ABUSE TRACKER

A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.

February 1, 2016

Archdiocese to assess, potentially add names to list of sexual abusers

WASHINGTON
Bellevue Reporter

A week after the Reporter revealed that a list of Seattle-area priests who had sexually abused children failed to include employees of the Archdiocese of Seattle who had been accused of the same crime, the organization said they will review the list and determine if more names need to be added.

“We will continue to review the list to determine if additional information or names should be included,” the archdiocese said in a statement. They also encouraged anyone with information about sexual abuse by a member of the clergy, employee or a volunteer to come forward.

The archdiocese had released the list with the aim of transparency, with spokesperson Greg Magnoni telling the Reporter that it is an ongoing effort.

Seven priests included on the archdiocese’s initial list had worked in Bellevue over sexual decades and had been accused multiple times in the past. More priests who had served across the Eastside were named by the archdiocese as sexual abusers, including three with ties to Mercer Island, one in Kirkland, one in Bothell and 13 in Kenmore.

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.

Royal Commission: Bishop Philip Newell denies abuse cover-up

AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

MARK COLVIN: At the child sexual abuse Royal Commission hearings in Hobart, a former Anglican bishop of Tasmania has denied both joking about little boys with sore bottoms, and covering up complaints against a priest in the 1980s.

But Philip Newell was forced to concede that he had failed to remove the priest from duties involving young boys.

He admitted that that was “a very serious oversight”.

Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The Royal Commission is examining how the Anglican Diocese of Tasmania handled allegations priests were sexually abusing boys in the 1980s.

One priest, Louis Daniels, was eventually convicted and jailed for the sexual abuse of 11 boys. He settled a civil claim brought by a 12th boy.

Witness Sue Clayton, a former lay reader of the Church, has told the Commission that in 1987, she accompanied two boys to a meeting with the then-Bishop of Tasmania, Philip Newell.

The boys reported to him they had been sexually abused by Daniels. Ms Clayton gave evidence that Bishop Newell responded to the boys with sensitivity.

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.

Seminary student arrested on suspicion that he sought to rape infant girls

MEXICO CITY (MEXICO)
Washington Post

February 1, 2016

By Lindsey Bever

Read original article

Federal authorities said a student from a Roman Catholic seminary in Ohio has been arrested and charged on suspicion of planning to travel to Mexico to have sex with “multiple infants.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Joel Alexander Wright, 23, was taken into federal custody Friday at San Diego International Airport. Authorities said Wright had traveled from Columbus, Ohio, to San Diego’s Lindbergh Field and was planning to meet up with a tour guide to travel to Tijuana, where he would adopt or “own” a child and use her for sex.

“Pedophiles who mistakenly believe they can escape justice by committing child sex crimes outside the U.S. should be on notice that [Homeland Security Investigations] will seek to vindicate the rights of those victims regardless where they live,” ICE said in a statement. “Fortunately, in this instance, our perseverance and diligence prevented the sexual exploitation of yet another innocent victim.”

Wright was set to be arraigned Monday afternoon in federal court.

He has been charged with two felony counts: Attempting to travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign country and attempting to travel to engage in a sexual act with a child.

Authorities said Wright, a student at Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, had placed an advertisement on Craigslist in Tijuana for adoption and started communicating via email with a tour guide in Mexico.

Authorities said they later got a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children CyberTipline report and opened an investigation.

Then late last year, an agent with Homeland Security Investigations took over an email account and went undercover as the tour guide.

“Wright’s conversation initially centered around travelling to Tijuana for a medical appointment, meeting a woman to marry, and adopting a child,” according to a criminal complaint, which was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Southern California. “The conversation eventually shifted to Wright’s desire to engage in illicit sexual conduct with female infants.”

In November 2015, Wright was asked whether he had any sexual experience with children, according to the court documents. His response, according those documents, was: “I have not gone all the way before but I have made it very close in the past.”

In December, according to court documents, he said he had some experience, but added: “I haven’t really tried anything to risky but I plan on going all the way when I visit I think we will have a 1 and 4 so it should be great.”

Wright appeared to back out. He later posted an ad “looking for a female tourguide.”

According to court documents, he said in an email last month that he wanted to “adopt” or “own” a baby girl under the age of 3.

“I want to have intercourse with her after I own her but don’t be telling people that,” he wrote, according to the documents.

A day later, according to the documents, Wright noted: “Virgin babies are the best and the ones that you have found sound good and that the parents are willing to have them rented out is so cool. So yes I want the 1, 2 and 3 year old that you have found for me.

“We will take videos and have all kinds of fun.”

