BOSTON (MA)
TheBostonChannel.com
BOSTON -- The Boston Archdiocese contends it can't afford to pay as much on average for the latest round of clergy sexual abuse claims as it did two years ago when it took more than $85 million to settle about 550 claims.
The archdiocese has offered to settle 100 claims for between $5,000 to $200,000 per claim, depending on the severity of the abuse, for a total of $7.5 million, or an average of $75,000 per claimant, according to lawyers for both the plaintiffs and the archdiocese.
That's compared to an an average of $153,000 per claimant it paid in the massive $85 million settlement to 554 people in 2003.
"The dollar amounts, while not as high as in the global settlement, reflect the present financial capability of the Archdiocese and recognize its deteriorated financial condition since the time of the last settlement," church officials said in a statement released Friday.
SPOKANE (WA)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SPOKANE, Wash. -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane has proposed a new plan that would increase payouts to alleged victims of priest sex abuse and resolve its thorny bankruptcy case.
The plan reveals that the diocese may have $57.5 million available without selling any church property. That's double its initial estimate, The (Spokane) Spokesman-Review reported for a story in Saturday editions.
Diocese attorney Greg Arpin called the new estimate a "best case scenario" that anticipates successful litigation against insurers. He said that would boost the payout to victims from about $15 million to $45 million.
The plan, proposed on Friday, also includes what the diocese hopes will be a simple and successful claim against a Catholic society called the Sulpicians, which trains clergy.
POCATELLO (ID)
Idaho State Journal
By Dan Boyd - Journal Writer
POCATELLO - There are a stack of bills dealing with sexual offenders piling up on the desk of Debbie Field, the chairwoman of the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee.
Some deal with removing the statute of limitations on sex abuse cases and one reportedly goes so far as to institute a mandatory death penalty sentence on any sex offender found guilty of molesting and murdering a child.
After a spate of high-profile sex offender cases this summer, legislators are talking tough on strengthening the state's laws.
But a proposal that Rep. Donna Boe, D-Pocatello, is considering co-sponsoring is among the most intriguing, from legal, ethical and religious points of view.
More than a decade ago, the Legislature exempted clergy from an obligation to report knowledge of sexual abuse. Most other professionals are required to divulge such information.
“Doctors, teachers and all these other professions have to report,” Boe said. “But I think there will be some details to be worked out.”
SPOKANE (WA)
KXLY
SPOKANE- Spokane's Catholic Diocese faces another set back, as it tries to keep schools and churches off the auction block.
In August, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled that parish property belonged to the diocese and could be sold to satisfy sex abuse claims. Up until then the church maintained the diocese only owned buildings like the chancery and bishop's residence.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
Voice of the Faithful of Gtr Phila holds vigil to call on Cardinal Rigali to address clergy sexual abuse crisis in greater depth & respond to concerns raised by organization. Archdiocesan Office Center, 222 N 17th St; 215-247-9645. Noon-1 p.m. Fri.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff | December 31, 2005
An attorney for the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston sharply disagreed yesterday with comments by lawyers for alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse, who contended that the church has adopted a hard line toward abuse survivors in ongoing settlement negotiations.
Thomas H. Hannigan Jr., the lawyer who represented the church in the landmark 2003 settlement in which the archdiocese paid $85 million to 554 people who said they had been sexually abused by clergy, said the church is trying to be both fair and compassionate to the second wave of alleged victims.
''We are very much trying to design a process that is just and sensitive to the survivors," Hannigan said yesterday. ''We are not trying to revictimize anyone or demean them."
HURLEY (WI)
Ironwood Daily Globe
Published Friday, December 30, 2005 11:55:14 AM Central Time
By MARGARET LEVRA
Globe Staff Writer
HURLEY -- Parishioners from St. Mary's Catholic Church in Hurley and area residents had a lot to digest this year about a man considered to be almost saint-like by many, but who later was ruled to be a murderer.
People struggled to accept the ruling that the late Rev. Ryan Erickson shot and killed funeral home director Dan O'Connell, 39, and his 22-year-old intern, James Ellison, at the O'Connell Funeral Home in Hudson, Wis., in February, 2002.
An October John Doe hearing determined Erickson committed the murders.
Erickson, 31, committed suicide on Dec. 19, 2004, in the midst of the double-murder investigation that would later determine Erickson shot and killed O'Connell and Ellison.
Erickson was found hanged outside the hallway between the rectory and St. Mary's Church by friends Rick Reams and Tom Burns, both of Hudson. He left two suicide notes.
The murder investigation by Hudson Police had been quiet for some time, until detectives traveled to Hurley in the fall of 2004 and questioned Erickson in a separate investigation of an allegation that Erickson was involved in a possible crime involving a child or children.
BOSTON (MA)
Allston-Brighton Tab
By Sal Giarratani/ Thinking Out Loud
Friday, December 30, 2005
Since early 2002, when the sexual abuse scandal hit the headlines of newspapers, the Archdiocese of Boston has been in the eye of the storm. So much hurt was uncovered about the abuse of priestly power and the awful cover-up by too many bishops that allowed the abuse to flourish and spread in the first place.
The scandal did seemingly force Cardinal Bernard Law to get outta town, but the Vatican actually gave him a promotion in Rome. Back home we were glad to see him go, but couldn’t understand why the Vatican continued to treat him like a prince.
Over nearly four years, I have written countless commentaries on this horrible story that has damaged the faith lives of so many. Victims of sexual abuse have received compensation for their abuse, but all the money in the world can’t fix the faith of people betrayed by clerical abuse.
Then came Archbishop Sean O’Malley and people hoped for the best, but the best has yet to come. He announced something called reconfiguration. He and Bishop Lennon and the rest of the chancery say it had nothing to do with the sex abuse. Closing churches was about saving money. It was all about dollars and cents, but to many Catholics it made no sense.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston.com
By Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press Writer | December 31, 2005
BOSTON --The Boston Archdiocese cannot afford to pay as much on average for the latest round of clergy sexual abuse claims as it did two years ago when it settled more than 550 claims.
The archdiocese has offered to settle 100 claims for between $5,000 to $200,000 per claim, depending on the severity of the abuse, for a total of $7.5 million, or an average of $75,000 per claimant, according to lawyers for both the plaintiffs and the archdiocese.
That's compared to an $85 million settlement for 554 people in 2003, or an average of $153,000 per claimant.
"The dollar amounts, while not as high as in the global settlement, reflect the present financial capability of the Archdiocese and recognize its deteriorated financial condition since the time of the last settlement," church officials said in a statement released Friday.
BOSTON (MA)
Daily News Tribune
By Kimberly Atkins / Boston Herald
Saturday, December 31, 2005
The Archdiocese of Boston yesterday dismissed criticism it was using harsh legal tactics to cut sex abuse settlements, admonished plaintiffs’ attorneys for talking to the press, and said a lack of personnel and financial resources require it to carefully vet more than 200 remaining abuse claims.
A number of plaintiffs attorneys had blasted church officials Thursday for proposing a multitiered settlement structure that would allow only half the current claimants to avoid a potentially painful fact-finding process, and cap all settlements at a lower amount than those negotiated for 554 victims in 2003.
The rest of the plaintiffs would either have an arbitrator hear testimony and other evidence and rule on whether the abuse took place, or be excluded from arbitration, a process the plaintiffs’ attorneys called a form of revictimization.
In a statement, the church admonished plaintiffs’ attorneys for speaking to reporters about "confidential discussions" with church counsel Thomas Hannigan Jr. and leaking "misleading or inaccurate information about those discussions."
"The Archdiocese, in its offer of the arbitration program, does not intend in any way to demean or re-victimize the survivors of sexual abuse as has been asserted," the statement said.
PORTLAND (OR)
BBC News
Property owned by a US Roman Catholic archdiocese can be used as assets in abuse claim cases, a court has ruled.
Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris ruled the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, not its parishes owns church assets.
The decision has dealt a major blow to the archdiocese's efforts to protect church property from claims filed by alleged victims of priest sex abuse.
Portland declared itself bankrupt in July 2004, saying it could not meet the cost of abuse claim cases.
PORTLAND (OR)
The Daily News
By Associated Press
Dec 30, 2005 - 10:08:02 pm PST
PORTLAND -- A bankruptcy judge ruled Friday that the Archdiocese of Portland, not its parishes, owns church assets, dealing a major blow to its efforts to protect church property from lawsuits filed by alleged victims of priest sex abuse.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris, in a pair of opinions, ruled that church property and real estate are under the control of the archdiocese, not its individual parishes, as attorneys for the archdiocese had argued.
In a related ruling, Perris approved questions that attorneys for the victims plan to ask Archbishop William Levada on Jan. 6 when he becomes the highest-ranking Vatican official to testify in a deposition.
The archdiocese became the first in the nation to declare bankruptcy when it filed for protection from creditors in July 2004, just before the scheduled start of jury trials for victims seeking more than $155 million in damages.
BOSTON (MA)
The Day
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
& ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published on 12/31/2005
Boston — The Boston Archdiocese has offered to settle another round of sexual abuse claims for less per person than it paid in hundreds of cases two years ago.
The offer was for $5,000 to $200,000 per claim, depending on the severity of the abuse, according to lawyers for both the plaintiffs and the archdiocese.
