IRELAND
One in Four
A lobby group representing religious, who say they have been falsely accused of sexually abusing children, is planning to take legal action against the State on behalf of those "falsely accused" before the Residential Institutional Redress Board (RIRB).
The Love (Let Our Voices Emerge) group, said yesterday it was calling on "all of our members who are going through or have gone through the RIRB" to get in contact "if they want to take part in our seeking legal help in getting an apology and/or compensation".
Love describes itself as a charity dedicated to providing "support for all people, including the religious, of integrity who state that they are innocent of allegations of child abuse being made against them".
The lobby group says it has cases the State must address. It goes on to cite cases in Novia Scotia in 2002, where the Canadian state offered 179 employees of youth detention centres, who had been cleared of child abuse allegations, settlements of between $5,000 (€4,925) and $40,000 (€32,735) each. The offers were made to staff accused of child abuse but cleared by tribunal.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSDK
(KSDK) - A jury has found Father Thomas Graham guilty of molesting a teenage boy at the Old Cathedral. Graham was accused of repeatedly molesting the boy starting in the 1970s.
The jury of 10 women and two men took less than two hours to decide a verdict.
Opening statements wrapped up in Tuesday morning. Graham testified Wednesday morning and the case went to jury at 1:30 p.m.
The alleged victim was the first person to take the stand Tuesday. He is now 43 years old and lives in St. Louis. He says the sexual abuse by Father Graham began when he was a young boy in St. Mary's where Father Graham was an Associate Pastor at the time.
The alleged victim described in detail to the court how Graham allegedly fondled him on several occasions as a young boy while riding in a car and again at the Old Cathedral years later when he was a teenager. He described Father Graham as a close family friend.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
By Robert Patrick
Of the Post-Dispatch
08/31/2005
The Rev. Thomas Graham was found guilty of a decades-old sodomy charge by a St. Louis jury Wednesday afternoon, meaning the 71-year-old now faces up to life in prison.
When Circuit Judge Angela Turner Quigless read the verdict, Graham showed little response. Several of the group of Graham’s friends, family and parishioners that had been in court all week hung their heads.
The victim’s family cried and hugged each other.
Jurors deliberated a little over two hours before finding Graham guilty.
KANSAS CITY (MO)
Topeka Capital-Journal
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Two men have filed lawsuits alleging a late Roman Catholic priest sexually abused them in the 1950s.
Gary Lee Smith, of Topeka, and Hank Talbot, who lives in northwest Missouri, made the allegations against the Rev. Sylvester Hoppe in lawsuits filed against the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph last week in Jackson County Circuit Court.
The lawsuits, which seek unspecified monetary damages, claim that the diocese "ignored, covered up and concealed" Hoppe's behavior. He died in 2002.
The diocese had no record of complaints from the men, said the Rev. Robert A. Murphy, vicar general of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, in a written statement released Monday afternoon.
FARGO (ND)
The Forum
By Dave Forster, The Forum
Published Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Six years after the Catholic Diocese of Fargo fired her, Melissa Enebo said she still feels embarrassed, insecure and constantly worried about losing her next job.
“Everyone wants to know what awful thing you did to get fired from a church,” she said Tuesday.
Enebo, 40, testified during the first day of her Cass County trial against the diocese. She claims the diocese discriminated against her because of her gender, pregnancy and marital status when it fired her in 1999 after she gave birth out of wedlock.
Benjamin Thomas, the attorney for the diocese, had only about 15 minutes to cross-examine Enebo Tuesday. But in that time, he made it clear that Enebo, a Lutheran, knew about the diocesan policy regarding behavior inconsistent with Catholic teaching.
The diocesan handbook says actions that can lead to firing include “conduct that is not harmonious with the teaching of the Catholic Church.” Enebo said one of her duties as a finance assistant was to make sure each new employee received that policy.
OWENSBORO (KY)
Courier & Press
By PHILIP ELLIOTT Courier & Press staff writer 461-0783 or elliottp@courierpress.com
August 31, 2005
A Diocese of Owensboro, Ky., priest faces charges he sexually assaulted three Marines in Qatar and Germany, where he serves as an Army chaplain.
The Rev. Gregory Arflack, a captain with the 279th Base Support Battalion in Bamberg, Germany, remains on administrative leave from his chaplain duties while military prosecutors decide if they will court-martial the 44-year-old priest.
The Army lists the charges as three counts of forcible sodomy, three counts of indecent acts, two counts of fraternization with enlisted servicemen, two counts of disobeying orders, one count of indecent assault and one count of conduct unbecoming of an officer.
Military prosecutors say the events took place March 21, 2004, in Doha, Qatar, and July 29 and 30 of this year in Bamberg. Prosecutors filed a preference for charges - similar to an indictment in civilian court - on Aug. 11.
"All of Father Arflack's duties have been relieved," said the Most Rev. John Kaising, auxiliary bishop for chaplains with the Archdiocese of the U.S. Military.
An officer has been assigned to conduct a pretrial investigation, which is comparable to a civilian grand jury hearing, to determine if officials have enough evidence to recommend a court-martial.
FARGO (ND)
Grand Forks Herald
Associated Press
FARGO - The attorney for a woman accusing the Roman Catholic Diocese here of discrimination is seeking to introduce the issue of priest misconduct during the trial in her case.
Robert Schultz, the lawyer for Melissa Enebo, a former secretary for the diocese, said he wants to include evidence of misconduct by priests to show the diocese treated them differently from Enebo.
In her gender discrimination lawsuit, Enebo says she was fired in 1999 for getting pregnant outside of marriage.
Benjamin Thomas, the diocese attorney, told East Central District Judge John Irby at a pretrial hearing Monday that allowing allegations of priest misconduct as evidence would confuse jurors and "invite a media circus."
WASHINGTON (DC)
Grand Island Independent
JONATHAN M. KATZ
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON — The Army is investigating a Roman Catholic military chaplain on multiple charges of forcible sodomy and assault.
Capt. Gregory Arflack was suspended both by the Army and his dioceses pending the results of the investigation.
Arflack, 44, is a chaplain with the 279th Base Support Battalion. The unit performs administrative functions at its post in Bamberg, Germany, which also houses the 1st Infantry Division.
The Army is investigating 12 charges: three counts each of forcible sodomy and indecent acts, two counts each of fraternization with enlisted service members and disobeying orders, and one count each of indecent assault and conduct unbecoming an officer, said Maj. Bill Coppernoll, a 1st Infantry Division spokesman.
The Army did not discuss specifics about the alleged assaults, except to say they occurred while Arflack was stationed in Doha, Qatar, in March 2004 and in Bamberg on July 29 and 30 of this year.
PHILIPPINES
Philippine News
Ludy Ongkeko, Aug 31, 2005
Before proceeding any further, I would like to make this clear: I am a Catholic.
Therefore, this columns is not one meant to put down the faith nor the creed all practicing Catholics are bound to uphold.
Since the sex abuse “scandals” broke out, I have been asked to write about the controversy facing my Church, and causing divisions among my friends. One Catholic I know now calls himself a “dropout,” no longer “practicing,” and thinks the cover-ups are “unacceptable.” Another Catholic who remains a “practicing follower” said the sex abuse behind the pulpit has a history that goes back centuries ago.
Some of my relatives have fallen off the wayside, so to speak. They proclaim themselves “no longer practicing Catholics.” Although I was initially appalled by their disclosures, I respect their belief and decision. Until the Church accepts full accountability for all its offenders, the issue will not disappear, they say.
I believe that “accountability” should extend to those who have stood by silently and knowingly and not done anything. The news stories about the “good ol’ boys’ cover-up” are totally inexcusable; it has caused untold suffering for the many scarred victims.
The amounts of “settlements” the Catholic Church has had to cough up have been staggering, and yet they can never erase the emotional and psychological trauma suffered by the victims. Those diocesan headquarters whose priests lost their cases had to make payments, no matter what their financial situation is. It was pathetic to see old churches and rectories close down because money had ran out.
ROCKFORD (IL)
Rockford Register Star
By CORINA CURRY, Rockford Register Star
ROCKFORD -- A civil lawsuit has been filed against a pastor who had a sexual relationship with a teenage girl in his youth group. The suit also names the church's senior pastor and the church as defendants.
The Winnebago girl, who is now an adult, claims that her former youth pastor, Bradley Bounds of Rockford, "exploited and perverted his position of trust" by engaging in a consensual romantic and sexual relationship with her when she was 17.
Bounds, then 28, was married with a 2-year-old son.
She also claims that Rock Church, the Rockford church that she attended from age 7 to 17, and the church's senior pastor, John Sprecher, did not do enough to protect her from Bounds and was negligent in hiring and training him.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony failed Tuesday to persuade a judge to seal sworn testimony by priests and other witnesses about allegations of decades-old child molestations by Roman Catholic clergy.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Haley J. Fromholz overruled arguments from Mahony's lawyers that the release might prejudice potential jurors against the church.
"Allegations of clergy abuse have given rise to much anguish in the community," the judge wrote. "This anguish has been exacerbated by allegations that the church concealed information relating to the abuse. Further concealment of information from the public is thus ill-advised."
The first of the testimony over the last four months about hundreds of claims that Los Angeles priests abused children could become public in the next few weeks. In one deposition, an accused priest testified that his religious order transferred another priest at least twice after he too was accused of molesting children, Santa Barbara attorney Tim Hale, who represents alleged victims, said in court Tuesday.
Critics have contended that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles covered up the alleged abuse by shuffling accused priests from parish to parish, without notifying church members or calling law enforcement authorities.
Talks are continuing in attempts to settle more than 500 negligence suits filed against the archdiocese over the clergy sexual abuse scandal.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
By Robert Patrick
Of the Post-Dispatch
08/30/2005
The Rev. Thomas Graham testified Tuesday that he "fell apart" when officials of the Archdiocese of St. Louis told him in 1994 that he had been accused of sexually abusing a young boy.
