Abuse Tracker

CANADA
John McKiggan’s Abuse Claims Blog

A disgraced former Roman Catholic Bishop convicted of sexual abuse has died. Hubert O’Connor was convicted of sexually abusing children at the Cariboo Indian Residential School in British Columbia.

During his trial O’Connor’s lawyers sought access to the victims’ psychological records. The right of an accused to make an application for a court order to receive copies of a victim’s therapeutic records was eventually upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada; a procedure that became known as an “O’Connor application”.

TENNESSEE
Kingsport Times-News

Published 07/30/2007
By Kacie Dingus Breeding

A Christian radio station employee and Bristol pastor has been charged with indecent exposure as well as DUI and violation of the open container law.

WZAP-AM 690's owner, Al Morris has issued a brief statement Monday afternoon saying, "As many of you are aware Tommy Tester, an employee of WZAP was recently arrested in Washington County, Tenn.

"The allegations, as reported by the news media, are serious and are in no way condoned or accepted by the ownership and management of WZAP.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Register

BY SUE ELLIN BROWDER
REGISTER CORRESPONDENT

August 5-11, 2007 Issue | Posted 7/31/07 at 11:11 AM

LOS ANGELES — As the Archdiocese of Los Angeles prepares to sell off property and slash expenses to pay its share of the $660 million sexual-abuse settlement reached with more than 500 claimants, faithful Catholics here report a sense of “sadness” but also of moving forward.

This latest settlement will cost the Church $250 million. About 100 cases against religious orders that work within the archdiocese remain outstanding.

Shortly after the settlement, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his pain and concern over the “devastating scale” of clerical sexual abuse in Los Angeles, according to Catholic News Service.

National Catholic Reporter

When people cry out for justice, no one can maintain the suppression of information at the expense of human rights -- whether it’s in Guatemala or the Los Angeles archdiocese.

But is truth enough? We say it’s not. The next step is reconciliation.

In No Future Without Forgiveness, Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu tells us that negotiations, peace talks, forgiveness and reconciliation happen most frequently not between those who like one another. They happen precisely because people are at loggerheads and detest one another as only enemies can.

In Guatemala, researchers are now uncovering secret police archives that document the torture and killing of the country’s citizens for more than a century. In Los Angeles, the release of confidential priest personnel files is an important part of the recent settlement agreement. These files document pain and unimaginable suffering, but simply releasing their contents to a judge is not by itself a comforting action. For many victims and their loved ones, the future has become unimaginable because the present is held captive by past grievances and offenses. They struggle with feelings of guilt, anger and resentment. And while anger and hurt are fitting and proper, unlike fine wine, they do not improve with age. Lewis Smedes once said that one of God’s better jokes was to give us the power to remember the past without the power to undo it.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling
How many people believe there was only one person in Riverside diocese, then part of the LA Archdiocese, raped and sexually demeaned for life by the Rev. Paul Shanley while he was living in Palm Springs in the 1990s? Anyone? Anyone? What about victims of Father Mark Falvey who preyed on children at Blessed Sacrament School in the 1960s and 70s? Do you really think the nine people who quietly settled for $14 million dollars last May were the only victims of Mark Falvey on that Hollywood elementary school playground?

The LA Archdiocese got off so easy with the recent settlement because the stories of 500-plus plaintiffs’ experience with priests -- the details of how these demonic men mixed religious sacraments with mind-control while raping children over and over again -- will now not be told in open court as so many of us were anticipating.

Plus I’m certain there are numerous damaged humans wandering around Los Angeles today who are untreated victims of this crime, with no legal recourse. Many of them are probably a few blocks away from me right now on Santa Monica Boulevard selling their bodies for another night’s survival. In all the interviews I’ve seen about LA plaintiffs, I’ve never seen one with a homeless prostitute drug addict, which in my observation, is a state many pedophile priest rape crime victims end up living their lives.

JOHNSON CITY (TN)
WSLS

Associated Press
Jul 31, 2007

Police in Johnson City, Tennessee arrested a Bristol, Virginia, minister for driving under the influence and indecent exposure.

Police say 58-year-old Tommy Tester urinated in front of children at a car wash while wearing a skirt. He will remain free on bond until an October court hearing.

He is also charged with having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle.

Tester is a minister of Gospel Baptist Church and works for Christian radio station WZAP. The owner of the radio station, Al Morris, is asking for people to pray for Tester.

MINNESOTA
Virtue Online

By David W. Virtue
www.episcopalian.org
7/31/2007

The Diocese of Minnesota's Episcopal House of Prayer has welcomed back a defrocked clergyman who is an admitted, convicted and registered sex offender as a diocesan retreat leader.

A special board meeting, called in mid-March, that included Bishop James Jelinek reviewed prior decisions and arrangements concerning long-time retreat facilitator Lynn Bauman's work with the House of Prayer. As a result, the full board, with the Bishop's approval allowed the sex offender to be a facilitator at the retreat center.

They passed the following resolution:

"Resolved: Having listened carefully to concerns expressed by others, and supporting healing and reconciliation at all levels, and wanting to be as helpful to retreatants as possible, the Board of Directors of the Episcopal House of Prayer, after prayerful consideration, ratifies previous decisions to permit Lynn Bauman to serve as a retreat facilitator at the Episcopal House of Prayer and reaffirms the Episcopal House of Prayer's relationship with Lynn Bauman as a retreat facilitator, subject to existing terms and conditions established for his participation in retreats, and subject to the further requirement that all who register for retreats with Lynn Bauman will be informed in writing of his background as part of the registration process."

GREAT NECK (NY)
Business Wire

GREAT NECK, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Keen Realty, LLC has been designated to market and sell another property for The Catholic Diocese of Spokane. The property is 20+/- total acres of residential land located in Spokane, Washington. Keen Realty, LLC was retained pursuant to a Bankruptcy Court Order dated April 13, 2006.

The property, a portion of The Immaculate Heart Retreat Center, is located between South Ben Burr Road and East Jamieson Road in Spokane, WA, and consists of two contiguous parcels of residential land, each 10+/- acres in size. The parcels are zoned Rural Traditional, which allows for large lot residential uses and resource-based industries including ranching, farming and wood lot operations. Additionally, the property is located less than 5 miles from Interstate 90, 10 miles east of Spokane International Airport, and just 6 miles southeast of The City Center, Downtown, Spokane.

MERCER ISLAND (WA)
Kitsap Sun

By Associated Press and Kitsap Sun Staff
Monday, July 30, 2007

MERCER ISLAND

A priest who once headed a Bremerton parish is under investigation for his conduct with a minor and has accepted voluntary administrative leave, the Archdiocese of Seattle has announced.

The action involving the Rev. Dennis Kemp, pastor of St. Monica Roman Catholic Church on Mercer Island, was announced at weekend Masses and follows a police investigation, said Greg Magnoni, a spokesman for the archdiocese.

The current allegations are unrelated to Kemp's tenure in Bremerton, Magnoni said. Bremerton police detectives said Monday they'd received no complaints involving Kemp.

DENVER (CO)
The Gazette

By ED SEALOVER
THE GAZETTE
July 31, 2007 - 6:16AM

DENVER - An ecclesiastical court made up of Episcopal Church leaders could revoke the ordination of the Rev. Donald Armstrong today in the messy split between the former Grace Church and Saint Stephen’s pastor and the denomination he left.

Armstrong seems unconcerned with the outcome of the rare proceeding scheduled for 9 a.m. in Denver: A spokesman for the reorganized Grace CANA Church said the pastor will spend the day mountain biking.

Armstrong and Episcopal Church leaders have battled publicly since the church inhibited him — essentially putting him on administrative leave — in December while investigating allegations of theft and fraud.

PENNSYLVANIA
BishopAccountability.org

By Paul Likoudis
The Wanderer
July 12, 2007

http://usweb06v.newsmemory.com/ee/wandererpress/#

A well-liked, highly-regarded priest of the Diocese of Altoona­Johnstown killed himself by jumping off the highest bridge in Cambria County after Bishop Joseph Adamec informed the 80,000 Catholics under his jurisdiction that an investigation of the priest was underway for a 36-year-old allegation of sexual molestation.

Fr. William A. Rosensteel, 64, jumped 190 feet to his death at 7: 43 p.m. on Sunday, June 24, after Bishop Adamec issued a letter saying the priest had been accused of abusing an altar boy in 1971 while he was pastor of St. Patrick’s Church in Johnstown, and had been placed on administrative leave in March of this year. Bishop Adamec published the letter in the June 25 issue of the diocesan newspaper, the Catholic Register, and asked all priests serving in parishes where Fr. Rosensteel had served throughout his priesthood to read the letter during Sunday Mass, reported the Altoona Mirror. ...

In 1996, The Wanderer published a six-week series on Bishop Adamec’s “reign of terror” in the diocese, his persecution of priests and his malicious treatment of concerned laity who objected to his lavish personal lifestyle, his tolerance of liturgical abuses, the cultivation of his cult of personality and the dubious selection of seminarians.

In the course of the series of articles, allegations were made that Bishop Adamec had purchased his bishopric, with a multi-million dollar donation to the building of the U.S. bishops’ new headquarters in Washington, D.C. near the campus of the Catholic University of America. Allegedly, Adamec obtained the funds through the Slovak Federation. The allegations published by The Wanderer received no official response, but at that year’s meeting of the conference of bishops, the bishops spent most of their executive session discussing punitive actions against The Wanderer for publishing the expose on Adamec.

MOBILE (AL)
My Fox Gulf Coast

By Bob Grip

MOBILE, Ala. --
Brother Victor Bendillo worked at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School for almost 40 years, coming in contact with thousands of students.

During this interview in 2003, Mobile Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb told me he first heard allegations about Brother Victor's sexual contact with teenage boys around 1997. He said,

But in 1998, the Archbishop says he received a more specific complaint, which led him to contact the head of Brother Vic's religious order: "I called his provincial that day. The following day, the provincial and I met with him, and that afternoon, the provincial took him back to New Orleans," said the Archbishop.

UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune

By Nate Carlisle
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 07/31/2007 12:14:21 AM MDT

George P. Lee, a former member of the LDS Church's First Quorum of the Seventy and candidate for Navajo Nation president, was arrested Friday in southwest Utah on suspicion of failing to register as a sex offender.
A spokesman for the Utah Department of Corrections on Monday said it had been three years since keepers of the state's sex offender registry knew Lee's whereabouts.
For a sex offender to fail to update his contact information is a felony punishable by as much as five years in prison, though Lee has not been formally charged. Lee, 64, was released Friday from the Washington County jail on $5,000 bond.

CLINTON (NY)
Utica Observer Dispatch

July 31, 2007
By Rocco LaDuca

CLINTON — The pastor at Resurrection Assembly of God recently resigned prior to being indicted last week for allegedly touching a 7-year-old girl at his residence.

The Rev. William Procanick, 53, is due to be arraigned Aug. 7 on charges of felony first-degree sexual abuse and misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child.

The charges stem from an incident that prosecutors say occurred at his Kirkland Avenue residence in March, according to Oneida County court records.

MICHIGAN
The Enquirer

Stacy Hanna
The Enquirer

As a loyal member of a local congregation, I understand and admire the members of Chapel Hill United Methodist Church for coming together in public support of their youth pastor, a man who recently was charged with using a computer to solicit a minor for sex.

We are taught, as citizens of the United States, that every person charged with a crime is innocent until proved guilty. And many of us learn in church or at home that we should love the sinner, not the sin.

While I agree with both of those sentiments, I think we should be careful that while forgiving the sinner we not excuse the sin.

In Monday's Enquirer, a handful of Chapel Hill parishioners shared their reactions regarding youth pastor Troy Deal's alleged indiscretions and, frankly, I found some of them to be dismissive of the fact that Deal has been arraigned on 11 counts of soliciting a minor for sex via a computer and accosting a child for immoral purposes.

KIRKLAND (NY)
WCAX

Associated Press - July 31, 2007 3:15 AM ET

KIRKLAND, N.Y. (AP) - A pastor at a Kirkland church has been indicted after police say he touched a 7-year-old girl.

That's according to Oneida County Court records.

The Reverend William Procanick, 53, is due to be arraigned August 7th on charges of first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. The charges stem from an incident that prosecutors say occurred at his home in March.

Procanick is the pastor at Resurrection Assembly of God in Kirkland.

LAGUNA NIGUEL (CA)
The Orange County Register

By KIMBERLY EDDS
The Orange County Register

The former music director of St. Timothy Roman Catholic Church in Laguna Niguel pleaded not guilty Monday to sexually assaulting one of his teenage choir members - more than a decade after the alleged abuse occurred.

Albert Lee Schildknecht, 56, of Laguna Niguel was charged Friday with two counts of oral copulation and one count of digital penetration of a minor in alleged attacks on a 16-year-old singer in his parish in 1995 and 1996.

His female accuser, now 28, sued Schildknecht and the Diocese of Orange three weeks ago, blaming the church leadership for orchestrating a "conspiracy of silence" to protect pedophiles within the church. Authorities are withholding her name because of the sexual-abuse allegations.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Union-Tribune

A copy of the report made by the court-appointed financial expert on finances of the San Diego diocese can be found at this link.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Union-Tribune

By Sandi Dolbee and Mark Sauer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

1:13 a.m. July 31, 2007

The Diocese of San Diego's key contention in bankruptcy court that it does not own or control tens of millions of dollars worth of parish assets is at odds with pledges it made to its auditors, banks and investors, according to a financial expert's report filed late Monday night.
The parish-ownership issue has been at the center of the contentious legal stand-off between the Roman Catholic diocese and attorneys representing about 150 victims of child sexual abuse by priests.

The 175-page report, filed by court-appointed financial expert R. Todd Neilson, found no overall system of accounting. “As a result (church officials) are often woefully unaware of the specific financial operations of the individual parishes,” it said.

Among key findings in the report, which is not yet complete, is that financial statements filed by Bishop Robert Brom and other church officers make “no disclosure of a trust relationship” between the diocese and its 98 parishes.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
The Washington Post

By ALLISON HOFFMAN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, July 31, 2007; 7:36 AM

SAN DIEGO -- A handful of parishes in the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego deliberately concealed or inappropriately handled about $500,000 in funds in sometimes "purposeful attempts" to circumvent federal bankruptcy proceedings, according to an auditor's report.

The San Diego diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Feb. 27, just hours before going to trial in more than 140 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests. The filing automatically halted court proceedings in the lawsuits.

Church finances, specifically the question of how much the diocese is worth, has been hotly contested since the bankruptcy petition, which came after four years of unsuccessful settlement negotiations.

The "openly questionable activities" appear to be limited to a small number of parishes, and most pastors and lay personnel demonstrate a good faith effort to comply with church financial procedures, the report said.

DELAWARE
The Philadelphia Inquirer

By Maureen Paul Turlish
On July 10, a history-making event took place in Delaware when Gov. Ruth Ann Minner signed into law what is believed to be the most comprehensive civil legislation concerning the sexual abuse of minors.

Delaware residents, over a period of two years, worked very hard to make the Child Victims Act (Senate Bill 29) a law. It provides for a two-year moratorium on the statute of limitations on lawsuits for sexual abuse. Victims have until July 10, 2009, to seek damages regardless of when the assaults occurred.

There is no question that the signing of this bill will provide the necessary impetus for states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Maryland, and the District of Columbia, to pursue this type of legislation. Victims whose lawsuits previously were barred due to time limits will now have their day of justice in a court of law.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
California Catholic Daily

Over the past year, Cardinal Roger Mahony has met individually with 70 victims of clergy sexual abuse. Archdiocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg told the July 30 Los Angeles Times that Mahony has scheduled more meetings with sexual abuse victims and that “he has said he will meet with any victim who wants to meet with him.”

But Lee Bashworth, 37, who claims abuse by former priest Michael Wempe, told the Times, that, though he would “relish an opportunity to tell Mahony one-on-one what I think of him,” such a meeting would “mean playing into [the cardinal’s] massive P.R. machine, and I refuse to do that.”

Survivors’ Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the Times, has “cautioned members against meeting with Mahony” because “such discussions could cause them further harm.”

What harm?

“Oftentimes people think they’ll get a very sympathetic, compassionate response, and sometimes they don’t,” Survivors’ Network spokesman David Clohessy told California Catholic Daily. “Or sometimes they’ll expect that a bishop will be more forthcoming, especially, for example, “where there’s no dispute about the veracity of their claim. And yet they still walk away, feeling disappointed and hurt that they haven’t sort of gotten more.”

MERCER ISLAND (WA)
KOMO

By Molly Shen
MERCER ISLAND - Sunday Masses at St. Monica Catholic Church on Mercer Island brought two surprises.

The first: the presence of Archbishop Alex Brunett to deliver mass.

And second, his announcement that their pastor is on leave because of allegations of inappropriate behavior with a 12-year-old boy, who is a church member.

"The Archbishop was very concerned about the effect on the parish of this announcement," said Seattle Archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni. "Clearly it was a very difficult liturgy for the parishioners here at St Monica. He wanted to be here and present with them himself."

LOS ANGELES (CA)
KSBY

Associated Press - July 30, 2007 7:54 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Los Angeles court commissioner has acknowledged talks are under way for a possible plea for a former LA Cathlic priest accused of child molestation.

Court Commissioner James Bianco ordered both sides to return to court on September seventh to disclose whether a deal is near for Michael Stephen Baker.

Meanwhile, a 34-year-old man who claims his life was ruined when he was sexually abused by Baker in a separate case made an obscene gesture when Baker entered the courtroom.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Union-Tribune

By Andrew Glazer
ASSOCIATED PRESS

4:29 p.m. July 30, 2007

LOS ANGELES – A man who claims his life was ruined when he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest raised his middle fingers in court Monday during a hearing where a judge said a plea deal was being discussed for the now-defrocked defendant in a separate case.

Superior Court Commissioner James Bianco acknowledged the talks and ordered both sides to return to court on Sept. 7 to disclose whether a deal was near for Michael Stephen Baker.

Baker, 60, has pleaded not guilty to one count each of oral copulation of a minor and sexual penetration of an unconscious person with a foreign object, and three counts of sodomy of a minor.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
TortDeform

This L.A. Times article discusses the massive lawsuit against the L.A. Roman Catholic Church for the sexual abuse that has gone on for decades without much response from the church, despite countless reports of child molestation and sexual assault. An injury like this one is so personal, lasting, and sensitive that no court can ever fully make a victim whole. But one thing that taking their injuries to court has done for these particular victims is it has given them an opportunity to sit down and speak with the man who was charged with protecting the church and with listening to parishoners concerns. As settlement agreement details get ironed out, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who has headed the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles since 1985, has invited plaintiffs to sit down and talk with him about what happened.

At least two victims took that opportunity to ask the Cardinal whether he thought he handled their reports of abuse as Jesus would have—in other words, whether he believed he fulfilled his obligation to the church. This is essentially the same as the fiduciary duty concept—the idea that if you’re charged with a special duty to protect but fail in that duty and directly cause another person’s harm, then you are legally responsible for that harm.

DALLAS (TX)
The Dallas Morning News

04:21 PM CDT on Monday, July 30, 2007
From Staff Reports

An Ursuline Academy of Dallas teacher has been arrested on an accusation of inappropriate relationship with a student, Dallas police said.

David B. Novinski, 35, turned himself into police Monday at Lew Sterrett Justice Center and has since posted bond, said his attorney David Finn.

Police received a report that a teacher had engaged in sexual contact with a 17-year-old student at the private Catholic all-girls school. A relationship allegedly began Feb. 10 and an offense report was filed last week, Dallas police said.

School administrators said they received a report of improper conduct in June and contacted the state child abuse hotline.

SEATTLE (WA)
NorthJersey

Sunday, July 29, 2007
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEATTLE -- Eight men, including five brothers from two families, have sued Seattle University and the Jesuit order, alleging sexual abuse by a Catholic priest who was named in a lawsuit that was settled last fall.

The latest case centering on the Rev. Michael Toulouse, a Jesuit priest who taught philosophy at the university from about 1950 until his death in 1976, was filed in King County Superior Court.

Plaintiffs allege that some senior priests in the order, including some who had worked at the school, knew Toulouse had molested minors. The plaintiffs contend the priests sometimes informed their superiors but did not act effectively to stop him.

TUCSON (AZ)
Arizona Daily Star

2007-07-30
Stephanie Innes
After the local diocese emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2005 I thought it was all over.

It nearly was.

Last week I reported on a criminal investigation that had opened, looking into alleged abuse by the Rev. Kevin Barmasse, and that led to today’s story about the monitoring of suspended priests like Barmasse who were never criminally convicted.

Why is it hard to write such stories? No one likes them and I struggle with the fact that our stories sometimes come across as being hard on the local diocese, which does great things each day.

In fact, our diocese was one of the first in the country to make public a list of clergy with credible accusations of sexual misconduct with a minor against them.

