ABUSE TRACKER

CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago

[with video]

The pastor of a Roman Catholic church in the North Side Lake View neighborhood has been reinstated after an investigation found an allegation of sexual contact with a child nearly 20 years ago unfounded.
The Rev. Michael W. O’Connell will resume his role as pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish on Thursday, according to a statement from Archdiocese of Chicago spokeswoman Susan Burritt.

“I knew the truth and I knew the Lord … stood with me,” O’Connell said at a Tuesday news conference.

But the decision to reinstate O’Connell drew heated criticism from the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

“We are disappointed and surprised that Cardinal Francis George is putting Fr. Michael W. O’Connell back on the job despite an accusation that he sexually assaulted a boy in 1990,” a statement from SNAP read.

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IOWA
World-Herald

By Andrew J. Nelson / World-Herald staff writer

A southwest Iowa pastor charged with sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl has pleaded not guilty.

Roger C. Kissel, 66, of Sidney, Iowa, is charged with second-degree sexual abuse, lascivious acts and indecent exposure, according to court records.

Kissel was pastor of the nondenominational Sidney Cowboy Church when police arrested him in February. Sidney Police Chief Austin Richardson said the alleged acts, which are believed to have occurred over several months in 2013, are not connected to the church.

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IOWA
The Republic

SIDNEY, Iowa — A southwest Iowa pastor has pleaded not guilty to charges he sexually abused a 5-year-old girl.

The Omaha World-Herald reports (http://bit.ly/1m9GThj ) that 66-year-old Roger C. Kissel of Sidney pleaded not guilty to second-degree sexual abuse, lascivious acts and indecent exposure.

When he was arrested in February, Kissel was a pastor at the nondenominational Sidney Cowboy Church. Sidney Police Chief Austin Richardson says the allegations aren’t connected with the church.

The crimes are alleged to have occurred over several months in 2013.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Brian Amaral/NJ.com
on April 14, 2014

Mark Crawford, a resident of Avenel, was honored last week by the state attorney general for his work advocating for victims of sexual abuse.

Crawford, the state director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, was selected for the first-ever Ronald W. Reagan award by acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman.

“Because of Mark’s efforts, many individuals, after living in years of silence and shame, learned of the predators’ crimes and came forward themselves, finally getting help and holding their offender accountable,” state Sen. Joseph Vitale, who represents Woodbridge and nominated Crawford for the award, said in a news release today.

When he was a child, Crawford was abused by his parish priest. Since 1987, he’s been advocating for victims of sex abuse, helping reform the state’s charitable immunity laws and visiting the White House in 2010 to discuss sexual violence, according to Vitale.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

No evidence to support Salvation Army officer’s claim he confessed act of child sex abuse to police, royal commission told

April 15, 2014

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

A senior Salvation Army officer who says he went to police to confess the sexual abuse he inflicted on a young girl but was told nothing could be done, has had serious doubt cast on his claims.

An investigator hired by the Salvos told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Monday that Lieutenant-Colonel Colin Haggar allegedly assaulted the girl three times, not once as the officer had claimed, and that there was no direct documentary evidence that the police confession ever took place.

The revelations came from a former detective, John Greville, who joined the Salvation Army’s professional standards office in January, and was charged with investigating Colonel Haggar, who had admitted to sexually abusing an eight-year-old girl on one occasion in the state’s central west in 1989.

Mr Greville told the commission on Monday that, upon taking up the job, he discovered that files in relation to Colonel Haggar were in chaos, and that it appeared the matter had never been investigated.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 16, 2014

THE Salvation Army officer leading its response to the child abuse royal commission personally recommended another officer be reinstated by the church despite him having confessed to sexually abusing a young girl.

Major Peter Farthing told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse yesterday that he counselled the officer, Colin Haggar, for 18 months after he had admitted assaulting the eight-year-old.

In 1992, two years after Haggar was stood down by the Salvation Army, Mr Farthing wrote to the then-commissioner, saying “he has worked very hard to rectify his problems and has made excellent progress”. “Therefore I personally believe it would be appropriate for him to be re-accepted for ­officership,” the letter said.

Mr Farthing, the Salvation Army’s former secretary for personnel, who has handled dozens of other cases of child abuse, told the commission yesterday “at that stage there was still, I think, often an assumption that forgiveness was almost like an obligation”.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WGN

A Chicago priest accused of sexual misconduct will be reinstated this week after an investigation cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Father Michael W. O’Connell will resume his role as Pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish in Chicago on Thursday, Archdiocese of Chicago said in a statement.

Fr. O’Connell step aside in December after an allegation he engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor while assigned to Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Orland Park 20 years ago.

The Archdiocese, working with the Cook County Sheriff, conducted an investigation “and concluded that the allegation was unfounded,” the statement said.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Vivelo Hoy

Por Leticia Espinosa, 4/15/2014

A meses de que la Arquidiócesis Católica de Chicago revelará archivos secretos en los que consta cómo durante años desprotegió a niños del abuso sexual de sacerdotes; en un comunicado la institución destacó que reinstalará a uno de sus sacerdotes, tras una acusación de mala conducta sexual “infundada”.

La tercera arquidiócesis más grande del país, que durante años transfirió silenciosamente de parroquia en parroquia a los sacerdotes acusados, sin notificar las denuncias de abuso a niños a las autoridades; anunció el martes que el reverendo Michael W. O’Connell fue reintegrado a su parroquia, una vez que concluyó una investigación por alegatos de mala conducta sexual con un menor de edad, que supuestamente ocurrió a finales de 1990.

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KENTUCKY
Courier-Journal

DYLAN LOVAN, Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – As testimony began in a long-delayed trial against former Catholic priest James Schook, a witness said Tuesday that he had numerous sexual encounters with Schook, beginning at age 13, at a Louisville church in the 1970s.

Schook was indicted on seven sodomy charges in 2011, but he sought several delays of the court proceedings as he battled terminal skin cancer.

The witness, Richard Whitfield, said Tuesday that he had an ongoing sexual relationship with Schook that began when he was 13 and lasted through high school.

Whitfield, 56, told the jury that he began having sexual encounters with Schook in the summer of 1971.

“I had this feeling we were probably doing something wrong,” Whitfield testified to the Jefferson Circuit Court jury, which was selected on Monday. He said most of the alleged abused occurred in Schook’s room in the rectory at St. Rita Catholic Church in Louisville.

“The doors were closed and we were just very quiet,” Whitfield said.

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

Updated April 16, 2014

In the Book of Revelation 13:16-18, the Mark of the Beast is 666, but for the Vatican Mammon Beast a.k.a. the Mark of the Opus Dei Beast is “holiness, saints, supernatural” especially the eerie paranormal words of Pope Francis. All Vatican Pied Pipers’ articles contain this OD mark. This was evident in the articles about Pope Francis’s apology last April 11. (See compilation below). Did anyone notice that The Republican in Massachusetts entitled its article: “Editorial: Pope’s admission and personal responsibility will go far toward creating holiness in the Catholic Church”.

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FRANKREICH
20 Minuten

[Summary: A priest in France has been charged with raping a woman during exorcism.]

Ein katholischer Priester der Bruderschaft St. Pius X, die den Glauben des Traditionalisten Marcel Lefebvre folgen, wurde in Paris verhaftet. Der 40-jährige Mann soll im Zuge von Teufelsaustreibungen in einer Schule am Stadtrand der französischen Hauptstadt drei Frauen gefoltert und vergewaltigt haben.

Wie die Zeitung «Le Parisien» schreibt, leitet der Geistliche die private Schule Notre Dame de la Sablonnière in Goussonville. Im Herbst 2010 soll der nicht namentlich genannte Priester drei Lehrerinnen der Schule missbraucht haben. Die Frauen seien durch die Ereignisse so traumatisiert gewesen, dass sie erst jetzt den Fall der Justiz meldeten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Publik-Forum

Die katholischen Bischöfe in Deutschland haben eine umfangreiche Studie in Auftrag gegeben: Sie soll das Ausmaß sexueller Gewalt gegen Kinder und Jugendliche in der Kirche klären. Geplant ist, Fallzahlen aus allen Bistümern zu erheben, den Einfluss der Kirche auf Täter und Opfer zu analysieren. Kann das gelingen? Ein Pro- und Contra – und Thema unserer aktuellen Umfrage. Machen Sie mit!

Wunibald Müller: »Ja! Viele Menschen wollen Licht ins Dunkel bringen« »Die Kirche muss sich einer kritischen Durchleuchtung ihres Verhaltens stellen. Meint sie es ernst mit ihrer Ankündigung, aus den Missbrauchsfällen der vergangenen Jahrzehnte zu lernen? Viele Verantwortliche in der Kirche wollen das inzwischen, weil sie wissen: Nur so können verloren gegangenes Vertrauen und die so sehr in Mitleidenschaft gezogene Glaubwürdigkeit der Kirche zurückgewonnen werden. Sie wollen Licht ins Dunkel bringen, um besser verstehen zu können, wie es dazu kommen konnte, dass in einem so erschreckend hohen Ausmaß sexueller Missbrauch im kirchlichen Kontext möglich war.

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FRANCE
The Guardian (UK)

Chris McGreal in Gisors, Normandy

It’s hard to find anyone in Gisors with a bad word to say about Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka.

Other priests at the small French town’s imposing medieval Catholic church, an hour’s drive north-west of Paris into the rich Normandy countryside, speak with admiration of his popularity with congregants. It’s his ability to engage with people, they say. Worshippers love his sermons, feel his sincerity. He brings something from Africa.

Even those rarely found in Gisors’ church know of Father Wenceslas and insist he is a good man. A bartender at a café next to the church says he’s seen the priest about and that he is well respected.
No one believes what’s said, he adds. It’s just too unbelievable that a priest would do such a thing. …

In 2005, the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), then in the process of convicting many of the political and military leaders who oversaw the genocide, issued charges against Father Wenceslas. The indictment was a catalogue of horror. The priest, it said, conspired with leaders of the extremist Hutu militia spearheading the killing of Tutsis. It alleges that he helped draw up lists of men to die, stood by as Tutsis were taken away and killed, allowed the militia to roam his church hunting for victims, and that he raped young women.

The same year as the ICTR indictment, a military court in Rwanda convicted the priest in absentia and sentenced him to life in prison for genocide.

The protestors – some of them genocide survivors, others French people married to Rwandans – called on the Roman Catholic church to distance itself from Father Wenceslas by stripping him of his position.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A Texas pastor has been accused of grooming and sexually assaulting a young woman. We are grateful to this young woman for having the courage to speak up and press charges.

[WND]

Doug Phillips is a popular pastor and leading activist for “biblical patriarchy”. His attorneys refer to the abuse as a “consensual relationship”, but that is a dangerous and manipulative discourse that obscures the true nature of what happened. There can be no true consent when the authority between the individuals is so great.

We hope that Vision Forum Ministries and Boerne Christian Assembly officials will aggressively reach out to anyone else who may have been hurt by Phillips. We also urge them to review their sexual abuse policies and implement more effective measure to ensure no one, child or adult, becomes a victim of sexual assault.

