ABUSE TRACKER

ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Walter Edward Huppenbauer
Daniel Peter Buck
David Francis Braun

Doug T. Graham

Three priests who served at St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic Church in Palatine were among the 36 named Thursday in documents released Thursday detailing sex abuse claims against members of the clergy.

St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic Church in Palatine was home from 1984 to 1994 to three priests against whom allegations of sexually abusing children were revealed in archdiocese documents Thursday.

Details of the accusations against the three men — who have since died or been removed from ministry — were revealed in the thousands of documents released Thursday by the Archdiocese of Chicago. In each case, the alleged abuses happened before the priests worked at the Palatine parish.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Daily Item

Posted: Friday, November 7, 2014

By Thor Jourgensen / The Daily Item

LYNN — The Rev. James E. Gaudreau’s resignation from St. Joseph’s Church saddened and angered parishioners who said they have remained faithful to their pastor two years after an allegation of sexual abuse of a child surfaced against him.

“We will miss him, the church without him will not be the same,” said parishioner Paula Reyes.

Archdiocese of Boston spokesman Terrence Donilon confirmed Rev. Gaudreau’s resignation but declined to provide details. “We generally do not comment beyond statements we have issued,” he said.

Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett’s office in September 2013 said it did not plan to file criminal charges against Gaudreau. Donilon said Thursday Gaudreau remains on administrative leave.

“Because there is an ongoing canonical process, I am not going to be able to comment further,” Donilon said.

Attempts to reach Gaudreau Thursday were unsuccessful. The Rev. Israel J. Rodriguez is St. Joseph’s current administrator.

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CHICAGO (IL)
The Daily Beast

Barbie Latza Nadeau

In a disturbing document dump outlining lurid clerical abuse and a trail of coverups, retiring Cardinal Francis George tries to clear his conscience.

Some of the accusations against perverted priests are handwritten letters penned by worried mothers. Others are emails sent decades after the abuses occurred. There are letters so old the mimeographed typewriting is smudged and difficult to read. There are emails so recent, they call into question just how much of the clerical abuse is still going on. In all, more than 15,000 pages from the secret archives of the Chicago Archdiocese’s Office for Child Abuse Investigations and Review have been released on the Chicago Archdiocese website relating to hundreds of lurid sexual-abuse crimes by 36 perverted priests dating back to the 1950s. The most recent documents are only a year old.

The disturbing document dump was released Thursday as the retiring Cardinal Francis George prepares to leave the post he has held since 1997. They follow a similar gesture last January when the archdiocese released 6,000 pages of documents pertaining to 30 pedophilic priests as part of a legal settlement brokered by Chicago attorney Jeff Anderson. The Chicago Archdiocese has paid more than $130 million in abuse-victim settlements. “We cannot change the past but we hope we can rebuild trust through honest and open dialogue,” George said in a statement on the eve of the document release. “Child abuse is a crime and a sin.”

While the document trove is impressive, many of the names and an abundance of detail has been blackened out, no doubt for privacy issues. Records on two of Chicago’s most notorious pedophile priests were not released because of ongoing legal action. The cases involving Daniel McCormack, who is accused of molesting three young boys, including an 8-year-old he allegedly molested on Christmas Eve, and Edward Maloney are not included because McCormack’s records have been sealed by a judge as part of his admission; Maloney is appealing his laicization with the Vatican in Rome.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Charles Keeshan

The Rev. John Hefferan served 11 Catholic parishes from the far South suburbs to the northernmost reaches of Lake County during his more than four decades as a priest.

In at least three of those stops, according to a 311-page report released by the Archdiocese of Chicago on Thursday, parishioners accused Hefferan of sexual misconduct.

The first accusation surfaced in March 1993, when a woman called church officials to report that Hefferan had kissed and touched her inappropriately in the late 1970s at St. John Vianney in Northlake, when she was 12 years old. Hefferan was assigned to St. Vianney in 1975 after serving two years at St. John the Evangelist in Streamwood.

Hefferan, who was at an Oak Lawn parish in 1993, denied the claims when meeting with a church investigator the next day, but the Archdiocese found the report credible enough to restrict him from being alone with minors. Those restrictions were lifted four months later, however.

More allegations surfaced in 2002 and 2003. In the first case, the archdiocese received an email from a person who claimed to have been “sexually exploited” by Hefferan from 1964-67 at St. Anastasia Parish in Waukegan. Because the person declined repeated requests to file a formal complaint, the archdiocese did not pursue the allegation further.

However, a formal complaint was filed about six months later by a woman who told church officials Hefferan had fondled her breasts in the late 1960s when she was a junior high school student at a parish in South suburban Flossmoor.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

Danielle Krout

JOHNSTOWN, CAMBRIA COUNTY— Father Joseph Maurizio will remain in the county jail until a second federal judge makes a ruling if he should be released while he awaits trial.

“The government wants to detain him and we want him to remain free,” said Steven Passarello, Attorney. “The government has decided to appeal which is apart of the process.”

Thursday was third detention hearing for the priest. The US Attorney had two witnesses testified including an expert specialist for the IRS and a special agent with Homeland Security.

The IRS agent testified that there were a number of checks made to Maurizio as a refund for cash items he allegedly paid for but didn’t provide a receipt. He also allegedly made cash withdrawal of $9,700 the same day federal agents raided his home and church, according to prosecutors that money has never been found. US Attorney says Maurizio failed to disclose to the government more than $1 million that was in his personal accounts.

The agent went on to testify that Maurizio’s salary was in the $20,000- $25,000 range, and the cash, credit, and deposits didn’t add up. All of the money essentially ties back to Maurizio even through his charitable organizations, which the defense said they’ve agreed to freeze. A family member or the one witness who testified for the defense had to provide a second signature if Maurizio would access the money from several of his accounts or the church’s. The defense has claimed their client has made ‘wise investments over the years.’ Maurizio was also reimbursed by Our Lady Queen of Angels Church for all of his travel expenses which he paid for with his own cash. The government said Maurizio wired more than $10,000 to a priest in Honduras. Passarello said that was for food to feed starving kids in the orphanage.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

Editorial

Sift through the thousands of pages of secret documents on 36 abusive priests released by the Archdiocese of Chicago Thursday and you find the story of the Rev. Michael Weston.

And what a distressing tale it is.

The redacted documents, published online, show how Weston repeatedly abused boys as he moved from parish to parish over more than a decade, until he resigned in 1993. Although allegations were recorded as far back as the late 1970s, no action was taken until 2003. One frustrated priest who spoke up early lamented that “nothing would be done” unless photos of the abuse were produced. And there was little chance of that happening.

The trail of tragedy disclosed in Thursday’s documents release mirrors stories unearthed in a similar release on about 30 priests in January. The appalling extent of the human tragedy over 60 years no longer is in dispute, nor is the church’s shameful history of sweeping allegations under the rug and allowing offending priests to continue their predations against hundreds of minors. The real question today is whether the archdiocese has finally come to grips with the depth of the scandal, rather than simply react to public pressure. We believe it has. The proof is not in anything the archdiocese might say, but in the hard numbers.

That the numbers of complaints are down and that known offenders are out of the ministry tells us the archdiocese has put an effective, pro-active program in place to prevent abuse. The statistics since 1992 have moved sharply in the right direction as the number of new allegations has dropped dramatically. Ninety-eight percent of the abuse took place before 1992.

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WISCONSIN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee)
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

Today, the Federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that evidence the Archdiocese deliberately provided false information to procure a liability release in a case brought by one of the deaf victims of childhood sexual assault by the notorious Fr. Lawrence Murphy, cannot be heard in court because of Wisconsin’s “immunity law” on corporate mediation.

Before signing his legal release, the deaf victim in this case was told by church officials during mediation, according to his affidavit, that Murphy was not known to have a history of criminal sexual conduct against before he was assaulted as a child by him. Church documents obtained after the settlement now show that to be false and prove the Archdiocese knowingly lied to induce a mediation settlement. But under Wisconsin law, mediated settlements, even those procured under false or fraudulent premises, cannot be reopened or reexamined by any court.

The ruling could have implications for several dozen of the 575 victims who filed into the Milwaukee Archdiocese bankruptcy, now headed for its fourth year.

Unfortunately, this means that the voluminous evidence that Dolan and church officials had designed the mediation program prior to the bankruptcy to deliberately defraud victims and cover up knowledge of child sex crimes will likely never be brought before a judge or jury.

A second ruling by the 7th Circuit concerning Dolan’s establishment of a “cemetery trust” to hide $57 million dollars from sexual abuse victims is expected to be ruled on in the future.

The bigger picture, however, that is being constantly obscured by the endless maneuvering, motions, and the literally millions of pages of legal minutia, is the enormous toll the unprecedented bankruptcy itself is taking on the hundreds of victims who have been seeking justice. Each month it drags miserably forward, any actual hope for justice dims.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Bob Susnjara

Newly released Archdiocese of Chicago documents include sexual abuse claims against a former associate pastor at Queen of the Rosary Parish in Elk Grove Village from when he served at another church.

Onetime secret files about former priest John A. Robinson, 68, were released by the archdiocese Thursday. He was Queen of the Rosary’s associate pastor from 1994 to 2003.

Documents show a complaint that Robinson sexually abused a boy was made with the archdiocese in October 2002. Robinson was accused of molesting the 14-year-old boy in the 1970s while associate pastor at St. Priscilla Parish in Chicago.

“John Robinson acknowledged seeing the boy … and utilizing bare-buttocks spanking as a disciplinary procedure, although he cannot recall the issues for which the boy was being punished,” an internal archdiocese document states. “John Robinson does not acknowledge any sexual contact.”

Robinson had a brief stop at St. Emily Parish in Mount Prospect in 1979. He then went to churches in Oak Forest and Chicago from 1979 to 1994 before his assignment in Elk Grove Village.

He had been living with other priests accused of sexual misconduct at Cardinal Stritch Retreat House in Mundelein, but documents indicate that no longer is the case. Robinson’s most recent living arrangement was blacked out in a file for a reporting period from January 2012 to May 2013 and he couldn’t be located for comment.

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ARGENTINA
Star Tribune

Article by: ALMUDENA CALATRAVA , Associated Press Updated: November 6, 2014

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Pope Francis has excommunicated a pedophile Argentine priest, a move applauded by advocates for victims of clerical abuse.

Jose Mercau was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2011 after admitting to sexually abusing four teenagers. He spent 15 days in jail and was then held in a monastery in Buenos Aires province until he was released last March.

The pope’s decision was made public Wednesday by the bishopric of San Isidro on the outskirts of the Argentine capital.

Many welcomed the news, but victims and advocates of clergy sex abuse said the Roman Catholic Church still needs to be more determined, effective and severe when it comes to punishing such crimes in Argentina.

“The church still has a long way to go,” said Sebastian Cuattromo, director of an advocacy group called Adultxs for the Rights of Infancy.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

November 6, 2014

By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Catholic priest in Somerset County under indictment in connection with the sexual abuse of orphans in Honduras will remain jailed pending an appeal of an order to let him out until his trial.

U.S. Magistrate Keith Pesto, presiding in Johnstown, today ruled that the Rev. Joseph Maurizio could be released on home detention as long his bank accounts are frozen and he has no access to substantial church funds that federal prosecutors are worried he may use to flee.

But the magistrate also said the order will be stayed while the U.S. attorney’s office appeals the release to a federal judge in the hopes of keeping him locked up in the Cambria County Jail.

Prosecutors say he’s both a risk to run and a danger to the community.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Courthouse News Service

By LORRAINE BAILEY

CHICAGO (CN) – A Milwaukee victim of priest sex abuse who received $80,000 in mediation cannot seek additional compensation, the 7th Circuit ruled.

The Rev. Lawrence Murphy sexually abused the boy in question, identified only as John Doe, in 1974 while he attended St. John’s School for the Deaf.

Doe participated in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s voluntary mediation program in 2007, and received an $80,000 settlement on all his claims “arising from any sexual abuse of [Doe] by Murphy.”

As part of the settlement, Doe signed a confidentiality clause stating that he could not introduce admissions made during the mediation as evidence in a later proceeding.

But when the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy four years later, Doe filed a claim in the proceeding based on the same sexual-abuse allegations and sought to introduce the evidence presented in mediation.

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NEW YORK
Press & Sun-Bulletin

Anthony Borrelli, aborrelli@pressconnects.com | @PSBABorrelli November 6, 2014

Robert Ours, who admitted to six counts of child pornography, was a former teacher at Seton Catholic Central in Binghamton, but the charges are unrelated to his time there.

A former Binghamton-area priest will spend 10 years on probation after pleading guilty to six felony child pornography charges.

Robert Ours, 65, was sentenced Wednesday by Onondaga County Court Judge Joseph Fahey. Ours was a former teacher at Seton Catholic Central in Binghamton, but the charges were unrelated to his time there, according to the Syracuse Catholic Diocese.

