ABUSE TRACKER

NEW YORK
The Chronicle of Philanthropy

August 29, 2012

A federal judge on Tuesday cleared the way for alumni of a top-ranked Brooklyn private school to sue over alleged sexual abuse decades ago by the institution’s late football coach, writes The New York Times.

U.S. District Judge Frederic Block said Poly Prep cannot automatically invoke the state’s statute of limitations to head off lawsuits because the school may have engaged in a years-long scheme to hide allegations against Philip Foglietta, its football coach from 1966 to 1991. The decision makes possible a hearing to establish whether there was such a cover-up.

“The court has basically carved out an exception on statute of limitation claims where the party has engaged in affirmative misrepresentations or deceitful conduct,” said Kevin T. Mulhearn, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

[court document]

By Tim Perone

A suit against elite Brooklyn private school Poly Prep — alleging that its famed former football coach sexually abused boys for decades — can move forward, a judge ruled Tuesday.

The suit was filed in Brooklyn federal court by 10 former students and two others who attended the school’s summer camp. They allege that Philip Foglietta, the coach from 1966 to 1991, molested them.

The school had tried to have the suit thrown out because of statute of limitations, but Judge Frederic Block refused,

Block said a hearing can be held to determine whether the school’s administration conducted a cover-up about Foglietta’s alleged acts, which prevented them from bringing the suit before the statute of limitations ran out.

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NEW YORK
New York Observer

By Daniel Edward Rosen 8/29

Federal District Court judge Frederic Block ruled in a Brooklyn court Tuesday that private school Poly Prep could not use New York State’s statue of limitations to thwart a lawsuit levied by its former students who allege that a popular football coach had molested them.

The decision comes amid rumblings that a group of former Horace Mann students, who have accused the Bronx private school’s faculty of sexual abuse during the 1970s and 80s, had hired attorney Gloria Allred to pursue legal action against the school.

Poly Prep argued to have the case against former football coach Phil Foglietta dismissed on the grounds that the statute of limitations for his accusers –which include 10 former students and two day campers, according to The New York Daily News–had expired after those students turned 23:

“Central to plaintiffs’ claims in the present case are their allegations that Poly Prep engaged in an affirmative course of conduct during the period of limitations to deceive the plaintiffs into believing that they had no claim against Poly Prep because the school had no knowledge of Foglietta’s wrongdoing…Foglietta was consistently portrayed to the plaintiffs as a reputable and esteemed football coach throughout the limitations period (1966-1991),” Block wrote in Tuesday’s order.

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NEW YORK
Wall Street Journal

[court document]

By SOPHIA HOLLANDER

New York state has one of the country’s strictest statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims, despite lobbying by advocates who say the law can stymie victims who come forward too late.

Now some attorneys believe that legal framework may be shifting after a federal judge this week allowed a lawsuit detailing decades-old sexual abuse to go forward against one of Brooklyn’s elite prep schools.

“Frankly I’m going over my files right now to see if there’s anything that could be done,” said Michael Dowd, an attorney specializing in abuse cases. He plans to review some 300 suits.

“It’s the best news out of a court for the victims of sexual abuse this year, and probably in a number of years,” he said.

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NEW YORK
Connecticut Law Tribune

Simpson Thacher Partner’s Sex Abuse Claims Against Brooklyn Prep School Will Proceed

By Sara Randazzo
The Am Law Daily

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett partner Philip Culhane finds a measure of peace in a federal judge’s ruling Tuesday that a prominent Brooklyn prep school can’t argue that New York State’s statute of limitations should automatically nullify a lawsuit in which Culhane and 11 other men claim they were sexually molested by a revered football coach school—and that school officials covered up the serial sexual abuse.

“No matter what happens from this point on, I’ve achieved one of my most important goals,” Culhane says, “which is for the truth to be told.”

Culhane, a private investment funds lawyer based in Simpson Thacher’s Hong Kong office, first told his story to The Am Law Daily in 2010. At the time, Culhane had decided to join a lawsuit filed by several former Poly Prep Country Day School students who claimed that longtime Poly Prep football coach and physical education teacher Philip Foglietta, who left the school in 1991 and died in 1998, had sexually abused them from the 1960s through the 1980s.

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NEW YORK
Law.com

By Andrew Keshner
New York Law Journal

August 30, 2012

The statute of limitations will not halt a lawsuit, at least for the time being, against the elite Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn brought by former students who charge they were sexually abused by a prominent football coach at least 25 years ago.

Ten alumni of the Brooklyn school and two former summer camp participants allege Poly Prep officials knew that Philip Foglietta, who coached football at the school from 1966 to 1991, had abused students but had covered up his conduct.

“Central to plaintiffs’ claims in the present case are their allegations that Poly Prep engaged in an affirmative course of conduct during the period of limitations to deceive the plaintiffs into believing that they had no claim against Poly Prep because the school had no knowledge of Foglietta’s wrongdoing,” Eastern District Judge Frederic Block (See Profile) said Aug. 28 in Zimmerman v. Poly Prep Country Day School, 09-cv-4586.

The judge dismissed claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act against the school, but allowed racketeering claims brought by two plaintiffs against school administrators and officials to go forward. Block said that the two had contributed money to the school, whose football coach had been portrayed as “reputable and esteemed.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Archbishop of Canterbury

INTERIM REPORT OF THE COMMISSARIES APPOINTED BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY IN RELATION TO A VISITATION UPON THE DIOCESE OF CHICHESTER

Your Grace,

FOREWORD:
St Luke tells us that the people brought infants to Jesus that he might touch them. (St Luke 18:15ff). When his disciples tried to stop this practice Jesus called for the children saying,
„Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these the Kingdom of God belongs.‟

Not only did Jesus encourage children to come to him, not only did he offer love through touching them, but they were manifestly safe in his company.

All contemporary safeguarding policies and procedures in the Church should be a response to what we learn and see in Jesus himself. Children are meant to be safe in the care and company of the Christian Church. In witness to this faith and to our sense of obligation to children who are brought to Jesus through the life of the Christian community, the Church should set for itself the highest standards of care available to our society today. If that is true especially in relation to children, it ought also to be true for the care we offer to some of the most vulnerable adults in the modern world (see St James 1:27).

It has been particularly distressing to us to have met people whose lives have been deeply wounded by the abuse they have suffered at the hands of clergy and of lay people holding positions of responsibility in the Church. Sadly, these wounds often refuse to heal.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Archbishop of Canterbury

[INTERIM REPORT OF THE COMMISSARIES APPOINTED BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY IN RELATION TO A VISITATION UPON THE DIOCESE OF CHICHESTER]

Thursday 30th August 2012

The interim report for the enquiry into the operation of the diocesan child protection policies in the Diocese of Chichester has today been published.

The report was written by Bishop John Gladwin and Chancellor Rupert Bursell QC who were appointed as the Archbishop’s commissaries to carry out the enquiry.

In responding to the interim report, Archbishop Rowan Williams has made the following statement:

“I am very grateful to those who have been conducting the Visitation in the Diocese of Chichester and to all who have co-operated with this process – not least those survivors of abuse who have shared their experience. The abiding hurt and damage done to them is something that none of us in the Church can ignore, and I am deeply sorry that they should have been let down by those they ought to have been able to trust.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A “profoundly negative culture” within the Diocese of Chichester led to two decades of child protection failures, a report has concluded.

The inquiry by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office said “fresh and disturbing” aspects of the way abuse claims were handled keep surfacing.

Lambeth Palace has said it will now oversee clergy appointments and child protection matters in Sussex.

Three local priests have been charged this year with child sex offences.

The report by Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams’s office is believed to be the first of its kind in the Church of England for more than a century.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

Miércoles 29 agosto 2012 | 19:52

Publicado por Daniel Medina | La Información es de Michelle Berstein

Tras acusaciones de “manipulación de conciencia”, la Iglesia Católica se encuentra investigando al ex párroco de El Bosque Juan Esteban Morales, quien fuera el brazo derecho y principal defensor del sacerdote Fernando Karadima. Este último fue condenado por el Vaticano en 2011 por abusos sexuales contra menores.

Según fuentes de la Iglesia, la investigación lleva cerca de un año y está a cargo del vicario judicial Jaime Ortiz de Lazcano, el mismo religioso que comenzó a indagar las denuncias por abusos de connotación sexual en contra de Cristián Precht.

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VERENIGDE STATEN
Trouw

Priesters, leraren of maatschappelijk werkers die iemand één keer seksueel misbruiken zouden eigenlijk geen celstraf moeten krijgen. Vaak is juist de jongere de verleider, meent de Amerikaanse prominente priester Benedict Groeschel.

‘Veel mensen gaan er vanuit dat zo iemand handelt vanuit voorbedachten rade – ze zien een psychopaat’, vertelt Groeschel op de nieuwssite National Catholic Register. ‘Maar zo gaat dat niet. Stel: een man heeft een zenuwinzinking en een jongere zet zijn zinnen op hem. In veel gevallen is de jongere – van 14, 16 of 18 jaar – de verleider.’

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

Lawyer for pope’s butler, charged in Vatican leaks scandal, quits over differences in strategy

By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, August 30

VATICAN CITY — A lawyer for the pope’s ex-butler, who is facing trial for his role in the Vatican leaks scandal, has resigned.

Attorney Carlo Fusco said Thursday he had quit as Paolo Gabriele’s attorney over differences in defense strategy. It wasn’t immediately clear if Gabriele’s other lawyer, Cristiana Arru, was remaining on as counsel.

A Vatican judge earlier this month ordered Gabriele to stand trial for allegedly stealing documents from Pope Benedict XVI’s private apartment. The documents formed the basis of news articles and a book exposing power struggles and purported corruption at the highest levels of the Catholic Church’s governance.

Fusco has essentially acknowledged Gabriele’s guilt after Vatican police found papal documents in Gabriele’s Vatican City apartment.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

PROSECUTORS will get another opportunity to try the Rev. James J. Brennan, 49, a Roman Catholic priest charged with attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996 and related offenses.

A mistrial was declared in June after the District Attorney’s Office was unable to persuade a jury to reach a unanimous verdict that Brennan was guilty.

Common Pleas Judge Robert P. Coleman met Wednesday with Assistant District Attorneys Patrick Blessington and Mark Cipoletti and defense attorneys William J. Brennan Jr. and Richard J. Fuschino Jr. before setting March 6 as the new trial date.

