ABUSE TRACKER

PENNSYLVANIA
Bucks County Courier-Times

By Jo Ciavaglia Staff writer

A former Morrisville pastor took his life Monday, a week before he was scheduled to go on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl, who originally reported the crime to police in 1992.

Scott Sechrist, 61, was found dead inside his Bristol Township home, Bucks County prosecutor Jennifer Schorn confirmed Monday night. He left a suicide note maintaining his innocence, she added, but Schorn did not reveal the contents of the note.

Sechrist was awaiting trial on 20 counts of involuntary deviant sexual intercourse with a victim under age 16, as well as multiple counts of aggravated indecent assault and other related crimes. He was free on $500,000 unsecured bail.

Bristol Township reopened the investigation last October after receiving a referral from the Bucks County District Attorney’s office involving the sexual assault allegations, which allegedly took place between 1989 and 1992, according to court records.

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MONTANA
Missoulian

Helena Catholic Diocese: Victims have August deadline for sex-abuse claims

HELENA — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena is giving notice that sex abuse victims have until Aug. 11 to file a claim as part of the diocese’s bankruptcy proceedings.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy reorganization in January as part of a proposed settlement with about 360 victims of sexual abuse from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Monday’s notice by the diocese is part of a May 6 federal court order setting a deadline by which claims must be made.

Anyone who was sexually abused an employee of the diocese, or believes the diocese is liable for their abuse before the Jan. 31 bankruptcy filing, can file a claim by 4:30 p.m. Aug. 11.

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MONTANA
KXLH

HELENA — Victims of sexual abuse by employees of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena have until August 11 to file a claim if they wish to be part of a settlement that now includes more than 360 potential victims.

Facing the claims, the diocese declared bankruptcy in late January, part of a settlement with the diocese’s accusers.

The deal included the creation of a $15 million fund for victims.

The August 11 deadline (4:30 p.m. Mountain Time) follows a May 6th order by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Montana.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

GORDON DEEGAN, RALPH RIEGEL AND SARAH MACDONALD – PUBLISHED 13 MAY 2014

A BISHOP has admitted that it was “a terrible thing” that an abusive priest was allowed to remain in ministry after complaints of sex abuse had been made against him.

Bishop of Killaloe Dr Kieran O’Reilly said that it was “inexcusable” that ‘Father A’ remained an active priest until he retired in 1993.

The priest is the late Fr Tom McNamara, who served in the east Clare area of Mountshannon-Whitegate area during the 1970s to 1990s.

A report by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) reported that there were 26 complaints of abuse concerning ‘Father A’.

Dr O’Reilly confirmed that the late Bishop of Killaloe Dr Michael Harty had referred ‘Father A’ to therapy.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
Wicked Local Falmouth

Brian Fraga
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted May. 12, 2014

FALL RIVER — A lawsuit has been filed in Connecticut that accuses the Diocese of Fall River and its former bishop, Daniel Cronin, of failing to prevent a priest from sexually abusing two boys who were altar servers on Cape Cod for almost decade.

The alleged predator-priest — Monsignor Maurice Souza — died in August 1996 at age 83. The lawsuit accuses Souza of sexually assaulting the victims from the time they were approximately 9 and 10 years old to when both were 17 years of age. Both alleged victims met Souza when he was the pastor of St. Anthony’s Church in East Falmouth.

The lawsuit, which was filed Jan. 4 and seeks monetary compensatory damages, says the boys were taken to Connecticut and Massachusetts for athletic events and other activities, and that they were sexually abused in both states by Souza from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. The lawsuit says the victims spent nights with Souza in hotel rooms, a church rectory and Souza’s residence in Taunton.

The lawsuit also alleges that Souza would provide “awards and inducements” to the plaintiffs, and that if they refused his advances, Souza would threaten to replace them with another “travel companion” to whom he would provide gifts and rewards.

The lawsuit says Souza also made disparaging and derogatory remarks about one plaintiff’s intelligence, athleticism and academic prowess.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
Cape Cod Times

By CURT BROWN
cbrown@s-t.com
May 13, 2014

FALL RIVER — Former Fall River Bishop Daniel A. Cronin and the Fall River Diocese failed to supervise a priest who sexually abused two Falmouth altar boys from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, according to a lawsuit filed in Connecticut.

The suit, filed in the Judicial District of Hartford, names Cronin and the diocese as defendants. Cronin headed the diocese for 21 years until he left in December 1991 to become archbishop of the Hartford Diocese.

The 50-page complaint alleges Cronin did not properly supervise the late Monsignor Maurice Souza, a New Bedford native accused in court documents of sexually abusing the two altar servers beginning when they were 9 and 10 years old when he was assigned to St. Anthony’s Parish in East Falmouth.

The abuse of the victims continued until they were 17 years old, according to Robert Hoatson, president of Road to Recovery Inc., a New Jersey nonprofit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families and is an advocate for the plaintiffs in this case.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
Road to Recovery

May 12, 2014

Retired Archbishop of Hartford, CT, Daniel Cronin, who is also the former Bishop of Fall River, MA, is being sued in Connecticut by two clergy sexual abuse victims from the Fall River, MA Diocese that Archbishop Cronin led as bishop for over twenty years

Fall River, MA priest, Msgr. Maurice Souza, sexually abused boys in CT, MA, and elsewhere

Hartford, CT, retired Archbishop Daniel Cronin, when Bishop of the Diocese of Fall River, MA, negligently supervised Msgr. Maurice Souza, allowing him to sexually abuse at least two minor-aged boys for approximately a decade

What: A press conferences announcing the filing of a lawsuit against retired Hartford CT

Archbishop Daniel Cronin who is also the former Bishop of Fall River, MA, and the Diocese of Fall River, MA, on behalf of two clergy sexual abuse victims.

When: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 at 11:00 AM

Where: On the public sidewalk in front of the headquarters of the Diocese of Fall River, MA, located at 887 Highland Avenue, Fall River, MA 02720 – 508-675-0211

Who: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families and advocate for the plaintiffs in this case; other survivors of clergy sexual abuse, and supporters.

Why: Former Fall River, MA Bishop and retired Hartford, CT Archbishop Daniel Cronin was the supervisor of Msgr. Maurice Souza when he was a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, MA. Msgr. Souza sexually abused two children, approximately 9 to approximately 17 years of age, from St. Anthony’s Parish in East Falmouth on Cape Cod. The young boys were taken to Connecticut and Massachusetts for athletic events and other reasons and were sexually abused in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Archbishop Cronin, when he was Bishop of the Diocese of Fall River, MA, is accused of reckless supervision, negligent battery, negligent infliction of emotional distress, breach of fiduciary duty, and other counts because Archbishop Cronin failed to protect children in the Fall River Diocese and beyond.

Contacts: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Caroline O’Doherty

The number of priests formally accused of sexually abusing children in the country’s biggest Catholic diocese over the past 40 years has topped 100, according to the latest figures.

The cost of compensating victims of paedophile priests in the diocese has exceeded €20m, with €14m paid out in settlements and €6.4m spent on legal bills.

The review of the Dublin Archdiocese by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church found that allegations were made against three more priests in the last year, bringing to 101 the total of diocesan priests accused of abuse since 1975.

Concerns about 40 of them arose in the past 10 years. Of those, four were convicted in the criminal courts and 23 were found to involve concerns that were credible, although not proven. In those 27 cases, the diocese substantially restricted or terminated their ministries.

Of the total 101 accused, 49 are deceased, 34 are living and remain priests of the diocese, and 18 have left the priesthood and/or the diocese. In total, they faced 432 separate allegations of abuse.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

The Vatican defense by Archbishop Tomasi of 848 defrocked and 2,572 penalized pedophile priests is TGTBT! What does ‘too good to be true’ mean? Wiki.answers: “If something appears too good to be true, it usually isn’t true. This is how con-artists take money for nothing from gullible people. ‘Too good to be true’ basically means what it says – that something is so wonderful, there’s no way it could be real.” Pope Francis is the biggest CON-Christ so it is no surprise that his Papal Nuncio to the UN, Archbishop Tomasi is also a con-artist.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A priest of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus ordained in 1947, John Thatcher spent his early career teaching at Jesuit high schools in Tacoma and Spokane, Washington. From 1957-1983 he was assistant priest at St. Ignatius parish in Portland, Oregon, and again 1983-1994. During the intervening decade Thatcher assisted at St. Aloysius in Spokane. He retired to Regis Jesuit Community in Spokane in 1994 and died in 2003. Thatcher was accused in a claim against the Portland, Oregon archdiocese of having sexually abused a 6-year-old boy in 1963.

Ordained: 1947
Died: Nov. 19, 2003

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TEXAS
KRIS

DRISCOLL – A Driscoll man is in jail, accused of stealing money from the church he worked at.

It appears he may have stolen at least $100,000 over several years from the St. James Church, which has locations in Driscoll and Bishop.

The Nueces County Sheriff’s Office arrested Benito Reyes Jr. for forgery with a financial instrument, and theft.

Authorities say Reyes was pocketing cash donations, paying himself for hours he never worked, and reimbursing himself for personal expenses like groceries, claiming that they were for the church.

The Sheriff’s Office says he would forge the head priest’s signature on his time sheets and reimbursements.

We’re told the Diocese of Corpus Christi has removed that priest while authorities investigate, but the Sheriff’s Office says they don’t believe he was involved.

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SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle PI

Archdiocese made ‘astonishing’ claim in concealing Seattle priest’s sexual offenses, review board says

Posted on May 12, 2014 | By Joel Connelly

The Archdiocese of Seattle failed to inform Catholic faithful, and made an “astonishing” claim and “serious misstatements” in seeking to explain why a priest suspended from ministry for sexual misconduct with a teenager went on saying mass and conducting weddings, say former leaders of a diocesan review board.

“We urge you to consider releasing the documents of the review board relating to this matter, subject to not identifying any victims, so that the laity can have complete and accurate information,” retired Judge Terrence Carroll and former U.S. Attorney Mike McKay wrote earlier this month to Archbishop J. Peter Sartain.

Or as Carroll put it bluntly in a Monday interview: “By God, let those files be open so people can know what and who we are dealing with. We may have another case like this out there.”

The investigations documents, dating to 2004 and which the archdiocese has refused to make public, would reveal that a 17-year-old boy involved in a sexual relationship with the priest, Harry Quigg, was passed among the priest and friends, according to multiple sources.

Sartain has not talked with or directly responded to Carroll and McKay.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Magazine

BY JOEL MATHIS | MAY 12, 2014

At BigTrial.net, reporter Ralph Cipriano writes that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court isn’t the last stop for Monsignor William Lynn, who was convicted of child endangerment in the Catholic sex scandal — but then had that conviction overturned on a technicality earlier this year.

Four scenarios:

– The state Supreme Court could decide to affirm the Superior Court ruling that Lynn’s conviction should be reversed; such a decision would immediately end the case .

– Ronald D. Castile, the state Supreme Court’s chief justice, is scheduled to retire at the end of this year because he is 70 years old, the state’s mandatory retirement age for judges. If the Lynn case doesn’t get to the state Supreme Court before Castille steps down in December, and the remaining six members deadlock 3-3, a tie means the Superior Court ruling would stand.