The problem really stems from practices more than 30 years ago that would never be accepted today – abusers moving around from diocese to diocese and leaders thinking they could be ‘cured.’

Daily Southtown

July 27, 2007
The Rev. Andrew Greeley Columnist

"How can the Pope say that the other denominations are defective when American Catholicism had to pay $2 billion because of predator priests?"

-- From an angry e-mail writer

Good question.

The media did not accurately convey what the Vatican was trying to say. Like everyone else in the curia, the media relations people simply do not make mistakes. Got it?

If American Catholics are embarrassed by these non-mistakes, the reasons are weak faith, secularism, materialism, consumerism, etc.

However, there is an aspect of the contretemps that is worth noting. One of the weaknesses of the other denominations, the Pope observes, is that they don't have apostolic succession -- they can't trace their leaders back to the apostles.

This continuity with the past indeed is important to Catholicism. Many bishops are proud of the link. I often wonder, however, if they realize with what kind of men they are claiming continuity?

TRINIDAD
Hardbeatnews

Hardbeatnews, PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, Mon. July 30, 2007: A rape charge against an 85-year-old Hindu religious leader has been dismissed by a Trinidad court after police claimed they could find no evidence to support the allegation.

Swami Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj of India had been accused and charged with the rape of a 22-year-old Guyanese woman in May. The charge made international headlines because of the popularity of the priest.

But on Friday, the charges were dismissed after police said the case was false.

MERCER ISLAND (WA)
Seattle Times

By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter

The Rev. Dennis Kemp, pastor of St. Monica Roman Catholic Church on Mercer Island, has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into allegations of inappropriate conduct with a minor.

The announcement was made during weekend Masses at St. Monica.

The allegations were reported earlier this month to the Seattle Archdiocese, which immediately contacted Mercer Island police, said archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni.

After a police investigation, the King County Prosecutor's Office determined no criminal charges would be filed.

MERCER ISLAND (WA)
The Bellingham Herald

AP State

MERCER ISLAND, Wash. -- A Roman Catholic priest on Mercer Island is on voluntary leave pending an investigation into his conduct with a minor. The action involving the Reverend Dennis Kemp, pastor of St. Monica Roman Catholic Church, was announced at weekend Masses. A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Seattle, Greg Magnoni, says church officials learned of the issue this month.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Rebecca Trounson, Tami Abdollah and John Spano, Times Staff Writers
July 30, 2007

They arrived at the civil courthouse in downtown Los Angeles with their spouses, their parents, girlfriends or siblings. One group of childhood friends, now in their 50s, came together; as girls, they had been molested by the same priest.

Some sought an apology, others reconciliation. And some just hoped to vent their outrage and be heard, directly, by Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who has headed the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles since 1985.

"I wanted to speak on behalf of myself and others who couldn't do it for themselves," said Mark Gauer, 47, who said in a lawsuit he was sexually abused by a priest at his Catholic school, Los Angeles' Daniel Murphy High School.

CANADA
The Vancouver Sun

CanWest News Service
Published: Monday, July 30, 2007
Funeral services will be held in Vancouver Tuesday for former Prince George Catholic Bishop Hubert O'Connor.

O'Connor, who was convicted in 1996 of raping one native teenage girl and indecently assaulting another, died of a heart attack last week in Toronto. He was 79.

The funeral will be at St. Augustines's Parish. He will be buried in the Oblates of Mary Immaculate Cemetery in Mission, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a news release.

UNITED STATES
Renew America

Matt C. Abbott
July 29, 2007

I must say, I got a bit of a kick out of a recent post on the blog of Commonweal:

'The Los Angeles abuse settlement continues to reverberate to a degree that surprises me. There were several powerful letters to the New York Times after their news story and editorial, including one from Anne & Ed Wilson of the VOTF chapter here in Brooklyn, and one from the venerable Msgr. Harry Byrne, who now has his own blog. But there was also a truly brilliant parody that apparently sought to find humor in this dark saga, and at the same time puncture many of the silly contentions and connections made by some advocates of a liturgical silver bullet for the crisis. The letter is from, of all people, the 'rite-wing' Catholic polemicist Matt Abbott. In full it reads:

'To the Editor:

'I am pleased that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has settled with more than 500 survivors of sexual abuse. The settlement is long overdue.

'Despite the moral corruption that has permeated the church in the United States over the last few decades, I still believe in the truths of the faith, and I applaud Pope Benedict XVI for loosening the restrictions on use of the traditional Latin Mass and for reiterating the church's central role in salvation.

ARIZONA
Arizona Daily Star

By Stephanie Innes
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.30.2007

Recent news about a decades-old local case of sexual abuse by a priest has victims' rights advocates asking why no one is monitoring clerics, including the Rev. Kevin Barmasse, who have been suspended but never prosecuted over child-abuse accusations.

Barmasse is one of 34 clerics and other church personnel, dating back to the 1950s, whom the local diocese has identified as having "credible allegations of sexual misconduct involving a minor" against them.

He is also one of 15 clerics and other church personnel on the list who are still believed to be alive and are living freely without any monitoring by diocese or civil authorities.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

July 29, 2007

Catholic church: Two articles in the July 22 Opinion section about the recent settlement of abuse cases by the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles stated that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony is of Irish heritage. Mahony is of German and Italian heritage. His father was adopted as a boy by an Irish American family with the last name of Mahony. One of the articles, which focused on the role of the church in L.A. politics, also stated that the archdiocese was founded in 1840. A distinct archdiocese for the Los Angeles area was established in 1936.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling
Been thinking a lot about the origin of this “sex problem” in the church with the priests. Going back to the actual definition and origin of the words: priest, secret, and sacred.

Someone told me recently that one of the most revolutionary ideas delivered by Christ was: “We are all priests.” Instead of having to go through layers of human hierarchy and sacramental rites as in times BC, through Christ you just open your heart and talk directly to God. That democratization of religion was the main reason they crucified him.

So how did the Catholic Church end up with a structure that is almost the opposite of what it says to do in the New Testament?

The answer is: Don’t trust anything written about Christ after 100 AD.

IRELAND
One in Four

The Irish Times

A Government-commissioned review of the Catholic Church's Our Children, Our Church child protection guidelines, published in December 2005, has identified "some difficulties" with it.

These included "a certain lack of integration between Our Children, Our Church and the guidelines produced by different State organisations." It also said "the area dealing with abuse by persons outside the church requires some further development to bring it more in line with State guidelines". The review was prepared by Dr Helen Buckley of TCD's social studies department, who was also a member of the Ferns inquiry team.

She was appointed to review Our Children, Our Church by the then minister of State for children Brian Lenihan in March last year when it emerged the guidelines were not being implemented in Northern Ireland after it was established that it did not comply with child protection legislation there.

JOLIET (IL)
The Herald News

July 29, 2007
By Ken O'Brien STAFF WRITER
JOLIET -- When he was introduced last year to replace Bishop Joseph Imesch, Bishop J. Peter Sartain talked about healing the wounds of people who said that they had been sexually abused by priests.

Two months before Sartain moved to Joliet, the Diocese of Joliet released the names of 22 priests accused of sexually abusing children. Of those, six of the men were criminally convicted, 11 have been named in civil lawsuits and the others were announced in 2002 when they were removed from ministry.

Imesch became a lightning rod for how he handled the cases. Critics charged that he protected priests at the expense of children.

In the last year, Sartain said he has met with victims of priest sexual abuse in the diocese. He said those meetings "were gut-wrenching" and resulted in him praying for them "for healing in whatever way they need it."

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Defender

by Shurley Sterling
July 27, 2007

The historic 114-year-old Our Lady of the Westside will enter into the 2007-2008 school year with a new name and principal. The announcement was made during Sunday services, July 22. The Catholic powerhouse has been an anchor in the African-American community on the West side since the 1960s, and the new pastor, Rev. Larry Dowling, said he felt it was time for the school to move into a new direction. The new name of the school is St. Agatha Catholic Academy with two locations, 3151 W. Douglas Blvd., and 3900 W. Lexington St. the new principal is Charlemeine Zemelko, long time administrator over Edison Longwood Charter School. Dowling, 54, has been at the church for five months and replaced previous pastor Rev. Daniel Mccormac who left due to charges of child sexual abuse. He pleaded guilty in July and was sentenced four years in prison.

MARYLAND
ABC 2

Posted By: yianis fournelis

The deacon of a church in Edgewood, Harford County has been charged with sexually abusing two teen-age girls.

Investigators say Kevin Rondell Glenn made sexual advances toward the young women, and touched them inappropriately.

Glenn served as a deacon with the “Fountain of Life Fellowship Church” since it was founded eight years ago. The church helps at-risk children and provides services for a number of low-income people in the community. The church’s pastor, Tony McDonald, said he hopes the arrest of a trusted deacon won't end that mission.

VERMONT
Times Argus

July 29, 2007

By DENNIS O'BRIEN

The headlines in the July 1 edition of the Sunday Rutland Herald and Times Argus in connection with the sexual abuse cases involving the Catholic Diocese of Burlington were at best incomplete, if not misleading. "Records show Vermont church knew of sexual abuse cases." Given the current legal situation of the Diocese, one could well conclude "they knew about sexual abuse and did nothing." The case being discussed was that of Alfred Willis. If one read the full article, the charge of "doing nothing" was not, it seemed to me, well substantiated. A great deal was done from psychological counseling to suspension to final dismissal from the priesthood.

Lest there be any doubt about the failure of the diocese in his case, the editorial that appeared shortly afterwards in the Rutland Herald and The Times Argus spelled out the faults in then-Bishop Marshall's actions. The editorial reads as a brief for the prosecution, well-salted with the wisdom of hindsight. It is not the only construction of the events, and it omits several crucial facts that could be noted in defense of the bishop's actions.

The editorial paints a picture in which church officials knew of Willis' misconduct for years "since his days in the seminary" starting in 1972. According to the newspaper's own story, there were "allegations" against Willis of "homosexual conduct." The allegations from the seminary "failed to reveal substance." Was the diocese acting improperly in putting aside unsubstantiated allegations of homosexuality? In hindsight, one can trace a problem, but at the time, presumed innocence could well be seen as the right decision. (It is worth pointing out that "homosexual conduct" and "pedophilia" are by no means the same.)

ZIMBABWE
The Zimbabwean

Bulawayo
The authenticity of images purporting to show sex romps between Archbishop Pius Ncube and Rosemary Sibanda shown repeatedly on national television and in government newspapers last week is being questioned.
Ncube's lawyers believe the pictures were computer generated, as modern technology makes this simple and effective. Doctored pictures of Mugabe himself, such as the one above, have been doing the rounds on the internet for years.

ZIMBABWE
allAfrica

Zimbabwe Independent (Harare)

27 July 2007
Posted to the web 27 July 2007

CIVIC society organisations and human rights groups in Bulawayo this week joined hands with political parties to launch a coalition that will mobilise resources for Archbishop Pius Ncube who has been sued for adultery.

The civic groups convened a meeting in Bulawayo on Monday and committed themselves to defending and standing in solidarity with the archbishop until the conclusion of his $20 billion adultery case in the courts.

On Tuesday over 200 people who included leaders of 30 civic organisations thronged the City Hall in Bulawayo to launch the Archbishop Pius Ncube Solidarity Coalition.

ZIMBABWE
allAfrica

The Herald (Harare)

28 July 2007
Posted to the web 28 July 2007

Bulawayo

Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, the head of the Church in Bulawayo facing a $20 billion lawsuit for alleged adultery, this week inched closer to a dramatic court battle.

Mr Munyaradzi Nzarayapenga, a lawyer representing Mr Onesimus Sibanda -- the Bulawayo man suing Archbishop Ncube -- on Thursday furnished the High Court with specific details pertaining to the allegations levelled against the archbishop.

This was in response to last Wednesday's formal request by the archbishop's lawyer, Advocate Nicholas Mathonsi, for further particulars of the claim.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Jordan Falls News

By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES - They were best friends, the kind who shared everything but their darkest secret: sexual abuse at the hands of the same Roman Catholic priest.

Yet that money will never undo the guilt that comes with silence. It will never replace the innocence the three teens shared before a new and terrible bond brought them even closer together.

The Associated Press does not normally identify victims of sexual abuse, but in this case the three men agreed to have their names released.

When the Rev. Kevin Barmasse first showed up at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Tucson in 1985, the kids loved him. Barmasse was "on loan" from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, but he seemed to fit right into their world.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Washington Post

By GILLIAN FLACCUS
The Associated Press
Saturday, July 28, 2007; 2:02 PM

SAN DIEGO -- The maintenance trailer outside St. Joachim's Elementary School in Costa Mesa looked harmless from the outside, but once the door slammed shut it was hell on earth for Joe and Paul Livingston.

Lured with doughnuts, candy and games of checkers, the boys were repeatedly molested over several years by the church janitor who lived inside.

The Livingstons, now in their early 40s, are among a handful of the 508 sexual abuse victims who reached a $660 million settlement with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles last week who were not assaulted by Roman Catholic priests.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Mercury News

By ALLISON HOFFMAN Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 07/26/2007 03:24:32 PM PDT

SAN DIEGO—A parishioners' group claiming to represent more than 1 million Catholics asked a federal bankruptcy judge Thursday to prevent churches, schools and charitable missions from being closed or sold to settle sex-abuse allegations against the San Diego diocese.

"We believe sincerely and deeply in our hearts, as Catholics, that if a settlement reduced the ability of the church to educate its children or to do its charitable work, that would be unjust," said Patrick Hazel, president of Parishioners for Churches and Schools. "The parishioners who provided donations had no knowledge of the abuse, didn't condone it, didn't authorize it. They are innocent."

The group wants to join a trial set for this fall in bankruptcy court that will determine whether parish properties can be seized or liquidated through the diocese in any settlement.

DAVENPORT (IA)
The Catholic Messenger

A series of recommendations on parish financial governance have been reviewed and supported as “best practices” by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Budget and Finance.
The bishops’ Accounting Practices Committee made the recommendations following widely publicized financial scandals in the Catholic Church and a national study that concluded a need for tighter internal controls over finances. The Accounting Practices Committee, a group of lay financial experts, represents the Catholic Church before regulatory bodies in the formulation of accounting principles and reporting standards that would affect the church.

DAVENPORT (IA)
The Catholic Messenger

By Frank Wessling

The scandal of sex abuse by priests hasn’t made American Catholics abandon the church. We’ve been shocked, shaken and stirred to pity for victims, but few of us think that bad behavior by some priests and questionable action by some bishops completely ruin our spiritual home. Our faith and hope are still fed here. New surveys confirm this.
But how long must we live half-focused on the past?
As a community we’ve lived with this scandal in the background of our awareness for more than five years now, ever since it exploded with revelations in the Boston Archdiocese. Stories of abuse had come up now and then in earlier years, but after Boston in 2002 a rolling horror of stories surfaced across the country, followed by a rush to reform in the church and to the courts by victims. Here in the Davenport Diocese the pressure from victims and their lawyers for monetary compensation became so intense and open-ended that the bishop felt he had to declare bankruptcy before all Catholic physical assets were in jeopardy.

DAVENPORT (IA)
Gazette

By Gregg Hennigan
The Gazette
gregg.hennigan@gazettecommunications.com

The official newspaper of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport said in an editorial published Thursday that its sympathy for people abused by priests was "strained'' by the lawsuits filed by those alleged victims.

"Repairing the past is essential work, but if it comes at a cost of depleting resources for the future, we the people of the church and our local communities are the ones hurt,'' the editorial in The Catholic Messenger states.

Bishop Martin Amos is the publisher of the weekly newspaper, and its editorials are intended to reflect the views of the diocese, editor Barb Arland-Fye said.

UNITED STATES
U.S. Catholic

Robert J. McClory

The priest sex abuse crisis is the U.S. Catholic Church’s Iraq War. The comparisons are hard to miss: the mounting list of casualties, the ever-increasing cost, the reluctance of leadership to admit mistakes, the ill-advised strategic moves, the obsession to conceal documents lest the truth come out, the loss of confidence by the public in the top decision-makers, the powerlessness of ordinary citizens to have their voice heard, and the growing conviction on the part of many that it will never end.

It was in the spring of 2003 when President George W. Bush landed on an aircraft carrier and under a banner proclaiming “Mission Accomplished,” announced, “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” Nine months later Bishop Wilton Gregory, then president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, held up two volumes on the history and proposed solution to the abuse crisis, and told reporters, “The terrible history recorded here is history.” He assured everyone that no stone had been left unturned to stop that scandal and that no known offenders were still at large.

But the fog of war has enshrouded both these campaigns. It has been five years since the bishops met in Dallas and agreed on a Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the National Review Board to monitor the effort, and an office to assess progress. Still the battle occupies the news almost daily with new revelations and accusations, new court filings, new charges of deceit and cover-up, new TV specials. Catholics look on with a wide spectrum of attitudes including outrage, patient endurance, despair, and even confident hope.

Joseph Lynaugh, a retired HMO executive from New Jersey, says this sort of crisis is inevitable in a closed society. “The big problem here is a complete lack of accountability and transparency. And I don’t think anything significant is going to happen. When I look to the prospects for the next generation of Catholics, my prognosis is grim.”

MARYLAND
Baltimore Sun

By Rona Marech | sun reporter
July 27, 2007

A convicted pastor's tearful plea for leniency, impassioned testimony about his character and a courtroom jammed with supporters failed to sway a Howard County Circuit Court judge, who sentenced the religious leader yesterday to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing a teenage boy who said he once viewed the man as a father figure.

As Gerald Fitroy Griffith, 41, was led away in handcuffs, some supporters from Redemption Christian Fellowship Church in Woodlawn who had been quietly crying and sniffling broke into wails and sobs, and one thrashing man was restrained by companions. The screaming and crying continued as the pastor's supporters, who had filled two buses and could not all fit into the courtroom, filed out of the courthouse and onto the parking lot.

Under the terms of the sentence imposed by Judge Diane O. Leasure, Griffith also is to serve five years of supervised probation upon his release, register as a child sexual offender and undergo a psychosexual evaluation and follow-up treatment. He cannot have contact with the victim or spend unsupervised time with any child younger than 18.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Ann O'Loughlin
Saturday July 28 2007

A FIRM of solicitors has won its legal bid to overturn a Law Society committee's determination that it overcharged two abuse victims.

The Law Society said the firm had overcharged when it processed their claims before the Residential Institutions Redress Board.

High Court judge Mr Justice Liam McKechnie yesterday upheld the Cork firm's claim that Consumer Affairs director Carmel Foley's remarks about the complaints in October 2005 gave an appearance of bias.

LOUISVILLE (KY)
The Courier-Journal

By Peter Smith
psmith@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

An advocate for victims of sexual abuse is calling on new Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz to urge those who may have been sexually abused by priests to come forward for help.

Ann Brentwood, southeast regional director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), will hold a press conference today outside the archdiocese’s headquarters asking Kurtz to help prosecutors in the upcoming retrial of Daniel C. Clark, a former priest whose sexual-abuse conviction in Bullitt County was overturned earlier this year by the Supreme Court of Kentucky.

She plans to deliver a letter calling on the archbishop to release the names of all offending clergy — those from the Archdiocese of Louisville and those from other dioceses who have spent time here.

NEW LEXINGTON (OH)
The Columbus Dispatch

Friday, July 27, 2007 3:37 AM

DISPATCH STATE SERVICE
NEW LEXINGTON, Ohio -- A Perry County church-camp counselor testified in court yesterday that he walked into a cabin to find another counselor, Timothy Stephen Keil, lying on a bunk bed caressing a young boy who was face to face on top of him.

The boy's shirt was up and his shorts were down, and Keil was caressing his back and buttocks, counselor John Gornall testified in Perry County Court.

"I removed the child. I told Tim to get his stuff, get out and don't come back," Gornall said. The boy was "petrified," he said.

A short time later, he said, the staff at Scioto Youth Camp called the county sheriff and Children Services.

BRIDGEPORT (CT)
The Connecticut Post

MICHAEL P. MAYKO mmayko@ctpost.com

BRIDGEPORT — A judge's ruling in a case involving a prominent Fairfield County defense lawyer accused of destroying a client's computer containing child pornography could affect the way lawyers deal with their clients in the future.
At least that's what several dozen members of the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyer's Association believe.

So on Friday, they packed Senior U.S. District Judge Alan H. Nevas' courtroom in a show of support for a motion to dismiss an obstruction of justice and destruction of evidence charge against Philip D. Russell, 48, of Stamford Road, Stamford.

After hearing nearly two hours of argument, Nevas reserved decision on the motion, choosing, instead, to set a Sept. 6 jury selection date for Russell's trial.

Michael Fitzpatrick, a past president of the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, said the issue before Nevas "transcends this case."

"What happens here will affect the way all lawyers handle client problems," he said. "If the judge resolves this case in favor of the government, it means from that day forward lawyers are going to be walking around on pins and needles." Russell is accused of destroying the child-pornography-filled computer belonging to the music director of Christ Church in Greenwich, where President George H.W. Bush and members of his family worshipped.