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UNITED STATES
Off My Knees: A Blog by Michael Baumann

“The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.”
Socrates

An article on the Vatican Radio’s Website reported on a request from Pope Francis for forgiveness for the priests who committed sexual crimes against children. During his prepared remarks to members of BICE [International Catholic Child Bureau] whom he received on 11 April 2014 in an in audience at the Vatican, he deviated from the prepared text. That deviation for his text was captured in the English translation of the Pontiff’s prepared statement provided by Vatican Radio:

…. I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil which some priests, quite a few in number, obviously not compared to the number of all the priests, to personally ask for forgiveness for the damage they have done for having sexually abused children. The Church is aware of this damage, it is personal, moral damage carried out by men of the Church, and we will not take one step backward with regards to how we will deal with this problem, and the sanctions that must be imposed. On the contrary, we have to be even stronger. Because you cannot interfere with children…

Before I start this conversation I am being mindful of my fellow survivors and their families, some are no longer here because of the damage caused by predator priests. We have been subjected to endless promises of reform and lies about accountability. This is important to me as survivor of rape by a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. At the risk of appearing to be hopeful enough that these questions will somehow come to the attention of Pope Francis, I will address my questions to him directly.

Your Holiness, I have some questions I must ask so that I can understand the meaning and intent in your words. Holy Father, from who are you asking forgiveness? An honest question, I promise you. I am convinced of your sincerity when you say you “feel the compelled to personally take on all the evil”. If you do so, why do you qualify your statement by saying that the number of predator priests are “quite a few” in number but not when compared to the total number of priests? YourHoliness, you start off by marginalizing the depth of the crisis. Why should I trust what you go on to say next?

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

In response to our formal filing at the United Nations, charging that the Vatican is violating the UN treaty against torture, top Catholic officials are claiming that the treaty only has jurisdiction over the tiny Vatican city state. We hope UN committee officials will see through this desperate attempt to hide from responsibility. And we hope that before the May 5 hearing, Pope Francis will step in and stop his staff from making this cynical claim.

[TBO]

For decades, when confronted with abuse and cover up reports, top Catholic officials often responded with self-serving hair-splitting – claiming that priests are “independent contractors,” and similar absurd legalistic arguments designed to deny responsibility for the crimes of church employees, high and low.

These kind of irresponsible dodges show just hard the Catholic hierarchy works to shuck responsibility.

How can the Pope be the head of a worldwide organization, but also only be responsible for a tiny city-state of 1000 people? Does the Pope not pick and promote bishops and other church officials across the planet? Catholic church officials cannot have it every way – some days being a global monarchy, other days being a tiny city state, and other days being a religious, not political entity.

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CANADA
Vancouver Sun

BY LOUISE DICKSON, TIMES COLONIST APRIL 15, 2014

VICTORIA — A Victoria man learned Monday that people writing on blog websites can’t get away with posting information that breaks a court-ordered publication ban.

Blogger Gregory Hartnell was found guilty of breaching a publication ban on evidence at the preliminary inquiry of a Roman Catholic priest, later convicted of sexually touching a young person.

Victoria provincial court Judge Wayne Smith found Hartnell failed to comply with a judge’s order prohibiting publication of evidence at Father Phil Jacobs’ preliminary hearing in November 2011.

At the start of the inquiry, Judge Evan Blake made an order under section 539. (1) of the Criminal Code directing that the evidence heard not be published, or broadcast or transmitted in any way until the accused is either discharged or, if ordered to stand trial, the trial has ended.

Smith found Hartnell, who attended the first day of Jacobs’ hearing, transmitted two postings containing explicit allegations to Sylvia’s Site on Nov. 8 and Nov. 9, 2011.

The public website, run by Sylvia McEachern, covers sex-abuse scandals and betrayals of trust in the Roman Catholic Church in Canada.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Post

BY MORGAN LEE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
March 27, 2014

Former Vision Forum Ministries president Doug Phillips, who resigned from his position after admitting an inappropriate relationship, has accused three of his close friends of trying to tear down his reputation and organization.

On March 13, Phillips’ attorney sent a letter to two of his client’s personal assistants, Bob Renaud and Peter Bradrick, and a former Vision Forum employee, Jordan Muela, alleging that “the three of you have conspired together, and with others, in an attempt to destroy Doug Phillips, his family and Vision Forum Inc,” reported WORLD magazine and Jen’s Gems, a watchdog blog for the organization.

Phillips’ threat of litigation follows four months after the nonprofit organization that he helped found, Vision Forum Ministries, was shut down by its board of directors after its married leader revealed that he had had an inappropriate relationship. While Phillips retained control of the for-profit Vision Forum, the company cleared out its inventory in November and was shutdown in December.

The former leader is not the only party thinking of filing a lawsuit. The attorney of the woman with whom Phillips was allegedly “inappropriately romantic and affectionate” also suggested that she might sue.

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UNITED STATES
Right Wing Watch

SUBMITTED BY Brian Tashman on Tuesday, 4/15/2014

Warning: this post includes sexually graphic language.

In a bombshell lawsuit that exposes the shocking ways women are treated in the Quiverfull movement — the patriarchal program popularized by the Duggar family and its TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting — attorneys representing Lourdes Torres have revealed details of the abuse she received from Doug Phillips of Vision Forum.

The lawsuit [PDF], which includes counts of sexual battery and assault, details the “inappropriate, unwanted, and immoral sexual acts committed by Douglas Phillips against Ms. Torres,” noting that Phillips “methodically groomed Ms. Torres” since she was 15 years old “so that she would eventually participate in illicit sexual rendezvous with him promising that she could one day marry him” and “repeatedly told Torres that this was possible because his wife, Beall Phillips, was going to die soon.”

Phillips, one of the most prominent leaders of the Quiverfull movement, last year admitted to having “a lengthy, inappropriate relationship with a woman.” Phillips is extremely close to the Duggar family. In 2010, Torres was featured at the end of a video message at Phillips’ “Baby Conference” thanking Michelle Duggar, to whom Phillips had presented a “Mother of the Year” award.

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WASHINGTON
KGW

VANCOUVER — Court documents obtained by KGW tell the story of a courageous teenaged girl who kept her head and did the right thing when police said she was pursued by a man in a car.

The Vancouver teen did not panic as a stranger stalked and beckoned her last week, according to court documents. She ran into a day care to call her mother,

The suspect in the case, Father Michael Patrick of St. Wenceslaus Church in Scappoose, remained in a Los Angeles jail Tuesday awaiting extradition to Washington.

The girl was walking down Northeast 28th Street on March 10, near a strip mall, when a man drove up beside her. Several times, the man asked her to get in and each time, she refused, according to an arrest affidavit by Vancouver police Det. Jason Hafer.

She walked faster, turning onto Northeast 132nd Avenue. The man continued to stalk her, at one point telling her, “Come on, cutie.” That’s when she walked into a day care to call her mom.

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KENTUCKY
WLKY

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —The first witness took the stand Tuesday morning in the trial of a former priest charged with sexually abusing two boys in the 1970s.

James Schook is charged with sodomy.

The abuse allegedly took place while he worked for the Archdiocese of Louisville.

The witness testified that while Schook was a trusted mentor, he often had sex with him both in and outside the church, even at the boy’s home.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

April 15, 2014 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — The Rev. Michael O’Connell was reinstated to his role as pastor at St. Alphonsus Parish in Chicago after the Chicago Archdiocese determined allegations of abuse were unfounded.

Father O’Connell agreed to step down in December 2013 when a formal allegation of misconduct was made. The allegation of misconduct was from 20 years earlier when he was assigned to Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Orland Park.

According to the Chicago Archdiocese, the allegation was investigated by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and Cook County State’s Attorney, as well as the Cook County Sheriff’s department. They concluded it was unfounded.

The Archdiocesan Independent Review Board recommended Fr. O’Connell return to active ministry. He will return to Alphonsus on April 17, 2014.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, Founder and President of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com )

We are disappointed and surprised that Cardinal Francis George is putting Fr. Michael W. O’Connell back on the job despite an accusation that he sexually assaulted a boy in 1990.

[Chicago Sun-Times]

We have met this victim and find him very credible. And we’ve seen dozens of cases across the country in which Catholic officials have reinstated an accused child molesting cleric only to later oust him permanently.

It takes a great deal of courage and strength for child sex abuse victims to speak up. They often suffer in silence and self blame for decades. Accusations are rarely made lightly. We hope that others will not be discouraged by O’Connell’s reinstatement and that Catholic officials and parishioners will remain vigilant in reporting known or suspected crimes to secular authorities, not church figures.

Fr. O’Connell has worked in Lakeview, Orland Park and Lake Forest.

We beg anyone who saw, suspected, or suffered crimes by O’Connell or any church employee to come forward and report to police. It is never too late to speak up.

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KENTUCKY
WDRB

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The details of a Louisville priest’s alleged sexual relationship with two teenage boys in the 1970s were heard by a jury Tuesday morning.

It’s the first day of testimony in the trial of Rev. James Schook, which began after being delayed or postponed several times for multiple reasons including Schook’s poor health.

The first witness took the stand Tuesday morning, detailing his sexual alleged relationship with Schook, which he says got very intimate and intense starting when he was of the age of 13, when Schook was 23 and a seminary student.

“We kind of grew into a relationship, but he would always tell me, ‘There’s no future in this — I’m just using you,” the witness said.

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ILLINOIS
Southtown Star

The pastor of a Roman Catholic church in Chicago has been reinstated after an investigation refuted an allegation of sexual contact with a child nearly 20 years ago when he was assigned in Orland Park.

The Rev. Michael W. O’Connell will resume his role as pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish on Thursday, according to a statement from Archdiocese of Chicago spokeswoman Susan Burritt.

O’Connell agreed to step aside in early December at Cardinal Francis George’s request after a formal allegation was presented to archdiocesan officials that he engaged in sexual contact with a minor while working at Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Orland Park in the late 1990s, according to the statement.

O’Connell worked at the Orland Park parish between 1997 and 2012, and has held various posts within the archdiocese since his ordination in 1983, Burritt said.

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VATICAN CITY
TBO

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has responded to the latest round of U.N. sex abuse inquiries by suggesting it is only responsible for implementing a U.N. treaty against torture within the confines of the tiny Vatican City State.

The Vatican issued a statement Tuesday ahead of a May 5-6 hearing that will likely delve into the Vatican’s failures to stop clergy sex abuse around the globe. Another U.N. committee interrogated the Holy See about abuse in January.

In an indication that it will seek to limit its responsibility, the Vatican said it signed the torture treaty in 2002 “exclusively in the name of and on behalf of” the 44-hectare (110-acre) Vatican City State, where fewer than 1,000 people live. The Vatican said it will “undertake its obligations on behalf of that state.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

BY FRANCINE KNOWLES Religion Reporter April 15, 2014

A Chicago Catholic priest, who had been accused of sexually abusing a minor nearly 20 years ago, is being reinstated to active ministry after a Cook County Sheriff’s office investigation found the allegation was unfounded, the Archdiocese of Chicago said Tuesday.

Father Michael W. O’Connell will resume his role on Thursday as pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish in Chicago, the archdiocese said.

