ABUSE TRACKER

CROAZIA
Globalist

Fra’ Sime Simac, il francescano che l’altra sera si è fatto arrestare dopo una fuga avventurosa con una donna, facilitata dal milione e 300mila euro sottratti al convento, in Croazia si sta trasformando in una “star” del web. Un gruppo di sostegno su Facebook in un solo giorno ha ottenuto 4.500 “mi piace”. Un fotomontaggio mostra in francescano in groppa a un cavallo bianco, un altro vuole che sia pronto ad usare quel danaro per salvare l’ “Hajduk”, la squadra di Spalato che sta rischiando il fallimento.

Compaiono anche una lunga serie di immaginari fra’ Sime che lanciano battute e informano il pubblico su loro fantasiosi spostamenti. In una vignetta il frate, che era fuggito su un’auto sportiva in compagnia di una donna, manda a dire: “Non temete, il danaro è al sicuro”. In un’altra gli si fa dire: “E’ giunto il momento di dissipare le ombre e dire la verità, questo non è un furto ma un equo sistema di divisione poiché chi ruba ai ladri non è ladro ma servo di Dio”.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOV

[with video]

by Russell Kinsaul / News 4 and KMOV.com staff

ST. LOUIS (KMOV) — Confidential files kept for years by Boy Scouts of America detailing allegations of sexual abuse against boys include 47 cases from Missouri.

A majority of the Missouri cases included in files released Thursday come from troops in St. Louis and Kansas City or their suburbs, but cases also were reported in such places as Neosho, Fort Leonard Wood and Chillicothe.

The Boy Scouts released about 14,500 pages of what are being called “perversion files” on cases across the country dating from 1959 to 1985. …

But it’s unclear from the records of those four cases whether scouting leaders ever notified police.

“Unless those who conceal sexual abuse are revealed and punished then they’ll continue to do it,” said SNAP’s David Clohessy, who works with survivors of abuse.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

James Preece of Catholic and Loving It comments on my recent post, The Pattern, and affirms what I suggest, which is (to quote James), “The problem is that we haven’t tried to fix the culture that enabled sex abuse, we’ve just made sex abuse a special case.”

I encourage you to follow the link and read his very well-written article. In it, he strikes upon an apt metaphor.

I don’t think it would be fair to talk about a “culture of abuse”, because I’m quite sure the majority of Catholics are not in favour of abuse and do not encourage or perpetrate abuse. What we are talking about is a culture which is favourable to abuse. It’s like storing raw meat in a warm place. Warmth itself is not food poisoning, but it is better to keep food in the fridge.

Indeed, this bad spiritual food-hygiene leads to abuse of many varieties. As in spoiled meat, the culture that springs up is a bacterial and a poisonous culture.

Preece describes this culture and hits upon the heart of the problem …

Looking at the definition of “abuse” we find that the word essentially means “misuse”. That’s why there are so many kinds of abuse such as verbal abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, substance abuse and so on. We call it abuse when somebody misuses a person sexually but we also use the word in other ways, like “I let my daughter have access to the biscuit jar but she abused the privilege”.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
Northern Life

By: Sudbury Northern Life Staff
Fifteen people who say they were abused by members of the Roman Catholic clergy are calling on the church to do more to help current victims and protect any future ones.

Lawyer Robert Talach of the law firm of Ledroit Beckett is holding a press conference this afternoon at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Sudbury. He will be joined by 15 people who say they are victims of abuse by priests.

“It is both disturbing and disappointing that in this day and age a religious organization, whose mandate is supposed to be compassion and care, has failed to support victims,” Talach said in a news release. “It is time that they get with the program.”

The press conference, the release stated, represents “a demand from victims of local Catholic priests for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie to do more to support victims.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
Sudbury Star

By Carol Mulligan, Sudbury Star

Saturday, October 20, 2012

A Sudbury woman ordained a bishop with Roman Catholic Women Priests of Canada has her own take on how the church in which she is fighting for reform should handle cases of sexual abuse by priests.

Marie Evans Bouclin, who once worked for the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie and Bishop Jean-Louise Plouffe, agrees with Rev. Bob Bourgon that allowing offending priests to remain on the church’s radar helps track them and ensure they don’t offend again. Bouclin suggests priests convicted of sexual assault should undergo assessment and, if they are determined to be so psychologically damaged they never should have been ordained in the first place, they be defrocked.

If it’s deemed they are “unfit for ministry, then there should be some kind of an action to annul their ordination just like you annul a marriage,” said Bouclin.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CALIFORNIA
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

By Christina Villacorte, Staff Writer
dailynews.com
Posted: 10/19/2012

Five years after promising to do so, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles will hand over the confidential personnel files of about 200 priests accused of sexual abuse and child molestation to a judge in December.

Those documents – with the names of innocent individuals redacted – will ultimately be made public under the Archdiocese’s record $660 million settlement in 2007 to 508 people who said they were victims.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” said Joelle Casteix, Western regional director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“I’m very encouraged that the judge has laid down a concrete schedule but, at the same time, I and other survivors will remain vigilant about holding the archdiocese to account.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

This story was reported by Travis Andersen and Martin Finucane of the Globe staff and Globe correspondents Colin A. Young, Melanie Dostis, and Liam O’Kennedy. It was written by ­Andersen.

Forty-five people from Massachusetts are listed in the secret “perversion files” maintained by the Boy Scouts of America that were released Thursday by an Oregon legal team ­under an order from the Oregon Supreme Court.

The hometowns of Massachusetts residents listed in the Scouts’ ­ineligible volunteer files were spread across the state, from South Boston to Pittsfield. The files contained 44 names and one person listed as ­unknown. …

In addition, a former Catholic seminary student from Dorchester who admitted to sexually assaulting an 11-year-old Scout at Thompson’s Island in 1969 was listed with the names released, according to his file.

He also admitted to committing lewd acts in front of scouts at various time during troop meetings, the filing states. The man received a suspended prison sentence for his actions and was later treated by a therapist, he wrote in a letter to scout officials asking to be admitted to a South Boston troop. That request was denied.

“I admit I did something terribly wrong, and never have denied that fact,” the man wrote in his letter. “But through therapy, I was able to see the underlying causes. … I can assure you there is no further problem and can document this. How many other Scoutmasters can?”

The Globe did not name the man because it could not determine on Thursday night if the man was ever charged.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Kelly Clark, Attorney

Disclaimer:

The information contained in the ineligible volunteer (“IV”) files is being made public pursuant to a court order from The Honorable John Wittmayer, Multnomah County Circuit Judge for the State of Oregon, in the case of Lewis vs. Boy Scouts of America, Case No. 0710-11294. The Oregon Supreme Court upheld the ruling on June 14th, 2012.

By the terms of Judge Wittmayer’s order, the names and contact information of persons identified as victims of sexual abuse and those that reported the abuse were redacted. If the person identified as an abuse reporter was a professional Scouter, i.e., an individual employed by the Boy Scouts of America or an affiliate, then the name was not redacted.

The information in the IV files concerns allegations of child sexual abuse. In a number of the cases, the allegations were later substantiated by court proceedings. However, in a great many cases no such substantiation ever occurred. Consequently, the law firms of O’Donnell Clark and Crew LLP and Paul Mones, and any agent or representative thereof, make no representations or suggestions that any of the allegations in these files are in every case true. In fact, we are in no position to verify or attest to the truth of these allegations as they were compiled by the Boy Scouts of America. The incidents reported in these documents attest to notice of potential child abuse given to the Boy Scouts of America and its affiliates and their response to that notice.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
KSDK

[with video]

By Alex Fees

St. Louis (KSDK) – Officials with SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are weighing-in on the Boy Scouts child sex abuse scandal.

They say the documents made public Thursday by civil suits show the same kind of callous, reckless maneuvers by scouting officials that SNAP called attention to in other contexts, such as the Catholic Church and Penn State.

“The sad truth is many institutions value their own reputations over the safety of the kids they serve,” said David Clohessy, with SNAP in St. Louis.

Regarding the release of confidential, so-called “perversion” files kept by Boy Scout officials, Clohessy said, “We in SNAP are calling upon law enforcement officials to look through these files and use their bully pulpits and beg victims, witnesses, and whistle-blowers of scout abuse to come forward. Obviously most of these cases are from years and years ago. And the statute of limitations has probably run and nothing can be done, legally, but we believe it’s reckless to make that assumption.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MASSACHUSETTS
Lowell Sun

By Lisa Redmond, lredmond@lowellsun.comlowellsun.com
Posted: 10/20/2012

BOSTON — One of the 45 Massachusetts residents listed in the Boy Scouts’ newly released “perversion files” is a former Pepperell resident and Level 3 sex offender who is in prison serving time for his fourth child sex-assault conviction.

Due to an Oregon Supreme Court ruling, the Boy Scouts of America on Thursday released a list of 1,250 “ineligible volunteers” from across the country who were accused of child molestation as far back as 1965. …

On the published list is Donn Kruger, of Pepperell, who was listed as an “ineligible volunteer” in 1983. Also listed as ineligible volunteers are Normand R. Harnois, of Lowell (1989); Steven A. Conti, of Burlington (1988); Alden R. Farrar, of Ayer, (1978); and the Rev. Walter N. Stone, of Fitchburg (1989). …

According to published reports from 1989, Stone was a Congregational minister in Fitchburg when he was charged with rape and sexual abuse involving children in his parish and in

In a July 28, 1978 letter from George Fraquair, Scout executive of the Nashua Valley BSA Council, to the BSA Registration Service, Fraquair asked that Alden R. Farrar, of Ayer, be “placed on the confidential list. He has admitted to a morals offense against one of our scouts. The family, including the scout, fortunately have decided not to prosecute.”

Stone, of the Rollstone Congregational Church in Fitchburg, was sentenced to seven to 15 years in state prison after being convicted of eight counts of indecent assault and battery on a child. Two victims testified that Stone befriended them during church counseling and activities.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ILLINOIS
Herald-Whig

By DON O’BRIEN
Herald-Whig Staff Writer

Information about three cases concerning local Boy Scout leaders were among the 14,500 pages of secret “perversion files” released Thursday by order of the Oregon Supreme Court.

The Associated Press reported an array of local authorities — police chiefs, prosecutors, pastors and town Boy Scout leaders among them — quietly shielded scoutmasters and others who allegedly molested children. The files document sex abuse allegations across the country, from a small town in the Adirondacks to downtown Los Angeles, from 1959 to 1985.

