Abuse Tracker

MASSACHUSETTS
The Standard-Times

By Steve Urbon
Standard-Times senior correspondent
March 31, 2008 8:25 PM
NEW BEDFORD — The worst of the clergy sexual abuse crisis may be over in Massachusetts, but the Boston-based Voice of the Faithful sees a nationwide cancer on the Catholic Church that it plans to advertise during Pope Benedict’s weeklong visit to the United States later this month.
VOTF President Dan Bartley told members in an e-mail today that $51,000 has been raised so far, almost enough to buy a full-page ad in the New York Times. But he added that there is just one day left before the advertising deadline, and the group would also like to take out ads in other national newspapers, such as USA Today.
VOTF communications director John Moynihan told The Standard-Times that the abuse scandals have dropped off the screen in many places. “Being off the newspaper page, it is no longer in front of people’s eyes,” he said.

CALIFORNIA
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling
Document diving begins again at City of Angels Blog with the Salesian cases going to jury trial April 14th in LA Superior Court. The same group of lawyers who battled plaintiffs in San Francisco in 2006 are in LA filing heaps of pretrial motions. On April 10th defendants try to exclude the entire testimony of Tom Doyle, as “The First amendment bars Fr. Doyle’s testimony on Canon Law.”

City of Angels alarms went off reading the names of priests Salesian lawyers don’t want mentioned during the upcoming trial. Number 16 on a list of 20 is George Neville Rucker. This ambisexual predator’s name comes up in a lot of predator priest case files. Rucker got around. He was part of the madness at Mary Star of the Sea Parish in San Pedro, in the fifties and sixties. Rucker is connected to the crimes of Salesian Titian Miani in the April 14th trial.

A trial about the crimes of George Neville Rucker would be going on this spring if the LA cases hadn’t settled out of court last July, leaving only 17 Salesian cases to be argued in court this month.

CALIFORNIA
City of Angels

By

ALBANY (NY)
WNYT

ALBANY - Add another candidate to the list of those who want to the congressional seat currently held by Rep. Mike McNulty.

Along with the two Republicans and five Democrats already in the race, local attorney John Aretakis will announce next week that he is running as well. ...

Aretakis has been an outspoken critic of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, which he claims covered up the abuse of children by members of the clergy.

BROOKLYN (NY)
JTA

Published: 03/31/2008

A fifth lawsuit was filed against a New York yeshiva alleged to have covered up the molestation of several students by a rabbi.

Two Miami attorneys filed the $10 million suit Monday against Yeshiva-Mesivta Torah Temimah in Brooklyn alleging that their client, identified only as John Doe No. 6, was abused on multiple occasions as a student in the mid-1990s by Rabbi Yehuda Kolko.

The suit claims that the yeshiva's head administrator, Rabbi Lipa Margulies, who is also named as a defendant, should have been aware of credible accusations against Kolko for at least 25 years prior to the plaintiff's alleged abuse.

NEW YORK
Daily Gazette

By Michael Lamendola
Gazette Reporter

Another Democrat plans to join the growing field of candidates seeking the 21st Congressional District seat of Rep. Michael McNulty, D-Green Island, who will retire at the end of this term after 20 years. ...

Mark Lyman, a spokesman for Aretakis, said Aretakis wants to address the sexual abuse of children through legislation in Congress, as well as economic issues affecting New Yorkers.

Lyman is co-director of the Albany chapter of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. Lyman hired Aretakis in 2004 to represent him when he filed a lawsuit alleging he was abused by a priest as a child.

ALASKA
KTUU

[with video]

by Leyla Santiago
Sunday, March 30, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A bishop asked to step aside after allegations of verbal and emotional abuse has been allowed to return to his church.

Sunday was Bishop Nikolai Soraich's first day leading a service as the reinstated leader of the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska.

Parishioners say it was wonderful to see the embattled leader back in church.

OMAHA (NE)
Omaha World-Herald

BY TODD COOPER
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

As a Notre Dame nun, she took a vow of poverty.

Sister Barbara MarkeyShe then took more than $250,000 from the Archdiocese of Omaha and gambled a chunk of it away at casinos, prosecutors said today.

Barbara Markey, the former director of the Catholic Family Life Office in Omaha, pleaded guilty to theft by deception. She faces up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced in July.

In return for her plea, prosecutors and the archdiocese won't oppose probation if the judge deems it suitable.

TAYLOR (TX)
KLBJ

3/31/2008

Newsroom

An eighty year old Taylor man and former Catholic Priest admits to having sex with under-aged girls and fathering at least 8 children. Anthony Gonzales’s relationship with a now-grown woman was the subject of a civil lawsuit filed in a District Court in Bexar County. The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate has settled with “Jane Doe” for $1.35 million

In a deposition, the woman says she met Gonzales in 1981 while she was living with her mentally ill mother in an abandoned house in Houston. At the time, Gonzales was assistant pastor at Immaculate Conception Church in Houston. She says Gonzales had sex with her repeatedly and that by 1983, she was pregnant and in love with him. She says Gonzales told her that when he returned from a trip to the Vatican, he'd leave the priesthood and marry her. But she says he never returned to Houston.

