Abuse Tracker

FORT COLLINS (CO)
THE COLORADOAN

Denver — The music minister at the Heritage Christian Center was arrested Thursday after a 15-year-old relative accused him of sexually assaulting her, the Arapahoe County sheriff said.

James Howard Brown, 38, was arrested for investigation of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, displaying a pattern of sexual assault on a child and aggravated incest.

He was being held under $50,000 bail. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney.

DOVER (NH)
FOSTER'S DAILY DEMOCRAT

Financial discrepancies, freak natural disasters, controversy and milestones.

Residents in the region saw a little bit of everything in their news stories of 2007.

. . .

Hostage Crisis

The eyes of the nation were focused on Rochester on the afternoon of Nov. 30 when 46-year-old Leeland Eisenberg walked into Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign office on North Main Street with a bomblike device strapped to his body and took six hostages, including, briefly, a mother and her infant child. The infant and mother were let go almost immediately after Eisenberg entered the building and were able to report the situation to police.

. . .

Eisenberg told Foster's he wanted to "sacrifice" himself to bring awareness to the "plight" of mental health in America. In court proceedings it was learned Eisenberg has an extensive criminal history in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Florida, which included two rape convictions and charges of assault with a dangerous weapon, thefts, burglary and larceny. Eisenberg also sued the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston in 2002 alleging a priest had molested him in the early 1980s.

PEORIA (IL)
STATION WEEK, NBC 25

By Syreeta Baker

A former Peoria priest breaks the glass ceiling by becoming the first member of the Conventual Order of Franciscans to be elevated to the level of Bishop. Some members of the Holy Family Catholic Church in Peoria say their parish played a key role in Bishop William Callahan's promotion.

Almost every pew at Holy Family Catholic Church in Peoria was filled. Church members were there to see the former Priest turned Bishop that they've heard so much about.

"We were not members of the parish when he was here as a priest. But, we know that his legacy lives on today here in this church," Member Lisa Roder says.

SIOUX CITY (IA)
ASSOCIATED PRESS in SIOUX CITY JOURNAL

Sioux Falls SD - A federal lawsuit against the Mormon church should proceed to trial and not be decided by a judge, according to the lawyer for a man accusing a missionary of sexual abuse.

Ferris Joseph, 52, filed the civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in South Dakota against the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, both of Utah.

Joseph said that in the late 1960s, when he was 11 or 12 years old, he was sexually abused by one of the church's missionaries, Robert Lewis White.

YAKIMA (WA)
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

By Rod Antone

A church chaperone, a basketball coach, an elementary school teacher and now a longtime karate instructor are behind a rash of high profile child sex assault cases within the past five months.

The latest case involves a now 18-year-old woman who said she had a sexual relationship with her instructor at the Yakima School of Karate that started when she was 13 and continued for three to four years. Yakima police said the woman came forward last Wednesday and they are looking into whether there may be more victims.

. . .

Jerry Ketzenberg, 36, a former volunteer with the Yakima Bible Baptist Church. Ketzenberg was charged in August with multiple counts of child rape and molestation involving two underage girls from his church between 2002 and 2004. Church officials said Ketzenberg was part of a visitation team that picked up children from their homes for church activities in a church bus and his own vehicle. He's since been charged with communicating with a minor involving a third teenage girl stemming from the same time period, Yakima police said.

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

By Jaxon Van Derbeken, Elizabeth Fernandez, and Chronicle Staff Writers
December 7, 2007

More than three years ago, Bernie Ward, a popular San Francisco liberal radio talk show host and former Catholic priest, got on the Internet and downloaded and sent out images of child pornography. He even talked about it in an Internet chat room.

The 56-year-old local personality - the host of a nightly news talk program on KGO 810 AM as well as "God Talk" on Sundays - says he was doing research.

But on Thursday, Ward was indicted by a grand jury on two federal counts of Internet child pornography - allegations that he possessed and distributed images using his computer.

LA REPPUBLICA

Terni - Sono otto le presunte vittime delle molestie sessuali per le quali è imputato don Pierino Gelmini. La procura della repubblica di Terni ha notificato al sacerdote l'avviso di conclusione delle indagini. Si va verso il rinvio a giudizio del sacerdote. Favoreggiamento personale invece ad altre tre persone, tra cui uno degli attuali collaboratori del religioso della Comunità Incontro, Pierluigi Larocca, e Giampaolo Nicolasi, ex assistente. L'accusa è quella di avere cercato di ostacolare le indagini offrendo anche dei soldi per ritrattare ad uno degli accusatori, la cui madre, Patrizia Guarino, è anche lei imputata di favoreggiamento personale.

Translation: The Terni Prosecutor Office notified the priest the investigation is over
A collaborator, a former assistant and the mother of an accuser are suspected of the crime of "favoreggiamento" (helping to hide a crime)

Terrni - Eight are the alleged victims of sexual violence for which the Rev. Pierino Gelmini has been indicted. The Prosecutor in Terni, following the procedure, sent the priest a letter informing him of the end of the investigation. That means the arraignment of the priest is very near. Other three persons will have to respond instead for trying to cover up the crime: one is the priest collaborator at the Community Incontro, Pierluigi Larocca, and another is a former assistant. Together with the mother of one of the accusers, Patrizia Guarino, who helped the other men to offer money to her son so that he could be convinced to withdraw his accusations, they are charged for trying to impede the investigation.

The sexual violence occurred in the period between 1999 and 2004; two of the victims were then minors. That's what the Procurator has reported; now the papers are going to be examined by the judge who will decide upon the requests made by the prosecutor.