HARFORD COUNTY (MD)
WJZ

Mike Hellgren
Reporting

(WJZ) HARFORD COUNTY, Md. A Harford County deacon faces serious charges as he is facing sexual abuse allegations.

Kevin Glenn, 50, was arrested Thursday morning. Prosecutors claim he sexually abused two teenage girls for more than two years.

Glenn is a deacon at the Fountain of Life Fellowship Church in Edgewood.

Prosecutors say Glenn inappropriately touched the girls, ages 13 and 17, and made other sexual advances towards them.

ELLICOTT CITY (MD)
WMDT

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (AP) -

The pastor of a Woodlawn church has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing a boy.

Forty-one-year-old Gerald Griffith of Bowie was convicted in May of two counts of child sexual abuse and was sentenced yesterday in Howard County Circuit Court.

Griffith was a pastor at Redemption Christian Fellowship Church.

NORTH CAROLINA
Winston-Salem Journal

By Dan Galindo
JOURNAL REPORTER

The former pastor of a High Point church pleaded guilty yesterday to charges that he tried to get a teenage boy in his congregation to make a video of bondage and sex acts.

Todd Turner Brock, 42, admitted sending Internet-chat messages to the 17-year-old, who lives in Kernersville, about a video in which Brock would pretend to use chloroform to knock the boy out, then tie him up, paint his nails and put Goth-style makeup on him.

Brock admitted to charges of solicitation to commit first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, participating in the prostitution of a minor, and disseminating obscenity. Under the charges that Brock faced, anyone under 18 is considered a minor.

CANADA
Montreal Gazette

KIM COVERT, CanWest News Service

Former Roman Catholic bishop Hubert O'Connor, convicted in 1996 of raping one native teenage girl and indecently assaulting another, has died of a heart attack.

O'Connor died in Toronto on Tuesday at age 79, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said.

O'Connor resigned as bishop of the diocese of Prince George, B.C., when he first faced sex charges in 1991. When he was convicted in 1996, he was then the highest-ranking Catholic in the world to be found guilty of sex offences.

CANADA
The Globe and Mail

TOM HAWTHORN
Special to The Globe and Mail

July 28, 2007

Hubert O'Connor, who has died at 79, was a priest and an educator whose predatory sexual practices were revealed only long after he had become a bishop.

The disgraced church official resigned as bishop of the British Columbia diocese of Prince George after being charged with sex crimes in 1991.

He was convicted in 1996 of committing rape and indecent assault on two young aboriginal women during the 1960s when he was a priest. He was sentenced to 2½ years in prison by Mr. Justice Wally Oppal, who is now British Columbia's Attorney-General. After serving six months, the bishop was released on $1,000 bail.

TUCSON (AZ)
Fox 11

In light of new details, the Pima County Attorney's Office has opened a criminal investigation of the Rev. Kevin Barmasse, a priest accused in civil suits of sexually abusing five former Tucson-area Catholic youth group members in the 1980s.

The case is getting another look slightly more than a week after a $7.5 million payout from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to the five former youth group members, all now men in their late 30s. After the settlement, the men and their lawyers criticized the fact that Barmasse has never been prosecuted and is living free of monitoring.

All five men say Barmasse molested them while they were teenagers attending Tucson-area churches in the 1980s. They have received a total of nearly $2 million apiece in settlement money from the Los Angeles and Tucson dioceses, but they want to see a criminal conviction, too.

CANADA
Globe and Mail

TOM HAWTHORN

July 27, 2007 at 3:13 PM EDT

Hubert O'Connor, the disgraced Roman Catholic bishop, has died of a heart attack in Toronto. He was 79.

His death was announced by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

He resigned as bishop of the British Columbia diocese of Prince George after being charged with sex crimes in 1991.

He was convicted in 1996 of committing rape and indecent assault on two young aboriginal women during the 1960s when he was a priest. He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison by Mr. Justice Wally Oppal, who is now British Columbia's attorney general. After serving six months, the disgraced clergyman was released on $1,000 bail.

CALIFORNIA
the District Weekly

By Will Swaim

Regard the weird simultaneity of loss that appears alongside your own good fortune, the fact that as you take a deep in-breath of ocean-scented air outside your front door, someone somewhere is likely choking to death on the smoke ballooning from a fire presently consuming her living-room corner group. Imagine the everyday image of blood-basted terror amidst heart-rending beauty—a flaming car, its doors and windows missing and trunk yawning open, in the foreground, a stand of palm trees reaching skyward in back. Consider the wasting deaths of pie-faced children. Remember Augustine of Hippo denouncing astrology as an obvious fraud because two people, born at precisely the same moment can and often do run along parallel paths, one leading to hell and the other to something like heaven. Recall that moment when your unimpeachable faith in a merciful God was first impeached precisely because it seemed unlikely that love and hate could co-exist under the same sacred canopy.

One such moment came to me in the mid 1970s at St. Killian church in Mission Viejo just before the end of a Sunday morning Mass—in late October, probably: high clouds shredded across a cerulean sky, the air hardening in anticipation of winter.

My friend Roger and I had set up a card table outside the church, our church, hoping to sell candy bars to all the good Catholics. We taped a sign to the table—HELP SUPPORT THE OLD MISSION SCHOOL—and waited for the end of Mass and the release of our customers.

It was fall, as I say, and so we were wearing our red Old Mission San Juan Capistrano cardigans; hair gelled over to one side, little white shirts buttoned to the top, scuffed black dress shoes. Bracing against the cold, we had plunged our hands deep into the pockets of our salt-and-pepper cords.

“You guys masturbating?”

DALLAS (TX)
NBC5i

DALLAS -- Officials at a Dallas private school said they are investigating allegations that a student had an inappropriate relationship with a teacher.

A 17-year-old girl told police in June that she had a sexual relationship with one of her male teachers at the Ursuline Academy of Dallas all-girl Catholic prep school on Walnut Hill Lane near Inwood Road.

“We took action immediately,” school President Margaret Ann Moser said. “We suspended the individual and he is no longer in our employment."

DALLAS (TX)
CBS 11

Jack Fink
Reporting

(CBS 11 News) DALLAS Disturbing allegations are being leveled against a teacher at a private school in Dallas. Police are investigating an alleged sexual relationship between a student and a teacher at the Ursuline Academy.

Administrators, at the catholic college prep school for 9th-12th grade girls, say the allegations are very upsetting.

Dallas police say the male teacher began having a sexual relationship with the 17-year-old student in February. The teacher allegedly had sexual contact with the teen numerous times, until last month when the allegations were brought to administrators.

DALLAS (TX)
Pegasus News

By Pegasus News wire

On July 25, school officials from Ursuline Academy of Dallas issued a letter to parents and students regarding recent allegations that an unnamed school official has had inappropriate sexual contact with a student. The full letter is as follows:

Dear Parents, Guardians, Students, and Graduates:

This is to inform you of an urgent matter that recently came to the attention of the Ursuline Academy community. We were shocked to learn of allegations regarding inappropriate sexual contact between a faculty member and one or more Ursuline students. The allegations were promptly reported to the appropriate state authorities. Further, the faculty member was immediately suspended and is no longer employed by the Academy.

DALLAS (TX)
My Fox Dallas

A former teacher at an all-girl’s Catholic school is accused of having a sexual relationship with one of his students.

Dallas police said the parents of a 17-year-old girl from Ursuline Academy reported the relationship after they found out about it.

The teacher was not arrested, but he could still face charges.

DALLAS (TX)
KXAS-TV

Updated: 36 minutes ago
DALLAS - Officials at a Dallas private school said they are investigating allegations that a student had an inappropriate relationship with a teacher. A 17-year-old girl told police in June that she had a sexual relationship with one of her male teachers at the Ursuline Academy of Dallas all-girl Catholic prep school on Walnut Hill Lane near Inwood Road.

"We took action immediately," school President Margaret Ann Moser said. "We suspended the individual and he is no longer in our employment."

Dallas police are investigating the incident to see if criminal charges should be filed. A 17-year-old is old enough to consent to sex with an adult, but Texas law criminalizes sex between students and teachers regardless of age.

DALLAS (TX)
The Dallas Morning News

By HOLLY YAN / The Dallas Morning News
hyan@dallasnews.com

An Ursuline Academy of Dallas teacher has been accused of inappropriate sexual contact with a student, school officials and police said Thursday.

School administrators said they received a report about improper conduct in mid-June and called a state child abuse hotline.

Dallas police said the man is suspected of having an improper relationship with a 17-year-old student that allegedly began with an incident Feb. 10. The offense report was filed with police Thursday, Dallas police Senior Cpl. Janice Crowther said.

"The allegation is that this teacher became involved in improper sexual relations with the student," Cpl. Crowther said. "The teacher has not been arrested yet, but detectives have been investigating."

CALIFORNIA
Lompoc Record

Samantha Yale/Staff writer

A priest who taught at St. Joseph High School will not face charges stemming from an allegation that in June 2006 he sexually assaulted an 18-year-old woman who had just graduated from the high school.

Father Timothy Lane was investigated by Santa Barbara County sheriff's detectives on suspicion of one incident of sexual battery that reportedly happened at Lane's residence at the St. Joseph seminary in the 100 block of Patterson Road in Orcutt.

However, the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office chose not to file charges due to insufficient evidence. The decision was formalized in Santa Barbara County Superior Court on July 12.

JOLIET (IL)
Chicago Tribune

Tribune staff report
July 27, 2007

JOLIET - The sentencing of a 77-year-old Carmelite priest for sexual abuse was delayed Thursday after his attorney, Cynthia Giacchetti, told a Will County judge her client likely has lung cancer and was undergoing surgery to confirm the diagnosis.

Rev. Louis Rogge of Joliet pleaded guilty in April to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for molesting two brothers in the 1990s when they were young teenagers.

Under a plea deal, he was expected to be sentenced Thursday to 30 days in jail and four years' probation. Rogge also must register as a sex offender.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling
Dejà vu all over again. There was a demonstration today in front of the “cathedral” in LA and a handful of pedophile priest crime victims made demands of Cardinal Mahony. Weren’t these same people standing in this same place two years ago, three years ago, last year? Weren’t the settlements supposed to be a sign of change? Now here are many of the same demonstrators as the last five years, standing on the sidewalk in front of the cathedral making demands of the Cardinal who’s nowhere to be seen or heard.

July 16th there was a media event disguised as a hearing in LA Superior Court. The LA Clergy Cases, estimated in 2004 to be worth 1.4 billion dollars, settled for 660 million and plaintiffs assured themselves it wasn’t about money in the first place. Plaintiffs agreed to settle after the church said it would turn over documents about their perpetrators for review.

Now days after the settlement Church Attorneys are already objecting to production of documents over and over again. Indeed, hours after the settlement hearing, church attorneys filed objections to production of documents on several predator priests. Document diving today I discovered from July 20th:

“The subpoenaed entities will not produce these records without a court order,” writes Plaintiff Attorney Katherine Freberg.

ZIMBABWE
New Zimbabwe

By Torby Chimhashu
Last updated: 07/26/2007 19:09:46
LAWYERS representing Archbishop Pius Ncube, who is fighting a $20 billion suit filed by a man who claims he slept with his wife, will seek to get the claim thrown out before trial, legal experts said.

Archbishop Ncube, who was sworn to celibacy, has not denied that he slept with his secretary Rosemary Sibanda, but wants Onesimus Sibanda to prove the woman is his wife among a series of other demands made by his lawyers.

CALIFORNIA
Daily Breeze

"In the wake of the $660 million legal settlement in the priest sexual-abuse cases, do you think Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Los Angeles Archdiocese should resign?"
From Daily Breeze readers

No, Cardinal Roger Mahony should not resign. The cardinal was not bishop/cardinal when most of the abuses occurred. For those which happened under his term, he was guided by the "expert" psychiatrists who advised him that the perpetrators were cured after treatment. Many (or most) of these priests have died.

- DOLORES HICKS, Manhattan Beach

He should resign, and the names of those priests involved should be listed publicly.

- MARY THOMAS, Los Angeles

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Guardian Unlimited

Friday July 27, 2007 1:16 AM

By ALLISON HOFFMAN
Associated Press Writer

SAN DIEGO (AP) - A group claiming to represent more than 1 million Roman Catholics asked a bankruptcy judge Thursday to prevent the San Diego diocese from closing or selling churches, schools and charities to settle sex-abuse cases.

The group, Parishioners for Churches and Schools, wants to join a trial set for this fall in federal bankruptcy court that will determine whether parish properties can be seized or liquidated through the Catholic Diocese of San Diego in any settlement.

Patrick Hazel, the group's president, said it would be unjust if a settlement in the cases reduced the church's ability to educate its children or perform charitable work.

``The parishioners who provided donations had no knowledge of the abuse, didn't condone it, didn't authorize it. They are innocent,'' Hazel said.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Union-Tribune

By Mark Sauer and Sandi Dolbee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

July 27, 2007

After four years of a legal stalemate between lawyers representing victims of sexual abuse by priests and those representing Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Brom, new voices are asking to be heard – those of parishioners.

The newly formed Parishioners for the Churches and Schools has filed a motion in federal court to intervene in the San Diego diocese's ongoing bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy Judge Louise DeCarl Adler said at a hearing yesterday that she would not grant the group standing in the case now but would keep an open mind regarding its request.

UNITED STATES
The Tidings

By Erika Tyner Allen, J.D., M.A.

The Protecting God's Children™ program asks adults in the faith community to take five steps toward keeping kids safe from sexual abuse. The second step, "control access" reminds you to create mechanisms that allow the church to select carefully the adults who have contact with children.

But, as a supervisor or director, how will you explain these screening mechanisms to the adults who are subject to them? Consider the following guidelines for generating support for your screening tools.

Explain the context to the long-term staff members and volunteers. Make sure the adults in your parish or program understand that any new or additional screening criteria are part of the sweeping changes reflecting how the church will operate. You do not want an employee or volunteer to worry that he or she has been singled out as appearing to be a threat to children.

NEW LEXINGTON (OH)
Times Recorder

By KATHY THOMPSON
Staff Writer

NEW LEXINGTON - Perry County Prosecutor Joseph Flautt was happy as he left a courtroom Thursday afternoon after a judge bound over a church camp volunteer counselor to the grand jury on one count of gross sexual imposition on a child under the age of 13.

Timmy S. Keil, 43, of Lancaster, sat quietly through the 30-minute preliminary hearing in Judge Dean Wilson's courtroom as another counselor from the Scioto Youth Camp outside Junction City testified he saw Keil caressing the back and buttocks of a young camper on July 19.

"I would call what I saw more than a kind, gentle pat and it made me feel very, very uncomfortable," John Gornall told Wilson.

ELLICOTT CITY (MD)
WJZ

Peggy Lee
Reporting

(WJZ) ELLICOTT CITY, Md. A sentence was handed down for a local pastor after being convicted of molesting a teenage parishioner.

Peggy Lee reports dozens of parishioners came out to support the pastor. When the judge handed down the sentence of 15 years in prison, they erupted in hysterics.

Somber-faced parishioners from the Redemption Christian Fellowship Church in Baltimore County filed out of the Howard County Circuit Court moments after learning their pastor's fate.

MARYLAND
Baltimore Sun

By Rona Marech | Sun Reporter
8:50 PM EDT, July 26, 2007

A convicted pastor's tearful plea for leniency, impassioned testimony about his character and a courtroom jammed with supporters failed to sway a Howard County Circuit Court judge, who sentenced the religious leader Thursday to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing a teenage boy who said he once viewed the man as a father figure.

As Gerald Fitroy Griffith, 41, was led away in handcuffs, some supporters from Redemption Christian Fellowship Church in Woodlawn who had been quietly crying and sniffling broke into wails and sobs and one thrashing man was restrained by companions. The screaming and crying continued as the pastor's supporters, who had filled two buses and could not all fit into the courtroom, filed out of the courthouse and onto the parking lot.

SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

By CLAUDIA ROWE
P-I REPORTER

A career that spanned more than 25 years and brought Stuart Greenberg national renown as a forensic psychologist ended abruptly Wednesday when the Seattle therapist, recently under criminal investigation for voyeurism, committed suicide in a Renton motel.

Investigators have yet to confirm reports that Greenberg, who left two notes, overdosed on pills -- though friends and colleagues believe the true cause was shame.

"There was nobody whose professional reputation was more important to them than Stu -- it was everything to him," said Marsha Hedrick, a colleague. "So to have such stature in the field and then to lose that, it was horrifying to him."

AUSTRALIA
CathNews

A former principal of Canberra's Daramalan College has been accused of failing to act after three teachers warned him over the practice of a teacher who took boys home for weekend visits.

The Australian reports that the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart are considering whether its head of education should stand down following controversy over his former role as principal of a school that is now reeling from a pedophile scandal.

Fr Denis Uhr was principal of Canberra's Daramalan College from the late 1980s to the late 1990s, a period during which teacher Paul John Lyons later confessed to have indecently assaulted one boy and is now alleged to have abused others.

TUCSON (AZ)
Arizona Daily Star

By Stephanie Innes
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.27.2007

In light of new details, the Pima County Attorney's Office has opened a criminal investigation of the Rev. Kevin Barmasse, a priest accused in civil suits of sexually abusing five former Tucson-area Catholic youth group members in the 1980s.
The case is getting another look slightly more than a week after a $7.5 million payout from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to the five former youth group members, all now men in their late 30s. After the settlement, the men and their lawyers criticized the fact that Barmasse has never been prosecuted and is living free of monitoring.
All five men say Barmasse molested them while they were teenagers attending Tucson-area churches in the 1980s.

SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Times

By Jennifer Sullivan and Maureen O'Hagan
Seattle Times staff reporters

The arrest and suicide of a prominent Seattle psychologist who was often an expert witness in sexual-abuse and child-custody cases could raise questions about his recommendations, and some could be challenged, judges say.

Renton police on Wednesday found Stuart Greenberg's body after employees at the Clarion hotel entered his room and found a note on the floor that read, "medical personnel, do not resuscitate. Let me die," according to a Renton police report.

Officers later found Greenberg in a bathtub. He had cuts on both wrists, and police found a variety of medications in the bathroom. The case is being investigated as an overdose.

Greenberg, 59, was well-known as an expert witness in sexual-abuse cases. He had worked as a consultant to the Archdiocese of Seattle, which was defending itself in priest-abuse cases. He also had served as an expert witness on behalf of sex-abuse victims in other cases.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
NPR

by Rob Schmitz

Morning Edition, July 27, 2007 · Now that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has reached a record settlement with alleged victims of clergy sex abuse, the next legal battle is heating up.

Under the settlement, the archdiocese is preparing to release personnel files of the accused priests. Plaintiffs' lawyers say these files could implicate Cardinal Roger Mahony in a widespread cover-up.

For Lee Bashforth, last week's settlement was a small price to pay for a cardinal he accuses of covering up years of sexual abuse. Immediately following the settlement, Bashforth held up an old photo of his first communion. Father Michael Wempe has his arm around Bashforth, who wears a proud smile.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

FOR THE RECORD:
Catholic Church: An essay in the July 22 Opinion section about the role of the Catholic Church in Los Angeles politics stated that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony is of Irish heritage. Mahony is of German and Italian heritage. His father was adopted as a boy by an Irish American family with the last name Mahony. The essay also stated that the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles was founded in 1840. A distinct archdiocese for Los Angeles was established in 1936.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

FOR THE RECORD:
Catholic Church: An essay in the July 22 Opinion section about Cardinal Roger M. Mahony referred to him as an Irish immigrant. Mahony is of German and Italian heritage. His father was adopted as a boy by an Irish American family with the last name Mahony.

SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

By CLAUDIA ROWE
P-I REPORTER

A prominent Seattle psychologist who had been under investigation for voyeurism has committed suicide in a Renton motel, a family friend said Thursday.

Stuart Greenberg, 59, who'd made a lucrative career advising the courts in child-custody disputes, in addition to working with the Seattle Archdiocese on priest sexual abuse cases, was found Wednesday afternoon at a Kent motel, according to Douglas Mooney, the family friend.

"It's my understanding, although they're doing an autopsy, that it was some sort of overdose," Mooney said. "The whole context is awful. This is such a sad ending."

ZIMBABEWE
allAfrica

Financial Gazette (Harare)

Posted to the web 26 July 2007

Mavis Makuni
Harare

A CRUDE and unethical attempt was made to turn Zimbabwe into a depraved nation of voyeurs or "peeping Toms" when explicit images touted as depicting an alleged sexual scandal involving the Archbishop of Matabeleland, Pius Ncube and a woman identified as Rosemary Sibanda, were splashed on television and in the official press over the past 10 days.

