Abuse Tracker

INDIA
Hindustan Times

Ramesh Babu , Hindustan Times

Kerala, June 01, 2008

Is God’s Own Country turning into godmen’s own country? Scandals involving self-styled godmen are surfacing almost every day in the most literate state. Intelligence sources say the ‘spiritual business’ is worth roughly Rs 2000 crore. Almost 36 such gurus are under police scanner and many are absconding.

The CPM’s youth outfit, DYFI, has called for a 'second renaissance' to rein in the so-called ‘godmen’. Senior Congress leader Aryadan Muhamed’s son's statement that fake Thangals (Muslim spiritual leaders) would also be targeted had almost wrecked the Congress-Muslim League tie-up. Finally, the Congress president had to intervene to cool frayed tempers of the ally.

The campaign against ‘godmen’ began with the arrest of Santosh Madhavan alias Amrutha Chaitanya, a temple priest-turned small-time astrologer. A couple of days after his arrest, gun-toting Himaval Bhadrananda Swamy created a scare after firing two rounds at a police station.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Margaret Ramirez | Tribune reporter
3:43 PM CDT, May 31, 2008

In the late 1970s, with memories of Vietnam still raw and the Cold War raging, hundreds of activists rallied in peace and justice movements, pressing the government for change.

Here in Chicago, a former priest and a former nun saw a chance for similar activism within the Roman Catholic Church. In 1976, Dan and Sheila Daley launched Call To Action, a group of Catholics seeking to act out God's vision in society and hold leaders accountable.

Bold and controversial from the start, Call To Action made history as the first lay group to publicly question the church's prohibitions on birth control, women's ordination, homosexuality and celibacy for priests. Its actions paved the way for other reform groups, including Voice of the Faithful and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Along the way, many church leaders branded the group's members as dissidents and rebels, with one conservative bishop punishing Nebraska members with excommunication.

Tribune religion page Now the group's founders have announced they will retire this fall as co-executive directors of Call To Action after 32 years. Though a horrific 2006 collision that permanently injured Sheila Daley was a factor in the decision, the married couple, both 65, say the time is right to pass the movement to younger Catholics.

OLEAN (NY)
Olean Times Herald

By JOHN T. EBERTH
Olean Times Herald

OLEAN - The Diocese of Buffalo announced Transfiguration Church of Olean and St. Helen's Church of Hinsdale will merge with Olean St. John's Church on July 5.

They are among the last local churches to join as part of the diocese's Journey in Faith and Grace strategic plan launched by Bishop Edward U. Kmiec in June of 2005.

Bishop Kmiec announced in June of 2007 that the three churches would become one. Members of Transfiguration Church have been fighting that decision since it was announced.

Sue Fox, spokesperson for the Committee to Save Transfiguration Church, said the group has notified Bishop Kmiec they plan to appeal his decision to the Vatican.

Mrs. Fox said the group has hired a lawyer that specializes in Catholic church law to draft their appeal. They hope to have the appeal finished within the coming days so it can be sent to the Vatican.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Here is the English text of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's general decree on the attempted ordination of a woman, signed by Cardinal William J. Levada, congregation prefect, and Archbishop Angelo Amata, secretary. It was released by the Vatican May 30.

In order to protect the nature and validity of the sacrament of order, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in virtue of the special faculty given by the supreme authority of the church (cf. Canon 30, Code of Canon Law), in the ordinary session of Dec. 19, 2007, has decreed:

Without prejudice to the prescript of Canon 1378 of the Code of Canon Law, both the one who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order, incur an excommunication "latae sententiae" reserved to the Apostolic See.

Whispers in the Loggia

[with link to text of the Vatican document]

Lest any doubt remained, a decree (fulltext) released yesterday from the CDF announced formally that the parties directly involved in a woman's attempt to be ordained incur latae sententiae (read: automatic) excommunication:

"Both the one who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order, incur an excommunication 'latae sententiae,'" or automatically, said a decree from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. ...

While only a handful of cases of the attempted ordination of women occur each year, the ceremonies themselves are given widespread publicity as are the decrees of excommunication that have been pronounced by the bishop of the place where the ceremonies are held.

Dominican Father Augustine Di Noia, undersecretary of the doctrinal congregation, told Catholic News Service May 30 that the decree explicitly applies what canon law says about the offense of attempting to enact a sacrament.

"The problem is not that all of a sudden there was a tsunami of attempted ordinations of women," Father Di Noia said, but that the Code of Canon Law and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches "never anticipated that such a thing would happen."

MIDLAND (MI)
Midland Daily News

By Angela E. Lackey
Published: Saturday, May 31, 2008 7:06 AM EDT
It formed in response to the Catholic Church's priest sexual abuse scandal. It has grown as a voice for Catholics who want greater say and involvement in their church.

"The people are the church," said Harry Grether of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and coordinator of MidMichigan Affiliate of Voice of the Faithful.

"We would just like to be recognized that we have a role to play," said Joe Schoren. Schoren is a member of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church and the affiliate's chairman.

The Voice of the Faithful formed in 2002, "To provide a prayerful voice, attentive to the Spirit, through which the Faithful can actively participate in the governance and guidance of the Catholic Church."

CANADA
International Herald Tribune (France)

The Associated Press
Published: May 31, 2008

TORONTO: A truth-and-reconciliation commission examining what Indian leaders call one of the most tragic and racist chapters in Canada's history will begin its work on Sunday.

