A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.
AUSTRALIA
Special Commission of Inquiry
Thursday, 9 May 2013: Transcript – Day 4, [PDF, 842kb]
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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
VIEW THE TRANSCRIPTS OF THE INQUIRY HERE
HE’D spent five days in and out of the witness box, but Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox was unwavering when asked the same question for the fifth time during his cross-examination yesterday.
Yes, he thought the police strike force set up to investigate child abuse cover-ups within the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese was set up to fail.
Yes, he ignored orders from superiors and shared information with a journalist; yes he lied to colleagues; yes he thought his standing down from the investigation was corrupt; yes he thought police handling of the investigation was a sham; and yes, he thought senior Catholic clergy should be called to account.
During his final cross-examination before the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle yesterday, Mr Fox was accused of a ‘‘character assassination’’ of several police appointed to roles on Strike Force Lantle.
The strike force was set up in 2010 after a string of revelations by the Newcastle Herald raised questions about senior Catholic clergy and how they handled allegations against disgraced former priests Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher.
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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline
[with video]
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 10/05/2013
Reporter: Suzie Smith
A police force intelligence document tendered by the head of the NSW Sex Crimes unit, Superintendent John Kerlatec, to the Special Commission of Inquiry into Clerical Abuse in the Hunter region, NSW, revealed three priests were named as part of a possible paedophile conspiracy and that the Catholic Church had required a victim to “sign a deed” that they’d not pursue any civil or criminal actions.
Transcript
EMMA ALBERICI, REPORTER: The New South Wales special commission of inquiry into clerical abuse in the Hunter region has heard that police were warned of the danger of a possible paedophile ring as far back as 2004.
A NSW police force intelligence document was tendered in a statement by the head of the New South Wales Sex Crimes unit, Superintendent John Kerlatec.
The document also named three priests as part of a possible conspiracy and said that the Catholic Church had required a victim to “sign a deed” promising they would not pursue civil or criminal actions.
John Kerlatec also told the inquiry that an internal police email showed there was no great urgency in the handling of child sexual abuse allegations in the Hunter region
Suzie smith reports from Newcastle
SUZIE SMITH, REPORTING: Today was the fifth day of the special commission and on the stand an unwilling witness detective Superintendent John Kerlatec, the head of the New South Wales Sex Crimes squad.
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UNITED KINGDOM
Belfast Telegraph
A former Archbishop of York has denied covering up allegations that a senior Church of England clergyman sexually abused choirboys.
The Very Rev Robert Waddington, a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral, who died from cancer in 2007, is said to have groomed and abused a chorister in Manchester in the 1980s, The Times reported.
He is also said to have targeted a pupil at a boarding school in Queensland, Australia, of which he was the headmaster in the 1960s.
Lord Hope of Thornes, who was Archbishop of York from 1995 to 2005, was informed of the two claims in 1999 and 2003, the newspaper said. He spoke to Mr Waddington about the allegations and then banned him from taking church services but he did not pass on the claims to the police, it added.
Lord Hope wrote to the North Queensland Diocese in 1999 and said Mr Waddington was “deeply sorry for anything he may have done to offend” and that the clergyman offered “an unreserved apology”.
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UNITED KINGDOM/AUSTRALIA
CNN
By Laura Smith-Spark and Richard Allen Greene, CNN
updated 9:26 AM EDT, Fri May 10, 2013
London (CNN) — A former archbishop of York was accused Friday of covering up child abuse by a Church of England clergyman who has since died.
The accusations against the late Very Rev. Robert Waddington are the result of a joint investigation by the Times of London and The Australian newspaper, based in Sydney.
The Times alleges that Waddington, who died in 2007 from cancer, abused choirboys and school children, and that the former archbishop of York, David Hope, failed to report the abuse claims to police or child protection authorities after he was made aware of them in 1999 and 2003.
The former archbishop, who was made Lord Hope after he stood down in 2005, said he had followed the legal requirements of the time.
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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times
By Sam Levin Fri., May 10 2013
Another day, another dispute with the St. Louis Archdiocese regarding allegations of child sex abuse. The case of Father LeRoy Valentine, however, involves a long and complicated history of accusations that span several decades and allegations of repeated inaction by those in charge. And victims’ advocates say the archdiocese today is still trying to downplay Valentine’s proven abuse.
“This is disturbing,” David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, tells Daily RFT. “Rather than err on the side of being open and transparent, [St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson] chooses to be vague and deceptive.”
The support group for clergy abuse victims — in response to a recent announcement that Valentine has been permanently removed from ecclesiastical ministry — is alleging that officials with the archdiocese failed to supervise Valentine over the last eleven years and is trying to cover up some of the past cases of sex abuse today.
Archdiocese officials, however, say in a statement that they investigated all accusations and properly responded to allegations they found to be “credible.” Valentine, they say, “will continue to live in a monitored, secure environment.”
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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger
By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on May 10, 2013
The Archdiocese of Newark has paid $650,000 to settle molestation claims brought by five men against a former New Jersey priest now awaiting trial on unrelated sex charges in Missouri.
The settlement, announced Thursday by a lawyer for the men, recalls one of the darker chapters of the archdiocese’s role in the clergy sex abuse crisis.
The Rev. Carmen Sita pleaded guilty in 1982 to sexually assaulting a teenage boy at St. Aloysius Church in Jersey City. Sentenced to five months’ probation, Sita changed his name to Gerald Howard and was soon shuffled to a parish in the Diocese of Jefferson City, Mo.
The Newark archbishop at the time, Peter Gerety, never informed the public of the name change. Howard would go on to molest at least three more children in Missouri, authorities said. Charged in 2010, he remains jailed on $1.5 million bond while he awaits trial.
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PUERTO RICO
Catholic Culture
Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves of San Juan, Puerto Rico, has declined to discuss reports that the Vatican has sought his resignation, after the public release of a letter in which he defended himself against Vatican criticism.
A Puerto Rican radio station has released the leaked text of a letter from Archbishop Gonzalez to Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. In the letter the archbishop says that he will not willingly step down, and denies the accuracy of complaints against him. The complaints reportedly included charges that the archbishop had protected priests from sex-abuse charges, interfered in local politics, and abused his power.
The archbishop told reporters that he would not comment on the matter, saying that “I’ll only deal with the Holy See on it.” But he did ask the faithful in Puerto Rico to pray that the truth would be revealed. Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, also declined to speak about the leaked letter.
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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture
CWN – May 10, 2013
The clerical abuse scandal cost American dioceses $112,966,427 in 2012, according to a report released on May 9 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
Only 56% of those funds were allotted to settlements ($50.4 million) and therapy for abuse victims ($7.2 million). The remaining funds were spent on attorneys’ fees ($35.3 million), support for offenders ($11.8 million), and other costs ($2.6 million), according to the 2012 “Report on the Implementation of the Charter for Protection of Children and Young People.”
The clerical abuse scandal cost religious institutes an additional $20,139,384 in 2012. These expenses brought the total cost of the clerical abuse scandal to American dioceses and religious institutes between 2004 and 2012 to $2,621,516,566: $2,242,949,048 for dioceses and eparchies, and $378,567,518 for religious institutes.
During the 2012 audit period, 34 minors alleged they were abused by a priest or deacon. The report found that six allegations “were considered credible by law enforcement,” while 12 “were determined to be unfounded or unable to be proven.” One was determined to be a “boundary violation,” and 15 were still under investigation.
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AUSTRALIA
7 News
By Paul Maguire, AAP
Updated May 10, 2013
A Hunter Valley Catholic priest suspected of sexually abusing children over four decades boasted he would beat any charges against him, a special commission of inquiry has heard.
When police arrived on his doorstep in September 2005 with an arrest warrant, Father Denis McAlinden allegedly said, “I was previously charged with child abuse matters and I beat those charges, so if I am around long enough, I will beat these charges too”.
But the 72-year-old, who had terminal cancer, was not charged and died soon afterwards.
The commission, which began in Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday, is investigating the way police and the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese handled child sex allegations, particularly those involving Fr McAlinden and Father James Fletcher, who is also dead.
The NSW commission was established after Hunter Valley Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox alleged church officials covered up criminal offences and, along with some police, hindered investigations.
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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV
Fri 10 May 2013
The former Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, said he responded to and reported abuse claims against a former Dean “correctly” when he learnt about them in 2003.
He said he was “shocked and saddened” to learn of the claims, dating back to the 1980s, and reported the matter to the Archbishop of York and a child protection officer immediately.
In responding to and reporting this tragic alleged abuse, I believe that I and the child protection officer followed correctly the then current 1999 guidelines laid down by the Church of England.
This is a particularly sad story of abuse that has brought deep and lasting distress to a young boy who had put his trust in the Church.
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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald
Published on 10/05/2013
The priest accused of sexually assaulting young boys and girls in children’s homes has given evidence for the first time.
Church of England priest Gordon Trevor Rideout admitted being “touchy feely” to children in the care homes he visited in the 1960 and 1970s. But he denies indecently assaulting 16 boys and girls as young as five-years-old in children’s care homes in West Sussex, Essex and Hampshire between 1961 and 1973.
The 74-year-old pleaded not guilty to 37 sexual offences, including attempted rape, as he gave evidence at Lewes Crown Court on May 8. Rideout, of Filching Close, Polegate, was asked if he was a “touchy feely kind of person” by defence QC Frances Oldham.
He replied yes, adding, “If a child was miserable or upset I would hug or kiss them, perhaps more so when they were a little, not big children. By little I mean five, six and seven-years-old. I would hug them by putting my arm around them as you would do a child if they had fallen over or were miserable.”
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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal
Published on 10/05/2013
A Derry priest at the centre of a child sex abuse controversy a number of years ago has died.
Rev. John McCullagh (78) passed away suddenly in Maghera on Wednesday.
It’s understood Derry’s Diocesan hierarchy was first alerted to the allegations against Rev. McCullagh in 1994.
In 2000, the Co. Tyrone born priest made an out-of-court settlement when he paid £12,000 of his own money and wrote a letter of apology to a woman from the Derry Diocese who accused him of abusing her over a 10 year period, starting in 1979, from when she was just eight years-old.
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NEW JERSEY
The Jersey Journal
By The Jersey Journal
on May 10, 2013
The Archdiocese of Newark has paid $650,000 to settle molestation claims brought by five men against a former Jersey City priest now awaiting trial on unrelated sex charges in Missouri, The Star-Ledger reported yesterday.
