Abuse Tracker

ORANGE (CA)
The Orange County Register

By EUGENE W. FIELDS
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

ORANGE – A 29-year-old man is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, alleging he was sexually abused by a priest when he was as an altar boy at St. Norbert Church in the 1990s.

The man, who is identified in the lawsuit only as John DC Doe, alleges he was molested from 1990 to 1992 and that the diocese knew about the molestations and did nothing to stop it.

The priest is not named in the lawsuit, but the man's attorney, Rebecca Rhoades, identified the priest as Monsignor Sinon Falvey.

ROYCE CITY (TX)
Herald-Banner

By Brad Kellar
Herald-Banner Staff

A former Royse City pastor has been sentenced to prison on federal charges he possessed and trafficked in child pornography on his church’s computers.

Steve Richardson, 36, was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release. Richardson pleaded guilty March 19 to two federal counts; one alleging transporting and shipping child pornography and one alleging the possession of child pornography.

According to a release issued by Acting U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas, Richardson, 36, the former Pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Royse City, Texas, was sentenced late Monday by U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay to 17 years in federal prison. In addition, Lindsay ordered Richardson serve a lifetime of supervised release and register as a sex offender. Richardson has been in federal custody since he was arrested on September 24, 2008, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on related charges in a federal criminal complaint.

VINTON (VA)
WSET

Vinton, VA - A former church deacon at a church in Vinton, accused of molesting three teenage girls, has been sentenced to 225-years in prison.

Dean Harold Stone pleaded guilty in April to 12 felony sex charges for the offenses that happened between 2006 and 2008.

The sentence comes a week before the church's former assistant pastor is scheduled to be sentenced for an unrelated sex crime.

NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

By ABBOTT KOLOFF • Staff writer • June 30, 2009

Monsignor Patrick Brown was reinstated Tuesday as pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Church in Long Hill while the FBI continues an investigation into parish finances, Paterson Diocese officials said.

Ken Mullaney, an attorney for the diocese, said the decision was made because the FBI investigation has been dragging on longer than expected and diocese finance officials have not found any problems with parish finances.

“It seems unfair to have Monsignor Brown in limbo while this investigation continues,” Mullaney said. “We have not seen any evidence of wrongdoing.”

Mullaney also said the FBI asked him about expenditures made by Brown that include paying mortgages and college tuition for people, and giving money to some of the diocese’s poorer parishes.

YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
Canton Repository

By Charita Goshay
CantonRep.com staff writer
Posted Jun 30, 2009 @ 08:36 PM

YOUNGSTOWN — .Bishop George V. Murry got the kind of phone call every shepherd dreads: One of his priests had been accused of sexual immorality.

Shortly afterward on May 22, Murry removed Thomas Crum from the pulpit at Our Lady of Peace Church in Canton. Crum admitted engaging in inappropriate behavior with a student more than 30 years ago while at Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown.

In the weeks hence, the head of the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown has been on a quest to ensure that such an incident doesn’t happen again. He vows to keep parishioners apprised of what the diocese is doing about it, and encourages anyone who has been victimized to contact his office.

NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

by Staff Report

Jewish Week staff writers Stewart Ain and Tamar Snyder and correspondent Hella Winston were among the winners of the 2008 Simon Rockower Awards for excellence in Jewish journalism, which were announced last week.

The paper also won top honors for its annual magazine, Directions, and second place in its circulation division for editorial writing.

Winston, who has aggressively covered allegations of child sexual abuse against Orthodox rabbis in Brooklyn and the communal response to it, won first place in the features category for “A Charge of Double Betrayal,” the story of a man who says he was victimized first by the yeshiva principal who allegedly molested him and then by a yeshiva administration that took no action.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

FOLLOWING THE Ryan report “we all emerge . . . somewhat lost, unbalanced, the touchstone of our former beliefs and certainties cast adrift,” the Ombudsman and Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly has said.

“We stood exposed, not as an island of charming saints and chatty, avuncular scholars but as a repressed, cold-hearted, fearful, smugly pious, sexually ignorant and vengeful race of self-styled Christians,” she said

She recalled that at the 2004 Céifin conference in Ennis, Co Clare, she had wondered “what the real us [her emphasis] actually was, the old-style pious Mass-goers, or the new-style materialists.” She continued, “I wonder even more so in the light of Ryan.”

UNITED STATES
Stop Baptist Predators

Last week, French president Nicolas Sarkozy said, “The burqa is not welcome on French territory.”

The burqa is the head-to-toe garment that is worn by a small minority of Muslim women. It conceals even the face. In this photo of two women in Marseille, the woman on the right is wearing a burqa.

President Sarkozy declared that the burqa was not a religious symbol but a sign of women’s “debasement.” “In our country,” he said, “we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen… deprived of all identity.” ...

Of course, the mixing of culture and religion isn’t unique to Muslims. And Muslims don’t have any lock-box on religious authoritarianism and paternalism. If there is one thing I know for sure, it is that any religion can be misused for oppressing the weak and perpetuating the powerful. That’s a lesson I learned from my own westernized Christian religion.

Though Baptists don’t display bloody sheets, there is nevertheless much about Baptist culture and belief that is often misused to train girls into the bondage of a subservient self-image. And if you’re a Baptist clergy abuse survivor of either sex, you are virtually guaranteed to experience religiously-fueled oppression, particularly if you dare to try to report it.

I don’t purport to know what the “right answer” to the burqa debate is. But I do believe that, if the debate is to be honestly engaged, we should not pretend that a burqa is nothing more than the equivalent of a Texas Baptist’s bolo tie, or a Jewish man’s yarmulke, or a Catholic’s cross necklace.

UNITED STATES
City of Angels

By City of Angels

Soon to be a major book, maybe a movie or at least part of one, here is Mike Coode’s story, something to read on a beach chair this weekend. Based on his experience going public as an adult victim of a pedophile priest in the early 1990s, his book should be ready for a publisher in mid-July, Mike told me today. I hope so, as Coode spins a good yarn in Tennessee straight talk style, as revealed in the speech copied here, which he delivered at a Nashville VOTF meeting in 2004. Enjoy this summer read, a taste of what Mike Coode’s upcoming book will be like.

I have a story to tell, and the question I ask myself is Why would I want to tell it? It is so painful this telling of my personal loss; the humiliation, the spiritual confusion, and the debasement. It’s difficult to publicly share my story with my sons and daughters, brothers and sisters and lifetime Friends. It’s difficult to see the pain in the eyes of those of you who share this terrible experience with me. It’s difficult to share my story with strangers.

But I must share it, because if by telling this story, one child is spared this horrible experience, if my story moves one person to see that the wrongs committed by the leaders of my church, our church, are corrected, then it’s worth the telling. If there are tears, it’s okay. When I see the pain in your eyes, it’s okay. That anguish you feel, that horrible pit in your stomach must forever be a reminder to you that this must stop. We must see that our children and our grandchildren are never caught up in this terrible tragedy.

STIRLING (NJ)
The Star-Ledger

by Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
Tuesday June 30, 2009, 2:48 PM
STIRLING -- A popular Morris County pastor who was placed on leave early this month amid an FBI investigation into his spending was reinstated today by the Diocese of Paterson.

Monsignor Patrick Brown 58, arrived back at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Stirling around noon, said Michael Critchley, a lawyer representing Brown in the criminal probe.

"He couldn't be happier," Critchley said. "To be removed from something you've given your entire life to for 30 years -- and having the prospect of it being taken away -- is frightening, and for him to be reinstated to his priestly duties, his prayers have been answered."

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THE DUBLIN Archdiocese Commission of Investigation is believed to have inquired into how four archbishops and 15 bishops addressed clerical child sex abuse allegations in the Dublin archdiocese.

It is expected to present its report to Minister for Justice by the middle of next month, most likely in the week beginning Sunday, July 12th.

The report is understood to be 800 to 1,000 pages and, unlike the 2005 Ferns report or the Ryan report, it will name priests who have been convicted in the courts in relation to abuse and those whose names are already in the public domain in relation to abuse.

It is thought likely that on its receipt the report will be referred by the Dermot Ahern to Attorney General Paul Gallagher for advice as three priests investigated by it are currently before the courts on abuse charges.

IRELAND
Catholic Culture

June 30, 2009
Still reeling from the impact of a report on rampant abuse of children living in Church-run institutions, Catholics in Ireland are now bracing for a report on the handling of sex-abuse allegations against priests of the Dublin archdiocese. That report, the work of another independent investigating committee, reportedly will be released within the next few weeks. It is said to approach 1,000 pages in length, and will include the names of priests who have faced abuse charges.

UNITED STATES
Philadelphia Daily News

By Ronnie Polaneczky
Philadelphia Daily News
Daily News Columnist

As we move into day five of Life After Michael Jackson, I'm wondering: How can it be that I feel so bad for the sad, tormented man he'd become?

I wouldn't normally feel inclined toward a forgiving view of someone credibly accused, as the King of Pop was, of child molestation. Yet I find myself boomeranging like an atom between two "Yes, but . . ." poles:

Michael Jackson slept with little boys. Yes, but . . . he could stir in us a thrilling range of human emotion - from exuberance and delight to restlessness, rage and yearning. ...

I contacted David Clohessy to stew over the ambivalence I've been feeling about the Gloved One's legacy.

Is it possible, I asked, to appreciate the totality of who Michael Jackson was, when his demons drove him to behave in such a disturbing way with children?

"I feel both sympathy and revulsion" for Jackson, said Clohessy, a childhood victim of molestation and national director of The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "I feel sorry for anyone who came from a family where burning ambition was just drilled into children.

"On the other hand, there's a danger in minimizing the abuse charges. When you watch a 30-minute memorial to Michael Jackson, and they don't even mention the molestation until 22 minutes into it, it tells present sex-abuse victims that abuse isn't that bad.

CANTON (NY)
Watertown Daily Times

TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 2009

CANTON — The sex-offender-classification hearing for the former pastor of Oswegatchie First Baptist Church has been postponed until next month.

Merton E. Parks, 61, of 469 Oswegatchie Trail Road, Fine, was sentenced in May to 10 years' probation on a charge of felony possessing a sexual performance by a child.

St. Lawrence County Court Judge Jerome J. Richards said Monday that he was delaying the hearing until July 20 because the risk assessment test wasn't properly completed.

SWAZILAND
Times of Swaziland

By MUSA NHLEKO on June 30,2009

MANZINI – Churches headed by wayward pastors and church leaders face closure.
This is if the Swaziland Conference of Churches (SCC) will be able to establish a regulatory body this year for all evangelicals and pentecostals in the country.

This was said by Bishop Steven Masilela, who is the SCC President, during a press conference yesterday at the Tum’s George hotel.

Bishop Masilela said the body would be able to handle issues of moral decay amongst pastors and church leaders in Swaziland.

HAWAII
Star-Bulletin

[with video]

By Star-Bulletin Staff and News Services

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jun 30, 2009

A woman who was sexually assaulted by her mentor and spiritual leader for at least seven years starting when she was 12 years old watched a judge sentence Manuel Guillermo Taboada to 10 years in prison yesterday.

The woman, her friends and family did not make any statements before Circuit Judge Richard Pollack handed down the sentence. Neither did Taboada.

"What's he going to say to them, 'I'm sorry?' I don't think sorry's enough and that's why he agreed to a prison sentence," said Michael Green, Taboada's lawyer.

IRELAND
Breaking News

A trial date has been set for a former priest accused of the sexual assault and buggery of two young boys almost 30 years ago.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies 29 charges of both indecent assault and buggery on dates between June 1, 1979 and June 31, 1983 when one of the alleged victims was aged between seven and 11 years old and the second was aged between 14 and 15 years old.

ROME
Catholic News Agency

Rome, Italy, Jun 29, 2009 / 12:55 pm (CNA).- The prefect for the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, said last week pedophilia is a “terrible crime” that affects only a small percentage of priests, adding that “there is no room in the priestly ministry for people who have committed these crimes.”

In an interview in Rome with the magazine “Vida Nueva,” the cardinal pointed out that the Church “cannot close her eyes” to these problems, but at the same time he emphasized, “There is no room in the priestly ministry for people who have committed these crimes.”

“The Church cannot accept cases of pedophilia. Those guilty must be punished both through civil and canon law,” he said, clarifying however that most of the clergy “have nothing to do with these problems.”

DELAWARE
Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington

June 25, 2009 --- (Wilmington, DE) --- Two priests of the Diocese of Wilmington – one deceased and one retired – have been named in separate lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of minors, the Diocese of Wilmington announced today. Prior to the filing of these lawsuits, there had been no allegations of this nature against either of these priests.

Rev. John Francis O’Brien, who passed away on January 7, 2003, is accused of abuse of a minor in the early 1960s.

Fr. O’Brien was ordained in 1962 and during the first ten years of his priesthood he served as associate pastor of St. Paul’s Church in Wilmington, St. Helena’s Church in Wilmington and St. Ann’s Church in Wilmington. In 1972 Fr. O’Brien was appointed pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Church in New Castle, Delaware. In 1982 he became pastor of St. Elizabeth’s Church in Wilmington. Fr. O’Brien was assigned as pastor of St. Mary Magdalen Church in Wilmington in 1997 and served in that capacity until his death. He also served the Diocese of Wilmington as director of the Catholic Youth Organization (CYM).

Rev. James Edward Richardson, retired, age 77, is accused of sexually abusing a minor on two occasions in the late 1960s. Fr. Richardson denies the allegations.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

A nun who campaigns for social justice today apologised to children who were abused while under the care of the Sisters of Charity.

Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, a member of the religious order criticised in the devastating Ryan report, said members were ashamed, shocked and horrified by the physical and sexual abuse of children at its facilities.

She told a conference in Dublin Castle the report laid bare the appalling manner in which the most vulnerable children were treated in institutions run by congregations over the past 50 years.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

ELAINE EDWARDS

The abuse of children in some institutions run by religious orders is a “millstone of biblical proportions” in Irish history, President Mary McAleese said today.

Addressing a conference in Dublin organised by the Sisters of Charity, one of the orders under whose care children were abused, Mrs McAleese also paid tribute to the order for the positive work achieved by its members.

Sr Stanislaus Kennedy, a member of the order, delivered an apology today at the conference to those who were abused in the care of the sisters.

NORRISTOWN (PA)
Pottstown Mercury

By Carl Hessler Jr.
chessler@pottsmerc.com

NORRISTOWN — A New Hanover church youth group leader solemnly admitted to a judge that he had indecent contact with a teenage girl who attended the church.

David Benson Lewis, 24, of the 2900 block of Reifsnyder Road, pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court to charges of endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault and unlawful contact with a minor in connection with incidents that occurred between July and August of 2008.

The girl was 15 years old at the time of the incidents and Lewis was 23.

HAWAII
KITV

HONOLULU -- A judge gave a former Kaneohe minister the maximum sentence Monday for pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl member of his congregation.

Manuel Taboada faced a maximum 10 years in prison with the possibility of parole after six years.

Taboada was charged with eight counts of second-degree sexual assault.

IRELAND
Il Sussidiario (Italy)

John Waters

martedì 30 giugno 2009

The Background

Reserving to itself vast resources of power, the State tends towards evil. In a sense, it cannot really be “good”, and even with eternal watchfulness and oppeness can never do much better than avoid outright corruption.

The Ryan report describes a wholesale State-driven system of child abuse. The Catholic Church was, of course, deeply implicated, but with the collusion of the Department of Education, the police and the courts. Usually, when this is said, it is interpreted as an attempt to in some complex way “excuse” the Church, to spread the blame. But in Ireland now the opposite is more common: an avoidance of State responsibility so as to emphasise the Church’s wrongdoing. Without in any way seeking to diminish the evil that was done by people who claimed to walk in the way of Christ, it needs to be recorded that not a single Irish child could have been taken into one of these institutions without the say-so of the State. None of it could have happened had the State not colluded, had the police and the courts and even the (alleged) national child-protecton agency not arranged for a steady flow of victims to be provided to the Church-run institutions of torture and degradation.

STOCKTON (CA)
Irish Emigrant

STOCKTON, Calif. – The Rev. Michael Kelly, pastor of St. Joachim Catholic Church in Lockeford, was cleared of wrongdoing by the diocesan review board, based in Stockton, California. They found no evidence to support the claim of sexual abuse that Kelly was charged with last year. Kelly had been placed on administrative leave after being accused of abusing a 10-year-old boy in the mid- 1980s.

“We categorically deny the allegation," said Albert Ellis, a Stockton attorney who said he has known Kelly for more than 30 years. "It's absurd. It never happened. The guy has a stellar record. He's extremely well-liked and well-respected."

Ellis said he was surprised that Kelly had been placed on administrative leave after sharing with Blaire the results of a voluntary polygraph examination. That examination, sometimes referred to as a lie-detector test, showed Kelly was being truthful, according to Ellis, when the priest denied he had abused the boy or any other child during his 35-year career as a priest.

TOMS RIVER (NJ)
Asbury Park News

By Kathleen Hopkins • TOMS RIVER BUREAU • June 29, 2009

TOMS RIVER — A sexual abuse lawsuit against a former pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church in Freehold has been amended to include a second plaintiff who has come forward with allegations that he was sexually abused by the Roman Catholic priest during an overnight trip to a spa resort about 25 years ago, when the clergyman was assigned to St. Veronica's Church in Howell.

The new plaintiff, now 38 and living in Pennsylvania, alleges in the amended lawsuit that the Rev. Richard Milewski pulled down his bathing suit while roughhousing with him in the pool and squeezed his genitals until he was motionless with pain.

The plaintiff, identified in the lawsuit only by initials "S.J.," alleged that Milewski made the group of boys he took to the spa resort in northwest New Jersey strip naked before going into a whirlpool tub and steam room with him.

UNITED STATES
Stop Baptist Predators

People often ask me why I keep doing this work.

That graph is a big part of the answer. According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, about 1 in 6 Americans are Baptist.

Southern Baptists alone are twice as big as the second-largest Protestant group, the Methodists. And if you add in all the other sorts of Baptists, then Baptists are about 4 times more numerous than the Methodists. That’s according to data compiled by the National Council of Churches, which listed the top 25 faith groups in the country.

Baptists are so big that they literally dwarf all the other Protestant groups.

Southern Baptists alone claim to have about 16.2 million members. That’s a population the size of Chile or the Netherlands.

To serve that population, Southern Baptists have 101,000 clergy in this country and 43,000 churches. Yet, despite their faith group’s shared identity, Southern Baptists disclaim any shared responsibility for their clergy… or for the safety of people who sit in Southern Baptist pews.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

A SOLICITOR who has represented former residents of State institutions for children has said she queried with the redress board as far back as 2003 why it continued to accept repeated denials by the Christian Brothers of any abuse in institutions they had managed.

Gort, Co Galway-based solicitor Eileen McMahon has also accused the provincial of the Christian Brothers in Ireland, Br Kevin Mullan, of not being sincere in his recent apology to former residents of the institutions.

Ms McMahon has dealt with approximately 250 cases at the redress board, mainly involving clients now living in the UK. She referred to letters sent to the board by Br Mullan which denied any abuse by the Christian Brothers and which were published in this newspaper on June 3rd last. One was lodged with the board by Br Mullan on May 15th, five days before publication of the Ryan report.

ORANGE COUNTY (CA)
Orange County Weekly

By Gustavo Arellano in Ex Cathedra

What is it about the pastors of St. Norbert Church in Orange and their predilection for protecting pedo-priests? The most recent example was Cirilo Flores, who is now an auxiliary bishop under Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown; the most notorious example was John Urell, who famously cracked during a deposition digging into his days as the man in charge of "investigating" the pedophiles who terrorized county parishes for decades. I guess they just learned from their elders; after all, longtime St. Norbert pastor Sinon Falvey was in charge of two pedo-priests during his tenure from 1969 to 1989: John Kenney and John Lenihan. God smote the first John in a 1977 car accident; with Lenihan, Falvey moved him along to my home parish of St. Boniface in Anaheim.

Now, Falvey is the target of a civil lawsuit filed June 25 in Orange County Superior Court.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

RITE AND REASON: The Ryan report has consigned the triumphalist Catholic Church in Ireland to the dustbin of history, writes BRENDAN Ó CATHAOIR

‘ROMANTIC IRELAND is truly dead and gone,” Mannix Flynn said with justifiable anger. In his review of Bruce Arnold’s new book, The Irish Gulag: How the State Betrayed its Innocent Children (The Irish Times, May 30th), Flynn added: “Stalin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany will now have the company of the Irish Church State, a brutal regime that perpetrated acts of unimaginable horror on its most vulnerable children . . . It will take generations to heal and understand this trauma. The Irish people will suffer for a long time to come.”

It has taken us several generations to recover from the Great Famine (1845-1850). Unscholarly attempts were made to compare what was western Europe’s worst modern peacetime disaster to the Holocaust. Historical truth helps to set us free; unhistorical comparisons do not.

