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington for 35 years. He was dismissed from public ministry in 1993 after being accused of sexually abusing a minor in the 1960s while he was a priest in Delaware.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Tomas Mac Ruairi
Thursday June 28 2007

A PRIEST falsely accused of child sexual abuse yesterday publicly forgave his accuser - and asked a court to show mercy when sentencing him.

Paul Anderson (34) claimed the priest had buggered him while giving him First Holy Communion prayer tuition more than 25 years ago.

The allegations, made four years ago, were untrue, but the priest was instantly and publicly suspended from ministry while the claims were investigated.

SYRACUSE (NY)
The Post-Standard

Posted by Jim O'Hara June 28, 2007 2:59PM

Retired Catholic priest Francis G. DeLuca pleaded guilty in Syracuse City Court this afternoon to charges he sexually molested a teenage boy over a period of four years.

Although the District Attorney's Office was seeking a sentence of probation and six months in jail, Judge Kate Rosenthal promised the 77-year-old DeLuca a sentence of straight probation with no jail time. Sentencing is set for Aug. 27.

DeLuca pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree sexual abuse and two counts each of third-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child for incidents that occurred in 2002, 2004 and 2005 when the same victim was 13, 15 and 16.

DELAWARE
The News Journal

By BETH MILLER, The News Journal

Posted Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 4:47 pm

The Rev. Francis G. DeLuca, who served as a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington for 35 years, pleaded guilty today to sexually abusing a Syracuse, N.Y., boy over a four- to five-year period.

DeLuca, 77, could face a maximum of two years in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 27 by Syracuse City Court Judge Kate Rosenthal, Assistant District Attorney Kari Armstrong said. He pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree sexual abuse, two counts of third-degree sexual abuse, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child -- all of the charges prosecutors had made against him.

Armstrong said prosecutors recommended “shock probation” of 45 days in the county jail, but Rosenthal told DeLuca he probably would get no worse than probation. Armstrong said probation would be six years.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Thursday June 28 2007

THE One-in-Four anti sex-abuse charity said it would be failing in "the most basic level in our collective responsibility to protect children" by not reporting a credible child abuse allegation.

The priest falsely accused of child sexual abuse was suspended from ministry after a complaint from the man involved and the One-in-Four group to the Archbishop of Dublin.

Last night, a spokesperson from the group said that the body's standard practice was to pass on credible allegations to the appropriate authorities.

ERIE (PA)
PhillyBurbs

The Associated Press

ERIE, Pa. - A former Catholic nun whose discrimination claim against Gannon University was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court is trying revive it by invoking a law best known for requiring schools to provide equal athletic opportunities for men and women.

The Supreme Court in April denied an appeal by Lynette Petruska, the first woman chaplain at Gannon. Petruska on Tuesday asked a judge to allow her to file an amended lawsuit invoking Title IX, a federal law that requires schools that receive federal funding to offer equal opportunities to both genders.

Petruska, who is now an attorney in St. Louis, claims she was demoted in 2002 and forced to resign because of her gender and because she helped expose accusations of a cover-up over a priest who allegedly had an affair.

UNITED KINGDOM
Hereford Times

By Anna Nalborczyk

A HEREFORDSHIRE vicar had hundreds of images of children involved in sexual acts stored on his two computers.

The Rev James Morrish, of Kingstone, admitted 13 child pornography charges when he appeared before Worcester Crown Court on Tuesday.

Tariq Shakoor, prosecuting, told the court that Morrish had sourced 612 pornographic images on his computer during a 45- minute period in the early hours of October 23, 2005.

UNITED KINGDOM
ic Liverpool

Jun 28 2007

by Adrian Butler, Liverpool Echo

A NOTORIOUS paedophile who raped a 12-year-old Liverpool girl shared a prison cell with his Catholic priest lover.

William Adams and Father Jeremiah McGrath shared the cell on Walton Jail’s vulnerable prisoners’ wing for more than a week.

It is understood the men, who were on the special wing to protect them from other prisoners, tricked staff by pretending to strike up a friendship.

SYRACUSE (NY)
WTSM

Associated Press - June 28, 2007 6:45 AM ET

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - A former Delaware priest is expected to appear in court today in central New York to face child sexual abuse charges.