"That infamy doesn't regard me", the 82- years -old priest had said in front of three hundred supporters last August in the main location of his Community Incontro at Amelia, in the Umbria hills. " They believed Rev. Pierino would give up", the elderly priest thundered from the stage. "They thought they had to deal with a rabbit, they found a biting dog instead. They wanted to take over the community", ending his speech using his umbrella menacingly. " I'm bearing the cross: I'm innocent and for that I'm absolutely tranquil".

Yet the charges seem to be very detailed."He was goosing me, kissing me and in many an occasion he forced me to perform sexual acts", that's what Michele Iacobbe, former drug addict, one of the main accusers, reported, and who spent jail time in Teramo for a series of crimes, extortion and calumny included. "That man ruined me", said Iacobbe about Rev. Gelmini."He forced me to do things I would never have wanted to do. Once he told me: cut you hair, I like it short, please kiss me".

SACRAMENTO (CA)
SACRAMENTO BEE

By Jennifer Garza
December 30, 2007

This September morning at Woodland Memorial Hospital, the room behind the nurse's station is cool and quiet. A nurse wraps a baby girl in a white blanket with pink and blue stripes. She lays the infant on the counter and steps away.

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda moves closer and makes the sign of the cross. Guadalupe was stillborn less than two hours before. The priest whispers a prayer.

Three times in two months the new priest has been called to bless a baby who died at birth. He has presided over 11 funerals, more death than he expected, more heartache than he imagined. The babies' grieving families visit his dreams.

SPOKANE (WA)
SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

By John Stucke
December 29, 2007

Eastern Washington's Catholic community has raised most of the money needed to settle the clergy childhood sex abuse cases, surpassing expectations and ensuring that the diocese will emerge from bankruptcy.

"This could have been very divisive," said Robert Hailey, of the Association of Parishes. "But in the end this was a fundraiser that brought people together. We're overwhelmed by their generosity."

Parishes have collected $8 million of the $10 million pledged.

The money is helping to pay for the overall $48 million settlement needed to end the bankruptcy of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane. The rest comes from the sale of diocese property and insurance payments, among other sources.

SPRINGFIELD (MO)
SPRINGFIELD NEWS-LEADER

The Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau has announced that it received an accusation of sexual abuse of a minor which allegedly occurred 40 years ago.

In a news release, the diocese reported that the priest accused, Louis Wyrsch, was ordained in 1964, left priestly ministry in 1973 and later married. He was dispensed from the priesthood by the church in 1989 and died in 1997.

Wyrsch served as associate pastor at Sacred Heart parish in Poplar Bluff in 1965, moved to St. Peter's parish in Joplin in 1968, then went on leave from the diocese in 1969. In 1970, he was named chaplain at Southwest Missouri State College.

QUEZON CITY (PHILIPPINES)
ABS-CBN

By Ging Reyes

A former missionary in Biliran, Leyte has accused the bishop of Naval town of sexually molesting boys.

Ging Reyes, ABS-CBN News North America bureau chief, reported that Stephen Michael Greinke, an ex-missionary who worked for the diocese of Naval in the Visayas, said he has been calling for the ouster of Catholic Bishop Filomento Bactol for the last seven years.

Greinke alleged that Bactol abused his power and sexually molested young boys.

"I lived with the bishop at his palace. And at night he would have young men sleeping in his bedroom - kids who were under the age of 16 sleeping with him at night. Again I thought that was very inappropriate and it became very 'gossiping, chismoso, around about the bishop's behavior with the children,'" Greinke told Reyes.

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

By Geesche Jacobsen

A woman has been awarded compensation for repeated sexual assault by a former pastoral assistant and youth leader at a Baptist church more than 20 years ago.

Louise Audet, 41, was awarded $45,000 for the abuse that started in 1982 when Cheryl Groth, 51, was her year 10 teacher at Picton High School.

The abuse continued for about four years when Groth introduced her to Baptist churches where Groth had become involved in music and youth groups, and later as a pastoral assistant.

TYPICALLY SPANISH

Thousands of people demonstrated in the centre of Madrid on Sunday in favour of the family. The demonstration was called in the Plaza de Colón, by the Bishops’ Organisation, La Conferencia Episcopal Española, and lead by the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid, Antonio María Rouca Varela, in favour of the ‘Christian family’, and saw coach loads of supporters being bussed in from across Spain and also Portugal.

. . .

Meanwhile the Minister for Justice, Mariano Fernández Bermejo, has called on the Bishops to reflect after the Bishop of Tenerife, Bernardo Álvarez, compared homosexuality to child abuse, and said that there were teenagers who wanted to be abused and who provoked such abuse. The Minister said the Bishop’s statement was ‘enormously unfortunate’ and ‘difficult to digest’.

The General Secretary of Juan 23rd Theologians Association, Juan José Tamayo, accused the Bishop of Tenerife of ‘demonizing and blaming’ the adolescents who suffer sexual abuse and of excusing the paedophiles. He said the Bishop displayed a deep lack of knowledge of scientific investigations into sexuality, and was moving in a paradigm of homophobia. He added with statements like these it was not strange to see the discredit of the Catholic Church resulting in youngsters ‘leaving in droves as if it was the plague’.

TYPICALLY SPANISH

Bernando Álvarez said that there are 13 year olds who are wanting to be abused, and 'if you are careless they will provoke you'

There is outrage in parts of Spanish society following declarations made over Christmas from the Bishop of Tenerife, Bernardo Álvarez.

His comments were that there are youngsters who want to be abused, and he compared that abuse to homosexuality, describing them both as prejudicial to society. He said that on occasions the abuse happened because the there are children who consent to it.

ANSA

Vatican City, December 28 - The Vatican on Friday denied plans to set up exorcists across the Catholic world.

''Pope Benedict XVI has no intention of ordering local bishops to bring in garrisons of exorcists to fight demonic possession,'' Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters.

