ABUSE TRACKER

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

[the report]

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.

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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.

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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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CALIFORNIA
Fox 40

WHEATLAND-

A Wheatland pastor is facing charges for allegedly having a year-long sexual relationship with a teen girl.

A family member of the pastor called Yuba County Sheriff’s Department to report Brian Gray was involved in an inappropriate relationship.

Deputies learned 51-year-old Gray and the 16-year-old girl had been having sex since last Spring while he was pastor at Anchor Baptist Church in Wheatland.

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CALIFORNIA
News 10

[with video]

WHEATLAND, CA – A Wheatland church pastor has confessed to engaging in underage sex with a 16-year-old girl, said a Yuba County sheriff’s official.

“He has confessed to an ongoing sexual relationship with the 16-year-old victim over a period of approximately a year,” Yuba County Sheriff Steven Durfor said.

Read said the sheriff’s department was tipped off to the allegations on Tuesday by a report made to Wichita, Kansas police regarding suspect Brian Gray. Gray’s son said a relative of his father’s wife called Wichita police.

The ensuing investigation revealed Gray, 51, and the teen had been in a sexual relationship for approximately one year and it began at Anchor Baptist Church in Wheatland late last spring, Read said. There were additional sexual encounters in multiple other locations as well, according to the investigation.

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CALIFORNIA
KNVN

Yesterday, The Yuba County Sheriff’s Department received an information report from Wichita Police Department in Kansas. The report came from the family member of the suspect, 51-year-old Brian Gray, indicating the suspect and victim were involved in some type of inappropriate relationship.

A subsequent investigation revealed that the suspect and victim, a 16-year-old girl, have been engaged in a sexual relationship for approximately one year. According to Yuba City Police, The first incident of sexual contact occurred late last spring at the Anchor Baptist Church in Wheatland, where the suspect is a pastor. Several additional sexual encounters occurred in multiple local jurisdictions, and the investigation remains ongoing.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Australia’s most senior Catholic will come before Victoria’s parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse later this month.

A spokesman for Cardinal George Pell says he is scheduled to appear on May 27 to give evidence about the church’s handling of allegations of abuse by its clergy while he was the Archbishop of Melbourne.

Cardinal Pell’s successor in Melbourne, Archbishop Denis Hart, will give evidence on May 20.

The committee of inquiry is examining the record of religious and non-government organisations.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

AAP

Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, will appear before a Victorian child abuse inquiry.

Cardinal Pell, the archbishop of Sydney, and Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart will give evidence to the parliamentary inquiry’s next public hearings later this month.

They welcomed the opportunity to appear before the inquiry, a statement from the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne said.

Cardinal Pell and Archbishop Hart had been consistent in their support for the inquiry and remain committed to the church’s full co-operation with the inquiry, the statement added.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

The Catholic Church’s Sydney and Melbourne archbishops will give evidence before a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child abuse.

Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, will appear before a Victorian child abuse inquiry.

Cardinal Pell, the archbishop of Sydney, and Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart will give evidence to the parliamentary inquiry’s next public hearings later this month.

They welcomed the opportunity to appear before the inquiry, a statement from the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne said.

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AUSTRALIA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra & Goulburn

Catechists would now struggle with the “painful legacy” of the Church’s history of sexual abuse, the CEO of the Church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan, has acknowledged.

Mr Sullivan told catechists at the annual Catholic Conference of Religious Educators in State Schools, in Canberra, that they faced the challenge of finding ways to talk to children and to help them come to terms with this “shameful and confronting” history.

The council is responsible for the Church’s engagement with the Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Fox 43

by Trang Do
Multi-media Journalist

Sexual abuse is a serious problem that far too often is kept hidden, and when it happens in a community as isolated as the Amish, it’s even more difficult for victims to be helped and offenders to be prosecuted.

FOX 43′s Trang Do has the story of a former Amish family and community leaders who are trying to break the culture of silence through outreach and education.

“I grew up Amish, not knowing any different. And I loved it, I loved my parents. Yeah, I loved it. I never dreamed that I would not be Amish,” said a former Amish woman whose name we are withholding.

But one difficult day, she and her husband made the decision to leave the only way of life they’d ever known, after discovering their children had been sexually abused.