STIRLING (NJ)
The Star-Ledger

by Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
Monday June 29, 2009, 6:00 PM
STIRLING -- A lawyer for the Diocese of Paterson has recommended that a Morris County priest be returned to active ministry even as the FBI continues to investigate how the clergyman spent parish funds.

Monsignor Patrick Brown, the longtime pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Church in Stirling, was placed on leave June 4, a day after two FBI agents arrived at the diocese with questions about Brown's spending practices. The FBI also has subpoenaed records from the church's banks and from a Morristown jewelry store where Brown, 58, frequently bought gifts for parish volunteers.

CALIFORNIA
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling
Creator, City of Angels Blog

The State Supreme Court accepted the KJ petiion for review last week, leveling the playing field between adult victims of pedophiles and corporate entities who are trying to prevent further lawsuits. Earlier this month the Catholic Church and its attorneys celebrated when the state's highest court granted their request to review Quarry, where the trial court sustained the Bishop of Oakland’s demurrer and dismissed the complaint. Then the First Appellate Court reversed and Catholic Church attorneys worked long and hard to get the Quarry decision reviewed, as we reported here June 12th.

Now, by the Court agreeing to review KJ as well, "All the big issues will be on the table," an attorney close to the California Clergy Cases told City of Angels. In K.J. v. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Stockton, the plaintiff began to recover memory of the abuse in 2004 and filed suit in 2007. The Third Appellate Court agreed with the Church that the case was time barred, now the Court will review both cases.

"The justices, at their weekly conference in San Francisco, agreed to review a Third District Court of Appeal ruling that affirmed a San Joaquin Superior Court judge’s dismissal of a suit by 'John K.J. Doe' against the Stockton Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church," reported Metropolitan News Enterprise June 25th.

URUGUAY
El Pais

La Iglesia Católica de Uruguay sufre su primer gran escándalo. Minas está conmovida. Su obispo fue fotografiado manteniendo relaciones sexuales con dos reclusos que después lo extorsionaron. Se da por hecho que Roma lo removerá.

En la misa vespertina de este sábado los presbiterios de la Diócesis de Minas leerán una carta del Obispo Francisco Barboza en la que pide disculpas a los fieles por el dolor causado, luego que se conociera que mantuvo relaciones sexuales con dos presidiarios.

Según fuentes policiales el Obispo había "contratado" a dos presos -Gerardo Enrique Bentancor y José Martín Britos-, procesados por varios delitos, para que hicieran algunas tareas en el obispado. Al principio la relación era de colaboración y ambos visitaban con cierta asiduidad al obispo en busca de ayuda económica.

[summary]

The Catholic Church of Uruguay has suffered its first big scandal. A bishop was photographed having sex with two inmates who then extorted him. It is assumed that Rome will remove him.

Those attending Mass on Saturday evening were read a letter from Bishop Francisco Barboza who apologized for the pain he has caused.

Police sources say the bishop "hired" two prisoners, Gerardo Enrique Betancourt and Jose Martin Britos, who were prosecuted for various crimes, to do work in the diocese. At first the relationship was collaborative and they visted the bishop with some regularity for financial aid.

The bishop several times went to visit Betancourt last year when he was in the hospital.

The bishop later when to Rome where he participated in various seminars and courses for 43 days and then returned to Uruguay to continue a relationship with the men. In December, he invited the prisoners to a dinner that culminated in sexual intercourse that was recorded with a cell phone. Extortion began later and Barboza decided to make a police report.

This was made public yesterday in a statement that appeared in El Observador.

The bishop in a letter to people of the diocese said he never thought this would be a source of pain for the people and he asked for forgiveness and announced he would comply with any penalty imposed by the church "with total obedience."

In the meantime, Betancor was prosecuted for extortion while Britos was prosecuted for attempted extortion.

URUGUAY
El Pais

La Iglesia Católica aguarda la decisión del Papa sobre el obispo Francisco Barboza, que fue fotografiado en actos sexuales con dos individuos. Se le puede suspender su condición de obispo o de sacerdote, pero no quitarle su condición.

El nuncio apostólico Anselmo Pecorari, dijo ayer sábado que no puede informar si el Papa Benedicto XVI tomó alguna decisión y lamentó no poder hacer comentarios sobre el tema. Los sábados, el Papá trata temas relacionados a los obispos.

Otras fuentes consultadas consideran muy remoto que el Papa resuelva tan rápidamente esta situación, ya que deberá analizar la carta que Barboza le envió y escuchar la posición de la Congregación de Obispos que lo asesora.

[summary]

The Catholic Church is awaiting the decision of the Pope on Bishop Francisco Barboza, who was photographed in sexual acts with two individuals.

Anselmo Pecorari, the Apostolic Nuncio, said Saturday he does not know if Pope Benedict XVI has made a decision and he said he regretted not being able to comment on the situation.

URUGUAY
Catholic News Agency

Montevideo, Uruguay, Jun 29, 2009 / 02:43 pm (CNA).- Church leaders in Uruguay are awaiting a decision from the Holy See on how to proceed with the case of Bishop Francisco Barbosa da Silveira of Minas, who has been accused by clergy in his diocese of sexual misconduct.

Sources at the Uruguayan Bishops’ Conference confirmed that the bishops do not have the authority to take the necessary measures in the case of Bishop Barbosa, who has been denounced for having homosexual relations by some clergy in his diocese. The case of Bishop Barbosa must be dealt with by the Holy See.

The newspaper El Pais reported the bishop requested a police investigation saying he was the victim of extortion. Two adult men with criminal backgrounds were charged and sentenced to prison.

NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC

[audio presentation]

The Rev. Robert M. Hoatson, a priest of the of Newark, N.J., diocese, discusses his advisory role in the making of a film Beyond the Fire which is about clergy sexual abuse, faith, redemption and some very dark secrets. Maeve Murphy, who is also interviewed, is writer and director of the film. Father Hoatson, who advocates for clergy abuse survivors, is also a survivor of clergy abuse.

NEW YORK
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

by Ryan Thompson (court@brooklyneagle.net), published online 06-25-2009

JAY STREET — A Bar Mitzvah tutor was convicted Wednesday of seven counts of sexual abuse in the second degree and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, for sexually abusing two boys, the Brooklyn District Attorney announced.

Yona Weinberg, a 31-year-old social worker from Flatbush, was originally charged with sexually abusing four male students. The indictment had charged Weinberg with course of sexual conduct against a child in the second degree, nine counts of sexual abuse in the second degree, attempted sexual abuse in the second degree, and six counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

The alleged victims, who were 12, 13 and 14 years old, were Weinberg’s students at the Khal Beth Abraham synagogue, where Weinberg gave Bar Mitzvah lessons. At least one victim was Weinberg’s client at the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, where Weinberg was a social worker.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Grainne Cunningham and Kathryn Hayes

Monday June 29 2009

ARCHBISHOP Diarmuid Martin has publicly conceded "the legacy of scandals" has seriously damaged the image and credibility of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

The archbishop spoke of the need for renewal as he launched the beginning of the Year of Evangelisation over a weekend which saw the ordination of four new priests.

Speaking at a special service in the Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, on Saturday, Archbishop Martin said: "The difficult times we are living through and experiencing do not excuse us from the task of preaching the Gospel, in season and out."

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Anne-Marie Walsh

Monday June 29 2009

POPE Benedict XVI is not entirely welcome here in the wake of the damning Ryan report, a survey found.

More than half of people surveyed do not want a second papal visit following the revelations in the report on child abuse.

An online survey by radio station Newstalk, in which 1,108 people took part, shows the scenes that greeted the late Pope John Paul II during the first papal visit 30 years ago are unlikely to be recreated. ...

"Until he condemns what happened and pays compensation for his vile colleagues' actions, and helps this country prosecute them by handing over all documents in relation to abuse issues and the movement of priests, then he shouldn't be allowed set foot in this country," said one of the interviewees.

IRELAND
Eureka Street (Australia)

Shane Wood June 29, 2009

During recent weeks, there has been much publicity in the media in Ireland and in Australia regarding the release of a report commissioned by the Irish Government into past widespread abuse of children. The body making the report is The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. It was set up in 2000 by the Irish Government and began its work while I was in Ireland for twelve months study.

The Commission had three primary functions:

•to hear evidence of abuse from persons who allege they suffered abuse in childhood, in institutions, during the period from 1940 or earlier, to the present day;
•to conduct an inquiry into abuse of children in institutions during that period and, where satisfied that abuse occurred, to determine the causes, nature, circumstances and extent of such abuse; and
•to prepare and publish reports on the results of the inquiry and on its recommendations in relation to dealing with the effects of such abuse.

DELAWARE
The News Journal

By BETH MILLER • The News Journal • June 29, 2009

The two-year window of Delaware's 2007 Child Victim's Act is about to close, putting an end to a steady stream of civil lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse that dates to the 1950s and reaches to churches, schools and private homes.

The 2007 law eliminated the civil statute of limitations in such cases and opened the two-year period during which cases previously barred by the time limit could be filed.

More than 140 cases had been filed as of Friday, attorneys said, and lawmakers last week unanimously approved legislation to clarify that the deadline for the cases should be July 9 -- marking exactly two years since Gov. Ruth Ann Minner signed the act into law. Some judges and attorneys previously thought the window closes Tuesday, the last day of the fiscal year.

MAINE
Examiner

Kevin Masterson
LA Religion & Spirituality Examiner

The other day I spoke at length with Paul Kendrick to get an update on the Diocese of Portland, Maine. It appears to be business as usual since we last spoke, which is no surprise as the Catholic Church is a dinosaur, resistant to any change.

Paul recently signed up & paid $900 for a two week course called Disciples in Mission, that the Bishop is teaching at St. Joseph’s College in Maine. Several weeks later, Paul was notified by school officials that the school was establishing a separate section of the class for Paul with a different instructor to be held off campus. Paul would be the only student in that class. The reason given was that Paul couldn’t be in the same building as the Bishop & he was forbidden from being on the main campus, including the library, during the two weeks that the Bishop is teaching at St. Joseph’s.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Caroline O’Doherty

Monday, June 29, 2009

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese has told survivors of abuse in Catholic institutions that the people of Ireland are with them as they strive to recover from the horrors of their stolen childhoods.

Mrs McAleese said the public were desperately sorry for the suffering caused to the survivors as children, not just by the abuse itself but by the failure of society to listen to them, to believe them and to act to protect them.

"In their name I offer every one here, and all those whose little lives were robbed of the joys of childhood, our heartfelt sorrow," she told a group of 280 survivors at a special reception at Áras an Uachtaráin.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Monday, 29 June 2009

Victims of child abuse wept last night after President Mary McAleese apologised for their suffering on behalf of the people of Ireland.

For many of them, now in old age, it was the first time they shed such tears of joy.

Over 280 victims of institutional abuse travelled from home and abroad to Aras an Uachtarain yesterday at the president’s invitation.

They had very different stories but they were all expressing joy and relief as they left last night.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

IT WAS “one brilliant day, 110 per cent” said Michael O’Brien, former mayor of Clonmel and one-time resident at Ferryhouse industrial school near the town. “I feel a free man now . . . The President did us and the people of Ireland proud today,” he said.

“It was a day of happiness, and a day of love and a day of deep sadness,” said Christine Buckley of the Aislinn centre in Dublin and former resident of the Goldenbridge orphanage in that city. “It took us 25 years to be believed and to be at Áras an Uachtaráin . . . the overall picture was one of great happiness,” she said.

“It was a very moving day for all concerned, a momentous, historic day, and I don’t use that talk lightly,” said John Kelly of Soca Ireland, former resident at Daingean reformatory in Co Offaly and former resident in the UK for 33 years. “I feel Irish for the first time . . . it’s a great feeling.”

UNITED STATES
Priest Abuse and Clergy Sexual Abuse Information

More area women are going to court on charges related to child sex crimes. Up until recently, female predators were rarely seen in courtrooms, but now the Randall County District Attorney James Farren says between 15 and 20 percent of his child sex cases have female defendants.

He says the majority of female predators have stable careers in business, teaching, or as a homemaker.

NEW YORK
Catholic Courier

By Amy Kotlarz/Catholic Courier

The state Assembly adjourned its 2008-09 session June 23 without voting on a bill that would temporarily suspend the state's current civil statute of limitations on filing child sex-abuse lawsuits against public and private institutions.

The Child Victims Act of New York (A2596a) would, for a period of one year, give alleged victims until their 53rd birthdays (35 years after turning 18) to file previously time-barred civil claims. The bill also would allow child sexual-abuse victims to file future civil suits until they are 28. Under current state law, they can file such suits until they are 23.

The proposal, sponsored by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Queens), recently was amended to allow time-barred suits to be filed against public institutions as well as private ones. This change prompted such groups as the New York Conference of Mayors and the New York State School Boards Association to join the New York State Catholic Conference in opposing the bill.

IRELAND
Áras an Uachtaráin

Dia dhíbh go léir, agus céad míle fáilte romhaibh chuig Áras an Uachtaráin. Good afternoon everyone, and on behalf of Martin and myself, let me offer each one of you a warm, heartfelt welcome to Áras an Uachtaráin.

There are moments in a life when words simply fail as a means of expression. No amount of them, no matter how heartfelt, can seem adequate to the moment. The publication of the Ryan Report was one such moment in the life of this nation. The horrible lives endured by thousands of our children, over so many years, as a result of abuse inflicted by those who cared for them in the name of the State and often in the name of the Christian gospel, were laid out graphically in that Report. It calls for responses at many levels official and unofficial and I know that many of you are actively involved in discussions on those responses. There is an important human response to overwhelming grief and that is to gather as community, to rally around one another and simply be together in solidarity.

The invitation to Aras an Uachtaráin today is an expression of the massive public wish to let you know how deeply your stories have struck a chord. For so long your suffering seemed to make strangers of you in your own land. Today, we simply seek to be family to each other, to assert our common care for one another and to acknowledge that what was done to those of you who are survivors of abuse in institutional care, not only damaged your precious lives but diminished our society. Those who switched off the light of love and hope in your lives, plunged our country into a terrible darkness. I know that one day in the Phoenix Park cannot hope to restore to your lives all the things that were taken from you. There is no magic potion to put right the things that were made so deliberately to go wrong. Nor is it possible in one event to reach out to everyone affected. I hope this day, though, does send a message that your lives and the lives of all those damaged by such abuse are our care and that most important of all we stand together in our determination to ensure that our country will honour the ambition set out in the Proclamation in 1916 to be a Republic which cherishes its children equally. Your experiences are monuments to our failure to cherish our children. Our most precious monument to you has to be our determination to be that Republic where children are cherished equally not just in lofty words but in everyday deeds.

KENYA
The Standard

By Maseme Machuka

John Cardinal Njue assured Catholic faithful of their need to "fight on" despite the latest sex scandals facing the church.

Njue said the Catholic Church had not forced anyone into priesthood and whoever "wanted to opt out of that call (priesthood) was free to do so. What we do not want is when someone wants to drag others into quitting when you have realised as a priest you no longer can manage the call".

He said: "Worshippers do not be disturbed at that. Hold on to your faith. The Catholic Church has never forced anyone to be a priest. It only dictates that if you want to be one you have to subscribe to the principle of celibacy."

PENNSYLVANIA
The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania

On Monday, June 22, the Church Attorney filed, under seal, the Church’s opposition to Bishop Bennison’s motion for a new trial. Bishop Bennison’s reply, if any, is due on Monday, June 29. The Court has not yet indicated whether it will hold a hearing on the motion. If such a hearing is granted, it would likely occur in August or September, and would probably be conducted by telephone conference—with the media and the public excluded.

IRELAND
European Irish

Written by Editor
President McAleese has hosted a reception at Áras an Uachtaráin this afternoon to recognise the suffering and bravery of those who have experienced abuse, as children, in state institutions.

Approximately 280 guests attended the event, representing survivor groups including Aislinn, Alliance Victim Support Group, Irish SOCA, Irish Women Survivors Support Group, Justice and Healing for Institutional Abuse, Right of Peace Group, Right of Place and SOCA UK .

The event featured performances by Paddy Moloney and friends, Mary Black, Phil Coulter, Riverdance and the Band of the 1 Southern Brigade.

IRELAND
Lurgan Mail

Published Date: 28 June 2009
Those who abused children in church-run institutions diminished our society and plunged the country into a terrible darkness, President Mary McAleese has said.

Almost 300 victims visited Aras An Uachtarain where Ms McAleese said their experiences had highlighted the state's failure to cherish all its children. High-profile acts including Phil Coulter, Mary Black and a Riverdance troupe performed during the function, hosted to recognise the suffering and bravery of the survivors.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

President Mary McAleese met survivors of institutional abuse at Áras an Uachtaráin today.

Almost 300 victims visited Áras An Uachtaráin where Ms McAleese said their experiences had highlighted the State’s failure to cherish all its children.

Those who abused children in church-run institutions diminished our society and plunged the country into a terrible darkness, Mrs McAleese said.

The President said: “For so long your suffering seemed to make strangers of you in your own land.

SWEDEN
IceNews

After another wave of sex scandals has hit the institution this year, the Church of Sweden is trying to limit damage and maintain the faith of its flock. The Church has been dealing with a steady flow of publicised sexual incidents for a number of years, and things have yet to cool down.

Archbishop Anders Wejryd told the TT news agency he regrets the incidents, but to his credit insists that transparency is the best way to deal with the ongoing problem. “It is tragic, but I think that we have been successful in our ambition to get people to file reports,” he said.

In April, branches of the Church in Stockholm, Lund and Vaxjo had to deal with several incidents related to sex such as a priest who has having an inappropriate relationship with a 15 year-old, a priest who slept with a grieving widow, and a third who was caught abusing women with language on an Internet dating site.

FLORIDA
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

By James D. Davis | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
June 28, 2009

The Rev. Bob Deshaies never dated while growing up in Waterbury, Conn. He went to a Catholic high school seminary, then a Catholic college, then a major seminary. "You'd be giving up your ministry for a cheap piece of fluff," his spiritual director told him.

Then he met Deborah Cabral, a youth worker at a parish in Worcester, Mass. He got to know her first as a co-worker, then as a friend, then as a girlfriend. That meeting in 1985, and the relationship that followed, led into marriage, then out of the Catholic priesthood and into the Episcopal Church within two years, preceding Alberto Cutié by two decades.

"When you meet a woman who opens up your heart and soul, it's mind-shattering," says Deshaies, now rector at St. Benedict's Episcopal Church in Plantation. "It got me to rethink everything."

IRELAND
Edmund Rice Network

In amongst the myriad of words spoken and written following the publication of the Ryan Report in Ireland, in amongst all the hurts, grievances, angers flowing from aggrieved people, in amongst the stories and memories being recalled, the story of Fr Flanagan, the visionary and legendary founder of Boys Towns in USA, offers us a sobering challenge.

In 1946, Fr Flanagan returned to his birthplace and also visited the "so-called training schools", in effect the borstals or reformatories, to see if they were "a success or failure."

Although he was treated as a celebrity, he made it clear he was unhappy with what he found in Ireland. He was dismayed at the state of Ireland's reform schools and blasted them as "a scandal, un-Christlike, and wrong."

Speaking to a large audience in Cork, he said, "You are the people who permit your children and the children of your communities to go into these institutions of punishment. You can do something about it." He called Ireland's penal institutions "a disgrace to the nation," and later said "I do not believe that a child can be reformed by lock and key and bars, or that fear can ever develop a child's character."

IRELAND
The Irish Times

President McAleese is to meet with survivors of institutional abuse at Áras an Uachtaráin today.

The President will meet with some 300 survivors at this afternoon's meeting.

Speaking at a rally in Dublin earlier this month, John Kelly, Survivors of Child Abuse in Ireland, said: “This will have great significance because you were denied your constitutional rights as a child, you were valued as a child, the constitution didn’t mean anything,” he said.

IRELAND
RTE News

Sunday, 28 June 2009 09:28
Survivors of institutional abuse are due to meet President Mary McAleese today.

Organisers say the meeting will be a step in the right direction in their fight for justice.

Around 300 people are expected to attend the meeting, which is taking place at Áras an Uachtaráin at 2.30pm this afternoon.

CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: Brenda Suderman

His days as the spiritual leader of the city's Italian Catholics begin early and usually end late, but Rev. Sam Argenziano isn't complaining about the heavy demands of the priesthood.

"There are high points every day," he says about leading the flock at Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church on River Avenue. "Just being with my parishioners, celebrating life with them, celebrating their weddings, their children, their 50th wedding anniversaries." ...

Part of that reflection is acknowledging the hurt caused by sexual abuse by members of the priesthood, says Weisgerber, and how that has affected the Catholic Church. Priests are now trained differently, schooled in protocols to avoid potential abuse, he says.

