AUSTRALIA
The Australian
Kevin Meade
November 01, 2006
THE father of a teenage boy who was sexually molested by an Anglican priest complained to church authorities in 1976, but the pedophile was forgiven and later employed at Brisbane's prestigious "Churchie" school, where he taught until 2002.
Details of the church cover-up emerged in the Brisbane District Court yesterday after the priest, Robert Francis Sharwood, pleaded guilty to seven charges of indecently assaulting the boy, who was 13 when the two-year sexual molestation started.
The court heard that when the victim, now 46, complained to the police in 2003, he was influenced by the revelations of the Toowoomba sex abuse trial that led to the resignation of former Anglican archbishop of Brisbane Peter Hollingworth as governor-general.
Sharwood, 62, pleaded not guilty yesterday to five other charges including sodomy, gross indecency and indecent assault. His trial on those charges began yesterday. Prosecutor Ron Swanwick said Sharwood and his victim, now a university lecturer, had hundreds of sexual encounters between 1974 and 1976.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Gazette
By: Gregg Hennigan - The Gazette
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, will cut its budget by 7.6 percent and is seeking donations to help pay for the installation ceremony of its new bishop, according to the diocese newspaper.
The Catholic Messenger reported the diocese is looking for ways to cut $276,000 from its $3.64 million budget because of the bankruptcy filing.
The newspaper also reported that parishes will take up second collections during Masses on two weekends in November to help pay for the installation ceremony of the new bishop. All diocese priests are also being asked to contribute to the event.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
IT has taken Pope Benedict XVI a full calendar year to comment on the Ferns Report that published shocking details of child sex abuses or alleged abuses by 26 priests in the small Wexford diocese.
While the Pope's belated act of contrition and expression of personal hurt are to be welcomed, his statement of regret has not been accompanied by a firm purpose of amendment.
This is in part due to the indirect manner of the Pope's remarks to the Irish public - made through a press statement issued some hours after the new Bishop of Ferns, Denis Brennan, had met the Pontiff at a private audience in the Vatican.
While Bishop Brennan's well-meaning press release was designed to restore confidence in the local clergy and laity, its pious tone does not convey any real insight into the policies being pursued by the Pope to eradicate the scourge of priestly rape of children in Church care.
TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By MARK REITER
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Osowik yesterday denied convicted murderer Gerald Robinson's request to be released from a state prison while the appeal of his conviction for killing a nun in 1980 works its way through the courts.
Judge Osowik flatly rejected the motion of Robinson's attorney, John Donahue, who asked that the 68-year-old priest be released on a $250,000 property bond. The ruling stems from a motion that Mr. Donahue filed two weeks ago questioning the circumstantial evidence and testimony that jurors considered to convict Robinson on May 11 for the murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.
The request from the attorney included an affidavit by Robinson, who swore under oath that he didn't kill the 71-year-old nun April 5, 1980, the day before Easter, in the chapel at the former Mercy Hospital near downtown Toledo. She was preparing the chapel for the Holy Saturday vigil services that were scheduled to be celebrated later that day.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
From Times staff and wire reports
October 31, 2006
A 61-year-old Catholic monk was sentenced Monday to five years in federal prison after admitting that he used the Internet to solicit sex from children.
Earl John Place was living in a Mexico City monastery when he tried to get what he thought was a 13-year-old boy from the U.S. to come to Mexico for sex. The "boy" was an undercover agent from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
VATICAN CITY
Zenit
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 30, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The primate of all Ireland thanked Benedict XVI for his continuing support in seeking to bring healing to those affected by the painful tragedy of child abuse.
"Holy Father," said Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh, "no issue has received more time or attention from the Irish episcopal conference than the agonizing problem of responding to those who have had their trust betrayed, their lives devastated and often their faith destroyed by sexual abuse inflicted on them by some priests and religious."
He continued: "This abuse has been a source of great scandal and discouragement to the whole Catholic community, including a great majority of priests and religious who continue to strive to lives of holiness and selfless service in the name of the Lord."
MISSOURI
Neosho Daily News
By John Ford / Daily News Associate Editor
Published: Monday, October 30, 2006 4:58 PM CST
Trial for George Otis Johnson, the Granby pastor facing 17 felony sexual abuse counts in Newton County, could move as far away as Sikeston or St. Joseph.
During a pre-trial conference today before Circuit Court Judge Timothy Perigo, defense attorney Andy Wood asked for a change of venue with a 200-mile minimum distance from Newton County. The change of venue was automatically granted in accordance with the Missouri Supreme Court, said Perigo.
Wood requested the distance stipulation because of publicity in the case, which has garnered national and international attention.
“The court is aware of the case,” Wood said. “We would like to have a fair and impartial jury.”
WOODHULL (NY)
Star-Gazette
By Larry Wilson
lwilson@stargazette.com
Star-Gazette Corning Bureau
October 31, 2006
WOODHULL -- David J. Troup, pastor of the Borden Baptist Church, has been jailed on felony sexual abuse charges.
State police from Painted Post arrested the 39-year-old Troup, who lives in Painted Post, on Saturday evening following an investigation that lasted less than a week.
Investigator Curt Eaton said the investigation began last week after state police received a report from the New York Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment in Albany.
Eaton declined to say whether the children reported the alleged incidents to their parents or to other adults.
WOODHULL (NY)
WCAX
WOODHULL, N.Y. A Baptist pastor has been accused of sexually abusing two boys under the age of eleven.
Thirty-nine-year-old David Troup leads the Borden Baptist Church in Woodhull, about 75 miles south of Rochester. He was arrested this weekend and charged with felony sexual abuse.
VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI said priestly sexual abuse of minors was a "heart-rending" tragedy that requires an effort of purification by the church.
Addressing Ireland's bishops at the Vatican Oct. 28, the pope encouraged them to establish the truth of past sex abuse cases, take steps to prevent future crimes and bring healing to the victims.
"The wounds caused by such acts run deep, and it is an urgent task to rebuild confidence and trust where these have been damaged," the pope said.
AUSTRALIA
The Sydney Morning Herald
October 31, 2006 - 6:39PM
A passion for music evolved into a relationship involving hundreds of sexual encounters between an Anglican priest and a teenage boy more than 30 years ago, a court has heard.
Robert Francis Sharwood, 62, of Brisbane, faced the Brisbane District Court on 12 sexual assault charges alleged to have occurred between January, 1974, and March, 1976, while he was an assistant curate at a parish in Brisbane's south-west.
Sharwood has pleaded guilty to seven of the charges but a jury is set to determine whether he is guilty of the remaining five, including one count of carnal knowledge and two counts of indecent assault.
The court was told the complainant, now 46 and who cannot be named, was only 13 and a young parishioner who played the organ at the parish when the inappropriate relationship started.
BORDEN (NY)
Star-Gazette
Star-Gazette
October 30, 2006
State Police in Painted Post have arrested David J. Troup, 39, the pastor of Borden Baptist Church, on two counts of sexual abuse.
Police said an investigation revealed that Troup, of Painted Post, subjected two children less than 11 years old, to sexual contact.
Troup was arraigned in Erwin Town Court and remanded to Steuben County Jail on $10,000 cash or $20,000 property bond bail on each charge.
FLORIDA
Irish Independent
HE has been accused of spending millions of dollars of church funds on girlfriends, gambling and holidays.
But Fr Francis Guinan's love for the trappings of wealth shows no sign of abating.
The Offaly-born priest, one of two Irish clerics accused of stealing $8.6m from a church in Florida, returned to America from a month-long holiday cruise in Australia last week to finally face charges.
But the lawyer he has hired to defend him won't come cheap. David Roth is considered the best criminal defence lawyer in Florida, and the man whom the wealthy go to when there is trouble and bad publicity.
VATICAN
Independent Catholic News
On Saturday, Pope Benedict delivered the following address to the Irish Bishop at the start of their ad Limina visit to Rome..
Dear Brother Bishops,
In the words of a traditional Irish greeting, a hundred thousand welcomes to you, the Bishops of Ireland, on the occasion of your ad Limina visit. As you venerate the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul, may you draw inspiration from the courage and vision of these two great saints, who so faithfully led the way in the Church's mission of proclaiming Christ to the world. ...
In the exercise of your pastoral ministry, you have had to respond in recent years to many heart-rending cases of sexual abuse of minors. These are all the more tragic when the abuser is a cleric. The wounds caused by such acts run deep, and it is an urgent task to rebuild confidence and trust where these have been damaged. In your continuing efforts to deal effectively with this problem, it is important to establish the truth of what happened in the past, to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent it from occurring again, to ensure that the principles of justice are fully respected and, above all, to bring healing to the victims and to all those affected by these egregious crimes.
UNITED STATES
The Universe
Posted on October 30, 2006
By The Universe: US bishops will vote next month on a proposal to release one-third of the money earmarked to study the causes of clergy sexual abuse of minors in this country.
Bishops accepted a proposal from by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice to conduct the study last November. If the proposal is accepted, $335,000 will be used to underwrite the first three segments of the research.
The first part of the study will look at the historical context and influences on the problem, while the second component will focus on Church response to cases of sexual abuse.
LONG ISLAND (NY)
Newsday
BY BRANDON BAIN
Newsday Staff Writer
October 30, 2006
Many Long Island Catholics were pleased with Pope Benedict XVI's remarks in which he called clerical sex abuse cases in the Catholic Church "egregious crimes" that had damaged the church.
"I'm glad he decided to come out to address this," said Al Basile, who with his wife, Mary Ann, was on their way to celebrate Mass at St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre yesterday.
Others said it was long overdue.
"It's about time," said Jeffrey Grant, who had just attended Mass.
In an attempt to "rebuild confidence and trust," Benedict, who has rarely spoken openly about sex abuse cases, on Saturday addressed a group of bishops from Ireland.
VATICAN
Dominican Today
THE VATICAN.- Pope Benedict XVI requested yesterday that the principles of justice are respected and help for the victims in a case involving a pederast priest.
He made the request at the meeting he held with a group of Irish Bishops who are visiting the Vatican.
Benedict XVI explained that the cases of abuse "are still more tragic when the culprit is a man of the church" and insisted that "the principles of justice be totally respected and, most importantly, that support be provided to the victims and all those that have been affected by these enormous crimes".
MALTA
di-ve news
by Andrew Galea, di-ve news (drew_g@di-ve.com)
GOZO, Malta (di-ve news)-- October 29, 2006 -- 1630CET--The Gozitan priest accused of sexually abusing underage boys will be called to Miami to give testimony in court once the case goes to trial.
The legal team representing an unnamed 41-year-old man who has filed a $10 million civil lawsuit against the Miami Archdiocese has confirmed its intentions to call Fr. Mercieca to the witness stand.
The lawsuit charges the Miami Archdiocese with negligence in allowing Fr. Mercieca to have had "unfettered" contact with young boys despite having a "history of sexual perversity and inappropriate contact with children".
The plaintiff claims Fr. Mercieca lured him to the top of the church's bell tower as a 12- to 13-year-old altar boy, and performed oral sex on him despite protestations from the boy.
AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now
COLIN JAMES
October 29, 2006 11:15pm
ANGLICAN priests "silenced, bullied or threatened" when they tried to report child sex abuse have received a public apology.
The annual Synod of the Diocese of Adelaide has endorsed a report urging it to "acknowledge and apologise for the distress experienced by some clergy who attempted to report abuse in the past and were silenced, bullied or threatened".
The apology was among measures approved by Synod at the weekend to overhaul the church's handling of child sex abuse allegations, including the adoption of a new code of conduct for priests, church officials and church workers.
The strategy - developed over 12 months by a special working party - included the introduction of mandatory reporting of child abuse to church and welfare authorities.
Archbishop Jeffrey Driver yesterday described the measures as "one of the best models for best practice in professional conduct of any diocese in Australia".
VATICAN CITY
The Australian
Natasha Bita, Florence
October 30, 2006
POPE Benedict XVI has told Catholic leaders to stamp out clerical pedophilia and uncover the truth behind claims of past sexual abuse in the church.
In his first public criticism of clerical abuse since his election as Pope last year, the German-born Pontiff said the "egregious crimes" caused deep wounds.
Bishops must find out the truth, seek justice and do whatever was necessary to prevent abuse happening again, he said.
"In the exercise of your pastoral ministry, you have had to respond in recent years to many heart-rending cases of sexual abuse of minors," the Pope told a group of Irish bishops visiting the Vatican at the weekend.
IRELAND
One in Four
Daily Mirror
Fury as pontiff refuses to say sorry over the Ferns child abuse scandal
Top child protection activist Colm O’Gorman has slammed Pope Benedict XVI for filing to apologise for the Ferns sex abuse scandal
The Pontiff expressed his regret and horror at the systematic abuse of children in the Ferns Diocese of Co Wexford.
But he refused to say sorry to the children who were tortured and also failed to implement measures to prevent similar things from happening again.
IRELAND
One in Four
The Irish Times
The following is the full text of the statement issued yesterday by Fr John Carroll, Diocese of Ferns communications office director.
Today, Thursday October 26th, 2006, as part of the procedure of the visit of the Irish Episcopal Conference Ad limina apostolorum, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, received in audience the Most Reverend Denis Brennan, Bishop of Ferns.
The Holy Father expressed to Bishop Brennan his deep sorrow and distress at the suffering endured by the victims of child sexual abuse involving some priests of the Diocese of Ferns.
TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
Retired Catholic priest Gerald Robinson’s recent sworn statement that he did not kill Sister Margaret Ann Pahl did not impress two of the jurors who convicted him of her murder.
If Robinson were innocent, why didn’t the priest — in a videotaped interrogation shown in court — or any of his four attorneys say so during the trial, asked two jurors in an interview with The Blade.
Beth Como, 53, of Holland, the jury foreman, and Cathy Shrader, 59, of Toledo, were among the 12 jurors who found the 68-year-old Roman Catholic priest guilty of murder in the 1980 slaying of Sister Margaret Ann.
The 71-year-old Sister of Mercy nun was strangled, then stabbed 31 times in the sacristy of Mercy Hospital on April 5, 1980.
The Lucas County Common Pleas Court jury announced its verdict on May 11, just over six hours after deliberations began. After the trial ended, the jury decided as a group not to talk about the case with the media, which included national publications, television, and cable networks.
MALTA
The Malta Independent
by Charles Flores
I doubt whether there would have been such neighbourly solidarity, even within the minuscule community of Gozo, with the Rev. Anthony Mercieca had he not been a priest. As a normal individual admitting to abusing a minor as far back as the 1960s would have meant instant condemnation, swift legal proceedings and the inevitable stigma on the rest of his family and loved ones.
In fact, the Mercieca case came to the fore very much at the same time that our Law Courts were trying a no less delicate case involving two brothers and minors entrusted to their care. Not only have the brothers received lengthy prison sentences, but there was a general feeling of repugnance, and rightly so. An individual’s sexuality is strictly his private business, but when involves children and/or adolescents, there hardly remains any place for compassion.
Over the past 10 years, a large number of paedophile cases involving priests, monks, nuns and members of strict religious organisations have surfaced all over the world, from Ireland to Australia, Central Europe to the United States, putting the Vatican in such a quandary as to provoke it into committing several glaring mistakes of both omission and shocking nonchalance. It is an accepted fact that even the present Pope is on record as having swept certain notorious cases under the convenient carpet in the not so distant past.
MALTA
The Malta Independent
by Daphne Caruana Galizia
Fr Anthony Mercieca, the priest at the centre of the Mark Foley storm, told American reporters that he had been naked in a sauna with 13-year-old Foley, massaged him, gone skinny-dipping with him, slept naked in the same room with him on overnight trips, “taught him some wrong things about sex”, fondled him, and even, on one night, might have gone further, but he doesn’t remember because he was on tranquillisers and alcohol at the time because he had a nervous breakdown, and the whole thing is a blur. Then he said that the relationship wasn’t sexual, because there wasn’t any penetration. “It was just fondling,” he told WPTV of West Palm Beach, Florida. The last person to make that kind of distinction to the US media was Bill Clinton, who infamously said of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky: “I did not have sex with that woman.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Sunday Mirror
By Sarah Arnold And Amy Nelmes
IN his starched dog collar and formal cassock, the Reverend Alastair Kendall was the very picture of propriety.
Over tea and biscuits, he mingled with his parishioners after preaching on how to be a good Christian.
But there was one of the Ten Commandments he couldn't keep himself: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife.
For while married Rev Kendall, 51, appeared pious to the congregation, one member of his close-knit flock has a very different story to tell.
Worshipper Marie Perrett claims the vicar seduced her and would whisper at church meetings: "Can't wait to get back to yours later."
PENNSYLVANIA
The Virginian-Pilot
By MICHELLE WASHINGTON, The Virginian-Pilot
October 29, 2006
A former minister whose child sexual abuse convictions were overturned on appeal will stand trial again in Pennsylvania beginning Monday.
His neighbors in Norfolk are angry that the retrial took so long.
Lane C. Hurley, the former minister of First Christian Church in Ghent, faces charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault and corruption of the morals of a minor. The trial will take place in Carlisle, Pa., where he is accused of molesting his niece during the summer of 1997, when she was 10.
Hurley was convicted of the crimes in 2003, but a Pennsylvania court granted him a new trial on grounds that his lawyer did not effectively represent him. Hurley has maintained his innocence.
AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now
October 28, 2006 11:15pm
ADELAIDE'S Anglican Archbishop says a levy to cover $5 million in sex-abuse claims will hurt small parishes.
The church will hit its parishes with a 1 per cent levy each year for 10 years to meet claims against priests, church officials and church workers.
In a majority vote at its annual conference yesterday, the church's synod endorsed the levy as part of a 10-year strategy to rebuild its finances.
Archbishop Jeffrey Driver said there had been almost unanimous support for the levy, even from those parishes struggling to survive.
"It was a strong indication of the synod's strong goodwill towards its responsibilities to survivors (of sexual abuse)," he said.
TERRE HAUTE (IN)
The Tribune-Star
By Stephanie Salter
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE — “He seemed to like it, you know? So it was sort of more like a spontaneous thing … See, abuse, it’s a bad word, you know, because abuse, you abuse someone against his will. But it involved just spontaneousness, you know?”
— The Rev. Anthony Mercieca on nude massages and “fondling” former Rep. Mark Foley when Foley was an altar boy
Before the bullet-train blur that is today’s news cycle passes, can we take just a few minutes to study the Rev. Anthony Mercieca and his role in the life of a now-disgraced United States congressman from Florida?
This isn’t about Republican and Democratic party politics. It’s about betrayal, denial, the insidiousness of the sex abuse of minors and one of the darkest chapters in the 2,000-year existence of the Catholic Church.
Mercieca may now be retired to a remote island off Malta in the Mediterranean Sea, but — until last week when he spoke openly with the news media about what he did with and to the adolescent Foley — he was a functioning priest, saying Mass and hearing confessions.
To read his admissions and his insistence that he did nothing wrong, is to question one’s ability to comprehend English.
VATICAN CITY
Ottawa Sun
Sun, October 29, 2006
By AP
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI said yesterday that the church must urgently rebuild confidence and trust damaged by clerical sex abuse scandals, which have created deep wounds.
The pope made the remarks to a group of visiting bishops from Ireland, an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation where the church has been damaged by sex abuse scandals over the past decade.
"You have had to respond in recent years to many heart-rending cases of sexual abuse of minors," the pontiff told the bishops. "These are all the more tragic when the abuser is a cleric."
VATICAN CITY
EuroNews
The Pope - in a meeting with Irish bishops in the Vatican - has said the wounds from sexual abuse in the Irish Church "run deep". He told the bishops that they should prevent repeat offences and rebuild trust. Revelations in Ireland in the 1990s of systematic sexual abuse by priests over decades shattered faith in the Church.
"In the exercise of your pastoral ministry, you have had to respond in recent years to many heart-rending cases of sexual abuse of minors. These are all the more tragic when the abuser is a cleric. The wounds caused by such acts run deep," said the Pope.
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer
By David O'Reilly
Inquirer Staff Writer
Episcopal Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. is used to church conservatives' denouncing him as a "false teacher" and a "heretic" because of his liberal views on gay clergy, gay marriage and Scripture.
Now moderates and fellow liberals in his five-county, 55,000-member Diocese of Pennsylvania are taking the gloves off, too.
Saying they are frustrated with his financial practices and "imperious" management style, some clergy and lay leaders are seeking to oust the 62-year-old bishop with evidence that he concealed his brother's sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl more than 30 years ago.
The abuse occurred under Bennison's watch; his brother, John, served as youth director of the California parish where Charles Bennison was rector.
MALTA
The Malta Independent
The Gozitan priest embroiled in accusations of sexual abuse involving underage boys will be called to Miami to give testimony in court, once the case goes to trial.
Speaking to The Malta Independent on Sunday, the legal team representing an unnamed 41-year-old man who has filed a
$10 million civil lawsuit against the Miami Archdiocese has confirmed its intentions to call Fr Mercieca to the witness stand.
The lawsuit charges the Miami Archdiocese with negligence in allowing Fr Mercieca to have had “unfettered” contact with young boys despite having a “history of sexual perversity and inappropriate contact with children”.
VATICAN CITY
The Mercury News
By Alessandra Rizzo
Associated Press
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that clerical sex abuses were ``egregious crimes'' that had damaged the standing of the Catholic Church and its clergy, in his first explicit remarks on the subject since becoming pontiff.
Speaking to a group of bishops from Ireland -- an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country where all but one seminary has closed after repeated scandals -- Benedict said it was urgent ``to rebuild confidence and trust.''
``In the exercise of your pastoral ministry, you have had to respond in recent years to many heart-rending cases of sexual abuse of minors,'' the pontiff told the bishops. ``These are all the more tragic when the abuser is a cleric.''
``The wounds caused by such acts run deep,'' Benedict said.
NEW JERSEY
NorthJersey.com
Sunday, October 29, 2006
By DAVID A. MICHAELS
STAFF WRITER
Its name means universal, and yet critics charge the Catholic Church is losing followers in the United States because it isn't inclusive enough.
Outraged by the sexual-abuse scandals and chafed by the church's unwillingness to amend some traditional positions, many Catholics have given up on their church. But some still feel tied to the rituals and practices they grew up with, and have responded by forming their own churches that operate outside the bounds of Rome.
"We are church with a small 'c,' " said Mary Anne Nugent, a retired librarian from Suffern N.Y. whose group, Spirit Rising, celebrating its Mass in different locations around Bergen County. "We are past wanting to reform the church, but we love the faith. So the motivation is just to gather together and pray in a way that fits our mind-set."
Spirit Rising grew out of a women's book club focused on spirituality, Nugent said, and does not publicize its meetings. But other organizations, some started by former priests, have become sizable organizations frequented by people who feel alienated by Catholic doctrine, such as gays, lesbians and divorced people.
Some of these underground churches, as some experts call them, aired their ideas Saturday at a conference in Whippany called "Imagining New Ways of Being Catholic." It was sponsored by Voice of the Faithful, a reform-minded group that has attracted the ire of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark.
MALTA
Malta Independent
The Gozitan priest, claimed by two people to have sexually molested them, described the “aggressive and unfavourable” exposure he is getting as “unfair and unjustified” yesterday.
The priest, Fr Anthony Mercieca, said this on Thursday night in a two-
paragraph statement signed by his Gozitan lawyer, Dr Alfred Grech.
The statement read: “In the wake of the onslaught of accusations levelled against him, Rev. Fr Anthony Mercieca believes that nothing that had happened between him and Mark Foley, some 40 years ago, could provide solid grounds for legal action against him. He therefore considers the aggressive and unfavourable exposure as being unfair and unjustified.”
ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union
By CAROL DeMARE, Staff writer
First published: Saturday, October 28, 2006
ALBANY -- A California priest is suing the Albany Diocese's mediation panel, alleging the agency set up to help victims of clergy sex abuse fraudulently claimed it was independent of the diocese.
The Rev. Mark Jaufman is seeking $2 million in his federal court action filed this week on his behalf and that of other unnamed victims. The suit targets the Independent Mediation Assistance Program, or IMAP.
In his court papers, Jaufman, who had previously announced that as a boy he was abused by a parish priest, said he discussed his situation with IMAP representatives. The panel's investigation of his case has been going on for about a year, he has not been compensated, and he is "disappointed and frustrated," his attorney, John Aretakis, said Friday.
IMAP is headed by retired Court of Appeals Judge Howard Levine and administered by the Albany law firm of Whiteman, Osterman and Hanna, of which Levine is a senior counsel.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
October 28, 2006
An unintended consequence of the Diocese of Davenport's bankruptcy is that the Catholic sisters who live next door to the chancery may have to pay more to lease the land on which their convent was built.
The Congregation of the Humility of Mary has filed papers in federal bankruptcy court stating that it has an interest in the outcome of the diocese's bankruptcy.
The congregation's Davenport convent at 820 W. Central Park Ave. was built in 1982 "on land leased from the Davenport Diocese," according to Lisa Bellomy, communications director for the community.
The sisters have a 99-year lease on the lot for their Humility of Mary Center, according to Richard Davidson, attorney for the diocese.
VATICAN
RTE News
28 October 2006 12:48
The Catholic Primate, Archbishop Sean Brady, has invited Pope Benedict to visit Ireland.
He issued his invitation during a meeting this morning between the Irish Hierarchy and the Pontiff.
In his response, Pope Benedict did not refer directly to the invitation but expressed his appreciation for Archbishop Brady's gracious words.
The Pope told the Irish bishops they face an urgent task to rebuild confidence and trust in the wake of the clerical sexual abuse scandals.
VATICAN CITY
WTOP
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that the church must urgently rebuild confidence and trust damaged by clerical sex abuse scandals, which have created deep wounds.
The pope made the remarks to a group of visiting bishops from Ireland, an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation where the church has been damaged by sex abuse scandals over the past decade.
"In the exercise of your pastoral ministry, you have had to respond in recent years to many heart-rending cases of sexual abuse of minors," the pontiff told the bishops. "These are all the more tragic when the abuser is a cleric."
"The wounds caused by such acts run deep, and it is an urgent task to rebuild confidence and trust where these have been damaged," Benedict said.
VATICAN
Kath.net
„I am pleased to learn that many of your dioceses have adopted the practice of silent prayer for vocations before the Blessed Sacrament.“ Pope Benedict XVI. to Irish Bishops.
Dear Brother Bishops,
In the words of a traditional Irish greeting, a hundred thousand welcomes to you, the Bishops of Ireland, on the occasion of your ad Limina visit. As you venerate the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul, may you draw inspiration from the courage and vision of these two great saints, who so faithfully led the way in the Church’s mission of proclaiming Christ to the world. ...
In the exercise of your pastoral ministry, you have had to respond in recent years to many heart-rending cases of sexual abuse of minors. These are all the more tragic when the abuser is a cleric. The wounds caused by such acts run deep, and it is an urgent task to rebuild confidence and trust where these have been damaged. In your continuing efforts to deal effectively with this problem, it is important to establish the truth of what happened in the past, to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent it from occurring again, to ensure that the principles of justice are fully respected and, above all, to bring healing to the victims and to all those affected by these egregious crimes. In this way, the Church in Ireland will grow stronger and be ever more capable of giving witness to the redemptive power of the Cross of Christ. I pray that by the grace of the Holy Spirit, this time of purification will enable all God’s people in Ireland to "maintain and perfect in their lives that holiness which they have received from God" (Lumen Gentium, 40).
DECATUR (AL)
WAFF
Oct 27, 2006 11:40 PM EDT
A self-proclaimed pastor is out on bond after being charged with first degree sexual abuse of a child under 12.
32-year-old Victor Young Pickett of Decatur is a man many know as "Pastor P."
Pickett is accused of committing the crime six months ago.
"Back in April, we had a child report to his elementary school teacher that a person he knew as Pastor P. had touched him in an inappropriate manner," says Decatur Police Lieutenant Chris Mathews.
The crime allegedly happened in Pickett's apartment, on 8th Street South West in Decatur.
AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now
COLIN JAMES, LEGAL AFFAIRS EDITOR
October 28, 2006 12:15am
THE Anglican Church in Adelaide faces financial collapse if it cannot raise more money to cover child sex abuse compensation claims, its annual conference has been told.
The Diocese of Adelaide Synod last night heard the church had been forced to borrow $7.5 million to settle claims from victims of abuse committed by priests, church officials and church workers.
A briefing paper prepared for the Synod says the church already had used the loan to settle claims totalling $4.5 million, with more expected to be privately negotiated over the next 18 months.
The yearly cost of servicing the loan would average more than $1.25 million for the next eight years, leaving the church facing annual budget deficits until at least 2015.
CANADA
The B.C. Catholic Newspaper
By DEBORAH GYAPONG
CORNWALL, Ont. (CCN) – At its Oct. 16-20 annual plenary meeting in Cornwall, Ont., the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops came to a decision about its 2007 budget but referred the question of making voluntary sexual abuse guidelines mandatory to the November meeting of its Permanent Council.
“We are in good shape,” said CCCB president Archbishop Andre Gaumond of Sherbrooke in a telephone interview Oct. 23 after the conference had approved a balanced budget for 2007. “It’s really promising. We were very strict on the expenses. We have the results. Let’s hope we can keep on this way.”
The forecast surplus for 2006 is $368,000, while the actual surplus for 2005 is $824,694.
Going on to discuss the abuse guidelines, Archbishop Gaumond said, “It’s not an easy question, it’s very complex.”
DAVENPORT (IA)
Sioux City Journal
Pending lawsuits filed against the Diocese of Davenport by victims of sexual abuse by priests will be put on hold while the diocese goes through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a judge and attorneys say.
District Judge Charles H. Pelton and attorneys representing the victims and former Bishop Lawrence Soens of the Sioux City Diocese agreed at a hearing last Friday that it would be pointless to proceed to trial. The case victim Michael Gould filed against the diocese and Soens was set for trial last Monday.
"It doesn't make sense to us to present this case twice," said Patrick Noaker, one of Gould's attorneys, referring to the possibility of one trial involving Soens and a later trial for the diocese.
KENTUCKY
the Courier-Journal
By Peter Smith
psmith@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
Prosecutors should get the names of living persons accused in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington sexual abuse case -- but not the names of victims or deceased abusers, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled yesterday.
In its unanimous vote, the court overturned part of an order issued by the judge overseeing the case in Boone Circuit Court.
The dispute centered on an order in June by Senior Judge John W. Potter, who oversaw the class-action lawsuit that was settled for $85 million earlier this year by the diocese and about 350 anonymous plaintiffs.
Potter ordered the special master overseeing the settlement fund in June to turn over all of the names involved -- of victims as well as abusers, dead or alive -- and details of the abuse to prosecutors.
WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic Online
10/27/2006
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
WASHINGTON (Catholic Online) – The U.S. bishops will consider a proposal to release about one-third of the $1 million they set aside for research to examine the causes and context of sexual abuse of children and young people by clergy.
The vote on the proposal, set for the bishops’ conference Nov. 13-16 meeting in Baltimore, Md., would release $335,000 to be used to underwrite the first stages of the research by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
Last November, the U.S. bishops approved a proposal from the college for the study, estimated to cost $2-3 million. The study is set to be completed in 2009.
WASHINGTON (DC)
The Pilot
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Catholic who "knowingly and obstinately" rejects "the defined doctrines of the church" or its "definitive teaching on moral issues" should refrain from receiving Communion, according to a document that will come before the U.S. bishops at their Nov. 13-16 fall general meeting in Baltimore.
The document, "'Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper': On Preparing to Receive Christ Worthily in the Eucharist," requires the approval of two-thirds of the members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for passage. ...
"In order to receive holy Communion we must be in communion with God and with the church," the document says. "If we are no longer in a state of grace because of mortal sin, we are seriously obliged to refrain from receiving holy Communion."
Among examples of such sin, the document cites "committing deliberate hatred of others, sexual abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult, or physical or verbal abuse toward one's family members or fellow workers, causing grave physical or psychological harm; murder, abortion or euthanasia."
DAVENPORT (IA)
Gazette
By: Associated Press
DAVENPORT, IA - A federal bankruptcy judge has approved the Davenport diocese's request to keep secret the names of abuse victims during bankruptcy proceedings.
An order filed this week by Judge Lee Jackwig creates a Master Anonymous Claimants List that will include the names of people who say they were abused by priests. Each claimant will be assign a "Doe number" that will be used in future court proceedings.
The list will be filed with the court clerk and sealed. Future claimants will have their names and addresses added to the list and kept confidential.
WASHINGTON (DC)
Zenit
WASHINGTON, D.C., OCT. 27, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The U.S. bishops will vote next month on a proposal to release one-third of the money earmarked to study the causes of clergy sexual abuse of minors in this country.
If the proposal is accepted, $335,000 will be used to underwrite the first three segments of the research, which is being undertaken by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, part of City University of New York.
Last November the bishops accepted a proposal from John Jay for the study, called for by the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, which was passed by the U.S. bishops in 2002.
The study, to be completed in 2009, is expected to cost $3 million. The U.S. bishops have committed $1 million toward it. Further funding is being sought from Catholic and other philanthropic groups.
AUSTRALIA
ABC
Saturday, 28 October 2006.
The Anglican church has endorsed a plan to sell off some of its South Australian assets to help pay compensation to the victims of child sex abuse within the church.
The 2006 session of the church's synod has endorsed a plan to subdivide a portion of the church's Bishop's Court grounds at North Adelaide.
It also voted to sell a Barossa Valley camp site previously used by the Church of England Boys Society.
CALIFORNIA
The New York Times
By NEELA BANERJEE
Published: October 28, 2006
WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and a Catholic religious order have agreed to pay $10 million to settle claims made by seven victims of sexual abuse by clergy members, lawyers for the parties involved said Friday.
While the amount per victim is large relative to payments made to settle sexual abuse cases in other parts of the country, it is typical of the sums paid in California, which has a taken a strong stance toward the Catholic Church in abuse cases. In 2003, for example, the state extended its statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases, and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office has been conducting a criminal investigation into the archdiocese since 2002.
More than 95 percent of the $10 million settlement will be paid by the religious order, the Carmelites, Province of the Most Pure Heart of Mary, which is based in Darien, Ill. The archdiocese will pay less than 5 percent, lawyers for the plaintiffs and the order said.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Press-Telegram
By Solvej Schou, Associated Press
Article Launched:10/27/2006 10:27:26 PM PDT
LOS ANGELES - The Archdiocese of Los Angeles and a Roman Catholic religious order will pay $10 million to several people to settle allegations of clergy sexual abuse, attorneys for those involved in the cases said Friday.
The Carmelite order will pay most of the settlement to seven people, including two who said they were sexually molested at an Encino high school, an attorney for that province of the Carmelite order said Friday. The archdiocese will contribute about 5 percent.
"We were glad to be able to work out a settlement, and we hope this brings peace to the people who are involved," said attorney Jim Geoly, representing the province of Carmelites involved in the lawsuit.
"We're satisfied with the archdiocese's participation. These particular claims involved accusations against Carmelites serving in Carmelite institutions," he said.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
Thirty-two Irish Bishops are meeting the Pontiff in the Vatican this morning for what's being described as the state of the church address.
Pope Benedict will focus on what he believes are the major issues and challenges that the church in Ireland is facing, in particular the issues of child protection and clerical sexual abuse.
The Irish church has over the last number of decades been greatly troubled and scandalised by the level of such abuse.
Irish Catholic reporter in Rome, Michael Kelly, said that one clear message had emerged: "He's very strong on this issue that Church authorities must report abuse to the civil authorities, that child abuse is a crime that should be dealt with by the health authorities and the police and that is something that the Bishops must be aware of.
MALTA
The Times of Malta
Herman Grech
The elderly Gozitan priest at the centre of a sex scandal involving a former US congressman has categorically denied accusations of sexual abuse made by a second American man.
"Regarding the allegations made by Attorney Jeffrey Herman, speaking on behalf of an unidentified person by the name of John Doe (a pen name) No. 26, Fr (Anthony) Mercieca emphatically denies the accusation made against him and describes it at best as a figment of the imagination and at worst as a malicious fabrication," lawyer Alfred Grech said when asked by The Times.
The retired priest, who is in the spotlight after being accused of molesting ex-congressman Mark Foley four decades ago, is facing new allegations of sexual abuse by another former South Florida altar boy.
