Abuse Tracker

UNITED STATES
Examiner

February 28, 3:17 PM
by Kay Ebeling, LA City Buzz Examiner

Part two w/video: As a crime victim who never saw justice, I like to hear Nancy Grace in the background. Her rage satisfies me the way Mozart would satisfy a saner person. So I often have Nancy Grace in the background as I write about these criminals, to get out the truth, and as a kind of therapy. Listening to her outrage at sex crimes against children helps me express my own rage.

She asked on her show last week What kind of world is it when a 14 year old girl can be picked up and disappear on her way to school? Amber Dubois missing from Escondido. In 2002 Samantha Runyon was kidnapped in Escondido, raped, then her body thrown down a mountainside, where it was found by two men who were hang gliding days later. 13 year old Alycia Nipp in Washington State died in much the same way on February 22nd.

BBC News

The number of priests in the Catholic Church around the world is slowly rising, the Vatican says.

The Holy See presented a statistical yearbook to Pope Benedict XVI, showing an increase of several hundred priests a year since 2000.

Thanks to large increases in Africa and Asia, the number of Catholic priests rose from 405,178 in 2000 to 408,024 in 2007, the report said.

INDIA
Top News

Submitted by Mohit Joshi on Thu, 02/26/2009 - 08:16.

Bowing to opposition demand in the legislative council, the state government, on Wednesday, sacked Dr S Malini, assistant director of the Forensic Science Laboratory here, on charges of submitting fake documents that furnished wrong information about her caste, and educational qualification for joining the service.

Janata Dal (Seculer) leader MC Nanaiah, who raised the issue in the council, demanded the government to immediately sack Dr Malini from service.

He stated that Malini had not only submitted false caste records, but also fake certificates of educational qualification, including SSLC marks card.

She is also accused of tampering with documents and brain mapping reports in Sister Abhaya murder case of Kerala.

UNITED STATES
Examiner

February 28, 8:44 AM
by Kay Ebeling, LA City Buzz Examiner

Part 1: Nancy Grace asks, What kind of a world do we live in that a 14 year old girl can disappear walking to school. Today pedophiles and other sexual predators appear to be empowered. One reason for this growing epidemic is, I believe, that criminals saw for at least the past 50 years the Catholic Church - which you’d expect to be a moral leader - harboring serial pedophiles and covering their felonies. Believe me other pedophiles saw what was going on in the Catholic Church, saw the bishops continue to let priests get away with sex crimes against children, and the pedophiles became empowered.

Most people hypothesize that bishops covered up pedophile priest sex crimes to protect the church’s reputation or assets.

Whatever the motivation, a residual effect of the church’s aiding and abetting pedophiles is that-

UNITED STATES
Pokrov

Author: Theodore Kalmoukos
Date Published: 2/28/2009
Publication: The National Herald

BOSTON– It was revealed during the Holy Eparchial Synod’s meeting that Archimandrite Gabriel Karambis, the former priest of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Houston, Texas, claims that he has been a victim of blackmail by a masseur on February 18-19, 2009.

Archimandrite Karambis, was removed from his priestly duties and was placed on liturgical suspension in December 2008.

Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver, in a letter to the Annunciation Cathedral Parish of Houston dated December 26, 2008, informed the parish that Rev. Karambis was removed from his priestly duties, placed on suspension and sent to the Spiritual Court of the Denver Metropolis.

OSV Daily Take

By Father Michael Orsi
Chaplain and Research Fellow, Ave Maria School of Law

Over the past few weeks, the Catholic Church has once again been roiled in scandal. This new controversy was sparked by revelations of a double-life led by the late Father Marcial Maciel Degollado (1920-2008), founder of The Legion of Christ. After an internal investigation, the congregation discovered that Father Maciel had fathered a child, a daughter now in her twenties. Other reports from a former financial officer of the order tell of the founder taking large sums of money with him, for unexplained reasons, whenever he left Rome.

All of this follows years of accusations about sexual improprieties and the Vatican’s 2006 “invitation” to Father Maciel to retire from leadership of the order and lead a life of “prayer and penitence.”

The Legionaries have issued a very terse official statement: “We have learned some things about our founder’s life that are surprising and difficult for us to understand. We can confirm that there are some aspects of his life that were not appropriate for a Catholic priest.”

INDIA
Outlook

John Mary interviews Sister Jesme

What provoked your break with the convent?

Convent authorities branded me a mental patient and tried to take me to a psychiatrist. So I’m trying to prove to the world I’m alright.

What did you have in mind when you wrote about the chance sexual encounters?

Wanted to be true to myself and my readers. Let the world know what’s happening within the four walls. It’s not what one expects.

Should priests and nuns give up celibacy?

Celibacy is laudable but very difficult. Let priests and nuns have the freedom to marry.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

By MICHAEL PEELING, STANDARD-FREEHOLDER

After three years the Cornwall Public Inquiry has come to an end.

But the recommendations made as a result of its healing phase (known as Phase 2) by community groups expressed a common hope the inquiry's legacy would live on in the form of permanent victim support services.

Parties also expressed a desired to see a memorial to victims created and apologies issued from the perpetrators of abuse and the groups whose ignorance, actions and lack of actions allowed abuse to occur.

Of the eight parties which made submissions for Phase 2 of the inquiry, two chose not to deliver them orally to Commissioner Normand Glaude - the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services and the Upper Canada District School Board.

MEMPHIS (TN)
Commercial Appeal

By Lawrence Buser, Memphis Commercial Appeal
Saturday, February 28, 2009

Although it agreed to pay $1.55 million for its part of a $2 million settlement in a priest sex-abuse case this week, the Catholic Diocese of Memphis said Friday it acted responsibly in investigating and dealing with the offending priest.

Rev. John Geaney, a diocesan spokesman, took issue with the plaintiff's attorney, who said the case of Juan Carlos Duran "fit the national profile" of priests who remain in the priesthood and are moved from place to place once they are caught.

"The Diocese of Memphis made no such admission during the negotiations of the settlement," said Geaney, who said the media have not accurately reported church efforts to deal with sexual abuse.

NEW JERSEY
Independent Press

by Independent Press
Friday February 27, 2009, 11:08 AM
AREA -- A former teacher at a Summit private school, who also served as a minister of music at a Short Hills church, has been charged with sexual assault for an alleged relationship with a 15-year-old girl, Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow and Summit Police Chief Robert Lucid announced on Thursday, Feb. 26.

Warren Halsey Brown, 67, was a music teacher at Kent Place School for nearly 15 years until leaving his position in October 2008. It was at the school, police allege, that Mr. Brown met the victim in September, 2007. It appears their relationship became sexual in September 2008, according to Prosecutor Romankow, who said Mr. Brown continued his relationship with the victim through activities outside of school for several months.

An investigation was launched after the victim's parents became suspicious and notified police. School officials have cooperated with the police during the investigation, said Mr. Romankow, and authorities have spent the last several days searching records and computer files related to the case.

MUNCIE (IN)
The Star-Press

By RICK YENCER • ryencer@muncie.gannett.com • February 28, 2009

INDIANAPOLIS -- A Muncie man with ties to a local church was charged Friday with distributing child pornography on the Internet following a federal investigation.

Aaron B. Huddleston, 22, was charged in U.S. District Court with distributing, via the Internet, 17 video files and 305 computer files with pornographic images involving infants, pre-teens and teenagers with adults.

The Internet address, according to the criminal complaint, was assigned to the defendant's father, Steve Huddleston, who lives in the 2400 block of Ivanhoe Drive, and is pastor at University Christian Church. The younger Huddleston was identified as a Bible school student focusing on youth outreach during a 2006 internship at another local church.

CHARLESTON (WV)
Charleston Gazette

By Andrew Clevenger
Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Sandy Martin Cook, the former pastor at Shrewsbury Church of God, looked down at the defense table and shook his head as the judge read the verdict Friday in his sex abuse trial: guilty on all counts.

As Kanawha Circuit Court Judge Irene C. Berger concluded, Cook, 49, broke down and covered his eyes with his hand as he began crying.

Tears also flowed in the crowded gallery, both behind Cook where his supporters sat, and behind prosecutors, where at least one of Cook's accusers sat holding hands with his wife.

PENNSYLVANIA
York Daily Record
.
By TERESA ANN BOECKEL and NICHOLE DOBO
Daily Record/Sunday News

Posted: 02/27/2009 06:40:04 PM EST

An elementary gym teacher with the York City School District was charged Thursday in Lycoming County with molesting an 11-year-old boy at a former job.

James R. Jamison, 34, whose address is listed as being in Trout Run, Lycoming County, faces numerous charges, including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, unlawful contact with a minor and terroristic threats. ...

Authorities in Lycoming County earlier this month interviewed an 11-year-old boy who said Jamison had inappropriate contact with him while he attended first, second and fifth grade at St. Boniface Elementary School, court documents state.

Jamison worked as a physical education teacher at the school from 1998 until August 2008, said Bill Genello, a spokesman for the Scranton diocese of the Roman Catholic Church. The diocese operates St. Boniface, which is now part of the St. John Neumann Regional Academy.

WILLIAMSPORT (PA)
MSNBC

Williamsport, Lycoming County-

A former gym teacher is in hot water over allegations he had illegal sexual contact with a young boy.

Investigators say the sexual abuse happened over a five year period between 2003 and 2008.

Theyre doing everything possible to make sure it never happens again.

34-year-old James Jamison faces 26 counts of child sexual abuse and related charges.

Prosecutors say the crimes happened while Jamison worked as a gym teacher at St. Boniface Elementary School in Williamsport.

NEW YORK
eMediaWire

New York, NY (PRWEB) February 27, 2009 -- The city is abuzz over Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the newly appointed Archbishop of the New York Archdiocese. In particular, concerns have been raised over how Dolan will treat victims of sexual abuse.

Attorney Irwin Zalkin has secured settlements in excess of $200 million dollars representing hundreds of victims of childhood sexual abuse against various Catholic Diocese and institutions around the country, including victims of the Milwaukee Archdiocese, Dolan's previous post. Just recently, Zalkin negotiated with Archbishop Dolan to successfully settle the case of an abuse victim of Father Siegfried Widera, a notorious serial pedophile who, after allegations of abuse were made against him, was transferred by the Milwaukee Diocese to the California Diocese where he proceeded to abuse at least another 10 victims.

Zalkin offers these insights about Archbishop Dolan:

"As the new Archbishop of New York - an obviously high-profile and coveted position in the Catholic Church - Archbishop Dolan will not be able to escape the intense local and national scrutiny over his treatment of sexual abuse victims."

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Injury Board

February 27, 2009 - 07:49 PM

Below is a story that details Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony acting in typical Cardinal Mahony fashion: As a suppresser of truth and a promoter of impostures and mistruths.

From Los Angeles CityBeat:

In 2002, with the Catholic Church molestation scandal erupting around him, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony took to the media to make an announcement: “We want every single thing out, open and dealt with, period,” he insisted.

The Los Angeles Archdiocese then spent the better part of a year stonewalling the release of church personnel files – which, when finally liberated, revealed the identities of the abusers and those who aided them.

CHARLESTON (WV)
Metro News

The former Pastor at Shrewsbury Church of God has been convicted of sexually abusing several boys in the mid 1990s.

A Kanawha County jury returned with a guilty verdict against Sandy Cook on Friday afternoon after just a short time in deliberations behind closed doors.

AUSTRALIA
Fiji Times

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Update: 11:22AM A FORMER Fiji resident and pastor has been charged with sexual and indecent assault and will appear in an Australian court next month.

The 62-year-old accused, believed to have worked as a bank officer here before he migrated, is scheduled to appear before Liverpool Local Court in New South Wales on March 9.

The resident of Green Valley, which is a suburb about 39 kilometres west of Sydneys central business district, is charged with aggravated sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault following investigations into two historical incidents.

AUSTRALIA
Fiji Times

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Update: 1:14PM EW South Wales police are seeking information on a former Fiji resident and preacher who is accused of sexually assaulting a church member about seven years ago.

The pastor, aged 62, has been accused by a young woman of having committed sexual and indecent assaults in 2002 and 2003. She was 13 years old then.

The woman, who married last year, reported the matter to police on the advice of a church superior, from whom she had sought marriage counseling.

BALTIMORE (MD)
Zenit

By Karna Swanson

BALTIMORE, Maryland, FEB. 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Despite strong criticism of the Legionaries of Christ and its lay movement Regnum Christi, Archbishop Edwin O'Brien of Baltimore does not plan to ask the congregation to leave his archdiocese, or close its school there.

The archbishop said this in a meeting Friday with Scott Brown, director of the Woodmont Academy, a school of the Legionaries of Christ in Cooksville, Maryland.

The director released a letter to parents today, in which he communicated that the archbishop believes Woodmont to be a "fine school which is in full compliance with the Office of Schools for the Archdiocese of Baltimore."

ORANGE (CA)
Orange County Weekly

By Gustavo Arellano in Ex Cathedra
Just got off the phone with V. James DeSimone, attorney for a man who says pedo-priest Denis Lyons molested him as a child during the 1990s. They have settled their civil suit against the Catholic Diocese of Orange for an undisclosed amount. "Our client is pleased with the settlement, and looks forward to working with the district attorney's office," to bring criminal charges against Lyons, who has cost Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown more than $4 million in civil settlements. No personnel files will be released, per the judge's order and Brown's eternal gratitude. More to come Monday...

ORANGE (CA)
The Orange County Register

By ANDREW GALVIN
The Orange County Register

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange has settled a lawsuit brought by a man who alleged he was sexually abused by a priest when he was a boy in Costa Mesa during the mid-1990s.

The terms of the settlement in the suit brought by Jonathan Kirrer, 24, weren't disclosed.

Kirrer claims that Rev. Denis Lyons sexually abused him when Kirrer was a student at St. John the Baptist School in 1994 and 1995.

MASSACHUSETTS
Beliefnet

Rod Dreher

I've no doubt that the notorious Boston "street priest" Paul Shanley (now defrocked) was a bad man. He's sitting in prison for having sexually abused victims. But did he get a fair trial? Was his guilty verdict based in part on pseudo-science? The Nation writes:

Sex panics make for bad law. It could be said that they make for bad science, too, except that what has driven some of the most notorious legal cases to emerge from such panics has been more a masquerade of science, a belief tricked out in the language of medicine and social science to distract from the mumbo jumbo at its core. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is set to be the latest arena to test that belief, taking up the admissibility of "dissociative amnesia," or "repressed memory," in a case that some powerful interests no doubt hoped was as settled as the grave. The petitioner is Paul Shanley, a once famous "street priest" who became infamous in the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, was tried in 2005, convicted and sentenced to twelve to fifteen years in prison. Because the media, particularly the Boston Globe, were central to the allegations and the frenzy that provided the context, it has always been difficult to see the case plainly. But because justice, as opposed to its many stand-ins, is blind, imagine yourself or one you love as the defendant at the bar.

UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By: Damian Thompson

The Vatican has rejected Bishop Richard Williamson's carefully worded apology for his remarks about the Holocaust. Good. Williamson has no serious intention of recanting; that much is clear. Rome wanted him to change his views and, since he hasn't, it isn't satisfied with his apology.

I'm getting really fed up with Catholic traditionalists who temper their criticism of this despicable man. Thank God, many priests who say the older form of Mass are appalled by him: I spoke to one distinguished traditionalist priest this week who had vainly tried to warn the Vatican of Williamson's anti-Semitism before the decree of excommunication was lifted. "I even sent them the video of him saying those awful things," he said helplessly.

CANADA
Toronto Star

THE CANADIAN PRESS

CORNWALL, Ont. – Male victims of childhood sexual abuse need specialized support services and a provincial ombudsman dedicated to their plight, the Cornwall inquiry heard Friday as the $40-million probe drew to a close after three years of testimony.

The inquiry, established to examine institutional responses to allegations of sexual abuse in eastern Ontario, spent the majority of its final week hearing submissions dealing with allegations that a pedophile clan operated with impunity in the city for decades.

Lawyers at the inquiry cast the clan stories as fabrications spread by a misguided police officer and embraced by a panic-stricken community.

UNITED STATES
The Catholic Thing

By Austin Ruse
In 1983 Edwin Edwards, the flamboyant and controversial candidate for governor of Louisiana, famously said, “The only way I can lose this election is if I am caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy.” As a general political proposition, only part of this may be true anymore.

A few weeks ago, the newly elected mayor of Portland, Oregon, admitted to having a sexual affair in 2005 with a much younger male legislative intern. Mayor Sam Adams insists his affair with Beau Breedlove did not turn sexual until after Breedlove’s eighteenth birthday. But he has also admitted getting Breedlove to lie about the affair.

There were calls for Adams’s resignation, even from the homosexual press, though the outrage among the gays was not about the affair per se, but over Adams’s lying and his role in getting his partner to lie. Adams says he is staying put in the mayor’s job, and the controversy seems to have died down. This quick disappearance from the news cycle shows how far we are from the 1983 world of Ed Edwards. Dead girls are still taboo. But live boys? That’s a whole other story.

In ”Pedophilia Chic” and “Pedophilia Chic Reconsidered”, published in The Weekly Standard in 1999 and 2001, our Catholic Thing colleague Mary Eberstadt explored the presence of pedophila in some then-current homosexual literature, and how this was gaining acceptance in mainstream publications. She also asked why more representatives of the homosexual establishment failed to condemn these themes.

CANADA
Anglical Journal

LEIGH ANNE WILLIAMS
staff writer
Mar 1, 2009

Bob Beal says people in his profession are careful not to impose modern moral standards on the past and don’t focus on assigning blame, but his address to those attending the conference in Edmonton raised hard questions about why the system of residential schools continued for so long in Canada and even pointed a finger at one historical figure as bearing significant responsibility for it.

“In 1909, everybody knew ... that the residential schools were not working by any measure of success. They knew more than that. They knew that the schools were causing the deaths of children, literally, mainly from tuberculosis,” Mr. Beal said.

One of the major reasons the system continued in Canada was a man named Duncan Campbell Scott, Mr. Beal said. “In the history of Canadian residential schools, Duncan Campbell Scott looms very large.”

Scott was a celebrated Canadian poet and director of Indian Education. In 1913, Scott became deputy minister of the department of Indian Affairs, where he wielded a lot of power. “Scott was a racist by the standards of his own day,” Beal said. “Scott believed, literally, that savagery ran in Indian blood. It was inherited. It was genetic. That’s different from a lot of his contemporaries who were very much cultural supremists,” said Mr. Beal.

CHARLESTON (WV)
WOWK

CHARLESTON -- A Kanawha County jury Friday afternoon found a Kanawha County pastor guilty after deliberating for about three hours.

Sandy Cook was charged with sexually abusing several teenage boys in 1994.

Cook was once senior pastor at Shrewsbury Church of God.

The victims were teenage boys that attended his church, three of them gave graphic details during the trial.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
The Roman Catholic Church said today that an apology by the English bishop who denies the full extent of the Holocaust did not go far enough.

European justice ministers are considering legal action against the bishop, who has been advised by his lawyers that he should not risk travelling to France or Germany.

Bishop Richard Williamson, a friend of revisionist historian David Irving and a traditionalist Catholic whose views on the Holocaust have outraged Jewish and other groups worldwide, apologised uesterday for the "distress" caused by his views but made no retraction of the views themselves.

UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

The Times reports today that the Government is considering offering a peerage to Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, who is soon to retire as leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. This will be the first time a Catholic cleric has sat in Parliament since the reformation. ...

But worse than that, Murphy O’Connor appears to be being rewarded when he should be on the grill being asked to explain his activities in relation to the foul child abusing priest ‘Father’ Michael Hill.

In the 1980s Murphy O’Connor was the bishop of Arundel and Brighton. Although he was aware that one of his priests — Michael Hill — was a dangerous paedophile he did nothing to prevent his access to children. When the abuse came to light, Murphy O’Connor helped Hill to move from one parish to another,

MASSACHUSETTS
The Pilot

By Donis Tracy Pilot Correspondent
Posted: 2/27/2009 The Archdiocese of Boston announced Feb. 22 that Father Kenneth A. LeBlanc, pastor of St. Peter Parish in Plymouth, had been placed on administrative leave as a result of an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

The allegation was brought to the attention of the archdiocese by the Middlesex district attorney’s office and concerns conduct alleged to have taken place approximately 30 years ago, according to Kelly Lynch, a spokesperson for the archdiocese.

The victim created a website in 2008 detailing Father LeBlanc’s alleged sexual abuse of her when she was a 12-year-old parishioner at Most Blessed Sacrament parish in Wakefield.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

OPINION: Christopher Pearson | February 28, 2009

TOWARDS the end of pope John Paul II's long reign, the term "cafeteria Catholic" was coined.