"I knew my life was over with because of this allegation," Graham told St. Louis Circuit Court jurors in his criminal trial.
Church officials investigated the allegation and "based on available information, did not find it to be substantiated," according to a statement released Monday.
But they removed Graham from active ministry in 2002 after he was indicted by a grand jury on a single charge of sodomy.
EVANSVILLE (IN)
Courier & Press
By PHILIP ELLIOTT Courier & Press staff writer 461-0783 or elliottp@courierpress.com
August 31, 2005
A Vincentian priest who once worked with Evansville's Daughters of Charity faces a civil suit alleging he sexually abused a 10-year-old altar boy while serving in Hong Kong two decades ago.
The Rev. Thomas S. Cawley, of Independence, Mo., cared for elderly and sick Evansville sisters in 2002 and 2003. He now is accused of molesting the youth while assigned to missionary work in 1979.
"Cawley told the plaintiff that the sexual abuse was a form of God's punishment that the young boy needed," according to the court filing.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in St. Louis County Circuit Court, also names the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong and the Congregation of the Mission, Midwest Province, commonly known as the Vincentians.
Because the order is based in St. Louis, the suit was filed there, said Rebecca Randles, an attorney for plaintiff Michael Johnson of Kansas.
Cawley was assigned to a parish in Johnson County, Kan., where Johnson had begun attending services and recognized Cawley, Randles said.
WORCESTER (MA)
Boston Globe
By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff | August 31, 2005
At 52, Patricia Cahill hopes she can finally get past the years of sexual abuse she said she endured as a young girl.
But to start her recovery, Cahill said she needs something she cannot get from therapy. She wants the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester to take down a plaque on campus bearing the name of her alleged abuser, her uncle, the late Rev. Daniel Millard.
Yesterday, Cahill's supporters gathered outside the college with leaflets and posters calling on college officials to rename an art studio now known as the Millard Art Center. School officials have refused to change the name because Cahill's relatives dispute her allegations of abuse. Millard, who was in his late 40s when he died in 1973, was never charged with abusing Cahill.
''I just want to get back to living a normal life," said Cahill, who lives in Lancaster, Pa., and did not attend yesterday's small protest because of lingering health problems she blames on the abuse.
''I don't even know what a normal life is," she said.
Cahill said Millard sexually abused her from the time she was 5 until she turned 13. She said the abuse, which allegedly occurred in New Jersey, was so traumatizing she became dependent on alcohol and drugs. Cahill said she even contemplated suicide.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - Updated: 02:44 AM EST
The Boston Archdiocese is still paying one of Cardinal Bernard Law's closest friends to study church law and serve as Law's secretary in Rome.
Boston Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, who took over Law's post after he resigned in 2002 at the height of the clergy sexual abuse scandal, mentioned Monsignor Paul B. McInerny's appointment in the April 1 edition of The Pilot, the archdiocese's weekly newspaper – but not that McInerny would remain on the payroll.
Asked why the archdiocese is paying one of its priests to be secretary to the disgraced ex-archbishop, archdiocese spokesman Terrence C. Donilon said, ``I would only deduce nothing more than monsignor's desire to resume his studies in Rome and the fact he has worked with the cardinal previously.''
O'Malley is closing roughly one-quarter of the archdiocese's parishes because of a shortage of priests and a financial crisis caused by plummeting donations in the scandal's wake.
SAN BERNARDINO (CA)
San Bernardino Sun
Brad A. Greenberg, Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES - Testimony in clergy sexual-abuse lawsuits here and in the Inland Empire was ordered unsealed by a judge Tuesday, despite the Roman Catholic Church's argument that doing so would undermine its defense.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Haley J. Fromholz ruled against keeping depositions of 13 witnesses sealed, saying "there is a great deal of public interest' in the hundreds of cases against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the dioceses of San Bernardino and San Diego.
Evidence should not remain secret, he said, whether it supports someone claiming abuse or exonerates an accused priest.
But an attorney for the archdiocese decried releasing witness statements and "discussing evidence in the press.'
"They are trying to influence the jury pool and maintain a level of anger in the community that is inappropriate in civil proceedings,' said Donald Woods, an attorney for the archdiocese.
Fromholz did not specify when the witnesses' statements will be released. Names will be redacted from the documents.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Kathleen A. Shaw TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
kshaw@telegram.com
WORCESTER— The Rev. Robert M. Hoatson, a Catholic priest from New Jersey, and three local people quietly demonstrated and handed out leaflets yesterday morning in their quest to have the College of the Holy Cross rename its Millard Art Center.
The demonstration, which involved holding signs and handing out leaflets, was held on behalf of Patricia A. Cahill of Lancaster, Pa., who said she was sexually abused by the priest for whom the center was named. Ms. Cahill received a settlement for counseling from the Camden, N.J., diocese after she reported the alleged abuse by the Rev. Daniel F. M. Millard, who was her uncle.
Joining Rev. Hoatson in front of the main gate with signs were George “Skip” Shea of Uxbridge, an alleged victim of the Rev. Thomas Teczar; Daniel E. Dick of Worcester, victim support coordinator for Worcester Voice of the Faithful; and Richard Chesnis of Worcester, who has alleged his son was sexually abused by the Rev. John Szantyr.
Ellen M. Ryder, spokesman for Holy Cross, said the college will not comment on the demonstration other than what officials there have said in the past.
The Holy Cross administration, after speaking with other members of the Millard family, said recently that the college takes seriously allegations of sexual abuse, but they will not change the name. The priest’s brother, the late Charles E. F. Millard, and family members, donated money for the building. Other members of the family have denied Ms. Cahill’s assertion that she and other family members were abused by Rev. Millard, who died in 1973.
The demonstration “went very well,” Rev. Hoatson said. They had a number of “thumbs up” signs from workers going onto the Holy Cross campus, he said. Founder and president of Rescue & Recovery International, Rev. Hoatson said he expects to be at the college each week until the name of the art center is changed.
Rev. Hoatson, who said he was sexually abused by two Irish Christian Brothers, drives weekly from New Jersey to Boston where he has been supporting people who say they were sexual abused by Monsignor Frederick J. Ryan when they were students at Catholic Memorial High School. He also stopped Monday night in Northampton to deliver a check to a survivor of clergy sexual abuse and regularly visits with a clergy abuse survivor who is currently incarcerated at the federal prison at Devens. The organization provides direct support to survivors, he said.
Rev. Hoatson worked at Catholic Memorial before entering seminary when he was in his 40s. Monsignor Ryan was a chaplain at the school. Now a priest of the Newark, N.J., diocese, Rev. Hoatson holds a Ph.D. from Fordham University.
“Why do they allow themselves to be embarrassed like this?” Mr. Dick said of the college administration as he sat on the sidewalk outside the main gate. He said changing the name would be the proper thing to do. Mr. Shea said he was impressed that a priest was willing to “stand with the victims,” which brought him out in support of the attempt to change the name of the art center.
“It’s a huge sign of hope to me,” he added.
Ms. Cahill could not attend yesterday but in a statement said survivors of clergy abuse “want justice, restorative justice” and justice is born of truth.
“As long as the Catholic Church refuses to make amends to the survivors of sexual abuse by their priests and nuns, restorative justice is denied the survivors and the abuse is continued. Holy Cross is a perfectly imperfect example of this type of re-victimization,” she said.
Speaking out on the issue has been “a terrifying experience,” she said. But she hopes if her efforts can influence “just one nun, or one priest to keep their hands to themselves and maybe one child will be spared. I wish someone had done this for me.”
John Aretakis of Albany, N.Y., who is Ms. Cahill’s lawyer, said since Massachusetts is considered to be “ground zero” in the clergy sexual abuse scandal, Holy Cross needs to show more sensitivity to victims and be “on the side of the victims.”
ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSDK
By Erin O'Neill
(KSDK) - Opening statements began Tuesday in the trial of a former Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting a teenage boy at the Old Cathedral. Thomas Graham is accused of repeatedly molesting the boy starting in the 1970s.
The jury consists of 10 women and two men. Father Graham was in the courtroom seated next to his attorney. He was wearing a black suit with a blue shirt.
Opening statements wrapped up in the morning. The alleged victim was the first person to take the stand. He is now 43 years old and lives in St. Louis. He says the sexual abuse by Father Graham began when he was a young boy in St. Mary's where Father Graham was an Associate Pastor at the time.
The alleged victim described in detail to the court how Graham allegedly fondled him on several occasions as a young boy while riding in a car and again at the Old Cathedral years later when he was a teenager. He described Father Graham as a close family friend.
ALBANY (NY)
The Empire Journal
By June Maxam
If Peter Torncello was still an assistant prosecutor in the Albany County District Attorney’s office, maybe DA David Soares and the office would have a different perspective about the case of the ex-Christian Brothers Academy teacher charged with having sex on several different occasions with a 16-year-old male student.
Soares has charged Sandra ‘Beth’ Geisel with third degree rape and endangering the welfare of a child.
The charges are never going to hold up in court and that’s why Soares hasn’t taken the case to a grand jury. His star witness—the 16-year-old male student----can’t stand the scrutiny and will be easily impeached should the case ever go to trial, a highly unlikely event.
On Thursday, 23-year-old trucker James Bradley who had also been charged with third degree rape and endangering the welfare of a child for traveling cross-country with a 15-year old California girl, was acquitted of all charges in Albany County Court.
That should have sent a real strong message to Soares.
ELLWOOD CITY (PA)
KDKA
Aug 29, 2005 4:08 pm US/Eastern
Elwood City (KDKA) An Ellwood City priest has resigned while authorities are investigating serious allegations into his conduct.
The Rev. Mauro Catuela, former pastor of Holy Redeemer Parish, is facing allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a teenage boy, and spent thousands of dollars of church money on gambling and buying pornography.
The Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese contacted the Lawrence County District Attorney's office as soon as they received the allegations, according the Rev. Ron Lengwin, spokesman for the Diocese.
"People made the allegations, we met with them, we met with father Cateula who denied all of the allegations, and then we turned the matter over to the district attorney, and then we began our own process to determine suitablility," Lengwin said.
The case is now in the hands of state police and the Lawrence County District Attorney's Office.
The diocese is doing its own investigation as well to ascertain whether Catuela is "suitable" to pastor at another parish, according to Lengwin.
NORTH DAKOTA
The Forum
By Dave Forster, The Forum
Published Tuesday, August 30, 2005
The Catholic Diocese of Fargo could face “devastating” allegations of priest misconduct this week at a trial for employee discrimination, its attorney said Monday.
The lawyer for Melissa Enebo, a former secretary for the diocese, said he wants to include evidence of misconduct by priests to show the diocese treated them differently than Enebo. Enebo claims gender discrimination in her lawsuit because she said she was fired in 1999 for getting pregnant outside of marriage.
Benjamin Thomas, the diocese attorney, argued at pretrial motions Monday in Cass County District Court that priests aren’t considered employees of the diocese.
Only the Vatican can appoint and remove priests, Thomas said. Also, it is the Code of Canon Law, not state labor laws, that dictate how priests are disciplined, he said. Therefore, priests don’t provide a fair comparison in Enebo’s case, Thomas said.
Enebo’s attorney, Robert Schultz, pointed out later that some priests are considered employees of the diocese and are under the bishop’s oversight.
MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald
By Michele McPhee
Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - Updated: 06:10 AM EST
Prosecutors and defense lawyers were flabbergasted yesterday to learn of an explosive prison video in which grandstanding killer Joseph L. Druce pantomimes the brutal 2003 murder of an infamous pedophile priest.
But a Department of Correction official said his agency does not have the video, images from which appeared in yesterday's Herald.
``We are looking into the matter of the tape being released,'' said DOC spokesman Paul Henderson.
Druce's defense attorney, John H. Lachance, and Worcester County District Attorney John J. Conte both said they would demand copies of the macabre video from the DOC.
Conte said he had not seen the tape, and asked DOC officials about it yesterday. ``Our office has certainly not seen it,'' he said. ``Basically, we just want to get this case to trial. That has been our purpose for quite a while now.''
Druce, who is serving life in an unrelated case, is expected in court Thursday for a hearing in the murder of John J. Geoghan, the defrocked Weston pastor accused of abusing scores of young children. Lachance said yesterday he plans to file a motion today aimed at obtaining the Druce video, and would argue that motion at the hearing Thursday.
``I don't have that tape,'' he said. ``All I have seen of that is what is in the newspaper.''
MIAMI (FL)
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
August 29, 2005
A May 2005 lawsuit filed on behalf of the Rev. Andrew Dowgiert against the Archdiocese of Miami was dismissed on August 25. The suit alleges that Dowgiert was terminated for complaining to the archdiocese about sexual and financial improprieties allegedly committed by certain archdiocesan clergy.
To read the text of the lawsuit, click on the following link: http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/050521.
Sharon Bourassa, an attorney representing Dowgiert, sent the following e-mail on August 29 to the priest's supporters (slightly edited):
"At the hearing ... the court dismissed Fr. Dowgiert's case against the archdiocese. The court said that it did not want to get involved in a Church dispute. This means that Fr. Dowgiert will have to make the decision to appeal the lower court's ruling.
CANADA
London Free Press
COLIN PERKEL, CP 2005-08-30 01:48:54
TORONTO -- A Jehovah's Witness who sexually abused his daughter was sentenced yesterday to two years less a day, to be served in the community, in a case that cast a spotlight on how the church handles sex-abuse complaints within its ranks.
The victim, Vicki Boer, said the sentencing of her father validates her allegations and should force the church to face up to its shortcomings in handling her abuse complaint.
"For the first time, somebody believed me," Boer said of the judge.
"It makes (the elders) accountable. They've never had to be accountable," she said in an interview from Fredericton.
In June, Gower Palmer pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault in Ontario Superior Court in Orangeville, about 100 kilometres northwest of Toronto.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
The Union Leader
By CAROLYN DISCO
Guest Commentary
THE INTERCESSIONS published on the Diocese of Manchester's Web site for Mass this past Sunday asked Catholics throughout New Hampshire to pray for reconciliation with those "who have been in leadership roles and have unwittingly allowed" sexual abuse to happen — a thinly veiled reference to Bishop John McCormack and Auxiliary Bishop Francis Christian.
Slipped in amongst mention of those who were abused and those who were the abusers, this clever effort to exonerate our bishops of their shameful records deserves rebuttal.
"Bless me Father, for mistakes were made" is their version of confession instead of "Bless me Father, for I have lied, deceived, covered up sexual abuse, and endangered children." Bishop McCormack's habitual turn to euphemisms about "mistakes and inadequacies" cannot obscure the plain, simple truth. What they say now about what they did then reveals a clerical mindset bent more on damage control than honesty. The continuing spin, like these intercessions, is what is so wounding to the Body of Christ. Where are the bishops who speak truth from the heart and do not practice deceit?
The documents exposed by legal order make clear the bishops were hardly oblivious. While they pretend they have done nothing legally or morally wrong, they have left behind countless children who were abused in body and soul. It just happened. It was "unwittingly allowed." From the chancery there is no mention of criminal negligence that endangered minors, no obstruction of justice, no accessory after the fact, no failure to report abuse, no perjury. Statutes of limitations, weak laws and a plea bargain kept them from criminal prosecution, so they can boast of no indictments.
ELLWOOD CITY (PA)
Beaver County Times
Mary Anne Caputo, Calkins Media
08/28/2005
The Rev. Mauro Cautela has resigned as pastor of Holy Redeemer Parish, Ellwood City, amidst serious allegations of impropriety.
According to the Rev. John R. Rushofsky, director of clerical personnel for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, Cautela has been placed on administrative leave, though he would not say what the allegations against Cautela are.
The official statement from the diocese was read at the 6 p.m. Mass Saturday in Holy Redeemer Parish and was to be read after all Masses today.
Additional diocesan personnel will be on hand after the noon Mass today at the church to answer any questions they can within the confines of the confidential nature of the matter.
The statement made no further reference to the specifics of the allegations, but said, "When allegations of this nature have been made, church law mandates that specific procedures must be followed. In response to this requirement, a preliminary investigation has already begun. This action does not imply guilt but is intended to find the truth while preserving the rights of everyone involved, including both the person against whom an allegation has been made and the alleged victim.
ELLWOOD CITY (PA)
Beaver County Times
Michael Pound, Times Staff
08/29/2005
ELLWOOD CITY - Sunday's noon Mass at Holy Redeemer Parish in Ellwood City was like a noon Mass on any other Sunday.
But after Mass at Blessed Virgin Mary Church, was completed, about 120 parishioners stayed behind, hoping to hear more about the accusations that led the Rev. Mauro Cautela, pastor of the Ellwood City parish, to resign last week.
And although officials from the Diocese of Pittsburgh met with parishioners for about an hour Sunday afternoon, there were few new details about Cautela and his future with the church.
The diocese announced at services Saturday that Cautela had been placed on administrative leave by the diocese earlier last week. Cautela resigned from his position on Wednesday, so a new pastor could be appointed before the lengthy investigation was complete.
After the post-Mass meeting, some parish members said they were disappointed by the lack of information.
"They didn't tell us a whole lot that we didn't know already," said John Takacs, an Ellport resident. "We're going to have to wait and see what happens like everyone else."
PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Rev. Mauro Cautela, a parish priest in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh since 1974, has been removed from public ministry while state police investigate what the diocese termed "serious allegations of improprieties."
While details are unavailable, the allegations appear to be both financial and sexual in nature.
Cautela, 57, had been pastor of Holy Redeemer in Ellwood City since 1992 and served as dean of all Lawrence County parishes. According to the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the diocese, allegations were first brought to the diocese Aug. 17. On Wednesday, Cautela was placed on administrative leave and resigned as pastor of Holy Redeemer, and diocesan officials gave the allegations to Lawrence County District Attorney Matthew Mangino.
"The diocese came to us and we have asked the state police to look into the matter," Mangino said yesterday.
The state police would not comment because they said the investigation was ongoing.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
By Robert Patrick
Of the Post-Dispatch
08/29/2005
The criminal prosecution of a Catholic priest charged with performing oral sex on a teenage boy in the Old Cathedral more than 25 years ago started Monday in St. Louis Circuit Court.
The prosecution of the Rev. Thomas Graham, 71, is being seen by some Missouri prosecutors as the test case that will determine if they can pursue decades-old sex charges.
Graham is being prosecuted under a 1969 law that did not provide a statute of limitations for "abominable and detestable crimes against nature."
If convicted of sodomy, Graham could face up to life in prison.
TORRINGTON (WY)
Star-Tribune
By DENISE HEILBRUN
Star-Tribune correspondent Tuesday, August 30, 2005
TORRINGTON -- What began in 1930 as an orphanage, and is now operated as a treatment center for severely emotionally disturbed children, is celebrating 75 years of service to Wyoming youth.
St. Joseph's Children's Home will hold an open house and tour on Thursday to enable the public to see what is "behind those walls."
"I think there's a mystery of the institution when people drive by," said Bob Mayor, executive director of St. Joseph's. "There's a curiosity of people of 'What are these new buildings like, what are the old buildings like? What do they really do back there?'" ...
The youth home was in the headlines last week after a victims' advocacy group called for the name of retired Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Hart to be removed from a residence hall, the Hart Children's Center. Three lawsuits have been filed against the bishop alleging sexual abuse in the 1970s in Kansas when he was a priest.
