KENTUCKY
Georgetown News-Graphic
By ERICA OSBORNE
Georgetown News-Graphic
6/30/06
(Editor's note: The following contains information and descriptions that might be offensive to some readers.)
A former youth minister serving 10 years in prison for having oral sex with a boy at a Scott County church faces more than 20 sex-related charges in Missouri.
Shawn Davies, 33, pleaded guilty in May to charges of second-degree sodomy and two counts of unlawful transaction with a minor.
Davies was originally charged with first-degree sodomy, first-degree sexual abuse and three counts of use of a minor under 16 in a sexual performance, but the charges were amended as part of a plea agreement.
From 1998 to 1999, Davies was leading a youth group at a Scott County church when he played a pornographic movie, encouraging the young boys in attendance to masturbate while he also masturbated and watched, Scott County Detective Rodger Persley said. Davies also performed oral sex on one of the boys, Persley said.
JACKSONVILLE (FL)
First Coast News
By First Coast News Staff
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- The First Coast pastor accused of molesting girls decades ago was back in court.
Today was part of pre-trial hearings for Dr. Bob Gray, the former pastor of Trinity Baptist Church. He maintains he is innocent.
One of his alleged victims responded to the allegations that the stories were made up.
"I think if people know the atmosphere back then, then they would understand why nothing was said until he left," said Denise Green.
PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star
By Karlon N. Rama
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
He was a fugitive for 24 hours.
But minutes before government offices closed yesterday, Fr. Jose “Joey” Belciña walked inside the Palace of Justice and posted bail before Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Fortunato de Gracia.
So, for the moment, he is a free man.
Belciña had been incommunicado since June 28. When a warrant brought police officers looking for him at the Archbishop’s Palace but failed to locate the priest, his lawyer, Gloria Lastimosa-Dalawampu, said they did not know how to find him.
“The last time we talked was on June 28, when he asked if I had already received a copy of the resolution. I told him no and expressed my intent to file a motion for reconsideration. I also suggested that he raise the recommended cash bond,” she said.
STOCKTON (CA)
Stockton Record
Published Friday, Jun 30, 2006
A documentary film about Oliver O’Grady, the former Stockton priest who was convicted in 1993 of molesting two children, has won Best Documentary Feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
“Deliver Us From Evil,” produced by filmmaker Amy Berg, included interviews with O’Grady and three people who say he victimized them.
Berg’s relationship with O’Grady began after an associate slipped her his phone number, according to Elisabeth Kasson, Berg’s publicist. After several phone calls, she traveled to Ireland, where she conducted hours of interviews with him. O’Grady had been deported to Ireland after his release from Mule Creek State Prison in 2000.
O’Grady’s behavior has had a devastating impact on his victims, some of whom surfaced after he was deported.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
A FORMER spiritual director and bursar of Gormanston College who sexually abused four pupils 30 years ago has been remanded forsentence.
Fr Ronald Bennett, now aged 71, of Dun Mhuire, Seafield Road, Killiney, who was also sports master at Gormanston College, pleaded guilty to six sample charges of indecent assault on dates from 1974 to 1981. He was remanded by Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Niall Muldoon, senior clinical psychologist at the Granada Institute, said Bennett had undergone "considerable therapy" there and was categorised at the lowest level of risk of re-offending.
Mr Muldoon told Hugh Hartnett SC, defending, that when appointed in 1963, Bennett was "ill-equipped for the position of spiritual director" and dealing with sex education matters because he couldn't distinguish the boundaries in relation to his own sexuality.
SWEDEN
The Local
Published: 30th June 2006 11:02 CET
A Swedish parish priest has been convicted of sexually assaulting a woman he met through a Christian website.
The pair gave different versions of what happened when the priest visited the woman in her home. She had invited him for tea, and claims that he lay on top of her, fondled her and made "sex-like movements".
The prosecutor had accused the priest of rape, but Gothenburg District Court found him not guilty on that charge, saying that the couple had not had sexual intercourse.
The Church of Sweden priest denied assaulting her, saying only that he had kissed her on the mouth and forehead. He had been surprised when she had received him wearing pyjamas.
PHILIPPINES
Cebu Daily News
By Suzzane Salva-Alueta, Nilda Gallo
Cebu Daily News
Last updated 11:07am (Mla time) 06/30/2006
CAN a parish priest in trouble post bail of P200,000?
That question was still hanging yesterday after Danao City police tried to serve a warrant of arrest for Fr. Jose “Joey” Belcina on a charge of child abuse.
Policemen went to the priest’s temporary address at the Archdiocese Palace in Cebu City Wednesday night but were told his whereabouts were not known.
Belciña’s superior, Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, was abroad. He left last Tuesday for Spain on official business and is due to return in July.
The Cebu City prosecutor’s office last week dismissed three charges of rape against Fr. Belciña filed by a 17-year-old student because no force or intimidation was used. Prosecutors instead charged him with violation of Republic Act 7610 or the law on Special Protection of Filipino Children because the priest had carnal knowledge of a minor.
HARRISBURG (PA)
The Patriot-News
Friday, June 30, 2006
BY MARY WARNER
Of The Patriot-News
Two former midstate priests have been defrocked by the Roman Catholic Church, the Diocese of Harrisburg has reported.
John G. Allen, a former priest of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Roman Catholic Church in Penbrook, has been defrocked, four years after he was permanently removed from ministry because of reported sexual abuse.
"John G. Allen's request for laicization has been granted" by the Vatican, the Diocese of Harrisburg reported in the latest edition of its weekly paper, "The Catholic Witness."
Allen resigned in April 2002, at the height of the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal, after being confronted by what the diocese called a credible report of misconduct with an adolescent at least 23 years earlier.
The paper also reported that David M. Luck had been defrocked. He was a priest at St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Mechanicsburg 18 years ago when he was removed from all ministry because of a similar report involving a minor, the diocese said.
RENO (NV)
KRNV
June 29, 2006 10:30 AM EDT
Members of a Reno church are rallying around a priest who's been accused of misconduct with a minor.
Parishioners gathered at the Little Flower Church Wednesday night to voice their support for Father Honesto Agustin. The priest is on voluntary leave because the church is investigating whether he engaged in inappropriate conduct with a minor.
Reno Police say Father Agustin does not face any criminal charges, and parishioners told us they believe he is innocent.
SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
The Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD, Mass.— A recently defrocked priest accused of sexually abusing minors will not receive a pension from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, a church official said.
The diocese had ended Richard Meehan's monthly stipend of about $1,000 when he was defrocked June 8.
Diocese spokesman Mark Dupont said the decision would only apply to Meehan.
"We reserve the right to review each case as each comes to some sort of clarity or finality," he said.
Priests become eligible for pension benefits at age 70 unless forced into retirement by health issues. Meehan is 64.
IRELAND
U.TV
Sentencing has been adjourned in the case of a 71-year-old priest who indecently assaulted four pupils in the 70s and 80s.
Ronald Bennett of Dun Mhuire, Seafield Road, Killiney is a member of the Franciscan Order.
The court heard he gave his victims sweets after the assaults.
The Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Bennet had brought the youths into his office on various dates between 1974 and 1981 and molested them.
PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star
By Jujemay G. Awit
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A police team tried to arrest Fr. Jose “Joey” Belciña last Wednesday night, but failed to locate the Danao City priest until yesterday, in a search that included the Archbishop’s Palace in Cebu City.
Belciña’s lawyer, Gloria Lastimosa-Dalawampu, questioned the issuance of the arrest warrant, released a day after the Danao City Prosecutor’s Office filed a child abuse charge against the priest.
Prosecutor Jose Dio-nisio Kyamko “made an irreversible error that has violated the rights of my client,” Dalawampu told reporters.
She explained that she received a copy of the resolution Wednesday afternoon, but only after she filed a manifestation to be furnished the results of the preliminary investigation.
MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald
By Jetta Bernier and Jeffrey Dion
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Massachusetts has an historic opportunity to establish a “zero-tolerance” policy for child sexual abuse. The Legislature must pass, before the upcoming recess, bills that would eliminate the civil and criminal statutes of limitation for these heinous crimes. Reform is necessary if the state is serious about no longer allowing sexual predators and those who assist them through silence and inaction to escape accountability.
Decades pass before many sexual abuse survivors can even begin to confront the trauma they suffered as a child. Reasons for these delays vary and underscore why most victims cannot report the abuse within current legal time frames. For some, the abuser was a parent, relative or other trusted adult. Other victims blamed themselves and feared retribution if the abuse was revealed. For many, the trauma itself prevents them from coming forward earlier. As adults, victims may not even connect the assault to its long-lasting impact until they seek therapeutic help years later. If evidence is sufficient to prove criminal or civil liability, the mere passage of time should not foreclose sexual assault victims from seeking justice.