Reverend Francis DeLuca was arrested in October and charged with sexually abusing a Syracuse teen over a period of 5 or six years. Syracuse police say 77-year-old DeLuca confessed after they arrested him.

The case has been postponed several times, but DeLuca's attorney, Emil Rossi, expects today's hearing to go forward. He'll appear in Syracuse City Court before Judge Kate Rosenthal.

KIRKWOOD (MO)
News-Leader

The Associated Press

Kirkwood — The Roman Catholic order that operates Vianney High School in suburban St. Louis settled a lawsuit with a teenager who accused the school's former president of molesting him two years ago when he was a student.

The religious order said the settlement was not an admission of guilt on the part of the man accused.

The school's former president, the Rev. Robert Osborne, 74, resigned in August from Vianney High School in Kirkwood. He wrote in the school's September newsletter that he stepped down a year before he planned to retire due to "unresolved legal matters."

In October, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch said there was no evidence of any criminal conduct, and no charges were filed against Osborne.

NEW YORK
World Faith News

New York - The Holy Eparchial Synod of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America convened on June 26, 2007 as a Spiritual Court of the Second Instance to hear the pending case of the suspended priest, Nicholas Katinas.

The Holy Eparchial Synod, after careful examination of the recommendation of the Spiritual Court of the First Instance of the Direct Archdiocesan District, decided in accordance with the Holy Canons of the Church, to propose the defrocking of the aforementioned clergyman.

This decision, according to canonical procedure, will be submitted to the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate which has the final authority to decide on the matter and issue a decree of defrocking.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling
I started out the day stunned to read about the Vermont clergy case mistrial as a result of a Church Attorney grilling a plaintiff on the stand about his psychiatric records. Then in LA Superior Court Wednesday morning there were rancorous hearings, with Church Attorneys pushing for more access to plaintiffs’ psychiatric records in the Hagenbach cases. Even though discovery has been going on for years, all of a sudden the archdiocese needs more addresses, more names, dates. In the Miani case hearing, the Church Attorney acted like she had no idea there was more than one perpetrator in the Salesians, and now that she knew, the cases had to be severed.

Two hearings Wednesday could have resulted in trials slipping to later dates if the archdiocese had its way. Instead, the judge muddled through obstructionist motions filed by the church and served up compromises. The truth is, Church Attorneys keep delivering lines and logic right out of Alice in Wonderland.

It’s getting nasty. I find myself glaring darts at Sean Kneafsey, for the defendant archdiocese, when my mouth isn’t hanging opened astonished. Today’s debate was a blatant stall tactic, the church demanding backwards steps in six Hagenbach cases (Jury trial July 9th), because plaintiffs in interrogatories couldn't say for sure if they’d need psychiatric care in the future. This hearing has been on calendar several times since June 16th and over and over again the judge has ordered attorneys to meet and confer and resolve the issue.

Throughout the pursuit of more psychiatric records, I couldn't help thinking there’s a connection between the mistrial in Vermont yesterday and the hearing this morning about psychiatrist notes about Hagenbach victims two weeks before trial. However, plaintiff attorneys I spoke to later said no it’s just more of the same archdiocese stall tactics.

UNITED STATES
Church Executive

Americans' confidence in organized religion and other institutions is down across the board compared to last year, a recent Gallup poll found.

Only 46 percent of Americans have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in church/organized religion which is one percentage point of being the lowest in Gallup's history since 1973.

Confidence in the church dropped in the wake of the television evangelism scandals of the late 1980s and early 1990s. It then fell significantly in the wake of revelations surrounding the Catholic priest abuse scandal in 2002.

The Gallup poll found that Protestants are more likely to express confidence in the church compared to Catholics. Confidence in the church or organized religion has dropped from 53 percent in 2004 to 39 percent today among Catholics. Among Protestants, confidence increased from 60 percent in 2004 to 63 percent in 2006 and then dropped to 57 percent today.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

A priest who was falsely accused of rape pleaded for leniency for the Dublin city man who claimed he had abused him as a child.

Paul Anderson (aged 34), of Crumlin Park, Crumlin and formerly of Fatima Mansions and Iveagh Trust Flats, New Bride Street has been jailed for four years for falsely claiming he was buggered by a priest when he six years old.