"There's no question that the sexual abuse scandals really lowered the reputation of the priests," he admits.

NEW YORK
The New York Times

By Michele Madigan Somerville

About a decade ago, moved by a convergence of my longstanding fascination with religion and a time of great personal loss, I embarked on a search for a church and wound up a born-again Catholic. It was not a straight or untroubled path, guided as it was by both my attraction to and enmity for the Roman Catholic Church into which I was born and baptized.

Growing up Irish Catholic in New York City put me in a good position to experience the best and worst of the Church. Most of the Sisters of Charity who taught at my grade school were tyrants. In 1971 I knocked on the door of my parish rectory to inquire about becoming an altar server; I was advised that only boys could serve. Brides, said the priest, were the only females allowed on the altar. When my mother became critically ill at age 30, a Catholic priest administering last rites, refused to offer absolution when she, who had given birth to four children by age 25, refused to express contrition for taking birth control pills. People for whom I care deeply have been molested by priests. ...

I love the radical Catholic Church. I love that there are Roman Catholic bishops sticking their necks out to ordain women. That Catholic doctrine places mighty emphasis on the role of conscience in worship and creates fertile ground for conscientious dissent. I support dramatic change as energetically as I can. I withhold my cash from the bishops and hand my diocesan appeal tender to the Woman’s Ordination Conference and to SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). I devote much time and talent to working in the Gay Ministry at my church. I recognize it is my obligation as a conscious, conscientious Catholic to discern — to know that the church no more belongs to the Vatican than it does to me. The power of the Church may rest with the College of Cardinals, but its glory rests with people like me.

WESTLAKE (OH)
Fox 8

Kevin Freeman Fox 8 News
WESTLAKE, Ohio -- A local priest is in legal trouble after he's accused of exposing himself while driving on a local highway.

Rev. Donald Snyder, 63, is charged with one count of indecent exposure. Rev. Snyder is a priest at St. Ladislas Church in Westlake.

According to a Westlake police report, a truck driver called 911 after seeing Snyder exposing himself while driving next to him on Interstate 90 in Rocky River.

KENYA
The Standard

By Osinde Obare and Vincent Bartoo

Fr Godfrey Siundu, Kenya’s first head of the Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ (ECCC), a splinter group from the Roman Catholic Church, has been called a rebel without a cause.

The 38-year-old opened a can of worms when he broke the mandatory celibacy rule and impregnated Ms Stella Nangila, then a nun at Mon Parish in Marakwet.

In May, 2006, they wedded in Kitale.

As a Catholic Father, he was bound by the celibacy creed of the church but felt otherwise. "I was living a double life, but now my conscience is clear," says Siundu.

The Standard (Kenya)

By Oscar Obonyo

It appears as if there are no devils in Hell — they are all in the Church.

And deviant sex has nearly everything to do with it — child sex molestation, sodomy and pornography. Allegations of child sexual molestation against a priest, prosecution of a preacher over pornography, and priests and nuns’ confessions of adultery and breaking of celibacy vows have awakened the country to the realisation the standing of the Church is in a shambles.

It is becoming clear that some priests prey on children with abandon. They engage in sex escapades that are the province of the brothel and the biblical Sodom and Gomorrah.

MINNESOTA
YouTube

[video presentation]

This is a press conference on the filing of a lawsuit in Minnesota involving Brother Charles Anthony "Raimond" Rose, the Christian Brothers and a St. Paul high school.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A former Milwaukee priest, excommunicated and listed by the Milwaukee Archdiocese as a likely sex offender, has been consecrated as a bishop in the American Apostolic Church, a socially liberal breakaway denomination with ministries in Illinois, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

Bishop S. Joseph Collova was consecrated in a ceremony last weekend. He and the American Apostolic Church have denied allegations that he repeatedly sexually assaulted a young man for seven years beginning in 1980 when he was 14. They say efforts to get the Milwaukee Archdiocese to release his complete personnel file have been unsuccessful.

UNITED STATES
This Little Light

Reverend Thomas Doyle is the whistle-blower priest and former Vatican canon lawyer who, twenty-five years ago, warned Catholic bishops about the looming clergy sex abuse nightmare. They ignored him, but Doyle’s prophetic words proved to be tragically true.

Here is what Reverend Doyle said about "This Little Light."

This book should rightly make any honest Christian furious. The smooth-talking, Bible-quoting, God-invoking perpetrator is disgusting enough but the real anger surges forward as one reads page after page of the twisted, lie-filled and hypocritical response of the Southern Baptist bureaucracy. “Praise the Lord and be saved” suddenly means nothing as the self-righteous, self-appointed guardians of God’s authentic words reveal the shallowness of their understanding of the scriptures they endlessly quote and of the mission of the Lord they claim to follow.

Christa Brown is a lawyer who has survived the nonsensical brainwashing inflicted by her church. She has survived the sexual molestation and devastating abuse by the duplicitous pastor who used her naive faith to molest her. Most important, she survived every attempt by the mighty Southern Baptist Convention to shut her down. She has become what her church could never be, a true presence of Christian justice and compassion.

Christa’s vivid story is much more than a narrative about sexual exploitation by a minister. It is about yet another main-line denomination that continually used the words and mission of Christ for its own self-serving ends, but has never had the courage or even the spiritual ability to do the challenging word of Christ.

SWAZILAND
Weekend Observer

By Fanyana Mabuza

Silence can be golden, but at times silence can mean consent and it is for this reason that the Swaziland Conference of Churches is calling for a press conference slated for Monday, where they want to put into perspective the issue of a prominent Manzini pastor who is allegedly entangled in a love triangle that involves another man’s wife.

The Conference of Churches, in a statement, explained that the press conference would not be a witch hunt, but was aimed at correcting some perceptions that may have been created in the minds of many people after they read the story that was carried by this publication last weekend.

Of utmost importance, is their wish to allay fears that were created, when this publication, due to ethical constraints, could not disclose the name of the pastor nor the church, save to say that he was prominent and from Manzini.

CALIFORNIA
KHTS

Written by Carol Rock
Friday, 26 June 2009 14:00

A few dozen deputies went door-knocking Friday morning around the valley to make sure sex offenders were playing by the rules.

Calling out the offenders' names and listening carefully as they knocked, deputies drew a curious neighbor or two if their summons went unanswered. Those registrants that answered the door were cooperative, used to the drill of bringing deputies up to speed on their activities.

Teams spread out to drop in on those offenders who listed their residence in the Santa Clarita Valley to make sure they were in compliance with the terms of their release. According to Lt. Steve Low, who heads the SCV Detective Bureau, the deputies were visiting 200 locations.

TROY (OH)
Dayton Daily News

By Nancy Bowman, Staff Writer

TROY — A charge of rape and four counts of gross sexual imposition against a youth leader and director of children’s church at Vandalia Baptist Temple were dismissed Thursday, June 25, but Shawn P. Rickert remains jailed on four additional gross sexual imposition charges.

Refiling of the charges dismissed against Rickert, 38, who lives near Tipp City, will be sought through a Miami County grand jury, sheriff’s Detective Dave Norman said.

The charges were dismissed in county Municipal Court because the alleged victim, now age 10, was not available at court Thursday to testify regarding specific allegations.

UNITED STATES
The Catholic Spirit

By Catholic News Service
Friday, 26 June 2009
The church's great communications challenge today is to "keep the interest of people who have so many places to turn," Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., told the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., addresses the annual meeting of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management in Philadelphia June 25. - CNS photo/Robert Lisak, courtesy of National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management Bishop Kicanas, vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, addressed the organization's annual meeting June 25 in Philadelphia. ...

Bishop Kicanas accented the importance of trust for effective communications. The church's sexual abuse crisis "harmed far too many, but also damaged the church's ability to communicate," he said. Some judged the church hypocritical, "more concerned about its reputation than about children who were harmed. Some stopped listening."

Thus, restoring trust became his goal in Tucson, "as it has for so many bishops in their dioceses," he said.

IOWA
Des Moines Register

DAVE SPENCER is a former sex offender, convicted of third-degree sexual abuse, and was discharged from prison in 2004. Contact: curedes10@yahoo.com • June 27, 2009

Iowans concerned about family safety should read this carefully. The Iowa General Assembly passed a bill this spring, SF 340, that keeps registered sex offenders out of schools, libraries and swimming pools and keeps the "worst offenders" subject to the prohibition against living within 2,000 feet of a school or child-care center.

Will this protect your children better than the old law? Gov. Chet Culver signed the bill into law because he says these measures will make Iowa safer and law enforcement's job more effective. Concerned citizens should consider three points of reality both the governor and General Assembly seem to have ignored in their rush to impress you on TV.

First, this new law (as it presumes better public safety) is still predicated on the same old clinically and factually disproven myths. One is that sex offenders always reoffend. This is false, as proven by a federal study using 2004 data for Iowa that shows about 3 percent of registered sex offenders reoffend sexually, even though about 45 percent have or will commit other general crimes. The national statistic for general criminal recidivism is 68 percent. Many general criminal offenders have several convictions for similar crimes, but the average sex offender has about 1.5 sex-offense convictions, according to federal statistics and a state report.

ELKHORN (WI)
Janesville Gazette

By PEDRO OLIVEIRA JR. Friday, June 26, 2009

ELKHORN — A former youth pastor was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison on charges of sexually assaulting a child in the mid-1970s.

Russell J. Lesser, 64, of Bryson City, N.C., pleaded guilty April 14 to a felony charge of sexual intercourse with a child younger than 16. Two others charges were dismissed but read in.

During his sentencing Thursday, Lesser asked for the court’s mercy and apologized to victim Laurie Asplund.

CALIFORNIA
San Jose Mercury News

By John Simerman
Contra Costa Times

A former religion teacher at De La Salle High School in Concord who was accused of sexually abusing a student on a ski trip to Lake Tahoe in 1982, resulting in a seven-figure payout, is the subject of a flurry of new lawsuits in Minnesota alleging similar crimes before he came to California.

Among at least three lawsuits involving Brother Charles Anthony "Raimond" Rose are two alleging fraud — a recent legal strategy used by victims of childhood sexual abuse to overcome lapsed statutes of limitations on personal injury claims. The latest, filed Thursday, accuses the Christian Brothers order in Minnesota and a St. Paul high school with knowing Rose had a history of sexual abuse when, the lawsuit claims, he sexually abused a teen boy at a retreat house in 1973 or 1974.

Two other lawsuits accuse Rose of sexually abusing students in 1966 and 1970 at the same school and another in Minneapolis. From 1963 to 1994, Rose taught in Minnesota, North Dakota and New York. He taught at De La Salle for two years in the early 1980s, said Bob Schwiderski, Minnesota director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a national advocacy group.

MIAMI (FL)
Miami New Times

By Kyle Munzenrieder in News

Friday, Jun. 26 2009 @ 4:22PM

The day when former-Catholic Priest Alberto Cutié and Ruhama Canellis were legally wed wasn't good timing, as we reported an alleged ex-paramore of Canellis's was arrested under shady circumstances and was suiting the couple.

Well, The Herald is reporting that the two will have their church ceremony tonight, and considering public interest is else where at the moment, to say the least, the timing couldn't be better.

MARYLAND
Baltimore Sun

By Brent Jones | brent.jones@baltsun.com

4:23 PM EDT, June 26, 2009

A Baltimore County man in his 40s is suing the Archdiocese of Baltimore for an undisclosed amount of money, alleging negligence by the Roman Catholic Church after what he claims were years of sexual molestation by one of its priests.

The lawsuit, filed in Delaware, alleges that Rev. Michael L. Barnes, a co-defendant in the suit, abused the plaintiff while he was a minor at the St. Clare School in the 700 block of Myrth Ave. in Essex. The school and St. Clare Roman Catholic Church are also co-defendants in the case. Court papers say the church was aware of Barnes' history, which included several other molestation claims.

The abuse began in 1977, when the victim was 12 years old, and lasted for five years, according to the lawsuit. Court papers say much of the molestation occurred in Rehoboth Beach, Del., and Fenwick Island, Del.

OREGON
Salem News

Tim King Salem-News.com
After clearing the House, House Bill 2827 will go to Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski to be signed into law.

(SALEM, Ore.) - A bill that would raise the age of sex abuse victims in Oregon from 24 to 40 will likely become law. The future of House Bill 2827 appeared bleak when we wrote about it May 28th 2009. (see: Will Oregon Stand for Sex Abuse Victims? - Tim King Salem-News.com

Many of the cases originate from churches in Oregon and experts like Portland Attorney Kelly Clark, say it often takes several decades for a person to comprehend the magnitude of their experience and come forward.

Bill Crane from the group SNAP, (Survivors Network of people Abused by Priests) says it is a good day in Oregon and while cautious, he agrees that it is good news on a day that could use it.

MIAMI (FL)
Miami New Times

By Kyle Munzenrieder in Media Watch, News

Friday, Jun. 26 2009 @ 12:22PM

This week TVyNovelas blasted accusations that Father Alberto Cutié was gay on their cover this week (we think they're just desperately trying to play catch up with TvNotas, who broke the scandal in the first place). A former Radio Paz co-worker, Jose Linares, of Cutié claims he walked in on the Priest with a special friend named Leonardo, a slightly younger, chubby Colombian man, while the two were noticeably pants-less.

Well, unsurprisingly the accusations have been met with denials all around.

KENYA
allAfrica

Catholic Information Service for Africa

The former Catholic archbishop of Lusaka, Zambia, Emmanuel Milingo on Tuesday consecrated a bishop and ordained seven deacons to his Married Priests Now! movement in a private ceremony in Nairobi.

It was not clear why the ceremony was held secretly, although some reports indicate efforts were made to stop Archbishop Milingo from entering Kenya.

He consecrated Fr Daniel Kasomo as a bishop to head the movement's activities in the country. The new bishop said the movement will cater for priests who have married but still want to continue serving as priests. Bishop Kasomo has been living with his wife Maryanne for 20 years.

VATICAN CITY
adnkronos

Vatican City, 25 June (AKI) - The Vatican is beset by a number of internal conflicts that risk paralysing the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI, according to a report in the Italian magazine Panorama. The weekly magazine, due to be published on Friday, says several cardinals in senior positions are divided over issues including dialogue with China, relations with the Jews and the beatification of former pope John Paul II.

Inside the Vatican, the head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Levada, is reported to be in conflict with the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Antonio Canizares.

Former secretary of state Angelo Sodano and former personal secretary of Pope John Paul II, Stanislao Dziwisz, are also reported to be "duelling", while another cardinal Achille Silvestrini is accused of challenging the power of the Vatican's influential secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone.

IRELAND
Religious Intelligence

By: George Conger.

The Church of Ireland’s Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross has condemned the moves by pressure groups to use the findings of the Ryan Report on child abuse in Roman Catholic-run institutions to advance their own special interests and political campaigns.

In the first public statement on the Ryan Report by an Anglican cleric in Ireland, Bishop Paul Bolton told his diocesan synod the needs of the victims of abuse should take precedence. “They must be the centre of all our concerns and efforts,” he said on June 13.

The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA), also known as the Ryan Report after the commission’s chair Justice Seán Ryan, examined the extent and effect of child abuse after 1936 in Reformatory and Industrial Schools operated by Roman Catholic religious orders and funded and supervised by the Irish Department of Education.

DELAWARE
WDEL

[with audio]

A Delaware woman is suing the Diocese of Wilmington, Saint Mark's High School and a priest who fromerly taught there, claiming she was abused when she was a student.

The suit filed Thursday in Superior Court says Father Charles Wiggins abused the plaintiff, referred to as Jane Doe, beginning in 1986, and the Diocese and then-Saint Mark's principal Ron Russo didn't report the crimes.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THE CATHOLIC primate Cardinal Seán Brady, the Archbishop of Dublin Most Rev Diarmuid Martin and other bishops have been severely criticised for their actions and statements, where religious congregations were concerned, following publication of the Ryan report.

It has also been claimed that at least three victims of abuse have died by suicide since publication of the report.

Fr Tony Flannery, a Redemptorist priest, has revealed that many members of the congregations feel “terrified”, “ashamed”, “hurt” and “betrayed”, not only because of the actions of the guilty among their own colleagues, but also because of the actions and public statements of the archbishop and other members of the hierarchy who, he said, have led the public criticism of members of Ireland’s religious congregations.

AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

June 26, 2009 03:58pm
HE has dedicated his life to the Catholic church.

For years he was a member of the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board and his work with HIV and AIDS sufferers in Sydney earned him a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 1994.

But this week, Father Hugh Edward Murray, 79, was charged with five counts of indecently assaulting males.

Suffering heart disease and too sick to face the charges in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court yesterday), a solicitor for Murray said he "vehemently'' denied the allegations that he said stemmed from a "police trawl''.

UGANDA
allAfrica

The New Vision

Steven Candia
25 June 2009

Kampala — Pastor Bob Kayiira of Omega Healing Centre was on Tuesday questioned by the Police for the second time in connection with an ongoing sodomy probe that has hit the born again Church.

Several pastors have been interrogated in the probe, following their allegations that Pastor Robert Kayanja of Kampala Miracle Centre sodomised six boys.

Kayiira, who was interrogated last month arrived at the Kampala Central Police Station at 11:00am.

UNITED STATES
USA Today

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who survived a tumultuous decade in the post, had a message today for another major global institution under constant pressure and criticism -- the Catholic Church.

Go forward, "unafraid, or if afraid, undaunted" and do the work of the Catholic Church, "to demonstrate God's love and compassion and to be in the service of others. That what this church is about at its best. Always has been and always will be."

But does battle-tested Blair have advice on how the U.S church could deal with, say, restructuring/shrinking parishes, overburdened priests rushing from Mass to Mass? What about potential blow-back from the deeply troubling report on decades of clergy sexual abuse of minors in Irish Catholic institutions? Or the sharp dissonance between the Church and Catholic politicians who don't follow its doctrine in their votes?

ST. PAUL (MN)
Star-Tribune

By ABBY SIMONS, Star Tribune

Last update: June 25, 2009 - 11:56 PM
Featured comment

A retired Roman Catholic brother already accused of sexually abusing two students years ago at Twin Cities parochial schools and a third in California was sued again Thursday by a fourth alleged victim who attended St. Paul's Cretin High School in the 1960s.

The former student, identified in court papers as John Doe 129, accuses Brother Charles Anthony (Raimond) Rose of abusing him in 1968.

The suit, filed Thursday in Ramsey County District Court, also accuses the Chicago-based Christian Brothers of the Midwest, Christian Brothers of Minnesota and the school, now called Cretin-Derham Hall, of fraud for allowing Rose to teach there two years after he was reported to have sexually abused a student at De La Salle High School in Minneapolis.

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Maricella Miranda
mmiranda@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 06/26/2009 12:29:08 AM CDT

An alleged sexual-abuse victim is suing two Roman Catholic organizations and Cretin-Derham Hall High School claiming they committed fraud by employing a known child molester as a teacher.

The suit, filed Thursday in Ramsey County District Court, claims the Christian Brothers of the Midwest, Christian Brothers of Minnesota and the high school knew in 1966 that Brother Charles Anthony "Raimond" Rose sexually abused a student at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis, where he previously taught.

The plaintiff identified in the suit as "John Doe 129" claims his attack happened seven years after that.

PARAGUAY
Catholic News Agency

Asunción, Paraguay, Jun 25, 2009 / 05:39 pm (CNA).- Bishop Rogelio Livieres of Ciudad del Este in Paraguay exhorted priests this week to overcome the “filth” of scandals, which arise from bad doctrine, sinful lives, the abandonment of the faithful to sects and economic corruption.

Over the last year, Paraguyans have witnessed former bishop Fernando Lugo abandon his commitment to his diocese and vocation. Lugo then became the country's president, only to later have it revealed that he fathered at least one child while he was a bishop.

Bishop Livieres addressed these types of behavoir in a letter to mark the Year for Priests, saying the “filth” of some priests that has led to scandals. In the letter, the bishop also called on priests to “not lose sight of the transcendental vocation they have been called to by Jesus Christ.”

UNITED KINGDOM
Newbury Today

A RETIRED priest, jailed for sexually abusing young girls over a 25-year period, is back in Newbury and editing his order’s national newsletter.

Father Patrick McDonagh was handed a four-year jail term in December 2007.
However, the judge suspended all but 18 months of the sentence after a colleague of the priest said he would be under “strict instructions” to undergo therapy and have no contact with children.

On Wednesday a spokesman for the Salvatorian order said that this amounted to Father Patrick making regular telephone calls to a superior in Bristol and informal monitoring by retired colleagues.

AUSTRALIA
Cowra Community News

A CATHOLIC priest charged with indecently assaulting boys from Bathurst’s St Stanilaus College has heart problems and is too ill to face court, a Sydney court heard yesterday (Thursday).

