NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald
01.04.05
By CHRIS BARTON
The Takapuna Assembly of God has misled its congregation about allegations that its head pastor, Wayne Hughes, sexually abused a teenager.
A statement read out during a service on Good Friday claimed that police had looked into the sexual abuse allegation against Mr Hughes and "they found no basis to substantiate those claims whatsoever".
But the victim, who was abused about 20 years ago, has never laid a complaint with police.
Asked whether the statement he read was inaccurate, Pastor Duane Newport said: "It’s just too premature for us to make any comment. We are looking into all the issues."
After the Herald published the allegations last week, the church board and pastors agreed, based on medical and spiritual advice, that Mr Hughes should "take a timely break".
PROVIDENCE (RI)
Times Leader
MICHELLE R. SMITH
Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - A bishop from Ohio was appointed to lead the Providence Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church Thursday, as the Vatican accepted the resignation of retiring Bishop Robert Mulvee.
Bishop Thomas Tobin, who turns 57 on Friday, has led the Youngstown Diocese and its 236,000 Catholics since 1995.
"I will do my very best. I will work hard. I will give my heart and soul to this diocese," Tobin said, adding that his top priority in the next few months will be "to listen and to learn."
Mulvee introduced Tobin, a Pittsburgh native who previously served as an auxiliary bishop in the Pittsburgh Diocese, at a morning news conference at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Providence. He called him a "young bishop," and said he had worked with Tobin in the past. ...
Tobin said he would continue to address the issue of clergy sex abuse, saying that the Providence Diocese "had an outstanding track record" on the issue. It reached a $14.25 million settlement in 2002 with 37 people who had sued the diocese over clergy sexual abuse.
Tobin said last year that 19 priests in the Youngstown diocese had been accused of sexually abusing children since 1950, but none since 1991. The diocese paid about $200,000 from 1950 to 2003 for counseling for victims and their families and paid about $300,000 to settle claims, Tobin said at the time. The diocese began a policy in 1994 of not offering settlements.
Thomas A. Shipka, chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University, praised Tobin's response to the clergy abuse crisis.
"He moved, I thought, in this diocese very quickly on that sex abuse issue and set up a committee that involved non-Catholics, even non-Christians, and I think he acted responsibly," Shipka said.
BILLERICA (MA)
Lowell Sun
By JACK MINCH and MATT MURPHY, Sun Staff
BILLERICA -- After working closely with Rev. Michael Randone for nearly three years, St. Theresa's pastor said he came to know a priest sincerely committed to helping the youth of his Billerica parish.
But yesterday, Rev. Eugene Tully called his former colleague to offer some friendly words of comfort, a day after Randone was fired from his post at Central Catholic High School in Lawrence and resigned his parish in Haverhill amid allegations that he sent inappropriate online messages to students.
“I didn't want to call him to get information or details. I spoke to him briefly to tell him we were thinking of him and that to let us know if we could do anything to help,” Tully said. “I think he's upset, very saddened and hurt.”
Randone, 36, was fired Tuesday as Central Catholic's part-time chaplain because he was instant-messaging students over the Internet in violation of policy, according to the school.
He could not be reached for comment yesterday.
One message was sent to a juvenile female, according to a published report that quoted a Department of Social Services official. School officials reportedly
said the message was of a sexual nature.
MASSACHUSETTS
Valley Advocate
by Maureen Turner - March 31, 2005
The sheer number of abuse charges filed against Catholic priests in recent years has had the sad effect of making the victims seem almost like a faceless, indistinguishable mass. And the ways in which their stories are revealed -- sound-bite stories of decades-old crimes, many committed by men who are now retired, perhaps even dead -- can allow an already overwhelmed public the comfort of some psychological distance.
But there´s no comfort for the victims, the very real people who had very real atrocities committed against them by people who were long considered beyond reproach. Phil Saviano knows this all too well: four decades ago, as a young boy in the small town of East Douglas, Mass., he was sexually abused, he says, by his pastor, the Rev. David Holley. Like many victims, Saviano felt scared and ashamed, and he kept his mouth shut. The abuse ended when Holley was transferred from the parish without explanation.
Years later, as an adult, Saviano picked up the newspaper and saw that Holley had been arrested for molesting kids at another parish in New Mexico. It was one of a number of cases making news in the early Œ90s, when the first wave of the priest-abuse scandal broke. And it prompted Saviano to begin dealing with what had happened to him all those years ago -- talking to his family, his therapist, and the media. (See Telling Secrets, Dec. 19, 2002, www.valleyadvocate.com.)
Saviano filed suit against the Worcester diocese, which, after years of legal wrangling, settled his case in 1996. The next year, he founded the New England chapter of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
HUDSON (WI)
Ironwood Daily Globe
By MARGARET LEVRA
Globe Staff Writer
HUDSON, Wis. -- Authorities who are completing their investigation into the 2002 double-murder case in Hudson told the Daily Globe that substantial evidence points to the guilt of the Rev. Ryan Erickson, the Hurley priest who committed suicide four months ago.
"We do not have a confession, but we do have some statements he (Erickson) made," Trende said. "We're going in the right direction. It appears we are close to wrapping things up. If there are some things different that turn up, it may change the whole scenerio.
"We have to verify information. We can't go to court with this one."
The murder investigation by Hudson Police into the shooting deaths of Dan O'Connell, 39-year-old father of two, and his 22-year-old intern began in February 2002, after the two were found slain at a funeral home operated by O'Connell. There were few developments in the case until detectives traveled to Hurley late last year to question Erickson. ...
When investigators came to Hurley late last year, they also questioned Erickson about an allegation of a crime involving a child or children. Trende said both the murder case and the possible crime against a child or children were being handled at the same time. He would not comment on whether the cases were connected.
AUSTRALIA
The Daily Telegraph
By LUKE McILVEEN and MARK SKELSEY
April 1, 2005
A SEX company which sells pornographic films with titles such as Fresh Meat has emerged as a key financial backer of children's rights crusader Hetty Johnston.
Adultshop.com was one of three porn companies which contributed a total of $4322 to Ms Johnston's failed bid for the Senate.
The internet porn shop -- which sells DVDs with titles such as Fresh Meat, 18 and Nasty and 18 and Easy -- gave Ms Johnston more than $1500 to run for the Senate.
Ms Johnston -- who led the campaign against former governor-general Peter Hollingworth over his handling of child sex abuse by other clergy -- has gone to ground and is refusing to comment on the scandal.
She this week denied being a hypocrite for accepting money from hard-core pornographers to further her political career.
HAYWARD (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, March 31, 2005
The drug and alcohol problems and anxiety that have plagued two former altar boys are in large part the result of the brothers' being victimized as children by a sexually abusive priest, two clinical psychologists testified Wednesday in the civil case against the Oakland Diocese.
Tom Thatcher, 33, suffered from "social phobia" and a methamphetamine addiction after the Rev. Robert Ponciroli abused him in the early 1980s at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Antioch, psychologist Thomas Joiner of Tallahassee, Fla., told a Hayward jury.
Thatcher's troubles emerged when he hit puberty, becoming confused in sexual and social situations, Joiner said. Memories of the abuse were "like a time bomb in his head that really exploded in adolescence," Joiner testified.
Thatcher's brother, Bob, 34, meanwhile, developed generalized anxiety disorder, abused alcohol, had intimacy issues with his wife and was overcome with guilt that both he and his brother had fallen victim to Ponciroli, psychologist Janet Sonne told jurors.
TEXAS
TCU Magazine
By Saedra Pinkerton
Escorted by officials into the high-security prison in Huntsville, Texas, documentary filmmaker Lisa Freberg '85 was far from the career she set out to claim when she left TCU with a radio-TV-film degree.
She had created a dream résumé after graduation, making commercials for corporate giants Nike, Budweiser and McDonald's. She established herself in the Dallas market, then made the producer's quintessential leap, heading west to Los Angeles where her career flourished.
It was Freberg's sister, a California attorney, and a beleaguered young client she was helping who inspired Freberg to focus on a radically different genre. The decision would involve a heartbreaking journey into the lives of sexually exploited boys -- and into the minds of the Catholic priests who hurt them.
Freberg's sister took on her first abused client in 1997, years before the priest abuse scandal hit the national media. Since attorney-client privilege prevented her sister from discussing the case, Freberg turned to the court record to learn more.
"When I read it, I wept," she remembers. "The priest was a really sick man. And the leadership of the church didn't do anything to help him or the victim. I thought, ‘This needs to be exposed.' "
CANADA
Edmonton Sun
CP
LONDON, Ont. -- A Brazilian couple filed a lawsuit yesterday against the Roman Catholic Diocese of London, claiming sexual harassment by a priest at a London church. In their statement of claim, the couple allege the priest used his position as their spiritual leader and supporter of their immigration application first to demand sexual favours from the woman and, later, to quell the complaint.
Jose and Isabel Do Prado, in Canada on visitor's and work visas while they apply for landed immigrant status, filed the $3.1-million suit in Superior Court in London.
Named as defendants are Rev. Lucio Xavier Couto, Bishop Ronald Peter Fabbro and the diocese.
The diocese released a statement last night about the lawsuit: "The Diocese of London has received a statement of claim alleging misconduct by one of our priests. We take all such allegations very seriously. We are studying the statement of claim and we will prepare our response."
The statement of claim contains allegations not yet proven in court.
It states that Isabel Do Prado suffered "sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, sexual assault and battery" at the hands of Couto while working as a housekeeper at the rectory of Holy Cross church between September 2000 and May 2002.
SIOUX CITY (IA)
Sioux City Journal
By Nick Hytrek Journal staff writer
The number of pending clergy sexual abuse lawsuits filed against the Catholic Diocese of Sioux City is down to six after the recent settlement of several of the cases.
With 10 more settlements, 16 cases have been settled this month.
Of the recent settlements, nine alleged sexual abuse by the Rev. George McFadden. The other accused the late the Rev. Everett Apt.