On Thursday the Catholic website Petrus said the pope was drawing up plans to install a given number of exorcists in every diocese in the coming months so that 'possessed' people could get prompt treatment.

IL MESSAGGERO

TERNI (26 dicembre) - Risale a 12 giorni fa, ed ha avuto toni sofferti, l'incontro tra don Pierino Gelmini e il vescovo diocesano di Terni, Narni e Amelia, monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, che ha espresso al sacerdote le sue «preoccupazioni e quelle della Chiesa per la vicenda giudiziaria sulle presunte molestie sessuali. Lo ha confermato oggi il vescovo emerito della diocesi, monsignor Franco Gualdrini, in occasione delle celebrazioni in corso nella casa madre della Comunità Incontro, a Molino Silla di Amelia, per il saluto ai ragazzi che lasciano la Comunità dopo aver terminato il loro programma di recupero dalla tossicodipendenza. Don Gelmini, per la prima volta, non era presente perché malato.

Translation: TERNI (December 26) It took place 12 days ago, and it had suffering tones, the meeting between Rev. Pierino Gelmini and the diocesian bishop of Terni, Narni and Amelia, monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, who conveyed to the priest his "concerns and those of the Church for his judiciary vicissitudes related to his alleged sexual violences." The conversation was confirmed today by the emeritus bishop of the diocese, Monsignor Franco Gualdrini, during the celebrations held in the main center of the Community Incontro, at Molino Silla of Amelia, which were dedicated to those young men who had ended their program for overcoming their drug addiction. For the first time Rev. Gelmini wasn't there due to his illness.

Monsignor Gualdrini, who was also symbolically nominated by Rev. Gelmini as a "bishop" of his Community, explained the meeting had been very "painful" and that it had taken place in the bishop's office, at Terni, through the initiative of monsignor Paglia. Beside the bishop and Rev. Gelmini, the same monsignor Gualdrini was present. It was a moment of fraternity and of ecclesiastical communion, monsignor Gualdrini said, but painful ,too, for they spoke about those issues. Even among brothers, the emeritus bishop of Terni added, sometimes it's necessary to speak about unpleasant things.

No indication, however, emerged in the meeting about a possible request to Rev. Gelmini to leave the Community in connection with the possible negative outcome of his trial. And the priest has said to his collaborators he is firm in his intention not to abandon the boys and go back to his lay state "maintaining his total communion with the Lord" to face his judiciary vicissitudes without any interference with the ecclesiastical authority. In the next days there will be the results of the investigations about his alleged sexual violence against some of the former guests of his Community Incontro, for which he always declared his innocence.

PORTLAND (ME)
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD

By Mike Sweatt

Reading “Church complies with safe-child rules” (Dec. 21), one has the impression that all is well at the inn.

Safe environment programs, background checks, etc., covered by the audit – unquestionably, all good stuff.

However, it is well-known that the best line of protection for innocent children begins with identification and notification.

Still today, Bishop Richard Malone refuses to reveal the names and whereabouts of another dozen credibly accused priests.

CHARLOTTESVILLE (VA)
DAILY PROGRESS

The following is intended to produce caution, not panic:

Nationally, some school systems have engaged in the same kind of cover-up as did the Catholic Church when it discovered pedophile priests.

Some school systems have quietly removed teachers or other staff members suspected of abuse.

Instead of alerting parents or publicly pursuing criminal charges, these schools opted to protect their reputations rather than to protect children.

DENVER (CO)
DENVER POST

By Carlos Illescas

James Howard Brown was relieved of his duties at Heritage. A prominent church music director accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old family member fondled the girl twice in the past month and gave her white pills to "help her sleep," according to court documents.

James Howard Brown, 38, was to be in Arapahoe County District Court on Friday morning, but that was delayed because of a medical hold.

Brown will be advised of the charges against him Monday. He is being held on $50,000 bail on two counts of sexual assault on a child and one charge of aggravated incest. All three are felonies.

ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE in ALBUQUERQUE TRIBUNE

By Terry Mattingly

It was a simple commercial, with Mike Huckabee posed in front of a set of scandalously empty white bookshelves that, when framed just right beside a Christmas tree, formed a glowing cross behind the candidate.

. . .

9. Transitions continued at the top of major Evangelical Protestant institutions, as symbolized by the deaths of Jerry Falwell, Rex Humbard, Ruth Bell Graham, D. James Kennedy and Tammy Faye Messner, the ex-wife of Jim Bakker.

10. Roman Catholic leaders in the United States wrestled with the high cost of settling legal cases linked to decades of clergy sexual abuse of children and teenagers. The price tag reached $2.1 billion, with a record $660 million settlement in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

SIOUX FALLS (SD)
ASSOCIATED PRESS

The lawyer for a South Dakota man accusing a Mormon missionary of sexual abuse in the 1960s wants a jury and not a judge to decide the case.

Ferris Joseph filed the civil lawsuit in federal court in South Dakota against the Mormon church, claiming he was sexually abused by missionary Robert Lewis White when Joseph was 11 or 12 years old.

In a deposition transcript filed in court, White denies molesting Joseph or any other boy while serving in Flandreau.

CALGARY (CANADA)
CALGARY HERALD

By Sherri Zickefoose

A Calgary man convicted of molesting a four-year-old Illinois girl blamed the child for acting sexually provocative toward him, before a judge sentenced him Friday to three years in prison.

Kenneth Cooke, a 73-year-old retired pastor, told Judge Joseph Condon in a U.S. courtroom he tried to avoid the encounters.

"On a couple of times, I thought I was being sexually harassed. I think there is psychological evidence today that children, even in their younger years, could become interested in sex," Cooke told the judge, according to the Northwest Herald newspaper.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

By Sandi Dolbee

First, the good news: You're proud of your community.