Brennan was a co-defendant in a trial earlier this year with Monsignor William J. Lynn, 61, the former secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Tyrone Times

Published on Thursday 30 August 2012

A US court has delivered a landmark ruling that the Vatican cannot be held legally liable for the activities of a paedophile priest who is alleged to have sexually abused a boy at Benburb’s Servite Priory more than fifty years ago.

Former Benburb cleric Rev. Andrew Ronan, who died in 1982, was at the heart of a landmark legal case in the US which could have resulted in Pope Benedict being sued over sex abuse claims.

The Vatican had sought to halt the lawsuit which accused the Roman Catholic Church of transferring Rev. Andrew Ronan from parish to parish – starting in Benburb and moving to St. Phillip High School in Chicago and then to St. Albert’s Church in Portland, Oregon – despite repeated accusations of sexual abuse in all three positions.

Ronan’s history of sexual abuse allegedly dated to the 1950s at the Benburb priory.

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UNITED STATES
outpatient clinic

Skip Shea

I wasn’t surprised when I read that Cardinal Dolan would deliver the closing prayer at the Republican National Convention. He should be right at home there. After all this new batch of Republicans has lead it’s own war on woman at the same time the Vatican is waging war with Women Religious.

The Vatican didn’t like women speaking on women’s issues saying they often hosted speakers who “disagree with or challenge the bishops, who are the church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals.”

Ah, the authentic teachers of the faith. You know, men.

Similarly the men of the Republican Party have decided they are the authentic teachers of women’s biology. When discussing the choice of abortion for women who have been raped Rep. Todd Akin said:

“It seems to be, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, it’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”

Granted making the latter part of that statement in Freshman biology class would get you an F for a grade, but in congress it gets you a seat on the House Committee for Science, Space and Technology. …

Which brings me back to Cardinal Dolan.

While he was the Archbishop of Milwaukee he approved of payments of up to 20 grand to sexually abusive priests to make them go away, leave the church and abuse kids somewhere else without the collar. That’s the way to look out for the welfare of children in the world. In a perverse sort of way.

Literally.

By reading this it might be best to suggest that you keep women and children away from the RNC. These people are crazy with their views of rape and abuse.

But not to be out done, apparently Democrats don’t want to lose the coveted pervert vote either, so in the most unoriginal act conceivable and not forced but certainly legitimate, the Democratic National Convention will also have Cardinal Dolan say a prayer.

What?

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

An elderly Catholic priest has been charged with committing and covering up child sex offences near Newcastle in the 1970s and 80s.

The 74-year-old man went to Charlestown Police Station where he was arrested on Thursday morning.

He has been charged with 14 offences committed at a high school at Adamstown where he was principal in the 1970s and at a church at Waratah in the 1980s.

The school-related crimes include one count of buggery, relating to his alleged failure to report sexual abuse by another priest of a child at the school in 1978.

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ATLANTA (GA)
WGIV

A Georgia church pastor is under fire for allegedly spreading HIV among his church members…so far at least two victims have come forward to press charges. This shocking news set the internet on fire after it was posted on a blog by an angry church member and ex lover of the married pastor.

Pastor Craig Lamar Davis (mug shot below) of Atlanta’s Full Gospel Baptist Church was arrested for reckless conduct after investigators discovered he was sleeping with several women in the church. Davis admitted to investigators that he’s HIV positive and chose to have unprotected sex with these women.

According to an email sent to blogger Obnoxious, Pastor Davis is a church ho. The woman who reported him, Ronita McAfee, says she met Davis on Facebook and it wasn’t long before the two started meeting at his home to have sex.

A few months after the affair kicked off, Ronita says Davis called and told her that one of his ex-girlfriends called and said she tested positive for HIV. He told Ronita to call her doctor and that if she is positive it is not a death sentence. He also suggested some over the counter drugs she could take so that she would not get infected.

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ATLANTA (GA)
News One

Pastor Craig Lamar Davis (pictured) of Atlanta’s Full Gospel Baptist Church was arrested on July 22 for reckless conduct, when police investigators discovered that he has HIV and had allegedly been indulging in unprotected sex with several of his congregation members, reports WVIG. Now one of his congregation victims have come forward with her story.

Thus far, two women have pressed charges against the married preacher. One of the victims, Ronita McAfee, told police officials that she met the pastor on Facebook and began communicating with him. The online relationship soon progressed into sexual romps at the pastor’s home. McAfee says a few months in to the affair, Davis revealed that one of his former girlfriends had tested positive for HIV. The seemingly concerned preacher allegedly advised McAfee that the virus would not kill her if she tested positive and even went as far as to suggest some drugs that she could take to avoid infection.

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ATLANTA (GA)
God Discussion

Ronita McAfee, who allegedly slept with Craig Lamar Davis, a married pastor of a Full Gospel Baptist church in Atlanta, Georgia, accused him of spreading HIV. According to McAfee, a former ex-girlfriend of Davis called her to inform her that Davis gave her HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

According to the Christian Post, police arrested Davis last month, on July 22, for alleged reckless sexual conduct after spreading HIV to other women.

McAfee stated that she met Davis on Facebook and later ended up in a sexual relationship with him. After a one of his former girlfriends contacted her and told her that he gave her HIV, she confronted Davis about it and he encouraged her to get tested, but told her it would not kill her and suggested to her certain drugs she could take to avoid the infection.

Later, another woman stepped forward, claimed that she was celibate for 15 years before meeting Davis, slept with him, and he gave her HIV.

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ATLANTA (GA)
Christian Post

By Christine Thomasos, Christian Post Reporter

Craig Lamar Davis, a married minister in Atlanta, was reportedly arrested after allegedly spreading HIV to some of his mistresses who were also congregants of his church.

Davis formerly served as the pastor of Full Gospel Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., before reports surfaced about his alleged infidelity and spreading of the retrovirus that causes AIDS. While several news outlets reported that the pastor was arrested last month for reckless conduct after spreading the human immunodeficiency virus to several woman outside of his marriage, Ronita McAfee was one person who spoke about the pastor in particular in a blackbluedog.com report.

McAfee reportedly claimed that she met Davis on Facebook which ultimately led to intercourse with the former pastor. However, McAfee was later contacted by an alleged ex-girlfriend of the pastor who claimed that she had contracted HIV from him.

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CHILE
La Segunda

Adelanto: Iglesia indaga a ex párroco de El Bosque tras acusaciones de “manipulación de conciencias”

por: Miguel Ortiz A.

El sacerdote Jaime Ortiz de Lazcano -el mismo que comenzó a indagar a monseñor Cristián Precht tras denuncias de connotación sexual- está a cargo ahora de una investigación en contra del ex párroco de El Bosque, padre Juan Esteban Morales .

El proceso, según confirmaron fuentes al interior de la Iglesia, apunta a la presunta manipulación y abuso de conciencia que el sacerdote realizaba con los jóvenes miembros de la «Acción Católica», la entidad pastoral asociada a la parroquia.

Morales -quien fue el brazo derecho y principal defensor del cura Fernando Karadima , condenado en 2011 por el Vaticano por abusos sexuales contra menores- vive hoy en la Casa del Clero, en calle Santa Isabel, lejos de toda actividad parroquial.

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CHILE
Terra

Cynthia Rosales

Por “manipulación de conciencia” está siendo investigado el sacerdote Juan Esteban Morales, uno de los más cercanos colaboradores del cura Fernando Karadima y su sucesor en la parroquia El Bosque desde septiembre de 2006, cargo que dejó hace meses a raíz de la polémica. Pero, ¿quién es este sacerdote?, ¿por qué es indagado hace más de un año por la Iglesia Católica?

La periodista y autora del libro “Karadima; el señor de los infiernos”, María Olivia Mönckeberg, conversó con TERRA.cl sobre este religioso, precisamente porque formó parte de algunos pasajes de su obra.

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UNITED STATES
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Bishop Daniel Conlon

God bless you. Your commitment to the care of victim/survivors of past abuse in the Church and to the safety of children in the Church today is a true manifestation of God’s grace. What you do every day builds up the body of Christ and allows the light of Christ to shine more brightly in the world.
More than twenty years ago I had your responsibilities in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. I am confident that you are much better equipped to fulfill the task and even have a better idea what the task is. I am certain that you are doing a better job. I think we all are.

PART 1—A LONG WAY TOWARD HEALING

You understand that I must be cautious in making that assertion: that we are collectively doing a better job. Most Catholics and the public in general apparently believe that the Church’s handling of the sexual abuse of minors is barely more correct or effective today than it was ten years ago.

The May issue of U.S. Catholic reported on a survey of 300 Catholics it had conducted. The article, “Needs improvement: Readers rate the bishops’ response to church sex abuse”, does not describe the survey’s methodology. So, the survey’s objectivity and scope is unclear.

The bottom line, though: thumbs down for the bishops. For example, 59% of the respondents said that the bishops have done the bare minimum, while only 9% think that the bishops have done a good job of being transparent about past cases of abuse. 55% say the bishops are less likely to cover up abuse cases today than in the past. Remarkably—and this will certainly disappoint you—34%–just over one-third—believe that “parishes and schools are now safer for children thanks to safeguards implemented in the last 10 years.”

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

CWN – August 30, 2012

The August 30 issue of Origins includes “Help for Bishops in Rebuilding Trust,” a recent talk by Bishop Daniel Conlon of Joliet, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People.

“For the last few years I operated with the conviction that consistent implementation of the ‘Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,’ coupled with some decent publicity, would turn public opinion around,” he said at a conference of safe-environment and victims’ assistance coordinators. “I now know this was an illusion … I was wandering in a hall of mirrors.”

Stating that bishops’ “credibility on the subject of child abuse is shredded,” Bishop Conlon said that the lay diocesan employees “may have a better chance. People–in the Church, outside the Church, and hanging on the edge–need to know that real progress is being made” in the “daunting task of repairing the damage.”

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NAPERVILLE (IL)
Chicago Tribune

Priest on leave while church investigates ‘credible’ abuse allegation

By Melissa Jenco
Tribune reporter

6:55 p.m. CDT, August 29, 2012

A former parish priest at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Naperville has been placed on leave following an accusation of sexually abusing a minor more than two decades ago, according to the Diocese of Joliet.

The diocese has launched an investigation into the Rev. James Nowak, 75, who is retired.

“The review committee discussed it and recommended to the bishop it was credible, so he’s going to have it investigated further by church authorities. And Fr. Nowak has been placed on administrative leave,” diocese spokesman Doug Delaney said Wednesday.