The commission will study Canada's decades-long government policy requiring Canadian Indians to attend state-funded church schools, often the scenes of physical and sexual abuse.

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 aboriginal children were required to attend Christian schools in a painful attempt to rid them of their native cultures and languages and integrate them into Canadian society.

The federal government admitted 10 years ago that physical and sexual abuse in the once-mandatory schools was rampant. Many students recall being beaten for speaking their native languages and losing touch with their parents and customs.

That legacy of abuse and isolation has been cited by Indian leaders as the root cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reservations.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

James Campbell

June 01, 2008 12:50am
A PRIEST convicted of the indecent assault of a teenage girl has been fined only $500.

The Catholic Church acknowledged Father Adelrick D'Cruz abused five other girls from the same extended family, but then asked if they minded if he held a mass for their relative.

D'Cruz, of Clayton South, was convicted on May 22 of indecent assault.

He admitted attacking a 17-year-old girl who sought his help when he was a priest in Victoria's northeast in 1984.

MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Braintree

By Robert Aicardi
Fri May 30, 2008, 05:38 PM EDT

Braintree -
A defrocked Roman Catholic priest at the center of the Boston clergy sex abuse scandal, who was assigned to St. Francis of Assisi Church in Braintree in the late 1960s, is seeking a new trial based on a challenge to the theory of repressed memories.

Paul Shanley, 77, is serving a 12-to-15 year sentence for repeatedly fondling and raping a boy at St. Jean’s Catholic Church in Newton in the early 1980s.

The victim, a member of the parish’s CCD class when Shanley was assigned there, said that Shanley carried out the assaults, starting when he was six, in the bathroom, the rectory, the pews, and the confessional, and his repressed memories of what happened surfaced in 2002 when the media began reporting about the abuse scandal.

ROME
LifeSite News

By Hilary White

ROME, May 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After years of well-publicised media stunts in which radical feminist organisations staged mock “ordinations” of women, the Vatican has ruled that these events have no religious reality and that those who participate in them, both lay and clerics, including bishops, are automatically excommunicated.

In recent years, feminists, who interpret the priesthood in political rather than religious terms, have staged a number of mock “ordination” rites as media events to attempt to force what they call the Church’s “oppressive” intractability. According to the Church’s own understanding of the meaning of the priesthood, all attempts to “ordain” women, even if they include a validly ordained Catholic bishop, are invalid, a technical term meaning lacking all objective sacramental reality.

But the new decree, issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s highest doctrinal authority under the Pope, makes clear that the act also means that those who attempt it have removed themselves “by the act” from communion with the Church. The decree says, “Both the one who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order, incurs excommunication latae sententiae.”

ROME
The New York Times

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
Published: May 31, 2008
ROME — The Vatican on Friday reaffirmed a ban on ordaining women as priests, warning that the consequences of any such ordination would be the automatic excommunication of anyone involved.

The decree was a reaction to specific episodes of “so-called ordinations in various parts of the world,” according to Msgr. Angelo Amato, the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which issued the decree. In recent years, dozens of women have been ordained by individuals acting outside of the church’s authority.

The document was also drafted to give bishops uniform guidelines on an increasingly contentious matter, as a growing number of Catholics contest the church’s position that only men can be ordained as priests.

PEORIA (IL)
The Journal Star

By ANDY KRAVETZ
of the Journal Star
Posted May 31, 2008 @ 12:41 AM

PEORIA — Another lawsuit alleging a former priest molested a young parishioner has been dismissed because it was filed too late after the alleged victim "remembered" the abuse.

Peoria County Judge Kevin Galley, who has dismissed seven similar suits for similar reasons, wrote in a five-page order this week that the suit, filed by Richard Jones, violated the state's statute of limitations.

Jones filed the case in 2007 after "rediscovering the abuse" by Monsignor Norman Goodman, who was the pastor of Holy Family Catholic Church in Lincoln in 1979 when Jones alleges he was molested when he was seven or right.

Twice, the suit had been thrown out for similar reasons but he was allowed to re-file to restate his claim. Galley's order, handed down May 28, is a final order, meaning that barring a successful appeal, the case is over.

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Saturday, May 31, 2008
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In a decree intended to close loopholes in canon law, the Vatican has said that any attempt to ordain a woman will bring automatic excommunications that can be lifted only by Rome.

It is aimed at a number of rituals worldwide, including one in Pittsburgh in 2006, that claim to have ordained women as Catholic priests. Experts say that because canon law is designed to be flexible and to favor the accused, and because no law previously dealt explicitly with penalties for attempting to ordain a woman, this decree is intended to eliminate all wiggle room.

It was signed by Cardinal William Levada of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

COLORADO
The Tribune

David Young, dyoung@greeleytribune.com
May 31, 2008

A priest's profession will not be referenced in his indecent exposure trial next month.

Rev. Robert Whipkey, 53, who is charged with indecent exposure for jogging naked in June 2007 in Frederick, according to police. Police said he was jogging naked in the early morning hours down a Frederick street. He told police that wearing clothes while he ran made him sweat profusely.

Friday in court, Whipkey's appearance was waived for his pre-trial readiness conference, in which Weld District Judge Timothy Kerns approved a motion to exclude any reference to Whipkey's profession as a priest during the trial because it has no bearing on the charge.

DELAWARE
The News Journal

By SEAN O'SULLIVAN • The News Journal • May 31, 2008

A 58-year-old man who claims he was sexually abused as a child by a priest filed an anonymous lawsuit Friday in Kent County Superior Court against the man he says molested him and against the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington.