All settlements included monetary payments to the alleged victims, but no total is being disclosed.
"Those victims that have completed settlement have taken the first step toward closure of the trauma inflicted upon them. Those victims who have settled have requested confidentiality in relation to the settlement details," said their attorney, Scott Rhinehart of Sioux City.
Mike and Dirk Jablonski, Kim Henshaw, Ron Verbeski, Kathleen Baker, Terri Huff, Delno J. Pinney III, Don Miller and Joseph Boyok all had alleged that McFadden had sexual contact with them while he was pastor of Sioux City's St. Francis of Assisi parish, which is now closed.
William Fisher had claimed Apt had sexually abused him while serving as pastor at Sacred Heart parish in Alvord.
SCRANTON (PA)
UofSNow.com
Written by Joshua P. Stewart
Thursday, 31 March 2005
SCRANTON - Former University of Scranton professor Fr. Albert Liberatore will face trial for three felony abuse charges May 4 in a Manhattan court.
Liberatore faces a single charge of first degree sodomy which is defined by New York as "deviate sexual intercourse with another person by forcible compulsion or who is incapable of consent by reason of being physically helpless or who is less than eleven years old or who is less than thirteen years old and the actor is eighteen years old or more," and two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree which, according to New York statute, is sexual contact by force or threat of force.
According to New York penal statutes, if convicted of any of the charges, Liberatore would have to register as a sex offender. The sodomy charge carries up to a 25 year imprisonment. The two abuse charges carry up to seven year imprisonments each.
In May 2004 Liberatore was arrested in Lackawanna County following allegations that he sexually abused a former altar boy from his parish, the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Duryea. According to documents from Luzurne County district attorney David Lupas, multiple incidents of sexual abuse occurred in Liberatore's office in St. Thomas Hall.
The allegations were the result of an investigation in Luzurne and Lackawanna Counties initiated by the Diocese of Scranton, Luzurne County district attorney records say.
SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
The Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD, Mass.— Two Roman Catholic bishops are among seven deceased priests named in a clergy sexual abuse lawsuit filed by a Texas man serving a 50-year prison sentence for murder.
Church officials said they have found nothing in their records to support the allegations, and defended the late bishops and priests.
William E. Burnett, 64, claimed in the suit, filed Tuesday in Hampden Superior Court, that he was abused in the 1950s by several priests, including former Springfield Bishop Christopher Weldon, former Worcester Bishop Timothy Harrington and former Monsignor Raymond J. Page.
Burnett, a Springfield native, who currently is serving a 50-year prison sentence for the 1990 murder of a Texas businessman, claimed in the suit that he was introduced to the other clergy by Page, who was his uncle.
His lawyer, Carmine Durso of Boston, said his client had passed two lie detector tests.
However, church officials questioned Burnett's motives and credibility.
VATICAN CITY
Boston.com
March 31, 2005
VATICAN CITY -- The pope on Thursday accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert Mulvee as leader of the Providence, R.I., Diocese, submitted for reason of age, the Vatican said.
Mulvee turned 75 on Feb. 15, the normal retirement age for bishops.
Pope John Paul II named Bishop Thomas Tobin of Youngstown, Ohio, as Mulvee's successor, the Vatican said.
Mulvee was ordained in 1977 as auxiliary bishop of Manchester, and was named the Bishop of Wilmington, Delaware in 1985. He joined the Providence Diocese in 1995 as Coadjutor Bishop, and was named bishop two years later.
He previously served at a number of parishes in New Hampshire, and received his doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.
Mulvee has said that he will remain active in the church, even after his retirement.
The Providence Diocese is the 25th largest diocese in the United States, and covers the state of Rhode Island, with 152 parishes and about 679,000 members.
It reached a $14.5 million settlement last year with 37 people who had sued the diocese over clergy sexual abuse.
BROWNSVILLE (TX)
Brownsville Herald
By LAURA B. MARTINEZ
The Brownsville Herald
March 31, 2005 — Discussions are under way for the establishment of a local chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Miguel Prats, state coordinator for the Texas chapters, said he has been in “serious discussions” with victims of abuse for setting up a Rio Grande Valley chapter.
“The chances are good that we will have a chapter, but there is a lot to starting a SNAP chapter,” Prats said in a telephone interview from Houston. “When I’m dealing with victims, I have to give them plenty of space. … We have already been through hell and back.”
SNAP is a volunteer self-help organization comprised of survivors of clergy sexual abuse and the survivors’ supporters. Its mission is to support one another by healing and by pursuing justice and institutional change by holding perpetrators responsible and the church accountable, according to its mission statement.
Prats said the discussion of a Valley Chapter began less than two weeks ago following the March 16 publication of a story of former Monsignor Ivan M. Rovira’s alleged abuse of two boys that happened 24 years ago.
CANADA
London Free Press
JOE BELANGER, Free Press Reporter 2005-03-31 03:23:34
A couple from Brazil filed a $3.1-million lawsuit yesterday against the Roman Catholic diocese of London, claiming sexual harassment by a priest at a London church. The couple alleges the priest used his position as their spiritual leader and supporter of their immigration application, first to demand sexual favours from the woman and later to quell the complaint.
Jose and Isabel Do Prado, who are in Canada on visitors' and work visas while they apply for landed immigrant status, filed the suit yesterday in Superior Court.
In an interview, Jose Do Prado said the couple filed the lawsuit because they want people to know the truth.
"We don't want people to be misled. We want justice."
Named as defendants are Rev. Lucio Xavier Couto, Bishop Ronald Peter Fabbro and the diocese.
In a statement last night, the diocese said: "The diocese of London has received a statement of claim alleging misconduct by one of our priests. We take all such allegations very seriously. We are studying the statement of claim and we will prepare our response."
The statement of claim contains allegations not yet proven in court. It states that Isabel Do Prado suffered "sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, sexual assault and battery" at the hands of Couto while working as a housekeeper at the rectory of Holy Cross Church between September 2000 and May 2002.
The suit claims that when the Do Prados confronted Couto, both were "wrongfully" fired.
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Melanie Burney
Inquirer Staff Writer
A former altar boy says he was sexually abused by three former priests in Cumberland County, but repressed the childhood memories for years.
In a civil suit filed yesterday in state Superior Court in Camden, Darren K. Leibow of Millville also alleges that top church officials, living and dead, conspired to cover up the abuse.
The lawsuit alleges the abuse occurred between 1986 and 1991 and involved priests then assigned to St. Michael's Church in Cedarville. Two have died, and the third was defrocked.
At the time, Leibow, now 28, was head altar boy at Our Lady of Lakes in Laurel Lake, a mission chapel of St. Michael's.
The priests gave Leibow gifts, such as money, baseball cards and a cross, and used threats and intimidation to keep him from disclosing the abuse, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit mirrors a 1994 case brought by 23 men and women who said priests in the Camden Diocese had sexually abused them. Although a judge dismissed the complaints because the statute of limitations had expired, the diocese in 2003 agreed to pay the plaintiffs $880,000.
SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Republican
Thursday, March 31, 2005
By BILL ZAJAC
wzajac@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - Bishops Christopher J. Weldon and Timothy J. Harrington are among seven deceased priests being accused of sexual abuse by an imprisoned Texas murderer, whose brother has raised concerns about the validity of the claims.
The suit, which was filed yesterday in Hampden Superior Court by Boston lawyer Carmen L. Durso, names the Springfield and Worcester dioceses as defendants. The seven priests served in either one diocese or the other or both after the Springfield diocese was split in two in 1950 to create the Worcester diocese.
William E. Burnett, a 64-year-old Springfield native who is serving a more than 50-year sentence in prison for the 1990 murder of a retired businessman, said in the suit that he was introduced to the priests through his uncle, Monsignor Raymond J. Page, who also is accused by Burnett of abusing him. The abuse allegedly began around 1950, when the accuser was 9 years old.
The other priests named in the suit are the Revs. Bernard L. Doheny, George A. Berthiaume, James T. Walsh and Oscar Gatineau.
Diocesan and lay individuals expressed support for the accused priests and concerns about the accusations.
"We have nothing in our records that in any way would provide support for these allegations," said the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, in a statement.
"I would hope that the names of good priests and bishops who cannot defend themselves are not being impugned for ulterior motives," McDonnell's statement read.
UNITED STATES
Fort Worth Star-Telegrm
By Rachel Zoll
The Associated Press
America's Roman Catholic bishops started an online survey of clergy sex-abuse victims Wednesday, asking how the church can better help them recover and protect young people in the future.
Advocacy groups said they were pleased that the bishops wanted to improve their outreach. But they wondered what more could be said on the topic after three years of damaging revelations about dioceses mishandling abuse cases.
"The needs and complaints of survivors have been well-expressed time and time again," said Sue Archibald, head of the victim-advocacy group The Linkup. "I don't know what really remains unknown in terms of what the problems are. Rather than continuing to gather information, I'd much rather see action."
Through the Web site, the bishops are asking victims to evaluate how diocesan officials responded to abuse claims, where church leaders failed in their reaction and how they can support victims as they heal.
"The horrific experience of being sexually abused is best understood by the survivors of this crime," said Archbishop Harry Flynn, chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram
By Darren Barbee
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
A former Nolan Catholic High School employee ac-cused of sexually abusing a teen-ager in the 1980s has voluntarily stepped down from his post at a Missouri prep school while the religious order he belongs to investigates.
The man, a brother of the Marianist religious order, had a position of authority over students while he was a Nolan employee. He is not being identified because he has not been charged with a crime.
"He is specific in his denial that there was no inappropriate conduct with any of the students at any point in his career," said Diane Guerra, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Marianist Province in St. Louis.