Delaney said the alleged abuse occurred more than 25 years ago, but he would not say where Nowak was serving at the time.

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ILLINOIS
WGN

WGN News Desk

8:08 p.m. CDT, August 29, 2012

A retired priest from Naperville has been placed on leave following an accusation of sexually abusing a minor more than 25 years ago, according to the Diocese of Joliet.

Rev. James Nowak, 75, formerly of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Naperville, will not be allowed to say a public Mass or administer sacraments while on administrative leave.

In a statement, diocese spokesman Doug Delaney said, “The review committee discussed it and recommended to the bishop it was credible, so he’s going to have it investigated further by church authorities.”

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GEORGIA
Savannah Morning News

By Jan Skutch

A Catholic priest who once served as pastor at Holy Cross Church in Pembroke was accused of sexual misconduct last week for the third time.

An Atlanta-area man told police he was molested as a child by the Rev. Bob Poandl, who in addition to pastoring in Pembroke served served in two other churches in the Diocese of Savannah, a support group for victims said Aug. 22.

Leaders of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, SNAP, want Poandl put in a secure treatment center to protect possible victims and are asking Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory and Bishop Gregory J. Hartmayer in Savannah to visit each place where the Rev. Bob Poandl worked and reach out to potential victims.

“Actually he really needs to be in jail,” SNAP official Judy Block Jones said Wednesday. ”We’re really concerned there might be some new victims in that area” of the Savannah Diocese.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Newcastle

Updated August 30, 2012

In what is believed to be an Australian first, a Hunter Valley Catholic priest has been charged with failing to report the alleged child sex offences of another priest.

Toronto Catholic priest Tom Brennan, 74, has been charged with 14 offences.

They include sexually assaulting a boy while he was a priest at Waratah in the 1980s as well as common assault and performing acts of indecency at the same church.

But the ABC has been told some of the charges – understood to be a first for Australia – relate to Brennan’s alleged actions in relation to defrocked former priest John Sidney Denham.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
From:The Australian
August 30, 2012

A FORMER senior cleric in the NSW Hunter Valley has been charged with sexual abuse and failing to disclose alleged abuse by another priest.

It is thought to be the first time a member of the Australian Catholic clergy has been charged with failing to report the alleged child sex offences of another priest to police.

Father Thomas Brennan, 74, was charged this morning with two counts of misprision of a felony, or failing to disclose a serious crime, relating to alleged child sex offences at a school during the late 1970s.

Father Brennan, who was a school principal at the time of these alleged offences, was also charged with 10 counts of sexually assaulting a young boy in the early 1980s, when he was a parish priest.

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AUSTRALIA
NSW Police Force

CORRECTION Catholic priest charged with historical child sex offences – Lake Macquarie LAC

Thursday, 30 August 2012 03:23:38 PM

**CORRECTION: Further clarification of charges**

Detectives have arrested and charged a Catholic priest with child sex offences.

Strike Force Georgiana was established in March 2008, consisting of investigators from Lake Macquarie Local Area Command, to investigate allegations of child sexual abuse by various priests within the area.

About 9.15am today (Thursday 30 August 2012), a 74-year-old man attended Charlestown Police Station where he was arrested.

He was charged with the following offences whilst employed as the principal at a high school at Adamstown;

#One count of misprision of a felon to wit buggery, relating to allegedly failing to report the sexual abuse by another priest on a child at the school in 1978;

#One count of misprision of a felon to wit indecent assault on male, relating to allegedly failing to report the sexual abuse by another priest on a child at the school in 1978;

#Two counts of common assault relating to an alleged assault on two children at the school in 1978.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Tom Roberts on Aug. 29, 2012 NCR Today

Fr. Benedict Groeschel has led an inspiring life, particularly in his role as head of a band of brothers known as the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. I’ve written admiringly of the Brooklyn-based friars in the past. For whatever one might think of their rather conservative approach to religious matters (Fr. Groeschel is a regular on EWTN), the friars live out of the heart of the gospel’s admonition to be with the poor, a position that has no liberal or conservative slant.

In short, they put their lives on the line.

In a recent interview with John Burger for the National Catholic Register, Groeschel looks back on his 25 years with the friars, a growing national and international community that started as a part of the better-known Capuchin Franciscans. His reflections are worth reading and his recollections at the end of the piece, a poetic reflection on death that leads to a recounting of a powerful moment as a youth, are particularly edifying.

But there is a section of the interview, in which he discusses the sex abuse crisis, that simply cannot stand unchallenged. It is particularly disturbing because he’s earned significant credentials in psychology. Asked whether he’s worked with priests who have been abusive he said:

“A little bit, yes; but you know, in those cases they have to leave. And some of them profoundly – profoundly – penitential, horrified. People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to – a psychopath. But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him (emphasis in original). A lot of the cases, the youngster – 14, 15 18 – is the seducer.”

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AUSTRALIA
Byron Shire News

Jessica Grewal | 30th August 2012

AN ELDERLY Catholic priest has been charged over a series of historic child sex offences spanning two decades.

The 74-year-old is accused of failing to report repeated allegations of sexual abuse by another priest while he was the principal of an Adamstown high school in the late 70s and assaulting several boys at a Sydney church during the 80s.

He was arrested at Charlestown on Thursday morning and charged with 15 related offences.

He will front a Newcastle court on September 24.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

By Meredith Bennett-Smith

In a recent interview with the National Catholic Register, Father Benedict Groeschel, of the conservative Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, said that teens act as seducers in some sexual abuse cases involving priests.

It’s been close to decade since an investigation into clergy sex abuse cases by The Boston Globe unearthed a shocking scandal and cover-up that rocked the foundations of the Catholic Church in the U.S. and around the world.

Ten years may have passed, but the wounds have yet to fully heal in America, especially in light of the recent Penn State allegations, as well as the trial of Monsignor William Lynn, former secretary for the clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

In light of this, the recent comments by Groeschel seem both puzzling and jarringly out of step with current sentiments.

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UNITED STATES
Renew America

By Matt C. Abbott

My favorite living spiritual writer, Father Benedict Groeschel, made some comments in a recent interview with the National Catholic Register that I find quite disturbing.

The portion of the interview with Father Groeschel addressing the issue of sexual abuse is as follows (click here to read the interview, which is wide-ranging, in its entirety):

[Interviewer]: Part of your work here at Trinity has been working with priests involved in abuse, no?

[Father Groeschel]: A little bit, yes; but you know, in those cases, they have to leave. And some of them profoundly — profoundly — penitential, horrified. People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to — a psychopath. But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer.

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UNITED STATES
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Outrage at friar’s claims that it is often the teenage boys who seduce priests in religious sex abuse cases

By Daniel Miller

Father Benedict Groeschel has sparked outrage claiming it is often boys who seduce priests in religious sex abuse cases

A friar has sparked outrage after claiming it is often the boys who seduce priests in religious sexual abuse cases.

In an interview with the National Catholic Register, Father Benedict Groeschel of the conservative Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, said he did not believe a priest found guilty of sexual absuse should go to jail if it was his first offence.

He even went on to describe disgraced Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky as a ‘poor guy’.

Father Groeschel, an influential voice in the American catholic community, has written several books and appears weekly on a religious television network.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

[note: This article has been removed from the Register web site.]

by JOHN BURGER
08/27/2012

It’s been 25 years since Father Benedict Groeschel and seven other friars broke away from their Capuchin communities and formed what would come to be known as the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. Their growth as a community of priests and brothers has been impressive — both in the numbers of young men joining them and the number of friaries they have begun in the New York metropolitan area, other states and other countries.

Wearing a gray habit fashioned after the Capuchin robe with cowl, the friars have become a common sight not only on the streets of poor neighborhoods from the Bronx to Honduras to inner-city London, but also at religious conferences and pro-life events.

Father Benedict, 78, who has been in religious life since he was a teenager, has also become a high-profile author and much-in-demand speaker throughout the world. …

Part of your work here at Trinity has been working with priests involved in abuse, no?

A little bit, yes; but you know, in those cases, they have to leave. And some of them profoundly — profoundly — penitential, horrified. People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to — a psychopath. But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer.

Why would that be?

Well, it’s not so hard to see — a kid looking for a father and didn’t have his own — and they won’t be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing, perhaps sleeping but not having intercourse or anything like that.

It’s an understandable thing, and you know where you find it, among other clergy or important people; you look at teachers, attorneys, judges, social workers. Generally, if they get involved, it’s heterosexually, and if it’s a priest, he leaves and gets married — that’s the usual thing — and gets a dispensation. A lot of priests leave quickly, get civilly married and then apply for the dispensation, which takes about three years.

But there are the relatively rare cases where a priest is involved in a homosexual way with a minor. I think the statistic I read recently in a secular psychology review was about 2%. Would that be true of other clergy? Would it be true of doctors, lawyers, coaches?

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UNITED STATES
TNT Magazine

Prominent religious leader Father Benedict Groeschel has made the astonishing claim that in many cases of sexual abuse within the church, the teenagers were to blame.

In a recent interview with the National Catholic Register, Father Benedict Groeschel, of the conservative Franciscan Friars of the Renewal said ‘People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to — a psychopath. But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer.’

The 78 yr old priest, who has a doctorate in psychology from Columbia University in 1971, is an influential figure in the American Dioceses who appears weekly on Catholic TV channel EWTN, and has written several books.

Many readers of the National Catholic Register were dismayed to read his comments published without comment, especially as the publication has an affiliation with disgraced Legion of Christ religious order. This clerical order were rocked by scandal when its previous leader, the very high profile Rev Marcial Maciel was accused of sexual abuse. It was also part of a group of investors who saved the National Catholic Registar from closing in 1995.

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UNITED STATES
Time

By Ellen Lee / San Francisco | August 29, 2012

Just days after his appointment as the next Archbishop of San Francisco in late July, the Rev. Salvitore Cordileone was in Napa Valley, leading a special mass for some of the nation’s most prominent conservative Catholic leaders.

They had gathered in the wine country to contemplate “Catholics in the Next America” and their place in the debate over abortion, marriage, sex and other hot button issues. Cordileone, 56, had already become known for his instrumental role in passing Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot to end same-sex marriage in California. And now Cordileone, the current bishop of the neighboring Oakland Diocese, had been called to head more than half a million Catholics in the San Francisco area.