. . .

Now, for the low point: The handling of the childhood sexual abuse cases by the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego and Bishop Robert Brom.

. . .

2 Catholic bankruptcy: 81 percent gave the church hierarchy's actions a failing grade. "As a Roman Catholic, I am greatly disappointed by the leadership of my church," wrote Patricia Schwab of San Carlos. "Us Catholics should be ashamed of the actions our leaders have shown on this issue. It's hypocritical and unfortunate our religious leaders have not reacted properly," wrote Arturo Martinez of Chula Vista. Several who gave the church a passing grade were critical of the media. "Unbridled and uncontrolled discrimination against the Catholic Church," wrote J.J. Kleinsmith of Cardiff.

PEORIA (IL)
PEORIA JOURNAL STAR

By Michael Miller

At first, it didn't look like 2007 deserved a look back at religion news in Peoria. Then I started going through the archives and realized how much I had forgotten.

. . .

CATHOLICS: The Catholic Diocese of Peoria gave special devotion to the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help as part of a celebration of the 130th anniversary of Bishop John Lancaster Spalding's arrival in Peoria.

Bishop Daniel Jenky also celebrated some anniversaries of his own: his fifth as bishop of Peoria and 10th overall as a bishop.

The diocese was busy on the legal front as well, with several lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct on the part of diocesan priests being refiled early in the year - they had been withdrawn a year earlier - and some new ones being filed. Most of them, however, have been dismissed due to the age of the alleged incidents. Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests representatives continued to demand that the diocese take further steps related to the clergy sex-abuse issue.

BRISTOW (VA)
CATHOLIC WORLD NEWS

Madrid, Dec. 28, 2007 (CWNews.com) - A Spanish bishop has come under heavy criticism for saying that some adolescents who are classified as pedophilia victims might actually be willing participants in sexual activity.

The comments by Bishop Bernardo Alvarez of Tenerife were condemned as "barbaric" by Arturo Canalda, the children's rights advocate for the city of Madrid.

Canalda said that the bishop's statement could be used as a defense of pedophiles. He added that the bishop's claim that some young children fully consent to sexual activity is an argument that echoes propaganda put out by "those who think pedophilia is a good thing." That argument is "perverse," the city official said, because children under the age of 14 -- the legal age of consent in Spain -- cannot possibly give full consent.

LONDON (ENGLAND)
THE TELEGRAPH

By Nick Pisa

The Roman Catholic Church has vowed to "fight the Devil head-on" by training hundreds of priests as exorcists.

. . .

A Roman Catholic bishop has caused fury in Spain by claiming that some teenagers "want to be abused".

Bishop Bernardo Álvarez of Tenerife told a newspaper: "There are 13-year-olds who are are in agreement and even want it; even, if you don't watch out, provoking you."

NEW YORK (NY)
THE NEW YORK TIMES

By Michael Malone
December 23, 2007

Mount Pleasant - If Westchester University ever gets built, it is hard to imagine that town residents will show up at football games, proudly singing the school fight song.

Dozens of them sang a different kind of fight song during a raucous town hall hearing on Dec. 6, making it clear that they would prefer it if the university never moves beyond the planning stage.

The Legion of Christ, an international order of Roman Catholic priests, is proposing to build a coeducational liberal arts university for about 3,000 students. The priests, also known as the Legionaries, submitted a draft environmental impact statement to the town planning board in September.

NEW DELHI (INDIA)
CATHOLIC INDIA
OFFICE OF THE BISHOPS' CONFERENCE OF INDIA

PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS): Catholics from western Oregon, who weathered the end of an archdiocesan bankruptcy and $75 million reorganization in 2007, will be meeting in homes and parishes during Lent 2008 to focus on healing and reconciliation.

Parishioners from the Archdiocese of Portland will read and study the Sunday Scripture readings, share faith and daily struggles and work toward making matters right in their personal lives, homes, neighborhoods, churches and the archdiocese.

Catholics in the region have been occasionally gathering in recent years to pray for the healing and reconciliation of victims of clergy sexual abuse and everyone affected by the scandal.

PROVIDENCE (RI)
THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL

By Richard C. Dujardin

It was a year that saw heroic pro-democracy protests in Myanmar led by Buddhist monks, and a new push by Anglican prelates in Africa to force their counterparts in the U.S. Episcopal Church to repent for having allowed the ordination of an openly gay bishop.

It was a year when the pope opened the door for a wider use of the Latin Mass, and when religious leaders took stands on both sides of the issue of illegal immigration.

. . .

Voice of the Faithful, the Catholic lay group born out of the sexual abuse crisis, held its national convention in Providence, with a keynote speaker and theologian arguing for a priesthood that would be open to married men. Across town, the group BishopsAccountability.org said it had found 125 accusations against clergy of the Diocese of Providence over the last half century, more than double the 56 previously acknowledged. To pay the $14.2 million the diocese had paid to abuse victims, Our Lady of Peace Spiritual Life Center and other properties were put up for sale and sold the 13.5-acre convent and provincial house property of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny in Newport for $4.3 million.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS (IL)
DAILY HERALD

By Charles Keeshan

A retired pastor from Canada was sentenced to three years in prison today after telling a McHenry County judge he was sexually harassed by the 4-year-old Lake in the Hills girl he pleaded guilty to molesting.

Kenneth R. Cooke, 73, appeared to have reasonable chance at a probation sentence given his age, health problems and lack of criminal history heading into his sentencing hearing this afternoon.

But the Calgary man who once headed his own ministry likely blew his chance of avoiding prison when he took the witness stand and painted his pre-school age victim as a sexual aggressor.