In the first comments to the press since the accusations surfaced against the 72-year old priest, Dr Grech said:
"In the wake of the onslaught of accusations levelled against him, Fr Anthony Mercieca believes that nothing that had happened between him and Mark Foley, some 40 years ago, could provide solid grounds for legal action against him. He therefore considers the aggressive and unfavourable exposure as being unfair and unjustified."
AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now
October 28, 2006 06:05pm
ADELAIDE'S Anglican parishes will have to pay a one-per-cent levy each year for 10 years to fund outstanding sexual abuse claims.
The levy is expected to raise $55,000 each year from July 2007 and will be imposed on the assessable income in each parish.
It is part of a 10 year financial strategy endorsed by the Diocese of the Adelaide Synod's annual conference at St Peters College on Friday night.
MASSACHUSETTS
Reading Eagle
Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley gets mixed reviews from Peter Manseau.
The archbishop of Boston earns several mentions in Manseau's fascinating nonfiction work, “Vows: The Story of a Priest, a Nun, and Their Son,” about which Manseau talked in Reading earlier this month.
Writing about O'Malley's appointment in 2003 to clean up the clergy sexual-abuse mess, Manseau says that “he was all but sainted by the Boston Globe,” and asserts, “That so venerable a watchdog as the Globe was all too ready to take the O'Malley bait suggests the Catholic Church pulled off its most impressive public relations coup since the Gospels turned a murdered rabbi into a king. ...
“Though the new bishop meant a change of rhetoric and a change of fashion were at hand, for real change, deep change, Catholics in Boston would have to wait.”
DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register
SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
October 27, 2006
A federal bankruptcy judge has approved the Diocese of Davenport’s request to keep secret the names of abuse victims during
bankruptcy proceedings.
Judge Lee M. Jackwig this week ordered that the names of claimants be kept under seal. And as new claims come forward, new names may be added to the list the diocese is compiling.
“We have a list and we are giving each name a number,” said Richard A. Davidson, attorney for the diocese. “The claimants will be referred to by the number rather than their name in bankruptcy court.”
Some of the men who have alleged they were abused by Davenport diocesan priests have sued the diocese using a pseudonym. Those identified as John Doe I through VII were among the 37 claimants who in October 2004 settled with the diocese for $9 million. Since then, more men have come forward and in a lawsuit naming the diocese and retired Sioux City Bishop Lawrence Soens. Among those are 11 identified as John Doe 8 through 18.
DECATUR (AL)
Ledger-Enquirer
Associated Press
DECATUR, Ala. - Authorities arrested a Decatur man, who claimed to be an ordained minister, on charges he molested an elementary school student he was tutoring.
Victor Young Pickett, 32, was booked into the Morgan County Jail and released on $25,000 bond Tuesday. A grand jury indicted Pickett on a charge of first-degree sexual abuse of a child under 12 years old.
"In April a child in elementary school reported to his teacher that he had been inappropriately touched by a man he knew as 'Pastor P.,'" Decatur police Sgt. Terry White said.
Pickett was indicted on sodomy and sexual abuse charges in January 2000, but that case was later dismissed, The Decatur Daily reported Friday.
ITALY
AGI
(AGI) - Rome, Oct.26 - The Re-examination Court must reconsider the release of Father Fedele Bisceglia, the 69 year-old priest investigated for having allegedly raped a nun. The Court of Cassation decided so, thus annulling the release ordered by the Court of Catanzaro. THe Cassation also accepted the request of a Cosenza DA prosecutor, Claudio Currelli, regarding the release of the priest's secretary, Antonio Gaudio, also accused of rape.
Toronto Sun
Fri, October 27, 2006
By LIZ BRAUN, TORONTO SUN
His Eminence, Roger Cardinal Mahony of California, has a large Roman Catholic flock to oversee.
Over the years, that flock has included some 550 priests who molested children -- just one of the jaw-dropping items you learn from journalist Amy Berg, the filmmaker behind the documentary, Deliver Us From Evil.
Berg's devastating film centres on interviews with defrocked priest Oliver O'Grady, a man who abused children in California for 20 years while the Catholic Church moved him from diocese to diocese. The film is about the abuse, the victims, and the cover-up by the church.
DAVENPORT (IA)
WOI
DAVENPORT, Iowa The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport is preparing a list of anonymous claimants that will be kept under seal while the diocese goes through bankruptcy proceedings.
The diocese filed for Chapter 11 earlier this month -- the fourth diocese in the nation to seek financial protection to deal with priest sex abuse cases.
An order filed this week in U-S Bankruptcy Court creates a Master Anonymous Claimants List that will include the individual's name and assign them a "Doe number" -- as in John Doe.
BATON ROUGE (LA)
The Advocate
By ADRIAN ANGELETTE
Advocate staff writer
Published: Oct 27, 2006
Three former altar boys sued the Diocese of Baton Rouge on Thursday, claiming they were molested by a priest in the 1970s.
All three men, along with 11 others who have previously filed suit against the diocese, claim they were molested by former priest Christopher Springer. The diocese has settled lawsuits with six of the former altar boys.
“It’s the same pattern over and over and over again,” said Felecia Peavy, the Houston-based attorney handling the cases for the 14 altar boys. “The number of allegations continues to grow, and I don’t know if we will ever know how many victims are out there.”
In the latest lawsuit against the diocese and Springer, two of the three plaintiffs claim they were molested at the church rectory in New Roads.
MALTA
WHAM
VALLETTA (Reuters) - The Catholic priest accused by former congressman Mark Foley of molesting him as a boy said on Friday the allegations did not constitute a basis for him to be prosecuted.
Anthony Mercieca, who is retired and lives on the Maltese island of Gozo, has admitted in U.S. media interviews that he had encounters with Foley that could be perceived as sexually inappropriate but denied having sex with him.
In a statement issued by his lawyer, Mercieca, 72, said an accusation of molestation by a second man was "at best a figment of the imagination and at worst as a malicious fabrication."
"In the wake of the onslaught of accusations leveled against him, Reverend Father Anthony Mercieca believes that nothing that had happened between him and Mark Foley some 40 years ago could provide solid grounds for legal action against him," lawyer Alfred Grech said.
DECATUR (AL)
The Decatur Daily
By Seth Burkett
DAILY Staff Writer
sburkett@decaturdaily.com · 340-2355
Authorities arrested a man, who claimed to be an ordained minister, this week on charges he molested a child he was tutoring.
“In April a child in elementary school reported to his teacher that he had been inappropriately touched by a man he knew as ‘Pastor P.,’ ” said Decatur police Sgt. Terry White.
White said ‘Pastor P.’ turned out to be Victor Young Pickett, 32, of 217 Eighth St. S.W.
A Morgan County grand jury indicted Pickett this month on a charge of first-degree sexual abuse of a child under 12 years old. ...
Police told THE DAILY in 2000 that detectives performed a six-month investigation into Pickett’s activities that revealed he was running a church out of his apartment, picking up young males to take them to his church and molesting them.
VATICAN
The Irish Times
Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent, in Rome, Martin Wall
Pope Benedict, in the strongest language he has ever used in relation to clerical child sex abuse, has expressed his own "personal anguish and horror" at what happened in the Ferns diocese over a 40-year period from the early 1960s onwards.
He said the "incomprehensible behaviour" of some clergy in Ferns had "devastated human lives and profoundly betrayed the trust of children, young people, their families, parish communities and the entire diocesan family".
Pope Benedict's comments were made public last night by the director of the diocese of Ferns communications office, Fr John Carroll. The pope was speaking during a private audience at the Vatican for the new Bishop of Ferns, Most Rev Denis Brennan, who is accompanying the other Irish Catholic bishops on an ad limina visit to Rome.
The 271-page report of the Ferns inquiry, chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Frank Murphy, was published a year ago. It identified more than 100 allegations of child sexual abuse made between 1962 and 2002 against 26 priests operating under the aegis of the diocese.
AUSTRALIA
The Australian
October 27, 2006
SOME Anglican priests have stopped wearing their collars in public after being abused over revelations about child sex abuse.
Adelaide Archbishop Jeffrey Driver yesterday said he had been "deeply saddened" when he was told priests had been ostracised since details of the abuse emerged three years ago.
"In a sense, they have become the secondary victims of the abuse," he said. "The toll of individuals (within the church) has been high."
The issue of priests not wearing their collars in public surfaced in a report commissioned by the church following the highly-publicised resignation of former Adelaide Archbishop Ian George.
ABC 6
By Tamala Edwards
October 26, 2006 - An unusual documentary film opens on Friday presenting frank confessions of sexual abuse by a former Catholic priest.
Some are already asking is this film healing or hurting to victims of similar abuse?
What Oliver O'Grady confesses in the stunning new film, "Deliver Us From Evil," is that he is a pedophile priest. Over the twenty years the priest spent in Northern California parishes, he raped dozens of children, including a 9-month old infant. Usually these culprits are two-dimensional, made real only in stories of their victims or in court documents.
The Epoch Times
By Ester Molayeme
Special to The Epoch Times Oct 26, 2006
LOS ANGELES Deliver Us From Evil is a remarkable documentary about Father Oliver O'Grady, reportedly the most notorious pedophile in the history of the Catholic Church.
Father O'Grady provided over 20 years of service to the Church in Northern California, time in which he allegedly molested hundreds of children, including a 9 months old infant. In some cases he seduced parents in order to get to their children.
As accusations of molestation arose, the Archdiocese moved Father Oliver O'Grady from parish to parish.
Toronto Star
Oct. 27, 2006. 01:00 AM
PETER HOWELL
MOVIE CRITIC
Amy Berg is a reporter's reporter.
At CBS News, ABC News and CNN, she investigated social ills of every stripe: poverty, pollution, drug abuse, sexual assault, illegal doctors and more. Her dogged quest for truth, often dealing with difficult sources and subjects, has earned her two Emmy Awards.
"I really like doing these investigative pieces," says the Los Angeles filmmaker and former TV producer.
But nothing can top the six years of diligence that led to Deliver Us From Evil, Berg's shocking documentary inquiry into pedophile priests in the Roman Catholic Church. The film opens in Toronto today.
Rocky Mountain News
By Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News
October 27, 2006
Oliver O'Grady wears gray sweaters and seldom seems to raise his voice. Aside from the lilt of his Irish accent, he might as well be a Mr. Rogers stand-in, a kindly-looking soul with an apparently gentle demeanor. But O'Grady, a former priest we meet in the shattering new documentary Deliver Us From Evil, could hardly be less benign.
A pedophile priest, O'Grady betrayed the trust his parishioners placed in him and preyed on their young.
Perhaps it was narcissism that drove O'Grady - now living in Ireland after 20 years in the priesthood and seven in prison - to appear in director Amy Berg's film. Berg, who had covered sexual abuse within the church for CNN and CBS, makes this bit of cinematic dynamite the centerpiece of a heartbreaking film.
CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times
By John Spano, Times Staff Writer
October 27, 2006
The Los Angeles Archdiocese and a Roman Catholic religious order have agreed to pay $10 million to seven people, including two who said they were sexually molested by clergy at an Encino school.
The case involved Dominic Savino, 67, a Carmelite priest who spent many years as a teacher and administrator at Crespi Carmelite High School.
Also named as a defendant was former Crespi Principal John Knoernschild and two other members of the order not associated with the school.
Most of the settlement will be paid by the Carmelite order; the archdiocese will contribute about 5%, a church spokesman said.
FLORIDA
Naples Daily News
Daily News staff
Friday, October 27, 2006
Though there is a common thread of perverted sex and molestation, this is about trust — and violating it.
Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley says he was molested as a boy by a priest.
Whether that is to distract inquisitors of his e-mail propositions to teen pages or to build sympathy, the explanation from that now-retired clergyman speaks to the insidious nature of child molestation: It becomes habitual, rationalized behavior.
While describing an intimate and fawning friendship with Foley that included nudity and even fondling, the priest says there was nothing sexual or inappropriate.
That is doubly dangerous coming from someone in authority — someone who purports to act on behalf of God.
That priest violated trust placed in him by the Foley family and the church.
Foley in turn violated trust placed in him by voters and the parents of congressional pages.
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Carrie Rickey
Inquirer Movie Critic
With his smiling eyes and silver nimbus of hair, the Rev. Oliver O'Grady looked like a parish priest straight out of central casting. The music of his Irish brogue inspired trust and faith.
"He was the perfect example of what you thought a priest should be," recalls Maria Jyono, a pious Catholic from Lodi, Calif.
Jyono speaks in the past tense because, between the ages of 5 and 12, her daughter, Ann, was raped regularly by "Father Ollie." Ann, now 40, wasn't the only child violated by this sexual and spiritual predator.
VATICAN
Irish Independent
THE Pope last night spoke emotionally for the first time of his personal "anguish and horror" at the horrendous clerical child sex abuse scandals in Wexford.
The Pontiff broke his silence exactly a year after a Government inquiry found the scale of abuse in the diocese of Ferns made it one of the worst places in the world for systematic rape of young children by abusing priests.
The Pope's expression of his "deep sorrow and distress" for the devastation caused to the victims was conveyed earlier yesterday to the Bishop of Ferns, Denis Brennan, during a private audience at the Vatican.
Bishop Brennan, who took over the Ferns diocese last April, is on the five-yearly statutory visit to the Pope. For the past two weeks he and 33 other bishops have been meeting the senior heads of the various congregations which make up the Curia, the papal civil service.
VATICAN
U.TV
Pope Benedict XVI has revealed his horror at the behaviour of more than 20 priests who sexually abused children in the Diocese of Ferns in south-east Ireland.
The Pontiff told the Bishop of Ferns, the Rev Denis Brennan, he was praying for the healing and peace of all those who had suffered.
In his first comments on the abuse as Pontiff, he spoke of his deep sorrow and distress at the suffering endured by the victims.
He expressed his own personal anguish and horror at the incomprehensible behaviour of those clergy.
And he told Bishop Brennan the priests` actions had devastated human lives and profoundly betrayed the trust of children, young people, their families and parish communities.
The Pope received Bishop Brennan as part of the visit of the Irish Episcopal Conference.
Jam! Showbiz
By LIZ BRAUN - Toronto Sun
PLOT: Documentary centres on convicted pedophile Father Oliver O'Grady, formerly of California, and also investigates the devastating, lasting effects of clergy abuse upon victims -- and the heinous cover-up orchestrated by the Catholic Church.
After the Boston clergy scandals of 2002, you'd think there was nothing else to know about pedophile priests and corruption in the Catholic Church.
Think again.
FLORIDA
Washington Blade
By PHIL LAPADULA
Friday, October 27, 2006
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Catholic Archdiocese of Miami has launched an investigation of a priest who has admitted to fondling Mark Foley when the former congressman was a young teen.
In a statement posted on its website, the archdiocese barred the Rev. Anthony Mercieca from performing any priestly duties. The archdiocese also issued an apology to Foley.
Mercieca has denied having sex with the young Foley but has said he skinny-dipped and sat in saunas naked with the teen during overnight trips in the 1960s. In an interview with the CNN affiliate WPTV from his home on the Maltese island of Gozo, Mercieca admitted to fondling Foley.
WILMINGTON (DC)
WGMD
Fri, 27 Oct 2006 05:29:24 +0000
The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington has asked the Vatican to defrock a former Delaware priest who is charged with sexually abusing a Syracuse boy. The Diocese made the request a week ago - just one day after 77 year old Francis DeLuca was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and several counts of sexual abuse.
MALTA
The Ledger
By MARIA SANMINIATELLI
Associated Press Writer
ROME
The lawyer for a Catholic priest who acknowledged fondling former Rep. Mark Foley when Foley was a teenager said Friday there were no grounds for legal action against the clergyman, and denied allegations by a second man who said the priest molested him.
"Father Anthony Mercieca believes that nothing that happened between him and Mark Foley, some 40 years ago, could provide solid grounds for legal action against him," lawyer Alfred Grech said in an e-mail from his office in Malta to The Associated Press in Rome.
"He therefore considers the aggressive and unfavorable exposure as being unfair and unjustified."
MALTA
MaltaMedia News
By MaltaMedia News
Oct 27, 2006, 13:01 CET
Through his lawyer, Gozitan Priest Fr. Anthony Mercieca has denied fresh molestation allegations set forward by a former altar boy identified as John Doe No. 26. The man alleged that that abuse took place in the 1970s when he was 12 years old.
The Gozitan priest admitted last week to have had an "intimate relationship" with former United States Republican Congressman Mark Foley in the 1960s. However, the priest, speaking through his lawyer in a statement, denied the allegation made by John Doe No. 26, describing it "at best as a figment of the imagination and at worst a malicious fabrication."
According to the Associated Press, the statement further read that "Father Anthony Mercieca believes that nothing that happened between him and Mark Foley, some 40 years ago, could provide solid grounds for legal action against him," adding that "He therefore considers the aggressive and unfavorable exposure as being unfair and unjustified."
WILMINGTON (DE)
The News Journal
By BETH MILLER, The News Journal
Posted Friday, October 27, 2006
Officials of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington confirmed Thursday that they have asked the Vatican to remove from the priesthood the former Delaware priest arrested last week on charges of sexually abusing a Syracuse, N.Y., boy.
Diocese spokesman Robert G. Krebs said the diocese made the request to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith last Friday, the day after the Rev. Francis G. DeLuca, 77, was arrested and charged with several counts of sexual abuse and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.
Syracuse police say DeLuca confessed to molesting the boy, now 18, over a five-year period. He was arraigned Wednesday, according to Assistant District Attorney Kari Armstrong. He is scheduled to appear in Syracuse City Court on Nov. 13, Armstrong said.
DeLuca was removed from public ministry and forced to retire in 1993, when allegations of sexual abuse arose while he was a priest in Delaware.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
CBS 2
(AP) LOS ANGELES The Los Angeles Archdiocese and a Roman Catholic religious order will pay $10 million to several people to settle allegations of clergy sex abuse.
Lawyers say the Carmelite order will pay most of the settlement to seven people, including two who said they were sexually molested at Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino.
A church spokesman says the archdiocese will contribute about five percent.
The defendants in the case include Dominic Savino, a 67-year-old Carmelite priest, who spent several years as a teacher and administrator at the high school.
Former school principal John Knoernschild was also named, along with two other members of the order not associated with the school.
BOSTON (MA)
National
By CHUCK COLBERT
Boston
A new documentary film on the scandal of clerical sex abuse in the Catholic church opened to the public in Boston, Los Angeles and New York Oct. 13.
“Deliver Us from Evil,” was prescreened twice in this area, once at the Boston Film Festival, and again at a screening hosted by the national office of Voice of the Faithful, a church reform organization that sprang up at the height of the sex abuse crisis in the Boston archdiocese.
In both instances, the film’s director and producer, Amy Berg, a former journalist for CBS News and CNN, fielded questions from the audience. Joining her were sex abuse survivors and a lawyer for victims of clerical sex abuse.
WASHINGTON (DC)
U.S. Newswire
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The U.S. bishops will vote during their fall meeting in Baltimore, Nov. 13-16, on a proposal to release $335,000 of the $1 million they earmarked last year for research on the causes and context of sexual abuse by clergy.
The money would be used to underwrite the first three segments of the research, which is being undertaken by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY.
Last November, the bishops accepted a proposal from John Jay for the study of the Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Children and Young People by Catholic Clergy in the United States, as called for by the bishops' Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
As part of the proposal, John Jay is to raise funds for the study which is estimated to cost $2-3 million.
The entire study is slated for completion in 2009.
VATICAN
Irish Examiner
Pope Benedict XVI today revealed his horror at the behaviour of more than 20 priests who sexually abused children in the Diocese of Ferns.
The pontiff told the Bishop of Ferns, the Revered Denis Brennan, he was praying for the healing and peace of all those who had suffered.
In his first comments on the abuse as pontiff, he spoke of his deep sorrow and distress at the suffering endured by the victims.
He expressed his own personal anguish and horror at the incomprehensible behaviour of those clergy. He told Bishop Brennan the priests’ actions had devastated human lives and profoundly betrayed the trust of children, young people, their families and parish communities.
AUSTRALIA
news.com.au
COLIN JAMES, LEGAL AFFAIRS EDITOR
October 27, 2006 12:15am
ANGLICAN priests need more support to help them recover from revelations about child sex abuse by some of their colleagues, says Adelaide Archbishop Jeffrey Driver.
In his opening address to the annual Synod of the Diocese of Adelaide, Archbishop Driver last night said priests also needed to regain confidence in a church leadership widely criticised over its handling of child abuse allegations over several decades.
Outlining a strategy to recover from the revelations, he said the diocese not only had to help its priests, but also needed to confront significant budget cuts to pay for child abuse compensation claims totalling millions of dollars.
"We are part of a diocese in which, sadly, there has been low morale among the clergy and many good and faithful clergy members are struggling to know how to exercise their ministry in the changed church to which they now belong," he said.
VATICAN
RTE News
26 October 2006 17:13
Pope Benedict XVI has told the Bishop of Ferns of his sorrow and distress at the suffering endured by the victims of child sexual abuse carried out by some priests in the diocese.
The Pope received Reverend Denis Brennan today and expressed his own personal anguish and horror at what he called the incomprehensible behaviour of those clergy.
ALTON (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
10/26/2006
A former Catholic priest who briefly served in Alton was sentenced this week to five to 10 years in prison after pleading no contest in a sexual abuse case in Bay City, Mich., authorities said.
John Steven Rabideau, 45, was accused of engaging in sexual conduct with children between the ages of 6 and 14 in the mid-1980s when he was a seminarian in Boston and visiting relatives in Michigan. The alleged offenses did not involve his duties as a priest, authorities have said.
He was sentenced Monday in Bay County Court and will get credit for 261 days served behind bars.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
CBS 2
(CBS) LOS ANGELES A coalition representing victims of clergy abuse asked Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Wednesday to distance himself from Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony and watch a documentary about sexual abuse within the church.
The mayor's cordial relationship with Mahony sends the wrong message to children abused by priests, members of the group said outside City Hall.
"The mayor gives the cardinal more credibility, credibility the cardinal does not deserve," James Robertson with Survivors of Silence said.
"We ask that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is the mayor of all citizens in Los Angeles, to please end his relationship with this renegade cardinal."
Inside City Hall, members gave a mayoral aide a copy of the documentary "Deliver Us From Evil," which is the story of former priest Oliver O'Grady, who allegedly abused hundreds of children in California over 20 years, including a period of time when Mahony was his superior in Stockton.
"We're going to ask (the mayor) to stop appearing with the cardinal because when he appears with the cardinal he grants him a level of municipal credibility," abuse victim Tim Healey said.
The Mayor's Office had no immediate comment. Tod Tamberg, spokesman for the archdiocese, said Mahony has no intention of changing his relationship with Villaraigosa.
NORTHERN IRELAND
One in Four
The Irish Times
A group of Derry Catholics has written to Pope Benedict expressing serious concern about the conduct of affairs in their diocese by Bishop Seamus Hegarty. Dr Hegarty is currently in Rome, where Ireland's Catholic bishops are on a two-week ad limina visit.
Every Catholic bishops' conference makes such a visit to Rome at five-year intervals to report to the Pope and senior Vatican figures on what has been going on in their church locally.
Derry's lay Catholic group, Voice of the Faithful, has written to the Pope and the Vatican's Congregation of Bishops to say they are "deeply concerned" about Bishop Hegarty's "failure to act on the recommendation made by Pope John Paul II to all Irish bishops in 1999 to set up structures which would give Ireland's lay Catholics a greater sense of belonging to their own church".
They criticise "his failure to advance in the diocese proposals for support for victims of sexual abuse announced by all the Irish bishops in February 2005 in the document Towards Healing".
IRELAND
Irish Independent
A PRIEST has fled his parish amidst allegations of child sexual abuse.
Locals say they have not seen the priest in the small, rural parish for almost two-weeks now.
According to senior church officials, Fr Peter Cribbins, who is serving as a priest in the parish of Rhode, Co Offaly, has taken administrative leave while an investigation into allegations against him takes place.
"We have not seen Fr Cribbins around the town for almost two weeks now and it is very upsetting to hear of this investigation," said one local yesterday.
NEW YORK
The Journal News
By GARY STERN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: October 26, 2006)
Many New York priests say they are baffled that Cardinal Edward Egan is blaming recent criticism of him on untruths spread by unnamed pedophile priests.
Some are particularly concerned that Egan, in a letter to priests, twice singled out Monsignor Howard Calkins of Mount Vernon for criticizing him in the press, despite Calkins' apology to Egan.
"There is amazement on the part of priests that he mentioned Monsignor Calkins twice," one New York priest said yesterday. "It seems totally uncalled for. Howard tried to show some sensitivity and apologized, but you're not given a chance to talk. The whole letter is unfortunate."
Interviews and e-mail exchanges with 14 archdiocesan priests, all of whom have spoken with other priests, revealed widespread confusion over the thrust of Egan's letter and dismay over the open conflict that has gripped the Archdiocese of New York for the past two weeks. No priest was willing to be named because of what each said is Egan's clear dislike of public criticism and concerns about retribution.
NEW YORK
Whispers in the Loggia
Spot-on or not, when the New York Daily News picks up Letter #2 with the screaming headline "Egan labels revs sickos: Sez critics molesters," you know it's shaping up to be quite the Wednesday.
Gotham is simmering. Again. Well, more than just simmering.
Just as the fracas over the original, anonymous missive calling for a "no confidence" vote in him was dying down, Cardinal Edward Egan's Monday retort to his priests has thrown the church in the Big Apple into a renewed tumult. Not pretty at all, Romans puzzled at what on earth is going on -- and, intriguingly enough, both the Post and religion writer Gary Stern at the Westchester Journal-News are floating the name of Msgr Charles Kavanagh as the possible target of Egan's wrath.
WILMINGTON (DE)
Newsday
October 25, 2006, 7:10 PM EDT
WILMINGTON, Del. -- Catholic Church officials in New York were warned several years ago that a former Delaware priest arrested on child sexual abuse charges last week was a suspected pedophile, but only after the man allegedly began molesting a New York boy.
Francis G. DeLuca, 77, was arrested Oct. 19 and charged with repeated sexual abuse of a Syracuse, N.Y. boy.
DeLuca was removed from the ministry in Delaware in 1993 after officials with the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington learned of credible sexual abuse allegations against him dating to the 1960s.
A former Wilmington bishop accepted DeLuca's early retirement in December 2003 "for reasons of health" and forbade him from engaging in active public ministry without permission, according to documents obtained by The (Wilmington) News Journal.
NEW YORK
The New York Times
By ANDY NEWMAN
Published: October 26, 2006
Just when it seemed to be dying down, the dispute over an anonymous letter criticizing the management style of Cardinal Edward M. Egan has been revived by the cardinal himself in an angry letter he sent to all the priests in the New York Archdiocese.
In his letter, sent Friday, Cardinal Egan said his critics were merely doing the bidding of sexually abusive priests who felt the archdiocese had treated them unfairly.
In the interest of preventing further attacks on the church leadership, the cardinal decreed in the letter that sexually abusive priests would no longer be allowed to hide behind anonymity. Any priest who is found guilty by a church panel of sexually abusing a minor and is then “reported to be speaking untruthfully” about the church’s justice process will be ordered to write a public apology or be tried again before another panel, which will make a public report about the statements.
Because he is “confident that all cases of the sexual abuse of minors by priests that have been treated during my tenure have been handled properly,” the cardinal wrote, “I have no doubt what the conclusion of the panel will be.”
FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post
By Andrew Marra
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Another South Florida man says he was sexually abused as a young boy by the Rev. Anthony Mercieca, the priest who former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley accused last week of molesting him in the 1960s.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Miami-Dade County, the man alleged that Mercieca molested him once in the late 1970s after altar boy practice at St. James Catholic Church in North Miami.
The man, who was not identified in the lawsuit, did not report his claims of sexual abuse until he saw a picture of Mercieca circulated on news reports last week.
"This time I could not be quiet," he said in a statement.
The lawsuit comes almost a week after Mercieca's name was first linked to Foley's allegation that he had been molested by a priest as a teenager.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Press-Telegram
From P-T wire reports
Article Launched:10/25/2006 09:40:16 PM PDT
LOS ANGELES - A coalition representing victims of clergy abuse asked Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Wednesday to distance himself from Cardinal Roger Mahony and watch a documentary about sexual abuse within the church.
The mayor's cordial relationship with Mahony sends the wrong message to children abused by priests, members of the group said outside City Hall.
"The mayor gives the cardinal more credibility - credibility the cardinal does not deserve," said James Robertson with Survivors of Silence.
"We ask that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is the mayor of all citizens in Los Angeles, to please end his relationship with this renegade cardinal."
Inside, members gave a mayoral aide a copy of the documentary "Deliver Us From Evil," the story of former priest Oliver O'Grady, who allegedly abused hundreds of children in California over 20 years, including a period of time when Mahony was his superior in Stockton.
FLORIDA
Miami Herald
By JAY WEAVER
jweaver@MiamiHerald.com
A retired Roman Catholic priest who admitted fondling ex-Congressman Mark Foley four decades ago is facing new allegations of sexual abuse from another former South Florida altar boy.
The latest accuser, identified as ''John Doe No. 26'' in a lawsuit filed Wednesday, claims the Rev. Anthony Mercieca allegedly performed oral sex on him in the late 1970s at St. James Church in North Miami. At the time, the accuser said he was 12 or 13 years old.
Now 40, he says he tried to push away the priest. He alleges the incident occurred in the bell tower of the parish on a Saturday after he had altar-boy practice and had gone on a bike ride with Mercieca.
MALTA
The Malta Independent
by David Lindsay
A 51-year-old man yesterday filed a civil lawsuit against the Miami Archdiocese after he claimed he had been sexually abused by Gozitan priest Fr Anthony Mercieca in 1978.
At the time of the alleged abuse, the boy, who has been named only as John Doe No. 26 since he was a minor at the time of the incident, was 12 to 13 years old.
The allegations follow similar ones made against Fr Mercieca by disgraced American congressman Mark Foley.
In a complaint filed in the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit for Miami-Dade County, Florida yesterday, the plaintiff, an altar boy at the time of the alleged incident, claims he was invited to the top of Miami’s St James Church bell tower by Fr Mercieca, who proceeded to perform indecent acts on him.
SYRACUSE (NY)
The News Journal
By BETH MILLER, The News Journal
Posted Thursday, October 26, 2006
Former Delaware priest Francis G. DeLuca has confessed to molesting a boy during a five-year period, according to a report released by Syracuse, N.Y., police.
DeLuca, 77, served in the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington for 35 years before he was forced into retirement and stripped of his priestly duties in 1993, when similar allegations arose against him here. Diocese officials said he was allowed to retire to keep his benefits.
After retirement, he returned to Syracuse, his hometown. Syracuse police picked up DeLuca at his apartment Oct. 19 and questioned him about a local mother's complaint that he molested her son, now 18.
In a 90-minute interview, DeLuca told police the boy periodically spent the night at his apartment, usually on weekends. He told police he started to fondle the boy when the boy was 12 or 13 years old. After the boy reached 16 or 17, DeLuca said he added pornographic movies to the meetings, police said. The meetings continued until earlier this year, he told police. DeLuca also provided a three-page affidavit, which was not released, police said.
MALTA
The Times of Malta
Ariadne Massa
A second former altar boy has surfaced in Miami alleging he was sexually abused in the 1970s by the same retired Gozitan priest who has been accused of molesting disgraced American Congressman Mark Foley.
The Archdiocese of Miami last night confirmed it had been informed by the media of a lawsuit and a second allegation of misconduct against Fr Anthony Mercieca.
The fresh allegations against Fr Mercieca were made by a man who lived in North Miami and was an altar boy at St James Catholic Church, where the 72-year-old priest worked, the man's attorney Jeffrey Herman told the American media yesterday.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
North County Times
By: North County Times wire services
LOS ANGELES - A coalition of representing victims of clergy abuse asked Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Wednesday to distance himself from Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony and watch a documentary about sexual abuse within the church.
The mayor's cordial relationship with Mahony sends the wrong message to children abused by priests, members of the group said outside City Hall.
"The mayor gives the cardinal more credibility -- credibility the cardinal does not deserve," said James Robertson with Survivors of Silence.
"We ask that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is the mayor of all citizens in Los Angeles, to please end his relationship with this renegade cardinal."
NEW YORK
NY1
In a letter obtained by local papers, Edward Cardinal Egan says a recent call for a vote of no confidence is motivated by anger over his treatment of priests accused of sexual misbehavior.
The cardinal wrote to Archdiocese priests: "We cannot be left open to all manner of lies, leading to all manner of scandal and damage to the archdiocese and the archbishop from people who refuse to take responsibility for their actions."
His comments follow the circulation of an anonymous letter among priests, calling for the no confidence vote. However that letter does not even mention Egan's treatment of alleged pedophile priests.
Egan recently convened his top aides for a meeting about the controversy, where they pledged their support.
AVENTURA (FL)
The News-Press
By The Associated Press
Originally posted on October 25, 2006
AVENTURA — A former altar boy tried to forget his alleged sexual abuse by a Catholic priest in the 1970s, but could not ignore it any longer when the clergyman said last week he fondled a teenage Mark Foley, the man’s attorney said today.
The man, now 40, said in a lawsuit that the Rev. Anthony Mercieca abused him when he was about 12 or 13 years old. He was an altar boy at St. James Catholic Church and still lives in South Florida, attorney Jeffrey Herman said.
The man is identified in the lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Miami only as John Doe No. 26. He seeks more than $10 million in damages.
In a statement Herman released at his office in the Miami suburb of Aventura, the man said “all of my nightmares came back” when Mercieca’s picture appeared on the news last week. Mercieca was interviewed about claims from Foley, a former Republican congressman, that the priest had molested him in the 1960s.
FLORIDA
Sydney Morning Herald
October 26, 2006 - 7:49AM
Another former altar boy says he was sexually abused in the 1970s by the same Catholic priest who acknowledged fondling former Republican congressman Mark Foley when Foley was a teenager, the man's lawyer said.
The new allegations against the Rev Anthony Mercieca were made by a man who lived in North Miami and was an altar boy at St James Catholic Church, Jeffrey Herman said.
Herman filed an action against the Archdiocese of Miami, accusing Mercieca of abusing the man, now 40, when he was about 12 years old. The man is identified in the lawsuit only as John Doe No 26.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
CBS 2
(CBS) LOS ANGELES A coalition representing victims of clergy abuse asked Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Wednesday to distance himself from Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony and watch a documentary about sexual abuse within the church.
The mayor's cordial relationship with Mahony sends the wrong message to children abused by priests, members of the group said outside City Hall.
"The mayor gives the cardinal more credibility -- credibility the cardinal does not deserve," James Robertson with Survivors of Silence said.
"We ask that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is the mayor of all citizens in Los Angeles, to please end his relationship with this renegade cardinal."
CANADA
Catholic Online
By Deborah Gyapong
10/25/2006
Canadian Catholic News - (www.cathnews.net)
OTTAWA, Canada (CCN) – The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) referred the question on making voluntary sexual abuse guidelines mandatory to its permanent council’s November meeting.
"It’s not an easy question, it’s very complex,” said CCCB President Archbishop André Gaumond of Quebec in a telephone interview Oct. 23.
Archbishop Gaumond said Francophone and Anglophone bishops have some differences over the issue, largely based on the fact that Quebec has civil law while the rest of Canada operates under common law.
“We have to be careful before a [instituting] a mandatory protocol throughout Canada,” Archbishop Gaumond said. “Many bishops have expressed their own feelings and opinions. I think we are going in the right direction, but we think it is important to be careful not to make a mistake.”
MALTA
di-ve news
MIAMI/MALTA (di-ve news)--October 25, 2006 -1730CEST--Another former altar boy said that he was sexually abused in the 1970s by Rev. Anthony Mercieca, the same retired Catholic priest who acknowledged fondling former Rep. Mark Foley.
The new allegations against the Gozitan priest were made by a man who lived in North Miami and was an altar boy at St. James Catholic Church, where Mercieca worked, attorney Jeffrey Herman said.
Herman said he planned to file a lawsuit on Wednesday against the Archdiocese of Miami. His client, now 40 and identified in the lawsuit only as John Doe No. 26, says Mercieca abused him when he was about 12 years old.