The local cases involved a Memphis, Mo., minister in 1960, and incidents in the 1980s in both Quincy and Fort Madison, Iowa. …

º The Rev. Dean Jones, a pastor at Christian Church in Memphis, Mo., was accused of oral sodomy in June 1960, according to papers filed by The Great Rivers Council of the Boy Scouts of America. The Boys Scouts’ memo said Jones “failed to deny or admit (the charge) but immediately resigned his position in the church.”

Jones, 28 at the time, was the cubmaster for Pack 97 in Memphis. His file does not indicate if he was ever charged. The memo stated that “sufficient evidence has been collected to verify the major complaint.”

Click here to view documents related to the Jones case.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IOWA
KWWL

[with video]

Written by Jackie Manternach, Producer

MARION COUNTY (KWWL) –
Former Pella Pastor Patrick Edouard, 42, will serve prison time after sexually abusing four members of his congregation.

One victim described it in court saying, “Edouard violated me emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually.”

Edouard’s accusers say he took advantage of their time in counseling on personal issues. But the former pastor says that he wasn’t counseling any of the woman, rather he says all of the relationships were consensual.

A jury disagreed with him on several accounts in August.

Edouard was found guilty of four counts of sexual exploitation by a therapist or counselor and one count of a pattern of sexual exploitation. He was also found not guilty of three other counts of sexual abuse.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

RHODE ISLAND
Westerly Sun

Associated Press

PROVIDENCE — The newly released Boy Scouts “perversion files” name several former Scout officials in Rhode Island, including one expelled from the organization in the 1970s after being accused of forcing a boy to perform a sex act on him.

The 14,500 pages of files, released Thursday, show that William Lazzareschi was expelled from his Providence troop in 1971 after a Scout leader said he saw a 12-year-old performing oral sex on him behind a tent at Yawgoog Scout Reservation. The boy later said “Mr. Lazzareschi made me do it to him,” according to a letter from the assistant reservation director to the head of the Narragansett Council.

It appears that authorities were not notified. The letter indicates that a Scout chaplain, the Rev. Edmond Micarelli, recommended the boy’s parents not be told. It said the boy was “counseled” by Micarelli with “positive results.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

Published on Saturday 20 October 2012

A ROMAN Catholic diocese which ordained a priest despite his dismissal for abusing boys at a children’s home received more abuse allegations after his ordination but did not report them to the police, the Yorkshire Post can reveal.

The Diocese of Middlesbrough, which appointed Joseph O’Brien to a series of clerical posts in Middlesbrough and North Yorkshire after he had been sacked from the St William’s children’s home in East Yorkshire, kept fresh allegations of abuse ‘in-house’ from 2000 onwards.

The latest revelations surrounding Father O’Brien, who served for 15 years in the parish of Thirsk until retirement in 1998, are contained in an executive summary of a report compiled by a Catholic child protection agency.

The Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service (CSAS) carried out an inquiry following a Yorkshire Post investigation into the priest, who died in 2010. The summary reveals that the diocese kept two separate files, one of which – termed the ‘Bishop’s file’ – was only discovered last year.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

FLORIDA
Huffington Post

The Archdiocese of Miami continues to defend embattled priest Father Rolando Garcia, who is facing a fresh accusation he used hush money to conceal another priest’s abuse of an underaged boy.

That victim, now an adult, appeared before the media Thursday with attorney Jeff Herman to allege that Garcia, currently pastor at St. Agatha Catholic Church in West Miami-Dade, bought the victim’s complicit silence regarding his knowledge of the repeated assaults.

“He was paying me to keep it quiet while [Fr.] Cristobal de Jesus Puertas was raping me,” said the man, whose identity is being concealed. “This man is preaching to hundreds of people over there and he’s wearing a mask.”

Fr. Garcia has himself been accused of molesting young boys in the church. The church leader was named in previous lawsuits against the archdiocese alleging he engaged in inappropriate sexual contact with alter boys, with the most recent suit filed in September.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
The Sudbury Star

Carol Mulligan
The Sudbury Star

Friday, October 19, 2012

The lawyer representing 15 men who allege they were sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests is demanding the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie take a “trinity” of actions to help his clients get over their pain.
Rob Talach is calling upon the diocese and its spiritual leader, Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe, to begin the process of defrocking priests who are convicted sexual offenders, to create a diocesan sexual abuse policy with input from victims and to pay for counselling for men who were abused.

Talach, from London-based Ledroit Beckett Litigation lawyers, was joined at a news conference Friday by four Sudbury men who were victims of two of six priests convicted criminally of sexual abuse dating back 50 years in Sudbury.

Talach lambasted the diocese and Plouffe for not taking a proactive approach to helping these men by funding counselling before the civil cases he has launched for the men are dealt with in court.

“Up here, this diocese, it’s the middle ages,” Talach said Friday at the Radisson Hotel on St. Anne’s Road, a stone’s throw from the diocese’s office across the street.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on October 19, 2012

Today, LA judge Emilie Elias gave the Archdiocese of Los Angeles a concrete schedule for the public release of thousands of pages of sex abuse and cover-up documents. If all goes according to plan, the redacted files on perpetrator priests will be made public by the end of the year.

The documents were a part of the 2007, $660 million settlement with more than 500 victims of child sexual abuse. More than 200 predator clerics were named as abusers. Lawyers for the Archdiocese and accused priests have spent the past five years (and who knows how much money at $600/hr) to keep the files secret.

In other dioceses (like Orange and Wilmington, DE, to name a few), similar files have shown the severe damage caused by many current and former clerics, and also show how complicit church officials ignored public safety and recklessly put children in harm’s way.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

BELGIE
De Morgen

Socioloog Jan Hertogen, een van de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de kerk, heeft in een e-mail aan de pers het proces-verbaal publiek gemaakt dat onderzoeksrechter Colette Calewaert opgesteld heeft over de verdwijning van dossierstukken in Operatie Kelk. Dat is het gerechtelijk onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik en schuldig verzuim dat de onderzoeksrechter erfde van haar voorganger, Wim De Troy.

Het proces-verbaal maakt deel uit van het gerechtelijk onderzoek en is als zodanig een geheim stuk. Het federaal parket heeft het daarom over een verwonderlijke démarche die mogelijks strafbaar is.

Gisteren schreven de Coreliokranten al dat er tientallen processen-verbaal uit het onderzoeksdossier waren verdwenen. Vandaag meldde minister van Justitie Turtelboom in de Kamer dat het ging om 445 stukken. Die verdwenen in de periode net voordat onderzoeksrechter Wim De Troy, die het onderzoek eerst leidde maar zich niet liet herbenoemen tot onderzoeksrechter, vervangen werd door onderzoeksrechter Calewaert.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

BELGIE
De Morgen

dm Operatie Kelk Socioloog Jan Hertogen meent dat hij in Operatie Kelk het geheim van het onderzoek niet heeft geschonden. De man maakte donderdagavond via e-mail minstens een deel van het proces-verbaal publiek waarin onderzoeksrechter Colette Calewaert vaststelt dat een groot aantal dossierstukken uit het onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik en schuldig verzuim binnen de katholieke kerk verdwenen zijn. Volgens Jan Hertogen deed hij dat om de belangen van de slachtoffers te beschermen.

“Als minister van Justitie Turtelboom laconiek vaststelt dat er 445 processen-verbaal verdwenen zijn, vraagt het niet veel verbeelding om zich in te leven in de gevoelens van de slachtoffers”, schrijft Jan Hertogen in een nieuwe e-mail. “Die vragen zich af of hun proces-verbaal of verhaal daarbij zit, in wiens handen dat terechtgekomen is en wat die persoon daarmee gaat doen. Maar dat zulk een onzorgvuldigheid in een uiterst gevoelig dossier kan voorkomen, lijkt geen probleem. Er is niemand in de media of politiek die zijn bekommernis voor de slachtoffers uit.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

BELGIE
De Morgen

Er zijn niet enkele tientallen, maar wel honderden pv’s verdwenen uit het onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik in de Kerk. Welgeteld 445 om precies te zijn. Dat heeft minister van Justitie Annemie Turtelboom (Open Vld) bekendgemaakt in de Kamer. Intussen is een kopie van alle ontbrekende processen-verbaal wel weer aan het strafdossier toegevoegd. “Dat is dus opnieuw volledig”, klonk het. .

Gisteren raakte bekend dat tientallen pv’s zijn verdwenen. Ze zouden per vergissing door de poetsvrouw zijn weggegooid bij de verhuis van de griffier van toenmalig onderzoeksrechter Wim De Troy. Maar een deel ging vermoedelijk ook mee naar huis om er daar verder aan te werken, zonder dat ze ooit terug tot op kantoor geraakten, klonk het.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

BELGIE
De Morgen

Tientallen pv’s in het onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik in de kerk zijn verdwenen. Dat schrijven de Coreliokranten. Ze werden per vergissing door de poetsvrouw weggegooid. Het federaal parket bevestigt de verdwijning, maar over de oorzaak spreken ze zich niet uit. “Het verhaal van de poetsvrouw is slechts een veronderstelling.” .

Colette Callewaert, de onderzoeksrechter die Wim De Troy afloste in het onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik in de kerk, stelde in april dit jaar vast dat tientallen processen-verbaal van de federale politie niet meer in het onderzoeksdossier zaten. Het zou onder meer gaan over verhoren van slachtoffers, maar ook over pv’s die gemaakt werden van verschillende huiszoekingen.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

COLORADO
Colorado Springs Gazette

October 19, 2012

R. SCOTT RAPPOLD
scott.rappold@gazette.com

A retired priest pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that he lured a 15-year-old Colorado Springs boy into a sexual relationship.

The Rev. Charles Robert Manning, 77, is accused of molesting the boy while serving as pastor at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church, where he began work in 2007. The alleged abuse took place in June 2011.

An arrest affidavit alleges the boy came to Manning for advice on becoming a Catholic and the priest began giving him private lessons, during which he gave the boy alcohol and marijuana. Colorado Springs Police also say Manning took the boy to get his nipples pierced, kissed the boy on the lips and engaged in other sexual acts, after which he thanked the boy.

Manning was suspended from the church in January and arrested in May.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

COLORADO
San Francisco Chronicle

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A retired Roman Catholic priest has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he engaged in sexual acts with a 15-year-old boy in Colorado Springs.