LONDON
THE INDEPENDENT

By Peter Popham

One of Italy's most colourful priests and the founder of a network of drug rehabilitation centres is expected to be charged with sexually molesting young recovering addicts at the headquarters of his organisation near Perugia in Umbria.

Monsignor Pierino Gelmini, 82, is a household name in Italy, a strong supporter of the political centre-right and a frequent guest on television chat shows. Politicians have warmly reciprocated his support, and in 2005, the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi famously handed over a cheque for 10 billion lire (equivalent to 1m pounds) to the priest, known as Don Gelmini, on television for the charitable work of his organisation, Comunità Incontro.

Rarely mentioned during his television appearances is the fact that decades ago he was sent to jail for fraud, issuing dud cheques and other offences. And now another scandal appears to be beckoning.

FRESNO (CA)
THE FRESNO BEE

A Fresno priest accused of molestation in a civil suit that was resolved after an inconclusive trial has been named rector of San Joaquin Memorial High School, a spokesman for the Diocese of Fresno confirmed Thursday.

The Rev. Eric Swearingen, pastor of Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Fresno's Woodward Park area, had been accused by former altar boy Juan Rocha of molesting him at two other parishes in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Nine of 12 jurors found in favor of the allegations in a Fresno County Superior Court trial one year ago, but only seven jurors concluded that the diocese knew about the abuse, prompting a mistrial. Prior to a new trial, the two sides agreed to binding arbitration and to keep the outcome confidential.

SALINAS (CA)
THE SALINAS CALIFORNIAN

In his first year as bishop for the Diocese of Monterey, the Most Rev. Richard Garcia has taken on often controversial issues including immigration and gang activity, topics not commonly addressed by the Roman Catholic Church.

Garcia, the former auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Sacramento, has met with residents to address what can be done. He visited churches, schools, migrant camps, prisons and youth facilities, talking with people who want to make a difference in their lives and in the community.

In July, Garcia called on grandmothers, who have a strong influence on their grandchildren in the Latino community, to help steer young people away from gang influences.

FRESNO (CA)
AP in SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

A Catholic priest tried for molesting a former altar boy has been named the rector of a parochial high school in Fresno.
The Rev. Eric Swearingen is due to start at San Joaquin Memorial High School next month.

Last year, Army staff sergeant Juan Rocha brought a civil suit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno, claiming Swearingen molested him at parishes in Fresno and Bakersfield in the 1980s and 1990s.

During the civil trial, Swearingen's attorneys said the priest let Rocha sleep in his room at church rectories, but said all behavior behind closed doors was appropriate.

INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
Indianapolis Star

A judge has refused to throw out a lawsuit claiming the Archdiocese of Indianapolis covered up abuse by a former Catholic priest three decades ago.

The ruling by Marion Superior Court Judge David A. Shaheed means the suit could be the first of 13 against the archdiocese to move forward to trial. It alleges fraud, arguing the archdiocese knew of previous abuse by the Rev. Harry Monroe when it moved him in 1976 to St. Catherine's Parish in Indianapolis.

No one disputes that the plaintiff suffered abuse, Shaheed wrote. The former altar boy at the Southside parish is called John Doe NM in court documents.

His abuse-related claims have been withdrawn, since the statute of limitations ran out long ago. But the judge ruled Dec. 20 against the archdiocese's motion for summary judgment, which sought dismissal of the suit, writing that the six-year statute of limitations on fraud began running only in 2005, when the plaintiff learned that the archdiocese had known of other abuse before Monroe's transfer.

CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

2007: A year to remember
By GUSTAVO ARELLANO
Thursday, December 27, 2007 - 2:00 pm
When you're a Catholic covering theChurch's sordid sex-abuse scandal, taking a break from your job is not only impossible, but it's also a sin. Years of catechism instilled in me the necessity of good thoughts, good actions and prayer. Especially prayer: Before I sleep and eat, I pray for my mortal soul. While in my car, I grasp the rosary on the rear-view mirror lest it become a blasphemous Dancing Jesus. Even as I write this story at Weekly world headquarters, a Virgin of Guadalupe lined with flashing Christmas lights illuminates my desk. God is love, and He demands mucho genuflection.

Church attendance is another matter. I continue to believe in Jesus, Mary and the saints, but I stopped attending Mass around the time I latched onto the Orange diocese sex-abuse scandal in 2004. I couldn't stand praying among county Catholics since they haven't yet overthrown the amoral hierarchy of Bishop Tod D. Brown. And if a parishioner-led coup didn't happen this year—one that saw the Weekly reveal Brown had never disclosed a molestation allegation against him, paid off an admitted statutory rapist $100,000 without telling his flock, and didn't report two perverted priests as required by law when he served in the Monterey diocese during the 1980s—it'll probably never happen.

NEW YORK
Jewish Survivors of Sexual Violence Speak Out

The Awareness Center (the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault) supports SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests) efforts in challenging Giuliani to "put up or shut up" about allegations against Msgr. Alan Placa, who was suspended by his bishop yet remains on Giuliani's payroll. Giuliani insists Placa's been falsely accused.

SNAP wants Giuliani to either file a bar complaint against the Long Island prosecutor who publicized the allegations against the Placa or admit that the priest is guilty. As a citizen, a lawyer, an ex-prosecutor and former public official, the group believes Giuliani has a moral and legal duty to take action if he really believes prosecutors and grand jurors have done an injustice to Placa.

In recent months, SNAP has urged Giuliani to fire Placa and apologize for his recklessness.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Kavita Kumar
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
12/25/2007

The St. Louis Community College has fired an instructor who was accused of sexually abusing one of his high school students in California nearly a decade ago.

This action comes a month after the college suspended the instructor, Meramec campus choral director Larry Stukenholtz, with pay while it looked into the matter.