– The state Supreme Court could decide to reverse the Superior Court. The case would then be remanded back to the Superior Court, which would have to decide on other appeal issues raised by Lynn’s defense lawyers.

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MINNESOTA
The Wild Reed

Paul Lakeland, author and director of Fairfield University’s Center for Catholic Studies, will be visiting Minnesota at the end of the month to speak on “Pope Francis and the Liberation of the Laity.”

I first met Paul at the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform’s 2010 Synod of the Baptized, “Claiming Our Place at the Table.” I was an organizer of this event while Paul was its keynote speaker. His talk at Synod 2010 was entitled “The Call of the Baptized: Be the Church, Live the Mission.” It was an excellent presentation, the transcript of which can be found here.

Now Paul is returning to Minnesota where he will be speaking on what Pope Francis has to say about the role of the laity in the world and the responsibilities the baptismal priesthood places on each of us who are baptized in Christ’s name. On Wednesday, April 30, Paul will be speaking at St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church in Minneapolis (details here). Then on Friday, May 1, Paul will be at Christ Church Newman Center in St Cloud (details here). Both speaking engagements are free and open to the public.

Along with serving as the director of the Center for Catholic Studies at Fairfield University, Paul Lakeland is active in the American Academy of Religion, the Catholic Theological Society of America, and the Workgroup on Constructive Christian Theology. His two most recent books, both winners of Catholic Press Association awards, are The Liberation of the Laity: In Search of an Accountable Church and Catholicism at the Crossroads: How the Laity Can Save the Church.

Following, with added links, is an excerpt from chapter five of Lakeland’s Catholicism at the Crossroads. This excerpt deals with understanding the Catholic church’s sex abuse scandal, and I believe it’s timely to share given all that is happening in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis in relation to this scandal.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Mon, May 12, 2014

As many as 54 abuse allegations have been made against 28 Presentation Brothers (one unnamed) since January 1st 1975,with one convicted in the courts, the Catholic church child protection watchdog’s review has found.

Of those 28, 16 are deceased and four have left the congregation, Of the remaining eight Brothers, two are out of ministry, four are retired, and one returned to ministry following advice which was sought, following an independent risk assessment by the National Case Management Reference Group. It determined that he did not present a risk to children.

Three of the seven known living Brothers are subject to strict management plans and reside in community residences. Two of them have been independently risk assessed and received therapy. Allegations against the third Brother were only recently received and are being investigated.

Of the seven known living Brothers, six are out of ministry or retired with the seventh returned to ministry as explained above. Where the four who left the congregation are concerned the civil authorities had been informed about the allegations made against them.

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KENTUCKY
WKU

By WKU PUBLIC RADIO NEWS

The Archdiocese of Louisville says it has opened an investigation into sexual abuse allegations against a Marion County priest. The Courier-Journal reports a May 8th letter written by Archbishop Joseph Kurtz says the church is looking into complaints against the Rev. Joseph Hemmerle. Hemmerle, who is the pastor of two Marion County parishes, has been placed on leave.

Kurtz says the archdiocese has reported the allegations to the commonwealth’s attorney in Meade County where the alleged abuse took place in the 1970s.

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CALIFORNIA
KCBA

[with video]

May 12, 2014
Parishioners at a church in Davis say they are shocked and heartbroken after a popular priest’s arrested for statutory rape. He is accused of having a sexual relationship with a teenage girl. Police arrested 45-year-old Father Hector Coria on Friday. Investigators say he became involved with a 17-year-old girl last year. He is a priest at St James parish in Davis. He has been placed on administrative leave.

Transcripción (CC) –

Parishioners at a church in Davis say they are shocked and heartbroken after a popular priest’s arrested for statutory rape. He is accused of having a sexual relationship with a teenage girl. Police arrested 45-year-old Father Hector Coria on Friday. Investigators say he became involved with a 17-year-old girl last year. He is a priest at St James parish in Davis. He has been placed on administrative leave.

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AUSTRALIA
Western Advocate

A FORMER priest and St Stanislaus’ College form master has been charged with 10 counts of indecently assaulting a male.

The matter involving Peter John Ryan, now 71 of Newington, was mentioned before magistrate Michael Allen in Bathurst Local Court yesterday.

Ryan, who is being represented by barrister Greg Walsh, did not appear during the brief hearing, which was mentioned by Department of Public Prosecutions solicitor Mr Walford.

Mr Walford told the court there were still police statements outstanding and asked the matter be put over until June 16 for replies.

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CONNECTICUT
Shelton Herald

A Shelton priest has been relieved of his duties at St. Margaret Mary Church in Shelton.

Diocese of Bridgeport Bishop Frank J. Caggiano made the announcement that the Rev. John J. Stronkowski submitted his resignation after being asked to do so by the bishop.

“I do this in light of serious difficulties that have come to my attention recently regarding Father Stronkowski’s tenure as administrator, including his persistent absenteeism from both the rectory and the parish and its ministries, his growing difficulties with both the staff and lay leaders of the parish, and other personal and administrative shortcomings,” Caggiano wrote in a letter distributed to parishioners during this past weekend.

Been at parish since 2012

Stronkowski has been serving as the parish pastor since January, and previously was appointed as its administrator in September 2012.

He has been a priest in the Diocese of Bridgeport since 1985.

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KENTUCKY
Herald-Dispatch

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Catholic priest who leads two parishes in central Kentucky has been placed on administrative leave after an allegation that he sexually abused a boy in the 1970s.

The Rev. Joseph Hemmerle is pastor at St. Francis of Assisi and Holy Cross parishes in Marion County.

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz wrote in a letter to parishioners that the Archdiocese of Louisville was contacted by someone who alleged the abuse by Hemmerle. The archdiocese referred it to law enforcement in Meade County, where the abuse allegedly occurred. The archdiocese is also conducting an internal investigation.

“We realize that this is a painful situation, and we want to support you during this time of uncertainty,” Kurtz wrote. “Please keep Father Joe and all victims of sexual abuse in your prayers.”

The Courier-Journal reports Hemmerle was also put on leave in 2002 after another man alleged he was molested in the mid-1970s at Camp Tall Trees, in Otter Creek Park. Hemmerle was allowed to return to ministry after investigations by police and the archdiocese could not substantiate the accusation.

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CALIFORNIA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento

Father Hector Coria, a priest of the Diocese of Sacramento serving since July 1, 2012 as parochial vicar of St. James Parish in Davis, was arrested May 9 by Davis police on suspicion of statutory rape and oral copulation with a minor.

Police began investigating the sexual abuse charges against Father Coria, 45, earlier this month, according to a spokesman for the Davis Police Department. Father Coria allegedly befriended the 17-year-old female victim in late 2013, police said.

“In late 2013, Father Coria began a sexual relationship with the minor and engaged in that sexual relationship on multiple occasions since 2013,” a department news release said.

On May 9, Davis police served search warrants at multiple locations and subsequently arrested Father Coria. He was booked into Yolo County Jail on May 9 but was released on bail as of the evening of May 10, according to a jail spokeswoman. He is expected to be arraigned next month in Yolo Superior Court.

The following statement was released May 10 by Kevin Eckery, spokesman for the Diocese of Sacramento, concerning the arrest of Father Coria:

“Father Hector Coria, a priest at St. James Parish in Davis, has been arrested for alleged sexual misconduct by a minor by the City of Davis Police Department.

“In keeping with diocesan policy, Father Coria has been placed on administrative leave, his faculties have been withdrawn and he may no longer function as a priest while this matter is under investigation by local law enforcement and Davis Police.

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CALIFORNIA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sacramento

Davis priest placed on administrative leave after arrest for sexual misconduct; Diocese to cooperate with Davis PD investigation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Kevin Eckery
Saturday, May 10, 2014 916-296-5945
keckery@eckery.com

The following statement was released by Kevin Eckery, spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, concerning the arrest of Rev. Hector Coria for unspecified sexual misconduct charges with a minor by the City of Davis Police Department.

“Fr. Hector Coria, a priest at St. James Parish in Davis, has been arrested for alleged sexual misconduct with a minor by the City of Davis Police Department.

“In keeping with diocesan policy, Fr. Coria has been placed on administrative leave, his faculties have been withdrawn and he may no longer publicly function as a priest while this matter is under investigation by local law enforcement and Davis Police.

“If you have any information that could assist law enforcement with their investigation, or if you feel you have been a victim of Fr. Coria, we urge you to contact Lt. Paul Doroshov of Davis PD at (530) 747-5420.”

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CALIFORNIA
News 10

A Davis Catholic priest was arrested for having sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, the Davis Police Department said.

Rev. Hector Coria, 45, was taken into custody by police after officers served search warrants at multiple locations Friday, police said.

The police department started investigating Coria after they got reports of the sexual abuse in early May. During the investigation, police found that Coria befriended the 17-year-old girl while he was a priest at St. James Parish in late 2013 and began a sexual relationship with the teen, police said.

Coria was booked into Yolo County jail for statutory rape and oral copulation with a minor.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – AM

Monday, May 12, 2014

CHRIS UHLMANN: Another Salvation Army officer has been accused of repeated child sexual assault.

The ABC has learned that the alleged perpetrator is a Salvation Army Major believed to be in his 80s who was not named by the Royal Commission hearings into child sexual abuse.

His alleged victims were the children of fellow officers.

One victim claims she reported her alleged rape and abuse almost 20 years ago but is yet to receive any formal response from the Salvation Army.

She spoke to Background Briefing’s Sarah Dingle.

And a warning, some listeners may find this story distressing.

SARAH DINGLE: The 49-year-old woman who we’ll call Bronte is a successful professional. She’s been involved with The Salvation Army literally since birth. Her teenage mother gave birth to her in a Salvation Army orphanage, and she was adopted by Salvation Army officers at just 10-days-old.

Around 1969, her parents and their best friends – also Salvation Army officers – went on a holiday in Victoria. Bronte was four.

BRONTE: Initially, the abuse started as him inserting his fingers into my genitals.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, SNAP Western Regional Director, 949.322.7434, jcasteix@gmail.com

The sexual molestation of a child by a person in a position of power—especially religious power—is a crime.

The term “statutory rape” is troublesome. It implies that the victim—a child—has the power to consent to a sexual relationship with a much older adult in a position of power. Not only was Fr. Hector Coria an adult who should have known better, but he is also a priest with a moral and religious authority. And now, he has allegedly sexually molested a child. That is a crime with devastating effects on the victim, the community and the public.

We encourage Davis and Yolo County law enforcement to vigorously investigate this case, seek out other victims, and encourage witnesses to come forward. Coria has only been a priest for a short time, and we fear that there may be other victims from his time in the seminary and after his 2011 ordination.

We also urge Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto to reach out to the Spanish speaking communities where Coria worked, as well as the student community at UC Davis, where Coria conducted seminars and retreats. We beg Soto to act quickly and reach out to parishioners to ensure that they understand the gravity of Coria’s alleged crimes and do not act in ways that alienate and re-victimize girls who may have been abused, as we saw in the case of Redding priest Fr. Uriel Ojeda.