Guerra said that no allegations have been brought against the man in the two years he has been employed by the Missouri school. Parents of children who attend the Missouri school will be notified by letter about the allegations regarding his time at Nolan Catholic, Guerra said. The letter also asks anyone with additional information about sexual abuse to come forward.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Kathleen A. Shaw TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
kshaw@telegram.com
William E. Burnett of Texas, who court documents identify as a nephew of the late Monsignor Raymond J. Page, filed suit yesterday in Hampden Superior Court in Springfield alleging he was sexually abused during the 1950s by his uncle, as well as by Bishop Timothy J. Harrington and the Rev. Oscar Gatineau, all of whom were assigned to the Catholic Diocese of Worcester at the time, and by four clergymen assigned to the Springfield Diocese.
No public allegations of sexual misconduct have previously been made against the three. Mr. Burnett, 64, is serving a 60-year prison term in Tennessee Colony, Texas, on a murder charge.
The suit also names Bishop Christopher Weldon of Springfield and the Revs. Bernard L. Doheny, George Berthiaume and James Walsh, priests of the Springfield Diocese. All seven clergymen named in the suit are deceased.
Bishop Robert J. McManus said yesterday that the diocese learned of and investigated the allegations several years ago, finding no substance to them. “It is profoundly troubling that this suit is attempting to malign the reputations” of the three Worcester clergymen “who had dedicated themselves to serve the people of the Worcester Diocese and, now deceased, cannot defend themselves.”
Mr. Burnett is represented by Boston lawyer Carmen L. Durso, who said his client became eligible for parole in November. According to the suit, the abuse of Mr. Burnett started when he was 10 and continued until 1959. Mr. Durso said Mr. Burnett did not make the connection between the alleged sexual abuse and the harm that it caused him until 2002.
The lawsuit maintains that Mr. Burnett was sexually abused by Monsignor Page from age 10 to 16 after he told his uncle that Rev. Doheny had sexually abused him. The alleged incidents occurred at a cabin owned by Monsignor Page in Holland and at the rectory of St. Anne’s Shrine, Fiskdale, according to the suit. The alleged abuse was witnessed by Rev. Gatineau, according to the suit. Mr. Burnett claims that he was sexually abused by Rev. Gatineau from age 12 to13 in the Holland cabin and at the St. Anne rectory.
Mr. Burnett alleges he was sexually abused three times between age 11 and 15 by Bishop Harrington at the Holland cabin and at the St. Anne rectory, and that Monsignor Page witnessed the alleged incidents. Bishop Harrington became head of the Worcester Diocese in 1968.
Bishop McManus said the diocese interviewed Mr. Burnett’s family and conducted “a thorough examination of diocesan records” when the allegations first surfaced. The diocese reported the allegations to District Attorney John J. Conte’s office and notified Mr. Burnett of this, the bishop said.
The lawsuit, according to the bishop, “has left the Page family heartbroken as they bear one more injustice by this nephew of Monsignor Page, as Mr. Burnett is serving a 60-year sentence for murder in Texas. We fear that it is also an injustice to the victims who seek to have their credible stories of abuse heard in order to find healing in their lives,” Bishop McManus said.
“We stand by the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, which states explicitly, ‘When the accusation has proved to be unfounded, every step possible will be taken to restore the good name of the priest or deacon ,’ ” the bishop said.
FAIRBORN (OH)
WHIO
POSTED: 12:21 pm EST March 30, 2005
UPDATED: 2:15 pm EST March 30, 2005
FAIRBORN, Ohio -- Fairborn police arrested a Zanesville pastor Tuesday night who they said was looking for sex from a 14-year-old girl.
Police said Graham Phillips 24, from North Terrace Church in Zanesville, traveled to Fairborn, where he planned to meet the teen for sex. The teen he was chatting with online turned out to be a Fairborn detective.
Authorities said that Phillips had been chatting online with the undercover detective around St. Patrick’s Day. They said he even used the church’s computer for the online chats.
Investigators said Phillips had a hotel room key on him and said that he had reserved a room that he was going to take the 14-year-old girl to. Phillips is being held in the Fairborn Jail.
HUDSON (WI)
River Towns
By Meg Heaton
The Hudson Police Department may be nearing the end of its investigation into the murders of Dan O'Connell and James Ellison.
HPD Chief Dick Trende met with investigators Jeff Knopps and Shawn Pettee and others involved in the case earlier this week to review the information gathered over the three-year investigation.
Last year the investigation began to focus on Father Ryan Erickson's involvement in the case and in a separate investigation into his possible criminal activity involving minors. Erickson, who was an associate pastor at St. Patrick's Church at the time of the murders, committed suicide last December after being questioned about both investigations. He allegedly denied any wrongdoing to friends and in suicide notes he left behind.
Trende said significant information in both investigations has surfaced in recent weeks that has confirmed the department's interest in Erickson, and investigators have been spending time verifying it. Knopps said most of the people they have contacted have cooperated with them, and this has led to new or corroborating information.
BEAVERTON (OR)
KOIN
Tim Gordon, KOIN News 6
BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Near Beaverton during Easter mass, a 10-year-old girl says she was the victim of a sex-related crime.
Detectives are investigating the case, where a man allegedly exposed himself to the girl.
A peaceful place, celebrating one of Christianity's most important days. Now Holy Trinity Catholic Church is dealing with an un-holy event.
"Yes, we put a notice in the bulletin about it and we'll be speaking about it to people also," Father John McGrann said.
McGrann is talking about what apparently happened to a 10-year-old girl on Easter Sunday, when she went unattended to the bathroom.
The girl told the priest that during the busy mass, she was lured by a man she didn't know. He allegedly exposed himself to her, and convinced her to do the same.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Monterey Herald
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Summaries of the personnel files of about 200 priests named in civil molestation lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will become public within two weeks unless the state Supreme Court steps in.
A judge had ordered a temporary ban on making the summaries public while an attorney representing 26 of the accused priests filed a petition with the 2nd District Court of Appeals. On Tuesday, the three-member appellate panel rejected attorney Donald Steier's petition to make the ban permanent, meaning the files could become public as early as April 12 when the temporary ban expires.
Steier said Wednesday he would likely ask the California Supreme Court to review the case.
The summaries, called "proffers," were prepared by plaintiff and archdiocese attorneys as part of a court-ordered mediation process aimed at settling some 550 molestation lawsuits filed against the archdiocese. The lawsuits were filed under a 2002 state law that suspended for one year the statute of limitations for filing civil molestation claims.
"(The summaries) were prepared pursuant to mediation orders and those are clearly protected from disclosure in the absence of a waiver from all of the interested parties," Steier said.
Ray Boucher, the lead plaintiffs' attorney, was on vacation and could not be reached for comment.
NORTH CAROLINA
NBC 17
POSTED: 4:26 pm EST March 30, 2005
UPDATED: 4:38 pm EST March 30, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A judge on Wednesday refused to lower a $1 million bond on a Cary youth minister charged in a child pornography case.
Jeffrey Morgan Smith, 41, was charged Tuesday by Apex police with nine counts of second-degree exploitation of a minor and one count of third-degree exploitation of a minor.
The charges stem from photos of nude children that were e-mailed from Apex to a teenager in Rockford, Ill., police said.
"Some were individual, some were not. Some were more than one child in the photo," said Sgt. Ann Moore, of the Apex Police Department.
For the past three years, Smith has worked as youth and family pastor at Peace Presbyterian Church, in Cary, where he primarily worked with high school students.
"We don't feel like he has molested any children or that any children in the youth group at church or in this area need to be concerned," Moore said.
Police searched Smith's Apex home on March 15 and confiscated several computers. His church office wasn’t searched.
NEW YORK
Editor & Publisher
By Graham Webster
Published: March 30, 2005 6:00 PM ET
NEW YORK The San Francisco Chronicle ran an unusually long correction this week amending a two-week-old story about a preliminary ruling in two cases of alleged sexual abuse by clergymen.
The blog Regret The Error called attention to the five-paragraph correction.
"The story was essentially a story about the judge's ruling that punitive damages could be sought in the case," Steve Proctor, deputy managing editor at the Chronicle, told E&P. "Fundamentally the story itself was not wrong." But both the headline and the story's text, however, could be misleading, he said.
The correction came after a lawyer for the Catholic Church sent a letter to the Chronicle's publisher with copies of the March 11 story and the court transcript, noting inconsistencies.
WASHINGTON (DC)
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
WASHINGTON (March 30, 2005)—The U.S. Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse has launched a survey of survivors of clergy sexual abuse of minors to get input into improving the church’s response to the problem and its prevention.
The survey will be conducted by Mary A. Lentz, an Ohio-based child abuse prevention consultant. It will be available on-line March 30-May 4 on the website dedicated exclusively to this project, www.victim-outreach.com.
It will not be possible for anyone to determine the identity of respondents, who also are asked not to identify themselves, their abuser, or the abuser’s diocese or eparchy or religious community. Instructions stress that “Reports of abuse are to be made to law enforcement officials and officials of the diocese/eparchy where the abuse occurred.”
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Mabis Wood, a founding member of St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Antioch, couldn't understand why her 13-year-old son, Troy, suddenly refused to go anywhere near "Father Bob."
It was 1982. Troy had always looked up to the priest, the Rev. Robert Ponciroli, as a second father. He'd served as one of his parish altar boys and volunteered to cut the grass outside his suburban rectory.
"Troy started having all these excuses for not going over to cut the lawn, '' Mabis Wood recalled in a Hayward courtroom Tuesday. "He didn't want to be around the church and he did not want to talk about why.''
Wood and her husband questioned their son and found out why.
Troy Wood explained the reason in court himself on Tuesday. He said he had been enticed up to the priest's bed, told to take off his shirt and grabbed from behind for an extended round of "tickling."
UNITED STATES
Boston Herald
By Associated Press
Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - Updated: 11:41 AM EST
The nation's Roman Catholic bishops said Wednesday that they are asking victims of clergy sex abuse around the country to fill out a survey on how church leaders can better help them recover and protect young people from predators in the future.
Through the Web site www.victim-outreach.com, the bishops are asking victims to evaluate how diocesan officials responded to their abuse claims, what church leaders could have done better and how they can support victims heal.