The images, which were reported by the official media to be the result of private surveillance undertaken over a two-year period by a private investigator hired by Onesimus Sibanda, were obscene in every sense of the word and should not have been shown on public television and reproduced in publications regarded as family newspapers. Moreover, if Sibanda genuinely undertook the operation to prove his wife's infidelity so as to deal with his marital problems, there is no earthly reason why the whole sordid affair should be foisted on the public as a national issue requiring everyone's attention and input.

BROOKLYN (NY)
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

by Brooklyn Eagle (edit@brooklyneagle.net), published online 07-26-2007

BROOKLYN — The Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn has named Monsignor Edward Scharfenberger as a Promoter of Justice. Msgr. Scharfenberger is a familiar figure to the Brooklyn legal community as the moderator for the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Kings County. He has for several years celebrated the Red Mass at St. Charles Borromeo in Brooklyn Heights. ...

Msgr. Scharfenberger is the former head of the Diocesan Tribunal and was one of eight members of a Diocesan Review Board on sexual abuse of a minor by a clergyman. The board was established in 2002 as a confidential consultative body to the bishop after the clergy sexual abuse scandal in Boston, and has examined more than two dozen cases in Brooklyn and Queens.

WELLESLEY (MA)
The Wellesley Townsman

By Brad Reed , Townsman staff
GateHouse News Service
Thu Jul 26, 2007, 01:46 PM EDT

Wellesley -

For nearly 1,000 days, a group of parishioners from St. James the Great parish have held a vigil in hopes of striking a deal to save their Route 9 church.

Since St. James closed in October 2004, more than 100 parishioners have taken turns living inside the church and maintaining vigil for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In that time, they have also made several appeals to both secular and canon law to keep their parish open and prevent the Archdiocese of Boston from selling the 8-acre parcel where it rests. The most recent court decision on the parish came in May, when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the archdiocese owned the deed to the St. James parish property in Wellesley, and would be within its legal rights to sell it. Yet as the 1,000th day of vigil approached, some parishioners expressed hope this week that they would ultimately get their parish back. ...

Some parishioners also criticized the archdiocese for closing local parishes without considering any alternatives. In particular, they cited the example of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, which recently reached a $660 million settlement with victims who were sexually abused by church clergy, and which vowed not to close any parishes in order to save money. With some creative thinking, they said, the archdiocese could find a way to pay off its legal expenses and still keep all of its parishes open.

“Both the Spokane and Los Angeles archdioceses solved their problems without closing any parishes,” said Daly. “What has happened here is that … certain parishes are asked to sacrifice everything.”

LOS ANGELES (CA)
CNN

CNN LARRY KING LIVE

The L.A. Catholic Archdiocese Settlement of Sexual Abuse Cases

Aired July 16, 2007 - 21:00 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight in Los Angeles, America's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese agrees to the biggest U.S. priest sex abuse settlement ever.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For $660 million, he bought himself out of testifying in our case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, in their first national TV interview, some of the alleged victims speak out on why it will take more than millions to heal their scars.

ZIMBABWE
IOL

July 25 2007 at 06:59PM

Bulawayo - Hundreds of residents in Zimbabwe's second city thronged the cathedral on Wednesday for prayers in support of outspoken Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube who is being sued for alleged adultery.

"The purpose of the prayer was mobilising and giving moral, spiritual, mental and physical support to Archbishop Ncube," said Effie Ncube - no relation to the cleric - who is chairperson of The Pius Ncube Solidarity Coalition, a clutch of non-governmental organisations, church groups and political parties.

"We also want to ensure he gets a fair hearing consistent with international human rights and judicial standards as well as countering state propaganda regarding the lawsuit," he added after attending the prayer service.

CALIFORNIA
ABC 7

SAN FERNANDO, July 25, 2007 (CNS) - A former Catholic priest charged with molesting a boy while he was assigned to a Pacoima church nearly 20 years ago made his initial court appearance today on felony charges.

But George Miller, who is jailed in lieu of $600,000 bail, did not enter a plea. His arraignment was postponed to Aug. 7, court officials said.

Miller, 69, of Oxnard, was arrested yesterday in connection with a felony complaint charging him with three felony counts of lewd acts on a child and three counts of sodomy of a person under 14.

The alleged molestations took place between March 1988 and March 1991, while Miller was serving at Guardian Angel Church in Pacoima, prosecutors said.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Pasadena Weekly

By André Coleman

Pope Benedict XVI recently proclaimed the Roman Catholic Church to be the One True Church and the only way to achieve eternal salvation.

But for thousands of people who claim that they were sexually abused by leaders of that Church, both spiritual salvation and any hope for true justice in relation to those crimes seem to be in very short supply.

On July 16, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles settled with more than 500 people who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic clerics for $660 million, an amount that won't bankrupt the sprawling and well-endowed archdiocese, as similar settlements in other major cities have done. But the Church will be forced to sell some of its land holdings and borrow to pay off its civil court debt.

However, some believe that is still a small price to pay for decades of sexual abuse, and victims are still not happy with the outcome of their legal crusades for closure, which some believe can only be achieved with the prosecution and conviction of Archbishop Cardinal Roger Mahony.

UNITED STATES
The Free Press

by Robert C. Koehler
July 26, 2007

Probably few people this side of Gitmo are more profoundly outcast from society and human sympathy than convicted child molester priests. How tempting, then, to allow ourselves to feel a terrible spark of collective pride in our dysfunctional penal system at their sentencing — in anticipation of the “prison justice” they likely face.

“He is also at higher risk of sexual violence, though the notion that McCormack deserves protection from the very type of crime he committed offends some,” the Chicago Tribune writes of ex-priest Daniel McCormack, who was recently convicted of molesting five boys while assigned to a parish on Chicago’s West Side, and was sentenced to five years at Illinois’ Jacksonville Correctional Center.

“I just don’t think a priest has been equipped in his life to go through what he’s probably going to go through,” a union rep for prison guards told the Tribune. “Inmates tend to have their own code of justice. It’s a different world inside the prison fence or wall.”

CALIFORNIA
Summit Daily News

BY MARC CARLISLE
On the Marc
July 25, 2007

This week, the Catholic Church in Los Angeles agreed to pay $660 million to settle 500-plus claims of sexual abuse of children by its priests. The $660 million dwarfs the $85 million recently agreed to by the Catholic Church to settle similar claims in the Boston area.

The church plans to sell a part of its $4 billion in real estate in the Los Angeles area to raise money, but parishioners will shoulder most of the burden. A third of the money will come from insurance whose claims adjusters will also decide the amounts awarded to each victim.

I’d never heard of a sexual predator rider as an insurance option. My business’s insurance policy covers accidents, loss of property and income, but provides no protection from claims of sexual abuse.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By John Spano, Times Staff Writer
July 26, 2007

A prosecutor said Wednesday that he planned to seek testimony from several officials in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles on how they handled sexual abuse allegations against a former priest charged this week with molesting a Pacoima boy.

The former priest, George Miller, 69, appeared briefly in court Wednesday, but his arraignment was postponed so that he could get a lawyer. Prosecutors said Miller met the alleged victim at Guardian Angel Church in Pacoima, befriended his mother, and later sodomized and molested him from 1988 to 1991.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley has been investigating clergy abuse and a potential church coverup for more than four years. Miller was originally charged in 2002 with molesting three other people, including the current alleged victim's older brother. But the case was dismissed when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a California law that extended the statute of limitations for decades-old sexual abuse.

FLORIDA
Sun-Sentinel

July 26, 2007
A Catholic who grew up around the altar, I'm always hurt and embarrassed each time I hear about alleged sex abuses by those entrusted to teach us against evil and to avoid temptation. A case in point is the $660 million sex-abuse settlement by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

I'm concerned because my heart always has been close to the Catholic church. Back home in the Haitian town of Mirebalais, where I grew up, my parents donated land and used their own money to build a chapel.

As a young man, I was actively involved with a youth Catholic group known as JTC — Jeune Temoins du Christ or Young Witnesses of Christ. I even considered becoming a priest, but that didn't work out because my parents couldn't afford to enroll me in the seminary. Maybe it wasn't my calling.

BOSTON (MA)
Berkshire Eagle

By Glen Johnson, Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 07/26/2007 02:57:18 AM EDT

Thursday, July 26
BOSTON — Gov. Deval L. Patrick has decided to appoint Suffolk Superior Court Judge Margot Botsford to the Supreme Judicial Court, replacing the late Martha Sosman, according to a top Democrat familiar with the appointment process.

Deliberations behind the appointment to the state's highest court have been extremely secretive, with Patrick conducting his final face-to-face interviews on Tuesday at a location away from the Statehouse, a move intended to avoid media scrutiny or political gossip. He was set to unveil his pick at a news conference scheduled for 10 a.m. today at the Statehouse, said the Democrat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in advance of the formal announcement. ...

Conservative talk show host Bill O'Reilly has labeled Botsford a liberal and criticized her in 2005 after she sentenced a former Catholic priest to 8 to 11 years, with 10 years' probation, after he pleaded guilty to felony sexual abuse, including crimes on five boys. The former priest, Robert Burns, had previously been convicted of child molestation in New Hampshire.

Botsford, who could have imprisoned Burns for life, said that while he had "permanently and very profoundly" damaged the boys, he had shown contrition and psychological progress after spending three years in a New Hampshire prison.

CALIFORNIA
LA Daily News

City News Service
Article Last Updated: 07/25/2007 10:18:08 PM PDT

SAN FERNANDO - A former Catholic priest charged with molesting a boy while he was assigned to a Pacoima church nearly 20 years ago made his initial court appearance Wednesday on felony charges.

But George Miller, who is jailed in lieu of $600,000 bail, did not enter a plea. His arraignment was postponed to Aug. 7, court officials said.

Miller, 69, of Oxnard was arrested Tuesday in connection with a felony complaint charging him with three felony counts of lewd acts on a child and three counts of sodomy of a person under 14.

AUSTRALIA
ABC

Posted July 26, 2007 18:25:00

A former Burnie priest has been accused of using his popularity with students to sexually assault three youths.

71 year old Roger Michael Bellemore has pleaded not guilty to three counts of maintaining a sexual relationship with a young person under the age of 17.

The offences are alleged to have taken place while Bellemore was working as a priest at Burnie's Marist College in the late 1960s and early 70s.

ZIMBABEWE
allAfrica

The Herald (Harare)

OPINION
27 July 2007
Posted to the web 26 July 2007

Martin Kadzere
Harare

THE Catholic Church has been rocked by sexual scandal after scandal over the years, which is why some say this particular church is "awash with sex fiends".

While much of the abuse has been traced to the refusal by the church to revoke its insistence on celibacy vows, some attribute it to individual failures.

But the frequency with which the Catholic Church finds itself under the spotlight for sexual impropriety has raised considerable debate over the necessity of celibacy when other denominations like the Anglican Church allow their bishops and priests to marry if they so wish.

DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register

ASSOCIATED PRESS

July 26, 2007

A flood of claims from people who said they were sexually abused by priests of the bankrupt Davenport Diocese surprised even members of the creditors committee.

The committee, made up of people who have similar abuse claims against the diocese, said Tuesday that 153 people filed claims by last week's deadline.

The Roman Catholic diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last fall and is selling some of its property to settle claims. A federal bankruptcy judge set a July 16 deadline to file claims of abuse by priests.

Michl Uhde, who leads the committee, said Tuesday that the number of claims is about double what he expected.

John McKiggan’s Abuse Claims Blog

Published July 25th, 2007
In the wake of the $660 million settlement for sexual abuse by priests in the RC Archdiocese of Los Angeles I have seen dozens of articles and blogs asking the question of whether the Catholic vow of celibacy plays any part in what seems to be the disproportionate number of Catholic priests accused or convicted of sexual abuse.

I believe that the institutional structure of the Catholic Church provides an opportunity for pedophile priests to attract, groom, manipulate and abuse their victims (see also the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Doe v. Bennett).

I had not considered that there was something about the Roman Catholic Church that might actually contribute to the creation of sexual abusers.

Until I read an article in the American Chronicle by Dr. Richard Cravatts. He suggests that: ” the very process of accepting celibacy and entering the priesthood at an emotionally immature age level predispose priests to conflicting notions about human sexuality…”

LOS ANGELES (CA)
KCET

Reporter's Notes
Toni Guinyard
After the settlement was reached, we were invited to a get-together with members of a victim’s support group. I noticed a woman erecting a display of photographs printed on cloth and sewn into quilts.

That woman was Erin Brady. I asked her about quilts because I had seen them in the background at press conferences—but I hadn’t heard anyone refer to them.

It turns out, she made them. The photos were of clergy abuse victims.

MICHIGAN CITY (IN)
The News-Dispatch

Deborah Sederberg
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - A priest who once served at St. Stanislaus has been accused of sexual misconduct.

The Rev. Stanley Stanizewskii, who was ordained in Warsaw, Poland, served in the Diocese of Gary from 1974 to 1983.

Deacon Mark Plaiss, a diocesan spokesman, said Staniszewski also served parishes in Porter and Lake counties, at Nativity of our Savior in Portage, at St. Casimir in Hammond and at St. Michael in Schererville.

UNITED STATES
The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Church officials need to do more to make sure that priests and other employees are properly taking care of the money they collect from their followers, says Dan Prives, a charity finance expert. In addition, they should disclose more information to the public about their finances, he says.

Mr. Prives, on his blog, Where Most Needed points to a recent case involving the Rev. Rodney Lee Rodis, a priest in Virginia who is accused of diverting money from his congregation to support his wife and three children.

The lawyer defending Father Rodis has filed a motion to dismiss the case, saying that the issue is a private church matter.

Mr. Prives, however, says that the case should continue.

ZIMBABWE
allAfrica

The Herald (Harare)

25 July 2007
Posted to the web 25 July 2007

Bulawayo

THE head of the Roman Catholic Church in Bulawayo, Archbishop Pius Ncube, who is facing a $20 billion lawsuit for adultery, is arguing that the case against him is vague and has demanded specific details.

He has filed papers in the High Court requesting further particulars of the claim against him.

GLENDALE (OH)
Cincinnati Enquirer

BY JANICE MORSE | JMORSE@ENQUIRER.COM

GLENDALE - A 63-year-old Episcopal priest is being temporarily barred from his official duties while he faces charges including public indecency and drunken driving.

The suspension of Robert A. Hufford, chaplain to the Convent of the Transfiguration, takes effect as soon as he receives it, said Richelle Thompson, spokeswoman for the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio in Cincinnati.

Hufford's lawyer, Brad Kraemer, declined to comment Tuesday except to say his client has pleaded not guilty to the four charges against him: failure to drive within marked lanes, operating a vehicle while impaired, public indecency and abusing harmful intoxicants. Hufford is set to appear in Butler County Area II Court in Hamilton on Sept. 5.

DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register

ASSOCIATED PRESS

July 25, 2007

More than 150 people filed sexual abuse claims in bankruptcy court against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport by last week's deadline, the chairman of a creditor's committee said.

A federal bankruptcy judge set a July 16 deadline to file claims of abuse by priests. The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last fall and is selling some of its property to settle claims.

Michl Uhde, who leads the committee, said Tuesday the 153 claims is about double what he expected.

"It takes a lot of guts for them to come forward and ask for help," said Uhde, who won a $1.5 million jury verdict against the diocese for abuse he suffered at the hands of a now-dead priest. "It's the first step in the healing process for them."

LOS ANGELES (CA)
KTLA

A former Catholic priest is scheduled to be arraigned Wedsneday morning on charges of molesting a boy while he was assigned to a Pacoima church.

George Miller, 69, of Oxnard, is charged with three felony counts of lewd acts on a child and three counts of sodomy of a person under 14. He was arrested Tuesday, and is being held on $600,000 bail.

The alleged molestation took place between March 1988 and March 1991, while Miller was serving at Guardian Angel Church in Pacoima, prosecutors said.

GLENDALE (OH)
WCPO

An Episcopal priest at a church in Glendale has been suspended while he's facing criminal charges.

Robert Hufford, 63, is the chaplain to the Convent of the Transfiguration.

The Enquirer reports that he is facing charges of public indecency and drunk driving, among others.

DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register

Creditors are objecting to a request by the Diocese of Davenport to hire a company specializing is tracking down insurance coverage, according to documents filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

The creditors group, made up of abuse victims who have claims against the diocese, wants to be assured that the cost does not exceed $23,000 and that the money doesn't come out of the money pool that eventually will be paid to creditors.

AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

Kate Hannon

Two more former teachers at Marist College Canberra have been implicated in the widening scandal over the alleged sexual abuse of students.

One, a lay teacher, and the other, a Marist brother, have been accused by former students who have flooded a Canberra law firm with complaints since the weekend.

Neither former teacher has been named but the complaints are in response to a report in The Canberra Times on Saturday in which two former Marist College students expressed concern that former teacher Paul John Lyons could have sexually abused students at the school.

Lyons taught at Marist College Canberra in Pearce between 1975 and 1987.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Union-Tribune

By Jacob Adelman
ASSOCIATED PRESS

6:35 p.m. July 24, 2007

LOS ANGELES – A former Roman Catholic priest was arrested on child molestation charges Tuesday, five years after earlier sex abuse allegations were thrown out because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling invalidating a California extension of the statute of limitations in such cases, prosecutors said.

George Miller, 69, of Oxnard is accused of molesting a boy between March 1988 and March 1991 while he was assigned to Guardian Angel Church in Pacoima, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said in statement.

The arrest came about a week after the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles reached a $660 million civil settlement of claims by more than 500 alleged victims of clergy abuse.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By John Spano, Times Staff Writer
July 25, 2007

A former Roman Catholic priest was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of sexually molesting a child from Guardian Angel parish in Pacoima between 1988 and 1991.

Prosecutors said George Miller, 69, met the boy when he was 5, befriended his mother and allegedly molested him before he turned 14, during overnight trips. Miller was taken into custody at his Oxnard home and is being held in lieu of $600,000 bail.

Four people who accused Miller of molesting them were among more than 500 who joined in a record $660-million settlement earlier this month between the Los Angeles Archdiocese and parishioners who contended church officials had failed to shield them from pedophile priests.

PACOIMA (CA)
LA Daily News

BY ERIC LEACH, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 07/24/2007 11:32:44 PM PDT

PACOIMA - A retired priest against whom child molestation charges were thrown out in 2002 was arrested again Tuesday on new sex abuse charges, officials said.

The accusations against George Miller, 69, are the latest in the clerical abuse scandal that swept the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, culminating last week with a record $660 million settlement involving 508 victims.

As part of the settlement, Cardinal Roger Mahony agreed to release confidential church documents about the cases.

District Attorney Steve Cooley said he had not yet received those documents, but was able to proceed with the case against Miller based on other evidence.

TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade

By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR

In a meeting earlier this month with members of St. Rose Parish, Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo did not acknowledge awareness of their new pastor's sexual sins because doing so would violate the confessional's holy seal, a diocesan spokesman said last night.

"He knew about it, but he treated it as you would treat a sin in a confessional manner," said Sally Oberski, director of communications for the Toledo Catholic Diocese. "We don't publish people's sins."

Catholic canon law forbids clerics from disclosing anything told to them during confession, with violations punishable by excommunication.

FONTANA (CA)
Fontana Herald News

The Herald News sent reporter Bob Otto out into the street to ask people their thoughts on a topic on the minds of many people -- the Roman Catholic Church sex-abuse settlement.

We asked local residents: What do you think about the settlement that awarded $660 million to the victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy of the Los Angeles Archdiocese?

Joe Feld: I think the whole thing is so wrong. You end up losing respect for the church, which disrespected its fellow human beings. I'm ashamed that the church was allowed to get away with shuffling priests around. (The settlement) is an admission of guilt. At least the church had to pay a penalty. If people can be helped out from it, good. I'm a Catholic. I pray every night, but I don't go to church anymore. The child molestation got me to the point where I didn't want to go.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
New Zealand Herald

10:38AM Wednesday July 25, 2007
By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES - Just over a week after the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles reached a record $US660 million ($831.86 million) deal to settle clergy abuse cases, a former priest has been arrested charges of molesting a young boy.

George Miller, who served in the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Pacoima, is the first current or former Catholic priest to be charged with sex abuse in the city since the nation's largest Roman Catholic diocese finalized the settlement with 508 plaintiffs on July 16.

That settlement covered only civil cases pending against the church and does not affect criminal cases.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Tidings

As you have heard, this past week our Archdiocese settled 508 civil cases involving clergy and lay persons accused of sexual abuse. The emotional pain of the victims of this abuse remains intense, and I invite each of you to join with me in praying for them on their difficult journey toward healing.

I again apologize personally, and on behalf of those who led the church in past decades, to all those who were abused, regardless of how long ago the abuse took place.

As much as we might wish that the past could be reversed and the harm undone, it cannot be. But we can work to ensure that our parish ministries are as safe as we can humanly make them for all of our parishioners, especially our children and young people.