That request was rejected by Bishop David Ricken, who noted that Hart was president of the youth home's board of directors for 25 years and that the accusations against him have not resulted in criminal charges.
MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star
By KEVIN MURPHY
The Kansas City Star
Two men have sued the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, contending they were sexually abused in the 1950s by the Rev. Sylvester Hoppe, who died in 2002.
Gary Lee Smith of Topeka and Hank Talbot, who lives in northwest Missouri, filed lawsuits late last week in Jackson County Circuit Court. The lawsuits said the diocese “ignored, covered up and concealed” Hoppe’s behavior.
In a written statement released Monday afternoon, the Rev. Robert A. Murphy, vicar general of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, said the diocese had no record of complaints from Smith or Talbot.
Still, he expressed regret for the harm done by a few priests. “The diocese is deeply sorry for what has happened to innocent children due to the abuse perpetrated by some priests,” Murphy’s statement said.
VATICAN
Gay.com
Eric Johnston, Gay.com/PlanetOut.com Network
Tuesday 30 August, 2005
Pope Benedict XVI is said to be considering a controversial new policy of excluding gay men from becoming priests.
News of the possible policy change came from the Observer newspaper and sources close to the Vatican.
According to the report, the pope is currently reviewing a draft report produced by the Congregation for Catholic Education and Seminaries, which includes a recommendation that gay men should be excluded from entering seminaries where priests are trained. The policy would also raise questions about how to determine who is gay and who is not.
According to the Observer, the proposed document was drawn up in response to the sexual abuse scandal involving priests in the United States, which included allegations of sexual harassment of priests by their superiors.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
The Kansas City Star
Associated Press
ST. LOUIS - A trial of a Roman Catholic priest accused of sodomizing a teenage boy in the 1970s began Monday in a case that could test how well sexual abuse charges hold up decades after the alleged crime.
Rev. Thomas Graham, 71, faces one count of sodomy against a teenage boy at the rectory of St. Louis' Old Cathedral in the late 1970s.
Graham is being tried in St. Louis court. The St. Louis Archdiocese said it investigated the allegation in 1994 but could not substantiate it based on the information it had.
Graham has maintained the charge is untrue, the archdiocese said, but he was removed from active ministry when charged in November 2002. He has been living in a monitored residence.
Many Missouri prosecutors think the case could show the effectiveness of a sodomy charge decades after an alleged sex abuse crime. Standard child molestation laws require charges to be filed relatively quickly.
VATICAN CITY
365Gay.com
by Malcolm Thornberry 365Gay.com European Bureau Chief
Posted: August 28, 2005 4:00 pm ET
(Vatican City) The Vatican is preparing to bar gays from entering the priesthood and is considering removing those gays who are already priests.
The new regulations for the priesthood were prepared by the Congregation for Catholic Education and Seminaries - the body that oversees all Catholic seminaries.
The document was delivered to Pope Benedict earlier this month but was not made public because the Vatican did not want it to conflict with the papal visit to Cologne.
It is the latest attempt to lay blame for the child abuse scandal that for the past several years has rocked the church, particularly in America, at the feet of gays.
In the past the church has been silent on the issue of gay priests, believing the vow of celibacy that all priests take, was sufficient.
CHEYENNE (WY)
KGWN
Cheyenne, Wyo
Associated Press
A residence hall at the Saint Joseph's Children's Home in Torrington will continue to bear the name of former Wyoming Bishop Joseph Hart.
That's the word from current Bishop David Ricken. He says accusations made last week in a lawsuit against Hart are not enough by themselves to warrant taking Hart's name off the youth center.
Last week, a former parishioner of Hart filed a lawsuit in Missouri, alleging that Hart had molested him when he was 12 years old. It was the fifth such lawsuit against Hart.
Hart has not responded to this most recent allegation, but has repeatedly denied any sexual misconduct.
DALLAS (TX)
Forth Worth Star-Telegram
By Martha Deller
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
On the eve of what could have been an emotional trial, Dallas Theological Seminary reached a out-of-court settlement with a Trophy Club resident who blamed the seminary for his abuse by one of their graduates.
Jury selection was set to begin Monday in Tarrant County's 17th District court in Aaron Babb's lawsuit against the seminary, where a man now imprisoned for molesting Babb graduated in 1992.
But attorneys for Babb and the seminary said Monday the case was settled late Friday, with all terms to remain confidential.
"Our client is pleased with the terms of the settlement," said Babb's attorney, Thomas McElyea. "He was prepared to go to trial, but we believe it is in the best interest of all parties to solve the lawsuit amicably."
Thomas Brandon Jr., who represented the 80-year-old nondenominational seminary, agreed.
"The matter was settled to the satisfaction of all parties involved," Brandon said. "My personal hope is that this will help promote healing for Mr. Babby and for the seminary."
SPOKANE (WA)
Catholic News Service
By Catholic News Service
SPOKANE, Wash. (CNS) -- Citing the "national consequences," Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane said he will appeal a federal bankruptcy court's ruling that parish properties must be included in the Spokane diocesan assets used to settle millions of dollars in clergy sex abuse claims.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams of Spokane ruled Aug. 26 that civil property laws prevail in a bankruptcy proceeding despite any internal church laws that might bar a bishop from full control over parish assets. Diocesan lawyers had argued that in church law parish assets belong to the parish itself, not to its pastor or to the bishop. They said that, while the diocesan bishop was nominally the owner in civil law, even in civil law he only held those properties in trust for the parishes themselves.
"It is not a violation of the First Amendment," Williams wrote, "to apply federal bankruptcy law to identify and define property of the bankruptcy estate even though the Chapter 11 debtor is a religious organization."
Her ruling, if upheld, would vastly increase the diocesan assets subject to the abuse claims and would up the ante nationwide for any other diocese considering that approach to resolving sexual abuse claims against its clergy.
TUCSON (AZ)
KVOA
In the settlement of a lawsuit, the Pima County Assessor's Office must give back all but $5,000 of the nearly $50,000 in property taxes that had been paid on the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson's downtown headquarters in the 2004 tax year.
The lawsuit was filed last year by the Catholic Foundation for the Diocese of Tucson, which argued that as a charitable entity it should be completely exempt from paying property taxes on the headquarters.
The settlement was signed by Pima County Superior Court Judge Carmine Cornelio late last month.
Under state law, properties of charitable institutions are exempt from taxation if the institutions and property aren't used or held for profit. ...
The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization last year in the face of 22 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by local clergy.
NORTHERN IRELAND
One in Four
MASSGOERS were yesterday asked to participate in a survey to assess views on how their parish should contribute to the compensation fund for victims of clerical sex abuse.
The request was made by the Administrator of St Eugene's Cathedral in Derry, Fr Michael Canny, who said that the survey would be conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Ulster.
Earlier this year the Bishop of Derry, Dr Seamus Hegarty, said the diocese was committed to paying £1m (€1.46m) over a five-year period to the Stewardship Trust Fund, which was set up by the Catholic Church in Ireland to pay compensation to people who were sexually abused by priests.
Fr Canny said that his parish's commitment to the fund was £8,000 (€11,700) a year for five years.
WORCESTER (MA)
Worcester Voice
Tuesday morning August 30, The Rev. Robert M. Hoatson, a Catholic priest from New Jersey and supporters of clergy abuse victim Patricia A. Cahill will assemble to provided leaflets to visitors at the main gates of the College of the Holy Cross.
Ms Patricia A. Cahill, a Lancaster, Pa., resident and the niece of the late Rev.Daniel E. Millard, a 1947 Holy Cross graduate for whom the Millard Art Center is named, alleged that her uncle sexually abused her when she was between the ages of 5 and 13. She said the abuse occurred during the 1950s while she was growing up in New Jersey.
The Millard Art Center was dedicated in 1993 and the building contains a bronze plaque bearing the name and a likeness of Rev. Millard. A major benefactor was Mrs. Ferrara's father, Charles Millard of the class of 1954. The former
president, CEO and chairman of the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of New York died in 2003 after a lengthy term as a Holy Cross trustee.
OREGON
The Oregonian
Monday, August 29, 2005
STEVE WOODWARD
A week before he died, Larry Lynn Craven called his lawyer, as he often did, to say that he could no longer live with the demons of his childhood sexual abuse.
"He had called me, crying and depressed and saying that he wanted to commit suicide," Daniel J. Gatti recalls. "I kept saying, 'God will get us through this.' "
A week later, on July 21, the Brooks man was dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, making him the third clergy sex-abuse plaintiff to commit suicide or apparent suicide in the past nine months.
The deaths are a disturbing undercurrent in the crucial mediations now under way between 66 sex-abuse plaintiffs and the Archdiocese of Portland, and they have prompted Gatti to ask a federal judge for help in preventing more suicides.
"Over the past several months," Gatti wrote in an affidavit filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Portland, "I have fielded several calls from clients who, with a drink in one hand and a gun in the other, have threatened to commit suicide, and, but for divine intervention and a great deal of talk, I believe that they would have, in fact, committed suicide."
The mediations have stirred up dormant emotions that are rooted in abuse that plaintiffs say took place decades ago.
SPOKANE (WA)
KXLY
Local churches are reacting to a federal ruling that could force the Spokane Catholic Diocese to sell churches, schools and all parish property to pay victims of priest sexual abuse.
The ruling came Friday, after the diocese began seeking Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection, saying it could only pay $10 million for victims of priest abuse. Victims argued the diocese could pay more if the church sold schools and other parish property.
Local Catholics News4 spoke with are upset and sad. Before the 11am mass at the Cathedral of our Lady Lourdes, a few Catholics said they understand the victims have suffered, but they don't think they should too. One women says she does not want the current Catholic population to pay for sins that happened decades ago.