The Boston Globe, quoting unidentified plaintiffs' lawyers, reported Friday that the payout would total about $7.5 million for about 100 plaintiffs. That would amount to an average payout of about $75,000 if everyone were paid. The 2003 settlements, $85 million to 554 people, averaged $153,000.
Carmen Durso, who represents 33 plaintiffs, said that as part of the settlement offer, some of the alleged victims — those considered to have the weaker of the cases — would have to prove to an arbitrator that the abuse took place and some could face cross-examination by church lawyers.
PORTLAND (OR)
The Oregonian
Friday, December 30, 2005
ASHBEL S. GREEN
and STEVE WOODWARD
A bankruptcy judge today ruled that Catholic parishes and schools in Western Oregon are not separate from the Archdiocese of Portland.
The decision by Judge Elizabeth Perris was largely a victory for plaintiffs who are seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in priest sex-abuse claims.
Perris did leave one unanswered question, about whether selling churches and schools would be an undue burden on the religious freedom of Catholics.
The Archdiocese of Portland became the nation's first Roman Catholic diocese to file for Chapter 11 protection after multimillion-dollar sex-abuse lawsuits last year.
The issue before Perris was whether parish property belongs to individual parishes or to the Archdiocese of Portland, which encompasses 124 parishes, three high schools and about 400,000 parishioners.
The ruling could determine whether the parishes' estimated $500 million in real estate, cash and investments is available to pay millions of dollars in child sexual-abuse claims.
ARLINGTON (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By MARK AGEE
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Bishop Terry Hornbuckle, an Arlington minister accused of sexually assaulting congregants, was rearrested Thursday at his Grapevine home after authorities said he violated the conditions of his bail for a third time.
He was being held late Thursday without bail in the Tarrant County Jail, according to a jail worker.
County officials would not say how Hornbuckle, founder and head of Agape Christian Fellowship in southeast Arlington, violated the terms of his bail, citing a gag order on all aspects of the case.
Hornbuckle, 43, faces six counts of sexual assault, along with charges of drug possession, retaliation and tampering with a witness. Five women have accused him.
UNITED KINGDOM
Times & Star
Published on 30/12/2005
A NEW sexual abuse claim has been made against a former Workington priest.
Catholic priest Father Gregory Carroll, 66, was jailed in September for four years on 15 counts of indecent assault and five of gross indecency during his time at Ampleforth College in Yorkshire in the 1970s.
However, he was sent to Workington’s Our Lady and St Michael’s RC Church in 1987, after confessing to church authorities about his behaviour.
Workington’s clergy, the Lancaster diocesan authorities and the church’s parish council were not warned about his sexual behaviour.
UNITED KINGDOM
News & Star
Published on 30/12/2005
A FORMER West Cumbrian priest who was jailed for indecently assaulting young boys has become the subject of claims that he assaulted a Workington boy.
Father Gregory Carroll, 66, was jailed in September for four years on 15 counts of indecent assault and five of gross indecency during his time at Ampleforth College in Yorkshire in the Seventies.
Now a former Workington man claims that he too was a victim of Carroll’s.
The Catholic priest was sent to Workington’s Our Lady and St Michael’s RC Church in 1987, after confessing to church authorities about his sexual behaviour.
BOSTON (MA)
PrimeZone
BOSTON, Dec. 29, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- The Catholic Medical Association has formed a Task Force in response to concerns expressed by parents, educators, physicians, priests and Bishops about the appropriateness and effectiveness of child abuse programs. This panel of experts specializing in varying fields of medicine will apply medical science to study the programs for children. This review will be grounded in the developmental, emotional, and moral needs of children, and research on the content and effectiveness of sexual abuse education programs. The Task Force goal is to offer recommendations to the Church, families and educators to aid in the protection of the children and adolescents.
The focus of the study is the impact of such programs on the attitudes, behaviors and development of children. It is the intention to consider the impact these programs have on the self concept of children (particularly during the latency period of development), their attitude toward sexual values, their relationship with parents and other trusted authority figures and their personal sense of 'safety'.
The CMA acknowledges that the intention of those producing, providing, utilizing and participating in these programs are undoubtedly good. It is hoped to provide a service to all those good intentioned persons by pointing out strengths and weaknesses of such programs so that children can truly be kept safe and so that parents who choose to send or allow their children to participate in these programs can do so with a greater appreciation of the moral, spiritual and developmental factors involved.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff | December 30, 2005
The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has offered $7.5 million to about 100 alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse, lawyers in the cases said yesterday.
A lawyer for some of the alleged victims called the proposal ''egregiously disingenuous," and others said the offer would provide far less money to each of their clients than the historic 2003 agreement that settled 554 cases.
The lawyers said the archdiocese's attorney, Thomas H. Hannigan Jr., briefed them over the last week on the details of the archdiocese's proposal. The plan would require many of the claimants to prove their case in a mediation process in which they would be cross-examined and may be forced to confront priests accused of abuse, the alleged victims' lawyers said.
NEW YORK
Capital News 9
12/29/2005 10:25 AM
By: Julie Chapman
She grabbed national headlines -- a Catholic school teacher who had sex with her teenage students.
Sandra "Beth" Geisel, 42, shocked the community when she was caught in a car by police having sex with a teenage boy. He was 17, and of the age of consent. But that sparked Geisel, an instructor at Christian Brothers Academy, to tell the school about it. She was fired, and parents were told.
That's when other students from the all-boys private school in Colonie came forward, claiming also to have had sex with the teacher. All were age 17 -- except for one.
A 16-year-old admitted to having sex with Geisel three times. Police investigated and said that's when they were told of Geisel being drunk at parties with the students and having sexual contact with a few of them on a number of occasions.
CANADA
Whitehorse Star
By Candice O’Grady
While a new federal government program has promised almost $2 billion toward compensation and healing for former students of Indian residential schools, it’s not clear where the money will come from.
The program looks like a good beginning, according to Joe Linklater, chief of the Vuntut Gwitchin Chief First Nation. However, he warns, promises like this have been made before.
There have been funding announcements in the past, he said, that turned out to be a combination of new money and old money re-titled.
“We’ve heard the announcement that all of this money is going towards residential school compensation and programs and so on,” he said in an interivew.
“But it remains to be seen whether that is all new money or just money re-profiled from other programs,” he said.
The Star was unable to contact anyone from the office of Anne McLellan, the deputy prime minister and member of the Commons’ aboriginal affairs committee, before the federal government fell in a non-confidence last week.
No one from her office will speak to the media about the money trail at this time due to rules involving what can and cannot be said during election times.
PENSACOLA (FL)
WFTV
POSTED: 7:02 am EST December 29, 2005
UPDATED: 7:03 am EST December 29, 2005
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- A former Pensacola minister will spend nearly three years in prison for soliciting sex from who he thought was a teenager over the Internet.
A judge has sentenced 43-year-old Michael Harris to two years and ten months in prison. Harris pleaded no contest last month to third-degree felony charges of attempted lewd or lascivious battery and using a computer to solicit the sexual conduct of a crime.
Harris was pastor at Saint Paul Lutheran Church.
He was arrested April 13th after going to a soccer field to meet with a 14-year-old boy who was actually an undercover officer.
Escambia County sheriff's officials say Harris began communicating with the boy in an online chat room April 4. Authorities say Harris steered the conversation toward the topic of sex.
NEW YORK
The Jewish Week
Staff Report
A woman claiming she was seduced by Rabbi Mordechai Tendler, who according to court papers told her he was the messiah and could help her find a husband by submitting to his “sex therapy,” has filed suit against the controversial Rockland County spiritual leader.
Adina Marmelstein, 43, is the first woman to take legal action against the rabbi since he was expelled as a member of the Rabbinical Council of America, the largest Orthodox rabbinic association, in March for “conduct inappropriate to an Orthodox rabbi.”
The rabbi had been accused of various degrees of sexual harassment by several women, though it is believed that Marmelstein was not one of the complainants in the RCA case.
According to a suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last week, Marmelstein said the rabbi, acting as a religious authority and counselor she trusted, had encounters with her in his rabbinic study from 2001 to 2005, and that his actions were “beyond all bounds of civility and decency.”
NEW YORK
Forward
By Rukhl Schaechter
December 30, 2005
A former congregant has filed a lawsuit against Rabbi Mordecai Tendler, the religious leader of an Orthodox congregation in Monsey, N.Y., accusing him of giving her "sex therapy" when she went to him for counseling.
In the lawsuit, which was filed December 20 in Manhattan and reported December 25 in the New York Post, Adina Marmelstein, 43, claims that Tendler, a father of eight, promised her that he would help her find a husband with whom to raise a family if she slept with him. She is also alleging that Tendler threatened to "have her placed in a straitjacket" if she told anyone about the sessions. The sexual liaisons were allegedly conducted in his rabbinical study in the years 2001 to 2005.
"He had a tremendous amount of power over her," said Marmelstein's lawyer, Lenore Kramer.
Tendler, the scion of a prominent rabbinical family, was expelled from the Rabbinical Council of America in March, after a months-long investigation of allegations that he sexually harassed women who came to him for spiritual guidance. When asked by the Forward whether Marmelstein was one of the women interviewed during the RCA investigation, Rabbi Dale Polakoff, president of the organization, declined to comment, citing the advice of counsel.
