ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse: Media misses real story

JACK THE INSIDER
THE AUSTRALIAN
AUGUST 28, 2015

While one royal commission has attracted the big headlines, there is another going more quietly about its business.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sex Abuse has barely rated a mention in news items recently until earlier this week when Bishop Geoffrey Robinson gave evidence.

Bishop Robinson was part of a group of senior clerics who developed the Church’s Towards Healing program for victims of clerical child sex abuse. His evidence contained criticisms of Cardinal George Pell and Pope John Paul II.

Naturally these criticisms became the stuff of headlines, the preoccupation with gotcha journalism being what it is but the media continues to miss the very obvious story and it is far more scandalous and far more troubling to contemplate.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

August 28, 2015

Adam Cooper and Mark Russell

The former Australian head of the Catholic Salesian order is in jail after he was found guilty of brutally sexually and physically assaulting boys at Victorian schools more than 30 years ago, it can now be revealed.

Only now can media report the cruel and devastating offending of Julian Benedict Fox, the former head of the Salesians in Australia, and a past teacher at notorious Salesian College Rupertswood in Sunbury, who was in the past year convicted in two separate County Court trials of assaulting two boys, in 1980 and 1984.

In custody since September, Fox, 70, also pleaded guilty on Friday to three counts of common assault, related to beating three other boys with a pool cue at Salesian College in 1978 and 1979.

A suppression order had prevented media from reporting the convictions, but that order was revoked on Friday by judge Graeme Hicks.

Fox was found guilty of a combined three counts of indecent assault by juries in two of the eight trials he faced between September last year and July. He was found not guilty in two trials, while four juries were discharged without verdict.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

THE former Australian head of the second-largest Catholic order in the world has been jailed for child sex crimes.

Father Julian Fox, 70, is today behind bars, 16 years after being accused of child sex crimes while teaching at Melbourne schools in the 1980s and 1990s.

The remorseless Salesian priest left Australia in 1999, shortly before the first known complaints were made to his superiors.

He fled to Rome where he worked at the Salesian headquarters, spending more than a decade dodging calls to return to Melbourne to face justice.

In 2000, the Salesians made a confidential $36,000 payment to one victim, who died of drug abuse six years later.

The death ended a police inquiry that had been frustrated by Fox’s refusal to return to Melbourne to be interviewed over the allegations.

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VATICAN CITY
CBC News

By Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press Posted: Aug 28, 2015

The Vatican’s former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, who had been charged by church prosecutors with sexually abusing children in the Caribbean country, died Friday of apparent natural causes as he awaited trial, the Vatican said.

Jozef Wesolowski, 67, was found dead early Friday in the Vatican room where he has been held on house arrest, a statement from the Vatican said.

Vatican officials immediately intervened and initial checks “indicated that the death was from natural causes,” a press statement said.

It said the Vatican prosecutor ordered an immediate autopsy and that Pope Francis was informed.

Wesolowski had been due to go on trial in a Vatican tribunal on July 11 for allegedly causing grave psychological harm to victims and possessing an enormous quantity of child pornography. But on the morning of the hearing, he was hospitalized in intensive care because of an unidentified “sudden illness.”

No new trial date was made public and the presiding judge had adjourned the trial indefinitely.

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VATICAN CITY
CNN

[with video]

By Ed Payne, Hada Messia and Richard Greene, CNN

(CNN) Jozef Wesolowski, a papal ambassador and the highest-ranking Catholic official to be put on trial for child abuse charges, died in his room early Friday.

“Vatican authorities quickly carried out the first investigation and have established that the death was caused by natural causes,” a Vatican statement said. An autopsy has been ordered and Pope Francis informed.

Wesolowski was accused of possession of child pornography and sexually abusing children during his time as papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic

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VATICAN CITY
BT

The Vatican’s former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, who had been charged with sexually abusing children in the Caribbean country, has died as he awaited trial.

Jozef Wesolowski, 67, was found dead in the Vatican room where he has been held on house arrest, according to a statement from the Vatican.

Initial checks “indicated that the death was from natural causes”, a press statement said.

It said the Vatican prosecutor ordered an immediate post-mortem and that Pope Francis was informed.

Wesolowski had been due to go on trial in a Vatican tribunal on July 11 for allegedly causing grave psychological harm to victims and possessing child pornography.

But on the morning of the hearing, he was admitted to intensive care because of an unidentified “sudden illness”. No new trial date was made public and the presiding judge had adjourned the trial indefinitely.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Herald

Wesołowski was under house arrest while awaiting trial on child sex abuse charges

The former archbishop Józef Wesołowski reportedly died at 5am inside the Vatican today.

The Vatican had placed the Polish laicised papal ambassador, 67, under house arrest as he awaited criminal trial for sexually abusing young boys.

Wesołowski served as nuncio to the Dominican Republic until August 2013.

The Vatican announced in June that a canonical court had investigated him on charges of sex abuse in the Dominican Republic.

It resulted in Wesołowski being dismissed from the clerical state, depriving him of all the rights and duties associated with being a priest except the obligation of celibacy.

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VATICAN CITY
Newsweek

Jozef Wesolowski, the disgraced former archbishop and Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic, has died before he could stand trial for child sex offences.

British magazine The Catholic Herald reported on Friday that Wesolowski, 67, who had been defrocked by the Vatican and placed under house arrest due to ill health, died inside the Vatican at 5 a.m. on Friday. The Polish former priest would have been the highest-ranking Vatican official ever to face criminal charges for sexual abuse of children.

A press statement from the Vatican said that initial checks by Vatican officials “indicated that the death was from natural causes,” according to AP. The statement said that the Vatican prosecutor had ordered an immediate autopsy and that Pope Francis had been informed.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

Testo in lingua italiana

Alle prime ore di questa mattina è stato trovato defunto nella sua abitazione in Vaticano S.E. Mons. Józef Wesołowski, già Nunzio Apostolico.

È subito intervenuta l’autorità vaticana per i primi accertamenti, i quali indicano che la morte è dovuta a cause naturali. Il Promotore di Giustizia ha ordinato un’autopsia, che sarà effettuata oggi stesso e i cui risultati saranno comunicati appena possibile. Il Santo Padre è stato doverosamente informato di tutto.

[01375-IT.01]

Traduzione in lingua spagnola

En las primeras horas de esta mañana ha sido encontrado muerto en su habitación en el Vaticano S.E. Mons. Józef Wesołowski, ex Nuncio Apostólico.

Inmediatamente, ha intervenido la autoridad vaticana para llevar a cabo las primeras verificaciones, las cuales indican que la muerte se debió a causas naturales. El Promotor de Justicia ha ordenado la autopsia, que será efectuada hoy mismo y cuyos resultados serán comunicados apenas sea posible. El Santo Padre ha sido oportunamente informado de todo.

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VATICAN CITY
GlobalPost

Agence France-Presse on Aug 28, 2015

Josef Wesolowski, a former Polish archbishop who had been due to be first cleric tried in the Vatican for child sex abuse, was found dead on Friday.

Wesolowski, 67, was found at dawn at his residence in the city state, a Vatican statement said.

The first indications were that he died of natural causes but an autopsy was to be carried out during the day and the results published as soon as possible, it said, adding that Pope Francis was being kept fully informed.

Wesolowski’s death came six weeks after his landmark trial was suspended after only seven minutes because of an undisclosed illness which resulted in the accused being hospitalised on the eve of its start.

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VATICAN CITY
Wall Street Journal

By LIAM MOLONEY
Aug. 28, 2015

VATICAN CITY—The former papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic, who was under house arrest on charges of child abuse and possession of child pornography, died early Friday, according to the Vatican.

The Vatican said in a statement initial indications were that Jozef Wesolowski, the Polish born-priest who had been the most senior Vatican official arrested on allegations of child sex abuse so far, had died of natural causes.

He was found dead in front of the television in the early hours of Friday, said Rev. Ciro Benedettini, deputy head of the Vatican press office. The Vatican said that an autopsy has been ordered and will be carried out Friday. The results of the autopsy will be made public “as soon as possible.”

Mr. Wesolowski, 67, was recalled as ambassador to the Caribbean country in 2013, after a five-year posting, in the wake of reports of sexual misconduct.

He was defrocked as archbishop by a Vatican tribunal last year for sexual abuse of minors in the Dominican Republic. In June, after the pope gave his permission, a Vatican criminal court indicted him on charges of sexually abusing boys in the Dominican Republic and of possessing child pornography. He had been under house arrest inside the Vatican awaiting the start of his trial.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service
8.28.2015

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A Vatican official has ordered an autopsy on the body of former archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who was found dead Aug. 28 in the Vatican residence where he was awaiting trial on charges of child sexual abuse and possession of child pornography.

Passionist Father Ciro Benedettini, Vatican spokesman, said Wesolowski’s body was found at 5 a.m. by a priest who also lives in the building, which houses the Franciscans who hear confessions in St. Peter’s Basilica and offices of the Vatican police force. Wesolowski was in front of a television, which was on, the spokesman said.

Officials from the Vatican police, medical service and court arrived quickly, he said, for an “initial verification, which indicated the death was from natural causes.”

“The promoter of justice ordered an autopsy, which will be carried out today,” the spokesman said. “The results will be communicated as soon as possible.”

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UNITED STATES
Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland

WARNINGS:
USCCB- RE: FR. ANTHONY NACHEF

The Eparchy of Newton of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church has advised the Conference of its concerns regarding Fr. Anthony Nachef. Fr. Nachef was previously a priest of the Basilian Salvatorian Order who was removed from the several ministry positions and subsequently was expelled from that Order and incurred excommunication. He was later permitted to return to the priesthood while at the same time operating a private travel agency in Massachusetts, and in 2010 the previous Eparchial Bishop of Newton had agreed that Fr. Nachef was a priest in good standing for certain limited purposes.

However, the current Eparchial Bishop of Newton advises us that he has now revoked all faculties that Fr. Nachef may have had in that Eparchy, following subsequent reports of misconduct, and that the Patriarchal Exarch of the Melkite Eparchy in Mexico has also withdrawn Fr. Nachef’s faculties. The previous Eparchial Bishop of Newton, Archbishop Cyril Bustros, now the Metropolitan of Beirut and Jbeil (Lebanon) has declared that Fr. Nachef is not a member of the clergy of that Archdiocese, either.

As a result, the Eparchial Bishop of Newton advises that Fr. Nachef is not in good standing with the Church and cannot celebrate the liturgy in public, but rather is attempting to promote the business of his “Catholic” travel agency through use of his priesthood. Those needing further information should contact the Office of the Bishop of the Eparchy of Newton at (617) 323-9921.

*

WARNINGS:
USCCB- RE: FR. MANUEL GALLO-ESPINOZA

The Archdiocese of Newark has advised the Conference of its concerns regarding Fr. Manuel Gallo-Espinoza, a priest of the Diocese of Loja (Ecuador) who had previously ministered in the Archdiocese in 2003, but whose faculties were removed following accusations of sexual misconduct with a minor. The Archdiocese relates that it understood that Fr. Gallo-Espinoza had then returned to Ecuador. However, the Archdiocese advises that it now believes Fr. Gallo-Espinoza to be living in Maryland, and that he does not have the permission of his diocesan bishop to be in the United States and does not have faculties from the Diocese of Loja. Those needing further information should contact the Office of the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Newark at (973) 497-4002.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Brian Lee
Telegram & Gazette Staff

Posted Aug. 27, 2015

WORCESTER – The retired Roman Catholic priest who recently pleaded not guilty to federal money laundering charges was allegedly involved in an elaborate scheme to defraud women interested in dating websites, according to an initial detention order from U.S. District Court in Tampa.

A grand jury in Massachusetts recently returned an indictment charging the Rev. Thomas B. Fleming with 12 counts of money laundering. He faces a maximum of 20 years’ imprisonment, a federal prosecutor said.

The indictment alleges offenses from January 2013 to April 2014, and the government estimates the losses are around $140,000, presumably much of the money sent to Nigeria, the detention order said.

On July 21, when the government questioned whether the Rev. Fleming had fled to Florida to avoid arrest, a Florida judge ordered him held pending trial.

