ABUSE TRACKER

NEW MEXICO
BishopAccountability.org

SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICT
COUNTY OF BERNALILLO
STATE OF NEW MEXICO

JOHN DOE “B”,

Plaintiff,
v.
ARCHDIOCESE OF SANTA FE, and
OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE PARISH,
Albuquerque, NM,

Defendants.

COMPLAINT FOR DAMAGES
FOR CAUSING SEXUAL ABUSE BY PRIESTS,
FAILURE TO PREVENT SEXUAL ABUSE BY PRIESTS,
FOR THE SEXUAL ABUSE ITSELF, AND RELATED CLAIMS
…

According to publicly available documents, the Archdiocese created, fostered, developed and protected a culture that during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, employed over 40 pedophile priests out of a total of about 150 employed parish priests over those years. This figure is one of the highest ratios in the United States of ‘number of pedophiles to total priests employed’.

27. According to publicly available documents, the names of other pedophile priests of that era include: Father Andrew Abdon; Father Lionel Abeywickrema; Father Marvin Archuleta; Father Paul Baca; Father Rudy Blea; Father Louis Brouseau; Father Ronald Bruckner; Father Marr Burbach; Father Leo Courcy; Father Edward Francis Donelan; Father John L. Esquibel; Father Dennis Fountain; Father Joseph Anthony Gallegos; Father Sabine Griego; Father Dennis Huff; Father Theodore Isaias; Father Christopher Kerr; Father Robert J. Kirsch; Father Vincent A. Lipinski; Father Clive Lynn; Father Robert Patrick Malloy; Father Armando Martinez; Father Charles Martinez; Father Luis Martinez; Father Diego Mazon; Father Tom McConnell; Father Michael O’Brien; Father John Peris; Father John C. Rodriguez; Father Ronald W. Roth; Father Lorenzo Ruiz; Father Edward Rutowski; Father Julian Sanchez; Archbishop Robert F. Sanchez; Father Clarence Schoeppner; Father George S. Silva; Father Jason Sigler; Father Robert J. Smith; Father Ignacio Tafoya; Father John George Weisenborn.

28. Plaintiff alleges there are other credibly accused priests who have not been publicly
named at this point in time, but should be

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PENNSYLVANIA
SF Gate

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh says 19 former students at one of its high schools have now leveled sex abuse allegations at eight Marianist brothers who once worked at the school — one as long ago as 1940.

The revelations began when the diocese learned earlier this year that Brother Bernard Hartman was being prosecuted by Australian authorities on charges he molested four students at a Catholic school there in the 1970s and 80s.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, May 15, 2014

Statement by Judy Jones of St. Louis, Midwest Assistant Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 636 433 2511, 314 974 5003, snapjudy@gmail.com )

Here’s our question today for Bishop Zubik: Why wait? Why not write to every alum of every Pittsburgh Catholic school and beg them to come forward if they were hurt by any priest, nun, brother, seminarian or teacher?

That’s what a truly caring shepherd would do.

Years ago, Pittsburgh Catholic officials had a choice: do real outreach to clergy sex abuse victims or to pretend to do real outreach to clergy sex abuse victims.

They opted to pretend.

The result is clear: credibly accused child molesting clerics who might have been exposed, ousted or even criminally prosecuted years ago were not. Victims who might have gotten help or felt relieved did not. A cancer in the diocese that could have been removed more quickly was not.

Instead, for years, child molesting clerics stayed “under the radar.” Some of them stayed on the job in schools and churches. Some of them quietly moved on, getting other positions near kids. Some quietly resigned.

And for years, victims – perhaps dozens of them – have suffered in silence, shame and self-blame, believing they were the only ones, fearing their truth would never surface, needlessly blaming themselves.

Who knows how many other proven, admitted and credibly accused priests, nuns, brothers, seminarians, coaches, or teachers are still under the radar.

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.

MARYLAND
Spiritual Sounding Board

Nathaniel Morales found guilty on all counts of sex abuse. Pastor said under oath he failed to report sex abuse to authorities. Not looking good for Sovereign Grace Ministries and C.J. Mahaney.

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

VATICAN CITY
The Economist

May 17th 2014 | VATICAN CITY

POPES and their officials have long benefited from the Vatican’s unique dual status in international law. As the Vatican City State, it can shelter prelates wanted for questioning elsewhere and play host to offshore financial institutions such as the Vatican Bank. But when world leaders visit the pope in Rome it is to meet the absolute ruler of a global entity, the Holy See. As the Holy See, the Vatican engages in diplomacy, holds observer status at the UN and signs most treaties. The Holy See is sometimes called a sovereign entity without territory, although its sovereign, the pope, is also the ruler of the Vatican City State. It is a legal expression of the Catholic church’s leadership, yet American lawyers for the church have successfully argued that the Vatican is not responsible for Catholic clerics’ wrongdoing.

On May 23rd the Vatican’s split personality will be put to a new test when a UN committee releases the findings of an inquiry into the Holy See’s compliance with the Convention against Torture, which it signed in 2002. Most of the questions put to the pope’s representative, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, in the public hearings were about the sexual abuse of children and adolescents by Catholic clerics. If the committee decides it was torture, a wave of prosecutions of historic offences could follow: there is usually no time limit for bringing torture charges, as there generally is for sex crimes. And if it judges the Holy See accountable for priests’ and bishops’ misconduct, victims’ lawyers may challenge existing jurisprudence and demand compensation from Rome.

The Vatican argues that the offences in question, though repugnant, should not be counted as torture. “Clerical sex abuse is an egregious betrayal of trust and a violation of the innocence of the victims. It causes untold suffering and scandal,” says Bishop Charles Scicluna, who until 2012 was the Vatican official chiefly responsible for prosecuting such cases. “But it does not fall under the definition of torture established in the convention. Neither does it fall under the article that deals with inhuman and degrading treatment. The reason is that [both articles] refer to acts committed by a public official.”

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INDIA
The Hindu

A 48-year-old Catholic priest from Andhra Pradesh has been deported from the US after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.

Leo Charles Koppala, who previously worked with the Archdiocese of Winona, Minnesota, was escorted by officers of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) on a commercial flight and turned over to Indian authorities on May 14 in New Delhi, the federal agency said.

This deportation was conducted by officers with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Bloomington, Minnesota.

On June 8, 2013, the Blue Earth (Minnesota) Police Department arrested Koppala and charged him with second-degree criminal sexual conduct. The victim was 12-year-old at the time of the offense.

On June 10, 2013, Koppala posted bail and was released from local custody. Koppala was convicted on March 31 at the Faribault County District Court at Blue Earth of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, and was sentenced to 31 days, with credit for time served, and 25 years supervised probation.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue is mailing a formal complaint today to the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations in Geneva regarding the conduct of Felice Gaer, Vice-Chairperson of the U.N. Committee Against Torture. Donohue charges her with violating specific strictures governing the impartiality of committee members. The basis of his complaint is Gaer’s recent exchange with officials from the Holy See, and her compromising relationship with an external activist organization, the Center for Reproductive Rights.

To read Donohue’s complaint, click here. Copies are being sent to the heads of every U.S. diocese, select Vatican officials, and others.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Tarring all Catholic religious with sex abuse brush a horrible injustice

By Victoria White

CATHOLIC priests are no more likely to abuse minors than men of any other profession. They are no more likely to abuse minors than priests of any other denomination. They are slightly less likely to abuse minors than teachers.

That’s what the international research says, including the John Jay Institute’s 2004 report to the American Catholic bishops.

Would you ever shut up, you’re saying. Don’t you realise that kicking old Catholic priests in the dentures is the easiest way for a journalist to get Facebook “likes” these days? Don’t you realise you’re going to get a slew of comments telling you the little-known fact that the Catholic Church had a policy of raping children? I hate the crime of child abuse and I hate those who abuse minors.

I am not a Catholic. The only reason I am writing this article is because I cannot stand seeing such injustice done to any group in society as is being done to Catholic religious. Few other groups in our society are the targets of such consistent slander. Maybe they should take a leaf out of the Travellers’ book and look for status as an “ethnic minority.”

The fifth and largest tranche of reviews of Catholic institutions in Ireland by the National Board for Safeguarding Trust was published this week and are available on www.safeguarding.ie. Though the board still found structural weaknesses, particularly in some missionary congregations, the reports on the dioceses were positive to the point of glowing.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

All belong to Marianists, a St. Louis-based Catholic group
It’s the religious order that runs Vianney and Chaminade

For immediate release: Thursday, May 15, 2014

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

Over the last five weeks (April 3 – May 14), eight Catholic clerics who belong to a St. Louis-based Catholic group have been publicly exposed – for the first time – as credibly accused child molesters.

[Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]

All eight are Marianists and all eight worked at a Pittsburgh Catholic school. We suspect that some of them worked in St. Louis too. We call on Catholic officials – with the St. Louis archdiocese, the Pittsburgh diocese, and the Marianists – to disclose the full work histories of the eight clerics.

And we know that there are at least eight proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting Marianists clerics who HAVE certainly worked – and abused – in St. Louis (at three schools: Vianney, Chaminade and St. Mary’s High School).

The burgeoning Pittsburgh scandal is reminiscent of what happened with Brother William C. Mueller (who worked at Chaminade and Vianney). Until 2005, he remained “under the radar.” That year, however, a St. Louis man filed suit against Mueller and the Marianists. Over the next few months dozens and dozens of men in three states disclosed that they too had been sexually victimized by Mueller (who now lives in San Antonio, Texas).

Since all of the eight, newly-accused Pittsburgh Marianists worked at a parochial school, we are asking Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik to write letters to alums of all current and closed parochial schools, urging anyone who was molested to speak up. We urge Archbishop Robert Carlson to do the same here.

We applaud these brave victims for stepping forward and beg them to contact secular authorities, not church figures.

There are at least two key lessons here.

First, times are slowly changing. It’s somewhat less difficult these days for victims to expose predators. So we encourage anyone who was hurt by clerics – no matter how long ago it happened – to speak up so that the truth can be known, kids can be protected and healing can really happen.

Second, there are obviously some (perhaps many) child molesting clerics who have yet to be publicly exposed. So we again prod Marianist officials to go beyond the bare minimum and aggressively use their resources and bully pulpits and websites and bulletins and newspapers to beg those who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes to speak up.

It’s irresponsible for Catholic officials to passively sit back and wait for the phone to ring. Top church officials – archdiocesan and Marianists – should personally visit every single parish and school where a proven, admitted and credibly accused cleric worked. They should clearly and emphatically beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to break their silence by calling police and prosecutors. Terse, carefully crafted three sentence notices tucked far back in a diocesan newspaper or parish bulletin don’t cut it.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

A SCOTTISH priest who escaped prosecution for decades of alleged sexual abuse has been dismissed by the Vatican.

Father Thomas Mullen was sacked by the Catholic Church after the results of an internal inquiry despite the decision by Crown prosecutors not to pursue the allegations.

Leo Cushley, the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, informed parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes in Dunfermline of the Vatican’s decision at the weekend. He told them of his “deepest regret” over the matter, and acknowledged the “gravity” of the offences which Mullen was accused of.

In a letter he wrote: “With the canonical process now completed, I regret to inform you that, in a trial which finished recently in Rome, Father Mullen was found guilty of certain canonical offences.