Gonzales, now 80, was forced out of the priesthood in 1985. He currently lives in Taylor.

WHITE PLAINS (NY)
UPI

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., March 31 (UPI) -- The Catholic Archdiocese of New York says it has removed a parish priest while it investigates possible embezzlement to pay gambling debts.

The Rev. Patrick Dunne of Our Lady of Sorrows in White Plains was permanently removed from his duties and ordered into counseling at a rehabilitation center. WABC-TV in New York said the action was taken shortly before Christmas and formally announced to the parishioners Sunday.

WASHINGTON (DC)
PR Newswire

WASHINGTON, March 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Catholic dioceses nationwide will promote Child Abuse Awareness Month in April. Plans call for raising awareness through special prayers during Sunday Masses, diocesan and parish lectures, and other educational activities.

Child Abuse Awareness is a major initiative of the Catholic Church in the United States. As a result, an estimated 1.6 millions persons have undergone background checks; 1.8 million priests, deacons, candidates for ordination, educators, employees and volunteers have gone through safe environment programs and approximately 6 million children in parish school and religious education programs have received age-appropriate instruction in this area.

Some, such as the Diocese of Corpus Christi, Texas; and Grand Island, Nebraska, also are joining their efforts with the Blue Ribbon Campaign of the National Exchange Club Foundation, which promotes the blue ribbon as a national symbol of child abuse awareness. The foundation produces materials for public awareness.

WHITE PLAINS (NY)
Auburn Citizen

By The Associated Press

Monday, March 31, 2008 11:44 AM EDT

WHITE PLAINS - A long-serving pastor of a Catholic parish is under investigation for using church money to feed a gambling habit and has been permanently removed, the chancellor of the Archdiocese of New York said Sunday.

The Rev. Patrick Dunne of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in White Plains took a “very significant amount of church money” because of a “very powerful” gambling addiction, Monsignor William Belford told parishioners.

Belford told the congregation that he met with Dunne last year after the archdiocese's finance office told him that undocumented checks were cashed at Our Lady of Sorrow just before Thanksgiving.

Dunne, who had been pastor at Our Lady of Sorrows since 1991, left the church right after Christmas. He is undergoing counseling at a rehabilitation center, where he offers Mass daily, Belford said. His home telephone mailbox was full and was not accepting messages on Sunday.

DARIEN (CT)
The Advocate

By Zach Lowe
Staff Writer

Article Launched: 03/31/2008 10:32:17 AM EDT

STAMFORD - The bookkeeper who blew the whistle on a Darien priest who stole $1 million from St. John's Church has filed suit against the church and the Diocese of Bridgeport, claiming they harassed and threatened her after she exposed the thefts.

The suit, filed late Friday by Bethany D'Erario, also sheds light on the lavish spending habits of the disgraced Rev. Michael Jude Fay, who used church money to buy Waterford crystals, gifts for his gay lover and a Burberry coat for his dog, according to the suit.

Fay was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for the thefts.

Fay told D'Erario to "mind her own business" when she questioned his use of church money to pay suspicious credit card bills, the suit states.

WHITE PLAINS (NY)
CBS 5

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CBS) ― A beloved White Plains priest has been accused of stealing money from parishioners to feed his gambling habit. Rev. Patrick Dunne may face criminal charges, reports CBS station WCBS-TV in New York.

The evening mass brought bad news for parishioners at the Church Of Our Lady Of Sorrows on Mamaroneck Avenue. They were deeply saddened when they were told Dunne was permanently removed from the church, after accusations of stealing money from the church to feed 'a very powerful gambling addiction.'

"It's very sad," said Carla Iarocci. "Addictions are horrible. We all know that."

PRICE HILL (OH)
WCPO

Reported by: Jay Warren
Photographed by: Jeremy Glover
Web produced by: Alyssa Bunn

A controversy has started in a local church as the Cincinnati Archdiocese is considering reinstating a priest who was accused of sexual misconduct.

On Sunday, parishioners at the Holy Family Church in Price Hill got the chance to voice their opinions about Father James Kiffmeyer.

Kiffmeyer was accused of sexual misconduct after two 18-years-old male students at Fenwick High School claimed the the priest had sexually assaulted them. Both allegations claimed alcohol was involved.

PRICE HILL (OH)
WKRC

[with video]

A small group gathered outside a church in Price Hill Sunday as parishioners inside consider the position of a priest tied to a sex scandal.

Father James Kiffmeyer went on leave in april 2002, after two allegations of sexual misconduct. The allegations involved drinking and both came from students at fenwick high school who were at least 18 years old. Father Kiffmeyer denies that any sexual misconduct occurred, and no criminal charges were ever filed.

Kiffmeyer was reinstated by the vatican in december 2006. Now he is applying to be a pastor at holy family. In a rare move, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati has asked the parishioners at Holy Family for their input on Kiffmeyer.

FLOSSMOOR (IL)
Southtown Star

March 31, 2008
By Duaa Eldeib, Staff Writer
Parishioners at Infant Jesus of Prague Church on Sunday prayed for forgiveness for anyone who wronged the community.

For at least some of the congregation's members, that prayer included church business manager Beverly Houston, who was charged last week with felony theft and forgery for allegedly stealing more than $259,000 from the Flossmoor church from April 2006 to October 2007 to feed a gambling habit.