When they brought up the issue with leaders of their church, they said they were told to forgive and forget, something the couple just couldn’t bring themselves to do.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

A New South Wales police whistleblower says he put himself and his family through hell campaigning for a royal commission into child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

A Special Commission of Inquiry is examining how NSW Police and the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese handled allegations of child sexual abuse by two priests.

The Commission was sparked when Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox aired claims on ABC TV’s Lateline program that his superiors ordered him to stop investigating the allegations as part of Strike Forces Lantle, set up in late 2010, and Georgiana, set up in 2007.

Detective Fox spent his fourth day in the witness box refuting claims by police barrister Wayne Roser SC that his appearance on Lateline had been scripted, but he did agree he was campaigning for a royal commission into child sexual abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Radio Australia

Australia’s most senior Catholic will come before Victoria’s parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse later this month.

A spokesman for Cardinal George Pell says he is scheduled to appear on May 27 to give evidence about the church’s handling of allegations of abuse by its clergy while he was the Archbishop of Melbourne.

Cardinal Pell’s successor in Melbourne, Archbishop Denis Hart, will give evidence on May 20.

The committee of inquiry is examining the record of religious and non-government organisations.

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CALIFORNIA
Appeal-Democrat

May 08, 2013

By Rob Parsons/A-D Reporter
Two days before his arrest, several parishioners confronted Baptist Pastor Brian Clay Gray about his relationship with a 16-year-old girl, the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department said on Wednesday.

Sheriff Steve Durfor described the allegations against Gray as “devastating to the community.”

“It’s certainly a shame,” Durfor said. “Any time a person is in a position of authority, influence and leadership and trust, it makes this all the more shocking to a community.”

Gray, 51, was booked just after midnight Wednesday into the Yuba County Jail on $100,000 bail on suspicion of felony sexual child abuse counts of unlawful sex, lewd and lascivious acts, and oral copulation with a minor.

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NEW YORK
New York Law Journal

Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, &c., Appellants v. National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA., &c., Respondent, et al., Defendant, No. 69

New York State Court of Appeals
Civil Practice / Contracts / Insurance Law / Torts
New York Law Journal May 8, 2013

Opinion by Judge Rivera. Judges Read and Pigott concur. Judge Smith concurs in result in an opinion. Judge Graffeo concurs in part and dissents in part in an opinion. Chief Judge Lippman took no part.

Decided May 7, 2013

David B. Hamm, for appellants.
Barbara I. Michaelides, for respondent.

*1
JENNY RIVERA, J.:

‌This insurance coverage dispute involves the apportionment of liability for a settlement between the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn (the Diocese), and a minor plaintiff in an underlying civil action charging sexual molestation by a priest. We agree with the Appellate Division that the incidents of sexual abuse constituted multiple occurrences, and that any

*2
potential liability should be apportioned among the several insurance policies, pro rata. We therefore affirm.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Jackie Jadrnak / Journal North Reporter on Wed, May 8, 2013

Six more unnamed men have filed lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and some of its parishes, claiming that they suffered sexual abuse as teenagers at the hands of the Rev. Michael O’Brien in the 1970s and ’80s.

That brings the total to 10 recent lawsuits filed against the archdiocese for alleged actions committed by O’Brien, who is no longer alive.

The cases in state District Court in Albuquerque are being brought by Albuquerque attorney Brad Hall and the Portland, Ore., attorney Kelly Clark of O’Donnell Clark & Crew LLP.

The men in these latest suits currently range in age from their late 30’s to mid-50’s, according to a news release from the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

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NEW MEXICO
KOB

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 8, 2013

Six More Men File Lawsuits Against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe
Ten total now claim child sexual abuse by northern New MexicoPriest, Fr. Michael O’Brien

For more information, contact:
Attorney Brad D. Hall at 505.255.6300 or 505.400.1192 orbrad@bhallfirm.com Attorney Kelly Clark at 503.306.0224 or 503.407.7381 orkellyc@oandc.com

Albuquerque, New Mexico—
Six more former catholic youths have filed complaints against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, for the alleged sexual abuse they suffered by a Catholic priest, Fr Michael O’Brien, who was assigned to several parishes in Northern New Mexicoduring the 1970’s and 1980’s. Four earlier suits were filed in April with similar allegations arising from O’Brien’s tenure at churches in Questa, Las Vegas, andTaos.

