ABUSE TRACKER

ESTADOS UNIDOS
El Pais

[Summary: For Mark Crawford the nightmare began 37 years ago during an overnight train journey to Colorado. He was 13 when Father Kenneth Martin, parish priest in Bayonne, N.J., and a close friend of the family, abused him. The abuse continued several days a week for seven years.]

Para Mark Crawford la pesadilla comenzó hace 37 años en el vagón de un tren nocturno camino a Colorado. Tenía 13 años cuando el padre Kenneth Martin, sacerdote de la parroquia de San Andrés en Bayonne, Nueva Jersey, y amigo íntimo de la familia, abusó de él. Desde entonces, y durante siete años, el cura repitió sus prácticas incesantemente varios días a la semana.

El calvario de acusaciones, silencios, connivencias y frustraciones en el que se tornó su vida desde entonces es un calco de las denuncias que contiene el informe sobre abusos a menores en el seno de la Iglesia católica que Naciones Unidas dio a conocer a comienzos de este mes. “Un día le confesé todo al diácono de mi parroquia, quien me dirigió al obispo que debería haber informado a la policía, como le obligaba la ley. En lugar de eso, me dijo que fuera a un psicoterapeuta, que, en realidad, era el responsable de los sacerdotes de la diócesis. A quien abusó de mí lo ascendieron a secretario personal del obispo Theodor McCarrick, a pesar de saber lo que me había hecho”, relata Crawford en conversación telefónica desde Newark.

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MINNESOTA
The Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
February 23, 2014

The John Doe 1 case in Ramsey county continues to garner headlines as it seems like there is a new fight every week. Recently, it was reported by the Pioneer Press that Archbishop John Nienstedt and (Rev.) Kevin McDonough asked Judge Van de North to block the taking of their depositions. Deposition are court proceedings where people are questioned under oath and in front of a court reporter. The claim is :

argued that Nienstedt and McDonough should not have to be deposed. Neither should Rev. John T. Brown, who is accused of abuse in a separate lawsuit, the archdiocese said.

None of them “had any involvement with Father Adamson, St. Thomas Aquinas, the alleged abuse of plaintiff in 1976 or 1977, the archdiocese’s involvement in the transfer of Father Adamson from the (Winona) diocese, or the archdiocese’s retention of supervision of Father Adamson during this time period,” attorney Daniel Haws wrote in a Tuesday motion filed with the court.

I have seen very few situations where it has ever been questioned about the right to conduct discovery. My situations were motions to quash (stop) the deposition because of unavailability or witnesses trying to get paid as experts. Here the issue seems to be that the witnesses claim to know nothing about the cases.

It seems if that is really the case, it should be a very short and easy deposition. Of interest, the list that was released by The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis did include Adamson. And right before the list came out Nienstedt was in the forefront talking about how the list was put together and all the parishes that would be named. Sounds like he knows something.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

[with audio]

Guests

Madeleine Baran: Reporter, MPR News
Patrick Wall: Advocate, Jeff Anderson and Associates law firm

MPR News published a list Wednesday of 70 Catholic clergy in the Twin Cities archdiocese who have been accused or suspected of sexually abusing children. The list contains more names than the archdiocese had revealed publicly.

The material published Wednesday was the latest installment in a months-long investigation by MPR News, led by reporter Madeleine Baran.

Scroll down to read a response from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Baran and Patrick Wall, a victims’ advocate working on sexual abuse cases, joined The Daily Circuit Thursday to talk about the MPR series and the issues it raises. Highlights of their conversation:

Madeleine Baran, reporter, on the goal of her series:

“We’re not trying to say whether or not a priest is guilty. It’s not our job to say whether a crime has been committed. But what we did want to do is look at where there was information that there were allegations, that they were investigated by either the police or the archdiocese, or found in a court record or court exhibits – those were the cases we were interested in. … There are cases, a couple we report on, where the investigation by the archdiocese is fascinating in terms of the parameters they’re using. They’re basically looking at, ‘Can we substantiate this or not?’ In a lot of cases of child sexual abuse, whether it’s within the church or elsewhere, if someone comes forward decades later, there is not often direct evidence of that. It’s not like there’s a crime scene, video, or DNA, or fingerprints. So it’s a very difficult standard for these victims to meet when they come forward. What I found at least in the last 10 years is the archdiocese will say, ‘Go to the police.’ That’s their policy. And if the police determine that they can’t charge it, then that’s very important to the archdiocese. But it doesn’t really address this issue of whether or not the archdiocese should be concerned.”

Patrick Wall, former monk, on secret church records:

“The directives from Rome are very clear, both through motu proprio from the holy father and the code of canon law, that these documents are to be kept in perpetuity, especially the most important files, the files on the priests. And the idea behind that is that the next bishop who comes into office, the next vicar general who comes into office, can get a quick read as to what that priest was all about, and so they can have access to what that bishop at the time knew and what they decided to do on that particular issue. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Archdiocese of St. Paul, or Bogota, or Buenos Aires, it’s the same standard of how they keep records around the world. This is a management technique that Rome has developed over a couple of thousand years. … This is never to be accessible to the public. The code is very clear. That’s why they call this a secret archive. Only the bishop and the chancellor have access to this …. Under no circumstances ever are bishops to turn over documents to prosecutors and/or lawyers.”

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AUSTRALIA
Queensland Times

THE Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane has spent a full week probing deeply into what went so terribly wrong at a Catholic primary school in Toowoomba.

Convicted pedophile Gerard Byrnes is serving 10 years in jail for the sexual abuse and rape of 13 young girls.

Readers of the Chronicle will have been horrified to see how these 13 young girls were failed by the system and those people who were charged with protecting them.

The commission will most likely come back with several recommendations in about a month.

This is not the place to pre-empt what those recommendations may be.

But this inquiry must be successful in one most important area.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Times

By Patti Mengers, Delaware County Daily Times

POSTED: 02/23/14

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput announced Sunday a priest who once taught at the former St. James Catholic High School for Boys in Chester is unsuitable for ministry because of a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

The Rev. John P. Paul, who taught at St. James and was on staff at the old St. Robert’s parish in Chester from 1986 to 1990, was removed from ministry because of a substantiated allegation that he sexually abused a 17-year old more than 40 years when he was a seminarian, according to a press release from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He was ordained in 1972.

Archdiocesan officials said that they had referred the 67-year old priest’s case to law enforcement authorities who, after a lengthy investigation, declined to prosecute. However, last Nov. 6, Paul was placed on administrative leave after he voluntarily resigned as pastor of Our Lady of Calvary Church in Philadelphia where he had served since 2000.

Last November in a press release archdiocesan officials said that subsequent to Paul’s suspension “the archdiocese received multiple, new allegations that Father Paul had sexually abused minors over 30 years ago. These allegations were reported to the appropriate district attorney’s office.”

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MINNESOTA
The Raw Story

Priest on disability for his pedophilia still supported financially by MN archdiocese

By Scott Kaufman
Sunday, February 23, 2014

According to an article in the Star Tribune, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis continued to pay the salary and health insurance premiums — as well as provide living expenses — for a pedophile priest who was convicted on child sex abuse charges over 30 years ago.

In 1983, the Reverend Gil Gustafson admitted to a Ramsey County District Court that he molested Brian Herrity for five years, beginning when the boy was 10 years old. He was fined $40 and sentenced to six months in jail and 10 years on probation. The vicar general in charge of clergy abuse cases, Rev. Kevin McDonough, believes that Gustafson abused between four and fifteen victims, including Herrity.

After four-and-a-half months in jail, he was released into the care of the Church, and the archbishop at the time, John Roach, lobbied to have Gustafson reinstated.

“I want him back in a parish,” Roach wrote in 1990. “He has received and complied with far more treatment than anyone else, and it seems to me he has done it well.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sunshine Coast Daily

Adam Davies 24th Feb 2014

WHAT will Bill reveal?

That is the question on everyone’s lips.

The answer will come today when former Toowoomba Bishop William Morris gives his highly-anticipated evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane.

Bishop Morris oversaw the Toowoomba Catholic Dioceses at the height of the child sexual abuse scandal at a primary school in the city.

The arrest of paedophile teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes sent shockwaves across the nation.

Byrnes was convicted of 44 child sexual abuse charges, including rape, over his actions towards 13 young girls in his class between 2007 and 2008.

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VATICAN CITY
Australia Network News

Pope Francis, who has made simplicity and serving the poor the distinguishing characteristics of his papacy, has told the 19 newly appointed cardinals to shun intrigue, gossip and cronyism.

“A Cardinal… enters the Church of Rome, my brothers, not a royal court,” the Pope said during a mass attended by the cardinals named.

“May all of us avoid, and help others to avoid, habits and ways of acting typical of a court: intrigue, gossip, cliques, favouritism and partiality.”

The admonition came as the Pope is seeking to refashion the image of the Roman Catholic Church, plagued by financial scandals and accusations of covering up child abuse by priests.

A council of cardinals, set up by the Pope to advise him on Vatican reforms, heard a report to reform the Vatican bank and it discussed organisational and economic programs earlier in the week.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has removed two priests from ministry after an investigation into allegations that they sexually abused minors over 40 years ago.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput says in a Sunday release that separate investigations found that Reverend James J. Collins and Reverend John P. Paul are unsuitable for the ministry.

The Archdiocese says that the cases were referred to the district attorney’s office, which declined to press charges.

Both men can appeal the verdicts to the Vatican. If they choose not to appeal they could be removed from the church or live a life of prayer and penance.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

February 23, 2014

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. has found Reverend James J. Collins not suitable for ministry following a substantiated allegation that he sexually abused a 17-year old minor over 40 years ago.

Archbishop Chaput has also found Reverend John P. Paul unsuitable for ministry following a substantiated allegation that he sexually abused a 17-year old minor over 40 years ago.

Today’s announcements are neither connected to one another nor to the cases of priests placed on administrative leave following the February 2011 Grand Jury Report.

Following Archbishop Chaput’s determinations of their unsuitability for ministry, neither Father Collins nor Father Paul will have public ministry in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. They have the right to appeal the decions to the Holy See. If they do not appeal, or if an appeal is unsuccessful, they could be laicized (removed from the clerical state) or live a life of prayer and penance.

Announcements were previously made at the parishes where these priests last served when they were placed on administrative leave. Follow up announcements were made at those parishes this weekend regarding the final decisions in their cases. Counselors were made available for parishioners.

Consistent with the Archdiocesan Policy for the Protection of Children and Young People, promulgated in October of 2012, the allegations against Fathers Collins and Paul first were reported to the appropriate local district attorney’s office so that law enforcement could investigate these matters and review them for possible criminal charges. Upon declination of criminal charges by the district attorney, the Archdiocesan Office of Investigations began its investigation in each case. The results of this process were submitted to the Archdiocesan Professional Responsibility Review Board (APRRB). The APRRB is comprised of twelve men and women, both Catholic and non-Catholic, with extensive professional backgrounds in the investigation and treatment of child sexual abuse. It functions as a confidential advisory committee to the Archbishop, which assesses allegations of sexual abuse as well as allegations of violations of The Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries. This body provided a recommendation regarding suitability for ministry to the Archbishop, who made the final decisions.

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AUSTRALIA
The Chronicle

Chris Calcino 22nd Feb 2014

“SHE still has dreams. We hear her calling out, ‘stop it, leave me alone,’ in her sleep.”

The father of a girl who was repeatedly molested by pedophile teacher Gerard Byrnes has spoken about the culture of lies he blames for the cruelty endured by his young daughter.

The girl, who can only be referred to as KF, was in Grade 4 when Byrnes first began sexually abusing her in the classroom.

Her father, referred to here as Michael (not his real name), said the abuse continued when Byrnes was rehired after a month-long resignation in 2008.

“When it all came out, she told us that when he was re-employed as a substitute teacher he started molesting her again on his first day back,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MICHAEL MCKENNA THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 24, 2014

PARENTS of victims of a pedophile teacher at a Toowoomba Catholic primary school are calling for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse to widen its probe to local police officers involved in the initial investigation.

At least three police officers who took statements in the 2008 investigation of the teacher later jailed for the rape and molestation of 13 girls had children who were students and either served on the Parents and Friends Association or whose spouses were senior staff at the school.