Abolition of the civil statute of limitations must logically accompany repeal of the criminal statute. To deny a victim the right to hold financially accountable the people responsible for the abuse protects no one but the abuser and those who enabled the abuse through negligence.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Metro
Thursday, June 29, 2006 3:04:10 AM ET
By Sheri Linden
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Oliver O'Grady was the kind of twinkly-eyed priest whose adoring California parishioners called him Father Ollie. They trusted him implicitly with their children, which made it easier for him to molest hundreds of girls and boys, one as young as 9 months, over 20-odd years. With an immediacy and intimacy that news reports can't provide, this deeply affecting documentary explores the pedophile crisis that has shaken the edifice of the Catholic Church.
Debuting director Amy Berg tells the story of O'Grady and three of his victims with powerful restraint, amassing damning testimony against the Church's decades-long cover-up of complaints and "incidents." "Deliver Us From Evil" is a haunting portrait of a profoundly benighted man, the lives he shattered and the institution that repeatedly protected him -- and itself -- at the cost of children's safety. Imminent theatrical pickup is likely for this important and unforgettable chronicle, which received its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
One of the more remarkable and troubling elements of "Evil" is the cooperation of O'Grady, who appears in several extended interviews, delivering what he hopes will be "the most honest confession of my life." But his openness is more clinical than soul-searching, and it's chillingly evident that, whatever counseling he has received over the years -- while his superiors shuffled him from one central California congregation to another -- he is still a man in the grip of pathological delusion. Speaking of his abuses, he uses such euphemisms as "the people I offended" and "I became overly affectionate," and, though he talks the penance talk, he has yet to take full responsibility for his actions.
WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic
By JANE GARGAS
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
A woman alleging she was physically and sexually abused by a priest in Toppenish in the early 1960s filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Yakima County Superior Court.
The woman, identified by the initials M.H., is suing the Catholic Diocese of Yakima, saying it failed to protect her from abuse.
The plaintiff, who lives in Yakima County, says in the lawsuit she was abused by Father Michael Simpson when she was a 12-year-old living in Zillah.
Three other women have previously filed lawsuits alleging abuse by Simpson, now deceased, who served as a parish priest at St. Aloysius Church in Toppenish. All four women lived in the Lower Valley during the 1950s and '60s.
WINCHESTER (MA)
Melrose Free Press
Thursday, June 29, 2006
On Monday, July 10, at 7:30 p.m., the Winchester Area Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), which serves Melrose residents, presents a special program entitled, "A Journey with Survivors." The presentation takes place at the regular VOTF meeting site at St. Eulalia's Parish, 50 Ridge St., Winchester. Admission is free, and all are welcome to attend.
In 2005, several survivors of clergy sexual abuse traveled to Nicaragua in the hope of obtaining some measure of healing from their abuse, however temporary. Steve Sheehan, a member of St. Ignatius Parish in Chestnut Hill, and an active member of VOTF and supporter of survivors of clergy sexual abuse, accompanied the abuse survivors on this fascinating trip. Through the use of video and slides, Sheehan will provide a vivid account of the trip.
MASSACHUSETTS
Cambridge Chronicle
By Erin Smith/ Chronicle Staff
Thursday, June 29, 2006
At the age of 12, the boy from the South Boston housing projects went to Father Paul Hurley’s rectory apartment at St. Peter and Paul’s Church to drink beer with five or six of his friends. When he began to feel tired and nod off, Hurley offered him his bed. That’s when the former Cambridge priest followed him into the bedroom and orally raped him, said the soft-spoken victim, who is now 33 years old.
The Chronicle does not identify victims of rape and sexual abuse.
According to the victim’s court testimony, the abuse would continue for the next four years as Hurley would pick him up in the projects and bring him to the South Boston church. The abuse continued at the rectory of Blessed Sacrament in Central Square, where Hurley was transferred in the late 1980s, and even on summer trips to Cape Cod that Hurley would organize for several boys.
"I didn’t want to tell anyone. How do you tell someone?" said the Everett man, who frequently paused in his testimony while recounting the abuse.
This week, he was finally able to tell his story to a jury, which found Hurley, 62, of Sandwich, guilty of two counts of child rape.
The opening arguments in the case started Monday morning. By Tuesday afternoon, the jury had returned a guilty verdict after deliberating for a little more than one hour.
COCOA (FL)
Orlando Sentinel
Laurin Sellers | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted June 28, 2006
COCOA -- The pastor of a Rockledge church has been charged with raping a member of his congregation after "anointing" her with oil and telling her God wanted them to have sex, police said Tuesday.
Jesse M. French, 43, pastor of Solid Life Ministries, Church of Disciples on U.S. Highway 1, was arrested Thursday on 10 counts of sexual battery and 15 counts of lewd and lascivious conduct.
The 21-year-old congregant, who said French was her "spiritual adviser," said the abuse began about four months ago, when the pastor said he needed to anoint her with oil because she was tired, said Cocoa police spokeswoman Barbara Matthews.
The anointing eventually led to fondling and then sex on 10 occasions, said Matthews, who described the suspect as "very manipulative."
HUNTINGTON (IN)
Catholic Online
By Emily Stimpson
6/28/2006
Our Sunday Visitor (www.osv.com)
HUNTINGTON, Ind. (Our Sunday Visitor) – Who owns your local parish: The members of the parish or your bishop? According to the Catholic Church (and its canon laws dating back a millennium or so), the answer is the parishioners.
While the bishop's name usually appears on parish-property deeds and while the bishop can close or suppress a parish, he technically does not own it. Rather he holds it in trust for the parishioners, who paid for its construction and continue to pay for its operation.
Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with that answer. Across the country a growing number of plaintiffs' attorneys are working to convince the courts of just the opposite.
And, until recently, that was also the case in the Diocese of Spokane, Wash. Last month, a federal district court judge overturned a lower court ruling finding that the bishop did indeed hold the property in trust for the parishioners. This is good news for dioceses across the country.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Portsmouth Herald
By Associated Press
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - A former Cambridge priest was convicted Tuesday of raping a teenage boy in the 1980s.
A jury deliberated for just over an hour before finding the Rev. Paul William Hurley, 62, of Sandwich, guilty of repeatedly raping a 15-year-old South Boston boy in 1987 and 1988 in rectory of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Cambridge, where Hurley worked.
An investigation into the alleged rapes began in 2001 when the victim, who was 29 at the time, told out-of-state police about the assault, according to the Middlesex District Attorney's office. Authorities contacted the Cambridge police that year, and Hurley was indicted in August 2002.
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
June 28, 2006
I received the following (edited) e-mail from Tom Barnes of Alexandria, Va.
I am a left-wing lapsed Catholic whom you would not agree with theologically, but I read your column every time it is posted on the Web site for theAbuse Tracker Abuse Tracker. I am very impressed with your research and writing style. You have a lot of good, solid things to say and your point of view is usually right on.
I am 53, a grandfather, a retired Coast Guard warrant officer and retired federal worker. I was physically and sexually abused by nuns when I was a child, and later, as a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia (I was pursued by a nun when I was a seminarian). My best friend from childhood is today a priest serving in Kentucky. He was the best man at my wedding and we attended high school and college together.
SPRINGFIELD (MA)
The Republican
Thursday, June 29, 2006
By BILL ZAJAC
wzajac@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield has decided it will not provide any pension benefits to a recently defrocked priest who was accused of sexually abusing minors.
The decision not to pay pension benefits to Richard F. Meehan does not represent a policy that will be applied to all priests who face defrocking because of accusations of sexual abuse of minors, according to Mark E. Dupont, a spokesman for the diocese.
"We reserve the right to review each case as each comes to some sort of clarity or finality," Dupont said.
The diocese has initiated a process that could lead the Vatican to defrock at least six other diocesan priests who have been accused of sexually abusing minors.
In each case, the diocese's Review Board or its predecessor, the Misconduct Commission, found allegations of sexual abuse to be credible against each of the six as it did with Meehan, who was defrocked earlier this month.
NEW YORK
The Jewish Week
Jennifer Friedlin - Special to The Jewish Week
The New York State Legislature has passed a bill that would permit private schools to conduct federal background checks of prospective employees, enabling yeshivas, Catholic schools and other private institutions to determine whether a person is a convicted sex offender before they are hired.
“I’m pleased that we [have] now opened the availability of getting criminal background checks in private schools,” said Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach), the bill’s sponsor.
Passage of the legislation comes in the wake of allegations that a yeshiva in Flatbush, Brooklyn, harbored a sex offender for decades. The allegations and a lawsuit against Rabbi Yehuda Kolko of Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Temimah have generated a debate within the Jewish community about how to protect Jewish students.
The bill, which must still be signed by Gov. George Pataki before it can become law, is similar to a 2000 law that requires New York’s public schools to conduct fingerprint-based checks in the FBI’s national criminal background check system. Such checks reveal whether a person has been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor anywhere in the nation.
MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe
A Catholic priest was convicted yesterday of sexually assaulting a child in the 1980 s and will be sentenced July 27, authorities said. The Rev. Paul William Hurley , 62 , of Sandwich, was found guilty of raping a 15-year-old boy in the rectory of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Cambridge in 1987 and 1988, said Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley's office. Coakley told reporters after Hurley's 2002 arraignment that he had paid the boy $80 to $100 for sex, knowing the boy would use the money to buy drugs. Hurley, who is on administrave leave and is no longer assigned to a parish, began serving a provisional three-year sentence yesterday at MCI-Cedar Junction and faces a maximum sentence of life in jail.