“He was a rock star there. There was no question about it,” recalled Frank Schubert, one of the Napa retreat’s attendees and the political strategist who managed California’s Proposition 8 campaign.

But that ascension was shaken over the weekend after Cordileone, driving his mother home after a late evening with friends, was stopped at a sobriety checkpoint in San Diego and found to be over the state’s legal blood alcohol level of 0.08. He was booked and released after posting $2,500 bail.

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CHILE
La Tercera

Iglesia realiza investigación canónica contra sacerdote más cercano a Karadima por “manipulación de conciencia”

por Angélica Baeza Palavecino – 29/08/2012

Fuentes de la Iglesia confirmaron hoy a La Tercera que “hace más de un año” la Iglesia inició una investigación canónica contra Juan Esteban Morales, ex párroco de El Bosque y el sacerdote más cercano a Fernando Karadima.

Las mismas fuentes aseguraron que la indagatoria es por “manipulación de conciencia” y que es llevada por el vicario judicial, Jaime Ortíz de Lazcano, quien también investiga el caso de Cristián Precht.

Una de las víctimas de Karadima, Juan Carlos Cruz, comentó a La Tercera que “ha habido un abuso de poder increíble y ojalá sigan con los obispos encubridores: Arteaga, Barros, Valenzuela y Koljatic”.

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BOSTON (MA)
Irish Central

The worldwide Catholic Church reform movement Voice of the Faithful, which started in 2002 in outrage and dismay that the Church’s power structure had kept clergy sexual abuse of children secret, is marking its tenth year with a conference in Boston this September. The event is expected to draw supporters from across the United States and Europe.

VOTF was started here in Boston, but is international now with some 30,000 members and a strong presence in Ireland. Many of the US members are also Irish or Irish-American.

The outrage in Boston that sparked the founding of VOTF back in 2002 has morphed into something different today (yet no less significant) as more and more Catholics embrace ideas previously seen as radical (women priests, optional celibacy). The importance of changing the church for future generations is also now a theme that rings true for many, as we have seen here in the US, as in Ireland and elsewhere, a lost generation moving away from religion. Amid these changes, Voice of the Faithful trudges onwards making steady progress towards its goals to support survivors of abuse, and work towards structural change in the church with greater input from laypeople, greater roles for women, and financial accountability within the Catholic Church.

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BELGIUM
Washington Post

Accomplice, ex-wife of Belgian pedophile killer settles into convent life after early release

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, August 29

BRUSSELS — The screaming, insults and scuffles that accompanied the nighttime arrival of one of Belgium’s most despised criminals at a bucolic convent have abated.

A local legislator who suggested in a Tweet that Michelle Martin, the woman who let two 8-year-old girls starve to death in a cellar and helped her pedophile husband carry out horrific abuse 16 years ago, should be “taken down,” said on Wednesday that his comment should not be taken seriously.

And political talk is centering on how to toughen the conditions for early release in Belgium to avoid having a criminal like Martin walk free after serving only 16 years of her 30-year sentence.

Meanwhile, Martin started her first day at the Clarisse convent in the village of Malonne on Wednesday. She will have to work for 20 hours a week to compensate for her living costs as she seeks, in the words of her lawyer, atonement for her crimes.

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MINNESOTA
SNAP Minnesota

[with lists and graphics]

Have you ever seen or heard of a bishop acting as a Good Samaritan toward half dead sexual abuse survivors laying along the road? On my numerous advocacy journeys I have not.

Bishops on their journeys, regardless of what they say in public or have written in their “US policy,” have not climbed off their donkeys to help the attacked survivors with shattered innocents souls. It is a known fact the bishops will not take attacked and bleeding survivors to an inn for healing and recovery.

The bishops don’t want the full truth about sexual abuse by clergy to step from the shadows of silence and emerge into the sunshine.

In the reflection of tears on my journeys I step from the silent shadows to light these truths.

Bob Schwiderski

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KENS

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A U.S. priest will remain in legal limbo until 2013 after a judge set a March date for his retrial in a child sexual assault case.

Prosecutors are retrying the Rev. James Brennan after the jury deadlocked on attempted rape and child endangerment charges.

The jury acquitted Brennan of conspiring with church officials after a landmark trial that alleged a broad cover-up of abuse complaints at the Philadelphia archdiocese.

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UNITED STATES
Vatican Insider

Now that everyone is vying to win over Catholic voters, the consequences faced by the newly appointed archbishop of San Francisco for his recent involvement in a drink driving incident, may not be so severe

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

It is still too early to tell whether the new archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone’s run in with the police last Friday night will have any consequences for his upcoming mission and what these may be. The archbishop was stopped near the San Diego campus and found to have a blood-alcohol level higher than the legal limit in California.

The prelate – a representative of the American Episcopal conference’s new conservative guard who was promoted to the position of Archbishop of San Francisco last 27 July after just three years as leader of the Diocese of Oakland and a standard-bearer in the battle against same-sex marriage – was apparently accompanying his 80 year old mother home after a meal at a friend’s house.

Cordileone apologised and said he felt “shame for the disgrace” he brought upon the church and himself, adding that he wanted to repay his “debt to society.” He is due to start his work in the new diocese on 4 October. Five days later, the archbishop who spent nine hours in a county prison cell and was released on bail, will be required to appear in court.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the DUI arrest of Oakland Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, the archbishop-elect of San Francisco:

Bishop Cordileone was stopped at a DUI checkpoint in San Diego last weekend; he was arrested after it was determined that his blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit. He has since apologized.

This won’t be the end of this story, but not because of what happened. What counts is who it happened to. It just so happens that Cordileone holds orthodox Catholic positions on sexuality, the kind of views hated by both secularists and left-wing Catholics. Consider Michael Sean Winters of the dissident weekly, the National Catholic Reporter.

Winters, like a lot of embittered Catholic “progressives,” is obsessed with homosexuality. That is why he was unable to write one paragraph in his screed against Cordileone without mentioning this subject. The context? Winters wants the bishop to “think with greater compassion about the complicated lives we all lead today.” He also wants the bishop to show an “approriate [sic] humility and humanness.” All of this is code for “shut up and leave the culture to us.”

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW in Rome

ISRAEL’S BIGGEST-circulation daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, has this week called Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto’s appointment last week as papal nuncio to Israel “an embarrassment and a humiliation”, largely because of his conduct during the clerical sex abuse crisis in Ireland.

In particular, the newspaper highlighted the fact that the Murphy commission report on clerical child sex abuse in the Dublin archdiocese reported that a request to the nuncio in February 2007 for “documents in his possession relevant to the commission’s terms of reference” received no reply.

The commission said it received no reply primarily because it had not approached either the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome or the nuncio in Ireland “through appropriate diplomatic channels”.

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ISRAEL
Worldcrunch

YEDIOTH AHRONOTH (Israel), LA STAMPA (Italy), THE IRISH TIMES (Ireland)

JERUSALEM – The appointment of Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto as Papal Nuncio to Israel last week has sparked controversy in Jerusalem after it emerged that he was linked to the pedophile priests scandal that hit the Irish Catholic Church in 2005..

The country’s biggest-circulation daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, has refered to Lazzaroto’s appointment by Pope Benedict XVI “an embarrassment and humiliation for Israel”.

Archbishop Lazzarotto, who served as the Vatican’s ambassador to Ireland at the time of the scandal, was accused of doing everything in his power to protect suspected Irish clerics.

He is thought to have spearheaded the strategy not to cooperate with Judge Yvonne Murphy – who was investigating the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin, explain La Stampa and The Irish Times.

After refusing to disclose information in Ireland, he was appointed Vatican’s ambassador to Australia in 2008.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A Philadelphia judge this morning set March 6 for the retrial of Rev. James J. Brennan, the Roman Catholic priest charged with the attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

Common Pleas Court Judge Robert P. Coleman met briefly with Assistant District Attorneys Patrick Blessington and Mark Cipolletti and Brennan and defense lawyers William J. Brennan Jr. and Richard J. Fuschino Jr. before setting the trial date.

Coleman also set March 4 for a pretrial conference.

Father Brennan, 49, was tried earlier this year with Msgr. William J. Lynn, 61, the former secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

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CHILE
La Tercera

por Felipe Passi – 23/08/2012

El fiscal de la zona Metropolitana Oriente, Ignacio Pinto, fue designado para investigar la denuncia presentada por el Colegio Verbo Divino, luego de que un apoderado acusara que un estudiante del establecimiento fue víctima de abuso sexual, pero fuera del recinto escolar.

Pinto es el mismo persecutor que indaga el caso del colegio Cumbres, en el que se acusa de abuso sexual al sacerdote John O’Reilly. El fiscal ya recibió la carpeta con la denuncia, por lo se iniciarán las primeras diligencias.

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CHILE
Terra

El abogado de las familias denunciantes de los casos de abusos sexuales en el colegio Cumbres, Ciro Colombara, dijo que la única sanción que cabe hacia el establecimiento es la cancelación de su autorización de funcionamiento. Esto luego que elestablecimiento perteneciente a la congregación de los Legionarios de Cristo, que suspendió al sacerdote John O’Reilly por denuncias de abusos sexuales, recibió una multa de 36 millones de pesos por parte del Ministerio de Educación a causa de una serie de irregularidades entre las que destacó la ausencia de privacidad en los baños, lo que afecta la dignidad de alumnos y alumnas.

Ante tal situación,menciona Cooperativa, Colombara afirmó que “en su momento se habló de que las sanciones podían llegar incluso a la cancelación de la autorización de funcionamiento. La gravedad de los hechos que todos conocemos hace suponer que obviamente esa debería ser la sanción”.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Democrat

— Another sad and shocking news report about child sexual abuse made its way onto one of our front pages last weekend.

Like us, our readers, too, must be asking, what is going on? These senseless, sick criminal acts are happening all too frequently across our region.

And the case to which we now refer involves a longtime spiritual leader, a priest in the Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese.

The priest, the Rev. George Koharchik, 63, has been relieved by the diocese of his duties at a Huntingdon County parish. It has been alleged that he sexually molested “young boys” at a parish in Cambria County more than 30 years ago.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

[with video]

By Maria Miller

CAMBRIA COUNTY, Pa. —

It was last Friday that Bishop Mark Bartchak of the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese told prosecutors in Cambria County that he had received allegations involving one of their priests. He said George Koharchik may have abused a number of children possibly as far back as 30 years ago.