The six new lawsuits, like the first four, allege that the Archdiocese was negligentin failing to properly screen, train, and supervise Fr. O’Brien, while fostering aculture that allowed pedophiles to flourish, resulting in the boys’ abuse.

All six of the new complaints were filed in Bernallilo County by Albuquerqueattorney Brad D. Hall, who will associate on the cases with attorney Kelly Clark,of the Portland, Oregon law firm of O’Donnell Clark & Crew LLP. Hall remarked,”It is now clear that there are O’Brien victims spread over half the state, fromEstancia to Taos, from Peñasco to Vegas to Questa. These six more suitsrepresent brave individuals who have come forward. They are hurting after yearsof silent suffering, and we believe we can get them to the professionals theyneed as a result of filing these claims for them.”

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NEW MEXICO
KOB

[with video]

[media release]

Posted at: 05/08/2013
By: Danielle Todesco, KOB Eyewitness News 4

Six more men have come forward with lawsuits claiming they were sexually abused by a priest in New Mexico.

That makes ten lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe over the same priest, Father Michael O’Brien.

The lawsuits detail similar stories. The men were all teenagers and say they were altar boys under Father O’Brien in the 1970’s and 1980’s. They say he sexually abused them multiple times, from fondling to rape. The victims say they have bottled up the emotional pain for decades.

Attorney Brad Hall says they believe officials in the Archdiocese knew about the abuse, and just kept moving Father O’Brien to different churches across the state.

“There seems to be a pattern. Father O’Brien moving from Estancia to Penasco to Taos to Vegas to Mora to Questa…about 2 years or so in every spot,” Hall said.

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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 confessed to molesting a 13-year-old boy more than a decade ago.

A spokesman for Archbishop John J. Myers on Wednesday confirmed that Critchley, a widely respected lawyer known for winning light sentences or outright acquittals in a string of high-profile criminal defenses, is representing the archdiocese for “additional legal help.”

Critics have besieged the archdiocese since revelations surfaced last week 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.

Jim Goodness, Myers’ spokesman, said Critchley will be assisting in the review of legal documents in the inquiry. He said he was not sure whether Critchley has spoken to prosecutors, or when or if he will.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

by Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio
May 8, 2013

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Senate unanimously passed a bill Wednesday that would allow lawsuits against churches, schools and other organizations that may have covered up child sexual abuse decades ago.

The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 66-0. A similar bill overwhelmingly passed the House last week. Katharine Tinucci, a spokeswoman for Gov. Mark Dayton, said in an email that she “expects he will sign it.”

The Child Victims Act would drop the statute of limitations for civil suits involving child sexual abuse going forward. For older cases, it would create a three-year window for past victims to file lawsuits against abusers and institutions that may have failed to protect them.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Megan Boldt
mboldt@pioneerpress.com
Posted: 05/08/2013

A bill that would make it easier for Minnesotans who were sexually abused as children to bring civil lawsuits against their abuser or the institution that enabled that abuse could soon become law.

It passed the Minnesota Senate unanimously on Wednesday, May 8. The House approved a similar measure earlier this month.

The bill eliminates the civil statute of limitations in most cases for victims of child sexual abuse. Under current state law, a child sex-abuse victim has up to age 24 to file a lawsuit after he or she turns 18, if not before.

The proposed legislation would retain the six-year limit to file a civil action for victims who were sexually abused at the age of 18 or older. But it would wipe out any limits for someone who was similarly abused before he or she turned 18.

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NEW JERSEY
USA Today

Kathleen Hopkins, Asbury Park (N.J.)

TOMS RIVER, N.J. — Yosef Kolko was a popular counselor who helped an unpopular young boy fit at summer camp in 2007, a jury of nine men and seven women heard Wednesday.

Kolko recruited the boy, who was teased by his peers, to sing in the choir at the camp run by Yeshiva Bais Hatorah School in Lakewood, N.J., and take roles in camp plays, Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Laura Pierro said during opening arguments of Kolko’s sexual assault trial before Superior Court Judge Francis R. Hodgson.

The activity was great for the shy boy who was wildly into music but usually kept to himself and was shunned by kids his own age, she said.

“That elation would soon be replaced by a profound sense of discomfort,” Pierro said.