Charles Robert Manning pleaded not guilty Friday to three counts of sex assault on a child by one in a position of trust and two counts each of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and sexual exploitation of children.

The Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/R8Muqe ) Manning is accused of molesting the boy while serving at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in 2007. He also is accused of giving the boy alcohol and marijuana.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Oct. 19, 2012

The Knights of Columbus, the U.S. Catholic fraternal organization known for its wide-ranging charitable work and parish fish fries, has been a significant contributor to political efforts opposing same-sex marriage across the country, according to a study commissioned by a coalition of Catholic groups that support same-sex marriage.

“Since 2005, the Knights of Columbus has provided more than $15.8 million dollars toward [opposing same-sex marriage], providing $6.25 million directly to anti-marriage equality efforts,” says the report, released Thursday.

Earlier this year, a coalition called Equally Blessed commissioned a study of the Knights’ tax filings, annual statements and other public documents between 2005 and 2012. The result is a 37-page report, “The Strong Right Arm of the Bishops: The Knights of Columbus and Anti-Marriage Equality Funding.” …

The Equally Blessed group criticizes the Knights’ donations to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as “essentially untraceable.”

“Since the USCCB is part of the Catholic Church and does not have to report its charitable contributions, money given to the USCCB’s anti-marriage equality efforts is essentially untraceable unless it shows up in specific state-level reporting requirements,” the report states.

“This is especially important because it makes it difficult to ascertain how much the church has invested in influencing voters in Washington, Maryland, Maine and Minnesota, where marriage equality-related initiatives are on the ballot in November 2012,” the report says.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

BIRMINGHAM (AL)
AL.com

By Kent Faulk | kfaulk@al.com

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — A Birmingham Museum of Art security guard has been charged with receiving child pornography, which included movies and photographs shipped from a foreign country to his workplace at the museum.

Investigators also found pornographic images of young boys on the home computer of the guard, who was also involved with his church’s youth group, according to federal court documents.

Loyd Jeffrey Hitt, 53, of Center Point, was charged with receipt of child pornography in a court document filed in U.S. District Court on Thursday afternoon.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert R. Armstrong denied bond for Hitt during a hearing Thursday at the Hugo L. Black U.S. Courthouse, court records show. The judge also appointed defense lawyers to represent Hitt from the Federal Public Defender’s Office.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

HOUSTON (TX)
KTRK

Pooja Lodhia

HOUSTON (KTRK) — Investigators say they found hundreds of pictures and videos stored on Gordon Oehmig’s home computer. Oehmig was head wrestling coach at St. Thomas High School on Memorial Drive.

Houston police are warning parents that their kids could be victims. They are calling this an elevated threat because the suspect worked with kids, both as an employee and volunteer.

Oehmig, 29, bonded out of jail early Friday morning on a $20,000 bail. He has now been charged with five felony counts of possessing child pornography.

Investigators raided his home Thursday morning after Oehmig allegedly joined a file sharing network. They say they found 1,600 images and 550 videos of child pornography on his home computer. Most of the pictures allegedly involved young boys. We’re told there were 21 images of toddlers.

Police are now concerned the suspect may have even more victims. He was employed as the head wrestling coach at St. Thomas High School and the assistant wrestling coach at Episcopal High. Police say Oehmig also worked and volunteered at several other local wrestling organizations.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle

By Robert Stanton | Friday, October 19, 2012

The wrestling coach at St. Thomas High School has been arrested on child porn charges, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

Gordon Daniel Oehmig, 29, faces five counts of possession of child pornography, court records show. He was released from custody after posting a $20,000 bond on each count, for a total $100,000.

Oehmig was arrested at his Houston home Thursday following a monthlong investigation into the trafficking of child porn in the Harris County area.

Using specialized software, officers with the Houston Metro Internet Crime Against Children Taskforce located a computer online that was using a peer-to-peer program to share hundreds of images of child porn, according to an arrest warrant filed on Thursday.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

HOUSTON (TX)
Fox 26

By Alexander Supgul, Web Producer

HOUSTON (FOX 26) –
A former St. Thomas High School coach has been charged with possession of child pornography.

Gordon Daniel Oehmig is out of jail after he posted a $20,000 bond early on Friday morning and is scheduled to appear in court on Monday, Oct. 22 to face the felony charges.

Oehmig has been charged with five counts of possessing child pornography and is no longer a coach at St. Thomas.

Houston police found Oehmig, 29, in possession almost 1,500 digital images and 500 digital videos of child pornography, according to court documents.

The videos and photos found in Oehmig’s possession include images of young boys and girls, ranging in age from toddlers to 9 years old, involved in explicit sexual acts, based on the probable cause statement filed against him.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Press

By Richard Connelly
Fri., Oct. 19 2012

A former Prep Coach of the Year from St. Thomas High has been arrested after authorities found 1,500 digital images and 500 videos of child porn on his computers, court documents show.

Gordon Daniel Oehmig, 29, is no longer at the school, but coached there from from 2009-12, when he won the coach of the year award.

Court documents say child-porn activity was traced to the IP address on his computer, and a search found the images and video. (The court document somehow lists the day of the search as October25, 2012, but that’s for the lawyers to hash out, we guess.)

Oehmig is a grad of The Kinkaid School and the University of North Carolina, according to a news profile in which he says ” “My job is not to just win or lose, but to help grow the kids personally, spiritually, and athletically. Part of that is making sure where they’re going to be after they leave St. Thomas.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

HOUSTON (TX)
KHOU

Posted on October 19, 2012

HOUSTON – An assistant wrestling coach at St. Thomas Episcopal High School has been arrested on child porn charges.

Gordon Daniel Oehmig, 29, was taken into custody at his home Thursday　following a month-long investigation. He is charged with five counts of possession of child pornography.

Investigators with the Houston-Metro Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force searched Oehmig’s Montrose home and seized several computers, a server and digital storing devices.

They say they found more than 1,000 images and video files of young children engaged in sex acts. The cases in which he is charged involved photos of girls and boys ranging from 1 to 9 years old who are being sexually abused by adults.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

By Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith on Friday, 19 October 2012

Readers with long memories may recall the case of Salvatore Riina, the Sicilian mafia boss of all bosses. Mr Riina was on the run from the police for twenty-three years but was finally arrested in January 1993. I was living in Italy at the time, and the capture of Riina was hailed as a great success in the fight against crime. The fact that he had evaded capture for so long had been emblematic of the Italian state’s helplessness in the face of the Mafia.

Riina’s arrest probably did mark a turning point in the battle against the mafia in Sicily. But questions remain to this day. Riina was not on the run or in hiding in the usual sense of the word. There were no recent photos of him, so no one knew what he looked like, but he was living normally at home in Palermo, not in some mountain hideout, nor moving from place to place. He was, as they say, hiding in plain view. And it has often been assumed that he was able to do this with the connivance of the authorities: in other words, Riina had significant backing from politicians in Rome. …

There are one or two facts about the Soper case that make you wonder. He was interviewed by police in England, but the police did not photograph him, and they did not confiscate his passport There are no recent photographs of him ( a bit like Salvatore Riina) and there is also confusion about his age: it seems that he is 68, but other sources mention him being in his eighties. If he is living quietly in Italy, this raises important questions. Has he a bank account in his own name? Is he living under an alias, and if so, how did he acquire it? Who is helping him? Or has he been able to disappear relying purely on his own cunning? This seems doubtful: you cannot do anything in Italy without an identity card or passport. You cannot have someone to stay in your house for more than three nights without advising the police of it. There are numerous rules and regulations, all of which were flouted by Riina, but which Soper might find harder to avoid.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IOWA
KCCI

KNOXVILLE, Iowa —

Former Pella pastor Patrick Edouard was sentenced Friday morning.

Sentencing:

Edouard received four years for the sexual exploitation charges, one for each of the four counts, and five years for the charge of a scheme, pattern or practice.

The sentences are expected to run concurrent, meaning Edouard will spend five years in prison.

Judge Paul Huscher also applied a special sentence. At the conclusion of his prison term, Edouard will serve an additional 10 years on parole or work-release.

Edouard will part of the sex offender registry for the rest of his life. There are also no contact orders in place with the victims or their families for the next five years.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHICAGO (IL)
What They Knew

In what would seemingly be an uncomfortable situation for all involved, The Jesuit Club of Chicago in having a luncheon speaker who successfully prosecuted one of their own in 2008, former US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Why, is another question for both parties to answer. Fitzgerald stopped his office’s successful prosecution of a child abusing priest when the Jesuit hierarchy who covered-up child sex abuse for decades came under scrutiny. No one has yet figured out why the case was shut down when the grand jury, who wanted charges brought against the leadership of the Chicago Province, started asking uncomfortable questions about what the Jesuit leadership knew was going on for decades.

The Jesuits have a long history with former US Attorneys, the chief Federal prosecutor in a State, and have routinely hired them, both for their legal skills at defending the Order from criminal prosecution and for their political connections that ensure any criminal action brought against the Jesuits would have dire consequences politically. More on this later.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

The Boy Scouts of America, on order of the Oregon Supreme Court, yesterday released over 15,000 pages of files detailing child sexual abuse by scoutmasters and other volunteers from 1959 through 1985.

The pattern that is revealed is the same as that within the Roman Catholic Church and at PennState.

Our question is: will the response be the same or will there finally be an uprising of men and women of goodwill that will protect children and provide access to justice for survivors?

Don’t children matter?

If members of a religious organization that was proclaimed a moral pillar of the planet can’t lead in this fight to protect the innocent, guard the vulnerable and say and mean enough is enough can society in general?

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IOWA
Journal-Express

Steve Woodhouse
Journal-Express

Knoxville — The main courtroom in the Marion County Courthouse was filled with hugs and praise moments after former Pella Pastor Patrick Edouard was sentenced to up to five years in prison.

Edouard was convicted of four counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist and one count of entering into a pattern/scheme of exploitation by a therapist. He was sentenced to one year in prison on each of the exploitation counts and five years on the ongoing charge. The individual sentences per exploitation count will be served consecutively, and the sentence on the pattern charge will run concurrently with those.

Members of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and Pella Police Department were stationed around the courtroom filled with members of the community Edouard’s crimes had affected. Edouard’s attorney, Angela Campbell, filed a motion in arrest of judgment and sought a new trial before the sentencing proceedings began. Judge Paul Huscher felt the jury’s findings were supported by adequate evidence and ruled against Campbell’s motions.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on October 18, 2012

Where is the list of scout officials who’ve been fired, demoted, disciplined and denounced by Scout executives for hiding child sex crimes of their colleagues? When Scout executives post that list on their websites, voluntarily, that’s when we’ll believe progress is happening.