The Jared Fogle case: Why we understand so little about child sex abuse

Carol Zamonski, with the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, told WBNS‑TV that the allegations were “common” for human trafficking cases.

“This is common, sexual abuse of children of this age is,” she told the news station. “This is not a shockingly isolated incident. This is human trafficking. This is sexual abuse within a religious context.

“This is possibly a perpetrator who was himself abused at some time.”

Wright is from Burlington, Vt., according to numerous news sources. He was reportedly diagnosed with Glaucoma, a degenerative eye disease, when he was a child and said he wanted to become a priest to help others.

The Governor’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities in Vermont wrote about a man matching Wright’s name and description back in 2010.

“Joel Wright doesn’t need perfect 20/20 vision to have clarity about his career aspirations,” it said. “Joel feels a calling to the ministry of a priest in order to help others find themselves and find purpose in their lives. He also is drawn to show others what is possible when living with a disability and to increase their understanding around glaucoma — which is why he started Glaucoma Awareness Day at [Burlington High School] in 2009.”

Indeed, SNAP’s Zamonski told WBNS‑TV that human traffickers are oftentimes “very charming people, very personable.”

“The last person that anyone would suspect was doing this,” she told the news station. “There’s no net that can catch the perpetrator that’s charming and evasive.”

When Wright purchased an airline ticket for Jan. 29 to travel from Ohio to California, according to court documents, he requested “disability assistance.”

Wright was arrested Friday at Lindbergh Field. It was unclear late Monday what had happened during his arraignment.

The Rev. John Allen, a spokesman for Pontifical College Josephinum, said the school is “shocked and saddened” by the allegations.

“Such actions are both heinous and reprehensible,” he said in a statement on the school’s website. “As a Roman Catholic institution actively committed to the protection of all God’s children, we are eager to lend our full cooperation to the civil authorities responsible for investigating and pursuing justice in these matters.”

Wright, according to the Associated Press, has since been expelled from the school.

This story has been updated.

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.

Wannabe priest allegedly wrote explicit online messages

VERMONT
WCAX

By WCAX News

SAN DIEGO –
New details about a former Vermont man arrested for allegedly seeking to have sex with infants and young girls in Mexico.

Investigators say 23-year-old Joel Wright was carrying $2,000 in cash along with baby clothes and a bottle in his luggage when he was arrested in San Diego on Friday. According to the criminal complaint, Wright wrote explicit online messages about what he hoped to do with an infant and a 4-year-old girl.

Wright, who went to Burlington High School, was until recently a seminary student in Ohio.

“Shock and sadness that someone who could potentially be entrusted with such sacred trusts could betray them in such a great way. Again, presently the charges against him are allegations. They’re grave and they’re shocking and they’re serious,” said Rev. John Allen with Pontifical College.

Joel Wright was featured in several Channel 3 News stories when he was a teenager because he was huge fan of the pope and said he planned to become a priest.

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.

Horrifying Details Uncovered In Seminary Student’s Quest For Child Sex

OHIO
10TV

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio – A criminal complaint against a man who was studying to be a priest at a Columbus seminary has revealed appalling new details of how he tried to adopt infants to rape and sexually abuse.

(WARNING: Some of what you are about to read is upsetting and graphic. Discretion is advised.)

July 2014: Joel Wright travels to Tijuana, Mexico after communicating with a person (only known as “reporting person” in a criminal complaint) via Craigslist in hopes of “obtaining” a child. In a Tijuana hotel, Wright paid the person an adoption fee. The person then left the hotel and did not return, scamming Wright out of the so-called “fee.”

Wright returns to the United States the same month.

July 2015: The reporting person began to communicate with Wright again via Craigslist using a different e-mail address. In this case, Wright was looking for a tour guide in Tijuana for “a medical appointment, meeting a woman to marry, and adopting a child.”

Wright explained to the reporting person that he wanted to engage in sex with a female infant. When asked if he had done this before, he stated he never had sex with a child, but had “made it very close.”

November 2015: The reporting person contacts the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about his communication with Wright.

December 3, 2015: Undercover federal agents take over the reporting person’s e-mail and resume communicating with Wright, who goes on to describe in graphic detail how he would rape and molest infants.

He also offers to give the agent a 4-year-old he was planning to adopt and rape “as a present.”

December 10, 2015: The undercover agent buys an airline ticket for Wright to fly to Tijuana with the intent of raping at least two children (ages 4 and 1).

December 11, 2015: Wright suddenly backs out of the travel plans without explanation and tells the undercover agent to have no further contact with him.

December 28, 2015: Wright places a third ad in the community section of the Tijuana Craigslist for a female tour guide.

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.