It was a critical response to the free-ranging way middle-aged people in the First World had taken to picking those parts of the church's teaching and distinctive culture that they found congenial and unapologetically ignoring the rest, much as you might approach a smorgasbord. One extreme of the tendency was to focus on all the traditional aspects of church life except caring for the poor. Its polar opposite was to concentrate on social work initiatives and forget about the theological principles and habits of piety that used to underpin them.

In Australia, Catholicism long ago entered an unholy, tribal alliance with the ALP. Much of the national church has been captured by the clerical Left for upwards of 50 years and in the process come to trivialise what had always previously been regarded as non-negotiable elements of the faith. By some, for example, the sins of the flesh have been relativised away as anachronistic preoccupations, barely worth the bother of confessing by comparison with offences against the ideal of social justice. Universal salvation is pretty much expected and can best be ensured by good works. Insofar as it still registers, acknowledgement of the fatherhood of God generally plays second fiddle to an agenda based on the brotherhood of man.

MACEDONIA
Balkan Insight

Skopje | 27 February 2009 |

A 68 year-old Macedonian Orthodox priest fell victim to an extortion plot after he was taped having sex with a 21-year old masseuse.

The priest said he initially went to the masseuse complaining of back pain. After a few sessions the girl offered him sex in exchange for money, and he accepted. After several intimate meetings, the girl used her mobile to tape them having sex and asked the priest for 5,000 euros in exchange for her silence, police spokesman Ivo Kotevski told media on Thursday.

NEW YORK
WPIX

This links to a video presentation on the issue of sexual abuse within the Orthodox Jewish community.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
San Diego 6

[video presentation]

It's been almost two years since the Catholic Diocese of San Diego said it would settle the abuse cases filed against local priests. But now, abuse victims say the church has not stuck to its promise. 2/26/09

CALIFORNIA
Surivivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

(Background: Last Friday, in Los Angeles , Judge Emelie Elias dismissed five more Catholic clergy sex abuse and cover up cases because of the statute of limitations. However, just two weeks ago, a three judge panel in northern California ruled that essentially identical cases could proceed. The issue: how much time child sex abuse victims have to take legal action after they understand that their adult addictions, depression and other difficulties stem from their childhood victimization.)

It was almost a year ago when the new Pope visited the USA for the first time. He said ”The victims will need healing and help and assistance and reconciliation: this is a big pastoral engagement and I know that the Bishops and the priests and all Catholic people in the United States will do whatever possible to help, to assist, to heal.

He didn't say
"exploit every conceivable legal loophole"
"take advantage of every possible legal maneuver"
"hire really expensive and smart lawyers to prevent victims from having their day in court"
"do everything you can think of to keep clergy sex crimes and cover ups hidden"

But that's essentially what California's bishops are still doing.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Tim Healy

Friday February 27 2009

A Donegal priest yesterday lost his appeal against his conviction for raping a schoolgirl in a church sacristy over 20 years ago.

The Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed the appeal brought by Fr Daniel Doherty (49), with an address at Derriscleigh, Carrigart, Co Donegal, against his conviction on two charges each of rape and indecent assault.

In May 2006, a jury found Doherty guilty of raping the then 13-year-old girl in the sacristy on dates in 1985, of indecently assaulting her in the parochial house in 1985, and in his car on a date in December 1984.

GERMANY
Yahoo! News

BERLIN (AFP) - Leading German religious groups have sharply rejected the apology of a British Holocaust-denying bishop, with a prominent Jewish organisation accusing him of continuing to hold his controversial views.

In this "throughly bungled" statement, Bishop Richard Williamson "unfortunately takes nothing back," Dieter Graumann, vice-president of the Central Council for Jews in Germany told the Handelsblatt newspaper.

The apology, made public on Thursday, "leads one to the conclusion that he still believes in the Holocaust-denial," he said.

CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

Posted by Michael O'Malley/Plain Dealer Reporter February 27, 2009

The Cleveland Catholic Diocese has established a "financial misconduct" hot line for reporting thefts or suspicious dealings involving church funds.

The hot line comes in the wake of the convictions of the diocese's former chief financial officer, Joseph Smith, and Anton Zgoznik, who did accounting work for the diocese.

Smith had been accused of bilking the diocese of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a kickback scheme. He was acquitted of most of the charges, but convicted of six tax crimes.

UNITED KINGDOM
Hastings and St. Leonards Observer

Published Date: 27 February 2009

A former Sedlescombe vicar, who abused two youngsters when he was at a Northamptonshire church, is to appeal against some of his convictions and his sentence

Colin Ivor Pritchard, of St Augustine's Close, Bexhill, pleaded guilty to seven sex offences at Northampton Crown Court in July last year.

The 64-year-old was jailed for five years.

IOWA
The Messenger

By ABIGAIL McWILLIAM, Messenger news editor
POSTED: February 27, 2009

When Rebecca Ramirez came forth five years ago to protest at Michael Palmer's Victory Christian Academy in Jay, Fla., it was because she couldn't forget what happened to her when her parents sent her to the facility.

Ramirez said she was raped by Palmer in 1992 when she was a 16-year-old student at Victory. That's what led her back to the facility some 12 years later to speak out, she said.

Following her protest, Palmer left the facility and it was renamed Lighthouse of North West Florida.

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By John Brewer
jbrewer@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 02/27/2009 12:24:58 AM CST

DeLaSalle High School and two parent Roman Catholic organizations were named in a fraud lawsuit filed Thursday in Ramsey County. The suit alleges the groups covered up abuse by a DeLaSalle brother that led to another student being abused.

The suit accuses the Christian Brothers of the Midwest, a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church; the Christian Brothers of Minnesota; and DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis of fraud because they allegedly knew of prior abuse by Brother Charles Anthony "Raimond" Rose but allowed him to continue working with children.

In a news conference Thursday, John Purdy, of St. Paul, and his attorney, Patrick Noaker of the Jeff Anderson & Associates law firm, said that while Purdy was a junior at DeLaSalle in 1966 and 1967, Rose repeatedly sexually abused him at the rectory of the school.

BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore City Paper

By Ian Grey

Until their doors were closed in 1996, the Irish branch of the Roman Catholic Church sent more than 30,000 "fallen women"--prostitutes, single mothers, social activists, the poor and orphaned--to Dickensian forced-labor camps called Magdalene asylums. Speaking was not allowed, food consisted of foul gruel; each day was a grind of backbreaking work in the for-profit laundries, uneasy sleep in hard-bed barracks, and punishment under the watch of sadistic Sisters of Mercy. The unfortunate inmates sometimes lived out their entire lives inside institution walls. The Magdalene Sisters, director/writer Peter Mullan's heartfelt indictment of this long obscure atrocity, is righteous, but its characters are unnecessarily reductive representatives of Innocence and Evil, with scant interest spent on the gray areas that inform the most awful actions.

The Magdalene Sisters opens with a series of miscalculations that reoccur throughout the film. At a 1964 Dublin wedding, a priest, accompanied by a group of Gaelic musicians, pounds with mounting creepy ecstasy on a drum while Mullan crosscuts to young Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff) being raped by her cousin, to shots of crucifixes, and then to pious local menfolk. As the music climaxes, it fairly well looks like the priest will do the same.

CHARLESTON (WV)
The Charleston Gazette

By Andrew Clevenger
Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Over and over again Thursday, Sandy Martin Cook denied any sexual impropriety with three teenage boys in the 1990s while he served as pastor for the Shrewsbury Church of God.

Each time defense attorney James Cagle asked him about the allegations made by the alleged victims, Cook, 49, shook his head and denied them in no uncertain terms: No, never, absolutely not, not once.

"I preached against that," Cook said when asked about a particular homosexual act.

FORT DODGE (IA)
The Messenger

By ABIGAIL McWILLIAM, Messenger news editor
POSTED: February 27, 2009

EDITOR'S NOTE: Messenger News Editor Abigail McWilliam began this package of stories when Michele Ulriksen contacted her to say Michael Palmer had returned to Fort Dodge.

A 16-year-old sex offender is living at an unlicensed children's care facility operated by the Harvest Baptist Church of Fort Dodge.

The facility, Anchor Character Training Center, 1940 225th St., is a coed home for troubled teens.

Trevor James Fuhrman was convicted in 2005 of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct with a girl under the age of 13, according to the Iowa Sex Offender Registry. Fuhrman was convicted outside of the state.

CHARLESTON (WV)
Daily Mail

by Cheryl Caswell
Daily Mail staff
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Pastor Sandy Cook took the witness stand in his trial and adamantly denied he ever had any sexual encounters with three boys in his youth program in the 1990s.

"No. Never. No. Never," he replied each time he was asked Thursday about specific testimony regarding sexual activity alleged by Michael Lewis, Jose Strickland and Michael Bradley.

Instead, Cook painted a picture of tumultuous church politics, power struggle and bruised egos that resulted when Lewis, 29, wanted to be minister of the Shrewsbury Church of God himself.

SOUTH CAROLINA
FITSNews

Just when you thought South Carolina couldn’t get any more scandalous, along comes a story that literally blows the doors off of the joint …

A disgraced former judge, a Supreme Court hopeful and the Catholic Diocese of Charleston, S.C. all stand accused of collusion in an “altar boy” case that’s poised to rock this state’s judicial establishment to its core - and force S.C. Chief Justice Jean Toal into perhaps the most precarious position of her career.

At issue is the startling accusation that attorneys who represented victims of sexual abuse colluded with a Circuit Court judge and the Charleston Diocese to pocket $2.5 million in legal fees and “steer away” future molestation charges.

CANADA
North Bay Nugget

By ALLISON JONES, THE CANADIAN PRESS

Murky allegations that a pedophile clan operated with impunity in eastern Ontario were cast as fabrications spread by a misguided police officer and embraced by a panic-stricken community during four days of final submissions at the Cornwall inquiry.

Public agencies ill-equipped to handle sex abuse allegations, the equation of homosexuality with pedophilia and the presumption of guilt of accused abusers were all cited as factors in how rumours of the sex ring took root.

While the mandate of the inquiry, which has cost $40 million to date, was to examine institutional response to decades-old allegations of abuse, the majority of the submissions, which began Monday, focused on discrediting the clan theory.

MEMPHIS (TN)
The Daily News

BILL DRIES | The Daily News

The Catholic Diocese of Memphis and the Dominican religious order have settled a lawsuit claiming a Memphis priest sexually abused a teenager, with a $2 million payment to the victim.

The dollar figure is the largest publicly disclosed in any of the lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by Memphis Catholic priests.

A settlement with the diocese was announced Feb. 16 in Circuit Court, leaving the claim against the Dominicans. A settlement of the John Doe claim against the Dominicans was announced Thursday morning before Circuit Court Judge Charles O. McPherson.

Religion Dispatches

By Paul Gorrell
February 27, 2009

An awful lot of Catholic priests have been caught embezzling from their parishes lately. Is it a symptom of larger dysfunction in the Church?

In a West Palm Beach courtroom this past week, Rev. Francis Guinan was on the witness stand in his own defense. He was accused of stealing $488,000 from St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Delray Beach, Florida during his three-year stint as pastor. When asked on the stand about his use of parish money to pay for golf fees and trips to Las Vegas he answered that it was a “small compensation” for the service he had delivered to his parish. And he added that according to canon law he was entitled to spend the church’s money at his own discretion.

A month earlier, the previous pastor of St. Vincent Ferrer, Monsignor John Skehan, was found guilty of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the church in just the five year period covered in the statute of limitations. The thefts of both men were discovered through an anonymous tip from a parishioner.

Within the last decade, the Catholic Church has begun to grapple with a crisis that turns out to be more pervasive than first imagined. Catholics and the press are beginning to connect the dots, just as they did in the case of the sexual abuse crisis, and are seeing a larger pattern.

INDIA
Time

By Madhur Singh Friday, Feb. 27, 2009

After 26 years as a nun, Jesme Raphael gave up her robes and walked out of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel, the Catholic order in Kerala, India, that had been her home for three decades. Two years later, Raphael, now 53, has come out with her memoirs, Amen: An Autobiography of A Nun, cataloging lurid details of bullying, sexual abuse and homosexuality in the oldest Catholic women's order in the idyllic coastal state in southern India. Shocking as it is, the book is only the latest in a long series of accusations and scandals afflicting the Catholic Church in the state with the largest population of Christians in India.

"All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss [1 Corinthians 16:20]," Raphael quotes a priest as telling her, after she confronted him with allegations that "he kissed almost everyone who went for one-on-one meetings." In other episodes, she tells of a forced lesbian encounter, being forced to strip in front of a naked priest who then masturbated, and being accused of being mentally unstable on complaining to her superiors. (Watch an audio slideshow about young nuns in the U.S. who have taken their vows.)

Since the book's release on January 30, publishers DC Books have already sold all 3,000 copies, and a re-print has been ordered. The Catholic church is miffed. "There is no dearth of anti-religion people in Kerala society," says Dr Stephen Alathara, deputy secretary of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council. "They are using this for their anti-social, anti-church activities." In 1957, Kerala elected the world's first democratically elected communist government, and it has been under communist rule since the last state elections in 2006.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

By TREVOR PRITCHARD, STANDARD-FREEHOLDER

An "era of ignorance" allowed rumours to spread throughout Cornwall that a clan of pedophiles was sexually abusing children, a church lawyer argued Thursday.

David Sherriff-Scott told the Cornwall Public Inquiry there was no evidence to suggest Cornwall's rate of historical sexual abuse was any different from other communities in Ontario or Canada.

"What was different, however, was how certain people in the media, as well as the public, reacted to what unfolded in an era that was an era of ignorance of the issues," he said.

UNITED KINGDOM
Zenit

LONDON, FEB. 26, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a declaration released today from Lefebvrite Bishop Richard Williamson, regarding his comments on the Holocaust in an interview aired in January by Swiss television.

* * *
The Holy Father and my Superior, Bishop Bernard Fellay, have requested that I reconsider the remarks I made on Swedish television four months ago, because their consequences have been so heavy.
Observing these consequences I can truthfully say that I regret having made such remarks, and that if I had known beforehand the full harm and hurt to which they would give rise, especially to the Church, but also to survivors and relatives of victims of injustice under the Third Reich, I would not have made them.

UNITED KINGDOM
CNN

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The Catholic bishop who caused outrage for denying the Nazis had systematically murdered millions of Jews in the Holocaust apologized Thursday for his statements.

"I regret having made such remarks," Bishop Richard Williamson said in a statement on a Catholic Web site where he has posted in the past. "If I had known beforehand the full harm and hurt to which they would give rise, especially to the Church, but also to survivors and relatives of victims of injustice under the Third Reich, I would not have made them."

He did not retract the comments or say he had changed his mind about the Holocaust.

UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

February 26, 2009
Between the beginning and the end of 2007, the number of Catholics in the United States declined by nearly 400,000 to 67.1 million, according to the newly published 2009 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches. The Catholic Church remains the largest ecclesial community in the United States. The number of Southern Baptists-- the nation’s second largest, with 16.3 million members-- declined by 40,000.

ORANGE COUNTY (CA)
Orange County Weekly

By GUSTAVO ARELLANO
Published on February 25, 2009 at 12:40pm
Bad Faith
William Lobdell’s Losing My Religion describes how Orange County Christianity lost its most ardent journalistic supporter. Consider this: In Orange County, a place Harper’s described a couple of years ago as one of the two nexus points of American evangelical Christianity, neither the Los Angeles Times nor The Orange County Register bothers to employ a full-time religion reporter anymore. It’s now just another beat, somewhere between Aliso Viejo politics and Vector Control on the scale of importance for editors. And that’s a shame, not just because national religious stories emerge from here almost weekly, but because the papers were pioneers in covering matters of faith as a serious beat and not a freak show of big-haired Crouches and ever-smiling Schullers.

National Catholic Reporter

Feb. 25, 2009
By Tom Gallagher

To watch interviews of victims of Bernard Madoff’s gargantuan Ponzi scheme, and then immediately switch to interviews of Legion of Christ priests, is to quickly lose track of which scoundrel is being discussed. The priests had just learned their founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado (1920-2008), had a longtime lover and fathered a daughter now in her 20s.

The hucksters Madoff and Maciel resemble each other in so many ways that they appear to be identical twins.

Madoff preyed upon those who shared his Jewish heritage, among others. Maciel preyed upon pious people in Mexico before he spread his scam to dozens of other countries and headquartered his scheme in Rome.

NEW YORK
5 Towns Jewish Times

Published on Thursday, February 26, 2009

On Sunday, March 1, New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind of Brooklyn is scheduled to host a community-wide event entitled “A Morning of Chizuk” to show solidarity with victims of sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community and to provide information to concerned citizens. The program includes inspirational speeches and the recitation of Tehillim.

Addressing the audience will be Dr. Benzion Twerski; Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum, director of Iggud HaRabbanim; Shmelke Klein of Eitzah; and Rabbi Yerachmiel Milstein, executive vice-president of Project Chazon, among others. “We are all guilty of not doing more to address sexual abuse in our community,” Hikind said. “The time has come to ask forgiveness from the victims and to pray for continued strength from G-d to combat this issue. I urge the community to join in this unprecedented event.” A Morning of Chizuk will be held at the Boro Park Y, 4912 14th Avenue, at 11:00 a.m. Separate seating for men and women will be available.

CANADA
The Canadian Press

CORNWALL, Ont. — The Cornwall inquiry is hearing the amount of sexual abuse in the eastern Ontario city was no different than in any other Canadian community.

A lawyer for the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall is presenting closing submissions at the inquiry, which is examining institutional response decades ago to sex abuse allegations.

The community was gripped with rumours of a pedophile ring operated by high-profile local officials after scores of allegations against priests, probation officers and others emerged in the 1990s.

GALLUP (NM)
Gallup Independent

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

GALLUP — Contrary to this week’s public announcement about the removal from ministry of a Gallup diocesan priest for an old allegation of misconduct, the Independent has learned a Franciscan priest was removed from ministry in Gallup in 2004 without any local public announcement.

The Rev. Diego Mazon, a Franciscan priest who worked in the Diocese of Gallup for many years, was removed from his ministry in 2004 because of an old sex abuse allegation from the 1970s. Neither the Franciscans, nor officials with the Diocese of Gallup or the Archdiocese of Santa Fe made a local public announcement of the allegation, civil lawsuit, or legal settlement concerning Mazon.

Annette M. Klimka, the victim assistance coordinator for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, confirmed Mazon was removed from his ministry at St. Francis of Assisi parish in Gallup because of a clergy sex abuse allegation. Klimka was contacted about a 2005 civil lawsuit that was filed on behalf of an alleged female victim.

UNITED STATES
Christian Child Abuse

Three men who claim they were abused by Catholic clergy in America have succeeded in naming the Vatican as sole defendant in a lawsuit and are hoping to force Pope Benedict XVI to give evidence in the case.

The 6th US circuit court of appeal recently ruled that although the Holy See, as a sovereign state, was immune from most lawsuits, the plaintiffs could proceed with their argument that its officials were involved in a deliberate effort to cover up evidence of sexual abuse by American priests.

CHICAGO (IL)
Southtown Star

February 26, 2009

BY LAUREN FITZPATRICK Staff writer
A parishioner of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church isn't going to jail for trespassing at the Oak Lawn church he'd been banned from. But he's also not going back to his parish of 40 years.

Emanuel Papadopoulos, 52, was sentenced to six months of court supervision, convicted of misdemeanor trespassing. He was arrested in February 2008 at the church while attending a service commemorating his dead aunt. He had been banned in August 2007 by the Rev. John Artemas after a feud with the pastor about the church's finances.

Papadopoulos faced up to a year behind bars. Cook County Judge Colleen Ann Hyland said she chose the minimal sentence, citing the unusual circumstances of the trespassing case and Papadopoulos' history as an upstanding citizen.

QUINCY (MA)
The Patriot Ledger

Posted Feb 26, 2009 @ 06:16 AM

QUINCY — .A youth counselor for a Baptist church that closed its doors in Quincy is free on bail after pleading innocent to raping a 14-year-old girl who was in his Bible study class.

Robert J. Morris Jr., 28, pleaded innocent at his Quincy District Court arraignment on Monday. He is charged with three counts of statutory rape of a child and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or older.

Morris, of 141 Commercial St., Braintree, was released on $3,000 bail and scheduled to return to court March 23.

FLORIDA
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Ralph De La Cruz | Columnist
February 24, 2009

I suppose it's good that priests can be so inept at being bad.

