Abuse Tracker

OREGON
Compassionate Gathering

Tentative Itinerary for Walk Across Oregon

Monday, September 1 -- Day 1: Ashland towards Medford. Walkers in Ashland include Virginia Jones and an anonymous mother of two survivors.

We will start on Ashland Street by Albertsons at 8 AM and walk to Siskiyou Boulevard to Triangle Park. We will be at Triangle Park at 9:30 AM. Then we will proceed along Highway 99/South Riverside Drive towards Medford. We will rest at Annie’s Cafe at 723 Main Street in Phoenix at 4 PM.

Tuesday, September 2 -- Day 2: Through Medford on Old 99 to Blackwell Road to Gold Hill. We will be at Mellelo Coffee at 205 S. Central Avenue in Medford at 9 AM.

Wednesday, September 3 -- Day 3: Gold Hill to Rogue River on Old 99. We will be at Patti’s Kitchen on 175 2nd Avenue in Gold Hill at 9 AM.

Thursday, September 4 -- Day 4: Rogue River to Grants Pass on Old 99. We will be at the junction where Rogue River Highway meets Depot Street at 8 AM.

Friday, September 5 -- Day 5: Canyonville segment on Old 99. We will be at Oregon Sunshine Espresso at 340 N. Main Street in Canyonville at 8 AM. Myrtle Creek segment on Old 99. We will be at Suzies at 920 Old Pacific Highway in Myrtle Creek at 3 PM.

Saturday, September 6 -- Day 6: We will start where Old Highway 99 branches off of I-5 and walk through Dillard to Winston. We will be at Sister’s Cafe at 60 SE Main Street in Winston at 4 PM. Virginia Jones is available to speak with the media.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

There has been a show of compromise today at a Brisbane church that has been threatened with closure for being out of step with the Roman Catholic Church.

For the first time in many years, St Mary's Church in South Brisbane has used an approved eucharistic prayer and the priest wore an alb and stole during today's mass.

Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby had warned the community of St Mary's that it is not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church if it does not abide by the church rules.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell has defended his handling of sexual misconduct allegations involving a senior Catholic priest.

Cardinal Pell says he referred sexual misconduct allegations against the priest, Father John Fleming, to the church's internal investigations unit.

Father Fleming, a former high profile Adelaide priest, was appointed to a top teaching job at a Catholic college in Sydney's west.

Father Fleming is now under police investigation over allegations he had sexual relations with a teenage girl in the 1970s, while with the Anglican church in Adelaide.

AUSTRALIA
Green Left

Paul Benedek, Brisbanet
30 August 2008

“Archbishop [John] Bathersby must have solved all Brisbane problems of homelessness, of abuse, of refugees … if he wants to focus on such idiotic matters”, a St Mary’s parishioner told a 500-strong packed gathering at the South Brisbane church on August 25 in response to the archbishop’s threat to shut the popular, progressive parish down.

The meeting followed Bathersby declaring, in a letter to parish priest Father Peter Kennedy, that St Mary’s was operating outside acceptable Catholic Church practices and policies — complaining of “unorthodox masses” and that “the hierarchical authority of the Church” was not being respected.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Father John Fleming, a Catholic priest who is the subject of sexual misconduct allegations, has released a public statement denying any wrongdoing.

Father Fleming says he has never been the subject of a police investigation and is shocked and sickened by the allegations of three people in the Sunday press.

Father Fleming, who was a well-known Anglican priest in Adelaide before converting to Catholicism, denies ever engaging in sexual or other inappropriate behaviour with a minor.

NEW HAMPSHIRE
WCAX

Associated Press - August 30, 2008 11:55 AM ET

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - New Hampshire Roman Catholic Bishop John McCormack is recovering from heart bypass surgery.

The bishop was operated on Friday and the diocese says he is doing well.

IRELAND
The Times (United Kingdom)

Matt Cooper
Emboldened perhaps by the weakness of the political establishment in the wake of the Lisbon referendum and the distraction caused by the imploding economy, the Catholic church has been flexing its once-powerful muscles.

First we had Cardinal Sean Brady’s claim that the rejection of Lisbon could be attributed to public dissatisfaction with the secularism of the European project — a contentious claim, to put it mildly. Now the Catholic church is pressurising the state on educational provision, subtly making a claim to re-establish its special status in this area. ...

The 2002 deal struck with the Catholic church on the compensation it should pay to victims of its abuse was brokered in almost scandalous secrecy and on terms that were highly favourable to the guilty party. While Ahern showed himself well able to respect those of different religious faiths north of the border, he was always cognisant of his Catholicism in his legislative and political actions in the south. Would he have pushed the divorce referendum had he been taoiseach in 1995, for example?

UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By Michael Paulson
August 31, 2008

FORGIVENESS HAS ALWAYS been one of those concepts that vexes Christians.

Central to Christian identity, it is described in the Lord's Prayer - "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us" - recited by Catholics and Protestants alike.

But each time there is a horrible crime - the Holocaust, Sept. 11 - religious thinkers are confronted with the question of just what it means to be forgiving.

Two years ago, the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pa., jolted theologians with a startling real-life example of what it means to take forgiveness seriously, when they publicly forgave the shooter who gunned down five Amish schoolgirls.