Trial begins in case of former priest accused of molesting children in the 1980s

LOUISIANA
KATC

Former priest Mark Broussard appeared in court Monday morning for trial on molestation charges stemming from incidents in the 1980s.

Broussard was living in Duson when he was arrested in 2012 on rape and battery charges after a letter surfaced in late 2011, alleging that the former priest had sexually abused a Calcasieu Parish man as a child.

Broussard was a priest in Lake Charles during the 1980s at St. Henry Catholic Church. The victim who wrote the letter claimed most of the sexual abuse occurred in and around the church.

Broussard resigned from the priesthood in 1994, nearly 18 years before his arrest.

On Monday, prosecutors began opening statements, telling jurors that Broussard took advantage of young boys in the congregation who were too young and scared to tell anyone that they were being abused by a priest.

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.

HI–Catholic Church settles 30 of 40 priest sex abuse lawsuits, Victims respond

HAWAII
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release, February 1, 2016

Statement by Joelle Casteix, SNAP Western Regional Director, 949-322-7434, jcasteix@gmail.com

[Hawaii News Now]

We are proud of the brave men and women who came forward to expose their abuse and hold the Diocese of Honolulu accountable. In the next few weeks—when previously secret documents are made public and we learn more about the scope and scale of the crimes—these survivors will also receive the justice and vindication they deserve.

These victims are no longer forced to suffer in shame and silence. By coming forward, they are a source of pride for their families. They stood up, stopped the cycle of abuse, ensured keiki safety, and held wrongdoers accountable to the law.

There is still time for the child victims of Hawai’i to come forward and seek justice. No victim of child sex crimes should ever be denied the opportunity to use the court system for justice.

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.

What a week! Ten outreach events in five days in nine states!

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

By David Clohessy

On Sunday in Georgia, we leafletted a church about pedophile priests. (Thanks Barb!)

[SNAP]

On Monday in California, we exposed public school officials who are putting young victims through legal hell even though their predator has been convicted AND in Georgia, we outed seven predator priests.

(Thanks Tim L, Melanie S, Tim S, Michael S and others.)

[SNAP]

[WTOC]

On Tuesday in Michigan, Florida and South Carolina, we did three separate outreach Greg, Phillip, Bill, David, Linda, Alan S & 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.

Witness to recall Tas sex abuse rumours

AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

An overseas witness will give evidence to a royal commission that a member of senior Anglican clergy in Australia knew of sexual abuse rumours linked to the Church of England Boys’ Society.

British woman Catherine Hutchinson will on Tuesday be beamed by video link into a Hobart public hearing to give her account of dinner conversation at the home of former state leader of the Anglican diocese, Bishop Phillip Newell.

In 1984 and 1985, when Ms Hutchinson was aged about 18 and dating one of Bishop Newell’s sons, she said quips were made around the family’s Hobart dinner table of CEBS boys having “sore bottoms”.

She alleges Bishop Newell responded to the comments, telling his sons “let’s not have that at the dinner table”.

But in evidence on Monday the bishop denied any such conversation took place.

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.

Sins of the Fathers

UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Kerry Walters
William Bittinger Professor of Philosophy and Peace and Justice Studies, Gettysburg College

I rarely cry at movies. But I did a few days ago while watching Spotlight, the film about the Boston Globe’s 2002 exposure of Roman Catholic priests who sexually abused children and the prelates who covered up for them.

The Globe’s story was only the first wave of what became a tsunami of scandal. Fifteen years later, hundreds of similarly sordid cases of clerical misconduct and ecclesial concealment have come to light, not only in the United States but also throughout Europe, Australia, and Canada.

Watching Spotlight brought back all the shame, anger, and grief that seared me fourteen years ago when the scandal first broke. The sexual exploitation of children is horrible enough. But that the predators were priests, servants of God revered, trusted, and upheld as role models by the very families they betrayed, was a body blow no one saw coming.

For generations of American Roman Catholics, it was simply unimaginable that priests were capable of such things. As one man abused as a child told the Globe, “We were taught that priests were God’s representatives on earth. A priest would walk in and nuns would bow.”

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.

‘I’m gay and I’m a priest, period.’

UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Michelle Boorstein January 31

God, what are you calling me to do here, prayed the priest. Come out, or stay in the closet ?

After 23 years in Chicago parishes, the question had pushed its way to the surface.

He weighed his options. He thought about his parishioners. Many, he knew, were accepting of gay people, even of same-sex marriage, but others — less so. He had grown up in a large Catholic family; he understood what people’s faith meant to them. He didn’t want to harm his flock, or the Catholic Church.