The settlement, announced yesterday by a lawyer for the men, recalls one of the darker chapters of the archdiocese’s role in the clergy sex abuse crisis.
The Rev. Carmen Sita pleaded guilty in 1982 to sexually assaulting a teenage boy at St. Aloysius Church in Jersey City. Sentenced to five months’ probation, Sita changed his name to Gerald Howard and was soon shuffled to a parish in the Diocese of Jefferson City, Mo., The Ledger reported.
The Newark archbishop at the time, Peter Gerety, never informed the public of the name change. Howard would go on to molest at least three more children in Missouri, authorities said. Charged in 2010, he remains jailed on $1.5 million bond while he awaits trial.
“It frankly horrifies me that this priest was allowed to move on and run amok,” said Greg Gianforcaro, the Phillipsburg attorney who announced yesterday’s settlement. “There is no excuse for it.”
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UNITED KINGDOM
Bognor Regis Observer
THE BISHOP of Chichester has welcomed the sentencing of a priest for historic sex offences against young boys.
Keith Wilkie Denford, 78, was jailed for 18 months for the offences which took place between 19 and 27 years ago.
The priest, from Broad Reach Mews, Shoreham, was sentenced on Thursday, May 9, at Hove Crown Court after being convicted of two indecent assaults on a boy then under 16, in or near Shoreham, and one indecent assault on another boy also aged under 16 and also in or near Shoreham, on dates between June 1987 and January 1990.
He was found not guilty of a third charge of indecent assault against the first boy after a three-week trial, also at hove, on Friday, April 5.
Another man, Michael Mytton, 69, of South Road, East Chiltington, East Sussex, was sentenced to a total of nine months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years.
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AUSTRALIA
SBS
An accused NSW pedophile Catholic priest who died before being charged seemed unsurprised and amused when confronted with an arrest warrant.
A Hunter Valley Catholic priest suspected of sexually abusing children over four decades boasted he would beat any charges against him, a special commission of inquiry has heard.
When police arrived on his doorstep in September 2005 with an arrest warrant, Father Denis McAlinden allegedly said, “I was previously charged with child abuse matters and I beat those charges, so if I am around long enough, I will beat these charges too”.
But the 72-year-old, who had terminal cancer, was not charged and died soon afterwards.
The commission, which began in Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday, is investigating the way police and the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese handled child sex allegations, particularly those involving Fr McAlinden and Father James Fletcher, who is also dead.
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 Mail
Former Archbishop denies cover-up over paedophile priest who escaped prosecution over child abuse claims
By HUGO GYE
One of Britain’s top churchmen has denied that he covered up the crimes of a paedophile priest who attacked choirboys and schoolchildren.
When David Hope was Archbishop of York, he was twice told that Robert Waddington, former Dean of Manchester, had been accused of exploiting his position to molest young boys.
Waddington was disciplined by Church officials and banned from holding services, but the allegations against him were never passed on to police.
The former Archbishop, now Lord Hope of Thornes, yesterday admitted he should have told officers about the sexual abuse claims because he was worried about the health of the paedophile.
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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Donna Boynton TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
dboynton@telegram.com
WORCESTER — In a highly emotional sentencing hearing at which one man was ejected from the courtroom and the defendant refused to comply with the terms of her sentencing conditions, a Worcester District Court judge sentenced a follower of the Church of the End Times to one year supervised probation for assaulting an Uxbridge police officer.
Samantha Drury, 19, of Woonsocket, R.I., was found guilty last month of assaulting an Uxbridge police officer during an altercation at the 41 Murphy’s Way home of the church leader and his estranged wife on Oct. 2.
Judge Michael L. Fabbri sentenced Ms. Drury to one year supervised probation, and then issued a list of conditions that included finding a job within 30 days, perform 50 hours of community service in an agency related to public safety, and submit a written letter of apology to the Uxbridge Police Department.
Upon hearing that last condition, Ms. Drury jumped to her feet.
“He attacked me!” she said, refusing to write a letter of apology. “You can arrest me now. He owes me an apology.”
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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Teresa Watanabe and Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times
May 9, 2013
When Archbishop Jose Gomez stripped his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, of public duties for mishandling clergy sex abuse cases, a church spokesman said the retired prelate’s life would remain largely the same with one exception: confirmations.
No longer would Mahony preside at springtime rites in which teenagers receive the sacrament that marks full passage into the Catholic Church, the spokesman said.
But three months later, Mahony is back doing confirmations. Since Easter, he has officiated at eight services, including one last week in which he anointed more than 120 youths at a Wilmington parish.
His presence has caused controversy, with some parents threatening to pull their children from the liturgies and at least one parish priest asking that Mahony not attend. It has also raised questions about why Gomez’s rebuke of Mahony, an unprecedented move that won him praise from victims and their supporters around the world, had so little lasting effect.
Gomez’s January letter to the region’s more than 4 million Catholics seemed to rule out any conspicuous place for Mahony in the archdiocese. Noting that the cardinal had “expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care, ” Gomez told the faithful, “Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties.”
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GALLUP (NM)
Gallup Independent
Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., May 6, 2013
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
GALLUP — Roman Catholic Bishop James S. Wall made a dual-purpose public announcement late Friday. In an email sent to the media 5 p.m. Friday, Wall announced the departure of a top chancery official while also advertising for his replacement.
James P. Hoy, an ordained deacon in the Diocese of Gallup, is resigning as the diocese’s chief financial officer after 14 years, Wall said. Hoy is slated to depart June 30.
“He is leaving the diocese to take a financial position in the non-profit sector and to be with his wife who as (sic) been on a temporary assignment with Western New Mexico University in Silver City, New Mexico,” Wall said. “We are grateful to Deacon Hoy for his dedication and service to the Church and to those that he has helped over the years.”
Wall said the diocese will begin its search for a new CFO immediately, and officials hope to have the position filled by July 1 on either a permanent or pro tem basis.
Wall’s email included an online link to the Diocese of Gallup’s employment opportunities page, which features a summary of the job requirements. That page contains another link to a more detailed job description.
According to the job description, the CFO position is “an ecclesiastical office” with qualifications and duties established in the Catholic Church’s 1983 Code of Canon Law. It includes responsibility for the Gallup Diocese’s budgeting, accounting, investments, risk management, human resources and employee benefits.
In addition to being an “active practicing Roman Catholic in full communion with the Church,” applicants must have at least a bachelor’s degree in finance or accounting and 10 years of professional experience. They will need to be able to oversee grant applications, review legal documents and interact with diocesan attorneys.
Since Wall became bishop four years ago, he has declined multiple media requests to confirm the level of Hoy’s educational training and professional experience for the CFO position. During the past decade, numerous priests have raised concerns with chancery officials and the media about Hoy’s qualifications. All media questions about Hoy’s qualifications — in personal interviews with the bishop and through written requests — have been ignored by Wall and Hoy.
Hoy was initially hired by the late Bishop Donald E. Pelotte. According to the Official Catholic Directory, Hoy became a deacon in 1996 while living in Show Low, Ariz. He then moved to Gallup to take over the diocesan budget and finance office.
Hoy’s successor will be employed by a diocese that advertizes itself as one of the poorest Catholic dioceses in the country. In addition, the Gallup Diocese continues to incur unpublicized financial expenses related to settlement money and legal fees from clergy sex abuse lawsuits and an unknown number of out-of-court sex abuse complaints.
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NEW JERSEY
The Record
FRIDAY MAY 10, 2013
By ALFRED P. DOBLIN
RECORD EDITORIAL COLUMNIST
Alfred P. Doblin is the editorial page editor of The Record. Contact him at doblin@northjersey.com. Follow AlfredPDoblin on Twitter.
NEWARK Archbishop John J. Myers is going to the mattresses. The archdiocese has hired Michael Critchley, a criminal defense lawyer who famously got Michael “Mad Dog” Taccetta, a member of the Lucchese crime family, an acquittal back in the 1980s. Showtime’s “The Borgias” should move its shooting location to Newark.
Myers is under fire because the archdiocese allowed the Rev. Michael Fugee to participate in youth events despite both Fugee and the archdiocese entering into an agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office barring Fugee from such contact.
The priest, who resigned last week, had been convicted of groping a minor, but the conviction was overturned on a technicality. Rather than face a new trial, Fugee made a deal with prosecutors and part of that deal was no unsupervised contact with children and no ministering to children.
However, Fugee went on youth retreats and had one-on-one contact with children in the Newark archdiocese, as well as in dioceses outside of Newark, without the consent of those bishops. The Newark archdiocese has continued to claim it has done nothing wrong.
This would be just reprehensible if it occurred in the private sector; it is something baser, something more vile happening in the Roman Catholic Church. This institutional arrogance was at the heart of the national scandal of priests sexually abusing minors for decades while church officials did nothing to stop it, in many cases enabling the abuse. High-ranking clergy closed their ranks around predators, all to save the face of the institution rather than protect children. Actually, it was less about saving face and more about saving money. Predators are costly.
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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press
Written by
Kathleen Hopkins
@KHopkinsAPP
TOMS RIVER — The boy at the center of a sexual abuse case within Lakewood’s Orthodox Jewish community had no friends in fifth and sixth grade and none in the summer camp he attended those years, he shyly testified on Wednesday.
So when camp counselor Yosef Kolko let the boy sing solos with the camp choir and gave him the lead role in the play the summer after fifth grade, in 2007, that made the boy feel “awesome,” he told a jury of nine men and seven women.
“I respected him,” the boy, now 16, said of Kolko. “He was one of the cool counselors.”
The following August, the boy returned to Yachad, the summer camp that is run by the Yeshiva Bais Hatorah School on Swarthmore Avenue in Lakewood. He and some other boys in his class told the head counselor they wouldn’t return to camp unless Kolko was their counselor, he said.
“I looked up to him,” the boy told the jury. “I tried to develop a personal relationship, because there was an inkling to be close to the counselor, and because I didn’t have any friends.”
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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press
Written by
Kathleen Hopkins
@KHopkinsAPP
TOMS RIVER — The father of a former Lakewood boy who accused his camp counselor of sexual abuse wanted to handle the matter discreetly, within the Orthodox Jewish religious community, he testified in court on Thursday.