But when the Rev. Fleming was brought to U.S. District Court in Worcester for his arraignment on Aug. 14, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark J. Grady said it was learned that there had been no avoidance purpose to his trip to Florida.

Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy, who was initially going to hold the Rev. Fleming on $5,000 bond, released him on a $25,000 unsecured bond.

Defense lawyer Miriam Conrad said the priest had been visiting a friend in Florida, and does on a yearly basis.

Ms. Conrad said the Rev. Fleming has no criminal record, is a lifelong resident of Worcester residing in his childhood home and is indigent. She said he is no longer receiving retirement pay.

The indictment alleges that he claimed more than $91,000 in wire transfers from three states, and sent $2,500 to Nigerian accounts during the past two years from what the indictment described as the proceeds of unlawful activity.

In addition to Nigeria, the alleged scheme involves participants in Connecticut, Illinois and California, according to the five-page indictment.

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ILLINOIS
CI news Now

[with video]

August 27, 2015

PEORIA, Ill. — A sex abuse victim says the Catholic priest accused of sexual misconduct should be subject to police investigations, even if it’s beyond the statue of limitations.

That’s the opinion of Jeff Jones, who says that he was also sexually molested as a child.

Peoria Catholic Diocese Bishop Daniel Jenky said Terry Cassidy can no longer serve in the ministry due to sex abuse allegations involving a minor nearly 30 years ago.

Cassidy served at St. Ann Church in Peoria and St. Edward in Chillicothe in the early nineties.

Jones says in many cases involving priests there has been a pattern of sexual abuse over time.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Associated Press AUGUST 27, 2015

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has put a Roseville priest on leave after receiving what it is calling a credible allegation that he sexually abused a minor in the 1980s.

The Rev. Robert Fitzpatrick is pastor at Corpus Christi parish and St. Rose of Lima parish and school.

Interim Archbishop Bernard Hebda announced the decision on Thursday and says police have been notified.

Hebda says Fitzpatrick will not exercise any priestly ministries while the investigation is ongoing.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

[with document]

08/27/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Priests in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis received the following notice this afternoon from Archbishop Hebda.

Statement Regarding Rev. Robert Fitzpartrick from Archbishop Bernard Hebda

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has received a credible allegation that the Rev. Robert Fitzpatrick, pastor at Corpus Christi parish and St. Rose of Lima parish and school in Roseville, seually abused a minor in the 1980s.

A “credible allegation” is one that is “not manifestly false or frivolous.” It is neither a presumption nor a determination of guilt. The Archdiocese has notifed law enforcement. During the investigation, Father Fitzpatrick will be on a leave of absence and will not exercise priestly ministry.

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MINNESOTA
Northlands News Center

By Ramona Marozas – Biography

Hibbing, MN (NNCNOW.com) — Another charge has been brought against a Hibbing, Minn., priest currently on administrative leave in light of a fourth victim coming forward.

Brian Lederer, 29, now faces six charges of criminal sexual conduct, as well as a charge of possession of child pornography.

Three victims were under 13, and another was under 16.

On Thursday the St. Louis County court approved adding a charge of criminal sexual conduct involving a fourth victim.

Child pornography was allegedly discovered on Lederer’s personal computer, according the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office.

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ITALIA
il Resto del Carlino

[Sexual molestation of a minor results if arrest of a theologian.]

Ancona, 25 agosto 2015 – Molestie sessuali. Accuse infamanti quelle che hanno portato in carcere Solideo Paolini, 45 anni, uno studioso di teologia molto noto negli ambienti nazionali per essere prodondo conoscitore del terzo segreto di Fatima (sul quale ha scritto alcuni libri), presidente del circolo «Cattolici per la tradizione». Secondo la Procura di Ancona che ha chiesto e ottenuto dal gip del tribunale dorico un’ordinanza di custodia cautelare in carcere, Paolini, che abita a Monte San Vito avrebbe ripetutamente approfitatto della minorenne che ha un rapporto di vicinanza con la sua famiglia.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Fuldaer Zeitung

[A priest in Germany must leave his position in the next few months. The Fulda diocese said the priest violence the abuse prevention guidelines adopted by the church. Many people in the community oppose the move.]

.DERMBACH
Patrick Lindner, der seit acht Jahren Pfarrer der Katholiken in Dermbach, Zella und Stadtlengsfeld ist, muss in den nächsten Monaten seine Stelle verlassen. Das Bistum Fulda begründet seine Entscheidung damit, dass der Pfarrer gegen die Präventionsrichtlinien verstoßen habe, die das Bistum nach den Missbrauchsfällen in der katholischen Kirche verabschiedet hat. Das stößt in Teilen der Gemeinde auf Empörung. Dies wurde am Sonntag beim Gottesdienst in Dermbach besonders deutlich.

Von unserem Redaktionsmitglied Hartmut Zimmermann

Die Entscheidung des Bistums setzt einen vorläufigen Schlusspunkt unter eine Auseinandersetzung, die schon fast ein Jahr dauert. Im September vergangenen Jahres hatte das Bistum Pfarrer Lindner „aus gesundheitlichen Gründen“ beurlaubt. Das war, wie Steinert auf Anfrage unserer Zeitung erklärte, eine Formulierung, um den damals bestehenden Verdacht eines sexuellen Übergriffs nicht öffentlich zu machen. Dies sei mit Lindners Anwalt so abgesprochen worden.

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HAWAII
Spiegel

[Drunk driving: Police arrest former Pope’s confidant.]

Kardinal William Joseph Levada war sieben Jahre lang der oberste Sittenwächter der katholischen Kirche. Der 79-jährige US-Amerikaner amtierte von Mai 2005 bis Juni 2012 als Chef der Glaubenskongregation im Vatikan – ein enger Vertrauter von Papst Benedikt XVI. Vor drei Jahren trat Levada in den Ruhestand.

Jetzt ist er mit einem Vorfall in die Schlagzeilen geraten, der mit seiner früheren Rolle nur schwer in Einklang zu bringen ist. Auf Hawaii hat ihn die Polizei verhaftet – weil er betrunken Auto gefahren sein soll. Gegen 500 Dollar Kaution kam Levada zunächst wieder frei. Am 24. September muss er sich vor Gericht verantworten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

[Without education, no reconciliation.]

Geoffrey Robinson, der 78-jährige emeritierte Weihbischof von Sydney und langjährige Missbrauchsbeauftragte der australischen Bischofskonferenz, hat sich dieser Tage zu Wort gemeldet. Es war dem krebskranken Robinson ein großes Anliegen, noch einmal von der zuständigen Kommission in Australien gehört zu werden. Robinson war für mich in den letzten Jahren ein Vorbild, eine Trost- und Hoffnungsfigur.

Kaum einer hat als zuständiger Vertreter der Hierarchie so viel und intensiv mit Opfern von sexualisierter Gewalt in der katholischen Kirche gesprochen, kaum einer hat einen so hohen Preis bezahlt für seine offenen Worte und seine Aufklärungsbemühungen. Seine kritischen Reflexionen über strukturelle Kontexte von Machtmissbrauch in der Kirche waren von einer großen Liebe zur Kirche und zur Theologie getragen, zugleich aber auch sachkompetent, radikal nachdenklich und von reicher Erfahrung geprägt.

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WISCONSIN
Roman Catholic Diocese of Madison

Written by by Brent King, Director of Communications, Diocese of Madison
Thursday, Jul. 16, 2015

MADISON — Diocese of Madison officials were recently notified by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, in Rome, of the publication of the findings of the appellate tribunal court’s hearing of the appeal of Fr. Gerald Vosen, who was placed on administrative leave in 2004 and formally suspended since 2008.

With this release, we inform the faithful of the diocese and the general public of the appellate tribunal’s conclusions.

The appellate tribunal has confirmed the finding of the first-instance tribunal (Diocese of Madison’s — 2007) that Fr. Gerald Vosen is guilty of two offenses against the sixth commandment (sexual misconduct), with minors under the age of 16.

Likewise, the appellate tribunal confirmed the penalty issued by the first-instance tribunal, namely, Father Vosen’s permanent removal from all ecclesiastical ministry with the admonition to lead a life of prayer and penance. No further right to appeal exists.

The confirmation of this penalty means that Father Vosen is not to exercise any public ministry, whatsoever, nor is he to present himself publically as a minister of the Church, including by wearing clerical dress.

Background
• Accusations of sexual misconduct against Father Vosen were brought to the diocese’s attention in 2003. He was immediately placed on temporary leave, pending an investigation and possible trial.

• In February of 2004, the diocesan Sexual Abuse Review Board found at least one accusation credible, and the matter was referred to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which instructed the local tribunal to proceed with a trial. Father Vosen was placed on formal administrative leave, as a matter of policy, while the case was being adjudicated by a local Church tribunal.

• In August of 2007, the local Church tribunal judged that Father Vosen was guilty of two offenses against the sixth commandment and sentenced him to permanent removal from all ecclesiastical ministry. Father Vosen appealed this decision, as was his right.

• In 2008, Father Vosen published a book named, Pick a Number: Stories of Faith. In the book, Father Vosen made explicit mention of what occurred during the previous penal trial, knowingly violating the legal proceedings’ protocols, which exist to protect the privacy and reputations of all involved — the accused, as well as witnesses. Father Vosen was formally suspended, and all his priestly faculties were removed.

Father Vosen’s case is officially concluded, with no further right to appeal. He can never again act publically as a priest or obtain any faculties for such ministry.

As always, any allegation of sexual misconduct should be brought to the attention of law enforcement officials. If allegations involve priests, deacons, or other Church personnel, regardless of when they are said to have occurred, they should also be reported to the Diocese of Madison, by way of the Sexual Misconduct Question and Reporting Line, 608-821-3162. The diocesan policies regarding sexual abuse allegations, and instructions for making a report of sexual misconduct, are available on the diocesan website: www.madisondiocese.org

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
CBS News

CONCORD, N.H. — Jurors have begun deliberating whether a graduate of an elite New Hampshire prep school raped a freshman as part of a tradition of sexual conquest called Senior Salute.

The jury got the case Thursday afternoon after closing arguments and instructions from the judge. Nineteen-year-old Owen Labrie, of Tunbridge, Vermont, faces six sexual assault charges, three of them felonies.

Prosecutors say he raped a 15-year-old freshman in a dark, deserted building on May 30, 2014, two days before he graduated last year from St. Paul’s School in Concord.

Labrie contends the two had consensual sexual contact but not intercourse. The girl testified that she “froze” as the events of that night went way beyond what she had envisioned.

Two alternates in the trial were chosen Thursday, leaving a jury of nine.

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UNITED STATES
YouTube

Judy tells her story of how she is dealing with sexual abuse of her relatives by a Steubenville priest. [ http://www.steubenvilletruth.org/ ]

If you wish to connect with this family member, contact: snapsteubenville@gmail.com

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
CNN

[with video]

By Aaron Cooper, Boris Sanchez and Steve Almasy, CNN

Concord, New Hampshire (CNN)Speaking in a calm and assured tone, the graduate of a prestigious New England prep school on trial for rape testified Wednesday that he put on a condom but didn’t have sex with a female fellow student because it “didn’t feel like the right move.”

With his accuser watching in the courtroom, 19-year-old Owen Labrie described the encounter last year with the now-16-year-old girl as consensual.

Labrie said that the two sneaked into an attic room in a St. Paul’s School academic building a few days before graduation and together spread a flannel blanket Labrie brought with him.

Sweatshirts, shirts and later pants were removed, he testified, but all of their underwear stayed on.

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UNITED STATES
YouTube

Steubenville Diocese Survivor: Ben’s Story Concluded

“Ben” begins to tell his story of being sexually abused as a young kid in the early 1940s by Fr. Robert A. Brown. [ http://www.steubenvilletruth.org/ ] If you wish to connect with this survivor, contact: snapsteubenville@gmail.com

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DELAWARE
Delaware Today

BY KEVIN NOONAN

John Baesch and Fran Malooly were typical kids growing up in a middle-class Baltimore neighborhood in the 1940s and 1950s. They lived in modest, one-family homes, went to St. Ursula Catholic grade school, played sports together, went to school dances and did what most kids did in those postwar years. But there was a difference. “Fran was normal as could be. He was just like the rest of us,’’ Baesch says. “At the same time, we all knew that he was better than the rest of us.’’