Now comes a Catholic nun, Sister Camille D'Arienzo, who is intentionally touching off a new debate about the role of forgiveness in Christendom by asking whether it is time to discuss forgiveness for clergy sexual abusers. D'Arienzo, 75, is a former elementary school teacher and college professor who for a time served as the president of her community, the Brooklyn region of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, and as the president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. She has been a commentator on Catholic issues who appears weekly on WINS radio in New York; she is also an outspoken critic of capital punishment and the spiritual director to a man on death row in Indiana.

RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By Tom Mooney
Journal Staff Writer

Three lingering cases of alleged priest sex abuse that forced the Diocese of Providence to open some of its decades-old secret files concerning allegations of clergy misconduct have been settled in principle, a lawyer says.

And a fourth case, filed by two sisters on behalf of their dead brother, has also reached agreement in the last several weeks.

Pending court approvals, the four plaintiffs or their estates will split a settlement offer from the diocese of $1,326,000. The individual payoffs range between $100,000 and $400,000 each, said Carl DeLuca, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

VERMONT
Burlington Free Press

By Sam Hemingway • Free Press Staff Writer • August 31, 2008

A church therapist hired by the state's Roman Catholic diocese to treat the Rev. Edward Paquette for fondling boys in Burlington in the 1970s was himself a child molester, according to court papers on file in Massachusetts.

The therapist, the Rev. Thomas Kane of Whitinsville, Mass., engaged in sex acts with an Uxbridge, Mass., boy for nine years, beginning in 1968 and ending in 1977, a lawsuit filed by Kane's alleged victim said.

At the time of the alleged sexual abuse, Kane was executive director of the House of Affirmation in Whitinsville, where Paquette was sent to be treated in 1974 after the Vermont diocese learned he had molested two boys in Rutland.

There is no evidence that then Bishop John Marshall or church officials in Vermont and elsewhere knew of Kane's alleged sexual misconduct with the Uxbridge boy in the 1970s.

Voice from the Desert

The Tenth Circle

By Vinnie Nauheimer

While heading back to his office from lunch, Charlie took notice of the truck making a delivery to Joe’s Deli. Not because it was out of the ordinary, but because there were several boxes precariously perched on the edge of the side door and they were swaying in the strong March breeze. The next thing Charlie saw was a young boy about five or six years old walking past him. The kid was doing a balancing act while walking along the edge of the curb. Just as the boy walked under the boxes, a strong gust of wind blew and the boxes started on their descent to the sidewalk. ...

[excerpt]

Dante told Charlie that it was God’s will that his question be answered and the time was near. Virgil cautioned him to hold onto Innocence’s hand for only Innocence could protect him from the horror he was about to witness. Charlie looked down at Innocence and patted the little hand that rested snugly in his own. At the same time, he felt the incredible strength that flowed from the child to him. Suddenly Charlie and his guides were in the depths of hell. Without being told, Charlie knew they were in the ninth circle. The Circle reserved for the souls who were fraudulent against those to whom they were given a special trust.

“It is here that we will find the priests who have violated children over the centuries”, said Dante.

“Why weren’t they mentioned in the Inferno?” asked Charlie.

Dante replied, “It wasn’t time. The Comedy was written to legitimize the church, not offend it”

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

August 31, 2008 - 10:32AM

Outgoing Governor-General Michael Jeffery has expressed sympathy for his predecessor, who left office under a cloud after failing to sack a pedophile priest.

Major General Jeffery, who leaves office this week after five years in the top job, said he felt sorry for former governor-general and Anglican archbishop Peter Hollingworth.

"I'm on the public record frequently saying how saddened I was for Dr Hollingworth and his wife," Major-General Jeffery told Sky News.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Catholic Church in Adelaide has appointed a senior QC to investigate allegations against a prominent priest.

In a statement the Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, says he has asked Father John Fleming to return to Adelaide from Sydney where he works at a Catholic college.

It is understood the police are looking into allegations dating back to the 1970s.

RHODE ISLAND
Jurist

Steve Czajkowski

[JURIST] The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence [official website] reached a settlement agreement Friday with four claimants who say they were abused by priests [JURIST news archive] several decades ago and that church officials had taken steps to cover up previous allegations of abuse. Christopher Young, Donald Leighton, Marc G. Banville, and two sisters of a fourth unnamed man who has died, agreed to settle their lawsuits for a total of $1.3 million. Young, Leighton, and Banville filed their claims in 2003 after they failed to reach a settlement with the diocese in 2002, when it settled [NY Times report] the claims of 36 others who said they were victims of molestation for $13.5 million. The men alleged that they were abused by three different priests on different occasions from the 1970's through the 1980's. The Bishop of Providence, Thomas Tobin [official profile], and diocese officials deny any misconduct in connection with the settlement. AP has more. The Providence Journal has local coverage.

UNITED STATES
Voice from the Desert

The Campaign to Restore Simplicity

Background: For the past decades, Roman Catholic dioceses across the country have been closing parishes and schools, cutting programs and services and reducing their commitment to local parishes. Some of these reductions have been spurred by lawsuits and settlements for clergy sexual abuse crimes. Because the church’s financial holdings and finances remain largely a mystery to parishioners, we are left wondering whether these reductions were necessary and how much more Catholics will be asked to contribute to maintain the status quo. At the same time that parishioners receive fewer services, the church’s hierarchy has imposed no such sacrificial requirements on its own - the bishops. Lavish residences, wine cellars, personal cooks, maids and drivers are still the norm for many bishops and cardinals. How can an institution that is financed through voluntary contributions indulge its hierarchy as it asks those donors to dig deeper into their pockets to fund the comfortable (even opulent) lifestyles of its leaders?