The man, formerly a prominent rabbi in Lakewood’s Orthodox community, said he just wanted to be sure the counselor, Yosef Kolko, quit working with children, sought therapy and stayed away from his son, the man told a jury.
But when months had already passed after he had brought the matter to the attention of a respected rabbi who promised to handle it discreetly, and learning that Kolko was still working at the summer camp where his son was molested, the father said he broke with Jewish tradition and sought justice with secular authorities.
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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By JASON GORDON May 10, 2013
The head of the NSW sex crimes squad has told the Special Commission of Inquiry that the early response by police to claims of sex abuse cover-ups within the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese appeared to lack urgency.
Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec was shown documents when he took the stand at the commission in Newcastle this morning.
Mr Kerlatec said he recalled having several conversations with Detective Inspector Paul Jacob when Strike Force Lantle was established in late 2010 to investigate claims of sex abuse cover-up.
Under cross examination by Mark Cohen, acting for Mr Fox, Mr Kerlatec was referred to reports which he agreed did not reflect a lot of urgency on the part of police investigations.
He also agreed that while an investigating officer appeared keen to proceed quickly, he was being ‘‘shut down’’ by his superior officer, Detective Inspector Dave Waddell.
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
Maitland Mercury
By ELLE WATSON May 10, 2013
The commander of the state’s Police Sex Crimes Squad has given evidence to the Commission of Inquiry this morning.
The commission heard Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec was regularly briefed about Strike Force Lantle – an investigation into the concealed sexual abuse by Maitland-Newcastle Catholic clergy.
Superintendent Kerlatec said one of the country’s best sex crimes investigators Detective Inspector Paul Jacob, who is yet to given evidence, was assigned to give assistance to local detectives investigating the matter.
Earlier in the week, whistleblower Detective Chief Inspector Fox, said the Strike Force had been set up to fail by corrupt police who were not interesting in properly investigating paedophilia within the church.
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
Sydney Morning Herald
May 10, 2013
Paul Maguire
AAP
A Hunter Valley Catholic priest suspected of sexually abusing children over four decades boasted he would beat any charges against him, a special commission of inquiry has heard.
When police arrived on his doorstep in September 2005 with an arrest warrant, Father Denis McAlinden allegedly said, “I was previously charged with child abuse matters and I beat those charges, so if I am around long enough, I will beat these charges too”.
But the 72-year-old, who had terminal cancer, was not charged and died soon afterwards.
The commission, which began in Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday, is investigating the way police and the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese handled child sex allegations, particularly those involving Fr McAlinden and Father James Fletcher, who is also dead.
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
Religion News Service
David Gibson | May 9, 2013
(RNS) Even as an annual review this week gave Catholic bishops high marks on sex abuse prevention policies, officials with the church’s own oversight agencies expressed serious concerns about “recent high-profile failings” in several dioceses.
The latest scandal has shaken Newark, N.J., where Archbishop John Myers failed to stop a priest from ministering with children in several parishes even though he assured prosecutors that he would enforce a lifetime ban on the priest’s access to children following a molestation case.
Newark Archbishop John J. Myers is facing fierce criticism for his handling of a priest who attended youth retreats and heard confessions from minors in defiance of a court-ordered lifetime ban on ministry to children. Religion News Service photo by Ed Murray/The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.
Myers initially defended his oversight of the Rev. Michael Fugee, but under increasing pressure he reversed himself; Fugee then resigned from ministry, but ongoing calls for Myers to step down have generated new headlines almost every day.
“I’ll be honest with you, Newark is disheartening,” said Bernie Nojadera, head of the Office of Child and Youth Protection at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “It is like taking steps backwards.”
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SCOTLAND
The Scottish Sun
By ASHLIE McANALLY
AN elderly nun yesterday denied hitting a girl with a carpet beater while she was head teacher at an approved school.
Anne Kenny, 79 — known as Mother Rosaria — said there was no truth in claims she was violent to three pupils at Dalbeath school in Bishopton, Renfrewshire.
She told Paisley Sheriff Court she never imposed corporal punishment on kids under her care in the early 1970s Questioned over allegations she hit Catherine Logan, 57, with a carpet beater, she added: “We had no carpets to beat.”
The nun was later asked about accounts of events given by her accusers. She said: “They may have gone through these experiences some time in their lives but not at Dalbeath.”
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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland
Friday 10 May 2013
A NUN who was headmistress at an approved school has denied assaulting any girls in her care.
Anne Kenny, 79, known as Sister Rosaria, taught and was the deputy head at Dalbeath approved school between January 1965 and July 1966 before taking on the role of headmistress.
She told Paisley Sheriff Court that was the last time she worked with young people and she resigned from the approved school system because there was due to be an administration change.
Kenny was asked about the approved school regulations the school abided by, in particular disciplining and punishment.
Defence QC Ronnie Clancy put to her that in certain circumstances corporal punishment was permitted and asked if she ever imposed it. She answered: “Never” and again added that it was “forbidden”.
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SCOTLAND
Evening Times
A NUN accused of assaulting girls at an approved school told a court that corporal punishment was “forbidden”.
Anne Kenny, 79, known as Sister Rosaria, began giving evidence yesterday at Paisley Sheriff Court.
She told her defence QC Ronnie Clancy she joined the Good Shepherd Order in 1956 and worked in an approved school in Wales from 1959 until 1964 when she moved to Dalbeath approved school in Bishopton.
Kenny, of Manchester, and Agnes Reville, 77, of Newcastle, are on trial accused of assaulting girls at the nun-run school.
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SCOTLAND
Daily Record
A NUN who was headmistress at an approved school yesterday denied assaulting girls in her care.
Anne Kenny, 79, known as Sister Rosaria, told Paisley Sheriff Court that corporal punishment was forbidden at Dalbeath approved school and that she had never imposed it.
Kenny, who became headmistress of the school in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, in July 1966, is accused of three charges of assault dating from the 70s.
She told the court they would sometimes use detention to punish someone who was being “obstreperous” but that no physical intervention was used and the girls would have to walk themselves to the detention room.
Asked by defence QC Ronnie Clancy if there was any truth in claims made by the three alleged victims that she was violent towards them, she said: “None whatever.”
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NEDERLAND
Reformatorisch Dagblad
De schadevergoedingen voor misbruikslachtoffers in de Rooms–Katholieke Kerk lopen in totaal op tot boven de tien miljoen euro. Die verwachtingen sprak Wim Deetman donderdag uit op Radio 1.
Deetman is voorzitter van de commissie die onderzoek deed naar het misbruik in de kerk. Hij zei in het radioprogramma Goedemorgen Nederland dat nog niet de helft van de zaken is behandeld. In totaal is er nu al 3,7 miljoen euro uitbetaald aan slachtoffers.
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PUERTO RICO
Newsmax
Thursday, 09 May 2013
By Edward Pentin
Edward Pentin reporting from Rome — Pope Francis is facing what is being described as the first crisis of his papacy: a Puerto Rican archbishop who is refusing to obey numerous Vatican requests that he resign.
Archbishop of San Juan, Roberto Octavio Gonzalez Nieves, has been accused by the Vatican of an array of alleged serious offenses: protecting pedophile priests, abusing his power, promoting Puerto Rican independence from the U.S., and supporting a law that could grant same-sex couples living together hereditary rights and health benefits.
According to La Stampa, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the Vatican’s department for bishops, visited Gonzalez Nieves on December 15, when the archbishop denied the allegations. In a “tense meeting,” Ouellet asked him to step down and to ask the Church for a new position elsewhere.
But Gonzalez Nieves says the accusations are politically motivated and has accused a cardinal and a former Puerto Rican governor of being behind the allegations. He has also put up a vigorous defense, writing an angry letter to Ouellet two months after their meeting that was leaked to the Puerto Rican press.
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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph
The former Archbishop of York has been accused of covering up allegations that a senior member of the Church of England had abused choirboys and school pupils.
By Alice Philipson 10 May 2013
Lord Hope of Thornes was told of the accusations against the Very Rev Robert Waddington, a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral who was made responsible for Church schools, in 1999 and then again in 2003.
The then archbishop did not refer the allegations to police or to child protection agencies, according to The Times.
Following the accusations, Lord Hope, who was then the second most senior bishop in the Church, revoked Waddington’s right to conduct church services and also ordered internal investigations into the alleged abuse.
However, concerns over Waddington’s state of health meant the Archbishop failed to report the case to the authorities. He now admits there “ought to have been” a report.
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UNITED KINGDOM
News 24
London – A former Church of England Archbishop has denied claims that he covered up allegations of child abuse against a senior clergyman, which were revealed in Friday’s Times newspaper.
David Hope, who served as Archbishop of York between 1995 and 2005, said he “strongly resisted” accusations that he withheld from police claims made by choirboys and school pupils against Robert Waddington, a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral, in order to protect the church.
According to the joint report carried out by the London Times and The Australian newspaper, Hope was told of the claims in 1999 and again in 2003.
Waddington, who died in 2007, was stripped of his right to conduct church services but the claims were not passed on to police or child protection agencies, the Times reported.
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UNITED KINGDOM/AUSTRALIA
BBC News
Sexual abuse complaints against a Church of England cleric were not referred to police by then Archbishop of York, David Hope, it has emerged.
The Times said the now Lord Hope was made aware of the allegations against the former Dean of Manchester, Robert Waddington, in 1999 and again in 2003.
It involved an Australian school pupil and a Manchester Cathedral choirboy.
Lord Hope insisted he acted strictly in line with child protection policy in force in the Church at the time.
Banned as priest
Allegations were put to Lord Hope in 1999 that Mr Waddington had abused a pupil several decades earlier at a school in Queensland where he was head teacher.
Then in 2003, a former choirboy at Manchester Cathedral claimed he had been abused by Mr Waddington during the 1980s.
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AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Dan Cox
The head of the NSW Sex Crimes Squad has conceded alleged child sexual abuse in the Hunter Valley’s Catholic Church was not investigated with much urgency.
On day five of the special commission of inquiry’s public hearings at Newcastle Supreme Court, the commander of the NSW Police Sex Crimes Squad Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec was giving evidence.
The probe is examining claims by abuse whistleblower Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox he was directed by superiors to stop investigating the allegations of abuse by two priests in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, James Fletcher and Denis McAlinden.
Detective Fox’s barrister, Mark Cohen, suggested police emails showed there was not much urgency among Strike Force Lantle investigators to examine the claims.