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PUERTO RICO
Univision

Más de 4 mil 150 curas involucrados, 10 mil 123 víctimas, 3 mil 971 casos y más de $2 mil 486 millones de dólares gastados por la Iglesia en cortes judiciales.

Eso es el tamaño de los abusos sexuales en contra de menores por parte de miembros de la iglesia católica en Estados Unidos y el mundo.

De acuerdo a los datos documentados por diferentes organizaciones no gubernamentales y por distintos medios de comunicación como bishop-accoutntability.org, Vunetnews y Wikipedia, tan solo en Estados Unidos han habido 3 mil 777 casos de pedofilia relacionados con la Iglesia Católica.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Dia

Por Alba Y. Muñiz Gracia / alba.muniz@gfrmedia.com

Los miembros de casi una centena de organizaciones religiosas, sindicales, académicas y cívicas hicieron un llamado, a través de la Coalición en Defensa y Solidaridad con el Arzobispo de San Juan, a apoyar a monseñor Roberto González Nieves de la forma en que él mismo solicitó: orando para que la situación que atraviesa en el seno de lglesia Católica se solucione.

Como parte de las iniciativas que realizarán en apoyo al arzobispo, urgieron a la ciudadanía a acompañarlo en la misa que ofrecerá el miércoles, 8 de mayo, en la Iglesia Santa Teresita, en Santurce, a las 7:30 p.m.

“En agradecimiento a su gran gestión pastoral como arzobispo de nuestra ciudad capital, y por su entrega de amor al pueblo puertorriqueño, extendemos esta invitación a todo el país y a todos los que, ese día, quieran obsequiarle una muestra de solidaridad y agradecimiento”, expresó Joanne M. Rodríguez Veve, portavoz de la coalición, con respecto a la misa que dijo es para conmemorar el décimocuarto aniversario de González Nieves como arzobispo de San Juan y por su trigésimosexto aniversario de ordenación sacerdotal.

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PUERTO RICO
Univision Puerto Rico

[con video]

[con encuesta (poll)]

San Juan – El arzobispo de San Juan, Roberto González Nieves, señaló que cualquier asunto con la Santa Sede lo tratará de forma “confidencial”, tras filtrarse un documento en que El Vaticano habría pedido la renuncia al religioso puertorriqueño.

El documento, hecho público por una emisora nacional (NotiUno) da cuenta de que la Santa Sede habría solicitado a González Nieves que dejara el cargo.

Ante el escenario, monseñor indicó que “cualquier comunicación o alegada comunicaci6n entre este servidor y la Santa Sede que trate de un asunto interno y confidencial, solo lo trataré con la Santa Sede”.

“Pido a todo el pueblo católico y a las personas de buena voluntad a parar por la iglesia y por este servidor. También les invito para que la verdad que nos libera salga a relucir en este asunto”, añade el arzobispo en una comunicación escrita.

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PUERTO RICO
Univision

A pocos meses de asumir el cargo como sumo pontífice de la Iglesia católica, el papa Francisco se enfrenta con un serio conflicto, la probable destitución del cargo de arzobispo de San Juan de Puerto Rico de monseñor Roberto González Nieves, de 62 años, quien se niega a renunciar a su cargo pese a varias acusaciones, entre ellas la de haber protegido a curas pedófilos, segíun publica este domingo el diario argentino El Clarín.

Aunque el conflicto ya estaba en desarrollo desde que Jorge Bergoglio se convirtió en Papa, se presume que monseñor González Nieves cuenta con el apoyo de la mayoría de los obispos puertorriqueños.

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PUERTO RICO
Noticias Sin

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico.- El arzobispo de San Juan, Roberto González Nieves, señaló que cualquier asunto con la Santa Sede lo tratará de forma “confidencial”, tras filtrarse un documento en que El Vaticano habría pedido la renuncia al religioso puertorriqueño.

El documento, hecho público por una emisora nacional (NotiUno) da cuenta de que la Santa Sede habría solicitado a González Nieves que dejara el cargo.

Ante el escenario, monseñor indicó que “cualquier comunicación o alegada comunicaci6n entre este servidor y la Santa Sede que trate de un asunto interno y confidencial, solo lo trataré con la Santa Sede”.