AUSTRALIA
ninemsn
Wednesday Jun 28 08:45 AEST
A former chaplain at one of Adelaide top boys' schools will face trial accused of sexually abusing a student after failing to have a committal decision overturned.
The Full Court of the South Australian Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to overturn John Mountford's committal to stand trial on five charges of indecent assault, one of unlawful sexual intercourse and two of procuring the commission of an act of gross indecency.
Mountford appealed to the full court after Justice Anthony Besanko, sitting alone in the Supreme Court, earlier this year rejected his application to overturn his committal.
COCOA (FL)
Orlando Sentinel
Laurin Sellers | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted June 27, 2006, 2:22 PM EDT
COCOA -- Police arrested the pastor of a Rockledge church today on charges of sexually assaulting a member of his congregation after telling her God wanted them to have sex.
Jesse M. French, 43, was arrested on 10 counts of sexual battery and 15 counts of lewd and lascivious conduct. French is the pastor of the Solid Life Ministries, Church of Disciples on U.S. Highway 1 in Rockledge.
The female victim, who described French as her "spiritual advisor," said the abuse began about four months ago when French said he needed to anoint her with oil because she was tired, said Cocoa Police spokeswoman Barbara Matthews.
HARTFORD (CT)
Hartford Courant
June 28, 2006
Susan Campbell
What do you say when a pastor rapes and impregnates an 11-year-old girl?
You can say that it's horrible, sure.
You can say that rape/sexual abuse/unwanted sexual attention robs a child of such precious commodities as trust, hope, a childhood. You can say that the family needs a good therapist.
And I would add one more thing to the list: People knew.
They may not have understood that they knew, but on some level they at least suspected something was very wrong. It doesn't matter how discreet sex abusers may try to be, they always leave bread crumbs leading to the ugly truth.
ALABAMA
NBC 13
POSTED: 6:29 pm CDT June 27, 2006
UPDATED: 7:09 pm CDT June 27, 2006
CALHOUN COUNTY, Ala. -- A former east Alabama pastor accused of sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl entered a written not guilty plea during a hearing in a Calhoun County court on Tuesday.
JOLIET (IL)
Belleville News-Democrat
Associated Press
JOLIET, Ill. - Bishop James Peter Sartain, a lifelong Southerner, was installed Tuesday as the head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet.
The ceremony was held at the Cathedral of St. Raymond.
Sartain, 54, is Joliet's fourth bishop. He was named by Pope Benedict XVI to replace retired Bishop Joseph Imesch in May.
"Very simply, I come to the people of the Joliet diocese as their pastor and their friend," Sartain said.
Sartain is a native of Memphis, Tenn. He was ordained July 15, 1978 and had been serving as bishop of Little Rock, Ark., since 2000.
He replaces a man who served as bishop of the Joliet diocese for nearly 27 years. Canon law required Imesch to retire upon turning 75 - his birthday was last Wednesday - but he also is stepping down amid criticism for his handling of sexual abuse allegations against priests.
CALIFORNIA
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott Matt C. Abbott
June 27, 2006
Randy Engel's soon-to-be released, 1318-page book The Rite of Sodomy — Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church promises to be one of the most controversial books in some time.
Engel has provided me with the following material (slightly edited) on Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel Walsh — who recently made the news here and here — which includes excerpts from her book (the indented passages).
Writes Engel:
Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel F. Walsh's complicity in the escape to Mexico of Jesuit Father Xavier Ochoa, accused of the sexual molestation of a 12-year-old altar boy in Sonoma County, should come as no surprise to Catholics who have followed Walsh's early clerical career as vicar general and auxiliary bishop under Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco.
Walsh played a pivotal role in the notorious Bishop Joseph Ferrario sex abuse case in the early 1990s when a young Hawaiian man by the name of David Figueroa charged Ferrario and two other Catholic priests from the island with sexual molestation. It was the first time an American bishop had been publicly accused of pederasty.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
CNN
By Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston
CNN
Tuesday, June 27, 2006; Posted: 1:26 p.m. EDT (17:26 GMT)
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A documentary released this week at the Los Angeles Film Festival gives a detailed look into the mind of pedophile priest.
Former Roman Catholic priest Oliver O'Grady, convicted in 1993 on four counts of lewd and lascivious acts on minors, granted filmmaker Amy Berg unlimited access.
During the film, O'Grady details how he preyed on children, how the Diocese of Stockton, California, knew about the abuse, and how O'Grady claims church officials allowed him to abuse children for two decades by moving him from parish to parish instead of removing him from ministry.
"I want to promise myself this is going to be the most honest confession of my life," O'Grady said in the film. "And in doing that, I need to make a long journey back, understanding what I did and to acknowledge that. And in some ways make reparations for that."
CANADA
CD98.9
An 83 year old former Port Dover priest will be in a Chatham court August 3rd. Charles Sylvestre is facing sex related charges involving 47 women while he served as a priest in Sarnia, London, Chatham and Pain Court. According to the London Free Press the day long court schedule potentially means the priest could plead guilty to some or all of the 61 charges he faces.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
A SENIOR Oblate priest has admitted that the religious order made mistakes in its management of young offenders at its Daingean and Glencree reformatories.
But in a reference to the recent clerical scandals, Fr Paul Byrne said that "at last the demonisation of good men is stopping".
The day-to-day work of the order was centred in areas like Inchicore and Darndale, where Oblate priests worked unselfishly to improve the lives of families and the elderly, he said.
Fr Byrne was delivering the homily at the Oblate church in Inchicore, Dublin, which is celebrating the coming to Ireland 150 years ago of the French-founded order that aims to care for the most needy in society.
CALIFORNIA
The Press Democrat
By CHRIS COURSEY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
In an interview almost 2½ years ago, my colleague Guy Kovner asked Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel Walsh if the Roman Catholic Church could ever put the scandal of sexually abusive priests behind it.
"I think the people in the pews have already done that," Walsh responded. "They're tired of it. But evidently the media has not gotten tired of it."
If only it was that simple.
Walsh came to the Diocese of Santa Rosa as a reformer, a solid hand sent here to steady the ship after former Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann left the diocese in a financial mess after his own sex scandal in 1999.
Under Walsh's leadership, the diocese has acknowledged 17 of its priests have been accused of molest- ing 62 children in the past 40 years. He has been instrumental in settling 10 lawsuits brought by victims of abusive priests, with the diocese paying out more than $11 million in those settlements. He promised to "close the door" on the diocese's history of turning a blind eye on problem priests.
Tukkun
When we speak of sexual abuse, we are talking about violent expressions of power.
L’shem Yichud: For the Sake of Divine Unity
In response to recent revelations of sexual misconduct and deceit by a rabbi who in recent years has been a highly visible personality within the Jewish Renewal community, much has been spoken about the need within Jewish communities generally to safeguard students and congregants from predatory teachers. A clear demand has been voiced for open channels through which women who have experienced sexual harassment can register the abuse without fear of dismissal or recrimination. Renewal organizations have cut their ties to the admitted offender and engaged in a painful bout of soul-searching, some even raising concerns about the possibility that ecstatic Renewal spiritual practices contribute to the risk of interpersonal exploitation and abuse. Considerable discussion has also been generated about the illness of sexual predators, effective treatment, and the prognosis for rehabilitation.
In the current situation, as in previous instances when a trusted spiritual teacher betrayed that trust through sexual misconduct, the initial shock provoked us to confirm our understanding that when we talk of sexual abuse, we are always talking about violent expressions of power, not sexual desire or pleasure. We next turned to discussing the importance of insuring open channels of communication, first to acknowledge that, at a minimum, we must open our hearts to the painful stories of the victims, and second, to express our commitment to protect and rescue women from any future risks of predation. We even questioned, with an eye for complicity, the nature of interpersonal practices encouraged by our well-intentioned but deeply intimate study and prayer gatherings.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Russell Working
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 27, 2006
A West Side parish stunned by sex abuse charges in January against a former priest has learned that its remaining priest will be leaving this summer to teach high school.
Rev. Tom Walsh announced Sunday that he plans to finish his pastoral duties at St. Agatha Catholic Church in August and resume full-time teaching at Holy Trinity High School in Chicago.
A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Chicago said Walsh had filled a temporary position since the removal of Rev. Daniel J. McCormack, who was charged with sexually abusing boys in the parish at 3147 W. Douglas Blvd. McCormack has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
"There's nothing new that we didn't anticipate," said Colleen Dolan, communications director for the archdiocese. "When his parish closed a year ago, [Walsh] went to live there in the rectory [at St. Agatha] so he could teach. ... It was only after the situation at St. Agatha arose that they put him in as an administrator," a temporary pastoral role.
WILMINGTON (DE)
The News Journal
By ESTEBAN PARRA
The News Journal
06/27/2006
WILMINGTON -- An attorney representing Salesianum School wants a Superior Court judge to dismiss a sexual molestation case against the prominent Catholic school and the religious order that runs it.
