Abuse Tracker

WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Walworth County District Attorney Phillip Koss said Friday that a prominent Jesuit priest who was convicted there last year of indecent behavior with two high school boys on retreats in Wisconsin in the 1960s is under investigation in a more recent allegation and could face additional charges.

Koss filed a petition Aug. 22 seeking to revoke the bond of Father Donald McGuire, 77, who was allowed to go back to the Chicago area last year while appealing the conviction. A hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Thursday before Walworth County Circuit Judge James Carlson.

Koss filed the petition one day after a 21-year-old college student filed suit in Illinois accusing McGuire of molesting him from 1999 to 2003 in 12 states and six countries - including Walworth County - as the priest traveled to give spiritual retreats on behalf of the Jesuits. McGuire's ministerial career had included giving retreats for Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in India and elsewhere, and members of her order were present in the courtroom when he was sentenced last year to seven years in prison.

CHARLOTTE (NC)
Charlotte Observer

GARY WRIGHT AND TIM FUNK
gwright@charlotteobserver.com | tfunk@charlotteobserver.com

Rev. John Henry Walker, accused of stealing from his Charlotte congregation, was sentenced tonight to more than five years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Frank Whitney also ordered the 48-year old pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church to pay more than $277,000 in restitution to the government.

Walker pleaded guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud and lying to federal agents. Although his lawyer asked the court to let Walker stay out of jail long enough to give a goodbye sermon at his church this Sunday, the judge ordered U.S. marshals to take him immediately into custody to begin serving his sentence.

CHANDLER (AZ)
The Arizona Republic

Sarah Muench
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 31, 2007 03:22 PM

Police have arrested an executive accountant they believe stole more than $400,000 from Cornerstone Christian Fellowship Church in Chandler, police said Friday.

Brenda Su Carroll-Nester, 45, who had been employed by the church for five years, was taken into police custody Thursday after Chandler financial and computer crimes detectives served a search warrant at her Chandler home, near Hunt Highway and Gilbert Road, police said.

"As you can imagine, we are saddened and disappointed," said Michelle Rauscher, director of women's ministries at the church, who said she worked with Carroll-Nester.

UNITED KINGDOM
Scotsman

A MONK from the abbey where Buckfast wine is made has been jailed for ten years for sexually abusing boys over 20 years.

Paul Couch, 61, carried out the assaults on six boys while he was a teacher at the Buckfast Abbey School in Devon.

A court heard that Couch, who was known as Father Benedict, took advantage of his trusted position as a priest and monk to molest the boys while taking them on sailing trips and playing with a model railway.

ROME
Zenit

ROME, AUG. 31, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The Church is treated just like any other noncommercial organization, said the Italian bishops in the face of a possible European Commission tax probe into alleged property tax advantages.

Archbishop Giuseppe Bertori, secretary-general of the Italian bishops' conference, told the Italian Catholic daily Avvenire that the tax benefits enjoyed by the Catholic Church "apply only to activities of a religious and social nature, which are derived from ordinary legislation and is equal to that enjoyed by other noncommercial entities, of the third sector in particular."

He added: "Whoever protests the state's treatment of nonprofit subjects working for social promotion in areas of aid, health care, culture, education, recreation and sports is showing a substantial distrust toward the many social entities of varying origins, particularly active in counteracting suffering and poverty.

EVANSVILLE (IN)
Kentucky.com

By RYAN LENZ
Associated Press Writer

EVANSVILLE, Ind. --Roman Catholic church officials said Friday that more than 10 people have come forward with allegations they were sexually abused by a southern Indiana priest.

The Diocese of Evansville said the number of allegations against Monsignor Othmar Schroeder, who died in 1988, has continued to grow since Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger announced the abuse during sermons at a Jasper church two weekends ago. ...

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abuse by Priests, said the number of victims of clergy sex abuse who come forward often are a fraction of the population they represent.

Clohessy said he expected the number of allegations of abuse at Schroeder's hands to grow.

"My hunch is that if 10 have come forward, there may well be dozens more still trapped in shame and confusion," Clohessy said. "Typically only the tip of the iceberg comes forward."

Clohessy, a victim of clergy sexual abuse, planned to protest Sunday outside Evansville's cathedral with fliers demanding church officials disclose details of "a pedophile priest's sex crimes" and urge others abused by clergy to come forward.

UNITED STATES
Catholic World News

It hasn't been a great month for polishing the reputation of senior churchmen. Gallup, New Mexico, presents us with the Mystery of the Bouncing Bishop: the newly-bashful Donald E. Pelotte. Back on July 23rd, When Pelotte failed to show up at the office for an appointment, his chancellor Timoteo Lujan drove to his residence, unlocked the entrance and unlocked Pelotte's bedroom door, to find him "heavily bruised across the face, along the chest area, both arms, the knuckles, the legs, and the feet." Lujan saw blood on the floor and the stairwell wall. "He looks like he got beat up," Lujan remarked at first. Pelotte insisted he had fallen down the stairs and did not want medical attention, but Lujan convinced him to go to a hospital, where the ER physician suspected Pelotte had been the victim of a violent assault and contacted law enforcement. You can read the police incident report here.

Sadly, certain skeptical persons have proven more willing to share the views of the reporting officer, the attending physician, and the chancellor (in his initial impressions) than to accept the innocent explanation offered by the good bishop himself:

In a newspaper editorial, the Gallup Independent said it appears that "Pelotte was viciously assaulted and now he's trying to cover up either because he wants to protect the person who did it or wants to keep secret the relationship he has with the perpetrator."

HOUMA (LA)
Houma Today

JOHN DeSANTIS
Senior Staff Writer

HOUMA -- The pastor of a Houma Catholic church was placed on leave due to an allegation of improper sexual activity with a child.

The Rev. Etienne LeBlanc, 64-year-old pastor of Annunziata Church, has denied the allegations, Bishop Sam Jacobs, spiritual leader of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, told parishioners during Masses held Saturday and Sunday.

An investigation by church authorities is under way and will include a medical and psychological evaluation. LeBlanc, Jacobs said, is formally on administrative leave.

The bishop’s words to parishioners, as well as a statement issued by the diocese, were sparse. They said, however, that the allegation did not involve anyone connected to Annunziata.

UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

David Ottewell
31/ 8/2007

A MASS screening of Church of England clergy across Manchester has turned up no record of child abuse allegations.

The Bishop of Manchester, Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, commissioned an independent lawyer to carry out checks on 767 serving and retired members of the clergy within his diocese.

The move followed two high-profile national paedophile cases in which the church was accused of a cover-up.

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

An investigation into 777 members of clergy in the diocese of Manchester has found no record of abuse allegations.

The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, appointed a lawyer to make sure none of the files contained child protection issues.

The review came after former vicar David Smith was jailed for abusing six children over a 30-year period.

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A former boarding school teacher has been jailed for 10 years and nine months after being convicted of 13 sexual offences against children.

Paul Couch, 61, of Wyndham Street West, Plymouth, was found guilty earlier in August of two counts of serious sexual assault and 11 of indecent assault.

Couch, a former monk, had denied the charges at Exeter Crown Court.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Catholic World News

Los Angeles, Aug. 31, 2007 (CWNews.com) - A Los Angeles archdiocesan official knew in 1988 that a priest accused of molesting children planned to leave the country, an internal memo shows.

In a 1988 letter released that was this week to a California court, Msgr. Thomas Curry-- who was then a chancery official, and is now an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles-- said that Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera disclosed plans to return to Mexico. Soon thereafter, Aguilar Rivera fled to Mexico, escaping prosecution in California. He is now a fugitive, presumably in Mexico.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles archdiocese stressed that although Bishop Curry knew that the accused priest was planning to travel to Mexico, he had no reason to believe that Aguilar Rivera would attempt to escape prosecution. California prosecutors unsuccessfully sought to extradite the priest later in 1988.

UNITED KINGDOM
Response Source

In response to the launch of an organisation called Churchgoer Support which has been set up to provide a forum for victims of mistreatment by the Church – be that physical or psychological – and to expose attempts by the Church to cover its tracks, the organisation’s website has been inundated with visitors.

The new website aimed at helping people who have suffered at the hands of their church or minister, which was launched last month by Patricia Davies, herself caused much distress and mental anguish by the actions of a woman priest, is proving extremely popular with many visitors during its first weeks.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

Terri Saunders
Local News - Friday, August 31, 2007 @ 08:00

The prestige bestowed upon a priest once contributed to a culture of silence surrounding child sexual abuse, the Cornwall Public Inquiry heard Thursday.

Rev. Tom Doyle said parents and other community members were not only willing to hand over children to the care of priests but were reluctant to believe allegations the very same clergy members were sometimes sexual predators.

"It was a privilege to be with these priests," said Doyle. "It was a privilege to have a priest in your home.

"It was okay if your child slept in the same bed with the Father. It certainly wouldn't be okay if he was the janitor."

MARYLAND
Jewish Survivors of Sexual Violence Speak Out

I have received several e-mail's from various people who are in a state of shock over the case of rabbi Moshe Eisemann. I know how difficult it can be learning someone you honored and respected allegedly sexually abused a child.

Many survivors may also be having a whole array of mixed feelings. On one level they may be elated that the dark secret they have been keeping for years is finally exposed. What happened to them is finally in the light. They may also be feeling a sense of guilt -- if they start learning that more children were abused by the same offender -- and they never told anyone. It would not be unusual for survivors to also be having flashbacks.

MARYLAND
Baltimore Jewish Times

Phil Jacobs 08/31/07
The whispering got louder in the summer of 2006. Rabbi Moshe Eisemann, 71, a beloved longtime Ner Israel Rabbinical College scholar, teacher and author, was associated with the words "alleged molester."

A Baltimore-area pulpit rabbi and Ner Israel colleague left Rabbi Eisemann off the invitation list to his daughter’s wedding, because of the uncertainty of it all.

The blogs, the Internet sites, were teeming with allegations of molestations by many rabbis, including Rabbi Eisemann. There have never been any complaints or charges filed with the police against the rabbi.

When students identified themselves as victims to Ner Israel, the school allegedly chose Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer, president of the Baltimore Vaad HaRabonim, to look into the accusations.

PHILIPPINES
Daily Star

BY ALEX PAL
The Department of Justice has dismissed the sexual harassment charges filed by a Mindanao-based pastor of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines against his female former teacher at Silliman University Divinity School, an ordained UCCP minister.

In a four-page resolution dated August 14, Acting Regional State Prosecutor Llena Ipong said that the sexual harassment charge filed by the pastor was only a means of gaining leverage over his former teacher, who had earlier filed a rape case against him.

BATTLE CREEK (MI)
The Enquirer

Trace Christenson
The Enquirer

A Battle Creek youth pastor charged with using the Internet to solicit sex from a child has waived the case to Calhoun County Circuit Court for trial.

Troy Deal, 34, agreed Thursday to the waiver of his preliminary examination in district court.

Deal, on paid leave as director of youth ministries at Chapel Hill United Methodist Church, is charged with 11 counts, including:

Using a computer to communicate with another to solicit child sexually abusive activity.

LAPORTE (IN)
Post-Tribune

August 31, 2007
BY STAN MADDUX Post-Tribune correspondent

A LaPorte church and its clergy are fighting a lawsuit that seeks more than $30 million, alleging negligence in acts of child molesting by the grandson of the church pastor.

Meanwhile, the legal guardian for the alleged victim named in the lawsuit is disputing claims by the attorney for the Rev. Jack Cox and two other defendants in their bid to have the lawsuit dismissed.

"I went to that church starting when I was 3. He's never as much apologized," said the 30-year old LaPorte woman.

She and her 13-year-old nephew are listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Aug. 2 in LaPorte Circuit Court against Cox, his grandson Mark Comford and Faith Baptist Church.

ZIMBABWE
BBC News

Zimbabwe's Roman Catholic bishops have publicly pledged their support for the Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, a prominent government critic.

The nine bishops took out a full-page advert in the official Herald newspaper, in which they said he had "exposed the evils" of the government.

The move comes after accusations that Archbishop Ncube had had an affair with a married woman in his parish.

SPOKANE (WA)
Spokane Journal of Business

By Emily Proffitt

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane expects to choose a buyer this week for a sizable chunk of developable land it owns on the West Plains.

The nearly 93-acre site is located just west of Interstate 90 and directly south of Medical Lake Road, across I-90 from Fairways Travel Center and a retail center called Fairways Plaza that a company headed by Spokane builder Dick Vandervert is developing. The site is one of the assets the diocese is selling under its bankruptcy plan, says Michael Paukert, an attorney at Spokane-based Paine Hamblen Coffin Brooke & Miller LLP, which is representing the diocese in the bankruptcy. ...

The diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2004 in the wake of claims totaling tens of millions of dollars filed by people who said that when they were children, they were victims of sex abuse by priests. The diocese is using the money from the sale of its assets to repay creditors in the bankruptcy.

EVANSVILLE (IN)
WEHT

EVANSVILLE - NEWS 25 learns two new victims have come forward accusing the late Monsignor Othmar Schroeder of sexual abuse. That brings the number of victims to ten. Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger says Monsignor Schroeder's victims were alter boys, boys who stayed after school for athletics and boy scouts. He says he wouldn't be surprised if the number of victims continues to grow.

Schroeder founded Holy Family Church in Jasper in 1947. He died in 1988. Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger came to the Evansville diocese one year after his death.

Gettelfinger first learned of the Schroeder's abuse in 1996 but didn't report it because he said society wouldn't have accepted it.

The Tidings

By Sharon Womack Doty

It is difficult not to make assumptions about the perpetrators and victims of child sexual abuse. We often hope that the people who do these things are easy to recognize and fit into the categories we think should apply to them and we hope that we can recognize when a victim is telling the truth about an allegation.

However, as with many things in life, we base our decisions about victims and perpetrators on basic underlying assumptions that may or may not be correct. Operating based on these assumptions can undermine our commitment to keep children safe from sexual predators.

A review of the results of a recent study of people's perceptions regarding child sexual and physical abuse tell us something about how the public views disclosures, which gives us some insight into how we react to different kinds of victims and the challenges victims face when they speak up. The study looked at the effects of gender (of victims and perpetrators), type of abuse, and the relationship between these factors and whether the allegation is perceived as credible.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

August 30, 2007
FROM STNG WIRE REPORTS
The director of a South Side music choir was indicted Thursday for allegedly molesting a 16-year-old female choir member.

Brian Scott, in his 30s, of the 1700 block of West 95th Place, was indicted on eight counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, Cook County State’s Attorney’s office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said. Scott is slated for arraignment on Sept. 7.

Scott, the director of the Rebirth of Liberty Choir, who also plays keyboards in the choir, ran auditions. After the teen landed a spot on the choir, Scott abused her on three occasions in Chicago -- in a park, in the basement of a church and in Scott’s apartment, according to a court proffer.

CANADA
Hope Standard

By Jennifer Feinberg
Black Press

Aug 30 2007

Settlement cheques are on the way for residential school survivors, but whether the historic agreement leads to any healing or reconciliation is up for some debate, according to one Sto:lo elder.

With a total of 201 former students opting out of the deal by the Tuesday deadline, the $2-billion dollar settlement is now set in motion.

Former students will be paid between $8,000 and $30,000 for time spent at government-sanctioned and church-run boarding schools, while those who suffered sexual or serious physical abuse may qualify for up to $275,000.

CHICAGO (IL)
WQAD

Associated Press - August 31, 2007 5:14 AM ET

CHICAGO (AP) - A Cook County grand jury has indicted the director of a choir on Chicago's South Side for allegedly molesting a 16-year-old female choir member.

The Cook County State's Attorney's office says Brian Scott, who is believed to be in his 30s, was indicted yesterday on eight counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

Scott is the director of the Rebirth of Liberty Choir and also plays keyboards. According to court documents, after the teen landed a spot on the choir, Scott abused her on three occasions in Chicago -- in a park, in the basement of a church and in his apartment.

AUSTRALIA
Religious Intelligence

By: George Conger.

SEXUAL ABUSE charges levelled against a former Church of England school chaplain, the Rev John Mountford, have been dropped by South Australia prosecutors following the withdrawal of the complaint by the alleged victim.

The Mountford affair led to the forced resignation of Adelaide’s Archbishop Ian George on June 11, 2004, following the publication of an independent report into the diocese’s handling of the clergy sexual abuse complaints.

Mountford fled to Thailand in 1992 after he was confronted with allegations that he molested a 14-year-old student at St Peter’s College, Adelaide: a prestigious Anglican boy’s boarding school. He was arrested by Thai police in 2004 and extradited to Australia a year later to stand trial.

INDIANA
Courier & Press

By Susan Orr
Originally published 12:00 a.m., August 31, 2007
Updated 12:04 a.m., August 31, 2007

More than 10 victims have alleged sexual abuse by the late Monsignor Othmar Schroeder and reports are continuing to come in, the Catholic Diocese of Evansville's bishop said Thursday.

Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger said two more reports came in Thursday through the diocese's sexual abuse hot line. Most of the reports have been from men but some have been from women, he said.

This is the largest number of victims associated with a single priest in the diocese's history, Gettelfinger said.

TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Free Press

By Scott McKimmy
Toledo Free Press Staff Writer
news@toledofreepress.com

Justice has been served for the murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl more than 27 years ago with the conviction of Father Gerald Robinson in May 2006, but a relative of the victim and a victim's advocacy group continue to pursue a cause in the aftermath of the case.

Of the streets signs surrounding Fifth Third Field that honor local leaders who stand out in Mud Hens history, two bear the name of Monsignor Jerome Schmit, a Catholic priest who dedicated his life to the church and sports in the community. But according to Lee Pahl, nephew of Sister Pahl, and Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Monsignor Schmit also interferred with the murder investigation of Father Robinson.

They want the signs removed.

“We are concerned any time a clergyman is given accolades when he is involved in wrongdoing,” said Barbara Blaine, SNAP president. “And we believe that Monsignor Schmit was on the wrong side back in 1980 when Monsignor Schmit made the decision to try to help the priest defend himself. We think Monsignor Schmit should have been trying to help the police uncover who the murderer was of the nun, and we think he should have been reaching out to the family.”

JOLIET (IL)
Chicago Tribune

Tribune staff report
8:42 PM CDT, August 30, 2007

The Will County state's attorney's office has ended the sex-abuse prosecution of a 77-year-old Carmelite priest from Joliet after he died this month.

Rev. Louis Rogge died Aug. 8, just weeks after his attorney was granted a sentencing delay because Rogge expected to soon be formally diagnosed with lung cancer.

The state's attorney's office ended the prosecution at a scheduled hearing in the case Tuesday.

Rogge in April pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for molesting two young teen brothers in the 1990s.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

By Terri Saunders
Standard-Freeholder

Cornwall

A personal apology from the perpetrator of sexual abuse is invaluable to the healing process for a victim, a priest told the Cornwall Public Inquiry today.

"A personal apology is extremely important, if it's sincere," said Rev.Tom Doyle. "Of course, most men and women can tell right away if it's not sincere."

Doyle said it's been his practice when counselling sexual abuse victims and their families to offer an apology for the abuse at the start of treatment.

"Once we've established a level of trust, I get them alone and I apologize to them for what has happened to them at the hands of a priest and for the way they were treated by the church," said Doyle.

LAS VEGAS (NV)
KVBC

A former priest from St. Louis accused of numerous sex crimes is reportedly now living in Las Vegas. And one group wants the public to know about him.

Members of the group SNAP, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, want to bring attention to James Beine. They say he's now changed his name to Mar James.

In 2004 he was convicted in St. Louis exposing himself to two boys. Even though a Missouri supreme court overturned that conviction, SNAP believes he's still a danger to children.

CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

Thursday, August 30, 2007

James F. McCarty
Plain Dealer Reporter
Defense lawyers expected embarrassing bombshells to drop when retired Bishop Anthony Pilla took the stand Wednesday in the kickback trial of a former diocese accountant.

For months the lawyers had maintained in court filings that the Catholic Dio cese of Cleveland had made secret payments to the accountant, with the approval of Pilla. They even said the retired bishop benefited from the payments.

Finally Wednesday, the lawyers had Pilla on the stand and were ready to pin him down. But the bombshells did not drop. A judge refused to let the lawyers ask their questions.

Federal prosecutors called Pilla to testify in the kickback trial of Anton Zgoznik, the former accountant.

The questioning of Pilla was tempered and unemotional, lasting less than two hours. It barely touched on Zgoznik, but was dominated instead by the bishop's dealings with the former head lawyer and chief financial officer of the diocese, Joseph Smith.