Officials with the Syracuse diocese reported the child porn allegations against Ours to the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office earlier this year. When Ours pleaded guilty, prosecutors said, he admitted to having six illegal images of children under the age of 16 on his computer in August 2013.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor November 6, 2014

Because Pope Francis is perceived as a maverick, almost everything he says or does is taken as a break with the past even when it clearly isn’t. His rhetoric on the economy, for instance, or his recent comments on evolution, are both utterly consistent with established papal teaching, and yet both have been trumpeted as groundbreaking.

There’s at least one case, however, in which the exact opposite is true – something revolutionary actually is happening, but is rarely perceived as the complete earthquake it actually represents.

It’s the financial reform of the Vatican, launched by Francis and spearheaded by Australian Cardinal George Pell, whose audacious aim is to convert the Vatican from a cautionary tale when it comes to money management into a role model of best practices.

That campaign took another step forward yesterday with release of a new handbook for all Vatican departments prepared by Pell’s Secretariat of the Economy and approved in forma specifica by the pope Oct. 24, meaning it has his personal blessing.

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ILLINOIS
Wilmette Life

Kevin Bargnes
News Editor | kbargnes@pioneerlocal.com
Nov. 6

A Catholic priest who served Wilmette’s St. Francis Xavier church from 1974 to 1984 became embroiled in multiple sex abuse allegations after he retired from the church in 1992, according to documents released Thursday by the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The documents detail four abuse allegations made against Father David Braun while he was a Chicago pastor and at least one while he served in Wilmette.

Braun was first ordained in 1954, serving parishes in Chicago and Oak Lawn. In 1963, while at St. Linus in Oak Lawn, documents allege that Braun picked up a 14-year-old hitchhiker and “attempted immorality” with the young boy.

Police and the boy’s father agreed not to press charges if the church would handle the matter.

In the documents, Braun admits to the church he had taken part in sexual acts with young boys as early as 1956, and that “he could not begin to count the occasions of his sins.” Braun blamed his problems with alcohol for many of the incidents, which typically involved him picking up boys after school.

“[Braun] claims that he can tell by the way they dress and walk, that they are willing subjects,” a document dated November of 1963 reads. “After a brief conversation in the car the arrangements are made. The sinning occurs in the Forest Preserves, or in Fr. B’s car in the wintertime. He is the agressor [sic] and it is sodomy.”

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Bob Susnjara

Documents released by the Archdiocese of Chicago show a now-deceased priest who was pastor of Prince of Peace Parish in Lake Villa molested and took nude photographs of a boy.

Although the archdiocese announced in 2002 that sexual abuse accusations were made against the Rev. Richard Fassbinder, who was 75 at the time, the previously secret files that became available Thursday provided additional details.

For example, the new documents show Fassbinder served another 2½ years as Prince of Peace’s pastor emeritus after acknowledging the sexual relationship, but claiming he didn’t know the boy was a minor when it began in 1974. He lived in a Fox Lake retirement community as pastor emeritus until he died in May 2004.

Archdiocese documents state Fassbinder admitted taking nude photographs of the boy and bringing him to Wisconsin for an overnight trip. However, Fassbinder said in 2001 he destroyed the pictures “years ago.”

Documents show the boy was 16 when Fassbinder started the sexual abuse. Fassbinder said the sexual contact continued for 15 years.

“Father Fassbinder now owns the stupidity this type of behavior manifests,” according to an internal archdiocese report from December 2001 that became public Thursday. “He claims that (the boy) is the only person with whom he had relations.”

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Bob Susnjara

Complaints about a former suburban priest’s sexual abuse of children have been periodically received by the Archdiocese of Chicago since initial allegations became public in 2002, according to documents released Thursday.

Previously secret files on the Rev. James Ray show the most recent claim about him molesting a boy was received by the archdiocese last January. The document states the possible abuse occurred while Ray was associate pastor at Transfiguration Parish in Wauconda from 1989 to 1991.

Other accusations about sexual abuse by Ray against three minors were lodged with the archdiocese in 2013 and 2009. Ray was laicized in January 2012 and no longer is a priest, according to the fresh files.

In 2002, the archdiocese announced Ray was under investigation for sexual misconduct while associate pastor at St. Peter Damian Parish in Bartlett from 1982 to 1989. In 1991, Wauconda parishioners were told Ray was removed because of misconduct at St. Peter Damian.

But the new documents show Ray also was accused of sexually attacking two boys when he was associate pastor at St. Anastasia Parish in Waukegan from 1975 to 1982. Ray was accused of starting the abuse when the boys were 10 and 11 years old.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Christopher Placek

The Rev. Peter Bowman, one-time beloved pastor of St. James Parish in Arlington Heights, faced at least nine allegations of sexual abuse of minors over the course of more than five decades as a priest.

Details of the accusations — of which seven were substantiated by the archdiocese’s review board — were revealed in a 941-page file released Thursday by the archdiocese.

Bowman’s file was one of 36 made available involving priests who have faced “substantiated” allegations of child sexual abuse, according to the archdiocese. Documents on 30 other priests were released in January.

Most of the accusations against Bowman arose after he had been removed from public ministry in 2002. That’s when archdiocese officials first learned of allegations of sexual misconduct with a teenage boy more than 45 years before.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. .Almost 170 pages of long-secret records about Fr. Edward F. Beutner were made available online yesterday at AndersonAdvocates.com. He’s a serial predator priest who worked at St. Louis University in the early 1970s. They show that another alleged victim of his reported abuse just last year. And this morning, thousands of pages of documents on Chicago predator priests are being made available. More than 20 of the clerics involved are still alive. .

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CHICAGO (IL)
El Nuevo Herald

BY POR DON BABWIN Y TAMMY WEBBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
11/06/2014

CHICAGO
Meses después que documentos mostrasen que había ocultado el abuso sexual de niños por sacerdotes durante decenios, la arquidiócesis de Chicago dio a conocer el jueves nueva información sobre una treintena más de clérigos abusadores, en cumplimiento de una promesa del cardenal Francis George de hacerlo antes de retirarse.

“No podemos cambiar el pasado, pero esperamos poder reconstruir la confianza por medio de un diálogo honesto y abierto”, dijo George en una declaración. “El abuso infantil es un crimen y un pecado”.

La arquidiócesis dio a conocer los documentos sobre 30 clérigos abusadores en enero como parte de un acuerdo legal, y el jueves colocó en su portal en internet documentos internos relacionados con otros 35.

En su conjunto, las 15.000 páginas muestran cómo la arquidiócesis lidió con acusaciones de abusos desde inicios de la década de los 1950 hasta recientemente. Los documentos solamente cubren casos en los que la iglesia corroboró las acusaciones de abuso, y no incluyen aquellos en los que el sacerdote falleció antes de que su acusador hablase.

“El cardenal George quería finalizar esto bajo su supervisión”, dijo John O’Malley, asesor legal del arzobispo para asuntos de conducta. O’Malley dijo que George no quería que el obispo Blase Cupich tuviese que lidiar con el asunto cuando asuma el liderato de la tercera mayor arquidiócesis del país este mes.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Nov 06, 2014 By Victoria McMahon

Billy McConville, 48, said the predatory sex beast attacked him twice and threatened to “bury him in the woods” if he told anyone

A son of Disappeared victim Jean McConville has spoken of his hell at being abused by notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

Billy McConville, 48, said the predatory sex beast attacked him twice and threatened to “bury him in the woods” if he told anyone.

The evil child rapist was known to visit Rubane boys’ home in Kircubbin, Co Down and carry out his sick fantasies on terrified victims there.

Mr McConville was sent to the home at the age of six when he was orphaned after his mother Jean McConville had been abducted, killed and secretly buried by the IRA in 1972.

He told the Mirror: “He (Brendan Smyth) got me down the farmyard so he did. He interfered with me down there. I didn’t like it.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

The son of Disappeared victim Jean McConville has waived his right to anonymity to tell the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry about his time at Rubane House.

The boys home in Kircubbin, Co Down, ran by the De La Salle order, is currently being investigated by the abuse Inquiry.

Mrs McConville, a 37-year-old widow and mother of 10 children, was abducted in December 1972 from her flat in the Divis area of west Belfast and shot by the IRA, becoming one of the Disappeared. Her body was recovered on a beach in Co Louth in August 2003.

Her disappearance left the children orphaned, and caused the break-up of the McConville family.

Six-year-old Billy McConville ended up at Rubane House in Kircubbin.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

[with video]

The son of an IRA murder victim has claimed he suffered sexual and physical abuse in care.

Jean McConville was taken from her home in Divis Flats in Belfast in 1972 before being murdered and secretly buried on a beach in County Louth by the IRA.

Her son Billy told the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry he was abused by some De La Salle Brothers and physically abused by a lay teacher in Rubane House in County Down.

He spoke to BBC News NI’s Kevin Sharkey.

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CHICAGO (IL)
The Guardian (UK)

Mark Guarino in Chicago
Thursday 6 November 2014

The archdiocese of Chicago released about 15,000 pages of previously secret files online Thursday in an attempt to provide fuller transparency related to sexual abuse cases by clergy going back several decades.

The documents detail interpersonal communications between victims, the priests and top ranking archdiocese officials. Combined with a first set of files released in January, they represent the most complete picture to date of how the archdiocese handled reports of sexual abuse of minors by 66 of its priests since 1952.

“We are committed to transparency with the people we serve. We cannot change the past but we hope we can rebuild trust through honest and open dialogue. Child abuse is a crime and a sin,” said Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who added the archdiocese is “concerned first and foremost with bringing healing to abuse victims”.

The new documents involve 36 priests, all but 14 of whom are still living and removed from the priesthood. Ninety-two percent of the abuse detailed took place prior to 1988. Half the incidents took place before 1978. The archdiocese says it is aware of 352 incidents of known abuse since 1952.

The documents released in January were made public as part of a settlement agreement with victims. Cardinal George announced then that for the full sake of transparency, he wanted all remaining documents released voluntarily by the end of the year.

Because the statute of limitations has run out for the majority of these incidents, most of the priests who are alive are protected from criminal prosecution. The church however has paid about $130m to settle victim claims using money raised primarily by selling church land. Most of the cases came to light after 2000, as media reports brought national attention on clergy abuse, leading to increased oversight within the church. The Chicago archdiocese points out that it had already developed a system for handling sexual abuse allegations a decade prior.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Would have escaped ‘nightmare’ of abuse if IRA had not killed his mother, says Billy McConville

Gerry Moriarty

Thu, Nov 6, 2014

One of Jean McConville’s sons has told the North’s Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry that he was sexually abused while in care by the notorious paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

Billy McConville, who today waived his right to anonymity, also told the inquiry that he was sexually and physically abused by some De La Salle brothers and also physically abused by a lay teacher in Rubane House in Co Down.

Mr McConville with other members of his family was put into care after his mother was abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the IRA in 1972. One of the ‘Disappeared’ her remains were discovered on a beach in Co Louth in 2003.

Billy McConville said the IRA must also bear responsibility for the “nightmare” of abuse he said he suffered. He told the BBC that if “the IRA hadn’t killed our mother” he wouldn’t have ended up in care and subjected to abuse.

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WISCONSIN
National Catholic Reporter

Marie Rohde | Nov. 6, 2014

In a ruling likely to affect scores of other sex abuse claims in the Milwaukee archdiocese bankruptcy case, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday threw out a claim by a deaf man who said he was assaulted as a teenager because he had agreed earlier to a settlement in mediation.

Lawyers for the man, identified only as John Doe, said the archdiocese had provided false information in getting the man to agree to an $80,000 settlement in 2007. Specifically, he says he was told that his alleged abuser — Fr. Lawrence Murphy, a man accused of abusing hundreds of children over the years — was not known to have a history of sexual misconduct. Later, church documents showed that to be false.

Under Wisconsin law, mediated settlements cannot be reopened by a court even if the settlement was procured based on false statements.

“Although one might contend it is unjust that a person like Doe cannot recover if he was in fact fraudulently induced into signing a settlement agreement, our task is to apply the Wisconsin statute as it is written,” said Ann Claire Williams, writing for the three-judge panel who heard the case.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Charles Keeshan

For nearly 25 years, Rev. William Lupo administered to the religious needs of Catholics in Des Plaines, Arlington Heights and Bartlett.

But according to documents released Thursday by the Archdiocese of Chicago, he spent several of those years under restrictions and monitoring by church leadership, the result of accusations of sexual misconduct involving teenage girls and young women from his time at St. Mary Parish in Des Plaines.

Lupo admitted appearing at least partially nude in front of one girl accidentally, and kissing and hugging others, according to the documents, but repeatedly denied any ill intentions in his behavior.