Hugh Edward Murray, 79, of Marsfield, was arrested and charged on Tuesday with five counts of indecently assaulting three students of the boarding school.

Murray was excused from attending Downing Centre Local Court on August 20 when the adjourned matter again comes before the court.

Meanwhile, alleged victims of sex abuse at the college say they are angry the school is hosting the ordination of a new bishop for the region today (Friday) while police investigations are still underway.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Bronwyn Herbert for AM

Alleged victims of sex abuse at a Catholic boy's college say they are angry the school is hosting a major religious ceremony while police investigations are still underway.

A police strike force team is investigating old cases of abuse dating back to the 1960s at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst in central western New South Wales.

But today more than 1,000 guests, including Archbishop Cardinal George Pell, will gather at the school for the ordination of a new bishop for the region.

NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

The NY Jewish Week's coverage of haredi child sexual abuse wins first place in the Jewish Press Association's Rockower Awards.

I'm told A charge of Double Betrayal In Williamsburg by Hella Winston has won first place.

Mazel Tov to Hella whose coverage of this issue is truly groundbreaking.

IRELAND
On Line Opinion (Australia)

During recent weeks, there has been much publicity in the media in Ireland and in Australia regarding the release of a report commissioned by the Irish Government into past widespread abuse of children. The body making the report is The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. It was set up in 2000 by the Irish Government and began its work while I was in Ireland for 12 months’ study. The Commission had three primary functions:

•to hear evidence of abuse from persons who allege they suffered abuse in childhood, in institutions, during the period from 1940 or earlier, to the present day;
•to conduct an inquiry into abuse of children in institutions during that period and, where satisfied that abuse occurred, to determine the causes, nature, circumstances and extent of such abuse; and
•to prepare and publish reports on the results of the inquiry and on its recommendations in relation to dealing with the effects of such abuse.

KENYA
allAfrica

Daily Nation

Lucy Oriang'
25 June 2009

Nairobi — MANY YEARS AGO, AS A student in Zambia, I happened to meet Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo during an assignment to cover one of his returns to the country after spending time at the Vatican.

For days on end, I tagged along after the priest, who was operating under a veil of suspicion over his faith healing. He struck me as a pretty charismatic person, albeit a misunderstood one.

He has since transformed himself into a rebel without a cause. In his transition from icon to iconoclast, he has gone out on a limb, ordaining married men into so-called Catholic priesthood in the same breath as he is declaring that he and his cohorts will not quit the church.

CINCINNATI (OH)
WLWT

CINCINNATI -- A Cincinnati priest accused of molesting dozens of boys died earlier this month in Tennessee.

David Kelley had worked for decades at area parishes, schools and hospitals before he was suspended from the priesthood in 2003.

Church officials have said they first got reports of Kelley's suspected abuse in 1994, but a victims advocacy group said a fellow priest reported Kelley's activities in 1986.

WISCONSIN
Janesville Gazette

By PEDRO OLIVEIRA JR. Thursday, June 25, 2009

A former youth pastor was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday on charges of sexual intercourse with a child younger than 16 in the mid-1970s.

Russell J. Lesser, 64, of Bryson City, N.C., had pleaded guilty April 14 to a felony charge of sexual intercourse with a child younger than 16. Two others charges were dismissed but read in.

The former pastor began his advances during a "trust" game, victim Laurie Asplund said, but then sexually assaulted her more than 40 times from summer 1974 to spring 1976. She was 14 to 16 years old.

KENYA
Daily Nation

By Caroline Wafula Posted Thursday, June 25 2009 at 22:36

A video recording allegedly depicting Catholic priest Renato Kizito in a sexual orgy with young boys was tabled in Parliament on Thursday.

National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende said he will view contents of the video clip to ascertain its authenticity before giving further direction on the matter.

Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale (New Ford Kenya) also tabled a letter from two lawyers who have undertaken to present themselves to the Police Commissioner to own the video clip as evidence of the alleged molestation by the priest.

KENYA
The Standard

By Oscar Obonyo

He has become the face of the movement countering the Catholic Church doctrine on celibacy for priests.

Zambian breakaway archbishop, Emmanuel Milingo is back challenging the strict doctrine of a church that has excommunicated him.

Milingo is now hitting the church where it hurts by enticing other disenchanted clergymen to marry and join his ‘Married Priests Now’ movement.

OHIO
vaticancrimes.us

A support group for clergy sex-abuse victims published a letter Wednesday publicly urging the Diocese of Youngstown to send a second, more emphatic and explicit letter to hundreds of Catholics who attended a school where a now-suspended priest worked.

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation’s oldest and largest support group for clergy-abuse victims.

Earlier this month, the Rev. Thomas Crum admitted sexually abusing a child and was suspended from his pulpit at Our Lady of Peace Church in Canton.

MINNESOTA
Stillwater Gazette

By ANDREW WALLMEYER
awallmeyer@acnpapers.com

A civil suit filed in Ramsey County District Court this morning accuses a Catholic brother of sexually abusing a then-teenaged boy in the early 1970s while the two were staying at Dunrovin Christian Brothers Retreat Center in Marine on St. Croix.

The suit seeks unspecified damages from The Christian Brothers order and Cretin-Derham Hall High School, which the plaintiff's attorneys say facilitated the abuse by allowing an accused pedophile to continue to work with children.

"Knowing that he was a child molester, they still put him in at Cretin and also gave him some responsibilities over at Dunrovin ... where he then had access to kids. Nobody told any parents or kids that this guy had a prior history, and that constitutes fraud," said Patrick Noaker, who filed the suit on behalf of "John Doe 129," a former Cretin student and St. Paul resident who now lives out of state.

CINCINNATI (OH)
Dayton Daily News

By Tom Beyerlein, Staff Writer
3:44 PM Thursday, June 25, 2009
David Kelley, a Roman Catholic priest who was awaiting possible defrocking by the Vatican amid allegations that he sexually abused more than three dozen boys, died of lung cancer at 60 on June 6, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati confirmed Thursday, June 25.

Archdiocese spokesman Dan Andriacco said Kelley, who was on paid leave and wasn’t permitted to present himself as a priest, was living in Tennessee at the time of his death. He said Kelley’s family asked that his burial place not be disclosed. The family arranged a private funeral, Andriacco said.

Christy Miller, who heads the Cincinnati chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said Kelley “was one of the most notorious guys we had” because of the numbers of youth he allegedly abused.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Gay News

Two former Archdiocese of Philadelphia students filed separate suits this month alleging sexual abuse by diocesan priests, while a third suit was filed last week against a current diocesan priest.

Plaintiffs in the first two suits allege that officials with the archdiocese had knowledge of the abuse and did not intervene.

Richard Green, 31, of Pittsgrove Township, N.J., filed suit last week in Delaware Superior Court, alleging that the late Rev. John M. McDevitt Jr. sexually abused him during his freshman year at Father Judge High School in Northeast Philadelphia.

The suit states that Green was struggling in his religion class in 1990 and McDevitt, who taught at Father Judge from 1989-94, kept him after school for private tutoring. Green described in the suit that “getting a bad grade in religion just wasn’t an option,” as he was the nephew of the late Cardinal John O’Connor of New York.

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

By Scott Shifrel
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, June 25th 2009, 4:00 AM

A Bar Mitzvah tutor took the stand to deny molesting teens - but he didn't convince a Brooklyn judge, who convicted him of sexually abusing two victims.

Yona Weinberg, 31, was acquitted of eight other counts, including a felony, but still faces up to two years in prison for the misdemeanors.

Weinberg, a social worker, was found guilty of molesting one boy in his home and a synagogue's ritual bath and the other in a van and a yeshiva stairwell.

CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant

An attorney for New Jersey radio host and blogger Hal Turner said his client was only practicing his right to free speech when he recently used a blog posting to urge people to "take up arms" against two Connecticut legislators and a state ethics official. But it's not so benign as simply a free-speech issue. We're glad that Mr. Turner, described by anti-racism groups as a white supremacist and anti-Semite, was charged in Connecticut with inciting injury to person or property, a felony.

Turner had taken umbrage at a bill introduced earlier this year — and since withdrawn — that would have changed the way the Roman Catholic Church is governed, giving more authority to lay members. The controversy was rekindled recently when state ethics officials decided to investigate whether church officials violated lobbying laws by organizing a rally at the state Capitol to protest the measure.

Earlier this month, the Turner blog included a post that promised to release the home addresses of state Rep. Michael Lawlor and state Sen. Andrew McDonald — sponsors of the withdrawn bill — and Thomas Jones of the State Ethics Office. It went on to say, "It is our intent to foment direct action against these individuals personally. These beastly government officials should be made an example of as a warning to others in government: Obey the Constitution or die."

CINCINNATI (OH)
Cincinnati Enquirer

By Dan Horn • dhorn@enquirer.com • June 25, 2009

A Cincinnati priest accused of abusing almost 30 boys died earlier this month in Tennessee.

David Kelley had worked in parishes, schools and hospitals for three decades in Greater Cincinnati before the sexual abuse accusations prompted lawsuits and his suspension from the priesthood in 2003.

Kelley, 60, died before the Vatican could determine whether he should be permanently removed from the priesthood. Although he had been barred from presiding at Mass or working as a priest, he was permitted to be buried as a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

UNITED STATES
Southern Poverty Law Center

Hal Turner, a neo-Nazi talk radio host known for his threats against public figures, is scheduled to appear in federal court this afternoon on charges of threatening to assault and murder three federal judges.

The arrest comes three weeks after he was taken into custody in New Jersey on charges that he incited violence against two Connecticut legislators. He had been freed on $25,000 bond and wasn’t scheduled to return to court until July. ...

Most recently, he was charged on June 3 with inciting injury to persons or property after he posted a blog entry that encouraged readers to “take up arms” against two Connecticut lawmakers, Sen. Andrew McDonald and Rep. Michael Lawlor. Turner was upset about state legislation that would give more power to the laity in the Roman Catholic Church.

KENYA
Daily Nation

It was a case of mistaken identity. A man who the police thought was American evangelist suspected of possessing pornographic material was arrested as he was preparing to leave the country Thursday morning.

The man suspected to be Mr Thomas Kevin Manton was then detained and interrogated for about 30 minutes.

Mr Francois Daniel, a South African national later laughed off the whole incident terming it as ‘funny’ despite missing his flight to Seychelles.

The police however on realising their mistake apologised for the mix up.

ORANGE COUNTY (CA)
Orange County Weekly

By Gustavo Arellano in Ex Cathedra

If you want to fight for the side of truth and justice, join members of SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests) this Sunday around 8:30 in the morn as they distribute fliers outside Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Church in Huntington Beach. They'll alert parishioners about what Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown never bothered to do: that someone recently filed a lawsuit against admitted pedo-priest Gus Krumm, a Franciscan (pedo-friar?) who served for years at the parish during the late 1990s.

Those parishioners should also know that Krumm is furiously fighting to keep secret his personnel files, the reams of documents kept on all Catholic priests and orderlies that have shown again and again how church leaders actively protected pedophiles at the expense of innocents. The court battle isn't happening in Los Angeles, though; it's taking place in Los Angeles Superior Court, site of a 2006 settlement between victims of Franciscans at St. Antonthy's Seminary in Santa Barbara and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (administrator over Catholic life in Santa Barbara County). The release of personnel files were agreed to by the Franciscan order as part of the settlement, but individual pedo-priests were allowed to contest their files--with the legal help of the Franciscans.

UNITED STATES
Stop Baptist Predators

Sometimes it’s hard not to be cynical about the things Baptist leaders say. For me, this is one of those times, as I watch the stuff spewing forth from the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Louisville. If I didn’t poke fun with a bit of sarcasm, I’m afraid I might dissolve into a puddle of weeping.

They issued a “pro-adoption” resolution. That’s nice. I’m all for adoption. But it started looking a little weird when it started looking as though Baptist leaders might be promoting adoption, in part, simply because they want to raise their membership numbers. “More kids” means “more Baptists.” ...

If Baptist leaders really believed that “Jesus loves the little children,” wouldn’t they take action to work toward protecting the kids in their own churches?

Isn’t that what this convention was supposed to be about this year? “Actions speak louder than words.” Remember? So why are they giving us feel-good songs instead of real action to protect kids?

KENYA
IOL

Nairobi - Kenyan police has arrested an American preacher who faces charges of trafficking pornographic material, police said on Wednesday.

Thomas Manton IV, a self-styled prophet, was detained late on Tuesday following a complaint by a woman who said he posted pornographic pictures of her on a website.

"He will be charged for trafficking pornographic material and being in Kenya illegally," a police officer said on condition of anonymity.

KENYA
EarthTimes

Nairobi - Kenyan police were Thursday investigating accusations that an American preacher has been moonlighting as a trafficker of pornographic images. 50-year-old Thomas Manton, of the Dominion International church, was Wednesday denied bail after being arrested for allegedly producing pornography with the intention to distribute it.

A lawyer for Manton - who describes himself as "God's Voice to the Nations" on his website - told the Daily Nation that the allegations were part of a scheme to extort money from his client.

Manton is the second foreign religious figure to face sex accusations in recent weeks.

IRELAND
The Southern Star

By Perry O’Donovan

In looking through the Ryan Commission Report material I’m particularly struck by the way the word ‘charity’ stands out. Several of the outfits responsible for the organised crime scrutinised by Justice Ryan’s commission identified themselves using this special word: ‘Brothers of Charity’, ‘Daughters of Charity’, ‘Sisters of Our Lady of Charity’, and – most Orwellian of all – the officers of the ‘Institute of Charity’.

The word ‘charity’ stands out because it is the most abused of all words in this word-abused world – and it’s widespread abuse is a perfect expression of the will to ignorance and stupefied spiritual darkness in which we wallow and suckle. It has come to be synonymous with ‘almsgiving’, whereas what the term actually signifies is the highest and most divine form of love – the pure love of God, unmediated, unmeasured, overwhelming, and unmistakable.

And, of course, in the Orwellian new-speak world of untruth in which we dwell ‘love’ itself, by being made to mean everything and anything, means virtually nothing at all. ‘God is love’ we’re taught to say glibly – a lesson only too well-learned from our teachers – and that we ought to ‘love our neighbours as ourselves’. However, in this dump in which we pride ourselves, the word ‘love’ refers to everything from face-sucking Hollywood ‘stars’ – making ‘love’ – to our concern for Third World famine victims; or, similarly, it may refer to anything from that sense of belonging and one-ness we sometimes feel when we sing our tribal songs and wave our flags in the cauldron of a tense sports stadium (or at some commemorative event for our war-dead forefathers) to what happens when a solitary contemplative becomes wholly absorbed in the prayer of simple regard.

NEBRASKA
World-Herald

By Katie Fretland
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Efrain Umaña Sr., a pastor who served congregations in Council Bluffs and Lincoln, will plead not guilty to sex abuse charges, his attorney said Wednesday.

Umaña, 53, was charged earlier this month in Pottawattamie County with having sex with a 10- or 11-year-old girl parishioner in 2003, forcing an adult woman parishioner to have sex with him in 2007 and assaulting two other women with the intent to commit sexual abuse in 2008.

He is accused of assaulting them while serving as pastor at Templo Monte Horeb in Council Bluffs, which he left about nine months ago amid allegations of misconduct.

LINCOLN (NE)
Lincoln Journal Star

By HILARY KINDSCHUH / Lincoln Journal Star
Thursday, Jun 25, 2009 - 12:18:57 am CDT
The pastor charged last week with a series of sex crimes in Iowa has a troubled history in Lincoln — including an allegation he sexually abused a teenager.

The Rev. Efrain Umaña was arrested June 11 at his home at 1906 Hartley St. in Lincoln for extradition to Iowa.

Council Bluffs police allege Umaña, 53, forced a 10- or 11-year-old girl to have sex with him in Templo Monte Horeb church there in 2003.

AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Bellinda Kontominas
June 25, 2009

A priest charged with indecently assaulting three students at a Bathurst high school has failed to appear in court due to illness.

Father Hugh Edward Murray, 79, was arrested earlier this week at his Marsfield home and charged with five counts of indecent assault on a male.

The charges relate to the assaults of three students at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst, between 1966 and 1978.

MASSACHUSETTS
South Coast Today

By ANN M. BRUNO
Ann M. Bruno lives in Mattapoisett.
June 25, 2009

I read with interest the opinion piece that Monsignor John Oliveira sent to The Standard-Times ("A year to support Catholic priests," June 16). Monsignor Oliveira speaks of priests who have not lived up to their commitment and have suffered the illness of pedophilia. Pedophilia is more than an illness; it is a crime. Priests found guilty in a court of law have been convicted and imprisoned.

It upsets me when I hear the church call it an illness and a sin, as if we could give some magical medicine to the criminal to change him, or even worse, pray away this depravity. This crime should not have been covered up with hush money and signed papers forbidding further punitive action on the victim's part.

Church hierarchy failed in their duty and oversight of these crimes. I don't know if, in my lifetime, I will ever be able to forget that glaring fact.

IRELAND
Limerick Leader

By Petula Martyn
A FORMER Christian Brother who taught at Creagh Lane National School has appeared before Limerick Circuit Court today charged in connection with the sexual abuse of school boys.

Sean John Drummond, 61, with an address at Ballinteer, Dublin pleaded guilty to 36 counts of indecently assaulting 19 boys on dates between July 1967 and July 1968.

The boys were all pupils at the school which was located on Bishop Street, and were aged between eight or nine when they were abused by the then Brother.

CALIFORNIA
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling
Creator, City of Angels Blog

One more post here about the Fresno case, for which a new trial was granted June 12th, before we go on to stories about new lawsuits being filed in Los Angeles. My favorite part of the Bishop of Fresno's “Opposition to Plaintiffs’ Motion for New Trial,” quoted in depth below, is from page 9, where the Bishop claims the abuse took place in a parochial school, not the diocese, two totally different entities.

“Plaintiffs erroneously conflate the corporate defendant, The Roman Catholic Bishop of Fresno, A Corporation Sole, with the school. The school is a separate corporate entity - the Diocese of Fresno Education Corporation. Plaintiffs’ attempt to eliminate this distinction by conflating multiple entities through the generic use of the word ‘Diocese,’ does not eliminate their separate corporate existence.”

Don’t you love how church attorneys conflate and de-conflate their corporate entities as needed?

Why didn't plaintiffs find the new witness W Doe before the March trial? According to W Doe's declaration, after he and his mother reported the abuse to the school principal Sister Vidaline, “I was never again scheduled to serve mass. When I asked later why, I was told I would not be attending St. John’s Catholic school much longer. Within a month or two after I complained about Monsignor (Anthony) Herdegen, I was told I was being expelled from St. John’s Catholic school. Nobody could tell me why I was being expelled. Around 1975 or 1976, I moved away from Wasco, never to return.”

CANTON (OH)
Canton Repository

CantonRep.com staff report

A support group for clergy sex-abuse victims published a letter Wednesday publicly urging the Diocese of Youngstown to send a second, more emphatic and explicit letter to hundreds of Catholics who attended a school where a now-suspended priest worked.

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation’s oldest and largest support group for clergy-abuse victims.

Earlier this month, the Rev. Thomas Crum admitted sexually abusing a child and was suspended from his pulpit at Our Lady of Peace Church in Canton.

YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
WFMJ

The Bishop of the Youngstown Diocese is being called on to hold a public meeting to discuss allegations of sexual abuse by one of it's priests.

The diocese recently suspended Father Thomas Crum from his duties after several people came forward saying the priest molested them as a child.

At least one of those allegations came from a former Cardinal Mooney student where father Crum served in the late 1970's.

CALIFORNIA
Betti & Franks

By MICHELE BETTI and CHAD FRANKS | b&f opinions June 23, 2009

Michele Betti goes to Oakland, California to support SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and one of its survivors who was manipulated and exploited by her Oakland psychologist John R. LoRé, Ph.D. repeatedly during therapy for several years. SNAP set up the event in order to warn everyone about this predator and to bring awareness to the community.
LoRé surrendered his license to the California Board of Psychology for sexual misconduct. But, he has started and co-directs an Oakland non-profit called Peace Parenting Project. Despite his license revocation, LoRé still lists himself as a psychologist on his website

NEW YORK
Forward

By Rebecca Dube
Published June 24, 2009, issue of July 03, 2009.

Sexual-abuse survivors who traveled to Albany, N.Y., with high hopes this past spring got a tough lesson in political reality. The state Assembly’s regular session ended on June 22 without any action on a bill that would make it easier for sex-abuse victims to sue their molesters and the institutions that employed them.

“People are playing politics with innocent kids’ lives. I don’t even know what to think anymore,” said Joe Diangelo, a member of Survivors for Justice, a group that formed last year to support Jewish survivors of child sexual abuse. Diangelo was one of several Jewish activists who joined Catholic abuse survivors lobbying New York State legislators this year, only to see their efforts countered by a strong push against the bill from the Catholic Conference and a few ultra-Orthodox Jewish organizations.