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MARYLAND
WJLA

By Jeannette Reyes May 12, 2014

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

Morales allegedly used his membership in the Covenant Life Church and job at the Covenant Life Academy to meet his victims. He allegedly abused boys at their homes, his apartments and on a church retreat.

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ITALY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, May 12, 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 )

We are deeply impressed by the courage and moved by the pain of the dozens of Italian clergy sex abuse victims who are part of a just-released YouTube video message to Pope Francis. For the safety of the vulnerable and the healing of the suffering, we endorse their call to Vatican officials to release long-secret church records about clerics who commit and conceal heinous sexual violence against children.

[UPI}

It’s hard for a victim of sexual violence to speak about their suffering. It’s often harder when the perpetrator is a powerful church official. And it’s often harder still to do so publicly, revealing one’s name and face. So we applaud these wounded, but obviously caring individuals for having the strength.

We hope their video prompts many others – Catholics and non-Catholics – to offer these gutsy, pained individuals the sympathy and love they so richly deserve. They clearly have been hurt, are still hurt, and should be treated with extraordinary kindness and gratitude for their work in exposing – and hopefully preventing – these dreadful crimes. We also hope their video prods others who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sexual violence and cover ups to speak up, get help, expose wrongdoers, and protect kids. Silence endangers kids and helps predators. Stepping forward helps kids and exposes those who commit and conceal heinous child sex crimes.

At the same time, however, we urge these brave men and women to stay focused on healing and prevention without expecting or waiting for any positive response from Catholic officials. In our 25 years of experience, we’ve learned that we do, in fact, have the capacity to recover from the trauma we suffered as innocent children and vulnerable adults at the hands of Catholic clerics. And we can recover from the added trauma we suffered as brave adults when we sought help from church officials. It helps when church officials don’t ignore or re-victimize us. But often, that’s precisely what they do. Still, we can get better without them and that’s what we hope these courageous Italian survivors are doing.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Mon, May 12, 2014

The fact that no child safeguarding case management files existed in the Divine Word (SVD) missionary congregation prior to 2013 “is of great concern and indicates a lack of any focus on child protection within the society over the last 20 years,” the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) review has found.”Case files were constructed by the society in advance of the review taking place,” it said.

The existence of child safeguarding case management files within the congregation “can only be traced back to the beginning of 2013,” it said. “A lot of documentation was either never generated, or was removed or destroyed by parties unknown, or was kept in some file or files the existence of which has not yet been discovered.” it said.

It said it was “not acceptable that any Church authority in Ireland would have waited until 2012 to begin the process of implementing accepted and agreed Church child safeguarding policies, procedures and practices and while there may be explanations offered for this state of affairs, there are no excuses for it.”

It also described as “ truly unfortunate and a great injustice that it is almost impossible to identify the victims of historical child sexual abuse who live in developing countries and whose abuse took place many years ago.

“The behaviour of the few SVD members who perpetrated this abuse has severely undermined the integrity of a Christian brotherhood that aspires to bring the Good News to people who have not yet heard it,” it 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.

UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Michele Somerville

Last week, Prefect of the Confederation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) Gerhard Mueller, condemned the Leadership Conference Women Religious (LCWR) for honoring Catholic theologian Elizabeth A. Johnson and her book Quest of the Living God. The CDF argues that the book fails to be in accord with Roman Catholic doctrine. This magisterial spanking aims to dictate to a group of highly intelligent, well-educated women which books are suitable for their honors — this promises to uber-boost sales of an academic work and, I believe, puts the pope in a tricky spot. (See my 2012 piece, “Just Buy ‘Just Love’ for more on how such condescending condemnation works.) The pope is the pope. He can speak when he likes. But I think this pope, this time around, unlike the last time around, will have to say something.

Today’s pope is, after all, everyone’s favorite pope. At present, Francis I is re-examining the way the church hierarchy looks at LGBT Catholics, divorced and remarried Catholics and so-called “artifical” contraception. This kinder and gentler pope has exhorted Catholics to respond more vigorously to the marginalized among us, and to look more closely at our (I’m Roman Catholic) obligations to be conscientious stewards of the environment. This more Catholic-in-the-pew-friendly pontiff even appears to be more dramatically rethinking celibacy for priests. (That he’s doing so as a means of staving off the clear call to examine more openly the case for ordaining women, though disconcerting to Catholic feminists, detracts only somewhat from the dramatic nature of this examination.)

We have seen a great shift in this Vatican’s tone. But what have we not seen?

We have not seen the shift fully extend to the women of the church.

And we will not see Pope Francis I come down on this Mueller, despite that he ought.

Let Catholics recognize, at the very least, that this cuddly pontiff supports these Inquisitions, which had the Vatican monitoring women in convents. Let Catholics in the pews not push away the truth that the Vatican is still trolling its women — and that this campaign is conducted with the imprimatur of Pope Francis. Let Catholics be aware, as well, that it is women’s ordination activists the inquisitors seek, who dwell, more often than not, in convents.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Mon, May 12, 2014

None of the 15 Patrician Brothers who have faced 22 abuse allegations since January 1st 1975 have been convicted in he courts,a review by the church’s child protection watchdog has found.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) review has found that “in the vast majority of cases, the events which gave rise to the allegations may have taken place several decades before they were reported to the congregation and refer to alleged abuse between the 1950s -1980s.”

Of the 15 brothers who were the subject of allegations, “nine are deceased and five have left the congregation. One brother remains in the congregation,” the review found.

The five who left, did so “in excess of 30 years ago and have had no subsequent contact with the congregation. In all cases the allegations were made some considerable time after they had left. In two cases brothers left not long after the alleged time of the abuse.”

The reviewers “were assured by the provincial leader that any decision to leave the congregation was entirely a matter for the individual brother and that the congregation was not in possession at the time of Review of Safeguarding Practice in the Patrician Brothers of information relating to the allegations.”

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

IRELAND
The Journal

TODAY’S PUBLICATION OF child protection audits by the National Board for Safeguarding Children’s has been welcomed by One in Four.

The charity provides support to people who have experienced sexual violence.

Advocacy Director with One in Four Deirdre Kenny says, “The audits show how some dioceses and orders have embraced a policy of transparent child protection and are working hard to implement good practice.

“In each case there has been a vast improvement in cooperation between the Catholic Church and the statutory agencies and all allegations are now reported to the civil authorities.

“The audits by the Church’s own watchdog are very worthwhile and the Catholic Church probably now have more consistent procedures in place than many other organisations and professionals.”

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

IRELAND
The Journal

A RESPONSIBILITY TO protect children from abuse is treated with “utmost seriousness” in the Catholic Church’s Diocese of Meath, a report has found.

It’s part of the fifth tranche of reviews on child safeguarding in a number of dioceses by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI).

However, in one case, while formal contact was made with An Garda Síochána regarding allegations of abuse, the diocese waited 18 months before formally notifying the HSE, although informal contact was made.

The diocese was compliant in the vast majority of areas scrutinised by the watchdog.

It “partially met” just five criterion, resulting in a range of recommendations focusing on areas such as communication with victims of abuse and improved training for staff

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

KENTUCKY
WLKY

May 12, 2014

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —A former Trinity High School teacher cleared by the Archdiocese of Louisville of a sexual abuse allegation in 2002 is now facing another allegation.

“On May 8, an individual made a report of sexual abuse to the Archdiocese of Louisville. He reported that as a child he had been sexually abused in the 1970s by Father Joseph Hemmerle,” said the archdiocese in a statement.

The accuser in 2002 also reported being sexually abused in the 1970s.

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KENTUCKY
WAVE

By Joey Brown

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – The pastor of two Roman Catholic parishes in Marion County has been placed on administrative leave by the Archdiocese of Louisville after he was accused for a second time of child sexual abuse.

According to the Archdiocese, the accuser came forward on May 8 and reported that Fr. Joseph Hemmerle abused him as a child in Meade County during the 1970s. Hemmerle was ordained to the priesthood in 1967 and currently serves as pastor of St. Francis and Holy Cross parishes in Marion County.

In a written statement, the Archdiocese said it has written to the Commonwealth Attorney in Meade County to report the accusation and has advised the person making the accusation to contact authorities.

Hemmerle was previously accused of child sexual abuse in 2002. The accuser in that case also reported having been sexually abused by Hemmerle in the 1970s, and the priest was placed on administrative leave. After several months of investigating, neither police nor the Archdiocese was able to substantiate the accusation, so Hemmerle was allowed to return to the ministry.

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

MINNESOTA
The Legal Examiner

[with video]

Posted by Mike Bryant
May 12, 2014

Recently, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released the name of Gerald Funcheon, adding him to the list of credibly accused priests who have been in that Archdiocese. So far no other list in Minnesota has included him. Looking at his record, he was in St Cloud at Cathedral High School and St. John XXIII Middle Schools a chaplain.

Watch this video about his offenses:

Kare 11 recently asked the questions of when did he start abusing children and how many?

In his own words:

“I suspect, and I don’t remember, it would have been at it St. Odilia’s,” he testified in a 2012 deposition

His assignment to St. Odilia‘s was in 1970 to 1974!

As to how many:

In one of those cases, Twin Cities attorney Jeff Anderson was able ask Father Jerry – under oath in 2012 – how many kids he’d sexually abused.

“I would say a dozen,” Funcheon testified at first. But attorney Anderson challenged him, suggesting there are more victims.

Anderson – “Do you think you might be underestimating that number?

Funcheon –”Wow – I couldn’t count ‘em up. I’ll go – I don’t know. I’ll go to 18. I can’t give you a number on this, okay?”

KARE 11 discovered the real number could be much higher.

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

UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

By MARY E. HUNT

Whatever happened to that great big Roman Catholic Church? It seems to be shrinking before our eyes despite unprecedented media attention. No amount of hype can disguise the Vatican’s disappearing act at the United Nations on sexual abuse, the sleight of hand in Rome at the papal canonizations, and the failed attempt to usurp women’s power through the hostile takeover of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) that may still turn the nuns out on their ears. The “leaner, meaner” church desired by many conservatives during the John Paul II/Cardinal Ratzinger era is on the horizon, indeed may already be in place. Signs are hard to miss—even for those with papal stars in their eyes.

Many were thrilled by the election of Pope Francis. They were hopeful that with his pleasing personality, personal commitment to simplicity, his “Inequality is the root of social evil” tweet, and positive pastoral instincts he would bring about a new day for Catholicism. I wasn’t entirely convinced; it takes more than one person, however charming, to dismantle a system that’s rigged in favor of a few and needs complete overhaul in order to function like a “discipleship of equals.”

I remain open to the possibility that the big tent that ought to be Catholicism may one day lower its top and open its flaps. But I’m no more persuaded now than I was four months ago—and perhaps a little less. The institutional church now appears more like a pup tent from which all but the most entitled are excluded. A review of current affairs demonstrates the reasons for my concern.

Sexual Abuse

That great big institution with a global reach that divides up the known world into dioceses has suddenly evaporated. It’s now a country of 109 acres, roughly an eighth the size of New York’s Central Park, with a population of about 600, many of whom are posted abroad. Did someone cast a spell? Was there a natural disaster that I missed in the news? No, the Holy See signed some United Nations’ treaties and now, when confronted with abiding by them, is scrambling for legal cover.