Throughout our Archdiocese, in our parishes and schools, our priests and lay people have worked hard over the past several years to create safe environments for our children. At this important moment in our Local Church's history, as we remember our past failings, it is also appropriate to reflect on what has been accomplished so far:

---There is no priest or lay person currently in ministry in the Archdiocese who has been found to have abused a young person.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Archdiocese of Los Angeles

In 2005, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles released a summary of information related to priests who had been accused of sexual abuse in civil lawsuits.

The information regarding George Miller indicates that despite written allegations of abuse in 1977, a firm denial of misconduct by Father Miller resulted in the decision of Cardinal Timothy Manning to retain Father Miller in ministry.

There were no further reports of problems to the Archdiocese regarding Father Miller for 12 years. In September of 1989, a priest reported that he felt uncomfortable with Father Miller’s friendliness toward boys. But no abuse was reported. Father Miller again denied any wrongdoing.

On May 16, 1996, a complaint of sexual abuse against Father Miller was made to the Archdiocese’s Vicar for Clergy. The Vicar for Clergy interviewed Father Miller, and on May 20, 1996, Cardinal Roger Mahony placed Father Miller on sick leave and sent him for psychiatric evaluation.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office

LOS ANGELES – A former priest with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles was arrested today on a felony complaint charging him with multiple counts of sexual molestation of a child under the age of 14, the District Attorney’s office announced.

George Miller, 69 (dob 3-12-38), was arrested at his residence in Oxnard by investigators with the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation. He is charged in case No. PA059590 with three counts of lewd act on a child and three counts of sodomy of a person under 14 – all felonies. He is being held on $600,000 bail.

“As promised, investigations are ongoing into alleged sexual abuse of minors by priests,” Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said today. “As evidence is developed to sustain criminal filings, we will do so.”

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles District Attorney's Office

LOS ANGELES – District Attorney Steve Cooley issued the following statement today on the archdiocese settlement:

“Today’s massive civil settlement highlights the institutional moral failure of the archdiocese to supervise predatory priests who operated for years under its jurisdiction.

“Our office worked for five years to obtain archdiocese records regarding the alleged criminal acts committed by these priests. The archdiocese resisted our efforts. We successfully obtained these records through the California Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in our favor last year.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Reuters

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Just over a week after the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles reached a record $660 million deal to settle clergy abuse cases, a former priest was arrested on Tuesday on charges of molesting a young boy.

George Miller, who served in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacoima, is the first current or former Catholic priest to be charged with sex abuse in the city since the nation's largest Roman Catholic diocese finalized the settlement with 508 plaintiffs on July 16.

That settlement covered only civil cases pending against the church and does not affect criminal cases.

Miller, who is 69 and left active ministry in 1996, was taken into custody at his home in California on a felony complaint charging him with three counts of committing lewd acts on a child and three counts of sodomy on a minor.

CALIFORNIA
CBS 2

(CBS) SAN FERNANDO, Calif. A former Catholic priest who was originally charged in 2002 with child molestation but had his case dismissed was arrested again Tuesday on new charges of molesting a boy while he was assigned to a Pacoima church, prosecutors said.

George Miller, 69, of Oxnard, is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in San Fernando Superior Court. He is charged with three felony counts of lewd acts on a child and three counts of sodomy of a person under 14. He is being held on $600,000 bail.

The alleged molestation took place between March 1988 and March 1991, while Miller was serving at Guardian Angel Church in Pacoima, prosecutors said.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By John Spano, Times Staff Writer
1:17 PM PDT, July 24, 2007

A former Los Angeles priest was arrested on suspicion of sexually molesting a child, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley announced today.

George Miller, 69, was arrested at his Oxnard home and is being held on $600,000 bail.

."As promised, investigations are ongoing into alleged sexual abuse of minors by priests," Cooley said today. "As evidence is developed to sustain criminal filings, we will do so."

Miller reportedly met the victim, who was then age 5, while he was assigned to the Guardian Angel Church in Pacoima. Miller befriended the victim's mother and became a frequent guest in her home, prosecutors said. He began taking the child on overnight trips, during which he initiated the molestation, they said. Miller served at the church from 1981 to 1984. He is accused of abusing the victim from March 1988 to March 1991

SPOKANE (WA)
The Bellingham Herald

SPOKANE, Wash. -- The bankruptcy filing by the Catholic Diocese of Spokane has cost it more than $10 million in attorney and professional fees so far.

The $10.1 million in fees for attorneys, accountants, real estate brokers and other professionals will come from the $48 million settlement deal for all claims arising from the priest sex abuse scandal that sent the diocese into bankruptcy.

The most money will be paid to the Paine Hamblen Coffin Brooke & Miller law firm of Spokane. The firm has submitted a $3.7 million bill for the work of its lawyers, led by Shaun Cross, Greg Arpin and Michael Paukert.

LAS VEGAS (NV)
Las Vegas Sun

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Trial has been postponed until January for a Roman Catholic priest who could face life in prison if convicted of sexually attacking and trying to kill a church soloist.

Lawyers cited scheduling conflicts Tuesday in pushing back from July 31 to Jan. 8 the start of the Rev. George Chaanine's trial in Clark County District Court on charges including attempted murder with a deadly weapon, battery with substantial bodily harm, sexual assault with a deadly weapon and kidnapping.

Chaanine, 53, remains held at the Clark County jail on $1 million bail after pleading not guilty to allegations he attacked the woman last Jan. 26 in an Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic Church office.

EDMOND (OK)
Insurance News Net

The Vista via U-WIRE
Source: Comtex Business

EDMOND, Okla., Jul 23, 2007 (The Vista, U-WIRE via COMTEX) -- Since before the Reformation, the Catholic Church has always been a target to society. Many can't deny the overall improved sentiment toward the Catholic Church as years surpass, but pragmatism will still keep the denomination in sight of media coverage.

Every so often, history will repeat itself. In the 1990s, the Catholic Church was accused of sexual abuse occurring within its dioceses. The detection of priests committing these heinous acts generated a stereotype associated with Catholicism. Since word got out that priests are child-molesters first and religious figures second, the world once again formed a biased opinion on Catholics.

Child abuse in any form is absolutely intolerable, but what most people don't realize is that child abuse is not limited to one religious sect. Organized religion has downgraded the potential means of upholding Christian values. Not only does it take place in the Catholic Church, but the Baptist, the Methodist, the Lutheran, and the Presbyterian. They all share the same human qualities that may erupt in immoral behavior against children.

ZIMBABWE
allAfrica

Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)

24 July 2007
Posted to the web 24 July 2007

Bulwayo

Catholics and other Christians will tomorrow hold an ecumenical prayer service in support of Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo who has been sued for alleged adultery.

"There [will be] an interdenominational prayer service for His Grace at 1pm tomorrow at St Mary's Cathedral," Archbishop Ncube's secretary, Rita Normanton, confirmed to CISA.

AUSTRALIA
ABC

Posted Tue Jul 24, 2007 7:49am AEST

The Catholic Church has appealed to the community not to be judgemental of two Canberra colleges embroiled in student abuse scandals.

Several legal claims have been made by former Daramalan College students, alleging sexual abuse by a teacher Paul Lyons.

Lyons committed suicide in 2000 after being chared with indecent assault of a student.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
dotCommonweal

July 24, 2007, 11:05 am
Posted by David Gibson

The Los Angeles abuse settlement continues to reverberate to a degree that surprises me. There were several powerful letters to the New York Times after their news story and editorial, including one from Anne & Ed Wilson of the VOTF chapter here in Brooklyn, and one from the venerable Msgr. Harry Byrne, who now has his own blog. But there was also a truly brilliant parody that apparently sought to find humor in this dark saga, and at the same time puncture many of the silly contentions and connections made by some advocates of a liturgical silver bullet for the crisis. The letter is from, of all people, the "rite-wing" Catholic polemicist Matt Abbott. In full it reads:

To the Editor:

I am pleased that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has settled with more than 500 survivors of sexual abuse. The settlement is long overdue.

Despite the moral corruption that has permeated the church in the United States over the last few decades, I still believe in the truths of the faith, and I applaud Pope Benedict XVI for loosening the restrictions on use of the traditional Latin Mass and for reiterating the church’s central role in salvation.

Matt C. Abbott
Chicago, July 17, 2007

LOS ANGELES (CA)
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling
No time to go document diving most this week but future posts will cover these topics: SHANLEY in Riverside? SUTPHIN roommates with Mahony? We'll also be looking at Exhibit Lists and Witness Lists for cases that were about to go to trial and check into what happened with cases that were dismissed right before July 18th. And most important of all, how did long time church attorney Donald Steier slip past sanctions in that late June hearing?

City of Angels Blog is not going to join the harangue for Cardinal Mahony to step down. If he gets fired he’ll end up being a fall guy, much like the few priests who now sit in jail. The media will trounce on him, there’ll be about a month of attention spent on him and his life, and the real criminals will once again slip like Teflon off a designer kitchen full of pans.

I’m paranoid enough to think firing Mahony would be the Vatican’s way to try again to make the sex crimes “crisis” go away. About as effective as trying to turn back time and give us back our lives as the physics-challenged Mahony claimed he’d do if he could in his “apology.” If Mahony the individual suffers, the criminal structure remains in place, to continue to corrupt everything else it touches in the Catholic hierarchy. Firing Mahony will not accomplish a thing, it will only be symbolic.

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS (FL)
First Coast News

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FL (AP) -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando is seeking restitution from a former church employee who told police he stole thousands of dollars from church coffers.

Police say the former employee admitted to stealing 18-thousand dollars from last year's fall festival at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Altamonte Springs. A police spokesman says church officials told them more than six hundred thousand dollars was taken from money the congregation donated.

ILLINOIS
Chicago Sun-Times

July 24, 2007
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Legal Affairs Reporter apallasch@suntimes.com
The prison in Downstate Jacksonville where the Rev. Daniel McCormack is serving an expected two- to five-year sentence "looks like a college campus," one prison expert said.

"There are a lot of programs, a lot of freedom," said Charlie Fasano, director of the Prisons and Jails Program for the John Howard Association, a nonprofit prison watchdog group. "Most [offenders there] are nonviolent, doing short bits."

It's the kind of place where prison officials hope McCormack -- who pleaded guilty this month to fondling five boys at a West Side Catholic parish and school -- will be safe, even though prison inmates sometimes target convicted child molesters for attacks.

ZIMBABWE
allAfrica

The Herald (Harare)

OPINION
25 July 2007
Posted to the web 24 July 2007

Caesar Zvayi
Harare

IT'S like punishing the innocent while letting Barabas go scot-free, at least that's how the Pius Ncube adultery and sex scandal is playing out in the so-called "independent" media and its coterie of civil society bedfellows.

In their wisdom or lack of it, these organisations have taken it upon themselves to play God or judge by absolving Pius of wrongdoing over allegations that he had a two-year affair with his married parishioner, Rosemary Sibanda, whose husband - Onesimus - is suing the beleaguered Archbishop for $20 billion in damages.

ZIMBABWE
allAfrica

The Herald (Harare)

25 July 2007
Posted to the web 24 July 2007

Caesar Zvayi
Harare

PRESIDING Bishop of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Zimbabwe, Bishop Trevor Manhanga yesterday blasted Roman Catholic Archbishop for Bulawayo Diocese, Pius Ncube for seeking earthly and not heavenly repentance following his notice to oppose the $20 billion adultery lawsuit filed by a man accusing him of having an adulterous relationship with his wife.

Bishop Manhanga urged errant church leaders to repent to God for their sins and not seek repentance in courts of law.

CALIFORNIA
California Catholic Daily

An undercover San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s deputy last week arrested the Rev. Geronimo Enrique Cuevas, 52, for lewd conduct near a secluded beach that attracts nude bathers.

Undercover deputies were stationed at Pirate’s Cove, south of San Luis Obispo, because the area has a history of sexual solicitation problems. Last Wednesday, Cuevas allegedly grabbed the crotch area of a male undercover officer. The priest was arrested and booked on two misdemeanor charges: suspicion of sexual battery and soliciting a lewd act.

When arrested, Cuevas told deputies that he was from Las Vegas and unemployed. Though he owns an apartment in Las Vegas, Cuevas was associate pastor at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Nipomo and previously was pastor of St. Mary of the Nativity Church in East Salinas. (A July 23 report published by The Californian.com quoted a St. Mary’s parishioner who said Cuevas was there until he moved to Las Vegas two years ago.)

The Diocese of Monterey issued a statement on July 20 saying that Bishop Richard Garcia has placed Cuevas on administrative leave and has removed his faculties “pending outcome of the criminal investigation.”

NEW ZEALAND
Radio New Zealand

Posted at 2:27pm on 24 Jul 2007

An elderly man has appeared in Nelson District Court over sexual abuse complaints between 1951 and 1985 by four former female members of the Exclusive Brethren church.

The offences are alleged to have happened in Nelson while the girls were aged between five and 10.

NEW ZEALAND
The Nelson Mail
Name suppression for a former Nelson Exclusive Brethren man facing seven sexual offending charges will be lifted on Wednesday unless his lawyer successfully appeals a judge's order.

The 72-year-old entered no plea when he appeared in the Nelson District Court on Tuesday morning on the charges, which date from 1951 to 1982, and involve four complainants from Nelson.

He faces six charges of indecent assault and one of inducing a girl to do an indecent act.

The man's lawyer, Hamish Riddoch, told the court it was likely he would apply for a stay (discharge) of the charges because of the age and nature of the allegations.

AUSTRALIA
ABC

Posted July 24, 2007 12:49:00

A former resident of the Neerkol Orphanage near Rockhampton, in central Queensland, is planning to write to the Pope over the Catholic Church's handling of the sexual abuse issue.

Garnett Williams says he was abused by a priest at Neerkol in the 1940s.

He says the Catholic Church's payout of about $1 million each to abuse victims in the United States is a slap in the face to Australian victims.

CALIFORNIA
The Orange County Register

YVETTE CABRERA
Register columnist
ycabrera@ocregister.com
Looking back on his life, there are certain things that Richard L.Gomez would have done differently.

Had he spoken up as a young boy about the abuse he alleges he suffered at the hands of a Placentia Catholic priest, maybe he could have sought help. Maybe his life would have turned out differently in so many ways.

The "what ifs" haunt him today and it's one reason why he's speaking out publicly for the first time about the sexual abuse he says he endured as a young altar boy at the hands of a Saint Joseph Church priest, the late Father Eleuterio Ramos.

TONAWANDA (NY)
WGRZ

Posted by: Lynne Dixon, Reporter

The Tonawanda woman who stole nearly half a million dollars from the parish where she worked was sentenced today to 6 months behind bars. Maureen Durrell offered a tearful apology before her sentencing.

"I'm fully aware of what I've done. And I'm very sorry..." said a tearful Durrell. "I will always continue to seek forgiveness and apologize to everyone I've hurt, most importantly the people of St. Christopher."

Durrell admits stealing close to 500-thousand dollars from church coffers at St. Christopher in Tonawanda from 1998 to 2005. She'd been church secretary there since 1992.

WINSLOW (AZ)
Independent

Part Two of a two-part series

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff Writer

WINSLOW, Ariz. — One of the plaintiffs in a civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Diocese of Gallup has remained intensely private since coming forward with his allegations against former Diocese of Gallup priest James Burns.

He has declined requests for personal interviews and has only communicated with The Independent through e-mails. As a victim of sexual abuse, he has requested that his identity be protected.

However, he has been very dogged in his pursuit of Burns through the legal system. In addition to filing the civil lawsuit in California in 2003, he filed a criminal complaint against Burns with the Winslow Police Department. As a result, Navajo Country prosecutors filed charges against Burns in May 2004, which led to a plea agreement and a short Arizona prison stint. When Burns failed to show up on the Arizona Department of Public Safety's sex offender Web site, the victim requested The Independent look into the situation.

SOUTH AFRICA
Catholic Online

7/23/2007
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

PRETORIA, South Africa (Catholic Online) – Allegations of adultery against an archbishop who has been an outspoken critic against the Zimbabwean government should not divert attention about the political and economic crisis gripping the African nation, said the region’s Catholic bishops.

In a letter published July 20, president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg, expressed “sadness and concern” about the suit filed against Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city, by a state worker who charged the church leader had sexual relations with the man's wife who worked for the archdiocese.

It has been suggested that the charge of adultery may be a part of a campaign to silence the church's leading voice against bad governance in the country.

OREGON
The Oregonian

Tuesday, July 24, 2007
ASHBEL S. GREEN The Oregonian Staff
The Oregon Department of Justice has reached a $1 million settlement with more than a dozen men who say a Catholic priest sexually abused them at a state reform school in the 1970s.

The agreement settles all legal claims against the Rev. Michael Sprauer, a pastor at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility from 1972 to 1975.

The state additionally has paid more than $1.4 million in outside legal fees to defend Sprauer, who has repeatedly denied molesting boys.

YUBA CITY (CA)
Appeal Democrat

July 24, 2007 - 12:00AM

The devil did not make him do it, said a Yuba City pastor convicted of lewd and lascivious conduct with a 12-year-old girl.

But the devil does prey on people who have just completed fasting and taken communion – and those were the circumstances in April when he kissed the girl twice on the cheek and put his tongue in her mouth, Andres Garcia told detectives.

Garcia, 71, was sentenced Monday in Sutter County Superior Court to 270 days in jail, with credit for time served since his arrest.

CALIFORNIA
SanLuisObispo

By Sona Patel
spatel@thetribunenews.com

Acknowledging that the behavior of a Nipomo priest accused of committing sexual crimes near a San Luis Obispo County nude beach was inappropriate for clergymen, Bishop Richard Garcia said he would offer the man support and monitor his actions as much as possible.

“I will do everything I can to prevent this from happening again,” Garcia told The Tribune after a groundbreaking ceremony at Mission San Miguel on Saturday.

Tepidly pledging his commitment to halt this kind of behavior, the bishop added that his support would extend to the entire clergy if needed. Garcia said he believes parishioners’ strong

faith in the Catholic Church would not be diminished by last week’s arrest of the Rev. Geronimo Enrique Cuevas.

NEW YORK
Wonkette

Cross-dressing thrice-married abortionist Rudy Giuliani is building a “dream team” of consultants that so far includes a diaper-wearing hooker-fucker in New Orleans and a coke-dealing state treasurer in South Carolina. He seems to be lacking a pedophile on his team. Any possibilities out there?

How about a “Catholic priest accused of sexually molesting boys and who also was the lawyer for a now-closed Whitinsville counseling house for troubled priests that has been described as the center of a pedophile sex ring,” would that work for Rudy? Why yes, yes it would!

Monsignor Alan J. Placa works for Giuliani Partners, annulled Giuliani’s first marriage, baptized two of Rudy’s kids (and we hope that’s all he did to Rudy’s poor kids) and was even the priest at the funeral for Rudy’s mom.

TOLEDO (OH)
13 ABC

WTVG--July 23, 2007 - A priest admits he had sex with a woman and now parishioners wonder why the diocese waited to announce it. A spokesperson for the diocese says they wanted to clear up the rumors about Father David Nuss so they sent a letter to the media.

Fr. David Nuss was chosen to replace Father Thomas Leyland after Leylands controversial departure. Father Nuss turned down the job. Now 13abc has learned that in January the priest told Bishop Blair he had a consensual, but inappropriate sexual relationship with a woman.

The bishop still felt Father Nuss was a perfect fit for the church and that his sin was personal. Parishioners uncovered Father Nuss' sin after an email was sent to Bishop Blair. It is from a close friend of the woman who had the relationship with Father Nuss. She expressed her concerns about his failure as a priest with her good friend.

AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

24th July 2007, 6:15 WST

A 31-year-old woman broke down in tears yesterday as she told a District Court jury how a Catholic priest sexually abused her at his holiday home in Moore River more than 20 years ago.

With a public gallery of about 50 people including Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey watching, the woman said Father Richard Joseph Doyle invited her family to holiday at his two-bedroom “beach shack” when she was seven years old.

She said that while her parents were asleep early one morning in one bedroom, Father Doyle asked her to come into his bed in the home’s other bedroom to scratch his back and then put his hand inside her underpants and placed her hand on his penis.

OREGON
Public NewsRoom

By Colin Fogarty

PORTLAND, OR 2007-07-23 The state of Oregon has reached a settlement with 13 men who say they were sexually abused as teens by Father Michael Sprauer.

The Salem priest was the chaplain at the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn in the 1970s. Colin Fogarty reports.

In May, a Multnomah County jury delivered $1.4 million verdict against Sprauer. A 12-member jury sided with two accusers suing the priest.

The jury cleared Sprauer in a lawsuit by another man. The three cases were the only lawsuits against a Catholic priest in Oregon to reach a trial.

