ABUSE TRACKER

ST. CATHARINES (ONTARIO, CANADA)
St. Catharines Standard

September 10, 2017

By Grant LaFleche

[Note: See all five articles in this series: The Wolf in Priest’s Clothing: Complete series. See also the page devoted to Rev. Donald Grecco on Sylvia’s Site, with links and chronology]

Robert Talach knows Donald Grecco.

He knows what the former Catholic priest and convicted sexual abuser did. He knows why other men of the cloth did the same thing.

For 15 years, the London, Ont. lawyer has represented the victims of clergy abuse, including Grecco’s. In that time he has interviewed many priests convicted of sexual crimes against minors. In their explanations and excuses, he sees a repeating pattern.

“(Grecco) was a broken man,” said Talach, who interviewed Grecco in prison in 2010, but said he cannot legally disclose what they discussed. “Those that go into the priesthood in most cases, in my assessment, ain’t always for the right reasons, and when you’ve done that for a decade or more in the priesthood, that is a pretty hollow life.”

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.

ST. CATHARINES (ONTARIO, CANADA)
St. Catharines Standard

September 10, 2017

By Grant LaFleche

From the age of 9 until he was 12 William O’Sullivan was sexually abused by Catholic priest Donald Grecco. That abuse set O’Sullivan on a path that landed him a Catholic boys school infamous for clergy abuse, and eventually in prison. Decades after it happened, O’Sullivan reported what Grecco did to him as a boy and his one-time priest is now facing a prison sentence.

In this special report, Wolf in Priest’s Clothing, St. Catharines Standard journalist Grant LaFleche takes readers through O’Sullivan’s journey, from clergy abuse victim to convicted criminal, to a father on a path to recovery.

The Wolf in Priest’s Clothing Part 1: Living with the echo of clergy abuse

The Wolf in Priest’s Clothing Part 2: The stench of rape in God’s house

Donald Grecco sentencing delayed

In the trenches against the church

The Wolf in Priest’s Clothing Part 3: No room left for hate

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.

SCOTLAND (UK)
The Washington Post

September 11, 2017

By Samantha Schmidt

400 children from Scottish orphanage of ‘horrors’ believed buried in mass grave, media report says

The children taken to the notorious Smyllum Park orphanage in Lanarkshire, Scotland, came from poor, working-class families and broken homes. About 11,600 children passed through the institution from its opening in 1864 through its closure in 1981, left in the care of an order of Catholic nuns.

Former residents have detailed allegations of being brutally beaten, kicked in the head, neglected and publicly humiliated by the orphanage’s staff and being forced to take freezing cold showers, according to British and Scottish news outlets. One former resident’s physical and psychological abuse was described in the Scotsman newspaper as “hideous treatment at the hands of nuns.”

For many years, an unknown number of children were believed to have died in the home, but exactly how they perished — and where they were laid to rest — remained a mystery.

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.

YORKSHIRE (England)
The (York) Press

September 11, 2017

By Daniel Willers

AN ALLEGED victim of child abuse at a former children’s home in East Yorkshire has completed a 255-mile walk to London as he campaigns for a public inquiry into what happened at the school.

Darren Furness, 49, is one of 249 men who claim they were abused as boys at the now defunct St William’s Children’s Home, in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire.

Other campaigners joined him for part of the ‘walk for justice’ from Market Weighton to London, via York.

The walk, which began on August 4, took Mr Furness about six weeks.

Mr Furness, from Leeds, said: “We got quite good support on the way down from the public.

“I found the walk quite easy. The night time was a bit daunting, staying in a tent, but that was expected.”

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.

SCOTLAND
BBC News

September 10, 2017

By Ben Robinson and Michael Buchanan

The bodies of hundreds of children are believed to be buried in a mass grave in Lanarkshire, southern Scotland, according to an investigation by BBC News.

The children were all residents of a care home run by Catholic nuns.

At least 400 children are thought to be buried in a section of St Mary’s Cemetery in Lanark.

The Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, which ran the home, refused to comment on the findings.

The research by the File on 4 programme in conjunction with the Sunday Post newspaper focused on Smyllum Park Orphanage in Lanark.

It opened in 1864 and provided care for orphans or children from broken homes. It closed in 1981, having looked after 11,600 children.

A burial plot, containing the bodies of a number of children, was uncovered by two former residents of Smyllum in 2003.

Frank Docherty and Jim Kane discovered an overgrown, unmarked section of St Mary’s Cemetery during their efforts to reveal physical abuse which they said many former residents had suffered.

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.

ARGENTINA
Archdiocese of Paraná (Entre Rios province)

September 10, 2017

[Archbishop of Paraná apologizes for crimes of a priest recently sentenced to 25 years in prison for sexually abusing and corrupting children.]

Con la sentencia en primera instancia contra el P. Juan Diego Escobar Gaviria dada a conocer en el día de hoy, la Iglesia en Paraná enfrenta un hecho muy doloroso: la condena de un ministro por uno de los delitos que, con justicia, sacuden la conciencia humana.

Rechazamos con energía este grave delito, y nos llenamos de vergüenza y de dolor cada vez que uno de nuestros sacerdotes es acusado de perpetrarlo.

Pedimos humildemente perdón por el dolor que situaciones como ésta causan al Pueblo de Dios y a toda la sociedad humana. Al mismo tiempo, y más allá del ulterior resultado de otras instancias del proceso que hoy está transcurriendo, renovamos nuestra disposición a colaborar en cuanto nos sea posible con la justicia en el esclarecimiento de los hechos y en la sanación de las heridas provocadas, así como en un cuidado siempre mayor sobre la calidad de nuestros ambientes, en bien sobre todo de las personas más vulnerables.

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.

ARGENTINA
Diario El Argentino (Gualeguaychú, province of Entre Rios)

September 9, 2017

[Google Translate: The Archbishop of Parana expressed shame and pain over the crimes committed by Juan Diego Escobar Gaviria.]

El arzobispado de Paraná rechazó enérgicamente el delito cometido por el presbítero Juan Diego Escobar Gaviria, condenado por la justicia a 25 años de prisión por abuso sexual y corrupción de menores. A través de un comunicado, la Iglesia paranaense expresó vergüenza y dolor por “cada vez que uno de nuestros sacerdotes es acusado de perpetrarlo”.

Al conocerse la sentencia contra el presbítero Juan Diego Escobar Gaviria, condenado a 25 años de prisión por el delito de abuso sexual y corrupción de menores, el arzobispado de Paraná envió un comunicado en el que manifiesta un enérgico rechazo a este “grave delito” y expresa vergüenza y dolor por “cada vez que uno de nuestros sacerdotes es acusado de perpetrarlo”. Además, acerca su pedido de perdón “por el dolor que situaciones como ésta causan al Pueblo de Dios y a toda la sociedad humana”.

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.

PHILIPPINES
GMA News

September 11, 2017

By Virgil Lopez

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday started its preliminary investigation on the qualified trafficking complaint against the priest accused of soliciting sex from a 13-year-old girl.

Monsignor Arnel Lagarejos was a no-show at the closed-door hearing called by Assistant State Prosecutor Karla Cabel regarding the two counts of qualified trafficking filed by “Anna” and her mother “‘Marie” last September 4.

The priest, however, was represented by a lawyer, according to complainants’ counsel Public Attorney’s Office (PAO).

Representatives from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) also attended the hearing.

Lagarejos and his four co-respondents were given five days to submit their respective counter affidavits. The next hearing was set for September 22.

Lagarejos, who is now under the government’s immigration lookout bulletin, was arrested at a motel in Marikina City on July 28 while in the company of the victim, who was allegedly pimped by a 16-year-old friend.

The priest has already been removed by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines from his post at St. John the Baptist Parish in Taytay, Rizal and as president of the Cainta Catholic College. —NB, GMA News

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.

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

September 11, 2017

By Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com

Father Louis Brouillard sexually abused an altar boy and influenced him to watch other boys being abused, a lawsuit filed late last month in the Superior Court of Guam states.

The plaintiff, identified in court documents only as R.C. in order to protect his privacy, was sexually abused by Brouillard on church grounds and at Boy Scouts outings during the time he was an altar boy for the Barrigada and Tumon parishes and a boy scout with Troop 13, the lawsuit states.

Now 53 and living in Barrigada, R.C. was around 13 or 14 at the time of the alleged abuse, from 1979 to 1981, the complaint states.

R.C., represented by attorney Michael J. Berman, of the law firm of Berman O’Connor & Mann, demands a jury trial and $10 million in minimum damages.

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.

ARKANSAS
ArkansasOnline

September 9, 2017

By Jeannie Roberts

Lawyer says filing spotlights trouble

The lawyer for a female state prisoner who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a prison chaplain announced Friday that a civil-rights lawsuit has been filed against the Department of Correction, the chaplain and other officials.

Carolyn Arnett, an inmate at the McPherson Unit, said in the lawsuit that department Director Wendy Kelley and other administrators allowed “rampant” institutional failures and a culture of sexual and physical abuse that enabled former prison chaplain Kenneth Dewitt to abuse several female inmates.

Dewitt, 68, pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual abuse in July 2016 in relation to assaults against Arnett and two other female inmates. He will likely spend five years in prison. He was sentenced to 10 years with five years suspended on each count, all to run concurrently. He is currently an inmate at the Ouachita River Unit. He was originally charged with 50 counts that carried a possible 500 years in prison.

Prison spokesman Solomon Graves declined to comment Friday, citing pending litigation.

[DOCUMENT: Read Arkansas inmate’s full lawsuit]

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

September 11, 2017

By John Ferguson, @fergusonjw

Plans for a $4 billion national child abuse redress scheme are fracturing, with several states holding out amid deep uncertainty over costs and cash-strapped organisations in fear of being sent broke. At least three state governments are refusing to guarantee they will sign up to the centrepiece of the abuse royal commission, which recommended that a single national redress scheme be implemented.

South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia are either ­opposed to existing plans or are demanding the federal government detail its final position — including costings — ­before stating what they will do.

The Australian has also established that some smaller entities responsible for abuse have privately told government officials they fear being bankrupted by any scheme that requires payments of up to $150,000 for each victim.

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.

SCOTLAND (UK)
Sunday Post

September 10, 2017

By Gordon Blackstock

UP TO 400 children who died at an orphanage run by nuns were buried in a single unmarked grave, we can reveal today.

Our investigation into Smyllum Park orphanage reveals 402 babies, toddlers and children died there between 1864 and when it closed its doors in 1981.

Children sent to live at the orphanage who died were buried in an unmarked mass grave at a nearby cemetery in Lanarkshire.

Headstones mark the graves of the nuns and staff members buried nearby but no stone or memorial has ever recorded the names of the lost children.

The revelation that up to 400 youngsters – and some adults – are buried there today provoked calls for Scotland’s ongoing Child Abuse Inquiry to investigate.

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.

SCOTLAND (UK)
Sunday World

September 10, 2017

The bodies of hundreds of children who died at an orphanage run by nuns are believed to be buried in a mass grave, a BBC and Sunday Post investigation has uncovered.

At least 400 children from Smyllum Park Orphanage in Lanark are thought to be buried in an unmarked grave at the town’s St Mary’s Cemetery, research by the paper and the broadcaster’s File On 4 programme indicates.

The orphanage, run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, was home to more than 10,000 children between opening in 1864 and closing in 1981.

Former First Minister Jack McConnell told the Sunday Post: “It is heartbreaking to discover so many children may have been buried in these unmarked graves.

“After so many years of silence, we must now know the truth of what happened here.”

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.

MALTA
Times of Malta

September 10, 2017

By Matthew Xuereb

Charles Fenech was handed a suspended jail sentence

The punishment meted out to a priest convicted of having sexually exploited a vulnerable woman was below the minimum permissible by law, according to the Attorney General’s office.

This emerged in an appeal it filed on behalf of the police following the conviction of Fr Charles Fenech, found guilty of the violent indecent assault of a woman who was not in a fit mental state.

The former director of the Kerygma Movement was jailed for three months, suspended for a year, when according to the AG, the minimum should have been a six-month suspended jail term.

Fr Fenech was charged in 2014, and it was the Times of Malta that broke the news the priest was facing criminal charges.

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.

ENGLAND (UK)
The Telegraph

September 9, 2017

By Robert Mendick, chief reporter

[PHOTO: The Children’s Society has now admitted that dozens of vulnerable children were sexually assaulted while they were residents in the homes it ran.]

One of Britain’s biggest children’s charities made a series of secret compensation payments to child sex victims abused in its care, the Telegraph can disclose.

The Children’s Society has now admitted that dozens of vulnerable children were sexually assaulted while they were residents in the homes it ran.

The charity has now issued an unprecedented apology to the children “in our care [who] have suffered harm and abuse”.

In a 700-word statement, the charity admitted: “It is our role to ensure that children and young people are always properly supported to speak out about abuse or make a complaint about the way they are treated, under any circumstances. With enormous regret, The Children’s Society has not always lived up to these fundamental principles.”

The statement went on: “We profoundly apologise to anyone who was abused emotionally, physically and sexually as children while in the care of The Children’s Society.”

The charity, which has strong links with the Church of England, ran more than 100 care homes before closing down its last one in 1997. It trawled its records for legal cases it had settled as part of its submission for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, the controversial £100 million inquiry into historic abuse.