Barchak removed Koharchik from his position at St. Catherine of Siena in Mount Union. He is not facing charges because there haven’t been any alleged victims that have come forward. 6 News reporter Maria Miller talked with prosecutors on Tuesday to find out why they’re not actively seeking the alleged victims.

The diocese said the allegations come from a time when Koharchik was in Cambria County, but said it does not plan to release the names of any churches where the abuse may have occurred.

“The alleged abuse happened so long ago that we are trying to be very mindful that this is a tough situation for all involved,” said Tony DeGol, secretary for communications for the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. “We certainly don’t want to put that parish community in the spotlight unnecessarily.”

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NEW YORK
Huffington Post

Michele Somerville

I wasn’t surprised to read this morning that the conduct of Democratic power broker Assemblyman Vito Lopez has finally landed him in hot water. I have been paying careful attention to Lopez, mostly in the context of his alliance with the head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens. (I write opinion pieces about the Church and I worship in DiMarzio’s diocese. See “Bishop DiMarzio May Not Want Your Lunch Money…” on Huffington Post. ) Nicholas DiMarzio and Vito Lopez have long been (to put it aptly) “thick as thieves.” So tight are Lopez and DiMarzio that in 2009, the latter was willing to play fast and loose with the tax law that prohibits tax-exempt churches from electioneering. DiMarzio recorded endorsements of Lopez and these were transmitted throughout Lopez’s election district as “robocalls” just before Election Day in November of 2009. (See “Heaven-Sent Robocalls…” in the November, 2009 NY Post.)

Vito Lopez has lobbied at DiMarzio’s behest, to block the passing of A5488, Assemblywoman Marge Markey’s Child Victims Act, which DiMarzio opposes on the grounds that it would bankrupt Roman Catholic dioceses. (The Child Victims Act will expand, slightly, the statute of limitations for reporting incidents of sexual assault perpetuated by adults against children.) Lopez et al have been successful in preventing the passage of A5488, and Bishop DiMarzio has expressed his appreciation by campaigning for Lopez’s political protégés within his diocese.

Maybe now that the bishop’s man in Albany is out of commission, A5488 will become law, allowing victims of juvenile sexual assault to be better able to seek just outcomes.

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BELGIE
Trouw

Belgische seminaristen, aspirant-priesters, gaan tijdens hun priesteropleiding leren hoe ze seksueel misbruik tegen moeten gaan. Ook een cursus ‘omgaan met kinderen’ staat op het programma. .

Dat meldt de Belgische bisschoppenconferentie in het Vlaamse dagblad Het Laatste Nieuws. Een groep psychiaters, bisschoppen en vertegenwoordigers van katholiek onderwijs onderzoekt momenteel op welke manier de bestrijding van seksueel misbruik het beste in het curriculum opgenomen kan worden.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on August 28, 2012

In a ruling yesterday, the California Court of Appeal ruled that if a victim of child sexual abuse received counseling from the Catholic Church during the time that victim had an active statute (2003, or earlier, depending on the case), that victim may have new civil rights to seek justice, expose their perpetrator, and get accountability in the courts.

It’s complicated to explain, but this ruling opens the doors for victims who received counseling in 2003 (when California had a civil window for older cases of abuse), but didn’t file a case, because they didn’t know about the law, were confused, or thought that church officials had their best interests at heart. In some cases, the church cut off victims’ counseling completely as soon as the window closed.

Many victims thought that the church was really trying to help them, when instead, officials were just trying to keep them placated until their civil rights ran out. Because of that, predators were able to escape justice, and valuable evidence about sex abuse and cover-up was hidden from public view.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By SHARON OTTERMAN

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York has accepted an invitation to deliver the closing prayer at next week’s Democratic National Convention, following through on a promise that he made when accepting the same role at the Republican convention.

His appearance before the Democrats in Charlotte, N.C., which was announced Tuesday by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, may lead to one of the most intriguing tableaus of this convention season. Cardinal Dolan, an opponent of abortion and same-sex marriage who is among the Catholic bishops suing the Obama administration over its contraception health care mandates, will bless a gathering of thousands of delegates who passionately disagree with him.

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NEDERLAND
de Gelderlander

ZEVENAAR – In het Juvenaat in Zevenaar heeft zich aan het eind van de jaren vijftig seksueel misbruik voorgedaan. Dat zegt een nu 67-jarige inwoner van Portugal, die destijds als jongetje aan de zorg van de Broeders van Maastricht in Zevenaar toebedeeld was.

De man heeft aan de landelijk opererende stichting Klokk laten weten nog steeds traumatische ervaringen te ondervinden van het misbruik. Klokk komt op voor slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk. De organisatie heeft dit weekend op haar site een oproep geplaatst aan lotgenoten om zich te melden.

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HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on August 28, 2012

‘Ohana can come from the most unlikely of places.

I went to Hilo, Hawaii last week for a single reason: Expose priest George DeCosta, who has been accused of abuse by two youth and former students at Honolulu’s Damien Memorial School. De Costa is now living in Volcano, a town about 20 miles outside of Hilo, where he went after Honolulu Bishop Francis DiLorenzo forced him to retire in 2002.

DeCosta spent 30 years as pastor at St. Mary Gate of Heaven – now Malia Puka’O Kalani – parish. When he was forced out – in the midst of a massive priest shortage – the parish was left without a permanent priest. He was also forced to retire the same year, 2002, that Catholic clergy sex abuse “reforms” forced bishops across the country to remove child-molesting clerics.

Now, DeCosta is the pastor of a religious “community” in Volcano and travels the country with a national group called Music Ministry Alive. Within the past week, DeCosta’s photo and bio have been taken off of the website.

I went to the small Malia Puka’O Kalani Parish not quite knowing what to expect.

I stood outside for less than 5 minutes before a man came up to me and said, “Are you the whole rally?”

“Yeah,” I told him. “It’s just me. Hope it’s not disappointing”

“We’ve been waiting to talk to you. Please, come back and sit.”

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LOUISIANA
San Antonio Express-News

LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — A former Lake Charles Catholic priest has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of child sex abuse.

The American Press reports (http://bit.ly/cseYHv ) 56-year-old Mark Broussard didn’t speak during a short hearing on Monday in which he was arraigned on two counts of aggravated rape; three counts of molestation of a juvenile; two counts of aggravated oral sexual battery; two counts of aggravated sexual battery; and one count of sexual battery.

His attorney, Tom Lorenzi, entered the plea on his behalf. Broussard is set to go to trial Feb. 4.

Broussard served at Our Lady Queen of Heaven from 1986 to 1988 and at St. Henry from 1988 to 1992. The abuse is alleged to have occurred at both churches. Broussard is accused of abusing three boys between 9 and 13 years old between 1986 and 1991.

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TEXAS
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A Texas Baptist pastor urged his congregation to shine a light on sexual abuse, which he says occurs much more frequently than most people believe, even in churches.

Gary Morgan, pastor of Cowboy Church of Ellis County in Waxahachie, Texas, said in a recent sermon that sexual abuse carries damage beyond the physical and emotional.

“It makes a hole in the soul that can’t be fixed, and I didn’t understand this until just lately,” he said. “Over the last couple of months, maybe the last three or four months, we have just had a run on people who have been either sexually abused or raped, all kind of things like that, and it’s been an eye-opener to me.”

Morgan said in his July 29 sermon that statistics say that one out of every three girls is abused at some point in her lifetime. “Based on my experience, I think for this church, that’s a very optimistic figure,” he said. “I think the numbers are quite a bit higher among us.”

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Steven A. Krueger.
President, Catholic Democrats

When John F. Kennedy was asked during the 1960 presidential campaign whether he wanted to either meet with a group of nuns or bishops on a tightly scheduled day, he was said to have replied, “The nuns I’ll see. But not the bishops, they all vote Republican.”

In retrospect, those seem like the good ole days of the Church.

Today, at a time when a divided Catholic Church is still in need of healing, particularly as a result of the clergy sexual abuse crisis, a new predicament has emerged: the bishop Republicanization crisis, most recently characterized by the U.S. bishops focus on the contrived issue of religious liberty at the expense of their advocacy for the record numbers of people living in poverty. This crisis is defined by the degree to which many of the U.S. bishops have allowed their political affiliation with the Republican Party to effect their pastoral responsibilities. In the last week, it has been thrust onto the national stage again with efforts by Cardinal Timothy Dolan to insinuate himself into both parties’ political conventions.

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IRELAND
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

Very few priests speak publicly about their horrifying ordeals of being falsely accused of child sex abuse, but Rev. Eugene Boland is doing so after a jury in Derry, Ireland, unanimously found him not guilty in June of the flimsy claim that he had somehow “inappropriately touched” a girl over two decades earlier.

The verdict brought an end to what the priest now calls “the darkest two years of my life.”

From “a priest’s worst nightmare” to victory

On March 31, 2010, Fr. Boland received the phone call that every priest fears. His bishop was on the line, and he told him to contact the diocese’s child safeguarding leader the next day.

“That was a bleak day,” Boland told the Irish Independent. “It just came out of the blue … I was shell-shocked. I’m sitting in my home on my own. I didn’t know what the allegation was, or who was making it.”

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the news that Timothy Cardinal Dolan will give benediction at the Democratic National Convention (DNC):

Over the past week, Cardinal Dolan has been hammered by liberals for accepting an invitation to give benediction at the Republican National Convention (RNC). Now that he will close both conventions, they look even more foolish. Here’s a sample of what Dolan’s critics have said.

Andrew Sullivan called Dolan “The Republican Party Cardinal.” The Boston Herald’s Margery Eagan called him an “opportunist.” Mike D’Antonio at the Huffington Post accused Dolan of “leading the bishops in a partisan direction.” John Gehring of Faith & Public Life said he was “baptizing the Republican nominee.” Mike O’Loughlin at America accused him of “being a shill for the GOP.” The National Catholic Reporter said Dolan was “playing a dangerous game.” Sarah Posner at Salon said Dolan’s acceptance “solidifies a partisan partnership between the GOP and the Bishops.” Niall O’Dowd at the Irish Voice said his presence “is a dog whistle to all Catholics out there to support the GOP candidates.” And the Los Angeles Times editorialized that Dolan has “placed his imprimatur” on the Republican strategy.

The fundamental difference between Cardinal Dolan and these critics comes down to one thing: he is a man of principle and they don’t know how to spell the word. He invited President Obama to the Al Smith Dinner, knowing he would receive flak from some on the right. Then he agreed to speak at the RNC, knowing he would be blasted by some on the left. Now he has accepted an invitation to speak at the DNC and none of his critics—on both the left and the right—can figure him out.