Facing charges of grand theft, the Rev. Francis Benedict Guinan conceded he cooked the books at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach. That he had indeed used church donations — money intended to help heal broken souls and feed the poor — to go gambling in Vegas.

Six times.

And the Bahamas. Three times. Not to mention countless Florida resort outings.

But it was OK, he explained. Because the Catholic Church didn't really consider it stealing. As long as he took the money $50,000 at a time, he could do with it as he saw fit. Even if the money was used to support his gambling, golfing and girlfriend, which sounds more like an expense account suited for Tony Soprano than a priest.

SAN ANTONIO (TX)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

February 25, 2009

Dear Archbishop Gomez:

We are men and women who were molested by clergy. We belong to a nationwide support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). Our mission is simple: to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded.

We are writing about two credibly accused clerics - one who has spent years in your archdiocese (Fr. Charles Miller) and one who was recently transferred there and lives in a parish today (Brother Richard Suttle). We worry about the safety of unsuspecting families who have been and are near these dangerous men even today. We are appalled by your silence about them and their crimes. We have warned San Antonio citizens and Catholics about the suspended sex offenders. We are sad and frustrated that you refuse to do so.

AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Rebel priest of St Mary's Church in Brisbane, Father Peter Kennedy, has agreed to a mediation process, the Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane said today.

Fr Kennedy has refused to vacate the church after being sacked by the archbishop last Thursday for allegedly unorthodox practices.

"Lawyers for Father Peter Kennedy have responded positively on his behalf to an offer by the Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, Most Rev John Bathersby DD to enter into a process of mediation to resolve the current impasse at St Mary's South Brisbane," a statement from the Archdiocese said.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Thursday, 26 February 2009

A Co Donegal priest has lost his appeal against his conviction for raping a teenage parishioner in the church sacristy over 20 years ago.

Forty-nine-year-old Daniel Doherty, from Derriscleigh, Carrigart, challenged his 2006 conviction on a number of grounds, including that statements taken from two witnesses who were in the US and unavailable to attend the trial should not have been before the jury.

SAN ANTONIO (TX)
Express-News

By Abe Levy - Express-News

A victims advocacy group is asking for an apology from San Antonio Archbishop José Gomez for what it described as his inaction and silence in dealing with two Catholic clergymen whose religious orders recently found claims of them each having sexually abused a teenager to be credible.

Barbara Garcia-Boehland, local director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, hand delivered a letter addressed to Gomez at the archdiocesan headquarters Wednesday afternoon. A department director for the archdiocese told her Gomez was not in the office but assured her the letter would be delivered.

Garcia-Boehland said she left phone messages and has written letters for the past couple of weeks to Gomez about her concerns but has received no response. The letter she sent Wednesday raised the same concerns that Gomez and other Catholic officials were not doing enough to hold two clergy accountable for their abuse.

ARKANSAS
Southern Poverty Law Center

Tony Alamo Christian Ministries faces an uncertain future with its controversial Catholic-bashing, gay-hating, pro-polygamy, convicted tax-cheat founder scheduled to go to trial Feb. 2 on federal charges stemming from his alleged sexual contact with underage girls.

Alamo — whose birth name is Bernie LaZar Hoffman — and his late wife, Susan, began the ministry in 1969 in California. Among other things, followers were warned that if they left the church they would burn in hell. Wayward disciples were dealt punishments ranging from beatings to losing their spouse and children. The Alamos moved their headquarters to Arkansas in 1975, and that's where Tony Alamo, 74, has been jailed since September.

Six days before his arrest, about 100 state and federal law enforcement officers raided the Alamo Ministries' 15-acre compound in the small town of Fouke, near the Texas state line, following allegations of child pornography and other child abuse there. Six girls aged 10 to 17 were taken into temporary state custody. Alamo was charged with two counts of aiding and abetting an underage girl's transport across state lines for sex in 2004 and 2005.

MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
Star Tribune

By PATRICE RELERFORD, Star Tribune

Last update: February 25, 2009 - 10:41 PM

A local gospel singer and choir director who has been charged with sexually assaulting an underage Brooklyn Park girl was a contract music teacher in three schools on Minneapolis' North Side, though he was on probation in connection with an earlier sexual assault.

Nobody with the district ran a criminal check on Gregory B. Washington before he was hired. District policy requires contractors to complete background checks on their employees and the district reserves the right to review individual employees records. But in this case, Washington owns Miraculous Music, a music production and education group that contracted to teach at the Jenny Lind Elementary/Olson Middle upper campus and Cityview Elementary School in September.

DOUBLE SPRINGS (AL)
Times Daily

By Tom Smith
Senior Staff Writer

Published: Thursday, February 26, 2009 at 3:30 a.m.

DOUBLE SPRINGS - A former Haleyville Sunday School teacher and convicted sex offender from Michigan was found guilty Tuesday of sexually abusing a child.

County Circuit Court officials said it took a jury five minutes to find Jerry Ray King, 47, of 983 Winston 36, guilty of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12.

King has not been sentenced, but faces the possibility of 15 years to life in prison because he is being sentenced as a habitual felony offender.

CHARLESTON (WV)
The Charleston Gazette

By Andrew Clevenger
Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Two more alleged victims testified Wednesday in Kanawha Circuit Court that a Shrewsbury minister sexually molested them when they were teenagers in the 1990s.

Sandy Martin Cook, 49, of Belle, faces multiple charges of third-degree sexual assault and sexual abuse by a parent, guardian or custodian for alleged sexual misconduct with several boys while he was senior pastor of the Shrewsbury Church of God.

One of the alleged victims, Michael "Andy" Lewis, said he was abused by Cook after he moved in with the minister during high school. Lewis is now a minister at the New Life Center in Cedar Grove.

CHARLESTON (SC)
The Post and Courier

By Adam Parker
The Post and Courier
Thursday, February 26, 2009

Attorneys representing sex abuse victims colluded with a circuit judge and the Catholic Diocese to pocket $2.5 million and steer away future molestation cases, a complaint filed with the state Supreme Court claims.

The complaint, filed in December by Greenville lawyer J. David Flowers, alleges negligence and breach of fiduciary duty by class counsel; civil conspiracy by class counsel, the diocese and Circuit Judge Diane Goodstein; and "outrage against all Defendants."

"Collusion by a church, lawyers and a judge to harm the rights and interests of victims of sexual abuse constitutes extreme and outrageous conduct which exceeds all possible bounds of decency and which must be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community," the complaint states. ...

Larry Richter and David Haller, the two attorneys who represented the class of victims, strongly denied the allegations. Goodstein did not return phone and e-mail queries by The Post and Courier.

NORFOLK (VA)
The Virginian-Pilot

By Tim McGlone
The Virginian-Pilot
February 26, 2009
NORFOLK

Former Green Run High School teacher and coach Michael J. Jablonski became one of 1,600 people caught looking at child pornography last year.

That's more than double the number caught by federal authorities just four years earlier. ...

Jablonski explained the abuse to the judge, but he began crying and had to pause.

First it was a neighborhood boy when he was 7. Then a year or two later he was attacked and sodomized with a stick. Then a Catholic priest fondled him when he was 14. And at 18, another priest touched him inappropriately.

He could barely finish.

"For 30 years I never told anyone about it," he said.

NEW YORK
Time

By Lauren E. Bohn Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009

A beloved Milwaukee priest known for his jocular demeanor (he once said Mass in a bright orange Wisconsin 'cheese-head' hat) and for restoring the Archdiocese's reputation following a sex scandal, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, 59, is set to be the next Archbishop of New York, perhaps the nation's most prominent pulpit. Dolan inherits the second-largest Archdiocese in the United States, home to 2.5 million Catholics in nearly 400 churches, on April 15. Known as a staunch defender of church orthodoxy, he is succeeding retiring Cardinal Edward Egan at a crucial time: the church in New York faces a bleak economic future and is dealing with the fallout from a spate of controversial church and school closings. His resume indicates he's well-suited for the challenge: Dolan helped unite the fragmented Catholic community in Milwaukee and staved off bankruptcy amid costly lawsuits stemming from the Catholic church's sex abuse scandals of the 1990s.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

By TREVOR PRITCHARD, STANDARD-FREEHOLDER

City lawyer Jacques Leduc did not conspire to cover up allegations of historical sexual abuse, his attorney argued Wednesday.

"The invitation to find (there was) a criminal conspiracy involving Mr. Leduc must be rejected," said Danielle Robitaille during the third day of submissions at the Cornwall Public Inquiry.

In 1993, Leduc represented the Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese in its negotiations with David Silmser, a former altar boy who was alleging he was sexually abused by a local priest.

The Cathoholic

Joan Frawley Desmond

Once again, the long-awaited statement from the Legion of Christ has been delayed. According to press reports, the statement was expected to establish an authoritative narrative and clarify disputed points regarding recent disclosures that the order's founder, Father Marcial Maciel maintained a mistress and fathered a child. It was also expected to set up a plan for dealing with the Legion's on-going problems with establishing its future course and reviewing its charism in the wake of the crisis.

Even Legion priests aren't sure why the statement has been delayed. And some members of the order now question whether the document is being issued by the Legion or the Curia, where a number of powerful cardinals are weighing in with their specific concerns. In other words, who is in charge?

CANADA
The Canadian Press

CORNWALL, Ont. — The unearthing historic sexual abuse allegations in eastern Ontario, rumours of powerful men involved in a pedophile ring and the derailed investigations and prosecutions that followed all begin and end with Perry Dunlop, a public inquiry heard Wednesday.

While the former police constable set in motion the events that saw 15 people charged, any subsequent failings were largely of the vigilante officer's own making, a provincial police lawyer told the Cornwall inquiry.

When Ontario Provincial Police began probing child sexual abuse allegations brought forward by Dunlop, his refusal to co-operate with the force seriously impeded the Project Truth investigation, said lawyer Neil Kozloff.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles City Beat

By Matthew Fleischer

Look out kid, it’s somethin’ you did God knows when, but you’re doin’ it again –Bob Dylan

Several weeks ago, City Beat ran an article detailing the legal efforts of Cardinal Roger Mahony’s Los Angeles Archdiocese to deny a man his day in court.

In that story, we detailed the case of Iraq war veteran John TH Doe, as he is identified in court documents. Doe claims he was molested by an L.A.-area Catholic priest as a teenager, but was on active military duty when a 2003 legal window opened that would have allowed him to file suit. Federal law grants extensions to military personnel involved in legal battles, but Mahony’s team argued that the law didn’t apply to Doe. ...

One commenter wasn’t quite so supportive. Los Angeles Archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg alleged a litany of errors in our story and demanded its retraction.

“Neither Cardinal Mahony nor the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are named in the lawsuit,” Tamberg wrote. “The Archdiocese merely appeared at a hearing called to determine whether there are enough facts to allow the man’s complaint to proceed at all.”

Could we really have screwed up that badly?

As it turns out, no.

“Tamberg is parsing words,” says John TH Doe’s lawyer, Vince Finaldi. “In molestation suits where the plaintiff is over the age of 26, defendants can’t actually be named until the discovery period of the trial, when the judge issues what’s called a certificate of corroborative fact. Until that point the plaintiffs are given Doe names.

OREGON
Catholic Sentinel

Just as the ownership status of parish property became the main question in the Archdiocese of Portland bankruptcy, the Jesuits of the Oregon Province will face pressure over Northwest schools they founded.

Both the archdiocese and the Jesuits were forced into bankruptcy by clergy sex abuse suits seeking multimillion-dollar sums. In both instances, the suits involve a relatively small number of priests who allegedly committed abuse decades ago.

As part of its 2007 bankruptcy settlement, the archdiocese separately incorporated parishes, a step the Jesuits took with their schools as early as the 19th century. That, the Jesuits say, means school assets and property are not available to pay off lawsuits against the province.

AUSTRALIA
Catholic Culture

February 25, 2009
An Australian newspaper that has closely followed the confrontation between a Brisbane pastor and his archbishop has published an editorial suggesting that the priest should be ousted from his position-- with a police escort, if necessary. The Australian reasons that the Church has the right to define its own doctrinal and liturgical standards:

In a secular democracy, Father Kennedy is free to reject the Virgin Birth, sell books doubting the divinity of Christ, promote self-discovery and admit he wouldn't talk to God. But if he insists that Sunday services be taken up with psychobabble, new age cliches, personal ramblings and green left rhetoric, he should consider taking up social work or setting up on different premises…

UNITED STATES
AveWatch

Ave Maria School of Law Chaplain Fr. Michael Orsi is back on the radio, this time on a station that will allow him to be heard in both Detroit and Naples, Florida. According to AMSL, Orsi will have his own studio in Florida, and will work toward “a daily morning broadcast live from the School”. Get ready south Florida and Diocese of Venice; you’ll be able to hear lots more stuff like the following from Tom Monaghan’s perpetually “agitated” priest (links go to story and audio):
- on sexual molestation
- on immigration
- on the sexual accountability of minors
- on discrimination
- on immodest dress and rape

In his February 7, 2009 radio program, Orsi shared his opinion of the perverted double-life led by Fr. Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaires (Regnum Christi). We have an MP3 of those comments.

Inside Catholic

by John Zmirak
2/25/09

There are two big questions hanging in the air among my friends:

•What will happen to the members of the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi?
•What will happen between the Vatican and the Society of St. Pius X?

These issues keep our attention for a shaggy passel of reasons, ranging from heartbroken concern for wounded souls and the fate of the Church to gossipy, prurient rubbernecking. It's hard to look away. Don't worry, we aren't obliged to. Instead, we need to train our gaze to look for the right things and through the proper set of lenses. The Irish monsignors (remember them?) used to talk about "custody of the eyes," and that's one virtue each of us might think about cultivating this Lent.

I'm mentioning these movements (the Legionaries and the SSPX) together not simply because they both grabbed the headlines in the same month, but because they share essential elements in common: Each became important because it served as a refuge for confused and persecuted Catholics from local pastors and ordinaries who neglected their duties as shepherds -- some of whom proved to be wolves. So baptized Catholics who'd kept the Faith "fled the occasion." They abandoned the parishes where they were being scandalized, and sought alternative sources of wholesome, untainted teaching and reverent worship. Some clung to the ancient form of the liturgy, others to the veneration of the person of the pope. (The fact that Catholics had to choose between these is a scandal for which high clerics will answer to Christ.)

CHILE
La Nacion

Fue reclutado para formar parte de los Legionarios de Cristo en 1950 y vivió de cerca los excesos del fundador de la orden. Ha escrito y reescrito su experiencia. Aquí recuerda los abusos, las jornadas de masturbación a las que lo sometía Marcial Maciel y lanza sus teorías respecto a la confirmación de la existencia de una amante y una hija del sacerdote: “Su paternidad puede redimir en algo al monstruo que era”.

En Tamaulipas, uno de los estados de México, todo es contradictorio. Es la cuna y dominio de Los Zetas, antiguos militares de elite que desertaron y se transformaron en los temidos sicarios del Cartel del Golfo; pero en los últimos años en ese lugar han disminuido las muertes y los asesinatos por encargo. La zona es tan católica como el resto del país, pero según los lugareños, los mandamientos son un mito. Si una mujer encuentra a su hombre con otra, simplemente se busca un amante en venganza. De los tres millones de habitantes, cerca de dos millones conviven con la pobreza, pero los tamaulipecos no paran de cantar: al igual que casi en todo México, ellos también tienen festival internacional.

CHILE
Tiempos de la Internet

SANTIAGO, Chile, feb 22 --
Alejandro Espinosa, sobrino del líder de los Legionarios de Cristo, Marcial Maciel, denunció que la cuestionada congregación religiosa habla de la amante de Maciel “para ocultar su pederastia”.

“Me impresionó la forma en que se conoció la noticia porque salió de dentro de la secta. Llevan 12 años aferrándose a la mentira de que Maciel nunca tuvo una conducta impropia y ni mucho menos cometió delitos de pederastia. Es sorprendente que aceptaran el aspecto de su doble vida. Creen que poniéndolo de mujeriego van a quitar el estigma de pederasta, de hombre frívolo que no hizo nada en su vida”, señaló Espinosa en una entrevista con el diario chileno la Nación.

BALTIMORE (MD)
The Catholic Review

By George P. Matysek Jr.
The Catholic Review

Concerned that the Legion of Christ stifles the free will of its members and lacks transparency, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien told the religious order’s director general that he cannot in good conscience recommend that anyone join the Legion or Regnum Christi, its affiliated lay movement.

In the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the Legion of Christ is affiliated with Woodmont Academy in Cooksville. Regnum Christi is also active in several parishes.

The archbishop’s action came in the wake of revelations that Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legion of Christ, fathered a daughter while serving as leader of the international religious order.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
NY1

[with video]

By: NY1 News

On this Ash Wednesday, New York's new Archbishop Timothy Dolan sat down with NY1's Dean Meminger for an interview to discuss the issues facing New York's Catholic Church.

Among his stops on his final Ash Wednesday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was St. Pius XI High School, where he bid farewell to the students and spoke with NY1.

During the interview, Dolan discussed the sensitive issue of sex abuse in the church.

"One of the good facts that has come from this is terrible thing is now we know what we're supposed to do and should have been doing a long time ago," he said. "So now, if somebody writes to me or somebody goes to the principal and says a priest abused them or acted improperly, you call the police immediately. You call the police. You call child advocacy. It's out of our hands and rightly so. We'd do the same thing somebody in a public school would do if someone said the janitor followed me into the bathroom and tried to do something bad. They would call the police. And that's what we do."

SAN ANTONIO (TX)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

WHAT
After a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will try to hand deliver a letter to San Antonio's Catholic archbishop urging him to
-- oust a credibly accused predator who's now at a local parish,
-- reach out to anyone who was hurt by him or by another recently 'outed' pedophile priest,
-- apologize and explain why he's keeping secret about the 2 accused sex offenders in his archdiocese, and
-- disclose the names & whereabouts of any other child-molesting clergymen who are or were here (whether diocesan or religious order priests).

WHEN
Wednesday, Feb. 25, 1:30 p.m.

WHERE
2718 W. Woodlawn, San Antonio

COVINA (CA)
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

By Daniel Tedford, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/24/2009 11:44:49 AM PST

COVINA - A convicted sex offender who has habitually used local churches to house and view child pornography has been indicted for the same offense.

Richard Michael Welton, 48, of Covina was caught stashing pages of child pornography at the First Presbyterian Church in Covina in 2008, according to a court affidavit released by federal prosecutors Monday.

The pages were found in 2007, but fingerprints led the FBI to Welton a year later.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles

According to the calendar, Ash Wednesday occurs this week and we begin another Lent.

Except for this year. ...

For me personally, this Lent means embracing the new wearisome burdens, difficulties, and unexpected hardships that have confronted me on my journey of life and faith. I can’t pretend that these difficult burdens aren’t there, nor can I try to somehow sneak around them and move on—neither approach works. What I must do is recognize them, embrace them, realize I can’t carry them alone, and “make sacred” all that surrounds me.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Wednesday February 25 2009

A FORMER parish priest will be sentenced next month after pleading guilty to charges of indecent assault.

Peter Cribben faced Judge Michael O'Shea in Naas Circuit Court yesterday charged with indecently assaulting a male in the 1980s.

The 68-year-old served as parish priest of Rhode, Co Offaly from 1994 until he took administrative leave in October 2006. Mr Cribben has addresses at Bishop's House, Carlow, Co Carlow, and the Parochial House, Rhode, Co Offaly.

IRELAND
Leinster Leader

Published Date: 25 February 2009
A PRIEST who has faced a charge of indecent assault of a male is set to be sentenced at Naas Circuit Court on March 6 next.

68-year-old Peter Cribben has pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting the male at the Curragh, Newbridge on a date unknown between June 1, 1988 and August 31, 1988.

He appeared in Naas Circuit Court yesterday, Tuesday, February 24 where he was sent for sentence. He is currently on bail.

AUSTRALIA
WAToday

Sarah-Jane Collins
February 25, 2009
NOTORIOUS pedophile and former Catholic priest Michael Charles Glennon has been granted a permanent stay on a retrial for charges relating to the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old boy.

Glennon is currently serving a minimum 10-year sentence after being convicted of the rape and sexual abuse of a number of other young boys. His original conviction in relation to the alleged victim, known as JC, was overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2005.

His retrial on charges of rape and indecent assault relating to the alleged incidents with JC was due to start in the County Court this week, but on Tuesday Judge Geoff Chettle granted a permanent stay in the matter.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Shane Dunphy

Wednesday February 25 2009

The first annual report of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, a copy of which will be sent to each diocese in the coming weeks, was published yesterday.