Monroe Morgan, a parishioner and usher from Homewood, expressed his adamant disapproval.

"It was a terrible thing to happen," he said. "If she's in jail, I think that's where she should be. The whole thing was disappointing, absolutely."

MANATEE COUNTY (FL)
Herald-Tribune

By Todd Ruger
Published Monday, March 31, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.

MANATEE COUNTY — Investigators and the Diocese of Venice are expecting a grand theft warrant soon for the former bookkeeper of St. Mary's Star of the Sea church on Longboat Key.

Margaret Carroll, 67, is suspected of taking more than $100,000 from the Catholic church since 2002, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office confirmed.

The investigation started when a routine financial review found "financial irregularities," the Diocese of Venice said in a written statement.

MESA (AZ)
East Valley Tribune

Denis Riccitelli, a Mesa Catholic priest, was accused in 2004 of using real estate and check-writing schemes to defraud his parish of $160,000.

Church leaders called in the Mesa police. Evidence was presented to the grand jury, which agreed probable cause existed to bring the case to trial.

The priest argued he was not guilty because under church law, he has the right to spend parish funds as he sees fit, including on himself.

Nothing unusual so far. Priests behaving badly, sadly, are a disappointment but no longer a surprise. Accused criminals devising preposterous, self-serving defenses are common.

But here’s where it gets weird. District Court Judge Sylvia Arellano bought the argument. In fact, she threw out the case because prosecutors “didn’t tell the grand jury about the laws of the Roman Catholic Church, known as canon law.”

GARDEN CITY (MI)
Detroit Free Press

BY GINA DAMRON • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • March 31, 2008

After a weekend town hall meeting with their embattled priest, parishioners from St. Dunstan Catholic Church in Garden City said Sunday that they plan to keep working to have him reinstated.

And they wanted it on the record that the Rev. Don Demmer does not have a gambling problem, despite an erroneous report in Sunday's Free Press saying he admitted to having one.

He said Sunday that he made a joke at the town hall meeting to the effect of: "I have a gambling problem. You may have read about it in the newspaper."

His remark drew laughs from the crowd, many of whom have made calls and sent letters to the archdiocese.

PRICE HILL (OH)
Cincinnati Enquirer

BY AMBER ELLIS | AELLIS@ENQUIRER.COM

A dozen protesters stood outside a Price Hill Catholic church Sunday as parishioners inside discussed whether a longtime member who faced a sexual misconduct scandal years ago should become the parish's new priest.

The Rev. James Kiffmeyer, who applied for the position at Holy Family Church, was placed on administrative leave for nearly five years after the allegations surfaced. In 2006, the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy found that Kiffmeyer should not be penalized because his accusers waited too long to come forward with details about his alleged misdeeds.

Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk asked the Parish Pastoral Council to consult with parishioners - a step forward for the Catholic Church, which as a whole has been criticized since molestation allegations and expensive lawsuit settlements have popped up in recent years.

OAKLAND (CA)
San Jose Mercury News

By Rob Dennis, Jeremy Herb, Matthew Artz and Chris De Benedetti
STAFF WRITERS

Article Launched: 03/31/2008 03:02:11 AM PDT

For most of its 46-year history, the Diocese of Oakland was led by two men. One did not want even his closest advisers to know that his priests had molested children. The other, his subordinates say, was happier not knowing.

Bishops Floyd Begin, who served until his death in 1977, and John Cummins, who took over for Begin and served until 2003, had vastly different leadership styles, but the result was identical: Priests accused of child molestation were allowed to serve in parishes after they were reported to diocese officials. Some of them continued to abuse again and again.

In a series of depositions obtained by MediaNews reporters, former diocese leaders described a system that allowed at least 10 accused priests to remain in ministry for years -- sometimes decades -- after sexual misconduct was reported.

NEW JERSEY
The Hammonton News

By JIM WALSH
Gannett News Service

CAMDEN — An announcement of dramatic changes in the Diocese of Camden, including a cutback in the number of parishes will be announced this week.

Bishop Joseph Galante is preparing to decide the fate of each parish in the six-county diocese after soliciting input from parishioners, priests and others over a 15-month period, said spokesman Andrew Walton.

"It’s clear that the status quo is insufficient," said Walton, who noted the diocese must cope with a priest shortage and other concerns. "The traditional model of one pastor, one parish, will be impossible to sustain in every area of the diocese in the future."

Galante’s announcement will be posted at www.CamdenDiocese.org beginning at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

UNITED STATES
Voice from the Desert

Commentary from Bill Maher.

Stop reading now if you can’t handle Maher’s brand of honesty/humor/barroom language.

From 236com, 3.28.2008.

When Barack Obama didn’t hear Reverend Wright say those awful things about America, he still should have rushed the stage, smite Reverend Wright with the cross, and left the church. If there’s anything the right wing can agree on, it’s that. And that gays are going hell, right after they suck them off in the airport bathroom.

But it raises an obvious question, one that I haven’t heard asked, which is strange because it’s so obvious: If you leave a church when the head of the church says bad things about America, what do you do when your church hierarchy is caught up in a systematic and decades-long sex abuse scandal? And did I mention the people being sexually abused were children? Hundreds of them?