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UNITED KINGDOM/AUSTRALIA
The Independent (UK)
ROB WILLIAMS FRIDAY 10 MAY 2013
Sexual abuse claims against a cleric in the Church of England were not referred to police by a former Archbishop of York, David Hope, it was alleged today.
According to The Times newspaper Lord Hope of Thornes was made aware of accusations against the former Dean of Manchester, Robert Waddington, in 1999 and again in 2003.
Waddington was stripped of his right to conduct church services but Lord Hope did not report concerns to police or child protection agencies.
The allegations relating to an Australian school pupil were reportedly put to Lord Hope in 1999 and a subsequent allegation relating to a Manchester Cathedral choirboy was made in 2003. Mr Waddington, who died in 2007, denied the allegations.
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CALIFORNIA
Appeal-Democrat
May 09, 2013
By Rob Parsons/A-D Reporter
A Wheatland pastor pleaded not guilty on Thursday to 16 felony counts of sexual child abuse in connection with a year-long sexual relationship with a teenage girl.
If convicted on all charges, Brian Clay Gray faces up to 11 years and three months in state prison and must register as a sex offender, said Shiloh Sorbello, deputy Yuba County district attorney.
Judge Julia L. Scrogin appointed the Yuba County Public Defender’s Office to represent the minister, though Gray said he hopes to retain his own attorney.
“My sister is working on that for me,” Gray told the judge.
The 51-year-old pastor of the Anchor Baptist Church was arrested early Wednesday after his wife’s brother — a police officer in Kansas — reported the abuse to the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department.
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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Kim Geiger and Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune reporters
9:17 p.m. CDT, May 9, 2013
A former parishioner at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Schaumburg sued an ex-Roman Catholic priest and the Archdiocese of Chicago in Cook County Circuit Court on Thursday, accusing the former church leader of sexual abuse.
According to the complaint, the accused, who at the time was a priest, began abusing the plaintiff in 1995, when he was 10 years old, and continued until he was 18.
The suit alleges that the man provided alcohol to the boy and on some occasions gave him $200 or $300. In late 2003 he gave $3,000 to the plaintiff, now 28, and secured a written assurance that the abuse would not be reported to law enforcement or religious authorities, according to the complaint.
In a separate case, victims advocates expressed concern Thursday that a former Chicago priest removed from ministry 20 years ago for a substantiated allegation of sexual misconduct now works as a counselor for Advocate Medical Group in Des Plaines.
Russell Romano, who served as a priest in the Chicago Archdiocese from 1973 to 1991, now reportedly works for the Illinois Professionals Health Program, a publicly funded treatment program for Illinois health care professionals.
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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times
BY LEEANN SHELTON Staff Reporter May 9, 2013
Updated: May 9, 2013
A man filed suit against a former Schaumburg priest and the Archdiocese of Chicago on Thursday, claiming that priest paid him to keep quiet about eight years of sexual abuse that began when he was 10.
The anonymous plaintiff, who turns 28 on Friday, filed the suit Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court. He claims the abuse began in 1995, while he and his family attended St. Matthew Parish in Schaumburg.
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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
David Batty
The Guardian, Thursday 9 May 2013
The Church of England is facing a new child protection scandal after accusations that the former archbishop of York failed to report allegations of child abuse by a senior clergyman.
Lord Hope of Thornes, the former archbishop, said he stripped the Very Rev Robert Waddington, a former dean of Manchester cathedral who was once in charge of church schools, of his right to conduct church services after allegations of child abuse against him. But Hope said he did not report the matter to the police or other child protection agencies because he deemed Waddington did not pose a further risk to children.
The extent of the allegations against Waddington have emerged in a joint investigation by the Times and the Australian newspaper that uncovered internal church files showing Hope was made aware of abuse allegations in 1999 and again in 2003. The Office of the Archbishop of York confirmed it was aware of legal action by an alleged victim. Dean died in 2007. The controversy comes after a report published earlier this month, ordered by former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, warned the church risked a ticking “time bomb” if it failed to take urgent action to prevent further incidents of child abuse.
The allegations will also add to the pressure on Williams’s successor, Justin Welby, who now faces the prospect of dealing with historic childhood sexual abuse in addition to rows about same-sex marriage and women bishops.
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AUSTRALIA/UNITED KINGDOM
The Australian
MICHAEL MCKENNA, AMANDA GEARING
From: The Australian May 10, 2013
A SINGLE document was all it took to illuminate a dark secret in the Church of England.
The two-page child protection report, unearthed by police in the archives of the diocese of Manchester, was proof, at last, that a former cathedral choirboy — alleging years of sexual abuse by one of Britain’s most senior clergyman — was not alone.
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AUSTRALIA
The Australian
AMANDA GEARING AND MICHAEL MCKENNA
From: The Australian May 10, 2013
THE little Anglican boarding school of St Barnabas, in the misty mountain town of Ravenshoe, north Queensland, was allegedly a hotbed of physical and sexual abuse in the 1960s.
North Queensland Bishop Bill Ray has confirmed the diocese has few files about the school — which was closed mid-term in 1990 — with suspicions they were dumped “down a well or an old mine shaft” in the district
A history of brutal physical punishment and sexual abuse at the school dating from the 1960s is now emerging.
Headmaster Robert Waddington, who arrived at the school from England to be headmaster in 1961, dished out daily canings to many of his young students and then allegedly raped some behind closed doors in his room or the sick bay, which were next to each other.
Former St Barnabas student Bim Atkinson, now 58, and two other former students have levelled allegations against the man they called “the Wadd”.
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AUSTRALIA/UNITED KINGDOM
The Australian
MICHAEL MCKENNA, AMANDA GEARING, SEAN O’NEILL
From: The Australian May 10, 2013
A CHILD sex scandal involving victims in Australia and Britain has hit the top echelon of the Anglican Church, with allegations that some of its most senior clergymen failed to respond properly to complaints of horrific abuse.
The former archbishop of York, now Lord (David) Hope of Thornes, yesterday expressed regret over failing to report to police allegations in 1999 and 2003 about a former Queensland Anglican school principal, who rose to become the head of education for the church in Britain.
The late reverend Robert Waddington has been accused of beating and sexually abusing students during the 1960s at St Barnabas boarding school in Ravenshoe, north Queensland, and later, when he was in charge of the choir as dean of Manchester.
A joint investigation by The Australian and The Times newspaper in London has revealed that church officials, including Lord Hope, failed to report the 1999 allegations of abuse made by a former Queensland student and similar claims made in 2003 by the family of a choirboy in Manchester. The alleged victims were never told of the existence of the other allegations.
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UNITED KINGDOM
Scotsman
By TOM PUGH
Published on 10/05/2013
A RETIRED Church of England priest found guilty of child sex abuse offences dating back more than 25 years was yesterday jailed for 18 months.
A judge said there could be “no greater breach of trust than a man playing the role of a man of God” to use his position to abuse children, as he jailed Father Keith Wilkie Denford,.
Prosecutors said Denford, 78, who was vicar at St John the Evangelist Church in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, used the respectability of the cassock to groom and abuse two boys over an 18-month period from when they were aged around 13.
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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Bronislaus B. Kush, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
bkush@telegram.com
WORCESTER — A New Mexico man who says he was raped about 25 years ago by the Rev. David A. Holley is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester in federal court — charging that local church authorities knew the diocesan priest was a pedophile, but nonetheless allowed him to practice his ministry in other parts of the country.
Officials said that Rev. Holley left a long trail of molestations at churches from Central Massachusetts to the Southwest before being sentenced in 1993 to up to 275 years in prison for abusing and sodomizing eight boys in Alamogordo, N.M.
He died behind prison walls in 2008 at the age of 80.
On Monday, lawyers for Eran J. McManemy, a 35-year-old resident of New Mexico, filed suit in U.S. District Court in New Mexico alleging that church authorities in Worcester and dioceses in New Mexico, Texas and Colorado knew that Rev. Holley was molesting children but covered up his behavior and kept moving the cleric from post to post.
Raymond L. Delisle, a spokesman for the Worcester diocese, said he was unaware of the suit and could not comment.
Mr. McManemy said Rev. Holley was one of three priests who abused him while he served as an altar boy at St. Jude Parish in Alamogordo.
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ILLINOIS
Patch
By Melissa Sersland Email the author 6:45 pm
Members of SNAP—Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests—want Russell L. Romano to be fired.
Romano, who currently lives in Bolingbrook, works as a counselor for Advocate Health Care in the Illinois Professional Heath Program in Des Plaines, according to SNAP. He is listed on the Archdiocese of Chicago website as a priest with “substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct with
Romano was ordained in 1973 and laicized in May 2009, according to the site. In July 2009, it was revealed that Romano left the church in 1991 after three boys reported abuse, according to ABC. Romano was then serving at St. Barbara’s in Brookfield. He was never formally charged with sexual abuse.
SNAP members gathered in front of the Archdiocese of Chicago on Thursday to deliver a letter to Francis Cardinal George with their concerns.
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UNITED STATES
AL.com
By Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com
on May 09, 2013
The U.S. Catholic Church’s annual audit of compliance with its Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People found a drop in the number of sexual abuse allegations, victims and offenders reported in 2012, according to a statement released today from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, which gathered data for the report, found “the fewest allegations and victims reported since the data collection for the annual reports began in 2004.”
Most allegations reported last year were from the 1970s and 1980s, with many of the alleged offenders already deceased or removed from ministry.
There were no new allegations of clergy sexual abuse in the Diocese of Birmingham, spokesman Frank Savage told AL.com/The Birmingham News.
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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
[the report – U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops]
POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 09, 2013
There are helpful numbers and misleading numbers. These are misleading numbers.
The sad, simple truth is that it has always taken child sex abuse victims decades to speak up, and that is not likely to change. (When was the last time you heard about a six year old walking to the DA’s office to report that her teacher is molesting her?) Catholic officials know this. Yet they disingenuously put out this self survey – of the very bishops who have concealed and enabled hundreds of thousands of heinous child sex crimse by thousands of priests – knowing it will be good public relations for them, but will recklessly lead to increased complacency by the very people who should be vigilant.
This is little more than a self congratulatory public relations effort.
And we’re troubled by this revelation on page 14 from the report of the implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People:
“The most common scope limitation encountered in the Charter audit process was the unwillingness of most dioceses and eparchies to allow us to conduct parish audits during their onsite audits.”