MALTA
MaltaMedia News
By MaltaMedia News
Oct 25, 2006, 18:32 CET
A second former altar boy has alleged that he was sexually abused by Fr. Anthony Mercieca. The Gozitan priest admitted last week to have had an “intimate relationship” with former United States Republican Congressman Mark Foley in the 1960s.
The man is alleging that that abuse took place in the 1970s when he was 12 years old. Now aged 40, the man has been identified in a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Miami as John Doe No. 26. Attorney Jeffrey Herman, appearing for the client, said that the lawsuit will be filed on Wednesday.
Attorney Jeffrey Herman said that the man who lived in North Miami, was an altar boy at St. James Catholic Church, where Mercieca worked.
The Associated Press reported the Atttorney saying that "He had been thinking about it before Foley came forward, and then when Foley came out and the church encouraged other victims to come forward, he decided to come forward."
69-year-old Fr. Mercieca, now lives in Gozo. Last week he allegedly told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that he had series of encounters with Mark Foley that the Congressman might have perceived as sexually inappropriate. However, speaking to the Associated Press the following day, he said that the Sarasota Herald-Tribune "wrote many things that I didn't say".
MIAMI (FL)
ABC 12
(Miami - WABC, October 25, 2006) - A former altar boy is now saying he was sexually abused by the retired Catholic priest who acknowledged fondling former Congressman Mark Foley back in the 1960s when Foley was a teen.
Attorney Jeffrey Herman says the new allegations against the Reverend Anthony Mercieca come from a former alter boy at St. James Catholic Church in North Miami. It's a church where Mercieca worked decades ago.
Herman said he'll file a lawsuit today against the Archdiocese of Miami. His client, a 40-year-old man identified in the lawsuit only as John Doe No. 26, says Mercieca abused him when he was about 12 years old.
"He had been thinking about it before Foley came forward, and then when Foley came out and the church encouraged other victims to come forward, he decided to come forward," Herman said.
MIAMI (FL)
Central Florida News
Now there's a second former altar boy claiming he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest who has admitted fondling former Congressman Mark Foley.
The new allegation against the Reverend Anthony Mercieca is being made by a Florida man who knew the priest in the 1970s.
His attorney is set to sue the Archdiocese of Miami. The man, identified only as John Doe Number 26, is now 40. He says he was about 12 years old when he was abused.
MIAMI (FL)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By JENNIFER KAY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
MIAMI -- Another former altar boy says he was sexually abused in the 1970s by the same retired Catholic priest who acknowledged fondling former Rep. Mark Foley when Foley was a teenager, the man's attorney said Wednesday.
The new allegations against the Rev. Anthony Mercieca were made by a man who lived in North Miami and was an altar boy at St. James Catholic Church, where Mercieca worked, attorney Jeffrey Herman said.
Herman said he planned to file a lawsuit Wednesday against the Archdiocese of Miami. His client, now 40 and identified in the lawsuit only as John Doe No. 26, says Mercieca abused him when he was about 12 years old.
MIAMI (FL)
Bishop Accountability
John Doe 26's complaint against the Rev. Anthony Marcieca, filed in a Miami court, is posted on the Bishop Accountability site.
FLORIDA
Miami Herald
The Rev. Anthony Mercieca was ordained in 1962 and served as a priest in various South Florida parishes before leaving the Archdiocese of Miami four decades later to serve in the Gozo diocese in the Republic of Malta.
His assignments included:
• Blessed Trinity, village of Virginia Gardens, 1993-2002.
• St. Henry, Pompano Beach, 1987-93.
• St. Ambrose, Deerfield Beach, 1985-87.
NEW YORK
New York Post
By DAN MANGAN
October 25, 2006 -- Edward Cardinal Egan is lashing out at his anonymous priest critics, claiming they are motivated by unjustified anger over his tough treatment of clerics accused of sexually abusing minors.
"We cannot be left open to all manner of lies, leading to all manner of scandal and damage to the archdiocese and the archbishop from people who refuse to take responsibility for their actions," Egan wrote New York Archdiocese priests in a new letter.
Egan's missive comes in response to an anonymous letter circulating among priests accusing him of being dishonest and uninterested in dealing with priests. The earlier letter called for a "no confidence" vote as a means of convincing Pope Benedict XVI to accept Egan's mandatory resignation offer next spring when he turns 75.
MISSOURI
Belleville News-Democrat
BY JENNIFER KAPIOLANI SAXTON
News-Democrat
ALTON - A former Alton priest has been sentenced to five to 10 years in prison in Michigan after pleading no contest to child sex abuse charges.
John Steven Rabideau, 45, was sentenced this week after pleading no contest to charges of abusing three male relatives in the late 1980s. Earlier this year, he was extradited from South America after being detained in Colombia.
Rabideau was being held in the Bay County, Mich., jail Tuesday.
He served briefly at two Alton Catholic churches -- St. Mary Immaculate Conception Church and St. Patrick's Church, which is now closed. The exact time in the early 1990s that Rabideau served in Alton was not available.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register
DAVENPORT — The U.S. Bankruptcy Court has set a Feb. 6 deadline for creditors of the Davenport Catholic Diocese to file claims.
That date, however, is not the "bar date" for claims against the diocese brought by abuse victims, according to the victims' attorney.
"It is merely a claim date, a tentative deadline for creditors," said Craig Levien of Davenport, who represents the abuse victims.
"The diocese still must file a bankruptcy plan and give adequate notice of the final deadline in nationwide, statewide and local newspapers."
SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Individual.com
SALT LAKE CITY, Oct 24, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) --
Utah officials are investigating allegations of incest within the polygamous Kingston family.
Paul Kingston is the leader of the Latter Day Church of Christ, a fundamentalist sect based in the Salt Lake Valley with about 1,500 members, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
The newspaper said authorities are seeking DNA samples and fingerprints in an apparent criminal investigation of incest within the family.
Former sect members say incestuous marriages have caused genetic defects such as dwarfism, microcephaly and kidney problems, the newspaper said.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Monterey Herald
ROBERT JABLON
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Cardinal Roger Mahony more than two decades ago warned a priest suspected of abusing children not to return to California or face a possible investigation, referring to the man as a "psychopath," according to letters released Tuesday by a victims' group.
The letters were filed in court as part of a recently settled lawsuit, in which Mahony - head of the nation's largest archdiocese - gave a deposition detailing actions to remove the priest from duties at a California diocese, said Mary Grant, spokeswoman for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
"What we think Cardinal Mahony should have done is said: 'Bring that priest back here right now. He needs to be arrested,'" Grant said at a downtown news conference. "That's what somebody who cares about children does."
Mahony's conduct in handling clergy abuse allegations has been under fire from SNAP for several years.
SCOTLAND
The Herald
BRIAN DONNELLY October 25 2006
A former minister who quit after claiming she was sexually assaulted by a married Church of Scotland elder has won an undisclosed out-of-court settlement after threatening to sue for discrimination.
Helen Percy, branded a witch by some parishioners during the bitter, nine-year saga, is now considering applying to be readmitted to the clergy.
She is also now planning to write a book about her experiences and claims members of her former presbytery in Angus are angry she has been kept out of the ministry for so long.
SCOTLAND
Glasgow Daily Record
By Brian Mccartney
A MINISTER forced to resign for having sex with a married church elder has won her nine-year legal battle with the Church of Scotland.
Helen Percy, 39, had admitted the sexual encounter with Sandy Nicoll, now aged 61, but alleged that she had not consented.
Yesterday, the Kirk backed down from a sex discrimination tribunal at the eleventh hour and paid her a five-figure sum.
Ironically, Helen, who opted to quit the pulpit rather than face the sack, said she never wanted a penny.
CINCINNATI (OH)
Cincinnati Enquirer
BY SHARON COOLIDGE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The former minister of Carthage Baptist Church admitted in court Tuesday that he fondled his 13-year-old daughter, whom he adopted after she was placed with the family as a foster child.
Ronald Love, 50, of Anderson Township, pleaded guilty to two charges of gross sexual imposition in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court in return for the dismissal of two other charges, according to court officials.
The girl's biological mother, who is forbidden by court order from having contact with the girl, showed up at the hearing and spoke passionately about preventing Love from ever harming a child again.
FLORIDA
Miami Herald
BY JAY WEAVER
jweaver@MiamiHerald.com
A Catholic priest who admitted fondling former Congressman Mark Foley four decades ago has another alleged victim: A former altar boy who will sue the Archdiocese of Miami today.
The accuser, identified as ''John Doe No. 26'' in his lawsuit, claims the Rev. Anthony Mercieca allegedly performed oral sex on him in the late 1970s at St. James Church in North Miami. At the time, the accuser said he was between 12 and 13.
Now 40, he alleges the sex-abuse incident occurred in a room at the parish on a Saturday after altar boy practice and a bike ride with Mercieca, according to his lawyer, Jeffrey Herman.
''The priest told him not to talk about it with anyone,'' said Herman, who is holding a press conference at 11:30 a.m. today at his law office in Aventura. When Mercieca asked him on another occasion to go for another bike ride, the boy said no and never returned to the church, he said.
Mercieca -- now living on a Mediterranean island -- was pushed into the spotlight of scandal a week ago when Foley disclosed his name to Palm Beach county prosecutors as the priest who molested him in the mid-1960s when he was an altar boy at Sacred Heart Church in Lake Worth.
SPRINGFIELD (MA)
The Republican
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Underneath the stately dome that encases gilded murals bearing witness to its institutional heft and history, the party faithful scrambled as the scandal that one of its male leaders had sexually seductive contact with high school boys flew out through its brass revolving doors.
No, the sexual predatory behavior had nothing to do this time with the Vatican dome.
Instead, it involved the dome of the U.S. Capitol and the recent resignation of Florida Republican Rep. Mark Foley soon after he learned that the news media had obtained electronic copies of the X-rated e-mail conversations the self-proclaimed gay and alcohol-addicted lawmaker had with high school boys who served as House pages.
In one day, Foley was gone, his congressional office closed and wiped from the House's Web site.
Catholics in the Springfield area watched with interest.
They hope that the Roman Catholic church learned. Yes, learned.
Did they make a connection between the sex scandal within the Republican Party and the sexual abuse crisis within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield?
LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Press-Enterprise
By MICHAEL FISHER
The Press-Enterprise
LOS ANGELES - A judge has tentatively denied a bid by the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego to force those claiming sexual abuse by clergy to reveal their identities in public court documents in the first lawsuits headed for trial early next year, attorneys said.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Haley Fromholz took the issue under submission, but indicated he was inclined to deny the diocese's motion, attorneys said.
His final decision will likely affect the more than 800 pending clergy sexual abuse lawsuits in Southern California, including the 140 cases targeting the dioceses in San Diego or San Bernardino.
The San Bernardino Diocese did not join the San Diego Diocese in its request.
SPOKANE (WA)
SF Weekly
By Matt Smith
Article Published Oct 25, 2006
"I sometimes think that if the time ever comes when I lose all sexual desire, I'll probably be nothing but a blob or stone. I will have lost my pizzazz."
— Jack Leary, answering the question of whether he had ever been tempted to form a romantic relationship. From the book Jebbie: A Life of John P. Leary, S.J.
In 1965, an 18-year-old freshman at the Jesuit Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., learned he'd landed a plum assignment.
The boy was from a Washington family of committed Catholics. He was considering a vocation in the priesthood. And he'd been given the task of chauffeuring to and from a speaking engagement Gonzaga President John Leary, a luminary intellect and personality in a Jesuit order glimmering with charismatic, brilliant priests.
Leary was the polymath philosopher and ordained priest with penetrating eyes who'd been Gonzaga debate coach to U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Tom Foley. Leary was the pedagogical visionary who went on to found the experimental university New College of California in San Francisco. He was a mesmerizing raconteur who combined the common touch of a coal-miner's son with an urbane vocabulary, boundless curiosity, and a mischievous wit that caused many students decades hence to remember their hours talking with Leary as the highlight of their lives.
The idea was that the Gonzaga student would drive Rev. Leary to a town across the state where the university president was speaking. They'd rent separate hotel rooms, spend the night, and drive back to the university. According to the boy's now late-middle-aged recollections, he fell asleep in his own bed. Leary stripped naked, got on top of the sleeping boy, and tried to penetrate him. Leary wasn't extremely violent, but he was forceful, persistent, and the boy had to fight Leary off. Eventually, Leary relented and made up an excuse for his behavior.
BAY CITY (MI)
WOOD
BAY CITY, Mich. -- A Catholic priest who was charged with sexually abusing boys two decades ago and was captured in Colombia has been sentenced to five to 10 years in prison.
John S. Rabideau, 44, pleaded no contest in Bay County Circuit Court to three assault counts. Nine other felony charges, including first-degree criminal sexual conduct, were dropped as part of a plea agreement. He faced up to life in prison as originally charged.
Prosecutors say the charges stem from incidents that took place from 1985 to 1987, when Rabideau was a seminarian. They involved three boys ranging in age from 7 to 14.
Officials say Rabideau fled the country when the charges were filed in 1998.
FLORIDA
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Elizabeth Tylock
PLANTATION
Posted October 25 2006
Two priests, John Skehan and Francis Guinan, are accused of misappropriating in excess of $8 million because, as one of them commented, he was underpaid and deserved it as he was the CEO of a huge business.
No priest should see, touch or handle donations from parishioners. Monies should be made payable to a special account designated by a budget oversight committee comprising parishioners and then the checks should be picked up by an armored car service and transported to the bank of choice. All checks should be countersigned by no less than three budget members and audits should be conducted twice yearly.
The message these priests are communicating to us is that religion has become big business. Not only is the Catholic Church paying out huge sums of money to sexual abuse victims, now the parishioners who have deprived themselves of necessities in order to tithe to the church, watch helplessly as their funds are channeled to property owned by the priests, to their girlfriends, to pay for their expensive vacations and their gambling in Sin City.
WILMINGTON (DE)
The News Journal
By BETH MILLER, The News Journal
Posted Wednesday, October 25, 2006
The arrest of a former Delaware priest on child sexual abuse charges in New York last week removed the hope some church officials held that such abusive behavior was a thing of the distant past.
Francis G. DeLuca, 77, was charged with repeated sexual abuse of a Syracuse boy. The abuse, prosecutors say, occurred after the scandal of child sexual abuse by priests emerged nationally in 2002, after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted stronger policies to protect children and improve reporting practices.
The time frame is also after Wilmington diocese officials notified Syracuse diocese officials of DeLuca's residence there.
"In the 4 1/2 years I have been doing this, it was always some consolation that the most recent complaints of abuse we were aware of was 20 years old," Tony Flynn, attorney for the Diocese of Wilmington, said Tuesday. "That Father DeLuca may have abused someone now is just awful."
NEW YORK
New York Daily News
BY KERRY BURKE and ADAM LISBERG
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Edward Cardinal Egan says he's figured out whom to blame for a recent uprising against his leadership: pedophiles.
In a letter sent to all 650 priests in the New York Archdiocese, Egan said criticisms leveled against him in an anonymous letter, as well as by a prominent monsignor, largely come from disgruntled priests who molested children.
"At the core of the letter and the declaration in support of it by Msgr. Howard Calkins are stories that are being told by priests who have been found guilty of sexually abusing minors," Egan wrote in the letter, dated Friday.
"This situation cannot be allowed to continue," he wrote. "We cannot be left open to all manner of lies, leading to all manner of scandal and damage to the archdiocese and the archbishop from people who refuse to take responsibility for their actions."
SYRACUSE (NY)
The Post-Standard
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
By Renée K. Gadoua
Staff writer
A day after Syracuse police charged a retired Delaware priest with sexually abusing a minor, his bishop in Wilmington, Del., informed the Vatican the diocese was requesting he be removed from the priesthood.
The Thursday accusation, at least the fourth against the Rev. Francis G. DeLuca, convinced officials in the Diocese of Wilmington that further action should be taken, said Robert G. Krebs, speaking for the diocese.
Krebs said the diocese Friday told the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of its intention, and the official paperwork followed.
If the Vatican chooses to dismiss Krebs from the clerical state, he will no longer be a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. That process could take at least a year.
CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle
Jesse Hamlin, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
He was the closest thing to God they knew. Bob Jyono can still picture the priest he and his wife, Maria, called Ollie, a family friend who often spent the night in their Lodi home, saying his morning prayers with a Bible in his hands.
"And all during the night, he's molesting my daughter -- not molesting, raping her! -- at 5 years old,'' wails Jyono in "Deliver Us From Evil.'' It's a devastating documentary about Oliver O'Grady, the notorious pedophile priest who sexually abused children, including a 9-month-old baby, in a string of Central California towns for 20 years -- and the Catholic bishops who moved him from parish to unsuspecting parish, allegedly covering up his crimes.
"For God's sake! How did this happen?'' Jyono cries.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal
SEAN O'Conaill, Co-ordinator of Ireland's Voice of the Faithful last night issued an open invite to local priests to attend a meeting in the city tonight at which the future of the church will be discussed.
Members of Derry's Voice of the Faithful organisation will gather to discuss 'Your Church and its Future' this evening, October 24, in the City Hotel at 8pm.
Co-ordinator of Voice of the Faithful, Sean O'Conaill told the 'Journal' yesterday he was hopeful some local priests might attend the meeting.
"I would like to see priests there, and we would be more than willing to answer any questions they might wish to ask," he said.
The organisation, who formed in response to the Catholic Church clerical sex abuse scandal, recently sent a report to Pope Benedict XVI and the Congregation for Bishops in Rome, voicing "deep concerns" about a number of issues in the Derry diocese.
STOCKTON (CA)
Modesto Bee
By SUE NOWICKI
BEE STAFF WRITER
STOCKTON — The Most Rev. Stephen E. Blaire, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Stockton for more than five years, recently sat down with The Bee. In a wide-ranging interview, the 64-year-old discussed everything from his childhood to Santa Claus to pedophile priests to Pope Benedict XVI.
Here, edited for space, are his comments: ...
Q: How do you feel the diocese is doing regarding the priest sex abuse issue?
A: I think our diocese has done well in addressing the issue.
I'm part of a national committee to see what kind of education we should provide for children. We don't want to put any burden on children as if it's their fault to protect themselves against abuse. So how much information do you give children? What kind of training do you give parents?
There are some dioceses that have not settled their cases, like Los Angeles. But we've settled our cases here. We've just got a couple that we have to work out the technicalities. Of course, you don't know who will come forward tomorrow.
Q: Are there other steps you think need to be taken?
A: I think the most important thing is to protect children. That's the No. 1 responsibility we have. I think we've taken the right steps. Do we need to improve the quality of what we're doing? Oh, yes. We still have to keep working at it, supervising it, training teachers, training parents. We'll never stop training.
NEW YORK
WCBS
John Slattery
Reporting
(CBS) NEW YORK According to Gary Stern of our news partner The Journal News, Cardinal Edward Egan, in a letter sent to the priests of New York, appears to blame the recent anonymous criticism of his leadership on dissatisfaction with his handling of sex-abuse cases involving priests.
In the letter, dated Oct. 20, Egan writes that stories "told by priests who have been found guilty of sexually abusing minors" were related to a recent, anonymous letter attacking his leadership.
"Many claim that they have been the victim of unjust treatment, deception and lack of understanding," Egan's letter reads. "Unfortunately, no one challenges what they have to say. And the reason is clear: the Archdiocese has always been careful to respect their privacy."
Copies of the letter, received by most priests yesterday, were provided to The Journal News/LoHud.com.
COLUMBIA (MO)
Belleville News-Democrat
ALAN SCHER ZAGIER
Associated Press
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Advocates for victims of clergy sex abuse are asking Catholic Church officials in Jefferson City and Palm Beach, Fla., to help pay for a residential treatment center for abuse victims modeled in part after similar sites for troubled priests.
Known as Come to the Stable/The Stephen Spalding Foundation, the proposed center would be named after a former student at the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Hannibal, which closed in 2002 amid accusations of rampant sexual abuse by a former instructor.
The accused priest, Anthony J. O'Connell, worked at the seminary from 1964 to 1983. He later spent 10 years as bishop in Knoxville, Tenn., and four years leading the Palm Beach diocese. He resigned after admitting improper contact with a former student and later settled a pair of lawsuits. He has since retired to a Trappist monastery in South Carolina.
"They have multimillion dollar facilities where priests can go," said Michael Wegs, a former O'Connell victim and St. Thomas Aquinas graduate leading the fundraising effort. "All we're asking for is some place where (victims) can go."
NEW YORK
The Journal News
By GARY STERN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: October 24, 2006)
Cardinal Edward Egan, in a letter sent to the priests of New York, appears to blame the recent anonymous criticism of his leadership on dissatisfaction with his handling of sex-abuse cases involving priests.
In the letter, dated Oct. 20, Egan writes that stories "told by priests who have been found guilty of sexually abusing minors" were related to a recent, anonymous letter attacking his leadership.
"Many claim that they have been the victim of unjust treatment, deception and lack of understanding," Egan's letter reads. "Unfortunately, no one challenges what they have to say. And the reason is clear: the Archdiocese has always been careful to respect their privacy."
Copies of the letter, received by most priests yesterday, were provided to The Journal News/LoHud.com.
The letter attacking Egan, attributed to "A Committee of Concerned Clergy for the Archdiocese of New York," did not mention Egan's handling of sex-abuse cases. It blamed the cardinal for poor morale among priests and called for priests to take votes of "no confidence" in Egan's leadership.
COLUMBIA (MO)
Columbia Missourian
The former pastor of a Columbia church pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of second-degree statutory sodomy and second-degree statutory rape in the 13th Circuit Court.
Columbia police said in a probable cause statement that Roberto Edgar Lopez, 36, had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl who attended Horeb United Methodist Church, a bilingual Spanish and English-langauge church Lopez helped establish.
Since Lopez left Columbia, the congregation was “dissolved,” said the Rev. Nick Campbell of the Fairview United Methodist Church. Lopez had been moved by the church from Columbia to Monett to help minister another bilingual church.
DELRAY BEACH (FL)
Palm Beach Post
By Michael Laforgia
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
DELRAY BEACH — If, as one former bookkeeper told police, the Rev. Francis Guinan likes to stay for free when he travels, the Miami-Dade County Jail was only too happy to accommodate him.
Guinan, one of two Delray Beach priests accused of spending offertory money on girlfriends and gambling trips, turned himself in Sunday at Miami International Airport - almost a month after a warrant was issued for his arrest.
He remained in jail until Monday night, when paperwork was processed to set his bail at $50,000 and he was released.
Guinan, 63, and the Rev. John A. Skehan are charged with helping themselves to $8.6 million in collection plate money from St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church, where Skehan was pastor for 40 years.
MALTA
Malta Today
Karl Schembri
His photo hanging in the Gozo Cathedral Library as its major benefactor and honorary president and distributed among the world for totally different reasons, 72-year-old Fr Anthony Mercieca has managed to do just what his superiors have tried to hide for ages.
For years now, the Maltese and Gozitan curias have been sweeping under the carpet some of the most serious allegations of child abuse by members of the clergy and religious people, shelving files of reported cases in their obscure and secretive internal tribunals, away from police investigators and doomed to remain in the darkest ecclesiastical corridors unless the victims find the courage to report their cases to civil authorities.
Speaking to American journalists, Fr Mercieca has, by Maltese and Gozitan standards, talked too much. So much that he found himself amending, clarifying and censoring his own statements in one interview after another, after his alleged victim referred to his abuse “by a clergyman”, until his lawyer finally convinced him to just shut up.
MALTA
Malta Today
Saviour Balzan
I am not one to stand up for the rights of suspected paedophiles. But there is a difference between a person who is alleged to be a paedophile, and someone who faces criminal charges for paedophilia.
I am tired of the double standards in the media.
In the past, the local press chose not to name the three priests accused of child abuse in an orphanage on the outskirts of Hamrun. Yesterday it found absolutely no problem in publishing the picture of a priest accused of paedophilia by the alleged victim, a distraught Republican senator.
But only after his name was released by the international press agencies. Just because all the international agencies mentions his name, then it seems okay for The Times to splash his name everywhere.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com
WORCESTER— An 82-year-old retired priest released from state prison yesterday after serving a sentence for sexually assaulting altar boys at a Bellingham parish more than 20 years ago will be allowed to return to his religious order in Canada.
Judge Jeffrey A. Locke has not yet ruled on whether the Rev. Paul M. Desilets, now on probation, will still be required to undergo sex-offender treatment, as previously ordered by the court.
Rev. Desilets was sentenced to 1 to 1-1/2 years in state prison on May 11, 2005, after pleading guilty in Worcester Superior Court to multiple counts of indecent assault and battery on a child, indecent assault and battery and assault and battery. The Catholic priest admitted assaulting 18 male victims from 1978 to 1984, when they were altar boys at Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Bellingham and he was associate pastor.
In addition to imposing the state prison sentence under a plea agreement in the case, Judge Timothy S. Hillman, now a federal magistrate judge, placed Rev. Desilets on probation for 10 years, to begin upon his release from custody. As conditions of probation, Rev. Desilets was ordered to stay away from his victims, to have no unsupervised contact with anyone under age 18 and to undergo a sex-offender evaluation and any related treatment recommended by the court’s Probation Department.
IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
24 October 2006
It's a slammer headline to make senior figures in the Catholic Church blanche. The most famous priest in Ireland, Fr Brian D'Arcy, says that he, too, was abused - and by priests.
There are those who will dismiss the revelations as a bid for more of the limelight. A newspaper columnist and the host of a Radio Ulster show, Fr D'Arcy is viewed by some as something of a 'media priest.'
And it's precisely because of that high profile 'Mr Nice Guy' image that the revelations are such a big risk. After all, if Daniel O'Donnell wore a collar, he'd be Fr D'Arcy instead of Daniel O'Donnell.
Many of his audience simply won't want to hear of any of that type of unpleasantness.
But Fr D'Arcy deserves only praise and support for speaking out.
MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald
By Danielle Williamson/ Milford Daily News
Tuesday, October 24, 2006 - Updated: 04:47 AM EST
A retired Bellingham priest convicted last year of abusing 18 altar boys decades ago was released from prison yesterday and will return to court this winter to learn whether he can skip mandated sex offender treatment.
The Rev. Paul Desilets, 82, was sentenced in Worcester Superior Court to 12 to 18 months at MCI-Cedar Junction after pleading guilty to six charges of assault and battery and 26 counts of indecent assault and battery.
The former Our Lady of the Assumption Parish priest served 17 months before being freed and placed under the supervision of a Canadian cleric, a spokesman with Worcester County District Attorney John Conte’s office said.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
ONE of the two Irish priests accused of stealing $8.6m (€6.85m) from a church in Florida regularly took his girlfriend on gambling trips to Las Vegas.
And Fr Francis Guinan asked for - and received - special room rates at top hotels in Vegas because he was considered such a "high roller".
Police reports reveal Fr Guinan (63), from outside Birr in Co Offaly, also brought the woman and her son to Ireland on holiday, while other trips together included a spa weekend in Georgia.
DELRAY BEACH (FL)
sun-sentinel.com
By Leon Fooksman of sun-sentinel.com
& NewsChannel 5
Posted October 23 2006, 1:11 PM EDT
DELRAY BEACH – A missing priest accused of helping steal more than $400,000 in offerings and gifts at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church has turned himself in to authorities in Miami.
The Rev. Francis Guinan was being held at the Miami-Dade County Jail after surrendering to police at Miami International Airport on Sunday. He bond is expected to be set today at $50,000, according to the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office.
Guinan was in Australia and other tourist destinations when the Rev. John Skehan, pastor at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church for four decades until his retirement several years ago, was arrested on the same charges.
DAVENPORT (IA)
WHO
DAVENPORT, Iowa A February deadline has been set for anyone who wants to make a claim against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport as a part of the diocese's bankruptcy case.
The U-S Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Iowa set a February 6th, 2007 deadline today (Monday). The Davenport diocese filed for Chapter Eleven bankruptcy protection on October 10th in an effort to deal with the financial burden of more than 24 claims against it by people alleging abuse by priests.
The court has also called a creditors meeting for November 8th at the federal courthouse in Davenport. The meeting is expected to be conducted by a bankruptcy trustee -- not a judge -- who will ask financial questions of a diocese representative.
WILMINGTON (DE)
The News Journal
Posted Tuesday, October 24, 2006
OUR VIEW
There is something deeply unsettling about the latest tale of priestly abuse that made headlines over the weekend.
A former Wilmington priest has been arrested in Syracuse, N.Y., and charged with molesting a 12-year-old boy. This news is bad enough. But it gets worse.
Apparently, in 1993, Wilmington Catholic Diocese officials had received similar complaints about the priest when he was stationed here. The then-Bishop Robert E. Mulvee removed him from the ministry and sent him packing ... to do what? Prey on other 12-year-old boys?
The argument can be made that the original Delaware incident happened in the 1960s but came to light 30 years later, long after the statute of limitations ran out. The diocese could rightly say that no criminal charges could be brought against the priest and therefore kept quiet about the matter.
DELRAY BEACH (FL)
The Sentinel
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. - The second of two Florida priests charged with spending church money on gambling trips, rare coins and a girlfriend has surrendered to authorities, his attorney said Monday.
The Rev. Francis B. Guinan, 63, returned to the United States on Sunday from a trip to Australia and was taken into custody in Miami, said his attorney, David Roth. He was to be released late Monday on $50,000 bond, Roth said.
Last month, authorities issued arrest warrants for the Rev. John A. Skehan, longtime pastor at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church, and Guinan, his successor. Police say the two misused $400,000 in church funds. However, an audit conducted by the Diocese of Palm Beach alleges the pair misappropriated $8.7 million.
CANADA
Edmonton Sun
Tue, October 24, 2006
VICTORIA -- The possibility of children being sexually exploited or abused in the community of Bountiful is of more concern than the issue of polygamy, B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal said yesterday.
But Oppal also said he is not ignoring the fact polygamy charges may be available to Crown prosecutors for some members in the southeastern B.C. community.
"The fundamental issue here is sexual exploitation of children, sexual abuse of children and sexual assaults - if all that is taking place," Oppal told reporters.
"That is more important than anything else. I'm not ignoring the fact there may be polygamy charges available there but it's much more important, I think we can all agree, that we prevent any child abuse."
HOLLAND (MI)
WOOD
Updated: Oct 23, 2006 05:27 PM EDT
By DAN BEWLEY
HOLLAND - A volunteer at the Calvary Reformed Church on East 8th Street has been charged with first degree criminal sexual conduct against a 9-year-old girl.
The man, 50, has not been formally charged, so his name has not been released. He has posted bond and will be charged on October 31 with first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
He teaches computer classes part-time at the church, and last Thursday volunteered at their monthly food giveaway. The girl and her family were waiting their turn when, according to Pastor Blaine Newhouse, the man broke church policy and was seen alone with the girl in a computer lab.
MINEOLA (NY)
New York Law Journal
By Michael Scholl
New York Law Journal
October 24, 2006
MINEOLA - A Roman Catholic church and its parent diocese are not liable for damages in connection with the sexual molestation of a 13-year-old boy by a coach in the church's youth basketball program, a state judge has ruled.
Supreme Court Justice Karen V. Murphy of Nassau County has awarded summary judgment to the Church of St. Christopher and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre in John Doe v. Church of St. Christopher, 18551/03.
The decision appears on page 23 of the print edition of today's Law Journal.
The case arises out of the sexual molestation of a 13-year-old boy by Brian Schlacter, a veteran volunteer coach and coordinator of the Catholic Youth Organization basketball program at the Baldwin church.
DAVENPORT (IA)
WCAU
The trial of a former Siouxland bishop on sexual abuse charges won't be taking place anytime soon.
The retired bishop of the Sioux City Diocese Lawrence Soens had been scheduled to go on trial in Davenport.
Soens and the Davenport diocese are facing accusations Soens assaulted a former student while principal at Regina High School during the 60's. However the judge has postponed the trial indefinitely after the diocese filed for bankruptcy. He's ruled it will be too costly to have two trials, one against Soens and one later against the diocese.
FLORIDA
Sun Herald
A former church choir director who spent eight years in prison for molesting two boys in the early 90s died at the Jefferson Correctional Institute in September.
Richard Trepinski, 69, died Sept. 30 at the prison in Monticello, Fla. Florida Department of Corrections spokeswoman JoEllyn Rackleff said she could not release further details due to privacy laws.
Charlotte County Sheriff's Office spokesman Bob Carpenter said Monday that Trepinski had heart problems.
SYRACUSE (NY)
The News Journal
By BETH MILLER, The News Journal
Posted Monday, October 23, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Syracuse, N.Y., officials say the former Diocese of Wilmington priest arrested on child sexual abuse charges last week was not serving in a church when the incidents allegedly occurred.
Danielle Cummings, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of Syracuse, said Wilmington church officials had notified the diocese in 2002 that Francis G. DeLuca had retired and moved back to his hometown but should not serve in any priestly capacity.
FLORIDA
Ledger-Enquirer
The Rev. Anthony Mercieca's remarks regarding his relationship with a teenage Mark Foley are examples of gross denial and minimization.
It's all part of the life and times of a child molester. Mercieca went from denying that he ever behaved inappropriately with Foley -- the Florida congressman who resigned last month after reports of inappropriate e-mails to a former page -- to recounting some inappropriate events, such as taking the teen into a sauna and going skinny dipping with him.
All this, yet in typical offender style, Mercieca bounces between spectacular lapses of memory and amazing recall.
For example, we have to wonder how other incidents appear so difficult for him to recall in detail, when Mercieca can recall the time he took lots of pills and drank alcohol until he can't remember anything that happened after that. Very convenient.
AUSTRALIA
The Australian
Jill Rowbotham
October 24, 2006
Seeking redress: John Ellis is suing the Sydney Catholic archdiocese over abuse he alleges he suffered at the hands of priest Aidan Duggan. Picture: Alan Pryke
AFTER more than a decade of damage control over the sexual abuse of children, the churches are still picking up the pieces. Spectacular revelations are few and far between these days, but look no further than the plight of Adelaide's Anglicans to see that many dioceses will go on compensating victims for years to come.
In the City of Churches, Anglicans face servicing a $9 million loan that's needed to finance payouts to more than 70 alleged victims of pedophile church workers. More than 30 in that group have received $4.5million collectively after accusing former church youth worker Robert Brandenburg of abuse. Brandenburg committed suicide on the eve of his arrest in 1999.
Archbishop Jeffrey Driver will oversee a lengthy program of financial recovery that will involve a 10-year levy of 1 per cent of income, to be paid by parishioners, and asset sales including the tennis court at his historic residence, worth up to $2 million, and a church camp site in the Barossa Valley.
BAY CITY (MI)
ABC 12
BAY CITY (WJRT) - (10/23/06)-- It was an emotional morning in a Bay County courtroom where a former Catholic priest was sentenced for sexually abusing his nephews.
John Rabideau, 45, was sentenced to five to ten years in prison for molesting three of his nephews.
In a plea deal, Rabideau plead no contest to the charges.
The abuse happened in several incidents from 1985 to 1987.
The three nephews all made victim impact statements in court and Rabideau also spoke.
"What happened to me was the least of the problems that came from the abuse. He abused three of my brothers, he destroyed my parents and their confidence as parents, he caused our extended family to break up," said Rabideau's nephew, Joseph LaFranboise.
IOWA
Des Moines Register
ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 22, 2006
Ventura, Calif. — A former assistant pastor in Iowa has pleaded guilty to molesting a student at a church-run school in the late 1980s.
William Malgren, 52, was arrested in Idaho earlier this month for sexually assaulting the girl from 1983 to 1989. At the time, Malgren was a pastor at Thousand Oaks Baptist Church school in northwest Los Angeles.
The girl — now a woman in her 30s — was a student there.
Malgren served as an assistant pastor at Burton Avenue Baptist Church in Waterloo, Iowa, in the early 1990s.
MIAMI (FL)
The News-Press
By The Associated Press
Originally posted on October 23, 2006
A popular priest in the Cuban exile community who resigned amid allegations he sexually abused an altar boy has apologized and admitted “errors of judgment.”
A letter from the Rev. Gustavo Miyares was read to parishioners at Immaculate Conception Church during Sunday Mass.
“For many years I have been deeply plagued by the events,” Miyares wrote in the letter read by Felipe Estevez, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Miami. “I prayed for God’s guidance. The only conclusion that I could reach was that I had to be true to Christ, my priesthood, and you, my beloved community, and explain to all concerned my sincere regret and repentance for any pain brought on by errors of judgment that I have made.”