CHICAGO (IL)
City of Angels

"I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" --Renault. Casablanca, 1942. . .Sounds eerily like a certain church hierarch answering yet another question from Jeff Anderson in a deposition last January.

Deposition of Cardinal George strutinized and analyzed in an upcoming post at City of Angels Network.

BROOKLYN PARK (MN)
Chicago Tribune

Tribune staff report
August 29, 2008
BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — The pastor of one of Minnesota's largest churches said an IRS investigation into his ministry's finances is "politically motivated."

Rev. Mac Hammond is recognizable to a wide audience through Sunday morning TV broadcasts of his services at Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park.

Hammond wrote in a letter to congregants that "enemies of the gospel" are behind the inquiry. He preaches the prosperity gospel, which says that God wants his faithful followers to be rewarded spiritually and financially.

CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

James Turner , Winnipeg Free Press
Published: Thursday, August 28, 2008
WINNIPEG - A member of a small Sikh sect who claims he was repeatedly sexually abused for years by priests at a Winnipeg temple has been spared jail time after kidnapping two of his alleged abusers while armed with a sword.

The 26-year-old, who pleaded guilty to two counts of forcible confinement and a single count of assault causing bodily harm, was sentenced Tuesday to a suspended sentence and a year of supervised probation for his crimes.

The incident dates back to December 2006, when the man entered the Gurdawara Nanaksar Sikh temple in an effort to confront the priests there for allegedly sexually abusing him for as many as seven years up until he was 15.

AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now

NIGEL HUNT
August 31, 2008 12:30am
VULNERABLE and confused about his sexuality, Richard confided in Father John Fleming.

He expected guidance from a man he held "in awe", but instead ended up in a sexual relationship with the popular priest.

The relationship, which included encounters in Father Fleming's St Mark's College flat, on Anglican camps and later in the carpark of Father Fleming's then parish at Plympton, spanned six years.

While it started in 1975 prior to Father Fleming's marriage and continued after it, the relationship ceased while Father Fleming went overseas for several years in the late 1970s.

After Richard and his wife were married by Father Fleming in 1980, his relationship with him resumed – ending when Richard confided in another Anglican priest.

AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now

NIGEL HUNT
August 31, 2008 12:30am
JENNY had just one sexual encounter with Father John Fleming, but it has had a profound effect on her life.

When she was aged 17, she went to Father Fleming's Anglican Church-supplied house at North Adelaide seeking counselling after a family argument.

A rebellious teenager who often clashed with her mother, she had on many occasions sought his advice, counsel and reassurance after meeting him at an Anglican youth group in the early 1970s.

But on that day in 1974, what started out as a questionable shoulder massage at Father Fleming's request, ended in a sexual experience.

The act, which is detailed in her police statement, left her feeling stunned. In later years this would turn to anger as the effects of the encounter continued to impact on her life.

AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now

NIGEL HUNT
August 30, 2008 12:30am
JANE kept her secret for more than 25 years. A sexual liaison with Father John Fleming irreversibly affected not just her formative adolescent years, but also her adulthood.

When she finally took the step in 2000 to tell the Anglican Church what had happened, she had no idea what lay ahead.

Although she said it affirmed what had occurred was illegal, she was advised to contact the Catholic Church because Father Fleming was no longer employed by them.

Her interview with the Catholic Church was a body blow.

"Wasn't he just being inappropriate?" she was asked by a church official.

AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now

[with links to victim statements]

NIGEL HUNT
August 31, 2008 12:30am
EXCLUSIVE: ONE of South Australia's best-known priests was appointed to a prestigious Catholic teaching position despite the church being aware of serious allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

Father John Fleming is being investigated by the police Pedophile Task Force over allegations he was sexually involved with a teenage girl in the 1970s.

Detectives have also taken statements from another woman and a man who were allegedly sexually involved with Father Fleming after seeking counselling from him.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

There was never any doubt that the testimony of former Bishop Eugene LaRocque at the Cornwall Public Inquiry would draw attention. After all, he was the man who led the Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese between 1974 and 2002, a period of time when many claims were made of improprieties by priests.

Despite the expectations, and misgivings for others, a number of the revelations made by LaRocque can only be described as stunning.

Over his eight days on the stand the inquiry heard that LaRocque had brought into the fold a priest convicted of sexual abuse in the U. S., ignored church protocol when dealing with a claim of impropriety and signed a $32,000 deal that kept an abuse victim from going to the police.

AMITE (LA)
The Advocate

By DEBRA LEMOINE
Advocate Florida parishes bureau
Published: Aug 30, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

AMITE — Former Hosanna Church pastor Louis D. Lamonica told a Tangipahoa Parish jury Friday that he falsely confessed to child rape because he thought it would be the only way to get his wife and children back.

Lamonica, 49, of Hammond, is on trial in the 21st Judicial District Court on four counts of aggravated rape of his sons when they were age 11 or younger. Seven church members were indicted in 2005 on charges of molesting children. Lamonica is the second among them to go on trial.

Lamonica’s attorney, Michael Thiel, maintained in questioning his client Friday that Lamonica falsely confessed to child rape because he was being controlled by a woman who claimed to be a prophet of God.