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CALIFORNIA
NBC Bay Area

By Chris Roberts
Tuesday, Aug 28, 2012

This is no China Camp of Eden.

A Marin priest is in trouble with the law, after allegedly exposing himself to undercover officers at China Camp State Park, according to the Marin Independent Journal.

Rev. Feliciano Torres Mofan, 58, is charged with lewd conduct in public and being nude in a state park, the newspaper reported.

Mofan is a “priest in residence” at the Church of St. Isabella in Terra Linda. He’s a retired priest, and recites Masses — but doesn’t teach in the parish schools, church officials were quick to point out.

On Thursday, Mofan was caught up in a “sting targeting lewd conduct at China Camp,” where more and more members of the public have complained about “sexual activity in public, found Internet postings seeking sexual meetups in the park” as well as “cleaned up condoms,” according to the newspaper.

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CALIFORNIA
Metropolitan News-Enterprise

By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer

An alleged victim of childhood sex abuse victim who received assistance from the defendant’s insurer years ago may claim the benefit of an Insurance Code provision that tolls the statute of limitations, the Court of Appeal for this district ruled yesterday

Div. Eight revived an action brought against official of the Roman Catholic Church by a man who claims he was abused by a parish priest in 1987 and 1988 when he was 12 or 13 years old. He retained counsel in 2008, he alleged, the same year he discovered that the molestation had caused adult-onset psychological injuries.

The plaintiff, identified as John Me Doe, further alleged tolling of the statute of limitations under Insurance Code Sec. 11583. The statute provides that an advance or partial payment of damages by an insurer is not an admission of liability, but that if the injured party is not represented by counsel, the insurer must advise that party in writing of the statute of limitations.

Failure to do so, the law says, tolls the statute until notice is given.

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MISSISSIPPI
The Dispatch

August 28, 2012

Last week, a Lowndes County jury found Columbus businessman Benny Shelton guilty of sexual assault of a minor. The details of the case are — quite naturally — disturbing. And so was the conduct of Junior Eads, pastor of Eastview Baptist Church.

The crime happened during the church’s summer retreat. A few hours after the early-morning assault, the victim told Eads what had happened, identifying Shelton as his molester. Shelton, a Sunday School teacher and camp volunteer, wasn’t approached by Eads until the following afternoon when Eads told Shelton to talk to the victim’s family about the “rumors” the boy was spreading about Shelton.

This event happened in 2008, more than three years before the Jerry Sandusky/Penn State scandal that rocked the university and forever sullied the reputation of its revered football coach, Joe Paterno. Paterno was told that Sandusky had had assaulted a boy in the showers on the Penn State campus. It took 10 more years before law enforcement was able to put an end to Sandusky’s campaign of sexual terror. It was clear that Paterno’s actions, along with those of the school’s athletic director and president, should have been more forceful when that first allegation was made. Their timid response permitted Sandusky to victimize many more children over a 10-year period.

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VEREINIGTE STAATEN
Diesseits

Die britische Wochenzeitung “The Economist” widmet sich in der aktuellen Ausgabe dem „unheiligen“ Finanzgebaren der katholischen Kirche in den USA. Dies sei derart undurchsichtig, dass die Autoren nicht ausschließen wollen, dass eines Tages amerikanische Steuerzahler für die Entschädigungen der Missbrauchsopfer der katholischen Kirche aufkommen.

Thomas Hummitzsch
Dienstag, 21. August 2012

Fakten über die Finanzlage der katholischen Kirche in den USA sind insofern spannend, als dass wenig bekannt ist über den „weltlichen Konzern” der amerikanischen katholischen Kirche. Die Journalisten des britischen Wirtschaftsfachblattes The Economist liefern nun einige Zahlen und stellen diese in Zusammenhang mit den aktuellen Schwierigkeiten der Kirche. Man erhält in dem Beitrag einen Eindruck, wie es um die katholische Kirche in den USA steht.

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BELGIEN
Kathweb

Kirche kündigt weiteren Schritt in Missbrauchs-Prävention an

27.08.2012

Brüssel, 27.08.2012 (KAP) In Belgien sollen Priesteramtskandidaten künftig Kinderschutz-Kurse besuchen. Wie belgische Medien am Montag berichten, sollen Psychiater die zukünftigen Priester für problematische Situationen sensibilisieren.

Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Belgischen Bischofskonferenz, Bischof Guy Harpigny von Tournai, erklärte den Berichten zufolge, Ziel der Kurse sei die Prävention und der Schutz von Kindern und Jugendlichen. Die Kirche wolle aus der Vergangenheit lernen. Genauer Inhalt und Aufbau der Kurse stehe noch nicht fest.

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das dokumentartheater berlin

das dokumentartheater berlin positioniert sich.
DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

Mit den Opfern der von den Jesuiten am Bonner Aloisiuskolleg jahrzehntelang verübten Sexualverbrechen. das dokumentartheater berlin wird die Opfer auf dem Weg ihrer Klage im Rahmen seiner künstlerischen Aktion begleiten.

Presseerklärung

Sieben mutige Menschen, sieben Kläger, der jüngste 27, der älteste 72. Alle von derselben Tätereinrichtung vergewaltigt. Sechs Jahrzehnte lang. Von den Jesuiten am Aloisiuskolleg….Am 26. September 2012 fordern sie ihr Recht ein.

Klage vor dem Verwaltungsgericht Köln, 10 K 1582/12

Erstmals gehen Opfer sexueller Verbrechen gegen eine deutsche Schulaufsicht vor.

Sieben Kläger des Jesuitenkollegs in Bonn klagen die Bezirksregierung Köln an.

Termin: 26. September 2012, 11.45 h, Zi. 33, EG, Apellhofplatz (WDR)

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VATICAN CITY
Rome Reports

[with video]

August 28, 2012. (Romereports.com) The director of the Vatican press office, who serves as spokesperson for the pope, turns 70 years old on August 29. Few know that besides being a theologian and philosopher, this Jesuit priest is also a mathematician. He has worked in the media now for more than 30 years.

This was his first meeting with reporters, just hours after the pope appointed him as the Vatican spokesman.

Fr. Federico Lombardi
Director, Vatican Press Office
“I worked first in the press, with the magazine ‘Civilta Cattolica’, then in radio and the Vatican Television Center. I’ve learned the different areas of communication. Now, at the age of 65, I have been asked to be the spokesman. I will try to also learn this new office.”

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Michael Sean Winters on Aug. 28, 2012 Distinctly Catholic

I am sure that some people are tempted to indulge a little schadenfreude over the news that the oh, so censorious Archbishop-elect of San Francisco has been charged with a DUI. I hope that the incident will invite Archbishop-elect Cordileone to think with greater compassion about the complicated lives we all lead today. Just as his arrest does not tell us all there is to know about him, so too, does the fact that a couple uses contraception, or that a given man or woman is gay, exhaust all there is to know about them.

I will also point out that, by definition, drinking while under the influence is not an intrinsic evil, but Cordileone better hope his case is settled soon because his colleague, Bishop Morlino in Madison, seems intent on expanding the category of intrinsic evil to include just about anything that does not cohere with the Republican Party platform. Even the GOP, I suspect, is not about to propose overturning drunk driving laws.

Finally, issuing a brief statement about the incident is insufficient. Here, the case is very different from that of Archbishop Roach of St. Paul in the 1980s. Archbishop Roach was already a much-beloved pastor. Archbishop-elect Cordileone is in the process of introducing himself to his new flock in San Francisco. He should have gotten out front of this story from the beginning, and not waited for it to break from others. Then, he should have held a press conference to answer all questions, and hopefully begin putting the episode behind him. Now, he has guaranteed the story will continue to play out as people, quite rightly, want to know the answers to basic questions such as how much over the legal limit he was at the time of his arrest. I think most people sympathize with the circumstance of having one sip too many and being slightly over the limit. Being way over the limit is a different story.

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CONNECTICUT
News Times

Libor Jany

Updated 9:56 a.m., Tuesday, August 28, 2012

NEW MILFORD — A Greek Orthodox priest was arrested last week for striking his wife’s live-in aide because he was put off by the smell of her cooking, police said.

The Rev. Eleftherios Stavrakis, of Littlefield Road, was charged with disorderly conduct and domestic violence, according to New Milford police spokesman Lt. Larry Ash. Under state law, a person is guilty of domestic violence if it is determined that he or she physically abused a “family or household member or person in dating relationship.”

Stavrakis was released on $10,000 bond and arraigned Monday in Bantam Superior Court.

The incident occurred shortly after 9 a.m. on Friday, police said.

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UNITED STATES
Vatican Insider

Salvatore Cordileone, has admitted his blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit when police arrested him, and has publicly apologized for “the disgrace” he has brought on the Church.

Gerard O’Connell
Rome

The Archbishop-elect of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, was jailed for 11 hours last Saturday, August 25, on suspicion of driving under the influence of drink, after failing a sobriety test administered by the police who stopped him.

In a statement issued by his diocese, Cordileone, a native of San Diego and currently bishop of Oakland, acknowledged that his blood-alcohol level was found to be over the legal limit. He apologized for his “error in judgment”, and said he felt “shame for the disgrace I have brought upon the Church and myself.”

He explained that he had dined earlier that evening with friends and another priest and was driving his mother home from the gathering when he was arrested.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Lauren Farrow

A former NSW police officer and church youth worker told detectives that turning photographs of underage girls into pornographic images was “an artist thing”, a Sydney court has been told.

Wayne Paul Mason, 42, allegedly kissed a 15-year-old girl during a church sleepover and groomed a 13-year-old for sex while he headed a youth group at a Sydney Baptist church, his trial has heard.

Mason has pleaded not guilty to 37 counts of sexually assaulting four girls between 1996 and 2005 and 14 counts of producing and disseminating child pornography.

In a recording of a police interview shown at his trial on Tuesday, Mason is shown a series of photographs, of which he said some had the “real” faces of underage girls, but “fake” bodies.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle

Kevin Fagan

Updated 11:04 p.m., Monday, August 27, 2012

The man set to become the next archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco was arrested Saturday in San Diego on suspicion of drunken driving as he was taking his elderly mother home after having dinner with friends.

Oakland Diocese Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, 56, was headed along San Diego State University’s southern edge when he encountered a sobriety checkpoint, said Officer Mark McCullough. Cordileone was amiable but appeared intoxicated and was arrested at 12:26 a.m., McCullough said.