“As a result he has been dismissed from the clerical state. This means he may no longer function as a priest.

“I know this is a harsh blow for many of you and I share your sense of shame and distress. I also feel for his family and friends who will recall with affection the good he accomplished.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Catholic Observer

Dunfermline parishioners told about their priest’s dismissal in a letter from Archbishop Cushley of St Andrews and Edinburgh

The Vatican has laicised a Scottish priest after investigating allegations of sexual abuse against him.

Although the Crown Prosecution Service has never brought any charges against Fr Thomas Mullen (above), Archbishop Leo Cushley told parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes in Dunfermline, through a letter read out at the parish on Sunday, that Fr Mullen was no longer their priest.

“With the canonical process now completed, I regret to inform you that, in a trial which finished recently in Rome, Father Mullen was found guilty of certain canonical offences,” the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh says in the letter. “As a result he has been dismissed from the clerical state. This means he may no longer function as a priest.

“I know this is a harsh blow for many of you and I share your sense of shame and distress. I also feel for his family and friends who will recall with affection the good he accomplished.”

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

In widening scandal, victims want more abuse outreach
Eight child molesting clerics are “outed” in just 5 weeks
SNAP: “Bishop should write ALL parochial school alums”
Group also wants officials to post predators’ work histories
Zubik should also “personally visit every place where they worked,” victims say

WHAT
Holding childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy abuse victims and advocates will react to a growing scandal involving at least eight recently exposed child molesting clerics. They will also prod Pittsburgh’s Catholic bishop to

–send letters to all alums of all local parochial schools, begging others who were molested by clerics to come forward, and
–aggressively use his other resources (church websites, parish bulletins, pulpit announcements and personal visits) to prod victims to speak up, and
–explain why he has let religious orders hide names and whereabouts of child molesting clerics.

WHEN
Thursday, May 15 at 1:30pm.

WHERE
Outside of the Pittsburgh diocese headquarters (“chancery office”), 111 Boulevard of the Allies (corner of Stanwix) in Pittsburgh, PA

WHO
Two-three members of a self help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)
(Including St Louis SNAP Midwest Director)

WHY
In a burgeoning scandal, over the last five weeks (April 3 – May 14), eight Catholic clerics who worked at North Catholic High School in Pittsburgh have been publicly exposed – for the first time – as credibly accused child molesters.

[PIttsburgh Tribune-Review]

They are Brother Bernard Hartman, Brother James Kline, Brother Joseph Binder, Brother Julius May, Brother William Charles Hildenbrand, Brother Francis Meder, Brother Ralph August Mravintz and Brother John Keegan.

[Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]

Since all of them worked at a parochial school, SNAP wants Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik to write letters to alums of all current and closed parochial schools, urging others who were molested to speak up.

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
The Courier

A priest has been dismissed after being found guilty by the Catholic Church of “canonical offences”.

Father Thomas Mullen was removed from the church following an ecclesiastical investigation, though the Crown Office did not proceed with a prosecution.

Leo Cushley, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, said the Holy See has been examining allegations of abuse involving minors with the “greatest care and urgency” in recent years.

Parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes in Dunfermline were told of the decision regarding Father Mullen on Sunday.

In a letter to parishioners, the Archbishop said: “With the canonical process now completed, I regret to inform you that, in a trial which finished recently in Rome, Father Mullen was found guilty of certain canonical offences.

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

NEW MEXICO
KOAT

[with video]

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —New lawsuits have been filed against a New Mexico priest.

Two former altar boys say they were sexually abused — and the accused priests have been in trouble before.

“Like all of the cases to me are brave in handling this as best as they can, they are getting help for the first times in their lives,” said attorney Brad Hall.

Hall represents more than 20 victims who have been abused by priests.

In these most recent cases hall explains the priests have faced allegations before.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

The cost of three royal commissions, including an inquiry into child sexual abuse, is running at $260 million.

The total government outlay for the investigations over three years from 2013/14 comes to $260.3 million, the federal budget papers show.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

A case against former Catholic priest Peter John Ryan came up again for an administrative mention in Bathurst Local Court, New South Wales, on 12 May 2014. Ryan, 71, is charged with ten counts of aggravated indecent assault of a male student between 1974 and 1977, when Ryan was a Catholic priest. The alleged victim was a student at St Stanislaus College boys’ school in Bathurst.

This court procedure was brief, and Ryan was not required to attend.

At an earlier mention of the case, in Sydney’s Burwood Local Court on 18 March 2014, documents were tendered alleging that Ryan performed a series of sex acts on and in front of a student at St Stanislaus College.

Ryan has been granted bail under strict conditions, including a ban on approaching or contacting the alleged victim and any prosecution witnesses.

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NEW MEXICO
The New Mexican

By Uriel J. Garcia
The New Mexican

Two men filed lawsuits Tuesday against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and two of its Albuquerque parishes, saying they were sexually abused as boys by parish priests in the 1960s and ’80s.

In the complaints, the men allege the priests were among dozens who were part of a “culture of sex abuse.”

The cases are the latest in a series that began in the 1990s, accusing priests employed by the archdiocese of rape and other sexual crimes. The new suits say the archdiocese was negligent by failing to properly screen and supervise pedophile priests, and fostered a system that allowed them to flourish in the church.

Albuquerque lawyer Brad D. Hall is representing the victims, who are identified in court documents as “John Doe B” and “John Doe C.”

Last year, Hall filed suits on behalf of 10 other men who accused a long-deceased priest in Northern New Mexico of sexually abusing them when they had served as his altar boys.

The complaints filed Tuesday say the Archdiocese of Santa Fe created “one of the highest ratios in the United States of number of pedophiles to total priests employed.” Out of a total of 150 parish priests working for the archdiocese in Central and Northern New Mexico between the 1960s and ’80s, the complaints say, 40 were accused of child sexual abuse.

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

SCOTLAND
BBC News

A catholic priest at the centre of child abuse allegations has been dismissed.

The Catholic Church said Thomas Mullen, who was the priest at Our Lady of Lourdes in Dunfermline, Fife, had been found guilty of “canonical offences”.

BBC Scotland has spoken to a man, now in his 30s, who claims he was abused by the priest from the age of nine.

Archbishop Leo Cushley said the gravity of the abuse of minors was something which could not go unheeded.

In a letter Archbishop Cushley, of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, said the diocese was obliged in canon law to continue to look after Thomas Mullen’s practical and pastoral needs.

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NEDERLAND
NRC

[Summary: Organizations that represent victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have criticized the July 1 deadline for reporting sexual abuse.]

door Joep Dohmen

Organisaties van misbruikslachtoffers in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk hebben kritiek op het per 1 juli stopzetten van de regeling om kindermisbruik te melden. Dat zeggen KLOKK, de grootste organisatie van misbruikslachtoffers, en het Vrouwenplatform Kerkelijk Kindermisbruik (VPKK) vandaag in NRC Handelsblad.

KLOKK was in eerste instantie nog akkoord gegaan met het voorstel van de bisschoppen en de oversten van congregaties om de regeling stop te zetten, maar eist nu toch dat slachtoffers langer klachten kunnen melden. Het VPKK is nooit akkoord gegaan.

Volgens de voorzitter van KLOKK, Guido Klabbers, is zijn organisatie “wat goedgelovig geweest”. Hij kreeg van de bisschoppen en de oversten van de congregaties te horen dat het Vaticaan problemen had met de klachtenregeling, omdat deze in strijd was met het kerkelijk recht. Klabbers: “Dat zou voor de slachtoffers nadelig hebben uitgepakt.” Nu de datum, 1 juli, in zicht komt heeft hij spijt. Klabbers wil nu ‘hard vechten’ om nog ruimte te creëren. “De Kerk is buitengewoon listig in hoe ze dit spel speelt.”

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MARYLAND
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A longtime pastor at a D.C.-area evangelical church testified in court May 13 that he did not report crimes alleged in 1992 against a man standing trial this week on charges of sexual abuse, according to a one-time ministerial colleague turned whistleblower attending the weeklong trial in Montgomery County, Md.

Brent Detwiler, who writes a blog devoted to alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse in churches affiliated with Sovereign Grace Ministries, said Tuesday’s testimony by Grant Layman, who stepped down recently after 31 years as a pastor at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Md., removes any doubt that church leaders conspired to cover up crimes while treating abuse allegations as a matter for private church discipline.

Sovereign Grace Ministries, a church-planting network with Reformed and charismatic theology, is not part of the Southern Baptist Convention, but its co-founder, C.J. Mahaney, is close friends with SBC leaders in a neo-Calvinist movement that goes by names including “young, restless and Reformed.”

Mahaney, now pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Louisville, Ky., announced last summer that he would not participate in this year’s Together for the Gospel conference that he previously co-sponsored with Southern Seminary President Albert Mohler and Washington pastor Mark Dever, though he apparently attended.

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OKLAHOMA
KJRH

[with video]

A Tulsa pastor has been arrested on complaints of lewd molestation at an Owasso residence.

According to Owasso police, a juvenile female reported that she was sexually abused in April by an adult male she met at a Tulsa church.

The suspect was identified as 32-year-old Damien Keith Bonner, who is a pastor at Galilee Baptist Church in Tulsa.

Owasso police tell 2NEWS the victim was 15 years old and friends with Bonner’s children.

Police say the incident occurred while the girl was spending the night with her friends at Bonner’s residence at the Villa Apartments in Owasso.

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.

MARYLAND
WJLA

By Kevin Lewis May 14, 2014

ROCKVILLE, Md. (WJLA) – A 12-member jury holds the fate of a former spiritual leader, accused of repeatedly molesting three teenage boys, in its hands.

Nathaniel Morales accused of abusing boys for decades in Montgomery Co.

On Monday, testimony began in the child sex abuse trial of Nathaniel Morales, 56. The self-professed man of God was most recently preaching in Las Vegas. However back in the late 1980s and early 90s, Morales was a well-respected member of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg. Then in his mid-20s, Morales led youth bible studies, directed worship teams, and even attended sleepovers with the male teens he mentored. It’s alleged, Morales’ abuse went undetected for years because he exhumed trustworthiness and charm.

“He was charismatic, affable, the life of the party,” the father of Victim #1 testified. “Just one of those guys who walked in the room and people were surrounding him.”

Morales joined Covenant Life Church in the mid-1980s. Although his spiritual life was growing, his professional worth was taking a downward spiral. Morales was soon out-of-work, and terribly low on cash. A fellow parishioner offered-up a room in his home along Sunflower Drive in Rockville. In Oct. 1989, Morales accepted the offer, settling into the basement recreation room. The family’s 15-year-old son also slept in the basement, in an adjacent bedroom.

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OKLAHOMA
News on 6

Allison Harris, News On 6

OWASSO, Oklahoma – A fugitive task force tracked down a Tulsa pastor, wanted for six counts of lewd molestation. Police said he developed a sexual relationship with an underage girl.

Wednesday was a long day for police as they tried to locate and arrest 32-year-old Damien Bonner, the senior pastor at Galilee Baptist Church.

Police say church members taking the pastor’s side and are not cooperating.

Bonner is accused of molesting a 14-year-old member of his Galilee Baptist Church congregation. The young girl came forward last month and told police the senior pastor abused her.