Several parents complained to the Queensland Police Service and then-police commissioner Bob Atkinson at the time about the potential for a conflict of interest and the actions of an officer who was organising private meetings between families and school principal Terry Hayes after the teacher was arrested. Mr Atkinson is now one of the six commissioners overseeing the inquiry.

The inquiry will resume public hearings today into the scandal, which centres on the failure of Mr Hayes and Catholic education officials to report to police a complaint they received from a nine-year-old girl about her abuse in 2007. The teacher, Gerard Vincent Byrnes, denied the allegations to Mr Hayes and went on to rape and molest 12 other girls before his last victim complained directly to police.

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NEW JERSEY
Wonkette

Hey, remember the story about the German “Bling Bishop” who got suspended after everybody was outraged by the $55 million cost of renovating his personal residence? Right here in U.S. America, we seem to have our own version of an archbishop who’s a little like that, too, though on a smaller scale. Take a look at this New York Times story about John J. Myers, the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, who’s also getting some home improvements done. Now, it’s not exactly on the scale of the German bishop’s palace — it’s a 3000-square-foot addition to a vacation home that Myers will retire to in two years, not a restoration of an 800-year-old building, and there’s definitely nothing to compare to the German place’s $20,000 bathtub. In fact, it’s almost a bargain at only half a million dollars, which would barely cover the cost of the German residence’s solid gold hamster cages (don’t ask).

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

Parents of victims of Toowoomba school sex predator attack Catholic Church for protecting staff

PARENTS of some of the 13 girls abused by pedophile ­Gerard Byrnes have attacked the Catholic Church for continuing to employ staff who have admitted failing to protect students.

As a royal commission prepares to hear evidence from former Toowoomba Bishop William Morris tomorrow, parents say the church should not employ staff who admit they did not follow correct ­procedures when dealing with Byrnes.

“We can’t understand how they could all knowingly allow the sexual abuse to continue.’’

Byrnes pleaded guilty in the Toowoomba District Court in 2010 to 33 counts of indecent dealing with a child under 12, 10 counts of rape and one count of maintaining a sexual relationship with a child under 12.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse has already heard key figures in Catholic Education failed to pursue serious allegations against Byrne made more than one year before his arrest.

Former school principal Terence Hayes, still employed by the Church as a primary teacher, dismissed allegations Byrnes put his hand up girls’ skirts as gossip, failing to include it in critical internal communications.

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INDIA
India Today

J Binduraj Kochi, February 23, 2014

Gail Tredwell, the author of ‘Holy Hell:A Memoir of Faith, Devotion and Pure Madness’, who alleged in her book that she was raped repeatedly by the chief priest of the Mutt Balu in mid-eighties and physically tortured by the God woman Amrithanandamayi during her stay in the ashramam, told India Today on Sunday that she will standby her allegations and have no intention of withdrawing anything.

“I stand behind everything that is written in my book and have no intention of withdrawing anything. I have told the truth, without any malicious motives, and therefore they don’t have a valid case against me,” Gail Tredwell said in her e-mail sent to India Today.

On why she hesitated to file a legal complaint in the issue, she said that she believes in higher forms of justice and do not wish to spend years dealing with legal proceedings. “I do not intend to file any legal complaint. I have already spent twenty years of my life with this organization and do not wish to spend several more years dealing with legal proceedings. Filing a case does not necessarily guarantee justice. I believe in higher forms of justice,” Gail Tredwell wrote to this correspondent.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

By David Chang | Sunday, Feb 23, 2014

Two priests have been removed from the Philadelphia Archdiocese following allegations of child sexual abuse.

Reverend James J. Collins, 75, and the Reverend John P. Paul, 67, are both accused of sexually abusing a 17-year-old over 40 years ago. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput determined that both priests are not suitable for ministry due to the substantiated allegations, according to an Archdiocese spokesperson.

Collins was placed on administrative leave in May of last year when the allegations first surfaced. He was ordained in 1964 and had served as a faculty member at Holy Family University since 1976. He retired from his position last year.

Paul was placed on administrative leave in December of last year when the allegations were first made against him. He was ordained in 1972 and most recently served at Our Lady of Calvary, Philadelphia before he was placed on leave. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Paul was allowed to work in his parish for nearly a year after the accusations against him first surfaced.

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UNITED STATES
Enlightened Catholicism

I didn’t intend to go two weeks without posting, but it looks like I certainly managed to do so. For some reason time just seems to be going ultra fast for me lately. I keep track of dates and appointments on a 5 week white board and today marks the end of five weeks. It seems like maybe two weeks since I last changed all the dates. Maybe this is God’s way of packing more life in a short amount of time. I would hope I’m experiencing aging at the same rate. If I age two weeks for every five, I could be around a lot longer than I think. It’s a miracle.

Speaking of miracles, the Vatican has just announced one for Paul VI. It involves the cure of an unspecified problem with a fetus who upon birth did not exhibit the expected birth defect. The Vatican makes no bones about this miracle validating Paul VI’s issuance of Humanae Vitae: “The Postulator of the Pope Paul VI’s cause said this was an extraordinary and supernatural event which took place through the intercession of the late Pope. It was in line with his magisterium and the contents of the “Humanae Vitae” encyclical, i.e. the defence of life, “but also the defence of the family, because that document discusses married love, not just unborn life. This healing is in harmony with Montini’s teaching.”” I certainly hope this blatant politicizing of a miracle and the canonization process of a pope doesn’t portend miracles for every contentious issue promulgated by any pope in the last two hundred years. I anxiously await the next PVI miracle. If there is any justice or honesty, it will be the full cure of AIDS in a gay man.

Pope Francis has aslo been on my radar these past two weeks. I was hoping the latest meeting of the C8 would end with the announcement of the names on the commission on clerical abuse, and maybe more information concerning it’s mandate. There was no such announcement. This commission is still a matter of one sound bite from Cardinal O’Malley and absolutely no walk. The voices for justice, like Betty Clermont’s, in this area are now getting louder and their arguments harder to refute the longer Francis fails to act. It’s been almost a full year and Francis has yet to act in any meaningful way on clerical abuse. He is repeating the sad pattern he had with this issue in Buenos Aires. As Gerry Slevin also points out, so far the priority has been all about putting the Vatican’s money in order rather than giving the victims of the Catholic priesthood some justice.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board

PUBLISHED: Saturday, February 22, 2014

It’s hard to believe that what became a worldwide scandal involving Roman Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children largely got its start here in New Mexico more than two decades ago. But more than in other places, the issue has been dealt with directly and openly, and the Archdiocese of Santa Fe is stronger for it.

Credit that to Archbishop Michael Sheehan, who was placed in charge in 1993 as the scandal was unfolding. Sheehan recently announced he has submitted his letter of resignation. In July he turns 75, the age at which the church requires his offer to step down.

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe was fortunate Pope John Paul II selected a strong leader and no-nonsense cleric who dealt firmly with the problem. In a 2003 audit the archdiocese received commendations for transparency and for its programs to prevent such crimes from reoccurring. Sheehan reported then that none of the 44 credibly accused priests or deacons remained in active ministry; the archdiocese had provided counseling to 193 people; and it had paid out $30.8 million in settlements and legal fees and for victim counseling. He raised the money largely by selling church properties.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Tom Moran/ Star-Ledger Editorial Board
on February 22, 2014

You have to wonder if Newark Archbishop John J. Myers has spent much time with the army of devoted Catholics and others who run the church’s charities.

They are inspiring people, many driven by the conviction that if Jesus were alive today he would be standing with them, running soup kitchens and homeless shelters and workshops for the disabled. They are hunkered down in places like Newark and Irvington, providing one of the few lifelines for neighborhoods that others have deserted.

They volunteer their time or make token salaries. Unlike Myers, they don’t insist on being referred to as “Your Grace” and they don’t wear fancy robes and jewelry. They go by names like Maria and Joseph, and when a single mom or an ex-con knocks on their door they offer help before judgment.

The tragedy is that Myers, already a diminished figure for his failures to protect children from predator priests, has now undermined this charitable work with a garish display of material greed.

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NEW JERSEY
New York Daily News

BY CAROL KURUVILLA / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

PUBLISHED: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2014

Mansions in heaven weren’t good enough for this archbishop.

Newark’s Archbishop John J. Myers is facing criticism for pricey plans to expand his retirement home.

Myers is planning to add a $500,000 addition to a Franklin Township house that the archdiocese purchased in 2002, the Star-Ledger reports.

The New Jersey leader has been using the 4,500-square-foot home as a weekend residence. It already has five bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a three-car garage, an outdoor pool and 8.2 wooded acres.

But the 72-year-old archbishop, who insists on being called “Your Grace,” has big changes in mind for his home.

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CALIFORNIA
Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs LA

It was in early 1988—some 26 years ago—that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles became aware of the terrible sexual abuse which the Rev. Nicolas Aguilar-Rivera had been inflicting upon young people in Los Angeles. This case highlighted errors made by us in the Archdiocese in those early years, and for those errors I apologize once again. But this case also led to several major changes in procedures used by the Archdiocese, and these were improved upon over the years.

The evolution of the Archdiocese’s manner of dealing with allegations of the sexual abuse of minors by clergy and others in the Church was recounted ten years ago in The Report to the People of God. This Report can be found at this location: http://www.la-archdiocese.org/org/protecting/reports/Documents/2004-0217_ADLA_CSA_Report.pdf

Everything contained in this blog is available in the release of thousands of pages of clergy files in January of 2013. All of the documents involving Aguilar-Rivera can be found at: http://clergyfiles.la-archdiocese.org/files/Aguilar-Rivera,%20Nicolas.pdf

It is key to understand that the first report about Aguilar-Rivera to one of our Catholic schools and to the Archdiocese took place late on a Friday afternoon, January 8, 1988. That late Friday alert, unfortunately, led to delays which should not have occurred.

The following are the more serious errors which several of us in the Archdiocese made, along with the steps taken to eliminate them in the future:

I. Letters of Recommendation for Priests from Other Dioceses. Aguilar-Rivera arrived in Los Angeles with a letter from his Bishop in Mexico stating that he was coming to Los Angeles for “family and health reasons” [“por motivos familiares y por motivos de salud”] because he had family here. The Bishop asked that we consider giving him a priestly assignment here in the Archdiocese. Based on that positive recommendation, Aguilar-Rivera was given a temporary assignment. Throughout 1987 there were no reports of improper conduct by Aguilar-Rivera. It was not until early 1988 that such reports emerged from families of children abused.

After further investigation, the Bishop in Mexico claimed that he had sent a second letter about Aguilar-Rivera some two months after his original letter. No one in the Archdiocese recalls ever receiving such a letter in which the Bishop refers to unfounded allegations of homosexual problems that led to physical aggression against him in Mexico. Had that letter been received, Aguilar-Rivera’s assignment would have been revoked or suspended pending a full investigation.

Change in Procedures: Because of this case, from this time forward a letter of recommendation from a Bishop on behalf of a visiting priest was insufficient. A new format was developed requiring the sending Bishop, especially from a Diocese outside the USA, to respond to very specific questions about any possible misconduct in the history of the priest. This change in procedure was enhanced over the years and has served to make sure that priest from other places with any misconduct issues is not admitted to this Archdiocese.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated on 22 February 2014)

A former Catholic priest (aged 60), who is charged with sexual offences against children in towns (including Moree and Armidale) in northern New South Wales, appeared in Armidale Local Court again on 19 February 2014 for an administrative procedure. The magistrate expressed frustration at the delays in the case and urged the prosecution to finalise the preparations for a hearing.

This was the eleventh time that the ex-priest’s case has come up for a mention in the Armidale Local Court. The ex-priest, who cannot be named for legal reasons, first appeared before this court on 18 October, 2012. On each of these occasions, the case has been adjourned to a future date because preparations for a committal hearing have not been completed.

The case will come up for mention again on 19 March 2014 when, it is hoped, the Director of Public Prosecutions will indicate how the case will proceed.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Catherine Pepinster
The Observer, Saturday 22 February 2014

Some years ago I was in Lisbon with a group of Jewish people. It was the Day of Atonement and their very liberal rabbi organised a service in a hotel meeting room, so I went along. It began with people offering their thoughts. “I hate the Day of Atonement,” said one. “I hate the focus on guilt, and admitting sin and having to atone for it. It’s all so negative.” “It could be worse,” said another. “You could be a Catholic, then you feel guilty all the time.”