The gentlemen are claiming that they meant for the treaties to apply to their headquarters, located in Vatican City, but not for the corporate entity, the thousands of dioceses they oversee on the planet. Those folks are suddenly on their own when it comes to liability. Rome’s hands are off.

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

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

The Catholic Church’s counselling service, Towards Healing, has extended its opening hours today and tomorrow, in response to the publication of investigations into nine dioceses and religious congregations.

This is the fifth tranche of such reports, and concerned the Arch Diocese of Dublin, the Diocese of Meath, Cloyne and Killaloe.

The review also includes The Religious Congregations of the Presentation Brothers, the Patrician Brothers, Benedictine, Glenstal and the Missionary Societies of the Columban Missionaries and the Society of Divine Word.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church has warned the fact that a priest was convicted of abusing a child just this year shows the Church needs to remain vigilant on abuse.

The Presentation Brothers were criticised in the report as they delayed for months in telling gardaí about allegations of 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.

IRELAND
The Journal

THE NATIONAL BOARD for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) have today published the fifth tranche of reviews on child safeguarding in a number of dioceses.

The review covers the Arch Diocese of Dublin, the Diocese of Meath, Cloyne and Killaloe. It also reviews the religious congregations of the Presentation Brothers, the Patrician Brothers, Benedictine, Glenstal and the Missionary Societies of the Columban Missionaries and the Society of Divine Word.
The child protection watchdog recommends that the Cloyne Diocese include in the Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Persons in the Diocese of Cloyne 2013 procedures where a member of the Church can use to express concern about a child.

Reporting

They suggested a number of reporting options be included which could be utilised by an individual who is considering making a report, regardless of who their concern is about
Interviews with representatives from the gardaí and the HSE also took place as part of the review with the report stating:

“An Garda Síochána and the HSE were confident that reporting could now take place in a prompt and transparent manner and the diocese had a greater understanding of the role each agency played in the protection of 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.

IRELAND
Irish Mirror

By Adam Cullen

Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children finds Archdiocese acted to significantly restrict or end ministries of priests where concerns were raised

The Catholic Church’s watchdog for child protection has said that the Archdiocese of Dublin is to be commended on turning around a ‘shocking and grievous situation’.

A review published today by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCCI) has found that in the past year three priests in the Archdiocese have been the subject of allegations of child sexual abuse.

This brings the number of claims of sexual abuse to 400 reported against 101 priests over the past 38 years in the Dublin Archdiocese.

The report found that the Archdiocese acted to significantly restrict or terminate the ministries of 27 out of 40 local priests or former priests over the past decade.

The NBSCCCI examined current practises of the child protection process as well as scrutinising how reports of abuse were dealt with as far back as the mid-1970s.

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

IRELAND
The Journal

BOTH THE BENEDICTINE and Columban orders have been given good reports by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI).

The NBSCCCI today published the fifth tranche of reviews on child safeguarding in a number of dioceses, with the orders both found to have fully or partially met nearly all of the criteria outlined to them.
The Benedictine Campus at Glenstal Abbey is found to have one major challenge, that being a guest house that can hold 14 people at a time.

The report says that this should be handled by asking visiting monks and priests to sign declarations and by keeping a record of who is there.

It also says that Garda vetting of existing monks needs to be brought up to date and that a training audit be completed.

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

IRELAND
The Journal

DETAILED RISK ASSESSMENTS and risk management plans should be conducted as a matter of urgency in the Irish British Province (IBP) of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), finds a review by the Catholic Church child protection watchdog.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCCI) review finds that there are allegations of abuse against six members.

Of the six, one is deceased, four are out of ministry, two members deny the allegations being made against them, and one priest has served a prison sentence.

Community houses

The four out of ministry are living in an SVD IBP community house and in the case of three of them, supervision arrangements and restrictions are in place. Two of these men were required to move to SVD IBP community houses where they would have no access to young people or vulnerable adults.
The reviewers were very concerned about the potential risks involving one SVD IBP
member who has admitted to extensive abuse of children in mission countries over a 20-
year period, but against whom there are no complaints or allegations.

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IRELAND
The Journal

KILLALOE DIOCESE HAS been praised for its “great effort” to minimise risks to children.

The praise came in the latest report from the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) in its fifth tranche of reviews on child safeguarding in a number of dioceses.

The review covers the Arch Diocese of Dublin, the Diocese of Meath, Cloyne and Killaloe. It also reviews the religious congregations of the Presentation Brothers, the Patrician Brothers, Benedictine, Glenstal and the Missionary Societies of the Columban Missionaries and the Society of Divine Word.

The report into Killaloe found that 44 out of 48 criteria have been fully met. The remaining four were partially met at the time of the audit.

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

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

12 MAY 2014

The Catholic Church’s own watchdog has hit out at some religious orders in Ireland for being slow to enforce child protection measures.

In the latest series of probes launched after numerous paedophile scandals, it was found that some priests were being allowed to continue ministry despite admissions of wrongdoing.

Teresa Devlin, chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland, commended church dioceses for improving protection but warned about a lack of progress in orders.

“For the religious congregations and missionary societies, progress appears slower,” she said.

“There has been a sea change in that all are now conscious of their obligations around reporting, (but) unfortunately in two cases we saw that priests continued in ministry even though admissions were made and in another order cases against deceased brothers, former brothers and lay teachers were not always notified to the Gardai.”

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Mon, May 12, 2014

The National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) review of child protection in the Killaloe diocese noted complainants were met with ‘great compassion’.

It said of ‘particular note in the diocesan policy and procedures document is reference to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child”.

It pointed out that “both the Republic of Ireland and the Vatican have signed up to honouring the Convention and this is therefore appropriately reflected in the diocesan policy and procedures document”.

It said that “of particular note in the diocese of Killaloe is the response made to complainants who have come forward to share their allegations of clerical abuse. The records demonstrate very clearly that they have been met with great compassion and support.

“ Bishop (Willie) Walsh and the current deputy designated person who was in role alongside Bishop Walsh stand out as being generous with time, resources, counselling and pastoral responses, to victims and their extended families.”

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Barry Roche

Mon, May 12, 2014

A special policy to facilitate whistleblowers concerned about possible clerical child sexual abuse should be established by the Diocese of Cloyne as part of its protocols to safeguarding children, a new report has recommended.

The review by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland was generally very positive about the progress made in the diocese in its implementation of child protection policy since its last review was published in 2008.

On that occasion, the board was highly critical of child protection practices in the diocese and in particularly how the then Bishop, Dr John Magee, handled a number of complaints against a small number of priests in ministry in the diocese which covers much of east, mid and north Cork.

The latest review found Cloyne fully met 41 of 48 criteria it used to examine practices and partially met the remaining seven and it published a series of recommendations to address these including one relating to the development of a policy for whistleblowers concerned about possible abuse.
The board recommended that “a specific whistle blowing policy is included in (the diocese’s document) ‘Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Persons in the Diocese of Cloyne’ to include the procedures a member of the Church can use to express concern about a child”.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Mon, May 12, 2014

Ten allegations of child abuse have been made against six Benedictine monks at Glenstal Abbey in Co Limerick since January 1st, 1975.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) review said that the Benedictine community at Glenstal Abbey “is made up of 27 priests, 10 professed brothers (all of whom have taken solemn vows), and one brother who has taken temporary vows. All of these men irrespective of age or status are referred to as ‘monks’.”

It noted that of the six accused monks “two are deceased”, one of whom had admitted the abuse and was sent for treatment. He was removed from monastic life/the clerical state by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in 2007. The allegation against the second monk was received long after his death and its veracity could not be established.

Of the remaining four accused monks, two had left the Benedictines and Glenstal. One eventually admitted abusing a student at the school there 14 years previously. He too had been removed from monastic life/the clerical state by the CDF.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Mon, May 12, 2014

Twelve priests at the Missionary Society of St Columban (Columbans) faced 41 allegations since January 1st 1975, with one convicted in the courts,a review by the church’s child protection watchdog has found. The National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) review found that “the vast majority of the allegations on file (24 in total, with three which are indeterminate) refer to P.M., who was a Columban priest from 1960 until his suspension from the Society in 2000. P.M .had served as a priest in Ireland, in Japan and in the UK.”

This refers to Patrick Maguire, a Columban priest, who was laicised in 2010. He has been convicted a number of times both in the UK and Ireland. He is currently serving two suspended sentences of three years dating from May of last year and resides under strict supervision at the the Columban’s Dalgan Park in Co Meath. He also featured in the 2009 Murphy report as he abused while in the Dublin archdiocese for a period.

Of the remaining 17 allegations against Columban missionaries, the review has found that “eight refer to five living priests and nine to a total of six deceased priests. Three of the living priests reside in Ireland and their cases have been referred to the civil authorities. There have been no prosecutions in these cases to date. All are subject to internal management by the Society.”

In general the Benedictine Community in Glenstal Abbey has managed the concerns that have arisen well, the review found.

However, the reviewers were advised “of the residence in Dalgan Park of a priest who was not a Columban, in respect of whom a child abuse allegation had previously been made whilst in his own diocese.”

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UNITED STATES
Denver Post – Hark

By John F. Kane Contributor

A review of Lee Kaspari’s “The Long Journey of a Cradle Catholic: My Evolution from Admiration to Anguish and Back to Hope.” Caritas Communications, 2014.

This book is written by a Denver resident who has long been an “ex-priest.” But it could have been written by thousands of priests and ex-priests of his and my generation. Indeed, it speaks to the experience of most Catholics during the second half of the last century and the opening decades of this new one.

It speaks especially for the many good men who are or were “ordinary” Catholic priests – the men who, according to virtually every survey and analysis of contemporary Catholicism in the United States, have kept things going at the local level, even flourishing, despite so many missteps and even crimes by those up the hierarchical ladder.

It also speaks indirectly (except in one important closing chapter) of the many Catholic women, the sisters and their sisters (our mothers and aunts and sisters) who have probably been even more responsible for keeping things going and even flourishing.

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

KENTUCKY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, May 12, 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 Kentucky priest has been placed on leave after a second abuse allegation was reported. We are grateful to the brave victim for stepping forward and reporting their abuse.

[Courier-Journal]

Fr. Joseph Hemmerle, who is the pastor at two parishes in the Louisville diocese, has now been twice accused of abusing children in the 1970s. After the first allegation was made, the diocese claimed the accusation was “unsubstantiated,” and put Fr. Hemmerle back in a parish.

This is a perfect example of why church “abuse investigations” are so inadequate and why letting accused priests return to ministry is dangerous. Catholic officials usually do the absolute bare minimum when an abuse report is made. Then, they claim the report can’t be “substantiated,” and put the alleged child molesting cleric back on the job.

Instead, church officials should be open and work hard to find others with information that could prove or disprove the allegation. They should announce the accusation in church bulletins, parish websites and on the archdiocesan website. But they refuse.

And more often than not, there are other 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.

IRELAND
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland has said the Archdiocese of Dublin is to be commended for the “rational, comprehensive and integrated child safeguarding system it has developed”. The NBSCCCI review of safeguarding and child protection practice, published today, praised those working in the area of child safeguarding in the Dublin Diocese saying, “their combined achievements in turning around a shocking and grievous situation is remarkable”.