Attorney Mark L. Reardon told Superior Court Judge Calvin L. Scott Jr. on Monday that the statute of limitations on the case has expired.
CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times
By Gina Piccalo, Times Staff Writer
As he describes his pedophilic urges, Oliver O'Grady, a former priest who for about 20 years fondled and raped children from his Central California parishes, stands in a Dublin, Ireland, park smiling, noting casually as a small red-headed boy walks right behind him. He lives nearby, alone and unchecked by police, though O'Grady served seven years in a California prison for sexually assaulting a 9-year-old boy in the mid-1990s. Nearby, a playground is visible.
This is just one of many chilling moments from "Deliver Us From Evil," a new documentary directed by investigative news producer Amy Berg that premiered Saturday to a sellout crowd at the Los Angeles Film Festival and screens again tonight. Chilling too are the reasons that O'Grady agreed to be interviewed on camera: He wants to force L.A. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and other church officials to acknowledge they knew of his abuse and transferred him to a new parish every time a family complained — allegations that Berg tries to substantiate with victim and police interviews and church correspondence — despite their promises to keep O'Grady away from kids.
"I should have been removed and attended to and [Mahony] then should also have followed up by attending to the people I had harmed," O'Grady tells Berg in the film.
SACRAMENTO (CA)
Sacramento Bee
By Jennifer Garza -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 9:30 pm PDT Monday, June 26, 2006
Officials with the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento expect four new lawsuits will be filed alleging clergy sexual abuse.
Four men have accused Javier Garcia, a former Sacramento priest, of sexually molesting them.
The diocese and the plaintiffs' attorney had been in settlement talks.
The alleged incidents happened between 1987 and 1994 at Holy Rosary Parish in Woodland, Our Lady of Lourdes in Colusa and Sacred Heart Parish in Maxwell.
The diocese has previously settled eight claims involving Garcia, who fled to Mexico after charges were filed against him by the Yolo County district attorney in 1995.
CANADA
Toronto Sun
Tue, June 27, 2006
By JANE SIMS, SUN MEDIA
CHATHAM -- One of the largest church-based sex abuse cases in southwestern Ontario that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church may be close to being resolved.
Yesterday, Ontario Court Justice Bruce Thomas set aside Aug. 3 for Charles Sylvestre, 83, of Belle River, a long-serving Roman Catholic priest who is facing sex-related charges involving 47 women while he served as a priest in Sarnia, London, Chatham and Pain Court.
The day-long schedule potentially means the aged priest could plead guilty to some or all of the 61 charges he faces.
Sylvestre wasn't in court yesterday, but is required to attend the August date. The charges date as far back as 1954 and extend to 1990.
SANTA ROSA (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Matthai Chakko Kuruvila
Monday, June 26, 2006
The Roman Catholic bishop of Santa Rosa has denied claims that he should have been quicker to notify authorities about accusations that a priest had sexually abused three boys and has since fled to Mexico.
In a letter to the Diocese of Santa Rosa on Friday, Bishop Daniel Walsh said that Father Xavier Ochoa admitted in an April 28 meeting that he'd sexually abused a boy in Sonoma County and confessed to two other incidents with boys in Napa County and Mexico. The boy in the alleged Sonoma County incident was 12 years old at the time, and the boys in the other two alleged incidents were between the ages of 14 and 16 at the time, according to the Sonoma County district attorney's office.
Walsh said in the letter that he consulted with the diocese's attorney the next day, on Saturday, April 29, and a decision was made that the attorney would notify authorities after the weekend, on Monday, May 1.
WILMINGTON (DE)
The News Journal
By ESTEBAN PARRA
The News Journal
06/26/2006
WILMINGTON – A Salesianum School attorney urged a judge this morning to dismiss a sex-molestation case against the prominent Catholic school and the religious order that runs it because the statute of limitations have expired.
Delaware’s statute of limitations gives juvenile victims two years after the incident to file a civil suit against an adult attacker. In this case, the alleged nine years of molestation ended in 1985 – almost two decades before the lawsuit was filed.
“The statute has run out,” Salesianum attorney Mark L. Reardon said. “Not by a little. By a lot.”
NORWAY
Aftenposten
The police chief in Agder, southern Norway, has decided to investigate whether a pastor in Kristiansand broke the law by entering into a sexual relationship with a young member of his congregation.
The sex scandal at Oddernes Church in Kristiansand broke late last week, and the pastor has lost all his authority granted by the state church in Norway.
Now the local police are launching an investigation after determining that there is "reasonable cause" to probe whether the pastor "obtained sex through the abuse of his position, a relationship of dependency or a relationship of confidence."
The sexual relationship between the pastor, in his 60s, and a woman in her early 20s who had sought his advice reportedly went on for several years. Church officials claim it began when the woman first sought "comfort for her soul" and then enlisted the pastor's help and support.
CALIFORNIA
Movie City News
When Amy Berg decided to hang out a shingle and produce feature documentaries two years ago, she wasn't quite sure what subject might both consume her interest and hit a nerve with audiences.
Berg, a Los Angeles native, began her career in local radio, moved into local news at KCBS and segued to a gig producing investagative reports for CNN. She received Emmys for a sports documentary and a social profile set in South Central L.A. In those jobs, she'd also done close to a dozen reports on the sex scandals that wracked California's Catholic dioceses over the past decade.
"The subject had become like mother's milk to me," said Berg. "It's just so complex and despite this wall of silence, or at least lack of cooperation from the church, the leaks continue to reveal details that are shocking and alarming."
An associate had given Berg a phone number for one Father Oliver O'Grady and she decided to make a blind call to him. A convicted pedophile, he had moved back to Ireland to escape incarceration. She knew him only from criminal records and imagined him as some sort of monster preying on the vulnerability of children.
"That first call still sticks with me," she says. "He answers the phone, 'hello and good evening,' with such warmth, you'd think you were encountering some delightful, impish leprechaun."
NAMIBIA
Namibian
WERNER MENGES
AN elderly Roman Catholic priest who has been on trial in the Otjiwarongo Regional Court on three charges of raping young girls at Khorixas, as well as another count of indecent assault, was sentenced to a fine of N$12 000 and a suspended one-year jail term after being found guilty on four counts of indecent assault on Friday.
The conviction and sentencing of Father Hans Peter Nagels resulted from events that took place at Khorixas during 2004, when the priest was based at that town.
Nagels, now aged 80, was arrested and charged at the age of 78 in August 2004.
He has been living in Namibia, where he has been in a missionary position in the Roman Catholic Church, since 1957, Magistrate Christie Liebenberg heard during Nagels's trial in the Otjiwarongo Regional Court.
CALIFORNIA
Renew America
Writer, Catholic and pro-family activist Allyson Smith of San Diego, Calif., recently composed the following letter to Sonoma County District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua.
Stephan R. Passalacqua
District Attorney
County of Sonoma
600 Administration Drive, Room 212-J
Santa Rosa, California
Dear District Attorney Passalacqua,
I write to request that you prosecute Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel Walsh to the fullest possible extent of the law for failing to timely report minor sexual abuse by one of his priests, Father Xavier Ochoa, who has since escaped to Mexico.
According to a June 23, 2006 report by the Monterey Herald (included at end of this message), Ochoa on Friday, April 28 notified Bishop Walsh that he had sexually abused a 12-year-old boy. Charges your office has reportedly filed against Ochoa include sodomy, oral copulation and lewd conduct with a minor. Good luck prosecuting him now that he's south of the border.
However, instead of calling a 24-hour sexual abuse hotline — as required by diocesan policy — to immediately report the molestation, Bishop Walsh turned the matter over to diocesan attorney Dan Galvin who waited until Monday, May 1 to fax a letter to Child Protective Services and to notify the local Sheriff's department the following day, May 2 — allowing Ochoa plenty of time to beat feet.
RENO (NV)
Las Vegas Sun
ASSOCIATED PRESS
RENO, Nev. (AP) - A Reno priest accused of inappropriate conduct with a minor has taken a leave of absence, church officials said.
Bishop Randolph Calvo of the Reno Diocese said the church reported to police the accusation involving Honesto Agustin, pastor at St. Therese the Little Flower Church.
Calvo did not release details about the allegation, citing the pending investigation. He stressed that Agustin should be presumed innocent in the meantime.
"Even if the allegations are proven false, suspicion may remain in the minds of some," Calvo said in a statement. "I believe, however, that I had to take this risk, because I do not want to hide the matter from parishioners or to leave anyone in the dark as to the reasons I have taken action.
SANTA ROSA (CA)
San Francisco Sentinel
By James Lanaras, Bay City News Service
June 22, 2006
SANTA ROSA (BCN) - The Sonoma County district attorney's office this afternoon prepared a criminal complaint and requested an arrest warrant for a Sonoma priest, Rev. Francisco Xavier Ochoa, for allegedly committing lewd acts against three underage boys.
Ochoa, 67, is believed to be in Mexico since May 4.