PRICE HILL (OH)
Cincinnati Enquirer

BY AMBER ELLIS | AELLIS@ENQUIRER.COM

A dozen protestors stood outside a Price Hill Catholic church on Sunday as parishioners inside discussed whether a longtime member who faced a sexual misconduct scandal years ago should become the parish’s priest.

Rev. James Kiffmeyer, who applied for the position at Holy Family Church, was placed on administrative leave for nearly five years after the allegations surfaced. In 2006, the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy found that Kiffmeyer should not be penalized because the people waited too long to come forward with details about his alleged behavior.

Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk asked the Parish Council to consult with parishioners – a step forward for the Catholic Church, which as a whole has been criticized since molestation allegations and lawsuits have popped up in recent years.

BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport

BRIDGEPORT, Sunday, March 30, 2008, 12:30 p.m. - In response to the filing of Bethany D'Erario v. St. John's Roman Catholic Church, et. al., the Diocese of Bridgeport has issued the following statement:

"The complaint, Bethany D'Erario v. St. John's Roman Catholic Church, et. al., is without merit.

Bethany D'Erario first threatened to sue St. John's Roman Catholic Church and the Diocese of Bridgeport in January of this year, approximately 17 months after she had voluntarily resigned from her position as the business manager and bookkeeper of St. John's Parish. We reviewed the complaint that had been mailed to us by Ms. D'Erario's attorney and determined that it contained numerous inaccurate allegations.

"Accordingly, our attorney sent a letter [published below] to Ms. D'Erario's attorney, a copy of which is attached hereto, noting some of the significant factual and legal inaccuracies in the complaint and discouraging Ms. D'Erario from proceeding with her meritless complaint.

DARIEN (CT)
The Darien Times

BREAKING NEWS Sunday 4:15 p.m.

Claiming an environment of harassment, verbal abuse, innuendo, and intimidation, former St. John’s Parish bookkeeper Bethany D’Erario filed a civil lawsuit against the church and the Diocese of Bridgeport Friday, citing whistleblower retaliation.

In court documents obtained this weekend by The Darien Times, D’Erario also describes a life of excess and overt homosexuality led by former St. John pastor, the Rev. Michael Jude Fay. The lawsuit says that Fay had a formal commitment ceremony while pastor and among other things, used church money to buy Burberry outfits for his dog.

In the 22-page complaint, D’Erario recalls events surrounding the discovery of Fay’s financial wrongdoing.

In December, a federal judge in New Haven sentenced the former pastor to 37 months in prison for stealing parishioners’ money while serving as pastor of St. John Church.

WHITE PLAINS (NY)
International Herald Tribune

The Associated Press
Published: March 30, 2008

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.: A New York Roman Catholic Church official says the long-serving pastor of a suburban parish is under investigation for allegedly using church money to feed a gambling habit.

The chancellor of the Archdiocese of New York says the Rev. Patrick Dunne of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in White Plains took a significant amount of church money and has been permanently removed from the parish.

The chancellor, Monsignor William Belford, told members of the parish Sunday that the Westchester County district attorney's office is investigating.

BOSTON (MA)
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

The Associated Press

BOSTON— A Catholic lay group formed after the priest sex abuse scandal is raising money to run a full-page newspaper ad timed to the Pope's U.S. visit.

The Voice of the Faithful says it wants to re-ignite a national dialogue among the laity and clergy by placing the ad in a national newspaper to coincide with Pope Benedict's weeklong visit. The Pope will visit New York and Washington.

The group says the culture of secrecy in the church which helped lead to the clergy sexual abuse scandal still exists and has created financial scandals in some parishes.

WHITE PLAINS (NY)
The Journal News

By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon and Gary Stern
The Journal News • March 30, 2008

WHITE PLAINS - The longtime pastor of an affluent Catholic parish is under investigation for stealing "a very significant amount of church money" to feed a gambling addiction, the chancellor of the Archdiocese of New York announced at Mass yesterday.

The Rev. Patrick Dunne, who has served as pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church since 1991, has been permanently removed from his post and is undergoing counseling, Monsignor William Belford told parishioners.

"I've been sent to share with you what we think we know at this point about an ongoing process," he said. "What we think we know is about a gambling addiction that has been very powerful in the life of Father Patrick Dunne."

CALIFORNIA
Inside Bay Area

This links to a multimedia presentation on alleged abuse by priests in Northern California.

GARDEN CITY (MI)
Detroit Free Press

BY GINA DAMRON • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • March 30, 2008

For the first time in months, the former priest of Garden City's St. Dunstan Catholic Church stood in front of his parishioners Saturday and led them in a prayer at the end of an emotionally charged town hall meeting in Livonia.

"I'm not ashamed with anything I've done," said the Rev. Donald Demmer, who was criticized by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy after being accused of running up gambling debts and taking trips with personal donations parishioners gave him.

Demmer was not charged because there was insufficient evidence. The church's former secretary, Debra Ann Kilyanek, 54, of Garden City, however, pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $100,000 from St. Dunstan. She's awaiting sentencing.