The "John Doe" civil action, which leaves the claimant unidentified, is believed to be the first of its kind in Delaware in a priest abuse case, according to the man's attorney, Thomas S. Neuberger.

"This case is very important because we are beginning to use John Doe plaintiffs so the victims do not have to identify themselves, add to their injury and suffer public embarrassment in revealing what occurred to them," he said.

Neuberger said he hopes the use of the "John Doe" status will encourage others to come forward before the deadline for filing retroactive abuse lawsuits expires next year.

VATICAN CITY
PoliGazette (Netherlands)

Michael van der Galien on May 31, 2008 @ 1:24 pm CEST

Reuters reports that the Vatican has announced that women priests, and those who (try) to ordain them, will be automatically excommunicated. ‘The decree was written by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and published in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano,’ meaning that it immediately went into effect.

Excommunication means that the person cannot receive the sacraments, nor that he or she can participate in acts of public worship. For Catholics, then, excommunication is very, very serious.

According to Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, the decree ‘was meant to send a warning to the growing number of Catholics who favor admitting women to the priesthood.’ “I think the reason they’re doing this is that they’ve realized there is more and more support among Catholics for ordaining women, and they want to make clear that this is a no-no,” Reese said.

UNITED STATES
Cincinnati Enquirer

On Thursday, Reuters reported that the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano included a decree that women priests, and those who ordain them, will automatically be excommunicated.

The Roman Catholic Church, which already bans the ordination of women priests, now forbids those who participate in such activities from receiving the sacraments or sharing in acts of public worship.

Why does the Catholic Church ban women's ordination? Because Christ chose only men for his apostolate, the pope says.

There are two serious problems with this assertion.

First, Jesus also selected women apostles. In fact, Jesus selected Mary Magdalene for his original apostle. At the tomb scene, Jesus deliberately did not appear to his male disciples, including Peter and John; he waited until they left before appearing to Mary Magdalene (John 20). Then he commissioned her to tell his followers he had appeared, making her the primary witness to the Resurrection. This transformed her into the unique role of first apostle, the earliest person sent to tell Jesus' followers he had risen from the grave. If Jesus could entrust a woman with the status of primary apostle, why can't the Vatican?

The Spoof (satire)

(Vatican City) - The Vatican today announced that anyone attempting to ordain a woman into the priesthood would be excommunicated, as would the woman herself. The decree was signed by Cardinal William "Misogy" Levada, prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of faith, and was itself a compromise doctrine when Vatican officials realized they could no longer order people burned at the stake.

An official Church statement released Thursday by the Vatican Office of Suppression, Ignorance & Intolerance read: "Women, with their fuzzy triangles of doom, can hypnotize a man's mind, causing the blood to flow hot and the body to become tumescent. The resulting confusion causes a decrease in rational thought and an increase in wild parties, to which we never get invited. For this reason and many, many, many, many others, The Church has decreed that a woman priest is a Heretic Jezebel doomed to Hell for all Eternity, as is anyone who aids these filthy, whore-y, bitchy women. In this day and age, when all the ancient and stupid practices of the Church that we so enjoy are under increasing attack, we have decided this is where we must make our stand." ...

The story above is a satire or parody. It is entirely fictitious.

MORGAN CITY (LA)
Houma Today

JOHN DeSANTIS
Acting City Editor

MORGAN CITY -- When Jared Ribardi told authorities that the former pastor of Holy Cross Church had sexually molested him for years beginning when he was 9, the former altar boy, now 26, expected them to do something besides file a police report.

Yet little more has happened in the nine months since he made the allegations.

Detectives have yet to question the Rev. Etienne LeBlanc, who officials at the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux said is undergoing counseling at an undisclosed location out of state.

The priest was placed on administrative leave in August and removed from his post at Annunziata Catholic Church in Houma.

TEXAS
Los Angeles Times

By Miguel Bustillo and Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
May 31, 2008
ELDORADO, TEXAS -- As officials haggled Friday over how to return more than 400 children to their parents, it was becoming increasingly clear that Texas' audacious attempt to rein in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had backfired -- and become a lesson in the difficulty of cracking down on the 10,000-member polygamist sect.

"If you want to make any change . . . it has to go case by case, one child at a time," said Ellen Marrus, co-director of the Center for Children, Law and Policy at the University of Houston. "It's going to be very slow."

NEW YORK
The Tablet (United Kingdom)

Rocco Palmo

CARDINAL EDWARD EGAN of New York has attempted to crack down on clergy in his archdiocese whom he accuses of making what he called "false and shameful" allegations in press reports that he is to reassign almost 10 per cent of his 470 active priests to different parishes.

His criticisms appeared in a terse one-sentence note sent to his priests that accompanied the agenda of a regular meeting of the priests' council last Thursday. The note, obtained by The Tablet, expressed the cardinal's desire "that priests serving in the archdiocese are properly informed about the false and shameful statements that have been made and reported in the media about personnel matters." Although the cardinal did not explain what the statements were, his note came a day after the New York Times and other media outlets published stories of the reshuffle. There is a history of friction between the cardinal and his priests. In this latest row, barely a month after Pope Benedict's successful visit to his archdiocese, clergy were informed of their moves in phone calls made by archdiocesan officials, rather than applying for or being asked to consider transfers. Priests spoke to the press on condition of anonymity criticising the cardinal's handling of the event. One said it had caused devastation and hurt among his fellow priests.