The college's board voted to terminate his contract last week in a closed meeting. Bob Nelson, the board chairman, referred calls to the college spokeswoman.

NORTH CAROLINA
The Dispatch

BY JILL DOSS-RAINES
The Dispatch

Christmas came two days early this week for parishioners of Our Lady of the Rosary Church when their beloved priest, Father Al Gondek, was allowed to return to the parish cleared of allegations that he sexually abused a boy at a summer camp in 1960.

"We never had any questions (about his innocence)," said Kris Joss, a member of the parish council. "It was never if he comes back, it was when."

For Gondek, it has been the most trying time of his life, he said, while sitting with several members of the council Wednesday afternoon in the parish center. A testament to forgiveness, he and his parishioners said they hold no ill will against the accuser and instead pray for him. Gondek said he would always be thankful for the outpouring of support from not only his parish members, but also the entire Davidson County community.

ZAMBIA
allAfrica

The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
Ndola

A SPLINTER Catholic Church called the Catholic Apostolic National Church of Zambia has been launched with Archbishop-elect, Luciano Mbewe, calling for more priests to join the church and fulfill their God-given role by marrying.

Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC) spokesperson, Paul Samasumo, said in reaction that he did not have much information about the newly formed church but was aware that the Catholic bishops in Zambia would preside over the matter next month.

Father Samasumo said in an interview in Lusaka that the newly formed church had created parallel structures in the Roman Catholic Church and could not claim to be part of the Church.

CALIFORNIA
California Catholic Daily

A priest of the Diocese of Fresno found by a superior court jury to have more likely than not sexually molested a young man more than 20 years ago has been named rector of a diocesan Catholic high school.

In December 2006, a superior court jury empanelled in a civil lawsuit against the Fresno diocese voted 9-3 that Fr. Eric Swearingen had molested former altar boy Juan Rocha when Rocha was between 12 and 15 years old.

The December 2007 edition of Central California Catholic Life, Fresno’s diocesan newspaper, reports that Fr. Swearingen has now been named by Bishop John Steinbock as rector of San Joaquin Memorial High School in Fresno, effective Jan. 1.

UNITED STATES
Voice from the Desert

I have praised Perversion of Power: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church by Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea previously on this blog. I am pleased to report that CHOICE Magazine, the magazine of the American Library Association, has chosen Perversion of Power has one of its outstanding books of 2007. Their October 2007 review appears below.

Following that review, is a very positive and detailed review that appeared in the Fall 2007 Newsletter of the Division of Trauma Psychology (56) of the American Psychological Association.

Other reviews have appeared in Boston Magazine, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, Publisher’s Weekly, American Psychological Association Review of Books psychCRITIQUES, and the Newsletter of the National Federation of Priests’ Councils.

ST. GEORGE (UT)
Deseret Morning News

By Nancy Perkins
Deseret Morning News
Published: Thursday, Dec. 27, 2007 12:07 a.m. MST

ST. GEORGE — Documents filed under seal by attorneys for polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, who in September was convicted of rape and is now in prison, should be released to the public, according to papers filed in 5th District Court on Wednesday.

Salt Lake attorney Jeffrey Hunt, who represents a media coalition including the Deseret Morning News, filed a motion seeking access to the sealed documents.

Attorneys for Jeffs, who Dec. 4 filed a motion seeking a new trial, also filed under seal a supporting memorandum. In seeking the new trial, Jeffs' defense team argues that "errors and improprieties" occurred that "substantially" affected Jeffs' constitutional right to a fair trial.

DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times

By Ann McGlynn | Wednesday, December 26, 2007

The Diocese of Davenport will pay $13.6 million toward its $37 million proposed bankruptcy settlement, newly filed diocesan financial records show.

The diocese’s insurance company, Travelers, will pay $19.5 million, diocesan attorney Dick Davidson confirmed Wednesday. The sale of the diocese’s headquarters, the St. Vincent Center, will generate an estimated $3.9 million.

Davidson declined to say how the diocese will come up with $13.6 million. While the settlement releases parishes and schools from liability, officials have said that some entities are considering contributions toward the settlement. The diocese has sold a farm and two houses it owned, including the former bishop’s home.

UNITED STATES
FindLaw

By MARCI HAMILTON

Thursday, Dec. 27, 2007

Recently, the National Review Board for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released the results of its five-year study evaluating how the hierarchy has handled clergy abuse since the public first learned of its scope and prevalence from the Boston Globe in 2002. The report is just what one would expect from any corporation undergoing a scandal; It details new programs, promises to do better in the future, and admits the problem is complex (which, translated, means that the Bishops have not put the problem behind them, not by a long shot).

As I read the report and reflected upon the last five years, I had very mixed feelings. On the one hand, every American (and even world citizen) should be grateful to Providence (as well as the Globe) for revealing the scope of child abuse and cover-up within the ranks of the Roman Catholic Church. We really did not know, let alone understand, the gravity and extent of the scourge of child sex abuse society-wide until we saw it entrenched in the one institution everyone had trusted - Catholic or not. This was the religious institution whose clergy every lawyer hoped would testify on their side, after all! The point could not have been made more clearly than by the scandal in the Church: Children are being sexually abused everywhere, and the ones not to trust are often the ones we trust the most.

There is another quite different lesson to be learned from the 2007 Bishops' Report, too, however: The bishops are not a terribly important element in the solution to society-wide child sex abuse. Yes, they have instituted programs to protect children, but it was well-known long ago in the public sphere that such programs are crucial. And they have created their Victims Assistance Programs and appointed Directors. Though victims and their families have not found these programs terribly helpful or supportive, at least they exist. Yet, it simply does not matter what program the hierarchy creates for the victims it has generated. Why? Because its victims count for such a small number of child sex abuse victims overall. Even perfect care for all of its victims puts barely a dent in the larger problem.