Victims of clergy abuse have said they do not want to see churches or schools sold, they just want a resolution and the church to be held accountable.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Michael Levenson, Globe Correspondent | August 29, 2005
A decision by a federal bankruptcy judge in Spokane, Wash., who ruled that the assets of the Catholic diocese could be liquidated to pay victims of sexual abuse by priests, could have far-reaching implications for dioceses across the country, including in Boston, leaders of two lay reform groups said yesterday.
Peter Borre, cochairman of the Council of Parishes, a group that is assisting parishioners who oppose the closing of their parishes, said he believes the ruling might encourage more victims of clergy sexual abuse to come forward and file suit against church officials, two years after about 550 parishioners in Boston settled their claims with the archdiocese.
''We are going to see a significant surge in claims because, to put it a bit crassly, sexual-abuse victims and their attorneys will now see much larger sums of money available for settlement," he said. ''Everything within the diocese is now potentially on the table if it comes to Chapter 11 proceedings."
Terrence C. Donilon, spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese, said he did not want to comment directly on the ruling because church lawyers have not had a chance to review its details. But he said he wanted to point out differences between the Boston Archdiocese and the Diocese of Spokane, which filed for bankruptcy in December, claiming assets of $11.1 million and liabilities of $81.3 million. Most of those liabilities were sexual-abuse claims.
''We're not in bankruptcy, we're in a process of reconfiguration, so we're in a significantly different environment from Spokane," Donilon said.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
By Sarah Brett
29 August 2005
A priest in Londonderry is surveying his parish on how cash should be raised for a controversial fund which compensates victims of paedophile priests.
Father Michael Canny has asked a team of researchers from the University of Ulster to confidentially canvass those who worship in and financially support St Eugene's Cathedral on how the parish might "meet its obligation" to the Stewardship Trust Fund.
The move follows a double scandal in the diocese earlier this year when it emerged that Dungiven curate Fr Andy McCloskey was allowed to become a sex abuse counsellor despite facing two serious sexual allegations and paying a £19,000 out of court settlement to an alleged victim.
Within weeks it was also revealed that Bishop Of Derry Seamus Hegarty had on one occasion channelled money from parish contributions into the Stewardship Trust Fund without telling parishioners.
SAN DIEGO (CA)
Union-Tribune
By Onell R. Soto
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 29, 2005
Lawyers for the Roman Catholic Church and for people who say they were abused by priests are using a case in San Diego federal court to do what they can't do in state court.
Church officials are trying to invalidate the 2002 state law that lifted the statute of limitations for bringing decades-old civil claims of sexual abuse.
The lawyers for people who say they are victims are using it to expose sometimes graphic allegations of abuse and what they call cover-ups in a series of recent declarations.
Such arguments can't be made in state court because lawyers on both sides agreed to seek mediation for about 140 lawsuits filed against the church in San Diego after a nationwide scandal prompted the change in the law.
None of the cases filed in San Diego has gone to trial.
VATICAN CITY
Science Daily
Vatican City, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI reportedly is now studying a proposed instruction that would ban the ordination of homosexuals as Roman Catholic priests.
The Observer said that the instruction written by the Congregation for Catholic Education and Seminaries would, for the first time, make heterosexuality a requirement in selecting candidates for seminaries. In the past, because all priests take vows of celibacy, sexual orientation was not an issue.
The instruction has gone through three drafts without being released, and the pope could still decide to withhold it. Barring homosexuals from the priesthood could lead to an even greater shortage of candidates in the church. ...
The document is a response to the scandal about sexual abuse in the United States, because, in addition to complaints of pedophiliac priests, some priests claimed they had been abused or sexually harassed by superiors.
MISSOURI
Times Newspapers
by Don Corrigan
"Twist of Faith" follows the story of a Toledo firefighter who is forced to confront earlier years of sexual abuse.
An award-winning documentary on clergy sexual abuse and a panel exploring such crimes "happening in our own backyard" is slated for 8 p.m., Aug. 31, at Webster University's Moore Auditorium.
"The film is quite powerful," said David Clohessy, who will represent Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) on the panel following the film. "It's great that St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Jennifer Joyce will be on the panel.
"Her presence can remind us that clergy abuse is a serious crime," said Clohessy. "It needs to be brought to the police. Most Catholics agree that this stuff should not be covered up; it should not be swept under the rug. It needs to be cleaned up."
The film, "Twist of Faith," follows the psychological journey of Tony Comes, a firefighter from Toledo, Ohio, who has buried his past of being abused by a priest. A constant barrage of news related to sexual abuse, coupled with a disturbing discovery in his personal life, forces Tony to confront his demons.
"The film is important because it shows what the pain is about, what the aftermath of clergy abuse is all about," said Clohessy. "Here is a fireman, Tony, who buys his dream house for his family, only to find that the priest who molested him lives down the street."
PENNSYLVANIA
The Daily Item
By Bevin Milavsky
The Daily Item
A woman who was sexually abused as a child is working for legislative change to stop the cycle of abuse and bring justice to others who have been victimized.
Tammy Lerner, of New Tripoli, is co-director of the Lehigh Valley chapter of SNAP (Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests), and for the past three years her main focus has been serving as legislative director.
Ms. Lerner's abuse began when she was 4 or 5 and growing up in Mifflinburg. She said the abuse was committed by two members of her extended family.
Ms. Lerner's grandfather was a non-denominational minister who held church services in his home every Sunday.
Although her grandfather was in no way involved in her abuse, she said the very strict, conservative nature of the religion engendered secrecy, much like what shrouded the Catholic clergy abuse scandals.
NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Times-Picayune
Saturday, August 27, 2005
By Bruce Nolan
Staff writer
A lay-dominated review board that advises Archbishop Alfred Hughes said it does not have enough information to evaluate a Harvey man's allegation that a Marrero priest molested him as a child, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New Orleans said Friday.
"The data available to the review board is not sufficient at this time for the board to render a judgment," said archdiocesan spokesman the Rev. William Maestri.
The archdiocese, as distinct from its advisory panel, continues to believe that Monsignor Raymond Hebert is a victim of mistaken identity, Maestri said.
The review board sent the complaint back for more investigation and asked that it not be resubmitted until a fuller picture is available, he said.
The decision means that Hebert may continue his 53-year career in public ministry.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Sunday, August 28, 2005
A federal bankruptcy judge has ruled that churches, parochial schools and other assets belong to a diocese, not to individual parishes and trusts - a major victory for clergy sexual abuse victims suing for damages, and a potential blow to Boston-area parishioners suing to reopen closed churches.
By rejecting its argument that the assets of parishes belong not to the diocese but to parishioners, Judge Patricia Williams undermined the Spokane, Wash., diocese's attempt to limit the assets creditors could seize to settle lawsuits brought by 58 people who say they were abused by priests.
The diocese plans to appeal. But if the ruling is upheld, it could have broad implications for dioceses attempting to fend off lawsuits by sex-abuse victims by claiming that parish assets belong to parishioners.
It would likewise affect the Boston Archdiocese, which is making a mirror-image attempt to foil lawsuits by parishioners at churches it has closed by claiming parish assets belong to the archdiocese.
``If this decision is upheld after appeals, it is of landmark importance for the Catholic Church in America,'' said Peter Borre, a spokesman for the Council of Parishes, a group opposed to Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley's decision last year to close roughly one-quarter of the archdiocese's 357 parishes, largely due to dwindling donations in the wake of the clergy sex-abuse scandal.
NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News
One of Londonderry's Catholic parishes has started consulting on how to meet its commitment to a fund compensating victims of clerical sex abuse.
Mass-goers who attend St Eugene's Cathedral are being asked to give their views on how the parish should raise £40,000 for the Stewardship Trust Fund.
Fr Michael Canny, the administrator, said it was important the University of Ulster survey was independent.
He said he was "prepared to abide" by whatever the findings were.
"The university are asking them (the Mass goers) on my behalf to express their preferences as to how we might meet our commitments," he said.
MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
A former student at New Haven High School has filed a civil lawsuit against former St. Louis priest James Beine in St. Louis Circuit Court.
The former student, called John Doe in the lawsuit, said he was sexually abused by Beine several times beginning in 1978 at the high school, where Beine was a counselor. The lawsuit, filed Friday, also named the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis, Archbishop Raymond Burke and the school district.
The suit was the second filed against Beine in as many days. On Thursday, a Florida man, now 53, filed a civil lawsuit saying he was abused by Beine at St. Monica Catholic School in Creve Coeur when he was in the sixth and seventh grades.
CHEYENNE (WY)
Star-Tribune
By ROBERT W. BLACK
Star-Tribune capital bureau Sunday, August 28, 2005
CHEYENNE -- A victims' advocacy group has been rebuffed in its attempt to have the name of retired Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Hart removed from a residence hall at a Torrington youth home.
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, based in Chicago, on Wednesday urged Wyoming Catholic leaders to strip Hart's name from a building at St. Joseph's Children's Home, which is affiliated with the church.
The request came following the third lawsuit filed against the bishop alleging sexual abuse in the 1970s when he was a priest.
Bishop David Ricken, who succeeded Hart as spiritual leader of Wyoming's Catholics in 2001, issued a statement Friday saying there was no reason to change the name of the Hart Children's Center.
"In this wonderful country, a person is innocent until proven guilty," Ricken said. "I am sure any one of us would welcome the protection of the law and the presumption of innocence if we had been accused.
WASHINGTON
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
By Union-Bulletin staff with Associated Press reports
A federal bankruptcy judge has ruled that all the parish churches, parochial schools and other property of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane can be liquidated to pay victims of sexual abuse by priests.
The decision - which includes six parishes in Columbia, Garfield and Walla Walla counties and two Catholic schools in the region - may prompt other dioceses across the nation to avoid filing for Chapter 11 protection.
But Spokane Bishop William Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he will appeal the decision announced Friday.
``We appeal this decision because we have a responsibility, not only to victims, but to the generations of parishioners...who have given so generously of themselves in order to build up the work of the Catholic Church in Eastern Washington,' Skylstad said in a prepared statement.