The complaint alleges 10 felony offenses and one misdemeanor offense, including forcible sodomy and forcible oral copulation, against three alleged victims between 1988 and the present.
Sonoma County District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua said Ochoa faces life in prison if convicted of the offenses against two or more victims.
MINNESOTA
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Pamela Miller, Star Tribune
Last update: June 24, 2006 – 11:10 PM
Even now, decades later, the victims' voices falter as they describe the encounters that damaged them in ways they cannot fully cast off.
Mary Dunford tells of a molester visiting her dormitory bed when she was 15. Susan Pavlak speaks of the teacher who talked to her of love, then seduced her at 16. Siblings Christine Bertrand and Karen Britten and their childhood friend Patricia Schwartz describe how their piano teacher touched them in ways no adult should touch a child.
In each case, the perpetrator was, or recently had been, a Roman Catholic nun.
The five women, who said they were abused in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, are among about a dozen Minnesotans and an estimated 400 women and men nationwide who have recently come forward to talk about being sexually abused by nuns.
CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, June 25, 2006
(06-25) 11:23 PDT Santa Rosa, Calif. (AP) --
A Roman Catholic bishop criticized for not immediately reporting a priest for sexually abusing three boys is defending his handling of the matter and said he was "dismayed" to learn the priest had fled to Mexico.
"The district attorney's office confirmed publicly that the Diocese came forward in a 'fairly expedient fashion,'" Bishop Daniel Walsh wrote in a letter published Saturday on the Web site of the Diocese of Santa Rosa.
Walsh came under fire last week for waiting three days to notify authorities that the Rev. Xavier Ochoa, a priest in his diocese, had admitted he sexually abused three boys over the past decade. The delay gave Ochoa time to flee to Mexico, according to church and law enforcement officials.
"Since Fr. Ochoa had many loyal supporters in Sonoma County, I did not consider him to be a flight risk and am dismayed by his decision to flee," Walsh wrote.
MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
United Press International
MINNEAPOLIS, June 25 (UPI) -- More than 400 people across the United States have come forward to allege they were molested by Roman Catholic nuns in their childhood, a report says.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune said many of these men and women also have filed lawsuits against various religious orders, but their cases may never truly be addressed in a courtroom.
The newspaper said litigation roadblocks include how to assign blame to those in the 450 women's religious orders in the United States -- the orders are usually independent of Catholic dioceses -- and the reluctance of attorneys to move forward with such cases.
RENO (NV)
Reno Gazette-Journal
-- STAFF REPORT
Posted: 6/25/2006
A priest at St. Therese of the Little Flower Church is on administrative leave pending an allegation that he engaged in inappropriate conduct with a minor, Bishop Randolph Calvo said Saturday.
Calvo said the Diocese of Reno reported the accusation involving Fr. Honesto Agustin to police.
However, he reminded the public that it should presume Agustin innocent.
Details of the allegation were not specified. Calvo asks anyone who knows something that could resolve this matter to inform the diocesan victim assistance coordinator at 826-6555 or to contact police.
Attempts to reach Agustin on Saturday were unsuccessful, and a home phone number could not be located. A diocesan spokesman said Agustin isn't commenting on the allegation.
IRELAND
Sunday Independent
THERE is a horrible irony in the old Dublin terminology used for officers from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, now the Irish Society, formerly theAbuse Tracker Society. They were known as the "cruelty men", while officials and volunteers with the Society of St Vincent de Paul were known as "the poverty men".
We have been accustomed to look with pride at the work done by the NSPCC and its successor. Even when made painfully aware of our national shortcomings in relation to the way children were mistreated in the past, we saw the Society as disinterested, committed, decent, caring with total probity for the welfare of the nation's disadvantaged children.
But last week we have been made aware of the reality. And we are forced to ask if children were ever safe in this hellhole called Ireland?
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse was questioning the current chief executive of the ISPCC at the public hearing of the commission's investigation committee. Paul Gilligan told the committee of the shame attached to unmarried women who gave birth. But there were no statistics as to how many of those women "gave away" their children in order to distance themselves from the stigma: the category of illegitimacy was not used in institutions.
IRELAND
The Sunday Times
Dearbhail McDonald
A RELIGIOUS order whose brothers abused children in primary schools says a state agency is blocking its compensation payments to victims.
After successful civil actions, up to 20 people sexually abused by Franciscan brothers of the Third Order of St Francis are awaiting six-figure payouts, which have been delayed because of a ruling by the Commissioners of Charitable Donations and Bequests in Ireland (CCDB).
The Franciscans, whose property is held in a trust, asked the commissioners to grant permission to sell their assets after the High Court awarded the settlements. But the CCDB has told the Franciscans that selling land to compensate victims is against the ordinary purposes of the order.
The CCDB says it can only permit a sale or disposition of land if it is satisfied that the sale will be “advantageous” to the charity. So although it gave the order permission to sell, it says a trust that normally finances Franciscan institutions, missionaries and care of elderly brothers cannot be used to pay abuse victims.
SANTA ROSA (CA)
CBS 5
06/24/06 4:25 PDT
SANTA ROSA (BCN)
Santa Rosa Diocese Bishop Daniel Walsh released a statement today in response to an arrest warrant issued Thursday for Sonoma County priest Rev. Francisco Xavier Ochoa, who is alleged to have committed lewd acts against three underage boys.
Walsh defended his Diocese against allegations that the church may have delayed reporting the abuse.
The complaint against Ochoa, 67, alleges 10 felony offenses and one misdemeanor offense, including forcible sodomy and forcible oral copulation, against three alleged victims between 1988 and the present. Ochoa is believed to have fled to Mexico May 4.
Sonoma County District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua said Ochoa faces life in prison if convicted of the offenses against two or more victims.
DENVER (CO)
Summit Daily News
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 24, 2006
DENVER - An advocacy group asked the Denver Archdiocese on Friday to change and expand its offer to have mediators negotiate settlements with people who say they have been molested by priests.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) wants church officials to disclose approximately how much money they have allocated for settlements, disclose the names of "potentially dangerous predators" and extend the Aug. 25 deadline for agreeing to participate.
The group also wants church officials not to fight any lawsuits over alleged sexual abuse on grounds the statute of limitations on such claims has expired - a defense the group calls a technicality.
"I have never seen a bishop say that's not what Jesus did. It's what Enron may do, but it's not what Jesus would do," said David Clohessy, national director of SNAP.
NEW BEDFORD (MA)
Standard-Times
By AARON NICODEMUS, Standard-Times staff writer
NEW BEDFORD — For the past 16 years, Paul F. Walsh Jr. has been the district attorney for Bristol County. It's a job he loves, and one he'd like to keep for the rest of his life.
"It's the best job in the world," Mr. Walsh said in his downtown New Bedford law office, sporting his trademark green tie. "When I say this, my ADAs (assistant district attorneys) roll their eyes, but I mean it. You get a chance to make a difference. Every day in court, there's a personal drama going on between a victim and a defendant. Victims are people who can't fight for themselves. We can stand up and be heroes to them. I wouldn't want another job." ...
Mr. Walsh has listed at the top of his accomplishments the successful prosecution of pedophile priest James Porter in 1993. It was the first case in the nation that began unraveling decades of the Catholic Church's cover-up of clergy sexual abuse.
Porter victim Peter Calderone of Attleboro said he and other victims were initially concerned that Mr. Walsh, an Irish Catholic from a predominantly Catholic region, would not pursue charges.
"As a group, we were impatient with him at first," said Mr. Calderone. "We figured that a Catholic boy from Fall River/New Bedford wouldn't pursue this."
Unknown to the victims, though, Mr. Walsh's office was building a 28-count indictment of Mr. Porter and had Massachusetts state police officers waiting outside the former priest's Minnesota home to arrest him when the indictment was handed down.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Kevin Crust, Times Staff Writer
June 22, 2006
IT'S not unusual for documentaries to dominate a festival. And this year's Los Angeles Film Festival is no exception, with a strong group of nonfiction works largely connected by a search for justice and redemption. ...
'Deliver Us From Evil'
The concept of the infallibility of priests receives a stinging critique in writer-director Amy Berg's understandably angry documentary, the story of a remorseless pedophile Catholic priest. A deceptive figure — a Barry Fitzgerald façade with a Peter Lorre lurking beneath — Oliver O'Grady served as a priest in Central California for nearly 20 years, quietly terrorizing the region before being arrested. Focusing on a handful of O'Grady's victims, now adults, the film assays the suffering of their families while it cogently builds an argument implicating the complicity of Cardinal Roger Mahony, once O'Grady's bishop, in covering up the crimes.
• 7 p.m. Saturday, Majestic Crest; 4:15 p.m. Monday, Landmark Regent
HARTFORD (CT)
WTNH
(Hartford-WTNH, June 23, 2006 Updated 9:50 PM) _ A pastor charged with raping and impregnating an 11-year-old girl made an appearance in court Friday. Modesto Reyes is accused of raping the girl several times inside a church.