PENSACOLA (FL)
The Pensacola News
Kristen Rasmussen
@PensacolaNewsJournal.com
A former local minister was sentenced Wednesday to nearly three years in state prison, despite his plea that he is not a pedophile and "still has much to give" to the community.
Michael Anthony Harris, 43, stood expressionless as Circuit Judge Nick Geeker sentenced him to two years and 10? months. Harris pleaded no contest last month to third-degree felony charges of attempted lewd or lascivious battery and using a computer to solicit the sexual conduct of a crime. He was taken into custody immediately after the sentencing.
Tears and embraces
More than a dozen friends and family members -- including Harris' wife of 21 years, Christa Harris, and their teenage son -- watched the proceeding. Some cried and embraced each other afterward, but all declined comment.
VIRGINIA
Potomac News
By ROB SEAL
rseal@potomacnews.com
Thursday, December 29, 2005
A $10 million dollar sexual assault lawsuit filed against several Baptist church organizations was diminished in scope Wednesday by a Circuit Court judge.
The lawsuit stems from July 2004, when teenage camp counselors abused a 10-year-old boy during a weeklong stay at the Northern Virginia Baptist Youth Camp in Gainesville.
The boy's mother filed a $10 million lawsuit against the camp itself, two counselors and the regional Baptist groups that run the camp.
The suit named several Baptist organizations that contribute members to the camp's board of directors: the Northern Virginia Baptist Association, the Northern Virginia Baptist Center, the Baptist's Women's Association of Northern Virginia and the Northern Virginia Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Convention.
VATICAN CITY
IOL
December 29 2005 at 12:20PM
In the first major ruling of Pope Benedict's reign, the Catholic Church has imposed restrictions on homosexuals becoming priests, saying only men who had overcome "transitory" gay tendencies could be ordained.
The ruling came in a long-awaited eight-page Vatican document that has already sparked controversy after widespread leaks in the past few weeks.
Its strict line on the place of gays in the clergy has won praise from conservatives and condemnation from liberals, and set off heated debates in other churches by confronting an issue that has divided Christian congregations.
The document says practising homosexuals should be barred from entering the priesthood along with men with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies and those who support gay culture.
VIRGINIA
TimesCommunity
By Jana Renn
jrenn@timespapers.com
12/28/2005
The Rev. Robert Brooks, a former priest at St. Ambrose Catholic Church in Annandale during the 1970s, and more recently, the former pastor of St. John the Apostle Catholic Church in Leesburg, will not be going to jail after pleading no contest to one felony count of attempting to possess child pornography.
Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge Herman Whisenant Jr. recently sentenced Brooks, 73, to three years in jail but suspended the sentence in favor of two years probation.
Whisenant is also requiring Brooks to complete a sexual offender treatment program.
During the hearing, three people who have known Brooks for at least 15 years described him as an honest, caring and generous friend.
Brooks was indicted in February on a felony count of possession of child pornography. Brooks came under investigation in September 2003 when the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it found his name registered on a child pornography Web site.
MASSACHUSETTS
The Sun Chronicle
BY GLORIA LaBOUNTY / SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
One of the most notorious cases of clergy sexual abuse came to a close earlier this year when former priest and convicted pedophile James Porter died of cancer in the midst of a court battle to prevent his release from prison.
But the end of his life did not end the anguish for his many victims who were Catholic school children when Porter assaulted them in the 1960s.
`` He's dead but he's still alive in memories,'' said Peter Calderone of Attleboro, who was a student at St. Mary's School in North Attleboro when Porter, a parish priest, molested him and dozens of his classmates.
`` Not one day in my life goes by that I don't think of that guy,'' said Calderone, one of many victims who began telling their stories publicly in the early 1990s after one of them tracked down Porter in Minnesota, where he was living with his wife and four children.
LIVINGSTON (MT)
Bozeman Daily Chronicle
By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer
LIVINGSTON - The public and the media don't need to know the details of how the Church of God handled allegations that one of its ministers molested three teenage girls here, lawyers for the church have argued in court papers.
"Much of the factual information requested may not be entirely free of damaging information which the individuals involved would not wish and, in fact, did not expect to be disclosed publicly," lawyers wrote in a motion filed here earlier this month.
The case involves allegations that Terrence Passmore, a former pastor at the Livingston Church of God, sexually molested three girls who belonged to the church. Two of them are sisters and the third is unrelated. Two of them were 14 at the time and one was 12.
The alleged assaults took place in 1998. A civil suit was filed in April, seeking $3.7 million from Passmore, the local church and its regional and national offices.
NEW BEDFORD (MA)
Standard-Times
By AARON NICODEMUS, Standard-Times staff writer
NEW BEDFORD -- Mayor-elect Scott W. Lang has named Irene B. Schall, a city attorney who once served as city treasurer, as city solicitor.
"She's got a lot of experience, she brings a lot of different things to the city," said Mr. Lang, in making the appointment public yesterday. "She's got excellent judgment. I think she'll represent the city very well." ...
Ms. Schall, of New Bedford, was a board member and civil attorney for the Fall River Diocese Sexual Abuse Review Board, and she drafted regulations for the diocese to follow in cases of sexual abuse of minors by members of the clergy. The rules became a national model.
CANADA
Anglican Journal
SOLANGE DE SANTIS
STAFF WRITER
December 27, 2005 - Canada’s 30 Anglican dioceses are under pressure to approve a revised Indian residential schools settlement agreement with the federal government by Jan. 30, 2006, although national church officials are trying to obtain an extension of the deadline.
“We are aware of the difficulties involved in trying to meet the deadline set by the government and we will do all we can to support you as you deal with due process in your own jurisdictions. We sincerely hope that all dioceses will be able to approve the … agreement based on the benefit that will flow to all dioceses and to the General Synod,” read an information letter dated Dec. 21, 2005, from Acting General Secretary Ellie Johnson and other negotiators.
The letter was sent to all diocesan bishops and chancellors (church legal advisers), members of the church’s national governing body, the Council of General Synod (CoGS) and the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples, a national committee.
The document reiterated the terms of a plan announced in late November that would compensate all students who were part of a national boarding school system aimed at educating native children. Also announced was an agreement that would release Roman Catholic entities that ran schools from legal liability, but would commit them to funding $54 million in healing programs for aboriginals.
NEW YORK
The Awareness Center
A Law Suit Filed Against Mordechai Tendler, Kehillat New Hempsted, and Rav Aron Jofen Community Synagogue on December 20, 2005.
This case started during the question-and-answer session of a Makor forum on rabbinic abuse, (back in December, 2003) several female health-care professionals in the audience spoke with passion and frustration about a well-known rabbi in their local community whose affairs with women in his office, they said, have gone on for years.
The speakers said they felt stymied as to how to take action against the unnamed rabbi, who is highly respected, and help the women involved, who are too embarrassed to speak out.
Several sources have informed the Forward newspaper that a number of women have told friends and Jewish communal figures that Rabbi Mordechai Tendler, who is married with eight children, had propositioned them while serving in his role as either rabbinic counselor or religious arbiter."Rabbi Tendler denies all of the allegations that are being made in their entirety," the spokesman wrote in a statement sent to the Forward. "No misconduct was committed by him."
NEW YORK
The Jewish Press
Posted 12/14/2005
By Special to The Jewish Press
Reaction to the November 28 decision of the Jerusalem Bet Din of Israel`s Chief Rabbinate declaring the Rabbinical Council of America in defiance of its rulings (“Lo Tsayis L`din”) in the Tendler case has been fast and furious, sources say.
The RCA leadership is reportedly being challenged by some of its members to answer how the group can ignore the rulings of an established bet din. Some are asking whether performance of religious functions such as wedding ceremonies, kashrut supervision and serving as pulpit rabbis can be compatible with membership in a group that has been declared in open defiance of the rulings of the internationally recognized bet din.
They are also asking whether the activities of the RCA-affiliated Beth Din of America, the chief judge of which was named as a defendant in the bet din proceeding, can have any halachic legitimacy.
NEW YORK
The Jewish Press
Posted 12/21/2005
By Special to The Jewish Press
A former high-ranking Rabbinical Council of America official has resigned from the organization in the wake of the Jerusalem Bet Din`s decision characterizing the RCA as being in defiance of its rulings (“lo tsayis dina”).
The Jerusalem Bet Din of Israel`s Chief Rabbinate recently ordered the RCA to rescind its expulsion of Rabbi Mordecai Tendler over allegations of “improper conduct.”
Rabbi Moshe Faskowitz, longtime executive treasurer of the RCA, submitted his resignation “sadly” in an open letter in this week`s Jewish Press (see page 109).
Sources confirm that Rabbi Faskowitz consulted with other prominent and senior rabbis in the preparation of his letter of resignation and that further resignations from the RCA can be expected.
SPRING VALLEY (NY)
United Press International
SPRING VALLEY, N.Y., Dec. 25 (UPI) -- A New York rabbi allegedly seduced a member of his congregation by claiming to be the messiah and offering her sex therapy.
The woman filed suit against Rabbi Mordecai Tendler of Rockland County last week, accusing him of deceiving and violating her, the New York Post reported.
Adina Marmelstein, 43, said Tendler was acting as a counselor and spiritual authority but went "beyond all bounds of civility and decency." Tendler's attorney called the charges "utterly false."