CLEVELAND (OH)
dotCommonweal

August 30, 2007, 8:48 am
Posted by Paul Lauritzen

Former Cleveland Bishop, Anthony Pilla, testified yesterday in the corruption trial involving former diocesan officials. Prosecutors called Pilla to testify, but when the defense attorney sought to press Pilla on whether he personally benefited from sweetheart deals, the judge, Ann Aldrich, ruled in favor of the prosecutors’ objections and shut down this line of questioning.

One exchange in court was memorable, if only for Bishop Pilla’s demonstration that he is not a fan of movie classics.

WORCESTER (MA)
Worcester Magazine

By Scott Zoback

The alleged sex-abuse victims of retired Worcester priest John Szantyr are going to have to wait even longer to find out if there is a chance for justice.

It's something they're almost getting used to — the next time a court convenes on the case, it will be the 34th court date for the criminal cases that have wound their way through the court system since Szantyr's initial arraignment on charges of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 in July, 2003.

On Monday, another continuance was granted when the Worcester County District Attorney's Office couldn't find the Szantyr psychiatric evaluation that had been supposedly overnighted to the courthouse by the doctor who performed it on Thursday, Aug. 17. A new status hearing is now scheduled for Sept. 25.

The Szantyr case includes multiple criminal and civil charges from several alleged victims. One alleged victim, Mike Chesnis, has publicly claimed that Szantyr molested him in the mid-1980s during Szantyr's time at Our Lady of Czestochowa. Another pending case dates to the same era.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

Terri Saunders / Standard-Freeholder
Local News - Thursday, August 30, 2007 @ 08:00

Despite the efforts of one lawyer to ban him from giving expert testimony at the Cornwall Public Inquiry, the commission will hear from Rev. Tom Doyle Thursday.

Doyle, a priest who was born in the United States but spent a considerable portion of his life living and working in Cornwall, will provide evidence as to how sexual abuse by priests affects victims, their families and the community at large.

On Wednesday, David Sherriff-Scott, an attorney for the Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese, suggested Doyle is not objective about such matters.

In emails Doyle wrote to the operator of a website in 2001, he doesn't mince words when giving his opinion on the issue.

"The hierarchy (of the Catholic Church) is about the most corrupt political entity on the globe," Doyle wrote. "At least with the Nazis you knew what you were dealing with."

SACRAMENTO (CA)
Sacramento Bee

By Jennifer Garza - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, August 29, 2007

A victims rights group criticized the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento Tuesday for suing an alleged clergy abuse victim, but church officials say they are just trying to clarify the law.

In a press conference in Sacramento, leaders of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) accused the diocese of legal maneuvering. The diocese is challenging the legal standing of a Texas man trying to sue for alleged sexual abuse more than two decades ago.

"Instead of using hardball tactics, they should find the truth," said Nancy Sloan, of Sacramento SNAP.

Sloan and others called the lawsuit "unprecedented" and an "attempt to intimidate other victims."

JASPER (IN)
BishopAccountability.org

By Jim Anderson
WBDC News 100.9 FM
August 20, 2007

In an open letter this past weekend, to the Holy Family Church, Father John Boeglin asked members of the parish to pray for the forgiveness of Monsignor Othmar Schroeder, the founder of Holy Family. Father Boeglin also asked the congregation to pray for the continued healing of those who became innocent victims, because of the actions of Monsignor Schroeder, so many years ago.

Bishop Gerald Gettlefinger also spoke with parish members this weekend as he outlined steps taken by the diocese to lessen the pain suffered by those who were sexually violated. Although counseling has been provided, the bishop explained that the prominent display of the name and picture of Monsignor Schroeder, causes continued pain and interrupts the healing process for the un-named victims.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

August 30, 2007
Two brothers filed a lawsuit Wednesday against a Catholic priest who sued them for defamation last year — after they told the Archdiocese of Chicago he had sexually abused them.

Cardinal Francis George removed the Rev. Robert Stepek from ministry at St. Albert the Great parish in Burbank last November after an archdiocesan review board concluded there was reasonable cause to believe the abuse had taken place.

The allegations stemmed from the 1980s, when the priest was at St. Symphorosa parish on the South Side and the brothers were 9 and 16 years old. Stepek denied the abuse and sued the brothers, known as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 in court records.

MEMPHIS (TN)
Commercial Appeal

By Lawrence Buser
Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Felony charges of sexual battery by an authority figure against the former pastor of Walnut Grove Baptist Church were bound over to a grand jury this afternoon.

Steven. C. Haney, 47, who had been at the church some 20 years, is accused of having a six-year sexual affair with a young parish member that began when the boy was 15.

“Steve had convinced me this was for God,” the young man, now 21, testified in General Sessions Criminal Court. “He was a mentor and someone who told me we were a team. I was always trying to get out of it. He always told me to step it up.”

BETHANY (CT)
Amity Observer

Terri Miles, Editor August 29, 2007

BETHANY - The pastor of First Church of Christ in Bethany was arrested Sunday on sexual assault charges.

Stephen J. Wasko, 54, of 66 East Broadway Ave., Milford, was suspended from the church on July 2 after allegations of sexual assault on minors surfaced.

Several cars were in the church parking lot Monday evening but none of the parishioners would comment on the situation.

MEMPHIS (TN)
WREG

Memphis, TN--A long time Midsouth pastor goes before a judge for the first time in connection with sexual battery charges. Wednesday, Steven Haney went before General Sessions Judge Ann Pugh for a preliminary hearing, also in court the now 21 year old victim to come forward in the case. The young man went before the Judge to testify about sexual abuse he says happened between he and his pastor, Steven Haney.

He told the court, "He began telling me that I could become a model and at 15 we began doing measurements.. (Assistant District Attorney, Jen Morris says, What kind of measurements??) I would be naked on his couch in his church office and he would touch me in my private area." During the lengthy testimony he told the court the alleged abuse started when he was just 15 years old, saying Haney would ask him to come to his church office, take off his clothes and perform oral sex. He went on to tell the Judge, Haney told him the acts would bring him closer to God. Alleged Victim says, "He told me why did you get so scared, so nervous...and he said if your going to be willing to be a man of God....it started with a kiss and that progressed over time."

CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Wave

By BETTY PLEASANT, Contributing Editor 30.AUG.07
KISS ST. PAUL GOOD-BYE — Well, the majority of the 93 remaining members of the once powerhouse 100-year-old St. Paul Baptist Church voted Sunday to retain the Rev. Joel Anthony Ward has their pastor. In a meeting Sunday, the members voted 55-37 for Ward’s retention. Tarshia Rodgers, the choir director whom the preacher impregnated, attended the meeting, marking the first time she’s set foot in the church since obtaining a restraining order against Ward. She was there as a member to vote against Ward and to report the proceedings to you and me. This is Tarshia’s report as to what happened at the meeting:

“First of all, Ward was not supposed to be in a meeting regarding himself. Not only was he in it, he conducted the entire meeting and the deacons stood by and allowed it to happen. Then he proceeded to make everyone sit in groups according to the month of their birth and had leaders of the 12 groups pass out numbered ballots. He then asked the leader of each birthday group to tell him what group of numbers they had. Seeing how no one group had more than 10 people in it, it would be very easy to determine who voted how. ... One member challenged him on this farce of a voting system and told him by doing this, people were uncomfortable about voting how they wanted because they felt he would know about it.

AMITE (LA)
The Advocate

By DEBRA LEMOINE
Advocate Florida parishes bureau

AMITE — A 21st Judicial District judge barred attorneys from talking to news reporters about the state’s cases against two of the former Hosanna Church members accused of having sex with children.

State District Judge Zoey Waguespack issued the gag order during a pre-trial hearing for the two defendants in her Amite courtroom on Wednesday.

Robbin Lamonica, 47, of Holden is charged with aggravated oral sexual battery, and Louis D. Lamonica, 47, of Hammond is charged with aggravated rape.

“I have been reading a lot about this case and seeing it on TV,” Waguespack told attorneys. “We are not going to try this case in the press.”

AUSTRALIA
The Age

A fundamentalist church pastor had sex with two of his teenage daughters to educate them on how to be good wives, a South Australian court has heard.

The 54-year-old man, who cannot be named, was sentenced in the SA District Court to eight and a half years jail after pleading guilty to seven counts each of incest and unlawful sexual intercourse.

The court heard that the man had sex with his daughters for nearly a decade from 1991 when they were aged 13 and 15 at the family property.

AUSTRALIA
ABC

A pastor from a South Australian fundamentalist church has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years after admitting he had sex with two of his teenage daughters.

The 54-year-old man, who cannot be named, pleaded guilty to seven counts each of incest and unlawful sexual intercourse.

The court heard that the man had sex with his daughters for nearly a decade in the 1990s at the family property.

IOWA
KTIV

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) -- A federal bankruptcy judge has given the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport more time to file its reorganization plan.

The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last fall in the wake of claims of sexual abuse by priests. A total of 156 claims have been filed in the case.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

Terri Saunders / Standard-Freeholder
Local News - Thursday, August 30, 2007 @ 08:00

A lawyer at the Cornwall Public Inquiry said Wednesday a known gag order on victims lends credence to the theory the Catholic Church worked hard to cover up allegations of abuse by priests.

In a 1962 Vatican-issued directive, all parties involved in internal diocese investigations into abuse allegations were sworn to secrecy. "If a component of a system of cover up isn't a severe religious oath upon the victim to remain perpetually silent, I don't know what is," said Rob Talach, an attorney representing The Victims Group at the inquiry. The directive, which church officials now say was rarely if ever implemented in dioceses around the country, outlines how abuse allegations were to be handled. Priests, victims and anyone else taking part in the internal hearings were prohibited from ever speaking publicly about the matter.

"The victim couldn't go to the police, he couldn't go to the Children's Aid Society and he couldn't tell his parents," said Talach.

"If he did, he would be thrown out of the church. He would become an outsider."

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

Elisabeth Johns / Standard-Freeholder
Local News - Thursday, August 30, 2007 @ 08:00

Prince Albert, Sask., police are now looking into allegations a Cornwall priest sexually abused a boy decades ago while he resided in that region.

"This is totally new to us," said Insp. Howard Georgeson, with the Prince Albert Police Service, who added the police are obliged to look into the complaint.

The Alexandria-Cornwall Catholic Diocese issued a press release Tuesday stating Rev. Gaetan Deschamps was retiring amidst these allegations.

However, Deschamps denies the accusations and has never been charged under any jurisdiction for this complaint.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles City Beat

Documents released by the Los Angeles archdiocese this week shine more light on cover-ups by high-ranking church officials to protect priests accused of sexual abuse from prosecution. The documents pertain to former Los Angeles priest Nicholas Aguilar Rivera, a Mexican national who in 1987 was accused of molesting 26 boys in Los Angeles, narrowly escaped prosecution by fleeing the country.

Mary Grant, spokesperson for the Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a national support group for victims of clergy sexual abuse, demanded that Cardinal Roger Mahoney suspend Bishop Thomas Curry because he facilitated Aguilar’s escape and let him avoid prosecution in the United States.

“At least twice, Bishop Curry has helped pedophile priests evade justice,” said Grant, who alleges that Curry took active steps to hide Aguilar from police.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

Tribune staff report
August 30, 2007

COOK COUNTY - The legal battle involving sexual abuse allegations against a southwest suburban pastor took another twist Wednesday when his two accusers sued the priest for abuse.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said their clients, who are brothers, did not initially intend to sue Rev. Robert Stepek, former pastor of St. Albert the Great Church in Burbank. Stepek was removed from ministry after a Chicago archdiocese review.

But shortly after his removal, Stepek filed a $4 million defamation lawsuit against his accusers, saying the allegations were false. The men filed a third-party complaint two weeks later saying the archdiocese should be held responsible for publicizing the allegations.

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff | August 30, 2007

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Margot Botsford earned plaudits for her experience, intelligence, and integrity, but some of her criminal sentences were criticized as excessively lenient yesterday by several members of the Governor's Council reviewing her candidacy for the state's highest court.

Nonetheless, it appears likely that the 60-year-old jurist will be confirmed to the Supreme Judicial Court when the Governor's Council votes tomorrow. Botsford, nominated to the post by Governor Deval Patrick last month, needs only a majority vote of the eight-member council; three members openly pledged their support during yesterday's confirmation hearing, and even her fiercest interrogators on the council declined to say they would vote against her.

During a hearing on her judicial nomination, Botsford was pressed to explain why in October 2005 she sentenced a former Catholic priest who had molested five boys to eight to 11 years in prison. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 12 to 15 years, while defense lawyers asked for five to eight years.

Botsford said that the defendant, Robert Burns, was 59 years old, and that the abuse had taken place 15 to 25 years earlier.

IOWA
Des Moines Register

By ABBY SIMONS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

A former Alaska priest accused of sexual abuse and denied admission to Iowa's bar in 2006 will fight before Iowa's high court today for his right to practice law in the state.

Michael Patrick Nash, 57, a 2006 Creighton Law School graduate, formally left the priesthood in 2005 following accusations that he had sexually abused boys in remote areas of the Juneau Archdiocese in the 1980s.

In legal briefs, his attorney contends that the Iowa Board of Law Examiners erred in its refusal to admit him to the Iowa Bar Association. The board counters that Nash's admitted acts against the boys, which included requesting foot and neck massages and making them do calisthenics in their underwear as punishment for misbehavior, "raise character concerns adequate to deny him permission to practice in Iowa."

CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

Posted by Mike Tobin August 29, 2007 16:39PM

Former Bishop Anthony Pilla said he was shocked when confronted with evidence that Cleveland Catholic Diocese employees stole hundreds of thousands of dollars through what prosecutors call an elaborate kickback scheme.

Pilla, the longtime leader of the diocese who retired in last year, took the stand in the trial of Anton Zgoznik, who is accused of multiple counts of conspiracy, money laundering, mail fraud and obstruction of justice.

Zgoznik's supervisor, Joseph Smith, will stand trial later. He faces the same charges.

Smith was the highest-ranking layperson to work at the diocese, serving as chief financial officer. Prosecutors accuse Smith of approving inflated billings from Zgoznik, who in turn paid money to companies owned by Smith, prosecutors said.

JASPER (IN)
The New York Times

By MICHAEL RUBINO
Published: August 30, 2007
JASPER, Ind., Aug. 29 — Msgr. Othmar Schroeder was revered in this town of 12,000 for starting a parish and a school. The Knights of Columbus Council in Jasper was named for him. He served his entire 50-year career locally.

Now the bishop is calling on churches here to remove photos of the late priest and rescind honors that were given him, because he is suspected of having molested scores of young boys.

The bishop, Gerald A. Gettelfinger, has also prevailed upon the Knights of Columbus Council to change its name, and is considering what to do about a 12-foot stone crucifix dedicated in Monsignor Schroeder’s memory at the cemetery of Sacred Heart Church in nearby Schnellville, where he is buried.

GALLUP (NM)
Gallup Independent

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

GALLUP — When it comes to the subject of Bishop Donald E. Pelotte of the Diocese of Gallup, questions about his medical condition are in abundance while answers are in short supply.

The latest question is: Where is the Roman Catholic bishop?

According to an official statement by chancery officials, posted on the diocese’s Web site on Monday, Pelotte is continuing to receive treatment at Memorial Hermann/TIRR in Houston. ...

But according to two parishioners from Sacred Heart Cathedral in Gallup, who talked separately with the Independent late Tuesday evening, an announcement was made during last weekend’s Mass that Pelotte was being transferred to a new hospital in Florida.

BURBANK (IL)
Southwest News-Herald

By CHUCK SALVATORE

The parishioners of St. Albert the Great in Burbank gathered Friday in support of their pastor, the Rev. Robert Stepek.

Stepek is accused of sexually molesting two young boys in the 1980s while serving as an associate pastor at St Symphorosa Church in Chicago. The two boys are brothers and had been family friends for many years with Stepek.

Around 200 supporters gathered at Niko’s Restaurant in Bridgeview to show support for Stepek. Most were from St. Albert the Great. However there were also people from St. Symphorosa and other priests who have known Stepek for years.

The atmosphere around the room was upbeat. Many in attendance were happy they were able to see their pastor for the first time in months. No one there believed the charges; instead, most think the brothers are out to hurt Stepek.

CLEVELAND (OH)
WDTN

Associated Press - August 29, 2007 12:25 PM ET

CLEVELAND (AP) - The bishop of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese expressed shock when he heard a whistle blowers' report on the church's financial irregularities.

The reaction of retired Bishop Anthony Pilla three years ago is being detailed in U.S. District Court testimony in Cleveland.

Retired accountant and financial adviser to the church William Reidy is testifying at the fraud trial of a former church accountant.

ITALY
Catholic World News

Rome, Aug. 29, 2007 (CWNews.com) - A Catholic priest in Monterosso, Italy, has given new impetus to public debate on clerical celibacy by announcing that he is in love with a local woman.

Father Sante Squotti claims to be "engaged" to the woman, who is separated from her husband. But in a confused series of remarks he insisted that he would continue to adhere to his vow of celibacy. "Canon law does not forbid a priest from falling in love, or from becoming engaged in a celibate manner," he said.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Keith Moor

August 30, 2007 12:00am
AN accused pedophile priest has emerged as a suspect in the 1980 killing of Thornbury bookshop owner Maria James.

Homicide squad detective Ron Iddles yesterday confirmed dead Catholic priest the Rev Father Anthony Bongiorno was one of several "persons of interest" being examined during a review of the case.

Mrs James, 38, died after being stabbed 68 times on June 17, 1980.

Det Sen-Sgt Iddles recently received new information that suggests Father Bongiorno, who died in 2002, could be the murderer.

ITALY
Il Mattino di Padova

Andrea Navarin, son of a former priest and religious sister, in this Italian-language article discusses his life as son of a man and woman who left religious life in order to marry after they fell in love. He discusses the situation with the Rev. Sante Sguotti, who has fallen in love with a woman he wants to marry.

DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register

ASSOCIATED PRESS

A bankruptcy judge has given the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport more time to file its reorganization plan.

The judge approved the diocese's request to extend the deadline to Oct. 1. It must be approved by Nov. 30.

The original deadline was Aug. 15.

The request to extend the deadline was submitted by the diocese and the creditors committee, which includes alleged victims of abuse by priests. No objections were filed.

FORT MYERS (FL)
News-Press

By news-press.com
Originally posted on August 29, 2007

A Fort Myers youth church worker arrested in February for sexually abusing three boys hesitantly pleaded guilty to the charges today and he will spend the next 20 years in prison.

Elantonio Gomez, 51, of Cape Coral will be labeled a sexual predator and will have to spend 10 years on probation after serving his term.

Last Monday, Gomez asked Lee Circuit Judge Joseph Simpson for a week to tell family members he would be pleading guilty to the charges so they didn’t find out in the media. This morning, Gomez was ready to plead to the charges, but had a change of heart.

“At this time, he does not wish to accept the plea,” Gomez’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Katheryn Smith said.

SCHENECTADY (NY)
Albany Times Union

By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer

SCHENECTADY -- Alan Horowitz, the notorious child molester who jumped parole and led state and federal authorities on an international manhunt, will go before a judge this morning in a closed parole hearing, authorities said.

State parole officials will make the case that Horowitz should be sent back to prison for some or all of his remaining prison sentence after, they say, he glibly fled the country last summer, penning a goodbye note of sorts to his parole officer.

Horowitz, who was captured in India in May, will be represented by Public Defender Mark Caruso, and the hearing will be before Administrative Law Judge Patricia O'Malley at the county jail, said Mark Johnson, a spokesman for the state Division of Parole.

RWANDA
allAfrica

New Times (Kigali)

Ignatius Ssuuna And Eugene Mutara
Kigali

Senior leaders from the umbrella of Born-again Christian churches have described the alleged sex scandal in Kigali's Shining Light Church as 'blasphemy'.

Pastor Charles Murenzi, husband and deputy to the church's senior pastor Jolly Murenzi, faces allegations of rape and defilement. His alleged victims are some members of the Gakinjiro-based church. Speaking for the first time since the alleged scandal was first reported last week, the born-again church leaders called for thorough investigations into Murenzi's lifestyle. Pastor Sandrali Sebakara, the Secretary General of Forum for Born-Again Churches of Rwanda (FOBACOR), said he will soon summon other leaders and discuss the allegations.

HAWAII
Honolulu Star-Bulletin

By Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.com
A Big Island registered sex offender has been caught in the public spotlight focused on a nationally prominent Christian pastor whose relationship with a male prostitute led to scandal last year.

Ted Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was forced out of the 10,000-member Colorado church he founded, after admitting to paying for massages and buying methamphetamine from a Denver male escort. He has since undergone spiritual counseling and has asserted that he is heterosexual.