``The horrific experience of being sexually abused is best understood by the survivors of this crime,'' said Archbishop Harry Flynn, chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The survey is anonymous, with researchers promising that there will be no way to identify victims who participate. Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the bishops' conference, said safeguards have been built in to weed out any fake responses.
The abuse crisis began in January 2002 with the case of one accused priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, then spread throughout the country and beyond. Since then, the bishops have adopted a toughened discipline policy dealing with guilty clergy, enacted child protection and victim outreach plans in dioceses and removed hundreds of accused priests from church work.
IRELAND
One in Four
Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent - Irish Times
Nine of Ireland's 26 Catholic dioceses have yet to indicate how much they contributed to the church's Stewardship Trust and how this money was raised.
All nine are in the Republic and include the archdioceses of Tuam and Cashel & Emly.
Trustees of the Stewardship Trust, which is responsible for paying the cost of compensation and services to victims of clerical child sex abuse, are the four Catholic archbishops in Ireland.
These include the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, and the Archbishop of Cashel & Emly, Dr Dermot Clifford.
The remaining dioceses yet to disclose are Achonry, Ardagh & Clonmacnoise, Meath, Kildare & Leighlin, Killaloe, Cashel & Emly, Ossory, and Cloyne.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
Wednesday March 30th 2005
THE central fund set up by the Catholic bishops to compensate abuse victims and pay for child protection services may be radically restructured as concerns grow in the hierarchy that it is not working as intended.
There are concerns that some dioceses are drawing on the trust to a disproportionate extent, resulting in a potentially unfair financial drain on other dioceses.
The Stewardship Trust established in 1996 received a €10m cash injection from Church & General, the Church's insurer. That money has all but run out, meaning the trust is now funded directly by the 26 dioceses, with €5m a year.
Sources in the hierarchy have told the Irish Independent of growing concerns on how the trust is run.
While the trust has to date paid €8,781,592 to dioceses to help with compensation payments, €6.22m of this, or 70pc, has gone to just two dioceses, Dublin and Ferns. Dioceses are paying into the fund according to their share of the Catholic population.
If this trend continues, it could mean that dioceses with few claims against them could end up heavily subsidising others. There is also wide variance between what different dioceses pay to victims. The average payout from the Dublin diocese is about €91,000, including costs, while the diocese of Killaloe has paid an average of €132,000 to two victims, also including costs.
NEW YORK
New York Newsday
BY HERBERT LOWE
STAFF WRITER
March 29, 2005, 7:45 PM EST
A Pentecostal minister and his wife lashed out at his accusers Tuesday after a Queens jury found him not guilty of having sex with a teenage church member after telling her God wanted him to.
Bishop William Waynes happily left State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens with his wife and supporters, while the alleged victim, her family and other former congregation members lagged behind, disappointed.
"Any pastor that would accept these people as members, beware," said Waynes, 47, pastor of New Beginnings Outreach Love Center in East Elmhurst.
His wife, Eunice Waynes, said "I really feel very bad" for the young woman, now 21, who testified that William Waynes first kissed and fondled her when she was 15 -- and then seduced her into a four-year sexual affair after telling her it would help her become a great evangelist.
"I'm sad that she is a schizophrenic and a pathological liar," said Eunice Waynes.
However, at least two jurors among the panel of 10 women and two men said they believed the woman, even if they could not vote to convict on the charges, third-degree rape and endangering the welfare of a child.
"We knew that he was wrong, but they didn't prove it," Juror No. 2, who would not give her name, said of the prosecution. "It's not that we didn't think he was guilty," said Juror No. 3, who only gave her first name, Ashley. "It's just that there was insufficient evidence."
NEW YORK
New York Post
By ALEX GINSBERG
March 30, 2005 -- A Queens minister on trial for seducing an underage parishioner into a church-office tryst five years ago strode out of court yesterday — cleared of all charges.
"I want to thank the men and women of the jury and certainly my attorney and my wife and family," said a restrained William Waynes, flanked by scores of loyal parishioners, several acting as bodyguards.
But the newly cleared holy man didn't stay on the high road for long, lashing out at his accuser and her family.
"Any pastor that would accept these people as parishioners, beware," he said.
And the pastor's wife, Eunice Waynes, took a shot at the accuser, telling reporters, "I'm sorry to have learned that she is a schizophrenic and a pathological liar."
Waynes, the 47-year-old pastor of the New Beginning Outreach Love Center on Northern Boulevard in Corona, was cleared of third-degree rape and child-endangerment charges after less than three hours of jury deliberation.
NORTH CAROLINA
WFMY
Raleigh, NC -- A youth minister is being held in jail after authorities accused him of sending pornographic pictures by e-mail to a 16-year-old in Illinois.
Jeffrey Morgan Smith of Apex is charged with nine counts of second-degree exploitation of a minor and one of third-degree exploitation. He's being held under a million dollars bail.
Apex police say arrest warrants accuse Smith of sending pornographic photos of boys to the teenager, who lives in Rockford, Illinois. Investigators don't believe he took or created the photos. Warrants also say Smith had a pornographic picture of the Illinois youth.
Smith worked as a pastor for youth and family at Peace Presbyterian Church in Cary, which church officials say is a parish of the Presbyterian Church in America.
TOLEDO (OH)
WTOL
TOLEDO -- A judge has sentenced a Roman Catholic deacon to three years and one month in prison for possession of child pornography. 46-year-old J. Michael Tynan pleaded guilty in November after US Customs agents confiscated his laptop last June and found more than 600 pornographic images.
The Reverend Michael Billian, a spokesman, says the Toledo Diocese has asked the Vatican to remove Tynan from the ministry. Until that happens, Tynan remains an ordained deacon.
In a story first broadcast last October, News 11 reported Tynan was an intern at Saint Aloysius Church in Bowling Green for about 10 months. The diocese says it has not had any complaints about Tynan at that church. "Nothing came up in any of the evaluations that there was something inappropriate," said Billian in an interview from October 2004.
The pastor of Saint Aloysius, Father Ed Schleter, didn't go on camera in October, but did say he thought Tynan was going to be a good priest, and related well with all ages. He calls the news about Tynan's charges disappointing and discouraging.
LAWRENCE (MA)
Boston Globe
By David Abel, Globe Staff | March 30, 2005
A Catholic high school in Lawrence fired its volunteer chaplain yesterday, after it was alleged the priest had sent inappropriate electronic messages to students.
The Reverend Michael C. Randone, 36, also resigned yesterday as pastor of Haverhill's Sacred Hearts Parish, where he had served since July 2003, said officials of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.
A spokesman for Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said the office is investigating the allegations against Randone.
One instant message sent under Randone's screen name included what Lawrence Central Catholic High School officials called offensive content. A family member of the recipient notified the school, triggering the investigation that resulted in Randone's firing last week.
Randone denied sending the message and told school officials someone must have used his account to send the message.
It was allegedly the third time Randone had violated the school's policy on ''appropriate boundaries" between adults and students.
He received a verbal warning in 2002 and a written warning in 2003 for what school officials described as ''off-campus contact with students, unrelated to school business."
Central Catholic's president, Brother Richard Van Houten, said yesterday that in one of the earlier incidents, Randone was seen in a restaurant with a group of young people and that in the other he was seen with a group of young people in a car. There ''was absolutely nothing criminal or sexual," Van Houten said, but ''socializing with kids off campus is something we don't permit."
LAWRENCE (MA)
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - Updated: 04:51 AM EST
A priest has resigned as pastor of a Haverhill church after he was fired from his position as a school chaplain for exchanging ``inappropriate'' electronic messages with three students, officials said.
The Rev. Michael C. Randone resigned from Sacred Heart parish after Central Catholic High School in Lawrence fired him last week, based on three violations of its policy discouraging off-campus contact with students that is unrelated to school business.
None of the three instances school officials were able to verify were sexual in nature, said Brother Richard Van Houten, the school's president, but one message, which Randone denies sending, included ``offensive content.''
MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press
BY STEVE SCOTT
Pioneer Press
Tensions flared again between a clergy sex-abuse victims group and Roman Catholic Church leaders in St. Paul over the identification of an alleged perpetrator who has been dead more than three decades.
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis earlier this month revealed that one new alleged perpetrator of child sex abuse was identified last year but said it will not identify him because he is deceased.
The Minnesota chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests on Tuesday named a priest it believes committed the abuse.
The archdiocese vigorously defended the priest identified by Minnesota SNAP as innocent and called the group's actions "grossly negligent and irresponsible.''
"This is an outrageous falsehood that defames the name and career of a faithful and beloved priest,'' Archbishop Harry Flynn said in a statement. "It is beyond comprehension that anyone would be this irresponsible and callous.''
Belinda Martinez, survivor liaison for Minnesota SNAP, said the group identified the priest based on earlier reports that the recently accused priest died in 1971. TheAbuse Tracker Catholic Directory shows five priests in the archdiocese died in 1971.
CALIFORNIA
Regret the Error
The San Francisco Chronicle has published a lengthy correction after it apparently "mischaracterized" comments by a judge in a case against the Catholic Church. "Sensationalized" may be a better description.
A March 11 story about a lawsuit filed against the Catholic Church in Oakland, alleging the diocese allowed two brothers to be molested by a priest the church knew to be a child molester, mischaracterized comments made by the judge in the case.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Harry Sheppard did not "rip" the actions of the church, as stated in the headline.
The story also mischaracterized Judge Sheppard's comments when it stated: "Calling the Catholic Church's conduct 'outrageous, oppressive and malicious,' an East Bay judge ruled Thursday that two alleged sexual abuse victims may seek punitive damages against the Diocese of Oakland." The judge's full remark was: "The conduct of the church as alleged text: and I'm not saying what's going to be proven, because I don't know what's going to be proven text: but as alleged, the conduct is outrageous, oppressive and malicious as alleged, and it was done with a conscious disregard for persons that they were entrusted to protect, being children."