The Trumpet
In 2002, scandal erupted surrounding Roman Catholic priests’ sexual assaults on children—or, as Pope John Paul ii put it, the way church leaders “are perceived to have acted.” The victims and the world in general demanded answers, wondering how a religious organization could allow such a disgusting problem to become so widespread.
The Vatican’s response was dismissive at best—notably, that of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
With 2005 drawing to a close, Pope Benedict xvi found himself the target of a civil lawsuit. He was personally accused of conspiring with the archdiocese of Galveston-Houston to cover up the abuse of three boys in the mid-1990s. His legal defense? Diplomatic immunity.
Opposing lawyers argued that a May 18, 2001, letter from Cardinal Ratzinger written as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctine of the Faith was evidence that he was involved in a conspiracy: He said grave crimes would be handled by his congregation and were subject to “pontifical secret” (Fox News, December 23).
Ultimately, though, diplomatic immunity won out. No other religious leader on Earth could have used this particular defense. Papal lawyer Jeffrey Lena said “[Judge] Rosenthal’s ruling recognized that ‘the pope is entitled to immunity like any foreign sovereign without any special limitations imposed upon his immunity just because he is a religious leader’" (ibid.).
COLUMBUS (OH)
Toledo Blade
By JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU
COLUMBUS - It would be a list of people "credibly accused" of molesting a child.
It would be a list that any church, scout troop, school, or Little League team could access to check out potential volunteers or employees.
It would be a list of people who might never have been charged with a crime, let alone have been convicted of one.
For this general concept, there is no working model. But it is a concept that the Catholic Church has proposed as an alternative to a bill now before the Ohio House Judiciary Committee.
That bill would suspend for one year the statute of limitations on lawsuits alleging child sex abuse. If passed, the change could lead to hundreds of civil lawsuits alleging sexual abuse as long ago as 35 years.
NEW YORK
New York Post
By DAVID HAFETZ
December 25, 2005 -- A prominent rabbi is being accused of unorthodox and disturbing behavior — seducing a troubled woman in his congregation by telling her he was "the Messiah" and giving her "sex therapy" to help her find a husband.
According to a lawsuit filed last week in Manhattan, Rabbi Mordecai Tendler of Rockland County promised the woman, who was seeking advice, that "doors would open" and "men will come" if she had sex with him.
The rabbi, a father of eight, allegedly told the woman that he was her "only hope." The woman says the rabbi held liaisons in his rabbinical study from 2001 to 2005 and threatened her to remain silent about "the sexual therapy."
Adina Marmelstein, 43, who lives in Manhattan, accuses Tendler of deceiving and violating her and going "beyond all bounds of civility and decency" while he acted as a trusted counselor and spiritual authority.
"He had a tremendous amount of power over her," said Marmelstein's lawyer, Lenore Kramer.
Marmelstein says she first met Tendler — the son of a Yeshiva University professor and the grandson of a highly respected religious arbiter, the late Rabbi Moshe Feinstein — through his "work on behalf of women" in 1994.
In his career, Tendler has advocated for the rights of Orthodox women and assisted Jewish wives obtain religious divorces.
But the rabbi became embroiled in a sex scandal that involved other female accusers and in March was expelled from the Rabbinical Council of America.
BOSTON (MA)
The Eagle-Tribune
By Edward Mason
Staff writer
BOSTON — North of Boston religious leaders are concerned about a proposal to make the finances of religious institutions open to the public.Rooted in the Catholic clergy sex-abuse scandal, lawmakers want religious groups to comply with laws that require charities to be audited and to report their finances to the state attorney general. The push follows efforts by the Boston Archdiocese to shutter or sell properties to pay for settlements of legal cases brought over alleged priest molestation.But local religious leaders say their congregations would suffer. They note their houses of worship are less centralized than the Catholic Archdiocese and worry that compliance would cost many small congregations thousands of dollars and strain already-stretched budgets. If approved by lawmakers, religious institutions would file an annual, 13-page financial report with the attorney general.
SALINAS (CA)
Monterey Herald
By GEORGE B. SANCHEZ
Herald Salinas Bureau
The Salinas-area pastor accused of molesting a mentally handicapped teenager was arraigned Friday in Salinas.
Bail for Donald Domelle, 53, was raised to $510,000 at the request of prosecutor Gary Thelander. His bail was previously set at $300,000, but Thelander said after reviewing the case against the pastor that the increase was justified.
The prosecutor said Domelle could face additional charges. Investigators are trying to determine whether he molested another girl, he said.
"At this point, what we know is that there is a second victim, with a second series of sexual assaults," Thelander said. "I'm pretty confident that we will be filing additional charges."
CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle
Saturday, December 24, 2005
(12-24) 18:52 PST Salinas, Calif. (AP) --
A pastor accused of molesting a mentally handicapped teenager has been charged with multiple felony counts and could face more as another victim surfaced, prosecutors said.
At his arraignment Friday, Monterey County Superior Judge Marla Anderson raised Donald Domelle's bail from $300,000 to $510,000 at the request of prosecutors, who said more charges likely will be filed against Domelle.
"At this point, what we know is that there is a second victim, with a second series of sexual assaults," said prosecutor Gary Thelander. "I'm pretty confident that we will be filing additional charges."
Domelle, 53, a pastor at the Baptist Temple of Salinas, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of molesting the 16-year-old girl, after his church, home and used car lot were searched.
COVINGTON (KY)
Challenger NKY
By Jeanne Houck
The Sunday Challenger
jhouck@challengernky.com
COVINGTON - The attorney for members of a class-action lawsuit filed against the Diocese of Covington for priest sexual abuse is optimistic that the church's insurance companies will sign on to a settlement in which the Diocese has agreed to surrender $40 million in cash, investments and property.
Attorney Bob Steinberg of Cincinnati said that lawyers in the case will report on their progress Jan. 5 to federal Judge William Bertelsman in U.S. District Court in Covington.
Lawyers for the class of plaintiffs - which includes about 375 people - and the church announced last summer that they'd reached a $120-million settlement and expected the church's insurance companies - Catholic Mutual and Firemen's Fund - to contribute $80 million of it.
When the insurance companies balked at that amount, the Diocese sued them in federal court.
SIOUX CITY (IA)
Des Moines Register
An 80-year-old Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing children has been defrocked by Vatican officials.
George McFadden, a Diocese of Sioux City priest for more than 50 years, was barred by Vatican officials from performing public ministry, presenting himself as a priest and having unsupervised contact with minors. Instead, McFadden was ordered to serve a "life of prayer and penance," according to the Diocese of Sioux City.
IRELAND
Drogheda Independent
Victims of clerical sex abuse are still waiting for a response from the Vatican to the Ferns report - published two months ago today.
It accused Rome of failing to properly alert bishops and priests to the dangers of child abuse by members of their clergy.
It also revealed that, for more than 30 years, the Vatican obliged victims, witnesses and priests who investigated claims to swear an oath of secrecy or face excommunication.
Colm O'Gorman of the One-in-Four charity says the report is too significant to ignore.
"We must remember that it was a state enquiry, albeit an unstatutory one, was the first report ever internationally to make any finding of responsibility on the Vatican's part for clerical sexual abuse", he said.
WOODLAWN (MD)
Catonsville Times
A second person in religious authority at Woodlawn's Redemption Christian Fellowship has been charged with sexual abuse of a minor.
Less than a month after the church's pastor, Gerald Fitroy Griffith, was arrested on several counts of sexual abuse, a deacon of the church was taken into police custody Dec. 14 on similar charges.
Gary Warren Warfield, 44, has been charged with sexual abuse of a minor as well as second-degree assault and a fourth-degree sex offense, police said.
Warren, who police say denied the charges, allegedly committed the offenses when the now-17-year-old male victim was 14 and 15.
IOWA
WHO
December 23, 2005, Des Moines -The location of Davenport priest William Wiebler is no longer a secret. That's according to some people living in Missouri.
The Davenport Diocese says Wiebler walked away from a treatment program in St. Louis and hasn't been seen since.
That is, until now. People living just outside of St. Louis say Wiebler is living in their apartment complex. They're concerned because Wiebler has admitted to molesting five children. They also say they're worried about their children because they say Wiebler has been wearing a Santa hat and handing out candy to kids.
According to the Diocese, Wiebler has admitted to sexually abusing several minors during the 70's and 80's. He's also the subject of multiple lawsuits, but isn't facing criminal charges.
SAN DIEGO (CA)
Merced Search
Posted by Onell R. Soto
on Dec 24,2005
SAN DIEGO - A San Diego federal judge has rejected an effort by the Roman Catholic Church to declare unconstitutional a state law allowing lawsuits alleging long-ago sexual abuse by priests.
The ruling, made public Thursday, came as a result of an Escondido woman's lawsuit against a religious order in Ohio, which will now move forward.
It deals a blow to church efforts to overturn the California law that allowed hundreds of lawsuits up and down the state, including some 150 cases involving the San Diego diocese.
Many of the lawsuits contend that instead of protecting children, bishops and other superiors who were aware of abuse moved offenders around, sometimes to far-flung or low-income parishes.
Church officials say they did the best they could based on what was known about sexual abuse at the time, including putting problem priests through psychological counseling.
HOUSTON (TX)
Texas Lawyer
By Mary Alice Robbins
Texas Lawyer
Friday, December 23, 2005
On Dec. 22, U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal of Houston dismissed claims against Pope Benedict XVI in a suit in which three plaintiffs allege that the pope conspired to cover up a seminarian's sexual abuse of them in the mid-1990s.
