ABUSE TRACKER

PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online

By BRETT HAMBRIGHT | Staff Writer

A former local pastor and junior-high basketball coach will serve at least 30 years in prison for sexual abuse of a 13-year-old boy.

Jonathan Masteller, 24, was recently sentenced in Lancaster County Court to 30 to 80 years in prison for the sexual assaults, which he also photographed and videotaped.

Masteller pleaded guilty in July to 12 counts of sex abuse and faced a mandatory 10-year prison term.

President Judge Joseph Madenspacher ordered consecutive sentences on four of the charges for the grand total of 30 to 80.

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WASHINGTON
NBC Chicago

By Phil Rogers

The law firm that once represented the Catholic Archidocese of Spokane has filed a motion against the Archdiocese and incoming Chicago Archbishop Blaise Cupich, seeking to dismiss Cupich’s malpractice claim against them.

Cupich filed a claim earlier this year against the firm, Paine-Hamblen, alleging that they inadequately protected the Spokane Archdiocese during bankruptcy proceedings, and that they failed to disclose a potential conflict to the court concerning their representation of the previous Archbishop, William Skylstad, during litigation concerning sexual abuse claims.

In the latest motion, the firm insists there was no conflict, because they represented Skylstad in his capacity as head of the Archdiocese, not personally. Indeed, Skylstad himself affirmed that fact in depositions associated with the case, and is quoted as saying Paine-Hamblen had done a “remarkable job” in their representation of the Spokane Church.

The document quotes Father Steve Dublinksi, the former vicar general of the Archdiocese, as saying that he argued unsuccessfully to Cupich that the suit against his parish’s longtime attorneys was ill-advised.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Vic O’Callaghan | 16 November 2014

On Monday 27 October, the Hon Justice Peter McClellan AM, Chair, Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, gave a talk at the Blue Knot Day for adults surviving child abuse. In his speech he used a well-worn phrase most adults will have heard, ‘children should be see but not heard.’

The Commissioner went on to point out that this attitude has prevailed for decades and has been a critical contributor to the conditions under which abusers could manipulate and silence children in order to abuse them.

The Commissioner also highlighted current efforts by most institutions, to modify their practices in order that future abuse can be recognised early and brought to the attention of those charged with the protection of children.

In fact, ask most office holders charged with the responsibility of child protection and they will readily outline efforts and safeguards to prevent future incidences of abuse.

It is interesting that the language of protection is now front and centre when it comes to the care and protection of children. This is admirable and in the culture of what has transpired, it is an achievement creating some quiet satisfaction. But could this sense of pride be masking something deeper and more troubling?

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MINNESOTA
KARE

[with video]

John Croman, KARE November 14, 2014

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Local Catholic officials have been accused of destroying videotapes that purportedly contained homemade child pornography.

The law firm of Jeff Anderson and Associates on Thursday released a set of documents suggesting church leaders threw out the tapes, allegedly found inside former St. Paul priest Donald Dummer’s room. The case dates back to 1997 when Rev. Dummer was assigned to St. Mary’s Catholic Church on St. Paul’s East Side.

Attorney Mike Finnegan said the paper trail also implies officials in the Vatican’s U-S embassy in Washington, D.C. urged the St. Paul Archdiocese to keep the case out of the public eye.

“Instead of reporting this to the police, instead of removing Dummer, they send this stuff back to Archbishop Flynn.” Finnegan remarked. “Their concern is about public scandal, and that this might get out.”

The files were recently unsealed as part of an out of court settlement in a public nuisance lawsuit Anderson’s clients brought against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

An unnamed employee of St. Mary’s wrote a letter to the Vatican Embassy, known as the Apostolic Nunciature, in 2002 detailing efforts he’d made years earlier to expose Rev. Dummer. The letter was also signed by the organization known as Catholic Parents OnLine.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

Esme Murphy

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — There are new allegations that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis destroyed as many as five suspected child porn videos — and that the Vatican knew what happened.

This latest allegation involving the Twin Cities Catholic Church comes as a direct result of a landmark agreement between the church and victims.

The agreement has resulted in more names of priests, suspected of sexual abuse against a minor, being released.

One of the new names released by the archdiocese is 77-year-old Father Don Dummer. In 1997, when Dummer was working at St. Mary’s Church in St. Paul, a part-time employee said he found VHS tapes in Dummer’s room at a St. Paul home.

One of those videos was of 10- to 12-year-old boys playing basketball in the nude. The co-worker turned the videos over to then-Vicar General Kevin McDonough. Attorney Mike Finnegan said the co-worker waited to see what McDonough would do.

“He waited and waited and heard nothing from the vicar general, so he called McDonough again, he asked if he had checked it out and McDonough said, ‘Yes,’ and that he had destroyed the videos,” Finnegan said.

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NEW YORK
The Journal News

Steve Lieberman, slieberm@lohud.com November 13, 2014

The FBI made numerous arrests in New York City, Orange County and Monsey Thursday involving an apparent long-term mortgage and welfare fraud case.

An extended family and several business associates were indicted on federal charges Thursday in a rich man, poor man mortgage and welfare fraud scheme that authorities say netted more than $20 million.

Federal agents arrested 13 people in pre-dawn raids in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, Kiryas Joel and Monroe in Orange County, and Manhattan. Those charged include a Monsey resident who allegedly provided faulty real estate appraisals as part of the fraud. Two more people indicted are expected to surrender Thursday, authorities said.

“The defendants involved alternately played the parts of prince and pauper depending on which scam was being perpetrated,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a news conference in White Plains. “There’s a lot of fraud here and shell games… The fraud was complex and they were fairly organized.”

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Josh Nathan-Kazis
Published November 13, 2014.

One of the men arrested in a $20 million Satmar family mortgage fraud conspiracy is the same man who was convicted of trying to intimidate a witness against notorious Hasidic sex abuser Nechemya Weberman, the Forward has learned.

Abraham Rubin is fresh out of prison after serving three months for trying to bribe into not testifying against Weberman, an unlicensed counselor who was convicted in 2012 of repeatedly abusing a teenage girl in his care.

Rubin was arrested November 13 along with 14 of his family members and associates in a sprawling mortgage and public fraud conspiracy. He now faces up to 35 years in prison.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office confirmed to the Forward that Abraham Rubin had been cited for a $500,000 bribery attempt in the past. The man he tried to pay off, Boorey Deutsch, the victim’s husband, confirmed to the Forward that the man who tried to bribe him was the same Abraham Rubin as was arrested in the fraud scheme.

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

[with video]

Lawyers are accusing the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis of destroying pornographic videos from a St. Paul priest.

The accusations involve Father Donald Dummer. He was recently added to a list of priests with credible accusations of sexual misconduct.

On Thursday, attorneys for Jeff Anderson and Associates say a church employee found inappropriate videotapes of naked boys playing basketball in Father Dummer’s room at St. Mary’s Church in 1997.

The employee allegedly called the archbishop’s office and was told vicar general, Father Kevin McDonough, would handle the matter.

On Thursday, lawyers presented letters between church officials, implying they destroyed those videos.

The new allegations aren’t currently part of any lawsuit filed against the archdiocese.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Epoch Times

[Interview with an ex-nun on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.]

von Roland R. Ropers / Gastautor, Donnerstag, 13. November 2014

Die ehemalige Nonne Doris Wagner hat in ihrem Buch „Nicht mehr ich“ ihre wahre Geschichte als junge Ordensfrau veröffentlicht. In „Menschen bei Maischberger“ war sie am Dienstagabend zu sehen. In einem Interview mit Roland R. Ropers beantwortete sie seine Fragen für die Epoch Times.

Doris Wagner kam 1983 in Ansbach/Bayern zur Welt. Sie ist in einem protestantischen Elternhaus aufgewachsen. Im Mai 1999 wurde die Familie römisch-katholisch. Nach dem Abitur studierte sie in Rom, Freiburg und Erfurt Philosophie und katholische Theologie und war neben dem Studium unter anderem als Organistin und Fremdenführerin tätig. Sie wurde Mitglied einer aus Männer und Frauen bestehenden Ordensgemeinschaft „Die geistliche Familie Das Werk“ [FSO – Familia Spiritualis Opus – www.daswerk-fso.org] und erlebte während ihrer Zeit in Rom die dramatische Dynamik von Ideologie, Manipulation und Missbrauch. Die Hölle auf Erden. Am 18. Mai 2001 hatte der damalige Kurienkardinal Joseph Ratzinger im Vatikan seine Anweisung zur Geheimhaltung von sexuellem Missbrauch verfasst: „De Delictis Gravioribus”

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BELGIE
Deredactie

[Another case of child abuse has been found in the Bruges diocese. A 50-year-old priest is said to have abused minors for several years in Menen in the early 2000s. One victim came forward last year and the diocese was informed.]

Erneut ist ein Fall von Kindesmissbrauch im Bistum Brügge bekannt geworden. Ein heute 50 Jahre alter Priester soll Anfang der 2000er Jahre einen damals minderjährigen Jugendlichen mehrere Jahre lang in Menen sexuell missbraucht haben. Das Opfer meldete sich bereits im vergangenen Jahr bei einer Anlaufstelle für solche Fälle, von wo aus das Bistum unterrichtet wurde.

Nach Angaben unseres Hauses, der öffentlich-rechtliche Rundfunk des belgischen Bundeslandes Flandern, VRT, stellte das Bistum fest, dass die Fakten, die sich vor allem 2002 zugetragen haben sollen, nicht verjährt sind und gab den Vorgang an die Justiz, bzw. an die Staatsanwaltschaft Kortrijk weiter. Auffallend ist, dass das Opfer des Geistlichen bereits im vergangenen Jahr Anzeige erstattet hat. Doch das Bistum zog den Priester nicht von seinem Amt im westflämischen Hooglede ab.

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IRELAND
RTE News

One of the ten children of Jean McConville, who was abducted and murdered by the IRA, says his family is owed an apology by the State and the church, for how they were treated after their mother’s disappearance.

Ms McConville was abducted by an IRA gang after being accused of passing information to the British army.

She was later shot in the back of the head and buried 80km from her home.

Billy McConville told Northern Ireland’s Institutional Abuse Inquiry last week that he was sexually and physically abused in care homes and wants those wrongs acknowledged.

When the IRA abducted their mother in 1972, the eldest of the ten McConville children, Helen, was 15.

The two youngest were the six-year-old twins, Billy and Jim.

The ten children were left to fend for themselves before they were taken into care, split up and dispatched to a series of institutions.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

Magdalene women are being forced accept smaller compensation payments because the State believes the religious orders over survivors regarding how long they spent in the laundries.

In a strongly worded speech at the opening of the National Women’s Council of Ireland’s new offices, co-founder of Justice For Magdalenes Research (JFMR) Claire McGettrick said that despite Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s apology, the State was exercising a “contemptible” attitude to survivors which valued “damage limitation and optics before justice and fairness”.

“Perhaps the most contemptible double standard is that the religious orders — who have not contributed one cent towards the ex gratia scheme — are believed over survivors regarding duration of stay. As a result, some women, many of whom are in dire financial circumstances, have had no choice but to accept lesser amounts,” she said.

Ms McGettrick said that elderly and frail survivors were waiting 17 months for the HAA medical card promised to them in the wake of the Taoiseach’s apology, while the dedicated unit recommended by Mr Justice Quirke has also failed to materialise.

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AUSTRALIA
The Tablet (UK)

13 November 2014 by Abigail Frymann Rouch, Mark Brolly

Dominican bioethicist Anthony Fisher, who was installed as Archbishop of Sydney on Wednesday, vowed to improve the Church’s record on safeguarding and apologised for sexual abuse committed by clergy.

Giving the homily during his installation Mass he told a packed St Mary’s Cathedral he spoke of survivors’ “harrowing” experiences, “the shameful deeds of some clergy and serious failures of some leaders to respond”.

The 54-year-old prelate said he prayed the Church would “emerge from this period of public scrutiny humbler, more compassionate and spiritually regenerated” and urged disillusioned Catholics to return and “help us be a better Church”.

Archbishop Fisher’s Installation Mass, SydneyThe Catholic Church in Australia has been participating with a Royal Commission into institutional child sexual abuse, and there have also been state-level inquiries into historic instances of abuse by religious organisations.

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ESPANA
ABC

07-11-2014

La Agrupación Arciprestal de Hermandades y Cofradías ha enviado una carta al Arzobispo de Mérida-Badajoz, Santiago García Aracil, en la que muestran su apoyo al prelado y manifiestan su repulsa ante las “difamaciones” e “informaciones injuriosas” vertidas hacia su persona y el arzobispado.