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

ARGENTINA (Salta province)
El Tribuno

September 10, 2017

By Rubén Arenas

[Judge Costas minimized the seriousness of the allegations of sexual abuse made against the priest Rosa. The judge cites a constitutional basis for his ruling by which he granted freedom to the priest, who is accused of grossly outrageous sexual abuse.]

Se conocieron los fundamentos de la resolución mediante la cual el magistrado otorgó la libertad al sacerdote acusado de abuso sexual gravemente ultrajante.

El camarista Luis Félix Costas justificó la libertad otorgada al cura Rubén Agustín Rosa Torino amparándose en el principio de inocencia consagrado en el artículo 18 de la Constitución Nacional, al tiempo que minimizó el tenor de las denuncias por abuso sexual realizadas contra el religioso. El magistrado recurre a abundante jurisprudencia para justificar la excarcelación y de su resolución surge que la gravedad de los hechos que le imputan y la pena que le podía corresponder (8 años como mínimo), en caso de ser condenado, no son elementos suficientes para mantener la prisión preventiva del cura Rosa, quien estuvo encarcelado desde el 23 de diciembre de 2016.

Si bien el juez Costas se limitó solamente a resolver el pedido de libertad planteado por la defensa, deja entrever que el tenor de las denuncias no tienen la entidad que se requiere para sostener el delito de abuso gravemente ultrajante que se le imputa al sacerdote de 64 años.

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.

Edinberg (TX)
The [McAllen TX] Monitor

September 10, 2017

By Lorenzo Zazueta-Castro

[PHOTO: John Feit, the former priest accused of killing a McAllen teacher 55 years ago, has waived his right to an extradition hearing. That means Texas has 30 days to pick him up from Arizona to face a murder charge.]

EDINBURG TX — Two of the most highly anticipated trials in recent county history are set to begin in the coming weeks.

In the next several weeks, the trials in the Monica Melissa Patterson and former priest John Bernard Feit cases will begin, but their high-profile nature have created delays in the former’s court proceedings due to the national media attention surrounding the circumstances of the latter — a cold case that’s already been featured on CBS’s 48 Hours.

Beginning Sept. 18, jury selection will begin in the Patterson case, which stems from the capital murder charge facing the 50-year-old former director of local short-term hospice facility Comfort House in connection with the January 2015 death of 96-year-old Martin Knell.

Most recently, in late August, a group of potential jurors filled out questionnaires in preparation for jury selection in Patterson’s trial.

Her trial will precede the Feit cold case, which involves the 84-year-old former man of the cloth being accused of killing and dumping the body of Irene Garza, a popular school teacher and local beauty queen nearly 60 years ago.

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.

SCOTLAND (UK)
The Guardian

September 10, 2017

By Owen Bowcott

High infant mortality rate and allegations of abuse raise suspicions of Smyllum Park in Lanark, once run by Catholic nuns

The Scottish child abuse inquiry is to investigate claims that the bodies of at least 400 children from a home once run by Catholic nuns are buried in an unmarked mass grave.

The high infant mortality rate has raised concerns about conditions at Smyllum Park orphanage in Lanark, which was operated by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.

The institution, which looked after children from broken homes, opened in 1864 and closed in 1981. More than 11,000 children stayed at the orphanage over that period.

Records reveal that most of the deaths were due to natural causes, mainly from diseases such as TB, pneumonia and pleurisy. About a third of the victims were under the age of five, and the majority of the deaths occurred between 1870 and 1930.

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.

SAN DIEGO
San Diego Tribune

September 10, 2017

By Peter Rowe

[Note: This is a five-part feature. It also includes: A decade after settling sex abuse cases, the Diocese of San Diego still copes with the fallout; Back story: Skepticism and cautious optimism, a decade after a scandal’s landmark settlements; Four priests who abused their flock: Grim stories from the San Diego diocese files; and Timeline of the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal.]

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.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
San Diego Tribune

September 10, 2017

[Note: This is a five-part feature. It also includes: A decade after settling sex abuse cases, the Diocese of San Diego still copes with the fallout; Four priests who abused their flock: Grim stories from the San Diego diocese files; Largest sexual abuse settlements by Roman Catholic institutions in the U.S.; Timeline of the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal.]

For this week’s Back Story, reporter Peter Rowe discusses his front page story about a painful anniversary. Thursday marked 10 years since the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego settled the sex abuse claims of victims of predatory priests.

Q. What’s changed over the past decade?

A. That depends on who you interview. Diocesan officials, including Bishop Robert McElroy, point to a range of new policies designed to reduce the chances of this happening again. These included a new curriculum for Catholic schools, meant to help students and their parents identify — and stop — suspicious behavior. There are new background checks for every employee, religious or lay. Even visiting missionaries and substitute teachers have to undergo this step.

McElroy says all allegations are now reported to the appropriate civil authorities. The Diocesan Review Board, which existed 10 years ago, has subtly changed. The panel has always reviewed allegations, but the chair says it now takes a more active role in determining the facts of a case. And McElroy added a new member to the panel, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse.

Q. You interviewed several victims of the abuse. What was the overriding feeling you got from talking to people who went through this incredible trauma?

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.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
San Diego Tribune

September 10, 2017

By Peter Rowe and Merrie Monteagudo

[Note: This is a multi-part feature. It also includes: A decade after settling sex abuse cases, the Diocese of San Diego still copes with the fallout; Back story: Skepticism and cautious optimism, a decade after a scandal’s landmark settlements; Four priests who abused their flock: Grim stories from the San Diego diocese files; Largest sexual abuse settlements by Roman Catholic institutions in the U.S..]

2002

January: The Boston Globe launches an investigative series into allegations of Catholic priests sexually abusing minors and archdiocesan cover-ups. The cases go back decades.

June: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issues “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” declaring a “zero tolerance” policy for sexual abuse. The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego reveals allegations made against 23 priests — 18 in San Diego County and five in Imperial County — since Bishop Robert Brom’s arrival in 1990.

August: Brom reveals that retired Monsignor Rudolph Galindo admitted sexually abusing three boys and urges victims to speak up. Two lawsuits are filed in San Diego Superior Court on behalf of two men who say they were sexually abused by priests when they were minors. [Note: See the entry for Galindo in the BishopAccountability.org database.]

2003

January: California lifts the statute of limitations on civil cases for one year, allowing sexual abuse victims to sue, regardless of when incidents occurred. By the Dec. 31 deadline, the Diocese of San Diego had been named in 99 such lawsuits involving more than 140 victims.

September: The Archdiocese of Boston agrees to pay $85 million to more than 500 people.

2004

February: In a letter to San Diego priests, Brom says that accusations by 128 people against 42 priests in the diocese since 1950 were “substantiated or are credible.” The diocese found 18 priests were either falsely accused or claims against them could not be substantiated.

February: A church-appointed national review board rebukes U.S. bishops for “shameful” failure to stop widespread clerical sex abuse over the past half-century. The tally shows 10,667 abuse claims involving minors lodged against 4 percent of the clergy (about 3 percent in San Diego).

February: The John Jay College of Criminal Justice releases a study sponsored by the U.S. bishops, “The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons, 1950-2002.”

July: The Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., becomes the first Catholic diocese to seek bankruptcy protection in the face of sexual abuse claims.

December: The Diocese of Orange in California agrees to pay $100 million to about 90 victims, with payouts ranging from $50,000 to nearly $4 million.

2006

May: A Los Angeles judge coordinating nearly 600 sexual-abuse lawsuits filed in Los Angeles and San Diego says five cases in each city can go forward.

2007

February: The Diocese of San Diego files for bankruptcy protection the day before the first trial is to begin. It is the nation’s fifth diocese to seek Chapter 11 reorganization, and the largest.

March: The Diocese of San Diego releases the names of 38 priests with “credible allegations” of sexually abusing minors, along with their church service records dating to 1928. [Note: For the list of 38 names, see the San Diego entry in Lists of Accused Priests Released by Dioceses and Religious Institutes.]

July: The Archdiocese of Los Angeles agrees to pay $660 million to 508 victims. It is the largest settlement of its kind in the Catholic Church.

September: The Diocese of San Diego reaches a $198.1 million agreement with 144 victims. The diocese also promises to release church documents about abusers’ histories.

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.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
San Diego Tribune

September 10, 2017

By Peter Rowe

[Note: See also Documents from the San Diego Settlement. For more information on the four priests, see entries for Rev. Robert Nikliborc, Rev. Franz Robier, and Rev. Edward Rodrigue in the BishopAccountability.org database and Paul R. Shanley—Assignments and Archdiocesan Documents.]

[Note: This is a multi-part feature story. It also includes: A decade after settling sex abuse cases, the Diocese of San Diego still copes with the fallout; Back story: Skepticism and cautious optimism, a decade after a scandal’s landmark settlements; Largest sexual abuse settlements by Roman Catholic institutions in the U.S.; Timeline of the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal.]

In 2010, a superior court judge in Los Angeles ordered the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego to release its files on priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

The documents, now curated on the bishop-accountability.org site, make grim reading. A sampling:

Rev. Robert Nikliborc

A Chicago native, Nikliborc was ordained in San Diego in 1955. A year later, he underwent counseling at a church treatment center in New Mexico, following two allegations of sexually assaulting children. In 1957, he was sent to St. Boniface School in Banning. There, he was a accused of sexually molesting a boy from 1963 through ’65. “Johnny G.,” the victim, sued in 2003.

In 1969, while financial director of a Banning orphanage, Nikliborc was convicted on income tax evasion charges. After serving a prison sentence, he began a 30-year tenure as pastor of St. Anne’s Parish in San Diego (1971-2001).

Early in his pastorship, Nikliborc was ordered by Bishop Maher to end a relationship with a church secretary. “The scandal is not only among the parishioners who are complaining,” Maher wrote on April 12, 1976, “but among our clergy. The question is what hold does this woman have on you?”

Nikliborc retired from the priesthood in 2001.

Rev. Franz Robier

An Austrian citizen, Robier worked in the Diocese of San Diego from 1955 until 1982. He died in 1994 at the age of 82.

Robier has been accused or raping or sexually assaulting at least 24 girls in the 1950s and ’60s. Several victims were members of the children’s choir at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in San Diego’s Oak Park. “He’d have me sit on his lap,” said one of the victims, Jane Doe Number 5. “The other girls, he took places.”

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.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
San Diego Tribune

September 10

By Peter Rowe

[Note: This is a multi-part feature story. It also includes: Back story: Skepticism and cautious optimism, a decade after a scandal’s landmark settlements; Four priests who abused their flock: Grim stories from the San Diego diocese files; Largest sexual abuse settlements by Roman Catholic institutions in the U.S.; Timeline of the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal.]

[Note: See also Documents from the San Diego Settlement.]

Whenever Heidi Lynch thinks about priests molesting children, her stomach churns, her head spins and her questions multiply.

“Are they really taking care of the children?” asked Lynch, a 60-year-old San Carlos resident, who between the ages of 8 and 11 was repeatedly raped by a priest. “Are they really taking care of the abusers? Are they still hiding this?”

Ten years ago this week, the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego agreed to pay $198.1 million to settle the lawsuits filed by Lynch and 143 other adults. As children, each had been sexually assaulted by a priest or, in one case, a layman supervising altar boys.

This was a landmark moment in one the largest scandals in the church’s 2,000-year-old history. From Dublin to Manila, Boston to Portland, Ore., Catholic officials were hauled into court and forced to account for shielding predatory clerics, often for decades.

The San Diego settlement was the nation’s second largest, trailing only the Los Angeles diocese’s $660 million. By at least one measurement, though, San Diego’s settlement was more significant. After legal fees, the 508 victims in L.A. averaged a payout of $780,000. In San Diego, the average was $825,000.

Absorbing these damages led the San Diego diocese to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In the end, insurance paid $76 million and the Diocese of San Bernardino, which had part of this diocese, contributed almost $15 million.

Selling properties and tapping its bank accounts, San Diego paid the remaining $107 million. Seven months after going to bankruptcy court, the diocese’s case was dismissed.

The financial hit had been huge, but nothing compared to the blow to the church’s moral credibility.

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.

DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Sun

September 7, 2017

By Craig Farrell

The startling figure is the lowest number of wannabe priests applying to study at Maynooth in the 200-year history of St Patrick’s College

Revelations that only six men have applied to train as priests in Ireland has been described as extremely “alarming”.

Dublin City Councillor Mannix Flynn said the church was in “a sorry state”.

He blamed a lack of leadership for the lowest number of wannabe priests applying to study at Maynooth in the 200-year history of St Patrick’s College.

Mannix, himself a child victim of clerical abuse, said: “These numbers have been declining for a long time.

“The clerical abuse issue and the institutional abuse issue have really impacted on vocation.

“The idea of people having an allegiance to the church and individuals signing up to this vocation right across the globe have dropped.

“As more allegations emerge on a global basis in different countries, people are not only failing to sign up to religious life and the priesthood, but people are also leaving in droves which is very alarming.”

The Dublin native added that the good work undertaken by members of the church in some areas was often overlooked.

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.