John Cornwell’s account of confession reveals a Roman Catholic world suffused with guilt, as he recounts the way in which the ritual, with its roots in the Day of Atonement, developed as a means of enabling believers to seek God’s forgiveness through telling their wrongdoings – their sins – to the intermediary of a priest. They gained absolution so long as they also made clear their desire to make amends and were given penance by the priest – usually a few prayers to say. As Cornwell traces the history of the sacrament – an outward sign of inward grace, as we recited as children – it’s apparent that the Church, whose raison d’être was the saving of souls, developed an obsession with the body. And that meant it was obsessed with sexual sins.

The image of the confessional – the dark box of Cornwell’s title – and the hazy view of the priest behind the grille came to symbolise Catholicism, particularly in movies. Yet it no longer has the hold it once did on Roman Catholics themselves: attendance has been in steep decline for many years, a decline caused at least in part by Catholics’ rejection of teaching on sex, particularly on the sinfulness of contraception. It’s an intriguing decline, given we live in a confessional age of therapy and Facebook.

But Cornwell’s focus is not so much the present as the past and the scars it has left. He makes the case for the connection between confession and the scandal that has profoundly damaged the reputation of the Church – that of the abuse of children by Catholic priests. He links this to pope Pius X decreeing in 1910 that confession should begin at the age of seven, giving priests easy, intimate access to children without anyone else present.

Child abuse inquiries around the world and readers of my own publication, the Tablet, who responded to Cornwell’s request for their stories, reveal that certain priests would use the confessional to solicit children, grooming them for sexual encounters elsewhere or during confession itself.

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

UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 22, 2014

*This is the first in a series of posts on Resources for Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse*

Finding a good therapist and getting help can be the best decisions a survivor makes. But the process can also be maddening.

Referrals from Family and Friends

Before launching an online search using the links below, ask around. Getting therapy does not carry the stigma it used to, and you will be amazed at the wonderful recommendations you can get from family and friends. If your brother went to a great therapist, give that therapist a call and ask him/her for a recommendation. (You didn’t want to share your Legos with your brother when you were kids, and you certainly don’t want to share a therapist with him now). Therapists know their colleagues very well, and will be sure to point you to a great clinician who does good work.

Remember: The best therapist in the world may not be the best therapist for you. Before you can benefit from therapy, you need to like how your therapist works, work well with him/her, and—most importantly—feel comfortable.

Take Advantage of Low-Cost Options

Many workplaces offer benefits such as free, confidential, short-term counseling through third-party vendors (EAP, etc.). Talk to your HR department or supervisor to see if they offer the benefit and if you qualify. Your workplace pays for this benefit, so they want you to use it.

States like Hawaii offer low-cost (and sometimes free) counseling through various state-run and nonprofit social services programs. Research your state and county to see if there are services available. If you don’t have access to a computer at home, go to your local library. Research assistants there are experts in finding low-cost services for library patrons.

Finally, many churches help members find counseling or offer services themselves. NOTE: If you were abused in an institutional setting, like a church, it may not be a good idea to get counseling from the same or similar organization. Also, if the institution where you were abused offers you free counseling, be very careful and be sure that your privacy and legal rights are protected. Remember: anyone who offers you free counseling can instantly take that therapy away. So, be sure to protect yourself.

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

SCOTLAND
Scotsman

CARDINAL Keith O’Brien is facing a new investigation by the Vatican and may face a “trial” under canon law which could lead to him losing his red hat.

Three priests in the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh have asked Leo Cushley, the new archbishop, to pass on to the Holy See their written complaints which characterise O’Brien as a “sexual predator” who used his authority to compel them into “coercive” and “abusive” sexual relationships.

The priests, whose accusations led to the cardinal’s enforced retirement and disgrace last February, appear determined to force Pope Francis to make a final judgment.

It is now understood that O’Brien’s sexual relationships continued until at least 2009, six years after he was made a cardinal.

Last year, Francis ordered O’Brien to remain in a Catholic religious house in England for three months of “prayer and penance”. However, since this period has now elapsed he has been free to come and go as he pleases but has chosen to remain at the religious house.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Express

By: Ben Borland
Published: Sun, February 23, 2014

An investigation by this newspaper has found there are no burial records for children who lost their lives while in the care of the Sisters of Nazareth, which operated four homes in Scotland and at least 17 south of the Border.

In addition, only two Scottish councils were able to confirm the whereabouts of children who died while in residential care and were buried in common ground.

The De La Salle Brothers, a Catholic order of monks which also operated a number of children’s homes in Scotland, is also thought to have retained no burial records.

Only Quarriers appears to have bucked the trend, as the Scottish charity has a database of all 345 children and young people buried at Mount Zion Cemetery in Quarrier’s Village, Renfrewshire. The church and its grounds have now been turned into luxury flats, although there is a memorial in the cemetery.

The concerns over burial records add to the growing pressure on Scottish ministers to sanction a public inquiry into abuse in Scottish children’s homes.

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

FLORIDA
Sun Sentinel

By Marc Freeman, Sun Sentinel
8:15 p.m. EST, February 22, 2014

The attorney for a former West Palm Beach private school teacher accused of sexually assaulting two 9-year-old students argues there are grounds for a judge to stop a jury from seeing potentially incriminating computer evidence.

Stephen Jerome Budd, 52, was arrested in April for crimes that allegedly occurred while he taught a fourth-grade class at Rosarian Academy during the 2006-07 school year. He was charged with two counts of sexual battery on a person less than 12 years old, one count of lewd or lascivious molestation, and two counts of lewd or lascivious exhibition.

Then in August, prosecutors added 59 child pornography charges and Budd pleaded not guilty to all counts. He remains in the Palm Beach County Jail with no bail.

On Feb. 18, defense attorney Jason Weiss filed two motions seeking to prevent prosecutors at Budd’s trial from using his client’s computer hard drive, a computer part called a “mini PCI card,” and all evidence taken from the computer.

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

MAEVE SHEEHAN – 23 FEBRUARY 2014

OVER generations, bishops and their clergy helped to shape a society that banished women to Magdalene Laundries, sent troubled and impoverished children to industrial schools and shielded paedophile priests. Babies born out of wedlock were shipped abroad for adoption and unmarried teachers who got pregnant outside of marriage were sacked.

As the novelist LP Hartley wrote, the past is a foreign country. They do things differently there, right?

While the Catholic Church and the organisations within it may have apologised for past sins, in many ways, they are still refusing to share collective responsibility for the failings of the past.

When Judge Yvonne Murphy began her long investigation into child abuse by priests in the Dublin archdiocese, she soon discovered that one of the biggest obstacles to her work was the very organisation she was investigating.

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

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: TONY KENNEDY and JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune staff writers Updated: February 23, 2014

Star Tribune exclusive: Archdiocese gave pedophile salary, disability benefits, expenses and consulting work.

After the Rev. Gil Gustafson was convicted of child sex abuse 30 years ago, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis made sure he was financially secure for decades to come.

The church continued his priestly salary and health insurance, covered his living expenses and psychological treatment and paid for his education and training, according to church records and a former archdiocese accountant. It has given him jobs in the chancery, helped him establish his own consulting business and steered clients his way.

In July 2006, Gustafson was declared “disabled” based on his pedophilia, the church said. This allowed him to collect disability checks on top of his earnings as a leadership consultant.

The archdiocese’s long-standing support of Gustafson, outlined in church documents and interviews, has angered abuse victims and their families. They say it’s another sign that the church cares more about the welfare of abusive priests than the children they assaulted.

“Since when is a crime a disability?” asked Jeff Herrity, the father of a boy whom Gustafson was convicted of abusing from 1977 through 1982. “If that’s the case, everyone in prison should be disabled.”

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

AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

MADONNA KING THE COURIER-MAIL FEBRUARY 22, 2014

MADONNA King pens a letter to Brisbane’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Mark Coleridge in the light of this week’s royal commission evidence.

YOUR Grace, I’m Roman Catholic to the boot straps. I’m also the mother of two young girls, both attending cracker Brisbane Catholic schools.

But I’m running out of excuses on how to answer the growing evidence that the Church has snubbed, hid, brushed-off, facilitated – I could go on but you probably get my point – this sexual abuse epidemic.

Up until now, I’ve been saying what the Church says; that many institutions suffered the same shameful problems, but once alerted steps were taken blah blah blah.

That fitted with me. It was a painful episode in history, but it was all over, done and dusted.

But that’s not true, is it? In fact, the royal commission evidence this week shows that answer is a sham.

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

AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

[with video]

Gerard Byrnes child sex abuse: Principal backed despite inaction, victim’s family tell of impact

ANTHONY GOUGH THE COURIER-MAIL FEBRUARY 22, 2014

A BRISBANE principal insists his colleague “followed the process of the Catholic Education Office”, despite failing to call police and report allegations of sexual abuse.

The principal of St Eugene Catholic College in Burpengary — where former Toowoomba principal Terence Hayes now works as a teacher — has launched a robust defence of his colleague in a letter to parents.

Mr Hayes has faced scrutiny this week in the royal commission into sexual abuse over his failure to report allegations to police made to him when principal at a Toowoomba school.

The royal commission has heard evidence Mr Hayes was required to call police over the allegations, and his decision to simply report to the Catholic Education Office did not meet protocol.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

JEREMY ROEBUCK, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
LAST UPDATED: Sunday, February 23, 2014

PHILADELPHIA Archbishop Charles J. Chaput has permanently removed two more priests from ministry for substantiated claims of sexual abuse, including one who was allowed to keep working in his Northeast Philadelphia parish for nearly a year after accusations were first lodged against him.

It was only after several fresh allegations surfaced late last year against the Rev. John P. Paul, formerly of Our Lady of Calvary Parish, that the archdiocese suspended him in December – weeks after he had announced he would voluntarily retire.

In a statement expected to be released to parishes across the region Sunday, church officials said an archdiocesan review board had substantiated at least one claim that Paul, 67, sexually abused a teenager more than 40 years ago.

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

AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

MARTY SILK AAP FEBRUARY 23, 2014

THE bishop who sacked three men after a pedophilia scandal at a Catholic primary school in Queensland is set to give evidence at an inquiry on Monday.

Former Toowoomba Bishop William Morris is due to give his version of the events leading up to the jailing of pedophile teacher Gerard Byrnes in 2010.

Byrnes raped, molested and savagely bullied 13 schoolgirls in his Queensland classroom between 2007 and 2008.

A principal and two senior Catholic education officers were first told of sex abuse allegations against Byrnes more than a year before his arrest.

But all three men remained silent, police were never told and Byrnes sexually abused more girls.

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

KENTUCKY
Messenger-Inquirer

Posted: Sunday, February 23, 2014

By James Mayse Messenger-Inquirer

The trial of a retired Daviess County priest who was charged with allegedly sexually abusing a minor in the late 1970s has again been delayed.

Louis Francis Piskula, 74, of the 7100 block of Kentucky 815 was indicted in June 2012 on charges of first-degree sodomy, victim under age 12, and first-degree sexual abuse. The charges stem from an incident that allegedly took place between Jan. 1, 1978, and Jan. 1, 1979.

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

CINCINNATI (OH)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati

CONTACT:
Dan Andriacco
Director, Office of Communications
513/421-3131 After hours: 421-3144
FAX: 421-6225
E-MAIL: communications@CatholicCincinnati.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 21, 2014

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has acted on the cases of two priests of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati accused of child abuse, removing Daniel Pater from ministry permanently and restoring Rev. David F. Reilly to active ministry.

Pater, who has been on administrative leave since 2003 because of sexual abuse of a minor, has been permanently removed from ministry by the Vatican and directed to “lead a life of prayer and penance.” Although technically he remains a priest under the Vatican decision issued on January 21, 2014, Pater will never again be permitted to celebrate Mass in public, administer the other sacraments, wear clerical garb, or present himself as a priest. Those same prohibitions were in place during his administrative leave.