Welcoming publication of the review, Director of Safeguarding, Mr Andrew Fagan said the Diocese is fully committed to implementing the six recommendations for improvement from the National Board. He added there was never room for complacency and he encouraged anyone affected by abuse, who had not yet come forward, to try and do so and get the help and support they may need. He said everyone on his team knew from past experience that days like today, when there is much public discussion on the issue of abuse, are particularly painful for people who have suffered.

The extensive review by the NBSCCCI brings to eight the number of inspections and investigations into child protection practice by Church and State agencies in the Archdiocese of Dublin over the past number of years. Others include the Murphy Report, a HSE Audit, three Garda inspections, the Apostolic Visitation and an internally commissioned audit.

The Archdiocese met or partially met all criteria by the NBSCCCI Safeguarding practice. The National Board made a number of recommendations for improvement, among them, that the Diocese look at increasing awareness of safe practice where on-line communications and social media are concerned, and also that it look for regular feedback from parents and parishioners as to how safeguarding procedures operate in parishes.

Mr Fagan said that they were especially pleased with the NBSCCCI view of diocesan reporting and recording structures. Referring to the Diocesan policy ‘Procedure for Dealing with Allegations of Child Abuse against Priests of the Diocese’ the Board said it was “an exemplar of its type”, giving “unequivocal commitment to report to and cooperate with the two statutory authorities, An Garda Siochana and the HSE / Child and Family Agency (Tusla)”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Mon, May 12, 2014

The Bishop of Meath Michael Smith has been praised by the Catholic child protection watchdog for his “commitment to and leadership in the development of very good standards in the child safeguarding policies, procedures and practices of the diocese of Meath.”

It said that “under the leadership of Bishop Smith the diocese has the benefit of a strong, dynamic and progressive safeguarding team.”.

It did recommend however that the designated liaison person in Meath should be a lay person and that the diocese’s advisory case management was “underused and under resourced and so have not achieved their full potential.”

National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) review of child protection in the diocese, published at Dioceseofmeath.ie this afternoon, said “the dynamism, commitment and expertise demonstrated by all whom the reviewers came into contact with are highly commended”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Mon, May 12, 2014

Progress in child safeguarding remains “slower” for religious congregations and missionary societies, the Catholic Church’s child protection watchdog has found.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) makes the observation in a general comments on the reviews of four dioceses and five religious congregations it will publish this afternoon.

It found that “all dioceses are making very good progress” in adhering to the required NBSC standards but that “for the religious congregations and missionary societies, progress appears slower”.

However it felt that “there has been a sea change in that all are now conscious of their obligations around reporting, unfortunately in two cases ( one congregation) we saw that priests continued in ministry even though admissions were made and in another order cases against deceased brothers, former brothers and lay teachers were not always notified to the gardaí”.

Generally though it said “reporting to the civil authorities in relation to allegations against living priests/ brothers is now very prompt but the delays in the past are acknowledged”.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Mon, May 12, 2014

Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese has received a glowing report following a review of its child safeguarding practices by the Church’s child protection watchdog.

The review by the National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) took place over four days, from January 28th to 31st last, and involved 125 person-hours on site involving four reviewers, due to “the size of the Child Safeguarding project in the Archdiocese of Dublin. ”

It was published at noon on the Dublindiocese.ie website and is one of nine such reviews due out today.

Others will include reviews of Cloyne, Killaloe, and Meath dioceses as well as reviews of the Presentation Brothers, the Columban Fathers, the Patrician Brothers, the Benedictines, and the Divine Word Missionaries.

In its conclusion of the Dublin archdiocese review, the NBSC said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin should be “strongly commended for the leadership and commitment that he has given to the whole child safeguarding project in the Archdiocese of Dublin. His work is well evidenced in all aspects of child safeguarding that was elicited in the course of this review.”

It said “the reviewers are very impressed by the extent to which the archdiocese of Dublin has taken on its moral responsibilities to monitor, supervise and support priests and former priests who have abused children.”

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IRELAND
Newstalk

Aedín Donnelly
12:40 Monday 12 May 2014

The Catholic church’s child protection watchdog says the fact that a priest was convicted of abusing a child this year shows the Church needs to remain vigilant on abuse.

In the capital, 40 priests were the subject of child safeguarding concerns over the past ten years, 27 of them have been sanctioned.

This is the fourth set of reports from the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, looking at the dioceses of Dublin, Cloyne, Meath and Killaloe.

The reports are largely positive, with high praise for the safeguarding practices observed in Dublin and Cloyne, the areas covered in the first two reports released today.

But the reports do of course mention the dark past of both areas – when the diocese of Cloyne was found to have inadequately or inappropriately responded to child abuse and where the Dublin diocese was more concerned with avoiding scandal than protecting children.

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IRELAND
National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church

The 5th tranche of review reports were published today by four dioceses and five congregations. All Reports are published here including an overview report of all the those reviewed.

Overview Report – 5th tranche reviews

Archdiocese of Dublin

Benedictine Community

Glenstal Abbey

Diocese of Cloyne

Diocese of Killaloe

Diocese of Meath

Missionary Society of St. Columban ( Columban Fathers)

Patrician Brothers

Presentation Brothers

Society of the Divine Word ( Divine Word Missionaries)

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IRELAND
National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church

Dioceses Making Good Progress, Congregations Slower

12th May 2014

The fifth Tranche of the review of Safeguarding practice across the Catholic Church were released today. The review was carried out by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCCI) for the Arch Diocese of Dublin, the Diocese of Meath, Cloyne and Killaloe. The review also includes The Religious Congregations of the Presentation Brothers, the Patrician Brothers, Benedictine, Glenstal and the Missionary Societies of the Columban Missionaries and the Society of Divine Word. This brings the total of Church authorities reviewed to date by this process to 37 (26 Dioceses and 11 Religious Congregations/Missionary Societies).

“All Dioceses are making very good progress in adhering to the Board’s Standard,” said Teresa Devlin, CEO, NBSCCCI. “For the Religious Congregations and Missionary Societies, progress appears slower. There has been a sea change in that all are now conscious of their obligations around reporting, unfortunately in 2 cases (1 Congregation) we saw that priests continued in ministry even though admissions were made and in another Order cases against deceased brothers, former brothers and lay teachers were not always notified to the Gardaí.”

The reports did note that reporting to the civil authorities in relation to allegations against living priests and brothers is now very prompt but the delays in the past are acknowledged. They also pointed to inconsistency in support for complainants in some Dioceses and Orders with some excellent, while others require improvements to ensure a systematic compassionate response.

Having completed the audits of all of the Dioceses and a number of congregations it is possible to identify some of the major patterns emerging:

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PERU
La Republica

[Summary: “Torture must be called by name” – John Paul II. The UN Committee against Torture has confronted the Holy See for the monumental amount of allegations of sexual violence perpetrated against minors by clergy in various part of the world. ]

“La tortura debe ser llamada por su nombre” – San Juan Pablo II

Esta semana el Comité Anti Tortura de la ONU confrontó a la Santa Sede por la monumental cantidad de acusaciones por violación sexual a menores perpetradas por miembros del clero en diversas partes del mundo. El arzobispo Tomasi, embajador del Vaticano ante la ONU, comenzó la sesión con el pie en alto: “La Santa Sede se enfocará exclusivamente en lo que al Estado Vaticano le concierne” dijo, intentando reducir toda responsabilidad al espacio físico que ocupa el Vaticano, el país más pequeño del mundo, en el centro de Roma.

FeliceGaer, experta del comité, rápidamente aclaró: 1. Las relaciones diplomáticas y las firmas de tratados se hacen a nombre de la Santa Sede, entidad soberana sin territorio, y no del Estado Vaticano. 2. La violación sexual es un delito muy serio y, por los efectos que esta tiene en la vida de una persona, califica como tortura (para la sorpresa de la postura vaticana que la considera una “falta contra la moral”).

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MEXICO
Plano Informativo

San Luis Potosí, SLP.- El rector de Catedral, Antonio Torres Martínez, indicó que el ex sacerdote Alberto Atihe y Carmen Aristegui han emprendido acciones en contra de la iglesia sin motivo alguno, esto luego de las declaraciones del ex sacerdote se compararan las acciones de Eduardo Córdova Bautista con el fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo.

Luego de la eucaristía dominical, el rector de la catedral metropolitana indicó que las investigaciones del Vaticano permanece, por lo que descartó que hasta el momento se haya dictado una penitencia canóniga.

En caso de que se encuentre o determine responsabilidad el sacerdote potosino, en caso de ser culpable, la Iglesia presentará las pruebas correspondientes.

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MEXICO
La Razon

Caso Cordova

[Summary: Antonio Torres Herrera, rector of the San Luis Potosi cathedral, has acknowledged that a case has been filed with the Vatican against accused pedophile priest Eduardo Cordova. He has been compared to Macial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ.]

El rector de la Iglesia Catedral, Antonio Torres Herrera, reconoció que El Vaticano ya prepara un expediente del caso de supuesta pederastia del padre Eduardo Córdova Bautista y que partiendo de esto, la Arquidiócesis dará alguna postura.

Torres Herrera, el sacerdote celebrante de la misa dominical, fue entrevistado acerca de que el escándalo del padre Eduardo Córdova, ex apoderado legal de la Arquidiócesis, ya es comparado con el protagonizado por el fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo, Maciel.
A esto, el padre Antonio Torres Herrera matizó la comparación y contestó que no hay denuncias y por lo tanto, está en proceso el expediente, sin excomulgarlo o separarlo.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

RALPH RIEGEL – UPDATED 12 MAY 2014

A CHURCH child protection watchdog body has recommended that an Irish diocese rocked by abuse allegations set up a special whistle-blowers policy.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) issued a total of eight recommendations as it said that major progress has been made by the Diocese of Cloyne in enhancing child protection standards over the past three years.

The Bishop of Cloyne, Dr William Crean, said that work is already underway in implementing the eight recommendations by the NBSC.

Dr Crean, who was appointed bishop last year, repeated the apology to anyone “who suffered abuse at the hands of a minority of priests if Cloyne.”

Central to the NBSC’s proposed changes are a new whistle-blowers policy in the sprawling east Cork diocese to ensure anyone with fears about a child can raise those concerns in a speedy and safe manner.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE NATIONAL BOARD for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) have today published the fifth tranche of reviews on child safeguarding in a number of dioceses.

The Archdiocese of Dublin review states that a “rational, comprehensive and integrated child safeguarding system” has been developed with the NBSCCCI saying, “their combined achievements in turning around a shocking and grievous situation is remarkable”.

In all, six recommendations are made to the Archdiocese of Dublin, which include that Archbishop Diarmuid Martin direct Child Safeguarding and Protection Service (CSPS) to work with the Safeguarding Committee to develop and publish guidance on the appropriate use of information technology, such as mobile phones, email, digital cameras, websites, the Internet, to make sure that children are not put in danger and exposed to abuse and exploitation.

It also recommends Archbishop Martin initiate a diocesan wide consultation with the priests and parishes to establish the need for producing child safeguarding materials in languages other than English.