NEWCASTLE (NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA)
Newcastle Herald

September 7, 2017

By Joanne McCarthy

[Note: See the transcripts of the Royal Commission’s hearings on the Anglican diocese of Newcastle and the relevant exhibits.]

The Anglican Church has taken steps to join a Commonwealth redress scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse only days after a national Anglican synod was warned some clergy and lay people continue to hold on to “long discarded myths” about child sexual abuse.

Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald urged the synod in Queensland to join the redress scheme, in a speech that criticised the church for the lack of a coherent national response to survivors.

It meant some clergy and lay people held on to “long discarded myths including that children are not reliable witnesses, that adult survivors who take a long time disclose abuse lack credibility, that survivors are only after money, that the problem has been exaggerated or is an historic issue which has passed”, Mr Fitzgerald said.

On Wednesday the national synod voted to establish a company as a step towards joining the national redress scheme, while seeking clarifying on “some key issues” from the Federal Government.

A royal commission hearing in 2016 into significant child sexual abuse in the Newcastle Anglican diocese over decades included strong criticism by royal commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan after a group of prominent Newcastle Anglicans complained about former Bishop Greg Thompson, who challenged a culture of diocese “mates looking after mates”.

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.

GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Septembert 9, 2017

By Mindy Aguon

A second individual has come forward alleging he was sexually abused and molested by a Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) teacher at the Agana Heights parish.

C.J.I., a man identified by his initials to protect his privacy, filed a civil complaint against the Archdiocese of Agana, the Capuchin Franciscans, and Vernon T. Kamiaz alleging child sexual abuse, negligence, negligent supervision, negligent hiring, and retention and breach of confidential relationship.

The alleged abuse occurred in the 1980s when C.J.I. was a CCD student and a member of the Agana Heights Youth organization.

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.

THOROLD (ONTARIO, CANADA)
Niagara This Week

September 8, 2017

Two of three victims tell of broken lives in impact statements in sentencing hearing, judge’s ruling delayed to Oct. 24

By Melinda Cheevers

In May, Grecco pleaded guilty to sexually molesting the three young boys in the 1970s and 1980s while he was a parish priest; two of the victims were altar boys within the parish. On Thursday, he was to be sentenced, but after a long day spent in the courtroom hearing victim impact statements from two of the three victims (the third was filed as an exhibit but was not read aloud), and submissions from both sides about proposed sentences, Ontario Superior Court Justice Joseph Nadel agreed to push his actual sentencing decision back to Oct. 24 so Grecco, now 77, can undergo a colonoscopy.

* * *
In his victim impact statement, O’Sullivan told the court that for him, as a young child during the years of his abuse, it was time spent living in secret, confusion and above all else, time spent protecting his mother.

“I was able to keep our little secret well past mom’s passing,” he said to Grecco, looking right at him from the witness stand.

* * *
Assistant Crown attorney Pat Vadacchino read the second victim’s impact statement to the court while the man stood beside her. In his written statement, he said he walked into the church a very happy, healthy, confident, trusting, caring, respectful and self-secure young man with dreams of excelling in sports, graduating from school and perhaps even obtaining a scholarship.

“Your church, in my mind, was supposed to be one of the safest places to be. I was there to assist you and try to become a better person inside and out,” he wrote. “Instead, you took full advantage of your position to prey on young innocent boys and I was one of those boys. In a few short weeks, I walked out of your church for the last time, changed forever.”

* * *
Throughout his time as a priest, Grecco served at St. Mary’s in Welland (1966-70), St. Thomas More Roman Catholic Church in Niagara Falls (1970-78), St. Stephen’s in Cayuga (1978-179), St. Kevin’s in Welland (1979-85), St. Vincent de Paul in Niagara-on-the-Lake (1985-1996) and St. Alexander’s in Fonthill (1996-1998).

He left the priesthood in March 2001 after first obtaining a bachelor of science degree in pastoral counselling from Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore.

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.

HOBART (TASMANIA, AUSTRALIA)
ABC News

September 8, 2017

By Stephen Pigram

A controversial plaque on Hobart’s St Mary’s Cathedral featuring a former Catholic priest convicted of sex offences will be removed after victims of child abuse called for it to be taken down.

The artwork, from the 1980s and attached to an external wall of the cathedral, depicts the late Philip Green, who held the title of monsignor.

In 2004, Green pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a former altar boy and was given a three-month suspended prison sentence.

On Thursday, the Archdiocese of Hobart said it had “no immediate plans” to remove the plaque, which also honours former archbishop Sir Guilford Young.

But Tasmanian Catholic Archbishop Julian Porteous has since ordered that it be taken down.

Former Catholic priest Julian Punch, who said he was also assaulted by Green, publicly called for the removal of the plaque in his book, Gay With God.

He welcomed the announcement, but also said it should have been removed years ago.

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.

HOBART (TASMANIA, AUSTRALIA)
ABC News

September 7, 2017

By Stephen Pigram

[Note: See also the research about Msgr. Philip Green at Broken Rites.]

Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy are demanding that a memorial plaque depicting a convicted offender be removed from St Marys Cathedral in Hobart.

The plaque on the external wall of the cathedral honours former Archbishop Sir Guilford Young and depicts the late Monsignor Philip Green.

In 2004 Green pleaded guilty to assaulting a former altar boy and was given a three-month suspended jail term.

Julian Punch, a prominent former Hobart priest, also claimed he was sexually assaulted by the former Monsignor.

* * *

The Archdiocese of Hobart said the plaque was erected in memory of Archbishop Young, who was until recently buried at the foot of the installation with other Tasmanian Catholic bishops.

In a statement, the church said there were “no immediate plans” to remove the artwork.

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.

ST. CATHARINES (ONTARIO, CANADA)
St. Catharines Standard

September 8, 2017

By Grant LaFleche

The wolf in priest’s clothing: Part 3 of 3

[Note: See Part 1: Living with Echo of Clergy Abuse; and Part 2: The stench of rape in God’s house. See also the page devoted to Rev. Donald Grecco on Sylvia’s Site, with links and chronology]

A note to readers: For a more than a decade, Catholic priest Donald Grecco sexually abused children in Niagara. He will be sentenced Oct. 24 for the abuse of three boys in the 1970s and 80s. This three part series is the story of one of his victims. Be advised this story contains language that might upset some readers.

For those on the inside, prison can seem like a place that time has abandoned.

The immutable routine and the static surroundings make one day bleed into the next and into the next. Sometimes, the length of a man’s hair is his only reliable watch and calendar.

Still, in a sea of unchanging days, William O’Sullivan remembers when the wailing stopped. In the years following his sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priest Donald Grecco and his repeated rape by a Christian Brother at St. John’s Training School for Boys, O’Sullivan’s life spun out of control.

Drugs, booze and crime were staples for many years. Theft and break and enters earned him multiple prison terms, including stints in the maximum security prison in Millhaven.

It was there O’Sullivan began to see his own pain reflected the faces of the men he shared the prison with. While still years away from recovering his repressed memories of being abused by Grecco as a boy, O’Sullivan was keenly aware of what the Christians Brothers had done to him and how those experiences shaped his life.

“Look, it’s not an excuse, OK? I never use what happened to me as an excuse for my bad choices. Everyone has a choice, and I made bad ones,” says O’Sullivan, who now lives in a small house in St. Catharines and works full time as a painter. “But what you have to realize is that kind of experience changes you. It hurts you in ways you aren’t aware of for a long time.”

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.

CHICAGO (IL)
Associated Press via U.S. News and World Report

September 8, 2017

Judge declares former Chicago priest a sexually violent person; decision to come later on whether he will be held indefinitely in a facility for sex offenders

A former Chicago priest was deemed to be a sexually violent person by a Cook County judge on Friday, but whether he will be held indefinitely in a facility for sex offenders will be decided later.

With Cook County Circuit Judge Dennis Porter’s ruling, Daniel McCormack will remain at the state mental hospital in the southern Illinois town of Rushville or another state institution.

“I have no reasonable doubt that you will engage in future acts of sexual violence,” the judge said, not looking at McCormack.

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.

CHICAGO (IL)
ABC 7 Eyewitness News

September 9, 2017

By Sarah Schulte

Former Chicago priest Daniel McCormack was ruled sexually violent by a Cook County judge on Sept. 8, 2017.

A Cook County judge ruled Friday that former Chicago priest Daniel McCormack is a sexually violent person and should remain indefinitely in a state facility for sex offenders.

Judge Dennis Porter sided with state prosecutors seeking to prevent the convicted child molester from being released.

McCormack’s victims also wanted him to remain in custody.

“They know how dangerous he is, they know how cunning he is, how manipulative he is,” said Marc Pearlman, a attorney representing several of the victims.

In 2007, McCormack pleaded guilty to sexually abusing five boys while he was a priest at St. Agatha Parish on Chicago’s West Side, but court records show dozens of other boys alleged McCormack abused them as well.

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.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

September 8, 2017

By Andy Grimm

[Note: See a PDF of the front page, featuring this story.]

A Cook County judge Friday ruled that convicted child molester Daniel McCormack is a sexually violent person, setting up the former Chicago priest for a possible long-term stay at a state facility for sex offenders.

Judge Dennis Porter’s ruling comes some eight years after McCormack finished a five-year prison sentence for molesting five boys while serving as a priest in St. Agatha’s parish, and followed two days of testimony by a pair of state experts on the psychology of sex offenders.

“I have to say, Mr. McCormack, that every one of those dynamic risk factors pushes you up the scale” as a likely offender, Porter said. “I have no reasonable doubt that you will engage in future acts of sexual violence.”

* * *

Porter said he would rule in November on whether McCormack will have to remain in custody at the state facility in downstate Rushville where the ex-priest has been detained since completing his prison sentence in 2009.

* * *

Court records list at least 32 boys who made allegations against McCormack, dating back to 1999. The archdiocese has paid out $10 million in just the last year to settle lawsuits involving claims against McCormack.

“My clients, today, don’t have any love lost for Dan McCormack,” Guth said. “I think they will be pleased with what happened today.”

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.

WILLOUGHBY (AUSTRALIA)
9 News

September 8, 2017

Court trials for a group of clergy abuse victims suing the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat and now-deceased Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns will not likely begin until late 2018.

The victims, who allege they were abused at the hands of Australia’s worst pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale, are suing for negligence.

Bishop Mulkearns, who died of cancer last year, allegedly knew that Ridsdale had abused boys.

However, it is claimed he simply moved Ridsdale, who has been in jail since 1994, between parishes and did not take proper steps to protect children.

Judicial Registrar Julie Clayton told the Supreme Court of Victoria on Friday she would book trials for six complainants in a block during September and October next year.

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.

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
The Australian

September 9, 2017

By Gerard Henderson, Columnist

[Note: See the Royal Commission’s Criminal Justice Report, referenced in this commentary.]

It remains to be seen whether legislation to introduce same-sex marriage in Australia would have an adverse impact on religious freedom. This would depend on the plight of institutions or individuals who continued to teach that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, to the exclusion of all others, subsequent to any legislative change.

That’s a debate for the future. Right now the only threat to religious freedom in Australia turns on the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse concerning the sacra­ment of confession. This poten­tially affects Catholic, Anglican and some Orthodox religions.

On August 14, the royal commission released its 2040-page Criminal Justice Report, which contains 85 recommendations. No 35 calls for each state and territory government to introduce legislation criminalising failure to report child sex abuse.

This entails that the proposed legislation “should exclude any existing excuse, protection or privilege in relation to religious confessions to the extent necessary to achieve this objective”. In other words, the Catholic “seal” of confession — that a penitent can confess sin to a priest and receive absolution in total secrecy — would be removed by legislation.

Royal commission staff briefed some journalists on the contents of recommendation 35 prior to the report’s release. This soon became the media’s focus. For example, on August 15, ABC TV’s News Breakfast program interviewed, in quick succession, academics Judy Courtin and Scott Burchill. They agreed wholeheartedly with the royal commission on this issue. Soon after, Francis Sullivan of the Catholic Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council said he would accept the royal commission’s recommendation. This despite the fact Sullivan had put in a submission arguing the secrecy of the confessional should not be interfered with by government.

The royal commission’s focus on recommendation 35 reflects its apparent obsession with the Catholic Church. Certainly, there are an appalling number of historical instances of clerical child sexual abuse in the this church. These predominantly occurred between 1950 and 1989, peaking in the 1970s — about four decades ago.

However, it is not at all clear that there is a causal relationship between the sacrament of confession and the offending of some Catholic male clergy, primarily against boys. According to the royal commission’s own statistics, on a proportionate basis there was a higher level of pedophilia in the Uniting Church (including its predecessors) than in the Catholic Church between 1950 and 2015. Yet the Uniting Church has no sacrament of confession. Moreover, it has married clergy, female ministers and no compulsory celibacy.

The royal commission devoted 15 days to what was termed its “Catholic wrap”. This compares with just half a day for the Uniting Church. Judge Peter McClennan, chairman of the royal commission, ¬interviewed notorious pedophile Gerald Ridsdale, who was a Catholic priest at the time of his offending, in Ararat prison. Subsequently, Ridsdale gave evidence to the commission via video link. He told McClellan that, when a priest, he never went to confession.