“An inappropriately close relationship between an adult and child,” said Jason Woodruff with the Owasso Police.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

May 14, 2014

By Mary Niederberger / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Three more religious brothers who formerly worked at North Catholic High School have been accused of sexual abuse in addition to the five who were identified earlier.

The allegations come from 19 people who have contacted the Diocese of Pittsburgh in response to letters sent in recent months from the diocese to North Catholic alumni, the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, vicar general for the diocese, said today.

Father Lengwin said there were 23 allegations made against a total of eight Marianist brothers. Four of the victims said they were abused by more than one brother, he said.

Father Lengwin said diocesan officials were saddened but not completely surprised by the additional allegations.

The three additional brothers who’ve had allegations lodged against them are: Jerome Binder, who worked at North Catholic from from 1961-66, 1975-76 and 1979-89; James Kline, who worked there from 1940-47; and Julius May, who was there from 1960-69. All three men are now deceased.

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PUERTO RICO
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A 58-year-old suspended Catholic priest was arrested Tuesday for allegedly transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and sexual trafficking of minors. The arrest follows an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with the assistance of the Puerto Rico Department of Justice, the FBI and the Puerto Rico Crimes Against Children Task Force (PRCACTF).

HSI special agents arrested Israel Berrios-Berrios at his residence in Naranjito without incident.

According to the indictment, from 2007 through 2008, Berrios-Berrios allegedly transported the minor to his Naranjito home in an automobile owned by the San Jose Parish in Aibonito to engage in a commercial sex act.

The indictment further alleges that in July 2008, Berrios-Berrios transported the minor to the Miami, where together they took a four-day cruise to the Bahamas for the purposes of engaging in a commercial sex act.

“These allegations are especially disturbing given the position of trust the defendant has occupied,” said Angel M. Melendez, special agent in charge of HSI San Juan. “Identifying people who violate their positions of public trust by contributing to the exploitation of children is a top priority for HSI. Anyone who targets children for sexual exploitation should also consider themselves a target by HSI and by our law enforcement partners regardless of who they are. We have an obligation to protect those most vulnerable in our society who cannot protect themselves.”

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshal D. Morgan. If convicted, the defendant faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a possible maximum statutory penalty of life in prison.

In response to the need for an island-wide approach to fighting the escalation of predatory crimes against children, HSI San Juan partnered with members of local, state and federal law enforcement, as well as local and state government officials and community leaders, to form the Puerto Rico Crimes Against Children Task Force (PRCACTF) in June 2011.

Through PRCACTF, local, state and federal law enforcement agencies work together with local and state government agencies to effectively pool their resources to jointly investigate all crimes against children in Puerto Rico. Through the task force, law enforcement officers are encouraged to share evidence, ideas, and investigative and forensic tools to ensure the most successful prosecutions possible. As such, PRCACTF allows law enforcement to speak with one unified voice in defense of the children of Puerto Rico.

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.

PUERTO RICO
CNN

[with video]

By Rafael Romo, Senior Latin American Affairs Editor

(CNN) — U.S. authorities Tuesday arrested a Roman Catholic priest in Puerto Rico on charges he sexually abused an altar boy.

U.S. Homeland Security agents arrested Israel Berrios Berrios, 58, at his residence in the Puerto Rican town of Naranjito. The Caribbean island of Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory.

ICE press release on arrest

At a press conference after the arrest, Angel Melendez, a Puerto Rico-based special agent for Homeland Security Investigations, part of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, alleged that Berrios was able to sexually abuse the minor after gaining the trust of the boy’s mother over several years.

By 2008, Berrios “was already considered part of (the alleged victim’s) family,” Melendez said.

“He convinced the (alleged victim’s) mother to give the young man permission to go on a cruise to the Bahamas,” on which Berrios shared a cabin with the boy, Melendez said.

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

NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

Two lawsuits filed Wednesday against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe took the unusual step of naming 40 alleged pedophile priests to show “patterns and practices of conduct” by the archdiocese that led to the sexual abuse of children.

The new complaints bring to 21 the total number of lawsuits filed against the archdiocese since 2012 by Albuquerque attorney Brad Hall on behalf of unidentified 20 men and a woman. Of those, 11 have been settled for undisclosed amounts, he said.

The lawsuits also call for the archdiocese to release documents showing the transfer of priests between parishes and to cite reasons for the transfers.

“Archbishop (Michael) Sheehan claims in the media a legacy of stopping the sexual abuse of minors by priests in the 1990s and 2000s, but still has not provided documents and transparency about the extent of the culture” that led to the abuses, the lawsuits contend.

The suits also contend that the archdiocese “did not go into each parish where these priests had been assigned and try to locate and help victims” in the 1990s and 2000s, when an estimated 200 lawsuits were filed against the archdiocese.

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

SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Thursday 15 May 2014

Gerry Braiden
Senior reporter

A priest who escaped prosecution for decades of sexual abuse allegations has been dismissed by the Catholic Church.

In an unprecedented move, the Church has removed Father Thomas Mullen despite Crown prosecutors deciding not to proceed with the case against him because too much time had passed between the alleged offences.

Leading Catholic sources said the move was indicative of a “new resolve” to get to grips with the abuse cases that have rocked the Church in recent years and the willingness of new bishops to address matters.

Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh Leo Cushley told parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes in Dunfermline of the Vatican’s decision at the weekend, claiming “the abuse of minors is something which cannot go unheeded”.

One of the alleged victims of Father Mullen has told The Herald that far from celebrating the news he “felt sorry” for the cleric. The man, now in his 30s, is suing the Church for a six-figure sum.

Two alleged victims, who are now in their 30s and 40s, gave statements and the priest was arrested three years ago, with one of the men claiming incidents took place in his home and in the priest’s car as well as during two trips to Germany and the US in the early 1990s.

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

SCOTLAND
Daily Record

May 15, 2014 09:21 By Lindsey Archibald

THE Vatican has sacked a priest who escaped prosecution for decades of sexual abuse allegations.

In an unprecedented move the Catholic church has removed Father Thomas Mullen from his post despite Crown prosecutors deciding not to proceed with the case because too much time had passed between the alleged offences.

Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh Leo Cushley told parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes in Dunfermline of the Vatican’s decision at the weekend.

In a letter he said: “With the canonical process now completed, I regret to inform you that, in a trial which finished recently in Rome, Father Mullen was found guilty of certain canonical offences.

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

NEW MEXICO
KRQE

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) — Two men are taking on two Albuquerque catholic churches and the Archdiocese of Santa Fe in a set of new lawsuits that accuse the church of allowing a culture of sexual abuse that lasted for decades.

The lawsuit specifically names the Queen of Heaven and Lady of Guadalupe parishes in Albuquerque where the two men say they were raped in the 60′s and 80′s.

But the men also claim that the Archdiocese knew they and other boys were at risk but did nothing to prevent abuse.

Lawsuits over priest sex abuse claims are nothing new for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe but attorney Brad Hall hopes two lawsuits he’s filed on behalf of two men will address what he calls a “bigger picture.”

“We’re saying they knew or should have known that something was going on and done something to stop it sooner,” said Hall.

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KENTUCKY
WAVE

[with video]

By Katie Bauer

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – The man who says a Kentucky priest molested him as a child is sharing his story days after another man came forward saying he was sexually abused by the same priest.

Father Joseph Hemmerle has been placed on administrative leave as lead pastor from two Marion County churches since this second accusation.

Michael Norris is a Louisville native who now lives in Houston and works as a chemical engineer. Late last week he found out another man has come forward accusing Father Joseph Hemmerle of sexual abuse.

“The church confirmed to me that the victim was abused at Camp Tall Trees, which is the same place I was abused so quite honestly that place was open for probably 30 years, we’re not the only two, I’m sure there are more,” said Norris.

Norris said he attended Camp Tall Trees in Meade County when he was 11. He said he got a bad case of poison ivy and Hemmerle told him he could help.

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

CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

Carson Chisholm is dead.

I just had a call relaying the bad news of Carson’s sudden and unexpected death yesterday.

I am in shock.

Those who followed the saga of the Cornwall sex abuse scandal and cover-up know Carson. Carson was Perry Dunlop’s brother-in-law. He was Helen Dunlop’s brother.

I can not believe I am speaking in the past tense. Carson “was”…

Yes, Carson ‘was’ witty, loyal, candid, brilliant -he was a character – and he was a fighter – and he was such a big teddy bear 🙂 It was an honour to have known him. I have many fond memories of time spent in Carson’s company, so many draw a smile.

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

CANADA
Brandon Sun

By: The Canadian Press
Wednesday, May. 14, 2014

SARNIA, Ont. – A former Catholic priest is headed to prison for sex-related crimes against two teenage girls.

Justice Joseph Donohue sentenced Gabriele DelBianco, 57, to a total of four years in prison on Wednesday in Sarnia, Ont.

DelBianco was found guilty in February of three of 18 charges against him relating to incidents involving four teenage girls during the 1980s in southwestern Ontario.

He received three years on each of two sexual assault charges to be served concurrently and a further 12 months for gross indecency.

DelBianco left the priesthood in 1996 after serving at churches in Ontario communities including Wallaceburg and Windsor.

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CANADA
Blackburn News

Melanie Irwin on May 14, 2014

A former Catholic priest was led away in handcuffs at Sarnia courthouse Wednesday.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Joseph Donohue sentenced 57-year-old Gabriele DelBianco to four years in federal prison on sex-related charges against two teenage girls.

In February, DelBianco was found guilty of three of 18 charges against him relating to incidents involving four female teens during the 1980′s in southwestern Ontario.

He received three years for each of the two sexual assault charges, which were to be served concurrently, and a further 12 months for gross indecency.

One of the complainants, who gave a victim impact statement, says the click of the handcuffs was one of the sweetest sounds she’s heard in a long time.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Eugene Cullen Kennedy | May. 14, 2014 Bulletins from the Human Side

With the apparent relish associated with autocratic triumph, Cardinal Gerhard Müller of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith has “accused U.S. women religious leaders of not abiding by a reform agenda the Vatican imposed on their leadership organization following a doctrinal assessment of the group.”

The self-righteousness that rose like mist from Müller’s torrent of accusations makes one wonder if he has a Bismarck hiding in the high branches of his family tree. NCR described his rant as “the most direct and confrontational language since the Vatican began to rein in the Leadership Conference of Women Religious two years ago.”

You might think that a world bearing the stigmata of war, poverty, plagues, and immeasurable, uncomforted suffering might trouble a high religious leader, but what upsets Cardinal Müller? Why, the speakers these women religious invite to their annual assemblies; the failure to have counterpoint views when the women are, as he intimates, preaching heresy; and, specifically, their bestowing their 2014 Outstanding Leadership Award to a Fordham theologian, Sr. Elizabeth Johnson, who (and you can’t make this up) was “criticized by the Bishops of the United States because of the gravity of the doctrinal errors in that theologian’s writings.” Müller seems unaware of how fully and professionally Johnson defended her work while some of the bishops most critical of her got indigestion from trying to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Wondering aloud if the leadership conference has “the ability truly to sentire cum ecclesia,” a classic bureaucratic phrase that, like snow, covers everything when officious Vatican investigators indict theologians without any real evidence, means, “to feel with the church.” The problem the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is addressing is, of course, how to feel with the suffering world, the beat of whose breaking heart cannot be heard in the vaulted tunnels of heresy hunters.