``Let me assure everyone that ministry will continue in Eastern Washington,' he said.
TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
Russ Lemmon
A hand-written letter — a true rarity these days — caused me to change plans for today's get-together.
Originally, I was not going to write about Twist of Faith, the Oscar-nominated documentary set in Toledo. After all, I had mentioned it the three previous weeks.
But I was taken aback by the tone of Martin's one-page correspondence. I've received my share of "hate mail" through the years, but his ranks among the most vile.
In this space two weeks ago, I said we were small-minded because Twist of Faith couldn't get a public screening here. If I were to build a case in support of my statement, Martin's letter would be Exhibit A.
The film chronicles the life of Toledo firefighter Tony Comes around the time he went public with allegations of sexual abuse by a former priest, Dennis Gray. I don't see how it's possible to watch it and not have heartfelt sympathy for Mr. Comes.
Martin, however, might be the exception.
"Media creep, phony Tony Comes, the $50,000 Hollywood crybaby, has gotten enough out of this," he wrote, making reference to the $50,000 settlement Mr. Comes received from the Toledo Catholic diocese.
All I could do is shake my head over his astonishing lack of compassion.
Martin wasn't finished. He spewed his remaining venom at me.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Kathleen A. Shaw TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
kshaw@telegram.com
WORCESTER— The 1962 Vatican document called Crimen Sollicitationis that first surfaced in Worcester two years ago has made its way around the world, causing controversy and sparking debate on whether the Roman Catholic hierarchy intended this document as a plan to hush up sexual abuse of children.
The name is taken from the first words of the original Latin version, which mean “crime of solicitation.” It outlines procedures to be followed when a priest is accused of sexual abuse. Houston lawyer Daniel J. Shea said the document is relevant because it shows that the church hierarchy has conspired to keep quiet child abuse.
Reading through the Crimen protocol for handling abuse cases, Mr. Shea said, it is evident that the intent is to absolve the offending priest and send him on what the document calls a “pious pilgrimage” but what he called a “vacation,” and to shut up the complainant.
He and other civil lawyers in this country are also introducing the document into lawsuits in an attempt to show that an international conspiracy is involved in covering up abuse by priests.
He went to the gates of the Vatican two weeks ago to press his argument that Pope Benedict XVI has actively conspired to keep cases of clergy sexual abuse under wraps. He bases his claim on the Crimen document and a letter that the pope wrote in 2001, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, instructing church officials on how to handle these cases. Crimen was footnoted in the 2001 document.
Crimen Sollicitationis has also shown up in Louisville, Ky., where the Vatican has been named in a lawsuit filed by men alleging clergy sexual abuse.
Mr. Shea, who also practices in Massachusetts, settled several sexual abuse cases in Worcester Superior Court, but has named the pope in a lawsuit he is handling for three men in the Houston area who said they were sexually abused by a priest there who later fled back to his native Latin America.
Crimen was introduced into a court suit in Springfield brought by Jane Martin, who said she was sexually abused as a child by the Rev. Robert E. Kelley, a priest of the Worcester Diocese. The judge did not allow introduction of the document because it had not been authenticated and was not seen as being relevant.
Mr. Shea’s campaign has attracted public notice. Articles about his quest have appeared in newspapers in Britain, Ireland, Italy and the United States.
The Rev. Thomas Doyle, the canon lawyer who first called attention to the burgeoning sexual abuse scandal in the church in the mid-1980s, said he understands that an even earlier document dealt with how to handle clergy sexual abuse issues, but he has been unable to find the entire document. Dated June 8, 1922, it is written in Latin and called “De modo procedendi in causis sollicitationis.”
Rev. Doyle does not agree with Mr. Shea that the 2001 memo implicates the pope in obstruction of justice. The memo was intended to be an internal church document and no one at the Vatican at the time was thinking in terms of obstructing justice. He does not believe that Crimen Sollicitationis was an intentional act by the church hierarchy to cover up abuse but said it shows a 1960s “mindset” of the hierarchy, which intended these things to be kept confidential.
The document, which was marked “confidential,” was drawn up by Cardinal Alfred Ottaviani and approved by Pope John XXIII. Rev. Doyle said the pope may not have read the document presented to him for approval by the cardinal, but he would have known of its existence. According to the preamble to Crimen, it was to be “diligently stored in the secret archives of the Curia as strictly confidential.”
Rev. Doyle, as a canon lawyer, worked at the Vatican embassy in Washington, D.C., during the 1980s and a lot of church documents involving allegations of clerical sexual abuse crossed his desk. This is where he got his first inklings of the scope of the problem, which until recently remained largely hidden. He has also served as an expert witness in civil lawsuits involving allegations of sexual abuse by priests and has seen even more documents.
He said that although Crimen does not appear to be operational in all Catholic dioceses, he has seen documents that show it was used in some of them.
He believes the American bishops, none of whom would have been involved in the writing of Crimen Sollicitationis, from the mid-20th century onward turned their energies to sending offending priests to treatment places. The first such retreat was operated by the Servants of the Paraclete in New Mexico, he said. In the late 1940s and 1950s, the founder of that order was warning bishops that none of the priests sent to “the Paracletes should be in active ministry,” he said. The bishops did not heed that warning, he said.
The House of Affirmation in Whitinsville, which was opened in the 1970s, received a number of offending priests, but experts in the treatment field had told Rev. Doyle that they did not believe the House of Affirmation was equipped professionally to treat sexually abusive priests. “But bishops continued to send priests to the House of Affirmation,” he said. The House of Affirmation closed in the late 1980s amid a financial scandal.
Rev. Doyle said Catholics in general understand that the hierarchy needs to take a good look at how they operate if there is to be an end to clerical sexual abuse. He said he was recently involved in a court case in which a bishop, whom he declined to name, did not tell the truth about destruction by his diocese of subpoenaed documents, although the bishop had knowledge that his predecessor had the documents destroyed. “He violated a court order and he violated an oath,” Rev. Doyle said.
Bishops react as organizations react, he said. “They come to see their needs as the needs of the institution,” he said. Rev. Doyle added that the church will not come to grips with the sexual abuse problem unless it takes a look at its own views on sexuality. Rev. Doyle said he has seen files on many abusive priests and was struck by how sexually immature they were. “In seminary, you did not talk about sex. It was a sin,” he said.
Rev. Doyle added that the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, which was approved by the American bishops, is not the panacea that many hope it is. “I have a lot of issues with the charter,” he said. For one thing, he said, he does not believe the church can “self-audit” compliance with the charter. The language of the charter is so broad that abuse can be construed in many different ways.
Other people interviewed recently had a variety of views on the documents and what needs to be done to deal with the clergy sexual abuse scandal.
Gerald Renner of Connecticut, a retired religion writer for the Hartford Courant who with Jason Berry wrote “Vows of Silence,” has investigated the allegations that Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legion of Christ, had sexually molested boys and that the Vatican hushed it up.
Mr. Renner said he believes the “resurrection” of Crimen after more than 40 years is “not a blueprint for a cover-up regardless of what Mr. Shea or others say.” He said it is an internal church document “that applies to ecclesiastical law, not to the broader civil law in the U.S. or anywhere else. It is a straw which civil lawyers have grasped to open the Vatican to liability for the cover-up.”
Timothy P. Staney, a former Worcester resident who now lives in the Tampa, Fla., area, has made the Crimen available to anyone who want to download it from the Internet. He got a copy of the document, which is more than 30 pages long, and put it on his Web site. It got 800 hits the first week and the document then began to appear on other sites. A Google search shows the file, criminales.pdf, showing up in more than 90 sites. References to Crimen show up in more than 650 places on the Web and articles about it appear in a number of different languages, showing a worldwide reach.
Crimen deals with how the hierarchy should act if a priest is turned in for sexual abuse. The answer is, “It never happened,” Mr. Staney said.
Mr. Staney, who settled a lawsuit alleging he was sexually abused by the Rev. Jean-Paul Gagnon and Raymond Tremblay, a former religious education teacher, said he believes it is unimportant whether Catholics view the document as irrelevant or an urgent directive of protocol. “It is indisputable that this document was released to the highest ranks of the church under the secret of the Holy Office with draconian security instructions and was never meant to fall into the hands of lay people, moreover the media,” he said.
Mr. Staney sees Crimen as a “smoking gun” of a cover-up and noted the language of the document is “concisely sexual.” While some argue the document refers only to sexual abuse involving the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Mr. Staney questions why it makes reference to sexual acts involving “brute animals.”
“They were obviously concerned about something more than sacramental protocol,” he said.
Daniel E. Dick, victim support coordinator for Worcester Voice of the Faithful, said he believes Crimen was used by the bishops “and those above them in rank” to avoid having to face their role in the “whole, awful mess of sexual abuse by any and all church personnel.”
“The release of Crimen Sollicitationis in 1962 was originally limited to cover only improper advances a confessor might make to a young male in the confessional. Supposedly, according to its canon lawyer defenders, the intent of Crimen Sollicitationis was later expanded to convey the church’s recognition that the abuse of another person by a member of the clerical caste was also a crime. This covers (religious) such as deacons, brothers and sisters in religious orders, seminarians, priests, bishops and archbishops, cardinals, and popes who have been guilty of sexually soliciting and abusing another person,” Mr. Dick said.
“The document does not cover those who aid and abet in the crime of obstructing justice,” he said. A person who knowingly puts a child molester in a position to abuse more children “is also aiding and abetting a crime,” Mr. Dick said.
“The most notorious example of such an exclusion is the horrific record of Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston who did knowingly and habitually shield and transfer many, many pedophile clergy and religious from one post to another where they could continue their criminal ways. His case was considerably compounded by the actions of both Pope John Paul II and then Cardinal Ratzinger who had Law whisked away to Rome where they ensconced him in a cushy pastorate of a wealthy church there. Then, after being elected pope, Rev. Ratzinger had the further gall to invite Law to say the Mass of mourning for the late John Paul II,” Mr. Dick said.