O’Connell agreed to step aside from his parish on Dec. 4, 2013, when the formal allegation was presented to officials of the Archdiocese of Chicago, alleging he engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor while assigned to Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Orland Park almost 20 years ago.

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LAKEVIEW (IL)
DNA info

By Serena Dai on April 15, 2014
@ssdai

LAKEVIEW — A Roman Catholic pastor will be returning to church in time for Easter this week after investigations found that an allegation of sexual misconduct against him was unfounded, the Archdiocese of Chicago said Tuesday morning.

The Rev. Michael W. O’Connell voluntarily stepped away from St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, 1429 W. Wellington Ave., in December after a victim alleged that O’Connell abused him in the late ’90s at a parish in suburban Orland Park.

The archdiocese released a statement Tuesday saying that the Archdiocesan Office of Child Abuse Investigations and the Cook County sheriff’s office found that the allegation was unfounded.

O’Connell will be returning to his position as a pastor at the Lakeview church on Thursday, the statement said.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago

April 15, 2014

Father Michael W. O’Connell is being reinstated to active ministry and will resume his role as Pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish in Chicago. Fr. O’Connell, a priest in good standing, agreed to step aside from his parish on December 4, 2013, when a formal allegation was presented to officials of the Archdiocese of Chicago that he engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor while assigned to Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Orland Park almost 20 years ago.

The allegation was received by the Archdiocesan Office for Child Abuse Investigations and Review and reported to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and the Cook County State’s Attorney. In compliance with the requirements of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the Archdiocese conducted an investigation of the allegation. The Archdiocese also cooperated with the Cook County Sheriff, who conducted an independent investigation and concluded that the allegation was unfounded.

The Archdiocesan Independent Review Board, after a careful process always motivated by the need to protect children, did not find reason to suspect that sexual abuse of a minor had occurred and recommended that Fr. O’Connell be returned to active ministry. Francis Cardinal George, OMI, Archbishop of Chicago, has accepted the Review Board’s determination and recommendation. Father O’Connell will return to St. Alphonsus and resume his duties as Pastor on Holy Thursday, April 17. The Cardinal joins the bishops and priests and laity of the Archdiocese in welcoming Fr. O’Connell, who has patiently accepted the restrictions on his ministry, to full participation in the life of the Archdiocese as one of our priests in good standing.

The abuse of any child is a crime and a sin. The Archdiocese encourages anyone who has been sexually abused by a priest, deacon, religious, lay employee or volunteer, to come forward. Complete information about reporting sexual abuse can be found on the Archdiocesan website under Protecting Children at www.archchicago.org or by calling the Office for Child Abuse Investigations and Review, 312-534-5205 or 1-800-994-6200, or the Office of Assistance Ministry, 312-534-8267 or toll-free at 866-517-4528.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (STMW) – The pastor of a Roman Catholic church in the Lakeview neighborhood on the North Side has been reinstated after an investigation found an allegation of sexual contact with a child nearly 20 years ago was unfounded.

The Rev. Michael W. O’Connell will resume his role as pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish on Thursday, according to a statement from Archdiocese of Chicago spokeswoman Susan Burritt.

O’Connell agreed to step aside in early December at Cardinal George’s request after a formal allegation was presented to archdiocesan officials that he engaged in sexual contact with a minor while working at Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Orland Park in the late 1990s, according to the statement.

O’Connell worked at the southwest suburban parish between 1997 and 2012, and has held various posts within the archdiocese since his ordination in 1983, Burritt said.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

A priest has been reinstated to a parish in the Lakeview neighborhood after an investigation concluded that an allegation of sexual misconduct against him “was unfounded,” according to the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago.

The Rev. Michael W. O’Connell stepped down as pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish, 1429 W. Wellington Ave., in December after it was alleged that he had engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor in the late 1990s while a pastor of an Orland Park church.

The archdiocese released a statement today saying the allegation was investigated by the Cook County sheriff’s office, which “conducted an independent investigation and concluded that the allegation was unfounded.”

In addition, the “Archdiocesan Independent Review Board. . .did not find reason to suspect that sexual abuse of a minor had occurred and recommended that Father O’Connell be returned to active ministry,” the archdiocese said.

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

KENTUCKY
WHAS

[with video]

WHAS11.com
Posted on April 15, 2014

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) — Testimony got underway on Tuesday, April 15, in the sexual abuse trial of a former Louisville priest charged with molesting two boys in the 1970s.

This morning, one of the alleged victims was on the stand testifying against James Schook.

The prosecution called its first witness Tuesday morning, April 15. One of the alleged victims, 56-year-old Richard Whitfield took the stand describing how he met James Schook when he was a 7th grader back in the ‘70s.

Whitfield describes how he was interested in becoming a priest and Schook became a mentor figure while Schook himself was finishing seminary school and while living at Saint Rita’s Catholic 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.

IRELAND
Irish Central

Sean Dunne @SeanDunneNYC April 15,2014

A papal visit to Ireland is looking increasingly more likely following comments by representatives of Archbishop Charles Brown in Dublin. Brown, an Irish American Notre Dame graduate is Papal Nuncio in Ireland.

The Archbishop has already held high-level discussions with senior government officials to explore a potential visit.

Archbishop Brown met senior politicians in Leinster House, Ireland’s parliament building, last week including Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Eamon Gilmore. It follows a decision by the Seanad (Senate) to invite the pontiff to Ireland.

The Irish Catholic newspaper reported that the visit is being given “serious consideration” and is described as a realistic prospect.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 15 April 2014 (VIS) – The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., responding to questions from journalists, today declared that next May, the Holy See – along with Cyprus, Lithuania, Guinea, Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Thailand and Uruguay – will present its Initial Report on the Convention Against Torture (CAT) to the relevant Committee.

“It is a standard procedure adhered to by all States party to the Convention”, said Fr. Lombardi. “Considering the types of obligations included in the Convention, the Holy See signed the Convention in 2002 exclusively in the name of and on the part of Vatican City State. For this reason, the Holy See continues to fulfil its obligations on the part of Vatican City State and to present periodical reports, in accordance with the procedures set forth in the Convention”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Birmingham Mail

Apr 15, 2014 By Fionnuala Bourke

An altar boy who was sexually abused by a Catholic priest is suing the heirs of two long-dead Birmingham Archbishops.

The victim, aged in his 50s, has launched a damages claim against the estates of George Dwyer and Maurice Couve de Murville.

He asserts that the former clerics failed to “control” or “remove from post” paedophile priest Samuel Penney.

Seventy-five year-old Penney was jailed for seven-and-a-half years in 1993 after he admitted indecently assaulting seven children.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Times-Leader

April 15. 2014

By Mark Guydish – mguydish@civitasmedia.com

SCRANTON — The priest charged with plying a 13-year-old with alcohol and fondling her feet and legs admitted to struggling “with a pantyhose, feet, strangulation and chloroform fetish,” according to police documents.

In an affidavit written as part of a search warrant application, Scranton Police detective Jennifer Gerrity also wrote that Rev. Philip Altavilla “indicated that he took photographs of the victim’s feet,” apparently referring to the 13 year old allegedly assaulted Christmas morning 1998, “in addition to photos of other teenage girls feet. He kept the photos in a bag at his residence.”

Altavilla, 48 and raised in Plains Township, “also admitted that he uses the internet to research videos and images depicted woman being strangulated, given chloroform and then sexually assaulted.”

The paperwork says Altavilla gave written permission for Gerrity and detective Vince Uher to search his residence,where they seized a computer and cellular phone. “A message appeared on the screen “in plain view of Uher … and indicated that the author has been haunted for years, I still remember waking up with you.

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TENNESSEE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314-503-0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A 14 year old Tennessee girl spoke up and reported her abuse by a former religious leader. We are grateful to this brave girl for having the courage to speak up and help protect other children.

[WSMV]

Randy Guilliani was once the worship leader at Gallatin Church. He was also the step grandfather to the victim. It is deeply disappointing when a person in a position of trust violates that so greatly.

We urge Gallatin church officials to aggressively seek out anyone who may have seen, suspected, or suffered crimes by Guilliani. They should urge anyone with information to report to police.

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
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314-503-0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A child sex abuse case against a Louisville priest has finally started. We are glad that there have been no more delays and justice can begin.

[WDRB]

Fr. James R. Schook was indicted in 2011, but his crimes began in the 1970s. Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz and Vicar General Brian Reynolds both were aware of allegations against Schook. They even temporarily removed him from his position at St. Ignatius Martyr Church in 2009. Despite these warnings a dangerous predator was allowed to roam free and potentially hurt more children.

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

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 15 April 2014)

Two West Australian women have prompted a Catholic priest to admit in court that he committed sexual offences against each of them when they were young girls living in different parishes many years ago. This demonstrates why it is always worthwhile for a church-victim to have a chat with specialist police in the Child Abuse Squad.

This priest, Father Patrick Holmes, is a member of a Catholic religious order called the Camillian Fathers (or Ministers to the Sick). This order specialises in providing chaplains for hospitals as well as working in parishes.

On 15 April 2014, Father Holmes (aged 79) appeared in Perth Magistrates Court, Western Australia, where he pleaded guilty to six charges relating to indecently dealing with two young girls.

In two different parishes, the offences occurred (in different years) in the presbytery (the house where priests live).

Father Holmes admitted that:

1. In 1969, he dealt indecently towards a girl, who was six to seven years old, at the Holy Name parish in Carlisle, a Perth suburb.

2. In 1980, he dealt indecently towards a girl, who was 10 to 12 years old, at St Aloyius parish in Shenton Park, a Perth suburb.

A magistrate ordered Holmes to appear next in Perth District Court in June 2014. when a judge will hold pre-sentence proceedings, followed by a sentencing.

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
Herald Sun

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN APRIL 15, 2014

A NOTORIOUS paedophile priest who was allowed to continue working despite accusations of serious assaults against children has died while waiting to face justice on new charges.

Alleged victims of Wilfred Baker have been left devastated that he will not be held to account for a string of crimes against kids between 1966 and 1974.

He was set to stand trial in the County Court on a string of new offences including indecent assault and gross indecency.

The Herald Sun understands brothers allegedly abused by Baker were poised to give evidence against the disgraced priest.

But prosecutors today filed a notice of discontinuance in the matter following his death in February.

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
Sky News

A Victorian pedophile priest who once confessed to molesting his parishioners’ children has died before facing fresh sex abuse allegations in court.

77-year-old Wilfred James Baker was due to stand trial in the Victorian County Court on charges including indecent assault and buggery after new complainants came forward last year.

The former parish priest of Eltham had already been jailed for four years, with a minimum of two, in 1999 after he confessed to sexually abusing eight boys over a 20-year period.

He was awaiting trial for offences allegedly committed in the 1960s and 1970s when he died.

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
Independent Catholic News

The new Bishop of Paisley, Bishop John Keenan, has decided not to move into the detached sandstone villa used by his predecessors, and move instead to a church property in Greenock’s east end, Herald Scotland reports.

In his first wide-ranging interview since being installed last month, Bishop Keenan has told of his concern that those in destitution have been “abandoned by society and the church”, adding he would reflect “a church out on the street not one that’s comfortable in the chapel”.