ILLINOIS
Southtown Star

March 30, 2008
By John O'Brien, Staff Writer
The former pastor who oversaw a manager accused of wrongdoing at St. Christopher Church in Midlothian is in familiar territory once again at his new parish.

Beverly Houston, 51, of Chicago, was charged last week with felony theft and forgery, accused of stealing more than $250,000 from Infant Jesus of Prague Church in Flossmoor.

Authorities said Houston stole the money from Infant Jesus of Prague between April 2006 and October 2007 while she was business manager at the parish under the Rev. William Killeen.

CALIFORNIA
San Jose Mercury News

By Rob Dennis, Jeremy Herb, Matthew Artz and Chris De Benedetti
STAFF WRITERS

Article Launched: 03/30/2008 03:04:55 AM PDT

MONDAY: The system allowed accused priests to remain in the diocese.

TUESDAY: Members of religious orders are among the most prolific offenders.

WEDNESDAY: Church officials take steps to prevent future abuse.

About the series

To identify the 64 priests and members of religious orders who were accused of molesting children in the Diocese of Oakland, Bay Area News Group reporters scoured tens of thousands of pages of court records filed in Alameda, San Francisco and Contra Costa counties.

To discover where the accused priests served, the reporters built a database of every priest who has served in every parish in the Diocese of Oakland since 1950, using the Official Catholic Directory. Before 1962, those parishes were listed under the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

The directory lists where priests were serving on Jan. 1 of the year listed, so in most cases, the priest also served in that parish for at least a portion of the previous year. If a priest is listed as serving in a parish from 1970 to 1975, for example, he likely served there for part of 1969 as well.

CANADA
Toronto Star

Mar 30, 2008 04:30 AM
Kim Hughes

The Secret Lives of Saints:
Child Brides and Lost Boys
in Canada's Polygamous
Mormon Sect

by Daphne Bramham

Random House Canada,

464 pages, $32.95

Suggesting a North American religious group is like the dreaded Taliban is a grave accusation. Fighting words, you might say, and sure to spin heads.

But Vancouver Sun columnist Daphne Bramham has plenty of strong language for the polygamous Mormons of Bountiful, B.C., Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz. – members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS for short.

In her riveting and unsettling book, The Secret Lives of Saints, Bramham variously calls them extortionists, misogynists, racists, child abusers and, most disturbingly, pedophiles. She says the Taliban has nothing on the FLDS where revolting attitudes toward women and children are concerned. ...

Winston Blackmore, the so-called Bishop of Bountiful and Canada's self-appointed polygamy poster boy, has publicly admitted to having sex with minors on Larry King Live and elsewhere but has barely faced censure, much less charges or prison time.

contactmusic

PETER O'TOOLE has great sympathy for those abused by Catholic priests as children - because he grew up surrounded by twisted clergy. The movie great admits he was raised as a "holy Roman acolyte" in the 1940s, and though he was never targeted or sexually abused by a priest, he knew a lot of young boys who were.

LOCKEFORD (CA)
Lodi News-Sentinel

By News-Sentinel Staff
Updated: Friday, March 28, 2008 8:59 PM PDT

A lawsuit alleges that in the 1980s, Father Michael Kelly, the parish priest in Lockeford, abused a young boy who is now serving with the U.S. military.

The suit filed in San Joaquin County Superior Court on Wednesday alleges the abuse began when the boy was 7 and lasted until he was 11 during a period from 1982 to 1985. It alleges that Kelly was a priest at Stockton's Cathedral of the Annunciation at the time.

The Stockton Diocese reinstated Kelly to his post in Lockeford after a diocese investigation found no evidence of the alleged abuse.

CAMDEN (NJ)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Troy Graham
Inquirer Staff Writer

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden plans to announce on Thursday a reconfiguration that could merge some of its 124 parishes.

The plan has been under discussion with individual parish representatives for more than a year.

Bishop Joseph Galante plans to make the announcement through a Web cast available at the diocese's Web site http://www.camdendiocese.org/ at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, and his full remarks will be printed in the next day's edition of the weekly Catholic Star Herald, the diocese said.

CALIFORNIA
Contra Costa Times

Article Launched: 03/28/2008 04:46:48 PM PDT

On a March night two years ago, Bishop Allen Vigneron arrived at St. Raymond's in Dublin to do what he had done so many times in previous months: apologize.

"The record of clerical sexual abuse of children and young people is a heavy burden - a burden for all Catholics in the United States, a burden for the Church in Oakland, and surely a great burden for all who have been directly involved in that history," he told the congregation.

What was left unsaid, however, was that the record of abuse in the Diocese of Oakland has never been fully disclosed.

FORT DODGE (IA)
The Messenger

By BILL SHEA, Messenger staff writer
POSTED: March 29, 2008

New sexual abuse complaints against a former Fort Dodge priest and a broadcaster who later became a priest emerged Friday.

In a lawsuit, Joseph Kestel, of Minnesota, accuses the Rev. John Kurzak and John Perdue of getting him drunk and molesting him while he was a young man considering the priesthood in the early 1980s.

Kestel’s case, filed in Woodbury County District Court, also names the Diocese of Sioux City.