Virtually every single fact about abuse that is publicly known about abuse and cover-ups in scouting has been made known despite, not because of, the Scout hierarchy. When scout officials claim that 60% of the cases in the newly released files had “some degree of public knowledge,” that’s irrelevant. What’s relevant is what percentage of those cases was made public voluntarily by Scout leaders. Scout executives should answer that today.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

BALTIMORE (MD)
Leon J. Podles: Dialogue

Archbishop Lori has written a column, “Remembering the painful past,” in Baltimore’s Catholic Review. He summaries the case of John Merzbacher, who abused dozens of children at a Catholic elementary school in south Baltimore, a school where Sister Eileen Weisman was principal. His version does not jibe with what the victims said or what was said to parents:

From my book, Sacrilege:

One alleged victim said that he saw Merzbacher having intercourse on a table with Sister Eileen Weismann, the principal of the Catholic Community Middle School at which he taught from 1972 to 1979. Several plaintiffs said that Merzbacher bragged about it: “Privately he would say he would have to fuck her so that he could do what he wanted in the school.”

His former students said that Merzbacher had a gun in his desk; he once held it to a victim’s head when he molested her. He had sex, according to the plaintiffs, with many boys and girls during and after school. Sister Eileen, the plaintiffs said, saw the molestation and did nothing. The students were terrified into silence after Merzbacher convinced them that he had Mafia connections. Gary Homberg, who taught at the school with Merzbacher, gave an affidavit in which he said, “I personally observed John Merzbacher sexually touching, molesting, and fondling both male and female students.” After one student came to Homberg to tell him that Merzbacher “was raping him and threatening to kill him if he ever told anyone,” Homberg called a meeting at his house with Sister Eileen, the Rev. Herbert Derwart, another priest, and told them what had happened. The three archdiocesan employees met privately, and then told Homberg “that they would like me to continue as a teacher in the school, but only under the condition that I made no mention to anyone of my observations on John Merzbacher’s sexual misconduct.: Homberg resigned his teaching position, but he did not tell anyone of Merzbacher’s conduct because he was afraid of him.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Doug Most
Globe Staff
October 18, 2012

The story about how the Catholic Church’s long cover-up of child molestation unfolded and came to light is one step closer to becoming a movie. The production company Anonymous Content, which plans to make the movie based on the stories of the Boston Globe journalists who uncovered the scandal, has hired a director and screenwriter to keep the project moving.

Tom McCarthy, an actor and director, and also a Boston College grad, who co-starred in “The Wire” as an ethically-challenged journalist, and has directed “The Station Agent,” “Win, Win” and “The Visitor” among other projects, is on board for the untitled project, along with screenwriter Josh Singer.

“This is a story that feels like it has to be told,” McCarthy, who grew up in a large Irish Catholic family in New Jersey, told us Thursday.

He said he was especially drawn to the story because of his connection to BC, where he came to see the influence of the Catholic Church.

“It’s such a great reminder of how essential investigative journalism is today,” said McCarthy.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

BOSTON (MA)
Variety

By Jeff Sneider

“Win Win” helmer Tom McCarthy and scribe Josh Singer (“The West Wing”) have boarded Anonymous Content and Rocklin/Faust’s untitled Boston Globe project, which follows the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists who exposed the Catholic Church’s decades-long cover-up of child molestation in Massachusetts.

Due to the sensitivity of the subject matter, McCarthy has been working in secret for more than a year on the project that chronicles the worldwide scandal.

Steve Golin and Michael Sugar of Anonymous Content are producing with Nicole Rocklin and Blye Faust. David Mizner, who brought the project to Rocklin/Faust, will consult and serve as an associate producer.

Producers have secured life rights of the Globe reporters responsible, including Spotlight Team members Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer and Matt Carroll, Spotlight Team editor Walter “Robby” Robinson, special projects editor Ben Bradlee Jr. and Globe editor Marty Baron.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on October 19, 2012

Two attorneys who represent child sex abuse victims are calling on Congress to audit the Boy Scouts after more than 20,000 documents have been released focusing on the more than 1,200 of the Scout “ineligible volunteers.”

We at SNAP echo this call. According to US Code Chapter 309 (http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/36C309.txt), the BSA is a congressionally chartered organization, which means their activities can fall under the purview of the government. We agree with attorneys Kelly Clark and Paul Mones that Congress has ample reason to investigate the Scouts.

Child sex abuse and cover-ups thrive in largely private and male-dominate, institutions with few or no external checks and balances, like churches and the Scouts. Because of this, outside oversight is critical. That’s why Congressional audits and hearings are so important here.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

BALTIMORE (MD)
Catholic Review

By Archbishop William E. Lori

Next week, a federal appeals court will hear arguments regarding John Merzbacher’s request to be released from prison. John Merzbacher was a teacher at Catholic Community School in South Baltimore who sexually abused and terrorized multiple children during the 1970s. Without getting into the legal technicalities, Merzbacher and his attorneys claim he was never made aware of a plea agreement that would have enabled him to be released by now had he pled guilty at his trial in the mid-1990s.

The archdiocese first learned of the abuse in 1988, when one of Merzbacher’s victims reported it to the archdiocese. In accordance with its policies at the time, the archdiocese met with the victim, offered her counseling assistance and encouraged her to report the matter to the Department of Social Services (DSS), which she did. The archdiocese confirmed Merzbacher was no longer working in the archdiocesan school system or any other church-related entity and noted his file so he could never volunteer or work again for the church.

A few years later, that same victim spoke with a priest (who also was a former classmate) following a funeral. He instructed the woman to report the matter to authorities and he contacted the archdiocese, which again met with the victim and encouraged her again to report to the authorities. The archdiocese itself reported the matter to DSS and the victim also reported it to the police who initiated an investigation which would result in a criminal indictment of Merzbacher. Incidentally, DSS responded to the archdiocese’s report by stating it would not conduct an investigation because the alleged victim was by then an adult.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW JERSEY
The Record

Friday, October 19, 2012

BY JEFF PILLETS, COLLEEN DISKIN AND MARY JO LAYTON
STAFF WRITERS
The Record

Albert T. Bischoff of Bergenfield was a married father of two who worked as a custodian in Englewood schools and spent his free time as a merit badge counselor and assistant troop leader for the Boy Scouts.

Scout officials described him as “shy and retiring.” But internal Boy Scout documents released Thursday show that some of the boys saw another side of Bischoff — a man who took photos of Scouts urinating in the latrine, who talked openly about oral sex, orgies, sensual massage and the merits of bisexuality.

Local Boy Scout executives removed Bischoff, now deceased, from the organization in 1982 after parents demanded action. But the Scouts also promised Bischoff they would keep the matter quiet. …

But child-abuse advocates said the newly released files show the organization cannot be trusted.

“We see this time and time again — an iconic organization putting its own reputation over the welfare of children,” said Mark Crawford, New Jersey director of S.N.A.P., the non-profit Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “How can we expect the Scouts to reform themselves?”

Crawford and others said an independent review, similar to former FBI chief Louis Freeh’s investigation of sex abuse at Penn State, is now needed. New state laws that lengthen New Jersey’s two-year statute of limitations on civil cases stemming from sex abuse are also needed, the advocates said.

A bill pending in the New Jersey Legislature would give victims of sexual abuse 10 years to pursue civil litigation. The legislation was prompted by complaints from victims of clergy sexual abuse who only came to grips with the damaging episodes of their childhood as adults — when it was too late to pursue lawsuits.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
California Salesians

In what molestation victims and advocates have described as “more than a coincidence”, the Salesians of Australia-Pacific have been accused by many of “robbing the acronym ‘SNAP’ from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. The letters S-N-A-P, used by the Salesians of Australia, stand for Salesian News Australia Pacific, according to the Salesian site. Critics claim the use of the letters “is a desperate stretch.”

“SNAP”, which is said to be the largest and oldest supportive group of clergy sex abuse survivors and victims in the world, was founded in 1988 by Barbara Blaine. The group has also been quoted to be the most active advocates organization for clergy abuse victims as well. It is estimated that SNAP has over ten thousand members around the globe.

Amidst a flurry of negative press concerning the concealment and transfer of clergy sex abusers, the Salesian Order of Don Bosco has been accused of resorting to bold measures to divert attention – while conveniently swiping the famed SNAP letters. A California SNAP leader and victim that was interviewed said that “At the very least the use of the word “SNAP” by the Salesians of Australia is deceitful – it may mislead victims into thinking the Salesians are affiliated with the survivor group. The Salesians of Australia have a sordid history”.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTAQ

MILWAUKEE (WSAU) For the first time, local parishes are being targeted in the bankruptcy petition filed by the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese. At a court hearing yesterday, attorneys for almost 600 people sexually abused by priests said they would try to tap parish assets in order to compensate the victims. A committee for abuse victims and other creditors in the bankruptcy case said the assets and liabilities of parishes throughout the 10-county archdiocese should be consolidated. It would end the separate incorporations by the archdiocese and its churches – which were established over a century ago.

Greendale pastor Alan Jurkus said the creditors’ strategy could backfire. He said Catholics have a fair amount of sympathy for the sex abuse victims – but that could change if the creditors start dragging the parishes into the case. The victims’ committee also said there’s still a chance that the church can use insurance to compensate victims. They said the courts struck down the use of one policy, but two others could be available.

Bankruptcy Judge Susan Kelley said she was disappointed in the creditors’ new legal challenges. She said a negotiated settlement is still the best way to keep the church in business, while fairly compensating the sex abuse victims.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

FLORIDA
NBC Miami

By Sharon Lawson

Friday, Oct 19, 2012

A Miami Catholic priest accused of sexual abuse is facing new allegations he tried to cover up the abuse of a boy by another priest, the alleged victim and his attorney said.

The alleged victim, who wants to remain anonymous, says Father Rolando Garcia of St. Agatha Catholic Church knew that a fellow priest, identified as Father Cristobal De Jesus Puertas, was abusing him as a child and he did nothing to stop it.

“He was paying me to keep it quiet when Father Puertas was raping me,” the man said Thursday. “I’m furious…I don’t know how they allow it, I don’t understand.”