Echoing Pope Francis, the 49-year-old said there were still structures within the church restricting its ability to reach out to those on the margins of society. Bishop Keenan said: “Exclusion is a scandal for a country that calls itself Christian.”

He has also spoken of the need to strip some power and responsibility in the church away from the clergy and hand it to lay members, adding he supported the Pontiff’s call for a “new reformation” within Catholicism.

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
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn

15 April 2014

Archbishop Christopher Prowse has urged his clergy to exercise courage, pastoral prudence and mercy in their “most complex vocation”.

The Archbishop was speaking to a gathering of his priests at St Christopher’s Cathedral for the annual Chrism Mass, during which the sacramental oils to be used during the year are blessed.

He took the chance to offer some words of encouragement to priests whose vocations have been challenged by the royal commission into child sex abuse by Church officials and a “confusing secularist society”.

“We live out the priesthood in the shadow of the Calvary Cross as always but in a particular manner today.”

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

AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Salvation Army’s Major Peter Farthing tells royal commission child abusers not same as paedophiles

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH APRIL 15, 2014

THE Salvation Army supported a self-confessed child molester to get a working with children check, it admitted today in the child sex abuse royal commission.

It’s former personnel chief, Major Peter Farthing, said that it was not what it seemed and accused the lawyer who asked the question of providing the latest media headlines.

He said that although one of its officers Colin Haggar got a working with children check, he did not actually ever work with children after he had admitted sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl in 1989.

He was being questioned by Karen McGlinchley who was appearing for a number of witnesses including Major Michelle White, who finally blew the whistle on Mr Haggar last year and reported him to the NSW Ombudsman.

“You may have just provided today’s headlines against the Salvation Army,” he said.

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

AUSTRALIA
Northern Rivers Echo

Jessica Grewal 15th Apr 2014

THE “sadistic” Salvation Army officers who once ruled the Riverview Boy’s home may never be held accountable for their sins but the end of yesterday’s royal commission hearing brought much-needed closure to the surviving victims who shed light on one of the most disturbing chapters in the region’s history.

Over the past two months, the royal commission has been investigating the Salvation Army’s response to victims who claimed they had been abused at the hands of those who were supposed to protect them at several of the organisation’s boy’s homes across Queensland and New South Wales.

At least five of the offending officers, two of whom are still living, were said to have been transferred between the homes rather than being reprimanded.

The commission heard that a culture of abuse going unreported had existed from the turbulent post-Second World War period, right up until Riverview – later known as the Endeavour Training Farm – was shut down by the State Government in the late 1970s.

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
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Apr 15, 2014

Poor oversight and flawed policies are among the serious shortcomings inside the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis that opened the door “for some priests to harm children,” a panel ordered by the archbishop concluded Monday.

“Behavioral warning signs were minimized or inappropriately rationalized,” the panel said, adding the archdiocese also has a “confusing and inadequate” system to report complaints of sexual abuse of children.

The report by the Safe Environment and Ministerial Standards Task Force calls for criminal background checks of priests at least every six years and an anonymous hotline for complaints. The hotline would forward allegations of child sexual abuse to the head of the archdiocese’s child safety programs.

The task force did not criticize anyone by name or hold any church official responsible for the clergy sexual abuse crisis. It did not recommend any punishment for bishops or other senior officials who covered up abuse allegations. And, although it called for transparency, it urged that some information on abusive priests be kept private.

The report provides a list of 32 people interviewed by the task force, including Archbishop John Nienstedt and former archbishop Harry Flynn. The task force tried to interview Nienstedt’s former deputy, but the archdiocese wrongly claimed it didn’t know how to locate him, the report said. No victims of clergy sexual abuse or their family members are included on the list.

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
Washington Times

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – There have been serious shortcomings in how the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has handled allegations of sexual abuse by priests because too much decision-making power was given to one or two people who weren’t subject to adequate oversight, a task force commissioned by the archdiocese reported Monday.

The task force recommended forming a single clergy-review board with a majority of laypeople to review all allegations of clergy misconduct. It said a lay person should be hired to take charge of all issues related to clergy sexual abuse and to report allegations to police. And it called for a comprehensive auditing and monitoring program to ensure that efforts to provide a safe environment are effective.

Archbishop John Nienstedt has pledged to accept the recommendations, the archdiocese said in a statement. The Rev. Reginald Whitt, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas who named the seven-member task force last October, will oversee the implementation of the 53-page report, the statement said.

The report drew an immediate rebuke from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which said the task force wasn’t really independent. The group predicted nothing would change.

“It’s laughable that this panel blames ‘outdated systems’ for deliberate decisions by dozens of Catholic officials. As long as we act like these are ‘mistakes’ and not intentional, self-serving choices by smart but selfish men, kids will continue being hurt and crimes will continue being concealed,” SNAP’s outreach director, Barbara Dorris, said in a statement.

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
Laois Nationalist

A Catholic priest has said he would do anything to protect a child, but that he would not break the seal of confession.

Father Gearoid O’Donnchu, a retired parish priest, was speaking in light of yesterday’s publication of the Children First Bill.

The new law makes it mandatory for professionals, including clergy, to report situations where they believe children are at risk.

Father O’Donnchu said he was not sure whether his stance would break the law, but that if it did, he would still be prepared to observe the confessional seal.

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 Central

Patrick Counihan @irishcentral April 15,2014

An Irish priest has warned that he will not break the seal of confession despite his support for all efforts to end clerical child sex abuse.

Retired Catholic parish priest Fr Gearoid O Donnchu told the Irish Examiner that he would do anything to protect a child, but will not reveal anything heard in confession.

He spoke to the paper in light of the publication of the Children First Bill.

The new legislation makes it mandatory for the clergy and professionals to report situations where they believe children are at risk.

The priest admitted he is not sure whether his stance would break the law, but that if it did, he would still be prepared to observe the confessional seal.

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 Times

Dan Griffin

The publication of the long-awaited Children First Bill was broadly welcomed today but some campaign groups and opposition members voiced concern over the legislation’s lack of sanctions.

The Bill places a statutory obligation on certain professionals and other people working with children to report child protection concerns to the Child and Family Agency (Tulsa). Medical practitioners, teachers, social workers, gardaí, members of the clergy and child protection officers, among others, will be required to report such concerns.

The legislation also obliges those intending to provide services to children to carry out a risk assessment and prepare a child safeguarding statement within three months of commencing the service.

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said the new law aims to make best safeguarding practice the “cultural norm” for anyone working with children. “Our focus on who is mandated [to report safety concerns] in the Bill is in accordance with international practice. I believe it strikes the correct balance in achieving high quality reporting, with high substantiation rates while avoiding overwhelming the child protection system with inappropriate reports, which is a key criticism of the operation of mandatory reporting in other countries,” she said.

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IRELAND
Journal

THE CHILDREN FIRST bill has been published, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald announced today.

The legislation will put Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children [2011] on a statutory footing.

This is a Programme for Government commitment and was recommended in the 2009 Ryan Report implementation plan.

In March, Fitzgerald noted that the bill “has been talked about by Fianna Fáil since 1999″. …

The Bill provides for a number of key child protection measures, including:

* A requirement on mandated persons to report child protection concerns to the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) including: medical practitioners; registered nurses; teachers; social workers; gardai; psychologists; members of the clergy

* A requirement on mandated persons to assist the Child and Family Agency in the assessment of a child protection risk, if requested to do so by the Agency;

* Organisations providing services to children required to to comply with best practice in child protection as set out in the Children First Guidelines and to produce a Child Safeguarding Statement;

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Noel Baker
Senior Reporter

The Government yesterday hailed the publication of the long-awaited Children First Bill which, if made into law, will make it mandatory for professionals to report possible incidents of abuse.

However, anti-abuse campaigners and opposition deputies asked why there were no sanctions for those named professionals who failed to report abuse and neglect, with Fianna Fáil claiming it was a “U-turn”.

Among those who will be required to report alleged abuse under the terms of the bill are medical practitioners, registered nurses, teachers, social workers, gardaí, psychologists, members of the clergy, and pre- school child care staff.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

Marie Collins says it is ‘morally wrong’ for child abusers to be protected through the seal of confession. A survivor herself, she was recently appointed to a Vatican commission on protecting children from abuse.

She has been speaking after a priest this morning told how he would do anything to protect a child – but would not break the seal of confession.

Father Gearóid Ó Donnchú, a retired parish priest, was speaking in light of the publication yesterday of the Children First Bill.

The new law makes it mandatory for professionals – including clergy – to report situations where they believe children are at risk.

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.

NETHERLANDS
The Tablet

15 April 2014

Roermond diocese in southern Holland has apologised for the sexual abuse of two boys by its former Bishop Johannes Gijsen, who served there from 1972 to 1993 and died last year.

The two cases were deemed well-founded by the commission investigating abuse claims in the Dutch Church and date back to the period 1958-1961, when Gijsen was a chaplain and teacher at a minor seminary.

The weekly Katholiek Nieuwsblad, which first reported the story, said the commission found Gijsen had improperly touched two boys and forced one to perform oral sex. He was confronted with the latter accusation in 2011 but denied knowing the accuser and sued him for defamation.

The case was closed at the time, but reopened a week after Gijsen died because the second victim had come forward. On review, the commission found his excuse was not credible because the victim’s family had said he used to visit them.

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UNITED STATES
City of Angels

Kay Ebeling

Why exaggerate when the simple truth is so much more effective?

Like we could not find a legitimate argument, so we stretched out someone else’s?

Child molestation by priests is not torture.

I see this latest UN filing by SNAP as playing right into the Vatican’s hands, with a weak legal argument that hurts our cause. I hope I am wrong, but as always, I write here what I see and that is what I see. A confounding, almost preposterous, stretch when there are hundreds of legitimate criminal charges that could be made against Catholic bishops.

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.

NETHERLANDS
NL Times

Bishop Frans Wiertz has made a statement from the Church in Maastricht about a recent scandal involving Jo Gijsen, Wiertz’s predecessor, who abused two children.

“Our church has also had it difficult to face up to the faults that are the result of the actions of her members. We have in The Netherlands and our bishopric been confronted in a painful way this week that a bishop, priests and monks abused their power and committed acts that cannot withstand the light of day: abuse of children and young people. It could not be worse” Wiertz said.

The bishop has been under pressure the last few days to say something about the scandal. He is thought to have known for some time what Jo Gijsen did, but only broke his silence about it on Monday.

Wiertz spoke at a special service, with the theme of propitiation. The service was organized by the bishop himself and with input from Mea Culpa, among others, which is an organization of abuse victims.

Wiertz asked himself if the protection of the institute was more important than the protection of the victims? “It hurts to be confronted with these sinister black sides of the church. We want to recognize that the ecclesiastical leaders and church members have awoken great irritation and that they have made themselves guilty of serious cases.”

Wiertz continued to tell the churchgoers, among whom several abuse victims were present, that forgiveness does not come easy. “Forgiveness is only possible there, where recognition of fault has preceded”, Wiertz said. Jo Gijsen has always denied everything, and even accused one of the indicters of defamation.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Father Tom Doyle and Jerry Slevin on Abuse Crisis and Pope Francis: When Will Words Yield Actions?