Rosenthal based her decision in John Doe 1, et al. v. The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, et al. on Pope Benedict's head-of-state-immunity, although the suit was filed in 2004 before he was elected pope. Pope Benedict, formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, alleged in amended motions filed in May that he should be dismissed from the suit on several grounds, including immunity.
The U.S. Department of State issued a suggestion of immunity in May, requesting that the pope be dismissed from the suit. "Judicial review of this determination is not appropriate," Rosenthal wrote in the opinion.
"I think it's a shame that our State Department would get involved in an issue that basically involved covering up the sexual abuse of children in this country," says Tahira Kahn Merritt, attorney for two of the plaintiffs.
ROCHESTER (NY)
Catholic Courier
By Rob Cullivan/Catholic Courier
ROCHESTER -- In U.S. District Court Dec. 14, Judge David G. Larimer sentenced Father Michael J. Volino to 15 months in federal prison. The priest had pleaded guilty in May to one felony count of possession of computer child pornography.
Upon completion of his sentence, Father Volino must register as a sex offender, and he will be on supervised release for 10 years, Larimer said.
The judged ordered Father Volino to report to a federal prison within six to eight weeks to begin serving his sentence.
In May, the priest admitted that he possessed child pornography on his computer in October 2004. According to an FBI affidavit, an employee of the Diocese of Rochester had discovered pornography while servicing Father Volino's computer in January 2005, and the diocese alerted authorities.
Father Volino had been parochial vicar at Greece's St. John the Evangelist Parish at the time the charges were filed, and the diocese placed him on administrative leave, prohibiting him from public ministry.
HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle
By HARVEY RICE
Houston Chronicle
A Houston federal judge has removed Pope Benedict XVI from a lawsuit accusing him of being part of a conspiracy to cover up the molestation of three boys in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.
A letter from the U.S. State Department giving the pope sovereign immunity shields him from further legal action, U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal ruled.
"Pope Benedict's motion to dismiss all claims against him is granted on the basis of this court's recognition of head-of-state immunity," she wrote.
The lawsuit — by three men listed in court documents as John Does I, II and III — alleges that they were molested as boys by then-seminary student Juan Carlos Patino Arango in the mid-1990s. Rosenthal's ruling leaves the archdiocese, Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza, Monsignor William Pickard and Patino Arango as defendants.
Tahira Merritt , attorney for the plaintiffs, now 23, 19 and 21, said she has not decided whether to appeal Rosenthal's ruling.
"We're going to press forward with the case and hope we can get Patino to stand trial and go forward with the case against the archdiocese," Merritt said.
DES MOINES (IA)
Sioux City Journal
DES MOINES (AP) -- An inactive Roman Catholic priest from the Davenport Dioecese, who allegedly sexually abused children has been located in University City, Mo.
The Davenport Diocese on Tuesday said it had lost contact with the Rev. William Wiebler, who is facing several sexual abuse lawsuits. He had left a treatment program in St. Louis and had not made contact with church officials.
Diocese officials said they were concerned that he was running around loose in St. Louis, said Rand Wonio, the diocese's attorney.
Wiebler left the Quad-Cities in 1985 and has been accused of abuse dating to the 1970s and 1980s. He moved to St. Louis more than a year ago and was ordered by the diocese to stay in a treatment program and avoid contact with minors, Wonio said.
The diocese recently sent Deacon David Montgomery to St. Louis, but Wiebler has not been found at his residence or the bakery where he worked.
SAN DIEGO (CA)
Reno Gazette-Journal
STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Posted: 12/24/2005
A federal judge in San Diego has rejected the Roman Catholic Church's effort to strike down a state law that allows lawsuits by people who claim they were abused by priests long ago.
More than 153 are pending against the San Diego diocese and 560 abuse claims are pending against the Los Angeles Archdiocese. The San Diego diocese had argued the 2002 law illegally interfered with its religious practices.
Former Reno Bishop Phillip Straling is considered a key witness in most of the San Diego cases. John Manly, a Costa Mesa, Calif.-based attorney handling many of the lawsuits, said Friday that he plans to call Straling to testify on two cases soon.
Straling is not accused of molesting children.
ALASKA
Fairbanks News-Miner
By CHRIS TALBOTT, Staff Writer
A Nome Superior Court judge has dismissed a civil suit against the Rev. James Poole, but left on course a trial against the Fairbanks Diocese and the Society of Jesuits.
The attorney for Jane Doe 2 called the ruling a victory, despite the fact his client's accused abuser won't stand trial.
"This has incredible ramifications for the other cases because this is the first decision about whether these things can go forward," Ken Roosa said. "These cases are still viable. These cases are not stillborn."
Judge Ben Esch ruled that the charges against Poole long exceeded the state's statute of limitations and dismissed him from Jane Doe's 2 civil suit. Poole still faces suits by Jane Does 3 and 4.
WATERLOO (IA)
Courier
By JEFF REINITZ, Courier Staff Writer
WATERLOO --- A retired minister man has been arrested for making sexual advances to an elderly woman at a care facility.
Waterloo police arrested the Rev. Galen Ermil Peckham, 71, of 15 Bluff St., La Porte City, Tuesday morning for indecent exposure, assault with intent to commit sexual abuse and two counts of simple assault.
He was booked at the Black Hawk County Jail and let out an hour or so later on pretrial release.
According to police and court records, Peckham is a visiting minister and was paying a visit to a 93-year-old woman at Manor Care in November when the incident happened.
Peckham kissed the woman on the mouth, touched her breast and exposed his genitals, records state.
HAWAII
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
A woman who says she was sexually molested by a Honolulu Catholic priest in 1964 filed a suit Monday asking for an apology and monetary damages.
Lavonne Cobb accused the Rev. Henry Sabog of sexual misconduct in the suit, which also names the Honolulu Catholic diocese and Pope Benedict XVI as defendants.
Cobb said the alleged incident happened when she was 12 years old and attending a catechism class taught by Sabog at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church rectory in Pearl City.
According to the suit, Cobb "suffered from repressed or lost memory." She "did not realize that she had been injured ... until 2004, when she read about sexual abuse."
VATICAN CITY
Daily News
December 23, 2005
Vatican City: A US judge in Texas has ruled that Pope Benedict XVI enjoys immunity as a head of state and removed him from a civil lawsuit accusing him of conspiracy to cover up the sexual abuse of minors by a seminarian.
According to a copy of yesterday's ruling, US District Judge Lee Rosenthal cited a motion filed by the US Justice Department in which the government said that allowing the suit to proceed would be "incompatible with the United States' foreign policy interests".
"After a suggestion of immunity is filed, it is the court's duty to surrender jurisdiction," Rosenthal wrote in the ruling from US District Court in Houston.
Joseph Ratzinger - Bene-dict's former name - is named as a defendant in the civil lawsuit, accused of conspiring with the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and some of its officials to cover up the abuse of three boys during the mid-1990s. The suit is seeking monetary damages.
The three boys, identified in court documents as John Does I, II and III, allege that a Colombian-born seminarian at St Francis de Sales church in Houston, Juan Carlos Patino-Arango, molested them during counselling sessions in the church in the mid-1990s.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
By Deborah McAleese
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
23 December 2005
THE PSNI has met with senior officials from the Catholic Church to discuss allegations of clerical child sex abuse.
No decision on the type of action to be taken to address the problem will be made until the outcome of the meetings, which are due to wrap up this week.
In the wake of the damning Ferns report into clerical sex abuse in Co Wexford - which found that over 140 priests in four dioceses have been accused of sexual abuse - the Government has been asked if it plans to launch a probe into clerical child sex abuse in all maintained schools in Northern Ireland.
It has also been asked if a joint inquiry with authorities in the Republic into clerical child sex abuse within Catholic Church diocese that straddle the border will be carried out.
Direct Rule Minister Shaun Woodward has confirmed that a series of meetings have been held between the Catholic Church, the PSNI, the Department of Health and health bodies in the Republic.
He said that decisions on the actions to be taken will be made following another meeting due to take place before Christmas.
NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter
By Philip Bradfield
Friday 23rd December 2005
The PSNI and social services are considering a Northern Ireland public inquiry in the wake of the Ferns Report into clerical child abuse in the Republic.
Two months ago, an Irish government inquiry into abuse in the Co Wexford diocese of Ferns uncovered over 100 allegations of sexual abuse by 21 priests between 1966-2002 and strongly criticised the failings of bishops and gardai.
The fact that Northern Ireland authorities are now considering a similar inquiry was revealed following a recent Parliamentary Question by Upper Bann DUP MP David Simpson.
He asked how many allegations of Roman Catholic clerical child abuse the PSNI and Department of Education had on record, but was told police had no central records and the department did not collect the information.
The Tidings
When the issue of clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church broke open in the media in 2002, the focus was rightly placed upon the suffering of victims, the duplicity of the abusers, and the mistakes that church leaders made in past decades in understanding and effectively dealing with the problem of abusive priests.
In the three years since the crisis gained national attention, however, very little media attention has been focused on the tremendous strides the church has made in creating safe environments for children. And more troubling, the persistent focus of media attention on the scandal itself has helped create an impression in the public's mind that the Catholic Church has done almost nothing to deal with the problem, and that sexual abuse is a problem largely limited to the Catholic Church itself.