“It’s sad, but by no means are we going to stop,” Diangelo said as he protested outside the office of Assemblyman Vito Lopez, a Brooklyn Democrat who played the most visible role in blocking the sex-abuse bill in the Assembly.

KENYA
Daily Nation

By NICHOLAS NGOLYO Posted Wednesday, June 24 2009 at 22:30

During the day, he was a man of God, preaching the good news to his flock. But at night, he turned into somebody else, engaging in sex orgies and recording them for commercial distribution.

This is the picture that police painted of a 50-year-old American evangelist who was on Wednesday charged with possessing pornographic material.

A compact disk

Mr Thomas Kevin Manton of Dominion International, a church that operates from a Nairobi hotel, was denied bail and remanded in custody until Friday for the police to complete their investigations.

VIRGINIA
Loudoun Independent

Wednesday, 24 June 2009

James L. Swanson, 55, of Leesburg, is charged with two counts of assault and battery and taking indecent liberties with a minor while in a custodial or supervisory position in that case.

The alleged incidents occurred while Swanson was a pastor with the Greater Zion Church in Ashburn.

James L. Swanson A nearly two-month long investigation by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division led to the identity of three allegedvictims. In April, Loudoun Investigators received independent information of a 14-year-old female and 15-year-old female, both of Ashburn, havinginappropriate contact with the pastor. One of the incidents is reported to have occurred in February 2009, with the second occurring on April 14, 2009. Swanson is charged with assault and battery in these two cases.

VIRGINIA
Loudoun Times

A former pastor has been charged with having inappropriate contact with three Loudoun teenagers.

James L. Swanson, 55, of Leesburg, was recently charged with two counts of assault and battery and one count of taking indecent liberties with a minor while in a custodial or supervisory position. The alleged incidents occurred while Swanson was a pastor with the Greater Zion Church in Ashburn, Loudoun County Sheriff's Office spokesman Kraig Troxell said.

A nearly two-month long investigation discovered three alleged victims. In April, investigators received information that a 14-year-old female and a 15-year-old female, both of Ashburn, were having inappropriate contact with the pastor. One of the incidents is reported to have happened in February with the second happening on April 14. Swanson is charged with assault and battery in these two cases, Troxell said.

VIRGINIA
Leesburg Today

A former Ashburn area pastor has been charged for having what authorities are calling "inappropriate contact" with three Loudoun teenagers.

James L. Swanson, 55, of Leesburg, has been charged with two counts of assault and battery and taking indecent liberties with a minor while in a custodial or supervisory position. The alleged incidents occurred while Swanson was a pastor at the Greater Zion Church in Ashburn.

The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office investigation into Swanson and the allegations has been ongoing for two months and has led to the identification of three alleged victims. Investigators with the sheriff's office received two independent reports of a 14-year-old female and a 15-year-old female, both Ashburn residents, having inappropriate contact with Swanson. According to authorities, one of the alleged incidents occurred in February 2009 and the other April 14, 2009. The assault and battery charges stem from those two incidents.

BAHAMAS
The Nassau Guardian

By ARTESIA DAVIS ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ artesia@nasguard.com:

Anglican priest I. Ranfurly Brown allegedly pushed, slapped and choked a teenage girl while at a church-sponsored picnic at Nirvana Beach, his accuser claimed during testimony in the magistrates court yesterday.

Brown, the rector of St. Agnes Church who was in charge of the picnic, is on trial for allegedly assaulting the 14-year-old on October 13, 2008. The girl and several of her teenage friends testified about the circumstances surrounding the alleged assault during the first day of the case that is being heard by Magistrate Ancella Evans-Williams.

The names of the alleged victim and her friends have not been disclosed because they are minors.

BAHAMAS
The Bahamas Journal

By IANTHIA SMITH

Controversial Anglican Archdeacon I. Ranfurly Brown, who is accused of slapping a teen girl during a church picnic last year, appeared in court Tuesday for the start of his assault trial.

The alleged victim and her mother were among many witnesses who testified in court yesterday.

The Anglican priest is accused of assaulting the 14-year-old on October 13, 2008 at the St. Agnes Anglican Church annual church picnic on Nirvana Beach.

IOWA
Quad-City Times

Ann McGlynn | Posted: Wednesday, June 24, 2009

A defrocked priest who lied to court officials will spend two years on probation, a judge ruled Wednesday.

James Janssen's conviction will be wiped from his record if he successfully completes probation, Judge Marlita Greve ruled. He must also pay a $750 fine.

Janssen, accused but never criminally charged with molesting several children, walked into court using a cane and wearing white - the color he was known to wear when he was a priest.

UNITED STATES
CNN

(Mental Floss) -- With South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford dominating the news, let's look back at a five other so-called virtuous figures who became embroiled in sex scandals -- and this list just scratches the surface.

Jim Bakker admitted to cheating on his wife Tammy Faye Bakker.

1. Aimee Semple McPherson

By the mid-1920s, evangelist McPherson was packing them in at her Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, preaching hope and warning against the sinful life. But in 1926, she disappeared while swimming at a local beach.

She turned up a month later with a fantastic story about being kidnapped and taken to Mexico. Unfortunately, the evidence said otherwise: It appeared Aimee had been shacked up with a married man.

The evangelist was charged with perjury, but she stuck to her story and was eventually acquitted. Her popularity waned after the scandal, but you gotta hand it to her for chutzpah: instead of apologizing to her confused flock, McPherson bobbed her hair, bought some short skirts, and began dancing and drinking in public.

NEW YORK
Good Hard Working People

The Child Victims Act in New York State needs your help!

As many of you know there is a "Statute of Limitations" (SOL) when it comes to holding child abusers accountable. A "Statute of Limitations" is the maximum amount of time one has to bring a lawsuit from the time of the injury of other ground for a lawsuit.

When it comes to abuse of children, most survivors don't speak up and seek justice until they are adults (for many reasons including the ability to realize and comprehend what happened to them as children and the process of overcoming the shame and guilt, which is sadly common among victims). As you can imagine, by the time an abused child is an adult, the "Statute of Limitations" has often expired. The abuser continues to break the law and harm children and is never held accountable.

In 2002 the California legislature passed amendments to its statute of limitations on child sex abuse, essentially opening a "window", which gave survivors one year (2003) to file claims even if the statute of limitations for their claims already had expired.

The New York Legislation is now considering such a "window" to give sex abuse victims the opportunity to seek justice and for the criminals to be held accountable even if the SOL has expired.

JAMAICA
Go Jamaica

The International pastor arrested on carnal abuse and indecent assault charges has been granted bail.

Reverend Dr. Paul Lewis was taken into custody on two Sundays ago after if was found the he gave money to two teenage girls in return for sexual favours.

SYRACUSE (NY)
The Post-Standard

by Renée K. Gadoua/The Post-Standard
Wednesday June 24, 2009, 2:39 PM
A 15th lawsuit has been filed in Delaware against a former Catholic priest, Francis G. DeLuca, who was sentenced to 60 days in jail after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a boy in Syracuse in 2006.

The latest case was filed June 16 by two firms in Wilmington, Del. Delaware lawmakers passed a law in 2007 eliminating the statute of limitations in cases of child sex abuse and opened a two-year window allowing cases previously barred by the statute of limitations to be tried.

KENYA
Daily Nation

By LUCAS BARASA Posted Wednesday, June 24 2009 at 22:30

Eight years ago, he annoyed the Catholic headquarters in the Vatican by breaking the code of celibacy. On Wednesday, controversial Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo arrived in the country and slapped the Catholic Church in Kenya in the face.

The Zambian-born archbishop is the overall prelate of a group with 150,000 married priests worldwide. He was ordained as a parish priest in 1958. He was consecrated as archbishop of the archdiocese of Lusaka in Zambia in 1969 by Pope Paul VI.

In 1983, he was recalled from Lusaka to Rome over a controversial “non-conventional healing ministry” he led.He broke his celibacy vows in 2001 and married 43-year-old Korean acupuncturist Maria Sung in a classical wedding where 62 couples dressed in bridal gowns and tuxedos were married in the Moon Unification Church.

On Wednesday, Bishop Kasomo said at Sasamotor Centre that he married his girlfriend, Mary Ann in 1993, a year after becoming a priest. They have four children. Also present was Fr Peter Njogu, who said he has been married for 20 years and has three children.

TEXAS
Austin American-Statesman

By Eric Dexheimer | Wednesday, June 24, 2009, 10:01 AM

Prakashanand Saraswati, the spiritual leader of the Barsana Dham Hindu temple, is still barred from the grounds of the ashram he founded just south of Austin, an appeals court ruled today. The decision from the 3rd Court of Appeals upholds an earlier ruling by a state district court judge in Hays County last November.

Prakashanand, who in April 2008 was charged with groping two underage girls on the ashram in the 1990s, has not been permitted back on Barsana Dham’s grounds since last May, soon after his arrest at a Washington D.C. airport. In his appeal, Prakashanand argued that by denying him physical access to Barsana Dham, where he has an office and apartment and hundreds of followers, the state was infringing on his First Amendment rights to practice his religion.

The Hays County district attorney responded that the guru already had agreed to the restriction when his bond conditions were first set.

TEXAS
San Marcos Mercury

by BRAD ROLLINS
Managing Editor

A state appeals court today rejected Hindu leader Prakashanand Saraswati’s request to return to the Hays County headquarters of his spiritual movement while awaiting trial on indecency with a child charges.

The international leader of the JKP-Barsana Dham sect of Hinduism, the 90-year-old Saraswati was arrested in April 2008 for allegedly touching the breasts of then-minors between 1993 and 1996. He was released on $500,000 bonds on the condition that he not leave the country and not come within 200 yards of the Barsana Dham Center on Farm-to-Market Road 1826 near Driftwood, a 200-acre replica of an Indian holy district and the movement’s North American seat. He has been living in a house nearby, court records show.

In May last year, 22nd State District Judge Charles Ramsay relaxed the bond conditions to allow Saraswati to visit India for religious duties backed by $10 million bond posted by infomercial magnate Peter Spiegal, a Saraswati adherent who amassed a fortune in part by selling ionic air purifiers, health supplements and other products via television and telemarketing. In August, Ramsay rejected Saraswati’s request to return to the Barsana Dham Centerb and Saraswati applied for a writ of habeas corpus to the Third Court of Criminal Appeals.

IRELAND
The Irish Post

SURVIVORS of Ireland’s child abuse scandal have reacted with dismay at what is being widely interpreted as the Pope’s first official comments on the controversy.

They said the reference in a letter to priests across the world was too vague to have real meaning — with one group calling it a pathetic attempt at a statement.

It came as they continued to call for the perpetrators of the crimes to be named and garda action taken against them.

UNITED STATES
Stop Baptist Predators

FROM THE BAPTIST PRESS (6/22/09) -- The Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee recommended in a unanimous vote Monday afternoon that the denomination cease its relationship with Broadway Baptist Church, a Fort Worth, Texas, congregation that has been the source of controversy over its stance on homosexuality . . . .

At issue is whether the church is in violation of Article III of the SBC Constitution, which states that churches "which act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior" are not in friendly cooperation. Broadway Baptist has approximately five open homosexual members, including two male couples, according to church leaders. Some of the homosexuals serve on church committees . . . .

Stephen Wilson, a member of the Executive Committee and vice president for academic affairs at Mid-Continent University, emphasized to Baptist Press that the denomination encourages churches to reach out to people struggling with homosexuality. The issue with Broadway Baptist, though, is over a church allowing members who are homosexual and unrepentant . . .

Oh… I see… the real problem is that these five gay church members are “open” and “unrepentant.” They’re violating the #1 rule of Baptist life -- keep it secret. If you dance, don’t tell. If you drink, don’t tell. And if you’re gay… well that goes double… don’t tell.

ROME
allAfrica

The Superior General of the Comboni, Fr Teresino Serra, issued a statement expressing support for Fr Renato Kizito, an Italian Comboni missionary being accused of sexually abusing children in Kenya, where he has served for over 20 years.

Fr. Serra recalled Kizito's "great devotion" to the missions. He expressed the congregation's closeness to Fr Kizito "in this time of trial."

According to the magazine Mondo e Missione, published by the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, Fr Sesana has been the target of "a defamation campaign begun by the privately owned Kenya Television Network (KTN), which has accused the priest of abusing children," Fr. Serra said.

CHARLOTTE (NC)
WSOC

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A trial date has been set for the Diocese of Charlotte to defend accusations it covered up sexual abuse in the 1990s.

The suit, filed by a man victimized by the Rev. Robert Yurgel when the victim was a 14-year-old altar boy, alleges that the diocese sought to cover up the crimes. The trial will begin in May 2010.

Yurgel pleaded guilty in early February to molesting the man. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and will be on the sex offender registry for the rest of his life.

CALIFORNIA
Irish Central

By CAHIR O'DOHERTY, Irish Voice Reporter

Father Michael Kelly, 59, a priest from Balingarry, County Tipperary who is now based in California, is facing a civil legal action over allegations that he sexually abused a child in 1984.

Kelly, who served in a number of California parishes over 35 years, was placed on administrative leave in September 2007 while his own diocese investigated the charge made against him.

After the diocesan review board, based in Stockton, California, found no evidence to support the claim of sexual abuse, Kelly was cleared of wrongdoing and reinstated to active ministry at St Joachim’s Catholic Church in March 2008.

NORTH CAROLINA
Claims Journal

A North Carolina judge is allowing some claims in a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte to move forward.

The Charlotte Observer reported that the lawsuit alleges that church officials covered up the sex crimes of the Rev. Robert Yurgel, who pleaded guilty to a sex offense in February. He was sentenced to at least seven years in prison. The victim was an alter boy at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Charlotte in the 1990s when the abuse occurred.

The Charlotte Diocese denies that officials knew of abuse allegations until Yurgel was arrested last year. They had sought dismissal of the lawsuit by the victim.

PARAGUAY
Javno (Croatia)

The woman who claims that the President of Paraguay Fernando Lugo is her son`s father, accused the former Roman Catholic bishop of rape.

Lugo refused to comment on her accusations in great detail, but told a press conference that “this was all a part of the second chapter of the novel” and that he expects “the third chapter”.

- The matter is in the courts and you should talk to my attorney - the president said. However, Lugo`s attorney Marcos Farina was unavailable for a comment.

KENYA
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation

Written By:Walter Dzuya, Posted: Wed, Jun 24, 2009

A city clergy man Thomas Kevin Manton was on Wednesday arraigned at Kibera Law courts and charged with being in possession of pornographic material with intent of publishing it.

Thomas Kevin Manton however pleaded not guilty to charges of obscene publication contrary to section 181 of the penal code.

It is alleged that on the 25th of February this year at Runda Estate in Nairobi for the purpose of public exhibition he produced one compact disc tending to corrupt morals.

AUSTRALIA
Religious Intelligence

By: George Conger.

Boys aged between 10 and 15 years of age are the most frequently targeted victims of clergy sexual abuse, a report presented on June 13 to the Standing Committee of the Anglican Church of Australia’s General Synod has found.

Prepared by Professor Patrick Parkinson and Professor Kim Oates of the University of Sydney the “Study of Reported Child Sexual Abuse in the Anglican Church” examined 191 cases of abuse reported to diocesan officials between 1990 and 2008 from 17 of the church’s 23 dioceses --- three rural dioceses declined to participate in the study while three others reported no incidents of abuse. The study was commissioned by the 2004 General Synod and sought to identify the “characteristics of accused persons” and their victims and the circumstances of the offence, as well as “ascertain patterns of abuse in relation to similarities or differences in gender and age of the child complainants,” in order to “inform the Church on what steps could be taken towards better prevention of sexual abuse within church communities.”

Archbishop Philip Aspinall of Brisbane stated, that “while this report is aimed at strengthening our child protection protocols as we look to the future, it also reminds us of the tragic events of the past and of the pain which still exists. We reiterate our apology, our sorrow and our deep regret for abuse which has occurred.”

ARKANSAS
Today's THV

Posted By: Alyson Courtney

Jailed evangelist Tony Alamo says investigators were relying on old information when they raided his Fouke compound last year and that evidence they seized should be barred at his trial.

In motions filed Tuesday, the 74-year-old also asks for the names of informants who gave information to authorities. Alamo is charged in a 10-count indictment with violating the federal Mann Act by taking underage girls across state lines for sex.

The court papers ask U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes to bar to disallow computer data, business records and photographs seized by investigators. A former Alamo attorney said the computers contained no pornography.

NEW YORK
Catholic League

The bill by New York State Assemblywoman Margaret Markey that would suspend the statute of limitations for one year for cases of child sexual abuse (victims must be 53 or younger) will not pass this year unless a special session is called and the bill is put to a vote.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented on the bill’s fate:

Right now it looks like this badly conceived legislation is dead in the water. But were it to pass eventually, I renew my pledge today to spend whatever it takes to alert the residents of New York State of their right to sue the public schools if they were ever sexually abused by one of its employees (provided they meet the conditions outlined in the bill).

Some have questioned my motive. Let me end the suspense: I am fed up with unscrupulous lawyers and their well-greased professional victims’ groups seeking to plunder the Catholic Church. Now that public institutions are finally included in the Markey bill, it is only just that potential claimants be informed of their rights. And guess what? A reality check has already taken place. Opposing the Markey bill are the New York State School Boards Association, the New York State Council of School Superintendents, and other civic groups.

DELAWARE
The News Journal

[The print edition indicates the author is the Rev. John Hynes.]

The two women looked at me expectantly. Their brother in Mexico needed an operation. Could the church help? I tried to explain ...we have limited resources. I was thinking of the couple in the corridor who said they couldn't afford medicine. I was also thinking of the number of parents who were having difficulty paying tuition in our parochial school.

Thank God the diocese has a fund to help some of them ... so far.

A medium-size Catholic parish like ours has to be self- sufficient. So we have clothing re-sales, carnivals and walkathons. Our budget will come close to $1.9 million, over 60 percent for the school. About $100,000 goes to the diocese to support the larger church's expenses.

NEW YORK
The Georgia Bulletin

ALBANY, N.Y. (CNS) -- Even after it was amended to include all public institutions, a bill that would have extended the statute of limitations for lawsuits related to the sexual abuse of a minor was "inherently bad public policy," said the executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference. Richard E. Barnes spoke June 23, hours after the state Assembly adjourned without voting on a bill that would have given people who claim they were sexually abused as children a one-year exemption from the statute of limitations. Currently alleged victims must file suit within five years after they turn 18. Barnes said in a statement that members of the state Assembly "looked very closely at this very controversial bill" sponsored by Assembly Member Margaret Markey "and gave it the thoughtful consideration it deserved."

NEW YORK
Newsday

BY BART JONES | bart.jones@newsday.com
10:55 PM EDT, June 23, 2009
Supporters of a controversial bill to make it easier for alleged child sex abuse victims to sue their abusers thought this was their year to get the legislation passed.

Democrats controlled both the State Senate and Assembly for the first time in years, and the bill had already passed the Assembly three sessions in a row.

But when the Assembly wrapped up its current session early Tuesday in Albany, the bill - like its sponsor Assemb. Margaret Markey (D- Maspeth) - was nowhere to be seen.

MEXICO/UNITED STATES
Foreign Correspondency

MEXICO CITY - A victims’ group said Thursday that it was filing a new lawsuit in Los Angeles, California, against Mexican and U.S. church officials accused of sheltering a suspected pedophile priest.

The lawsuit accuses Mexico City Cardinal Norberto Rivera of conspiring with Roman Catholic officials in the United States to shelter Nicolas Aguilar, a Mexican priest wanted in California for 19 felony counts of committing lewd acts on a child.

This is the third lawsuit filed by the group, Survivor’s Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, against the Catholic Church for allegedly protecting Aguilar. Two previous lawsuits filed in Los Angeles against the Mexican cardinal by Mexican citizens were dismissed in 2007.

IRELAND
Whispers in the Loggia

With Ireland still reeling from last month's Ryan Report, a TV documentary aired nationally last week raised the curtain on the next major look into the Isle's staggering history of clergy sex-abuse and chancery cover-up: the Murphy Report of the state inquest on the archdiocese of Dublin, first expected this summer but seemingly to be delayed pending "ongoing court proceedings."

Yet while the testimony of victim-survivors has become crushingly commonplace in the reporting of their stories, what made TV3's Abuse of Trust unique and significant was the cooperation of the Republic's top prelate, the capital's Archbishop Diarmuid Martin (left, at mic), who spoke on the program of his "personal torment" at reading through some of the 60,000 in-house files he handed over to the state panel (but only after his predecessor dropped a court challenge to the papers' release).