His friends sensed that W. Francis Malooly had already heard God’s voice calling to him. He was spending a lot of time at St. Ursula, his Parkville parish church—an involvement that would lead him to the priesthood and, eventually, to become the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Wilmington. “That’s really where the seed was planted,” Baesch says. “Fran became an altar boy as soon as he was old enough, and he even took a night job working the telephone in the rectory. He got to see how the parish worked in a very intimate way, and he got to see how parish priests operated on a day-to-day basis.”

Malooly remembers how impressed he was by the priests’ devotion and their enthusiasm to their calling. “They just had something special about them and the way they went about their business,’’ he says. “They related to the people of the parish really well, and they had so much energy, and they did so many positive things for people. And what really struck me was how much joy they had in everything they did.’’

After eighth grade, Malooly went into the seminary, though his family had reservations about him taking such a big step before he had a chance to experience life. They didn’t need to worry. “Every year, I would come home for the summer and be with my friends and play summer-league basketball and just do all the normal things someone my age would do,’’ Malooly says. “I would also reflect on my life and pray about my vocation, and, over the years, my commitment got stronger. And 12 years later, I was ordained.’’ The ceremony, fittingly enough, took place at St. Ursula, just a long jump shot away from the Malooly family home. …

The Past and the Future

Malooly has had to face several challenges as bishop of Wilmington, including the child-abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church like nothing else in its 2,000-year history. He realizes the victims still suffer.

“You can’t blame them for not being at peace,’’ Malooly says. “These horrible crimes committed against them came at a time in their life before they even had a realization of life. We can never forget those crimes, and we can never think for a moment that we can put this behind us or act like it never happened. Those crimes were done, and many people are not healed, and we can’t pretend it didn’t happen.’’

Judy Miller, who is the Delaware chapter president of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, has found Malooly receptive to her group. He offered to meet with any abuse survivors who wanted to see him, and he gave his parishes permission to publicize the support group. At the same time, Miller believes Malooly and other bishops are sometimes more concerned about the church’s image than the abuse survivors’ well-being.

“He certainly seems sincere, and he always says all of the right things,’’ Miller says. “But he’s also a company man, and he played it by the playbook, just like the other dioceses did.’’ Miller refers to 2009, when the Diocese of Wilmington became the seventh American diocese to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy before making settlements with abuse survivors who had sued the diocese. “They all did the same thing: They brought out the lawyers, just when the survivors thought this was going to end,’’ Miller says. “So he was no different than any other bishop faced with it. He comes across as caring, but how pastoral was he when he turned it over to his lawyers?’’

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston Globe

By Andy Rosen and Peter Schworm GLOBE STAFF AUGUST 27, 2015

CONCORD, N.H. — Owen Labrie’s alleged victim “froze in fear as he carried out his plan,” a prosecutor said Thursday morning in closing arguments in Labrie’s trial on charges of raping a fellow student at the elite St. Paul’s School.

But defense attorney Jay W. Carney Jr. said his client had told the truth when he testified he did not have sexual intercourse with the girl.

“I’m not saying he’s a saint. He’s not a saint. He’s a teenager. But I submit he told the truth,” said Carney.

Closing arguments wrapped up around noon, and the judge began to instruct jurors in advance

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
WCVB

CONCORD, N.H. —A prosecutor who says a recent graduate of an elite New Hampshire prep school raped a 15-year-old freshman has told jurors the defendant didn’t honor the girl’s wishes when she told him “no.”

Prosecutor Joseph Cherniske said in closing arguments Thursday that the girl clung to her undergarments when then-18-year-old Owen Labrie tried to remove them May 30, 2014.

Cherniske tells jurors that the girl’s expectations before the two met just days before Labrie graduated from St. Paul’s don’t matter.

Cherniske asked, “Does that mean she can’t change her mind?”

The prosecutor also stressed that Labrie told police that participants in a school tradition of sexual conquest called Senior Salute took “great pride in taking the virginity of younger students.”

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

[with document]

08/26/2015

According to a recent article in The Catholic Spirit, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, the ‘independent’ Catholic Services Appeal Foundation has reached 85% of its yearly goal of $9.3 million. However, the article continues, the money raised has come from even fewer donors than in previous years. Specifically, nearly 7000 former donors did not give to the Appeal this year.

The number of donors has been dropping steadily during the past eight years, beginning with Archbishop Nienstedt’s appointment, continuing through the ill-fated campaign for a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage, and then plummeting once the scandal broke in 2013. Still, it is interesting to me that there would be such a significant drop even after the Archdiocese had reassured the faithful (repeatedly) that the healing could begin.

Then again, having been fortunate enough to get a glimpse of a recent mailing to former donors, I can understand why the numbers continue to drop. In an attempt to lure them back (meaning securing more contributions), former donors have received invitations to a BBQ (see below). However, it is not these former donors who are the special guests of the evening (as would be appropriate in terms of protocol) or the worthy recipients of the CSA funds (i.e. the poor, a la Pope Francis). No, the special guests in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis remain who they have always been- the bishops. I wonder if Archbishop Nienstedt also plans on putting in an appearance?

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

8/26/2015

Judge Orders Diocese of Duluth to Produce All Records on Child Sexual Abuse by Clergy from 1956-74

Judge Floerke’s Order in Doe 28 Case is Big Step Toward Diocese Accountability, Transparency

Doe 28 Order Compelling Discovery 8-17-2015

(St. Paul, MN) – St. Louis County District Court Shaun R. Floerke has ordered the Diocese of Duluth, the Defendant in the Doe 28 clergy sexual abuse lawsuit, to produce all records pertaining to sexual abuse reported to have been committed by any priest from 1956 to 1974. The secret documents will be produced to Doe 28 under seal as a result of a protective order previously obtained by the Diocese of Duluth in the lawsuit.

The documents will provide a clearer picture of the Diocese of Duluth’s practices regarding abusive priests. The Diocese of Duluth has refused to provide these documents to Doe 28. The Diocese previously released a list of credibly accused priests but has refused to publicly release related documents.

“This is a big step forward in the right direction for transparency and accountability,” said Jeff Anderson, attorney for Doe 28. “The Diocese of Duluth must finally disclose to Plaintiff what it knew about abusive priests, when it knew, and how it responded. We again urge the Diocese to publicly disclose this information. Only then, through full, public disclosure, will there be transparency, justice and healing for survivors.”

Doe 28 was sexually abused as a minor by Father Robert Klein, a Diocese of Duluth priest, while Klein was working at Sacred Heart Church and St. Jean’s School, in Duluth, in approximately 1972-74. Doe 28 met and was abused by Klein in Duluth and Brainerd, Minn. Doe 28 brought his lawsuit under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, which gives child sexual abuse victims until May 25, 2016, to file civil lawsuits.

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Office/651.964.3458 Cell/612.817.8665
Mike Finnegan: Office/651.964.3458 Cell/612.205.5531

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Telegram & Gazette

By Dianne Williamson

Posted Aug. 27, 2015

It’s known as the “senior salute,” and a teen on trial for allegedly raping a freshman at the elite St. Paul’s School in Concord, N.H., had written up a list of potential conquests.

Defendant Owen Labrie testified in his own defense Wednesday and denied that he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl last year in a secluded campus room, just days from his graduation. Labrie was a prefect at the school and had already been accepted to Harvard, where he planned to study theology.

But prosecutors said Labrie was also an eager competitor in the “senior salute,” a ritual in which senior boys try to score with younger girls. According to an affidavit, Labrie told police he was “trying to be No. 1 in the sexual scoring at St. Paul’s School.”

Whether or not Labrie is found guilty of rape, testimony in this high-profile trial in New Hampshire underscores troubling ideas about sex and consent among young people.

The administration at St. Paul’s School, meanwhile, has said little to nothing about a case that cries out for leadership and action. In a statement Monday, it claims that “allegations about our culture are not emblematic of our school or our values, our rules, or the people that represent our student body, alumni, faculty and staff.”

Some would say otherwise. He politely declined to comment when I contacted him yesterday, but Shamus Khan, an alumnus and now associate professor at Columbia University, wrote about the school’s sexual culture in his 2011 book, “Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School.”

He wrote about the annual dance called Screw, where “the sexual desirability of girls is determined by their value on the ‘screw’ marketplace.” He wrote about a ritual in which new female students had to divulge their sexual pasts.

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ILLINOIS
Journal Star

Braley Dodson
Journal Star reporter

Posted Aug. 26, 2015

PEORIA — A local Catholic priest is being forced to step down from public ministry following allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor.

Allegations against the Rev. Terry Cassidy, pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church in Peoria, date back nearly 30 years ago, according to a news release from the Catholic Diocese of Peoria on Wednesday. The release does not specify a number of victims, when the misconduct occurred or when the allegations were made.

The decision was made after Bishop Daniel Jenky received unanimous advice of the Diocesan Review Commission, according to the release.

Chancellor Patricia Gibson said the Diocese would have no further comment on the case. A call left on Cassidy’s office phone at St. Ann was not returned.

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MINNESOTA
Northlands News Center

August 26, 2015

Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com) — The Diocese of Duluth is under court order to produce all records on child sexual abuse by clergy from 1956 to 1974.

St. Louis County District Court Judge Shaun Floerke ordered the secret documents be given under seal to the attorneys of Doe 28.

Doe 28 has brought a civil suit against the diocese claiming sexual abuse of a minor by Father Robert Klein.

A Diocese of Duluth priest at the time of the alleged abuse, Klein worked at Duluth’s Sacred Heart Church and St. Jean’s School.

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ILLINOIS
CI News Now

PEORIA, Ill. — A local Catholic priest accused of sexual misconduct with a minor has been removed from public ministry.

63-year-old Terry Cassidy has served at churches in Peoria and elsewhere in the region since 1984.

He was pastor at Saint Ann Church in Peoria since 1999.

The allegations date back nearly 30-years.

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ILLINOIS
The Times

A priest who, was served from 1994 to 1995 at St. Mary Church in Wenona and St. John the Baptist Church in Lostant, was told Wednesday to step down from the priesthood, because of an allegation of sexual misconduct.

Terry Cassidy, last assigned to a church in Peoria, was ordered by Bishop Daniel Jenky to “no longer function in public ministry.” Jenky said an allegation was made Cassidy engaged in misconduct with a minor almost 30 years ago.

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ILLINOIS
Quad-City Times

By Thomas Geyer

The Catholic Diocese of Peoria has removed a priest from public ministry based on allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor dating back about 30 years, the diocese announced Wednesday in a news release.

Bishop Daniel Jenky, upon the unanimous advise of the Diocesan Review Commission, required the Rev. Terry Cassidy, pastor of St. Ann Church, Peoria, to step down from public ministry.

Cassidy can no long function as a Catholic priest in any capacity, nor can he wear clerical garb or the Roman collar. He also is to refrain from using the title reverend or father.

According to the diocese, Cassidy has served at many churches, including Christ the King Church in Moline from 1984-1987, and St. Mary Church, Moline, in 1992. He also has served at St. Catherine Church, Aledo; St. Mary Church, Keithsburg; St. Anthony Church, Matherville; St. Theresa Church, New Boston; St. John Church, Viola, among others.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Aug. 26

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

Statement by Jeff Jones, Peoria SNAP leader (jjones10072gmail.com, 815 985 9441)

We are saddened that Peoria’s bishop says nothing about calling the police about a child sex abuse report against one of his priests.

Bishop Daniel Jenky says that Fr. Terry Cassidy has essentially been suspended because of an abuse report. But in his news release Jenky does not urge victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police. Nor does he say whether or not he has turned over Fr. Cassidy’s personnel files to police.

We hope Jenky gives all of Fr. Cassidy’s records to law enforcement. And we hope every single person who may have seen, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups in the Peoria area – whether by Cassidy, Jenky or any cleric – will call law enforcement expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.