The accused priest forgave the defendant but admitted: “I would have honestly preferred had the perpetrator shot me through the head rather than have put me and my family through the pangs of anxiety and the profound sufferings we endured over the past four years."

MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald

By AMY SHERMAN
asherman@MiamiHerald.com

A man who sued the Archdiocese of Miami alleging that the former Rev. Neil Doherty drugged and raped him in the 1990s has settled his case.

The civil suit prompted Broward prosecutors to file criminal charges against the now 64-year-old former priest from St. Vincent Catholic Church in Margate. The criminal case has not yet gone to trial.

This week, attorney Jeffrey Herman also settled another Broward case against the Archdiocese alleging abuse by Doherty. Herman said the terms of both settlements were confidential.

FORT LAUDERDALE (FL)
Sun-Sentinel

By Tonya Alanez
Sun-Sentinel.com
Posted June 27 2007, 3:18 PM EDT

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Two Broward men who sued the Archdiocese of Miami after accusing a retired Catholic priest of sexually abusing them when they were boys settled their civil cases this week.

Neil Doherty, 64, a former priest at St. Vincent's Catholic Church in Margate, faces multiple counts of sexual battery, lewd and lascivious acts and molestation in a pending criminal case stemming from one of the victim's allegations.

The amounts of the settlement are confidential, said the plaintiffs' Miami-based attorney Jeffrey Herman.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOX

A teenager who accused the former president of Vianney High School of sexual misconduct reaches an out-of-court settlement.

KMOX's Kevin Killeen reports.

CANADA
North Bay Nugget

Local News - Wednesday, June 27, 2007 @ 08:00

A 65-year-old Roman Catholic priest, now serving in North Bay, has been charged by Greater Sudbury Police in connection with alleged sexual assaults in this city 25 years ago.

Father Bernard Cloutier was arrested in North Bay and taken to Sudbury where he appeared in bail court Tuesday, before being released.

Cloutier faces six charges stemming from complaints by two individuals who allege the priest assaulted them over an extended period that began in mid-1979.

A court-imposed ban prohibits publication of evidence given at the hearing.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

A priest who was falsely accused of rape pleaded for leniency for the Dublin city man who claimed he had abused him as a child.

Paul Anderson (aged 34), of Crumlin Park, Crumlin and formerly of Fatima Mansions and Iveagh Trust Flats, New Bride Street has been jailed for four years for falsely claiming he was buggered by the priest when he six years old.

Anderson was convicted in June by a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury of falsely claiming the priest sexually abused him while allegedly giving him First Holy Communion tuition over 25 years ago.

VERMONT
Burlington Free Press

Published: Tuesday, June 26, 2007
By Sam Hemingway
Free Press Staff Writer

Judge Ben Joseph declared a mistrial Monday in the lawsuit brought by James Turner, a Virginia man who claimed the state's Roman Catholic diocese was to blame for his 1977 molestation at the hands of the Rev. Alfred Willis.

"We're back to the very beginning and I'm sorry for all that's gone on here," Joseph told a stunned courtroom shortly before 2 p.m.

Moments after Joseph's announcement, a dejected Turner left the courtroom and slipped into a small room nearby. He then stood in a corner, hands on his hips and head faced downward before being joined by his wife, who embraced him.

"This is just another example of them continuing to victimize me," he told reporters as he departed the courthouse minutes later. "For however long it takes, we'll be back to court. I have to do this for me."

BURLINGTON (VT)
Burlington Free Press

Published: Wednesday, June 27, 2007
By Sam Hemingway
Free Press Staff Writer

Leaders for two national groups monitoring clergy abuse cases said Tuesday that the lawsuit filed by James Turner against Vermont's Roman Catholic diocese helped shed light on the church's inner workings, even if the case ended in a mistrial.

"Without a trial, it is so tempting to view claims like Turner's as isolated crimes by isolated criminals," said David Clohessy of St. Louis, national director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

Terrence McKiernan of the Waltham, Mass.-based group BishopAccountability.org, agreed. "This trial opened another door on the Vermont situation," McKiernan said.