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UNITED STATES
City of Angels

Kay Ebeling

(More back story found in old journals)

The judge said, let’s acknowledge the victims, and all in the court turned to the viewing area. Men who had been raped by pedophile priest Clinton Hagenbach from the 1960s to 1980s were in many of the seats, and as they rose a wave of pheromones and testosterone filled the room. They each emanated an internal rage, but also they shared a remarkable characteristic.

Beautiful angelic faces.

I had seen the phenomenon once before among pedophile priest survivors, at an event in 2006. They asked everyone in the room who had been molested by a priest to stand up, and again, it was a sea of angelic faces, all in different stages of aging, all showing different signs of damage, but still stunning and beautiful faces.

Seeing them, I couldn’t help but imagine the pedophile priest decades ago, standing in front of an elementary school classroom looking among the students for his next targets. Of course. It stands to reason. The predator priest would select children with beautiful angelic faces.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

Defense lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn say the state Supreme Court’s decision to review the case could result in two more years of appeals.

Defense lawyers are worried about a scenario where it’s 2017, and Msgr. William J. Lynn is being tried for a second time.

By that juncture, Lynn will have served a year and a half in jail, and at least three years under house arrest.

“It could be unending,” Thomas A. Bergstrom, Lynn’s lead defense lawyer, said about future appeals in the case.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams is not commenting about the state Supreme Court’s decision last week to grant the D.A.’s petition for a review of the Lynn case. But a former prosecutor in the district attorney’s office says the state Supreme Court’s review may be less about Lynn and more about sending a message in Pennsylvania that child abuse can no longer be covered up.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Catholic Church’s child protection watchdog has begun publishing reviews of four dioceses and five other church entities.

The review found the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin moved to significantly restrict or terminate the ministries of 27 of a sample of 40 priests about whom safeguarding concerns have arisen over the past decade.

The NBSCCC described as remarkable the success of the Dublin archdiocese’s child safeguarding team in “turning around a shocking and grievous situation”.

According to the review, over 400 allegations of child sexual abuse were made against 101 priests of the Dublin Archdiocese over the past 38 years.

Rather than duplicate the work of the 2009 Murphy Commission, which exposed a policy of cover-ups up to the appointment of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin in mid-2004, the NBSCCC examined the files of 40 local priests or former priests about whom safeguarding concerns had arisen since that time.

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AUSTRALIA
Christian Today

By: Francis Sullivan
CEO Truth Justice and Healing Council
Monday, 12 May 2014,

Over the past two weeks Australians have heard stories from 11 old men who endured the worst physical and sexual abuse as young boys in orphanages and farm schools run by the Christian Brothers in Western Australia from the late 1940s and into the 60s.

Most of the boys, some as young as four, were in care before being shipped off to Australia from homes in England and Malta as part of UK and Australian Government sanctioned child migration schemes. Some were sent without the knowledge of their family.

They came on the promise of a life in Australia they could never hope for in post-war Europe: a warm bed, a full belly, an education. Some were promised land. All were promised a better future. But many got years, sometimes decades, of misery.

What these men told the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse was for many in the hearing room beyond belief; stories of forced labor, of torture, of beatings and rape – experiences no one, anywhere, should ever have to endure.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Mail (UK)

‘It’s a cesspool of sex’: Women sue director of megachurch-affiliated rehab on claims he routinely groped, harassed and even laid on top of them as they slept

By JOSHUA GARDNER and ASSOCIATED PRESS

Six women filed suit against San Diego’s The Rock Church on Thursday, saying they were sexually harassed at a drug and alcohol recovery program associated with the megachurch.

The lawsuit says the Rock offered counseling and housing to women in a program led by David Powers, who is accused of repeatedly fondling residents and making lewd sexual advances and laying atop at least one of the recovering drug addicts as she slept.

‘They’ve gone there to seek healing and what they get is a sex fest,’ attorney Irwin Zalkin, who’s helping represent the women, told NBC San Diego. ‘I mean, that’s really what this place is — it’s a cesspool of sex.’

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AUSTRALIA
The Chronicle

Chris Calcino 12th May 2014

AN EXPERT in student protection was engaged by the Toowoomba Catholic Education Office in the wake of February’s inquiry into child sexual abuse at a Toowoomba school.

The revelation that pedophile teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes was rehired despite serious complaints about his conduct, only to reoffend, has done enormous damage to the educational institution’s reputation.

An open letter to parents, signed by Bishop Robert McGuckin and Toowoomba CEO director John Borserio, sought to reassure them the inquiry’s recommendations had been implemented.

“Most recently, we engaged Dr Monica Applewhite (whose work in policy development for the prevention of abuse, including sexual abuse, and maintaining safe environments for children is well respected internationally) to deliver professional development training to principals and student protection contacts in the area of child sexual abuse,” it stated.

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KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal

Chris Kenning, The Courier-Journal May 11, 2014

More than a decade after the Rev. Joseph Hemmerle was cleared of a single allegation of sexual abuse at a summer camp in the 1970s, a new allegation has led the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville to place him on leave as pastor of two Marion County parishes.

According to a May 8 letter from Archbishop Joseph Kurtz to parishioners, Hemmerle was placed on administrative leave after the archdiocese was “contacted by an individual who reported that he had been sexually abused by Father Hemmerle in the 1970s.”

The archdiocese has opened an internal investigation, reported the accusation to the commonwealth’s attorney in Meade County, where the abuse was alleged to have taken place, and counseled the accuser to contact authorities, officials said.

“We realize that this is a painful situation, and we want to support you during this time of uncertainty,” Kurtz wrote. “Please keep Father Joe and all victims of sexual abuse in your prayers.”

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

By Michael P. Mayko

SHELTON — The Rev. John J. Stronkowski has been removed from his pastoral duties at St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Church by the Most Rev. Frank J. Caggiano, Bishop of Bridgeport, who cited the priest’s “persistent absenteeism” and difficulties with parish staff.

The Rev. Frederick Saviano, the Bridgeport Diocese’s 72-year-old director for the propagation of the faith, was appointed to serve as St. Margaret Mary’s temporary administrator. Caggiano said he expects to appoint a new pastor around June 15.

Attempts to reach Stronkowski, 54, by phone and e-mail were unsuccessful Sunday.

A letter advising parishioners of the Bishop’s decision and reasoning was read to those attending Saturday and Sunday Mass at the church.

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UNITED STATES
NPR

[with audio]

By SYLVIA POGGIOLI
Originally published on Sun May 11, 2014

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I’m Rachel Martin. The Vatican got a grilling this past week for its handling of the clerical sex abuse scandal. The setting – a United Nations hearing in Geneva. Meanwhile in Rome, a new advisory board to Pope Francis held its first meeting on the sex abuse crisis.

In a moment we’ll hear from a member of that board whose personal story of abuse may be hard for some listeners to hear. But first, NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli reports on that U.N. committee looking into the Vatican’s response to sexual abuse.

SYLVIA POGGIOLI, BYLINE: In February, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child accused the church of systematically placing its own interests over those of sex abuse victims by using a code of silence to protect predator priests. The Vatican reacted angrily.

This week, facing another U.N. committee – this one on torture – the church was better prepared. For the first time, it released comprehensive statistics on how many priests have been defrocked over the last decade for raping and molesting children. The number is 848. More than 2,500 other priests received lesser penalties.

Still, the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, insisted the Holy See can implement international law only within the borders of the tiny Vatican city state. Members of the U.N. panel dismissed this claim, noting the Vatican’s broad powers to appoint bishops and defrock priests worldwide.

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WISCONSIN
Think Progress

BY IAN MILLHISER ON MAY 11, 2014

Last Tuesday, a Republican federal judge named Rudolph Randa handed down an unusual order cutting off a criminal investigation alleging illegal coordination between several political campaigns — including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) 2012 recall campaign — and conservative groups such as the Wisconsin Club for Growth. Randa speckled his order with uncharacteristic rhetoric for a judge tasked with being a neutral and impartial arbiter of the law. At one point, he labels the criminal probe “a long-running investigation of all things Walker-related.” At another point, he compares efforts to reign in excessive campaign spending to “the Guillotine and the Gulag.”

One day after Randa ordered this investigation halted, even requiring prosecutors to return or destroy documents that provided evidence that illegal coordination took place, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued a brief order holding that Randa had no business deciding this case in the first place — as the case was already on appeal. “[O]nce a litigant files a notice of appeal,” the Seventh Circuit explained, “a district court may not take any further action in the suit unless it certifies that the appeal is frivolous. The district court failed to follow that rule when, despite the notice of appeal filed by several defendants, it entered a preliminary injunction.” Not to be outdone, Randa responded on Thursday by saying that the appeal was, indeed, frivolous. A position that at least one legal scholar disagreed with, saying that Randa’s original ruling was “extraordinary.”
Extraordinary or not, Randa’s actions in this case do fit a pattern of ideological decisions in politically charged cases: …

* Protecting Sexually Abusive Priests: In 2007, then-Archbishop of Milwaukee Timothy Dolan penned a letter to the Vatican explaining that, by transferring approximately $57 million in church funds to a separate trust set up to maintain church cemeteries, he’d achieved “an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.” Six years later, Randa held that, by engaging in this accounting trick, the Milwaukee Archdiocese did indeed shield these funds from lawsuits — brought by victims of clergy sex abuse. Indeed, Randa held that the Catholic Church had a constitutional right to insulate this money from lawsuits brought by the victims of priestly sex abuse.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

EDITORIAL

The Vatican’s United Nations Envoy Monsignor Tomasi revealed during the UN hearings earlier this week that in the last 10 years 848 priests were laicized and 2,572 were sanctioned and ordered to live a life of prayer and penance.

Here’s a link to one of the news stories:

[7 News]

Here is the obituary of a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati who died May 3. He was “sanctioned” as a “prayer and penance” priest.

The Reverend Francis A. “Father Frank” Massarella(May 16, 1915 – May 3, 2014)
Massarella, The Reverend Francis A. “Father Frank” 98 of Dayton, OH passed away at Siena Woods Nursing Home, Dayton, OH on Saturday, May 3, 2014. Born May 16, 1915 to John and Antonette {Parisi} Massarella. He is preceded in death by his parents and 4 brothers; Matthew, Clarence, Joseph and Angelo Massarella. He is survived by his nieces Rosemary Fogarty, Annette Shea and Alice Massarella; and nephew Joseph Massarella.

Father Massarella did his preparatory studies at St. Gregory Seminary and studied theology at Mt. St. Mary Seminary of the West. He was ordained a priest by Archbishop John T. McNicholas at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Norwood, Ohio on June 7, 1941. He worked with the Glenmary Home Missioners, 1941-1945 before entering the Trappist Monastery at Gethsemane, KY, 1945-1951. On May 25, 1951 he was appointed Assistant Chaplain at Good Samaritan Hospital, Cincinnati. In June 1952 he was appointed Assistant at Saint Mary Parish, Piqua and its two mission parishes. Later that year he was appointed Assistant at Guardian Angels Parish, Cincinnati and to the faculty of McNicholas High School.