He wondered if he could be penalized in his job. And, in truth, he considered his status. He knew many Catholics had what he might call a romanticized view of the priesthood: Priests are supposed to be pure, almost above the world of sexuality, selflessly willing to give up creating a family of their own to serve God. This would mean falling from that pedestal.

Then, he weighed these factors against the impact his coming out could have on the lives of young gay people in treatment for addiction or who are suicidal, on the parents and grandparents who feel they must choose between their gay child and their church. For some, knowing their priest is gay — and at peace with it — could be healing, he felt.

He thought of his complex feelings. He had no ax to grind, and he wasn’t an advocate.

He set the rules at the outset: He did not want to be identified in this article. But at the end of the first conversation, he said: I’m leaning towards using my real name.

At a time when the phrase “coming out” is starting to sound almost quaint, the Catholic priesthood may be one of the last remaining closets — and it’s a crowded one. People who study gay clergy believe gay men make up a significant percentage of the 40,000 ordained priests in the United States, including some who believe they may even be the majority. Meanwhile, the number who are out is minuscule.

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.

Testimony begins in former priest’s sex abuse trial

LOUISIANA
KPLC

By Theresa Schmidt

Testimony begins today in the trial of a former priest accused of molesting altar boys.

Mark Anthony Broussard is accused of sexually assaulting boys when he was a priest in Calcasieu between 1986 and 1991. He faces five sex charges – two counts of aggravated rape, one count of aggravated oral sexual battery, one count of oral sexual battery and one count of molestation of a juvenile.

Jury selection lasted a week and was completed on Friday.

Broussard, who is free on $1.5 million bond, was initially indicted on 224 counts of sexual abuse, but the charges were reduced to five, which reflect the entirety of the accusations.

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.

Lawsuit over N.L. residential schools paused as Ottawa seeks settlement

CANADA
CTV

The Canadian Press
Published Monday, February 1, 2016

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — The federal government is attempting to settle a lawsuit from more than 1,200 Metis, Inuit and Innu plaintiffs seeking an apology and damages for abuse and cultural losses at residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The lawsuit was adjourned Monday morning as opposing lawyers meet Tuesday with a retired judge in an effort to settle the case.

If no agreement is reached, the federal lawyers will begin their defence arguments on Feb. 29. The suit alleges both sexual and physical abuse.

The plaintiffs’ lawyer said the settlement efforts reflect a dramatic shift in attitude following the change of government in Ottawa.

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.

“SPOTLIGHT” STARS ARE PHONIES

UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on remarks made by “Spotlight” stars on the occasion of the SAG Awards Saturday night:

“Spotlight,” which is about the Boston Globe’s coverage of the abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston, has given rise to a steady stream of wild statements about the Catholic Church. The latest irresponsible comment was made at the SAG Awards by star Mark Ruffalo. “Many of the archdioceses that have had molestations happening in them still haven’t released the names of the priests who are known to be child molesters and rapists.”

Between 1950 and 2002, 4 percent of Catholic priests had an allegation made against them; only half of the allegations were substantiated. Moreover, between 2005 and 2014, an average of 8.4 credible accusations were made against roughly 40,000 priests. Ergo, it is a monumental smear to tar the entire Catholic Church. That is what many pundits, and some of those associated with “Spotlight,” are doing.

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.

Pope warns gossiping priests, nuns to ‘bite your tongue’

VATICAN CITY
Yahoo! News

AFP

Vatican City (AFP) – Pope Francis told gossip-loving priests and nuns to bite their tongues on Monday, and warned those breaking their vow of obedience to fall into line sharpish.

“If you get an urge to say something against a brother or a sister, to drop a gossip bomb, bite your tongue! Hard!” the pontiff said in an improvised speech to members of the clergy marking the end of the Year of Consecrated Life.

The Argentine warned against those abusing their religious vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, describing “anarchy” as the “daughter of the devil”.

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.

Guggemos: Spotlight movie is a floodlight on Catholic priest scandal

MICHIGAN
Lansing State Journal

– Greg Guggemos is a former longtime East Lansing resident and adjunct professor of law at Cooley and Vermont Law Schools. He is a standing member of SNAP.

I recently saw the movie “Spotlight,” along with my wife, Mary. It’s a suspenseful, accurate portrayal of how a team of dedicated Boston Globe reporters began exposing what eventually became more than 250 accused child molesting clerics in one archdiocese and the shrewd cover up of those crimes for years by top Catholic officials. “Spotlight” made a lasting impression on us for many reasons. First, it emphasized the absolute necessity for a free press. Second, it spoke to the courage of editors and their dedicated journalists to a commitment for investigative reporting. Third, it exposed the hypocrisy of the Catholic church leadership and its centuries-old policy of protecting pedophile priests and its complete disregard of the emotional trauma suffered by countless children who were and continue to be victims of this insidious policy.