La agrupación, donde se engloba la Junta de Cofradías y el resto de asociaciones religiosas del Arciprestazgo de Mérida, remite este escrito que “no pretende ser otra cosa que un fraternal abrazo a nuestro pastor”, según informa en un comunicado de prensa.

Al mismo tiempo, se le pide “serenidad y sosiego” ante dichas “difamaciones” puesto que considera que también “de las calumnias que viertan sobre el arzobispado, pueden llegar bendiciones”.

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ESPANA
Digital Extremadura

El Presbiterio de Mérida-Badajoz, órgano que representa a todos los sacerdotes de la Comunidad Autónoma de Extremadura, ha hecho público el siguiente comunicado, que en DEx reproducimos en su totalidad:

“Paz y bien.
Ante las calumnias y difamaciones que está sufriendo en los últimos días el Arzobispo de Mérida-Badajoz, Don Santiago García Aracil, los sacerdotes que formamos parte del presbiterio de Mérida- Badajoz queremos manifestar nuestra repulsa más absoluta ante semejante atropello e injusticia. A la vez hacemos público nuestro sincero afecto, cariño y cercanía a… Don Santiago, nuestro Padre y Pastor.

Está siendo para todos muy triste ver cómo, so capa de una acción profética, se ha dañado a la persona del Sr. Arzobispo y a la Iglesia diocesana y universal, a la vez que se han pisoteado los más elementales principios de la caridad cristiana y de la verdad.

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SPAIN
National Catholic Reporter

Catholic News Service | Nov. 13, 2014

BADAJOZ, SPAIN A Spanish archbishop reacted angrily to complaints by local clergy that he wasted money on a “luxurious residence” for himself in one of the country’s most-deprived regions.

Archbishop Santiago Garcia Aracil of Merida-Badajoz said in a brief posting on the archdiocesan website that the work on the residence and the archdiocesan seminary was approved by an advisory council before it began.

“I reject these libelous and defamatory claims,” Garcia wrote.

“I have received abundant expressions of understanding and support from priests, religious and laity throughout the diocese, lamenting that the source of this information is a very small group of priests,” he said.

The posting came in response to a Nov. 2 letter from 50 unnamed clergy in the western Spanish province of Extremadura to the Madrid-based papal nuncio, Archbishop Renzo Fratini. The letter accused Garcia of living an “excessive, ostentatious, scandalous and undesirable” lifestyle.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Legal Intelligencer

P.J. D’Annunzio, The Legal Intelligencer
November 13, 2014

The plaintiff in a priest sex-abuse case has asked the court to compel the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to reveal its “secret archive files” and personnel records on 17 priests.

In obtaining the information from the secret archives—which plaintiff Billy Doe claims to contain “unflattering” information on priests—Doe seeks to establish that Monsignor William Lynn repeatedly reassigned priests accused of sexual misconduct to different parishes, including defrocked priest Edward Avery, who in 1999 pleaded guilty to sexually abusing Doe, according to Doe’s motion to compel.

The motion was filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas by one of Doe’s attorneys, Paul Lauricella of McLaughlin & Lauricella. Lauricella did not return a call seeking comment.

Lynn was the first Catholic Church administrative official convicted of endangering the welfare of children abused by other priests, however, his conviction was overturned by the state Superior Court and he was released from prison Jan. 7. The state Supreme Court is set to hear argument in Lynn’s case Nov. 18.

“These files are likely to produce evidence of defendant Lynn’s bias and his interest in protecting the church, even at the expense of the well-being of the victims to whom he was supposedly offering pastoral care,” Doe’s court papers said.

Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney attorney Thomas A. Bergstrom, who represents Lynn, said he had not seen the motion, but asserted that Lynn brought the contents of the secret archive to the attention of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, the leader of the archdiocese when Lynn was secretary of the clergy. Bevilacqua was archbishop of Philadelphia from 1988 to 2003, and died in 2012.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

[Obituary: John J. Szantyr – Citizen’s News – published May 19, 2014 ]

By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com

WORCESTER — Child sexual assault charges that were pending against the Rev. John Szantyr, an 83-year-old retired Catholic priest who died in May, were formally dropped by prosecutors Thursday.

Rev. Szantyr, of Waterbury, Conn., was charged in 2003 in Central District Court with four counts of indecent assault and battery on a child. The charges resulted from allegations that Rev. Szantyr sexually assaulted two altar boys in the 1980s, when he was assigned to Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish on Ward Street.

Rev. Szantyr, who had pleaded not guilty, was found mentally incompetent to stand trial in 2006, and again in 2008. There was testimony during the 2008 competency hearing that Rev. Szantyr was suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

The case was scheduled for periodic status reviews by the court every year since 2008, according to court records.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph A. Quinlan nol prossed the charges Thursday. A nol pros, or nolle prosequi, is an entry in the court record reflecting a prosecutor’s decision not to proceed with a case after criminal charges have been lodged.

In his filing with the court, Mr. Quinlan noted that Rev. Szantyr died May 16 in Waterbury.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Nov. 13

Statement by Frank Meuers of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 952-334-5180, frankameuers@gmail.com )

We endorse the new plea – made today by attorney Mike Finnegan – that Ramsey County law enforcement officials more aggressively investigate the possible destruction of evidence by top Catholic officials in the Twin Cities.

[Star Tribune]

Finnegan’s request comes as more evidence of cover ups of child sex crimes is made public in the Twin Cities archdiocese. This time the alleged predator is Fr. Donald Dummer and the alleged “enabler” is Fr. Kevin McDonough. Evidence suggests that child porn was destroyed and that credible allegations against Fr. Dummer were hidden for 14 years, until just weeks ago.

What on earth will it take before John Choi shows some spine and takes a more vigorous approach to pursuing these church criminals?

As best we can tell, no subpoenas or search warrants have been issued. No one has questioned Fr. McDonough, who has been deeply involved in cover ups for years in the Twin Cities. What could possibly justify such a slow and timid response to such a continuing crisis?

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 25 years and have more than 18,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

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VIRGINIA
Roanoke Times

By Robby Korth robby.korth@roanoke.com 381-1679

CHRISTIANSBURG — A former pastor and youth minister in Hopewell pleaded guilty to two counts of procuring a sex act by computer Wednesday in Montgomery County.

Deric Peacock, 30, was sentenced to serve five years in prison and seven years probation upon his release by Circuit Court Judge Marcus Long. Peacock had online communications in which he exposed himself and said he fantasized about having sex with what he thought were a 12-year-old girl and her mother, but both were in fact, a Christiansburg police detective.

Long sentenced Peacock to a total of 20 years, but suspended 15.

The five-year sentence is 18 months above the high end of usual guidelines in such cases, county Commonwealth’s Attorney Mary Pettitt said. Long agreed to go above guidelines because of Peacock’s role as a minister, he said.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Nov. 13

For more information: David Clohessy ( 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com ), Judy Jones, 636-433-2511, SNAPJudy@gmail.com

Vatican claims to speed up sex abuse appeals
But no word yet on local priest ousted 7 years ago
He faces at least two allegations of molesting girls
Child molesting cleric now teaches in St. Clairsville or Woodsfield
SNAP: “Steubenville Bishop needs to take action and push harder”

Vatican officials claim they’ll soon be taking quicker action to defrock predator priests. And a victims’ support group wants a Steubenville priest – who now teaches at a local college – to be among them.

[Religion News Service]

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, say they hope that Fr. Gary Zalenski will soon be ousted from the priesthood. Seven years ago this month, Fr. Zalenski was suspended from active ministry in the Steubenville diocese by then-Bishop Daniel Conlon. The priest is still being paid by current Steubenville Bishop Jeffrey Monforton.

“Fr. Zalenski is living and working unsupervised among unsuspecting colleagues and vulnerable students at a college, so defrocking him will help warn others about him and hopefully keep more children away from him,” said SNAP leader Judy Jones, a Woodsfield native. “We urge anyone who may have had contact with Fr Zalenski to find the courage to speak up, get help, expose wrongdoers, prevent abuse and start healing.”

Fr. Zalenski is on the faculty at Belmont College which has branches in the Ohio towns of Cadiz, Woodsfield and St. Clairsville. The school offers classes at the Swiss Hills Career Center, which is part of the Switzerland of Ohio Local School District (740 472 5801). The district is headed by Superintendent John Hall.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 11/13/2014

When two employees at St. Mary’s church in downtown St. Paul found what they believed was child pornography in the Rev. Donald J. Dummer’s living quarters in 1997, they brought the material to an archdiocese official.

Over the next five years, the circle of church leaders made aware of the material grew. It included then-Vicar General Kevin McDonough, Archbishop Harry Flynn, and the Rev. Joseph Hitpas, Dummer’s superior in the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the order to which he belonged.

It even reached the apostolic nuncio in Washington, D.C., Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States.

But the potentially criminal material was never turned over to law enforcement. Instead, Hitpas told Flynn in 2002, “I will dispose of the tapes.”

The details of the events involving the former Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis priest were released Thursday by attorney Jeff Anderson of St. Paul, who obtained it through a lawsuit.

A message left for Dummer, now 77 and living in an oblates residence in Tewksbury, Mass., was returned by the residence’s administrator, David Arthur, who referred a reporter to the oblates headquarters in Washington, D.C. Messages left there were not immediately returned.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A Catholic priest has been charged with a string of sex offences dating back 30 years.

Canon Mortimer Stanley returned to Greater Manchester from his home in Ireland to face the allegations at Bury Magistrates court today.

The Crown Prosecution Service authorised Greater Manchester Police to charge Canon Stanley, 82, after complaints by former pupils at a Rochdale school.

He is accused of 17 charges of indecent assault on a girl under 14 between 1977 and 1988.

The allegations involve ten victims. All the alleged victims were pupils at St Vincent’s Primary School, which has been historically linked to the parish.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: RANDY FURST , Star Tribune Updated: November 13, 2014

Documents alleging that church leaders destroyed videotapes have been turned over to Ramsey County attorney’s office.

Church officials in St. Paul may have destroyed evidence that a St. Paul priest possessed child pornography, a St. Paul attorney charged Thursday.

Documents released at a news conference describe an alleged coverup by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and Vatican officials in Washington, D.C., in the case of the Rev. Donald Dummer. Dummer was among those recently added to a list of priests with credible accusations of sexual misconduct.

Attorney Mike Finnegan and former priest Patrick Wall, who work with clergy abuse litigator Jeff Anderson, gave media representatives documents describing the destruction of allegedly pornographic videotapes by a former vicar general of the archdiocese, Kevin McDonough, and an official in a religious order in St. Paul.

McDonough, the No. 2 person in the archdiocese, got the allegedly pornographic videotapes in 1997 and 1998 and destroyed them, according to a document prepared by an employee at St. Mary’s Parish, 261 East 8th Street, St. Paul.

Another document quotes a St. Paul religious order leader stating that he would dispose of the alleged pornography.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 14, 2014

Frank McGuire

Middle-aged men wept with joy. Women silenced by unspeakable crimes since they were girls raised three cheers for the Victorian Parliament a year ago, when I told survivors of child sexual abuse that bipartisan support had been secured to implement all recommendations from the landmark report, Betrayal of Trust.

Findings of the parliamentary inquiry revealed a cover-up that killed in religious and other non-government organisations in Victoria. Heinous crimes were exposed, blighted lives acknowledged and remedies agreed across the political divide.

Victims abused physically, emotionally and sexually as innocent children felt vindicated after summoning the fortitude as adults to testify. Survivors waved red balloons and hugged each other during the “Rally of Hope” on the steps of Parliament, in recognition that after so much suffering at the hands of institutions, a measure of trust had finally been restored.

Goodwill expired with Victoria’s 57th Parliament. Survivors have contacted me dismayed that key recommendations were not implemented despite incontrovertible evidence that the sexual and physical abuse of children has been endemic for generations in many Victorian public and private institutions.

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ITALY
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor November 13, 2014

Under ordinary circumstances, the election of a new regional vice president for the Italian bishops’ conference would elicit little more than yawns in Italy, and no reaction at all anywhere else.

Circumstances in the Catholic Church today, however, are anything but ordinary.

Thus it was that Tuesday’s 140-60 win by Bishop Mario Meini of Fiesole over Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto as vice president for Central Italy of CEI, the Italian episcopal conference, was quickly hailed as a bellwether for the direction of the Church in the early 21st century.