Of the 40 changes, several were said to involve the transfer of priests to new assignments part-way through fixed six-year terms, and in a number of instances outgoing priests reported learning of their departures in calls from their successors. Six more transfers are expected. Spring is traditionally the peak period for reassignments and retirements of clergy in American dioceses.

TEXAS
AlterNet

By Richard Wexler, The Nation. Posted May 31, 2008.

Foster care is a toxic intervention, to be used sparingly. In the case of the Yearning for Zion ranch, Texas prescribed megadoses of foster care.

A little boy, maybe 3 years old, walks past row after row of cots arrayed in a sports coliseum in Texas, carrying a little pillow. "I need someone to rock me," he says. "I just want to be rocked, I want to find a rocking chair." Two adults, whose job is child protection, are following him. But they make no move to comfort him. They just follow him and write in their notebooks.

Other children, with their mothers, are jammed into a building dating to the 1800s, with no air conditioning and no indoor plumbing. Chicken pox quickly spreads; many children come down with diarrhea, some are hospitalized. At night, hostile overseers keep the women awake with their loud conversations and sometimes shine lights in their eyes.

More than 400 children and their mothers endured those conditions in the first days after Texas Child Protective Services raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, according to the only independent eyewitnesses -- mental health professionals brought in by the State of Texas. (Their statements were published in the Salt Lake Tribune.) The state alleges that because some of the mothers are underage, all of the girls are at risk of sexual abuse and all of the boys are at risk of being "groomed" to be abusers.

TEXAS
The Dallas Morning News

By EMILY RAMSHAW and ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN – An agreement to reunite children removed from a West Texas polygamist ranch with their parents fell apart at the last minute on Friday, after a district judge and attorneys for the religious sect sparred over the details.

The courtroom drama followed four hours of negotiation on a plan that would've returned the youths to the Yearning for Zion ranch starting Monday, as long as their parents agreed to keep them in Texas and fully cooperate with child welfare investigations.

Now, it's unclear when the children, separated from their parents for seven weeks, will go home and how soon a new compact can be reached.

TEXAS
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

By R.A. DYER
Star-Telegram staff writer

AUSTIN -- Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, jailed in Arizona on several counts of incest and sexual assault of a child, has surrendered DNA samples to law enforcement officials investigating allegations of sexual conduct with underage girls at the group's West Texas compound, officials confirmed Friday.

Jeffs, 52, is revered as a prophet by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the polygamist sect embroiled in a child custody tug-of-war with Texas. The group's YFZ Ranch near Eldorado was raided by law enforcement April 3, although the Texas Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state overreached its authority by rounding up more than 400 children after allegations of child sex abuse.

A top official from the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott traveled to Kingman, Ariz., on Thursday to obtain DNA swabs from Jeffs as part of an investigation of claims of sexual conduct with four underage girls. At least three suspected violations occurred at the YFZ Ranch, according to a warrant provided by Abbott's office.

SAN ANGELO (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

By BILL HANNA
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

SAN ANGELO -- A state district judge who had been ordered by two higher courts to send children from a polygamist sect back home refused Friday to sign an order that would have started the process of reuniting them with their parents.

The judge's unexpected move came after four hours of legal wrangling where it appeared some of the children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) would be going home as early as Monday.

Attorneys left the courtroom scratching their heads over Judge Barbara Walther's abrupt end of the hearing.

The sticking points centered on restrictions Walther added to an order that had been agreed upon among attorneys for Child Protective Services, the parents and the children.

UNITED STATES
Winston-Salem Journal

By Nicole Neroulias
RELIGION NEWS SERVICE

Published: May 31, 2008

During his recent trip to America, Pope Benedict XVI attended a youth rally at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y. -- the same school where enrollment has dwindled to the point that no new prospective priests are enrolled next fall.

As the U.S. church ordains its crop of about 400 new priests in the coming weeks, church leaders hope that Benedict's words of encouragement will inspire more men to consider the priesthood.

The Rev. Donald Cozzens of John Carroll University, however, says that it will take a major change in Vatican policy on celibacy to revitalize the priesthood.

Cozzens, 69, has tracked the decline in vocations for more than 10 years, including as rector of Cleveland's St. Mary Seminary from 1995 to 2000. In his 2006 book, Freeing Celibacy, and in lectures all over the country, he argues that celibacy should be optional for Catholic priests.

CHICAGO (IL)
American Thinker

James Lewis
If you want another proof that the Catholic Church has completely lost control of its ordained priests, consider another one of Obama's mentors, one Father Michael Pfleger -- a white race-baiting Marxist. Like Rev. Wright, you have to hear the truly demonic tones in his voice --- simply reading the text isn't enough. Your inner “reading voice” just won't say it like he does. (Not unless you hear demonic voices in your head, like some paranoids and multiple personality victims.) ...

The Catholic Church has a responsibility in this matter. It has bent over backwards to protect the privacy of ordained priests who have been engaged in regular sexual abuse of children. I have not seen evidence that child abuse occurs more often among priests than in the general population. I understand the Church has its own ways of dealing with errant priests. Nevertheless, the public seems to have the accurate impression that the Church is tainted with the worst public behavior in centuries. This has done immense damage to its reputation among Catholics and the general public all around the world. The response of the Church is widely considered to be grossly inadequate, even by faithful Catholics.

MOUNTAIN HOME (ID)
Mountain Home News

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Father Raul Covarrubias will return to Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church in Mountain Home Sunday, the Diocese of Boise has said.