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Hundreds of thousands of Australian children raised in institutions over the past century say they want a formal apology for the abuse and neglect they suffered.

They have named themselves the Forgotten Australians and a large number of them are in Canberra this week for the tabling of a parliamentary report, which reviewed recommendations made years ago that still have not been acted on.

There are 500,000 children who suffered abuse in state and church-run homes and institutions.

SOUTH CAROLINA
WOLO

Written by Kara Nelson
Wednesday, 24 June 2009 00:13
Sexual abuse allegations against a former youth minister are mounting tonight. Lexington County Authorities say more victims are coming forward. People who live on Irvin Jumper Road in Gaston say they had no idea the man who resided in their neighborhood could be guilty of sexually assaulting teenage boys.

William Wilson remains in a Lexington County Jail. Tonight he faces sexual misconduct charges involving two 13-year-olds. That's in addition to the original three minors who came forward to Police last week.

TEXAS
KRGV

MERCEDES - Tomas Gonzales, 61, is a pastor at a church in Donna. Tonight, he's in jail, charged with 10 felony counts. Police know there are at least two victims and there may be more.

Police say they asked Gonzales to come to the police station last night for questioning. When the pastor showed up, officers say he confessed to the crime.

Gonzalez appeared before a judge around 6:30pm. A judge read him his rights and charged him with eight counts of aggravated sexual abuse and two counts of indecency with a child.

TEXAS
The Monitor

Ana Ley
The Monitor
MERCEDES — A church pastor faces multiple felony charges in connection with allegations he sexually abused two female relatives.

Tomás Gonzáles, 61, of Mercedes, was arraigned Tuesday evening in Mercedes Municipal Court on two counts of indecency with a child and eight counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

"I committed the error," he said in Spanish during the arraignment. "Now I have to pay for it."

GREEN BAY (WI)
Press-Gazette

Green Bay Catholic Bishop David Ricken strikes us as someone who's comfortable with being a Catholic, unapologetic about the church's teachings and eager to cheerfully defend them against critics — all traits that should serve him in good stead as he meets the challenges ahead.

In his first visit with the Green Bay Press-Gazette editorial board Tuesday, Ricken seemed willing to answer any question tossed his way, although sometimes only to a certain degree. ...

We were impressed by his acknowledgment that the Catholic church was slow to come to terms with the scandals involving priests committing sexual abuse.

"You just don't think of priests and people in that sector of the population violating another person in this way," he said. "It was hard for me to understand, it was hard for the bishops to understand, so it took us time to really catch on to the seriousness of the problem."

DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Sunday Tribune

June 21, 2009

[With seven photos]

Among the people given pseudonyms in the Ryan commission report, Sr Xaviera, the nun who defended her record on 'Prime Time' in 1996, stood out as 'extremely cruel', writes John Downes.

For the rosary bead makers and other children who suffered at St Vincent's industrial school in Goldenbridge, Dublin, the memories of life with the nun named as Sr Alida in the Ryan commission report are bleak. In fact, she was Sr Xaviera (or Severia), who over a decade ago famously defended her record in an interview with RTE's Prime Time programme.

The Mercy nun is one of 11 people given pseudonyms in the report, whose names the Sunday Tribune is publishing for the first time today.

She joins a growing list of others, including former Mercy nun Nora Wall and convicted paedophile Donal Dunne, who have also been named since the report was published a week and a half ago.

PARAGUAY
Momento 24

The president of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, was now accused of having raped Bengina Leguizamón, the woman who denounced a supposed parenthood of the catholic ex-bishop.

PARAGUAY
Brisbane Times (Australia)

June 24, 2009 - 8:44AM .
A former housekeeper who accuses Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo of fathering her six-year-old son has charged that the former Catholic bishop initiated the relationship by sexually assaulting her.

Benigna Leguizamon, 27, said in a radio interview that the assault took place in the bishop's two-story residence where she worked as a housekeeper.

"He locked me in a room and there he took off my clothes by force and he overpowered me. There was no way of escaping him," she said.

UNITED STATES
Irish Central

By ANTOINETTE KELLY, IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

A religious watchdog organization in the U.S. has stated it is planning to release an American equivalent of Ireland’s Ryan report of child abuse at Catholic Church-run institutions.

Boston-based group BishopAccountability.org provides the public with a database of accused priests, survivors’ accounts of abuse and a timeline of the scandal of U.S. bishops covering up for priests who sexually abused minors in churches and schools.

The organization told the Irish Times it is in the midst of building a database of names of Irish religious figures who abused children in Ireland and later fled to America.

UNITED STATES
Stop Baptist Predators

Dear Southern Baptist Messengers:

“Actions speak louder than words.” It’s a good slogan, but do you really mean it?

A year ago, your Executive Committee announced its decision not to create a clergy-predator database or an office to field abuse claims. (Eric Gorski - Associated Press, “Southern Baptists reject sex-abuse database,” Washington Post, 6/10/08).

What message do you imagine this do-nothing decision sent? To Baptist clergy abuse survivors, it sent a message of “we don’t really care.” To Baptist clergy-predators, it sent a message of “we’ll look the other way.”

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Catholic Church has confirmed a priest from Brisbane's Archdiocese has resigned as police investigate child sex abuse allegations made against him.

The 65-year-old man has been charged with indecent treatment and indecent dealing.

UNITED KINGDOM
Metro

A clergyman who refused to leave his vicarage after being barred from office for having an affair was today given 28 days to leave the property.

The Reverend Patrick Okechi was told by a judge at Birmingham County Court that the Bishops of Lichfield and Wolverhampton were entitled to repossess the house in West Bromwich, West Midlands.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Examiner

Donna Conaway
Philadelphia Catholic Examiner

Father Gerald Dunne, an Oblate of Saint Frances de Sales, has been named in a lawsuit filed in Delaware alleging sexual abuse of a minor while at Salesianium High School.

The plaintiff alleges Fr. Dunne sexually abused him approximately thirty years ago. Father Dunne has denied the allegation.

According to a June 22 press release from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Father Dunne, who also was a member of Father Judge High School's faculty from 1994 to present, had completed the screening procedures set in place by the Archdiocese, and had cleared all the appropriate police and child abuse background checks. In addition, the Oblates of St. Frances de Sales had presented a positive recommendation of Fr. Dunne and cleared him through their accredited screening process

NEW YORK
Newsday

12:08 AM EDT, June 23, 2009
As the state Assembly wrapped up its regular session Tuesday, it appeared unlikely that controversial child sex abuse bill would be voted on, advocates and officials said.

The bill, sponsored by Assemb. Margaret Markey (D- Maspeth) and opposed by the Catholic Church, would drop the statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases for victims 53 years and younger. Previously her bill included no age limit.

She also recently amended it to explicitly include public as well as private institutions.

FRANCE
The Irish Times

CHARLIE TAYLOR

Ireland is determined to remain a place that is tolerant of other cutures despite the harsh economic climate we now find ourselves in, President Mary McAleese said today.

Addressing the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe on its sixth anniversary in Strasbourg, Ms McAleese said that Ireland owed the council a debt of gratitude for its support in assisting the peace process in the north. ...

Commenting on the Ryan report into clerical child abuse, which was published last month, Ms McAleese said that the report had provoked a huge debate in Ireland.

"This questioning, although painful, can only benefit our society in the long run. It has brought us face-to-face with the promise set out in our Proclamation in 1916 to be a republic which cherished the children of the nation equally. We know in searing detail how often that promise was betrayed and we have this opportunity now to do what it takes to make amends to those brutalised by that betrayal and to keep that promise for today’s and tomorrow’s children.

FORT WORTH (TX)
TMCnet

Jun 23, 2009 (Fort Worth Star-Telegram - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The Rev. Rudolf Renteria denies allegations that he sexually abused an Arlington altar boy in the 1980s, according to recently filed court documents.

A California man in his 40s sued Renteria and the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese in March. The man accused the diocese of covering up the priest's actions. The diocese denies those allegations and argues in court documents that the statute of limitation bars "all or a portion of plaintiff's claims." The man's attorney, Tahira Khan Merritt of Dallas, could not be reached for comment.

The diocese is in the process of defrocking Renteria, but he refers to himself in court documents as "formerly known as Father Rudolf 'Rudy' John Renteria." Renteria's attorney, Robert Kemp of Dallas, said he would have to consult with his client before making any comment.

MASSACHUSETTS
South Coast Today

By CAROL MARKEY
Carol Markey lives in Mattapoisett.

June 23, 2009
Police release more photos of suspect in Petro-Mart slayingShooting victim tried to intervene in Petro Mart robberyShooting victim tried to intervene in Petro-Mart robbery, owner saysWinter storm starts off SouthCoast summerFairhaven Mills reconstruction moves quicklyYOUR VIEW: Offensive photo demands mayor's apologySwine flu closes Assawompset Elementary School for yearIt was with great interest that I read Monsignor John Oliveira's June 16 opinion piece on supporting priests in this "Year of the Priests" (a very worthy cause).

I would consider myself to be an active, practicing Catholic, and am happy to honor the many hard-working priests of integrity in our diocese and all over the world.

I must take issue, however, with Monsignor Oliveira's assessment that the only ordained priests that have not lived up to their commitment in regards to the sexual abuse scandals of recent years are those who suffer from the illness of pedophilia. A more egregious violation of the dignity of the priesthood are those in power who chose to overlook, excuse and permit the continuation of abuse by moving these individuals to other areas or parishes.

CHARLOTTE (NC)
Charlotte Observer

By Cameron Steele
cameronsteele@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Tuesday, Jun. 23, 2009
A sex abuse victims' group on Monday applauded a judge's order to allow some claims in a civil suit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte to move forward in court.

The 2008 suit alleges that diocesan officials covered up the sex crimes of the Rev. Robert Yurgel, who pleaded guilty to a sex offense in February.

The Charlotte Diocese denies that officials were aware of abuse allegations until Yurgel's arrest in April 2008, and sought a dismissal of the case filed by Yurgel's victim.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

FINTAN O'TOOLE

If the church is to have a future it has to replace the ethic of control with a radical ethic of service, writes FINTAN O'TOOLE .

IRISH DEBATE is very good at presenting people with false alternatives. As we stumble tentatively towards some kind of new settlement for the provision of social services, we seem to face another one. If, we are told, we don’t want church control of schools and hospitals, we must have State control. If the church hands over ownership of primary schools, everything will be run by bureaucrats from the Department of Education in Dublin. One hierarchy will be replaced by another.

It ain’t necessarily so. Public ownership isn’t the same thing as rigid State control. There is, and will always be, an important place for voluntary organisation, including that of religious communities and people of faith.

Our problem in Ireland is that the peculiar intertwining of nationality and religion, predating even that of church and State, left us without a clear sense of what governments should do. We have never, to this day, developed a strong sense that there are basic aspects of health, education and welfare that belong to citizens as of right. Partly because the church would not allow it to do so, the State has never accepted the responsibilities that are part of the European welfare model. In return, the church has never quite accepted that it is part of civil society. We have had the paradox of a State that behaves as if it is a charity and a church that behaves as if it is a government.

KIRKSVILLE (MO)
Kirksville Daily Express

KIRKSVILLE — Kirksville City Councilman Aaron Rodgerson was indicted by the Adair County Grand Jury Friday for misdemeanor charges of failure to report abuse or neglect of a child under the age of 18 years of age as a mandated reporter, and unlawfully engaging in the practice of law.

Rodgerson, 34, was arrested Friday night at 8:12 p.m. at 1010 W. Burton Street.

He bonded out a little more than two hours later.

According to court documents, law enforcement officials responded to a hotline call on or about May 6, describing a malnourished 10-month-old baby.

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

By Joel Currier
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
06/22/2009

ST. CHARLES - The director of children's programs at the First Baptist Church of St. Charles has resigned after authorities began investigating him on suspicion of child pornography, Senior Pastor David Sheppard said today.

The man has not been arrested but detectives with the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department seized his computer Friday at the church, 2701 Muegge Road, Sheppard said. The man worked part time running children's programs at the church for 4 1/2 years. Sheppard said authorities also seized the man's home computer.

Sheriff's Lt. Craig McGuire would not confirm or deny whether the department is investigating the man.

AUSTRALIA
The Queensland Times

Andrew Korner | 23rd June 2009

A FORMER Ipswich Catholic priest has been charged with the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl from the city.

Police said they issued the 64-year-old man - now living in Brisbane - with a notice to appear in court last Thursday in relation to charges of indecent treatment of a child.

Detective Inspector Mick Niland said the offences were alleged to have occurred between 1977 and 1981 when the man, then aged between 32 and 36, was working as Catholic priest in the Ipswich area.

ROME
Catholic News Agency

Rome, Italy, Jun 22, 2009 / 02:12 pm (CNA).- Various Catholic organizations have expressed their solidarity with Father Kizito Sesana, a Combonian missionary from Italy who has been unjustly accused of sexually abusing children in Kenya, where he has served children and young people for over 20 years.

According to the magazine Mondo e Missione, published by the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, Father Sesana has been the target of “a defamation campaign begun by the privately owned Kenya Television Network, which has accused the priest of abusing children.”

The Superior General of the Combonians, Father Teresino Serra, issued a statement expressing support for Father Sesana, recalling his “great devotion to the missions. The leadership expresses his closeness to Father Sesana in this time of trial.”

KENYA
Daily Nation

By BENJAMIN MUINDI

Posted Monday, June 22 2009 at 21:40

Police were on Monday analysing a video clip and photos that allegedly show Father Renato Kizito, the Catholic priest accused of child abuse, having sex with a boy.

According to deputy police spokesperson Charles Wahong’o, CID officers were studying copies of the photos and the videos to determine their authenticity.

Mr Wahong’o, however, declined to divulge details of what experts were looking for to establish whether or not the materials were manipulated.

ZIMBABWE
The Zimbabwe Times

By our correspondent

BULAWAYO – Pope Benedict the XVI has announced the appointment of Very Reverend Father Alex Thomas Kaliyanil as the new Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bulawayo.Father Alex replaces Archbishop Pius Ncube who was dethroned in 2007 following sensational allegations of sexual misconduct with a member of his congregation.

Father Alex was born in India in 1960.

In Zimbabwe Father Alex was first assigned as Assistant Priest at Holy Cross Parish in Tshabalala between 1990 and 1992. Currently, Father Alex is Regional Superior of the Divine Word Missionaries in Zimbabwe.

KINGSPORT (TN)
Times-News

By Staff Report

The case of a Coeburn pastor charged with indecent exposure on April 8 has been postponed and is set for a hearing on motions.

Kingsport Police Department vice detectives arrested John Franklin McCarroll, 65, 2306 E. First Ave., Big Stone Gap. The arrest occurred during an undercover investigation into lewd and lascivious acts at the public restrooms at Riverfront Park on Netherland Inn Road.

ORANGE COUNTY (CA)
Orange County Weekly

By Gustavo Arellano in Gimme That OC Religion

It's telling about the sad state of religion reporting in Orange County, one of the founts of American Christianity, that no one has yet to report this: a major Trinity Broadcasting Company personality has pleaded guilty to two felony DUIs that put a 70-year-old man in the hospital with serious injuries.

On April 26, around 10 p.m., one Stephen Eugene Galiher was speeding at least over 85 miles per hour in his company-owned BMW on the 73 Freeway near the 55 Freeway interchange when he smashed into a car, causing it to overturn twice. Galiher--the head pastor at Trinity Music City Church, the main place of worship at TBN's Christian music theme park in Hendersonville, Tennessee--was in town after appearing four days earlier on Behind the Scenes, a show where TBN head Paul Crouch checks in with his many ministers. A California Highway Patrol report obtained by the Weekly shows that the officer on hand "smell[ed] a very strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from Galiher's breath and, his eyes were red and bloodshot." When asked what he drank, the pastor admitted to "2 glasses of red wine at the Newport Beach Island Hotel." Either Galiher's a lightweight, or he's a big liar--when was the last time drinking too much wine created bloodshot eyes?

CONNECTICUT
Connecticut Law Tribune

By THOMAS B. SCHEFFEY

In a bid to prevent public disclosure of more than 1,200 pages of sealed court filings from 23 priest sex abuse cases that were settled in 2001, the Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocese is seeking new arguments before a full seven-member Supreme Court.

On June 2, in a 4 to 1 decision, the high court adopted a broad definition of “judicial” court filings that the public is allowed to see because the documents form the basis of court rulings. In making the ruling, the majority ordered the release of nearly all of the priest sex abuse files.

This instant landmark opinion, Rosado v. Bridgeport, gives litigants and lawyers clearer guidelines of what court filings will be considered open records subject to public inspection.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Courthouse News Service

By KARINA BROWN

LOS ANGELES (CN) - The Catholic Church sent a child-molesting priest to Mexico instead of defrocking him, and has spent "many years ... engaging in the international trafficking of known child molesting priests," shuttling them between California and Latin America, a man claims in Superior Court.

The John Doe plaintiff claims that Father Nicholas Aguilar Rivera molested "numerous children" as a priest in Mexico in 1986. When parents and police confronted him, Cardinal Noriberto Rivera Carrera helped Rivers escape from Mexico by transferring him to a Los Angeles church, according to the complaint.

There, Rivera "immediately ... began having altar boys and students from the parish school come to his rectory bedroom," the lawsuit states. When one of the children complained to a church employee, the church allegedly transferred Rivera a second time.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Press Association

The Ryan Report into child abuse in the Irish Republic is being carefully considered in Northern Ireland, the Health Minister has said.

Michael McGimpsey's officials are considering whether there are any cross-border implications after the public inquiry in the south discovered thousands of victims of clerical sexual and physical violence.

CANADA
The Lawyers Weekly

By Norman MacInnes
Toronto
June 26 2009 issue

A woman who as a girl endured five years of sexual abuse by a priest that ended in a botched abortion has secured a settlement of almost $1.75-million.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of London, Ont. has agreed to pay Lou Ann Soontiens $1.745-million to settle her civil sexual assault suit. Costs, when settled, will likely push the total over $2-million.

“As far as we can determine, it is the largest settlement of an individual sexual abuse case in Canadian history,” Rob Talach told The Lawyers Weekly. Talach and Paul Ledroit of Ledroit Beckett in London, Ont. represented Soontiens.

IRELAND
DORCHA

Expulsion threat in secret documents

**Poster's Note: Please keep these words in mind when you read the following archived article from 2003: 'Lawyers point to a letter the Vatican sent to bishops in May 2001 clearly stating the 1962 instruction was in force until then. The letter is signed by Cardinal Ratzinger...' In case you have forgotten, Ratzinger is now the Pope. The time span in this article covers at least 5 popes, including Pope John XXIII, Pope John Paul II and the current man holding the title, Benedict XVI [a.k.a Ratzinger]

I note with interest the stories about how disturbed the Pope was at hearing the clerical abuse report from Ireland. I find this to be sheer hypocrisy, and I also do not think that asking for public apology from anyone even BEGINS to cover what must be done to bring even a tiny amount of justice for the victims. Nothing can ever make up for this obscenity and crime against humanity that has been covered up down through the years.

The reason I am posting this now has to do with the release of the Ryan report in Ireland, detailing the 'Endemic' rape and abuse of Irish children in Catholic care', which was also happening in the North of Ireland.

>>Read the 1962 Vatican document (PDF file)

MASSACHUSETTS
Church Abuse Law Blog

[video presentation]

January 2002 news report features Joe Bergantino of WBZ TV Boston. Once-secret trove of letters prove Boston Catholic cardinals had long supported serial child molester Fr. John Geoghan. The archdiocese cover-up unravels as the national Catholic sex abuse crisis gains

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

In the Melbourne County Court on 15 May 2009, a jury found a Catholic religious brother guilty of committing sexual offences against a 12-year-old boy in a Melbourne orphanage.

Brother John Francis Coswello (aged 70 at the time of the trial) has been a member of the Victoria-Tasmania province of the Christian Brothers for more than 50 years.

On 22 June 2009 Judge Ross Howie sentenced Coswello to two years and ten months jail, with a minimum of 15 months to be spent behind bars before becoming eligible for parole.

The charges related to St Vincent's Boys Home at 237 Cecil Street, South Melbourne, where Coswello worked durng the 1970s. The court was told that Coswello's duties included being in charge of a dormitory at night.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

June 22, 2009 06:03pm
THE Anglican Church's refusal to scrap an age limit for child sex abuse claims shows the church is protecting its money rather than its flock, says an abuse victim.

All states set a time limit, known as the statute of limitations, for personal injury victims to bring their cases to court.

In Queensland, a victim is required to launch legal action by the time they turn 21.

A motion calling for the Anglican Church to refrain from invoking the statute was rejected at the Brisbane synod yesterday.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Katherine Donnelly

Monday June 22 2009

Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe has ordered a review of how property valuations were agreed with religious orders to compensate victims of institutional abuse.