We also hope that Jenky will go to every parish where Fr. Cassidy has worked, begging anyone with information or suspicions about him to call secular authorities. We also hope that Jenky will send this same message through church bulletins, parish websites and pulpit announcements across the diocese.

Jenky and his and-picked panel obviously believe this is a credible allegation. Otherwise, they would not have made this decision and announcement. Only a fool would believe that a credibly accused child molester only molested once. So we call on Jenky to launch an aggressive outreach effort to both find and help other victims of Fr. Cassidy and to help law enforcement potentially prosecute him.

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IRAQ
Christian Post

9-Y-O ISIS Sex Slaves Reveal Brutal Ritualistic Rapes, Barbaric Treatment of Girls Sold at Sex Slave Market (Interview)

BY HERMOINE MACURA , CP CONTRIBUTOR
August 26, 2015

ERBIL, Iraq — Dozens of Yazidi sex slave survivors, including 9-year-old girls, were rescued this week by smugglers from their Islamic State captors following months of brutal rape and torture by their “owners” and other Jihadi soldiers who purchased them at an IS slave market.

“Their fighters pray to Allah before and after they systematically rape Yazidi women and children, including some as young as 9-years-old,” said Hadi Pir, vice president of Yazda, a U.S.-based global Yazidi organization to The Christian Post.

While some Christians had the option to pay jaziya (Islamic tax paid by non-Muslims) to purchase their freedom, most other minority groups such as the Yazidis, who number about 600,000 in Iraq, were specifically targeted and separated for sex slavery.

Basing their slavery system on Quranic verses and Hadiths that govern groups they consider heretics, Islamic State gave the Yazidis only two options: convert to Islam or die. Many victims chose the later.

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ILLINOIS
Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria

NEWS RELEASE
The Diocese of Peoria, Illinois
August 26, 2015

Contact: Patricia M. Gibson, Chancellor
309-671-1550

For Immediate Release

Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, C.S.C. of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria has, upon the unanimous advise of the Diocesan Review Commission, required Father Terry Cassidy, Pastor of St. Ann Church, Peoria, Illinois, to step down from public ministry. Allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor were made against Cassidy dating back nearly thirty years ago. He can no longer function as a Catholic priest in any public capacity, wear clerical garb or the Roman collar, and is to refrain from using the title Reverend or Father.

Cassidy’s assignments serving in the Diocese of Peoria include: Christ the King Church, Moline (1984-1987); St. Catherine Church, Aledo, St. Mary Church, Keithsburg, St. Anthony Church, Matherville, St. Theresa Church, New Boston, St. John Church, Viola, St. Andrew Church, Oquawka (1987-1989); St. Mark Church, Peoria (1989-1990); St. Edward Church, Chillicothe (1990-1992); St. Mary Church, Moline (1992); St. Jude Church, Peoria (1992-1994); St. Mary Church, Wenona, St. John the Baptist Church, Lostant (1994-1995); St. Joseph Church, Chenoa, St. Mary Church, Lexington (1995-1999); St. Martin de Porres, Peoria (1999-2001); Spiritual Advisor for TEC (2006 – 2013); Spiritual Advisor for Cursillo (2006 – current); St. Ann Church, Peoria (1999-current).

Under the direction of Bishop Jenky, the Catholic Diocese of Peoria remains committed to maintaining a safe environment for all children. The implementation of the Protecting God’s Children program and the current safe environment program used within the Diocese, has made an important impact on the safety of the children in the Catholic faith communities throughout the 26 counties of the diocese.

Bishop Jenky continues to pray daily for all victims of sexual abuse and apologizes and prays that the Lord will heal the wounds resulting from this abuse. Bishop Jenky asks for the prayers of the faithful for all the individuals involved in this case and especially for the overwhelming majority of our priests and lay ministers whose zeal and holiness do so much to build up the body of Christ in Central Illinois.

At this time, out of respect for the privacy of the individuals involved in the case, the Catholic Diocese of Peoria will not be providing any further information.

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AUSTRALIA
The Morning Bulletin

Austin King | 27th Aug 2015

SHE was bound up in a large, rusty chain of corruption, deception and sexual abuse.

And the only way she could find solace was by singing to herself the lyrics “please release me, let me go”.

Witness AYB, a pseudonym for a 67-year-old woman who was a former Neerkol Orphanage resident, was sexually abused by pedophile priest Father Reginald Durham during her time at the facility.

In her testimony, AYB was a little over 21 years old when she married her husband.

AYB was married at Neerkol by Fr Durham because he was considered family.

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KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal

Matthew Glowicki, @MattGlo August 26, 2015

Louisville Rev. Stephen Pohl, charged Monday in a federal court with accessing child pornography, isn’t expected to return to Kentucky for another 30 to 40 days, according to the U.S. Marshals Service of the Western District of Kentucky.

Pohl resigned Thursday, Aug. 20 from his post as pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish amid an FBI and Louisville Metro Police investigation into child pornography images that police said Pohl viewed on two computers in the parish rectory where he lived and worked.

He was arrested Friday by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, appeared in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Fla. on Monday and is now in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

ARCHBISHOP ROBERT CARLSON heads to DeSoto this weekend to help Fr. Alex Anderson and his flock celebrate the 150th anniversary of St. Rose parish. Fr. Anderson is best known as the cleric who has been accused three times of molesting kids and sued one of them for alleged “slander.” (That case was settled out of court when the Archbishop Raymond Burke paid the accuser $22,500.)

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AUSTRALIA
Morning Bulletin

Austin King | 27th Aug 2015

THE Royal Commission Inquiry has released a damning report relating to the misconduct of government and Catholic Church authorities in the wake of the Neerkol Orphanage hearings in April.

Earlier this year, the Royal Commission panel heard from 13 witnesses, who were former residents at the orphanage between the 1940s and the 1970s, about their experiences of physical and sexual abuse by former employees, Catholic priests and Sisters of Mercy nuns.

Senior counsel assisting the Royal Commission Sophie David SC made her submissions in a report that was made public yesterday.

In it she stated every complaint received about a child at Neerkol Orphanage during its time of operation, and the punishment inflicted, was to be recorded in a punishment book.

The book was required to be produced to the director or officer of the Children’s Services Department on demand.

Ms David’s submissions report stated neither the Sisters of Mercy nor the State Government of Queensland produced copies of the punishment books from the orphanage.

Furthermore, she said in her submission that former Rockhampton Bishop Brian Heenan supported pedophile priest Father Reginald Durham after he was charged with criminal offences by authorising the Catholic Diocese of Rockhampton to pay his legal costs.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston.com

By Allison Manning @allymanning
Boston.com Staff | 08.26.15

To hear Owen Labrie tell it, the encounter with the younger girl was a fun, mutual, hot and heavy hookup in a secret room on their prep school campus.

There was kissing, and rolling around, and giggling, and grinding, Labrie said. “I thought she was having a great time,” the St. Paul’s School graduate said.

She says it was rape.

Labrie, now 19, took the unusual step Wednesday of testifying in his rape trial for the Concord, New Hampshire jury of 11 men and three women.

The girl testified over three days last week, saying she felt “frozen” as Labrie, then 18, bit her chest, tugged on her underpants and bra strap, and ignored her saying “no,” when he tried to initiate oral sex on her. Boston.com is not naming the girl, who was 15 at the time and is now 16.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Aug. 26

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

A credibly accused predator prelate walks free now in Rome, according to the BBC. We join with staff at BishopAccountability.org in questioning how top Catholic officials can apparently be so reckless.

[BishopAccountability.org]

[BBC News]

Statement by Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, 314-503-0003 bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org

Vatican officials claimed that the arrest of Archbishop Josef Wesolowski would send a strong signal that even high-ranking Church officials would be held accountable. We disputed this claim originally. And we dispute it now, especially if he really is free to come and go as he pleases.

We believe that Wesolowski’s case is being handled internally by church figures for public relations reasons – to give the impression of “getting tough” while actually concealing cover ups and minimizing publicity.

[Yahoo! News]

Internally handling child sex crimes, whether by a custodian or cardinal or papal panel, is hardly progress. So we are not encouraged by Francis’ decision to rebuff police and prosecutors and to deal with Wesolowski through secretive church processes. Civilized countries usually have independent, experienced and impartial justice systems to handle crimes. That’s what must happen with clerics who commit and conceal child sex crimes.

We challenge Pope Francis’ beefed-up public relations team to “come clean” immediately about Wesolowski’s whereabouts and status. We challenge Pope Francis to immediately put Wesolowski behind bars and prove that he has done so (not just say he has). We hope Vatican officials aren’t claiming that they’re “monitoring” him. That approach – Catholic clerics allegedly supervising abusive Catholic clerics – has repeatedly been shown to be disastrous.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

As Christina Keneally has reported for The Guardian, in his testimony before the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Bishop Geoffrey Robinson minced no words. He excoriated the silence of the powerful pope John Paul II, and said that Pope Francis has not provided “real leadership” regarding child sexual abuse in the Catholic church.

Keneally’s summary of Robinson’s testimony:

When the Australian government becomes aware of the extent of child sexual abuse in institutions, it holds a royal commission with open hearings.

When the leadership of the Catholic church becomes aware of the extent of child sexual abuse, it designs secretive processes to protect the institution and spins to its priests that there are worse sins than sexually abusing children, such as abortion or homicide.

Unfortunately, people like the influential Catholic journalist Michael Sean Winters, who writes for National Catholic Reporter and who loves to sort Catholics into rigid, neatly defined sets of left and right and sheep and goats, still don’t get the problem. These influential spokespeople for the Catholic center, who want to exercise their influence by reading many fellow Catholics (especially those to the left of center) out of their definition of Catholicism and out of the conversation defining Catholic identity, keep offering us as bona fide Catholicism a strange mix of papal adulation (of papolatry, to be precise) and biblical-catechetical fundamentalism that turns biblical formulas, and the very words used in them, into sacred shibboleths whose meaning and cultural determination theologians are forbidden to investigate.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Ex-Rockhampton Catholic bishop ‘put kids at risk of abuse’

AUGUST 27, 2015

Sarah Elks
Reporter
Brisbane

A former Catholic bishop of Rockhampton put children at risk by failing to sack a pedophile priest from the ministry, the royal commission has found.

Shocking child abuse, including rapes by priests and public floggings by nuns, occurred at the Sisters of Mercy-run Neerkol orphanage in central Queensland for generations, until it closed in 1978. In submissions published yesterday, counsel assisting Sophie David SC said evidence presented to the royal commission showed the state government failed to protect the children by inadequately supervising Neerkol.

When complaints of abuse began to emerge from 1993, bishop Brian Heenan — now retired — and the Sisters of Mercy’s Berneice Loch “did not provide an adequate and compassionate response”.

Ms David said the evidence showed that despite Bishop Heenan receiving a complaint of child sexual abuse in June 1993, and accepting the victim was telling the truth in early 1994, he failed to act against the abuser, Neerkol chaplain Reginald Durham. The commission found he placed no restriction on Durham’s contact with children and did not report the matter to police. “In failing to place any restriction on Father Durham’s contact with children … Bishop Heenan placed other children at risk,” Ms David said.

In May 1997, after receiving more complaints, Bishop Heenan warned Durham not to approach children, but did not monitor him. Even after the priest was interviewed by police in September 1997, he took no action. Bishop Heenan did not fire the priest or ask him to leave his church home until Durham was charged in 1998 — after which time the bishop provided him with a character reference. Durham was later jailed for 18 months. He has since died.

In a submission from the Sisters of Mercy, the Catholic Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council, and the Rockhampton Diocese, the nuns and the diocese apologised to the victims for “the pain they endured”.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

By David Clohessy

Hundreds and hundreds of abuse survivors have talked with me over the past quarter century about their tough, tough struggles with addictions. So I took no pleasure when I read that the former second-highest ranking Vatican official was arrested in Hawaii on drunk driving charges.

But news reports identify Cardinal William Levada (an LA native who headed dioceses in Portland Oregon and San Francisco) as “the highest ranking American in the Vatican” at one point.