The bishop was released from jail shortly before noon after posting $2,500 bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned on the misdemeanor charge on Oct. 9.

Cordileone issued a contrite statement Monday, saying he “was found to be over the California legal blood alcohol level.”

“I apologize for my error in judgment and feel shame for the disgrace I have brought upon the Church and myself,” the bishop said. “I will repay my debt to society and I ask forgiveness from my family and my friends and co-workers at the Diocese of Oakland and the Archdiocese of San Francisco.”

Visiting friends

Cordileone said he had been visiting friends with his 88-year-old mother and was driving her to her residence near the university after a meal together.

“I pray that God, in His inscrutable wisdom, will bring some good out of this,” he wrote.

The area where he was arrested has a large number of fraternity and sorority houses, and police routinely run checkpoints on weekends. McCullough said 10 others were arrested at the same checkpoint that night.

“He was very calm, somewhat apologetic at the time,” said the officer, who ran the checkpoint that morning. “He said he’d been drinking. But he wasn’t a stumbling, falling-down drunk.”

The archbishop-designee’s driving record is clean except for one ticket he got on Dec. 23 for failure to stop at a stop sign, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles. If convicted of this latest offense, he could be sentenced to three years’ probation, a fine of $1,800, two days in jail and sobriety counseling.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Louise Hall
Court Reporter

A former police officer who has admitted doctoring photos of teenage girls he met through a church youth group and posted them on a pornographic website says he likes to think of himself as an “artist”.

Wayne Paul Mason, 42, is charged with more than 50 child sex and pornography charges after one of his alleged victims found on a website explicit photos of herself and other girls taken by him nearly a decade earlier.

Mr Mason, who was an officer with the NSW Police between 1997 and 2003, has pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution claims Mr Mason had sexual relationships with at least two 14- and 15-year-old girls he met through his role as a youth group leader and karate teacher at a Baptist Church in Sydney’s south-west.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
Toronto Star

Elliot Spagat and Lisa Leff
The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO—The Roman Catholic archbishop-elect of San Francisco has apologized for his arrest on suspicion of drunken driving, behaviour that he said brought “shame” and “disgrace” on himself and the church, though legal experts said was unlikely to derail his promotion.

The Rev. Salvatore Cordileone said in a statement issued Monday by his office that he was driving home from a dinner with friends in San Diego with his mother and a visiting priest friend early Saturday when he was pulled over at a checkpoint near San Diego State University.

The statement said a sobriety test showed his blood-alcohol level to be above the legal limit, although Cordileone did not reveal by how much.

“I apologize for my error in judgment and feel shame for the disgrace I have brought upon the Church and myself,” he said. “I pray that God, in His inscrutable wisdom, will bring some good out of this.” …

Cordileone took a breath test that confirmed his blood alcohol content exceeded California’s legal limit of 0.08 per cent, said Officer Mark McCullough, who declined to say by how much.

Cordileone, one of 11 people arrested at the checkpoint that night, identified himself as a priest, said McCullough. An officer did an Internet search and learned he was archbishop-elect.

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KENTUCKY
Cincinnati.com

Written by
Jim Hannah

A Northern Kentucky lawyer and past president of the Kentucky Bar Association has lost her battle to share in the about $18.5 million in fees famed Cincinnati attorney Stan Chesley received from the Diocese of Covington sex-abuse settlement.

The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Barbara Bonar, who has a law office in Covington, was not entitled to a portion of the attorney’s fees in the class-action settlement.

An attorney for Chesley, James Gary of Louisville, said he was pleased with the decision but declined further comment.

Bonar sued Chesley, his firm and another lawyer in the firm, Robert Steinberg, five years ago in Boone Circuit Court. She claimed Chesley forced her out of the sex-abuse litigation and refused to pay her for critical work that brought about the class-action settlement. The roughly $84 million settlement was distributed among about 200 people, with the amount each received determined by the severity of the abuse.

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OREGON
Miami Herald

The Associated Press

REEDSPORT, Ore. — The archbishop of Portland issued an apology that was read at Sunday Mass to a woman who settled a lawsuit claiming she was sexually abused by a priest in the 1980s.

Carolee Horning, 41, was at St. John the Apostle Parish in Reedsport when the letter from Archbishop John Vlazny was read, the Eugene Register-Guard (bit.ly/Nxzh51) reported.

The priest, the Rev. Edward Altstock, was a family friend when he headed the parish from 1984 to 1986, and Horning was a teenager who had been an altar girl.

She said she was flattered by gifts and attention from such a figure of authority, and he pursued her for years, even visiting her in Corvallis when she was a student at Oregon State University.

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CALIFORNIA
The Modesto Bee

By Sue Nowicki
snowicki@modbee.com

A Stanislaus County Superior Court judge will hear arguments this morning as to whether the only Oliver O’Grady lawsuit ever filed in this county should continue.

The lawsuit names Sacred Heart Parish in Turlock, contending that the Catholic parish — as well as the Stockton Diocese, also named as a defendant — should have known that O’Grady was a pedophile, one who later admitted sexually assaulting more than 23 children of both sexes and sleeping with two mothers to get access to their children.

The lawsuit contends that if one of the world’s most notorious pedophiles had been removed from the priesthood in Turlock instead of shuffled from parish to parish, the alleged victim never would have been molested years later at Stockton’s Church of the Presentation, said Vince Finaldi, an attorney with Manly and Stewart in Southern California, who filed the action.

The victim in the case is a 40-year-old man “who was 11 or 12” when the abuse occurred, Finaldi said. He has two younger siblings — a sister and brother — who filed similar lawsuits in 2005 and 2008; those were settled in 2011 for a combined $2 million in damages. The current lawsuit was filed in 2009.

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DARIEN (CT)
Patch

Roman Catholic officials say they have never received specific allegations about the behavior of the Rev. Robert Post, a priest at the St. Thomas More Church in Darien, and the lawyer for three men accusing him won’t make their accusations public.

By David Gurliacci

The Rev. Robert Post has been accused publicly of having sexually abused three teenagers when he was a member of the Irish Christian Brothers in New York state, before he became a priest 30 years ago.

But specific, detailed allegations, the credibility of which might be judged, have not been made public. Nor has Post, a priest at St. Thomas More Church, been arrested or prosecuted.

Instead, Robert M. Hoatson, a former Catholic priest who now runs Road to Recovery, an organization that describes itself as offering “compassionate counseling and referral services to survivors of clergy sexual abuse,” made himself one half of a two-man demonstration Saturday in front of St. Thomas More as parishioners entered and then left the church for Saturday afternoon Mass.

The two held a news conference afterward where they said they wanted the Bridgeport Diocese to remove Post from his position as it investigates the priest’s past.

“[T]hree men have come forward to claim that they were abused by Br. Robert Post,” the organization said in a news release. “Not one, not two, THREE.”

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CALIFORNIA
Marin Independent Journal

By Mark Prado
Marin Independent Journal
marinij.com

San Rafael priest jailed in lewdness case after sting at China CampA San Rafael priest pleaded innocent Monday to two misdemeanor charges in connection with allegations he exposed himself to an undercover investigator during a crackdown on lewd behavior at China Camp State Park.

The Rev. Feliciano Torres Mofan, 58, appeared in Marin Superior Court on charges of lewd conduct in public and being nude in a state park, according to the Marin district attorney’s office. If convicted, Mofan faces up to six months in Marin County Jail.

Mofan was held in custody over the weekend and was released on his own recognizance after the hearing. He is due back in court next Tuesday.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Chicago Tribune

By Ronnie Cohen

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 27 (Reuters) – The Roman Catholic bishop newly chosen by the Vatican to lead the archdiocese of San Francisco and two other Bay Area counties publicly apologized on Monday after he was arrested and held behind bars over the weekend on suspicion of drunken driving.

Salvatore Cordileone, 56, appointed in July by Pope Benedict XVI to preside over more than 500,000 Catholics as metropolitan archbishop of San Francisco, was taken into custody on Saturday near San Diego State University, according to the San Diego Police Department.

He was jailed on suspicion of driving under the influence after he was stopped at a police checkpoint and failed a field sobriety test, police spokesman Detective Gary Hassen said. The bishop was released on $2,500 bail, about 11 hours after his arrest, he said.

Cordileone, a San Diego native who currently is bishop of Oakland, had dined earlier that evening with friends and another priest and was driving his mother home from the gathering when he was arrested, he said in a statement released by his diocese.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
San Diego 6

By Lindsay Hood

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – A San Diego native recently appointed Metropolitan Archbishop of San Francisco was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in his hometown over the weekend, authorities confirmed Monday.

Salvatore Joseph Cordileone, 55, of Oakland was arrested on suspicion of DUI about 12:30 a.m. Saturday at a checkpoint in the 5100 block of College Avenue near the San Diego State University campus, according to San Diego police Officer Mark McCullough.

Cordileone — one of 11 arrested at the checkpoint — failed a field sobriety test, then consented to an optional preliminary alcohol screening device which measured a blood-alcohol level higher than the legal limit of .08 percent, McCullough said.

Cordileone was then placed under arrest and given the option of an official blood or breath test at the checkpoint. He chose a breath test that confirmed a blood-alcohol level higher than the legal limit, McCullough said.

Cordileone’s mother, who was a passenger, was allowed to drive the mid-size black car home following her son’s arrest after officers made sure she had not been drinking and had a valid license, McCullough said.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle

Kevin Fagan

Updated 3:34 p.m., Monday, August 27, 2012

(08-27) 14:47 PDT SAN DIEGO — The bishop who is due to take the reins of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco was arrested early Saturday morning on suspicion of drunken driving, according to the San Diego Police Department.

Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, 56, was driving along the edge of San Diego State University when he encountered a sobriety checkpoint, said Detective Gary Hassen. Cordileone appeared drunk and was arrested at 12:26 a.m., Hassen said.

The bishop was released from jail shortly before noon after posting $2,500 bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned on the misdemeanor charge on Oct. 9.

“He’s probably our highest profile DUI arrest in awhile,” Hassen said.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
National Catholic Register

by CNA/EWTN NEWS08/27/2012

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Police Department verified the weekend arrest of Archbishop-designate Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco for driving under the influence of alcohol.

San Diego police spokesman Detective Gary Hassen confirmed Aug. 26 that Archbishop-designate Cordileone was arrested just after midnight on Aug. 25 and held in county jail.