It highlights both the shortfalls in practice that have been so prevalent in the past, and also the good practice where it does occur, underscoring the fact that all dioceses, according to evidence gathered by the board, are now in full accordance with nationally agreed standards of practice. The report also states that 56 allegations of abuse -- of varying levels of seriousness -- were reported to the relevant authorities last year by the Church.

The board has published new guidelines on protecting children, and lays out new procedures in terms of reporting incidents of suspected abuse which all dioceses and congregations should adhere to.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Ralph Riegel and Louise Hogan

Wednesday February 25 2009

SEX abuse victims yesterday accused the Catholic Church of failing to address crucial concerns in its latest child protection guidelines.

The One in Four group said many questions remain about 'Safeguarding Children' standards, issued yesterday in the aftermath of recent controversy over child safety measures in the Cloyne diocese in Cork.

More revelations came even as the publication of the first report from the Church's independent watchdog, the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC), was touted as an indication of the Church's resolve to protect young people.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

[First report of the national board]

[Standards and guidance document]

By John Cooney

Wednesday February 25 2009

The Archbishop of Dublin last night welcomed revised child protection guidelines issued by the Catholic Church's abuse watchdog that will result in the setting up of a new database of clerical abuse allegations on both sides of the Border.

Dr Diarmuid Martin said it was "a frightening fact" that it was impossible to establish the exact number of sex abuse allegations in each diocese because previous reporting of allegations was so unreliable.

And he sought further assurances from other bishops and religious leaders that revised Church guidelines on child protection would be applied in a coherent and consistent manner throughout the country.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Wednesday February 25 2009

ONCE again, the Archbishop of Dublin is not happy about the protection of children. The Catholic Church's National Board for the Safeguarding of Children (NBSC) has reported that "procedures are now in place" in the diocese of Cloyne.

It will be remembered that, before Christmas, Bishop John Magee's handling of cases of abuse of children in the diocese was criticised in very strong terms by the NBSC. The bishop had rejected calls for his retirement, or resignation, from victims' groups, public representatives and priests. The minister with responsibility for children ordered a fresh investigation.

Despite the NBSC assurance that clerics who fail to blow the whistle on suspected paedophile priests will be reported to the gardai and the HSE, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin still believes more work is needed to ensure that the extent of clerical child abuse is fully investigated.

ARKANSAS
Pine Bluff Commercial

By JON GAMBRELL
Wednesday, February 25, 2009 4:45 AM CST

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Potential jurors in the child-abuse case against jailed evangelist Tony Alamo will discuss their feelings on sex and religion in person, not on paper, a federal judge has decided.

U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes turned down a joint request by federal prosecutors and the evangelist's lawyers to have potential jurors fill out questionnaires before Alamo's trial. Both sides requested the written queries, saying it would "minimize juror discomfort" over questions about delicate topics like sex and religion.

In a two-page order dated Friday, Barnes wrote that the typical process of questioning jurors all together before trial would be sufficient in the evangelist's case.

CALIFORNIA
Daily Pilot

By Steve Smith
Updated: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 10:43 AM PST

Jonathan Kirrer says in a new lawsuit that he was repeatedly molested by Father Denis Lyons at St. John the Baptist Church in Costa Mesa.

Albert Lee Schildknecht is the one-time music director at St. Timothy Catholic Church who recently pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a woman when she was 16 and living in Costa Mesa. Schildknecht received five years’ probation.

In Newport Beach, St. Andrews Church struggles with the 2008 decision by Leaders of the Presbyterian Church (USA), who overturned a long-standing ban on the ordination of gays and lesbians.

“Already, many of our strongest churches, including mine, are losing members who are disgusted with a political operation that is not Christ-oriented or Scripture-oriented,” the Rev. John Huffman of St. Andrews was quoted as saying.

CHARLESTON (WV)
The Charleston Gazette

By Andrew Clevenger
Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Shrewsbury minister used his position as a father figure to lure a teenager into repeated sexual encounters, an alleged victim testified Tuesday in Kanawha Circuit Court.

Sandy Martin Cook, former senior pastor at the Church of God, was indicted by a grand jury on multiple sexual abuse charges in September 2008. About a year earlier, several men came forward and accused Cook of assaulting them as teenagers in the 1990s.

One of those men, Jose Strickland, now 26, said Tuesday that he initially regarded Cook as a role model when he first started attending services at his church.

CHARLESTON (WV)
Daily Mail

by Cheryl Caswell
Daily Mail staff
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The former pastor of Shrewsbury Church of God shook his head as first a prosecutor and then an alleged victim detailed sexual acts he is accused of performing on three boys in the 1990s.

Sandy Martin Cook, 50, of Belle is on trial for committing those crimes against the boys, who were then between the ages of 12 and 17.

One of the alleged victims, Jose Strickland, 26, of Ripley was the first to testify Tuesday against the minister.

CANADA
The Chatham Daily News

The Silence to Hope (STH) project has received $75,000 from the Diocese of London to help male victims of sexual abuse

In 2007, the diocese began funding services for male survivors of sexual abuse through the project.

The initiative covers Essex, Kent, Lambton, Huron, Perth, Middlesex, Elgin, Oxford, and Norfolk.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

DETAILED GUIDELINES on how religious authorities should respond to allegations of child sexual abuse by clerical and lay persons have been published by the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church. To be effective, procedures have to be rigorously implemented at all levels. And the unfortunate history of this difficult area is that three other attempts at ethical rule-making have failed to achieve the desired results. A culture of denial and cover-up continues to survive within the Catholic Hierarchy.

This time, the outcome may be different. Certainly, an opportunity has been created for Catholic bishops and religious orders to confront their shameful responses to the horrors of child sexual abuse and to shake off the unforgiving hand of history.

New reporting and investigative structures will have to be formally adopted by bishops and the heads of religious orders. Civil agencies, such as the Health Service Executive and the Garda Síochána, will have to be advised of allegations involving sexual abuse and members of the clergy as soon as possible. And, most importantly, a series of audits will have to be conducted at local, diocesan and national level to establish the efficacy of the new arrangements.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

OPINION: Drawing on awful lessons learned from its laxness in reacting to reports of child abuse, the Catholic Church now focuses its powers of nurture in protecting children, AIDAN CANAVAN .

OVER RECENT years, we have become accustomed to church leaders issuing apologies for the terrible pain caused by the clerical abuse of children and young people, which is both a crime and a sin. Important though apologies are, they are not enough. Apologies may express heartfelt sorrow and compassion, but they do not, in themselves, protect a single child into the future.

It was in the realisation of the need to move beyond apologies, no matter how sincere or important, that the Catholic Church leadership in Ireland set up the National Board for Child Protection, as it was then called, in 2006, as part of the programme set out in Our Children, Our Church , which had been published at the end of 2005.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

ANALYSIS: IT HAS been almost seven years since the Catholic bishops first announced an audit of its child protection practices and an intention to publish the findings. That followed the resignation of Bishop Brendan Comiskey in April 2002. We have yet to have either audit or report.

What was published yesterday by the National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC), an agency set up by the Catholic Church in 2006 but which operates independently of it, was “a work in progress, absolutely,” agreed NBSC chairman Aidan Canavan yesterday.

It is easy to see why.

Yesterday’s report noted that over the past 18 months the NBSC has been collating information on how church bodies were dealing with child protection issues.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

CARL O'BRIEN

REACTION: NEW CHILD protection guidelines for the Catholic Church received a mixed reaction from groups which provide support to abuse victims yesterday.

One in Four expressed concern that the Safeguarding Children document did not address fundamental concerns about the church’s ability to protect children. In particular, it raised concerns that bishops’ “designated delegates” – officials responsible for dealing with abuse allegations – will conduct a preliminary internal inquiry before deciding if an allegation should be referred to civil authorities.

“Do church personnel have the expertise to do this? In our view, only the gardaí or HSE social workers have the professional competence to undertake such an investigation and to decide if further action is warranted. This discretionary authority must be removed from the church,” One in Four’s executive director Maeve Lewis said.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

CARL O'BRIEN

GUIDELINES: CATHOLIC CHURCH authorities must ensure all allegations or suspicions of child abuse are promptly reported to civil authorities under new national guidelines aimed at safeguarding children.

The guidelines, published by the church’s child safety watchdog yesterday, are aimed at providing a common approach to child protection across the church’s 1,365 parishes, 26 dioceses and 166 religious congregations on the island.

As well as setting out clear guidelines and standards on how to respond quickly to suspicions of abuse, church organisations will be obliged to audit themselves to ensure they are in compliance with new rules. It also says priests dealing with child protection matters should be banned from hearing the confession of an accused priest because of “the obligations of the sacramental seal”.

[First report of the national board]

[Standards and guidance document]

PATSY McGARRY

TWO FURTHER unreported cases of allegations of clerical child sex abuse were brought to the attention of the Catholic Church watchdog, the National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC), following publication of its Cloyne Report on December 19th last. As with the two cases dealt with in the Cloyne Report, these latter two were also brought to NBSC’s attention by third parties.

The board had not been told of the two cases by either the diocese or the religious congregation, both of which were in the Republic. The NBSC declined to give further details other than saying the diocese in question was not Cloyne.

The new cases are revealed in the NBSC’s first report, published yesterday. Ian Elliott, chief executive of the NBSC, said that in dealing with the two new cases they “had been very impressed by the response” of relevant church authorities, “who had been open to learning from the past”. He said the alleged perpetrator in both instances was found not to represent any current risk to children.

NEW YORK
The Journal News

By Gary Stern
The Journal News • February 25, 2009

Michael Morris was heading to a Mass in 1979 at the great Catholic basilica in Washington when he overheard a young priest preaching to a group of pilgrims from St. Louis. He stopped to listen and came away impressed.

"He had a personality that was very magnetic," Morris recalled. ...

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee is struggling to recover from the sex-abuse crisis, having paid more than $25 million in settlements. Nine civil suits are working their way to trial and Weakland admitted in a videotaped deposition in November that he knowingly transferred abusive priests.

Weakland also said Dolan, after his arrival, never discussed past abuse cases with him.

Peter Isely, Midwest director for SNAP - the Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests - charged that Dolan has delayed remaining abuse cases so he wouldn't have to deal with them. He also faulted Dolan for not removing church administrators who protected dangerous priests and for saying that he can't intervene with religious orders that have not revealed the whereabouts of their own abusive priests.

"I like Dolan well enough personally - he's very entertaining and you know when he's around - but his big splash just fizzled out," said Isely, who has communicated with Dolan regularly. "He's very sunny and optimistic, but he doesn't want to go there and deal with these clergy crimes."

CUSTER (MI)
Ludington Daily News

MARK STEIGENGA -

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

CUSTER — The Roman Catholic Church’s Bishop of Grand Rapids has stood before his faithful before to talk about “inappropriate conduct” on the part of one of his priests.

On Monday night the setting was St. Mary Church, Custer, where more than 100 parishioners from St. Mary and St. Jerome parishes gathered to hear Bishop Walter A. Hurley speak about Fr. Johnson Jeyabal Pappusamy who had been their priest for the past four months until he resigned last Wednesday.

The Grand Rapids diocese released a statement earlier Monday indicating Pappusamy had been accused of “inappropriate conduct in public with an adult male.” As yet no criminal charges have been brought and the incident continues under investigation by the Michigan State Police.

INDIA
Straight (Canada)

By Mike Cowie
"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."

— Benjamin Franklin

Yet another disturbing story involving sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has just come to light. This one is straight out of Southern India and includes all of the standard elements we've come to expect, such as the attempted coverup and a complete lack of compassion for the victims.

According to the story in the British newspaper The Independent, a former nun named Sister Jesme has written a book detailing the illicit sex, habitual abuse, threats, downright cruelty, and outright rape that it seems is a regular part of life for a nun in the church, at least in that part of the world. A church spokesman has even admitted as much (read on).

As usual, the allegations are not what's unbelievable about this story, as any thinking person should be able to imagine that this stuff is going on. I mean, seriously, the things she experienced and witnessed aren't really all that hard to imagine, are they?

OREGON
OPB News

Today is ‘Ash Wednesday’ – the start of Lent.

For those a little hazy on their Sunday School lessons, Lent is when Christians repent of their sins.

Now, an Oregon couple has taken the idea of repentance one step further. They want to apologize for the sins of the Catholic Church -- their church -- as well.

In particular for all the priests who abused children.

To show their penance, the couple has taken to wearing a brown patch of sackcloth. And, as Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, they handed-out so many ‘penance patches’ last Lent that they’ve had to assemble another batch for this year.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Breaking News

February 24, 2009 8:09 PM
In a lawsuit filed today, a 22-year-old Chicago woman accused her former adoptive father, a Mormon priest, of sexually abusing her at their Park Ridge home and at a Mormon church in Wilmette.

The woman, whose name the Tribune is withholding because she says she was a victim of sexual abuse, alleges that the abuse started at age 4 and continued until she was about 14, when the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services removed her from her adoptive parents' home.

The lawsuit filed in Cook County names her adoptive father, Christopher W. Kite, her adoptive mother's brother David Bromley and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
WUWM

[with audio]

By Susan Bence
February 25, 2009 | WUWM | Milwaukee, WI

Monday the Vatican in Rome sent out word that Timothy M. Dolan will be leaving his post as Archbishop of Milwaukee. After Dolan paid a whirlwind visit to New York City, he made his first public appearance in Milwaukee yesterday to talk about his move.

WUWM’s Susan Bence was among the reporters invited to sit down briefly with Dolan at St. Francis Seminary. ...

When the Archbishop turns his attention to me, I ask how he would rate his effectiveness in dealing with the child sexual abuse scandals involving clergy he inherited when he came to Milwaukee.

“I mean it when I say there probably has not been a challenge that has engaged me more and taken more of my worry, time and sweat than that one. So as I look back I see tremendous progress and I’m grateful that that progress has been verified. That’s not just some internal suspicion, that’s been verified by outside sources. But I’d be less than honest with your, if I still didn’t say are there still people out there hurting, that I need to reach out to? Are there still a lot of people that are angry at the church? You bet they are and what could I do to help them. So does that still kind of weigh on me? Does that still haunt me? Yes it does and I’m not afraid to admit that. This is the kind of thing that is necessitating vigilance of decades, if if eternity. Vigilance, purification, commitment to see that it never happens again,” Dolan says.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
NY1

[with video]

While Archbishop Timothy Dolan has been credited with reaching out to victims of abuse by the clergy, some charge he hasn't gone nearly far enough. NY1's Dean Meminger filed the following report.

As a child, Peter Isely says he was raped by a Catholic priest in Milwaukee. And in his eyes, Archbishop Timothy Dolan hasn't done enough to address the issue of sexual abuse during his time in the city.

"He is also going to leave for New York without disciplining senior management of the archdiocese who covered up sex crimes in this archdiocese for over 30 years," said Isely.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

Lawyers for the Ministry of the Attorney General's office defended the decision by one of their crown attorneys to proceed with one trial against an alleged sexual predator.

Leslie McIntosh told the Cornwall Public Inquiry that joining together all of the charges against Rev. Charles MacDonald would have both improved the merits of the case and made it easier on both MacDonald and his victims.

"There should not be two identical trials: one where the first set of victims would testify with the second set giving similar-fact evidence, and then a second trial where the second set of victims would be the complainant," said McIntosh.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

By TREVOR PRITCHARD, STANDARD-FREEHOLDER

The idea there was a long-running conspiracy to cover up sexual abuse allegation in Cornwall was an "obvious absurdity," the attorney for an alleged sexual abuser told the Cornwall Public Inquiry Tuesday.

Michael Neville, the lawyer for Rev. Charles MacDonald, was among the parties who delivered his final submissions yesterday.

In 1992, former altar boy David Silmser went to Cornwall police alleging that he was sexually abused by three men, including MacDonald and former probation officer Ken Seguin.

MacDonald was charged by the Ontario Provincial Police in 1996 with abusing Silmser and two other boys.

AUSTRALIA
Catholic World News

by Phil Lawler
Feb. 24, 2009 (CWNews.com) -

There's a fascinating undercurrent running through the story from Brisbane, Australia, in which a pastor is defying his archbishop's authority. On the surface the conflict appears to be a struggle between the pastor, Father Peter Kennedy, and Archbishop John Bathersby. But Kennedy and his supporters are sending a slightly different message.

When the archbishop engaged a mediator to resolve the dispute, Father Kennedy rejected the idea as another "bullying tactic." The defiant pastor went on to say, "you see bullies never get enough of bullying and Rome bullies the bishops and the bishops bully us."

So now the distant, faceless power of "Rome" has been brought into the discussion. Father Kennedy is hinting broadly that Archbishop Bathersby would not have taken disciplinary action if the archbishop himself hadn't been under pressure from the Vatican.

CANADA
Toronto Star

Allison Jones
THE CANADIAN PRESS

CORNWALL, Ont. – Sensational allegations that a clandestine pedophile ring operated in eastern Ontario were fuelled by the kind of moral panic that takes hold when the public presumes people accused of sexually abusing children are guilty, a public inquiry was told Tuesday.

There are safeguards in the Canadian legal system to ensure an accused is presumed innocent unless proven otherwise, but no such safeguards exist for public perception, said lawyer Giuseppe Cipriano.

"When society places the onus on the alleged abuser to prove his innocence then a moral panic is possible," Cipriano said in closing submissions to the three-year, $40-million Cornwall inquiry.

UNITED STATES
Examiner

February 24, 2:25 PM
by Kay Ebeling, LA City Buzz Examiner

When Doubt the play came out in 2002 there was little known about the network of pedo-philes that operated out of the Catholic Church without inhibition for at least the last fifty years in the United States. To us the statement is “There is no Doubt," no doubt at all, that pedophiles preyed freely on children in the Catholic Church. So A lot of pedophile priest rape survivors were not rooting for Doubt to win any Academy Awards.

The timing of the release of the film seemed quizzical to many of us. What has amazed us all as crime victims are the ends to which the Catholic Church has gone to keep the truth about the crimes from ever surfacing in total. So to us releasing this film was a way to keep Americans thinking there is still doubt, when there isn’t, and many of us wonder how much the Church was involved in production of the movie, to lead Americans into believing there was and is any doubt about the five thousand or more Catholic priests who operated openly and were given access to children knowingly in the Catholic Church.

CHARLESTON (WV)
The State Journal

CHARLESTON -- Opening statements were were presented in the case against a former Kanawha County Pastor.

Sandy Cook, 48, who was the senior pastor at Shrewsbury Church of God, is accused of sexually abusing several teenage boys back in 1994.

The Belle Native is facing three counts of sexual assault by a person of trust. He's also facing 44 counts of third-degree sexual assault.

UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times

Also Monday, the court refused to hear a challenge to the law against honest services fraud, despite a strong dissent by Justice Antonin Scalia.

Three former aides to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley had appealed their convictions for conspiring to steer city jobs to campaign workers. They questioned whether this was a federal crime. They were not accused of taking bribes or kickbacks, but were found guilty of depriving the city's taxpayers of honest services.

Scalia said this expansive phrase invites abuse by headline-grabbing prosecutors. Carried to its logical conclusion, he said, it would seemingly cover a salaried employee's phoning in sick to go to a ballgame.

Normally, fraud involves a scheme to cheat someone of money or property. Twenty years ago, Congress expanded the anti-fraud law to include schemes involving the intangible right of honest services. Since then, the law has been used against public officials, corporate executives and union leaders who violate a duty of trust.

Federal prosecutors have considered charging Cardinal Roger Mahony with honest services fraud because of the scandal involving priests who abused minors, The Times has reported. Legal experts have said that would be an unorthodox use of the law. The archdiocese said its attorneys have been told that Mahony is not the target of a federal probe.

IRELAND
Catholic Culture

February 24, 2009
Ireland's National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church has released its first annual report on efforts to prevent sexual abuse. The report notes 56 allegations of abuse-- of varying credibility-- filed against priests last year. And the Board sets new standards for diocesan response to such allegations, including a firm directive that Church officials should refer credible reports of abuse to civil authorities. Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh welcomed the report and its recommendations as an "essential reference on best practice." The cardinal said that the report "is an indication of the Church's resolve to safeguard children at all times."

CHICAGO (IL)
PR Newswire

CHICAGO, Feb. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- A lawsuit was filed on February 24, 2009, in the Circuit Court of Cook County by attorney Edmund J. Scanlan on behalf of his client, Markeisha Kite. The lawsuit alleges that Christopher W. Kite, her adopted father, sexually abused Markeisha beginning in 1991 when she was four years old. The abuse continued through 2001 when DCFS removed the girl from the home due to her complaints of sexual abuse.