The man reached out to attorney Jeff Herman after learning that one of Herman’s clients, who was reportedly abused by Garcia about 30 years ago, filed suit against the Archdiocese of Miami. Garcia, who remains at St. Agatha, has adamantly denied the abuse charges.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Echo

A RETIRED Church of England priest is to stand trial after pleading not guilty to a string of sex attacks on 18 girls and boys dating back 50 years.

Canon Gordon Rideout, 73, is accused of committing 38 offences over an 11-year period between 1962 and 1973.

Today he attended Lewes Crown Court and denied 36 counts of indecent assault and two counts of attempted rape which are alleged to have taken place in Crawley, West Sussex, Middle Wallop, Hampshire, and Barkingside, Essex.

Rideout, of Filching Close, Wannock, Polegate, East Sussex, will face a trial lasting up to eight weeks either at Lewes Crown Court or the Old Bailey.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A retired Church of England priest from East Sussex has denied committing 38 sexual offences against 18 children and young teenagers.

Canon Gordon Rideout, 73, of Filching Close, Wannock, is accused of committing offences between 1962 and 1973 in Crawley, London and Hampshire.

He pleaded not guilty at Lewes Crown Court to 36 counts of indecent assault and two counts of attempted rape.

Mr Rideout was remanded in custody to face trial at a later date.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NORTHBRIDGE (MA)
NECN

[with video]

(NECN: Kristen Carosa) – James Knott looks over the Oakhurst Conference and Retreat Center in Whitinsville, Mass.

The Northbridge, Mass. man says he bought the property from the Diocese of Worcester for $800,000.

“I brought the building when it became available because, in my opinion, it’s an important piece of history,” Knott says.

But along with history comes controversy.

James Fairbanks and Allain Beret of Sutton say they were discriminated against by the Diocese when they tried to purchase the property.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Church Times

by Ed Thornton

Posted: 19 Oct 2012

THE Bishop of Lewes, the Rt Revd Wallace Benn, announced yesterday that he will retire at the end of the month. Charges against him under the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) remain unresolved ( News, 18 November 2011).

The interim report of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s commissaries, published last month, said that “dysfunctionality” in Chichester diocese was preventing adequate child safeguarding ( …

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said a Sussex diocese is clear about the need to “change attitude and practices” to guarantee the safety of children.

Lambeth Palace issued a statement after the announcement that the Bishop of Lewes, the Right Reverend Wallace Benn, will retire at the end of October.

Calls had been made for Bishop Benn’s suspension after a child protection controversy in Chichester diocese.

Bishop Benn said he had hoped to resolve issues before he retired.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

Published on Friday 19 October 2012

The Archbishop of Canterbury has admitted the church has made mistakes in the past and that it needs to change on the day that the Bishop of Lewes has announced he is to retire.

The Right Reverend Wallace Benn revealed yesterday that he will retire at the end of October.

His announcement comes at a time when the church in Sussex, and Bishop Benn in particular, have come under enormous pressure over its child protection policies and the conduct of its priests.

Three Sussex priests have been charged with child sex offences this year, and today (Friday) retired Eastbourne priest, Canon Gordon Rideout, was due to appear at Lewes Crown Court charged with 38 offences of sexual abuse, including sexual assault and attempted rape against 18 children between 1962 and 1973. As a result, there had been calls for Bishop Benn’s resignaton earlier this year.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

POLICE say the Catholic Church has not reported a single case of child sex abuse in more than half a century, despite hundreds of victims coming forward or being identified by investigations.

As a parliamentary inquiry into churches’ handling of child abuse began hearings yesterday, Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton slammed the church for hindering investigations.

The panel of MPs was told a national royal commission could help stamp out church child abuse.

Police called for mandatory reporting of offences and accused the Catholic Church of keeping vital information from authorities.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director
CONTACT: 414.336.8575

The Boy Scout’s so-called “perversion files,” court ordered released yesterday by the Oregon Supreme Court, reveals that in Wisconsin alone, some 51 cities had troops where scouting officials quietly removed adult leaders or volunteers that were determined to have committed various sex crimes against children.

Of the over 1,200 case files spanning from 1947-2005, according to a database created by the Los Angeles Times, sex offending scout leaders litter the landscape of Wisconsin touching nearly every area of the state.

These cities include: Sheboygan, Black River Falls, Marinette, Milwaukee, Mosinee, Schofield, Madison, Janesville, Delavan, Cedarburg, Long Lake, La Crosse, Oxford, Appleton, Racine, Greendale, West Allis, Mondovi, Oneida, North Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Sun Prairie, Pewaukee, Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, Shorewood, Phelps, West Bend, Waupaca, Avery, Green Bay, Monroe, Colgate, River Falls, Beloit, Wausau, Tomah, Mukwonago, Lake, Jackson, Wisconsin Dells, Stoughton, Reedsburg, Rio, Rice Lake, Two Rivers, Wauwatosa, Marshfield, Rhinelander, Cuba City, and Gratiot.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NORTHBRIDGE (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Susan Spencer TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

NORTHBRIDGE — The new owner of Oakhurst retreat and conference center, formerly the Diocesan House of Affirmation, said he will forgo his plans to host weddings there if it meant he would have to allow gay weddings.

Asked about the center’s compliance with state anti-discrimination law, which forbids discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, James M. Knott Sr. said his center would be private property.

“But I will study it,” he said. “If necessary, I’ll have nothing there.”

He said he plans to preserve the property, in the Whitinsville section of town, as he has done with other historical sites in Northbridge.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Oct. 18, 2012

The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, which faces more than a dozen civil fraud lawsuits over its handling of clergy sex abuse cases, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January. As the case proceeds, we’ll have updates, analysis, documents and more.

Lawyers for sexual abuse victims and other creditors in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy case telegraphed Thursday they intend to go after individual parish assets and proceeds from the archdiocese’s $105 million Faith in Our Future campaign.

The strategy is sure to reverberate in pews across the 10-county archdiocese.

Archbishop Jerome Listecki has maintained that parishes, schools and the Faith in Our Future fund would not be affected by the bankruptcy. The archdiocese appeared to stand by that Thursday, calling any claims to pursue those assets frivolous.

However, lawyers for the creditors committee at a status hearing in the case said they plan to sue to:

Consolidate the assets and liabilities of parishes in the archdiocese for the purpose of determining its estate – the money that would be available to fund settlements and allow the archdiocese to remain in business. Parishes have been incorporated separately from the archdiocese for more than a century, according to the archdiocese.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Pia Akerman
From:The Australian
October 19, 2012

VICTORIA’S deputy police commissioner has accused the Catholic Church of impeding criminal investigation of child sex offences through its lack of cooperation with police.

In the first day of a parliamentary inquiry into how religious organisations have handled child sexual abuse allegations, Victoria Police deputy commission Graham Ashton resumed his scathing assessment of the church’s internal processes which he said were hampering prosecutions.

“Victoria Police has concerns that existing protocols within religious organisations are focused on church issues such as legal liability and public relations rather than the long term interests of victims,” he told the inquiry before a packed public gallery this morning.

Mr Ashton said the church had repeatedly dismissed allegations of abuse by already dead offenders, which was “an absolute nonsense” and stopped police from knowing the full picture.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Big Pond News

Friday, October 19, 2012

Victoria Police has attacked the Catholic Church for allegedly destroying evidence of sexual abuse by clergy and being more concerned with its reputation than the welfare of abuse victims.

Deputy police commissioner Graham Ashton has told Victoria’s parliamentary inquiry into abuse by religious organisations that the church places its image first and victims second.

Mr Ashton said of the 620 cases of abuse the church says it has internally upheld since 1956, none have been reported to police.

In giving evidence to the inquiry, he accused the church of ‘wrapping a special process’ around a member of the clergy accused of sexual abuse.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

As the Catholic Church, college football, and now the Boy Scouts reel from sex-abuse scandals, new studies suggest the urge to prey on children may come from how a brain is wired.

New research suggests that pedophiles can be identified before the mental illness turns into a crime, potentially keeping many children out of harm’s way. The analysis comes at a crucial moment, amid a wave of pedophilia cases dominating headlines, from Jerry Sandusky’s sentencing to allegations of sexual abuse within the Boy Scouts and the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Identifying pedophilia through MRIs and IQ studies may seem like quack science, but many experts say it is a mental illness and, just like clinical depression or bipolar disorder, can be treated—and maybe one day cured.

At least five studies conducted in the past two years have dealt with various abnormalities detected in pedophiles’ brains. Research has varied, from discerning irregularities in the frontal lobe to observing brain activity as pedophiles viewed images of naked children.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Christian Post

By Jeff Schapiro, Christian Post Reporter

October 19, 2012

A class action lawsuit was filed against Sovereign Grace Ministries on Wednesday accusing the church of habitually covering up child sexual assault and abuse over an extended period of time.

The complaint, filed in Montgomery County, Md., claims the ministry led by C.J. Mahaney “cared more about protecting its financial and institutional standing than about protecting children, its most vulnerable members.”

Founded in 1982 in Gaithersburg, Md., Sovereign Grace Ministries is a family of about 90 churches that are located primarily in the United States, but also in Australia, eastern Asia, Africa, Western Europe, Bolivia, Mexico and Canada. Mahaney is named as just one of the defendants in the lawsuit, along with other church leaders including Gary Ricucci, David Hinders, Louis Gallo, Frank Ecelbarger, John Loftness, Grant Layman and Lawrence Tomczak.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Age

October 19, 2012

Barney Zwartz and Jane Lee

CATHOLIC clergy commit six times as much abuse as those in the rest of the churches combined, ”and that’s a conservative figure”, a child protection expert says.

Patrick Parkinson, a Sydney University law professor, told the state inquiry into how the churches handle sex abuse yesterday that the figures for the Catholic Church were strikingly out of proportion.

He proposed a 12-month amnesty from charges of perverting the course of justice if the church opened all its files on offenders alive and dead, but said those involved in cover-ups would have to resign.

Earlier, Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton set the inquiry’s opening day alight with more broadsides against the Catholic Church’s systemic obstruction of police inquiries over five decades.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Wichita Eagle

[Search the Boy Scout ‘perversion files’ database]

WASHINGTON — The publication Thursday of 20 years worth of secret records kept by the Boy Scouts of America reveal a widespread effort by the organization to cover up a scandal involving allegations of sexual abuse against 1,200 scout leaders.

The records, known within the Boy Scouts itself as the “perversion files,” cover the years 1965-1985 and detail the names of the alleged perpetrators, their hometowns and other information.