Specifically, the result has been seen as a vote of no confidence for the role the moderate-to-progressive Forte played at the recent Synod of Bishops for the family. Forte was the lead author of a controversial interim report with daringly positive evaluations of same-sex unions and other kinds of relationships outside the bounds of official Church teaching.

Backlash against the interim report set the stage for far more cautious language in the synod’s final document, and his defeat this week has been styled as an additional rebuke.

One traditionalist Catholic blog in Italy carried the news of the election along with an image of a cell phone screen displaying the prompt, “Message Received!” An English-language Catholic blog said the outcome expressed “blowback from the scandalous press and the politburo tactics applied at the October Synod.”

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LATIN AMERICA
First Coast News

USA Today

MIAMI — In just one generation, Latin America has seen the number of people who identify themselves as Catholic plummet, with more people becoming Protestant or dropping religion altogether, a new report shows.

The shift is dramatic for a region that has long been one of the bastions of Catholicism in the world. With more than 425 million Catholics, Latin America accounts for nearly 40% of the global Catholic population. Through the 1960s, at least 90% of Latin Americans were Catholic, and 84% of people surveyed recently by the Pew Research Center said they were raised Catholic.

But the report released Thursday found that only 69% of Latin Americans still consider themselves Catholic, with more people switching to more conservative Protestant churches (19%) or describing themselves as agnostic or religiously unaffiliated (8%).

Even last year’s election of an Argentine as pope to head the Catholic Church has led to conflicting feelings in Latin America.

“While it is too soon to know whether (Pope) Francis can stop or reverse the church’s losses in the region, the new survey finds that people who are currently Catholic overwhelmingly view Francis favorably and consider his papacy a major change for the church,” the report said. “But former Catholics are more skeptical about Pope Francis. Only in Argentina and Uruguay do majorities of ex-Catholics express a favorable view of the pope.”

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MINNESOTA/MASSACHUSETTS
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Donald Dummer Documents
Donald Dummer File
Donald Dummer Timeline
[press conference video]

This priest is now in Tewksbury: [Massachusetts]

[BishopAccountability.org]

Media Advisory

November 13, 2014

Documents indicate possible child pornography destroyed by Fr. Kevin McDonough and Fr. Joseph Hitpas

WHAT: At a news conference today, attorney Mike Finnegan and former priest and monk Patrick Wall will:

· Release the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis priest file of Father Donald Dummer who was in possession of possible child pornography in 1997, 1998 and 2002.

· Discuss the possible destruction of evidence by church officials including former Vicar General Father Kevin McDonough and Oblates Superior Father Joseph Hitpas.

· Provide and review key documents showing the mishandling of Dummer’s case.

WHEN: Thursday, November 13, 2014, at 11:00AM CT

WHERE: Jeff Anderson & Associates
366 Jackson St. Suite 100
St. Paul, MN 55101

NOTES: Dummer’s priest file and key documents are available on our website. We will live stream the press event online from our website www.andersonadvocates.com.

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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CALIFORNIA
Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA)

By: Roy L. Kaufmann

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is playing an important part in a recent case against a child abuser in Lompoc, California.

One of the lesser known parts of the SCRA is that it puts a hold on the statute of limitations in any case that a servicemember is involved in, according to The American Bar Association. This includes cases brought by or against a servicemember. Under 50 U.S. Code App. § 526, the period during which a servicemember is on active military status cannot be included when calculating any limitation period for filing suit. This element of the law played an essential part in helping a child abuse victim to bring a suit against his abuser.

Eleven years later

One of the problems in litigating child abuse cases is that the victim rarely comes forward early on. Often, it isn’t until years later that he or she is able to face the difficulties involved with bringing his or her abuser to court. As a result, there are some abuse cases that cannot be prosecuted, despite a longer statute of limitations on this type of crime than on many others.

A suit filed Oct. 30 in Los Angeles Superior Court demonstrated just this principle, according to The Lompoc Record. The suit alleges that national and Region 122 officials of the American Youth Soccer Association – the largest youth soccer organization in the United States – allowed Terence Paul Stevens to retain his position as coach after he was arrested and admitted to the abuse. It states that he used his position to gain access to and “groom” youths for sexual abuse.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Greenock Telegraph

Published: 13 Nov 2014

A TORMENTED Greenock man told today how he was sexually abused by paedophile priests from the age of 11 — then handed a ‘paltry’ £8,000 payout half-a-century later.

Gerry McLaughlin, now aged 61, has spoken out about the abuse he says he endured at the hands of priests.

Gerry McLaughlin, now 61, waived his right to anonymity to speak to the Telegraph about his disgust at the settlement — which came with no admission of the suffering he says he had to endure.

He was taken from his family home in West Stewart Street by a holy order called the Verona Fathers to a seminary school in Yorkshire where he planned to study for the priesthood himself.

Another four boys — three from Greenock and one from Port Glasgow — were among the intake from the local area to the order’s St Peter’s Mirfield institution 50 years ago.

But Gerry told how the abuse by two churchmen — Fr John Pinkman and Fr Domenico Valmaggia — began within days of his arrival there.

Gerry — who now lives in Ireland — told how Valmaggia locked him in the school’s infirmary and tried to ‘cure’ him of a groin injury by rubbing his private parts.

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WASHINGTON
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Harold Ernsdorff was a priest of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, ordained in 1943. He was pastor of a parish and ran a school on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Washington state. He spent his last five years at Seattle Prep High school in Seattle until his death in 1958. Ernsdorff’s name was included in 2011 on the Oregon Province’s list of its members who have been identified as perpetrators of sexual abuse.

Ordained: 1943
Died: Aug. 21, 1958

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WTOP

By John Aaron

WASHINGTON – Any talk of a plea agreement with a Georgetown rabbi charged with voyeurism is premature, D.C. prosecutors said hours after suggesting in court that a deal might be offered.

During a status hearing in D.C. Superior Court Wednesday, prosecutors asked a judge for additional time before the case moves forward to negotiate a possible plea deal with Rabbi Barry Freundel, who is accused of secretly recording women as they undressed for a ritual cleansing.

The suggestion that the case would not go to trial angered representatives of victims who were in the courtroom, sparked an outcry on social media and quickly drew a clarification from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

A statement from the office says that the investigation continues and that no plea offer has been made.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Failed Messiah

Video: Possible Victims Of Alleged Mikvah Voyeur Rabbi Barry Freundel Upset With Government Handling Of Case

Possible victims of the Rabbi Barry Freundel, who allegedly secretly videoed naked women as they prepared to immerse in the mikvah (ritual bath) he controlled are upset with the government’s handling of the case, talk of plea deal, may sue synagogue, Rabbinical Council of America.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Editorial published in the Gallup Independent, Nov. 12, 2014

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Diocese of Gallup’s Chapter 11 petition being filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Mediation talks before Judge Randall J. Newsome should begin soon if they haven’t already started.

As Bishop James S. Wall discusses mediation strategy with his bankruptcy attorneys, he needs to keep some very vulnerable children in the forefront of his thoughts. Although they are adults now, the case’s clergy sex abuse claimants were once Catholic children from parishes across the diocese. They were once children whose parents sent them to Catholic schools and churches to learn about their Christian faith. They were once eager young altar servers. Neither they nor their parents expected to be betrayed by their own church leaders.

As the mediator, Newsome also needs to keep some promises in the forefront of his thoughts. Newsome is new to the bankruptcy case, but he needs to hold the Gallup bishop and his attorneys accountable for some old promises. Whatever monetary settlement amount is determined for abuse survivors, the mediation talks should result in a settlement agreement that includes the following requirements that will insure clergy abuse survivors finally receive some truth and transparency from the diocese.

• Publicly release a list of everyone associated with the Gallup Diocese who has been credibly accused of the sexual abuse of minors since the diocese’s founding. This includes men and women, priests, members of religious orders, employees and volunteers. This list needs to be posted on the diocese’s website as the bishop promised when he arrived here in 2009, and it needs to be posted permanently and prominently. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s listing on its “Office of Investigations” webpage would be an example to emulate.

• Publicize the list of credibly accused abusers by inserting it for three consecutive weeks in the church bulletins of every parish that was ever part of the Gallup Diocese.

• Publicly release and post online every personnel file of each credibly accused abuser. Identifying information pertaining to clergy sex abuse victims must be redacted, but diocesan officials and their attorneys should not be allowed a role in the redaction responsibilities.

• Require the personnel file of James M. Burns, which has already been released and posted online, to be re-released with dramatically fewer redactions. It is unacceptable that the Gallup Diocese was allowed to censor more than one-third of this notorious abuser’s file.

• Require the diocese to offer counseling to all victims of clergy sex abuse and their immediate family members by underwriting the cost of the therapy.

• Require the diocese to create a new ethics policy for all employees and volunteers. Require that policy be posted prominently on the diocese’s website, and require all employees and volunteers to read and sign the policy and attest to the fact that they have not violated the policy. Another good example from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia would be its “Standards of Ministerial Behaviors and Boundaries.”

• Require the diocese to publicly remove from ministry every employee and volunteer who has violated the ethics policy. The Gallup Diocese currently has a number of individuals who have not been accused of sexually abusing children, but they have been credibly accused of offenses that range from “boundary” allegations to violent crimes. The diocese needs to finally remove these individuals from ministry and tell the public the truth about their removal.

• Publicly release a list of all real property in Arizona and New Mexico, along with the sale prices, which the diocese has sold to help fund the bankruptcy settlement. This includes residential lots, rural tracts of land, and commercial property that is not needed for religious purposes. Lead bankruptcy attorney Susan G. Boswell promised such a list would be compiled, and she promised such property would be sold. The Diocese of Gallup has no need for such property — it needs to live up to its promise of funding a fair and just settlement.

These mediation talks and the final settlement agreement will reveal a lot about the character of the Gallup bishop. We hope it will reveal some sorely needed moral courage.

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MISSISSIPPI
Sun Herald

BY ROBIN FITZGERALD

GULFPORT — A former Gulfport teacher accused of molesting boys in Gulfport and on out-of-state trips is set for a change-of-plea hearing Dec. 2 in federal court.

Chief U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. has set Richard Pryor’s hearing for 2 p.m.

The FBI has accused Pryor, 68, of molesting boys ages 12 to 14 from 1999 through 2005 while he was a teacher at Bayou View Middle School. The acts allegedly occurred mostly during summers, when Pryor took groups of boys on excursions to other states.

He pleaded not guilty Sept. 15.

He was a geometry and algebra teacher at St. Patrick Catholic High in Biloxi when he was arrested on a complaint Aug. 19.

Pryor confessed to sexually assaulting eight boys and the FBI received information about at least three other victims, according to court testimony.

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UNITED STATES
Verdict

Marci A. Hamilton

Reporter Laurie Goodstein wrote a fascinating New York Times front-page story this week on the admissions by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“LDS Church”) regarding their founder, Joseph Smith, and the fact he had approximately 40 wives, one of whom was age 14, and some others of whom were already married to other men. This came as a surprise to numerous LDS believers, who had been taught that Smith was a paradigm of virtue devoted to his first wife, Emma. The truth is that he was a rapacious polygamist, and his first wife was not a fan of his polygamy or his revelations on the topic. Some believers are having difficulty squaring these now-documented facts with what they had previously been told about the founder of their faith.

From my perspective, the most important element of this story is why the LDS Church found it necessary to post these damaging facts on its website, given that this is not the most flattering information. The apparent answer is the Internet: “Elder Steven E. Snow, the church historian and a member of its senior leadership, said in an interview [with Goodstein], ‘There is so much out there on the Internet that we felt we owed our members a safe place where they could go to get reliable, faith-promoting information that was true about some of these more difficult aspects of our history.’” Janet Heimlich, author of Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Maltreatment and founder of the Child-Friendly Faith Project, elaborates on this point: “The fact that the LDS church is posting these essays online—even though it is not making them easy to find—speaks volumes. I have been struck by how insular the Mormon community is, yet how former members needed only to do one or two Google searches to find information that contradicted what they had been told their whole lives, including how they were supposed to believe, feel, and act as children. From there, their belief system quickly unraveled. So the church is losing members and it’s scared. And it realizes that it would prefer to be the messenger of such information than other critical sites as a way to stop the hemorrhaging.”