That’s true of course. But he was also head of the CDF, the church bureaucracy that enforces doctrine.

And before he was promoted to this post, he pulled perhaps the most hypocritical legal maneuver I’ve ever seen (and that’s saying a lot).

Here’s ex-LA Times journalist Bill Lobdell’s report:

In 1994, then-Archbishop of Portland William Levada offered a simple answer for why the archdiocese shouldn’t have been ordered to pay the costs of raising a child fathered by a church worker at a Portland, Ore., parish.

In her relationship with Arturo Uribe, then a seminarian and now a Whittier priest, the child’s mother had engaged “in unprotected intercourse … when [she] should have known that could result in pregnancy,” the church maintained in its answer to the lawsuit.

The legal proceeding got little attention at the time. And the fact that the church — which considers birth control a sin — seemed to be arguing that the woman should have protected herself from pregnancy provoked no comment. Until last month.

That’s when Stephanie Collopy went back into court asking for additional child support. A Times article reported the church’s earlier response. Now liberal and conservative Catholics around the country are decrying the archdiocese’s legal strategy, saying it was counter to church teaching.

“On the face of it, [the argument] is simply appalling,” said Michael Novak, a conservative Catholic theologian and author based in Washington, D.C.

[Los Angeles Times]

In public, prelates like Levada say nice things in clergy sexual misconduct cases. But in court, they say anything and everything they can to hide wrongdoing, attack victims and evade responsibility, even when their claims violate Catholic teachings.

If Levada has a drinking problem, I hope he gets help. As for the rest of us, we must work harder and smarter to expose the irresponsible legal tactics Levada and his colleagues continue to use that protect clerics, hurt victims and endanger others.

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

UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Statement by Anne Barrett Doyle, BishopAccountability.org (781-439-5208 cell), August 24, 2015

Pope Francis vowed last year that bishops who harm children will receive “no special treatment,” but accused child molester Józef Wesołowski appears to be enjoying just that. While waiting for his trial to resume, the ex-archbishop is free to walk around Vatican City, according to a recent report by the BBC.

“Monsignor Wesołowski is not confined to his room. He can walk around the Vatican, around its 40 hectares [~100 acres],” said Ciro Benedettini, vice director of the Holy See press office, to the BBC. (This quote was translated by BishopAccountability.org. The article appears to have been published only in Spanish.)

If the BBC report is accurate, this loosening of restrictions raises urgent child safety concerns. The evidence that the former papal nuncio is guilty of serious child sex crimes is so strong that another Vatican tribunal took the extraordinary step of laicizing him. Unless he is heavily guarded at all times, unaccompanied minors in Vatican City could be at risk. (Vatican City’s ‘40 hectares’ include St. Peter’s Square, which attracts tens of thousands of visitors every day.)

Last September, Wesołowski had been placed under house arrest. Vatican spokesperson Federico Lombardi said the “restrictive measure” was imposed because of “the seriousness of the allegations” and was at the “express desire” of Pope Francis.

The Pope and Vatican officials clearly felt then that Wesołowski was too dangerous to be unconfined. Have they changed their minds? If so, on what basis? What measures are they taking to guarantee he has no access to minors in St. Peter’s Square and elsewhere?

Much is at stake here, from the safety of children to the credibility of Pope Francis’s celebrated pledge that no bishops will be treated as ‘daddy’s boys’ on his watch.

Already, the ex-archbishop’s detention in the VCS criminal system has been far more relaxed than that of Paolo Gabriele, Pope Benedict’s former butler, the only other person tried criminally in the tiny governate. Gabriele was arrested in May 2012 for stealing and leaking papal documents. Although his crime was non-violent and harmed no children – indeed, some regard him as a whistleblower – Gabriele was treated harshly before his trial. Unlike Wesołowski, who was given house confinement for the first 60 days after his arrest and was freed thereafter to move around Vatican City, Gabriele was locked in a Vatican jail for the first two months after his arrest, and endured inhumane conditions during the first few weeks of that period, according to his testimony at trial. His cell was so narrow he could not stretch out his arms, and it was lit brightly around the clock for 15-20 days in a row. He said he was sleep-deprived and depressed and that his vision was affected.

Given the high probability that Wesołowski is a dangerous man, Vatican officials should jail him or return him to strict house arrest.

If he is free but being monitored, officials should explain the details of the monitoring system, recognizing that the record of the abuse crisis includes many tragic failures of monitoring arrangements that seemed fail-proof on paper.

They should also inform the public of the date that the trial will resume, and explain why it did not resume third week of July. That’s when the defendant’s hospital stay ended, according to the BBC report.

Pope Francis and the Holy See have been intent on controlling this case from the moment they spirited Wesołowski out of the Dominican Republic without reporting him to local law enforcement. At the very least, they now must prove to a skeptical international community that a former high-ranking church official can be prosecuted impartially by the tiny theocracy’s untried criminal justice system. Confining the accused child molester to jail or strict house arrest would be a modest sign that they are capable of the “just and necessary rigor” that Pope Francis promised last year.

About BishopAccountability.org

Founded in 2003 and based near Boston, Massachusetts, USA, BishopAccountability.org is a large online archive of documents, reports, and news articles documenting the global abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church. An independent non-profit, it is not a victims’ advocacy group and is not affiliated with any church, reform, or victims’ organization. In 2014, its website hosted 1.5 million unique visitors.

Contact for BishopAccountability.org

Anne Barrett Doyle, Co-Director, barrett.doyle@comcast.net, 781-439-5208 cell
Terence McKiernan, President and Co-Director, mckiernan1@comcast.net, 508-479-9304

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Star Tribune

By The Associated Press
AUGUST 26, 2015

CONCORD, N.H. — The latest on the trial of a former student at an elite prep school accused of raping a freshman as part of a tradition called Senior Salute (all times local):

11:25 a.m.

An underclassman who says a senior at their elite New Hampshire prep school raped her two days before he graduated has left the courtroom in tears as he began reading from emails they exchanged just before their encounter.

Owen Labrie, now 19, took the stand Wednesday as the defense’s first witness.

Labrie read from emails and Facebook messages projected on a screen. In one, the then-15-year-old freshman says his plan to meet “sounds perfect.”

Prosecutors say Labrie raped the girl at a campus building last year before graduating from St. Paul’s School.

Prosecutors say it was connected to a school tradition called Senior Salute in which seniors try to romance and have intercourse with underclassman before graduation.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
CBS News

CONCORD, N.H. — A former student charged with raping a freshman two days before he graduated from an elite New Hampshire prep school took the stand as the defense opened its case Wednesday, describing his relationship with his accuser as “flirty.”

Owen Labrie, now 19, was a senior at St. Paul’s School when a 15-year-old girl accused him of raping her as part of Senior Salute, a school tradition in which seniors try to romance and have intercourse with underclassmen before leaving campus.

The defense contends the two had consensual sexual contact but not intercourse. Labrie, of Tunbridge, Vermont, testified Wednesday that he sent the girl an email inviting her to Senior Salute because he liked her. “I wanted to ask her out,” he said.

The girl left the courtroom in tears as Labrie began reading from messages they exchanged just before their encounter. The emails and Facebook communications were projected on a screen in the courtroom. In one exchange, the girl says Labrie’s plan to meet “sounds perfect.”

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New York Times

By JESS BIDGOOD
AUG. 26, 2015

CONCORD, N.H. — The student accused of rape in a case that has drawn national attention and shined a harsh light on the sexual culture at St. Paul’s, an exclusive New England boarding school, took the stand on Wednesday, presenting himself as a model of virtue — a high-achieving soccer captain who won an award for his character before graduating last year.

As the girl who has accused him of rape watched from the front row alongside members of her family, Owen Labrie, 19, began his testimony by calmly telling the jury that he was not a wealthy boarding school student, noting that he was a child of divorce who would never have been able to attend St. Paul’s without a scholarship.

He emphasized that his relationship with his accuser before the encounter was nothing out of the ordinary, calling it “pretty flirty, nothing serious.” He said a list of girls he and a friend put together a few months before graduation was simply a way to identify “girls that we thought were cute.”

And, he said, “score” — a term he often used, according to previous testimony — did not necessarily suggest sex, but rather, should be interpreted as “synonymous with dating.”

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 25 August 2015)

Christian Brother Christopher Rafferty, now aged 63, from Sydney, appeared in court on 19 August 2015, charged with child-sex offences allegedly committed in the 1980s while he was working at St Patrick’s College in Goulburn, in south-western New South Wales. The court case will resume on a future date in what could be a multi-step process. In recent years, until his arrest, Brother Rafferty has been working (and residing) at a Catholic boys’ school (St Pius X College) in Chatswood, on Sydney’s North Shore. Before joining St Pius X College, Br Rafferty had been deputy headmaster of St Mary’s Cathedral College in central Sydney.

Police arrested Rafferty at 8.05 am on 4 March 2015. The arrest was conducted not at the Christian Brothers’ Chatswood residence but at a different address — a residential property in another suburb (Victoria Road, Ryde). Therefore, in court documents, Rafferty is listed as living at the Ryde address, not the Chatswood one.

According to court documents, the offences allegedly were committed between 1984 and 1987 upon one boy who was a student at St Patrick’s College, Goulburn. The earliest charge relates to when the boy was aged 13. At the time of the alleged assaults, the accused man (then aged in his thirties) was allegedly a Christian Brother at the Goulburn school.

* two counts of indecent assault;
* two counts of sexual assault;
* three counts of homosexual intercourse with a pupil; and
* one count of committing an act of indecency.

As from 15 April 2015, the Rafferty matter in the hands of magistrates at the Goulburn Local Court. The Rafferty matter came up for a administrative mention in this court on 19 August 2015, and the magistrate adjourned the matter to a future date, when the court will consider the arrangements for a committal hearing.

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UNITED STATES
Daily Mail (UK)

Porn star stripper details ‘terrifying’ rough sex she had with disgraced Josh Duggar TWICE while his wife was pregnant with their fourth child

By CHRIS PLEASANCE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A porn star has told of how she twice had ‘scary rough’ sex with disgraced reality TV star Josh Duggar while his wife was pregnant with their fourth child.

In an interview conducted under a lie detector with magazine In Touch Weekly, porn star and stripper Dancia Dillon makes explosive revelations about her time with Duggar.

She claims the TV star and ‘devout’ Christian visited her at a strip club where she was working, began ‘eyeballing’ her and then paid her ‘thousands of dollars’ to spend two nights together.

Dillon, who describes herself on Twitter as ‘the girl your husband dreams about’, said she first met Duggar at the Gold Club in Philadelphia in March while she was performing there.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WUWM

[with audio]

By LATOYA DENNIS

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee filed its bankruptcy plan this week. A judge will consider it in November. If she accepts the settlement, it will end court battles against the church for clergy who sexually abused people dating back decades. The victims says the money won’t end the pain.

At age 91, Angie Roscholi is the oldest of the clergy abuse victims in the Milwaukee Archdiocese. Her son Father Domenic Roscholi say she came forward with her story for one reason.

“The children that are still being hurt. She’s worried about the children that are still being hurt,” Roscholi says.

Dressed in his black shirt and collar, Roscholi says reconciling his faith with the assaults a priest committed against his mother remains a constant battle.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A Newcastle court has heard hundreds of pages of evidence are being considered by the Crown, as part of efforts to establish a pattern of behaviour by a Catholic brother extradited from New Zealand to face child sex charges.

Bernard Kevin McGrath, 68, is facing 252 child sex charges, relating to 35 victims, dating back to the 1970s.

The alleged offences happened in the Lake Macquarie region, near Newcastle.

Sporting a thinning grey goatee beard, McGrath showed little emotion as he appeared by audio visual link in Newcastle Local Court today.

The police brief is 8,000 pages long, and the court was today told an additional 500 pages of so called ‘tendency evidence’ material is now being assessed.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS AND BRITTNY MEJIA

Maria Delrefugio Chavez turned to Pablo Pinto Mata, a Santeria spiritual leader, for healing.

The El Monte woman met Mata — a self-proclaimed priest whose followers sometimes called him “El Padrino,” or the Godfather — at a botánica he owned in Montebello, where he performed healing rituals.