“I came to understand how my casual attitude toward touch and embracing could be misconstrued,” he wrote in a 1995 letter to church leaders during his time as pastor of St. Peter Damian Parish in Bartlett.

“Believe me, it was never my intention to cause them any harm, but now I know that my behavior was detrimental to them. I deeply regret these behaviors and the hurt I have caused,” he wrote.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Daily Herald

In July 1985, Tom Ventura, vicar of priests for the Archdiocese of Chicago, received a phone call from a young man claiming that as a high school student about five years earlier he had been sexually abused by two priests in the rectory of Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago.

Ventura, according to documents released Thursday by the Archdiocese of Chicago, confronted one of the priests, James Flosi, about the allegations. Flosi, records state, vigorously denied the claims, and the matter was not pursued any further.

It wasn’t until 1991, after Flosi had taken a church-funded sabbatical, served at three other parishes and was blocked from a fourth amid rumors of him being gay, that more accusations surfaced and the Archdiocese took a second look.

What they found, according to church documents, were several allegations of sexual abuse against Flosi dating back more than two decades, including his years at St. Hubert Parish in Hoffman Estates.

By the time the Archdiocese substantiated the accusations in 2006, Flosi had been gone from the priesthood 14 years, declaring in a 1992 letter of resignation that “this is the only way I can continue to share my talents and gifts freely, and accomplish the many goals I have set for myself and to which I still feel called.”

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Inés San Martín
Vatican correspondent November 6, 2014

ROME — An Argentinian diocese announced Wednesday that Pope Francis has defrocked a priest who was criminally convicted of sexually abusing five minors in the country from 2000 to 2005.

The step is seen as significant not only as a sign of the pontiff’s overall resolve with regard to clerical abuse, but also because he’s faced criticism in the past for his response to charges against clergy in his native country.

José Mercau, the now ex-priest who’s serving a 14-year sentence on charges of abuse of minors, had been pastor of the St. John the Baptist Church in the San Isidro diocese on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. He also ran a home for destitute children.

Minors aged 11 to 14 went to the police in 2005 to denounce Mercau, after reporting him to a teacher. After an investigation, Mercau was charged with persistent corruption of minors and indecent assault and rape, and was released pending trial on the condition that he remain in a Benedictine monastery.

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LUXEMBURG
Katholische Kirche

[Complaints, findings and recommendations]

Vom 6. April bis zum 16. Juli 2010 konnten Opfer sexueller und physischer Gewalt die Dienste einer vom Erzbistum Luxemburg eingerichteten Kontaktstelle in Anspruch nehmen. 138 Personen nutzten das Gesprächsangebot, 100 davon klagten über erlittene oder beobachtete Gewalt im Umfeld der Kirche.

Der Abschlussbericht, den die Koordinatoren der Kontaktstelle, Simone und Mill Majerus-Schmit, dem Erzbischof und dem Generalstaatsanwalt am 10. November zukommen ließen, gibt Aufschluss über die Arbeit der Kontaktstelle und liefert Antworten auf Fragen wie: Wer sind die Opfer der Gewalt im kirchlichen Umfeld? Wer hat ihnen Gewalt angetan? Was haben sie erlebt? Wie gehen Sie heute mit dem Erlebten um? Die Auswertung der Gespräche macht etwa die Hälfte des Abschlussberichts aus. Daneben liefert das 141-seitige Dokument u.a. psychologische und juristische Fachbeiträge zum Thema Missbrauch, Auszüge aus den Gesprächsprotokollen und Empfehlungen des Leitungsteams an Kirche und Gesellschaft.

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

Linz – Der Oberste Gerichtshof (OGH) hat die Nichtigkeitsbeschwerde des ehemaligen Konviktsdirektors des Stiftes Kremsmünster zurückgewiesen. Der heute 81-Jährige Pater A. war im Sommer 2013 wegen gewalttätiger und sexueller Übergriffe auf Zöglinge zu zwölf Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. Nun liegt es am Oberlandesgericht Linz endgültig über die Strafhöhe zu entscheiden. Aber auch darüber, ob der 81-Jährige den Privatbeteiligten Schadenersatz bezahlen muss. Sie waren in erster Instanz auf den Zivilrechtsweg verwiesen worden.

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POLONIA
Vatican Insider

[The government of Poland has notified prosecutors in the Dominican Republic of their findings against former Polish priest Wojciech Waldemar Gil, who is accusing of abusing children in both countries.]

Avrebbe abusato di sette ragazzi. Il suo caso è legato a quello dell’ex-nunzio apostolico in Repubblica Dominicana Wesolowski

REDAZIONE
ROMA

Il governo della Polonia ha notificato ai pubblici ministeri della Repubblica Dominicana le conclusioni dell’inchiesta nei confronti dell’ex-sacerdote polacco Wojciech Waldemar Gil, accusato di pedofilia in entrambi i paesi. Lo hanno riferito oggi le autorità dominicane, secondo quanto riferiscono i media locali.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Bustle

LAUREN BARBATO @LAUREN_BARBATO

In an effort to maintain some transparency, the Chicago Archdiocese released files on priest sex abuse on Thursday — the second batch of documents detailing clergy abuse released by the archdiocese this year. The trove of documents contains information on 36 priests who allegedly committed at least one sexual act against a minor. According to the Chicago Archdiocese, the allegations stem as far back as the 1950s, with 98 percent of the crimes occurring before 1992. The archdiocese is calling these “historical claims,” but acknowledges that, yes, allegations of clergy sex abuse are still emerging in Chicago.

The thousands of documents, organized by each clergy, range from court documents and investigation reports to personal letters and work logs. Allegations include forcing a minor to undress in front of a cleric (in the case of former priest Joseph Thomas); making “inappropriate” gestures and advances (former priest Russell Romano); and forcing a male minor to “act out pornographic acts” with a female minor (former priest William Cloutier).

In one particularly disturbing file, a note to Chicago Bishop Raymond Goedert staunchly defended accused priest Thomas Swade, who was defrocked in 1992 after six victims came forward, allegedly they were molested by the priest as minors. Swade was almost reinstated by the archdiocese in the late ’90s.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicagoist

In one of his final acts as the leader of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Cardinal Francis George announced the public release of over 15,000 internal files pertaining to sex abuse allegations against 36 Archdiocesan priests.

George previously ordered the release of more documents in January related to 30 other priests and covers all but two priests who still have ongoing processes that do not permit the release of files. All of the priests listed are out of the ministry—14 are dead—and 92 percent of the incidents revealed in the documents happened prior to 1988.

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CHICAGO (IL)
ABC News

By DON BABWIN and TAMMY WEBBER Associated Press

Months after documents showed it had concealed the sexual abuse of children by priests for decades, the Archdiocese of Chicago released files Thursday on three dozen more abusive clergy members to fulfill Cardinal Francis George’s pledge to do so before he retires.

“We cannot change the past but we hope we can rebuild trust through honest and open dialogue,” George said in a statement released overnight. “Child abuse is a crime and a sin.”

The archdiocese released the files on 30 abusive priests in January as part of a legal settlement, and it posted on its website Thursday the internal records related to 36 others.

Altogether, the 15,000 pages of records show how the archdiocese treated abuse allegations from the early 1950s until recently. They only cover cases in which the archdiocese substantiated the abuse accusations, and don’t include those in which a priest died before his accuser came forward.

“Cardinal George wanted it finished on his watch,” said John O’Malley, special counsel to the archbishop for misconduct issues. O’Malley said George didn’t want Bishop Blase Cupich to have to deal with the issue when he assumes leadership of the nation’s third largest archdiocese later this month.

A report provided by the archdiocese to The Associated Press and other media this week suggested that the documents released Thursday would be similar to those made public in January. Those records described how the archdiocese hid the histories of abusive priests moving between parishes, did not swiftly remove the men from the priesthood, and in some cases helped them remain priests for years after allegations against them were deemed credible.

In one case, for example, a priest who was removed from the ministry after admitting to sexually molesting two boys 19 years earlier was reinstated in 1995 under a set of strict guidelines by then-Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. Bernardin said the priest, John Calicott, posed “no significant risk to children” if he continued therapy.

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VATICAN CITY
9 News

Pope Francis’s financial hatchet man, Australian Cardinal George Pell, has issued Vatican officials with a money managment manual as part of a drive to clean up church finances.

All members of the Vatican bureaucracy will be required to observe the rulebook by January 1.

Pell was brought in by Pope Francis to bring the church’s financial management into line with international accounting standards.

In a letter to staff, Pell wrote that the introduction of the manual would be accompanied by a training program for employees and auditing by external consultants, according to the religious news agency I-media on Thursday.

Francis signalled his determination to make the Vatican’s finances more transparent and less vulnerable to abuse by handing Pell wide-ranging powers as the head of a newly-created Secretariat for the Economy earlier this year.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

In 2011 José Mercau was sentenced to 14 years in prison after he was found guilty of repeatedly corrupting and sexually abusing minors

VATICAN INSIDER STAFF
ROME

Pope Francis has expelled an Argentinian priest sentenced to 14 years in prison for sexually abusing minors when he was parish priest at a church in the Diocese of San Isidro, in northern Buenos Aires. The diocese announced the news in an official statement.

In 2011, Fr. José Mercau was found guilty of repeatedly corrupting and sexually abusing minors after admitting to these crimes and after he was reported by a number of his victims. In 2005 these victims were aged between 11 and 14 years old and lived in Hogar San Juan Diego, a centre for disadvantaged young people in the El Talar area of Buenos Aires.

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CHICAGO (IL)
GlobalPost

By Mary Wisniewski

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago released on Thursday internal files of 36 priests who church officials found had sexually abused children.

The files, which were released online, and other documents released in January show how the archdiocese dealt with abuse allegations during the past six decades, including the practice of moving priests accused of abuse to new parishes.

As part of a mediation agreement, the archdiocese in January released files on 30 former priests accused of abusing minors. Lawyers for victims had said at the time they wanted the archdiocese to release documents on more than 30 other priests.

Thursday’s release, which comes less than two weeks before the retirement of Cardinal Francis George, is the latest in a series of such abuse disclosures by Midwest church officials.

“As we said in January, we are committed to transparency with the people we serve,” George said in the statement. “We cannot change the past but we hope we can rebuild trust through honest and open dialogue. Child abuse is a crime and a sin. The Archdiocese of Chicago is concerned first and foremost with bringing healing to abuse victims.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

By Paul Peirce
Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014

A Somerset County priest accused of sexually abusing an orphaned boy in Honduras will remain in jail while a federal prosecutor appeals a magistrate’s ruling that would allow the suspended priest to await trial under home detention.

U.S. Magistrate Keith Pesto ruled in Johnstown Thursday that the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr., 69, the suspended priest from Our Lady Queen of Angels in Central City, Somerset County, could be released from the Cambria County Jail to await trial.

But Maurizio will stay there for now because Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Haines said she would appeal Pesto’s decision to U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson in an effort to detain the suspect.

A federal indictment accuses Maurizio of traveling to Honduras between Feb. 26 and March 13, 2009, to have sex with an underage boy. He is charged with engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places and possession of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor.

The indictment alleges he had at least one image of child pornography in his possession on Sept. 12, the day federal agents executed search warrants at his Windber home and his parish rectory.

Pesto ruled that Maurizio could await trial under home detention if all his personal bank accounts were frozen and his access was cut off from church accounts. The suspended priest, who owns a farm, would have been denied Internet access.

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CHILE
National Catholic Reporter

Melinda Henneberger | Nov. 6, 2014

SANTIAGO, CHILE Officials in Santiago, Chile, are investigating a series of cases in which newborn babies were purportedly stolen from the poor and given to the rich over many years’ time, mostly in the 1970s through the ’90s. At least half a dozen Catholic sisters and one of the country’s most popular priests have been implicated in these long-hidden crimes. The following article is the second in a three-part series that looks at how this appropriation of children happened, and how it stayed secret for so long. Read part one.

Today, 77-year-old Fr. Gerardo Joannon lives in semi-seclusion, suspended from his parish work and expected to refrain from speaking publicly while the state investigates possible charges against him under human rights law that has no statute of limitations.

His order, the Congregation of the Sacred Heart, has already concluded, according to a statement issued by its provincial, that in 1975 and 1983, he helped arrange illegal adoptions for teenage girls from prominent families. He led the girls, his provincial said, to believe that their newborn children had died.

The probe also found that Joannon had said a funeral Mass for one of those children, and a Mass in her memory every year for 25 years. The order also said he had had an “inappropriate relationship” with that child’s mother.

Finally, it concluded that his stated motivation — to “prevent abortions” — doesn’t hold up. Initially, his superiors wanted to ship him off to Spain for two years of prayer and reflection, but civil authorities thought that sounded a little too much like a vacation, or an escape route, and barred him from leaving the country for now.