In short, it is no longer as feasible to perpetuate historical misinformation by religious organizations as it was before the Internet. With blogs, a proliferation of media outlets, social media, and websites established to address specific problems in particular communities, the balance of power between the powerful and the vulnerable has been altered for the better and hopefully permanently. …

Given the size and global scope of the Catholic Church, it is inconceivable that, without the Internet, connections could have been made between survivors across countries as they have, with strong coalitions between Irish, Australian, and American survivors, and the emergence of a pattern of behavior by the hierarchy that is echoed in one country after another. Such a global comparison of experiences and the ability to see such patterns were enhanced dramatically by the Internet. In turn, the global character of the scandal earned the attention of the United Nations, which held hearings and issued damning reports on the failures of the Catholic Church to protect children, despite being a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Internet is also the home for the remarkable database of facts, documents, and news stories about the ongoing revelations of clergy abuse at www.bishopaccountability.org, which was founded by Terry McKiernan and Anne Barrett Doyle, who now devote the vast majority of their time to building and securing this cache of information.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Dan Griffin
Thu, Nov 13, 2014

The commission of inquiry into mother and baby homes will neglect the experiences of children who suffered physical and sexual abuse if it fails to include certain Protestant-run institutions, a campaign group has said.

The Bethany Survivors Group is calling for an inquiry that includes all homes that catered for the Protestant community in the Republic such as the Bethany Home in Dublin, Westbank Orphanage in Wicklow and the Church of Ireland Magdalene Home in Dublin.

Minister for Children James Reilly will meet with groups and individuals over the next two weeks as he finalises the terms of reference for the commission. A spokesman for Dr Reilly said the Minister wants to see the matters addressed “in a sensitive and timely manner”.

Following a meeting with Dr Reilly yesterday afternoon, the survivors group expressed concern that Westbank Orphanage would be excluded from the terms of reference. “As far as he is concerned, it won’t be included,” said the group’s secretary, Niall Meehan.

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UNITED STATES
Breitbart

In 2007 documentary filmmaker Amy Berg was nominated for an Oscar for “Deliver Us from Evil,” a documentary examining the notorious child sex abuse scandal within the Catholic Church. Her latest documentary, “An Open Secret,” will look at the sexual abuse of children in Hollywood.

Though it has no distributor, the film will premier at a New York City film festival Friday and, according to the Hollywood Reporter, “paints a broad picture of sexual exploitation in the entertainment industry[.]”

An Open Secret also examines several other cases: Talent manager Marty Weiss — who pleaded no contest in 2012 to two counts of committing lewd acts on a child after he was charged with eight felony counts of molesting a young performer he represented — is seen in the film attending family gatherings with one of his victims, then is heard, on tape, admitting to the molestation. Bob Villard, a talent manager who at one time represented a young Leonardo DiCaprio and who pleaded no contest to a similar felony charge in 2005, is alleged to have sold pictures of boys (often pictured shirtless, in subservient poses) on eBay.

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UNITED STATES
Indiana Daily Student

By Editorial Board

The first step to recovery is admitting the problem, and the Roman Catholic Church is confessing all of its 
transgressions to its followers.

Cardinal Francis E. George released roughly 15,000 pages describing acts of sexual abuse committed by priests in the Chicago area, according to the New York Times.

The documents include graphic descriptions of the priests’ conduct and church officials’ slow response in addressing several of the cases. All of the priests mentioned in the documents are no longer serving in the church.

Though the release of these documents is a step in the right direction, i n releasing these documents just days before his retirement, George should have made a greater effort to express his motive behind his decision to release the information.

Church leaders should also reform their institution to ensure that child sexual abuse never goes unpunished again.

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INDIANA
NWI Times

Sarah Reese sarah.reese@nwi.com, (219) 933-3351

A New York priest convicted Wednesday in Massachusetts of raping a boy multiple times in 1981 and 1982 also abused a Cedar Lake boy in 1975, the victims’ attorney said.

The Rev. Richard McCormick, 73, was convicted Wednesday of five counts of child rape in connection with crimes that occurred while the Massachusetts boy attended a summer camp at the Salesian Brothers’ Sacred Heart retreat center in Ipswich, Mass., where McCormick worked, prosecutors said.

McCormick was assigned to the Salesian Preparatory School in Cedar Lake from about 1972 to 1976, said attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents both victims. The school closed in 1979.

In 1975, McCormick took a then 14-year-old boy from Cedar Lake on a trip to Rome, where McCormick sexually abused the boy, Garabedian said.

McCormick never faced criminal charges in the case linked to Cedar Lake, he said.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Salem News

BY JULIE MANGANIS STAFF WRITER

IPSWICH — Three decades ago, the Rev. Richard McCormick took his innocence and his faith, said the now-grown victim of repeated rapes by McCormick.

On Wednesday, a jury and a judge took McCormick’s freedom.

McCormick, 73, was put into custody moments after a Lawrence Superior Court jury found him guilty of five counts of child rape, charges stemming from incidents at a camp operated by McCormick’s religious order, the Salesian Society of North America, in Ipswich.

McCormick, who denies the abuse, his lawyer said during the trial, faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison when he is sentenced on Dec. 18. Each count carries a potential life term.

Judge Robert Cornetta, who filled in for trial Judge Mary Lou Rup Wednesday, granted prosecutor Kate MacDougall’s request to revoke McCormick’s bail. Prior to his arrest, McCormick was living at a home for retired Salesian priests in New Rochelle, New York. While out on bail awaiting trial, he was living at the Vianney Renewal Center outside St. Louis, Missouri, a facility for priests accused of sexual abuse.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Fox 5

[with video]

By Maureen Umeh, FOX 5 Reporter & Anchor

WASHINGTON –
A prominent D.C. rabbi charged with six counts of voyeurism was in court on Wednesday for a status hearing.

Barry Freundel was ordered not to leave the country and the judge set his next court date for January 16.

Police say Freundel set up hidden cameras inside a sacred synagogue shower and captured video of women preparing for a ritual bath in various stages of undress.

Outside D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday, a couple of women who say they were victims and their lawyers spoke out. They revealed what they say was going on inside at what they thought was a sacred place.

Inside the courtroom, Freundel sat with his head down. Prosecutors asked for more time to gather information and indicated they may seek a plea deal.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Inside Baltimore

Retired Cop Confirms 2 Witnesses Also Reported
“Death Threats” from the Later-Defrocked Cleric

“I Wiped Maggots from Her Face,” Recalls
Former Student at Baltimore Catholic School

Archdiocese Paid $40,000 to a Second Abuse Victim
For Injuries Dead Nun Allegedly Sought to Prevent

By Tom Nugent

[Editor’s Note: The two poems at the end of the following story are published with the permission of the author, who signed them as: “Jean Hargadon Wehner, Survivor.”]

November 2014 – After remaining anonymous for more than 40 years, a Baltimore woman has come forward to identify herself as a witness who was “shown the dead body of Sister Cathy” Cesnik by a Catholic priest who was allegedly involved in the nun’s murder as a way to keep her from reporting his sexual abuse of students at a Catholic high school in the city.

Jean Hargadon Wehner, known only as “Jane Doe” during a controversial 1994 lawsuit that sought to collect $40 million in damages resulting from alleged rampant sexual abuse at Archbishop Keough High School in the late 1960s and early 1970s, said she was taken to a garbage dump in Lansdowne by the alleged abuser-priest in the late fall of 1969.

The isolated and difficult to find dump was located only half a mile from the St. Clement Roman Catholic Church in Lansdowne, where the alleged – and later defrocked – abuser-priest served as pastor for several years.

“When [the now-deceased pastor, Father A. Joseph] Maskell told me he would take me to Cathy [murder victim Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik, a former English teacher and drama coach at the high school], he led me to believe she was still alive,” said Wehner. “I had no idea where we were going. As I walked around a corner, I saw her on the ground. I ran over, bent down, and began wiping maggots off her face.

“As I stared at my hands in shock, Maskell leaned over and whispered in my ear: ‘You see what happens when you say bad things about people?’”

Wehner, one of two plaintiffs in the 1990s lawsuit, said she had decided to come forward at this time because other former Keough students have also been speaking out about the alleged abuse in recent months – and because her own healing process has now reached the point where she can talk more openly about the years of abuse she allegedly endured at the former Catholic girls high school in southwest Baltimore during the late 1960s.

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INDIA
Times of India

JAIPUR: A 52-year-old Christian priest of an orphanage in Tara Nagar locality in Jhotwara was arrested late on Wednesday evening for allegedly raping and harassing two minor girls staying in his hostel. The preist’s arrest was made after one seven-year-old girl narrated about her ill-treatment by the accused at a nearby school and the matter was informed to the police.

According to the police, nearly 19 girls are inmates of Mercy Home, an orphanage run by the accused at Tara Nagar locality in the city. On Wednesday, a seven-year-old girl told a lady teacher where she was studying that the Father of the hostel in which she stays, identified as Johnson Chacko, has been ill-treating her by touching her private parts and was also doing other indecent things.

After having a long discussion within the school, finally, the teachers around 6 pm decided to take up the matter and informed the police late in the evening .

“The lady teacher took the matter seriously and informed about it to the her colleagues. In the evening, they decided to take the matter to us. While we inquired from the girl about the incident, another girl narrated the same plight. And we have registered a case under appropriate sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual offences (POCSO) Act,” said a police officer of Jhotwara.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Fox Boston

(MyFoxBoston.com) — A priest from New York was convicted of child rape charges Wednesday related to the rape of a boy at a summer camp in Ipswich back in the 1980s.

Between 1981 and 1982, Rev. Richard McCormick, now 73 years old, repeatedly raped a boy while the boy attended a summer camp in Ipswich at the Salesian Brothers’ Sacred Heart retreat center. McCormick worked at the center. McCormick was convicted on five charges of child rape following a trial that lasted four days.

The victim, now 44 years old, was between 10 and 12 years old when the rapes took place. McCormick is also facing another charge of child rape related to another male victim who attended the same summer camp at the same time as the first victim. A trial date for that charge has not yet been set.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Reuters

(Reuters) – Prosecutors and defense lawyers told a judge on Wednesday that a prominent Washington rabbi accused of secretly filming women taking ritual baths is still being investigated and there may be more victims, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said on Wednesday.

The suspect, Rabbi Barry Freundel, 62, was arrested in October at his home in the U.S. capital’s upscale Georgetown neighborhood, a few blocks from his modern Orthodox synagogue, Kesher Israel Congregation.

He pleaded not guilty in District of Columbia Superior Court to six counts of voyeurism, a misdemeanor.

During a hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Zubrensky told Senior Judge Patricia Wynn that her office had created a section on the Justice Department’s website for alleged victims.

The section asks possible victims to contact the U.S. Attorney’s office with any information.

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OREGON
Catholic Sentinel

A priest charged with trying to lure a 14-year-old girl into his car will face trial Feb. 9.

Father Michael Patrick was pastor of St. Wenceslaus Parish in Scappoose when the alleged incident took place this March in Vancouver, Wash., where he kept a residence.

The priest faces a felony count of luring. He was arrested this spring in Los Angeles after a vacation trip to Australia.

The girl provided police with Father Patrick’s license plate number and a description of him and his car. In an affidavit, the priest denied interacting with the girl.

The priest is no longer in custody. At an early October court date, his attorney as that the trial be moved to February.

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CALIFORNIA
Neepawa Press

Gillian Flaccus / The Associated Press
November 12, 2014

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – A high-ranking Roman Catholic monsignor with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles who was accused of sex abuse says he is “deeply happy and grateful” to be exonerated by an internal Vatican tribunal.

Msgr. Richard Loomis made the comments Wednesday in a written statement to The Associated Press. He says people should pray for wrongly accused priests.

Loomis had been on leave since he was accused of sex abuse in 2003 but is once more a priest in good standing.

The alleged victim says he was never contacted by the Vatican tribunal and was unaware it had been examining the case for a decade.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Salem News

BY JULIE MANGANIS STAFF WRITER

IPSWICH — A retired Catholic priest could face spending the rest of his life in prison after a Lawrence Superior Court jury found him guilty of five counts of child rape Wednesday morning.

The victim, now 44, wept as the verdicts were read against Rev. Richard McCormick, 73, a Salesian priest who once ran the Ipswich camp the victim attended in the early 1980s, when he was between the ages of 10 and 12. The camp was on the grounds of the Sacred Heart Retreat, which is now the location of New England Biolabs.

McCormick, who had been free on bail in the case and living at a facility for priests accused of sexual abuse in Missouri, was taken into custody in the courtroom and will await sentencing at Middleton Jail. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 18.

The victim said outside court that he feels vindicated by the jury’s verdict and grateful that they believed him.