“I hope that this decision will bring some measure of closure and healing to all those harmed by Daniel Pater’s actions,” said the Most Reverend Dennis M. Schnurr, Archbishop of Cincinnati. “As Archbishop, I deeply regret that any representative of the local Church has ever harmed a child under our care. One of our most important priorities in the Archdiocese is to provide a safe environment for our children.”

Pater was put on leave after admitting to sexually abusing a teenage girl in the 1980s and 1990s. Under the Archdiocese’s Decree on Child Protection as well as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Charter and Norms for the Protection of Children and Young People, a priest who is credibly accused of abusing a child, no matter how long ago, must be put on leave while due process continues.

The USCCB norms also require that any cleric known to have offended against minors must be permanently removed from ministry. The Vatican decision found that Pater was guilty of that crime. If a cleric determined to have offended in this way does not himself ask the Vatican to return him to the lay state, the diocese normally can begin a canonical (church law) process that ultimately might involve a church trial. Since Pater was serving the Vatican as a diplomat at that time, however, the Vatican handled the entire process after he was put on leave.

Pater was associate pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Church in Kettering from 1979 to 1982, when he went to Rome for studies. He served in the Vatican diplomatic corps for the rest of his priestly career. In 1993, after one of his victims came forward, he was brought home to the Archdiocese and required to undergo counseling before returning to the Vatican. He was also subjected to restrictions on being in the company of minors.

Fr. Reilly was put on administrative leave in August 2006 after an accusation that he engaged a minor in inappropriate behavior with sexual overtones in the 1970s. He has now been restored to active ministry after a church court ruled that he was not proven guilty of the alleged offenses. None of the judges of the three-member tribunal were priests of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Their decision was affirmed by the CDF. Fr. Reilly is thus free to exercise his priestly ministry.

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

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Ex- Pope Benedict XVI joined Pope Francis at a celebration Saturday creating 19 new cardinals who will elect the papal successor, assuming the College of Cardinals and Papacy survive intact. In watching the images of the celebration, one is reminded of King Louis XVI’s inability to see the French Revolution coming in 1789. Extravagant French kings and their Palace at Versailles also came to mind with the latest video report by CNN’s Anderson Cooper about the current US Bishop of Bling, Newark NJ Archbishop Myers’ “summer palace” shown here

[CNN]

Images of the storming of the Paris Bastille are also conjured up as well by the report that Germany’s Bishop of Bling may have used donations intended for the poor for his palace construction as reported here

[eNCA]

Nevertheless, with all the world’s cardinals gathered, no consideration seemingly was given by Pope Francis to addressing decisively, with the world’s cardinals fully assembled, the worldwide Church scandal of priest child abuse and related lack of bishop accountability. The storm is gathering, notwithstanding the Vatican’s festive celebrations and the episcopal palace obscenities.

The momentum to challenge the Vatican to obey the law continues to build worldwide, as tone deaf Archbishop Myers continues spending donations on his personal summer “Versailles” palace, after eluding prosecutors apparently with support from his reported pal, NJ Gov. Chris Christie. Hello ?

The Vatican’s recent response to the UN child protection committee was mainly to the effect that the pope doesn’t control his hierarchy and that the Vatican will be more transparent henceforth. Yet, a few weeks after the UN report is issued, 19 new cardinals on worldwide TV swear their obedience to Pope Francis and pledge to maintain secrecy. Does the Pope think his Bastille is more secure than Louis XVI’ s was? Does the Pope think UN committee members and prosecutors don’t own TV’s. As an international lawyer, I think it is clear that the Pope’s legal position is already very vulnerable. It is only getting weaker with Francis’ benign neglect of the abuse scandal.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

February 21
BY JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

The Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese has settled two more lawsuits totaling $1.8 million involving a priest now serving prison time for producing child pornography.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Jack Grate on Friday approved a $1.275 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by two parents on behalf of their minor daughter against the diocese, the Rev. Shawn Ratigan and Bishop Robert Finn.

And on Wednesday, Circuit Judge Jim Kanatzar approved a $525,000 settlement in a lawsuit filed last year by two parents and their minor daughter. That suit also named the diocese, Ratigan and Finn as defendants.

In addition, Grate and Kanatzar each entered a $500,000 default judgment against Ratigan, who failed to respond to the lawsuits.

The settlements bring to $3.75 million the total the diocese has paid out so far in cases involving Ratigan.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Daily Journal

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: February 22, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St Joseph has settled two lawsuits involving a pedophile priest for a total of $1.8 million.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Jack Grate approved a $1.275 million settlement Friday in a lawsuit filed by two parents on behalf of their minor daughter against the diocese, the Rev. Shawn Ratigan and Bishop Robert Finn.

The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/OmYWoQ) reports two days earlier, Circuit Judge Jim Kanatzar approved a $525,000 settlement in a lawsuit filed last year by two parents and their minor daughter.

The two judges each also entered a $500,000 default judgment against Ratigan, who failed to respond to both lawsuits.

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

GEORGIA
Cherokee Tribune

by Joshua Sharpe February 21, 2014

CANTON — Brand new state Rep. Sam Moore (R-Macedonia) is pushing a sweeping law that would allow registered sex offenders to go anywhere they want — even to schools.

Moore, in his first week in office, has turned in a bill that would overturn the crime of loitering and make it so registered sex offenders who aren’t otherwise barred from going to schools or places children gather could go to those places freely.

“I am OK with that,” Moore said Thursday, adding that he meant only those who were off parole and not barred from those places. “The reason I’m OK with that is the assumption is they have done their time. If they’re still a danger to society, they should not be free. … Am I saying it’s not creepy? It’s definitely creepy.”

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

PERU
La Republica

Jason Day

Cuando tenía 9 años, a tres días de mi primera comunión, un cura del Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (o Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana), una secta de chicos blancos y “bien” del catolicismo local, me tomó de la mano luego de la primera confesión y me llevó por una escalera detrás del altar de su imponente iglesia en Camacho hacia un cuartito donde guardaban las túnicas, cálices y demás lujosos artilugios. “Aquí es donde nos cambiamos”, me dijo el cura con voz pausada y amable.

¿Qué hacía yo ahí? ¿Era un honor o una condena? Le decía que prefería regresar, que el resto de mi promoción y los profesores me dejarían. Pero él insistía con que no había de qué preocuparse, que quería que yo eligiera la túnica que se pondría para mi primera comunión. “¿Te gusta ésta?”, me preguntó, mostrándome una que llevaba por delante una imagen de la pálida y sufrida virgen María. A mí no me podía importar menos.

Luego me preguntó si sabía jugar gallito ciego. Y no, no sabía. Entonces, con esa paciencia suya que se contrastaba con mi bullente ansiedad por irme –porque uno puede ser un niño de 9 años pero el peligro se reconoce, siempre– me tomó de la mano una vez más ycomenzó a jugar con mis dedos mientras me hacía preguntas sobre mi familia, mis hermanos…

Mi ansiedad se convertía en rabia. Conseguí librarme, no quería estar ahí. Lo siguiente era meterle una patada en los huevos y correr. Pero me dejó salir, con calma, esa calma del que tiene todo bajo control, del que ya recorrió ese camino varias veces y lo volverá a recorrer.

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

PERU
Terra

[Summary: Actor Jason Day in his weekly column in La Republica that a priest attempted to seduce him when he was age 9 and was about to receive First Communion. The priest was with the Christian Life sodality. The priest took him by the hand after first Confession and led him down a staircase behind the altar of the imposing church in Camacho to small room where they kept robes, chalices and other items. The priest took his hand and started playing with his fingers while he asked questions about the boys family. His anxiety turned to anger and he was ready to run out but the priest let him leave.]

El actor Jason Day, en su columna semanal en el diario La República, reveló haber sido víctima de intento de abuso sexual de parte de un sacerdote del movimiento católico Christianae Vitae o Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana, cuando tenía solo 9 años y se disponía a dar la primera comunión.

“Un cura del Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (…) me tomó de la mano luego de la primera confesión y me llevó por una escalera detrás del altar de su imponente iglesia en Camacho hacia un cuartito donde guardaban las túnicas, cálices y demás lujosos artilugios. “Aquí es donde nos cambiamos”, me dijo”, redactó Day en su columna.

“Me tomó de la mano una vez más y comenzó a jugar con mis dedos mientras me hacía preguntas sobre mi familia, mis hermanos…”, continuó Day, añadiendo que finalmente consiguió liberarse.

“Mi ansiedad se convertía en rabia. Conseguí librarme, no quería estar ahí. Lo siguiente era meterle una patada en los huevos y correr. Pero me dejó salir, con calma, esa calma del que tiene todo bajo control, del que ya recorrió ese camino varias veces y lo volverá a recorrer”, remató en su historia.

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

UNITED STATES/GERMANY
Public Catholic

February 17, 2014 By Rebecca Hamilton

Archbishop John J Myers, the New Jersey bishop who allowed a convicted child-molesting priest to return to ministry with children, is retiring.

According to NJ.com, Archbishop Myers is planning to retire to an $800,000 mansion, which he is refurbishing with diocesan dollars to the tune of another $500,000.

That doesn’t compare with the 40-million euros the Bishop of Bling spent, but it’s far beyond what seems needed and necessary for the comfortable retirement of one elderly priest, even in New Jersey’s inflated real estate dollars.

He is adding a 3,000 square foot addition to the already large house. The addition will have an indoor exercise pool, three fireplaces and an elevator. To top it off, the half million to build this thing does not include fees for the architects, cost of furnishings (furnishing this much real estate won’t be cheap) or landscaping.

I think we should also add the inevitable cost of upkeep, cleaning, etc. I rather doubt that Arichbishop Myers plans to do his own vacuuming and dusting.

My own Archbishop lives in a modest ranch-style home. The retired Archbishop of Oklahoma City, who I think of as my spiritual father, also lives modestly.

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

GERMANY
eNCA

Monday 17 February 2014

MUNICH – Catholic bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-von Elst came under fire again Monday in connection with allegations of lavish spending on his new residence in Germany.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung citing an internal church report expected to be sent to Pope Francis on Wednesday claimed that “millions of euros” from a charitable church foundation were diverted and funneled into the construction project in Limburg, western Germany.

Costs for the bishop’s residence have come to more than 31 million euros (42 million dollars) -six times the initial estimated cost of construction.

Insiders told Sueddeutsche Zeitung costs could now spiral to up to 40 million euros.

According to the church report, the diverted funds – donations from Catholic workers – were originally earmarked to help poor families.

Tebartz-von Elst and his team reportedly developed an intricate system and put pressure on diocese employees to keep their elaborate plans for the bishop’s residence secret.

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

BULGARIA
New York Daily News

BY DAVID HARDING / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2014

A Bulgarian priest has been sacked after a video was posted online allegedly showing him at an orgy with four women.

Bishop Boris headed the second largest monastery in the country.

He was sacked by Bulgarian Orthodox Church bosses for acts “incompatible with his office,” reported the Bulgarian daily, Trud, which also revealed the existence of the sex video.

It is the latest scandal to hit the Bulgarian church.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Feb. 21, 2014

KANSAS CITY, MO.
Waiting may prove the hardest part as a petition seeking a canonical review of Bishop Robert Finn is en route to Rome.

Catholics here received notification Friday from the apostolic nuncio to the U.S. that he had received and forwarded to the Vatican their formal request for a canonical penal process investigating Finn, bishop of the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese.

In his brief, two-sentence letter, dated Feb. 15, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano stated, “I acknowledge receipt of your letter of February 11, 2014 addressed to me. The correspondence which you sent has been forwarded to the Holy See.”

In mid-February, the group, in tandem with Fr. Jim Connell, a retired Milwaukee priest and canon lawyer, made the appeal outlining their case that Finn violated church law by not promptly reporting suspicions of child sexual abuse by Fr. Shawn Ratigan. In such a scenario, it states, canon law gives the pope authority to investigate a prelate and, when necessary, enact a “just penalty.”

Connell, a member of the victims’ advocacy group Catholic Whistleblowers, told NCR Friday he was “delighted” when he found the letter in his mail.

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UNITED STATES
Ms.

February 21, 2014 by Megan Peterson

The first time I spoke publicly about being repeatedly raped by a priest when I was between the ages of 14 and 15 was when we announced the settlement of my case—one week before I went to join advocates filing a complaint against the pope with the International Criminal Court at The Hague. I was 21 and had barely left my small town in Minnesota, let alone the country. If you watch footage from the press conference, I disappear for a while; that was when I stepped out to throw up.