Haggard made an appeal for financial help last week in Colorado, suggesting that donations for his family be made to Families With a Mission, a nonprofit group run by Paul Gerard Huberty.

Families With a Mission was based in Pahoa on the Big Island since its incorporation as a nonprofit organization in June 2000. It moved to Monument, Colo., in February this year, according to Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs records.

Huberty, 50, is listed on the sex offender registry of the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center, which shows that he moved this year to Monument.

CANADA
Standard Freeholder

Elisabeth Johns
Local News - Wednesday, August 29, 2007 @ 08:00

A Cornwall priest has retired amidst allegations he sexually abused a man who was a minor in Prince Albert, Sask., several decades ago.

Rev. Gaetan Deschamps, who is believed to be in his 70s, has been with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall for the past 10 years, working part-time as a marriage counsellor.

The ministry Deschamps specialized in didn't deal specifically with young children, said Diocese Bishop Paul-Andre Durocher.

However, on the website for the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall, it states that Deschamps oversaw a support group called "Spectrum," which is described as a curriculum for "adolescents who live in single-parent families or stepfamilies."

COLOMBIA
El Pais

This links to a Spanish-language article regarding allegations that the Rev. Jose de Jesús Gómez has a four-year-old daughter.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

August 29, 2007
THE Catholic order which ran an eastern suburbs Sydney primary school at the centre of child sex allegations dating back to the 1970s has expressed "deep regret" over hurt caused to the alleged victims.

A 52-year-old Marist Brother was charged yesterday with 21 child sex offences in connection with assaults of a number of Year Five students at a Daceyville upper primary school in 1974.

The Marist Brothers ran the boys' school until it closed in 1992, before its replacement by a full co-ed primary school run by the Catholic Education Office.

Brother Alexis of the Marist Brothers Professional Standards Office said the accused priest had not been working with children at the time of his arrest.

CANADA
Toronto Star

Aug 29, 2007 04:30 AM
Sandro Contenta
Staff reporter

A woman claiming she was coerced into a sexual relationship by a rabbi is suing the rabbi and a prominent Toronto synagogue for $1.3 million.

Richmond Hill resident Yona Nadler, 52, is suing Rabbi Tobias Gabriel and the Beth Tzedec Synagogue for breach of fiduciary duty and the pain and suffering she claims the relationship caused her and her marriage.

The lawsuit highlights an issue that has pushed some religious institutions into writing codes of conduct that govern relationships between clergy and members of their congregations.

Nadler's position is the rabbi abused the trust of a deeply religious woman, according to her lawyer Simona Jellinek.

UNITED KINGDOM
Lancashire Evening Post

By Staff Copy
A victim of serial paedophile priest Fr Edmund Cotter has spoken to the Lancashire Evening Post for the first time about how he targeted youngsters following Confession.

The mother-of-two's frank interview comes as victims prepare legal action against the Roman Catholic Church for the clergyman's catalogue of indecent assaults.

Cotter, 60, was jailed for five years two months for 13 counts of indecent assault on children aged between seven and 11 during his ministry at St Anthony's Church in Cadley Causeway, Fulwood, Preston, in the 1970s and 1980s.

And the 43-year-old victim, from Fulwood, fears there could be more victims who have not come forward.

CLEVELAND (OH)
Beacon Journal

By THOMAS J. SHEERAN Associated Press Writer

Published on Tuesday Aug 28, 2007

The former top financial and legal officer of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese testified Tuesday that he arranged a $60,000, off-books loan to his secretary in a transaction approved by the bishop.

Rev. John Wright said he put together the loan to his secretary in the mid-1990's and Bishop Anthony M. Pilla, now retired, signed off on the idea.

"We didn't tell him the specifics, but he told us to work it out," Wright testified during the trial of Anton Zgoznik, the diocese's ex-accountant.

Zgoznik, 40, of suburban Kirtland Hills, is on trial in U.S. District Court on 15 counts, including mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

ZIMBABWE
allAfrica

The Herald (Harare)

Harare

The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Bulawayo, Archbishop Pius Ncube, has been told by Mr Onesimus Sibanda to either deny or accept the charge of adultery that he is facing and stop resorting to delaying tactics.

Mr Sibanda said this in response to a court application filed by the cleric last week, seeking an order to compel him to furnish the archbishop with specific details of the adultery allegations levelled against him. Mr Sibanda filed a notice of opposition and deposed an opposing affidavit at the High Court in Bulawayo on Monday through his lawyer, Mr Munyaradzi Nzarayapenga of Dube-Banda, Nzarayapenga and Partners.

ITALY
Corriere TV

The Rev. Sante Sguotti discusses his relationship with his girlfriend in this Italian-language video.

WASHINGTON
Gay.com

The Washington state supreme court has forced the Boy Scouts of America to turn over "ineligible volunteer" files that revealed a sexual abuse problem among Scout leaders far greater than the organization previously admitted.

Although justices ruled that the files themselves would not be made public, attorneys said the Boy Scouts "have ejected at least 5,100 adult leaders nationwide for sexual abuse allegations since 1946," according to the Seattle Times. ...

Despite the new safeguards, the secrecy in the 97-year-old organization closely mirrors the stonewalling of the Roman Catholic Church, according to David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

"In many institutions, especially those with rigid, clear lines of authority, there is a temptation to obsess over public image and perceived short term damage from scandal and litigation rather than focusing on real long-term solutions, and the most glaring example of that is the Catholic Church," Clohessy told Gay.com.

Clohessy, who has counseled dozens of abused Scouts over the years, in addition to many more who were abused in the church, said he expects many more Scouts to come forward with these new revelations.

BETHANY (CT)
New Haven Register

Phil Helsel, Register Staff
08/28/2007

BETHANY — A former pastor of the First United Church of Christ, Congregational, has been arrested for allegedly sexually touching a minor over the summer, state police and church officials said.

Stephen J. Wasko, 54, of Milford was arrested on charges that he abused a child on at least two occasions. Wasko was pastor for the Church of Christ on Amity Road from 2003 until July 2, when he resigned amid the allegations.

State police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance on Monday wouldn’t reveal the child’s age or details about the case, but said that police became involved after they were notified by the state Department of Children and Families of the suspected abuse. Troopers began an investigation in June, and the child "was able to provide information" about what happened, he said.

MARQUETTE (MI)
Daily Press

MARQUETTE — As in years past, the Catholic Diocese of Marquette is requiring new clergy, as well as diocesan, parish and Catholic school employees and volunteers who have regular contact with children or youth, or are in a position to observe those who do, to attend an awareness session for the prevention of child sexual abuse.

The free session, called Protecting God’s Children for Adults, is being offered at various sites and on different dates throughout the Upper Peninsula from September to January 2008. Anyone who plans to work or volunteer with children or youth in the coming year and has not yet taken the training must take it during this time period.

The nine Catholic schools in the diocese will host the workshops. Participants will learn the signs of child sexual abuse, the methods and means by which offenders commit abuse and five easy steps people can take to prevent that abuse. Although the session is intended for those who work and volunteer in Catholic schools and parishes, anyone in the local community is welcome to attend.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
International Herald Tribune

The Associated Press
Published: August 28, 2007

LOS ANGELES: An internal letter made public Tuesday suggests that a high-ranking official in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles may have known that a priest accused of sexual abuse planned to flee to his native Mexico.

The letter, written by then-Rev. Msgr. Thomas J. Curry in 1988, was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court along with other papers as part of a civil lawsuit brought by one of Rev. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera's alleged victims.

In the Jan. 11, 1988 letter, Curry says that he met with Aguilar Rivera to discuss the sexual abuse allegations and the priest told him he "plans to stay with some family members here and then return to Mexico."

Aguilar Rivera fled to Mexico shortly after Curry wrote the letter and is currently a fugitive. Officials in Mexico's Puebla state have said they are trying to locate the priest, who is charged in California with 19 felony counts of committing lewd acts on a child.

CANADA
Ottawa Sun

By TERRI SAUNDERS, Sun Media

CORNWALL, Ont. — The duty to report allegations of child abuse to authorities does not apply to priests hearing confessions from other Christian brothers regarding such abuse, an inquiry heard Tuesday.

Rev. Frank Morrisey, an Ottawa-based priest and canon lawyer, said anything heard inside the confessional is protected and not subject to the same rules as allegations heard on the outside.

“Even if the person making the confession releases the priest from the obligation of confession, the priest cannot breach that confidentiality,” Morrisey told the inquiry probing the institutional response to allegations of systemic sexual abuse in the Cornwall area. “It’s necessary in order to protect that level of conscience.”

Where the church is concerned there is no duty to report, Morrisey told Peter Engelmann, the lead commission counsel. Individuals considered to be in positions of authority, be it teachers, doctors or other professionals such as clergy, are required to report any suspicions regarding the abuse of children to the Children’s Aid Society.

SACRAMENTO (CA)
Sacramento Bee

By Jennifer Garza - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, August 29, 2007

A victims rights group criticized the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento Tuesday for suing an alleged clergy abuse victim, but church officials say they are just trying to clarify the law.

In a press conference in Sacramento, leaders of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) accused the diocese of legal maneuvering. The diocese is challenging the legal standing of a Texas man trying to sue for alleged sexual abuse more than two decades ago.

"Instead of using hardball tactics, they should find the truth," said Nancy Sloan, of Sacramento SNAP.

Sloan and others called the lawsuit "unprecedented" and an "attempt to intimidate other victims."

The diocese has contended in a suit filed in July in U.S. District Court that because the man lives in Texas, the case should be handled on the federal level.

ITALY
ANSA

(ANSA) - Brussels, August 28 - The tax breaks enjoyed by the Catholic Church in Italy are coming under the magnifying glass of the European Commission which thinks they may breach EU rules banning state aid to business.

A spokesman for Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said on Tuesday that Brussels will soon ask Rome for "further information" about "certain fiscal advantages" from which the church in Italy benefits.

The Commission is reportedly interested in a law passed by the Silvio Berlusconi government in 2006 which effectively exempted all church property used for commercial purposes from local real estate tax.

Officials at the Competition Commission are also believed to be interested in the 50% reduction in corporation taxes applied to church business activities such as schools, hospitals, clinics and hotels.

ITALY
ANSA

(ANSA) - Padua, August 28 - A Catholic priest in northern Italy has revived the debate about clerical celibacy by confessing to have fallen in love with a separated mother.

Father Sante Sguotti of Monterosso near Padua told reporters on Tuesday that his beloved's name was Laura and that he wanted them to become officially engaged in December.

"I have known Laura for more than eight years, but not in the biblical sense. I am in love with this woman and I helped her choose her child's name," the priest said.

But he stressed that their relationship would remain a chaste one because he did not want to jeopardise his job.

"Canon law does not forbid a priest to fall in love or become engaged in a celibate manner. I want to remain in the Church and so I will obey the celibacy rule," Sguotti said.

He also urged other priests who were in love to "come forward" and break their silence.

CALIFORNIA
Business Insurance

by Roberto Ceniceros
Posted on Aug. 28, 2007 2:30 PM CST

SAN FRANCISCO—Victims of alleged child abuse by priests cannot delve into the Catholic Mutual Relief Society’s reinsurance arrangements during discovery as part of pretrial settlement negotiations, California’s Supreme Court has ruled.

In Catholic Mutual Relief Society et al. vs. The Superior Court of Los Angeles County, victims sought to learn whether the nonprofit entity, which administers self-insurance funds for more than 300 archdioceses and other Roman Catholic entities in the United States and Canada, could meet its policy obligation should they enter into a settlement with the Archdiocese of San Diego.

In 2004, a Los Angeles County trial court judge said the victims could seek reinsurance information, but Catholic Mutual objected. A state Court of Appeal vacated the judge’s order, ruling that California law authorizing limited discovery of a defendant’s insurance coverage does not authorize pretrial discovery of reinsurance agreements with a “nonparty” liability insurer.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Fresno Bee

By NOAKI SCHWARTZ

An internal letter made public Tuesday suggests that a high-ranking official in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles may have known that a priest accused of sexual abuse planned to flee to his native Mexico.

The letter, written by then-Rev. Msgr. Thomas J. Curry in 1988, was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court along with other papers as part of a civil lawsuit brought by one of Rev. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera's alleged victims.

In the Jan. 11, 1988 letter, Curry says that he met with Aguilar Rivera to discuss the sexual abuse allegations and the priest told him he "plans to stay with some family members here and then return to Mexico."

Aguilar Rivera fled to Mexico shortly after Curry wrote the letter and is currently a fugitive. Officials in Mexico's Puebla state have said they are trying to locate the priest, who is charged in California with 19 felony counts of committing lewd acts on a child.

SACRAMENTO (CA)
CBS 13

Sam Shane
Reporting

(CBS13) SACRAMENTO In a move critics call bizarre and unprecedented, the Catholic Church in Sacramento is turning the tables. The church is suing a man who says he was sexually abused by a priest when he was a child.

The Sacramento Roman Catholic Diocese, headed by Bishop William Wiegand is suing Hector Rubio. Rubio says when he was a child he was sexually abused by father Gerardo Beltran who was once a priest in the Sacramento diocese. Advocates for those abused by priests are outraged.

“It's wrong for the bishop to play legal hardball. It's especially wrong for a bishop to sue a child sex abuse victim,” says Nancy Sloan with S.N.A.P.

Rubio, who now lives in Texas, says Beltran sexually abused him more than twenty years ago, when both of them lived in California. In recent months, Rubio has filed and then withdrawn civil lawsuits against the Sacramento diocese.

ITALY
International Herald Tribune

The Associated Press
Published: August 28, 2007

ROME: An Italian priest acknowledged on national television Tuesday that he was in love with a woman — renewing in a very public way the Roman Catholic Church's debate over celibacy for priests.

Rev. Sante Sguotti, parish priest in Monterosso, near Padua, said he had not violated church law or his vow of celibacy, and wanted to continue working as a priest. But during a lengthy news conference in his parish church, he professed his love for the woman, and said he wanted to publicly be her boyfriend while remaining chaste.

"I cannot have a child. I cannot get married. But I can fall in love, because the Code of Canon Law doesn't provide for any sanction if you fall in love. And I do what the Code of Canon Law says," Sguotti said.

CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

Posted by James F. McCarty August 28, 2007 15:26PM

The defense attorney for a former church accountant on trial in federal court presented evidence Tuesday that the normal financial system of checks-and-balances didn't exist at the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland.

During his second day on the witness stand, the Rev. John Wright, former lead lawyer and chief financial officer at the diocese, said he deferred most of the church's money decisions to his right-hand man, Joseph Smith.

"We were friends," Wright testified. "I relied on him totally for his financial expertise."

Smith, 50, jotted notes in the back of the courtroom while Wright testified at the trial of a former diocesan accountant, Anton Zgoznik. Smith and Zgoznik are both charged with multiple counts of conspiracy, money laundering, mail fraud and obstruction of justice. Smith will stand trial at a later date.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Survivors of Child Abuse support group have called for a review of legislation regarding convicted paedophiles.

If follows confirmation that the former priest, Oliver O'Grady is now living in the Dundalk area.

He admitted molesting over 20 children, including a 9 month old baby as a parish priest in California and served half of a 14 year sentence, before being deported to Ireland in 2000.

CANADA
Standard Freeholder

Terri Saunders / Standard-Freeholder
Local News - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 @ 08:00

Two different men who know very little of one another have remarkably similar stories about being abused by a city priest, the Cornwall Public Inquiry heard Monday.

David Silmser told police in the early 1990s he'd been abused by Rev. Charles MacDonald in the sacristy of St. Columban's Church while the two were seated alone on a bench. Silmser said the priest had told him he was doing a good job as an altar boy before he began touching his private parts.

Years later, while being interviewed by police officers about similar allegations, another man talked about having been abused by MacDonald in the same place and under the same sort of circumstances.

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Stockton Record

By Anna Kaplan
Record Staff Writer
August 28, 2007 6:00 AM
SAN FRANCISCO - A former priest at Stockton's St. Basil Greek Orthodox Church has resigned from the San Francisco parish he's led for the past three years, claiming he's been unfaithful to his wife.

The Rev. Michael Pappas sent a letter in which he admitted to cheating on his wife and stepped down from his post to the congregation of San Francisco's Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church early last week.

Pappas could not be reached for comment, but Holy Trinity's interim priest, the Rev. James Adams, confirmed that Pappas sent the letter.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

August 28, 2007 12:00am
A SYDNEY priest has been charged with a string of child sex offences dating back more than 30 years.

NSW police spokesperson Tony Tamplin said that the 52-year-old former primary school teacher has been under investigation since September 2003.

The eastern suburbs priest was arrested in relation to assaults on a number of Year Five students at a Daceycille Primary school in 1974.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
KUSI

Monday, August 27, 2007 -- Dozens of lawsuits against San Diego's Catholic Diocese are now a step closer to trial.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Fox 6

Link to video about a San Diego judge ordering to trial 42 lawsuits involving clergy sexual abuse.

ARIZONA
Deseret Morning News

By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
Published: Aug. 27, 2007 10:17 p.m. MDT

Arizona prosecutors have dropped charges against former Hildale police officer and polygamist Rodney Holm, after it was learned the alleged victim in his case tried to sell her testimony to Fundamentalist LDS Church leaders.

The Mohave County Attorney's Office said Monday it struck a deal with Holm, 40, dismissing charges of sexual misconduct with a minor surrounding his marriage to Ruth Stubbs, then 16.

"The reason why this agreement was reached was due to the fact that the victim had engaged in a potential blackmail scheme with her brother in an attempt to get money from one of the leaders of the FLDS Church," Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith said in a statement. "This attempt was fairly recently discovered by all of the parties, and upon investigation, it appears that the victim did in fact write a letter indicating that she would not testify against certain defendants if excessive money was given to her brother and another man by one of the members of the FLDS Church."

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Whispers in the Loggia

Last week, the judge overseeing the bankruptcy filing of the diocese of San Diego issued a preliminary ruling to release 42 of the SoCal see's 127 abuse claims to civil trial in state court.

While local reports at the weekend noted that the diocese and plaintiffs' attorneys had made significant strides in settlement negotiations over recent weeks, word from the ground tonight says that an "emergency meeting" of the consultors and deans has been called for later this morning, local time.

To date, the diocese -- home to almost a million Catholics -- has publicly maintained a settlement offer of $95 million, an amount the court found insufficient on grounds that its per-victim average payout was significantly lower than those of similar deals made by California dioceses. Most notable among these, of course, is last month's $660 million settlement inked by the archdiocese of Los Angeles with 508 survivors.

ZIMBABWE
New Zimbabwe

By Lebo Nkatazo
Last updated: 08/16/2007 19:42:21
ONESIMUS SIBANDA, the man suing Archbishop Pius Ncube over an alleged adulterous affair with his wife, is set to initiate another legal storm on the cleric.

This time, Sibanda will claim that his wife infected him with the deadly HIV virus which she acquired from the archbishop, we can reveal.

Sibanda is claiming $20 billion from the Catholic cleric who is an arch critic of President Robert Mugabe’s government.

ZIMBABWE
Catholic World News

Harare, Aug. 23, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Government agents in Zimbabwe have stepped up a publicity campaign against Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulwayo, circulating pornographic videos involving a man who is said to be the archbishop.

Archbishop Ncube, an outspoken opponent of the authoritarian regime led by President Robert Mugabe, is already the subject of a highly publicized lawsuit, in which the estranged husband of a church employee claims that the archbishop engaged in an adulterous affair with his wife. Blurry pictures allegedly showing the archbishop with the woman in compromising positions were provided by government officials to local media outlets.

ITALY
Il Corriere della Sera

This Italian-language story is about the Rev. Sante Sguotti who denies he fathered a woman's child but said that he wants to marry her. He urged all priests with with love relationships to "come out from the shadow."

CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

James F. McCarty
Plain Dealer Reporter

The former top lawyer and chief financial officer at the Cleveland Catholic Diocese testified Monday that he approved $250,000 in secret payments to his successor.

But the Rev. John Wright denied authorizing a diocesan accountant, Anton Zgoznik, to pay another $784,000 to Wright's replacement.

Government prosecutors considered the $784,000 to be kickbacks and called Wright to testify at Zgoznik's trial in U.S. District Court in Cleveland. Zgoznik is charged with multiple counts of conspiracy, money laundering, mail fraud and obstruction of justice.

Wright's replacement, Joseph Smith, will stand trial later. He faces the same charges.

AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

By Tim Dornin

CHILD sex charges against a former Anglican chaplain of an exclusive Adelaide boys school have been dropped, more than two years after his extradition from Thailand.

Reverend John Mountford, 52, said the decision by the Crown to enter a Nolle Prosequi today had taken him by surprise, but maintained the allegations against him were fabricated.