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NEW MEXICO
KOB

An Albuquerque law firm on Wednesday filed two new child sex abuse lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

The lawsuits point to two specific cases of alleged abuse involving two priests at churches in Albuquerque: Queen of Heaven Parish and Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish.

The lawsuits are filed on behalf of two men who say they were abused in the late 1960s and in 1986. The lawsuit also lists 40 priests from central and northern New Mexico who the lawsuits claim were part of a culture of child sex abuse during that time in the Archdiocese.

“The therapeutic needs of these men require transparency by the current Archdiocese leadership.

Without documents from that era, where about a third of the priests were sexually abusing hundreds of boys, it will be difficult for these men to begin to understand how and why this happened to them,” said Levi Monagle, a member of the litigation team helping the alleged victims.

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

UNITED STATES/INDIA
KSTP

A priest who was convicted of fondling a 12-year-old girl while he was working in the Diocese of Winona has been deported to his native India.

Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say 48-year-old Leo Charles Koppala was turned over to authorities in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Koppola was charged last June with second-degree criminal sexual conduct. He pleaded guilty in March, admitting he fondled the girl while eating dinner at her grandmother’s house.

The Diocese of Winona has said Koppala was assigned in 2009 to the Catholic Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Blue Earth and to St. Mary’s in Winnebago. He was placed on leave in June, and the diocese alerted his home diocese of Nellore, India.

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

UNITED STATES/INDIA
Pioneer Press

Associated Press

POSTED: 05/14/2014

A priest who was convicted of fondling a 12-year-old girl while he was working in the Diocese of Winona has been deported to his native India, officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Wednesday.

ICE said Leo Charles Koppala, 48, was turned over to authorities in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Koppola was charged last June with second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a victim younger than 13. He pleaded guilty in March, admitting he fondled a girl while eating dinner at her grandmother’s house.

ICE says Koppala didn’t contest his deportation, and an immigration judge ordered his deportation April 1.

“Koppala held a position of trust in the Catholic Church and the community. He broke that trust,” Scott Baniecke, field office director for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations in St. Paul, said in a statement. “We sincerely hope that his permanent removal from the United States will help the healing process for the victim and the victim’s family.”

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Channel Online

The Bishop of Winchester, Tim Dakin has told Jersey’s Lieutenant Governor that he won’t be taking any disciplinary action against the Dean of Jersey.

A report into the way abuse allegations are dealt with by Jersey’s church is being delayed so that its impact on an alleged victim can be properly considered.

ITV News has learned the Bishop of Winchester is seeking advice on the best way to publish it without causing the woman harm.

He’s set up an “Impact Assessment Group” to suggest ways the report by Dame Heather Steel can be made public.

She has been investigating how Jersey’s church looks after vulnerable parishioners.

We can today (Wednesday) reveal the Bishop of Winchester, Tim Dakin, has formally informed Jersey’s Lieutenant Governor that he will not be taking any disciplinary action against the Dean of Jersey who was originally suspended from office when details emerged of the way he handled an allegation of abuse involving a parishioner.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, May 14, 2014

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

Three more credibly accused child molesting clerics have been publicly exposed for the first time thanks to the courage of victims. We applaud these brave men and women for stepping forward and beg them to contact secular authorities, not church figures.

[Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]

There are at least two key lessons here.

First, times are slowly changing. It’s somewhat less difficult these days for victims to expose predators. So we encourage anyone who was hurt by clerics – no matter how long ago it happened – to speak up so that the truth can be known, kids can be protected and healing can really happen.

Second, there are obviously many child molesting clerics who have yet to be publicly exposed. So we again prod Catholic officials – as we do nearly every day and have done nearly every day for a quarter century – to go beyond the bare minimum and aggressively use their resources and bully pulpits and websites and bulletins and newspapers to beg those who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes to speak up.

It’s irresponsible for Catholic officials to passively sit back and wait for the phone to ring. Pittsburgh’s bishop should personally visit every single parish where a proven, admitted and credibly accused priest, nun, seminarian or church employee worked. The bishops should clearly and emphatically beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to break their silence by calling police and prosecutors. Terse, carefully crafted three sentence notices tucked far back in a diocesan newspaper or parish bulletin don’t cut it.

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

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, May 14, 2014

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

A Catholic priest who has worked in Minnesota and was convicted of child sex crimes has been deported back to his home country of India. He is Fr. Leo Charles Koppala.

[Business Standard]

This is not the first predator priest from India who has worked and abused in Minnesota. Fr. Joseph Jeyapaul raped a Minnesota girl, Megan Peterson, just a few years ago. He returned to India and until recently, oversaw a group of schools there, even though his bishop knew he was a fugitive from justice. He’s being extradited now.

Kids are more at risk of sexual violence in the developing world and that is why we hope Catholic officials will do all they can to warn unsuspecting families about this dangerous man. Bishop John Quinn of the Winona Diocese claims he alerted Catholic officials in Nellore, India about Fr. Koppala. We hope Quinn actually followed through and we hope serious action is taken by Indian church officials to ensure that Fr. Koppala is kept away from children.

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

UNITED STATES/INDIA
Business Standard

Press Trust of India | Washington May 14, 2014

A Catholic priest from India – who previously worked with the Archdiocese of Winona, Minnesota – was deported today following his conviction for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old.

Leo Charles Koppala, 48, was escorted by officers of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) on a commercial flight and turned over to Indian authorities on May 14 in New Delhi, the federal agency said.

This deportation was conducted by officers with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Bloomington, Minnesota.

On June 8, 2013, the Blue Earth (Minnesota) Police Department arrested Koppala and charged him with second-degree criminal sexual conduct. The victim was 12-year-old at the time of the offense.

On June 10, 2013, Koppala posted bail and was released from local custody.

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CANADA
Blackburn News

By Dave Dentinger on May 14, 2014

A man who served as a marriage and family counselor in Auburn and Kincardine is going to prison.

57-year old Gabriele DelBianco is also a former Catholic priest, and has been handed a penitentiary term on sex-related charges at Sarnia courthouse. Ontario Superior Court Justice Joseph Donohue sentenced DelBianco to a total of four years in federal prison. He had been found guilty of three of 18 charges against him relating to incidents involving four teenage girls during the 1980′s in southwestern Ontario while in the priesthood.

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CANADA
Sun News

NEIL BOWEN | QMI AGENCY

SARNIA, Ont. – His victims said he used his “rock star” status in the church to coerce them into sexual relationships as teens. Now Gabriele DelBianco, a former priest at churches in southwestern Ontario, will serve four years in prison for his crimes.

The sentence was handed down Wednesday in a Sarnia, Ont., courtroom.

In February, court found DelBianco, 57, guilty of one count of gross indecency against one victim and sexually assaulting another woman twice.

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.

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune-Review

By Bill Zlatos

Published: Wednesday, May 14, 2014

The scope of one of the largest sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh grew Wednesday with the disclosure that 19 people have made 23 allegations of abuse by members of a religious order at the former North Hills Catholic High School.

The Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the diocese, said 18 of the alleged victims are men and the other is a woman. The latest Marianist brothers being accused of abuse are Brother James Kline, who taught at North Catholic from 1940 to 1947; Brother Joseph Binder, who taught at North Catholic from 1961 to 1966, 1975 to 1976 and 1979 to 1989; and Brother Julius May, whose service date at the school is unknown. Kline died in 1997, Binder in 2000 and May in 1970.

Asked how the diocese could not have known about such expansive abuse at one school, Lengwin responded, “I don’t know how you wouldn’t know or would know. A lot of people were able to hide their immoral behavior.”

The scandal began on March 20 when the diocese learned that Marianist Brother Bernard Hartman, 74, a former science teacher at North Catholic, is awaiting trial in Australia on charges he molested four students at a Catholic school there in the 1970s and ‘80s.

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CANADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, May 14, 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 former Windsor priest was sentenced to 4 years in prison for molesting multiple girls. He faced 18 charges of sexual abuse of children.

[Windsor Star]

Windsor church officials should aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered this cleric’s crimes.

We are glad that this dangerous predator will spend time in jail. We are disappointed it is not for longer, but glad he will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

We hope church officials will take further action and post the names, photos, work histories and whereabouts of all credibly accused child molesters on church bulletins and websites. We also hope this ruling encourages others to come forward and 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.

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, May 14, 2014

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

Three new people (from Ohio, Minnesota and Indiana) have been put on the US bishops sex abuse panel. All are Catholic. All have close ties to Catholic schools or universities. None, as best we can tell, show any signs of real courage or independence.

So it’s the “same old, same old.”

Originally, a dozen years ago, this National Review Board showed a glimmer of hope. Initially, some of its members were high profile and outspoken individuals who didn’t depend on church institutions for their paychecks (such as former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating and Illinois Judge Anne Burke). Now, however, it’s filled with low key Catholic insiders whose incomes often derive from Catholic institutions and who are clearly quiet and compliant “company men.” They will very likely never utter a single critical word about a single Catholic official, no matter how egregious his misconduct might be or how many kids are hurt on his watch.

Very quickly this so-called “watch dog” became a “lap dog.” It remains a “lap dog.”

Unfortunately, these new appointees (Mary K. Huffman of Centerville, Ohio; Donald J. Schmid of Granger, Indiana, and Nelle Moriarty of Rochester, Minnesota) look to be more of the same.

These men and women give their time and lend their reputations to church officials. But they end up being used as part of a shrewd public relations strategy in which bishops’ put respected, sincere lay people on panels, give them inadequate and inaccurate information, and thus shield themselves from criticism when bad decisions are made.

Far too few Catholics on these panels ever become brave “whistleblowers.” And that’s one reason why child molesting clerics remain hidden, why kids remain at risk and why the church’s horrific clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis continues.

NOTE – Just this week, two Seattle men who were on a local church review board blasted Seattle’s archbishop for keeping secret – for a decade – serious allegations against a predator priest.

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CANADA
Windsor Star

Last Updated: May 14, 2014

A former Windsor priest has been sentenced to four years in prison and will spend the rest of his life on the sex offender registry.

Gabriele Del Bianco, 57, was sentenced Wednesday in a Sarnia court for three of 18 sex charges he initially faced for his abuse of young girls in the 1980s and early 1990s.

“I feel that we have all been robbed of so much joy,” one victim said Wednesday in court before her tormentor was sentenced. “Uncomplicated joy that comes from a world that makes sense. What Gabe has done doesn’t make sense. And, even more importantly, what God has allowed Gabe to do has left so many of us without faith.”

The trial began in October with four of Del Bianco’s alleged victims testifying in court.

Del Bianco was acquitted of sexual misconduct charges involving two women but found guilty for abusing the other two.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

With two weeks to go before the judge’s deadline, the Rev. Andrew McCormick has found a new lawyer to represent him in his retrial on charges he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997 when he was at St. John Cantius church in Bridesburg.

Center City criminal defense lawyer Trevan Borum confirmed Wednesday that he will represent McCormick, 58, in the retrial. Borum said he will formally enter his appearance at a May 29 status hearing on the case before Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright.

If Borum’s name is familiar to some, it may be because he had been hired by retired Catholic priest Robert Brennan. Brennan, 76, was charged with raping a boy from ages 11 to 14 who was a member of the “altar guild” at the Resurrection of Our Lord parish school in Rhawnhurst. The criminal charges were dismissed after the 26-year-old alleged victim died of an accidental drug overdose on Oct. 13.