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Though Joannon has denied all wrongdoing, his provincial, Alex Vigueras Cherres, apologized not only to the families involved, but to the faithful, “because we didn’t act when we had the first evidence, because we doubted the truth of the evidence and because our mistake profoundly deepened and prolonged their pain.”

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IOWA
The Catholic Globe

By JOANNE FOX
joannef@scdiocese.org

Investigating the compliance of a diocese with practices that will prevent child abuse is probably not a job with a lot of warm fuzzies.

But Greg Simmons and Jim Leisner from Rochester, N.Y., insist their Catholic faith has been enhanced and empowered by their findings.

The two auditors from StoneBridge Business Partners – the business firm the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has chosen to perform safe environment audits – visited the Diocese of Sioux City from Oct. 28-30.

The two men conducted on-site interviews with several parishes, schools, Diocesan Review Board members (the committee which investigates abuse claims) and Bishop Walker Nickless to insure compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (Dallas Charter).

According to Colleen Sulsberger, coordinator of the Office of Safe Environment for the diocese, what’s unusual about this is Bishop Nickless is one of only 26 U.S. bishops who have authorized parish and school audits this year.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Nov. 6 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, davidgclohessy@gmail.com )

Every time clergy sex crimes and cover ups are discussed, kids are safer. But for an institution to hide these records for decades or years – leaving police, prosecutors, parents, parishioners and the public in the dark, and leaving kids in harms’ way – is stunningly irresponsible.

This information could and should have been revealed years ago. Lives could have been saved. Crimes could have been prevented. Families could have been preserved. Instead, Cardinal Francis George and dozens of his clerical colleagues have, for years, opted to put their reputations and comfort

It’s as if Catholic officials thought, for years, that “Our job is to protect ourselves from lawsuits. So we’ll yank these dangerous men from parishes. But that’s all we’ll do. And whoever they molest next, that’s not our concern.”

Today’s belated, grudging and partial disclosure should be seen in this context.

Church officials harp on healing. But healing is secondary. Prevention is primary. Yet Catholic officials never talk about prevention. They want us to believe that all of this is “in the past.” It’s not.

Of these 36 men, 21 who are too dangerous to have in Catholic parishes now live among unsuspecting neighbors. Some of them babysat kids last night or tutored kids this morning or will coach kids this afternoon.

But Catholic officials are apparently content with this. Otherwise, they would release the addresses of these men, provide their photos and beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police and prosecutors.

But they’d rather lull us all into believing the threat has passed. It hasn’t.

The issue now is what will Cupich and George do about these 21 living offenders: Richard B. Bartz, Leonard A. Bogdan, Daniel P. Buck, John W. Calicott, Walter G. DeRoeck, James V. Flosi, Robert D. Friese, Jesus P. Garza, John E. Hefferan, James Hoder, Michael J. Hogan, Walter E. Huppenbauer, Robert L. Kealy, John J. Keehan, John J. Keough, William L. Lupo, Robert J. McDonald, Peter J. McNamara, Gary M. Miller, James M. Ray, John A. Robinson, and John F. Rohrich.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Raphael Vassallo 6 November 2014

Reading reports of the situation involving Fr Charles Fenech reminds me of the South American soap operas to which my late grandmother was addicted – ‘Quando Si Ama’, ‘Sentieri’, that sort of thing – only with an added dose of Miley Cyrus-style pornography that my late grandmother would certainly not have appreciated one tiny bit.

In fact, I sometimes wonder how people like her would react to the details now emerging from this case. My grandparents – all four of whom were nothing if not totally devoted to the Catholic Church – all passed away long before the first scandal rocked that institution to its foundations.

They were not around to see the aftermath of the Dar San Guzepp scandal, which resulted in two priests incarcerated in 2011 for abuse of minors. They also missed out on the divorce referendum in the same year, which – though unrelated to any particular scandal – graphically underscored a chasm that had opened up between their beloved Church and the rest of the population.

But surely there must still be people out there – many thousands, in fact – whose attitude towards the Church and all that it represents is identical to that of my grandparents’ entire generation. It was an attitude which regarded obedience to the Church as a virtue in itself, and which (as I discovered on the rare attempts I bothered trying) would brook absolutely no question of the same Church’s moral authority in all matters: be they spiritual or temporal.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet

Published on November 06, 2014

A St. John’s lawyer representing a Newfoundland and Labrador woman will be in court Friday to seek permission to proceed with a Jane Doe sex-abuse case against a former minister and his one-time employer, the United Church of Canada.

The woman — who is seeking the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador’s permission to keep her name and small community from being identified in the proceedings — was not among the 11 children involved in criminal cases against Stephen James Collins, who was a minister and later doctor in various communities and was convicted in the 1980s.

The woman’s lawyer, William Hiscock of Budden and Associates, said after she contacted the United Church about what she claims happened, she felt the only way to get a sense of justice and closure was to launch a civil action.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Hartlepool Mail

A Roman Catholic official has expressed regret and sorrow that a primary school teacher from County Durham was able to sexually abuse children for more than a decade.

Several parents and one of his young victims made complaints about Ronald Wotton’s behaviour in classes to the head teacher of the Roman Catholic primary school, but they were not believed.

The head explained the behaviour was just the paedophile teacher’s way of being “friendly”, and the girl who came forward was told she had to apologise to him, in class.

Wotton was allowed to retire when a new head took over in 1980, following a discussion with the parish priest, amid concerns about the mounting allegations. He was able to claim his deafness was the reason for leaving.

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CHICAGO (IL)
San Francisco Chronicle

DON BABWIN AND TAMMY WEBBER, ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO (AP) — The Archdiocese of Chicago has released thousands of pages of internal documents pertaining to how it dealt with allegations of child sexual abuse by 35 priests going back decades.

The archdiocese posted the documents on its website Thursday. They’re in addition to records related to 30 other abusive priests that it released as part of a legal settlement in January, when the archdiocese revealed it had concealed the abuse decades.

Cardinal Francis George had pledged to release the records before he retires later this month. His office says he didn’t want to leave the matter to his successor, Bishop Blase Cupich (BLAYZ’ SOO’-pihch).

The documents detail more than 350 incidents of abuse since 1952. Most occurred decades ago and none involved active priests.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

The Archdiocese of Chicago released documents Thursday morning relating to 36 priests with substantiated sexual abuse allegations against them.

The documents, comprising about 15,000 pages of information about the 36 priests, were posted to the archdiocese website at 9 a.m.

RELATED: Documents on Archdiocese of Chicago website

Thursday’s release, in addition to documents about 30 other priests that were released in January, will cover all but two priests currently listed on the archdiocese website as having substantiated sex abuse allegations against them, the archdiocese said. The two priests not included are involved in ongoing processes that do not permit the release of documents.

“As we said in January, we are committed to transparency with the people we serve,” Cardinal Francis George said in the statement. “We cannot change the past but we hope we can rebuild trust through honest and open dialogue.”

The archdiocese followed a document review process designed to protect victim privacy to determine which documents could be released, according to the statement.

All of the priests detailed in the documents are out of ministry, and 14 of them are deceased, according to the archdiocese. Most of the cases included in the documents involve incidents before 1988.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Christine Schenk | Nov. 6, 2014

As I sat listening to Jennifer Haselberger accept FutureChurch’s Fr. Louis J. Trivison Award on Sept. 19, I couldn’t help but reflect how proud Father Louie would have been.

Jennifer is a canon lawyer and the whistleblowing former chancellor of the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese. She resigned in 2013 after Archbishop John Nienstedt refused to take seriously her findings of an intentional cover-up of clergy sex abuse by archdiocesan officials. She hoped her resignation would “prompt an external investigation and lead to internal changes.” When that failed to materialize, she collaborated with Minnesota Public Radio in a pivotal, and unprecedented, exposé of the archdiocese’s callous mishandling of sexual misconduct by clergy.

“For me, the decision to go public was an easy one,” she said. “After years of feeling embarrassed by the contradictions between the archdiocese’s external positions and internal actions, I wanted to be able to look the people in my community in the eye again.”

As Jennifer spoke of the horrendous events still unfolding in St. Paul-Minneapolis, I recognized the all-too-familiar gut-punch Minnesota Catholics are now enduring as they cope with daily reports of betrayal by bishops and priests they had formerly admired.

We went through this in Cleveland beginning in 2002. Father Louie, along with many other Cleveland priests, was devastated when news of our own diocese’s cover-up of clergy sex abuse came to light. To address the crisis, Louie helped organize a special diocesewide accountability coalition of lay leaders that met regularly for over two years. He rarely missed a meeting.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CLTV

The Chicago Archdiocese opened the books on sexual abuse by 36 priests Monday morning.

At 9 a.m., decades of internal church files were posted on the archdiocese website.

They involve the confirmed abuse of hundreds of children since 1950.

The document release comes, less than two weeks before the retirement of Francis Cardinal George.

Files on 27 other local priests were released in January.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago

2014 Document Publication

The Archdiocese of Chicago has voluntarily released documents related to 36 Archdiocesan priests who have at least one substantiated allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor. These documents are in addition to those released in January on 30 other priests. This release, together with the January release, covers priests who have substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct with minors identified on the Archdiocese’s website as of November 2014. Documents pertaining to two priests, former Rev. Daniel J. McCormack and Rev. Edward J. Maloney, are not included, due to ongoing processes that do not permit release.

A thorough document review process was used to prepare documents for release. It was designed to protect victim privacy, comply with legal restrictions against publishing mental health and medical information and protect the privacy of third parties mentioned in the documents but not involved in the abuse. Nothing was redacted or removed to conceal the identity of abusers.

None of these priests are currently in ministry. Explanatory materials concerning the long term record of the Archdiocese in responding to priest sexual abuse may be found here.

Inquiries may be directed to the Office of the Protection of Children and Youth, Archdiocese of Chicago, PO Box 1979, Chicago, IL 60690; (312) 534-5254.

Name

Baranowski, Alexander Sylvester
Bartz, Richard Barry
Becker, Robert Charles
Bennett, Joseph R.
Bogdan, Leonard Adolph
Bowman, Robert Peter
Braun, David Francis
Brigham, Kenneth
Buck, Daniel Peter
Burns, Eugene Patrick
Calicott, John Walter
Cloutier, William J.
Craig, Robert
Curran, John William
Czajka, Norman J.
DeRoeck, Walter George
Dilla, Francis Emil
Fassbinder, Richard Wayne
Fitzharris, Joseph L.
Flosi, James Vincent
Friese, Robert
Garza, Jesus P.
Hagan, James Craig
Hefferan, John Edward
Hoder, James
Hogan, Michael J.
Holihan, Daniel Mark
Huppenbauer, Walter Edward
Job, Thomas
Kealy, Robert Louis
Keehan, John James
Kelly, Thomas
Keough, John Joseph
Kissane, Joseph Patrick
Kmak, Leonard Paul
Lupo, William L.
Maday, Norbert J.
Maloney, Edward
Mayer, Robert E.
McCaffrey, Vincent
McCormack, Daniel J.
McDonald, Robert Joseph
McNamara, Peter John
Miller, Gary M.
Mulsoff, Donald John
O’Brien, William John
Owens, Joseph
Pallikunnen, Emmanuel
Ray, James M.
Robinson, John Allen
Rohrich, John F.
Romano, Russell Lawrence
Ruge, Kenneth Charles
Savage, Joseph E.
Skriba, Raymond Francis
Snieg, Marion Joseph
Steel, James R.
Stewart, Victor E.
Strand, Ralph S.
Swade, Thomas J.
Swider, Henry Peter
Tanghal, Albert
Theisen, Richard Gregory
Thomas, Joseph S.
Turlo, Walter Joseph
Ulatowski, Donald Francis
Vader, Anthony Joseph
Weston, Michael Howard

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler | Nov 05, 2014

“Does Pope Francis have an enemies list?” That’s the eye-catching headline on John Allen’s column for the Crux site. Allen notes that three bishops have recently placed under scrutiny by the Vatican: Bishops Rogelio Livieres Plano in Paraguay, Mario Oliveri in Italy, and Robert Finn in Kansas City. (He might have added Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, who was denounced as the “bishop of bling” and hurried into resignation in Germany.) Is it a coincidence that the bishops who are under the gun are all distinctly conservative?

Add the disciplinary crackdown on the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, and the unmistakable loss of influence by two prominent prelates in the Roman Curia (Cardinals Mauro Piacenza and Raymond Burke), and an overall trend seems clear.

There are two logical explanations for this trend, Allen remarks. One is that the Vatican under Pope Francis is conducting a sort of purge of conservative bishops. The other is that the Pope is determined to carry out a program of reform, and “is responding to reported breakdowns as they occur without really paying attention to the politics of the people involved.” But if it’s the latter, Allen writes, the Holy Father might want to explain, and in the process reassure conservatives who now feel nervous about the Pope’s intentions.