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UNITED STATES
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Report on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan
Archbishop of New York
President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Preface
I am pleased to present to you the final report of the tenth consecutive annual audit of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. The annual audit continues to ascertain diocesan and eparchial compliance with the provisions of the Charter. The annual report, based as it is on the results of the audit process, is an essential component of the audit. It includes the findings of StoneBridge Business Partners and the results of the 2012 Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) Survey of Allegations and Costs.
Over the past ten years, millions of clergy, employees, and volunteers have been trained to provide safe environments for children. I acknowledge with great appreciation all those who contributed time and effort to this significant achievement. At the same time, we also renew our steadfast resolution never to lessen our common commitment to protect children and young people entrusted to our pastoral care. We seek with equal determination to promote healing and reconciliation for those harmed in the past, and to assure that our audits continue to be credible and maintain accountability in our shared promise to protect and our pledge to heal.
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UNITED STATES
U.S. Catholic
By Elizabeth Lefebvre
It’s been an interesting week for women in the church. First, there was the back and forth between prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life Brazilian Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz and the Vatican over who knew what about the crackdown on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.
Then yesterday Pope Francis gave a somewhat odd speech while addressing women religious from 75 countries who were attending a gathering of International Union of Superiors General. He urged the women religious to be fertile spiritual mothers in the church, as opposed to being old maids or spinsters. The pope said that the nuns’ vow of chastity must be “fertile” and generate “spiritual children in the church.”
So, even being an unmarried, celibate women still means that the church will define you by fertility and maternity? Continuing to define women by themes of motherhood and maternity undermines the real progress that has been made in the ways that we think about women. The church doesn’t ask priests and monks to be “manly.” Why then does it insist that women must be nurturing mothers?
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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON MAY 09, 2013
New Jersey attorney Greg Gianforcaro announced today that he has settled five cases against the Newark archdiocese involving a convicted Newark priest who was sent to Missouri where he assaulted more kids (after changing his name in between).
Catholic officials settle cases like these because they’re scared of trials. They know that under oath their complicity will be laid bare. They are almost always very fearful of having to face tough questions in open court.
So when Catholic officials pretend settlements are driven by “compassion” or ‘charity,” that’s baloney.
These settlements aren’t “reform.” They are just a smart business move by a prelate who knows there’s still tons of dirty secrets in his archdiocese that he wants to keep hidden.
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AUSTRALIA
ABC News
The NSW Special Commission into child sexual abuse in the Hunter Valley is this morning expected to hear from the Commander of the police Sex Crimes Squad.
Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox has spent nearly four full days in the witness box.
His claims about being directed by his superiors to stop investigating allegations of child sexual abuse by two priests led to the Commission.
The public hearings got underway on Monday and will continue next week.
First up this morning, it is expected the inquiry will hear from Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec, who is the Commander of the NSW Police Sex Crimes Squad.
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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury
By ELLE WATSON May 10, 2013
The NSW Police Force has painted whistleblower Peter Fox as a troublemaker who passed on confidential documents to journalists to undermine the sex abuse investigation he was excluded from in 2010 in the hope he could write a book about it.
Wayne Roser SC, the barrister representing several senior police, told the Commission of Inquiry Inspector Fox asked Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy to amend a six-page report on his sexual abuse investigations before he passed it on to his superiors.
“You drafted this report and then you sent it off to your friend Ms McCarthy and asked her to amend it,” Mr Roser put to Inspector Fox who said the “vast majority” of information in the document came from the journalist.
“Ms McCarthy knew a hell of a lot more than what was in my report,” Inspector Fox said.
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AUSTRALIA
The Australian
DAN BOX From: The Australian May 10, 2013
A NSW detective who publicly claimed he was ordered to stop investigating child abuse within the Catholic Church co-ordinated his revelation with the ABC, Fairfax Media and a Greens MP as part of a campaign to force a royal commission.
Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox was also given the opportunity to view a transcript of part of a proposed edition of the ABC’s Lateline program, which he successfully requested not be broadcast.
In an email sent to the program’s reporter Suzanne Smith a day before the interview, Inspector Fox wrote: “We can string it out and drip feed . . . it will only give us larger coverage and a much bigger impact.
“Please don’t lose sight of our objective here for the sake of a good, quick story now.”
The part of the program Inspector Fox asked not be broadcast included a separate interview with NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge. Giving evidence yesterday to a state inquiry into the allegations he made on the program, Inspector Fox said he was also given a draft of a public statement the MP planned to make after the broadcast, which he asked him to delay.
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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline
[with video]
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 09/05/2013
Reporter: Jamelle Wells
Peter Fox the whistleblower who sparked the Newcastle inquiry into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in the Hunter region has been accused of undermining the strikeforce set up to investigate sexual abuse.
Transcript
TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Police whistleblower Peter Fox has been accused of undermining the police strike force set up to investigate child sexual abuse in the Hunter. The Commission of Inquiry also heard claims he’d breached a court order by tweeting information from within the hearing. Jamelle Wells reports from Newcastle.
JAMELLE WELLS, REPORTER: Detective chief inspector Peter Fox has spent four days being grilled about the police investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse by former priests Denis McAlinden and Jim Fletcher in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese, but he says he’s determined to get to the bottom of the truth.
PETER FOX, NSW POLICE: I was expecting it wouldn’t be easy and it certainly hasn’t been, but I’m prepared to endure that.
JAMELLE WELLS: Peter Fox was cross-examined by Wayne Roser, the barrister for a number of police officers appearing at the inquiry. He accused Peter Fox of breaching a suppression order by tweeting information about witnesses. Mr Roser said the tweet was another example of Peter Fox trying to undermine the strike force set up to investigate child sexual abuse allegations. “… from July, 2010 until now you’ve used every endeavour to undermine the Strikeforce Lantle?” “… I tried to assist it in every way …”.
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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
POSTED BY MARK CRAWFORD ON MAY 09, 2013
Newark’s archbishop is hiring yet another defense lawyer. That’s about protecting Myers and his reputation, not about protecting kids.
Newark predator priests haven’t had more access to vulnerable youngsters because the archdiocese has too few lawyers on the payroll. These pedophiles have been around kids because of callousness and recklessness by Myers, not because of inadequate legal representation for the church hierarchy.
Motion isn’t necessarily progress. Just doing things isn’t proof of reform. If innocent Newark kids are to be safer and Newark predator priests are to be removed, it will take real leadership by Catholic officials, not more defense lawyers for Catholic officials.
Myers needs to stop hiding behind expensive professional lawyers and PR staffers. He needs to address this crisis directly and with meaningful reforms not empty promises.
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IRELAND
Irish Independent
09 MAY 2013
Moral crusaders must maintain impeccable standards or risk being outed as sanctimonious phoneys – and nothing damages a cause like hypocrisy. This is neither canon nor criminal law, but the law of common sense.
When Cardinal Sean Brady sets himself up as a moral authority, lecturing TDs on their duties as lawmakers and Catholics on their obligation to oppose abortion legislation, naturally his credentials are relevant.
In theory, his role as the Catholic Church’s Primate of All Ireland should mean his voice is an influential one in the abortion debate.
But Cardinal “I was only following orders” Brady has feet of clay: a handicap so conspicuous that it renders him unfit to sermonise on ethics.
This man is compromised irreversibly by his role in the hierarchy’s culture of silence and cover-up over clerical child abuse. He lacks credibility, which means his views – even where sincere and valid – have a currency shortfall.
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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
POSTED BY JUDY JONES ON MAY 09, 2013
For decades our legal system – both civil and criminal, at the federal, state and local level – has respected the privacy rights of proven and alleged child sex abuse victims. So has neary every journalist.
But not Bishop Robert Finn. Recently, he “outed” three Kansas City men who were sexually assaulted as kids by Kansas City Catholic priests. He should be ashamed. His flock should be outraged.
Finn’s lawyers recently put in the public court file a document that reveals the identities of these three victims. The three, along with dozens of other victims, are potential witnesses in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by parents of a boy who committed suicide after having been repeatedly molested by Msgr. Thomas O’Brien, a Kansas City diocesan priest.
Finn might well soon “out” these dozens of other victims too.
Finn’s stunningly callous legal move amounts to mean-spirited “hair-splitting.” It’s mean-spirited because it hurts these three victims and scares who-knows-how-many more. It’s hair-splitting because Finn makes a silly and meaningless distinction between victims who are plaintiffs and victims who are both plaintiffs and witnesses. It’s a distinction without a difference.
This cruel move is being done to help defend Msgr. Thomas O’Brien. O’Brien is considered by many to be Missouri’s most prolific predator priest. Dozens have accused him. Dozens have sued him. Dozens have settled cases involving him. He’s been suspended from active ministry for years. Church officials are reportedly trying to defrock 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.
NEW JERSEY
The Worthy Adversary
Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 9, 2013
Within the past few weeks, the Archdiocese of Newark has settled sex abuse and cover-up lawsuits with five men who charge that they were abused by convicted Newark priest Fr. Carmine Sita.
Call me Carmine. Call me Gerald. Whatever you do, don’t call the cops.
Sita, who was convicted of child sex abuse in New Jersey in 1983, was later allowed to change his name to Fr. Jerry Howard and move to Missouri, where he continued to work as a priest with the blessing of church officials.
Howard continued to abuse in Missouri. He is currently in Missouri’s Cooper County Jail awaiting trial for sex crimes there.
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MARYLAND
CBS Baltimore
GLEN BURNIE, Md. (WJZ) — At least two staff members at a Glen Burnie Catholic high school are facing sex abuse allegations.
A former student at Monsignor Slade Catholic School says it happened in the mid-2000′s.
The staff members accused of abuse are suspended, but no charges have been filed.
Police also say they found marijuana and drug paraphernalia in the home of vice principal Robert Ritz, but would not confirm the search was connected to the abuse allegations.
Police responded to the school on Wednesday after receiving tips that two staff members may have had inappropriate contact with a former student.
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
Catholic Register
Written by Fr. Raymond J. de Souza
Last week Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who resigned as archbishop of Edinburgh just before the recent conclave upon revelations of “lewd behaviour” and “drunken fumblings,” spoke for the first time since press reports led him to absent himself from the conclave. The accusations were made by Scottish priests who reported O’Brien had made advances after excessive drinking in years past. The accusations did not involve minors.