BURLINGTON (VT)
WCAX

Burlington, Vermont -- June 26, 2007

It looks like a mistrial MAY have been a big break for the Vermont Catholic Diocese. Jurors in the Church Sex abuse trial said Tuesday that the evidence indicated the Diocese was negligent in failing to protect a teenager from a predatory priest.

Channel 3 spoke by phone with six of the jurors on condition we would not identify them.

But one day after Judge Ben Joseph declared a mistrial, they all agreed the plaintiff was winning.

AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

June 27, 2007 04:55pm

A SENIOR member of the Anglican church has appeared briefly in the Brisbane Magistrates Court charged with nine sex offences against children.

Barry John Greaves, 70, an Anglican canon, has been charged with indecent dealing and indecent treatment of children between 1981 and 1985 in Boonah, west of Brisbane.

Court documents reveal there are two complainants.

Two of the charges relate to a child under 14 years of age, while the remaining seven charges relate to a child under 17.

CLEVELAND (OH)
BishopAccountability.org

In June 2007, U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aldrich ordered the Diocese of Cleveland to turn over financial records to Joseph Smith and Anton Zgoznik, two former diocesan employees accused of stealing $784,000 from the church. Smith and Zgoznik maintain the money they are accused of stealing was actually additional pay authorized by former Bishop Pilla and the Rev. John Wright, the church's former financial and legal secretary. Smith and Zgoznik claim the diocese had hundreds of off-the-book accounts that church leaders used to make secret payments to scores of people. See Judge Orders Catholic Diocese to Turn over Financial Records, by Mike Tobin, Cleveland Plain Dealer (June 15, 2007) and The Judge's Order, Cleveland Plain Dealer (June 16, 2007).

Below we provide documents already available in the case United States of America v. Joseph H. Smith and Anton Zgoznik, as well as documents from a precursor civil suit, Rosie Andujar et al. v. Bishop Anthony Pilla et al. We also offer links to background articles and reporting.

UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Thousands of civil suits have been filed in the United States relating to alleged sexual abuse by Catholic priests, but very few have gone to trial. BishopAccountability.org has reviewed the evidence and documented 31 civil suits that have been tried since the mid-1980s.

The small number of trials reflects the bishops' fear that juries might award significant compensatory or punitive damages, as in the landmark 1997 Kos trial, and even more, their abiding concern that information might become public in a trial, either by release of documents or through testimony by the bishop himself or his managers. Whenever dioceses have filed for bankruptcy, upcoming civil trials have been a factor in the decision, and one case was settled after weeks of trial, shortly before a retired bishop was to take the stand (cf. the Freitas case). Legal scholar Marci Hamilton suggests that a trial offers survivors a chance for vindication within their community and places the responsibility for the abuse "exactly where it belongs." This outcome is one that the bishops have avoided wherever possible.

UNITED STATES
Jewish Survivors of Sexual Violence Speak Out

Below you will find two different video's. The reason I'm posting them is because I want every survivors and individual who supports survivors to realize how powerful their voices can be when they unite and speak out.

Many of us are afraid to come out and say "I was abused". Yet, if at least a quarter of us used our voices we could make the laws in the United States, Canada, Israel (and beyond) that much better.

What I think is important about these two video's is that it can show survivors what it's like to provide testimony at a legislative hearing.

ISRAEL
YNet

Chaim Levinson Published: 06.26.07, 16:34 / Israel Jewish Scene

The Chief Rabbinate will discuss a proposal to strip rabbis found guilty of sexual offenses of their title, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The matter arose following an ongoing investigation against a Nahariya rabbi for raping minors.

Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu came up with the proposal, according to which a committee will be set up to examine accusations against rabbis accused of sexual offenses and will hear all parties before revoking the rabbi's title.

In a letter sent to the members of the Chief Rabbinate, Eliyahu wrote, "Someone in the position of a rabbi should be a man of values, moral and conscience, an impeccable man, and certainly innocent of forbidden sexual relations.

VERMONT
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790 cell, 314 645 5915 home)

We are deeply saddened that James' brave efforts to expose the Vermont Catholic hierarchy's corruption has been delayed and deeply outraged that, once again, church defense lawyers bend and break the rules to protect unscrupulous church officials.