He's a man his community puts their faith and trust in. But now that police have charged Reyes with the rape of an 11-year-old people like Maria Saldevir aren't sure what to think.
"She say she was surprised and she can't believe that," Saldevir said thorough a translator. "She knows him for a long time. She goes to his church and he always looked like a nice person, honest person."
HARTFORD (CT)
Hartford Courant
By JEFFREY B. COHEN and ELIZABETH HAMILTON, Courant Staff Writers Carmen Pinto remembered the talk in the neighborhood about the pregnant girl.
"They were like, `Oh, my God. How? How can it be? She was always with the pastor.'"
"Exactly," said her friend, Jeanette Figueroa. "She was always with the pastor."
The pastor, Modesto Reyes, 52, was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting the girl several times at the church when she was 11. Before the arrest, Pinto said, the talk around the city's Frog Hollow neighborhood was that the father of the baby "has to be one of them kids from church, then, you know?"
"Unfortunately," Pinto said, "it wasn't like that."
DENVER (CO)
CBS 4
(AP) DENVER An advocacy group asked the Denver Archdiocese on Friday to change and expand its offer to have mediators negotiate settlements with people who say they have been molested by priests.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests wants church officials to disclose approximately how much money they have allocated for settlements, disclose the names of "potentially dangerous predators" and extend the deadline for agreeing to participate.
The group also wants church officials not to fight any lawsuits over alleged sexual abuse on grounds the statute of limitations on such claims has expired -- a defense the group calls a technicality.
OAKLAND (CA)
CBS 5
06/23/06 12:35 PDT
OAKLAND (BCN)
Two young women have filed lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland claiming that they were sexually abused and molested by a volunteer youth minister in Martinez between 2002 and 2004, when the women were high school students.
The suits, filed in Alameda County Superior Court last week, also name 33-year-old Ray Valero, the volunteer minister at St. Catherine's Parish in Martinez, as a defendant for allegedly being the perpetrator.
The suits come 10 months after the diocese reached a $56 million settlement on behalf of 56 victims of childhood molestation by priests.
OAKLAND (CA)
CBS 13
(AP) OAKLAND Two women have accused a volunteer youth minister at Saint Catherine's Church in Martinez of sexually molesting them between 2002 and 2004.
The lawsuits filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland allege that Ray Valero, 33, abused the women when they were high school students.
The new lawsuits raise questions about the rigor and efficacy of new church policies requiring fingerprinting and background checks on every worker or volunteer who supervises children.
A diocese spokesman tells The Oakland Tribune that Valero was removed from his position and the diocese cooperated with investigators.
CALIFORNIA
Contra Costa Times
By Danielle Samaniego
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland is once again defending itself against sexual abuse allegations, this time involving two women who say they were abused by a youth minister at a Martinez church.
The women say they were abused from 2002 to 2004, when they were in high school, by a volunteer youth minister.
The women, whose names are being withheld because they say they are victims of sexual assault, are also suing a 33-year-old volunteer youth minister who they say abused them, said their attorney Rick Simons. The civil lawsuits were filed in the past two weeks in Alameda County Superior Court.
The youth minister, who was married with a child at the time, worked at St. Catherine's Catholic Church in Martinez. He was removed from his position as soon as the church learned of the allegations.
MISSOURI
Columbia Daily Tribune
By JASON ROSENBAUM of the Tribune’s staff
Published Friday, June 23, 2006
As a young boy, Don Asbee said, he suffered stinging anguish at the hands of Catholic priests. But he didn’t remember any of it for decades.
"It was my coping mechanism," said Asbee, a 51-year-old metal worker from Hartsburg. "I knew something was wrong from a very early age, but it was just pretty well tucked away until I was quite a bit older."
Asbee said priests at St. Joseph’s Parish in Milton, Pa., started molesting him when he was 9 and continued for four years.
Asbee said he started having terrifying flashbacks when he was in his 40s. Each one gave insight into what had happened to him.
IOWA
Sioux City Journal
06/23/2006 05:14:43 PM
Two former Sioux City residents have filed the 29th lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by a former priest in the Sioux City Diocese.
Edward and Patrick Nichols, who both now live in California, sued the diocese and George McFadden, claiming that McFadden committed sex acts upon them when they were under age 14. McFadden does not deny the acts occurred, according to the suit, which was filed Friday in Woodbury County District Court.
The alleged abuse occurred in the 1960s while McFadden was pastor at the now-closed St. Francis of Assisi parish in Sioux City.
CANADA
London Free Press
Sat, June 24, 2006
By JOE BELANGER, FREE PRESS REPORTER
A London man sexually abused as a child by a priest is calling for a provincial round table of experts to get more help for victims.
"As a society, we haven't addressed this issue and it's like ignoring the symptoms of an epidemic," said John Swales, who has the financial backing of one of London's largest law firms, Harrison Pensa.
Swales said there's little counselling, treatment and legal help for men and women who were sexually abused as children.
"The responsibility for recovery is being placed on the shoulders of the victims," said Swales, a client support worker with the law firm.
VIRGINIA
Times-Dispatch
BY TOM CAMPBELL
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jun 24, 2006
The disbarred lawyer who cheated the families of convicts and masqueraded as a victim of abuse by a priest had his federal prison stay lengthened by five years yesterday.
U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne sentenced Thomas Edward Smolka to the statutory 60-month maximum for failure to appear in court on Aug. 28, 2003, for sentencing. Smolka apparently went on the run weeks earlier after realizing the court was likely to impose some serious time for the three counts of fraud to which he had pleaded guilty.
While a fugitive, Smolka stole the identity of the dead husband of a friend in New Mexico, where he was living at the time.
CANADA
The Record
MIRKO PETRICEVIC, RECORD STAFF
His admirably enunciated words won't echo much longer through the halls of St. Jerome's University in Waterloo.
But don't think you've heard the last of Michael Higgins.
The president of the Roman Catholic university moves to Fredericton, N.B., next week to take up the post of president and vice-chancellor at St. Thomas University.
Higgins, who has become a familiar voice across Canada for his scholarly comments on Catholic issues, plans to continue writing and broadcasting in the Roman Catholic and, mostly, the secular press. ...
Church scandals, such as the sexual abuse of students by Roman Catholic brothers in Newfoundland, have not shocked him, he said.
"I don't expect perfection in the church," he said. "I know it too well and intimately to expect perfection."
However, Higgins added, he has been "disappointed that we haven't risen to the standards that we profess to live by."
IOWA
Des Moines Register
Two brothers, Edward Nichols and Patrick Nichols, on Friday filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Sioux City and the Rev. George McFadden, alleging they were sexually abused by the priest when they were children growing up in St. Francis of Assisi Catholic parish in Sioux City.
McFadden, 80, has been accused of sexual abuse by more men and women than any other Iowa priest in the past 50 years, with dozens of claims and lawsuits filed against him and the diocese. He lives in Fort Wayne, Ind.
The Nichols brothers, who currently live in California, allege that the abuse occurred before each attained the age of 14 and “continued for a period of time.” As a result of the abuse, the men allege they have suffered severe emotional distress.
A diocesan official declined to comment on the case as no one at the diocese had seen the lawsuit.
CALIFORNIA
Contra Costa Times
By Kim Curtis
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO - The Roman Catholic bishop of Santa Rosa failed to immediately report an admission of child abuse by a priest who has since left the country, authorities said Thursday.
The Rev. Xavier Ochoa was suspended April 28 after admitting an incident of sexual abuse with a 12-year-old boy. Bishop Daniel Walsh didn't notify law enforcement until three days later, giving Ochoa time to flee to Mexico, according to church and law enforcement officials.
The Sonoma County District Attorney's Office on Thursday filed multiple misdemeanor and felony charges, including sodomy, oral copulation and lewd conduct with a minor, according to sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Dennis O'Leary.
It was unlikely church officials would face criminal charges for the tardy reporting, he said.
CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle
Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, June 23, 2006
The Sonoma County district attorney's office filed criminal charges Thursday against a 67-year-old Catholic priest accused of molesting three children.
The Rev. Francisco Ochoa-Perez was charged with 10 felonies and one misdemeanor violation involving lewd conduct with three minor children.
Ochoa-Perez has served as an assistant pastor at St. Francis Solano Catholic Church in Sonoma, but law enforcement authorities said Thursday that his whereabouts were unknown.
PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star
For some people, the recommendation of the special panel of prosecutors looking into the rape charges filed against Fr. Jose Belciña was a case of playing it safe, or of giving both sides something to go home with.
The priest got what he wanted, the rape cases were dropped; and it wasn’t a complete loss for the accuser, a child abuse case was recommended.
Or Belciña’s joy was not total, as was the girl’s grief.
The problem with a half-win, half-loss recommendation, however, is that it satisfies nobody, thus the possibility that both sides will end up filing appeals.
CLAYTON (CA)
Sacramento Bee
The Associated Press
Last Updated 9:25 am PDT Thursday, June 22, 2006
CLAYTON, Calif. (AP) - Pressed by his bishop and public protests, an Episcopal priest is leaving the clergy over a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl decades ago.