“It’s been quite a difficult time for me, quite a humbling experience for me,” Cardinal O’Brien said. “It’s very difficult for them too. That is why I have apologized for being a teacher who has not been able to live up to the teaching of the Church. We know what’s against God’s law. Consequently we should try to live by God’s law. I’ve apologized for my failures in that respect.”
Also last week, Pope Francis went to the papal basilica of St. Mary Major to pray the rosary on the first Saturday of May. Just as on his visit to St. Mary Major on the morning after his election as Pope, Francis was greeted by the cardinal archpriest of the basilica, who is now Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló. It used to be Cardinal Bernard Law, former archbishop of Boston.
Therein lies a tale of what to do when bishops behave badly, a tale highlighted by the drama of the recent conclave.
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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary
Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 9, 2013
Too small to see the Johnson, but it’s there. Believe me, it’s there.
After more than 30 years of upsetting, insulting and disgusting Catholics, passers-by and anyone with eyes, Boner Jesus—a mural on the wall of St. Joseph’s Church in Santa Ana—has finally been covered up.
Put this one in the “tentative win” column for new Orange Bishop Kevin Vann.
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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 09, 2013
KC bishop “outs” 3 victims, group says
In unusual move, he discloses their identities
SNAP: “Dozens more victims could suffer same fate”
As plaintiffs in child sex cases, their privacy is guaranteed
But Finn’s lawyers release their names when they are witnesses
Defense maneuver comes in parent’s wrongful death suicide suit
Accused predator priest is Missouri’s “most notorious” abusive cleric, SNAP says
What:
Holding signs and childhood photos, leaders of a clergy sex abuse victims support group will announce that Kansas City’s bishop
–has disclosed the names of three KC adults who filed child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits as “John Does” and
–may do also violate the privacy of dozens of other alleged victims.
They will discuss a new court filing that’s designed to stop what they call “this mean-spirited and intimidating legal defense maneuver” and prod local Catholics to
–donate elsewhere until Kansas City Catholic officials “stop the legal hardball” and
–share what they know about clergy sex crimes with police and prosecutors “so that kids will be safer.”
When:
TODAY, Thursday, May 9, at 1:00 p.m.
Where:
Outside the Kansas City diocesan headquarters, 20 West Ninth Street (at Baltimore) in Kansas City, MO
Who:
Three adults including a Kansas City abuse victim who belongs to a self help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a St. Louis woman who is the organization’s Associate Midwest Director
Why:
At least three alleged clergy sex abuse victims’ privacy has been violated, SNAP contends, because defense lawyers for Kansas City Catholic officials have put their names in court filings that are open to the public. Dozens more who have taken legal action against local predator priests may soon suffer the same fate, SNAP says.
The three filed civil lawsuits against Bishop Finn and the diocese as “John Does” to protect themselves and their loved ones, SNAP says, and won court orders guaranteeing their confidentiality.
But now Finn’s lawyers are making their names available to the public. They claim that court “protective orders” for victims only cover those victims in their own litigation, not if they are possible witnesses in other clergy sex abuse and cover up cases.
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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 09, 2013
NY Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s PR man is lying. He claims that Dolan is powerless to do anything about embattled Newark Archbishop John Myers.
That’s wrong and he knows it.
Dolan heads the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. As the group’s title suggests, it’s a US organization. As the group’s president, Dolan could easily
–kick Myers out,
–suspend Myers’ membership,
— forbid Myers to attend meetings, or
— deny Myers committee assignments.
Dolan needs no “OK” from any Catholic official in Rome or Washington to do this. He’s the president of the group (and the most powerful and visible Catholic official in America.)
What’s more, Dolan has more resources and a bigger bully pulpit than any other US Catholic official. He’s not shy about using either to make pronouncements about how millions should behave. But he refuses to use either to call out reckless, deceitful or callous actions by other Catholic employees who endanger children.
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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News
A retired Church of England priest who abused teenage boys has been jailed for 18 months at Hove Crown Court.
Father Keith Wilkie Denford, 78, of Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, was found guilty at an earlier hearing of indecently assaulting two teenage boys.
Church organist Michael Mytton, 69, of East Chiltington, East Sussex, was given a suspended nine-month jail term for indecently assaulting a third boy,
He was made subject to a sex offender programme and two years’ supervision.
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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus
By Ben James
A former priest who used the respectability of the cassock to groom and abuse two boys has been jailed.
Keith Wilkie Denford, 78, abused the pair over an 18-month period from when they were aged around 13.
Jailing him at Hove Crown Court, Judge Paul Tain, said that there could be “No greater breach of trust than a man playing the role of a man of God”.
The jury at the two week trial heard that Denford, of Broad Reach Mews, Shoreham, was the vicar at St John the Evangelist Church in Burgess Hill in the 1980s.
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MARYLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON MAY 09, 2013
Our hearts ache for parents at this school who must be upset about the child sex allegations and the vague way school officials are dealing with them. Parents and the public need and deserve straight answers about possible child sex crimes. It’s disturbing to see Catholic officials leaving families in the dark about such serious matters.
We hope that every person who may have seen or suspected or suffered any misdeeds by this teacher will call police immediately. We also hope that Baltimore’s Catholic archbishop will use his vast resources to aggressively seek out any victims, witnesses and whistleblowers who may have information or suspicions about this teacher, so he might be effectively prosecuted and kept away from kids.
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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Mr. James H. Skogsbergh
President and Chief Executive Officer
Advocate Health Care
2025 Windsor Drive
Oak Brook, Il 60523
Dear Mr. Skogsbergh:
On behalf of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), we are writing to you about the employment of Russell L. Romano. He is a counselor for Advocate Health Care in the Illinois Professional Health Program (IPHP) at your Des Plaines location.
Mr. Romano is a former priest who was determined by the Archdiocese of Chicago to be a perpetrator of sexual abuse of minors. SNAP has learned that both the Archdiocese of Chicago and Advocate Health Care were made aware of this grave situation and we are sadden a known pedophile has been allowed to continue to be employed by Advocate.
We are asking you to immediately terminate his employment; investigate the circumstances that allowed him to be hired; and determine why he remained employed once Advocate learned of his past.
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AUSTRALIA
Special Commission of Inquiry
Wednesday, 8 May 2013: Transcript – Day 3 [PDF, 867kb]
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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Jamie Manson | May. 9, 2013 Grace on the Margins
The more something changes, the more it stays the same. It’s a cliché, yes, but it seems to be an increasingly apt one to apply to the situation between women religious and the Vatican.
For those watching the situation unfold since April 2012, when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith mandated that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) be reformed by three U.S. bishops, this week promised to offer some explanations about where the new pope stands on the issue. Pope Francis even met with members of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), a group of nearly 2,000 leaders of women religious throughout the world who have been meeting in Rome all week.
There have been high hopes for Pope Francis among those left spiritually bruised by the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI. Francis paid his own hotel bill after the conclave, took the bus with the rest of the bishops, refused to move into the papal apartment, claimed to want a “poor church,” and celebrated Holy Thursday at a juvenile detention facility where he washed the feet of 10 men and two women.
But a month after his election, a fly got caught in the balm Francis was pouring over the church’s body. LCWR leaders were informed in a meeting with the doctrinal congregation’s lead cleric, Archbishop Gerhard Müller, that the new pope had reaffirmed the mandated reform of the their organization.
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MINNESOTA
National Survivor Advocates Coalition
The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) salutes the hard but profoundly successful work of Minnesota survivors and supporters to protect children through the passage of a bill in the state Senate yesterday that will, if signed by the Governor, eliminate the statute of limitations on sexual abuse going forward. The Minnesota House recently passed the measure and the same hard work by survivors and supporters took place before the House vote. If a conference committee is not required, it will move directly to Governor Mark Dayton. It is expected that he will sign the measure.
The legislation also provides for a three year window for those for whom the previous limiting statute had passed. We are pleased that they will have an opportunity for justice.
Minnesotans have been at work on this legislation for 13 years. We are particularly and extremely proud of our own Bob Schwiderski, a founding member of NSAC and a SNAP leader, for his dedicated and preserving noble work in this effort to build a coalition of supporters that crossed religious and political boundaries coming together to protect children.
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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By JASON GORDON May 9, 2013
A KEY senior figure within the Catholic diocese of Maitland-Newcastle has warned ‘‘bitter truths are coming’’ for the Church which must continue to work towards healing victims of abuse.
Father Brian Mascord, the diocese’s vicar-general, has distributed a statement to churches and their congregations regarding the Special Commission of Inquiry into the handling of child sex abuse allegations by Newcastle police and the Catholic Church.
‘‘It is possible that allegations of cover-ups and conspiracy may be made against priests and members of the laity [during the inquiry],’’ Father Mascord said.
‘‘Please do not rush to judgment.
‘‘We believe there will be some bitter truths coming. Many of these truths are already known, others may come as fresh revelations, and again be of great concern for all of us.
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NEW JERSEY
Huffington Post
Michael D’Antonio
Often lost in the shadow of the Archdiocese of New York, and its larger-than-life cardinal, Timothy Dolan, the Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., is attracting national attention these days for all the wrong reasons. It is now the site of one of the more pathetic episodes in official Catholicism’s sex abuse scandal, a case so badly mishandled that it reveals, by example, why the hierarchy can’t seem to ends its long running crisis.
As reported by the state’s largest newspaper, the Star-Ledger of Newark, the case began with a 13-year-old boy’s complaint that he had been sexually abused by the Rev. Michael Fugee in 2001. Father Fugee confessed, then recanted, and was subsequently convicted of aggravated criminal sexual contact. This verdict was overturned in 2007 by an appellate court that found the jury had not been properly instructed by the trial judge. To avoid a retrial, Fugee and archdiocese officials signed an agreement with prosecutors that required he never again minister “to any minor/child under the age of 18 or work in any position in which children are involved.”
The world may have never again heard the name Michael Fugee if his superiors hadn’t allowed him to return to ministry where he regularly worked with minors. He heard their confessions and traveled overnight with groups of children and youth ministers from a parish in the town of Colts Neck, which is actually in the neighboring diocese of Trenton. A priest friend also invited him to work at a parish within the archdiocese of Newark where, according to reports, he also violated the terms of his agreement with prosecutors by acting as a priest with children.