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

Updated May 12, 2014

Foremost Vatican Pied Piper John Allen wrote on May 10, 2014, in defense of the Vatican at its recent interrogation by the UN Commission Against Torture – and along with other Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team journalists who are still attacking the UN (as they await its verdict) – that: “The Vatican boasts the world’s oldest diplomatic corps, and its members take their tradecraft extremely seriously. They pride themselves on being the soul of discretion, never burning bridges, never shutting down lines of communication, and always having the big picture in view”. Allen is quite right except for what he is not saying beneath his adulating words for his Vatican employer – and that “always having the big picture in view” – means the “big picture” is the Vatican Mammon Beast a.k.a. Opus Dei Beast today and the Vatican Billions stashed in secret Vatican Swiss Banks.

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CALIFRNIA
KTVU

DAVIS, Calif. — A priest who works at a Catholic church in Davis has been arrested after allegations that he sexually abused a 17-year-old girl, according to police.

The Davis Police Department said an investigation started earlier this month into reports that the suspect, 45-year-old Fr. Hector Coria, had engaged in a sexual relationship on multiple occasions with the teen girl.

Coria, who works at St. James Parish in Davis, had befriended the girl last year, police said. In late 2013, Coria began a sexual relationship with the minor and engaged in that relationship multiple times since then.

On Friday, Davis police served search warrants at multiple locations and subsequently arrested Coria on charges of statutory rape and oral copulation with a minor.

Coria was booked into the Yolo County Jail.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento subsequently released a statement that Coria has been placed on administrative leave after the arrest.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Robert Benish entered the Jesuits as a postulant at the Oregon Province’s Novitiate in Sheridan, Oregon in 1941. He made his perpetual vows as a Jesuit Brother in 1944. Benish remained in Sheridan until his transfer to St. Mary’s Mission in Alaska in 1946. He spent his entire career thereafter at St. Mary’s. His roles were as boys’ prefect, baker, postmaster, gardner and ham radio operator. As prefect, Benish spent nearly 24-hours per day with the boys, including sleeping in their dormitory. Benish retired to a Jesuit residence at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington in 1989, and died in April 1991. Benish’ s 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’.

Vows: Jan. 1, 1944
Died: April 24, 1991

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Pope Francis’ No. 1 priority increasingly appears to be to avoid at all costs a US national investigation of priest child sexual abuse cover-ups like the one now underway in Australia.

Francis is evidently gearing up to support his US bishops’ current anti-Obamacare contraception insurance crusade to help the Vatican’s “tax and regulation opposed” billionaire allies, including apparently Rupert Murdoch, install a right wing US Senate in November.

For key background, see Betty Clermont’s perceptive and well documented overall analysis here

[The Open Tabernacle]

and Aletha Blayse’s penetrating analysis of Murdoch’s News Corp’s ‘The Australian” newspaper’s efforts here

[lewisblayse.net]

Francis’ top “Vatican police” official, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, has AGAIN “smacked down” US nuns, as described well by two prominent US Catholics, the NY Times’ Maureen Dowd here

[New York Times]

and the independent National Catholic Reporter’s publisher, Thomas Fox, here

[National Catholic Reporter]

and here

[National Catholic Reporter]

The Australian investigation has apparently already led the lone Cardinal Pell to seek Vatican protection. With that priority, Francis has been busy dealing with related “women’s politics” and almost racing to make all modern popes “saints”, both seemingly aimed at firming key Catholic voter and donor support and enhance thereby protection for his increasingly beleaguered absolute monarchy.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Bernard “Barney” McMeel was ordained a priest of the Jesuits’ Oregon Province in 1954. For more than two decades he ministered in the Fairbanks, Alaska diocese with a short stint later on in the diocese of Juneau. From 1979 until his death in 1994, McMeel worked at St. Paul Indian Mission on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in the diocese of Great Falls, Montana. McMeel was accused in a 2006 lawsuit, along with Rev. Andrew Eordogh, s.j., of having sexually abused a boy in Holy Cross, Alaska, beginning when the boy was 4 years-old in 1967. Hs accuser said McMeel “handed him off” to Eordogh when McMeel left in 1968 to become Superior Regular of Jesuits in Alaska.

Ordained: 1954
Died: Jan. 6, 1994

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AUSTRALIA
PS NEWS

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has launched a national public awareness campaign calling for survivors of child sexual abuse to come forward to share their story.

Chief Executive of the Royal Commission, Janette Dines said that while more than 1,400 people had already shared their story with a Royal Commissioner, there may be many more people who are yet to make contact.

“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.

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UNITED STATES
OPB

[with audio]

Each week, Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin brings listeners an unexpected side of the news by talking with someone personally affected by the stories making headlines.

For decades Marie Collins has advocated on behalf of sex abuse victims and spoken out against the way the Catholic Church has handled the crisis.

Collins was selected by Pope Francis to sit on the new commission he set up to try to right past wrongs and to make recommendations for dealing with pedophile priests in the future.

Collins is one of four women on the new commission and the only member who is also herself a survivor of clergy sexual abuse. She told NPR’s Rachel Martin about the abuse, how she overcame it and went on to help other victims.

When Collins was 13 years old she had an operation at a children’s hospital. It was her first time from home and she was scared, she says. The chaplain of the hospital began coming by a lot, including in the evenings to read to her.

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CALIFORNIA
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 11, 2014

DAVIS, California — A Roman Catholic priest in Northern California has been arrested for allegedly engaging in a sexual relationship with a teenage girl he befriended while working at a Davis church.

Davis police officers arrested the Rev. Hector Coria on Friday on suspicion of statutory rape and oral copulation with a minor. The 45-year-old priest was booked into the Yolo County jail but bonded out on Saturday.

Police said Coria had been involved with the girl since last year. Telephone and email messages left for him at St. James Parish in Davis, where the church bulletin lists him as one of two staff pastors, were not immediately returned on Sunday.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Dark history of hidden horrors … The Christian Brothers order has finally been forced to face their secret sins

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH MAY 08, 2014

IT was rule 85 that stated the most obvious: Brothers must not fondle their pupils. It entered the constitution of the Christian Brothers in 1962, a time when the order was supposedly getting tougher on the pedophiles in its ranks.

It spoke volumes about the order that they still didn’t get it. Assaulting boys was not breaking a rule, or even breaking the vow of chastity — it was a crime. The order even hid behind the quaint term “fondling”.

Former Christian Brothers leader Anthony Shanahan was asked last week in the child sex abuse royal commission what he thought they had meant by “fondling” in 1962.

The royal commission has been inquiring into the handling of the shocking sexual abuse and brutal beatings in the order’s four notorious Western Australian orphanages between 1947 and 1968.

“I presume it would refer to like having a hand around the student, for example, sort of sitting with the student, sort of hand on him, sort of perhaps rubbing his back, that sort of physical contact,” Shanahan, a member of the order’s WA governing council from 1989 to 2002, said.

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SEATTLE (WA)
The Jewish Sound

Janis Siegel JTNews correspondent

Jordan Eareckson Murray, the Torah Day School teacher charged with seven counts of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes in his classroom in May 2013, will not see further jail time. Murray changed his innocent plea to guilty on two of those counts in Feb. 2014, but again declared his innocence on Friday to Judge Laura Gene Middaugh, who rejected that assertion before handing down her sentence.

Saying that TDS was “truly a second home,” Murray read from his pre-sentencing statement while his wife, who remains supportive, watched in the courtroom.

“Although I’m not guilty of the crimes I was charged with,” said Murray, “I understand how the accusation of sexual abuse happens. Jewish communities are very close-knit…. When allegations of this magnitude occur in such an intimate community it puts a tremendous strain on their social environment. I hope and pray that everything that has transpired in the past year will not affect the persons associated with these allegations.”

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SEATTLE (WA)
Failed Messiah

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Rabbi Jordan “Yaakov” E. Murray, a teacher at the Torah Day School in Seattle who was allegedly hired by the school without a background check at the personal recommendation of a prominent haredi rabbi, told a Washington State judge late last month that he is innocent of child sex abuse charges – even though he pleaded guilty to those charges last year, the Jewish Sound reported.

Murray called the haredi day school where he taught 1st and 2nd grade his “a second home,” and insisted on his innocence as his wife sat nearby in a show of support.

“Although I’m not guilty of the crimes I was charged with, I understand how the accusation of sexual abuse happens. Jewish communities are very close-knit…. When allegations of this magnitude occur in such an intimate community it puts a tremendous strain on their social environment. I hope and pray that everything that has transpired in the past year will not affect the persons associated with these allegations,” Murray read aloud from his prepared pre-sentencing statement.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 11 May 2014)

Child-abuse at four Catholic orphanage-type institutions was so bad (and was so well covered-up) that the Christian Brothers earned a reputation many years ago as the “Christian Buggers”, Australia’s national child-abuse Royal Commission was told during public hearings in April-May 2014.

The senior barrister assisting the Royal Commission, Ms Gail Furness, said at a public hearing that the mention of “Christian Buggers” was made in a report from the UK House of Commons, referring to four Catholic institutions in Western Australia. These institutions housed disadvantaged boys, many of whom were orphans shipped to Australia from the UK and Malta during migration schemes.

Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse held two weeks of public hearings in Perth in April-May 2014 to investigate how the Christian Brothers and successive West Australian governments responded to allegations of horrific abuse at four Christian Brothers institutions in the two decades to 1968. The Institutions were:

* Bindoon (St Joseph’s Farm and Trade School);
* Castledare (Castledare Junior Orphanage);
* Clontarf (St Vincent’s Orphanage); and
* Tardun (St Mary’s Agricultural School).

Eleven former residents of the institutions told the Royal Commission about indecent assaults, beatings, child labour, neglect and cruelty by the Christian Brothers. The abuse was successfully covered up by the Christian Brothers community.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Taberbacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Betty Clermont

Almost unknown outside of Argentina, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was named the fourth “Most Powerful Person in the World/People Who Rule the World” by Forbes seven months after his election as pope. Five months later, another business publication, Fortune, named him the “World’s Greatest Leader.” Three of the four other top “rulers of the word” have already been to the Vatican to pay him homage: Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama and Angela Merkel. Only Xi Jinping has not yet made the pilgrimage but literally dozens of other heads-of-state have done so and have strengthened their diplomatic ties to the Holy See.

This leap from obscurity to global power was accomplished by the same corporate media complicit in shifting the wealth of the world’s richest nation into the pockets of the 1%. They selectively reported when Bergoglio looked and talked like a moderate populist. They did not tell us about Bergoglio’s compliance with Argentina’s military junta, his disgraceful history on child sex abuse nor his advocacy of right-wing politics. (Also here, here and here.)

And even though progressives know that the Religious Right was created by the neocons to facilitate this takeover, that the Catholic episcopate is an enthusiastic adjunct of the plutocracy, and that the men who elected Bergoglio were appointed by the same popes as the Obama-bashing, misogynist and homophobic U.S. bishops, we were as taken in by the “incense-smoke and mirrors” as the rest of the populace. We not only accepted without question the corporate media’s careful reporting but also showed no interest in Bergoglio’s papal appointments of men with backgrounds and worldviews at polar opposites to his constructed image. (Also, here and here.)