He became her spiritualist. Eventually their relationship became intimate. Though Mata was already married with children, he fathered a daughter with Chavez, authorities said.

Then, in 2009, Chavez disappeared. Authorities investigated, but the trail eventually went cold — until this month. Human remains were found buried in the backyard of a San Gabriel Valley home. Los Angeles County authorities said Tuesday the remains are those of Chavez and that Mata is now charged in her slaying.

The 46-year-old, who is of Salvadoran descent, disappeared two years ago after allegedly assaulting a teenage girl, authorities said. Detectives said they can’t be sure he’s still in the country.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

A group of dentists has hit out at what it claims is the Government’s “failure to honour” promises made to Magdalene laundry survivors on medical care.

Dental care provided only entitles the women to “limited and incomplete” treatment that the dental treatment services scheme (DTSS) provides for most medical card holders.

The disclosure in a letter, to the Journal of the Irish Dental Association, is signed by Dr Padraig O’Reachtagain, Dr Maurice Quirke, and Dr Desmond Kennedy.

It states: “It is believed that more than 90% of these women who live in the State already have a medical card.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

26 August, 2015

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published on its website the written submissions provided to the Royal Commission in relation to the public hearing for Case Study 26: St Joseph’s Orphanage, Neerkol.

The public hearing inquired the experiences of a number of men and women who were resident at St Joseph’s Orphanage, Neerkol operated by the Sisters of Mercy between 1940 and 1975.

The submissions can be found on the Case Study 26 page on the Royal Commission’s website.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

A group of victims with claims in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy on Tuesday criticized its latest reorganization plan as inadequate, saying it does not do enough to ensure the protection of children or hold the archdiocese accountable for its past actions.

In a news conference on the steps of the federal courthouse in Milwaukee, victims called for an independent review of the estimated 570 claims filed by men and women detailing their sexual abuse as children by priests and others connected with the 10-county archdiocese.

And they said U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley should release all claims now under seal — redacted to shield victims — so the public can assess for itself the scope of the abuse scandal in southeastern Wisconsin and whether the church has done enough to protect children.

“All of these reports need to be investigated,” said Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. He cited assertions by victims’ attorneys in court that the sealed records identify at least 100 offenders whose names have never been made public.

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HAWAII
Seattle PI

Posted on August 25, 2015 | By Joel Connelly

Cardinal William Levada, formerly the highest-ranking American prelate at the Vatican, was arrested for driving under the influence last week while vacationing in Hawaii.

The former archbishop of Portland and San Francisco, Levada headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Under his auspices, the Vatican began a years-long investigation of U.S. nuns. A report by the congregation accused the sisters of succumbing to “radical feminist” tendencies and not devoting enough time to Catholic moral teachings.

Levada was arrested Thursday night on the Queen Kaahumanu Highway between Kailua and Kona. He posted $500 bail and was released. He must appear in person Sept. 24 in Kona District Court.

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MINNESOTA
WJON

[with video]

By Alex Svejkovsky August 25, 2015

ST. CLOUD — Two women who were sexually abused as minors by a priest, have filed lawsuits against the St. Cloud Diocese.

The two cases were filed this (Tuesday) morning under the Child Victims Act.

Attorney Jeff Anderson says the lawsuit states the women were abused by Father Donald Rieder, at different churches in the 1960s when they were between the ages of 11 and 15.

“We have evidence there were reports of Rieder prior to these two victims and that he continued to abuse girls in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s,” says Anderson.

During his 40 years as a priest, Rieder work at parishes in Alexandria, Randall, Kimball, Morris, Roscoe, Paynesville, Little Falls, Sobieski and St. Cloud.

Susan Fuchs-Hoeschen is a third party who filed a sexual abuse suit against Rieder over 20 years ago. She says she felt she needed to be brave about her story so others would tell theirs.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Union Leader

By DALE VINCENT
New Hampshire Union Leader

CONCORD — The prosecution Tuesday afternoon rested its case in the Merrimack County Superior Court trial of Owen Labrie, accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl at St. Paul’s School during graduation week 2014.

Defense attorney J. W. Carney said Labrie will take the stand today.

The final prosecution witnesses were two criminalists from the New Hampshire State Police Laboratory.

Kevin G. McMahon said testing found a “strong indication of semen” in a small sample taken from the alleged victim’s underwear. He turned the testing over to a DNA expert.

Criminalist Katie Swango performed tests on a larger fabric swatch from the underpants, which the defense contends were never removed during the alleged encounter between the freshman girl and Labrie, now 19, who was a graduating senior.

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NEW YORK
WHEC

[with video]

By: Rachel Spotts – @whec_rspotts

A local pastor is charged with attempted rape for an assault that prosecutors say happened at his church.

Samuel McCullough, age 84, of Gates is charged with two counts of attempted rape and endangering the welfare of a child.

What’s most troubling to prosecutors is the age difference. Pastor McCullough is 84 and his alleged victim is under seventeen. To make matters worse, prosecutors say the attempted rape happened multiple times at McCullough’s church Caring and Sharing Christian Ministry.

Assistant District Attorney Meredith Vacca said, “The allegations involve one victim — although I can tell you that it’s an ongoing investigation.”

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NEW YORK
TWC News

By TWC News Staff
Tuesday, August 25, 2015

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Time Warner Cable News is learning more information about the case against a Rochester pastor accused of attempting to rape a teenage girl while at his place of worship.

Samuel McCullough, 84, is charged with two counts of Attempted Rape and one count of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. According to court paperwork, McCullough is accused of attempting to engage in sexual intercourse with the alleged victim while at the Caring Christian Ministry on Maple Street.

Investigators said the victim is under the age of 17. The alleged abuse occurred over the course of about a year. The victim said McCullough admitted to some of the reported abuse to members of his congregation.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com August 25, 2015

Two women who say they were sexually abused by a now-deceased St. Cloud Diocese priest sued the diocese and two parishes where they say the abuse happened on Tuesday.

The women, who were not named, accuse Donald Rieder of sexually abusing them at parishes in Randall and Kimball in the 1960s when the girls where between the ages of 11 and 15. The lawsuits allege negligence and accuse the diocese of common law nuisance, a legal claim that has led to the release of dozens of priest personnel files in other religious orders.

And that’s the intent of the negligence claim in the lawsuits filed Tuesday in Stearns County District Court.

“The reality is that these suits are necessary to disgorge the truth about Rieder’s history and all of the other known offenders,” said Jeffrey Anderson, the attorney representing the women.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By Tom Olsen

A judge has denied a bid by alleged child-sexual-abuse victims to obtain broader access to documents maintained by the Diocese of Duluth.

In an order filed last week, 6th Judicial District Chief Judge Shaun Floerke ruled that an accuser suing the diocese is entitled only to documents related to abuse that is alleged to have occurred between 1956 and 1974.

The order appears to have little practical effect, as a judge in Ramsey County earlier this year ordered the diocese to turn over all abuse documents from 1978 and earlier.

Attorneys representing Doe 28, an unidentified man suing the diocese over alleged abuse by a priest in the early 1970s, asked Floerke in May to order a full release of abuse documents as part of the discovery process, asserting that information could be relevant to their negligence claims.

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CANADA
Lerners

Written by Elizabeth K.P. Grace, Anna Matas
August 2015

As reported in a recent CBC News story, the Anglican Church of Canada apologized recently for failing – for over 20 years – to make public a confession of sexual misconduct by one of its priests. Gordan Nakayama, father of well-known Canadian writer Joy Kogawa, confessed his crimes to the church in writing in 1994. In reference to his “sexual bad behaviour”, Nakayama said he was “sincerely sorry [for] what [he] did to so many people.”

It is hard to predict what impact this apology might have had on Nakayama’s many victims, had it been made sooner. Victims of sexual abuse often struggle with guilt, shame, anger, and fear. In cases where the abuser was a powerful or trusted community figure, like a priest, victims are often too scared to come forward. Historically, victims who did come forward were frequently disbelieved and shamed back into silence. Acknowledgment of the wrong inflicted upon them by the perpetrator of their harms, or an institution like a church that may be vicariously liable for their harms, can be of enormous psychological value to those whose lives have been impacted by sexual abuse. Those who work in mental health often speak of the significant health benefits associated with earlier intervention and support. Delays often result in more entrenched harms and injuries, which make healing more difficult.

The Apology Act, 2009 is an Ontario law that protects from liability in civil lawsuits and other proceedings those who apologize for wrongs they have committed or allowed to occur. Under this legislation, an “apology” is “an expression of sympathy or regret, a statement that a person is sorry or any other words or actions indicating contrition or commiseration, whether or not the words or actions admit fault or liability or imply an admission of fault or liability in connection with the matter to which the words or actions relate.”

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted Aug. 25, 2015

PORTLAND, Maine — A Freeport man whom a jury last month found was reckless and negligent in publicly accusing a former Catholic brother of molesting children has filed a motion for a new trial.

Paul Kendrick claims in the motion that Maine law does not entitle Michael Geilenfeld to damages for the time Geilenfeld was jailed in Haiti.

The jury awarded Geilenfeld and an affiliated nonprofit, Hearts with Haiti, $14.5 million in damages for harm to his and the organization’s reputation and for direct fundraising losses the jury found were attributable to a scandal prompted by Paul Kendrick’s allegations from 2011 through this year.

The jury’s decision included $2.5 million in damages on claims Kendrick was negligent and reckless in his statements about Hearts with Haiti. The jury awarded Geilenfeld $7 million on similar claims.

Another $5 million was awarded to Hearts with Haiti based on interference with its business, or fundraising losses.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
10TV

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A bankruptcy reorganization plan filed by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee would add 33 victims to the group receiving payouts for clergy abuse. But advocates for those victims claim that the reorganization would hide documents on abuse by priests who haven’t been publicly identified before.

Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests told reporters Wednesday that all of the cases should be investigated by an independent panel so the abusers can be prosecuted and prevented from harming more children.

In a statement, the Milwaukee archdiocese responded that it has “worked closely with abuse survivor attorneys to provide full transparency” and has taken steps “to ensure the safety of children.”

The reorganization plan needs approval from creditors and a bankruptcy judge. A confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin Nov. 9.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter

Marie Rohde | Aug. 25, 2015

MILWAUKEE
Compared to preliminary reports, more sexual abuse victims will be compensated under the formal reorganization plan filed in bankruptcy court late Monday night by the Milwaukee archdiocese. But, too many are still excluded, according to the chairman of the creditors committee who said he is optimistic that the plan is still evolving.

According to the 103-page plan supplemented by nearly 300 pages of documents, about 330 victims of sexual abuse by clergy will receive more than $21 million. The plan also creates a $500,000 fund to provide therapy for all victims, including those who may come forward later. Each of the archdiocese’s 199 parishes is being assessed $2,500 to pay for it.

A hearing to confirm the plan is scheduled to begin Nov. 8.

While 33 victims were added to categories of those who will receive some payment, the creditors committee wants more included. Among those included are victims who had lawsuits dismissed in state court in the 1990s after the state Supreme Court found that the archdiocese could not be sued for negligence. The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy almost five years ago just as a number of other cases were about to go to trial after the same court said the church could be sued for fraud for not removing known pedophiles.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter

Marie Rohde | Aug. 25, 2015

MILWAUKEE
The names of all priests accused of abuse in the Milwaukee archdiocese bankruptcy case need to be released and an independent investigation of all 570 sexual abuse complaints need to be conducted before the reorganization plan is approved, according to Peter Isely, Midwest director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

Isely spoke to NCR following a press conference about the organization held on the steps of the federal courthouse in Milwaukee where the bankruptcy case is being heard by Judge Susan V. Kelley. The case was filed almost five years after the first of four mediations failed to result in a settlement.

The original plan filed with the bankruptcy court offered $4 million in compensation that would have been shared by 128 of the 570 who filed complaints; the rest would have received nothing. The revised plan filed with the court on Monday Aug. 24 offers $21 million to more victims but still denies compensation to 124, some of whom had received earlier settlements.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WKOW

[with video]

By Matt Cash

MILWAUKEE (WKOW) — It turns out a bankruptcy reorganization plan filed by the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee includes compensation for 33 more clergy abuse victims than originally announced.