PHOENIX (AZ)
KVOA
PHOENIX One-time fugitive priest Joseph Briceno has waived extradition.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office says Briceno can be brought back to Phoenix at anytime.
Briceno is currently jailed in El Centro, California, after he was captured near Calexico.
Briceno had been hiding out in Mexico.
Briceno is wanted on eight counts of sex crimes involving two minors.
ALASKA
KTUU
Thursday, December 22, 2005 - by Jason Moore
Anchorage, Alaska - A Nome judge dismissed civil allegations of child sexual abuse against a former Alaska priest. Rev. Jim Poole is accused of molesting children in the mid-1970s while working in Nome. The judge ruled the statute of limitations has expired for Poole. But the judge says the case against the Diocese of Fairbanks and the Society of Jesus can go forward.
For attorney Ken Roosa, who represents three of Poole's alleged victims, it’s a disappointment Poole is now excused from the lawsuit. But Roosa is pleased the lawsuit will go forward against the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks and the Jesuit organization, Society of Jesus, which employed Poole.
The ruling from Nome Judge Ben Esch says the statute of limitations has expired for Poole, with the allegations coming forward close to 30 years after the alleged abuse. The church organizations were hoping they too would be excused on that basis.
CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise
By MICHAEL FISHER / The Press-Enterprise
A federal judge on Thursday rejected a request by the Diocese of San Diego to overturn a 2003 state law that permitted hundreds of clergy-abuse lawsuits to be filed statewide.
In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge William Hayes in San Diego found the law is constitutional and does not infringe on the religious practices of the Roman Catholic Church.
The law, enacted by the Legislature, had temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for child-sexual-abuse lawsuits while specifically allowing institutions to be sued if they protect abusive employees.
The Diocese of San Bernardino backed the challenge to the law.
Officials with the Inland diocese could not be reached for comment Thursday.
CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times
By Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writer
A federal judge Thursday upheld the constitutionality of a California law that opened courthouse doors to more than 1,000 people who sued the Roman Catholic Church for allegedly failing to protect them from predator priests.
U.S. District Court Judge William Q. Hayes in San Diego became the second judge in California to reject arguments that the law illegally interferes with the Catholic Church's religious practices.
"The failure to supervise or negligent hiring of a person that commits sexual assault does not implicate or effect any religious belief, opinion or practice," Hayes wrote.
The ruling arises from a negligence suit brought by a woman who alleged that she was repeatedly raped and sexually abused by a priest at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Escondido beginning when she was 12. Her alleged abuser, Father Victor Uboldi, is dead.
She is suing the Sisters of the Precious Blood, the religious order of nuns who once ran the school.
NEW JERSEY
The Jersey Journal
Friday, December 23, 2005
By JASON DEL REY
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
A priest who counsels victims of clergy sex abuse and who recently filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Newark claiming wrongful termination has been placed on administrative leave until litigation is resolved, said a spokesman for the Archdiocese.
"Because of the public nature of the lawsuit, it was decided to place Father on leave until the matter is resolved," said the spokesman, James Goodness.
The Rev. Robert Hoatson, 54, will receive pay and benefits during his leave from ministry but cannot administer the sacraments, Goodness confirmed.
In letters published in The Jersey Journal this fall, Hoatson criticized the Archdiocese's handling of allegations of sexual abuse against Monsignor Peter Cheplic, who worked in several Hudson County parishes. Hoatson has also counseled Joseph Capozzi, of Manhattan, one of Cheplic's alleged victims.
"It would do James Goodness and the Archdiocese of Newark well to focus on the truth rather than the impression people have of them," he wrote in one of the letters.
UNIVERSITY CITY (MO)
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
December 23, 2005
When a "nice old gentleman" moved into Sandra Ford's apartment building in University City, Mo., she didn't think anything of it.
The 37-year-old mother and full-time student made a mental note to add him to the number of oldsters for whom she occasionally cooks.
"He was outgoing and friendly," Ford said. "He brought cookies and bread to my 6-year-old son from the bakery he worked for."
Several weeks later, she heard that the man was the Rev. William Wiebler, an inactive priest from the Davenport Catholic Diocese in Iowa who has been accused of sexually abusing children.
"I freaked," Ford said Thursday.
The Davenport Diocese on Tuesday reported it had lost contact with Wiebler after Deacon David Montgomery went to St. Louis to check up on the priest, who has been recommended to the Vatican for defrocking.
UNIVERSITY PARK (MO)
Quad-City Times
By Robert Patrick
UNIVERSITY CITY, Mo. — Advocates for victims of clergy sex abuse passed out leaflets Thursday in a neighborhood of this St. Louis suburb, warning people about a former Quad-City area priest with a white beard and hair who they say has worn a Santa Claus cap while passing out candy to children.
The Davenport Catholic Diocese has said the Rev. William Wiebler admitted molesting several minors during the 1970s and ‘80s. Neighbors have been concerned ever since he left the St. John Vianney Renewal Center in Jefferson County, Mo., during the spring of 2004 and moved to University City.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, passed out bright yellow flyers including a color photograph of Wiebler in a bushy white beard and Hawaiian-type shirt.
Wiebler did not respond to his front intercom buzzer or knocks on his back door Thursday, although he was in the house and looked through the blinds at a Post-Dispatch reporter. He bore a striking resemblance to popular depictions of Santa Claus with his hair and bushy beard set off by what appeared to be either a red shirt or red long johns.
ALASKA
Anchorage Daily News
By LISA DEMER
Anchorage Daily News
Published: December 23, 2005
Last Modified: December 23, 2005 at 01:18 AM
A former Kenai priest, now dead, abused a teenage girl in Kenai starting when she was 8 or 9 and continuing for eight years, a new lawsuit contends.
The late Rev. Robert Wells served as a priest in Our Lady of the Angels parish in Kenai from 1974 to 1988, when he moved to Sacred Heart Parish in Seward. He had a heart attack in 1990, had a heart transplant that year, and died in 1992, according to his obituary.
The new suit, filed last week in Anchorage Superior Court by Kenai attorney James Butler and Seattle attorney Michael Phau, names as defendants the Archdiocese of Anchorage and Our Lady of the Angels parish in Kenai.
It contends the archdiocese and the parish knew or should have known that Wells was a "dangerous child molester" who shouldn't work around children. Yet he still was assigned to serve as parish priest.
SAN DIEGO (CA)
Contra Costa Times
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO - A federal judge has rejected the Roman Catholic Church's effort to strike down a state law that allows lawsuits by people who claim they were abused by priests long ago.
The San Diego diocese had argued that the 2002 law illegally interfered with its religious practices.
"The failure to supervise or negligent hiring of a person that commits sexual assault does not implicate or affect any religious belief, opinion or practice," U.S. District Court Judge William Q. Hayes wrote in a ruling made public Thursday.
Attorney J. Michael Hennigan, who represents the San Diego diocese Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, said the church is "strongly considering an appeal."
DENVER (CO)
Denver Post
The Archdiocese of Denver was sued Wednesday in two separate lawsuits brought by men who claimed that as altar boys they were molested by Catholic priests. One suit named former priest Harold Robert White as the perpetrator, and the other named the Rev. Leonard Abercrombie. Abercrombie died in 1994.
The suit naming White says that the plaintiff, "John Doe No. 5," was born in 1952 and that during the boy's high school years, White was his pastor at St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Sterling. The lawsuit alleges the Sterling man was molested in the rectory of St. Anthony's as well as in White's car.
The other lawsuit says that Abercrombie's accuser was born in 1949 and that Abercrombie was the family's pastor at Sacred Heart Parish in Roggen. The alleged sexual assaults by Abercrombie took place on church grounds, in a small community church in Hudson and on a skiing trip, the suit alleges.
HAWAII
KGMB 9
Cedric Moon - cmoon@kgmb9.com
Honolulu's Catholic Diocese is facing another legal battle - this time from a woman who says she was sexually abused by her priest more than 40 years ago.
Lavonne Cobb is now in her 50s. She says she was attacked by her priest, Henry Sabog, when she was 12 years old at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church in 1964.
In her complaint, Cobb says Sabog reached under her dress and grabbed her thighs. Then he moved his hands up and put them in her panties before she was able to run away.
Lavonne Cobb says she forgot all about the attack, but recent headlines about church sex abuse cases brought it all back more than 40 years later.
ALASKA
Anchorage Daily News
The Associated Press
Published: December 21, 2005
Last Modified: December 21, 2005 at 02:38 PM
KENAI -- A woman is suing the Archdiocese of Anchorage, claiming she was sexually abused by a priest in Kenai between 1974 and 1988.
The plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, contends the church failed to honor her request for anonymity for herself and the priest, the Rev. Robert Wells, who died in 1992.
In exchange for her agreement not to bring legal action against the archdiocese, the church agreed to her strict anonymity request and to pay for counseling, according to the complaint filed Friday in Anchorage Superior Court.
In a letter from Archbishop Roger Schwietz, read at Kenai Peninsula church services in March 2004, however, Wells was identified as the priest, assigned to Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Church in Kenai, who allegedly sexually abused a female minor.
HOUSTON (TX)
San Francisco Chronicle
Thursday, December 22, 2005
(12-22) 14:16 PST VATICAN CITY, (AP) --
A U.S. judge in Texas dismissed Pope Benedict XVI from a civil lawsuit accusing him of conspiracy to cover up the sexual abuse of minors by a seminarian, ruling Thursday that the pontiff has immunity as a head of state.