Some worshippers reacted to the letter with tears.
Miyares resigned Oct. 6 after learning a 39-year-old man identified as John Doe No. 25 filed a lawsuit saying he met Miyares and another priest, at a summer camp in Boynton Beach when he was 14. The abuse took place at the camp, the priests’ rectory and a condominium in the Keys, according to the lawsuit.
MIAMI (FL)
News4Jax
MIAMI -- A popular priest in the Cuban exile community who resigned amid allegations he sexually abused an altar boy has apologized and admitted "errors of judgment."
A letter from the Rev. Gustavo Miyares was read to parishioners at Immaculate Conception Church during Sunday Mass.
"For many years I have been deeply plagued by the events," Miyares wrote in the letter read by Felipe Estevez, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Miami. "I prayed for God's guidance. The only conclusion that I could reach was that I had to be true to Christ, my priesthood, and you, my beloved community, and explain to all concerned my sincere regret and repentance for any pain brought on by errors of judgment that I have made."
IRELAND
Belfast Today
By IAN STARRETT
SHOWBIZ priest the Rev Brian D'Arcy has written an account of the sexual abuse he suffered as a child and while training for the priesthood because he wants to help other abuse victims.
"If I hadn't got counselling and tried to deal with it in a healthy way, it probably would have destroyed me," said the Fermanagh cleric.
In his book, A Different Journey, he says that he was sexually abused as a 10-year-old by a religious brother at his school in Omagh and later by a priest while he was studying for the priesthood at Mount
Argus in Dublin.
"To deny it would indicate that I was to blame for it, and it's just part of the dealing with abuse in the proper way," he says.
"It's a short part of the book – only two pages. It's the simple fact of the matter that it did happen.
MALTA
A Matter of Truth
Malta Today
News • 21 May 2006
Under lock and key – the Church’s sex abuse investigations
Matthew Vella
The Church’s investigations into sexual abuse by priests are destined to gather
dust in the curial secret archives unless civil authorities intervene to unlock the
information on cases of sexual abuse which were never reported to the police.
Police will not act upon “rumours or public information” with respect to
investigations by the Curia Response Team on priests accused of sexual abuse,
unless victims take their case straight to the police.
A spokesperson for the ministry of justice and home affairs told MaltaToday the
police are empowered to act on “reports, information and complaints”. The ministry did not answer as to whether the police have ever demanded information from the Curia on its investigations into sex abuse by priests.
WILMINGTON (DE)
Fox 29
Last Edited: Sunday, 22 Oct 2006, 4:56 PM EDT
Created: Sunday, 22 Oct 2006, 4:56 PM EDT
A former Diocese of Wilmington priest has been arrested in Syracuse, New York, on child sexual abuse charges.
Francis DeLuca was removed from the ministry and allowed to retire in 1993 after allegations of molestation surfaced. The 77-year-old served as a priest in Wilmington for 35 years. After retiring, he moved to Syracuse, his hometown.
MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald
BY LAURA FIGUEROA
lfigueroa@MiamiHerald.com
A Hialeah priest who resigned earlier this month amid allegations that he sexually abused an altar boy admitted to ''errors of judgement'' and apologized via a letter read to parishioners during Sunday Mass.
The Rev. Gustavo Miyares, who has been a staple at Immaculate Conception Church for the past 15 years, agreed to resign on Oct. 6, after learning of a pending lawsuit alleging he sexually assaulted the boy in the 1980s.
''For many years I have been deeply plagued by the events,'' Miyares wrote in the letter read by Felipe Estevez, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Miami.
''I prayed for God's guidance. The only conclusion that I could reach was that I had to be true to Christ, my priesthood, and you, my beloved community, and explain to all concerned my sincere regret and repentence for any pain brought on by errors of judgement that I have made,'' wrote Miyares, who had not publicly contested the allegations and agreed to step down.
FLORIDA
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
By Peter Franceschina and Jim Davis
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted October 23 2006
The Rev. Anthony Mercieca doesn't characterize his relationship with a young Mark Foley as sexual, or even harmful. To him it was a "spontaneous thing."
Specialists who treat and study abusive priests say Mercieca's efforts to downplay and rationalize his actions with the teenage Foley are common. In a study commissioned in 2002 by the U.S. Catholic Conference and conducted by John Jay College of Criminal Justice, researchers found that justifying and excusing abusive behavior were a result of distorted thinking and denial.
"It's not something you'd call rape or penetration or anything like that. It was just fondling. It was sort of like a spontaneous thing," Mercieca, 69, told WPTV-Ch. 5 from the Maltese island of Gozo, where has lived since retiring from the Archdiocese of Miami in 2002.
MALTA
The Times of Malta
Massimo Farrugia
The Miami Archbishop's decision to withdraw Fr Anthony Mercieca's faculties, which means that he may not say Mass or administer the sacraments, was being followed in Gozo yesterday, sources close to the Gozo Curia said.
The 72-year-old priest, accused by US Congressman Mark Foley of molesting him as an altar boy in the 1960s, was still in his home yesterday and nowhere to be seen, according to sources. Efforts to contact him proved futile.
His residence in Library Street, Victoria, was besieged by the international press after the allegation emerged on Thursday.
SYRACUSE (NY)
New York Post
AP
October 23, 2006 -- SYRACUSE - A former Catholic priest, accused last week of sexually abusing a boy five or six years ago, had been barred from the ministry in 1993 after his former diocese in Delaware found he had abused "about three or four" children there.
Francis DeLuca, 77, is now charged with sexual abuse of a boy who was 12 or 13 at the time. He is now 18. DeLuca was arrested Thursday in Syracuse, where he had been allowed to retire. He had not been a priest in Syracuse.
"It breaks my heart to learn that someone in Syracuse may have been victimized by a removed priest of our diocese," said the Most Rev. Michael Saltarelli, bishop of the Diocese of Wilmington, Del.
Bob Krebs, a Wilmington Diocese spokesman, said an investigation after a complaint in 1993 found DeLuca had molested three or four children in the 1960s. DeLuca was immediately removed from the ministry.
GOZO, MALTA
Gainesville Sun
By MARIA SANMINIATELLI
Associated Press Writer
October 22. 2006 6:37PM
The sermon at the cathedral on the Maltese island of Gozo where a priest accused of molesting a former U.S. congressman often said Mass came and went without mention of the case Sunday, in what a politician said was evidence of the locals' strong reticence to discuss such matters publicly.
"Why would we say something? We know nothing about what happened," said Father Anton Gauci, one of 12 priests who helped celebrate Mass and who has known the accused father, Rev. Anthony Mercieca, since they both were boys.
"Certainly I don't think anything grave was done. And then according to what we read in the newspapers, that congressman Foley has passed through some muddy waters," Gauci said.
IRELAND
Irish Examiner
23 October 2006
By Seán McCárthaigh
A LEADING charity working with victims of child sex abuse has raised concerns about the lack of progress by Catholic Church leaders in implementing their policy on the reporting of allegations of clerical sex abuse.
The Irish Examiner understands that the failure to appoint lay professionals to investigate allegations against priests means the decision on whether to notify the civil authorities of suspected clerical sexual abuse still rests with the bishops in all but one of the 22 dioceses in the Republic.
One in Four has questioned delays within the Church about establishing aAbuse Tracker Office for Child Protection as promised by the Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Seán Brady, shortly after publication of the Ferns Report last year.
A senior childcare expert, who wished to remain anonymous, has also raised doubts about the Church’s willingness to implement its own new guidelines, Our Children, Our Church. These were published shortly after the landmark report criticised Church leaders for their handling of complaints against 21 priests in the diocese of Ferns.
IOWA
Quad-City Times
By Dustin Lemmon | Sunday, October 22, 2006
Lynne Cadigan admits she doesn’t like the Roman Catholic church.
But Cadigan, the attorney who represented alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse in Tucson, Ariz., can’t deny that the church’s decision to file bankruptcy there helped her clients.
Cadigan represented 33 victims in claims against the Tucson Diocese, which filed for bankruptcy in 2004. At first she questioned the diocese’s decision.
“We were very skeptical and we initially thought the bankruptcy was just one more way to scam the victims,” she said. “Financially and emotionally it was a good tool to heal the (victims). I don’t like admitting that, but it’s true.”
CHICAGO (IL)
Daily Southtown
October 22, 2006
By Cathleen Falsani Special to the Daily Southtown
While not as physically traumatizing as being robbed at gunpoint, when large sums are stolen from a church treasury by a pastor or staff member, the wounds of broken trust are deep.
The Rev. Mark Sorvillo, former pastor of Chicago's St. Margaret Mary Church, is charged with embezzling more than $190,000 from his North Side parish -- the sixth priest or employee in the last 18 months to face charges of stealing from Catholic churches or institutions.
Among them was Dennis Composto, former comptroller of the Chicago Archdiocese's St. Joseph College Seminary, who on Oct. 11 was placed on two years' probation and ordered to pay $300,000 in restitution by a Cook County judge.
The six incidents -- involving alleged thefts ranging from $96,000 to more than $2 million -- represent a tiny fraction of the Catholic institutions in the archdiocese, with its 370 parishes in Cook and Lake counties.
IRELAND
Sunday Independent
SOMEDAY, with the benefit of hindsight, someone will succeed in unravelling one of the great mysteries of the age - the sometimes weird, sometimes wonderful, relationship between the Irish people and the Catholic Church.
But on Friday night on the Late Late Show we perhaps got a glimpse of what it was all about. It came from the most unlikely source - none other than the prototype trendy Irish priest, Fr Brian D'Arcy, or just Brian as he prefers to be known now.
Did poor Brian D'Arcy, chaplain to the Irish music industry for years, get a lump in his throat listening to Kenny Rogers preceding him on the Late Late : The Gambler and all that talk of knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep? "Know when to walk away, know when to run." He probably should have walked away from the institution of priesthood having been twice sexually abused by his colleagues. But he stayed. And he is still clearly trying to come to terms with that.
Brian talked about the full life he has had thus far but what echoed around it all was the emptiness of a life lived without intimacy. Here was a man confessing again to the nation, perhaps partly because he has no one at home to confess to. He talked of friends and family but can anyone really truly know themselves or be said to have lived a real life if they have never had a normal loving intimate partner? Friends and family are all very well but a man needs someone to go home to.
And Fr Brian confessed that the only intimacy he ever experienced was a botched twisted intimacy at the hands of men who were, in Brian's words, squeezed into being priests. "If you try to squeeze a guy into being a priest you're going to get an abuser." If you try to be a celibate or a priest or other things not reachable, he said, humanity disappears with it.
FLORIDA
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Published October 22, 2006
Howard Goodman
Now, that's a relief: It was only saunas and massages in the nude, skinny-dipping and fondling.
Thank God it was nothing like sex.
The interview confessions of the Rev. Anthony Mercieca induce a kind of stunned amazement that any man of the cloth would so easily admit to behavior that's so patently wrong, while blithely acting as though everything was quite all right.
Mercieca is the Roman Catholic priest who says he cavorted with a young altar boy named Mark Foley when he was assigned to Sacred Heart Church in Lake Worth in 1967.
WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
Washington Times
October 22, 2006
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- The Archdiocese of Miami has asked priests at eight Florida churches to speak with parishioners about whether a retired Catholic priest accused of molesting former Rep. Mark Foley may have molested anyone else.
The archdiocese on Friday also barred the Rev. Anthony Mercieca from all church work while it investigates the accusations.
"Such behavior is morally reprehensible, canonically criminal and inexcusable," the archdiocese said.
MEXICO
Boston Globe
By Jo Tuckman, Globe Correspondent | October 22, 2006
MEXICO CITY -- The last time Joaquín Aguilar Méndez went into a confessional, he said, he told the clergyman how he was depressed by the lack of support given him after he publicly alleged that he was raped by a priest while an altar boy.
"He told me it was all my fault for not keeping the matter private," Aguilar Méndez recalled recently. "And I said to myself, right, that's it. I'm still a Catholic, but I've had enough of the clergy, forever."
Now the 25-year-old vows to dedicate the rest of his life to exposing the sexual abuse he said pervades the Mexican church under the protection of the highest ecclesiastical authorities.
The church authorities categorically deny such allegations. "Not many people report being abused by priests in Mexico because it doesn't happen that often," said Father Hugo Valdemar, spokesman of the archdiocese of Mexico City.
FLORIDA
The Times of Malta
Herman Grech
A spokesman for the state attorney's office in West Palm Beach, Florida, has ruled out law enforcement action against a Gozitan priest implicated in a former US Congressman's sex claims, unless other alleged victims come forward and as long as the alleged offences are not time-barred.
Disgraced Republican Congress-man Mark Foley's lawyers have said the politician does not want to start proceedings against Fr Anthony Mercieca. While the statute of limitations has expired in Mr Foley's case, until last night no other individuals had made similar allegations against the clergyman.
The Archdiocese of Miami on Friday barred the 72-year-old Gozitan priest from all Church work as it investigates Mr Foley's claim that the clergyman had molested him as a teenager.
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Steven Rea
Inquirer Columnist
"We've all seen stories about victims," says Amy Berg, referring to the victims of sexual abuse. "But we've never seen a pedophile talking about it, and that's an important point. We have to understand why he did this, and what happened when he did."
The pedophile in question is convicted and defrocked Catholic priest Oliver O'Grady, a smiling leprechaun of a man who, over nearly 20 years, raped and sodomized his way through a succession of small California parishes, leaving shattered families and destroyed lives in his wake.
While the majority of his victims were children and teenagers, boys and girls, he was also convicted of sexually abusing a nine-month-old infant and the mother of one of his adolescent victims.
Berg's wrenching documentary, Deliver Us From Evil, features a remarkable interview with O'Grady - shot in Ireland, his native country, to which he returned in 2001 after seven years in U.S. prison. The movie, which opens Friday at the Ritz Theaters, has prompted the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office to consider criminal charges against Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, who for many years was O'Grady's supervisor.
MALTA
Malta Independent
The Archdiocese of Miami barred Rev. Anthony Mercieca on Friday from functioning as a priest anywhere in the world after confirming that he was the clergyman who Mark Foley said molested him in the 1960s.
Mercieca, who now lives in Malta, can no longer publicly celebrate Mass, administer the sacraments, or wear priestly clothes, said Mary Ross Agosta, a diocesan spokeswoman.
Ms Agosta apologised to Foley in a statement and described as repugnant Mercieca’s intimate contact with him, which the priest disclosed to a Florida newspaper last week.
Mercieca, 72, worked in south Florida for almost 40 years and remains under the auspices of the archdiocese.
WILMINGTON (DE)
The News Journal
By BETH MILLER, The News Journal
Posted Sunday, October 22, 2006
Retired priest Francis G. DeLuca served in the Diocese of Wilmington for 35 years.
A former Diocese of Wilmington priest, allowed to retire in 1993 after allegations of child sexual abuse surfaced, was arrested last week in Syracuse, N.Y., on the same charges.
Francis G. DeLuca, 77, a priest in Wilmington for 35 years, left in 1993 when former Bishop Robert E. Mulvee removed him from the ministry and allowed him to retire early.
DeLuca then moved to Syracuse, his hometown.
DeLuca now is charged with sexually abusing a Syracuse boy for several years, from the time the boy was 12 or 13 until the boy told his mother when he was 17, according to published reports. He is now 18.
SYRACUSE (NY)
The Post-Standard
Sunday, October 22, 2006
By Nancy Buczek
Staff writer
A retired Catholic priest charged by Syracuse police with sexually abusing a minor was permanently barred from the ministry in 1993 after his former diocese found he had abused minors there, a representative of that diocese said Saturday.
"It breaks my heart to learn that someone in Syracuse may have been victimized by a removed priest of our diocese," said the Most Rev. Michael Saltarelli, bishop of the Diocese of Wilmington, Del., said in a statement after learning of Francis G. DeLuca's arrest.
DeLuca, 77, of 100 Pastime Drive, Syracuse, could not be reached for comment Friday or Saturday.
Wilmington diocesan officials received a report in 1993 that DeLuca sexually abused a minor in Wilmington in the 1960s. Diocesan officials contacted the victim and confirmed that he had been molested by DeLuca, according to a diocesan statement. The diocese confirmed that "about three or four" individuals had been molested by DeLuca in the 1960s, said Bob Krebs, a spokesman for the Wilmington diocese.
WASHINGTON (DC)
Malta Media News
Oct 22, 2006, 12:38 CET
Former Republican Congressman Mark Foley, who was allegedly molested by a Gozitan priest in his teenage years, made friends with a wide circle of teenaged House of Representatives pages, then singled out "hot" boys to write to, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.
Mark Foley resigned from the US Congress last month after a number of suggestive e-mails to young male pages were uncovered. The former Congressman from Florida said soon after his resignation that he had been molested as a boy by a "clergyman". Last week, Gozitan Fr. Anthony Mercieca was reported to have told Sarasota Herald-Tribune that Mark Foley might have felt that their "intimate relationship" in the 1960’s was "inappropriate".
Fr. Anthony Mercieca has however hit out at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, saying that report published was "exaggerated", while denying that his relationship with Mark Foley was sexual in nature.
According to Washington Post four more former pages said they were sexually solicited by Mark Foley. One former page said Foley sent him e-mails when he was 16 asking about his roommates and if he had ever seen them naked. Later, the Congressman hinted about a job opportunity for the boy, "because I was a hot boy," the newspaper quoted the now 22-year-old former page as saying.
MALTA
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Maria Sanminiatelli
Associated Press
Victoria, Malta -- People on the Maltese island of Gozo defended a native priest accused of molesting a former U.S. congressman as a boy, saying Saturday that he was a well-liked, private man with a quiet demeanor.
The Rev. Anthony Mercieca, who is retired and lives on Gozo, was quoted by media in Florida last week as saying that he fondled former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley and was nude with him on several occasions while serving in a parish in the state in the 1960s.
The Archdiocese of Miami has barred the priest from all church work as it investigates the abuse claims. The Maltese Church has also opened an investigation into the case.
IRELAND
BBC News
A Fermanagh-based priest has explained why he has written an account of the sexual abuse he suffered as a child and while training for the priesthood.
Newspaper columnist and broadcaster, Father Brian D'Arcy, said he included the details in his memoir to help other abuse victims.
"If I hadn't got counselling and tried to deal with it in a healthy way it probably would have destroyed me."
He said it was only years later he was able to "deal with the stigma".
In his book, A different Journey, Father D'Arcy revealed he was sexually abused as a 10-year-old boy by a religious brother at his school in Omagh.
FLORIDA
WPTV
Reported By: Jamie Holmes
Photographer: Blaine Logan
October 21, 2006
The photograph of a young Father Anthony Merceica was how Mark Foley would have seen the priest when he claims he was sexually abused.
Abuse though is not how Father Anthony Merceica remembers their friendship.
"For some people it's molestation. Maybe for other kids it's fun, you know? At the time you see it in this sense," the priest told Newschannel 5 by phone Thursday.
Since our interview Merceica has gone into isolation at his home on Malta.
This as his former employer for the last forty years, the Archdiocese of Miami, begins an investigation into exactly what happened between Merceica and Foley.
"Father Mercieca's status right is that he is a priest without faculties, which means he has no permission to perform publicly as a priest. He cannot celebrate mass, he cannot minister to the sick, he cannot administer any sacraments, he cannot wear any clerical garb, which means he cannot wear his clerical collar," says Archdiocese of Miami spokesperson Mary Ross Agosta.
The Archdiocese believes the matter is isolated, but there are those who have investigated cases like this before, that wonder.
"If Mercieca is behaving this way in his first U.S. appointment, we have to ask ourselves was he doing the same thing in other parishes," asks Terry McKiernan with Bishop-Accountability.org.
His group has investigated the backgrounds of thousands of priests accused of sexual misconduct.
DELRAY BEACH (FL)
Palm Beach Post
By Stephanie Slater
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 21, 2006
DELRAY BEACH — The Rev. Francis Guinan took his girlfriend to Las Vegas nearly a dozen times, often staying at the Monte Carlo Resort Hotel & Casino where he would receive special room rates because he was a "high roller," documents show.
They traveled together quite a bit - relaxing at a spa in Athens, Ga., taking her son to Ireland and staying at the swanky Atlantis Hotel in the Bahamas in November 2004 with the Rev. John Skehan, his cohort who already has been charged with stealing more than $100,000 from the church both led.
Guinan usually put the expenses on his card - an American Express Platinum credit card paid with money put in the offering plate at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach.
Guinan's lavish lifestyle is detailed in hundreds of pages of investigative documents obtained by The Palm Beach Post.
Though authorities issued a warrant for his arrest last month, Guinan, 63, has been vacationing in Australia.
MALTA
di-ve news
VALLETTA, Malta (di-ve news)--October 21 2006 - 0930CEST--The child abuse of a former Republican lawmaker continued to be food for headlines on Saturday.
The Times of Malta said that the Archdiose of Miami has asked any possibile victims of inappropiate behaviour or oabuse by a Gozitan priest to come forward or contact the a law enforcement agency.
UNITED STATES
New York Post
By NILES LATHEM
Admits fondling Foley.October 21, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - The Catholic Church began an investigation of the creepy priest who admitted fondling Mark Foley when the disgraced former congressman was a kid.
As the already lurid Foley sex scandal continued to grow more weird, the Roman Catholic Church of Malta said it would probe the past relationship between the teenage Foley and Rev. Anthony Mercieca, 69, who worked at Florida church that Foley attended when he was 13.
The Archdiocese of Miami issued an apology yesterday to Foley, stating it's "distressed by the revelations disclosed by Father Mercieca regarding former Representative Mark Foley. Such behavior is morally reprehensible, canonically criminal and inexcusable."
MARYLAND
Gazette
by Melissa A. Chadwick
Staff Writer
A priest accused of sexually abusing an altar boy at Mother Seton Parish in Germantown several years ago reportedly abused another boy in Ohio, according to letters contained in court filings.
A teacher in Ohio wrote a letter to the Order of Dominican Fathers and Brothers in June 2005 and informed them that a former student confided in her that the Rev. Aaron Joseph Cote, a member of the order, abused him in the late 1980s.
According to one of five letters between the woman and the Dominicans filed in Superior Court of the District of Columbia as part of a lawsuit, the teacher wrote: ‘‘Along with the sexual molestation, he indicated that Fr. A.J. had repeatedly shown him pornography and given him alcohol. I believe that the details that this student shared with me are true and that these incidents did take place.”
Cote was a priest at Mother Seton from 1999 to 2002. A former Germantown resident has accused Cote of molesting him during that time and filed the lawsuit in November.
AUSTRALIA
news.com.au
By Colin James
October 20, 2006 12:00am
ANGLICAN priests will no longer be able to use confidentiality as a reason for not reporting child sex abuse, under strict new rules to be introduced across Adelaide.
The unprecedented measures, to be endorsed by the Diocese of Adelaide Synod next weekend, will extend to confessions heard by priests, including those with other priests.
They follow the compulsory training of South Australian Anglican priests on their legal requirements to report child abuse to authorities, which have been opposed by some priests who believe confidentiality should be maintained for pastoral reasons.
The new rules surpass those implemented nationally by the Catholic Church, which still maintains confidentiality over confessions.
SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
CBS News
SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 21, 2006
By JENNIFER DOBNER Associated Press Writer
(AP) The woman at the center of a criminal case involving polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was 14 when forced into a marriage with her first cousin, a source close to the case said Friday.
At Jeffs' direction, she was married despite her objections in 2001 to the cousin, who was older than 18, the source told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to protect the woman's identity.
The marriage was not polygamous, the source said.
"It was child abuse, plain and simple," the source said.
Jeffs, 50, is the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a southern Utah-based church. The sect broke away from the Mormon church more than a century ago and has been disavowed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
MALTA
The New York Times
By IAN FISHER
Published: October 21, 2006
VICTORIA, Malta, Oct. 20 — He is known here as Father Tony, though he does not seem to be known very well, for the Rev. Anthony Mercieca spent his career as a priest far from Gozo, the tiny Mediterranean island where he grew up. And he is not sociable anyway, say people who know him.
“He is a very solitary man,” said George Borg, 52, a teacher who described himself as a family friend. “He walks alone.”
That quiet ended after Father Mercieca, 69, gave several telephone interviews admitting that he had had possibly inappropriate encounters in Florida in the 1960’s with Mark Foley, the congressman who resigned over explicit electronic messages to pages.
In the interviews, Father Mercieca admitted to massaging the boy, skinny-dipping with him and staying in the same room with him on overnight trips. He said, perhaps, too much — and on Friday, he refused to speak to reporters camped out on the narrow street where he lives with his brother, George, also a priest. As the diocese here investigated the accusations, many of those closest to Father Mercieca did not want to address the subject.
FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post
By Kathleen Chapman
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 21, 2006
The Archdiocese of Miami apologized to Mark Foley on Friday for the behavior of a priest who admitted fondling him four decades ago.
Anthony Mercieca, who now lives on the Mediterranean island of Gozo, is barred from celebrating Mass or wearing a priest's collar until the church finishes an internal investigation. Once the inquiry is complete, the archbishop of Miami could send his name to Rome for permanent removal from the priesthood, spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta said.
"The Archdiocese of Miami is distressed by the revelations disclosed by Father Mercieca regarding former Rep. Mark Foley," Agosta said in a written statement. "Such behavior is morally reprehensible, canonically criminal and inexcusable."
VANCOUVER (OR)
The Oregonian
Saturday, October 21, 2006
HOLLEY GILBERT
VANCOUVER -- A Vancouver man charged with sex crimes against two Clark County children was supervised as a classroom aide at the Portland church he attended and was never left alone with children, the church pastor said Friday.
Michael Scott Norris, 40, attended the Open Bible Church in Southeast Portland until about four years ago, a year before he moved from Portland to Vancouver, pastor Phil Newell said Friday.
The church follows rigid practices to protect children, including doing criminal background checks on volunteers, having windows in classroom doors and never leaving volunteers alone with children, Newell said.
VIRGINIA
The Roanoke Times
By Tim Thornton
381-1669
RADFORD -- Standing in his sock feet just inside the front door of his modest house, Hawthorne Reed Jr., pastor of First Baptist Church across the river in Dublin, said Friday he plans to fight the accusation that he sexually abused a child.
Reed is charged with two counts of forcible sodomy and one count of aggravated sexual assault on a child younger than 13, all linked to incidents that allegedly occurred in July 2000.
"They're not true," Reed said of the charges. "Anybody could make allegations. I'm going to fight this stuff in court."
Reed said he knew the people who accused him, but didn't know why they did it.
"Who knows what goes on in people's minds?" he said.
HONG KONG
The Raw Story
dpa German Press Agency
Published: Saturday October 21, 2006
Hong Kong- A court cleared the way for a former altar boy to sue a Catholic church in Hong Kong along with the ex-priest who was convicted of sexually abusing him more than 14 years ago, a news report said Saturday. The boy was 15 when Michael Lau, then a deacon in charge of altar boys at St Joseph's Catholic Church, abused him in a series of sexual assaults in his quarters and at a school between 1991 and 1992.
The victim, known only as H suffered a mental breakdown following the incident and was subsequently diagnosed with schizophrenia and post traumatic stress disorder.
A report in the South China Morning Post said H believes the attacks contributed to his condition and that the church breached its duty of care by not protecting him from Lau. He also claims the church was negligent in failing to notify police after the abuse claims were first made.
Lau, now 44, was only brought to trial more than 10 years after the incidents. He was sentenced to four-and-half years in prison in February 2003 after being convicted of indecent assault and gross indecency, but was freed in January 2006 after serving three years.
GREEN BAY (WI)
Press-Gazette
Anyone who may have been hurt by a representative of the Catholic Church in any way is invited to attend a Prayer Service of Apology at 7 p.m. Friday at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, 140 S. Monroe Ave.
Bishop David Zubik, of the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, will lead the service, the first of its kind in the diocese. Following the example of Pope John Paul II, who apologized publicly to anyone who was hurt by the church in a special prayer service in the millennium Jubilee Year of 2000, Zubik intends to apologize publicly to anyone hurt by any representative of the church especially within the diocese of Green Bay.
FLORIDA
TCPalm
By MICHELLE SHELDONE
michelle.sheldone@scripps.com
October 22, 2006
Miami Archbishop John C. Favalora has launched an internal investigation into allegations that a former priest at Sacred Heart Catholic Church and School in Lake Worth molested the young Mark Foley.
The Archdiocese of Miami confirmed Friday morning that Anthony Mercieca was the man the disgraced former congressman claims molested him between the ages of 13 and 15.
Mercieca, 69, who now lives in retirement on the Maltese island of Gozo, "cannot wear his clerical garb or present himself as a priest in any way shape or form" until after the investigation concludes and possibly never again, archdiocese spokesman Mary Ross Agosta said Friday.
The archdiocese has sent notices to every parish where Mercieca served, asking them to advise parishioners this weekend of the allegations against him and ask that any additional allegations be reported to the archdiocese's Victims Assistance Coordinator at (866) 802-2873 or their local police department.
MALTA
Times of Malta
Massimo Farrugia, Herman Grech
The Archdiocese of Miami has asked any possible victims of inappropriate behaviour or abuse by a Gozitan priest to come forward or contact a law enforcement agency.
Fr Anthony Mercieca, 72, was named by the Palm Beach State Attorney's Office as former Congressman Mark Foley's alleged abuser.
The Gozitan priest in the meantime severed all communication yesterday as the world media turned its spotlight on Gozo. Fr Mercieca, ordained for the Diocese of Gozo, worked in the Archdiocese of Miami in the mid-1960s through the early 2000s.
Reporters and cameramen from international networks yesterday flocked to Library Street, Victoria, hounding the residence of the priest who has recently confirmed having had encounters which Mr Foley may have perceived as sexually inappropriate 40 years ago.
The Archdiocese of Miami said it was distressed by the revelations disclosed by Fr Mercieca regarding Mr Foley.
Yakima Herald Republic
Catholics and people of good will can work for changes in the Catholic Church that will promote the protection of children.
1. Become informed. Meet with others to read and discuss "A Report on the Crisis in the Catholic Church in the United States" by theAbuse Tracker Review Board, a lay board organized by the United States Catholic Conference. This report outlines the causes of this crisis and offers recommendations to correct the problem.
2. Watch for cover-up. Dioceses have acted like the dysfunctional family that hides its secrets. Almost every diocese in the country has been implicated in the moving of priests known by church leaders to be a risk to children. These actions prolonged their abusive behavior (the current revelation of Father Toulouse at Seattle University, a case in point). To merely be informed of the abuse is inadequate; one must also know about historical patterns of hierarchical protection of clerics who were a risk to children. Church officials not only hid the actions of offending clerics, they covered up their own actions and decisions as well. A prime example of cover-up is detailed in the Boston Globe's investigative report on the Archdiocese of Boston, "Betrayal."
UNITED STATES
The Sun News
SEAN KOSOFSKY
Republicans need to take responsibility for the Mark Foley scandal.
The latest revelation that a priest may have victimized the former U.S. representative when he was a child does not let Foley off the hook for his own despicable behavior. Nor does it exonerate Republican House officials.
Party leaders have exploited the "family values" mantra, while all along vilifying the most vulnerable among us - gays, minorities and women.
Yet the minute one of their own behaves abhorrently, they try to cover it up, then try to deflect blame and finally turn on each other.
Foley blamed alcohol before predatory priests.
MALTA
The Malta Independent
by FRANCESCA VELLA
The Gozo Curia was tight-lipped yesterday, saying little more than what had been said in a statement issued late on Thursday night, a few hours after the international media reported that a Gozitan priest had denied having a sexual relationship with former US Republican lawmaker Mark Foley in the 1960s.
When contacted yesterday morning, the Gozo bishop’s secretary, Fr Eddie Zammit, said that Bishop Mario Grech had written to the members of the Response Team yesterday morning, asking them to investigate the allegations made against the Gozitan priest.
The team will work according to the policies established by the Maltese Ecclesiastical Province with regard to similar cases of sexual abuse in pastoral activity, said Fr Zammit.
On Thursday, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune had reported that the Gozitan priest, now in his 70s, had had several encounters with Mr Foley, when the latter was still a boy, which might have been perceived as being sexually inappropriate.
MEXICO
The New York Times
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
Published: October 21, 2006
TEHUACÁN, Mexico — For two decades, dozens of children have accused the Rev. Nicolás Aguilar of molesting or brutally raping them. He faces an indictment charging sexual abuse in Los Angeles and at least five formal complaints in Mexico. Yet at 65 he remains at large, still working as a priest in villages here.
Father Aguilar’s long flight from the law, critics say, reflects the ease with which priests can avoid prosecution in the United States by hiding in Mexico, where judges and prosecutors are reluctant to challenge the enduring political strength of the Roman Catholic Church.
The case has focused attention on a problem that is not limited to Father Aguilar, but rather, critics say, points to a pattern of complicity by high officials in the church.
In September one of Father Aguilar’s accusers filed a lawsuit in southern California alleging that the cardinals of Mexico City and Los Angeles had conspired to help him escape prosecution by allowing him to slip across the border.
Both cardinals deny any wrongdoing. But American law enforcement officials and advocates for victims say that since 1995 at least three other priests accused of molesting children in the United States have fled to Mexico before the authorities could arrest them. In other cases, going back to the 1980’s, still more were transferred to Mexico after church officials received complaints about them.
FLORIDA
Washington Post
By Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 20, 2006; 3:30 PM
The Archdiocese of Miami announced Friday it is opening an investigation into the conduct of a retired priest who has admitted fondling former Congressman Mark Foley as a boy in Florida, calling the alleged abuse "morally reprehensible, canonically criminal and inexcusable."
The archdiocese issued a statement apologizing to Foley "for the hurt he has experienced" and said the investigation could result in Church sanctions against the 69-year-old priest, who is now retired and living on the Mediterranean island of Gozo off Malta.
The announcement came one day after the Gozo diocese said it too had opened an investigation into the conduct of the Rev. Anthony Mercieca. The Miami archbishop has withdrawn the priest's faculties, the statement from the Miami church said.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Gary V. Murray
TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com
WORCESTER— A judge postponed action today on an 82-year-old retired priest’s request that he not be required to undergo sex offender counseling as a condition of his probation on sexual assault charges.
Dennis J. Kelly, a lawyer representing Rev. Paul M. Desilets, told Judge Jeffrey A. Locke during a hearing in Worcester Superior Court that his client is too old and sick to take part in a sex offender treatment program after his release from prison Monday.
Rev. Desilets was sentenced to one year to one and a half years in state prison on May 11, 2005, after pleading guilty to charges of sexually assaulting 18 male victims from 1978 to 1984 in Bellingham.
The victims were altar boys at Our Lady of the Assumption parish in Bellingham at the time of the assaults and Rev. Desilets was associate pastor there.
UNITED STATES
Sun Herald
RACHEL ZOLL
Associated Press
Experts on sex abuse say the comments of a Roman Catholic priest who acknowledged being naked with Mark Foley when the former congressman was young fit a pattern of distorted thinking that they've seen over and over among offenders.
The Rev. Anthony Mercieca told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he was naked with Foley in a sauna, and was quoted in other interviews saying he also fondled him. Mercieca told the AP that the relationship wasn't sexual, a distinction abuse experts found disturbing.
"The priest is very focused on the legalities here and I think it's important for the rest of us to see the enormous power differential between these two," said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
"There is a tremendous abuse of authority and position involved in these activities whether or not they constitute child molestation."
FLORIDA
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
By CAROL E. LEE
carol.lee@heraldtribune.com
Experts say the type of sexual abuse Mark Foley said he suffered as an altar boy from a Catholic priest may have become the model that Foley used, decades later, in forming his own illicit relationships with teen-age boys.
"There could be an identification with the abuser that was like a training ground for grooming: how do you pick the vulnerable kids and how do you groom them," Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea, a clinical psychologist and author of the forthcoming book, "Perversion of Power: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church."
"It's a way of understanding how Foley may have become the man he was, but it isn't an excuse for him becoming the man he was," Frawley-O'Dea said.
Most abusers say that they were sexually abused as children, but the vast majority of adults who were abused as children do not grow up to be abusers (less than 20 percent), psychologists said.
GOZO, MALTA
Diocese of Gozo
This afternoon, Thursday, 19th October 2006, the Diocese of Gozo has learnt for the first time through the international press about allegations made against a priest residing in the Diocese of Gozo.