MUNCIE (IN)
Star Press

By DOUGLAS WALKER • dwalker@muncie.gannett.com • August 30, 2008

MUNCIE -- A couple and their five children have filed a lawsuit against a Muncie pastor, his church and Ontario Systems, where he also works, alleging the clergyman sexually abused the children.

The suit, filed Tuesday in Delaware Circuit Court 1, targets Matthew Kidd, pastor at Freedom Point Apostolic Church (formerly known as the United Pentecostal Church), 6460 E. Jackson St.

Named as defendants along with Kidd and Ontario Systems, where Kidd works as a product director, are the national and state organizations of the United Pentecostal Church.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

By DAVID NESSETH, STANDARD-FREEHOLDER

Present day Bishop Paul-André Durocher took the stand at the Cornwall Public Inquiry Friday to explain his transition into a diocese wrought with scandal.

Durocher, who was coming from Sault Ste. Marie at the time in 2002, shared his thoughts on learning of the local child sex abuse allegations and how as the new Bishop of Alexandria-Cornwall he dealt with established diocesan policies on the subject.

"So what was your sense of the whole thing . . . ?" asked Inquiry Commissioner Normand Glaude about Durocher's perusal of a file by Father Gilles Deslauriers, who was convicted on 11 counts of gross indecency and other sexual misconduct in 1986.

"My first reaction was that I wanted to go punch this guy in the face," Durocher responded.

IRELAND
The Independent (United Kingdom)

Saturday, 30 August 2008

When the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, solemnly ordained this year's crop of new priests in his diocese last month, he called them all by their first names.

This did not involve any great feat of memory on his part since there were, after all, only three of them. Michael, Richard and Dan are the only newly ordained priests for Dublin's million-plus Catholics.

The tiny number is an ominous indication that Ireland, which once exported Catholic clergy around the world, is running out of priests. The manpower crisis for the Irish church is one which may well change its fundamental character. A new order is taking shape in which congregations will be sharing power with an ageing, shrinking priesthood. The faithful are now being invited not simply to be passively supportive, but to help rescue a church in deep trouble. This will represent a huge change for a country which the Rev Ian Paisley used to denounce as "priest-ridden".

PROVIDENCE (RI)
Boston Globe

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence will pay $1.3 million to four people who claimed they were abused by priests, lawyers said Friday.

The settlements were reached in June and will go to the victims or their estates, said attorney James Murphy, who represented the church.

Three men -- Marc Banville, Donald Leighton and Christopher Young -- sued the diocese starting in 2003 alleging they were abused as children by Roman Catholic priests.

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
WorldNetDaily

By Drew Zahn
WorldNetDaily

A San Francisco radio host billed by his station as the "Lion of the Left" was sentenced yesterday to seven years of prison on a charge of e-mailing images of child pornography.

Bernie Ward, a former Catholic priest who is now married with four children, hosted a Sunday radio program called "God Talk" on San Francisco-area radio station KGO-AM 810 and another program on weeknights devoted to news and politics. According to several reports, Ward earned his "Lion of the Left" nickname for his outspoken and staunchly liberal viewpoints.

Ward came under FBI investigation last year after a woman with whom he exchanged sexually explicit Internet messages called police, reporting that Ward had sent her a photograph of children engaged in a sex act.

Bay Area television station KTVU-TV reported the FBI used 19 transcribed pages of Ward's conversation with the woman and a search of Ward's computer records in their investigation, leading to the discovery of dozens of child pornography photos. The Associated Press reported some of the images were of children as young as three, while others portrayed masochistic scenes of children bound and gagged. The transcripts also revealed that Ward confessed being sexually aroused by his own children.

BELLEVILLE (IL)
News-Democrat

One of the prayers in the Catholic Church asks forgiveness for the sinful things people do, and also what they fail to do. Perhaps jurors in the James Wisniewski civil lawsuit were thinking about that prayer when they awarded him $5 million in damages -- $2.4 million in actual damages, and $2.6 million in punitive damages.

The actual damages may be for lasting effects of the sexual abuse Wisniewski suffered when he was a child at the hands of the Rev. Raymond Kownacki. The punitive damages may be for the abuse of power by the diocesan hierarchy. Rather than call the police or remove Kownacki from the ministry to protect Wisniewski and other children, they moved Kownacki from parish to unsuspecting parish. The jury also ruled the diocese fraudulently concealed the records of the abuse.

This trial makes the Catholic Church and its priests look bad. But most priests are good -- men who have never abused a child and who are also appalled with the hierarchy's failure to protect children. Those priests need the public's support now more than ever.

TEXAS
The Dallas Morning News

10:22 AM Fri, Aug 29, 2008
Sam Hodges
A North Texas Episcopal priest has been suspended over allegations that he engaged in "conduct unbecoming of a priest."

The Rev. Keith Roberson had been leading both Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Terrell and St. Justin's Episcopal Church in Canton.

Bishop James Stanton of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas said allegations against Father Roberson at the Terrell church triggered a 90-day suspension. A diocesan committee will investigate, assisted by a lawyer.