People were whispering about Fr. Joseph Jeyapaul’s inappropriate contact with youths within a month or so after his arrival from India at our church, but no one did anything about it. At the time, I was shy and got teased a lot, and I felt like an outsider. He offered to lend me a book, and I was flattered by the attention. When I went to pick it up, was the first time he raped me. Sometimes he was violent, and sometimes he told me this was the teaching of God; this was how I was getting closer to Him.

I would take the church bulletin every Sunday and look at the telephone number for the diocese victim advocate printed at the bottom. When I finally worked up the courage to make the call and tell someone what was happening, the woman on the other end told me not to make prank calls and hung up on me. Truly. It took another year for me to tell anyone, and that person was a high school counselor who was mandated to report it to the authorities. Jeyapaul had returned to India by then.

The Church had moved him back to oversee dozens of schools in the diocese of Ootacamund (Tamil Nadu), endangering countless other children. He was arrested in India after Interpol issued an alert in March 2012, and prosecutors here are now seeking to have him extradited to face criminal charges.

As far as I know, he is still detained in New Delhi fighting extradition, with his bail denied because he is considered a flight risk. It’s hard to get accurate information, though: At another point we heard he’d been defrocked, but that turned out to be false. At another point we heard the extradition was imminent, but then nothing happened and I haven’t heard anything since.

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UNITED STATES
Commonweal

The Editors

Earlier this month, the United Nations committee that monitors compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child issued a stinging report criticizing the Vatican for its handling of the sexual-abuse crisis. The committee accused the Holy See of “systematically” placing the reputation of the church ahead of the welfare of children, and adopting “policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by, and the impunity of, the perpetrators.” In addition the report made several important recommendations the Holy See would do well to heed. But the UN committee weakened its case by weighing in on doctrinal matters unrelated to abuse. The committee’s scattershot approach has united critics across the ideological spectrum in criticizing the report as counterproductive, if not worse.

The committee’s first mistake is that it treats the Holy See like any other signer of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which contains fifty-four articles covering a range of issues. Wherever the committee sees that a signer is failing to abide by the convention, it makes recommendations to bring them into compliance. For example, the report recommends that the church provide “family planning, reproductive health, as well as adequate counselling and social support, to prevent unplanned pregnancies.” And it asks the church to review canon law “with a view to identifying circumstances under which access to abortion services can be permitted.” Even though the committee refers to the Holy See’s “special nature,” it seems not to grasp that Catholic canon law is not just an administrative tool; it is informed by deeply held religious beliefs. In some cases, changing canon laws would require changing Catholic doctrine, a fact the UN seems not to appreciate.

It’s strange enough for a UN committee to make doctrinal recommendations to a religious organization. But it’s even more puzzling that the committee seems to forget that the Vatican has never hidden its objections to certain aspects of the convention. When the Holy See signed the treaty in 1989, it stated its reservations about provisions that don’t conform to Catholic teaching. The Holy See explicitly warned that the only family planning it would promote was natural family planning. Several other signatories registered similar reservations—including Islamic countries that promised to ignore parts of the treaty they deemed contradictory to Sharia law.

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NEW JERSEY
CNN

[with video]

Pope Francis has called on his clerics to follow his example and embrace modesty. One archbishop in New Jersey is raising plenty of eyebrows as construction workers add a $500,000 addition to his already-luxe vacation home. This comes after the archdiocese was forced to close a school and cut back on some charity operations. Randi Kaye has the story.

Anderson discussed this with Charles Zech, Director of Villanova University’s Center for the Management of Church studies. Also, New York Times columnist Michael Powell.

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CROATIA
Fox News

Published February 22, 2014
Associated Press

ZAGREB, CROATIA – The Croatian Catholic Church has found one of its priests guilty of sexually abusing minors, the first such ruling in the staunchly Catholic nation.

The head of Croatia’s Bishops Conference, Archbishop Zelimir Puljic, told Croatian state TV late Friday that the Rev. Nedeljko Ivanov was ordered to apologize to the victims and must donate part of his pension to charity. He is allowed to celebrate Mass only inside his retirement home, but cannot perform any other priestly duty.

The case emerged two years ago when Ivanov was accused by people who as children had been in the priest’s congregation in Bibinje, near Croatia’s Adriatic coast.

Ivanov cannot be tried by Croatia’s judiciary because the alleged abuse occurred in 1980s and 1990s.

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KROATIEN
Tiroler Tageszeitung

[Summary: The Catholic Church in Croatia has sentenced a priest after he faced allegations of sexually abusing children. The priest from Bibinje, Dalmatia, was the first priest to be sentenced under canon law in the country. According to Croatian civil law, the abusive acts were time-barred because they occurred from 1983 to 1991. The case became public two years ago when a victim went on Croatian television.]

Zagreb (APA) – Die katholische Kirche in Kroatien hat einen Priester nach Vorwürfen des sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern verurteilt. Der Priester aus Bibinje in Dalmatien ist der erste Geistliche, der nach dem Kirchenrecht verurteilt wurde, berichteten kroatische Medien. Die Erzdiözese Zadar veröffentlichte in einer Pressekonferenz am Freitag jedoch nicht das Strafausmaß.

Laut dem kroatischen Gesetz sind die Taten des Priesters verjährt, da sie länger als 15 Jahre zurückliegen. Die Anzeigen, die bei der kroatischen Staatsanwaltschaft eintrafen, beziehen sich auf den Zeitraum von 1983 bis 1991. Der Fall wurde vor zwei Jahren publik, als ein Missbrauchsopfer im kroatischen Fernsehen seine Geschichte publik machte. Die Erzdiözese Zadar berichtete von drei Zeugen, die den Missbrauch bei der kirchlichen Stelle angezeigt hatten, worauf man Ermittlungen einleitete.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

Last year, the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal collected nearly $10 million. Myers’ palace is estimated to cost $500,000, minus architectural costs, furnishings and landscaping. While the money for the mansion is not coming from the appeal, it is hypocritical for the archdiocese to ask parishioners to give generously when it is spending generously on luxuries for Myers.

The theme for the current appeal is: “When I called, you answered.”

Prospective donors should think twice about giving when Myers’ motto should read: “When I called, you paid for my hot tub.”

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

(Reuters) – Pope Francis elevated 19 prelates to the rank of cardinal on Saturday, his first appointments to the elite group of men who are his top aides around the world and who can one day elect his successor if they are under 80.

Sixteen of the new cardinals will have the right to vote to choose a successor. Three were made cardinal emeritus, without voting rights, for their service to the Church.

The following are cardinals with voting rights:

1. Archbishop Pietro Parolin, 59, Italian, Vatican Secretary of State.
2. Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, 73, Italian, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops.
3. Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller, 66, German, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
4. Archbishop, Beniamino Stella, 72, Italian, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy.
5. Archbishop Vincent Nichols, 68, British, Archbishop of Westminster.
6. Archbishop Leopoldo José Brenes Solórzano, 64, Nicaraguan, Archbishop of Managua.
7. Archbishop Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, 56, Canadian, Archbishop of Quebec.
8. Archbishop Jean-Pierre Kutwa, 68, Ivorian, Archbishop of Abidjan.
9. Archbishop Orani João Tempesta, 63, Brazilian, Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro.
10. Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti, 71, Italian, Archbishop of Perugia.
11. Archbishop Mario Aurelio Poli, 66, Argentine, Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
12. Archbishop Andrew Yeom Soo Jung, 70, Korean, Archbishop of Seoul.
13. Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello, 72, Chilean, Archbishop of Santiago.
14. Archbishop Philippe Nakellentuba Ouédraogo, 69, from Burkina Faso, Archbishop of Ouagadougou.
15. Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo, 74, Filipino, Archbishop of Cotabato.
16. Archbishop Chibly Langlois, 55, Haitian, Archbishop of Les Cayes.

The following are cardinals emeritus, without voting rights:

1. Monsignor Loris Francesco Capovilla, 98, Italian, who was secretary to Pope John XXIII, who reigned from 1958-1963 and called the Second Vatican Council. He was not able to attend the ceremony for health reasons.
2. Archbishop Fernando Sebastián Aguilar, 84, Spanish, Archbishop emeritus of Pamplona.
3. Monsignor Kelvin Edward Felix, 81, from Saint Lucia, Archbishop emeritus of Castries.

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VATICAN CITY
WOI

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Retired Pope Benedict XVI joined Pope Francis at a ceremony Saturday creating the cardinals who will elect their successor in an unprecedented blending of papacies past, present and future.

Benedict discreetly entered St. Peter’s Basilica from a side entrance surrounded by a small entourage and was greeted with applause and tears from the stunned people in the pews. He smiled, waved and seemed genuinely happy to be there, taking his seat in the front row, off to the side, alongside the red-draped cardinals.

It was the first time Benedict and Francis have appeared together at a public liturgical ceremony since Benedict retired a year ago and became the first pope to step down in more than 600 years.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 22 February 2014 (VIS) – The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., has issued a press release to report that the final session of the extraordinary consistory took place yesterday, Friday 21 February, from 4.30 to 6.45 p.m.

“Throughout the entire consistory, 69 cardinals spoke on a broad range of themes regarding the family. The assembly took place and concluded in an atmosphere of great serenity and satisfaction on the part of all those present for the breadth and depth of the presentations”.

“The Holy Father made a brief concluding address to thank all the participants and expressing his conviction that the Lord has led the Church to face the theme of the Gospel of the family, and will accompany her on the path she has undertaken with this important step in the Consistory and will continue with the Synod over the course of almost two years. He invited all those present to pray to the Lord for this intention and for him”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 22 February 2014 (VIS) – This morning in the Vatican Basilica, Pope Francis celebrated an Ordinary Public Consistory during which he created nineteen new cardinals, to whom he imposed the biretta, consigned the ring and assigned the title or diaconate church.

The celebration was also attended by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, whom Pope Francis embraced upon entering the basilica and who was also greeted by secretary of State Pietro Parolin in his address. Parolin was the first among the new cardinals and addressed some words of thanks to the Holy Father in the name of all the new cardinals. Bishop Loris Francesco Capovilla was not present, and the biretta will be consigned over the next few days to his residence in Sotto il Monte, in the Italian province of Bergamo.

Today’s ordinary public consistory was the first of Pope Francis’ pontificate; he began his allocution with the phrase from the Gospel of St. Mark, read on this occasion: “And Jesus went before them”.

“At this moment too, Jesus is walking ahead of us”, he said. “He is always before us. He goes ahead of us and leads the way. This is the source of our confidence and our joy: to be his disciples, to remain with him, to walk behind him, to follow him. When we joined with the cardinals to concelebrate the first Mass in the Sistine Chapel, the first word which the Lord proposed to us was to ‘walk’, to journey with him: to journey, and then to build and to profess. Today this same word is repeated, but now as an action, an action of Jesus which is ongoing: ‘Jesus was walking…’.

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

David Gibson | Feb 22, 2014

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis created his first batch of new cardinals on Saturday (Feb. 22) and used the ceremony – which featured the first public appearance by Pope Benedict XVI since his retirement last year – to launch a new appeal for peace amid the violence racking so many countries.

In his remarks, Francis focused on the plight of Christians in particular but in an extemporaneous addition to his prepared speech he also called on the church “to fight any discrimination” and “exclusion.”

“The Church needs your compassion, especially at this time of pain and suffering for so many countries throughout the world,” Francis told the 18 new cardinals who were present in St. Peter’s Basilica, along with hundreds of other cardinals and bishops whose colorful vestments and diverse origins offered a grand tableau of global Catholicism.

Adding to the drama of the day, Benedict was a surprise participant at the ceremony, his first public appearance at a Vatican event since he resigned the papacy on Feb. 28 last year — a stunning move that paved the way for the election of Francis two weeks later.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Ginny Stein

The royal commission has rejected Catholic Church concerns about the timing of hearings into sex abuse in an Adelaide special needs school.

Next month the commission will look into how authorities responded to the abuse at St Ann’s school in the early 1990s.

Parents of the victims hope they will finally get answers about the paedophile bus driver who preyed on up to 30 children, most of whom could not speak.