U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal cited a motion filed by the Justice Department, known as a "Suggestion of Immunity," in which the government said allowing the lawsuit to proceed would be "incompatible with the United States' foreign policy interests."
"After a suggestion of immunity is filed, it is the court's duty to surrender jurisdiction," Rosenthal wrote in the ruling, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
Joseph Ratzinger — Benedict's former name — is named as a defendant in the civil lawsuit, accused of conspiring with the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and some of its officials to cover up the abuse of three boys during the mid-1990s. The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages.
LEESBURG (VA)
Leesburg Day
Dan Telvock
Dec 22, 2005 -- In a letter sent to a Loudoun Circuit Court judge, a Chantilly pastor sharply criticized Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman for his prosecution of Father Robert Brooks, a former Leesburg priest who pleaded no contest to attempting to possess child pornography, saying the prosecutor’s handling of the case was “not Christian.”
The Rev. Sean K. Rousseau of the Corpus Christi Catholic Mission in Chantilly, and a former pastor at St. John’s the Apostle Catholic Church in Leesburg where Brooks worked, wrote Circuit Court Judge Thomas D. Horne on Nov. 20 and stated he is appalled with the actions of Plowman in the Brooks case, saying Plowman is “a man who calls himself a Catholic, yet he purposefully persecutes a priest in the public forum for a private weakness.”
Rousseau’s letter was recently included in the court file for Brooks, 73, who was ordered to serve two years on probation after his sentencing Dec. 12. Horne was not the judge in the case because he recused himself, along with the other two Circuit Court judges.
NEWARK (NJ)
Newsday
December 22, 2005, 9:51 AM EST
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) _ A priest who is suing the Archdiocese of Newark for removing him from his position at an Orange school for criticizing the way the church has handled the sex-abuse scandal has been placed on administrative leave, and cannot represent himself as a priest until the matter is resolved.
The Rev. Robert Hoatson, 54, will continue to receive his salary and medical benefits.
In a lawsuit filed last week, Hoatson claims he was wrongly removed from his position as a church schools director at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Orange in 2003 because he publicly criticized American bishops for covering up aspects of the clergy sex scandal.
But church officials say they removed him from the schools job because of concerns about his management and other issues.
"It's sad because what I do best is preach and say Mass," Hoatson told The Record of Bergen County for Thursday's newspapers. "But I'll be back."
Jim Goodness, a spokesman for the archdiocese, told The Star-Ledger of Newark the priest was placed on leave Tuesday because the lawsuit "is in the public eye right now, and it's best left to let the litigation proceed on its own without him acting in priestly ministry."
NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald
23.12.05
A retired Catholic brother jailed yesterday for sexually abusing schoolboys in his care in the late 1970s was himself abused as a youngster, the Wellington District Court was told.
John Louis Stevenson, 66, was jailed for 3 1/2 years for sexually assaulting four boys aged between 14 and 16 at the Hato Paora Maori Boys school in Feilding from 1976 to 1981.
Stevenson had pleaded guilty to six charges of indecent assault and one of inducing an indecent act.
Known as Brother Bernard while employed at the school as a sports coach and tuck shop manager from 1970 to 1983, Stevenson has entered no plea to further sex charges and will return to court on January 30.
His lawyer, Mike Antunovic, said Stevenson was abused at two stages of his life at a time when he was vulnerable.
NEW ZEALAND
Radio New Zealand
Posted at 11:16am on 22 Dec 2005
A former Catholic teacher was today sentenced to three and a half years prison for sexual abusing four boys at a Manawatu boarding school.
John Louis Stevenson, who was known at the time of the offending as Brother Bernard; pleaded guilty to six charges of indecent assault and one of inducing a 14 year old boy to commit an indecent act between 1976 - 1981.
66 year old Stevenson was a teacher at the Hato Paora Maori Boys Catholic School in Fielding near Palmerston North.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia City Paper
by J.F. Pirro
Twenty years ago, Brian Henderson wore his full habit more, well, habitually as a clear sign he was a cleric. Now, the Southwest Philly native, who last spring celebrated his 25th year as a member of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, says the crisis in the Catholic Church has left many priests and Brothers embarrassed to wear their collars.
While Henderson usually wears a collared shirt, sweater and khakis, his preference for casual clothing isn't a betrayal of his religious life. The Brothers' unique habit—a judgelike black robe with a wide, white collar—just isn't part of the persona he wants to portray. Instead, Henderson, 46, wants to play the simple servant. What he definitely doesn't want for himself, or any member of his 325-year-old religious order, is to be lumped in with the priests.
"Like that Billy Joel song goes, 'We didn't start the fire,' but if the church is a hay barn, the barn's fully engulfed," says Henderson, a West Catholic product who entered the fold during his third year at La Salle University. "I can't fix the controversy, and I can't say [the Brothers] are all clean of heart and hand … but part of being a Brother is helping everyone be a better brother and sister to everyone else."
MICHIGAN
Battle Creek Enquirer
The Rev. Joy E. Rogers
St. Thomas Episcopal Church
"Safeguarding God's Children." That's what my denomination calls a comprehensive program of workshops and conscious raising and policies that intend to make our churches safe places for all of our children and youth.
All clergy and staff, lay leaders and anyone who works with our young ones — Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, camp counselors — are required to participate. It is a necessity born of painful truths that have emerged over decades — truths about the violence of our culture and the vulnerability of our children to those who would abuse and exploit them.
The grim statistics call us all into question — children are more at risk from family members, family friends and neighbors and even their church family than from total strangers.
One morning a month, a group of local clergy gather at the Enquirer for a conversation on questions of faith and its role in our lives and society. It is always a respectful exchange but often bewildering. It is hard to comprehend how people who are united in a passion for the Gospel and their love of the Lord move to such differing interpretations of those passions in the implications of them for their lives.
But the week we discussed violence, especially sexual violence, against children, a group of contrary clergy united. We all struggle to make our churches safe for children and to be a healing place for those who have been wounded.
MICHIGAN
Kalamazoo Gazette
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
dperson@kalamazoogazette.com 388-8555
Retired Kalamazoo County Probate Judge James S. Casey, whose innovative programs on behalf of children, the elderly and the mentally ill had statewide significance, died of pneumonia Tuesday at University of Chicago Hospital, where he was undergoing treatment for leukemia. He was 72.
Casey, who served as a probate judge for 20 years -- from 1976 to 1996 -- was a compassionate person, both on and off the bench, said local attorney Harry Contos Jr., who graduated from law school with Casey at the University of Notre Dame in 1961. ...
In 2002, the Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo appointed Casey to chair the Diocesan Review Board, which was established to investigate charges of clergy sexual abuse.
NEWARK (NJ)
The Star-Ledger
Thursday, December 22, 2005
BY JEFF DIAMANT
Star-Ledger Staff
The Newark archdiocese placed a Catholic priest on administrative leave a week after he sued the archdiocese, Archbishop John J. Myers and Catholic entities in New York for $5 million.
The Rev. Robert Hoatson, 54, who has served as counselor for Catholic Charities since 2004, will not be permitted to present himself as a priest until the lawsuit is resolved, said James Goodness, an archdiocese spokesman. He will receive his salary and medical benefits.
Hoatson's lawsuit, filed Dec. 13, contends he was improperly removed from his position as a church schools director at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Orange in 2003 because he publicly criticized American bishops for cover-ups related to the clergy sex scandal.
Archdiocese officials say they removed him from the schools job because of concerns about his management, his relationship with the school finance committee, and because he had, at one point, asked to be removed.
Hoatson has counseled dozens of victims of clergy sex abuse, even heading a local chapter of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests. He has been quoted frequently in newspapers, including this one, about the abuse scandal.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
The Bay Area Reporter
Cautious optimism by gay Catholics and others greeted last Thursday's papal announcement it would install Salt Lake City Bishop George Niederauer as San Francisco's next archbishop.
The archdiocese serves 425,000 parishioners in San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties. Niederauer will continue directing the Utah diocese until his installation February 15. ...
Niederauer told the Los Angeles Times last year that he regretted his 1986 letter urging a judge to give lenience to a former Orange County priest and friend, ultimately convicted of 26 counts of felony child sex abuse and, after violating probation, sentenced to six years in prison. Last week he called the letter a mistake.
"That impressed me," said pastor Craig Forner of St. Kevin's Church in Bernal Heights. Forner, who called Niederauer broad-minded, praised his "grasp of reality," and anticipates Niederauer's interaction with LGBTs. "Very few bishops are that open. I hope we would give him credit for what he learned. A man willing to admit he made a mistake."
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Daily News
By THERESA CONROY
conroyt@phillynews.com
AS MARTIN DONOHOE sat beneath a blanket on an antique sofa in his Medford, N.J., home, he quickly moved from one issue to the next, ruminating over details.
He could spend an hour deconstructing a single moment in time. He could live inside the nuance of one gesture or one statement.
Donohoe's obsession is understandable - even expected.
For two years, when he was between the ages of 15 and 17, he was repeatedly molested, manipulated, dominated and defiled by a Roman Catholic priest. His attacker, the Rev. James Behan, was a trusted teacher at North Catholic High School when Donohoe attended in the late 1970s.