He had been charged with five counts of indecent assault, two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and one count of procuring an act of gross indecency, but today walked from the South Australian District Court a free man.

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

August 28, 2007 - 6:34PM

Child sex charges against a former Anglican chaplain of an exclusive Adelaide boys school have been dropped, more than two years after his extradition from Thailand.

Reverend John Mountford, 52, said the decision by the Crown to enter a Nolle Prosequi on Tuesday had taken him by surprise, but maintained the allegations against him were fabricated.

He had been charged with five counts of indecent assault, two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and one count of procuring an act of gross indecency, but walked from the South Australian District Court a free man.

BETHANY (CT)
Newsday

BETHANY, Conn. - A former Bethany pastor was arrested over the weekend on sexual assault charges, police said.

Stephen J. Wasko, 54, was charged Sunday with two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault and two counts of risk of injury to a minor. He posted $100,000 bond and is due in New Haven Superior Court on Sept. 7.

According to the United Church of Christ in Connecticut, Wasko's ministerial credentials were suspended July 2 and he is no longer pastor at the First Church of Christ Congregational in Bethany.

CONNECTICUT
The Connecticut Post

FRANK JULIANO
Article Last Updated: 08/27/2007 10:35:42 PM EDT

MILFORD — A former minister arrested on sexual assault charges Sunday had resigned from his Bethany church in July when the investigation began, officials said Monday.

Stephen J. Wasko, 54, whose address was given by State Police as 66 East Broadway here, is charged with sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor for a series of alleged attacks on two children in Bethany, according to the police report.

He was released after posting a $100,000 bond, and is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges Sept. 7 in New Haven Superior Court, said Lt. J. Paul Vance, the state police spokesman.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
California Catholic Daily

A federal bankruptcy judge on Friday has ordered immediate jury trials for 42 civil clergy sexual abuse lawsuits filed against the San Diego by 58 plaintiffs. Plaintiffs’ lawyer Andrea Leavitt praised Judge Louise De Carl Adler’s decision, saying she “has the wisdom to grasp the gamesmanship the victims have been subjected to for years by the diocese,” according to the Aug. 25 Los Angeles Times.

The decisions, say lawyers for alleged victims, could force the diocese to come to an acceptable settlement.

Over 150 claimants have filed lawsuits against the diocese. Last February, when the first of the lawsuits was about to go to trial, the diocese filed for bankruptcy protection – becoming, according to the Times, the largest diocese in the United States to do so. The diocese, which said it would become insolvent if forced to pay damages, offered claimants a $95 million settlement, which has been refused – and, in her recent ruling, Adler said the amount is “far below the historic statewide average of payments” to plaintiffs who sue in civil court. Plaintiffs’ lawyers are seeking about a $200 million settlement.

AUSTRALIA
Live News

Yoni Bashan

A Sydney priest has been charged by police, accused of sexually molesting a group of year five students during the 1970s.

Police believe the priest is at the centre of a long standing investigation dating back more than 30 years.

CANADA

By TERRI SAUNDERS, SUN MEDIA

CORNWALL — A former city police officer who has not replied to requests to participate in an inquiry probing the institutional response to allegations of systemic sexual abuse in the Cornwall area will be represented by a lawyer.

Frank Horn told Commissioner Normand Glaude on Monday he would be representing the interests of Perry Dunlop at the inquiry.

“Will he (Dunlop) come and give us his side of the story?” asked Glaude.

“I don’t know,” said Horn. “He has been subpoenaed.” Dunlop, who now lives in British Columbia, has become a central figure to the inquiry.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Catholic World News

San Diego, Aug. 27, 2007 (CWNews.com) - A federal bankruptcy-court judge in California has ordered court trials in 42 lawsuits brought against the San Diego diocese by victims of sexual abuse.

The August 25 decision by Judge Louise DeCarl Adler puts new pressure on the San Diego diocese to reach a settlement with the plaintiffs. The judge was critical of an offer from the diocese to settle with 127 plaintiffs for a total of $94 million; the plaintiffs' lawyers are asking for $200 million.

In February, the San Diego diocese had filed for bankruptcy, citing the potential costs of sex-abuse settlements. The move into bankruptcy court-- filed just before the first lawsuits were scheduled to go to trial-- temporarily halted the progress of the court cases. Victims' attorneys had urged the bankruptcy court to let the trials proceed, saying that the prospect of jury verdicts would encourage faster settlement of the cases. Lawyers for the diocese asked the judge to make her own estimate of the sex-abuse settlements. Judge Adler sided with the plaintiffs. The court's decision places new pressure on the San Diego diocese in a contentious legal battle, in which a court-appointed investigator has already found serious flaws in the financial statements submitted to the courts by the diocese, and "openly questionable activities" in some diocesan accounts.

ITALY
La Repubblica

This links to an Italian-language article in which the Rev. Pierino Gelmini returns to Amelia, Umbria, to address boys in one of his drug rehabilitation centers. Several men have accused the priest of sexual misconduct. "They thought they dealt with a rabbit; they found a dog which bites," he told the gathering.

BETHANY (CT)
The Hartford Courant

By HILDA MUÑOZ | The Hartford Courant
2:02 PM EDT, August 27, 2007

BETHANY - The former pastor of a congregational church in Bethany was arrested on sexual assault charges Sunday, state police said.

Stephen J. Wasko, 54, faces two counts each of fourth-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor. He is free on a $100,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in New Haven on Sept. 7.

Wasko is no longer pastor at the First Church of Christ Congregational in Bethany, according to a statement by the United Church of Christ in Connecticut.

PHOENIX (AZ)
KPHO

Sex abuse victims issue warning about priest.

PHOENIX (AZ)
AZFamily

06:30 AM Mountain Standard Time on Monday, August 27, 2007

By Claudia Rivero / 3TV Reporter

Ken Babb and Mary Grant met church goers outside St. Theresa's Parish in Phoenix. Ken and Mary are both with S.N.A.P, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“We come to inform people who may not be aware that this person does exist,” Babb said.

The person he's referring to is Phoenix resident John B. Feit, a former priest who more than 40 years ago was arrested and charged with attacking a 20 year old woman in McAllen,Texas He's also the suspect in the rape and murder of a young woman by the name of Irene Garza also from Texas, but Feit has never been charged for that crime.

AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now

COLIN JAMES LEGAL AFFAIRS EDITOR
August 28, 2007 02:15am
THE State Government faces litigation from an Anglican priest dramatically extradited from Thailand over child sex abuse allegations.

Former St Peter's College chaplain the Reverend John Mountford, 52, has instructed his lawyers to seek civil damages over his high-profile return to South Australia in 2005.

This follows a decision by his alleged victim, now aged in his late 20s, to withdraw a complaint that he was sexually abused by Mountford in the early 1990s.

SA police investigated the allegations after an independent inquiry found former Anglican archbishop Ian George visited Mountford hours before he left Adelaide in 2002.

The Age

Barney Zwartz
August 28, 2007

A PENTECOSTAL pastor once told me of the triple perils charismatic leaders have to guard against: girls, gold and glory (egomania). Many have spectacularly failed.

Inside the Catholic Church, matters are much more complex and priests and prelates don't have the same financial temptations. But sex and power, those deepest human drives, can still grip and twist people. Nowhere has this been more obvious than the clerical sexual abuse crisis of the past decade.

Sexual abuse has been called the biggest crisis for the Catholic Church since the 16th-century Reformation. It has caused untold anguish, hammered church credibility and is now costing hundreds of millions of dollars around the world. Some American dioceses have gone bankrupt, and important church ministries to the poor and homeless have collapsed.

COLOMBIA
El Pais

This links to a Spanish-language interview with Auxiliary Bishop Julio Hernando García of Cali, who discusses recent allegations of misconduct in the archdiocese.

ARIZONA
The Arizona Republic

Michael Clancy
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 26, 2007 10:19 PM

A Superior Court judge declined last week to dismiss theft and fraud charges against a Catholic priest, but he may be off the hook anyway.

The case against the Rev. Dennis Riccitelli, formerly a pastor in Mesa, is in limbo as the Maricopa County Attorney's Office decides whether to seek new indictments.

Judge Silvia Arellano last month sent the case back to the grand jury, saying the prosecutor used "false or misleading and incomplete evidence" in gaining indictments in December 2004.

Specifically, Arellano ruled that Mesa detectives who investigated the case lied about the existence of a finance council at the church, as required by church rules, and misled grand jurors about rental properties involved in the case. In addition, she ruled that prosecutors failed to instruct the grand jury on church law and policies governing the activities of pastors.

ATLANTA (GA)
My Fox Hampton Roads

By The Associated Press

ATLANTA -- The minister husband of evangelist and gospel singer Juanita Bynum took the pulpit at the church where he is pastor just two days after surrendering to authorities on charges he beat his wife outside a hotel.

Thomas W. Weeks III, known to his followers as Bishop Weeks, expressed appreciation Sunday for the prayers and support he and his wife have received.

Weeks, 40, blamed the devil for the accusations against him.

CANADA
Parry Sound

by Sarah Bissonette

WASAUKSING - Former Indian Residential Students compensation from the federal government passed another hurdle last week, even though many aren't too pleased about it and just want to move on.

"It's like, lets put an end to it...for some of them, it's better than nothing," said Marilyn Beaucage, Wasauksing First Nation home and community care coordinator.

Last Monday, the time period in which former students of federal residential school programs could opt out of the agreement passed with 201 not wanting to settle, but the agreement, signed between the federal government and Assembly of First Nations in 2005 and approved by cabinet in May 2006, stipulated 5,000 withdrawals were needed to defeat it. The agreement now enters a 30-day appeal period.

UNITED STATES
Press & Sun-Bulletin

By William Moyer
Press & Sun-Bulletin
Allegations and confirmed cases of priestly sex abuse against children in the Catholic church have been well documented since widespread reports of abuse first surfaced in the Boston area in the early 2000s.

But tracking allegations and confirmed cases of misconduct by Protestant clergy is an elusive task because Christianity's other ecclesiastical division is wildly diverse, congregational and sometimes staunchly independent compared to Catholicism's centralized hierarchy.

Ed Hart of the Central New York Baptist Association said all 42 churches in his jurisdiction outlined by Broome, Tioga, Delaware, Herkimer, Steuben and Oswego counties are autonomous. Local church leaders would handle complaints against pastors at the congregational level but would not be required to report anything to Hart or any other denominational officials.

UNITED STATES
emediawire

Denver, CO, and Millbrook, NY (PRWEB) August 27, 2007 -- "From Crack to the Cross" is a powerful true story of a man who was possessed by alcohol, drugs and sex until the day he was "born-again". Timothy Murphy engaged in decades of self-abuse, with its resulting DWIs, car accidents and repeated visits to rehab. As his downward spiral continued, he came face to face with the law and, ultimately with God -- an awakening and surrender that was to change his life forever.

Though Timothy Murphy grew up in a loving, middle-class Catholic home, from his earliest years, he had a sense of not belonging. Unhappy at school, feeling he could never live up to the standards of his "perfect" older brother, he simply gave up trying. What he longed for was to travel and, most of all, "to be free." It wasn't long before he became the family's problem child.

When Timothy Leary made his way into town in 1968, young Timothy Murphy embraced the rock 'n' roll/hippie lifestyle: long hair, pot smoking, casual sex and dropping acid (LSD). At school, he became "cool," taking on an anti-hero persona. He attended a Catholic church and a Catholic school, with parents who believed that nuns and priests could do no wrong. Unfortunately the opposite would prove to be true. During his teenage years, he became a victim of sexual abuse by a neighborhood priest, which caused psychological damage that was both mentally and sexually crippling.

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Linda Morris Religious Affairs Reporter
August 25, 2007

THE Sydney bishop who helped write the Catholic Church's sex abuse policy in Australia has urged a fundamental reshaping of the church's power structures, warning papal authority has gone too far and calling for a review of compulsory celibacy for priests and the church's teachings on sex.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, who retired three years ago and who was once touted as a possible candidate for the job of archbishop of Sydney, says the church has to get more serious about confronting clerical abuse and change must start at the top.

In an explosive critique of the church to be published tomorrow, he has directly criticised both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI for Rome's reluctance to take stronger action to tackle sexual abuse.

COLOMBIA
El Pais

This links to a Spanish-language story on allegations of fiscal improprieties in the Cali archdiocese.

ZIMBABWE
allAfrica

Zimbabwe Independent (Harare)

Loughty Dube
Harare

DETAILS of a plot hatched by the CIO spy agency working hand in hand with state media journalists have emerged with indications that the two worked hand in glove in planning and exposing the adultery story involving Archbishop Pius Ncube.

Archbishop Ncube was slapped with a $20 billion adultery lawsuit at St Mary's Cathedral a month ago after he was served with the papers by the Deputy Sheriff, who was accompanied by a large contingent of journalists and photographers from the state media.

However, details have emerged that the journalists present during the serving of papers were part of a well-orchestrated plot involving the CIO.

ZIMBABWE
IC Publications

Lawyers for Zimbabwe's Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube who is being sued for adultery have called for his accuser to provide evidence before a plea is entered, an independent weekly reported Sunday.

Ncube's lawyer has asked that Onesimus Sibanda -- who claims the archbishop had sex with his wife Rosemary -- provide "dates, times, venues of the alleged acts of adultery and details of those who witnessed the alleged acts," the independent weekly The Standard said.

The application by lawyer Nicholas Mathonsi to the Bulawayo court comes after Sibanda refused to provide evidence of his claims, saying "evidence can only be heard in court during trial," the newspaper said.

SCOTLAND
BBC News

The Glasgow church where the Polish student Angelika Kluk was murdered will be formally reopened later.

Mass is to be celebrated at St Patrick's Church in Anderston, where the body of Ms Kluk was found under the floorboards in September 2006.

Peter Tobin, 60, who had worked at the church as a handyman, was jailed for life for her rape and murder.

Canon Robert Hill has replaced Father Gerry Nugent, who was found guilty of contempt of court, as parish priest.

Nugent, 63, was repeatedly warned about "prevaricating" when being questioned during the high court trial of Tobin.

The priest, who revealed he was an alcoholic, said he had a sexual relationship with Ms Kluk, 23, who had been working as a cleaner at the church and saving up money for her studies.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sunday August 26 2007

DO IRELAND'S Catholic bishops confess their own sins? Or is it just the rest of us who have gone astray? Last week, Archbishop Sean Brady looked into the future (while condemning fortune-tellers). He lamented the faults of modern Ireland, and spoke of "a smaller but more authentic Church".

But it is not just consumerism and a breakdown in community that have led to stress and despair today, the bishops too contributed, by how they taught the Christian message and controlled their own church. ...

The archbishop mentioned sex abuse just once, saying that "the trauma and scandal around revelations of clerical child sexual abuse accelerated" the trend away from regular attendance at Mass. But it was child abuse itself, and the hierarchy's abdication of responsibility, that he should have addressed centrally (not "revelations" about it, or even the "the trauma and scandal", which were secondary).

There was another distancing from reality when he spoke of attitudes towards authority. These, he claimed, have changed as a result, "in part, of the multitude of investigations into how institutions had managed their affairs".

But again, it is actually how bishops "managed their affairs" that is the problem, not the fall-out from investigations. His language betrays the hierarchy's underlying resentment of demands for accountability and transparency.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Jurist

Bernard Hibbitts at 8:33 AM ET

[JURIST] US Bankruptcy Judge Louise DeCarl Adler ordered 42 clergy sex abuse cases against the Catholic Diocese of San Diego [diocesan website] to go to trial Friday, accepting arguments by plaintiffs lawyers that the move could push pressure on the diocese to settle the claims. The trials were suspended in February - the night before they were scheduled to begin - after the diocese sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection [JURIST report]. The diocese so far has sought to settle with victims for some $94 million, considerably short of the $200 million claimed by plaintiffs attorneys. No trial schedule has yet been set, but the first of the cases could proceed within 60 days.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Friday August 24 2007

MENTION the word Artane and the image of the familiar boys' band belting out popular tunes around Croke Park on All-Ireland day springs to mind.

But for former Artane Boys' Band member Patrick Walsh, the once infamous school of the same name in north Dublin conjures up darker and more bitter memories.

Almost 45 years after he first crossed the school's threshold, the now 53-year-old recalls his time there as "a dark and grim experience in one of Ireland's nastiest hellholes".

Those unwelcome memories bubbled to the surface again yesterday in the wake of an extraordinary row between the Christian Brothers and the Archbishop of Dublin over the recent release of a report on conditions in the former industrial school that was compiled by its then chaplain 45 years ago.

LAWRENCEVILLE (TN)
Times Daily

By Tom Smith
Senior Staff Writer

Authorities said a local pastor has been indicted after he was accused of inappropriately touching some of the female members of his congregation.

John Olivares, 66, of 370 Tripp Road, Lawrenceburg, has been indicted on five counts of sexual battery, according to authorities.

Olivares is the pastor at Cathedral of Faith Church in Lawrenceburg. The nondenominational church is at the intersection of First Avenue and Third Street.

LAWRENCEBURG (TN)
KTVU

LAWRENCEBURG, Tenn. -- A Lawrence County pastor has been charged with sexual battery, reported WSMV-TV in Nashville.

Five women in Lawrence County said their church pastor, John Olivares, abused their trust, and two of them are younger than 18.

"Well, you think a pastor of a church, a godly man, you're not going to have to worry about anything like that," said Terra Boggs, one of Olivares' accusers.

Boggs said Olivares touched her breasts while they were praying together.

"He was acting as if my shirt was too low and acting like he was pulling it up and then fondling me while he did that," Boggs said.

UNITED STATES
Episcopal Life

[Church Times] A suggestion that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori ordered the removal of information from the Wikipedia website has been discredited, according to a report by Simon Sarmiento in the U.K.-based Church Times newspaper.

The story, which originated on an American conservative website in May, resurfaced last Saturday in The Independent newspaper, which reported that Barbara Alton, personal assistant to Bishop Charles Bennison of Pennsylvania, "deleted information concerning a cover-up of child sexual abuse [by the bishop's brother], allegations that the bishop misappropriated $11.6 million in trust funds, and evidence of other scandals. When challenged about this, Alton claims she was ordered to delete the information by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori."

Alton confirmed this week that she was acting on her own initiative as the bishop's personal assistant, the Church Times reported. She had edited the bishop's biography on the website, because of changes that others had made which she described as "a frightening mess," according to the newspaper. She did not have the time to follow the Wikipedia process for correcting misinformation, however, and so had simply replaced it with the standard official text. This had led to her being banned by Wikipedia.

ARLINGTON (VA)
Washington Times

By Julia Duin
August 24, 2007

The Rev. Joseph J. Clark, an Irish-Catholic bartender turned priest, never planned to be in the middle of a fracas involving him, the Vatican and the Diocese of Arlington.

But since he was suspended from the priesthood by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde two years ago this month for arguing with a deacon, he has waged a quiet battle to win back his right under church law to preach and teach in the 400,000-member diocese.

His is the second case in five years in the Arlington Diocese to make its way into the papal court system. The first case, involving the Rev. James R. Haley — who was silenced in 2001 after he accused Bishop Loverde of sheltering homosexual priests — remains unresolved at the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy.

Father Clark's case is now before the Signatura, the highest Vatican court.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling
I stand frozen over the coffee pot this morning, listening to news on the radio about the San Diego cases. My daughter walks in and says what's going on and then realizes and stops to listen as well. After the report I tell her “They're releasing the cases supposedly to go to jury trials. But they won’t. That's what they always do. They go right up to before the trial starts and then they settle. So they never testify under oath. The story never comes out.” [GUSH] Tears spew out all over my face, almost projectile, this gush that comes whenever this story spews back into my life. “Mom, stop,” she says after a good 30 seconds, and I can’t, but I say “I will.”

Several times in the last 15 or so years I’ve tried to “put this all behind me,” and I thought the LA cases were going to somehow help me with that. The issue of being raped by a priest at age five and how it affected my life always pushes its way back into my life when I try to let it go. So with jury trials pending in LA I was so fired up, ready with laptop in hand to take down everything they said in court. I work as a transcriber in my other life, so I was getting the quotes verbatim, everything they said. I looked forward to comparing the doddering J. Michael Hennigan who was going to be 1st chair throughout for the defendants to the guy in “Green Eggs and Ham” as they look so much alike. I was burning, ready to go.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
KUSI

Saturday, August 25, 2007 -- A federal bankruptcy judge has ordered the immediate jury trials in 42 sexual abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego.

COLOMBIA
El Pais

This links to a Spanish-language article on allegations of sexual misconduct being made against some clergy in Cali, Colombia.