The suit also alleges that David Bromley, brother-in-law of Christopher W. Kite, sexually abused Markeisha in Kite's home from 1991 through 1996. In 2002 Markeisha obtained an order of protection against defendants Bromley and Kite.

The Mormon Church is named as defendant in the suit because Kite sexually abused the minor Markeisha on at least ten occasions in the church facility at 2727 West Lake Street in Wilmette, Illinois, and as an ordained priest of the church, Kite was under direct supervision and control of the church.

IRELAND
The Press Association

Senior Catholic Church clerics who fail to blow the whistle on suspected paedophile priests will be reported to the authorities, a religious watchdog has warned.

A new culture of accountability is also needed to protect vulnerable children in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church said.

MEMPHIS (TN)
Catholic Culture

February 24, 2009
The Diocese of Memphis and an abuse victim reached an undisclosed settlement yesterday in the case of Father Juan Carlos Duran, a Bolivian Dominican priest who once headed the diocese’s Hispanic ministry. Expelled from the Franciscan Order because of homosexual abuse of a teenager, Father Duran entered the Dominicans.

PLYMOUTH (MA)
Daily News Tribune

The Patriot Ledger
Posted Feb 23, 2009 @ 05:50 AM
Last update Feb 23, 2009 @ 12:42 PM

PLYMOUTH — .The pastor of a Plymouth church has been placed on leave by the Archdiocese of Boston in the wake of allegations he abused a minor 30 years ago.

The Rev. Kenneth LeBlanc of St. Peter’s Church is being investigated by the Archdiocese. He will remain on leave during the investigation.

The allegations stem from the time the priest was serving at Most Blessed Sacrament in Wakefield. He also was assigned to parishes in Hudson, Medway, Needham, Newton and Waltham.

He was pastor of Mary Immaculate of Lourdes Church in Newton from 2002 to January 2005, when he was assigned to St. Peter's. ...

BishopAccountability.org, which maintains a database of child sex abuse allegations against priests, reports that more than 4,300 clergymen were accused between 1950 and 2002, including more than 200 in the Boston Archdiocese.

IRELAND
RTE News

Ireland's Catholic dioceses notified 56 allegations of clerical child abuse to the church's independent board that monitors child protection last year.

The first annual report from the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church says that some allegations amounted to little more than suspicion with no evidence.

It highlighted one case where neither the alleged victim nor perpetrator could be identified by the person making the complaint.

UNITED STATES
ABA Journal

By Debra Cassens Weiss

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal yesterday by three former Chicago city officials convicted on corruption charges, and Justice Antonin Scalia wasn’t pleased.

In a dissent (PDF) from the court’s cert denial, Scalia took on the law barring honest services fraud, saying it is so broad it could be used against “a salaried employee’s phoning in sick to go to a ball game,” SCOTUSblog reports.

The law was amended in 1988 in response to a Supreme Court decision that held the federal mail fraud law protected property rights but not the intangible right to good government. The amendment bars depriving others of “the intangible right of honest services.”

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A Brisbane priest at the centre of a row with the Catholic Church says he will not take part in talks over his replacement.

Father Peter Kennedy is refusing to leave St Mary's in South Brisbane after he was sacked for practices deemed out of communion with the Catholic Church.

Church authorities today hired former High Court Justice Ian Callinan to attempt mediation with Father Kennedy.

POLAND
Thaindian News

London, Feb. 24 (ANI): In a major blow to Polands reputation as a champion of traditional Roman Catholic values, a majority of the country’’s Catholic priests favor an end to celibacy, a survey has revealed. A survey of over 800 Polish priests carried out by Professor Josef Baniak, a sociologist specializing in religious affairs, found that 53 per cent would like to have a wife, while 12 per cent admitted that they were already involved in a relationship, the Telegraph reports.

WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

[with video]

By Brian Haas | South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The Rev. Francis Guinan was found guilty Monday of stealing from St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach in a trial that highlighted faulty bookkeeping, loose standards and lax oversight by the parent diocese.

Guinan, 66, faces up to 15 years in prison for grand theft of between $20,000 and $100,000. After about 3 1/2 hours of deliberation, a six-person jury found the longtime clergyman guilty of a lesser charge than prosecutors sought, reducing his maximum sentence from 30 years in prison. ...

The trial painted an unflattering picture of church accounting practices. Priests who testified couldn't agree what the diocese rules were for spending parish money. Clergy said in court that slush funds to hide money are common in the Catholic Church. And St. Vincent Ferrer's bookkeepers were told to shred accurate bookkeeping records, hand over wads of cash from the offertory and cook the books that were sent back to the diocese — as they testified was church policy for years.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

The Catholic Church has a responsibility to pass on a concern about child protection to the civil authorities even when the matter does not concern Church personnel directly, new guidelines published today state.

The National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church (NBSC) published revised and updated guidelines on child protection following the recent controversy over child-protection practices in the Cloyne diocese.

They were welcomed by the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Seán Brady, as an "indication of the Church's resolve to safeguard children at all times".

MILWAUKEE (WI)
TMJ4

By Diane Znamierowski with Jay Sorgi

MILWAUKEE - Some people say getting a new Catholic archbishop will be a good thing for Milwaukee.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) says Archbishop Timothy Dolan didn't do enough about the priest sex scandal before receiving his new position as New York's Archbishop.

Peter Isely of SNAP gave his hopes for whoever Pope Benedict XVI picks as Dolan's successor.

PHOENIX (AZ)
The Arizona Republic

by Michael Clancy - Feb. 24, 2009
The Arizona Republic

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, citing the poor economy and a decline in donations, has eliminated 17 positions, resulting in 11 layoffs. Two other positions were converted to part time.

Diocese spokesman James Dwyer said the diocese anticipates a budget shortfall of 6 to 10 percent in fiscal 2009-10. The budget in 2008 reached almost $129 million.

The eliminated and reduced positions represented about 13 percent of the staff at the diocese headquarters in downtown Phoenix.

CANADA
EDGE Boston

by Kilian Melloy
EDGE Contributor
Monday Feb 23, 2009

Ritualistic group molestation was one wild allegation that arose during an investigation into a suspected pedophilia ring in Cornwall, Ontario.

But this, and other stories, seem to have been fabrication, driven--at least in part--by homophobia.

In the city of Cornwall, Ontario, an investigation into a suspected pedophile ring resulted in accusations leveled at prominent members of the community.

Though pedophilia and homosexuality are understood by professionals to be two separate phenomena, gay men suspected to be part of the group led to new suspects: namely, gay men who were linked to them.

AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now

SEAN FEWSTER, COURT REPORTER
February 24, 2009 01:15pm
A REMORSELESS Anglican Church pedophile who systematically abused boys "hundreds of times" must be shown no mercy, say prosecutors.

Prosecutors today told the District Court there was no reason to extend leniency to former Church of England Boys Society youth leader Andrew William Dawson-Ryan.

The 60-year-old's counsel were hard-pressed to disagree – an hour-long hearing, set down for defence to make submissions, lasted just 20 minutes.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

By DAVID NESSETH, STANDARD-FREEHOLDER

Citizens for Community Renewal lawyer Helen Daley suggested that often the "wrong tools" were used to address the "right problems" when it came to dispelling notions of a conspiracy and pedophile ring in the Cornwall area.

Daley kicked off day one of phase one oral submissions yesterday at the Cornwall Public Inquiry, which runs until Thursday.

During submissions she highlighted what she called "patterns of weakness" found in Cornwall's institutions such as the Children's Aid Society and the local probation office.

WINSLOW (AZ)
Gallup Independent

Second in a two-part series
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

WINSLOW, Ariz. — Helen Wagner lives almost literally in the shadow of Madre de Dios Church in Winslow. Located just two blocks from the church, her house faces the railroad tracks and her former parish of St. Joseph’s. Madre de Dios is almost in her backyard.

For the past 26 years, the church has cast a long and painful shadow on her memories. Twenty-six years ago this week, three friends of her 14-year-old son, Marc Rogers, made allegations to her that they had seen the Rev. John Boland molest her very intoxicated son in the rectory of Madre de Dios on Feb. 26, 1983.

Wagner’s painful memories were stirred recently by news reports that Boland had been removed from ministry in the Diocese of Gallup by Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, the current apostolic administrator of the Gallup Diocese.

CANADA
Globe and Mail

ALLISON JONES .
The Canadian Press

February 24, 2009

CORNWALL, ONT -- The mishandling of sexual-abuse allegations by "inept" officials in eastern Ontario sent victims flocking to a crusading police constable determined to unearth a pedophile ring and a conspiracy to cover it up, a public inquiry heard yesterday.

Although not the focus of the Cornwall inquiry, the role of former city police officer Perry Dunlop was front and centre as the commission began hearing final submissions after three years of testimony and $40-million spent so far.

While some argued Mr. Dunlop "lost his way" while conducting his off-hours investigation in the early 1990s, others told the inquiry he "did the right thing" and is deserving of an apology.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

By DAVID NESSETH, STANDARD-FREEHOLDER

Victims Group lawyer Dallas Lee said he wanted to balance his oral phase one submissions between looking back and looking forward.

He said his clients eagerly await the findings of Commissioner Normand Glaude realtive to the institutional response surrounding sexual abuse complaints.

"They need answers before they can move forward," Lee said.

He recalled the expert testimony of David Wolfe -- the Cornwall Public Inquiry's first witness -- in order to detail for the public some of the effects of childhood sexual abuse.

NEW YORK
WPIX

BY MIKE GRAHAM | wpix.com

February 23, 2009

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- New York's Catholics may not be in the best of hands according to The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. The group claims the record of Archbishop Timothy Dolan in Milwaukee is littered with indifference. Bill Nash of Massachusetts, who claims he was the victim of sex abuse at a seminary, argues that when he corresponded with Dolan about his case and about the Priest that sexually abused him, Dolan showed no interest.

"Instead of removing these guys they just let them go to abuse other children, " said Nash. "If you look at the track record of Dolan from the last 5 or 6 years in Milwaukee he has not proven to anyone that he cares about protecting children."

CONNECTICUT
The News-Times

By Daniel Tepfer
STAFF WRITER
Posted: 02/23/2009 07:52:53 PM EST

The way Cardinal Edward Egan handled allegations of sexual abuse by priests while he was bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport remains controversial in the Fairfield County diocese.

His name still provokes anger among dozens of people who claim they were abused in their youth by Bridgeport diocesan priests.

Church documents obtained by the Connecticut Post over a span of more than 10 years show Egan was made aware of specific allegations of abuse by priests when he became bishop here in 1988.

NEW YORK
Beliefnet

NEW YORK -- The Rev. Steven Avella, a Roman Catholic priest in Milwaukee, said his counterparts in the Archdiocese of New York should soon expect a phone call from their new boss -- Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

"He'll start phoning guys right away," said Avella, 57, a historian at Marquette University who served under Dolan during the archbishop's seven years atop the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. "He'll find out when their ordination anniversaries are, look after the older guys, go visit them. He's a guy who's close to his co-workers, who makes them feel they're worth something." ...

But not all Catholics had such high praise for Dolan. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) says he did not do enough to remove abusive priests from ministry during his seven years in Milwaukee. Dolan entered office after it was revealed that his predecessor, Archbishop Rembert Weakland, paid $450,000 to a seminarian who accused him of sexual abuse.

As Dolan leaves Milwaukee, "the clergy sex abuse cover up crisis is not behind the Milwaukee church, but looms in front of it," SNAP said in a statement.

METHUEN
The Eagle Tribune

By Tim McCarthy
Staff Writer

METHUEN — Former St. Monica's Parish priest the Rev. Kenneth LeBlanc is on leave from his ministries after accusations that he sexually abused a child 30 years ago.

LeBlanc served as a temporary parochial vicar at St. Monica's from December 2001 until April 2002, according to Boston Archdiocese spokeswoman Kelly Lynch. He was most recently serving as pastor at a Plymouth, Mass., church.

The archdiocese announced it put LeBlanc on leave Sunday. A representative said the decision to place him on administrative leave is proof of its commitment to the safety of all involved in the matter and does not indicate that LeBlanc is guilty.

LeBlanc gave a January 2002 sermon at St. Monica's, after revelations that former parish priest Ronald Paquin had molested children there. Paquin became the first priest in the Boston Archdiocese sex abuse scandal to plead guilty.

At the time, LeBlanc told 800 parishioners the church ought not be defined by the actions of "bad apples" within it.

MEMPHIS (TN)
The Daily News

BILL DRIES | The Daily News

The Catholic Diocese of Memphis has come to a legal settlement with a man sexually abused as a teenager nine years ago by a Dominican priest.

The settlement was announced Monday in Circuit Court at the start of the last hearing on motions before the John Doe lawsuit goes to trial.

The trial is still set to begin with jury selection on March 2. The Dominican religious order remains as the only defendant.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
WUWM

By LaToya Dennis
February 24, 2009 | WUWM | Milwaukee, WI

After weeks of speculation it was announced Monday that Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan is headed to New York. WUWM’s LaToya Dennis has this story.

Pope John Paul II once said the post of Archbishop of New York is like being “archbishop of the capitol of the world.” Milwaukee Bishop William Callahan says that makes it the perfect job for Timothy Dolan. ...

“His sense of understanding the horrors of what the abuse scandal has done, the personal need of reaching out to victims, he did that, and more. Tried to immediate different types of settlements, counseling, different sorts of ways in which personally the victims would be touched and received by the church once again in a very tender and loving sort of way,” Callahan says.

But Peter Isely says not enough has been done to keep kids safe from sexual predators.

“No matter how warm my regard is for the archbishop, when it comes to the sexual abuse of children he’s leaving this archdiocese in a pretty difficult situation,” Isely says.

NEW YORK
The Journal News

By Gary Stern
The Journal News • February 24, 2009

Who was Cardinal Edward Egan?

It may take years for his legacy to come into focus.

After the high-profile, high-energy tenure of Cardinal John O'Connor, Egan spent his near-decade as archbishop of New York mostly behind the scenes, balancing the books, raising money, slipping away to the opera and revealing little about himself. ...

Many of Egan's plans were at least temporarily derailed by the sex-abuse crisis of 2002, which turned up an intense media spotlight that made him uncomfortable.

He faced worsening criticism from the priests of New York, many of whom resented his handling of the sex-abuse crisis and insisted that priests were denied due process by their bishop. Growing numbers of priests groused privately that clerical morale was the lowest in memory, which would explain why an anonymous letter criticizing Egan's leadership that appeared in 2006 created a huge buzz.

CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant

By ELIZABETH HAMILTON | Courant Staff
February 24, 2009
As Cardinal Edward Egan prepares to exit the New York Archdiocese, his critics are stepping forward to remind the public of what they believe is his poor record on the clergy sex abuse crisis that has roiled the Catholic Church.

"His record has just been awful and we hope that despite his retirement, victims and whistle blowers and prosecutors and journalists will continue to try and unearth his clergy sex abuse secrets in both Connecticut and New York," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests or SNAP.

Clohessy and others say they will be closely watching the outcome of the Connecticut court case in which The Courant and several other daily newspapers have sought the release of 12,000 pages of documents from sealed abuse lawsuits against the Bridgeport Diocese.

NEW YORK
Newsday

BY DAVE MARCUS | dave.marcus@newsday.com
February 24, 2009
He'll speak out against abortion and stem-cell research. He wants to see the new Yankee Stadium, and plans on being a regular at the hot-dog stand outside his office.

He hopes to learn Spanish, and likes to quaff a beer with friends now and then. ...

The church is still reeling from the sexual scandals of recent years, and supporters say Dolan cracked down on pedophile priests in Milwaukee. But The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests criticized Dolan for not doing enough and for failing to punish those who covered up the priests' crimes.

CALIFORNIA
Christian Science Monitor

By Jane Lampman | February 24, 2009

Losing My Religion; By William Lobdell; Collins; 291 pp., $25.99

While writing a column on religion for an Orange County, Calif., paper, William Lobdell loved to inspire readers with stories about people of faith, such as the elderly church organist who was brutally beaten by a man high on drugs, yet focused on seeing that her assailant got a Bible and necessary support after getting out of jail.

A freshly born-again Christian, Lobdell was a husband, father, and journalist who saw evidence of answered prayer in his own life as well, a life that he felt had been transformed by faith. Covering the religion beat was the perfect job for Lobdell – until the day that his work began to destroy his faith.

Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America – and Found Unexpected Peace is a compelling personal story of faith found, cherished, and then lost. Lobdell’s courageous memoir doesn’t set out to score points in the debate between atheism and religion, but simply to recount a spiritual journey, one he desperately hoped would end differently from the way it did. ...

Six months before the clergy sexual abuse crisis broke wide open in Boston in 2002, the Catholic dioceses in Orange County and Los Angeles agreed to pay a $5.2 million settlement to a single individual, Ryan DiMaria. The young man had charged a highly popular priest and high school principal with abuse. Msgr. Michael Harris, whose nickname was “Father Hollywood,” turned out to have other victims as well.

Lobdell dug into the first of several cases that would lead to years of investigation, hundreds of hours of conversation with abuse victims, and repeated discoveries of church hypocrisy and hard-ball tactics in the treatment of victims and their families.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Breaking News

February 23, 2009 9:01 PM
A 32-year-old California man claimed he was yet another victim of sexual abuse by defrocked priest Donald McGuire in a lawsuit filed today against the Chicago Order of Jesuits.

The suit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court under the name "John Doe 130," says that McGuire repeatedly abused the plaintiff in the early 1990s, when the man was as young as 14. The abuse took place in Evanston, California and other locations on retreats organized by McGuire.

NEW YORK
WCBS

NEW YORK (CBS) ―

The Archdiocese of New York serves 2.5 million parishioners at 400 churches and includes Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx, and stretches practically all the way up to Albany.

Other counties it covers include Westchester, Rockland, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Sullivan, and Ulster. ...

But not everyone is applauding the appointment.

"I just wish he would have handled clergy abuse cases much differently," said Bill Nash, an alleged clerical abuse victim.

Nash and few others who claimed to have been abused by priests when they were children claimed Dolan swept abuses cases under the rug.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Sun

By ALEX PEAKE

A PAEDOPHILE priest who preyed on his victims as they lay sick in hospital is living in Britain, The Sun can reveal.

Father Ivan Payne, 65, who molested children in Dublin from 1968-87, was convicted in 1998 of sexually abusing eight boys. He was freed from jail in 2002.

Now he lives in Aderdare, South Wales — less than a mile from a primary school.

When confronted, he said: “The police here and in Ireland both know I am here. I am in communication with the Catholic church. I have not re-offended.”

BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Connecticut Post

By Daniel Tepfer
STAFF WRITER
Posted: 02/23/2009 06:05:29 PM EST

The legacy of Cardinal Edward Egan in handling allegations of sexual abuse by priests while he was bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport remains controversial in the Fairfield County diocese.

His name still provokes anger among dozens of people and their families who claim they were abused in their youth by Bridgeport diocesan priests.

Church documents obtained by the Connecticut Post over a span of more than 10 years show that Egan was made aware of specific allegations of abuse by priests when he became bishop here in 1988. However, not only did Egan not report the alleged abuse to police or other legal authorities, he covered up the allegations, moving offending priests around the diocese.

WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
CBS 12

February 23, 2009 - 6:27 PM
Jurors convicted Father Francis Guinan of a lesser included offense of Grand Theft more than $20,000 but less than $100,000.

The following is the released statement:

The Diocese of Palm Beach has been informed that the jury has found the Reverend Francis P. Guinan criminally guilty of charges of grand theft. While respecting the rights of the accused, and not wishing to interfere with the criminal process, the diocese is relieved that the jurors were not swayed by the inaccurate presentation of the defense.

PLYMOUTH (MA)
WCVB

PLYMOUTH, Mass. -- Parishioners at St. Peter's Church in Plymouth reacted to the news Monday that the Archdiocese of Boston has pulled their pastor off the job after he was accused of sexually assaulting a child 30 years ago.

The Rev. Kenneth LeBlanc, 60, has been put on leave while the archdiocese investigates the abuse claims made by a woman who said the abuse took place at Most Blessed Sacrament Church in Wakefield when she was about 10.

On Monday, parishioners at St. Peter's arrived for morning Mass, clearly saddened by the news.

"It's just a sad case, that's all, and I wish it hadn't happened," Sister Florita Rodman said. "I hope that it will work out the best for the gal and for father."

VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

February 23, 2009
The Legionaries of Christ will release an official statement tomorrow "or Wednesday at the latest" responding to the crisis caused by revelations of scandal in the life of the order's founder, the late Father Marcial Maciel, the Catholic News Agency reports.

WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
Orlando Sentinel

Brian Skoloff February 23, 2009
WEST PALM BEACH - A Florida priest charged with embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from his church took money from a hidden "slush fund," had records shredded and violated the trust of parishioners, a prosecutor told jurors at his trial Monday.

The Rev. Francis Guinan has pleaded not guilty to grand theft. He is accused of stealing $488,000 from St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach to fund a lavish lifestyle that included trips to the Bahamas and Las Vegas, jewelry and home furniture.

Guinan "stole from the community he was appointed to protect," prosecutor Preston Mighdoll said during closing arguments. "He must be found guilty as charged."

NEW YORK
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly

[video presentation]

The Vatican announced Monday (February 23, 2009) that Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan will become the next Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York. Dolan, 59, will succeed Cardinal Edward Egan, who is retiring after nearly nine years in the position. John Allen, longtime Vatican correspondent for National Catholic Reporter, talks about what Dolan brings to the position and the challenges he will face, including potential tensions with the Obama Administration.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

Vatican City, Feb 23, 2009 / 03:02 pm (CNA).- Vatican officials confirmed to CNA on Monday that the leadership of the Legion of Christ will release a major statement in response to the controversy surrounding the double life of its founder and the future of the order. The statement will be released on Tuesday “or Wednesday at the latest.”

Highly anticipated by members, sympathizers and critics of the Legionaries, as well as its lay organization, Regnum Christi, the statement was completed a “few days ago,” but has been submitted for review by “several Cardinals” of the Roman Curia, a Vatican source told CNA, without specifying which Cardinals or which dicasteries are reviewing the document.

WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
WPTV

Reported by: WPTV staff
Email: webteam@wptv.com

WEST PALM BEACH, FL -- After hours of deliberating, a jury has reached a verdict in the former priest Father Guinan grand theft trial.

A jury has found Francis Guinan guilty of grand theft, for stealing $20,000 to $100,000, a much lesser charge than what prosecutors were hoping for.

Guinan was taken into the custody after the verdict. He handed over passport will likely get house arrest but under the lesser charge he faces up to 15 years in prison.

WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
CBS 12

February 23, 2009 - 3:39 PM
Jurors convicted Father Francis Guinan of Grand Theft.

Jurors convicted Father Francis Guinan of a lesser included offense of Grand Theft more than $20,000 but less than $100,000.

It's a second degree felony with a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. Sentencing is set for Wednesday, March 25 at 8:30 a.m. The judge ordered Guinan taken into custody, and said at the discretion of the Sheriff's Office, Guinan could be released on house arrest.

NEW YORK
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

New Yorkers got their first real glimpse of their future archbishop, and likely cardinal, this morning at a news conference, where Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan said he would continue his predecessor's emphasis on Catholic schools, engage in ecumenical dialogue with the city's diverse religious community and shift his baseball allegiance to the Yankees. ...

He sidestepped a question on possible legislation in New York that would make it easier for clergy sex abuse victims to file civil lawsuits against the church, saying he had not adequately studied it yet.

"And I don't want to put my foot in my mouth this early."

MEMPHIS (TN)
The Daily News

BILL DRIES | The Daily News

The Catholic Diocese of Memphis has reached a legal settlement with a teenager sexually abused by a Dominican priest nine years ago.

The settlement was announced Monday in Circuit Court at the start of the last hearing on motions before the John Doe lawsuit goes to trial.

The trial is still set to begin with jury selection on March 2. The Dominican religious order remains as the only defendant.

WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
Palm Beach Post

By SUSAN SPENCER WENDEL
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Monday, February 23, 2009

WEST PALM BEACH — A jury deliberated less than three hours today before finding Father Francis Guinan guilty of grand theft of more than $20,000 but less than $100,000.

NEW YORK
Hartford Courant

By ELIZABETH HAMILTON Courant Staff February 23, 2009
As Cardinal Edward Egan prepares to the exit the New York Archdiocese, his critics are voicing their hope that the prelate will be held accountable for what they believe is his refusal to honestly report abuse cases there.

The group Bishop Accountability.org, which describes itself as the world's largest independent source of information on the clergy sexual abuse crisis, says Egan under-reported the number of accused priests in the New York diocese in 2004 when the U.S. bishops were asked to release the information.

At that time, Egan reported that 49 priests had been accused of abuse from 1950 to 2002, which amounted to 1.3 percent of the diocesan priests. In Boston and Los Angeles, by comparison, the percentages were higher, at 7 percent and 4.9 percent respectively.

"New York must have one of the longest lists of unregistered sex offenders in the country," said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the organization. "Egan should be held accountable for that."

NEW YORK
Bloomberg

By Peter S. Green

Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Pope Benedict XVI named Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan to replace Cardinal Edward Egan as archbishop of New York, a post the late Pope John Paul II once called “the archbishop of the capital of the world.” ...

Dolan won praise for tackling the issue openly and early on while Egan, who suspended six priests in 2002, drew criticism for not acting fast enough to address sex-abuse cases in his parishes, according to BishopAccountability.org, a Web site set up by victims in 2003 that includes court files.

Benedict met with a small group of victims of clergy sexual abuse in Washington last April, and called for a “time of healing” in his Mass at St. Patrick’s on April 19. Relations with the 69 million American Catholics have suffered over what some called the Vatican’s reluctance to deal with the child-abuse scandal, in which more than 5,000 clergymen have been accused of molesting about 12,000 victims.

Dolan said today he would need to learn more about New York’s history with the sexual abuse scandal before he cold comment on it.

NEW YORK
USA Today

Gregarious. Where have we heard that before? It would appear from most early coverage that nobody doesn't love Milwaukee-soon-to-be-New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, named to the post today.

Whispers in the Loggia's Rocco Palmo calls it a "marriage made in heaven" for the Catholic hierarchy. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal's story on losing Dolan to the Big Apple and the biggest job in the U.S. church starts with his "gregarious pastoral style" which "endeared him to a Catholic community in need of a morale boost.

Then the story goes on to call him "an openly devout bishop with a sharp intellect. A church historian who speaks three languages and reads three more" yet has a plain-speaking style. ...

But critics don't think Dolan is all that. Nancy Moews, coordinator of the local chapter of the Catholic activist group Voice of the Faithful, told the Journal:

Archbishop Dolan, like most bishops, has a my-way-or-the-highway mentality. His reign has produced assaults on freedom of thought, speech and the primacy of personal conscience."

Also according to The Journal, Dan Maguire, a Marquette University professor of moral theology and former priest was rebuked by Dolan for suggesting that Catholics

... may rightfully dissent on issues of abortion and same-sex unions, and that bishops don't have the last word on moral debate.

BELGIUM
Joods Actueel

Research by a team of journalists from Belgian Based ‘Joods Actueel’, a Jewish news publication, has revealed a slew of anti-Semitic content on websites of the St. Pius X society. Pius X is the catholic society whose excommunication has recently been recanted by the Pope. Much controversy has arisen about the rehabilitation of one of its members, bishop Richard Williamson, a known holocaust denier.

The research comes to the conclusion that Pius X is an extreme conservative Catholic group that rejects the Second Vatican Council and propagates the worst kind of anti-Semitism. (examples see below)

For the research the international overarching site of the society was consulted and also a host of national sites such as those of the U.S.A., Brazil, Ireland, Asia, Austria, South-Africa and Poland.

MICHIGAN
Ludington Daily News

Jennifer Linn - Staff Writer

Monday, February 23, 2009

A local clergyman has been accused of “inappropriate conduct in public with an adult male,” according to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids, and he is under investigation by police.

The Rev. Johnson Jeyabal Pappusamy, former pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Custer and St. Jerome’s Catholic Church in Scottville, is under investigation for an incident alleged to have occurred Feb. 11, according to Mason County Prosecutor Paul Spaniola.

According to Mary Haarman, communications director for the Grand Rapids diocese, the church was made aware of the allegations and Pappusamy resigned last Wednesday, effective immediately.

NEW YORK
Catholic News Service

By Nancy Frazier O'Brien
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Like his predecessor, Cardinal Edward M. Egan, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan is very familiar with the workings of the church in Rome.

The new head of the New York Archdiocese served for seven years as rector of the Pontifical North American College, the U.S. national seminary in Rome, and was a student there himself in the 1970s. In addition, he was assigned for two years to the staff of the apostolic nunciature, or Vatican embassy, in Washington.

But Archbishop Dolan, who turned 59 Feb. 6, described himself in a 2002 interview as "a sort of fish-fry and bingo guy" who preferred being "in the field ... on the front lines ... with the folks" to carrying out the administrative duties of an archbishop.

WASHINGTON (DC)
Los Angeles Times

By David G. Savage
8:52 AM PST, February 23, 2009
Reporting from Washington -- Over a strong dissent from Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court refused today to hear an appeal from three former aides of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley who were prosecuted and sent to prison for conspiring to steer city jobs to campaign workers. ...

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles are also reported to being considering prosecuting Cardinal Roger Mahony for "honest services fraud" as a result of the scandal involving priests who abused minors.

In his dissent, Scalia said "this expansive phrase invites abuse by headline-grabbing prosecutors in pursuit of local officials, state legislators and corporate CEOs who engage in any manner of unappealing or ethically questionable conduct." He said the court should have heard Sorich's appeal and clarified the reach of the law. "It is simply not fair to prosecute someone for a crime that has not been defined until the judicial decision that sends him to jail," he wrote.

UNITED STATES
Veteran Journal

By Patrick Noaker, Attorney at Law

For many service members, the return from an overseas assignment can be bittersweet. Reunion with wives, husbands, children and other family members is sweet, but some of the emotional baggage brought back is bitter. This is even more the case for those who are the survivors of childhood sexual abuse. For many, the exposure to violence related to military service, magnifies and aggravates the pain he or she experiences related to the childhood sexual abuse. Both during and after military service, service members are often left with overwhelming emotional responses relating to multiple sources of trauma.

Unfortunately, childhood sexual abuse is very common in the U.S. According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 4 girls is sexually abused and 1 in 6 boys is sexually abused before age 18. Between 80 and 90% of victims are sexually abused by a family member or by a familiar trusted person, such as a member of the clergy. It is not surprising that these crimes almost always go unreported until the survivor is an adult, if at all. Nevertheless, the child victims continue to have to live with the psychological consequences of the abuse throughout his or her life.

MASON COUNTY (MI)
The Grand Rapids Press

by Charles Honey | Grand Rapids Press Religion Editor
Monday February 23, 2009, 11:34 AM
MASON COUNTY - A West Michigan priest has been removed from two Mason County parishes following an accusation he engaged in "inappropriate conduct in public with an adult," according to the Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids.

The Rev. Johnson Jeyabal Pappusamy submitted his resignation to Bishop Walter Hurley last week, while law enforcement officials continue to investigate, according to the diocese statement Monday morning.

Pappusamy was pastor of St. Mary Catholic Church in Custer and St. Jerome Catholic Church in Scottville. A temporary administrator will serve those parishes.

UNITED KINGDOM
Borehamwood and Elstree Times

By Elizabeth Pears

The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales suggested his retirement was imminent when he attended Mass in Borehamwood on Sunday.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the guest of honour at St Teresa's Catholic Church, in Shenley Road, told churchgoers he was soon expecting to retire.

The cardinal, 77, has already written to the Vatican to announce his desire to step down but was asked by Pope Benedict XVI to remain in the position until further notice.

WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
News4Jax

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A Florida priest charged with embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from his church took money from a hidden "slush fund," had records shredded and violated the trust of parishioners, a prosecutor told jurors at his trial Monday.

The Rev. Francis Guinan has pleaded not guilty. He is accused of stealing $488,000 from St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach to fund a lavish lifestyle that included trips to the Bahamas and Las Vegas, jewelry and home furniture.

Guinan "stole from the community he was appointed to protect," prosecutor Preston Mighdoll said during closing arguments. "He must be found guilty as charged."

NEW YORK
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York

February 23, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 23, 2009

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, has appointed His Excellency, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of Milwaukee, to the Archdiocese of New York. Archbishop Dolan has served as the Archbishop of Milwaukee since 2002. He will be the 13th Bishop and 10th Archbishop of the See of New York. He succeeds His Eminence, Edward Cardinal Egan, who submitted his letter of retirement upon reaching the age of 75 on April 2, 2007.

Cardinal Egan has been named Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of New York until the Installation of Archbishop Dolan. The Archbishop will be installed by His Excellency, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States at Saint Patrick's Cathedral on April 15, 2009.

NEW YORK
Time

By Jeff Israely Monday, Feb. 23, 2009

In a month of bad public relations for the Vatican, the opportunity to name a replacement for the retiring and less-than-media-friendly Cardinal Edward Egan, 76, Archibishop of New York, was a godsend. The man announced Monday to lead the archdiocese arrives well-equipped for the job. Timothy Dolan, 59, who has been in charge of the Milwaukee Archdiocese since 2002, has long been considered among the most likeable and loquacious senior American prelates. In the late 1990s, while serving as rector of the North American Pontifical College, the largest English-speaking seminary in Rome, he was a major man-about-town and go-to guy for U.S. journalists covering the Vatican, at ease sharing a beer, or providing simple words to explain complicated Church doctrine.

NEW YORK
Whispers in the Loggia

Fresh off his first Mass in St Patrick's Cathedral (at which, so it seemed, more media were present than pewfolk), Archbishop Tim Dolan is slated to give his first interview following his appointment as archbishop of New York at 9.15 Eastern to Sirius Satellite Radio's The Catholic Channel.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Beacon

By Patricia Rice, Special to the Beacon

Updated 6:21 a.m. Mon., Feb. 23 - St. Louis will get a new Cardinal soon. Not the baseball variety. The Vatican variety.

But at 5 a.m. Monday, Feb. 23, the announcement was made that St. Louis native Archbishop Timothy Michael Dolan is going to New York.

Pope Benedict XVI announced that Dolan is the new shepherd of the New York City archdiocese’s 2.5 million Catholics. His installation Mass likely will be April 15, the Wednesday after Easter.

And the next time that Benedict names new cardinals, Dolan, a church historian by training, will, no doubt, step into church history to receive his red hat. A cardinal is among the pope’s closest advisers and is an elector of the next pope.

NEW YORK
Standard Newswire

NEW YORY, Feb. 23 /Standard Newswire/ -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented today on news that Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan will be the new Archbishop of New York:

"What a perfect fit: Archbishop Dolan has the erudition, tenacity, affability and orthodoxy necessary for a leadership role in New York. My dealings with him have been extraordinarily positive.

NEW YORK
Catholic Culture

February 23, 2009
Confirming rumors that have circulated for weeks, the Vatican today announced that Archbishop Timothy Dolan will be installed on April 15 as head of the New York archdiocese. Archbishop Dolan, who has served since 2002 as Archbishop of Milwaukee, will replace Cardinal Edward Egan, who is retiring just a few weeks short of his 77th birthday.

NEW YORK
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

New York, NY - The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSACoalition) knows the Archbishop of New York is no ordinary bishop. By virtue of the prestige of New York, the heft of the Catholic population, the uniqueness of the City to the United States and the world, this is a diocese where a real difference can be made for the Church.

A new opportunity has presented itself. It must not be squandered. But a new face doesn’t necessarily mean change where it counts.

The new Archbishop of New York can have a major influence in curing the severe case of laryngitis in the Church’s moral voice. If he chooses not to, the sickness of sexual abuse in the Church could turn fatal.

We urge the new Archbishop to choose life for his diocese and the Church by stepping forward to put the clergy sexual abuse scandal front and center on his agenda as a life issue.

CHARLESTON (WV)
WSAZ

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A local pastor from Kanawha County is set to go on trial Monday morning in Charleston.

Sandy Cook is charged with sexual abuse by a parent or guardian and third degree sexual assault.

Cook is accused of sexually abusing several teenage boys at his home and in his truck back in 1994.

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY Barry Paddock and Bill Hutchinson
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Updated Monday, February 23rd 2009, 9:29 AM

New York's new archbishop was welcomed by his parishioners at a morning mass inside St. Patrick's Cathedral Monday.

Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan passed out Communion alongside the man he will succeed, Edward Cardinal Egan, 76, who is retiring after nine years in the post.

"I've known him for many years, and I told him how delighted I am to welcome this wonderful priest and bishop," Egan told several dozen parishioners gathered for the 8 a.m. Mass. "He came to New York to be installed, to strengthen our faith and to lead us in our search for justice, compassion and peace."

NEW YORK
New York Magazine

As anticipated over the weekend, Milwaukee archbishop Timothy Dolan was named this morning the future head of the Archdiocese of New York. Dolan will replace Cardinal Edward M. Egan, who served for nine years. It is the first time in the 200-year history of the bishopric that a prelate has been replaced before his death.

Last year New York looked at the top six candidates to replace Egan, and even at that time Dolan topped the list. He was popular in Milwaukee, choosing to marshal his troops using persuasion and gregariousness rather than censure and imperiousness. He's a sports fan and a casual jokester, and according to the Times, a staunchly conservative, if low-key, ally of Pope Benedict XVI

NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

WHAT
At a sidewalk news conference, clergy abuse victims will criticize New York's new archbishop and
- discuss his track record on handling child sex abuse and cover up cases,
- put forward suggestions for how he can better protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded, and
- urge anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes to report to police, not to the archbishop

WHEN
TODAY, Monday, 2/23, from 2 pm until 3 pm

WHERE
Outside St. Patrick's Cathedral, 460 Madison Ave (at 5th), New York City

NEW YORK
The Village Voice

We tend to forget that, despite our godless liberal reputation, the Catholic Church plays a huge role in the life of New York. It holds spiritual sway over millions of our citizens and owns some prime real estate, which always buys a seat at the power table. Historically its archbishop has been a prominent quasi-political figure, too; if the last archbishop, Eddie Egan, was not so assertive as Fulton Sheen or John J. O'Connor, it may have owed to the spirit of the times, to the pressing need to manage tougher financial issues than in the past, or to the lingering legacy of the scandals that were revealed in the his old Bridgeport, Connecticut diocese after he took the New York gig and may have kept him from adopting a higher profile.

Now, two years after Egan turned in his resignation, as required by Church law, Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan to take over. The 59-year-old Irish-American, who served in Milwaukee for six and a half years, jumped right into the saddle, celebrating Mass at St, Patrick's this morning.

The Times says Dolan has "disappointed advocates for victims of sexual abuse" -- but what American bishop hasn't? -- while the Daily News says he "came out strongly against pedophile priests, publishing the names of 43 clergymen who were found to be abusers."

NEW YORK
NY1

[with video]

New York's Catholics this morning got their first look at the man succeeding Edward Cardinal Egan as Archbishop of New York.

Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan is attending Mass this morning at St. Patrick's Cathedral, hours after The Vatican announced that Dolan was chosen by the pope to succeed Egan as the head of the New York Archdiocese.

He will be installed at Saint Patrick's Cathedral on April 15th.

NEW YORK
New York Post

By JOHN DOYLE

Edward Cardinal Egan welcomed his successor to St. Patrick's Cathedral this morning - calling him a man who will lead New Yorkers in their quest for "justice, compassion and peace."

Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan will replace Egan, 76, who is retiring after nearly nine years.

NEW YORK
Catholic News Service

By Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI named Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of Milwaukee as archbishop of New York and accepted the resignation of Cardinal Edward M. Egan, who has headed the archdiocese since 2000.

The appointment was announced Feb. 23 in Washington by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Archbishop Dolan, a St. Louis native who turned 59 Feb. 6, has been head of the Milwaukee Archdiocese since 2002 and was an auxiliary bishop of the St. Louis Archdiocese for a year before that.

The Times (United Kingdom)

Ruth Gledhill

A trinity of priests praying for a miracle? These three priests clutching the Turin Shroud are none other than the three favourites for Westminster, Archbishops Vincent Nichols and Peter Smith, and Bishop Malcolm McMahon, from Birmingham, Cardiff and Nottingham.

As countless others besides myself predicted he would, Pope Benedict XVI has today named Timothy Dolan, 59, as successor to the retiring Edward Egan in the high-profile Archdiocese of New York. Read on for what veteran Vatican commentator John Allen has to say about Dolan. Lots more about him at Aufer A Nobis.

Westminster will be next.

VATICAN CITY
Reuters

Mon Feb 23, 2009 7:48am EST

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict named the 59-year-old archbishop of Milwaukee as the next archbishop of New York, the highest profile post in the U.S. Catholic Church, the Vatican said on Monday.

Timothy Dolan, widely seen as an affable and media-friendly priest, succeeds 76-year-old Cardinal Edward Egan, who is retiring after nearly nine years in the job.