The high-powered internal review of the valuation process surrounding 64 properties was sanctioned amid claims the State was short-changed.

The unexpected twist brings into further disrepute the controversial €128m deal, which has resulted in the religious orders paying only 10pc of the total €1.2bn victims' compensation bill.

CONNECTICUT
New Haven Register

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport has come a long way from the dark days when complaints about priests who sexually abused boys were ignored and the priests shuttled to new assignments where they remained in contact with children.

Bridgeport was part of a plague of sexual predation that became an international church scandal.

In 2001 and 2003, the Bridgeport Diocese reached multimillion dollar settlements of lawsuits in which there were more than 50 claims of sexual abuse by its priests. At the time of the 2003 settlement, a spokesman for the diocese said the settlement was “all about transparency, ... about healing, about doing the right thing, about closure.”

MEXICO
Notisistema

Rafael Muñiz López (en la foto), sacerdote de Jalapa, Veracruz, era el principal proveedor de imágenes de menores de edad para una red de pornografía por Internet, según revelaron investigaciones de la Procuraduría General de Justicia del Distrito Federal (PGJDF).
Al informar sobre la consignación de seis de los siete implicados, el titular de la dependencia, Miguel Ángel Mancera, aseguró que gracias a la intervención de correos electrónicos y mensajes instantáneos por Internet de Muñiz López –quien se identificaba como Lobo Siberiano– se descubrieron miles de imágenes y videos de pornografía infantil, muchas de las cuales distribuía desde su parroquia y la Universidad Veracruzana.

[synopsis in English]

The Attorney General for the Federal District alleges that the Rev. Rafael Muniz Lopez of Jalapa, Veracruz, was a main supplier of images of child pornography to an internet network.

Miguel Angel Mancerea said that through emails and instant messages via the internet, authorities identified Lopez Muniz, who used the name Wolf-Siberian, as purveyor of thousands of images and videos of child pornography, many of which were distrubuted from the parish and Universidad Veracruzana. He added that he priest's brother, Francisco Javier, was released for lack of evidence. Investigation continues as an international network operates in Argentina, Brazil and Spain.

MEXICO
La Mujer de Purpura

viernes 19 de junio del 2009

La Arquidiócesis de Xalapa acusó a la Procuraduría del Distrito Federal de excederse en su actuación y fabricar pruebas qe inculpan a Rafael Muñiz López

La Arquidiócesis de Xalapa aseguró que con la consignación del sacerdote Rafael Muñiz López (acusado de delincuencia organizada y pornografía infantil calificada) se busca golpear a la Iglesia católica.

Indicó que "sin mayor fundamento y dolosamente", la Procuraduría General de Justicia del Distrito Federal (PGJDF) ejerció acción penal contra Muñiz López y lo consignó ante un juez del Reclusorio Norte.

Aseveró que la Procuraduría capitalina se excedió en su actuación e incluso fabricó pruebas.

[synopsis in English]

Women in Purple

Church Defends Priest Accused of Pedophilia

Friday June 19 2009

The Archdiocese of Xalapa has accused the Federal District Attorney of going too far in bringing charges against the Rev. Rafael Muniz Lopez who allegedly was found with child pornography on his computer.

The archdiocese said the charges are without foundation and were maliciously brought agains the priest by the Attorney General and recorded before a judge in the Reclusorio Norte. It is also alleged by the archdiocese that evidence was fabricated and that this constitutes persecution of the Catholic Church.

The priest was arrested April 17 in the parish of St. Peter the Apostle in Xalapa, Veracruz along with his brother Francisco Javier for alleged involvement in an international network of cyber-pedophiles.

IRELAND
Herald

By Peter DeRosa

Saturday June 20 2009

For 24 years, I wrote about sex abuse in the Catholic Church for the Herald and its sister paper the Independent. They fought hard to bring clerics to account and obtain justice for their victims. At a time when the hierarchy considered itself the real Government and politicians grovelled before the Pope and bishops, no word of mine, however harsh, was censored.

Here are a few excerpts from the scores of articles I wrote on this tragic topic.

In March 2002, Michael Woods boasted he'd got religious to pay €127m to compensate victims of State institutions.

"Extremely generous," said Bishop Walsh, chairman of the Bishops' Child Protection Committee.

I wrote: "Victim numbers may far exceed what Woods expects. The taxpayer could be left footing a huge bill for the unspeakable crimes against children that religious bodies have perpetrated over decades."

AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

June 21, 2009 - 11:54PM .
The Anglican Church in Brisbane has resolved to negotiate a protocol for waiving the time limit blocking child sex abuse victims from suing.

All states set a time limit, known as the statute of limitations, for abuse victims to bring their cases to court.

A motion calling for the church to stop invoking the statute, which is 21 years in Queensland, was debated at the Brisbane diocese annual Synod on Sunday, but did not pass.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Michael McKenna | June 22, 2009

THE Anglican Church yesterday voted down an internal push by clergy to drop the statute of limitations on legal action for child sexual abuse.

A motion before the three-day Brisbane synod, overseen by Primate Phillip Aspinall, would have set a nationwide precedent in exempting victims from laws that require they launch legal action by the time they turn 21.

Peter Shayler-Webb tabled a motion that said the legal defence "works great injustice to victims of child sexual abuse by preventing them bringing cases, whether they have merit or not".

UNITED STATES
The Washington Times

By Julia Duin | Sunday, June 21, 2009

I was at a book-signing event in Seattle a few months ago when I met Marilyn Christman, who asked me to look into the sexual abuse of Protestant missionary kids (MKs).

I ended up viewing "All God's Children: The Ultimate Sacrifice," a documentary by New York filmmakers Scott Solary and Luci Westphal. They were haunted by the stories of more than 80 children whose days at a Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA) boarding school in Mamou, Guinea, in West Africa sound like something out of Abu Ghraib: savage beatings, sexual abuse, rape and sadistic punishments.

Kids were beaten so hard the yardsticks broke. Old film footage of happy children at school — with classic hymns as the soundtrack — is juxtaposed with stern-faced adults describing the horrible things done to them. Mrs. Christman says she was raped by five male dorm parents starting when she was 8.

Time

By Amy Sullivan Sunday, Jun. 21, 2009

It's hard out there for a pope these days. On Thursday, Pope Benedict XVI launched what he is calling "The Year of Priests," exhorting Roman Catholics to spend the coming year honoring the sacrifice of their local pastors and directing priests to encourage each other so that they might, among other things, "be able to live fully the gift of celibacy and build thriving Christian communities."

Overshadowing the Pope's declaration, however, was the news that earlier in the week Father Alberto Cutie — the Miami-based priest and television personality who left the Catholic church last month amid soap opera-worthy scandal — had married his girlfriend of two years. Also making waves was the publication of former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland's memoir detailing his life as a closeted gay man within the church and the loneliness that drove him to pursue a sexual relationship with another man. Weakland, who stepped down seven years ago when he turned 75, the age when priests typically submit letters of resignation that the Church may or may not accept, is the highest-ranking Catholic leader to publicly reveal his homosexuality.

Although both he and Cutie have insisted they do not want to be held up as poster boys for changing the Church's celibacy requirement, their stories have added new fuel to a long-simmering debate. The Catholic Church in the U.S. has a serious priest crisis — the number of men entering the priesthood has dropped by 60% over the past four decades and the current average age of active priests is 60. Many dioceses have been forced to close parishes or import foreign priests to deal with shortages. But advocates of celibacy reform say there is a better solution: ditch the 900-year-old church law prohibiting priests from marrying or being sexually active.

IRELAND
Live Journal

By Diana Rusk
Irish News
19/06/09

THE publication of the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, detailing the shocking scale of the abuse of children in homes run by clergy, has encouraged many more victims to come forward.

Fr Patrick McCafferty, who was sexually assaulted at the hands of a priest and who now helps other abuse survivors, said the report published last month had empowered victims to tell their story and find help.

In 2003, after decades of silence, the Belfast-born priest spoke publicly about his ordeal, to encourage the many hundreds of other victims to find the strength to deal with the horrors of their past.

NEBRASKA
World-Herald

By Katie Fretland
World-Herald Staff Writer

A minister who served Spanish-speaking congregations in Council Bluffs and Lincoln has been charged with sexually abusing a child parishioner and forcing an adult woman to have sex with him.

Efrain Umana, 53, was extradited from Lincoln to Iowa last week. Tuesday night, he was released from the Pottawattamie County Jail after posting $50,000 bail.

According to an affidavit filed in Pottawattamie County District Court, Umana took the girl in 2003 to the sound room of the Council Bluffs church where he was pastor. He said he was looking for keys.

NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

First published in print: Sunday, June 21, 2009

The state Assembly should give serious consideration to the Markey/Duane Child Victims Act now before it.

All victims of childhood sexual abuse deserve access to civil court since access to the criminal justice system has been denied them forever by statutes of limitation.

It is unconscionable that the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church in New York has seen fit to oppose legislation that would hold sexual predators, no matter their religious affiliation, accountable for their crimes.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Dr Cyril Daly

Sunday June 21 2009

OVER the past several weeks, Irish people have suffered a sustained slur. The insinuations are grievous. And they are false. When children were being beaten in national schools and in secondary schools and in orphanages, Irish people, we are subtly invited to believe, did nothing and said nothing. That is a comprehensive lie. It is a deformation of Irish social and educational history.

Irish lay people did act, did speak, did organise, did demand and did finally force the authorities to stop corporal punishment in Irish schools. The last Irish child to be caned or strapped legally was caned or strapped on Friday, January 29, 1982 -- 27 years ago. From that date Irish people, by their sustained campaigns, forced Christian behaviour into our Catholic schools -- to the palpitating horror of priests, nuns, brothers and salt-of-the-earth lay teachers.

The strap was pulled from their hands. Not by Christian vision but by secular enforcement. That is a scandalous fact then, now and forever. We can never change that truth -- Christian values had to be forced by the secular arm of the State on teachers and religious. But we can, I hope, painfully but generously forgive.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sunday June 21 2009

PAYOUTS to victims of the recent earthquake in Italy had to be delayed last month after the number of people claiming for money turned out to be greater than the official population of the affected area.

The mayor of the worst hit town insisted indignantly that "the people of L'Aquila are not cheats", but he needn't have been so touchy. The prospect of money for nothing is bound to attract a few chancers. It's human nature.

It's become impossible, however, to suggest that any of those who claimed to have been the victims of abuse in Church-run institutions in Ireland might have been economical with the truth in the hope of financial gain, without being accused of siding with paedophiles. Even deviating by the slightest degree from the set of approved responses has become a risky undertaking. Fr Tom Coonan found that out last week when, during mass at St Joseph's church in Ballingar, Co Offaly, he observed that the boys sent to the nearby St Conleth's reformatory school in Daingean were... well, the next part is disputed.

YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
Vindicator

Published: Sun, June 21, 2009 @ 12:00 a.m.

Ever since the American Catholic Church was rocked to its core in 2002 by credible newspaper reports that the church’s hierarchy had covered up numerous incidents of sexual abuse of minors by priests, we have adopted a hard line against bishops and archbishops who have been identified as protecting the clergy.

Our position is that while priests who indulge in sexual abuse and pedophilia are being punished as a result of the outcry from Catholics and non-Catholics, the hierarchy has not been called to account. Some of the most influential bishops and archbishops have sought to silence the accusers of the abusive priests with monetary payoffs and to protect the priests by assigning them to other parishes.

We have often criticized the failure of those in charge to deal with this shocking scandal in an honest, open, Christian manner.

JAMAICA
The Gleaner

Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

THE ARREST of New York-based evangelist, the Reverend Dr Paul Lewis, has stunned the church community even as he remains behind bars at the Savanna-la-Mar police lock-up, in Westmoreland, facing charges of carnal abuse and indecent assault.

The charismatic Lewis, who was born in Jamaica, has developed a reputation as a minister with healing powers, and is the founder and president of The Messengers For Christ Ministries World Healing Centre based in New York.

But in Jamaica, Lewis is widely remembered as the man who baptised controversial dancehall star Desmond 'Ninja Man' Ballentine, who had a brief sojourn in the Church before returning to his secular ways.

IRELAND
The Times of Malta

Fr Joe Borg

"They raped me on a Saturday, gave me an unmerciful beating afterwards, and then gave me Communion on Sunday. My God."

This is just one quotation from the Ryan report or to use its official title 'The Report of the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse'. The report compiles 2,600 pages of documented experiences like the one above. It shows very clearly that physical and sexual abuse was endemic in Irish institutions for boys run by religious orders between 1940 and the late 1970s.

Hundreds of children were systematically beaten, flogged, kicked, physically assaulted, scalded, burned, held under water, beaten in front of other staff, residents, patients and pupils as well as sexually abused.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin said he was overcome with anger and disgust when he read the report, and at one point while reading it, he hurled the document across the room; later, he had trouble sleeping. Mgr Martin had openly opposed the effort of his predecessor, Cardinal Desmond Connell, to prevent the release of documents showing how the Dublin archdiocese handled sex-abuse complaints.

SYRACUSE (NY)
The Post-Standard

by Hart Seely/The Post-Standard
Saturday June 20, 2009, 3:50 PM
About 170 people from parishes throughout Central New York came together today in Syracuse to formally petition the Syracuse Catholic Diocese to reconsider its plans for consolidating and closing local churches.

The group will pass petitions and make a direct appeal to new Bishop Robert J. Cunningham, asking him to call a moratorium on the reconfiguration program, until the decision-making process has been reviewed.

Today's meeting at the Bishop Harrison Center on Lancaster Avenue brought speakers from several parishes that have been consolidated or face imminent closure. Some spoke of frustration with the system and the negative impacts they believe it has had on the church.

SYRACUSE (NY)
News 10 Now

[with video]

06/20/2009 06:44 PM
By: Tamara Lindstrom

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- About 100 people gathered in Syracuse Saturday in an effort to stop the Catholic Diocese from closing more churches.

"What we object to in the strongest terms is shutting down a vibrant, financially strong Catholic community because we see that as a continuation of a retreat which Catholicism is now engaged in," said Peter Borre, chair of the Council of Parishes located in Boston. Borre has fought reconfiguration in Boston for five years, and was brought in to give the parishioners advice.

The Syracuse diocese has closed dozens of churches in the last three years, and more mergers and closings are in the works.

KENYA
Saturday Nation

By GITAU WARIGI, gwarigi@nation.co.kePosted Saturday, June 20 2009 at 18:10

Perverts have had a bad time this past week, which is just as well. They are a creeping menace. I am told they are considered the lowest of the low by even hardcore convicts. They are terribly humiliated by fellow inmates when they are sent to Kamiti or Shimo la Tewa prisons.

One of them was arrested recently when he foolishly presented himself at a Nairobi studio to collect photographs from a film he had sent to be developed. It contained pictures of naked women and – hello – children. I am on the prudish side, but I know very well that there is a thriving underground market for such pornographic enterprise in this country and beyond; it is something akin to the market for hard drugs.

No question about it: the Internet has been a revolutionary purveyor of every bit of information one can think of. This also means it can be used to transmit every kind of smut imaginable. ...

The august institution called the Catholic Church has been caught up in this messy mix. The
allegations affect a missionary and former columnist for this newspaper, Fr Renato Kizito. Simultaneously, the controversy over priests who have chosen to break with the church because of mandatory celibacy rules has been getting wide play.

As far as I know, a Catholic priest takes certain vows, one of which is celibacy. Nobody drags him into it. If along the way he loses the vision, it is quite hilarious to blame the church.

ASHEVILLE (NC)
Citizen-Times

Staff Reports • June 20, 2009 12:15 AM

ASHEVILLE — A court hearing for a former priest accused of deleting hundreds of child pornographic images from the home computer of his music minister has been continued until August.

The Rev. John Schneider is scheduled to have a probable cause hearing Aug. 14 on a felony charge of obstruction of justice. Schneider, 56, resigned from St. Eugene Catholic Church following his June 9 arrest.

A warrant states that Schneider entered the North Ridge Drive apartment of former music minister Paul Lawrence Berrell on May 18 and deleted hundreds of pornographic images of children “in secret and with malice” during a criminal investigation of Berrell.

KENYA
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation

Written By: Wangari Kanyongo, Posted: Sat, Jun 20, 2009

Beneficiaries of Kivuli Rehabilitation Centre ran by a Catholic Church priest at the centre of a child abuse scandal have come out to strongly defend their benefactor.

The beneficiaries under the umbrella of the Kivuli Old Boys Welfare Association (KOBWA) say the centre's founder Father Renato Kizito is being framed by his detractors.

The old boys who were joined by the children from the centre say that their image has been tarnished by reports that their benefactor has been sexually abusing some of them.

IRELAND
The Sunday Times (Philippines)

By Fr. Shay Cullen

It was not so much a “march of misery” than one of memories. There was plenty of both as many as five thousand people walked silently through the streets of the capital Dublin to the seat of the Irish government, Dail Eireann, to remember the thousands of children who suffered abuse in the more that 216 Irish institutions run by religious orders for 70 years until they were closed down in the late 1970s. I marched with them to remember and walk in solidarity and to join my voice to those who have vowed to defend children’s rights without compromise.

There were survivors on the march, the relatives of the victims and thousands of supporters. It was dignified and yet emotional. Christine Buckley, a survivor and campaigner for justice for victims of clerical abuse, spoke powerfully of the 10 years of struggle to have their voices heard, their suffering acknowledged and just recompense made. “This was the day they were all striving for,” she said. The long awaited Ryan Report on the history of child abuse in the Church-run industrial schools finally exposed the extent and severity of the physical, psychological, emotional and sexual abuse they suffered.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

[with audio]

(20 June 09 - RV) On Saturday Pope Benedict made a series of appointments.

He named Monsignor Damiano Marzotto Caotorta, under secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Msgr. Caotorta replaces Archbishop-elect Di Noia who has gone to fill the post of under secretary at the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.

Also Saturday the Holy Father appointed Indian Divine Word Missionary Alex Thomas KALIYANIL Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Bulawayo Zimbabwe.

The Archdiocese has been without a pastoral leader since the resignation of Archbishop Pius Ncube in 2007.

ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe Guardian

Nancy Pasipanodya

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:13:00 +0000

POPE BENEDICT XVI has appointed Indian Divine Word Missionary Alex Thomas Kaliyanil Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Bulawayo Zimbabwe, replacing disgraced Archbishop Pius Ncube who stepped down in 2007.

The Archdiocese has been without a pastoral leader since Ncube's resignation. A fierce critic of President Robert Mugabe, Ncube was forced to step down after he was accused of having an affair and fathering a son with a Ms Rosemary Sibanda.

The Archbishop elect, who was born in the Archeparchy of Changanacherry in India, has served as a missionary priest in Zimbabwe since 1987 when he was solemnly professed as a Divine Mercy Missionary. He was ordained a priest in 1988.

MISSOURI
Columbia Daily Tribune

A Moberly pastor was acquitted Tuesday in Boone County Circuit Court on a charge of second-degree child molestation.

James M. Wilson, 42, of Renick still faces a Sept. 14 trial in Randolph County on a kidnapping charge. Wilson, who is also the principal of Terrill Road Christian Academy in Moberly, was found not guilty by Associate Circuit Judge Larry Bryson on the molestation charge.

Wilson’s 16-year-old accuser told authorities Wilson took her in May 2008 from Moberly to a Columbia hotel, where she claimed that he fondled her. Boone County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Scholz said Bryson determined certain aspects of the girl’s testimony were not credible.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Duke Helfand
June 19, 2009
A former altar boy sued the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles on Thursday, alleging that he was sexually abused by a priest in 1987 shortly before the priest fled to his native Mexico to avoid criminal prosecution over other molestation allegations.

The plaintiff, now 32, alleges that when he was 9 or 10, Father Nicholas Aguilar-Rivera molested him repeatedly at a Catholic church near downtown Los Angeles.

The lawsuit asserts that an official with the archdiocese later encouraged Aguilar-Rivera to leave Los Angeles after parents of several children from the parish reported similar abuse to church officials.

NEW YORK
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

By Howard Campbell
Associated Press
and Ryan Thompson
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — A Brooklyn-based Pentecostal faith healer who has led crusades around the world was charged last week with sexually abusing a teenage girl in his native Jamaica.

Paul Lewis, of the The Messengers for Christ World Healing Center in Bedford-Stuyvesant, was charged with carnal abuse and indecent assault in an incident involving a 15-year-old girl in the western Jamaican city of Negril, police said.

Lewis, 45, made an initial court appearance on the charges but did not enter a plea. A judge ordered him held without bail.

VIRGINIA BEACH (VA)
The Virginian-Pilot

The Virginian-Pilot
June 19, 2009
By Ricardo Lopez

Virginia Beach police arrested a Sunday school teaching assistant Friday after reports of sexual abuse by a child in his class, police said in a news release.