WEST VIRGINIA
WVNS
Story by Josh DeVine Email | Bio
It was a note featuring a cartoon character on the front and an invitation for sex inside.
Detectives say 53-year-old Robert James Duke walked into the Church of God in Liberty Addition and sat down behind a unidentified 9-year-old girl.
Duke's registry on the State Police Web site spells out his prior crimes, including 10 counts of sexual abuse and sexual assault on three boys.
The church's pastor, speaking exclusively with West Virginia Media said he knew about the man's past and that parishioners watched closely over his actions and interactions with children.
That foresight saved the innocence of the 9-year-old girl.
Harrison County Prosecutor Joe Shaffer said a man sitting next to the young girl saw what Duke had written. Shaffer said he instantly took the note from the girl before she had a chance to read it.
CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise
11:32 PM PST on Tuesday, March 29, 2005
By MARY BENDER / The Press-Enterprise
A jury on Tuesday convicted a former youth pastor and onetime volunteer Corona Centennial High School football coach of 15 felony counts involving sexual abuse of two teenage girls.
The six-man, six-woman jury found Joseph Mario Arredondo Jr., 29, guilty of having sexual intercourse with a minor, oral copulation and penetration with a foreign object. The girls, 15 and 17 years old at the time, were students at Corona High School and members of Norco-based New Beginnings Christian Church, according to Deputy District Attorney Blaine Hopp.
"He took advantage of a position of trust and a position of authority and exploited it. Both of the girls had been counseled by him," Hopp said.
The trial before Riverside Superior Court Judge Russell Schooling began March 14. The jury reached a verdict on Monday, but it was sealed until Tuesday, when all parties were available to return to court, Hopp said. Arredondo will be sentenced June 10 and faces up to 13 years in prison.
"My client is innocent. The jury made a mistake," defense attorney Alexander Petale said Tuesday evening by telephone.
EDINBURG (TX)
The Monitor
March 30,2005
Brittney Booth
The Monitor
EDINBURG — Former Trinity Worship Center minister Robert Dale Franklin will spend six months in jail and a decade on probation after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy who he had agreed to spiritually mentor.
State District Judge Mario Ramirez on Tuesday sentenced Franklin, 38, after hearing testimony from the boy’s family, Franklin’s supporters and Franklin himself.
"There is no excuse for any of your actions," the judge told Franklin who pleaded guilty last week to two felony counts of sexual assault and admitted to a drug problem.
Franklin’s guilty plea halted a jury trial and allowed him to avoid 10 other felony counts a grand jury indicted him with, including charges he gave marijuana and cocaine to the boy.
In addition to the jail time and probation, Ramirez ordered Franklin to complete 240 hours of community service and pay a $10,000 fine.
UNITED STATES
The Heartland Institute
Written By: Brian L. Carpenter
Published In: School Reform News
Publication Date: April 1, 2005
Publisher: The Heartland Institute
Like urban public schools across America, urban Catholic schools--especially in the Midwest and Northeast--are buckling under financial pressure. With expenses up and enrollments down, Catholic leaders often have no choice but to merge schools or shutter them altogether.
A report published in April 2004 by Sister Dale McDonald for theAbuse Tracker Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) indicates that during the 2003-04 school year, 123 Catholic schools nationwide were "consolidated or closed."
In February, the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago announced plans to close 23 elementary schools. Dozens more are slated to close in other cities.
But in contrast to their public school counterparts, research shows Catholic schools--even those predominantly serving poor, minority students--are often academically successful. ...
Added to these problems are shrinking charitable contributions to the church and parish closings. Catholic officials attribute these to a host of problems including financial losses from recent attention to past priest sexual abuse, economic conditions, and a shortage of priests entering the vocation. Ultimately, fewer parishes means less parish financial support for schools.
IRELAND
Waterford Today
By Deirdre Dalton
Waterford Today can reveal that the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore has to date, had no claims of child sexual abuse brought against them.
According to Fr. Liam Power, Communications Officer, Diocese of Waterford and Lismore “one claim concerning C.S.A (Child Sexual Abuse) has been brought but ultimately did not proceed.”
However it should be noted that this refers strictly to the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore and cases have been brought against other religious orders in Waterford who aren’t governed by the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore.
Stewardship Trust
Meanwhile in 2004 the Diocese contributed e166,000 to the Stewardship Trust which was set up by the Catholic Church to fund compensation claims for individuals who suffered abuse by it’s members.
According to Fr. Power, “in 2004, having consulted with the priests of the diocese and the diocesan finance committee, which comprises priest and lay people, it was decided that the payment to the Stewardship Trust would be met from diocesan assets, voluntary contributions from the clergy and and increase of 2.5% on the existing 7.5% diocesan levy on parishes. However, after further consultation, it was decided that the 2.5% levy would not be held.”
Fr Power recognises that “the sums involved are significant for a diocese of our size but I am confident that we will meet whatever commitments may arise.”
HAYWARD (CA)
Tri-Valley Herald
By Matt O'Brien, STAFF WRITER
HAYWARD — A priest testifying in the first-ever civil clergy abuse trial against the Catholic Diocese of Oakland said Tuesday the diocese knew local priests were abusing young parishioners, but declined to call the police.
Another priest said he was moved to other parishes when allegations of sexual misconduct arose.
The testimony came in the second day of a civil trial in which two former Antioch altar boys are accusing the diocese of failing to protect them from a pedophile priest, the Rev. Robert Ponciroli.
Rev. George Crespin, the diocese's former personnel director, admitted in a deposition videotape relayed to jurors that "it wasn't our practice" to contact police about sexual abuse allegations.
HAYWARD (CA)
The Argus
By Matt O'Brien, STAFF WRITER
HAYWARD — A former Fremont priest, in a videotaped deposition unveiled Tuesday during the first-ever civil clergy abuse trial against the Catholic Diocese of Oakland, said church leaders knew local priests were abusing young parishioners but declined to call the police.
Another former Fremont priest said he was moved to other parishes after he admitted molesting a boy in the mid-1970s.
That priest, the Rev. Robert Freitas — who served for more than 30 years at parishes in Fremont, Newark and other East
Bay cities — testified in the case in which two former Antioch altar boys are accusing the diocese of failing to protect them from a pedophile priest, the Rev. Robert Ponciroli.
The other priest, the Rev. George Crespin, who also has been accused of sexual abuse, admitted in a videotape played for jurors that "it wasn't our practice" to contact police about sexual abuse allegations.
Crespin was the diocese's former personnel director.
Officials of the diocese, which encompasses Alameda and Contra Costa counties, acknowledge that Ponciroli abused brothers Tom and Bob Thatcher.
HAYWARD (CA)
Contra Costa Times
By Randy Myers
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
HAYWARD - Testimony in two former altar boys' sex suit against the Catholic Diocese of Oakland sped forward Tuesday as jurors heard how church notes about priests abusing children were lost or destroyed.
A priest who admitted molesting children also took the stand.
Robert and Tom Thatcher are suing the diocese for compensatory damages for abuse they claim they suffered at the hands of defrocked priest Robert Ponciroli. The boys served as altar boys at St. Ignatius Church in Antioch from 1979 to 1981.
Robert Thatcher also is seeking punitive damages, an act that broadens the scope of the trial because it means plaintiffs attorney Rick Simons must establish that the diocese made a pattern of hiding the abuse. He began calling witnesses to help him do that Tuesday, the trial's second day of testimony.
Church leaders have conceded the diocese acted negligently in the case, but they say the behavior doesn't warrant punitive damages.
TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By MARK REITER
BLADE STAFF WRITER
A Toledo diocesan deacon who was two days away from ordination to the priesthood when authorities seized his computer last year in a child pornography investigation was sentenced yesterday to 37 months in prison.
J. Michael Tynan, 46, who was sentenced in U.S. District Court, withdrew his petition for the priesthood June 10 after U.S. Customs agents raided his home, taking a laptop computer that contained over 600 pornographic images, including those of children.
Tynan, of Lakeview, Ohio, pleaded guilty Nov. 1 to possession of child pornography.
Judge David Katz said the viewing of child pornography is the driving force behind the industry and the exploitation of unintentional victims, who are forced to participate in sex acts.
"It is much like the war on drugs: If you eliminate the user, you will eventually get at drying up the supply," he said.
Judge Katz said he will recommend Tynan be placed in Butner Federal Correctional Institute in North Carolina, where he can participate in a sex-offender program. He is not eligible for parole. Tynan also was ordered to serve five years of supervised probation after his release from prison.
LAWRENCE (MA)
Eagle-Tribune
By Shawn Boburg
Staff Writer
The Rev. Michael C. Randone has been fired as chaplain of Central Catholic High School and resigned as pastor of Haverhill's Sacred Hearts Church after it was discovered he was sending private electronic messages to several Central students.
At least one of the messages sent using Randone's on-screen name,
"padreraider," "had some sexual content and was improper and highly inappropriate," school officials said. ...
Randone was warned verbally in 2002 after he took a group of students out to dinner and in writing in 2003 after a student was seen in his car without proper authorization, school officials said. None of the violations the school was able to verify was sexual, but Central Catholic officials, sensitive to the clergy abuse scandal, said they could not guarantee that inappropriate conduct did not take place because the communication was unsupervised.
NORTH CAROLINA
Dunn Daily Record
By GREGORY PHILLIPS Of The Record Staff
Recent and ongoing cases of child abuse have highlighted a dichotomy within some local churches — how to reconcile accusations of abuse against a member while protecting the rest of the flock.
The first three months of 2005 have seen a succession of allegations of child molestation involving suspects who had access to children through churches. The question remains as to how much, if any, the pastors at the respective churches knew about what was going on and what action they should have taken.
Erwin mailman Lloyd Coats was charged with molesting more than 20 young girls, some while driving a bus for Erwin Church of God. Devan Black was charged with molesting boys while he was a commander in the Royal Rangers program at Gospel Tabernacle Church.