I highly recommend Father Tom Doyle’s recent presentation (pdf) to the group Voice of the Faithful regarding where we find ourselves with the abuse crisis in the Catholic church today. It’s entitled “Clergy Sexual Abuse and the Church Today: Turning Talk into Action.” Doyle’s assessment of where we find ourselves is sobering (and, for my money, right on target):

There are no clear signs of hope that the institutional Church is beginning to comprehend the horrendous nature of sexual abuse by clerics. There has been a great deal of rhetoric and public relations bluster but there is little if anything to show sincerity. To date no bishop has been subjected to any penal process or penal sanctions for sexually abusing minors or adults himself or for their failure to remove known perpetrators.

There’s lots of talk. There’s not any action to speak of. Convicted criminal Bishop Robert Finn continues to sit undisturbed on his episcopal throne in Kansas City, and, as Tom Doyle notes, bishops keep right on playing cruel hardball games with abuse survivors, forfeiting pastoral imperatives to do instead what lawyers tell dictate to them, withholding information about abusive priests, putting known predators into ministry, and letting the odious Bill Donohue function freely as their vicious media attack dog.

Tom Doyle does not find a great deal of hope in the appointment of the new eight-member papal advisory commission on abuse, because, well, our popes have long since been advised. They know the score. They know what to do.

The problem is and has been doing, not talking. …

As Jerry Slevin notes,

Instead of really facing the abuse problem, Pope Francis instead usually just tries to change the subject, for example, by more mystical propaganda ploys like the upcoming canonizations of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII. Of course, neither of their abysmal records on holding bishops, or even priests, accountable for abusing children has even been addressed in the “rush to sainthood”. How long does Francis think he can go on trying to change the subject? Although many Catholics sometimes appear to be overly docile and wishful thinkers, most of them are not that naïve, as the 30 plus million US Catholics who have left the Church appear to indicate.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 15, 2014

THE Salvation Army helped one of its officers apply to be allowed to work with children a decade after he first confessed to his superiors that he had sexually assaulted a young girl.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard that Colin Haggar was readmitted into the church’s ranks, and subsequently promoted, two years after first admitting he abused the girl in 1990.

In 2002, the commission heard this morning, the Army applied for Mr Haggar to be granted a Working With Children Check, without disclosing his previous abuse. Another successful application for a renewal of this assessment was made last year.

Giving evidence this morning, the Army’s former Secretary for Personnel, Major Peter Farthing, said a recent operational restructure meant the organisation had been unaware Mr Haggar had some responsibility for children living in crisis accommodation in Sydney.

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CANADA
Didsbury Review

Tuesday, Apr 15, 2014 | BY Kevin Vink

A 69-year-old Carstairs man and former Baptist church leader turned himself in to Calgary police to face charges related to alleged sexual assaults against two females dating as far back as the 1970s, say police.

Det. Jeff Klinger spoke to press in Calgary on Thursday, April 10, stating that Thomas Larry Jones was charged the previous day with a total of 12 counts related to the case.

The case came to light following another case where a man turned himself in and admitted to assaulting three male victims while in a leadership role in a Calgary-based Baptist church, he said.

A female came forward with claims against Jones in 1993, but Klinger said there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the case.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

People who sexually abuse children are not all paedophiles and the Salvation Army would dispute having one in their ranks, a senior official at the church says.

Its former secretary for personnel, Major Peter Farthing, on Tuesday also told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he did not launch an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of two women because such inquiries were not ‘second nature’ to him.

The commission has heard that former Salvation Army officer Colin Haggar admitted abusing an eight-year-old girl in a central western NSW town in 1989.

But this did not necessarily make him a pedophile, Mr Farthing said.

‘My understanding is that a pedophile is somebody whose primary sexual orientation is towards children or adolescents, and not all offenders are paedophiles,’ Mr Farthing told the commission.

‘Some people offend in a kind of crime of opportunity – a situational crime.

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CANADA
Bayshore Broadcasting

Tuesday, April 15, 2014 4:37 AM by Kevin Bernard

Fred King will be back in Court on Wednesday to answer charges in Church assault.

(Owen Sound) –
The leader of the Church of Jesus Christ Restored, is back behind bars at Penetanguishene.

55 year old Fred King had a brief court appearance in Owen Sound on Monday, where his case was put over until Wednesday for a bail hearing.

King was known as “The Prophet”, and leader of the cult-like group just outside of Chatsworth, south of Owen Sound.

He was wanted on a Canada-wide warrant prior to his arrest in Hamilton last Friday.

King had disappeared after former members of the Church of Jesus Christ Restored in Chatsworth went to police in 2012 with allegations of physical and sexual abuse.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on April 14, 2014

The Catholic church has done nothing to warrant being forgiven, says a sex abuse victim.

“What Pope Francis said doesn’t mean a thing,” said the Mount Cashel survivor, who does not want his name used.

“He can bow his head, shuffle, look at the ground as he is walking, but this is nonsense.”

Last week in Vatican City, Pope Francis asked for forgiveness from people who were sexually abused by priests, and vowed that there will be no going back in the church’s fight to protect children.

Francis made the off-the-cuff remarks after coming under criticism from victims’ advocacy groups for a perceived lack of attention to the problem and ongoing demands that he sanction bishops who covered up for pedophiles.

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TENNESSEE
WSMV

[with video]

Reported by Hayley Mason

GALLATIN, TN (WSMV) –
For nearly 10 years, the 14-year-old step-granddaughter of Randy Guilliani has sat in silence toiling with heart-wrenching memories of the abuse she endured as a child.

“Because I was so young, I wasn’t sure if it was right or wrong,” she said. “I knew that it felt weird. It felt different,” she added. She says it started when she was just five years old. Guilliani sexually assaulted her and did not stop until she was six.

“It took a long time for me to finally come out and say it. It was bothering me a lot. I started going to counseling. I was getting depressed,” she said.

She said she would go to Guilliani’s home in Hendersonville almost daily after school when her mother had to work. Guilliani, who told police he was once a worship leader, most recently at a Gallatin church, was always nice, she said, and spoke in a “sweet voice.”

“He told me not to say anything, so I wouldn’t,” the teen said. “I didn’t think that it was anything bad.” As she got older, she realized it was not only bad, it was a crime. “I would remember what happened and I started thinking to myself, ‘Oh my gosh, he did such horrible things to me when I was a little girl.'”

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PENNSYLVANIA
WNEP

[with video]

April 14, 2014, by Stacy Lange

SCRANTON — While Roman Catholic priests in our area are committed to Holy Week these days. A priest in the Diocese of Scranton may be facing more trouble.

Court papers filed by Lackawanna County detectives focus on the questionable behavior of the former pastor of Saint Peter’s Cathedral already facing charges.

Newswatch 16 obtained a copy of a search warrant Scranton Police filed after they went to the rectory at St. Peter’s Cathedral earlier this month to arrest Father Phil Altavilla. Investigators need the warrant to search the priest’s computer and phone.

A search warrant approved by a magistrate in Lackawanna County says more about what Fr. Phil Altavilla told his alleged victim. The warrant describes a recorded conversation with her just before the priest’s arrest on child sex abuse charges. …

The search warrant says, “Altavilla also admitted that he uses the internet to research videos and images depicting women being strangulated, given chloroform, and then sexually assaulted.”

The priest willingly gave up his computer, Ipad, and cell phone for investigators to search.

Investigators will wait to see if what they find on those devices leads them to more charges against Altavilla or more victims.

Scranton Police detectives said it may take weeks for investigators to search Altavilla’s computer and phone.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

KAITLYN OFFER COURT REPORTER PERTHNOW APRIL 15, 2014

AN elderly Perth Catholic priest has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two young girls, dating back to 1969 and 1980.

Father Patrick Holmes, 79, appeared in Perth Magistrates Court this morning, where he admitted six charges relating to two young girls under the age of 13.

Police charged Holmes over an offence in 1980, at the St Aloyius Church in Shenton Park, when he indecently assaulted a girl who was aged 10 to 12 years old when she visited the presbytery after school.

He also indecently assaulted a girl aged six to seven years old in 1969 while working at the Holy Name Church in Carlisle, also allegedly in the presbytery.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Joanna Menagh

A Catholic priest in Perth has pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting two young girls in offences dating back decades.

Patrick Holmes, 79, indecently assaulted a girl aged about 12 in the Perth suburb of Shenton Park in 1980.

The offences occurred when the girl visited the presbytery at St Aloysius Church after school.

Holmes also assaulted a girl aged seven while working at the Catholic Holy Name Church in Carlisle in 1969.

Holmes pleaded guilty to six indecent dealing charges.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

MARK COLVIN: It sounds unbelievable, but in New South Wales a convicted child abuser is pursuing his victim for almost $20,000, and the victim says he feels as powerless as when he was being assaulted.

The child abuser is a former school teacher who was employed at the Blue Mountains Grammar School in the early 1970s. Even though he was convicted of molesting his former student, he now wants the victim to pay his legal bill.

Lawyers and a New South Wales politician say the case highlights the need for legal reforms.

Lorna Knowles has the story.

LORNA KNOWLES: Mark Wurth was repeatedly abused at the school by the then-house master and geography teacher, Neville Gilbert Betteridge.

MARK WURTH: He was coming into the dormitory through the infirmary of a night and taking me from my bed.

LORNA KNOWLES: In 2004, Betteridge was convicted of indecently assaulting Mr Wurth and was given a three year suspended jail term. Seven years later, Mr Wurth sued Betteridge and the Anglican Church Diocese, which ran the school at the time, for damages.

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NEW MEXICO
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 14, 2014

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — A federal judge is ordering the Diocese of Gallup to mount an advertising campaign and post notices to alert the public about the process for filing claims in its bankruptcy case.

The order signed Friday by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Thuma also sets an Aug. 11 deadline for people who allege they were sexually abused by priests in the diocese to file claims in the bankruptcy case.

Diocese attorney Susan Boswell says the diocese plans to spend up to $40,000 for newspaper advertisements and television and radio spots.

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NEDERLAND
L1

De Stichting Mea Culpa heeft er begrip voor dat het bisdom het nieuws over het seksueel misbruik door oud-bisschop Gijsen niet openbaar heeft gemaakt.

Dat zegt Bert Smeets van de stichting Mea Culpa, die zich inzet voor de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik door priesters van de katholieke kerk.

Volgens Smeets wilden de twee slachtoffers van het seksueel misbruik ook niet dat er ruchtbaarheid aan zou worden gegeven. Dit vanwege hun privacy.

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NEDERLAND
NOS

[Without mentioned his name, Roermond Bishop Frans Wiertz said former Bishop Jo Gijsen brought shame through his actions of abusing two boys.]

Door verslaggever Joris van de Kerkhof

Zonder zijn naam te noemen heeft de huidige bisschop van Roermond van zijn voorganger gezegd dat hij “schande heeft verwekt door daden te verrichten die het daglicht niet kunnen verdragen: misbruik van kinderen en jongeren, erger kan niet”.