SANTA ANA (CA)
Orange County Weekly

Posted by Gustavo Arellano in Ex Cathedra
August 29, 2008 7:56 AM

Since we're all staycationing this Labor Day weekend, make yourself useful and show up to Our Lady of the Pillar Catholic Church in SanTana. That's where SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) members will be leafleting outside from 9 a.m. through 11 p.m. to protest the kid's-glove treatment of convicted boy molester Father Luis Eduardo Ramirez. The SNAP people know it's going to be an ugly scene, being Our Lady of the Pillar parishioners sent more than 2,000 letters of support to Ramirez's presiding judge and the church is almost all-Mexican, and Mexican Catholics are the biggest sheep in the Diocese of Orange sex-abuse scandal after Mater Dei grads.

NEW YORK
Dyneslines

The other night while strolling with a friend in midtown Manhattan I chanced to pass by Covenant House, a charitable institution that helps runaway youths. I remembered that I had once given money to the institution, before the disgrace that enveloped its founder, Rev. Bruce Ritter, in 1989-90. As this affair was a precursor of the pedophile scandals that have since rocked the Catholic church in America, it is worth reviewing the circumstances.

A member of the Franciscan order, Rev. (John) Bruce Ritter (1927-1999) began a one-man outreach to homeless youth in Manhattan’s East Village during the “flower-child” era of the 1960s. To further his work he founded Covenant House in 1968. At its height, Covenant House operated in fifteen cities with a $90,000,000 budget, reputedly spending three times what the federal government did on runaways. Father Ritter's work was held in high esteem by the public, the news media, a multitude of donors, and by president George H. W. Bush, who cited it as one of his "thousand points of light." Father Ritter himself was sometimes mentioned in the same sentence with Mother Teresa.

BELLEVILLE (IL)
Whispers in the Loggia

In a rare civil judgment against a US local church, an Illinois jury yesterday found the diocese of Belleville guilty of "fradulent concealment" of the records of an abusive priest, ordering the diocese to pay $5 million in damages to a survivor who claimed five years of abuse in the 1970s.

After a heated trial -- which included an appearance on the stand by the diocese's former ordinary, now Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta -- plaintiffs' attorneys said they expected the diocese to appeal the judgment.

IRELAND
Herald

By Claire Murphy

Friday August 29 2008

A wealthy Dublin parish is to become the first in Ireland to be run by Opus Dei.

The Catholic movement will run its first Irish church from Merrion Road.

The organisation has been entrusted with the Our Lady Queen of Peach parish by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. ...

She said that the move was made because there was a shortage of priests in the diocese, adding that "the needs of parishes such as Merrion Road are changing", the parish priest was retiring and the Opus Dei priests could provide a wide range of services.

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
eFluxMedia

By Michael Todd
14:00, August 29th 2008

Bernie Ward, the 57-year-old former Roman Catholic priest and former San Francisco radio talk show host, was sentenced yesterday to seven years in prison under accusations of distributing child pornography.

The trial began in May and the defendant pleaded guilty. The whole incident started in December when the child pornography indictment was made public. At the time, Bernie Ward was hosting a nightly radio show and the station was forced to let him go as soon as the news hit the tabloids.

The police was called in by a Stanislaus County woman who used to exchange explicit Internet messages with him. Unfortunately for Ward, he took it too far and sent the woman a photo of two children engaged in a sexual act. She was extremely upset and outraged by the image and she immediately announced the authorities. In addition to the call, she also helped the police with copies of their conversations, revealing some very disturbing details such as his excitement when his daughter entered the bathroom while he was showering.

AMITE (LA)
The Advocate

By DEBRA LEMOINE
Advocate Florida parishes bureau
Published: Aug 29, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

AMITE — The Hosanna Church child-rape trial defendant is the former leader of a Christian cult with congregants who veered from mainstream charismatic teachings by focusing on prophetically inspired public confessions and by vomiting in order to cast out demons of sin, three defense witnesses testified Thursday.

Their testimony in the trial of Louis D. Lamonica offered insight into the decline of Hosanna Church from the spiritual center built by Lamonica’s father into a cult that witnesses said had lost touch with reality.

Lamonica’s attorney, Michael Thiel, has maintained that his client falsely confessed to child rape because he was being controlled by a woman claiming to have prophetic visions. The state’s case, presented by Assistant District Attorney Don Wall, includes accusations that children were molested as part of satanic cult rituals.

BELLEVILLE (IL)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Nicholas J.C. Pistor
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
08/29/2008

Belleville — The legal problems for the Belleville Diocese didn't end on Wednesday with a massive $5 million verdict for conspiring to hide allegations of sexual abuse by a priest involving a former altar boy.

Another former altar boy — from the same Salem, Ill., parish — filed suit in 2003 making similar allegations against the diocese and the Rev. Raymond Kownacki. That lawsuit is awaiting trial in Belleville.

The lawsuit says Kownacki repeatedly sexually assaulted the boy for three years, starting in 1979 at St. Theresa's in Salem. Further, the suit says Kownacki was shuffled from parish to parish while diocesan officials knew he was a risk to underage boys and girls.

GRAND RAPIDS (MI)
WOOD

[with video]

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) -- A priest who served in West Michigan and currently serving a prison term is facing more charges.

Shamaun Beas has been charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct for an incident with a person under the age of 13 in Kent County. He has been transferred to the Kent County Jail and was bound over to Kent County Circuit Court.

Beas is currently serving five to 20 years in prison for Internet sex crimes that occurred in 2004 in Macomb County. At the time, he was serving an internship as an associate pastor at St. Patrick's Church in Portland in Ionia County.