Pauline Salvucci of Maine, a former religious sister who now advocates for church reform and accountability through Voices of Outrage, said the document may be controversial but she would rather see people focus their energies on bringing real reform to the Catholic church and to begin to prosecute those of the church hierarchy who have shielded priests.
“The way to change the church won’t be through this document from Rome, but rather through a grass-roots political movement in truth and justice,” she said. She sees the goals as changing the statutes of limitations to hold priests and bishops accountable for sexual abuse, holding Congressional hearings into diocesan cover-ups that have been documented around the country, removing the non-profit status of churches and dioceses that refuse to cooperate with investigations and having a federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) investigation into the cover-ups.
George “Skip” Shea of Uxbridge, who settled a suit alleging abuse by Rev. Thomas H. Teczar, said it is “hard to believe” there was not an active conspiracy with orders from Rome. He referred to a recent suit against the Fort Worth, Texas, and Worcester dioceses by two men who said they were abused by Rev. Teczar, who migrated to Texas from Worcester. “It was evident in the letters between Worcester and Fort Worth, where (the late) Bishop (Joseph Patrick) Delaney assumed all legal and financial responsibility for Father Teczar if he was to be sent there. He knew the risks. He jeopardized the safety of those children,” he said. “Clearly, the results of the recent lawsuits have proven that. Yet publicly he denied everything.”
George Shea said that Cardinal Law knowingly moved abusive priests “while publicly denying it.” Mr. Shea, who is not related to the Houston lawyer, said, “The fact that two leaders of the church, 2,000 miles apart, exhibiting the same behavior and responses to the crisis, leads one to believe they are taking the same orders.”
The Rev. Bruce Teague, a College of the Holy Cross graduate who is a priest of the Springfield Diocese, said bishops attempted to avoid scandal, particularly at the local level, and did not need Crimen to do it. “Most American bishops, unless they were canon lawyers, would not understand Crimen. It would have had to be interpreted to them by their chief canon lawyers,” he said.
Rev. Teague said bishops did not view sexual abuse of minors as a criminal issue but thought it was best handled by sending the priest to treatment. “Their behaviors were similar to Nixon in Watergate and Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky case. Their efforts and their diagnosis proved to be disastrous and destructive to victims and the church,” he said.
Canon law dealt with the issue of abusive priests, but American bishops did not even follow church law, Rev. Teague said. He said bishops still fail to hold themselves accountable for the harm they caused. “Unlike, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Dallas norms fail to hold bishops accountable themselves,” he said.
VATICAN
The Observer
Jamie Doward, religious affairs correspondent
Sunday August 28, 2005
The Observer
The new Pope faces his first controversy over the direction of the Catholic church after it was revealed that the Vatican has drawn up a religious instruction preventing gay men from being priests.
The controversial document, produced by the Congregation for Catholic Education and Seminaries, the body overseeing the church's training of the priesthood, is being scrutinised by Benedict XVI.
It been suggested Rome would publish the instruction earlier this month, but it dropped the plan out of concern that such a move might tarnish his visit to his home city of Cologne last week.
The document expresses the church's belief that gay men should no longer be allowed to enter seminaries to study for the priesthood. Currently, as all priests take a vow of celibacy, their sexual orientation has not been considered a pressing concern. ...
The instruction was drawn up as part of the Vatican's response to the sexual abuse scandal that surfaced in the American church three years ago, which has seen hundreds of priests launch lawsuits against superiors whom they accuse of abusing them.
As the former head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican body charged with looking into the abuse claims, Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was made acutely aware of the scale of the problem. He is thought to have made clearing up the scandal one of the key goals of his papacy.
WASHINGTON
The Seattle Times
By Janet I. Tu and Jonathan Martin
Seattle Times staff reporters
A federal bankruptcy judge yesterday ruled that churches and schools in the Catholic Diocese of Spokane are owned by the diocese and can be sold to pay settlements to sex-abuse victims, a decision that evoked both triumph and disappointment.
The decision — the first of its kind in the nation — is considered a victory for victims and a loss for the diocese and its 80-plus parishes, which had argued that the properties belong to individual parishes, not to the diocese, and therefore were not subject to liquidation.
The ruling likely will be watched closely by other dioceses around the country as they, too, resolve claims of people who were sexually abused by priests.
"This is a big victory," said attorney Michael Pfau, who represents many of the plaintiffs in Spokane, where one in five residents is Catholic. "It's simply a devastating ruling for the diocese."
MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
An Indiana man filed suit in St. Louis against the Chaminade College Preparatory School in Creve Coeur and a former teacher Friday, alleging that he had been sexually abused by a teacher when he was a student there in 1996.
The suit says that Father Daniel A. Triulzi fondled the student on "many occasions" at Chaminade. The suit names Triulzi and the Marianist Province of St. Louis.
The Rev. Ralph Siefert, Chaminade's president, said he was not aware of any allegations or complaints against Triulzi.
"I have never heard anything that would even make me suspicious," he said.
SEATTLE (WA)
The Seattle Times
By The Associated Press
The Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle and an abbey in Kansas have settled seven decades-old sex-abuse claims against the late Rev. John Forrester for a total of $2.6 million.
Forrester, a priest of St. Benedict's Abbey in Atchison, Kan., died in 2002. He served in the Seattle archdiocese at Holy Rosary in Seattle from 1974-75 and at All Saints in Puyallup from 1975-78.
WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By SHEILA B. LALWANI
slalwani@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Aug. 26, 2005
A year after a convicted child molester was sentenced to prison again for molesting two girls that he met through a church, the victims have filed a lawsuit, claiming the crime could have been prevented by the church, its pastor and members of its board of directors.
In a case that could turn the legal focus on the responsibilities churches have to protect members, Apostolic Faith Church in Caledonia is accused of failing to warn congregants that former Sunday school teacher assistant Timothy P. Gregory was a convicted child molester. The lawsuit says Gregory helped his wife, Kimberley A. Gregory, teach Sunday school at the church, where the plaintiff were members.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. Gregory is serving a 150-year prison sentence at the Green Bay Correctional Institute for molesting two sisters. Apostolic Faith disputes the claims of the lawsuit and says the parents failed to supervise their children. The lawsuit filed in the Racine County Circuit Court alleges members of Apostolic Faith first met Gregory as part of the church's prison ministries around 1990 when he was serving time in the Racine Correctional Institute. Members of the church continued to minister to Gregory until he was released in 1993 and helped him lease an apartment.
The lawsuit alleges that some members of the church knew of Gregory's past but failed to inform the congregation that Gregory was convicted in 1987 for molesting a girl in Outagamie County.
CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise
12:25 AM PDT on Saturday, August 27, 2005
By SONJA BJELLAND / The Press-Enterprise
A former youth pastor and onetime volunteer coach for Corona Centennial High School will get a new trial after a judge said his attorney was "hopelessly unprepared."
A Riverside County jury convicted Joseph Mario Arredondo Jr., 30, in March of 15 felony counts that involved sexual abuse of two teenage girls who were members of Norco's New Beginnings Christian.
Superior Court Judge Russell Schooling said he did not want to put the victims through the pain of testifying again but felt there was no other solution. After 30 years on the bench, Schooling said, he could not remember ever granting a motion to a new trial.
"We can go on with a litany of the ways that he failed to represent his client," Schooling said. "... I've never seen such an egregious lack of representation by an attorney before me."
After the hearing, Arredondo's friends and family who had filled half the courtroom cried and hugged each other.
WASHINGTON
Los Angeles Times
By Sam Verhovek and Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writers
SEATTLE — Handing a major legal victory to victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, a federal bankruptcy judge said Friday that churches, parochial schools and other assets belonged to a diocese — not individual parishes or trusts — and thus could be liquidated if necessary to pay victims.
The ruling applied specifically to the bankrupt Diocese of Spokane, Wash., which is facing settlement of lawsuits brought by 58 people who said they were sexually abused by priests.
The diocese said it would file an immediate appeal. But if the ruling is upheld, it could have broad implications for other dioceses staggering under the weight of sexual-abuse lawsuits, because it undercuts the Roman Catholic Church's claim, reiterated in a Vatican finding this month, that most assets in individual dioceses cannot be put up for sale to settle claims.
The Vatican said investments and real estate such as churches and schools belonged to individual parishes.
But in Friday's ruling, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams of Spokane appeared to take issue with that claim.
OREGON
The Oregonian
Saturday, August 27, 2005
STEVE WOODWARD
In a decision with potentially major implications for Roman Catholics in Western Oregon, a Spokane bankruptcy judge made 32 Eastern Washington parishes available to pay off clergy sexual-abuse claims against the Diocese of Spokane.
If the Archdiocese of Portland is hit with a similar ruling, Catholic churchgoers in 124 Oregon parishes could see more than $500 million in parish assets opened up to claims from sex-abuse plaintiffs seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
"It is a difficult decision for any Catholic parishioner to read," said Portland lawyer Douglas R. Pahl, who represents parishes, parishioners and others who claim a stake in parish property in Western Oregon. "It expressly rejects many aspects of Catholic faith that Catholics have come to rely on for generations."
SPOKANE (WA)
King County Journal
2005-08-27
by Nicholas K. Geranios
Associated Press
SPOKANE -- A federal bankruptcy judge ruled Friday that all the parish churches, parochial schools and other property of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane can be liquidated to pay victims of sexual abuse by priests, a decision that may prompt other dioceses across the nation to avoid filing for Chapter 11 protection.
Spokane Bishop William Skylstad, who had argued that he did not control and could not sell individual parishes to pay victims, said he will appeal.