Bisschop Wiertz sprak in de Onze Lieve Vrouwe Basiliek in Maastricht tijdens een zogenoemde boetedienst. In de basiliek werd een kunstwerk onthuld voor de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk. Deze week werd bekend dat de voorganger van Wiertz, bisschop Gijsen, kinderen seksueel heeft misbruikt.

Schuld
Volgens Wiertz heeft de katholieke kerk het er moeilijk mee om schuld onder ogen te zien, schuld die het gevolg is van daden van haar leden. “Wij zijn in Nederland en in ons bisdom nog deze week er op een pijnlijke wijze mee geconfronteerd dat een bisschop, priesters en kloosterlingen hun macht hebben misbruikt en afbreuk hebben gedaan aan hun kerkelijke zending.”

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WASHINGTON/OREGON
KOIN

VANCOUVER, Wash. (KOIN) – The 14-year-old girl allegedly lured by a Catholic priest from Scappoose became so frightened she ran to a nearby daycare for help when it happened in early March.

That information is found in court documents obtained by KOIN 6 News in the case against Fr. Michael Patrick.

The alleged incident happened March 10 near Burton Elementary School in Vancouver. Documents said the girl told authorities Fr. Patrick stopped next to her and then continued to follow her down the street. He kept trying to coax her into his car and at one point said, “Come on, Cutie,” the documents said.

That night, Vancouver police spoke with the priest. Though the girl identified him at the time, he was not arrested. …

He’s been in the Archdiocese of Portland since 1998:

St. Alexander, Cornelius 1998-99
St. Patrick, Portland 1999-2001
St. Edward, Keizer 2001-03
St. Phillip Benzi, Redland 2004-10
Holy Trinity, Bandon 2010-12
St. Wencelaus, Scappoose, 2012 – present

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NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Newsroom

BY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Last month Roman Catholic Archbishop John Myers announced the closing of elementary school Blessed Pope John XXIII Academy in West Orange.

A number of Newark Archdiocesan schools have closed in the past few years because the archdiocese couldn’t afford to keep them open. Yet at this point, renovations on Myers’ retirement home are within the church’s budget.

NorthJersey.com reported that the expansion of Myers’ home in two years includes fireplaces, an indoor pool, and a fifth bedroom, with costs adding up to more than $500,000. Protesters delivered petitions signed by 22,000 at Newark’s Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Sunday.

The latest school closing will take place June 30, because its enrollment has not gone up in the past seven years. “Our school has been deeply rooted in West Orange for years. Although our students come from diverse backgrounds, we are all dedicated to cultivating an environment that promotes equality and respect as well as spiritual and intellectual growth in our students,” said Principal Lynda Wright, according to The Alternative Press. “When I heard this news, I was brokenhearted for all of us.”

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UNITED STATES
Headlines from the Catholic World

April 14, 2014 By CNA Daily News

New York City, N.Y., Apr 14, 2014 / 03:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Maryland-born priest Father John Connor, L.C., has been named the head of the Legion of Christ’s territory of North America.

“I’m humbled by this assignment and ask for the prayers of everyone in the North American Territory,” Fr. Connor said April 14.

Fr. Eduardo Robles Gill, the Legion of Christ’s general director, announced the appointment April 12.

Fr. Connor will replace the territory’s outgoing director Fr. Luis Garza as of May 1.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Vincent A. Orlando was ordained a Jesuit priest of the New Orleans Province in 1974. He worked as an educator in Jesuit high schools in Dallas and Houston, TX and in Tampa, FL. In April 2002 he was removed from ministry after a report was made to the New Orleans Province that in 1985, when Orlando was assigned to Strake Prep. in Houston, he engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor. The Jesuits acknowledged in May 2002 that this was not the first complaint against Orlando. In 1984 a Strake student told school officials that Orlando tried to inpappropriately touch him during a school ski trip. The New Orleans Province was informed; civil authorities were not. Orlando was “admonished” and kept his job at Strake until a transfer to Tampa in 2000. He is known to have been living since 2003 in a Jesuit community in New Orleans.

Ordained: 1974

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
PA Homepage

New details are emerging into the investigation of a priest in the Diocese of Scranton.

Less than two weeks ago, Father Philip Altavilla was arrested for allegedly inappropriately touching a 13-year-old girl back in 1998.

Scranton police say Father Altavilla inappropriately touched the girl after giving her alcohol after midnight mass on Christmas in 1998.

A search warrant filed in connection with the case by Scranton police indicates investigators have seized the computer and phone of Father Altavilla.

The sign outside Saint Peter’s Cathedral has been changed within the last two weeks.

With Father Philip Altavilla suspended from his position in the Diocese of Scranton, his name has been removed from the board that once indicated he was Cathedral Priest. …

Eyewitness News has obtained a search warrant application made by Scranton police who were looking to seize the computer and the phone belonging to the long-time priest from his room in the rectory building, which is right next to Saint Peter’s Cathedral.

During an interview with detectives, the search warrant says, “the defendant admitted that he struggled with a pantyhose, feet, strangulation and chlorofoam fetish.”

The paperwork continues, “Altavilla also admitted that he uses the internet to research videos and images depicting women being strangulated, given chloroform and then sexually assaulted.”

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NEDERLAND
Dagblad De Limburger

[Summary: Without mentioning his name directly, Bishop Frans Wiertz on Monday night distanced himself from predecessor Jo Gijen, who the church has admitted sexually abused two boys. Bishop Wiertz spoke during a special celebration in Masstricht.]

Zonder diens naam concreet te noemen heeft bisschop Frans Wiertz maandagavond tijdens een speciale boeteviering in Maastricht in voor hem opmerkelijk klare bewoordingen afstand genomen van zijn voorganger Jo Gijsen en diens daden van seksueel misbruik.

Door onze verslaggever

In een tien minuten durende preek had Wiertz het over “een bisschop, priesters en kloosterlingen die hun macht hebben misbruikt en afbreuk hebben gedaan aan kerkelijke zending. Ze hebben schande verwekt, door daden te verrichten die het daglicht niet kunnen verdragen: misbruik van kinderen en jeugdigen. Erger kan niet”.

De bisschop sprak over zonden en schuldgevoelens, waarmee je alleen in het reine kunt komen door ze onder ogen te zien, in plaats van ze te verdringen. “Tientallen jaren is het ontkend of toegedekt. Nu het in de ware omvang bekend geworden is, is de schaamte groot. Ouders hebben hun kinderen toevertrouwd aan mensen van de kerk in de mening dat er geen veiligere plek was. Kinderen werden misbruikt. Hun verhalen werden vaak niet geloofd. (…) Ook al is het een halve eeuw geleden gebeurd, wij ervaren het als een erfschuld, die haast niet meer goed te maken is.”

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KENTUCKY
WHAS

Updated today at 4:47 PM

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) — Jury selection began on Monday afternoon in the sexual abuse trial of a former Louisville priest.

Father James Schook is charged with several counts of sodomy.

Police said he sexually abused two boys back in the 1970s. He was ruled competent to stand trial last year, even though his attorneys had argued that he was terminally ill and too sick to stand trial.

The start of Schook’s trial has been delayed several times.

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By Joe Kimball

A task force set up by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis found serious shortcomings in the handling of clergy abuse cases. Archbishop John Nienstedt said he accepts the recommendations called for to improve the situation.

Church officials chose the task force amid serious allegations made against priests, and the way that church officials dealt with offending priests.

The archdiocese today released the Safe Environment and Ministerial Standards Task Force’s report (pdf) which list these “serious shortcomings:”

* For many years, the Archdiocese concentrated too much power in one or two individuals to make decisions regarding allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors. These individuals were not subject to adequate oversight nor their decisions and actions subject to monitoring and audit. Processes and decisions have appeared secretive and sequestered, even if that was not the intent.

* Communication within the Archdiocese and with the faithful, the public, the media and victims of abusive clergy about clergy secual abuse of minors has been inadequate and, at times, non-existant. Information became compartmentalized which prevented decision-makers and relevant boards from knowing all the pertinent information, including early warning sigs which could have suggested future problems.

* The Archdiocese’s record-keeping regarding the performance and conduct of its clergy is not comprehensive or coordinated and relies on outdated systems. Among other things, facts that relate to clergy misconduct are often unavailable to decision-makers at important points in the process.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 15, 2014

A FORMER policeman employed by the Salvation Army to investigate child abuse committed by its officers says the organisation is unable to cope with the number of cases being brought against it.

John Greville yesterday told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he was one of two full-time investigators employed by the church, which has received about 200 allegations of historical abuse so far this year.

“They’re not coping very well at all. We need to respond to all the victims who are making reports as well as keeping up with the current caseload,” Mr Greville said.

The former NSW detective, whose contract with the church ends in two weeks, was also critical of some senior officers within the church regarding its own internal investigations. “They obviously don’t appreciate the seriousness with which some of these processes need to be undertaken,” he said.

He was particularly critical of the church’s handling of child abuse allegations against senior officer Colin Haggar, who confessed to sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl in regional NSW in 1990.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

by Mike Durkin

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
A 7-member, vicar-appointed task force with the “single overriding goal” of protecting children has released its report on the handling of clergy sexual misconduct issues within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The report found a top-heavy power structure, a lack of oversight and accountability and the failure to follow procedures “created opportunities for some priests to harm children.”

THE INVESTIGATION

The task force met 23 times between October 2013 and March 2014, reviewing thousands of pages of documents and interviewing 32 individuals — a group that included archdiocese officials, parish priests and experts in the field of child sexual abuse.

“This report cannot undo the damage that has been done to many people within the archdiocese,” the task force wrote. “The task force’s hope is that our recommendations will help prevent future clergy sexual abuse of minors.”

5 PROBLEMS

The investigation found “serious shortcomings” in the implementation of the Dallas Charter, which sets the standards for handling sex abuse complaints in American parishes:

Too much power at the top: “For many years, the archdiocese concentrated too much power in one or two individuals to make decisions regarding allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors. These individuals were not subject to adequate oversight nor their decisions and actions subject to monitoring and audit. Processes and decisions have appeared secretive and sequestered, even if that was not the intent”

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MINNESOTA
Daily Reporter

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: April 14, 2014

MINNEAPOLIS — A task force examining the way the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis handled allegations of sexual abuse by priests says too much power was given to one or two people to decide how to handle claims.

The task force, which was commissioned by the archdiocese, recommended several changes Monday.

The report recommends a single review board, with a majority of laypeople, to review all allegations of clergy misconduct. A layperson would be named the archdiocese’s delegate to manage its response to all misconduct reports.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Times-Tribune

BY DAVID SINGLETON (STAFF WRITER)Published: April 14, 2014

A Diocese of Scranton priest accused of inappropriately touching a teenge girl in 1998 after giving her alcohol told investigators he searches the Internet for depictions of women being strangled and sexually assaulted.

The information is contained in an application for a search warrant for the Rev. Philip Altavilla’s computer and cellphone filed by Scranton detectives with Magisterial District Judge John Pesota.

Father Altavilla was arrested April 3 on charges he provided alcohol to a 13-year-old girl after the Christmas Eve midnight Mass at St. Patrick’s Church in 1998 and then fondled her feet while giving her a ride home. He faces a preliminary hearing April 30.