Well known in Vatican circles, the St. Louis native was long considered a front-runner for Egan's post.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
TMJ4

The following statements come from the bishops who will remain in Milwaukee after Dolan leaves Milwaukee on April 15th to take over fully at the New York archdiocese.

Most Reverend William P. Callahan, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee

"All of us, of course, will greatly miss Archbishop Dolan. His deep faith and warm, personal charm will offer a new luster to the Church in New York.

NEW YORK
America

Posted at: 2009-02-23 08:30:00.0
Author: Michael Sean Winters

The Church in New York, and indeed all of America, rejoices this morning at the announcement that Pope Benedict XVI has named Archbishop Timothy Michael Dolan to be the next Archbishop of New York.

I have never seen Archbishop Dolan that he didn’t have his arm around someone. We first met in Rome when, coincidentally enough, I was working on an article about Cardinal John O’Connor. Dolan was hosting a reception in his apartment at the North American College for Thanksgiving Day. Every American Catholic in the Eternal City seemed to be crammed into the rector’s living room. Cocktails flowed, cigars were lit, and the sense of loneliness one has when celebrating a national holiday abroad was dispersed thoroughly by Dolan’s hospitality.

SCRANTON (PA)
Off My Knees

[Link to a story about Fr. Robert Gibson from The Times-Tribune]

In February 1998, the Bishop of Scranton was the Most Reverend James C. Timlin. He was the man responsible for taking action to protect children who were the victims of predator priests in his diocese. He oversaw the diocese’s handling of a high visibility case involving Father Robert Caparelli. Who knows how many other complaints against other priests he kept quiet during his tenure? Bishop Timlin is currently Bishop Emeritus in Scranton.

Bishop Timlin issued two documents dated 2 February 1998. The first was a precept. A precept is a command to an individual that enjoins that person to do or not do something, especially in order to compel obedience of a law, regulation or directive. In this case the precept ordered Father Gibson to stop representing himself as a Diocesan priest and to stop wearing clerical attire. ...

I would imagine these documents enjoyed a very limited release as to not allow the parishioners, the police or the press to find out that the Diocese of Scranton was hiding another pedophile. By the time these documents were issued, Father Gibson had already been removed from the Diocese and, more importantly, the jurisdiction that could have sought criminal penalties against this monster. Father Gibson was sent to the Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer, Missouri.

This was a continuation of the Diocese’s policy of keeping things quiet and secret. You would think that they would have learned after the Father Caparelli case came to light in the 1990’s. Father Caparelli was convicted of sexually molesting boys and died in prison of AIDS in 1994. Is it possible that the diocese had a more prolific child rapist on its hands in the person of Father Gibson? We don’t know because the veil of secrecy still protects Father Gibson.

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

By Tim Townsend
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan was named archbishop of New York by Pope Benedict XVI Monday.

Dolan, the 59-year-old St. Louis native, has been rumored to be Benedict’s pick to head the most prominent diocese in the U.S. for months.

“My brother bishops, priests, religious women and men, seminarians, committed Catholics of this wonderful Church,” Dolan said in a statement, “I pledge to you my love, my life, my heart, and I can tell you already that I love you, I need so much your prayers and support, I am so honored, humbled, and happy to serve as your pastor.”

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

WHAT
At a sidewalk news conference, a mom whose son was molested for a decade by a just-sentenced predator priest will
--- disclose and discuss her son's new child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit against the cleric & his supervisors,
--- beg Catholics to ask friends & family if they were hurt by the pedophile and if so, to report promptly to police, &
--- urge local church officials to aggressively reach out to others who saw, suspected or suffered his crimes.

The accused is perhaps the most prominent US Catholic priest to ever have been convicted of child molestation. For decades, he belonged to perhaps America's most prominent Catholic religious order, the Jesuits.

WHEN
Monday, Feb. 23, at 1:30 p.m.

WHERE
Outside San Francisco University, 2495 Golden Gate Avenue, in San Francisco

NEW YORK
WNYT

[with audio]

by Soterios Johnson and Annysa Johnson

NEW YORK, NY February 23, 2009 —New York's Roman Catholic Archdiocese has a new leader. The Vatican announced today that Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan will replace Cardinal Edward Egan, who is retiring as archbishop of New York after nearly nine years in the post. Dolan will oversee an archdiocese that includes two and a half million parishioners in nearly 400 churches, from New York City to the Catskill Mountains.

ROME
CNN

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Archbishop Timothy Dolan will become the new archbishop of New York, the Vatican announced Monday.

Timothy Dolan, 59, served six years as Milwaukee's archbishop before being appointed to the New York post.

Dolan, the current archbishop of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, succeeds Archbishop Edward Egan.

NEW YORK
The Journal News

By Gary Stern
The Journal News • February 23, 2009

NEW YORK - Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee will become the 13th Bishop and 10th Archbishop of New York, the Vatican said this morning.

Dolan co-celebrated Mass this morning at St. Patrick's Cathedral, where retiring Cardinal Edward Egan introduced his successor. Egan asked for prayers for "our new archbishop," that he will be able to lead an archdiocese "filled with faith."

Dolan stood by Egan's side during the Mass. He did not speak but received a loud ovation at the end of Mass.

NEW YORK
The New York Times

By Jennifer 8. Lee
Late Sunday night, Pope Benedict XVI named Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, 59, of the archdiocese of Milwaukee to succeed Cardinal Edward M. Egan as the Roman Catholic archbishop of New York.

In choosing a gregarious persona known to enjoy a good cigar or two, the pope passed over other candidates equally conservative but more confrontational with Catholic priests, parishioners and politicians who question church teaching.

WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
WWSB

Associated Press - February 23, 2009 7:24 AM ET

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Closing arguments are expected in the trial of a Florida priest charged with embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from his church.

The Rev. Francis Guinan has pleaded not guilty. He is accused of stealing $488,000 from St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach to fund a lavish lifestyle.

Attorneys were set to give closing arguments Monday morning.

CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

Posted by Michael O'Malley and Robert Smith, Plain Dealer reporters February 23, 2009

When Bishop Richard Lennon announces early next month which churches in the Cleveland Catholic Diocese will close, it will mark the end of one long and agonizing process and the beginning of another.

The first ones to learn of the decision will be the parish priests, who will receive letters in time to read at Saturday night Masses.

The diocese is preparing a closing manual for the churches to be shuttered and a welcoming manual for surviving parishes bringing in displaced worshippers.

LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune

by Bruce Nolan, The Times-Picayune
Sunday February 22, 2009, 10:01 PM
Hundreds of local families affiliated with a conservative lay spiritual movement within the Catholic church have been rocked by the disclosure that the movement's revered priest-founder for decades led a secret double life -- and has a daughter.

The news has shaken an estimated 200 families in metro New Orleans and Baton Rouge belonging to Regnum Christi, or Kingdom of Christ, said Jim Fair, a Chicago spokesman for Regnum Christi and an affiliated order of priests, the Legion of Christ. Fair estimated there are about 9,500 Regnum Christi families in the United States.

"You know the Kubler-Ross stages of grief -- anger, denial, depression and so forth? We've got all those bases covered all at once," Fair said.

The disclosure also is a measure of vindication for New Orleans writer Jason Berry, who, with Connecticut newspaperman Gerald Renner, began uncovering evidence in 1997 that the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the charismatic founder of the two groups, was not who he appeared to be.

NEW YORK
KWGN

By RACHEL ZOLL

NEW YORK (AP) — Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, a defender of Roman Catholic orthodoxy who led an elite seminary for U.S. priests and became known for his energy, wit and warmth, was named archbishop of New York on Monday.

The Vatican said Dolan would succeed Cardinal Edward Egan, 76, who is retiring as archbishop after nearly nine years.

The post is the most prominent in the American Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II once called the job "archbishop of the capital of the world." ...

In 2004, he joined the minority of U.S. bishops who publicly released the names of local diocesan priests who had been credibly accused of molesting children. The archdiocese posts the names on its Web site and updates the list when needed.

"Anything we can do to keep children safe, we must do," Dolan said when he revealed the names.

However, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests has accused him of, among other things, failing to work more closely with civil authorities to publicly identify accused clergy from the independently governed religious orders who work in the archdiocese.

In 2006, the archdiocese agreed to a nearly $17 million settlement involving abusive former Milwaukee priests who had worked in California. Insurance covered half the claim, but Dolan said that the archdiocese's share put its annual budget in the red, contributing to a $3 million deficit last year. Dolan had to cut about a fifth of the jobs in the archdiocese. He hoped to sell a 44-acre archdiocesan property, the Cousins Center, but the sale stalled.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

[with timeline]

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, whose gregarious pastoral style endeared him to a Catholic community in need of a morale boost, was named archbishop of New York this morning.

Sources with knowledge of the appointment said Sunday that Pope Benedict XVI would name the 59-year-old Dolan to succeed retiring Cardinal Edward M. Egan. The appointment was made official early today.

Dolan will take over an archdiocese of 2.5 million Catholics in what many consider the highest-profile position in the U.S. Catholic Church. The appointment all but ensures that Dolan ultimately will be named a cardinal.

NEW YORK
National Catholic Reporter

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR., NCR Staff
Published: Feb. 23, 2009

While Pope Benedict XVI’s appointment of Archbishop Timothy Dolan to New York hardly marks a dramatic break with key picks under recent popes, it may confirm an intriguing pattern-within-a-pattern under Benedict when it comes to the most important jobs in the United States.

In a sound-bite, one might call it a choice for “the center-right with a human face.”

In essence, that means leaders who are basically conservative in both their politics and their theology, but also upbeat, pastoral figures given to dialogue. It’s a pattern with across-the-board consequences for both the substance and the style of American Catholicism, and one that could carry particularly interesting implications for relations between church and state in the Age of Obama.

NEW YORK
Whispers in the Loggia

What's long been touted as the American hierarchy's "marriage made in heaven" has come to pass.

After weeks of speculation, it's finally official: this morning, Pope Benedict named Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee to the archbishopric of New York -- Stateside Catholicism's most prominent post, the chief pastorate of what the Vatican considers to be the "Capital of the World."

Soon to become the tenth occupant of 452 Madison, the appointee -- seen as the "natural choice" for the slot from as far back as 2001 -- succeeds Cardinal Edward Egan, whose resignation was accepted for reasons of age. Head of the 2 million-member Gotham church since 2000, Egan reached the retirement age of 75 in April 2007. Dolan, who turned 59 earlier this month, was promoted to Milwaukee in June 2002, less than a year after his ordination as a bishop.

CANADA
Tomorrow's Trust: A Review of Catholic Education

February 23, 2009

What is it about institutions which feel compelled to reject and ostracize those who have the courage to speak to the truth of what is happening in their midst?

For anyone who has read Jason Berry and Gerald Renner’s, Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II. (Free Press, New York, 2004) and followed David Clohessy and his work at The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests or SNAP the case of James Arthur Black has a very disturbing ring to it.

The recent revelation that Marcial Maciel Degollado founder and head of the Legionaires of Christ had indeed fathered a child out of wedlock is vindication of the investigative reporting of Jason Berry, Renner and others. What sticks in one’s mind from Vows of Silence is the story of the rising priest of influence who as part of the team who vetted the appointment of new bishops, as Berry reveals, was at great personal cost in the cover-up of sexual abuse by Marcail Marciel and others.

CANADA
National Post

Margaret Munro, Canwest News Service
Published: Monday, February 23, 2009

Child abuse can indelibly mark and alter genes in its young victims, leaving them less able to cope with stress later in life, according to new Canadian research.

A Montreal team has discovered large numbers of "chemical marks," which inhibit a key mechanism for dealing with stress, in the brains of young men who were physically or sexually abused as children and later committed suicide.

"It's almost as if there is an imprint left," says Michael Meaney at McGill University, who heads the team that has already toppled many long-held views of how early experience impacts behaviour and genes.

SCOTLAND
Daily Record

Feb 23 2009 By Janice Burns

SHAMED priest Roddy MacNeil turned up to clear out his flat yesterday after the Record exposed his latest scandal.

He arrived at his flat in Fairlie, Ayrshire, with a woman at his side before bundling suitcases into the back of his 4x4 Mitsubishi Shogun and departing.

We revealed on Saturday that the randy 49-year-old, nicknamed Father Flash, had been booted off a counselling course for pestering female students at Strathclyde University.

CANADA
The Canadian Press

After nearly four years, some 180 witnesses and $40 million in taxpayer dollars, a public inquiry struck in the shadow of sensational but unproven allegations that a clandestine pedophile ring once operated in eastern Ontario will draw to a close this week.

The Cornwall inquiry into how police and other institutions responded to allegations of historic sexual abuse - which made national headlines when the former police officer at the heart of probe was jailed for refusing to testify - will begin hearing final submissions Monday.

It's a landmark in a sad saga that has many expressing hope that some good may come for both abuse victims and the community. Others question what kind of resolution, if any, the report to be delivered in July will bring.

MASSACHUSETTS
Examiner

February 22, 4:27 PM
by Mia Carter, Boston Crime Examiner

The Archdiocese of Boston has placed Reverend Kenneth A. LeBlanc on administrative leave. This comes on the heels of child sex abuse allegations against the reverend, who is the pastor of St. Peter’s Church in Plymouth.

The alleged sexual abuse involving Reverend LeBlanc is said to have occurred approximately three decades ago.

In a written statement on this latest church sex abuse allegation, the Archdiocese of Boston said, “The decision to place Father LeBlanc on administrative leave represents the Archdiocese’s commitment to the safety of all parties and does not represent a determination of Father LeBlanc’s guilt or innocence as it pertains to this allegation.

MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald

BY JAY WEAVER
jweaver@MiamiHerald.com
A lawyer who drew a ton of publicity as he collected millions of dollars in clergy sexual-abuse settlements from the Archdiocese of Miami has been suspended from practicing law for 1 ½ years by the Florida Supreme Court.

Attorney Jeffrey M. Herman, who brought upwards of 50 negligence lawsuits against the archdiocese, must stop his involvement in the remaining cases and all other litigation after the state Supreme Court found him guilty of professional misconduct.

''Herman shall accept no new business until he is reinstated to the practice of law in Florida,'' the high court wrote in a 20-page opinion.

Herman violated the Florida Bar's conflict of interest rules when he started up an aviation company in the late 1990s that directly competed with a client in the same business -- without disclosing it.

PLYMOUTH (MA)
Boston Globe

By John C. Drake
Globe Staff / February 23, 2009

The Archdiocese of Boston has placed a Plymouth priest on administrative leave following allegations that he sexually abused a 10-year-old girl more than 25 years ago.

The allegations against the Rev. Kenneth A. LeBlanc, pastor of St. Peter's Church in Plymouth, are described on a website in which the accuser alleges that the priest abused her as a child in his car and in his home.

In a statement yesterday, Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley expressed sadness over this most recent allegation of clergy sexual abuse, and officials for the archdiocese said it had launched a preliminary investigation into the allegation. A spokeswoman for the archdiocese said the action was taken after the Middlesex district attorney's office informed the archdiocese of the allegation.

Word of the website's allegations had begun to circulate among parishioners starting late last week, and archdiocesan officials confirmed in Masses during the weekend that LeBlanc had been placed on leave. ...

Anne Barrett Doyle of bishopaccountability.org, which tracks allegations of abuse nationally, could not identify any other case in which an accuser used a website to name her alleged perpetrator for the first time. She called the accuser's courage "extraordinary."

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Erika Slife | Tribune reporter
February 23, 2009
Following this month's sentencing of defrocked Catholic priest Donald McGuire, a small group of supporters who offer help to victims of sexual abuse by clergy braved the cold Sunday to hand out informational fliers to parishioners at Holy Family Parish.

The parishioners "have a lot more influence than we could possibly imagine," said Peter Isely, Midwest director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "The way to make changes is to make a call or two, and those things really add up."

On Feb. 11, McGuire, 78, was sentenced to 25 years in prison, marking another chapter in his stunning fall from the pinnacle of the Jesuit order.

PLYMOUTH (MA)
MSNBC

By WHDH-TV Staff and Associated Press
WHDH-TV

PLYMOUTH, Mass. - The Archdiocese of Boston has placed a Plymouth priest on administrative leave after allegations that he abused a child nearly thirty years ago.

Reverend Kenneth LeBlanc, a pastor of St. Peter's Church, faces allegations of sexually abusing a minor.

The Archdiocese has begun a preliminary investigation and said that LeBlanc will remain on leave pending the outcome.

PLYMOUTH (MA)
NECN

[with video]

(NECN: Prat Thakkar, Plymouth, MA) - A Plymouth Massachusetts priest has been placed on administrative leave amid allegations that he sexually abused a child about 30 years ago.

Reverend Kenneth LeBlanc is reportedly accused of abusing a 10-year-old girl.

The Boston Archdiocese is investigating and says this is the first accusation of sexual abuse against LeBlanc.

NEW YORK
National Catholic Reporter

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR., NCR Staff
Published: Feb. 23, 2009

Legendary pitcher Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams, who threw for six teams during his pro career, recently described the difference between playing on the West Coast and the East Coast during a segment on the brand new MLB Network.

“In L.A., if the Dodgers are losing in the seventh inning, people just go home and watch the end of the game on TV,” Williams said. “In New York or Philly, if you’re losing in the seventh inning, they go home, get the TV, come back to the ballpark and throw it at you.”

In a word, Williams said, the difference is “intensity.”

In reality, it’s not just sports where things are amped up back East. Church leaders, too, play on a much bigger stage, facing greater scrutiny from the press and higher expectations of national leadership. They also preside over flocks which are often more unruly, and more vocal when they’re unhappy.

NEW YORK
The New York Times

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: February 23, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI on Monday named Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, who has led the archdiocese of Milwaukee for the last seven years, to succeed Cardinal Edward M. Egan as the Roman Catholic archbishop of New York.

Archbishop Dolan, who has a towering frame and a gregarious presence, is orthodox in his theology but more likely to use persuasion than punishment on Catholics who do not share his views. In choosing him, the pope passed over other candidates equally conservative but more confrontational with Catholic priests, parishioners and politicians who question church teaching.

The appointment marks the first time in the 200-year history of the archdiocese that power will be transferred from a living prelate to his successor, in a post that Pope John Paul II once called “archbishop of the capital of the world.”

MILWAUKEE (WI)
The New York Times

By MICHAEL POWELL
Published: February 23, 2009
MILWAUKEE — For a few deeply unpleasant days, the Rev. David Cooper found himself in the crosshairs of the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

It was 2003, and the priest had opined to a reporter that women should be ordained. Faraway bishops rumbled about censure. Then he picked up the telephone and heard the baritone of Milwaukee’s archbishop, Timothy Michael Dolan. Father Cooper immediately offered to resign.

No, no, the archbishop replied, we just need to repair the damage. “He was very pastoral and caring,” Father Cooper recalled.

And how was it resolved? “Oh, I agreed to recant,” he said. “He effectively silenced me.”

NEW YORK
The New York Times

By PAUL VITELLO
Published: February 23, 2009
He closed a budget gap, streamlined the payroll, eschewed wholesale layoffs, avoided scandal, kept a low profile, and occasionally played a Mozart piano sonata for guests at his home. Most C.E.O.’s with a record like that would make stockholders swoon.

Yet Cardinal Edward M. Egan, who will retire in April as head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, rarely evoked that kind of reaction during his nine years as steward of the church’s flagship diocese in the United States.

He was respected by some, feared and reviled by some; but in a way that made him more fully a New Yorker than any of his recent predecessors, Cardinal Egan, 76, was also a bit of a faceless stranger in the city.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

Vatican City, Feb 23, 2009 / 07:50 am (CNA).-

Today Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee to become the next Archbishop of New York, a see that the Vatican more than once has described as “the capital of the world.”

Timothy Michael Dolan was born February 6, 1950, the first of five children of Shirley Radcliffe Dolan and the late Robert Dolan.

In 1964, he began his high school seminary education at St. Louis Preparatory Seminary South in Shrewsbury, Mo. After studying at Cardinal Glennon College and then at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, Archbishop Dolan was ordained a priest on June 19, 1976

NEW YORK
The Associated Press

By RACHEL ZOLL

NEW YORK (AP) — Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, a defender of Roman Catholic orthodoxy who led an elite seminary for U.S. priests and became known for his energy, wit and warmth, was named archbishop of New York on Monday.

The Vatican said Dolan would succeed Cardinal Edward Egan, 76, who is retiring as archbishop after nearly nine years. The post is the most prominent in the American Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II called the job "archbishop of the capital of the world."