What is remarkable about the Fugee case is not the fact of a man violating the terms of an agreement with criminal authorities, although this is egregious. More troubling is the lack of supervision by Fugee’s archbishop John J. Myers and the church’s official reaction to the Star-Ledger’s reporting. At first church authorities challenged the accuracy of the reports. Then they claimed Fugee had actually been closely supervised. Both positions have seen been reversed.
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IRELAND
Irish Examiner
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
By Colette Browne
THE Catholic Church is unlikely to employ me as a communications advisor, so this pithy pearl of wisdom is on the house — step away from the microphones, Cardinal Sean Brady.
Last making headlines when it was revealed that he had sworn two victims of the serial paedophile, Brendan Smyth, to secrecy during a Church investigation, the Cardinal has been in the news in recent days fronting the Church’s campaign against abortion legislation.
Apparently, Cardinal Brady has reinvented himself as a child advocate. There’s just one caveat. The children have to be unborn before Cardinal Brady will speak on their behalf. Engaged in a media blitz since the heads of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill were published, Cardinal Brady said politicians have an “obligation” and “solemn duty” to oppose the “menacing” legislation.
Victims of Smyth (who was one of the biggest menaces to children in this country), were presumably dumbfounded by Cardinal Brady’s damascene conversion.
While the Cardinal is now demanding politicians defend the rights of children, he was found seriously lacking when he was part of a Church inquiry into Smyth in 1975. Brady was then a 36-year-old canonical lawyer and professor, and he has since described his role as a lowly notary who took notes while two teenage boys recounted their horrific abuse by Smyth.
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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.comi
PAUL A. OFFIT
POSTED: Thursday, May 9, 2013
The Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State generated a public outcry for stronger laws against child abuse and neglect. Several bills have been introduced that purportedly provide a “complete overhaul” of Pennsylvania’s child-protection laws.
For example, Senate Bill 20 makes it clear that any adult who “causes serious bodily injury,” either by “kicking, biting, stabbing, cutting, or throwing a child,” or “forcefully shakes or slaps a child under one year of age,” or “causes serious physical neglect,” or “causes a child to be near a methamphetamine lab,” or “operates a vehicle in which a child is a passenger while driving under the influence of alcohol,” has committed child abuse.
Unfortunately, one group of children has been left behind.
The bill states that “if a child has not been provided needed medical or surgical care because of seriously held religious beliefs of the child’s parents … the child shall not be deemed to be physically or mentally abused.” In other words, if parents decide not to give their children antibiotics for meningitis, or insulin for diabetes, or chemotherapy for cancer, or surgery for intestinal blockage, they won’t be held accountable. According to the bill, parents are abusive if they slap their 1-year-old child, but not if they withhold lifesaving therapies.
The problem of religious-based medical neglect in Pennsylvania isn’t theoretical.
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MARYLAND
Patch
By Brian Hooks May 8, 2013
Anne Arundel County police are conducting a criminal investigation into claims of sexual abuse by a former student at Monsignor Slade Catholic School in Glen Burnie, according to letters from school officials and the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
A member of the school’s administration, Slade Assistant Principal Robert Ritz, was arrested on drug charges early Wednesday—however, there is nothing at this time to connect Ritz to any allegations of sexual abuse.
Slade Assistant Principal Alexa Cox wrote in a letter to parents that police spoke to members of the school’s staff, and that some of those members will not return to the campus until police gather more information.
In the letter, Cox said the school does not believe any students are in danger. Here is the letter she sent to Slade parents:
I write concerning an incident that occurred at school today. Police officers were on campus this afternoon to speak with some members of our staff and conduct a criminal investigation. Though we have very little information, we wanted to make you aware of the presence of police at the school. The staff involved will not be on campus until we learn more information from the police. We have no reason to believe there is any kind of threat to our school or that there will be any disruption to our schedule. I look forward to greeting the students tomorrow morning. We will communicate further as soon as we get more information.
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MARYLAND
ABC 2
Posted: 05/08/2013
By: Christian Schaffer
GLEN BURNIE, Md. – Staff members from a Catholic elementary school in Anne Arundel County have been suspended following an allegation of sexual abuse.
Parents from the Monsignor Slade Catholic School in Glen Burnie found out about the allegations this week.
A former student came to police and said he or she had been abused at the school in the mid-2000s.
Neither police nor the Archdiocese of Baltimore has confirmed how many staff members the allegations involve — only that more than one has been suspended.
They’ve also not said whether the suspended staff members are clergy or lay employees
“We can confirm that there has been an allegation of inappropriate contact between staff members and a former student at the school,” said Lt. T.J. Smith, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Police Department.
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MARYLAND
Capital Gazette
Thu May 9, 2013.
By BEN WEATHERS and TIM PRATT bweathers@capgaznews.com tpratt@capgaznews.com
Anne Arundel County police arrested a Monsignor Slade Catholic School assistant principal on drug charges Tuesday while investigating allegations of sexual abuse at the Glen Burnie school, according to charging documents.
Robert Ritz, 59, was charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia after police searched his home in Brooklyn Park Tuesday and found marijuana, pipes, rolling papers and other items. The search was in reference to a former student’s allegations of sexual abuse by staff at the school in the mid 2000s, police said.
Police also conducted a search of the school on Tuesday, though no charges were filed related to the sexual abuse allegations as of Thursday morning.
“The police indicate that their investigation is ongoing and no charges related to the sexual abuse allegation have been filed at this time,” Barbara Edmonson, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, said in a letter to parents.
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MARYLAND
WBAL
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
Phil Yacuboski and WBAL-TV
Police in Anne Arundel County said they are investigating ‘inappropriate contact’ inside a Glen Burnie Catholic school. Investigators said their investigations centers around allegations in the mid-2000s between a staff member and student at Monsignor Slade High School.
“This is an ongoing criminal investigation into potential inappropriate contact between staff members and a former student. That investigation is ongoing,” Anne Arundel County police spokesman Justin Mulcahy said in an interview with WBAL-TV’s Lowell Melser.
The investigation began Tuesday afternoon. Police are not saying much.
Parents said they received the following message from school officials Tuesday evening:
Good evening parents/guardians,
I write concerning an incident that occurred at school today. Police officers were on campus this afternoon to speak with some members of our staff and conduct a criminal investigation. Though we have very little information, we wanted to make you aware of the presence of police at the school. The staff involved will not be on campus until we learn more information from the police. We have no reason to believe there is any kind of threat to our school or that there will be any disruption to our schedule. I look forward to greeting the students tomorrow morning. We will communicate further as soon as we get more information.
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MARYLAND
Eye on Annapolis
UPDATE 5:32pm May 8, 2013: According to online court records, Ritz has been charged with various drug offenses and was released on his own recognizance. Ritz is listed as being 60 years old and a resident of Brooklyn, MD.
Our media partner WBAL-TV is reporting that police are investigating an incident of inappropriate contact by several staff members with a former student at Monsignor Slade Catholic School in Glen Burnie.
Police are not releasing much information other than to say that several unidentified staff members were removed from the school and it is a criminal investigation.
According to neighbors, Slade’s Assistant Principal, Robert Ritz, was led from his home yesterday in handcuffs and police had confiscated what appeared to be a computer.
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MARYLAND
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore
May 08, 2013
Dr. Barbara McGraw Edmondson, Superintendent of Schools for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, sent the following statement to families of Msgr. Slade School in Glen Burnie earlier today.
“As indicated in the email sent to all school families and staff yesterday evening, Anne Arundel County Police officers were on the campus of Msgr. Slade School yesterday afternoon. The Police conducted a search in connection with an allegation from a former student who alleges being the victim of sexual abuse at the school in the mid-2000s. The Police indicate that their investigation is ongoing and no charges related to the sexual abuse allegation have been filed at this time. We appreciate that you may desire more information about this matter. Because the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s policy is to cooperate and not interfere with such investigations, Msgr. Slade School and the Archdiocese are in close communication with the authorities and will await further information from them before communicating further about this matter. Anyone with information relating to this matter is encouraged to call Anne Arundel Police at 410-222-8610. The individuals who are the subject of the investigation have been suspended until a determination is made concerning the veracity of the allegations.
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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun
By Alison Knezevich, The Baltimore Sun
8:42 p.m. EDT, May 8, 2013
Anne Arundel County police are investigating sexual abuse allegations by a former student at Monsignor Slade Catholic School in Glen Burnie, officials of the Archdiocese of Baltimore said Wednesday.
In a letter posted on the archdiocese website and sent to parents via email Wednesday, Barbara McGraw Edmondson, the superintendent of schools within the archdiocese, said county police searched the school Tuesday afternoon and that those being investigated have been suspended until “a determination is made concerning the veracity of the allegations.”
Monsignor Slade Catholic School serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
“The police conducted a search in connection with an allegation from a former student who alleges being the victim of sexual abuse at the school in the mid-2000s,” Edmondson wrote. “The police indicate that their investigation is ongoing and no charges related to the sexual abuse allegation have been filed at this time.”
Anne Arundel police spokesman Lt. T.J. Smith confirmed the investigation, and said police received the allegations Tuesday.
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PUERTO RICO
The Tablet (UK)
9 May 2013
The US territory’s most senior Catholic has said there is no reason for him to resign, despite his being asked to do so by the Vatican.
The Archbishop of San Juan, Roberto Gonzalez Nieves, denies accusations against him, which include the cover-up of clerical paedophilia.
During a meeting with Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops at the Vatican in December, Archbishop Gonzalez was asked to leave his post and move elsewhere within the Church. “Injustice, persecution, defamation, distortion of the facts and an unfair process cannot be reasons to resign,” he said in a letter to the cardinal in February.
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HAWAII
Star-Advertiser
By Star-Advertiser staff
May 09, 2013
A New Jersey man filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that he was sexually molested when he attended St. Anthony’s parish and school in Kailua from 1978 to 1981 when he was about 10 to 13 years old.
The suit filed by the man under the fictitious name of John Roe No. 11 is against the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaii and the Rev. Anthony Bolger, one of the priests at the school during that period.
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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Dianne Williamson
dwilliamson@telegram.com
Many readers have encouraged me to indulge in a so-called “field day” with the circumstances of Bishop Robert J. McManus’s unfortunate arrest for drunken driving in Rhode Island.