While he disclosed the abuse to a former girlfriend more than 20 years ago, he did not come forward to authorities until just a few years ago, after finding McCormick’s name and image in a directory of priests online, and realizing that it was the man he called “Father Dick.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Ipswich

Posted Nov. 12, 2014

IPSWICH

A Lawrence Superior Court jury convicted Rev. Richard McCormick, 73, on five counts of child rape today, Wednesday, Nov. 12, following a four-day trial in connection with molestation that took place at an Ipswich Catholic religious retreat 33 years ago.

Judge Mary Lou Rup will sentence McCormick on Dec. 18 at 2 p.m. He was taken into custody after the verdict was returned.

Essex Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall introduced evidence that proved McCormick raped a boy on multiple occasions between 1981 and 1982. The rapes occurred while the boy attended a summer camp at the Salesian Brothers’ Sacred Heart retreat center in Ipswich where McCormick worked. The victim, who is now 44, was between 10 and 12 years old when the rapes took place.

The retreat was located off County Road, where New England Bio Labs is now, across from Appleton Farms.

“Rape of a child is a heinous crime,” District Attorney Blodgett said. “It is a fundamental violation of a child’s innocence that can never be truly restored. My hope is that these guilty verdicts allow this brave man to find some peace of mind, knowing that none of this was his fault.”

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UNITED STATES
Jewish Exponent

NOVEMBER 12, 2014
By: Amy Neustein

Twelve years ago, attorney Michael Lesher and I wrote a column for this newspaper about the tendency of too many rabbinic leaders to ignore the reality of sexual abuse in order to keep up the facade of a faultless Jewish community. At that time, the Catholic Church was reeling from charges that its prelates protected child-molesting priests, covering up the truth and silencing victims. Since then, we opined that cover-ups were common across religions.

Now, we may be proven wrong. The recent arrest of Rabbi Barry Freundel of the Kesher Israel Congregation in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., for placing secret cameras in his mikvah while female converts were preparing for ritual purification, has forced the Rabbinical Council of America to set up a committee to re-examine the entire conversion process and suggest practical safeguards against possible abuses.

Among the advocates and sex abuse survivors I have spoken to in the past few weeks, there are those who see this move by the RCA as nothing more than a stratagem.

“They are hiding behind a committee now just as they hid the complaints of the converts in 2012 and 2013 from the synagogue,” exclaimed one abuse survivor who asked that her identity be protected.

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OSTERREICH
Erzdiozese Wien

Die Erzdiözese Wien hat aufgrund der seit 2010 für alle katholischen Diözesen und Orden Österreichs geltenden Regeln einen in der Stadt Wien im Pfarrdienst tätigen Priester vorläufig dienstfrei gestellt, teilt das Ordinariat der Erzdiözese mit. Die Dienstfreistellung erfolgte aufgrund eines Missbrauchsverdachtes. Dazu laufen auch Erhebungen der Staatsanwaltschaft.

Die Dienstfreistellung bleibt aufrecht, bis die Vorwürfe geklärt sind. Diese Dienstfreistellung ist keine Vorverurteilung, sondern eine Vorsichtsmaßnahme laut Artikel 3.2.1 der Rahmenordnung der Österreichischen Bischofskonferenz für Maßnahmen gegen Missbrauch und Gewalt.

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OSTERREICH
Kurier

[Vienna priest ‘abused child’, had ‘child porn’ – The Local]

Gegen einen Wiener Priester wird wegen des Verdachts des sexuellen Missbrauchs ermittelt. Es soll zu sexuellen Übergriffen auf einen Jugendlichen gekommen sein, bestätigte Nina Bussek, Sprecherin der Staatsanwaltschaft Wien, einen Bericht von derstandard.at. Zudem soll der Mann kinderpornografisches Bildmaterial besessen haben, bei einer Hausdurchsuchung wurden mehrere Datenträger sichergestellt.

Die Durchsuchung erfolgte bereits vergangenen Freitag. Die Datenträger müssten noch ausgewertet werden, sagte Bussek. Laut dem Online-Bericht war der Mann in einer katholischen Kirche tätig und wurde von der Erzdiözese Wien dienstfrei gestellt.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Essex District Attorney’s Office: Jonathan Blodgett

A Lawrence Superior Court jury convicted Rev. Richard McCormick, 73, on 5 counts of child rape today following a 4-day trial. Judge Mary Lou Rup will sentence Rev. McCormick on December 18 at 2:00 p.m. He was taken into custody after the verdict was returned.

Essex Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall introduced evidence that proved that Rev. McCormick raped a boy on multiple occasions between 1981 and 1982. The rapes occurred while the boy attended a summer camp at the Salesian Brothers’ Sacred Heart retreat center in Ipswich where Rev. McCormick worked. The victim, who is 44, was between age 10 and 12 years old the rapes took place.

“Rape of a child is a heinous crime,” District Attorney Blodgett said. “It is a fundamental violation of a child’s innocence that can never be truly restored. My hope is that these guilty verdicts allows this brave man to find some peace of mind, knowing that none of this was his fault.”

MacDougall thanked Essex Victim Advocate Amy Snow and Ipswich Police Officer Peter Dziadose for their work on the investigation and the trial. She also acknowledged the courage of the victim for his bravery in coming forward and seeking justice.

McCormick is charged with another count of child rape in connection with allegations made by another male victim who attended the same summer camp during the same period. The trial date for this case has not been scheduled.

McCormick was represented by Attorney Steve Neyman.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Martin Finucane
| GLOBE STAFF NOVEMBER 12, 2014

A Roman Catholic priest has been convicted of five counts of child rape for attacking a boy on multiple occasions between 1981 and 1982 in Ipswich, the Essex County district attorney’s office said Wednesday.

The Rev. Richard McCormick, 73, was convicted by a jury Wednesday in Lawrence Superior Court after a four-day trial, District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett’s office said in a statement.

The rapes occurred while the boy attended a summer camp at the Salesian Brothers’ Sacred Heart retreat center in Ipswich, where McCormick worked. The victim, who is 44, was between age 10 and 12 years old when the rapes took place.

“Rape of a child is a heinous crime,” Blodgett said in the statement. “It is a fundamental violation of a child’s innocence that can never be truly restored. My hope is that these guilty verdicts allows this brave [victim] to find some peace of mind, knowing that none of this was his fault.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
NECN

Wednesday, Nov 12, 2014

A Massachusetts jury has found a priest guilty on five counts of child rape, following a four-day trial.

Essex Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall had introduced evidence that proved Rev. Richard McCormick, 73, raped a boy on multiple occasions between 1981 and 1982.

The rapes occurred while the boy attended a summer camp at the Salesian Brothers’ Sacred Heart retreat center in Ipswich, where McCormick worked.

The victim, who is now 44, was between age 10 and 12 years old when the rapes took place.

McCormick is charged with another count of child rape in connection with allegations made by another male victim who attended the same summer camp during the same period. The trial date for this case has not been scheduled.

He will be sentenced on Dec. 18.

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MARYLAND
CBS Baltimore

Mike Hellgren

TOWSON, Md. (WJZ)—A volunteer at a synagogue says a former Towson University professor and rabbi accused of secretly recording some of his students treated it like a carwash and may have a thousand victims.

Investigative reporter Mike Hellgren has details on what happened when the rabbi appeared in court this morning.

Rabbi Barry Freundel is charged with six counts of voyeurism after police found a clock radio with a hidden camera in the shower area of a ritual bath at the Kesher Israel Congregation in Georgetown.

In court Wednesday, a synagogue volunteer said she knew dozens of Towson, University of Maryland and Georgetown students who went to the ritual bath.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Failed Messiah

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Alleged voyeur Rabbi Barry Freundel has a court date in Washington, DC this morning.

Freundel, who allegedly secretly videoed naked women as they prepared to immerse in the mikvah (ritual bath) adjacent to the Kesher Israel Modern Orthodox synagogue he headed in the Georgetown neighborhood of the nation’s capital, was arrested last month and charged with six counts of misdemeanor voyeurism. According to a report in the Washington Post, each count carries a possible one-year sentence, meaning Freundel faces as much as six years in prison.

However, Freundel will likely face additional charges and, depending what evidence police forensic teams have been able to find, he could even face federal charges that carry very long sentences.

It is also possible that prosecutors will allow Freundel to enter special treatment program in lieu of a prison sentence.

Freundel has been suspended without pay from Kesher Israel. He is also suspended from his teaching job at Towson University in Maryland. Freundel allegedly encourage many of his female students to take practice dunks in his mikavh. If they were secretly videoed by Freundel, that would likely allow federal criminal charges to be brought against him.

Update 11:08 am CST – Prosecutors are reportedly working with Freundel’s lawyers to craft a plea bargain, and his next court date is January 16, the Washington Jewish Week tweeted. And no new charges have been added – supposedly because prosecutors are still trying to identify victims on the video recordings, WTOP tweeted. (This is very unlikely. Identifiying the victims should be very easy.)

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Josh Nathan-Kazis
Published November 12, 2014.

Prosecutors reportedly said that there could be more victims in the Rabbi Barry Freundel mikveh peeping scandal at his hearing today in a Washington D.C. court.

Freundel was arrested nearly a month ago on charges that he secretly recorded women showing in the mikveh at his synagogue.

At the status hearing, government prosecutors told the judge that they were still investigating Freundel’s case, and were unprepared to offer a plea deal yet.

“There may be numerous victims we don’t know about,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Zubrensky said, according to the Washington Post.

The Washington Post reported that one attorney representing a potential Freundel victim was present at the hearing.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington City Paper

Posted by Perry Stein on Nov. 12, 2014

D.C. prosecutors are still trying to determine how many naked women a Georgetown rabbi allegedly spied on while they participated in a Jewish ritual bath and told a D.C. Superior Court judge today they need more time before deciding whether to offer the rabbi plea deal, the Washington Post reported.

D.C. police arrested Rabbi Barry Freundel, a prominent rabbi who oversaw the modern orthodox Kesher Israel congregation in Georgetown, in October for allegedly spying on women while they were partaking in a mikveh—a bath used in orthodox Jewish rituals. He pleaded not guilty at the time to six misdemeanor counts of voyeurism.

Officials discovered a black Sony Dream Machine radio clock with a hidden camera they say Freundel filmed people with in the shower area used to rinse off before the ceremonial bath. Evidence suggests the scope of the voyeurism extends well beyond those six victims, and since his arrest, many more women have come forward saying they think they might have been filmed.

Freundel taught at Towson University in Baltimore, and several students there say they participated in a mikveh after Freundel suggested it would be an educational experience.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

Prosecutors seek more time to find other victims in voyeurism case against rabbi

By Keith L. Alexander November 12

District prosecutors investigating the case of a Georgetown rabbi charged with secretly videotaping women using a ritual bath told a D.C. Superior Court judge Wednesday that they needed more time to determine whether there are any additional victims before deciding whether to offer a plea deal.

Barry Freundel stood next to his lawyer as Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Zubrensky told the judge that her office needed more time to investigate the case, at which point they will determine what type of plea deal her office might offer.

Freundel, 62, was arrested in October and charged with six counts of misdemeanor voyeurism. He faces up to six years in prison in connection with accusations that he hid a mini-camera in a clock radio in the shower area and videotaped women using the ritual bath, known as a mikvah, at the Kesher Israel Congregation in Georgetown.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WUSA

WASHINGTON (WUSA9) — Georgetown rabbi Doctor Barry Freundel appeared in a D.C. courtroom Wednesday for a status hearing.

The 62-year-old, who is charged with voyeurism, will have another hearing on January 16. He’s accused of setting up a camera in the women’s showers at the Kesher Israel Orthodox synagogue.

Freundel has also taught classes at several colleges in the area, and prosecutors asked to put information about future hearings online in order to inform people who may be victims.

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ARGENTINA
Infojus Noticias

[Julieta Anazco filed criminal charged against priest Hector Ricardo Gimenez, who had two previous allegations of sexual musonduct. Asking abut the previous cases the La Plata archbishop said he would offer a meeting to deal with the matter.]

Julieta Añazco denunció penalmente al sacerdote platense Héctor Ricardo Giménez, quien ya tenía dos denuncias previas por abusos sexuales. Pidió información sobre los casos anteriores al Arzobispado platense y le llegó una respuesta donde le ofrecen “compartir un encuentro donde tratar el asunto”.