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CALIFORNIA
Fox 40

[with video]

by Rowena Shaddox
Reporter

DAVIS-

A week-long investigation ended with Davis police arresting Father Hector Coria of St. James Catholic Church.

“Unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and oral copulation, is what occurred here,” Davis Asst. Police Chief Darren Pytel said.

Police believe Coria began the inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old girl from his parish, late last year.

Investigators learned of the alleged affair just this week, and began their investigation, which led them to search several locations Friday, and ended with Coria being booked into the Yolo County Jail.

He has since made bail.

“Well, that may explain why confession was cancelled today,” parishioner Richard Bruce said.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Sacramento

[with video]

DAVIS (CBS13) – Parishioners had no idea of the arrest of a popular priest until an announcement was made at Saturday’s 5:30 p.m. mass.

Many at St. James Parish still can’t believe it was the priest they describe as friendly and popular.

“It’s the closest I’ve been to a priest or someone in the parish accused of something like this. I’m blown away,” said one parishioner.

Friday, officers arrested Father Hector Coria on charges he charges he was having sex with a teenager.

“I’m heartbroken because he’s such a dear person. I can’t believe it,” said another parishioner.

Davis police began investing 45-year-old Coria earlier this month after information surfaced that he was having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl. Police would not say if the girl was a member of the church, only noting that the alleged relationship occurred at the same time Coria was a priest.

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OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

Sun May 11, 2014

By SHANNON MUCHMORE World Staff Writer

A Tulsa County District Court jury awarded $2 million Friday to the family of a toddler who was sexually abused at a local church-affiliated day care center.

The jury found that Kirk of the Hills Church acted with reckless disregard for the safety of children by not telling staff at another church-affiliated day care center that a previous employee was being investigated for abuse of a baby, according to an attorney for the family.

Kirk of the Hills officials knew Meredith Allison Howard, 41, was working for the day care center at John Knox Presbyterian Church but did not share information about the abuse investigation, the attorney, Patrick Carr, said.

“If John Knox had known that information, they would never have hired Meredith Howard,” he said.

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OREGON
The Argus Observer

PAYETTE—A Canyon County youth pastor was arrested April 28 for sex abuse of a minor.

Forest Reuben Gibson, 33, was arrested in conjunction with the Payette County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

Anne Marie Kelso with the Payette County Prosecutor’s Office said there had been a crime filed in Payette County. There will be a preliminary hearing for Gibson Tuesday.

The Canyon County Sheriff’s Office said Gibson is accused of sexual abuse of a teen, age 16 or 17.

Canyon County detectives said they are concerned there may be additional victims in Canyon County and surrounding areas. They are looking for help in identifying other possible victims.

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CALIFORNIA
The Voice of Russia

Six women seeking help through a drug and alcohol recovery program say they suffered sexual battery and harassment at their rehab center and a battery lawsuit was filed Thursday by the Zalkin Law Firm, a San Diego-based group of attorneys specializing in sexual abuse cases against the Rock Church Ministries of San Diego.

None of the alleged sexual abuse took place at the Rock Church, but the church is still named in a 29 page lawsuit claiming it failed to supervise an affiliated recovery home.

The lawsuit naming the Rock Church Ministries claims the women suffered sexual misconduct at the hands of a recovery program director. It names husband and wife David and Tina Powers and the sober living facilities and recovery homes they run, which the lawsuit says are affiliated with the Rock Church.

Attorney Irwin Zalkin told NBC 7 his clients were exploited by those in charge of this recovery program.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF MAY 10, 2014

When Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople meet this month in Jerusalem, the buzz probably will be about two milestones from the past: 1054, when Eastern and Western Christianity split, and 1964, when Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras embraced in the Holy Land to begin healing the division.

That historic meeting 50 years ago helped launch the modern ecumenical movement for Christian unity. …

Vatican diplomats shed caution

The Vatican boasts the world’s oldest diplomatic corps, and its members take their tradecraft extremely seriously. They pride themselves on being the soul of discretion, never burning bridges, never shutting down lines of communication, and always having the big picture in view.

The result is that Vatican diplomats rarely engage in public crossfire, so when they do, you know something extraordinary is going on.

That’s relevant in light of the dust-up following an appearance Monday and Tuesday by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s envoy to the United Nations in Geneva, before the UN’s Committee against Torture. As happened earlier this year in a date with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Vatican’s record on the child sexual abuse scandals once again was put under a microscope.

Even before the hearing, Tomasi had come out swinging in an interview with the Globe in which he complained that some people seem deliberately “deaf and blind” to the progress the Catholic Church has made in the fight against child sexual abuse.

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CALIFORNIA
News 10

A Davis Catholic priest was arrested for having sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, the Davis Police Department said.

Rev. Hector Coria, 45, was taken into custody by police after officers served search warrants at multiple locations Friday, police said.

The police department started investigating Coria after they got reports of the sexual abuse in early May. During the investigation, police found that Coria befriended the 17-year-old girl while he was a priest at St. James Parish in late 2013 and began a sexual relationship with the teen, police said.

Coria was booked into Yolo County jail for statutory rape and oral copulation with a minor.

Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento spokesperson Kevin Eckery released the following statement in response to Coria’s arrest:

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CALIFORNIA
KFBK

The Davis Police Department began to investigate allegations into the sexual abuse of a 17-year-old female earlier this month.

During the course of the investigation, it was determined that the suspect, Fr. Hector Coria, a 45-year-old male, had befriended the minor while he was a priest with a Catholic Church.

In late 2013, Fr. Coria began a sexual relationship with the minor and engaged in that sexual relationship on multiple occasions since 2013.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Sacramento

DAVIS (CBS13) – A Davis priest has been arrested on charges that he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a minor, Davis Police announced Saturday.

Police have been investigating Fr. Hector Coria, a priest at St. James Parish in Davis, after allegations arose earlier in May that he had been sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl. Investigators found that Coria had befriended the girl while he was a priest with the Catholic Church.

Investigators believe that, since late 2013, Coria had been in a sexual relationship with the girl.
Friday, authorities served a warrant on Coria’s residence and arrested him on charges of statutory rape and oral copulation with a minor.

“In keeping with diocesan policy, Fr. Coria has been placed on administrative leave, his faculties have been withdrawn and he may no longer publicly function as a priest while this matter is under investigation by local law enforcement and Davis Police,” wrote Kevin Eckery, spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, in a statement on Coria’s arrest.

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CALIFORNIA
KCRA

By Michelle Schultz

DAVIS, Calif. (KCRA) —A Davis priest is charged with statutory rape and oral copulation with a minor, police said Saturday.

Father Hector Coria was arrested Friday after the Davis Police Department served search warrants at several locations, officers said. Coria is now held at the Yolo County Jail.

Police started investigating the sexual abuse allegations earlier this month. The alleged victim is a 17-year-old girl, officers said.

Officials determined Coria, 45, befriended the girl as he served as a priest at the Catholic church.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Democrat

By Democrat staff
news@dailydemocrat.com @WoodlandNews on Twitter

CREATED: 05/10/2014

A Davis priest has been arrested for the alleged sexual abuse of a 17-year-old girl.

On Friday, Davis police served search warrants at multiple locations and subsequently arrested Father Hector Coria, 45, on charges of statutory rape and oral copulation with a minor, according to a department statement. Coria was booked into the Yolo County Jail.

The Davis Police Department began to investigate the sexual abuse allegations earlier in May. During the course of the investigation, it was determined that the suspect had befriended the minor while he was a priest with a Catholic Church.

He is listed as a priest at St. James Parish in Davis. According to a Facebook page of St. Thomas Catholic Church in Paradise, he was ordained in January 2011.

In late 2013, Coria began a sexual relationship with the minor and engaged in that sexual relationship on multiple occasions.

Anyone with additional information is asked to call Davis police at 747-5400.

The following statement was released by Kevin Eckery, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, regarding Coria’s charges, to KCRA.

“Fr. Hector Coria, a priest at St. James Parish in Davis, has been arrested for alleged sexual misconduct with a minor by the City of Davis Police Department.

“In keeping with diocesan policy, Fr. Coria has been placed on administrative leave, his faculties have been withdrawn and he may no longer publicly function as a priest while this matter is under investigation by local law enforcement and Davis Police.”

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CALIFORNIA
Sacramento Bee

By Edward Ortiz
eortiz@sacbee.com
Published: Saturday, May. 10, 2014

A priest at St. James Parish Catholic church in Davis, has been arrested for allegedly abusing a 17-year-old female, the Davis Police said.

Friday’s arrest of the Rev. Hector Coria, 45, was the result of an ongoing investigation by Davis police. In that investigation, it is alleged that while a priest at St. James Parish church in 2013, Coria befriended the minor and began a sexual relationship with her.

Coria was arrested on suspicion of statutory rape and oral copulation with a minor, and has been booked into Yolo County jail.

The Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, in a written statement, said Coria has been placed on administrative leave and may no longer publicly function as a priest while under investigation.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

Maureen Dowd

WASHINGTON — SO much for all the cozy hugs and soothing cold calls and fun selfies and humble gestures and talk of mercy, love, inclusion, equality and justice.

Pope Francis appears guilty of condoning that most base Vatican sport: bullying nuns.

The cool pope suddenly doesn’t seem so cool, allowing Rome’s grand inquisitors to torque up the derogation this Mother’s Day of the American sisters who have mothered so many — even as an endless parade of ghoulish priests were shielded as they defiled vulnerable kids in their care.

Pope Benedict’s Vatican was determined to rein in American nuns inspired by Vatican II, accusing them of pushing “radical feminist themes” and caring for the sick instead of parroting church teaching opposing contraception, gay relationships and the ordination of women.

Although some conservative American bishops have politicized the abortion issue, punishing liberal pols who were pro-choice, they were furious that some uppity nuns supported the president’s health care plan, including his compromise on contraception for religious hospitals.

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KENTUCKY
WHAS

[with video]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) — The Archdiocese of Louisville has placed Father Joseph Hemmerle on administrative leave for allegations of sexual abuse.

The archdiocese said someone came forward and said Father Hemmerle abused them as a child in the 1970’s.

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KENTUCKY
Kentucky Standard

By Forrest Berkshire, Editor
Friday, May 9, 2014

The pastor of St. Francis and Holy Cross is on administrative leave following an accusation that he molested a young boy in the 1970s.

Parishioners of the churches received a letter Friday from the Archdiocese of Louisville stating an individual had accused Father Joseph Hemmerle of sexual abuse.

Brian Reynolds, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Louisville, confirmed Friday that Hemmerle was on leave and that the church was in the process of turning the matter over to law enforcement.

Reynolds said the church had heard “secondhand” that an accusation was coming, but was not notified until Thursday. Reynolds said Archbishop of Louisville Joseph Kurtz met with Hemmerle the day the accusation was received, informed him of the accusation and placed him on leave.

The letter to parishioners stated the actions by the archdiocese conformed with its policies, which includes placing the accused on a leave of absence, outreach to the person making the accusation, reporting the accusation to civil authorities and conducting its own internal investigation.

This is the second time Hemmerle has been accused of sexually abusing young boys in the 1970s, when he served as a camp director for Camp Tall Trees in Otter Creek Park in Meade County.

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