The New York archdiocese is the second-largest in the U.S., behind the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, serving 2.5 million parishioners in nearly 400 churches.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Ordered to go for defying orthodoxy, Father Peter Kennedy must decide his next move in the stand-off over St Mary's in South Brisbane. What happens next in the church may influence the direction of Catholicism in Australia, writes Andrew Fraser.

As mass begins at St Mary’s Catholic Church in South Brisbane, there is no sign of a priest. Peter Kennedy, who the Catholic Church calls the parish priest but who is called the “Mass presider” in the St Mary’s newsletter, is walking around, but there’s no dog collar, vestments, or any of the other orthodox trappings of a Catholic priest. On this muggy January day, Father Kennedy wears white trousers and a loose, short-sleeved white shirt.

The interior also looks different from most Catholic churches. Instead of sitting in rows of pews facing the altar, the congregation gathers around a central table, turning its back on the 19th century sanctuary at one end of the church, with its stained-glass windows, pictures of Mary and Jesus, and marble statues. In this church-in-the-round, the most eye-catching symbol is an Aboriginal flag.

PLYMOUTH (MA)
My Fox Boston

PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) - The Archdiocese of Boston has placed a priest of its Plymouth church on administrative leave following allegations that he sexually abused a minor about 30 years ago.

The archdiocese said on Sunday that it has launched a preliminary investigation into the complaint against Rev. Kenneth LeBlanc, pastor of St. Peter's Church.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Breaking News

February 22, 2009 4:34 PM
Following this month's sentencing of defrocked Catholic priest Donald McGuire, a small group of supporters of victims of sexual abuse by clergy braved the frigid cold Sunday to hand out informational fliers calling on parishioners at the historic Holy Family Parish to learn more about Jesuit priests who, like McGuire, have been convicted of abusing children.

"These people [the parishioners] have a lot more influence than we could possibly imagine," said Peter Isely, Midwest director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, outside the church at 1080 W. Roosevelt Road. "The way to make changes is to make a call or two, and those things really add up. That's our hope."

On Feb. 11, McGuire, 78, was sentenced to 25 years in prison, marking another chapter in his stunning fall from the pinnacle of the Jesuit order. He had once traveled the world giving spiritual retreats and had even acted as a confessor to Mother Teresa. On Friday, another lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court alleging sex abuse and a coverup by McGuire and his supervisors.

The Cathoholic

Joan Frawley Desmond

In the course of researching an article on the Legion of Christ, I have spoken with many ex-Legion priests from the United States about the reasons they left the order. One issue they mentioned is the cultural tensions between Americans and Mexicans in the Legion. I have not addressed this problem before because it's not an easy topic to discuss.

Such problems are not uncommon in any religious order that draws recruits across national boundaries. When the MIssionaries of Charity sought a successor for Mother Teresa, I recall some reports about tensions within the order regarding the nationality of various candidates, and even, in the case of Indian sisters, their caste . In the end, the Missionaries chose a wonderful woman that I, for one, deeply respect -- Sister Nirmala. However, it's interesting to note that despite the many Indians in the order, and the large contingent of Europeans and Americans, the founder's successor was not an Indian or a Westerner, but a Nepalese convert.

PLYMOUTH (MA)
Boston Globe

Posted by Michael Paulson February 22, 2009 01:04 PM

The Archdiocese of Boston has placed the Rev. Kenneth A. LeBlanc, pastor of St. Peter Church in Plymouth, on leave after saying it has received an allegation of abuse against him. Here is the statement from the archdiocese:

"The Archdiocese of Boston today announced that it has placed Rev. Kenneth A. LeBlanc on administrative leave as a result of receiving an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor. The allegation concerns conduct alleged to have taken place approximately thirty years ago. Fr. LeBlanc is pastor of St. Peter’s Church in Plymouth.

The Archdiocese also has initiated a preliminary investigation into this complaint. Fr. LeBlanc will remain on administrative leave pending the outcome of the preliminary investigation.

PLYMOUTH (MA)
TheBostonChannel

BOSTON -- The pastor of a Catholic church in Plymouth was placed on administrative leave Sunday following accusations that he sexually abused a child several decades ago.

According to a statement from the Archdiocese of Boston, the Rev. Kenneth A. LeBlanc, pastor of St. Peter’s Church, is accused of abusing a minor about 30 years ago. LeBlanc will remain on administrative leave pending an investigation by church authorities.

UNITED KINGDOM
Cherwell

by Joe Shapiro | 18:14 GMT, Sun 22 February 2009

Trying hard to avoid my usual slurp, I politely sip my tea from a delicate china cup. Baroness Cumberlege sits across from me, her armchair dwarfing her slight frame and Tory-blue suit. She speaks with a soft yet resolute conviction about her time chairing the Cumberlege Commission. This was set up in 2006 to review the efforts of the Catholic Church of England and Wales in stamping out child abuse by members of the clergy - an issue which has plagued the Church for decades. I am keen to find out what has been achieved, and why such measures were necessary in the first place - one might have expected a holy Church to be free of such horrendous actions.

The stereotype of the paedophile Catholic priest is well known and frequently depicted in the media. A case of a sexual abuse cover-up by the clergy, particularly if the scandal reaches the higher echelons of the Church, is always going to make a good headline. Of course the impression of priests this stereotype gives is highly exaggerated; not every priest is a child abuser any more than every Muslim is a terrorist. Yet the concept of the paedophile priest is not entirely fabricated by a deceitful media. There were twenty-one convictions between 1995-2001. Clearly there is at least a small fire amid all this smoke, and I begin by asking the Baroness why she thinks these problems were not dealt with as soon as they occurred.

MASSACHUSETTS
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston

(Braintree, Mass.) February 22, 2009…The Archdiocese of Boston today announced that it has placed Rev. Kenneth A. LeBlanc on administrative leave as a result of receiving an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

The allegation concerns conduct alleged to have taken place approximately thirty years ago. Fr. LeBlanc is pastor of St. Peter’s Church in Plymouth. The Archdiocese also has initiated a preliminary investigation into this complaint. Fr. LeBlanc will remain on administrative leave pending the outcome of the preliminary investigation.

The decision to place Fr. LeBlanc on administrative leave represents the Archdiocese’s commitment to the safety of all parties and does not represent a determination of Fr. LeBlanc’s guilt or innocence as it pertains to this allegation. The Archdiocese will work to resolve this case as expeditiously as possible and in a manner that is fair to all parties. Cardinal O’Malley expressed his sadness over this new allegation and reiterated his concern for all persons impacted by sexual abuse.

MASSACHUSETTS
NECN

(NECN) - On Sunday, the Archdiocese of Boston announced that they have placed Rev. Kenneth A. LeBlanc on administrative leave as a result of receiving an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

The allegation concerns conduct alleged to have taken place approximately thirty years ago.

Rev. Kenneth A. LeBlanc was the pastor of St. Peter's Church in Plymouth.

UNITED STATES
The Huffington Post

By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji)
Native American Journalists Foundation, Inc.

February 23, 2009

The most anxious reactions by the Native victims of sexual abuse at Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian mission boarding schools are: "Where in hell is the outrage?"

It seems that most of America doesn't give a damn and news that should be on the front page of every major newspaper is strangely absent. Where in the hell is the outrage?

Last week the Jesuits of Oregon Province in Alaska filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Why were they forced into this action? Because more than 60 lawsuits alleging sex abuse by Jesuit priests have been filed against them and in all, there are 200 known claimants in the five western states covered by the Province. Most of the victims are from Alaska.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Michael McKenna | February 23, 2009

SACKED Catholic priest Peter Kennedy will this week continue his fight against the Brisbane diocese in the civil courts unless he is reinstated, after he rejected mediation talks and defiantly conducted Sunday mass for more than 1500 parishioners at St Mary's church.

Despite Archbishop John Bathersby last week dismissing Father Kennedy and appointing Father Ken Howell to lead the St Mary's parish, an estimated 1600 people spilled outside the church yesterday morning to support the rebel priest.

AUSTRALIA
The Daily

Sunshine Coast Catholics have mixed feelings over the sacking of controversial Brisbane priest Peter Kennedy, but are united in sharing the pain of the dispute.

The rebel priest, who was sacked for unorthodox practices, says he will continue to defy the Catholic Church and lead his South Brisbane parish because his dismissal was unjust.

Father Kennedy conducted mass at St Mary’s Catholic Church yesterday despite being stood down last week by Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Whispers in the Loggia

While The World Waits (Just A Bit Longer) for the Big One, a tad of news has popped up from another highly-awaited vacancy....

In preparation for the appointment of the ninth archbishop of St Louis, in recent days the Gateway City Roundhouse unveiled a first-of-its-kind alert system that'll beam the name of the chosen via text message on whatever day the announcement is made at Roman Noon -- or, as it's known in the "Rome of the West," 5am.

CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

WHAT
As parishioners leave mass, clergy molestation victims will
--- hand out fliers warning parishioners about several Jesuit predator priests who've worked in Chicago,
--- disclose a new child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit against a prominent priest & his church supervisors, and --- beg Catholics to ask friends & family if they were hurt by Jesuit clerics and if so, to report the crimes to police.

WHEN
Sunday, Feb. 22, at 10:30 AM

WHERE
Outside Holy Family Parish, 1080 W. Roosevelt Rd. in Chicago (312-492-8442, holyfamilychicago.org)

OHIO
WYTV

The allegations of misconduct at Zion Lutheran first reached officials of the Northeast Ohio Synod last fall, prompting the Bishop herself to conduct an investigation. After a two month review, Bishop Elizabeth Eaton says, "I became increasingly convinced that these were not false accusations."The allegations of misconduct at Zion Lutheran first reached officials of the Northeast Ohio Synod last fall, prompting the Bishop herself to conduct an investigation. After a two month review, Bishop Elizabeth Eaton says, "I became increasingly convinced that these were not false accusations."

After hearing from alleged victims, the Bishop tells us she confronted then Pastor Dale Giffin who had been with Zion Lutheran nearly 30 years. She says Giffin denied the charges, even claiming his accusers held some sort of vendetta against him. She then offered Giffin the chance to take his case with a church disciplinary hearing, where he could have obtained legal counsel, face his accusers and mount a defense. The Bishop says, "he chose not to do that."

AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Marissa Calligeros | February 22, 2009 - 5:59AM

THE Brisbane church at the centre of a feud between Archbishop John Bathersby and a maverick cleric has been for decades a parish "on the fringe".

The 700-strong St Mary's congregation, led by embattled 71-year-old priest Peter Kennedy has a ministry in the inner city and is widely acknowledged as a haven for the poor, the marginalised, indigenous people, homosexuals and broken families.

At the centre of a four-year-long furore, which culminated last week with the Catholic Church terminating Father Kennedy's position, were accusations the South Brisbane priest contravened Catholic doctrine by allowing women to preach at Mass, and using unorthodox wording in baptisms.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

REBEL priest Father Peter Kennedy defied the Catholic Church by conducting mass today, after being sacked by Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby last week.

More than a thousand people attended the service at St Mary's church in South Brisbane in support of Fr Kennedy, who was sacked for refusing to stop unorthodox practices such as blessing gay couples and selling books that questioned the divinity of Jesus.

The parish's newly appointed priest, Fr Ken Howell, stayed away after being advised by police not to attend following revelations on Saturday that Archbishop Bathersby had been the target of a bomb threat.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Michael McKenna | February 22, 2009

REBEL priest Father Peter Kennedy has rejected proposed mediated talks with Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby unless moves to sack him from St Mary's church are abandoned.

After an estimated 1600 people turned out for Sunday morning mass at the inner-city Brisbane church, Fr Kennedy vowed he would continue to defy Dr Bathersby's decree last week to remove him as administrator of St Mary's Church while he has the support of the congregation.

Parishioners spilled out into the grounds of the church, as the 9am service was led by Fr Kennedy and colleague, Fr Terry Fitzpatrick with both receiving standing ovations and the service ending with a rendition of the protest song "We Shall Not be Moved''.

AUSTRALIA
AFP

SYDNEY (AFP) — A rebel Catholic priest in Australia, who was sacked for blessing gay couples and allowing women to preach, defied his archbishop and led mass on Sunday, media reports said.

Father Peter Kennedy preached in front of hundreds of parishioners gathered to show support after his dismissal last week, national news agency AAP reported.

The Catholic church said Kennedy's nominated replacement did not attend Sunday service in Brisbane on police advice following a bomb threat against Archbishop John Bathersby, who sacked the 71-year-old Kennedy.

WINSLOW (AZ)
Gallup Independent

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

First in a two-part series

WINSLOW, Ariz. — Before his death in October 2007 — at age 39 — Winslow resident Marc Rogers was never able to publicly speak out about an incident that forever haunted his life, an incident in which a Diocese of Gallup priest was arrested and accused of molesting him when Rogers was a 14-year-old boy in 1983.

Rogers’ family now believes that several powerful authorities in Winslow — the Winslow Police Department, the Navajo County Attorney’s office, and church officials with the Diocese of Gallup — acted in ways to silence the voice of Marc Rogers by shutting him out of all legal proceedings against the Rev. John Boland. Family members say after Boland was transferred out of Winslow and the case was closed, Rogers emotionally shut down and descended into a troubled life of alcohol and drug abuse. They believe those addictions, combined with the diabetes he had struggled with since adolescence, led to his early death.

The family is now trying to be Marc Rogers’ voice in this world. And ironically, their opportunity to speak out was triggered by the actions of Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, the current apostolic administrator for the Gallup Diocese. Olmsted recently pulled Boland from ministry, pending an investigation, after reportedly finding a reference to the alleged molestation charge in Boland’s personnel file.

WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
Palm Beach Post

By SUSAN SPENCER-WENDEL
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, February 20, 2009

WEST PALM BEACH — In layman's cloth, the Rev. Francis Guinan folded his tall frame behind the witness stand Friday, a priest transformed to a small, simple human testifying in his own defense against allegations of grand theft fueled by the deadly sin of greed.

In friendly questioning, his defense attorney, Richard Barlow, asked if Guinan felt he had discretion to spend St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church's offering money on such things as trips to Las Vegas and rounds of golf.

Guinan answered that he felt it was all "a small compensation" for his service.

Prosecutors in the evidence portion of the trial, which concluded this week, have emphasized seven trips to Las Vegas, three to the Bahamas, multiple others around Florida and to Ireland, luxury hotels, tickets purchased for females, even a charge for jewelry in the 20 months he was the church's pastor.

MISSISSIPPI
Daily Journal

2/21/2009 1:17:19 PM
Daily Journal

The Most Rev. Joseph Latino became the 10th bishop of the Catholic Dicoese of Jackson in 2003. Today he shepherds 48,000 Catholics in 105 parishes spread throughout 65 counties. Latino came to Mississippi after serving four decades as a parish priest in his native Louisiana. ...

Q: Particularly since the sexual abuse crisis, there's a feeling among some people that Catholic bishops are a clandestine, fraternal order that, behind the scenes, concoct all manner of devious schemes. Can you address both the importance of acknowledging the damage done by the sexual abuse as well as the unfair, blanket misconceptions about bishops and religious life in general?

A:I'm almost six years a bishop, now, and I can tell you that when 280 bishops are together, arguing, debating, going through drafts until they get something right, it's an amazing thing. All those personalities, all those ideas coming together. Amazing.

I understand the suspicion, and there is a kind of close camaraderie, but it's nothing bad or sinister. Even some priests think Oh, you fellows are talking secret stuff in there.' But, really, what bishops talk about, what they're steeped in, is the good of the church. The scandal of the sexual abuse, the people who were hurt and the priests that were dismissed, I can tell you, honestly, that bishops really suffered over that. They really suffered. Knowing the pain that was inflicted and still goes on, knowing they had to dismiss priests, the bishops really suffered, for everyone.

CALIFORNIA
City of Angels

Dated Feb. 17, 2009, the dismissal of a civil suit against the Franciscan Friars and Old Mission Santa Barbara is official. The Superior Court dismissed "entire action and all causes of action" on papers filed the 9th of February.

From Tim Hale: "By settling the nuisance case before the demurrer hearing, the Franciscans insured that the issue of whether the nuisance theory applies to the Franciscans (or other entity defendants) remains an undecided case of first impression, at least for now.

"It is worth noting that the Franciscans became interested in mediating the case only when we were a few weeks away from the court ruling on their demurrer.

"I definitely expect to test its viability in lawsuits filed this summer, and strongly believe the nuisance theory is the only way we will ever obtain the true transparency necessary to save today's children from current perpetrators.

SCRANTON (PA)
Off My Knees

I follow what is happening in Scranton through the Scranton Times - Tribune Website, and yes, I specifically mine the site for any nuggets of information that pertain to the Diocese and sexual abuse cases. Sometimes the site yields other gems on the goings on in the Electric City. For instance, on February 19th, the headline read “Hot Topic: Bishop Warns Irish Planners in Scranton”. It seems the Bishop is determined to “prevent scandal”, at a St Patrick’s Parade. Good luck with that. Today’s headline “…Parade will comply with bishop’s abortion-rites ban” shows that the Diocese still has a grip on the important things in life.

According to the article, the diocese issued a letter warning Irish American groups that the bishop may close St. Peters Cathedral during St Patrick’s Day celebration if pro choice honorees are selected to march or speak in the parade. The letter was signed by the Auxiliary Bishop of Scranton, the Most Reverend John M. Dougherty. Dougherty, now that is a fine Irish Irish name. Nice touch, don’t you think?

The Diocese of Scranton is willing to shut down churches, deny daily mass and bully Irish American groups, even those that are not Catholic organizations, to “prevent scandal”. This is the same organization that supports hiding pedophile priests. I think that they might have their “prevent scandal” priorities a wee bit out of whack.

OHIO
Toledo Blade

By ERICA BLAKE
BLADE STAFF WRITER

The Lucas County Prosecutor's Office has requested a gag order be put in place and all future filings be sealed while postconviction issues continue to be hashed out in the criminal case of a priest convicted of murdering a nun.

The motion came just weeks after Gerald Robinson's defense attorneys filed a lengthy postconviction motion that claims ineffective assistance of trial counsel and the failure of prosecutors to provide exculpatory information in their possession prior to trial.

Dean Mandros, chief of the prosecutor's criminal division, noted in a response filed late yesterday that one of the points raised by Robinson's appellate lawyers throughout the postconviction motion is "prejudicial pretrial publicity."

WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
Offaly Independent (Ireland)

An Offaly-born priest accused of stealing over a half a million dollars from a Florida church is arguing this week that the money was his to spend.

Fr Francis Guinan’s defence team told a US court this week that the Catholic Church gave such wide latitude on priest’s expenditures, as long as they were below $50,000 in one spend, that the money had no strings attached.

The 66-year-old cleric originally from Eglish, Birr, stands charged with stealing almost $500,000 from his former church in Delray Beach in Florida.

AUSTRALIA
Yahoo! News

ABC - February 21, 2009, 5:38 pm

A priest at the centre of a row involving a Brisbane Catholic parish says he is surprised by reports threats have been made against the city's Archbishop.

Police have confirmed a threatening letter mentioning St Mary's parish was sent to the inner-Brisbane home of Archbishop John Bathersby yesterday.

St Mary's is at the centre of a controversy after priest Father Kennedy was sacked by church authorities for refusing to back down on unorthodox practices, such as allowing women to preach and blessing gay couples.

MISSOURI
St. Joseph News-Press

by Joe Blumberg
Saturday, February 21, 2009

A John Doe is suing the Huffman Memorial United Methodist Church and its regional and state organizations for alleged sexual abuse by a lay pastor in the early 1970s.

The case, filed last week in Buchanan County Circuit Court, seeks a jury trial to award unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. “John Doe HG” has asked Judge Randall Jackson to allow him to use the pseudonym because using his real name “would expose him to public ridicule and humiliation.”

The lawsuit accuses former lay pastor Jim Bourne of engaging with the boy in “various sexual acts” in approximately 1971-72. The suit names as defendants Huffman Memorial, the Pony Express District of the United Methodist Church, and the Missouri Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

INDIA
The Statesman

Press Trust of India
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb. 20: The autobiography of a former nun in Kerala, in which she recounts her “harrowing” experience during her time spent in the cloisters, is selling like hot cakes even as the influential Catholic church is yet to react to the charges in the book.

In her memoirs in Malayalam titled Amen (so be it), Sister Jesme writes of alleged sexual abuse, corruption and power struggles in the “dark confines” of convents where she had lived for about 30 years. ...

“When a woman is molested only one in thousand will speak out. Then think of the nuns, they will not speak out the truth,” Jesme, now staying in Kozhikode, said. Jesme reminisces that she had had hints of things turning out against her right from the day she joined a convent as an aspirant for nunhood while continuing her college studies.