Father Raul was placed on administrative leave in September following allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.

The church determined the allegations to be false but found evidence of other unspecified and unrelated misconduct.

DEDHAM (MA)
Boston Globe

By Michael Paulson
Globe Staff / May 31, 2008
DEDHAM - He is an unlikely hero for the Catholic left: a retired Australian bishop who served for years as an aide to the very conservative cardinal-archbishop of Sydney.

more stories like thisBut now Bishop Geoffrey Robinson is under investigation by the Australian bishops conference, and multiple American bishops are trying to ban him from their dioceses after he published a book suggesting the Catholic Church examine the roles that power and sex played in the clergy abuse crisis.

The Catholic left - whose weakened influence was captured in a Time magazine essay this month headlined "Is liberal Catholicism dead?" - has rallied to this little-known bishop, packing his speaking appearances and driving up sales of his book.

On Thursday night, Robinson drew a crowd of about 550 to St. Susanna Church in Dedham, which he said was the largest audience he has drawn on a US speaking tour that began earlier this month. On Wednesday night, 110 showed up to hear him speak at the Paulist Center in Boston.

PORTLAND (ME)
Maine Today

By The Associated Press wire report
May 30, 2008 04:38 PM

PORTLAND - Two Roman Catholic priests previously removed from ministry for sexually abusing minors have been formally stripped of their authority by the Vatican, church officials said Friday.

The Diocese of Portland announced that the Vatican imposed its most severe punishment on George Beaudet, 69, and Michael Plourde, 57, both of whom were named publicly by Bishop Richard Malone last January because the Vatican investigation was progressing slowly.

Beaudet was accused and removed from ministry in 2000 because of alleged abuse dating to 1979. Additional complaints were received in 2002. Beaudet now resides out of state.

Plourde was accused by two minors in 1994 and was removed from ministry that year. The offenses occurred after Plourde returned to the ministry after undergoing counseling in 1989 because of a complaint involving sexual misconduct toward an adult. Plourde still resides in Maine.

FALLS CHURCH (VA)
WJLA

A local woman was just kicked out of the Catholic Church because she broke what's become a strict rule.

She wanted to become a priest. But the Pope says that position is for men only.

For two years, Sister Bridget Mary Meehan has been saying mass at her Falls Church home as, she claims, a Roman Catholic priest.

On Friday, the Vatican decreed that women priests and those who ordain them incur in lah-tay senten-see-yay or automatic excommunication.

GREELEY (CO)
Longmont Times-Call

By Victoria A.F. Camron
Longmont Times-Call

GREELEY — A Frederick priest accused of indecent exposure may negotiate a plea deal since two court rulings did not go his way this week, his attorney said in court on Friday.

The Rev. Robert Whipkey, 54, was excused from attending Friday’s court hearing, so he did not hear Weld County Judge Timothy Kerns rule that three previous incidents of Whipkey’s being naked when the public could see him will be evidence at his trial.

“The defendant places himself in circumstances in which his nudity can be seen by others,” Kerns said.

Because Whipkey was not charged in the earlier cases, the judge had to decide if they were relevant to this case and if they would prejudice the jury against Whipkey.

DELAWARE
The Daily Times

By The Associated Press • May 30, 2008

DOVER — A New Castle County man filed a lawsuit Friday alleging that he was sexually abused as a child by a priest already convicted of molestation.

Attorneys for the 58-year-old former Marine filed the lawsuit under the pseudonym “John Doe” to protect his identity. Named as defendants in the Kent County Superior Court lawsuit are the Diocese of Wilmington and St. John the Beloved Church in Wilmington.

The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiff repeatedly was abused in the 1960s by the Rev. Francis DeLuca, when the victim was an altar boy and DeLuca was an assistant pastor at St. John.

DeLuca, 77, was sentenced by a New York judge last year to 60 days in jail for repeatedly molesting his 18-year-old grandnephew.

DELAWARE
WDEL

By Mellany Armstrong

Another man who says he was sexually abused by a priest when he was an altar boys in Wilmington is suing the diocese and St. John the Beloved Church.

The man, who calls himself John Doe #1 in the suit, says he was another victim of the Rev. Francis DeLuca. DeLuca was a priest at several churches in the Wilmington diocese for 31 years.

John Doe #1 says DeLuca abused him more than 40 times between 1961 and 1964 when he was an altar boy at St. John's. The 58-year-old Doe, a married U.S. Marine Corps veteran, claims the diocese covered up DeLuca's sexual abuse of young children because of a shortage of priests at that time.

New York
Democrat and Chronicle

Maggie Watson • Guest essayist • May 22, 2008

New Yorkers have an opportunity to make our state safer for children. S.4614 is a bill currently before the state Senate that if passed would extend the statute of limitations for the prosecution of sexual offenses against a child until that victim reaches age 28. Currently the statute of limitations runs out at age 23. However, because victims are often traumatized by someone known to them, an estimated 80 percent to 90 percent of abused children are unwilling or unable to disclose their victimization until well after they reach adulthood.

Since childhood sexual abuse survivors are more likely to do poorly in school, more likely to suffer from mental and physical illness and more likely to experience financial failure and physical injury, they need more time to begin to recover and to distance themselves from the offender.

As the law stands, we unrealistically expect survivors of sexual abuse to face their abusers in grueling court proceedings before they turn 23. In addition, children stay silent because predators use any number of trauma-inducing tactics to keep them that way. And the current law tells abusers that their methods need only be effective until their victim's 23rd birthday. Hence, not extending the law to (at least) age 28 leaves most child predators free from punishment and free to reoffend.