Denis Hart, the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, has said that in his half century as a priest no one has ever confessed to pedophilia at confession. Jesuit Frank Brennan has said the same about his 30 years as a priest. Both men support the retention of the secrecy of the confessional in the face of possible government intervention. Yet they are from different traditions within Catholicism. Hart is a conservative Catholic who opposes same-sex marriage. Brennan, a more liberal Catholic, supports same-sex marriage.

Yet both have promised to honour their vow to uphold the secrecy of the confessional if this practice is disallowed by government.

Writing in The Sun-Herald on August 27, sneering secularist Peter FitzSimons railed against “the sanctity of the confessional”. He asserted the royal commission had “just revealed” the Catholic Church “has presided over cases like the one in Rockhampton, where Father Michael McArdle was forgiven no fewer than 1500 times by 30 of his fellow priests for raping children in his care”.
In fact, the royal commission did not even consider the McArdle case. The royal commission’s decision in this instance suggests it does not regard McArdle as credible.

McArdle, whose offending covered the years 1965 to 1987, made his claim in an affidavit to the Queensland Court of Appeal in 2004 during an unsuccessful attempt to have his term of imprisonment reduced. There is no evidence McArdle confessed the sin of child sexual abuse when he offended three decades and more ago. What’s more, it’s highly improbable he would have received what he claimed was exactly the same penance — that is, “go home and pray” — from 30 priests over 20 years.

Sexual abuse by Catholic clerics virtually ceased about two decades ago. Even if the confessional were a factor in such crimes, the fact is few Catholics these days go to confession. Even so, the royal commission is setting up a scenario where the likes of Hart and Brennan could go to prison for proclaiming that they will act in accordance with their religious beliefs.

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.

LEXINGTON (NC)
The Dispatch

September 8, 2017

A 40-year old former pastor charged with sexual abuse of a 10-year-old girl has been additionally charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse and rape involving the 10-year-old and three additional children, all under the age of 12 years old.

Daniel Gene Little, 40, of 1563 Jerusalem Road, has been charged with 13 counts of felony sexual offense with a child, 11 counts felony child abuse by committing a sexual act, two counts of felony rape of a child, two counts felony incest with a child younger than 13 and indecent liberties with a child.’

Little is the former pastor of Yadkin College Baptist Church in Lexington. In May, he was charged with felony first-degree sex offense sexually assaulting a female juvenile under the age of 17.

At that time, Little was placed in the Davidson County Detention Center under a $150,000 secured bond. Since then, Little had posted bond and was out awaiting trial.

According to information provided by the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, on Sept. 5 the sheriff’s office was contacted by the Davidson County Department of Social Services and made aware that three additional juveniles, two males and one female, had come forward and alleged that they were also sexually assaulted by Little.

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.

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
The Guardian Australia

September 8, 2017

By Calla Wahlquist

[Note: See the Royal Commission’s Redress and Civil Litigation Report.]

The woman’s ‘extremely difficult’ 13-month ordeal to receive a payout adds weight to calls for an independent redress scheme, says her lawyer

A Victorian woman who was sexually abused as a teenager says the process of getting compensation from the Catholic church was “unnecessarily agonising” and sent her to “an absolute state of unwellness”.

The woman’s revelation adds weight to calls for an independent redress scheme, the final framework of which is expected to be released in the coming weeks, following a proposal put forward by the federal government last year.

Therase Lawless (not her real name) was 14 when she was first approached by a teacher at her school in northern Victoria in the 1980s, who conducted a sexually abusive relationship with her from the ages of 15 to 17.

Lawless, now 50, did not acknowledge her experience as being sexual abuse until she was diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder at 35.

“I had no idea that there was even such a notion of sexual abuse,” she said. “I was groomed by him to believe that I was a mature woman from the age of 15 … I did know that he was being horribly, horribly manipulative and abusive, and it was absolutely awful at the time, torturously awful at the time, but I believed it was my choice and I’d invited it and I was in an adult world. This was what an adult world was like.”

The man was investigated after being referred to Victoria police on the basis of Lawless’s evidence to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in 2014, but the investigation was shelved without charge. He is still employed as a teacher.

Lawless said she sought redress under the church’s Towards Healing scheme as the last available avenue to seek justice and a formal acknowledgement of her abuse.

After a 13-month investigation, she was granted $110,000 in compensation on the grounds that the church did not accept any fault or acknowledge any wrongdoing.

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.

SALTA (ARGENTINA)
El Tribuno

September 7, 2017

By Rubén Arenas

[Google Translate: The Justice of Salta took part in another cause for crimes of sexual abuse involving former members of the Disciples of Jesus Institute of San Juan Bautista, directed by Father Rubén Agustín Rosa Torino. This time the person denounced is Valeria Vanesa Zarsa, who last year, together with two former novices of the congregation, accused members of the order of serious sexual abuse.]

Se trata de Valeria Vanesa Zarsa, quien acusó por el mismo delito al cura Agustín Rosa Torino.

La Justicia de Salta tomó intervención en otra causa por delitos de abuso sexual que involucra a exmiembros del Instituto Discípulos de Jesús de San Juan Bautista, que dirigía el padre Rubén Agustín Rosa Torino. Esta vez la denunciada es Valeria Vanesa Zarsa, la exmonja que el año pasado, junto a dos exnovicios de la congregación, acusó de abuso sexual gravemente ultrajante al religioso. Por estos hechos, el cura permaneció detenido desde diciembre de 2016 hasta la semana pasada, cuando fue liberado por decisión del juez Luis Félix Costas para aguardar en esa condición el juicio oral.

El 27 de julio pasado una joven de 18 años, cuyas iniciales son M.S, se presentó en la Fiscalía Penal de Delitos contra la Integridad Sexual Nº 1 y denunció a Zarsa por abuso sexual. La joven declaró que los ultrajes ocurrieron cuando ella tenía 5 años y dio detalles escabrosos de lo que sufrió a esa temprana edad.

Manifestó que conoció a Zarsa en la parroquia Santa Cruz, donde la nombrada era monja de la congregación que dirigía el cura Rosa Torino. Dijo que, por la amistad y confianza que su madre tenía con la entonces religiosa, la autorizaba a que la llevara a pasear, que se quedara a dormir e incluso a viajar con ella. La joven refirió que en una oportunidad Zarsa la llevó a la casa que el Instituto Discípulo de Jesús posee en la localidad de Lumbreras y que allí también fue víctima de abusos sexuales. Por esta situación, la causa se desdobló, al haberse dado intervención a la fiscal penal del distrito judicial Metán, Ana Inés Salinas.

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.

PERTH (WESTERN AUSTRALIA)
Western Australian

September 8, 2017

By Tim Clarke

A retired Catholic priest, with a past history of sex abuse against children, has been jailed for a year after disturbing illustrations of children being abused by adults and other children were found on a CD at his home.

Adrian Van Klooster, 75, was already a reportable sex offender and on the national paedophile register after being jailed for eight years in 2003 for the abuse of a group of children who were staying overnight at his parish house in Australind.

Today, in Perth’s District Court, he was returned to prison for another year after pleading guilty to possession of the child exploitation material discovered by police at his Maddington home last November.

The court was told that after failing to notify authorities about his internet use on a Twitter account – a condition of his reportable offender status – police raided his house, and found the CD.

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.

BUNBURY (WESTERN AUSTRALIA)
ABC

September 8, 2017

By Joanna Menagh

A paedophile former Bunbury priest has been sentenced to 12 months in jail for possessing comic strips featuring children being sexually abused.

Adrian Van Klooster, 75, was charged after police from the Sex Offender Management Squad (SOMS) searched the room where he was staying in Maddington, in Perth’s southern suburbs, in November last year.

The District Court was told the officers found a CD featuring two comic strips Van Klooster had downloaded from the internet showing children being mistreated, abused and subjected to incest.

In 2003, Van Klooster was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually abusing two boys and three girls while he was a Catholic priest in the Bunbury 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.

CHICAGO (IL)
WGN 9

September 7, 2017

By Mike Lowe

Chicago – The trial of disgraced Catholic priest Daniel McCormck has wrapped up a second day of testimony.

A judge will decide if the notorious ex-priest is a “sexually dangerous person” who can be held indefinitely – despite having served his time for a criminal conviction.

In a day of mostly procedural testimony, an expert witness told a judge that he did not see McCormack as a threat to offend again. It was a direct contradiction to what an expert told him the day before. It’s the latest legal chapter in a case that has bedeviled the archdiocese for years.

For a decade, McCormack served in Chicago’s archdiocese, a priest at St. Agatha’s parish on the west side.

In 2007, he pleaded guilty to molesting five boys.

He was sentenced to five years in prison and was paroled in 2009, but has been held in a downstate medical facility ever since.

Now the question before a Cook County judge is – should an admitted pedophile who has served his sentence be released from medical custody?

“I know the history of Daniel McCormack, and I know it from the time he entered the seminary through his time in prison and based on what I know, I beloved there is a substantial risk that he could re-offend,” said attorney Marc Pearlman.

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.

CHICAGO (IL)
WGN 9

September 6, 2017

By Nancy Loo and Tonya Francisco

Chicago – 424 people have been committed for life under the sexually violent persons act since it was enacted in 1998. Prosecutors with the Illinois attorney general’s office are hoping former priest Daniel McCormack will be the next.

McCormack sat stone-faced, occasionally taking notes as forensic psychiatrist Dr. Angeline Stanislaus explained how she reached the conclusion that McCormack suffers from pedophilia disorder and is sexually attracted to young males.

In addition to detailing at least five cases where he fondled young boys, she also explained how she arrived at the conclusion that McCormack should be committed under the Illinois Sexually Violent Persons act, despite the fact she never interviewed him but only read reports and other psychiatric evaluations. Attorney Marc Pearlman represents about a dozen men who claim to have been victims of McCormack’s sexual abuse. He says they are all on board with McCormack being committed for life.

“They know how dangerous he is, they know how cunning he is, how manipulative he is and if left to his own devices, I don’t know, if he’s in the public at large, who’s going to monitor him, who is going to watch him,” said Pearlman.

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.

AURORA (IL)
Beacon-News/Chicago Tribune

September 8, 2017

By Dan Campana

[Note: See the entry about Fr. Alfredo Pedraza-Arias in the BishopAccountability.org database.]

As Kane County prosecutors continue their push to make sure former Aurora priest Alfredo Pedraza-Arias remains in the United States to faces sex abuse charges, the judge overseeing the case agreed to postpone his trial until November.

Arias, 51, is being held in Kane County Jail on allegations he fondled two girls under the age of 6 at Aurora’s Sacred Heart Church between 2012 and 2014. Arias is also facing deportation to his native Colombia, an issue that arose in June and has prompted prosecutors to seek increases in Arias’ bail amount in an effort to keep him in the country. A third motion to revoke or increase the bail, which suggests Arias asked to be voluntarily removed from the United States in an attempt to avoid prosecution, is scheduled to be heard soon by Kane County Judge Linda Abrahamson.

Arias’ attorney, David Camic, wrote in a response to the motion that Arias simply asked for a “voluntary departure status,” but a federal judge denied the request and then issued the deportation order. Additionally, Camic said prosecutors have no basis for continually seeking changes to Arias’ bail because he hasn’t been accused of violating bond conditions or committing any new crimes.

“His status with immigration does not, as a matter of law, bar him from bail,” Camic stated in the filing, adding the prosecution’s claim that Arias wants to be deported to skip out on his trial “is disingenuous.”

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.

ST. CATHARINES (ONTARIO, CANADA)
St. Catharines Standard

September 7, 2017

By Grant LaFleche

Convicted sexual predator and ex-Catholic priest Donald Grecco remains a free man, at least for the next seven weeks.

After an emotional, daylong sentencing hearing in St. Catharines, Justice Joseph Nadel decided to defer his final verdict on Grecco — who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing three boys in the 1970s and ’80s — until Oct. 24 so the 77-year-old man can get a colonoscopy.

Nevertheless, Nadel made it clear that Grecco is going to prison and said the former priest “deformed” the lives of his victims through the “grossest form of breach of trust.”

The judge said Grecco turned the parishes he was in charge of into “cesspools of abuse.”

“Today’s headline in the St. Catharines Standard calling you a ‘wolf in priest’s clothing’ is a witty and apt description of your behaviour,” Nadel told Grecco, referring The Standard’s ongoing special report on clergy abuse. “You were supposed to shepherd these boys. Instead, you preyed on them.”

Grecco made a short statement of apology to his victims and the community, calling himself a “fraud” who took advantage of the boys who looked to him for guidance and comfort.

“You came looking for goodness, as you should. What did you get from me? You got evil,” he said, looking across the court directly at one his victims, William O’Sullivan of St. Catharines. “I am truly sorry.”

After the hearing, O’Sullivan said he did not believe Grecco’s apology was sincere, but he needed to hear it nevertheless.

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.

ST. CATHARINES (ONTARIO, CANADA)
St. Catharines Standard

September 6, 2017

By Grant LaFleche

The wolf in priest’s clothing: Part 2 of 3

[See also Part 1: Living with Echo of Clergy Abuse. Both articles provide links to previous Standard stories about Grecco. See also the page devoted to Rev. Donald Grecco on Sylvia’s Site, with links and chronology.]