The Rev. John Bennison, 58, of St. John's parish in Clayton near San Francisco, who is married with two children, admitted to the past sexual relationship while serving in the Los Angeles Diocese.
A 1993 church investigation said the relationship lasted four years and was one of several alleged affairs. Church documents said Bennison brought the teen to bed with him and his first wife. Bennison never faced criminal charges.
HARTFORD (CT)
The Inquirer
By Reggie Hales
Jun 22nd, 2006
(Hartford) - Detectives of the Hartford Police Department's Juvenile Investigative Division today arrested Modesto Reyes, 52, of Ellsworth Street, Hartford, for the sexual assault of a eleven year old female. Reyes is a Pastor at the Iglesia De Dios "Cristo Te Llama" church at 889 Broad Street, Hartford. On May 22, 2006 Hartford Police Officers responded to a complaint of a juvenile sexual assault that allegedly occurred several times inside the church located at 889 Broad Street. Information obtained by Detective Cheryl Gogins of the HPD's Juvenile Investigative Division confirmed a female victim at full term pregnancy that gave birth on May 24, 2006.
HARTFORD (CT)
News Times
HARTFORD (AP) _ A city pastor has been charged with sexually assaulting and impregnating an 11-year-old girl in his church, police said.
Modesto Reyes, 52, was arrested Wednesday at his Hartford home. He was charged with four counts each of first-degree sexual assault, second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor.
Reyes is accused of raping the girl several times inside the Inglesia De Dios Cristo Te Llama church, where he is the pastor, police said.
The girl, who is now 12, gave birth in May and DNA testing confirmed that Reyes is the child's biological father, police said.
HARTFORD (CT)
Hartford Courant
June 23, 2006
By CAROLYN MOREAU, Courant Staff Writer
A Hartford pastor was charged with raping an 11-year-old girl, who gave birth to the man's child in May, city police said Thursday.
Police said that the rapes took place in his church at 889 Broad St. and that they are looking for other possible victims.
Modesto Reyes of 28-30 Ellsworth St. was arrested at his home Wednesday and charged with four counts of first-degree sexual assault, four counts of second-degree sexual assault, and four counts of risk of injury to a minor. Police said he was in custody Thursday, with bail set at $750,000.
Police said they learned of the rapes two days before the girl, now 12, gave birth to a baby on May 24 after a full-term pregnancy. DNA tests confirmed that Reyes, 52, is the father of the baby, police said.
SONOMA (CA)
The Press-Democrat
By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Ten felony child sex abuse charges were filed Thursday against the Rev. Xavier Ochoa, a Sonoma priest who authorities believe has fled the country.
The felonies and a single misdemeanor charge involve lewd conduct with three minors, including forcible sodomy and forcible oral copulation, the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office said.
"The charges speak very loudly," District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua said. "We take this as a very serious matter."
In other developments Thursday:
John Gallagher, a former county prosecutor and judge and the father of a church sex abuse victim, called for the prosecution of Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel Walsh for failing to report Ochoa's alleged misconduct in a timely manner.
"I think it's time we held the bishops accountable," he said.
Leaders of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a national victims advocacy group known as SNAP, called on Walsh to visit Ochoa's parish in Sonoma this weekend and to urge anyone with information about Ochoa to contact police.
NEW YORK
The Saratogian
06/22/2006
The Legislature took an important step forward in public protection by agreeing late Tuesday night to a compromise bill that will expand the state DNA databank and eliminate the five-year statute of limitations on rape. These steps will help bring law enforcement into the 21st century as well as put the emphasis where it belongs - on victims' rights.
The move follows a contentious series of haggles throughout the legislative session between the Senate and Assembly and represents a compromise hammered out between two versions of the same basic measures.
Ending the statute of limitations on sexual assault is a long-overdue no-brainer. There's no end to the suffering for victims of rape and other violent crimes. To deny them justice because the clock runs out is an inexcusable insult. Letting the criminals slither away to seek new victims is unthinkable.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
By GLORIA CAMPISI
campisg@phillynews.com 215-854-5935
A priest who once ran two archdiocesan high schools has been removed from the priesthood by the Vatican in the wake of the Catholic church sex-abuse scandal.
The archdiocse announced yesterday that the Vatican had granted the request of Craig Brugger, whose last post was as pastor of St. Helena's in Olney, to leave the priesthood.
Brugger was one of 63 priests that a city grand jury last year said had abused hundreds of children going back decades.
None could be prosecuted because the statute of limitations on the crimes had expired, the grand jury said. It recommended changes in the statute, a state law, to permit victims to press charges after reaching adulthood.
OHIO
Dayton Daily News
By Ben Sutherly
Staff Writer
Civil lawsuits seeking compensation for alleged child abuse by Catholic priests decades ago in the Dayton area are being withdrawn following a recent Ohio Supreme Court ruling that such suits must be filed before the victim turns 20.
The Supreme Court, in a 5-2 ruling May 31, reversed a state appeals court ruling that had revived a case involving a former parishioner of St. Michael Church in Fort Loramie.
The alleged victim claimed the Rev. Thomas Hopp molested him from 1980 to 1983 between the ages of 12 and 15.
The lawsuit was filed in Shelby County in March 2004, when the alleged victim was 36.
STATEN ISLAND (NY)
Staten Island Advance
Thursday, June 22, 2006
By LESLIE PALMA-SIMONCEK
ADVANCE RELIGION EDITOR
A priest from St. Patrick's R.C. Church has been removed from ministry after a 17-year-old boy, now 18, alleged the priest touched him inappropriately in January.
The Rev. Christopher Pliauplis, 57, an assistant at the Richmond parish who was in charge of the religious education program, denies the allegation.
"I've been accused of something I did not do," he said. "This boy is accusing me falsely."
The teen was one of several high school students who teach religious education classes at St. Patrick's. According to Joseph Sorrentino, attorney for the accuser's family, and Mario Gallucci, the priest's attorney, the boy alleges that on Jan. 18, as they passed each other in a school hallway, Father Pliauplis grabbed his genitals.
The boy and his parents complained to the Archdiocese of New York. Father Pliauplis also was interviewed, and in March was placed on leave and removed from the parish .
NEW YORK
The Journal News
By THE JOURNAL NEWS
STAFF AND PUBLISHED REPORTS
A Roman Catholic priest who spent time in parishes in Nanuet and Carmel has been removed from the ministry after a 17-year-old at a Staten Island church accused the clergyman of inappropriately touching him, according to published reports.
The Staten Island Advance reported yesterday that the Rev. Christopher Pliauplis, 57, who was in charge of the religious education program at St. Patrick's Church, was placed on leave and removed from the parish in March. After a review by the Archdiocese of New York and a recommendation to Cardinal Edward Egan, Pliauplis was told Tuesday that he could no longer present himself as a priest.
Pliauplis' accuser said the priest grabbed his genitals while they passed each other in a school hallway Jan. 18.
CALIFORNIA
Monterey County Herald
By KIM CURTIS
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - The Roman Catholic bishop of Santa Rosa failed to immediately report an admission of child abuse by a priest who has since left the country, authorities said Thursday.
The Rev. Xavier Ochoa was suspended April 28 after admitting an incident of sexual abuse with a 12-year-old boy. Bishop Daniel Walsh didn't notify law enforcement until three days later, giving Ochoa time to flee to Mexico, according to church and law enforcement officials.
The Sonoma County District Attorney's Office on Thursday filed multiple misdemeanor and felony charges, including sodomy, oral copulation and lewd conduct with a minor, according to sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Dennis O'Leary.
It was unlikely that church officials would face criminal charges for the tardy reporting, he said.
PHILIPPINES
Cebu Daily News
By Nilda Gallo, Suzzane Salva-Alueta
Last updated 11:07am (Mla time) 06/23/2006
THE Cebu City prosecutor’s office threw out three rape charges against Fr. Jose “Joey” Belciña.
But because the Danao City priest had sexual relations with the complainant, a parish scholar who was 17 years old at the time, he was held liable for violation of a special law that protects children from abuse.
“We find that there was no force, threat or intimidation when the sexual intercourse happened between them on this day (July 22, 2005),” a panel of three prosecutors said in their June 19 resolution.
Belciña was found liable for violation of Section 5, Article III of Republic Act 7610, the law on Special Protection of Filipino Children.
CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise
By MICHAEL FISHER
The Press-Enterprise
After more than three years of legal wrangling, a judge has set a November trial date for the first of more than 140 clergy abuse lawsuits pending against the Roman Catholic dioceses in San Diego or San Bernardino, attorneys said Thursday.
The lawsuit will be chosen from five San Diego cases released last month for trial, and the remaining four lawsuits are expected be tried in succession afterward, attorneys said.
PENNSYLVANIA
The Mercury
Karin Williams, Special To The Mercury 06/23/2006
PHILADELPHIA -- The Archdiocese of Philadelphia confirmed Thursday that a Catholic priest who served several area churches for decades has been defrocked in response to "a credible accusation of sexual misconduct involving a minor."