Another case resolved in Harnett County Superior Court last month has left the victim’s family concerned at the reluctance of the suspect’s pastor to discuss a confession the suspect made in a room full of people.
EL PASO (TX)
KFOXTV
AAbuse Tracker support group for victims of abuse by priests has opened an El Paso Chapter.
SNAP, or the Survivors Network for those Abuses by Priests, was started in El Paso by a man who claims he was abused by an El Paso priest decades ago, he tells KFOX "Its been very hard, my religion. I was religious before and its kind of really struck to the soul of my existence as far the people in charge denying responsibility."
SNAP will hold its first meeting in El Paso on April 7th at 6:30pm. For more information you can call 474-7499.
LAWRENCE (MA)
Boston Herald
By Associated Press
Tuesday, March 29, 2005 - Updated: 03:45 PM EST
LAWRENCE, Mass. - A priest was fired from his post as the volunteer chaplain at a Catholic high school and resigned from his parish after he was accused of sending inappropriate electronic messages to students.
A spokesman for Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said the office is also investigating the allegations against the Rev. Michael Randone, 36, who was pastor of Haverhill's Sacred Hearts Parish.
One instant message sent under Randone's screen name contained what Lawrence Central Catholic High school officials called ``highly inappropriate'' sexual content, The Eagle-Tribune newspaper reported. A family member of the recipient of that message notified the school, triggering the investigation that resulted in Randone's firing last week.
But Randone denied sending that message and told school officials someone must have accessed his account and sent the message using his online name, ``padreraider,'' which refers to the school's nickname, the Raiders.
LAWRENCE (MA)
News Channel 10
POSTED: 3:21 pm EST March 29, 2005
UPDATED: 3:27 pm EST March 29, 2005
LAWRENCE, Mass. -- A priest has been fired as chaplain of a Catholic high school in Lawrence after it was learned that he been instant messaging with three students.
The Boston archdiocese said the Rev. Michael Randone has also resigned as pastor of Sacred Hearts church in Haverhill.
Central Catholic High School president Richard Van Houten said Randone violated the school's policy on appropriate boundaries between adults and minors.
Van Houten said Randone had previously been warned twice about "off-campus contact" with students.
One of the messages, sent with the same screen name that Randone used in other communications, allegedly contained comments of a sexual nature. But Van Houten said the school was uanble to verify that Randone had sent that particular message.
SAN ANTONIO (TX)
WOAI
His name is Juan Pablo Delgado, and he claims to see visions of the Virgin Mary. He has several Catholic followers from San Antonio, who disobeyed an order by the Archbishop to stay away from this cult leader. Now a former follower is speaking out hoping others will listen to her warnings. Trouble Shooter Brian Collister has the follow up to his investigation.
Over the past 2 years Trevino traveled between San Antonio and Costa Rica to be near Delgado. She even stayed at the Cost Rican sanctuary where Delgado claims he sees visions of the Virgin Mary.
“I was very...touched by the apparition," recalls Trevino.
Trevino now says she feels betrayed, “For a while he had made himself king, well, now he thinks he's god.”
News 4 WOAI obtained pictures taken inside the compound showing Delgado acting and dresses like a priest. The photos show bloody wounds on his hands and feet, similar to those of the crucifixion of Jesus. His critics claim it's all an act. And Trevino, who has donated thousands of dollars of her own money to the cult leader, agrees. ...
This isn’t the first time the cult has been in the media spotlight. The doomsday cult made headlines when a former San Antonio priest, Father Alfred Prado, joined the group. Prado is accused of molesting young boys more than 30-years ago at St.Timothy’s on the Westside.
The Trouble Shooters tracked him down in Costa Rica last year to ask him about the allegations.
“What about the charges in Texas" asked Brian Collister.
“They're all false, they're nonsense," said Father Prado.
Prado, who claims he was spiritually called to Costa Rica to be Delgado’s advisor, still remains at the compound.
FAIRBANKS (AK)
News-Miner
By DENNIS GABOURY
On Wednesday night, I participated in a extraordinary event at St. Raphael Catholic Church. At the invitation of Father Pat Berquist, I recounted the difficult story of my long recovery from sexual abuse by a Catholic priest, before an audience of about 80 parishioners and priests from around Fairbanks.
My appearance was the subject of an article that appeared in the News-Miner on Thursday. And I was saddened to read that the reporter, intent on recounting every prurient detail of my life before recovery, missed my points entirely.
I did not shed the armor of discretion to titillate readers or to seek pity for victims but to open a discussion with Catholics about the path to healing and recovery, both for victims of sexual abuse and for the Catholic church.
Clergy sexual abuse leaves a unique mark on the minds of children because it brings into question all their religious training and suppositions set against a criminal act. The years of self-abuse I engaged in were a direct result of an unconscious decision I made as a 10-year old child, the only decision a devoutly Catholic 10-year-old boy raped by a priest could possibly make given my prior indoctrination that I was a sinner and that priests were good and holy men.
SCRANTON (PA)
Scranton Times Tribune
By Chris Birk STAFF WRITER 03/29/2005
Slated to begin Monday, the sexual abuse trial of the Rev. Albert M. Liberatore in Manhattan, N.Y., was instead pushed back to early May.
The Diocese of Scranton priest, charged with three felony abuse charges in New York, will now face trial May 4, said Sherry Hunter, a spokeswoman in the Manhattan district attorney's office.
The New York charges -- one count of first-degree sodomy and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse -- are the most serious Father Liberatore faces in three separate jurisdictions, all stemming from abuse allegations levied by a University of Scranton student and former altar boy at Sacred Heart of Jesus church in Duryea.
In mid-July, Luzerne County District Attorney David Lupas filed indecent assault, corruption of minors, child endangerment and furnishing liquor to a minor charges against Father Liberatore. Four months later, the alleged victim filed a wide-ranging civil suit against the priest, the diocese and others in U.S. District Court in Scranton.
The New York and Luzerne County charges were both filed July 15.
"We've been in active trial preparation for many, many months, and that will continue," Scranton attorney Larry Moran, who represents Father Liberatore, said last week, aware a continuance was coming.
HAYWARD (CA)
KESQ
HAYWARD, Calif. Testimony continues today in a civil trial involving two brothers who say they were molested by a priest while they served as altar boys more than two decades ago.
Bob and Tom Thatcher are suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, claiming they were molested by a priest at an Antioch church in 1980.
Jurors will have to decide whether to award damages to the Thatchers. The two brothers are seeking compensatory damages, and Bob Thatcher is also asking for punitive damages to prevent future sexual abuse by priests.
The Oakland diocese, which includes more than 80 parishes in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, does not deny the abuse occurred.
WORCESTER (MA)
Worcester Voice
In view of the recent attempt of Worcester Bishop Robert McManus to convince the public that the Diocese of Worcester has no responsibility associated with Father Thomas Teczar, the actual letter (s) transferring him from state to state are now posted.
These letters tell clearly that the Worcester Diocese and Attorney James Reardon were made fully aware of the implications associated with allowing Father Teczar to transfer to another state and serve as an active priest.
Mr. Reardon, the diocesan lawyer who wrote one of the letters, was associated with the Reardon and Reardon law firm. His son, Gavin Reardon, currently is the diocesan lawyer and would have been aware of the letter. This letter is labeled Hand delivered which is underlined. Obviously Bishop Timothy Harrington and the now deceased James Reardon has a conversation.
Auxiliary Bishop George Rueger, in writing to Bishop Delaney of the Diocese of Forth Worth, Texas, begins his letter with pleasantries associated with a trip to Rome for both himself and Bishop Harrington. With such casual discourse does Auxiliary Bishop Rueger send this "dangerous" priest to Texas. Auxiliary Bishop Rueger writes the Bishop (Harrington) would be anxious for us to undertake this process. No concern was shown for the innocent children, but concern to release the potential for liability of the Worcester Diocese and Bishop Harrington.
HAYWARD (CA)
Contra Costa Times
By Randy Myers
HAYWARD - After the yard work was done, one brother waited at the bottom of the rectory's stairwell while the other went upstairs for his "punishment" at the hands of a sexually abusive priest.
That is how lead plaintiff attorney Rick Simons described the start of the sexual abuse of Robert and Tom Thatcher, two brothers and former Antioch altar boys who are suing the Oakland Diocese for damages in a decades-old molestation case at St. Ignatius.
"These events cost these boys dearly," Simons said during opening statements Monday in a Hayward courtroom.
Simons told the jury of 10 women and two men that the abuse robbed the brothers of their faith, their self-respect and a place to find solace. He said the defendant "gave the priest the green light."
The brothers' civil trial is part of the more than 150 Northern California sexual abuse lawsuits confronting dioceses after a California law lifted the statute of limitations for one year on the claims.
In his opening statement, Simons painted a portrait of the Thatchers as a devout but imperfect Catholic family whose trust and faith were betrayed by inaction of church personnel who were aware of Father Robert Ponciroli's behavior.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Kathleen A. Shaw TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
kshaw@telegram.com
WORCESTER— In a letter sent to the priests of Catholic Diocese of Worcester, Bishop Robert J. McManus emphatically denies any agreement was made with the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, to allow the Rev. Thomas H. Teczar to take a position as priest in Texas.
Two men from Ranger, Texas, brought a civil suit in Fort Worth, Texas, alleging that the two dioceses conspired to move the priest from the Worcester Diocese to Fort Worth after allegations of sexual abuse arose in the local diocese.
In his letter to priests, which was sent Saturday andwas publicly posted at www.worcesterdiocese.org, Bishop McManus said both dioceses partially settled the lawsuit involving one of the alleged victims, but added that the Worcester Diocese will not pay any of the $1.4 million settlement because it had no responsibility for Rev. Teczar when he left the Worcester.