The Diocese of Gozo has seen the statement issued by the Archdiocese of Miami, Florida, U.S.A., with regard to this case.
The bishop of Gozo, Mgr. Mario Grech, contacted tonight the Archdiocese of Miami and asked for further information about the case.
In light of all this, tomorrow Bishop Grech will instruct the Response Team to investigate these allegations according to the policies established by the Maltese Ecclesiastical Province with regard to cases of sexual abuse in pastoral activity, and present him with a report.
FLORIDA
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
STAFF REPORT
The Catholic Archdiocese of Miami announced Friday it had launched an internal investigation into Father Anthony Mercieca, the priest disgraced congressman Mark Foley says abused him as a child.
The announcement came in a written statement that also said the diocese was withdrawing Mercieca's "faculties," and that the investigation "could result in ecclesiastical sanctions against Father Mercieca."
"The Archdiocese of Miami is distressed by the revelations disclosed by Father Mercieca regarding former Representative Mark Foley," the statement said. "Such behavior is morally reprehensible, canonically criminal and inexcusable. The events described are totally contrary to the ministry of a priest."
In the statement, Catholic officials apologized to Foley "for the hurt he has experienced."
MIAMI (FL)
CNN
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The priest whom former Rep. Mark Foley has accused of molesting him when he was a teen could face sanctions, the Miami Archdiocese said Friday while offering the embattled ex-congressman an apology for the priest's "morally reprehensible" behavior.
The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office identified Foley's alleged abuser as Father Anthony Mercieca, the archdiocese said in a written statement.
Sources close to the investigation previously told CNN that Foley named Mercieca as his alleged abuser.
The statement said Mercieca, who worked in the archdiocese from the mid-1960s through the early 2000s, could face ecclesiastical sanctions.
"John Favalora, archbishop of Miami, is withdrawing Father Mercieca's faculties," the archdiocese said.
FLORIDA
Catholic News Service
By Catholic News Service
MIAMI (CNS) -- Father Anthony Mercieca's admitted behavior 40 years ago with a young Mark Foley "is morally reprehensible, canonically criminal and inexcusable," the spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Miami said Oct. 20, shortly after receiving the name of the former congressman's alleged abuser.
Mary Ross Agosta, director of communications for the Miami Archdiocese, said Archbishop John C. Favalora had withdrawn from Father Mercieca the right to function as a priest and had begun an investigation that "could result in ecclesiastical sanctions" against the Maltese priest, who served in south Florida for 38 years.
The Diocese of Gozo in Malta, for which Father Mercieca was ordained in 1962, was notified of Archbishop Favalora's decisions, the spokeswoman said. The priest, who retired in 2002 from work in the Miami Archdiocese, now lives on the Maltese island of Gozo.
A notice on the Web site of the Diocese of Gozo said Bishop Mario Grech had asked his diocesan response team to investigate the abuse allegations and report back to him. It said the diocese had learned about the allegations Oct. 19 "from the international press."
WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
The Florida Times-Union
By BRIAN SKOLOFF
Associated Press Writer
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Archdiocese of Miami said Friday it has barred the Rev. Anthony Mercieca from all church work as it investigates a claim by former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley that the clergyman abused him as a teenager.
Mercieca is now retired in Malta and a diocese there has opened an investigation after he said this week he fondled Foley when the Florida Republican was a boy.
"The Archdiocese of Miami is distressed by the revelations disclosed by Father Mercieca regarding former Representative Mark Foley. Such behavior is morally reprehensible, canonically criminal and inexcusable. The events described are totally contrary to the ministry of a priest," the statement read.
The church also said there have been no other allegations of abuse against Mercieca reported to the Archdiocese of Miami.
The Jewish News Weekly
by michael fox
correspondent
As a journalist for CBS and CNN, Amy Berg produced numerous segments on pedophilia charges against California priests, and the failure of the Los Angeles archdiocese to come clean about what Cardinal Roger Mahony knew, and when.
In her debut documentary, “Deliver Us From Evil,” Berg focuses on Oliver O’Grady, a former Northern California priest who did seven years in prison for just a few of his crimes. The Los Angeles filmmaker handles this sensationalist material with remarkable restraint, yet it seems inevitable that some critics of the film will zero in on her Jewishness.
“I’m sure that will come up at a certain point,” Berg agrees in a recent interview at a hotel in San Francisco. “I haven’t heard it, but it might already be on the Internet.
“My response to that is, thank God I’m not a Roman Catholic making this film, because I came to it from a totally nondenominational point of view. I came in as a journalist trying to tell a story, and it wasn’t cluttered with Catholic guilt or Jewish guilt, or any of those kinds of guilt that we bring in to a story that’s very personal to us. I came in, I asked questions, I allowed the people in my film to tell this story. I just assembled it.”
UNITED STATES
Newsday
BY BRYN NELSON
Newsday Staff Writer
October 19, 2006, 9:30 PM EDT
Up to one-third of girls and one-fifth of boys in the United States will be subjected to it before the age of 18, according to some experts. Many of the victims will keep their silence for years -- or decades.
And contrary to a lingering myth, the vast majority will never become sexual abusers themselves.
The sensitive subject of child sexual abuse has again been pulled to the fore of public discussions in the wake of revelations that former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) sent inappropriate e-mails and explicit instant messages to underage House pages. And a new admission by a 72-year-old Catholic priest that he touched an adolescent Foley nearly 40 years ago has only compounded the uproar.
Lost in much of the hullabaloo, psychologists say, is an unfortunate reality: Child sexual abuse remains a thorny but chronically underfunded area of research in which no simple patterns have emerged.
PORTLAND (OR)
The Oregonian
Friday, October 20, 2006
A former janitor at Portland's Congregation Beth Israel synagogue pleaded guilty Thursday to receiving child pornography over the Internet, federal authorities reported.
Sentencing for Timothy Lee Olander, 48, was set for Jan. 2. Olander had previously served five years on probation in Oregon for the 1988 sexual abuse of a child, according to a state Department of Corrections spokeswoman.
OLYMPIA (WA)
Spokesman-Review
Richard Roesler
Staff writer
October 20, 2006
OLYMPIA – As the days count down to November's election, Washington's second-most-expensive state Senate race is turning more ferocious.
Since Friday, Spokane residents have been opening their mailboxes to find large postcards that maintain that Sen. Brad Benson "voted to cover up sex crimes against our children."
The mailer – which features a photo of a hurt-looking girl clutching a teddy bear, as well as some Spokesman-Review headlines about alleged church and boys home sex abuse – focuses on a vote by Benson three years ago.
Benson, R-Spokane, called the mailing "a new low."
"I guess when you're desperate you dig deep and stretch things," said a fellow senator, Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, who voted the same way on the bill.
In 2003, Benson was one of 35 House lawmakers who voted against adding the clergy to the occupations required by law to report allegations of child abuse. The bill passed the House, only to die in the Republican-controlled Senate.
CHICAGO (IL)
Fox 28
Bail has been set at 100-thousand dollars for a Chicago priest accused of funding a lavish lifestyle out of money he allegedly stole from his North Side church.
The Reverend Mark Sorvillo appeared at the Cook County Circuit Court yesterday. He is charged with felony theft of more than 100-thousand dollars.
Prosecutors say Sorvillo pilfered money from the weekly offerings at St. Margaret Mary Parish starting in 1998 and continued until he resigned last February. He is also accused of taking donations from baptisms and weddings.
OpEd News
by Christa Brown
As Foleygate unfolds, the Religious Right remains mute about its own child sex abuse scandal.
Just three days before Representative Foley resigned, I was standing at the doorstep of the Southern Baptist Convention, asking it to implement procedures to rid their ranks of clergy predators and make kids safer. Along with other delegates from SNAP - the Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests and other Clergy - we presented Baptist leaders with a letter asking for the creation of an independent review board to investigate accounts of clergy sex abuse. Despite a multi-part series in EthicsDaily, the SBC's response has been one of avoidance.
Rather than taking action to protect kids, SBC leaders seem to think that if they close their eyes long enough, the problem will go away. This is a very dangerous sort of blindness that leaves kids at risk.
SNAP went to the SBC's Nashville doorstep because, in recent months, SNAP has heard from dozens of people, reporting that they were sexually abused by Southern Baptist clergy.
I myself know the soul-murdering impact of such trauma because I was sexually abused by a Southern Baptist minister when I was a teen church girl in Dallas. Another minister knew about it at the time - and eventually swore to that knowledge - but the perpetrator was sent on his way, and I was told not to speak of it. Not until my daughter reached adolescence did I resurrect the horrific memories and begin to deal with them. To my surprise, although my report was readily substantiated, no denominational leader seemed to think it mattered much. In fact, the SBC wrote that it had no record the man was still in ministry. Yet, I found him at a prominent church in Florida.
CALIFORNIA
Ventura County Star
By Raul Hernandez, rhernandez@VenturaCountyStar.com
October 19, 2006
A former Thousand Oaks pastor pleaded guilty on Wednesday to four counts of sexually abusing a girl at church events and on the church's school grounds in 1988 and 1989.
William Alan Malgren, 52, is facing up to 11 years and four months in prison.
Ventura County Superior Court Judge Bruce Clark set a sentencing for Dec. 5, after a presentencing report is completed.
Malgren, a balding man, is in custody on $1 million bail and appeared in court in a wheelchair.
VANCOUVER (OR)
The Oregonian
Friday, October 20, 2006
HOLLEY GILBERT
VANCOUVER -- A Vancouver man who was a nonordained youth minister in Portland was arrested in a nationwide federal investigation that has netted 125 subscribers of a hard-core child pornography Web site, federal authorities announced Thursday.
Michael Scott Norris, 40, who attended Open Bible Church, was arrested Aug. 16 at his northeast Vancouver home. Norris, who worked as a laboratory technician at Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital, is in the Clark County Jail on $900,000 bail.
He is charged with four counts of first-degree rape of a child; two counts of first-degree child molestation; two counts of second-degree child molestation; and two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. All are state charges. Trial is set for Feb. 14.
FLORIDA
The Detroit News
Thomas Hargrove / Scripps Howard News Service
The Catholic diocese in South Florida where former Rep. Mark Foley lived nearly 40 years ago when he said a clergyman sexually abused him has one of the nation's worst records of sexual misconduct by priests and bishops.
The Diocese of Palm Beach in South Florida is the only U.S. diocese to suffer the forced consecutive resignations of two bishops -- Keith Symons in 1998 and Anthony O'Connell in 2002 -- following disclosures of inappropriate sexual contact with boys or young men.
On Thursday, the Rev. Anthony Mercieca, 69, acknowledged he was naked in saunas and went skinny-dipping with Foley when the former congressman was a boy in Florida, but denied they had sex.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Charles A. Radin, Globe Staff | October 20, 2006
The Archdiocese of Boston agreed yesterday to sell the former Our Lady of the Presentation School in Brighton to a nonsectarian citizens' group, ending one of the bitterest disputes between the church and a local community that arose from widespread closings of parishes and schools over the past three years.
In an effort to rebuild its tattered relations with the community, the archdiocese put the sales price at $1 million, half the $2 million the citizens group had offered for the school building. The group, the nonprofit Presentation School Foundation, plans to operate an affordable preschool, after-school programs, summer camps, and adult education programs at the site in partnership with the YMCA and the Boston Public Library.
Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, who arranged the reduction in price to less than half the property's market value, told about 120 upbeat, applauding residents of the neighborhood that closings of schools and churches and the clergy sexual abuse scandal deeply wounded the Brighton community. He expressed hope that resolution of the struggle over the Presentation School building would be a step toward healing.
WISCONSIN
WKOW
Thu 10/19/2006 -
A Cross Plains family, the O'Connell's, filed the lawsuit in an effort to effect change in the Catholic Church. The suit does not ask for money, but rather, requests the church be more open in naming potential sexual abusers. It names every bishop in the country. But Bishop Morlino says he finds the suit unfair.
“I hardly think that is responsible, to sue every bishop in the , as though we were in some kind of a conspiracy,” he says.
Despite Morlino's belief, the O'Connell family is gaining support in their fight. They began their crusade after a catholic priest murdered a family member. That priest had been confronted with allegations of sexual abuse. Out of that, the O'Connell's developed a five-point-plan of reform.
WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
Palm Beach Post
By Kathleen Chapman and Michael C. Bender
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Friday, October 20, 2006
WEST PALM BEACH — The secret that Mark Foley kept for four decades was finally exposed when a priest admitted he went skinny-dipping and sat naked in a sauna with the future congressman.
The Rev. Anthony Mercieca was a priest at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Lake Worth in 1966 and 1967, when Foley was a teenager. Mercieca now lives on Gozo, a Maltese island off the coast of Italy.
A source told The Palm Beach Post on Thursday that Mercieca's name was the one given to the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office on Wednesday.
Also Wednesday, Mercieca told The Sarasota Herald-Tribune that he loved Foley like a brother and took the former altar boy for overnight trips and skinny-dips in secluded lakes. He said he massaged Foley in the nude and said that one night, he might have gone too far.
Mercieca backed away from some of his statements Thursday, acknowledging to The Associated Press that he was naked with Foley but saying their relationship was not sexual.
The Archdiocese of Miami released a statement late Thursday saying a church attorney had received a priest's name, but the archdiocese did not confirm it was Mercieca's. The statement said church officials will speak publicly as soon as they get clearance from the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office, and they encourage other possible victims of the accused priest to come forward.
BOSTON (MA)
The Pilot
By Antonio M. Enrique
Posted: 10/20/2006
EAST BOSTON -- New revelations that a long-time pastor at St. Lazarus Church had sexually abused several girls decades ago, rocked an otherwise quiet East Boston congregation Oct. 14.
Father Louis Toma, a Scalabrini priest who oversaw the construction of St. Lazarus Church and served as pastor from 1911 until his death in 1961, sexually abused young girls at the parish, according to Father John J. Connolly, special assistant to Cardinal O’Malley on matters related with sexual abuse.
“The archdiocese received several, independent allegations against Father Toma,” Father Connolly said.
“These people who came forward, came forward independently, without knowledge of one another,” Father Connolly said. “There was no collusion, there was no connection, other than the fact that this is a small parish in terms of geography and people knew of each other.”
FLORIDA
TCPalm
By AMIE PARNES AND MICHELLE SHELDONE
staff writers
October 20, 2006
The admission of a Roman Catholic priest that he had once fondled former Congressman Mark Foley brought a sense of relief to some in the Diocese of Palm Beach, which was rocked when Foley claimed abuse by a member of the clergy when he was young but would not name the person involved.
Anthony Mercieca, 69, a retired priest who lives on the Maltese island of Gozo, confirmed in a telephone interview with station WPTV Ch. 5 in West Palm Beach he is the clergyman whom Foley accused of sexually abusing him when the disgraced ex-lawmaker was between 13 and 15 years old at Sacred Heart in Lake Worth.
In Palm Beach County, Chris Storch breathed a sigh of relief when she heard about Mercieca.
The Lake Worth restaurant manager was in Foley's class at Sacred Heart, and she and her family were "upset" as they waited in recent days to find out the name of the accused clergyman.
"There were a lot of priests at that parish we were very close to," said Storch, now 51. "They'd come over to our house for dinner and everything. I was hoping, against hope, it wasn't someone who was a dear friend of the family. Thankfully, it wasn't."
St. Paul Pioneer Press
RUBÉN ROSARIO
We've seen this before, from Minnesota to Boston: pedophile priests running amok, a church hierarchy more interested in covering up abuse than protecting children, and emotionally jarring tales from victims.
"Deliver Us From Evil'' has all this in visually haunting buckets. But the documentary, which opens locally Nov. 10, goes one better by having a pedophile priest confess his sins on camera.
The film arrives as clergy abuse once again surfaces on the national radar with the recent disclosure from disgraced Florida congressman Mark Foley that he was abused by a priest as a teenager. Foley waited nearly a month after the revelation before identifying the priest to prosecutors and archdiocese officials in Miami this week.
"Survivors don't disclose unless they are in trouble, until they are in crisis, or they discover it happens to others, or there is some psychological breakdown,'' says Jeffrey Anderson, a St. Paul-based lawyer who appears in the film and has represented more than 1,000 alleged victims of clergy abuse in the past 25 years.
MALTA
The Times of Malta
Herman Grech
Disgraced American Congressman Mark Foley is claiming he was molested as a boy by a Gozitan priest who was serving in the US.
The 72-year-old priest, who now lives in Gozo, confirmed to The Times last night he was "close friends" with Mr Foley but said his recollection of events was sketchy since they took place when he was suffering a nervous breakdown.
The story has hit the headlines across the US after an interview with the priest first appeared in the Florida-based Herald Tribune yesterday.
The alleged abuse took place over a two-year period about 40 years ago when the Congressman was a teenage altar boy.
FLORIDA
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
By MATTHEW DOIG and MAURICE TAMMAN
matthew.doig@heraldtribune.com
maurice.tamman@heraldtribune.com
Father Anthony Mercieca said Thursday he never had sexual intercourse with former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, but throughout the day offered more details to national media outlets about his intimate relationship with the then-Lake Worth altar boy.
Mercieca told the Washington Post he and Foley once engaged in "light touching" and told CNN he fondled Foley when he was a teen, though he didn't consider the contact abuse because Foley "seemed to like it."
Mercieca told the Associated Press in Rome he and Foley would go into saunas naked when he was a priest in Florida and Foley was a parishioner, but he said "everybody does that." The priest also said he didn't think it was unusual to go on overnight trips with a young boy.
Richard Sipe, a former priest who studies sexuality and the priesthood and has counseled abusive clergy and victims, said abusive priests typically deny that their activities were sexual because they often convince themselves that only intercourse violates their vow of celibacy.
MALTA
MaltaMedia News
By MaltaMedia News
Oct 20, 2006, 10:43 CET
The Diocese of Gozo is investigating allegations that Fr. Anthony Mercieca, a Gozitan resident, had an “inappropriate” relationship with former United States Republican Congressman Mark Foley in Florida around 40 years ago.
The bishop of Gozo, Mgr. Mario Grech, has instructed a response team to investigate the allegations according to the policies established by the Maltese Ecclesiastical Province with regard to cases of sexual abuse in pastoral activity, and present him with a report.
In a statement the Diocese of Gozo added that Mgr. Mario Grech will also pass all information he receives pertaining to this case to the response team.
Bishop Mario Grech, conscious of the gravity of pedophilia, reiterated that he will cooperate with those responsible for investigating such cases “so that justice is done to the victims, the perpetrators are reformed and the common good is safeguarded”.
WASHINGTON (DC)
New York Post
By GEOFF EARLE Post Correspondent
October 20, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - Disgraced ex-Congressman Mark Foley's childhood priest has come forward and admitted cavorting nude with the boy and giving him massages.
Father Anthony Mercieca, who is now living on an island off the Italian coast, says he doesn't remember how far things got with Foley - although he does recall skinny-dipping with the then-13-year-old and staying naked in the same room with him on trips.
There is one night with Foley that the priest says he can't even recall.
"I have to confess, I was going through a nervous breakdown," he told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. "I was taking pills - tranquilizers. I used to take them all the time. They affected my mind a little bit."
CALIFORNIA
The Orange County Register
By PEGGY LOWE
The Orange County Register
A Catholic priest has pulled his name from consideration for placement on a county board after he became a "distraction" because of his role in the Orange County Diocese's sexual abuse scandal.
Monsignor John Urell on Wednesday asked his sponsor, Supervisor Bill Campbell, to withdraw his reappointment to the county's human relations commission after several days of outrage from abuse victims and politicos.
Urell made the decision "after spending time praying for guidance" and felt the attention would distract from the commission's work, Campbell said.
The move is a quick reversal by Campbell, who earlier in the week defended his choice. Campbell, who attends St. Norbert's Parish where Urell is pastor, said the priest has been hurt by this recent criticism much like he was after he spoke of the diocese's role in the priest-pedophile scandal last year.
GOZO, MALTA
di-ve news
by Chris Galea, di-ve news
GOZO, Malta (di-ve news) -- October 20, 2006 -- 1215CEST -- Gozo bishop Mgr Mario Grech has contacted the Archdiocese of Miami to ask for information as the Gozo Curia has launched an investigation into the allegations that a Gozitan priest had sexually abused a page boy back in the 1960s while serving in the US.
Media reports have claimed that the Gozitan priest had sexually abused former US Congressman Mark Foley, when he was still a 13-year-old boy.
Mgr Grech has instructed the Curia Response Team to investigate these allegations according to the policies established by the Maltese Ecclesiastical Province with regard to cases of sexual abuse in pastoral activity and present him with a report.
FLORIDA
Pink News
20-October-2006
Tony Grew
A 72-year-old Roman Catholic priest has admitted to a series of sexual encounters with a teenage Mark Foley, but denied the relationship was abusive.
The Daily Telegraph reports that Fr Anthony Mercieca became close to Foley while he was working as a priest at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Lake Worth, Florida, in the late 1960s.
Disgraced Republican Congressman Foley was forced to resign after his lurid email and instant message contacts with teenage Congressional pages came to light last month.
HAWAII
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
By Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.com
Honolulu Catholic Bishop Larry Silva is one of 178 American bishops named in a lawsuit that seeks disclosure of the names of 5,000 Catholic priests identified as child molesters, with the action taken against each one by their bishops.
The civil suit was filed in Wisconsin by the family of Dan O'Connell, whose investigation into sexual abuse by a parish priest in Hudson, Wis., allegedly led to O'Connell's murder in February 2002.
Court papers were served on the Honolulu bishop recently, notifying him that he is a defendant in the lawsuit that initially named the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Tom O'Connell Jr., brother of the slain man.
America Magazine
Formation and Human Development
By Gerald D. Coleman, S.S.
Liguori. 141p $19.95 (paperback)
The Sulpician priest Gerald D. Coleman is to be commended for this volume. In it he shares with the Catholic community at large not only his long-term experiences as a rector, professor and guide for seminary life, but also his keen insights into the practical needs of priestly formation. Catholic men who are thinking about priesthood, as well as those who are the current evaluators of priestly formation, need to consider this volume in depth.
Catholic Priesthood is well organized, beginning with the theology of a vocational call and with the profile of those who are responding to this call today (Chapters 1 and 2). Coleman then moves to the issue of screening those who believe God is calling them (Chapter 3). On this basis, he looks at a broader picture of human formation and human sexuality (Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7). This lengthy section is clearly the main part of his volume. To all of this he adds appendices of great practical value. These appendices focus on a candidate’s code of ethics, his sexual history and the signs or cautions regarding possible sexual abuse of minors. This is a book not only for those who believe they have been called to the priesthood, but also for those who share in the discerning of such calls, including bishops, seminary faculties and parish lay leaders.
ROME
Gainesville Sun
The Associated Press
October 20. 2006 6:01AM
ROME - A priest acknowledged Thursday that he was naked in saunas and went skinny-dipping with Mark Foley decades ago when the former congressman was a boy in Florida, but denied that the two had sex.
The Rev. Anthony Mercieca, 69, speaking by telephone from his home on the Maltese island of Gozo, made his comments after the Sarasota Herald-Tribune published an interview in which he described several encounters that he said Foley might perceive as sexually inappropriate. Mercieca said the Florida newspaper report was "exaggerated."
"We were friends and trusted each other as brothers and loved each other as brothers," Mercieca told The Associated Press in Rome. Asked if their association was sexual, the priest replied: "It wasn't."
ROME
CNN
ROME, Italy (AP) -- The diocese of Gozo said it was opening an investigation after a Roman Catholic priest on the Maltese island said he was naked in saunas with Mark Foley when the former U.S. congressman was a boy in Florida.
The Rev. Anthony Mercieca, 69, also acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press that he went skinny-dipping with Foley, but denied that the two had sex.
Foley, a 52-year-old Florida Republican, resigned from Congress last month after the release of his sexually explicit computer messages to young male pages.
After Foley's resignation from Congress, his lawyer said that Foley was an alcoholic, gay and had been molested as a boy by a "clergyman." Foley's civil lawyer, Gerald Richman, said the alleged abuser was a Catholic priest whose name he shared with Florida state prosecutors.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com
WORCESTER— An 82-year-old retired priest about to be released from prison after being convicted of molesting young boys more than 20 years ago is too old and too sick to take part in a sex-offender treatment program as ordered by the court, according to his lawyer.
Rev. Paul M. Desilets, known to his victims as “Father Hands,” was sentenced in May 2005 to 1 to 1 1/2 years in state prison after pleading guilty in Worcester Superior Court to multiple counts of indecent assault and battery on a child, indecent assault and battery and assault and battery.
The sentence was imposed by Judge Timothy S. Hillman after Rev. Desilets admitted to sexually assaulting 18 male victims from 1978 to 1984, when they were altar boys at Our Lady of the Assumption parish in Bellingham and he was associate pastor there.
In addition to imposing the prison term, Judge Hillman, now a federal magistrate judge, placed Rev. Desilets on probation for 10 years following his release from custody. As conditions of probation, the retired Roman Catholic priest was ordered to have no contact with his victims and no unsupervised contact with anyone under age 18. He was further ordered to undergo any sex-offender counseling deemed appropriate by the court’s Probation Department.
WORCESTER (MA)
Canoe
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) - A retired Roman Catholic priest from Quebec who has spent more than a year in U.S. prison after pleading guilty to molesting boys at a Bellingham, Mass., church more than 20 years ago is asking a judge to excuse him from court-ordered sex offender treatment because he is too old and sick.
Rev. Paul Desilets, 82, plans to return to his religious community, Les Clercs de St. Viateur in Joliette, Que., and is "too elderly and infirm" to participate in counselling, his lawyer, Dennis Kelly said in the motion, scheduled to be heard Friday.
"Father Desilets' advanced age and infirm physical condition render him incapable of participating in a treatment program. Further, sex offender treatment would serve no useful purpose because he will not be in a position to have contact with children at the Les Clercs de St. Viateur infirmary," Kelly wrote in his motion.
Desilets is scheduled to be released from prison Monday.
CALIFORNIA
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
October 19, 2006
As reported by the Catholic News Agency, the Catholic bishops of California have publicly criticized America magazine and attorney/law professor Marci Hamilton for a "recent article on clergy abuse in the United States."
According to the CNA story, "the bishops describe Hamilton as 'one of the most vociferous and bitter critics of the Catholic Church' and state that America magazine just provided her with 'a forum to publish a new plaintiffs' brief.'" The bishops assert that Hamilton's article "is skewed and not based on evidence."
In response the bishops' statement, Hamilton sent the following (slightly edited) letter to America:
To the editor: There is little need to respond to Bishop Chaput's or Fr. Blaire's responses to my article, 'What the Clergy Abuse Crisis Has Taught Us' (Sept. 25), because their specious objections to child abuse legislative reform were anticipated and rebutted in the article. Suffice it to say that the Church continues to be the primary obstacle to legislative reform to protect children from childhood sexual abuse. I would, however, invite Fr. Blaire to be more specific he says that my book, God vs. the Gavel, 'makes extravagant claims . . . that are not sustained by the evidence.'
ROME
ABC 12
ROME (AP) - - (10/19/06)-- A Catholic priest insists that his relationship with a young Mark Foley wasn't sexual.
But he says the two used to go naked in a sauna.
Reverend Anthony Mercieca tells The Associated Press he was "friends" with Foley when the future congressman was a boy in Florida. Mercieca says they "loved each other as brothers."
While denying their relationship had a sexual nature, he insists it wasn't unusual for a priest and young boy to be naked in a sauna, saying, quote, "everybody does that."
NEW YORK
Editor & Publisher
By Joe Strupp
Published: October 19, 2006 3:00 PM ET
NEW YORK The Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune this afternoon stood by its story about a priest who had an intimate relationship with disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley -- after the priest complained to the Associated Press that the paper "exaggerated" the relationship.
Chris Davis, investigations editor for the Herald-Tribune, also criticized AP for initially writing about the priest's reaction to the story without seeking comment from the paper. "I wish they had contacted us first," Davis told E&P. "The tone that comes across in their story might lead you to believe our story was exaggerated when it wasn't. If they had called us first, the tone of their story might have changed."
AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll said AP contacted the paper and included comment from Executive Editor Mike Connelly in updated versions of the story today. "It was all breaking this morning," said Carroll. "There may have been some time when it was on the wire without their comment, but they were properly displayed in the story."
She said the first comments from the paper were added in just 50 minutes after the first AP report was released.
FLORIDA
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Officials at the Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office confirmed this afternoon that Anthony Mercieca is the priest U.S. Rep Mark Foley says abused him as a boy. Mercieca’s identity was first reported by the Herald-Tribune.
The priest, who now lives in Gozo, an island near Italy, told the Herald-Tribune Wednesday that he had an intimate two-year relationship he had with Foley in the late 1960s.
Foley’s attorneys revealed the name Wednesday evening to Palm Beach prosecutors, but the state attorney’s office did not confirm the name until today.
Legal experts say there is little chance the priest could be criminally prosecuted because the statute of limitations had passed.
Mercieca told the Herald-Tribune that he massaged Foley while he was naked as a boy in Lake Worth. He also said he took Foley on many overnight trips and sometimes was naked in the room with him. The two went skinny dipping together several times, Mercieca said. Today he told the Associated Press and other news outlets that he never had sex with Foley.
Officials with the Archdiocese of Miami said Wednesday afternoon they still had not been told the name by official sources.
FLORIDA
Times Daily
TAMPA, Fla.
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune's pursuit of a Roman Catholic priest who admitted an inappropriate relationship with a disgraced congressman 40 years ago took on the trappings of the Watergate investigation with a source agreeing to a code that would confirm information.
The newspaper reported Thursday that sources close to former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley's family said Foley had "one sexual encounter that took place when Foley was 12 or 13." The paper did not disclose the identity of its sources.
Matthew Doig, one of the reporters who broke the story, said Thursday that the source would not name the priest, but agreed to confirm the name if the reporters could find the man themselves. He and colleague Maurice Tamman used church records and the Internet to identify about half a dozen priests who might have had contact with Foley decades ago when he attended Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
Tamman then read the names to the source, who agreed to hang up the phone if the reporters hit the right name. The same technique was used by Washington Post reporters to confirm sensitive information and protect sources in the Watergate scandal.
The source hung up when Tamman mentioned the Rev. Anthony Mercieca, Doig said Thursday.
MALTA
Malta Media News
Oct 19, 2006, 17:17 CET
A priest who resides in Gozo has admitted to an intimate two-year relationship he had with former United States Republican Congressman Mark Foley around 40 years ago. Speaking to The Herald Tribune Fr. Anthony Mercieca described a series of encounters that he said Mark Foley might perceive as sexually inappropriate. The priest who is now 72, said that he befriended Mark Foley after moving from Brazil to Florida in 1966. The incidents allegedly took place when Foley was an altar boy at Sacred Heart Catholic Church and attended the parish school.
Mark Foley resigned from the US Congress last month after a number of suggestive e-mails to young male pages were uncovered. The former Congressman has said soon after his resignation that he had been molested as a boy by a "clergyman."
Speaking on Tuesday, Foley's civil lawyer, Gerald Richman told reporters the alleged abuser was a Catholic priest whose name he planned to share with the church on Wednesday.
FLORIDA
CNN
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A priest whom former Rep. Mark Foley reportedly has accused of molestation almost four decades ago said Thursday that he fondled the lawmaker as a teen but it wasn't abuse because Foley "seemed to like it."
"Once maybe I touched him or so ... but I didn't -- it's not something you call rape or penetration or anything like that," Father Anthony Mercieca said in a phone interview with CNN affiliate WPTV from his home on the Maltese island of Gozo in the Mediterranean.
Mercieca earlier told The Associated Press that a Florida newspaper "exaggerated" the inappropriateness of his and Foley's relationship.
"He seemed to like it, you know? So it was sort of more like a spontaneous thing," Mercieca told WPTV, a West Palm Beach, Florida, station.
Mercieca, however, rejected the idea that he sexually abused Foley, saying, "See abuse, it's a bad word, you know, because abuse, you abuse someone against his will. But it involved just spontaneousness, you know?"
FLORIDA
KAIT
The priest who says he was naked in the sauna with a young Mark Foley insists that "everybody does that." And he doesn't think there's anything unusual about going on overnight trips with a young boy.
Why would the Reverend Anthony Mercieca (mur-see-AY'-kuh) say such things? A former priest who studies the sexual practices of priests has an explanation.
According to Richard Sipe, abusive priests often deny their activities are sexual. He says they often manage to convince themselves that only intercourse itself would violate their vows of celibacy.
Sipe spent 18 years as a priest and Benedictine monk. He's gone on to study sex abuse in the church, has testified in trials, and has written books including "Sex, Priests and Power."
FLORIDA
Washington Post
By Howard Schneider and Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 19, 2006; 2:00 PM
A retired priest from Malta acknowledged today that he had intimate contact with a youthful Mark Foley that involved nudity and -- on at least one occasion -- "light touching," but denied that he and Foley had "sexual intercourse."
The Rev. Anthony Mercieca, in a telephone interview with The Washington Post from the Maltese island of Gozo, said he was surprised that his long-ago interaction with Foley had become linked to the scandal that erupted last month and cost the former congressman his job .
Foley, who served as an altar boy at the Sacred Heart Catholic church in Lake Worth, Fla., when Mercieca was assigned there in the mid-1960s, resigned from Congress after reports about sexually intimate electronic messages he had sent to Congressional pages. Following his resignation, Foley entered alcohol rehabilitation, said he was gay, and alleged that he had been sexually abused by a member of the clergy as a youth.
This morning the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, citing confidential sources close to Foley's family, identified Mercieca as the priest in question. Though Mercieca confirmed his past ties to Foley to the Herald-Tribune and in the Post interview, the Post could not confirm that Foley was referring to Mercieca in his allegations, or whether there may be another priest involved.
ROME
The Sierra Times
By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer
ROME - An elderly priest acknowledged Thursday that he was naked in saunas with Mark Foley decades ago when the former congressman was a boy in Florida, but denied that the two had sex.
The Rev. Anthony Mercieca, 69, speaking by telephone from his home on the Maltese island of Gozo, said a report in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune about their encounters was "exaggerated."
"We were friends and trusted each other as brothers and loved each other as brothers," Mercieca said. Asked if their association was sexual, the priest replied: "It wasn't."
His comments came after the Florida newspaper published a story on Thursday in which he described several encounters in the 1960s that he said Foley might perceive as sexually inappropriate. Those included massaging the boy in the nude, skinny-dipping together at a secluded lake in Lake Worth and being nude in the same room on overnight trips.
MIAMI (FL)
Catholic News Service
MIAMI (CNS) -- Although the Archdiocese of Miami had not yet been given the name of the priest who allegedly abused former Congressman Mark Foley some 40 years ago, a Florida newspaper has identified the priest as Father Anthony Mercieca, 72, who now lives on the Maltese island of Gozo.
Father Mercieca, who served for 38 years in the Archdiocese of Miami, said in an interview with the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald Tribune that he and Foley "loved each other like brothers" when the priest was assigned to Sacred Heart Parish in Lake Worth in the late 1960s.
Although the priest said he was never accused of sex abuse in any of the seven U.S. parishes where he served, he admitted that some of his behavior with Foley might have been considered sexually inappropriate. He said the two had been naked together on overnight trips and skinny-dipped in a Lake Worth lake and that the priest had given massages to a naked Foley when the former congressman was in his early teens.
NEWARK (NJ)
USA Today
NEWARK (AP) — A Bible camp counselor and a Boy Scout leader were among 125 people arrested nationwide in an Internet child pornography case in which subscribers purchased photos and videos of children engaged in sex acts with adults, federal authorities said Wednesday.
The case originated in New Jersey, but quickly spread to 22 states. The defendants were charged with either possession or receipt of child pornography. Additional arrests were expected.
Prosecutors said the website alerted subscribers that its content was illegal and urged them to be discreet about their purchases.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Catholic News Agency
Los Angeles, Oct. 18, 2006 (CNA) - The Catholic bishops of California have united to send a sharp letter to the editor-in-chief of the Jesuit magazine America, claiming that attorney Marci Hamilton’s recent article on clergy abuse in the United States is skewed and not based on evidence.
Hamilton is an attorney for the plaintiffs in sex abuse cases and a professor at Yeshiva University in New York. Her article, “What the Clergy Abuse Crisis Has Taught Us”, was published under editor Fr. Drew Christiansen, SJ, in America’s Sept. 25 edition.