ITALY
news.com.au

From correspondents in Rome
August 25, 2007 09:23pm

AN Italian priest has admitted before his flock that he is the father of a nine-month-old boy.

“I don't want to do like Adam and Eve did when they hid from the call of God after the original sin,” Father Sante Sguottithe, the 41-year-old parish priest of Monterosso told about 200 worshippers.

“The fruit of one's fertility should be a cause for joy,” said Sguotti, who has been asked by Padua Archbishop Antonio Mattiazzo to leave the parish, home to some 800 people.

UNITED KINGDOM
ic Newcastle

Aug 24 2007

by Adam Jupp, Evening Chronicle

A PERVERT ex-prison officer will not face fresh sex abuse charges – because it is not in the public interest.

But the decision not to prosecute Neville Husband has been slammed by MPs and victims after it emerged the disgraced churchman could walk free from prison within months.

Husband is serving a 10-year sentence for a horrific campaign of abuse on juvenile inmates at the former Medomsley Detention Centre, in Consett, County Durham, in the 1970s and 1980s.

AUSTRALIA
Christian Today

The Sydney Catholic auxiliary bishop, Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, has called for a ‘radical’ reform of Catholicism, telling a Fairfax publication that, “Papal power had gone too far and there are inadequate limits on that power.”

Expanding the debate further, Bishop Robinson told the Canberra Times news publication on Saturday that celibacy and the absence of the Pope’s guidance on the issue of child-sex abuse had contributed to the failure of the Church to tackle it effectively.

“Compulsory celibacy for priests and religious had contributed to sexual abuse and must at least be on the table for discussion,” he said.

"When a major matter arises, therefore, and there is a notable and extraordinary absence of guidance or direction from the Pope as was certainly the case in relation to the sexual abuse of minors it is inevitable that many will react according to older values … those older values have for a thousand years included secrecy, the covering over of problems and the protection of the good name of the Church."

CLINTON (NY)
Utica Observer Dispatch

August 24, 2007

Former Pastor William Procanick, 53, who is charged with first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child, rejected a plea offer in court this morning. His attorney would not say what the plea offer was.

Procanick, former pastor of Resurrection Assembly of God in Clinton, is accused of touching the buttocks of a 7-year-old girl while trying to get her to fall asleep at his residence earlier this year, according Oneida County Court documents.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Guardian

Saturday August 25, 2007 3:31 AM

By ALLISON HOFFMAN
Associated Press Writer

SAN DIEGO (AP) - A federal bankruptcy judge on Friday ordered immediate jury trials in more than 40 sex-abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego.

Trials scheduled in state court in San Diego for five cases had been suspended in February when the diocese abruptly filed for bankruptcy protection, the night before the first trial was slated to begin.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Louise DeCarl Adler's ruling on the 42 lawsuits is a victory for about 150 people who claim they were sexually abused by priests as children.

Their lawyers told the judge Thursday that re-activating those trials was the only way to get the diocese into a settlement after more than three years of fruitless negotiations in state and federal courts.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 25, 2007
SAN DIEGO -- A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge ruled Friday that 42 lawsuits filed by people alleging sexual abuse by Catholic priests here can go to trial, which could goad the Catholic Diocese of San Diego into settling those and other suits.

Andrea Leavitt, lawyer for a group of claimants, called the ruling by Judge Louise De Carl Adler a victory for victims of sexual abuse, many of whom have spent years seeking damage payments from the diocese.

"The victims are very encouraged," Leavitt said. "And they are very grateful that the court has the wisdom to grasp the gamesmanship the victims have been subjected to for years by the diocese."

Adler, in her ruling, said she will decide at a hearing Sept. 6 whether to throw out the diocese's bankruptcy lawsuit.

AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

Graham Downie

A prominent Australian Catholic bishop has accused the Pope and his predecessor of failing to take decisive action to answer the epidemic of child sex abuse within the church.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, a former auxiliary bishop of Sydney, said the two popes were guilty of a "notable and extraordinary absence of guidance or direction" that had denied justice to victims of abuse by priests and other religious personnel.

The accusations are contained in Bishop Robinson's book Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church published today.

It is expected to reignite public debate over the church's response to sex abuse victims.

IRELAND
Irish Independet

Saturday August 25 2007

BROTHER Edmund Garvey, in this week's press statement about Artane, claims that the Department of Education inspection -- following Fr Moore's Report -- made by two senior inspectors together with Dr Anna McCabe, the Medical Inspector, was not notified in advance.

He says: "The Brothers in Artane at the time did not have prior notice of the inspection, contrary to reports in recent media commentary."

It was the regular practice, in all industrial schools, for prior notification to be given by the Department of coming inspections.

As a result, special food was served, clean clothing issued and everything was smartened up.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

August 25, 2007
BY SUSAN HOGAN/ALBACH Religion Reporter/shogan@suntimes.com
A Wisconsin district attorney wants a Chicago Catholic priest convicted last year of sexual abuse to be sent immediately to prison because of a new molestation complaint.

A hearing has been set for next month in Walworth County, Wis., to consider the status of the Rev. Donald McGuire. He remains free pending appeal of his conviction for molesting two students in the 1960s.

McGuire, 77, was sentenced to seven years in prison and 20 years of probation. He recently moved from Wisconsin to southwest suburban Oak Lawn, though he has twice been jailed for violating probation.

"He was allowed to be out partially because these were old cases," said Walworth County District Attorney Phillip Koss, who has filed a motion to end McGuire's freedom.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Union-Tribune

By Sandi Dolbee and Mark Sauer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

August 25, 2007

A federal bankruptcy judge ordered yesterday that 42 lawsuits against San Diego's Catholic diocese be released for jury trials, moving men and women who say they were sexually abused as children closer to getting their day in court.

Judge Louise DeCarl Adler's ruling, handed down just before the close of business, comes four years after the first in an avalanche of lawsuits were filed against the diocese. The 127 lawsuits had been halted after the diocese sought bankruptcy protection in February.

In her 14-page decision, Adler dismissed the diocese's arguments against releasing the first grouping of cases to state court. She wrote that the victims have a constitutional right to jury trials and that barring a settlement, prompt resolution of the bankruptcy case appears unlikely.

The judge also repeated her criticisms that the diocese's $95 million settlement offer was well below the state average for such abuse claims, and that its attorneys were “forum shopping,” or looking for courts that would look more favorably on their case.

BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

By Jay Tokasz NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 08/25/07 7:50 AM

The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo is being accused of overlooking inappropriate behavior and sexual advances by a middle school teacher who later was convicted of possessing child pornography and endangering the welfare of a child.

Just months after the Catholic bishops enacted a tougher policy in 2002 to deal with child sexual abusers, numerous complaints were made by pupils, parents and a teacher to the school principal about Christian M. Butler, who taught computer classes at St. Dominic Savio Middle School in Niagara Falls. But the complaints fell on deaf ears, the parents and a former teacher say.

Butler did not leave the school until 2004, shortly before he was charged with using his school computer to download child pornography, placing his hand on a girl’s thigh under her dress and making lewd comments to another girl. Police said they learned about Butler through an anonymous phone call, not from the diocese.

COLOMBIA
El Pais

This is the Spanish-language link to a story about a government prosecutor opening an investigation into sexual misconduct by the Rev. Fred Potes.

GEORGIA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By Christopher Quinn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 08/25/07

Kenneth Joe has been known as the former child welfare chief for Fulton County whose overzealous and sometimes passionate management style helped lead to his ouster.

His friends, coworkers and even his enemies are about to discover another side of Joe.

It is one that helps explains him, his actions, his zeal, he says.

Joe, 38, was sexually abused as a teenager by a Roman Catholic priest.

He lays the details out in a self-published book that he funded with his $850,000 legal settlement with the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, the city where Joe grew up.

AUSTRALIA
Catholic World News

Sydney, Aug. 24, 2007 (CWNews.com) - An Australian Catholic bishop will call for sweeping changes in Church doctrine and discipline in a book scheduled for release on August 25.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, a retired auxiliary of the Sydney archdiocese, endorses "the most radical changes since Martin Luther started the 16th century Protestant Reformation," the Australian newspaper The Age reports.

In his book, Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church, the bishop is sharply critical of Church teaching on a number of issues including sexuality and papal authority."I'm looking for a very different church," he told The Age. Bishop Robinson discloses that he accepted retirement from active ministry in part because of his disagreement with Church teachings.

COLOMBIA
Catholic Online

By Mike Ceaser
8/24/2007
Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com)

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNS) – The former head of the Archdiocese of Cali's ecclesiastical tribunal has made charges of widespread sexual and financial misconduct in the archdiocese.

Father German Robledo, a 67-year-old priest and head of the tribunal until 2004, went public Aug. 21 with accusations against priests and other church officials in Cali. He said he was doing so because he had not been satisfied with reaction from archdiocesan officials. ...

Father Robledo said several priests have ongoing sexual relationships, including one with a woman who pretends to be his secretary and another with young boys. Father Robledo said several priests secretly have children and that two of them have been sued by the mothers for child support.

He said parishioners' contributions are used to pay people who obtain children for sexual relationships, as well as being used to pay the youths themselves. Father Robledo said there has been financial and other corruption within the archdiocese. He said he has videos of people who allegedly had sexual relations with priests or knew about them, local news media reported Aug. 23.

Father Robledo also said priests who had been accused of sexual abuse in the United States had been sent to Cali to work.

ATLANTA (GA)
The Georgia Bulletin

ANDREW NELSON, Staff Writer

Published: August 23, 2007

ATLANTA—With a gentle touch of a hand and gesturing a sign of the cross, the Catholic spiritual leader of North Georgia offered blessings for healing to the slow moving line of abuse victims, family members of victims and their advocates who filled the aisle of Christ the King Cathedral.

Some 40 people attended the Monday night prayer service on Aug. 13, the first of what is expected to be an annual event in the archdiocese’s prime church and duplicated in parishes throughout North Georgia.

“I think we all need it. We all have this sorrow,” said college student Areli Sanchez, of Forest Park, who came to pray for her family.

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

August 25, 2007

A Sydney bishop who became an advocate for church sex abuse victims has revealed his own abuse by a stranger. Linda Morris reports.

During the darkest days of the priesthood, when the Australian church was wrestling with the scandal of sexual abuse, Sydney's Catholic auxiliary bishop, Geoffrey Robinson, was coming to terms with his own demons.

Only now, three years after his retirement, has Robinson has gone public with an extraordinary and personal disclosure: he was the victim of an abusive stranger. He had kept the secret hidden "in the attic of my mind" for 50 years until hearing the stories of victims began to stir "strong echoes within my own heart and mind".

But the church leader who could have become archbishop of Sydney did not reveal the abuse, and the indelible mark it left, to anyone outside a small circle of friends.

PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal

By Edward Fitzpatrick
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — A national group yesterday announced a $1.25-million settlement of a lawsuit that alleged a teenage boy was sexually molested in Maryland and Washington, D.C., by a Roman Catholic priest who was later transferred to Providence to be a youth minister at St. Pius V Church.

No one has alleged that the Rev. Aaron J. Cote molested anyone in Providence, but the Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said Father Cote should never have been allowed to continue parish ministry, much less be placed in regular contact with youths.

“This is the type of behavior and actions that allowed the sexual abuse scandal to fester for decades,” the group’s president, Barbara Blaine, said during a news conference in the shadow of the Cathedral of SS. Peter & Paul, near diocesan headquarters.

CANADA
The Standard-Freeholder

Terri Saunders
Local News - Friday, August 24, 2007 @ 08:00

A witness told the Cornwall Public Inquiry Thursday he thought he'd put the abuse he'd suffered a young man behind him until he was forced to testify before the commission.

"I thought I was okay until this came up again," said the man, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban. "I'm just trying to put all this behind me."

The man was a complainant in a 2000 trial when a city school teacher was convicted of sexually abusing a number of young boys. The man has also claimed he was sexually abused by Ron Leroux, a man who has testified at that inquiry as a victim of alleged sexual abuse. Leroux has denied the allegations leveled against him by this man.

The witness has also admitted stories he told in the past about having been abused by a city priest were fabricated in order to please Perry Dunlop, a former city cop who led a crusade against alleged child molesters in the 1990s in Cornwall.

NEW YORK
The Post-Standard

Posted by Pedro Ramirez III August 24, 2007 11:10AM

A judge dismissed the final two claims in a $4.35 million lawsuit that accused CNY's Episcopal bishop of punishing a priest for questioning the diocese's response to alleged sexual abuse by another priest in the 1970s.

The Rev. David G. Boolinger, of Owego, Tioga County, filed the suit in January 2006. The suit accused Bishop Gladstone Adams of defamation, breach of fiduciary duty and wasting or misusing diocesan assets. For more, see today's story in The Post-Standard.

Putnam letter reaction
In a letter to the editor Tuesday, J. Edward Putnam, former rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Skaneateles, described the incidents in which he is alleged to have sexually abused minors, "as falling within the lower end of a wide range of sexual misconduct."

SACRAMENTO (CA)
Sacramento Bee

By Crystal Carreon - Bee Staff Writer
Published 6:21 am PDT Friday, August 24, 2007

A south Sacramento pastor was convicted this week of molesting a 13-year-old boy at a Meadowview library in March.

Sacramento County jurors on Monday found Frederick Deshawn Dew, 34, guilty of four counts of child molestation stemming from the March 8 assault of a 13-year-old boy in the Martin Luther King Jr. Library on 24th Street.

Dew, who founded Praise Tabernacle church on 44th Street, is scheduled to return to court on Sept. 21 for sentencing; he could face 12 years to life in prison, according to the District Attorney's Office.

In an interview with The Bee earlier this year, Dew said he was innocent and believed God would help uncover the truth. He repeatedly refused to answer a reporter's questions about his past or how he came to Sacramento.

The Age

Barney Zwartz
August 25, 2007

THE Catholic Church is still not serious about confronting sexual abuse, only "managing" it, according to the Sydney bishop who headed Australian efforts to tackle abuse.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson says the Catholic Church needs to reverse 2000 years of teaching on sex and power as part of radical reforms from the Pope down.

While it refuses to look at some fundamental teachings — including sex outside marriage, women priests, homosexuality and papal power — the culture that produced and protected abusers will continue, he says.

These explosive claims — unprecedented for a bishop — are in a book to be launched tomorrow: Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church.

CALIFORNIA
Ventura County Star

By Mark F. Sullivan
Friday, August 24, 2007

In 2002, when the state Legislature adopted a special one-time waiver of the statute of limitations for suits against child molesters, concerns that it created cases so old they would be impossible to defend were brushed aside by the special law's Democratic sponsors in Sacramento as being the unfortunate consequence of correcting long-standing wrongs.

As was inevitable, given the fact that most potential defense witnesses were long dead, the archdiocese of Los Angeles ended up paying a $660 million settlement under this special law.

Monday, in a suit aptly named "Shirk v. Vista Unified School District," the state Supreme Court made it clear that the unfairness inherent in the special law would only apply to the Catholic Church.

NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

Law.com reports:

A woman has no claims against a Rockland County, N.Y., rabbi who she alleges counseled her to have sex with him as a way of overcoming her problems in finding a husband, a divided Appellate Division, 1st Department, ruled Thursday. ...

The article goes on to describe a 2005 case where a woman initiated sex with her pastor. The woman also sought counseling from that pastor. The court dismissed the woman's claim for clergy malpractice but left open the possibility that the woman may have a claim for breach of fiduciary duty. Judge Sweeny, in his dissent, noted that breach of fiduciary duty may very well be present in the Rabbi Tendler case:

…Marmelstein's allegations, taken as true, Sweeny stated, describe a fiduciary relationship: Marmelstein consulted Tendler because he had held himself out as counselor with expertise in women's issues, and he abused the confidence she had placed in him "by inducing plaintiff to enter into a sexual relationship to satisfy his own desires."

UNITED KINGDOM
Lancashire Evening Post

A victim of paedophile priest Edmund Cotter is to launch legal action against the Roman Catholic church.

One of the priest's 10 female victims has approached legal teams to bring the church to account over the scandal.

Victims are also furious at what they say is a lack of apology from the church.

A spokesman for Clifton Ingram solicitors in Wokingham, Berkshire, said the firm was hoping to contact other victims to make the action a joint one.

NAUGATUCK (CT)
Waterbury Republican-American

BY PAUL SINGLEY REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

NAUGATUCK — Parishioners at St. Mary's Church are supporting their suspended priest, who has been charged with sexual assault of a minor, pending the outcome of his court proceedings.

That's according to 20-year church member Rocky Vitale, a lector at St. Mary's who was once chairman of the parish council.

Vitale said all church members are withholding judgment about the Rev. Robert J. Grant, 63, who is charged with giving a 15-year-old boy money and wine in exchange for oral sex and back massages.

"Without exception, I haven't heard anyone (in the parish) who is outraged by this," said Vitale, who is also a longtime member of the borough's Board of Education. "Anyone can accuse anyone of anything. Barring proof otherwise, (Grant) has my full support."

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Friday August 24 2007

THE Christian Brothers have launched an extraordinary attack on the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, over his decision to publish a report on conditions at the Artane industrial school, compiled 45 years ago.

In an unprecedented public attack on an Archbishop by a religious order, the Brothers said they were "shocked and dismayed" at the decision of Dr Martin to release a 1962 Church report into the conditions at the school which is the subject of an inquiry by the Ryan Commission on Child Abuse.

The report, compiled by Artane's then chaplain, Fr Henry Moore, followed a request from his Archbishop, John Charles McQuaid, to conduct a "confidential survey" on the management of the Artane school.

His report dealt with a number of issues including general care, diet, clothing, discipline and education of the 450 boys who were resident at the school at the time. On the controversial issue of discipline, he wrote that while the boys were reasonably well fed, discipline was rigid and severe and "frequently approaches pure regimentation".

NEW YORK
Law.com

Daniel Wise
New York Law Journal
August 24, 2007

A woman has no claims against a Rockland County, N.Y., rabbi who she alleges counseled her to have sex with him as a way of overcoming her problems in finding a husband, a divided Appellate Division, 1st Department, ruled Thursday.

The woman, Adina Marmelstein, asserts in Marmelstein v. Kehillat New Hempstead, 117629/05, that, as a result of the counseling, she and Orthodox Rabbi Mordecai Tendler had sexual relations for five years ending in 2005 after the rabbi had abused her emotionally and physically.

In a 3-2 ruling, the 1st Department dismissed the two remaining claims against Tendler as being barred by a state statute that specifically rules out a cause of action for seduction.

Lenore Kramer of Kramer & Dunleavy in Manhattan, who represents Marmelstein, said she will take the case to the Court of Appeals as a matter of right since there were two dissenting votes.

DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times

By Deirdre Cox Baker | Friday, August 24, 2007

Bishop Martin Amos and Scott County Attorney Mike Walton have reaffirmed an agreement that dictates the handling of investigations into alleged clergy sexual abuse.

The “Memorandum of Understanding” between the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport and the county attorney directs that all allegations of sexual abuse of minors — by clergy or religious order men and women and reported to the diocese — be immediately forwarded to the county attorney.

The agreement was first signed in 2004 by then-Bishop William Franklin and former Scott County Attorney Bill Davis.

“One of the benefits of the memorandum is the clear understanding that reports of abuse by living priests are sent to the Scott County attorney before any determination is made by the diocese,” said Deacon David Montgomery, diocese spokesman.

CALIFORNIA
Ventura County Star

By George Johnson
Friday, August 24, 2007

As parishioners of Santa Clara Parish in Oxnard and also as members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, we are relieved and pleased that a definitive settlement for the victims of the sexual abuse scandals in our archdiocese has been reached.

While no amount of money can heal the wounds of such ill use (especially during childhood), the fact that Cardinal Roger Mahony has brought to a close this sorry chapter in our church's history is a significant contribution to the healing of all involved.

We applaud most of all the heartfelt apologies extended by our cardinal to these victims. While for some victims this is "too little too late," it is part of a large effort to bring about mutual forgiveness and reconciliation in our church community — past and present.

ROMEOVILLE (IL)
Associated Baptist Press

By Michael Leathers
Published August 22, 2007

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. (ABP) – Despite warnings from a denominational official as well as another church, a Southern Baptist congregation near Chicago allowed a convicted child molester to preach for years.

In the end, it took media inquiries for Jeffrey Hannah, 42, to relinquish his leadership positions at, and resign as a member of, First Baptist Church of Romeoville, Ill.

The news about Hannah comes at a time when the Southern Baptist Convention is under heightened scrutiny about its role to protect children from sexual predators in the ministry. Unlike in more hierarchical denominations, Southern Baptist congregations have had few methods for vetting potential ministerial candidates. Many have unwittingly employed convicted sex offenders to work with children and youth.