The bishop said the lawyers for the two alleged victims have maintained a “conspiracy” existed between the two dioceses. However, Bishop McManus said, such a conspiracy was impossible because the Worcester Diocese never agreed to Rev. Teczar’s ministry in Texas.
“The plaintiffs’ theory is based, among other things, on a Church-wide conspiracy among United States dioceses,” he said. “The plaintiffs’ attorney is determined to weave the facts of this particular matter into that theory whether the facts fit or not.”
Bishop McManus said that even though the Worcester Diocese revoked Rev. Teczar’s permission to function as a priest and never restored it, Bishop Joseph P. Delaney of Fort Worth authorized the priest to take an assignment in his diocese in 1988. According to Bishop McManus, former Worcester Bishop Timothy J. Harrington made it clear to Bishop Delaney that he did not give permission for Rev. Teczar to serve in Texas.
The identities of the two plaintiffs in the case have been sealed. The case of John Doe I, who was represented by Daniel J. Shea of Houston, was settled late Thursday night. Mr. Shea said he was told after the settlement was reached that indemnification existed between the two dioceses and the issue came up in the context of why Worcester was not going to pay any part of the settlement.
David A. Lewcon, of Uxbridge, an alleged victim of Rev. Teczar in the local diocese, said he found it disconcerting that the bishop “almost prides himself with the fact that nothing was paid out from Worcester. He never mentioned how much it cost the Catholic faithful paid in legal fees.” Mr. Lewcon has been active in various victim support and advocacy groups.
Tahira Khan Merritt of Dallas, lawyer for John Doe II, said that based on statements made by Bishop McManus in the Saturday letter to priests, she intends to call the bishop to Dallas to answer more questions under oath. She does not have to subpoena Bishop McManus since the diocese is a party to the suit.
The suit involving John Doe II was not settled and will go to trial in Fort Worth in July unless a settlement is reached. Ms. Khan Merritt could offer no explanation why one suit was settled and the other was not.
District Attorney Russ Thomason of Eastland County, Texas, said yesterday that Rev. Teczar still faces criminal charges of sexual abuse. That case will go to trial in Texas, but no date has been set yet, he said.
The district attorney said he is considering appointing Ms. Khan Merritt as a special prosecutor in the case because she is familiar with the situation and can assist with the prosecution. The criminal charges are in connection to alleged sexual abuse of John Doe II, who is Ms. Khan Merritt’s client. Mr. Thomason said such special appointments are regularly done in Texas.
Rev. Teczar, 64, who lives in Dudley, is currently free on $30,000 bail. He was arrested in Dudley in December 2002 on a warrant from Texas and again on a Texas governor’s warrant in March 2003. The charges are aggravated sexual assault of a child, which is a felony in Texas.
AUSTRALIA
ABC
An Adelaide woman who alleges she was raped by an Anglican priest says she is speaking out because she feels the church is not admitting what it has done wrong in the past.
The woman, who is now aged 62 and wants to be known as Jess, is suing the church, claiming she was raped by Reverend Leonard Goggs, who died in 1979.
The church has acknowledged Reverend Goggs is the father of Jess's twin boys but she says it has not provided any money to help raise the children, who are now adults.
Jess says an apology is not good enough and the church should beg for her forgiveness.
"I allowed this person to have his life, his wife, his parish and allowed him to die in office in peace," she said.
"I had to live a double life. I had to battle to keep my children. I went without lots of things."
The administrator of the church's Adelaide diocese, John Collas, says the woman was the victim of sexual abuse by a person in a position of trust.
He says the church is investigating the claim that she was raped.
AUSTRALIA
Keralanext.com
[Australasia News] A Catholic priest facing 29 child sex charges dating back to the 1970s has appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court for the start of his committal hearing.
Frank Gerard Klep, 61, has been charged by Sexual Crimes Squad detectives with 28 counts of indecent assault and one of buggery.
The offences involve eight boys and were allegedly committed at Sunbury between 1973 and 1979.
Klep, a member of the Salesian order, was a teacher at the order's Rupertswood College in Sunbury, on Melbourne's north-west fringe, during the period and eventually rose to become principal.
He left Melbourne in April 1998 to become the senior financial officer at a Salesian theological college in Samoa.
A month later, Klep was charged with five counts of indecent assault involving a 15-year-old student at the college that dated back to 1973.
HAYWARD (CA)
The Argus
By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER
HAYWARD — Jurors began hearing evidence Monday on whether the Diocese of Oakland's failure to protect two Antioch brothers from a pedophile priest was knowing disregard for their safety or ignorance and neglect.
Nobody disputes that Bob and Tom Thatcher, now in their 30s, were molested in 1980 by Robert Ponciroli, since defrocked and now living in Florida. This jury must decide whether the diocese let it happen and, if so, how much it should pay.
This is the first of dozens of lawsuits against the Diocese of Oakland, encompassing Alameda and Contra Costa counties, to come to trial; negotiations on a mass settlement continue elsewhere.
"In this case, you're going to learn about the betrayal of trust," Rick Simons, the Thatchers' attorney, told jurors as he began his opening statement.
He showed jurors color photos of Bob and Tom Thatcher as they were at the time they were molested: fresh-faced young altar boys, ages 10 and 8, respectively.
HAYWARD (CA)
CBS 5
03/28/05 9:30 PST
HAYWARD (BCN)
The attorney for two former altar boys at a Catholic church in Antioch said today that the Diocese of Oakland must be held accountable for a "betrayal of trust" that resulted in a priest molesting them.
In the first of what could be many sex abuse cases against the Diocese of Oakland, Richard Simons, representing Robert and Tom Thatcher, said in his opening statement that church officials were negligent in assigning the Rev. Robert Ponciroli to Antioch's St. Ignatius Church in 1979 even though they knew he was a child molester.
Simons said Ponciroli's sexual abuse of the Thatcher brothers in 1980, which church officials admit occurred, wasn't an isolated incident but instead was "part of a policy and practice of disregarding the safety of children" and looking the other way while "priests conducted criminal violations of children."
Robert Thatcher, who now lives in Arizona, was about 10 years old at the time and Tom Thatcher, who now lives in Florida, was about 9.
Simons asked for unspecified compensatory damages for both brothers, stating that they've suffered emotional problems such as anxiety and issues of sexual identity and confusion, ever since they were molested about 25 years ago.
Robert Thatcher is also seeking unspecified punitive damages.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writer
SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Archdiocese acknowledged in court Monday that it had failed to thoroughly investigate a sex-abuse complaint against a priest in 1977, an unusual admission that comes as it and the Oakland Diocese face trials this week brought by alleged victims.
Both cases are receiving statewide attention because they are among the first to come to trial since the Catholic Church was hit by the abuse scandal three years ago. Legal experts said the amount of the settlements probably would influence the outcomes of more than 700 cases statewide, 544 of which involve the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
The San Francisco case involves Father Joseph T. Pritchard, now deceased, who is accused of molesting at least 22 children throughout the 1970s. In a statement read by a judge Monday to prospective jurors, the archdiocese admitted that it did not investigate "thoroughly enough or do enough at that time to protect the children."
The statement also acknowledged that three fellow priests "sometimes walked into the room where sexual molestation had been taking place and should have seen enough circumstances to make them suspicious of Father Pritchard's behavior" and reported it to his superiors.
HAYWARD (CA)
Mercury News
TERENCE CHEA
Associated Press
HAYWARD, Calif. - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland practiced a policy of secrecy, negligence and disregard for children's safety that led to the sexual abuse of two altar boys more than 20 years ago, a plaintiffs' attorney argued at the start of a civil trial that could influence hundreds of similar cases throughout California.
"This was not an isolated incident," attorney Rick Simons told jurors Monday during opening statements. He said the diocese gave the Rev. Robert Ponciroli "the opportunity and green light for sexual molestation and abuse of children with actual knowledge of his history and knowing disregard of their safety."
The case, which involves two former Antioch altar boys suing the Oakland diocese, stems from one of more than 750 lawsuits that have been filed against Catholic dioceses in California since a 2002 state law temporarily lifted the statue of limitations on decades-old claims of sexual abuse by priests.
The case of brothers Bob and Tom Thatcher is the second lawsuit to go to trial, and the first that seeks punitive damages that could substantially raise the amount of money cash-strapped dioceses must pay to victims. Negotiations for settlements continue for more than 150 other sexual abuse lawsuits filed in Northern California.
NEW YORK
New York Daily News
"Then one of the 12, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests and said unto them, 'What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?' And they covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver." Matthew 26:14-15.
And so the high priests of Brooklyn and Queens waited until the Wednesday before Holy Thursday, the same day Judas struck his treacherous bargain to betray Jesus, to announce that St. Thomas Aquinas Elementary School was getting the kiss of death.
A guilt-ridden Judas hung himself.
The Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens should at least hang its head in lasting shame.
This all started on Feb. 8 when Msgr. Michael Hardiman, the vicar of education for the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens, first listed St. Thomas Aquinas, on Fourth Ave. and Eighth St. in Park Slope, as one of the 26 schools to be shuttered in June.
A changing demographic and the grotesque priest sexual-abuse scandals had helped crumble the once-rock-solid Catholic school system. It certainly didn't help that the former bishop, Thomas Daily, who came from Boston, was so busy covering his dirty tracks in the pedophile coverups up there that he let the Brooklyn and Queens parochial school system go into decline.
HAYWARD (CA)
KTVU
POSTED: 11:48 am PST March 28, 2005
UPDATED: 7:02 pm PST March 28, 2005
HAYWARD, Calif. -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland practiced a policy of secrecy, negligence and disregard for children's safety that led to the sexual abuse of two altar boys more than 20 years ago, a plaintiffs' attorney argued Monday at the start of a civil trial that could influence hundreds of similar cases throughout California.
"This was not an isolated incident," attorney Rick Simons told jurors during opening statements. He said the diocese gave the Rev. Robert Ponciroli "the opportunity and green light for sexual molestation and abuse of children with actual knowledge of his history and knowing disregard of their safety."