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AUSTRIA
The local

Austria’s High Court has rejected an appeal by the former head of a Catholic boarding school run by Kremsmünster Abbey who was found guilty of child abuse.

The defrocked priest, 81-year-old August Mandorfer, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2013 for 24 cases of child abuse and sexual violence at the school in Upper Austria.

Mandorfer, known as Father Alfons, was charged with sexually abusing 15 children whilst head of the school. He was also accused of torturing and neglecting young boys under his care between 1973 and 1993.

A search at the monastery in 2010 revealed that Mandorfer owned a pump-action shotgun amongst other weapons.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) – The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago was scheduled to release thousands of pages of internal documents tied to 36 priests who sexually abused children.

It will be the second time this year the church has made public secret files regarding substantiated allegations of sex abuse by clergy. In January, the archdiocese released approximately 6,000 pages of documents detailing what it knows about decades of sex abuse allegations against 30 other priests.

At 9 a.m., the church will release 15,000 more pages of documents, showing how it handled allegations against 36 priests. The vast majority of the cases happened before 1988, according to the archdiocese. In some cases, the allegations date back more than 60 years. The documents will be posted on the Archdiocesan website, www.archchicago.org.

“As we said in January, we are committed to transparency with the people we serve,” Cardinal Francis George said in a written statement. “We cannot change the past but we hope we can rebuild trust through honest and open dialogue. Child abuse is a crime and a sin. The Archdiocese of Chicago is concerned first and foremost with bringing healing to abuse victims.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago

Documents Related to 36 Priests will be Posted on Archdiocesan Website at 9 a.m. on November 6
Chicago, November 5, 2014 – The Archdiocese of Chicago will release documents on Thursday, November 6, at 9 a.m., related to 36 Archdiocesan priests who have substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct with minors, all of whom have been listed on the Archdiocese’s website for years. The documents will be posted on the Archdiocesan website, www.archchicago.org.

The documents are in addition to those released in January related to 30 other priests. The release, in combination with the January release, covers all the priests who have substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct with minors identified on the Archdiocese’s website, with the exception of two priests where ongoing processes do not permit release. All of the documents relate to incidents that date back many years, and in many cases, decades. No priest with even one substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor serves in ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago today.

“As we said in January, we are committed to transparency with the people we serve,” said Francis Cardinal George, OMI. “We cannot change the past but we hope we can rebuild trust through honest and open dialogue. Child abuse is a crime and a sin. The Archdiocese of Chicago is concerned first and foremost with bringing healing to abuse victims.”

The Archdiocese followed a thorough document review process to determine which documents could be released. It was designed to protect victim privacy, comply with legal restrictions against publishing mental health and medical information and protect the privacy of third parties mentioned in the documents, but not involved in the abuse. Nothing was redacted or removed to conceal the identity of abusers. This process resulted in the release of approximately 15,000 pages of material on the 36 priests.

Ninety-two percent of the cases included in the documents occurred prior to 1988. Additionally, all of the priests involved in this document release are out of ministry and 14 are deceased.

The Archdiocese of Chicago is in full compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, adopted by the U.S. Bishops in Dallas in June 2002. The Charter requires that no priest with even one substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor can serve in public ministry. The Archdiocese of Chicago refers all reports of sexual abuse immediately to civil authorities. The Archdiocese’s Independent Review Board examines the findings of all investigations and makes recommendations to the Archbishop regarding fitness for ministry and safety of children.

The Archdiocese encourages anyone who has been sexually abused by a priest, deacon, religious or lay employee, to come forward. Complete information about reporting sexual abuse can be found on the Archdiocesan website at www.archchicago.org/departments/protection/protection.shtm.

About the Document Release

The documents, which will be posted on the Archdiocese’s website at 9 a.m. on November 6, concern the following priests, all of whom are out of ministry and 14 are deceased:

Alexander S. Baranowski*
Richard B. Bartz
Leonard A. Bogdan
R. Peter Bowman*
David F. Braun*
Daniel P. Buck
Eugene P. Burns*
John W. Calicott
Norman J. Czajka*
Walter G. DeRoeck
Francis E. Dilla*
Richard W. Fassbinder*
James V. Flosi
Robert D. Friese
Jesus P. Garza
John E. Hefferan
James Hoder
Michael J. Hogan
Walter E. Huppenbauer
Robert L. Kealy
John J. Keehan
John J. Keough
Leonard P. Kmak*
William L. Lupo
Robert J. McDonald
Peter J. McNamara
Gary M. Miller
Donald J. Mulsoff*
James M. Ray
John A. Robinson
John F. Rohrich
Joseph E. Savage*
Albert(o) Tanghal*
Richard G. Theisen*
Joseph S. Thomas*
Anthony J. Vader*
*Deceased

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ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires Herald

By Luciana Bertoia
Herald Staff

Grandmothers president says organization was wrong to question role during dictatorship

The years of mistrust between the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo and Jorge Bergoglio — now Pope Francis — seem to be a thing of the past now.

On a visit to the Vatican alongside her recently-recovered grandson, Grandmothers leader Estela Barnes de Carlotto said that “Francis’ tenure in the Vatican has proven that reports against him for his role during the dictatorship were mistaken.”

The head of the association founded in 1977 also seemed to want to bury the hatchet: “ We rectify ourselves.”

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MINNESOTA
The Tablet (UK)

06 November 2014 by Sarah Mac Donald

An American parish priest has refused a request from his archbishop to cancel or change the venue of a talk by the pro-reform Irish priest, Fr Tony Flannery.

Fr Mike Tegeder of the parish of St Frances Cabrini in central Minneapolis was summoned to a meeting by Archbishop John Nienstedt of St Paul and Minneapolis, who asked that the venue of Fr Flannery’s talk be changed from the parish to a non-Catholic location.

Writing on the parish website, Fr Tegeder said the archbishop wanted a change of venue so as “not to cause scandal”. He also said that Archbishop Nienstedt described the Irish priest as “not a Catholic”.

During the 30-minute meeting with the archbishop, Fr Tegeder said he pointed out that Fr Flannery is a Catholic of good standing and has been, and remains, a member of the Redemptorist order for more than 40 years.

“To say he is not Catholic is to suggest he has been excommunicated, which is not the case, and in fact is a defamatory statement,” Fr Tegeder said, adding that he queried what scandal could be caused by adult Catholics having a discussion about “needed church reform”.

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MINNESOTA
St. Frances Cabrini Church

November 2, 2014

A MESS IN OUR ARCHDIOCESE With CTA-MN and CCCR we are preparing for Redemptorist Tony Flannery’s visit here this Wednesday, November 5. I invite you to the 7 pm gathering with Tony. You might want to google his name to read about his faith journey. Also, as we will have visitors, could Cabriniites please park in the overflow parking lot on Franklin.

Actually, last Wednesday I met with Archbishop Nienstedt over Tony’s visit. At the meeting the Archbishop requested that we change Tony’s venue to a non-Catholic location. It was amazing that in the week when Minnesota Public Radio had two stories on the Archbishop’s own doubtful statements in his deposition about sexual abuse, he is now trying to prevent adult Catholics from openly discussing the need for reform in our church. Thank God for Pope Francis who, in a speech at the closing of the recent Synod on the Family, said “Personally I would have been very worried and saddened if there hadn’t been these … animated discussions … or if everyone had been in agreement or silent in a false and acquiescent peace.”

My meeting with the Archbishop lasted about 30 minutes. The interesting thing was that with the marriage amendment two years ago he ordered me to stop publicly opposing it or he would take away my faculties to function as a priest and remove me from the parish, and in the past when I invited speakers co-sponsored by CTA-MN (Call to Action Minnesota) or CCCR (Catholics Concerned for Church Reform), I was told not to have any association with them or, again, be removed from ministry. But today he only asked that I change the venue of the talk. I guess it is kosher to associate with Flannery, just not on Archdiocesan property. This is progress.

He wanted the change of venue so as “not to cause scandal” but he was not able to explain the scandal of adult Catholics having a discussion about needed church reform. Indeed, I pointed out that the very issues Flannery raises are those discussed by the bishops and Cardinals at the Synod on the Family last week: if these issues can be raised in the Vatican, they can be talked about in a small, little parish in south Minneapolis.

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AUSTRALIA
The Conversation

Marcus Waters
Lecturer, School of Humanities at Griffith University

I have seen firsthand how child sexual abuse is rife in every part of the Australian community – but only sometimes is that abuse reported in full colour.

It probably won’t surprise you if I say that I’ve had to deal with significant sexual violence and trauma within my Aboriginal family. But that’s also been true within my non-Indigenous family.

So why is it so common to see headlines about “Indigenous sex abuse” – and so rare to see the same language used about white abusers?

A common face of abuse

The Royal Commission on institutionalised child sex abuse is shining a light on dark corners of systematic abuse of Australian kids over many generations. In the vast majority of the terrible cases we’ve heard about, the perpetrators and those who protected them have been seemingly upstanding, often senior, male community leaders.

Old white men, in other words.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Suzanne Moore

Child abuse used to happen in the past. It is terrible. We should investigate it. But we can’t find anyone to be in charge of such an investigation who doesn’t know some of the people who could be possibly be accused of it.

Does this make sense to anyone? It is neither true, nor justifiable in any way whatsoever, but this is the nub of what Theresa May told the House of Commons this week. May appears to have a massive deflection shield. She escaped much criticism for the fact that the passport office was in a complete mess, though she had been warned about it. And now, having announced in July an inquiry into the allegations of historic sex abuse, both of those chosen to lead the inquiry have had to resign: Elizabeth Butler-Sloss and Fiona Woolf.

Butler–Sloss is the sister of Sir Michael Havers, who was the attorney general at the time both the police and CPS failed to investigate allegations of serious abuse. Fiona Woolf (pictured) was then appointed – but she hangs out with Leon Brittan, who it is said did not act when given the dossier about alleged child abuse.

So the inquiry, which is wide-reaching, is as useful as a headless chicken while survivors complain they are still not being listened to.

The key thing May said in her “apology” is that the public is concerned that in the 1980s, the Home Office did not act on allegations of sexual abuse. How concerned are we if nothing is happening? We are talking about institutional failure on a grand scale here, and what we are witnessing is the establishment telling us it is virtually impossible to find one person, professionally qualified, to lead an inquiry who is not already connected to the institution or individuals being investigated.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: CHAO XIONG , Star Tribune Updated: November 5, 2014

The historic settlement in October has not applied to other dioceses in the state.
l
A landmark settlement last month in a clergy sex abuse lawsuit that set protocols for disclosure of claims hasn’t ended all the legal battles over the public release and publication of church information.

The settlement between Doe 1 and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona didn’t include other dioceses, which continue to face clergy sex abuse lawsuits in courtrooms across Minnesota.

On Wednesday, the Diocese of New Ulm, the Diocese of Duluth and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate asked Ramsey County District Judge John Guthmann to grant a protective order to keep some of an accused priest’s personal information from public view.

The defendants, who are named in a suit filed by Doe 30, a former altar boy, said they aren’t trying to keep Doe 30’s attorneys from obtaining the information; they said some sensitive information — medical and financial details, among others — should be kept from publication on the attorney’s website and from being disclosed to the media.

“There’s nothing they can’t do with the file for the purpose of this litigation,” said Andrew Shern, an attorney for the Oblates.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

Judge lowers cash bail to $50,000 for suspended Bangor priest charged with possession of child pornography

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted Nov. 05, 2014

BANGOR, Maine — The suspended Greek Orthodox priest arrested in September on charges that he allegedly possessed child pornography and surreptitiously photographed a woman taking a shower in his bathroom remained Wednesday night at the Penobscot County Jail even though a judge lowered his bail earlier in the day.

Superior Court Justice Ann Murray set bail for Adam Metropoulos, 52, of Bangor at $50,000 cash or $100,000 surety, according to the Penobscot County district attorney’s office. In September, District Court Judge John Lucy set bail at $100,000 cash or surety.

Murray lowered the amount of cash bail at the request of Metropoulos’ attorney, Marvin Glazier of Bangor.

Metropoulos owns property in the Millinocket area, according to a previously published report.

Metropoulos has been held at the jail in Bangor since his arrest Sept. 15, when he was charged with one count each of possession of sexually explicit material, a Class C crime, and violation of privacy, a Class D crime.

He has not entered pleas to those charges because he has not yet been indicted by the Penobscot County grand jury.

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CANADA
The Record

KINGSTON, Ont. — Police in Kingston, Ont., say a retired priest is facing fresh charges related to alleged sexual assaults stretching back to the 1980s.

They say Robin Gwyn, 66, was arrested in his home province of Nova Scotia on Sept. 18 and transported to Kingston four days later.

He was originally charged with sexual assault, sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching in relation to a case involving one victim.