SALT LAKE CITY (UT
The Salt Lake Tribune

By Pamela Manson
The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 07/23/2007 05:18:46 PM MDT

Posted: 2:48 PM- Defrocked Catholic priest James F. Rapp - who was accused by two Salt Lake County brothers of sexually abusing them more than 30 years ago - will remain incarcerated for the molestation of an Oklahoma boy, that state's parole board has decided.
The Oklahoma Board of Pardon and Parole reviewed Rapp's case last week and announced its decision on Monday. The former Utahn pleaded no contest in 1999 to lewd molestation of a Duncan boy and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Within the next few weeks, the board will schedule another parole review for Rapp, who taught at Judge Memorial Catholic High School in Salt Lake City for about five years. The then-priest, now 67, left the school in the mid-1970s and later worked in Michigan and Oklahoma parishes.

CHICAGO (IL)
USA Today

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that a Chicago priest pleaded guilty Friday to stealing nearly $200,000 from parishioners so that he could give cash and gifts to a gay stripper.

Investigators say the Rev. Mark Sorvillo helped his friend, James Sosnicki, buy cars, a motorcycle, clothing and a computer.

"For about a year or so, Mark would give me about $1,000 a month," Sosnicki told police, according to the paper. "He gave me the money for spending time with him."

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
KCBS

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- Local members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, are accusing the San Francisco Salesians order of Catholic priests of sheltering an alleged serial child molester. This, just one week after the Los Angeles Archdiocese settled with sex-abuse victims for $660 million.

SNAP members handed out leaflets outside Saints Peter and Paul Church Sunday, warning parishioners of Father Richard Presenti, who they say is the subject of a new abuse lawsuit.

"We believe the priest is living here in San Francisco," said Joey Piscitelli, who told KCBS’ Chris Filippi he was molested by another priest who worked at the same church. "Salesians has a track record of sheltering accused molesters."

LOS ANGELES (CA)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

07/21/2007

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles this week agreed to pay $660 million to 508 people who say they were victims of sexual abuse by priests. Most of the incidents occurred when the victims were children.

Victims will be compensated according to the severity of their abuse, but the average settlement will be $1.3 million per case — considerably more than victims of similar outrages in St. Louis receive. Here, the church quietly has settled about 75 of roughly 100 abuse cases, according to David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Most victims settled for between $12,000 and $70,000, he said, with only about half a dozen plaintiffs receiving more than $100,000. The Archdiocese of St. Louis says it has paid $6.8 million in settlements over 10 years.

The disparity lies partly in differences in the law. Statutes of limitations in Missouri and Illinois restrict civil suits based on acts that occurred many years ago. Abuse plaintiffs know that their cases might be dismissed, so they settle for lower amounts. California suspended its statute of limitations for one year in 2003, prompting a flood of lawsuits. The Los Angeles cases accused more than 200 priests and went back nearly 70 years.

ZIMBABWE
allAfrica

Zimbabwe Independent (Harare)

20 July 2007
Posted to the web 20 July 2007

Loughty Dube

THE alleged adultery case involving Archbishop Pius Ncube, a fierce critic of President Robert Mugabe, which has been sensationally playing out in the media, has a new twist to it after it emerged that the saga is a state security hatchet job to discredit the vocal cleric.

Analysts said events in the past week were reminiscent of the Cain Nkala and Ari Ben-Menashe issues and will collapse due to too many holes.

Archbishop Ncube is being sued for $20 billion by a Bulawayo man, Onesimus Sibanda, who alleges that he had an adulterous affair with his wife, Rosemary Sibanda.

Ncube's lawyer Nicholas Mathonsi, in a lengthy interview yesterday, said his client was not guilty and that it was for that reason he was contesting the case in court.

CHICAGO (IL)
The Herald News

July 23, 2007
By Eric Herman sun-times news group
The Rev. Mark Sorvillo loved taking his parish's money and spending it on himself. Trips to Rome, Venice, Paris. And $900 meals at New York restaurants.

In 1999, Sorvillo found someone else to lavish his parishioners' collection-plate donations on--a male stripper.

Sorvillo--who pleaded guilty Friday to stealing nearly $200,000 from St. Margaret Mary parish on the North Side--gave cars, plane tickets and thousands of dollars in cash to James Sosnicki, a married Louisville man who stripped frequently at gay clubs in Chicago, law enforcement sources said.

VERMONT
Burlington Free Press

Published: Monday, July 23, 2007
By Sam Hemingway
Free Press Staff Writer

Attorneys for James Turner, who sued the state’s Roman Catholic diocese alleging he was molested by a priest as a teen in the 1970s, want a judge to award them $107,985 in legal costs after a trial in the case ended in a mistrial last month.

“Unfortunately, this is what it takes to get a major case ready for trial,” Jerome O’Neill, Turner’s lead lawyer in the case, said of the legal bill Friday after filing his reimbursement request at Chittenden County Superior Court.

O’Neill and a law partner, John Evers, said in the court papers that together they had spent 287.5 hours in pre-trial and trial time working on the case when Judge Ben Joseph declared a mistrial in the case June 25.

Diocesan attorney David Cleary, in an interview, scoffed at the amount O’Neill was seeking.

VERMONT
WPTZ

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- The lawyers for a man who sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington in a priest sex case that ended in a mistrial last month now want the church to pay their legal tab.

Jerome O'Neill and law partner John Evers said they ran up more than $100,000 in legal costs preparing and trying the case of James Turner, and that the Diocese should be ordered to pay the bill.

Judge Ben Joseph, who declared a mistrial in the case June 25 after four days of testimony, blamed it on church attorney David Cleary, saying Cleary violated pre-trial rulings on what Turner could be asked about the relationship between the priest he accused and Turner's brother.

ZIMBABWE
Nehanda Radio

23 July 2007

By Cosmas Desmond
Cape Town

EVEN the prospect of a senior Roman Catholic clergyman being exposed as an adulterer is enough to occasion an orgy of schadenfreude. This could be considered a back-handed compliment in that it reflects the high esteem in which the clergy are held.

On the other hand, it is true that throughout history priests, bishops and even popes have succumbed to the weaknesses of the flesh. Contrary to popular perceptions, however, there is no evidence that Catholic priests are more prone to this than anybody else. They just get more publicity and people tend to take more delight in their downfall.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the Zimbabwean state media has had a field day in publishing what have been described as "lurid, grainy photographs they claim is Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube allegedly taken inside his bedroom with a naked woman".

CALIFORNIA
The Californian

Staff and wire reports

A Roman Catholic priest who formerly served as pastor at a Salinas church has been arrested after he allegedly groped an undercover sheriff's deputy near a private beach in San Luis Obispo County, authorities said.

The Rev. Geronimo Enrique Cuevas, 52, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of sexual battery and soliciting a lewd act from an adult in a public place, San Luis Obispo County sheriff's Sgt. Brian Hascall said Friday. Cuevas was released on $2,000 bail.

At the time of his arrest, Cuevas was working as an assistant pastor at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Nipomo, part of the Diocese of Monterey. He was placed on administrative leave after the arrest, the diocese said.

SALEM (OR)
KTVZ

Associated Press - July 23, 2007 9:05 AM ET

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Oregon paid a little more than one million dollars to a law firm to defend the state in lawsuits by 14 men who claimed they were abused by a priest at the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility during the 1970s.

The state hired the Idaho-based firm of Greener, Banducci and Shoemaker. The payments totaled 1.oh-four million dollars, according to documents obtained by the Statesman Journal newspaper through a public records request.

NEW YORK
Democrat & Chronicle

(July 23, 2007) — In the wake of the million-dollar settlements that the Catholic Church is required to pay out to all the victims of sexual abuse who have been brave enough to come forward, I find it stunning that no one is talking about the reasons for this history of abuse.

Pope Benedict XVI has found a handy scapegoat and has made a statement against gay men entering the priesthood. That may sound good, and it is certainly in line with the church's belief system, but unfortunately that reasoning is statistically inaccurate. Gay men are no more likely than heterosexual men to victimize children. People who victimize children are not heterosexual, they are not homosexual, they are pedophiles. They prey on children. Why? Because children are powerless and pedophilia is all about power and control.

So why is the incidence of sexual abuse so very high among Catholic priests? Could it be that requiring people to remain celibate and then putting them in positions of power is an incredibly bad idea? Perhaps celibacy is the root cause of this plague — in conjunction with the church's propensity for expecting blind obedience even from its adult congregants.

SOUTH AFRICA
The Times

Julian Rademeyer Published:Jul 15, 2007

Secrecy surrounds the sacking of a prominent South African rabbi who was allegedly caught having an affair with a married woman.

Amid a growing scandal, Rabbi Lewis Furman of Johannesburg, who was also a family counsellor and international speaker , is believed to have left South Africa for Israel where he is undergoing “rehabilitation”.

Furman — who is alleged by congregants to have been a “serial philanderer” — was forced to resign his position in South Africa and will not practise as a rabbi in this country again.

South African Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein said: “These events have caused much pain and anguish, which has been exacerbated by much unfounded speculation.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Manya A. Brachear | Tribune religion reporter
July 23, 2007

Despite concerns expressed by Rev. Daniel McCormack's defense lawyers that their high-profile client is in danger of attack behind bars, the Illinois Department of Corrections has not placed the priest in protective custody.

Instead, the convicted sex offender is one of more than 1,400 inmates working, dining and bunking together inside Jacksonville Correctional Center, an overcrowded minimum-security prison in central Illinois that does not offer segregated quarters for at-risk prisoners.

Experts say McCormack's role as a priest, his status as a first-time offender, the nature of his crime against children and his race combine to put his life in jeopardy. He is also at higher risk of sexual violence, though the notion that McCormack deserves protection from the very type of crime he committed offends some.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Vindy

HOW WE SEE IT

What did Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles know about the sexual abuse of minors by priests and religious, when did he know it and what did he do about it?

Those questions should form the basis of an independent investigation of the archbishop's role in this despicable scandal now that the archdiocese has agreed to pay a record $660 million to over 500 victims of sexual abuse. The court-ordered agreement, which brings to an end more than five years of negotiations, means that Mahony will not have to testify in a trial about his actions in what victims groups have said was concealment and cover-up of criminal and sinful acts by priests, deacons and others.

But that does not mean he should be given a pass by the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church.

SAN MIGUEL (CA)
KSBY

July 22, 2007

Reported by: Stacy Daniel

SAN MIGUEL

A high ranking church official addresses the issue of one of their own being arrested during a sting operation.

Here are the facts first:

The undercover operation netted three men for allegedly committing sexual offenses at a local nude beach.
It was conducted by the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department.
One of the men arrested was an associate pastor at a Catholic church in Nipomo.
He has since been placed on administrative leave.
Spirits are high at Sunday's mass at Mission San Miguel despite a scandal brewing within the Central Coast's Catholic community.

TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade

By ROBIN ERB
BLADE STAFF WRITER

A Toledo priest who was to take over St. Rose Parish in Perrysburg — but then abruptly stepped away from the new post — has been placed on a sabbatical after a “consensual but inappropriate” relationship with a woman, the Toledo diocese said.

The Rev. David Nuss alerted the diocese in January about the relationship and has “expressed his sincere sorrow” for his actions, according to a release yesterday by the diocesan office.

But just why the diocese revealed the information yesterday is baffling and frustrating, said Joan Foster, a longtime St. Rose parishioner.

Bishop Leonard Blair “knew this in January and now he pretends this is brand new news? Aren’t we Christians? Isn’t truth one of our most important things?” she asked.

UGANDA
Monitor

Martin Etwop
After reading Fr Larry Kanyike’s Opinion Article, “Is Jesus for sale” (SM, July 22).I thought I should respond. I am a born-again Ugandan Christian, working as a missionary in California. I feel so ashamed about what has been going on within the Balokole church in Uganda.

I have long admired Fr Kanyike since my Makerere University days because I respected him as a person who speaks out against political and social injustices. But I never knew that he was a very intolerant, religious segregationist.

True, some pastors of some of the Balokole churches have been crooked. They ought to be sent to Luzira prison for a minimum of 14 years. Jesus said, “many will come in my name saying we drove out demons, spoke in tongues, etc, but I will say unto them, I never knew you, away from me you workers of iniquity.” ...

Just a week ago, Cardinal Maloney of the Los Angeles Catholic Diocese(Los Angeles, California), the biggest and richest diocese in the United States, presided over the biggest payout compensation for people who had been sexually molested by priests. It was more than S600 million. But can that buy back the dignity of a little boy who has been raped.

I wonder whether Fr Kanyike read Pope Benedict XIV’s apostolic constitution Sacramentum Poenitentiae of 1741. That is how far back the recorded issue of priests molesting altar boys goes.

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS (FL)
Orlando Sentinel

Susan Jacobson and Josh Robbins | Sentinel Staff Writers
July 23, 2007

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS - Parishioners at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church were saddened Sunday to learn that a former church employee is suspected of stealing an estimated $675,000 from church coffers and is under police investigation.

At the end of the noon Mass, the Rev. Charlie Mitchell read a letter from Bishop Thomas Wenski of the Catholic Diocese of Orlando that said the former employee admitted to the embezzlement but contested the amount of money taken.

"As pastor of St. Mary Magdalen, I don't think there is anything that I can recall that's harder for me to say to you than what I'm about to say now," Mitchell told about 350 people assembled. He made similar announcements Saturday night and at earlier services Sunday.

AUSTRALIA
CathNews

Marist College Canberra headmaster Richard Sidorko yesterday moved to reassure parents that all possible measures are in place to prevent abuse after reports emerged that several former students are planning legal action over abuse claims dating back to the 1970s and 80s.

ABC News reports that the school hit the headlines yesterday after newspaper reports claimed several men had raised concerns about the conduct of a former male teacher.

Lyons, who committed suicide in 2000 after he was charged with the indecent assault of a 15-year-old male student at Daramalan College in 1989, taught at Marist College for about 12 years until he left for Daramalan in 1989.

RENO (NV)
Reno Gazette-Journal

MARTHA BELLISLE
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 7/22/2007

Reno's former Roman Catholic bishop, Phillip Straling, supported building a facility for priests accused of molesting children when he was bishop in San Bernardino, Calif., and used some of the priests held there to work in his diocese, according to testimony from a priest who led the group that ran the center.

The Rev. Joseph McNamara revealed Straling's involvement in the creation of the Servants of the Paraclete facility in Cherry Valley, Calif., during his June 21 testimony in the massive legal case against Los Angeles-area priests accused of sexually abusing children.

The Diocese of Los Angeles settled that case last week for a record $660 million.

The Southern California facility, built in Straling's San Bernardino diocese in 1980, was used as "a clerical prison for holding known child sex offenders from all over the country instead of turning them over to the police," said Patrick Wall, a consultant with a Southern California law firm handling hundreds of cases against priests.

GALLUP (NM)
Independent

First of a two-part series

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The actions of a former Diocese of Gallup priest and convicted sex offender just cost the Archdiocese of Los Angeles a substantial settlement for the sexual abuse of a Winslow, Ariz., teenage boy in the 1980s.

It's also possible the actions of James Burns will be costing the Diocese of Gallup and its insurers some more money in the future.

Burns, a former Catholic priest living in Wickenburg, Ariz., is one of more than 160 priests, members of religious orders, and church lay workers who were accused of child molestation by more than 500 plaintiffs in civil lawsuits filed against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Burns, who had his priestly faculties removed in June 1993, was included because of allegations that he had abused the Winslow boy during trips to California.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Daily News Tribune

That huge pre-trial settlement of alleged priest abuse cases in Los Angeles, though at long last putting money in the hands of 508 wounded families, is grossly unsatisfactory for both the church and its members.

It leaves unanswered the question, what did Cardinal Roger Mahony know about priests who were molesting young people and what did he do about it? Knowing the truth is absolutely essential, and more important than money, for any hope of rebuilding crippled lives and needed trust.

Cardinal Mahony has admitted that he left five priests in the ministry despite complaints. The Los Angeles Times counted 16 instances. If experience elsewhere is any guide, this is likely the tip of the iceberg.

CHICAGO (IL)
All Headline News

July 22, 2007 2:44 p.m. EST

Kathy Henry - AHN News Writer
Chicago, Illinois (AHN) - A Catholic priest who pleaded guilty Friday to stealing almost $200,000 from a church on the North Side of Chicago gave lavish gifts such as cars, plane tickets and thousands of dollars to a male stripper who worked at gay clubs in Chicago, according to law enforcement sources.

The Rev. Mark Sorvillo was forced to resign from St. Margaret Mary Church in February 2006 after he was caught stealing from collection bags and in October 2006, he was charged with felony theft by state prosecutors.

An investigation showed that he stole more than $40,000 from collection bags, wrote checks to himself and his creditors using church funds and charged more than $62,000 in purchases at ritzy department stores to the parish.

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

By Jay Tokasz NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 07/22/07 10:09 AM

Catholic dioceses across the country have paid in excess of $2 billion in settlements to victims of clergy sexual abuse, but little of that amount has come from the Diocese of Buffalo.

Diocesan officials have reported spending $1.02 million on settlements, legal fees and therapy for victims and offenders between 1950 and 2005, a period when 53 clergy were accused in 105 incidents of sexual abuse.

They did not provide numbers for 2006 and the first half of 2007.

So far, the Buffalo diocese’s financial losses due to the clergy abuse scandal pale in comparison to places such as Los Angeles, where the archdiocese last week reached a settlement with more than 500 abuse victims for $660 million; the Archdiocese of Boston, which is paying $129.6 million in settlements; and the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., which declared bankruptcy after settling for $53 million.

MONTVILLE (CT)
The Day

Montville — Since authorities charged a former St. Bernard School employee this month with embezzling nearly $850,000, officials from the Catholic institution have largely rebuffed efforts to learn more about the school's financial controls, and why it took nearly four years to catch on to the scheme.

While Diocese of Norwich officials, including Bishop Michael R. Cote and spokesman Michael Strammiello, have said that new accounting controls are in place to prevent future embezzlements, they have refused to say what changes have been made in the wake of former bus coordinator Salvatore R. Licitra's arrest, or to open up the school's books to scrutiny by parishioners or the public.

Yet, amid lingering questions among some of the faithful about church management and in the wake of studies showing a surprising level of financial mismanagement in parishes across the country, a movement toward transparency and accountability may be on the horizon anyway.

ZIMBABWE
IOL

July 22 2007 at 02:51PM

A Zimbabwean man who has sued the Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo Diocese Pius Ncube for adultery, has notified the local papal representative of the case, state media reported on Sunday.

Ncube, one of President Robert Mugabe's arch-critics, sued last Monday for adultery, has denied any wrong doing.

"Our client is a devout Catholic and indeed his entire family is within your church," the lawyers of Onesimus Sibanda, said in a letter to the Vatican representative in Harare, Archbishop Adams, the Sunday Mail reported.

MASSACHUSETTS
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

By Shaun Sutner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
ssutner@telegram.com

Republican presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani has close ties to a Catholic priest accused of sexually molesting boys and who also was the lawyer for a now-closed Whitinsville counseling house for troubled priests that has been described as the center of a pedophile sex ring.

Monsignor Alan J. Placa, who works for Mr. Giuliani’s consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, was legal adviser in the 1980s to the House of Affirmation, where priests accused of sexual abuse were sent for psychotherapy and other counseling services. The center closed in 1987 amid a financial scandal.

Monsignor Placa, who while an active priest arranged the annulment of Mr. Giuliani’s first marriage, baptized his two children and officiated at the funeral of his mother, is a childhood friend of Mr. Giuliani and they both attended Manhattanville College.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
YouTube

Esther Miller discusses the recent $660 million settlement in Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
YouTube

Video of Cardinal Roger Mahony's apology regarding the recent $660 million settlement of lawsuits involving sexual abuse by some priests of the archdiocese.

WORCESTER (MA)
YouTube

Phil Saviano discusses sexual abuse of children in the Worcester diocese.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By David Rieff
July 22, 2007

At first glance, it seems difficult to imagine how Cardinal Roger M. Mahony can survive the pedophile scandal. Far from putting the matter to rest, the $660-million settlement that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay the victims of the abuse -- child rape, alas, is often the more accurate term -- can only lead to further wonder, and worry, about the cardinal's conduct throughout the course of the scandal.

By his own admission, Mahony decided not to inform the police when he learned what was going on, and, indeed, he allowed the most predatory of the priests to return to their ministries after treatment programs the cardinal himself now concedes were ineffective. Saying, as he now does, that he wishes that the victims' lives were like "VHS tapes" that could be rewound to a point before the crimes were committed seems like an extraordinarily self-exculpating way of describing what went on. And skeptics can surely be forgiven for wondering why the archdiocese decided to settle only a few days before Mahony would have been obliged to testify in open court.

And yet, however grotesque it may appear to those who are understandably unwilling to forgive Mahony for what he now concedes were grievous errors, my guess is that he will survive relatively unscathed in his position -- unlike, say, his counterpart Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, a prince of the church who had to be removed from office by the Vatican and transferred to virtual exile in Rome. Indeed, Mahony is not only likely to remain in office but can be expected to do so with his power and his moral authority among the overwhelming majority of his parishioners largely intact.