Desde los ocho y hasta los diez años -en 1980, 1981 y 1982- Julieta Añazco pasó parte del verano en los campamentos que el sacerdote Héctor Ricardo Giménez organizaba en una estancia en Bavio, a 30 kilómetros de La Plata. El año pasado, corroboró que Giménez está involucrado en otras dos denuncias penales por abusos cometidos contra niños y niñas, en 1985 y 1996. Hace un mes lo denunció penalmente y, por nota, pidió información de las actuaciones por los casos en los tribunales eclesiásticos del arzobispado platense. La respuesta, escueta y sin precisiones, llegó ayer: “le envío estas líneas para ofrecerle asistir personalmente a este Arzobispado y compartir un encuentro donde tratar el asunto”.

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AUSTRIA
The Local

A Catholic priest in Vienna is under investigation for sexual abuse of a minor, according to Nina Bussek, spokesperson for the Vienna public prosecutor’s office on Wednesday.

According to the news daily Der Standard, a number of child pornography images were seized from the man’s home during a search by police. Multiple CDs were also taken as evidence.

The raid occurred on Friday last week, reported police, and the disks are still being evaluated. The man, who was working for the Catholic Church in Austria, has been suspended by the Archdiocese of Vienna pending a full investigation.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

The Church’s Response Team that investigates claims of sex abuse will be overhauled by the end of the month, Times of Malta has learnt.

Apostolic Administrator Charles Scicluna yesterday confirmed new procedures to handle cases of abuse by priests were discussed last week in a meeting he had with the Response Team and Gozo Bishop Mario Grech.

“We are tweaking the new procedures to deal with these cases and this will include restructuring the Response Team,” Mgr Scicluna said.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
InfoVaticana

El Papa Francisco llamó en mayo a Roma al Arzobispo de Rosario, José Luis Mollaghan, para formar parte de una misteriosa comisión para el estudio de graves crímenes cometidos por sacerdotes.

En aquel momento, Sandro Magister planteó la destitución como un misterio, así como el nombramiento para la comisión inexistente:

“El Santo Padre Francisco ha nombrado miembro de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe en el comité de examen de las apelaciones de los clérigos para ‘delicta graviora’ al arzobispo José Luis Mollaghan, hasta ahora Arzobispo de Rosario (Argentina).”

La Santa Sede ha dado a conocer hoy nuevas normas para los “Graviora Delicta”. Un Colegio especial de cardenales y obispos estudiará los recursos contra los delitos más graves establecidos en el Motu Proprio Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela. De este modo, se conformará la Comisión de la que ya conocemos uno de los miembros: Mollaghan.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Nov. 11

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

The first member of a new church abuse panel is an archbishop who was ousted months ago for alleged financial misdeeds and has a dismal track record on abuse in his home diocese and nation.

[Catholic News Agency]

He is Archbishop José Luis Mollaghan, who was suspended in May as head of the Rosario archdiocese in Argentina due to accusations that he mismanaged church funds, according to the Buenos Aires Herald.

[Buenos Aires Herald]

So Francis apparently believes that Mollaghan is too untrustworthy to head a diocese but is a good choice to handle predator priest cases.

The independent, Boston-based archive group BishopAccountability.org has documented a number of reckless, callous and deceitful moves by Argentinian Catholic officials in child sex abuse and cover up cases. See: http://www.bishop-accountability.org/Argentina/

Some of those cases involve Mollaghan, especially the case of Fr. Reinaldo Narvais, who faces allegations by “at least eight people, one of whom was a minor with a mental disability,” according to an Argentinian newspaper.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Religion News Service

David Gibson | November 11, 2014

BALTIMORE (RNS) Much of the private discussions at the fall meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have focused on how the American hierarchy can shift its priorities to better track those of Pope Francis, especially on social justice issues such as poverty and immigration.

But what they’d really like to do is channel the pontiff’s media mojo.

“With Pope Francis, we are tending to be identified by what we are for rather than what we are against,” said Auxiliary Bishop Christopher Coyne of Indianapolis, who was elected Tuesday (Nov. 11) to oversee the bishops’ communications strategy.

In fact, since the moment he was elected pope last year, Francis changed the entire media narrative about the Vatican — from a source of scandal and dysfunction under Benedict XVI to the launchpad for Catholic reform and renewal based on a message of mercy.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Jewish Daily Forward

By Forward Staff
Published November 12, 2014.

Rabbi Barry Freundel is expected to appear in a Washington D.C. court today to face charges he used a hidden camera to peep on women in the mikveh of his Orthodox synagogue.

The disgraced cleric faces six counts of voyeurism, a misdemeanor, and could face up to six years in prison.

Prosecutors might outline any additional charges at the hearing, and defense lawyers could push to have Freundel declared eligible for a program that would allow him to avoid jail time.

Freundel could also enter a formal plea to the charges or may push the judge to set a date for trial.

Police found a clock radio hidden in the shower of the mikveh at Georgetown’s Kesher Israel synagogue, the spiritual home of luminaries like Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and ex-Sen. Joseph Lieberman.

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CHILE
der Standard

Staatsanwaltschaft forderte zehn Jahren Gefängnis für John O’Reilly

Santiago de Chile – Einer der einflussreichsten Geistlichen Chiles ist am Dienstag wegen des jahrelangen Missbrauchs eines kleinen Mädchens zu vier Jahren Schutzaufsicht verurteilt worden. John O’Reilly, der 1984 aus Irland nach Chile kam, darf überdies für sein gesamtes Leben keinen öffentlichen Posten mit Verantwortung mehr übernehmen oder beruflich mit Kindern zu tun haben.

Mit seinem Urteil blieb das Gericht gleichwohl deutlich hinter der Forderung der Staatsanwaltschaft nach zehn Jahren Gefängnis zurück. Der 68-Jährige vom ultrakonservativen katholischen Orden Legionäre Christi war vor drei Wochen schuldig gesprochen worden, eine heute Neunjährige von 2010 bis 2012 missbraucht zu haben.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regenburg-Digital

[The new abuse officer for the Regensburg diocese has produced a first report. A bout 160,000 euros has been paid to victims of sexual violence.]

von Stefan Aigner in Nachrichten, Überregional

Das Bistum Regensburg hat dem Missbrauchsbeauftragten ein paar Zahlen mitgeteilt. Wirkliche Klarheit bringen auch diese nicht. Empfänger des demütigenden Serienbriefes von Generalvikar Fuchs warten nach wie vor auf eine Entschuldigung.

Es sieht aus wie ein Fortschritt. Zum ersten Mal seit 2010 wurden im Bistum Regensburg von offizieller Stelle Zahlen zum sexuellen Missbrauch durch Geistliche und zur Entschädigung der Opfer herausgegeben. Am Montag hat der neue Missbrauchsbeauftragte Dr. Martin Linder, er ist Nachfolger der verstorbenen Birgit Böhm, auf der Bistums-Homepage seinen ersten Bericht vorgelegt.

Rund 160.000 Euro Entschädigung

Demnach wurden zwischen 2011 und 2014 30 Anträge auf Entschädigung bewilligt, für die das Bistum 158.500 Euro ausbezahlt habe. Zu Opfern und Tätern heißt es in dem Bericht wörtlich:

„Von 1945 bis heute wurden von den etwa 2.380 tätigen Geistlichen der Diözese Regensburg 13 Geistliche wegen sexueller Straftaten an 77 Minderjährigen in unserer Diözese verurteilt, davon zwei wegen Besitzes von kinderpornographischem Material und einer, besonders schwerwiegend, wegen sexueller Straftaten an 25 Minderjährigen in zwei Pfarreien Anfang der 50er Jahre. Von diesen 13 Geistlichen leben noch acht, zwei von diesen acht wurden laisiert, das heißt aus dem Klerikerstand entlassen, die übrigen sechs sind suspendiert.“

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 12 November 2014)

A retired Christian Brother who taught in Catholic schools at Manly (in Sydney) and Goulburn (in southern New South Wales) has been charged with a number of historical indecent assaults on five boys. The alleged offences involved three boys at Manly and two at Goulburn, who were aged between 13 and 15 at the time, between 1973 and 1976.

The 75-year-old Brother was arrested on 10 November 2014 at a residence for Christian Brothers in southern New South Wales.

Detectives from Northern Beaches Police Command in Sydney executed a search warrant of his residence and seized documents and computers that are now undergoing further examination.

The charges stemmed from Australia’s current national Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, at which alleged evidence has been produced. The Royal Commission material was referred to Sydney’s Northern Beaches Police for investigation.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Robert Mickens on Disproportionate Influence of Cardinal Burke’s Groupies: Tail Wagging Dog

Robert Mickens reports that, as he leaves his Curia post, Cardinal Raymond Burke continues to fan the flames: to be specific, he continues to speak of the possibility of schism in the Catholic church, if the leaders of the church do not choose to dance to his tune:

Pope Francis’ transfer of Cardinal Raymond Burke on Saturday from being the Vatican’s “chief justice” to a mere cardinal-protector of the Knights of Malta has intensified yet more irresponsible talk of schism within the Catholic church.

And top prize for the person most responsible for being irresponsible goes to none other than the man wearing the long red train. Yes, to Burke himself. …

As Mickens also notes, Burke’s groupies are a tiny minority within the Catholic church, but have disproportionate influence in some sectors of the church — especially in the United States:

The cardinal’s fan base is made up mainly of Tridendine Mass devotees and proponents of the so-called “reform of the reform” of the liturgy, as well as other socially conservative Catholics. They all march (though some seem to just sleepwalk) under the banner of the “hermeneutic of continuity,” a phrase they mistakenly attribute to Benedict XVI. (The retired pope actually espoused a “hermeneutic of reform,” defining it as “a combination of continuity and discontinuity at different levels” and “innovation in continuity.”)

Fortunately, the Burke groupies are a tiny minority within the much, much wider church. But, unfortunately, a good part of this minority seem to be seminarians (especially in English- and French-speaking areas), and a good number of priests ordained in the last five to 10 years. And then there are the bishops. Lamentably, there seem to be no lack of them. At least the loudest ones. And the United States would seem to have more than its fair share.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

[Searchable: Accused Priests Who Worked in the Archdiocese of Chicago – BishopAccountability.org]

Tina Sfondeles

Lawyers representing dozens of alleged sexual abuse victims are calling the Archdiocese of Chicago’s release last week of 15,000 pages of documents detailing investigations into 36 priests “misleading” and “disturbing.”

Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman on Tuesday said the release is not a “full disclosure” and are questioning how there are just 66 “credibly” accused priests in a large archdiocese, when compared to the 300 priests accused of sexual abuse in Boston, and the 266 in Los Angeles.

While seated in front of poster boards featuring photos of the accused priests, the two lawyers told reporters in their Loop office that the document release was “selective.”

All of the priests detailed in the documents are out of ministry, and 14 of them are deceased, according to the archdiocese. The cases — many of which include hundreds of pages of documents — concern priests with at least one substantiated allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor, according to the archdiocese. Most of the cases included in the documents involve incidents that happened before 1988.

Cardinal Francis George last week said the documents, which follows the release of 6,000 pages of about 30 other priests in January, reveals the archdiocese’s commitment to “transparency.”

“It is a mislabeling by the archdiocese public relations department as saying that it is transparent and a full disclosure,” Anderson said. “It is not only mislabeling. It is misleading.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 12, 2014

Andrew West
ABC radio presenter and columnist

ANALYSIS

Anthony Fisher steps into one of the most powerful jobs in Australian Catholicism when he is installed as archbishop of Sydney on Wednesday night. The big question is whether he can step out of the shadow of his predecessor.

Cardinal George Pell had long hoped that Fisher, a relatively youthful 54, would succeed him as a long-term archbishop. Other names had reportedly gone to the Vatican, including that of Brisbane archbishop Mark Coleridge – a thoroughly Australian, rugby coach-style prelate – and Newcastle’s Bill Wright, a gentle, pastoral man now preoccupied with cleaning up the sexual abuse crises left by his predecessors in the diocese.

But Pell appears to have prevailed in his preference for Fisher. All this would suggest that the new archbishop will continue the long reign of Catholic orthodoxy in Sydney.

Leaders, however, evolve, especially in the Catholic world. At the start of their papacies, few expected radical things of Leo XIII and John XXIII – or, indeed, of Francis. …

On the crucial question of how he handles the sexual abuse crisis, Fisher has clearly learned from an incident during World Youth Day in 2008, when he said some people were “dwelling crankily … on old wounds”. It’s fair to observe that he now speaks with a profound sense of disgust. “We accept that this is a spiritual and moral problem in our church and not just some bad guys in the old days,” he told ABC. He even speaks of the church being “purified by this experience by the humiliation”.