Shea Mathew Huffman, 18, has been charged with custodial indecent liberties and forcible sodomy. Huffman worked at Calvary Assembly of God at 4925 Providence Road. The alleged abuse occurred from January 2008 until June 2009, police said.

NETHERLANDS
Expatica Netherlands

More than 400 cases of sexual abuse by clergy have been reported in the Netherlands since 1995

The Netherlands - The allegations were made on Friday night by television programme Zembla.

Among the victims are people who sought council from both Catholic priests and Protestant ministers.

The offenders include clergy holding a variety of functions and ranks.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Formally opening the Year for Priests, Pope Benedict urged all priests to strive for holiness and said the ordained ministry was indispensable for the church and the world.

"The church needs priests who are holy, ministers who help the faithful experience the merciful love of the Lord and who are convinced witnesses of that love," the pope said at a prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica June 19.

At the same time, in an apparent reference to cases of priestly sex abuse, he warned of the "terrible risk of damaging those we are obliged to save."

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY Alison Gendar
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF

Saturday, June 20th 2009, 4:00 AM

A Brooklyn pastor was busted in his native Jamaica for having sex with a 15-year-old girl while a 14-year-old watched, authorities said yesterday.

The Rev. Paul Lewis, founder of the Messengers for Christ Ministries World Healing Center, was held without bail on charges of carnal abuse and indecent assault, Jamaican police said.

The Bedford-Stuyvesant evangelist was arrested Wednesday after witnesses saw him hanging out with the girls and then taking them to a hotel, police said. Lewis, 45, who was on the island for a crusade at a local church, is accused of offering the girls between $30 and $60 for the romp.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

Why is it that child sex abuse was more prevalent in Irish Catholicism than elsewhere? To answer that question it is necessary to go back to the Famine and examine how sex became a taboo, writes PATSY McGARRY

YOU MIGHT have seen that report on the RTÉ TV news last Monday from Charlie Bird in Mendham, New Jersey. There, they erected the first monument in the world to victims of clerical child sex abuse.

It is a 180kg basalt stone, in the shape of a millstone, with a chain running through it. An inscription attached reads, in those unequivocal words of Jesus from Matthew’s gospel, concerning those who would harm the young: “It would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea”.

The monument was inspired by a suicide, in October 12th, 2003, of 37-year-old James Kelly, who had been sexually abused as a child by a priest in Mendham. His abuser was Fr James Hanley, who had served at St Joseph’s parish in Mendham.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Ryle Dwyer

Saturday, June 20, 2009

WHILE Eamon de Valera was dreaming of comely maidens dancing at the crossroads, young boys were being flogged and buggered by a sordid assortment of perverted clergy and depraved Christian Brothers.

He should have known what was going on, but he chose to ignore it, just as we are ignoring things now.

Edward J Flanagan, who was born near the Galway village of Ballymoe in 1886, emigrated to the United States in 1904. He studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1912 and went to minister in Nebraska. In 1917 he founded a home for homeless boys in Omaha, and later set up Boys Town about 10 miles outside the city in 1921.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

BRIAN KAVANAGH

CHURCH OF Ireland Primate Archbishop Alan Harper welcomed an audit report of church work with young people as good news for Irish children and those who work with them, at a time when the country is still reeling from the fallout of the Ryan report on child abuse in industrial schools.“It is important to say that there is a great amount of good news out there, a lot of positive things that need to be said, and it would be an enormous pity if the good news was, so to speak, blocked out by the enormous furore of the negative,” the archbishop said.

“That is not to minimise the negative experiences of those who have suffered in the past, except to say that isn’t the whole story, its only part of the story,” he added.

The archbishop was joined by Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews and representatives from youth agencies at the report launch in Church of Ireland House in Dublin yesterday.

UNITED STATES
The Irish Times

KEVIN CULLEN in Boston

AN AMERICAN watchdog group says it is preparing an American version of the Ryan report to document the abuse of children and young adults in institutions run by religious orders in the United States.

It says it is also building a pair of databases that will name Irish priests and religious who abused minors in Ireland.

Officials at BishopAccountability.org, the Boston-based group that grew out of the scandal of the cover-up of sexual abuse of minors by priests that rocked the US Catholic Church seven years ago, said they were inspired to compile evidence of institutional abuse at some 1,000 institutions across the United States after reading the Ryan report.

Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, said the Catholic Church in the US was modelled on the Irish Catholic Church. Indeed, at the turn of the 20th century, the vast majority of priests in the US were Irish. To this day, about two-thirds of American bishops are of Irish descent.

CANADA
Catholic Culture

June 19, 2009
The former webmaster of the northern Canadian Diocese of Mackenzie-Ft. Smith has pled guilty to internet child-pornography charges. Charles McGee-- who was also an attorney-- had been convicted twice for sexually assaulting young girls.

“When he was hired with us a year and a half ago, it was felt that it was a second-chance opportunity in a totally safe setting in terms of no contact with minors,” said Bishop Murray Chatlain, who apologized last month for the systemic abuse of Native American children in residential schools.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

June 19, 2009
This week's extraordinary meeting at the Vatican, in which the Pope and leaders of the Roman Curia conferred with a delegation of Austrian bishops, was called because the Pontiff is "upset over how [the Austrian bishops] have allowed rebellions and abuses to run free," reports Sandro Magister of L'Espresso. "The statement released at the end of the meeting didn't say so, but for two days in a row the Austrian bishops faced severe criticism," Magister continues.

KENYA
Daily Nation

By DOMINIC WABALA
Posted Friday, June 19 2009 at 20:14

Investigations into claims of sexual abuse of four boys by a Catholic priest entered their second day on Friday with one of the boys allegedly failing to implicate the cleric.

A senior police officer said that one of the boys claimed he could not recall being abused by the priest, Father Renato Kizito.

The three other boys are reported to have accused the priest, who runs a home for destitute boys, of sexually abusing them. But a police doctor’s medical examination of the four did not find any conclusive evidence that they had been sexually abused.
The alleged victims, aged 11, 17, 24 and 25 years, were scheduled to be examined again yesterday.

FLORIDA
ABC Action News

Reported by: Carly Timmons
Email: ctimmons@abcactionnews.com

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL -- A Tampa Pastor was arrested for lewd & lascivious molestation from a March 2007 incident.

In March 2007, Jose Dossantos unlawfully touched a 12-year-old female victim without her consent.

Dossantos was 40-years-old at the time and a church pastor.

UNITED STATES
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen
Friday, June 19, 2009
LIBERTY, Mo. (ABP) -- Southern Baptist ministers in three states facing molestation charges had recent days in court.

FLORIDA
TBO

TBO.com Staff

Published: June 19, 2009

A church pastor has been charged with lewd and lascivious molestation in connection with a March 2007 incident involving a 12-year-old girl.

Jose A. Dossantos, 42, of 7013 Early Gold Lane, Riverview, was arrested Thursday and released from jail today after posting a surety bond.

Jail records indicate Dossantos is the pastor of Potters House Church.

KENYA
allAfrica

Comboni Missionaries, the religious congregation of a priest accused of child molestation, has said it expects justice to prevail in the matter.

"We Comboni Missionaries are shocked and saddened by the accusations against one of our own priests, Fr. Renato Kizito Sesana. Fr. Kizito has been involved in many humanitarian projects for the good of the people of this country," the congregation said in a statement signed by the Provincial Superior, Fr. Mariano Tibaldo.

"We totally submit to the law of the country but we underline that no one is guilty until proven so. So let justice prevail. We likewise want to submit to the indications of the Holy See. In this difficult moment let Fr. Kizito feel we are near him with brotherly care.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THE POPE has deplored acts of infidelity by priests and has called for “a frank and complete acknowledgment” of the Catholic Church’s weakness.

In what is being interpreted as an indirect response to the Ryan report, as well as to clerical sex abuse generally, he said yesterday that there had been “situations which can never be sufficiently deplored where the church herself suffers as a consequence of infidelity on the part of some of her ministers”. ...

However one US victims’ group said yesterday that his words of sorrow “ring hollow”.

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests, said: “It’s tiresome again to see verbal Vatican posturing about clergy sex crimes devoid of any action whatsoever or any admission that the real issue remains: callous bishops who continue to recklessly and deceptively transfer sexually troubled priests to unsuspecting parishes.”

ARKANSAS
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

BY CHARLIE FRAGO

Posted on Friday, June 19, 2009

A 44-year-old Little Rock man should be allowed to revive a civil suit contending that he was abused more than three decades ago, his attorney argued before the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday.

Paul Barre's suit against a former scoutmaster, the Boy Scouts of America and Our Lady of the Holy Souls Catholic Church was dismissed in 2007 by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Ellen Brantley because the three-year statute of limitations had run out.

Barre said he didn't remember the abuse he blamed on Charles Emmett "Chick" Hoffman Jr. until 2003, after work with a therapist allowed him to recover the repressed memory of being fondled and receiving oral sex at age 12 by Hoffman at a Scout camp.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

CAROL COULTER, Legal Affairs Editor

THE RYAN Commission Inquiry into the Abuse of Children in Institutions might not have been necessary if freedom of information legislation existed, according to Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly.

Speaking at a conference on the Freedom of Information Act organised by Public Affairs Ireland, she asked: “What might have been the outcome if 30 years ago, FoI legislation had allowed the public to rip away the secretive bureaucratic veils that hid the industrial schools and other institutions from clear view and exposed the practices therein?

“Leaving aside the abuse itself, a money trail might have uncovered the commercial exploitation of the children and the mismatch between State funding and the actual amounts parcelled out to the children by way of food, clothing and education.

SAN ANTONIO (TX)
Express-News

By Abe Levy on Jun 18, 09 12:51 PM

As the national body of Catholic bishops launched its spring meeting at a River Walk hotel Wednesday, a handful of protesters were denied access to deliver a letter of concern about pedophile priests in Ireland, a problem they believe the bishops have so far ignored.

Addressed to Cardinal Francis George, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the letter asks the bishops to condemn the child sex abuse scandal recently made public in an Irish government report -- and reveal any ties to the U.S. Catholic Church.

The letter questions specifically whether pedophile priests from Catholic orphanages, boarding schools and other residential programs in Ireland were sent to similar institutions in the United States only to contribute to the pedophile priest scandal here, which became widely known in 2001.

IRELAND
CathNews

Ryan Commission Report on abuse in institutions, Christian Brothers congregational leader, Br Philip Pinto, has called on the brothers to become "more human and compassionate" and to "seek forgiveness" from victims.

The 2,600 page report found that for decades rape was "endemic" in more than 250 Irish Catholic institutions from the 1930s to the 1990s, and that the Church protected pedophiles in its ranks from arrest.

In a letter sent to Christian Brothers throughout the world, Br Pinto said the report was "very critical" of many institutions, including those run by the Christian Brothers, and the findings "leave us all ashamed and humbled".

UNITED STATES
United Press International

Published: June 18, 2009 at 9:00 PM

WALTHAM, Mass., June 18 (UPI) -- Catholic schools in the United States may have had the same pattern of abuse revealed by the Ryan Report in Ireland, a Massachusetts group says.

BishopAccountability.org, based in Waltham, posted a list on its Web site of 12 Roman Catholic schools where teachers or other staff members have already faced charges of molesting children, The Boston Globe reported Thursday.

The Ryan Report documented years of sexual and physical abuse of boys and girls in institutions run by the Christian Brothers, Sisters of Mercy and other Catholic religious orders. While most of the abuse occurred years ago, the report has sparked a call to end the church's dominant role in education.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Brendan Keenan

Friday June 19 2009

AFTER the twin scandals of Anglo-Irish Bank and the Ryan report into institutional abuse, Ireland needs to restore its damaged international reputation by applying high standards of governance, a major cross-border economic conference heard yesterday.

Frances Ruane, director of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) said it was an "unfortunate coincidence" that the evidence of wrongdoing at Anglo and the Ryan report came so close together.

"There is a real issue about restoring our reputation," she told the conference organised by InterTrade Ireland, the cross-border development body.

CALIFORNIA
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling
Creator, City of Angels Blog

Plaintiffs claim new evidence shows defendant frequently received reports of molestation which were either never documented or the documentation was ‘lost.’ (- Judge granting new trial in Fresno this week)

Plaintiffs also question: If this new witness and his mother reported pedophile behavior in 1967, why is there nothing about the report in the files defendants turned over before the first trial?

A date for new trial should be set at a status conference in Fresno July 15th.

Trying to prevent the new trial, Defendant the Bishop of Fresno claimed since they turned over the name of this new witness during pretrial discovery, his testimony is hardly new evidence. Defendants say plaintiffs had plenty of time to find him and interview him before the March 2009 trial.

MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald

Now that ex-priest Alberto Cutié is a married man, a honeymoon should be in the making for him and his bride Ruhama Buni Canellis.

Instead, the couple will battle in court with the bride's ex-boyfriend, who says they owe him $15,000 and that the newlyweds conspired with Biscayne Park cops to kick him out of the picture.

In a lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, Maxi Paulus Ratunuman, 44, says Biscayne Park police arrested him without cause on June 6 while he was installing floor tiles in a customer's house on Griffing Boulevard.

JAMAICA
Go Jamaica

Attorney-at-law Michael Erskine, who is one of the lawyers representing the international pastor arrested on allegations of engaging in sexual activities with two teenaged girls in Jamaica, says he will be seeking bail for his client.

Reverend Dr. Paul Lewis was remanded yesterday when he appeared in the Sav-la-mar Resident Magistrates Court in Westmoreland.

Mr. Esrkine says he will be making a bail application in the Supreme Court next week.

COUNCIL BLUFFS (IA)
KETV

COUNCIL Bluffs, Iowa. -- A pastor in Council Bluffs has been accused of sexually assaulting at least two women and one girl during the past six years.

An affidavit out of Pottawattamie County details allegations against Efrain Umana.

Umana was arrested in Lincoln and paid bond Thursday to be released from Pottawattamie County Jail, said Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilbur

JAMAICA
Dominica News

BY CMC

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC - A United States-based Pentecostal pastor has been charged for allegedly sexually abusing a teenage girl in Jamaica.

Paul Lewis, 45, was questioned in the presence of his attorney Michael Erskine Wednesday and later charged with carnal abuse and indecent assault for an alleged incident involving a 15-year-old girl.

The pastor is accused of carrying out the act at a hotel in the western city of Negril.

Lewis, who was born in Jamaica but lives in New York, was arrested on Sunday just as he was about to preach at a crusade.

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Bay Guardian

By Rachel Buhner

The highly anticipated showdown between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese and the San Francisco Assessor-Recorders Office came to head June 16th in the Atrium conference room located at One South Van Ness. At stake is millions of dollars in revenue to the city, and perhaps the question of whether the Catholic Church will be able to hide hundreds of millions in assets from sexual abuse victims and other litigants.

Arguing in front of the Transfer Tax Review Board, the legal counsel for both the RCA and the Assessor-Recorder’s Office presented their respective cases with minimal theatrics. However, with the city estimating the total property values of the transferred parcels ranging anywhere from $210 million to $1.25 billion, and the potential transfer tax payout to be somewhere between $3 and $15 million – on top of increased property taxes as the properties are reassessed -- there was clearly at a lot at stake for both parties.

Each side began by offering arguments for and against the payment of the transfer taxes, with little new information being offered beyond previous filings. Using PowerPoint presentations, intricate graphs and convoluted Canon Law citations, the counsels presented their reasoning as to why the taxes are owed, or why the RCA should be exempt.

READING (PA)
Reading Eagle

They are more than naked, the girls lined up side by side while nuns taunt them about the most intimate parts of their bodies. Charity and mercy are missing in this asylum for girls caught kissing boys, for being raped or in some cases, for simply being too pretty.

While the nuns throw their taunts like so many darts, some of the girls cry; some stare through their tormentors, numb to the mistreatment.

In Peter Mullan's shattering film from 2002, "The Magdalene Sisters," scene follows scene in which the nuns humiliate, abuse and otherwise deny the humanity of a sampling of the 30,000 girls believed to have been persecuted in these Irish asylums over a century. The last Magdalene Asylum closed in 1996.

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Paul Osborne
June 19, 2009 - 4:29PM
Anglican leader Archbishop Phillip Aspinall has called on all states to make it easier for child sexual abuse victims to sue churches.

Archbishop Aspinall's call comes in the wake of an independent report commissioned by his church which found it took on average 23 years for a victim of sexual abuse to report their abuse.

All states set a time limit, known as the statute of limitations, for abuse victims to bring their cases to court.

IRELAND
An Phoblacht

BY MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA

ONE of the most emotional demonstrations ever seen on the streets of Dublin was witnessed in Ireland and beyond these shores last week. Thousands of people who had been abused as children in institutions run by Catholic religious orders and by the state walked from Parnell Square to Leinster House on the eve of the Dáil debate on the Ryan Report.

The Ryan Report has documented a catalogue of horrific abuse of children stretching over decades and cover-up of that abuse by church and state. It has reopened the debate on the flawed 2002 deal between the Fianna Fáil/PD Government and the religious orders and it has led to calls for more support for the victims and action to aid children at risk today. Further revelations are expected in the forthcoming report on clerical sexual abuse in the Dublin diocese.

Speaking in the Dáil debate on the Ryan Report, Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin called for the establishment of an independent international audit of the assets of the religious orders responsible for systematic child abuse.

WASHINGTON (DC)
The Examiner

By: Maria Schmitt
Special to The Examiner
06/18/09 8:21 PM EDT

Three men have alleged in lawsuits that they were sexually abused decades ago by a Washington-area priest.

One of the alleged victims, George Thompson, now lives in Arizona. He said in his lawsuit that Joseph Dooley sexually abused him while Dooley was monsignor at St. John the Baptist Church in Silver Spring and Thompson was a teenage parishioner.

Thompson alleges the attacks occurred between 1963 and 1967.

Two other men, who do not want their names to be made public, allege in another suit that Dooley abused them while they were young parishioners of Dooley’s in the late 1950s through the mid-’60s at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Bethesda and Annunciation Catholic Church in Northwest Washington. One of the men says he served as an altar boy and was only 9 years old when the abuse started.

VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By RACHEL DONADIO
Published: June 18, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI called on Thursday for a “frank and complete acknowledgment” of the “weaknesses” of priests and denounced those who did not honor their vows. It was the pope’s first statement on such matters since a state-appointed commission in Ireland last month reported “endemic” sexual and physical abuse in church-run residential schools there from the 1930s to the 1990s, when the last of the institutions closed.

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 19, 2009 - 10:44AM
Anglican leader Archbishop Phillip Aspinall has been called on to drop the time-limit defence blocking child sex victims from suing for abuse in church schools and parishes.

Brisbane priest, the Reverend Peter Shayler-Webb, will move a motion at this weekend's Brisbane Anglican synod calling for the church not to invoke the statute of limitations.

The motion says that the legal defence "works great injustice to victims of child sexual abuse by preventing them bringing cases, whether they have merit or not".

NEW YORK
The New York Times

By PAUL VITELLO
Published: June 18, 2009
ALBANY — The political education of Beth McCabe began a few years ago, when she took her turn at the microphone here during a Senate committee hearing on childhood sexual abuse.

As Ms. McCabe, a consultant for nonprofit groups, testified about being abused as a 10-year-old, and saw the pained reaction of elected officials in the hushed room, she had a kind of epiphany, she said: that maybe her personal story — painful and private for so many years — would have the power to change public policy.

It was a moment of pure insight, common to many of the volunteer advocates who have been trawling the Capitol hallways for months, lobbying for a bill that would permit adults to file suit over childhood sexual abuse that may have occurred long ago.

PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Friday, June 19, 2009
By Jonathan D. Silver, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A veteran Catholic priest recently accused of a long-ago sexual assault was abruptly told to pack his belongings and leave his parish in short order, the pastor's lawyer said yesterday.

John P. Liekar Jr. said the Rev. David F. Dzermejko told him that a priest from the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh "met with him, made the allegation and told him to get out. He had one hour to gather what he could and he had to get out on the street."

The diocese on Monday placed Father Dzermejko, 61, on administrative leave from Mary, Mother of the Church parish in Charleroi while an internal inquiry runs its course.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By David O'Reilly
Inquirer Staff Writer

A nephew of the late New York Cardinal John O'Connor says he was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest while a student at Father Judge High School in Northeast Philadelphia.

Attorneys for Rich Green, O'Connor's 31-year-old nephew, announced yesterday that they were filing a lawsuit in Delaware against the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, whose Wilmington-Philadelphia Province dispatches teachers to schools from Boston to Florida.

The suit alleges that the late Rev. John M. McDevitt, an Oblate, abused Green in the early 1990s when Green was a 14-year-old freshman at Judge and McDevitt was his religion teacher.