PENNSYLVANIA
Delco Times

By: PATTI MENGERS, pmengers@delcotimes.com08/29/2008

Forty years after he was accused of sending letters describing sadomasochistic rituals to a school boy, a man who served as assistant pastor at two Delaware County parishes has been removed from the priesthood.

John H. Mulholland, who was assistant pastor at St. Anastasia Church in Newtown Square from June 1968 until June 1973, and at Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Darby from June 1973 until September 1977, has been laicized by the Vatican at his request, said officials in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Daily News

John Mulholland, a former Roman Catholic priest who was the subject of a charge of sexual abuse of a minor in 2005, has been granted his request to be removed from the priesthood.

The Philadelphia Archdiocese said that after the charge was received, Muhlolland's ministry was restricted. The Archdiocese investigated the accusation, which later was substantiated.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

Eugene LaRocque left the Cornwall Public Inquiry with an apology for the city and a promise to keep its residents in his prayers.

Reading from a prepared statement, LaRocque said he never intended to hurt anyone during his tenure with the Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese.

"I want to take this final opportunity to apologize to the community of Cornwall, to all the faithful of the diocese, to all the people in it who were hurt by mistakes I made during my administration," said LaRocque. "I also want to apologize to anyone who was hurt by any action of any priest."

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

By TREVOR PRITCHARD, STANDARD-FREEHOLDER

Cries of "Free Perry Dunlop" and "Defrock LaRocque" rang through the early morning air at a raucous protest outside the Weave Shed yesterday.

About 60 people sang songs, chanted slogans, and waved signs in support of Dunlop, the former Cornwall cop who has been in jail since March for refusing to testify at the Cornwall Public Inquiry.

"They took that man, they ripped his heart out, they trampled him, and then they threw him in jail," shouted Dunlop's wife, Helen.

"We're not so far removed from China as people would like to think," she said.

BELLEVILLE (IL)
WTHI

Associated Press - August 29, 2008 6:24 AM ET

BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) - A lawyer whose client won a $5 million verdict against the Catholic Diocese of Belleville over allegations of sexual abuse says he has a second case to bring to trial.

Belleville attorney Mike Weilmuenster says he has filed suit on behalf of a second man who claims he was sexually abused by the Reverend Raymond Kownacki decades ago.

PENNSYLVANIA
Bucks County Courier Times

By CAROLYN PERC
Bucks County Courier Times

BRISTOL TOWNSHIP
A Roman Catholic priest who served in Bristol Township's Immaculate Conception parish in the late 1990s and early 2000s has been officially defrocked for alleged sexual abuse at a different parish, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Thursday.

John H. Mulholland's official removal from clerical duties comes three years after he was named in the Philadelphia District Attorney's grand jury report alleging that he and several other priests sexually abused children.

BELLEVILLE (IL)
News-Democrat

BY GEORGE PAWLACZYK

BELLEVILLE --A lawyer who won a $5 million verdict against the Catholic Diocese of Belleville on behalf of a sexually abused former altar boy said Thursday he's seeking a trial date for a similar lawsuit involving the same priest.

Belleville attorney Mike Weilmuenster, who represented James Wisniewski, 47 of Champaign, and his partner Steve Wigginton are handling a second, nearly identical lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by the same priest, the Rev. Raymond Kownacki. The case also would be tried in St. Clair County Circuit Court and again names the diocese as defendant.

The second case is filed under "John Doe" as plaintiff and involves a former altar boy from St. Theresa's Parish in Salem. While Wisniewski was about 13 when he began to be sexually molested by Kownacki at St. Theresa's, the unnamed plaintiff was 12 when the priest allegedly began molesting him in 1979, according to court documents. By that time, Wisniewski has testified, Kownacki had lost interest in him as a target.

AUSTRALIA
Western Advocate

BY LOUISE EDDY
29/08/2008 8:24:00 AM
A FORMER resident of a Catholic orphanage has alleged the abuse of Bathurst children by some members of the clergy dates back to the 1960s.

Sandra Peckham, now 58, was taken to St Joseph’s Orphanage at the top of William Street when she was just six years old.

Her mother had left and her father, a drover, wasn’t around much.

Yesterday she contacted the Western Advocate after reading new claims of abuse at St Stanislaus’ College in the 1970s and 1980s to say she, too, had been a victim of abuse.

“[The orphanage] was supposed to be a better place, but it turned into a nightmare – a nightmare I haven’t woken up from,” she said.

CANADA
CBC News

Last Updated: Thursday, August 28, 2008
CBC News
About 50 people shouted and waved placards outside the Cornwall Public Inquiry Thursday to protest the treatment of a man who refused to testify before the commission and demand his release from jail.

Perry Dunlop, a former Cornwall police officer, is in Toronto serving a six-month sentence for a civil conviction of contempt of court. He is to be sentenced next Wednesday for a criminal conviction of contempt of court.

The inquiry is looking into how authorities responded to allegations that young people were abused in Cornwall by more than a dozen men from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Dunlop's role began when he learned in 1993 that the local Catholic diocese had paid a former altar boy $32,000 to drop his sexual abuse complaint against two priests. He handed the complaint to the Children's Aid Society against orders from his superiors, leading to an OPP investigation.