On a practical level, this means replacing the church’s tragically flawed procedures for dealing with abuse victims … and laying some real money on the line.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Daily Herald

[Searchable: Accused Priests Who Worked in the Archdiocese of Chicago – BishopAccountability.org]

Christopher Placek

Nearly a week after the Archdiocese of Chicago released child sex abuse files pertaining to 36 priests, victims’ attorneys are publicly questioning whether the release of the documents shed enough light on the decades-long scandal.

Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman, who have represented hundreds of victims of priest sex abuse in Chicago and across the country, say they should have had input and oversight in the document review process, as they did when the first set of files relating to another 30 priests was released in January.

They now want incoming Archbishop Blase Cupich, who will be formally installed next week as Cardinal Francis George’s successor, to disclose the names of all priests who have been accused of child sexual abuse — whether the allegations were determined by the archdiocese to be credible.

“The whole story about the past has to be revealed, and until we and other outsiders who are professionals in this area are allowed to scrutinize all of the files of all the credibly accused offenders and all those accused, we can’t take any comfort in a partial disclosure,” Anderson said during a news conference at a downtown Chicago law office.

John O’Malley, the archdiocese’s special counsel for misconduct issues, said Tuesday it was an “outrageous and presumptuous” suggestion by the attorneys that they be able to see all those files.

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CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago

[with video]

By Mary Ann Ahern

Tuesday, Nov 11, 2014

With just days until his retirement, Cardinal Francis George and attorneys for the Archdiocese of Chicago released the names and files of 36 allegedly abusive priests, but victim advocates argue the documents fall short of the transparency promised.

Attorneys representing victims of priest sex abuse are still going through the 15,000 pages of documents released by the Archdiocese five days ago, but they say the documents are “incomplete.”

“It is so incomplete and confusing,” said attorney Jeffrey Anderson. “It’s tantamount to a half truth.”

“The victims’ stories are completely absent from this production,” said attorney Marc Pearlman.

“They’ll say that’s because they want to protect their privacy, but there’s a way to do that and put the information out there and protect the privacy of victims.”

George, who is attending the U.S. conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore, said making the files public is honoring a commitment to transparency.

“I think we tried as much as possible, to some of the process,” he said. “Healing can begin in earnest. Archbishop Cupich is a very good man to do that.”

Chicago’s next archbishop, Blasé Cupich, is leaving Spokane, Washington for Chicago, but a lawsuit stemming from priest sex abuse settlements there and the diocese’s decision to file for bankruptcy lingers.
Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Victims-Advocates-Criticize-Release-of-Priest-Abuse-Files-282355161.html#ixzz3Ir6KKAym
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VATICAN CITY
Latin American Herald Tribune

ROME – Pope Francis has convened a seven-member panel of bishops and cardinals with the aim of speeding up the appeals process for priests convicted of sexual abuse or other serious offenses, the Vatican said in a statement.

The decision stems from the need to ensure greater expediency when considering appeals, the statement said, and added that the committee’s activities will not affect existing competencies.

Cases are to be considered by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) the former Holy Office, to which the new commission is attached.

The chairman and the seven members of the new body are to be appointed by Pope Francis himself, the statement added.

During the CDF’s Ordinary Session, named Feria IV, possible violations are examined. The newly-created body will be responsible for analyzing resources but will not “modify any established powers,” under the new rules.

If a bishop were convicted, his appeal would be considered by the CDF’s Ordinary Session, but the Pope may also determine the competent authority to consider other cases.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Alleged sexual abuse by Fr Fenech: Victim says Dominicans paid for her psychological therapy

One of the victims allegedly sexually abused by Fr Charles Fenech saw a psychologist for about a year but was never asked to pay for the services rendered. She is claiming that she was told that the Dominican Province will be dealing with the costs.

She was given advice to go for professional help by another Dominican priest, Fr Charles Tabone, but she does not know whether it was “Fr Tabone, Fr Fenech or the Dominican Province” who paid.

Contacted by The Malta Independent, Fr Tabone preferred to answer in generic terms and refused to be drawn into the individual case. When contacted via phone Fr Tabone asked for questions to be sent via email.

Can you confirm that when Fr. Charles Fenech was the Dominican Provincial in 2004 he asked you to send one of the alleged victims to a psychologist?

No Provincial ever requested me to send someone to a psychologist.

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INTERNATIONAL
Press TV (Iran)

Discredited pedophile priests in the Catholic Church are outsourced to countries where no prosecution takes place, a commentator tells Press TV.

“A lot of the pedophiles who discredit themselves in more advanced white countries, where they’ll be prosecuted, are outsourced to rape, molest and abuse non-white black, brown people – And the church needs to confront its long history of racism,” Randy Short, a human rights activist said in an interview with Press TV from Washington on Tuesday.

“Take Africa – I don’t know of one case. There are easily 200-300 million Catholics in Africa and yet you’ve never heard of one case and I know from doing my academic research on the Congo that these things go on on an epidemic scale,” Short added.

The comments come following the arrest and sentencing of an influential Irish catholic priest to four years’ probation for sexually abusing a child in his care at a religious school in Chile.

Earlier, a Roman Catholic priest in the United States was charged with sexually abusing children during missionary trips to Honduras.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By NICK BIELBY Nov. 12, 2014
.
The elevation of Archbishop Paul Gallagher to the third highest position in the Vatican is a slap in the face, says a Vacy man who suffered abuse at the hands of a former Hunter Catholic priest.

Peter Gogarty was abused by defrocked priest James Fletcher 40 years ago. Fletcher was convicted of multiple counts of sexual assault against children and his actions were investigated by a royal commission into child abuse within the Catholic church.

Archbishop Gallagher, who Pope Francis appointed the Vatican’s foreign minister this week, claimed diplomatic immunity in 2013 and refused to give prosecutors documents that related to Fletcher and another disgraced priest Dennis McAlinden.

Mr Gogarty told the Mercury he was not impressed with the appointment.

He said it appeared that the Catholic church had not only tolerated Archbishop Gallagher’s lack of co-operation in efforts to shine a light on institutional abuse, but had rewarded him for his actions.

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UNITED STATES
New York Daily News

BY GINGER ADAMS OTIS

A new panel created by Pope Francis will speed up appeals from clergy accused of sex crimes and other abuses, the Vatican said Tuesday.

Seven cardinals or bishops will sit on the panel and dedicate themselves to examining cases that normally would go to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Pope Francis wants a faster crackdown on priests who sexually abuse children, according to the Vatican.

Critics say the Catholic Church has moved too slowly in the past to remove or punish pedophile priests.

The new panel will handle all appeals except those of bishops. Those will be assessed by the all the congregation members.

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WASHINGTON
The Spokesman-Review

Kip Hill
The Spokesman-Review

Spokane Bishop Blase Cupich’s former top lieutenant told attorneys that Cupich has attempted a money grab against the law firm that guided the church through bankruptcy proceedings.

The allegations leveled by the Spokane Diocese against Paine Hamblen, the downtown Spokane firm that represented the church in bankruptcy proceedings sparked by multiple cases of priest sexual abuse, came seven years after a settlement designed to limit the diocese’s liability in future claims. In January, the diocese asked a federal judge to overturn an order to pay attorney fees to the firm.

The church also is asking for damages after several unexpected claims were lodged, exhausting a fund set up through the bankruptcy settlement to compensate victims through 2016.

In its response filed Monday in federal Bankruptcy Court, the law firm says Cupich’s lawsuit caused fractures among the diocese’s inner circle, many of whom disagreed with the decision to go after Paine Hamblen. Former Vicar General Steve Dublinski, who resigned in August after what he called “irreconcilable differences” with Cupich on several matters, said in a recorded interview with attorneys last month that Cupich told him the complaints against Paine Hamblen were a designed money-grab.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

[Searchable: Accused Priests Who Worked in the Archdiocese of Chicago – BishopAccountability.org]

By Christy Gutowski, Cynthia Dizikes, Todd Lighty,
Chicago Tribune

They were among the most popular and influential priests in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Robert Kealy was a lawyer who handled sex abuse claims against priests, R. Peter Bowman was a former high-ranking church administrator and John Calicott was a South Side priest adored by his parishioners and who held leadership roles in the church.

All three men were abruptly pulled from ministry in 2002 by Cardinal Francis George amid accusations they sexually abused children decades earlier. Their removal, with the archdiocese providing scant information, bewildered and angered parishioners, many of whom refused to believe the allegations.

Now, more than 12 years later, a clearer understanding of what the three priests were accused of doing, and how the archdiocese responded, has emerged from internal church documents that George ordered released last week.

Kealy admitted to smoking marijuana and drinking with boys in the 1970s, and the church found he “engaged in acts of sexual misconduct with a minor,” according to the files. Bowman allegedly abused at least seven children, including forcing a seventh-grade boy to perform oral sex on him. Calicott, according to his file, allegedly engaged in oral sex with two boys, ages 12 and 14.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Fox Chicago

CHICAGO (Associated Press) –

A prominent lawyer for victims of sexual abuse says the incoming archbishop of Chicago should require all archdiocese priests to sign statements testifying they never abused a child.

That’s among the actions attorney Jeff Anderson said Blase (BLAHZ’) Cupich (SOO’-pihch) should promptly take to address the festering issue. Cupich takes over the nation’s third largest archdiocese this month. He comes to Chicago after serving as bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane.

Anderson and other plaintiffs’ attorneys criticize outgoing Cardinal Francis George for sometimes appearing to downplay the severity of priest abuse in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Anderson says Cupich comes from a culture that emphasizes secrecy. However, victims’ advocates have extended a hand of cooperation to him.

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UNITED STATES
Room with a Pew

Paul Fericano

“Every absurdity has a champion to defend it.”
–Oliver Goldsmith

An alarming and all-too-familiar issue within the Catholic church has been the question of problem priests: seriously troubled men who are put in charge of parishes where they ride roughshod over the laity. Last month I wrote two separate letters on behalf of parishioners of Saints Simon and Jude church (SSJ), a Franciscan parish in Huntington Beach, California. In both letters, the subject focused on documented grievances of parishioners who spoke of being emotionally and psychologically abused by their current pastor. My first letter was privately addressed to the Franciscan leadership of the Province of Saint Barbara, a governing body of elected friars, with a copy sent to the Franciscan minister general in Rome. My second letter was a public letter directed at members of the various staff, councils, boards and commissions of SSJ, and copied to the bishops of the Diocese of Orange, California.

What has been most upsetting and heartbreaking about the SSJ situation is that this is a parish that has suffered greatly in the past from the fallout of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. Many parishioners and former parishioners are still feeling the effects of that betrayal. A previous associate pastor of SSJ, (former friar) Gus Krumm, a charismatic and much favored priest, was eventually exposed as a perpetrator who allegedly molested several young boys over the course of many years. When friar Michael Harvey replaced friar Larry Dolan as pastor in 2001, there was virtually no parish outreach at SSJ regarding this issue. Harvey was reassigned to Portland in 2012, but during his long tenure at SSJ he helped bring about a certain measure of understanding and healing in the parish by encouraging dialogue and discussions. Although he had his missteps, his pastoral approach was largely responsible for helping many parishioners deal with the crisis honestly, stay with the Catholic church and reconnect with the Franciscans.

Like all things that seem to emanate from the strange universe occupied by the current leadership of the Franciscan Province of Saint Barbara, a decision was made to replace Harvey with friar Dan Barica, a priest with a troubled past. As pastor of Mission Santa Barbara (ground zero for the sex abuse scandal), Barica made no secret of his belief that the clergy abuse problem was exaggerated and that the spotlight on the sexual abuse of minors by Franciscans was far too bright. Barica went so far as to lecture Mission parishioners about putting the issue behind them and moving on–something, apparently, he himself had done.

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CHICAGO
WLS

[Searchable: Accused Priests Who Worked in the Archdiocese of Chicago – BishopAccountability.org ]

CHICAGO (WLS) — Lawyers representing dozens of priest sex abuse victims accuse the Archdiocese of Chicago of hiding information with last week’s release of abuse files.

The Archdiocese released 15,000 pages of documents involving 36 priests, following the files of 30 priests released last January.

Jeff Anderson and Mark Pearlman say what’s lacking in the latest release are the victims’ stories, and say the victims were left out of the process.

“Until this Archdiocese starts listening to the victims and stops listening to their public relations people, this problem will not and cannot be fixed,” Pearlman said.

The Archdiocese of Chicago said in a written statement: “We stand by the integrity of this document release. We believe it’s time to move beyond inflammatory and hollow rhetoric and seek to achieve understanding and reconciliation.”