Earlier this year, lawyers for the church’s insurers wrote to the commission, arguing that hearings could influence compensation settlements.

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INDIANA
WDTN

By Jill Drury
Published: Friday, February 21, 2014

CINCINNATI, Ohio (WDTN) – The Vatican took action Friday in the cases of two local priests of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

Both were accused of child abuse.

The Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith permanently removed Daniel Prater from the priesthood.

The archdiocese says Pater was put on administrative leave in 2003 after admitting to sexually abusing a teenaged girl in the 1980s and 1990s.

It say although Pater remains a priest, he can never again celebrate a public Mass, administer other sacraments, wear clerical clothes or present himself as a priest. …

The Vatican restored Reverend David Reilly to active ministry. He was accused of inappropriate behavior in the 1970s, but the Church found there was not found guilty of committing any offenses.

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INDIANA
Cincinnati Enquirer

After admitting to sexually abusing a teenaged girl in the 1980s, Daniel Pater has been removed from ministry by the Vatican, according to an announcement from The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

In addition to Pater, CDF announced that Rev. David F. Reilly was restored to active ministry after a church court ruled that he was not guilty of inappropriate behavior with a minor.

Reilly was put on administrative leave from St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Shandon in August of 2006 after he was accused of engaging a minor in behavior with sexual overtones in the 1970s, according to CDF.

Pater, who has been on administrative leave since 2003, has been directed by the CDF to “lead a life of prayer and penance.” Pater will never again be permitted to celebrate Mass in public, administer the other sacraments, wear clerical garb or present himself as a priest.

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TEXAS/NEW JERSEY
Patch

Posted by Jason Koestenblatt (Editor) , February 21, 2014

A retired priest from Morris County has been charged with criminal sexual contact by local authorities but has not been taken into custody as he currently resides in Texas.

Morris County Acting Prosecutor Fredric Knapp announced today Reverend Phillip Briganti, 67, formerly of Randolph, was being charged with the fourth-degree crime for “acts involving an adult male.”

Briganti, living in El Paso, Texas, officiated a wedding at St. Paul’s Church in Prospect Park on Nov. 9, 2013, Knapp said. Following the wedding reception, Briganti was riding on a bus with the alleged victim en route to a hotel, Knapp said. It was then Briganti allegedly engaged in unwanted sexual contact with the victim.

The victim notified the Diocese of Paterson, which then alerted authorities in Morris, Passai, and Bergen counties, Knapp said.

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TEXAS/NEW JERSEY
El Diario de El Paso

Julio Antonio Molinet
El Diario de El Paso | 2014-02-21

Un sacerdote retirado de Nueva Jersey y que actualmente vive en la ciudad de El Paso, ha sido acusado de tener contacto sexual ilícito con un hombre tras haber oficiado una boda. El incidente, dado a conocer ayer, ocurrió el pasado nueve de noviembre en el poblado de Prospect Park, del Condado de Passaic.

Los fiscales del Condado de Morris dijeron que el padre Philip Briganti tuvo el supuesto contacto sexual mientras el sacerdote –de 67 años de edad– se encontraba en un autobús que viajaba rumbo a un hotel, después de la recepción de la boda.

Al contactar ayer a la canciller de la Diócesis de El Paso, Patricia Fierro, para una opinión de esa institución, este rotativo recibió un comunicado oficial con la rúbrica del vicario general de la Curia, reverendo Anthony C. Celino.

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CHILE
El Mostrador

[Summary: Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati will become a Cardinal today but amid controversy. Photos have photos emerged showing priest Fernando Karadima officiating at a Mass after the Vatican forbid him to do because of allegations of abuse. A victim of abuse by a Valdivia priest a few days ago filed a complaint against Ezzati allegeing that he obstructed an investigation and withheld information.]

por BERNARDITA GARCÍA JIMÉNEZ

Mientras el arzobispo Ricardo Ezzati se encuentra por estos días en el Vaticano, en Roma, a la espera de la ceremonia que se llevará a cabo este sábado a las 11:00 de la mañana, hora local, y en la que será investido cardenal Consistorio por el Papa Francisco, en Chile el Arzobispado de Santiago se convierte en blanco de críticas a raíz de las recientes eventualidades. El jueves, el periodista Juan Carlos Cruz, una de las víctimas que denunció abusos por parte del ex párroco de El Bosque, Fernando Karadima, divulgó una fotografía en la que figura este oficiando una misa el pasado 4 de diciembre de 2013 en la capilla del convento de las Siervas de Jesús de la Caridad, en el sector del Parque Bustamante de la comuna de Providencia.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

Updated: Friday, February 21 2014

By: Maria Miller JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — There are new developments in the case involving a former Franciscan friar accused of sexually assaulting students at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in the early ’90s.

On Friday, the Bishop McCort board of trusteesannounced its intent to file suit against a Greensburg attorney representing alleged victims in the case, saying she might be withholding vital information to its investigation.

The board said Attorney Susan Williams is making unsubstantiated and even slanderous claims on her website.

The board memberssaid if she really has knowledge of adults at the school, former or current, who knew anything about alleged abuse, they want and need to know in order to protect current students.

The statement on Williams’ website is hard to miss. It’s one of the first things you see on her home page and reads in part, “our office has been contacted by numerous individuals who were affected by the alleged actions of Brother Stephen Baker and the array of adults at Bishop McCort High School.”

The statement has been there since early last year, when she started representing former students. But the Bishop McCort board says her claim is unsubstantiated.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott
kmellott@tribdem.com

JOHNSTOWN — The board of directors of Bishop McCort Catholic High School is going after a Greensburg attorney who is representing a handful of people who claim they were sexually abused by Brother Stephen Baker.

Documents were filed this week on behalf of the school’s leaders in Westmoreland County court as the first step in a civil lawsuit against Susan Williams regarding assertions made on her Web page.

Additionally, Pittsburgh attorney Kathleen Gallagher, on behalf of Bishop McCort, filed what is termed notice of service of plaintiff’s first set of discovery.

It is seeking a response from Williams as the first step in gaining information from a plaintiff.

The website makes statements by Williams in relation to individuals she claims are still at Bishop McCort and makes reference to their relationships to Baker, the board maintains.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Early this week, Pope Francis met with his select group of cardinals mainly to review matters relating to the Vatican financial scandals. Over 180 cardinals then met in two closed sessions with Pope Francis this week to reconsider the Catholic Church’s rules on marriage and the family and the related sexual morality issues. Only cardinals attended these meetings. Also on Friday, US Cardinal Burke reportedly confirmed in the Vatican newspaper Pope Francis’ continuing opposition to gay marriage and abortion.

No consideration seemingly was given by Pope Francis to addressing with the world’s cardinals fully assembled the worldwide Church scandal of priest child abuse or related lack of bishop accountability.

Meanwhile a prominent US legal expert, Professor Marci Hamilton, called on President Obama to step up and address the epidemic of sexual abuse of children by religious institutions as noted here:

[Verdict]

And, Betty Clermont, the author of “The Neo-Catholics”, also called on President Obama to cancel his March 27 meeting with Pope Francis mainly in light of the recent UN report severely criticizing the Vatican’s policies relating to children and the Vatican’s evasive response to the UN report as noted here:

[Daily Kos]

These calls are in addition to my recent advice as a retired international lawyer to President Obama noted here:

[Christian Catholicism]

After a long presentation to the 180+ cardinals by highly regarded German Cardinal Walter Kasper on the topic of family life on Thursday morning, 43 other cardinals made responsive remarks. Among the key topics reportedly discussed were how to treat Catholics who divorce and remarry and still seek to receive the Catholic sacraments and how to simplify annulment procedures.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
WYFF

GREENVILLE, S.C. —An Upstate pastor is taking Bob Jones University to task for its decision to terminate an investigation into campus sex abuse.

Pastor Ryan Ferguson, of North Hills Community Church in Greenville, uploaded a 20 minute video to YouTube, calling BJU’s termination of the GRACE Investigation “harmful to survivors of abuse.”

“You do not take responsibility in your communication about the past,” Ferguson said in the video. “Stated differently, you do not talk transparently.”

Ferguson told WYFF News 4 Investigates he believes the university has failed to provide a clear explanation of why the investigation was terminated.

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VIRGINIA
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • February 21, 2014

Let me be clear that I take no position on the allegations made about sexual assault at Patrick Henry College. I am not in a position to know what did or did not happen, or to do a proper investigation. I do like hearing from people who attend or who did attend PHC, and publishing their perspectives. Keep in mind as you read them that these are the opinions of individuals; they are not necessarily the whole truth.

That said, here is a counter-perspective from a recent PHU alumna who wrote me privately. She gave permission for me to post this, but asked me not to use her name, for fear of professional harm. She sent me information that allowed me to verify her identity, which I did. I can say that she is presently working in a job that gives her strong professional standing. Here is her letter:

I am a graduate of PHC’s class of 2010 and was there when many of the incidents described in Kiera Feldman’s article in the New Republic took place. Since you posted an email from a current sophomore, I wanted to respond.

Looking back on PHC, now that I’m four years older, married, and with professional experience outside the bubble of PHC, I have to say the sophomore has given you the wrong idea. It’s not surprising, as most of PHC’s students come from conservative, typically fundamentalist, Christian backgrounds. Their “normal” is very different from mainstream Christianity, let alone mainstream America. Patriarchal beliefs are “baked into” PHC culture and fundamentalist Christian culture so that what is startling for a liberal reporter from the New Republic is business as usual for current PHC students. Let me provide you with some examples.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Herald

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Abogados de una diócesis de Puerto Rico que expulsó a seis sacerdotes que enfrentan acusaciones de abuso sexual dijeron que se oponen a una investigación penal debido en parte a que la mayoría de los casos involucraron sexo consensual con las presuntas víctimas.

Los abogados señalaron que los sacerdotes fueron expulsados por violación al derecho canónico, no a leyes del derecho penal.

El argumento fue uno de varios presentados el viernes sin evidencia ante un juez que está revisando una demanda de la Diócesis de Arecibo presentada contra el secretario de Justicia de Puerto Rico. La diócesis asevera que no debería ser obligada a proporcionar a fiscales los nombres de las presuntas víctimas para proteger su confidencialidad.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Dia

El juez Ángel Pagán Ocasio, del Tribunal de San Juan, aceptó hoy una petición para que una víctima de abuso sexual se una a la demanda incoada por la Diócesis de Arecibo, para que no se obligue a entregar al Departamento de Justicia los nombres de las personas involucradas en los casos de abuso sexual a menores que investigó la institución y que culminó con la expulsión de seis sacerdotes.

Durante una vista esta mañana para atender la petición de sentencia declaratoria de la Diócesis de Arecibo, el magistrado también concedió una moción presentada por los abogados de la Iglesia, Frank Torres Viada y José Andreu Fuentes, para garantizar la confidencialidad de los testigos que presentarán en el proceso.

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PUERTO RICO
12 News

February 21, 2014

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Attorneys for a Puerto Rico diocese that defrocked six priests facing sex abuse accusations say they oppose a criminal investigation in part because the majority of the cases involved consensual sex with the alleged victims.

Diocese attorneys say the priests were defrocked for violating canon law, not criminal laws.

The argument was one of several presented without evidence on Friday to a judge reviewing a lawsuit that the Diocese of Arecibo filed against Puerto Rico’s justice secretary. The diocese contends that it should not be forced to release the names of alleged victims to prosecutors in order to protect their confidentiality.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Examiner

Adam Davies 22nd Feb 2014

THE head of the Catholic Education Office in Toowoomba has admitted there was no process in place requiring his delegates to advise him or his deputy of child sexual abuse allegations in the diocese.

Director John Borserio said there was also nothing in the student protection and risk management kit which required the diocese’s two student protection officers Ian Hunter or Christopher Fry to report any allegations to him either.

The student protection and risk management kit was the primary manual used to protect students at 32 schools across the diocese.

Mr Borserio told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse on Friday it was a deficiency in procedures he now regretted.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Examiner

Adam Davies 22nd Feb 2014

A CATHOLIC school principal has told an inquiry there was a mentality and culture operating in the Toowoomba Diocese that the bishop must be protected at all costs.

Dan McMahon, the current principal of Shalom College in Bundaberg, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane on Friday that student protection did not come first.