PENNSYLVANIA
Beaver County Times

By: Michael Pound - Times Staff
07/21/2007

Once the homecoming is done, the work for Bishop David Zubik will just be getting started.

Economy native Zubik, 57, will return to Pittsburgh in about 10 weeks to take over as the newly appointed bishop of the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese. It's easy to think of Zubik as a known quantity, especially to Beaver County's Catholics - his work at Quigley Catholic High School and the Sisters of St. Joseph in the 1980s and his frequent appearances here even while serving as a diocesan administrator through the 1990s until his appointment as bishop in Green Bay, Wis. ...

The issue: The widespread reports of sexual abuse by priests continues to rock the Catholic church in the United States, with the Catholic Diocese of Los Angeles just announcing days ago a $660 million settlement for victims of abuse there.

Neither Green Bay nor Pittsburgh was immune to the scandal. The John Jay College study, released in 2004, showed that 95 people in the Pittsburgh diocese had been abused between 1950 and 2002; those victims accused 51 members of the clergy of misconduct. In Green Bay, 59 victims made accusations against 35 clergy.

Zubik's response: On Wednesday, Zubik declined to comment on the Los Angeles settlement, saying he didn't know its details. But, he said, he worked to ensure that the church in Green Bay rebuilt the trust it had lost in the scandal and would do the same here.

ZIMBABWE
Monsters and Critics

Jul 20, 2007, 13:55 GMT

Harare - Zimbabwe's state broadcaster Friday protested that there was no malice behind its airing of footage of Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube's alleged sexual encounters.

Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) head Henry Muradzikwa said ZBC TV fiercely defended the decision to repeatedly air video footage of the archbishop, an outspoken government critic.

'Archbishop Pius Ncube is a public figure and he is expected by society to abide by certain moral ethics,' Muradzikwa said.

'What ZBC did is fair comment, with no malice and for the benefit of the public,' the chief executive was quoted as saying.

ZIMBABWE
allAfrica

Zimbabwe Independent (Harare)

Darlington Majonga

THIS week the state media unleashed hardcore images and stories of a man they said was Archbishop Pius Ncube secretly filmed in flagrante delicto with suspected female members of his diocese.

The pornography -- needless to say in family papers and on national television -- was said to be irrefutable evidence that the man of cloth was involved in sexual intercourse against his Catholic vow of celibacy.

The exposé came after a Bulawayo man filed a $20 billion adultery civil suit against the cleric for allegedly bonking his wife, Rosemary Sibanda.

There is no doubt the Ncube scandal has come as a godsend -- if it was not by design -- to an establishment desperate for anything that might divert the attention of abused and impoverished citizens from the daily depravations of life under the great one.

ZIMBABWE
Voice of America

By Carole Gombakomba and Fazila Mahomed
Washington and Harare
20 July 2007

The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference has dismissed the allegations of adultery lodged against Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo this week, saying that the Z$20 billion (US$125,000) dollar civil suit is meant to cast “doubt on his credibility.”

Conference President Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg Diocese appealed to the public not to pass judgement on Ncube as to his alleged adulterous relationship with Bulawayo parish secretary Rosemary Sibanda, whose estranged husband filed the complaint. Tlhagale said Ncube’s guilt or innocence "has yet to be proved.”

Tlhagale could not be reached for further comment; he was said to be traveling to Angola for a regional meeting of Southern African bishops beginning late Friday.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Kentucky.com

By Rachel Zoll
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony approved a record clergy abuse payout, opened the files of the Roman Catholic priests involved and looked into the cameras and apologized last week for the victims' treatment. And it still might not be enough to satisfy some.

To fund the archdiocese's share of the $660 million settlement, the cardinal will have to sell property, liquidate investments and cut spending, dismantling part of what he built in more than two decades as the city's archbishop.

Even so, critics question whether the cardinal should have done more to rein in predatory priests in the nation's largest archdiocese. Bishops answer only to the Vatican, which had to sign off on some funding of the settlement, but every church leader needs the trust of the parishioners.

AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

Kate Hannon

Allegations of sexual abuse of students by a former teacher at Daramalan College have spread to another Canberra Catholic school, Marist College, where the accused teacher had earlier worked for more than a decade.

Two former students of Marist College in Pearce have called on the school to acknowledge alleged sexual abuse of former students by two former teachers, one a Marist Brother, during the 1970s and 1980s.

A third former Marist student has in the past week contacted Porters Lawyers, which is representing former Daramalan College students in their action over alleged sexual abuse by former teacher Paul John Lyons.

ZIMBABWE
African Path

July 21, 2007 08:57 AM

By Dennis Rekayi

HARARE - A media watchdog in Zimbabwe says the coverage of the alleged adultery case involving Archbishop Pius Ncube of the Bulawayo Archdiocese by the State media is an affront to ethical journalism.

The Zimbabwe Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) said the reportage was unfair and unbalanced.

"The coverage of the purported revelations and 'scoop' by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), The Chronicle and The Herald are an affront to ethical journalism and the principle of fair and balanced reporting especially as the matter is before the courts and therefore subjudice," said Loughty Dube, Misa-Zimbabwe chairman in a statement.

AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now

A FORMER Seventh Day Adventist Church official has avoided jail after pleading guilty to the sexual abuse of a seven-year-old girl.

Keith Phillip Langton, 79, of Moonta on Yorke Peninsula, pleaded guilty to one count of indecent assault, which occurred 27 years ago.

A similar charge was dropped by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions as part of the plea bargain deal.

Langton, who was a school superintendent with the church at the time of the offending, was arrested by Pedophile Task Force detectives in September 2005 following a long investigation.

HARRISBURG (PA)
The Patriot-News

Sunday, July 22, 2007

BY MARY WARNER
Of The Patriot-News
Since the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles' $660 million settlement with clergy sex-abuse victims, the Harrisburg Diocese has updated its own -- much smaller -- costs.

It has spent $2.4 million on legal fees, settlements and victims' therapy during the five-year scandal that has roiled the church nationwide, the diocese said.

"The types of behavior that have affected a few other dioceses and other public institutions and schools have been addressed promptly and effectively whenever they have become known to this diocese," a written statement from the Harrisburg Diocese said.

CALIFORNIA
The Record

By The Record
July 22, 2007 6:00 AM
Actions speak louder than words.

A week ago today, Cardinal Roger Michael Mahony presided at Mass in the $189.7 million Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles and then held a press conference.

He apologized to victims of alleged sex abuse by priests who are part of a $660 million settlement to which Mahony and his diocese have agreed.

Here's what Mahony didn't say but should have:

I, too, have sinned. For too long, I withheld the truth. I worried more about legal issues than moral ones. I worked harder at protecting the church's image - and assets - than protecting vulnerable young people from Stockton to Los Angeles. I'm not qualified to lead. I resign.

NEW LEXINGTON (OH)
Times Recorder

By KATHY THOMPSON
Staff Writer

NEW LEXINGTON - A Lancaster man was arrested on five counts of gross sexual imposition Friday and is incarcerated at the Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail in Nelsonville waiting to make his first appearance in a Perry County court Tuesday morning.

Timmy S. Keil, 43, was a counselor at the Scioto Youth Camp in Junction City when the Perry County Sheriff's Office received a report on July 19 that an alleged sexual abuse had taken place with one of the young campers.

Lt. Paul Drake said Keil, who volunteers at the camp, was questioned regarding the incident and denied any wrongdoing.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
The News Tribune

THE NEWS TRIBUNE Published: July 22nd, 2007 01:00 AM

The $660 million settlement for 508 victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles was stunning because of its scope.

The payout – the victims each will receive $1.3 million – is five times larger than any previous deal struck by a diocese in the 5-year-old scandal that has plagued the church in America for five years.

But the settlement is hardly absolution for the church or for Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney, accused of transferring known molesters from parish to parish like so many other American Catholic church authorities have done.

TULSA (OK)
The Joplin Globe

The Associated Press

TULSA, Okla. — A Catholic priest in Tulsa has been stripped of his clerical duties following an ecclesiastical trial over allegations of sexual abuse.

Ken Lewis, 49, is the only priest in the history of the Diocese of Tulsa to be “laicized,” or dismissed from the clerical state. Lewis worked at St. Mary’s Catholic Church and Holy Family Cathedral in Tulsa and other churches around the state before he resigned in 2002.

The decision of the ecclesiastical trial, the first ever held by the diocese, to strip Lewis of his status as a cleric was not official until the pope affirmed it. The Rev. Michael Knipe, canon lawyer and spokesman for the diocese, said word was received from Rome on July 5.

UNITED STATES
Union-Tribune

By Sandi Dolbee and Mark Sauer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

July 22, 2007

It began as a national scandal in 2002, a wildfire sweeping across the nation fueled by terrible secrets that had gone untended for decades.

Thousands of lawsuits were filed against dioceses around the country by people who say they were abused by Roman Catholic priests when they were minors. Included in this tally were about 150 cases involving San Diego priests and other church personnel dating to the 1930s.
On Feb. 27, the day before the first of those lawsuits was set to go to trial, San Diego became the fifth – and largest – diocese to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

“Early trial judgments in favor of some victims could so deplete diocesan and insurance resources that there would be nothing left for other victims,” Bishop Robert Brom wrote in a letter to parishioners.

GREEN BAY (WI)
Appleton Post Crescent

By Ann Rodgers
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

GREEN BAY — Dwarfed by nearby paper mills, the Mill Town Cafe draws a blue-collar crowd — and a Catholic bishop who relishes its liver and onions.

The first time Bonnie Homan saw David Zubik enter her establishment, she was amazed.

"I thought, oh, the bishop, he must be high and mighty. But he never made you feel he was higher than you. He made you feel like he was regular people," she said. ...

He has faced criticism. A religious order priest sued after Zubik removed him as pastor following parishioner complaints about management style and liturgical practices. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests castigated him for not publishing names of former diocesan priests against whom there had been sexual abuse allegations, but no criminal charges or lawsuits.

That criticism rankles his staffers, who say he meets with victims of sexual abuse and that preventing abuse was the first priority on which he laid down the law after he arrived.

OREGON
Statesman Journal

ALAN GUSTAFSON
Statesman Journal

July 22, 2007

Oregon has shelled out more than $1 million to a Boise, Idaho, law firm hired to defend the state in sexual-abuse lawsuits brought against the Rev. Michael Sprauer of Salem.

State payments to the firm of Greener, Banducci and Shoemaker totaled $1,036,317 from October 2005 through May 2007, according to documents obtained by the Statesman Journal through a public records request with the state Department of Justice.

Leading the state-hired defense team is William Tharp, a former Oregon assistant attorney general who left the Department of Justice in 2005 to join the Boise firm.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Coming Oout in Mid-Life in Red America

I received a comment from Bishop Accountability http://www.bishopaccountability.org/ today on the Los Angeles Archdiocese sexual abuse settlement. This group has a wealth of information and documentation that shows the extent of the sex abuse scandal and, even more damning, the legths that the hierarchy went to cover it up. Here's the comment:

1. The final total of $660 million is lower than many expected. Predicted totals had ranged as high as $1.6 billion.

UNITED STATES
Weapon of Mass Destruction

July 21st, 2007 ·
William Kennedy mentioned a Vatican document called “The Sin of Solicitation” during our interview about pedophile priests on The Eagle 93.9 yesterday. As a faithful Roman Catholic (like Bill Kennedy), my producer, Justin, was upset by the topic — and I have to admit that I was skeptical about the existence of a document directly from the Vatican that ordered bishops to cover up sex crimes by priests.

Bill just sent me the links, and he’s right.

OKLAHOMA
KSWO

Associated Press - July 21, 2007 10:55 AM ET

MIDWEST CITY, Okla. (AP) - An arrest warrant has been issued for a church deacon accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old church member.

Orlando Javier Wynn faces five counts of second-degree rape, six counts of forcible oral sodomy and one count of lewd acts with a child.

Wynn is a deacon at Divine Wisdom Worship Center. The pastor, the Reverend Theodis Manning, spearheads a ministry to former gang members.

OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

7/21/2007 1:59 PM
Last Modified: 7/21/2007 7:07 PM

MIDWEST CITY -- A church deacon accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old church member has turned himself in to Midwest City police.

Orlando Javier Wynn, a deacon at Divine Wisdom Worship Center, faces five counts of second-degree rape, six counts of forcible oral sodomy and one count of lewd acts with a child.

Midwest City police say Wynn, 39, turned himself in about 3:40 p.m. CDT on Saturday. Wynn's bail is set at $580,000, according to Oklahoma County District Court records.

The pastor at Divine Wisdom Worship Center, the Rev. Theodis Manning, spearheads a ministry to former gang members. In June, Manning teamed with Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater to host a "Stop the Violence Community Rally."

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

By RACHEL ZOLL
AP RELIGION WRITER

Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony approved a record clergy abuse payout, opened the files of the Roman Catholic priests involved and looked into the cameras and apologized last week for the victims' treatment. And it still might not be enough to satisfy some.

To fund the archdiocese's share of the $660 million settlement, the cardinal will have to sell property, liquidate investments and cut spending, dismantling part of what he built in more than two decades as the city's archbishop.

Even so, critics question whether the cardinal should have done more to rein in predatory priests in the nation's largest archdiocese. Bishops answer only to the Vatican, which had to sign off on some funding of the settlement, but every church leader needs the trust of the parishioners.

SALEM (OR)
KXLY

Associated Press
Last updated: Saturday, July 21st, 2007 11:38:54 AM

SALEM, ORE. -- A lawyer says the state of Oregon has agreed to settle the cases of 14 men who accused a priest at a juvenile correctional facility of sexually abusing them in the 1970s.

Salem lawyer Daniel Gatti says the state has agreed to pay his clients a little more than $1 million.

A state spokeswoman confirms that a settlement is on the way but says it hasn't been made final.

TULSA (OK)
KSWO

Associated Press - July 21, 2007 2:05 PM ET

TULSA, Okla. (AP) - A Catholic priest in Tulsa has been stripped of his clerical duties following an ecclesiastical trial over allegations of sexual abuse.

Ken Lewis is the only priest in the history of the Diocese of Tulsa to be "laicized," or dismissed from the clerical state.

Lewis worked at St. Mary's Catholic Church and Holy Family Cathedral in Tulsa and other churches around the state before he resigned in 2002.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Canyon News

Posted by Monica Davis on Jul 22, 2007 - 10:24:06 PM

The $660 million settlement reached this week, between the Los Angeles Archdiocese and the 508 plaintiffs, is the largest in the history for the Catholic Church. The LA archdiocese, the largest in the US with landholdings estimated to nearly 1,600 and worth $1.4 billion, will pay $250 million; insurance carriers will cover $227 million, leaving several religious orders to pay the remaining $60 million.

Despite popular belief, the settlement will not be split evenly, [THIS DOESN'T MAKE SENSE ---> and grant each victim $1.4 million. Instead, the settlement will be divided amongst the plaintiffs and according to the duration and severity of abuse inflicted by the clergymen.

The settlement was reached on the day the case was to go to trial, leaving some victims’ let down. Steven Sanchez, a victim who was ready for trial, said “No matter how much money you give me, I can’t cash that check and take it somewhere where I’m ten years old again.”

LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Morning Call

Donald P. Russo
July 21, 2007

Tradition is powerful in our lives. We continue following certain behaviors and routines because they are what we were taught to do. Catholics continue going to Mass on Sunday, despite overwhelming evidence that the church has been involved in some monstrous misdeeds. Last week, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay $660 million to 500 victims of sexual abuse dating back as far as the 1940s. It was the largest compensation of its kind ever recorded. The settlement means victims will receive more than $1 million each.

We are getting used to hearing about financial compensation being paid by the church to those who have been abused by priests. The case that led to the huge settlement was scheduled to go to trial last week in Los Angeles Superior Court. The suit was filed by 12 plaintiffs who accused former priest Clinton Hagenbach of molesting them. Hagenbach died in the 1980s. Had the case gone to trial, lawyers would have been able to place Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, in the untenable position of having to testify about the church's cover-up of abuses dating from the 1940s to the 1990s. The Los Angeles Times has estimated that the Los Angeles Archdiocese has real estate holdings worth more than $4 billion. The archdiocese in Boston has also been involved in large settlement payouts for victims of sexual abuse. "Though it has always been the position of the Archdiocese that the insurance companies must honor their responsibility to fund a major share of future settlements, the Archdiocese must also be prepared to fund its share of these coming settlements," Cardinal Mahony said in a May statement.

CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

Saturday, July 21, 2007

An expert on church law who served on the Diocesan Review Board monitoring allegations of sexual abuse against minors will be the new chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland.

Sister Therese Guerin Sullivan, 65, will take over the position responsible for the daily administration of the diocese on Aug. 1, Bishop Richard Lennon announced.

CALIFORNIA
Monterey Herald

The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 07/20/2007 08:56:21 PM PDT

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif.—An assistant pastor at a Catholic church was arrested for investigation of sexual battery after he allegedly groped an undercover sheriff's deputy near a private beach, authorities said Friday.

The Rev. Geronimo Enrique Cuevas, 52, who was arrested on Wednesday, also was booked on suspicion of soliciting a lewd act from an adult in a public place, said San Luis Obispo County sheriff's Sgt. Brian Hascall.

The pastor was released on $2,000 bail.

Cuevas allegedly "grabbed the crotch area" of a sheriff's deputy working undercover on foot trails leading to Pirate's Cove, a secluded private beach known for nude sunbathing several miles south of San Luis Obispo, Hascall said.

BROCKPORT (NY)
Democrat & Chronicle

Ernst Lamothe Jr.
Staff writer

(July 21, 2007) — The Rev. Peter Enyan-Boadu, a Roman Catholic priest who served as pastor of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Brockport, was found not guilty Friday of three counts of second-degree harassment and one count each of forcible touching and attempted forcible touching.

The charges, all misdemeanors, were filed by a female co-worker on Nov. 5, 2006. The verdict was returned in Sweden Town Court.

"It's very important to stress that he was found not guilty on all charges," said Cathy Cerame, temporary pastoral administrator for the church. "He is expected to return to (the church) as pastor."

OREGON
Statesman Journal

ALAN GUSTAFSON
Statesman Journal

July 21, 2007

The state has agreed to pay $1,050,000 to 14 men who sued the Rev. Michael Sprauer, alleging that he sexually abused them in the 1970s at the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn, said Salem attorney Daniel Gatti, who represents the men.

A state Department of Justice official confirmed Friday that a settlement was nearing completion.

"From the state's perspective, I can confirm that we are in the midst of reaching a settlement," said Stephanie Soden, a DOJ spokeswoman. "But I don't believe that everything has been finalized."

An out-of-court settlement would cap a legal battle that erupted several years ago, when the former MacLaren inmates filed a series of sex-abuse suits against the Salem priest.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Port Huron Times-Herald

So why didn't the Archdiocese of Los Angeles put a stop to clergy sex abuse long ago?

I can think of 660 million reasons why the clerics should have.

That's how many dollars it's going to cost to set things as right as they can get in a legal settlement of abuse claims, some of which are more than half a century old.

The settlement, ratified Monday by a judge, involves more than 500 victims of abuse and is the largest payout since the church's dirty linen began being washed in public in 2002. That's when abuse charges emerged in a scandal in Boston.

ZIMBABWE
Weekend Argus

July 21, 2007 Edition 1

Zimbabwe's state broadcaster yesterday protested that there was no malice behind its airing of footage of Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube's alleged sexual encounters.

Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) head Henry Muradzikwa said ZBC TV fiercely defended the decision to repeatedly air video footage of the archbishop, an outspoken government critic.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Jeremy Roberts | July 21, 2007
AN Anglican Church leader escaped sanction over sex abuse complaints, despite an independent investigator finding that the evidence against him was credible and consistent with a pattern of preying on vulnerable women.

In one case, a woman gave church investigators a sworn statement that she had attempted to commit suicide after, she alleged, Archdeacon Peter Coote let himself into her Adelaide home, stripped naked and had sex with her.

Two other women provided the church with graphic accounts of how the married priest and father of five had made uninvited sexual advances towards them, also following visits to their homes.

UTAH
Deseret Morning News

By Nancy Perkins
Deseret Morning News
ST. GEORGE — Recorded jailhouse statements made by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs will remain under seal, a 5th District Court judge ruled on Tuesday.
"Those statements are of such a nature that to disseminate them in any way, shape or form would not only impair the right of the defendant to a fair trial, but would place such a cloud over this litigation that I would not feel confident in picking a jury anywhere in the state of Utah," Judge James L. Shumate said after reviewing the statements in his chamber with attorneys.
Defense attorney Walter Bugden called Jeffs' jailhouse statements potentially "very, very inflammatory." The Deseret Morning News reported earlier that Jeffs told a brother during a jailhouse visit that he was not a prophet and had never been a prophet.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By William Lobdell, Times Staff Writer
July 21, 2007

WHEN Times editors assigned me to the religion beat, I believed God had answered my prayers.