Just last week an incident occurred in Western Michigan again demonstrating the need for a free press and investigative reporting. John Nienstedt, a recently resigned former Archbishop from Minnesota, was appointed as pastor at St. Joseph’s Catholic parish in Battle Creek. After announcement of the appointment, representatives of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) issued two press releases denouncing the appointment. Following considerable public pressure after the announcement, Paul Bradley, Bishop for the Kalamazoo diocese, which includes Battle Creek, rescinded Nienstedt’s appointment and publicly apologized to his parishioners.

While Bradley’s recession appears laudatory, the real question is why would the hierarchy of the Catholic church allow Nienstedt’s reassignment to occur in the first place? Nienstedt has been credibly accused of committing several acts of sexual abuse in Minnesota. The Archdiocese of Minnesota currently faces criminal charges for refusing to report child sex crimes by pedophile priests which occurred during Nienstedt’s watch. Victims of this sexual abuse have filed affidavits in these criminal proceedings, detailing the suffering they sustained as a result of Nienstedt’s conduct as Archbishop. Was Bradley, the Bishop for the Kalamazoo diocese, not aware of the widely reported criminal proceedings in Minnesota and Nienstedt’s resignation?

I was sexually abused by a priest when I was 5 years old and living at St. Vincent’s orphanage in Lansing. The exposure by the Boston Globe and its courageous reporters of the scandal in Boston, together with the assistance of SNAP, gave Mary and me the courage in 2010 to publicly share the sexual abuse I suffered as a child, after I settled my sexual abuse claim with the Lansing diocese.

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.

Cardinal confirms some priests decline appointment as bishop

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service
2.1.2016

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Although the number is not high, it is no longer “exceptional” to have priests turn down an appointment as bishop, said Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

Speaking Feb. 1 about the annual course his office sponsors for new bishops, the cardinal was asked about rumors that more and more priests are saying they do not want to be a bishop and declining an appointment even when the pope, on the recommendation of Cardinal Ouellet’s office, has chosen them.

“Yes, that’s true. Nowadays you have people who do not accept the appointment,” he said, adding that he would not provide statistics on how often it happens, although he insisted the number was not huge.

Priests decline for a variety of reasons, Cardinal Ouellet said, pointing to the example of a priest who was chosen, but then informed the congregation that he had cancer and had not told others of his illness. “It was a sign of responsibility not to accept the appointment,” he said.

Others decline because of something in their past or because they think they cannot handle the responsibility, he said. In the latter case, he said, “normally we insist” because often people are not the best judges of their own abilities. But when a person makes “a decision in conscience,” the Vatican respects that.

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.

Letter from Leon J. Podles to Archbishop William E. Lori.

MARYLAND
Leon J. Podles

Note: Mr. Podles sent this letter in December but has yet to receive and answer. The YouTube link cited in the letter is no longer operational. Mr. Podles is author of Sacrilege and writes a blog called Leon J. Podles: Dialogue.

December 2015

Most Rev. William E. Lori, Archbishop of Baltimore
The Catholic Center
320 Cathedral St.
Baltimore, MD 21201

Dear Archbishop Lori,

While the Church has made progress in dealing with sexual abuse and other irregularities, I think that the situation of a recently-reinstated priest in the archdiocese, Dominic Cieri, needs scrutiny.

**********************************************************************************
For some reason he came up in conversation and I googled him to see what had happened to him. I discovered that had had been reinstated as a priest and was in the chaplaincy at St. Joseph’s hospital. He also has public web sites, and on his You Tube site (https://www.youtube.com/user/241Doow/feed)

he lists many sexually-explicit channels to which he subscribes, including this one:

BoyonBoyLoving. A selection of clips with boy on boy loving.

In his autobiographical blog he discusses his homosexuality, and among the You Tube channels he subscribes to are ones such as:

Cute Males Studio: In Between Men – Episode 5 – Muscles and Manbags by PIANETAGAY

MANTASTICMALES2011.This is a gay channel, featuring videos with homosexual or hot guy content. Slide vids, fan vids, gay themed music vids, short films and excerpts with a similar theme.