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PUERTO RICO
ABC Univision

By SANTIAGO WILLS (@swillsp)
May 8, 2013
The new pope’s first crisis is not related to the Church’s controversial position on contraceptives or proposals for female clergy. Rather, Pope Francis’ first major quandary is getting rid of a Puerto Rican archbishop who, despite the Vatican’s numerous requests, has repeatedly refused to step down.

The source of Pope Francis’ current ordeal is Roberto Octavio González Nieves, the outspoken Archbishop of San Juan, who has been accused by Vatican emissaries of allegedly 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 the Vatican Insider.

González Nieves was confronted by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the current prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and denied the allegations during a tense meeting in Puerto Rico on December 15, 2012. In the course of the discussion, the Vatican envoy subtly asked González Nieves to resign and to ask the Church for a new position elsewhere.

Nearly two months later, González Nieves sent Ouellet an angry missive that was recently leaked to the Puerto Rican press.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Dia

Por Alba Y. Muñiz Gracia / alba.muniz@gfrmedia.com

Los miembros de casi una centena de organizaciones religiosas, sindicales, académicas y cívicas hicieron un llamado, a través de la Coalición en Defensa y Solidaridad con el Arzobispo de San Juan, a apoyar a monseñor Roberto González Nieves de la forma en que él mismo solicitó: orando para que la situación que atraviesa en el seno de lglesia católica se solucione.

Como parte de las iniciativas que realizarán en apoyo al arzobispo, urgieron a la ciudadanía a acompañarlo en la misa que ofrecerá mañana, miércoles, 8 de mayo en la iglesia Santa Teresita en Santurce a las 7:30 p.m.

“Esta es una ocasión para celebrar y dar gracias a Dios por haber escogido a monseñor Roberto González Nieves como nuestro pastor para guiar e iluminar la realidad puertorriqueña con la luz de las enseñanzas del evangelio”, expresó Joanne M. Rodríguez Veve, portavoz de la coalición.

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PUERTO RICO
Noticias 24/7

A pesar que hay acusaciones en su contra por, alegadamente, encubrir a sacerdotes pedófilos, el grupo que defiende la gestión apostólica del monseñor metropolitano de San Juan, Roberto González Nieves, prefirió el lunes no entrar en los señalamientos y solo enfocarse en una jornada de oración para apoyar al arzobispo.

“Nosotros estamos claros que Roberto González Nieves siempre condenaría los actos de pedofilia. Pero entendemos que no es prudente entrar a discutir los méritos de cualquier acusación. Nosotros no tenemos la evidencia y sólo nos basamos en la información que los medios han publicado”, indicó la portavoz de la Coalición en Defensa y Solidaridad con el Arzobispo de San Juan, Joanne Rodríguez Veve, quien invitó a la ciudadanía a la santa misa en conmemoración del décimo cuarto aniversario de González Nieves como arzobispo metropolitano, que se llevará a cabo el miércoles, 8 de mayo a las 7:30 de la noche en la Iglesia Santa Teresita.

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PUERTO RICO
Primerahora

Por Frances Rosario / frances.rosario@gfrmedia.com
04/23/2013

El arzobispo de San Juan, Roberto González Nieves, le pidió hoy a los medios de comunicación que comprueben la procedencia de una supuesta carta de la Nunciatura Apostólica en la que le solicitan que elimine el Altar de la Patria de la catedral de San Juan.

En medio de la controversia surgida esta mañana, cuando se reveló una supuesta carta procedente del Delegado Apostólico, Józef Wesolowski, y con fecha del 7 de marzo del corriente, González Nieves emitió las siguientes declaraciones por medio de comunicado de prensa, las que reproducimos de forma íntegra:

“Desde el día de ayer (lunes), varias personas de medios de comunicación se han comunicado con mi oficina para obtener una reacción sobre una alegada carta del Delegado Apostólico a este servidor del 7 de marzo de 2013 relacionada con la Capilla del Santísimo Cristo donde está el monumento del altar de la Patria, sitio que está destinado a orar por Puerto Rico.

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PUERTO RICO
Primerahora

La determinación se la han comunicado a González Nieves, a través del arzobispo Józef Wesolowski.