“Clergy child molesters use their position of spiritual trust as a weapon. No matter how remorseful they may seem, that weapon should never again be placed in their hands,” according to Christa Brown, Baptist outreach director with Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and founder of StopBaptistPredators.org. “They cannot be allowed back in the pulpit. It's a faulty forgiveness theology that would require kids to serve as the litmus test for finding out whether a child molester’s remorse is genuine.”

NEW YORK
The Citizen

Thursday, August 23, 2007 11:52 AM EDT

It's true that the news media gives extra attention to child sex abuse cases involving clergy, educators, coaches or other people who play a guiding role in young people's lives.

There's good reason for it. These people carry a tremendous responsibility - shaping young lives - that requires the trust and support of parents. When details emerge about the betrayal of that trust, it can cause widespread hurt.

With that reality in mind, we have no choice but to express our contempt for the public reaction of J. Edward Putnam to the story that broke about his suspension by the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York. He's been barred from acting as a priest for 20 years.

WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

By Omar Fekeiki and Darragh Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 24, 2007; Page B04

A group of Catholic friars has agreed to pay $1.2 million to a 20-year-old man who accused a one-time Washington area priest of sexual abuse when the man was a teenager and living in Germantown.

Under the terms of an agreement announced yesterday, the Dominican Friars, Province of St. Joseph, will pay the money to Brandon Rains, a former altar boy at Mother Seton Parish in Germantown, where the Rev. Aaron J. Cote was associate pastor in 2001 and 2002. In a lawsuit that Rains filed against Cote, the Dominicans and the Archdiocese of Washington, Rains accused Cote of "harmful sexual conduct and contact" with Rains when he was 14 and 15 years old, causing him "severe and permanent emotional distress."

Cote could not be reached for comment.

DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register

By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR

A survivor of childhood sexual abuse by a Des Moines Catholic diocese priest has taken action to help children similarly betrayed by trusted adults.

As part of his lawsuit settlement with the Diocese of Des Moines, Henry Wadle required the church to make a charitable contribution to an organization assisting in the fight against the effects of childhood sexual abuse.

This week, Orchard Place announced the establishment of the Orchard Place Endow Iowa Fund for Survivors of Sexual Abuse.

"My situation was not unlike that faced by many school aged children in the '60s and '70s," Wadle said in a letter to Nancy Bobo, vice president of Orchard Place. "I could no longer stand silent while the suffering of these children, now grown men and women, continued. Fortunately, we were able to resolve my matter in a way that will allow me to get the help I need. Somehow, that resolution by itself did not seem adequate. There was a void to be filled."

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Union-Tribune

By Mark Sauer and Sandi Dolbee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

August 24, 2007

A federal bankruptcy judge will rule by Monday on whether dozens of child sexual-abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego may go back to state court for trials.

Judge Louise DeCarl Adler had tentatively sided with the victims' lawyers to release some of the lawsuits, but she delayed finalizing that decision yesterday after hearing that progress has been made in recent settlement talks.

“We're working hard,” attorney Irwin Zalkin, who represents many of the victims, confirmed in an interview. A church attorney said there has been serious progress in the past two weeks.

In her tentative written ruling in favor of releasing 42 of 127 lawsuits to state court for trial, Adler issued a stern rebuke to the diocese. She said it appeared the diocese's attorneys were “forum shopping” when they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February and described the settlement offer as “substantially less” than what other California dioceses have paid.

MARYLAND
The Frederick News-Post

By Ron Cassie
News-Post Staff

The parents of a local man who said a Catholic priest abused him as a teen announced Thursday that the Rev. Aaron Joseph Cote's Dominican order has agreed to a $1.2 million settlement in the case.

Brandon Rains, 20, a former altar boy at Mother Seton parish in Germantown, alleged in 2003 that Cote, an associate pastor there from 1997 to 1999 and 2000 to 2002, had molested him in 2001 and 2002 — when Rains was 14 and 15 years old.

Brother Ignatius Perkins, of the Dominican Fathers and Brothers Province of St. Joseph in New York City, acknowledged the settlement Thursday and said Cote, though still a priest, is no longer active in ministry.

Rains' stepfather and mother, Joseph and Toni McMorrow, live in Urbana. With them at Thursday's press conference in Washington were representatives of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a national, self-help organization of victims of clergy sexual abuse.

PROVIDENCE (RI)
Turn to 10

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence allowed a priest to be transferred to a Providence church after an allegation of sexual abuse, an abuse survivors group said Thursday.

NBC 10's Kelley McGee reported that the Dominican order requested that the Rev. Aaron Joseph Cote be transferred to St. Pius V Catholic Church in Providence in 2003.
He served at the church for two years, and did not teach in the adjoining school.

According to the Providence Diocese, then Bishop Robert Mulvee was assured by the Dominican order that, "an allegation against Cote had been closed as unfounded."

In a statement from the Providence Diocese, "a background check by the Rhode Island attorney general's office revealed that Cote had no criminal background."

CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

Posted by James F. McCarty August 23, 2007 14:27PM

A former accountant for the Cleveland Catholic Diocese testified in U.S. District Court today that his business partner, Anton Zgoznik, routinely inflated bills and doctored invoices that he submitted to the diocese.

Zgoznik is on trial for charges related to a kickback scheme with the diocese's former chief financial officer, Joseph Smith, who will stand trial later this year.

Zrino Jukic, during his second day on the witness stand, said the diocese paid him and Zgoznik $17.5 million over a five-year period. Jukic said many of those payments were based on falsified billing receipts.

Another potential government witness with knowledge of the case has said Zgoznik may have charged the diocese three times the amount due for the actual work that was performed. In return, prosecutors say, Zgoznik kicked back $784,000 to Smith.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Union-Tribune

Bankruptcy court tentative ruling (PDF, 9 pages).

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Union-Tribune

By Mark Sauer and Sandi Dolbee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

1:13 p.m. August 23, 2007

A federal judge today held off on finalizing a decision to send dozens of child sexual abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego back to state court for trials.

Recognizing that significant progress had been made in recent settlement talks, Judge Louise DeCarl Adler said she would delay her decision until Monday.

In a tentative ruling, she had granted the request from abuse-victims' attorneys to send 42 of 127 lawsuits back for trial.

But in a stern rebuke, Adler said the diocese was “forum shopping” and that its offer was “significantly less” than the statewide average for such cases.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Mercury News

By ALLISON HOFFMAN Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 08/23/2007 02:15:32 PM PDT

SAN DIEGO—A federal bankruptcy judge said Thursday she would decide by Monday whether to allow immediate civil trials in as many as 42 sex-abuse cases pending against the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Louise DeCarl Adler issued a preliminary ruling late Wednesday night tentatively granting the plaintiffs' request for state court trials, but said she needed to weigh additional issues brought up in oral arguments before making a final decision.

San Diego Superior Court trials already scheduled for five cases were automatically suspended when the diocese abruptly filed for bankruptcy in February, the night before the first trial was slated to begin.

Lawyers representing about 150 people who claim they were sexually abused by priests as children told Adler that re-activating those trials was the only way to force the diocese into a settlement after more than three years of fruitless negotiations in state and federal courts.

INDIANA
Perry County News

By KEVIN KOELLING
Managing Editor

PERRY COUNTY — A Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in July means Perry County people who filed lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by an ex-priest will see him in court, their attorney said Aug. 16.

The News reported in several stories in 2005 and 2006 civil lawsuits were filed alleging Harry Monroe abused boys in churches to which he was assigned by the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, including St. Paul Church in Tell City and St. Michael Church in Cannelton.

The archdiocese was also named as a defendant based on claims it knew of sexual-abuse claims against the priest when it transferred him from Indianapolis to Terre Haute, then to Tell City.

MISSOURI
News-Leader

The Catholic Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau has been found to meet the requirements of the church?s Charter for Protection of Children and Young People, the diocese announced today.

In July, representatives from The Gavin Group Inc. examined how the diocese is implementing the charter, passed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002 in response to clergy abuse revelations. Each diocese was required to present its own plan to implement the charter.

In 2002, the Springfield diocese acknowledged three priests who had been removed from their duties because of sex abuse allegations, some dating back to the 1980s. A fourth priest in the diocese was removed in 2006 after allegations of sexual misconduct.

MARYLAND
Gazette

by Melissa A. Chadwick | Staff Writer

A former altar boy at Mother Seton Parish in Germantown who accused a priest there of sexually abusing him has reached a $1.2 million settlement with a Catholic religious order.

The Rev. Aaron Joseph Cote, 56, was accused of abusing Brandon Rains, now 21, from June 2001 to July 2002 at locations in Germantown and Washington, D.C. Rains filed a lawsuit against Cote in November 2005. Cote worked as a member of the Order of Dominican Fathers and Brothers in New York City and was assigned as an associate pastor and youth minister at Mother Seton from 1999 to 2002.

The allegations of sexual abuse were reported to Montgomery County Police on Aug. 14, 2003. No criminal charges were ever filed against Cote, police said.

WISCONSIN
Janesville Gazette

(Published Thursday, August 23, 2007 11:25:28 AM CST)

By Mike Heine
mheine@gazetteextra.com

New allegations have surfaced against a renowned Jesuit priest convicted of molesting two boys in Fontana nearly 40 years ago.

A civil suit filed in Cook County Circuit Court on Tuesday says the Rev. Donald J. McGuire, 77, may have molested a boy as late as 2003.

The suit says McGuire started abusing the plaintiff, then a 13-year-old boy, in 1999 when the boy stayed with McGuire at the Canisus House, a Jesuit residence in Evanston, Ill. The suit accuses McGuire of molesting the boy in six countries and 12 states, including Wisconsin.

UNITED STATES
Catholic World News

In King Lear (III:vii) there is a man who is such a minor character that Shakespeare has not given him even a name: he is merely "First Servant." All the characters around him -- Regan, Cornwall, and Edmund -- have fine long-term plans. They think they know how the story is going to end, and they are quite wrong. The servant has no such delusions. He has no notion how the play is going to go. But he understands the present scene. He sees an abomination (the blinding of old Gloucester) taking place. He will not stand it. His sword is out and pointed at his master's breast in a moment: then Regan stabs him dead from behind. That is his whole part: eight lines all told. But if it were real life and not a play, that is the part it would be best to have acted.
-- C.S. Lewis, "The World's Last Night"

Dismayed by Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger's lint-flavored observations on yet another predator priest he'd kept stashed in an Evansville parish, it struck me what a shabby figure my own sex has cut throughout the clergy abuse crisis, and, on the contrary, how frequently the voices raised in opposition to the lies and injustice have belonged to women. None of these women was heeded, as it happens, but they deserve to be honored all the same for the decency and guts to sound off in the face of iniquity.

ZIMBABWE
allAfrica

Financial Gazette (Harare)

22 August 2007
Posted to the web 23 August 2007

Njabulo Ncube
Harare

THE Catholic Church has opened its own investigations into allegations that Bulawayo Archbishop Pius Ncube had an affair with a married parishioner.

The office of the secretary general of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference (ZCBC) said it would only comment on the controversy dogging the Bulawayo Diocese after the conclusion of its investigations.

Archbishop Ncube, a strident critic of President Robert Mugabe, has been sued for $20 billion by Onesimus Sibanda, the husband of Rosemary Sibanda, the woman at the centre of the alleged affair.

"The media has reached its own verdict, but the church has its own process presently going on," said the office of ZCBC secretary general, Frederick Chiromba. "When the process has been completed, also taking into consideration the legal process underway in the courts, we will then be in a position to inform the media of the Church's position."

LOUISA (VA)
WCAV

August 22, 2007

There is more trouble for the catholic priest accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from two Louisa County churches.

Federal authorities have charged Father Rodney Rodis with 13 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. In light of the new charges, state prosecutors say they will drop their current embezzlement case against the priest. ...

They allege Rodis launched a devious scheme to steal more than $500,000 from parishioners at two Louisa County churches. The feds say Rodis set up bank accounts, a P.O. box, and even had special stamps made for endorsing checks and that he then allegedly laundered that stolen money through the Philippians.

None of the money has yet been recovered, but the Commonwealth hopes the feds will change that.

CLEVELAND (OH)
Coshocton Tribune

CLEVELAND - A former top accountant for the Cleveland Catholic Diocese cheated the church and defrauded the government by handling about $785,000 in kickbacks that went to the top-ranking lay executive of the diocese, the government said at Wednesday's trial opening.

Anton Zgoznik, 40, of suburban Kirtland Hills, was instrumental in arranging the secret payments from church funds to Joseph Smith, former diocese chief financial officer, federal prosecutor John M. Siegel told a U.S. District Court jury.

Zgoznik's attorney, Robert J. Rotatori, said the payments amounted to secret executive compensation approved in an exhaustive church budget process that included Bishop Anthony M. Pilla, who is now retired.

"That was the way of the diocese and priests - secrecy," Rotatori said.

NAUGATUCK (CT)
Boston Globe

August 23, 2007

NAUGATUCK, Conn. --A Roman Catholic priest arrested on a sexual assault charge is accused of plying a 15-year-old boy with wine and cash in exchange for oral sex, according to newly opened court documents.

A probable cause affidavit released Wednesday details allegations against the Rev. Robert J. Grant, 63, pastor of St. Mary and St. Hedwig churches in Naugatuck.

Grant was charged Aug. 2 with second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor, and later released on a $200,000 bond.

The boy, now 16, told police that Grant first gave him wine and $20 in June 2006. He said their first sexual encounter occurred in August 2006, according to the affidavit.

CHICAGO (IL)
BishopAccountability.org

BishopAccountability.org has posted the latest complaint against the Rev. Donald J. McGuire that alleges he sexually abused a boy as late as 2003.

WASHINGTON (DC)
PRNewswire

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The following press release is being issued on behalf of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests:
WHAT
At sidewalk news conferences in DC and three other cities, a new $1.2 million settlement in a recent Catholic priest sex abuse and cover up lawsuit will be disclosed and discussed.
The child sex crimes happened until 2002, the predator was moved to another state, and during a police probe of the case, church officials failed to notify law enforcement about reports of a second victim.
Later, the church hierarchy sought a court order to prevent them from having to disclose the name of a Catholic teacher who was in touch with the second victim. A judge refused to grant their request.
WHEN
TOMORROW, Thursday, Aug. 23, 1:30 p.m.
WHERE
Outside St. Dominic's Catholic Church, 630 E Street SW, Washington DC
(202-544-7863)

CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

hursday, August 23, 2007

James F. McCarty
Plain Dealer Reporter
Ten years ago, the chief financial officer of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese made a proposition to the co-owners of an accounting firm working for the diocese.

CFO Joseph Smith asked for a 10 percent cut of all the money the diocese paid the accountants, Zrino Jukic testified Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland.

In exchange, Smith assured Jukic and his business partner, Anton Zgoznik, that he would give them more diocesan accounting work.

CANADA
Portage Daily Graphic

By Cynthia Münster
Wednesday August 22, 2007

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE — John Taylor is disappointed and frustrated by the federal government’s residential school settlement.
The Dakota Tipi First Nation resident spent 12 years in a residential school in Lebret, Sask., during his childhood and the memories of that experience still haunt him.
“It’s very frustrating and very disappointing. It hurts, you know? It still hurts today, I hate to talk about it, but people ask me to talk about it. I talk and I always break down,” said Taylor. “I’m happy at this settlement that is coming out -- at least it’s better than nothing. You know, $43,000 is a lot of money when you think about it, which I never had in my life.I can make use of it. But still, I don’t think it’s enough. It should be more.”

CALIFORNIA
California Catholic Daily

Though a 2002 change to California law extended the time for filing sexual abuse civil lawsuits against entities such as the Catholic Church, it does not apply to public agencies, such as school districts, the California Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

In a lawsuit against the Vista school district, a 45-year old woman claimed that a former teacher, Jeffrey Paul Jones, engaged in sex with her 200 times over an 18-month period, beginning in 1978. She was 15 and Jones, 30. Jones does not deny having had a relationship with the woman, though he says she “overstated” her allegations. The woman, who did not report the alleged sexual misconduct until 2001, claims school district officials knew or should have known about the misconduct.

Because the woman had not filed her claim with the district sometime in 1980, as required by state law, a superior court judge dismissed her lawsuit in 2003. But a San Diego appeals court overturned the superior court’s decision, based on the 2002 California law. The state Supreme Court, however, said the 2002 law allowed the filing of old claims if they were barred solely by the statute of limitations. But, said the court, a state statute governing public entities provides, beyond the statute of limitations, another bar, which the 2002 law did not remove – namely, a requirement that a claim against the school district be filed within 100 days of the cause of the complaint. The plaintiff did not do this and so could not file a lawsuit against the Vista school district under the 2002 law, said the Supreme Court.

CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise

By GAIL WESSON
The Press-Enterprise

A Hemet man who volunteered at a Christian church was convicted of molesting three boys and distributing child pornography by a Riverside County Superior Court jury that deliberated about an hour Wednesday.

Jeffrey Randolph Wright, 47, faces a sentence of more than 141 years up to a maximum of life in prison, prosecutor Burke Strunsky said by phone. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 21.

Wright was seen as a mentor to teenagers and used their trust to his advantage two years ago when he sexually abused three boys between the ages of 12 and 13, Strunsky said during the trial's opening statements last week in a Southwest Justice Center courtroom in French Valley.

NIAGARA FALLS (NY)
The New York Times

By DAVID STABA
Published: August 23, 2007
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y., Aug. 22 — For nearly two years, students at St. Dominic Savio Middle School here — particularly the girls — referred to Christian Butler, a part-time computer teacher, as “the Perv.”

Mr. Butler began earning that nickname shortly after the school opened in 2002, frequently making lewd comments in class and, in a one-on-one encounter, coarsely complimenting a pre-teen girl on her body, according to court records and interviews with his former students, their parents and a co-worker.

Students turned on the laptop computers assigned to them to find pornography, both live and animated. At least twice, students said, Mr. Butler projected crude images, including one of two topless women wrestling in mud, onto walls during class.

He was sentenced on Wednesday to four years in prison for violating probation requirements stemming from his 2005 guilty plea on charges of possessing child pornography and endangering the welfare of a minor. At the same time, two families of his victims are filing a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo seeking $1.5 million and an apology, claiming that school and church officials ignored repeated complaints about Mr. Butler until a former student alerted the police in June 2004.

ITALY
Reuters

By Eric J. Lyman

NEMI, Italy (Hollywood Reporter) - A top Vatican official has accused the Italian media of bias by focusing too much coverage on church-related sex scandals.

Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, the No. 2 official at the Vatican, this week issued a series of statements critical of television and print media coverage of a pair of sex scandals: one that alleges clergy paid off a 24-year-old man to keep his allegations of sexual abuse under wraps, and another involving an 82-year-old priest accused of abusing patients in a drug rehab center he operates.

Italian media coverage has been "shameful and mystifying," Bertone said, adding that paying too much attention to the charges was "a false way to present the church, as if you presented a dark fragment of the great Sistine Chapel and said that represented the whole masterpiece."

CANADA
Ottawa Sun

By TERRI SAUNDERS, Sun Media

CORNWALL, Ont. — A man admitted Wednesday that he made up a story about suffering sexual abuse at the hands of a city priest.

The man told an inquiry probing the institutional response to allegations of systemic sexual abuse in the Cornwall area that he made up the story in 1977 to please a rogue police officer dedicated to putting the priest behind bars.

“I felt pressured,” the man testified. “He kept pushing me and pushing me and I felt I had to give him something.”

In 1996, the man, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, told then-city cop Perry Dunlop he was sexually abused by Rev. Charles MacDonald.

MEMPHIS (TN)
The Daily News

BILL DRIES | The Daily News

The Catholic Diocese of Memphis has settled three lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by two priests. Confirmation of the settlements and dismissals last month come a week after two new lawsuits were filed alleging a fourth instance of child sexual abuse by a priest named in three other lawsuits and the rape of an adult by another priest.

The Shelby County Circuit Court suit filed in July 2004 by Blain and Blair Chambers against Father Richard Mickey was the first child sexual abuse claim of its kind against a priest in a Memphis court. The twin brothers claimed repressed memories of abuse by Mickey in the 1980s while they were students at Bishop Byrne High School and Mickey was a counselor at the school. He later became a priest.

"It was a settlement on a confidential basis," said B.J. Wade, attorney for the Chambers brothers. "The matter was resolved between the parties based upon their agreement."