After passing through a DUI checkpoint near the San Diego State University, the former bishop of Oakland, Calif., was further evaluated by the police and then taken into custody.

Just before noon that same day, he was released on bail, Hassen said. The legal blood-alcohol-content limit for California is 0.08%.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
New York Daily News

By Christine Roberts / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, August 27, 2012

The newly-appointed Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco was arrested this weekend on suspicion of drunk driving, San Diego police said.

Rev. Salvatore Cordileone, 56, was arrested early Saturday morning after he was stopped by cops at a checkpoint near the San Diego State University campus, police spokesman Detective Gary Hassen said.

Hassen did not say whether the San Diego native took a sobriety test.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
U-T San Diego

Written by
Debbi Baker

SAN DIEGO — The archbishop-elect of San Francisco for the Roman Catholic Church was arrested and jailed over the weekend in San Diego on suspicion of drunken driving, police said.

Bishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, 56, who was appointed archbishop in July, was taken into custody Saturday at 12:26 a.m. after being stopped on College Avenue near Montezuma Road, police said.

Cordileone, who is a San Diego native, was booked into county jail on a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence and later posted bail.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
SF Weekly

By Albert Samaha
Mon., Aug. 27 2012

Salvatore Cordileone, who was named the new Archbishop in late July, allegedly took one too many sips of the Blood of Christ before getting behind the wheel this weekend.

The newly minted leader was reportedly arrested for a driving under the influence in San Diego at 12:26 a.m. Saturday, the San Diego Union-Tribune first reported.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle

Kevin Fagan

Published 12:52 p.m., Monday, August 27, 2012

(08-27) 12:49 PDT SAN DIEGO — The bishop who is due to take the reins of the Archdiocese of San Francisco next month was arrested Saturday in San Diego on suspicion of drunken driving, according to officials at the San Diego Police Department.

Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, 56, has been bishop of Oakland since 2009 and was named in July by the Vatican to become the new archbishop in San Francisco on Oct. 4.

The bishop has longtime roots in San Diego. He was born there, studied at the St. Francis Seminary there and serve as an official for many years in its diocese. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of San Diego in 2002, was ordained a bishop later that year, and then was appointed bishop of Oakland on March 23, 2009.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
KGO

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The newly appointed archbishop of San Francisco was arrested for DUI over the weekend.

Police in San Diego say Bishop Salvatore Cordileone was arrested over the weekend for driving under the influence. Police say it happened in San Diego’s College District just before 12:30 Saturday morning.

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OREGON
Catholic Sentinel

REEDSPORT — Msgr. Dennis O’Donovan, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Portland, traveled to St. John the Apostle Church here to deliver a dramatic apology from Archbishop John Vlazny.

The expression of regret was made from the pulpit at Sunday Mass. It was in response to an incident of sexual abuse that happened in the mid-1980s at the parish here by the parish priest at the time, Father Edward Altstock.

The victim, 41-year-old Carolee Horning, was abused in the mid-1980s by Father Altstock. Horning now lives in Eugene, but her family still belongs to St. John the Apostle, a small church set in the woods off Highway 101.

Father Altstock became a family friend and Horning was an altar girl. Horning told the Register Guard newspaper that her life has been harmed by the encounters with the priest, now 79, and living in Beaverton.

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SAGINAW (MI)
MLive

Monday, August 27, 2012, 11:20 AM

By Justin Engel | jengel1@mlive.com

SAGINAW, MI — Attorneys plan to name the leader of the Diocese of Saginaw in a lawsuit surrounding clergy sex abuse allegations at his former assignment in Philadelphia, media reports indicate.

Bishop Joseph Cistone earlier this year was not named in any criminal indictments, but lawyers say Cistone and others will be named in a civil case brought on by a former Philadelphia altar boy who claimed sexual abuse in 1992, CBS Philly reports.

“My best description of them is that they were the kingpins,” Slade McLaughlin, a Philadelphia attorney, told the news station when describing Cistone and another former Catholic administrator in Philadelphia.

Attorneys during a criminal trial this year claimed Archdiocese of Philadelphia administrators shredded documents naming priests accused of sexual abuse while allowing one priest to remain in active ministry with the Northeast Philadelphia parish, where the 10-year-old altar boy was abused, media reports indicate.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Michael D’Antonio

Long a bouquet of shy wallflowers compared with evangelicals, Catholic bishops are at last joining the dance at the Republican party. The big step forward will be made as New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan says the closing benediction at the GOP convention this week. His appearance marks the first time in 40 years that an American cardinal has traveled cross-country for this purpose, and it comes as the churchmen reveal themselves to be more like politicians — in style and substance — than ever before.

The Republicans have danced to this song many times before. Since 1980, the party has used evangelicals to win elections but denied them most of what they want in policy from restoration of school prayer to a nationwide ban on abortion. With Mitt Romney’s selection of the fiercely anti-abortion Paul Ryan, he signaled the party is now taking conservative Catholics for a whirl. However, everything in Romney’s flip-flopping character suggests that once again, religiously motivated voters will give up their votes and get little in return.

For their part, the Catholic hierarchs are abandoning the restraint that once made them credible as moral leaders above the partisan fray. The danger in this choice is evident when you consider that a majority of Catholics disagree with their leaders. They use contraception and oppose the GOP’s “no exceptions” abortion stand. Polls also show Catholics support gay rights and marriage at about the same rate as the general population. These Catholics are not pleased to see their bishops lining up with party hacks or with an evangelical movement that includes a significant number of anti-Catholic bigots.

The fact that Timothy Dolan is leading the bishops in a partisan direction is not a surprise. Take away the clerical clothes and the cardinal is the central casting version of an old pol, glad-handing and joking in one minute and deflecting and deceiving in the next. As Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times reported in May, the cardinal lied about money paid to Wisconsin priests who had been accused of sexual abuse when he was their bishop. He described the money as “charity” when it was intended to induce them to leave the priesthood as quickly as possible. When documents surfaced contradicting Dolan, local Church officials admitted as much. New York’s prelate chose to attack the suggestion that something was amiss as “false, preposterous and unjust.”

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

By R. Scott Moxley
Mon., Aug. 27 2012

A onetime prominent priest with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County finally will pay for repeatedly molesting a seven-year-old boy inside a parish rectory and church sacristy in the 1990s.

According to prosecutors, Denis Lyons pleaded guilty in March and last week received his punishment: one year in jail, five years of formal probation and 400 hours of community service.

The 78-year-old serial molester must also register for the rest of his life as a sex offender and won’t be allowed to visit places where children congregate.

In 2008, the victim filed a complaint with the Costa Mesa Police Department and officials arrested Lyons the following year at Leisure World in Seal Beach.

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BELGIUM
RT

Psychiatrists will be helping trainee priests in Belgium to avoid potentially dangerous situations at work. Special “anti-pedophile” training is the new measure to help prevent child abuse by priests.

­According to Belgium’s RTL online, psychiatrists will teach aspiring priests “the correct attitude in the presence of a child”.

“The goal of the training? Not to repeat the errors of the past,” Guy Harpigny, Bishop of Tournai told Belgium’s SudInfo daily.

“The challenge is simple: prevention and protection of our young ones,” he added.

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BELGIE
De Morgen

Bewerkt door: Steven Alen − 23/08/12

Voor de beveiliging van het klooster van Malonne, dat Michelle Martin zal opvangen als ze voorwaardelijk wordt vrijgelaten, zullen dertig voltijdse agenten van de federale politie gemobiliseerd moeten worden, meldt de vakbond VSOA-politie. Volgens de bond is dit “geen redelijke oplossing” wegens de hoge maatschappelijke kosten. .

“Iedereen is het ermee eens dat de geïntegreerde politie lijdt onder een groot personeelstekort. Ook gaat iedereen ermee akkoord dat de federale politie dit personeelstekort het meeste voelt. Maar op vraag van de politiezone Namen zal de federale politie 30 ‘full times’ ter beschikking stellen gedurende onbekende tijd om het klooster van Malonne te beveiligen. De logica is ver te zoeken”, klaagt de politievakbond.

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BELGIE
De Morgen

De federale regering zal snel stappen ondernemen om de voorwaarden voor voorwaardelijke invrijheidstelling in bepaalde gevallen te verstrengen en om de gevallen waarin een zwaardere straf wordt toegekend omwille van recidive uit te breiden. Dat meldt premier Elio Di Rupo na een onderhoud met Jean-Denis Lejeune en Paul Marchal, waarbij ook de procureur-generaal van Bergen, Claude Michaux, aanwezig was. .

Het gesprek met de vaders van Julie Lejeune en An Marchal, beiden slachtoffers van Marc Dutroux, kwam er naar aanleiding van de mogelijke voorwaardelijke vrijlating van Michelle Martin, de ex-vrouw van Dutroux. De premier, die het over een “zeer constructief en openhartig” gesprek heeft, zegt de emoties van de familie en de bevolking te begrijpen. “De verschrikkelijke daden waarover het gaat, zijn nog steeds zeer aanwezig in onze herinneringen en het leed van de families blijft ons allemaal raken”, aldus Di Rupo.

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BELGIE
De Morgen

Bewerkt door: Steven Peeters − 27/08/12

In Namen zijn de lokale autoriteiten klaar voor de komst van Michelle Martin, de ex-vrouw van Marc Dutroux, naar het klooster van de Arme Klaren in Malonne. Het Hof van Cassatie spreekt zich morgen uit over het beroep dat de burgerlijke partijen en de procureur-generaal van Bergen hebben aangetekend tegen de voorwaardelijke vrijlating van Martin, maar algemeen wordt aangenomen dat ze morgen vrijkomt. .

“Om veiligheidsredenen kunnen we geen details kwijt over de inzet van de politie”, zei burgemeester van Namen Maxime Prévot. “Ik kan wel zeggen dat deze agenten niet enkel zullen instaan voor de bescherming van mevrouw Martin, maar voor de openbare orde.”

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

CWN – August 27, 2012

Vatican investigators could investigate 20 more people in the connection with the leaks of confidential papal documents, the Italian news service ANSA reports.

Citing “well-placed Vatican sources,” ANSA said that after indicting two people—Paolo Gabriele, the Pope’s former valet, and Claudio Sciarpelleti, a computer technician in the Secretariat of State—investigators are preparing a new phase of their investigation, in which at least 20 people will be examined.

The Vatican has not commented on the ANSA report.

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