WENATCHEE (WA)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WENATCHEE, Wash. -- The city of Wenatchee and a former pastor acquitted of child sex charges in the 1990s have settled a court fight for $700,000.

The settlement ends more than 11 years of civil litigation between the city and Robert "Roby" Roberson, who was one of dozens of people arrested during an investigation into an alleged sex ring at the East Wenatchee Pentecostal Church.

Roberson filed suit accusing the city of violating his civil rights.

Neither Roberson nor the city would reveal the amount of the settlement earlier this month.

SKOWHEGAN (ME)
Morning Sentinel

SKOWHEGAN -- Police taped a phone conversation in which Carrabec High School administrator and church pastor Frank "Skip" Gleason admitted to sexual contact with a 15-year-old male student, according to an affidavit filed in Skowhegan District Court.

Gleason, 60, is free on $1,500 cash bail on charges of unlawful sexual conduct and sexual abuse of a minor. The Anson resident is scheduled to make his first court appearance Jan. 23 in connection with the charges.

School Administrative District 74 has placed the Carrabec assistant principal and athletic director on administrative leave, and he has stepped down from his position as pastor of Maranatha Assembly in Anson.

UNITED STATES
Alaska Public Radio Network

Wed, December 26, 2007

A National Board, appointed by the president to review the Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse by clergy has issued a 5-year report. The report looks at accomplishments, unfinished work and challenges related to the abuse that spans several decades, and diocese across the nation, including Alaska.

ISRAEL
Haaretz

By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent

The arrest of a popular Nahariya rabbi for allegedly committing indecent sexual acts was made public Thursday, after a judicial gag order was lifted.

Rabbi Shimon Gerlick serves as rabbi of the Nahariya hospital as well as rabbi of the city's Amidar neighborhood.

Police arrested him three weeks ago after an 8-year-old girl and 30-year-old woman accused him of indecent sexual acts. Police extended the remand of the rabbi twice before putting him under house arrest last week.
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A 15-year-old girl came forward and issued a third complaint against the rabbi while he was under arrest, police said.

ISRAEL
Haaretz

By Haaretz Staff and Channel 10

Tags: Haaretz.com TV
Haaretz.com/Channel 10 daily feature for December 25, 2007.

For the past six years, two religious teenage sisters have been paying a hefty price for speaking out against a rabbi who was convicted of indecent acts.

The two girls were kicked out of their school two years after their family pressed charges against the Rabbi, and were only allowed to return following judicial intervention.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

December 23, 2007

Steve Lopez

In the spirit of the season -- and, quite frankly, to save my own soul -- I've embarked on a mission to bring Cardinal Roger M. Mahony's assailant to justice.

For those who missed the news, the man at the helm of the Los Angeles Archdiocese spoke with detectives earlier this month about being attacked in July while mailing a letter near the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Police had contacted the cardinal after learning that he had spoken of the mugging at an October gathering of priests.

Mahony did not report the incident at the time, and please, let's not all sing the easy line about how it's not the first time the cardinal failed to report a crime. It's almost Christmas, a time to celebrate life and spread joy, especially to those we've quarreled with in the past.

Or, as I said in an e-mail to Mahony spokesman Tod Tamberg:

"I've begun a personal manhunt to locate Cardinal Mahony's assailant. Consider it both an olive branch and my Christmas present to him. Please let me know if the cardinal can meet with me and a sketch artist and provide a good description to aid in my investigation."

ITALY
La Repubblica

A reporter of "Liberazione" pretended to be a gay with a priest: for six months he was under "Catholic therapy". The "cure" is a very popular in North America
The President of the Arcigay, Mancuso: "The Minister of Health must intervene"

ROMA - He was for six months under a therapy in a ultra-Ccatholic group to cure his homosexuality, following a path started when he met a priest and then a very known professional, Tonino Cantelmi ( a docent of psychology at the Gregorian University), filling out a form with 600 questions and then starting the "restorative therapy." That's what has been reported in "Liberazione" by David Vari, the journalist who pretended to be gay for six months to learn about, as he writes in his article, the Italian circuit of "the thaumaturges of sex deviation." A very popular fashion in North America thanks to the work of many groups tied to the Catholic church which follow the practice of Joseph Nicolosi," a clinical psychologist who vaunts to have treated 500 gay people".

The investigation of the journalist pushed the President of Arcigay, Aurelio Mancuso, to ask for the intervention of the National Order of Psychologists and of the Health Minister, Livia Turco. "An alarming picture", said Mancuso in commenting the article, " with first rate figures involved in the implementation of pseudo therapies to cure homosexuality which derive from therapies imbued with prejudices and common places of a self proclaimed Catholic therapist, the American Joseph Nicolosi."

"The journalist met various psychologists belonging to the team of Tonino Cantelmi, the President and founder of the Italian Catholic Association of Psychologists and Psychiatrists at the Gregorian University, and then participated for six months to therapy sessions. The fact is very grave for - Mancuso explained - we remind everybody that in May 17, 1990, after centuries of persecutions, the World Health Organization defined homosexuality a natural human variance of sexuality."

"We ask for the immediate intervention of the National Order of Psychologists and of the Health Minister Livia Turco, so that these dangerous practices meant to distort people's behavior are immediately ceased. We want to know - Mancuso goes on - if Cantelmi, his collaborators, his individual and collective therapy courses, are in some way recognized or financially supported by the public health system or through funds deriving from the "eight per thousand".

We denounce - Mancuso concludes - that in all our country, as many times was reported by our communications and by other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender associations, groups of Catholic psychologists or doctors, in parishes and in other ecclesiastical environments, propagandize a cure for homosexuality, with no intervention of the authorities who must control and contrast theories which are of high impairment of the dignity of the homosexuals."