As a serious Christian, I had cringed at some of the coverage in the mainstream media. Faith frequently was treated like a circus, even a freak show.

I wanted to report objectively and respectfully about how belief shapes people's lives. Along the way, I believed, my own faith would grow deeper and sturdier. ...

IN early 2002, I was assigned to work on the Catholic sex scandal story as it erupted across the nation. I also continued to attend Sunday Mass and conversion classes on Sunday mornings and Tuesday nights.

Father Vincent Gilmore — the young, intellectually sharp priest teaching the class — spoke about the sex scandal and warned us Catholics-to-be not to be poisoned by a relatively few bad clerics. Otherwise, we'd be committing "spiritual suicide."

As I began my reporting, I kept that in mind. I also thought that the victims — people usually in their 30s, 40s and up — should have just gotten over what had happened to them decades before. To me, many of them were needlessly stuck in the past.

But then I began going over the documents. And interviewing the victims, scores of them. I discovered that the term "sexual abuse" is a euphemism. Most of these children were raped and sodomized by someone they and their family believed was Christ's representative on Earth. That's not something an 8-year-old's mind can process; it forever warps a person's sexuality and spirituality.

UNITED KINGDOM
Ledbury Reporter

A CHRISTIAN'S sexual abuse of a 10-year-old Brownie was hushed up' by the church for over 24 years, a court has been told.

Victor Steynor, 64, who twice put his hand up the girl's top when her Brownie pack visited the home he hired out for adventure weekends, was reported by the girl.

However, her parents and their church dealt with the matter in house' instead of calling police.

advertisementIt was only by chance when a former deacon of Ledbury Baptist Church spoke to a teacher who had links to the family that the events of 1983 emerged, magistrates in Cheltenham were told.

ROME
Catholic Online

ROME, JULY 21, 2007 (Zenit) - Here is the text of a pamphlet on "Pedophilia and the Priesthood" written by Monsignor Raffaello Martinelli, an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and member of the editorial commission of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Q: How does the Church evaluate cases of pedophilia committed by priests?

These crimes of pedophilia have been labeled as "a crime against the most weak," "a horrendous sin in the eyes of God," a crime "that damages the Church's credibility," characterized as "filth" by Cardinal Ratzinger in the memorable Via Crucis on Good Friday 2005, just a few days before being elected Pope. That filth is created by "many cases of sexual abuse of minors that break one's heart, and are particularly tragic when the one committing the abuse is a priest." To the bishops of Ireland, Benedict XVI in October 2006 stated once more that these are crimes that "break one's heart."

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Boston Herald

By Boston Herald editorial staff
Saturday, July 21, 2007

That huge pre-trial settlement of alleged priest abuse cases in Los Angeles, though at long last putting money in the hands of 508 wounded families, is grossly unsatisfactory for both the church and its members.

It leaves unanswered the question, what did Cardinal Roger Mahony know about priests who were molesting young people and what did he do about it? Knowing the truth is absolutely essential, and more important than money, for any hope of rebuilding crippled lives and needed trust.

Cardinal Mahony has admitted that he left five priests in the ministry despite complaints. The Los Angeles Times counted 16 such instances. If experience elsewhere is any guide, this is likely the tip of the iceberg.

Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston had to resign in 2002 after revelations that he had shifted scores of offending parish priests to different parishes (sometimes after often-futile treatment for pedophilia). This was reprehensible because parents who accepted legal settlements in return for silence were promised that the priest would have no further contact with young people.

The Citizen

TERRI MCCORMICK
The Amherst Citizen

A judge in Los Angeles recently approved a $660-million deal to settle 508 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.

The settlement seems to have come just in time, reached the day before Archbishop Cardinal Roger Mahony was to appear in court. As one commentator pointed out, this turn of events saves victims from being cross-examined, but it also keeps church officials off the stand and somewhat off the hook. It's one thing for the Catholic church to write a cheque and offer a carefully spun apology, but it would be much more satisfying to see those who were directly responsible, being grilled by prosecutors and forced to answer for their role in all of this.

Statistics do show that the amount of sex abuse cases linked to the Catholic Church are no higher than those of other religious orders, but they do seem to gain much more media exposure. Regardless, this settlement is worthy of the attention it has generated not just because of the amount, but because it validates that these awful things happened to these people, instead of having the experiences swept under the rug yet again.

RALEIGH (NC)
Associated Baptist Press

By Norman Jameson
Published July 20, 2007

RALEIGH, N.C. (ABP) -- Coy Privette, the president of a Christian morality group and a former state legislator and Southern Baptist Convention leader, has been arrested on prostitution-related charges in North Carolina.

Privette, the president of the Christian Action League in North Carolina, was charged July 19 with six counts of aiding and abetting prostitution.

According to arrest documents secured by the Biblical Recorder, Privette's alleged actions took place in a Rowan County hotel between May 4 and June 25. Tiffany Denise Summers, 32, of Salisbury, N.C., was charged with six counts of prostitution in connection with the investigation.

CALIFORNIA
San Luis Obispo

By Sarah Arnquist
sarnquist@thetribunenews.com

Geronimo Enrique CuevasA priest at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Nipomo was among three men arrested Wednesday near Pirates Cove, and he was suspected of groping an undercover male deputy.

The Rev. Geronimo Enrique Cuevas, 52, was arrested on suspicion of sexual battery and soliciting a lewd act in a public place, the Sheriff’s Department reported.

The charges are misdemeanors.

St. Joseph’s, like all Catholic churches in San Luis Obispo County, is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Monterey.

PISMO BEACH (CA)
KEYT

Three men including an Assistant Pastor at Saint Joseph's Catholic Church in Nipomo are under arrest for allegedly having sex in public.
Undercover Officers made the arrests Thursday morning after getting complaints from residents about people having sex near Pirates Cove.
Revered Geronimo Enrique Cuevas is charged with committing lewd acts in a public place.

PISMO BEACH (CA)
KSBY

Friday, July 20, 2007

Reported by: Stacy Daniel

PISMO BEACH

We are learning new and disturbing details about one of the three men arrested in an undercover operation at a privately owned local beach.

It happened on Tuesday afternoon, around 3:00 p.m. in the parking lot of Pirate's Cove, a nude beach, located off Cave Landing Road in Avila Beach.

It turns out one of the three men arrested is a pastor at Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Nipomo.

The Sheriff's Department set up the sting because they had been receiving complaints from local residents about people engaging in sexual behavior in the trails and bushes that lead to the nude beach. ...

Sheriff's deputies said 52-year-old, Geronimo Cuevas was standing in the bushes off the trail that leads down to the beach at Pirate's Cove, masturbating.

When he was approached by an undercover agent, investigators said he grabbed the deputy's crotch.

People who knew Cuevas as a man of the cloth are shocked by the allegations.

ZIMBABWE
The Guardian

Chris McGreal, Africa correspondent
Saturday July 21, 2007
The Guardian

The pictures are as grainy and blurry as you might expect from a tiny camera hidden in the ceiling of what Zimbabwe's government press is calling "the archbishop's love nest". But there is little doubt that the man perched on the edge of the bed is Pius Ncube, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo and furious opponent of Robert Mugabe. Behind the cleric, as he takes his shirt off, is a shape that a worker on Zimbabwe railways, Onesimus Sibanda, says is his wife, Rosemary, a secretary in the cathedral.

The video, showing a full frontal shot of a naked man who appears to be the archbishop as he climbs on to a woman whose breasts are also visible, is the basis of a lawsuit against the archbishop that is ostensibly about Mr Sibanda's honour but which the government has seized on - and almost certainly engineered - to silence one of Mr Mugabe's most persistent and effective critics.

Archbishop Ncube has denounced Zimbabwe's president as a murderer, mobilised the country's Catholic bishops to issue a pastoral letter likening the struggle against the present regime to the liberation war against white rule, and even called on Christians to pray for Mr Mugabe's death.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Karoun Demirjian | Tribune staff reporter
11:24 AM CDT, July 20, 2007

A Roman Catholic priest accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from his Far North Side parish accepted a plea deal today that is sending him to prison for 4 years.

At a time when St. Margaret Mary parish was struggling to keep the doors of its schools open, Rev. Mark Sorvillo was raiding the weekly collection basket so greedily that the 2005 Christmas collection was bare, prosecutors had said.

Sorvillo, a Catholic priest for 28 years, also raided donations from baptisms and weddings, stealing more than $190,000 during the course of his nearly eight years as pastor of the North Side parish, according to the charges against him. Using secret money market accounts and credit cards issued to the parish, Sorvillo financed trips to Europe, purchased pricey meals and bought tickets to Notre Dame football games and to the Lyric Opera.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Catholic Online

By Dr. Chris Anthony
Butterworth, Malaysia
Op/Ed
Catholic Online

The recent revelation of the sex scandal of our clergy in the United States has dealt a serious blow to our Catholic Church and is source of worry and embarrassment for all Catholics. The international media left no stone unturned to inflict the greatest degree of insult on the Catholic Church.

In a quick vote conducted by CNN’s Larry King Live on 17th.July 2007, revealed that 79% of the more than 4,000 respondents said they have lost confidence in the Catholic Church. This is very distressing and I dread to imagine the state of our Church in the future.

Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles must be praised for his courage to offer a public apology to the victims of the scandal. The $660 Million paid to the victim as compensation is indeed a very large sum, which may surpass the national budget for basic amenities of some countries.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
WKRG

Jul 16 2007, 11:06 PM
A Gulf Coast woman will receive more than a million dollars from the Roman Catholic Church as part of a settlement to people who say they were sexually abused.

DARIEN (IL)
Darien Suburban Life

By Lane Kelley
Darien Suburban Life
Fri Jul 20, 2007, 11:14 AM CDT

Darien, IL -
The largest payout made by the Catholic Church so far to victims of sexual abuse by priests includes the settlement of a suit filed last year against a former Darien priest.

The suit against the Rev. Robert Boley, former parochial vicar at Darien’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, was among the cases settled this week by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for a record $660 million.

The suit states Boley accosted the unnamed woman — now 25 but then a young elementary student — while he was teaching at a Los Angeles parish in the 1980s.

“The church has accepted its responsibility and negligence for the actions of Father Boley,” said Patrick Wall, a former canon lawyer who works for the Orange County firm representing the victim who sued Boley.

UNITED STATES
Christian Post

By Audrey Barrick
Christian Post Reporter
Fri, Jul. 20 2007 09:56 AM ET

Clergy from various denominations are urging the head of the Southern Baptist Convention to reconsider the "harsh rhetoric" he has expressed toward a group of clergy abuse victims who have pushed for more response against sexual abuse.

In a letter sent to Dr. Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, on Thursday, 10 clergy members from the Catholic, Presbyterian, United Methodist and Southern Baptist churches said survivor groups such as SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) are not out to attack the church.

"Survivor groups like SNAP would not need to exist if church and denominational leaders responded in truth and acted with wisdom and compassion to address this great challenge of clergy sexual abuse," the letter stated.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Mayor Sam's Sister City

MayorSam is in the shade of the quiet redwoods that sequester the NoCal coast for the next few days, and your most uncalibrated scribe will try to keep the hotsheet going in his absence. This is a little like Tim Leary filling in for Walter Cronkite I realize, but if you'll indulge me a little, I just might get you angry enough to click back later when real content is here.

Hell, if you read MayorSam, you probably already know what's going on better than I. But this item caught my eye this morning: Times to Church: Drop Dead. In case you missed it, the Church has been bad in recent years. High hypocrisy marks to the LA Times and media in general continuing to ride the molestation juggernaut even on days when there's no news. I've e-talked to an erstwhile news ed there about this recently, but he only seems proud of the track record to date. This story has been going on for over five years, even when there's no news to report, which there often isn't, like today; you'd think that at this point they'd at least wait for more real news, rather than run with news fragments. A priest once told me, "If you want to leave the Church, just pick up a newspaper; they publish something that'll help you along every day." I see that.

That's not to say that the Times isn't above making news where there is none at the expense of other religions too. If you can believe it, this article on Valley Village suggests that the fact that the Neighborhood Council is heavily Orthodox Jewish has something to do with the passion of the debate over McMansionization there. The article uses the word "mansionization" though, likely so as not to offend the Irish, who may be the only folks drinking enough to still subscribe to the Times.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Tidings

By Catholic News Service

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced July 15 the largest church settlement of sexual abuse lawsuits to date, agreeing to pay more than 500 alleged victims a total of $660 million.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Haley Fromholz approved the settlement the next day, calling it "the right result." He said settling the cases was "the right thing to do."

Cardinal Roger Mahony again offered his personal apology to every victim of sexual abuse by a priest, religious, deacon or layperson in the archdiocese.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Jeremy Roberts | July 21, 2007
AN Anglican Church leader escaped sanction over sex abuse complaints, despite an independent investigator finding that the evidence against him was credible and consistent with a pattern of preying on vulnerable women.

In one case, a woman gave church investigators a sworn statement that she had attempted to commit suicide after, she alleged, Archdeacon Peter Coote let himself into her Adelaide home, stripped naked and had sex with her.

Two other women provided the church with graphic accounts of how the married priest and father of five had made uninvited sexual advances towards them, also following visits to their homes.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
News Busters

By Dave Pierre | July 20, 2007 - 08:49 ET
After a Los Angeles judge agreed on Monday (7/16/07) to the $660 million settlement between 508 individuals and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, several plaintiffs stood outside the courthouse in front of a throng of television and newspaper reporters. Many told incredibly sad and horrific stories of the immense suffering they've endured over the years as a result of the despicable abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy.

But what about the priests who have adamantly denied the charges made against them and whose cases may never have had any evidence against them? This past week the Los Angeles Times and others have been largely silent in this regard.

UNITED STATES
BeyondChron

by Tommi Avicolli-Mecca‚ Jul. 20‚ 2007

Believe it or not: The Catholic Church in America hasn’t lost any popularity among the faithful since major priest sex scandals first hit the headlines five years ago.

According to a study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, Catholics haven’t left the church in droves nor have they stopped contributing their hard-earned dollars to Sunday collection plates across the country. Even Catholic Charities hasn’t suffered any loss of revenue.

In fact, surveys show that 74% of Catholics still think their bishops are doing a bang-up job, despite the fact that many in the hierarchy have been forced to apologize for covering up for priests they knew were having sex with young people.

AZTEC (NM)
The Daily Times

— By Cory Frolik — The Daily Times
Article Launched: 07/20/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

AZTEC — A part-time youth pastor from Aztec Bible Baptist Church was arrested Thursday on charges that he had sex with a 14-year-old girl from his congregation.

Wendel Nix, 29, of Aztec, was taken into police custody at the San Juan County Detention Center on Thursday after San Juan Sheriff's Office deputies said they gathered convincing evidence that a crime was committed and obtained an arrest warrant, Detective Lt. Tyler Truby said.

Since last weekend, sheriff's deputies and Detective Marlyn Wyatt have investigated a claim made by a teenage girl that she and Nix had a sexual relationship, states a media release from the sheriff's office.

BATTLE CREEK (MI)
WOOD

BATTLE CREEK - A church community expressed shock Thursday night after learning the youth minister was charged with soliciting online to who he thought was a minor.

Pastor Jim Gysel of the Chapel Hill United Methodist Church said Troy Deal, the man facing the allegations, is not the man he and the community have known for the past five years.

Troy Deal was arrested Wednesday at his Battle Creek home.

NIAGARA FALLS (NY)
Niagara Gazette

By Jill Terreri/terrerij@gnnewspaper.com
Niagara Gazette

The former pastor of a Niagara Falls church has been arrested on charges of stealing about $18,000 from the church.

Peter Del Rio, 49, who was pastor of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church before it closed, was charged with grand larceny in the third degree after an eight-month investigation by Niagara Falls Police.

The case will be presented to a grand jury later this month.

SPAIN
Catholic News Agency

Madrid, Jul 19, 2007 / 10:10 am (CNA).- The Apostolic Nuncio in Spain, Archbishop Manuel Monteiro, said this week data from international organizations shows that priests are responsible for the smallest percentage of sexual abuse.

In a reference to the accusations of clerical abuse, in both real and fabricated cases, the archbishop said, “Why should the Church pay and other entities not?” He decried that news of clerical abuse appears “every day on the front pages of certain media,” which he called a form of “discrimination” against the Church “with evil intentions.”

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Clerical Whispers

It is hard to know how to react to the $660 million settlement reached between the Roman Catholic Diocese of Los Angeles and more than 500 people who had filed sex abuse charges against that city's priests.

On one hand, the more than $1 million per victim seems to suggest justice has been done. Nothing can undo the harm of such depraved behavior, but as financial consequences go, this is pretty steep.

It is part of more than $2 billion paid out by the church in the United States to victims of such abuse and their families. That also seems to smack of true repentance.

But there is something missing.

SWEDEN
Sveriges Radio International

The Catholic church of Sweden has apologised for sex abuse against a child committed by a priest 50 years ago.

The abuse was said to have taken place over a period of two years at the end of the 1950s.

When the victim tried to draw attention to what was happening,the church protected the priest and kept the case quiet. The time period in which the Swedish priest could have been prosecuted has long since expired.

The victim, who has requested complete anonymity, reported the crime to the Catholic diocese in Stockholm at the end of 2005 and demanded a public apology from the church. The apology was printed in an advertisement in the newspapers Göteborgs-Posten and Dagen.

STOCKTON (CA)
Stockton Record

By Michael Fitzgerald
Record Columnist
July 20, 2007 6:00 AM
This week has not been a PR bonanza for the Roman Catholic Church. The disgraced Archdiocese of Los Angeles settled with abuse victims for $660 million.

I am sick of that story. Considering the church has 1.1 billion members, one-sixth of the word's population, there ought to be one or two positive stories out there.

OK, here's one: Father Lawrence McGovern, pastor of Presentation Church, has become a monsignor.

SWEDEN
The Times of India

STOCKHOLM: Sweden's Catholic Church, which has 150,000 members in a country of nine million, on Friday apologized publicly to a Swede who was sexually abused by a Catholic priest in the 1950s.

The Church took out an advertisement in the Gothenburg regional daily Goeteborgs-Posten and the Christian daily Dagen where it apologized to the victim. The text was signed by the current bishop of Stockholm Anders Arborelius.

"It is deeply regrettable that one of our priests could have subjected a child to abuse. As the bishop of the diocese I apologize for what has happened and hope that the various measures the diocese has taken in recent years can prevent abuse in the future," he wrote.

BOSTON (MA)
Irish Independent

By Jason O'Brien
Friday July 20 2007

ONE of the two Irish priests accused of misappropriating $8.6m (€6.2m) from a church in Florida started a two-week break in Boston yesterday, on a bond of $400,000 (€290,000).

Fr John Skehan, originally from Johnstown in Kilkenny, was allowed to make the trip for a "family gathering" after applying to a circuit court in Florida.

The 80-year-old is charged with felony grand theft for allegedly stealing money while a priest at St Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach.

LOUISA (VA)
The Free Lance-Star

Date published: 7/20/2007

BY ELLEN BILTZ

An attorney for a Catholic priest indicted on 13 counts of embezzlement asked yesterday that the charges be dismissed, saying the case is a church issue.

Rodney Lee Rodis, 51, is accused of taking up to $1 million from St. Jude and Immaculate Conception Catholic churches in Louisa County, where he was a priest for 13 years.

Rodis' attorney, John Maus, filed a motion last week, saying the state exceeded its authority by involving itself in a church matter. He cited Virginia law, saying the state is "prohibited from entangling itself in internal church matters. Specifically with regard to church finances."

ZIMBABWE
SABC

July 20, 2007, 10:45

The Southern African Catholic Bishop Conference (SACBC), says allegations of adultery against Pius Ncube, Zimbabwe's catholic bishop, are aimed at casting doubt on his credibility.

Buti Tlhagale, the president of the SACBC, says in a statement that the Archbishop's guilt or innocence has yet to be proved. He has appealed for everyone not to pass premature judgement on Ncube.

MALTA
MaltaMedia News

By MaltaMedia News
Jul 19, 2007 - 6:45:37 PM

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami has settled a lawsuit in which a former altar boy claimed he was sexually abused by the same priest accused by former United States Congressman Mark Foley, reported the Associated Press.

The settlement was announced on Wednesday in a lawsuit unrelated to the case concerning Mark Foley. In the lawsuit a man identified only as John Doe No.26, claimed he was molested by Gozitan Fr Anthony Mercieca when he was around 13 years old and serving as an alter boy at St. James Church in North Miami.

The incident allegedly took place in the 1970s and a lawsuit was filed on the 25th October 2006, approximately one month after Florida Republican Mark Foley resigned from Congress after sexually explicit computer messages to young male pages surfaced. Subsequent to his resignation, Mark Foley’s lawyer said that he had been molested by a clergyman when he was aged between 12 and 13.