The list contains the names of 14 men in Kansas, with dates when the files on them were started, from 1961 to 1985. Six of the men were living in Wichita, one in Newton and one in Arkansas City. Also: two in Leavenworth, and one each in Hoisington, Manhattan, Olathe and Kansas City, Kan.

Three of the names listed from Wichita and Arkansas City matched names of men who years later were convicted of sex crimes, including crimes against children, according to an initial check of state corrections records.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A controversial church-planting network with ties to a Southern Baptist Convention seminary has been sued in Maryland for allegedly covering up allegations of sexual abuse of children in the 1980s and 1990s.

According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit filed by three unnamed female plaintiffs claims that Sovereign Grace Ministries did not report abuse allegedly committed by church members to police. The lawsuit says church leaders counseled suspected pedophiles about how to avoid prosecution and forced victims to meet with and “forgive” their abuser.

Sovereign Grace Ministries, which moved its headquarters recently from Gaithersburg, Md., to Louisville, Ky., released a statement saying officials had not yet received a copy of the lawsuit and were in no position to comment on the allegations.

“Child abuse in any context is reprehensible and criminal,” said Tommy Hill, the organization’s director of finance and administration. “Sovereign Grace Ministries takes seriously the biblical commands to pursue the protection and well being of all people, especially the most vulnerable in its midst, little children.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
JD Journal

On Wednesday, a lawsuit was filed against Sovereign Grace Ministries by three female plaintiffs. The church is 30-years-old and has 100 congregations. The majority of the churches are located in the United States. The plaintiffs accuse the lawsuit of covering up claims of sexual abuse against children, discouraging its congregants from cooperating with law enforcement and for failing to report claims of misconduct to police. The lawsuit was filed in Maryland state court.

The lawsuit claims that there is a conspiracy that covers two decades and hides sexual abuse that was committed by members of the church. The abuse reportedly occurred in Maryland and northern Virginia in the decades of the 1980s and 1990s. Representatives of the church have been accused of allowing suspected pedophiles to interact with children, giving them free legal advice to prevent prosecution and forcing victims to forgive those who molested them.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
WJLA

[with video]

By Greta Kreuz

Sovereign Grace Ministries, a group that runs about 100 churches, including some in Maryland and Northern Virginia, is alleged to have covered up sexual abuse against children and failed to report accusations to police.

“I remember just him, like, taking me to the bathroom,” says a 17-year-old victim. She remembers how she was molested repeatedly when she was three years old by a 15-year-old babysitter. Both were members at the time of Sovereign Grace in Fairfax, but when her parents confronted the church pastors, they were told not to speak about it.

“We were told that we should not talk to any church member about it. Do not tell anyone,” she says.

Charges that churches within Sovereign Grace Ministries turned a deaf ear to child sex abuse committed by church members are laid out in a class action lawsuit. Three female plaintiffs detail repeated abuse in the 1980’s and 90’s ,but say the church covered up child molestation, worked with sexual predators to mislead enforcement and even blamed the victims.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

LOUISVILLE (KY)
The Courier-Journal

Written by
Peter Smith
The Courier-Journal

An international church group now based in Louisville allegedly fostered a climate of fear and unquestioning obedience that allowed sexual abuse to persist among members, according to a new lawsuit.

Three plaintiffs filed suit Wednesday in Montgomery County Circuit Court in Maryland alleging that Sovereign Grace Ministries “created a culture in which sexual predators were protected from accountability and victims were silenced.”

The denomination moved its headquarters to Louisville from Montgomery County earlier this year. Less than a month ago, it launched Sunday services at its new congregation, Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, led by longtime President C.J. Mahaney.

The plaintiffs, using pseudonyms, allege that church elders mishandled the sexual abuse of children at congregations in Maryland and Virginia between the late 1980s and 1990s.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

By Paul Mulvey
From: AAP
October 19, 2012

THE Catholic Church has put its own reputation ahead of the welfare of victims by destroying evidence of sexual abuse and failing to report accusations against the clergy, Victoria Police says.

Victoria’s deputy police commissioner Graham Ashton says the church has hindered justice and not reported any case of abuse in more than 50 years, while a legal expert claims cover-ups went to the “highest level”.

In damning evidence to a parliamentary inquiry on Friday, Mr Ashton said that of the 620 cases of abuse the church has internally upheld in Victoria since 1956, none had been reported to police.

He said in those 56 years, police had investigated 2110 offences committed by clergy and church workers against 519 victims, of which 370 were committed by Catholic priests or brothers. He said 87 per cent of the victims were boys aged 11 or 12.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By Richard C. Dujardin

A newly-released trove of confidential papers collected by the Boy Scouts of America to help weed out men and women suspected of sexual abuse shows that over decades Scout leaders in Rhode Island expelled at least 47 individuals who were placed on their “ineligible volunteer list.”

The 14,500 pages of secret files were ordered released Thursday by the Oregon Supreme Court.

Although nearly all names of suspected individuals were redacted before being released, the records show that those listed in Rhode Island had been dropped from the rolls or denied participation in at least 52 Scout packs or troops statewide over several decades until early 2005.

Two names left unredacted belong to men who would later face accusations of sexual abuse: the Rev. Edmond C. Micarelli, a chaplain at the Camp Yawgoog Boy Scout reservation in Hopkinton during the 1970s, and William Lazzareschi, who was an assistant scoutmaster for Troop 22 in Providence.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IOWA
Quad-City Times

Kay Luna

Born into a devout Catholic family, in a Davenport neighborhood full of Catholic households, Mike Uhde was raised to respect priests.

But as an adult, he bravely spoke out publicly in court — using his real name — about the sexual abuse he endured at the hands of a priest. His testimony came against the Catholic Diocese of Davenport, hoping to prevent that kind of abuse from happening to anyone else, his Davenport attorney, Craig Levien, said Thursday.

Uhde, 62, died of cancer Wednesday, more than seven years after becoming the second person to file a lawsuit against the diocese after it made 37 settlements with sex-abuse victims for $9 million in October 2004.

He later represented other sex-abuse victims during the church’s subsequent bankruptcy proceedings, Levien said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Herald

By BRUCE A. SCRUTON and ASSOCIATED PRESS
bscruton@njherald.com

An array of local authorities — police chiefs, prosecutors, pastors and town Boy Scout leaders among them — quietly shielded scoutmasters and others nationwide who allegedly molested children, according to a newly opened trove of confidential files compiled from 1959 to 1985.

At the time, those authorities justified their actions as necessary to protect the good name and good works of Scouting. But as detailed in 14,500 pages of secret “perversion files” released Thursday by order of the Oregon Supreme Court, their maneuvers protected suspected sexual predators while victims suffered in silence.

The files document sex abuse allegations across the country, from a small town in the Adirondacks to downtown Los Angeles.

The only Sussex County individual on the list is the Rev. William N. Cramer, who, according to the entry, was “Catholic priest who admits to fondling two boys in the bedroom of their home (ages 11 and 14).”

At the time, Cramer was an associate pastor with Our Lady of the Lake Church in Sparta, where he was first assigned in 1977.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

[with audio]

One of Victoria’s top police officers says the Catholic Church is more interested in protecting its reputation than helping victims of sexual abuse. Deputy Police Commissioner Graham Ashton has told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry he won’t believe that the church’s priorities have changed until it starts reporting sex abuse cases to authorities.

Simon Lauder

Transcript

BRENDAN TREMBATH: One of Victoria’s top police officers has accused the Catholic Church of being more concerned about its reputation than the interests of sexual abuse victims.

The Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton told a State Parliament inquiry the church’s lack of cooperation and its internal system for dealing with abuse claims is hindering police investigations and helping to hide the problem.

He says until the church starts reporting abuse allegations to police he doesn’t have any faith that it’s serious about tackling the problem.

Simon Lauder reports from Melbourne.

SIMON LAUDER: Opening the inquiry into abuse within religious organisations, committee chair Georgie Crozier promised the inquiry is not intent on singling out any institution.

One of the first witnesses to give evidence, Deputy Police Commissioner Graham Ashton, made it clear that his focus is firmly on the Catholic Church, which, from his description, is in a type of exclusion zone.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on October 18, 2012

In light of the Jimmy Savile scandal, every mom and dad must stress to themselves and their families this simple fact: child molesters come in every shape and size and occupation. Neither prominence and power, nor charm and charisma, means an adult is “safe.”

When we see a masked man with a gun and a sack fleeing a bank, we assume he’s a robber. When we see a furtive-looking man trying repeatedly to open cars in a dark parking lot, we assume he’s a thief.

But when we see a glib, charismatic man violating kids’ boundaries and excessively hugging them and making sexual jokes, we assume he’s “odd” or “affectionate” or “harmless.” We just can’t seem to bring ourselves to believe he may be a molester. And thus, we continue to fail our children.

We fail our children by our ignorance and our inability to use our common sense and good judgment. We fail our children when we refuse to act prudently and honor our gut feelings. We fail our children when we put our own comfort level above our children’s’ safety.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
SooToday

NEWS RELEASE

LEDROIT BECKETT
LITIGATION LAWYERS

Victims of sexual abuse by clergy call on the Roman Catholic Church to do more

The law firm of Ledroit Beckett Litigation Lawyers will hold a press conference on:

Date/Time: Friday, October 19, 2012, 1 p.m.

Location: Radisson Hotel – Downtown Sudbury, Conference room, 85 Ste. Anne Road

This press conference represents a demand from victims of local Catholic priests for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie to do more to support victims.

Fifteen victims who were abused by Catholic priests in the local area demand a simple trinity of actions by the Diocese, as follows:
• Defrocking/ laicization of convicted sex offenders – “Terminate them”;
• The creation of a sexual abuse policy with victim input – “Confront it”; and
• The commitment to fund victims’ psychological therapy – “Help them heal”.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

A friend of mine has just relayed to me in depth the story of how he and his family were abused by the Church. It’s not a tale of sexual abuse, but it is a horror story nonetheless – an unimaginable assault by power hungry clergy and laity, complete with cover up by bishops and filled with a kind of spiritual darkness that makes you feel sick. It has taken this family several years to begin to heal. He has asked me not to spread his story around – at least not in the written form in which he has expressed it, but I can say this much – it rings quite true. It is both rather funny and also the kind of thing that would make the pit of your stomach drop and your faith dry up.