A note to readers: For a more than a decade, Catholic priest Donald Grecco sexually abused children in Niagara. On Thursday, he will be sentenced for the abuse of three boys in the 1970s and 80s. This three part series is the story of one of his victims. Be advised this story contains language that might upset some readers.

It was the smell. It clung to everything. His hair. His clothes. His skin. It seemed to lurk inside his nostrils.

In the halls of St. John’s Training School for Boys, decorated with images of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, that stench was the telltale sign that someone had been in Brother Bernard’s room.

It was the stench of rape.

“I will never forget that smell. Even now, just talking about it, I can smell it. I cannot really describe it. I don’t know what he was burning in there. Incense or something. I don’t know. But you couldn’t get it off you,” says William (Sully) O’Sullivan of St. Catharines ,who was incarcerated at the Uxbridge school in 1986 and 1987. “It was such a strong, distinctive smell that if another kid walked by, you knew he had been to see Brother Bernard. And you’d think ‘Oh, did he just get it, too?’”

As a 16-year-old, O’Sullivan spent 18 months in the St. John’s school, an all-boys reformatory school run by the De La Salle Brothers of the Christian Schools.

Backed by Queen’s Park, the school opened in 1956 and the Brothers, who also ran St. Joseph’s Training School for Boys in Alfred, Ont., were to take truants, trouble makers and teens with records and set them on a better path.

“They walked in there and thought they thought this was going to be heaven,” says Darcy Henton, an investigative journalist who wrote extensively about St. John’s and St. Joseph’s and published the book Boys Don’t Cry in 1995 about the sexual abuse scandal.

“They saw the beautiful stained glass windows and the terrazzo tile floors, and they thought this was going to be heaven, and it turned out to be hell.”

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.

WINNIPEG (MANITOBA, CANADA)
CBC

September 7, 2017

Winnipeg priest faces new sexual assault charges
3 men come forward with new charges against Ronald Léger, now accused of sexually assaulting 7 men

By Katie Nicholson and Vera-Lynn Kubinec

[With links to previous CBC stories about Léger. See also the page about Fr Ronald Léger CSV on Sylvia’s Site, providing additional links to articles and documents, with a chronology.]

A Catholic priest who founded and ran a youth centre in Winnipeg for decades is facing new sexual assault charges from three alleged victims, on top of charges laid last year following accusations from four other men.

Ronald Léger, 79, was charged Aug. 31 with three new counts of sexual assault against three men, who were teenagers at the time of the alleged assaults.

Last October, four other men came forward alleging they were sexually assaulted by Léger in their youth. Léger was charged at that time with multiple counts of sexual assault. A trial date for those charges — which span three decades from 1983 to 2013 — has been set for March 5, 2018.

* * *

All of the men first encountered the priest at his St. Boniface youth drop-in centre.

Léger started Teen Stop Jeunesse in 1983. Before that, he ran a drop-in centre from his home for several years while he also worked as a teacher.

* * *

Léger is currently on day parole for three previous sexual assault convictions involving three other men who were assaulted when they were young. Léger pleaded guilty to those charges in 2015 and was later handed a two-year sentence.

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.

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

September 5, 2017

By Haidee V. Eugenio

[Note: This article provides more detail than a related article previously posted on Tracker.]

Hagåtña, Guam — Three new lawsuits have been filed against the Catholic church in two Guam courts in the past two days, and one accuses a priest who previously had not been blamed for molesting a child.

The Rev. Louis William Rink, now dead, of Santa Barbara Catholic Church in Dededo is the 16th Guam clergy member to be accused. A former altar boy, now age 43 and identified in documents as R.R.C. to protect his privacy, was 10 at the time in the 1980s.

* * *

R.R.C. is the 104th person to file a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Agaña over alleged sex abuse from clergy or others affiliated with the Catholic church. The lawsuit names the archdiocese, the Congregation of Holy Cross to which Rink belonged and up to 50 others as defendants.

Two other suits accuse the Rev. Louis Brouillard, 96, who has been named in 60 lawsuits filed so far in U.S. District Court and the Superior Court of Guam:

• V.F., now 65, accuses Brouillard of repeated sexual abuse in 1963 and 1964 when the child was an altar boy at Santa Teresita Catholic Church in Mangilao. Brouillard also took naked photos of the boy.

• T.P., now 59, accuses Brouillard of fondling him in 1974 at San Vicente Ferrer & San Roke Catholic Church in Barrigada. The altar boy had stayed after Mass one day to help put things away.

V.F.’s lawsuit also accuses former scout leader Edward Pereira, now dead, of abusing the child at the parish rectory around the same time. He now has been accused twice, both times in connection with cases also accusing Brouillard.

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.

CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

September 7, 2017

[See the entry about Daniel J. McCormack in the BishopAccountability.org database.]

Disgraced and defrocked Chicago priest Daniel McCormack has spent almost a decade either in prison or walking the grounds of a state mental facility after pleading guilty to molesting five boys from his Near West Side parish.

Whether he will remain — indefinitely— under the watchful eye of state mental health workers will be decided by a Cook County judge.

* * *

Wednesday, his hair close-cropped and wearing an ill-fitting gray-blue shirt, McCormack sat slouched back in a chair beside his lawyers, as a state forensic psychiatrist testified that McCormack was a pedophile, and so sexually fixated on young boys that he continued to molesting children even after he was arrested in 2005 and church leaders assigned someone to monitor him.

Psychiatrist Angeline Stanislaus said McCormack refused to answer questions when she tried to evaluate him for the state in 2009, so she was working from police investigative reports and reports by investigators for the archdiocese. McCormack also did not submit to interviews from experts hired by his own lawyers.

“Even though he had been under the eye of his supervisor at the church and has been arrested, people are looking at him, he continued to engage in this behavior,” Stanislaus said.

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

ALBANY (NY)
WNYT NBC News Channel 13

September 5, 2017

By Mark Mulholland

[With video.]

Ballston Spa – A 51-year-old former Catholic priest was in court Tuesday morning, speaking softly. It’s a stark contrast to the hard time Michael Hands could be facing.

After he was convicted of sodomizing a 14-year-old in Suffolk County several years ago, Hands was tossed out of the priesthood.

In recent years, he’s been living and working at Easton Mountain near Greenwich, a resort that bills itself as a sanctuary and retreat “created by gay men as a gift to the world.”

According to their website, Hands was the membership director at Easton Mountain. He’s seen in several videos on YouTube promoting the resort’s programs. In one, Hands soaks in a hot tub and asks, “What does it mean to be whole? To be fully human and fully alive, I believe is probably the most attractive human being on the planet.”

It’s Hands’ attraction to children that police and prosecutors say has them worried. They say he contacted a child online and engaged in sex with him in Charlton in late July.

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.

CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

September 6, 2017

By Mike Puccinelli

Chicago — State prosecutors have asked a Cook County judge to declare a former priest sexually violent, and have him committed indefinitely to a state facility for sex offenders.

In 2007, Daniel McCormack pleaded guilty to sexually abusing five boys while he was a priest at two Chicago churches, and was sentenced to five years in prison. After his conviction, he was permanently removed from the priesthood.

McCormick completed his prison term in 2010, but has remained locked up in a detention facility for sex offenders, as prosecutors have sought to have him declared a “sexually violent person” under a controversial state law.

If a judge approves prosecutors’ request, McCormack would be held indefinitely at the state detention center in Rushville. More than 400 people have been locked up indefinitely under the state’s Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act, and nearly 200 more cases including McCormack’s are pending.

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.

CHICAGO (IL)
DNAinfo

September 6, 2017

By Erica Demarest

Cook County Criminal Courthouse — A bench trial began Wednesday morning to determine whether Daniel McCormack should be imprisoned indefinitely.

The disgraced Catholic priest was convicted in 2007 of molesting five children during his time at St. Agatha Parish in North Lawndale. He was defrocked the same year and sentenced to five years in prison.

Shortly before McCormack was slated to be paroled in 2009, state prosecutors filed a petition seeking to imprison McCormack indefinitely under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act — which allows authorities to detain convicted sex offenders under the assumption they will strike again if free.

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.

ALBANY (NY)
Times Union

September 6, 2017

By Robert Gavin

Ballston Spa – A disgraced former priest convicted in 2003 of sexually molesting a 13-year-old boy on Long Island is facing new allegations in Saratoga County of sodomy, sexual abuse and using a child in a sexual performance.

Michael Hands, 51, who was previously sentenced to two years in jail, also cooperated with investigators at the time in a probe of sexual abuse within the church because he too was a victim.

Now, he is charged in a nine-count indictment which accused him of abusing a new victim on July 24 in the town of Charlton.

The indictment charged Hands with using a child in a sexual performance, a felony which carries up to 15 years in prison; disseminating indecent materials to minors in the first-degree, a felony which carries up to seven years in prison; four counts of committing a criminal sex act, a felony which could each carry up to four years; and promoting a sexual performance of a child, a felony which carries up to four years.

He also faces charges of misdemeanor charges of sexual abuse and child endangerment.

Hands, represented by attorney James Tyner, is being held in the Saratoga County jail on $75,000 bail following an arraignment Tuesday before Saratoga County Judge James A. Murphy III.

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.

MAKATI CITY, METRO MANILA (PHILIPPINES)
Philippine Daily Inquirer

September 6, 2017

By Tetch Torres-Tupas

[Note: See PDF of Immigration Lookout Bulletin Order illustrated in this article.]

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has ordered the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to include in its lookout bulletin the priest arrested last July in the act of taking a 13-year old girl to a motel in Marikina City.

In a two-page urgent memorandum released Wednesday, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II ordered the BI to include Monsignor Arnel Lagarejos in its lookout bulletin.

“Considering the gravity of the offense allegedly committed, there is a strong possibility that he may attempt to place himself beyond the reach of the legal processes by leaving the country,” read the order.

A person subject of a lookout bulletin is not barred from going abroad. He or she only needs to secure permission from the DOJ before leaving.

Lagarejos is facing a complaint for Qualified Anti-Trafficking in Person Act before the DOJ and violation of the Anti-Child Abuse Law. He is facing a separate case for Anti-Trafficking before the Marikina court. But he was able to post bail amounting to P120,000. JPV

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.

PARSIPPANY (NJ)
Daily Record

By Peggy Wright

September 5, 2017

[Note: See the entry about Rev. Marcin Nurek in the BishopAccountability.org database.]

Morristown – A recently-ordained Catholic priest who is accused of fondling a 13-year-old girl’s buttocks under her skirt in Boonton rejected a plea offer of Pretrial Intervention, a special supervision program under which criminal charges are dismissed if all conditions are successfully met, the defense lawyer said Tuesday.

The Rev. Marcin A. Nurek – who was barred by the Diocese of Paterson from acting as a priest after he was arrested on Aug. 3 – appeared Tuesday with defense lawyer William Ware for a brief, pre-indictment conference before Superior Court Judge Stephen Taylor in Morristown.

Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Meg Rodriguez said the charges against Nurek – criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child – have been marked for presentation to a Morris County grand jury for possible indictment, the precursor to a criminal trial.

Asked by the judge when the presentation might occur, Rodriguez replied: “Soon. Likely sooner than later.”

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.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Megan Crepeau

September 6, 2017

[See Judge McWilliams’ punitive damages order, linked from the story. See also the entry about McCormack in the BishopAccountability.org database.]

The accusations against “Father Dan” were seemingly endless.

Court records show more than two dozen boys and young men have alleged Daniel McCormack molested them in their youth, most notably at St. Agatha Parish on Chicago’s Southwest Side, where the young Roman Catholic priest coached basketball, taught algebra and delivered eloquent sermons.

The allegations ranged from inappropriate kissing and touching to sexual assault and dated as far back as the early 1990s. According to the court records, one boy said McCormack abused him on the way back from basketball practice, another in the basement of the rectory and still another during the fourth inning of a White Sox game.

In 2007, more than a year after his arrest sent shock waves through the predominately African-American parish in the Lawndale neighborhood, McCormack pleaded guilty to sexually abusing five boys and was sentenced to five years in prison. He was removed from the priesthood.

Now, almost eight years after McCormack completed his prison term, Illinois prosecutors want him declared a sexually violent person under a little-known and controversial state law that could keep the disgraced former priest indefinitely committed to a state facility with other sex offenders.

A hearing is scheduled to begin Wednesday in Judge Dennis Porter’s courtroom at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

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.

JOHNSON CITY (NY)
Associated Press via 12 News WBNG

September 6, 2017

Ballston Spa – A former Roman Catholic priest who served prison time for sexually abusing a New York teenager 17 years ago is now charged with abusing a boy earlier this year.

Authorities say 51-year-old Michael Hands, of Easton in Washington County, has been charged with sexually abusing a teenager in neighboring Saratoga County this year.

The former priest in the Diocese of Rockville Centre was convicted in 2003 of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy in Suffolk County. He served 15 months in prison and is registered with the state as a Level 3 sex offender.

Saratoga County prosecutors say Hands was charged in July with sexually abusing a local boy he met online. He remained in the county jail Wednesday.

A message left with his attorney wasn’t immediately returned.

This story has been corrected to show the priest was a member of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, not the Diocese of Rockville Center.

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.