Una presunta directriz del Vaticano de eliminar el Altar de la Patria de la catedral católica de San Juan motivó hoy una controversia religiosa en la Isla, que llevó al arzobispo de San Juan, Roberto González Nieves, a poner en tela de juicio la veracidad de tal orden y que llevó al delegado apostólico, Józef Wesolowski, a anunciar una visita a la Isla el próximo mes de mayo.

En medio de la controversia, la exsenadora Melinda Romero divulgó públicamente un rumor sin confirmar que apunta a la existencia de una supuesta orden de la Santa Sede para trasladar al monseñor González Nieves a otro obispado fuera de Puerto Rico.

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PUERTO RICO
Primerahora

Dijo también que le escribirá nuevamente al Vaticano para notificarle las supuestas acciones “irreverentes” de González Nieves y para que le confirmen si en efecto será trasladado.

Aunque aceptó no tener ninguna prueba, la exsenadora Melinda Romero alegó que existe una supuesta orden del Vaticano para trasladarlo a una jurisdicción fuera de Puerto Rico al arzobispo Roberto González Nieves ante su supuesta resistencia a dejar de nombrar una de las capillas de la catedral de San Juan como el Altar de la Patria.

La hija del exgobernador Carlos Romero Barceló dijo también que le escribirá nuevamente al Vaticano para notificarle las supuestas acciones “irreverentes” de González Nieves y para que le confirmen si en efecto será trasladado.

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PUERTO RICO
Latin Times

By Patricia Rey-Mallen, Apr 29, 2013

San Juan de Puerto Rico’s archbishop has been asked twice by the Vatican to step down from the head of the diocese in at least two occasions, local newspaper Vocero reports.

Roberto González Nieves answered in February to allegations made against him in the Vatican, especially the remarks signed by cardinal Marc Ouellet and his secretary, Lorenzo Baldisseri, in a meeting in Rome in December of last year.

“In such meeting, I was told I had to leave the diocese in San Juan and take another position within the Catholic church. The unfairness, prosecution, difamation can never be sources for the renounce of a bishop, or its fair cause. I want to make it clear that I would never leave the diocese of San Juan when there is no legitimate reason,” he worte in a letter dated of Febrary 20.

“I was read a long list of accusation towards myself that surprised and concerned me. Firstly, for the falsehood that reigned in them all, and secondly, because I understood they marked me as guilty. I am not sure those accusations are definite or what investigation brought them up. From my experience and the real facts that I have unpeachable proof, such conclusions could have never arisen,” he added.

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PUERTO RICO
Fox News Latino

Catholics in Puerto Rico are rallying behind the island’s embattled archbishop, who is allegedly under pressure from the Vatican to resign amid allegations he protected priests accused of sexual abuse and meddled in local politics.

Archbishop Roberto González Nieves has not confirmed that the Holy See has asked him to step down from his post, but he has still beseeched parishioners on the U.S. island territory to pray for him.

“Many people have approached me and have called my office asking what can they do?”

González Nieves said in a statement, according to the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Dia. “On one hand I beg you, please do not send letters to the Holy See with endorsements. On the other hand, I am saying that there is only one thing to do in situations like this: Pray.”

The archbishop described the last two weeks of his as “intense and painful” but added that due to the sensitivity of the matter, he was unable to release any information about the allegations.

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PUERTO RICO
Miami Herald

BY DANICA COTO
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — 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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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis

May 1, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information contact:
Angie Shelton
Community Relations Specialist
Phone: 314-792-7101

With sadness I inform you that an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against one of our priests was found to be substantiated by an independent Advisory Board. The board, made up of lay persons, found the allegations against Fr. LeRoy Valentine, who served in the archdiocese from 1977-2002 and then retired, to be credible. The incidents took place in the 1970’s, but were only recently brought to our attention. In keeping with the Charter for the Protection of Children and young People, Fr. Valentine is now permanently removed from ecclesiastical ministry, and I have taken steps to inform the parishes where he served.

Sexual abuse of a minor is a sin and a crime. Today we pray for the healing of victims of abuse and for the safety of all children everywhere.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Tim Townsend ttownsend@post-dispatch.com 314-340-82210

The St. Louis Archdiocese has said it permanently removed a priest from ministry last week.

In an statement on the archdiocese’s website dated May 1, St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson said an independent advisory board had determined a recent allegation against the Rev. LeRoy Valentine, 71, was credible.