CORAL GABLES (FL)
Sun-Sentinel

Charles L. Bailey, author and sexual abuse survivor, 6 p.m. Sunday at Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables. Bailey is the author of In the Shadow of the Cross, about his abuse as a boy at the hands of a priest. Admission free.

CANADA
The Peterborough Examiner

April 3

In 1992, the Congregation of Christian Brothers formally apologized to victims of physical and sexual abuse at the Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John's, N.L. The apology came nearly two decades after boys first complained of abuse. The congregation also ordered the 94-year-old building razed to the ground, with proceeds from the sale of the land to aid victims.

NEW JERSEY
Press of Atlantic City

By ELAINE ROSE Staff Writer, 609-272-7215
Published: Friday, March 28, 2008

7 p.m. Update -

CAMDEN - Southern New Jersey Catholics will know Thursday whether their parishes will remain intact or they will be driving a bit farther to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days, the diocese said Friday.

Bishop Joesph Galante will announce his decision regarding mergers and closings of parishes early Thursday afternoon, diocese spokesman Andrew Walton said Friday. Those who have access to a computer can see a video of the bishop's announcement at 1:30 p.m. at the diocesan Web site, www.camdendiocese.org. The Catholic Star Herald will publish the text of the bishop's message Friday.

CALIFORNIA
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling
Catholic Church Attorneys try again to have civil cases against them thrown out of court next week in a hearing that was first on calendar April 7th then moved up to March 19th, then slipped to March 21st. Now the Motion to Strike hearing takes place on April Fools’ Day. First jury trial in LA regarding a Salesian pedophile priest is still on calendar April 14th.

Re Father Titian Miani: “The first documented incident of child molestation took place in 1947," reads a plaintiff motion from June 2007. "On a retreat with other clerics Miani ‘attempted a dishonest act’ with a 13 year old boy who ‘knew how to resist.’ (Salesians try again to have the 1947 exhibit dismissed in hearings on motions in limine April 10th.)

In Miani’s personnel file translated into English are several documents from the 1940s from reverends and others with very Italian names that City of Angels unfortunately did not copy into notes last June.

CHICAGO (IL)
Southwest News-Herald

By CHUCK SALVATORE

A Chicago man has filed a lawsuit against the Augustinians Province of Our Good Mother of Good Council, accusing a former St. Rita priest and a former choir director at the high school of molesting him.

John Johnson, 44, claims he was sexually molested from 1976 to ’79 by the Rev. John D. Murphy and now deceased choir director Brother Mark Thedens.

The Augustinians Province released a statement saying they were regretful to learn of the lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Cook County.

DARIEN (CT)
The Advocate

Donna Porstner
Staff Writer
Article Launched: 03/28/2008 11:11:21 AM EDT

The priest convicted of stealing $1 million from his Darien church doesn't have to report to prison for another seven weeks, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Court Judge Janet Bond Arterton delayed the date the Rev. Michael Jude Fay, former pastor of St. John Roman Catholic Church in Darien, begins serving his three-year prison sentence until May 19.

Fay, who has prostate cancer, had been scheduled to surrender this coming Wednesday April 2 but sought a delay to allow him to continue participating in a clinical trial for an experimental drug at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

His attorney, Lawrence Hopkins of New Haven, argued Fay would not live long enough to finish his sentence if he is not allowed to complete the clinical trial. Chemotherapy treatments worsened Fay's condition, the attorney said in court papers filed earlier this week.

UNITED STATES
Rocky Mountain News

Justin Dick
Friday, March 28, 2008

David Kopel’s March 22 column on media bias bring up the old canard that the media is essentially a covert outlet for the Democratic party’s propaganda. Let’s look at another recent series of stories. This one concerning Obama’s association with a radical religious figure.

Rudy Giuliani’s priest has been accused in grand jury proceedings of molesting several children and covering up the molestation of others. Giuliani would not disavow him on the campaign trail and still works with him.

ISRAEL
The Jewish Chronicle

28/03/2008
by Anshel Pfeffer Jerusalem
A mother-of-twelve belonging to a small strictly Orthodox sect was arrested on Tuesday in Bet Shemesh, on the suspicion that she had not reported cases of sibling incest, had beaten her children and prevented them from receiving medical treatment.

The 54-year old woman, whose name has not been published, was arrested following numerous complaints by neighbours and reports of children screaming within the house — and at least one case in which a young child was forced to spend the night outside the house wearing only a vest. When brought before the court, the mother denied the charges but said that she believed in beatings as an “educational punishment”. The woman refused to speak to the judge, saying that her beliefs forbade her to speak to men.

The woman, covered from head to toe in shawls and cloaks, was reported to be Rabbanit Bruria Keren, the leader of a small female sect practising an extreme version of the religious strictures of tzniut (modesty). Last month, the JC reported how this group of women believed in obscuring the shape of their bodies, covering their faces and having no contact with a man not their husband, practices frowned on by most Charedi rabbis.

TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade

BLADE STAFF

The associate minister at a local church and a former Toledo Public Schools board candidate was found guilty this morning on misdemeanor charges that he procured prostitution and disseminated pornographic materials to juveniles.

The misdemeanor charges against Richard Brown III, 34, were filed in a bill of information. Previous felony charges of child endangering will be dismissed at his April 30 sentencing.