Dunlop was charged and found guilty of contempt of court in the fall of 2007 after he was summoned by the inquiry from his home in B.C. as witness but refused to testify. He said he believed the inquiry is not about finding the truth and he had lost faith in a justice system that treated him as a bad guy.

KENT COUNTY (MI)
WWMT

August 28, 2008 - 5:46PM
KENT COUNTY, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - A priest who used to work in Kent County, who is already locked up following an Internet sex sting, faces even more trouble.

The Reverand Shamaun Beas, a native of Pakistan, is facing up to 15 years in prison on a molestation charge.

He was supposed to be spreading the word of God, instead Beas is behind bars these days with a shocking rap sheet of sex crimes. Now he will stand trial on charges that he molested two young girls while he was a priest at the Holy Family parish in Sparta.

AUSTRALIA
Western Advocate

29/08/2008 8:05:00 AM
NEW claims that a paedophile ring was active at St Stanislaus’ College during the 1970s and 1980s have prompted a former student to tell his story of abuse.

Thirteen former Stannies’ students have told police they were abused at the college.

A 65-year-old former priest is already facing 33 charges, and police are continuing their investigation.

Another former student, who asked only to be known as ‘John’, told AAP he was sexually abused three times in April 1971 by a priest who left St Stanislaus’ a few years later.

“I still remember it,” John said. “I carry that stench on my back ever since the day it happened.

“I was a day boy and I was not the only victim back then.”

ILLINOIS
Madison County Record

8/28/2008 1:29 PM
By Ann Knef

A civil suit filed against Faith United Baptist Church in O'Fallon alleges a youth minister "initiated sexual contact and impregnated" a minor who had attended the church with her family for eight years.

According to the complaint filed Aug. 22 in St. Clair County Circuit Court, the church and co-defendant Pastor Willie Brown allegedly knew that Youth Minister Terrance Jenkins allegedly "committed separate and unrelated acts of sexual abuse with other members of the church, including an unknown 9 year old girl while in the employ of Faith United Baptist Church."

The suit claims the church had actual knowledge or should have known that Jenkins was under initial investigation for sexual abuse on or about November 2007.

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, August 28, 2008

(08-28) 12:07 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Bernie Ward, one of the Bay Area's most prominent radio talk show hosts for 15 years, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison by a federal judge today for distributing child pornography on the Internet.

Ward, 57, pleaded guilty to the felony charge in May and admitted sending between 15 and 150 pornographic images by e-mail, which he maintained were for a research project. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco imposed a sentence of seven years and three months, rejecting a defense plea for the minimum five-year term required by federal law. Prosecutors had sought a nine-year term.

Noting Ward's background as a former Roman Catholic priest who discussed child molestation in the church on his radio programs, the judge said he was troubled that Ward didn't "seek treatment, seek help" when he "encountered his own predilection" for child pornography.

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Jose Mercury News

By Howard Mintz
Mercury News
Article Launched: 08/28/2008 11:52:46 AM PDT

Former KGO radio host Bernie Ward, tranformed from a popular liberal voice on the local airwaves to pariah, was sentenced today to seven years and three months in federal prison for distributing child pornography on the Internet.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker imposed the sentence on Ward, who must turn himself in to U.S. Marshals by noon Friday to begin his prison term. Before the sentence was handed down, Ward spoke briefly, telling the judge, "I regret the harm this has caused my family, my friends, and this community.''

Ward declined to comment after the hearing, where his family and friends sat in the gallery, his wife and son in the front row clutching each others' hands. Ward hugged his family when he emerged from the courtroom and walked away with his lawyer.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Catholic Key

The Catholic Key interviewed Bishop Robert Finn concerning the recent settlement. The following Question and Answer session poses and addresses some of the questions that have most frequently been asked.

Q (Catholic Key): On what authority did you decide to reach this settlement?

A: (Bishop Finn): In accord with Canon law, I am required to work closely with the Board of Consultors and the Diocesan Finance Council to plan for the diocese, particularly in financial matters. Among other responsibilities, these boards assist me in developing and adopting our annual budget. The decision to reach a settlement with these individuals was made in close consultation with both boards. I also sought their counsel on how to meet the obligations of the settlement.

Q: Will parishioners be asked to make special contributions to fund the settlement?

A: Owing to prudent stewardship of resources, it will not be necessary for us to make special requests to fund this settlement.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Catholic Key

By Jack Smith
Catholic Key Editor

KANSAS CITY - Bishop Robert Finn, with the consent of the Board of Consultors and the Diocesan Finance Council, agreed to a settlement of all pending clergy abuse cases against the diocese on August 21.

The cases filed over the last two years include 47 complaints against 10 priests and two members of religious orders. They relate to incidents of abuse taking place between the early 1950s and early 1990s.

At an August 20 press conference, Bishop Finn spoke of his compassion for the "victims of this behavior" and said, "We apologize for the fully unacceptable behavior that prompted these lawsuits to be brought against the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph."

KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Catholic Key

Bishop Robert W. Finn

Over the past two weeks, I have had the opportunity to speak on behalf of our Diocese to individuals harmed by our clergy or former clergy. I have offered an apology to them, and before our whole community, for the fully unacceptable behavior that prompted serious grievances to be brought against the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. With compassion for the victims of this behavior and with sadness over any failure by the Diocese to serve as a proper steward of safety and security for our young people and our parishioners, I expressed a sense of institutional accountability for these sad events.