The reason he had left the archdiocese was financial irregularity. The Baltimore Sun (July 7, 2007) reported:

“The Rev. Domenic L. Cieri, who led St. Bernadette Catholic Church in Severn for nearly 15 years, received salary and Mass stipends above the scales approved by the archdiocese, according to an audit conducted in October. Archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine said Cieri also received a housing allowance to live in northern Baltimore County, although his parish has a rectory.
For the fiscal year that ended last June, Cieri earned nearly $48,000 a year, about 70 percent more than the $28,122 that the archdiocese says he was to earn as a pastor ordained for 25 years.
In addition, Cieri received $6,300 in Mass stipends. Priests have the choice of receiving Mass stipends for individual Masses or a lump sum of $2,000, an amount set by the archdiocese, Caine said.

“He was also reimbursed nearly $36,000 for rectory expenses, though Caine said the priest did not live in the rectory attached to the church but rather at a house in Baldwin, in northern Baltimore County. And he received more than $14,000 as a housing allowance, which Caine said is not normally given to priests assigned to churches with rectories.”

Cieri had been and is still living with the Rev. Larry Johnson in a $458,000 house in Baldwin, far across the metropolitan area from St Bernadette’s.

I question the prudence of assigning a priest to a situation in which he has access to vulnerable people, including boys and adolescent males, when he has publicly demonstrated his sexual interest in young males and has also demonstrated financial manipulation and a disregard for archdiocesan polices.

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.

Seminary Student Charged with Seeking Sex with Infants

UNITED STATES
Catholics4Change

FEBRUARY 1, 2016 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

Click here to read: “Ohio Seminary student arrested, charged with trying to arrange sex with infants,” by Elizabeth Faugl, abc6onyourside.com, January 29, 2016

Editors note:

This unfathomable crime happens more often than sane people can comprehend. The perpetrators come from all walks of life, but we don’t expect them among our Seminary students or priests. What are the standards for acceptance to Seminaries? With a priest shortage can we expect more or less diligence in screening?

I fear there will be less. We try to keep a narrow focus on this blog. Our topics are within the context of current doctrine and clergy child sex abuse. But perhaps it’s impossible not to discuss the priest shortage in connection with the clergy child sex abuse cover up.

The shortage leaves rectories more empty and with less oversight. It leaves good priests with an enormous amount of responsibility. Elderly priests are coming out of retirement to fill the gaps. Just covering Masses is difficult. What about Last Rites, the parishioner struggling with a crisis or a newcomer with faith questions.

In these situations, does “any priest is better than no priest” mode kick in at the administration level?

The same clericalism that allows child sex abuse to go unchecked will be the same that destroys any opportunity to minister to Catholics when they most need it.

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

Phil Saviano: Message of support to clergy abuse victims in Chile

CHILE/UNITED STATES
YouTube

Published on Jan 31, 2016

Boston SNAP activist and character in movie “Spotlight” offers words of support to the Catholic clergy abuse victims fighting for recognition in the South American country of Chile.

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.

Lester: Convicted priest moving to Mount Prospect parish

ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Kerry Lester

Pope Francis has proclaimed 2016 the “Year of Mercy” for Catholics, and that theme is being vividly demonstrated at a Mount Prospect parish.

In the coming weeks, St. Raymond de Penafort parish will begin housing a retired priest who was convicted of theft in 2008 for stealing roughly $40,000 from a Chicago church and using the money on vacations, laptops, massages and personal training sessions.

Cook County prosecutors said the Rev. Steve Patte, who formally retired last year, issued checks and wired money to his personal accounts as reimbursement for expenditures that never occurred. He was sentenced to four years of probation.

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.

Protesters Continue Call For Archbishop to Step Down

GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

The Forward Laity Movement held their first prayer protest of the year.

Guam – The first Catholic prayer protest of the year was held yesterday and again, the message is clear, the Laity Forward Movement wants the Archbishop out.

The protest was held across the street from the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica in Hagatna. This follow numerous protests held throughout last year in which members of the Concerned Catholics of Guam voiced their concerns about Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

There’s no sign, however, that the Archdiocese will concede as they have in the past sent out statements contesting claims and rumors of misdeeds.

Some of the demands the protesters made have to do with the controversial multimillion dollar Redemptoris Mater Seminary as well as the removal of certain priests.

Mae Ada is with the Laity Forward Movement. She explains why the group held the protest.

“To remind the archbishop that we need to get back our seminary away from the RMS and to restore the two priests, Father Paul Gofigan and Msgr. James Benavente. We need them back and we want the neo to be out of our diocese. They cannot continue to control the archbishop and to control Guam. We want our church back,” she says.

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Royal Commission into child abuse told Tasmanian pedophile priest’s risk to children ‘not discussed’

AUSTRALIA
Mercury

PATRICK BILLINGS
Mercury

TASMANIA’S most senior Anglican clergy did not discuss how to reduce the risk posed to children by a pedophile priest after he was forced to resign, as they believed police prosecution was imminent.