McCormick had been searching for a new lawyer since March 12 when a jury deadlocked on the charges against him and defense attorney William J. Brennan Jr. was permitted to withdraw. Earlier, Brennan had said he felt uncomfortable after discovering shortly before trial that he knew the extended family of the alleged victim.

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

May 14, 2014

James Moore, Compliance Manager
Administrative Actions and Appeals Group (Clery),
U. S. Department of Education
Union Center Plaza
830 1st Street, NE room 72 J1
Washington, DC 20202
Email: James.Moore@ed.gov

Dear Mr. Moore,

We are members of a self-help support group called SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priest). Our mission is to heal the wounded and protect the innocent. That’s why we’re asking for your help.

We are worried about the safety of those at or near Adrian College in Michigan. A music professor there, Dr. Thomas Hodgman, admitted molesting two girls and is accused of molesting at least one more.

[BishopAccountability.org]

His former employer, a Catholic high school, had to pay $1.6 million to a California woman who was repeatedly sexually violated by Hodgman when she was a youngster.

Hodgman is also the Artistic Director and Conductor at Lenawee Community Chorus and “works with other educators and students to offer a music class to community preschoolers,” according to an Adrian official.

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MARYLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, May 14, 2014

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

We are impressed by and grateful for the courage of every victim and witness who testified in the child sex abuse trail against a former member of the Covenant Life Church, Nathaniel Morales. It takes real strength and bravery to take the witness stand in open court against a charming and charismatic spiritual figure.

[WJLA]

And we hope that the courage of these men and women will inspire others who saw, suspected or suffered crimes in the Sovereign Grace Ministries (Covenant Life Church is part of) to step forward too. It’s never too late to share what you know or believe about child sexual abuse with police, prosecutors and the public.

These insular institutions – in which officials discourage trust in secular authorities and insist on handling crimes internally – won’t reform themselves. It takes brave individuals – inside and outside these unhealthy institutions – to speak up if kids are to be safe.

Finally, Morales didn’t act alone. Others with Sovereign Grace Ministries are likely complicit in his child sex crimes or child sex crimes by other predators. We hope they will “come clean” about what they know or suspect about abuse, including Mark Prater and C.J. Mahaney and all the rest.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Michael D’Antonio | May. 14, 2014

THE DARK BOX: A SECRET HISTORY OF CONFESSION
By John Cornwell
Published by Basic Books, $27.99

John Cornwell may be our most gifted and persistent chronicler of Catholicism in the context of the modern world. In Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII, he raised essential questions about the Vatican’s response to the greatest evil of the 20th century. In Newman’s Unquiet Grave: The Reluctant Saint, he presents the great English cardinal as a flesh-and-blood person. Now, in The Dark Box: A Secret History of Confession, Cornwell uses his formidable talents to reveal the sacrament in a complete, compelling and original way.

Beginning with childhood recollections that are at once particular and universal, Cornwell recalls the ritual he was required to perform before first Communion, and the rote practice that followed through the rest of his childhood. He describes with real poignancy the boy who felt true sorrow over the idea that a 7-year-old could offend God and the distrust that arose when a priest propositioned him during a confession.

Despite the guilt heaped upon him in childhood, and the predation he was subject to as an adolescent, young Cornwell wanted to be a priest. He devoted seven full years to training for the priesthood. Sex and science, two forces that have undone many vocations, ended his pursuit of ordination. However, after a long time spent hovering “between agnosticism and atheism,” his marriage to a devout Catholic woman who raised their children in the faith brought him back to the fold.

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PUERTO RICO
Primera Hora

[Summary: In Puerto Rico, the first priest fund guilty of abusing a child under 14 was Anibal Torres Ortiz who was convicted in 2005. The scandal of sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church and cover-up have taken on international resonance for more than a decade.]

>El escándalo de abuso sexual contra menores en la Iglesia Católica y el encubrimiento en las esferas de poder del clero llevan más de una década con resonancia internacional.

Tanta, que hasta Puerto Rico ha llegado. Tanta, que hasta el argentino papa Francisco tuvo que pedir perdón y comprometerse a sancionar a esos hombres de Dios que bajo la sotana ocultan a un pedófilo. Tanta, que la Iglesia ha tenido que pagar millones de dólares en indemnizaciones.

“Me siento obligado a asumir personalmente todo el mal que algunos sacerdotes, bastante pocos en número, obviamente no comparable con el número de todos los sacerdotes, a pedir perdón personalmente por el daño que han causado por haber abusado sexualmente de niños”, dijo el Papa el mes pasado.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Greg Kelly and Alison Cook, CBC News Posted: May 14, 2014

Roderick A. Macdonald may not be a household name, but he’s changed the way thousands of Canadians live.

The McGill University law professor played a crucial role in paving the way for same-sex marriage in this country, as well as the inquiry into abuse at residential schools – and the federal government’s 2008 apology to survivors.

Macdonald has spent his career challenging the way the law is conceived and applied in this country, and giving voice to those who’ve had little representation in the operations of institutional power.

But now he’s losing his own voice: his ability to speak is greatly impaired by the fact that he’s terminally ill with throat cancer.

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MARYLAND
Brent Detwiler

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

I’m attending the entire trial this week. Here’s a brief report from Monday and Tuesday.

Eight counts of sex abuse and sex offense by Nathaniel “Nate” Morales were scheduled to be tried this week in Montgomery County Circuit Court in Maryland with Judge Terrence J. McGann presiding. Three of those counts were postponed because Daniel Bates, one of the victims, had a recent “serious medical procedure” according to the Judge and could not participate. Assistant States Attorney Jessica Hall indicated the State would retry Morales on those counts at a later date.

Most of Monday dealt with the selection of 12 jurors with 2 alternates. Around 2:00 PM Assistant State’s Attorney Hall and Defense Attorney Drew made their opening arguments.

Hall argued that Morales was a respected leader in Covenant Life Church who held a position of trust and authority with access to children that he could groom to be victims. She noted that Morales was outgoing, gregarious, esteemed and trusted. Also that he was in the worship group and functioned as the unofficial youth director.

She also outlined the crimes committed against Samuel Bates, Jeremy Cook and Brian Wolohan by Morales. Each time she ended her individual summaries by saying the victims or parents went to the CLC pastors and the pastors “covered up” and “ignored the heinous crimes that had been done” to these boys.

Defense Attorney Drew concerned himself with dates and times and the fact that no one reported any of these crimes to the police until Samuel Bates contacted Detective Sally Magee in October 2009. He did not seek to disprove, challenge or undermined any of the allegations against Morales.

The first witness called to stand was Samuel’s and Daniel’s mother, Grace Charlene Bates. Of greatest importance, she testified they went to Grant Layman in 1992 and told him about the sexual abuse of Samuel. This fact was not disputed by the Defense. Grant was a pastor at Covenant Life Church.

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

He admitted molesting two teenaged girls
His former employer was forced to pay $1.6 million
But he works now at a MI college & no one was warned
Group wants Methodists, who meet there this week, to act
SNAP: “Church officials should at least alert others about him”
He is also accused of impregnating one girl & giving her an STD

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, child sex abuse victims and advocates will disclose that they are;

–writing a federal official saying that a Michigan college may have broken federal law by quietly hiring a credibly accused child molesting professor but telling no one about him, and
–writing Michigan Methodist officials, who meet this week at the college, and urging them to warn their flocks about him.

They will also beg;

– college officials to at least alert staff and students about the professor’s past, and
– anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered any crimes or misdeeds by the professor to “speak up, get help, expose wrongdoers, protect others and start healing.”

WHEN
Wednesday, May 14 at 4:00 p.m.

WHERE
On the sidewalk leading to the Bell Tower at Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan

WHO
Two-three members of a self help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)

WHY
Leaders of SNAP are writing Michigan Methodist church officials and a federal bureaucrat about Dr. Thomas Hodgman, a music professor at Adrian College. The college hired Hodgman in 1999, despite the fact that Hodgman admitted molesting two girls and is accused of molesting at least one more.

[BishopAccountability.org]

Hodgman’s former employer, a Catholic high school, had to pay $1.6 million to a California woman who was repeatedly sexually violated by Hodgman when she was a youngster.

A federal law called the Clery Act requires colleges “to give timely warnings of crimes that represent a threat to the safety of students or employees.” In a new letter to a U.S. Education Department official, SNAP alleges that Adrian’s “continuing secrecy” surrounding Hodgman’s past “violates the spirit of the Clery Act and may well violate its letter too.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Get Reading

May 14, 2014 08:50 By Natasha Adkins

A woman, who said she was 11 when a retired vicar sexually assaulted her, gave evidence yesterday to Reading Crown Court.

Brian Spence, 74, faces nine counts of indecent assault involving four girls aged under 16.

All the offences are alleged to have taken place between 1995 and November, 1999 when Spence – known then as Father Brian – was vicar of St John the Baptist Church in Crowthorne.

He was more recently priest-in-charge at St Mark’s Church in Englefield before he retired.

The jury watched a police interview recorded in 2012, in which the woman, now 30, described the incident as “a burden which I have carried with me since I was 11”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has appointed Fr. Kevin Doran bishop of the diocese of Elphin, Ireland. Bishop-elect Doran succeeds Bishop Christopher Jones in the pastoral care of the diocese on the western coast of Ireland.

Bishop-elect Kevin Doran was born in Dublin June 26, 1953. He studied for the priesthood at Mater Dei College in Dublin and at the Pontifical Irish College in Rome. He was ordained a priest July 6, 1977 for the Archdiocese of Dublin.

After his ordination, he taught in a school in Ringsend, Dublin ( 1977-1983). From 1980 to 1983 he served in the diocesan Secretariat for Education. In 1983 he was appointed University Chaplain. In 1990 he returned to Rome, earning a doctorate in philosophy at the Angelicum and at the same time was appointed Spiritual Director at the Irish College .

On returning to Ireland he was Parochial Vicar at Foxrock (1995-1998), director of the diocesan, later national Commission for Vocations (1998-2006), pastor of Glendalough (2005-2009) , and finally, Secretary General of the Preparatory Committee of 50th International Eucharistic Congress (2008-2012).

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FALL RIVER (MA)
WPRO

By Steve Klamkin WPRO News

Two men who allege they were sexually abused as young boys by a now-deceased priest are suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River and its retired former bishop.

Daniel Sherwood and Paul Andrews allege in a lawsuit filed in Hartford, Connecticut that they were victims of clergy sex abuse by the late Monsignor Maurice Souza at St. Anthony’s parish in East Falmouth, Massachusetts in the late 1970’s and 1980’s. Monsignor Souza died in 1996.

The suit was filed in Connecticut, which allows for a longer statue of limitations, until victims are 48 years old, said Robert Hoatson, a former priest who co-founded “Road to Recovery”, which serves survivors of sexual abuse and their families.

“The scandal of abuse was bad enough,” said Hoatson.

“What was worse, in many cases, was the cover-up and or the denial and or the enabling. And Bishop Cronin, we think did all of those things,” said Hoatson, outside a Fall River building housing offices of the Diocese where Daniel Cronin presided as Bishop for more than 20 years before being made Archbishop of Hartford, Connecticut. He has since retired.