But, police say after Gwyn was granted bail, detectives had a second alleged victim come forward providing police with reasonable grounds to believe further historic offences had occurred.

On Wednesday, nine additional counts of sexual assault were laid, but Gwyn’s bail was extended by the court on strict conditions.

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CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago

Months after revealing it had concealed for decades the sexual abuse of children by local priests, the Archdiocese of Chicago said it will on Thursday release files about dozens more abusive clergy to fulfill Cardinal Francis George’s vow to make them public before he retires.

The 15,000 pages of documents outline how the archdiocese dealt with priests against whom allegations of abuse were substantiated over the last six decades, including 30 priests whose files were opened in January. Files about the remaining 36 priests are scheduled to be put on the archdiocese website at 9 a.m. Thursday.

“Cardinal George wanted it finished on his watch,” said John O’Malley, special counsel to the archbishop for misconduct issues. O’Malley said George didn’t want Bishop Blase Cupich to have to deal with the issue when he assumes leadership of the nation’s third largest archdiocese later this month.

All of the priests named in the upcoming documents are out of the ministry. Fourteen of them have passed away.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Christy Gutowski and Todd Lighty,
Chicago Tribune

The Archdiocese of Chicago was set to release Thursday internal files of 36 priests who church officials determined had sexually abused children, a move Cardinal Francis George hopes will show he has been transparent about one of the most disturbing chapters in the Roman Catholic Church’s history.

The release of the once-secret priest files is one of George’s last acts as he prepares for retirement in less than two weeks and is part of an effort by the archdiocese to put the long-running scandal behind it.

Together with documents on more than two dozen priests released in January, the new files represent the archdiocese’s fullest public accounting of 63 of its priests who church officials found abused 352 children since 1950. The archdiocese has paid about $130 million to settle claims by victims, money raised largely through borrowing and selling church land.

The January files, made public as part of a settlement with victims, provided fresh details into how, for decades, the nation’s third-largest archdiocese quietly transferred accused priests from parish to parish, and how church officials failed to tell law enforcement about accusations that priests had sexually abused boys and girls.

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WEST VIRGINIA
WSAZ

CHARLESTON, W.Va (WSAZ) — A child molester has been sentenced to 2 to 10 years in prison.

Christopher Winnell was sentenced Wednesday on several counts of sexual abuse by a parent.

Winnell plead guilty back in August to molesting three boys who were close family members.

The abuse happened more than 25 years ago in Sissonville.

Winnell has been a pastor at several churches in the area.

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MINNESOTA
Mankato Free Press

NEW ULM — Six priests who worked in the Diocese of New Ulm are among 24 whose files were released by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Wednesday because they had substantiated claims of child sexual abuse against them.

Any files those six priests have in New Ulm are not included in the release because the Diocese of New Ulm is the only one in the state that has refused to release its list of priests credibly acused of molestation. The lists were created during an investigation the Catholic Church was doing related to abusive priests.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn.

Nov 5, 2014

Church documents released Wednesday show that Archbishop John Nienstedt gave a false statement under oath about his knowledge of the Rev. Michael Stevens’ criminal conviction for sexually assaulting a child.

Nienstedt had testified as part of a lawsuit in April that he did not know that Stevens had pleaded guilty in the 1980s to child sex abuse while an associate priest at the Church of the Epiphany in Coon Rapids. However, documents from the archdiocese’s file on Stevens show that a chancery official reminded Nienstedt of Stevens’ criminal history every year. They include five documents signed by Nienstedt from 2009 to 2013 that indicated he received yearly reports on Stevens and that he approved of the priest’s monitoring plan.

MPR News has previously reported that Nienstedt made two other false statements during the April 2, 2014 deposition. Nienstedt testified falsely that he had only recently learned of the criminal conviction of the Rev. Gilbert Gustafson.

He also testified inaccurately that he did not know until recently that the Rev. Kenneth LaVan had remained in ministry. LaVan has been accused of sexually abusing children, a charge he denies.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC/POLAND
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- Warsaw’s Regional Office of the Prosecutor communicated the conclusion of the investigation against Polish national Wojciech Gil (Padre Alberto) to its Dominican counterpart, with the indictment unsealed by Wolomin First Instance Court.

Gil is charged in connection with the alleged sexual abuse of at least six boys in the highland town Juncalito, northern Santiago province.

Santiago province prosecutor Luisa Liranzo remitted a missive from Warsaw deputy prosecutor Malgorzata Adamajtys, to Dominican Justice minister Francisco Dominguez, noting that Gil was charged with violating Polish laws.

The Polish authorities said they’ll soon inform Dominican officials of the date and place of the hearing against the accused.

The Dominican and Polish governments have affirmed that they’ll work to obtain a conviction based on the Principle of International Legal Cooperation, despite the absence of an extradition treaty.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Salem News

BY JULIE MANGANIS STAFF WRITER

IPSWICH — It’s been more than three decades, but the memories still come in what a prosecutor described as sharp little pieces: the sudden, unexpected kiss during a visit to the priest’s office, the nights he was woken and led to an office and forced to sit on the priest’s lap, the physical pain and emotional confusion.

The Rev. Richard McCormick told the boy that it was all an expression of love, his accuser told a Lawrence Superior Court jury Wednesday. The man he knew only as “Father Dick” told him “the church loves you, I love you, we’re one big family,” his accuser, now a 44-year-old man, testified.

McCormick, 73, is charged with five counts of child rape in incidents dating back to the early 1980s, though the timeline has grown muddy, partly due to the way the accuser now recalls the incidents, out of sequence in short vignettes, and partly due to confusion stemming from a therapist’s notes that suggested the abuse started as early as 1979.

It’s that confusion over the timeline — whether the abuse started in 1979, when the accuser was 9, or in 1981, when he was 11 — that McCormick’s lawyer is pointing to when urging a jury to conclude that it was not McCormick who abused the boy.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Daily Herald

Christopher Placek

The archdiocese of Chicago is set to release documents this morning that detail instances of child sex abuse by 36 priests going back decades.

The documents are expected to reveal information tied to at least a dozen priests who were assigned to parishes throughout the suburbs of Cook and Lake counties. In some cases, the instances of abuse took place at those parishes; in others, priests were assigned to parishes years after the abuse occurred.

The files represent about a quarter of the 352 abuse cases — going back to the early 1950s — that the archdiocese says are “substantiated” allegations of child sexual abuse.

The documents will be available online at 9 a.m. at the archdiocese’s website, archchicago.org.

The release of the files follows the archdiocese’s earlier release of more than 6,000 pages of internal communications in January involving 30 priests accused of sexually abusing children. Those files were made available to the public pursuant to a 2006 mediation agreement with attorney Jeff Anderson, who has represented victims abused by priests.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Hartlepool Mail

Primary school pupils in County Durham made themselves sick with washing up liquid to try to avoid lessons with a teacher who sexually abused them in front of the whole class, a court has heard.

When one child complained about Ronald Wotton, the headteacher at the Roman Catholic school did not believe the allegation and made the pupil apologise to the abuser.

Judge Howard Crowson, sitting at Teesside Crown Court, jailed the terminally-ill 73-year-old for five years.

Wotton, who uses a wheelchair, admitted 17 counts of indecent assault, three counts of indecency with a male and one of indecency with a child over a 12-year period from the late 1960s.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Thursday, November 6, 2014, 00:01 by Caroline Muscat

The provincial of the Maltese Dominican friars is refusing to answer Times of Malta questions on allegations of sexual abuse by one of its priests, Fr Charles Fenech. This newspaper has been chasing Fr Frans Micallef since last Friday, after the Order issued a statement saying it had repeatedly “warned” him and taken “steps” against Fr Fenech.

Fr Micallef’s curt reply was that he expected the statement he made last week to be published in full, and as it was not, he had nothing else to add. The statement was published on the front page of Times of Malta last Friday.

He said yesterday: “On October 30, I released an official statement on behalf of the Maltese Dominican friars about the case. I expected everyone to publish it as it was, in its entirety.

“Instead, everyone [the media] took what they wanted, twisted it and gave it their own interpretation. Considering this behaviour by the media, I am refusing to answer questions or add anything else.”

In the statement, the Order named Fr Fenech, 54, as the priest from Rabat at the centre of the allegations, saying it wanted to tell the public that he had been stopped from practising as a priest and had been removed as director of the Kerygma Movement.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Thu, Nov 6, 2014

Spanish priest Fr Pablo d’Ors, a consultant to the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture, yesterday said he was “absolutely” in favour of opening up the priesthood to women.

Speaking in a candid tone that appears to take its cue from the frank debate at the recent Synod of Bishops, Fr d’Ors told Italian daily La Repubblica: “Am I in favour [of the ordination of women]?

Absolutely, and I am not the only one. The reasoning which claims that women cannot become priests because Jesus was a man and because he chose only men [as his apostles] is very weak. That is a cultural consideration not a metaphysical one.”

Were it not for the fact that Fr D’Ors is one of 30 consultants due to report to a meeting of the Pontifical Council for Culture (PCC) in February, his comments might have little significance.

However, the PCC’s meeting in the Vatican will be focussed on the role of women in the Catholic Church today.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Victims of a sexualy abusive teacher feigned illness, and in one case swallowed washing up liquid in order to avoid him, a court has been told.

Ronald Wotton pleaded guilty to 17 counts of indecent assault, three of indecency with a male and one of indecency with a child.

The 73-year-old, of Park Lane, Murton, Seaham, was jailed for five years.

Teesside Crown Court heard the offences took place at a Roman Catholic school between 1969 and 1980.

Judge Howard Crowson said: “You were sadly operating at a time when, to most of the adult public, it was inconceivable for this type of offending to be committed by a teacher.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAPwisconsin.com

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee)
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

Today, the Federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that evidence the Archdiocese deliberately provided false information to procure a liability release in a case brought by one of the deaf victims of childhood sexual assault by the notorious Fr. Lawrence Murphy, cannot be heard in court because of Wisconsin’s “immunity law” on corporate mediation.

Before signing his legal release, the deaf victim in this case was told by church officials during mediation, according to his affidavit, that Murphy was not known to have a history of criminal sexual conduct against before he was assaulted as a child by him. Church documents obtained after the settlement now show that to be false and prove the Archdiocese knowingly lied to induce a mediation settlement. But under Wisconsin law, mediated settlements, even those procured under false or fraudulent premises, cannot be reopened or reexamined by any court.

The ruling could have implications for several dozen of the 575 victims who filed into the Milwaukee Archdiocese bankruptcy, now headed for its fourth year.

Unfortunately, this means that the voluminous evidence that Dolan and church officials had designed the mediation program prior to the bankruptcy to deliberately defraud victims and cover up knowledge of child sex crimes will likely never be brought before a judge or jury.

A second ruling by the 7th Circuit concerning Dolan’s establishment of a “cemetery trust” to hide $57 million dollars from sexual abuse victims is expected to be ruled on in the future.

The bigger picture, however, that is being constantly obscured by the endless maneuvering, motions, and the literally millions of pages of legal minutia, is the enormous toll the unprecedented bankruptcy itself is taking on the hundreds of victims who have been seeking justice. Each month it drags miserably forward, any actual hope for justice dims.

How right Charles Dickens was when he said that the purpose of the law is to make business for itself. It was reported in court last week that lawyers’ fees are now surpassing $18 million dollars, while the entire proposed restitution being offered to 575 victims of childhood sexual assault by the archdiocese is $4 million dollars. Who can argue with him?

The victim in this case, including all the victims of Fr. Murphy and the dozens of his clerical sex offender colleagues from the Milwaukee Archdiocese can, at least, take solace in what Plato taught us that it “it is infinitely better to be the victim of injustice than the cause of it.” The survivors of childhood rape and sexual assault have tried to keep faith, as best we can, with the saving truth Plato speaks of and for which his master, Socrates, who one can argue prefigured the story of Christ, was executed.

Every case brought by a victim before the law, even if the law is blind to see it or deaf to hear it, is precious because it is a witness to an indomitable belief by survivors that, regardless of its perversion, the law was meant to serve justice, and that justice was meant to serve the weak, the vulnerable and the vanquished. That is why justice, especially for childhood victims of the powerful and the perverse, is in the interest of everyone not just the few who can pay for it. Lawyers were meant to serve justice. Justice was not meant to serve lawyers. And it should not be bought or sold, even for $18 million dollars.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Associated Press

A man who was abused by a priest while attending a school for deaf children cannot set aside a settlement with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to pursue a claim in bankruptcy court, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The man identified in court documents as John Doe settled with the archdiocese for $80,000 in 2007, after participating in mediation set up by the church.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2011, saying it wouldn’t be able to pay if lawsuits filed by other victims went against it. Doe and hundreds of victims then filed claims in federal bankruptcy court.