But Burnie archdeacon Louis Daniels was not prosecuted until five years later, during which time he held teaching positions in the Australian Capital Territory.

Former assistant bishop of Tasmania Ronald Stone gave evidence today in Hobart at a Royal Commission into child abuse.

Mr Stone and then Tasmanian bishop Phillip Newell forced Daniels to resign in 1994 after child abuse allegations resurfaced.

Commissioner Justice Jennifer Coate today asked Mr Stone what discussions were held between him and bishop Newell about reducing the risk if Daniels took up a job where he had “access to children” after his departure.

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Bishop apologises for not involving police

AUSTRALIA
NT News

The former leader of the Anglican church in Tasmania has apologised for failing to alert police after boys raised allegations of sexual abuse by a priest.

Bishop Phillip Keith Newell on Monday ended his evidence to a royal commission with an admission, adding it was “too much” to ask forgiveness from the victims.

“I made a wrong judgment,” said the ageing Bishop.

“If I had acted then … and done the adult thing and gone to the police, so much suffering would have been avoided.”

As a father of three sons, Bishop Newell said he has questioned his response if it had been one of his children giving the account of abuse, which he described as outrageous, gross and criminal.

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A Welcome National Approach on Redress

AUSTRALIA
Insights

The President of the Uniting Church in Australia Stuart McMillan has welcomed the commitment by the Federal Government to develop a national approach to redress for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.

“This commitment by the Government is important, because a nationally consistent approach has been identified as best meeting the needs of survivors,” said Mr McMillan.

“The Royal Commission recommended a single national redress scheme and it’s a principle that we strongly support.”

“The Government previously thought a single national scheme was too complex and difficult to resource, so we acknowledge and thank the Government for its principled change of position towards a national approach.”

“It is the Uniting Church’s view that the outcome of this approach must deliver adequate funding to implement and sustain a national response that includes flexible arrangements for counselling and psychological care for survivors and funder of last resort arrangements.”

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‘Spotlight’ wins big at the SAG Awards

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Meredith Goldstein GLOBE STAFF JANUARY 31, 2016

We’ll call the results of the Screen Actors Guild Awards a win for Massachusetts.

The Boston film “Spotlight” — the drama about the Globe’s Spotlight team investigation of the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal — took home the night’s big prize, the award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture. Star Michael Keaton, who plays the Globe’s Walter Robinson in the film, moved the crowd by saying that the film is not just for the survivors of sexual abuse in the church, but also for all of the disenfranchised. “This is for every Flint, Mich., in the world,” he said, referring to the Midwest city’s water crisis. “This is for the powerful who take advantage of the powerless.”

The “Spotlight” cast includes Newton’s John Slattery, Mark Ruffalo, and Rachel McAdams, whose date to the show was her real-life counterpart, the Globe’s Sacha Pfeiffer. After the win, Liev Schreiber, who plays former Globe editor Marty Baron in the film, tweeted a pic of his SAG statue with the note, “Thanks Marty this one’s for you.”

Medfield’s Uzo Aduba brought her prom date to the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Saturday night. After winning the prize for outstanding performance by a female actor in a comedy series for her scene-stealing role on “Orange Is the New Black,” she tweeted to fans that the man at her side was Mark Crowley, who also went to Medfield High. “He asked me to the prom, I said yes. I asked him to SAGs, he said yes,” she tweeted with photos of both events. Aduba graduated in 1999.

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Troy Ronald Walker sentenced to at least 10 years’ jail for child sex offences

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE MCCARTHY
Feb. 1, 2016

TROY Ronald Walker was a Bible-loving, God-fearing Christian who impressed fellow churchgoers with his passion for helping troubled youths.

He will spend at least 10 years in jail after convictions for sexually abusing young people for more than two decades, including inciting a teenage boy to have sex with a 14-year-old girl while he photographed them.

Walker, 45, was convicted of offences against six young people in the Lake Macquarie area after he used his associations with the Salvation Army and an evangelical Christian church to gain access to children through their families.

A woman sobbed in Sydney Downing Centre Court on Monday as Judge Peter Zahra told how Walker had sexual intercourse with her after meeting the girl’s mother at Bible study. He offered to counsel the girl because she kept running away from home. The court heard the girl was sexually abused by her father.

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Sexual abuse royal commission: Former Tasmanian bishop’s sons made ‘sore bottoms’ joke about boys’ society

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Emilie Gramenz

A former Tasmanian Anglican bishop’s sons would joke about members of a church boys’ society having sore bottoms, a royal commission hearing in Hobart has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is examining the Anglican Church and its youth group, the Church of England Boys Society (CEBS).