MEXICO
La Jornada

Cardinal Norberto Rivera criticized certain journalists for being "prostitutes."

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

By JULIE SHAW
Philadelphia Daily News
shawj@phillynews.com 215-854-2592

The District Attorney's Office got its Christmas wish.

The Rev. Charles Newman, former principal of Archbishop Ryan High School, surrendered to authorities here Monday on felony theft and forgery charges.

Newman, dressed in civilian clothes, entered the D.A.'s Office on South Penn Square in Center City about 8 a.m. with defense attorney Frank DeSimone.

"He surrendered, he cooperated, then he was handed over to the police transport unit" and taken to police headquarters, Deputy District Attorney Charles Gallagher said Monday.

MEXICO
California Catholic Daily

The cardinal archbishop of Mexico City has indefinitely postponed his weekly meetings with the press, usually held following Sunday Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral, after he rebuked members of the news media for what the archbishop says is a deliberate and unjustified campaign to defame him.

“There are people out there who kill the good name and dignity of other persons,” Cardinal Norberto Rivera told 1,500 inmates during a Dec. 18 visit to Mexico City’s main female penitentiary. He called such persons “male and female communication prostitutes.” ...

The influential Rivera leads the biggest archdiocese in all of Mexico, with nine auxiliary bishops and more than 15 million faithful. His comments made national news. He was referring to a more than year-long campaign by national circulation newspapers, particularly the radical leftist daily La Jornada, which has accused Cardinal Rivera of protecting a homosexual and pederast priest when Rivera was Bishop of Tehuacán in the early 1980s.

On Oct. 16, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle decided he lacked jurisdiction in a civil case accusing Cardinal Rivera of conspiring with Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles to protect the child-molesting priest Father Nicolás Aguilar.

CALIFORNIA
California Catholic Daily

Earlier this month, the California Province of the Society of Jesus settled out of court with the family of Jesuit Fr. James Chevedden who, says his family, committed suicide when the Jesuits failed to protect him from sexual abuse.

Chevedden, said a Dec. 14 press release from the California Province, had been diagnosed several years ago with paranoid schizophrenia. According to the Dec. 13 San Jose Mercury News, Chevedden eventually was placed by his order at its Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos. The center houses retired and infirm Jesuits.

Chevedden made four attempts to commit suicide between 1994 and 2005, said the California Province. After one of those attempts in 1998 – the priest jumped off a scaffolding, fracturing his feet – Chevedden was placed in the center’s infirmary. There, according to his family, Jesuit Br. Charles Connor (now 86), who pushed Chevedden in his wheel chair, groped the injured man’s genitals. In 2002, Connor and another Jesuit were convicted of molesting mentally retarded dishwashers at the center.

UNITED STATES
Voice from the Desert

Recently Tom Doyle sent me an update to his general bibliography on clergy sexual abuse. Here’s what Tom said in his covering e-mail:

I have added some new titles to my general bibliography. This time however I have outlined them in Red to make it easier for anyone who might be looking for the new additions.

I also want to highly recommend the Haworth Press as a very helpful source of journals and titles that focus on the medical/psychological dimensions of sexual abuse. Their web site is www.haworthpress.com. Haworth has published Myra Hidalgo’s outstanding contribution to the literature. It also publishes two (among many) journals that focus on sexual abuse: “Journal on Child Sexual Abuse” and the “Journal of Religion and Abuse.” I have found that both regularly contain excellent articles. Since the weakest area of my own bibliography is that which contains entries on the psychological/emotional aspects of abuse I highly recommend Haworth Press as an excellent source. I have been reading more on the effects of abuse so hopefully I’ll be able to provide more insightful suggestions in the near future.

INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
Ruth's Blog

The Star was right to lead today's paper with a five-column headline above the fold: "RECORDS: EX-PRIEST ADMITS ABUSE," by Robert King.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/LOCAL/712140452

The story reverberates with pain at many levels -- for the innocent victims, for practicing Catholics, and, yes, for the church -- but you will never read about it in the Criterion, the Catholic newspaper published by the Indianapolis Archdiocese.

That fact may indicate the level of shame and denial that still exits within the official church structure. But challenging that mindset, thankfully, are many good Catholic laypeople who are members of Voice of the Faithful and other groups and individuals, including religious, who demand accountability of their church.

Perhaps it is difficult for non-Catholics to understand the issue -- celibate priests and nuns seem "unnatural" in our sex-saturated culture -- but all healthy human beings should be able to comprehend the sin of pride that leads to arrogance that leads to denial. I happen to believe that many of these sexual transgressions have their root in pure pride and arrogance: the belief that "I can have what I want" simply because "I want it." Throw drugs and alcohol into this mix, and the result is out of control.

UNITED STATES
Voice from the Desert

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish sent the following Opinion Piece to the New York Times and the Washington Post, but she’s heard nothing as of Christmas Day. With Sister’s permission, I am posting it here.

My wish for Legislators as we celebrate the birth of the Christ Child -

The banning of the death penalty in New Jersey coming so closely to the celebration of Human Rights Day is certainly something to be thankful for, “Corzine Signs Bill Ending Executions, Then Commutes Sentences of Eight,” (12/18/2007).

We also recently celebrated the International Day of the Child but I can’t remember reading that it was noted anywhere except on the the websites of advocacy groups such as the United Nations UNICEF, CRIN, the Child Rights Information Network and Amnesty International.

If the sexual exploitation of children worldwide were a communicable disease it world be registered as a pandemic by the World Health Organization and it would be duly noted by our own Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta. But we do not as yet have anything that
would be comparable and could be applied to the sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Marcia Gelbart
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The Rev. Charles Newman, former president of Archbishop Ryan High School, was arraigned last