Doe’s attorneys said archdiocese officials deceived him by telling him $80,000 was all he could get, when some others received $100,000 to $200,000. Doe also did not realize the extent of the archdiocese’s knowledge about abuse he and other students suffered or that the church was paying some priests to leave, the attorneys said in court documents.

A bankruptcy judge and then a district court judge said Wisconsin law doesn’t allow statements made in mediation to be used as evidence in court, and therefore, Doe could not pursue his claim. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.

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WASHINGTON
Inlander

By Scott A. Leadingham

It’s a chilly, late-October night, and Blase Cupich is clearly interested in one thing: a hearty meal.

“I’ll take the chili,” he says.

That, and engaging in good conversation with a crowd of eager 20- and 30-something Catholics.

With that dinner order, he sounds like any other person at Jack and Dan’s bar and grill. And even though it’s a Gonzaga University mainstay, where priests can often be found downing a pint, the man dressed in the unmistakable white collar is far from a regular patron.

He is, after all, among the most famous Catholic leaders in America at the moment, and the most in-demand for news media interviews. Little more than a month ago, most people, rank-and-file Catholics included, didn’t know his name, let alone how to pronounce it. (For the record: SOO-pitch.)

On this night, he’s bishop of the Spokane diocese. But in a few short weeks he’ll lead the third-largest Catholic diocese in the U.S. as archbishop of Chicago. …

Appointed in 2010 to lead the Spokane diocese out of a bankruptcy brought on by sexual abuse lawsuits, Cupich is generally seen as an administrator in the mold of Pope Francis: able to insist on change where it’s needed, and capable of coming into a negative situation and managing with skill and grace.

At the time, the Spokane diocese was close to selling off parishes to pay debts to victims, and Cupich considers the fact that no parishes were closed among his top accomplishments in Spokane. He says he didn’t even know about the diocese’s deep legal woes until after he arrived.

“The first two years here were very, very hard. Just to make sure that we would not be in a situation where parishes would collapse because they would be confiscated,” he says. “I was very concerned about that. I knew it wasn’t just about the closing of buildings and the confiscation of property, it was about the real destruction of communities.”
It’s not over

The figurative destruction of communities is one thing, but the very real harm brought about by sexual abuse is something of which he says he is very much aware. Late last month, it was reported that Cupich had removed a retired priest, Rev. Dan Wetzler, from the ministry after “credible allegations” surfaced. It was the second time Wetzler had been accused; he had previously been exonerated after a church investigation.

That move, and Cupich’s appointment in Chicago, was criticized by the victims’ rights group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“He’s doing the absolute bare, legalistic minimum. Pretty much because he has to,” SNAP Executive Director David Clohessy says of Cupich.

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FLORIDA
WFLA

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL (WFLA) –
A Wimauma pastor is charged with capital sexual battery after investigators say he admitted to performing sex acts on a girl under the age of eleven, thirty to forty years ago.

Patrick H. Shiver, 72, is a practicing Pastor at the Casa De Dios church in Wimauma and has been a pastor at numerous churches in Hillsborough County, according to investigators.

During a controlled telephone call between the victim and Patrick Shiver, Shiver admitted to performing sexual acts with the victim while she was under the age of eleven and sexual intercourse while she was between the ages of fourteen and seventeen years old. Detectives say the alleged acts happened in Hillsborough County.

Later during interviews with detectives, Patrick Shiver admitted to the allegations.

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FLORIDA
Tampa Tribune

Tribune staff

Published: November 5, 2014

Deputies arrested a Wimauma pastor today after he admitted to having sex with an 11-year-old girl several decades ago.

Patrick H. Shiver, 72, admitted to having sex with the girl “30 to 40 years ago” during a recent controlled telephone call, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. Shiver, who is currently a pastor at the Casa De Dios church in Wimauma, confessed again to deputies during later interviews.

He said he had sex with the girl multiple times while she was under the age of 11, and again when she was between the ages of 14 and 17, deputies said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Northern Echo

by Graeme Hetherington

A FORMER teacher, who systematically abused children in his classroom at a Catholic primary school, has been jailed for five years for his ‘reprehensible’ crimes.

Ronald Wotton carried out a prolonged series of abuse on a number of pupils at the east Durham school between 1968 and 1980 – his reign of intimidation and sexual abuse coming to an end following a series of complaints.

A court heard how pupils would feign illness and some had resorted to drinking washing up liquid to make themselves sick, rather than attend school and face the possibility of being sexually abused in front of their classmates.

The 73-year-old of Park Lane, Murton, Seaham, County Durham, pleaded guilty to 21 charges, including 17 of indecent assault, three of indecency with a male and one of indecency with a child.

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CHICAGO (IL)
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho

November 5, 2014

The Archdiocese of Chicago is poised to release the files of thirty-six priests accused of sexual abuse over the past fifty years. In January, the archdiocese released six thousand pages of documents related to another thirty accused clerics, as part of a settlement with plaintiffs who alleged abuse. The archdiocese chose to release the new batch of files, which will total about fifteen thousand pages, on its own. Sources with knowledge of the January settlement say the documents could be released as early as tomorrow, less than a week before Blase Cupich will be installed as the ninth archbishop of Chicago.

The archdiocese is “voluntarily” releasing these documents, according to a letter signed by auxiliary Bishop Francis Kane, which accompanied a memo sent to Catholic school administrators. This release, in combination with the January’s documents, “covers all the priests who have substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct with minors”–except for two “where ongoing processes do not permit release,” Kane wrote.

One of those men is Daniel McCormack, who in 2007 pleaded guilty to molesting five children. In June he was charged again with aggravated criminal sexual abuse in a 2005 incident involving a minor. Last month two more men who say McCormack abused them filed a joint lawsuit against the archdiocese and Cardinal Francis George–seeking $400,000 in damages. In 2006, it came to light that George allowed McCormack to return to ministry after he was arrested and released without charges, even though his sexual-abuse review board recommended that the priest be removed from ministry. The case brought scandal to a diocese that for decades had been seen as having a model policy for dealing with clerics accused of abuse. Audits commissioned by the archdiocese following the McCormack scandal showed that was not necessarily the case.

“We followed a thourough document review process to determine which documents could be released,” according to the diocesan memo. That process was designed to “protect victim privacy,” abide by laws restricting the release of mental-health and medical information, and maintain the privacy of third parties mentioned in the documentation. “Nothing was redacted or removed to conceal the identity of abusers,” the memo explains.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 5, 2014

Pope Francis has codified his ability to effectively fire Catholic bishops, saying that in some circumstances, he “can consider it necessary” to ask them to resign their offices.

The move, which the Vatican announced Wednesday, seems to be an attempt by Francis to clear up any ambiguity about the pontiff’s power to replace prelates around the world. While Francis and his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, have effectively removed bishops in the past, their power to do so was not previously so explicit in the church’s laws.

Wednesday’s change comes in a short edict approved Monday by Francis at the request of Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state. Composed of seven short articles, the edict addresses the resignation of diocesan bishops and papal appointees.

Concerning resignations at the pope’s request, the edict states: “In some particular circumstances, the competent authority can consider it necessary to ask a bishop to present his resignation from pastoral office, after having made known the reasons for the request and listening carefully to the reasons, in fraternal dialogue.”

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CANADA
The Daily Courier

KINGSTON, Ont. – Police in Kingston, Ont., say a retired priest is facing fresh charges related to alleged sexual assaults stretching back to the 1980s.

They say Robin Gwyn, 66, was arrested in his home province of Nova Scotia on Sept. 18 and transported to Kingston four days later.

He was originally charged with sexual assault, sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching in relation to a case involving one victim.

But, police say after Gwyn was granted bail, detectives had a second alleged victim come forward providing police with reasonable grounds to believe further historic offences had occurred.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

11/05/14
Hella Winston
Special To The Jewish Week

Sol Wachtler wasn’t a big fan of The Jewish Week’s coverage of the bribery and extortion prosecution of chasidic child abuse whistleblower Sam Kellner.

Or at least that’s how the former chief judge of New York’s highest court made it sound to his close friend, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles “Joe” Hynes, back in January of 2013, a week after the paper published the first story in what would become a multi-part series on the case.

“[I] forgot to mention the Jewish Week piece,” Wachtler wrote in an e-mail to Hynes, one of many obtained recently by The Jewish Week through a Freedom of Information Law request; in the email, Wachtler addresses Hynes as “Yos,” a Yiddish-y version of Joe.

“I read it twice, and I swear I cannot follow what the hell she’s talking about. …The only people who will have the patience to read and attempt to follow the story are the Hasids, and all but a handful will disagree with her conclusions (whatever they are). I would make three recommendations: 1) They send the story to Guantanamo and have it be read in lieu of water boarding, 2) Bennett Gershman [an ethics expert quoted in the story] be encouraged to retire, and 3) The Jewish Week Investigative Journalism Fund [which supported the reporting of the story] should get its money back.”

The story was indeed byzantine, with a plot even a sharp legal mind like Wachtler’s could not be expected to wrap itself around easily.

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ARGENTINA
AICA

[The diocese of San Isidro said Pope Francis has sanctioned priest Jose Francisco Mercau with dismissal from the clerical state. He was convicted of sexual abuse. The information was made public through a press release distributed to the diocese spokesman.]

San Isidro (Buenos Aires) (AICA): El obispado de San Isidro informó que el papa Francisco sancionó al Pbro. José Mercau con la dimisión del estado clerical, y por lo tanto la pérdida automática de los derechos propios del estado clerical, quedando privado de todo el ejercicio del ministerio sacerdotal.

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LOUISIANA/MASSACHUSETTS
The Times-Picayune

By Andrea Shaw, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on November 05, 2014

A former Roman Catholic priest who taught at a Marrero school in the 1970s has settled a lawsuit alleging that he later sexually abused a 14-year-old student student in Boston, the former student’s attorney said Wednesday. Sean Leo Rooney served on the faculty at Archbishop Shaw High School from 1975 until 1979.

The lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, said the former student disclosed Rooney’s abuse in August 2012. The acts occurred in Boston and New York. Rooney was a teacher at Goshen Junior Seminary in New York from 1979 through 1981, where he befriended the boy and encouraged the youth’s interest in photography, Garabedian said.

The student, now 48, said Rooney fondled and masturbated him while traveling on a bus for a school trip in Massachusetts. Rooney also was accused of removing the boy’s clothes, touching his buttocks and genitals and masturbating on the victim while at the seminary in New York, according to the lawsuit.

Garabedian said the case was settled for “six figures.” The student also suffered abuse by two other priests, the attorney said.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests announced the settlement Wednesday and asked the Archdiocese of New Orleans to issue a public call for information about anyone who may have been harmed by Rooney. The settlement also was published on the BishopAccountability.org website.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

[with photos]

New files released as part of the Doe 1 settlement and child protection action plan

The files of 24 priests who are the subject of substantiated claims of sexual abuse of minors in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis were publicly released November 5, 2014. This disclosure of files was agreed upon as part of the settlement of the Doe 1 civil lawsuit and is an early step in the child protection action plan announced October 13, 2014.

At least six of the priests* whose files were released worked in the Diocese of New Ulm. To date, the Diocese of New Ulm refuses to release their list and documents pertaining to clerics credibly accused of child sexual abuse. In a hearing today at 3:00PM in Ramsey County, the Diocese of New Ulm and Diocese of Duluth will seek a protective order in a sexual abuse case involving Fr. Vincent Fitzgerald. The list of files released today includes the following priests:

“This release brings more sunshine and disinfectant to a long standing problem,” said attorney Jeff Anderson. “Today’s disclosure was possible because of the courage of Doe 1 and all the survivors who came before him. Because this information has been made public, our children and communities are now safer.”

PRIEST FILES

• John Brown
• Edward Beutner
• Robert Clark *
• Thomas Ericksen
• Ambrose Filbin *
• Kenneth Gansmann
• Ralph Goniea
• Rudolph Henrich *
• Reginald Krakovsky *
• Harry Majerus *
• William Marks *
• James Nickel
• Paul Palmitessa
• Joseph Pinkosh
• Charles Potocki
• Robert Ruglovsky
• James Stark
• Michael Stevens
• Robert Thurner
• Roger Vaughn
• Clarence Vavra
• Raymond Walter
• Adalbert Wolski
• Francis Zachman

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MINNESOTA
KARE

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The names and files of 24 priests credibly accused of sexual abuse who worked in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis were released Wednesday, as part of the recent settlement of a lawsuit.

At least six of the priests whose files were released also worked at one time in the Diocese of New Ulm. Attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents a number of victims of clergy sex abuse, says the Diocese of New Ulm refuses to release their list and documents pertaining to clerics credibly accused of child sexual abuse.