In an affidavit supporting the search warrant application, investigators said Father Altavilla told them in an interview the day of his arrest that he struggled with a fetish involving feet, pantyhose, chloroform and strangulation.

He admitted he had taken photographs of the victim’s feet, as well as the feet of other teenage girls, and kept the pictures in a bag in his residence, the affidavit said.

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CANADA
Quinte News

Rene Labelle, a former Tyendinaga Township priest, is going to prison.

Labelle was sentenced to 16 months prison and 30 months probation in a Kingston court room Monday. He will also be on the sex offender registry for 10 years and will have to complete counselling.

The parents of the victim called the incident an extreme breach of trust in their victim impact statement.

They said they witnessed a 180-degree change in their child after the incident on Wolfe Island in 2004

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, April 14

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

Once again we have a very lengthy Catholic church report that claims ‘mistakes’ have been made and implying that some minor ‘tweaks’ in job titles and church policies will make abuse by clergy and cover ups by bishops a problem in the past. That is, of course, silly and deceptive.

[St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese]

It’s worth noting that

–the archdiocesan recklessness and callousness have already been exposed numerous times by law enforcement, news sources, court documents and brave survivors. This report admits – in very “toned down” terms – what everyone already knows and has known for months or years.

–the vague acknowledgment that ‘people at the top’ have made ‘mistakes’ is old news and deceitful. They have engaged in criminal behavior. (Interestingly enough, the word ‘crime’ is only mentioned just three times in 56 pages.)

–church officials will allegedly do internal ‘audits’ of an internal program created by them for themselves and then tell us how they are doing. On its face, that’s not an objective or effective process.

— nowhere in the report does it say call police or law enforcement.

The panel claims that “The Archdiocese concentrated too much power in one or two individuals to make decisions regarding allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors.” Sadly, no matter how much “tweaking” Catholic officials do, this will remain unchanged, because the church is a rigid, ancient, secretive, self-serving hierarchy.

“These individuals were not subject to adequate oversight,” the panel claims. And of course “these individuals” will never get “adequate oversight” because, again, the church is a rigid, ancient, secretive, self-serving hierarchy.

We agree that “processes and decisions have appeared secretive,” But that’s because they were, and still are, in fact “secretive.” It’s naïve to pretend or believe otherwise.

Remember, Catholic officials have dealt with clergy sex crimes and cover ups for centuries and publicly for decades.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Thomas J. Naughton was ordained a priest of the Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus in 1965. He went on to work in high schools, parishes and retreat houses across the South, as part of the Jesuit’s New Orleans Province, with a two-year stint in St. Louis, MO and a year in Berkeley, CA. In the mid-1990s he relocated to southern California where he worked as a visiting priest in a a Mission Viejo parish. He was removed in April 2002 after a man reported to the Jesuits that Naughton sexually abused him in 1978 at Jesuit College Preparatory School in Dallas, TX, when Naughton was the school’s president. Naughton, as it was reported in 2002, was removed from Dallas’ Jesuit Prep. in 1979 after he attempted to grope a young faculty member in a locker room whirlpool and was seen in the same one-person tub with someone else. Naughton was recalled to the New Orleans Province after his 2002 removal, and at some point returned to southern California. He died in August 2012.

Ordained: 1965
Died: Aug. 6, 2012

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Concentrated power, poor oversight and little communication with the faithful are among serious shortcomings inside the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis that opened the door “for some priests to harm children,” a panel ordered by the archbishop said Monday.

“Behavioral warning signs were minimized or inappropriately rationalized,” the task force said, adding the archdiocese also has a “confusing and inadequate” system to report complaints of sexual abuse of children.

The report calls for a system overhaul in how complaints are received and accused priests monitored. It also calls for a single clergy review board, with lay people in the majority, to receive and review all allegations of clergy misconduct.

“Despite Archdiocesan policies and procedures designed to protect against clergy sexual abuse of minors, a flawed organizational structure with little oversight and accountability created opportunities” for some priests to abuse children, the report released Monday said.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 04/14/2014

There are “serious shortcomings” in the way the Twin Cities archdiocese has dealt with alleged child sexual abuse by its priests, a report released Monday concludes.

The Safe Environment and Ministerial Standards Task Force, whose members were appointed in October by the Rev. Reginald Whitt of St. Thomas University, said the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis had for many years “concentrated too much power in one or two individuals to make decisions” about clergy sex abuse.

One of those, former Vicar General Kevin McDonough, refused through his attorney to be interviewed by the task force.

Task force members wanted to interview another former vicar general, Rev. Peter Laird.

The archdiocese said Laird was on leave and “it did not have contact information for him.”
Among the report’s conclusions:

— Record-keeping on clergy is done by outdated systems and is not comprehensive.

— The archdiocese’s complaint-reporting system is “confusing and inadequate.”

— The archdiocese has “no meaningful compliance auditing and monitoring program to evaluate, test, and monitor compliance with policies and procedures that are designed to prevent and detect sexual abuse of minors.”

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MEXICO
Vanguardia

[Summary: Barbara Blaine, founder of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said her organization is disappointed in the Vatican’s response to a UN report on how the church handles sexual abuse allegations and is also disappointed that the pope did not take stronger measures against the Legion of Christ.]

México, D.F.- Barbara Blaine estaba a punto de cumplir 13 años cuando el sacerdote de su parroquia comenzó a abusar de ella. “Era verano”, dice hoy esta mujer que ronda los 58 natural de Toledo (Ohio) fundadora y presidenta de una organización de víctimas de la violencia sexual del clero con presencia en 79 países, SNAP.

La tortura duró hasta su graduación, pero en ese tiempo nunca se lo dijo a nadie. Los traumas llegaron después. “Empecé a tener pesadillas, lloraba de pronto sin ningún motivo aparente y decidí ver a un terapeuta. Él me preguntó por mi infancia, si mis padres bebían o éramos pobres. Yo respondía de forma adecuada hasta que un día me pidió que le hablara de mi primer beso y del primer novio. Entonces empecé a contar que tenía 12 años y que había sido un cura. Aún no era muy consciente de lo que había sucedió”.

EN MÉXICO

En 1988 comenzó su trabajo en la organización que esta semana la ha llevado a México para participar en un foro internacional sobre el significado del informe del Comité de los Derechos del Niño de la ONU a la Santa Sede. El documento, histórico porque nunca antes un organismo internacional había cuestionado a la Institución, acusa al Vaticano de no haber reconocido nunca “la magnitud de los crímenes sexuales” cometidos por parte de sus religiosos y de “no haber tomado las medidas necesarias para proteger a los menores”. El informe presentado a comienzos de año en Ginebra concluye que los abusos “se siguen cometiendo de forma sistemática mientras la inmensa mayoría de los culpables disfruta de total impunidad”.

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NEW JERSEY
South Jersey Times

By Alex Young/South Jersey Times
on April 14, 2014

SALEM — The former Salem City pastor accused of sexually assaulting a minor was arraigned Monday in Salem County Superior Court, where it was revealed that a relative was his alleged victim.

Jonathan H. Smith, 59, appeared at the county courthouse on Market Street to hear the charges filed against him and entered a plea of not guilty before Superior Court Judge Timothy Farrell.

While reading a summary of the case during the hearing, Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Rastelli revealed that the alleged victim was a minor relative, who spent time at Smith’s Market Street home during the summer of 2013.

Rastelli said the boy’s mother became concerned when he returned home after his time in Salem and something didn’t seem right.

The boy told his mother about the alleged incidents who then alerted the authorities.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Beginning in the fall of 2013, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis (“the Archdiocese”) faced a crisis arising from media reports that it had mishandled complaints of sexual abuse of minors by its clergy. The media reports suggested a betrayal by the Church of its fundamental duty to protect children entrusted to its care. These allegations were irreconcilable with the commitment of the Church to provide a safe environment for all children, stated in The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (“Dallas Charter”) adopted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in June 2002. The reports were also shocking and confounding given the Archdiocese’s difficult experience with similar misconduct decades before and the damage it caused to both victims and the Church.

Archbishop John C. Nienstedt responded on October 5, 2013, by establishing a new Office of Episcopal Vicar for Ministerial Standards to assume full responsibility for all issues related to clergy sexual misconduct. In turn, the Episcopal Vicar established “an independent, lay task force to review any and all issues related to clergy misconduct and to make specific recommendations regarding actions to be taken and policies and procedures to be implemented.”

The volunteer, seven-member Task Force appointed by the Episcopal Vicar agreed from the outset on a single overriding goal for its work: the protection of children. The Task Force did not undertake to investigate specific allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors; rather, its focus was on the efficacy of the Archdiocese’s Safe Environment organizational structure and its processes related to preventing and detecting such abuse. The Task Force met 23 times between October 2013 and March 2014. Its members interviewed 32 individuals (including Archdiocese officials, parish priests, experts and advocates experienced in child abuse issues, and other members of the community) and reviewed thousands of pages of documents.

The Task Force’s work revealed serious shortcomings in the Archdiocese’s implementation of
the Dallas Charter:

1. For many years, the Archdiocese concentrated too much power in one or two individuals to make decisions regarding allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors. These individuals were not subject to adequate oversight nor their decisions and actions subject to monitoring and audit. Processes and decisions have appeared secretive and sequestered, even if that was not the intent.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date:Monday, April 14, 2014

Report and Recommendations to Protect Children from Clergy Sexual Abuse

The Safe Environment and Ministerial Standards Task Force believes that implementation of the recommendations found in our Report and Recommendations to Protect Children from Clergy Sexual Abuse will improve the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’s Safe Environment Program and will help protect children. The Report is a comprehensive document that stands on its own; accordingly, members of the Task Force will not be involved in press activities related to its release.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Monday, April 14, 2014

Source:Jim Accurso

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis is grateful that the Safe Environment and Ministerial Standards Task Force (Task Force) has submitted its Report and Recommendations to Protect Children from Clergy Sexual Abuse to the archdiocese. The Task Force recommendations include specific actions to be taken and will require norms, structures, and procedures to be developed for their implementation. The Vicar for Ministerial Standards, Fr. Reginald Whitt, O.P., will see to the implementation of the recommendations, which Archbishop John Nienstedt has pledged to accept. The Task Force urges prompt action and the archbishop concurs that action should be timely. The archdiocese will provide periodic updates on the status of implementation.

“I thank the Task Force members for their clear, thoughtful and precise efforts,” said Archbishop Nienstedt, offering his gratitude to Task Force members. “Their report reflects their obvious dedication to this work, as well as the comprehensive nature of the results. It will guide us in fulfilling our important goals which I have stated before and repeat now: the protection of children, the healing of victims, and the restoration of trust of the faithful and of our clergy who are serving our communities with honor. We look forward to working in collaboration with Fr. Whitt to implement these recommendations.”