DELAWARE
Delaware Online

By GREGORY F. LAVELLE • May 28, 2008

Delaware's Child Victim's Act has now been in effect for almost one year.

It has allowed a number of victims of childhood sexual assault to gain access to the courts for previous assaults and more may step forward in the coming year.

Before Senate Bill 29, victims had two years from the time of an assault to file a civil action against the individuals that assaulted them and the institutions who were charged with their safety and protection.

In addition to the two-year window of opportunity to allow past victims access to the civil courts when the statute had tolled, S.B. 29 also eliminated the civil statute of limitations for future assaults.

TEXAS
United Press International

SAN ANGELO , Texas, May 30 (UPI) -- Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs faces new accusations related to child brides in a search warrant for his DNA, officials say.

Jeffs, in jail in Arizona on sexual assault and other charges, was brought into the Texas polygamist story with the DNA request. The number of young girls he allegedly was involved with has been growing as the story grows.

In the warrant, Jeffs was said to have "sexually assaulted a 12-year-old child ... on or about July 27, 2006, in Schleicher County, Texas," reported the Deseret News, which obtained a copy.

A DNA sample was collected from Jeffs at the Mohave County Jail in Kingman, Ariz., the News said.

DELAWARE
The News Journal

By SEAN O’SULLIVAN • The News Journal • May 30, 2008

An unnamed victim of child sexual abuse by a priest filed an anonymous lawsuit in Kent County Superior Court this morning against the priest and the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington.

The “John Doe” civil action is believed to be the first of its kind in Delaware in a priest abuse case, according to the man’s attorney, Thomas S. Neuberger.

“This case is very important because we are beginning to use John Doe plaintiffs so the victims do not have to identify themselves, add to their injury and suffer public embarrassment in revealing what occurred to them,” he said. ...

According to Neuberger, Doe is now 58 and was abused by now-retired Rev. Francis DeLuca at St. John the Beloved Church from 1961 to 1964 when he was an altar boy and DeLuca was an assistant pastor.

TEXAS
Miami Herald

Carolyn Jessop fears for her life and the survival of her eight children. "Ugly realities" highlight her first-person account of a life inside a religious cult known as the Fundamentalist of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS). ...

It is a sin for a woman to talk about abuse, if she is being abused, it is because she is not in harmony with her husband.

TEXAS
The Salt Lake Tribune

By Brooke Adams and Julie Lyon
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 05/30/2008 01:32:13 PM MDT

SAN ANGELO, Texas - Attorneys are reviewing a Texas Child Protective Services proposal that could return FLDS children to their parents starting Monday and continuing through June 6.
There are conditions: While all the children can return to the polygamous sect's YFZ Ranch in Eldorado they cannot leave Texas and parents must take parenting classes. CPS workers also must have access to residences on the ranch, and residents must provide an ID and have a photo taken.
The Texas Supreme Court on Thursday backed a May 22 decision from the Third Court of Appeals that found the state did not have proof that all 450-some FLDS children were imminent danger of abuse that justified keeping them out of their homes.

TEXAS
KXAN

[with video]

SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) -- Texas authorities and a polygamist sect have reached a tentative agreement to begin returning children taken by the state starting Monday.

A draft agreement released in court by Texas Child Protective Services attorney Gary Banks on Friday said the parents can get their children back after showing identifications and pledging to take parenting classes and remain in Texas.

The agreement was reached with the 38 mothers of the 124 children who filed the complaint that prompted the Texas Supreme Court to rule Thursday that the state overstepped its authority in taking more than 400 children.

NewsBusters

By Ken Shepherd | May 30, 2008 - 13:08 ET

According to the Associated Press, the Vatican is "slamming the door on attempts by women to become priests in the Roman Catholic Church." But it's rather hard to slam shut a door that was never open, which is what Catholic Church teaching holds about women serving in the priesthood.

From a May 30 article entitled "Vatican: excommunication for female priests" (paragraph break removed):

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican is slamming the door on attempts by women to become priests in the Roman Catholic Church. It has strongly reiterated in a decree that anyone involved in ordination ceremonies is automatically excommunicated. A top Vatican official said in a statement Friday that the church acted following what it called "so-called ordinations" in various parts of the world.

WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

By Dennis Sadowski
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Father Joe Mathias sat and listened, scribbling notes at times, paying careful attention to Teresa Kettelkamp, executive director of the U.S. bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection.

Kettelkamp was talking about the latest efforts by dioceses across the country to protect children from abuse. For the Jesuit priest from India, it was an education.

As the Indian Catholic Church's lone representative at Anglophone Conference 2008 May 27-30, Father Mathias took in all he could during the gathering of 40 church representatives from English-speaking countries who handle allegations of child sexual abuse and oversee child protection programs in their home dioceses.

TEXAS
CNN

SAN ANGELO, Texas (CNN) -- Texas authorities say they have collected DNA swabs from jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs in connection with a criminal investigation involving "spiritual marriages" to girls as young as 12.

The samples were collected Thursday from Jeffs, the 52-year-old "prophet" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said Jerry Strickland, spokesman for the Texas Attorney General's Office.

A search warrant for the DNA alleges that Jeffs had so-called "spiritual" marriages with four girls, ages 12 to 15, The Associated Press reported.