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UNITED STATES
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Leah Vincent

This past Sunday, I spoke about sexuality and modesty in front of a group of ultra-Orthodox rabbis.

Both professionally and personally, it was a profound moment for me, a formerly ultra-Orthodox woman, to sit there and name experiences that the ultra-Orthodox community hasn’t wanted to hear. To say aloud: I was raped, to say aloud: modesty can breed vulnerability to sexual assault, to say aloud: all girls deserve sex education. And to have these rabbis — some of whom were surprisingly open to these ideas — carefully listen to me articulate these silenced realities.

At this event, five former ultra-Orthodox Jews met with four ultra-Orthodox rabbis and one Orthodox woman in an optimistic but perhaps quixotic attempt to build bridges of communication between these two communities.

Tensions have risen between the two, as former ultra-Orthodox Jews have grown to be a bold voice for justice around issues of sex abuse, negligence in education, forced marriages, oppression of personal choice, removal of children from deviating parents and abusive treatment of deviating teens, in their communities of origin.

Former ultra-Orthodox Jews don’t speak with a unified voice, but our diverse perspectives are perceptive and essential — and troubling for the ultra-Orthodox world, which has often viewed them as an affront to their way of life. There is little constructive conversation between the two groups, for a number of reasons, including — as I, a former ultra-Orthodox Jew, have experienced — a tendency for the ultra-Orthodox community to attack the veracity and mental health of any former ultra-Orthodox Jew who publicly tells their story.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
South Coast Today

[the lawsuit]

By Curt Brown
cbrown@s-t.com
May 14, 2014

FALL RIVER — The Fall River Diocese and the lawyer for two men now suing it and its former bishop over sexual abuse charges against a priest failed to reach agreement during mediation last year, the parties said Tuesday.

Diocesan spokesman John E. Kearns Jr. said the two sides had been in mediation for a period of time until Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian pulled the plug on the discussions in May.

“We wanted to resolve it through mediation and that process was stopped,” Kearns said at a press conference outside his office.

Garabedian, in a telephone interview, called Kearns’ comments “inaccurate and self-serving.”

He said he did not end the talks, they were mutually terminated. “The offer and settlement made by the diocese was unreasonable. We had reached a stalemate,” he said.”>the lawsuit]

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CALIFORNIA
Manteca Bulletin

By Rose Albano Risso
City Editor ralbanorisso@mantecabulletin.com 209-249-3536
POSTED May 14, 2014

Sexual abuse claims against the Catholic Diocese of Stockton must be filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California by 4 p.m. on Aug. 15, 2014.

That announcement came from Bishop of Stockton Stephen E. Blaire in a media release sent by Director of Communications Sister Terry Davis.

The deadline for filing a claim, called the “Sexual Abuse Claim Bar Date,” applies to all sexual abuse claims that occurred before Jan. 15, 2014.

Earlier bar dates are set for other types of claims against the diocese pertinent to its filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. General claims have to be filed by May 22, 2014. Claims made by governmental bodies must be filed by July 14, 2014.

Sexual-abuse claimants must use the court-approved Sexual Abuse Proof of Claim Form for their claim to be valid. There are a number of ways to obtain that form.

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PUERTO RICO
BBC News

US federal authorities in Puerto Rico have arrested a Roman Catholic priest on charges of sexual abuse of minors.

Israel Berrios, 58, is the first priest to be detained over charges of this kind in Puerto Rico, a US territory.

He is accused of sexually abusing an altar boy and faces a minimum of 10 years in jail if found guilty.

His arrest is part of a wider investigation into sexual abuse allegations by several priests in the Caribbean island.

Puerto Rico Justice Secretary Cesar Miranda alleged Mr Berrios initially gave money, a computer and a camera to the boy, who is now 21, and also took him on a cruise.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
Wicked Local Dighton

Brian Fraga
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted May. 13, 2014

FALL RIVER — The Diocese of Fall River was first notified in 2012 of sexual abuse allegations against the late Monsignor Maurice Souza, diocesan spokesman John Kearns told reporters Tuesday.

Kearns said independent investigators hired by the diocese did not find evidence to support some of the claims made by two former altar servers that Souza sexually abused the boys for almost 10 years in the late 1970s and mid ‘80s. Kearns said the diocese offered both men counseling, and tried to resolve the issue through mediation, but he claimed that their attorney, Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, called off the mediation in May 2013.

“We wanted to resolve it through mediation, but that process was stopped,” Kearns said.

Garabedian said the mediation was unsuccessful because the diocese was “unreasonable in its position.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

A Catholic priest has again been quizzed about historic sex allegation.

Canon Mortimer Stanley, 82, who retired from St Vincent de Paul RC Church in Norden, Rochdale, was first interviewed last year.

Originally three women claimed they were indecently assaulted and sexually abused while pupils at nearby St Vincent’s Primary School.

The women were under 11 when it is alleged the offences happened more than 30 years ago.

It is claimed the abuse was committed in a presbytery next to the school. After the M.E.N reported the allegations six other women came forward with information.

Canon Stanley, who joined the church as a parish priest in 1972, retired to his native Ireland in 2002. He retired to Ballybunion in Kerry.

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PUERTO RICO
Free Press Journal

San Juan: A Catholic priest was arrested by the FBI and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for crimes of sexual trafficking and paedophilia, an official said.

Rev. Israel Berrios Berrios, 58, was arrested Tuesday at his residence in Naranjito, a village in the central part of this US commonwealth, Puerto Rican government spokesman Miguel Pereira told Efe.

Berrios, who in the photo of his Facebook profile appears taking the hand of the late Pope John Paul II, had been relieved of his duties by the diocese of Caguas, a city neighbouring San Juan, while he was being investigated.

This was the first arrest of a priest by the US federal authorities in Puerto Rico, with local authorities expected to confirm the charge, which would make Berrios the second priest charged with sex crimes on the island.

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MINNESOTA
The Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
May 13, 2014

Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a statement with their most recent disclosures:

Certain clergy members who we have made known to the public through press releases or who have been the subject of media reports over the past many months are not included in this disclosure. They remain under investigation. If claims against them are substantiated, their names will be added to our website. Similarly, if the claims against them are not substantiated, that too will be made known.

I read this to say a number of things:

1) They have more names.

2) If they find more are credibly accused, those names will be released.

3) If they find that the claims are not credible, “that too will be made known.”

The first one is suspected and there are other names out there. The second is a no brainier and the sooner the better. The third is the one that I stopped and reread a couple of times. It seems to say that they will finally come out with the names that they have been told about , but who through whatever standards they are using they found to not be names for the list. However, it claims that they will stop hiding those names.

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PUERTO RICO
La Prensa (Cuba)

San Juan, May 13 (EFE).- A Catholic priest was arrested Tuesday by FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for crimes of sexual trafficking and pedophilia, Puerto Rican government spokesman Miguel Pereira told Efe.

The Rev. Israel Berrios Berrios, 58, was arrested at his residence in Naranjito, a village in the central part of this U.S. commonwealth.

Berrios, who in the photo of his Facebook profile appears taking the hand of the late Pope John Paul II, had been relieved of his duties by the diocese of Caguas, a city neighboring San Juan, while he was being investigated.

This was the first arrest of a priest by U.S. federal authorities in Puerto Rico, with local authorities expected to confirm the charge, which would make Berrios the second priest charged with sex crimes on the island.

The first priest to be accused by Puerto Rican authorities is the former president of the Ecclesiastical Court of Arecibo Diocese, the Rev. Edwin Mercado Viera, scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing on May 30.

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN, mkauffman@courant.com
The Hartford Courant
5:47 p.m. EDT, May 13, 2014

Former Hartford Archbishop Daniel Cronin is being sued by two men who say he was negligent in his supervision of a Massachusetts priest who allegedly molested the pair 30 years ago.

The plaintiffs, former alter boys who are now in their 40s, say they were abused from 1979 through the mid-80s by Monsignor Maurice Souza, who served as pastor of St. Anthony’s Parish in East Falmouth, Mass. At the time, Cronin was bishop of the Diocese of Fall River, which included St. Anthony’s

The suit does not claim that Cronin was aware of the alleged abuse, but says that as Souza’s supervisor, he had a “duty to evaluate whether Monsignor Souza posed an unreasonable risk of harm to minors.”

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PUERTO RICO
Latin American Herald Tribune

SAN JUAN – A Catholic priest was arrested Tuesday by FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for crimes of sexual trafficking and pedophilia, Puerto Rican government spokesman Miguel Pereira told Efe.

The Rev. Israel Berrios Berrios, 58, was arrested at his residence in Naranjito, a village in the central part of this U.S. commonwealth.

Berrios, who in the photo of his Facebook profile appears taking the hand of the late Pope John Paul II, had been relieved of his duties by the diocese of Caguas, a city neighboring San Juan, while he was being investigated.

This was the first arrest of a priest by U.S. federal authorities in Puerto Rico, with local authorities expected to confirm the charge, which would make Berrios the second priest charged with sex crimes on the island.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
WPRI

[with video]

Shaun Towne; Reporting by Madeline WrightUpdated: Tuesday, May 13, 2014

FALL RIVER, Mass. (WPRI) — Two former altar boys have filed a lawsuit claiming they were sexually abused by a now-deceased priest.

The lawsuit alleges Maurice Souza, a former monsignor at St. Anthony’s Parish in East Falmouth, abused the boys in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Road to Recovery, an advocacy group, is calling attention to the suit, which claims the abuse began in the 1970s, when the boys were 9 and 10 years old, and that it lasted until they were 17.

The alleged victims filed the lawsuit against the Diocese of Fall River and former Bishop Daniel Cronin, who they claim failed to protect them.

“We have two very damaged men. We want them made whole,” said Robert Hoatson, a spokesperson for the alleged victims. “If the diocese steps up and does the empathetic and sympathetic thing, we can avoid a trial.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Morning Times

LEVITTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Officials say a former suburban Philadelphia pastor charged with sexually assaulting a girl more than 20 years ago has taken his own life, a week before his trial was set to begin.

Sixty-one-year-old Scott Sechrist was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Monday night inside his home in Bristol Township.

Bucks County prosecutor Jennifer Schorn said he left a suicide note maintaining his innocence but she did not elaborate further.

Sechrist had served as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Morrisville and allegedly knew the girl’s family from the church.

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IRELAND
Irish examiner

By Liam Heylin

The case against a priest accused of indecently assaulting a student in a school toilet on an unknown date in the mid-1980s has been dismissed after a trial at Cork District Court.

Liam O’Brien, aged 66, of Woodview, Mount Merrion Avenue, Blackrock, Dublin, was cleared yesterday of the single count of indecent assault on a 14-year-old boy, at Coláiste An Chroí Naofa, Carraig Na Bhfear, Co Cork, in the mid-1980s.

Judge Tim Lucey said one of the factors in favour of the defendant was that the alleged incident happened so long ago making it very difficult to defend.

“It is the defendant’s rights I have to be most careful of. The complainant has rights in other tribunals. But this is in criminal law and I have to be very careful.

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MARYLAND
WJLA

ROCKVILLE, Md. (WJLA) – The jury has been selected, and opening arguments began around 3 p.m. in the sexual assault case of Nathaniel Morales, accused of sexually abusing boys for decades in Montgomery County.