ALBANY (NY)
CBS 6 News WRGB

September 5, 2017

By Heather Kovar

BALLSTON SPA, NY — Michael Hands was arraigned in Saratoga County Court Tuesday, charged on nine counts involving sexual conduct with a minor.

Saratoga County DA Karen Heggen says the alleged crimes happened in July.

“Generally what occurred in this case is that we believe that the defendant allegedly made contact with a minor over the internet, and subsequently made plans to meet with that minor in person,” she said.

DA Heggen says they believe Hands met up with the minor in an undisclosed location in Charlton.

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.

GLENS FALLS (NY)
Post Star

September 5, 2017

By Don Lehman

[Note: Michael Hands is Priest W from the 2003 Suffolk County Grand Jury Report. See the entry for Rev. Michael R. Hands in the BishopAccountability.org database. This article references a 2003 NY Times story.]

Ballston Spa — A defrocked former Catholic priest who lives at a “retreat” in Washington County was ordered held for lack of bail Tuesday on charges that accuse him of sexually abusing a teenage boy in Saratoga County earlier this year.

Michael R. Hands, 51, a Level 3 registered sex offender from Easton, was sent to Saratoga County Jail for lack of $75,000 cash bail or $150,000 bail bond. He was arraigned before Saratoga County Judge James Murphy on a nine-count indictment for alleged sex crimes with a child in Charlton earlier this year.

Hands is a registered sex offender because of a 2003 sodomy conviction in Suffolk County, which occurred when he was a Catholic priest on Long Island in the early 2000s. He was removed from the priesthood after state records show he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy.

His case attracted national media attention at the time, with The New York Times reporting that Hands claimed he was sexually abused when he was studying to be a priest, and that he cooperated with an investigation into the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Center.

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.

GLENS FALLS (NY)
Post Star

September 2, 2017
Updated September 5, 2017

Ballston Spa — A Level 3 sex offender from Easton has been charged with repeatedly sexually abusing a child in Saratoga County, authorities said.

Michael R. Hands, 51, of Herrington Hill Road, has been indicted on seven felony and two misdemeanor charges for alleged sexual contact with a child earlier this summer in Charlton, according to the Saratoga County District Attorney’s Office.

He is also accused of using a child in a sexual performance that was videotaped or photographed, and distributing child porngaphy, officials said.

He faces counts of criminal sexual act, use of child in a sexual performance, disseminating indecent material, sexual abuse, promoting a sexual performance by a child and endangering the welfare of a child, records show.

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.

BOSTON (MA)
Boston University Collegian Alumni Magazine

Summer 2017

By Lara Ehrlich

A Boston lawyer crusades against clergy sex abuse—as told by clients and colleagues, survivors and Secret Files

In 2002, Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian represented 86 people who claimed to have been molested or raped as children by John J. Geoghan, a Catholic priest from Dorchester, Mass. The case led to a $10 million settlement for Garabedian’s clients, and to a Boston Globe Spotlight team investigation that exposed an international epidemic of abuse and cover-up extending all the way to the Vatican. Garabedian (’71, CAS’73) has since represented more than 1,000 victims in 14 countries, and he still gets more than 20 calls a month from alleged victims seeking his help.

The Globe investigation was rewarded with a Pulitzer Prize, and became the subject of the 2015 Academy Award–winning film Spotlight. Actor Stanley Tucci portrays Garabedian in the film with such intensity, the Boston attorney says, that many reporters are now terrified of meeting with him.

People who know him don’t disavow that intensity, but they say there are other sides to the sometimes fearsome lawyer, who grew up on a farm in Methuen, Mass. He is witty, and he is generous, a trait inherited from his father, whose farmhands often came to him for advice. His family attended an Armenian Apostolic church every Sunday.

“It was a very peaceful, kind way to live,” says Garabedian, whose Boston office, piled high with boxes and papers, is just around the corner from Faneuil Hall, where his family once sold vegetables grown on their farm.

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.

BUENOS AIRES (ARGENTINA)
Análisis Digital

September 6, 2017

[Fr. Escobar Gaviria was sentenced to 25 years in prison for effective compliance in child abuse.]

El veredicto se conoció esta mañana
Día histórico: el cura Escobar Gaviria fue condenado a 25 años de prisión de cumplimiento efectivo por abuso de menores

Tras un pormenorizado detalle de los hechos, el Tribunal de Juicio y Apelaciones de Gualeguay integrado por los jueces María Angélica Pivas, Roberto Cadenas y Darío Crespo, condenó al cura Juan Diego Escobar Gaviria “a la pena de 25 años de prisión de cumplimiento efectivo” por considerar que “fue el autor material y penalmente responsable de los hechos ilícitos que se le imputaron”. Los jueces consideraron que “se encuentran acreditados los componentes subjetivos y objetivos de promoción de la corrupción de menores reiteradas en tres víctimas, agravada por la condición de guardador en perjuicio de los menores RDR primer hecho, ANE segundo hecho, OJC cuarto hecho, y que a su vez concurren con abuso sexual simple agravado por ser cometido por un ministro de culto en un tercer hecho en perjuicio de S.Y.F.F.”. A la condena de prisión “deben adicionarse las accesorias legales del artículo 12 del Código Penal y las costas en su totalidad a cargo del condenado”. Afirmaron además que “Escobar Gaviria actuó con intención y voluntad en todos los casos. Hizo lo que quiso” y consideraron “el peligro de fuga” por lo que se determinó que la prisión “deberá cumplirse en la Unidad Penal N°5 de Victoria o en la que oportunamente se determine perteneciente al Servicio penitenciario de la provincia” y se decidió “disponer la prórroga de la prisión preventiva oportunamente dictada hasta que la presenten sentencia adquiera firmeza, no haciendo lugar a lo solicitado por la defensa técnica”. Los fundamentos de la sentencia se conocerán el 14 de septiembre a las 8.45 horas.

El juicio contra el cura “sanador” de Lucas González, de origen colombiano, llega a su fin este 6 de septiembre. Después de las 8.30, se conocerá el veredicto recaído en la primera causa por abuso sexual eclesiástico que llegó a debate en Entre Ríos. Los jueces de Gualeguay tienen en sus manos una decisión histórica para el Poder Judicial y la Iglesia de la provincia. Sobrevivientes de los abusos eclesiásticos, familiares y la comunidad que trabaja en la concientización de los delitos contra la integridad sexual de niños y jóvenes, están expectantes ante la determinación.

Minutos antes de iniciar la audiencia en la que se conocerá el veredicto del juicio por abuso contra el ex párroco de Lucas González, Juan Diego Escobar Gaviria, Nancy, la mamá de Alexis Endrissi, dijo que espera el momento de la sentencia “muy ansiosa y con muchos nervios”. En declaraciones realizadas al programa A Quien Corresponda (Radio De la Plaza), afirmó: “Tenemos mucha fe de que realmente se haga justicia por los chicos; queremos creer en la justicia porque los chicos no mienten”. Del mismo modo, dijo que su hijo “también ha vivido estas horas con muchos nervios”.

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.

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Sydney Morning Herald

September 6, 2017

By Madonna King

You tell me whether this wanna-be Catholic priest should be sacked or not.

Five years ago, in 2012, as complaints against the church flooded in and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was announced, he took a fondness to an altar girl.

To her family, it amounted to so much more than that. He had also squeezed her around the hips, and followed, or stalked, her – an accusation amounting to sexual abuse. That’s supported by the wording in the Towards Healing document which defines sexual abuse as any kind of “harassment, molestation, and any other conduct of a sexual nature which is inconsistent with the integrity of a pastoral relationship’’.

No charges were laid, but the impact on his 14-year-old victim was undeniable. She felt scared, and then sick, anxious and then she couldn’t sleep. Her school marks began to plummet. And ongoing psychological sessions were testament to the damage grown-ups can do to our kids.

That was his first strike. Should he have been dismissed from the seminary there? If he was a teacher, wouldn’t he have been in all sorts of strife?

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.

ST. CATHARINES (ONTARIO, CANADA)
St. Catharines Standard

September 5, 2017

By Grant LaFleche

The wolf in priest’s clothing: Part 1 of 3

[Note: See the detailed page devoted to Rev. Donald Grecco on Sylvia’s Site, with links and chronology.]

A note to readers: For a more than a decade, Catholic priest Donald Grecco sexually abused children in Niagara. On Thursday, he will be sentenced for the abuse of three boys in the 1970s and 80s. This three part series is the story of one of his victims. Be advised this story contains language that might upset some readers.

Memory is a precarious construct. Though a storehouse of thoughts and experiences, it can keep secrets from conscious view, locking them behind doors never meant to be opened.

Find the right key, and those doors can be unlocked. Once opened, there is no hiding from what’s inside.

William O’Sullivan found such a key in a Thorold jail cell seven years ago on the front-page of a newspaper. Inside his memory he found a darkness long forgotten. Its rediscovery changed the course of his life.

“One of the guards asked me if I wanted to read the paper. I said yes. I saw it was two days old and I remember saying to him, ‘Oh, come on, this is ancient history,’” says O’Sullivan, known to his friends as Sully.

“Then I saw what was in it.”

It was Dec. 16, 2010, when O’Sullivan read the story on The Standard’s front page from his cell at Niagara Detention Centre.

“Jail for ex-priest Grecco,” the headline read over a Hamilton dateline.

O’Sullivan’s blood ran cold. The world tilted and spun.

“I got sick. Physically sick, vomiting, yeah,” O’Sullivan says. “I got dizzy. I had the sweats. My heart was racing. It was like the worst panic attack you can think of. That was when I remembered what he did.”

O’Sullivan’s life was anything but a storybook. In and out of jail since he was a teenager, a laundry list of poor choices led to five prison sentences — four in a federal penitentiary, one in a provincial prison.

As a young teen, O’Sullivan was sent to St. John’s Training School for Boys in Uxbridge, a factory of horror and abuse run by the De La Salle Brothers of the Christian Schools.

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.

ST. PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
The Catholic Spirit (Newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis)

September 5, 2017

The judge overseeing the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ bankruptcy is now considering what he will do with the two competing plans of reorganization before the court.

Counsel for multiple parties with interests in the matter, including representatives of the archdiocese, parishes, insurers and clergy sexual abuse claimants, presented objections to the plans before Judge Robert Kressel in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Minneapolis Aug. 29. The objections were previously outlined to the court in written briefs during July and August.

The archdiocese’s plan would provide $156 million to claimants after court approval and would protect parishes and several Catholic high schools from further lawsuits from past claims of sexual abuse. Proceeds from the sale of archdiocesan properties on Cathedral Hill in St. Paul, insurance settlements and parish contributions fund the archdiocesan proposed plan.

The competing plan was submitted by the Unsecured Creditors Committee, which represents creditors, including sexual abuse claimants, in the bankruptcy proceedings. The UCC plan rejects most of the insurers’ settlements in the archdiocesan plan, calls for an $80 million contribution from the archdiocese secured by the Cathedral of St. Paul and several Catholic high schools — and retains the ability of creditors to sue parishes, schools and other Catholic entities. That plan would require years of further litigation during which victims would not receive compensation.

This spring, creditors, including abuse claimants, took a nonbinding vote on the plans to indicate their preference to the court. The majority of abuse claimants voted for the UCC plan. The decision of which plan to implement ultimately rests with the judge.

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.

LONDON (ENGLAND)
Independent

September 5, 2017

By Olivier Holmey

[Note: See the 2000 BBC report regarding Murphy-O’Connor and Rev. Michael Hill referenced below.]

Despite his efforts to conciliate the Catholic Church with other religions, his inadequate response to a case of paedophilia tarnished his record

Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, a British cardinal who failed to keep an abusive priest away from children and later sought to redeem that failing by overhauling the way clerical child abuse is addressed by the Catholic Church in England and Wales, has died at 85.

The sex scandal that tarnished his career occurred in the Eighties but was only made public in the early 2000s, when a BBC report linked Murphy-O’Connor, then the Archbishop of Westminster, to Michael Hill, a priest who was convicted of sexual abuse.

The report revealed that Murphy-O’Connor was made aware of Hill’s conduct towards children, and was advised that he might re-offend. But rather than inform the police, or transfer him to a post where he would no longer have access to children, Murphy-O’Connor appointed him chaplain at Gatwick Airport. Hill later admitted that four of his many offences happened after his appointment to the airport. Some of the boys he molested were disabled.

Murphy-O’Connor eventually expressed shame and regret at having tried to solve the issue by moving the offending priest to another parish – then a common practice in the Church – though he also continued to evoke mitigating factors to justify his behaviour, and argued that paedophilia was not at the time understood to be addictive. “I should have handed him over to the police,” he said. “But you are talking about the early Eighties. No bishop would have handed over a priest to the police in those days.” In his view, most of the mistakes bishops made came from being “too kind” toward their fellow clergymen.

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.

MELVILLE (NY)
Newsday

September 5, 2017

By Zachary R. Dowdy

[Note: Michael Hands is Priest W from the 2003 Suffolk County Grand Jury Report. See the entry for Rev. Michael R. Hands in the BishopAccountability.org database.]

A former Long Island-based priest who was convicted in 2003 of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy has been indicted on child sex abuse charges upstate.

Michael Hands, 51, of Herrington Hill Road in Greenwich, was arraigned Tuesday on a nine-count indictment that prosecutors said stems from his sexual contact with a child in July.