And the villains in the piece are not the liberals. The villains are the meticulous OCD sado-masochistic “conservatives”, the Latin Mass crowd, who, God bless them, will probably end up in a lower pit of hell than the Stanford Nutting-type libs, who at least have the humanity left to enjoy their sins.

And it’s all about sin.

I knew a young woman who was psychologically knocked about by a similar “Super-Catholic”, who practically left her at the altar without a pang of compunction. I know a certain blogger who dared to question the sanctity of a Catholic TV host and who soon learned that the Faith is far less important to most “Devout Catholics” than their politics and their own self-interest.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

You know, the sex scandal was typical. I don’t mean that priests typically molest kids and bishops typically let them get away with it. What I mean is, the way the Church handled the sex scandal is the way they handle everything.

For example: below are all things I can vouch for in my twelve short years as a Catholic, though the names have been changed to protect the guilty – if any names are used. Some of these events I was involved in; others happened to friends.

A teacher at a Catholic grade school handles a situation very poorly in class. Mom and Dad complain to the principal. The principal responds by circling the wagons, threatening the parents, and bullying them behind closed doors. The parents complain to the pastor. The pastor responds, “I have full confidence in Principal Raw-Knuckle. This matter is entirely hers to handle as she sees fit.” The problem recurs and is not fixed. The parents move their kids to another Catholic grade school,which is run by a principal who is even worse, and by a pastor who is even more hands off. Eventually, the parents remove their children from the Catholic grade school system entirely (to save their faith, for one thing. The best indicator of adult apostasy – twelve years of Catholic education). A problem arises with a teacher at the public grade school (she was telling the kids in class to tell their parents to vote yes in the next election to allow embryonic stem cell research in our state). The parents complain to the public school principal, who sincerely apologizes and promises that he will handle the situation with the teacher, and that the issue will not arise again. “She should not be campaigning in class,” he simply and plainly admits. The parents are treated professionally and courteously. No threats, no circling the wagons, no bullying. The problem does not recur.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

FLORIDA
WSVN

SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, Fla. (WSVN) — The Archdiocese of Miami is trying not to lose faith in one of its priests after more disturbing allegations were revealed against him.

Father Rolando Garcia from St. Agatha Catholic Church has been accused of sexually abusing three different boys in the 1980s.

A man has come forward to say one of his friends was abused by another priest, and said that Father Garcia paid the boy to cover it up. “I’m upset. This man is preaching to hundreds of people out there, and he’s wearing a mask … he abused me, and he’s continued to do it to other children,” said the victim only identified as “John Doe.”

The victim said, “He’s was paying me to keep quiet when Christobal de Jesus Puertas was raping me.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times

[Note: The records can only be accessed by using Firefox, Chrome or Safari.]

This data­base con­tains in­form­a­tion on about 5,000 men and a hand­ful of wo­men who were ex­pelled from the Boy Scouts of Amer­ica between 1947 and Janu­ary 2005 on sus­pi­cion of sexu­al ab­use. The dots on the map in­dic­ate the loc­a­tion of troops con­nec­ted in some way to the ac­cused. The timeline be­low shows the volume of cases opened by year; however, an un­known num­ber of files were purged by the Scouts pri­or to the early 1990s.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Rick Burchfield and Zak Koeske

The name of a former Sparta priest is among thousands of Boy Scout leaders across the country, and more than 100 in New Jersey, on a confidential list kept for decades by the organization to document suspected molesters within their ranks.

Rev. William Cramer’s name appears on the list, known colloquially to Boy Scouts executives as the “Perversion Files.”

Cramer pleaded guilty in 1988 to two count of endangering the welfare of a child. Cramer was a priest at Our Lady of the Lake in Sparta when he was indicted during the 80s on charges he touched two township boys.

Catholic Church officials also said in 2002 they had reassigned him to St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Paterson after the case, but then removed him from the position later that year.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

There has been a growing number of news stories in recent days about the Vatican naming a coadjutor bishop for the Diocese of Armagh in the Republic of Ireland –a bella figura approach to packing the Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Sean Brady off into retirement for his role in the sexual abuse scandal.

Here’s a link to one of those stories: Read the story here.

There have been no news stories about the possibility of the Vatican removing Robert Finn, the criminally convicted Bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph, Missouri.

It’s a puzzlement.

There was news last week that Pope Benedict accepted the resignation of a bishop in Chile, Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernandez of Iquique, following the allegation that the bishop had sexually abused a minor.

There were no news stories last week that Bishop Finn had tendered a resignation for the Vatican to accept.

It’s a puzzlement.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times

[with video]

The veil was lifted Thursday on decades of confidential sexual abuse allegations in the ranks of the Boy Scouts of America with the court-ordered release of more than 1,200 of the organization’s “perversion files.”

The files offer the public an unprecedented look at how suspected molestations were handled by one of the nation’s leading youth organizations from the early 1960s through 1985, a time when awareness of sexual abuse was evolving rapidly.

“The secrets are out,” said Kelly Clark, one of the plaintiff’s lawyers in an Oregon lawsuit that resulted in a nearly $20-million judgment against the Scouts in 2010. “Child abuse thrives in secrecy and secret systems are where it breeds. And these secrets are out.” …

In recent months, The Times has published an investigation of those files and thousands of case summaries from 1940 to 2005. The files and summaries were obtained from Seattle attorney Timothy Kosnoff, who has sued the Scouts on behalf of dozens of abuse victims.

The Times investigation has revealed a broad range of patterns in the Scouts’ handling of abuse allegations that echo similar revelations about the Catholic Church and, more recently, the Penn State scandal involving assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Chicago Tribune

[with video]

Chris Francescani and Teresa Carson
Reuters

3:06 p.m. CDT, October 18, 2012

NEW YORK/PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) – A popular Colorado Boy Scout leader named Floyd Slusher allegedly had a strategy when it came to molesting boys: He first plied his victims with alcohol, then abused them and threatened to kill anyone who talked.

On one occasion in 1976, according to police, Slusher told a Scout as he undressed the child that “what I’m going to do now, if I get arrested, after I get out of jail, I’ll come after you and your family.”…

But in scores of other cases, local Boy Scout leaders urged accused and admitted pedophiles to quietly resign without notifying authorities, or allowed them to return to scouting after being treated by doctors or clergy.

In one case, the files show that after a volunteer in Texas was expelled when he confessed to molesting Scouts in 1965, a local Scouting official wrote to the national office and said a minister that knew the man “is doing his best to protect Boy Scouting and trying to keep this incident as quiet as possible.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

DELAWARE
Newsworks

October 18, 2012
By Mark Eichmann

After eight years and more than 100 clients who accused the Catholic church of sexual abuse, Tom Neuberger has written a book about his cases and some of the lessons learned.

Last December, 14 victims of sexual abuse reached a $7 million settlement with St. Edmonds Academy, the Capuchin friars, and the Brothers of the Holy Cross. In February 2011, the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington reached a $77 million settlement with 146 abuse victims. Nearly 100 of those victims were represented by Neuberger.

Neuberger details the court battles and the long-lasting impact of abuse in his 427-page book, When Priests Become Predators: Profiles of Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors. “We’ve got testimony from mothers about how they were tricked, wives [describing] what it’s like living with people who have two personalities,” Neuberger says. The book describes the testimony of victims on the stand in somewhat graphic detail.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times

Decades of confidential sexual abuse allegations from within the Boy Scouts of America will spill into public view later today when more than 1,200 of the organization’s “perversion files” are released by order of the Oregon Supreme Court.

The files will offer the public an unprecedented look at how suspected molestations were handled by one of the nation’s leading youth organizations from the early 1960s through 1985, a time when awareness of sexual abuse was evolving rapidly.

At 11:30 a.m., the Los Angeles Times will begin incorporating the court files into its own online database, which contains information on nearly 5,000 such cases spanning 1947 to January 2005. The database offers a complete record of files during that period except for an unknown number of files that have been purged by the Scouts over the years. In more than 300 cases, the allegations involve someone with ties to a troop or unit in California.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
The Economist

Oct 20th 2012

RENÉ BRÜLHART made his name as head of Liechtenstein’s financial-intelligence unit. Thanks to his diligence in rooting out financial crime over the past eight years, the tiny European principality, nestled between Switzerland and Austria, is no longer widely condemned as a haven for dirty money. This success, combined with his good looks, led one magazine to dub the 40-year-old Swiss lawyer the James Bond of the financial world.

His latest job might unnerve even 007: Mr Brülhart has been recruited to clean up the Vatican’s reputation. For years allegations of financial shenanigans have swirled around the Institute for Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican Bank. The bank is modest in size: as of last November it had just €6.3 billion ($8.3 billion) in assets, 33,400 accounts and 13 ATMs (for use by its own clients, which comprise religious organisations and individuals, Holy See lay employees and foreign countries’ embassies). But it also has features that make it alluring to money-launderers: an evaluation in July by Moneyval, the Council of Europe’s anti-money-laundering group, pointed to high volumes of cash transactions, global activities and limited information on many organisations operating in the Vatican.

In the latest scandal, its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was sacked in May. He and his former employer are now caught up in a money-laundering investigation led by Naples prosecutors. Mr Gotti Tedeschi has denied wrongdoing, saying the reason he was fired was that he got “too close to the truth” about the bank’s dealings. Only in December 2010 did Pope Benedict XVI issue a so-called Motu Proprio outlawing money-laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

TULSA (OK)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 18, 2012

TULSA, Okla. — A clergy abuse watchdog group is accusing a Tulsa megachurch of doing damage control to protect the ministry’s image instead of showing concern for a 13-year-old girl who was allegedly raped on its property.

Barbara Dorris, the outreach director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said Thursday that ministers at Victory Christian Center “put their reputation ahead of the safety of the children.”

Five Victory employees are facing misdemeanor charges of waiting two weeks to report the alleged rape. They’ve pleaded not guilty.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PORTLAND (OR)
The Dallas Morning News

Associated Press

Published: 18 October 2012 10:33 AM

PORTLAND, Ore. — Local Boy Scout leaders, police officials, prosecutors and mayors helped hush up numerous child sex abuse allegations against scoutmasters and other volunteers, according to details in a trove of nearly 15,000 pages of so-called “perversion files” compiled by the Scouts from 1959 to the mid-1980s.

Portland attorney Kelly Clark released the files on Thursday.