ATLANTA (GA)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By CAMERON McWHIRTER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 03/27/08

Days before pleading guilty to money laundering earlier this month, former legislator Ron Sailor Jr. secretly took out a $250,000 mortgage on the southwest Atlanta church where he was pastor.

The congregation had no idea what he had done, church leaders say. Now, they say they have no idea where the money is.

The deacons of Greater New Light Missionary Baptist Church were scrambling Thursday to piece together what happened and just who was the minister they thought they knew.

ATLANTA (GA)
WSBT

ATLANTA -- A report out today says former legislator Ron Sailor Junior secretly took out a $250,000 mortgage on the church where he was pastor just days before pleading guilty to federal money laundering charges.

Leaders at Greater New Light Missionary Baptist Church in southwest Atlanta say they didn't know Sailor had done it and now don't know where the money is. Sailor had led the church for about a year and took over when its pastor -- the Reverend Leland Jones Senior -- was called up by the Army for service in Iraq.

The church's chairman of the board of deacons -- Jimmie Evans -- tells The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that church members can't believe what happened.

CONNECTICUT
Newsday

March 28, 2008

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - A federal judge has ordered a Darien priest convicted of embezzling $1 million from his parish to report to prison in May.

The Rev. Michael Jude Fay was sentenced in December to 37 months in a federal prison. He was due to report to prison next week, but sought a delay while he undergoes an experimental cancer treatment that his attorney says is not available in prison.

Attorney Lawrence Hopkins says Fay will die behind bars if he cannot complete his treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

ILLINOIS
Southtown Star

March 28, 2008
By Kim Janssen and Carly A. Mullady, Staff writers
The Rev. William Killeen showed himself unfit to manage a parish before he was transferred by Cardinal Francis George to Flossmoor's scandal-hit Infant Jesus of Prague Church, according to the man who sacrificed $200,000 of his own cash to help rectify one of Killeen's earlier mistakes.

Former Crestwood Mayor Chester Stranczek - a former parishioner of Killeen's at St. Christopher Church in Midlothian - was speaking Thursday after the SouthtownStar learned he was the anonymous donor who stepped in to save the day in 2006 after revelations that St. Christopher's business manager Jim Nelson stole thousands in church funds under Killeen's watch.

Three parish business managers have been accused of wrongdoing at churches run by the Rev. William Killeen (left). Beverly Houston (right) is charged with felony theft and forgery for allegedly stealing more than $259,000 from Infant Jesus of Prague.

SCOTLAND
Glasgow Daily Record

Mar 28 2008 By Karen Bale

SHAMED priest Father Gerry Nugent was lying low yesterday after revelations he's saying secret Masses in his home.

Fr Gerry was sacked by the Catholic Church last year in the wake of the Angelika Kluk murder trial and banned from preaching in church.

And we revealed yesterday how dozens of worshippers flock to his church-owned home in Glasgow for daily Mass.

CAMDEN (NJ)
Courier-Post

By JIM WALSH • Courier-Post Staff • March 28, 2008

CAMDEN — Members of a city church took to the streets with prayers and hymns Thursday, making a procession to Diocese of Camden headquarters in an effort to save their parish.

The plea for Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Fatima came just one week before the planned announcement of a restructuring for the diocese, including mergers of some parishes.

Bishop Joseph Galante is to announce the changes in an online video Thursday afternoon, the diocese said.

Church members fear Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Fatima, founded more than a century ago in South Camden, may be absorbed into a parish based at the downtown Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

DARIEN (CT)
The Advocate

By Donna Porstner
Staff Writer
Article Launched: 03/28/2008 01:00:00 AM EDT

The former church pastor sentenced to three years in prison for embezzling $1 million from his Darien parish will die there if he's not allowed to complete a clinical trial for a new cancer drug, his attorney said this week.

The Rev. Michael Jude Fay has prostate cancer, and chemotherapy treatments worsened his condition, his attorney, Lawrence Hopkins of New Haven, wrote in court papers filed Wednesday.

"His present experimental treatment is the only one available which shows any promise of prolonging his life," Hopkins wrote.

TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade

By DAVID YONKE
BLADE STAFF WRITER

The judge presiding in the civil lawsuit against Toledo priest Gerald Robinson yesterday declined a request to voluntarily step down from the case and set a trial date for May 4, 2009.

Mark Davis, the attorney representing the woman who sued anonymously as Survivor Doe with her husband, Spouse Doe, filed a motion last week asking Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Ruth Ann Franks to recuse herself from the case.

The motion questioned the judge's impartiality because of her "immutable Catholic upbringing" and followed a similar recusal request filed in November that cited the judge's husband's role as a police investigator in the criminal case in which Robinson was convicted of murder.

PORTSMOUTH (NH)
Portsmouth Herald

By Karen Dandurant
kdandurant@seacoastonline.com
March 28, 2008 6:00 AM
PORTSMOUTH — A former Seacoast man filed a civil lawsuit against Father John McCormack and the Diocese of Manchester alleging their negligence resulted in his rape by a priest who has since died from AIDS.