WORCESTER (MA)
The Catholic Free Press

By Tanya Connor

WORCESTER – Transition teams have met with members of closing and welcoming parishes. The diocesan Office for Divine Worship is preparing to help them move liturgical items to their new homes and is asking parishes across the diocese to pray for them.

These are among ways the diocese is helping parishes in transition, according to Deacon Anthony R. Surozenski, a member of the Pastoral Planning Committee, and Father Robert K. Johnson, director of the Office for Worship.

UNITED STATES
love your family

by Christopher Manion

The USCCB has announced that April is “National Child Abuse Prevention Month.” In the spirit of the season, I took a look at the web site of Virtus, a “safe environment” program required by over a hundred U.S. Catholic dioceses.Virtus is a program of The National Catholic Risk Retention Group (NCRRG). And what is NCRRG? An insurance company. Now, no responsible insurance executive will inaugurate a program that collides with the interests of his shareholders or his clients. So who are NCRRG’s shareholders? Bishops. And who are the clients? Bishops and archbishops - 66 of them, according to its web site, which helpfully explains, “National Catholic is owned and ultimately managed by its Shareholders. Company policies are therefore established by Shareholders for the benefit of Shareholders.”

Well, you’d think that language was as plain as day, but Virtus “trainers” are apparently trained not to talk about it. Three years ago, the Diocese of Arlington, Va., began requiring Virtus, along with mandatory criminal background checks, of the faithful. Fr. Terry Specht, the chancery’s “safe environment” official, assured a parish assembly, “I’ve had this job for a year and I’ve never hear that word, ‘liability,’ used once.” But at the same time, Fr. Specht was requiring over 10,000 of Arlington’s Catholics to be fingerprinted and to sign hard-nosed waivers absolving the diocese of any liability. Today, three years later, he still does.

CALIFORNIA
Neil McKenty Weblog

The Australian bishop whose “devastating critique” of sex abuse in the Church (Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus) became a controversial bestseller last year has come under fire from the American hierarchy at the start of a month-long US tour.

Retired Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Geoffrey Robinson was “den[ied] permission ” to speak in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles by Cardinal Roger Mahony after a statement from the Australian bishops cited “doctrinal difficulties” in Bishop Robinson’s “questioning of the authority of the Church.”

Cardinal Mahony wrote to Bishop Robinson warning him to “cancel the entire speaking tour.” The tour which began in Philadelphia includes stops in New York, Seattle, San Diego and Boston. Bishop Robinson is scheduled to speak in suburban Encino on June 12.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic Courier

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican's doctrinal congregation has decreed formally that a woman who attempts to be ordained a Catholic priest and the person attempting to ordain her are automatically excommunicated.

"Both the one who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order, incur an excommunication 'latae sententiae,'" or automatically, said a decree from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The brief "General Decree Regarding the Delict of Attempted Sacred Ordination of a Woman" was published on the front page of the May 30 edition of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. It said it "comes into force immediately."

U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the congregation, who signed the decree, said it was published "in order to protect the nature and validity" of the sacrament of holy orders.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Derryn Hinch

May 31, 2008 12:00am
IT is more than 20 years since I went to jail, first to Pentridge then Morwell, for being in contempt of court after trying to alert parents to the predatory behaviour of evil priest Michael Glennon.

His victims included teenage boys who attended his karate school and his camps in Lancefield and a 10-year-old girl he raped.

Despite time in jail for that crime, he remained a Catholic priest for years.

I have thought about that a lot in recent days as this newspaper has gone to court - on your behalf -- to try to get suppression orders lifted that are protecting the identities of a serial rapist, who once terrorised this city and may again, and one of the worst recidivist pedophiles in this country's history.

BOSTON (MA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Everyone is of course entitled to his or her legal rights, but this maneuver will only cause more harm to those who've already been harmed by the crimes of Paul Shanley and the complicity of his Catholic supervisors.

We grieve for Shanley's victims and for their families who have already suffered so much, so long and so severely.

This is, of course, typical predator behavior: trying to exploit every imaginable legal technicality possible. We hope he doesn't succeed. Kids are safer when predators like Shanley are behind bars.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Our hearts ache for the caring parishioners at St. Stan's. Their real crime, in the eyes of the hierarchy, is refusing to bow to a ruthless archbishop.

It's very telling that Burke excommunicates well-intentioned lay people but hasn't ever even tried to excommunicate a single pedophile priest or even discipline a single corrupt church supervisor.

This case shows, just like Jason Berry's documentary 'Vows of Silence' shows, there's no real justice in the Vatican's so-called 'justice system.'

ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Morning Call

By Daniel Patrick Sheehan | Of The Morning Call
May 30, 2008
This Sunday promises to be an emotional one for Catholics in the Diocese of Allentown, as they learn the fate of their churches during liturgies that will be tailored to ease hard feelings and encourage unity.

An unknown number of churches will vanish as the five-county diocese restructures itself to deal with shifting populations, fewer priests and other demographic pressures that have left some churches virtually empty.

The announcements are expected to hit especially hard in Carbon and Schuylkill counties, home to dozens of ethnic churches founded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to serve immigrant populations. Their prevalence, proximity and small membership relative to suburban parishes make them especially vulnerable to closure.

Catholics in the Schuylkill County borough of Mc-Adoo, for instance, already know their Polish, Italian, Slovak and Irish churches will be folded into a single parish. They'll find out Sunday which building will survive to serve the community.

ROME
CNN

From CNN Bureau Chief Alessio Vinci

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- The Vatican announced Thursday in a general decree that it will excommunicate anyone who would attempt to ordain a woman as a priest and the woman herself.