“This release brings more sunshine and disinfectant to a long standing problem,” said Anderson in a written release. “Today’s disclosure was possible because of the courage of Doe 1 and all the survivors who came before him. Because this information has been made public, our children and communities are now safer.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Pupils drank washing up liquid to make themselves sick to avoid teacher who sexually abused them in front of the whole class

Primary school pupils made themselves sick with washing up liquid to try to avoid lessons with a teacher who sexually abused them in front of the whole class, a court has heard.

When one child complained about Ronald Wotton, the headmaster at the Roman Catholic school did not believe that the allegation and made the pupil apologise to the abuser.

Judge Howard Crowson, sitting at Teesside Magistrates Court, jailed the terminally-ill 73-year-old for five years.

Wotton who sometimes uses a wheelchair admitted 17 counts of indecent assault, three counts of indecency with a male and one of indecency with a child over a 12-year period from the late 1960s.
He was allowed to retire in 1980 when a new headmaster, who could not ignore the mounting allegations against the teacher, took over.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Source: Anne Steffens, Interim Director of Communications
From Bishop Andrew Cozzens, Auxiliary Bishop

Documents from the priest files of 24 men given to the court by the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis earlier this year were released today by Jeff Anderson and Associates. This release is in the interest of public disclosure and transparency.

Most of these 24 men were assigned as priests in this archdiocese in the past; all are the subject of substantiated claims of the sexual abuse of a minor either here or in another diocese. A claim is substantiated when there are reasonable grounds to believe that the reported abuse occurred. All of these men have previously had their names disclosed for substantiated claims of abuse by the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and all have been permanently removed from ministry in this archdiocese. All but two have not been in ministry here for at least a decade. Fifteen are deceased.

Documents from these men’s files were released today:

Edward Beutner
John Brown
Robert Clark
Thomas Ericksen
Ambrose Filbin
Kenneth Gansmann
Ralph Goniea
Rudolph Henrich
Reginald Krakovsky
Harry Majerus
William Marks
James Nickel
Paul Palmitessa
Joseph Pinkosh
Charles Potocki
Robert Ruglovsky
James P. Stark
Michael Stevens
Robert Thurner
Roger Vaughn
Clarence Vavra
Raymond Walter
Adalbert Wolski
Francis Zachman

For general information about these men, including assignment history, visit SafeCatholicSPM.org.
If you or someone you know has been sexually abused, please call law enforcement.

Archbishop John Nienstedt, I and all other archdiocesan leaders are committed to doing everything we can to prevent abuse of the young and the vulnerable and to help abuse victims/survivors and their loved ones heal. I apologize for the grave harm caused by clergy sexual abuse to victims/survivors, their families and their communities.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Jennie Olson

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has released the names of another 24 priests who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

The priests include: John Brown, Ralph Goniea, Paul Palmitessa, Robert Thurner, Edward Beutner, Rudolph Henrich, Joseph Pinkosh, Roger Vaughn, Robert Clark, Reginald Krakovsky, Charles Potocki, Clarence Vavra, Thomas Erickson, Harry Majerus, Robert Ruglovsky, Raymond Walter, Ambrose Filbin, William Marks, James Stark, Adalbert Wolski, Kenneth Gansmann, James Nickel, Michael Stevens and Francis Zachman.

At least six of the priests worked in the Diocese of New Ulm: Clark, Filbin, Henrich, Krakovsky, Majerus and Marks.

The disclosure is part of the archdiocese’s historic settlement and subsequent action plan, which was announced Oct. 13. The case accused Catholic church leaders in Minnesota of creating a public nuisance by failing to warn parishioners about an abusive priest.

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NEW YORK
The Post-Standard

By Douglass Dowty | ddowty@syracuse.com
on November 05, 2014

Syracuse, NY — A retired priest living in Syracuse will spend 10 years on probation for viewing child pornography on a nun’s office computer at a home for retired priests, a prosecutor said today.

Robert Ours, 65, apologized in court today for what he described as an addiction to porn that ruined his ministry after retiring from leading churches in the Southern Tier.

Prosecutor Jeremy Cali wanted Ours to spend 1 to 3 years in prison. But County Court Judge Joseph Fahey agreed to sentence Ours to probation instead. The priest was also forced to register as a Level 1 sex offender, meaning he is the lowest risk of re-offending.

That was possible because Ours pleaded guilty to all six counts in the indictment, allowing him to negotiate a plea deal directly with the judge.

Cali called all child porn awful, but said there was a range based on the age of the victim, the violence used in the abuse and other factors. The images Ours possessed were not at the worst end of the spectrum, Cali said.

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CANADA
Cornwall Free News

After a lengthy investigation commencing in early 2014 detectives from the Kingston Police Sexual Crimes Unit have charged a former Kingston priest with a number of historic sexual offences dating back to the 1980’s and up to a period in the early 2000’s.

Based on the strength of a Kingston Police arrest warrant 66-year-old Robin Quintin GWYN was originally arrested in his home province of Nova Scotia on September 18th, 2014 and transported to the jurisdiction of Kingston on September 22nd, where he was charged with the offences of Sexual Assault, Sexual Interference and Invitation to Sexual Touching.

After GWYN was granted bail detectives had a second victim come forward providing police with reasonable grounds to believe further historic offences had occurred. On November 5th GWYN returned to Kingston where nine counts of Sexual Assault were additionally laid. His bail was further extended by the court and he was placed on numerous conditions, including those intended to protect children and the public from harm, and to reside at a court-approved address out of province.

Detectives believe GWYN was ordained as a priest in 1988 and began serving in the Kingston community at that time. He additionally had chaplaincy duties with the Frontenac-Lennox and Addington County Roman Catholic Separate School Board and had some related work in Brockville.

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NEW YORK
CNY Central

SYRACUSE — A priest in the Syracuse Diocese who pleaded guilty to six counts of possessing child pornography will spend the next decade on probation.

Father Robert Ours avoided jail time in a plea deal in exchange for a guilty plea.

The 65-year-old will also register as a sex offender, according to the District Attorney’s office.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

News Release

November 5, 2014

New files released as part of the Doe 1 settlement and child protection action plan

(St. Paul, MN) – The files of 24 priests who are the subject of substantiated claims of sexual abuse of minors in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis were publicly released today. This disclosure of files was agreed upon as part of the settlement of the Doe 1 civil lawsuit and is an early step in the child protection action plan announced October 13, 2014.

At least six of the priests* whose files were released worked in the Diocese of New Ulm. To date, the Diocese of New Ulm refuses to release their list and documents pertaining to clerics credibly accused of child sexual abuse. In a hearing today at 3:00PM in Ramsey County, the Diocese of New Ulm and Diocese of Duluth will seek a protective order in a sexual abuse case involving Fr. Vincent Fitzgerald.

The list of files released today includes the following priests:

John Brown Ralph Goniea Paul Palmitessa Robert Thurner

Edward Beutner *Rudolph Henrich Joseph Pinkosh Roger Vaughn

*Robert Clark *Reginald Krakovsky Charles Potocki Clarence Vavra

Thomas Erickson *Harry Majerus Robert Ruglovsky Raymond Walter

*Ambrose Filbin *William Marks James Stark Adalbert Wolski

Kenneth Gansmann James Nickel Michael Stevens Francis Zachman

“This release brings more sunshine and disinfectant to a long standing problem,” said attorney Jeff Anderson. “Today’s disclosure was possible because of the courage of Doe 1 and all the survivors who came before him. Because this information has been made public, our children and communities are now safer.”

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.817.8665
Contact Mike Finnegan: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.205.5531

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Pope pointed out that some processes are too “long and weighty” for ordinary people and warned against the Church annulment process being treated like a business. He also told the story of someone he knew who sold court sentences

IACOPO SCARAMUZZI
VATICAN CITY

In a meeting held with participants of a course offered by the Tribunal of the Roman Rota before the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, Francis spoke out against business-like court processes and public scandals. He also told a story about an exchange he had with someone who sold court sentences, when he was still Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Francis repeated a proposal presented during the course of the Extraordinary Synod on the Family held this October: that is to make annulment processes free of charge. Francis advised “streamlining procedures in the interest of Justice” because some processes are “so long and so weighty” that they discourage ordinary people.

The Pope reminded course participants that he created a commission to look into simplifying marriage annulments and appointed the Dean of the Roman Rota, Pio Vinto Pinto – present at today’s Audience – as its head.

“I have not prepared a speech, I just wanted to greet you,” Francis said in an off-the-cuff address to the 300 participants attending a course on “Instructing a Case for the Dispensation of a Marriage ‘Super rato et non consumato’”. “In the Extraordinary Synod [on the Family], There was talk about procedures, processes, and there was a preoccupation for streamlining the procedures, in the interest of Justice,” the Pope said. “Justice: For decisions must be just, and because there must be justice for the people who are waiting.” Some processes are “so long and so weighty” that people become “discouraged” and leave.” “For this reason, even before the Synod, I set up a commission to help prepare various paths in this area, a path of justice, and one of charity, because there are so many people who need a word from the Church about their marriage situation – be it a yes or a no – as long as it is just.” “But it must rule and tell them, so that it is possible to go forward without this doubt, this darkness in the soul.”

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A Queensland priest once accused of child sexual assault has attempted to gain access to the recorded police interview with the alleged victim so he could sue her for defamation.

The man, who was never charged after an investigation 15 years ago, used freedom-of-information laws to apply for access to two cassette tape recordings and a 99-page police report, Fairfax News reports.

His request was denied late last year on the grounds that disclosure was against the public interest.

Last month the Office of the Information Commissioner upheld his appeal against that decision.

The former priest told the OIC he was pursuing defamation action against the complainant as well as appealing a decision made by the Catholic Church to remove him from active ministry and placed in early retirement.

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CONNECTICUT
Fairfield Mirror

JESSICA DELAHUNT

The Bishop of Bridgeport, the most Reverend Frank J. Caggiano, shared his dreams for the future of his diocese in a lecture at the Regina A. Quick Center on Tuesday evening.

In the lecture titled “On Calling a Diocesan Synod: Hopes and Dreams,” Caggiano invited attendees to participate in a tradition that has dated back to the earliest years of the Catholic Church: the Synod.

Described by Caggiano as “a sacred journey of God’s people to discern his will,” Tuesday’s lecture was part of a four-year process that involves him and all pastors, clerical religious administrators and clergy within the diocese assembling to deal with matters facing the modern-day Church. …

The next question posed to Caggiano regarded the clergy’s infamous sex abuse scandals. After sharing that her son-in-law had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a clergy member when he was young, a female audience member asked Caggiano his opinions on the matter.

“Terrible mistakes were made,” said Caggiano regarding the way in which Church leaders handled the issue, adding “I cannot speak to the intentions of those individuals.

“It’s a wound in the life of the Church,” he concluded.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Nov. 5

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

Though he has demoted no bishop for hiding abuse, Pope Francis said today that he sacked a Catholic official for selling marriage annulments.

[Gazzetta del Sud]

Some lay Catholics will be encouraged by this news. To us, it’s discouraging. It suggests that Frances cares more about financial reform that children’s safety.

Hundreds of bishops are hiding predators and endangering kids. One – Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City – has been criminally convicted of recently protecting Fr. Shawn Ratigan, a notorious serial predator priest who has also been criminally convicted. Yet Finn remains in office and Francis stays silent.

And hundreds of other bishops have done and are doing what Finn has done. But they haven’t been caught yet. And again, Francis stays silent.

Is an alleged $10,000 theft of greater concern to the Pope than the physical and emotional safety and well-being of thousands of children?

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IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Kelly Catholic News Service | Nov. 4, 2014

DUBLIN Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin decried comments from clerics and others who said Pope Francis caused confusion in his calls for an open discussion on how the church should reach out to those who are marginalized, hurt and wounded in their lives during the recent Synod of Bishops on the family.

Martin said he was “quite surprised at the remarks of some commentators within church circles about the recent Synod of Bishops, often making accusations of confusion where such confusion did not exist and so actually fomenting confusion.”

He did not identify specific comments Tuesday during a Mass marking the refurbishment of a church at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, has been among those who described some discussions during the synod as causing confusion. The cardinal also warned that it “could even induce the faithful into error with regard to the teaching about marriage and other teachings.”

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Vatican City, November 5 – Pope Francis revealed Wednesday that he had dismissed a Church official for selling marriage annulments. “I had to dismiss a person from the tribunal who some time ago said: ‘$10,000 and I’ll do both the civil and ecclesiastical procedure,” Francis told a group of people taking part in a course at the Roman Rota tribunal. The Rota is the highest appeals tribunal of the Catholic Church. He described the event as a “public scandal” and did not give further details about where or when the sacking occurred during his off-the-cuff comments in the Paul VI Hall of the Vatican. But he said the process of annulling a marriage should be streamlined. That was a significant topic during last month’s extraordinary synod of bishops from around the world discussing issues confronting modern families, the pope noted.

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