In their letter, the bishops describe Hamilton as “one of the most vociferous and bitter critics of the Catholic Church” and state that America magazine just provided her with “a forum to publish a new plaintiffs’ brief.”
GOLDEN (CO)
TheDenverChannel.com
GOLDEN, Colo. -- A former Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year old boy is due to be arraigned in court Thursday.
Timothy Joseph Evans, 43, of Loveland, Colo., is accused of molesting the teen between 1995 and 1997 at Spirit Of Christ Catholic Community Church in Arvada, Colo.
According to a Jefferson County Grand Jury indictment, the teen was questioning his religious beliefs and as part of his research, checked out a book from a local library on the satanic bible. The teen's father, who was active in church, found the book in his backpack and suggested that he meet with Evans.
The teen met with Evans for guidance and counseling and during the meeting, Evans allegedly suggested that he lie on the floor. The teen, who said he was wearing a T-shirt and shorts at the time, told investigators that Evans began touching him and rubbing his chest. Evans commented that the teen had a "barrel chest," and rubbed his chest, arms, thighs and calves, the indictment alleges.
LOUISIANA
KLFY
Charges against the Port Barre priest accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from his congregation have been officially dropped.
That's according to St. Landry Parish district attorney, Earl Taylor.
In a statement released Wednesday by Taylor's office, it says prosecutors have officially dropped charges against Father Charles Nicholas Trahan.
Trahan was arrested a week and a half ago by Port Barre police and charged with theft of $56,000 from the Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church.
OPELOUSAS (LA)
The Advocate
By RICHARD BURGESS
Advocate Acadiana bureau
Published: Oct 19, 2006
OPELOUSAS — The St. Landry Parish District Attorney’s Office cleared a Port Barre priest on theft charges Wednesday, saying an investigation has found no evidence against him.
The District Attorney’s Office also issued a statement contradicting accusations by Port Barre police that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette was uncooperative in the investigation of the Rev. Charles Nicholas Trahan.
“The Diocese of Lafayette initiated and cooperated with the investigation and the record contains no evidence of it or any of its employees or representatives obstructing or impeding that investigation,” First Assistant District Attorney Frank Trosclair said in a written statement.
CALIFORNIA
Stockton Record
Anna Kaplan
Record Staff Writer
Published Thursday, Oct 19, 2006
This audio file includes quotes from attorney Larry Drivon, who represented two of Oliver O’Grady’s victims and won a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton. He called O’Grady’s interviews with filmmaker Amy Berg “chilling.”
NEW YORK
New York Daily News
BY BARBARA ROSS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A defrocked Episcopal priest who molested a teenage boy in Central Park and at a private school where he worked was sentenced to one to three years in prison yesterday - but not before the victim's mother blasted him.
"Bruce Jacques molested my son, an emotionally disturbed 16-year-old," the mother said, describing the "pain and depression" that resulted for her and her child.
The woman, whose name is being withheld to protect her son, said she had searched for a long time to find a school where her son would be comfortable.
"I thought he would be safe there," she said, referring to the Robert Louis Stevenson School on the upper West Side.
NEW YORK
News Times
NEW YORK (AP) -- A fired high school administrator and defrocked New Milford, Conn., priest who molested an emotionally disturbed teenage student in Central Park was sentenced Wednesday to one to three years in prison.
State Supreme Court Justice Rena Uviller sentenced Bruce Jacques, 57, on his guilty plea last month to two counts of third-degree criminal sex act, calling him "an exploiter and victimizer of the weak."
Jacques, captured in April after being on the run for months in places as distant as Malaysia, admitted that he performed a sex act on the 16-year-old boy, first in his Manhattan school and hours later in Central Park.
Jacques was dismissed as an Episcopal priest in New Milford for propositioning a 13-year-old boy, said Assistant District Attorney Kerry O'Connell.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times
October 19, 2006
BY LISA DONOVAN Staff Reporter
A Chicago Catholic priest has been charged with felony theft for allegedly stealing close to $200,000 from his parish and spending it on European vacations, trips to Neiman Marcus and liquor.
On Wednesday, the Rev. Mark Sorvillo, knowing he was about to be arrested, turned himself in to Chicago Police and was charged, said John Gorman, a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office. Sorvillo was expected to spend the night in the Cook County Jail and make his first court appearance today.
In February, the Archdiocese of Chicago removed Sorvillo as pastor of St. Margaret Mary Church in West Rogers Park over what officials called "misappropriation of funds."
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Carlos Sadovi and Gerry Doyle
Tribune staff reporters
Published October 19, 2006
The former pastor of a Far North Side church whose financial struggles were highlighted during a round of school closings two years ago has been charged with stealing nearly $200,000 from the parish's coffers to pamper himself, officials said Wednesday.
Rev. Mark Sorvillo, 54, who was pastor of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, 2324 W. Chase St., until February, took the money between 1998 and February of this year, said John Gorman, a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office.
Sorvillo is charged with felony theft and could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted. He is expected to appear Thursday in Bond Court.
Sorvillo resigned from his post at the parish in February, said Susan Burritt, a spokeswoman for the Chicago archdiocese. Burritt said she does not know Sorvillo's current status as a priest and was not aware of his arrest until a reporter contacted her Wednesday night.
The parish's fiscal troubles first came to light in winter 2004 when Sorvillo told parishioners that the church's school was insolvent and would have to reopen as a charter school, sources said.
FLORIDA
Herald-Tribune
By MATTHEW DOIG and MAURICE TAMMAN
matthew.doig@heraldtribune.com
maurice.tamman@heraldtribune.com
A Catholic priest told the Herald-Tribune on Wednesday about an intimate two-year relationship he had with former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley when the congressman was a teenage altar boy living in Lake Worth.
From his home on the island of Gozo, near Italy, Anthony Mercieca described a series of encounters that he said Foley might perceive as sexually inappropriate.
Among them: massaging Foley while the boy was naked, skinny-dipping together at a secluded lake in Lake Worth and being naked in the same room on overnight trips.
One night, when Mercieca says he was in a drug-induced stupor, there was an incident he says he can't clearly remember that might have gone too far.
WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic
By CHRIS BRISTOL
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
Jim Cannel could not hold back the tears as he tried to explain to a federal judge that he's not a predator, despite the way it looked.
Here's the way it looked: youth pastor in Selah. Possession of child pornography. Camp counselor. Dirty talk online with someone in Seattle he knew as Tim. On his church computer.
He thought Tim was 12.
"Your honor, I'm totally appalled by my behavior," Cannel told U.S. District Judge Edward Shea on Wednesday. "I don't know why I didn't see it right away."
"But I would never hurt a child. Never."
To which Shea had this to say: "No man goes into a chat room called 'men4boys' unless he wants to have sex with boys." ...
At his arrest, Cannel told investigators that he had between five and 10 pornographic images on the computer he kept at the church and admitted trading those images over the Internet. He soon resigned his position at Selah Covenant Church, where he had worked for four months.
CALIFORNIA
Malaysia Sun
Big News Network
Wednesday 18th October, 2006 (UPI)
Alleged sexual-abuse victims are calling on the Catholic Church to find a former California priest who admits in a new movie he molested children.
Oliver O'Grady was deported to Ireland five years ago, but reportedly has left the country amid outrage over the documentary Deliver Us from Evil. In the film, O'Grady freely admits being overly affectionate with young parishioners and apologizes for having offended them.
In the 1970s and '80s, while serving as a parish priest in several central California towns, O'Grady reportedly molested children over and over again, both boys and girls, including, it is reported, a 9-month-old.
FLORIDA
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
By Scott Travis
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted October 19 2006
Former Congressman Mark Foley's attorneys said Wednesday they turned over to Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer the name of the priest who allegedly abused their client in the 1960s.
Gerald Richman, Foley's civil lawyer, and David Roth, a criminal lawyer, said in a release this was a joint decision after discussions with attorneys for the Archdiocese of Miami.
The statement also said they do not think the clergyman lives in the United States.
WPTV-Ch. 5 reported that the priest lives in Ireland and is not well known in Palm Beach County.
CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times
October 19, 2006
Dana Parsons
The plan today was to bat around the question of public redemption.
Who's entitled to it, and who isn't?
I even had my poster boy picked out: Msgr. John Urell, a former influential Orange County Roman Catholic diocesan official inextricably linked to the cover-ups during the 1980s and 1990s surrounding sexually predatory priests. For the last couple of years, Urell has been operating under the radar screen as a member of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, in addition to his day job as pastor at St. Norbert's Catholic Church in Orange.
This week, the radar picked him up again. When Urell's two-year commission appointment came up for renewal, opponents came forward and vehemently spoke against him.
And there was our issue: Did Urell's indisputable role in the conspiracy of silence disqualify him from serving on a public board? Or should he have been allowed to serve and make a public contribution as some sort of payback for his earlier bad judgments?
FLORIDA
Miami Herald
BY MARC CAPUTO
mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com
Attorneys for disgraced former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley gave Palm Beach County prosecutors the name of the Catholic priest who allegedly abused their client when he was a boy.
In a one-paragraph written statement issued Wednesday, attorney Gerald Richman said the lawyers believe the priest who committed ''sexual misconduct'' no longer lives in the United States. Richman issued the statement after telephone conversations with attorneys for the Archdiocese of Miami and the Diocese of Palm Beach.
A spokesman for Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer said the office will not release the name of the suspect at this time. Krischer spokesman Mike Edmondson said a criminal case will be tough to prosecute because the statute of limitations on the as-yet-undescribed crime probably has passed.
''In cases of abuse, we need a specific allegation, and we don't have one right now,'' Edmondson said. ``The victim would have to file a complaint, detail what occurred, when it happened and where.''
CALIFORNIA
FindLaw
By MARCI HAMILTON
Thursday, Oct. 19, 2006
Several weeks ago, Jeff Anderson, a leading clergy abuse litigator, filed a civil suit in southern California against Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles and Bishop Rivera of Mexico. The 25-year-old plaintiff was the child victim of sexual abuse by a priest under Rivera's and Mahony's watch.
Rivera, the suit alleges, sent the Mexican priest - a known predator - north to California, where Mahony placed him in a position with ready access to children. When it started to become known that this priest was abusing children, Mahony assisted the priest in evading justice, by failing to report the abuse to authorities, thereby helping him to leave the United States before the authorities could arrest him.
The story is not unlike the stories of the shuffling of perpetrator priests within the United States, except that, in this case, the shuffling crossed international lines. But what makes the case extraordinary is the way the Mexican government has treated Anderson; his associate, Michael Finnegan; and theAbuse Tracker Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, David Clohessy.
FLORIDA
Herald-Tribune
Tom Lyons
In the wake of the resignation by U.S. Rep. Mark "Chats Dirty With Teen Boys" Foley, the big question in Congress has been who knew what, and when, and yet did nothing.
The Catholic Church should have been facing questions, too, about why it didn't seem very fired up to learn more.
When Foley resigned and apologized, he didn't give many specifics about what he was apologizing for. But he did offer what was widely taken as an attempt at explaining or excusing himself after the exposure of his smutty electronic sex chat with teen boys.
He said he had been molested, at about age 13 to 15. By a clergyman.
LOUISVILLE (KY)
The Courier-Journal
By Peter Smith
psmith@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville has released its final accounting of more than four years of sexual-abuse related litigation that rocked the church and cost it $29.7 million.
With the last of the abuse-related lawsuits resolved in April, the archdiocese is now -- for the first time since April 2002 -- free of litigation seeking financial damages for abuse by priests and others associated with the church.
(One lawsuit, filed in Wisconsin in August, is pending but seeks no money -- only the names of all abusers throughout the country.)
In an interview this week, Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly downplayed the significance of the accounting milestone.
"I would not use the expression 'closing the books,' " he said. "... I'm hoping that we have reached the victims. They are the primary concern in all of this. I hope we've got them all, but if we haven't, the door is always open and we're always anxious
FLORIDA
Miami Herald
BY MARC CAPUTO
mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com
Attorneys for disgraced former congressman Mark Foley say they've just given Palm Beach County prosecutors the name of the Catholic priest who allegedly abused their client when he was a boy.
In a one-paragraph written statement, attorney Gerald Richman said the lawyers believe the priest who committed ''sexual misconduct'' no longer lives in the United States. Richman issued the statement after telephone conversations with attorneys for the Archdiocese of Miami and the Diocese of Palm Beach.
A spokesman for Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer said the office will not release the name of the suspect at this time. Krischer spokesman Mike Edmondson said a criminal case will be tough to prosecute because the statute of limitations on the as-yet-undescribed crime has probably passed.
''In cases of abuse, we need a specific allegation and we don't have one right now,'' said Edmondson. ``The victim would have to file a complaint, detail what occurred, when it happened and where.''
New York Press
By Jennifer Merin
Deliver Us From Evil
Directed by Amy Berg
Amy Berg’s documentary, Deliver Us From Evil, is a compelling exposé of the Catholic Church’s schemes to cover up its clergy’s rampant child abuse. The film focuses on the history of Father Oliver O’Grady, the notorious pedophile priest who raped and sodomized hundreds of boys and girls aged nine months through adolescence, and one adolescent victim’s mother, over the course of 20 years. During this time, church superiors avoided exposure to scandal by reassigning him from one California parish to another, never punishing him and failing to prevent his ongoing predatory behavior.
O’Grady was eventually tried and incarcerated. He was deported to Ireland after his release from prison, where he now lives comfortably in retirement, still ordained, enjoying his pension, roaming freely.
Berg uses archival footage as well as new interviews to reveal O’Grady’s flippant attitude. Oozing indifference, he’s utterly without remorse about his heinous behavior and the devastation he caused his victims and their families. In contrast, as they recall O’Grady’s actions, the victims and their families erupt with anguish and anger—and enormous frustration that there’s been no prosecution of LA’s Cardinal Roger Mahony who, according to the film, knew of O’Grady’s crimes but did nothing to stop them. And it’s easy to understand their rage: Mahony still rules the LA Archdiocese.
THAILAND
Bangkok Post
The clergy has now found a new culprit for its own weaknesses: The lack of a criminal law to punish stray monks. Before this, newshounds were the usual culprits. It is not uncommon to hear senior monks blasting the media for tainting the clergy's image by sensationalising the sexual misconduct of monks and other temple scandals.
While arguing that stray monks were merely a few rotten apples, the clergy even tried to sponsor a law to punish the media for showing senior monks in a bad light.
They must bite their tongues, however, when such criticism comes from the direction of Privy Councillor Kasem Watanachai.
In a recent public talk, Prof Kasem said that many Thais are now reluctant to go to the temples because they cannot distinguish the good monks from the bad.
ST. PAUL (MN)
Yahoo!
ST. PAUL, Minn., Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- 178 Catholic Bishops have been named as defendants in an unprecedented civil child sex abuse lawsuit brought by the family of a murdered Wisconsin man. The following Bishops have recently been served with the lawsuit:
Edwin O'Brien, Archdiocese for the Military Services, U.S.A.
Roger Schweitz, Archdiocese of Anchorage (AK)
Gerald Kicanas, Diocese of Tucson (AZ)
Allen Vigneron, Diocese of Oakland (CA)
Catholic World News
Oct. 18 (CWNews.com) - The defrocked California priest who was the central figure in a controversial documentary film about the Church sex-abuse crisis has disappeared, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Oliver O'Grady, a former priest of the Stockton diocese who had been living in Ireland since serving a prison term in California for molesting children, reportedly left his home there, shortly before the opening of a film in which he is the central character.
STOCKTON (CA)
KCRA
STOCKTON, Calif. -- Sex abuse victims are demanding action from the Catholic church following the release of a documentary on a convicted Northern California priest.
Rev. Oliver O'Grady was imprisoned and later deported to Ireland, but he's now missing and it's believed he may be headed to Canada.
O'Grady allegedly molested 25 children, but the number could be as high as 50. Some of his victims have won multimillion-dollar settlements against the church, but most said they just carry the emotional scars.
On Tuesday, members of SNAP -- the Survival Network of those Abused by Priests -- left a letter for Stockton Bishop Stephen Blaire to help with information that could lead to finding O'Grady.
CALIFORNIA
Lodi News-Sentinel
By Ross Farrow
News-Sentinel Staff Writer
Last updated: Wednesday, Oct 18, 2006 - 06:34:05 am PDT
Women who say they were sexually abused by former Lodi priest Oliver O'Grady said Tuesday they were outraged and concerned that the priest has reportedly fled Ireland and could be making his way to Canada.
The Irish Independent newspaper reported this week that O'Grady may have left Ireland and possibly went to France on his way to Canada. According to the Independent, Ireland's national police service, known as An Garda Síochána, believes that O'Grady has left the country.
Several women who said they were abused by priests attempted to deliver a letter to Stockton Diocese Bishop Stephen Blaire at his office, but a receptionist said Blaire was in Chicago on Tuesday. He is expected to return to Stockton today. The letter called on Blaire to do whatever he can to help alert parishioners that O'Grady may be returning to North America.
IRELAND
One in Four
The Irish Times
The Irish Christian Brothers have described themselves as "saddened and ashamed" at the treatment of a now deceased former resident at the Letterfrack industrial school in Co Galway, and said they "apologise unreservedly to all who suffered similar hurt".
In a statement to The Irish Times they said the man concerned, Peter Tyrrell, had failed in his lifetime to receive an adequate response from any authorities to issues he raised was "a matter of deepest regret for the Christian Brothers".
They added "the hope in all of this is that all those responsible for the care and education of children today will accord all children the dignity that is their right."
UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News
A North Somerset parish priest has appeared in court charged with 15 sex offences against seven boys.
The Rev David Smith, 51, vicar of St John the Evangelist in Clevedon, is alleged to have committed the offences between September 1976 and May 2005.
He faces nine charges of indecent assault, two of gross indecency, one of incitement to gross indecency, one of grooming and two sexual assaults.
CULPEPER (VA)
Star Exponent
Liz Mitchell
Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
In Circuit Court Monday, Judge John R. Cullen separated the seven charges facing Charles Shifflett into four trials.
Shifflett, 55, is pastor of First Baptist Church of Culpeper. He pleaded not guilty last month to charges of physical and sexual abuse against children that allegedly occurred nearly 20 years ago at his former Culpeper church - Cavalry Baptist - and its adjacent K-12 private school.
The first trial is scheduled for Jan. 17. Two other trials will follow in January and the final trial is scheduled for Feb. 28. During court proceedings, the commonwealth moved to combine six of the charges into one case and try the final charge separately.
MISSOURI
Neosho Daily News
By John Ford / Daily News Associate Editor
Published: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 4:53 PM CDT
After hearing testimony from one witness, Newton County Associate Circuit Court Judge Greg Stremel bound a Granby pastor over for trial.
George Otis Johnston, 63, the pastor of Grandview Valley Independent Baptist Church, faces nine felony counts child sexual abuse charges. A former member of Johnston's church, now 20, alleges the pastor fondled her breasts and genitals at least once a week for several years while she was a child, with some of the alleged contact occurring while he was tutoring the girl in algebra.
“He told me I needed to become one of his angels,” the woman testified. “He said this was a way he would take care of me. He told me not to worry, that the Virgin Mary was not really a virgin when she had the Christ child, that a man of God had impregnated her, and he was a man of God.”
MANSFIELD (LA)
The Times-Picayune
10/18/2006, 12:19 a.m. CT
The Associated Press
MANSFIELD, La. (AP) — Burchum Paul Warren, 50, pastor of South Oak Grove Assembly of God Church, was indicted Tuesday for the aggravated rape an 11-year-old girl over a period of months, DeSoto sheriff's Lt. Toni Morris said. Warren has been pastor of the church for 15 or more years.
The victim, a relative and church member, reported the alleged abuse to a teacher. As a mandated reporter, the teacher notified the sheriff's office. Child Protective Services and sheriff's investigators jointly interviewed the girl earlier this month.
"This child had the courage enough to approach a teacher at school to report this, Morris said. "One of the things she told her teacher is `No one is going to believe me because of who he is and what he does."
MANSFIELD (LA)
The Shreveport Times
October 18, 2006
By Vickie Welborn
vwelborn@gannett.com
MANSFIELD "" The pastor of a small country church in the Stanley community was indicted Tuesday for the aggravated rape of an 11-year-old girl.
Burchum Paul Warren, 50, pastor of South Oak Grove Assembly of God Church, is accused of sexually assaulting the girl over a period of six months this year, DeSoto sheriff's Lt. Toni Morris said. Warren has been pastor of the church for 15 or more years.
The victim, a relative and church member, reported the alleged abuse to a teacher. As a mandated reporter, the teacher notified the sheriff's office. Child Protective Services and sheriff's investigators jointly interviewed the girl earlier this month.
"This child had the courage enough to approach a teacher at school to report this. "» One of the things she told her teacher is, "No one is going to believe me because of who he is and what he does,'" Morris said.
The alleged abuse took place from March through September.
FLORIDA
South Florida News-Sentinel
By Lois K. Solomon
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted October 18 2006
Every week, churchgoers drop their money into collection plates, trusting it will pay expenses and help the poor.
The money typically disappears into the hands of an usher, who bags and deposits it in a safe place before volunteers count it.
But who are the volunteers? Who does the counting? Who brings the treasure to the bank? Who makes sure what's deposited is the same as what's collected?
After a former priest at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach told police last month that he misappropriated thousands, possibly millions, from the weekly offertory, some are questioning what happens after they pass that plate through the pews.
"I always trusted the church would take care of my money," said Jackie Fiorenzi, a parishioner of Ascension Catholic Church in Boca Raton. "Now that this has happened, it makes you wonder."
LOUISIANA
KSLA
A DeSoto Parish pastor has been indicted for the aggravated rape of an 11-year-old girl.
50-year-old Burchum Paul Warren is a pastor at South Oak Grove Assembly of God Church in Mansfield. The victim reportedly told a teacher about the abuse which allegedly happened over a period of months. Investigators seized Warren's laptop, which they say contained sexual images that corroborated the victim's statement.
DUBUQUE (IA)
WHO
DUBUQUE, Iowa The Diocese of Davenport may have declared bankruptcy recently, but church officials in the nearby Archdiocese of Dubuque say they have no financial concerns.
The archdiocese' finance officer, Rick Runde, says anything is possible, but that's not likely that Dubuque will have financial problems. He says the archdiocese is on solid ground financially.
The Diocese of Davenport was the fourth U-S Catholic diocese to file for bankruptcy in the face of mounting financial settlements with victims of clergy sexual abuse. So far the diocese has paid more than 10-million-dollars against dozens of claims filed against priests.
In Dubuque, the archdiocese agreed to a five-million-dollar settlement in February with 20 men and women who were abused by diocesan clergy, but there are no sexual abuse claims pending.
MIAMI (FL)
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
By Lois Solomon
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted October 18 2006
A 39-year-old man sued the Archdiocese of Miami on Tuesday, saying two priests sexually abused him in the early 1980s.
One of the accused priests, the Rev. Gustavo Miyares, was prominent in the Elián González case in 2000. He organized a prayer vigil and said some saw the boy as "the new Christ."
The man, who called himself John Doe in the lawsuit, said he met the priests, Miyares and the Rev. Pedro Jove, at a summer camp at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach when he was 14. The priests gave him alcohol and forced him into sex acts, including fondling, oral sex and sodomy, which took place at the camp, the priests' rectory and a Keys condominium, according to the lawsuit.
WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
By Mike Clary and Peter Franceschina
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted October 18 2006
West Palm Beach · Disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley will reveal to the Archdiocese of Miami the name of the Roman Catholic priest he says abused him almost four decades ago, his attorney said Tuesday.
Gerald Richman, speaking at a West Palm Beach news conference, said Foley will agree to counseling provided through the church as a part of his recovery from alcoholism and sexual abuse.
"This is all part of the healing process for Mark Foley," Richman said.
FLORIDA
NBC 6
HIALEAH, Fla. -- A priest resigned Tuesday on the same day the attorney of a former altar boy who claimed he was sexually abused by two priests filed a lawsuit against the archdiocese.
The lawsuit claimed the boy, who once dreamed of being a priest, was abused by two priests when he attended summer camp at the St. Vincent De Paul church in Boynton Beach when he was 14 years old.
"This boy was attending a camp that was designed to attract young kids who might be interested in the Catholic Church, interested in becoming priests," said the alleged victim's lawyer, Jeff Herman. "They invited him to their rooms. They gave him alcohol. Eventually, that led to sexual abuse."
FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post
By Jose Lambiet
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
While former U.S. Congressman Mark Foley now says he'll reveal the name of the priest who allegedly molested him, a disgraced former Lake Worth churchman who took pictures of naked altar boys says he's been aware of the abuse for years.
It's just that he could never tell a soul.
Willie Romero, 69, resigned from the Catholic Church three years ago amid rumors of sexual shenanigans with some of the boys who helped him say Mass.
The Archdiocese of Miami paid out $1.5 million to his alleged victims.
One received $135,000.
Enter Romero's nephew, Lake Worth resident Mike Callahan. As Romero struggled with his own scandal, Callahan bought the priest's North K Street home while the padre moved to LaBelle. Callahan says he was cleaning the attic when a set of 20 disturbing Polaroids turned up in a box.
FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post
By Lona O'Connor
Palm Beach Post Religion Writer
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
A former altar boy has accused two Miami-area priests of molesting him at a boys' camp at St. Vincent de Paul Seminary near Boynton Beach in the early 1980s. The accusations are part of a lawsuit seeking $25 million from the Archdiocese of Miami, its Archbishop John Favalora and the Seminary of St. Vincent de Paul.
One of the two accused priests, Gustavo Miyares, was the long-standing pastor of Immaculate Conception parish in Hialeah. He resigned Oct. 6, the same day archdiocesan officials confronted him with the allegations, said archdiocesan spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta.
She called the allegations against the 59-year-old Miyares "credible."
Archdiocesan officials received a letter outlining the allegations Oct. 4 and phoned the alleged victim within an hour, Agosta said. An archdiocesan official flew to his hometown to meet him and his wife and to offer psychological and spiritual counseling. In his letter and in the face-to-face meeting, the man made no demands and did not mention any plans to sue the archdiocese. Agosta said there was no warning of the lawsuit before she heard about it Tuesday.
MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald
Gustavo J. Miyares, a Cuban exile whose family fled the island in 1960, was ordained as a priest in the Archdiocese of Miami in 1973.
• His first parish was Our Lady Queen of Peace Mission in Delray Beach. ''Father Gus'' later became a spiritual director at St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami and then served as director of vocations for the archdiocese.
• In 1983, he was assigned to St. Mary's Cathedral in Miami. The following year, he was named pastor of St. Timothy's Church in Southwest Dade County.
MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald
BY JAY WEAVER AND ALFONSO CHARDY
jweaver@MiamiHerald.com
A former altar boy who once wanted to become a Roman Catholic priest claims he was sexually abused by two priests in the Archdiocese of Miami in the early 1980s and that church officials covered up the assaults.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, the former South Florida resident -- identified only as ''John Doe No. 25'' because he was a minor at the time -- claims that when he was about 14, the Revs. Gustavo Miyares and Pedro Jove sexually assaulted him at a Palm Beach County seminary, a Miami rectory and a condominium in the Florida Keys.
Miyares, a longtime prominent priest, resigned immediately. Jove, who left the archdiocese two decades ago and formally left the priesthood a dozen years ago, said he had never heard these allegations before.
CALIFORNIA
Sacramento Bee
By Jennifer Garza and Jonathan Pinkerton -
Last Updated 12:16 am PDT Wednesday, October 18, 2006
A former Stockton priest who speaks candidly about molesting children in a new documentary is believed to have left his home in Ireland, and his victims are calling on Roman Catholic Church leaders and law enforcement authorities to help find him.
Oliver O'Grady reportedly has left Ireland, where he had lived the past five years, amid outrage in that country surrounding the documentary "Deliver Us From Evil."
The film, which has rallied victims of clergy abuse and angered church officials, opens Oct. 27 in Sacramento.
"Not knowing where he is is horrible. Thinking of him coming back here, thinking of the people who defend him to this day, saddens me," said Nancy Sloan at a press conference Tuesday in front of the Stockton diocesan headquarters.
Sloan, who says she was abused by O'Grady when she was a child, is now active in Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
In "Deliver Us From Evil," O'Grady admits -- and graphically describes -- sexually abusing numerous children throughout the Central Valley during his time as a priest in the Stockton Diocese, where he served for 20 years beginning in the 1970s.
ARIZONA
The Arizona Republic
Jahna Berry
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 18, 2006 12:00 AM
A former parish priest could receive nearly two years in prison for seducing a teenage boy from St. Mary's Catholic Church in Chandler in the 1980s.
Joseph Briceño, 60, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of sexual conduct with a minor on Tuesday.
Under a plea agreement, one count carries a maximum penalty of 1.875 years in prison and the second count carries a maximum penalty of three years' probation. advertisement
Briceño's sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 15.
MIAMI (FL)
Herald-Tribune
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIAMI, Fla. -- A man who claims he was sexually abused by two priests in the 1980s sued the Archdiocese of Miami for negligence and concealing the abuse, his attorney said Tuesday.
The 39-year-old man identified as John Doe No. 25 said he met the priests, Rev. Gustavo Miyares and the Rev. Pedro Jove, at a summer camp at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach when he was 14, the lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court said.
"These priests took an interest in him and began to groom him," Jeffrey Herman, the accuser's attorney was reported as saying by The Miami Herald. "Ultimately, they invited him to their rooms. They gave him alcohol. Eventually that led to sexual abuse."
The alleged abuse took place at the camp, the priests' rectory and a condominium in the Keys, Herman said.
FLORIDA
Herald-Tribune
By MATTHEW DOIG and MAURICE TAMMAN
matthew.doig@heraldtribune.com
maurice.tamman@heraldtribune.com
An attorney for former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley announced Tuesday that the man he claims abused him as a teenager is a Catholic priest and he plans to reveal the name to the church.
At a press conference, attorney Gerald Richman said Foley intends to work with the Archdiocese of Miami "for the purpose of revealing the name of the particular priest who was involved so that the archdiocese can then deal appropriately with the issue."
Diocese officials said Tuesday night they had not talked to Foley and had not yet received a name. Until they do, they have no plans to investigate the accusations, said spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta.
"That would be impossible to do," Agosta said. "We hit a wall if we don't have a name."
CALIFORNIA
Union-Tribune
By Mark Sauer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 18, 2006
Nicki Rister said she was 17 when the parish priest, the Rev. Patrick O'Keeffe, coaxed her into having sex. The year was 1972, and Rister was a member of the choir at St. Adelaide Catholic Church in the San Bernardino suburb of Highland.
Details of the alleged molestation will be revealed in a downtown courtroom beginning Jan. 17. Rister's case against the Diocese of San Diego (of which San Bernardino was once a part) will be the first of five abuse lawsuits against Catholic priests to be tried here.
Superior Court Judge John Einhorn ruled Monday that Rister's case would be followed with three others by men who say they were molested in the 1970s.
The fifth case released for trial after nearly three years of unsuccessful mediation has been assigned to another judge.
SANTA ANA (CA)
Orange County Register
By PEGGY LOWE
The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA – The Orange County Board of Supervisors postponed a vote Tuesday to reappoint a priest involved in an infamous child abuse scandal to the county's human relations commission.
The nomination of Monsignor John Urell was tabled after the board heard descriptive testimony from one of the victims in the case against the Orange County Diocese. Urell was named as one of the officials accused of covering for the diocese's pedophile priests during the 1990s – a lawsuit that lead to a record $10 million settlement last year.
Urell, who is now pastor at St. Norbert's Parish in Orange, was placed on the commission two years ago by Supervisor Bill Campbell, who is a member of the same church. Earlier this week, Campbell defended his decision to again nominate Urell, saying the priest had done a good job with commission work.
That angered Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, who said she was shocked that the board would consider such a man for the panel.
FLORIDA
All Headline News
October 17, 2006 8:34 p.m. EST
Josephine Roque - All Headline News Staff Writer
Washington, DC (AHN) - Former Congressman Mark Foley, who alleges he was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic clergyman, will reveal the identity to the Archdiocese of Miami.
Foley's attorney Gerald Richman said criminal charges can no longer be filed because the statute of limitations on sexual assault has already expired. It was the archdiocese that asked for the information.
"We're talking about issues that happened 36 to 38 years ago," Richman said. "This is all part of the healing process for Mark Foley. He thinks it's important to go ahead and bring this information out and hope and encourage other people who have been similarly abused to go ahead and come forward."
Richman said the revelations will silence critics who have said that Foley, 52, fabricated the abuse allegation after he was investigated for the sexually explicit electronic messages he sent to teenage male pages.
WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
Beacon Journal
BRIAN SKOLOFF
Associated Press
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley, who claimed he was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic clergyman when he was a teen, will reveal the man's identity to the Archdiocese of Miami, his attorney said Tuesday.
No criminal charges can be filed because the statute of limitations on sexual assault expired long ago, but the archdiocese requested information about Foley's accusations, attorney Gerald Richman said.
"We're talking about issues that happened 36 to 38 years ago," Richman said. "This is all part of the healing process for Mark Foley. He thinks it's important to go ahead and bring this information out and hope and encourage other people who have been similarly abused to go ahead and come forward."
FLORIDA
Forbes
By BRIAN SKOLOFF
Disgraced former U.S. Congressman Mark Foley has revealed to the Archdiocese of Miami the name of the Roman Catholic clergyman he says abused him as a teenager, a close friend of Foley's said Tuesday.
The name was not made public and it was not immediately clear whether the person was still active in the church or is alive.
Foley's civil attorney Gerald Richman was to make the announcement at a news conference Tuesday evening, the friend told The Associated Press, on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the case.
MANSFIELD (LA)
The Shreveport Times
October 17, 2006
By Vickie Welborn
vwelborn@gannett.com
MANSFIELD – The pastor of a small country church in the Stanley community was indicted today for the aggravated rape of an 11-year-old girl.
Burchum Paul Warren, 50, pastor of South Oak Grove Assembly of God Church, is accused of sexually assaulting the girl over a period of months, DeSoto sheriff’s Lt. Toni Morris said. Warren has been pastor of the church for 15 or more years.
The victim, a relative and church member, reported the alleged abuse to a teacher. As a mandated reporter, the teacher notified the sheriff’s office. Child Protective Services and sheriff’s investigators jointly interviewed the girl earlier this month.
“This child had the courage enough to approach a teacher at school to report this. … One of the things she told her teacher is “No one is going to believe me because of who he is and what he does,’” Morris said.
PHOENIX (AZ)
East Valley Tribune
By Gary Grado, Tribune
October 17, 2006
A former associate pastor at Chandler's St. Mary's Catholic Church pleaded guilty Tuesday to having sex with a teenaged parishioner more than 23 years ago.
Under terms of the plea agreement, The Rev. Joseph Briceno probably won't spend much time beyond his Dec. 15 sentencing day behind bars, his lawyer, Karla Momberger said.
Briceno, who admitted in Maricopa County Superior Court to committing two sex acts on different occasions on a 17-year-old boy in 1983, will be sentenced under laws from that period, which allow for a prisoner's time to be cut in half for good behavior.
The law changed in 1994 requiring convicts to serve 85 percent of their sentences.
PHOENIX (AZ)
KVOA
PHOENIX -- A former Catholic priest being tried on charges that he sexually abused a teen more than 20 years ago reached a plea deal with prosecutors Tuesday.
Joseph Briceno pleaded guilty to two felony counts of sexual conduct with a minor and faces up to 1.8 years in prison on the first count and three years probation on the second count, said William FitzGerald, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. He also will have to register as a sex offender.
The county attorney agreed to dismiss four other counts of sexual conduct with a minor, one count of attempted sexual contact and one count of sexual abuse.
MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald
BY JAY WEAVER AND ALFONSO CHARDY
jweaver@MiamiHerald.com
A former altar boy who once thought of becoming a Roman Catholic priest claims he was sexually abused by two priests in the Archdiocese of Miami in the early 1980s and that church officials covered up the assaults -- even after the clergy sex-abuse scandal erupted four years ago.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, the former Miami-Dade resident claims that when he was a teen, the Revs. Gustavo Miyares and Pedro Jove sexually assaulted him at a Palm Beach County seminary, a Miami rectory and a condominium in the Keys.