A group called, ‘The Network of Those Abused by Priests’ is upset with the current agreement.

Officials with SNAP say thousands of pages of criminal reports are being kept secret, along with the names of clergy members they say abused children and who may still be in the ministry.

“If parents and families do not get to find out who these offenders are, where they are, what the church has done with them, who supervising them and can guarantee children are being reasonably by these individuals,” said Peter Isely, member of SNAP. “Then this bankruptcy has been a complete failure.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Washington Times

By GREG MOORE – Associated Press – Tuesday, August 25, 2015

MILWAUKEE (AP) – A group of clergy sexual abuse victims called Tuesday for an independent commission to investigate molestation accusations sealed in a bankruptcy case involving the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

The move comes a day after church lawyers formalized a $21 million settlement between nearly 400 abuse victims and the archdiocese. It advances a position the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests has held for years: that church officials shouldn’t be the first authorities to review clergy abuse reports.

The victims’ group fears the settlement would expose only some of the abuse allegations, but church officials have firmly maintained that claims have been properly and transparently investigated and that they’ve worked to make sure children are safe.

In the settlement filing, the church outlines the steps it has taken, including conducting annual outside audits, which have resulted in “exemplary reports from the independent auditors.” It also says that every report of clerical sexual abuse of a minor, provided the accused cleric is still alive, is handed over to prosecutors.

The settlement shows that some of the accusations and associated narratives have been reviewed by victims’ lawyers and published on the archdiocese website in accordance with a 2013 court ruling.

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MICHIGAN
Macomb Daily

By The Associated Press
POSTED: 08/25/15

A guilty plea appears likely in the case of a Detroit-area Catholic priest accused of conspiring to steal nearly $700,000 from his church.

A court filing shows a change-of-plea hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 1 in Detroit federal court.

The Rev. Edward Belczak is charged with conspiring with a parish administrator to take money from St. Thomas More church in Troy. The indictment says he helped himself to $110,000 from a church account to pay for a Wellington, Florida, condominium.

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CALIFORNIA
LAist

BY JULIET BENNETT RYLAH ON AUG 25, 2015

Investigators have identified the human remains found in the backyard of a family’s San Gabriel Valley home as a woman who went missing in 2009. They also announced a suspect this morning—a Santeria priest who also disappeared after he was accused of raping a teenage girl.

Pablo Pinto Maria, 46, has been on the lam since 2014, when police were investigating allegations that he raped a 16-year-old girl while performing a healing ritual on her. Now, police are looking for Mata in connection with the murder of Maria DelRefugio Chavez, whose remains were discovered in the backyard of a Valinda home earlier this month, City News Service reports.

DelRefugio Chavez went missing in 2009 after leaving her job at the East L.A. Indoor Swapmeet in the 4700 block of Whittier Blvd. on May 7, 2009 just before 9 p.m., according to the Charley Project, a site that profiles missing persons cold cases. Earlier that night, she sent a text message to a friend telling them that she was in trouble and may be in danger. That’s the last anyone heard from DelRefugio Chavez. Her friend reported her missing and her 1998 Honda Accord was later found abandoned in the 17000 block of PCH near Sunset Boulevard.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS contact the reporter Crime Sexual Assault Homicide

A Santeria spiritual leader who performed healing rituals at a Montebello business was named Tuesday as the suspect in the disappearance and killing of a woman six years ago.

Maria Delrefugio Chavez’s skeletal remains were found Aug. 7, buried behind a house in the 700 block of Elsberry Avenue in unincorporated Valinda in the San Gabriel Valley. The El Monte woman had been missing since 2009.

Sheriff’s detectives said they believe Pablo Pinto Mata, 46, murdered Chavez.

Chavez got to know Mata when she patronized Los Angeles Import, a botanica he owned in the 2400 block of Whittier Boulevard, sheriff’s homicide Lt. Vic Lewandowski said.

Mata acted as Chavez’s spiritualist, and though he was already married and had a family, he fathered a daughter with Chavez, Lewandowski said. The daughter was 4 years old when Chavez was reported missing on May 7, 2009. The girl is now living with other family members, he said.

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CALIFORNIA
NBC Los Angeles

[with video]

By Jonathan Lloyd

A Santeria priest is suspected in the 2009 disappearance of a woman whose remains were found earlier this month in the backyard of a Southern California home.

The remains of Maria DelRefugio Chavez, 39, were found Aug. 7 behind a Valinda home in the 700 block of Elsberry Avenue, located in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. New information in the 2009 disappearance of the El Monte mother led authorities to pursue a search warrant to begin excavation in the home’s backyard.

Pablo Pinto Mata, who remains at large, was identified as a suspect in her disappearance, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Mata, known as a Santero who performed healing rituals in Montebello, also is wanted in connection with a sex assault involving a child, police said.

“Since the day that victim Chavez went missing, suspect Mata has been a person of interest,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Victor Lewandowski. “He is also wanted by the Montebello and West Covina police departments for multiple sex crime felonies, including rape and sex acts with minor children.”

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Vincent Arthur Yzermans was a St. Cloud MN diocesan priest, ordained in 1951. In addition to serving in parishes throughout the diocese, Yzermans was a writer and editor. He served as a communications consultant during three sessions of Vatican II and was named “Monsignor” in 1965. He was also a press advisor to the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops in Washington DC in the mid-1960s, and editor of the national Catholic paper, Our Sunday Visitor. Yzermans struggled with alcoholism for which he was in and out of treatment more than a dozen times. In the late 1960s he was moved out-of-state to an IN convent, spent a year in Santa Rosa CA in the mid-1970s, a year at St. Thomas College in Minneapolis, and later did a stint in residence at a parish in Anchorage AK. He was on medical leave 1979-1984 before returning to St. Cloud. Yzermans died May 4, 1995 in Albuquerque NM. His name was among 33 released by the St. Cloud diocese January 3, 2014 of clergy involved in incidents of likely claims of sexual abuse of minors.

Born: December 2, 1925
Ordained: June 2, 1951
Died: May 4, 1995

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Aug. 24

Statement by Becky Ianni of Burke VA, DC area director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (703 801 6044, SNAPvirginia@cox.net)

We doubt Fr. Espinoza was ever on the Arlington bishop’s payroll. But we know seven things.

First, he admitted raping a teenager.

Second, he was around kids in the DC area (including in the Arlington diocese).

Third, Catholic officials recruited, educated, ordained, trained, and hired him.

Fourth, one year ago, every US bishop was told that Fr. Espinoza’s archbishop suspected he was in Maryland, but apparently no church official warned police, prosecutors, parents or the public.

Fifth, he says two Catholic officials told him to flee overseas.

Sixth, so Catholic officials helped conceal his crimes.

Seventh, if more victims, witnesses and whistleblowers speak up, the chances of prosecuting him and protecting kids increases.

So we believe that Catholic officials – in DC, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey and Ecuador – have a moral and a civic duty to aggressively reach out to anyone who

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Star Tribune

Associated Press AUGUST 25, 2015

CONCORD, N.H. — The attorney for a young man accused of raping a fellow student at an elite prep school in New Hampshire is questioning whether his client was fairly treated by police.

Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin testified Tuesday in the trial of 19-year-old Owen Labrie of Tunbridge, Vermont.

Labrie faces charges stemming from an encounter two days before he graduated from St. Paul’s School last year.

As she says in an affidavit, Curtin testified that Labrie told her he had a playful encounter with the then-15-year-old girl but stopped short of having sex after a moment of “divine inspiration.”

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston.com

By Allison Manning @allymanning
Boston.com Staff | 08.25.15

Detectives who investigated the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl described on the witness stand Tuesday the stunned arrogance of their suspect when he was questioned days after his encounter with the younger classmate.

Owen Labrie, now 19, admitted he’d been with the girl days before he graduated from the elite St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, but no, it wasn’t rape, he said. They didn’t have sex, he told detective Julie Curtin. Her underwear didn’t even come off.

Yes, he’d invited her to check out a secret spot on the roof of a campus building on May 30, 2014, part of a tradition called the Senior Salute, where upperclassmen invite students to hang out, or hook up, before they graduate. But what happened with her “was never a means to an end.”

Labrie repeatedly denied having sex with her. He told Curtain all the reasons why he wouldn’t have: his age, her age, and his position as a student leader.

The detective recalled him saying, if he had penetrated her, it “would be the end of my life.”

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By Danielle Salisbury | Danielle_Salisbury@mlive.com
on August 25, 2015 at 10:00 AM, updated August 25, 2015 at 1:18 PM

JACKSON, MI – Baseball fields have been his sanctuary, places of respect, places of comfort.

They give him peace, and respite; they take his mind from the abuse that he said damaged his soul.

Andy Russell, 47, umpires more than 70 high school baseball games a year, and earlier this month, he returned to Lumen Christi High School’s baseball field for a series of alumni games.

It was the first time he had been to the field since he publicly identified himself in June as a victim of James Rapp, a former Lumen Christi priest now charged with 19 counts of criminal sexual conduct. Rapp, 76, is accused of crimes against multiple students from 1980 to 1986.

“It was healing,” Russell said of going to the field, which shares a name — Crowley — with his mother’s family. “It was awesome.”

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KENTUCKY
WDRB

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — U.S. Marshals are bringing a priest back to Louisville after he was arrested in Florida.

Father Stephen Pohl resigned from St. Margaret Mary last week, and was arrested in Florida on Friday. He has pleaded not guilty to child pornography charges.

Authorities say they found evidence that Pohl looked at images of naked children between the ages of 6 and 16 on two work computers. He is also accused of taking pictures of students in provocative poses, but those children were fully clothed.

The investigation started after a 10-year-old boy told his parents… that Pohl asked him to pose for pictures that were “weird.”

“You know I think it’s a good lesson for all children, if they feel uncomfortable that something isn’t right it probably isn’t right, you know, go to the parents, parents go to the police — they’re the ones who are gonna take it serious and look into it.”

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, August 22, 2015

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

GALLUP — With the Diocese of Gallup’s first auction of real property just three weeks away, a marketing campaign has been launched to sell about 118 parcels of unwanted church-owned land in Arizona and New Mexico.

The first auction is scheduled for Sept. 12, at the Downtown Sheraton Hotel in Phoenix. That auction will include 18 parcels of land the Gallup Diocese owns in northern Arizona.

The second auction will be held Sept. 19, at the Airport Sheraton in Albuquerque. The New Mexico auction will feature 100 parcels of land in nine New Mexico counties, including 64 residential parcels outside of Grants, near San Rafael.

Both auctions will open at 11 a.m., with the actual auction taking place at noon, according to Todd Good, the CEO and president of Accelerated Marketing Group. Good’s company has partnered with Tucson Realty & Trust Company to advertise and conduct the auctions. The companies held a similar auction for the Diocese of Tucson during its bankruptcy.

All church-owned properties will be sold to the highest bidder and the auction prices will not be subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Good said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

“They sell for whatever they sell for,” he said.

Tucson experience

The Phoenix auction will also include Arizona property that does not belong to the Diocese of Gallup. Good said organizers selected Phoenix and Albuquerque as “central hubs” for the auctions because the properties are located across both states. In New Mexico, the church-owned properties are “literally from the Colorado border to the Mexican border,” he explained.

While some of the parcels owned by the diocese are located within communities or are easy to reach in a vehicle, Good said about one-third of the parcels are in remote locations or are landlocked. Of the six parcels in Gallup, four are located on steep, rocky hillsides and three are landlocked.

Good was asked if buyers at the Diocese of Tucson auction bought the property because they really wanted the parcels of land or whether they bought the property to help out the diocese.

“We have purchasers on both side of the fence,” Good said, adding he expected the same will be true for the Diocese of Gallup’s auctions.

Good said he thought buyers interested in helping the diocese might be able to donate the property back to the church and get a charitable tax write-off, but he said such individuals should first seek out the advice of an accountant or attorney.