Some misguided folks have assumed that I would take perverse glee in the news that the local diocese’s moral and spiritual leader was bagged last weekend for having one too many in, of all places, Narragansett. Some believed that I would find such an incident irresistible, given that the bishop rarely hesitates to pass stern judgment on the perceived foibles of others.
One local wag even suggested that I refer to the bishop as Robert “Manhattan” McManus, which I refuse to do partly out of respect, but mainly because the moniker isn’t all that funny and I trust we could do better.
Truly, I take no pleasure in the arrest of the potted prelate, which is obviously humiliating, even before someone gets their hands on his mug shot. (My money’s on the Providence Journal). Although he’s the bishop, Robert McManus is also vulnerable to human failings, and he’s certainly not infallible like the pope or Warren Buffett.
Besides, let’s be honest. How many of us have tipped a couple of drinks before getting behind the wheel, even though we know it’s wrong? How many of us, upon hearing about a drunken driving arrest, have privately thought — there but for the grace of God, go I? How many of us, particularly among members of the Worcester City Council, keep local lawyer Michael Monopoli on speed dial?
And that’s just the secular folks. If I were the celibate head of a long-repressed, scandal-plagued institution that still insists on banning birth control, women priests, and gay people, I’d be eager to knock back a few myself.
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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus
By Anna Roberts, Crime reporter
A pervert priest and his sex offending organist friend who assaulted children are due to be sentenced today.
Church organist Michael Mytton, 69, and Father Keith Wilkie Denford, 78, were last month found guilty of a string of child sex abuse offences dating back more than 25 years.
Following a two-week trial at Hove Crown Court, Denford, of Broad Reach Mews, Shoreham, was found guilty of three counts of indecent assault against two boys between January 1987 and January 1990 and cleared of one count of the same charge.
Mytton, of South Road, East Chiltington, was cleared of one count of aiding and abetting indecent assault and cleared of two counts of indecent assault.
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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News
By Lisa Gray
A former cleric has hit out at the Catholic church for ‘interfering’ in his life more than 10 years after he left the priesthood.
Sean Page married his partner, Clarice Young, at St John’s CE Church in Heywood last year – more than a decade after quitting his life as a priest in Ireland.
The wedding took place in front of Clarice’s five children in a ceremony led by Rev Matthew Carlisle and the couple are now happily married and living on Grasmere Avenue in Hopwood.
But Sean, 54, says he is ‘hurt’ by the way he was treated by the Catholic church in the run-up to the wedding.
The community radio DJ was sent a document from the Vatican instructing how to conduct himself after marrying Clarice.
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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger
By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on May 09, 2013
Saying leaders “must be held to a higher standard,” state Senate President Stephen Sweeney yesterday joined in calls for Newark Archbishop John J. Myers to resign over his supervision of a priest who violated a lifetime ban on ministry to children
Sweeney (D-Gloucester) is at least the fourth New Jersey politician to wade into the controversy over the Rev. Michael Fugee, the subject of a criminal investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office.
“As the days go on, it becomes clearer and clearer that Archbishop Myers cannot remain in his position,” Sweeney said in a statement.
While politicians rarely venture into the affairs of the Roman Catholic church, let alone demand the resignation of an archbishop, Myers’ role in the Fugee case has become a lightning rod for criticism from around the nation.
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NEW JERSEY
The Record
WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark has hired Michael Critchley, a high-profile criminal defense lawyer, as prosecutors continue to investigate recent activities of a priest who allegedly molested a 13-year-old boy more than a decade ago.
In another development on Wednesday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the New York archbishop who wields enormous influence among bishops worldwide, is closely following the case, his spokesman said.
A spokesman for Archbishop John J. Myers Wednesday confirmed that Critchley, a widely respected lawyer known for winning his clients light sentences or outright acquittals, is representing the archdiocese for “additional legal help.”
Critics have besieged the archdiocese since revelations surfaced that the Rev. Michael Fugee attended several youth retreats and extended pilgrimages in apparent disregard of an agreement he and a representative of Myers signed in 2007 with Bergen County prosecutors barring any activities with children. The prosecutor’s office immediately opened a new investigation.
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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com
THURSDAY MAY 9, 2013, 6:53 AM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan is closely following the case of a New Jersey priest who defied an agreement to stay away from children.
Dolan’s spokesman tells The Record newspaper (http://bit.ly/10Idb5h ) the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has not convened an investigation.
The Rev. Michael Fugee resigned last week. The 52-year-old was convicted in 2003 of fondling a boy in Wyckoff. However, that verdict was vacated because of judicial error. Fugee entered a program to avoid retrial and agreed to never again work with children.
However, he attended youth retreats involving a church in Colts Neck.
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NEW MEXICO
KRQE
Published : Wednesday, 08 May 201
Lysée Mitri
ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (KRQE) – An Albuquerque man has filed a lawsuit accusing three priests of molesting him decades ago at an Alamogordo church.
He even says two of the priests worked together in raping him when he was about 9 years old.
Eran McManemy says the abuse went on for years with different priests when he was an altar boy at St. Jude Parish in Alamogordo.
One of the priests died in prison while doing time for raping numerous other boys.
It is a lengthy lawsuit filed more than 20 years after the alleged abuse.
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AUSTRALIA
The Australian
DAN BOX From: The Australian May 09, 2013
A NSW detective altered police computer records to list himself as the officer in charge of a pedophile investigation now at the centre of a state inquiry.
Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox has previously claimed he was ordered to “stand down from the case” of an alleged cover-up surrounding pedophile priest Denis McAlinden in 2010.
Under cross-examination at the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry this morning, Detective Fox said he had previously altered the computer record of a past investigation into McAlinden, listing himself as the chief investigator and transferring the case to his local command.
Detective Fox denied that he had done this so he could subsequently claim, in a formal report to his bosses, that he had been investigating the priest for a decade and should be included in the ongoing investigation.
“That doesn’t make sense. When you look at the documents, there’s no logic behind that suggestion,” he told the inquiry.
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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By JASON GORDON May 9, 2013
DETECTIVE Chief Inspector Peter Fox came under fire this morning for a message he sent via Twitter late yesterday concerning information which had been suppressed by the Special Commission of Inquiry.
Wayne Roser SC, representing several senior police at the inquiry, said the tweet was ‘‘not only inappropriate, it was against the ruling of this commission’’.
The commission heard certain information before it closed yesterday, but Commissioner Margaret Cunneen ruled that the information be suppressed and withheld from any form of broadcast or publication until it could be further explored later today.
Mr Roser suggested that Mr Fox’s tweet was ‘‘another example of you not accepting authority and doing your own thing’’.
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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury
By ELLE WATSON May 9, 2013
Peter Fox passed on confidential information to Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy in an attempt to undermine a sex abuse investigation after he was dumped from it in 2010, according to a legal representative for the NSW Police Force.
Wayne Roser SC cross-examined Detective Chief Inspector Fox this morning as he took to the witness box for a fourth day at the Commission of Inquiry into a child sex abuse cover up by the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese.
Mr Roser claimed Inspector Fox had been warned by a Lake Macquarie Crime Manager about his interference with a second investigation – Strike Force Georgiana.
It was alleged Inspector Fox tipped off Joanne McCarthy to a priest that was being investigated by the Strike Force.
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CALIFORNIA
The Fresno Bee
By John Ellis – The Fresno Bee
Wednesday, May. 08, 2013
A Marin County woman is suing a Catholic priest who is now in Ireland, saying he raped her in 1970 while he was serving a short stint at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in northwest Fresno.
Kathryn Mary McGrath, now 59, was “barely 16 years old,” the lawsuit says, when Vincent A. O’Connell assaulted her by placing his hand down her pants a short time after her father had died suddenly.
McGrath’s lawsuit — filed this week in Fresno County Superior Court — is the latest in a long line of lawsuits alleging sexual assault by Catholic priests both nationally and internationally.
The suit says O’Connell, “a very striking and charismatic Irish priest,” came to Fresno from Nigeria. He was a visiting priest in between assignments who became a fixture in the McGrath household.
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NEW YORK
The Awareness Center
For almost a decade Tim Walsh has had the audacity and courage to speak his mind when it comes to advocating for the State of New York to rid it’s self of the archaic laws on the books when it comes to the statute of limitations in which a survivor of a sex crime has to file a civil suit against their offender(s). Tim has spent thousands of hours researching and disseminating information for his daily e-mails that is received by activists globally, along with working with various advocacy groups in hopes of learning from them in hopes of making New York a safer place to raise children.
Because of Tim’s tenacity to shine a light on many dark and ugly secrets, there has been a small group of people who have been spreading ugly rumors about his personhood. Though these attempts at destroying his reputation may be painful, they have not stopped Tim or the important work he’s been doing. Instead he draws strength from them, because of this we should all see Tim Walsh as a hero and should be honored and respected as one. Next time you see Tim. Please stand up and give him a round of applause.
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PUERTO RICO
Jakarta Post
Danica Coto, The Associated Press
Thu, May 09 2013
Roman Catholics in Puerto Rico rallied Wednesday around an archbishop who is apparently under pressure from the Vatican to resign for allegedly covering up for sexually abusive priests and other misdeeds.
Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves has not confirmed that he is being asked to step down as leader of the Catholic Church in the U.S. island territory. However, he has asked parishioners to pray for him.
“I beg of you, please, do not send letters to the Holy See with expressions of solidarity. There is only one thing to do in situations like these: Pray,” he wrote in a May 3 letter that was read to churchgoers last Sunday. “I know the last two weeks have been intense and painful for all of us for reasons you already know.”
A rally of support Wednesday evening coincided with Gonzalez’s 14th anniversary at the Puerto Rican archdiocese. He had previously studied and worked in New York, Texas, Maryland and Massachusetts. The 62-year-old was born in New Jersey but moved to Puerto Rico at a young age.
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CALIFORNIA
CBS Sacramento
[with video]
WHEATLAND (CBS13) – A Wheatland pastor has been arrested after he confessed to having a sexual relationship with a Nicolaus teen girl.
Police in Wichita, Kansas contacted the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department after a family member of 51-year-old suspect Brian Gray reported to police the pastor was having an inappropriate relationship with the 16-year-old.
Investigators say Gray and the teen have had a sexual relationship for about one year, beginning last spring. They say the sex crimes happened in several places, including the church, a field and a Sacramento motel. A few months ago, some in his congregation began questioning the pastor’s behavior toward the girl.
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