The Associated Press obtained copies of the files weeks in advance and conducted an extensive review of them. …

For example, a number of alleged pedophiles were able to continue in Scouting because of decisions by local Scout leaders and sometimes pressure from community leaders. In multiple cases, judges, pastors, county attorneys and others intervened to keep the name of Scouting out of the courts or off the front page.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ITALIA
Liguria Notizie

SAVONA. 18 OTT. L’ex parroco di Mallare, nel Savonese, don Martin Varkey Parappillil è stato condannato in rito abbreviato a sei anni di reclusione e una multa di 30 mila euro.

L’ex paroco è accusato di atti sessuali su minori, possesso di materiale pedopornografico e appropriazione indebita per un ammanco di 44 mila euro dai conti della parrocchia di Mallare.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Oct. 18, 2012

Analysis — Rome —
In the small world of the Vatican, personnel is always policy. Two recent personnel moves, therefore, have fueled speculation about whether policy shifts are also under way in the fight against sex abuse and the Vatican’s relationship with American nuns.

Msgr. Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s top prosecutor on abuse cases, was named an auxiliary bishop in his native Malta on Oct. 8. On Thursday, the pope was also set to name American Archbishop Joseph Tobin, the Vatican’s leading voice for reconciliation with women religious, as the new archbishop of Indianapolis.

The question now is whether the positions these two figures represent are also on the way out. Some are reading their departures as classic cases of promoveatur ut amoveatur, meaning promoting someone to get rid of them and, by extension, their ideas. Vatican officials say it’s not so, insisting there are more effective ways of muzzling someone than the new gigs both men are getting.

Especially with Tobin, it’s hard not to see office politics at work. He’s only served as secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (popularly known as the Congregation for Religious) since August 2010, while Vatican officials normally have at least a five-year term. When rumors of his move to Indianapolis heated up in October, several commentators speculated it was related to his “soft” line on religious women in the United States.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
Daily Reporter

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: October 18, 2012 – 10:46 am

INDIANAPOLIS — The new leader for Roman Catholics in the Indianapolis archdiocese says he doesn’t know that he was moved from a high-ranking position in Rome for openly seeking to mend the Vatican’s frayed relations with U.S. nuns.

The Vatican announced the appointment of Archbishop Joseph Tobin on Thursday. Tobin is replacing Archbishop Daniel Buechlein (BEEK’-lyn), who retired last year because of health problems.

The 60-year-old native of Detroit has been the No. 2 official in the Vatican’s office for religious orders.

Tobin said after his introduction at Saints Peter & Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis that it wasn’t easy to leave his post in Rome and that he didn’t seek to leave.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on October 18, 2012

We are disappointed that Rev. Dr. John Cameron would make such ignorant and hurtful claims about the alleged victims of Jimmy Savile. To publicly proclaim that the multitudes of victims making allegations against Savile are only doing so for a “cash-grab” is both obtuse and callous.

We urge Cameron’s colleagues or supervisors and supporters to censure or demote or discipline him for his insensitive comments and to stand in solidarity with the victims who are courageously coming forward. It is always difficult for abuse victims to speak up, especially when their alleged abuser is a man who held massive popularity and sway. Comments like Rev. Cameron’s only make it more difficult for future victims to expose predators and protect others.

Wonder why and how thousands of child sex crimes and cover ups have happened, and are happening, in churches worldwide? In part, it’s because of comments by men like Cameron and their timid supervisors who refuse to punish them for such insensitive comments.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by NCR Staff | Oct. 18, 2012

The Vatican announced Thursday that Archbishop Joseph Tobin, secretary of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (more commonly known as the Congregation for Religious), will become the sixth archbishop of the Indianapolis archdiocese.

A Detroit native who was ordained a priest in 1978, Tobin is a Redemptorist and the former Superior General of his religious order, serving in Rome as its leader from 1997-2009.

After spending most of the past 15 years in the Vatican, the assignment back to the states will place Tobin, 60, as head of a diocese for the first time. He was named archbishop in August 2010 when he became the Congregation for Religious’ No. 2 official.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on October 18, 2012

Today, thousands of pages of long-secret Boy Scout files about child sex crimes and cover ups are being released. Our heart aches for every child who was assaulted by Scout personnel, especially those who were sexually violated after Scout executives knew or suspected that the assailant was a child molester.

In response to these revelations, Scout executives will offer up a range of carefully-crafted claims largely designed to make excuses, dodge responsibility, shift blame, and proclaim progress. The public should be very wary of these claims.

Scout executives will claim ‘we’re adopted reforms.’ But they’ve only done so very belatedly, after lawsuits and pressure. (Background checks were adopted by Scout executives only in 2008, for example.)

Scout executives will claim ‘our reforms are working.’ But thus far, these alleged reforms are largely untested.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
New Jersey Herald

SMETHPORT, Pa. (AP) – A judge says a jury had more than enough evidence to convict a suspended Catholic priest for his relationship with a 15-year-old northwestern Pennsylvania boy whose mother told the priest to stop contacting the teen.

Sixty-year-old Samuel Slocum, of Cyclone, remains suspended by the Erie diocese and is serving two years’ probation for his January conviction. Slocum’s Superior Court appeal argues he didn’t illegally conceal the boy’s whereabouts nor did he “corrupt” the youth because the priest never encouraged him to do anything illegal or inappropriate.

But the Bradford Era (http://bit.ly/TfhmrC) reports Senior Judge William Morgan, who presided at the McKean County trial, says in a court filing that the priest secretly contacted he boy and enticed him to visit with gifts, including a phone and computer he used to contact the boy, despite knowing his mother forbade that.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

JACKSON (MS)
Clarion-Ledger

A Jackson minister has temporarily stepped down as pastor of his church amid allegations of sexual misconduct with a teen girl.

There are reports that Rev. Danny Hollins of Greater Fairview Baptist Church is being investigated by the Jackson Police Department involving the girl.

Hollins, who is married and they have two daughters, has been pastor of Greater Fairview since 2001.

Hollins hasn’t been charged with any crime.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

JACKSON (MS)
WAPT

JACKSON, Miss. —
A Jackson pastor is accused of having a relationship with an underage girl at his church, 16 WAPT News has learned.

Greater Fairview Baptist Church leaders said Pastor Danny Hollins has taken a temporary leave of absence.

16 WAPT News called Hollins, who referred reporters to his attorney, Precious Martin.

“My client vehemently denies all of the accusations and allegations,” Martin said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX
From:The Australian
October 19, 2012

NSW POLICE have declined to rule out further arrests as they investigate an alleged cover-up by the Catholic church, following the arrest of a former priest over alleged child sex offences.

Senior detectives privately say a royal commission is now needed to investigate child sex abuse within the church, although that was dismissed yesterday by Premier Barry O’Farrell.

The priest, who is from Armidale in northern NSW and who cannot be named, was yesterday charged with 25 child sex offences against three girls aged as young as five, which allegedly took place over 13 years, dating back to 1975.

The 59-year-old moved between a number of parishes in northern NSW during the 1980s and ultimately to the Sydney diocese of Parramatta, before being removed from public ministry. The decision to remove him followed a 1992 meeting with three current senior clerics, at which it was alleged he had sexually abused children.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
ABC 9

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press
VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday transferred to the United States a high-ranking Holy See official who had ruffled feathers at the Vatican by openly seeking to mend its frayed ties with U.S. nuns.

Archbishop Joseph Tobin, an American Redemptorist priest, was named archbishop of Indianapolis, where he succeeds Archbishop Daniel Buechlein who retired last year.

Pope Benedict XVI had tapped Tobin, a two-time superior general of the Redemptorist religious order, to be the No. 2 official in the Vatican’s office for religious orders in 2010. At the time, the Vatican had initiated two separate investigations of U.S. nuns, looking into both their quality of life and their doctrinal orthodoxy. The investigations were initiated following years of complaints from theological conservatives that American nuns had grown too secular, liberal and political while abandoning traditional doctrine.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, (VIS) – The Holy Father appointed:

– Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin C.SS.R., secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, as archbishop of Indianapolis (area 35,768, population 2,595,000, Catholics 246,000, priests 236, religious 715), U.S.A.

– Fr. Paul Terrio of the clergy of the archdiocese of Edmonton, Canada, pastor of Holy Trinity parish in Villeneuve and archdiocesan director for vocations, as bishop of Saint Paul in Alberta (area 155,916, population 131,500, Catholics 57,635, priests 30, permanent deacons 10, religious 29), Canada. The bishop-elect was born in Montreal, Canada in 1943 and ordained a priest in 1970. He has worked in pastoral care in a number of parishes, as professor at Montreal College and as formator at the Saint Joseph Seminary of Edmonton.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHOENIX (AZ)
ABC 15

[with video]

• By: Corey Rangel

PHOENIX – The Catholic Church in Phoenix has taken a step to help with the healing for those sexually abused by priests.

The Catholic Diocese of Phoenix released a list of names of priests accused and convicted of abuse.

It has nearly 29 names on it and shows where the clergy members once served but it does not give details on what the priests and deacons are accused of doing.

Joe Baca, a victim of priest abuse, said it’s a step towards the church taking responsibility.

“I think what they’re doing is they’re cleaning up the damage. I think this is one of the steps to get to the acknowledgment,” said Baca.

Baca is the Arizona Director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests , a support group for victims.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Otago Daily Times

Thu, 18 Oct 2012
News: Australia

Police say anyone with information about an alleged cover-up by the Catholic Church should come forward following the arrest of a former priest.

The 59-year-old man was arrested at his home in Armidale about 6.30am (AEDT) today and he was set to appear at the local court at 3pm.

He has been charged with 25 sex offences against three girls.

Police allege the offences took place in the 1970s and 1980s and were discovered after they formed Strike Force Glenroe in July this year.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., the Archbishop Secretary of the Vatican Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the sixth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. The Holy See made the announcement today in Rome.

Archbishop Tobin, 60, succeeds Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein, O.S.B., who was granted early retirement by Pope Benedict on September 21, 2011 for health reasons. Since Archbishop Buechlein’s retirement, Bishop Christopher J. Coyne has served as the archdiocese’s Apostolic Administrator.

A press conference introducing Archbishop Tobin will be held today at 10 a.m. at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis. Watch it live here

Archbishop Tobin, a Redemptorist priest, is a native of Detroit. He was born May 3, 1952 and is the oldest of 13 children. He was educated at Catholic schools. He studied at Holy Redeemer College in Waterford, Wis., where he earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1975. He also studied at Mount Saint Alphonsus Seminary in Esopus, N.Y., where he received a master’s degree in religious education in 1977 and a master of divinity degree in 1979.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.