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UNITED STATES
Commonweal

Thomas Noble October 30, 2014

The True Story of a Convent in Scandal
Hubert Wolf
translated by Ruth Martin
Alfred A. Knopf, $30, 482 pp.

If this astonishing tale were not true, one would think it the work of an accomplished mystery writer. The Nuns of Sant’Ambrogio takes us back to Rome in 1859, when the Holy Office received a formal denunciation of suspicious goings-on at the convent of Sant’Ambrogio della Massima. For two years these allegations were investigated, and subsequently several members of the community were tried before the Inquisition. Though bits and pieces of this strange story would leak out over the next century and a half, it was only after 1998, when John Paul II opened the archives of the Holy Office, that Hubert Wolf, professor of ecclesiastical history at the University of Münster, was able to examine the full record. The result is a sordid tale of sexual misdeeds, false identities, cult worship, theft, and murder.

Wolf’s book teems with characters, many of them trailing lengthy aristocratic names, beginning with Princess Katherina von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who made the denunciation. Born in 1817, Katherina spent her childhood in liberal Catholic circles, but a visit to Rome in 1834 brought her under the influence of Karl August Graf von Reisach, a reactionary and aficionado of women visionaries who was made cardinal by the even more reactionary Gregory XVI. Twice widowed by the age of thirty-six, the princess resolved to become a nun, and in 1858 Reisach placed her in the convent of Sant’Ambrogio. Fifteen months later she smuggled out a desperate and cryptic letter—“Save me,” it pleaded—to her cousin, Bishop Gustav Adolf zu Hohenlohe und Schillingfürst, who marched into Sant’Ambrogio, rescued Katherina, and took her to his country estate in Tivoli. There, under the influence of her Benedictine confessor Maurus Wolter, she recorded her tale of woe in the document that reached the Holy Office.

Katherina’s complaint centered on the convent’s worship of a former abbess, Maria Agnese Firrao, who had presented herself as a living saint, partly via self-inflicted stigmata. Though Firrao was tried and convicted by the Inquisition, and died in banishment, her acolytes at Sant’Ambrogio continued to promote the cult of “Beata Maria,” insisting that the Holy Office had erred in its condemnation of her. Katherina denounced the false sainthood of Maria Agnese as well as the claimed sainthood of the convent’s vicaress and novice mistress, Maria Luisa. She raised questions about the convent’s confessors, and told a disturbing story about Maria Luisa’s relationship with someone Katherina referred to as “the Americano,” a Tyrolean who went to the United States, married and had children, abandoned his family, and went to Rome seeking salvation—and, evidently, nuns to bed. But the most spectacular item in Katherina’s denunciation was her claim that Maria Luisa had made repeated attempts to poison her in retaliation for her complaints.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Today’s Catholic News

By Mark Pattison

BALTIMORE (CNS) — The U.S. bishops Nov. 11 chose a new secretary-elect and chairmen-elect for several committees, all of whom will begin their service in November 2015.

The bishops also selected from among their number to serve on the boards of Catholic Relief Services, the bishops’ international aid and development agency, and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, known as CLINIC.

Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans won the secretary-elect job, defeating Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese of the Military Services, 100-94.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, who was president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2010 to 2013, was voted in as chairman-elect of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, over Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, 127-102.

In other committee elections:

– Communications: Auxiliary Bishop Christopher J. Coyne of Indianapolis defeated Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, 114-102. Bishop Coyne was a late replacement candidate for Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York.

Bishop Murphy had said he expects to retire before the end of the three-year chairmanship term in 2018. Msgr. Ronny Jenkins, general secretary of the USCCB, said a recent Vatican “rescript” clarifies that a bishop who retires also must retire from any committee chairmanship. Bishop Murphy turns 75 in May 2015, the age at which canon law requires a bishop to turn in his resignation.

– Cultural Diversity in the Church: Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio defeated Bishop Joseph J. Tyson of Yakima, Washington, 160-60.

– Doctrine: Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit defeated Bishop Robert J. McManus of Worcester, Massachusetts, 149-66.

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CHILE
Jamaica Observer

SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — An influential Irish priest was sentenced in Chile to four years probation Tuesday for sexually abusing a young girl while he was the spiritual advisor of an elite school.

John O’Reilly, the local head of the Catholic Church’s ultra-conservative Legion of Christ order, was convicted last month of repeatedly molesting the girl from the time she was five.

A court in Santiago sentenced the 68-year-old priest to four years and one day of “supervised freedom” — a punishment roughly equivalent to probation that involves no prison time — and barred him from working in schools or with children.

Prosecutors had requested a sentence of 10 years in prison.

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CHILE
BBC Mundo

Constanza Hola Chamy
BBC Mundo

Con un rosario en la mano y las fotos de nueve niñas del colegio del que fue capellán muertas en un accidente, el sacerdote John O’Reilly escuchó el veredicto: culpable.

De origen irlandés, el religioso de los Legionarios de Cristo era declarado culpable en Chile de abusar sexualmente de una menor alumna de la escuela de la cual era director espiritual mientras la niña tenía entre 4 y 6 años.

El veredicto, dado a conocer en octubre, fue un balde de agua fría no sólo para su congregación, sino para muchos de los principales empresarios y políticos chilenos, de quienes O’Reilly se había convertido en guía espiritual y amigo.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WGN

[Searchable: Accused Priests Who Worked in the Archdiocese of Chicago – BishopAccountability.org ]

[with video]

NOVEMBER 11, 2014, BY JULIE UNRUH

Last week, the Chicago Archdiocese released 36 more names of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse.

Today, lawyers representing victims in some cases say they’re disturbed and alarmed about what has not been released.

Two lawyers who say they have been challenging the church on this issue for decades say it’s happening in other cities, but not in Chicago. They want the Chicago Archdiocese to unseal all the files and allow for a more thorough review of cases that have dogged the church and its reputation for too long.

They say the numbers are grossly underreported and the release of only 36 more namesis reckless.

Over the years, Boston has named 300 cleric offenders. Los Angeles has named 266. To date, in Chicago the number totals 66.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Australia’s response to Cardinal George Pell queried by UN Committee Against Torture

A UN committee has asked the Australian government to explain its response when Cardinal George Pell backed a Vatican refusal to hand over documents to the child abuse royal commission.

The committee meeting in Geneva this week is considering Australia’s fourth report on human rights and the country’s implementation of the Convention against Torture.

It has received several submissions from non-government organisations in Australia including two from networks representing survivors of institutional and clerical child abuse.

Geneva members of the Committee Against Torture raised the issue of Cardinal Pell’s defence of a Vatican decision not to hand over all documents relating to child sex abuse by clerics in Australia.

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CHILE
12 News

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — An Irish-born Chilean priest has been sentenced to four years of probation after sexually abusing a minor while he was chaplain at a school in Santiago.

A court in the Chilean capital also banned Rev. John O’Reilly from any job near children. Prosecutors had asked for a 10-year prison sentence.

O’Reilly was found guilty last month. The court said he committed the abuse while he was the spiritual guide at the school. Relatives had accused the priest of molesting two pre-teen girls between 2007 and 2011. The court absolved him in one of the cases.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

[Searchable: Accused Priests Who Worked in the Archdiocese of Chicago – BishopAccountability.org ]

Steve Miller

(CBS) — Five days after the Chicago Roman Catholic Archdiocese released more documents related to allegations of abuse by priests, lawyers representing past victims say the archdiocese has excluded a lot.

“Very alarmed” is how attorneys for survivors of abuse describe their reaction to the release of new documents by the archdiocese.

Attorney Jeff Anderson says the archdiocese excluded attorneys from the process of what documents should be released, something he says the archdiocese did not do back in January when other documents were released.

Since then, Anderson says the archdiocese has cut off discussion with the attorneys, apparently because the archdiocese was upset with the attorneys’ handling of the documents after their release.
A reporter asked Anderson if he thinks the archdiocese excluded attorneys this time around as retribution.

“I would call the decision by the cardinal’s office not retribution. I would call it intentional exclusion,” he said.

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CHILE
La Nacion

A cuatro años y un día de libertad vigilada fue sentenciado el sacerdote John O’Reilly por el delito de abuso sexual reiterado en contra de una menor.

El religioso, quien no asistió a la audiencia de lectura en el Tercer Tribunal de Juicio Oral en Lo Penal de Santiago, tampoco podrá ocupar cargos públicos ni con relación a menores de edad.

Con esto, el líder de los Legionarios de Cristo no cumplirá pena efectiva de cárcel pese a que la Fiscalía pedía 10 años y un día tras las rejas concordando con un informe entregado por Gendarmería el que consideró “desfavorable” que O’Reilly quedara con libertad vigilad

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CHILE
El Mostrador

El Tercer tribunal Oral en lo Penal leyó la sentencia contra el sacerdote John O’Reilly declarado culpable del abuso sexual contra una menor del Colegio Cumbres entre marzo y diciembre de 2010 y entre marzo y julio de 2011, según se acreditó en la investigación. En principio la acusación incluía a la hermana mayor de la víctima pero este caso no se pudo acreditar.

Desde las 16 horas, el tribunal dio a conocer la sentencia. El sacerdote fue condenado a cuatro años y un día de presidio menor en su grado máximo. Pero se le concedió el beneficio de libertad vigilada por el tiempo que dura la condena. Para el tribunal pesó en esta medida la irreprochable conducta anterior del sacerdote, condición para la que se consideró además el hecho de que se le concedió la nacionalidad por gracia en 2008.

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CHILE
Daily Mail (UK)

SANTIAGO, Nov 11 (Reuters) – An Irish-born priest, found guilty last month of sexually abusing a child in his care at a religious school in Santiago, will avoid jail time under a sentence handed down on Tuesday.

A judge sentenced John O’Reilly, who moved to Chile from Ireland in 1985, to four years and a day of “supervised liberty” for abusing the pre-teen girl at the private Colegio Cumbres in the affluent neighborhood of Las Condes between 2007 and 2009.

O’Reilly, who over the years befriended many powerful conservative businessmen and politicians in Chile, will not be confined at home nor be required to periodically check in with a parole officer. He will be free to travel out of the country.

He will have to attend semi-regular rehabilitation therapy sessions, and his name will be appear on a national pedophile registry intended to keep him from working with children.

Prosecutors had requested that he be sent to prison for 10 years.

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MISSISSIPPI
WLOX

By Michelle Lady
GULFPORT, MS (WLOX) –
A veteran South Mississippi teacher accused of molesting students is changing his plea to guilty, according to court documents.

A South Mississippi teacher has admitted to investigators that he molested at least eight boys who were his students, and the abuse spanned a period of 20 years. That’s according to an affidavit released Thursday.

William Richard Pryor, 68, is in federal custody charged with transportation of minors with intent of sexual activity.

William Richard Pryor is charged with two counts each of transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. According to court documents, Pryor allegedly molested 11 former male students between the ages of 12 and 14.

Pryor’s attorney notified federal court that his client will change his plea to guilty this week on the day of the deadline. If Pryor had not changed his plea, his case would have gone to trial in December.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
New York Times

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
NOV. 11, 2014

BALTIMORE — It was a hail and farewell moment at a tumultuous time for the Roman Catholic Church. More than 200 bishops rose to their feet Monday and gave a protracted standing ovation to Cardinal Francis George, a former president of the bishops’ conference, who will step down next week as the archbishop of Chicago.

Among those applauding in the conference room was the man who will soon be installed in the powerful Chicago seat, Bishop Blase J. Cupich. Pope Francis has never met him, but plucked him from the obscure diocese of Spokane, Wash., passing over archbishops considered rising stars under the two previous popes.

Change is rattling the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, and the bishops here say they now feel it even if they do not yet understand where Pope Francis is leading them. The change is reflected not only in appointments — with the Chicago seat the main indicator so far — but also in Francis’ call for the church to open discussion on sticky matters long considered settled, such as communion for the divorced and remarried, same-sex relationships, couples who live together without being married and even polygamists in Africa.

Some prelates, like Bishop Cupich, are exhilarated at the pontiff’s fresh message and the prospect of change, while others, like Cardinal George, are more wary. A few have been downright resistant, including Cardinal Raymond Burke, an American in Rome who has publicly challenged Francis and was removed on Saturday from his position as head of the Vatican’s highest court.

“The pope is saying some very challenging things for people,” Bishop Cupich said in an interview Tuesday. “He’s not saying, this is the law and you follow it and you get to heaven. He’s saying we have to do something about our world today that’s suffering, people are being excluded, neglected. We have a responsibility, and he’s calling people to task.”

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