NAUGATUCK (CT)
The Hartford Courant

By DAVID OWENS | Courant Staff Writer
August 23, 2007

Sometime in February or March, a 16-year-old youth told his father he had been sexually involved for several months with a Naugatuck priest, but it wasn't until June 27 that police were notified, according to an arrest warrant for the Rev. Robert J. Grant unsealed Wednesday in Superior Court in Waterbury.

A Naugatuck police detective was assigned to the case July 2, and that day went to the boy's home to begin an investigation. The detective, however, was rebuffed by the boy's father, who'd been told by his attorney "not to speak with police at this time."

The father provided police with some information, but again deferred to his attorney, Leonard McDermott, of Naugatuck. Police tried several times to reach McDermott and were eventually able to schedule an interview with the boy on July 25. The boy's father and McDermott were present.

The boy provided a statement detailing abuse that allegedly began when he was 15. Grant, in a subsequent interview with police, denied the boy's allegations, and then, after consulting a lawyer, declined to answer any more questions.

CLIFTON (NJ)
Herald News

Thursday, August 23, 2007

By KAREN KELLER
HERALD NEWS

CLIFTON -- After a three-year absence from the pulpit, a Catholic priest accused of fondling a boy decades ago has been reinstated.

The Diocese of Paterson conducted a tribunal, conferred with Rome, then declared the priest innocent last week, said Marianna Thompson, communications director for the diocese.

The Rev. Andrew Peretta, 59, of Sacred Heart Church on Randolph Avenue, gave his first Mass after the leave of absence Thursday of last week, he said by telephone Tuesday.

"It was very difficult," he said, declining further comment.

CLEVELAND (OH)
Ohio.com

By THOMAS J. SHEERAN Associated Press Writer

Published on Wednesday Aug 22, 2007

A former top accountant for the Cleveland Catholic Diocese cheated the church and defrauded the government by handling about $785,000 in kickbacks that went to the top-ranking lay executive of the diocese, the government said at Wednesday's trial opening.

Anton Zgoznik, 40, of suburban Kirtland Hills, was instrumental in arranging the secret payments from church funds to Joseph Smith, former diocese chief financial officer, federal prosecutor John M. Siegel told a U.S. District Court jury.

Zgoznik's attorney, Robert J. Rotatori, said the payments amounted to secret executive compensation approved in an exhaustive church budget process that included Bishop Anthony M. Pilla, who is now retired.

"That was the way of the diocese and priests _ secrecy," Rotatori said.

CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By DAVID OWENS | The Hartford Courant
11:19 AM EDT, August 22, 2007

WATERBURY - A Roman Catholic priest from Naugatuck accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy did not enter a plea this morning in Superior Court in Waterbury.

The Rev. Robert J. Grant, 63, appeared briefly before Judge Joan Alexander. His case was transferred to Part A, where he is scheduled to appear Sept. 12.

NAUGATUCK (CT)
Waterbury Republican American

A Roman Catholic priest at two Naugatuck parishes who was charged with sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy did not enter a plea at Waterbury Superior Court Wednesday morning.

The case against the Rev. Robert J. Grant, 63, was transferred to Part A, where the more serious crimes are heard, by Judge Joan Alexander, and Grant is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 12. Meanwhile, the judge is expected today to unseal the warrant for Grant's arrest.

NAUGATUCK (CT)
WTNH

Posted Aug. 22, 2007
3:20 PM

Naugatuck (WTNH) _ There was a brief court appearance today for a Naugatuck priest accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.

The Reverend Robert Grant did not enter a plea, but is due back in court next month.

WORCESTER (MA)
Boston Herald

By Dave Wedge
Boston Herald Chief Enterprise Reporter

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

A Worcester victims rights group is fuming after the case against an alleged pedophile priest deemed incompetent to stand trial was continued for a 33rd time.

The molestation case against the Rev. John Szantyr has dragged on in Worcester District Court for four years and was again continued Monday because prosecutors didn’t receive a doctor’s report in time for the hearing.
Szantyr, who faces charges he molested an altar boy in Worcester in the mid-1980s, has already been ruled incompetent by a judge, but District Attorney Joseph Early Jr.’s office called for a new evaluation “due to information that was brought to our attention.”

Among the new information are reports that Szantyr, 76, was seen walking at a rest stop just minutes after he appeared in court in a wheelchair and that he has continued to oversee religious services in Connecticut. Szantyr, who reportedly is too ill to feed, clothe and bathe himself, also recently renewed his Connecticut driver’s license, court filings show.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

August 22, 2007
Convicted child sex offenders certainly should be able to seek redemption at a church. But when they're elevated to the pulpit and given access to impressionable youth -- as was the case at a Romeoville church -- the state needs stricter laws that keep these "religious" child molesters from having contact with children.

Currently, state law restricts convicted pedophiles from working or volunteering in schools and places that cater exclusively to children, but not churches.

This week, the Sun-Times reported that Romeoville's First Baptist Church placed one sex offender in a key leadership position -- and invited another. Such disregard for congregants' safety shows how lackadaisical some houses of worship can be, compromising common sense and safety.

Had convicted sex offender Jeff Hannah, one of the church's preachers, been lurking near playgrounds and schools, he could have been nabbed by authorities. More difficult to monitor were his sporadic interactions with minors at the southwest suburban church.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Manya A. Brachear | Tribune religion reporter
August 22, 2007

A prominent Jesuit priest convicted of molesting two Loyola Academy students during the 1960s was accused this week of abusing another boy as recently as 2003.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, a 21-year-old college student says Rev. Donald McGuire molested him between 1999 and 2003 while the teen shared a bedroom with the priest in Canisius House, a Jesuit residence in Evanston. The suit accuses McGuire of abusing the boy in 12 states and six countries as he traveled the globe providing spiritual retreats.

Authorities in Wisconsin, where McGuire was convicted last year, said the suit has prompted them to consider filing new charges, ending his probation and putting him in prison. Wisconsin is one of the states mentioned in the suit.

LOUISA (VA)
Free Lance-Star

BY ELLEN BILTZ

A priest facing 13 felony counts in Louisa County for embezzling money from churches now faces federal charges.

Rodney Lee Rodis, 51, was indicted yesterday on mail fraud , wire fraud and money laundering by a federal grand jury for allegedly wiring money from Virginia Beach to the Philippines, according to the United States Attorney's Office.

He is accused of wiring at least $515,000, of which he is alleged to have obtained from partitioners at his Louisa parishes.

Prosecutors say he established bank accounts and a post office box and directed parishioners to mail their contributions to the post office box, after which he'd transfer the money and wire the funds.

LOUISA (VA)
Richmond Times-Dispatch

By TOM CAMPBELL AND CALVIN R. TRICE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS
A Catholic priest accused in state court of embezzling from two Louisa County churches was indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury on 13 charges of bank fraud, wire fraud and money-laundering.

The Rev. Rodney L. Rodis, 51, had faced 13 embezzlement counts in Louisa. Its prosecutor will drop the state charges as the federal government pursues its case in court here.

In Louisa, Rodis was accused of stealing as much as $1 million from two churches he served as pastor -- St. Jude in Mineral and Immaculate Conception in Bumpass.

DALLAS (TX)
Orthodox Reform

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Dallas and the Denver Metropolis — both represented by the Dallas law firm of Douglas D. Fletcher — made a motion on June 6th to expose the Plaintiff’s name to the public (see attached motion below).1

Attorneys representing both the Plaintiffs and the Defendants in the Nicholas Katinas sexual misconduct lawsuit went before a judge on August 7th to review this motion. The judge denied the Defendants’ motion and ruled that the Plaintiffs be allowed to continue to use pseudonyms within the public documents.

The judge also set the trial date for this case for June 9th, 2008.

AUSTRALIA
CathNews

The protection and prevention officer for a church committee on professional standards has appealed to people to "trust their instincts when they are suspicious" of the possibility of child abuse.

Legislation and other programs are not enough to protect the vulnerable, Brigidine Sr Angela Ryan told The Age.

The National Committee for Professional Standards is asking Catholics to learn more about the harm sexual abuse does, and how abusers groom their victims.

JASPER (IN)
Courier & Press

Link to statement issued by Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger regarding sexual abuse allegedly committed by the late Rev. Othmar Schroeder.

JASPER (IN)
Courier & Press

Link to a statement by the Rev. John Boeglin, pastor of Holy Family Church in Jasper, Ind. The statement concerns allegations of sexual abuse committed by the late Monsignor Othmar Schroeder, the founding pastor of that parish

JASPER (IN)
Courier & Press

By Susan Orr
Wednesday, August 22, 2007

After the Catholic Diocese of Evansville's recent acknowledgment of sexual abuse committed years ago by the parish's founding priest, Holy Family Church in Jasper is taking steps to move beyond the pain.

The priest in question, Monsignor Othmar Schroeder, founded Holy Family in 1947. In 1975, he moved to Sacred Heart Church in Schnellville, Ind., and he served there until his death in 1988.

This past weekend, Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger visited Holy Family and delivered an address in which he named Schroeder as having "sexually violated some innocent young boys of the parish."

BURLINGTON (VT)
Rutland Herald

August 22, 2007

The Associated Press

BURLINGTON — Facing the prospect of paying more than $100,000 in legal fees, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington says a judge was to blame for a mistrial in a priest sex abuse case.

Judge Ben Joseph declared the mistrial June 25 in the case of James Turner, 46, of Virginia Beach, Va., who sued the Diocese, saying it was partly responsible for the molestation he allegedly suffered at the hands of former priest Rev. Alfred Willis.

Joseph ended the trial hours before it was to go to a jury, saying church lawyers violated pretrial rulings limiting what they could ask of Turner about an alleged sexual relationship between his brother and Willis. He also ordered the Diocese to pay Turner's legal tab, which came to about $112,000, counting other costs associated with trial preparation by his attorneys.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

August 22, 2007
BY SUSAN HOGAN/ALBACH Religion Reporter shogan@suntimes.com
A sexual abuse lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Cook County against a local Catholic religious order and one of its priests, a convicted child molester who once led retreats for nuns in Mother Teresa's community.

The suit alleges that Jesuit priest Donald McGuire abused a boy over a three-year-period, beginning in 1999, when the victim was 13 years old and living periodically with the priest at Canisius House, a Jesuit residence in Evanston.

A spokesman for Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits, cast doubt on the allegation, however.

"It is highly unlikely that a minor or a non-Jesuit would be living in a Jesuit residence in any capacity," said Jeremy Langford.

CHICAGO (IL)
Tuscaloosa News

LIBBY SANDER

CHICAGO, Aug. 21 — A Jesuit priest convicted last year of sexually abusing two teenage boys about 40 years ago is facing new accusations of abuse.

Though the original charges against the priest, the Rev. Donald J. McGuire, date from the late 1960s, the new accusations, in a civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court, describe abuse that occurred from 1999 to 2003.

The lawsuit says Father McGuire, who is 77, abused the plaintiff, known as John Doe 116, who was 13 when he first came to stay with Father McGuire at a Jesuit residence in Evanston, Ill. It also states that Father McGuire sexually abused the boy in 13 states and 6 foreign countries.

The suit also names the local Jesuits, formally known as the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus, as defendants, saying that Jesuit officials “knew or should reasonably have known” of Father McGuire’s behavior and failed to supervise him accordingly.

INDIANA
WFIE

Aug 21, 2007 07:47 AM EDT

New Media Producer: Rachel Beavin

A Roman Catholic bishop told members of a southern Indiana parish that a priest who has been dead for 19 years sexually abused boys during his nearly three decades at the church.

Evansville Diocese Bishop, Gerald Gettelfinger, did not say how many boys Monsignor Othmar Schroeder was believed to have abused during his time at Holy Family Church or when the abuse happened.

Gettelfinger spoke during weekend Masses at the church, saying he learned several years ago of the allegations against Schroeder, but had found out that the scope of the abuse "is greater than we knew."

RICHMOND (VA)
WAVY

Associated Press - August 21, 2007 8:35 PM ET

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A Roman Catholic priest charged in state court with embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from two rural churches is now facing federal fraud charges.

Prosecutors say a federal grand jury today indicted the Reverend Rodney Rodis on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

According to the indictment, the 51-year-old from Fredericksburg embezzled money from churches in Bumpass and Mineral from 2002 until last year.

Rodis is being held at Central Virginia Regional Jail in Orange County on 13 state felony embezzlement charges stemming from the incident. In May, Rodis' bond was revoked after he violated terms of his bond.

BARRINGTON (RI)
EastBayRI

BARRINGTON - A man who served as interim pastor at St. John's Episcopal Church in Barrington recently admitted to sexually abusing four adolescent boys while serving as rector of a church in New York. J. Edward Putnam, 66, has been suspended from all ministerial and pastorly duties for the next 20 years, according to Retired Rev. Gladstone B. Adams, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York. Mr. Putnam reportedly abused the boys between 1985 and 1993.

Local officials said there are no indications that Mr. Putnam acted inappropriately while serving in Barrington at St. John's. Mr. Putnam served at St. John's in 2000 and left in Oct. 2001. Rev. C. Neal Goldsborough was appointed rector in early November of that year, replacing Mr. Putnam who served as interim for about a year.

Rev. Goldsborough said he and the members of the parish are saddened by the actions of the former pastor.

MENDHAM (NJ)
NJ.com

by Margaret McHughTuesday August 21, 2007, 10:51 AM

A non-practicing Roman Catholic priest charged with molesting four teenage boys at a Mendham drug treatment program faces probation under a plea deal he accepted this morning.

Richard Mieliwocki, 60, pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse. He had previously agreed to give up his social work license.

Mieliwocki, a Madison resident, was accused of molesting four boys, ages 16 to 18, during therapy sessions at Daytop Village between March and December of 2004.

MEMPHIS (TN)
Fox 13

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WHBQ FOX13 myfoxmemphis.com)- New allegations of sexual abuse involving a Memphis priest have surfaced. A woman identified as "Jane Doe Four" filed a lawsuit against the bishop who leads the Catholic Diocese of Memphis for knowing about the abuse and not taking action. The woman says that after a long and trusting relationship with Father Gregory Salata, he abused her and the church did nothing about it.

VATICAN CITY
Canada.com

Phil Stewart, Reuters
Published: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 Article tools

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican's top diplomat accused the media of "shameful and mystifying" coverage of allegations of sexual abuse by Italian priests and suggested there might be a campaign against the Church.

Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone took aim at reporting of a probe by Turin prosecutors into clergy accused of paying a 24-year-old man to keep quiet about past abuse.

A separate investigation involves accusations of abuse by one of Italy's best-known priests, 82-year-old Pietro Gelmini.

In comments to Vatican radio published on Tuesday, Bertone said he respected the work of the prosecutors but criticized the media for paying so much attention to unproven accusations that he said warped the image of the Roman Catholic Church.

FREDERICK (CO)
Farmer & Miner

By Staff Writer
08/16/2007

Christine Hollister
Farmer & Miner Editor

FREDERICK ­ ­— The town of Frederick became the center of nationwide attention last week as details surfaced regarding the June 22 arrest of local priest Rev. Robert Whipkey.

Whipkey faces an indecent exposure charge after an off-duty Frederick police officer spotted the priest of St. Theresa Catholic Church walking nude on the 500 block of Fifth Street at 4:35 a.m.

Whipkey admitted to Officer Zacheria Hahn he had been jogging without clothing at the Frederick High School track early that morning.

“I’m a heavy man and wearing clothing while running makes me sweat profusely,” Whipkey told the officer. “I know what I did was wrong.”

PORTLAND (OR)
The Oregonian

Tuesday, August 21, 2007
ASHBEL S. GREEN The Oregonian Staff
Lawyers have submitted their final bills to the Portland Archdiocese for bankruptcy proceedings: $18,842,506.13.

It's not clear how they figured the 13 cents.

The total includes only the lawyers and experts who worked on the case in Bankruptcy Court. Attorneys for priest accusers who filed the lawsuits that sent the archdiocese into bankruptcy in 2004 earned an estimated one-third of the $50 million in sex abuse settlements.

That puts the total payout to lawyers at about $35 million.

The Portland Archdiocese emerged from bankruptcy in April by settling with about 175 people who claimed they were sexually abused by priests or other employees of the archdiocese.

BURLINGTON (VT)
Burlington Free Press

Published: Tuesday, August 21, 2007
By Sam Hemingway
Free Press Staff Writer

Lawyers for the state's Roman Catholic diocese, blamed by Judge Ben Joseph for causing a mistrial in a recent priest molestation case, say the church should not be financially punished because it's the judge who made a mistake.

According to new papers on file at Chittenden Superior Court, church lawyers say Joseph -- even in a private chambers meeting with lawyers during the June trial -- never said he disapproved of a controversial line of questioning taken by diocesan attorney David Cleary.

"On the contrary, the court's initial response to plaintiffs motion for mistrial indicates the court felt during questioning -- and still thought in chambers -- that Mr. Cleary's questions had been legitimate," fellow diocesan attorney Tom McCormick wrote in a brief filed last week.

PORTLAND (OR)
KGW

08/21/2007

Associated Press

Lawyers who worked on the Portland Archdiocese bankruptcy case have submitted a legal bill for more than $18 million.

The tab includes $10.8 million in fees and $1 million in expenses charged by four law firms representing the archdiocese. The rest are expenses and fees charged by attorneys and experts working for other parties, including a committee of plaintiffs. In Bankruptcy Court, the party seeking protection pays for everyone's lawyers.

The archdiocese declared bankruptcy in 2004 to head off more lawsuits from people claiming they were sexually abused by priests or other employees.

JASPER (IN)
The Courier-Journal

Associated Press

JASPER, Ind. -- A Roman Catholic bishop told members of a Jasper parish that a priest sexually abused boys during nearly three decades at the church.

Evansville Diocese Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger did not say how many boys Monsignor Othmar Schroeder was believed to have abused during his time at Holy Family Church or when the abuse happened.

Gettelfinger spoke during weekend Masses at the church, saying that he learned several years ago of the allegations against Schroeder, who died in 1988, but had found out that the scope of the abuse "is greater than we knew."

Schroeder was the founding pastor of Jasper parish in 1947 and remained at the church until he was transferred in 1975 to Sacred Heart Church in nearby Schnellville.

BURLINGTON (VT)
WCAX

Associated Press - August 21, 2007 8:25 AM ET

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington wants the judge in a recent priest sex abuse case to take the blame for it ending in a mistrial.

Judge Ben Joseph called a mistrial in June in a lawsuit involving alleged abuse by former priest Alfred Willis after a lawyer for the church began asking questions the judge had earlier declared off-limits.

But now Diocesan lawyer Tom McCormick says the judge's instructions about the line of questioning were unclear, and that his co-counsel David Cleary thought he was operating within the bounds of the judge's instructions.

SOUTH DAKOTA
Keloland

A former South Dakota Lutheran Pastor is accused of molesting boys and girls in more than one South Dakota congregation, and his own son apologizes to the alleged victims. But the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America will not talk about it.

Pastor Floyd Bacon died in 1997, but a number of people claiming sexual abuse have just now begun to come forward.

KELOLAND News had two conversations with leaders in the ELCA church. Bishop Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl of the South Dakota Synod sent just a brief written statement.

Communications director John Brooks of the ELCA News Service says the allegations are none of the public's business.

In a written statement acknowledging alleged inappropriate sexual contact with children at the hands of Pastor Floyd Bacon, the South Dakota Synod of the ELCA states it has been in contact with victims and has disclosed information to several congregations.

OHIO
Journal News

By Matt Cunningham
Staff Writer

Monday, August 20, 2007

West Chester Twp. resident Christy Miller confirmed today that she has taken out a petition to run for township trustee in this fall's election.

Miller, a Mt. Notre Dame High School graduate who received a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies from Wilmington College, said the township's development and how it affects residents will be a focus of her campaign. ...

Miller, a co-leader since 2003 of the Cincinnati chapter of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the legislation drive fostered her interest in politics.

"It pushed me into an interest in children's and victims' rights," she said, "and that pushed me into an interest in politics. I think they were stepping stones."

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

August 21, 2007
BY SUSAN HOGAN/ALBACH Religion Reporter/shogan@suntimes.com
A second convicted sex offender was invited into a worship role at a southwest suburban Southern Baptist church, where Jeff Hannah, a multiple sex offender, had been preaching with the church's blessing since being paroled from prison in 2001, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

Hannah, 42, who had sexual relations with four teens while youth minister at a Lake County church, invited his neighbor, Bryan Buckley, to lead special music at a Sept. 9 celebration service at First Baptist Church in Romeoville, according to Buckley and church officials.

"I was asked to see if I was available on that date," Buckley told the Sun-Times.