``We appeal this decision because we have a responsibility, not only to victims, but to the generations of parishioners ... who have given so generously of themselves in order to build up the work of the Catholic Church in Eastern Washington,'' said Skylstad, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
``Let me assure everyone that ministry will continue in Eastern Washington,'' Skylstad said in a statement.
The Spokane Diocese serves about 90,000 Catholics in 13 Eastern Washington counties, from Metaline Falls on the Canadian border to Walla Walla on the Washington-Oregon line. It filed for Chapter 11 protection in December, listing assets of $11.1 million and liabilities of $81.3 million. Most of the liabilities are sexual abuse claims.
DENVER (CO)
TheDenverChannel.com
POSTED: 11:05 am MDT August 26, 2005
DENVER -- Amid molestation allegations against a former priest, at least two state lawmakers are drawing up bills that would extend or eliminate the statute of limitations in cases of alleged sexual abuse of children.
State Sen. Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Golden, the Senate president, plans to introduce a bill next year to give adults victimized as minors more time to file civil lawsuits.
State Rep. Rosemary Marshall, D-Denver, said she will introduce a bill to eliminate the statute of limitations for criminal charges involving sexual offenses against children.
Both said they were motivated by a clergy sexual-abuse scandal that has plagued U.S. Catholic dioceses since 2002.
SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By TRACY JOHNSON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Seven men have reached a $2.6 million settlement with the Seattle Archdiocese and a Kansas religious order over accusations that a priest sexually abused them in the 1970s when they were altar boys.
The Rev. John Forrester was accused of molesting four of the boys while he was serving at Holy Rosary in Seattle and the other three while serving at All Saints in Puyallup, according to their attorneys.
The settlement is believed to wrap up all known allegations involving Forrester, who is dead, though the Seattle Archdiocese still faces dozens of other sexual abuse claims.
The Seattle Archdiocese has now settled 197 such claims for $19.6 million since the late 1980s, according to its attorney, Michael Patterson.
SPOKANE (WA)
Macon Telegraph
NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. - A federal bankruptcy judge ruled Friday that all the parish churches, parochial schools and other property of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane can be liquidated to pay victims of clergy sexual abuse.
The decision, expected to have ramifications for dioceses across the nation, is a major defeat for Spokane Bishop William Skylstad, who had argued he did not control individual parishes and thus they were not available to cover settlement costs.
"It is not a violation of the First Amendment to apply federal bankruptcy law to identify and define property of the bankruptcy estate even though the Chapter 11 debtor is a religious organization," U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams wrote.
Skylstad said he will appeal the decision "because we have a responsibility, not only to victims, but to the generations of parishioners ... who have given so generously of themselves in order to build up the work of the Catholic Church in Eastern Washington."
David Clohessy, national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the decision should make other bishops think twice about trying to protect assets by filing for bankruptcy.
FLORIDA
Tallahassee Democrat
The Leon County Sheriff's Office assisted the Bradford County Sheriff's Office in arresting Aaron D. West, 49, a former pastor of the Faith Baptist Church in Lawtey, for possessing or transmitting pornography to a minor.
West had relocated to Tallahassee approximately one year ago and was working at the Wal-Mart on Thomasville Road at the time of his arrest.
Bradford County investigators received information from Wisconsin authorities that a person in their area was sending pornography to minors since 2002. A search warrant was obtained identifying West as the suspect. Investigators interviewed West and he admitted to the allegations. Investigators also have information West collected child pornography. West allegedly told investigators he had attempted to meet with the children he communicated with but no such meeting took place.
JAPAN
Japan Today
Saturday, August 27, 2005 at 07:15 JST
NARA — A 55-year-old pastor has paid 5 million yen in compensation to a 33-year-old woman for childhood sexual abuse in accordance with a court ruling, her lawyer said Friday.
The Osaka High Court ordered the pastor in March to pay the money to the woman, overturning a lower court rejection of the compensation. The high court ruled that she has developed posttraumatic stress disorder from the abuse from when she was a fourth-year elementary school student through the years until she graduated from junior high school, the lawyer said.
SPOKANE (WA)
KXLY
Spokane Bishop William Skylstad says he will appeal a bankruptcy judge's decision that he controls all the parish churches and Catholic schools in the Spokane Diocese.
Skylstad said he has an obligation to generations of parishioners to protect the assets they have built.
A judge in Spokane Friday ruled that all the parish churches and other assets of the Spokane Diocese are available to be sold to raise money for victims of sexual abuse by priests.
Advocates for victims hailed the decision.
David Clohessy, national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, says the decision should make other bishops think twice about trying to protect assets by filing for bankruptcy.
With many Catholic dioceses across the nation facing lawsuits from victims of sex abuse, this decision was being closely watched.
NEW YORK
New York Daily News
By CHRISENA COLEMAN
and ADAM LISBERG
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
The bottle let Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Donna Mills down twice yesterday - as a state panel censured her for drinking and driving and her boyfriend was labeled an irrational drunk by his own lawyer.
The Rev. Lawrence Craig was arraigned yesterday on charges that he barged into a Bronx apartment over the weekend and tried to snatch a 4-year-old boy. But his lawyer argued Craig was "obviously drunk or high."
"He appeared to be drunk and didn't know what he was doing," attorney Steven Young said in Bronx Criminal Court, where Craig stood quietly with a clerical collar around his neck and his hands behind his back. ...
His attorney claimed yesterday that Craig went to the home because he needed help and was drawn to the cross on the door.
The $2,500 bail outraged the Bronx boy's father, especially since Craig has a prior sexual assault conviction for fondling a Wisconsin girl in 2000.
"All his cases, he's been fined and gotten off," said Richard Lewis, 38. "I don't think he was here just by accident. There were kids running around here all day. I really think this guy's a sexual predator."
SPOKANE (WA)
KOMO
August 26, 2005
By KOMO Staff & News Services
SPOKANE - A federal bankruptcy judge ruled Friday that all the parish churches, parochial schools and other property of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane can be liquidated to pay victims of sexual abuse by priests.
The decision, expected to have ramifications for dioceses across the nation, is a major defeat for Spokane Bishop William Skylstad, who had argued that he did not control individual parishes and thus they were not available to cover settlement costs.
"It is not a violation of the First Amendment to apply federal bankruptcy law to identify and define property of the bankruptcy estate even though the Chapter 11 debtor is a religious organization," U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams wrote in a 50-page decision.
"The disputed real property constitutes property of the estate," she wrote.
CALIFORNIA
Press-Telegram
In his 2004 book, "The Church That Forgot Christ,' Jimmy Breslin pays homage to some "good' priests. One thing that made them good was the fact that they were not real.
Breslin was referring to movie priests; Bing Crosby as Father O'Malley in "Going My Way,' Pat O'Brien as Father Duffy in "The Fighting 69th,' Spencer Tracy as Father Flanagan in "Boys Town.'
These films played in that seemingly innocent era when priests were revered and pedophilia was a word many of us could not begin to define. Later, we learned the era was not all that innocent. Children were being molested in parish after parish by men capitalizing on the trust that comes with wearing a clerical collar.
The film priests, however, did no wrong. Sure, Padre Flanagan once resorted to fisticuffs, but his antagonist had it coming. And, yes, Father Fitzgibbon, the elderly pastor played by Barry Fitzgerald, did keep a hidden "drop o' the crature.' But that was for medicinal purposes and to help put him to sleep as Bing sang, "Toora Loora Loora.' Father Good Guy
Breslin's book was much as I had expected; a chronicle of real-life stories in which priests violated their young charges. But what brought me up short was his contrasting portrait of a Brooklyn priest named Father John Powis.
Reading Breslin's sketch of Powis, I kept waiting for the priest to fall as so many others in the book had fallen. But he did not fall. ...
In short, Powis did all the things priests did back when there were three or four of them per parish. And did them in a diocese reduced to 187 priests for 217 parishes.
Reading that touching portrait of Powis, it came to me that there were two sets of victims in the scandal that has rocked the Catholic church over the last decade. The first victims, of course, were those who were violated, plus their families who lived through those horrors.
The other victims were the "good' priests, now viewed with suspicion because of the crimes of others. One warning now passed among Catholics is: "Never leave your child alone with a priest.' It has come to that.
FLORIDA
News4Jax
POSTED: 11:34 am EDT August 26, 2005
A former pastor of the a Lawtey church was arrested Friday for allegedly possessing or transmitting pornography to a minor.
Aaron D. West, 49, was arrested at a Tallahassee Wal-Mart, where he was working after relocating from Bradford County.
Bradford County Sheriff Bob Milner said West had been communicating with two girls ages, age 14 and 15, in Manitowoc, Wis., since late in 2002. He was pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Lawtey at that time.
Deputies began investigating West after a detective from Wisconsin notified them that someone from the area was sending nude photos of a man and regularly communicating with the girls.
CANADA
London Free Press
KELLY PEDRO, Free Press Crime Reporter 2005-08-26 02:16:32
An 82-year-old retired priest, who has been charged in Chatham with sex offences dating back 30 years, is at the centre of a probe by Sarnia police after four similar complaints.
Chatham-Kent police charged Charles Henry Sylvestre of Belle River in July with three counts of indecent assault, one count of rape and one count of sexual intercourse with a female under 14. Rape is a Criminal Code charge that was replaced by sexual assault.
Sarnia police said they have received four to five allegations dating back to the late 1950s and early 1960s involving young females. The complaints were made to police after media reports about the Chatham charges, he said.
"Occasionally we get historical complaints. It is kind of unique," said Const. Bill Baines.
He said investigating a complaint dating back 50 years can be "very difficult."
DENVER (CO)
Denver Post
By The Denver Post
A former Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting boys across the Denver Archdiocese told a Denver TV station Wednesday that there were "half-truths" in the allegations and suggested that his accusers' attorneys are out for money.
In an interview with KCNC- Channel 4 outside his Denver apartment, Harold Robert White said he felt b