A mother broke her silence 26 years after Morales allegedly molested her then-teenage son.

“To me, he’s a poster child for everything a predator could be,” she said.

During the late 1980’s, Morales was a respected member at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg. Described in court as “charismatic, affable, and the life of the party,” Morales lived in the basement of this Rockville home – where he reportedly molested the family’s two teenage sons.

One victim, now 39 years old, testified:

“I recall a number of times, while I was sleeping in the basement, waking up to him kneeling by my side, touching me…He mentioned he had these urges that he needed to satisfy one way or another.”

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FALL RIVER (MA)
Turn to 10

By Cierra Putman

FALL RIVER, Mass. –
Two men have filed a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River and then-Bishop Daniel Cronin for allegedly failing to prevent a priest from sexually abusing them when they were altar boys.

The men, who are now in their late 40s, filed a complaint in Connecticut in January and reported being sexually abused over several years.

Although the lawsuit was filed in January, the two men have asked the Road to Recovery, a support group for survivors of sexual assault, to speak on their behalf because they now want to make the suit known to the public.

“We’re here (Tuesday) to congratulate, to support and encourage two very courageous men who have said to themselves enough is enough,” said Robert Hoatson, of Road to Recovery.

The alleged victims accuse the now-deceased Monsignor Maurice Souza of sexually assaulting them while he was a priest and pastor at St. Anthony’s Parish in East Falmouth.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
ABC 6

Nicole Gerber
ngerber@abc6.com
@nicolegerber

FALL RIVER – A former priest from the Fall River catholic church is named in a lawsuit for sexually abusing minors. Now the Archbishop who acted as his supervisor also faces accusations of neglect and oversight.

The lawsuit has been filed in Connecticut.

Retired Archbishop of Hartford, Daniel Cronin, was the Bishop in Fall River back in the 70’s and 80’s while the accused priest Monsignor Maurice Souza allegedly committed countless sexual crimes against two altar boys.

The lawsuit names Cronin as the bystander who let it happen.

“He was his supervisor, and when supervisors are negligent they need to be held accountable… Someone knew in that parish, someone knew probably in the area, and probably should have stepped in and done something about it,” said Robert Hoatson of Road to Recovery – a nonprofit supporting the alleged victims.

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PUERTO RICO
Canoe

REUTERS
May 13, 2014

SAN JUAN – U.S. authorities on Tuesday arrested a 58-year-old Catholic priest in Puerto Rico on child sexual abuse charges, marking the first such detention in the U.S. territory by federal officials.

Israel Berrios was taken into custody at a relative’s home in the rural town of Naranjito, said Ivan Ortiz, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Berrios was arrested after a federal grand jury delivered four charges against him for sexual trafficking of minors and transportation of a minor with the intention of involving the minor in an illicit sexual act, Ortiz said.

Berrios faces a sentence from 10 years to life in prison. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.

Bishop Ruben Gonzalez, who heads the Caguas Diocese where Berrios worked, said he cooperated with authorities in the case after receiving the original complaint early last year.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Barry Roche

Tue, May 13, 2014

A former teacher at a boarding school run by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart has been cleared of indecently assaulting a teenage boy at the school in the 1980s after a judge said he could not be sure beyond reasonable doubt that the assault happened.

Fr Liam O’Brien (66) of Woodview, Mount Merrion Avenue, Blackrock, Dublin had denied a single charge of indecently assaulting the then 14-year-old boy in a toilet at Coláiste an Chroí Naofa in Carrignavar in Co Cork in the mid -1980s.

The complainant told Cork District Court that he had asked permission from Fr O’Brien to go the toilet during supervised study and he was in the cubicle when he heard a knock and opened the door to find Fr O’Brien outside.

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UNITED STATES
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

May 1, 2014

WASHINGTON—Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), has Named Judge Mary. K. Huffman of Centerville, Ohio; Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald J. Schmid of Granger, Indiana, and Marriage and Family Therapist Nelle Moriarty of Rochester, Minnesota to four-year terms on the U.S. bishops’ National Review Board. Their terms begin in June.

Archbishop Kurtz in the appointment letters said that “The National Review Board plays a vital role as a consultative body assisting the bishops in ensuring the accountability of our procedures in the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.” With a quote from the Charter, he added that “The whole Church, especially the laity, at both the diocesan and national levels, needs to be engaged in maintaining safe environments in the Church for children and young people.”

Judge Huffman has served as a judge on the Montgomery County, Ohio Common Pleas Bench since 2002, and is an adjunct faculty member of the University of Dayton School of Law, her alma mater. She currently is president of the Dayton Bar Association.

Mr. Schmid has been Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana since 1994. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Notre Dame, where he was an adjunct professor of law, 2001-2008.

Nelle Moriarty has been a marriage and family therapist at Bluestem Center for Child and Family Development in Rochester, Minnesota since 1997, and a school counselor in Rochester Catholic Schools since 1992. She has been a trainer for the VIRTUS “Protecting God’s Children” program since 2011, and chairs the diocesan review board of the Diocese of Winona, Minnesota. She holds a master of science in counseling psychology from Mankato State University and has a Specialist Certificate in Human Sexuality from the University of Minnesota.

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INDIANA
Today’s Catholic News

GRANGER — A diocesan resident has been appointed to the National Review Board of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. That board collaborates with the bishops’ conference in preventing the sexual abuse of minors by persons in the service of the Church.

Donald J. Schmid of Granger, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Indiana, was nominated by Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. His appointment was announced May 1 by Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, president of the bishops’ conference.

Schmid is the father of three children and a graduate of the University of Notre Dame. He has been a prosecutor with the Department of Justice since 1994 and has served on the diocesan review board since 2009. He also has served on the review board for the Midwest and United States Provinces of the Congregation of Holy Cross for several years.

Bishop Rhoades told Today’s Catholic that he nominated Schmid for the National Review Board because of his “excellent” service on the Diocesan Review Board.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
South Coast Today

By Curt Brown
cbrown@s-t.com
May 13, 2014

FALL RIVER — A New Jersey-based group for sexual abuse victims offered its support today for two men, who are charging in a lawsuit that former Fall River Bishop Daniel A. Cronin did not properly supervise a priest they said assaulted them.

“We are supporting two men who have said ‘enough is enough,” said Robert M. Hoatson, co-founder and president of Road to Recovery, Inc., a New Jersey nonprofit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families.

The victims have accused the late Rev. Monsignor Maurice Souza, a New Bedford native, of sexually abusing them when they were altar boys, beginning when they were 9 and 10 years old, and Souza was assigned to St. Anthony’s Parish in East Falmouth.

The lawsuit, filed in January in a Connecticut court, names Cronin and the Fall River Diocese as defendants. Cronin headed the Diocese for 21 years until he left in December 1991 to become archbishop of the Hartford Diocese.

In a separate press conference, John E. Kearns Jr., a spokesman for the Fall River Diocese, said the Diocese first learned of the allegations against Souza when it was notified of a possible claim in 2012.

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PUERTO RICO
Survivors Network of Those Abused Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, May 13, 2014

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

A Puerto Rican priest was arrested on federal sexual abuse charges involving children. We are grateful that law enforcement officials are taking serious action to protect children.

[Yahoo! News]

Fr. Israel Berrios, from the Diocese of Caguas, is charged with sexually trafficking minors. This is reportedly the first federal case of its kind in Puerto Rico. We hope this signals a new vigor in holding predators accountable and protecting children.

We are grateful to the brave victims who came forward and worked with federal investigators. We urge Catholic church officials in Puerto Rico to aggressively reach out to anyone who saw, suspected, or suffered child sex crimes. They should also post the names, photos, and work histories of all credibly accused child molesting clergy.

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COLOMBIA
Catholic.net

[Summary: The Archdiocese of Cali has issued a decree regarding archdiocesan child protection. Any priest, religious or layperson who serves the church and has knowledge of sexual abuse of minors by clergy or even a reasonable suspicion is bound to immediately contact the bishop or diocesan delegate.]

La arquidiócesis colombiana de Cali ha emitido un ‘Decreto arquidiocesano para la protección a menores‘. En él se pide que cualquier sacerdote, religioso o laico al servicio de la Iglesia Católica que tenga conocimiento de un acto de abuso sexual de menores cometido por un clérigo o la sospecha de razonable del hecho, está obligado a la denuncia inmediata ante el obispo o al delegado de la diócesis.

Siguiendo con las pautas y recomendaciones en las que ya trabaja el Vaticano desde hace años para luchar contra los abusos a menores por parte del clero, esta diócesis ha creado este ‘manual’ para ayudar a los fieles a detectar y saber cómo actuar frente a estas situaciones.

Entre las últimas de estas medidas, está la creación de una Comisión Vaticana contra los abusos a menores. La Pontificia Comisión para la Protección de Menores presentará al Papa Francisco “propuestas específicas” para sensibilizar sobre “las trágicas consecuencias del abuso sexual y de las devastadoras repercusiones de no escuchar o no informar cuando se sospecha de un abuso”. El Santo Padre instituyó formalmente la Comsión el 22 de marzo de este año y han tenido su primera reunión del 1 al 3 de mayo. Entre los miembros de esta comisión de expertos, se encuentra la irlandesa Marie Collins, que sufrió los abusos sexuales de un sacerdote cuando era niña.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Herald

San Juan — Un sacerdote católico puertorriqueño fue detenido el martes por agentes de la Oficina federal de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE) por cuatro cargos relacionados con tráfico sexual de menores y pedofilia.

Así lo confirmó el portavoz del Departamento de Justicia de Puerto Rico, Miguel Pereira, quien añadió que el religioso, identificado como Israel Berríos Berríos, de 58 años, fue detenido en su residencia en Naranjito, pueblo de la zona central de la isla.

Berríos Berríos, quien en la foto del perfil de su cuenta de Facebook aparece dándole la mano al fenecido papa Juan Pablo II, había sido relevado de sus funciones por la Diócesis de Caguas, ciudad aledaña a San Juan, mientras era investigado por delitos similares.

Se trata de la primera detención federal de un cura en Puerto Rico, y se espera que las autoridades estatales también formalicen una acusación, lo que lo convertiría en el segundo sacerdote acusado en este ámbito.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Dia

El sacerdote fue acusado por un gran jurado por tráfico sexual de menores e inducir a un menor a una conducta sexual ilícita

El sacerdote suspendido, Israel Berríos Berríos, quien en la mañana de este martes fue arrestado por las autoridades federales, firmó una declaración en la que aceptó haber cometido un acto de pedofilia mientras era párroco de la iglesia San José de Aibonito, donde ocurrieron los hechos.

Así lo reveló a este diario el obispo de Caguas, Rubén González. “Tenemos certeza moral de que el hecho se cometió. El mismo sacerdote lo admitió”, sostuvo el líder de la Diócesis de Arecibo.

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MONTANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, May 13, 2014

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

A judge in Montana has set a “bar date” for clergy sex abuse victims. They have until August to report their crimes and potentially be part of a settlement.

[KXLH]

“Bar dates” give victims a limited amount of time to come forward, report their abuse, and receive help. This is wrong. It’s convenient for those who commit and conceal heinous child sex crimes. It’s hurtful to everyone else.

It often takes years or decades for child sexual abuse victims to find the strength and courage to come forward and report the horrible crimes they suffered. Putting a deadline on when they can speak up and get help only benefits wrongdoers.