Father Craig R. Brugger has been "removed from the clerical state" after the request from the Archdiocese was approved by the Vatican, according to Donna M. Farrell, the Archdiocese’s director of communications.
The Archdiocese made the official announcement about Brugger, 59, in its publication, The Catholic Standard and Times, and in a press release issued Thursday.
Brugger, who was ordained in 1973, was alleged to have abused a 15-year-old boy while he was the pastor of St. Ann’s Church in Phoenixville. He left St. Ann’s in 1976.
CALIFORNIA
KLFY
SAN FRANCISCO A California law enforcement official says the failure of a Roman Catholic bishop to immediately report a priest who admitted to sexually abusing a 12-year-old altar boy gave the priest time to flee to Mexico.
The Reverend Xavier Ochoa (ZAY'-vee-ur OH'-choh-ah) confessed the sexual abuse to Bishop Daniel Walsh, the head of the Santa Rosa Diocese, on April 28th.
Walsh immediately suspended Ochoa, but didn't tell local authorities until three days later.
MISSOURI
Missourinet
by Brent Martin
Survivors of sexual abuse by priests say State Supreme Court rulings give victims a wider window of opportunity to report abuse and rid the priesthood of pedofiles. The Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, is calling on law enforcement to educate the public about the rulings, which allow a greater statute of limitations for cases involving repressed memories.
OAKLAND (CA)
Inside Bay Area
By Jason Dearen, STAFF WRITER
OAKLAND - Just a year after reaching a $56.4 million settlement with 56 childhood sexual abuse survivors, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland is the target of two more sexual-assault lawsuits.
Unlike many of the previous sexual abuse lawsuits that dealt with cases from decades ago, the new suits were filed by two young women who claim they were molested between 2002 and 2004.
The suits allege that a volunteer youth minister at St. Catherine's Parish in Martinez, Ray Valero, 33, sexually abused and molested the high-school-age girls. The alleged victims' names are being withheld to protect their anonymity.
Valero is not an ordained priest, but a volunteer who for years worked with kids in the Martinez Parish.
These new lawsuits raise questions about the rigor and efficacy of new church policies that require fingerprinting and background checks on every worker or volunteer who supervises children.
CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle
Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, June 22, 2006
(06-22) 17:17 PDT SONOMA -- The Sonoma County district attorney's office filed criminal charges today against a 67-year-old Catholic priest in Sonoma on suspicion of molesting three children.
The Rev. Francisco Ochoa-Perez of Sonoma was charged with 10 felonies and one misdemeanor violation involving lewd conduct with three minor children.
Ochoa-Perez has served as an assistant pastor at St. Francis Solano Catholic Church in Sonoma, but law enforcement authorities said today that his whereabouts were unknown.
"He is considered a flight risk," District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua said. "There is information he is in Mexico."
SANTA ROSA (CA)
CBS 5
06/22/06 4:50 PDT
SANTA ROSA (BCN)
The Sonoma County district attorney's office this afternoon prepared a criminal complaint and requested an arrest warrant for a Sonoma priest, Rev. Francisco Xavier Ochoa, for allegedly committing lewd acts against three underage boys.
Ochoa, 67, is believed to be in Mexico since May 4.
The complaint alleges 10 felony offenses and one misdemeanor offense, including forcible sodomy and forcible oral copulation, against three alleged victims between 1988 and the present.
Sonoma County District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua said Ochoa faces life in prison if convicted of the offenses against two or more victims.
Ochoa is the 17th priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa to be accused of sexual abuse.
SPOKANE (WA)
Catholic Sentinel
06/22/2006
A federal judge’s ruling that parishes in the Spokane Diocese are not owned by the bishop could have ramifications that reach to Portland and beyond.
The June 15 decision by U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush overturned U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams’ ruling that the bishop owned parish assets, which then could be sold to pay claims against the diocese by people who say they were abused as minors by priests.
In Portland at the end of last year, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris ruled in a way similar to Williams, saying that the parishes and the archdiocese are not separate. Quackenbush’s opinion has no direct legal effect on Perris’ decision, but could influence the federal court that takes up the Archdiocese of Portland’s appeal.
An alliance of parishioners from western Oregon is elated at the ruling, seeing some hope that their places of worship will not be tallied as part of the bankrupt estate.
CALIFORNIA
The Mercury News
KIM CURTIS
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - The Roman Catholic bishop of Santa Rosa failed to immediately report an admission of child abuse by a priest who has since left the country, authorities said Thursday.
The Rev. Xavier Ochoa was suspended April 28 after admitting an incident of sexual abuse with a 12-year-old boy. Bishop Daniel Walsh didn't notify law enforcement until three days later, giving Ochoa time to flee to Mexico, according to church and law enforcement officials.
The Sonoma County district attorney's office on Thursday filed multiple misdemeanor and felony charges, including sodomy, oral copulation and lewd conduct with a minor, according to sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Dennis O'Leary.
It was unlikely church officials would face criminal charges for the tardy reporting, he said.
DARIEN (CT)
The Darien Times
By Susan Shultz
A Darien schools substitute teacher, who also taught religious education at St. Thomas More Roman Catholic Church, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child in an Internet sting.
In May, a few boys at Middlesex Middle School went to the principal’s office to say that a substitute teacher supervising their class for three days had made them feel uncomfortable.
When principal Debi Boccanfuso asked the boys to explain, they said that during class, the teacher had patted them on the head or shoulder for positive reinforcement. But his hand had lingered a bit too long, and had massaged their scalp or shoulder for a moment. It made the students feel “weird” they said.
Boccanfuso approached the substitute teacher, according to Schools Superintendent Donald Fiftal, and explained he had crossed the line of what was appropriate, and the substitute, Patrick Lombardo, apologized for any misunderstanding.
“He said ‘I’m Italian, I use my hands a lot,’” Fiftal said.
PENNSYLVANIA
New Castle News
By Debbie Wachter Morris
New Castle News
A Slippery Rock Township minister accused of downloading and sending child pornography over the Internet will face trial.
District Judge James Reed yesterday dismissed 11 felony charges against Robert D. Schmidtberger, 51, of Rose Point Road, at his preliminary hearing, but held 187 felonies against the pastor for court.
Schmidtberger has been pastor of the Rose Point Reformed Presbyterian Church for 12 years.
Although Schmidtberger told Reed he is moving to Mercer County, the judge allowed him to be free on his own recognizance, under the condition he no longer is allowed to teach children.
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
CBS 4
(CBS4) CAMBRIDGE The trial of a Catholic priest accused of paying a teenage boy for sex, begins Thursday.
Father Paul William Hurley, 62, of Sandwich is charged with 2 counts of raping a child. It is alleged that Hurley paid the 15 year-old up to $100 on several occasions for sexual favors.
The alleged assaults happened in 1987 and 1988, in the rectory of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Cambridge, where Hurley was assigned at the time.
Prosecutors say Hurley met the boy three years earlier, when he served at Saints Peter and Paul Church in South Boston, where the alleged victim lived.
According to prosecutors, Hurley knew the boy was using the money to buy drugs. In the decades since the alleged abuse, the victim has racked up a criminal record.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Fox News
Thursday, June 22, 2006
LOS ANGELES — The Roman Catholic dioceses of Los Angeles and Orange County have backed away from a promise to conduct fingerprint background checks on anyone working with children, saying they don't want to lose volunteers who are illegal immigrants.
The dioceses had pledged to do the fingerprint background checks as a way to prevent pedophiles from working with children. But church leaders said the background checks could prevent illegal immigrants from volunteering, since they lack government-issued photo IDs, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
Instead, volunteer candidates without photo IDs in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are allowed to give a sworn affidavit stating that they have not been convicted of any crime, officials said. In Orange, they can provide a sworn affidavit and two character reference letters.
PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star
By Karlon N. Rama
With Jujemay G. Awit
CEBU CITY -- The special panel tasked to conduct the preliminary investigation on the rape charges filed against Fr. Jose Belciña has dropped all counts, citing the lack of evidence.
But, said the panel, there is enough evidence that he had consensual sex with the underaged complainant at least once and, thus, violated the child abuse law.
It resolved to charge Belciña before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Danao City, where the priest's parish is.
Republic Act 7610, the Special Protection of Children Act, provides a prison term of 12 to 20 years for those found guilty.
CALIFORNIA
The Press Democrat
By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel Walsh failed to file a timely report with authorities about possible child abuse by a priest who may have used the delay to flee the country, officials said Wednesday.
New details of serious sexual misconduct allegations against the Rev. Xavier Ochoa, 67, also emerged Wednesday, and authorities are expected to decide today whether to file charges against the priest.
Ochoa, who most recently was assistant pastor at St. Francis Solano Parish in Sonoma, is believed to be in Mexico.
A chronology of the case shows Ochoa hastily left town between the time he admitted misconduct to Walsh and three other priests and the delivery three days later of the church attorney's report to civil authorities.
The failure to file a more immediate report appears to violate state law, as well as the diocese's well-publicized policy for quickly handling complaints of sexual abuse.