“The phrase not to compromise the bishop was used regularly,” he said.

“It was a justification for diocesan processes on all sorts of things.

“When I, as a principal, would sometimes think or ask why do we have to go through so many hurdles to do something or to make a decision, often the reason was we did not want to compromise the bishop because he is the ultimate employer.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

February 21
BY JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

The Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese has settled two more lawsuits totaling $1.8 million involving a priest now serving prison time for producing child pornography.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Jack Grate approved a $1.275 million settlement on Friday in a lawsuit filed by two parents on behalf of their minor daughter against the diocese, the Rev. Shawn Ratigan and Bishop Robert Finn.

And on Wednesday, Circuit Judge Jim Kanatzar approved a $525,000 settlement in a lawsuit filed last year by two parents and their minor daughter. That suit also named the diocese, Ratigan and Finn as defendants.

In addition, Grate and Kanatzar each entered a $500,000 default judgment against Ratigan, who failed to respond to the lawsuits.

The settlements bring to $3.75 million the total the diocese has paid out so far in cases involving Ratigan.

“We hope that settlements of this kind will make the diocese place the safety of children first and foremost from here on out,” said Rebecca Randles, the attorney who represented the plaintiffs in both cases.

A diocesan spokesman confirmed the settlements Friday and said they were funded by the diocese’s internal self-insurance fund and its external carrier, National Catholic Risk Retention Group.

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NEW JERSEY
NBC 10

Authorities say a retired New Jersey priest has been charged with engaging in unwanted sexual contact with a man after officiating at a wedding.

Morris County prosecutors say the Rev. Philip Briganti, who now lives in El Paso, Texas, returned to New Jersey to officiate at a wedding Nov. 9 in the town of Prospect Park.

Prosecutors say the alleged sexual contact occurred while the 67-year-old priest was on a bus trip to a hotel after the wedding reception.

They say they were notified of the allegation of by the Paterson Diocese, where Briganti had served before retiring. The diocese has suspended his right to perform ministerial duties.

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

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel
Feb. 21, 2014

In every bankruptcy, there are winners and losers. Parties made whole and those who are paid a fraction of what they are owed by the debtor.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy is no different.

Among the losers that emerged in the archdiocese’s reorganization plan filed this month is St. Rose and St. Leo Catholic Urban Academy, one of the most impoverished schools in the state, which the archdiocese had promised to support when Messmer High School took it over in 2007.

Under the terms of the deal signed at the time, the archdiocese agreed to pay Messmer $5 million over 15 years — $2 million for capital improvements and $200,000 a year for operating expenses.

Those payments stopped when the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in January 2011, and under its reorganization plan, it would pay just $5,000 of the $3.4 million it still owes.

Messmer President Jim Piatt said the three-school system has been operating at a deficit since the money dried up. He said it has delayed needed repairs and improvements at the St. Rose and St. Leo building at 514 N. 31st St., and slowed academic initiatives that were planned there. But he said Messmer already is looking for alternative sources of funding.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican announced an immediate end to new hires, wage-increases and overtime in an effort to cut costs and offset budget shortfalls.

Pope Francis, with input from the Vatican’s central accounting office, also determined that volunteers could be used to help provide the labor needed to make up for the hiring freeze and eventual attrition.

Cardinal-designate Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, sent a letter, dated Feb. 13, to the heads of all Vatican offices, institutions and agencies.

He said the budget forecast for 2014 “necessitated the immediate adoption of some measures needed to contain” personnel costs. In its last published report, the Vatican said it had a slight budget surplus of $2.7 million in 2012 after experiencing one of its largest budget deficits of the past decade in 2011.

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UNITED STATES
The Times-Picayune

By Dave Walker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on February 21, 2014

Tuesday’s (Feb. 25) episode of PBS’ “Frontline” unravels “Secrets of the Vatican” in a spellbinding 90-minute episode airing at 8 p.m. on WYES. New Orleans author Jason Berry (“Lead Us Not Into Temptation,” “Vows of Silence,” “Render Unto Rome”) is co-producer of the episode, which details some of the issues — clergy sex abuse, corruption at the Vatican Bank, the Vatileaks corruption exposes — that scandalized Benedict XVI’s papacy.

It also paints a grim picture of the challenges facing Benedict’s successor, Pope Francis.

Berry’s investigative reporting of the Catholic Church dates to 1992’s “Lead Us Not Into Temptation,” the first extensive account of sexual abuse of children by priests. His 2004 book “Vows of Silence,” written with co-author Gerald Renner, explored the sexual abuses of Mexican priest and Legion of Christ founder Marcial Maciel, and was also adapted into a documentary film of the same title. In 2011’s “Render Unto Rome,” Berry, a practicing Catholic, critically examined the church’s handling of its finances. Berry was also interviewed for Alex Gibney’s documentary “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” which detailed alleged sexual abuse by Lawrence Murphy, a priest at Milwaukee’s St. John’s School for the Deaf. “Mea Maxima Culpa” aired last year on HBO.

Here’s an edited email Q&A with Berry about Tuesday’s “Frontline: Secrets of the Vatican:”

Q: You’re credited as co-producer. What was your role? When did the work start? Was the final product what the project set out to be?

A: “Frontline” chose a renowned English director, Antony Thomas. One of the researchers contacted me about the time of the papal conclave last March. She’d seen an interview I did at St. Peter’s Square on the BBC, and had read my book “Render unto Rome.” She sent some questions, and we spoke by phone. Antony contacted me in early July and asked me to collaborate with him. He wanted my help on the sequence about Fr. Maciel and on episodes to film in the U.S. I sent a memo on that, outlining key American stories, how they connected to the Vatican episodes Antony’s team had researched.

I spent most of July and August going back and forth with him on research and scenario issues. We met in Boston in late August with the crew, filmed there, in Connecticut, New York and Milwaukee over several weeks. As Antony got into the editing several weeks later we had continuous emails and calls right up to the fine-cut edit last week. The film does closely track his treatment, though several strands had to be cut. This often happens in documentaries even with powerful material.

What’s new here? What’s new here for viewers familiar with your work and the coverage by others of these issues? What’s new here for people who haven’t followed the story?

Well, the film takes viewers into the Vatican’s baroque internal dynamics, and the infighting under Pope Benedict that exploded in the Vatican Bank and Vatileaks scandals. No TV network outside of Italy has covered those complex stories in much detail, and few newspapers in much depth. Viewers will get a clear story of the last pope betrayed by his own bureaucracy. Antony’s treatment of the gay priest culture in the Vatican — an explosive topic to be sure — is nuanced and even-handed, certainly not homophobic. The early episodes that deal with the Maciel case, and the Milwaukee archdiocesan bankruptcy, to stave off abuse victims’ claims, have gotten media attention as you note, but I think our handling of the people enmeshed in these numbing dramas will convey the scope of the crisis, all the way back to Rome. These issues are continuing, though daily media coverage tends to wax and wane.

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BOSTON (MA)
South Coast Today

BOSTON — Boston Mayor Martin Walsh wants Pope Francis to visit the city.

Walsh has asked the Roman Catholic Cardinal of Boston, Sean O’Malley, to hand deliver an invitation to the pontiff asking him to visit Boston during a possible visit to the U.S. next year.

O’Malley headed to the Vatican this week.

According to The Boston Globe, Walsh’s letter emphasizes the importance of the church in his own life as well as the importance of faith in the history of the city. He points out that the Boston Archdiocese is one of the largest in the U.S.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Catholic Online

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – The priest in question, Nicolas Aguilar Rivera, was accused in the sexual abuse of 26 altar boys. Detectives eventually got the names of the boys from parish families. According to the priest’s confidential archdiocese file and police records since made public by attorneys for the victims, 25 of the alleged victims were altar boys. The 26th was training with the priest to be one.

Plaintiff Attorney Anthony DeMarco says it’s not clear what impact Mahony’s action had on the investigation, although at the time police complained that the archdiocese wasn’t fully cooperating.

Mahony’s deposition has been released and is part of the evidence included in a settlement of abuse claims against Aguilar Rivera and four other priests. The archdiocese, the nation’s largest, agreed to pay $13 million to 17 victims.

The archdiocese, since 2006 has paid more than $700 million to settle clergy abuse lawsuits by hundreds of victims. Internal church files kept on priests accused of abuse were released last year under court order. Mahony, elevated to cardinal and retired in 2011, was shown to have maneuvered behind the scenes with his top aide, Monsignor Thomas Curry, to shield molester priests, provide damage control for the church and keep parishioners unaware.

Prosecutors say the cases fell outside the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution of any church officials.

J. Michael Hennigan, an attorney with the archdiocese, said Mahony didn’t reveal a list of altar boys, also called altar servers, to police because he didn’t believe any of the alleged victims were among them. Mahony is in Rome and was unavailable for comment, Hennigan said.

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FLORIDA
Miami New Times

By Allie Conti Fri., Feb. 21 2014

Yesterday, Pope Francis tapped Peter Baldacchino of the Newark archdiocese for a promotion in Miami. During the 18 years he spent under the New Jersey bishop, the 53-year-old rose to become a chancellor serving the Turks and Caicos islands and learned to speak both Spanish and Haitian Creole.

But one advocacy group says Miami should beware Baldacchino. That’s because he was a member of the leadership in a troubled diocese where dozens of priests have been accused of molesting kids.

According to the site Bishop-Accountability.org, 42 priests in the Newark archdiocese have been publicly accused of molesting kids. John J. Myers, the archbishop there, told the Star-Ledger in 2002 that an internal investigation had found 51 credible accusations against his archdiocese from 1950 until then.

Still, he defended a personal policy of not naming the priests involved. The Star-Ledger also reported four instances in which Newark’s culture of secrecy helped cover up the molestation of three children and the assault of one woman.

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CROATIA
The New Age

The Catholic Church in Croatia has found one of its priests guilty of pedophilia, the Zadar diocese confirmed on Friday.

“After careful consideration … judges found significant (evidence) of punishable acts considering the major moral responsibility of the defendant,” the diocese said in a statement, which failed to specify the nature of the priest’s punishment.

The sentence marks the first time that the Catholic Church in Croatia has found one of its priests guilty of pedophilia.

The case emerged two years ago when three of Ivanov’s victims spoke out about abuse they had suffered as children in the priest’s congregation in Bibinje near Croatia’s Adriatic coast.

The church has informed Ivanov’s victims of the verdict, as well as offering them “special psychological and spiritual assistance.”

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted Feb. 21, 2014

PORTLAND, Maine — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland is in full compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People following an audit, the diocese announced Friday.

The charter calls for an effective response from the diocese to any report of sexual abuse by church personnel, background checks on all diocesan employees and volunteers who work regularly with minors, special sexual abuse prevention training and other mandates for the protection of children.

The on-site audit in September by Stone Bridge Business Partners of Rochester, NY., reviewed the period from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013, according to the press release. It found that all diocesan employees and active clergy have had background checks. Auditors also reviewed the implementation of the “Think First/Stay Safe Prevention Program” for children in Catholic schools and those that participate in religious education offered through their parishes, as well as the implementation of the “Protecting God’s Children Program” for all those working and volunteering in the diocese.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Feb. 21, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

A retired Catholic priest who lives in El Paso and has worked at St. Raphael’s parish in El Paso has been charged with criminal sexual contact.

[The Record]

[KSWO]

[El Paso diocese]

Fr. Philip Briganti allegedly assaulted a man after a wedding in New Jersey.

We hope that this was an isolated incidence. We doubt that’s true. In 2005, according to the Observer-Tribune, Fr. Briganti suddenly left his Mendham, NJ parish after someone apparently tried to extort money from him for photos he sent over the internet, according to Mendham NJ police Lt. John Taylor.

Paterson Catholic officials claim they immediately called prosecutors when they learned about the recent charge. We hope that’s true.

And we hope that El Paso Bishop Mark J. Seitz and Paterson Bishop Arthur Joseph Serratelli will use their vast resources to reach out to anyone else who might have been hurt by Fr. Briganti. We encourage anyone who saw, suspects or suffered abuse to report to law enforcement, not to church officials.