The accuser's lawyer scheduled a news conference for this afternoon in front of Miyares' parish.
Miyares, 59, the longtime pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Hialeah, did not return a call for comment and his office referred questions to the Miami archdiocese. A parish receptionist told The Miami Herald that the archdiocese ``has taken him out and he has resigned.''
PHOENIX (AZ)
AZFamily
12:28 PM Mountain Standard Time on Tuesday, October 17, 2006
The Associated Press
PHOENIX -- A new development in the case of a former Catholic priest in Chandler accused of sexually abusing a teenaged boy more than 20 years ago.
Joseph Briceno went on trial last Wednesday on six counts of sexual conduct with a minor, one count of attempted sexual contact and one count of sexual abuse.
Today, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office said Briceno pleaded guilty two count counts of sexual conduct with a minor. Under the plea agreement, it says, Briceno faces up a maximum of 21 months in prison when he's sentenced Dec. 15.
AUSTRALIA
ninemsn
Tuesday Oct 17 22:20 AEST
Sydney's Anglican church has sent a strong message to the public on the issue of child abuse and sexual misconduct within its ranks, voting unanimously for a new disciplinary ordinance.
Clergy and laity gathered in Sydney for the diocese's annual synod passed the ordinance, put forward by Diocesan Professional Standards Unit director Phillip Gerber.
The ordinance, born out of a series of recommendations put forward by the national synod in 2004, outlines a series of processes for receiving, investigating and handling complaints of child abuse and sexual misconduct within the church.
Key in the new procedures was the appointment of a non-church member to a committee for reviewing complaints and the workings of the mechanism, Mr Gerber said.
IRELAND
One in Four
The Irish Times
Clerical child sex abuse, falling Mass attendance, an ageing clergy and the Northern peace process are likely to dominate talks between Ireland's Catholic bishops, the Pope and senior Vatican officials in Rome during the next two weeks.
The bishops yesterday began their first ad limina visit to Rome in seven years. Between now and October 30th they will report in detail to the Pope and senior Vatican officials on the situation of the church in Ireland.
All Catholic bishops in charge of a diocese are required to make an ad limina visit to Rome every five years.
FLORIDA
Boca Raton News
Published Tuesday, October 17, 2006
by By Dale M. King
The bishop of the Palm Beach County Catholic Diocese – already reeling from accusations of grand theft against two Delray Beach priests – has become embroiled in the Mark Foley email sex situation.
Bishop Gerald Barbarito has sent a letter to David Roth, Foley’s attorney, asking him to clarify a comment that Foley made, alleging that a priest in the diocese molested him some 40 years ago.
“Until such time as you identify the alleged perpetrator, all clergy that served in Palm Beach County have been needlessly placed under suspicion,” the bishop said in his letter.
Since the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People was adopted by the United States Roman Catholic Dioceses in 2002, “bishops have encouraged victims of child abuse to come forward [and] identify the alleged perpetrator.”
CULPEPER (VA)
The Free Lance-Star
By DONNIE JOHNSTON
The Culpeper minister accused of child endangerment will face four separate trials early next year.
Culpeper County Circuit Court Judge John Cullen yesterday denied a prosecution motion to enjoin six of the seven counts against Charles V. Shifflett into a single trial.
Commonwealth's Attorney Gary Close's office had sought to try the seventh and final charge, which is sexual in nature, as a separate case.
Orange County attorneys Charles Bowman and Sammy Higginbotham, representing Shifflett, were seeking six separate trials, combining only two counts that involved the same alleged incident against the same complainant.
UNITED KINGDOM
Bicester Advertiser
By Andrew French
A VICAR and governor at a primary school in Oxford is facing 20 child sex charges.
Father Michael Wright, 69, vicar of St Barnabas Church in Jericho since 1980, has been suspended by the Oxford Diocese following a police investigation into the alleged offences, which date back more than 30 years.
He also stood down from his role as a governor at St Barnabas Primary School in Jericho. The school in Hart Street is church-aided.
Yesterday, Wright appeared for a preliminary hearing at Reading Crown Court, charged with five counts of a serious sexual offence and 15 counts of indecent assault against a young boy. He was released on conditional bail.
MISSOURI
Neosho Daily News
By John Ford / Daily News Associate Editor
Published: Monday, October 16, 2006 5:22 PM CDT
An attorney for George Otis Johnston entered a not guilty plea to eight felony sexual abuse charges during his arraignment this morning.
Andy Wood, defense attorney, said his client wished to waive formal arraignment and entered the plea before Newton County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Perigo. Johnston appeared with his attorney, but did not speak during the brief proceeding.
Perigo then set a pre-trial conference for 9 a.m. Monday, Oct. 30, which will be held in his Division I courtroom.
MINNESOTA
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Pamela Miller, Star Tribune
Last update: October 16, 2006 – 10:17 PM
Mexico has put out the "not welcome" mat for St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson.
Anderson said Monday that he and two colleagues will fight an order by Mexican immigration authorities banning them from entering the country for five years. Anderson, whose specialty is representing victims in clergy sex abuse cases, learned of the ban Friday.
On Sept. 20, he scuffled with immigration authorities during a Mexico City news conference about a lawsuit that accuses two Roman Catholic cardinals, Norberto Rivera, of Mexico, and Roger Mahony, of Los Angeles, of conspiring to protect a priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of children in Mexico and California. The suit was filed on behalf of a 25-year-old man who claims to have been raped by the priest in 1994.
Anderson was in Mexico with fellow St. Paul attorney Michael Finnegan and David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
IRELAND
The Mayo News
Fr Kevin Hegarty
I like the RTÉ series ‘Reeling Back the Years’. I don’t recall a programme on 1981. I have, however, a clear memory of that year.
There were notable happenings on the Irish and world calendar - the Stardust disaster, Charles Haughey’s first general election as leader of Fianna Fáil, the Long Kesh hunger strike and the failed assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. It was also the year of that memorable Harp advertisement of the lonely Irish engineer in the Middle East recalling how Sally O’Brien might look at him in the local pub.
In the summer, I and my classmates in the Diocese of Killala were ordained. The event merited no national headlines, only a few paragraphs of purple prose and a photograph in ‘The Western People’! It is only now when ordinations to the Catholic priesthood in Ireland are as rare as calling corncrakes in an Irish meadow field that they generate any national media interest. ...
Since 1981 we have met with realities that were never predicted. We are witnessing the final decay of the old model of Catholicism in Ireland. We have failed, so far, to create a new model that resonates with the needs of our society in the 21st Century, and also challenges its consumerist mores. Since the 1990’s the dark litany of clerical sexual abuse cases has seriously undermined the image of the Catholic priesthood in Ireland.
CANADA
Ottawa Citizen
Jennifer Green, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Tuesday, October 17, 2006
CORNWALL - Victims of clergy sex crimes have called on the Catholic Church to defrock convicted priests, maintain a public list of their names in the Canadian Catholic Directory and better co-ordinate counselling services.
They made the appeals at a press briefing in Cornwall yesterday, not far from the Nav Canada Centre where Canada's 80 or so bishops are holding their annual meeting this week.
One of the victims brought along a T-shirt printed with a photo of herself as a smiling child of about 10 years old. Beneath the picture, black lettering said: Innocence Betrayed.
Carol Mieras, now 40, is a serious-looking woman who is no longer Catholic; in fact, she does not go to church at all.
She told reporters about the pain and frustration she felt when nobody would listen to her. Ms. Mieras told her elementary school principal when the abuse occurred, and finally two police forces. When she discussed the situation with her bishop, "I was told, 'you seem to be doing OK, so let's not talk about it'."
CALIFORNIA
Orange County Register
By PEGGY LOWE
The Orange County Register
A lawyer for victims of priest pedophiles on Monday called for the removal of Monsignor John Urell's re-nomination to a public board because of the priest's "unforgivable conduct" during the sexual abuse scandal.
Urell, who currently serves on the county's human relations commission, was named in the high-profile lawsuit as a leader who helped cover up the Orange County Diocese's pedophile problem in the 1990s. That lawsuit set a record when it was settled for $10 million in May 2005.
Urell is up for reappointment of a two-year term today at the weekly Board of Supervisors meeting and was nominated by Supervisor Bill Campbell. The commission of race, faith and other minorities works on issues like diversity training in the schools.
John Manly, the victims' attorney, sent a letter to Campbell Monday, saying he was "horrified" that Urell serves on a board that interacts with children.
ST. PAUL (MN)
WCCO
(AP) St. Paul A lawyer who's been banned from entering Mexico for five years has vowed to keep up his efforts to fight for victims there of sexual abuse by the Roman Catholic clergy.
"In that culture, there is a reverence toward the Catholic Church that makes it a taboo to even speak of a priest abusing, much less a bishop covering up that abuse," attorney Jeffrey Anderson told reporters Monday. "We're here to break that taboo."
Anderson, his colleague Mike Finnegan and a leader of an abuse survivors group were detained in Mexico City last month after announcing a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles alleging that Archbishop Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera conspired to protect a priest who had molested a Mexican youth.
Last week, Mexican immigration authorities banned Anderson, Finnegan and David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, saying they violated terms of their tourist entry visas.
WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic Online
By Mark Pattison
10/16/2006
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) – The director of a new documentary recounting how a now-laicized priest repeatedly sexually abused children in California has provoked a war of words between the director and the chief spokesman for Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, who is portrayed in the movie as having ignored the priest's deeds.
This war of words is being played out in that area of the Internet known as the blogosphere, where essays and opinions can be posted at any time.
In one corner is Amy Berg, who wrote and directed "Deliver Us From Evil," which details the abuses by Oliver O'Grady, a former priest of the Diocese of Stockton, Calif. In the other is Tod Tamberg, director of media relations for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Cardinal Mahony headed the Stockton Diocese from 1980-85. He was named to head the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in July 1985, and "it was not until 1993 that accusations were made leading to O'Grady's arrest and eventual sentencing to prison," Tamberg said.
SYRACUSE (NY)
The Advocate
Associated Press
Published October 11 2006
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A Syracuse minister was sentenced to prison Wednesday for having an illegal sexual relationship with a teenage member of his congregation.
Jaree Jones, 30, had pleaded guilty to second-degree rape of the 14-year-old girl. He was sentenced to two to six years in state prison.
Jones led the Refuge Temple Church of Syracuse.
The relationship lasted from October 2004 to March 2005 and took place at his home and at church, where the girl's family attended.
NEW ZEALAND
tvnz
Oct 16, 2006
Two Catholic clergymen have lost their battle to avoid extradition from Australia to face historic sex abuse charges in Christchurch.
The High Court has refused St John of God Clergymen Raymond Garchow and Roger Moloney the right to appeal against their extradition.
Moloney, 71, and Garchow, 58, are alleged to have committed sex offences against young boys in Christchurch between 1971 and 1980.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
GARDAI believe paedophile ex-priest Oliver O'Grady has fled the country, possibly to France, and may be en route to Canada.
One in Four founder, Colm O'Gorman, last night appealed to the Government to cooperate at European and international levels in exchanging information on the movements of sex offenders between national jurisdictions. The head of the child abuse victims' group also wants the Government to make the national sex offenders register more effective.
Last week there was public outrage and alarm here when publicity surrounding an American television documentary showed pictures of him ogling young children in Dublin's Merrion Square and at an unnamed school. On the documentary, 'Deliver of Us from Evil', O'Grady (60) admitted he still gets sexually aroused at the sight of children and showed no remorse for abusing 25 children when he was a parish priest in California.
SEATTLE (WA)
The Seattle Times
By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter
For one victim, compensation came in the form of checks hand-delivered from the highest-ranking Jesuit in the Pacific Northwest.
John McKinley, of Olympia, had contacted church officials about two years ago, saying he had been abused as a boy by a since-deceased Jesuit priest. Over the next months, he talked with the Very Rev. John Whitney.
Whitney gave him an unsolicited check for about $100,000. About a year later, they signed a settlement for another $100,000.
BRICK (NJ)
Ashbury Park Press
BY KATHLEEN HOPKINS
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER — Five more plaintiffs have come forward to accuse a onetime pastor of St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Brick of molesting them when they were boys during the 1970s and 1980s.
That brings to 11 the number of men who are suing the church on Salmon Street and its officials over alleged sexual abuse.
Meanwhile, the clergyman at the center of the multimillion-dollar lawsuit, the Rev. Robert L. Slegel, who resigned as pastor of the church amid scandal in 1993, died Sept. 1 at age 77. He had been living in Southern Shores, N.C., near Kitty Hawk, according to an obituary prepared by Twiford Colony Chapel in Manteo, N.C.
Dover Township attorney Robert R. Fuggi Jr. filed the $30 million lawsuit against the church last year on behalf of six men who said they were molested by Slegel when they were boys in the 1970s. The suit named as defendants the church; two of its former pastors, identified in court papers only by their initials; the New Jersey Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
MARQUETTE (MI)
Ironwood Daily Globe
Published Sunday, October 15, 2006 4:35:20 PM Central Time
MARQUETTE -- The Catholic Diocese of Marquette is requiring new clergy, as well as diocesan, parish and Catholic school employees and volunteers who have regular contact with children or youth, or are in a position to observe those who do, to attend an awareness session for the prevention of child sexual abuse.
The free session, called Protecting God's Children for Adults, is being offered at various sites and on different dates throughout the Upper Peninsula from now until February 2007 (the schedule follows by vicariate).
Anyone who plans to work or volunteer with children or youth in the coming year and has not yet taken the training must take it during this time period. Interested persons in the local community are also welcome to attend.
AUSTRALIA
Radio New Zealand
Posted at 8:44pm on 16 Oct 2006
Two Catholic clergymen will be extradited to New Zealand to face sex charges after the Australian High Court refused a last-ditch bid to fight their extradition order.
Rodger William Moloney, 71, a brother with the St John of God Catholic order, and Raymond John Garchow, 58, a priest, are alleged to have committed sex offences against young boys at a Christchurch school between 1971 and 1980.
A Sydney magistrate last year ordered their extradition, but the decision was overturned on appeal to a Federal Court judge, who ruled it would be unjust to surrender them. New Zealand authorities then appealed that judgment, and earlier this month the full bench of the Federal Court confirmed the magistrate's extradition order.
On Monday, the men sought special leave to appeal the extradition order in the High Court - their last avenue of appeal - but it was turned down.
BY MIKE JACCARINO, JIMMY VIELKIND and ADAM LISBERG
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Msgr. Howard Calkins of Sacred Heart Church in Mount Vernon, greeting child after Mass, says most priests in archdiocese agree with letter criticizing Cardinal Egan.
Prayers for unity echoed through St. Patrick's Cathedral yesterday as embattled Edward Cardinal Egan prepared for today's meeting with aides - and one top monsignor denounced a challenge to Egan's leadership.
But in a nod to angry Catholic clergy throughout the Archdiocese of New York, Egan delayed the meeting time with his Priest Council so it would not conflict with the funeral of a popular priest. ...
Msgr. Howard Calkins of Sacred Heart Church in Mount Vernon told The News a majority of priests agree with the letter's sentiment - which he traced to clerics feeling abandoned by Egan when the sex abuse scandal exploded in 2002.
"The 2002 sexual abuse scandal wounded us and sent us into a tailspin," Calkins said.
Calkins said he believes some of the accused priests were innocent and some were not, but few believed they got a fair hearing from Egan.
DAVENPORT (IA)
WQAD
By John David
Within historic Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport on Thursday, one era ends.
"The Holy Father has accepted my resignation," said Bishop William Franklin, 76, who is retiring due to his age under church law.
And with a call from the Vatican, a 64-year-old from Ohio currently serving as Auxiliary Bishop in the Diocese of Cleveland will begin a new era as bishop.
"You've been praying for the new bishop," said The Most Rev. Martin Amos. "Now you can pray for him by name."
Welcome prayers as the diocese faces difficult times. There's a full plate of financial and legal issues to consider.
"Certainly the recent decision for bankruptcy is going to have serious implications over the months ahead," Amos said.
When Martin Amos becomes bishop on November 20th, he'll also inherit the dozens of lawsuits alleging priest sex abuse. So far, he's only had the chance to briefly discuss the serious issues with Bishop Franklin.
IOWA
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
October 16, 2006
If and when Michael Gould gets his day in Scott County District Court, he will have accomplished something that no Catholic short of the pope has managed — calling to account a U.S. Roman Catholic bishop accused of child sexual abuse.
On Friday, Judge C.H. Pelton indefinitely postponed Gould's lawsuit against retired Sioux City Bishop Lawrence Soens and the Diocese of Davenport. Earlier in the week, Pelton dismissed Iowa City Regina Education Center from the lawsuit, the same day the diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. That action precipitated the delay of the trial, which was scheduled to begin Oct. 23.
"The bankruptcy stopped any action in the trial against the diocese," said Craig Levien, Gould's attorney. "The judge continued the case because it would be costly to have two trials, one starting Oct. 23 against Soens and another at a later date against the diocese. We don't disagree with that."
The significance of the lawsuit, however, is not diminished by its delay.
Although about a dozen U.S. Roman Catholic bishops have been accused of sexual impropriety, none have been held publicly accountable in a state district court.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times
By Tom Saul | Sunday, October 15, 2006
Bishop William Franklin offers a succinct promise to contributors on the Diocese of Davenport’s Web site as the organization launches its annual fund drive for $3.64 million to pay for yearly operating expenses.
“We understand that parishioners are concerned about where their Annual Diocesan Appeal donations will be spent,” Franklin said. “Be assured that none of your appeal dollars will be used in lawsuits against the diocese.”
Its 84 parishes in 22 southeast Iowa counties will be expected to kick in $2.57 million of the total of this year’s drive over the next 12 months, the diocese says. That is about 70 percent of its operating budget.
“Money collected in the pledge envelopes is paid to the parish and is deposited into the parish account,” Franklin said in the message. “One-twelfth of the parish goal is sent to the diocese monthly beginning in October of 2006.”
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times
By Ann McGlynn | Sunday, October 15, 2006
Michl Uhde stood on the sidewalk outside of Sacred Heart Cathedral in the blustery wind.
It had been five decades since the sex abuse he accused Monsignor Tom Feeney of began in the stately cathedral behind him. It had been three weeks since a jury awarded him $1.5 million for the abuse he suffered at the hands of a priest.
It had been one day since the Diocese of Davenport filed for bankruptcy.
“Victims are not the enemy,” Uhde said while speaking about his reaction to the bankruptcy filing. “We are your sons, your brothers, fathers, uncles, nephews, friends, neighbors. We did not ask for money. We asked for answers. We asked the diocese to help us find out why this happened to us and why the priests and bishops responsible were never punished, but instead in many cases, they were promoted.”
Uhde’s was the first sex abuse case against the diocese to go to trial.
It probably will be the last.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | October 13, 2006
Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, declaring yesterday that ``the priestly vocation is in jeopardy," hailed as hopeful signs the decision by Pope Benedict XVI to elevate two local pastors to bishop and the arrival in Boston of the preserved heart of a sainted French priest.
O'Malley said he hopes the examples of the two priests being promoted, the Rev. John A. Dooher and the Rev. Robert F. Hennessey, and of the one who died 137 years ago, St. John Vianney, will inspire others to consider the priesthood. ...
But it was Dooher's history assisting at the chancery that drew criticism from leaders of Bishopaccountability.org, an organization that is compiling an Internet-based archive of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. Dooher is mentioned in a 2003 report by Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly as one of two priests who in the mid-1990s met with pastors in parishes affected by abuse cases. Dooher was named in a deposition by Bishop John B. McCormack as having participated in conversations in the Boston archdiocese in 1994 about where to house abusive priests.
``John Dooher abetted a harmful and immoral coverup for the Boston archdiocese," said Anne Barrett Doyle, codirector of BishopAccountability.org. ``Now he should lead it into an era of unprecedented honesty."
Archdiocesan spokesman Terrence C. Donilon said that from 1993 to 2000, Dooher had assisted the archdiocese in counseling and supporting accused priests and ``some survivors," but that ``at no time was Father Dooher in a position of decision-making authority with regard to accused priests."
TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By JAVAN KIENZLE
SPECIAL TO THE BLADE
SIN, SHAME & SECRETS. By David Yonke. Continuum. 240 pages. $26.95.
A joke in the publishing industry has it that three ingredients for a bestseller are royalty, sex, and the Church. Which means a sure-fire opening line is "•'Get your hand off my knee!' said the queen to the archbishop."
The subtitle to Blade religion editor David Yonke's evocative Sin, Shame & Secrets is: "The Murder of a Nun, the Arrest of a Priest and Cover-up in the Catholic Church." Is that sure-fire or what?
Sin, Shame & Secrets chronicles the events leading up to the 2006 imprisonment of the Rev. Gerald Robinson, 68, a Toledo Roman Catholic priest currently serving 15 years to life for the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.
The nun was killed, in what was described as a ritualistic slaying, on the day before Easter Sunday. Her body was found in the sacristy of the chapel of Mercy Hospital, and suspicion focused on Father Robinson, one of Mercy's two chaplains.
And here the waters get very murky.
NEW YORK
New York Daily News
BY THOMAS ZAMBITO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A Catholic priest who claims he was canned from his job at a parochial school for speaking out against clergy abuse wants to bump a federal judge off his case because of his ties to the Catholic Church.
The Rev. Robert Hoatson wants Manhattan Judge Paul Crotty to recuse himself from Hoatson's discrimination suit against the New York Archdiocese and Edward Cardinal Egan.
Hoatson says Crotty's wife, Jane, is involved in a real estate deal with the archdiocese and his brother Robert is the president of the Guild of Catholic Lawyers of the Archdiocese of New York.
"A Catholic judge whose family has financial and longstanding ties and close relations with a litigant adverse to me should take the reasonable or prudent step of removing himself from this case," Hoatson wrote.
IRELAND
One in Four
Convicted paedophile Oliver O’Grady asked the parents of one of his victims to go to their credit union and take out $4000 to pay his bail following his arrest back in 1993. They didn’t know at the time that he had terrorised their little girl from the age of five to 12.
The Limerick-born priest preyed on young boys and girls during the 70s and 80s in the diocese of Stockton in California. He admitted to abusing up to 25 young people. An award-winning documentary telling the story of the priest and his victims airs in the US this Friday.
The mother of one of O’Grady’s young victims, Ann Jyono, recently spoke about the horrific ordeal the Limerick priest put her family through.
Maria Jyono, who has lived in California for most of her adult life, told of how, as a young mother new to the area in 1970, she was thrilled to meet another Irish person at her church and welcomed O’Grady practically into her family.
IRELAND
One in Four
While other states make the location of sex offenders public, Ireland is a safe haven, writes Stephen Rogers
TOMORROW night cinema goers in the US will watch documentary footage of a convicted Irish paedophile priest ogling Irish children in a Dublin playground.
He is Oliver O’Grady. He is in Ireland and he is real threat to our children. He is also one of 971 individuals on this country’s sex offenders register. Do we have the right to be told where they live?
The public in the US are given this information, and, to a lesser extent, so are people in Britain. Many would argue that the public in Ireland should also be informed of where sex offenders live, especially as there are major loopholes in this country’s child protection laws.
However, children in Ireland are being put at a greater risk than elsewhere because our legislation relating to sex offenders is highly inadequate, with no powers to arrest sex offenders from overseas who do not comply with the sex offenders act.
IRELAND
One in Four
Irish Examiner
A DUBLIN school featured in a documentary on paedophile former priest Oliver O’Grady, expressly refused permission for the footage to be included.
Now the unnamed school has had to tell parents it will be broadcast to thousands on cinema screens across America this evening.
‘Deliver Us From Evil’, written by US producer Amy Berg contains accounts from O’Grady and a number of his victims, describing terrible crimes he inflicted on up to 25 children in his trust over almost 20 years.
IRELAND
One in Four
The Irish Times
The Department of Education has estimated that the final bill for compensation to victims of abuse in orphanages and industrial schools could be €1.2 billion.
The secretary general of the Department of Education, Brigid McManus, told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee yesterday that the average cost of awards made by the Residential Institutions Redress Board was now running at around €63,000.
She said the Department of Education had this year set out a contingency figure of €1.3 billion for the cost of the compensation scheme. However, the average cost of awards had reduced in recent months, and the department now estimated that the final bill would be around €1.2 billion.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
AN ULTIMATUM has been given to Dublin Catholic priests to report previously unrecorded allegations against child sex abusing clerics by today.
This firm deadline was issued by the Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin in a blunt letter to parish priests and their assistants under the seal of confidentiality.
In the letter sent late last month Dr Martin told priests belonging to the largest diocese in Ireland that they were required to disclose any documents in their possession, or on their parish files, about clerical sex abuse claims.
The Archbishop stressed that these notes might be relevant to the work of the Government Commission of Inquiry which has begun its investigation under Circuit Court judge, Yvonne Murphy.
BOSTON (MA)
San Luis Obispo Tribune
Associated Press
BOSTON - A bust of the Rev. Louis Toma, an icon at the East Boston church where he served for 50 years, has been removed by the Boston Archdiocese at the request of parishioners who said the late cleric sexually abused children.
About 16 people, including some who said they were victims, watched as the bust was lifted Friday from the grounds of St. Lazarus Church and a bulldozer pushed over its marble pedestal, The Boston Globe reported.
Women complained to Cardinal Sean O'Malley last year that Toma had abused numerous young girls during his decades as pastor and asked that the statue be taken down.
IRELAND
The Sunday Times
Sean O’Driscoll, New York
TWO Irish priests accused of stealing $8.6m (€6.8m) from parish funds in Palm Beach, Florida, put some of the cash into an investment company they called Shag.
But in what could be interpreted as a case of divine providence, Shag Inc lost thousands of dollars to a fraudulent mortgage broker, Florida police have discovered.
In a taped confession to detectives Fr John Skehan, 79, admits he bought properties in Ireland under his brother’s name. Originally from Johnstown, Co Kilkenny, Skehan also has a number of bank accounts in Ireland under the same name but refused to identify them and said they contain his own money.
DELRAY BEACH (FL)
Palm Beach Post
By Lona O'Connor
Palm Beach Post Religion Writer
Sunday, October 15, 2006
No matter how strict the official checks and balances, parish finance ultimately rests on one delicate point: trust.
Despite the rules for financial practices, which the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach tightened in 2003, two priests are alleged to have misappropriated more than $8 million from St. Vincent Ferrer parish in Delray Beach.
The Rev. John Skehan, pastor of St. Vincent for four decades, was charged late last month with grand theft.
The Rev. Frank Guinan, Skehan's old friend and his successor at St. Vincent, is expected to surrender to police later this month, after completing a vacation in Australia.
The two men are accused of using hundreds of thousands of parishioners' dollars for themselves and friends, for drinking, gambling, real estate investments and travel.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
After almost 32 years, the Rev. Diane Kessler is retiring from the Massachusetts Council of Churches.
By Michael Paulson | October 15, 2006
You have also worked with Cardinal Bernard Law, who was your friend. How do you think about him now?
One of the things that saddens me about his departure, or the manner in which he departed, is - as often is the case in situations like this - the good that someone does fades from memory, and what people are left with is whatever the disaster was. He did many good things here, and I think that slipped from public view because of the reasons for, and manner of, his departure, and that makes me sad.
NEW YORK
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
In response to the current controversy involving Cardinal Edward Egan, Father Robert Hoatson, whose lawsuit names the cardinal as a defendant, has issued the following statement:
It is heartening to learn that a significant number of clergymen in the Archdiocese of New York have concluded that the future success and holiness of the American Catholic Church rests on their efforts to hold their bishop accountable for the pastoral care of the people of God. The adjectives used to describe Cardinal Egan are the very same words that victims of clerical sexual abuse have used to describe bishops throughout the country as they have sought comfort and consolation for the damage done to them. And good priests who have tried to support victims and promote changes in the ways of bishops have been harassed, retaliated against, and marginalized.
Cardinal Egan has been perceived by his priests as being aloof and absent during the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001. After this tragic event, Cardinal Egan was thought by the priests to have abandoned New York City, leaving Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to become the shepherd of the people.
OpEd News
by Debby Bodkin
The clergy sex abuse crisis no longer involves "speculation" -- but "facts". The facts are now supported by civil and criminal public court records. Heinous sex crimes were committed against children and vulnerable adults. Soul murder destroyed thousands of lives.
Recently, ongoing media reports reveal broken promises that were made by religious, government and political leaders when the clergy sex abuse crisis erupted in 2002. Does a legal conspiracy exist amongst the politically-connected and the good 'ol boy networks? If so, does a conflict of interest exist? You decide.... recent broken promises...
* Former Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate conduct toward minor children and the announcement that Foley was a victim of clergy sex abuse as a child. (www.google.com search).
WHEN WILL FOLEY'S ATTORNEY NAME THE SEXUAL PREDATOR, IN THE INTERESTS OF PROTECTING CHILDREN TODAY?
MEXICO
Los Angeles Times
By John Spano, Times Staff Writer
October 15, 2006
An American lawyer was barred from entering Mexico after he sued the country's Roman Catholic archbishop, saying that he had conspired to protect a pedophile priest.
The five-year exclusion order was issued in Mexico City against Jeffrey Anderson, known for his many lawsuits against the Catholic Church on behalf of alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Last month, Anderson alleged that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles and Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico conspired to protect a priest who had molested a Mexican youth.
Anderson had been briefly detained in his hotel in Mexico City, where he announced the lawsuit.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
By Nancy McVicar
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Health Writer
Posted October 15 2006
The outrage over former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley's actions involving teenage pages in the House of Representatives has focused attention on children's vulnerability to adults who may prey on their trust and inexperience. But experts say the high-profile case involving a gay man and teenage boys may give people the impression that gay men are more likely to be child molesters than other people, which is not the case.
That misconception is one of many that health experts say are frequently reinforced by sex scandals that receive widespread media attention.
The Catholic priest scandals may have given impression that boys are more frequently targets of sexual predators than girls. Widely publicized cases such as the abductions, rapes and killings of two young Florida girls, Jessica Lunsford and Carlie Brucia, may suggest that abusers who prey on children are almost always men.
PORT BARRE (LA)
KATC
The Lafayette diocese is "under-cutting" claims by a retired Saint Mary parish priest that Father Nicky Trahan presided over an 80,000 dollar depletion of his former church's bank account.
Trahan is accused along with Secretary Ramona Speyer of ripping off his Port Barre church to the tune of about 64,000 dollars.
Yesterday KATC spoke with retired priest O'Neil Landry, who was replaced by Trahan in 1999 at Saint Joseph church in Centerville.
Landry said a 200,000 dollar church account was drained by about 80,000 dollars during Trahan's short stint at the church.
PORT BARRE (LA)
KATC
Oct 13, 2006 08:21 PM EDT
The Port Barre police department has dropped all charges against Father Nicky Trahan. The Chief says the Diocese isn't cooperating.
Trahan was accused with his secretary of stealing more than 64,000 dollars from sacred of heart of Jesus church. However, none of the witnesses are cooperating. KATC's David D'aquin has more on the surprising twist.
Port Barre police department believes that the door has been shut on any further investigation of father Charles Nicholas Trahan by a more powerful organization.
Port Barre police Chief David Richard says it was the diocese of Lafayette who asked his department to investigate missing funds from the Sacred Heart of Jesus church.
Now he says the diocese has become uncooperative.
DELRAY BEACH (FL)
Miami Herald
BY ALEXANDRA ALTER
aalter@MiamiHerald.com
When Delray Beach detectives reported this month that two former pastors of St. Vincent Ferrer allegedly embezzled $8.6 million from the church's coffers over 42 years, parishioners were stunned.
How had so much money gone unaccounted for? And, if the accusations prove true, how could the two priests skim millions from church funds to pay for lavish vacations, real estate and women without attracting much attention?
Catholic lay organizations and financial experts point to a lax accounting system that often allows priests and parish administrators to handle large amounts of cash with little oversight.
''It's a sad testimony to financial abuse, how finance abuse occurs in our church and why it occurs,'' said John-Campbell Barmmer, president of the Spirited Lay Action Movement Inc., a Miami-based organization that advocates greater financial transparency in the church.
PORT BARRE (LA)
The Daily Advertiser
Trevis R. Badeaux
tbadeaux@theadvertiser.com
PORT BARRE - Port Barre police announced Friday they will ask 27th Judicial District Attorney Earl Taylor on Monday to drop charges against a local Roman Catholic priest accused of 84 counts of felony theft.
However, the department, Chief David Richard said, will continue to investigate allegations that church secretary Ramona Speyrer stole about $56,000 from Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church between July 2004 and July of this year.
Speyrer, 50, of Arnaudville, was arrested on Oct. 3 and charged with 70 counts of felony theft. She was arrested again on Oct. 6 and charged with an additional 14 counts of felony theft. She was later released on bond.
Speyrer implicated the Rev. Charles Nicholas Trahan, 58, in the theft in an interview following her initial arrest.
Based on her accusations, the chief said, Port Barre police arrested Trahan on Oct. 6 and charged him with 84 counts of felony theft.
Trahan, known by church members and coworkers as "Father Nicky," was appointed to serve as pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus on July 1, 2003.
Investigators could find no further information to substantiate Speyrer's claims, Richard said, so department officials decided to drop the charges against the priest.
KAMMERER (KY)
The Courier-Journal
By Chris Kenning
ckenning@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
A Kammerer Middle School teacher arrested Wednesday on charges of seducing a child through the Internet has resigned, police and school officials said.
Ronald Borman, 59, who taught eighth-grade language arts, is accused of sending pornography to a detective in Clearwater, Fla., who was posing as a child during a sting. ...
Borman was ordained as a Franciscan priest in 1992, but had left the priesthood for unknown reasons by 1998, said Robert Baxter, secretary of a local Franciscan group.
MASSACHUSETTS
Cape Cod Times
By AMANDA LEHMERT
STAFF WRITER
Within a week, Catholic parishes in Woods Hole and Wellfleet will receive checks totaling more than $1.4 million - a long-awaited payment from a disgraced priest.
And the cash comes as good news for Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Wellfleet, which plans to break ground on a new church hall in April.
The payments - an estimated $1.1 million for St. Joseph's in Woods Hole and $300,000 for Our Lady of Lourdes - are part of a $1,445,884 settlement agreement between the Fall River Diocese and the Rev. Bernard Kelly. The settlement includes $72,900 for accounting and legal fees related to the case, according to a diocese spokesman.
Diocese officials sued Kelly in civil court after he admitted to misusing church funds in 2003.
MASSACHUSETTS
SouthCoastToday
FALMOUTH — The Upper Cape and South Coast affiliates of Voice of the Faithful will sponsor the seminar "Protecting Our Children" from 1:30 to 4 p.m. tomorrow at the Morse Pond School, 323 Jones Road.
The panel will consist of five lay people, each an expert in child protection, who will offer their suggestions, experiences and views, and explain the responsibility and challenges all share in protecting children.
The goal is to educate an audience of parents, grandparents, religious education personnel and others involved in the daily lives of children.
Guests include Paul F. Walsh Jr., district attorney of Bristol County; Dr. Larry Finnerty, assistant superintendent of special services in the New Bedford school system; Patricia T. Gomez, a member of theAbuse Tracker VOTF Protecting Our Children Working Group; Arlene A. McNamee of Catholic Social Services; and Cannen L. Durso, a member of the Massachusetts Bar.
The seminar is open to all. Refreshments will be served. For more information, call (508) 457-7565 or (508) 758-9578.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By David O'Reilly
Inquirer Staff Writer
Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham yesterday urged the General Assembly to pass a comprehensive sex-abuse protection bill now before the House, saying it is not targeted at the Catholic Church.
"The problem in Harrisburg is that powerful lobbies want to make it look like this is a plan or a program against one institution," Abraham told a conference at Temple University's Beasley School of Law. "But this is about children."
Abraham was followed by a half-dozen other local and national advocates for sex-abuse legislative reform, all of whom called on the Assembly to act before the current legislative session expires next month.
Billed as a "forum on child-abuse legislation," the event was sponsored by the state District Attorney's Association, the state chapter of the Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), the local chapter of the lay Catholic reform movement Voice of the Faithful, and by the new Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times
By Deirdre Cox Baker | Saturday, October 14, 2006
The Diocese of Davenport will send a united message to parishioners this weekend about bankruptcy, and the appointment of a new bishop, but how the words are delivered varies according to geography.