The case, which involves two former Antioch altar boys suing the Oakland diocese, stems from one of more than 750 lawsuits that have been filed against Catholic dioceses in California since a 2002 state law temporarily lifted the statue of limitations on decades-old claims of sexual abuse by priests.
The case of brothers Bob and Tom Thatcher is the second lawsuit to go to trial, and the first that seeks punitive damages that could substantially raise the amount of money cash-strapped dioceses must pay to victims. Negotiations for settlements continue for more than 150 other sexual abuse lawsuits filed in Northern California.
The first case to reach trial ended Thursday when a San Francisco jury awarded $437,000 to 47-year-old Dennis Kavanaugh, a former altar boy who sued the Archdiocese of San Francisco claiming he was repeatedly abused by a San Jose priest in the early 1970s.
On Friday, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton agreed to pay $3.6 million to settle claims by two victims molested by a Lodi priest who was later deported to Ireland.
AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
By Sam Lienert
29mar05
AN Adelaide woman is seeking financial compensation from the Anglican Church after bringing up twin boys fathered by a priest, who allegedly raped her.
The woman says she was raped when she was 19 by Father Leonard Russell Goggs in the vestry of Renmark Anglican church in 1962.
Adelaide diocese administrator Archdeacon John Collas said the church acknowledged the woman was a victim of sexual assault and that Father Goggs, who died in 1979, was the father of the twins.
But Archdeacon Collas said the church did not know whether she had been raped.
The woman's lawyer, Peter Humphries, said the church had provided almost no support to the woman or her children.
"Twin boys were born of this one sexual act and the church have apparently recognised the paternity of those boys almost from day one, but really not provided any assistance towards their upbringing and similarly offered not very much support to their mother," he said.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Editor & Publisher
By The Associated Press
Published: March 28, 2005 11:00 PM ET
PHILADELPHIA The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia suspended a priest this month after he allegedly told a newspaper reporter that he had fondled a teenage girl several decades ago.
Church officials said they removed Msgr. Philip J. Dowling from all public ministry on March 18, the day they were informed by The Philadelphia Inquirer that the retired pastor had confessed during an interview to having engaged in "inappropriate" touching of a girl in his parish.
"It crossed the (line)," Dowling told the newspaper. "And I'm very sorry for the inappropriate acts and touches."
The newspaper said it interviewed Dowling three times this month as part of an investigation into allegations by two women, now in their 50s.
One of the women said the abuse started when she was 8 and continued until she was 14. The other sister said Dowling began abusing her when she was 11 or 12 and continued until she was 18.
DALLAS (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By Anthony Spangler
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
DALLAS -- A suspended Grand Prairie priest was indicted last week on felony charges of possessing child pornography, court records show.
Father Matthew Bagert, 36, pastor of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church on Northeast 17th Street, was arrested for having child pornography on a church computer.
The Dallas Catholic Diocese indefinitely suspended Bagert after they informed Grand Prairie police of the images.
HAYWARD (CA)
NBC 11
HAYWARD, Calif. -- A lawyer for two former altar boys at an Antioch church said Monday that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland gave "opportunity and a green light" to a priest who molested boys.
In his opening statement in the first of what could be many priest sex-abuse cases against the Oakland diocese, attorney Richard Simons said the diocese sent the Rev. Robert Ponciroli to St. Ignatius Parish in Antioch in 1979 even though officials knew his conduct at other churches "was not unblemished."
Simons said that Ponciroli abused Bob and Tom Thatcher in 1980 and said the brothers have suffered emotional problems, such as anxiety and issues of sexual identity and confusion, ever since.
Simons also said Ponciroli's actions weren't an isolated incident within the diocese but instead were part of the diocesan policy of "disregarding the safety of children."
FLUSHING (MI)
Flint Journal
Monday, March 28, 2005
By George Jaksa
gjaksa@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6332
FLUSHING - Patrick Antos and Anthony Otero got the chance in court to face the priest they said sexually abused them as children.
Now their parents want others to have the same opportunity.
Antonio and Elva Otero of Flushing and John and Lillian Antos of Mt. Morris Township are taking a stand in favor of the state Legislature lifting Michigan's statute of limitations on sexual abuse cases - the time in which such cases can be prosecuted.
The limit on prosecuting those cases is usually 10 years. The families want more time so other abusers can be prosecuted.
"Our children, Pat Antos and Tony Otero, had the opportunity in 2003 to put the man who sexually abused them as children behind bars," said Antonio Otero.
"We ask this question: Why should other men and women who were sexually abused as children not be afforded the same opportunity to prosecute their sexual abusers?"
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS 3
Mar 28, 2005 6:04 pm US/Eastern
PHILADELPHIA (KYW) A former Philadelphia priest has been suspended after two sisters reported years of sexual abuse.
Now, as CBS 3’s Robin Rieger reports, the priest has even admitted to fondling one of them.
The Philadelphia Archdiocese confirms Monsignor Philip Dowling is being investigated for allegations of sexual abuse of minors.
The investigation comes after the Philadelphia Inquirer told Diocesan officials on March 18th that Dowling admitted to a reporter that decades ago he engaged in inappropriate touching of a girl.
However, Dowling denied abusing her sister.
The women told the newspaper the abuse went on for years and one sister says she was raped.
LONG ISLAND (NY)
National
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
On March 19, I spoke at a Voice of the Faithful conference on Long Island, N.Y. Some 500 people showed up -- mostly, I'm sure, drawn by Dominican Fr. Thomas Doyle, the prophet who anticipated the American sexual abuse crisis back in the 1980s, and by the opportunity to network with one another.
I missed Doyle's presentation, because I had to come out to Long Island by the morning train. According to a Newsday report, however, he told the group that, "The issue is basically power," urging laity to "move from infancy to adulthood" in their attitudes toward church leaders.
The nation's bishops, he reportedly said, "are still putting a Band-Aid over a cancer."
Doyle today works as an addiction counselor in Maryland.
The on-going fallout of the crisis was clear at the gathering. The corridors outside the hotel ballroom, for example, were dominated by posters containing information on 39 priests accused of abuse who had either worked for, or in, the Rockville Centre diocese, the main ecclesiastical jurisdiction on Long Island. The posters were produced by BishopAccountability.org, a reform organization that has also posted data on the group's web site.
SALEM (MA)
Salem News
The Easter Sunday just past was an especially joyous one for the Rev. Edward Keohan, who returned to the pulpit for the first time in 19 months.
The beloved former pastor of the closed St. Mary's Italian Catholic Church in Salem and Salem Hospital chaplain, had been living under a cloud since a Gloucester man said he'd been abused by Keohan in the early 1980s. Last week the Boston Archdiocese said it could find no evidence of such abuse and authorized Keohan, 73, to resume his official duties.
Remarkably, Keohan evidences no bitterness towards his accuser or the church, and says he is simply looking forward to resuming his vocation of 40 years, though he is still not sure of his next assignment.
The fact that other priests have been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of such abuse, and the church has paid out millions to settle claims of misconduct, does not lessen the extent of the injustice Keohan has suffered. Few can imagine the pain he has had to endure since learning of the accusations and suspension via a friend — who himself heard about it from the TV.
AUSTRALIA
The Courier-Mail
By Nigel Hunt
29mar05
AN Adelaide woman who gave birth to twin boys after being raped by an Anglican priest is seeking compensation from the church.
Lawyers acting for the woman, 62, have notified the church of the claim, but it has not acknowledged correspondence seeking an out-of-court settlement.
This is despite the church's hierarchy – both past and present – conceding that Father Leonard Russell Goggs, who died in 1979, was the father of the twins.
Although the church – including former Anglican Archbishop Keith Rayner – acknowledged to the woman, who wishes to be known only as Jess, that Father Goggs was the father, she has had no financial or pastoral assistance.
Duncan Basheer Hannon lawyer Susan Litchfield said yesterday she would lodge a claim against the church in the District Court after failing to secure a settlement.
HAYWARD (CA)
CBS 5
03/28/05 11:40 PST
HAYWARD (BCN)
A lawyer for two former altar boys at an Antioch church said today that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland gave "opportunity and a green light'' to a priest who molested boys.
In his opening statement in the first of what could be many priest sex-abuse cases against the Oakland diocese, attorney Richard Simons said the diocese sent the Rev. Robert Ponciroli to St. Ignatius Parish in Antioch in 1979 even though officials knew his conduct at other churches "was not unblemished.''
Simons said that Ponciroli abused Bob and Tom Thatcher in 1980 and said the brothers have suffered emotional problems, such as anxiety and issues of sexual identity and confusion, ever since.
Simons also said Ponciroli's actions weren't an isolated incident within the diocese but instead were part of the diocesan policy of "disregarding the safety of children.''
WISCONSIN
The Journal Times
By Mike Moore
Priest abuse For a change, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests took time several weeks back to honor - not bash - one of the important members of the Milwaukee Archdiocese.
SNAP asked members of my parish, St. Paul the Apostle in Racine, to honor the Rev. Paul Esser for taking a stand against the transfer of abusive priest Siegfried Widera in the 1970s. It was a welcome and necessary shift toward healing, I suggested.
My column made the rounds through the abuse victim community to Gabrielle Azzaro, who said she was abused by a religious sister.
"I certainly wish I had never been molested," she wrote back. "I absolutely wish the same for the hundreds of others to whom this happened that I know of. However, we cannot undo the past. We can do something about the future. Although we need to hope, we cannot participate in a false hope that keeps us from working for healing and prevention. We cannot let some good priests, sisters, bishops blind us to the fact that there are still so many out there who need to be stopped before they destroy any more lives."
Well said.
CENTER CITY (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Nancy Phillips
Inquirer Staff Writer
The Catholic Church has suspended a former Center City pastor and placed him under investigation after he admitted to The Inquirer that he had repeatedly fondled a teenage girl decades ago.
The church acted after being told by The Inquirer of allegations against Ms