Time and time again, all across the country, the same pattern emerges: Catholic figures will do almost anything to prevent being questioned in open court about clergy sex crimes cover ups. Today's travesty proves again that church authorities care only about themselves, their reputations and their comfort, not about victims, Catholics, or the truth.

We believe what the Bible said, that 'the truth will set you free' and what Martin Luther King said, that 'no lie lives forever.' So we are confident that James' couragous struggle to shed light on decades of duplicity will prevail.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling
Aka City of Angels Lady

Hearing Wednesday June 27th to “sever and reschedule trial” in cases BC308301 and BC308555, cases concerning Titian Miani aka Father Jim. At this point the jury trial in the Miani cases is September 24.

Defendant Roman Catholic Archdiocese filed this document May 30th but their actual “motion to sever and reschedule” is nowhere to be found in the public documents. Too bad. I would have given equal time to their case. You can however look at the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by Church Attorneys 6.18.07 for those two cases as well as BC308363, another Miani case, where the church denies all charges.

Then there are several declarations supporting the defendant’s motion for summary judgment written by:

Reverend Ralph Murphy SDB
Father Maurizio Girolami
Michael J. Alvarez
The Salesian Society and Bosco High School itself
Reverend Ralph Murphy
Jeffrey S. Koenig

Let’s give them a hand for going down in infamy as swearing their support for a pedophile priest over his victims. Clap-clap-Clap-clap-clap.

AUSTIN (TX)
Statesman

A former St. Stephen's Episcopal School chaplain accused of molesting students in the 1960s may have also sexually assaulted minors at a church and school he later served in Houston, according to a letter sent last week from the Episcopal Diocese of Texas.

The Rev. James L. Tucker, who retired in 1992, worked at St. Stephen's just west of Austin for a decade before becoming rector of St. James Church in Houston in 1970. The Rt. Rev. Don Wimberly, bishop of the Houston-based diocese, last month informed St. Stephen's alumni of the allegations.

Wimberly sent another letter last week to people affiliated with St. James Church and School saying he thought that the abuse claims had substance. Diocesan officials said they are investigating the matter and have alerted authorities in Austin and Houston.

WINSTON-SALEM (NC)
WFMY

Winston-Salem, NC -- Rodney Boothe, a former minister from Winston-Salem, was scheduled appear in court at 2:00 pm Monday. However, the appearance may be postponed until Tuesday.

Police arrested Boothe Friday afternoon in Raleigh.

He spent the weekend in the Forsyth County jail on a $10-million bond.

Boothe faces 12 counts of statutory rape, six counts of sexual offense, four counts of taking indecent liberites with a child, one count attempted first degree sex offense and one count of third degree sexual exploitation of a child.

POCATELLO (ID)
KIFI

A 17-year-old-girl is willing to go to court and try to prove that her minister abused his position and broke the ultimate trust. A jury trial for a youth pastor is now underway in Pocatello.

The trial of youth pastor Joshua Robinson began on Tuesday. The day began with choosing 12 jurors and one alternate.

29-year-old Joshua Robinson is a youth pastor at Gate City Christian Church in Chubbuck and back in February he was arrested and charged with two counts of lewd conduct with a minor under 16 and one count of sexual abuse of a minor 16 years old.

VERMONT
Times Argus

June 26, 2007

By Kevin O'Connor Rutland Herald

BURLINGTON — A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the first of a recent series of priest sexual misconduct cases to reach a Vermont jury.

Chittenden Superior Court Judge Ben Joseph stunned a full courtroom gathered to hear the fourth day of testimony in a civil lawsuit brought by James Turner against the statewide Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington.

Turner, a 46-year-old Northeast Kingdom native, tearfully testified Monday that the former Rev. Alfred Willis performed oral sex on him when he was 16 and staying at a Latham, N.Y., hotel the night Turner's brother, Bernard, became a deacon in 1977.

NORWICH (CT)
The Day

Roman Catholics in the Diocese of Norwich should be relieved to know that the hard-earned money they drop into collection baskets does not pay for settlements to victims of priest sexual abuse.

For years diocesan explanations of where the settlement money came from have been murky. On May 13 The Day published a story that explored how former Bishop Daniel P. Reilly handled allegations of sexual abuse by priests. Included were statements from a diocesan attorney that some settlement money came from weekly Mass collections.