The charges include four counts of third-degree criminal sexual act, third-degree sex abuse, first-degree disseminating indecent material to a minor, promoting sexual performance by a child, use of a child in a sexual performance and endangering the welfare of a child, Heggen said.

Hands was remanded to the Saratoga County jail on $75,000 cash or $150,000 bond. Jail officials said Tuesday that he had not posted bail.

His attorney, James Tyner of Latham, could not be reached for comment.

Heggen said the court had not set a new date for his next appearance because Tyner requested time to prepare for the case.

Hands, a defrocked priest who was once assigned to the Diocese of Rockville Centre, pleaded guilty in February 2003 in Suffolk courts to the sodomy and attempted sodomy in August 2000 of a 14-year-old boy whose family he met while a parish priest, according to state records and media reports.

He also was sentenced in Nassau courts to a 6-month jail term with 5 years’ probation after he pleaded guilty to five counts of sodomy and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child in assaults on the same boy he abused in Suffolk.

In exchange for cooperating in a Suffolk County grand jury probe into charges of sex abuse in the Rockville Centre diocese, Hands spent about 15 months in prison and was released in April 2004, serving both terms concurrently.

Officials at the Diocese of Rockville Centre could not be reached for comment.

As a Level 3 sex offender — those deemed most likely to re offend — Hands must register as a sex offender for life. His picture, address and crime of conviction are posted in the New York State online sex offender registry.

With Michael O’Keeffe

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
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)

September 5, 2017

Alternative Report
To the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child
Regarding the Periodic Reports of the Holy See
Due on 1 September 2017

[Read full report here.]

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
SNAP and Center for Constitutional Rights

September 5, 2017

Vatican fails to submit its report; survivors and human rights group apprise committee of its lack of progress

September 5, 2017, New York – Today, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) submitted a report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child detailing how, after three years, the Holy See has not implemented any of the committee’s recommendations aimed at ensuring the protection of children from sexual violence.

The Holy See was summoned to the committee in 2014 where the Vatican was implored to take concrete steps to remedy decades of institutional complicity and cover-up of widespread sexual violence. While last Friday marked the Vatican’s deadline to submit a comprehensive report on their progress, the committee reports they have not received anything thus far.

“The fact that the Vatican did not submit a report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is one more indication that Church officials have not taken this process seriously,” said Barbara Dorris, SNAP managing director. “In the three years since they had to answer questions about the widespread sexual violence for the first time in history, they have not implemented any of the committee’s recommendations. And children remain at risk while Vatican officials engage in power struggles, finger-pointing, and deflection.”

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.

UTAH
Fox 13 TV

September 5, 2017

SALT LAKE CITY — A judge has ordered polygamist leader Warren Jeffs and his Utah-based church to pay a former child bride millions in a lawsuit.

In a ruling handed down Tuesday and obtained by FOX 13, Elissa Wall was awarded more than $16 million in damages stemming from her marriage at age 14 to her cousin back in 2001 in a ceremony presided over by Jeffs.

“Warren Jeffs exercised this absolute control, power and authority over (Wall’s) life so that he could require her, as a young girl, to enter into an unlawful spiritual marriage,” Judge Keith Kelly wrote.

Wall was the star witness in Utah’s criminal prosecution of Jeffs. His conviction of rape as an accomplice was overturned by the state supreme court. He is currently serving a life sentence in Texas for child sex assault related to underage “marriages.”

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.

NEW YORK
Post-Star (Glens Falls NY)

September 5, 2017

BALLSTON SPA (NY) — A defrocked former Catholic priest who lives at a “retreat” in Washington County was ordered held for lack of bail Tuesday on charges that accuse him of sexually abusing a teenage boy in Saratoga County earlier this year.

Michael R. Hands, 51, a Level 3 registered sex offender from Easton, was sent to Saratoga County Jail for lack of $75,000 cash bail or $150,000 bail bond. He was arraigned before Saratoga County Judge James Murphy on a nine-count indictment for alleged sex crimes with a child in Charlton earlier this year.

Hands is a registered sex offender because of a 2003 sodomy conviction in Suffolk County, which occurred when he was a Catholic priest on Long Island in the early 2000s. He was removed from the priesthood after state records show he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Commonweal

September 5, 2017

Massimo Faggioli

Arriving in Sydney, Australia, this summer for a round of conferences sponsored by the Broken Bay Institute of the Australian Institute of Theological Education, I found a church confronting events likely to have a profound impact on its future: the Royal Commission’s completion of its work on an “institutional response to child sexual abuse”; the return of Cardinal George Pell from Rome to face charges on sexual abuse cases alleged to have taken place decades ago in the diocese of Ballarat; and the announcement of a Plenary Council for Australia set for 2020—the first since 1937.

The three issues are interwoven. The Pell case frightens the institutional church for the ripple effects the trial might have on other investigations into clergy sexual abuse. It complicates the creative response of the Australian episcopate to the scandal: the creation of the Truth, Justice, and Healing Council launched shortly after the establishment of the Royal Commission and headed by Francis Sullivan, a lay Catholic who for fourteen years was chief executive of Catholic Health Australia. After the expected publication of the Royal Commission’s report at the end of this year, the Truth, Justice, and Healing Council will publish its own report. It will be interesting to see how the episcopate receives it. Created by the bishops, the council has nonetheless maintained an independent attitude; for example, it has refused the request of some bishops to cross-examine witnesses heard by the Royal Commission.

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.

Hablan familiares de niños que fueron abusados por sacerdotes en Cali y Caldas.

[Google Translate: Victims of pederasty wait for Pope’s visit to comfort them. Relatives of children who were abused by priests in Cali and Caldas speak.]

COLOMBIA
El Tiempo

September 4, 2017

Es un drama que viven desde cuando sus hijos eran unos niños. De eso hace ocho años, y el dolor sigue; ahora, desde la capital del Valle del Cauca, piden al Papa apoyo en su situación.

Los hechos se remontan al 2009, cuando el sacerdote William de Jesús Mazo Pérez era párroco de la iglesia Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, en el barrio Alfonso Bonilla Aragón, del distrito de Aguablanca, en el oriente de Cali.

Aprovechándose de su situación y la confianza que había depositada en él, abusó de cuatro niños, dos de ellos hermanos, de familias de escasos recursos.

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.

URUGUAY
El Observador

August 29, 2017

[Google Translate: Church reiterates that priest accused of sexual abuse is suspended from all pastoral activity. Cardinal Daniel Sturla apologized to the victim and his family “regardless of what the ruling of Justice.”]

[El cardenal Daniel Sturla pidió perdón a la víctima y su familia “independientemente de cuál sea el fallo de la Justicia”]

Luego de que se conociera el pedido del fiscal penal Gilberto Rodríguez de procesar con prisión a un sacerdote acusado de abusar sexualmente a un menor desde los 14 años –actualmente la víctima tiene 23-, la Iglesia católica volvió a emitir el mismo comunicado que había publicado en marzo de este año, cuando el caso tomó estado público por primera vez.

Según señala el comunicado, luego de que la denuncia fuera presentada ante la Policía por la presunta víctima en octubre del pasado año, se puso en marcha el Protocolo ante denuncias contra clérigos por abuso sexual, que fue elaborado por la Conferencia Episcopal del Uruguay en 2013. Siguiendo con ese protocolo, el cardenal Daniel Sturla informó al superior de la congregación en Brasil (donde ahora vive el sacerdote), el cual viajó “inmediatamente” a Montevideo para ponerse a disposición de la familia del afectado.

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.

SALTA (Argentina)
TN (Todo Noticias)

September 4, 2017

[Google Translate: Agustín Rosa, the priest denounced for sexual abuse: “I feel persecuted.” In an interview, the priest says that the denunciations against him may stem from the envy of the growth of his congregation.]

[En una entrevista, el sacerdote dice que las denuncias contra él pueden estar originadas en la envidia por el crecimiento de su congregación.]

En la amplia y cómoda finca donde fue entrevistado en diciembre pasado por TN.com.ar, y detenido el 21 de diciembre, el sacerdote católico Agustín Rosa aseguró que “se siente perseguido” y que las acusaciones en su contra son “por envidia”.

Sentado en el porche, mientras sus cinco perros Doberman lo merodeaban, y liberado pero procesado por abuso sexual gravemente ultrajante, igual que otros miembros del Instituto Discípulos de Jesús del Verbo Divino, Rosa contestó las preguntas del diario El Tribuno de Salta.

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.

AUSTRALIA
ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Radio News

September 5, 2017

Flint Duxfield on PM with Matt Wordsworth

[AUDIO]

The Anglican church of Australia has introduced new rules it says will ensure no more children are sexually abused in its care.

The ‘Safe Ministry for Children’ canon was passed unanimously today at the church’s triennial General Sydnod in Queensland.

But sexual assault survivors and legal experts question whether the new rules go far enough.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Australian Associated Press

September 5, 2017

Shae McDonald

[Anglican priests across Australia will be required to follow strict new rules to protect children from abuse after legislation was passed by its governing body.]

Clergy and church workers will now be required to abide by a code of conduct which they had previously only needed to treat as recommendations.

“It covers things like transport, no corporal punishment, issues of touch and photographs,” Royal Commission Working Group chair Garth Blake said.

Stricter screening of sex offenders in parishes will also apply and could even result in some being turned away.

Mr Blake said core standards like not abusing children had been in place since 2004, but now all of the guidelines would be mandatory unless there was “a good reason” for not following them.

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.

LIVERPOOL (United Kingdom)
Liverpool Echo

September 5, 2017

Henry Vaughan

[Canon John Roberts’ victim is now taking action against the Church of England]

A vicar at the “Beatles church”, where John Lennon met Paul McCartney, was allowed to carry on working for 24 year after he was convicted of abusing a choirboy.

Rev John Roberts, who was based at St Peter’s Church in Woolton , Liverpool, was fined £500 when he was sentenced for two counts of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 1989.

But instead of being defrocked, Roberts was eventually promoted to the position of Canon before he retired in 2013.

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.

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

September 5, 2017

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com

Pre-mediation talks began Monday in Honolulu to discuss settling the more than 100 cases alleging child sex abuse by Guam clergy and others related to the church.

If the parties do not agree to written mediation protocols, formal mediation talks might not happen as planned in October, and the cases could go to trial, according to those attending the talks.

Among other things, the parties have not yet agreed on whether retired Oregon Judge Michael Hogan should serve as the mediator. A meeting with Hogan, originally scheduled for Tuesday in Honolulu won’t happen.

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
catholicculture.org

September 4, 2017

Phil Lawler

Could a society have its own defining sin? My wife Leila addressed that question on her own blog recently, and as usual I think she’s right.

By a “defining” sin I don’t mean to suggest that a particular society is prone to only one type of moral failing. All Ten Commandments are at risk every day, in every time and place where fallen human beings are gathered. Rather, I mean one persistent problem that points toward a weakness of the entire culture. …

… When the sex-abuse scandal came to the forefront 15 years ago, we learned to our horror that many bishops—not a few; many—had deceived the faithful by covering up the misconduct of predatory priests. Worse still, when they were confronted with charges of clerical abuse—charges that they knew to be true—many Church leaders not only denied those charges, but accused the people who lodged them of calumny. In doing so, they bore false witness against honest, faithful Catholics who were asking for justice. Since 2002, dozens of bishops have issued public apologies for tolerating priestly misconduct and for covering up evidence of abuse. But has a single bishop ever apologized to the many good Catholics who were accused of recklessly smearing a priest’s reputation, when in fact they were telling the truth?

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.

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

September 5, 2017

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com

Father Louis Brouillard in around 1974 sexually abused an altar boy after a Mass in Barrigada, assuring him it was natural, a lawsuit filed Tuesday in the Superior Court of Guam states.

The plaintiff, identified in court documents only by the initials T.P. to protect his privacy, was an altar boy at San Vicente Ferrer and San Roke Catholic Church when Brouillard allegedly abused him.

T.P., now 59, stayed behind after Mass one day to help put things away, when Brouillard fondled him, the lawsuit states.

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
The Catholic World Report

September 3, 2017

Thomas J. Nash

Veteran reporter Michael Rezendes makes several incorrect—even libelous—assertions in his recent remarks about the scandal of priests’ fathering children.

In a 2002 series of articles, Michael Rezendes and his colleagues on The Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team did the Catholic Church—and, by extension, society at large—a great service in bringing greater light to the problem of sexual abuse by some priests in the Church. The Globe’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning coverage ignited investigations that helped facilitate national and international reforms. Some Catholic would strongly reject any affirmation of the Globe, given the newspaper’s general bias against the Church. I recognize that bias, and yet I would argue there’s no doubt that God used the Globe’s talented journalists to help purify the Church, as surely as he employed in Old Testament times ancient Babylon to topple the corrupt Kingdom of Judah and thereby spur the reform of the Jewish people.

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
medium.com

September 3, 2017

Nandini Stocker

[An auspicious birth. An epiphany from my inner voice.]