Still, we hope anyone who is suffering in silence and self blame will find the courage to come forward and start healing.

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PUERTO RICO
Yahoo! News

By DANICA COTO

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — U.S. authorities in Puerto Rico said Tuesday they have arrested a Roman Catholic priest on charges including sexual trafficking of minors in the first federal case of its kind in the U.S. territory.

Ivan Ortiz, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said 58-year-old Israel Berrios was a priest in the Diocese of Caguas, south of the capital of San Juan. He said the priest was arrested in the northern town of Naranjito.

Ortiz said the investigation is ongoing and that more arrests are possible. Authorities have not yet given details of the case.

Puerto Rico prosecutors also filed charges of lewd acts against Berrios.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
MassLive

By The Associated Press
on May 13, 2014

FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — Two former altar boys at a Massachusetts Roman Catholic church have filed a lawsuit alleging they were sexually abused by a now deceased priest, while the former bishop of Fall River did nothing to stop it.

The suit was filed in Hartford, Connecticut in January but came to light Monday.

The complaint alleges that former Fall River Bishop Daniel Cronin did not properly supervise the late Monsignor Maurice Souza, accused in court documents of sexually abusing the boys, beginning when they were 9 and 10 years old in the 1970s, when Souza was at St. Anthony’s in Falmouth.

The now-retired Cronin went on to become Archbishop of Hartford. Souza died in 1996.

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SEATTLE (PI)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, May 13, 2014

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

A retired judge and ex-U.S. attorney are blasting Seattle’s Catholic archbishop for being secretive and deceitful about predator priests.

We’re glad they’re speaking up. But they are to blame as well. They let themselves be used by church officials. They too kept quiet about Fr. Quigg for a decade.

[Seattle PI]

The two men – retired Judge Terrence Carroll and former U.S. Attorney Mike McKay – are former members of an archdiocesan review board.

It’s great to see them urge Archbishop Peter Sartain to “release the documents” about Fr. Quigg, a credibly accused cleric who sexually exploited a teenager, but whose wrongdoing was hidden for ten years until our group recently sent out a news release about him.

But these two men could and should have done more sooner to warn the public and protect others. We hope they’ll do more soon, sharing other secrets they’ve kept. Far too few Catholic church members and employees have become “whistleblowers.” And that’s one reason why the church’s horrific clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis continues and why child molesting clerics remain hidden and kids remain at risk.

We agree with Carroll and McKay when they say it’s deceitful for Sartain to claim his staff “recently learned” that Fr. Quigg was still acting like a priest. We strongly suspect that archdiocesan staff knew Fr. Quigg was doing this but ignored it for fear of drawing attention to his sexual misdeeds.

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KOREA
inside Korea

A Seoul appellate court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by a former priest who claims Catholic authorities wrongfully stripped him of his religious status and pay.

The Seoul High Court ruled that courts could not interfere in church affairs as the Constitution guarantees the freedom of religion and the separation of church and state.

The former priest, only identified by his surname, Kim, initially filed the lawsuit against the Samsungsan Cathedral in 2012 after he lost his priesthood and pay.

Catholic officials suspended Kim after he allegedly embezzled cathedral funds in 2005. They defrocked Kim after he filed civil suits against cathedral authorities in protest.

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NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

CLIFTON PARK – A priest’s expected appearance in town court has been postponed until next month, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The Rev. James Michael Taylor was originally scheduled to be in court on Wednesday but asked that the case be adjourned until June 11.

Taylor was arrested in April. A 30-year-old priest in the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese, Taylor was accused of abusing his position of trust to carry on an inappropriate — and criminal — seven-month relationship with a girl half his age, law enforcement officials said after his arrest.

Taylor, an associate pastor at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Niskayuna, engaged in physical contact and shared phone calls, text messages and pictures with a 15-year-old girl he met a few years ago while serving as a deacon and youth minister at Corpus Christi Church in Clifton Park, police said.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The case against a priest who was charged with a single incident of indecent assault on a 14-year-old boy at a school in Co Cork in the 1980s has been dismissed.

Fr Liam O’Brien, of 66 Woodview, Mount Merrion Avenue, Blackrock in Dublin, had been charged with a single incident of indecent assault, while he was a teacher Coláiste an Chroí Naofa, Carraig na bhFear in Cork.

At Cork District Court this afternoon, Judge Tim Lucey said he could not find the defendant guilty beyond reasonable doubt and dismissed the charge.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

May 12, 2014 3:53 pm | Author: berger

It was a year ago today that Judge Robert Dierker issued a ruling that rocked the archdiocese, ordering Archbishop Robert Carlson to turn over 20 years of records about 115 accused child molesting priests, nuns and church workers. (The case: Jane Doe v. Fr. Joseph D. Ross, et al.) As the case winds towards a June trial date, Twin Cities barrister Jeff Anderson – the nation’s most experienced clergy sex abuse attorney – has formerly entered his appearance alongside our town’s Ken Chackes. Anderson first deposed Carlson back in 1987 in a Minnesota abuse case.
TV ON TUES

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Caroline Winter

The Australian Education Union (AEU) is worried young men are turning away from teaching as a career option for fear of being falsely accused of child-sex offences.

It thinks issues such as the highly publicised Debelle royal commission in South Australia into handling of school sex abuse cases have not helped.

There has been a decline in male teachers in schools for some years and president of the AEU David Smith says it is understandable why this has happened.

“A number of young men … or men of any age for that matter have been put off, they’ve told us, by the potential litigation that there might be should there be some sort of vexatious, unfounded accusation against them,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

May 13, 2014 by J-Wire Staff

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is calling for Jewish victims/survivors of child sexual abuse to come forward and share their story.

Royal Commission CEO Janette Dines said that while more than 1,500 people from across Australia have shared their story with a Commissioner, there may be many more who are yet to make contact with the Royal Commission.

“A recent telephone survey found that while there is widespread community awareness of the Royal Commission, many people are still unsure about what the Royal Commission can look into,” Ms Dines said.

“We encourage all Australians to find out more about the work of the Royal Commission and how survivors of child sexual abuse in an institution can share their story.”

According to the research around 65% of those surveyed were aware of the Royal Commission however of these:

* people aged 50+ were most likely to be aware of the Royal Commission
* 24% did not know the role of the Royal Commission
* 40% did not know which organisations the Royal Commission could examine and 37% thought the * Royal Commission could only examine religious organisations
* 50% did not know how to share their story with the Royal Commission
* residents from NSW/ACT were most likely to be aware of the Royal Commission (74%); followed by SA/NT 68%, TAS 67%, VIC and WA 62% and QLD 57%

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UNITED KINGDOM
Get Reading

By Linda Fort

Brian Spence, former vicar of St John the Baptist Church in Crowthorne and St Mark’s Church in Englefield, is facing nine counts of indecent assault involving four girls under 16

A 74-year-old retired vicar faces nine counts of indecent assault involving four girls aged under 16.

All the offences are alleged to have taken place between 1995 and November, 1999 when Brian Spence – known then as Father Brian – was vicar of St John the Baptist Church in Crowthorne.

He was more recently priest-in-charge at St Mark’s Church in Englefield before he retired.

Elisabeth Bussey-Jones, prosecuting, told Reading Crown court yesterday (Mon) how the first girl remembered an incident because it was on a young family member’s birthday in the mid 90s.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: An Inupiat Eskimo, Ignatius J. Jakes entered the Jesuit Novitiate in Sheridan, OR as a coadjutator postulate Sept. 4, 1943, making his perpetual vows in March 1946. He spent his career as a manual laborer for the Jesuits in Spokane WA, Holy Cross, St. Mary’s and Fairbanks, AK and numerous Alaskan missions. He died in 1999 in a Jesuit infirmary at Gonzaga University in Spokane. Jakes was accused in a 2006 lawsuit of sexually abusing three young girls in Holy Cross, AK in the 1980s. The girls were said to have been between the ages of 5 and 7-years-old when abused. Jakes’ name was included on a list in the Fairbanks’ diocese’s 2010 bankruptcy documents of ‘Individuals against whom a complaint of abuse has been asserted by more than one person’.

Perpetual Vows: March 12, 1946
Died: Aug. 23, 1999

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MEXICO
El Occidental

[Summary: Priest Fernando Ortis Garcia has been disqualified from exercise of his priestly ministry and all church activities. He is alleged to have sexually abused a child under age 13.]

José Sánchez/ OEM en línea

Celaya, Gto.- El sacerdote Fernando Ortíz García fue inhabilitado del ejercicio de su ministerio y de toda actividad eclesiástica que realizaba desde hace cuatro años en el templo de San Luis de la Paz, debido al presunto abuso sexual cometido hacia una menor de 14 años de edad.

Con éste ya suman tres los casos de presunto abuso sexual contra menores en la Diócesis de Celaya, ya que los otros dos primeros fueron denunciados hace tres años en San Miguel de Allende, y aún se encuentran, como éste último caso, en dos procesos, el penal y el de carácter religioso. – See more at: http://www.oem.com.mx/eloccidental/notas/n3389239.htm#sthash.ezKXv9X1.dpuf

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Tue, May 13, 201

The revelation in 1992 that an Irish Catholic bishop had fathered a child didn’t look then like the onset of two decades of PR winter for Catholic clergy here.

The bleakness of that winter had far more to do with revelations from 1994 that Catholic bishops could be deeply derelict in their duty of care to Catholic children.

In 2003, we learned that Irish bishops had begun insuring their church’s financial assets against liability for clerical child sex abuse in 1987 – eight years before they began taking steps to protect the children themselves. This looked like midnight.

The Ferns report of 2005 confirmed the darkest fact: at least some Irish bishops had “placed the interest of the church ahead of children”.

For the Dublin archdiocese, 2009 was darker still: the Murphy report’s revelation of the scale of child abuse there to 2004, even beyond 1994 – and of the decades of administrative concealment that had enabled so much of it – baffled all comprehension.

Catholic clergy had always claimed to know all there was to know about sexual sin. It was impossible for most lay people to fathom the fact that the “learning curve” of the same clergy had never risen to the challenge of clerical child sex abuse, or even of grasping the scale of suffering it caused.

The formation of the Irish Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) in 2010 came as a welcome glimpse of a distant dawn. So did the association’s evocation of the spirit of Vatican II – that 1960s glimmering of relevance for the church.

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

BY DARRELL SMITH
dvsmith@sacbee.com
May 12, 2014

Maria Bunter heard the news over the weekend and couldn’t believe it. Not our Hector, she said. Can’t be.

But on Monday, days after a popular priest at her Davis church was arrested on allegations of sex with a 17-year-old girl, sadness joined Bunter’s disbelief as reality sank in. Hector Coria, 45, a pastor at St. James Parish in Davis, was arrested by Davis police Friday on suspicion of oral copulation and statutory rape involving the teen.

Davis police allege that while a priest at St. James in 2013, Coria befriended the girl and that the two later engaged in sexual relations. Police on Monday offered little information but said search warrants yielded enough to arrest the pastor Friday night. Coria remained free on bail Monday.

“We have a great deal of compassion for him and all concerned. He was a wonderful priest,” Bunter said Monday, standing with husband Walter in the parish parking lot. Coria, she said, always “found the right words” at the pulpit.

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