Buckley, 38, was convicted in 1997 of four counts of criminally assaulting a 14-year-old girl over several months while a youth pastor at Christ Community Church in St. Charles. Hannah, convicted in 1996, apparently met Buckley in prison, officials said.

MAYVILLE (NY)
The Post-Journal

8/21/2007 - Special To The Post-Journal

MAYVILLE — Bishop Edward Kmiec will not face charges after an alleged incident with a Fredonia man on Aug. 11.

On Monday, David Foley, Chautauqua County district attorney, said he has closed the investigation into any allegations surrounding an incident between William Parks of Fredonia and Bishop Edward Kmiec.

Foley said the investigation of the alleged Aug. 11 altercation between Parks, a founding member of Catholic Parishioners Against Church Suppression, and Bishop Kmiec at the Clarion Hotel in Dunkirk yielded no indications of criminal activity on the part of either man. Parks filed a report with the Dunkirk Police Department, but did not file charges.

CANADA
LondonTopic

Stefania Moretti, Special to LondonTopic.ca
08/20/2007

It's hard for our society to accept boys as powerless. They are expected to "watch their own backs" and be able to defend themselves whenever their safety is threatened. And yet, according to the Canadian Department of Justice, 31 percent of all substantiated child sexual abuse and exploitation victims are male. Worse still, over 90 percent of all male victims of sexual abuse will never tell anyone.

John Field, a London Interfaith Counselling Centre therapist, believes that London is no exception to these troubling national averages and is frustrated with the double standards that plague society.

"For some reason a man's sexuality is challenged if he has been abused," said Field. "Men will often say to me: 'I wish I was hit, I wish I was cut,' because the bruises heal but the injuries are psychological."

It is easier for society to perceive women as victims than it is for them to see men in the same light. And as a result, the types and number of services available to men are scarce. "The services in London just aren't enough," said Field.

In June of this year the Ontario's Victim Services Secretariat approved $80,000 for services in support of the 47 female victims of Charles Sylvestre (a priest in London's Roman Catholic Church diocese convicted of sexually abusing young girls). The diocese is also providing an additional $44,000 to the women. In comparison, male victims of childhood sexual abuse in Windsor Chatham-Kent and London are getting $30,000 from the diocese. This is despite estimates that 75 percent of all victims of sexual abuse by clergy are male.

CALIFORNIA
North County Times

By: SCOTT MARSHALL - Staff Writer

NORTH COUNTY -- A former Vista High School student cannot sue the Vista Unified School District in connection with allegations that her English teacher sexually abused her when she was a teenage student almost 30 years ago, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The state's highest court split 6-1 in favor of ruling that a change to state law in 2002 regarding childhood sexual abuse lawsuits did not extend the time within which people must file a claim with a public agency like a school district, county or city. State law generally requires that a claim be filed with and rejected by a public agency before that agency can be sued.

Representatives of school districts and other public agencies have said in court documents and interviews that they feared public entities could be exposed to childhood sexual abuse lawsuits similar to those that plague the Roman Catholic church today if the Supreme Court decided the law extended the time in which to file claims.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
North County Times

By: TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writer

A federal judge Monday rejected a bid by the Catholic Diocese of San Diego to take over its case from federal bankruptcy court -- a decision that could help clear the way for sexual abuse cases to resume.

The cases have been on hold since Feb. 27, when the diocese filed for bankruptcy on the eve of the start of the trial in the first of several lawsuits filed by people alleging that priests sexually abused them.

Legal battles have been playing out within the bankruptcy court since then. Earlier this month, the diocese asked San Diego Chief U.S. District Judge Irma Gonzalez to take jurisdiction over the cases.

Attorneys for the alleged sex abuse victims contended in court documents that the diocese was trying to avoid what it believed was a bankruptcy judge's "inclination" to send the cases back to state court for trial.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Union-Tribune

By Sandi Dolbee
and Mark Sauer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

August 21, 2007

A U.S. District judge yesterday refused to intervene in the Roman Catholic diocese's clergy sex abuse cases, saying that at least for now, the matter “is best left up to the discretion of the Bankruptcy Court.”

Judge Irma Gonzalez rejected the diocese's request for the U.S. court to set the monetary value of roughly 150 claims put on hold by the bankruptcy case.

“At this juncture, the Bankruptcy Court is in the best position to determine from a case management standpoint how and when these actions should proceed for estimation or liquidation,” she wrote.

Attorneys for the victims said Gonzalez's decision was a clear endorsement of how bankruptcy Judge Louise DeCarl Adler is handling the diocese's Chapter 11 reorganization.

WILLMAR (MN)
West Central Tribune

Gretchen Schlosser West Central Tribune
Published Tuesday, August 21, 2007

WILLMAR — Four women, who were allegedly sexually abused by the Rev. David A. Roney while they were children, are asking the court to allow them to seek punitive damages in a lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of New Ulm, St. Francis Parish in Benson and St. Mary’s Parish in Willmar.

In a motion filed Aug. 15, the women are seeking permission to amend the original lawsuit, filed in August 2005 in Brown County Fifth Judicial District Court. The original lawsuit sued the diocese for negligence, but the requested amendments include counts alleging fraud and willful and wanton conduct because there is new evidence proving the church knew Roney was molesting children, according to Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul attorney representing the women.

A hearing on the motion is set Aug. 30. The case is set for trial in January. The diocese has settled two other priest sexual abuse lawsuits involving Roney.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling
“When he was auxiliary bishop of Fresno, Mahony was also a licensed social worker and was therefore required by law to report child abuse. When he became bishop of Stockton, California in 1980, Mahony surrendered this license and removed himself from the reporting requirements.”

That's from “Sacrilege” by Leon Podles due out from Crossland Press September 1st. (Amazing items about the handling of Michael Baker below.) City of Angels Lady is spending August curled up in the air conditioning with this 625-plus page book written by a bishopaccountability board member, and former federal investigator. At the end of August we’ll print a review, but here are some gems of information about the history of sexual abuse in the Los Angeles archdiocese that come up around page 217.

Podles begins the LA part of the story with George Patrick Ziemann, a friend of Mahony’s back in seminary. A plaintiff Richard at age 11 crossed paths with Ziemann when he was a parish priest in the 1960s in Huntington Park. Podles reports:

“Ziemann would give Richard fifty to a hundred dollars, tell him not to worry about it, then hear his confession and give him ten Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys as penance. This sexual relationship continued until 1986."

In the middle of this, Mahony made Ziemann head of a junior seminary. More sex abuse allegations came up about Ziemann. The Catholic church responded by making Ziemann bishop of Santa Rosa.

NEW YORK
WBEN

Mayville, NY (WBEN) - The Chautauqua County District Attorney says there was nothing criminal in nature after an investigation into a heated discussion between Bishop Edward Kmiec and a church member in Dunkirk.

William Parks claimed Bishop Kmiec thumped him on the chest during a heated conversation. District Attorney David Foley says five witnesses were interviewed, only one said there may have been contact between the two.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Union-Tribune

By Sandi Dolbee and Mark Sauer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

4:34 p.m. August 20, 2007

A U.S. District Court judge ruled Monday against the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego's request to remove the authority to estimate the value of childhood sexual abuse cases from federal Bankruptcy Court – at least for now.

“At this juncture, the Bankruptcy Court is in the best position to determine from a case management standpoint how and when these actions should proceed for estimation or liquidation,” wrote Judge Irma Gonzalez in her nine-page ruling.

Instead, she set another hearing for Nov. 26 to check on the status of the Chapter 11 reorganization case and attempts to settle lawsuits involving some 150 men and women who say they were sexually molested as minors by priests and other church workers.

Putting a value on the claims is one of the most crucial issues in the bankruptcy case. The diocese has offered $95 million; plaintiffs' lawyers want twice that amount.

Read the judge's ruling (PDF)

CLEVELAND (OH)
WKYC

CLEVELAND--A trial that could expose alleged secret funds inside the Cleveland Catholic Diocese began Monday.

A former assistant treasurer of the Diocese is accused of financial mismanagement, including defrauding the Diocese, and of tax evasion.

U.S. Attorneys claim two men came up with a scheme to enrich themselves at the expense of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese.

One of those men went on trial Monday: Anton Zgoznik, who used to work as a Diocese assistant treasurer.

JASPER (IN)
ABC 7

August 20, 2007 (JASPER, Ind.) - A Roman Catholic bishop told members of a southern Indiana parish that a priest who has been dead for 19 years sexually abused boys during his nearly three decades at the church.

Evansville Diocese Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger did not say how many boys Monsignor Othmar Schroeder was believed to have abused during his time at Holy Family Church or when the abuse happened.

Gettelfinger spoke during weekend Masses at the church, saying he learned several years ago of the allegations against Schroeder, but had found out that the scope of the abuse "is greater than we knew."

ST. GEORGE (SC)
WSOC

ST. GEORGE, S.C. -- As many as 80 people may now be a part of a $12 million class-action settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston, an attorney for the victims said Monday.

Twenty more possible victims were found during a review of diocesan records in recent months, said attorney Larry Richter, who represents victims in the settlement.

During a March hearing, attorneys had identified 53 people who may be a part of the settlement, but now that number is closer to 80, Richter told The Associated Press.

An exact number of victims covered by the settlement won't be known until the deadline for filing claims ends in four months. Potential victims and their relatives could begin making claims Aug. 9, he said.

CLEVELAND (OH)
dotCommonweal

August 20, 2007, 1:26 pm
Posted by Paul Lauritzen

If you read the New York Times today, you probably saw the story about the trial of the former assistant treasurer of the Diocese of Cleveland, who, along with the former chief financial officer of the diocese, is accused of various criminal charges, including money laundering and tax evasion. Both men have implicated former diocesan officials, including Anthony Pilla, the former bishop, and Rev. John Wright, the diocese’s former financial and legal secretary.

The trials are likely to be very ugly and many in Cleveland are bracing for the worst. Anticipating the negative press coverage that is likely to ensue, Richard Lennon, the current Bishop of Cleveland, sent a letter to diocesan priests several weeks ago about the upcoming trials. Some priests read the letter from the pulpit this past weekend. The text of the letter can be found below.

Dear Father X,

I am writing to make you aware that the trial in the case of The United States of America v. Joseph H. Smith and Anton Zgoznik is currently scheduled to begin on 15 August 2007. The trial is likely to generate coverage by the media.

ROMEOVILLE (IL)
NBC 5

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. -- A southwest suburban Southern Baptist congregation allowed a convicted child sex offender to preach for the last few years -- despite his past, and a warning from his previous church that he might still be dangerous, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

In 1996, Jeff Hannah was sentenced to nine years in prison for having sexual relations with four underage girls -- ages 15 to 17 -- while a married youth minister at Crossroads Church in Libertyville.

Hannah was paroled in 2001 and joined the First Baptist Church of Romeoville, where his new wife was a member. Soon after, the pastor moved on, and church members -- aware of Hannah’s crimes -- asked him to step into the pulpit until a replacement was hired, according to church members, Hannah and others.

CANADA
The Globe and Mail

BILL CURRY

August 20, 2007 at 7:26 AM EDT

OTTAWA — With few natives expected to opt out, the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history is set to clear its final hurdle, with $2-billion in payouts to former students of Canada's Indian residential schools likely to begin in November.

Former students of the schools have until today to reject the out-of-court settlement, and if more than 5,000 of the estimated 80,000 students were to do so, a clause in the agreement would allow Ottawa to walk away from the deal.

However, a government update indicates that the number opting out is low, and a federal official confirmed the clause will not be an issue.

Compensation payments are expected to average about $28,000 and federal officials say the entire fund will be distributed by April, 2008.

CANADA
John McKiggan’s Abuse Claims Blog

The Globe and Mail has reported that the largest abuse claims settlement in history is likely to pass it’s final hurdle today. Upwards of 80,000 former students of Church run Indian Residential schools are set to receive payments for sexual abuse, physical abuse and psychological abuse that they suffered in the schools.

Today is the deadline for former students to “opt out” of the class action settlement. If more than 5000 students drop out of the settlement, the court approval order considers the deal null and void. As of today, less than a hundred former students across the country have opted out and it is expected that the deal will be finalized today.

The class action settlement will pay out two billion dollars in compensation to students who were forced to attend the schools.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
La Opinion

This is a link to a Spanish-language article on how selection and training of priests has changed since allegations of clergy sexual abuse have surfaced.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
La Opinion

This is the link to a Spanish-language article on support available to survivors of clergy sexual abuse being offered by the Los Angeles archdiocese.

PHILIPPINES
Catholic Online

8/20/2007
UCANews (www.ucanews.com)

MANILA, Philippines (UCAN) – The head of the Philippine church's marriage-appeals court disapproves of priests continuing in the ministry after fathering children and rejects efforts to "cure" these priests instead of "disciplining" them.

According to Archbishop Oscar Cruz of Lingayen-Dagupan, head of the National Appellate Matrimonial Tribunal, a priest who sired a child cannot be rehabilitated. "No matter how you assist this priest, that child remains and he has a natural obligation towards the child."

He stressed that parenting was "not only giving food, shelter or clothing, as people do with pets, but teaching, formation, education" as well. He believes "impaired personality constructs" cannot be "cured."

CALIFORNIA
California Catholic Daily

California's Dr. Judith Reisman urges bishops to take action against sex therapy experts who have advised the Church. And, if they don't, the laity should.

California-based lecturer and author, Dr. Judith Reisman (she holds a Ph.D. in Communications) has served as an expert witness in lawsuits involving sexual abuse. Her research paper, "Reliance of the Catholic Church on Sexuality Advisors Whose Moral Foundation Differs Markedly from that of the Church," was submitted to a select group of bishops in 2002, so far without official response. California Catholic Daily interviewed Reisman on Aug. 12.

A number of Catholic priests later convicted for sex abuse were ex-patients of sexual therapy centers. What’s the problem here?

Reisman: “Human sexuality education” has always been based on the Kinsey model. The “Harvard” of the Kinseyan field was the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco . The IASHS “education” canon reflected the frauds created by Kinsey, a pedophile advocate.

OREGON
Religion and Child Abuse

Christian News Northwest - July 2007
http://www.cnnw.com/index.html

By JOHN FORTMEYER

Plaintiff alleges sex abuse during his stay there in the 1970s

A Salem man has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the Children’s Farm Home and its parent Trillium Family Services, claiming he was sexually abused as a child there in the late 1970s.

It happens. Even once is too often, but tragically, it happens - and all too frequently. It most certainly breaks the heart of God.

And the staff of this newspaper dreads anytime it must be reported on these pages.

But the days of ignoring that sexual abuse of youths can take place in churches, ministries and Christian schools is over. In the past few years, the number of reports of abuse - whether from recent times or surfacing after many years or even decades - seems to have multiplied greatly.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
Union-Tribune

By Sandi Dolbee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

August 20, 2007

She sits in bankruptcy court on wooden benches much like church pews, grasping a homemade fan as if it were a rudder in a storm-tossed sea.

On one side of the fan is a black-and-white photograph of herself when she was dressed up for her first Holy Communion. On the other side, she's posing with her three sisters, little heads rising like stair steps.

All four were allegedly being sexually abused by their priest at Holy Spirit Catholic Church on 55th Street in the 1950s, when the photos were taken.

She's 58 now and lives within walking distance of the San Diego church. She says the pictures are to remind everyone in the Catholic diocese's bankruptcy case that “it's all about the children.”

CLEVELAND (OH)
The New York Times

By CHRISTOPHER MAAG
Published: August 20, 2007
CLEVELAND, Aug. 19 — A former assistant treasurer of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland is to go on trial Monday, accused of taking part in widespread financial mismanagement and looting of church funds.

Lawyers for the defendants in this trial and a related case, however, say top church officials are to blame; in documents filed in federal court, the lawyers say the diocese’s former bishop and a priest used secret accounts to embezzle millions of dollars from the diocese. Such accusations are “scurrilous,” the diocese has said in a written statement.

The former assistant treasurer, Anton Zgoznik, also worked as a consultant to the church. He and the former chief financial officer of the diocese, Joseph Smith, face a total of 27 criminal charges, including money laundering and tax evasion.

CALIFORNIA
La Opinion

This is the link to a Spanish-language story about a child protection program being offered in churches by the Los Angeles archdiocese.

CANADA
John McKiggan’s Abuse Claims Blog

Andrew Sullivan has posted about the debate surrounding the San Diego Roman Catholic Diocese’s bankruptcy as a result of abuse claims. It appears the bankruptcy is being challenged due to allegations that the Diocese and some of it’s parishes have been hiding assets in an effort to avoid paying compensation to survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

It is generally accepted at law that all the assets of a Diocese, including those of it’s parishes, may be liquidated to satisfy civil judgements. The article states:

In response to the priest sex abuse liability crisis, there is a growing trend for diocesan assets to be divided among multiple incorporated entities.

In Canada the Christian Brothers of Ireland in Canada was the first charity in the Commonwealth to be wound up for tort liability (arising from the notorious Mt. Cashel abuse scandal.

CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

Sunday, August 19, 2007

James F. McCarty
Plain Dealer Reporter
Nearly a decade's worth of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland's most confidential financial documents will be on display when the trial of a former diocesan accountant begins Monday in U.S. District Court.

The kickback trial of Anton Zgoznik opens amid a flurry of accusations by defense lawyers that the diocese destroyed and continues to hide documents critical to their case and embarrassing to the church.

Zgoznik's co-defendant, Joseph Smith, the diocese's former chief financial officer and legal counsel, will stand trial later. Each is charged with multiple counts of conspiracy, money laundering, mail fraud and obstruction of justice.

The defendants were hit with several trial setbacks on Friday. U.S. District Judge Ann Aldrich rejected their attempts to prevent introduction of financial records that prosecutors say document Smith and Zgoznik's elaborate kickback scheme.

LOUISVILLE (KY)
The Courier-Journal

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

Minutes after he was installed as archbishop of Louisville last week, Joseph E. Kurtz began to meet many of the archdiocese's Catholics -- standing for more than two hours greeting people under a reception tent in the 103-degree heat.

Kurtz, who turned 61 yesterday, has continued to get to know his new flock, meeting with staff, going on driving tours to see current and former churches in Louisville's urban neighborhoods and planning his first visit to the historic Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral in Bardstown last night. ...

C-J: In the past few years, the sexual-abuse crisis in this archdiocese was very prominent. What is your role in addressing that issue?

Kurtz: First, sexual abuse is not to be tolerated, either in a church setting or in a societal setting. My role would be to provide clear leadership in first of all creating a safe environment and doing everything we can to promote the kind of wholesome pastoral relationships that have really been the hallmark of the church for centuries.

We also have a very clear policy that includes a very active victim's assistance coordinator. I will be very supportive of that coordinator in helping to deal with the victims of past abuse, working with that coordinator and, where it's appropriate, obviously meeting with any victims that would be in need of pastoral care.

C-J: Any word you would have for the victims?

Kurtz: My words would be words of consolation and a desire to help them heal. I would want to reach out to help console and help heal. Just as we are helping, I hope, all people within our archdiocese to live full and wholesome lives, virtuous lives, we would want to assist victims in doing the same.

RENO (NV)
Reno Gazette-Journal

MARTHA BELLISLE
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 8/19/2007

Over the past two years, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Reno has paid $328,068 to at least seven local residents who say they were sexually abused by Reno priests, and officials are reviewing three additional claims recently reported to the church.

But several of the victims say that, while church workers, including Chancellor Brother Matthew Cunningham, were kind and compassionate toward them, the diocese and its lawyers treated them harshly through the interview and negotiation process.

"When it came to the issue of money, the lawyers drove down the settlement as far as they possibly could," said Marie "Terry" LaTourrette Moisan, who recently settled her case with the diocese over claims that she was molested in the 1960s by Eugene Braun, the former pastor of St. Therese Church of the Little Flower.

NEVADA
Reno Gazette-Journal

MARTHA BELLISLE
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 8/19/2007

In most states, including Nevada, victims of sexual abuse by priests are unable to collect large financial settlements from local Catholic dioceses because most cases date back to the 1960s and 1970s and the statute of limitations for filing civil complaints has expired.

But in California, the legislature voted in 2002 to lift the limits for civil cases for one year, allowing victims to sue employers or institutions that knowingly protected or kept molesters.

As a result, hundreds of suits were filed, and dioceses across California settled cases for close to $1 billion -- including a record $660 million settlement in Los Angeles.

Since that time, other states have begun to follow California's lead: Delaware passed a bill in July that creates a two-year window for lawsuits, and other regions, including Alaska and Washington D.C., are debating similar legislation.

FIJI
The Fiji Times

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Update: 4.46pm THE head of the Catholic Church in Fiji, Archbishop Petero Mataca, is unaware of sex-offending priests f