Assessed values

According to the assessed values listed for the parcels being auctioned, the Gallup Diocese is not selling its most valuable property. In Arizona, the parcel with the highest listed value is vacant land in Springerville, located near Maricopa and Alta Vista drives. Its actual value is listed at $92,825.

In New Mexico, the property with the highest listed value is the downtown Gallup property on the corner of Aztec Avenue and Fourth Street that is currently being used by the city of Gallup as a parking lot. Its actual value is listed as $119,280.

In contrast, the Arizona property to be auctioned that does not belong to the Gallup Diocese has generally much higher value. Two of the non-church owned properties have values of at least $1 million, and one southern Arizona property valued at $750,000 is located next to Beatle Paul McCartney’s Tucson ranch.

Anyone interested in learning more about the auctions, the terms of sale or the property to be sold should call the toll free number operated by Accelerated Marketing Group. The company will email an information packet. Information provided by the marketing company can then be compared with information from the local county assessor’s office and local real estate brokers in the county where property is located.

Auction information: 800-791-0913

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HAWAII
Washington Post

U.S. cardinal, former head of Vatican’s doctrine-enforcing arm, is charged with drunk-driving

By Michelle Boorstein August 25

One of the Catholic Church’s most senior U.S. leaders, who recently led the Vatican’s doctrine-enforcing arm, was arrested and charged with drunk driving after police said his car was swerving around midnight on a Hawaii highway.

Cardinal William Levada, 79, was stopped late Thursday in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Monday. Levada, who was archbishop of San Francisco from 1995 to 2005, was charged with driving under the influence and released from custody after posting $500 bail, the Tribune-Herald reported.

A message left Tuesday morning with the archdiocese of San Francisco was not immediately returned, but the Tribune-Herald said the archdiocese had issued this statement: “I regret my error in judgment. I intend to continue fully cooperate with the authorities.”

From May 2005 until 2012 the California native was the prefect, or head, of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was created in the 1500s to defend Catholicism from heresy. Today, according to the Vatican’s Web site, its role is to “promote and safeguard the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the Catholic world.” Levada was appointed to the position by Pope Benedict XVI.

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HAWAII
Daily Mail (UK)

Catholic cardinal and former top Vatican official, 79, arrested for DUI while vacationing in Hawaii with priest friends

By SNEJANA FARBEROV FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A Roman Catholic cardinal from California was arrested last week on a drunken driving charge while vacationing on Hawaii’s Big Island.

Police say Cardinal William Levada, 79, was seen driving erratically before he was pulled over Thursday night on Hina Lani Street in Kailua-Kona.

Levada, a former archbishop of Portland and San Francisco, was charged with DUI and released after posting $500 bail.

Before his retirement as archbishop in 2012, Levada was the highest ranking American cardinal within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.

In a statement released in the wake of his arrest, the clergyman said he regretted his ‘error in judgement’ and promised to continue cooperating with police, reported Hawaii Tribune-Herald.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Reuters

CONCORD, N.H. | BY TED SIEFER

A teenaged student at an elite New Hampshire boarding school who has accused a former student of raping her last year crumpled when describing the alleged attack, said a detective who is due back on the witness stand on Tuesday.

Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin, who led the investigation into the alleged May 2014 rape at St. Paul’s School said the victim had been poised during an initial interview but broke down when brought to the steps of the building where she said the incident occurred.

“She had very a significant physical reaction. She crumpled into her mom’s arms and her family took her out of there,” Curtin testified on Monday in the trial of 19-year-old Owen Labrie, who is charged with sexually assaulting the girl days before his graduation.

The trial has cast a harsh light on the culture at the exclusive boarding school, whose alumni include Secretary of State John Kerry. Students have testified that it was common for graduating seniors to extend invitations to younger students to get together for so-called “senior salutes,” often for sexual purposes.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

08/24/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Last Friday it was announced that the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has managed to secure yet another delay in its pending criminal case in Ramsey County. The Archdiocese was scheduled to appear on August 25 as a result of previous requests for postponement that had pushed back the date from June 24 to July 17 and now all the way to October 29. On the one hand, such a delay works in the Archdiocese’s favor, as it permits additional time for negotiations with insurance carriers without any conviction ‘on the books’. At the same time, it leaves the clergy and faithful of this Archdiocese in limbo. We can’t move on until these issues are resolved, and the delays mean that resolution, amongst other things, has once again been put on hold.

That is not to say, however, that nothing of interest will be happening in the coming weeks. On September 3, for instance, there will be a hearing before bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel on a motion by the already-controversial Parish Committee of Unsecured Creditors (the parishes of the Archdiocese who have presented themselves as a group on par with victims in terms of being owed money by the Archdiocese for abuse claims and other administrative reasons). The Parish Committee is seeking expanded access to the confidential proofs of claim filed against the Archdiocese by abuse victims. Specifically, the Parish Committee wants pastors, parish trustees, and members of the parish finance council to have access to the confidential information contained in those proofs of claim when either the abuse alleged or the perpetrator of the abuse is connected to the parish.

According to the arguments of the attorneys for the Parish Committee, such access is necessary in order for the pastors, trustees, and finance council members to properly exercise their fiduciary duty to the parish. There is a certain logic to that argument, at least as it reads on the page. However, it seems more than a little self-serving for the Archdiocese (which is not opposing the motion) to suggest that the parish representatives need access to such information on victims when, of course, it denied them access to similar confidential information on clergy that may have prevented the abuse from occurring in the first place.

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ALABAMA
WIAT

By Mike McClanahan

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Birmingham police are actively investigating the sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl Sunday morning at a local church.

According to police the assault happened in a women’s bathroom inside the church as the church service was underway.

Investigators say the girl was accosted by someone who entered the church then entered the women’s bathroom.

Investigators said it happened around 11:45 am at the Greater Temple Missionary Baptist Church on 4th Ave., West.

Lt Scott Thurmond with the Birmingham Police Department says officers located a person of interest matching the description of the attacker several blocks away. Thurmond says the person of interest had an outstanding warrant with another agency on an unrelated charge. The person of interest has not been identified, but has been transferred to the other law-enforcement agency and is being held with no bond according to investigators.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

August 24, 2015

Statement from Charles Linneman, Chair, Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors
Michael Finnegan, Counsel for Certain Abuse Survivors

The settlement the Archdiocese reached with the Creditors’ Committee on July 17 incorporated a claims classification review process that was and is still ongoing. When the mediation settlement was reached, it included descriptions of different claims classifications for the various claims filed in the Chapter 11 proceeding. The settlement allowed for a protocol for the Committee and lawyers for individual claimants to review the initial classification of any claim and to address any concerns to the Archdiocese, which has fully cooperated to review and examine each and every concern raised under the terms of the settlement agreement.

Attempting to remain true to the settlement agreed to in mediation, after a thorough claims review process, where the Archdiocese is working together with the Committee and the individual lawyers, many more claimants have been and will be moved into different classifications where they will now receive more or some form of compensation under the Plan.

The final class of claims receiving no monetary compensation is limited to the following categories of claims:

• Claims previously settled through mediation or prior litigation (over half of the class)

• Claims filed which are really duplicates of claims already filed

• Claims from survivors alleging abuse by priests not associated with the Milwaukee diocese

• Claims that do not involve sexual abuse of a minor

• Claims which were withdrawn

We are satisfied with the work that has been and is being done in the claims review process and believe that we should continue to move forward in this bankruptcy.

Contact Mike Finnegan: Office: 651.227.9990 Cell: 612.205.5531

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PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

SAN FRANCISCO — Police in Sherwood, Oregon, have issued an arrest warrant for a Filipino priest who allegedly placed a hidden camera in a church bathroom, but he has fled to the Philippines.

After a boy discovered a camera hidden in an electrical socket in the bathroom of the St. Francis Church in Sherwood in April. Court documents say Father Ysrael Bien told his parents an elaborate story over the course of a month about a police investigation that never actually took place.

Bien was not charged with a crime at the time due to insufficient evidence, and the Archdiocese of Portland placed him on administrative leave on June 28.

However, a customer sent a query to Spyguy Security of Dallas, Texas, if it had sold any hidden cameras to anyone in Sherwood, Oregon.

A spokesman said they Googled for any news item about Sherwood and found Bien’s name, which matched with one of their receipts.

An arrest warrant was issued for Bien on Tuesday, August 18 on charges of personal invasion of privacy, tampering with physical evidence and initiating a false police report.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter

Sam McBride
sam.mcbride@newsletter.co.uk
Monday 24 August 2015

A DUP MLA has said that it is “indefensible” for the Kincora scandal to be left out of a UK-wide inquiry into historic child abuse after declassified files showed that civil servants in the 1980s privately believed that aspects of the scandal had never been fully investigated.

East Belfast MLA Robin Newton said that documents reported in Monday’s News Letter meant that the Secretary of State’s opposition to Kincora being included in the Home Office’s UK-wide inquiry was “indefensible”.

Files show a consensus among senior civil servants that the scandal should be investigated by the most thorough form of public inquiry – yet that did not happen.

Different high-ranking officials repeatedly gave the view that an inquiry under the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921 was unavoidable given the level of concern about allegations that boys had been abused over 20 years at Kincora by senior public figures and that their crimes had been covered up. But the officials were ultimately overruled.

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WASHINGTON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Aug. 24

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

We are glad that a judge has awarded a brave victim of a Yakima predator priest a $5 million judgment. We hope this victim’s courage will inspire others who are in pain because of child molesting clerics to step forward, seek justice, expose predators and protect kids.

[KIMA]

[KAPP]

As we said back in February 2014, Catholic officials should now aggressively reach out to others who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Calhoun’s crimes and beg them to call law enforcement.

Fr. Calhoun was ordained by the Beaumont Diocese and he faced his first child sex abuse lawsuit in 1988.

According to BishopAccountability.org, Fr. Calhoun’s personnel file “shows he should never have been ordained.” In 1969, he raped a 15 year old and was transferred to the Yakima Diocese where he continued to abuse.

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KENTUCKY
WLKY

[with video]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —Parents said they were shocked to learn the details of what their former parish priest is accused of.

Stephen Pohl now faces a child pornography charge, and he resigned from St. Margaret Mary last week.

Pohl allegedly took several inappropriate pictures of students, some where their underwear was visible, according to an arrest warrant.

Parents now want to know of whom he took pictures.

“I just asked them so basic questions like has he taken their picture that they’re aware of, have they been touched by him, anything like that,” said Mary Hall, a parent who has three children at the school.

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AUSTRALIA
BBC News

The Vatican and one of Australia’s top clerics had failed to properly deal with child sex abuse victims, a retired bishop has said.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson told a national inquiry the Church had failed to speak out strongly about the abuse.

The bishop played an important role in developing the Australian church’s response to the issue in the 1990s.

Australia is holding a national inquiry into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

Popes and archbishops, including the Vatican’s finance chief, Australian Cardinal George Pell, had sent out the “wrong message” about the issue, Bishop Robinson told the inquiry on Monday.

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KENTUCKY
WDRB

[with video]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Naked pictures of children as young as six years old have been discovered on the computer of a Louisville priest.

Disturbing new evidence against Stephen Pohl was uncovered in court today.

The federal court records were unsealed Monday against the former pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish. They reveal both the nature of the pictures on Pohl’s computers, and how they were brought to light.

Court records graphically detail nude photos with kids appearing to be between the ages of six and 16 in the Internet records of the computers in Pohl’s office and rectory. Pohl is also accused of having more than 150 pictures of St. Margaret Mary students, but none of them are considered child pornography.

Instead, most are deemed child erotica.

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KENTUCKY/FLORIDA
Houston Chronicle

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A former Louisville priest has appeared in Florida on child pornography charges and will be returned to Kentucky.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Louisville says 57-year-old Stephen Pohl was charged in a complaint unsealed Monday with knowingly accessing with intent to view images of child pornography on two computers at St. Margaret Mary Parish. The church has a school on its eastern Louisville campus.

Pohl was arrested Friday night in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, and is in the custody of the U.S. Marshal’s Service. He will be transported to Louisville for a detention hearing.

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