Now the diocese has corrected the attorney's statements.

The diocese has paid out $4.4 million to victims. The diocese directly paid about $1 million of that amount, while $3.4 million came from insurance. The money paid directly came from interest earnings generated by a special “insurance reserve account,” as did the money for the insurance premiums.

PENNSYLVANIA
State College News

A veteran priest from the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese is dead after charges of sexual misconduct are alleged against him.

The diocese says Father William Rosensteel took his own life Sunday night by jumping off the McNally Bridge on State Route 219 on the Cambria-Somerset County line. According to the Catholic Register, the diocesan newspaper, the 65-year-old Rosensteel was facing sex charges after someone came forward and filed a complaint with the diocese’s sexual allegation review board. The incident, which dated back to the 1970’s, was made public over the weekend.

The complainant had alleged that Rosensteel engaged in inappropriate behavior with a minor. He had been on medical leave from Holy Rosary Parish in the Juniata section of Altoona, since earlier this year.

In a statement released late Monday, Diocese Bishop Joseph Adamec said he was saddened over what happened and he went on to say the allegations were being processed through the appropriate channels consistent with the church policies. Adamec said a silent termination agreement was in the works that would have allowed Rosensteel to retire with some type of ministry.

NEW YORK
National Catholic Register

BY IRENE LAGAN
REGISTER CORRESPONDENT

July 1-7, 2007 Issue | Posted 6/26/07 at 8:00 AM

NEW YORK — The fall television lineup will include a show about Catholic priests. But it won’t be a tale about corrupt or dysfunctional priests, as some shows in the past have been.

Rather, “Vows” — now in production for the American Movie Channel — is about a priest who is faithful and is in love with the Church.

The innovative drama, whose protagonist is a Jesuit, will be aired as part of AMC’s first efforts to produce original episodic dramas. ...

Hall believes that part of the reason for the keen interest in the show is a fascination in mainstream American culture with the priesthood. Since the beginning of the Church’s sexual abuse scandal in 2002, Hall said that public scrutiny and curiosity about the priesthood is a phenomenon, especially in Hollywood.

PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror

By Phil Ray, pray@altoonamirror.com

A 64-year-old priest under investigation by the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown for child sexual abuse dating back 36 years jumped to his death off the McNally Bridge in Richland Township, Cambria County.

William A. Rosensteel died from multiple injuries caused by the 190-foot drop from the bridge on Route 219 over Stonycreek River, Cambria County Coroner Dennis Kwiatkowski said.

Rosensteel was not dressed as a priest at the time of his death at 7:43 p.m. Sunday, Kwiatkowski said.

Although Rosensteel, whose last station was at Holy Rosary Parish at 900 Fourth St., Juniata, Altoona, did not leave a note, Kwiatkowski said he believed the suicide “has to do with what he was experiencing.”

PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Democrat

By SUSAN EVANS
The Tribune-Democrat

The Rev. William A. Rosensteel, a veteran priest who once served in Gallitzin and Johnstown, killed himself Sunday on the eve of an announcement that sex abuse allegations against him would be referred to law enforcement.

The 64-year-old priest jumped from the McNally Bridge on Route 219 in Richland Township late Sunday afternoon.

He died of blunt force trauma, said Cambria County Coroner Dennis Kwiatkowski.

Rosensteel, an Ebensburg native who at various times during his 38-year career had served at the former St. Patrick parish in Gallitzin and St. Patrick’s in Johnstown, had been on administrative leave since March.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
City of Angels

By City of Angels Lady
Aka Kay Ebeling

It’s fun to hear a church attorney put his foot in his mouth. At the June 7 hearing that may lead to the opening of some accused priest personnel files came this dialogue:

JUDGE LICHTMAN: What about the need of the state in this instance to protect children from further molestation?

CHURCH ATTORNEY HELDT: We have institutions for that and they're not in this courtroom. They get this information under Megan’s Law or under the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act.

JUDGE LICHTMAN: The argument then is these priests are not convicted, not registered, so there’s all the more reason to find out information about them. If they're registered with Megan’s law, we don’t need further information. There are other individuals out there still in the shadows of society a