We also hope that Bishop Seitz doesn’t “pass the buck” or split hairs, claiming that Fr. Briganti isn’t his responsibility. We strongly suspect that Fr. Briganti has used his title to gain access to kids in El Paso too and has at the very least performed priestly duties on a substitute basis in Texas.

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CHILE/VATICAN CITY
ABC News

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

A prominent Chilean priest who was ordered by the Vatican to never again celebrate a public Mass as punishment for sexually abusing altar boys has been photographed apparently defying the order.

Chile’s top church leaders confirmed the Rev. Fernando Karadima’s act of insubordination Friday and sent the case to the Vatican for investigation. The photos were taken Dec. 4, but they were only released this week by Juan Carlos Cruz, a journalist and one of Karadima’s victims.

“It’s a very painful situation that shows that this priest continues to do as he pleases,” Cruz told The Associated Press. “It’s a slap in the face for the victims of his abuse. He should be in jail but instead he’s still being protected by the church.”

The Roman Catholic Church retains a firm grip on Chilean society, although in recent years its influence has waned after scandals in which priests have been accused of molesting children. Victims say Karadima began abusing them at his residence at the Sacred Heart of Jesus church in Santiago about 20 years ago, when they were between 14 and 17 years old.

The Vatican sanctioned Karadima by ordering him to a life of “penitence and prayer” in 2011. He was also barred from celebrating Mass in public, from hearing confessions or offering spiritual direction and from having contact with his ex-parishioners. A Chilean judge later dismissed a criminal case because the statute of limitations had expired, but she determined the abuse allegations were truthful.

The timing of the photos’ release appeared aimed at embarrassing both the current and former archbishops of Santiago, who were in Rome for Saturday’s ceremony to name current Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello a cardinal.

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CALIFORNIA
The New York Times

THE EDITORIAL BOARD
FEB. 20, 2014

Pope Francis has been meeting this week with eight cardinals he selected to shape proposals for reforming the Roman Catholic Church. It is too early to tell what will result from an agenda that will range from Vatican finances to the recruitment of new believers. But the deliberations surely cannot afford to overlook the shocking price tag announced as a final figure that the Los Angeles Archdiocese paid to victims of child sexual abuse by priests.

A decade of litigation, shameful denial and fierce resistance to civil authority has cost the archdiocese more than $740 million in monetary damages, with the spiritual toll far from tallied. Church lawyers said this was an end to litigation that saw more than 500 victims receive compensation, with the archdiocese taking out costly loans, selling property and even tapping into cemetery perpetual care funds to pay for it. In the process, the archdiocese was forced by the courts to release secret records that confirmed systematic cover-ups of priests’ crimes.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, who led the archdiocese during the scandal years, reportedly is not expected to face criminal charges, despite records showing that he shielded abusers and ordered that evidence be withheld from criminal investigators. He retired in 2011 to his childhood parish in California and was ultimately rebuked by his successor, but that hardly brought an end to the problem, which Vatican reformers cannot duck.

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CANADA
CJAD

Former Deacon of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and West Islander William (Bill) Kokesch pleaded guilty to three child pornography charges in Montreal court Friday.

With his wife in the room, Crown Prosecutor Dominique Potvin read the evidence police acquired against him.

Nearly 100,000 images and 2,100 videos depicting children under 10 years old were found on the man’s hard drive.

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CANADA
CTV

Published Friday, February 21

A former Roman Catholic Deacon from the West Island has pleaded guilty to several child pornography charges.

William Kokesch entered the guilty plea in court Friday morning to the three crimes he was accused of: production, possession and distribution of child pornography.

He is facing anywhere from one to 10 years in prison.

Kokesch was arrested in December 2012 and was granted bail soon afterward, under the condition he refrained from using the internet and cameras, and avoided public areas where children were likely to gather.

Police initially said they seized more than 2,000 images from his home at the time of his arrest and records of chat messages on pedophilic websites.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL — William Kokesch, a former West Island deacon, had thousands of photos and videos on his computer of children being whipped and raped by adults, as well as sexual fantasy chats with fellow child pornographers.

On Friday, he sat in a Montreal courtroom beside his wife, who held his hand and whispered in his ear until Kokesch, 66, was called to stand before Quebec Court Judge Isabelle Rheault.

The former deacon at St. Edmund of Canterbury Church in Beaconsfield and former communications director for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops pleaded guilty to possessing, producing and distributing child pornography between September 2011 and November 2012.

He will be back in court May 26 after undergoing a psycho-sexual evaluation for a pre-sentencing report.

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NEW JERSEY
Observer-Tribune

Former Mendham priest allegedly committed sex assault while passing through Randolph

MENDHAM — A Catholic priest who retired from St. Joseph Church under a cloud and who now lives in El Paso, Texas, has been charged with committing an act of criminal sexual contact while on a bus passing through Randolph Township.

Acting Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp and Randolph Township Police Chief David Stokoe said in a joint statement Friday that the Rev. Philip Briganti, 67 years old, of El Paso, Texas, has been charged with one count of criminal sexual contact, a crime of the fourth degree, for acts involving an adult male.

Briganti is a retired Paterson Diocesan priest presently living in El Paso, according to police.

He had briefly returned to officiate a wedding at St. Paul’s Church in Prospect Park, on Nov. 9, police said.

Briganti had been the former pastor at St. Joseph Church in Mendham, before his resignation in 2005.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Feb. 21, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

A retired New Jersey priest has been charged with criminal sexual contact.

[The Record]

Fr. Philip Briganti allegedly assaulted a man after a wedding.

We hope, although are doubtful, that this was an isolated incidence. We doubt that’s true. In 2005, according to the Observer-Tribune, Fr. Briganti suddenly left his Mendham, NJ parish after someone apparently tried to extort money from him for photos he sent over the internet, according to Mendham police Lt. John Taylor.

[BishopAccountability.org]

Paterson Catholic officials claim they immediately called prosecutors when they learned about the recent charge. We hope that’s true.

And we hope that Bishop Arthur Joseph Serratelli will use his vast resources to reach out to anyone else who might have been hurt by Fr. Briganti during his tenure in Paterson. We encourage anyone who saw, suspects or suffered abuse to report to law enforcement.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Justin Zaremba/NJ.com
on February 21, 2014

RANDOLPH — A retired Paterson Diocesan priest is facing a criminal sexual contact charge after he allegedly engaged in unwanted sexual contact with another man while on a bus returning from a wedding he officiated this past November.

Rev. Philip Briganti, 67, of El Paso, Texas, had briefly returned to New Jersey to officiate a wedding at St. Paul’s Church in Prospect Park on Nov. 9, and, after the wedding reception, Briganti was on a bus traveling to a hotel when he engaged in unwanted sexual contact with the man, acting Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp and Randolph Township Police Chief David Stokoe said in a joint statement.

The Diocese of Paterson released a statement Friday saying the man notified the diocese of the incident, as he was not sure what county the bus was in at the time it occurred.

The diocese then “immediately called the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office to report the information it had received,” according to the statement.

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CHILE
San Diego 6

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A prominent Chilean priest who was ordered by the Vatican to never again celebrate a public Mass as punishment for sexually abusing altar boys has been photographed defying the order.

Chile’s top church leaders confirmed the Rev. Fernando Karadima’s act of insubordination Friday and sent the case to the Vatican for investigation.

The photos were taken Dec. 4, but they were only released this week by Juan Carlos Cruz, one of Karadima’s victims. Cruz says it’s “a slap in the face” to Karadima’s victims.

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NEW JERSEY
KSWO

Updated: Feb 21, 2014

PROSPECT PARK, N.J. (AP) – Authorities say a retired New Jersey priest has been charged with engaging in unwanted sexual contact with a man after officiating at a wedding.

Morris County prosecutors say the Rev. Philip Briganti, who now lives in El Paso, Texas, returned to New Jersey to officiate at a wedding Nov. 9 in the town of Prospect Park.

Prosecutors say the alleged sexual contact occurred while the 67-year-old priest was on a bus trip to a hotel after the wedding reception.

They say they were notified of the allegation of by the Paterson Diocese, where Briganti had served before retiring. The diocese has suspended his right to perform ministerial duties.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 21, 2014
BY MATTHEW MCGRATH
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

A Roman Catholic priest, who was formerly assigned to a Prospect Park parish, is accused of sexually assaulting a man on a shuttle bus after a wedding in Randolph, authorities said.

The Rev. Philip Briganti, 67, of El Paso, Texas, is facing one charge of criminal sexual contact, Acting Morris County Prosecutor Frederic M. Knapp said in a statement.

The priest was on a bus after the wedding reception with the victim on the way back to a hotel, Knapp said. Briganti “allegedly engaged in unwanted sexual contact with the victim,” Knapp said. The victim is an adult.

Briganti is a retired priest from the Paterson Diocese. He returned to New Jersey to perform a wedding at St. Paul’s Church in Prospect Park on Nov. 9, 2013.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, February 21, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

A former Kansas City pastor pleaded guilty to child molestation and sexual misconduct.

[The Kansas City Star]

George L. Spencer was the pastor at Greater Works CME Church in Kansas City. According to court records he abused a 13 year old girl while the girl’s mother and grandmother were attending bible study. This gross violation of trust is incredibly upsetting.

We are glad that, upon learning of the abuse, church officials immediately fired Spencer, but we are concerned that Spencer was arrested in New Orleans and had to extradited back to MO. We sincerely hope that he was not able to abuse any more children and urge church officials and law enforcement to reach out to anyone who may have seen, suspects, or suffered abuse by Spencer.

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ARGENTINA
Terra

[Summary: Priest Julio Cesar Grassi has against asked for his freedom before the supreme court after being sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing a minor. His argument was rejected twice before and the most recent was last month.]

El cura Julio César Grassi volvió a pedir su libertad ante la Suprema Corte Bonaerense luego de haber sido condenado a 15 años de prisión por el abuso sexual de un menor.

Luego que fuese rechazado su planteo en dos instancias, la última en enero de este año por parte de la Cámara de Casación Bonaerense, el sacerdote pidió su libertad ante la Suprema Corte provincial por medio de un recurso extraordinario.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Rev. Bernard A. Harris, known as “Fr. Harry”, was a Jesuit of the Oregon Province ordained in 1947. Harris spent his career as an educator – initially at Bellarmine High School in Tacoma, WA, moving in the early 1950s to Loyola High School in Missoula, MT, where he taught until 1971 and, for several years, was principal. Harris also did parish work at St. Francis Xavier’s in Missoula. In the 2000s more than 20 people – male and female – have surfaced with claims that Harris sexually abused them as children. There is at least one claim that he molested a child at the Flathead Indian Reservation. Harris was the brother of the late Rev. James Harris, who has also been accused of child sexual abuse. Bernard Harris died Sept. 7, 1972.

Ordained: 1947
Died: Sept. 7, 1972

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

For immediate release: Friday, February 21, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

Minnesota Public Radio and Twin Cities Catholic officials disagree over whether or not 28 clergy who are accused of molesting kids should be publicly named. Here’s a simple compromise.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Bishop Piché and Bishop Cozzens, who now head the St. Paul/Minnesota archdiocese, should disclose when each of the allegations against these 28 clerics were made. That information violates no one’s privacy – neither the accused nor the accuser.

That information would, we suspect, show that Catholic officials drag their feet and take months or even years to determine whether an accusation is “not manifestly false or frivolous.”

We could be wrong. It could be that all 28 of these allegations were made to church officials in the last two or three months. In that case, we’ll gladly apologize. But we predict that these cases have languished for far too long in the self-serving church bureaucracy.

At the same time, Catholic officials should publicly admit what many of them have said privately for years – that few child sex reports against priests prove to be false.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Betty Clermont

Because there should be consequences.

Mr. President, please stand with the hundreds of thousands of children who have been raped, sodomized and sexually assaulted, the children now being similarly tortured and the potentially thousands more to come because no world leader will hold the Catholic Church accountable.

Please inform the Vatican that you are canceling your March 27 meeting with the Pope due to his officials’ egregious response to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child report. The subject of the 15-page document is the Vatican’s failure to adequately address its “systematic” responsibility for worldwide child sex abuse.

The Vatican still places children “at high risk of sexual abuse, as dozens of child sexual offenders (who operate under the authority of the Holy See) are reported to still be in contact with children,” according to the report issued Feb. 5.

The Committee stated it is “gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators.”

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