In reaching a settlement with lawyers representing the families involved in these cases, we took painstaking steps to fully vet all issues. Thoroughness was the hallmark of this process, and the agreement represented a resolution of all existing claims against the Diocese and the individual clergy named.

After taking the matter to the Diocesan Finance Council and the Board of Consultors, we agreed to fund $10 million in payments to the victims. The settlement proceeds are to be divided among 47 plaintiffs by means of an independent and binding arbitration process. Based on advice from legal counsel and on prayerful reflection over this most difficult matter, I believe that this settlement, while costly, is a responsible resolution for these individuals and their families and in the best interest of the Diocese. Elsewhere in The Catholic Key today I explain where this money comes from and how it will affect the Diocese.

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
CBS 5

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Former radio talk show host Bernie Ward was sentenced in federal court in San Francisco today to seven years and three months in prison for sending child pornography over the Internet.

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker called the case a "personal tragedy" and said Ward has many laudable achievements related to his charitable work.

But the judge said he was troubled that Ward, a former Roman Catholic priest who crusaded against molestation of children, didn't seek help for his predilection toward pornography.

BELLEVILLE (IL)
Peoria Journal-Star

The Associated Press
Posted Aug 28, 2008 @ 02:18 PM

BELLEVILLE — A former altar boy awarded $5 million by an Illinois jury that found a Roman Catholic diocese hid the sexual abuses of a priest he alleges molested him dozens of times decades ago says he still faces "a long road ahead" in overcoming the trauma.

A jury St. Clair County, Ill., just east of St. Louis, deliberated nearly five hours Wednesday before awarding James Wisniewski $2.4 million in compensatory damages and $2.6 million in punitive damages in his 2002 lawsuit against the Diocese of Belleville, Ill.

BELLEVILLE (IL)
WTHI

Associated Press - August 28, 2008 3:04 PM ET

BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) - An advocacy group for victims of clergy abuse wants a $5 million jury award to be undisturbed for a man who claims he was repeatedly sexually abused by a priest decades ago.

A St. Clair County jury returned the verdict yesterday in favor of James Wisniewski (wihs-NOO'-skee) in his lawsuit against the Diocese of Belleville.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Reporter

The Philadelphia Archdioscese announced the removal of a priest who served in several Philadelphia area churches including Norristown and Warrington due to sexual abuse allegations.

John H. Mulholland has been under restrictions since a 2005 allegation of sexual abuse involving a minor, according to the release. The allegation was found to be substantiated since then.

Text of the press release:

The Holy See has notified the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that th request of John H. Mulholland to be removed from the clerical state was granted. In 2005, an allegation of sexual abuse involving a minor by John Mulholland was reported to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and his
ministry was restricted. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia investigated the allegation, which was subsequently substantiated, and he sought removal from the clerical state.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Scott Steinkerchner OP

My heart is heavy this morning because of a collision of many factors. I wonder what exactly is the heart of religion? What is the point? What does God want from us?

I received an email from a faithful Catholic that began, “In my life one of the greatest sources of grief and sadness has been to watch friends and family members fall away from the practice of the Catholic faith.” I wish I had his life. I sometimes wish I did not know the things I know about the world.

I have traveled around the world, helping missionaries in developing nations help the people they serve stave off starvation and try to get out of the abject poverty that grinds them into the dust. (The photo to the right is one I took recently in a clinic in Haiti.) I read in the paper this morning two news articles. The New York Times reported: “Idaho: Death Penalty in Kidnapping and Murder Case.” The story ended, “Jurors viewed a videotape Mr. Duncan had made of his sexually abusing, torturing and hanging Dylan.” This grieves me to my core. What is the world like that created such a person? And what must it have been like to see this videotape? And in what way does killing one more person do anything but make the world more murderous?

Closer to home, the Belleville News-Democrat informs me of the case against the Catholic Diocese of Belleville that has just resulted in a 5 million dollar settlement against the Diocese from a man who had been sexually abused by a priest after the diocese had known of multiple similar allegations against him and yet transferred him without warning his new parishes. In the Church’s defense, “Former Belleville Bishop Gregory says key documents about sex abuse were kept from him.” Testimony revealed that an official of the diocese “knew about detailed reports that Kownacki [the priest in question], had raped a 16-year-old girl and aborted her fetus with his hands,” but did not tell the new bishop.

Now I am really sad. First, sad for these victims. Then sad for those involved who now must see how their actions contributed to the problem.

UNITED STATES
The Washington Times

Julia Duin
Thursday, August 28, 2008

When I attended my first meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in November 1986, I was very conscious of about 300 men, all dressed in black, scurrying about on very important business.

And then there was I, a religion writer for the Houston Chronicle who had no idea of what was going on.

Back then, the man who headed the press office for the bishops was Russell Shaw, always a helpful soul when I needed guidance on what was what.

His new book, "Nothing to Hide: Secrecy, Communication and the Communion in the Catholic Church," is an amazing read, considering the author was in the belly of the beast for 18 years.

His beef: Despite extravagant promises made in 2002 in the aftermath of the clergy sex-abuse scandal, the doings of the U.S. Catholic Church are as impenetrable as ever. A case in point: the twice-yearly bishops' business meetings.

AUSTRALIA
Wikinews Reports

The school at the center of child-sex allegations, St Stanislaus College in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia has removed a newsletter recommending Penthouse magazine as recommended