Philip Newell was Bishop of the Diocese of Tasmania from 1982 until his retirement in 2000.

Counsel Assisting Naomi Sharp asked Mr Newell about a woman who dated his eldest son in the 1980s and attended family gatherings.

“She has given evidence … the brothers would, in your presence, occasionally talk about Louis Daniels and CEBS with ‘sore bottoms’,” she said.

“And you would shush them and say, ‘Come boys, let’s not have that at the dinner table’.

“What do you say to that?” Ms Sharp said,

“I don’t believe it,” Mr Newell answered.

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Drama shines bright

UNITED KINGDOM
This is the West Country

SPOTLIGHT (15) 129 mins. Starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber and John Slattery.

AT its best, investigative journalism is a scalpel that slices through fatty rhetoric and cuts readers to the bones of institutions that should be defending our interests.

In early 2002, the Spotlight Investigations team of the Boston Globe ran a series of meticulously researched articles, exposing the sexual abuse of minors in the Boston archdiocese.

Coverage of the scandal rippled far beyond the city, causing untold problems for those behind it, even before publication of the shocking revelations.

The expose compelled other victims to come forward, which sent shockwaves through the Roman Catholic Church.

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Review: Spotlight

AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Review

This all–too–true story from co–writer/director Tom McCarthy is superbly cast and strongly played but flatly handled at times. Yet the tale is so appalling it has real power anyway and should leave any audience enraged.

The facts behind the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize–winning investigation into child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church are depicted in the build–up to a series of articles that began running in January 2002. The ‘Spotlight’ team are Walter ‘Robby’ Robinson (Michael Keaton) and three reporters, Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) and Matty Carrol (Brian d’Arcy James), and while an uneasy change in management takes place and a new editor, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), comes on board, the team start investigating a priest named John J. Geoghan, whose crimes took place years beforehand.

The non–Bostonian Baron clashes with deputy editor Ben Bradlee Jr (Mad Men’s John Slattery) while the Spotlight gang realise that they’ve truly opened a can of worms, as they approach opposing lawyers Eric Macleish (Billy Crudup) and Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci) to help encourage traumatised and now–adult victims of other abusers to come forward. These survivors question why the Globe is suddenly so interested, and we’re even treated to a deeply uncomfortable scene where Baron attends a meet–and–greet and shakes hands with Cardinal Bernard Law (Len Cariou), who says that the Globe could work with the Church in ensuring only good–news Catholic stories are printed.

With the expected sequences showing the Spotlight members arguing and grappling with their consciences as September 11, 2001 proves a distraction and their personal lives intrude at times, McCarthy’s film’s key facts won’t prove a surprise for punters who have heard such stories over and over (and over) again. While this isn’t quite on par with something like All The President’s Men, the performances and the quiet anger make it worth catching, as you sit wondering where God is in this whole unholy mess.

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Seminary Student’s Past Reveals Troubling Information

OHIO
10TV

By Evan Anderson
UPDATED: Monday February 1, 2016

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Joel Wright – a “priest in training” at the Pontifical College Josephinum was arrested Friday by Homeland Security agents after flying to San Diego from Columbus with the intent of having sex with young children.

The case was opened last November when federal authorities say an undercover agent posing as a tour guide in Mexico began chatting with Wright online. During the conversations, they he laid out his intentions to adopt or own a girl under 3-years-old and have sex with the child.​

Wright was supposed to continue on to Tijuana, Mexico from San Diego, where federal agents say he was allegedly going to carry out the unthinkable with a baby. Federal agents say Wright had more than $2,000 in cash, along with baby clothes and a bottle in his luggage when he was arrested in San Diego.

He has been charged with two felony counts of traveling with the intent to engage in a sexual act with a minor and attempting to engage in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign country.

Officials say the 23-year-old left his seminary in Columbus without permission, and because of the disturbing and sick allegations, his ties to the school were immediately severed.

“We certainly do not want to admit anyone into our program with whom there is any inkling that that person might pose a threat to any person, especially to the young and to the vulnerable,” Father John Allen explained to 10TV.

Carol Zamonski with SNAP – an international survivors network for people who have been abused by priests or clergy – says she’s not surprised by these allegations.

“This is common, sexual abuse of children of this age is. This is not a shockingly isolated incident. This is human trafficking. This is sexual abuse within a religious context. This is possibly a perpetrator who was himself abused at some time.”

Wright is from Burlington, Vermont, and was featured in a number of feel-good stories in his hometown. He was praised for his work in reaching out and helping others overcome disabilities. He was diagnosed with Glaucoma when he was an infant and said he wanted to become a priest to encourage others.

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