Key West, Fla., resident Daniel Brown, 47, who said he is HIV positive, filed suit March 18 in Hillsborough County Superior Court asking for $30 million due to emotional, physical, physiological and financial damages, as well as the loss of enjoyment of life. He said he believes his medical status is a direct result of an assault when he was 16 years old.

Brown alleges he was raped in 1977 at a Cabot Street apartment in Portsmouth by Father Wilfred Houle. A death certificate for Houle from Massachusetts indicates he died on April 30, 1987, from respiratory arrest as a consequence of having AIDS.

ALASKA
Kodiak Daily Mirror

Article published on Thursday, March 27th, 2008
By RALPH GIBBS
Mirror Writer
It was a short meeting this morning, lasting only a few hours, but long enough for the Orthodox Church in America’s Holy Synod of Bishops to withdraw Alaska diocese leader Bishop Nikolai Soraich’s mandatory leave of absence.

“The Holy Synod of Bishops is aware of the concerns of clergy and faithful of the Diocese of Alaska,” OCA officials said in a statement posted on the OCA Web site. “It recognizes the expressed desire of their diocesan hierarch to address these concerns, and to take whatever action is necessary to restore peace.”

That action will take the form of an official investigation expected to begin next week.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Patrice Dougan
A WOMAN who was verbally attacked by fellow Presbyterians for taking a Sunday school teacher who sexually abused her to court, has spoken out about the incident.

Simone Walker, who has waived her right to anonymity to highlight the issue of sexual abuse within religious circles, said a move by the church to remove the abuser – her cousin – from the church committee was merely a "publicity stunt".

Ms Walker, now 24, was abused when she was a child, aged between five and 11, by her cousin, Ivor Hogg, a prominent figure in their local church.

SCOTLAND
The Inverness Courier

I'M not a gambling Mann. It's never floated my boat. My parents didn't gamble either, apart from the annual ritual of a half-crown on whatever took our collective family fancy in the Grand National.

As for himself — he's just too tight to give money to bookmakers.

A few years back we went on a family holiday which took in Las Vegas. Naturally we visited Caesar's Palace to show the kids what real glitz is. We put a single symbolic dollar in a fruit machine, duly lost it as expected and spent the rest of the afternoon watching other people losing their money (and very occasionally winning some) on the fruit machines, tables and race-day videos.

So it doesn't put me up nor down that bookmakers were allowed to open on Good Friday this year for the first time ever.

What does tee me off is that the leaders of the Catholic Church should insist that bookies stay shut on Good Friday. ...

The idea that a Church which colluded by its silence in the sexual abuse of small children carried out by its own "celibate" priests should lecture the rest of us on morality is ridiculous.

ILLINOIS
Naperville Sun

March 27, 2008
By Jennifer Golz jgolz@scn1.com
WHEATON – A former youth pastor at a Downers Grove church is the third to be convicted of a sex-related crime, while a fourth awaits trail.

Edward D. Greene, 37, now of Asheboro, N.C., was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday in DuPage County Circuit Court after pleading guilty to criminal sexual assault while in a position of trust, a Class 1 felony.

The one-time youth pastor at Marquette Manor Baptist Church, 333 75th St., Downers Grove, sexually abused a 17-year-old female church member between April 11 and June 7, 1998.

DOWNERS GROVE (IL)
Star News

The Associated Press

A former youth pastor at a suburban Chicago church who now lives in North Carolina faces four years in prison for sexually assaulting a teenage girl who was a parishioner and student.

Thirty-eight-year-old Edward E. Greene, of Asheboro, N.C., pleaded guilty Thursday to criminal sexual assault.

He was sentenced in DuPage County Circuit Court and faced up to 15 years in prison.

DOWNERS GROVE (IL)
Daily Herald

By Christy Gutowski | Daily Herald Staff
Published: 3/28/2008

A former Downers Grove youth minister was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for molesting an underage parishioner.

Edward E. Greene, 38, of Asheboro, N.C., pleaded guilty to criminal sexual assault of the 17-year-old girl while she attended Marquette Manor Baptist Church and its school.

The abuse occurred in 1998, but the allegations didn't come to light until several years later after she told a counselor. Greene was charged in 2005.

BISMARK (ND)
Bismark Tribune

Mar 28, 2008 - 04:05:05 CDT
By KAREN HERZOG
Bismarck Tribune
A man accused of sexual abuse decades ago in the Bismarck Diocese has been officially removed from the priesthood by the Vatican, citing "ecclesiastical crimes against youth."

Joel Melarvie, chancellor of the Bismarck Catholic Diocese, said that an announcement of the laicization (removal from priesthood) of James Pommier was placed in the diocesan monthly "Dakota Catholic Action" to inform people in the diocese of Pommier's status and to offer an opportunity for victims to come forward.

"If anyone has been abused, (we want them) to contact the diocese, to let us know,"Melarvie said. "We want to work with them to come to some resolution for the pain they suffered."

KENTUCKY
the Courier-Journal

By Peter Smith • psmith@courier-journal.com • March 28, 2008

Bills that would toughen penalties against Internet predators, sexual abusers and those who fail to report sexual abusers were approved unanimously by the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday and are expected to pass the full Senate.

Advocates for House Bills 367 and 211 said tougher penalties are needed in