The independent Task Force began its work last October. Its members were chosen by
Fr. Whitt, a Dominican priest and law professor at the University of St. Thomas. The Task Force operated independently of both Fr. Whitt and Archbishop Nienstedt. The Task Force had full authority and all the resources needed to complete its work. The Task Force completed its work on March 31 and gave its Report and Recommendations to Fr. Whitt on April 3, who suggested some minor terminological corrections. Following consultation with the Task Force and their agreement to those corrections, Fr. Whitt submitted the Report and Recommendations to the archdiocese on the afternoon of April 11.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: April 14, 2014

St. Paul archdiocese’s process for handling sex abuse complaints had “serious shortcomings,” task force says.

A clergy abuse task force created by the St. Paul Minneapolis Archdiocese found “serious shortcomings” in the way the archdiocese handled charges of clergy sex abuse of minors.

“The Archdiocese concentrated too much power in one or two individuals to make decisions regarding allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors,” said the task force report, released Monday afternoon.

“These individuals were not subject to adequate oversight nor their decisions and actions subject to monitoring and audit. Processes and decisions have appeared secretive and sequestered, even if that was not the intent.”

The task force also found that communication related to child abuse within the Archdiocese, as well as between the archdiocese and its church members and public, “has been inadequate and, at times, nonexistent.”

It also found that the archdioceses’ record-keeping on clergy conduct was not comprehensive and relied on “outdated systems.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Republican

By The Republican Editorials
on April 14, 2014

If Pope Francis were to leave the papacy immediately, if he were never to make another public pronouncement, he would have already made an enormous, positive impact on the Catholic Church.

His words about child sexual assault will act as a salve to the thousands of children and adults who have lived in pain and disillusion following the illegal, immoral and evil acts of priests.

“I feel compelled to take personal responsibility for all the evil that some priests, many – many in number (although) not in comparison with the totality – to assume personal responsibility and to ask forgiveness for the damaged caused by the sexual abuse of the children,” he said Friday. “The church is aware of the damage. We don’t want to take a step back in dealing with his problem and the sanctions that must be imposed. On the contrary, I think we must be even stronger. You don’t play around with the lives of children.”

The pope’s unprepared remarks were delivered in Spanish Friday to members of the International Catholic Child Bureau.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

[with video]

By Kira Brekke

Pope Francis asked for forgiveness last week from those who have been sexually abused by priests and vowed to make changes to prevent future assaults. However, one victim said an apology doesn’t solve such a deeply entrenched issue.

“There is a design flaw in the system of the Catholic Church that allows for this kind of behavior to go on and continue,” Peter Isely explained to HuffPost Live’s Ricky Camilleri.”We’ve been through this cycle of apologies many times over the past years with popes, and so it’s hard to really not be somewhat skeptical about it.”

Earlier this year, Pope Benedict defrocked more than 400 priests over the course of two years for molesting children, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press. As a result of this systematic issue, Isely said he always asks priests and clergymen just one question:

“I ask them, ‘Look, you can’t be a woman and a priest, I’ll buy that for the moment. And you can’t be a married man and priest, I’ll buy that for the moment. But why can you be a child sex offender or a child molester and a priest?’ It’s the only occupation that I know in civil society in which you can sexually assault and abuse children and [be allowed to remain] employed and working with children and families in that occupation around the world. That is what has got to change.”

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NEW YORK
ABC News

NEW YORK April 14, 2014 (AP)
By RACHEL ZOLL AP Religion Writer

A second U.N. committee plans to question Vatican officials on failures to stop clergy sex abuse.

The hearing scheduled for May 5-6 in Geneva will look at whether the Vatican’s record on child protection violates the U.N. Convention Against Torture. The Holy See ratified the treaty in 2002.

Vatican spokesmen said Monday they could not immediately comment.

Last January, Vatican officials testified for eight hours before an obscure human rights committee on the scale of clergy sex abuse globally.

The Vatican was compelled to appear as a signatory to the U.N. Convention for the Rights of the Child, which requires governments to take all adequate measures to protect children from harm. The Holy See was one of the first states to ratify the treaty in 1990.

The U.N. committee issued a scathing report, accusing Vatican officials of systematically placing their own interests over those of victims. The Vatican condemned the findings as a reflection of “prejudiced” positions of anti-Catholic advocacy groups.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, a nonprofit legal group based in New York, submitted reports on behalf of victims to both committees urging closer U.N. scrutiny of the church record on child abuse. For the upcoming hearing before the U.N. Committee Against Torture, the Center for Constitutional Rights argued the rape of children by clergy amounted to torture and inhuman treatment, and the Vatican hasn’t done enough to stop the abuse.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

APRIL 14, 2014 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

During the Philadelphia Coalition for Victim Advocacy lunch on April 11, awards were given to those who go above and beyond for victims of crime. Detective James Dougherty won the Barbara McPherson Award/Police Personnel Award.

Here’s an excerpt from the program book: “…He worked with compassion and diligence on the clergy abuse cases resulting in many victims revealing their victimization. The prosecutors in these trials stated that in their opinion, the convictions of the offenders would have been impossible without the contributions of Det. Dougherty.

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UNITED STATES
Center for Constitutional Rights and Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Introduction

Naming is important. Pope John Paul II recognized as much when he observed that “[t]orture must be called by its proper name” upon the Holy See’s accession to the Convention Against Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.3

Yet nowhere in the Holy See’s Initial Report under the Convention (“Initial Report”) does it make any mention of the widespread and systemic rape and sexual violence committed by Catholic clergy against hundreds of thousands of children and vulnerable adults around the world.4

There is no mention of acts that have resulted in an astonishing and incalculable amount of harm around the world – profound and lasting physical and mental suffering – with little to no accountability and access to redress.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (“CCR”) and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (“SNAP”) welcome the opportunity to submit this report, which sets out the refusal of the Holy See to uphold the core principle of respect for the inherent dignity and protection of the physical and mental well-being of the human person enshrined in the Convention against Torture (“Convention” or “CAT”) through its absolute prohibition on torture, and obligations set forth therein. This Committee has played an important role in recognizing rape and other forms of sexual violence as what they are – forms of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as is discussed further herein. This committee has also articulated the importance of naming such acts in this way so as to “directly advance the Convention’s overarching aim of preventing torture and ill-treatment. Naming and defining this crime will promote the Convention’s aim, inter alia, by alerting everyone, including perpetrators, victims, and the public, to the special gravity of the crime of torture.”5

By contrast, the Vatican has consistently minimized the harm caused by the actions of the clergy, through both the direct acts of sexual violence and church officials’ actions which follow, such as cover-ups and victim-blaming. As a member of the Parliament of Victoria (Australia) recently observed:

The Catholic church minimized and trivialized the problem; contributed to abuse not being disclosed, or not being responded to… ensured that the Victorian community remained uninformed of the abuse; and ensured that perpetrators were not held accountable with the tragic result being that children continued to be abused. We found that today’s church leaders view the current question of abuse of children as a ‘short term embarrassment’, which should be 2 handled as quickly as possible to cause the least damage to the church’s standing. They do not see the problems as raising questions about the church’s own culture. 6

The Holy See’s Initial Report to this Committee is itself evidence of the minimization of these offenses and the resulting harm. While the Holy See’s report unequivocally condemns torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and purports to claim that its status as a party to this Convention serves as an example to others,7 it makes no mention of the widespread and systemic rape and sexual violence against children and vulnerable adults by its priests and others associated with the Church. Upon accession to the Convention, the Holy See noted that it had “unequivocally condemned ‘whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself.”8

Still, after numerous commissions, inquiries, ongoing scandals and tens of thousands of victims coming forward, the Holy See has not recognized in its reporting to this Committee the ways in which the sexual violence it has enabled and fostered have “violated the integrity” of countless human persons, resulting in harm that is devastating on an individual and collective level.

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UNITED STATES
Center for Constitutional Rights

April 14, 2014, New York – Late on Friday, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), representing the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), filed a report with the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) documenting the severity of long-term harms suffered by survivors of sexual violence by Catholic clergy. The UN committee is reviewing the Vatican on its compliance with international prohibitions against torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under the Convention Against Torture, which the Vatican ratified in 2002. This will be the second time in four months that top Catholic officials have been called before the UN to account for the Vatican’s human rights record on addressing the ongoing worldwide crisis of sexual violence and cover-ups within the Catholic Church. Vatican representatives will appear before and be questioned by the Committee on May 5 and 6, 2014.

“Months ago, Vatican officials submitted a report to the Committee Against Torture that makes no mention whatsoever of the rape, sexual violence, and cover-ups within the church, which carry severe and long-lasting harm,” said CCR Senior Staff Attorney Pam Spees. “But the Committee Against Torture and international human rights law are clear: rape and other forms of sexual violence are recognized as torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, and the Vatican has fallen woefully short of its obligation to prevent and protect against these crimes.”

The report details the gravity of long-term harms suffered by survivors of clergy sexual violence, including increased risks of suicide and attempted suicide; mental illness, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and addictive disorders. The report also notes studies and reports showing that survivors suffer physical harms as a result of sexual violence, among them neurological damage and changes in brain function as a result of the traumatic events, as well as increased risk of cancer.

“On the church’s continuing abuse crisis, many Catholic officials talk compassionately in public but act recklessly and callously in private,” said Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP. “But the Vatican can’t have it both ways—they can’t sign international treaties and then break them with impunity, especially by continually endangering innocent children and vulnerable adults, by protecting those who commit and conceal heinous crimes, preserving their own reputations and clerical careers.”

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, April 14, 2014

Statement by Mary Caplan of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 917 439 4187, mcaplan682@aol.com )

People are safest when power is checked. But roughly one billion people are involved in an institution in which power is basically unchecked. It’s the Catholic Church. And its structure leaves their children vulnerable to those who would commit and conceal child sex crimes.

That vulnerability is not just historic, it’s current. Kids remain in harm’s way in the church today.

And that unhealthy, rigid, secretive, hierarchical, virtually all-male structure is not changing. Despite hundreds of thousands of children being sexually violated by clergy, top Catholic officials have done and are doing virtually nothing to institute a series of “checks and balances” that would make innocent kids and vulnerable adults safer – by deterring cover ups, by exposing predators, or by punishing wrongdoers.

They are making promises and adopting policies and establishing protocols and issuing apologies, none of which matter because the real decision-makers in the church – the clergy – have all the power and continue to abuse it for selfish ends: power, prestige and promotions.

So that’s why we are turning to secular authorities to do what religious figures refuse to do: hold Catholic officials responsible for the pledges they’ve made and the choices they make – reckless, callous and deceitful choices – to protect guilty adults over innocent children.

Vatican officials signed a treaty on the rights of the child. In February, they were held responsible – via a blistering United Nations report – for breaking that treaty.

We hope the UN’s Committee on Torture will issue a similar report after they read the evidence and question Vatican officials in May in Geneva.

These United Nations panels have no subpoena power. They can’t compel testimony. They can’t arrest, charge, convict or imprison anyone.

They can investigate, however, and issue reports and use their “bully pulpits” to do what most other secular authorities are too small, under-funded or timid to do – call out Catholic officials for saying one thing and doing another, and for putting children in harm’s way time and time and time again, not just in years past, but today as well. They can lay out recommendations that remind us of the enormous gulf between how Catholic officials deal with sexual violence and how they SHOULD deal with sexual violence.

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