North and west of Davenport, priests have penned personal messages for the church bulletin that further explain the historic actions. In the metropolitan area, plans are to deliver two messages from retiring Bishop William Franklin verbally as part of the sermons.
Last Tuesday, the diocese announced it has filed for bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Iowa, Davenport. It is the fourth diocese in the United States to do so in the wake of the child sex abuse scandal.
Subsequently, Franklin learned the retirement he had offered on his 75th birthday in May 2005 was accepted by the Vatican and a successor had been chosen. On Thursday, Bishop Martin Amos of Akron, Ohio, was announced as the eighth leader of the 125-year-old Davenport diocese. He will be installed Nov. 20.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register
By ERIN JORDAN
REGISTER IOWA CITY BUREAU
October 14, 2006
The Davenport Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, which filed for bankruptcy this week, claims $4.5 million in assets, including a pastoral center, 26-acre farm, duplex, house, six vehicles and jewelry.
Those assets, listed in an 88-page petition filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, likely will be sold to pay people who say they were sexually abused by priests.
Diocesan possessions listed in the petition range from the sacred (a half-dozen crucifixes, 18-inch ivory statue of Mary and Child and a wooden altar) to the mundane (two push mowers, a set of plaid hand towels and a 10-cup Mr. Coffee). Also among items inventoried were: Two holy water stands, four cases of altar wine, 35 cartons of letterhead and envelopes, 44 computers, 60 phones and more than 3,000 books.
Diocesan jewelry held in a safe-deposit box includes an Episcopal ring from the Vatican II Council, a silver pectoral cross with a diamond, and two watches.
The Pilot
The news is filled with recent reports of adults exploiting minors.
Florida Republican Rep. Mark Foley resigned Sept. 29 after inappropriate electronic messages to a Congressional page were made public. Subsequently, more sexually explicit messages from the ex-congressman and a pattern of improper behavior with young men have arisen.
In Massachusetts, former city councilor David Scondras was arrested Oct. 9 after he arranged to meet someone he thought was a 15-year-old boy through the Internet. However, upon arriving at the pre-arranged meeting spot, he discovered the person behind the online identity was not a youth but a police officer. Scondras, who was reelected five times between 1983 and 1993, was an advocate for civil liberties and a Democratic activist.
Beyond the political arena, in the last few months several teachers in Massachusetts, otherwise highly respected in their local communities, have also been accused of engaging in sexual relations with minors.
The current scandals show how deep this problem runs in our society. Abusers do not belong to a particular ideology or religious creed, but will imbed themselves in any institution that provides cover for their reprehensible behavior.
Sexual abuse of minors remains a societal plague. We in the Catholic Church have painfully learned the terrible consequences this behavior has on the lives of the victims. In many instances the abuse sets the victims’ lives on a downward spiral leading to drug abuse, homosexual behavior and depression, ultimately resulting in prison, and even suicide.
NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Heald
Saturday October 14, 2006
By Patrick Gower
For Vincent Field, it was the highest honour a boy in the Exclusive Brethren could have - the chance to meet the Elect Vessel, the minister of the Lord in the Recovery, essentially God's man on earth.
So when John Hales graced Vincent's Christchurch congregation, the 10-year-old did exactly what he thought a boy in the Brethren should do.
He waited while other children and followers swirled around the Australian accountant whose face he knew from the pictures up in every Exclusive Brethren church and home. And when he came free, Vincent rushed up and gave him a $20 note.
"He barely even acknowledged me, he just took it and that was that," says Vincent, now 25. ...
The Exclusive Brethren are as closed as their churches when it comes to the media these days, stung by the scrutiny of their secretive foray into politics. Emerging from that scrutiny were allegations this week of covering up sexual abuse.
NEW JERSEY
Courier-Post
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Colleen Fitch looks like a perfectly respectable church-going woman, the kind of person parents can trust to watch over their children during Sunday services or to help their preschooler use the bathroom.
In fact, she is. And congregants at Sicklerville United Methodist Church know it because of the royal blue lanyard and photo ID card that swings from her neck. That means she has passed the fingerprinting and background check and has been trained to follow the church's new sexual abuse prevention policies.
Churches are often easy targets for pedophiles, said Fitch, a Winslow Township mother of three who is the church's director of children's and family ministries. She has spent the last year making sure her congregation -- and the roughly 125 children who attend Sunday School -- isn't one of them.
"We want to be smart," said Fitch. "We don't want to run scared."
FLORIDA
TCPalm
By MICHELLE SHELDONE
michelle.sheldone@scripps.com
October 14, 2006
The young man felt dirty.
Used.
At one point, he tried to kill himself.
He was a victim of child sexual abuse — and he's portrayed in a video that's part of the "Protecting God's Children" program to promote awareness of child sexual abuse.
The Diocese of Palm Beach has scheduled the program for this month at Holy Redeemer Church in Palm City and St. Peter Church in Jupiter.
It comes on the heels of disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley's recent claim of being molested by a clergyman.
But one has nothing to do with the other, according to the diocese.
"Mark Foley's vague allegation about sex abuse just last week at the hands of 'clergy' has nothing to do with this program," diocese spokesman Alexis Walkenstein responded in an e-mail Thursday. "This program (is) a proactive attempt to generate awareness of issues for protection of God's children ..."
IRELAND
Irish Independent
THE Irish Catholic bishops face a rigorous scrutiny by Pope Benedict XVI and his advisers over the next fortnight as to how effectively they have handled the clerical child-abuse scandals.
The bishops will also be expected to account for how they have addressed national and pastoral issues at a time of unprecedented decline in vocations, Mass-going and public respect for the church in a multi-cultural and more secularised society.
Thirty-two bishops, led by Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh, will travel to the Holy See this weekend. There they will present individual reports on the state of religion in Ireland to the Pope and the civil-service heads of the Roman Curia.
The interviews, which will take place from Monday until the end of the month, form part of the bishops' five-yearly visit to Rome to give an exhaustive account of their work in Ireland's 26 dioceses.
SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By JOHN IWASAKI
P-I REPORTER
The resignation of Seattle University's vice president amid allegations of sexual harassment a decade ago in California was not prompted by new accusations against him or action by the board of trustees, school officials indicated Friday.
The Rev. Tony Harris said Thursday that he was stepping down because his role in representing Seattle University's mission has been "challenged" by the controversy.
"I do not want to be a distraction from the important work at hand," he said in an e-mail sent to the faculty, staff and students.
The Rev. Stephen Sundborg, the university's president, said in his own e-mail statement that Harris' resignation is "right for him and for the university." Harris will stay for the remainder of the academic year and will help Sundborg on special projects.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Charles A. Radin, Globe Staff | October 14, 2006
The bust of the Rev. Louis Toma stood for years on the grounds of St. Lazarus Church, a monument to the prominent priest who led the East Boston parish for a half-century.
But yesterday, in a sign of the Catholic church's continuing struggle to deal with sexual abuse of children by priests, workers dragged the bust from its pedestal and carted it away for disposal.
Women had complained to Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley that the priest had abused numerous young girls during his 50 years as pastor of the parish and asked that the statue be taken down.
Barbara Thorp, director of the Victims' Support Office of the Archdiocese of Boston, said Toma and another priest had abused children in the rectory, the sanctuary, the sacristy, and the school of the church, which was renamed St. Joseph-St. Lazarus Parish as a result of a merger with a neighboring parish in 1985.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Phildelphia Daily News
By DAVID GAMBACORTA
gambacd@phillynews.com 215-854-5994
Before he knew it, the Rev. Thomas Doyle was in over his head.
It was 1984, and Doyle, then just 40 years old, was working as a canon lawyer at the Vatican's Embassy in Washington, D.C.
It was there that he got involved with a case concerning a priest who sexually abused a minor in Louisiana.
Soon, a few other similar cases popped up, and it fell to Doyle to file a report about the incidents.
"I was pretty green and naive at the time. I thought the Catholic hierarchy would snap to and do the right thing," Doyle said, before letting out a brief sigh. "I was 212 percent wrong on that."
TAMAQUA (PA)
The Morning Call
By Chris Parker Of The Morning Call
Retired Bishop Thomas Welsh elicited giggles from delighted school children Friday as he held a Mass of thanksgiving in Tamaqua's St. Jerome's Catholic Church bell system the church recently purchased.
The $15,000 carillon, which is composed of at least 23 bells , was made possible by a donation from philanthropist brothers Ralph and Daniel Cipko, Lansford natives who for years have donated equipment and money to Catholic schools, churches and municipalities.
Inside the church, Welsh joked with students from the adjacent parochial school, asking questions, bestowing smiles on upturned faces and occasionally touching a child's head or shoulders.
Outside the church, Vince Catizone Jr., 50, of Girardville, asked passers-by to sign his petition to support legislation extending the time child abuse victims have to file criminal charges.
Catizone, along with another Schuylkill County man, Scott Greis, in January 2004 sued the Allentown Diocese when he found out it had transferred some abusive priests to other communities.
KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal
By Peter Smith
psmith@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
For the first time next month, the Kentucky Supreme Court will hear an appeal on a criminal conviction stemming from the sexual-abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville.
The lawyer for Daniel C. Clark -- who has served three years of a 10-year sentence for molesting two Bullitt County boys -- says the former priest deserves a new trial because a judge allowed testimony that he should have excluded and excluded evidence that he should have allowed.
The lawyer, David Lambertus, also argues that Bullitt Circuit Judge Thomas Waller failed to instruct the jury correctly.
Clark, 58, who was removed from the priesthood in 2004, was one of the clerics at the center of the archdiocese's sexual-abuse scandal.
NEW YORK
The Journal News
(Original Publication: October 14, 2006)
An anonymous letter calling on priests to hold a series of no-confidence votes in New York Cardinal Edward Egan is being taken seriously enough by the leader of the New York Catholic archdiocese that he has called a meeting of his priests council for early next week. Presumably he will seek advice on how to answer charges in a letter, circulated among priests and then via a blog, that Egan's relations with his priests "have been defined by dishonesty, deception, disinterest and disregard.''
The matter naturally is of interest to Catholics and other church observers. It rises to much wider public and community interest because of the sex-abuse scandal that so rocked the Catholic Church, and the subsequent and summary removal by Egan of more than a dozen priests from local parishes without clarification or explanation. In other words, the ousted clerics were dispatched in a manner that painted them all guilty.
While the Catholic Church has its internal procedures for reviewing allegations, when they rise to criminal ones, or present as possible civil court matters, the individuals being accused, including priests, still retain their civil rights and a presumption of innocence. The public retains an interest in the process, and outcomes. Egan himself was criticized throughout the very public ordeal for turning a blind eye toward abuse. The summary dismissals only fueled speculation, about the priests' roles and possible scapegoating.
Four years ago, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops presented to the public a "zero tolerance'' or "one-strike-you're-out'' protocol for priests accused of sexual abuse. In 2002, at least 14 New York priests were removed from posts after accusations against them were lodged. Among them was Monsignor Charles Kavanagh, a major fund-raiser for the Archdiocese of New York, who has vociferously denied any wrongdoing.
Journal News religion writer Gary Stern reported Friday that a letter harshly critical of Egan cites the "cruel and ruthless'' way in which Egan dismissed priests from the faculty of St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers early in his six-year tenure as archbishop, and states that the archbishop is more concerned with financial matters than his priests. An earlier, 2004 letter about Egan, signed by about 75 priests, complained that priests accused of sexual abuse in the archdiocese were not afforded due process.
Union-Tribune
By Mark Sauer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 14, 2006
Five years of shocking revelations and nearly $1.5 billion paid out in lawsuits nationwide may have brought on scandal fatigue in the saga of pedophile Roman Catholic priests.
But a documentary film that severely criticizes church officials could rekindle public anger as long-awaited clergy-abuse lawsuits in San Diego and Los Angeles head toward trial this winter.
In “Deliver Us From Evil,” former priest Oliver O'Grady turns confessor, describing in disturbing detail how he sexually abused boys and girls at parishes in Central California from the 1970s to the 1990s.
The film is especially harsh on Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, who was bishop in Stockton and O'Grady's superior when he learned of the Irish priest's weakness for children.
KENTUCKY
WHAS
04:53 PM EDT on Friday, October 13, 2006
By Renee Murphy
Earlier this week, he was teaching children in a Louisville middle school. Now he is behind bars, charged with trying to seduce a child.
Up until a few days ago, he was an English teacher at Kammerer Middle School. Now 59-year-old Ronald Borman is an inmate. Facing charges of sending child pornography to someone he thought was a child.
“We time and time again they go to great lengths including many, many years of education so they can be around children and we are constantly aware of that,” says Capt. Steve Thompson of Metro Police. ...
Not only did Borman teach at Kammerer, but we did some digging and we found out that he taught at Saint Agnes and was a priest.
Borman was a priest in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. He was transferred by religious order twice and left the priesthood in 1998. He was also a teacher in the Catholic school system in Louisville, teaching at Saint Agnes from 1999-2001, at Saint Polycarp School from 1998-1999 and Holy Spirit School from 1978 to 1985.
We called the Louisville archdiocese, which would only confirm he worked at those schools and wouldn't say anything else about why he left.
KAMMERER (KY)
The Courier-Journal
By Chris Kenning
ckenning@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
A Kammerer Middle School teacher has resigned after he was arrested Wednesday on charges of seducing a child through the Internet, according to police and school officials.
Ronald Borman, 59, who taught eighth-grade language arts, allegedly was caught sending pornography to a detective in Clearwater, Fla., who was posing as a child during a sting.
He will be extradited on felony charges, said Sgt. Gregory Stewart of the Clearwater Police. ...
Borman was ordained as a Franciscan priest in 1992, but by 1998 he had left the priesthood for unknown reasons, said Robert Baxter, secretary of a local Franciscan group.
MEXICO
International Herald Tribune
The Associated Press
Published: October 12, 2006
MEXICO CITY Immigration officials on Thursday handed down a five-year entry ban on two U.S. lawyers and an activist who filed a lawsuit alleging abuse by a Roman Catholic priest, saying they violated the terms of their tourist visas by pressing the case in Mexico.
Lawyers Jeffrey Anderson and Michael Finnegan and the national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, David Clohessy, were briefly detained by authorities on Sept. 20 after they appeared at a news conference in the capital with 25-year-old Joaquin Aguilar Mendez, who claims he was abused as a teenager in 1994 by Catholic priest Nicolas Aguilar.
The three have filed a civil lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera and Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony conspired to protect the priest.
They left Mexico without further problems, but on Thursday the country'sAbuse Tracker Immigration Institute said they were all barred for five years.
In a statement, the agency said the three Americans had acted as legal advisers, when their tourist entry visas did not give them "the proper authorization to carry out professional or lucrative activities."
MEXICO
Los Angeles Times
By John Spano, Times Staff Writer
11:53 AM PDT, October 13, 2006
The government of Mexico has banned an American lawyer who sued the country's Roman Catholic archbishop, claiming he conspired to protect pedophile priests.
The five-year exclusion order was issued in Mexico City against Jeffrey Anderson, known for his many lawsuits against the Catholic Church on behalf of victims of sexual abuse by clergy.
Last month, Anderson alleged that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of the Los Angeles Archdiocese and Cardinal Norberto Rivera of Tehuacan, Mexico conspired to protect a priest who had molested a Mexican youth.
Anderson had been briefly detained in Mexico City, where he announced the lawsuit.
"I will not be silenced, I will not be intimidated and I will continue to speak out and do what needs to be done to protect those kids," Anderson said today. "I don't know anything about diplomacy. I know I was there lawfully to speak the truth."
NEW YORK
The New York Times
By SERGE F. KOVALESKI
Published: October 13, 2006
In press releases she issued over six years, Jeanine F. Pirro, the Westchester County district attorney, trumpeted the arrests made in Internet sex stings that her office ran.
By the time she left office at the end of 2005, that undercover pedophile operation had snared 111 men, including a Roman Catholic priest, a private-school headmaster, a New York City detective and a former Brooklyn prosecutor.
Now, as the Republican candidate for attorney general, Ms. Pirro has made her pursuit of these sex predators a central theme. Her campaign Web site says that the sting operation, which she started in the summer of 1999, led to the arrests of “over 100 pedophiles — with a 100 percent conviction rate.”
BRIGHTON (MA)
The Pilot
By Christine Williams
Posted: 10/13/2006
BRIGHTON -- The Archdiocese of Boston announced Sept. 28 that the Vatican has decreed that Robert Gale is no longer in the clerical state. As a result, he will not receive any financial support from the archdiocese, the archdiocese said in a press release.
Additionally, Gale may no longer perform any priestly ministry, with the exception of absolving a person in the danger of death, the archdiocese said. Gale had been on administrative leave since 1994.
Gale pled guilty to sexually abusing a child at St. Jude Parish in Waltham from 1980 to 1985 and was sentenced to four-and-a-half to five years in state prison by a Massachusetts court in 2004. He was also sentenced to an additional 25 years probation.
WASHINGTON (DC)
Agape Press
...An advocacy group that represents victims of clergy abuse is publicly accusing Catholic church officials of preventing the criminal prosecution of a priest accused of abusing a teen in 2001 and 2002. A civil suit is pending against Catholic priest Aaron Joseph Cote which alleges he abused the teen at St. Dominics parish in Washington, DC, in 2001 and 2002. After the alleged abuse, Cote was transferred to a church in Providence, Rhode Island, where he was working at the time he was sued and then suspended. Attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents the accusing teen and his family, alleges that Cote "remains free to abuse" and that it is not clear where the church has placed the accused priest. "He had been serving in a parish in Providence, Rhode Island, and doing a youth retreat," says Anderson. "And the day that we filed the case in Washington, DC, they removed him from that parish. But we have no confidence that he still doesn't have access to youth." Members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are demanding that the church make available information about a witness to an another alleged abuse by the priest in Ohio. [AP]
The Phoenix
By: PETER KEOUGH
10/11/2006 10:41:33 AM
Oliver O’Grady, “Father Ollie,” the pastor of a Catholic Church in a bucolic, tight-knit Northern California community, would have felt at home in The Bells of St. Mary’s. Jaunty, with an Irish brogue and brimming with wisdom and cheer, he ingratiated himself into the families of parishioners like the Jyonos, who invited him to stay over, little knowing that while they slept Father Ollie was raping their five-year-old daughter.
This went on for 20 years, at various churches in California, with O’Grady stalking victims male and female, the youngest nine months old and the oldest the middle-aged mother of one of his underage targets, victims numbering perhaps in the hundreds. Whenever unsettling rumors reached the authorities, the Church, specifically Bishop Roger Mahony, later archbishop of Los Angeles, would intervene, not punishing, defrocking, or even removing O’Grady from circulation but merely relocating him in a parish where he wasn’t known. It is a numbingly familiar story for Bostonians. But Deliver Us from Evil should renew the outrage and the incredulity.
The film is painful viewing, in large part because director Amy Berg relates the facts and depicts the victims and the culprits with detached gravity. She follows O’Grady’s trail from parish to parish, intercutting interviews with local law-enforcement officials who investigated him with videotaped depositions by prevaricating members of the Church hierarchy. Putting the latter to shame is the testimony of victims and their families as they tell, with heartbreaking variations, the same tale of trust and betrayal — both by O’Grady and by the Church they believed in.
The Phoenix
By: TOM MEEK
10/11/2006 4:32:41 PM
In Amy Berg’s haunting new documentary, Deliver Us From Evil, the first-time director gets a convicted pedophile to talk in disturbing detail about the molestation acts he committed during his 22-year span as a priest in the Catholic Church. Yet what amazes beyond Father Oliver O’Grady’s seeming inability to comprehend right from wrong, or the gravity of his crimes, is the fact that he is willing to put his face onscreen at all.
While Berg’s film, focusing on O’Grady and Cardinal Roger Mahony (the head of the Los Angeles Archdiocese who allegedly quelled the rumbling sex-abuse scandal by moving accused priests from one church to an other) is set in California, O’Grady was ultimately brought to light by both the Boston fiasco and Cardinal Bernard Law, who himself employed the moving-around tactic with notorious pedophile John Geoghan.
“I was working at CBS News in LA [as a producer] in 2002,” says Berg, “and when it started to leak out about what was going on in Boston, I was assigned to find local angles.”
In pursuing those angles and later, in producing a more in-depth piece [about priest sex-abuse] at CNN, Berg became acquainted with O’Grady, who had already served jail time and been deported back to his native Ireland. “For five months we would speak on the phone every Sunday and I would record it. He wanted to have his story out there, but wouldn’t go on camera.”
ABC News
By DAN HARRIS
Oct. 12, 2006 — "I want to promise myself that this is going to be the most honest confession of my life."
Those are the words of Oliver O'Grady, a former priest and a convicted child molester. In a new documentary out this week, he makes startlingly candid and graphic confessions about his crimes.
"I brought him back into my bedroom again, unbuttoned his pants," O'Grady says in a documentary film called "Deliver Us From Evil," which opens in theaters on Friday. "Looking at his face kinda told me that he was a little uneasy about this. I thought at one point he was gonna cry, you know."
The documentary provides a graphic glimpse into the mind of a pedophile and lays blame on the church hierarchy, including a bishop who is now the cardinal and a leader of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, the largest archdiocese in the United States.
USA Today
By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY
Deliver Us From Evil is so horrifying it makes Texas Chainsaw Massacre look like a walk in the park.
It chronicles the damnable crimes of one of the most notorious pedophiles in the history of the Catholic Church. Father Oliver O'Grady was convicted of serial child molestation over two decades across Northern California.
O'Grady admits he abused dozens of boys and girls during the 1970s and '80s, including a 9-month-old. When accusations surfaced, church officials simply moved O'Grady to another parish.
The documentary charges that the church ignored reports against O'Grady and lied to law enforcement officers and parishioners to avoid liability and escape scrutiny.
Filmmaker Amy Berg has made an indelible film on a disturbing yet riveting topic. She deftly avoids sensationalism with deliberate pacing and heartbreaking interviews with victims and their emotionally shattered, guilt-ridden parents.
MTV Movies
"Deliver Us From Evil" is an explosive documentary about a depravity so gross, it leaves you appalled and infuriated that the men who enabled it have never been called to account. It's the story of a Roman Catholic priest, Oliver O'Grady, who for 20 years raped and sodomized untold scores of children who had been entrusted to his spiritual care — one of them a baby girl only nine months old. Whenever his predations started to become known, O'Grady was quietly transferred by the Catholic Church's California hierarchy to another parish — and then another, and another. None of these congregations were informed about their new priest's hideous proclivities, and they were thus unaware that they'd officially been selected as a fresh source of victims for this ordained predator.
In a picture that's filled with astonishments, the most astonishing presence in "Deliver Us From Evil" is O'Grady himself, who appears on camera at length, admitting his crimes and even describing them, often with a disconnected smile on his lips and a rote twinkle in his eyes. A native of Ireland, he has the sort of ingratiating Gaelic charm that was once common in Hollywood movie priests — the kind who would warmly mentor wayward youths and attempt to guide them away from the path of delinquency. We immediately understand why parents, and especially children, would like him. But as we watch this man liltingly recount his story, it quickly becomes apparent who, or what, he really is.
Time Magazine
By RICHARD SCHICKEL
Posted Friday, Oct. 13, 2006
Oliver O’Grady is a slender, soft-spoken man wandering around Dublin in his windbreaker, the very picture of a retiree living on a modestly fixed income with , perhaps, not quite enough useful activity to occupy an intelligent and still active mind. At first glance he appears to be a pretty standard and uninteresting type; you would pass him in the street without giving him a second thought. If you spoke to him, as documentary director Amy Berg lengthily did, you would find him to be rather bland and affectless, not particularly forthcoming about his long and astonishing career...
...As, so far as one can tell, perhaps the most prolific pedophile in the entire history of the Catholic church, a man whose history, just incidentally, includes the abuse of a nine-month old child. The good—if finally cashiered and jailed—father is a little vague about the details, which considering the extent of his depredations is perhaps understandable. That is not true of his victims and their parents, several of whom Berg also interviewed extensively. They remember everything, in scarifying detail. The contrast between their often wailing anguish and his pallid disconnectedness is, perhaps, the most vivid, and heartbreaking, aspect of Deliver Us from Evil. Its most chilling sequence finds O’Grady attempting to write letters to some of his victims. He wants to apologize for his crimes, he says, and he is thinking of asking at least some of them to meet with him—almost, one gathers from his tone, for a reunion, a chance to relive the good old days.
SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By PHUONG CAT LE AND VANESSA HO
P-I reporters
Seattle University vice president who oversees campus ministry has resigned from his post amid allegations that he had sexually harrassed a young seminary student a decade ago.
The Rev. Tony Harris, the university's second-highest ranking Jesuit, resigned Thursday in an e-mail sent to faculty staff and students.
He will stay on for the remainder of the academic year and will work on special projects assisting the university's president, said Barbara Nombalais, a university spokeswoman. Last Friday, the P-I reported that Seattle University hired Harris in 2001 after he had settled a sexual harrasment lawsuit filed by John Bollard.
In that lawsuit, Bollard accused Harris and two other priests of making repeated sexual overtures when he was training to be a priest in San Francisco in the early 1990s.
TAMAQUA (PA)
The Morning Call
As retired Bishop Thomas Welsh elicited giggles from delighted school children as he celebrated Mass in St. Jerome's Catholic Church in Tamaqua this morning, Vince Catizone, who says he was molested by a priest in the 1960s, stood across the street, gathering signatures on a petition to support legislation extending the time child abuse victims have to report the crime.
Welsh was offering the Mass of Thanksgiving for the donation of a $15,000 carillon by philanthropist brothers Ralph and Daniel Cipko, Lansford natives who have donated millions of dollars in equipment and money to Catholic schools, churches and municipalities.
The elderly brothers did not attend the Mass due to illness; parishioners prayed for their health.
Inside the church, Welsh joked with the children, who are students at the adjacent parochial school, asking them questions, bestowing smiles on upturned faces and occasionally touching a child's head or shoulders.
INDIA
Chennai Online
New Delhi, Oct 13: A 40-year-old woman was allegedly raped by a priest inside a temple in a north-west Delhi locality, police said.
The accused, Parvesh (28), priest of Gaurisankar mandir in Mukherjee Nagar has been arrested after the woman lodged a complaint.
According to police, the woman, hailing from Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh, had been living in the temple for the last 20 days.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
AN American film-maker has sparked outrage after footage of young children from a Dublin primary school was used in a film about the notorious paedophile ex-priest Oliver O'Grady.
The trailer for 'Deliver us from Evil', which is widely available on the internet, clearly identifies children dressed in their blue uniforms from the Dublin primary school.
Yesterday, it emerged that the school had originally granted permission for footage from the school to be used for a documentary on multiculturalism.
When the school was approached subsequently for permission to use the footage for the film about O'Grady, management refused outright.
CLEVELAND (OH)
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Friday, October 13, 2006
David Briggs
Plain Dealer Religion Reporter
Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday turned to a popular Cleveland auxiliary bishop to take over an Iowa diocese that earlier this week filed for bankruptcy.
Bishop Martin J. Amos, an Akron-based prelate who ministered to the southern part of the Cleveland Diocese, was appointed to replace retiring Bishop William E. Franklin as spiritual leader of the Davenport Diocese.
The Davenport diocese, which has paid more than $10.5 million since 2004 to resolve dozens of sex-abuse claims against priests, on Tuesday became the fourth Catholic diocese in the country to file for bankruptcy. The others are Portland, Ore.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Spokane, Wash.
WOODS HOLE (MA)
Cape Cod Times
By K.C. MYERS
staff writer
The property owned by a priest who embezzled church funds and allegedly had a sexual relationship with a man subsequently convicted of murder has been sold to the Humane Society of the United States.
''We want to have a quiet and safe place for the animals,'' said Robbie Fearn, director of the Cape Wildlife Center, which is part of the largest animal protection organization in the United States.
''We're delighted there's a positive end for the community after a difficult time,'' he said.
WOODS HOLE (MA)
TheBostonChannel.com
BOSTON -- A former priest who embezzled thousands of dollars from his parish sold his posh Woods Hole mansion to the Humane Society of the United States for $1.5 million.
Bernard Kelly, 74, former pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Woods Hole, sold the luxurious 4.3-acre Cumdaquid property located on Route 6A on Oct. 3, according to a Cape Cod Times report.
Kelly, who allegedly had an intimate relationship with a male sex offender, Paul Nolin, retired from his parish in 2003 after his relationship with Nolin came to light. Nolin, who Kelly hired as a handyman at the parish, was convicted in the murder of Jonathan Wessner, 20, and is serving a life sentence for the crime.
Jewish Journal
by Naomi Pfefferman, Arts & Entertainment Editor
In October 2004, journalist Amy Berg cold-called a defrocked priest she has nicknamed the "Hannibal Lecter of pedophiles." While serving Central California parishes in the 1970s and '80s, the Rev. Oliver O'Grady allegedly molested dozens of children -- boys and girls, infants and adolescents -- according to Berg's new documentary film, "Deliver Us From Evil."
He did so with the knowledge of church officials -- including Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony -- who moved him from parish to parish when parents complained, O'Grady alleges.
After months of phone conversations, Berg persuaded the priest to appear in a documentary that "has heightened interest among law enforcement officials ... in considering a criminal case against [Mahony]," The New York Times reported on Oct. 8.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Bishop Accountability
At St. Patrick's church in Manchester NH, just before Christmas in 1995, a woman was sexually assaulted by a priest during confession, while her daughters knelt in a nearby pew. Diocesan files document the attack, its causes, and its callous aftermath. These diocesan documents, which were released by the New Hampshire Attorney General in March 2003, offer a unique case study of the international trade in accused priests. We provide a narrative of the case, followed by a complete table of links to the file.
Rev. Anthony M. Hilary was sent from India to the United States in June 1995 by Bishop Leon A. Tharmaraj, who gave the priest a clean bill of health. But a whistleblowing priest named Rev. Benjamin Sebastian wrote to the Manchester diocese and told them that Hilary was a violent alcoholic who had abused girls in the Indian diocese of Kottar. Despite that letter and a second warning, Hilary immediately found a place with Rev. Nicholas Rogers of St. Patrick's in Manchester, although an alert female administrator questioned Hilary's status in a note to the chancellor. While the bishops of Kottar and Manchester debated the priest's fate by mail and fax for six months, Hilary said Mass, heard confessions, and sexually assaulted a woman—hardly more than a mile from the Manchester bishop's own office.
PORT BARRE (LA)
The Daily Advertiser
Trevis R. Badeaux
tbadeaux@theadvertiser.com
PORT BARRE - "Our little community is devastated by this."
That's according to Port Barre Police Chief David Richard, who referred to the recent arrests of the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church pastor and secretary.
Port Barre has 2,400 residents. The church has 2,000 names on its official roll. St. Mary Roman Catholic Church, also in Port Barre, has a reported 555 members.
"It's affected everyone," said Richard, who described the town as a country town with one red light and four gas stations.
SANTA ROSA (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Jim Doyle
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Eight alleged victims of a fugitive priest have filed a lawsuit that accuses the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa of failing to protect them as minors from incidents of sexual abuse spanning two decades.
The suit, filed Tuesday in Sonoma County Superior Court, contends that diocese officials knew of the alleged sexual misconduct of the Rev. Francisco Ochoa-Perez, but failed to take action to stop him.
The alleged victims, who are now between 11 and 34 years old, include seven former altar boys and a girl. The incidents occurred in Ochoa's living quarters and the children's homes from 1985 until May of this year, the suit alleges.
Ochoa-Perez, who is also known as Francisco Xavier Ochoa, had served as an assistant pastor at St. Francis Solano Catholic Church in Sonoma. The 68-year-old priest is believed to have fled to Mexico in early May. Prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against him in June that charged him with 10 felonies involving sexual assaults and lewd conduct with three minor children.
Daily Breeze
BY GILLIAN FLACCUS
The defrocked priest is by turns remorseful and flippant as he recounts in graphic detail a lifetime of sexually abusing children. Then, near the end of "the most honest confession of my life," he turns to the movie camera to wink and smile at his victims.
Oliver O'Grady's confession is the backbone of a deeply disturbing documentary about the Roman Catholic clergy abuse crisis in one rural Northern California diocese -- a tale all the more unsettling because, for the first time, it is told in the words of an abusive priest himself.
O'Grady, 61, was deported to his native Ireland in 2001 after serving seven years in state prison for molesting two brothers. He has admitted abusing at least 25 children, and cost the Diocese of Stockton millions of dollars to settle civil sexual-abuse lawsuits.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor
By ANNMARIE TIMMINS
Monitor staff
October 13. 2006 8:00AM
The Catholic priest leading a collection for needy clergy who've retired, become ill or been removed from ministry for sexually abusing minors responded to critics yesterday, saying his effort was not meant to offend victims of abuse.
In a letter sent to clergy last week seeking donations, the Rev. Michael Griffin sympathized with accused priests as having had to "endure" the abuse scandal.
"All I can say is, look at the Amish," Griffin said in an interview, referring to the forgiveness a Pennsylvania Amish community extended to the man who recently killed several Amish schoolchildren. "They have given us a wonderful example of Christian forgiving."
Griffin of Dover began soliciting donations for needy priests last week by circulating a three-page letter among the diocese's clergy. The effort is the work of a newly formed nonprofit called The Organization of Concerned Priests, which is governed by a board of 12 priests. In his letter, Griffin said the "Mercy Fund" had been started as a way to help priests accused of sexual misconduct, including those jailed and defrocked. It was later expanded to include sick and retired priests. Griffin asked clergy to consider a gift of $1,000.
Newsday
BY GENE SEYMOUR
Newsday Staff Writer
October 13, 2006
It's possible to imagine audiences of varied faiths and persuasions viewing the prospect of yet another documentary about pedophilia by Catholic priests with any combination of wariness, fatigue or trepidation. Yet "Deliver Us From Evil" deserves their complete attention -- and their absolute respect. It's more incisive than any other film on its subject.
If there is a single priest whose transgressions could cover wide and daunting ground, director Amy Berg found him in Oliver O'Grady. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, "Father Ollie" ingratiated himself with parishioners all over southern California who entrusted him with their children's spiritual care. As both O'Grady and his victims' parents testify here, he was an apparently insatiable sexual predator whose acts of rape, sodomy and abuse of children numbered in the hundreds.
The, soft-spoken O'Grady, now living free in Ireland after serving half of a 14-year jail sentence, not only enjoyed sex with pre-adolescents and teenagers, but with newborn babies. He was also not above seducing parents as a way of getting intimate with their children.
Slate
By Dana Stevens
Posted Thursday, Oct. 12, 2006, at 6:22 PM ET
Deliver Us From Evil
Father Oliver O'Grady is a parish priest straight from an old Bing Crosby movie, an Irishman with a soft brogue and a modest, gentle manner. Those attributes must have helped ingratiate him with the dozens of families whose children—including one 9-month-old baby—he molested over a period of 20 years, as church leaders studiedly turned the other cheek.
Deliver Us From Evil, the first feature-length documentary from director Amy Berg, is not one of your pass-the-popcorn date movies. It's a howl of rage and a keen-eyed study of a subject that, unfortunately, never stops being news: the way institutional power acts as a shield under whose cover the strong can abuse the weak. When Dennis Hastert wakes up Monday morning, there should be a copy of this movie on his desk.
From 1973, when O'Grady's first offense occurred, until he finally went to jail in 1993, he was shuttled from parish to parish in Central California, often after outraged parents were assured that he would be defrocked or at least removed from contact with children. Roger Mahony, the Los Angeles archbishop who oversaw O'Grady's protection for decades, is now a cardinal in the Catholic Church. The film argues persuasively that Mahony orchestrated the O'Grady cover-up to protect his own career.
indieWIRE
by indieWIRE (October 12, 2006)
With a background in network television news, "Deliver Us From Evil" director Amy Berg is an Emmy Award winner for her work, tackling such topics as sexual assault, women in prison, clergy abuse, battered women, unsafe public playgrounds, poverty, illegal drug dispersion, illicit medical doctors and toxic pollutants. Last year, she launched Disarming Films to produce theatrical documentaries.
"Deliver Us From Evil" debuted this summer at the Los Angeles Film Festival where she won the Target Documentary Award and a $50,000 cash prize; the film was subsequently acquired by Lionsgate for this week's theatrical rele