I was born into the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), otherwise known as the “Hare Krishna Movement”. In fact, I was even born on the “appearance day” (i.e. birthday) of its founder, in the same village in India where its primary deity, Krishna, is said to have been born on Earth some 5,000 years ago. …

… There is really nothing else to explain the greatest tragedy of ISKCON — what happened to an entire generation of its children. And that’s where I would like to focus. Like the Catholic Church and many other religious groups, ISKCON has suffered from scandal and missteps in managing cases of child abuse. A large group of kids that grew up in my generation and went through the worst of it collectively filed and won a lawsuit against the leaders of ISKCON in 2000. For the kids who either entered the movement with their parents at a young age or were born into the movement in the 70’s and early 80’s, being in the Movement involved every range of abuse. Most kids were enrolled in gurukula ashrams (think parochial boarding schools), hundreds or even thousands of miles from their parents. These schools varied greatly in how stark or miserable they were. Some were just austere but full of fun and adventure, while others were like prisons, in every sense of the word. Children were often deprived of nutritional meals, beaten, molested, “disciplined” with brutal punishments, and for some, things were much, much worse. And by children I mean some as young as 3, but the standard age kids were sent away began at 5.

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.

[The Uriburu prosecutor said that “there may be two complaints” against Juan Diego Escobar Gaviria]

GUALEGUAYCHÚ (Argentina)
Analisis Digital

August 30, 2017

Federico Uriburu dijo que “quedó abierta la posibilidad para investigar posibles casos de abuso en sus destinos anteriores”.

El fiscal de la causa que se sigue contra el cura Juan Diego Escobar Gaviria, Federico Uriburu, se refirió a la histórica instancia que se vivió en la justicia entrerriana con el primer juicio contra un miembro de la Iglesia Católica acusado de abusos de menores y deseó que su trabajo haya “aportado algo y sirva para modificar algunas cosas”. Al respecto, destacó el paciente trabajo que se realizó para contener y acompañar a las víctimas para realizar las denuncias y afirmó que “el funcionario judicial atrás del escritorio no sirve; especialmente los fiscales tenemos que estar en la calle, protegiendo a los testigos y a las víctimas, conteniéndolos y dándoles la confianza hasta que llegue el momento del juicio”.

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.

CHICAGO
Chicago Tribune

September 5, 2017

Megan Crepeau

The accusations against “Father Dan” were seemingly endless.

Court records show more than two dozen boys and young men have alleged Daniel McCormack molested them in their youth, most notably at St. Agatha Parish on Chicago’s Southwest Side, where the young Roman Catholic priest coached basketball, taught algebra and delivered eloquent sermons.

The allegations ranged from inappropriate kissing and touching to sexual assault and dated as far back as the early 1990s. According to the court records, one boy said McCormack abused him on the way back from basketball practice, another in the basement of the rectory and still another during the fourth inning of a White Sox game.

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.

GUAM
KUAM.com

September 5, 2017

Krystal Paco

A new priest joins the ranks of those accused. 43-year-old R.R.C. alleges he was an altar boy when he was sexually abused by Father Louis William Rink, who is now deceased.

Among the named defendants is the Congregation of Holy Cross who assigned Rink to serve in Guam.

The alleged abuse occurred in 1983 or 1984 when R.R.C. was an altar boy at Santa Barbara Catholic Church in Dededo.

While in the sacristy, the priest asked the boy where they kept the altar supplies and equipment.

Rink told the boy that “no one needs to know” and said that one of the 10 commandments is “Though shall honor your mother and father” stating that includes a priest.

R.R.C. reportedly told Monsignor Ziolo Camacho what Rink had done, but Ziolo told the boy to keep praying and ask for forgiveness.

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.

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

September 5, 2017

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com

Another Catholic clergy member on Guam has been accused of child sexual abuse, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday.

Father Louis William Rink, who is now deceased, was sued by a former altar boy identified in documents only as R.R.C. to protect his privacy. The lawsuit accuses Rink of abusing the boy, who was 10, in Dededo in the 1980s. Rink is the 16th Guam clergy member accused in court of child sexual abuse.

Rink allegedly molested the boy in the Santa Barbara Catholic Church sacristy and told him that one of the 10 Commandments is “Thou shall Honor your mother and your father,” which also includes the priest, the lawsuit states.

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.

SICILY (Italy)
Crux

September 5, 2017

Claire Giangravè

The leader of a lay Catholic group in Sicily, arrested for allegedly abusing six underage girls, was able to create a system of connections and relationships with high ranking members of the judiciary and political system, which kept himself and the group immune from government and ecclesiastical oversight.

As the saga of a 5,000-member lay Catholic group in Sicily whose leadership has been arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse against underage girls continues to unfold, a puzzling question hangs over the story.

That question is: How could a group well known for practices that strayed from Catholic orthodoxy, including unauthorized exorcisms and a lay leader referred to by followers as an “Archangel,” as well as suspect behaviors that repeatedly led reasonable people to voice concerns, escape not only ecclesiastical but civil sanction for the better part of forty years?

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.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
Irish News

August 31, 2017

Dr Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin

[Reform of the Irish Church is needed, but there is a stubborn reluctance to tackle issues such as education, says Dr Diarmuid Martin.]

THE Vatican Council was without doubt one of the most significant cultural events of the 20th century for Irish culture taken as a whole, especially through its documents on the Church in the modern world and on religious freedom, and thus on the concept of pluralism.

Was Irish Catholicism ready for radical change? Not only was the Church culture of the time inadequate to face the challenge of change, but that culture was in itself something that made real and realistic change more difficult.

That the once-conformist Ireland changed so rapidly and with few tears was read as an indication of a desire for change, but perhaps it was also an indication that the earlier conformism was covering a shallow faith and a faith built on a faulty structure which people no longer really endorsed.

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.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
The Independent

September 1, 2017

Marcus Williamson

[Her report on a fire at Poor Clares orphanage, which killed 35 children, led to revelations of widespread abuse at Catholic children’s homes]

Mavis Arnold was the journalist and writer whose investigative work exposed the abuse suffered by children in Ireland’s network of industrial schools. Published in 1985 as Children of the Poor Clares, and co-authored with Heather Laskey, the book was the first to show how orphaned children had been neglected and suffered in the Church-run establishments.

A central theme of the book is a fire which broke out in 1943 at St Joseph’s, an orphanage in County Cavan run by nuns. Thirty six people, including 35 girls and a member of staff, lost their lives as a result of the blaze. A report into the fire issued soon after stated that the deaths were due to lack of emergency procedures and fire-fighting training.

However, based on testimonies of survivors and rescuers, Arnold instead suggested that the nuns’ first reaction had been to keep the girls locked inside the building, so that they would not be seen on a public street in their nightclothes.

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.

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

September 5, 2017

Steve Limtiaco

Guam priest Louis Brouillard in 1963 and 1964 repeatedly sexually abused a Mangilao altar boy, according to a lawsuit filed Sunday, which states Brouillard took naked photos of the boy and kept them – possibly in a shoebox.

The lawsuit, filed by “V.F.”, now 65, also accuses former scout leader Edward Pereira, who is deceased, of abusing V.F. at the rectory of the Mangilao parish around the same time. Boy Scouts and altar boys would meet and hang out at the Mangilao parish, the lawsuit states.

Like others who have accused Brouillard of abuse, V.F. stated Brouillard would walk around naked in front of boys at the rectory, and would swim naked and molest them during Boy Scouts swimming outings.

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.

PHILIPPINES
The Manila Times

September 5, 2017

The Taytay, Rizal parish priest arrested in July while on his way to a motel with a 13-year-old girl has been charged with child abuse and trafficking.

The minor and her mother filed the criminal charges against Msgr. Arnel Lagarejos of the Diocese of Antipolo, assisted by Chief Public Attorney Persida Rueda-Acosta.

Lagarejos, 55, is a monsignor, bestowed the honorific for exceptional services to the Church. Following his arrest by Marikina police, he was sacked as parish priest of St. John the Baptist Parish in Taytay and as president of the Cainta Catholic College.

Aside from Lagarejos, also charged before Acting Prosecutor General Severino Gana were alleged pimps Shaira Pedragoza, Ace Lasaca, Aldrei Roque and Luisa David, as well as several “John Does” said to be the child’s “customers.”

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.

INDIA
News18.com

September 2, 2017

The conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in rape cases has once again turned the spotlight on the damage that the charlatans, who pass off as godmen, do to the spiritual culture of India. Devdutt Pattanaik, writer of modern Hindu mythology, talks to News18’s Eram Agha on this form of ‘crony spiritualism’, which, he says, has nothing to do with religion but with the nature of secular democracy and vote bank politics as practiced in India. Edited excerpts:

Q: Hinduism is said to be a religion with 33 crore Gods. But do godmen have a place in Hindu scriptures?

A: Godmen is a pejorative term created by the media. Every religion, not just Hinduism, has holy men who claim access to an alternate reality — call it spiritual, mystical, magical, or divine. We call them shaman, priest, yogi, guru, mullah. Some are sincere, others are charlatans. Some try their best to help their tribe, flock or followers; others exploit the power they have.

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 KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

August 31, 2017

A church minister who sexually abused six vulnerable women has been warned by a judge he faces “a very substantial” prison sentence.

Pastor John Wilson, 70, carried out a series of indecent assaults under the pretext of being commanded by God to rid the complainants of evil spirits.

The sexual abuse took place over more than two decades while Wilson served at the Liberty Pentecostal Church in Keighley.

Following a trial lasting more than a month Wilson, of Shann Avenue, Keighley, was today found guilty on more than a dozen charges of indecent assault and further allegations of sexual assault and conspiracy to commit indecent assault after the jury deliberated for about 15 hours.

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.

PHILIPPINES
The Manila Times

September 4, 2017

THE Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a case against Monsignor Arnel Lagajeros of the Diocese of Antipolo for molesting a minor.

Lagajeros, 55, was caught in an entrapment operation while inside his gray Ford explorer at the parking area of Blue Wave Mall along Sumulong Hi-way in Barangay Sto. Nino, Marikina City, where he and the minor were supposed to meet.

Lagajeros was not the first local prelate in the Catholic Church accused of sexual harassment or misconduct….

[See: Sexual Misconduct among Priests in the Philippines: Key Cases, by BishopAccountability.org]

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.

GUAM
Guam Daily Post

September 4, 2017

Another sexual abuse lawsuit was filed against the Catholic Church of Guam and the Boy Scouts, accusing both institutions of promoting a haven for pedophile priests who also served as scoutmasters to access young boys.

The complaint states the victim, V.F., was 11 or 12 at the time he was allegedly sexually abused by former Guam priest Louis Brouillard and a scoutmaster, Edward Pereira, who is now deceased.

The complaint alleges Brouillard and Pereira separately abused V.F. while the victim served as an altar boy at Santa Teresita parish in Mangilao. The lawsuit was filed by David Lujan’s law firm.

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.

LONDON
Catholic News Agency

Hannah Brockhaus

London, England, Sep 1, 2017 / 10:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, who served as Archbishop of Westminster for nine years, from 2000-2009, died Friday at the age of 85 after a brief hospitalization. He was well known for his efforts to promote unity between Catholics and Anglicans….

… He was criticized when it was discovered that as Bishop of Arundel and Brighton he had failed to report a priest, Fr. Michael Hill, who was convicted for child sexual abuse in 1997. After this incident, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor invited the judge Lord Nolan in 2000 to investigate the issue of pedophile priests and child protection in the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

The Nolan Report was published in 2001. As a result of the report, the Church in England and Wales formed the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults to centrally manage applications through the Criminal Records Bureau ensuring thorough background checks of anyone working with children or vulnerable adults.

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.

[Pious wishes: How the bishop of Basel wants to protect against sexual abuse]

SWITZERLAND
barfi.ch

September 2, 2017

Gleich vier Berater bietet das Bistum Basel gegen sexuellen Missbrauch auf. Bischof Felix Gmür erfüllt damit die Forderung nach mehr sexueller Offenheit in der Kirche. Bleibt die Frage, warum es gleich vier solcher Fachpersonen braucht.

Das Bistum Basel sagt klar, die Kirche sei verpflichtet, Menschen vor sexuellen Übergriffen zu schützen. So steht auf der Homepage: « Die Verantwortlichen des Bistums Basel pflegen einen sorgsamen und achtsamen Umgang mit den betroffenen Menschen. Sie sind bemüht, Wege zu suchen, um die Konflikte zu lösen.» Klar, das klingt nach den Skandalen der letzten Jahre etwas zauderhaft. Tatsächlich zögerte Bischof Felix Gmür beim Fall eines Priesters, der 2012 die Notlage einer jungen Frau sexuell ausgenutzt hatte.

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.

URUGUAY
El Pais

August 28, 2017

El caso involucra a un sacerdote de 55 años de edad, quien abusó sexualmente de un menor desde que tenía 14 años hasta que cumplió los 18, según la denuncia que presentó la víctima.

El fiscal penal de Montevideo, Gilberto Rodríguez, solicitó a la Justicia el procesamiento con prisión de un cura por “un delito continuado de atentado violento al pudor” a un menor de edad.

El pedido del fiscal surge a raíz de una denuncia que un joven de 23 años presentó contra el religioso. En la misma, se establece que cuando la víctima tenía 14 años y concurría a la parroquia fue “compelido por el sacerdote, de 55 años de edad, quien abusando de su condición, le obligó a realizarle sexo oral en la habitación del párroco”.

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.