According to the decree, the excommunications would take place with immediate effect.

The decree was signed by Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith.

It was not persuasive to Regina Nicolosi, a program coordinator for Roman Catholic Womenpriests (sic), who was ordained two years ago.

"We have come not to take that too seriously," said Nicolosi, a 66-year-old married mother and grandmother who lives in Red Wing, Minnesota, and said her group is composed of 40 to 50 women priests, none of whom are recognized by the church hierarchy.

ALLENTOWN (PA)
Republican Herald

BY LESLIE RICHARDSON
STAFF WRITER
lrichardson@republicanherald.com
Published: Friday, May 30, 2008 5:57 AM EDT

The wait may soon be over.

On Thursday, the Diocese of Allentown announced that details of the long-awaited consolidation of parishes will be released this weekend.

Starting Saturday evening at Masses across the diocese, priests will read letters from the Most Rev. Edward P. Cullen, bishop of Allentown, according to Matt Kerr, director of communications for the Roman Catholic diocese.

Each restructuring plan was developed by one of 33 Deanery Region Committees across the diocese and reviewed by the Diocesan Pastoral Council and the Council of Priests. Restructuring plans were made on a region-by-region basis and not all have been approved, so it was unclear what parts of Schuylkill County will be discussed in the bishop’s letters. The bishop is not expecting recommendations from some regions for several months.

However, in those churches that have been marked for closure, parishioners will learn the date this weekend. Cullen directed every Mass this weekend to include special scripture readings and prayers to help worshippers with the process.

VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican is slamming the door on attempts by women to become priests in the Roman Catholic Church. It has strongly reiterated in a decree that anyone involved in ordination ceremonies is automatically excommunicated.

A top Vatican official said in a statement Friday that the church acted following what it called "so-called ordinations" in various parts of the world.

Monsignor Angelo Amato of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith says the Vatican also wants to provide bishops with a clear response on the issue.

VATICAN CITY
United Pres International

VATICAN CITY, May 30 (UPI) -- The Vatican has announced it would excommunicate from the Catholic church anyone who would ordain a woman as a priest along with the woman herself.

The general decree said the excommunications would be effective immediately, CNN reported Friday.

The decree, announced Thursday, probably won't be taken seriously by some, said Regina Nicolosi, a program coordinator for Roman Catholic Womenpriests, who was ordained two years ago. She said her organization counts as members between 40 and 50 women priests, none recognized by the church's leadership.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
City of Angels

[with link to Cardinal Mahony's letter]

By Kay Ebeling

What a clear and direct opening paragraph: “Sexual abuse of minors by a significant number of priests, together with the attempts by many church authorities to conceal the abuse, constitute one of the ugliest stories ever to emerge from the Catholic Church. It is hard to imagine a more total contradiction of everything Jesus Christ stood for, and it would be difficult to overestimate the pervasive and lasting harm it has done to the Church.”

The book quoted above caused Roger Mahony to write: “I am hereby requesting that you cancel your visit to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Canon 763 makes it clear that the Diocesan Bishop must safeguard the preaching of God’s Word in his own Diocese. Under the provisions of Canon 763, I hereby deny you permission to speak in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.” -- Signed His Eminence, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles, May 9, 2008.

Showing all the respect due Roger Mahony when it comes to the issue of predator priests, Bishop Geoffrey Robinson from Australia, pictured above, will be speaking and signing his book, Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church, in Los Angeles June 12th at 7:00 PM , in the ballroom at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel near Fox Hills Mall, Culver City, 7:00 PM, admission free, $4 to park or you can take the 439 bus like me.

AUSTRALIA
Catholica

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson has certainly been generating plenty of media coverage from his speaking tour in North America. Our colleagues, Ted Schmidt and John Quinn at New Catholic Times Sensus Fidelium in Toronto, Canada, report that the Archbishop of Toronto has now attempted to obstruct Bishop Robinson from speaking in his Archdiocese. Bishop Robinson is persisting though in his quest to have the issues of power and sex discussed openly and sensibly in the Church. These articles by the editor of New Catholic Times, Ted Schmidt, and John Quinn is how they are reporting the developments in Canada.

CANADA
Vancouver Sun

Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, May 30, 2008
The idea of child brides is disgusting, but seeing photographs of 12- and 14-year-olds with their adult husbands is stomach-churning.

That's why Elissa Wall passed out photos of her 14-year-old self after testifying against Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, last September.

If not for her, Jeffs might still be marrying young girls. Instead, he is serving two consecutive terms of five years to life and preparing to go to trial on similar charges in Arizona later this year or early next year when, once again, Wall will be the key witness.

Yet even while he sits in jail, Jeffs's sermons form the basis of the religious instruction at Bountiful elementary-secondary school, which is both accredited and funded by the B.C. government.

CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

Friday, May 30, 2008
John Caniglia
Plain Dealer Reporter

Retired Bishop Anthony Pilla testified Thursday that he was stunned when an anonymous letter accused Joseph Smith, one of his closest friends and advisers, of fleecing the Cleveland Catholic Diocese out of $784,000 through an elaborate kickback scheme.

"My reaction was disbelief and secondly shock," Pilla said. "That was not the person I knew. Why was I shocked? We had a close relationship. I trusted him, for good reason."

Pilla, looking pale and tired, testified in U.S. District Court for three hours in the second week of Smith's trial on charges of conspiracy, mail fraud, money laundering and filing false tax returns.