For more than two decades, Donohoe yearned for the day when the priest would get his just punishment. The victim, now 42, edged closer to that dream when he first reported the allegations to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office in April 2002.
BRIDGEWATER (MA)
Enterprise
By Maureen Boyle, ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
A former maintenance man at St. Thomas Aquinas parish in Bridgewater was convicted Tuesday of sex-related crimes and ordered to spend a year in jail.
Reed F. Haviland, 53, was convicted in Brockton Superior Court of one count of an unnatural act.
Judge Patrick Brady sentenced Haviland to 2-1/2 years in the House of Correction with one year to serve. Haviland was also ordered to stay way from the victim.
Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said the guilty verdict followed a four-day trial.
The conviction stemmed from allegations that the defendant was inserting needles or large knitting needles into his body in the presence of a 14-year-old boy, Cruz said.
The incidents occurred in the parish center back room.
At the time of the arrest, Haviland was the first person in Plymouth County affiliated with the church to be charged with a sex crime since the archdiocese became embroiled in its priest abuse scandal.
WINCHESTER (MA)
Stoneham Sun
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
On Monday, Jan. 9, at 7:30 p.m., the Winchester Area Voice of the Faithful welcomes Dr. Martin Kafka as a guest speaker to its regular weekly meeting at St. Eulalia's Church, 50 Ridge St. in Winchester. Admission is free, and all are welcome to attend.
Kafka is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and a clinical associate in psychiatry in McLean Hospital. He has served as president of the Massachusetts chapter of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers.
In 2003, Kafka was invited to the Vatican where he participated in a conference on the theme of abuse of children and young people by Catholic priests and religious. His talk is called "Psychiatric Consultation at the Vatican: The Sexual Abuse Crisis."
ALASKA
Kenai Peninsula Online
By PHIL HERMANEK
Peninsula Clarion
Claiming the Catholic Archdiocese of Anchorage violated an agreement of anonymity, a woman filed a lawsuit Friday alleging she was sexually abused by a priest in Kenai between 1974 and 1988.
Identified in the suit only as Jane Doe, the victim says she requested anonymity in her identity and the identity of the alleged perpetrator, who died in 1992.
In exchange for her agreement not to bring legal action against the archdiocese, the church agreed to her strict anonymity request and to pay for counseling, the complaint states.
In a letter from Archbishop Roger Schwietz, read at Kenai Peninsula church services in March 2004, however, the Rev. Robert Wells was identified as the priest, assigned to Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Church in Kenai, who allegedly sexually abused a female minor.
UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News
A County Fermanagh priest charged with indecent assault and facilitating the rape of a 12-year-old girl has been released on bail.
Father Jeremiah McGrath, 62, of the Parochial House in Rosslea, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court.
The alleged offences occurred between May and November 2005 in England.
Fr McGrath, who denies the charges, was ordered to stay at an address in Sussex, surrender his passport and was banned from entering Merseyside.
UNITED KINGDOM
U.TV
A Catholic priest appeared in court via videolink today charged with indecent assault and facilitation of the rape of a 12-year-old girl.
Father Jeremiah McGrath, 62, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court following his arrest in Northern Ireland last Wednesday.
MAINE
Bangor Daily News
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland has suspended from ministry a former Maine priest who was arrested last week in Marble Falls, Texas, and charged with groping a teenage boy in a movie theater.
The Rev. Paul Clogan, 74, a priest at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Horseshoe Falls, Texas, was ordained in 1999 after spending 35 years teaching English in Texas.
Both Texas communities are about 50 miles northwest of Austin.
Clogan was born in 1931 in Boston and became a priest after he was widowed. He was an English professor for 35 years before becoming a priest.
OHIO
Toledo Blade
OHIO'S Roman Catholic bishops made a strategic mistake last week when they sent one of their relative newcomers to appear before the Ohio House Judiciary Committee on legislation that would open a new avenue for civil lawsuits alleging long-ago sexual abuse by clergy.
Lawmakers had been hoping for some answers and explanation on public policy changes to deal with the realization that the church hierarchy covered up such abuse for decades. What they got, instead, was yet another variation on official stonewalling.
It came in the form of testimony from Bishop Frederick Campbell, of the Columbus diocese, who has been in office just 11 months and has had little experience with abuse cases.
Damning with faint praise, the committee's chairman, Rep. John Willamowski, of Lima, described Bishop Campbell as "one of the most decent and honorable people who could come before us, but also one of the least knowledgeable."
Indeed, when another lawmaker asked pointed questions about what he said was the church's long-standing policy of "moving priests [accused of abuse] and flat-out lying to people," Bishop Campbell said he was "appalled" by such behavior but could not comment on the reaction of any of his fellow bishops.
ARLINGTON (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
05:27 PM CST on Tuesday, December 20, 2005
By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
Terry Hornbuckle, an Arlington pastor facing nine felony charges including sexual assault, was released from jail Monday on $1.5 million bail.
Mr. Hornbuckle, founder of Agape Christian Fellowship Church, has been in the Tarrant County jail since August without bail after failing to provide a urine test.
Mr. Hornbuckle is facing six counts of sexual assault and charges of possession of a controlled substance, tampering with a witness and retaliation. He and his church are also facing five lawsuits, three of them a result of the sexual assault cases.
Also, Mr. Hornbuckle’s case was transferred last week from state District Judge James Wilson’s court to state District Judge Scott Wisch, according to court documents. Judge Wilson recused himself from the case, but no reasons were given in that document.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 20, 2005
The Davenport diocese is searching for a priest accused of sexually abusing children.
The Rev. William Wiebler, who is facing several sexual abuse lawsuits, has left a treatment program in St. Louis and has not made contact with church officials.
The diocese is ‘‘concerned that he’s running around loose in St. Louis,’’ said Rand Wonio, the diocese’s attorney.
‘‘We know the Archdiocese of St. Louis didn’t want him there. We sent a letter to the prosecuting attorney in St. Louis just to let them know he was there.’’
Wiebler left the Quad-Cities in 1985 and has been accused of abuse dating to the 1970s and 1980s. He moved to St. Louis more than a year ago and was ordered by the diocese to stay in a treatment program and avoid contact with minors, Wonio said.
SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Weekly
by Nina Shapiro
A lawyer is deposing a potential witness in the case of a woman who alleges that in the 1970s, when a child, she was abused and impregnated by a Jesuit priest in Alaska. The lawyer represents her, and the man he is questioning, in preparation for trial, is a key figure who later served as the priest's supervisor. Key and prominent. Father Stephen Sundborg today is president of Seattle University.
Sundborg has just said that he can't talk about conversations he had with Father James Poole about sexual behavior because they were confidential communication between a priest and his supervisor, called "manifestation of conscience." At the time of those conversations with Poole in the early to mid-1990s, Sundborg was head of a regional Jesuit domain known as the Oregon Province.
Deposing Sundborg on Oct. 11, attorney John Manly offers a fantastical scenario to discern just how far the university president is willing to take such secrecy.
Manly: "If a priest while you were provincial, manifested to you that he had raped a seven- or eight-year-old little girl on the day of her first communion, he chopped her head off after the rape, buried her body, had sex with her body after he chopped her head off and was hiding it, and you knew that the parents and the police were looking for that child, would you alert the authorities?"
Sundborg: "There is nothing that is said that I would learn in a manifestation of conscience that I would reveal to another person."
Manly: "So you wouldn't tell the police in that situation."
Sundborg: "I would not."
MAINE
Portland Press Herald
By MARK PETERS, Portland Press Herald Writer
Maine's Catholic bishop has suspended a retired priest who was charged with groping a teenage boy in a Texas movie theater last week.
The decision by Bishop Richard Malone means the Rev. Paul Clogan, 74, can no longer minister to parishioners, including those at a church outside Austin where he agreed to serve as pastor after retiring last year. The suspension was up to Malone because Clogan was ordained in Maine, said Sue Bernard, spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland.
Clogan has not served in a Maine parish since the fall of 2000. He spent 18 months in the state, serving in Machias, Cherryfield and Waterville, after being ordained in May 1999 at age 68.
Malone is alerting those parishes of the suspension and pending criminal charge. The diocese received no allegations of wrongdoing by Clogan during his time at the Maine churches or when he served as hospital chaplain for a month in Bangor, Bernard said.
HUDSON (WI)
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Donna Halvorsen, Star Tribune
Last update: December 18, 2005 at 11:20 PM
In the months after her brother was murdered in a Hudson, Wis., funeral home in February 2002, Kathleen O'Connell was devastated when investigators couldn't crack the case.
Then a friend told her about the Vidocq Society, a little-known group of volunteer super-sleuths in Philadelphia. She began e-mailing immediately, pleading for help finding who had gunned down her brother Dan O'Connell, 39, and his employee, James Ellis, 22.
"Do you know how you grab onto anything for answers?" O'Connell said. "That's what I was doing."
Named for an 18th century French crook-turned-cop, the Vidocq Society is one of the best-known groups of "cold case cowboys," freelance forensic experts who have banded together to look at crimes that have stymied local law enforcement across the nation. ...
After Hudson detectives approved the society's involvement, members began reviewing the facts. The Rev. Ryan Erickson, a priest who had served in the area, became a strong suspect.
A motive for the murders also emerged: to silence Dan O'Connell, who was believed to have confronted the priest a day before the murders about alleged sexual abuse of boys.