Carlson said the alleged incident occurred “in the 1970s.”

Three brothers who said they’d been molested by Valentine in 1982, sued the priest in the 1990s eventually settling with the archdiocese for $20,000 each.

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UNITED STATES
Patrick J. Wall

MAY 8, 2013

Christian Brother Julian McDonald CFC testified in Australia’s Victoria Inquiry last week that the extraordinary level of child molestation at the Irish Christian Brothers school in Ballarat is CERTAINLY AN ACCIDENT OF HISTORY. Brother Julian is the Provincial and former chancellor of Australian Catholic University.

I applaud Brother Julian for naming the culture of secrecy and his accurate reiteration of the hierarchy’s version of the history of child sexual abuse an ACCIDENT.

Let’s pause for a moment and think about what Brother McDonald said. Was it an accident, a chance occurrence, a “coinkydink?” Or is it an ancient pattern and practice of criminal behavior in the Catholic Church?

Let’s start by looking at the history of the Irish Christian Brothers and then at the Catholic Church in various parts of the globe.

The Canadian Christian Brothers at Mount Cashel Orphanage were first criminally investigated in 1975. That investigation was snuffed even though two brothers admitted wrong-doing. A second investigation began in 1982, a third in 1989 … all of which culminated in a Royal Crown investigation, popularly called the Hughes Inquiry.

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NEW JERSEY
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Michael Fugee was ordained a priest of the Newark archdiocese in 1994. He was accused in 2001 of having fondled a boy beginning when the boy was 13 years-old in 1999. Fugee admitted to police that he derived sexual gratification from the contact with the boy. He was placed on administrative leave and, in April 2003, was found guilty of aggravated sexual contact. Fugee was sentenced to a lifetime of parole and was ordered to register as a sex offender. In 2006 the conviction was overturned on appeal, due to prejudicial statements at the first trial and a problem with the judge’s instructions to jurors. To avoid a retrial, Fugee signed an agreement that he would never again work unsupervised with children, and that he would undergo sex offender therapy. By 2009 Fugee was back in ministry, as a hospital chaplain very briefly – until hospital administrators learned of his past – and in parishes. He was also given chancery assignments. In April 2013 it came to light that Fugee had been assisting with overnight teen retreats at a Colt’s Neck parish, including hearing teens’ confessions. Parishioners expressed dismay at learning of his past conviction and agreement not to work with children. Fugee resigned from active ministry May 2, 2013.

Ordained: 1994

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NEW JERSEY
New Jersey 101.5

By Ray Rossi May 8, 2013

And the bodies just keep falling.

In the wake of the revelation about Fr. Michael Fugee’s involvement in a church youth group after having signed an agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s office not to have any contact with minors at all, some others involved with the priest have all agreed to step down from their positions, along with the priest himself.

Michael and Amy Lenehan of St. Mary’s of Colt’s Neck, who are longtime friends with the priest, were the group leaders who invited Fugee on several trips with the youth group to Canada.

According to this,
(the Archbishop’s spokesperson, Jim) Goodness said the Lenehans and the church’s pastor, the Rev. Thomas Triggs, (of St. Mary’s in Colt’s Neck) knew the terms of Fugee’s agreement with the prosecutor’s office and monitored him accordingly.

All three have left their positions.

And where is the Archbishop in all of this you ask?

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 08, 2013

A St. Louis priest has been “permanently removed from active ministry” – but apparently not defrocked – 31 years after the first of at least five child sex abuse accusations against him surfaced. And a local support group for victims is criticizing the archdiocese for not evidently supervising the cleric for the last 11 years and for what it calls “a hurtful and gratuitous announcement” about the defrocking.

Child sex abuse allegations against Fr. Leroy A. Valentine first emerged in 1982, when a North County mother reported that he sexually assaulted her three sons. The St. Louis Archdiocese paid the boys a settlement – believed to be around $20,000 each – and reportedly sent Valentine for treatment and then transferred him. Catholic officials insisted that the boys never speak publicly about the abuse or the settlements.

In 2002, Valentine was an associate pastor at St. Thomas the Apostle in Florissant with an adjoining parochial school. He was one of “at least three St. Louis priests who have been accused in civil court of sexual abuse remain active in the archdiocese today, two in contact with children,” according to the New York Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

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